King of the Castle (S)

“That`s the reason why I`m king of the castle, that`s the reason why I`m ….?”

I really find it amusing how the people here all fight for one same throne, becoming the king of the castle. I see stones, trees, trucks, sand, construction workers and wires all over the place, all over Suleimany. For three years ago I was telling people that the development in Kurdistan is amazing, and that there is room for positive changes. The efforts of building the country’s institutions and the infrastructure may seem very impressive and a sign of significant positive changes. After travelling back some few times since the year of 2005 I realized I have also been blinded by all the bling blings. Recently I have understood that these new amazing and beautiful buildings, new public offices, private companies and home for families, are mostly something called “window dressing”. These beautiful changes are all a facade the people incorporate in their way of living. They make it the foundation of their needs, and thereby they fool themselves to believe that they become happy based on their new beautiful buildings. These buildings are empty institutions, or maybe the content of the institutions are the same as before. When you change the content of the soup, then the soup will become another soup. By only changing the pot you make the soup in, will not change the taste of the soup, because the content is still the same.

Yes, it is true. There have been many unimaginable changes since the Baath regime was taken off their power in 2003. But when I speak with my relatives and with those whom I have received their opinions about the changes in Kurdistan, and listen to the way they say, the words they use, it all show signs of negative development. This something called for “negative peace”. There is not a war going on here, so why is it still so bad? It is because of this silent, not understandable and maybe even to the extent of unchangeable negative peace.

Input- process- output
This is the recipe for everything. What are the inputs, how is the processing taking place, and what are the outputs?
Goal: Let us pretend that the aim is to build democracy in Iraq and Kurdistan.
Input: We put stone, wires, and trees in.
Process: Building and never ending building.
Output: Beautiful new buildings.
Bip bip bip, warning warning: what happened to democracy?

Maybe for some others who analyze the development here I may seem a bit negative, but this negativism is also a bit realistic because the people here have jumped over the grounding of their house building (building a peaceful and democratic Iraq and Kurdistan). They have forgotten to build a strong essential foundation for their house, and the big, bad wolf will be able to blow it down sooner or later. And even now we have an economical decline going on. I am just afraid for the country, nothing else. But I will never give up the hope, never in this life time.

Have you heard about these funny expressions before? I will write about some few here just to show a bit of the changes going on here. Still these words are not new, but they became everyday expressions in the Kurdish language after the year of 2003.

Dafterek: Daftarek literally speaking means a book, but it is an expression for the amount of 10 000 usd. The other day I overheard a couple talking about buying a house, and the lady said: “well, 16 dafter is nothing.” I almost got a heart attack by the piece of pizza stuck in my hals. 160 000 usd is nothing? Well, I am a girl living in one of the worlds` richest countries, but I would never say that 16 dafterek is nothing. I wonder when it is enough for this lady, and somehow I feel a bit sorry for whom ever dealing with her.

Gala: Gala literally speaking means a leaf, but it is an expression of 100 usd. Funny, right? :-)

And somehow they give names for cars and mobile phones. The latest update on that front is the new Hindi look alike motor bicycles with a wagon for two; they call it for Karim Kaban. That poor old man, he does not deserve to get his name trashy like that.

The latest three days it was 43 Celcius here, very warm. It is difficult to sleep at night time because it is about 27 in night time, and without any electricity, we do not have air conditioner. We have electricity from 24.00 in the night until 4.30 am, and then from 13.30 until 14.30. Later it comes back again, about 17.00 until 24.00 (sometimes less), but during these hours you have to pay attention to if it is public electricity or electricity from private local community generators, and you have to fix the electric system according to these changes. One day I was counting how many times my uncle changed the wire to fit the changes based to whom is providing in the electricity; he had to do it about 20 times. It is madness.

And water supply issues are among the top 10 everyday problems people have to deal with. Last year the ground water level in Kurdistan area (at least Suleimany) was dramatically decreasing to the extent it became illegal to dig more water wells in private backyards. Therefore people have to trust in public water supply, and trust me it is crassssyyyy. Every 3 or 4 day you get 2 hours water. It means that the water barrels on the roof on every house have to be filled up. The last day and a half, my aunt`s family had to buy a barrel of water, it cost 30 000 Iraqi dinars (it is about 25 usd). The people here are boiling because of the heat, there is no electricity to put on the air condition, and then they do not have water to cool down a bit either. What are the solutions? What kind of help is these dafterek of dollars, when you do not have any electricity to buy?

Anyway, we have not started to work in PDA yet. Tomorrow we are travelling to Hewler (Erbil). PDA is arranging a seminar and workshop about cultural development. I am excited. I hope it is going to be interesting, that the seminar is valuable for my knowledge production.
I hope the people realize that they have to fight for their life in a different way than the way that is taken place now, the ongoing building of castles in the sky. We do not have a monarchy here, so why fight for a non-existing title, king of the castle?

To be continued, miss C…..