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| Teaching.
That's right, your friend Nick has finally take, the plunge he'd never thought he would, I am sharing what precious little wisdom I have with a bunch of unruly students.
I am teaching English and French classes to University of Salahadin students. The age range is pretty wide; I also take night classes where people who work during the day come to brush up on their grasp of the lingua franca.
Most classes take the form of question and answer sessions where students ask some pretty tough questions: "will the UK and US stand beside Kurdistan in the future?", "what do you expect of the Manchester v Milan game?", "how can I become an interpreter?".
I answer the questions with lengthy discussion, and share anecdotes that I find hilarious and insightful, that sometimes cause a sea of the blankest stares you will ever witness. But generally people leave with a smile on their face and a better idea of the West (I pull no punches).
I say leave, but really they just meander outside waiting to ask me further questions. The first time I have been the one to say "Walk with me". Puffing on a quick cigarette, I field questions about Diana's death (A conspiracy? should I care?), and the fact that politicians who boast about invading other countries are often, like Turkey, in the middle of election campaigns.
Before you write me off as even more arrogant than before, today I had a class on 18th century french literature. Those of you who didn't have the pleasure of the teenage Nick "Sir Puffalot" Comfort, might need to know that I may have been present in my high school french classes, but only just.
Luckily, the students had an exam later in the day, so there minds were also elsewhere. I winged a few questions about La Marseilleise (all I can remember is that there is a verse about spilling the blood of foreigners). Along with pre-Napoleonic social conditions (anybody for cake?) and Sartre's fingernails. I went on the offensive with a discussion of "The Stranger", the students had been studying it, but there wasn't much response, and there was no need for my quoting The Cure lyrics ("I'm the stranger, killing an Arab").
I realise using words like offensive and defensive are hardly good approaches to teaching, but if I have done thing properly, it is taking on Dave and Ela's advice. I speak sssssllllloooowwwwllllyyyy. The students can understand my words alot more easily, but in many ways my mind slows down too, and I start speaking gobblydeegook.
The University offered me a position teaching journalism out here, anyone with an MA is welcome to teach. The experience of the last few days has been pretty positive, but I just dont know if I am cut out for teaching just yet. As regards journalism, I think it would be pretty unfair for me to teach without having experienced enough.
Well that's it, a little fragment from the life of Nick, I hope it is more intelligible than my misinformed rants about Baudelaire and Rimbaud.
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| Kurdistan. Hello all, hope you are well. Thigs are going fine here in Kurdistan, I have met with several civil servants but am only due tro meet with the bigwigs next week. People refer to Ministers as "His Excellency", try that out on your local MP! I have made many friends here, good people. I was invited to one guy's wedding reception the other day, handed out my questionnaire afterwards, everyone found it quite funny. People speak just enough english here to know when they have made a linguistic mistake. Kurds find spoken "faults" as they call them, just about the funniest thing going. One guy send "Good morning" to me at 3 in the afternoon, and his pal's are still laughing about it. I learnt to say good morning in Kurdish, so next time I see him, I must try that one out, balance it with a smidgen of irony. I am learning quite a bit of Kurdish, mainly niceties but also stuff I can use in the marketplace: cant it be cheaper? "Camter Nabet!?" I keep forgetting stuff, but my roommate, a Kurd from Texas (never thought I'd hear "y'all" squeezed into Kurdish dialect), insists on teaching me new words and making sure I remember them: "And what's he response to that question?" ... "err, Bejit Hrashbi?" "Yes exactly!" I have visited the bazaar a couple of times, nice place, shame they are building god knows how many shopping centres all around it, cant be good. I also plan on buying Kurdish dress and shoes (very cool, hand woven, with pieces of animal bone in the sole), so when I return to Cardiff, you will be greeted by proud mounain warrior, Nick Barzani. Well I have to get back to looking stern and being Europe's most inquisitive Kurdistan expert, so its Behrechi and Jannet Bash from me, see you soon, much love, Nick. | | |
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Power sharing in Iraq is
complicated; the country’s 40 million citizens are divided along ideological,
religious and social lines. It’s hard to see much being shared out equally in
such a climate. Nonetheless, in approving the draft of an oil law, the Iraqi
cabinet has taken the first step to oil revenue sharing.
Steve Negus’ article ‘Iraq cabinet
agrees draft law for oil industry’, describes the role of the Kurds in this
process.
The autonomous region of
Iraqi Kurdistan signed exploration and development contracts with foreign oil
companies long before cabinet’s approval of the draft law. As Negus hints
earlier in the piece, the Kurds want to get their money’s worth.
A political aspect Negus
neglects to mention is the city of Kirkuk.
The Kurds lay claim to the city Saddam Hussein tried to Arabize over the last
three decades. Kirkuk also happens to be Iraq’s biggest
oil town.
The dispute over Kirkuk has far-reaching
political effects, but, one closer to home is revenue sharing. With control
over the crown jewels of Iraqi oil, the Kurds could guarantee themselves their
15 percent of national oil revenue, rather than the seven Baghdad has let drip their way.
Kirkuk, like much of Iraq suffers regular terrorist
attacks; this disrupts oil flow. With effective security forces, Iraqi
Kurdistan is unlike many other regions. Kurdish administration of Kirkuk and its oil could
encourage foreign investment and boost Iraqi oil production back to pre-war
levels.
I have to admit that,
considering how long it has taken to come up with this first step towards oil
and profit sharing, it’s no wonder the Iraqi cabinet is delaying handling other
political hot potatoes. A comment on Financial Times article ‘Iraq cabinet
agrees draft law for oil industry’, by Steve Negus, dated 27th February 2007
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The Red Army Faction and Al
Qaeda are comparable neither in tactics, nor in ideology. In Time’s ‘Red Ghosts’, however, the two
are put on par as regards their effect on civil liberties; a comparison that is
just as fallacious.
There is an undeniable non
sequitur in author Purvis’ conclusion; he states that the prevention of terrorism is
“morally complex”, but that the best way to fight it is to let the law take its
course.
I would agree that the best
way to fight crime like terrorist acts is through due process of the law. That
the prevention of terrorism is politically complex is true, but that it is
morally so, is nonsense. The RAF kidnapped, tortured
and murdered. Now that security demands mean the CIA is engaged in much the
same practices, the German government is ready to turn a blind eye. All of
these, including a government’s self-delusion, are criminal acts, and there is
no complexity in their morality.
The extreme measures
undertaken by West German police dealing with the RAF in the 1970’s
contextualise current American hysteria in the war on terror. However, the
article neglects to show how the benefit of this experience condemns Germany for not
standing up for its citizens.
Most young Germans oppose both
the early release of the RAF’s surviving leaders, and the tolerance of terror
flights in German airspace. Mr Purvis should focus, not on the legally dogmatic
German youth, but on the members of the Bundestag who are far too ready to
accommodate both the RAF and the Bush administration. In response to 'Red Ghosts' by Andrew Purvis, as featured in Time Magazine 19.02.07
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A British kid taught history
by an Alsatian in Luxembourg,
it doesn’t get much more European than that. Monsieur Perrin taught us to
question the past, present and future. He was also the first person I heard
mention and praise a multi-speed Europe.
I followed his advice and
questioned his opinion. I argued that to drag the reluctant union to superpower
status, policies should be implemented across the European board. The Economist’s “Coalitions for the
willing” outlines a third concept. After some thought, I concede defeat to The Economist and my history teacher.
In Luxembourg I voted yes to the
European constitution. I thought that democratising the decisions of 25
indecisive nations was for the greater good. The Economist would rather establish cooperation between fewer
states for the intersection of more interests.
The theory floated in the
article has shared practices like the Schengen Agreement or the Euro as the
basis for a union of consent. These milestones have improved my life and career
as well as those of many fellow Europeans.
I heralded the constitution’s
voting system as a way to streamline EU legislature. My mistake was in wanting
to see a new Europe created using the old
machinery. What better sign of EU inefficiency than 25 nations bartering for
each other’s votes?
The union I want to live in is one beyond the
French ‘Non’ to Turkish accession or German distrust of foreign
service-providers. In The Economist’s
model, policies are tested by pioneering member states, but the cautious are
not prevented from joining successful experiments.
Monsieur Perrin would
question any model, but he’d be happy to see Europe’s
wheels in motion again.
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