From:  Bob Keith - Cool Dadio Media - Wednesday, 8:30 p.m., 18 October 2006.

 

  I am back in Erbil, Iraq. It is the capital of Kurdistan of Iraq. The computers are slow here.  I suspect it is because their infrastructure phone lines are old here in the center of the region.  Some of you have emailed me some questions.  I will try to answer your questions a couple at a time via these "list emails" so everyone can get the info.

 

  Probably the best way to answer what is most notable in this part of the world, is actually some absences.  There is an almost total absence of women in any type of role here.  Yes, they often dress modern here in Iraq, but they do not work anywhere that you can see in daily life. If they are out they are just shopping and with the children in tow.  That is hard for a hopelessly American guy to get used to - a total male dominated society.  It is boring and annoying both at the same time. 

 

  There is also an almost total absence of the English language.  There is some words on signage but I do not think anybody knows what it means.  The signs probably come from Europe. Few of the people I have tried to talk to speak to, can even speak a few words of English if any.  Now I understand I am a visitor here and it is not their job here to entertain me in English.  But, much of the world communicates across borders via English. I am just surprised few can speak it. 

 

  There is no American civilians wandering around here in Northern Iraq. I have met none; nor, have I met any Europeans, Chinese, Africans, Russians, etc., etc.  Of course I am aware there are thousands of American military personnel here.  If there are American civilians, they hide well.  I can not say if I have seen any American soldiers.  I am not a war correspondent and it would be inappropriate for me to comment in that regards; that should be an obvious.  I will say however, that it is a weird feeling to see soldiers (not commenting on their nationality) in full combat gear, in body armor, riding in armored-up combat vehicles, and carrying machine guns, and then I myself realizing that I am just wandering around here in a Harley t-shirt and Khaki pants. But then again, jeans and sport shirts is a common clothing for many of the citizens in this country at war. 

 

  Coca-cola and Pepsi are ubiquitous in both Turkey and Northern Iraq.  Both countries have never heard of such a thing as a smoking ban.  I believe you can be beheaded for even suggesting it.  Cigarette shops, cigarette street vendors, and water pipe shops and cafes are plentiful. There is something liberating about watching the kabob shop guy flick ashes in the salad.  Keep in mind I do not smoke, but for some reason I find cigarette smoking cooks a bit of humor in a war zone.    

 

  This is a culture of generators, electric shops, and generator repair shops.  They are needed to keep this society up and running here where the electricity goes out everyday.  This is also a cell phone society.  Everyone has at least two or three.  They do not have always have lights but they can call each other in the dark anytime.

 

  Turkey and Iraq are like America in that they are "car cultures."  Turkey has its buses, but both countries do not have much for rail.  So, many of the people of both countries drive their own cars where they want to go. 

 

  In Northern Iraq there are many cement block structures. They sometimes put a facade over the cement, but it is a war zone and they build things the best they can.  There is construction going on everywhere in Northern Iraq.  There seems to be few official ordinances, and there certainly are no pollution rules, at least non that are followed.  Smog is ever-present. It looks like Chicago in the early 1960s - a constant haze everywhere.

 

  Many men in Northern Iraq and Eastern Turkey wear the baggy pants that I believe is a Kurdish fashion.  Also, all through the whole of Northern Iraq you see the same Baklava pastries and meat kabobs you see in Turkey. Men in both Turkey and Norther Iraq drink tea in tiny class cups.  And they drink it often. It is I suppose, like the ever-present Thermos of coffee in America. 

 

  All over Northern Iraq where no one can apparently stop them, you see the Kurdish map tacked up everywhere.  It makes no bones about the fact that the Kurdistan in the map includes the regions of Kurds in Turkey, Syria, Iran, as well as the part of Iraq I am in.  Good luck World, taking away the sovereignty of the Kurds of Northern Iraq, if that should be some-body's notion.  I think I have witnessed here the broken-up nation of Iraq.  The Iraqi government just the other day made it rather official that three regions of Iraq would rule themselves in 18 months.  The Kurds have run their own show for 15 years since the first Gulf War anyway.  Like I say, did the Iraqi's really have another choice?

 

  The ride to Erbil from Sulaymaniyah was another clinic in "cabbie gone mad."  The driver understood I could not go to Kirkuk.  He at least understood, he would also be killed by the bad guys if he took "me" through that city.  But, what he did do was hit the mountain roads at 75 miles an hour.  At first I thought he was a raving mad-man. But after we passed the third head-on collision in the middle of the road in the mountains, it dawned on me that for these drivers, it is sport.  There was no real reason that people needed to drive 75 miles-per-hour on mountain roads other than it is an adrenaline rush for a culture held hostage by their country at war.  Any psychologists out there are welcome to correct me, but they all drive like crazy-men for no good reason.  They have to stop at all the check points anyway, I sure was not in a hurry, masked be-headers and bombers are all pretty much in Baghdad, and the 50 Dollars I had to pay him was enough for a week's pay in these parts.  So I ask again, "what's the big hurry?"

 

End of Message.

 

Bob Keith - Cool Dadio Media


    - Compared to the constant din of construction and the colors and skyline that goes with
 cities like that under renovation, this picture of Erbil - Northern Iraq's capital and third large
 city - cast a rather menacing persona. Photo by Bob Keith, October 2006 -