Getting Your Message Out
Good news is...there are many readers of KBU, bad news is, there are many readers of KBU LOL! What I mean is, people see every post that is here (because this is a collective blog) as representative of the Kurdish People. It may not have been the intent, but it is the reality. That means that every post is a communication of what Kurd are like. People will make that judgement by reading your posts here, and right or wrong they will judge Kurds by what they read...even if you are just having a bad day, it won't matter, because first impressions mean a lot. Most of those impressions are very good. I think this has been a successful blog for so many opinions and different thinking. Yet, sometimes there are things that you would say around a cafe table, that you might not say in a newspaper or tv station, which is what this has become due to it's popularity. Somethings Jews only say in Yiddish or Hebrew (laughter), and something Kurds might just say in Kurdish for much the same reason (laughter again).
A parable will express a the view of the west: A cruise ship is out in the ocean with the ship totally full of tourists who are on holiday and paid a lot of money to go on the cruise. The Captain gets an emergency signal to go off course and save some stranded boat that has broken down and is a boat from the Canary Islands. The captain doesn't want to go and get his customers mad, but he doesn't want to see anyone drown either so he goes. He has no room on the cruise ship for all the people on the boat, so he tows them along behind the larger ship. The captain gives them decent food and clean water and all they need. The people in the boat want to get on the cruise ship, are yelling at the people that paid to go on holiday and throwing things at them and yelling through a bullhorn that the captain could have gotten there sooner, and what's wrong with him that he didn't get someone else who was closer, and why do they have to travel to Barbados just because the paid tourists are going there, why doesn't the captain take them directly to the nearest port, and they start throwing things toward the ship too. The captain and crew will chalk this up to sea-craziness for awhile and try to reason with them...but some will not try to understand and when the captain says "look, I didn't have to come to your aid at all" then the people in the boat get more insulted. You see...this is how one side sees it, no right, no wrong, just perspective.
The people in the boat have been adrift for a week. They suffered. They just want to go to land because every day their vessel is broken they lose money. They could care less about the captains paying customers. They want to go, where they want to go, without delay. They also want to have the luxury the toursits have too, even though they did not save for years and pay for it, they still want it. They don't want decent food and water, they want champagne and caviar. They want to blame the captain for not coming soon enough, because they could have died out there and why didn't someone come earlier (they know that 20 other ships heard their SOS too, but they don't blame them, because they are not there to yell at.). '
The captain is tired of their bullhorn and complaints and thinks of cutting them loose. He feels underappreciated. He wonders sometimes why he just didn't ignore it. But he has faith, and he doesn't do that. But even if he gets them back to shore, do you think he will have a good opinion of them? No. Nor will they have a good opinion of the captain.
Are any of these sides wrong? Not really. They are just different perspectives. Yet, clearly it would serve the interests of those in the boat to think that maybe if they didn't stop yelling and throwing things someone might cut the tow and leave them adrift. And it is almost certain that no one on the cruise ship will think well of Canary Islanders after even that limited encounter, even though it did not represent the whole people of the Canary Islands. If they had cursed the captain in Portuguese, but maintained some politeness throughout, even if they were right, then perhaps the captain would have worked things out better for them, maybe gave them some great steaks, caviar and champagne after all. All around, the encounter would have left both peoples with a good impression of one another.
A kindness well received, begets a kindness in return, begets more kindness, and more appreciation for the plight of the *other*. On the other hand, a mean comment begets a mean comment and leave no one with any appreciation of the *other*.
Now that we are LOL *journalists* LOL and we are I guess, because we have a lot of readers yes?. We must remember this, and remember that we are representing the Kurdish people, even if we did not intend to do that. Let people go away with a new found friend, and an impression (maybe the only one they will ever get) of Kurds as strong, mature, reasonable and capable. Let others display their gutter level talk, do not let it be a Kurd.
Okay, enough moralizing and paraples, before I make someone puke:)! I have a project for lovers of Kurdish Music. There is a giant internet radio station group that is becoming very popular around the world because you can get music from EVERYWHERE here. There is salsa, souk, rock, soul, religous....everything...from many languages too. There is no Kurdish though:(. So I am posting this here so maybe someone who has a computer with a collection of Kurdish music can become a "broadcaster" and everyone can listen to Kurdish music play continuously on their computer even at work or school. Check it out, you can have talk too, and have kurdish talk show if you wanted to. It doesn't matter where you are in the world, all you need is a computer and a bunch of Kurdish music on it. Here is the link, it's called Radio 365, and click on the broadcasters instructions to see how to do it. I am a paid subscriber because my boss likes it too, so he paid:)...lucky me...but I would love to listen to Kurdish folk music especially and there is none there. Does anyone want to take up this project and get Kurdish message and talk and music to the worldwide audience? Build, build, build, build...it's a great idea for building community, especially among the diaspora and eventually to others who will be listening out of curiosity. Again, remember you will be representing the Kurdish people:). Such a burden these reality politics yes? Please let me know if you need help a fee to be paid.
A parable will express a the view of the west: A cruise ship is out in the ocean with the ship totally full of tourists who are on holiday and paid a lot of money to go on the cruise. The Captain gets an emergency signal to go off course and save some stranded boat that has broken down and is a boat from the Canary Islands. The captain doesn't want to go and get his customers mad, but he doesn't want to see anyone drown either so he goes. He has no room on the cruise ship for all the people on the boat, so he tows them along behind the larger ship. The captain gives them decent food and clean water and all they need. The people in the boat want to get on the cruise ship, are yelling at the people that paid to go on holiday and throwing things at them and yelling through a bullhorn that the captain could have gotten there sooner, and what's wrong with him that he didn't get someone else who was closer, and why do they have to travel to Barbados just because the paid tourists are going there, why doesn't the captain take them directly to the nearest port, and they start throwing things toward the ship too. The captain and crew will chalk this up to sea-craziness for awhile and try to reason with them...but some will not try to understand and when the captain says "look, I didn't have to come to your aid at all" then the people in the boat get more insulted. You see...this is how one side sees it, no right, no wrong, just perspective.
The people in the boat have been adrift for a week. They suffered. They just want to go to land because every day their vessel is broken they lose money. They could care less about the captains paying customers. They want to go, where they want to go, without delay. They also want to have the luxury the toursits have too, even though they did not save for years and pay for it, they still want it. They don't want decent food and water, they want champagne and caviar. They want to blame the captain for not coming soon enough, because they could have died out there and why didn't someone come earlier (they know that 20 other ships heard their SOS too, but they don't blame them, because they are not there to yell at.). '
The captain is tired of their bullhorn and complaints and thinks of cutting them loose. He feels underappreciated. He wonders sometimes why he just didn't ignore it. But he has faith, and he doesn't do that. But even if he gets them back to shore, do you think he will have a good opinion of them? No. Nor will they have a good opinion of the captain.
Are any of these sides wrong? Not really. They are just different perspectives. Yet, clearly it would serve the interests of those in the boat to think that maybe if they didn't stop yelling and throwing things someone might cut the tow and leave them adrift. And it is almost certain that no one on the cruise ship will think well of Canary Islanders after even that limited encounter, even though it did not represent the whole people of the Canary Islands. If they had cursed the captain in Portuguese, but maintained some politeness throughout, even if they were right, then perhaps the captain would have worked things out better for them, maybe gave them some great steaks, caviar and champagne after all. All around, the encounter would have left both peoples with a good impression of one another.
A kindness well received, begets a kindness in return, begets more kindness, and more appreciation for the plight of the *other*. On the other hand, a mean comment begets a mean comment and leave no one with any appreciation of the *other*.
Now that we are LOL *journalists* LOL and we are I guess, because we have a lot of readers yes?. We must remember this, and remember that we are representing the Kurdish people, even if we did not intend to do that. Let people go away with a new found friend, and an impression (maybe the only one they will ever get) of Kurds as strong, mature, reasonable and capable. Let others display their gutter level talk, do not let it be a Kurd.
Okay, enough moralizing and paraples, before I make someone puke:)! I have a project for lovers of Kurdish Music. There is a giant internet radio station group that is becoming very popular around the world because you can get music from EVERYWHERE here. There is salsa, souk, rock, soul, religous....everything...from many languages too. There is no Kurdish though:(. So I am posting this here so maybe someone who has a computer with a collection of Kurdish music can become a "broadcaster" and everyone can listen to Kurdish music play continuously on their computer even at work or school. Check it out, you can have talk too, and have kurdish talk show if you wanted to. It doesn't matter where you are in the world, all you need is a computer and a bunch of Kurdish music on it. Here is the link, it's called Radio 365, and click on the broadcasters instructions to see how to do it. I am a paid subscriber because my boss likes it too, so he paid:)...lucky me...but I would love to listen to Kurdish folk music especially and there is none there. Does anyone want to take up this project and get Kurdish message and talk and music to the worldwide audience? Build, build, build, build...it's a great idea for building community, especially among the diaspora and eventually to others who will be listening out of curiosity. Again, remember you will be representing the Kurdish people:). Such a burden these reality politics yes? Please let me know if you need help a fee to be paid.
posted by Emmunah @ | Permalink 
