Kurdistan Bloggers Union

First on my (second) list of new finds today is the Multy Culty Girls- Kurdishlady, in German.
Second, Free Kurdish Political Prisoners (which is in Kurdish),
and Lastly, Welcome to East of Kurdistan, in English.

I think that should be all the finds for today.
-Delal

I found a new Kurdish blog today called Rasti, take a look and add him to your list of blogs. The blogrolling list that we used to have is gone from this page but I know that others have it on their blogs...whoever has access to it, please update.
Thanks
Delal

Ok, so I realize that I am probably the last person to find out about this, but I am going to post it anyway....did anyone else know that there is now a Wikipedia in Kurdish?
Unfortuately, my Kurdish is none-existant (yes, I know...I am trying to learn..) so I am not able to tell if it is decent or not, but I still find it interesting and a definite step in the right direction.

Avin, has been one of the best Kurdish bloggers which I love to read her posts for over a few months. Avin lives in Hawler and just like any other ordinary Kurd, is upset about the current lack of democracy situation in Kurdistan.
Avin has been working for one of Kurdistan Democratic Party's television stations and she has some inside information about the situation.

The way that she writes is extraordinary.....Her blog is part of the German initiated Niqash.org (Niqash is Arabic for Discussion) which encourages Iraqis to have dialgoues with each other.

In her post, she talks about the corruption in the education system in Kuristan...How talented students are not accepted for post graduation studies while those who know someone in Talabani and Barzani's parties get the best posts no matter how bad their academic results are.

Avin says "Another dictator will fall", she clearly means Talabani and Barzani. She has plans to join the new American University in Hawler which will open next year in order to get rid of the corrupted Kurdistan system (as Kurds say, dictatorship system).

Taking this opportunity, I would like to announce that the Kurdistan Bloggers Union has acheived its goals in the Northern Iraq Project and we no later support this project. This is an official announcement.
The KBU breakaways are Medya, Piling, and I think Delal and have created their new blog which we warmly accept and wish them success.
Delal described the blog as a "rival", I don't know if there is the need of using this term because we at the KBU do not compete with anyone else. We help others and not compete.
Delal goes on to say "the infighting between the two projects is lamentable", I was quite surprised at this sentence. There is no infighting in KBU. We all agree on respect and especially the respect of others opinions and identities. If a Kurd wants to be recognised as an Iraqi that is his or her choice, and vice versa.
We all agree on respect, but what we don't agree on is that members sending emails to others starting with "boil to your a double s" and finishing with "shame on your dignity". We do not accept attacking follow Kurdish bloggers because they call themsleves "Iraqis". This is their right. Anyone wishing to join this path of disrespect and ultra-natoinalism and neofacism are welcomed to leave this blog and anyone wishing to be treated with respect are welcomed to stay.

As far as KBU is concerned, the term of Kurdistan is now an official term in the world. There is no more need to concentrate on Northern Iraq, as Kurds in this part of the world do not have the problem of identity anymore. We do not have problems with Arabs anymore, we have problems with ourselves. Kurds do not have problems with Iraq anymore.

Also all the Iraqi Kurds (or Southern Kurds as most like to say) have left the project, so technically, the Northern Iraq project are run by people who do not represent the name. I think they should concentrate on the problems of Kurds in other part of the world, like Iranian Turkish and Syrian Kurdistans. Because Kurds in these areas have problems with Turkey, Iran and Syria. Or otherwise as Kurds say, "They are running after a hat which is taken up by the wind".

Delal did a great job by asking about the reaction of people about the Kurdistan adverts on US channels. I did a little search to find what Americans think about the adverts:

Bryan Alexandre says:
It just doesn't sound like the image of the United States has been tarnished around the world like liberal Democrats like to claim. Certainly, U.S. image is shining brightly in places where people really know what is going on.

News Hounds : seems not to have liked it.
Thank You Ad From Kurdistan On FOX

This morning during a Fox & Friends commercial break, around 7AM, a very bizarre and jarring ad appeared. Similar to many travel ads for state tourism, it showed a brief and snappy montage of smiling Kurds going about their happy lives, displaying purple fingers and thanking the US. A graphic declaration followed , Kurdistan- The Other Iraq.
comment: For a second, I thought the TV had accidentally switched to Comedy Central but it was still on FOX. It's great that the people of Kurdistan want to thank us, but wouldn't a more dignified slogan be more appropriate?

It seems, however, that this ad is sponsored by the Kurdistan Development Corporation and is more about making money than giving thanks.

Eric advises others to see the ads online :
If you haven’t seen the moving tributes to America and Great Britain that are being run by the Iraqi Kurds, do it now. Here is a transcript from the first one, but it does not do justice to the video images.

Scott says : "You do not know enough about Kurdistan"

"I've read much of Kurdistan as Christopher Hitchens is among the worlds experts and writes of the region often.RG Combs has a very informative post explaining more about a region we helped to liberate and is a true success story in post war Iraq.


- - - - - - - --

I just want to add a comment as a person who considers himself from Kurdistan.

I support these ads 100%..Some Kurds might disagree with me (but only a minority), let's face it, if it was not for USA, who would think that Kurdistan (as a region or political entity) would be able to advertise for itself on US and European Tvs ?

I remember in the 1990s when our uprising was very fresh and when we were being protected by US and British planes, we could not even reach our voice to the neighbouring countries.

At that time, I remember on one of the Kurdish channel, a Kurd from Europe sent back a video which he took in the streets of one of the European cities ...this is what it was about :

Question: Hello, can I ask you a question, do you know what "Kurd" or "Kurdistan" is ?

Most were answering as "no" or "Is this one of these Russian states" or "Is this a carpet" or "type of food " etc.

But to see today that we are able to advertise for our experience in other countries is a huge step for Kurds in their entire history. Therefore the people of Kurdistan are thankful for the Americans and their allies. Let's face it, we might not agree on everything with the USA (especially on independence for Kurdistan), but still what Kurds have done in the last couple of years, has never happened in the Kurdish history.

So Kurds are thankful, and we hope to see more American and western and other companies in Kurdistan to invest. Don't worry, you are very safe in Kurdistan. Then, what does safety mean in today's dictionary? A terrorist attack could happen in London, New York, Madrid, Amman, Baghdad etc etc.
The chances of a terrorist attack happening in Kurdistan is as much as the chance of it happening in Europe. Are we safe in Madrid ? Are we safe in New York ? Are we safe in London ? Are we safe in Kurdistan ? I think the answer to these questions are all the same.

Wait for more adverts. Hopefully this time for holidays in Kurdistan. And if Iraq (hopefully) was safe, you could also visit Babylon and many other nice areas in Mesoptamia.

Thank You Allied Forces Again !

p.s. (if anyone wants to join this group, please leave a comment. It doesn't matter if you are a Kurd or no. All welcomed )

The Kurdistan Development Corporation (KDC) which is allied with the Kurdistan Regional Government has a investment development website. Recently in order to increase American investment monies into the region they have started an ad campaign to illustrate the changes that have been made in Northern Iraq/Southern Kurdistan. They have made 3 commericals that have started to air on major news networks in the United States. At the moment I am not sure what to think of them. They are high quality ads, and they use a lot of rhetoric that would make Americans happy ("we have been practicing democracy for over 10 years"...)

The three television ads can be seen here as part of their "The Other Iraq" campaign .

I am curious to find out what other Kurds (and the friends of the Kurds) think of these ads. I know that some will be upset as they are claiming both Iraq and Kurdistan in their ads, so I really don't want to here anyone's opinion on that particular subject. But I would like people to comment as to whether they think that the ad campaign itself will benefit the Kurds of the southern region.

Why did I go?
I went to Mr. Galloway's speech and I enjoyed it; for those who don’t know him have a look at his party's website (http://respectcoalition.org/) or shortly take it from me: he is the leader (or the most well known figure) of the so called anti-war campaign in UK, it was the first time I had been to a such a political speech in UK. In fact I learned a lot this evening, I mean you cannot compare it to any of our style political speeches for sure for some reasons I think a good book could be written about how politics are practiced in this countries and how it is practiced in Middle East for example! (Imagine what would happen if what is happening in France would happen in Iran, Turkey or Syria!)

I have to say before going any further that I give the man the credit of being a different voice and saying some things which others would not want to even hear them. If we are in a free world I think everyone should be given the right to speak!

The entrance scenario of wolves & sheep:
The worst scenario I saw in the meeting entrance was: Socialists and Islamists working together! I was thinking, my God is George Bush so powerful?

Ok, well he talked about a bunch of stuff which had one thing in common, they where all matters and issues which where supported by Bush, Blair and Berlusconi (the three Bs). He started and finished it with Iraq obviously! And he addressed some other matters which I know a bit about and didn’t know much about some of it so I cannot comment on.

I am going to comment on those that I know something about. The first thing happened in the speech was, in front of the 600 turnout they brought a banner made by some young Palestinians with something like, A.J.Balfour treaty and in fact he addressed it as well as he addressed the Israeli state. One simple question I wanted to ask him, did he only learn about Balfour after the war on Iraq? It’s been 88 years since then! Does he know anything about Portsmouth treaty? Or that is not something he would benefit from!
IRRRRRRRRRAAQ! (I can’t believe it still is A country!)
Next as I said he started with Iraq war, I know and we all know that the west (all of them) empowered Saddam with chemical bombs, and they know exactly how much he had left with after using as much as he could on my town. Again another simple question which was asked by a Kurd in the crowd (I didn’t know he was studying at my university and I will have to find him) said "I appreciate all your courage, welcome to our university, my question is in 1988 we know that you opposed the attack on the Kurds but in 1994 you changed your mind, any reason for that?"

In a reply to Blair's new anti-terror laws he said: "RESPECT party supports every freedom movement and every freedom fighter in Palestine, Iraq or any where!” like some other people I booed and wanted to tell him what exactly he meant by freedom fighters in Iraq? Or are there some people he supports and are different from those who kill innocent people on buses in Iraq? I really don’t know what he meant by freedom fighters in Iraq!!

The most powerful argument he had was this (the anti-war campaign shares it): “They said there are WMDs, we said there aren’t and now that there were not any we are right!” well you (Mr himself, not anti-war marching people) might have been paid to defend the dictator, isn’t that what Saddam was saying as well, so does that mean Saddam was right just as you were?

I must credit him for saying, US soldiers are counted but no one knows what the size of casualties amongst the Iraqis is but does this means you have to support whom you call freedom fighters who will add scores to the uncounted numbers of Iraqi casualties. PLEASE!

Who is benefiting from double standards?
He denounced the government for having double standards by supporting some dictators and toppling others. I think he is benefiting from a very good double standard as well, by visiting Saddam Hussain before, or was that to convince him to change the way he used to rule Iraq? And now talking about him as brutal regime, well he is not in apposition to benefit him anymore at all anyways! And giving us three examples of those puppets (Saudi guys, Colonel Gaddafi and I can’t remember the third one he mentioned) while he failed to mention (!) or turned a blind eye on people like President Asad’s dictatorship family who does not give a simple right of citizenship to the Kurds, invades Lebanon and can assassinate other countries’ leaders!

If RESPECT then it must be for all!
Then he addressed us on how he supports the Palestinians and how he is against the Israel and so on, well when he counted terrorist activities in places around the world he didn’t say Tel-Aviv so a Jewish guy shouted "and Tel Aviv?" although the Palestinians with black Jamadani (in Kurdish the scarf they use) made some noise Mr. Galloway was even worse, he was really rude and noisy, but when a gentleman from the back made some noise against him, he said RESPECT! I don’t know how he dares to say others are hypocrites, well why not RESPECTing others then Mr. Honest? Again I had one question, will he wipe out Israel from the map if he could? I think he is just looking for a better job, just as he said "some people lost their jobs after the decision of going to war, including myself, but don’t worry I have a better one....applause". I seriously doubt that!

If we are talking about people’s lands being invaded then I think RESPECT should cover the whole globe. Can I humbly say, as Kurds we would be very happy for such an initiative, but I thought it was specific for some people because I heard words like Muslims, Palestinians, Arabs, Congo a couple of times Africa and NEVER Kurds,(omit as you like) Chechens, Kashmir etc! I think RESPECT cares about bits of Balfour treaty and doesn’t care about the rest of it!

Finally:
I have always said I do not understand politics well but I can think and I have some common sense.

Dear All,

I have no idea what is going on this blog, but I just wanted to check my email and found out that my inbox is actually full. Most complaints, and some emails from the members on this blog.

I could not read all to be honest due to the shortage of time. So I will try to post this here in order to solve the problems.

1st of all, the website of Northern Iraq was a project last year in order to draw attention so that people get the idea of using the word "Kurdistan". There was no intention for controlling or leading any people.

2nd I suggested to Medya to create the KBU forum in order to solve the bloggers problems there. It was not in order to create "leaders" etc etc. I am really surprised of the claims that Medya has appointed himself as the leader of KBU.

3rd I appreciate Medya's work on the KBU template, but just of his works on the templates, it doesn't mean that he is a leader. Medya is as equal as any of us, (including our precious readers).

4th Due to changing directions, I suggest that the name of KBU be stripped from the forum and the news section. This is because I have been reciving emails (in July, August, etc) from people that they were banned on the forums. Or they did not like the comments against some races on the forums.
KBU (Kurdistan Bloggers Union) is a mark for this blog, so if the posts are on this blog, then KBU is responsible for the contents. But if the comments are posted on the Forums or News sections, theb KBU is not responsible. Therefore I suggest KBU name to be removed from both the Forums and the News sections.

5th No one is allowed to preach hatred and racist comments against any nations, races, religions or beleifs.

I have installed the Haloscan commenting section because I have had problems in the past with some members of KBU banning commentators. Please do not remove the Haloscan as this ensures that our readers have their say in a free system in which it ensures the principles of the freedom of expression.

Finally, my regards to all our the members and the readers and those who have emailed me. I will post a normal topic in my blog in the few days so I will look forward to see you there.

Kurdo - 7/11/05