To my four regular readers, apologies for the mostly silent week - I've had huge problems trying to blog of late.
And in a few hours I fly into northern Iraq, so this is a brief post just to catch people up on where I'm at.
Palestine was a profound experience and a very busy scheduled program for the small group of us travelling and experiencing the realities together. I'll go back independently in a few weeks with more time to soak things up but I left a few days ago to get to Turkey, and have a little breathing space before Iraq. The breathing space hasn't gone to plan, and I'm feeling a little rushed, but I'm still looking forward to being back in Iraq.
Some of you know that I worked there in 2003 with a French NGO. That was an intense and amazing time setting up projects mainly in Baghdad, and I'd love to visit the friends I made and see that city again, but it remains too dangerous (for me at least).
Instead I'm going to Kurdistan (autonomous region of northern Iraq), where the conflict happening in the rest of Iraq is almost non-existent (and so is far safer for almost everyone, especially Westerners like me). But there is real violence happening in what is considered an almost forgotten conflict against the Kurds there by their surrounding neighbours.
More of that as I experience it, but suffice to say that there are thousands of displaced Kurds in the region we'll be in, and many villages and people who continue to experience bombing and military violence from across their borders with Turkey and Iran.
I'm again going with a small group to try and understand this better and to look at some low-key but radical peace work that's happening in this region. So, in 9 or 10 hours 5 of us fly from Turkey into Suleimaniyah, (arriving there about 8pm Australian EDT, 2/4). We'll spend several days there and then some days in village areas closer to the border with Turkey, where people are affected by the bombing and military attacks which we almost never hear anything about.
I hope I can help in some small way to change that and let some of you know about the suffering of the Kurds which has gone on for decades, no matter which regimes, powers and dictators have surrounded them.
And in a few hours I fly into northern Iraq, so this is a brief post just to catch people up on where I'm at.
Palestine was a profound experience and a very busy scheduled program for the small group of us travelling and experiencing the realities together. I'll go back independently in a few weeks with more time to soak things up but I left a few days ago to get to Turkey, and have a little breathing space before Iraq. The breathing space hasn't gone to plan, and I'm feeling a little rushed, but I'm still looking forward to being back in Iraq.
Some of you know that I worked there in 2003 with a French NGO. That was an intense and amazing time setting up projects mainly in Baghdad, and I'd love to visit the friends I made and see that city again, but it remains too dangerous (for me at least).
Instead I'm going to Kurdistan (autonomous region of northern Iraq), where the conflict happening in the rest of Iraq is almost non-existent (and so is far safer for almost everyone, especially Westerners like me). But there is real violence happening in what is considered an almost forgotten conflict against the Kurds there by their surrounding neighbours.
More of that as I experience it, but suffice to say that there are thousands of displaced Kurds in the region we'll be in, and many villages and people who continue to experience bombing and military violence from across their borders with Turkey and Iran.
I'm again going with a small group to try and understand this better and to look at some low-key but radical peace work that's happening in this region. So, in 9 or 10 hours 5 of us fly from Turkey into Suleimaniyah, (arriving there about 8pm Australian EDT, 2/4). We'll spend several days there and then some days in village areas closer to the border with Turkey, where people are affected by the bombing and military attacks which we almost never hear anything about.
I hope I can help in some small way to change that and let some of you know about the suffering of the Kurds which has gone on for decades, no matter which regimes, powers and dictators have surrounded them.
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