dkSez : : : : : : Don Kahle's blog

Most Americans couldn’t locate the Kurds’ homeland on a map, but that’s because it doesn’t exist. The Kurds represent the world’s largest ethnic group without a nation to call their own.

We’ve been pretending together for three centuries that rationality eventually will carry the day, that there’s no turning back history, that newer always will be better, brighter, stronger, and triumphant.

I understand that certifying taxis and drivers keeps citizens safe — from bad brakes to armed robberies. I’m not saying that safety isn’t worth the money. Just let people choose.

Not very long ago, controlling the wires was all it took to control the people. But no more. Invisible connections are strengthening all around us, but we don’t see them.

Travel routes must be kept tentative, because roads can become paths can become dead ends. There is no AAA in Iraq. What started as a detour may soon become the new road. There’s no one enforcing anything.

I tried to recreate each story’s natural setting, the way an enlightened zookeeper designs a custom habitat for each animal. But ask me to string the stories together into a narrative about me and my experiences, and it feels like each animal is stuck in a rolling cage, announcing the circus has come to town.

About two miles from the airport, large concrete barriers block the road, forcing drivers to slow to a serpentine crawl — extreme traffic calming. It reminds me of 33rd Avenue in south Eugene, if residents were posted around the clock with rifles at the ready.

I didn’t expect “journalist” to be a term that doesn’t translate easily, but it was. The role of the journalist for a society in transition is a hot topic right now. We talk easily about how journalists aim to “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable,” but young Iraqi journalists are doing it, at great personal peril.

Hassan pushes back from his desk, stands and smiles. “Ahh! It’s a big question.” Here his hobby helps his work. He strides to a small wipe-off board and draws a Rorschach blot that represents Iraq. Two horizontal lines near the center divide the blot into uneven thirds.

Wadi refuses to be lured by the lurid. Women are the invisible victims of many forms of violence, and this culture relies on women to carry a large load. Helping women helps Iraq.