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

Published Friday, Sept. 5, 2008 in The Register-Guard. (ZHARAWA, IRAQ) I’ve never experienced such hospitality as the Kurds extend to anyone who will accept. Taxi drivers often thump their open hand to their chest and refuse to accept payment, preferring that the ride be accepted as a “gift from the heart.” (This gesture must be […]

Published Thursday, Sept. 4, 2008 in The Register-Guard. (BEYOND SULEIMANIYA, IRAQ) Two million Americans have fled their homes this week to get out of the way of Hurricane Gustav. Every news account leads with photos of empty roads in one direction and a steady migration away from coastal lands in the other. Windbreaker sales are […]

“People don’t understand the principles of discussion,” Azad complains. “Everybody wants there to be only one voice. But an arrangement needs many voices.”
“Arrangement” — it’s such a good word; and better than “compromise.” More active, less automatic.

Even when they come, the rains may do no good. Parched land repels water. Likewise, a war-torn psyche may resist help. Mental illness carries a powerful stigma in this culture. It extends beyond the patient to all those around them, including the caregivers. By one count, Iraq has only 20 practicing psychiatrists to serve 26 million possible patients.

Published Friday, August 29, 2008 in The Register-Guard. (SULEIMANIYA, IRAQ) My word is my bond. I may be very far away, but I haven’t forgotten that I’ve promised readers of The Register-Guard something different every time we bump up against a fifth Friday. I needed a place to put the cornucopia of raw (or half-baked) […]

Faud pivots in his seat to break the rhythm. Brutality is still the topic, but Fuad knows diplomacy. He softens his voice, unclenches himself.

He did not cry. He had told the story many times before. But I was his guest and I wasn’t sure I could bear more. He finished his story, putting both of us into it. “Why do Americans let this happen? They won’t let their children watch violent movies, but yet they allow this. Why?”

She digs deeper. “We have to understand why they make war. It’s very simple. It’s business. But the money lost on war is lost on both sides. We’ve lost our homes. We’ve lost parts of our families, even parts of our bodies and our spirits. But Americans lose too. The soldiers and their families get hurt. The bombs cost money. It’s your money.”

When discussing the casualty counts in Iraq, Sinasi tells us that during the first years after “shock and awe,” Iraqis developed a distaste for fresh fish. Too often they cut open the fish and find human body parts inside. “They throw the bodies in the water, where they can’t be counted.” Don’t blame the fish. […]

Sinasi has paid careful attention to the international crisis that has been caused by an invasion of her homeland, but without losing sight of regular people’s day-to-day needs. Here’s how she would resolve the current situation. The United States must maintain its current commitment to the conflict when measured in dollars. But those dollars must […]