Kurdishwaves

Amed

2007-08-19T17:42:00.000+03:00

I am now in Amed. I am not here in work so i have been checking out some historic places and other projects in this very modern and nice capital town of Northern Kurdistan. It is a great pleasure to bee here.

After my South Africa combined work and vacation i traveled back to Sweden. The one week work in Durban was very successful as already explained. Beside of this there are other plans for cooperation with South Africa ın the aspect of student exchange since South Africa is a very modern country wıth great possibilities.

The two week vacation was nice also. I finished the PADI rescue diver training and rented a car and did some great dives around all South Africa. The greatest was with 3-4 meter long tiger sharks and there were 40 of them. The seal dives was also pretty nice but the super-hyped Suduana national park was too boring and a way too long driving for getting bored.

After South Africa i went back to Sweden just because i booked the ticket like that. After a couple of days i traveled back to South Kurdistan with arrival in Hewler in 6:th August. After 10 days of work i took the road way to Amed.

My work in South Kurdistan has been completed now. The pilot projects has been successful and the different projects has been built and performed successfully. A plan for future work has been put ın work. A staff have been trained to complete the rest of the projects with the same great result. Plans has been conducted for the coming projects and orders for equipment has been made also. The projects are more than those mentioned here and discussions with international cooperation partners for the free radio station project has been successful also, amongst others.

So with these words the completion of Kurdishwaves for now...

News from Kurdistan

2007-07-17T00:44:00.000+03:00

During the day i received these bad news from Kirkuk that you can read about in the newspapers.

And here in South Africa i am continuing the work and i also started the continuation of my diving education with a start dive today. It was excellent. More meetings has been held at Mesopotamia Kurdish restaurant in Cape Town, South Africa.

Kurdish South Africa

2007-07-15T20:36:00.000+03:00

I arrived to Cape Town yesterday. On the way to the hotel I see something interesting, an amazing Kurdish restaurant in central Cape Town, Mesopotamia. Today I went there for a visit and met the two founders and saw this amazing restaurant that also is a Kurdish cultural museum with its furnishing and interior.

It has been here for 11 years and obviously played a big role in the understanding of Kurdish culture and awareness of Kurdistan. It was founded by two brothers from North Kurdistan, Mr Baran and Mr Sediq.

What was more interesting is that the mystery with the funny short movie “Kurdish or Turkish Olympic game” the “rock diving” that is world-famous on internet.

Search You Tube for "Diyarbakir Olimpiyatlari" and you will find the clip You can also visit the Mesopotamia web site through the link below.

Actually the guy who is talking in the movie is Mr Baran. The movie was made in Cape Town by Mr Sediq and his brother. They invented “rock diving” as an Olympic game because in Kurdistan there are no sea to dive in. The movie was made with FOX Television and got a gold award in Cannes. It took one month to finish and budget was one million dollar.

This is the link to the restaurant; actually they have also built up another Kurdish restaurant.

Mesopotamia Kurdish restaurant in Cape Town South Africa

Southafrica II

2007-07-13T21:43:00.001+03:00

Today was the last day of the MILSET Science expo and the annual meetings. IT has been a fruitful time for science and technology for youth for Kurdistan.

I am now sitting at the closing ceremony so here is a view from Southafrica

Southafrica

2007-07-11T14:45:00.001+03:00

Next destination was Southafrica where i am now. Kurdistan is going to be member in MILSET
(International Movement for Leisure Activities in Science and Technology) that has different counties as members(50 countries today). MILSET is arranging a Expo for scientists in Southafrica where Kurdistan is participating as Kurdistan.

This membership is a lead in the work for developing young peoples sense for science and technology through activities and education(not through school) in Kurdistan.

www.milset.org

It is unique to participate as Kurdistan since all other members are countries.

All participants

ICC convention hall in Durban where most of the work is taking place. The Expo started with welcoming and presentation of all the participants and a speech in their respective language. A culture of peace and understanding is obvious in MILSET.

Welcoming ceremony

At night

In morning

During day

Durban - A very modern town

This is an important step in the spread understanding for Kurdistan and multi ethnicity there. This also shows progress in the democratic work that has been performed in South Kurdistan. In soon future Kurdistan is participating with a team to present the result of the young scientists there. Our work with technology and scientific centers in Kurdistan is a part of this.

Sweden

2007-07-11T14:35:00.001+03:00

Now i have been at some different places in Sweden, Stockholm, Gothenburg, Uppsala and Jönköping are those worth mentioning. I also visited ondon. Soon i will update some work from another part of the world.

London city

Sweden

Swedish nature. Not so bad

The work has been meetings planed since long time as a result of hard work in Kurdistan. If succesful this means even more work in Kurdistan and maybe some support.

"Vacation"

2007-06-29T19:38:00.000+03:00

Since a time i am in Europe, partly vacation and partly work. This is the reason why there have not been any updates lately. There will soon be updates from most unexpected places however. In the meantime i will post old pictures if there is any time slot.

The endless landscape

2007-06-11T20:42:00.000+03:00

This post is from when I traveled back to Hewler from Amedi after one weeks work with basic construction for preparation of the culture house in Amedi. A lot of furniture was purchased along with some necessities and material for electrical installations. All the other equipment will be delivered when all the other construction work, electric, phone for the radios, internet, all other installations and the furnishing are ready.

It was a long trip from Hewler to Amedi. The truck driver was not very familiar with the road. Usually you go to Duhok first and from there to Amedi, which can seem like a unnecessary long way. He thought he was smart when he thought he can go through Bardarash and make a great shortcut.

This pictures show what he did not know. First a trip through desert hot and dry area where the road was not finished. But later we went through the most beautiful nature , mountains and fruit agriculture. This meant a very long way through mountainous areas in low speed with low speed. It took more than five hours and several liters of water.

We did not see a person or a car during several hours in the mountainous ways. Suddenly we lost the way. When we wanted to ask somebody for the way and made a u-turn suddenly a Peshmerga came out from the forest. What a coincidence?

Turning onto this desert road from Shoresh north of Hewler.

At least some green fields...

And now some mountains..

Cultivation

The 4:th mountain chain at the back i Gara mountain. Amedi is behind that mountain. Saddam had a castle at top of Gara mountain and it can be seen at this picture on the highest spot.

Peach cultivation

The landscape from Sersink to Amedi.

Sulav with the water spring, waterfall and river. Or Silav as they seem to say here. Look there are donkeys under the leaves. The leaves are used as roofs on the outdoor cafées and picknick places. It smells good and stays cool.

Sulav with a part of Amedi in the background.

Amedi

Some electricity work

This houce is from the 7:th century and belonged to a famous author as i understanded it.

Amedi - Last travel

2007-06-09T19:32:00.000+03:00

This is a short resume from my last visit in Amedi. A lot of heavy work was finished and soon the interesting work will begin. But still waiting for the Dubai orders that is not in my control any more.
The city Amedi itself as a town deserves an dedicated post that will come later. But for now here are some pictures. Again sorry for the delay in new post.

The work has begun...

Serseng to the left and beyond that is Duhok. Gara moountain can be seen to the left with Saddams old castle on the highest peak. It is now communication central for Korek telecom.

During the day you see this in the same direction. A well situated houce and the river from Silav waterfall in the valley. Very nice fruit trees as i have heard. Worth a visit in case of time.

Same picture as below during dark night.

The spotlight from some security thing lights up the foot of the Amedi raise. The lights to the left is a village.

The same place as above during daylight.

Sunset...

... another

Yet another

The park

The park II

Some young trouble makers.

The work goes on...

Long time

2007-06-06T19:32:00.000+03:00

It was long time since my last post and i apologize for this dear visitors. I have had a lot of job and i was in Amedi for more than one week for some heavy work then back to Hewler for buying furniture and building material. When i have better internet connection i will upload the next post which will contain some nice picture of Amedi. Until then i hope you have understanding for the delay.

Also thank you for your comments and support.

New commando special forces

2007-05-27T21:00:00.002+03:00

A picture from a special visit today.

The picture talks for it self, and say something special to those with historical knowledge.

Amedi

2007-05-24T18:42:00.000+03:00

Today i traveled to Amedi and back to Hewler. As i took regular cab i lost a couple of kilos of weight in the heat. But From Duhok to Amedi i had some great company, two girls and a guy that were very interested in our project. We talked about that there is lack of activity for youth in Amedi. Many youth also move out from the city to Duhok and Hewler for work or for education.

This is one of the many churches in Hewler. This one is in Ankawa that is the christian district of Hewler. It is also one of the most nice areas with nice people. (Picture from the day before)

Amedi, the very special town on top of a big mountain hill. Since all space is occupied in the town it can not grow any more. This is also because of the lack of high buildings here.

An incredible nice park in Amedi.

Planning period

2007-05-22T08:52:00.000+03:00

The day after the pictures on the mayor Abdul Rahman Belaf he left the hospital.

Regarding my work the equipment delivery seem to take longer time than expected unfortunately. Since the distributors in Dubai usually do not have all items in stock this can be the situation. However this leaves opportunities to develop the plans and work methods. Technical work can always be improved. The limit is mainly time and budget.

The plans for 2007 are huge and include many projects in different areas. However more on this when the plans have been put in practice. What we are doing in the meantime is to work on the basis to educate in computer and to find suitable premises and other requirements and good trainers and teachers.

For example I am investigating the market for new materials for building the studios. As until now they have been built by the classical way a with wooden frame and MAM(Mass Air Mass) principle. The materials could have better quality and special acoustic material is not even available. So this is the reason for searching new ways.

An example could by to build the walls with these materials, but they have their up and down sides. There are many factors that have to be considered in building a studio and in the construction work. This is not my area of profession since I am electronics engineers but in Kurdistan things work different. As said before you have to consider all aspects during the work for achieving the goal, a studio with right acoustics properties within the budget and time line.

Studios are fascinating because you can never get it perfect. It is always a balance between the factors that was mentioned. In our plans we have music studios also. However the radio stations usually have less requirements in acoustic properties. This since it does not require advanced mixing and mastering techniques and monitoring requirements.

More information will be provided later when the work has started.

We were in Ranye during the weekend to follow up some various works. One of them was a water well constructed for this dried out soccer field.

Hotel Chwar Chra or Texas?

Update - Ongoing democratic work after the Makhmur bomb

2007-05-13T20:07:00.000+03:00

Update - Ongoing democratic work after the Makhmur bomb

We were recently at the hospital in Hewler to visit our dear friend Abdul Rahman Belaf. He was in great mood and eager about the work towards democracy. We admire him a lot.

Mayor Abdul Rahman Belaf and minister Taha Barwary, and in the background stands the authour Reidar Sabir.

"...fortunately the democratic process and work will not stop with this terrorist attack. And there are thousands of Abdul Rahman Belaf to replace the first Abdul Rahman [meaning himself]. Our work and democratic process will never stop."

A relative young guy who was wouded.

A badly wounded young guy. He also lost his brother.

This guy had got hit by splinter from the bomb in his stomache.

During the day there were two terrorist bomb attacks in Kirkuk also.

But the work goes on....

New terrorist attack - But the democratic work never stops

2007-05-13T15:48:00.000+03:00

There has been a new bomb in South Kurdistan today. This time in Makhmur. The bomb exploded during a big meeting outside of the city hall and the nearbying local KDP office branch 23. At this time 32-35 persons has been killed and 120 people are injured, as reported, in this act of terrorism.

The Mayor of Makhmur and the local national hero Abdulrahman Belaf was hit in the explosion and is injured. He gave anyway an interview to TV and radio regarding the terrorist attack.

Makhmur is today not under Kurdistan Regional Government administration.

This is a picture with Fredrik Malm and the mayor Abdulrahman Belaf. This picture was taken 2007-04-03 during Fredrik Malms visit to Kurdistan. Fredrik Malm is memeber of the parliament in Sweden and is a true friend of the Kurds.

The mayor on TV after the terrorist attack. He said: "...fortunately the democratic process and work will not stop with this terrorist attack. And there are thousands of Abdul Rahman Belaf to replace the first Abdul Rahman [meaning himself]. Our work will never stop."

The mayor of Mekhmur here seen with a girl and her father in Makhmur refugee camp.

These pictures below are from the emergency in Hewler after the terrorist attack.

Today 2007-05-13 at 11.25 o clock a truck, coverd as a truck loaded with metal for construction work, exploded between the city hall and the local KDP office branch 23. It was an suicide attack and the truck exploded when it was close to the KDP office.

The explosion was so powerful that 100 cars has been blown out around the explosion.

There has been appeal from the minister for care that the people shall not load the care institutions and the care personell. This so they can do their job better. But it seems not unresonable that relatives want to know what has happened or to be close to the hurted.

There are huge mass of people seeking towards where help is needed to provide help in which way it may be. The democratic work will never stop in Kurdistan . It has not been stopped in history and will never be stopped in future... This is very obvious here in Kurdistan.

The scene of the terrorist action. Special Kurdish peshmerga forces.

No internet

2007-05-12T16:55:00.000+03:00

We have not had any internet at our office the last days. So i am sitting at hotel Chwarchra right now. I have been trying to work here last days. The owner of hotel Chwarchra is Kurd from Sweden and it seems like he has done a good job. There are always important people here and it seem to be great service at least that is what i have heard.

But once in a while there are tens of life guards running around with thier communication radios and their weapons well covered, protecting some dude. There is actually no need for this security at this level here, but anyways. It is hard to see that they are here in Kurdistan because of any care or special interest in Kurdistan, besides of economical profits or other kind of power. You also see a lot of other people that you have hard to place. I guess i am working to much so i do not see that there are happening a lot here.

Barzan travel

2007-05-11T15:57:00.000+03:00

This is the pictures from the Barzan area. We visited Sherwan village, Piran village and Mergasur. The purpose was to follow up our projects in Mergasur and to establish a culture center in Sherwan village.

Right here, when we took a short pause we found out that there had been a terrorist attack in Hewler just a couple of minutes earlier in Hewler. Our plans could however not bee canceled and were best to be performed.

Some of the UZI boys.

The view from Mergasur where we had a workshop later in the day.

Bringing computers as a first step to open a Culture center in Piran village. These will be computers for kids and youths in Piran. They will be able to participate in computer, internet and English courses.

The road to Sherwan village.

Lower part of Sherwan village

Youngsters having a break at school?

The road to North Kurdistan.

Unloading equipment in Sherwan.

Piran mountain

Greeting in Mergasur

We left Hewler 6 in the morning, visited 3 cities, had 3 seminars and 5 meetings without any pause. After that we had a well deserved picnic at 15 o clock. This is on our way down from the picnic place. They always has to get to the top of the mountain to have picnic and of course there has to be a big spring or river there also.

Behind the high mountains in the horizon is the border to North Kurdistan. The mountains do not look to be as high as they look in reality though.

The entrance to Gali Ali Beg that is a fabulous valley as taken from a fairy tale. It was here we saw the puppies last time. But they were not at the same place this time. The mountain you see behind the first one is Korek mountain. On top of it is an old observaroty.

Barzan travel and Hewler bomb

2007-05-10T12:07:00.000+03:00

Yesterway it was a terrorist attack in Hewler. It led to 12 persons death and 70 injured. It will also cause severe damage to the democratic work and the safety work that has been built up in the area. but hopefully it will work as a ringing bell to never stop the decmoratic work and to always be aware of the safety and to develop it.

Yesterday our staff had a work travel to Barzani area amongst them Mergasur, Sherwan and Piran. We left hewler 6 in the morning so we were not there during the terrorist attack. However we got aware of it immediately but could not interrupt our plans.

I will update the blog with picture from yesterdays Barzan travel later on today. But here is a picture i took today on the Interior Ministry building. A big misstake in the planning was to have the Asaish (secret service) and the Interior Ministry located beside each other and located on a big comon road in the middle in the city.

The reconstruction work has already begun as you can see on the road. The situation is calm and there are less peopole outside, today in Hewler.

Choman day trip

2007-05-05T20:55:00.001+03:00

Yesterday we were invited to a day trip high up in the mountains around Choman. A seminar was also held out in the free. Four Kurdish TV channels were in the area so maybe you saw it on TV.

On the way to Choman

Driving higher and higher. The cars got stuck badly 2 times.

This area is still partly a minefield. Some organizations has been working with clearing minefield areas in Kurdistan. The areas around the borders and around Kirkuk are the worst and you still see a lot of these signs. Choman is a important and historical place in the history of Kurdish war. This was also a military heavy occupied area during the Iraq and Iran war.

A part of Choman city.

Choman culture house that is one of our projects.

The waterfall you saw a couple of posts ago.

I saw some nice puppies on our way and wanted to take this one with me but i do not have the time for it. I will do it next time.

Today was the end of the English course held for students at Salahaddin Economical University and they received their diplomas.

Swedish group

2007-05-04T08:20:00.000+03:00

Yesterday we had a dinner and a long evening with a big group from Sweden. It was personnel from all Sweden working with immigration and integration issues from Sweden. It was an interesting evening with many meetings.

It is always a pleasure to meet people that have never visited Kurdistan and to hear about all their positive experiences. Especially the group of Sami people from Lapland with members from the municipal. There was a big discussion about how similar the Lappish culture and the Kurdish culture are. There was a promise on cooperation in fields of sports, radio and media. Now it is up to paperwork in Sweden and us in Kurdistan to make this reality.

Lappish and Kurdish culture are very similar and close to the nature. The group discussed how they had been in the Kurdistan parliament and saw the impressing garden inside the parliament with waterfall and green plants and how similar this was with the Lappish Parliament building that soon is going to be built in Kiruna city in Lapland. It was amazing to think about that and also how similar the Lappish flag and the Kurdish flag are.

The four colors of the Sami flag (red, blue, green and yellow) are the Sami colors. The circle is intended to symbolize both the moon and the sun, the blue part representing the moon and the red part the sun.

Last days

2007-05-01T13:17:00.000+03:00

Since my last post I have been very busy. I was with our guest with Germany which was an important issue which led to a huge gap in my work with the Dubai equipment lists and the other technical work that is very intensive now. It is the starting phase for some new projects with partly high tech and very interesting and exciting goals.

Here are some pictures from two last days with our guest from Germany. After that I was in Kirkuk and Slemani. I arrived back to Hewler this morning 9 o clock from Slemani. at our way we stopped by in Kirkuk to and left some equipment, among others DV cams and other recording equipment. There is going to be a film festival there and a team is going to make a contribution for the 140 article which handles the referendum and future of Kirkuk.

The last day with our guest we were at a very special place in Kurdistan that beats many other places like the incredible Bekhal spring and huge Geli Ali Beg that you were in my first post.

I also apologize that the frequency of my posts are decreasing but as long as you do not write me any posts i am not aware of what you think. This beside of the Google analytics statistics on my blog which indeed are interesting. Comments and feedback are appreciated. Besides the reason in decreasing in the blog update is a huge load of work in general but especially right now.

Shaqlawa

Sefin mountain

Mr Germany inspecting the site the old school way

My favorite, waterfalls

Bekhal spring

A tourist village in Rwaduz. Built by an former communist. Way you go buddy.

Kurdistan in spring

Clear blue water. This was at the foot of the mountain.

You could travel up all the way to the spring it self. You travel this way up with special 4WD jeeps. Of cource you can go with your car but is it worth it?

Pretty close to the edge sometimes, and pretty good height also.

Incredible....

Just look at this incredible view. A labyrinth...

The spring it self. It do not look as impressive as seeing it in real life. Imagine that the stairs to the left have a height of 1 meter for each step aproximately. It beats Bekhal spring big time and Bekhal is really impressive and big.

A "Haji" by name at least that had been wandering in the mountains and had collected some nice stuff that he did not want to share. There is a lot of nice and exclusive vegetables in the Kurdish mountains right now since it is spring. All of it is growing in the incredible nature of Kurdistan and this is a source for Kurdish village inhabitans and for gourmet chefs. A haji is an honorable title for somebody that has been wandering to Mecka for the pilgrim travel. I do not think this haji could have afforded such a travel though.

The high mountain behind the man is the border of Eastern Kurdistan (Kurdistan Iran). So cloe but so far away.

A former village that has been built up after the kurdish uprising -91. Since that was a special sensitive town since it is close to Easter Kurdistan "border" the village was completely demolished during the Anfal campaing and the inhabitants were put out to the genocide of the Kurds.

The mountaing pass that you travel through on you way down.

German visit

2007-04-24T19:52:00.000+03:00

These last days after I came back from Dubai I have been working continuously with the orders and the lists. There is a lot of equipment that need to be ordered and the orders that has already been made have to be followed up.

I got an interrupt in my work today, a man from Germany is in Kurdistan and there is a plan. We went off to Bahdinan 6 in the morning today. Our guest has built different type of building for the Americans during the cold war in some NATO countries.

I am not on the pictures as usual. Our guest in blue shirt.

Green Kurdistan, nice view besides from the colour of the water. This is why everybody say you should see Kurdistan in the spring.

Sheladze. We also got time to take a snap of our ongoing project preparation here. It was looking good and as fast as we have got the equipment many youths will have an interesting and instructive occupation.

On our way back.

Blé village area

Wildhorses, they are actually. Since peshmergas do not use horses any more they are free and it is a great view. This is in the Barzani area and especially here the wild live is interesting because of hunting ban.

Dubai travel

2007-04-15T16:00:00.000+03:00

We, me and a colleague landed in Dubai 1 o clock in the night. He is familiar with Dubai but for me it was my first visit. If i knew what i will experience i would not have travelled as if it was voluntarily.

Dubai is a country that is continually changing. Skyscrapers are built intensively and nothing is like the other day like. You will for sure get confused by the magnitude of Dubai and the luxury.

Anyway we took a cab to find an affordable hotel. It was late so we had to check in at Golden Sands 3. The days that came we had many business meetings to check out with the suppliers, dealer and retailers for the equipments we want. It turned out to be a hard match trying to do all this in this short time. The biggest obstacle was the transportation, though we had a rental car all our travel. IT could take several hours some times in rush hour to get from a place to another place. And it is rush hour all the time because it is Dubai so you can imagine trying to do a lot in a day but get stuck in traffic more than half the day.

Anyway the work was a success. We will maybe need to travel to Dubai in 4 weeks again before delivery of our equipment. It was different equipment for radio stations of course, music studios, computers, other high tech and media equipment and complete technology labs. I can say this without revealing anything about our projects.

Dubai is a emirate a city that is unbelievable. You see gigantic buildings and masterworks right in what that was an desert and people from all over the world. It is just amazing. Sometimes when there are road constructions and they dig up holes you get reminded that everything is built up on desert.

It has been able to build Dubai thanks to foreign expertise and workers. The Sheiks in Dubai are not late in appointing this and give special credit to the Indians.

It was of course a reality check and a punch in the face to see this reality after having been working in South Kurdistan 7 months.

Our first and second night was spent here.

Sweden taking a part of this cake of course like they sold material to Saddam Hussein during the war and genocide against the Kurds. IKEA

This is a poor House that you never see in Dubai but you see it here. Mostly Indian and Pakistanis are living here and often they are 10-15 persons living in one room. It is incredible expensive with accommodation in Dubai but all the rest it cheap, at least if you see the prices internationally. Hotels and accommodation is expensive but food is cheap. There are many workers here so the service is really great if not excellent. There are all possible service at affordable price which is good for the forging workers and the inhabitants and the professionals.

Of course

This is outside our next hotel. Not as glamorous but what do you not do for a good project economy. Check out the dudes...

Construction everywhere, ... higher and higher.

Easy traffic

The skiing hall in Dubai maybe you have seen it on discovery channel some late night.

Burj Arab

Hewler restaurant, oh no! Not here also, help somebody...

IT looks like this at the entrance of the offices and there are countless of the, . It assumes you have a pretty good check on the market.

Qendil building material company in the middle of the industry area. Probably he is Kurd because Qendil is an amazing Kurdish mountain chain

Some babes barbecuing at the beach. This is the national dress for Women in United Arab Emirate (UAE). Foreign men are forbidden to wear the dress. But for women it is OK. These women were Indians because their families were sitting besides them.

It was Friday and our last day of 6 days. It is forbidden to work on Fridays and we had to accept this of course, since it is closed everywhere. So we took a look at the beach. It was not more than just a look because it was red flag and it was forbidden to swim. Very irritating but obviously necessary because at least a guy drowned this day.

The beach House in the beach garden, not so bad.

Here are some dudes chilling in Shorijja that is a nearbying emirate, city.

One of the respected Sheiks checking out the view.

Here is the temporarily harbour for the smuggle boats to Iran and some other places.

The famous palms they are mostly ready. I think there are three of them.

The world islands. Only a island is started to be built.

Hewler park from air.

Dubai next

2007-04-07T18:57:00.000+03:00

As i told you before we have huge projects for 2007. But now is the time and in a couple of minutes i will leave the office and fly to Dubai to buy all the equipment mainly technical that we will need. Some of the projects are high tech you will hear about this later when it is built. Probably i will be very busy but i will try to send you update and pictures on Dubai.

Picknick

2007-04-07T12:40:00.000+03:00

Yesterday we went to a picnic with the English course student on Salahaddin Economical University. They are provided with special English courses from us as I have mentioned before. This will be Kurdistans future and it is enlightening to be amongst them and to talk with them. There were intelligent and well educated girls and boys having a great time with eachtoher. With these young students Kurdistan will not be dependent on specialist competence or Kurds from abroad.

It is a month left of the first course and this was celebrated with a picnic to Rwanduz area.

Berojana area outside Rwanduz

We were honored with special guests that are advisers for KRG and they came originally from outside of Iraq. They are not on the picture however unfortunately because they were busy photographing also.

Rwanduz city on the right. This valley is a classic and perfect place for lovers that are not aimed for each other, where they can take a last fly by in the air. There is also something special people say in Rwanduz about this valley when something is not going like they want, "... or I will jump from the cliff".

Mekhmur

2007-04-07T08:32:00.000+03:00

We visited Mekhmur a couple of days ago for some purpose. In Mekhmur there is a refugee camp for refugees from northern Kurdistan. This camp has been subject to turkish propaganda. This led to that UNHCR after pressure from turkey shut down their office and their minimal help to the refugee camp. After a huge investigation by several parts, among them the Iraqi Army and the Americans nothing were found. It was prove that this is a civil refugee camp and no military camp. This investigation led to that UNHCR opened their office here again. Their life situation is however terrible and many get sick just by living in their houses.

Tae Kwon Do

This amphitheatre has been built by the people them selves.

Lot of kids packed in a small class room.

The houses have worlds poorest standard and many get diseases while living there.

These refugees from northern Kurdistan in Mekhmur camp has fled the genocide of the Kurds by turkey. Their villages were burnt down and the people were killed. Those who could fled and those with poorest possibilities ended up here and are now again object of turkish terrorism.

This is the guerilla Turkey is afraid of!

Special guest in Kurdistan

2007-04-02T17:09:00.000+03:00

Last days Fredrik Malm has been with us. He is collecting information for a special purpose and he will be here for 9 days so it is a couple of days left. So he is with us for this purpose. We visited the International Hewler Book Fair. There were a great collection of books from best publishers in the world. I was only interesten in the English literature. The books was most in the subject of technology and medical science. It was an impressing width of the books and you could find books in all specialized subjects regarding technology ecpecially.

I bought a couple of books for work and one in RF electronics to keep my self updated.

Mr Fredrik Malm

Hewler International Book-Fair

Antique shop in Hewler with a great collection of cultural heritage. Everything is for sale unfortunately.

There was a collction of garbage and arabic crap along with great kurdish stuff.

What is happening

2007-03-28T23:53:00.000+03:00

In my last post i talked shortly about the Kirkuk citadel which is very impressing but i did not mention the most interesting part the underground tunnels. They are howev er blocked for some reason probably because of security. We entered as far as it was possible and i will uipload pictures when i can. It is not so much fun. I will also upload a picture of the book that i have got the information from.

Lately i have bought some special studio furniture in Hewler. I tansported them to Kirkuk, from there i have bought building material too build a secondary studio in the first radio station. With competent personell i travelled to the first radio station and on the way in Slemani a bought some more special building material and electrical supply. Whave been working on the second studio for a day now.

The reason for the travels is that in some cities you can not find what you need or it may be cheeper in another city. Transport is cheap here so there are a couple of ways to turn things around. But sometimes you do not have any choice and have to do things the hard way.

Kirkuk citadel

2007-03-23T22:59:00.000+03:00

The Citadel in Kirkuk was built by the Medes, a general, 600 years BC. He conquered Israel and with him brought 3000 workers and finally built this citadel with his staff of engineers. It has however been renovated a couple of times so there are many statements of who built it. What you can see on these pictures are just a part of what is left today.

Inside this thing was a grave of some women that you could go in and watch if there were any interest.

These are the tombs of prophet Daniel and two others lying and resting.

The minaret

It is a huge landscape and the big part was demolished by Saddam.

Here we are eating dust like usual in Kirkuk.

Dog fight

Newroz

2007-03-23T22:41:00.000+03:00

This is Newroz, the Kurdish New Year in Kirkuk. Some poor guys are celebrating the new Kurdish year but soon they will be back to their miserable lives without any future, as they see it at least, in that "god forgiven city" and get killed in some terrorist attack some day.

This tough guy you should argue with. Check out the tractor celebration in the background.

You have to melt in when you are in Kirkuk in all ways.

On the evening I was back in Hewler on the “Youth of The Year” party. Nine youths in different categories were selected for their special effort. One guy won a price for building the first Kurdish airplane. We have been visiting his workshop and you will see more of it here. It is like a movie entering his workshop in a poor quarter in a basement somewhere in Kurdistan.

Kurdish dance group

Keldeean/Assyrian dance group

Leaving Halabja

2007-03-20T00:58:00.000+03:00

The day after we left Halabja towards to Ranye. Our first radio station is going to be extended with a second studio besides the culture center, which in practice means an IT center and language cources there.On our ways. However ths situation of Halabja is an disaster. The raods are all just mud. Just look at it.

Eating some fresh breakfast.

Piremegron the fantastic moountain outside Slemani city. One of the proudnesses of the people of Slemani. Just look at that landscape.

A village near Dukan city.

Ranye by night. Like all other cities here you have only electricity maximum 2-3 hours each day. The red light is a radio mast.

The radio station staff celebrated the New Kurdish Year Newroz by a trip with some nice views on the road. Besides the trip it meant a lot of preparations and lot of work.

Villages all around. This is a houce in Plenga village which means Lion Village.

Our destination high up in the mountain it was chilly but grat after a while with the most fresh air and springs you can imagine.

Toworrow it is time to go back to Hewler because we have a big activity there going on. So an early morning tomorrow. Today there was an bomb in Kirkuk again this time nobody had chance to detect it and 50 people got killed.

Halabja 19 year memorial day

2007-03-16T22:04:00.000+03:00

The day before today we travelled to Slemani with a stop in Kirkuk. It was snowing which is quite strange in Slemani at this time just some days before the Kurdish Newroz, New Year.

We were at a arts exhibition performed by our Youth Culture Center in Slemani. Impressing talents are teachers there and the result was a very special and very rare arts exhibition in its kind.

It was held at Saddams secret service office which in practice was a torture center and death chamber.

The day started with work and in "Bauhaus" this view could be enjoyed, even by the owner.

At Bauhaus

Exhibition part I - In the basement

Old bloody Saddam weapons I

Old bloody Saddam weapons II

Arts exhibition hall - Also former secret service building

UZI in Kurdistan? Wel,l it looks handy for the life guard.

End

Halabja 19 years after the chemical attack on the memorial day.

Bahdinan trip

2007-03-15T11:19:00.000+03:00

The two day trip began 6 o clocks in the morning to Bahdinan area. The task was to plan all our activities and follow up work in the close future there so that the centers can open soon. And this means meaningful activity for youths in the area without specifying more and mentioning all the areas. The radio infrastructure was also included in the work. We visited a couple of cities among them:

Olive cultivation in Bahshiqa

Duhok city

Duhok dam

The mountain pass to Zakho. At this place the Kurdish peshmerga crushed and conquered a massive and heavily equipped military force in year 61. Later in 91 uprising it was also war right in the mountain pass. This day the 13:th mars when we were there it was the memory day of the Kurdish uprising in this area.

Entrance to Zakho. The mountains in the horizon are the border to North Kurdistan (present turkish border).

Duhok soccer hall.

Duhok by night

Duhok sunrise

There are always new electricity infrastructure, masts and cables destroying the landscape and the pictures. But there is never any electricity. I guess that is what an upgradeable system means.

One of Saddam Husseins many many castles. It is surrounded by a huge wall many kilometres around the caste.

Kengal dog, or Gamal as it is called in Kurdistan. It is a dog breed origination from Kurdistan.

Amedi a very special city build on top of a high mountain.

Amedi town

Sheladze Soccer field

Barzan area

Barzan city, the home city of Mala Mustafa Barzani.

The mountain pass, Geli to Bahdinan. This formation was huge and very special.

Very high mountain pass on mount Peres.

Back on flat land and heading towards Hewler.

Planning coming work trip

2007-03-11T15:44:00.000+03:00

Of cource it is a work trip because that is the only thing. We are going to Bahdinan area to follow up and plan our work in detail and also to start the construction work. In a couple of months some of our projects for youth in Bahdinan area will be completed and opened and this means extensive work. It is worth looking forward to it because some of it is totally new for Kurdistan.

Bahdinan is the northen part of South Kurdistan.

Today the weather is great in Hewler. It could be up to 25 degrees in Hewler.

Rahimawa travel station

2007-03-09T19:58:00.000+03:00

The travel station in Kirkuk, Rahimawa is soon rebuilt again. It was not many days ago since it was all blown up by terrorist car bombings. But people in Kirkuk do not give up and see this as an period that will end like it has done in the other cities in Kurdistan.

The new building can be seen rise in front of the police car. It is not much of a travel station but this is the reality of Kirkuk.

Kirkuk bomb

2007-03-09T03:15:00.000+03:00

Today (yesterday since it is past midnight at sending this post) we traveled to Kirkuk. Soon before our arrival we got updated that we should go by another way because of car bomb explosions close to one of our location that was our destiny. We took another way and also that one was partly closed with trucks in front of the road. When we had parked our car we heard a big explosion and a chaos started.

Kurdish security forces immediately searched through our car. At let us continue to our location.

The smoke was immediately visible behind this mosque.

At our way to our location we saw the area of the explosion. American and Kurdish Iraqi security forces were there.

When we arrived we found out that these explosions were actually cars placed out by terrorist that the people had been suspect about and they had sent out an alarm. With this American forces blew up the cars that were strategically placed out to kill as many people as possible in a very crowded Kurdish area of Kirkuk. They are heroes for this action but it is first and most the people in Kirkuk that are the real heroes that has to live with this situation. It is mostly them selves that catch terrorists and reveal their networks and their car bombs. Last week a police car was circulating around one of our sensitive locations. The people in the area got suspicious and overmanned the lone police officer in his car. It showed out that the car was adapted and full with explosives. It was an Iraqi ING police officer. In the explosions of today there was again an adapted police car.

The americans leaving with their gigantic vehicles and this special truck after an special effort.

The inhabitants of this city have to decide about their destiny through a democratic election instead of letting terrorist plan their dark future. And this should be done as soon as possible before it is too late.

Choman Youth Center opening

2007-03-07T14:11:00.000+03:00

Yesterday we went on a trip to Choman to open the Youth Culture Center. It was a great success and a great day. The youth in Choman are very enlightened, proud and active. The center consist of a small library, a cinema a complete gym and cafeteria. Everybody work there independent of belonging and without salary. They do it to serve the youth in their area.

Choman is a city that has had big importance in the history of Kurdish struggle. It is a incredibly beautiful city close to Eastern Kurdistan. It is surrounded by mountain chain where on is the highest in south Kurdistan, Halgurd mountain.

The work we perform are unlike what have until now been done in Kurdistan and Iraq. All of our projects main criteria is that the projects are independent from religion and political belonging. This is what has caused serious problems here. We focus on youth empowerment and capacity building.

Not so comfortable but very secure =)

Entrance to Choman Youth Culture Center.

Choman Youth Center theater group.

Part of Choman Youth Center theater group and one of our staff that did not want to be on my blog. They had a special request, wireless mini microphones and sound system for their shows. Another request that was presented in the seminar that was held was a Radio station.

The lunch was not one minute to late. We had to wait until it was barbecued of course.

Start of a trip with amazing views, new projects and historical places.

World most beautiful sports stadium with surroundings? This is a big panorama picture that did not fit here.

The mountain passes are just breathtaking. But the view from the top of the mountains are can not be described by word and picture can not even represent a small fraction of the feeling.

We visited this village high up in the mountains. Here people are living like they have done for many years. Villages like this with preserved cultural and historical objects are few. This is because of Saddam’s Anfal
campaign where he wanted to eliminate the Kurds for ever.

Girls in Kurdish cloths seem to be popular.

The magnificent “Two Brother” rocks. A couple of hundred meters down this valley there is a nice river. Maybe this will be an adventurous tourist place in the future.

Close to this place is a historical bunker with underground tunnels. It was the political center and where Mustafa Barzani performed all his work from, in the late 6o:s.

A educational summer camp will be held in Kurdistan open for all Kurds, especially for Kurds from the diaspora this summer. Those who like to experience this in real life should participate.

Roji Raparin - Revolt day

2007-03-05T19:41:00.000+03:00

Today is 16 years ago the revolt and uprising against Saddam Hussein started in Kurdistan. It started in Ranye and ended in Kirkuk. Our trip went to Ranye yesterday with a special purpose; to inaugurate a educational youth center there. It will be focused on IT and culture.

A colleague sitting and working before leaving.

Special delivery to Ranye.

"It will be finished until tomorrow." At least the basics for the inauguration.

The city is prepared for the day after.

Everybody is celebrating in the evening before the day. It is a national celebration.

No comment.

On our travel back.

Hectic day

2007-02-28T13:47:00.000+03:00

Yesterday middle in the ongoing work something new showed up. We had to travel immediately to another city for wome work. You have to be flexible and handle to work with many things obviously here. Well said and done we had a hectic day, like usual. We inspected the new premises for one of "the projects". Seemed great! We also parallell interviewed potential staff that has to be organized as fast as possible.

In the chaos we managed all this. A friend talked once about a project leader education focusing towards chaos (project) leading. It came in my mind today.

This is the premises for what i described above. It is under work and will be finished in 2-3 weeks.

A picture from last week:

Have a Kirkuk Pepsi (Written with arabic letters).

Action

2007-02-26T22:23:00.000+03:00

Yesterday I was working on fixing the main transmitter in Kirkuk with the new oscilloscope. It showed out to be a worthy instrument. In the middle of everything I got a phone call. I had to finish my ongoing work as fast as possible and leave before sunset. It was urgent work in Hewler. The big projects I have mentioned briefly before had to be specified NOW so that I can travel in short time to Dubai or where ever to buy all the equipments.

Now sitting at office again 22.30 Hewler time and it is time to go home soon.

Travel Station

2007-02-24T19:28:00.000+03:00

Yesterday I traveled to Slemani to pick up an oscilloscope. It is a necessary measurements instrument that I have been without for a time.

There are two garages in Kirkuk where you travel from, either by bus or taxi. One is for travels to Slemani and the other for travel to Hewler, the later is in Rahimawa quarter. I melt in among the citizens pretty good as long as I do not talk. So I went to the Slemani garage to take a cab.

You have to be careful and be ware for the signs, risk for abductions are very high. What the signs are you will learn with time and hopefully not too late. I sat down in the backseat of a cab to Slemani. The guy beside me had a Kalashnikov on the floor. I also saw that he was wearing “klash” which is Kurdish folklore shoes. I was feeling pretty safe then because he were probably Peshmerga in civil clothes, along with his colleagues. They went off at a Peshmerga headquarter when we were close to Slemani.

Last time I traveled from Kirkuk I traveled from Rahimawa station. There were no cabs so we had to wait for a half hour but at last we got one. One week ago on the 17:th February the Rahimawa travel station were blown up by terrorists. Approximated 12 persons were killed in the blast and 86 persons were injured. We passed by the Rahimawa travel center and it was not much left of it. It was a Kurdish area that in many peoples mind was the last place for a terrorist bomb.

Rahimawa travel station a week after the explosion. On the corner there was a building that is now totally gone. This was the crowdy central and there were cars and busses all around the street. It is now desert empty lik many other parts of the city.

In Slemani I met up with some colleagues for some late evening work. I traveled back to Kirkuk the day after early in the morning and the colleagues were going to another place.

This is the monument in honour of "Mama Risha". He was a legendary Peshmerga originating from Kirkuk.

This blog should have been posted yesterday but was delayed because of terrible internet in this area.

Orange sellout

2007-02-22T13:33:00.000+03:00

This day was an ordinary offiice day. In the afternoon we traveled to Kirkuk.
There were two accidents on the way. First a truck had rammed a pickup. Everybody were busy picking up oranges. They also seem to miss the front tires, maybe they are in the pickup.

Later on we confronted an American road block. Always when the Americans are on the road it is blocked for all traffic. You have to stay one hundred meters behind them or even more far away, or it can go like this if not worse.

A half car can be seen on this picture. It was smashed accidently obviously and Iraqi Kurdish security forces are there along with the Americans that smashed the car. It seems like they want to justify the accident.

Later on we stayed at a popular restaurant road restaurant to rest and eat on our way. Just as we sat down to eat 50-60 man Kurdish security force entered the restaurant with a staff from some department. We did not get much rest but a pretty good security and great food.

Baba Gurgur in daylight

In Kirkuk there are security forces patrolling all the streets and carefully inspecting the streets and anything that can be an object of terrorism. The streets are less crowded and you do not see many parked cars because it is illegal beside in special garages. You wish that this had been done before the last 2 weeks 26 bombs, where as 6 bombs during the last days.

Qaladize trip

2007-02-20T17:49:00.000+03:00

This morning was one of those pretty early ones. I woke up around 6 o clock, to begin our trip to Qaladize. We are going there to establish a culture centre with a mobile cinema and a library. This is the last in a series of travels before the decision.

The nature is beautiful on the way to there, as in many other parts on Kurdistan. Here are some nice views for you.

Rayne is the city you pass on the way. The name of the mountain in the background is "Kewa Rash", Black Mountain.

This is "Darband" which means and aims at the mountain pass between Ranye and Qaladize. In the background you see a small part of tremendous Qendil. I will publish pictures when i travel through the mountain there next time.

During an earlier travel in 2006 it was storm and the bridge between Ranye and Qaladize collapsed. An old man drowned when he fell in the water and was flushed away by the massive water flow. We got stuck at the wrong side of the bridge. The Peshmergas had total control of the situation and immediately several trucks, excavators and some sort of emergency manpower fixed a temporarily transition.

The people were though not patient though so some got the chance to cross before the work began. and before more of the bridge was flushed away.

This is outside Qaladize with Qendil in the background. Qaladize is surrounded with incredible mountains all around. One time we were sitting in a cafeteria eating breakfast, tea and yogurt. A older Kurdish man was sitting there also. He was upset and was swearing to the government. Suddenly he took out a bit of Kurdish cheese out of his pocket in his Kurdish sharwal [pants]. He said we have made it our self. We had of course no choice other that enjoying it. It was very tasty actually.

On the way back the trial was on radio. It is a big collective event here in Iraq. Everybody follow it either in TV or in radio translated by Radio Nawa in Kurdistan. They described the scenarios in Nugret Sheman in the Arabic parts of Iraq, the mass killing of Kurds, during the trial against chemical Ali. Eye witnesses described in detail these scenarios; how people were thrown out from the forts in the area. It was all Kurds since they had Kurdish cloths. It was women, men and children. They were wounded from torture or had shot wounds. They described in detail how hungry children walked around confusingly and laid down because they had been starved. After some time they were dead and after some day dogs started to eat on the bodies. Hundreds of people were killed in this area each day. They also described photo and video evidence from the excavations.

CBS 60 minutes - Kurdistan strives for autonomy

2007-02-19T12:41:00.000+03:00

An interesting report was sent on CBS 60 minutes – Kurdistan strives for autonomy.

A fact is stated again, no American soldier has yet died in Kurdistan and the reporter is walking freely in Hawler and is feeling pretty secure. They also mention that Kurdistan has a 170 000 men Peshmerga army...

CBS 60 minutes - Kurdistan strives for autonomy

The secure situation is a fact. We had a Swedish colleague here until some days ago that worked here. He was moving around by him self without any problem and also talked a little bit Kurdish. That was necessary since the English language is not the second language yet in practice.

Hawler walk

2007-02-18T19:14:00.000+03:00

It is time for some office work again at the "capital". This time i am working with the specification of the projects that i mentioned in my first blog post. It is going to be nice to see this in reality.

As usual there is a lot of drama at the office, especially in this part of world. I am good at keeping away from it, at least for this time. Later in the afternoon i had to run some errands in down town. You always see something special where ever you go here.

Run Forest run...

This young man was helping his mother and his smaller sisters to take some supply home.

Super fish that can be ordered barbecued. Really nice!

Well we ended up in a well known antique shop at the "Education road". I have walked pass this store lot of times when visiting the neighbour music equipment shop.

To the left you can see the antique radio and studio equipment section that caught my attention.

The store assistant show off with a British Sterling sub machine gun here. The weapon was the only objects he had any information about.

Back to work!

Long trip

2007-02-17T19:24:00.000+03:00

I have been far away from internet for a couple of days so I have not been able to update the blog. It is often I travel to work and get isolated totally from the outside world because of different reasons. Mostly it is because of bad internet.

Some news from last time is that i have moved to an apartment. It is rare that people live in apartment in this country. Today I supervised an English course at the university. The topic of the lesson was house and home. It showed out that nobody lived in apartment and it was only one guy who had visited an apartment so he could tell everybody else how it was, in English of course. This was however an advance in the beginner course in English that started 1,5 months ago and obviously had resulted in that the students could understand and talk in English.

Summarize from this trip:
The second radio station has now a functioning computer system. Test broadcasts has started with a temporarily staff that has been gone through the basic level education. They have produced a set of jingles (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jingle) and can handle the complete studio and broadcast system. There is 2-3 hours of mains electricity in this city but 14 hours of broadcasting each day is fulfilled. However there are some justifications needed to be done for a satisfying electricity system.

The staff from the radio station visited the first radio station as a part of the education and for establishing a network and cooperation between the two radio stations. The meeting was successful and a set of jingles for both of the radio stations and a live radio quiz program, which is very popular, were produced.

There are many cooperation problems here because of the mentality of the people here, which is fully understandable after what they have been through. This is one of many problems that have to be solved for success in work here.

But here we go again with a new series of pictures from my trip since last time:

This picture is however from two weeks ago from the Shaqlawa area. The transportation was problematic because there is nothing called winter tires for cars.

This is Shaqlawa town. It is famous for being a touristy city. I bought delicate dried fruits and ate the best barbecued liver ever here.

This is Sefin mountain also in the Shaqlawa area.

This job was also done amongst others:

No I did not accidentally kill someone. And if I did I would not post it here. This will be the earth system for the radio mast and the electricity in the radio station.

The source?

2007-02-10T12:23:00.000+03:00

This is Baba Gurgur. The fire is called the "Eternal fire" and has been there since time immemorial and it is still there today.

This mosque and the church are situated side by side with a street in between. The people in this city are living in peace, at least in this ethnic part of the city. In the heaven above the mosque there is a reminders of the actual situation here.

Waterfall

2007-02-08T11:53:00.000+03:00

These pictures are from two last travels to Choman which is a very beautiful city in Kurdistan. We installed a mobile cinema there.

This mellow waterfall turned into a monstrous one with only a couple of days rain. There will never be any problem with water in Kurdistan. That is for sure.

Later in the day i will travel to some more sensitive areas to install the computer system in one of the radio stations.

First post

2007-02-07T19:05:00.000+03:00

Today was a historical day! It was decided to approve a huge project in the aspect of knowledge infrastructure project for strengthening the civil society. My part of this will be technichal in aspects of media and technology where electronics is a main subject. I will tell you more about this later on.

I am still working at the office. And it seems like it has resulted in progress. Some planning has also been laid down for the coming future.

Later in the day I have supervised a part of a ongoing language project. The language project it self is in the starting phase. Its main purpose is to have the English language as the second language in Kurdistan.

Nice to have you here