This is our nation on New Year’s Eve

By Mufid Abdulla:

There are various words, many unprintable, that could be used to describe the events of 2011. The year began when the main opposition parties demanded the dissolution of parliament and the government, prompting the masses to take to the streets, igniting a semi revolution on 17th February 2011. The uprising was suppressed by the two ruling parties and two dozen people were killed and hundreds injured.

The USA has withdrawn its forces from Iraq but it leaves behind 15,000 staff in the world’s largest embassy in Baghdad. Western oil companies have been flocking to Erbil to secure the oil exploration and drilling contracts.The output of oil could be one million barrels a day in five years. South Kurdistan is booming but the distribution of income is bitterly unequal. Our nation is still far away from self-reliance. There is a huge opportunity for foreign companies to work in the region but not for small and medium local enterprises.

That is the reason our nation has suffered the highest inflation rate in the region. The global crises have not altered the behavior of local and outside investors. Our investment does not rely on the banking system. The supply of money is guaranteed by the demand for oil. The value of land and properties has soared unimaginably, but who is reaping the benefit – surely not poor people?

The role of women is still ill-defined. Motherhood is still the main obstacle to progress for women. They cannot see any role model to identify with. Our society is still male-dominated and the work of the political system to mitigate this is very slow. Our labour skills are not advancing; we still use foreign workers in our aviation system. The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is not asking why our universities and colleges cannot prepare this talented young generation to take charge of our economy. Our leader is still using small plasters to stop a lot of bleeding. The burning of opposition party offices is still normal practice for the main ruling parties, as has been exemplified this month in Erbil and Zakho with attacks on the KNN Gorran TV station and the KIU offices.  Corruption is still a serious problem. Journalism is still a dangerous profession in Kurdistan. The press and democracy is still in question and cannot be regulated by the KRG.  But there is a new phenomenom that voices are being raised inside the two ruling parties in protest against their leaders.

While the world’s population is reaching a new milestone, it seems to me this is not the case in Kurdistan. The population increasing is not our concern. Our nation did not ask itself what is the political price for holding Iraq together and for how long we can do it; while Article 140 is dead on the ground and other signatories to the constitution put nothing other than ink on the paper. Iraqi leaders are oblivious to the history and culture of Kurds and Kurdistan. But they cannot reverse the course of history. Despite the atrocities and repression, our brothers and sisters are doing well in their struggles in the north and west of Kurdistan. Turkey’s fear is that the fall of Assad and the creation of another ‘model’ like Iraq will guarantee the Kurds another de facto government. Whether they like it or not, this is inevitable.

Finally, we Kurds are one people and have one shared destiny. All I can wish for in the year 2012 is that our KRG works more with the mass of people. We hope the culture of burning offices of the opposition is something of the past. We hope the reports of woman burning and honor killings are something the new cabinet will take more seriously. I hope our young protestors do not waste stones and tomatoes by throwing them at any KRG ministry. I hope tribal-rule can disappear and these aged leaders can go away and clear the path for the new generation. I hope our journalists can learn the ethics of journalism and also learn not to copy and paste our work to their websites without acknowledgement. I hope the journalists will not go running for the headlines but for the real stories of people which must be heard. Journalists should not build their story on sand, without evidence. I hope the US takes the same action in Syria as they did in Libya.

Since we launched our website, at the end of May, we have gone from strength to strength with the help of all our columnists and excellent editors. We take this opportunity to wish a happy new year to them and to all our readers.

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