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By Dr M Koohzad:
I have sent the following to Richard Allan ‘Rick’ Stengel, Managing Editor of ‘Time’ magazine. Naturally, he ignored me and my comment.
21 Feb 2013
Dear Mr. Stengel,
Recently, you published several articles in your magazine regarding the Kurds/Kurdistan written by Ms. Jay Newton-Small. I have read the following two. Full references are shown at the bottom of this message. I’m sorry to inform you that neither of these is up to par with good journalism.
I assume you did not have time to read these reports or simply trusted your Orientalist reporter. They are filled with mistakes, misconceptions and stereotypes. At the end of the piece about Kurdistan’s tourism, published on 12/21/2012, one can see critical comments left by your readers about her article. As the Managing Editor of a reputable magazine, once in a while, you must take a look at your readers’ comments. Then, you will see that I am not the only person disgusted by such a sloppy work.
In the second piece, published on 2/18/2013, p. 40, she wrote, “Kurds—a nomadic Indo-European ethnic group spread across parts of Turkey, Syria, Iran and Iraq…” Does this mean that all of the Kurds, at least in Northern Iraq, are nomads? If so, it is wrong, irresponsible and rude to disseminate such baseless nonsense. You failed to stop or change this piece of loaded junk journalism. She may be inexperienced and ill informed but you are the Managing Editor responsible for the quality and accuracy of the published articles in your magazine. Both of you must apologize to 50 million Kurds all over the world.
Sincerely,
Dr. Koohzad
Newton-Small, Jay. “Destination Kurdistan: Is This Autonomous Iraqi Region a Budding Tourist Hot Spot?” time.com, Dec. 31, 2012. http://world.time.com/2012/12/31/ destination-kurdistan-is-this-autonomous-iraqi-region-a-budding-tourist-hotspot/
Newton-Small, Jay. “Blood for Oil: Iraq Could Face a Civil War with its Kurds Over the Right to drill for Crude.” Time, February 18, 2013, pp. 40-41.
Does this mean that all of the Kurds, at least in Northern Iraq, are nomads?
Yes definitely !
That is what we are. But why is it baseless nonsense?
Why are you so surprised that a reporter referred to Kurds as nomads? Kurds have been referred to by Western sources as nomads for centuries.
Why are you so surprised that a reporter for Time Magazine is an orientalist? What else did you expect?
Why do you think nomadism is an insult? I know Kurds are not all nomads, but that is only because the vast majority of them (in Iraqi Kurdistan –since you are so defensive about them-) are helpless consumers producing absolutely nothing. Wouldn’t nomadism be much better?