Kurdish kindness and English language TV

The first time it happened was when I arrived in Iraqi Kurdistan and checked in at a hotel in Irbil, the regional capital.
The porter who showed me to my room bounded over to a television set at the foot of my bed and scanned the channels until he found one playing an English-language, kung fu fighting movie.
He then looked over at me and smiled politely as if to say: “I hope you feel more at home now that you can hear a bit of English.”
Well-meaning gestures and acts of kindness were something that I experienced every day while in the Kurdish north of Iraq.
From being invited to join a mountain barbeque after I interrupted the festivities by quizzing some of the guests on the risk of shelling in the area to being offered a boiled sweet from an impossibly poor family, the constant generosity made me wonder whether people in Britain would behave in the same way to a stranger.

Most appointments to interview someone – from a senior politician to a family living off Government benefits – would invariably involve countless cups of sugary tea, an array of sweets, nuts and biscuits, followed by an invitation to dinner and (on the odd occasion) a bed for the night if I wanted to stay longer.

The switch-to-English-language-TV-to-make-foreigner-feel-less-alien phenomenon is another example of how people would bend over backwards to make me feel welcome.
On many occasions, I would be shown into a living room where a family would be relaxing on floor cushions, casually watching an Arabic soap opera.
Within seconds of sitting down, someone would have grabbed the remote control and scrolled through the television channels until they came to BBC World, Al-Jazeera English or one Dubai station that seemed to play endless American films. 
We would then all sit with English blasting around the room and, typically, no one but me and my translator able to understand what was being said.
The switch-to-English thing even happened when I took an early morning taxi to the airport to head back to Baghdad.
The driver pulled up happily bopping along to some Arabic pop song. As soon as I climbed in, however, he felt obliged to flick through the stations until he found a bit of American rap music.
We spent the rest of the journey ‘getting down’ to some ‘phat tunes’ that I (being fairly square and, as my younger brother would say, “totally out of it”) had never heard and my driver (who spoke zero English) couldn’t understand.

Comments

Many years ago, in 1970 to be precise, I was traveling in a Jeep with a United States Army Chaplain, attached to a convoy traveling through a portion of Viet-Nam that was inhabited by Montagnard people.

They are subsistance farmers, using slash-and-burn techniques to grow rice on hillsides. And they were obviously very poor.

But we stopped for a break and struck up a conversation with a young boy and his father, who were out repairing a vine-connected apparatus driven by the movement of the water in a stream to "move" several stick-mounted fans or pinwheels, to scare the birds away from the rice crop in their field.

Perhaps because we gave some bauble to the boy, his father insisted we join them in his home, which was located right there. It was an almost igloo-shaped mud hut, where we sat on the floor. Next to me was a large earthen jar with a narrow neck that was bubbling a bit at the top -- containing some form of rice wine. Our host insisted we sample the brew, which of course gave me two servings, as the Chaplain was a Mormon and did not drink. He did "sip" it a bit in deference to our host. It was actually quite tasty, as I remember.

Anyway, we sat and "talked" with them for 15 minutes or so before the convoy was ready to go and we had to leave.

But I can still recall it to this day as one of the most pleasant experiences of my life, though I honestly couldn't tell you a word that was said. It was because of this man's genuine kindness in reaching out to us and accomodating us in the only way he could.

It is difficult to think of now, as I am sure that these people have not fared well under the communists -- but simple acts of human kindness, such as you have described here, can move mountains.

Thank you for the post.

[Merwen]

I do not read such kind of report on Kurdish a lot. Deep, thorough and lovely report about Kurdish people.

[Xose Quiroga]

I was talking to a friend yesterday evening about Morocco.Like any other place there is a lot of difference between people from the city and that one from the countryside.

[H Grant]

I travelled widely in the middle east between 1990 and 1997, and my experiences of contact with local people were almost 100% positive. I lost count of the number of times I was asked to join someone's (often meagre) meal, or offered tea. Even those whose political outlook was anti-Western seemed to be able to separate political views from personal interaction: one lady told me that she so admired Saddam Hussein that if she had a son she would name him after Saddam, but in the next breath she asked me whether I would like another drink! I have often wondered whether that lady would have had such a kind reception from strangers in London.

[Russell]

Kurds have a large tradition of hospitality and kindness to strangers. I have some Iranian and Kurdish friends and just from them I can tell this is most certainly a cultural thing in the region. They never let me pay for anything when we got out to lunch or dinner to the point where they may even discreetly pay the bill after going to the bathroom! I can't imagine an English person doing the same or offering the same level of hospitality that they offer routinely. Its really wonderful to see, especially for a Christian easily discouraged by the lack of loving thy neighbour in English culture.

[Little Sis Haynes]

Hi sis - glad to see the Haynes kids' inability to wear matching socks phenomenon lives on in Iraq! classic! xx

[daniel]

I also found the locals to be overwhelmingly generous and hospitable when I visited Iraqi Kurdistan earlier this year. Each day I was there, someone would go out of their way to help me. On different days it was a restaurant owner refusing to let me pay for my meal, or a taxi companion insisting on showing me where to find a hotel, or an English-speaking local bargaining a taxi fare on my behalf, or a local inviting me into their home for tea or even to stay overnight. I've never experienced such innate hospitality anywhere else.

[Jacqui]

I work with the Kurdish community in the UK. They are welcoming and generous people. The men tend to have fiery tempers but it is more bark than bite. As one Kurd said to me we never forget anyone who has helped us.

[Marion Morrison]

I've been treated with warmth and genrosity by many foreigners and I hope I've always been similarly courteous. I can't think of anyone I know who wouldn't act in the same way. I can't work out why you wonder whether British people would treat strangers with kindness. Is it possibly because you wouldn't?

[Frannie]

Yes, but these gestures of kindness used to be the norm in the days when Western societies were at the level of progression that non-European developing nations are largely today. Few, if any foreigners in most instances, are to be found trapsing through their towns and villages as a matter of course.

Furthermore, if the situation was reversed, ie, unfettered mass immigration from the West into the developing world, threatening the wellbeing of its peoples, their living spaces, heritages and cultures, almost for certain, there would no such welcome on the mat for endless myriads of invading aliens!!!!

[Historywatcher]

If Ms Deborah Haynes had mentioned to her Kurdish hosts that they were the first civilian group in human history to taste Imperial Britain's Mustard gas and nerve gas courtsey of the nascent RAF for being naughty children, one wonders what kind of reception she might have had.
You see the Kurds rebelled against the hated British well before rising against Saddam; being aar-like and tribal.

Now that Britain is not so covertly
helping the Kurds, it would be criminally lunatic if Ms Haynes was not waited upon as an English if not a British rose.

Now as to the good-natured peace-loving Kurds, ask the Kurds why they are carrying-out genocide against the Yazidis (the peace loving community of whom 400 died in truck bombings organised by the Kurds as a punishment for the imprisonment of the undesirable Kurdish suitor of a Yazidi girl?), the Turkomens, the Arabs, Christian Chaldeans and Assyrians and other MINORITIES living their midst or even outside the so-called Kurdistan. Kurdsare expansionist too.

No Ms Haynes,no amount of "positive" propaganda will polish the image of the racist Kurdish state-in-formation; there are parallels with the creation of the state of Israel in the last century.
Finally, let us not forget you are a Murdoch paper.
One last point, Kurd will slay Kurd as amply demonstrated when present-day Kurdistan President Barazani fought present day Iraqi President Talabani for domination of Kurdish cities; in fact Barazani called on Saddam to help him against Talabani and kissed and embraced Saddam.

I suggest Ms Haynes you go to other areas of Iraq and report objectively on the level of emotions and true state of affairs rather than writing about an artificial good-feel independent Kurdistan which for the sake of the Kurds' themselves,their Iraqi brothers,and regional powers will not materialise.

[nils atle]

dear historywatcher
you are a patetic liar
Yezidi are a kurdish sect.
there is no such killing because of a boy-girls affair. 400 yezidi kurd were not lilled by Kurs. You know it, all the worlds know it, yezidi know it. what is your problem?

[Peggy Webb]

Sadly English people are unlikely to be as open and friendly - but likewise they do not make a habit of raping and killing their daughters for going out with the wrong type of man. I prefer our morals and standards to theirs.

[CHE]

I bet 'Historywatcher' is Turk.