I thought it was interesting that before I even read it I had been commenting on the economic oppression of ethnic groups, but in a completely different way.
Stories from years ago.
I remember being in London a few years ago (Oct 2002) having a conversation with two Arab men who were drinking beer, making jokes about a christian who doesn't drink and Muslims who do.
We talked for hours about the state of the planet, politics, religion and such. The Iraq war hadn't begun yet but Afghanistan and 9-11 had. The man I talked to the most asked me how I felt about Muslims and I responded that I had no negative feelings and was quite interested in the religion. He felt he could give me a run down on the way of the world, and being younger and the non drunk one of the two of us I felt I could give him a few hours to give me a lecture. He sort of felt he was on a quest to find himself, and wound up drinking beer in a London Hostel talking to two German kids and later me the American boy.
The thing I remembered the most from his few hour long lecture, in which I halfheartedly nodded along, was his comments on Jewish people. I grew up in a town that use to be the MN equivalent of a Jewish Ghetto, 30% of my friends at school (as well as the city in general) were Jewish and I was very interested in his opinion. "The Jews are a clever people, God made them clever because he chose them." Was the most positive thing he could say. The rest was what Chua referred to about typical impressions of Muslims towards Israel and the Jews of the world.
"America has made them powerful, or else (motions of them being wiped away)... They use their cleverness to hurt people, they are greedy... They are secretive, they are ashamed, they are sneaky... They talk amongst themselves and plan things in their clever way... They are selfish... powerful... ...abusive... good with money... they talk in codes...they are planning something, they are sneaky... they don't let anyone know what they are talking about so they can steal from you... the Jews were behind 9-11" etc etc etc
I objected to many of these statements and the man agreed that he was biased but asked how he could not be.
The next day or a few days later I took a bus to Edinburgh and watched two older Orthodox Jewish men be avoided on the 7 hour bus ride. They talked amongst themselves (certainly people are not all that open on long bus rides-most prefer to sleep). Anyway the two men did indeed talk in phrases that others could not understand, interjecting jokes and words in Hebrew and in Yiddish (despite having English accents -which was weird to me having only heard these words coming from American mouths). They looked through the business sections of newspapers and business magazines.
*I recorded all of this in my journal at the time which is why I remember it.
I remember being mad at them actually, for fulfilling so many of the stereotypes. These men, unlike my friends at home and such stood out, stood on their own and I could totally understand how men who grew up in a biased society would hold it against them, would assume they were plotting.
By the end of the bus ride though my feelings had changed, because I saw in them the bond of fraternity I guess, they reminded me of me and my best friends. Having spent years in close capacity we learned to speak in one liners that only we understood, we had our own interests and couldn't care less what others thought of our small group. These men had been friends for years and it showed. I felt really happy for them.
In that same year I met a hotel operator who very briefly asked me where I thought he was from. I was unaware that there even was a difference between Iraqi, Turk, Arab, etc at the time, (I'm usually aware of these things but the American media had me in the dark).
He was Kurdish. "Where is that?" I asked and that's when he decided he needed to give me his pre-wrapped political propaganda speech about needing a country.
"30 million of us and no country. Like the Jews before Israel, but the world steps in for them and not us? We are spread along the borders of many countries, oppressed, without freedom."
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| Kurdistan (the land of the Kurds) is the ethnic and cultural area in which the Kurdish people live. It is within the political borders of Syria, Turkey, Iraq and Iran. |
Later in my trip I visited one of those countries. Turkey was one of my favorite countries of the entire trip (and still is one of my favorite places in the world). On my first Day in Istanbul I met a man who I initially pissed off -later he became a friend. He worked at a hostel in Istanbul, he was the manager of the restaurant upstairs and was incredibly nice and giving.
We had a conversation about Kurds in Turkey and he declared rather proudly that he was Kurdish. I asked him how he felt about Turkish/Kurdish rivalry (discrimination) and he said rather honestly he was sad to see his people being oppressed, treated as second class. He said how despite being able to be proud of his people in his restaurant, had he gone outside just a block down the street and yelled the same thing he might have been beat up. He was not joking and didn't seem to be exaggerating. Toward the end of my stay we discussed the upcoming war in Iraq, it was clear in Turkey well before here as the US was putting pressure on them to use military bases in the Eastern part of Turkey (Kurdistan). My Kurdish friend, along with many men of his age group, was being conscripted into the army.
"They want me to go and fight, you know who I'll be fighting? My brothers and sisters, my people the Kurdish people are in Iraq, and when they cross the borders they will want us to shoot them. They don't care about us, they don't give us a country, they use us to kill each other and we have to."
I didn't understand at the time, I mean how could one understand anything like that. But I have been pretty anti-war since the first gulf war so I knew I objected to his being used.
When men go to join the army in Turkey, their family and friends gather at the bus station next to the bus they will be sent away on. The families gather around them sing and pray, buses are delayed (sometimes for hours) due to this and its not questioned. I saw several of these events while heading out east to Cappadocia. The East of Turkey is very sparsely populated (or so they want you to believe) because its mostly Kurdish people. As I saw more and more of these gatherings, I realized he was right, Kurdish people were entering the army all over the country, the poor, the oppressed the ones without the right or the money to fight back.
Luckily the war didn't have as many people fleeing across the border and "ended" rather quickly. I would be interested to know how these men feel now, but I have no way to contact them. I would be interested to know if my friend is alive.
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| Turkish children doing a performance piece on War (Spring 2006). |
