Earlier this morning we ventured into the office of the university’s president. We had a formal meeting with him, but were served coffee instead of the normally served tea, which made me happy even if it was filled with sugar. This was a very eye opening meeting. The president gave us this long speech about how, as Kurds, they view Americans as their liberators. He kept telling us how proud we should be to be Americans. He talked about how Bush is such a great man to them, and how he destroyed Sadaam, the actual “weapon of mass destruction”. He told us how Sadaam treated them and how he destroyed over 4,000 Kurdish villages for his military zone and put the displaced Kurds in something like concentration camps. He spoke to us as if we as individuals were the ones who saved them. In fact the guy who is in charge of us says that many taxi drivers will not allow him to pay fare because he’s American and they feel indebted to him.
I don’t know quite how to process this meeting. Being a pacifist, I could never condone violence. I have never supported Bush’s decision to send forces anywhere. Yet, there I was being thanked for saving these people from a horrible dictator - even though I believe that the war shouldn’t have happened in the first place. I know I’ve thought through issues like this before, but it has always been in a theoretic sort of way, not in a personal, real way. I still believe that there are peaceful ways to bring about freedom for people, and I believe that violence will never solve violence, but this meeting today created some disequilibrium in my thinking. I doubt I’ll come to any conclusion anytime soon, but it is interesting to think through.
To update you on the teaching situation – We have been spending the last few days giving diagnostic tests to all our students (500 total). This has been taking longer than we expected, so are continuing testing today instead of teaching. We probably won’t start teaching until Saturday.
On the fun side of things, we got together at the house of the people in charge of us and ate pizza and watched Dan in Real Life (the only movie I brought along). It was great. J Oh, and my pizza had on it corn, cauliflower, cabbage, carrots, noodles, and other things I’ve never eaten on pizza before.
p.s. I will try to post pictures when we get internet at our house.
Wow, that is interesting regarding what the president thinks of Americans. I would have never thought that. That is quite a bit to process.
ReplyDeleteGlad you got to drink coffee!!!
The pizza sounds interesting!!! I'm thinking of you, I hope all is well. Take care!!!
-Allyson Breish
HAHA!! Keep telling us the different things you are eating...that was fun to imagine:)! Some disequilibrium is good for the processing side of you, Janine! I'll be thinking of you as you do that. ~Your favorite Canadian:) Bethany
ReplyDeleteWow. The president's comments made me think too. I think sometimes I have prided myself in thinking I was "outside the box" in my opinions about how to handle conflict in nonviolent ways. I forget that even what I think is in a box of its own.
ReplyDeleteConflicting encounter,huh?
ReplyDeleteIt's great that the Kurdish people have been relieved.
How exciting that theory and reality are facing each other in your world. We all could use a little more exposure methinks! Thanks for posting so that I can live through your experiences a little (or at least learn from them).
Hooray! I love hearing about Iraq. Seriously, it's so interesting. Thanks Janine!
ReplyDelete-Steph
The presidents comments are very interesting... hmm...
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting!
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ReplyDeletebrendave said...
ReplyDeleteAnything with that many vegetables on it cannot qualify as "pizza". Is nothing sacred anymore!?!
It is amazing how a different perspective on the same event can rock our world. The answers aren't nearly as easy when we look at life from multiple perspectives.