Mediaboss Marketing

To visit Kurdistan in springtime is to suckle ones soul and senses with wildflowers and fresh fruit. The land is alive with flowers: the yellow of wild mustard, the pink of bindweed, the red poppies as well as the orange blossom on the pomegranate trees.

Driving past fields of ripe wheat, with a Kurdish friend who works for the Kurdistan Regional Government, we stopped near the town of Halabja to eat mulberries straight from the trees sour black ones and sweet white ones. On the mountain side of Sitak, he barbequed masgoof, butterflied carp, which we devoured with traditional flatbread, grilled tomatoes and onions.

I spent a Friday hiking in Mergapan with Barham Salih, a Kurdish politician who previously served as the president of Iraq and whom I have known for 20 years, from my time working for the Coalition in Iraq. We crossed a low-flowing river using stepping stones and the helping hands of peshmerga guards, traversed tall grasses amid Aleppo oaks in the foothills of the mountain, and stopped frequently to photograph the views across the valley.

As we walked, our conversation focused not on the continuing saga of Iraqi politics, but on the environmental crisis afflicting the country, driven by the inter-linked phenomena of climate change and poor management of natural resources.

Addressing the environmental crisis is a passion for Barham. He noted that Iraqs population has almost doubled to 40 million since the 2003 invasion, and is expected to double again by 2050. Demographics are increasing the demand for water at a time when desertification is affecting 39% of Iraq, and 54% of agricultural lands are threatened by salination.

As president he launched the Mesopotamia Revitalisation Project, an environmental strategy that includes afforestation, modernising the administration of the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers, generating clean energy, and encouraging investment through climate finance facilities. It was an ambitious plan. He laments that there has been little progress in implementing it.

Afterwards, on the patio outside his house, we feasted on dombalan (desert truffles), farika nok (green chickpeas), palpena (purslane) in our salad and soup, kardi (wild arum), garas (green plums), and drank yoghurt with qazwan (wild pistachios). His wife, Sarbagh, is a botanist with a PhD from the University of Bath who founded the Kurdistan Botanical Foundation, which has published three books on the regions fauna and flora, identifying tens of previously unrecorded species in Iraq. The food served in their home is local and organic.

Sadly, this pastoral idyll is threatened by the increasingly unpredictable weather. Over the last few years, Iraq has experienced drought and the lowest levels of rainfall on record, with temperatures soaring to 50C, rising much faster than the global average. During the week of my visit, unseasonal thunderstorms set fields on fire near Kirkuk and flooding damaged the harvest across the north. The UN has identified Iraq as the fifth most vulnerable country in the world to climate change, with the World Bank warning that Iraq will face extreme water scarcity by 2030, and Iraqs ministry of water resources predicting a shortfall of almost 11bn cubic metres of water by 2035.

Leon McCarron, an explorer and author from Northern Ireland, recently published Wounded Tigris: A River Journey through the Cradle of Civilisation, an account of his 2021 three-month journey by boat from the source of the Tigris in Turkey, down through Iraq, to the Gulf. On his journey, he observes how the river is being destroyed by illegal gravel mines, dam construction, untreated waste and how pastoralists and farmers are being forced to leave their land.

Yet he also comes across grassroots activists working to protect the river, to revive community and heritage. This remarkable book warns of the death of a great river that might no longer flow to the Gulf by 2040 and is a call to action to prevent the birthplace of civilisation from becoming uninhabitable.

While in Sulaymaniyah, I attended a talk at the American University of Iraq on the political and economic implications of the recent oil deal between Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government. Afterwards, I asked the main speaker about Iraqs progress towards net zero. He laughed.

Few political leaders have made it a priority, despite the Iraqi parliament ratifying the Paris Agreement in 2021. In its nationally determined contributions (NDC), Iraq has committed to reducing flaring at oil and gas facilities, switching from liquid fuels to natural gas, improving energy efficiency, expanding renewable energy technology, and deploying sustainable public transportation technologies. Iraq is a signatory to the global methane pledge, committing to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 15& by 2030.

However, Iraq has yet to diversify its economy. Oil exports account for around 90% of government revenues. It is the energy sector that is responsible for 75% of Iraqs total emissions. While driving around, I observed gas being flared from oil production, emitting large amounts of black carbon into the atmosphere. Despite commitments to capture and utilise the gas, the World Bank reports that Iraq flares around 17bn cubic metres of gas every year, worth around $8bn (6.4bn). And at the same time, Iraq continues to import gas from Iran.

There is also insufficient public awareness about the climate crisis, and the need to protect the environment. I was shocked at the sight of rubbish thrown in streams, piles of domestic waste left at the sides of the road, blots on a charming countryside, polluting the natural environment. Local government is not effectively disposing of waste. Littering goes unpunished. Roads are heavily congested with traffic. With public transport undeveloped, people use private vehicles.

The International Organisation for Migration reports increasing displacement in Iraq due to the combined effects of conflict, rising temperatures and environmental degradation. The Iraqi government buys wheat and barley directly from farmers at double the international prices but the area planted with irrigated crops has shrunk in order to decrease water consumption. Increasing numbers of Iraqis are moving from the countryside to the cities to find jobs, putting further strain on services. The population of the Kurdistan region has grown by nearly 30% due to the influx of Syrian refugees and Iraqis displaced from areas destroyed by Isis.

According to Azzam Alwash, Iraqs leading environmentalist and the CEO of Nature Iraq, agriculture was sustainable in Mesopotamia for centuries due to cyclical flooding that washed away the salts resulting from evaporation, fertilising the land with silt. However, in recent decades, upstream dam-building has stopped floods, and precipitation has declined significantly. Currently, 90% of the water flow in the Euphrates and 40% of the flow in the Tigris comes from Turkey; and Iran has been diverting tributaries to meet its own water needs.

Azzam has urged Iraq, Iran and Turkey to work together to reach an agreement to coordinate dam-building, rerouting of rivers and management of water resources. Azzam strongly believes that with the right policies and investments in renewable energy, in particular solar power and green hydrogen, Iraq could once again become a major food producer and breadbasket of the Middle East.

The survival of future generations in the region requires collaboration. In recognition of the fact that the region is on track for a five-degree rise in temperature by the end of the century if it goes about business as usual, the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East Climate Change Initiative (EMME-CCI) was launched on November 8, 2022 at Cop27 in Sharm el-Sheikh. Bahrain, Cyprus, Egypt, Greece, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Oman and Palestine adopted a resolution to coordinate efforts on climate mitigation and adaptation, to strengthen regional cooperation, and to mainstream climate policies across all sectors. It was a moment of common sense and courage.

But rhetoric must be met by action to ensure such plans are resourced, coordinated and implemented. Given its oil, rivers, biodiversity and its central geographical location Iraq needs to lead by example, before it is too late.

Emma Sky is director of Yales International Leadership Center and author of The Unravelling: High Hopes and Missed Opportunities in Iraq and In a Time of Monsters: Travels Through a Middle East in Revolt

Visit link:
Iraq's next crisis is over the climate - The New European

A combo image shows the cat lying at the entrance of the building in Baghdad.

A man pushed a cat from the ninth floor of an apartment building in Iraq, killing the feline creature instantly.

The shocking and heartbreaking video of the animal torture by the young psychopath sparked a wave of anger in Iraq.

A number of activists on social media published the horrific video showing a cat sitting on the edge of a balcony in a tall building in Baghdad, before a young man came and pushed it from the ledge while he was filming the heinous crime. This prompted many Iraqis to demand that the authorities prosecute this "reckless" and "sick" person, and punish him for his pleasure in torturing animals.

The clip shows the videographer zoomed in to show the cat's face clearly breathing its last breath.

Activist and political analyst Shaho Al-Qara Daghi said, in a tweet on his Twitter account, "We hope for a speedy trial for this sick person who enjoys these behaviors."

It is noteworthy that Iraqi law punishes the killing of animals, as Article 482 of the Penal Code stipulates the penalty of imprisonment and a fine for killing animals.

However, these penalties are often not applied, because prosecutions do not take place in the first place except in rare cases.

See more here:
VIDEO: A 'psychopath' man throws a cat from the 9th floor of a ... - Gulf Today

The Kurdistan Regions political and economic stability has allowedit tomake significant progress indeveloping itshigher education sector since the regions autonomy was established inthe wake ofthe Iraq war in 1991 and andattained constitutional recognition as a state within federal Iraq in 2005.

The regions Ministry ofHigher Education has implemented policies toensure equal access toits 15public and 17private universities for all high school graduates. Already, 57per cent ofthe regions 252,000 undergraduates inpublic universities are female.

The progress is in part thanks to the Kurdistan Regional Government and its efforts to leverage the help of the international community. For instance, its Human Capacity Development Programme has, since 2010, provided about 4,000 scholarships to talented students from the region topursue masters and doctoral degrees at centres of excellence abroad. Returning scholars are now boosting human capital in many sectors in the Kurdistan Region, including holding senior positions in universities and playing major roles in higher education reform.

In addition, serious investments have been made in international staff and student exchange, dual-degree programmes and joint research projects, including via the European Unions Erasmus schemes. One of the most significant internationalisation projects is the Split-Site PhD Programme. Begun in 2012, this provides doctoral students at local universities with two supervisors, one local and one international. After completing their first year in the Kurdistan Region, students travel to the universities where their international supervisors are based and spend about a year there before returning home to write up their theses and to prepare for their vivas.

Another aspect of the Kurdistan Regions commitment to international standards is its decision to embrace the European Bologna Process, with a view to aligning with the European Higher Education Area. The European Credit Transfer System has been adopted, the national qualification framework has been reshaped and quality assurance standards and guidelines have been implemented. The implementation of the Bologna Process, and the accompanying boost in quality and transparency, will help student mobility and employability, as well as increase the competitiveness of Kurdistans higher education institutions globally.

Pedagogical reform has also been undertaken. Experts from Finlands Hme University of Applied Sciences have trained 51 professors, representing universities from across the Kurdistan Region, on student-centred learning and active pedagogy, introducing them to concepts such as project-, problem- and phenomenon-based learning, as well as interdisciplinary education.

The project also taught the professors how to align learning outcomes, assessment, learning environments and pedagogical practices, helping them to develop curricula to meet the needs of communities and employers. The latter aspiration has also involved a focus on entrepreneurship: how to guide students to generate and evaluate new ideas, including learning from feedback. Such processes also help to develop students critical thinking and problem-solving skills, preparing them for the workforce.

Aligning the Kurdish higher education system with the needs of the job market and economic development is a high priority. A new project, the Industry Advisory Board, aims to help universities better connect with industry and understand the requirements of the job market through regular market surveys. This will enable universities to design flexible curricula that remain relevant to the changing job market and technological advances, producing more employable graduates. Itwill also help to accelerate the development of technical and vocational education.

The regions commitment to promoting resilience, flexibility, tolerance and sustainability through inclusive, high-quality higher education will contribute to promoting amore prosperous and peaceful society that makes a positive contribution to the international community.

But the international community also needs to play a further part in realising this aspiration. In particular, the Kurdistan Region needs more help from the European Commission and European universities to implement the objectives of the Bologna Process. Assistance is most needed in capacity-building, to put the regions universities in a better position to implement the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG) and to secure official registration in the European Higher Education Area.

With such support, the Kurdistan Region can serve as a successful model for the rest of Iraq.

Aram Mohamad Qadir is the minister of higher education and scientific research of the Kurdistan Regional government, Iraq. Amanj A. Saeed is a advisor to the minister.

Go here to read the rest:
Bologna Process will transform Iraqs universities - Times Higher Education

Six Yazidi women rescued from IS captivity. Credit: Twitter/@NadiaMuradBasee

Source: CSW

Six Yazidi women were rescued from Islamic State (IS) captivity in Syria and flown back to Erbil, Kurdistan, where they were reunited with their families on 3 June, with the help of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).

The women were children and teenagers when they were abducted in 2014 after IS took control of large swathes of land in East and Northeast Iraq, including the Yazidi city of Sinjar. The terrorists killed an estimated 5,000 Yazidi civilians for refusing to convert to Islam; between 400,000 and 500,000 Yazidis were displaced, and 6,000-7,000, predominantly women and children, were taken as slaves. Many of them were sold and transferred to Syria, and it is estimated that over 2,000 Yazidi women are still missing.

In a statement issued following the rescue of the six women, Yazidi Nobel Prize Laureate Nadia Murad said: "Rescuing trafficked and enslaved Yazidi women and children is an on-going humanitarian campaign and the reunification of these six women with their families, after nearly nine years, gives us hope that more can be found. We will continue to search for the remaining women and children who we know are still missing. In this endeavour, we are asking for help with international partners."

Christian Solidarity Worldwide founder president Mervyn Thomas said: "CSW is pleased to report the release of these six women from captivity. Our thoughts and prayers are with them as they recover from the trauma they have been through. We continue to call on the international community to step up efforts to secure the release of all Yazidis who remain in captivity, and to ensure that those responsible for atrocity crimes are brought to justice.

LINK

Christian Solidarity Worldwide: http://www.csw.org.uk

Read more:
Iraq: Six Yazidi girls rescued from IS captivity | ICN - Independent Catholic News

TheHolodomor: 27 million dead.

The Gulag: 1.5 million dead.

The Great Leap Forward: 30 million dead.

These are just some of the grisly atrocities documented at theVictims of Communism Museum. Communism has left a trail of blood from Potsdam to Peking. The museum is dedicated to the memory of the some 100 million people who have lost their lives to this odious ideology.

The museum has been open for nearly a year, yet it has received little recognition in the mainstream press. AWashington Poststory on the museumnoted without irony that this philosophy that killed tens of millions also inspired generations of activists in America. Apparently, the museum isnt balanced enough in its history of communism. Next to the exhibit on Stalins crimes they need to note the legions of left-wing labor activists it provided guidance to. Thats a sad reflection of our times: another indication that, at its philosophical foundation, the modern West struggles to contemplate and understand the wreckage that was imposed on millions of people by Marxist communist states. The reasons why are troubling and indicate that certain forms of Marxist ideology seeped into the Western mind, although not to the point that the American-led West was unable to defeat the Soviet Union.

>>>How Cultural Marxism Threatens the United Statesand How Americans Can Fight It

Its easy to think of communism as an unfortunate system afflicting poor souls in the far reaches of the earth. As British historian Arnold Toynbee sardonically put it, History is something unpleasant that happens to other people.

Yet history is never far from us. Substantial forms of the same spirit that animated the Bolsheviks run rampant in the West today.

The hesitancy of news outlets to recognize the importance of the Victims of Communism Museum has been entirely in keeping with the refusal of Western elites to reckon morally with communisms casualties. Why wouldnt leading outlets cover a museum that details the atrocities of communism, one of the biggest human-rights disasters of the 20th century? FromNew York TimescorrespondentWalter Durantyand Vice PresidentHenry Wallaceto Prime MinisterJustin TrudeauandHollywood, there has been no shortage of prominent communist sympathizers. We do not say that media outlets refusing to report on the museum are engaged in the same moral degradation as was Duranty, who lied about the Ukrainian starvation by Stalin. However, many Western thinkers and politicians found the ideology attractive or felt the need to dismiss its opponents. Why?

Alexander Solzhenitsyn spoke to this point eloquently in his famedHarvard commencement address of 1978. While the audience expected a nicely delineated comparison between a wicked communist East and a free, liberal West, Solzhenitsyn excoriated the latter, characterizing it as afflicted with the same sickness that led to the horrors of the surveillance state, the KGB, and the Gulag.

The seed that bore this bitter fruit was planted centuries ago, he claimed, in the soil of Renaissance humanism, when man turned his gaze from God to himself and embraced the aphorism of Protagoras, Man, the measure of all things. Looking upon his own desires, he soon pursued earthly pleasures until everything beyond physical well-being and the accumulation of material goods, all other human requirements and characteristics of a subtler and higher nature, were left outside the area of attention of state and social systems, as if human life did not have any higher meaning.

Mans focus on himself reduced him to the material, temporal world. Whereas before he had seen himself as both spiritual and physical, his worldview was now diminished solely to the latter. Unshackled from piety, he was in his behavior not beholden to a superior being, nor did his ends remain spiritual.

As he further developed the arts of science, technology, and industrial scale, the Renaissance humanist abolished the physical limits that had been present since his beginning. Thus the modern world rose from the spires of Western Europe, destined to conquer the globe.

On this topic, Leo Strauss frequently referred to a quotation of Horace: You can drive out nature with a pitchfork, but she will come back. Modern man rejected that sentiment as he exercised his industrial prowess.

What results are two sides of the same modernist coin. Communism rejects the dignity of the human person, rejects the existence of God, and rejects moral truth itself. In its aim to abolish the family, religion, and private property, which are merely institutions that capital owners control to maintain power, communist ideology casts a totalizing control over the human soul. In the end, communism in practice must violently reject all higher limits that had been placed before it, in the hopes of creating the workers paradise.

Western liberalism, on the other hand, maintained limits for man as long as religious faith remained its foundation. Solzhenitsyn pointed out that the rights enumerated in the early American republic were granted on the ground that man is Gods creature. That is, freedom was given to the individual conditionally, in the assumption of his constant religious responsibility. Divine limits were preeminent in the American Founding and were what allowed for such freedoms to be permitted by the republic.

With the leaps of industrial prowess, though, Man continued his turn from God that began in the humanist age. Increasingly, he eschewed those limits instilled by God and nature and turned toward what he could accomplish materially.

The communist East had violently abolished the limits and duties of man. The liberal West had discarded them voluntarily.

Modern man, impious, statist, and commercial, is left with only earthly ends. This false anthropology of the godlike man has become firmly entrenched in both communist and liberal nations. The former believes that man as the state can achieve all aims; the latter, that man as individual can do the same.

>>>A Politics Worthy of Man

This abandonment of the spiritual ends and limits is why so many in the West cannot condemn the crimes of communism. The ideology provides an end in their temporal world, in which man need not adhere to the natural limits placed on him.

The words of Solzhenitsyn cry out this inevitability: The current of materialism which is farthest to the left, and is hence the most consistent, always proves to be stronger, more attractive, and victorious. Humanism which has lost its Christian heritage cannot prevail in this competition. Of course, American military, technological, political, and moral power provided the crucial reserves in defeating the Soviet Union. Reagan invoked spiritual and moral sentiments in his challenge to communism and rallied the opponents of communism to defeat it. The West was not wholly unregenerate, a fact that Solzhenitsyn overlooked. But he still accurately grasped the trends in Western thought that have led it to turn on its biblical heritage.

With those words in mind, we should contemplate the horrors shown at the Victims of Communism Museum not as distant historical facts but as the eventuality of the fallacy of hope that is modernity. This is not a call to return to a premodern age, which is neither possible nor desirable. Rather, we should seek to reignite that piety that understands man as Gods creation, not self-made, that recognizes our limits, and that sees our end not in an earthly paradise of this world but in the everlasting world of the hereafter.

Solzhenitsyn closed with declaring that the world will demand from us a spiritual blaze. If we want a viable alternative to a closed world of abysmal ends, then we would do well to heed him.

See the original post here:
Victims of Communism, Victims of Modernism - Heritage.org