Uruklink

Sarah Glidden has an astute and sensible grasp on the fragile politics of the Middle East. Her graphic novel ‘How to understand Israel in 60 days or less’ showed interest, empathy and humility to the more than ambivalent conflicts. Her short story ‘The Waiting Room“ deals with another sad matter.

The Iraqis in Syria that have fled the country during the war in 2003 are in limbo. Their whole lives are on hold and they spend each day, each week and each month waiting to return to their homeland or to start a new life elsewhere.

This very sweet, fruity drink is very popular in Iraq and can be even eaten as a desert. What we know as ‘sorbet’ has its roots in this summer drink.

Sharbat – also known as Sherbet – is a very common drink in the Middle-East and its varieties go from fruity ice-cold drinks to hearty deserts and sorbets.

Silent Bombs are the repercussions of high radiation bombs that leave their marks even generations later and take a high toll on society. Depleted Uranium (DU) seems to be a dangerously subtle species of this shameful weaponry.

The term was used by a documentary about the effects of nuclear bombs in Kazakhstan („Silent Bombs: All for the Motherland“) but since then has taken the meaning of the irreversible damages of dangerous weaponry with a lasting effect on the health of human beings.

Amongst the few but massive monuments built by or in memory of Saddam Hussein’s regime, the Al-Shaheed Monument is dedicated to all the soldiers that lost their lives during the war.

It is an impressive sight, the two turquoise halves that make a dome. With 190 meters in diameter and 40 meter height, the domes are designed to resemble Abbasid era structures.

The blend of Western guitar music and Iraqi traditionals has made Ilham al-Madfai one of the most popular Iraqi musicians with a platinum record and a live album from the Hard Rock Cafe.

Born in Baghdad, young al-Madfai began to play music early on and started playing the guitar with twelve, forming the first Iraqi Rock’n Roll band with 18 and then – surprisingly – moved to England to graduate as an Engineer.

More commonly known as Shisha in Western countries, the Hookah is a water pipe which for a very long time was a daily ritual like the coffee in the morning. Now, smoking bans seem to be a halt for cafes in which the Hookah is equal to conversation and comfort.

The build of a shisha is simple, the smoke of burning tobacco gets passed through a body of water as to purify and cool the smoke and therefore give it a more refined taste. Its origin is not fully known although mostly ascribed to a Persian physician.

Although one hardly hears about it, the metal scene in Iraq is not nearly as dry and forlorn as one might think, in fact, there is quite a handful of bands that stretch from black to thrash metal.

On many occasions throughout history music has proven to be an outlet for silenced masses, an outcry even for all the emotional, physical and intellectual pain of society.

The godfather of British humor has created a movie length spin off of his political satire „The Thick of it“ and addresses the horrendous involvement of hapless British politicians in the Iraq war.

Accidentally, Simon Foster declares on National radio that a war in the Middle East is „unforeseeable“ which might not have caused any problems if he wouldn’t be the British Minister for International Development. When he fails to even out his mistake and even worsens the situation it calls a few U.S. State Departmet officials into action who see a perfect groundwork to include Britain in their promotion for a war with Iraq. Foster and the British enforcer Malcolm Tucker (Peter Capaldi) travel to America to smooth things out. Oh dear.

Sometimes, good intentions are not good enough. A supposedly modern police program proposed by the US a few years ago has turned into an expensive disaster. The main problem: lack of cooperation on both sides.

To keep the peace, the US established the Police Development Program which was supposed to train Iraqi police forces in a five year span to be self organizing. The preparations’ costs were steep and now seem to have been in vain as the US decided to downsize the whole project.

The ruins of Hatra are a must for everyone who visits Iraq as they are preserved surprisingly well. The UNESCO World Heritage Site is worth the long journey for its amazing buildings and its astounding history.

Between Mosul and Baghdad lies the ancient city of Hatra, especially the architecture is interesting as it combines Roman and Middle Eastern styles, given that it was right between Persians and the Greco-Roman cultures it seems possible that Hatra served as a point of connection especially due to its place on the main road between other major cities.