Kurdish National Pride and Cojones

Scherco R. Baban | Exclusive to iKurd.net

In order for the [Iraqi] Kurdistan Region to be strong enough as an entity and to resist the political pressures from our neighbouring countries, or being betrayed by the great powers, we need to be strong.

We need infrastructure, industry and agriculture as much as sword and fire. Kurdistan needs development, but, the truth is that if we call on Europeans or the neighbours to build Kurdistan’s economical Infrastructure, Kurdistan will be owned by them, and if we call on The Asians to develop Kurdistan, Kurdistan will become a Chinese Colony.

It is only when we build and develop Kurdistan then Kurdistan can be owned by us! Our development must reflect our needs and our capabilities and not the mastercraft or capitals of neighbouring countries that occupy the other parts of Kurdistan or other countries that after all, they legitimately only care for their own interests.

It’s time to mature up from the brotherhood mantras with this or that people. No body really cares how courageously we fought against The Islamic State or how freely we are practicing freedom of religion. Off course these are important issues, but in our region, we need to have a strong entity in order to be recognised. No body respects Mr Nice Guy here!

Development is not building skyscrapers nor highways. Great Britain and Spain conquered half of the world long before the existence of the prior mentioned facilities. The Spaniard just relied on their “cojones” to cross the oceans, according to them.

We must remember that development is a process; as the Spanish “cojones” it is not a product that can be bought and be given to a society. This also means that anytime we call on others to develop our society for us, we deny ourselves, the opportunity of the process of learning and human capital accumulations, and more important, the national pride!

This is because while we build our own development, we gain experiences by doing and the process of developing also help us to build a capital that are kept in the economy for maintenance and further development in other sectors, the self respect and confidence will also float into our veins. But, what happens when the development is done by outsiders? They go away with the skills and the financial capital, leaving our economy, culture and national pride in a hollow state.

Therefor the biggest investment should be in education. By education I mean such an education that is known in the most developed and industrialised parts of the world. There were great efforts of alphabetization and it was succeed most of the time. But alphabetization is not education. alphabetization

People of South [Iraqi} Kurdistan were alphabetzied but this alphabetization exposed our people for assimilation and unproductive literature like dream readings and other superstitious litterateur that had no benefits for the society nor the nation.

Anti- intellectualism, conspiracy theories is widespread among our lowest classes while Stockholm Syndrome and inferiority complex disguised as humanism and pluralism among our so called intellectuals.

It’s not uncommon for our “intellectuals” and even religious leaders to cry high for the freedom of this or that country but are dum silent when it comes to Kurdish blood! It is really not their fault decades of oppression have built this Beta man, This “Nice Guy” of ours.

I don’t believe it’s possible to fix the old generation, be it the intellectuals, leaders or the politicians. It impossible to convert these Beta beings into Alphas. These people are still proud of mastering our occupiers languages and are happy to master the power of diplomacy and not the diplomacy of power when they meet our oppressors.

I tell everyone who care about our nation’s cultural survival; Let’s focus on education, on national and patriotic education. Let the younger generations learn about strength, development, self respect, confidence and national pride!

Scherco R. Baban, an independent researcher and analyst specializing in Kurdish Question and The Middle Eastern security, economical and cultural dynamics.

The opinions are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of iKurd.net or its editors.