Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Qs on Ps

Today I finally made my way to the RTA to exchange the small pink Motorcycle Riding Certificate of Competence for P plates. Now I can get an international drivers license, motorcycle insurance and consequently I can now ride a motorcycle legally, anywhere in the world. In other words - a crucial tool for the set.


It being the first day the RTA was open since before Christmas, the place was filled with the usual array of the glazed faces of people waiting. I took my number which was low but for the disconcerting letter that prefixed the first digit on the receipt and sat down. While waiting I had time to think. I thought about how Sydney is by far the most aggressive in any city I've travelled to - even any city in the US where despite its assembly of over-macho, immense trucks is a yoga retreat by contrast. I have witnessed friends who are normally relaxed intelligent and enlightened individuals transform into yelling, madly gesticulating banshees their teeth gnashing with impotent rage as they slam the heel of their hand on the center of the steering wheel, their world reduced to a pedestrian that is taking too long to cross. There is the constant manta of "let's teach 'im a lesson" as mad eyes pop in the review mirror scan for a face through the grey fog of the cabin in the car behind, as one such friend will slow to a crawl in response to this car getting too close.


Most of Sydney is drawing on, and emptying themselves into a vast reservoir of collective rage that exists just below the surface its streets. If you remember the 1989 film, Ghostbusters II where a river of slime in the sewers New York city provided a focal point for the population's mutual misanthropy. I envisage something similar.


Now, if you will indulge me in another metaphor, consider the concept of anger as heat. Heat is basically the speed with which molecules move in a substance. The hotter something is the faster the molecules move and, more tellingly, the more pressure these molecules are under the less heat (rage) is required to get a liquid to boiling point (an analogy for losing one's shit). A city such as Sydney has a finite amount of volume where more and more people (molecules) are entering the system - this means more pressure. You don't need to be a professor to understand that the more folks crammed into a small space results in more rage but the analogy is illuminating.


There is of course another factor that cannot be explained by mere thermodynamics. This factor became painfully obvious while I was earning that pink piece of paper I was holding, at the riding centre in Botany. The course consisted of an entire eight hour day, hosted by Upright, a company that is entirely separate from the drones at the RTA. It was entertaining and it was an education. The course was separated into two stages - the first was low speed manoeuvring around witch's hats - where our teacher could observe our skills in a more-or-less controlled environment and correct any bad habits that we had developed. The second stage was a street ride where we were taught how best to avoid getting into trouble on the road. The aforementioned road-rage was referred to, both implicitly and explicitly by our teacher, one example was people deliberately opening their doors to hit a lane-splitting motorbike - a disproportionately large punishment for a minor infraction. Defensive driving was the order of the day and as we all travelled on the road ride, we were given numerous tips on how to respond to idiots driving too close, beeping etc. The response was always "slow down and relax, you'll only get there a few seconds later plus you'll be fine". Numerous stops were employed to demonstrate this fact, whereby the spread of the group was timewise no more than a few seconds from first to last rider. The most interesting aspect was that it bordered on a lesson in Zen philosophy by which our swords of imaginary vengeance were to be sheathed, and aggressive drivers were avoided instead of confronted with "let's teach 'im a lesson".


The contrast between my motorcycle Ps and my car Ps test cannot be overstated. The latter required fifty hours of driving, input into a log book as well as reading a book on road rules (what signs mean etc). The supervisor for this learner could be anyone with a license - so the sins of the father could be passed down to the son. I understand today that there is a necessary thirty hours of training to be completed with an authorised supervisor but even here I doubt there is much emphasis on defensive driving. The test itself lasted barely fifteen minutes and tested the most elementary technical capabilities, such as a U-turn. I remember in my particular test I was stuck behind a bicycle going uphill. I was very nervous and remembered from the road rule book it said never cross double lines, the very type which then de-marked the limits of my lane. This meant an excruciating ascent at about 4 km/h until the supervisor said "Aww just go 'round". I am not advocating driving behind a bike for 4 km/h until one reaches an overtaking lane but it does show there are limits to checklist testing of people's ability to drive. Perhaps there might be a single seminar on the benefits of defensive driving or maybe just a demonstration that you don't have to drive like a dick. Now I'm not a lawyer but personally I think there should be a new law called morbidly aggressive driving, severe transgressions of which, especially for those in HSV utes or Holden Barina's will be punished by chemical sterilization to end the lineage of jerk drivers. Might be a good way to start to lower the temperature on Sydney roads.

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

The Missing Leg: North Korea

About six weeks ago I stumbled on a webpage for the Korean Friendship Association, which seemed, on the surface at least, a shadowy front for the North Korean government to try and encourage tourism and investment. Upon navigating to the travel section of the site, I noticed that barely a month before M and I were scheduled to depart on our grand tour, there was a delegation set to visit on the 100th Anniversary of Kim Il-Sung.
9 months before that, when I had sat down and drew the map that appears as the background of this blog, the idea came up to travel to North Korea. After some research I found out the prohibitive cost, usually a few thousand dollars for just a few days. I realised that this would seriously compromise the reach of the remainder of our journey, so we disregarded North Korea as a potential destination. Upon having seen this new trip would coincide with these celebrations, I was forced to re-evaluate this assessment and conclude that this would be a once in a lifetime opportunity and might warrant the necessary curtailment of social activities required to raise the funds to get there. 


To bring those unfamiliar with the top tier of North Korean leadership up to speed - Kim Il-Sung, the father of Kim Jong-Il, has been dead for seventeen years but is still the president of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (the exact name of the position is written in the North Korean constitution as the "Eternal President of the Republic"). The NK propaganda machine never seemed to work out a way to deal with his death, so the celebration of his 100th anniversary would be, in a country that has become as synonymous with mass totalitarian spectacles as they are with spoilt-brat diplomatic manoeuvres, something worth seeing. 


The first phase specified on the KFA website was a preregistration (with an entirely separate process for US citizens) which required no deposit of the eventual 3000 euros. So M and I went right ahead and preregistered. We never expected to hear anything back - the website explains that there is a limit of 30 people per trip, which we assumed would be the total foreign intake for the entire tour, with no rival tours allowed. We were both shocked when we had emails the next morning from korea@korea-dpr.com telling us that we had been accepted and to continue to the next round we were required to deposit 450 euros into a paypal account in Spain. Now, further investigation was required. 




I read the itinerary, properly this time, and found there, in writing, that if our visa was rejected or in the case of a "major problem" our deposit would be returned. But certain other facts came to the fore - M's acceptance number was lower than mine, despite the fact that I had sent mine before his. This told me that it was not an automated system on the other side. Scams performed through paypal are unusual because the electronic paper trail which links directly to a bank account which is far easier to trace than simple credit card fraud. Analysis of repeated email communications with this address revealed that whoever was on the other end had, as well as a fairly consistent informal style, a command of the English language superior to one just gained just from formal lessons. In other words - this appeared to be a relatively low risk deposit, which seemed to have a small operation, perhaps one man, at the other end who was probably not a North Korean native. 




I was right on in my analysis but am embarrassed to find most of the following information available on the website itself. I did a bit of research into the KFA and found that it was indeed a one man operation, run by the aristocratically named Spaniard Alejandro Cao de Bénos de Les y Pérez, who had fostered an entirely unique relationship for a westerner with the North Korean authorities. He had a North Korean passport as well as receiving several awards and medals, one directly from Kim Jong-Il. Alejandro, according to his wiki page and a documentary made about him entitled "Friends of Kim", regularly organized trips for foreign delegations. It seemed this guy was legit insofar as the tour itinerary was possible for him to organize.


This only left one question - was it worth the money? My saving regime was already stretched to the limit but then again as much as it costs money to set up a new life, conversely, money seems to appear when you disassemble an old one (security deposits, holiday pay, etc) so I would come into enough money before leaving that would make it possible. As another major con it would also mean another month away from my Giulia and I felt that I was already putting a great deal of pressure on our relationship being away for seven months. On the other hand there was potential here for this to be a remarkable piece of travel reportage - one I could use to add heft to my slender writing portfolio. I considered it a no-brainer that North Korea, a country so isolated without mobile phones or the internet and only one state run television station, would be an incredibly interesting travel destination. 


I was very surprised by the reaction I got from people when I told them I was considering travelling there. "Why the hell do you want to go there?" "Oh it would be so depressing!" etc. I was hard pressed to explain myself outside "Don't you reckon it would be really interesting?" and I thought that it might come off as a tad perverse to lay down excessive amounts of cash to witness the abject misery of an entire nation as a backdrop of a grotesque theatrical display. Yet there is a strain that runs through certain people, mostly men, of my generation, which is fascinated with these sorts of dismal regimes. It might be worth a brief explanation because I think, that people who do not understand it would be tempted to attribute it to simple morbid curiosity. There is more at work here as well than just a sense of adventure although this is definitely an element which furnishes mere interest with the addition of a sharp thrill. People living in economic conditions so far at odds with our own is also not a sufficient reason for interest (otherwise it would definitely just be morbid curiosity). A culture which warps and shifts to conform to a particular agenda, one which is malleable to the degree which reality is omitted as a collective blindspot is getting a little closer to the mark. Yet when we consider the role that advertising plays in our world - it is evident that our willingness to accept, without regular outrage,  as a consequence of living in a modern western context, a constant stream of half-truths and ideals masquerading as facts, we are little different in this respect than the North Koreans. What is particularly fascinating about North Korea is the complete lack of dissenting voices and the unified nature of this warped reality. Instead of our world which is homogeneous because of it's unrelenting chaotic noise - where advertising claims of scientific solutions to the five signs of ageing are met with an eye-rolls - the lies of North Korea must, at least, appear to be believed. This is a completely alien concept to members of my generation and carries with it a myriad of questions - how much do the general public actually believe what they are told? Can an official line dictate reality in spite of what people see and feel? In other words - when they are told that North Korea is a flourishing nation producing amounts of food exceeding their requirements - how do they deny the existence of groaning that is, literally, in their gut?


It has already been pretty well documented exactly what happens in a trip like this - by Vice Guide to Travel and the BBC's Holidays in the Axis of Evil - and written reportage to name a few examples. There seems to be very little variety in these predictably stage managed tours - the itinerary is always various national war museums, statues and treasures (always including the captured USS Pueblo) displays of opulence in the form of banquets of inedible foods held in immense nearly empty halls and shops full of goods not available to the natives, and always with the inevitable mass games spectacle as the conclusion. It is impossible however for the party to manage everything completely - and as such cracks would emerge in official story. It is these cracks that would provide the most fascinating insight into what life is actually like in North Korea - for example Ben Anderson describing the silence and darkness that falls over nighttime Pyongyang or Hitchens seeing people trying to scavenge individual grains of food from fields or Shane Smith having a game to table tennis with a tea lady, as probably as her only customer in six months. The lies are so unified and grotesque that they are are easy to distinguish from truths.  So any future trips to North Korea would not be interesting as a repeat performance of the same nauseating lie but the accumulation of these cracks could provide the only real picture to the outside of what life is actually like.


I pitched this idea, in the form of a proposal, to a number of Australian publications which needed not to provide any money upfront and just needed to express interest in the subject matter. None did - giving reasons that could mostly be divided between 'We already have people there covering this' and 'this is outside our sphere of influence'. The former is unlikely as journalists have a great deal of trouble getting access while the latter is sad indictment of the Australian journalism which is now seems solely concerned with domestic affairs. If you think I'm being bitter walk into any Australian news agent and count the number of publications written in Australia that have an international perspective - you won't need to take more than one hand out of your pocket. The most mystifying response I received from a major monthly magazine's editor, who despite me mentioning North Korea in the opening sentence of my proposal replied with "Burma is a bit far from our Australian focus alas, but thanks." 

Eventually I lost heart and decided that if the story would not be printed, a major pro for this leg of the trip had now disappeared. This tipped the scales firmly in favour of remaining in Sydney for another month instead of signing up on such a tour. Imagine my disbelief when I walked into the lobby of the ABC after our Christmas lunch to see Kim Jong-Il had died. This has once again brought the world's focus, albeit probably momentarily to NK. I am left to wonder what would have happened if I had taken a punt and leapt into the unknown to retrieve a few shard of reality back to Australia if anyone would be interested.

Friday, December 9, 2011

Book Review: Adventure Motorcycling Handbook by Chris Scott


It is no mean feat to write a guidebook that concentrates on a mode of travel instead of a destination. The focus needs to be unflinchingly fixed on how you intend to get around while the background of where you're going remains as indistinct as fog. The Adventure Motorcycling Handbook achieves a thorough description of the mode but moves outside it's brief by trying to dispel the fog with a piecemeal picture of, literally the entire world.

It is separated into three parts which may as well be two separate books they are so completely different in terms of aims, writing and usefulness - Part 1: Practicalities as the first book while the second book would be Part 2: Continental Route Outlines and Part 3: Tales from the Saddle.

Part 1: Covers everything you would expect from a book a like this: the paperwork required, choosing a motorcycle (including a great series of profiles on different bikes), navigation, what to do in medical emergencies, how to fix a flat, how to change a tire, camping and shipping a bike overseas. As well there is also sections on subjects which I had not considered before, surely the most invaluable part of a book like this. These included an extended section of what to look for when buying a tire, which modifications would be necessary and how to do some of them as well as an entire section entitled "Women and Adventure Motorcycling".

There is little room for flowery writing here (the first sentence of the first chapter is simply "Prepare.") and none is expected. They refer to a big trip as like a major civil engineering project and they clearly intend to describe it as such. This is not to say that the writing is humorless (apologies to any civil engineers that will take this incorrectly) rather it is pared back to what is absolutely necessary to get it's point across. This is important when you consider that economy of space in the book could have a direct relationship with the economy of space required in adventure motorcycling and brings the book along. That is, an unnecessary anecdote on the page, could mean another page in the book, which means more weight on the bike if the book is successful enough in it's aim as to be indispensable. Levity takes the form of dry wit. It was in the profile on the Enfield Bullet that I avidly read and found out my instincts were so fine tuned -in the "What Riders Like" section it said "can be fixed anywhere". I couldn't help laughing when when directly after it says "Don't like: Needs to be fixed everywhere, brakes".

Particularly welcome is the underlying attitude that comes through from the writers which is confident and self-assured. This is immensly comforting to most readers that would be reading this while planning a trip, excited but afraid of the unknown. I would venture to say that this fear peaks when other people say "God you're not going to Iran - you must be crazy" or when you read a government travel warning site. There is a sentence in a paragraph headed "Government overseas departments" in a "Getting information" section which says "Take everything they say with a liberal helping of salt and accept the inevitable taint of politics and convenience which colours their advice." This was like a smile and a "she'll be right mate" that served to quieten rising panic and offset the shaking finger I received when I queried government websites about places I intended to go. This is not to say that they employ a devil may care attitude, rather it was a welcome change from the ignorant doom merchants that beseech you to stay within your own realm.

Within the mix is also included a healthy irreverence for authority which is at it's most entertaining, informative and empowering when about how to bribe officials.

"...never smugly hand over your passport with a wink and a twenty folded inside. This is not how the game is played..."
Then a little fun is then had at the expense of the nations where a bribe is sometimes required.
"On a bike you won't have room to carry a disposable stash of last year's mobile phones, Madonna cassettes"

The first part is entertaining, comprehensive and most of all provides comfort and information to the wary adventure motorcyclist trying this thing out for the first time.

It is in the second and third parts that the book falls down. The second part is a list of continental route outlines. It admits that it is "as broad as a V-Max in a mangle" and indeed it is - the whole of Central Asia and the Caucasus is covered in three short paragraphs. What is there is very useful and focusing in individual routes is the only way to break down the world but the change in pace is so sharp that it was as if the reassuring hand left my shoulder and it's owner begin to run madly around the room, yelling in disjointed sentences and shoving maps in my face. In other words the steady practical plod vanished and what had been a comprehensive and reliable source began to look a little piecemeal. The gaps in information had me wondering why they would either not expand this section to be an entire book, or even series of books in themselves, or remove the section entirely.

The third part "Tales from the Saddle" is a series of trip summaries from some people that can write and some that cannot. Beginning the section with Lois Pryce's Lois on the Loose is a mistake. Not enough of her writing is allocated to setting the scene which dramatically detracts from impact of the story and I was often confused as to where she was and what was going on. I did enjoy Andy Bell's It Pours, Man It Pours especially the section in which he had to catch a business class flight in a jacket crusted with dirt and blood after he was injured. I did eventually lose interest in these people's stories not because they were not interesting but because of the summary way with which they treated their trips, anecdotes are touched on far too briefly. I would have much preferred for people to go into their favourite or least favourite days in a bit more depth. As with Part 2 I was left with the feeling that these sections should have been expanded or removed. While this might seem a little harsh - it's particularly relevant when considering economy of space of the book. Numerous sections, such as changing a tire, would be most relevant on the road but why then would I need to carry tales about someone biking around Australia on my already overloaded bike? It's a bit of a contradiction of purpose. In the books defense it does suggest tearing out sections of guide books that you would consider useful - and it is a testament to the nearly unparalleled practicality of the Adventure Motorcycling Handbook that it would recommend its own destruction.

While not perfect the Adventure Motorcycling Handbook is absolutely indispensable for anyone that is considering adventure motorcycling. It's main strengths are it's comprehensiveness - it patches many of the gaps that inevitably arise from simply looking solely at posts on websites - and the comfort that this comprehensiveness and it's tone offers to someone who is trying something like this out for the first time.



Monday, December 5, 2011

Follow the Navigation Trail

The paradox of planning a trip like this is that you need to try and predict the unpredictable - the only alternative to planning is a deep breath, eyes clenched shut, a prayer and leap. If you need a bit more piece of mind then sooner or later there are questions which require you to go through the immensely dull process of working out contingencies within contingencies. To this end we will map the questions "what is the best way to navigate through the Caucasus on a motorbike?" from beginning to a point where we are satisfied one option is far superior to the rest. It will show how an apparently simple question leads to further questions which lead to more questions and so on. In other words you start tugging on a single thread and the roof falls in. Eventually things get very complicated and you're liable to miss something, or forget it laterif you don't write it down somewhere. The method below is a brute force and thoroughly unsexy way of mapping out all your options. The process is basically continuous refinement:
  1. Begin with a question
  2. List possible answers
  3. Work out questions that need to be answered for each possibility, phrase these questions so they can be answered as Yes , No or I don't know. The answers must also be phrased so an answer of "Yes" is an answer that this would make you more inclined to pick the possibility that it is relevant for while "No" would mean you are less inclined to choose it.
  4. Work out the questions you can answer, and do so with a "YES" or a "NO" if you can't find a definitive answer to one - write "UNKNOWN" next to it. By the end each question must have an answer - this is called completing the tree.
  5. In order to complete the tree you can perform tests which are just a way of answering the question you have posed not through research but by your own experience. Sometimes you might need multiple tests to answer a question.
  • What is the best way to navigate around the Caucasus on a motorbike?
    • by Road Map
      • Is it possible to get road maps of all the areas or do we need do we need to get separate ones for each place we enter?
    • by Mobile Phone
      • Will mobile phones have access in all the countries?
        • YES - http://www.travelsim.net.au/
        • Is it necessary that they do / can I use the GPS on my phone in offline mode?
          • Will Google Maps be smart enough to not send us into a shitstorm?
            • TEST 1 - YES
      • Can I work out a way to secure a phone when riding so it doesn't fall apart or get wet?
        • Will mobile phones have access in all the countries?
          • Can I get a new phone (my one now is unreliable) on a contract that I can pause?
            • YES
            • Will this contract be cheap if I get it now before I leave?
              • NO - I rang them up and I can pause paying for 3 months
            • Will it be possible to charge my phone while riding my bike?
          • by GPS
            • Which brand GPSs have coverage for the Caucasus?
              • TomTom
                  • Do Tom-Tom maps cover the entire Caucasus?
                    • NO
                • Strike Genius
                    • Do Strike Genius maps cover the entire Caucasus?
                      • UNKNOWN - Can't find anywhere if they do or not
                  • Garmin
                      • Do Garmin maps cover the entire Caucasus?
                        • YES - Official ones must be bought separately but would most likely be pretty good judging by their effort in Mexico
                      • Are there any alternatives to official maps?
                        • Are they any good?
                          • TEST 2 - Will need to do at home
              TEST 1

              Time to put Google maps through it's paces. Plan a trip like this:

              1. Poti, Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti, Georgia (where we could land)
              2. Gavar, Gegharkunik, Armenia
              3. nogorno-karabakh
              4. Baku, Azerbaijan
              This is actually quite an indepth trip for Google Maps to work out because it must have sufficient information about the geopolitical situation to know that Armenia and Azerbaijan have their borders closed to one another and despite this there is still a way into the Armenian landlocked enclave of Nogorno Karabakh within Azerbaijan - the Lachin Corridor.

              I am pleased to announce that it passed with flying colours. I also tried to see what happens if we navigate to the disputed zone, South Ossetia. Despite the fact that the border would be difficult to cross - it is not technically closed - so a successful route by Google Maps is not a false positive.


              View Larger Map

              Test 2

              To be done later.

              Conclusion
              I guess that because I'm not totally convinced on one way or the other it shows not to use science to create an art. Even so, I know a great deal more about each option that I did before.

              Plus although though this approach is extremely boring - it's thoroughness means your research will take you way beyond simple . For example - I learnt about OpenStreetMap an open-source version of the cartographic industry - where you can get free maps, there is such thing as an international SIM card and it is easy and cheap to hook up phone and GPS chargers to your motorbike's battery. More importantly though is that there is an account of the trail of research.

              UPDATE: Ended up later deciding to use my old GPS even though it was not water resistent - have downloaded the maps to check them out. I will also buy a new phone and use both these in concert.

              Sunday, December 4, 2011

              The Iraqi Question

              On Thursday I had a plan to ride my motorbike to my sister's birthday dinner in Epping. It had been raining earlier but eventually it cleared with a strong wind that dried everything and made the air crackle. I rolled my bike outside the back gate, into the alley behind my house. No sooner had I switched it on when a torrent of petrol began spurting out of the bike all over the road. A man who seemed to come out of nowhere stopped his bicycle and said "Yeah I could smell it from down the street". Then as if I'd called him to come and work on the bike, he got off and began to look inspect it closely. "Ahh you have a bike, right?" I inquired. He told me he was a courier and he lived up the road. He had white hair, yellow teeth and the darkly highlighted features of a long time smoker. When he spied my learner plates, he said "The cops are much more lenient on you if you've got those - keep em for as long as you can".

              We traced the dampness upward to a busted fuel line "only two bucks to fix". I thanked him and as he rode off I asked him why he was riding a bicycle "...because I lost my license!" he yelled back.

              My lot, therefore, was public transport from here on in. Luckily I had an audio version of Arguably by Christopher Hitchens, a brilliant series of essays and feature articles that he had written for various meaty magazines, mostly from the last half decade. I had reached the "Offshore accounts" section - which contains his accounts of travelling to many places that I had considered for this trip - North Korea and Iran for example.

              Iran had been on my mind and in the news all week after headlines about how crowds ransacked offices of the English embassy in Tehran. The English then responded by expelling all Iranian diplomats. M having both a UK and an Australian passport (both members of the same Commonwealth) the chance of getting a visas for Iran seemed increasingly remote. It's such a shame because everything I have heard about Northern Iran says that it is aesthetically beautiful, the locals are hospitable in the extreme - Muslim hospitality is almost a cliche. My interest had peaked when I had been walking home before the fuel line incident and was listening to Hitchen's describing the bridge in city of Esfahan (the city itself is described as "a miracle of proportion") in his essay "Iran’s Waiting Game" as:

              Many fine bridges span its river, one with 33 arches in which slits have been carved through three walls. When you stand back and view them from the right angle, they give the perfect outline of a candle, while allowing you to see through to the other side. This miracle of perspective—such ingenuity for such a slight but pleasing effect—is seconded, if you like, by the tower which will convey the merest whisper from one stone corner to another.

              The combination of this deep interest and the knowledge that my chances of seeing Esfahan were dwindling, poised on events far outside my control, brought about a longing in me. But I remembered that when travelling one had to be versatile and I began to search for a contingency plan. Luckily enough my expulsion from the motorcycling world for that afternoon meant that sitting by the window and looking out into the sepia afternoon sun, at the rust coloured warehouses of the train depot, like slumped empty overcoats I had the time to get to an essay about nine later in the collection which discussed Hitchen's trip in Kurdistan, Iraq. The Kurdistan have made an attempt to differentiate themselves from the rest of Iraq with a tourist campaign, the Other Iraq, which seeks to bring the western tourist dollar to their autonomous region. He spoke of it as a safe place, free of the sectarian violence that plagued, and still plagues, the rest of the country.

              Iraqi Kurdistan is in the North of Iraq and has been autonomous since 1970. It is home of the ethnic Kurds who were repressed under Saddam (he tried out chemical weapons on them) - then betrayed by the West, when the US invaded the first time one of the pretexts was to save the Kurds - but they pulled out before the job was done. Despite this they seemed eager to show their independence from the rest of Iraq, both with regards to character and autonomy, and encourage Western investment. They have even built their own version of McDonalds, MaDonal. There are parts of the essay which strike a particularly melancholy but inspiring chord. That a people whose homeland overlaps the nexus of Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria could ever hope for any form of unity. How they have been constantly repressed while falling from the international worthy-causes spotlight. Despite this they have had the tenacity and courage to rise up, make a grasp global involvement and relevance. Sounds like somewhere that I might want to visit.