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President Obama and the “Arab Spring”

Last week, President Obama made his first major speech on the United States’ Middle East policy since the “Arab Spring” began back in January. While the speech focused on the Israel-Palestine conflict and the people-powered protests in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya, Iraq did not escape notice.

As well it shouldn’t. In talking about the Arab Spring, the president noted:

Throughout the region, many young people have a solid education, but closed economies leave them unable to find a job. Entrepreneurs are brimming with ideas, but corruption leaves them unable to profit from them.

The lack of job opportunities and the proliferation of corruption are some of the grievances claimed by those Iraqis who have been pushed to protest in the streets in the preceding months. But Iraq is not Egypt or Tunisia. Protests there aren’t about overthrowing a despotic regime.

That’s because, as President Obama said in his speech, Iraqis have the promise of democracy:

In Iraq, we see the promise of a multi-ethnic, multi-sectarian democracy. There, the Iraqi people have rejected the perils of political violence for a democratic process, even as they have taken full responsibility for their own security. Like all new democracies, they will face setbacks. But Iraq is poised to play a key role in the region if it continues its peaceful progress. As they do, we will be proud to stand with them as a steadfast partner.

Being a steadfast partner is going to be important. The Center for American Progress writes, “As a general rule, the U.S. can do the most to usher in reform in places where it maintains robust economic, diplomatic, military and civil society ties.”

To that end, in fact sheets meant to accompany the speech, the State Department highlighted that its “assistance has helped Iraq combat corruption with programs for integrity institutions: the Board of Supreme Audit, the Commission on Integrity, and the Inspectors General.”

What will steadfast partnership look like? In the president’s own words:

We must also build on our efforts to broaden our engagement beyond elites, so that we reach the people who will shape the future – particularly young people.

Hopefully this means a dual-pronged engagement with both the Iraqi government and young people. Already young people are developing innovative ways to combat corruption. Did you have to pay a bribe to start a new business? Now there’s an app for that.

Pundits have called the speech light on solutions in a complex region. On his CNN blog, Fareed Zakaria writes:

In other words, it was a comprehensive, fair and balanced speech. But the most difficult aspect of this Arab revolution is not in understanding it right now – its causes are clear. The problem is it remains very much unfinished business.

But Zakaria says it’s not just the president’s words that matter:

Obama chose the right audience to give his speech, America’s Foreign Service. As Arabs struggle to make a break from the past and enter the modern world, they will judge America not by a speech but by the countless actions of American diplomats over the next few months and years.

In Iraq, the United States will continue to be judged by its actions. As the president’s speech acknowledged the power of youth, it’s important that the United States work with them while they lay the foundations for the future in Iraq.

Can Crowdfunding Drive EPIC’s Mission in Iraq?

I find that coincidences are good indicators of something that deserves my attention. Two months ago, an entrepreneur friend, Pierre Habshi, told me the story of how the “crowdfunding” website Kickstarter raised $1 million in capital for a designer who had the idea of converting an iPod nano into a wristwatch.

Coincidentally, that same week, EPIC Board member John Reinke told me about another crowdfunding platform called RocketHub, where one of John’s friends had successfully raised the capital he needed to support two writing projects.

Clearly, crowdfunding deserved my attention, and my colleagues at EPIC and on the Board of Directors were quick to recognize its value.

So what is crowdfunding?

Through the ages, wealthy patrons have commissioned large public works, funded Silicon Valley start-ups, and responded to urgent global needs. To paint his masterpiece The Last Judgement in the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo was commissioned by the Vatican under Pope Clement VII and then Pope Paul III Farnese. Google got off the ground in 1999 thanks to $25 million from venture capital firms like Sequoia Capital and others.

But you don’t have to be a Pope in Rome or a Silicon Valley billionaire to make an impact. In recent years, a new trend has emerged that democratizes philanthropy to include everyone from the street vendor in Baghdad to the software programmer in Santa Clara.

Crowdfunding is a cooperative way for like-minded people to network and pool their donations together to support a specific project. For us, that project is the Iraqi Youth Hike – a summer program designed to promote peace, empower youth, and advance environmental education to protect the Earth’s biodiversity in Iraq.

But it takes a crowd.

Since we announced our goal of $12,500 for the summer Iraqi Youth Hike project, 53 donors from 36 cities around the world have contributed $4,724. If you have not already contributed to our funding goal, I invite you to join the crowd in helping EPIC promote peace, empower youth, and advance environmental education in a part of the world where modest efforts can have an enormous impact.

I believe that crowdfunding offers an innovative way to ensure greater transparency and accountability between charitable organizations like EPIC and donors. Project supporters will receive updates and a final report upon EPIC’s completion of the Iraqi Youth Hike summer program, including an honest evaluation of our success and “lessons learned” in meeting its objectives.

To donate and learn more, visit http://www.IraqiYouthHike.org. You can also help us reach our goal by sharing the www.IraqiYouthHike.org link with your friends and colleagues. In fact, that is part of what crowd-funding is all about.

Last First Hike, But Not Their Last Hike

Last weekend, at 7:45 on a Friday morning, a rag tag group of students rolled into the dusty parking lot behind the American University of Iraq – Sulaimani (AUI-S). Friday is our Saturday; work weeks here run Sunday to Thursday, so you can imagine the general distaste for coming to work and school on a day that you usually want to do anything but. Nonetheless thirty of us showed up ready to hike, many for the first time.

In the week before the big day, Leah McNally, the Athletic Director at AUI-S, and I discussed our befuddlement at the massive interest in the hike; the 30 slots had filled immediately upon announcement and there were 40 on the waiting list. I asked her, “Do you think they understand what this hike is? I mean that it’s not a picnic?” Picnicking is the all time favorite Kurdish tradition and the season is currently in high gear. It turned out that indeed most of them did realize this, and wanted to go anyway.

This would be the inaugural hike of the Trailblazers, the new AUI-S Hiking Club, started by two enterprising and committed young hikers, Ali Imani and Agri Taimur Ghafur.

Ali Imani is a young MBA student. Originally from Iran, Ali started college at AUI-S in Fall 2009.

Agri Taimur Ghafur is a second semester undergraduate at AUI-S. Ever since when his family moved from Iran to Koya, a town about an hour from the city of Sulaymaniyah, Agri has been an avid hiker. His father is Iranian and his mother is from Halabja, a town of unfortunate fame.

During Saddam’s brutal Anfal campaign against the Kurds in the late 1980s, hundreds of villages were razed to the ground, their inhabitants massacred. On March 16, 1988, in what remains the worst chemical weapons attack directed against a civilian-populated area in history, the people of Halabja were indiscriminately assaulted with rockets, napalm, and multiple chemical agents, including mustard gas and sarin, killing thousands. Many thousands more died in the years that followed from injuries and health complications related to that attack and exposure to chemical weapons.

Agri’s interest in hiking comes from many places. Personally, he enjoys hiking because he is out in nature and around his friends. He started the hiking club to “meet new people” and “encourage interest in hiking and the environment and nature here.” Also, Agri sees it as an opportunity for men and women to participate in a sport together. Sports here, as in much of the world, are separated by gender and are not common for women.

And as Agri hoped, the inaugural hike through Chami Rezan last Friday was composed of women and men, students from different places in Kurdistan and from down south in Baghdad. Chami Rezan has everything a hiker could want, and more. We passed families picnicking everywhere on our way in, cooking ‘yaprakh’ (Kurdish) or ‘dolma’ (Arabic) (the most delicious of local foods – spiced rice and meat wrapped in vegetables) and dancing to their car radios. Several of us were almost lost to the fumes rising from the pots, we carried on.

The trail follows the side of a mountain along a river with small grade rapids here and there. Everywhere was green, as is true for the entire region right now. In Kurdistan in the spring, grass rises out of every dirt field as far as the eye can see. Wildflowers were in full bloom – red, yellow, white every few feet. “I loved being in direct contact with nature,” Ahmed, a first year academic student from Baghdad commented, whose family now lives in Sulaimani. The hike started out fairly easy but became increasingly challenging. We climbed up steep narrow passes and along ridges. Some were nervous for brief intervals, a few students slipped on loose rocks, and everyone helped each other. It was not easy at points – one part in particular after we took a wrong turn and had to descend a slippery, steep path.

Mariem, a third year academic student from Baghdad, told me that what she liked most about the hike was “that everyone helped each other…like one big hand.” Students were offering hands, walking sticks, advice, and eventually, stories and laughs about how each one made it down the steep pass successfully. It was a hot day, the sun was beating down, and everyone was sweating. Our final stop was at the river where a water fight broke out. All in all, it was a pretty normal hike.

The post hike wrap up has been amazing. Just as Agri had hoped, the new hikers were talking about how beautiful it was, how much they enjoyed being outside and exercising at the same time. Ahmed’s twin brother Aws loved the experience because of “the mixture of curiosity, encountering difficulties, having marvelous fun and discovering new places.” All student-hikers felt as though they needed to take more advantage of this amazing environment around them. The concept of ‘discovery’ was a theme in many of their responses. They clearly also felt a sense of accomplishment after the 3 hours of sweating in the heat and some challenging inclines and descents.

They also wondered when we were going again; each student with whom I have spoke cannot wait for the next outing. The spark seems to have been lit, and there are so many places left to explore. Kurdistan is not just for picnicking anymore.

Check out some photos from the hike!

 

Look at Iraq a little differently

If I asked you to picture Iraq, what would you envision? If I asked you to imagine yourself walking through Kurdistan in northern Iraq, how would you describe it?

In reality, parts of northern Iraq are a lush oasis compared to the deserts that cover most of the country. In the winter, the Zagros Mountains are dusted with snow so that as summer approaches and the snow melts, greenery takes over.

You don’t have to take my word for it, though. Check out this slideshow of photos one of our volunteers, Beth Newton, took in the Kurdistan region.

Besides just sharing the beauty of Iraq with you, with our Iraqi Youth Hike, we want to share Iraq’s beauty with Iraq’s youth. Not only will the hike take them to the mountains, but it will teach them about the environment and the importance of environmental conservation efforts.

As you can see, there’s a lot worth conserving there.

The Needs of Iraqi Youth

The Middle East is experiencing an unprecedented “youth bulge“: more than 30 percent of the region’s population is between the ages of 15 and 29, the highest proportion of youth to adults in the Middle East’s history. These young people are driving change — demanding jobs, civil society and voices in government — and they won’t rest until their needs are met. (photo: Bob Haynes)

Iraq has one of the largest ratios of youth to adults in the Middle East. The median age in Iraq is only 21. An estimated 78 percent of Iraqis are younger than 35, and 43 percent are under 15. Can you imagine if roughly half of the entire U.S. population were teenagers or younger?

In some respects, the prospect is frightening. For Iraq, the ratio of youth represents a wealth of energy, creativity and potential for the country’s future. What is frightening is the possibility that this incredible resource could be squandered.

For many years, Iraq’s youth have been victims of violence, military recruitment and injuries, and have lacked access to education, health care and other basic services. Less than 40 percent of Iraqi children are enrolled in primary schools. A vast majority — more than 70 percent — lack access to cultural, artistic or athletic opportunities. These realities leave the youth of Iraq with a sense of mistrust and hopelessness, and a troubling 24 percent suffer from nervousness and tension.

Life in Iraq is hard on its children. But with support from the international community, they are doing something about it.

Earlier this year, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), in coordination with key Iraqi government and civil society leaders, organized the Iraqi National Youth Conference: an opportunity for more than 300 young Iraqis from different backgrounds to share their concerns, challenges and proposals and discuss them with partners from the public and private sector.

The conference called for a comprehensive national strategy for youth development, including support for:

  • safe environments for young people;
  • educational institutions;
  • scientific, intellectual, cultural, sports and artistic programs;
  • lowering ages for participation in government;
  • addressing youth crime and delinquency;
  • a national campaign to combat illiteracy; and
  • cooperation and open dialogue between institutions and with representatives of the youth movement.

This conference and its recommendations are a major step forward in addressing the needs of Iraq’s swelling youth population. But the Iraqi government is notoriously divided and slow to act, and many of those in power are resisting the rising tide of the youth movement.

“The younger generation is ready to go forward; they are carrying less resentments,” said Rawaz M. Khoshnaw, 32, a Kurdish member of Parliament, in a recent interview with the New York Times. The older generation that struggled under Saddam Hussein, Khoshnaw said, “is defined by the resentments inside themselves.”

We all have a role to play in making sure that the promise of Iraq’s youth is not squandered. Learn how you can help promote peace, empower youth, and advance education in Iraq today.

Another first for Iraq

He may not be as globally famous as his colleagues, but Kadhum Al-Sahir is making history. The Iraqi musician is UNICEF’s first Ambassador to Iraq and its children. In a few of his first acts as ambassador, Al-Sahir released a new song, “Together for Children” and returned to Iraq after a 14 year absence.

This comes at a crucial time for Iraq and Iraqi youth as nearly 70 percent of Iraq’s population is under 30 years old. These young people are on the cusp, not just of adulthood and the future, but also of opportunity. While the setting and dawning of the sun will drag us all into adulthood—some of us kicking and screaming–there are no such finite forces that create and show us how to harness opportunities.

Instead, it’s people who create opportunities; it is mothers, fathers, teachers, friends, and even UNICEF Ambassadors. In Iraq, it has been Iraqis who have laid the heaviest stones in the foundations of peace in their communities. But there’s still a long way to go.

Al-Sahir is already highlighting the needs of Iraq’s young people:

“Hundreds of thousands of children across Iraq today are cruelly suffering from having very few to none of the services they need to grow up healthy and happy,” Al-Sahir said. “Action must be urgently taken to deliver the necessary health care, nutrition, schooling, safe water, adequate sanitation and protection they need so they can be lifted up from the bottom of Iraqi society and become a driving force for Iraq’s future development and prosperity.”

It may be cliché, but Iraq’s children really are its future. As they sit on the cusp of that future and all of its opportunities, it’s essential they have the tools to successfully face that future.

At EPIC, we’re starting with our Iraqi Youth Hike. We’re bringing together kids from different neighborhoods and different backgrounds and giving them a challenge to complete together. They’ll learn about the environment around them, the biodiversity of Iraq, and what they can do to protect it. They’ll learn about teamwork and friendship. It’s about empowering them with skills, not just knowledge.

It’s inspiring to see UNICEF and Al-Sahir championing Iraq’s children at the highest levels. Iraq’s youth are full of potential, so let’s empower them to realize all of what they’re capable.

Our First Project in Iraq

Today, on behalf of the whole team here at EPIC, I’m excited to announce our plans for our first youth project in Iraq.

We’ll be bringing together Iraqi youth from different backgrounds, both religious and ethnic, a rarity on its own, for a group hike in northern Iraq’s Zagros Mountains. They’ll be accompanied by experienced hikers and learn about hiking safety, the wildlife and plant life around them, and how, by working together, they can protect that important biodiversity.

Sowing seeds of a lasting peace starts with the youth, the future leaders of Iraq. I encourage you to learn more about our project at www.IraqiYouthHike.org.

We need your support to keep the hike on schedule for this summer. If, like me, you’ve never been to Iraq, it may be hard to picture it as a land of greenery and mountain vistas—especially in the summer. Fortunately, thanks to the EPIC team in Iraq, we’ve got some fabulous pictures of the natural beauty in northern Iraq like the one above taken by Beth Newton.

What Mom Cares About

If you’re like me, you’re not only sick of Mother’s Day advertising pressure, but the last thing your mother needs is another cheesy greeting card, over-priced flowers that will be dead in a week, or extravagant diamonds of questionable origin. My mom? She doesn’t even like pink.

What Mom does care about is her children being safe, secure and happy. And she can’t help empathizing with mothers around the world who aren’t as fortunate as she is. In Iraq, many mothers have to wonder every day whether their kids will be coming home from school, and how to give them a better future.

For us, this is an opportunity.

During the aftermath of the Civil War, in 1870 a women’s rights activist named Julia Ward Howe (best known for writing the “Battle Hymn of the Republic”) decided to do something about the devastation she observed in the world. She issued the original Mother’s Day Proclamation, calling on women to rise up against violence in all forms. She wanted women to recognize what we hold in common above what divides us, and commit to finding peaceful resolutions to conflicts.

This Mother’s Day, consider a donation to the Education for Peace in Iraq Center’s Iraqi Youth Hike to honor your mother as well as Julia Ward Howe’s original vision of Mother’s Day.

The Iraqi Youth Hike is a brand new project that absolutely needs your help to get off the ground. Even a small donation — a drop in the bucket for a larger charity — will go a long way for a project that only needs $12,500 total to make it happen. Your $10, $20 or $50 will help bring young people to the beautiful mountains of northern Iraq, and introduce them, maybe for the first time, to fellow Iraqis from different ethnic and religious groups.

That’s an experience these kids desperately need, because we know children exposed to different cultures and people are more tolerant, civically engaged and eager to learn. With this project, we have a chance to give these kids an experience that will last a lifetime. We can bring very different young people together, show them what unites them, and give them the tools to build a more peaceful Iraq: an Iraq in which mothers don’t have to worry that their kids might be the next casualties of intolerance and hate. That’s something every mother can appreciate.

So you could spend $5 on a waste-of-paper greeting card, $50 on flowers that will end up in the garbage, or hundreds of dollars on diamonds she’ll probably never wear. Or you can help make the world a safer and even a happier place for children, the mothers and children of Iraq, and the world.

Learn more about the Iraqi Youth Hike and make a donation in your mother’s name today. On Sunday, she’ll receive a personalized email from EPIC to let her know about the gift.

My mother and I hope you will join us in celebrating the original meaning of Mother’s Day: enabling peace for all mothers, for years to come.