Rose tea

Rose flavoured tea is very popular in the middle east and Bwar makes his mix with roses from his garden. It is made in two ways - the first is to pour a small amount of boiling water on to fresh rose petals and after about  five or six minutes add the rose flavoured liquid to the tea. The second is to dry petals and small unopened buds and then just add these to the dry tea leaves. Don't dry the rose petals too much as you want the flavour to permeate the tea leaves. Store as usual and use as normal. 

Shari Gwan

The latest addition to Slemani's skyline is the impressive Shari Gwan Hotel (Beautiful City Hotel). Opened just last month, the hotel sits in landscaped grounds on top of one of the city's many hills and can be seen from almost everywhere in the city. 

Needless to say the views from the hotel are spectacular. The cycads lining the drive up to the hotel must have cost a fortune, not to mention the ancient olive tree that was torn out of the ground and moved here.

I'll have skin cancer with that....

A curious item on the drinks menu of the Blue Cafe. I thought Melanoma might mean something in Kurdish but it doesn't.

I asked the waiter what the drink was and did he know that Melanoma means skin cancer in English. This completely confused him and his total appropriate rely was " It is not very nice, don't order it".

Good advice indeed.

A Kurdish Concert

The other night I attended concert of Kurdish music that was a charity event to raise money for a cancer hospital. Held in the very flash Shari Gwan hotel, it was a bit of a glamorous affair with the who's who of Slemani society and most people reasonably well dressed up. I guess I was the only foreigner.

The star attraction of the evening was the Iranian Kurd group the Kamkars in concert with local Slemani singer Bahyat Yahya. A family group, the Kamkars are seven brothers and one sister with her daughter. While the songs are recent compositions, they are all performed on traditional instruments, creating a very unique sound, at least to my western ear.

In typical Kurdish fashion the evening was a bit chaotic. The starting time was 8pm but it didn't get going until 8.45 and went for 90 minutes. At first everyone stood up for a minutes silence to remember those who have died fighting for Kurdistan and the final number was the rousing patriotic song Kurdistan Xweshe (Beautiful Kurdistan)

During most Western performances the audience lights are turned off and you sit in the dark. But here the lights were left on, people wandered about, talked on their phones and went for drinks. It feel really odd, like an outdoor concert, but no one seem to be at all bothered.

Some music links for the really keen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyQbtLYLpH8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MLtFUTyATU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1R6_JlyqwQ

Election Day

Election Day has come and gone and all has been peaceful here in Kurdistan. However, in Arab Iraq bombs killed about 30 people and large sections of Anbar Province were excluded from voting as it was too dangerous to set up polling stations.

Around 9pm the streets became crazy with party supporters blaring horns and waving flags. Apparently all the party election monitors had declared that their party had done well in the polls and supporters reacted as always with an unholy racket that went on until well after midnight.

In reality the results wont be known for at least another two weeks.

By and large though, the process has been democratic and fair. It is very likely that the Maliki Shiite government will be re-elected and this will no doubt set off another round of violence in the 'other' Iraq.

Much of the problem of Middle Eastern politics is that politicians almost never resign and hold on to power as long as possible. In Western democracies the public get tired of the same faces. No matter how well a politician does, the voters just biff them out because they are sick of hearing the same voices. Here the governing party doles out favours to its supporters (better known as corruption) and if the senior politicians go, a hell of lot of people stand to loose big time. So everyone does their best to keep their side in power and keep the cash flowing to their pockets. Until this changes, the middle east will remain chaotic.

While this election may be over, the KRG still hasn't formed a government since the September 2013 election.

Graffiti

This is my favourite graffiti in a pedestrian underpass. Not that I would entirely agree but the enthusiasm is undeniable. My guess is that the writer has never been out of Iraq.

I have moved to MAD

Not place for  the crazy (or maybe it is!), I have moved from the Bayan to the Motel MAD. While the unit is smaller, it is more modern, cleaner, has a balcony and I get breakfast. MAD is Kurdish for Mede, an ancient empire that corresponded to modern day Kurdistan and who some scholars claim are the original Kurds. Here is a link for those who want to read more http://www.ancient.eu.com/media/

I have no idea why they have capitalised the word MAD.

As usual I am the only foreigner here, though right now the motel is packed with Arabs from Baghdad.

The Bayan Motel faced west, but MAD faces east so I also get a change of view.