I wake up my cousin and tell her “It’s time”, like we are going for a mission. Due to my super excitement I start packing, picking up all the things I will need. And no, I won’t forget the most important thing: Lipstick. The clock is ticking, my family is hassling and it feels like the whole house is on a move to somewhere. I go outside to our garden. I take a deep breath, close my eyes and listen to the birds singing. It’s March, the most beautiful month in Kurdistan because Newroz is getting near.
The sun is arising and illuminating our golden land meter by meter. The scene mesmerizes any human being, takes you to places you have never been and most importantly your feet are touching the most precious land in the whole wide world – Kurdistan.
We are ready and we jump
into the car heading to the mountains. The journey takes around 2-3 hours
depending on how slow or fast we drive. I put on my headphones and listen to my
favorite play list. While we drive through Kurdistan every scene on our way
reminds me of our constant struggles. I guess one of the best things on our road
trip was that almost in every corner one can catch the Kurdistan flag! Isn’t a beautiful
sight?
I am sure many of you already know that beneath the colors of our flag lies an unforgettable story.
Red symbolizes the blood of
all the Kurdish patriots
White symbolizes peace,
equality and freedom we Kurds desire and have acquired over the years.
Yellow symbolizes the
golden land, light and hope
Green symbolizes our gorgeous
nature, life and vitality.
It’s not that only the flag is beautiful, but the whole story behind it makes any Kurd patriotic and defend their country no matter what. Hence, here I am. Defending my country.
We Kurds are known for our patriotism and that we never back down even in the face of death. We defend what is ours and we have done that over centuries. Over years we have built a country that cannot be compared to any in the whole Middle East! We have hospitals, universities, a booming economy with many foreigner investments, peace among any religion and ethnicity, equal rights for women –look at our parliament (The legal minimum quota of female is 30%)! The list goes on, but I do not want to focus on all of the aspects. I am here to discuss only one: our land.
May I ask how many of you have lost someone protecting our people and our land? How many of you would get up and fight against the enemy just to keep our land safe? How many of you would die protecting our golden land? How many of you are a proud Kurd and will die as a proud Kurd? If you raised your hand to all of the questions above then please keep reading.
Now can you explain, what do you see?
I see broken bottles on our golden land. I see trash covering our hopes and dreams. I see our struggle going down the toilet. I see no Kurdistan.
What wonders me the most is that we say we love our land, we say we will die for our land and yet we feel no shame throwing trash everywhere, we feel no regret leaving broken bottles behind. We say "no friends but the mountains" -yet we treat the mountains like garbage. Is this how we repay nature? By destroying the only beautiful thing we have. I feel devastated.
Another point is that once I was driving around Hawler with my friends and asked them to stop the car. I got out of the car and threw some trash into the garbage. My friends were shocked! They were like you made us stop the car for that?! Now it was my turn to be shocked. I asked "You want me to throw the trash all around our land?" then they were like "yes, who cares?". Honestly I did not know what to say since they way I have been raised is to always throw any trash to the garbage and not on the ground.
One of the biggest problems we come across Kurdistan is waste management. It feels like there ain't any waste management but yet few times a week someone picks up our trash in front of our houses, offices, hotels and malls. So who are they? Well folks, they are the only people who actually are cleaning our town and land! The only people who the most important jobs concerning our future!
There is a solution for everything.
Few months ago I had the pleasure of talking with Eric J. Bollard. Mr Bollard is one of the founders of Grand Array Company. What caught my attention to talk more deeply with him was that his company's core goal is "to be the biggest waste management company in Kurdistan encompassing waste collection, sorting, recycling, land-fill and waste to power generation."
Now you tell me, isn't Mr Bollard doing exactly what we Kurds should be doing every single day throughout our life?
I say yes! I say all of us need to keep our city and land clean, we need to take responsibility now in order to have a cleaner tomorrow!
If we do not care for our land, cherish it like a little baby, keep it clean while we can then why do even fight for our land, why do we let all those young men and women die in the battle if we cannot keep the same land they shed their blood clean. Just tell me why it's so hard to keep your own country clean?
The pictures with the signature "Sarok F." are Sarok Jaff's property and are used with his permission.
For more information: Sarok Jaff.
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