Pokurdmon

Met with the Kurdish Islamic Party today. They were cute. Some people might assume they would be religious fanatics hardened by centuries as an oppressed people without a country of their own. Maybe they are. But they also laugh a lot, particularly at my attempts at Kurdish - if you ever have the opportunity try binnat pash (good morning), zors pas (thanks) and khwa hafees (goodbye - starts with a flemmy semetic sound, similar to the Scottish word loch). After our serious discussion about debt, they got very excited taking photos and comparing our digital cameras (i'll try to upload a photo tomorrow). They even had a stack of Pokemon (Japanese childrens cartoon) exercise books for their official notes!

I thought we had a breakthrough, having arranged to meet with Mohsen Abel-Hamid, head of the Iraqi Islamic Party, on the IGC and, as it happens, the former professor of my Iraqi coworker. However it seems the secretary didn't schedule us correctly, and so we met an underling instead. It was frustrating because we desperately need to talk to one of the top level of politicians to get an entry into that world, since my two best contacts at that level are out of Baghdad for two weeks.

Went to the Anglican church again, recieving a similarly warm welcome as last week. I started groaning inwardly when the US army chaplain (who was preaching through translation to a congratation entirely Iraqis, bar myself and the British Ambassador) started "On 9/11 the world changed..." Luckily he carried on by saying "Americans learnt [well some anyway, sadly not many in the White House...] that all our economic, political and military might cannot give us peace and security. That peace can only come from God."