Kurdistan Regional Government
10/6/13 1:20 PM
Kurdistan Regional Government
Kurdistan Region can show Iraq the way forward I had a fantastic evening listening to the talented young musicians of the National Youth Orchestra of Iraq the other week. Anyone listening to a National Youth Orchestra can’t help but be impressed by the dedication of the musicians and wonder at the hours of practice needed to get the piece exactly right. I watch my elder daughter – a budding violinist – and marvel how she breaks down the music bar by bar and perfects each section before putting all the pieces together into a seamless whole and my younger daughter as she starts learning the flute. But the fact that we were listening to the National Youth Orchestra of Iraq struck me as a triumph of will, inspiration and imagination. And, wow, were they good. The conductor had clearly not asked where people came from or which sect they came from: if they were good enough they played, if they weren’t they didn’t. As I listened to the inter-played ‘conversation’ between the strings and the woodwind instruments in one of the symphonies my mind wandered to Iraqi politics. If the different sections of the orchestra represented different interest groups in Iraq how did the music gel? Were the instruments in harmony? Was the overall product discordant or in tune? Did the public appreciate the performance? I don’t want to stretch the analogy too far but you get the picture. If Iraqi politics is the orchestra and the Kurds are, say, the string section, did the music work? Is the balance right? In recent weeks, in particular, it seems here as if the music has been discordant. There is no mistaking the frustration, anger even, in the Kurdish http://www.krg.org/a/print.aspx?l=12&smap=010000&a=41710
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