Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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IRAQ • COnTinUGD PROfTl I Finally, with a translator and driver, Burch began his work of shooting footage that will air on C-SPAN and probably several other oudets. Just a few days into their stay was the December parliamentary elections. “It was surreal,” Burch said. With no other cars on the road (they were banned on election day), his driver sped along at 80-90 mph through the urban city, one of Kurdistan’s two capitals. There, the security was heightened, Burch said, “to the point of omnipresence.” He said there was an armed guard on every comer, creating a dual sense of both safety and fear. “Security is so tight there is a greater change of being killed by security than anything else,” he said. During a meeting with a Kurdistan official, he and Axe were offered an armed guard but turned it down. He didn’t carry so much as a knife around the city of 1.2 million. “If you have it, it’s more suspicious. We wanted to seem as non-threatening as possible.” Overall, Burch said that the Kurdistan region is much safer to visit than northern Iraq, where suicide bombings are frequent and have killed hundreds in recent days. Most Kurds love and regard America with an almost religious reverence, he said. “There’s no analogy for how Kurds view America,” he said. “They think America is a magic place where anything happens, an almost God-like force.” So as an American, Burch received a lot of attention. Kurds who saw his blond hair and blue eyes would walk up to him and .start to tell him their stories or just to say hi. One man approached Burch and said simply, “Excuse me, I don’t speak very much English, but I love yoti.” “Many of the Kurds believe America’s intention is to make their region an independent country, though this couldn’t be further from the truth,” and their goodwill towards the country will be short-lived once they find out, Burch said. In the meantime, America enjoys hero status in Kurdistan. “If you speak English, you are considered very cool in Kurdistan,” Burch said. And while he went in to the country expecting to dress conservatively, he saw very few women in burqas while the younger generations of Kurds dress like Europeans and listen to American pop music. In December, Madonna’s “Hung Up,” Mariah Carey and Kelly Clarkson were all over the radio. The culture in Kurdistan took a lot of getting used to for Burch. He said that what stood out the most in Erbil was the “homoerotic tendencies” from all the men. Women in Kurdistan are there for making babies, he said, and men turn to each other for companionship. It was not uncommon to see young, middle-aged and old men walk down the street holding hands and kissing each other as a greeting. Also hard to adjust to was the smell of the city. Open air markets with food stands created a unique and pungent odor. Trash piled up on the streets during the day and a lack of Western-style toilets also added to the stress of living in Erbil. With just three main dishes of food to choose from — “lamb, greasy chicken and more lamb” — Burch quickly got tired of the food, the tea (that he drank 10 times a day with people he was interviewing) and the cigarettes (which Kurds smoke constandy). After a bad meal, he got sick, and ate nothing but hard-boiled eggs and falafel for eight days. He lost 15 pounds while in Iraq, and is only slowly gaining it back. Hygiene was also a problem in Kurdistan, with Burch wearing the same pair of pants for 18 days straight. He and Axe tried to wash their clothes by buying Tide at the market, washing their clothes in cold water and drying them on the space heater that was supposed to warm their hotel room. It didn’t do much. When leaving Iraq through Turkey, Burch was amazed at seeing a clean restaurant, and said his amazement only increased when he got back to America. Just being back in New York was a huge comfort to Burch, who got homesick in Iraq over Christmas. Burch celebrated Christmas in a Christian neighborhood in Erbil although their ideas about what Christmas was were slightly wrong, he said, recalling the man who thought Christmas was Easter. Santa Claus had been misinterpreted, too, and was used to celebrate New Year’s. Physically exhausted from a combination of his illness, lack of sleep and long days shooting interviews and working, Burch finally returned home after 40 hours of nonstop traveling on New Year’s Eve. “I was so excited to come home that it didn’t matter,” Burch said of the long journey. He slept through New Year’s Eve but went back to work soon after, compiling footage he shot into a documentary and planning a lecture for USC students. He also works for USC’s Orphan Film Symposium and is a teaching assistant this semester. He and Axe ended up shooting 14 30 minute vignettes on life in Iraq that will be edited and aired on C-SPAN in the coming weeks, and their work is attracting attention from many sources. When asked if he would ever return, Burch said maybe, but not anytime soon. Comments on this story? E-mail gamecocknews@gwm.sc. edu up# connnucDFRomi annual fundraising total since the organization was founded in 1939. Choate said “through the generosity of our growing number of donors, the University of Minnesota’s medical and public health missions are strengthened and expanded in ways that go far beyond our campuses.” Before joining the Minnesota Medical Foundation, Choate was associate vice president for Development and University Relations at Penn State University. There he oversaw the completion of three highly successful capital campaigns, including a $352 million university wide capital campaign. He also was a director of corporate and foundation relations at Ohio State University. USC President Andrew Sorensen said it was Choate’s experience in fundraising for higher education and his knowledge of advancement related activities that lead to him being offered the position. Because of his fundraising abilities and management offoundations, “Brad has earned the respect of leaders in higher education and the corporate sector across the country,” Sorensen said. “The energy, the leadership and the vision that he will bring to the university will make him a valuable member of Carolina’s administrative team.” In 2003 and 2004 Minnesota Physician magazine named Choate one of Minnesota’s Top 100 influential people in health care. “We’ve been able to accomplish some tremendous things over the past decade in Minnesota,” Choate said. “While I’m sad to leave, I look forward to discovering what’s possible at the University of South Carolina.” “With the university’s deep roots and strong ties to its alumni, faculty, students and staff, we have much to build on.” Comments on this story? E-mail gamecocknews@gwm. sc. edu You can't beat our creativity with a stick be a graphic designer. Organized, efficient and creative people should apply. § ) 20 hours a week, experience with Photoshop and Illustrator. Deadline oriented environment. \ f Drop by Student Media,Russell House, Rm. 343 to fill out an application. ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■ ifiliii v ——■H— »i 1.41 iHH *J I K ■ \ I ] I Li ijV^f.^^1 MA\l^l^ IJi B LgX* NX^^.fr^y^ * '- ■ ’" I M: