Welcome...and initial guidelines...

This blog will be used in the spring of 2008 by 80+ students at Drexel University to investigate the effects of Iraq on culture and the reverse. Our goal will be to better understand why the US is in Iraq, and to question whether literature can help us on this journey.

Weekly plans and other materials will always be posted in Vista, not this blog. So go to Bb Vista to get the discussion prompts and other instructions.

I intend this blog to manage our discussions and track our collective investigation.

You should have received an email from me inviting you to become a contributor to this blog. The email was sent Monday afternoon to your official Drexel email address.

Sunday, May 18, 2008

"Kurdo's World" Review

The blogs in this particular section were about life in Kurdistan, more particularly about voting in Kurdistan by a Kurdistan blogger. The blogger finds his or herself in a position where they are deciding not to vote, and a friend calls the blogger out about not voting by noticing that the person's thumb was not purple. They use purple ink, by thumb, to indicate the votes on the ballots. The blogs start off mentioning the imprisonment of a writer for so much as swearing towards the Kurdistan President. The writer tells a story of an election a friend went to where they ran out of ballots even though there should have been enough. When going to vote the official said they had already voted for him. The voter made a scene about voting for who he chose and was allowed to vote and told to not tell anyone anything of the matter. How easy the ink was able to be washed off and how the elections were always frauded was also detailed by the blogger.
The tone of this is as of straight forward, here is how it is, manner. I would characterize the blogger as wanting something to be done about the issues, but is not entirely a radical or extremist in the situation. Reading these blogs confirms more of feeling that there is alot of corruption in these foreign countries and that people like hte blogger have become rather accepting of this, while others who are accepting, like the friend who voted, will be content with doing what they are suppose to do even though it may be completely rigged and fraudulant.

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