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Kurdistan has just found oil and it now finds itself at a cross roads, where heading in one direction it could become a country like "Norway" or "USA"
where for example they were able to take advantage of the oil resources they had and improve other industries including construction,
whilst investing in other fields and using oil revenues to improve other sectors.
Unfortunately there are other examples like "Nigeria" where oil has become a curse and has divided the country and caused a lot of problems,
equally you don't have to go too far to find other examples, you just have to look at Iraq itself where 80 per cent of the oil revenue
was used in the Iraq-Iran war instead of being used to improve people's livelihoods.
If we talk about Kurdistan's energy and oil and gas industry, I think it would be better to go back to the first world war, as at that time it became clear that
Kurdistan is a source for energy, but the powerful countries thought it would be better to sign contracts with Kurdistan's neighbouring countries
and not with the Kurdish people, in order to explore and produce oil and gas and export it to the international community,
they tried to build energy infrastructure and projects outside the Kurdistan region and not within it. If we look at Iraqi Kurdistan,
there weren't any foundational projects in terms of power generators or refineries.
Kurdistan oil in Kirkuk and Khanaqen was sent all the way to Beji and Dora refineries and then the power would be sent back to the Kurdish people,
so they could control Kurdistan's energy resources.
I had a goal and dream of finding an opportunity so that we could make an impact and build our own infrastructure; we have shown the world we can
have our own energy source, that we can discover, produce and market oil on our own and we have built a good energy infrastructure.
This tea shop was known as the "butchers" tea shop as most of our customers were butchers.
For 65 years I have worked in this tea shop, first as a waiter and then I became the owner.
Today a lot of foreigners come here as well as important officials;
I have photo's with Walid Jumblatt the Lebanese politician as well as Amar Hakim the Iraqi politician from Baghdad.
Before we used to just get by, but now a lot of things have changed.
In the past we used to sell a cup of tea for a few Fils and now we sell it for 500 Dinar, this is a huge amount of money for us
and our customers have a good income and can now afford it.
In the past we only had two hours of electricity and the water was only available in the morning or evening as they would cut it off.
Now we have electricity and clean water 24 hours a day, this is a huge achievement for us.
When we talk about it now it sounds very simple but from producing the first barrel 5 -- 6 years ago, we are now at the level today where we have
two large refineries and as we now refine our own diesel we have succeeded in reducing the oil price from 1,000 to 500 Iraqi Dinar.
I remember when we were little; it was our parents and grandparents dream
to produce Kurdistan's oil and to not rely on foreign countries who were restricting access to our own oil.
I've been a taxi driver since 1991, but it hasn't been anything like the last 3-4 years.
Since the influx of international people coming to Kurdistan, especially Erbil where I am from,
our work has increased and our situation has changed.
If you look back at Erbil in the 1980s and 90s it was like a village, but now, Mashalla, it looks more like a European city.
Before we only had two main highways which were called the 30 mile road and the 60 mile road. Now, there are so many new roads even I get lost.
Before we couldn't work at night as it wasn't safe, it was too dark. Now when I drive at night I sometimes forget to switch on my headlights as it's so light.
Even though the Kurdistan region is part of Iraq, which has the fourth or fifth largest oil reserves in the world,
unfortunately the region has not benefitted from this.
In fact setting up oil infrastructure and oil strategy is a very important step for Kurdistan.
One of the biggest benefits of the oil industry has been job creation,
for every company they are employing a minimum of three to four thousand local people.
The impact of unfamiliar new technologies, which have been imported into the Kurdish culture, has meant we have lost a little bit
of the simplicity in our society and we need more time to find our own identity and this could be the price we all have to pay.
Who would have thought it would be like this. The world has changed, but who would have thought all the largest oil companies would be here.
No one thought it would be like this.
For Barzan this is very good, right now he's got his own house, I no longer have to support him. He's got his own life and money,
if he didn't have this income then I would have to carry his responsibility as well.
For a few years I worked as a labourer in Erbil, but now this oil company has come to our village it was good opportunity.
A few of my friends and I wanted to work for the company and they accepted us.
Now we work in our village, and it's better than having to travel to the city everyday by car.
Now we work with this company we also have the option to learn a profession as well.
When we were labourers you didn't learn anything.
Sometimes we pass by this area at night and we tell ourselves this used to be an area for foxes and wolves, but now it has become a big market.
No one ever imagined this.
Any company that comes to the country has a pre-contract agreement with KRG's Natural Resources Ministry to allocate an amount of their annual budget
to support local communities and build projects in those areas in cooperation with local authorities, this is the first time something like this has been done.
In general terms most of these projects have been implemented in the education sector, for example building kindergardens,
providing school equipment and building a number of libraries and they have not stopped there,
the companies also give a lot of importance in helping universities in the region, for example there continues to be support for Koya University,
because they have a special oil department as well as good collaboration with the American University in Sulaymaniyah.
All of this has made the environment for students a lot better to achieve their dreams.
One of the projects that has been implemented this year is providing support to the fine arts institutes in the region, and most of those
who have benefitted from this are the younger generation, providing them with the things they need in order to achieve their goals in different fields of music and sport.
In 2006 the situation was different.
There weren't any opposition parties nor a government that people were happy with, they wanted more.
When I came back to Kurdistan in 2011, I saw positive changes and this is the result of opening a lot of doors towards the region
in terms of trading and governance and relations with other countries,
in other words it has been a great opportunity, and there has been a lot of changes and progress, but at the same time there are still a lot of problems
and we need to sort out our in-house problems and make efforts in fixing them,
that's why I saw it as a national duty and my responsibility to come back to my country and not just talk about it, but help my country.
The things I see are a beautiful harmony among people as most of the subjects studied are in English
and I don't see any division between Kurds, Arabs, Sunni, Shia or Turkmen,
for example in the 1980s or 1970s Kurdish students from Erbil and Sulaymaniyah went to study in Baghdad,
but now because of the stability in the region, the Arab students are coming and studying at universities in this region and live with us,
I hope I'm confident that the students who study at the American University will serve the country in the future.
I've lived in Baghdad most of my life, but the situation there isn't good because of the violence, especially in 2006 and 2007 between the Sunnis and Shias.
The Iraqi system is very old; we study things from the 1960s and 1970s, which means you have to study all year and by the end of the year,
you'll have forgotten all the information, but here the system is modern, it's not like the old system where you have to memorise everything,
in Kurdistan you learn, it means when you graduate from university you are a well educated and informed person.
We have a special subject here on economy and policies of oil rich countries and this is in order to make the students aware that they are from a country
that has oil and what differentiates us from countries in terms of governance, politics and economic systems where those countries get revenue from taxes.
In my opinion we are at a cross roads, we are still at the intersection, sometimes we are pointing in the right direction but still haven't taken that step forward.
let me explain why I say this; the money is not transparent, we see this problem talked about in the Kurdish papers as well as in the
election campaigns that the oil revenues are not transparent.
This is a step towards Nigeria.
At the same time, all the money has not been hijacked and some of it has been used for the people and you can see that in Kurdistan cities
where there is development happening, people drive the latest cars, have disposable income, have the chance to think about the future;
they buy homes which means the money has not been taken and put in a bank abroad, the money is inside Kurdistan.
That's a step towards Norway.
If we take the steps that are close to the "Norway" model then we are heading towards the "Norway" example,
but if you take the steps towards the "Nigeria" model, then we are going towards the "Nigeria" example,
that's why we are currently at a cross roads and it is up to the wisdom of the Kurdish politicians on which route we take.