Security, a State of Mind

I’m wondering if the tracks in my passport are tripping alarms.  When I head home on Friday, I will leave ample time to get through airport security.  My suspicion that US airport security since the fall of the towers has been a means of controlling us by fear, rather than actually protecting us has been confirmed when I see what real security is. Israel, which knows something about security only required that my computer go through separately -- belts, shoes, all else were no issue.  No surprise there.  To allow me to board a flight from Slemani (Suleymaniye) in Iraqi Kurdistan to Istanbul, every single item in each of my bags was checked at least 3 times.  I had to dismiss my dismay at the mauling of my carefully folded clothing, the upending of my system for keeping track of things to easily move into the next hotel, the loss of my camera batteries.  Had I known that my “pharmacia”, full of remedies for every malady I could imagine might occur over 5 weeks, would have to be approved by a doctor, I would not have had it in hand luggage.  The “doctor” (whom I didn’t see, because I was in a closet being intimately frisked for the 3rd time) decided he didn’t like my chewable Vitamin C and the Pepto Bismol tablets.  I think it was because they were not in their original packaging.  The worst part, besides the worry of missing my plane, was that in order to check the pharmacia after I’d already checked my bag earlier,  I had to go backwards through passport control.  That really caused a flurry.  They let me go, but kept my passport -- violating my preeminent rule of umbilical attachment to that document.

I can see how maybe my passport is a little suspicious -- they minutely inspected it with a loupe-- distrusting their computer's approval of me… and being a lone traveler is also a check in the wrong box.  Last year in Lebanon and Egypt, this year in Israel, Turkey and then Kurdistan, and traveling to Istanbul.  Turkey has a big Kurdish issue…yup -- I need to give myself a lot of time on Friday.  Since I am an American, returning on an American carrier, maybe I’ll sail through.  It might be time to get a new passport.  If I go to Syria next year as I hope, they won’t let me in with an Israeli stamp anyway.

This is not to discourage those of you who are thinking of traveling.  These kind of experiences are illuminating -- they give that snow globe a shake and  I wouldn’t trade them.  Like trying to leave Bethlehem.  It seems that it is pretty easy to get in controversial places, but you run a gauntlet getting out.  We hired an Israeli driver to take us from Bethlehem to Akko, with the intention of making a 10am meeting at a think tank maybe five miles from our lodging in Bethlehem.  Checkpoint 300 -- an ugly maze that crosses the “security” wall -- lay in the middle. Everyone has to walk across, with the taxi doing a long loop around to pick us up on the other side.  Our driver, with our comfort in mind, took us 15 minutes in the other direction to Beit Sahour, where he hoped we could just drive through.  Because we are Americans, they turned us back, and we walked through 300.  It was a great lesson in the irrational and politicized challenges the Palestinians face everyday.  It had nothing to do with security -- at 300 they smiled as they waved us through -- and it had nothing to do with the credentials of our driver who is an Israeli citizen…it had to do with the government’s desire to challenge foreigners’ travel in the West Bank.  It worked in our favor, we gained a first hand experience, and were 40 minutes late to our meeting with Gershon Baskin.  If you are interested in a pro Israel, pro peace perspective on Israel, you can Google and read his blogs.

I’m back in Istanbul. I am happy to be gradually heading west, and visiting Iraq was worth it.  I never felt in danger, but there were ten minutes on the drive between Erbil and Suly, where we were in Iraq proper -- on the outskirts of Kirkuk.  I have a photo of the open flames still burning from the 1st Gulf War. Americans are not safe in Iraq, they get kidnapped for ransom.  Iraqi Kurdistan is safe enough to visit, but it is still a conflict zone, or close to it.

Today, to initiate the reverse culture shock I face over the next couple of weeks, I am getting ready to hit the Grand Bazaar --  a good dose of consumerism should start the process.   Then I'll visit the Cistern, the subject of  my painting in 2006 (from someone else’s photo) which now hangs on the wall at The Garden Court Hotel in Palo Alto. http://www.virginiauhl.com/paintings/overshoulder13.html