This past weekend I attended an Iraqi Academics Conference in Washington, DC which was intended to discuss how to help the state of Iraqi education. It was quite extensively covered, even the Chronicle of Higher Education had a piece on it.  In the story of how it unfolded I found a valuable lesson on the perils and pitfalls of listening too much to expatriates, particularly in the Iraq context.

To be clear, I think there is much that could be gained from such a conference, and I congratulate the Cultural Attache Dr, Abdul Hadi Al-Khalili in putting it together.  None of my criticisms are directed at his deep efforts which I think were put forward with the best of intentions and efforts and like I said it could have some great benefits potentially, it's not his fault it didn't.

In terms of benefits, in the first place, one could seek to marshal interest of the substantial Iraq diaspora talent that exists in the US, some of whom have been rather distant from Iraq.  We've got Iraqis going to Michigan law school, Iraqis graduating from Harvard, Iraqis at leading investment banks, Iraqis in private equity, Iraqis in all sorts of ventures interested in the country yet not necessarily knowing what to do to help.  Another advantage would be to compare experiences of people who have worked in Iraq, to educate the broader diaspora, and to share ideas of what might work and what might not by way of aid projects.  Finally, related to this would be ideas shared by some on their own problems and trials in getting Iraqis to work in their own areas of academia. 

Almost none of this happened, for a variety of reasons.  First of all, panel selection seems to have been based largely on age rather than on anything having to do with knowledge of Iraq.  So you had panels where the average age was, I will guess (seriously) about 73 or 74. 73 year old guys by and large haven't done much in Iraq recently.  Of course there are exceptions, but generally, they haven't.  So literally the first panelist got up and starting talking about a site visit he had done to Baghdad Medical College.  In 1979.  And actually he was one of the better ones, because he had done a site visit at least.  There were people up there talking and wasting my time who had left Iraq in 1963, and telling us what Iraq needs by way of improvement in education. 

This of course has to do with what passes for Iraqi respect for age but what can be in fact a depressing lack of interest in fresh faces and new ideas.  Respect for age would be giving an award to every guy there who happened to be 80 for above.  They did that, for an hour, but okay, that is respect for age.  I do think some respect for a younger generation might help.  Say, rather than JUST going to Knoxville and finding a musical Iraqi who is over 80 and who could once play the violin, or so I assume, to come in and play the violin, ALSO find a 18 year old Iraqi American prodigy to play with him.  Wouldn't that be nice?  Not Iraqi though, how can you bring a kid to lpay with an elder, as if they are comparable?  (I wonder if these guys ever saw Sarah Chang at 14).  But again, I'm not there for a violin concert anyway, so whatever, award the old people, let them play in a concert, whatever.  All can be passed off as respect for age.

However, respect for age is not bringing a 76 year old hematologist who hasn't seen Iraq in thirty years telling us how to improve education in Iraq.  Literally, aside from one woman from Columbia, and my friend Shihab al Shamma, who is let me say 54, nobody was under 65 I don't think who spoke and few knew anything.  There were exceptions, Haider Al Shukri in the last panel spent some time talking about how to approach an administration in a university on bringing in Iraqis, quite useful to me.  Donny George lived in Iraq until 2006, obviously knows the country well and my what a story he told of seeing Duke Ellington, in Baghdad, in 1963, when he was only 13 years old.  Highlight of the whole thing for me.  But for the most part it was a lot of people who didn't know much about anything just talking.  And apparently everyone under 40 but a few got the memo and didn't show.  can't blame them, nothing transpired to make me think their presence was welcome by the others.  

Even more frustrating, when by the endof the conference they had resolved to try to do studies to get a better understanding of the situation there, I wondered why it was that they didn't know there was a whole generation of people who could actually have provided useful info.  Top on my list is Zainab Al Suwaij of the American Islamic Congress, who has worked in education in Iraq at the same time I was working with the law schools.  Hind Ressam as well.  But of course they weren't 80, Zainab is my age, so heaven forbid she get to talk, and age won out over actual knowledge and so we have to do yet another study ignoring the previous ones, and I guess an 85 year old has to lead it or nobody will pay any attention to it.

Added to this was the broader problem that these people didn't actually get what it was they could do, and what it was they couldn't.  Part of this was ignorance of the situation and part was just a total lack of understanding of who they were, neither government officials nor people really who should be setting any Iraq policy given their time and distance from the place.  For example, the recurring theme of the conference, and the one picked up by the Chronicle, was whether or not it was a good idea for Iraq to plan, as it has, to send 10,000 students to the US to study.  Just about everyone wanted to weigh in, and quite a few said it was a terrible idea because then they would stay.  Better to send our diaspora professors back to Iraq to teach there and improve the system there than send students here.

Now I'm not going to argue the merits.  If I was arguing the merits, what I'd say is, my, how awfully noble of you to deny Iraqis the very opportunity you had, in the name of improving the country, what a lovely sacrifice of other people you are willing to make.  I might also say if I chose to argue the merits, how interesting, your theory is that Iraqis who live in Iraq and have lived there since they were born will come to the US for two years and never want to leave, but Iraqi expats who haven't seen the country in decades will go back to teach in such numbers and at such a level to make a meaningful difference in the quality of Iraqi education?  Are you serious?  And why haven't you gone then?  I did, and never saw you there.  But fortunately, I'm not arguing the merits.

The real issue is that this issue has been decided by the Iraqi government and has huge domestic support,  You can't just sit on the outside and review government policy and waste the world's time trying to change it, that's just dumb.  They're coming, how about we talk about how to help?  But no, it was about this 10,000 students policy, or what the curriculum should look like in Iraq, or why the State Department should award more visas and do it more quickly, and, it was stressed, we need action which for those unschooled is Iraqi for "we need to talk about action."  Because see if you really wanted action, you wouldn't be there.  You'd sponsor a trip for Iraqis to visit the US.  You'd apply for grants.  You'd work in Iraq. You'd have Iraqis in your lab (some did, let me emphasize, some did this last thing and talked about that, and there credit is due).  You certainly wouldn't demand action and then as your action write a letter to the State Department saying they should give out more visas and more of us should go, even if for two weeks.  No Iraqi dean wants a prof to come in for two weeks and I don't blame them.  

And finally, we can't discount the feel good factor.  That is, just saying things that everyone is going to agree with to no recognizable end but to reaffirm how progressive and wonderful we are.  I offer but one example.  An urging that we have to take the education of women and girls seriously, and that there is no excuse for failing to do this! (To thundrous applause, by the one Iraqi woman who got to speak). 

Fine, we all feel good then when someone says something we all agree with (and I don't know an Iraqi who doesn't clap when such things are said), but here's a problem on that score.  Iraqis are coming in for a law student international moot court competition. We scoured the law schools and had a 50% rate of women participation in visa applications.  Great, except that the male profs aren't getting their visas,a nd the women won't come if the prof isn't there because their fathers won't let them, never mind they are 22 years old.  So now our female participation is one person.  From 50% to one person.  Now, tell me how the applause, or the sentiment about women's education, will help guide anyone on what to do about THAT.  I can't kidnap the students, I can't make the State Department grant visas, so let's talk, since we are all committed I hope to women's education, on how to achieve it given the circumstances as they exist and leave the clapping for the football game.

So what's the point of all of this you ask, other than me just frothing at the mouth about lost opportunities to reconnect with alienated second generation Iraqis who could actually help if this hegemony of old people bloviating could be broken in favor of more inclusiveness?  Well, there is another point. I asked one woman I respect a great deal and who has worked extensively in Iraq what the hell the problem was with these things.  I won't use her name, she has achieved some prominence in the US but it was a private conversation.  She smiled and said to me this is precisely what the Future of Iraq project was like.  It sort of shook me.  That project, for those unaware, was organized by the State Department and basically adopted the views of Iraqi expats on how to develop the future of the country.  Conventional wisdom has always been that it was a disaster when Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz chucked it to do their own thing, but no i'm not so sure it would have been all that better.  The Future of Iraq project likewise is loaded with vague generalities and feel good pleas spoken with false authority by old people who hadn't known the country for twenty or more years.  In State and Defense, it seems we might have paid them a little more heed than they deserve. And some at least continue to.

HAH