They were all once promised that they would be free but just like many other treaties, it fizzled out and the promise was never kept. When Alesa was there, she asked some men on the street what they wanted in life and they all said they wanted to be free and unified in Kurdistan. Having them split among their enemies’ lands made them easier to control. Also, leaders knew the Kurds lived where the world’s major oil resource was. The idea of “divide and conquer” was prevalent in the tactics of leaders like Winston Churchill and others like him, because they knew how much power people like the Kurds had if they united. They are the world’s largest group of people without a country and have been a people since 500 B.C. She explained the origins and demographics of the Kurdish people which started with them spread out among the lands of Iraq, Iran, Turkey, and Syria. Her story started with her son asking her a simple question, “if you could do anything, what would you do?” She turned her answer into action and decided to teach abroad in Kurdistan with the Peace Corps. Her book and her presentation were about her time there and the experiences she had with the people there in 2010. This was a talk about Alesa Lightbourne’s experience in Kurdish Iraq where she went there to teach abroad but ended up learning about herself and the new country she was living in. By Abiola A, a student volunteer from San Jose State University
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