Patterns

When I first arrived in the city in 2024 I was not sure what the cultural and organisational rules were, so I asked our host, a hospital administrator who had been working there for decades, how to behave. She replied:

“There is only one law here: You must be our friend”.

Mamoste Jasmin, hospital administrator

A local friend I met later on, nicknamed “Lion-Heart”, born in the city and working as an I.T. Consultant there, also explains that:

“The Internationals that come here don’t understand. The System here is No System”.

Lion-Heart

And one of the most famous writers in the society boldly states in her book:

“Our way of thinking rejects patterns”.

So, ever in search of practical day-to-day reality in the working environment, we went to ask Herald, the Responsible for an Engineering company in the city, what the process is for getting food deliveries for his staff at their homes. He explained that it’s always the same process:

“You ring your friends, they ring theirs and it gets sorted”.

Herald, AcornAssociated, Qamishli

And, in fact we visited many food delivery groups that all had different systems and processes, including links with local farmers and importers, who setup each year to organize food deliveries for their friends. One day, our friends’ warehouse had run out of Nutella. He took our personal phone numbers and rang us the next day as soon as the delivery arrived. Herald continues:

“There are no standards, comparatively few regulations and almost no bureaucracy whatsoever. Everything sets up almost instantly and problems are sorted out over tea with friends”.

Herald, AcornAssociated, Qamishli

During early 2024 orphans were appearing in the streets of the city. They were coming in from the war zones to seek safety in what was the regions safest city. We saw them going through the rubbish in the street. We went to interview Mohammed, a computer programmer who was trying to look after the orphans by teaching them Scratch, a programming language designed for children. Children were running around in his offices in the packed downtown market area. He told us his story:

“We set up the entire organisation in 1 day as soon as we saw the issue. Cars, offices and people. Everyone here is used to doing this and always has time and energy for new ideas”.

Mohammed, Head of Intelli, Qamishli

4 new hospitals appeared in city between 2020-2023, including a dedicated Eye & Heart hospital. But in a Nation without a State, and no patterns, where does the money come from and how can such large infrastructure projects appear?

Well, the answer is simple: Nation States do not build hospitals anyway. All the research, impact analysis, prioritization, project management is done by the people and this city is no different. Herald explains that:

“There is no pattern. The decision comes from lots of groups within the society and outside having the shared aim of building a hospital. At the point that enough people have come together, large infrastructure projects can begin. They have enough voices, and enough friends and enough energy to achieve it. People in the society carry out the research, make reports, and discussions are had across the interested groups and consent is achieved. The Civil Engineering Project Management is the same as ever and very effective here due to the long history of large infrastructure projects”.

“The money comes from many different sources: Rich people embedded in the normal communities and part of the groups, a free market of oil revenues, the society’s economic and private business groups, and often foreign grants and investments. The money is organised in the usual way, by friends calling friends”.

Herald, AcornAssociated, Qamishli