ninos youkhana

On to the next chapter

* My final good-bye email to my friends and co-workers at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.

Greetings,

You’re busy. Let me get right to it.

Wednesday March 7 will be my last day at the office.

I’m writing this email with a schizophrenic feeling. It feels like I’m divorcing someone I love. My mind is numb, and my heart full of trepidation from uncertainty, a difficult presentiment to express with…

* 4 mins reading

“The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read.” – Mark Twain

Have you heard about the anti-library? I have one.

I regret not starting to read at an earlier age. I just didn’t know better. Now, when I see a kid sitting outside reading, I envy her.

As the end of 2017 is just around the corner, it has been my tradition since 2014 to recommend one book out…

LinkedIn Profile vs. Assyrian Virginity and a Future Wife

My seven-city tour was coming to an end. I had visited Dubai, New York, Toronto, San Jose and Phoenix, over the course of a month. I had three days left before returning to my job in Baghdad. Just enough time to get married… or anyway, my aunt seems to think so.

I’ve never written about my dating escapades, but this seems like a good place to start.

Many of my family live in the Chicago area, and…

On Chaldeans Deportation and Facebook Lip Service

*3 min

Have you supported a cause on Facebook? Let’s say: health care, gun rights, your friend’s new book, or your friend who’s running for an office. Raising awareness to support those causes is common on social media sites like Facebook. Users are very familiar with ads, videos, and posters of that nature.

But let me ask you this, have you been on the other side of the table trying to gather…

The Romance in the Assyrian Convention

In August, I plan to visit the Assyrian Food Festival in San Jose for the first time. I’ll also be attending the 84th annual Assyrian American National Federation (AANF), commonly known as the Assyrian Convention, in Scottsdale, Arizona.  Coincidentally, my 41st birthday, which is fast approaching, happens during the convention which makes it more special.

Unfortunately, there appears to be…

The Holy Trinity of Doing Business in Iraq

*3 mins read.

The world’s tallest building is in Dubai – but not for long. Because in Basra, Iraq “The Bride” – a 604 story building – will soon rise, according to Business Insider.

http://www.businessinsider.com/worlds-tallest-building-rises-in-iraq-2015-11

Because I’ve been working in Iraq for a few years, friends and acquaintances always ask me about business opportunities in Iraq. Questions…

Less Than 24 Hours in Qatar

Qatar will be the 25th country I will visit.

“In the next few hours, my life will change,” I told my friend on the phone. It was time to return to Chicago, to the real world. It has been six months and five days since the last time I was in America.

I had an 18-hour layover in Qatar. After all these months in Iraq, I deserve any luxury that comes my way. My journey home had started.

After a two…

*Note: This is my incomplete eight draft version for possible memoir book.

Introduction

Let me introduce myself. My name is Ninos Youkhana. I didn’t graduate from an Ivy League school. I haven’t held a high position in a glamorous American company or served in public office. I’m not a lawyer or a doctor. I haven’t built a billion dollar business. I will not enter the history books like Saint…

Black And White – A Workout Reverie

*2 min

I was breathing hard as I was swinging the kettlebell. I lost count, was it 64? I placed the kettlebell on the ground. My heart was pumping fast. I took a breath and raised the volume of the music in my ear. The sharpness of her voice was giving me goose bumps.

Linda George’s, elixir of Assyrian singers and the zeitgeist of the Assyrian music, “Kuma O Khara” (Black and White) song was…

Why I stayed working in Iraq?

*2 min

“Against our deepest wishes, we become suddenly, inexplicably, committed to a path we have avoided, a line of thought we’d had no interest in.” – Zachary Lazar

Last year I wrote a post titled: “Five Years between T-Walls” where I talked about some of the psychological problems I faced working in Iraq, one of them is the battling destiny vs. choice dilemma.

After that post, some people…

40 Reasons Why I’m THE Assyrian Bachelor

As a painful memory of my New Year’s Eve fades away, I thought of starting my first blog of 2017 with a subject I haven’t written about in the past four years of blogging.

Here is a little background to where and when I was inspired to write this post.

On Christmas day of 2016, I was with a few friends and co-workers somewhere not identified on Google map in Baghdad. It was late evening, the sky…

2016: Year in 36 Blogs

* 1 min

I hope you enjoyed your New Year’s Eve.  Mine was bad. I spent it with strangers listening to music I don’t enjoy. What made it even worse is that I had a 3-day pass to either Dubai or Lebanon. I chose not go.

You see, part of life is about memories. I try to collect good ones.  This time, I collected a bad one by staying in Baghdad.

However, from Iraq-American politics, to cultural…

Five Years between T-Walls

“The fact of being alive compensated for what life did to one.” Salman Rushdie, Satanic Verses

It was early evening when I finished a two-hour phone call with a friend of mine. The night had arrived. The nights always seem to arrive quickly in Baghdad. I hate the night.

The conversation with Dave was still echoing in my head. I was thinking about what I told him, which was:

“The thought of being…

14,997 Pages and One Book

“The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read.” – Mark Twain

In the land of a thousand and one nights stories, I finished reading 46 books, and am currently reading two. Still, my Amazon book list is at 511 and counting. I find it frustrating.

In fact, I find reading itself to be frustrating. What to read? What to focus on? And how can you read? – if every second…

*3 min

“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.”  Tolstoy

I felt my acerbic impulsiveness possessing me. I tried to think of the most venomous word. My thumbs couldn’t stop from polluting the airwaves by firing off a barrage of insulting and abusive texts directed against my loved one.

What had started under the most trivial of circumstances “Hi, how are…

I’ll be spending thanksgiving shoulder-to-shoulder with soldiers, coalition forces in Iraq, and diplomats at a communal dinner in Iraq, away from my family for the fourth year.

Ouch! …It hurts. Seriously.

However, I’m thankful for many things. I’m especially thankful for my one year anniversary. This past 17 of November marked the birth of my Coffee Shop Politics platform. With more than 20…

*3 min

“You are fortunate to have a strong community. I find that immigrants to the States connect with their ‘people’ better than those of us here all along.” Mika (non-Assyrian American) wrote to me privately in response to a blog I posted on LinkedIn.

A majority of self-development books like “Never Eat Alone” and “The Last Safe Investment” emphasize the importance of developing friendships…