I am not a frequent reader of literature but I read two quotes that I really liked and I want to share it with you. The first is for D.H. Lawrence
“I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself. A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough without ever having felt sorry for itself”
The first thing I remembered as I read this was my cousin’s funeral, he was killed in Fallujah with his 7 friends (I don’t remember the final number but some of the injured died later) as they were preparing to play soccer and a road side bomb exploded killing them all. His father and the other families turned their funeral to a wedding. Candies and chocolates were distributed and they never felt self-pity. Every one was sad for the great loss and the sight of all these teenagers’ funerals leaving their homes in one street but no self-pity, I admire their bravery. They hate Al Qaeda, the occupation and militias and for me this is the attitude of true patriot Iraqis.
The second is of Virgil
“Come what may, all bad fortune is to be conquered by endurance”
The first face I remembered as I read this quote was of my father’s friend. His house was bombed by mistake (as the Americans apologized later to him) and killed his wife, his four sons and their wives and children (three of them were married and were killed along with their families).
He gave all the people an example of endurance and patience. I saw him once, six months after the incident and he was telling me and my friend to be patient and he was advising us to be more wise in facing life troubles… he astonished me for his greatness.
Looking at them and to the mothers who lost their sons and husbands and yet they are the ones who teach their society a lesson of how great people they are. Isn’t it amazing?
Monday, April 30, 2007
Saturday, April 14, 2007
The misunderstanding… not solved but got deeper
I think in order to fully understand someone’s behavior and attitude we have to ask him about his childhood, school and the version of history that he knew (or have been told). Yes there are different versions of history and YES people attitudes are changed due to the version they know when it comes to history.
In Iraq wehave now three generations, the first is the one before the Iraqi-Iranian war (1980-1988). The second is the generation of war (those who actually fought and effected by the war directly) and the third is the after sanctions generation, after Saddam invasion for Kuwait (1990 and after). These generations have no separating lines, many people lived all the three and many remember only the sanctions and after.
The young men and women who only can remember the sanctions and after (1991 and after) have no idea of how normal life look like.
They have been raised in circumstance that many of you might know about… my point the majority of gunmen I hear about whether they were detained, killed or still acting are from that age.
We knew that time why we were suffering; Saddam, The U.S. administration and few other reasons.
That generatin were raised and told that the
Enemy=America
After 2003 we woke up on a new equation
America=Friend
By substitution
Enemy = Friend
It made the biggest confusion among people, for my self I was lucky to meet good men in the army and journalists and before all of that a father who kept telling his family never think the people are the same of politicians and he used Saddam as an example, I mean we are not like Saddam.
Instead of clearing the confusion that many inherited they made it deeper.
I hope one day it will be solved and things will be clearer for both sides. I only hope…
In Iraq wehave now three generations, the first is the one before the Iraqi-Iranian war (1980-1988). The second is the generation of war (those who actually fought and effected by the war directly) and the third is the after sanctions generation, after Saddam invasion for Kuwait (1990 and after). These generations have no separating lines, many people lived all the three and many remember only the sanctions and after.
The young men and women who only can remember the sanctions and after (1991 and after) have no idea of how normal life look like.
They have been raised in circumstance that many of you might know about… my point the majority of gunmen I hear about whether they were detained, killed or still acting are from that age.
We knew that time why we were suffering; Saddam, The U.S. administration and few other reasons.
That generatin were raised and told that the
Enemy=America
After 2003 we woke up on a new equation
America=Friend
By substitution
Enemy = Friend
It made the biggest confusion among people, for my self I was lucky to meet good men in the army and journalists and before all of that a father who kept telling his family never think the people are the same of politicians and he used Saddam as an example, I mean we are not like Saddam.
Instead of clearing the confusion that many inherited they made it deeper.
I hope one day it will be solved and things will be clearer for both sides. I only hope…
Tuesday, January 9, 2007
Bad News and cellphones
I don't have a cellphone anymore so i can avoid getting more bad news...but it is not working.
I am tired of being afraid of bad news, my phone rings and i am afraid the news will be "a friend or a relative is killed".
my brother is the only one who can call me, i gave him the office phone number and he checks on me every day whenever there is a cellphone network.
the most recent bad news were yesterday...
a neighbor of ours in Fallujah had a heart attack at 1 in the morning, it is curfew...
insurgents have bombed the landlines communications and cellphone towers (the coverage is so weak that you have to go to the second floor of the house and risk a near by American sniper hit thinking that you are up to something...and even by going to the roof of the house the cellphone network is not available all the time) so no one could make it and call for an ambulance or the police, who will not respond even if you called them being afraid of the terrorists who attacked ambulances and police cars that were carrying sick people to the hospital... once the police responded and took a pregnant woman to the hospital with her father and brother... an IED exploded killing the woman, her father and policemen.
The family and neighbors headed to the near by mosque (100 meters away) for help.
The Imam responded by turning the generators on and used the loudspeakers and asked the Iraqi police and army for help.... NO ONE RESPONDED...
The family watched their father die without receiving any help from any one....
God, i can not imagine being there.......
the other bad news before this one was my cousin Ali... he was killed with another 6 young friends (2 died later also) as they were playing SOCCER and an IED killed them all...
i am going to buy a cellphone again... it is not working...
The bad news will reach me even if I have only one person in Iraq who can call me... I have to live with it.
I am tired of being afraid of bad news, my phone rings and i am afraid the news will be "a friend or a relative is killed".
my brother is the only one who can call me, i gave him the office phone number and he checks on me every day whenever there is a cellphone network.
the most recent bad news were yesterday...
a neighbor of ours in Fallujah had a heart attack at 1 in the morning, it is curfew...
insurgents have bombed the landlines communications and cellphone towers (the coverage is so weak that you have to go to the second floor of the house and risk a near by American sniper hit thinking that you are up to something...and even by going to the roof of the house the cellphone network is not available all the time) so no one could make it and call for an ambulance or the police, who will not respond even if you called them being afraid of the terrorists who attacked ambulances and police cars that were carrying sick people to the hospital... once the police responded and took a pregnant woman to the hospital with her father and brother... an IED exploded killing the woman, her father and policemen.
The family and neighbors headed to the near by mosque (100 meters away) for help.
The Imam responded by turning the generators on and used the loudspeakers and asked the Iraqi police and army for help.... NO ONE RESPONDED...
The family watched their father die without receiving any help from any one....
God, i can not imagine being there.......
the other bad news before this one was my cousin Ali... he was killed with another 6 young friends (2 died later also) as they were playing SOCCER and an IED killed them all...
i am going to buy a cellphone again... it is not working...
The bad news will reach me even if I have only one person in Iraq who can call me... I have to live with it.
Saturday, January 6, 2007
The constitution... not any more
Today i talked to one of my friends... he is from Thawra (Sadr city now)... after congratulating each other for the new year and Eid, his wish was to have our old gatherings and laughter...
his words just rang a bell in my head.. years ago we were hungry, oppressed, living in a big prison and hopeless but we had each other Sunni, Shiite, Muslims, Christians, Arab and Kurds... we were more than friends WE WERE BROTHERS and agreed to hate the government... i know we are still brothers but we cant visit each other home now and most of us can not agree any more.
we can not live in many neighborhoods of Baghdad now, which neighborhood??? it depends whether you are Sunni or Shiite.
what a life!!!!!! i can not visit a friend that is no more than 30 kilometer (about 20 miles) away because that neighborhood is for the other sect.
he can not visit me as my city is the homeland of the other sect of his.
it make me feel sick to think about how savage we became.
Why they don't make it official in IRAQ
the government should make it official and the parliament must approve it immediately...
and the Iraqi people will dance and applause for it...
cancel the Constitution and replace it with Jungle Law ... WHY NOT???!!!... it is already the active law in the country...
why lying to ourselves and to the others...
WE ARE the only country on earth that can not keep security in the capital for 2 hours without imposing a curfew.
CURFEW ... CURFEW ... CURFEW.... every single incident the government will invent a new security plan...
and every time the security plan is imposing CURFEW and MORE checkpoints...
most of Baghdad's roads are blocked by concrete barriers and barb wires... hundreds of checkpoints... 40 thousands Iraqi army soldiers and thousands of American soldiers..
jet fighters, multinational forces, satellite images and dragon eye planes (surveillance)
What do they need more to keep security??????????????
ANGELS to fight with them????
the government hold the citizen responsible for any security breech in his neighborhood... the government hold the citizen responsible to provide electricity to himself ... the government hold the citizen responsible for providing fuel for him self... the government ... the government... long live the GOVERNMENT.
any way we don't need the government
we have MILITIAS
we have TERRORISTS
we have RESISTANCE
we have enough CLERICS
we have GUN DEALERS
we have SMUGGLERS
we have bad NEIGHBORS
we have trained CRIMINALS
and even more all the above have many ways to make money THEY CAN KIDNAP any time they want and WHO EVER they want (for example more than 147 employee from a ministry that is no more than 3 miles away from the government and the MNFI head quarters)
and above all, we have the government of MONKEYS...
and since all what we need to announce JUNGLE LAW is provided
then why waiting ......... cancel it.. announce the Republic of Jungle Law.. pack your things and go back to Iran, Syria and London... and leave us alone as you left us for the last 35 years...
his words just rang a bell in my head.. years ago we were hungry, oppressed, living in a big prison and hopeless but we had each other Sunni, Shiite, Muslims, Christians, Arab and Kurds... we were more than friends WE WERE BROTHERS and agreed to hate the government... i know we are still brothers but we cant visit each other home now and most of us can not agree any more.
we can not live in many neighborhoods of Baghdad now, which neighborhood??? it depends whether you are Sunni or Shiite.
what a life!!!!!! i can not visit a friend that is no more than 30 kilometer (about 20 miles) away because that neighborhood is for the other sect.
he can not visit me as my city is the homeland of the other sect of his.
it make me feel sick to think about how savage we became.
Why they don't make it official in IRAQ
the government should make it official and the parliament must approve it immediately...
and the Iraqi people will dance and applause for it...
cancel the Constitution and replace it with Jungle Law ... WHY NOT???!!!... it is already the active law in the country...
why lying to ourselves and to the others...
WE ARE the only country on earth that can not keep security in the capital for 2 hours without imposing a curfew.
CURFEW ... CURFEW ... CURFEW.... every single incident the government will invent a new security plan...
and every time the security plan is imposing CURFEW and MORE checkpoints...
most of Baghdad's roads are blocked by concrete barriers and barb wires... hundreds of checkpoints... 40 thousands Iraqi army soldiers and thousands of American soldiers..
jet fighters, multinational forces, satellite images and dragon eye planes (surveillance)
What do they need more to keep security??????????????
ANGELS to fight with them????
the government hold the citizen responsible for any security breech in his neighborhood... the government hold the citizen responsible to provide electricity to himself ... the government hold the citizen responsible for providing fuel for him self... the government ... the government... long live the GOVERNMENT.
any way we don't need the government
we have MILITIAS
we have TERRORISTS
we have RESISTANCE
we have enough CLERICS
we have GUN DEALERS
we have SMUGGLERS
we have bad NEIGHBORS
we have trained CRIMINALS
and even more all the above have many ways to make money THEY CAN KIDNAP any time they want and WHO EVER they want (for example more than 147 employee from a ministry that is no more than 3 miles away from the government and the MNFI head quarters)
and above all, we have the government of MONKEYS...
and since all what we need to announce JUNGLE LAW is provided
then why waiting ......... cancel it.. announce the Republic of Jungle Law.. pack your things and go back to Iran, Syria and London... and leave us alone as you left us for the last 35 years...
Thursday, January 4, 2007
health care is becoming a rare luxury
Historical background (JUST KIDDING)... 3 days ago i was heading back to Baghdad from Fallujah and by chance i met one of my old friends at the bus station, he is a doctor, and he was heading to Baghdad also, so we took a taxi and said TO BAGHDAD. the road used to take about 30 minutes now it is between an hour to 4 hours, THANKS TO MILITARY CONVOYS AND IRAQI ARMY AND POLICE CHECKPOINTS, any way we were talking and catching up and all these things DID YOU GET MARRIED? was the main question THANK GOD, NO was the usual answer, then he told me he is leaving the country soon as he can not take it any more and he feels he is dying from the inside, imagine he is the doctor NOT THE patient. a month earlier another friend of mine, he is a doctor also, started to IM me and i said to him how is KUT city (One of Iraq's southeast cities) and then he answered I AM IN SUDAN now WHAT ?!!!! he left the country also...Back to my story, Today i had to go to see a doctor.... i went to Karada to Saint Rafael hospital or as we call it (Al Rahibat Hospital). it is a good hospital and well known in the country. the two specialist doctors that i have to see one of them had fled the country WELL it is OK, i said to myself, i know doctors are leaving the country so i headed to see another doctor near Salman Fa'eq square GUESS WHAT he fled also... i have one hour left to go back to my work and i have to do this fast and i am in pain, finally i found another doctor and he was good I AM LUCKY this time... the doctor smiled and said: you need to see a surgeon, i will refer you to one of the best surgeons and it is a minor surgery so you should be fine (HE SAW MY TERRIFIED FACE)... he gave me the address and thank God (Hamdu Lillah, in Arabic) the address was not far away I CAN GO and set an appointment, i have enough time. i went to the address and GUESS WHAT the surgeon have left the country few days ago.... i said to myself : you know what SCREW IT i am heading back to work and deal with this later.what about those who are injured by car bombs and terrorists attacks... what about their families... for my self i can afford it, i can go to any hospital that i want but the majority of the people can not... they are watching their beloved ones dying without being able to do anything to them (and that what happened to my Uncle a year ago... he died because of the doctors carelessness and his family ignorance).i bet those who die after sustaining injuries from a terrorist attack because of lack of medical treatment are more than those who die immediately.At the end of the day .... pain has gone after thinking that the future is so dark to the limit we might not find a doctor in a year or so to treat those who are in need.
Wednesday, January 3, 2007
Saddam's Excution
Hi every one... Eid Mubarak and Happy New Year (inshallah) especially for Iraqis (we need it)....
it has been long and tough year for each one of us (the Iraqis) for both who living in Iraq or abroad... the government (as they call them selves) wanted to end 2006 with a dramatic ending that made every one say WOW. IS THIS THE NEW IRAQ?!!! (by the way Saddam used the term NEW IRAQ also earlier 80's).
Sorry, lets go back from the beginning
i don't like Saddam... he is a dictator and he made his people (WE) suffer... are we clear? Hope so.
the new era that the Americans started in Iraq should be better then Saddam's... good so far
WELL IT IS NOT
look to the execution, men covered their faces while the tyrant (SADDAM) refused... why they are afraid, aren't they represent the freedom that the Iraqi people always dreamed of (THIS IS WHAT THEY SAY, not me)?
Didn't they win the elections? Don't they represent the majority of the Iraqi people? or they don't(hmmmmmmmmmmmmm) amazing... because they say these things every day to the Iraqi people.
listen well to the execution... is this law and order? is this how it should be done? is the government that is building the NEW DEMOCRATIC FEDERAL IRAQ???????????????
well (with all bitterness) yes they ARE.
how pity... the new democratic IRAQ but with politicians that think there are no Iraqi people, they can not see but sects living in a country and they represent each sect, and the fact is... they don't.
Saddam has gone, and he succeeded in showing him self as a tough guy and they looked like bunch of barbarian people executing a guy who provoked their anger even when he was facing death telling them (IS THIS YOUR MANHOOD)... God damn it, Al Qaeda videos of brutal and savage executions are more organized than the government's...
Anyway (ala ay Haal, in arabic) i well get back to it later with you guys... IT WILL BE LONG LONG STORY.
today we had to work (and i guess i didn't do my best, i feel i am sick) and tomorrow apparently will be a long day we have stories to run after and hope we will make it.
wish you all luck
it has been long and tough year for each one of us (the Iraqis) for both who living in Iraq or abroad... the government (as they call them selves) wanted to end 2006 with a dramatic ending that made every one say WOW. IS THIS THE NEW IRAQ?!!! (by the way Saddam used the term NEW IRAQ also earlier 80's).
Sorry, lets go back from the beginning
i don't like Saddam... he is a dictator and he made his people (WE) suffer... are we clear? Hope so.
the new era that the Americans started in Iraq should be better then Saddam's... good so far
WELL IT IS NOT
look to the execution, men covered their faces while the tyrant (SADDAM) refused... why they are afraid, aren't they represent the freedom that the Iraqi people always dreamed of (THIS IS WHAT THEY SAY, not me)?
Didn't they win the elections? Don't they represent the majority of the Iraqi people? or they don't(hmmmmmmmmmmmmm) amazing... because they say these things every day to the Iraqi people.
listen well to the execution... is this law and order? is this how it should be done? is the government that is building the NEW DEMOCRATIC FEDERAL IRAQ???????????????
well (with all bitterness) yes they ARE.
how pity... the new democratic IRAQ but with politicians that think there are no Iraqi people, they can not see but sects living in a country and they represent each sect, and the fact is... they don't.
Saddam has gone, and he succeeded in showing him self as a tough guy and they looked like bunch of barbarian people executing a guy who provoked their anger even when he was facing death telling them (IS THIS YOUR MANHOOD)... God damn it, Al Qaeda videos of brutal and savage executions are more organized than the government's...
Anyway (ala ay Haal, in arabic) i well get back to it later with you guys... IT WILL BE LONG LONG STORY.
today we had to work (and i guess i didn't do my best, i feel i am sick) and tomorrow apparently will be a long day we have stories to run after and hope we will make it.
wish you all luck
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