Before the invention of electricity, people used for lightening a certain lamp works on oil or kerosene, in Iraq we call it ( Lala) ( picture above), step by step, after the invention of electricity this lamp vanished. Sometimes its used as a decoration. But not in my country :)
Though I was a little girl, I remeber in the late 80's power cuts from time to time for short periods during the Iraqi-Iran war, but barely noticable.
But since Gulf War started in 1991, at the exact day, Dawn January 17, 1991, the power went off, power stasions hit by airstrikes. We stayed the whole war days and few weeks after using the (lala) to lighten the house..
Power kept cutting till it settled down partially the years after. the ( Lala) is a common device in every Iraqi house.
Then, the war of 2003 came, we had power the whole war till the last days. This times Power stations had not been hit, but news collided, people said American aircrafts threw some magnatic field on them, others said Saddam turned them off to revenge from people who gave up on him , or for him to escape in the dark...... God knows what is the truth....
The thing is, since that day, power hasn't settled down at all.. It kept cutting and cutting, even for long hours, sometimes 20 hours a day!
We came up with solutions, one of them at a part of every bloke, people installed a fair size generators, supply specified amount of power for the whole block for countable hours (with a price). which is an experience succeded in many Iraqi governorates before and after the war.
But at the time the generator is off, poeple either start their own home generators or lit a ............. Lala :)
In the past, some families named their daughters ( Lala) which metaphors : " the light of the house" or " the one that lightens the house" or " brightens the house or the place" or " that lightens the life"
And Here is some ( Lalas) (picture above above )
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