That's how we areWhy?
What have I done?
What's my crime? For being born?
Life sentence, applicable since the day you are born....
Sunday, July 6, 2008
WHY?
That's how we areWhy?
What have I done?
What's my crime? For being born?
Life sentence, applicable since the day you are born....
Saturday, July 5, 2008
Chains
Breaking news...
Ingred..The Colombian- French politician held by the FARC for six years has been released, as well as other 14, with no single gun shut according to news agencies.
The world is celebrating, noise all over; I heard the news on BBC one morning when I was getting ready to go to work. It was really stunning and good news! News here, analyzing there, and a lot of attention.
Couple of days ago, I was discussing the news with a friend from Colombia, he told me that living in jungle as a prisoner of the FARC are very hard, they chain people and force them to walk for many miles. This phrase got me thinking; and comparing those prisoners to us, I mean Iraqi women:
Metaphorically, does that look like us? Or our situation? Prisoners by a large organization called traditions, ignorance and rigidity, chained by invisible chains called "people talk" and being forced to walk a hard, long road to go where that organization wants us to go.. Without mentioning the injustice and the torture.
Well, it is not metaphorically, it's technically!
Ingred complains that they held her for six years! Well, Ingred, I have something to tell you, millions of us is being held, chained and tortured all of our lives, since thousands of years ...
Yes, life in the jungle is hard, and life in the dark, wide, endless desert of ignorance, is way beyond hard...
Congratulations, and best wishes!
Ingred..The Colombian- French politician held by the FARC for six years has been released, as well as other 14, with no single gun shut according to news agencies.
The world is celebrating, noise all over; I heard the news on BBC one morning when I was getting ready to go to work. It was really stunning and good news! News here, analyzing there, and a lot of attention.
Couple of days ago, I was discussing the news with a friend from Colombia, he told me that living in jungle as a prisoner of the FARC are very hard, they chain people and force them to walk for many miles. This phrase got me thinking; and comparing those prisoners to us, I mean Iraqi women:
Metaphorically, does that look like us? Or our situation? Prisoners by a large organization called traditions, ignorance and rigidity, chained by invisible chains called "people talk" and being forced to walk a hard, long road to go where that organization wants us to go.. Without mentioning the injustice and the torture.
Well, it is not metaphorically, it's technically!
Ingred complains that they held her for six years! Well, Ingred, I have something to tell you, millions of us is being held, chained and tortured all of our lives, since thousands of years ...
Yes, life in the jungle is hard, and life in the dark, wide, endless desert of ignorance, is way beyond hard...
Congratulations, and best wishes!
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Summer in Iraq
Summer in Iraq began, another chapter of suffering started. The heat is unbearable and the swelter is non sense. The fifth summer on the raw without stable electricity, the cut hours reaches 20- 22. Add to that the constant sand storms and dusty weather, since the beginning of this summer, the sunny days are very rare. Though this dust is harmful, but it has a bright side, it decreases the temperature! Today, about 1 a. m., it was very dusty that the view became orange; I saw that from the window of my office.
Without mentioning the shortage in the drinkable water.
Last Friday, while the family and I crossing the former Saddam highway bridge, in Al-Dora side, I have noticed that, the depth Tigress (Dijla) river so decreased that small Islands started to appear, and a cattle of Iraqi buffalo crossed from the banks to the new island without being drowned. Sad, isn't?
Extreme heat with lack of basic services, the mark of summer in Iraq.
As for the news of the war, things are getting really better and statistics are very promising. The safety in Baghdad and other cities considered very dangerous is now much better and more settled. The rates of violence hit the lowest since the beginning of the US led war in 2003.
Serious interventions of both American and Iraqi forces almost terminated terror and insurgency groups, with organized operations known with different names, with the aid of the citizens and support groups. Hundreds of wanted, killed, caught and thrown in jail.
Al-Qaida! Barely exists. Great insurgency and crime leaders have been arrested. Some prominent leaders of so called (Islamic State of Iraq) have been arrested. Many areas are secured and thousands of families return to their homes after being thrown out from them by insurgents and gangs.
Still, some violence here and there, for example, last week there was bombing in the facility of Municipal Assembly in Sadr city left tens dead including American officials and soldiers, as well another in the same facility in Musol, which I saw on TV, left tens dead as well as another executed by a woman hid the explosive device under her close.
New phenomena in Baghdad streets, first the increasing number of people seen there with the opening of hundreds of parks and restaurants, and the other is, street lights using solar energy to light. One can see the solar plates installed at the top of the pole.
Promising improvements, but they do not reduce the suffering from the heat and lack of services. I remember last summer was so tough that I have suffered bad health, until I visited Kurdistan on vacation where suddenly all the complications are gone.
As for women, one can notice the increase of their appearance as the dangers of them being kidnapped or being hurt is close to non-existing. The social pressures still exist, rarely a women seen by herself in the street and not accompanied by a parent or relative. Oppression still exists with no signs of change. There are also some talks and controversy about the quota of women representation in the parliament.
Without mentioning the shortage in the drinkable water.
Last Friday, while the family and I crossing the former Saddam highway bridge, in Al-Dora side, I have noticed that, the depth Tigress (Dijla) river so decreased that small Islands started to appear, and a cattle of Iraqi buffalo crossed from the banks to the new island without being drowned. Sad, isn't?
Extreme heat with lack of basic services, the mark of summer in Iraq.
As for the news of the war, things are getting really better and statistics are very promising. The safety in Baghdad and other cities considered very dangerous is now much better and more settled. The rates of violence hit the lowest since the beginning of the US led war in 2003.
Serious interventions of both American and Iraqi forces almost terminated terror and insurgency groups, with organized operations known with different names, with the aid of the citizens and support groups. Hundreds of wanted, killed, caught and thrown in jail.
Al-Qaida! Barely exists. Great insurgency and crime leaders have been arrested. Some prominent leaders of so called (Islamic State of Iraq) have been arrested. Many areas are secured and thousands of families return to their homes after being thrown out from them by insurgents and gangs.
Still, some violence here and there, for example, last week there was bombing in the facility of Municipal Assembly in Sadr city left tens dead including American officials and soldiers, as well another in the same facility in Musol, which I saw on TV, left tens dead as well as another executed by a woman hid the explosive device under her close.
New phenomena in Baghdad streets, first the increasing number of people seen there with the opening of hundreds of parks and restaurants, and the other is, street lights using solar energy to light. One can see the solar plates installed at the top of the pole.
Promising improvements, but they do not reduce the suffering from the heat and lack of services. I remember last summer was so tough that I have suffered bad health, until I visited Kurdistan on vacation where suddenly all the complications are gone.
As for women, one can notice the increase of their appearance as the dangers of them being kidnapped or being hurt is close to non-existing. The social pressures still exist, rarely a women seen by herself in the street and not accompanied by a parent or relative. Oppression still exists with no signs of change. There are also some talks and controversy about the quota of women representation in the parliament.
Left Behind
My morning started like every week day. No power all over the night and the morning, heat took over me and made it difficult to get ready. Life goes on! The bus came and I got in to go to work.
A sad surprise was waiting for us in the road, as we were still collecting other co-workers from there houses, we had to take a branch road because the main road between the houses are blocked for fixations. The bus stopped; there was plenty of people and cars coming in the opposite side, which completely blocked the road. One of the co-workers who lived near by said that a police officer lived here was killed last night, so this is his funeral.
The bus is still, we could not go forward because all of the cars coming in the opposite side, we could go back, there a lot of cars behind. Minutes later, the casket approached, borne on a pick up car, also had no way to pass, so Iraqi soldiers spread on the street and started controlling the traffic to open the road. They were running holding their rifles, I closed my ears with my palms in order not to hear the annoying voice of shooting, and luckily they didn’t shoot.
Women co-workers began sobbing, one of them her son got killed last year. Then we heard the women of the family of the killed hysterically screaming in shock of his death, which is a common thing in Iraqi funerals, a thing which I never got used to and always gave me a horrible feeling. The sobbing inside the bus increased, then we had to go back and cross through the broken street…
I couple of tears fell from my eyes; I had a feeling mixed of anger and frustration. It was unbearable! WHY??? A young man! The most annoying feeling was my sympathy with his family, those who have to carry the burden of his death, his mother! What does she feel? His relatives, loved ones?
Those who left behind?
I always wondered! The attention is mostly on the dead! And what about those who left behind? What if he was the provider of the family?? What would those behind him do? What about the feelings of grief, anger and other feelings those he left behind suffer? No voice, no one cares, they are left in the corners dragging their anguish with them the rest of their lives. What about them? Unanswered question…..
June 4, 2008
A sad surprise was waiting for us in the road, as we were still collecting other co-workers from there houses, we had to take a branch road because the main road between the houses are blocked for fixations. The bus stopped; there was plenty of people and cars coming in the opposite side, which completely blocked the road. One of the co-workers who lived near by said that a police officer lived here was killed last night, so this is his funeral.
The bus is still, we could not go forward because all of the cars coming in the opposite side, we could go back, there a lot of cars behind. Minutes later, the casket approached, borne on a pick up car, also had no way to pass, so Iraqi soldiers spread on the street and started controlling the traffic to open the road. They were running holding their rifles, I closed my ears with my palms in order not to hear the annoying voice of shooting, and luckily they didn’t shoot.
Women co-workers began sobbing, one of them her son got killed last year. Then we heard the women of the family of the killed hysterically screaming in shock of his death, which is a common thing in Iraqi funerals, a thing which I never got used to and always gave me a horrible feeling. The sobbing inside the bus increased, then we had to go back and cross through the broken street…
I couple of tears fell from my eyes; I had a feeling mixed of anger and frustration. It was unbearable! WHY??? A young man! The most annoying feeling was my sympathy with his family, those who have to carry the burden of his death, his mother! What does she feel? His relatives, loved ones?
Those who left behind?
I always wondered! The attention is mostly on the dead! And what about those who left behind? What if he was the provider of the family?? What would those behind him do? What about the feelings of grief, anger and other feelings those he left behind suffer? No voice, no one cares, they are left in the corners dragging their anguish with them the rest of their lives. What about them? Unanswered question…..
June 4, 2008
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