Saturday Night...

The Curfew have been imposed for two days now, and it was a good idea to say the least... So that nobody moves around, and fools around with peoples lives.

Tonight, however, witnessed the first somewhat close and significant threat to our region of Baghdad. At around 9:15 pm, some 2 hours after Isha (Night) prayers, gun shots back and forth were heard near a mosque in our area, the mosque began to call "Allahu Akbar", and gun shots ripped the air all over, a signal to the attackers that there would be no chance for them to make it, because the whole region would fight them back, a region of some 10,000 or more.

The battle continued for some 20 minutes, and the Iraqi National Guards were quickly deployed in the area to protect it. People were asked not to go out of their homes. There was a high degree of cooperation between the army, the mosques and the citizens.

Curfew was to go on for Sunday as well, but only for cars. If you want to walk, then walk.

Atwar...

Atwar Bahjat...
From Iraq...

Even with the necklace she was wearing, the last time she was seen alive, the last time she had seen the setting sun outside Samarra, the city that saw her coming to this world 30 years ago; and saw her departing it...

She lived a life looking for the Truth, and she is now in Heaven, where the utmost truth is. She was killed with 2 other colleagues, after trying and failing to enter Samarra all day long on the 23 Feb. 2006.

Her last time on the air was shortly after 3 pm GMT, from a place on the northern outskirts of Samarra.

Another sad day, not only for an Iraqi mother and a younger sister; not only for colleagues; but for viewers in a sad country, in a sad part of the world; which seems to get sadder, i am afraid.

God bless your soul, Atwar Bahjat of Al-Arabiya, as well as your colleagues, Adnan & Khalid, you have all been couragous, you have been Iraqis.

Samarra...

Once again, Iraq and sadness become one.
Once again, madness beats wisdom.
Once again, craziness has its best day.

It was a partly cloudy winter morning over Samarra, a city that is truly an open-air museum, some 120 kms (80 miles) to the north of Baghdad, a city which is unique in everything; and on 22 Feb. 2006, it was destined to re-define the Iraqi on-going, ever-lasting sorrow.

The shrine of the 10th and 11th Shiite Imams (or as the Western media calls them as "Saints"), is the jewel on Samarra's necklace of history. The eternal pride of Samarra, and Samarrans, who are also defined as Sunnis, but have never ever failed to be the best of hosts to one of the 4 Shiite most Holy Sites in Iraq; Samarrans who are proud of these two Shiite Imams being their ancestors and forefathers.

On the sad morning of 22 Feb. 2006; which could be brought closer to Westerners' imagination if described as the same as the morning of 11 Sep. 2001, minus the human casualties, plus the shrine's sanctity; the golden dome that stood high above the shrine of 4: the 2 Imams, one of the Imam's sister, and one of the Imam's wife; was blown up.

With it, i am sad to say; the sanity thread in Iraq was cut, and the voice of reason was harshly told to shut up.

Samarra, and Samarrans, as well as the whole world, woke up to a seen they never imagined. A seen so devastated, and yet so devastating. The 4 graves engulfed by a silver/golden structure of enamel and Quranic writings under the golden dome, destroyed by the huge and massive explosion, were there no more.

Despite calls by the highest of religious authorities, some groups went to "retaliate", but retaliation went against the wrong people.

It is neither of faith, nor of common wisdom, to accuse Sunnis, of which are the Samarrans, who are very proud that the Shiite Imams are their ancestors.

It is neither of faith, nor of common wisdom, to attack Sunni mosques, or to drag completely innocent Sunni people from their homes, to an unknown fate, or rather to a later known fate in Baghdad's Central Morgue.

This is definitely not what the Imam's would have wanted, and this definitely not what Islam (whatever the sect is) calls for. The act of "retaliation" is as condemned and as ugly as the original act of destroying the Holy Site.

If any person wanted to "retaliate", then "retaliate" from those who would be proven guilty, or caught red-handed, as we heard from Al-Iraqiya state-run TV as well as other channels, that 10 people were arrested, and "seem" connected to the aggression.

To destroy your brother's house, is to destroy your own house.

To destroy your brother's mosque or shrine, is to destroy your own mosque or shrine.

To kill your brother, is suicide.

Going through the media on such a sad, sad day; i have seen the worse channels, and they were Al-Forat TV (which is so Shiite), and Baghdad TV (which is so Sunni). It was like this one brought benzine to the fire, and this one brought kerosene to the fire; and i am very afraid that they would bring explosives to the fire that is not getting any smaller, and they would.

I pray, sincerely, that people, with wisdom as big as the Iraqi sorrow; would rise up from the rubble left after Samarra blast; and the ashes left after a Sunni mosque burning; and come together, to stop the bloodshed; because if bloodshed ever started on a large(r) scale, then there would be no Iraqis to live in Iraq.

Wisdom is priceless in times of madness.

God preserve Iraq, and Iraqis without exception, and give them wisdom, leading to peace.

The Birds

Hello Again,

Long time no write... Whenever the time gap between posting and the other goes longer i get sadder .

I wanted this to be of more frequency, but what to do, you just don't always get what you want now, do you?

Today we are going to talk about birds. Seeing the title, which is not by any means relevent to Alfred Hitchcook's famous classic movie The Birds, but rather relevent to the Bird Flu (Avian Flu) issue that is causing more and more concern in Iraq and elsewhere.

Of course, the situation is extremely serious, not only serious but very dangerous especially here in Iraq, where everything is either unorganized, or needs great efforts to organize, in the midst of all the challanges facing the people here.

For example, when the first case appeared in Turkey, a group of people, that nobody knows from where they are, or who sent them, reportedly and allegedly started touring areas of Baghdad claiming to give Anti-Flu vaccines, which were in fact, fatal or dangerous materials. Ministry of Health said that there are no groups from them whatsoever.

Then, with the unstable situation facing the nation, especially in areas around Samarra (110 KM = 70 miles north of Baghdad), it wasn't enough for the people there to live the common daily difficulties of Iraqi life; but in addition to all that, migrant birds, who usually land in the huge Thirthar Lake west of Samarra started falling dead from the sky last week, on peoples' homes and farms. According to people living there who spoke to AFP, birds looked extremely skinny, and looked as if they had runny noses.

Chickens are being killed everywhere, in the north, in the center and south of Iraq. Cases have been heard of in the north, and south. Wherever there are lakes, where migrant birds may touch down, the infection is probably to spread.

The only positive thing to this is that prices of eggs, and even imported chicken has gone down in the local market, a temptation for those who'd take the risk, and many would.

I have seen a chicken about a month ago, so i took a photo of her with my mobile, because who knows how much time would pass before one would see a live chicken again, or would the poor creatures go to the brink of extinction... A bad idea many of us would hate to think of.

I honestly pray that things go well with this matter here and elsewhere. Everybody in the house say:Amen!

I Heard This Name Before!

Hello Friends,

So, while i was side-surfing (= Working on one window, Googling on the other), i found this nice website i thought i'd share with you.

It enables you to find out if your name, or anybody else's is frequent/commonly used or not. If you are expecting a baby, it would help you in checking out the general mood of picking a name for the bambino. If you were to adopt a pet, and would like to name the pet a human name (not just Fluffy or Meow!), this would be a useful website too. It requires Java to run.

Just so you know, according to this website, and girls-wise, the top 3 names of 2004 were: Emily, Emma and Madison.

Before i wrap up, let us go back to pets' names. The two cats that i have; the good cat (Nancy) with her name as the 289th name in 2004. And the bad cat (Elissa) and her name stands at the 884th rank.

Tom is not in the top 1000 names in 2004, while Jerry is no. 293. :)

Enjoy your time with:

http://babynamewizard.com/namevoyager/lnv0105.html

Communications World

Google puts IM, e-mail together Users will be able to easily chat from Gmail home page

Verne Kopytoff, Chronicle Staff Writer

Tuesday, February 7, 2006
Courtsey: San Fransisco Gate

Google Inc. has narrowed the divide between instant messaging and e-mail services by placing both within the same Web browser, ratcheting up competition with rivals Yahoo and Microsoft, which do not offer such a convenience.

The Mountain View search engine company planned to add chat to its Gmail home page Monday night.

"It's surprising that it's taken so long to bring the two together," said Brian Haven, an analyst with Forrester Research.

By making both communications services available from the same Web page, Google is hoping to lure more users. The company has offered separate e-mail and instant messaging services for some time, but they both lag in popularity behind the industry's leaders -- Yahoo, Microsoft and Time Warner Inc.'s AOL.

With the update Monday, Google's Gmail users who log in will automatically see a list of their existing e-mail contacts and whether those individuals are available or busy. Users can then click on any of the names to open a chat box and start an online conversation.

Chatting is only possible with other people who have Gmail accounts or a chat service that is compatible with Google's preexisting instant messaging service, Google Talk.

The chat feature through Gmail is available without a download, unlike other instant messaging services. A chat box simply appears on top of the Gmail page that can be moved by users to wherever they want on the computer screen.

Instant messaging conversations started through Gmail are archived on Google's servers. Users can sift through their old chats using the Gmail search box, a more convenient option than most services that require users to dig through folders stored on their computer hard drives.
In instances where users don't want conversations to be saved, they can click on a button to go off the record.

Gmail is available only to users who receive an invitation or use their cell phones to sign up. For now, the chat feature on Gmail will work only in Internet Explorer browsers versions 6.0 and above and in Firefox browsers 1.0 and above.

Short Note Re: Shooting*

Just so you know, "it was a dark and stormy night" last night in Baghdad, and there was a lot of shooting, from around 5 pm, until about midnight, with some relatively calm periods. Sometimes it was about 300 meters (yards) away.

Alrighty, i have to go now, but i will talk to you soon!

Bye!



* This was the 1st publishing on the Yahoo! 360 blog, and it was originally named "The Cat Ate My Homework."

A Week's Recap

Here I am, again, apologizing for the delay... Sorry!

There wasn't that much events to add in the past week.

Besides, my internet at home was not working very well. For 3 days it stops at night, and it is impossible to do anything for it. Having internet through the cell phone was a grin that disappeared quickly as well, since there was no signal as of this rainy morning. This comes as a surprise since the cell phone provider is one of the best out of 3 providers we have here in Baghdad.

Back to the internet, I went on Thursday morning to the local provider's office, to tell them about the wobbly signal. I saw the office half-opened, with the owner inside along with two men. I greeted them, and started telling them the signal problem. The owner said: "I'm sorry; we are having bad circumstances these days. My brother died."

I said: "Oh, I am terribly sorry. I haven't known." I offered the man my condolences and left the place.

I didn't know if his brother died normally, or was killed. But he was probably killed, since normal deaths are becoming in second place after not-so-normal causes of death in Iraq.

Meanwhile, I believe one could live without an internet signal, as long as the one is alive.

:(