Hello, and welcome to another posting. This times, it comes your way from the city of Sulaimaniya in Iraqi Kurdistan.
It has been always pleasant to visit this city in the past. I have so many good friends in there, who i always miss while being in Baghdad.
My coming to this city was by car, and it was the longest drive i had, and the first to another province since the latest outbreak of violence after the Samarra 22 Feb. bombing.
I took a taxi from Baghdad's Nahdha Square garage, and i took the two front seats while 3 people sat in the back row. Then we drove along, and it took us about 5 hours to reach Sulaimaniya. On the road there were many check points, but one or two of them had only two soldiers. That was a little scary because: What if somebody attacked the two soldiers, and took over the road?! What would happen then?!
Anyway, we arrived safely to Sulaimaniya, and it took me another day until i saw the first of friends.
Talk to you soon!
28 April 2006
Long Time, No Nothing!
And Hello There!
Sorry i haven't written for so long.
I have proven total failure on keeping my war diary on the road; as well as keeping my day-to-day activities as well.
For that, i apologize from you, and hope that the coming days will not be like that.
I hope for sure, but cannot promise anything. :(
Talk to you soon!
Sorry i haven't written for so long.
I have proven total failure on keeping my war diary on the road; as well as keeping my day-to-day activities as well.
For that, i apologize from you, and hope that the coming days will not be like that.
I hope for sure, but cannot promise anything. :(
Talk to you soon!
24 April 2006
He Spoke Well, Out of Office!
Yes, he did...
I might have expected him to do so, but maybe not a lot.
He is the outgoing Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari. And the occasion was the start of the new parliament in Iraq.
As a matter of fact, his speech was quite effective, and so were the other speeches at that day. But the question is: Will (any of) those speeches be brought to life and reality?
That's what WE as Iraqis need, right?!
Plain speeches wouldn't lead us anywhere, if things were not Goal U Fi'il (= you say it, then you do it) as we say, otherwise, everything would join the on going blablabla that we have been hearing for good knows how many years now (definitely much more than 3!).
But to Jaafari, as he goes from PM (=Prime Minister), to MP (=Member of Parliament); one could say, at this particular event: Well Said!
I guess it is true that: After everything is said and done, more have been said than done!
I might have expected him to do so, but maybe not a lot.
He is the outgoing Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari. And the occasion was the start of the new parliament in Iraq.
As a matter of fact, his speech was quite effective, and so were the other speeches at that day. But the question is: Will (any of) those speeches be brought to life and reality?
That's what WE as Iraqis need, right?!
Plain speeches wouldn't lead us anywhere, if things were not Goal U Fi'il (= you say it, then you do it) as we say, otherwise, everything would join the on going blablabla that we have been hearing for good knows how many years now (definitely much more than 3!).
But to Jaafari, as he goes from PM (=Prime Minister), to MP (=Member of Parliament); one could say, at this particular event: Well Said!
I guess it is true that: After everything is said and done, more have been said than done!
09 April 2006
Three Years...
Today, marked 3 years of the "whatever you may call it"...
It was what some cheesy smileys called it the "liberation", while the UN resolutions and the global majority call it "occupation", in the same time that you find some people dance around both expressions and call it the "change". Another bunch would like to call it "Pandora Day", in which Pandora's box was opened, thus all the demons were set "free".
Other people tend to call it the "fall", but there is a difference on what exactly fell that day. Some would dramatize it, and call it the Fall of Baghdad, just like this new Egyptian movie called "The Night Baghdad Fell" (Laylat Suqout Baghdad); while some others, including some proud Iraqis say that the ruling regime only fell, and Baghdad never falls.
No matter what do you call it, 9 April 2003 was a dividing day in this country's history.
But really, after those three years, what changed? And what would Iraqis feel?
Before, everything was under the eyes of the state, it was a "daddy knows better" state... You couldn't communicate with the world, have a free e-mail account on Yahoo, Hotmail, or any of that; you couldn't have a chat, you couldn't have cell phones, you couldn't have satellite TV, you couldn't tell someone you don't know that you heard BBC last night.
But now... There is one thing most of the Iraqis agree upon, which is "there is no government"... Or we may correct and say that there are 1001 governments in Iraq, or maybe 26 million! since Iraqis are sometimes considered just like fingerprints, where no Iraqi can fully agree with another Iraqi. There's the President's gov't, Prime Minister's gov't, Majority's gov't, Parties' gov't, smaller parties' gov't, Militias' gov't, Black shirts' gov't, and "insurgents" gov't. I'm sorry if i forgot any gov't, i didn't mean to!
You still can't tell someone you don't know that you heard BBC last night. What if he or his black or white or whatever colored turbaned sheikh or sayyid or imam or whatever thought that BBC is an "infidel" radio, and whoever who listens to it gets infected with infidelian flu, just like the avian flu?!
Some people would argue about "freedoms" that they gained in the past 3 years... That could be very true, but even freedoms need laws, and law inforcement to regulate, otherwise, some people's freedom could be a synonym for chaos.
Yes, 3 years had passed... And that day have brought things that needed to be brought, which were left to evaporate or be very limited; and it also brought things that one would have never thought that they would be ever seen in Iraq.
Today, 3 years after 9 April 2003, as i tour my area, and its main street that stretches for 2 kms, i saw 8 burned cars, some are recent, and some are a bit old. Not far from my home there was a car parked weirdly over a trash square. It stopped there after its driver was shot. There were bullet marks on the car, but i haven't seen the body. My father saw a body of a person lying in the middle of the street about 5 days ago.
Shopkeepers told us that minibuses often come in broad daylight, and shoot hand-tied people dead, leave the body and drive away. Bakeries were bread is made are also targeted, maybe bread is "infidel" as well?!!
Every once in a while you hear women wail and cry, as the news of a dead relative reaches their house, or someone of that family is shot at their doorsteps.
It is all getting tragically ridiculous by the day, like a long running black black comedy, and our PM is still stuck to his chair, 4 months after the elections!Maybe he grew too "wide" to rise out of that chair, or perhaps he is glued to it!
What would return peace and stability to Iraq?!
Nothing... Or?!
It was what some cheesy smileys called it the "liberation", while the UN resolutions and the global majority call it "occupation", in the same time that you find some people dance around both expressions and call it the "change". Another bunch would like to call it "Pandora Day", in which Pandora's box was opened, thus all the demons were set "free".
Other people tend to call it the "fall", but there is a difference on what exactly fell that day. Some would dramatize it, and call it the Fall of Baghdad, just like this new Egyptian movie called "The Night Baghdad Fell" (Laylat Suqout Baghdad); while some others, including some proud Iraqis say that the ruling regime only fell, and Baghdad never falls.
No matter what do you call it, 9 April 2003 was a dividing day in this country's history.
But really, after those three years, what changed? And what would Iraqis feel?
Before, everything was under the eyes of the state, it was a "daddy knows better" state... You couldn't communicate with the world, have a free e-mail account on Yahoo, Hotmail, or any of that; you couldn't have a chat, you couldn't have cell phones, you couldn't have satellite TV, you couldn't tell someone you don't know that you heard BBC last night.
But now... There is one thing most of the Iraqis agree upon, which is "there is no government"... Or we may correct and say that there are 1001 governments in Iraq, or maybe 26 million! since Iraqis are sometimes considered just like fingerprints, where no Iraqi can fully agree with another Iraqi. There's the President's gov't, Prime Minister's gov't, Majority's gov't, Parties' gov't, smaller parties' gov't, Militias' gov't, Black shirts' gov't, and "insurgents" gov't. I'm sorry if i forgot any gov't, i didn't mean to!
You still can't tell someone you don't know that you heard BBC last night. What if he or his black or white or whatever colored turbaned sheikh or sayyid or imam or whatever thought that BBC is an "infidel" radio, and whoever who listens to it gets infected with infidelian flu, just like the avian flu?!
Some people would argue about "freedoms" that they gained in the past 3 years... That could be very true, but even freedoms need laws, and law inforcement to regulate, otherwise, some people's freedom could be a synonym for chaos.
Yes, 3 years had passed... And that day have brought things that needed to be brought, which were left to evaporate or be very limited; and it also brought things that one would have never thought that they would be ever seen in Iraq.
Today, 3 years after 9 April 2003, as i tour my area, and its main street that stretches for 2 kms, i saw 8 burned cars, some are recent, and some are a bit old. Not far from my home there was a car parked weirdly over a trash square. It stopped there after its driver was shot. There were bullet marks on the car, but i haven't seen the body. My father saw a body of a person lying in the middle of the street about 5 days ago.
Shopkeepers told us that minibuses often come in broad daylight, and shoot hand-tied people dead, leave the body and drive away. Bakeries were bread is made are also targeted, maybe bread is "infidel" as well?!!
Every once in a while you hear women wail and cry, as the news of a dead relative reaches their house, or someone of that family is shot at their doorsteps.
It is all getting tragically ridiculous by the day, like a long running black black comedy, and our PM is still stuck to his chair, 4 months after the elections!Maybe he grew too "wide" to rise out of that chair, or perhaps he is glued to it!
What would return peace and stability to Iraq?!
Nothing... Or?!
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