I think the title says it all… And here I am “paying the price” of not writing something by myself since a very very long time.
Now there is a stack of events that I have no idea how to deal with! I have been thinking about describing Sulaimaniya in which I’ve been gladly staying since the 1st week of September (except for the Eid week which I spent home in Baghdad), but time passed and I didn’t do that, and I can’t stop feeling that I owe this cute city a nice article, and owe its blue skies and wonderful sunsets, and especially the mountain that I look at everyday, and its fascinating colors change.
I was also to prepare a very optimistic article about the Mecca Agreement, signed between Sunni and Shiite clergymen, but after 3 weeks of signing it, nothing, absolutely nothing had changed. Around the time of signing that deal, my friend’s father got kidnapped by an extremist (Selefist) Sunni group that wants all Shiites out of anywhere west of the Saladin Highway west of Baghdad. He was then released on the condition that the family abandons their house and belongings, in addition to paying a ransom; and of course, no force would protect them, or any one else who would go through the same suffering.
I also wanted to write about the time when I meet Mr. Dhiya Al-Nasiri, one of the very respectable reporters of my favorite channel, Al-Arabiya, and the nice discussion we had about news and their channels. I was really proud to have this discussion with someone from Al-Arabiya, and I asked him to send my sincere regards to its entire staff anywhere they may be.
And then, days pass, and the Saddam Verdict came on 5 Nov. 2006, and a good thing that our usually volatile area remained calm in and after the verdict was announced.
Amidst all of this, I have become a Borat addict. The main reason for laughing is the YouTube Borat videos. And as a tribute to Mr. Borat and the talent that impersonates him, the following program is in Boratese!
“The US & A Congress Elections was on the Tuesday, which saw the loss of Premier George Walker Bush Party for some important chairs, and that made Ronald Dumbs-field went out barefooted because he got a big hit on the khrum!! I think he was one of the big reasons of US & A's non-success in the war of terror!!!”
Seriously though, President Bush told us that Bremer was a clever dude, and he wasn’t so clever I think; he also says that Rummy is cool, and I don’t think so either, and now he brings theM & M’s University President to yeeha everything! I wonder what O’Reilly would say, seeing that everything is fine, and that there was a “coalition” between the Democrats, the Iranians and the North Koreans!!
http://www.comedycentral.com/motherload/index.jhtml?ml_video=77016
And we come to this day… One year ago, I was in Amman for some business, when terrors, which usually stroke Baghdad, stroke Amman. I still remember how the news was broken to us by a friend that was there, and how stressful that night was. But the only thing that brought a little smile to us in all that stress was the vagueness CNN, BBC and Fox had. See, we needed to know where the explosions were in Amman, and they were busy explaining where Jordan is! “This Europe, this is Africa, this is Asia, and this is Jordan!”. Good Grief!
That attack killed 60 innocent people most of them Jordanians, but one of the non-Jordanians was the well-known Syrian-born Director Mustapha Akkad, who made the most famous movie about the history of Islam (The Message). I was so sad for him, and sadder to see a peaceful city like Amman go through what we go through.
Well, that’s about it… I hope that I will be able to post little things every 5-10 days, with a bigger article like this more often.
Next time, I will give you good entertainment news, all being well…
Till then… That’s all, folks!
