Today I continue from my last post trying to make sense of he latest developments in Iraq. Is Iraq still getting safer or are there cracks appearing in the new security situation? Also, read about the latest developments in Mosul and what one blogger said to a Arab taxi driver.

There are few images that can relate the true human impact of the violence in Iraq. MixMax found just such an image. Designer, Zahraa812graphic posts on DeviantArt a touching tribute to her dead cousin.

MixMode writes:

I thought I share this tribute with her and put the picture on my blog. God Bless her soul and of all innocent Iraqis, and may god protect Iraq and the Iraqis from any harm.

Read the rest of this entry »

When it was time for me to leave the place where I have lived all my 28 years, I couldn’t help wondering what exactly am I going to miss. Now that it has been almost two months away from home, I think the picture could not be any clearer.

Maybe it’s premature for me to tell, but I can say my friends’ premonitions that the sense of security outside Iraq would be enough solace proved to be nonsense. On the contrary, it added up to my sense of guilt for leaving my loved ones, my whole life and past behind.

Everybody was telling me you should be thankful for the simple fact that you are in an Arabic speaking country, where it is easy to communicate. But the thing is communication has never been a problem. I found it pretty funny that I managed to talk to Europeans on their own turf, without using a word of their language or mine, or even English. Read the rest of this entry »

(Cross Posted from Global Voices Online)

Can it really be true? Dare I say it? Iraq is actually getting safer? What with a new movement called ‘Awakening’ throwing Al-Qaeda out of Baghdad suburbs; Reports that violence is markedly down; Iraqis returning in droves; could George Bush’s surge really be working? Iraqi bloggers investigate and give the real word from the street.

Adhamiya Awakening

A big story in the blogs is about a new militia called “Awakening” (Al-Sahwa) that has taken over the streets of the Baghdad suburb of Adhamiya that was formerly controlled by Al-Qaeda and, with the help of US Troops, brought some sense of normalcy to the streets. Read the rest of this entry »

My friend described contestants of Fear Factor and other stunt shows as “sissies”, “Baghdadis ace them all,” she said. I couldn’t agree more; average Iraqis may not climb mountains but they do ride buses, which at some point of Iraq’s history were targeted the most. No Iraqi would swallow slimy worms, they are not a delicacy here, but they all have to fill their power-generating sets with petrol, often by plastic hoses, and they know how fuel tastes like; it’s gross. They don’t cram themselves in a roomful of snakes, but some of them venture walk into areas where merciless militiamen are lurking for would-be unidentified bodies.

Iraqi women, on the other hand, might shudder at the sight of a lizard crawling around the living room walls, but it is not the ultimate fear, there are more things to dread, like having their houses blown up, male family members arrested or abducted, or finding themselves unable to decide whether to keep their husbands in Baghdad, where they might be killed or rounded up, or send them to Syria, where they will surely have too much free time and consider second marriages.

I, too, have my own fears. Topping the list are syringes and hospitals, which date back to early first-hand experience with some nasty white coats. Sadly for me, I needed a checkup for some official papers. It is hard to find doctors in Baghdad, but I’m blessed for having a high school friend, who has grown up to be a successful lab technician and a patronizing white coat, whose second phrase after “hello” is always, “Oh my, you look so pale, let me take you to the lab and have some blood tests.” As if she was offering to buy me pizza! Read the rest of this entry »

(Cross Posted from Global Voices Online)

Humiliation at the hands of the Jordanian border police; belief restored in Iraq; a report from the Iraqi city of Arbil and a life in the week of one Iraqi blogger are some of the esential tales I bring you today. Also find out what is really happening in the world of Iraqi politics.

If you read no other blog posts this week read this:

I have read - several - times of the humilliation and ill treatment of Iraqis at the Jordanian border, but none has described the details of this more eloquently than Last of Iraqis. Having begged, borrowed and risked his life to get time off work, Last of Iraqis decided to take a well-earned holiday with his wife in Jordan. But he was refused entry at Queen Alia airport in Amman, Jordan and what followed serves as a testimony that should shame the whole of the Jordanian state Read the rest of this entry »

(Cross Posted from Global Voices Online)

(3adma announcing the victory of the Iraqi football team in the Asian Cup) With Iraq, very much the underdog, winning the Asian Cup I have another football special today.

(Baghdad Connect suggests a new Iraqi Flag)

You know, a few years back an Israeli, seeing that I was reading a book about Palestine, pointed out to me that the Palestinians never once created a national basketball team, how could they claim to be a nation? Well, by his benchmark, Iraq is the greatest country in the world this week. And here are the bloggers words to prove it…

Nabil:

The feeling we had today will never be forgotten, Iraqis here were all united, there weren’t sunni or shiite or kurdish people, they were all iraqis just iraqis.
We all had great moments today, where laughter was mixed with the clean tears of joy of the true iraqs who love their country and do not care about being sunni or shiite or whatever. …

CONGRATULATIONS IRAQ……
LONG LIVE IRAQ….
WE WILL HAVE PEACE ONE DAY AND WE WILL ALL RETURN TO OUR HOME AND WE WILL BE UNITED IRAQIS AGAIN, WHERE THE SUNNI IS A SHIITE AND THE SHIITE IS A SUNNI, THE KURDI IS ARABI AND THE ARABI IS KURDI OR TURKOMANI, THE MUSLIM IS A CHRISTIAN AND THE CHRISTIAN IS MUSLIM. THIS DAY WON’T TAKE TOO LONG TO COME, ALL THESE CRIMINALS IN POWER NOW WILL BE REMOVED AND THE REAL IRAQIS WILL LEAD THE COUNTRY AGAIN TO PEACE.
LONG LIVE IRAQ…

Ole’ Ole’ Ole’ Iraq.
Elyoum yomak ya iraqi.

Neurotic Wife:

The GREAT LIONS OF BABYLON WON!!! You should have been there. YOu should have seen the happiness on everyones faces. You should have seen the tears on everyones cheeks. This surely is one of the greatest days and times for Iraq. For the Great Iraq. … THE GREAT LIONS OF BABYLON WON!!!

Omar:

Today is definitely the happiest day for Iraqis in years. Tears of joy mixed with prayers for hope on the faces of millions of Iraqis…Words truly fail me and I can’t describe the feeling so please pardon me if the post doesn’t sound coherent; I hear the cheering and music outside although the bullets of celebration keep falling on the ground and roofs here and there. But no one seems to worry about that, the moment is so great that fear has no place in the hearts of the millions of fans, neither from bullets nor from crazy suicide bombers who tried to kill our joy last week.

Caesar of Pentra:

In my wildest dreams, I didn’t imagine that Iraq could win the Asian cup.

…. As soon as the refree ended the match. hundreds of thousands of Iraqi all over the globe were out in the street partying the joy of the victory. As for me, I couldn’t control myself and I went on crying like a baby. It was a great moment not for my own life only, but for millions of Iraqis I’m sure.

Baghdad Treasure :

Congratulations to the Lions of Mesopotamia for winning the Asian Cup. You did not let us down. You brought a smile and joy to our hearts, and took the pain out of our chests even if it was for one day.

A Tale of Hero’s and Zeros…

According to Nabil, blogging from Jordan, sporting hero’s award goes to the Saudi fans in, the capital, Amman:

Saudi people are the best people, they proved that they care about iraqis and that they are brothers to the iraqis… I really respected them today, they went out in their cars carrying iraqi flags an said “Iraqi….Iraqi… you deserve it”.

And zero’s of the day goes to the Jordanian Police. Neurotic Wife reports:

Yet even with this joy and happiness, some countries didn’t allow the Iraqis to share their rare celebrations. In Amman and Dimashq, police started beating up the Iraqi fans, and tearing up Iraqi flags. Funny how one anonymous reader asked me to be grateful to Jordan. Oh really??? Look at what theyre doing!!! Even in those rare and short moments of laughter, they kill it. Their hatred is so overwhelming. And when I talk about countries, I don’t mean the people, I mean the governments and their policies, so don’t take me wrong.

and Nabil, again:

it was really a very happy day but the bad thing was the response of the Jordanian authorities, they started to stop the cars and take the iraqi flags from the people and they arrested several people and beated several guys.

Shame on you, Jordan.

A new unity…

Last of Iraqis goes for a walk through the streets of Baghdad:

I was so amazed and happy for what I have seen , I’ve seen the streets busy as before the war , people every where walking and in cars celebrating and cheering , I was so delighted for this , I’ve seen the unity at last , for whatever reason it’s still a unity , people coming from Adhamiya and from Al-Sa`ab and Al-Kahira and meeting in Al-Nidaa mosque intersection , they met to celebrate at the same spot where everyday confrontations happen , they met to celebrate there country victory in the same spot where conflicts and terrorists attacks takes place , I was very happy to see this , and I laughed my guts out when I saw a National Guards convoy , with the soldiers on the Humvees dancing and cheering in a very funny way , I saw the happiness everywhere , I felt it in the air , I felt safe for the first time since I got back to Baghdad.

Great Baghdad:

Every Body said that the Iraqi Team united the Iraqi people behind them and did what the politicians failed to do which is bringing the Iraqis together. I think the Correct statement is that the Iraqi National team fixed what the politicians are trying to do which is dividing the already United Iraqi people.

Hammorabi:

Let the victims of the terrorists and wars celebrate tonight!

The football team will unite the Iraqis irrespective of their differences.

Millions of Congratulations for all the Iraqis.

24 Steps to Liberty gets emails from around the world:

I actually got emails from friends overseas congratulating me. For once, I felt like a normal citizen of this globe. People emailed me not to talk about the last casualty number or the last development in the idle political process in Iraq, but to say congratulations. Oh people how much I miss this word.

“Hi Champion - Congratulations from Jerusalem!” said one of my friends and professors.

“IRAQ WINS IRAQ WINS IRAQ WINS!!” said the subject of another email from my American friend in Cairo. “Mabruk alayhom!!” the message said, congratulations to them, “it’s the best news ever. I hope they are celebrating in the streets again!”

… old divisions …

Neurotic Wife on the Saudi’s:

One guy, N, said with great excitement, this was far more than a game, we beat the Wahhabis, he said. We beat them and showed them what Iraq is. We broke their noses (An Iraqi expression). I smiled, for it seems everyone took the football as a war. Just like I did. Everyone wanted to prove a point, everyone wanted to throw the Saudi noses to the floor, and oh yes we did. The Lions of Babylon did this so gracefully. What a team

But Great Baghdad sees a negative side to this attitude:

as the the Saudi people started to congratulate the Iraqi people for their win and achievement, the sectarian minded people in Iraq started to chant that ” against the Wahabists ( the sonni sect in Saudi) this cup is a shiat”. And they say that the others are sectarian!.

… the dead remembered …

On the day of that most Iraqi’s celebrated Baghdad Treasure’s cousin was collecting her dead son from the morgue. He died while saving injured neighbours from the aftermath of a car bomb, caught in the crossfire between Iraqi troops and angry residents. He writes:

A 17-year-old teenager, Sameer died doing a noble thing, helping his wounded neighbors and friends to ambulances after a massive car bomb …

I thought about Sameer a lot. He was a huge fan of soccer. I thought of him when our team won, and never forgot how his body was still at the morgue when the referee announced the end of the game. While many Iraqis rejoiced the triumph, there were many mothers crying for their dead children. My cousin was one of them.

Goodbye Sameer. We’ll miss you a lot. We’ll miss your smiling face when always won backgammon. We’ll always remember your earlier struggle and your heroism that will pave the road of martyrdom and the greatness of all Iraqis who sacrificed themselves to help our country.

Great Baghdad remembers the celebrating fans that were killed by a car bomb after the match against South Korea:

But the fiends of death were not pleased to see the Iraqis gathering in big crowds with no difference or discrimination between Sunni, Shiite or Kurds, so, they tried to kill the joy and turn off the flame of unity and the result was a bombed car and 50 innocent people killed. To be quite honest, I couldn’t sleep that night!

One of the poor women has lost her son in that brutal blast decided not to set up the funeral because she believed that the Iraqi team would win the cup. So, the Iraqi players made a promise to do the impossible to grab the victory in the final. And they didn’t disappoint that poor mother and other 25 millions of Iraqi ppl.

… and the politicians warned

No Pain No Gain:

If Iraqis cannot unite on a simple soccer match, then how could they agree on a unified government? There will be no way out of it, if this is so.
It is not worth to wait for lives being lost or for a weak government to reach a decision. We now know that Iraqis can no longer trust their next door neighbors. However, this can change if Iraqis want to attain their peace without the necessity of the government. People from all nations should realize that what goes on within the government can only create more chaos among the local society and to save the people is to encourage an understanding that at certain ocassions like the Asian Cup, Iraqis must do their best to protect their people from any danger against any certain faction of Iraq.

And Laith asks the politicians if they have learned a lesson:

The most important thing our national team did is giving you an important lesson about the most important subject in the school of life. The lesson was (how to be A Real Iraqi). They worked together. We didn’t have 11 players in the field, we had only one player but with 11 bodies. …. This is the lesson I talk about and I hope that you (our politicians) who watched the match and rewarded the knight, I hope you understand the lesson very well and try to pass the exams you have. The political crisis is not more than an exam and you are failures until this moment. I hope you study the lesson of the Iraqi national team again and try hard to pass this final exam.

licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License

Today was a different day, a really nice day. We, Iraqis, achieved a great success. We won the football games to reach the finals and qualified for the semi-final round for the second time for the first time in 31 years. The Iraqi team qualified to the same round in the Championship. The Iraqi team is in it’s road towards gaining AFC Asian Cup. We shall play with Saudi Arabia on 29/7, I hope we’ll win.

Our football players won today and that made Iraqis extremely happy; our streets are full of young men celebrating it was a day that all Iraqis united. I am so glad not only because we won, but because all the Iraqis today were feeling the same way when we achieved a goal or miss one. We all jumped when we won and prayed while the players were playing to win the game. The Iraqi football team and the match brought together all Iraqis regardless of our religions or castes, whoever they are, Arabs, Turkmen, Kurds, Muslims ( Sunnis & Shiites), Christians, etc..

All the Iraqis who live outside or inside Iraq were feeling the same way. Read the rest of this entry »

I have never been emotionally attached to any of the flats or houses my family have moved into. Moving was so recurrent in our lives that reduced playmates and neighbours to nameless blurry faces that are better forgotten, because after all, to them I don’t even look familiar.

One of the bad experiences I had as a child was in a flat the whole family agreed was the ugliest and scariest. My sister named it the Pink House based on the hideous paint coating the exterior walls. The landlord was so proud of the eyesore of his creation; the super-spacious kitchen, the nice bathroom with the non-flushable toilet, the large rooftop littered with an awful lot of pigeon eggshells and poop and most importantly the balcony and the windows, so large to make the landlord proud but it was recommended that we buy thick curtains and we’d better not draw them! We had to bear with stuffy rooms for one thing, we lived next door to the notorious Intelligence Agency Read the rest of this entry »

This post was written by Sunshine for her blog “Days of my Life” and cross posted to the Olivebranch Network

Thursday, April 28, 2005

In 2000-2001 I had a problem with my eyes called Diplopia. It happened in school and I would see near objects doubled. Anyway, the ophthalmologist at the time recommended some eye exercises. He said there is nothing to worry about and after a few weeks I was cured. But in 2003-2004 I had Diplopia again but this time It was the worst. Suddenly I lost the ability to read and also saw objects doubled up to 12 meters away from me. So I could not do the eye exercises because I could not see any near objects. The doctor said it would take a long time until the eye muscles repaired, but I still wanted to pass my mid year examinations and refused to postponed them. I had to study blindly. My mother who started to read to me; even the mathematics and algebra. I had to give the results blindly too. My doctors’ advice was to look for another opinion.

My mother thought we might get help from American army’s medical staff. We phoned them on the hot line for seeking medical advice. They asked us to come to the airport where their hospital was. We went there early in the morning on January 2, 2004. A soldier out side the airport asked us about the reason behind our coming to a military area, when we told him we need a doctor he made some calls, then we were allowed to enter but of course only after we were inspected.

Read the rest of this entry »

(Cross Posted from Global Voices Online)

Politics is the order of the day this week. Events in Iraq can be confusing at the best of times - so why not let Iraqi bloggers put things straight. But it is not all dry subjects, I also have snipers in Baghdad, two weddings and a funeral. And, if read to the end, the kittens are back!

If you read no other blog post this week read this one…

Mohammed recounts the harrowing story of being targeted by a sniper:

At 9:00 we were at Antar Square and as soon as we got down from the taxi and walked a few steps near the Olympic club , I heard a gun shot !! It was loud with echo!! … Then there was another shot …..It was so scary , so close and so loud , my wife was in panic , she was so scared I pushed her from the side-walk to the building wall (so that we would be a harder target) there was no one in the street but us .We stood there for a few seconds , then there was silence , we decided to continue , we walked and just before the concrete ex-checkpoint there was a gunshot and I saw the impact of the bullet beside me , another one in front of me , I pushed my wife to the nearest building and we hided there

He concludes:

The sniper thing isn’t new , but it’s the first time that I’ve been in the situation. It’s a very difficult situation; I don’t know when will death get me!!! I have cheated him many times now.

The Week in Politics Read the rest of this entry »