I'm alive

Yesterday I was on my way to my nephew's wedding party. The trip usually takes 20 minutes but now everything changed in Baghdad because the traffic jams, the blocked roads and the continuous Iraqi and American convoys. Now the shortest trip takes two hours.

I left the office at 3:30 to get to the party on time. Thank God I crossed half the way without problems except the swift passing Iraqi convoys here and there. In the center of Baghdad I faced my first real problem: a "huge traffic jam" around al Tahreer square. The traffic was still, worthless waiting. But suddenly one of stopped car lines started moving and we saw the American convoy emerge. I felt happy that finally I'll get rid of this huge traffic jam because of the gap made by this convoy; I was rushing to take my place behind them to resume my trip. I counted three Humvees, which was the usual number of vehicles in a convoy, and drove in! And found myself in an awkward situation because I was in the middle of the American military convoy, which turned out to be more than three vehicles this time and the scene froze.

I was in the wrong place at the wrong time and I said to myself "I'm dead!" and I was waiting for the "execution" of my fate.

But the nice soldier who was opening the road for his comrades was satisfied with jumping and yelling at me! I had broken into this convoy like a car bomb would.

The convoy stopped for two minutes until I found a space for my car away from them. Everyone round me was astonished. I think the Americans, this time, did not behave in aggressive reaction towards such a situation. I was lucky. I remembered all the stories of Iraqis who found themselves in the wrong place at wrong time and paid their lives as the cost. They deserved such a chance from the American side, but unfortunately aggressiveness was the master of such situations. 

A house in a Syrian town

A house in a Syrian town hit.

People killed.

A woman injured but alive, told the story on al-Hurra TV.

Al-Arabiyah breaking news subtitle: Washington confirms that U.S. aircraft raided a location inside the Syrian border.

OUR problem is that it was done from "sovereign" Iraqi soil.

And the U.S. military tell us, "Still no information available."

Unilateral job? Joint American – Iraqi job? Does it really matter?

Is Iraq going to become a launching pad for blatant American aggressions upon targets in neighbouring countries?

The Status of Forces Agreement is still in a no-man's-land; doesn't the U.S. want the Iraqi people to support it?

If they do, they're certainly not going about it the right way.

The Most Expensive Lunch

          As I always believe, the minibus is one of the good sources of the stories because its a place where I meet different kind of people like employees, unemployed or even soldiers. Today is not different. Just like the other days of Baghdad, the traffic jams are everywhere and I had to waste more than two hours trying to reach the office.

          While I was in Alawi neighborhood in downtown Baghdad; a young man got in the car. The bus stopped because of the traffic jam and we started talking about different things. We were complaining that everything became so expensive in Iraq. The man laughed and said "yes even food. Do you believe that the lunch of three people cost 1500000 Iraqi Dinars'. I was like "what ?one and a half million Iraqi Dinar for three people lunch? What did they eat? Gold?" The man asked me to forget the whole story but  I insisted to know and the man said "well, if you insist. I'm an accountant in the ministry of oil. An employee in the ministry came to me with a receipt of one and a half million Iraqi Dinars ($1341) for lunch for three people. I was shocked and I told him what? you want me to gave you 1500000 Iraqi Dinars? No I will not." The employee said "but this is your job". I said "I will never give you this amount of money. You can solve this problem with the manager."

          After the man finished talking, I was speechless. I felt so happy that this young man refused to participated in this stealing but how many honest employees we have? I wished that have a real government that can send to jail such a corrupted employee for the rest of his life. I know that all the Iraqi governmental governmental departments are infected with corruption and I know about the useless rebuilding projects but never thought that we have such thieves in Iraq.

          

         

Rain in Iraq

Rain is falling in Baghdad as well as some provinces in Iraq. Rain is still falling while writing this blog. It has been raining since the morning. Most Iraqi people don't want rain, though it means life and they do like it. Rain is so useful for plants, animals as well as human beings. Ifeel happy for it though it doesn't for many others.

In Iraq, we have been suffering for the last few years from lacking rain and water. As a consequence farmers lost their crops. Thus, Iraq has become dependant on importing rather than exporting crops. The point I want to mention is that today's raining was harmful for most Iraqis in their point of view in the spots that it rained in. The power supply is off as the transformers of the electricity are blown up and some towers collapsed. The water flow in faucets is cut as it depends on electricity to be pumped, the cell phones connections are disconnected as the towers put by them depend on power supply  and the streets are full with water as the waste holes are broken or blocked under the pavement.

Thanks Allah that this heavy rain falls today as it is a day off otherwise chaos will be more than this in other days.

People blame the ministries of municipalities, electricity, communication, and water resources for corruption, as the services that these ministries should supply the citizens with are not available or deficient.

Absolute immunity

I don't know why the American adminstration do not say that the immunity they want for their soldiers is an absolute immunity. They are only outside this immunity when the troops are off duty and off their military bases. In addition to that, the American military have the authority to determine whether their troops are on duty or not … It is like "entrust a cat with piece of meat" (Iraqi proverb).

Everyone knows that all the crimes that were committed by the troops were during their duty to keep security here and there! The troops are hardly leaving their bases off duty, or I can say they are not leaving them at all because they don't need to go out their bases.

The American negotiators should say that they want an absolute immunity and nothing less. They don't need to waste time and effort in worthless long sentences. As Iraqi I want transparency in this agreement. Iraqis want words that have specific meaning, no more no less.

No country should ever give permission to kill its people without consequences.

Autumn

 

Summer is very unwilling to depart, but autumn can be seen in that the sun is setting at around 5.30 p.m. whereas in the height of summer it set after 7.30 p.m.

As I finish a long day of satisfying work, I head for the car and quickly drive off with the good feeling of having had a full day and in anticipation of seeing my family. I drive off with the cool breeze in my face, very happy to be about after dark in this relatively safe neighbourhood where the street lights are always bright, and people are always about at this time of the evening.

There is a checkpoint before the bridge; around fifty cars are waiting to pass. We wait impatiently and as my turn comes I pass through it very slowly, and then speed off.

The bridge has bright lights, too – but only the first half. As I get closer to the last light pole, the good feeling starts to slip as I enter the region of darkness. Such darkness! All checkpoint soldiers demand that we turn off the lights of the car as we approach the checkpoints so we don't dazzle their eyes – but I can't. Coming down from the bridge on the very narrow, barrierless curving incline - without lights is not something I relish – So I keep the second lights on up to the checkpoint and talk my way out of trouble.

So dark – Such contrast to the other side of the river. I hurry home.

Driving along I start betting with myself: Will the lights be on in our street? Will I see the beautiful long street with willowy trees bathed in light? Or will I see pitch dark, and be asked to turn off my car lights on top of it? I never turn them off! Not the second lights, anyway. And have - so far been able to talk myself out of trouble.

 

We were Iraqis once… and have a country

Once upon time we were the cradle of civilizations. For many ages we were the rulers of empires.

Once upon time we lived together under occupations, through wars and starvation.

Once upon time we used to travel to countries and our passports were not rejected.

Once upon time our identity was Iraqi, now it became sect or ethnicity.

We were Iraqis once… and have a country.

Because They Have Guns

          My long trips of coming to the office and going back home which sometimes take more than three hours give me a great chance to see different scenes. one of the repeated scenes is the armored convoys and the misuse of power.

          About 5:40 on Saturday afternoon; the Iraqi security forces blocked the main street of Jadiriyah neighborhood because one of the Iraqi officials was passing through. The drivers were waiting for the convoy to pass. While they were waiting, a US military convoy came from behind. The driver of the first humvee saw the real long of the stooped cars and I'm sure he knows for sure they stooped because the street was blocked. Yet; he didn't stop. He used the horn and he kept hitting a sedan Mercedes in front of his humvee. The driver of the Mercedes took his hand out of the car and waved to the humvee driver as if he was telling him to stop hitting the car because the man doesn't have any choices but the American soldier kept hitting the car. He kept doing that for more than three minutes. I was on the other side of the street trying to get a taxi to go home. I left the street while the American soldier was enjoying hitting and bothering the poor Iraqi man who could do nothing because he knows for sure that he might be killed if he thought about going out of his car and tried to ask the soldier to stop. No one would even blame the US soldier if he killed him and simply the poor man would be considered a TERRORIST who tried to kill the innocent poor American liberator. The principle of the US soldier is (Im the one who has the gun. SO; I'm above law.)

          The guards of the convoys of the Iraqi officials are not better than the US soldiers because they follow the same principle in addition to their main principle which is (I'm the guard of the official. So; I'm above law). About one month ago, the guards of one of the Iraqi ministers killed a woman and injured many civilians in downtown Baghdad.

          The way those people who have guns behave makes me like many Iraqi civilians feel that Iraq became a wild jungle where survival is only for the strongest. This kind of feeling kills the soul of patriotism in the hearts of people.

          I never though that freedom means mess and I never thought that liberators care only about themselves. Its too hard to believe that but this is the real situation of Iraq.

         

         

Life and Death

Life is full with contrasts. Yesterday I witnessed two different cases which made me feel happy and sad at the same time.

  I was at work doing my daily job in addition to the daily violence report, which records all incidents of violence across Iraq . I have been working for McClatchy since March 2007, and there has never been a day when there was no violence to report in the whole country. Yesterday, for the first time, there was no violence to report. Yes, there were a few days in Iraq without incidents reported, but in the whole country! So it was a great day. One day without violence.

I was so happy to witness that. I was waiting, sorry for this word, waiting to put down the items reported, but that waiting was negative having no idea what do. The negative report means a positive thing for Iraq and Iraqis.

  This happiness didn’t last long, as I had a phone call from my brother telling me that my cousin had passed away after ten years of struggling with many different diseases. He was a POW in Iran for 18 years and only came home in 1998.

  Meanwhile, most of my cousin's family members were in Najaf cemetery making a visit to the father in his grave who died in August. Thus, the brothers and sisters weren’t with Abdul Rahman, my cousin, when he passed away.

The Baghdad Walls

On the 18th anniversary of bringing down the Berlin's Wall; the hope inside me grew up to get rid of all Baghdad Walls. These walls erected by American troops and Iraqi government under the pretext of securing Baghdad. If that is true I am wondering how we were living without these barriers in the past and for the benefit of whom were all these walls erected here and there. Billons of dinars spent to erect these ugly barriers.
I wish the day will come when I see Baghdad secure and one piece again like Berlin. Hopefully it will not take 28 years to make this wish come true…