Naive

A programme on the state funded satellite channel. Two hosts, a young woman and a young man. Their guest, an officer in the police force. The subject: withdrawal of American forces from the Iraqi cities and Iraqi forces assuming full command. The young man announces a phone number and urges people to call and congratulate Iraqis on this event and express their happiness that the Iraqi security forces will be taking charge independently. First contact: Congratulations and cheering you on. Second contact: Same. Third contact: Although we are proud of our security forces, we don't believe that they are adequate to the task, they were hastily put together without the proper training and …. The hostess begins to squirm…. And squirm…. Tries to cut him off by thanking him for his call, but he goes on. The host then very firmly thanks him and terminates call. Fourth contact: Cheers and a verse. Fifth contact: Doubts again…cut off again. Hasty advertisements reel…"to be continued after advertisements" Done advertisements. A different programme comes on.

Checkpoint

My mum ran out of medicine for her high blood pressure yesterday. She called me late in the evening, "Please get it early in the morning, Sahar. I thought I had another packet, but I don't." So off I went, early this morning to where I knew I could buy what is known here as "original" medicine, or medicine that is produced in Europe and that has undergone high quality control.  It is a pharmacy in Harthiyah. A tiny place on one of the side streets, it has every thing you could possibly need. I often wonder if they are supplied by private importers, or whether they buy from smugglers who smuggle the medicines out from hospitals and government warehouses. Reaching Kindi Street checkpoint, I stood in the queue. Fifteen minutes later I reached the security people; they were National Police. "Pull over!" Oh dear, the never ending issue of showing the car documents. "Here are the papers, and here's me name on them and here's my ID." "Put them away!" He was almost shouting. What was wrong this time, I wondered. Louder still, and with eyes about to pop out of his head, "Why is that flag hanging from your rear view mirror? Are you a Bathists?" I couldn't believe what I was hearing. At last I grasped that he was talking about a small perfume pad that my son had bought from an intersection in Karrada some months ago. It hung from the mirror by a short string. The pad was painted with the Iraqi flag – The Iraqi flag after 2003, I must add. It was an item sold in most intersections all over Baghdad by poverty stricken women and children. "I am not sporting an official flag. This is a perfume pad, that's all. And in any case what's wrong with it? It is sold everywhere." "Get out of the car! Search her!" I got out of the car. Two younger policemen searched the car thoroughly. "There is nothing, sir." He reached down into the car, grabbed my hang bag from the cushion and searched it. Finding nothing, he got angrier still, grabbed the keys and walked away, "Stay where you are." All this time my reaction was utter astonishment. I was so astonished I forgot to be angry and indignant. Why was this policeman angry with me? Was it me? Or was it that they have become nervous after the bombings that swept the city? At last, anger came to my aid, and I walked over to the policemen, "Your friend shouted at me, searched my handbag (shameful) and took my keys after they found nothing in my car. Are you going to do something about it – Or must I?" I was, of course bluffing. There was absolutely nothing that I could do. But while I was saying these words, I yanked out my phone and raised my eyebrows meaningfully, and one of them turned, crossed the street and walked towards him. They talked for a bit and walked back together. He was still angry, "There is a law now against sporting that flag, you know. But people are ignorant and don't follow the news. Pull it out and throw it away!" "Wallahi, I will not." He reached out and pulled, broke the string and threw the perfume pad on the ground. I was furious by now. He threw my keys onto the cushion.   In silent rage, I drove off. Was Saddam a name or a concept? Are we truly rid of him?   I bought the medicine, spent the morning with my parents and then came to work.

Great Days

During Saddam's reign, Iraqis used to have many celebrations that were holding according to the wishes of the necessity leader at that time "Saddam". Saddam used to give these days shiny names like "Dignity Day", "Chivalry Day", "the Great Victory Day", and "the Day of the Great March". These "Days" were accompanying with instructed celebrations. Iraqis used to participate in these celebrations to avoid problem with Saddam's regime.   

At that time I envied those people who have spontaneous national celebrations. After the occupation "Collapse Day" 2003, I hoped this policy would end and we would start a new life with new policy.      

Recently our new government decided to borrow the policy of naming days from the former regime. Now we have "Pride Day" which is the day of American withdrawal from the cities.  

Unfortunately many of current policies remind me and other Iraqis of former policies. Two weeks ago I attended a meeting for Maliki with the commanders of MOD and MOI. All the details of this meeting took me back to the Saddam's time staring with the speeches that were glorifying Maliki and ending with Maliki's instructions to hold celebrations all over Iraq to show happiness as if Iraqis can not experience happiness without these instructions. Yes, most Iraqis are very happy with the withdrawal of the American forces but they don’t need any instructions that remind them of dark era. Iraqis will be happy if they forget the "Miserable Days".

After six years Iraqis are still waiting for the "Achievement Day" when the successive governments provide them with the necessary services.

Hopes for Normal Life

    Since the US  invasion in 2003, Iraqis life had changed a lot. We starteddoing things they didn't useto like not leaving homes at night and watching the news carefully to have a clear idea about the security situation but we also stopped doing many things.

    One of the traditions that we gave up and especially during the sectarian violence wave in 2005,2006 and 2007 was the public parties which are hold near the house of any iraqi bridegroom.

    I attended tens of these parties for people I knew and even for ones I don't know. With the start of music, none of us stay on his chair. Everyone start dancing and singing.

    With the start of the sectarian violence, making such public parties was the craziest thing to do. I still remember my wedding party which was inside our house. I called many friends and told them not to come to the party and we can meet later because my neighborhood was a battle Field.

    Last Wednesday, I was doing my prayers when I heard a strange sound. OMG. It looks like the sound of music. When I finished my prayers, I went out quickly and I was really surprised with the scene.

    For the first time since 2003, I saw more than 200 young men gathered in our street. The first song was more than enough for them to start the crazy modern dancing which I find very odd.

    I went back home feeling happy not for the dancing but for our life which started the path back to be normal hopefully.

Rights of vermin

Do vermin have rights?    The Ministry of Interior spokesman said 115 charges of violations of human rights of Iraqis in detention centers have been forwarded to the courts. Eight officers and two civilians were charged with violations. Nine were convicted and one was acquitted. Today, 642 complaints are now being looked at by investigators, and so far they've found enough evidence to foward 43 cases to the courts. Most charges were for being arrested without a court order, some for torture during interrogations and others for rape.  After the press conference held by the ministry was done, I had one more question. So I followed the spokesman to the corridor and called out to him, "We have inherited a legacy of total disregard for human rights from the previous regime. Does the ministry have any programs to raise awareness of the people handling the detainees, to impress upon them the importance of human rights and decent treatment?" He looked at me with great disdain. "Are you looking out for the rights of the likes of them? What about the rights of their victims? Don't you care about them?"  That statement stopped me in my tracks, round-eyed! Was it a clever way to stop me pursuing the matter further? Or, perchance had they changed all the staff who used to work in the prisons under Saddam, and hired a brand new crew born and raised in Switzerland? "But your Excellency…. You are aware that only a percentage of those detained are guilty…. Are they all to be treated…." Without answering, he turned his face and walked away.  He knows – as we do, that a very large percentage of the detainees are not guilty of other than being at the wrong place, at the wrong time – or of living in this or that neighbourhood. If a violent incident takes place in X Street, the usual procedure is that all the young men living in the vicinity are rounded up for interrogation. There may be as many as 50 in one sweep. They are taken--and God only knows when they are released.  It stands to reason that we cannot rely completely on monitoring and vigilance to stop the abuse of the detainees. The authorities must initiate programs focused on human rights to educate the security forces about what it means for a civilian to have rights, rights that they cannot violate. At the moment the only good treatment comes from a condescending figure of authority, not from a written set of rules.  To these authority figures, the people they have arrested are commoners and they will treat them well or otherwise – by their own choice. Disturbingly, this looks far too much like the Saddam regime, when prisoners were regarded as vermin. When will we have ground rules that say human life and dignity are absolute values?

As If We Need An Extra Problem

    Since I was nine years old, Iraq has been living in a big circle of troubles started with the Iraqi Iranian war and didn't end with the collapse of Saddam regime. In fact, new problems came up to surface after the complete absence of law for more than three years since 2003.

   One of the most dangerous problems that we face today in Iraq is the spread of chaos and adopting it as the main principle and base for many many kinds of business. One of the forms of chaos is the unusual spread of the car dealerships everywhere in Baghdad. These dealerships caused different problems to Iraqis starting from occupying any possible space and never ending with filling Iraq with huge numbers of used cars that fill our old designed street that can not stand these increasing numbers.

    The government should do real procedures to stop this chaos because the absence of order and law makes our life more difficult adding more pain and suffering to our life which is already full with pain and troubles.

Aborted attempt at protest

 

With what Iraq endured over the last four decades, sometime I feel we deserve what happens to us because we are a weak people we cannot even show our protests with our facial expressions.

Today on my way to work, an event occurred that happens every day in Iraq. The road was suddenly blocked, and no one knew why. As usual, the solders deployed in the roads aimed their weapons towards the crowd.

Today was different for me because I tried to take an unusual action. I tried to read the expressions on the faces waiting in cars around me. I mean, the anger or protest on the faces of those who were forced to wait inside their cars for 15 minutes without any known reasons. In general, the delays are caused by an Iraqi politician of 'the new Iraq' leaving his stronghold.

But the faces were glad as if they were happy with what was happening. Some of them were chatting with each other, and some were listening to music on radio stations--listening to love songs while the gangs of soldiers were aiming their weapons at their cheerful faces.

At this moment I tried to do something to wake them up. I wanted to honk the horn to show a sign of protest to those who were carrying their weapons towards us. But I hesitated. I couldn’t make this trivial sign of protest. I felt afraid of such action because I was waiting a volunteer hero who would lead my anger, my revolution.

But he didn’t show up.

Here in Iraq we always wait for this hero, but it is useless to wait because, according to a verse from the Koran, God doesn't change the condition of people if they don’t change themselves first.

And we are so weak to change ourselves and defeat our fears or make any sign of protest--even honking the horn of the car to show anger.

   I think our wait will be long for the hero who will take our hands and walk us to the safe land.

There are other important things than a referendum

    We received an official email says that the spokesman of the Iraqi government declared allocating 99,5 million US dollars for the referendum about the Iraqi American Security Agreement.

    I know such a referendum is so important because Iraqis should say their opinion about such an important agreement but I believe this referendum can be implemented with the coming election in the 31st of January 2010 by adding a small field at the bottom of the electing paper with two small squares for the two options, yes or no because99,5 million US dollars is a very big sum and I really dont know why such a referendum needs this huge amount of money because it is not an electoral campaign. Also I'm sure the 99,5 $ US can be spent for more important projects like building new hospitals, new schools, water projects or even building some small housing complexes for the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who don't have even one room to live in. This money can be used for more useful and important thing than just a referendum.

    Spending money in such a way gives only one message. Iraqi is not run until now by professional people which is a very serious mistake. We live in a world that is moved by money. If we keep spending money is such a careless way, we will never join the developed world. We will stay a third world country or even less.  

The Needed Change Didn't Happen Yet

    Yesterday my colleague Sahar told me that the media office of the defense ministry called the office and said that they have an unprecedented event and one of the reporters should be near the ministry at 8 a.m. Since the ministry is in my way, I decided to go directly to save my time.

    After one hour of suffering, I reached the place and the cars which picked the journalists moved to the place. We waited for about 15 minutes near the gate of the ministry. This short time was more than enough for a problem to happen. The guards of the ministry of displaced and immigrants which is near the defense ministry told us that we have to gatherr in one place and we are not allowed to spread in the street. That was enough to get everyone crazy. I told the guard that he doesn't have the right to say so because we are waiting for the permission to enter the defense ministry. he said "this is the gate of a ministry" I was really surprised but I quickly answered him "yes an Iraqi ministry for all Iraqis and we are Iraqis and you must realize that the ministry doesn't own the street." He ordered me to move but I refused and told him simply "Its an Iraqi street and I can stand wherever I like." The discussion got hotter but after some reporters involved, some of them asked me in a very nice way to ignore the guard and I did.

    The behavior of the guard shows only one fact. Iraq changed only faces and we didn't yet change the mentality of the former regime because our security members still believe they are gods and they must be obeyed.

Summer and Electricity

      Summer season used to be a lovely season in iraq because we used to have electricity for 24 hours a day.  Iraqi families used to gather each afternoon and eat the chilled watermelon. We also used to sleep on the roof of the houses only for one month or less especially in May when the weather is so nice and a little bit cold.    

     Yesterday night, I decided to return back in time and sleep my current summer nights as my ancestors used to. I started again sleeping on the roof of my house again to guarantee a full night sleep instead of getting us every two hours because of the cut of electricity.  For the first time since the start of summer, I could sleep for full seven hours without the need to wake up to turn on the small generator of the family.

    Nowadays ,many Iraqi families have no choice but to sleep on the roof of their houses because of the useless promises of the ministry of the electricity. Many of my friends complain that their life become so difficult during summer because they have electricity for less than 10 hours a day. These ten hours include the power they get from the private generators which cost them a lot of money.

    With the absence electricity,  the most important public service in summer, Im sure more families will do what I did, following the trace of our ancestors.