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.
Laith, thanks for a great blog post, and congratulations for standing your ground. This kind of problem happens almost everywhere: give a little man a some power and a gun, and you get a little dictator. I've had almost the same experience with security guards, policemen, and low-level government workers. But I didn't worry about getting shot! Being a journalist in Iraq takes guts.
Posted by: Diogenes | June 11, 2009 at 11:00 AM
Tis is a great blog. Thanks so much for these continuing posts.
Posted by: lambert strether | June 11, 2009 at 06:18 AM