24/10/2005

I was tagged by Cile , and since his wishes are my commands , therefore here they are:

7 things I plan to do:
1. Win a lotto prize , the value of 500 000 $ , if that is to much to ask for 250 000$ will be
sufficient.
2. Walk in the streets and not get killed or disfigured.
3. Finish my book and get published .
4. Exercise for at least 15 minutes or 10 or even 5 minutes and keep it going for at least a
week.
5. A tour across Europe
6. Get my Ph.D.
7. Preserve my sanity .

7 things I can’t do:
1. Wonder carelessly around the world ,thinking about the mystery of creation, and writing my
observations down ( that is why I plan to win a lotto prize).
2. Walk safely in the streets.
3. Exercise regularly .
4. Figure out a lot of things and anyone who says he has all the answers is actually deluded.
5. Get published .
6. Help the people I would like to help.
7. Meet Kafka , Chekov , Markez, Dali …

7 things I can do:
1. Finish my book.
2. Exercise for one day then give up.
3. Read the books I’ve bought , borrowed or stolen.
4. Drive my boss crazy.
5. Still enjoy films .
6. Have an opinion on what is going on , , although I am not really effecting any global
process.
7. Thank God for little mercies.

7 words I use often
1. Hello ( not necessarily to greet someone ; Hello? , hello (horror and awe), hello (sarcasm) ,
hello (disapproval ) …etc.
2. Allah Kareem ( God is generous ).
3. No, this place is to hot, they shouldn’t have built a town here in the first place.
4. Mahzala ( it is absurd , It is a farce / about eveything ).
5. Superkalafragelistic ( from the Mary Popins film).
6. I can Dream can’t I ?
7. If ……

I don't really know, who to tag these questions to so , sorry for that .

20/10/2005

Today at about 12 , a blast shook Al Mansour Area . Dijla Primary school was hit by a missile . The Children ,and needless to say their parents ,who raced like crazy to the scene, got the shock of their lives. Children said it was class 5th -A- ( children in that stage are about 10 years old) , three people were killed, one of them a little girl, a little pink rucksack with a Barbie doll picture on it stained with her innocent blood was what remained of her .
Why a school ? Because near that school there is a Company , a foreign Company, and rumors have been suggesting for a while, that Americans and all sorts of aliens have been going in and out of that Co., of course you understand how rumors can build up it may as well be an ordinary Iraqi Co. , but who cares the verdict has been issued . Anyway true or false it resulted in a tragedy this noon for the little ones.


19/10/2005
Today I have a personal tragedy . Yes indeed . You see, just as you get attached to people through your life time you also get attached to places and corners, specially in your home town, where most of your memories accumulated . It could be a park, an old tree even a fast food shop . Of course you understand it is not the beauty of the place that leads to such an attachment , it may not be a big deal to anyone else but you , as I said it’s all about the memories ,that bound you to the place .
I got in terms over the years with the fact that places change just like people , it is a part of growing up . But, when the change is afflicted by people the impact doubles . .Today, my mate at the office told me that the Statue of Abu Jafar AL Mansour was blasted .
What ? how come? ,when ?
- Yes, today , in the early hours of this morning .
- Oh no, please say it isn’t so , I did not hear anything .
- Why are you so upset ?
- You don’t understand, I loved that monument .Suspicious looks attacked me from everywhere .
- No, honestly as far as I remember it has been there . I remember that when the school bus used to drop me when I was a child of 6 to school, reaching the statue was an indication that we reached hell moth ( i.e. school ), and on the way back, when we passed the statue again it was an indication that the day is over and in moments we are going to bee back home to Mum’s embrace . Hundreds of other small things that form my life and my childhood revolves around that place ,where we lived .
- Who did it? and why ?. A Sunni co worker said “ I was told it was Bader Brigade, cause they think that he is a tyrant ,who killed holy men. ( We are talking centuries ago here !!!).
A Shii co worker snapped back aggressively:
- Oh yeh, Well I have different information. I was told that the Kurds are going around targeting all genuine Arabic monuments . I intervened, knowing what these discussion can lead to : - Just let it stand there for God’s sake , who was it troubling . Now it will never be restored, they will replace it with some tasteless statue or something related to this militia or that .
History is History, you just have to take it as it is without omitting things according to politics or religion. One should be completely impartial about it because these are facts : materialistic facts . In Moscow for instance, the church of St. Basil was built in the era of Ivan the terrible himself ,no one demolished that , the pyramids were constructed by power crazed pharos , many monuments were kept from the era of Stalin in Russia ,even though the whole era was reevaluated by Russians, cause monuments do not involve only kings and rulers, they involve people and time . What will be next . Will they decide that Babylon ( or what is left over from Babylon by international looters ) was built by an infidel, therefore it must be wiped away .

Saddam’s Trial

Saddam’s Trial is supposed to be the trail of the century , For the world may be , but for most Iraqis it is just passing by as any other event . A couple of years ago, to see the dictator in a cage was a thought no one even dared to think just in case the Mukhbarat have imported from the west some gadgets or apparatus, which may read one’s thoughts . Yet, now this event has as we say in Iraq “lost it’s taste” . We have been through so much the past three years, that numbers seem to make anyone confused . AL Digale Saddam’s master piece massacre, which seemed three years ago so gruesome ( he executed 143 people in a rage of revenge for an assassination attempt) does not impress anyone now with what has been going on . 143 , 150 , 200 300 1000 are now daily casualties . Torture, Rape, violation of human rights are also a daily dose ,that Iraqis have to take . Saddam prosecuted people on mere suspicion , that is exactly what is happening now in “liberated Iraq” . Human right watchers are reporting the same shocking reports . The chambers of horror are reopened and the fire is being nourished with fresh bodies by invaders, fanatics and criminals .
Hard times are here to stay.

13/10/2005

To be locked up in the house for a while is not so bad after all. In fact it is great to lie about watching all the Ramadhan TV serials and cooking programs . The break is for four days , four days enjoying living in an aquarium ,which I decided to isolate myself in from any thing that reminds me of where I live and what is going on out there in a terrifying place called Baghdad . The purpose and meaning of my life these days is to watch my favorite series ( Nizar Qabani) on Dubai TV base on the biography of my favorite poet . One of the greatest poets of the 20th century - to my mind that is- .He was denounced at a stage of his life as an infidel ,and fanatics detest him till this day .
Ah… how can one forget his ( Fortune teller , The school of love or the Memoirs of an Arabic executer )… I love Nizar Qabani. I am entranced every evening at 11 o’clock by the finest poems, but he ( the poet I mean ) threw me right back to where I belonged , when he said -and that was back in the mid forties:
- “..We will achieve our independence ,that is not what troubles me .The French will leave us eventually there is no doubt about that , but remember and mark my words there is no independence without freedom , independence without personal freedom is lame . We shall remain for decades to come without freedom if our mentality stays as it is “ .
And his prophecy came true . The colonizers left us in the hands of dictators and the dictators left us again in the hands of colonizers and the story goes on .
I felt what Nizar said hit very close to home , it seemed as if we had been frozen for what? 50 years: the same problems ,the same issues the same guardians imposing thought in which we do not believe , so I decided to do something useful and read a book . I have been reading lately "Zorba the Greek" , I read …
Zorba said to the boss when the poor widow was slaughtered:
– Do any of these books explain to you why people die like that ?
- No, Zorba all these books are written by wise men who are seeking answers to questions like that .
- Then I spit on all your books boss.
I decided then to read the constitution draft once more although I promised not to.
This time it was the final version . We collected it yesterday from our local shop ,where we usually get our ration . I wrote about it before(July Post) , the same awkward issues are still there, I don’t see much change in them .
First section article( 2) Islam is the official religion of the state and is a main source of legislation (a) No law is to be issued if proven to contradict with Islam’s laws.
Well , the concept of Islam or to be more accurate the understanding of Islam defers from one group to another .Even in the most obvious issues there are differences in interpretation , which means that any progressive new law can be refuted if viewed to contradict with Islam . Here we’ll have to have clergy men and legislators who are really open minded and enlightened , which is a hard task .

Second section
Article 36(3)The right of demonstration is regulated by law .
That may be the case in many countries, I mean you have to obtain a permit to demonstrate and it is your right to demonstrate peacefully, but a law issued for that purpose may have implications such as determining the issues that you may demonstrate peacefully on .

Article 38
States that Iraqis are free to determine their personal status according to their religion , believes and choice . That sounds perfect , yet this strengthens sectarian division in issues as divorce , inheritance and marriage . The husband or wife may choose as they see convenient “which may not be fare always” the way to settle their disputes . I know this is complicated to understand even for some Muslims, I’ll try to explain it with an example: if a man is a Sunni and the wife is a shii or visa versa, when it comes to divorce she may demand settlement according to shia laws and he will do the same demand a settlement according to sunni laws , so what would the judge decide?, or more properly stated :What is the criteria he bases his judgment on? .You see this may lead to a situation, where disputing parties decide to take disputes to sectarian courts. But if it is all regulated by one law it would be more fair for both parties .

And now they decided to amend the items after four months from the elections of a new government . The role of the government has been postponing and pushing things along as time goes by , not one problem has actually been solved yet .
The news reported, that Sistani has issued a fatwa urging his followers to vote YES , Now that is not playing fair at all. So is it going be a NO then ???…..