15/3/2006

Still living the aftermath of the ominous shrine bombing. Senseless retaliations are sweeping all over Iraq .
The possibility of a civil war has been molding for quite a while now, it is not new at all, there even was such a prediction being circulated vigorously during the rule of Saddam : “Only he (i.e. Saddam) can control the situation, if he goes -God forbid- , people will be killing each other at every door step” . ……. Any civil war can be prevented when there is a genuine will to do so , it only takes a few sound politicians and another hand full of honest clergy men to ease the tension .. Of course all TV channels have been showing non stop Shia and Sunni clergy men embracing and kissing and nearly holding hands and swaying singing “give peace a chance …” but that is only for media consumption , the instructions are otherwise .. It’s the old “do as I do but not as I say” concept in some distorted way .
And as if assassinations, bombings and abductions are not enough… there is something new in the average Iraqi’s agenda ; and that is having to leave your own house .
You receive a letter with an explicit threat to : Move! you wretched Shia or Sunni or Christian or Kurd … or else!!! . People of course know better to do otherwise, so they just obey. It is a heart wreaking experience when you have to leave your house , your room and the things you like most. The mere idea of me leaving my books - no pick up truck is enough to load them so of course I’ll have to leave them behind - brings tears to my eyes, and my computer my photo albums … oh God do not do this to me .
I know they are just things , and to stay alive is much more important , but what is life anyway ? According to my knowledge it is a collage of people , places and.. yes things that we love .
Up till now three families I know decided to leave their areas , everyone is feeling so vulnerable being without any rights and without any protection.
People out there on the other shore cannot understand what it is like to stand alone against the forces of evil ,which are getting more and more hard to identify .
When I saw , a month or two ago people with their furniture on trucks heading to somewhere safer from Ramadi I really understood that the bricks one lives behind are actually worth their weight in gold… It is a new Diaspora, an exodus , a trail of wandering Arabs “this time” which is being created under the noses of the modern world.

To clever for his own good !
My friend from the office was telling me the other day how their street is practically empty these days , there used to be about 15 families now only three remain, the rich are in Jordan or Syria, the less rich are staying with relatives in other areas or even renting houses somewhere else . She and her family are also seriously thinking of leaving. Then she told me what happened to her the day before .
– Do you know what happened yesterday? my dad had the fright of his life …
Here is what happened ;You know how things are these days and how everyone is so jumpy, so her dad ( who is a professor) came back home at about 3 as usual, he was just about to ring the bell when he saw a sheet of paper folded carefully and stuck on the gate with some scotch tape :
- “ So that’s it then? …, here it is finally the letter that every Iraqi dreads … my death decree has arrived…. no matter how long it is delayed nothing can stop it after all – he concluded sorrowfully - . With trembling fingers the poor Professor reached out for his death penalty, whispering in surrender to his fate “in the name of God the merciful and compassionate” and he unfolded it . When his daughter -my friend- came to open the gate for him carrying her baby, he was as white as a ghost, he read for a moment , then turned from white to red now with anger :
– That absolute idiot, the irresponsible jerk ..
- What Dad ?
- I thought it was a bloody death letter and look what.. he said handing the supposed scarlet letter to her.
My friend read with fear : Dear Professor … I’d like to inform you that starting from next month I will be offering internet service at competitive prices – a lot cheaper than any other place - if you decide please contact me. Yours Kadhim .
As my friend and her father stood mouths wide open trying to compose themselves, their next door neighbor ( an ex-officer) came waving a sheet of paper and said
- God, I nearly had a heart attack .
And both of them roared in one voice : Kadhim you damn fool, couldn’t you have just popped in to tell us .
Kadhim came out from the opposite house garden bewildered and wide eyed , looking like a wet puppy wondering what could he have done wrong this time.
Important note :
Kadhim is the neighborhood’s young aspiring computer geek, who is trying to establish himself as the new internet provider in the small area, but his advertising skills need some serious upgrading.

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A dear friend told me ,that my blogs are getting more gloomy and poignant with time, and advised me to look for the flowers in the desert , I found one big flower here it is : Gromit and Wallace have won an OSCAR: I am ecstatic .