1/4/2006
Jill Carroll is free, thank God for that .We have a saying over here, that goes : In times of stress and disasters your good deeds come to your rescue. And that is quite true in the case of this young heroine .
Simple people everywhere in this wounded country were genuinely concerned about her fate in spite of not being safe themselves . Reports say that 30 Iraqis per day are abducted for various unconvincing reasons, the majority of them are killed brutally and thrown under bridges or in dumpsters.
Thank God anyway.
Trying to figure out what is going on in Iraq is as useless as trying to convince a cave man to use a laptop computer and do some online shopping instead of going out hunting. I think we have already reached that stage when one’s main concern is to stay alive , and not to think to much of reasons and consequences anymore . And may be those who actually will mange to survive, in many years to come will be as bemused as all the other preceding nations were, after it was all over. They all sat analyzing and asking each other in books and films the immortal question : How and why was it all permitted , how did the world allow the fact that millions of Europeans and Jews were slaughtered by one maniac, how did millions of Russians end up in concentration camps in the name of building heaven on earth, how did civilized people in Europe “in the nineties of the 20th century” carry out mass rapes in order to purify the race of former Yugoslavia..
What is happening on the Iraqi political arena is ludicrous; a semi literate clergyman is vowing to liberate and defend Iran and Syria , yeh well with whose army? an army of practically brain washed young unemployed people, the post Iran – Iraq generation, trying so hard to make ends meet. Or the other shrewd clergy man who mediated for a hearing to be held in Washington with Iran regarding the situation in Iraq , officially accepting the guardianship of our neighbor .
All that , and the streets, and what is happening in them, last week on our way home shots were rained on the cars near Al Ghazalia just like that!!! people scrambled and jumped out of cars and lied on the pavements, who were those people, where did they appear from? . In the evening a week or two ago in Al Ghazalia also gun men stood in the middle of a crowded market place and opened fire randomly on passers by .
Another thing I heard which really distressed me deeply, was what my friend told me ; He was in a car in Al sha’ab area, he said news had just come in, that a buss with visitors returning from Karbala after the Ashoor anniversary had been attacked by gunmen, killing all the passengers , he said he saw and heard with his own eyes and ears how about 20 young men getting into cars were shouting -lets go to fight them yes to fight ( nukatil) in AL Ameria in revenge - , so it is finally that way is it, Al Ameria is a place to go and fight “them” in , to fight who may I ask ? other fellow Iraqis ? in retaliation to the killing of Iraqis too.
I think once we have crossed that line there is no turning back .
We will also say to the next generations, that we don’t know how it actually happened , just like the Germans did not know how Gas chambers actually happened , just like the Americans don’t know how Hiroshima actually happened . We are walking with blind folds on our eyes in the same path , and yes indeed, every single one has his own reasons , they seem very very convincing reasons at the time, but in decades from now we will say the same lines that our fathers told us, when we sat judging them for permitting Dictators to rule them : It just happened that’s life !!!
I read years ago a brilliant novel by Stephan Zweig called –Amok- , the allegory is used to refer to times when wise men’s voices become so low and weak that they are barely heard, while voices of thugs and agitators gain a special strong tone . The novel starts with the hero in a car in India , a disheveled tramp appears from nowhere and throws himself in front of the hero’s car and starts raving , screaming and thumping the car front with his fists, this creature was not human anymore he was a beast, suddenly a group of people appeared with rods and sticks and start beating the tramp steadily until he calms down or rather looses his consciousness. The hero asks the Indian chauffeur: What was that? he replies stating a matter of a fact : It is Amok Sahib, Amok. When a person is insane it is as if there is a demon inside him that just has to be dealt with .
In the course of the novel many cases and life situation (unrequited passion which leads a man to insanity and crime, an idea that led to 2nd world war where millions murdered millions…), shows that sometimes reason and logic just do not work, they are temporarily “it may take generations” silenced or switched off , and the solution has to be sometimes even more senseless , sometimes with more violence or sometimes running away and avoiding the whole situation is all that is left to do , which is a crime just as bad.
Simple people everywhere in this wounded country were genuinely concerned about her fate in spite of not being safe themselves . Reports say that 30 Iraqis per day are abducted for various unconvincing reasons, the majority of them are killed brutally and thrown under bridges or in dumpsters.
Thank God anyway.
Trying to figure out what is going on in Iraq is as useless as trying to convince a cave man to use a laptop computer and do some online shopping instead of going out hunting. I think we have already reached that stage when one’s main concern is to stay alive , and not to think to much of reasons and consequences anymore . And may be those who actually will mange to survive, in many years to come will be as bemused as all the other preceding nations were, after it was all over. They all sat analyzing and asking each other in books and films the immortal question : How and why was it all permitted , how did the world allow the fact that millions of Europeans and Jews were slaughtered by one maniac, how did millions of Russians end up in concentration camps in the name of building heaven on earth, how did civilized people in Europe “in the nineties of the 20th century” carry out mass rapes in order to purify the race of former Yugoslavia..
What is happening on the Iraqi political arena is ludicrous; a semi literate clergyman is vowing to liberate and defend Iran and Syria , yeh well with whose army? an army of practically brain washed young unemployed people, the post Iran – Iraq generation, trying so hard to make ends meet. Or the other shrewd clergy man who mediated for a hearing to be held in Washington with Iran regarding the situation in Iraq , officially accepting the guardianship of our neighbor .
All that , and the streets, and what is happening in them, last week on our way home shots were rained on the cars near Al Ghazalia just like that!!! people scrambled and jumped out of cars and lied on the pavements, who were those people, where did they appear from? . In the evening a week or two ago in Al Ghazalia also gun men stood in the middle of a crowded market place and opened fire randomly on passers by .
Another thing I heard which really distressed me deeply, was what my friend told me ; He was in a car in Al sha’ab area, he said news had just come in, that a buss with visitors returning from Karbala after the Ashoor anniversary had been attacked by gunmen, killing all the passengers , he said he saw and heard with his own eyes and ears how about 20 young men getting into cars were shouting -lets go to fight them yes to fight ( nukatil) in AL Ameria in revenge - , so it is finally that way is it, Al Ameria is a place to go and fight “them” in , to fight who may I ask ? other fellow Iraqis ? in retaliation to the killing of Iraqis too.
I think once we have crossed that line there is no turning back .
We will also say to the next generations, that we don’t know how it actually happened , just like the Germans did not know how Gas chambers actually happened , just like the Americans don’t know how Hiroshima actually happened . We are walking with blind folds on our eyes in the same path , and yes indeed, every single one has his own reasons , they seem very very convincing reasons at the time, but in decades from now we will say the same lines that our fathers told us, when we sat judging them for permitting Dictators to rule them : It just happened that’s life !!!
I read years ago a brilliant novel by Stephan Zweig called –Amok- , the allegory is used to refer to times when wise men’s voices become so low and weak that they are barely heard, while voices of thugs and agitators gain a special strong tone . The novel starts with the hero in a car in India , a disheveled tramp appears from nowhere and throws himself in front of the hero’s car and starts raving , screaming and thumping the car front with his fists, this creature was not human anymore he was a beast, suddenly a group of people appeared with rods and sticks and start beating the tramp steadily until he calms down or rather looses his consciousness. The hero asks the Indian chauffeur: What was that? he replies stating a matter of a fact : It is Amok Sahib, Amok. When a person is insane it is as if there is a demon inside him that just has to be dealt with .
In the course of the novel many cases and life situation (unrequited passion which leads a man to insanity and crime, an idea that led to 2nd world war where millions murdered millions…), shows that sometimes reason and logic just do not work, they are temporarily “it may take generations” silenced or switched off , and the solution has to be sometimes even more senseless , sometimes with more violence or sometimes running away and avoiding the whole situation is all that is left to do , which is a crime just as bad.
posted by Iraq sweet Iraq at 8:43 AM
2 Comments:
I see a similarity between what is happening in Iraq today and what happened in Algeria in the 90s.
You are absolutely right, also after the Russians withdrew from Afghanistan there was quite a similar situation, until Taliban took over and the killing obtained an official form.
Thanx for your comment ,take care
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