6/10/2006

The stories of assassinations, abductions and mass graves are not seizing . Whenever anyone comes just to say hello, whether that is at home or in the office it is always a competition of who can tell the most eerie story. And the thing is, that no one can win or lose in this competition, cause the stories are more than perfect. The stories fill one's heart with horror and desperation .

Some times I feel just like putting a plug in my ears or changing the subject of the conversation , but I just sit there and listen . And after that my brain runs wild . It starts swinging fiercely between two thoughts ; What to do to save myself ?, and the numb thought that states ;What the heck, what is written is written .
Today Abu S.. told me how frightened and worried he is, because of his grandchildren starting school . He walks them to school everyday :-
“ I keep on looking behind me and whenever a car parks near us I start pushing the children around like a maniac”, he told me. “Granddad stop it!, the little one said to me after I did it about three times the other day . What can one do! . My friend made his children stay at home this year, you know many are doing so , especially girls” he added .
Great!, it took us decades to get girls out of the houses , in order to get some education and stand up for themselves, and now it is back to the stove and sink again .

A rather amusing rumour resonated over last weekend , a coup d'état was supposed to happen. And what really made it more “believable” was the curfew that was announced out of the blue.
I thought it was ridiculous, cause, ok, lets say I wanted to master and carry out a coup d'état .First of all I should mark may targets; Who am I supposed to over throw? . For that I need to estimate how many sects and parties are ruling Iraq at the present!. Should I over throw the Americans? or the militias? the Iranians? or the Arabs? , or may be the Green Zone denizens? i.e. the Iraqi government . By the time I have sorted all that out I would’ve forgotten why I ever started in the first place.

At the beginning of the week I heard, that they found 15 bodies without a head, or was it 15 heads without a body in dumpster near our area .
In Al Ghazalia a woman was shot , cause who ever did it thought she was of a “questionable morality” .That is a very stretchy concept nowadays . It ranges from not wearing a scarf , driving a car , wearing heavy makeup or as in this particular case standing outdoors more than she should.

Rumours have always been part of our lives some of them are to instil fear, some of them are mere wishful thinking on the part of the people themselves . For instance, the rumour that the Americans are sick to death of Iraq and they are just going to pack their rucksacks and leave the place is one version. The other version is that the Americans are also sick to death from Iraq, therefore they are going to take full control of everything , everything !. And the funniest thing is that when Iraqis tell you a rumour it is always a fact beyond dispute . Also it is told as if the one telling you was actually there . They adorn the story with phrases like ; And they dashed into the room and banged the table with their fists and said to Al Maliky Listen you ….- next comes the essence of the rumour - . And then he- AL Maliky- banged the table back and sipped tea from his Istikan nervously and said to the Americans ; You Listen ….. and so on .

Yet, reality unfortunately is stronger than any rumour, the situation is as bad as bad can get . Politicians are frolicking and doing business, while the average Iraqi is like that fiddler on the roof trying too keep a tune, while balancing himself so as not to fall. I don't know whether we will live to tell the story .

I remember during the eighties, when the war was raging with Iran there used to be a wicked joke .
You see, casualties were very high specially towards the end of the war and at that time many Egyptian and foreign workers were being encouraged to come over here, to work. while Iraqis had a better job to do –to get killed that is!- . So, the Iraqis used to joke , that one day instead of the gloomy casualties report that used to be read daily on TV at eight o’clock , with the newscaster roaring: The casualties are 50 Iraqis and 50 Iranians … in ten years time there will be no Iraqis left so, it would sound something like; The casualties are 30 Egyptians, 20 Pakistanis, 10 Indians, 3 Malaysians .
What about now, “Besides jokes” , who is going to live to see the end of all this . May be the casualties report would be 50 Martians, 20 from mercury, 50 Venusians were killed in Iraq over the past 24 earthen hours . I really don't have a clue .

Would Iraqis become an extinct species one day , that they will have to be exhibited in museums with a explanatory tag beneath reading something like : An Iraqi man , an extinct species, that used to inhabit the area between the two rives Tigris and Euphrates from the year 7000 BC till approx. the end of the year 2010 AC . You may find descendants of this rare species in Jordan , Syria , America and Some European countries, although anthropologists argue, that the species found in these countries do not resemble exactly the original species that lived in the twentieth century having to experience the Ottoman rule, the British invasion, several revolutions, Iran-Iraq war, Anfal , Habcha, First gulf war, Saddam’s mass graves and torture chambers , Second gulf war, both smart and stupid bombs, the rule of street gangs and militias , years of a locally manufactured civil was …etc …..

Well, who lives to see that day may add to that tag; These species were left alone to face their own destiny, and they used to defend themselves and maintain their sanity using weapons like no weapons found elsewhere in the world :- humour and faith .