No yesterday and no tomorrow. No past and no future, it's almost like they had never been. I find myself trapped in a present through which I cannot see, not forwards and not backwards. All the places I had once before known have disappeared into absolute nothingness. No evidence that they had ever existed but faint memories through curtains of blood and walls of shattering screams of human suffering. I ran away from that, I ran away like many of you, and like many of you intend or wish to do.
From the fear, from the almost monstrous disrespect to human life, I ran away for myself. Believing that I was given this life to live it, never to have it added as another statistic on a magazine page, never to have myself put down for no purpose at all. And from thereon I indulged myself with life, with minor loss of purpose perhaps, but with no less zest to live.
The words of a dear friend ring alive within …
"What I've seen from life made me believe it's just a way through. What matters is what we take to the grave"
And they're deeds, I suppose.
To live the day in total oblivion to life itself, to live the day like there is no tomorrow, and knowing that there might as well never be one. To live the day running from what lies beneath your own shadows, running from the hand that stabs or the eye that aims. To want to help those who appreciate no help, to want to help live at the price of your own life, to fear for others filling the void of your own life and driving you forward. It's almost sacred, almost divine and as selfless as humanly possible. Yet goes unseen, goes unappreciated even by its receptors.
To have a cold hand triggering a bullet through your brain while you have been working for those hands and others to live better is no way to die. To drive through twilight zones, risking the one soul you have to rescue others is beyond me. The courage it takes, the altruism, the determination and motivation and devotion is beyond me and I dare say beyond all of us.
You and I and many others have escaped, tried to or still hope and try to. But how many of us stayed there and stood in the line of fire, instead of staying and hating the world for it, hiding as well as possible? How many of us risked our own lives to safe lives? We have all thought life is precious, but none of us considered other lives than our own with the thought. The empty words coming from shelters, from safe exiles and new homes don't matter. The compassion and campaigning and writing and public-speaking, blabber and jitter and nonsense and absolutely nothing it is, stealing the lights from those who deserve them, those who work in the shadows yet achieve more than they have ever taken credit for.
I'm one of the few who had lost hope in all goodness in mankind, yet I realize now that there's still a good few of them. And they don't waste their lives on words. They have put their own lives on halt, on the fire line, to rescue others. I only pray and hope I will one day have the courage and devotion to spend the remainder of my life helping those who are really in need. Doing more than showing my feelings for a living. I guess I will always live wanting to find myself driven that way, with such oblivion to life itself. It's almost consecrated.
If you pray, mention them in your prayers; if you hope, then keep your fingers crossed for no malice to ever come their way. For them to never leave behind a widow or an orphan because of their own devotion to save others from being widows or orphans. To never be left behind to die, or never be lead forward to die, in their determination to prevent people from dying.
You might wonder who they are, but if you look around, you might see them. And perhaps you already know who I mean. And it's a cruel joke of a cruel fate if you can remember those on the magazine covers on and offline, and not those who do the real labour, those who recieve the bullets and those who fall in their struggle. It's an even more cruel joke if you remember people like Ayatullah, whatever made him such a thing, Sistani or Al Hakim...What good have they ever done? Aren't they practically surrounded by paid-for guards to dodge bullets?! Too haugty to reach a hand to ease anybody's pain?!
And to my friend, you I will always remember with reverence, whether you're in this world or beyond.
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Monday, January 01, 2007
What I cannot help saying...
No, it is not a political blog. But I cannot and will not ignore my feelings.
I do not believe in any of the puppets that dominate the Iraqi political scene now any more than I had believed in Saddam Hussein. I do not believe that they will ever do Iraq any better than Saddam Hussein had. And I believe that Iraq is still hitting the rock bottom, like it was during Hussein's reign. Yet the pace now is absurdly petrifying.
I was skeptical from the day the death sentence was announced. I wasn't surprised, actually. As a person that doesn't believe in death sentence for it ends the person's repent so abruptly, I still believed that his sentence was well earned. However, I have had my doubts. It was either that Saddam Hussein would never get executed for whatever reason such as Amnesty intervention or some international joint effort, if not American. Or that his execution would come in haste, wrapping him up and perhaps silencing him from whatever bucket he had to spill and that might get some heads damp.
I was taken aback by surprise, having tuned to CNN on an extremely rare occasion when I'd "mercilessly stab the remote", one evening. I found myself wondering about the kind of a genius that came up with that ill-timed and quite badly wrapped decision. Neither happy, nor sad, I went to sleep that night, certain that by the time I get up, news would have a handful to say about the execution. How true it was. I woke up next morning to the disturbing video of the execution.
His death did not disappoint me, yet it didn't make me even remotely happy. I was only deeply disappointed by the utter stupidity and lack of morality of those who had carried out the execution. You might wonder why. Try to understand me as I say this:
They've hailed the names of Muqtada and Mohammed Baqir Al-Sadr, two Shiite leaders of the distinctive, now notorious Sadri current, making the execution an exclusively Shiite vengeance towards the former dictator who is known for his pan-Arabism and strongly Sunni orientations. The government that ratified the sentence is principally Shiite as well. Add that to the fact that Saddam Hussein was executed only for the Dujail charges of crimes against humanity, putting in brackets that they were crimes against Shiites. I do not take differences in religions and ethnics seriously, yet I cannot see anything other than Shiite vengeance…and absolute disregard to the thousands and thousands of Iraqi Kurds who have suffered genocide. He did deserve to die, yet he did not die for his crimes against Iraqis. The government made sure he only died for his crimes against Shiites, cancelling all other entities and therefore enforcing the differences upon Iraqis, deepening the gap of sectarianism within.
I find absolute disregard on the government's side, portraying them almost like blood-thirsty men who cannot wait to carry out their vengeance and couldn't bother to carry it out properly, couldn't be bothered to bring justice to all instead of only their followers. Was it about the promise that he will die before the year ends? Well, I don't know. There were dozens of other promises of security, of unity and of stability. They couldn't have been carried out because there was nothing to them for our dear government; they already enjoy security and stability in the fortified Green Zone with supreme life conditions compared to those of the average Iraqi, and unity doesn't matter for they are in power only with sectarianism's aid. For the loss of a relative some two decades ago, now they claim the right to rule us. For the so-called struggle they have been leading in their comfortable, again so-called exiles in London, Tehran, Washington or elsewhere, enjoying better life conditions than ever witnessed by Iraqis under Saddam Hussein, they now rule us. And for being rather Sunni, Shiite or Kurdish than Iraqi, standing only for their own people's cases than ours as a nation, now they rule us. With obvious loyalties to the countries that have offered them new lives outside Iraq, they now serve their interests, not biting the hand that feeds them.
I do not know whether the government was trying to prove something by executing the man like that. I only gather that they weren't quite thinking of Iraq, they were only thinking of their own dear followers. Even though most Iraqis are happy, the government might have well earned the contempt of everybody other than their public support-base, rather than that of all Iraqis.
I feel that justice wasn't served. He died for the murder of some 140-150 Iraqis in Dujail, and he was never charged and tried for the fifty thousand people who have filed against him for Halabja and Anfal. You may argue that he was going to be sentenced with death all the same. Yet again, the way it was done disregards all other Iraqis and to all other victims of years of war, of sanctions, of tyranny and of genocide. Nothing will bring consolation to the people who had suffered and never had a chance to get their retribution, never again having a chance to a proper closure to their decades of brutal suffering.
Yet all the same, he is now dead, no matter what any of us says, whether in approval or in disapproval. What worries me is the aftermath…
Many people regard the execution, as I have said already, a quite discriminating and further dividing element. Favoring and granting some the rights of which others were deprived.
What's worse, as an Iraqi who lives abroad, was the way Saddam and Iraqis were portrayed.
As Majed Jarrar of Me Vs. MysElF has said on his post of January 1st:
"You can hear the Shia militiamen around him shouting "Praise be to Mohammed Baqr Assadr" [the grandfather of the currently living Moqtada Assadr who is believed that Saddam assassinated him], others shout at Saddam "go to hell". While Saddam is repeating the last words that a Muslim must say before death "I witness that there is not God but Allah, and I witness that Mohammed is a prophet of Allah."
They didn't even let him finish his sentence.
I found some petrifying brutality in that, played over and over again to the world, depicting us as reckless, blood-thirsty creatures, as though our news aren't doing enough of that.
To be humane is to rise above your enemy and not to descent to his level of brutality and disrespect towards human beings and human lives. He did not deserve to be treated as a human being, really. Yet the way execution was carried out showed no better people than Saddam Hussein was in his day. I bet my money that if they had had the chance, they would have executed him by throwing him to his sons' pet-tigers, like he used to do. And the way it was carried out, I bet my money they would have loved to drag his body about in Baghdad's streets like they did to Abdul Karim Qasim in 1963, even though no human value, or religious one, accepts it.
The way the videos of execution, and that explicit, quite disturbing and unofficial video that is circulating now depicts only a brutal nature that feasts at the sight of death. Regardless how much hatred you may have in your heart, the world cannot understand it. The world can only understand that Iraqis have misbehaved in a vile manner, and that they are now watching death scenes happiy as some mighty-gory nature, quite gruesome. And unfortunately, those animals have carried it out in a disgusting manner, the world has watched it and watched how people exchanged videos and watched them with disgusting delight, disturbing as it might have been…and now we are all taken by that sin with no discrimination…quite unlike how we discriminate.
As if it isn't enough still, as the world reports how Muslims are holding up their Hajj this year, and the Eid and all, the execution was "the government's gift to Iraqi people". Yes, we are celebrating Eid and New Year with an execution. How sick are we exactly?
And we wonder why the world thinks ill of us…
The last straw was the way Saddam Hussein was depicted. Having lived fighting and how he was said to have died fighting. So much so he was found in that spider-hole of a hideout. I have never liked his sons but I can muster more respect to them for having died in a real battle. Yet he is still portrayed as the man who never broke in court, never broke in the gallows, and who has been representing a symbol of…pan-Arabism to the remainder of the Arab world and it's chickens of leaders (May they all burn in hell, Amen) though I cannot see how he is better than a chicken anyway.
As Majed Jarrar said and I quote again:
I would not be surprised if I start to see some Che-Guevara-style T-Shirts with Saddam's Picture printed on them with words of pride and courage…
The future ahead is as dark as it could ever be. Iraq is now heading to the gallows following the steps of Saddam Hussein. Not because he was a great leader, but because some hasty and dim character decided that things will be done his way, and his way is as the old saying goes, "Thalithat al Athafy".
Cheers and I raise my grail, full of blood, in a toast: To Saddam's execution!
I do not believe in any of the puppets that dominate the Iraqi political scene now any more than I had believed in Saddam Hussein. I do not believe that they will ever do Iraq any better than Saddam Hussein had. And I believe that Iraq is still hitting the rock bottom, like it was during Hussein's reign. Yet the pace now is absurdly petrifying.
I was skeptical from the day the death sentence was announced. I wasn't surprised, actually. As a person that doesn't believe in death sentence for it ends the person's repent so abruptly, I still believed that his sentence was well earned. However, I have had my doubts. It was either that Saddam Hussein would never get executed for whatever reason such as Amnesty intervention or some international joint effort, if not American. Or that his execution would come in haste, wrapping him up and perhaps silencing him from whatever bucket he had to spill and that might get some heads damp.
I was taken aback by surprise, having tuned to CNN on an extremely rare occasion when I'd "mercilessly stab the remote", one evening. I found myself wondering about the kind of a genius that came up with that ill-timed and quite badly wrapped decision. Neither happy, nor sad, I went to sleep that night, certain that by the time I get up, news would have a handful to say about the execution. How true it was. I woke up next morning to the disturbing video of the execution.
His death did not disappoint me, yet it didn't make me even remotely happy. I was only deeply disappointed by the utter stupidity and lack of morality of those who had carried out the execution. You might wonder why. Try to understand me as I say this:
They've hailed the names of Muqtada and Mohammed Baqir Al-Sadr, two Shiite leaders of the distinctive, now notorious Sadri current, making the execution an exclusively Shiite vengeance towards the former dictator who is known for his pan-Arabism and strongly Sunni orientations. The government that ratified the sentence is principally Shiite as well. Add that to the fact that Saddam Hussein was executed only for the Dujail charges of crimes against humanity, putting in brackets that they were crimes against Shiites. I do not take differences in religions and ethnics seriously, yet I cannot see anything other than Shiite vengeance…and absolute disregard to the thousands and thousands of Iraqi Kurds who have suffered genocide. He did deserve to die, yet he did not die for his crimes against Iraqis. The government made sure he only died for his crimes against Shiites, cancelling all other entities and therefore enforcing the differences upon Iraqis, deepening the gap of sectarianism within.
I find absolute disregard on the government's side, portraying them almost like blood-thirsty men who cannot wait to carry out their vengeance and couldn't bother to carry it out properly, couldn't be bothered to bring justice to all instead of only their followers. Was it about the promise that he will die before the year ends? Well, I don't know. There were dozens of other promises of security, of unity and of stability. They couldn't have been carried out because there was nothing to them for our dear government; they already enjoy security and stability in the fortified Green Zone with supreme life conditions compared to those of the average Iraqi, and unity doesn't matter for they are in power only with sectarianism's aid. For the loss of a relative some two decades ago, now they claim the right to rule us. For the so-called struggle they have been leading in their comfortable, again so-called exiles in London, Tehran, Washington or elsewhere, enjoying better life conditions than ever witnessed by Iraqis under Saddam Hussein, they now rule us. And for being rather Sunni, Shiite or Kurdish than Iraqi, standing only for their own people's cases than ours as a nation, now they rule us. With obvious loyalties to the countries that have offered them new lives outside Iraq, they now serve their interests, not biting the hand that feeds them.
I do not know whether the government was trying to prove something by executing the man like that. I only gather that they weren't quite thinking of Iraq, they were only thinking of their own dear followers. Even though most Iraqis are happy, the government might have well earned the contempt of everybody other than their public support-base, rather than that of all Iraqis.
I feel that justice wasn't served. He died for the murder of some 140-150 Iraqis in Dujail, and he was never charged and tried for the fifty thousand people who have filed against him for Halabja and Anfal. You may argue that he was going to be sentenced with death all the same. Yet again, the way it was done disregards all other Iraqis and to all other victims of years of war, of sanctions, of tyranny and of genocide. Nothing will bring consolation to the people who had suffered and never had a chance to get their retribution, never again having a chance to a proper closure to their decades of brutal suffering.
Yet all the same, he is now dead, no matter what any of us says, whether in approval or in disapproval. What worries me is the aftermath…
Many people regard the execution, as I have said already, a quite discriminating and further dividing element. Favoring and granting some the rights of which others were deprived.
What's worse, as an Iraqi who lives abroad, was the way Saddam and Iraqis were portrayed.
As Majed Jarrar of Me Vs. MysElF has said on his post of January 1st:
"You can hear the Shia militiamen around him shouting "Praise be to Mohammed Baqr Assadr" [the grandfather of the currently living Moqtada Assadr who is believed that Saddam assassinated him], others shout at Saddam "go to hell". While Saddam is repeating the last words that a Muslim must say before death "I witness that there is not God but Allah, and I witness that Mohammed is a prophet of Allah."
They didn't even let him finish his sentence.
I found some petrifying brutality in that, played over and over again to the world, depicting us as reckless, blood-thirsty creatures, as though our news aren't doing enough of that.
To be humane is to rise above your enemy and not to descent to his level of brutality and disrespect towards human beings and human lives. He did not deserve to be treated as a human being, really. Yet the way execution was carried out showed no better people than Saddam Hussein was in his day. I bet my money that if they had had the chance, they would have executed him by throwing him to his sons' pet-tigers, like he used to do. And the way it was carried out, I bet my money they would have loved to drag his body about in Baghdad's streets like they did to Abdul Karim Qasim in 1963, even though no human value, or religious one, accepts it.
The way the videos of execution, and that explicit, quite disturbing and unofficial video that is circulating now depicts only a brutal nature that feasts at the sight of death. Regardless how much hatred you may have in your heart, the world cannot understand it. The world can only understand that Iraqis have misbehaved in a vile manner, and that they are now watching death scenes happiy as some mighty-gory nature, quite gruesome. And unfortunately, those animals have carried it out in a disgusting manner, the world has watched it and watched how people exchanged videos and watched them with disgusting delight, disturbing as it might have been…and now we are all taken by that sin with no discrimination…quite unlike how we discriminate.
As if it isn't enough still, as the world reports how Muslims are holding up their Hajj this year, and the Eid and all, the execution was "the government's gift to Iraqi people". Yes, we are celebrating Eid and New Year with an execution. How sick are we exactly?
And we wonder why the world thinks ill of us…
The last straw was the way Saddam Hussein was depicted. Having lived fighting and how he was said to have died fighting. So much so he was found in that spider-hole of a hideout. I have never liked his sons but I can muster more respect to them for having died in a real battle. Yet he is still portrayed as the man who never broke in court, never broke in the gallows, and who has been representing a symbol of…pan-Arabism to the remainder of the Arab world and it's chickens of leaders (May they all burn in hell, Amen) though I cannot see how he is better than a chicken anyway.
As Majed Jarrar said and I quote again:
I would not be surprised if I start to see some Che-Guevara-style T-Shirts with Saddam's Picture printed on them with words of pride and courage…
The future ahead is as dark as it could ever be. Iraq is now heading to the gallows following the steps of Saddam Hussein. Not because he was a great leader, but because some hasty and dim character decided that things will be done his way, and his way is as the old saying goes, "Thalithat al Athafy".
Cheers and I raise my grail, full of blood, in a toast: To Saddam's execution!
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Are you disappointed I still write?
Sorry about the disappointment, if you thought I'd quitted!
Having not updated for a while now, I see that I haven't missed much of anything around the Blogosphere. Wasps are still buzzing and bumble-bees are still-…bumbling and everybody is busy doing their little things, most of which are tedious and dispiriting once you've read them. Sometimes they are too acidic and frustrating; sometimes they're too polishing and sucking-up, either way not tempting enough to put up with the digestive illnesses induced by the outcome of relentless efforts to get through the latest update or post or…whatever.
Upon reading again, again I have noticed that some people write to impress, simple as that. You visit the blog and you find whole, entire posts almost going like "Admire me!" or "Get Impressed" or such. Depending on how they present it, some of them feed you admiration seeds with a spoon and wait for them to flourish while others bring along the entire tree and start shoving it down your throat. Aside from that, it still puzzles me whether it's attention, compassion or what; that other bloggers who don't hang the admiration banner seek. Some of them specifically induce nothing but a distressing feeling of…pity, if you could take all the humane feelings out of the picture, while others stimulate my most violent faculties.
Having read through updates, my reactions are always the same. I feel that there is a small number of bloggers who blog for themselves, with disregard to all the feelings they induce, as opposed to others whose writings are no more than loud-loud cries for attention; deafeningly loud, and annoyingly echoing and repetitive. It could vary from an unlimited horizon of thoughts to a slideshow of a bunch of pictures you could google for yourself, if you had been entertaining any such interests, to fill in the gap where thoughts are supposed to be. In between, there is an array of thoughts that hue from brilliant to simply random.
Recently, I have been thinking about the fact that there's a great many around our Blogosphere who appear to idolize themselves. They seem to have read their own posts and have fallen in love with themselves, imitating a mentality quite as naïve as that of their designated readers. Then there are others who don't need to read their own posts as they are already much in love with themselves. After several readings and certain encounters I have come to believe that there are some smug characters around the corner, the less fortunate of which blames his failures upon everybody else. Especially since everybody else is perceived to be less intelligent and therefore less likely to succeed. The logical conclusion they seem to reach is that everybody is stealing their good luck, which accounts for why their lives are still pathetic. I wonder whether they all suppose that since they are "more intelligent", that opportunities should come crawling. Still, they all seem to think that if you disagree with them, you definitely are...stupid!
I used to call Luke the mother duck, but as a matter of fact there is one too many. It seems to me that every oracle who is bestowing upon us the great pleasure of his existence around simply seems to assume that role. I doubt that it could be the fear of losing potential fans rather than simply enjoying the waste of time put to reading blabber and actually leaving encouraging comments on them. I cannot help but wonder, if they are that great-natured and that interested, why not try guide people through to better ways? Or is it just fears of…competition over lights, since there is a great many of good bloggers around already? I am wondering because you would see comments from well known names in relatively unknown and for that matter quite unbearable blogs, yet mysteriously while all support is offered, time passes by with not the least bit of improvement.
Reading through, I could picture unemployed "EinsteinS" cursing misfortune, more EinsteinS with an excessive amount of self-esteem that even THE Einstein didn't have. I also pictured Einstein-impersonators. On those, while clothes fit them too loosely, thoughts didn't fit them at all because the container was far too small. There were several EinsteinS as well, with a very common profession today and that is polishing.
The blogosphere is a really funny place. What makes it even funnier is that most of those people would get arrested /killed for their words in the real world…sometimes even for copy-rights.
Having not updated for a while now, I see that I haven't missed much of anything around the Blogosphere. Wasps are still buzzing and bumble-bees are still-…bumbling and everybody is busy doing their little things, most of which are tedious and dispiriting once you've read them. Sometimes they are too acidic and frustrating; sometimes they're too polishing and sucking-up, either way not tempting enough to put up with the digestive illnesses induced by the outcome of relentless efforts to get through the latest update or post or…whatever.
Upon reading again, again I have noticed that some people write to impress, simple as that. You visit the blog and you find whole, entire posts almost going like "Admire me!" or "Get Impressed" or such. Depending on how they present it, some of them feed you admiration seeds with a spoon and wait for them to flourish while others bring along the entire tree and start shoving it down your throat. Aside from that, it still puzzles me whether it's attention, compassion or what; that other bloggers who don't hang the admiration banner seek. Some of them specifically induce nothing but a distressing feeling of…pity, if you could take all the humane feelings out of the picture, while others stimulate my most violent faculties.
Having read through updates, my reactions are always the same. I feel that there is a small number of bloggers who blog for themselves, with disregard to all the feelings they induce, as opposed to others whose writings are no more than loud-loud cries for attention; deafeningly loud, and annoyingly echoing and repetitive. It could vary from an unlimited horizon of thoughts to a slideshow of a bunch of pictures you could google for yourself, if you had been entertaining any such interests, to fill in the gap where thoughts are supposed to be. In between, there is an array of thoughts that hue from brilliant to simply random.
Recently, I have been thinking about the fact that there's a great many around our Blogosphere who appear to idolize themselves. They seem to have read their own posts and have fallen in love with themselves, imitating a mentality quite as naïve as that of their designated readers. Then there are others who don't need to read their own posts as they are already much in love with themselves. After several readings and certain encounters I have come to believe that there are some smug characters around the corner, the less fortunate of which blames his failures upon everybody else. Especially since everybody else is perceived to be less intelligent and therefore less likely to succeed. The logical conclusion they seem to reach is that everybody is stealing their good luck, which accounts for why their lives are still pathetic. I wonder whether they all suppose that since they are "more intelligent", that opportunities should come crawling. Still, they all seem to think that if you disagree with them, you definitely are...stupid!
I used to call Luke the mother duck, but as a matter of fact there is one too many. It seems to me that every oracle who is bestowing upon us the great pleasure of his existence around simply seems to assume that role. I doubt that it could be the fear of losing potential fans rather than simply enjoying the waste of time put to reading blabber and actually leaving encouraging comments on them. I cannot help but wonder, if they are that great-natured and that interested, why not try guide people through to better ways? Or is it just fears of…competition over lights, since there is a great many of good bloggers around already? I am wondering because you would see comments from well known names in relatively unknown and for that matter quite unbearable blogs, yet mysteriously while all support is offered, time passes by with not the least bit of improvement.
Reading through, I could picture unemployed "EinsteinS" cursing misfortune, more EinsteinS with an excessive amount of self-esteem that even THE Einstein didn't have. I also pictured Einstein-impersonators. On those, while clothes fit them too loosely, thoughts didn't fit them at all because the container was far too small. There were several EinsteinS as well, with a very common profession today and that is polishing.
The blogosphere is a really funny place. What makes it even funnier is that most of those people would get arrested /killed for their words in the real world…sometimes even for copy-rights.
Sunday, October 22, 2006
Iraqi Delilâh
This is not a political blog, and was never intended to be such. Yet it seems that it has taken such a turn since I've decided to reply for Paul Edwards email. I guess I am to blame after all.
However, I was asked three questions by AngoGermanicAmerican. Whether he asked them mockingly or seriously, I do not know. But I am glad that I was asked, and I am glad to answer them so everybody has an idea about what Delilâh thinks aside from "some bloggers suck". But it's this once that I don't intend for to happen again, because Delilâh isn't into politics and would rather keep her political points of view for herself.
What is your hope for Iraq; in other words, what would you like to see in terms of government, in terms of economic system, and in terms of the role of religion in the affairs of state?
This is a question about my hope. So I suppose I'm free to daydream…
In terms of government, it's simple. I would love to one day see a secular, liberal government that was elected on bases of merit and competence. Clear of political thieves and benefactors and frauds and back-door dealers. Responsible enough to pair words with action and up to the task of imposing legal authority over every other authority that anybody can claim, including that of religion and that of semi-independent, ethnic-based states-to-be. For once I would like to see my government pure Iraqi rather than Shiite Arab or Sunni Kurd or I don't know what Turkoman. No more American dummies and puppets, at least. They can invest all they want but they can just pull their hands off politics. They look bad enough with their hands and arms in to the elbow.
Economically? Iraq is a very wealthy country, potentially. I would love to have a decent government that won't be too busy loading oil money into their pockets and their anonymous Swiss-bank accounts, draining the country from every single resource it has. I would like to see us exporting oil for decent prices and making our own fuel instead of selling it only to buy it as Benzene. I would like to see foreign investment that isn't synonymous to theft and fraud and scandals. I would like to see my country turn into a splendidly wealthy state where people live to enjoy their lives, as it is potentially, like all of those states in the gulf have. Not as it is now, a pitiful country whose residents and natives are pitied by the world, and who seek life elsewhere because their own country isn't capable of offering them the kind of life they would like to live.
Religion? Two words: "BACK OFF!". I've always believed that religion is a "thing" between a human and his creator, should he believe in such a thing. In a country as diverse as Iraq, diverse in all senses, it's utterly unfair to have a religious system because by all means it will be imposing believes and practices that a fair portion of the society is unrelated to. It's neither democratic nor sensible.
Some people might argue that religion is for all times, I say no. Religion is for you to keep at home; between you and your God, regardless whether you call him Jesus or Yahweh or Allah or even Paul Edwards or Buddha. And nobody with any other interest than controlling you has an interest in how you practice your religion. Religion has become the harness that Iraqis are lead by, therefore it’s a must to put it out of the picture with all of its control-freaks of figures. Al-Sadr was assassinated some 20 years ago, Al-Hakim's family have lost some of their men as well, all thanks to Saddam Hussein. But is your dead and your injured any less important that you would raise such authority-thirsty figures above your necks and turn your backs to everybody else?
Second question. What is your realistic hope; in other words, what do you believe is realistically achievable in the short term for each of the previous questions?
Politically, the differences are deepening between each major portion of our society that the inclination towards separation is growing. People are too busy fighting one another, the government is too busy harvesting what they've planted and making bank-transfers and buying real-estate in every other place in the world than Iraq. And so, we're heading to a vast abyss. At some point, we should all be happy that there's still a place on the map called Iraq instead of Sunnistan and Shiistan and Turkomenistan and Kurdistan and whatever else those brilliant minds can come up with. Many may disagree with me, but isn’t the average Iraqi citizen too enthusiastic about whatever Al-Hakim, Al-Sistani, Al-Dhari, Kaka Masoud and others are saying? And aren't they all willing to commit stupidities in the name of their belief? Even those bloggers that I somewhat dislike have written about conversations with the taxi-driver and the bus-driver and whoever else who praised this figure or that figure and idolized them blindly.
Economically? We're going broke. People are leaving the country, the government is getting really rich not in the governmental sense but in the individual sense. We're selling oil for absurd prices and we buy all sorts of consumable fuels for absurd prices compared to the fact that we can manufacture them at the cost of dirt. Every foreign investment/reconstruction contract has this far been a fiasco. Everybody blames their failures on terrorists that all of a sudden there's an impulse of wondering whether everybody is benefiting from terrorism at some point. Everybody except for the citizen, that is. Our natural resources are wasted, and we've never even explored the possibilities of tourism before to explore them now, under such circumstances.
Religiously? Long-live Sistani, long-live Dhari…and if anybody has problems with that, there are "anonymous terrorists" to take care of them. Sometimes not anonymous at all, they go by Badr Brigade and Something-something-al-sunna, et cetera. Next step could possibly be the Islamic not-at-all-democratic Republic of Iraq, or Islamic Shiite State of Iraq alongside four-five other tiny states that every neighboring country would love to annex or at least manipulate and control under the cape of religion.
Third question. How? What in your view needs to transpire, and in what order, for Iraq to become what you hope and desire it to become?
Back to daydreaming…
Any change, from my point of view, requires the following:
Flushing all the puppets down the drain and finding a decent, honest and competent leadership from within our society instead of importing formerly-Iraqi English and American citizens who had been "madeen rejleehum bel shames" for the past thirty years to rule us in the name of their "struggle". A person whose networth somehow happened to be equal to that of the Iraqi Government doesn't represent me. He definitely doesn't after officially turning khazeenat el dawla to wereth beit abooh, and feeling free to spree with it. Balla Alla y5alekom, cut that crap. Kul wa7ed y9e7 ani 9arle 30 years da ana'6el fe sabeil Iraq 7ur wa musta8el, tale yeje wo ylem el ma8som, some millions of dollars, wo yeflet bel da5al wala 3abalak bayeg she. Like Iraq owes them those millions for their short-lived so-called struggle. Not at all like they had been enjoying peaceful, reasonably wealthy lives under the not-scorching-at-all English sun or enjoying the shade somewhere in Washington. And then after the fraud, the theft and all, they go like "We, the muna'6eleen". Men jeebi 7ay9er brasna 5eir.
Making a nice-neat collection of all of those religious figures and shoving them all where they belong, in the back of the political closet, where nobody can hear their greedy and distorted screams for authority. Where hopefully they cease from manipulating simple minds in the name of God and religion, and where they stop acting like the God-sent saviors (Somewhat like Paul Edwards, just in a more appealing manner) and where they stop serving Iran, Saudi Arabia and whoever else for green. If they're God-sent for real, they shouldn't be upset about being told to shut up once and for all, aren’t they counting on God to reward them after all? Well they might as well wait for him and stop expecting people to reward them for their religious righteousness. There are too many Messiah-wannabes out there already, so it's a no-thanks situation to me.
Spreading political consciousness amongst people, because there's a great many of them that are unaware of the fact that their votes are what brought those mongers into authority. Of course, in a perfect world, it would be absolutely true. However, it's still somewhat true even in the now-distorted Iraqi world. I don't think Allawi, Maliki or Chalabi would dare raise their voices with such garbage if they didn't have a public base of support (Could as well be bought, we know it happens). People need to realize that their word is what makes Iraq what it is, and what creates those idols.
Spreading Iraq-ism instead of "Shiism" and "Sunnism", Arab-ism or Kurd-ism or whatever other ism that has been spread. I believe that we all need and want a safe and prosperous home where we can settle. And I believe we all want to be equally respected and never demeaned on ethnic or religious bases. I believe that every decent Iraqi wishes for stability and security to spread in his country, wishes for it to flourish, and wishes for equality. What better manner is there for all of that than being overall an Iraqi and a human being? Since when did religion or anything else make less of a human being of a person? Since those Super-Duper Grand Ayatullahs and Mullahs and Turban-Heads came to the picture, and since our dear Kurdish leaderships started stuffing our brothers' heads with nonsense about how much Arabs hated them and how they should hate back and fight us to get their rights. Whatever happened to Iraqi Patriotism?
Spreading something that is impedingly missing, a moral-sense. Here, it's a very specific portion of our society who had found no better way to counter their poverty than immorality. There are such people everywhere in the world. But everywhere else in the world, or at least for the most part, there's a legal system to take care of them which is something we unfortunately do not have in Iraq, thanks to our lawful government. (Of course there isn't, if there was the government wouldn't be there still). The soldiers who had taken off their uniforms as soon as they had been informed that they will be deployed outside their mother towns, the masses and masses of young mercenaries who do the dirty job for money such as those in Badr Brigades and Mehdi Army and Ansar al-Sunna and God-knows-what-else. There are masses of people who take minimal wages as a reward for their immorality, youth learning that the fastest way to improve their lives is corruption and that to be feared is to be powerful and to live well, and hundreds of other examples. After all, writing in a butt-kissing manner has less of a destructive effect than those who hold a gun in the name of I don’t know who, and spill blood. There's a certain degree of decay that a human being can reach, and once they surpass that, they should be put behind bars!
Of course, our sense of democratic awareness is also in a very pathetic shape. I, myself, have written about ITM and how disgusting I found the post. Except for that afterwards I reviewed myself and found my response highly anti-democratic and indeed hypocritical. The exact same thing I criticize occasionally about people. We need to get used to the idea that the variety of opinion exists just like the variety fingerprints. We need to learn how to take a deep breath to calm down, how to think and then react; how to accept counter-arguments, how to assess them and how to accept the fact that they might be right to embrace. At least, how to live on peaceful terms with all the variety of opinions that is out there without hostility and without letting it affect the fact that whoever person we talk to, regardless how disgusting we find their opinion, is still a human being and a brother and a fellow citizen, an equal and very much with good traits that we tend to close our eyes to while raving about their repulsive opinion. We need to learn that criticism doesn’t change belief, that not everybody sees things from the same angle. We need to learn that to differ is human nature, and that different people don't always have to be enemies. But personally, my enemy is he who does harm, because words enough don't kill, bullets do and he with the bullet is the one I abhor.
Concerning the Coalition or Americans or whatever you wish to call them, I've got nothing to say. They're there already, and they won't be leaving soon no matter what we say and what we do. I would wish that they would get busy trying to invest or reconstruct in Iraq with as much stealing as they had been doing in the Gulf, just not more like what's happening in Iraq now. I'm against them in the sense that invading Iraq was a supreme stupidity that was badly planned. I'm against them for being the puppeteers who brought us all of those parasites that we have been rid of some thirty years ago, in the name of struggle or money or whatever. I'm against them for acting like Iraq is beit el 5allofohom, excuse the terminology, and like Iraqis are 5adam abuhom. Iraqis who do are to blame as well. I'm against them for this mere fact, that not many people were happy under Saddam Hussein's, but even fewer are happy now. Ridnahom 3on 6l3aw Fr3on. I'm against them for the fact that supposedly, the most powerful state in the world has invaded us and cannot seem to control a bunch of outlaws and maniacs with the excuse of not wanting to interfere with internal policy. I guess invading was the greatest intervention, cut the crap.
How can anything get done? I do not know. I am sure there are brilliant minds out there with leadership skills and enough decency to make the change. I've never lost faith in humanity, or at least I try not to. It will take time, years and perhaps decades, to make the change. However, whether it will happen at all, I doubt. Things had only been heading from bad to worse.
Now, excuse me for the lengthly post. But my major concern is Iraq and Iraqis, I don't care who or what they are...for all I care, they're Iraqis and that's all that matters.
However, I was asked three questions by AngoGermanicAmerican. Whether he asked them mockingly or seriously, I do not know. But I am glad that I was asked, and I am glad to answer them so everybody has an idea about what Delilâh thinks aside from "some bloggers suck". But it's this once that I don't intend for to happen again, because Delilâh isn't into politics and would rather keep her political points of view for herself.
What is your hope for Iraq; in other words, what would you like to see in terms of government, in terms of economic system, and in terms of the role of religion in the affairs of state?
This is a question about my hope. So I suppose I'm free to daydream…
In terms of government, it's simple. I would love to one day see a secular, liberal government that was elected on bases of merit and competence. Clear of political thieves and benefactors and frauds and back-door dealers. Responsible enough to pair words with action and up to the task of imposing legal authority over every other authority that anybody can claim, including that of religion and that of semi-independent, ethnic-based states-to-be. For once I would like to see my government pure Iraqi rather than Shiite Arab or Sunni Kurd or I don't know what Turkoman. No more American dummies and puppets, at least. They can invest all they want but they can just pull their hands off politics. They look bad enough with their hands and arms in to the elbow.
Economically? Iraq is a very wealthy country, potentially. I would love to have a decent government that won't be too busy loading oil money into their pockets and their anonymous Swiss-bank accounts, draining the country from every single resource it has. I would like to see us exporting oil for decent prices and making our own fuel instead of selling it only to buy it as Benzene. I would like to see foreign investment that isn't synonymous to theft and fraud and scandals. I would like to see my country turn into a splendidly wealthy state where people live to enjoy their lives, as it is potentially, like all of those states in the gulf have. Not as it is now, a pitiful country whose residents and natives are pitied by the world, and who seek life elsewhere because their own country isn't capable of offering them the kind of life they would like to live.
Religion? Two words: "BACK OFF!". I've always believed that religion is a "thing" between a human and his creator, should he believe in such a thing. In a country as diverse as Iraq, diverse in all senses, it's utterly unfair to have a religious system because by all means it will be imposing believes and practices that a fair portion of the society is unrelated to. It's neither democratic nor sensible.
Some people might argue that religion is for all times, I say no. Religion is for you to keep at home; between you and your God, regardless whether you call him Jesus or Yahweh or Allah or even Paul Edwards or Buddha. And nobody with any other interest than controlling you has an interest in how you practice your religion. Religion has become the harness that Iraqis are lead by, therefore it’s a must to put it out of the picture with all of its control-freaks of figures. Al-Sadr was assassinated some 20 years ago, Al-Hakim's family have lost some of their men as well, all thanks to Saddam Hussein. But is your dead and your injured any less important that you would raise such authority-thirsty figures above your necks and turn your backs to everybody else?
Second question. What is your realistic hope; in other words, what do you believe is realistically achievable in the short term for each of the previous questions?
Politically, the differences are deepening between each major portion of our society that the inclination towards separation is growing. People are too busy fighting one another, the government is too busy harvesting what they've planted and making bank-transfers and buying real-estate in every other place in the world than Iraq. And so, we're heading to a vast abyss. At some point, we should all be happy that there's still a place on the map called Iraq instead of Sunnistan and Shiistan and Turkomenistan and Kurdistan and whatever else those brilliant minds can come up with. Many may disagree with me, but isn’t the average Iraqi citizen too enthusiastic about whatever Al-Hakim, Al-Sistani, Al-Dhari, Kaka Masoud and others are saying? And aren't they all willing to commit stupidities in the name of their belief? Even those bloggers that I somewhat dislike have written about conversations with the taxi-driver and the bus-driver and whoever else who praised this figure or that figure and idolized them blindly.
Economically? We're going broke. People are leaving the country, the government is getting really rich not in the governmental sense but in the individual sense. We're selling oil for absurd prices and we buy all sorts of consumable fuels for absurd prices compared to the fact that we can manufacture them at the cost of dirt. Every foreign investment/reconstruction contract has this far been a fiasco. Everybody blames their failures on terrorists that all of a sudden there's an impulse of wondering whether everybody is benefiting from terrorism at some point. Everybody except for the citizen, that is. Our natural resources are wasted, and we've never even explored the possibilities of tourism before to explore them now, under such circumstances.
Religiously? Long-live Sistani, long-live Dhari…and if anybody has problems with that, there are "anonymous terrorists" to take care of them. Sometimes not anonymous at all, they go by Badr Brigade and Something-something-al-sunna, et cetera. Next step could possibly be the Islamic not-at-all-democratic Republic of Iraq, or Islamic Shiite State of Iraq alongside four-five other tiny states that every neighboring country would love to annex or at least manipulate and control under the cape of religion.
Third question. How? What in your view needs to transpire, and in what order, for Iraq to become what you hope and desire it to become?
Back to daydreaming…
Any change, from my point of view, requires the following:
Flushing all the puppets down the drain and finding a decent, honest and competent leadership from within our society instead of importing formerly-Iraqi English and American citizens who had been "madeen rejleehum bel shames" for the past thirty years to rule us in the name of their "struggle". A person whose networth somehow happened to be equal to that of the Iraqi Government doesn't represent me. He definitely doesn't after officially turning khazeenat el dawla to wereth beit abooh, and feeling free to spree with it. Balla Alla y5alekom, cut that crap. Kul wa7ed y9e7 ani 9arle 30 years da ana'6el fe sabeil Iraq 7ur wa musta8el, tale yeje wo ylem el ma8som, some millions of dollars, wo yeflet bel da5al wala 3abalak bayeg she. Like Iraq owes them those millions for their short-lived so-called struggle. Not at all like they had been enjoying peaceful, reasonably wealthy lives under the not-scorching-at-all English sun or enjoying the shade somewhere in Washington. And then after the fraud, the theft and all, they go like "We, the muna'6eleen". Men jeebi 7ay9er brasna 5eir.
Making a nice-neat collection of all of those religious figures and shoving them all where they belong, in the back of the political closet, where nobody can hear their greedy and distorted screams for authority. Where hopefully they cease from manipulating simple minds in the name of God and religion, and where they stop acting like the God-sent saviors (Somewhat like Paul Edwards, just in a more appealing manner) and where they stop serving Iran, Saudi Arabia and whoever else for green. If they're God-sent for real, they shouldn't be upset about being told to shut up once and for all, aren’t they counting on God to reward them after all? Well they might as well wait for him and stop expecting people to reward them for their religious righteousness. There are too many Messiah-wannabes out there already, so it's a no-thanks situation to me.
Spreading political consciousness amongst people, because there's a great many of them that are unaware of the fact that their votes are what brought those mongers into authority. Of course, in a perfect world, it would be absolutely true. However, it's still somewhat true even in the now-distorted Iraqi world. I don't think Allawi, Maliki or Chalabi would dare raise their voices with such garbage if they didn't have a public base of support (Could as well be bought, we know it happens). People need to realize that their word is what makes Iraq what it is, and what creates those idols.
Spreading Iraq-ism instead of "Shiism" and "Sunnism", Arab-ism or Kurd-ism or whatever other ism that has been spread. I believe that we all need and want a safe and prosperous home where we can settle. And I believe we all want to be equally respected and never demeaned on ethnic or religious bases. I believe that every decent Iraqi wishes for stability and security to spread in his country, wishes for it to flourish, and wishes for equality. What better manner is there for all of that than being overall an Iraqi and a human being? Since when did religion or anything else make less of a human being of a person? Since those Super-Duper Grand Ayatullahs and Mullahs and Turban-Heads came to the picture, and since our dear Kurdish leaderships started stuffing our brothers' heads with nonsense about how much Arabs hated them and how they should hate back and fight us to get their rights. Whatever happened to Iraqi Patriotism?
Spreading something that is impedingly missing, a moral-sense. Here, it's a very specific portion of our society who had found no better way to counter their poverty than immorality. There are such people everywhere in the world. But everywhere else in the world, or at least for the most part, there's a legal system to take care of them which is something we unfortunately do not have in Iraq, thanks to our lawful government. (Of course there isn't, if there was the government wouldn't be there still). The soldiers who had taken off their uniforms as soon as they had been informed that they will be deployed outside their mother towns, the masses and masses of young mercenaries who do the dirty job for money such as those in Badr Brigades and Mehdi Army and Ansar al-Sunna and God-knows-what-else. There are masses of people who take minimal wages as a reward for their immorality, youth learning that the fastest way to improve their lives is corruption and that to be feared is to be powerful and to live well, and hundreds of other examples. After all, writing in a butt-kissing manner has less of a destructive effect than those who hold a gun in the name of I don’t know who, and spill blood. There's a certain degree of decay that a human being can reach, and once they surpass that, they should be put behind bars!
Of course, our sense of democratic awareness is also in a very pathetic shape. I, myself, have written about ITM and how disgusting I found the post. Except for that afterwards I reviewed myself and found my response highly anti-democratic and indeed hypocritical. The exact same thing I criticize occasionally about people. We need to get used to the idea that the variety of opinion exists just like the variety fingerprints. We need to learn how to take a deep breath to calm down, how to think and then react; how to accept counter-arguments, how to assess them and how to accept the fact that they might be right to embrace. At least, how to live on peaceful terms with all the variety of opinions that is out there without hostility and without letting it affect the fact that whoever person we talk to, regardless how disgusting we find their opinion, is still a human being and a brother and a fellow citizen, an equal and very much with good traits that we tend to close our eyes to while raving about their repulsive opinion. We need to learn that criticism doesn’t change belief, that not everybody sees things from the same angle. We need to learn that to differ is human nature, and that different people don't always have to be enemies. But personally, my enemy is he who does harm, because words enough don't kill, bullets do and he with the bullet is the one I abhor.
Concerning the Coalition or Americans or whatever you wish to call them, I've got nothing to say. They're there already, and they won't be leaving soon no matter what we say and what we do. I would wish that they would get busy trying to invest or reconstruct in Iraq with as much stealing as they had been doing in the Gulf, just not more like what's happening in Iraq now. I'm against them in the sense that invading Iraq was a supreme stupidity that was badly planned. I'm against them for being the puppeteers who brought us all of those parasites that we have been rid of some thirty years ago, in the name of struggle or money or whatever. I'm against them for acting like Iraq is beit el 5allofohom, excuse the terminology, and like Iraqis are 5adam abuhom. Iraqis who do are to blame as well. I'm against them for this mere fact, that not many people were happy under Saddam Hussein's, but even fewer are happy now. Ridnahom 3on 6l3aw Fr3on. I'm against them for the fact that supposedly, the most powerful state in the world has invaded us and cannot seem to control a bunch of outlaws and maniacs with the excuse of not wanting to interfere with internal policy. I guess invading was the greatest intervention, cut the crap.
How can anything get done? I do not know. I am sure there are brilliant minds out there with leadership skills and enough decency to make the change. I've never lost faith in humanity, or at least I try not to. It will take time, years and perhaps decades, to make the change. However, whether it will happen at all, I doubt. Things had only been heading from bad to worse.
Now, excuse me for the lengthly post. But my major concern is Iraq and Iraqis, I don't care who or what they are...for all I care, they're Iraqis and that's all that matters.
Thursday, October 19, 2006
ترا صدك اكو عالم فطر
Title quoted from Chikita...
Getting home earlier than usual today, I was checking my mailbox and having a little chitchat with Chikita about everything and nothing, when I found this funny email in my inbox. The email is by Paul Edwards, an Australian blogger who both strongly dislikes me and strongly likes the war, and who thinks he knows the simplest thing about being Iraqi.
Having read the email, my reaction was very much similar to that of an elementary-school teacher who is just about to try to explain the concept of multiplication to a group of 7-year-olds. In other words, understanding anything is not an option for an outcome of trials. So I thought "I'm not replying to this". However, I thought I'd forward the email to Chikita, and perhaps spend a little while reflecting upon it afterwards. Eventually and after some discussion with Chikita, I thought I should write a post about it!
Paul Edwards:
"Greetings from Australia. I am one of the Australians who STRONGLY supported the Iraq war."
Me:
Good for you...
Paul Edwards quoting me:
"And it takes either a naive kind of a person or a real idiot to actually believe that Americans/Coalition Forces came to Iraq only to "free us" and "look after" "
http://antisubjugator.blogspot.com/2005/06/tribal-mentality.html
Also, see rule 2 here:http://www.mutazilah.org/pillars/arabic.txt
Also read www.mutazilah.org"
My comment:
LOL. New Messiah...!
Chikita's comment:
يمكن يشوف هواية تلفزيون بس ما تعرفين اعلامهم شيعكس … يعني هم خطية ترا صدك اكو عالم فطر
Last words…
Dear Paul Edwards; please try contacting our favorite "mother-duck" of the Olivebranch Network, Luke. He's Australian and I believe he would be delighted to talk you back to your mind. He really knows far better than you would expect anybody who's never been anywhere around the Middle East to know, because people usually know as much as you do.
By the way, please do not try to learn Arabic. It might be too complicated for you while you're trying to sort why "the Australian government, the US government, Al Hurra, Al Jazeera and various other places" don't quite care and while you "spend countless hours thinking and thinking, trying to crack Iraqi and anti-war mentality".
UPDATE: Some 8 hours after posting the original post. 3 Paul-Edwards-Comments later...
Dear Paul Edwards,
Please get a life, and get off my blog. I've come to think that showing any response to you was just as idiotic of a reaction as your thinking happened to be. Please allow me to clarify the fact that you're just another ignorant, stubborn blogger whose ignorance, stubbornness and absurdity make no difference whatsoever in the world out there. I hope you know now why ""the Australian government, the US government, Al Hurra, Al Jazeera and various other places" don't really care what you think.
If you want facts, check blogs like Chikita's that I've mentioned up there. Her post "Free in Baghdad" might enlighten you about the current face that life has in Iraq.
Finally, whether you do that or whether you keep your unnoted absurd little opinion, please make sure not to flood my blog with nonsense. After all, if anybody can feel free to post nonsense here that would be myself. I have no intention to put up with nutcases who think that God talks to them and that they experience Divine Revelations. Whether you understand what I have just said or not, allow me to put you in the picture about this; if I ever happen to read another word in either my mailbox or my blog that has your signature, trust the fact that it will be swept off out of my sight even without trying to decipher the mumble that your brilliant mind has come up with. So thank you forehand for not wasting my time or yours (Though I'm sure you're life is a waste, but anyway!) and not writing a word here anymore.
P.S. Are you sure your next post on your blog isn't about the plan plotted by Martians to enslave human beings and take over Planet Earth?
ĒL DELILÂH
Getting home earlier than usual today, I was checking my mailbox and having a little chitchat with Chikita about everything and nothing, when I found this funny email in my inbox. The email is by Paul Edwards, an Australian blogger who both strongly dislikes me and strongly likes the war, and who thinks he knows the simplest thing about being Iraqi.
Having read the email, my reaction was very much similar to that of an elementary-school teacher who is just about to try to explain the concept of multiplication to a group of 7-year-olds. In other words, understanding anything is not an option for an outcome of trials. So I thought "I'm not replying to this". However, I thought I'd forward the email to Chikita, and perhaps spend a little while reflecting upon it afterwards. Eventually and after some discussion with Chikita, I thought I should write a post about it!
Paul Edwards:
"Greetings from Australia. I am one of the Australians who STRONGLY supported the Iraq war."
Me:
Good for you...
Paul Edwards quoting me:
"And it takes either a naive kind of a person or a real idiot to actually believe that Americans/Coalition Forces came to Iraq only to "free us" and "look after" "
Paul Edwards' comment:
"That's exactly what it was for. There were other reasonstoo, e.g. security of the free world, but I was so happy tobe able to finally get rid of a terrible dictator who used torape Iraqi women."
My comment:
And you would know because...you've been surfing the web, watching TV or reading your local news paper? What do you think is going on in Iraq now? Too much freedom and happiness, thanks to you?
Chikita's comment:
" هممممممممممم… وهسه شديصير يمه"
Paul Edwards quoting me:
"our interests". Nobody would really believe that the United States would spend billions of dollars to free Iraqis for just nothing in return"
Paul Edwards comment:
My comment:
First, no I'm not grateful and nor the majority of my people are. And if you think you know better, then good for you. What they're getting out of this? Well, let's see…
Oil, reconstruction contracts (Specially since the job is more like bringing the country back to the 21st century, from the 5th century!). I don't know, do names like Pectel and Halliburton ring a bell?
By the way, I wouldn't like to owe people like you a dime, let alone a home. I owe you nothing. The most you've moved was your mouth in support for our case (And when it does, I bet everybody thinks it shouldn't!) , but I'm the one who had to move out of the country and leave my life as I'd known it because of "your" mistakes and your supreme intelligence that turned my used-to-be-a-wreck home into nothing less than a swamp. Now, if you're not a government official or at least a soldier, stop saying "we", because you don't fit in the picture.
Chikita's comment:
".شهالخريط…همه بس جانوا يريدون اجر وثواب لأبا عبد الله يمكن"
Paul Edwards quoting me:
Nobody buys the "White Man's Burden"
Paul Edwards' comment:
That is a misnomer. It's actually "free people's burden". In my opinion, free people have an obligation to help liberatethe rest of the world.
My comment:
Being enlightened as you are, and obviously spending massive amounts of time in front of your screen in support for your case and not doing anything else, I would suggest you google "Rudeyard Kipling".
And he's still quoting me:
" or the "Democracy Protectors" cliches anymore."
His comment:
http://antisubjugator.blogspot.com/2005/06/tribal-mentality.html
Also, see rule 2 here:http://www.mutazilah.org/pillars/arabic.txt
Also read www.mutazilah.org"
My comment:
LOL. New Messiah...!
Chikita's comment:
يمكن يشوف هواية تلفزيون بس ما تعرفين اعلامهم شيعكس … يعني هم خطية ترا صدك اكو عالم فطر
Last words…
Dear Paul Edwards; please try contacting our favorite "mother-duck" of the Olivebranch Network, Luke. He's Australian and I believe he would be delighted to talk you back to your mind. He really knows far better than you would expect anybody who's never been anywhere around the Middle East to know, because people usually know as much as you do.
By the way, please do not try to learn Arabic. It might be too complicated for you while you're trying to sort why "the Australian government, the US government, Al Hurra, Al Jazeera and various other places" don't quite care and while you "spend countless hours thinking and thinking, trying to crack Iraqi and anti-war mentality".
UPDATE: Some 8 hours after posting the original post. 3 Paul-Edwards-Comments later...
Dear Paul Edwards,
Please get a life, and get off my blog. I've come to think that showing any response to you was just as idiotic of a reaction as your thinking happened to be. Please allow me to clarify the fact that you're just another ignorant, stubborn blogger whose ignorance, stubbornness and absurdity make no difference whatsoever in the world out there. I hope you know now why ""the Australian government, the US government, Al Hurra, Al Jazeera and various other places" don't really care what you think.
If you want facts, check blogs like Chikita's that I've mentioned up there. Her post "Free in Baghdad" might enlighten you about the current face that life has in Iraq.
Finally, whether you do that or whether you keep your unnoted absurd little opinion, please make sure not to flood my blog with nonsense. After all, if anybody can feel free to post nonsense here that would be myself. I have no intention to put up with nutcases who think that God talks to them and that they experience Divine Revelations. Whether you understand what I have just said or not, allow me to put you in the picture about this; if I ever happen to read another word in either my mailbox or my blog that has your signature, trust the fact that it will be swept off out of my sight even without trying to decipher the mumble that your brilliant mind has come up with. So thank you forehand for not wasting my time or yours (Though I'm sure you're life is a waste, but anyway!) and not writing a word here anymore.
P.S. Are you sure your next post on your blog isn't about the plan plotted by Martians to enslave human beings and take over Planet Earth?
ĒL DELILÂH
Sunday, October 15, 2006
Whoa!
It's been a while since last I've updated and I was actually intending to update, but haven't had the time or inclination to do so because I've been awfully busy lately. This is a must, however. This is what I had to say when I first read through the ITM post, and this is what I actually think about it.
Freedom of speech is nice, but freedom of lie isn't. Since the invasion people have been dying by gigantic figures, and if ITM doesn't see that in the hundreds of thousands of casualties, IRAQI casualties, then he is in need for an urget reality check. Never fancied Hussein, but people haven't been dying at such a rate then. And it takes either a naive kind of a person or a real idiot to actually believe that Americans/Coalition Forces came to Iraq only to "free us" and "look after our interests". Nobody would really believe that the United States would spend billions of dollars to free Iraqis for just nothing in return. Nobody buys the "White Man's Burden" or the "Democracy Protectors" cliches anymore. ITM himself doesn't. But I believe that all of his believes are subject to change according to his needs, and his most urgent for now is to get out of that hell he's living in. I can understand that, but as Miraj says..."Smart but low. Very low".
Now, judging by ITM's posts, he's neither naive nor an idiot. But it seems like he takes everybody else for an idiot. Some americans, who just happen to be republican redneck ignorants, believe that the war was for a good cause. Iraqis, in the other hand, don't buy that for the most part. Specially those inside, like ITM himself, who happen to know better just by living there. When an Iraqi blogger, whose blog is dedicated to naive americans, calls coalition forces "Our Allies" and "Our Friends" and starts talking about "Our accomplishments" and so on , it just wrong. It sounds like a pathetic effort to bring about more...I don't know, public support? Sympathizers? People who are willing to find a way to save "That brilliant mind" out of there? It's just wrong in the sense that it's so fake, so much of a lie that I bet my money that ITM himself doesn't buy it for real.
When a well-known blogger who also happens to be credible in the west tells a lie, it's awfully misleading to everybody who reads that lie. And it's misleading because now we have many americans, just as many who have been checking ITM, believing that we all think like that. There you go, an Iraqi living in Iraq and telling you that things will be just great, wouldn't that be your truth if you've had no clue? If there's anything to being a serious blogger as he is, and as I'm not, then it's that delicate matter of credibility. But I guess when you're really desperate, credibility is the least of your concerns.
Why does it bother me? Because it's a lie as I've explained. Because if I show it to any friend, they would believe it based on the fact that he's an Iraqi who lives in Iraq now. Because I, as well as many others, realize that it's no more than some serious American-Ass Kissing post. Because I'm wide aware that ITM himself doesn't believe in all of that anymore than he believes that Saddam Hussein was a hero. No, not an idiot and not a naive man. He's just a liar there.
ITM: Where you should go when you need to get your Timberlands as good as new after a long day hiking in the wilderness, but only if your passport is "occidental", preferably American. Everybody else? "Sorry, mo 5adem il 5alofokom".
Freedom of speech is nice, but freedom of lie isn't. Since the invasion people have been dying by gigantic figures, and if ITM doesn't see that in the hundreds of thousands of casualties, IRAQI casualties, then he is in need for an urget reality check. Never fancied Hussein, but people haven't been dying at such a rate then. And it takes either a naive kind of a person or a real idiot to actually believe that Americans/Coalition Forces came to Iraq only to "free us" and "look after our interests". Nobody would really believe that the United States would spend billions of dollars to free Iraqis for just nothing in return. Nobody buys the "White Man's Burden" or the "Democracy Protectors" cliches anymore. ITM himself doesn't. But I believe that all of his believes are subject to change according to his needs, and his most urgent for now is to get out of that hell he's living in. I can understand that, but as Miraj says..."Smart but low. Very low".
Now, judging by ITM's posts, he's neither naive nor an idiot. But it seems like he takes everybody else for an idiot. Some americans, who just happen to be republican redneck ignorants, believe that the war was for a good cause. Iraqis, in the other hand, don't buy that for the most part. Specially those inside, like ITM himself, who happen to know better just by living there. When an Iraqi blogger, whose blog is dedicated to naive americans, calls coalition forces "Our Allies" and "Our Friends" and starts talking about "Our accomplishments" and so on , it just wrong. It sounds like a pathetic effort to bring about more...I don't know, public support? Sympathizers? People who are willing to find a way to save "That brilliant mind" out of there? It's just wrong in the sense that it's so fake, so much of a lie that I bet my money that ITM himself doesn't buy it for real.
When a well-known blogger who also happens to be credible in the west tells a lie, it's awfully misleading to everybody who reads that lie. And it's misleading because now we have many americans, just as many who have been checking ITM, believing that we all think like that. There you go, an Iraqi living in Iraq and telling you that things will be just great, wouldn't that be your truth if you've had no clue? If there's anything to being a serious blogger as he is, and as I'm not, then it's that delicate matter of credibility. But I guess when you're really desperate, credibility is the least of your concerns.
Why does it bother me? Because it's a lie as I've explained. Because if I show it to any friend, they would believe it based on the fact that he's an Iraqi who lives in Iraq now. Because I, as well as many others, realize that it's no more than some serious American-Ass Kissing post. Because I'm wide aware that ITM himself doesn't believe in all of that anymore than he believes that Saddam Hussein was a hero. No, not an idiot and not a naive man. He's just a liar there.
ITM: Where you should go when you need to get your Timberlands as good as new after a long day hiking in the wilderness, but only if your passport is "occidental", preferably American. Everybody else? "Sorry, mo 5adem il 5alofokom".
Saturday, September 23, 2006
BBB:- The 101 of how a blogger takes advantage of you!
Dear reader, if you have the intention if reading this till the end, be forewarned that I couldn't care any less about feeding your ego than I would to feed any other blogger's. If that disturbs you, find something else to read.
There are some futile questions that if you ask yourself (if you ever do!), the odds that your brain will give you a General Error Message are more than those of giving you a decent answer. One of those questions that pop up occasionally in a genie-of-the-bottle-like fashion is why on earth do people bother and write that much on their blogs? There are endless possibilities that could pass for an answer, or that could be passed for answer if you're in the mood to believe them. Usually, it's "fortune" and its what some bloggers depend on when they write, and hope for heavens that you won't notice the contradiction between the context and the title and header of the blogs, or that the context is a total sham (like a straight middle-easterner starting a gay-right rally, YEAH RIGHT!) or is stolen from somewhere else. You know…some people do blunt things such as writing the "purpose" of their blog as a header, and it's usually irrelevant. Perhaps they just assume that you aren't that smart to notice the contradiction. Or perhaps things like selling you some too-good-to-be-true things, or even copying things. That's the 101 of taking advantage of your ignorance, which makes blogs prosper. You have a brain that can think, otherwise, and you don’t need to be fed an opinion.
But…
When somebody writes about issues that are of common interest, it's almost like borrowing your opinion. Think of a raw piece of clay, borrowed modeled properly and then handed it back to you with lipstick. And you would happily read that, thinking "What a brilliant writer". It doesn't make writers sound good, but it doesn’t make you sound that good either…or does it?
It's just a simple explanation to why sometimes people do agree with this writer, but not another one. Why other people would agree with the other writer and not the first one. It's all about picking the right pond to fish about. It just happens to be your reader-brain really. You could sue for copy-rights if you could only prove that the thought was yours, it's called "Taking advantage of your simpleton of a reader-brain". Perhaps if you could prove that you've thought about that first, you could claim copy rights. Yes I'm giving you a reason to sue one another, to get you busy and keep you from blogging or reading blog that often because you induce so much brain damage, whether you're on the "innocent reader" end or the "evil blogger" end..or even "hanging in the middle" like myself.
I'm not saying that there aren't any really brilliant writers who do bother fish in their own brains for things to say, rather than just falling categorically into a mainstream of their taste for one reason or the other. But in topics like politics, there's a specific bunch of trends and it takes a real genius to come up with something new, and very often even when there's something new, it's already been chewed by somebody else somewhere else before that it isn't new at all, it's just "taking advantage of your reader-ignorance". Yes, it's a widely-made assumption that you’re an ignorant, regardless whether you do blog or not. That accounts for the masses and masses of bloggers who happen to consider themselves the Gods of knowledge. There should be a reserve for original writers because they're "endangered species"…endangered by extinction, that is. And there also should be a reserve for "not-quite-ignorant" readers, who are endangered by pretty much any blogger in sight. (I know what you're thinking. Me too).
Some people actually write for the sake of agreeing comments. It's satisfying to see how many people agree with you, that's the "feeding the ego" process that you're tricked to do for free. Some people write because it helps them get over some things that are taking advantage of your presence to whine and feel heard. I write because some of these things get on my nerves and it feels better to phrase them and throw them at you, and I call that "your problem", specially if you willingly read it then dislike it. You can't deny that I do fish in your brain occasionally!
As I was saying, I occasionally fish in your brain as well, just out of catching up with the trend (That's called ME being STYLISH). While fishing around, here's an inventory of what I found… I've found a nice pair stilettos in some lady's brain, a ton of paperwork in some guy's pond of a brain (I was interested in the first, and tempted to can some termite from the nearest forest for the latter). I also found some great deal of whining, spiteful emptiness and an even greater deal of nonbeing, which did a great job at making my life seem like heaven (There's an occasional advantage to reading!!).But all of that makes it harder for me to throw my bate and catch something better than shoes that will be fashionable again in a decade, family that don't seem to be leaving anytime soon, a life that sucks, paperwork to be done or anything else meaningful. At the best cases, there is a handful of shakers and a load of public-opinion-repeating parrots to pry at. Did I just say parrots? Well, I didn't mean that, I just meant it in terms of how they "repeat" things, never coming up with anything genuine. Add to that my sincere apologies to parrots for that horrible-horrible offense. At least when they do talk, they don't lie.
You, the reader, aren’t usually held in such a high-high regard unless there's a benefit coming from you (Don't ask, some bloggers already know it and some other readers know it too). In that case they politely take advantage of your presumed ignorance and their words are more often decorated to make you feel "RIGHT". Personally, I'm just telling you what I think is going on. That's called "my not-so-humble" opinion. I guess you know that already. But see, in the end it isn't any of my business if somebody is taking advantage of your brain or your bank account or your benevolence (The regular 3-Bs that bloggers take advantage of), because I get the kicks and the laughter just at that. Poor you!
If that bugged you that much, here's a word to comfort you. I also read blogs, leave comments and sympathize / let myself get fooled or whatever. No-no-no, not that I'm too great to be stupid, no-no, I'm the average reader as well (occasionally) AND the writer who does all of these horrible things to you…so we all are on the same boat…eh, sort of.
There are some futile questions that if you ask yourself (if you ever do!), the odds that your brain will give you a General Error Message are more than those of giving you a decent answer. One of those questions that pop up occasionally in a genie-of-the-bottle-like fashion is why on earth do people bother and write that much on their blogs? There are endless possibilities that could pass for an answer, or that could be passed for answer if you're in the mood to believe them. Usually, it's "fortune" and its what some bloggers depend on when they write, and hope for heavens that you won't notice the contradiction between the context and the title and header of the blogs, or that the context is a total sham (like a straight middle-easterner starting a gay-right rally, YEAH RIGHT!) or is stolen from somewhere else. You know…some people do blunt things such as writing the "purpose" of their blog as a header, and it's usually irrelevant. Perhaps they just assume that you aren't that smart to notice the contradiction. Or perhaps things like selling you some too-good-to-be-true things, or even copying things. That's the 101 of taking advantage of your ignorance, which makes blogs prosper. You have a brain that can think, otherwise, and you don’t need to be fed an opinion.
But…
When somebody writes about issues that are of common interest, it's almost like borrowing your opinion. Think of a raw piece of clay, borrowed modeled properly and then handed it back to you with lipstick. And you would happily read that, thinking "What a brilliant writer". It doesn't make writers sound good, but it doesn’t make you sound that good either…or does it?
It's just a simple explanation to why sometimes people do agree with this writer, but not another one. Why other people would agree with the other writer and not the first one. It's all about picking the right pond to fish about. It just happens to be your reader-brain really. You could sue for copy-rights if you could only prove that the thought was yours, it's called "Taking advantage of your simpleton of a reader-brain". Perhaps if you could prove that you've thought about that first, you could claim copy rights. Yes I'm giving you a reason to sue one another, to get you busy and keep you from blogging or reading blog that often because you induce so much brain damage, whether you're on the "innocent reader" end or the "evil blogger" end..or even "hanging in the middle" like myself.
I'm not saying that there aren't any really brilliant writers who do bother fish in their own brains for things to say, rather than just falling categorically into a mainstream of their taste for one reason or the other. But in topics like politics, there's a specific bunch of trends and it takes a real genius to come up with something new, and very often even when there's something new, it's already been chewed by somebody else somewhere else before that it isn't new at all, it's just "taking advantage of your reader-ignorance". Yes, it's a widely-made assumption that you’re an ignorant, regardless whether you do blog or not. That accounts for the masses and masses of bloggers who happen to consider themselves the Gods of knowledge. There should be a reserve for original writers because they're "endangered species"…endangered by extinction, that is. And there also should be a reserve for "not-quite-ignorant" readers, who are endangered by pretty much any blogger in sight. (I know what you're thinking. Me too).
Some people actually write for the sake of agreeing comments. It's satisfying to see how many people agree with you, that's the "feeding the ego" process that you're tricked to do for free. Some people write because it helps them get over some things that are taking advantage of your presence to whine and feel heard. I write because some of these things get on my nerves and it feels better to phrase them and throw them at you, and I call that "your problem", specially if you willingly read it then dislike it. You can't deny that I do fish in your brain occasionally!
As I was saying, I occasionally fish in your brain as well, just out of catching up with the trend (That's called ME being STYLISH). While fishing around, here's an inventory of what I found… I've found a nice pair stilettos in some lady's brain, a ton of paperwork in some guy's pond of a brain (I was interested in the first, and tempted to can some termite from the nearest forest for the latter). I also found some great deal of whining, spiteful emptiness and an even greater deal of nonbeing, which did a great job at making my life seem like heaven (There's an occasional advantage to reading!!).But all of that makes it harder for me to throw my bate and catch something better than shoes that will be fashionable again in a decade, family that don't seem to be leaving anytime soon, a life that sucks, paperwork to be done or anything else meaningful. At the best cases, there is a handful of shakers and a load of public-opinion-repeating parrots to pry at. Did I just say parrots? Well, I didn't mean that, I just meant it in terms of how they "repeat" things, never coming up with anything genuine. Add to that my sincere apologies to parrots for that horrible-horrible offense. At least when they do talk, they don't lie.
You, the reader, aren’t usually held in such a high-high regard unless there's a benefit coming from you (Don't ask, some bloggers already know it and some other readers know it too). In that case they politely take advantage of your presumed ignorance and their words are more often decorated to make you feel "RIGHT". Personally, I'm just telling you what I think is going on. That's called "my not-so-humble" opinion. I guess you know that already. But see, in the end it isn't any of my business if somebody is taking advantage of your brain or your bank account or your benevolence (The regular 3-Bs that bloggers take advantage of), because I get the kicks and the laughter just at that. Poor you!
If that bugged you that much, here's a word to comfort you. I also read blogs, leave comments and sympathize / let myself get fooled or whatever. No-no-no, not that I'm too great to be stupid, no-no, I'm the average reader as well (occasionally) AND the writer who does all of these horrible things to you…so we all are on the same boat…eh, sort of.
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