Wednesday, January 14, 2004
Thursday 8/1
I have a headache since yesterday. Maybe it is because the electric generator has been broken in the store since Saturday. Many desperate attempts to fix it ?.. finally we sent it to a far away specialized center to fix it. Maybe I will get it back on Saturday. I haven't surfed the internet these past days. I just run to the nearest internet caf? to read my email and answer them in a haste. My emails are full of mistakes and spelling errors, but I don?t worry about it. I hope that people reading my emails can do the corrections while they read. The electricity goes down and so does the computer and I lose all my writing, I get so depressed when that happens. So I rush to write again and send emails away, I reread my emails and laugh at my own stupidity but it is too late, the email has been sent. >From now on please pardon me, now that I have explained the reasons. Today I will talk again about our happy life after the liberation of Iraq. As soon as we become happy about the improvement in the availability of electricity it gets worse again. We ask what happened? No answer off course. We don?t care about the questions nor the answers, we are fed up with the explanations and excuses. The same with the gas stations. The line-ups get better for a day or two but then it gets worse again. But the line-ups of the machinery of American army and their helicopters never stop with their escapades, day and night. There is little happy news and lots of depressing ones. Nothing good in the horizons except what the news papers print about many rosy expectations. The days pass slowly and are boring. Nothing really new to make the people happy. We sink in this sea of waiting !!!
****************
This morning I was driving my car around the airport area on my way to work. I was very happy off course because it has been sleeping in the garage for 6 months. As usual there was a group of American trucks driving along the way, without meaning to, I ended up driving in the middle lane in between them. The left lane was empty. I was afraid to bypass the American trucks because they usually get annoyed and start shooting at you. I didn?t want to put my self at risk, so I stayed in the middle lane. Then, I noticed that the soldier driving in the truck in front of me, was gesturing with his hand in a nervous way. He was telling me to get into the left lane. Then I noticed in my rear view mirror that other American army trucks where changing lanes and now where behind me. I guess I got the Mr. upset and that is why he gestured to me like that. I don?t know why, but I became annoyed, I also felt nervous and I changed lanes very quickly to pass them, but this nagging feeling stayed in my heart. I felt that this soldier was rude and disrespectful. I am the daughter of this city, this land is where i live ... this is the land of my forefathers, and then this stranger comes here and he becomes the master. He owns the street and I have to drive according to his instructions. Otherwise he will very easily shoot me. He would find a thousand excuse for his actions. If my family filed a complaint against him, it would turn out that it was me who was at fault. They will say that I died as a result of my foolishness and bad judgment. But he, on the other hand was on a great mission, the liberation of Iraq. Therefore any Iraqi that is an annoyance to an American soldier is stupid and an obstacle to the accomplishment of the desired mission. Yesterday I was listening to the news to one of the satellite stations. I heard about the dismissal of some American soldiers because they beaten up Iraqi prisoners, they hit them on their head and sensitive parts under their belly. I opened my mouth in amazement and disturbance. That was the reasonable part of the news, they continued by saying that sergeant Lisa confessed that she kicked the prisoner, wearing her military boots, in his head and stomach. I don?t know what is more shocking, the fact that this American woman hit the prisoner or that she is capable of such inhumanity and cruelty. Didn?t the people that sent her give her a brief lesson on the treatment of prisoners of war, or did they tell her, you are the master there, the decision maker, these people are worthless not as individuals and not as a nation, so do as you like sweetie. And then the question jumped at me, who reported this incident. Was it the poor prisoner? Or one of the sergeants friends that still had some humanity and compassion left in them? The former is unlikely because who would listen to a despised prisoner, maybe he was a Ba?athist insect, let him go to hell. I immediately remembered a documentary that aired on one of the satellite stations that showed an Iraqi security officer kicking an arrested Iraqi. So what changed? Only an advance in the kicking shoe from a locally made one to an American made one. So that I wouldn?t be called a pessimist, I have to admit that it is a big achievement, that can?t be denied, the quality of the kicking shoe I mean.
***********
Today Mr Bremer said in a news release that they will release some Iraqi prisoners today, others in batches later. He had one of the members of the governing counsel with him. This governing counsel is a point of lots of debate, some accuse them of conspiring with the foreigners and others clap for them in encouragement. In reality, I haven't seen any members of the clapping crowd yet, I only read about them in the opposition party news papers. These news papers along with the American press give the impression that everything is going just fine. There is only a small group of rabbles that are causing obstacles. First we need to get rid of them and then we will proceed with the reconstruction. I am afraid that in reality they mean cleaning the Iraqi street of every critical mind and opposing spirit, including me. As for the members of the governing counsel, I am not going to say that they are traitors and agents of a foreign power, I want to be reasonable and discuss their position objectively. They are a group of intellectuals, wealthy or children of known families. They disappeared from the previous regime for whatever reason and went abroad to look for support. Under the banner that ?the enemy of my enemy is my friend?, their interests happened to agree with the interest of the American government to change the regime. These people will get priority when important positions in the new government are dolled out in return for acceptance of the American plans. All matters will be decided that way starting with the constitution, the army, the economy and everything else. So the matter is clear, the GC is nothing but a symbolic presence with a limited function that they can?t go beyond. In other words the GC wouldn't be able to object because they will appear immature and unappreciative of the favor ?? the favor! That is the point of obligation that can?t be trespassed. Because they believe that they were the prosecuted opposition in the past. Therefore they have the right to be in the front leading us now. A dream come true, the good positions and the fat business deals, for them, their family and their friends. Why is the world so funny, as if there are these roles waiting for people to take up. When one person goes away somebody else is happy like an idiot to take up the same role. He shouldn?t worry his head too much about what happened with the previous occupier of the role.
********
Mr. Bremer says that the coalition forces will not release those who participated in committing crimes against the Iraqi people. This foolish lady that lives inside me asked: what about all the Iraqi civilians that were killed by the coalition forces during the air bombardments or after the fall of the regime? The instructions were to shoot any moving target when they entered Baghdad and other cities. ? The result ? hundreds of murdered civilians in their cars, because they were moving targets. In came the American NGOs to tally up the dead and injured and they promised the bereaved families compensations form the American government, then the NGOs left and didn?t come back. Then came the press and TV stations from America and Europe and they wrote about cluster bombs and its effect on people and children, especially the children. They left too and didn?t come back, they didn?t do a thing for the families of the victims. I wonder, were they serious or just having fun in order to fill their papers with stories? Who takes responsibility for the spilled blood? Or is this blood worthless because it is not American? It doesn?t deserve the trouble to investigate. The media is a weapon more dangerous that fire arms, they lie and cover up here and there. The people are ignorant of what is going on. Busy with the troubles of their daily lives. A small group of people control the whole world and does what ever suits them. They justify everything in the name of the people and the people don?t necessarily know what is going on. It is all the same, here and there!
[translation provided by http://www.ihath.com/]
I have a headache since yesterday. Maybe it is because the electric generator has been broken in the store since Saturday. Many desperate attempts to fix it ?.. finally we sent it to a far away specialized center to fix it. Maybe I will get it back on Saturday. I haven't surfed the internet these past days. I just run to the nearest internet caf? to read my email and answer them in a haste. My emails are full of mistakes and spelling errors, but I don?t worry about it. I hope that people reading my emails can do the corrections while they read. The electricity goes down and so does the computer and I lose all my writing, I get so depressed when that happens. So I rush to write again and send emails away, I reread my emails and laugh at my own stupidity but it is too late, the email has been sent. >From now on please pardon me, now that I have explained the reasons. Today I will talk again about our happy life after the liberation of Iraq. As soon as we become happy about the improvement in the availability of electricity it gets worse again. We ask what happened? No answer off course. We don?t care about the questions nor the answers, we are fed up with the explanations and excuses. The same with the gas stations. The line-ups get better for a day or two but then it gets worse again. But the line-ups of the machinery of American army and their helicopters never stop with their escapades, day and night. There is little happy news and lots of depressing ones. Nothing good in the horizons except what the news papers print about many rosy expectations. The days pass slowly and are boring. Nothing really new to make the people happy. We sink in this sea of waiting !!!
****************
This morning I was driving my car around the airport area on my way to work. I was very happy off course because it has been sleeping in the garage for 6 months. As usual there was a group of American trucks driving along the way, without meaning to, I ended up driving in the middle lane in between them. The left lane was empty. I was afraid to bypass the American trucks because they usually get annoyed and start shooting at you. I didn?t want to put my self at risk, so I stayed in the middle lane. Then, I noticed that the soldier driving in the truck in front of me, was gesturing with his hand in a nervous way. He was telling me to get into the left lane. Then I noticed in my rear view mirror that other American army trucks where changing lanes and now where behind me. I guess I got the Mr. upset and that is why he gestured to me like that. I don?t know why, but I became annoyed, I also felt nervous and I changed lanes very quickly to pass them, but this nagging feeling stayed in my heart. I felt that this soldier was rude and disrespectful. I am the daughter of this city, this land is where i live ... this is the land of my forefathers, and then this stranger comes here and he becomes the master. He owns the street and I have to drive according to his instructions. Otherwise he will very easily shoot me. He would find a thousand excuse for his actions. If my family filed a complaint against him, it would turn out that it was me who was at fault. They will say that I died as a result of my foolishness and bad judgment. But he, on the other hand was on a great mission, the liberation of Iraq. Therefore any Iraqi that is an annoyance to an American soldier is stupid and an obstacle to the accomplishment of the desired mission. Yesterday I was listening to the news to one of the satellite stations. I heard about the dismissal of some American soldiers because they beaten up Iraqi prisoners, they hit them on their head and sensitive parts under their belly. I opened my mouth in amazement and disturbance. That was the reasonable part of the news, they continued by saying that sergeant Lisa confessed that she kicked the prisoner, wearing her military boots, in his head and stomach. I don?t know what is more shocking, the fact that this American woman hit the prisoner or that she is capable of such inhumanity and cruelty. Didn?t the people that sent her give her a brief lesson on the treatment of prisoners of war, or did they tell her, you are the master there, the decision maker, these people are worthless not as individuals and not as a nation, so do as you like sweetie. And then the question jumped at me, who reported this incident. Was it the poor prisoner? Or one of the sergeants friends that still had some humanity and compassion left in them? The former is unlikely because who would listen to a despised prisoner, maybe he was a Ba?athist insect, let him go to hell. I immediately remembered a documentary that aired on one of the satellite stations that showed an Iraqi security officer kicking an arrested Iraqi. So what changed? Only an advance in the kicking shoe from a locally made one to an American made one. So that I wouldn?t be called a pessimist, I have to admit that it is a big achievement, that can?t be denied, the quality of the kicking shoe I mean.
***********
Today Mr Bremer said in a news release that they will release some Iraqi prisoners today, others in batches later. He had one of the members of the governing counsel with him. This governing counsel is a point of lots of debate, some accuse them of conspiring with the foreigners and others clap for them in encouragement. In reality, I haven't seen any members of the clapping crowd yet, I only read about them in the opposition party news papers. These news papers along with the American press give the impression that everything is going just fine. There is only a small group of rabbles that are causing obstacles. First we need to get rid of them and then we will proceed with the reconstruction. I am afraid that in reality they mean cleaning the Iraqi street of every critical mind and opposing spirit, including me. As for the members of the governing counsel, I am not going to say that they are traitors and agents of a foreign power, I want to be reasonable and discuss their position objectively. They are a group of intellectuals, wealthy or children of known families. They disappeared from the previous regime for whatever reason and went abroad to look for support. Under the banner that ?the enemy of my enemy is my friend?, their interests happened to agree with the interest of the American government to change the regime. These people will get priority when important positions in the new government are dolled out in return for acceptance of the American plans. All matters will be decided that way starting with the constitution, the army, the economy and everything else. So the matter is clear, the GC is nothing but a symbolic presence with a limited function that they can?t go beyond. In other words the GC wouldn't be able to object because they will appear immature and unappreciative of the favor ?? the favor! That is the point of obligation that can?t be trespassed. Because they believe that they were the prosecuted opposition in the past. Therefore they have the right to be in the front leading us now. A dream come true, the good positions and the fat business deals, for them, their family and their friends. Why is the world so funny, as if there are these roles waiting for people to take up. When one person goes away somebody else is happy like an idiot to take up the same role. He shouldn?t worry his head too much about what happened with the previous occupier of the role.
********
Mr. Bremer says that the coalition forces will not release those who participated in committing crimes against the Iraqi people. This foolish lady that lives inside me asked: what about all the Iraqi civilians that were killed by the coalition forces during the air bombardments or after the fall of the regime? The instructions were to shoot any moving target when they entered Baghdad and other cities. ? The result ? hundreds of murdered civilians in their cars, because they were moving targets. In came the American NGOs to tally up the dead and injured and they promised the bereaved families compensations form the American government, then the NGOs left and didn?t come back. Then came the press and TV stations from America and Europe and they wrote about cluster bombs and its effect on people and children, especially the children. They left too and didn?t come back, they didn?t do a thing for the families of the victims. I wonder, were they serious or just having fun in order to fill their papers with stories? Who takes responsibility for the spilled blood? Or is this blood worthless because it is not American? It doesn?t deserve the trouble to investigate. The media is a weapon more dangerous that fire arms, they lie and cover up here and there. The people are ignorant of what is going on. Busy with the troubles of their daily lives. A small group of people control the whole world and does what ever suits them. They justify everything in the name of the people and the people don?t necessarily know what is going on. It is all the same, here and there!
[translation provided by http://www.ihath.com/]
# posted by Faiza Al-Araji @ 2:41 pm 
