Friday, May 04, 2007
we have none but patience ....
Monday, April 30th, 2007
Peace be upon you….
I haven't written for a long time, I no longer have the temperament to write.
I don't know; is it because of the silly, frustrating news from Baghdad, the continuance of violence, killings, the bloodshed of the innocent Iraqis, the plundering of the Iraqi wealth; or because I am busy with the people and their distress, for I receive calls from families in Baghdad or Amman asking for medical or humanitarian aid, or from Iraqi hospitals calling for help, asking for the most simple supplies, like Insulin, which was supposed to be available in all Iraqi hospitals, being the responsibility of the Iraqi Ministry of Health. Or they might ask for the medical Oxygen bottles, manufactured in Baghdad, but the bad security conditions prevent the medical supplies from reaching hospitals situated on the outskirts of Baghdad, or farther….
My mind is confused; I don't know where to start every day… I thought I'd write down the items I follow up in a small notebook so I would remember them everyday…
Ok; I'll try to organize my thoughts.
There are some water purifying units sent from an organization
www.iraqwaterproject.org
I work with them as a volunteer in Amman, bought to be sent to Iraqi hospitals. Up till now, we sent six units, as follows:
Al-Qa'aim Hospital, Falluja, Samara, Al-Diwaniyah, Hadeetha, and Al-Ramadi.
And I cannot describe my suffering and anguish to conclude each shipment; going between telephone calls to Iraq, sending daily e-mails to the doctors, following up buying the units here, then sending them either by cars or by plane to Baghdad, then the worries and waiting, until they notify me that the shipment arrived to Baghdad, then arranging a way to send it on to its final destination.
Sometimes, the doctor I was arranging things with would disappear, like what happened in Samara. I don't know where the man has gone; all news of him were completely cut off, no e-mail, no phone calls, and I don't know whether he traveled away, was arrested, or killed…
We had to send the unit with a driver from the transportation center to Samara, then wait until he delivered a signed receipt from a doctor there to assure the delivery…
As for my suffering with the transportation companies, well; it is of another type; most of them are deceitful and tiring, with whom I reach an agreement for a price, then they would turn around and ask for higher prices, under the pretext of the bad security conditions… I mean- I can hardly send one box or two, unless with a lot of hardship…
I sometimes feel we are trying to do the impossible, inside a whirlpool of chaos, terror, and ruin. But we make all possible efforts to accomplish something small, or perhaps to light a small candle in the middle of this intense darkness….
All this makes me happy, in spite of all my sorrow for what is happening to Iraq, but I console myself that there are those who make an effort to save the lives of Iraqis, either by sending a water purifying unit, a box of medicine and medical supplies, or food donations to displaced families that left their houses and live now in mere construction frames…
****************
The other issue that is hurting and worrying me that I do not sleep at night thinking about … there is an Iraqi child here, four years old, her name is "Eelaff", from Baquba. Her father called me asking for help; she has a malignant brain tumor, which was removed by an operation, and she is now undergoing chemical therapy…
I went to visit her at Al-Hussein Cancer Center; I found her with a shaved head, or perhaps her hair fell off because of the chemical therapy, her face was pale. An innocent child of four years, what has she seen of life?
I stood and put my hand over her head, reciting a verse from the Quran, or a prayer, I felt the high temperature of her body; she looked at me with withered eyes. Sorrow and sadness burned my heart for what befell her, what befell the children of Iraq because of this dirty war. I couldn't hold myself, and I burst into crying. Her father came to console me, and apologize….
I took some photos of her to send them to some friends, hoping that someone would take pity upon her and send some money to help her father pay her treatment fees. He said he needs some $1500 only to complete the treatment and get her out of hospital. I sent photos and hospital reports by e-mail, but nobody took the trouble to answer, not even with an apology….
And another child from Baghdad. Her name is "Zaman", and she is 16 years old, the age of flowers…
They sent me her photos and a brief medical report…
The girl was in school, in Al-Ada'amiyah, and in the recess between classes, a mortar shell fell upon the school, killing a number of students, and this girl was hit with a piece of shrapnel in her neck, causing a quadruple paralyses.
We joined as a group and bought a wheel chair for her. I asked them to send me her picture with a brief medical report. There is some hope in her treatment by natural therapy, but who would get her out of Iraq? And who will take care of her therapy expanses? I don't know. I sent her photos and report to many friends on the internet, but no one answered…
Each passing day, my sorrow for these two girls grows, and there are perhaps thousands like them in Iraq now, but I wanted to help these two because we learned about their names, photos, and the details of their cases…
***************
Thought the e-mails to the hospitals, I arranged with them how to send the water purifying units for the operating theaters. The doctors usually sent thankful and grateful replies, followed by aid requests, for medicines or medical supplies. I usually apologize, but with time, a load of requests accumulated; mostly similar requests, astonishing me …
For example: everybody wanted Insulin, to treat diabetics for children and adults…
Well then; here in Amman, an insulin bottle of 10 MLL is sold for $16, in Baghdad, I could get it for $10.
And when I ask a doctor: How much do you need monthly? The answer is usually: at least 40 bottles, for emergencies, not to cover the patient's requirements…
Well then; the smallest hospital needs some $400 to $500's worth of insulin a month? And in truth, they probably need some 100 bottles a month, as an average, meaning- a thousand dollars a month…
I said: there is no organization that can cover these requirements, these requirements should be provided by a government, not an organization…
Where is the Iraqi Ministry of Health? Where are the millions of dollars from the general budget allocated for the health sector in Iraq?
I don't know, and all the doctors have no answer…
Well then; is it bad management, or corruption and thefts…
The answer is usually: Both…
I read a report prepared by an official in the American administration some weeks ago, about the average daily thefts from the illegal leakage in the Iraqi oil, estimating it at about $20-30 millions a day… and the Iraqis are begging for medicine and treatment from organizations outside Iraq?
Where is justice?
*******************
Here in Jordan, all the stories of the Iraqis are sad, ranging from the humiliation of expatriation, the tight budgets, and the lack of resources. Even the rich Iraqis yearn for Iraq, not satisfied to take on another substitute country…
Amman is filled with Iraqi restaurants, and Iraqi bakeries, whose customers are Iraqis…
The restaurants closed their doors in the hell there, and moved on here, and the Iraqis are happy with them, for they remind them of their heritage and their past days, when they used to go their in Baghdad, and other, safe, Iraqi cities…..
As for the news from Baghdad; they are frustrating, as usual…….
Someone blasted the piers of the beautiful Al-Sarrafiyah Bridge, blowing it into Tigris…
And the occupation army is building a buffer wall around Al-Ada'amiyah area…
Doesn't this look like the acts of Israel against the Palestinians, by besieging towns and villages, erecting separating concrete walls, displacing and starving the population?
My sister used to live in a historically mixed area, as is usual in most residential areas in Baghdad, but Baghdad started to split into Shia'at and Sunnie neighborhoods, like Beirut… and someone started writing on the walls, writing threats against the Shia'at families, that they must leave the area, or else be killed……
My sister is looking for a house in another area, she will be forced to leave her house, a house she suffered a lot to provide its price, and bought some years ago, for she and her husband are state employees, and with very tough management they bought this small, modest house, and now they will have to leave it to rent another in another area, saying goodbye to the house, its memories, and their neighbors, whom they loved, and lived with through all their sweet and sad memories, for long years…
And so is the case with my brother, who lived with his family in another area in Baghdad, where the Shia'ats were threatened and displaced, so he left his house to another small house, rented in another area; an area wearing a purely Shia'at guise…
All this is happening now, and everyday, while they are filling the media with news of the Baghdad security plan, and its brilliant success…
The sectarian militia is still chasing the Iraqis, pushing them out of their houses; the kidnapping gangs are still kidnapping, threatening, and extorting people…
The unemployment is still high, and hunger entered Iraqi houses more than it did during the time of the embargo…
And shedding the Iraqi blood is still a daily ritual, morning and evening…
The terrorists entered Iraq to target the Iraqi people? Why?
No one knows the answer…
Everyday, some 100 Iraqis die, victims of trapped cars, exploding bombs, and mortar shells, all targeting the civilians…
Who brought these terrorists into Iraq?
Isn't Al-Qaida'a supposed to be Bush's enemy? So why are they killing the Iraqi civilians?
Is this the Iraq Bush promised us with?
Is this the new, free, beautiful, democratic Iraq?
It is an ugly Iraq, one we do not know, one who does not know us, one we do not even acknowledge….
Millions of Iraqis fled its hell…
This isn't our Iraq, the one we know, and love….
This is Bush's Iraq, and its gangs, spreading corruption, ruin, plundering, and killing, in Iraq against its people…
And until the withdrawal of the occupation armies from Iraq is decided, these will remain to be our daily vocabulary; explosions, killings, plundering, theft, sectarian militias, displacing, and dividing….
Thus our days will continue to spin, until the occupation ravens will go out of Iraq….
And we have none but patience….
* * *
Peace be upon you….
I haven't written for a long time, I no longer have the temperament to write.
I don't know; is it because of the silly, frustrating news from Baghdad, the continuance of violence, killings, the bloodshed of the innocent Iraqis, the plundering of the Iraqi wealth; or because I am busy with the people and their distress, for I receive calls from families in Baghdad or Amman asking for medical or humanitarian aid, or from Iraqi hospitals calling for help, asking for the most simple supplies, like Insulin, which was supposed to be available in all Iraqi hospitals, being the responsibility of the Iraqi Ministry of Health. Or they might ask for the medical Oxygen bottles, manufactured in Baghdad, but the bad security conditions prevent the medical supplies from reaching hospitals situated on the outskirts of Baghdad, or farther….
My mind is confused; I don't know where to start every day… I thought I'd write down the items I follow up in a small notebook so I would remember them everyday…
Ok; I'll try to organize my thoughts.
There are some water purifying units sent from an organization
www.iraqwaterproject.org
I work with them as a volunteer in Amman, bought to be sent to Iraqi hospitals. Up till now, we sent six units, as follows:
Al-Qa'aim Hospital, Falluja, Samara, Al-Diwaniyah, Hadeetha, and Al-Ramadi.
And I cannot describe my suffering and anguish to conclude each shipment; going between telephone calls to Iraq, sending daily e-mails to the doctors, following up buying the units here, then sending them either by cars or by plane to Baghdad, then the worries and waiting, until they notify me that the shipment arrived to Baghdad, then arranging a way to send it on to its final destination.
Sometimes, the doctor I was arranging things with would disappear, like what happened in Samara. I don't know where the man has gone; all news of him were completely cut off, no e-mail, no phone calls, and I don't know whether he traveled away, was arrested, or killed…
We had to send the unit with a driver from the transportation center to Samara, then wait until he delivered a signed receipt from a doctor there to assure the delivery…
As for my suffering with the transportation companies, well; it is of another type; most of them are deceitful and tiring, with whom I reach an agreement for a price, then they would turn around and ask for higher prices, under the pretext of the bad security conditions… I mean- I can hardly send one box or two, unless with a lot of hardship…
I sometimes feel we are trying to do the impossible, inside a whirlpool of chaos, terror, and ruin. But we make all possible efforts to accomplish something small, or perhaps to light a small candle in the middle of this intense darkness….
All this makes me happy, in spite of all my sorrow for what is happening to Iraq, but I console myself that there are those who make an effort to save the lives of Iraqis, either by sending a water purifying unit, a box of medicine and medical supplies, or food donations to displaced families that left their houses and live now in mere construction frames…
****************
The other issue that is hurting and worrying me that I do not sleep at night thinking about … there is an Iraqi child here, four years old, her name is "Eelaff", from Baquba. Her father called me asking for help; she has a malignant brain tumor, which was removed by an operation, and she is now undergoing chemical therapy…
I went to visit her at Al-Hussein Cancer Center; I found her with a shaved head, or perhaps her hair fell off because of the chemical therapy, her face was pale. An innocent child of four years, what has she seen of life?
I stood and put my hand over her head, reciting a verse from the Quran, or a prayer, I felt the high temperature of her body; she looked at me with withered eyes. Sorrow and sadness burned my heart for what befell her, what befell the children of Iraq because of this dirty war. I couldn't hold myself, and I burst into crying. Her father came to console me, and apologize….
I took some photos of her to send them to some friends, hoping that someone would take pity upon her and send some money to help her father pay her treatment fees. He said he needs some $1500 only to complete the treatment and get her out of hospital. I sent photos and hospital reports by e-mail, but nobody took the trouble to answer, not even with an apology….
And another child from Baghdad. Her name is "Zaman", and she is 16 years old, the age of flowers…
They sent me her photos and a brief medical report…
The girl was in school, in Al-Ada'amiyah, and in the recess between classes, a mortar shell fell upon the school, killing a number of students, and this girl was hit with a piece of shrapnel in her neck, causing a quadruple paralyses.
We joined as a group and bought a wheel chair for her. I asked them to send me her picture with a brief medical report. There is some hope in her treatment by natural therapy, but who would get her out of Iraq? And who will take care of her therapy expanses? I don't know. I sent her photos and report to many friends on the internet, but no one answered…
Each passing day, my sorrow for these two girls grows, and there are perhaps thousands like them in Iraq now, but I wanted to help these two because we learned about their names, photos, and the details of their cases…
***************
Thought the e-mails to the hospitals, I arranged with them how to send the water purifying units for the operating theaters. The doctors usually sent thankful and grateful replies, followed by aid requests, for medicines or medical supplies. I usually apologize, but with time, a load of requests accumulated; mostly similar requests, astonishing me …
For example: everybody wanted Insulin, to treat diabetics for children and adults…
Well then; here in Amman, an insulin bottle of 10 MLL is sold for $16, in Baghdad, I could get it for $10.
And when I ask a doctor: How much do you need monthly? The answer is usually: at least 40 bottles, for emergencies, not to cover the patient's requirements…
Well then; the smallest hospital needs some $400 to $500's worth of insulin a month? And in truth, they probably need some 100 bottles a month, as an average, meaning- a thousand dollars a month…
I said: there is no organization that can cover these requirements, these requirements should be provided by a government, not an organization…
Where is the Iraqi Ministry of Health? Where are the millions of dollars from the general budget allocated for the health sector in Iraq?
I don't know, and all the doctors have no answer…
Well then; is it bad management, or corruption and thefts…
The answer is usually: Both…
I read a report prepared by an official in the American administration some weeks ago, about the average daily thefts from the illegal leakage in the Iraqi oil, estimating it at about $20-30 millions a day… and the Iraqis are begging for medicine and treatment from organizations outside Iraq?
Where is justice?
*******************
Here in Jordan, all the stories of the Iraqis are sad, ranging from the humiliation of expatriation, the tight budgets, and the lack of resources. Even the rich Iraqis yearn for Iraq, not satisfied to take on another substitute country…
Amman is filled with Iraqi restaurants, and Iraqi bakeries, whose customers are Iraqis…
The restaurants closed their doors in the hell there, and moved on here, and the Iraqis are happy with them, for they remind them of their heritage and their past days, when they used to go their in Baghdad, and other, safe, Iraqi cities…..
As for the news from Baghdad; they are frustrating, as usual…….
Someone blasted the piers of the beautiful Al-Sarrafiyah Bridge, blowing it into Tigris…
And the occupation army is building a buffer wall around Al-Ada'amiyah area…
Doesn't this look like the acts of Israel against the Palestinians, by besieging towns and villages, erecting separating concrete walls, displacing and starving the population?
My sister used to live in a historically mixed area, as is usual in most residential areas in Baghdad, but Baghdad started to split into Shia'at and Sunnie neighborhoods, like Beirut… and someone started writing on the walls, writing threats against the Shia'at families, that they must leave the area, or else be killed……
My sister is looking for a house in another area, she will be forced to leave her house, a house she suffered a lot to provide its price, and bought some years ago, for she and her husband are state employees, and with very tough management they bought this small, modest house, and now they will have to leave it to rent another in another area, saying goodbye to the house, its memories, and their neighbors, whom they loved, and lived with through all their sweet and sad memories, for long years…
And so is the case with my brother, who lived with his family in another area in Baghdad, where the Shia'ats were threatened and displaced, so he left his house to another small house, rented in another area; an area wearing a purely Shia'at guise…
All this is happening now, and everyday, while they are filling the media with news of the Baghdad security plan, and its brilliant success…
The sectarian militia is still chasing the Iraqis, pushing them out of their houses; the kidnapping gangs are still kidnapping, threatening, and extorting people…
The unemployment is still high, and hunger entered Iraqi houses more than it did during the time of the embargo…
And shedding the Iraqi blood is still a daily ritual, morning and evening…
The terrorists entered Iraq to target the Iraqi people? Why?
No one knows the answer…
Everyday, some 100 Iraqis die, victims of trapped cars, exploding bombs, and mortar shells, all targeting the civilians…
Who brought these terrorists into Iraq?
Isn't Al-Qaida'a supposed to be Bush's enemy? So why are they killing the Iraqi civilians?
Is this the Iraq Bush promised us with?
Is this the new, free, beautiful, democratic Iraq?
It is an ugly Iraq, one we do not know, one who does not know us, one we do not even acknowledge….
Millions of Iraqis fled its hell…
This isn't our Iraq, the one we know, and love….
This is Bush's Iraq, and its gangs, spreading corruption, ruin, plundering, and killing, in Iraq against its people…
And until the withdrawal of the occupation armies from Iraq is decided, these will remain to be our daily vocabulary; explosions, killings, plundering, theft, sectarian militias, displacing, and dividing….
Thus our days will continue to spin, until the occupation ravens will go out of Iraq….
And we have none but patience….
* * *
# posted by Faiza Al-Araji @ 10:04 pm 
