A Family in Baghdad

Monday, November 19th, 2007

Peace be upon you…
For some time now I have been trying to snatch the time to write something new on the blog, but I have been very busy.
I went to Italy to attend a conference for women from countries from all over the world, then I went back to Amman to find my American friends; Sasha and Mary waiting for me.
as we collect the donations and finance small projects for Iraqi families here, especially for women, like providing a sewing machine, a baking oven, a beauty salon at home, or making pickles and other foods which they would sell and get a small income to provide the family with a minimum limit of decent life while in exile…
We applied these projects to some fifteen families until now, and the program is still in progress…. And when Sasha and Mary arrived here, I went with them first to visit the families whose small projects we financed. My friends saw how happy and grateful these families were, for the small help we offered them, and how these projects, ranging in their budget between $100-300 brought happiness into the homes of families whose members are usually 4 to 7 people…. Then we started a new round of visits to new families, so we could listen, see, then decide to finance, or reject the request…
Usually the request is rejected in cases like; when the family has a good income, or if the husband and the wife work as volunteers in some organizations with reasonable salaries, like a J.D.100 or 150 each. For those, in our opinion, do not need financing to start a project, for their income is sufficient for a sort of decent life… and we refuse to finance the family which already submitted a request to immigrate and are awaiting a positive reply. We give to families truly in need, according to what we see in the visit; with many children, spares and simple furniture, with no indication in the house of a reasonable life there, without a rug on the floor, no curtains, or not even a chair to sit upon. We sometimes sit on the sponge mattresses which they use for sleep at night… we also make sure the family didn't submit a request to immigrate. How do make sure?
Usually, all the Christen and Baptist families have requested to immigrate, without an exception… now we come to the Muslim families, consisting of husband and wife; these are usually frank in talking; if they want to immigrate they say they have submitted a request and are awaiting the reply, and those of them who do not want to- say they didn't submit a request and are not thinking of doing so; we are waiting for things to improve so we can go back to Iraq. And to those we give the financing of their projects…
There were other families we met who have children ill with chronic diseases, who need constant treatment, and there are some medical organizations who undertake to treat them and cover their treatment costs for long periods. "CARITAS" treats the Iraqis here, but with a limited budget for every family, which forces the families to treat their children at their own expense, as they have to go into hospital once or twice a month, and "CARITAS" says that that family's share is finished and they should pay J.D.200 or more out of their own pockets. Then the families would have to borrow. This is a shameful and sad matter; poor families which do not have their daily bread, how can they pay 200 or 500 Dinnars as treatment expanses for the children, or emergency operations?
These are international organizations with excellent budgets, but they apologize, saying that the budget isn't enough to cover the treatment of every ill Iraqi here.
The Iraqis are angry, asking- where is the money of the Iraqi oil? Why aren't the expanses of treating the Iraqi families here be covered by a special fund financed by the Iraqi oil sales? Why wouldn't the Iraqi families be given food rations covered by a special fund financed by the Iraqi oil sales?
By God I don’t know what to say; where is the Iraqi oil money going? To settle the depts of Saddam Hussein's wars against Iran and Kuwait?
Is this the justice and wisdom of the International Community, led by President Bush and his administration? The Iraqis are dying of hunger, poverty, and illness inside Iraq and outside, while their oil money is being plundered to be put in banks, in the personal accounts of the thieves of the New Iraq, for the American oil companies, or other satiated, gorged investors?
It seems there is no longer any justice or mercy in this world, dominated by plunder, theft, and injustice. Who stands for the poor?
By God, I don't know…
My heart is sad, but my faith in God, and my conviction that He is testing us all is the only thing that consoles me, and my constant work is the only thing that comforts me, because I try to mend people's ordeals, I try to bring happiness into the hearts and houses of wronged, tortured people going through miserable conditions, even though I know the size of the calamities in Iraq is big, that all we try to fix are small things here and there, but it is better than silence, being negative, or selfishness…
It made me very happy to see American women from a different culture, a different religion, and a world totally different from the world I was raised and grew up in, in Baghdad and other Arabic capitals, but thank God we all gathered, our hearts united to work in the aid of Iraqis…, we never met before, but we have a common vision for things…
I mean, for example; when we go to visit a family, we see, listen, write, talk, and take photos…and when we go out of the house door; we walk onto the street and start commenting. We always agree on a view point, whether positive or negative… as if we graduated from one school. Which is actually true; we are the students of one school, in which we live everyday; the School of Life, which taught me, as it taught Sasha and Mary many facts; it taught us how to feel compassion towards the ill and the poor, how to help them to improve their conditions, and how to find long-lasting solutions so the family can live a reasonable life…
For example; we visited a very poor family from Mousel, the father works as a carpenter sometimes, or else he sits at home, because he doesn't have a residency permit nor a work permit, and any work owner could pay a fine up to J.D.500 if they find out he employed a worker without a residency or work permits… the mother works as a seamstress in a shop, they have five children, ranging in age from 10 years, then 9, then a triple set aged 6 years. That was the first time in my life I saw triple children… one of the twins is a boy named Ibraheem, who has a problem in his mental abilities; he moves over much but doesn't talk, no school would have him, he is very attached to his mother so that she cannot even go to work or shopping until his brothers get back from school… the house is a pitiful sight of poverty; one bedroom for all, two separate beds and the rest sleep on the floor, there is no rug on the floor and the weather is cold these days, there aren't any chairs in the house, neither plastic nor wood, there are no curtains, there are no decent kitchen tools, there are no toys for the children, and they do not wear enough or suitable clothes…
Sasha, Mary and I are trying to buy the necessities I mentioned for them, out of donations we received on the web site I mentioned before. Today we also visited a children's school for special needs and made an appointment with them to examine Ibraheem's abilities so they can enroll him in one of the classes. We should pay them J.D.150 a month until his condition would improve, and his mother would be free until 3 p.m., so she could go to work in the tailor's shop, (we bought the industrial sewing machine in the shop for her, and she became a partner). This family never contemplated immigration, they are only trying to earn their daily bread and solve their children's health problems, for they have another child with a chronic kidney disease since her birth…
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Perhaps I gave you a headache, but this is only an example of one case. If you could have seen my notebook, and those of Sasha's and Mary's you would have seen many cases, complicated and sad, of many families, while we debated how to find balanced solutions for each family…. We have a long, crowded schedule which needs months to wind up…
Mary went back to Oregon, Sasha remained with me…
I am still surprised how we got along so well, and how we have a similar vision for things? I already worked with many Iraqi organizations after the war, but frankly I didn't find anyone who had my vision of things like Sasha and Mary did, even though we are from different environments, but praise God, perhaps what drew us together is our love of humanity and our wish to help the weak and those in need…
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When I came back from Italy, an Iraqi friend here called me and said: Um Raid, I want to tell you about a matter that is a little annoying. I said: please do, God help us, I hope it isn't something bad…
She said: there is a general society here that is helping the Iraqis, but they are enticing people to go to church and attend the prayers, even if they were Muslims, especially the children, to whom they give presents, sweets, and stories about Jesus Christ, and in the prayers they sing hymns to Christ… for the teenagers they provide sports training in a football stadium, then at the end of the course they give them a gift: a copy of the Holy Bible, and a C.D. containing photographs of football players, and at the end an Egyptian young man appears to say: I was a terrorist Muslim, and now I have converted into a peaceful Christian…
I asked her: where is the C.D. now?
She said: we broke it…
I said: I want a copy of that C.D., that is very, very important.
She promised that her son was going to look for a copy at his friends', but it seems they all broke down the copies they had….
I was very annoyed… not because I do not love Jesus Christ (peace be upon him), but I am against the idea of taking advantage of the poor to change their religions and beliefs. I mean; I am a Muslim, but I do not approve of Muslims to trick a Christian person, to give him sweets so he would convert to Islam. This is a matter of conviction and faith, not a matter of deception or luring…..
And so, to sum up the matter; we went on Friday to the building they called- the church, which was a small apartment in a residential building, people were sitting in a small room, most women were veiled, which shows they are Muslims, their children were with them, and they all held booklets from which they red hymens for Jesus, the savior….
Sasha and Mary were with me, and they were annoyed about what was happening… I smiled, not knowing what to say; this was a comedy like which I never attended before, Muslims with their children listening to music and hymens glorifying Jesus Christ, the son of the Lord…
Then, the priest read a passage from the Holy Bible about the Shepard and the herd, and to explain the sermon, a Korean priest stood, one who spoke broken Arabic of sorts. The whole crew was Korean; the priest, the pianist, and other men…
At the end of the prayer, they opened the door and let the children onto another room to play… we went into the other room and met the teacher (or supervisor), Sasha asked him: are all the children and families here Christian?
He said: No, they are a mixture of Muslims, Christians, and Baptists…
Sasha said: then why are you reading a Christian prayer to them? Do you want to change their religions?
He said: no, we are spreading peace and love…
Sasha said: but don't you think you are confusing the minds of these children? A Muslim child reads the Koran then comes here to read about Jesus, this confuses the children…
He tried to evade the discussion….
We persisted; we asked him: all right, why do you force them to attend the prayers?
He said: we do not force them…
We said: oh yes you are, because the play room is closed, and when the prayer ends you open the door and let the children in to play…
I don't know, but the whole situation there is bothering, for it was very evident they belonged to a missionary group…
We returned to the hall, we spoke to the Iraqi families there, especially the veiled mothers.
I asked them: well, you are Muslims, what are you doing here?
One of them said: we came to see if it was possible to get food aid!
I said: so, come alone, why do you bring your children to read a prayer to Jesus Christ? don't you worry about the fate of this child? (Her child was aged 6 or 7 years), instead of sending him to study the Koran in the mosque or with you at home, you bring him to church to read about Jesus Christ?
She said: there's no problem, what's the difference…
I smiled in astonishment at her reply, I didn't know; was she stupid, or just playing stupid?
When I went home, the same woman called me, she said: I am sorry; I couldn't talk to you frankly in church. Didn't you see the humiliation and disgrace we were in?
I said: what humiliation and disgrace?
She said: well, we come to church to attend the prayer, then wait, sometimes they would give us food aid, sometimes not…
I said: my dear; no one is forcing you to attend, and there is no need to humiliate yourself for a kilo of rice or sugar…
Well, she said: if we found some organizations to help us and supply our needs, we wouldn't have come to church….
I remained silent; what can I say? Who is at fault here?
Those vicious people of the missionary group who use the poor and their need for help? Or those Iraqis, who have no dignity or self respect, hypocrites, like monkeys who climb trees to get a piece of sugar?
And the disaster is, there are some Muslim families who indeed converted into Christianity then went to the United Nations demanding immigration, under the pretext that the Muslims are threatening and oppressing them........
What is happening to the world?
The big ones lost their decency, so the small ones started imitating them?
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And we go back to sad Iraq again…
News is marking time on the same spot… the same boring stories; Bush said…, a commander of the American army said…, Al-Maliki said…, stories of explosions, kidnappings and murder, about battles between Al-Mahdi army, and this-or-that-other-army, and silly, empty, worthless words…
And statements by some American government personnel that the present Shia'at government in Iraq is more dangerous than Al-Qai'da and the insurgents…
And endless debates about withdrawing a part of the American army from Iraq next year…
And rumors about a slight improvement in the security conditions in Iraq…
And appointing Ahmed Al-Chalabi to lead the reconstruction campaign in Iraq…
One Iraqi woman said, commenting on that news item: Oh, God, so they put the fat pot into the care of the cat.
I laughed a lot…. This saying means- so you put the cat in charge of the meat… meaning- you gave the trust to that who wouldn't keep it… you handed the charge to the thief…..
Yes, this, in truth, is the biggest calamity that befell Iraq after the occupation… that the charge landed into the hands of those who wouldn't know how to keep it… and that is the reason for the loss of Iraq and its poor people, since 2003, till now…. Whether they were the people who live inside, regretting the loss of security, water, electricity, fuels, and jobs, until the Iraqis became strangers in their own land….. Or the people who ran away to live in exiles, losing their dignity while knocking at the doors of international organizations, to ask for a food ration, blankets, sponge mattress, treatment for children, or a payment for their school fees. Everyday, these people wish to go back to their homeland… a homeland liberated by Bush, which turned into a piece of unbearable hell….
When would Bush and his army pull out of Iraq, so the homeland would be the Iraqi's again, and they would come back home?
This is the difficult question, awaiting an answer…
Regrettably, there isn't any clear answer looming on the foreseen horizon….
And you, miserable Iraqis, have nothing but patience, and waiting….