Welcome Letter For Visitors Church

is fascinating to see the world beyond Iraq prepare for the World Cup. Receive e-mail photographs of people waving flags and banners supporting either team. Oh! Here we also have flags and banners-drilled black banners all over Baghdad, announcing deaths and wakes. The flags are all of one color, usually black, green, red or yellow-representing a certain religious party or political group.

A friend owns a shop in Karrada had a little problem with a certain flag last week. Karrada was one of the best shopping in Baghdad before the war. It was the area to which you were when you were a shopping list unrelated, such as shoes, a potato peeler, pink nail polish and a dozen blank CDs. You could be sure to find everything you need in less than an hour

Immediately after the war, SCIRI, Da'awa and other parties have opened offices in the area. Stores that previously exhibited Garments and posters of women with make-up, adopted a more subdued picture. Soon, instead of photographs of charming women advertising Dior perfume, shops put pictures of Sistani, looking half-alive, shrouded in black. Or pictures of Sadr, grim and dark, and almost certainly not smelling like Dior.

This friend owns a small cosmetics shop where he sells everything from bars to paint lips headscarves. His apartment is located just above the premises, so that when you look down from the window of his room, you can see if someone is at the door. G. inherited the shop from his father, who was selling Sewing instead of cosmetics. The store has been in the family for twenty years. Before the war, his wife and her sister going, getting the most persuasive sales duo known in the history of cosmetics (proof of this is a garishly colored neck scarf I bought four years ago and has never left cabinet). After the war, and several threats in the form of letters and broken windows, G. began to run the business personally, and, besides cosmetics, introduced a dark line Abbaye appropriate loose headscarves.

The last time I visited G. in his shop was two weeks ago. Since January, the store G. has been the center of some football activities. His obsession with football has gotten to the point of closing the store two hours earlier, and thus E., cousin and other friends can gather for PlayStation FIFA games. These tournaments are basically a group of grown men sitting, driving digital little men running after a ball digital, passionately shouting and insulting each other. If you go to the store trying to buy something during those hours, you risk being thrown out or you just say "Take it, just take it (whatever). Take it and GO! Every World Cup year, G. and his wife joke, only half, to change the name of her only son by footballer of the year. (As a sort of compromise, family and friends have agreed to call his 14 years, "Ronaldinho" until the end of the World)
G.
's cousin, who has lived in Canada about 15 years, recently sent a G a colorful Brazilian flag, great, perfect for hanging in a window. He told us how he was planning to hang right in the center and paint under in big bold letters "VIVA BRASILIA!". E. seemed to doubt while G., excitedly described how she would change the colors of the exhibition, green and yellow to match the flag.

took nearly two days complete before the problems started the first sign of trouble came through a neighbor of G. Passed by the shop and told G. a turbaned young cleric in black, going against the window had turned their attention to the flag. According to Abu Rossul neighbor, the young cleric stopped, gazed at the flag, I note the store name and address and went his way. G.encogiéndose downplayed his shoulders, "Well, it could also be a follower of Brazil ...." Abu Rossul was not so sure, "To me it seemed more the type Viva Sadr! ...

A day later, G. had a visit at noon. A young priest dressed in black entered the store and gave a brief glimpse inside. G. tried to interest you in some lovely headscarves and Abbaye, but was left out of his apparent mission. Claimed to be representative of the Sadr press office was a few blocks away and had a message for G.: the staff of that office was not happy with the window of G. Where was their awareness of national pride? Where was his sense of religion?. Instead of the pagan side of a player could place important photos of Sadr, or, better yet, Muqtada! Why did a foreign flag stuck obscenely in your window? If he felt the need to put a flag, and was the Iraqi flag to be placed. If he felt the need for a green flag, as the window, and was the green flag of "Al il Bayt" ... Democracy is, after all, a matter of having choices.

G. I was not happy at all. He told the young priest would find a "solution" and made peace by donating some shoes cheap man and a cotton T-shirts selling at times. That night conferred with various relatives and friends and, although nearly all advised him to take it down, insisted that he remain in the window as a matter of principle. His wife even offered to turn it into a curtain or bed sheets to enjoy them until the end of the world. He was adamant to keep it.

Two days later, he found they had slipped under the large aluminum outer door a letter of warning more dramatic. In short, told G. and people like him pay @ sy required him to remove the flag or put in a dangerous situation. It costs a little to impress a man like G., but that day had removed the flag and the window was back to normal.

"Meanwhile, Muqtada issued a fatwa against football. I've downloaded, and this is the translation of what he says when someone asks for a fatwa (interpretation from the point of view of Islamic law, n. of t) on the football World Cup.

"Actually my father's position on this topic is not undefined. Not only my father but Sharia also prohibits such activities which keep their fans too busy to pray, keep people in oblivion (the prayer). Habeebi, the West created things to us from completing ourselves (perfection). What do we do? Running after a ball, habeebi ... What is this? A big tall man, a Muslim, running behind of a ball?. Habeebi, this "goal", as it is called ... if you want to run, run towards a noble goal. Follow the noble goals that will complement and do not you stoop. Runs after a goal, keep that in mind and everyone follows its own path toward the goal to please God. This is one thing. The second thing is more important, we find that in the West, and especially Israel, habeebi, Jews, would they have been playing soccer? "You see them play like Arabs play? They keep us busy with football and other things while they have left. Have you heard the Israeli team, curse them, have the World Cup? Or the U.S.? Only other games ... We kept busy with them, singing, playing soccer, and smoking, trash of this kind, satellites used for things blasphemous while they occupy themselves with science etc.. Habeebi Why? They are better than us, not we better than them.

Important Note: The Sharia does not prohibit the football or sports, are prohibited only in Muqtada's dark little head. I wonder what tennis, swimming and yoga ....

I heard the fatwa to him getting emotional about playing football and not know whether to mourn or laugh. Foreign occupation and being part of a puppet government these things are OK. Football however, will be the end of civilization as we know, according to Muqtada. It's fun. Do not look like anything but reminds me of Bush. Two sentences can hardly bind properly and millions of people still believe that his word is law. So when Bush raves about the "beginner Iraqi government," freely chosen "for power, you can look at Muqtada and see one of the beginners. Currently he is one of the most powerful men in the country for his followers

So this is democracy. This is one of the great minds of Bush's democratic Iraq

militia Sadr now controls parts of Iraq. Only a couple of days, his militia with the help of Badr, were preventing women from going to the market in the southern city of Karbala. No women were allowed to go to market and store owners complained that their businesses were suffering so. S Welcome to the new Iraq.

black humor is seeing what we have become and it is also distressing. Muqtada Al-Sadr is a measure of how much we have regressed in these past three years. Even during the Iran-Iraq war and sanctions, people indulged in sports to divert their thoughts from daily life. After the occupation, we won a match against either another and we comforted us @ s mism @ s with "Well, we lose wars, but we won the football! In a country that once celebrated sports, especially football, to a country where the concern is if the players are sufficiently long pants or sports fans will face eternal damnation ... In this we have become.

- posted by river @ 12:05 AM

What Does It Mean When Someone Says To You Milf

American Hostages ...

was about 10 or April 11, 2003. There was no electricity in our neighborhood since the end of March. He was also cut water and l @ s most Iraqis still did not have generators. We spent the days - and nights - listening to the war plans of the Americans and British, while listening for the tanks invaded the city, and praying. We also tried desperately to follow the news.

Iraqi television channels controlled by the government, apparently, had ceased to exist. Transmission had been bad since the war began - sometimes we could access the channel clearly, and sometimes it was just a confusing blur of faces and distorted anthems. The official Iraqi radio was not much better, it sometimes seemed that they were transmitting from Mars, from far away it was. When we tuned clearly, nothing made sense: Sahhaf, the Minister of Information, would say "no tanks in Baghdad!" and yet, by contrast, spoke of explosions and charred corpses of cars with families still inside.

In early April we had given up on getting any information from television and had to rely on the news we received through radio stations such as Monte Carlo, BBC and Voice of America. VOA was nearly as useless as Sahhaf - you could never tell if the news we received were real or were simply propaganda. Between news, VOA broadcast the same songs over and over again. I can not still hear the song of Celine Dion "A new day has come" without shuddering because in my head I hear the sounds of war. "I was waiting for someone ..." the roar of a plane overhead ... "That comes a miracle ..." the BUUM of a missile ... "My heart told me to be strong ..." the rat-tat-tat of an AK-47 ... Today I hate that song.

A television station had been broadcasting from the beginning of the war was an Iranian station called "Al Alam". They had been broadcasting in Arabic to the Iranian public with prior government permission and had continued to issue even after stop doing that Iraqi stations. Their coverage of the war was rather neutral. They gave facts and avoided unnecessary comments or opinions and that, to some extent, made them trustworthy - especially when we had really no other options.

We had heard comments about the downing of the statue in one or another radio station, but no s @ of us had seen it because we had no television due to lack of electricity ... @ S some Iraqis were using old televisions and connecting a standard car battery which is what they did in 1991. E. and my cousin managed to dig up the dust a small television, old, white black and my aunt had overlooked during spring cleaning in recent years. The connected and made operational in about 20 minutes (and after carefully dusting). Since there was no Iraqi station. There was only the Iranian transmitting clearly. The tanks were ramming Baghdad and bombing everything on the road. The Apaches were flying low and it seemed that every hour intensified the shooting and bombing.

was about 9 pm on April 11 when we finally saw the material on the overthrow by American troops of the statue of Saddam - with the American flag plastered on his face. We watched, stunned, as Baghdad was looted and razed by hordes of men, watched and saluted by American soldiers in tanks. Now, looking back, it is rather ironic that our first glimpses of the "fall of Baghdad" and occupation of Iraq came to us via Iran - through that Iranian channel.

immediately started hearing about the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, and that they had formed a militia to Iraqis who had defected to Iran during the Iran-Iraq war. Could be heard already in the country and helping to loot and burn everything from governmental facilities to museums. Hakims and Badr debut, followed by other clerics with their guards and militias personal, all infiltrating from Iran. Today

govern the country. Over three years, and having used brutal militias, assassinations and kidnappings, have managed to install themselves firmly in the Green Zone. We constantly hear our new puppets rant angry and against Syria, against Saudi Arabia, against Turkey, even against those who should be thanked for his rise to power, the United States of America ... But no one dares to talk about the role Iran is playing in the country.

In recent days we have heard from Iranian attacks in northern Iraq, Kurdistan areas are on the border with Iran. Several sites were bombed and various news agencies are reporting that thousands of Iranian troops are prepared along the border of Iraq. Previously, there was talk of Iranian revolutionary guards infiltrating areas like Diyala and even parts of Baghdad.

Meanwhile, the new puppets (simply a return of the same OLD puppets always) after having taken several months to decide in the end, who would play the role of prime minister, are now disputing and fighting for the ministries "important" and which party should receive what ministry. The reason for this is that as a minister is named, say, SCIRI, enter "their people" in key positions, their relatives, friends and cronies, and (most importantly), his personal militia. As soon as Al-Maliki was named prime minister, announced that armed militias would be converted into part of the Iraqi army (which can only mean the Badristas and Sadr's henchmen.)

few days ago we were watching one of the many ceremonies held at the appointment of new prime minister. Talbani stood in front of various politicians in a large room in the Green Zone and said, rather cynically, that Iraq would not accept any 'tadakhul' or interference neighboring countries because Iraq was a "sovereign country free of foreign influence." The cousin almost burst out laughing and E. was wiping his eyes and gasping for breath ... as Talbani pompously made his statement, yet it sonrisas.Sonriendo big belly and behind him was a group of American commanders or generals and to his left was Khalilzad, patting him affectionately on the arm and looking like a father to his firstborn!

So while hundreds of Iraqis killed, with bodies popping up everywhere (last week found a dead man in the open space opposite the school of the daughters of my cousin) Iraqi puppets are taking their time to decide who can carry the greatest theft in which ministry. Embezzlement, after all, should not be taken lightly, one should devote the necessary amount of thought and debate, even though the country is being dismantled.

Regarding news of the new Iraqi military, things do not go as well as Bush and his team paint them. Today we saw the scenes of Iraqi soldiers in Anbar graduating. The whole ceremony was quite normal until the end, their commander said they would be deployed in various areas and suddenly it was chaos. The soldiers began to act out their hardships and express openly verbally attacking his superiors, screaming and pushing. They were promised when they enlisted in their areas, which would be deployed in their own regions, so it makes sense. There are reports that are currently on strike, refusing to be deployed outside their own provinces.

something Would it help to imagine that the area where they were supposed to be deployed to northern Iraq was? Especially with Iranian troops on the border ... Talbani announced a few days ago that the protection of Kurdistan was the responsibility of Iraq and I completely agree with the change. Because Kurdistan is part of Iraq. Before that would make this statement, it was understood that only the Peshmerga would protect Kurdistan-apparently, against Iran, are not sufficient.

The big question is: What will the U.S. with regard to Iran? There are indications of the possibility of bombings, etc.. Although I hate the Iranian government, people do not deserve the chaos and damage of air strikes and war. I'm not really concerned about this problem, because if you live in Iraq know that America has its hands tied. As soon as Washington makes a move against Tehran, American troops in Iraq will be attacked. It's that simple: Washington has powerful arms and planes ... But Iran has 150,000 American hostages.

- posted by river @ 12:59 AM