been three years since the beginning of the war that marked the end of the independence of Iraq. Three years of occupation and bloodshed. Spring
should mean renewal and rebirth. For l @ s Iraqi spring means reviving painful memories and preparing for future disasters. In many ways this is like 2003 years before the war when we stored gasoline, water, food and first aid supplies and medicines. We do so again this year but now they argue about what we do. Bombs and B-52 are much easier to see than any other possibility.
do not think anyone imagined three years ago that things would be as bad as today. Recent weeks have elapsed in tension. I'm so tired of everything ... We are all so tired.
three years and the electricity supply is worse than ever. The security situation has gone from bad to worse. It feels as if the country was on the brink of chaos once again, but a planned chaos before hand, prefabricated, and directed by militias religious fanatics.
school, college and work have been issues that have worked again, and have stopped working again. It seems that for every two days of school / work there five days of sitting at home waiting for the situation improves. Right now the university and the school closed because it is near the "arba3eeniya" or "Day 40", more black and green flags, hordes of men in black and "latmiyas." We were told that children should try to return to class next Wednesday. I say "try" because prior to the long-awaited parliamentary meeting two days ago the schools were closed. After pump in the Samarra mosque schools closed. The children have been at home this year longer than they have been in school.
Arba3eeniya worries me the most this year. I worry that we will look more like what happened in the Askari mosque in Samarra. Most l @ s Iraqis believe that everything was prepared for those who have more to gain by dividing the Iraqis.
I sit here trying to think what makes this year, 2006, much worse than 2005 or 2004. There are visible differences, such things as electricity, water, dilapidated buildings, broken streets and ugly concrete security walls. Those things are annoying, but they are bearable. L @ \u200b\u200bs Iraqis have demonstrated time and again that countries can be rebuilt. No, it is not obvious what we fear.
The real fear is the mentality of so many people lately, crack seems to have broken through the very heart of the country, dividing people. It is disheartening to talk to acquaintances, sophisticated and civilized people, and hear that the Sunnis and Shiites are so-so. See people who pick up their things to move to "Sunni neighborhoods" or "Shia neighborhoods" How could this happen? I read constantly
analysis mostly written by foreigners or by Iraqis who have spent decades abroad, saying it has always been split between Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq (observation, which ironically sehace only evident when you're not living among Iraqis l @ s) ... but with the dictator nobody saw or nobody wanted to see it. That simply is not true, if there was division among fans of both sides. Shiite extremists and Sunni extremists. Most people simply could not get to make friends not related to its neighbors based on their religious sect. People do not care, you could ask that question, but everyone was going to look like you're stupid or rude.
I remember when I was a child during a visit he was playing outside with one of the children of neighbors. Amal was exactly my age, even we were born in the same month separated by just three days. We were laughing at a joke silly when he suddenly turned and asked timidly, "Are you Sanafir or Shanakil?." I stood there, confused. Sanafir is an Arabic word for "smurfs" and Shanakil is the Arabic word for "Snorks". I do not understand why I was wondering if it was a Smurf or a snork. Apparently it was the indirect way of asking whether it was Sunni (Sanafir) or Shia (Shanakil).
"How?" I asked with a half smile. She laughed and asked if he prayed with his hands at his sides or folded across my stomach. I shrugged, not very concerned and a little embarrassed to admit they did not yet know how to pray properly, at the tender age of ten years.
Later in the afternoon, I sat at my aunt and I remembered to ask my mother if we were Smurfs or Snorks. She gave me the same blank look I had noticed Amal. "Mom, do we @ s pray with their hands like this or like?". Got up and did the two positions of prayer. My mother's eyes cleared and shook turning his head looked up at my aunt. "Why are you asking? Who want to know?. I explained as Amal, our neighbor Shanakil, had asked earlier that day. "Well, tell us @ s Amal are neither Shanakiles or Sanafires. We are Muslims, there are no difference.
was years before that found that half the family was Sanafir and the other half was Shanakil, but nobody cared. At family gatherings we do not sit to discuss the Sunni Islam or Shia Islam. The family did not care if this cousin prayed with his hands on the sides and one other with hands clasped in front of his stomach. Much @ s Iraqis of my generation have that attitude. @ S have been educated to believe that people who discriminate in any way, positive or negative, based on religious sect or race, are people backward, uneducated and uncivilized.
The most worrying aspect of the situation now is that discrimination based on sect has become commonplace. The average educated person in Baghdad still feels contempt for all this talk Shia / Sunni. Sadly people are being pushed to declare this or that because political parties are promoting it with every speech and every newspaper, everything is 'us / them'. Constantly read about how "we Sunnis must unite with our Shia brothers ...", or "we the Shia should forgive our Sunni brothers ..." (notice how we, the Shia and Sunni brothers do not seem to fit into any equation at this point.) It seems that the political and religious personalities forget throughout the day tod @ s are simply Iraqis.
And what role are the occupiers playing in this?. It is very convenient for them, I think. It's great that the Iraqis are abducting and killing each other, because that occupants may be presented as the neutral third party that is foreign to promote peace and understanding among people who, before the occupation, were very peaceful and understanding. Three years later
da war, and we managed to go back in a visible way, and in a not so visible.
Only in recent weeks, thousands have died in senseless violence, and, as I write this, the Iraqi and American armed Samarra bombing. The sad thing is the air strike, one of the hundreds of air raids we've seen over the past three years. The sad thing is the resignation of the people. Feel is their home in Samarra, because there is nowhere to go. Before we gathered refugees in and around Baghdad. Now l @ s @ s Baghdad are propylene looking for a way out of town ... ways out of the country. Find a safe haven abroad has become the typical Iraqi dream.
Three years later and the nightmares of bombings, apprehension and fear have evolved into another kind of nightmare. The difference between then and now is that even three years ago we were concerned about material things, possessions, houses, cars, electricity, water, etc ... It is difficult to define what worries us most now, even the most cynical war critics could not imagine that the country would be so bad three years after the war ... Allah ill yistur rab3a (God protect us from the fourth year).
- posted by river @ 3:28 a.m.
should mean renewal and rebirth. For l @ s Iraqi spring means reviving painful memories and preparing for future disasters. In many ways this is like 2003 years before the war when we stored gasoline, water, food and first aid supplies and medicines. We do so again this year but now they argue about what we do. Bombs and B-52 are much easier to see than any other possibility.
do not think anyone imagined three years ago that things would be as bad as today. Recent weeks have elapsed in tension. I'm so tired of everything ... We are all so tired.
three years and the electricity supply is worse than ever. The security situation has gone from bad to worse. It feels as if the country was on the brink of chaos once again, but a planned chaos before hand, prefabricated, and directed by militias religious fanatics.
school, college and work have been issues that have worked again, and have stopped working again. It seems that for every two days of school / work there five days of sitting at home waiting for the situation improves. Right now the university and the school closed because it is near the "arba3eeniya" or "Day 40", more black and green flags, hordes of men in black and "latmiyas." We were told that children should try to return to class next Wednesday. I say "try" because prior to the long-awaited parliamentary meeting two days ago the schools were closed. After pump in the Samarra mosque schools closed. The children have been at home this year longer than they have been in school.
Arba3eeniya worries me the most this year. I worry that we will look more like what happened in the Askari mosque in Samarra. Most l @ s Iraqis believe that everything was prepared for those who have more to gain by dividing the Iraqis.
I sit here trying to think what makes this year, 2006, much worse than 2005 or 2004. There are visible differences, such things as electricity, water, dilapidated buildings, broken streets and ugly concrete security walls. Those things are annoying, but they are bearable. L @ \u200b\u200bs Iraqis have demonstrated time and again that countries can be rebuilt. No, it is not obvious what we fear.
The real fear is the mentality of so many people lately, crack seems to have broken through the very heart of the country, dividing people. It is disheartening to talk to acquaintances, sophisticated and civilized people, and hear that the Sunnis and Shiites are so-so. See people who pick up their things to move to "Sunni neighborhoods" or "Shia neighborhoods" How could this happen? I read constantly
analysis mostly written by foreigners or by Iraqis who have spent decades abroad, saying it has always been split between Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq (observation, which ironically sehace only evident when you're not living among Iraqis l @ s) ... but with the dictator nobody saw or nobody wanted to see it. That simply is not true, if there was division among fans of both sides. Shiite extremists and Sunni extremists. Most people simply could not get to make friends not related to its neighbors based on their religious sect. People do not care, you could ask that question, but everyone was going to look like you're stupid or rude.
I remember when I was a child during a visit he was playing outside with one of the children of neighbors. Amal was exactly my age, even we were born in the same month separated by just three days. We were laughing at a joke silly when he suddenly turned and asked timidly, "Are you Sanafir or Shanakil?." I stood there, confused. Sanafir is an Arabic word for "smurfs" and Shanakil is the Arabic word for "Snorks". I do not understand why I was wondering if it was a Smurf or a snork. Apparently it was the indirect way of asking whether it was Sunni (Sanafir) or Shia (Shanakil).
"How?" I asked with a half smile. She laughed and asked if he prayed with his hands at his sides or folded across my stomach. I shrugged, not very concerned and a little embarrassed to admit they did not yet know how to pray properly, at the tender age of ten years.
Later in the afternoon, I sat at my aunt and I remembered to ask my mother if we were Smurfs or Snorks. She gave me the same blank look I had noticed Amal. "Mom, do we @ s pray with their hands like this or like?". Got up and did the two positions of prayer. My mother's eyes cleared and shook turning his head looked up at my aunt. "Why are you asking? Who want to know?. I explained as Amal, our neighbor Shanakil, had asked earlier that day. "Well, tell us @ s Amal are neither Shanakiles or Sanafires. We are Muslims, there are no difference.
was years before that found that half the family was Sanafir and the other half was Shanakil, but nobody cared. At family gatherings we do not sit to discuss the Sunni Islam or Shia Islam. The family did not care if this cousin prayed with his hands on the sides and one other with hands clasped in front of his stomach. Much @ s Iraqis of my generation have that attitude. @ S have been educated to believe that people who discriminate in any way, positive or negative, based on religious sect or race, are people backward, uneducated and uncivilized.
The most worrying aspect of the situation now is that discrimination based on sect has become commonplace. The average educated person in Baghdad still feels contempt for all this talk Shia / Sunni. Sadly people are being pushed to declare this or that because political parties are promoting it with every speech and every newspaper, everything is 'us / them'. Constantly read about how "we Sunnis must unite with our Shia brothers ...", or "we the Shia should forgive our Sunni brothers ..." (notice how we, the Shia and Sunni brothers do not seem to fit into any equation at this point.) It seems that the political and religious personalities forget throughout the day tod @ s are simply Iraqis.
And what role are the occupiers playing in this?. It is very convenient for them, I think. It's great that the Iraqis are abducting and killing each other, because that occupants may be presented as the neutral third party that is foreign to promote peace and understanding among people who, before the occupation, were very peaceful and understanding. Three years later
da war, and we managed to go back in a visible way, and in a not so visible.
Only in recent weeks, thousands have died in senseless violence, and, as I write this, the Iraqi and American armed Samarra bombing. The sad thing is the air strike, one of the hundreds of air raids we've seen over the past three years. The sad thing is the resignation of the people. Feel is their home in Samarra, because there is nowhere to go. Before we gathered refugees in and around Baghdad. Now l @ s @ s Baghdad are propylene looking for a way out of town ... ways out of the country. Find a safe haven abroad has become the typical Iraqi dream.
Three years later and the nightmares of bombings, apprehension and fear have evolved into another kind of nightmare. The difference between then and now is that even three years ago we were concerned about material things, possessions, houses, cars, electricity, water, etc ... It is difficult to define what worries us most now, even the most cynical war critics could not imagine that the country would be so bad three years after the war ... Allah ill yistur rab3a (God protect us from the fourth year).
- posted by river @ 3:28 a.m.
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