What's Up?!

- Yo Yo
- What's up?
- Nothing much! Guess what!
- What?
- I had my last class tonight before the spring break!
- Hoooo! Any plans for fun? Umm, not really sure. I have to start writing my novella. But still, it's nice to have a break from work and classes.
- Did you hear the news?
- What news?!
- Lauren didn't attend tonight's class.
- So?!
- She had food poising.
- Noooooo?!
- Yes :( feels bad!
- Oh No!
- What?
- Jeeeeeeeeeez!
- What?
- Did she go to K ...?
- Yeeeeeeeeees KFC!!!!
- Man! After what NBC reported about the rats they found in KFC, I started freaking out.
- I know! I had the same feeling. It used to be my favorite. But after I saw the rats jumping in front of the camera, I can't even look at any KFC restaurant anymore
- LOL... You know what!
- What? I remembered my mother when I saw the rats on TV!
- Dude, is she a fan of rats?!
- Noooo, exactly the opposite. She hates them like she hates Bush. HAHAHAHA.
- HAHAHAHA.
- She is always against fast food restaurants, even the fancy ones in Baghdad.
- Why is that?
- Because of rats! She thinks all fast food restaurants are dirty! And now all I can think about is what I heard about the rats. LOL... Can't wait to call her tomorrow and tell her about it!
- Why wait until tomorrow? Call her tonight.
- You're right. I'll call her at midnight, which means 8 o'clock there.
- We should be careful. I am not eating anymore in KFC.
- Me neither dude. I don't wanna be in an emergency room! What would people think when they hear that?
- They'll say! Man, he didn't die in an explosion.
- He ate a rat instead of a chicken. HAHAHAHA.
- You are so funny!
- HAHAHA
- Talking about emergency, have you seen this new TV Show on ABC?
- Yeaaah, "In Case of Emergency"
- Man, it's so funny. Yeah, I started liking it more than SCRUBS.
- [Yawn] gotta go to sleep... By the way.
- What?
- I have my laptop fixed.
- Finally!
- I know!!!
- 2 weeks man!
- I know. Even my sister said the other day that 2 weeks is too much in America! she thought they can do it faster than that. She never learned the lesson.



baghdadtreasure@gmail.com

Google

No wonder why "Google" entered the dictionary!!!



I wanna work there !!!!

Je M'appelle Bagdad

"Je M'appelle Bagdad" is the second single released from Tina Arena's fifth studio album Un Autre Univers.




J’ai vécu heureuse - I lived happily
Dans mes palais - in my palaces
D’or noir et de pierres précieuses - of black gold and precious stones
Le Tigre glissait - The Tigris was flowing
Sur les pavés de cristal - on crystal cobblestones
Mille califes se bousculaient - thousand caliphs lined up
Sur mes carnets de bal - on my bal lists

On m’appelait - They called me
La Cité pleine de grâce - the city full of grace
Dieu - God
Comme le temps passe - how time goes by

On m’appelait - they called me
Capitale de lumière - capital of light
Dieu - God
Que tout se perd - everything gets lost

Je m’appelle Bagdad - My name is Baghdad
Et je suis tombée - and I fell
Sous le feu des blindés - under the fire of the tanks
Sous le feu des blindés - under the fire of the tanks
Je m’appelle Bagdad - My name is Baghdad
Princesse défigurée - disfigured princess
Et Shéhérazade - and Sheherazad
M’a oubliée - has forgotten me

Je vis sur mes terres - I live on my land
Comme une pauvre mendiante - as a poor begger
Sous les bulldozers - under the bulldozers
Les esprits me hantent - ghosts haunt me
Je pleure ma beauté en ruine - I weep over my beauty in ruins
Sous les pierres encore fumantes - under stones still smoldering
C’est mon âme qu’on assassine - its my soul they murder

On m’appelait - they called me
Capitale de lumière - capital of light
Dieu - God
Que tout se perd - everything gets lost

Je m’appelle Bagdad - My name is Baghdad
Et je suis tombée - and I fell
Sous le feu des blindés - under the fire of the tanks
Sous le feu des blindés - under the fire of the tanks
Je m’appelle Bagdad - My name is Baghdad
Princesse défigurée - disfigured princess
Et Shéhérazade - and Sheherazad
M’a oubliée - has forgotten me

Mes contes des mille et une nuits - My thousands and one nights stories
N’intéressent plus personne - don't interest anybody anymore
Ils ont tout détruit - they destroyed everything

Je m’appelle Bagdad - My name is Baghdad
Et je suis tombée - and I fell
Sous le feu des blindés - under the fire of the tanks
Sous le feu des blindés - under the fire of the tanks
Je m’appelle Bagdad - My name is Baghdad
Princesse défigurée - defaced princess
Et Shéhérazade - and Sheherazad
M’a oubliée - has forgotten me

baghdadtreasure@gmail.com

Criticized... Imprisoned...

Freedom, liberty, independence, free speech, free world, free country, free men and women are words and phrases people always relate to America. No creature on earth enjoys these things like the Americans. It's an amazing thing in which even non-Americans enjoy when they live here.

Throughout the recent history of the United States, the U.S. administration expressed its rejection to dictatorship allover the world. They even took action against famous dictators whom they accused of oppressing their people and depriving them from "the freedom of speech". But who were these dictators? They ousted Saddam, put a pressure on Ahmadinajad and Bashar al-Asad whom everyone knows how brutal dictators they are. But what about the rest like Husni Mubarak? Are they not on the list of dictators? If not, why?!!!

Today, the BBC News reported that Abdel Kareem Nabil Soliman, an Egyptian blogger was sentenced to four-year imprisonment for criticizing religious authority and criticizing the Egyptian president Mubarak.

Throughout my interrupted reading to some Egyptian blogs, I read that Soliman was a secular person who criticized the highest religious authority in Egypt for suppressing the freedom of speech. He also criticized some of the actions done by the government practicing his rights of freedom of speech on his blog.

Since I read this news, I kept thinking about Bush. What does he think of Mubarak? Doesn't what happened is one of the millions violations of freedom happening in Egypt? Why didn't he invade Egypt and "liberate" them from their dictator who took over Egypt more than four decades ago? Why did he chose to oust Saddam only? I know what many people are going to say now: he is not a threat to the US, he maintained good relations with Israel, and he helped the coalition forces be supported by Arab leaders in destroying Iraq in 1991.

So the conclusion is that the US administrations' excuse of "liberating countries from dictatorship" is not true. It has to do with US interest in the region. Otherwise, why didn't Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Yemen, and Kuwait invaded? Doesn't the US know that most of the Arab militants who killed Americans in Iraq during and after the invasion came supported with weapons and funds from the leaders of these countries?

baghdadtreasure@gmail.com

The Hanging Gardens and the Queen

Set aside from the garage, our garden is my parents' source of nature enjoyment. It is a small garden but for my mother, it is like the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. She is its Samiramis. Like a queen, she would go out everyday to make sure her people are waiting to see her eagerly. They are the roses and the trees.

Before she goes to school, she waters them all. They stand before her like the English people standing before Queen Elizabeth. Looking at them as she waters them makes her day.

I still remember the happiness of the leaves dancing as she waters them. I still remember the smell of fresh air each leave produces purifying our environment from smoke of car bombs and burning bodies. She would talk to them. "Mom! They can't hear you. They are plants!" I would say. "That's what you think!" she would reply. She embraces them with love, warmth and care. They are like members of the family for her. She would spend hours there forgetting herself. "Mom, you'll be late. You gotta go to work!" She would turn her face and look at me as if she was in another world and what I said brought her back.

It's a small rockery garden. Jasmine, orange trees, a banana tree and several red, white, pink, and yellow roses encircle the colorful beautiful rocks. In the center, two plastic, white chairs and table reside. It was designed and built to look like natural outcrops of bedrock. The stones are aligned and plants conceal the joints between the stones. At the corner, a huge date palm rises up crossing the electricity cable that used to provide us with electricity in the old days. We watched it grow since my father bought it 1986. Its dates bring joys to all of our neighbors. We would distribute plates full of its date to every house in the street every year.

She does not need a gardener. She was a good one. In the afternoons, she would go there carrying the tools like the bag and the papers she carries everyday to the school where she teaches. She would work there for hours without feeling tired at all. She would put on the yellow gloves, grab her tools and start by clearing the passage where the plants are aligned.

I wasn't a huge fan of my mother's garden but living in a small apartment today surrounded by four walls and a hallway made me miss every plant there, every single leave, every fresh air they offered, the smell of every rose, the beautiful sight of the date palm, and the hanging oranges and bananas. My feet miss stepping over the green grass. My eyes are thirsty for my parents hanging out drinking the black Iraqi tea on teatime. An hour ago, I called them. They were having breakfast in the garden. It's a beautiful Sunny day, my mother said. She was enjoying her breakfast with my father before going to work, walking scared in every step she takes and getting ready to hear about more people kidnapped and killed.

baghdadtreasure@gmail.com

The Two Hollywoods!

It occurred to me that the first episodes and images in "Breach" have a greater message to the U.S. audience than the message of "treason" in the movie as a whole.

The message is "we are protecting you from the Arab suspects."

After a long day at work, Emily and I decided to go to the movies. I suggested we watch the newest movie of Eddie Murphy and Emily suggested "Breach" which we finally agreed on.

The movie started with images of a U.S. official announcing that the FBI arrested one of its agents, Robert Hanssen, who in secret was selling secrets to the Soviet Union. The next episode was of an Arab woman wearing the Muslim scarf being monitored by FBI agents as she was talking in Arabic to her husband in the street. That was it. She was neither arrested nor shot. The FBI agent shot some pictures for her and left with his team in a car hidden behind a big tree. A good message to start the movie with!

It is funny how the U.S. movies has joined the world of propaganda these days brainwashing the Americans about how Arabs are number one suspects in the U.S. now. They reminded me with Arab propaganda movies that warn the Arab people from the Americans and the Israelis.

What a coincidence!

It's known in the Arab world that Cairo is the "Hollywood of the Arabs". The Egyptian movies are the most popular in the entire Arab homeland. Egyptian movies are widely viewed by Arabs everywhere. The most recent Egyptian movie I watched is called "The Night of Baghdad Fall." It's a comedy that provides the audience with a clear message: "America is coming to destroy your countries. Be ready!". As far as I know the US embassy in Cairo expressed its utmost opposition against this movie since it shows the Arab anger when the US occupied Iraq and because there were episodes in the movie urged the Arabs to have a huge effective weapon to protect their country with when the Americans come to occupy it. There were even episodes of how a group of Egyptian people gather in an illegal training camp shooting at a line of dolls dressed up in a US military uniform.

Maybe some people will think that it was only a two-minute episode of the woman in "Breach" while it is a two-hour movie about the US occupation. I think they have the same effect. Sometimes fewer words are more effective than a two-page essay!

Mutual sensitivity between the two sides has reached its peak, in my opinion. Media and cinema here and there try to show each other as the enemy. Only the peoples of these two sides are the only losers. Neither Arabs nor Americans feel completely comfortable in each other's country. I wonder if there will be a day when movies concentrate on love, peace, and respect to everyone no matter what his/her relegion, sect, country or belief is.

Anyways, I am doing my best to always be as smiley as I am so that when the FBI are monitoring me as I am walking to school, the picture they shoot looks nice.

baghdadtreasure@gmail.com

Random Thoughts

It’s funny when you open your eyes and find the world around you completely white. Yesterday, a huge storm struck Philadelphia whitening every colorful spot! It was still 9 a.m. when I went out joyfully to enjoy the heavy snow! I haven’t seen that much snow before. It’s been snowing interruptedly every now and then but it did not stick like now.

Covered from head to toe, except the face, I went to the University Information Technology office to fix my computer. I expected the answer. They don’t fix computers bought from outside the university! Then I took it to an outside computer store which was occupied by three men. None of them has a word “smile” in their dictionary! They were grumpy and they were as if someone told them “you are going to die tonight”. It appeared to me that most of those who work in supermarkets or stores in Philadelphia are the same. None of them smile to a customer. Seriously! How could you convince me to come and buy from you if you don’t at least smile?! I am not going to ask you out! I just want someone to show me his/her goods in a nice way. I explained to one of them the problem and then left. I wasn’t very much annoyed since I am almost used to it now. I just want to get what I need and the hell with them if they smile or not. It’s just that they’ll lose a customer! I would search for another store next time I want to buy or fix something.

The same thing happened when I bought my new cell phone. After I suffered with Version, the worst cell phone company ever, I switched to Cingular in which now I have a full bar signal in my cell phone. The man whom I talked to in Cingular store in Center City was rude to the customers. It wasn’t only me whom he behaved like this with. I noticed he did the same with an American woman who was about to yell at him. After she got her phone and left, he stood with the other men behind the counter and started mocking her in front of me! However, the only place which I remember I was welcomed well in was GAP in Chestnut Street where the employees there were really helpful despite the fact that I was shopping during the holiday season in which the two floors were filled with customers.

The storm was getting worse. I went to the library to use the computers since my computer is down. I studied for a while, wrote several assignments and left at 5 p.m. It was extremely difficult to walk. Although I live across the street from campus, it took me about 15 minutes to get there by the time it usually takes me no more than 5 minutes. I went back home, had some lunch, and then took a shower to get ready for tonight’s class! Guess what? There was no class! All classes were cancelled because of the storm! Best news ever. lol

I made some hot tea and decided to study for the next day classes. This time, I thought of drinking my tea while watching the 6:30 p.m. news on of the main channels. ABC, NBC, and CBS had the news bulletin at once! It’s amazing how all their news is similar except the breaking news ABC gave about Muqtada al-Sadr “escaping from Iraq”. So funny! Breaking news! Anyways, the similarity in the news was incredible. I was flipping through the channels to see if any of the channels had something different! All of them talked about the storm, the Congress meeting, the secret death of a famous model, North Korea, and some news about Iraq. Huh! Some people still say that media in the US is free and has no propaganda! I was about to suspect that even the correspondents were lined up together in the same places but each one of them had a different camera.

The news item that I found most interesting was not the escape of Muqtada al-Sadr since it happened several times and the media here is broadcasting it for the first time to tell the American people that the army is doing something positive despite the fact that they don’t have a clue why he “escaped”! The news about North Korea giving up its nuclear weapons plan was amazing, not because they will no longer be a threat to anyone but because of the smart decision the NK government made. This government decided to give up all nuclear weapons and research programs in return for 50,000 tons of fuel oil, as a first step. Wow. Good deal! That was a smart decision in my mind but the question remains, where all this fuel and humanitarian aids will go and how much American citizens are going to pay to their government to make these aids delivered to North Korea!

After the news, I studied for a couple of hours, had some dinner, watched FRIENDS and went to sleep!

baghdadtreasure@gmail.com

Nunush

Finally, my sister’s family subscribed to a wireless internet service in their house after a long term ordeal of using Uruk, the worst dial-up service ever. Either she or my brother-in-law is online most of the time since they have nowhere to go to and nothing else to do. Now I can find them online whenever I want to know if they are ok. It always delights me to see their IM’s emoticon yellow! That means they are alive.

Yesterday morning, my sister and I had a voice chat. We used the webcams to see each other as well. This lovely small, round and black device took me home on the screen. We talked about how my family and hers were doing. We talked about how I am coping in this different complicated world. Then I heard my niece’s voice. “Bring her over,” I told my sister. “I want to see her.”

“Nunush, come say hi to uncle B.” Through the camera, I saw her running towards her mother. My sister pulled her up and put her face close to the cam. She looked so lovely wither Tweety pajamas and curly hair. My sister gave her the mic. “Alo,” Nunush said. “Halaw,” she continued using the Iraqi “hello” which was originated from English. “Halaw Nunush. Halaw Habibti,” I responded. I wanted to jump into the cam to hug her and kiss her. I haven’t seen her for eight months when she was only eight months-old.

Nunush came to life in September 2005 in a day which we all feared was going to be difficult. We were worried about my sister since most pregnant women suffered and many of them died or were killed by explosions or Iraqi and US troops shooting by “mistake”. We were praying that her labor happens during the day so that she does not have to go to the hospital at night during the curfew. Gladly, she called us at 6 a.m. We dressed up immediately and met her and my brother-in-law in the hospital.

It was a great feeling to be there. I was extremely happy to see the new baby. My heart was pounding so fast all day long. I was worried. She is my sister. I don’t know how to explain how I felt but all I could say is I felt miserable when I heard her screaming. Man! After a five-hour waiting, Nunush came to life. She was a tiny cute baby wrapped up by a white shawl. When I carried her, I felt she was my daughter. It was a strange feeling which sometimes I wonder how her father feels if I felt this way! I held her close to my heart and kissed her.

Since that day, Nunush became my spoiled child. I saw her growing every now and then. I took the risk of the dangerous roads to go to my sister’s to see her. My parents joined me as well. She is the new granddaughter in my family and you can imagine how happy my parents are.

Choosing the name was the hardest part. There were many names in my sister’s and brother-in-law’s mind. We even joked that we should use my mother’s students GPA records since she is a teacher and has lists of students’ names! Nunush is not her real name. It’s her nickname which my mother initiateed since “it sounds cute”! They finally agreed on calling her “Yusur”, which means “the ease”. They chose this name predicting and hoping an easy life for her in the future.


Every time I carried Nunush and looked into her eyes, I felt a huge pain in my chest. “Oh you poor baby!” I would say. What kind of life is waiting for you in this destroyed country? Will you ever going to be able to go to school like your parents and your uncle? Will you ever have the chance to play in the playground as we did? Will you ever be able to get the good education we got? All these questions were left without answers until this day.

The day I left my house, my sister came to say good-bye to me. Nunush was there, of course. She was still using her baby walker at the time. She followed me wherever I went. The first word she said wasn’t “mom” or “dad”. It was “Ta’al” which means “come over”. I still remember her following me in her baby walker shouting “Taal, taal” and using her lovely tiny hand to support what she said.

Everybody knows how fast children grow. Nunush now speaks several words. She knows everything around her in her house. Once, my sister said Nunush ran to my room and took my picture frame, kissed it and hugged it. She said she doesn’t forget especially my sister always shows her my pictures. As for me, her picture is in my heart, at my desk, on the TV and on the bookcase. Looking at her face makes my day!

baghdadtreasure@gmail.com

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Kadhum al-Sahir, Interview and New Song for Iraq

This is part of an interview with Kadhum al-Sahir with the British Channel 4.




This is Kadhum's latest song about Iraq and the war. The song is called "The Herders and the Fire".



baghdadtresure@gmail.com

My Guardian Angel

Before I take a sip from my coffee every morning, I have to hear her voice. I can’t start my day without her. I am obsessed. I knew her since I was seven, eight or maybe nine years-old. I don’t remember. She is always with me at the morning table and now she is always with me wherever I go. When I was in Baghdad, she never let me leave to school or work without listening to her.

Her voice takes me high… up… up… up… up to the sky. She takes my hand and shows me how heaven looks like. As I fly with her voice, I see the birds gathering around both of us soaring high and dancing at the pure heavenly gift she has. If it rains… drip drop… drip drop, she becomes my umbrella. If it’s cold, the warmth in her voice keeps me warm. If it’s hot, she cools me. If I am angry, she calms me down. Isn’t she a godess?!

She IS a goddess, an angel, heaven on earth. She is this beautiful lady putting on the garment of love and peace. She is this romantic and magical creature who no one knows the secret behind her heavenly voice.

My day is not a day without her. My country, my life and my soul are always happy with her. She takes my breath away. She takes my pain away. She is a blessing I have with me everyday. I believe in her more than I believe in many others. A Lebanese French author once said, “We don’t see angels, but we hear HER”…

Yes, her… Fayrouz, our godess, our angel.


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baghdadtreasure@gmail.com

Rhetoric and Documentaries

One of the classes I am taking this semester in my Writing Program is called Rhetoric Then and Now. Rhetoric as may some of you know is the art of persuasion. Basically, we are studying how to use rhetoric in our writing.

There are different materials which our professor chose for us to study. One of them is documentaries and what methods were taken in these documentaries to persuade the viewer.

In yesterday’s class, we watched the second part of Michael Moore’s Bowling for Columbine, a documentary film about how two young men were responsible for the Columbine High School massacre. The film won numerous awards, including an Academy Award for Best Documentary Features, the César Award for Best Foreign Film.

Part of our duties as students is to analyze what kind of methods Moore used in his documentary to be persuasive enough that eventually he became one of the famous political activists and producers in the United States and how rhetoric led him to win his awards.

As a non-American person, I haven’t had the chance to hear about Moore before watching the documentary. My close friends in the class told me about him and about some other documentaries. One of my friends advised me to watch Fahrenheit 9/11.

So, what other life savior is than Google to try? I googled his name and found incredible stuff.

I found more details about Fahrenheit 9/11, a documentary which most Americans might have seen. Again, my fingers couldn’t resist video googling it! And yes, I found it! The entire documentary is posted on Google videos!

I watched the entire film and I have to say that it really deserved the 20-minute standing ovation in Cannes Film Festival.

Snowing Bullets

At last real winter has come. I sat at Starbucks last week looking at the freezing people outside running away from the heavy snow which whitened the city a few hours later. Next to the window, I sat sipping my café latte, cradling the warmth in my hands and welcoming the heat in my stomach.

A woman in her fifties passed by and gave me a motherly look, a look that chilled my entire body. She might saw her son in me as I saw my mother in her. Her brown eyes were saying a lot of things. I knew it was a moment when she looked but I felt it longer. I knew she missed her son as I missed my mother.

I sent my mother a text message to see if she was awake. It was about midnight in Baghdad. As I punched the letters in the message, I thought about what I was going to tell her. I wanted to tell her about the snow. She has never seen snow in her entire life. I knew she’d love to hear about it!

As I took another sip from my extremely hot latte, my cell phone rang. It was her. My heart jumped and was about to come out of my body out of happiness. I wanted to throw myself inside the phone and meet her from the other end. I wanted to kiss her and hug her and tell her how much I miss her and miss my father.

She sounded different. I grew worried. “What’s going on?” I asked her. “Nothing,” she replied. I begged her to tell me and she did. She told me she didn’t want to say it because she doesn’t want to make me worry a lot.

She was washing the dishes when she heard gunfire. She didn’t move at first. Gunfire, so what? What’s new in that? Then she said she saw people running back and forth in the street. That’s when she got my message and decided to go to another room where there was no huge window to be broken.

The words were chocked in my throat. I felt I needed a crane to pull them out. I felt mute. Then I decided to bury the words I wanted to say inside my heart. How could I tell her about the snow by the time the sky there was snowing bombs and bullets?

baghdadtreasure@gmail.com

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Beautiful Like their Country

Baladna

.