The Battle for Kirkuk

Iraq is still in a transformational form. The post-Saddam era is just at its beginning and the struggle for power in the war-torn country is moulding how the Land of Two Rivers is shaped.

Among the things that are yet to be solved in Iraq nowadays is Kirkuk. The oil-rich northern Iraqi city has been fought for by Kurds, Arabs and Turkomans, each claiming it is theirs.

Josh Rushing of Al Jazeera English’s Fault Lines travels to Northern Iraq to look at one of the most serious divides the country faces.

Check it out:

Déjà vu

It feels like 2006 all over again. Déjà vu. A flashback. Call it whatever you like, but the way violence has made its way back to Iraq is making me extremely worried, enraged and sad.

Because of the election and the unbelievable dirty politics being played behind it, innocent people are losing their lives and the sectarian war is not far from happening again. Many of the parties and candidates are playing the ‘sect’ card again, pressing on the fresh wounds of people who a few years ago were going through the horror of a bloody sectarian war.

As a result of the election wars, gunmen in Iraq have shot dead a family of eight and beheaded some of the bodies, amid a wave of pre-election violence, reported the BBC. The gunmen killed the family, who were reportedly Shiite Muslims living in a majority Sunni area just outside the capital, Baghdad, early on Monday.

On the same day, assailants burst into the home of an Iraqi campaign volunteer before dawn Monday, fatally shooting the man before they stabbed his pregnant wife and their five daughters to death, reported The Miami Herald. A sixth child, the only son, was found hanging from a ceiling fan with key arteries severed, a cousin told the paper.

Those are just two examples of the horror Iraqis have to face, something very similar to that they witnessed for years. I really hope what was built in the last year or so won’t collapse and that we don’t go back to where we started.

Capital Punishment and the Lessons Taught

A few weeks ago, a friend of mine and I had a very long debate on the subject of capital punishment. We have opposite stance on it as she thinks it’s brutal and should end and I think it shouldn’t.

I was extremely happy to read that the Iraqi government yesterday rejected calls urged by some 20 countries to abolish or suspend capital punishment.

What the opponents of the death penalty do not understand is that the situation in Iraq is far from stable and that to make it stable, convicted killers should understand there are harsh consequences for their crimes against humanity.

If we do not execute convicted terrorists, for instance, who blow up car bombs in a market where innocent people shop, killing hundreds, we let the other terrorists think they can get away with it and do the same. Theses executions should teach those who intend to do the same in the future a lesson that will cost them their lives.

Saddam, Chemical Ali, and the insurgents and militias who killed innocents do not deserve to live. Actually, the execution is the least that could happen to them.

There are other reasons why I believe Saddam’s execution was good. When the tyrant was alive and behind bars the insurgency war reached its peak, because he was an inspiration to the Iraq insurgents and the Arab foreign fighters. They had nothing to fight and the glue that was holding them all was gone. That, and other factors, resulted in decreasing the number of violent attacks which made Iraqis slowly move on with their lives and build their future.

CNN: Using Fear to Get Votes in Iraq

While I was checking the latest news on my iPhone on my way back home from work, I came across a very interesting video report about the latest propaganda war appearing on some Iraqi TV channels.

According to CNN, Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki’s satellite channel “Afaq” is broadcasting images of Saddam’s regime’s horrific torture methods that were used against many innocent Iraqis and political opponents. Images of beheadings and torture are connected to the election campaign Maliki is running in with a slate called, “The State of Law Coalition.”

This left me thinking deeply about how fierce the elections campaign has become. It looks like the old-fashioned bribing method candidates still use to buy votes is no longer that effective. Apparently, gruesome images are more powerful. I think they are.

I’m wondering if this is the right time to show such images on TV when Iraqis are forcing themselves to forget their past and move on with their lives to salvage whatever remained in this country and build a better life among each other. The wounds of the years of civil war are still fresh and the last thing we need now is to open them again.

I wonder if what Salih Al Mutlak, the banned Sunni politician, said is true that they are doing this “because they don’t have anything else to deliver to the people.” It kind of makes sense, doesn’t it?

Click on the video below to view the entire report!

Where is My Money?!

My mouth fell open in shock when I heard the tax preparer telling me that I will have to pay around $6,000 total taxes. The shock left me speechless and almost paralyzed for two days, as if I was literally hit by a bus.

Paying taxes is not something new to me. I have been doing that ever since I set my feet in America. This time I was just not expecting to pay as much.

I calculated how much money I have and how much I can save before the payment deadline which is on April 15. I found out that I actually can pay the whole thing before the deadline but I will have to basically cut back on tons of stuff, including social activities so that I can at least pay rent, bills and groceries.

So I basically sucked it up and thought I’m not the only one in this country who pays taxes. However, something really plucked my nerves recently. It’s how the Washington DC city municipality responded (or not) to cleaning up what two successive blizzards left. I felt like Stewie Griffin in Family Guy when he yelled at Brian the dog asking him, “Where is my money?”

Indeed, WHERE IS MY MONEY?

Almost a week after the blizzard is over, many streets are still icy and dangerous. There are mounts of snow almost everywhere, making it impossible sometimes to run to catch the bus. Trash is unbelievably piling up in some of the fanciest neighborhoods in the city, like in this picture I took this morning at the bus stop. The buses are not running on regular schedule. It takes me between an hour and a half and two hours sometimes to get to work.

I was so annoyed about this that I wrote my facebook status like this yesterday: “Bassam Sebti is wondering where all the thousands of dollars he pays for taxes are going when seeing the streets of the American capital a total mess. Mounts of snow, icy sidewalks and no trash pick-up. Where are we? Northern Afghanistan?"

The funniest and the perfect response for that came from a friend of mine who wrote, “No, you're in DC...but the money is going to Afghanistan.”

I couldn’t agree more!

Global Warming Irony

I took this picture yesterday while going to H&R Block to file my taxes. I found it really interesting and ironic at the same time.

The snow has accumulated on the sidewalks in Washington DC after two blizzards hit the city, paralyzing it for an entire week. Despite these crazy blizzards, I still believe Global Warming is happening, because it's something based on facts.

Iraqi government considers disturbing Saddam-like grip on media

The recent news reports pouring from Iraq states that the Iraqi government wants to impose new restrictions on the media, battling what it says are broadcasts that incite sectarian violence.

According to Reuters, the new regulations states that all media and journalists seek permission to operate in Iraq from the Communications and Media Commission (CMC), submit lists of all staff and equipment, and pledge not to incite sectarianism or violence.

This is disturbing by all means.

Iraqi media was reborn after the fall of the Saddam totalitarian regime. After the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, media outlets started emerging. Today there are a few hundred media outlets that left the door open for freer debates and much more news Iraqis ever enjoyed.

Indeed, Some Iraqi media outlets-especially TV networks- have become too sectarian and have actually contributed to the sectarian fighting that reached its peak in 2006, killing hundreds of thousands of innocent people and causing a major refugee dilemma . However, letting the government take firm grip on the operation of the media outlets is nothing but a similar technique Saddam Hussein’s totalitarian regime used to control media and people, claiming it was protecting the people and the revolution.

Throughout the world, media pluralism and independence from the government is necessary to achieve democracy. Iraqi media is no different. It is one of the things that can maintain the country’s fragile and blood-covered democracy.

I believe media outlets like those inciting hatred and divisions can be fought by raising the awareness of the people, which can be done by creating reasonable independent media outlets that can make Iraqis think twice before deciding whom to believe.

Going Green or Being Mean?

Ever since I came to the United States in 2006 I have been hearing about the whole ‘going green’ thing. TV, radio, internet, grad school and even my landlord back in the Philly house where I once lived have been constantly obsessed with recycling and going green.

At first, I thought what's all this fuss about? The country is rich enough to produce whatever it wants. Naively, I was comparing it to how we had to recycle everything during the 12-year international sanctions that were imposed after Saddam invaded Kuwait. Then, we had to recycle plastic products and paper in order to have the government reproduce them because we were not allowed to purchase raw materials for the factories.

It didn’t take me too long to understand that the main reason for this obsession is ‘saving Earth.’

Recently, the Washington D.C. City Council unanimously voted in favor of a 5-cent tax on both paper and plastic bags that took effect on January 1st of this year, causing a lot of confusion and anger among the D.C. public who find it extremely weird to pay for plastic bags.

A few days ago, I was sick with a stomach virus and it was unbelievably hard for me to battle the snow and the freezing weather in order to get some chicken soup, which I totally hate and does not eat unless I’m sick. Worrying about wearing some warm clothes and what I should drink or eat to recover, it didn’t occur to me that I should carry my grocery bags until I reached the supermarket. Damn it, I said, now I have to buy these stupid bags. I thought for a second and two to see if it’s worth it to go back home and get the bags in this freezing weather. Finally, I decided to buy the plastic bags.

I felt frustrated, I have to admit, not because of the 10 cents I paid for two bags but because the going green thing has become too extreme. I thought about the whole “don’t be mean, go green” slogan and realized that it should be “don’t be mean to force me go green!!!”

Don’t get me wrong. Going green is something very important, I believe, but the way it is carried out might not be the right one to start with. Going green in the US will never save the world by saving some stupid already recycled plastic bags alone. I think there are bigger issues that need to end such as the use of bombs which causes an unbelievable damage to earth and to the breathing air. Do you know that war zones are covered with heavy grey smoke clouds? We need to start saving earth by ending terrorism and wars that cause huge fires and damage to everything where they happen. I have never seen an environmentalist calling for ending those causes of damage. All I see is people talking about paper and plastic products, ignoring the damage that is caused by a bomb coming out of a military tank or caused by a suicide terrorist attack.