The ‘infidels’ win once again

This time, the so-called “infidels” won the hearts and minds of many Iraqis who are relentlessly sharing a YouTube video of the Australian version of Britain’s Got Talent, The X Factor, in which Iraqi war survivor Emanuel Kelly performs.

Emanuel, who doesn’t know his actual age because he was raised in an orphanage for disabled Iraqi children, was rescued and adopted by Children First Foundation director Moira Kelly along with his brother Ahmed after they both suffered from limb deficiencies as a result of chemical warfare in Iraq.

After I watched the clip in which Emanuel performs in the show’s auditions, all I was able to think of is how happy I am for him. He’s lucky he’s no longer in Iraq where orphans and the disabled are in most cases not treated as equal or in some cases as human beings.

Our Iraqi society, or the Arab society as a whole to be specific, has no mercy on disabled people. It’s harsh, non-accepting and degrading. Most people like Emanuel would end up being beggars on the streets.
In the non-Arab societies, however, Emanuel has a better life in Australia where there is a great deal of respect for humanity. In advanced societies, the disabled are considered different only by the way they look. They are still talented and useful to build the society.

On several occasions, I have come across disabled people working in some of the busiest jobs. The Apple stores in the US, for example, do not discriminate against the disabled. I was helped a few times by blind and deaf employees and an employee whose hands were missing most of their fingers.

Now imagine that in Iraq! The successive wars created hundreds of thousands of Emanuels. What is happening to them when even the healthiest Iraqis can’t find jobs?

I’m very proud of Kelly who made Emanuel and his brother Ahmed see the light of life again after being buried alive in Iraq. I’m very thankful that she paved the road for them to expose their talents and be confident of themselves.

Those who call non-Muslims “infidels” should go to hell. Those “infidels” should be rewarded for making humanity meaningful, not death and blood tainted.

Here is a video of Emanuel’s audition:



And here is an interview with Emanuel after the show:

The New Islamic Republic of Iraq

Iraq has officially become like Iran and Saudi Arabia. It is now a country that bans music, theater and alcohol, a country that I can call the New Islamic Republic of Iraq.

What a tragedy! Why don’t they call it “banning life”?

Is that art?!

Last week, the Iraqi government shut down social clubs that serve alcohol in Baghdad, enraging the educated class who demonstrated against the extreme Islamic-inspired order. Today, Iraqis woke up to hear a far worse order; the Iraqi Ministry of Education has banned theater and music classes in Baghdad's Fine Arts Institute, and ordered the removal of statues showcased at the entrance of the institute without explaining the move.

In a country that went through wars, sanctions and a horrific totalitarian regime, art remained defiant against Islamic extremism throughout centuries. Art has always been an integral part of Iraqis’ lives. Yet today the turbaned Mullahs, who are turning secular Iraq back into the Stone Age, have denied Iraqis’ the right of keeping art part of their country, erasing the Mesopotamian heritage that we inherited thousands of years ago. I wish the Sumerian makers of the Golden Guitar were alive, 3000 years later to see what has happened to their country.

Iraqis raised their voice and democratically elected a secular slate last March, but the Islamic fanatics who wrote the post-Saddam constitution wrote it in a way that they will always be the winners who will get the majority of the seats in the parliament.

We need two things: a new constitution and an atheist regime. Not secular, atheist. That’s how we can achieve success in arts, science and modernity. As long as there is a religious regime, no country will ever progress! Gods and politics will never reconcile. I choose not to side with religion. I choose to side with sanity.  

New Golden Domes? What about the people?

Celebrating Eid Al-Fitr in Baghdad this year came with the reopening of the Kadhimiya shrine domes! The domes, that had been already coated with pure gold hundreds of years ago, were re-coated with new shining, pure gold tiles.

I first heard about the news today when a coworker of mine shared the photos with me. I was literally shocked and disturbed at the same time. I sighed and thought about all of the money, gold and the resources that were used to carry out that project.

Secretary General of the Kadhimiya Shrine Fadhil Al Inbari talked to Noon website (Arabic):

“The [project] was directly funded by the Shiite Endowment. The total of number of tiles used to cover the dome is 10261. The work process lasted 6000 hours (equivalent to two years of continuous work). The total weight of the pure gold that was used to cover the dome is 112,400 Kilograms, and that 300 workers, engineers and technicians worked on it.”

This doesn’t end there! Al Inbari told the website that they have started a new phase of rebuilding the minarets of the same shrine with 3600 Kilograms of pure gold as well, in addition to building a new shrine for Mohammad Al-Sadr, the Imam who was murdered by the Saddam regime and whose son Moqtada Al-Sadr’s militia was responsible for the murder of thousands of Iraqis during the sectarian war.

I thought about the barely-functioning power grids, the absence of clean and sanitized water in rural areas, the lack of security, the dying agriculture, the Baghdad greenbelt that should protect the city from the dust storms, the orphans who go to bed hungry, the elderly who cannot afford medicine … and the list goes on and on.

What is sad about this is that there are millions of people who supported and believed in this “reconstruction” process. They preferred that this money goes to such a project and not their very own country’s infrastructure, which they have been suffering from for a while.

I guess those who supported it should stop complaining about water and electricity and let the late Imam whose grave is covered with a golden dome fix the electricity and bring them clean water.

It is really ironic that the very same people, who criticized Saddam for the very same reason of spending Iraq's money on building gigantic mosques, do the exact same thing.

Talk to an Iraqi

Haider Hamza is an Iraqi who goes around the US, with a small wooden booth titled “Talk to an Iraqi”, and he just sits there and lets people come and talk to him.

Light at the End of the Tunnel

Nothing in this world is better than seeing my beautiful Baghdad comes back to life after years of horrific occupation and terrorism. The bad news is still flowing everyday from Baghdad but some good news is flowing as well.

Lately, I have been fond of reading a blog by a fellow Iraqi blogger called "Sami" whose blog posts prove that his love to Baghdad and all of Iraq is bigger than anyone can imagine.

One of Sami's posts that moved me the most is titled "Lightening." In it, he expresses the positive attitude that he took in thinking about the future of Iraq. He took a walk in Al-Mutanabi Street, one of Baghdad's oldest neighborhoods where arts and culture always meet. The things he saw were tangible. He saw a revival of life, a definace of the violence that crippled the very same culture for years.

My eyes became tearful as I saw the pictures he took. It reminded me that hope still exists and that some day homecoming may happen. Thank you, Sami for those great posts.

Deputy PM's Tweeting

I'm following Iraqi deputy prime minister Barham Salih (@BarhamSalih) on Twitter and just read his latest tweet. A lot of people are talking about the improvements in Iraq, but there is a little coverage of the latest surge in violence. Apparently, Salih doesn't agree with the Majority now! Here is what he tweeted:

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Arabesque

Last night, I attended a concert performed by Iraq’s Maqam singer, Farida. The concert was part of Arabesque Festival: Arts of the Arab World which is organized by the John F. Kennedy Center from February 23 to March 15, 2009.

The below video was taken by my friend Omar.



blog.bassamsebti@gmail.com

Fierce Competetion to Shape Iraq's Future

On Saturday, Iraqi people are going to the polling centers to cast their ballots in the country’s provincial elections. I’ve been following the elections news and thought I should share some information I have gathered in that regard.

For those interested in understanding what the ABCs of the elections are, read this MSNBC Q&A report.

As you may all know, violence in Iraq has decreased due to several factors, including the segregation of the cities and the neighborhoods within and the joint Iraqi-American military operations that helped fight the insurgents and militias who almost took over the country. But above all those factors was the fact that the Iraqi people themselves have finally realized that there was no need to fight each other anymore. This, of course, excludes the politicians. And this led to a relative reconciliation that has finally penetrated into the warring Iraqi society.

Saturday’s provincial elections are critical. I believe they will be a new kind of test where Iraqis are going to see if those they are voting for will take the country forward and not backwards. It is a test for Iraqis themselves as well. The results will reveal whether the people have learned their lessons of the past elections. Of course, it is hard to assume they did as democracy is still new and it’ll take them decades to understand how it should work.

In this post, I’ll try to post some of the main concerns and most important issues that are related to the elections:

- Shiites, Maliki and the south

In most of the provinces across the country, the direction nowadays is not religious. People no longer care about the fact that the candidate is the son of the prophet, his grandson, or even the prophet himself. All they need is clean water, electricity, jobs and security. This is a milestone in the road of understanding that religion should be separated from the state. In this regard, Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki, an Islamist and a leader of the Dawa Islamic Party and who runs The State of Law Coalition slate, is not using his party’s religious mottos. In an interview with the Washington Post, a campaign manager for the Shiite coalition said, “Maliki is Islamic as a person, but as a statesman? No, he’s secular.” He added that there are other priorities he and his candidates need to consider.

Ghassan Al-Attiyah, a secular political analyst has noted this change as well. Yet, he told the Post that the important question is if Maliki is sincere in “wearing the mantle of reform instead of Islam.”

In a recent poll conducted by the widely-read independent Azzaman newspaper and Al-Sharqiyah satellite TV, Maliki and his State of Law Coalition are on the top of the charts. According to the Washington Post and the New York Times, Maliki’s popularity these days has risen due to his strong statements regarding the centralization of the Iraqi government, which I think is a tactic he’s using to win the votes because he knows some Iraqis, except the Kurds, do not want the country to be divided into federal regions. This tactic is scaring his Kurdish and other Shiite rivals, of course. Abdul Aziz Al-Hakim, the cancer-ill leader of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, has been calling uninterruptedly for separating southern Iraq from the rest of the country in a federal region that will look hugely like Iran and be run by Mullahs and Ayatollahs. The Kurds on the other hand are not worried about that. They already have their federal region, ruled by them democratically. However, their concern is how much power should the central government own. They have not yet gotten rid of the trauma Saddam had caused in brutalizing them and their rights. The outspoken Kurdish member of the Iraqi parliament told the New York Times that “people think [Maliki] has overreached.” It has even reached the extent that Waleed Salih Sherka told the Post that “[Iraqis] got rid of the dictator and nightmare Saddam Hussein only to get this new dictator wearing the uniform of democracy.” Wow, the competition is fierce. Several Iraqi and American newspapers have also mentioned that there have been some heated discussions recently between the Masoud Barzani and Maliki.

In addition to Maliki’s coalition, other candidates from other political parties are competing to win some seats. Those include the communists, the secularists, members of the Fadhila party, the nationalists, and some independent candidates who gain their support from the tribes in the provinces.

- Anbar, once restive now tries to be democratic

Anbar province was one of the most violent part in the country. Who of us doesn’t know the Fallujah battle? Today, the Sunnis in Anbar are focusing on democracy rather than violence. The Post’s Anthony Shadid reported from Ramadi, the provinces’ capital, that competition is fierce between the tribes-backed candidates and the political parties. Anbaris may find it hard to have technocrats or seculars to rule the province. They are left with the tribes because these tribes revolted against Al-Qaeda and restored the power from the terror organization. The tribes insist that The political parties like the Iraqi Islamic Party are not beneficial for the province. Shadid quote one of the candidates calling the IIP “liars” and “cowards.” They call Harith al-Dhari, head of the Muslim Scholars Association and a strong supporter of al-Qaeda in Iraq, “a barking dog” since all he does is complaining from his comfort zone in Jordan.

In any case, the Post reported that of the 29 candidates in Anbar, 15 are tribal figures.

Believe it or not, a group of secular liberals are also running in this election. The Post reports that “Shiites and Kurds sit on their board. So do a Christian and a Jew, one of the handful left in the country.” The paper said they advocate human rights and transparency, and end of corruption and the rehabilitation of Iraq. However, Shadid observed that “no one seems to be listening [to them]. “No one really can,” writes Shadid.

Against the tribes’ candidates run the Iraqi Islamic Party which created a coalition with some tribes. Called “Coalition of the Educated and Tribes for Development,” the coalition includes four Sunni political blocks, according to the Opinion Web site, Niqash. It also mentioned that violent incidents might occur between the competitive factions. One of the candidates Shadid interviewed was Hamid Al-Hayes who threatened to “kill all of their candidates” if theirs are attacked.

- Nineveh and the Kurd-Arab divide

It’s been continuously reported that the Kurds in the north are trying to include some of the non-Kurdish lands to their region. Their efforts include attempting to control parts of Nineveh province which is the home of Mosul, Iraq’s largest second city after Baghdad.

Since the election campaigns started, violence increased in the restive province. Niqash reported that several members of the competing political factions have been killed since the campaigns started. Observers believe these assassinations aim to destabilize the area.

In the northern province there are basically two slates, one include Arabs and the other include the Kurds. The Washington Post observed that Arabs in the province are looking forward to win in order to “appoint a governor and use their political power to roll back the Kurdish expansion.”

***

In the midst of this race of who will run the provinces, election posters have been stuck on almost every building and electricity post. Since corruption is a disease Iraq is still suffering from, some candidates used several methods to make people vote for them. Azzaman reported that Iraqis have been complaining about pressure and threats carried out by some parties to force them vote for their candidates. The threats varied, including assassinations and kidnappings. The paper added that they have even tried to bribe people to vote for their candidates.

***

I wish I had the time to write more about everything related to the elections. However, I suggest you read the articles I have linked to in this post for a better understanding of how this election is shaped.

blog.bassamsebti@gmail.com

Seeing Our Past in ‘Betrayed’

It was the same scene playing in my mind as it was on the stage. A young man called Adnan standing between mutilated dead bodies at the Baghdad morgue, looking for his friend’s body. As I was watching, I recalled how I stood in the real morgue back in 2006. The smell of the decaying bodies and the horror of being identified by the militias who were controlling the morgue flashed back into my eyes. I couldn’t but feel the warm tears pouring, watering my cheeks. The whole scene reminded me of the story I covered for the Washington Post when Shiite militiamen killed hundreds of innocents after the Samarra shrine bombing in 2006, an incident that triggered the civil war between the Sunnis and Shiites in the war-torn country.

The horrific scene was performed in Betrayed, a play by the The New Yorker writer George Packer, author of the acclaimed The Assassins' Gate: America in Iraq. Betrayed, which was screened at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater, is about the plight of the Iraqis who worked for the Americans who were either killed or threatened to be killed by the extremists who considered them traitors, spying for the occupiers and who were betrayed by their American employers who did not help them survive or flee the country for protection. The idea of the play started as an article in The New Yorker by Mr. Paker who adopted the play's plot and characters from real stories and information he gathered as he reported in the article.
The play was great. The New York Times put it in the best words:

“But the clarity of the writing, the urgency of the story being told and the fine performances give the play a sharp dramatic impact and a plain-spoken beauty. Painful human experience is presented here as just that. Nothing else is necessary to awaken sympathy, despair and awareness of a grave moral failure on the part of the American government.”

Last night was great not only because I watched the play, but also because I had the chance to meet George Paker whom I consider my idol, along with Anthony Shadid. I never want anything in my career life just to achieve at least half of what they achieved. Mr. Paker was a very nice person. We talked about the article, the play and of course his book The Assassins Gate.

Before the play started, my Iraqi friends and I had the chance to speak with celebrity and American actress Sarah Jesscia Parker who was hosting the play along with Matt Dillon, and Refugees International. We had the chance to speak with Sarah Jessica about how we lived and worked for American organizations, be it for the government or for the U.S. newspapers. My friend, B, whom the play was partly based on her story as a young woman working in the Green Zone for the Americans, explained to the superstar the reality of the daily risk she put herself in to do her job. Parker was all ears. It was the second time she attended the play. She said she was ready this time. She brought her tissues.

blog.bassamsebti@gmail.com

Life is back to Washington Post’s Iraq Coverage

With Pulitzer Prize-winner Anthony Shadid going back to the war-torn Iraq and the great work photographer Andrea Bruce is doing there, the real picture of Iraq has finally emerged, after two years of regular, non-powerful articles that did not reflect much of the country’s turmoil.

Shadid who won the Pulitzer for International Reporting in 2004 has recently returned to the segregated, wall-divided Baghdad which he left a few years ago. It hasn’t been that long since his stories started bringing my attention again. Like in his must-read book Night Draws Near, his stories are full of life. You can actually imagine yourself in whatever place or situation he describes. And of course, on today’s Washington Post front page, Shadid had THE story. In an article that other reporters have actually failed in investigating, he was the one who wrote in details about what Iraqis really feel these days. His words in his “In Iraq, the Day After” were extremely similar to what I hear from my family and friends, something American news headlines have intentionally ignored since last year.

Before Shadid returned to Iraq, I have been mostly fond of one particular thing on washingtonpost.com: Unseen Iraq, a blog maintained by Andrea Bruce, a Washington Post staff photographer who received several awards for her international photography. In addition to her amazing eye in shooting pictures, Bruce has a great style of writing and an honest description of the images she snaps.

That being said, I would advice the readers of this blog to follow Shadid and Bruce’s great work more often. Their work is honest, sincere, and accurate and is not motivated by certain propaganda. It is a mere reflection of life through words and photos.

Blog.bassamsebti@gmail.com

Sticky Bombs

When I called my mother last week, she said everybody is worried because of the increase of ‘al-lasiqa,’ a term I have not heard of before I left Baghdad in July 2006. I asked what that is and she said it’s a sticky bomb usually put under the car.

For those who do not know what the sticky bomb is, read this New York Times article about it and how insurgents are using it in Iraq.

blog.bassamsebti@gmail.com

Farewell Peace!! Treasure of Baghdad’s Diary

In a normal country, when someone receives a phone call on his cell phone, he hears phrases like, “good morning, how are you? How is it going?” But in Iraq, it’s getting different specially these days. This morning, while I was heading to the office for work, I received a phone call from a colleague of mine, R. “Be careful when you arrive to the office. We were attacked,” he said. I panicked in the car. “What?!! What happened?!! Anyone is killed?! Oh my God!” I asked him. He was shaking and couldn’t complete. I called my friend O. to tell him the news. I called him. He called back to tell me he is going to the house of N, our other friend and colleague. O1, O2, N, M, and I went together to the office. When we arrived, the only words we said and were told were “Hamdulilah AlSalama” [Thanks Be to God for your safety].

O. and I entered the office. It was in a bad shape; windows were broken, the floor was furnished with newspapers and books, including Quran and Shadid’s Night Draws Near, our Bible. Our memories, which we keep on shelves in the office, like pictures, souvenirs, and O’s favorite souvenir from NY City, a small statue of liberty, were all buried under dust and mud from plants we keep in the office. Plants to remind us of life, mourned our memories today. No room was spared this “House Swap.” Walking out to the scene, O. and I were almost expecting what to see in front of us. “Look, look… a foot,” B. told me. Although I was carrying my camera with me, I couldn’t shoot a photo for it. “Oh my Lord!” I said within myself. The scene was scary. I found out that two suicide car bombs targeted Hamra hotel but failed to demolish the hotel and destroyed an apartment block instead, killing at least six people, including two children and wounding more than 40. Wailing women in black veils slapped their heads as they watched the destruction, a man embraced a weeping woman and other wounded people full of blood were crossing the huge craters the explosions caused. I had to jump on an armored car, destroyed in the blast, to be close enough to see the rescuers, firemen, police, and army.

The blasts knocked down protective concrete walls and blew out windows. Several nearby homes were destroyed, and firemen and U.S. troops joined neighbors and Iraqi security forces to dig through the debris to pull out victims.

I stood in front of the collapsed apartment block and imagined myself there. It’s Friday for God’s sake. People were sleeping in peace after a week full of suffering and tragedy. Didn’t these people deserve to spend at least few hours of rest?

When I saw the apartment collapsed, I immediately remembered Alhoor Alain which I mentioned in previous posts.

I was about to stop blogging for good. I told O. that there is no benefit from writing. No one is listening and no one is trying to help. This country is being destroyed and no one is doing anything. O. told me I was wrong because there are many people who don’t know what is going on in the country.

As usual, we returned back to the office to continue working and our usual day. “What happened to us?” O. wondered while he was wiping the dust off his desk. “We became emotionless. We work, eat, smile in such a day. We lost our feelings and emotions. We became senseless,” he said to me. I smiled and said, “We get used to it,” and continued staring at my laptop.

At that time, our bureau chief said, “look, look at the CNN.” A security camera footage showed a white van driving up to blast walls at the exterior perimeter of the hotel complex and exploding. About 20 seconds later the second explosion blew out the camera.

Just few hours later, another huge disaster happened but not in Baghdad. It was in Khanaqin instead. Two suicide bombers strapped with explosives killed at least 74 people and wounded 75 when they blew themselves up inside crowded Shiite mosques at prayer time in this northeastern Iraqi town.

The attacks in Khanaqin, a mixed Shiite and Kurdish town near the border with Iran, seemed to fuel sectarian tensions ahead of a Dec. 15 election. But the question is will these attacks create a civil war?! What if it happens? I don’t know, I just don’t know… What I can say for now is Farewell Peace. We’ll miss you.

Another Miserable Day in Baghdad... Treasure of Bgahdad's Diary

All rights are reserved... Photos are taken by the author

For the last few days, I wasn't sleeping well for many reasons. Last night, I had horrible nightmares in which I was so glad to wake up early. Going to the office, I didn't have any problems or obstacles in the road. Yesterday wasn't the good day for the terrorists in Iraq. They were celebrating in the neighboring Jordan.

Last night, I went back home late after I spent hours in the office trying to fix my comments section in the blog in vain until, Mad Canuck, offered to fix it for me and he did. I am really thankful and grateful to him for fixing it.

At 10:30 p.m., the most dangerous time in Baghdad, I entered the house to find my parents freaked out. Of course, I couldn't call them neither they did because the cell phone network was down since noon. A breaking news on Arabiya TV channel drew my attention. "At least 5 killed in an explosion in a hotel in Amman," the news bar read. I was shocked. "What? Amman?!!!" I was really shocked. I didn’t expect that because Amman is supposed to be the safest capital in the Middle East.
I took a shower, had dinner, and followed up the news. By 11 p.m., the news reported three explosions targeted three hotels in Amman killing at least 30 people and wounded hundreds. I tried a lot to call my aunt who lives there but in vain, the network remained down till the next day.

This morning, I felt something would happen. And of course, my sense of feeling wasn't wrong. An explosion inside a restaurant in Baghdad killed 35 people and wounded 25.

The office assigned me for covering the attack. Sitting in the front seat of the car, I was silent imaging what I am going to see. I always have this feeling before covering any violence. I imagine the situation in order to know how to move and how to be cautious in case another bomber comes and blow up himself among the crowd who will definitely gather at the scene. This time I felt differently. A strange feeling came to me. "Oh Oh!," once, this feeling made me hear my aunt's death news. "What's wrong with me today? Stop it, nothing would happen," I said to myself.

I arrived an hour after the explosion took place. Ambulance rescuers, police and army were all evacuating and carrying the dead and wounded to the hospitals.

The explosion occurred at about 9:30 a.m. at the Qadouri Restaurant, a popular Baghdad restaurant famous for its local cuisine, particularly Baghdadi breakfasts. The restaurant was always busy with Iraqi workers, police and other security forces.

As usual, it was very hard to get there because army and police cordoned the area fearing another attack on the same place which is always likely to happen. Anyway, I was the first to reach the place. I left the huge gathering of reporters, hid my notebook and camera, and walked with my driver who was clever enough to talk to the police to let me in. other reporters were furious and jealous enough to see me there.

I talked to witnesses, police, and army and shot some photos to the victims being carried on stretchers. "horrible, horrible, horrible," I kept saying to myself. For God's sake, what the hell is happening in this world? It was a restaurant, just a restaurant.

An hour and a half after the explosion passed and the ambulances were carrying the dead bodies.

Neighbors of the restaurant said it had been threatened several times because it was so popular with policemen and army soldiers, who particularly liked the breakfasts it served.

This restaurant is located along the banks of the Tigris River, about 500 yards north of the Sheraton and Palestine hotel complex and across the river from the heavily fortified Green Zone that houses the Iraqi government and the headquarters of the U.S. occupation forces.

After I finished reporting, I retuned back to the car which we parked in another street. On the way to it, people who couldn't go to see the restaurant burning asked us how it looked like. I said nothing. I just showed them the photos I shot.

In every incident like today's, I am always strong at the scene. I never let my emotions make me fail in my job. But the moment I ride in the car, I return to B., the human being with all his emotions and feelings. It was the first time for me today to let my tears fall. They were burning my cheeks. I imagined my father, cousin, or friend in the restaurant

At 1 p.m., I arrived to the office and wrote my report. A colleague of mine combined the stuff he had and sent the news to the official website of the newspaper.

After a long day, I just cannot forget the sight of the woman who was crying after she saw what happened and the sight of the boy whose father died in the blast. He was calling and calling him, but he wasn't there. He was in the hands of his creator along with 34 others killed at the same time…

Assassinations Are Back In My Neighborhood… Treasure of Baghdad's Diary

Assassinations stopped in my neighborhood since five months ago. Translators, government employees, policemen, Iraqi army soldiers, and any one working for the Americans were killed since the U.S.-led invasion to the country. Yasir, a neighbor of mine, was assassinated last year just because he worked with an American company responsible for reconstruction in Iraq, Mohammed was killed by a bomb put under his car, Ali the policeman was shot dead in the neighborhood six months ago and some other people whom I didn't know were also killed either by bombs or shootings.

This phenomenon erupted again. Last night, I was sitting with my friends A. and S., they told me that three people were killed during Eid. One of those was a minibus driver and he was killed because he worked in a polling center during the referendum. I felt so bad for him. I've seen him several times with his two little daughters. Omar, the victim, was full of life and smile never left his face which was full of life.

The other one, my friends told me, was a husband of a primary school teacher. He was shot dead in front of his house on the third day of Eid and no one knows the reason behind assassinating him. The third one, however, was assassinated because he was Christian! Yes, I know. It's terrible.

People in the neighborhood believe that these assassinations increased when "people of Fallujah, who left their destroyed city, bought houses in the neighborhood." Maybe this is true and maybe it's not. But it started when they came to the neighborhood. My neighborhood was one of the most peaceful parts of Adhamiya, a Sunni district in Baghdad. If you come to it, you'll notice how different it is than the other neighborhoods in Baghdad. Internet cafés, for instance, remain open till a late hour at night, unlike other cafés in other neighborhoods that close at 7 p.m. sometimes. There is a mutual respect between the police patrols and people of the neighborhoods. Any stranger is caught by police. That's why people say the killers live in the neighborhoods and know the people here, the people who used to live peacefully.

Of course, these assassinations made my parents worry again. "Where have you been all that time?" my mother asked me when I returned back home at 10:30 p.m. "Don't you hear of the assassinations and killings?" she said. This thing made her furious and always worried. She is worried if someone would hurt me.

One more thing to mention, 24 Steps to Liberty started posting his diaries he wrote when he was in the United States last March.

Baghdad Halloween-Treasure of Baghdad's diary

Although I am not American but I have many American friends to share Halloween with. These friends always share Eid with us. For me, yesterday's Halloween was the first to share with them. Generally, Iraqis do not celebrate Halloween as it is not part of their tradition. So we did not have the ideal celebration. O.2, our colleague, bought an 18kg-Pumpkin which we put outside the office with a candle inside to frighten people outside.

We thought a lot about what to dress up. J suggested being Peter Pan, O suggested being the famous Oprah Winfrey and I suggested wearing the Arabic Agal and Kuffiya. Being busy the whole day, we were not able to get all what we wanted to be at night, so I suggested that all of us wear the Arabic dress except J who wore her head-to-toe black Abaya. When we finished dressing up, we became a traditional Arab family. "Alright, I'll be with the sheep in the back of the truck and both of u will be in the front," J said sarcastically criticizing the old-fashioned way of treating women in the countryside of most of the Arab countries where women are not allowed to be among men in the front of the truck. Instead, she should be with the cattle in the back.

That was the first time I ever wore Agal. "I like it," I said to my dudes. "What?! You like it?!," J. wondered. "It's scary," she said.

After we put the Pumpkin outside the office, we went inside, drinking tea and smoking Hookah. Don't laugh if I tell you that we watched the Simpsons Special Halloween. We all like it. We were also supposed to watch the Halloween of Friends but it wasn't downloaded by that time.

After that wonderful night, I returned back home at 9:30 p.m., took a shower, had some fruits, watched a TV program then my favorite Alhoor Alain, read part of Anthony Shadid's book and went to sleep at 2 a.m.

Ramadan Karim

Like every year, Ramadan comes with memories flash back into my mind. The holy month is the most wonderful time I spend with my family, friends and relatives every year. Remembering how my mother makes the "Iftar" after returning back from work makes me yearn and tear to those warm days. My sister cutting the onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, etc, my father bringing the hot fresh "Samoon", the Iraqi bread, and me preparing the daily orange juice, is how we help my mother in making the food ready on time.

"Allahu Akbar", is on TV announcing it's time to break our fasting. Of course, before everything, we thank God for His blessings and promising Him to fast the next day.
"Bismillah", [means In the Name of God], we utter before the first bite. Yogurt, water, dates, Kabab, rice, bread, olive, juice, salads, chicken, and the daily lintel soup decorate our table.

My father used to ask my sister and me about our school and as every year we tell him "We are doing great!" and we did.

"Alhamdollilah," we usually say after finishing Iftar. We go to the living room, pray and then watch our favorite series and TV shows. But when we had examinations, we had to study instead of watching TV!

Every Ramadhan, we have to invite relatives and friends for Iftar and vise versa. This great month makes all of us full of will and happiness to help others. Once, we had a next-door neighboring family who were not able to buy a piece of bread due to the difficult life many Iraqis went through during the sanctions. I remember my mother decided to cook for them the whole Ramadan.

Carrying the tray, once I went to tell them that we are going to share Iftar with them. "You are so kind and we will never forget this favor," the mother told me while she was wiping her tears from her sad eyes. "We are a family. We should share our food together," I said. Then we joined them and had one of the wonderful times in my life.

When I was in college, I used to go with my friends to have Iftar every Wednesday to a very well-known restaurant in Baghdad, Qasim Abu Al Gus. My favorite part in this was drinking the dark Iraqi tea after finishing eating.

Life was so normal, safe and happy at that time. Although there was an embargo but I remember that Ramadan time was different. People used to deploy in Baghdad after Iftar. Adhamiya, Karrada, Palestine Street, Mansour, Kadhimiya and other neighborhoods were thirsty to have the people irrigate them with love and warmth.

The happy days in Ramadan changed a little bit after I graduated from college. Of course, I have a job now where I spend twelve hours in it everyday. So, normally, I have Iftar in my office instead of my home.

In this office, I have another family whom I share Iftar with. "Time for Iftar," our friendly colleague F. announces every day. We all gather to share the great food our amazing cooks make. Eating, chatting and laughing, we spend our Iftar time and then go back to work. Being among my second family makes life for me a little bit normal in an abnormal time mycountry is going through.

I cannot say I am completely optimistic but I believe that one day, normal Ramadan will be back and we will have normal life, if not for us, maybe for the coming generations.

Ramadan Karim!

BAGHDAD, BEFORE AND AFTER !

Happy Days are Back in Baghdad!!

Sitting like Shahrazad in the Arabian Nights, S., my best friend started narrating her amazing stories to us in one of the greatest Friday dinners I ever had.

"Dig in," she said after I finished reading the Italian poem.

That was the first Friday dinner she has prepared since she left last February. Life at the office stopped since she left. We became just like robots working for the sake of the work and our career. But when she came back, she brought back happiness, life, encouragement, inspiration and joy.

When she first came to Baghdad last year, she turned my life and made me decide to be a reporter. "This is a great reporting B," she told me about the first story we worked on together. I got the first byline story with her then.

She inspires me, encourages me and makes me feel that life is meaningful. She teaches me what journalism means.

Every Friday, she cooks for us the best food, Cuban, Italian, American, Chinese, etc. and at every Friday night, I read poems depending on the kind of food she cooks. Everyone becomes very happy every Friday as she makes the office full of joy and makes us gather and enjoy her wonderful food.

For me she is not only a friend, she is a sister and I bet everybody knows what a sister means. I already have a sister, so I know this feeling and I feel she is just like my sister but lives in another country.

Once, I went through a hard time. I was covering violence in Baghdad day after day and I was so depressed to the extent I was about to leave my job as a reporter. We kept emailing each other. She helped me a lot to pass that period and that hard time and made me understand that my country needs me, needs my power, my loyalty, my hope, my will, and my love.

All what I said is so little in comparison to what she gave me and still giving me. She is our Angel that came back to Baghdad.

A Country inside a Country!

"By the order of the Sadr office, no one is allowed to use this road," a policeman told me while I was going to cover the Friday prayer in Sadr City. I was shocked and said to myself, "What is going on?!"

A policeman, who is supposed to receive orders from the Iraqi government, receives an order from a religious Shiite office!

The moment you enter Sadr city, you feel that you are out of Baghdad and you are in another country, a Shiite one which has nothing to do with the government. Police are only welcomed to control the boundaries cooperated by the Mahdi army

Once known as Al Thawra, then as Saddam City, Sadr City is named for the Imam Mohammed Sadr, an Iraqi Shiite religious leader killed by Saddam Hussein in 1999.
The city's 2.5 million Shiites are dominated by the radical Shiite cleric, Muqtada Sadr whose face on the posters stuck everywhere in the city. The city is subdivided into six sections and it is one of the poorest in Baghdad. Unemployment is widely spread. Homes are in disrepair. It is also a haven for criminals released from Iraqi prisons by Saddam shortly before the U.S.-led invasion. Parts of some streets in the city are flooded with sewage from neglected pipes. Residents of Sadr City say that the Baghdad Municipality does not pick up their trash. So they throw their trash on the medians of the streets.

Wearing black shirts and trousers, Mahdi Army militiamen who act as the police force within the community are deployed everywhere in the city.
To attend the Friday prayer, the visitor, although welcomed, has to be subjected to physical search by these militiamen in every 50 meters.

The residents and the militiamen accuse the government for its "failure or weakness" in controlling the country, so they decided to "control" themselves by themselves as "the Shiites are the main target in Iraq now instead of the occupation."

In early April 2004, the Mahdi Army attempted to interfere with security in Baghdad. The militia attempted to occupy and gain control of police stations and government buildings. During this attack, the militia engaged coalition forces and Iraqi Security Forces with small arms fire and RPGs. Coalition forces and Iraqi security forces prevented this effort and reestablished security in Baghdad.

From my frequent visits to Sadr City, I concluded that it is now considered one of the safest areas in Baghdad in which its visitors, Arabs or westerners, may believe they are in another country controlled by its people!

"Dr. Jafari", thank you for the failure and the second fall of Baghdad!

By eleven suicide car bombs today, more than 150 innocent people were killed in Baghdad which fell in the hands of the terrorists whom Jafari, the Prime Minister, said he is defeating. In today's post, I would like to thank him and thank all those in his government for their failure.

Thank you "Dr. Jafari" for keeping your promise in "protecting" us. Thank you for all what you did to save the lives of the poor who were killed today. Thank you for making your "heroes" succeed and proceed in killing the terrorists who are proud to kill innocents. Thank you for liberating Tal Afar instead of liberating Baghdad. Thank you for deceiving us before the elections. Thank you for appointing your "successful" ministers of interior and defense. Thank you for making them the reason behind the "great performance" in protecting the people. Thank you for fighting "the infiltration" of the terrorists among your men. Thank you for the continuous "victory" shows on TV channel while other people are being killed and wounded outside the building of this station. Thank you in speaking with the "dialogue language" with the terrorists who don't care. Thank you for making Baghdad clean and prosperous. Thank you for providing electricity, water, and fuel. Thank you for providing jobs for the jobless. Thank you for saying the truth. Thank you healing our wounds. Thank you for uniting Iraq and finally, thank you for making Baghdad fall for the second time!!