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:

New Project Makes News Gathering in the Arab World Take a New Turn

A lot of news organizations already know what “crowdsourcing” is. Some have already started using it. However, a new real-time crowdsourcing project is making news gathering take a new turn. “Alive.in” knows how!

“Alive.in” is a project launched by international news startup Small World News. The startup’s team is using a group of Arabic translators to crowdsource the translation of the real-time messages left on @speak2tweet, a service launched by Google and Twitter during the Jan. 25 revolution in Egypt, allowing callers to tweet by calling one of three numbers and leaving a voicemail.  

Founded by American journalist and media specialist Brian Conley, the project first started with crowdsourcing the Egyptian revolution news. When Conley learned about Google's collaboration with Twitter, he thought it’s time to put this service at a stronger use through Small World News, which he co-founded in 2005. The goal, according to the project’s website, is “to reach a wider audience.”

He then contacted Steve Wyshywaniuk, co-founder of the startup, and told him about Google’s new technology. "It hit him instantly that with the number of translators we're connected to, he could assemble a team to help translate the calls," Wyshywaniuk told ReadWriteWeb.

Conley then started reaching out to Arabic translators via Twitter, reported RWW. He then created a Google Docs spreadsheet from which they could collaborate on transcribing the messages and then translating them from Arabic to English, Spanish and German.

And that’s how “Alive in Egypt” started.

Today, “Alive.in” has expanded and is now covering Iraq, Libya and Bahrain.  Citizens of those countries are contributing with real-time photos, calls, videos and tweets, reaching out to the worldwide audience.

The new project has taken news gathering into an even more advanced path, thanks to the technology and the creativity of journalists and media enthusiasts like Conley, Wyshywaniuk and their hard-working team. Today, mainstream media outlets need to rethink their strategy and apply new technologies at best use so that they survive and provide their audience with more up-to-date news.
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Note: The team of “Alive.in” encourage those interested in helping translate the messages they crowdsource by emailing translate@alive.in. Those interested in being involved with the project can contact @BaghdadBrian or @SmallWorldNews on Twitter.

The End of the Oppression Era in the Arab World

The sounds and images of the Jubilations in Cairo’s Tahrir Square filled my heart with joy. I still cannot believe it is happening in my lifetime. Finally, Arab dictators are no longer in power and Arab peoples are more defiant than ever.

I’ve always been a proud Arab, even though my Arabism was flushed down the toilet throughout the last 30 years of my life due to the series of failure that hovered over the region up until the Tunisian revolution.

What happened in Tunisia revived hope in my heart that my fellow Arabs are now strong, defiant and willing to oust their dictators no matter what force they need to face.

It is about time! Throughout my 30 years of life, Arab dictators were mostly the same. They gathered at the useless Arab summits, “discussing” hot topics affecting the Arab “Homeland” and congratulating each other for the “successes” they had achieved throughout their decades-long presidencies.

All of that while Arab peoples were hungry, unemployed and oppressed.


This time, however, things are no longer the same. A joke spread by Arab tweeps these days says that the new Arab summit, which will be held in Baghdad, will be an introduction summit where new leaders will introduce themselves for the first time!

For me, it’s not a joke. It’s real! It’s happening! And it’s happening in Baghdad where the last summit it hosted was in 1990 before Saddam invaded Kuwait.

As I was watching the flock of the wonderful news coming out from Tunisia and Egypt via Al Jazeera and Twitter, I couldn’t but wonder if I and my fellow Iraqis would have revolted against Saddam had he not been ousted by a bloody war.

Today, Tunisia and Egypt paved the road for a real democratic Arab world. No more silence. No more fear. Arabs are determined to ending the oppression eras of their totalitarian regimes. The road will be messy and maybe bloody but the reign of change has arrived and it won't go back to where it was.

Long live Tunisia! Long live Egypt! Long live the quest for freedom and democracy in the Arab world!

Christmas in Baghdad

The team of “Only for Iraqis” has again surprised us with a new online comedy animation video with a powerful message: Do it yourself and do not wait for others to do it for you!

Their new video starts with the narrator saying that on Christmas Eve the world was celebrating, except Baghdad because it was coated with lack-of-electricity darkness.

In the dark, an Iraqi child was waiting for Baba Noel (Santa Claus) to bring him the bicycle he wanted for Christmas. An Iraqi old man comes across him and tells him to go home because Baba Noel is giving presents in America, not here. The kid becomes angry and tells the old man he’s not going home unless he gets his bike. He was wondering why Baba Noel was giving presents to children all over the world, except the Iraqi children.


The old man feels bad and decides to help. He calls Santa but Santa was aggressive. He didn’t like how his name was turned into “Baba Noel.” He then calls Iraqis “terrorists” and says he’s not going to Iraq.

The old man then calls Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki for help! Unsurprisingly, the Prime Minister cannot help! Not willing to give up, the old man calls all his friends and acquaintances and posts a wall ad, calling on all Iraqis to bring their generators to use them light the Christmas tree and to do Christmas themselves this year.

And they did! They set up the huge Christmas tree and decorated it with lights they turned on through their generators. After the lights were on, Iraqis took to the streets to celebrate Christmas, and their city became brighter than ever, first time in years.

Indeed! The message in the video was very powerful. It urges Iraqis to stand up and start rebuilding their country themselves, instead of waiting for others to help them. It’s time to do that before it’s too late.

Watch the video (Arabic):

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.  

Celebrating Investigative Journalism in the Arab World

Representing ICFJ at the conference.

Investigative journalism in the Arab world has been an alien type of journalism that was never really powerful or effective, if existed. But in recent years, it has become more and more visible, despite the risks and dangers Arab investigative journalists face in defiance of their totalitarian governments.

The visibility and the new activity of this type of journalism appearing in several Arab news outlets has become more and more known and encouraged, thanks to international and regional media assistance organizations. Investigative journalism today is better than ever in the Arab world and is still in progress. Today, Arab investigative journalists are defying taboos and challenging high-level officials with facts they obtained through thorough investigation and reporting.

Such a vast improvement was evident at the Third Arab Investigative Journalism Conference, which was organized by Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ), a Amman-based, regional media support network that seeks to support independent quality professional journalism, through funding in-depth journalism projects, and offering media coaching.

During the conference, which was held from November 26 to 28 in Amman, Jordan, three investigative journalists from the Arab world were awarded the Seymour Hersh Award for Best Investigative Report.

I had the honor to represent my employer, the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) there, meeting the winners and several other prominent Arab and international journalists such as Drew Sullivan from the United States, BBC’s Tim Sebastian from the United Kingdom, Mark Hunter from France, Hisham Qassem and Yosri Fouda from Egypt and others hailing from 16 Arab countries.

This year’s award was presented by ARIJ, in coordination with ICFJ, which last year honored American investigative reporter Seymour Hersh with its Founders Award for Excellence in Journalism, recognizing his outstanding work over 40 years. 

Me with the first place winner, Dlovan Barwari

The winners of the ARIJ/ICFJ Seymour Hersh Award were from Iraq and Egypt. Iraqi journalist Dlovan Barwari, whom I had the honor to work with for the Washington Post in Iraq, received the first place award for his investigative report that tackled the issue of the female circumcision in the northern Iraqi region of Kurdistan. His fellow Iraqi journalist, Milad Al Jibouri, won the second place for writing a report in which she investigated the recruitment of young Iraqis by militants and armed groups, taking advantage of their traumatic war-tainted childhood. The third place winner was Egyptian reporter Siham Al Pasha who investigated the use of poisonous material in furniture-making in Dumyat, Egypt and how this material is imported in broad daylight.

The three winning reports competed with 16 other reports that reached the finalists list. They were written by reporters from Yemen, Syria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine.

To further boost independent quality investigative journalism in the Arab world, ICFJ has partnered with ARIJ to create six investigative units in Arab newsrooms. ICFJ’s Knight International fellow Amr El-Kahky is creating these first investigative reporting units in Jordan, Palestine and Egypt.

The one mile road starts with one step, so says the proverb. Investigative journalism in the Arab world is taking its baby steps. It’s flourishing and advancing to create better societies and communities. Kudos to ARIJ and ICFJ for making this happen!

People’s Souls

Photo Credit: Hadi Mizban, Associated Press, via The New York Times

I was with my mother in the back seat of a taxi cab, heading back home from the market, when the driver said something that still rings in my ears. I was eleven years-old then and it was 1991, right after the U.S.-led coalition forces ended their Desert Storm operation.

The streets were alive with people going back to work, shopping and retrieving a bit of their normal lives as cease fire was announced. Then, a few months before Baghdad’s infrastructure was rebuilt, Baghdad looked like a broken skeleton.

“We’re destroyed,” said the taxi driver, as he started a conversation with my mother.

“Inshallah, everything will be rebuilt and return to normal,” my mother said in a very hopeful and positive tone.

“They sure will,” he replied. “But who will rebuild the people’s souls?”

Nineteen years later, those words cannot but make me think of what happened, still happening and will happen. For a while I got carried away with the busy life in America, until the last few days’ terror attacks that rocked Baghdad brought me back to my senses. They reminded me that Iraqis’ wounds are far from healing, and that it will take generations to overcome this trauma.

Your Father Is Not a Victim, Mr. Aziz!

As I was checking the latest tweets on Iraq on my iPhone this morning, I came across a BBC World tweet that read “Tariq Aziz is a victim, says his son http://bbc.in/9uCfME.” I shook my head in disbelief as I read what the son said. I retweeted and commented, “No, he isn't, said the Iraqi people!”

A few hours ago I listened to a recorded interview with him again, repeating his same statement on BBC’s Radio Live5, as I was waiting for the presenter to introduce me to the audience to comment on this topic.

He added that his father was not involved in criminal acts against Iraqis. He admitted that his father was in the government and that he was “serving his country,” and here where this statement set me off.


‘Up All Night’ program presenter Rhod Sharp knew what to ask me, and I expected it. As an Iraqi, do I agree?!

No, I don’t! I think Aziz was part of the tyrannical machine that held a strong grip on Iraq for three decades. He was one of the closest people to Iraq’s infamous tyrant for a long time, and was a loyal Baathist until the very end of the former regime in 2003.

Serving his country? He must be kidding me! A lot of Iraqis were tortured, killed, abused and exiled under his watch. He was not serving his country; he was serving Saddam and the Baath party that terrorized and destroyed Iraqis. He knew very well that he was a member of an abusive regime.

To my surprise, the Vatican urged Iraqi authorities not to carry out the death sentence against Aziz. The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, told the AP that the Vatican usually would pursue any possible humanitarian intervention to halt an execution via diplomatic channels.

Hmm... I wonder why the Vatican didn’t intervene when the Saddam regime, to which Aziz belonged, executed Iraqis in every possible inhumane way. At least he was tried with dignity and put on trial unlike many under Saddam who were hanged, shot to death, put in burning acids and thrown in the human grinder that fed the fish in the Tigris River with fresh ground human meat.

But now the question is will his execution make a difference in the new Iraq? No it won’t. It’s a still a mess and a big mess. Will it bring Iraqis together? No it won’t. Will it divide them? They’re already divided. The only outcome I see is maybe the closure that those who were victimized by him will finally have.

Some say he’s an old, dying man! Yes, but justice is justice. It should not be based on emotions; it should be based on facts. Others say he was educated and well-spoken. I say, Saddam was educated and well-spoken too. Does that mean he should have not brought him to justice? And many say those in power in the new Iraq are worse. I totally agree, but does it mean we should not bring the former criminals to justice?

So yes, Mr. Ziad Aziz, your father was not a victim and you grew up watching your own people suffering by a tyrannical government with which your father worked! But I can’t blame you for defending him. He was your father after all.

WikiLeaks Iraq War Logs Are Out. Nothing New! Now What?

We all knew it. We all experienced it. We all weren’t surprised by it. And by ‘We’ I mean Iraqis who went through the successive years of mayhem since the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003. 

The information in the 391,832 U.S. military documents that were released yesterday by the Whistle-blower website WikiLeaks did not come as a surprise to me. You shouldn’t be surprised either. Iraqis have been talking about this over and over for years on blogs, newspapers, TV and radio stations and through human rights organizations.

The Iraqi people have been frequently complaining since ever about torture conducted by the Iraqi police. They have said it nonstop that the foreign security contractors have been killing civilians haphazardly, and sometimes for no reason. Shiite militias controlled the streets of many cities in Iraq and appeared to be well trained by Iran to kill and torture.

Many thought we were exaggerating or saying things that are not supported by facts, but now our words are finally backed up by evidence! I’m happy these WikiLeaks documents finally came out. However the questions remains: Now What?!


The U.S. government apparently knew all about the killings of innocent Iraqis, Iran’s training of Shiite militias and Iraqi security forces’ abuse and rape of teenagers in prisons. Nevertheless, they decided not to take actions, not to intervene!

So what will the United States do in response to the that? Apologize to Iraqis? I don’t think so. Even if they do, will this bring back the lives of the thousands of civilians killed in the war? It won’t. Will it make Iraq safer? It won’t either. Will it change the current miserable political situation there? Not at all.

As an Iraqi, I don’t need an apology. I need justice. I need to see those who committed crimes against my fellow Iraqis get what they deserve. As for the Iraqi torturers, I don’t see them being brought to justice anytime soon, simply because they are under the same sectarian government that let this happen under their watch. We need a new government. We need new people to run the country and make this happen. Iraqis made their choice in last March elections, but the sectarian powers are refusing to give it to the moderates who were elected. Until this happens, I don’t think justice will ever be achieved in Iraq.

Demodictatoriyah: New Online Cartoon Criticizes Maliki's Clinging to Power

A new online satirical cartoon,  depicting Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki and his competitor Ayad Allawi arguing about who rules Iraq as a Prime Minister has emerged on the Web recently.

The cartoon, entitled “Demodictatoriyah,” is made by a recently-launched Facebook group, called “Only for Iraqis.” It is posted on the group’s YouTube channel which has more than 100 subscribers already since its launch on October 11.

The cartoon is the latest criticism on how Iraqi politicians failed to establish the new Iraqi government since the parliamentary elections held more than seven months ago.


The slate led by Maliki trailed one led by a former interim leader, Allawi, by 89 seats to 91. In the seven months that followed, neither side was able to pull together a coalition that would allow them to create a new government. But on Oct. 1, Maliki struck a deal with a Shiite faction that had previously opposed him, putting him within striking distance of a majority in the new 325-member Parliament. (Read the full New York Times coverage here for more on this election)

This development helped shape the online cartoon which obviously is anti-Maliki. It starts with the Pink Panther famous music, followed by Maliki walking to a stage to recite a poem. In it he, threatens and mocks Allawi while the event is broadcast on TV. In the background, people are heard clapping, while Maliki recites the poem. However, when he finishes a man’s hand pauses a cassette player which apparently was the main source of the cheering and clapping audience.

The cartoon is hilarious. The sarcasm in it is to the point and expresses my views and the views of many Iraqis who did not vote for Maliki’s slate.

Here is the translation of part of Maliki’s poem as heard in the cartoon. It’s the closest I could do but you’ll get the point:

The [Prime Minister] seat is mine
Everybody should go away
If the people object
I swear with my mother’s soul I will exterminate them
The party that does not want us
We don’t want it either
We are about to finish the oil
And I’ll make you [Iraqis] broke
But whoever voted for me
I will give him more than he stole
And those voted for the other man [Allawi]
Let’s see how useful he’ll be to them

Enjoy the cartoon!

Hijacking Mesopotamian Heritage

The last time I attended Babylon International Festival was in 2000. Then, it was a celebration of the world’s arts and culture and a revival of a civilization’s history. There performed various Arab, Asian, European, American and African artists, dancing and playing traditional and contemporary music, leaving Iraqis enjoy precious times as they endured the hardships of the Iran-Iraq war and the 12-year international sanctions.

But today, seven years after it was canceled due to the US-led invasion, the festival opened with failure and disastrous atmosphere. No dancing, no singing! Nothing but two badly-performed plays on globalization and hating the United States. The reasons, according to The New York Times, were religion and politics!

The Times reported that the deputy governor of the Babil province, Sadiq al-Muhanna, “declared the ban on music and dance… which he called offensive to Muslims during religious ceremonies for Imam Sadiq.”

This news came in like a lightning strike to me. It is really sad that religion hijacked the entire Iraqi society, whose culture and art battled and survived dictators, wars, barbarians and invasions throughout history.

Iraq was a country where culture and arts met and flourished. It was a country that gave birth to great artists whose imprints were recorded for thousands of years across the globe. But today it’s a country marked by religion and only religion. Instead of reviving our glorious history, the leaders of the new Iraq are forcing that form of submission. They coat Imams’ graves with pure gold; they block streets for weeks in celebration of death or birth anniversaries of those Imams and now they cancel the entire basis of the Mesopotamian civilization: appreciation of art and culture.

We have become worse than the most conservative countries in the Middle East. Even in Saudi Arabia, where men and women are flogged if found mingling with each other, people celebrate their culture by dancing and performing in national festivals, and they don’t even have Mesopotamian heritage to revive.

My heart breaks for Iraq. It makes me gravely sad to see how religion has become the winner in the former secular country that I remember.

I dream of going back. Every day. But the Mullahs hijacked my country and turned it into a bigger mosque, where people cannot do anything but pray to deaf ears. I’m afraid the dream is shattering. I’m collecting the pieces but not sure how long this will last.

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.

The Hurt Locker: An Invitation to Think!

Now I know what this fuss was all about and why “The Hurt Locker” won all these Oscars. Simply, the movie is stunning from the very beginning to the very end.

There are two strong themes in the movie: courage and war addiction.

The protagonist of this film, Staff Sgt. William James appears to be enjoying the horrors that accompany his bomb-defusing job in war-torn Iraq. He is courageous and seems to be fond of what he does even though he knows he might die in any moment as he defuses bombs.

This kind of addiction does not stop there. It follows him home. What soldiers, citizens and reporters go through in a war zone change everything in their lives, something that was strongly portrayed in the film. Back in the U.S., James’ wife appears to be indifferent about the horrors he saw in Iraq. This is a major problem many armed forces members and reporters face after they leave the war zone for home. It becomes too normal for them to live there and that’s why I think many of them return back to the war zone or go somewhere disturbed by conflict to relate to. Others get divorced!

From an Iraqi citizen’s perspective, I think the film was believable. Director Kathryn Bigelow and the rest of the cast did a wonderful job in portraying how Baghdad looked like during the war. To me, the setting was very similar to that of 2006-Baghdad. Empty streets, trash everywhere, fear in the eyes of everyone, distrust everywhere, broken glass and insurgents running freely in the streets of Baghdad. What made the film even more authentic is the Iraqi actors who speak Iraqi Arabic.

The film is by all means a great portrayal of how war looks like. It invites people to think twice before uttering stupid words in front of those who witness war, like my grad school classmate who told me that he cat was “traumatized” back in 2006 when just a few weeks before that I had seen dead bodies in the streets of Baghdad. It invites people to endure hardships that might be nothing if compared to what others do in war zones.

Hello stranger! I’m tweeting nearby your house. Come attack me!

Keeping privacy is something I learned to control instinctively, thanks to years of wars and the former police state where I lived that forced me to understand how to protect myself from interferers.

Our digital age has become a little bit difficult to control with the dozens of social networks available nowadays, which I’m kind of obsessed with. However, I’m reconsidering all of that. I have no longer become the private person I used to be, and I need to put an end to that.

On my iPhone I have an app called “Echofon” which I use to read the latest tweets tweeted by the people I’m following on Twitter. It’s a really cool app, that is very intuitive, fast and easy to use, unlike the extremely-slow twitterberry app that I had on the BlackBerry I had before I switched to the iPhone.

While “Echofon” is really good, it recently added a new feature that became available after I installed the latest update of the app. It offers the “Nearby Tweets” feature which allows the Twitter iPhone user to basically see whoever is tweeting nearby his/her place. This is not it. The feature depends on the iPhone’s GPS technology, allowing the user to locate the tweeting people on Google maps, identifying their exact location accompanied by the Tweeting person’s twitter page, photo, Web site link and the entire timeline of his/her tweets. See the screenshot posted in this entry.

As I noticed this, I have become so disturbed. I actually can walk to the tweeting person’s house and recognize him/her through his/her photo posted on their Twitter page. What disturbed me the most is that there are psychos in this country who can basically hurt you if they disagree with what you say or tweet, to be specific. So through this app, I can easily be attacked and even if I’m not attacked I don’t have my privacy anymore.

I don’t want some people to know where I live. Period!

This is not the first time I come across a privacy breach. Last month when Google announced its Buzz social media network, I woke up to see that I’m following literally every Gmail person in my contacts list. That was not the worst part. Thank goodness millions of people complained that the flawed Buzz system was ruining their privacy that it finally changed.

In Iraq, Google Earth made me nervous all the time. Insurgents, known for their use of technology, were able to locate basically anything they wanted through that satellite service.

Today, it’s not only the redundant and repetitive Google Buzz but also Linkedin (which I totally find useless), Foursquare (which I see as a place where people go to get coupons because some weirdo tells them they became the kings or Queens of their neighborhoods), FMyLife, Jaiku, Plurk, Twitter, Tumblr, Posterous, Yammer, Qaiku, Geni.com, Hi5, LinkedIn, MySpace, Ning, Orkut, Skyrock, Qzone, Vkontakte, RenRen, Kaixin, ASmallWorld, studivz, Xing, RunAlong.se, Bebo, BigTent, Elgg, Hyves, Flirtomatic, etc… The list is too long for me to count.

All of these are too much. I find most of them useless, except for Facebook which I consider the most “private” amongst them. At least I know I can control who sees my content and even what content they can see!

You might have heard this before. Technology is making our life better but it’s also hurting us. I strongly believe we should stop for a minute before we tweet or facebook our content because this may put us or/and the others in danger.

I Voted for Iraq

Today, I fulfilled an important task: I voted in my country’s parliamentary elections. As an Iraqi citizen who adores his country, I couldn’t be happier and proud after I cast my ballot.at the polling center in Arlington, Virginia in the United States. A sense of relief and optimism rushed into me after I did that. There is nothing in this world that can make me happy than seeing my beloved Iraq heal its wounds and be a better place so that I return and stay there forever.

By voting today, I have become part of the change Iraq is awaiting. Even though I'm thousands of miles afar, I still work hard to make Iraq a better place. It may take five, ten and maybe twenty years to rebuild the country but the thousand-miles road starts with one step.

Long live Iraq.

FP: 33 Conflicts are Raging Around the World Today

Irish satirist Jonathan Swift once said, “War! that mad game the world so loves to play.” This quote is summarized by a new photo essay published by Foreign Policy magazine. In it, powerful photos of the world’s conflicts describe what words sometimes fail to express.

Entitled “Planet War,” the photo essay mentions that from the bloody civil wars in Africa to the rag-tag insurgencies in Southeast Asia, 33 conflicts are raging around the world today, and it’s often innocent civilians who suffer the most.

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!