Countless, useless checkpoints

Yesterday I had an interview with a French TV channel , the subject was about the checkpoints and it’s effectiveness specially after the two bloody days with the “quality explosions” as the media say…well, I though it’s a good subject to discuss specially that many of people who haven’t been in Iraq doesn’t really know much about this subject.

Checkpoints are everywhere, and I mean literally everywhere, if you want to drive for let’s say a Kilometer you’ll probably pass through a checkpoint if not two! You can’t go anywhere without passing through a bunch of checkpoints…few days ago I had some work in Karkh (which is the other side of Baghdad) while I live in Risafa…the distance according to google earth is about 9 Km, and I passed through 28 checkpoints!!! And it took me 4 hours!! Can you believe that traveling 9Km will take 4 hours despite that it wasn’t in the rush hours.

OK, I’ll tell you what are the checkpoints…it’s either for the police or the army and both of them are pretty similar in everything except the uniform, you’ll see a long queue of cars waiting to pass through the narrow opening through the checkpoint, the street is 4 lanes for example and it is reduced into 1…you’ll wait for only god knows how long till you reach them and then there will be a bunch of soldiers, one of them is carrying a device that looks somehow like a gun with an antenna at the head and he will walk by your car, if the device’s antenna points at you then it means you have something suspicious and among the things that the device points at are (Perfumes, deodorants, hand gel, brake fluid and even amalgam teeth fillings sometimes) and then he either looks at you and say “Go” or he might search the car and most of the time the search is just a question “do you carry any weapon?” and of course whether you carry a weapon or not you will say no and then he will tell you “Go” and in few cases they will open the trunk and the hood and see if there is anything suspicious.

I’m not criticizing the soldiers or the policemen in this post, No, not at all because many are good men and they are trying to do their job as they have been told and of course there are some really bad members but this isn’t what I want to talk about, I’m trying to give you a clear idea of what is really going on in the checkpoints and how stupid the people with power who placed those checkpoints and gave them that stupid device.

Yes, the device is totally stupid, inefficient and old, it came to the streets through a dirty deal by corrupted members of the government….the sole purpose of the importing this device is to make the rich richer….a friend of mine who was an army engineer told me that if you rap a gun or explosives well by a plastic bag it will not be detected by this device, in addition to that as I said it only detects silly things.

And sometimes would pass through what we call “cooperative checkpoint” where the soldiers are even looking at the cars that passes by him, they are either busy making a phone call (like the one in the photo) or they are playing games in their mobile or they are having a chat and sometimes they are just sitting down resting.

And I wand to add some information about the explosion of the justice ministry…there is a kindergarten in the first floor of the ministry for the employees kids, after the explosion they weren’t able to find any dead body for any kid, they though they have disappeared specially they were the closest to the explosion…yesterday, I heard a rumor that the kids were found in the sewers of the ministry!!! May god forbids, imagine that happens to you and your kids…may god forbids how would you feel if your son was exploded to pieces and they were found in the sewers.As I said many soldiers are brave men and they are trying to do their best but also there are many corrupted and bad members…as I see it the checkpoints are completely useless and causes more harm than good…they cause terrible road jams, if a man wants to move his furniture from his old home to his new one he must pay a large amount of money to the checkpoints on his way as bribes because they will really give him a hard time and so is the case with trucks carrying merchandise and so on, and if they were doing any good why did we witnessed such terrible explosions in very sensitive areas? The areas where the bloody Wednesday and Sunday explosions took place are literally filled with checkpoints.

If those checkpoints want to be really efficient they should check every inch of every car that passes through them and that means the end of life, because no body will be able to reach anywhere…so what is the solution? In my opinion, I think they should reduce the number of checkpoints dramatically, I say they should remove more than 50% of them, they should only keep checkpoints between major districts, and depend on intelligence to fight terrorism, all the world whether Iraqi or Chinese are ruled very well with the stick and carrot method, there should be great prizes for the ones who tells about a terrorist act and sever punishment for the ones who does it or helps it, and providing good cash rewards for the ones who gives any intel. About terrorism and that way would be much cheaper and much more efficient that the checkpoints, in addition to that they can re-employ the former members of the intelligence and keeps them under supervision to get the advantage from their experience because there is nothing in the world like experience…I know the former intelligence were criminals; most of them but there are some members who have little blood on their hands and can be used under supervision, don’t tell me they have crimes against humanity, because most of the government and the parliament are criminals also.

Just yesterday there war another evident of how good the checkpoints are…it was an explosive pack placed near the Adhamiya mall…just think how hurt are we that we were thankful for the one who did the explosion because he did it in the morning and there was no one!!! Because if he did it at night or noon there would be terrible number of casualties…there was another explosive pack near the exploded ones but some brave citizen noticed it and called the army and some really brave army men came and destroyed it away from where it was placed and there was zero harm, thank you brave and good soldiers.

Here is a photo for the site of explosion that lead to zero casualties.

I wish the authorities would sense the inefficiency of their ways before we witness explosions in HD quality!!! As many people fear will happen as the elections are getting closer and the struggles of dirty politicians will start again.

Another day at the office, another bloody day in Baghdad

I was working in the clinic as usual when I heard two explosions, with very short interval between them. Well, that’s something normal, no problem…about thirty minutes later the phone of one of my female colleagues rang and it was her husband, he said he miraculously made it, he was in the ministry of justice when the explosions happened “it was something that can be described, it was something that I have never seen before, it’s really disgusting and frightening” as he said, despite that he was a military jet pilot who was in duty through the Iranian war and the gulf war.

That’s when we knew about the terrible disgusting terrorist act that took place in the ministry of justice and Baghdad’s province council because of two explosive trucks… then everybody started calling the people he knows in those ministries and people who live near it…then we heard that one of the physicians’ flat has been totally destroyed and his daughter was in the flat and she was seriously injured…I don’t need to tell you the details as you may have already heard it from any news source you follow and as you have may heard that the most recent number of casualties is 139 and more than 800 injured.

But I need to ask some questions that I can’t find satisfying answers to them, I’ll start with; why the sick politicians are killing the people for their political disagreements? Why are they having the power despite that most of the people knows their crimes? When will the Iraqi people stops bleeding to give the politicians more money! Despite they have enough money that could support them and four generations after them like kings? When will this ever ends? What are the checkpoints doing? Why don’t the government removes all the checkpoints and make our lives much more easier, they are basically not doing anything despite annoying people and causing road jams, they are really doing nothing if such explosions takes place, when will they depend on intelligence? Well, sorry for that because THEY are the ones who did it…and finally one thing I want to know, isn’t it the time that the minister of anterior and the minister of defense gives their resignation.

Now I’ll leave you with a number of photos that speaks much better than words.

I’m back (Explosions and H1N1 with neglect)

I know it has been a really long time since I last posted but dear readers it was for many reasons, to begin with I was really busy and I really couldn’t find time to write anything, then there was the internet censorship thing and later I received a threat from an international organization aimed to kill Iraqis!!

But here am I again…please spread the word.

Let’s begin with the explosion thing, I’m sure most of you haven’t heard about explosions in Baghdad for some time and even if you hear that there was an explosion you wouldn’t hear the accurate number of them or where they happened or how many were killed…well, most recently there was an explosion in Adhamiya/ Raghiba Khatoon (known as Camp) by a wired car that targeted the leader of the awakening in that area and lead to the death of many people and severe damage to the buildings nearby including the clinic of a colleague who miraculously didn’t die…there were many explosions and terrorism activities that happened but sure there is no time to mention all of them, but let’s start from now and on.

Generally, Iraqis now are concerned more about the Swine flu (Influenza type A H1N1) than explosions and terrorism! Everybody even the physicians are clueless! No One knows what to do and there is a general situation of panic among the people.

The ministry of health is doing nothing about it and in a state of denial, with a very strong media coverage to make the people believe Iraq is swine flu free…they should at least give lectures to the Doctors and the medical career workers about this hard to diagnose disease.

People are coming in dozens to the governmental hospital I work in now to seek advice and to check and if anyone wants to check he must come to a normal hospital and the hospital will give him a paper to go to the central laboratories and then he will be sent to some laboratories for the WHO who will take swabs and see if they have it or not!! Damn bureaucracy, this procedure will take about 5 days!! If the patient didn’t die during that time he will spread it to hundreds of people who will spread it to another hundreds…many parents are refusing to send their kids to schools and they are even thinking of skipping this year…many schools have told their students that they will not be able to come to school unless they bring a report from the hospital that they are not infected with swine flu and they come to us but the problem is that we haven’t received any official or non-official instructions about dealing with the situation.

And the really sad thing is that they haven’t provided us with the simplest equipments to protect ourselves like the effective masks (filter masks) , it’s well known that the first to be protected is the medical staff since they will be the ones who are in direct contact with the effected and may be the cause of the disease outbreak.

And if I want to continue talking about the state of denial the health ministry is living in I would not finish, all they care about is the show business.

Sadly, the humans have no rights or value in the land where the first human’s law were established.

Crossroads

I strongly doubt that any person with the slightest interest in the politics don't look at these days as a very important crossroads and a milestone.

The US troops will withdraw from the Iraqi streets and be deployed in their bases and Iraq will gain its "sovereignty" as they say in the next few days, but what is behind the news? What is really happening on the ground? And what are the possible scenarios? And that will be what I'll discuss in this post.

It's so obvious that all the Iraqis are really cautious these days, we are watching with fear and crossed fingers the events and wish for the best to happen.

The past few days were the bloodiest since a very long time…350 Iraqi; killed and wounded as a result of explosions.

Yesterday's night the Iraqi with the US army carried a raid on Adhamiya and arrested some young men…few days ago in an area near Taji armed men in suburban cars with dark tinted windows arrested some of the young men in the area; by the way none of those incidents were mentioned in any news network.

I heard from some of my sources (reliable ones) :" it's certain that explosive cars, sticky explosive packs and some explosive belts have entered Adhamiya these days to target the gatherings of people"

You can easily feel the tension in the streets, and after the working hours (3 PM) you would notice a very big difference in traffic, the streets are much emptier than 2 weeks ago for example, there is somehow a long line at the gas stations because people are expecting a crisis.

Any Iraqi kid would strongly advice you not to go anywhere unless it was a really important business.

And to give you a more vivid image, I'd like to describe the situation on ground a bit more…very severe sand storm with extremely hot weather that if you walk for 5 minutes you would feel a fire in your shoes let alone the massive amount of sweat and water you'll drink…tensioned people passing through checkpoints of tensioned soldiers and that somehow gives me some flash backs to 2007.

OK, me and many other people are wishing for the best, wishing that nothing will happen, and Iraqi security forces will be up to the task and they will do great and they will not act on sectarian or political bases and be able to defeat terrorism…etc. but can we discuss the subject rationally rather than emotionally and put aside our dreams?

Most of the leaderships of the security forces have occupied their positions according to sectarian bases or political bases rather than efficiency, experience or loyalty to Iraq and the service of Iraqi people.

What will happen if there was a security breakout (for any reason)? What will happen and how will the Iraqi forces react? Will they act proficiently or they will bombard the whole area and make it a ground?

We should also keep in mind that the elections are close, so naturally we would notice some eliminations and disturbances due to political reasons either to hold the power and keep sitting on the chair or to reach that chair and seize the power specially with the sever corruption in every inch of every ministry and the fires that happens in the ministry are just a simple example of corruption and trying to ruin the evident!

This is a very important turn in the political history of Iraq, it's a milestone, it's a major crossroads and a chance for the Iraqi government and the security forces to prove themselves loyal to Iraq and Iraqis…it's the time to defend the ugly sectarian and disloyal look Iraqis have about them.

So let's cross the fingers and wish for the best to happen, we'll wait and see.

I'll keep this post updated if anything happens (let's hope not).

Watch the kids

Few days ago we were getting back home at night from a visit to a relative of us, when we reached our neighborhood; two blocks away from my house, we noticed a gathering of people at the door of one of the houses, it was clear from the faces of the people and the way they were acting that something unpleasant happened.

I stopped the car and got out to offer my help in case they needed it. Unfortunately there was nothing I or anybody there could do because their son was kidnapped an hour ago from their very same street! He is a 7 years old kid, his father is a mechanic and about a year ago he started working with the Americans as people say…the kidnappers called and they asked for ransom, his parents didn't tell us how much exactly do they want.

I was a bit scared to be honest, because this might be the start for troubles and crime in my neighborhood, I thought the kid was kidnapped because his father works with the Americans but later I begun to doubt that.

At that night a friend called and I told him about the incident and he told me that his neighbor's son was also kidnapped two weeks ago and he was about the same age as my neighbor's kid. His parents paid the ransom and he was released but it seems that kid was smart because from several signs and evident he was able to tell his parents exactly where was held and he told them that there were 15 other kid held with him.

The parents called the police and they were able to rescue the rest of them and capture the thugs.

At that time I made an impression, it seems that this will be the new technique that will be used by the low life criminals, so I wanted to make a small search about the subject.

Yesterday at work I asked many of my colleagues and many of them heard or witnessed such incidents.

One of them had a young brother who was going to school with his friends; they were walking as a group when a car stopped by and two men disguised in women's robes got out of it and kidnapped one of their friends, till now his parents haven't heard anything about him!

I reached a conclusion that kids are the primary target for the gangs now, and the reason is so rational (criminally peaking); they are much much easier to kidnap and force to get into the car, the kid may scream and cry as he wants because no one will interfere (people will think they are his parents) and the parents are ready to pay all they have and more, when they kidnap the father who will get the money for them? And they solved this issue with kidnapping kids.

So for all the Iraqis who reads this; take care of your kids and watch them all the time, never leave them alone or let them go out alone at least these days and if you don't have kids then please spread the word among the people you know who have kids.

I think I have to go to work now.

May God protect us all. 

Statistics

Yesterday, I was chatting with my colleague about the situation in Iraq and specially regarding the social aspect…we both reached an agreement that we would witness a social crisis or a disaster…the Iraqis' ethics and manner have really changed in the years after the war…so many people lost the good sides of the Iraqi manners.

And since he is much older than me, he said that after each war Iraqis losses some of their good manners, and I think he is right.

And today I received an email with some very interesting statistics that are gathered together…and I thought those statistics would be a great way to show my point.

 

1,000,000 widowed women according to a statistic published by the Iraqi woman's ministry in 2008

 

4,000,000 orphan child (estimated by the ministry of planning if the average of the Iraqi family is 4-6 children)

 

2,500,000 killed (according to the statistics of the Iraqi ministry of health and the forensic medicine (morgues) till December 2008)

 

800,000 missing (according to the ministry of anterior till December 2008)

 

320,000 prisoners inside the USA and government jails (the USA announced the presence of 120,000 prisoners inside their jails)

 

4,500,000 refugees outside Iraq (according to the statistics of people who requested the new passport G)  

 

2,500,000 displaced inside Iraq (according to the Iraqi ministry of immigration and refugees)

 

76,000 cases of HIV (according to the Iraqi ministry of health) (it was 114 cases before the war)

 

40% of the Iraqi people are under the line of poverty (according to the statistics of the Iraqi human rights' ministry)

 

126 foreign security companies (registered at the Iraqi ministry of anterior)

 

43 armed militias (registered at the Iraqi ministry of anterior and ministry of defense)

 

Well, it's really frightening. Just look well at the numbers of orphans, widowed, killed and missing and you would certainly know why I said where are going to have a social crisis.

May God be with you. 

Back home

It has been more than a week since the three of us came back to Baghdad, I know I haven't posted for a long time now but parents knows why and singles should try being a parent and I'm sure everyone would excuses me.

I haven't been able to follow the news closely since I came back but I think now I can because my Looli is older she is 8 weeks now and she cries a bit less and sleeps a little more so I can find some time to follow the news.

We came back to our home but this time was the hardest because everything is different and there were so many arrangements and things to do since we have a baby now…it was so exhausting but now I'm almost finished.

When I was there, I heard from my friends that the things are a bit worst than when I was in Baghdad, and when I came back I found that was somehow true, I felt the tension in the streets specially in the areas that were controlled by the awakening like Adhamiya but I don't mean to say that things are bad but a little bit worst…but there are some good things that happened while I was gone, like opening some closed roads and removing some concrete blocks which is a really great thing, the electricity is better than before; it's still bad but better than the last year this time; as you know the hotter the weather is the less electricity there is because people would use more electricity for operating the cooling systems, and I heard two rumors about that, the first is that AlMaliki "promises the Iraqis a cold summer this year" and the other rumor is that AlMaliki threatened the minister of electricity that he will be resigned if he didn't provide Baghdad with at least 12 hours of electricity a day, and I tend to believe these rumors because this year is the elections year and for sure Maliki would love to be more popular so that he wins the elections for the second time…so in general the good things are more than the bad things and that's why I should say  things are better but if anyone looks at it rationally he would agree with me that the situation is fragile and everything might deteriorates any minute and I hope not.

Another thing that was really great; I came back from work yesterday and as I was closing the garage door I noticed a small card with the large Google logo on it and a stamp!! I took it off the ground and turn it, there was my name on it!! And my address!!! Coooool, I got mail!!! And from Google!! It came from USA to my door, what a great thing and what a great mailing service we have despite the very difficult situations we have, I was really glad and couldn't wait to open it…it was from Adscense, they sent me the mail with the PIN code which I never thought would reach me, that's fantastic.

And finally I'm thinking of something and I need your help with it, I'm thinking of writing a book in three languages, so many people told me that I should write a book  and I have been thinking about it seriously these few days…I'll write in English and Turkish at first and if things were good I'll write it in Arabic two…you might be wondering why Turkish? Because Turks are great readers and I have noticed that they have very very few books about Iraq and they know almost nothing about Iraq and what happens in it, they have a very shallow knowledge about the situations and what happened in Iraq…so what I need your help with is the following, and please give your feeds in the comments section or via email:

1-should I do it or not?

2-how should it be? I mean should it be like a diary and I'll use the contents of the blog for the time period and write about the past, or what? Please give me ideas.

3-since I haven't published any book before so I don't know what to do and how it's done? If anyone knows please tell me, I mean should I contact some office or something that will be responsible for everything or should I finish everything and just print it? I'm clueless.

 

I'll be waiting for your feeds.