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.  

The myth of Freedom statue

When a man closely observes the recent history of Iraq, he would easily notice that there is something really wrong that causes such unfortunate events and catastrophes, I personally think the reason behind it is the Iraqi society itself combined with the riches of the Iraqi land which became a curse on Iraqis rather than a fortune and many other reasons combined together to make the dangerous mixture, while on the other hand there are some people who put the blame on other things; like black magic, bad luck or a curse!!

Before I get to the subject I'd love to summarize few things about the current situation in Iraq, for sure things are improving, and one can sense a political maturation and some kind of quietness but is it peaceful yet? Is there peace in Baghdad? No, no one can say that Baghdad is peaceful, but I can say it's safer…Maliki and many other politicians are making new alliances based on ideology and political interests rather than sects and religion and this is a really really great thing and a very important step, you know that I always used to dislike Maliki but now I'm 

having second thoughts about him…but let's not be too optimistic and naïve to forget that these achievements are fragile and like my Looli, a new born…let's not forget that a bombing started the sectarian violence (AlAskaris' shrines bombing), I'm not saying that another bombing like that will lead to a civil war but also we shouldn't forget that the US troops will be leaving Iraq (except for the logistics) by the end of this year and at the same time we have president Obama making what I see a mistake by trying to be friends with Iran! I'll leave the subject here and I might get to it in details in another post. 

Some people and on the head of them is the magician Thabit AlAloosi (who lives in London) who believes that all the disasters of Iraq are caused by black magic in the freedom statue.

Liberty statue was designed by the great artist Jawad Saleem by the help of the architect Rifaat Alchadirchi and the sculpture Mohammed Ghani Hikamt by the order of Abd Alkareem Nasir (the former Iraqi president) at 1959 in Baghdad and Rome, it was finished and installed at AlTahreer square (liberty) at the center of Baghdad in Bab IlShargi at 1962…it's like a Sumerian panoramic scene that contains 14 artistic pieces along it's length that describes almost everything regarding Iraq and Iraqis and giving descriptions of the Iraqi's spirit and the most obvious and important one among them is the soldier who is breaking the prison bars, it's a great sculpture…The French government offered 300,000$ to Jawad Saleem (at the time) to install the statue in Paris…it's one of the 100 famous sculptures in the world.

But many wizards and magicians and some Iraqis along with them throw the blame for the disasters of Iraq on this beautiful statue.

Jawad Saleem died in 1962 before he was able to see his artistic peace in Baghdad…president Kassim when he was taken in a tank to be hanged in 1963 he requested one thing, he just wanted to see the statue before he dies! Many people where hanged at this square and many others died and scattered in the last few years below this beautiful statue because of the explosions done by ignorant minds like those of the wizards and the ones who believes in them…

This beautiful statue have a very touching scenario, the story starts with struggles and miseries charged with anger and revolution to describe the dark years we went through and then the soldier comes and breaks the prison bars to start another era of peace and prosperity but by observing our history we would easily notice that the story is on repeat mode! It continues to run over and over, to start from the beginning till the end…And now we are waiting for that soldier to break the bars, I can't wait to see the end of the freedom statue scenario and live it.

I have an angel

It was 8am, it was time for the moment I have been long waiting for, it was delivery time…after only 2 hours of sleeping my wife's water broke and it was time, we were awake all night because my love had fever all the night, we went to the hospital and she was already exhausted from the night before…at around 1pm they gave her the epidural shot and she staid in the recovery room till 6pm and finally it was time…they took her to the delivery room and I joined them…I felt so sad for her, I wished I could carry some of what she is passing through…I didn't think that my lovely wife is brave and strong like this…the delivery took more than an hour but finally my love almost collapsed and they had to use the vacuumed suction to pull the baby out.

I heard the first cry of Looli (that's the nickname of my baby girl)…I can't describe the feeling, no words can describe it, I'm sure it's the best feeling a human can feel…I cried from happiness and it was a really really great moment that I will never forget, Looli was crying and the brought her near to us and it was another moment that I have been long waiting for, I sang the song that I have been singing for her during the pregnancy and she immediately stopped crying, even now if she cries for a reason that we don't know I just sing to her and she stops, by the way the song is my creation.

Now I feel really great, I feel perfect, flawless and I feel like a king, thank you god for your blessings, thank you for keeping my wife safe and giving me a healthy child, God…I feel great love, great feelings are inside me…It's really great to be a father…I'm soooooooooo happy.    

I'm In :) :)

Yeeeees, finally I'm in...I'm writing from Jordan/Amman, I'm writing this while I'm sitting with my parents and in-laws whom we haven't seen for two years...God, it's great to meet with people you have been missing for so long.

The trip was really exhausting but all the tiredness just disappeared the moment the officer gave us our passports with the entry stamp in them...we went to Baghdad's airport at 7am, the flight was supposed to be at 11:30 am but it was postponed to 4:30pm and about 4pm a sand storm was in Baghdad so we can't fly until the storm is gone which normally takes a day!!! but I didn't worry because something insides me told me that everything will be fine...this is the fist time that I went to Amman and I'm sure everything will be fine for reasons I'll explain later...anyway, at about 6pm the weather got a bit better and we were ably to fly...we reached Queen Alia's airport (Amman's airport) and once we got off the plane and got into the bus, I started to have a squeeze in my heart, I don't know how to describe it but I was angry, sad, happy, traumatized, excited...I had almost all the feeling a man could feel...we got out of the bus and I felt much better when they took us to direction opposite to that of the jail, that means the situation might be better...I don't want to go into boring details so after 45min they let us in! I couldn't believe it and till this moment I'm not.

I'll tell you a little secret, since the moment my baby girl was created inside my wife everything was taking the right path...everything good started happening to us and almost nothing bad happened! Yes, I believe I have a lucky charm. Yes, it's my baby girl...and that's why I'm always optimistic these days, I believe god is helping and standing by our side because of her, I believe god loves this unborn girl.

so, now I can say that everything is perfect (thank you god) but for one thing that I don't have a salary but I believe god will compensate me, either materialistically or by other means.