A Freedom Checklist...


You know how some people are addicted to their lists...they write everything down in lists...

They have shopping lists, that they leave behind...how many a times have I picked one of those lonely lists abandoned in some supermarket cart, once they check out...then they have to do lists, and they have invitation lists, and wedding lists, and guests lists, and cooking lists, and music lists, and lovers lists, and web lists, and company lists, and fortune lists and awards lists, and geographical lists, and...

All is listed...

I have only one list. My freedom list. It's actually a checklist. It has no order of priority, it's chaotic and haphazardly jotted down...I've had it on my wall for some years now...and I keep adding to it...I keep adding...

- buildings destroyed (V)
- homes in ruins (V)
- streets in rubble (V)
- mosques and churches destroyed(V)
- infrastructure smashed (V)
- checkpoints and barracks everywhere (V)
- parks turned into cemeteries (V)
- libraries burned down (V)
- schools in shambles (V)
- Universities closed down (V)
- hospitals dilapidated (V)
- black market for medication and medical equipment (V)
- doctors, nurses, academics, scientists killed or fled (V)
- unemployment over 50% (V)
- soaring rate of inflation (V)
- rampant disease, cancer rates soaring (V)
- deformed babies and infertile women (V)
- environmental pollution, toxic waste (V)
- breakdown of state services (V)
- mountains of garbage and pools of sewage(V)
- a savage poverty (V)
- archeological sites and antiquities destroyed and stolen (V)
- museums and galleries plundered and/or closed down
- children sold, abducted and trafficked (V)
- street children and orphans in thousands (V)
- trading in human organs (V)
- women abandoned and loss of rights (V)
- rape of women, honor killings, trafficking and kidnapping (V)
- forced prostitution (V)
- eliminating homosexuals (V)
- unprecedented gang crimes (V)
- drug cultivation, trafficking and addiction (V)
- prisons crammed with innocent (V)
- grotesque forms of torture (V)
- long lists of arbitrary arrests and executions (V)
- drought, rivers totally drying up (V)
- no running water (V)
- electricity a thing of the past (V)
- trees cut and fields abandoned (V)
- total reliance on imports (V)
- smuggling and illegal selling of oil (V)
- industrial and agricultural output zero (V)
- malignant corruption, bribery, clientelism, patronage (V)
- fraud and forgery of contracts, diplomas, tenders etc..(V)
- theft of public and state property and funds (V)
- malignant sectarianism and ethnic chauvinism (V)
- infiltration of state by foreign intelligence agents (V)
- American military bases everywhere (V)
- Iranian agents and operatives everywhere (V)
- discrimination according to ethnicity, religion, sect (V)
- eviction from homes (V)
- appropriation of lands and homes (V)
- forced exile (V)
- refugees in thousands (V)
- maimed and amputated in thousands (V)
- thousands of dead (V)
- killings, bombs, explosions daily (V)
- journalists targeted and killed (V)
- censorship and banning of books (V)
- total breakdown of cultural, artistic and literary life (V)
- a full comeback of ideological obscurantism (V)
- satellite TV channels (V)
- 100 toilet newspapers (V)


By the way (V) stands for DONE.

This is an open list and by no means exhaustive...It shall be updated regularly with more freedom checklist items...

And am holding on to this list, my freedom list...you will not find it abandoned in some supermarket cart on your way out...


Painting: Iraqi artist, Muhamad Muhraddin, 2007.

Popular posts from this blog

Endless Beginnings...

Image
For God's sake, tell me where to begin? I was set out to write about Father's day and the thousands of fatherless Iraqi children.The thousands of killed fathers, the thousands of fathers trying desperately hard to feed their families, daily putting their lives at great risk, in a country gripped by demonic violence. The exiled fathers, selling scraps in Amman and Damascus, bearing the brunt of daily insults. Or the unemployed fathers, feeling torn inside watching their kids go hungry. Or maybe the head bent down father, slouched posture, hiding scars beneath a worn out shirt. The father that has been imprisoned, humiliated, tortured and sodomized, unable to look his children in the eyes... Or maybe I should write about sexual torture and sodomy instead... The further horrors emerging from Abu Ghraib and the Taguba report... More reports of "abuse". And I am sure Abu Ghraib is not over. I am certain that more Abu Ghraibs are taking place in Iraq, in those shadowy deten
Read more

Why ?

Image
Yes why? What for? What does it say about you? What does it say about your countries? What does it say about your institutions? What does it say about your governments, your "culture", your "civilization", your history, your "progress", your "values", your concepts...? Have you ever stopped and pondered these questions? Have you ever stopped and asked yourselves ; how come? How come we are so advanced, how come we are so democratic, how come we are so great, how come we are so free...And how come we allow so much murder, oppression, abuse, go unaccounted for ? Have you ever asked yourself this question ? I was just listening to the BBC World radio. A report from Oxfam - and in your eyes that makes it credible - over 70 % of us Iraqis, no longer have access to clean drinking water. I say no longer have because I remember not so long ago, one could turn on the tap and drink. As simple as that. The report goes on to say that over 50% of Iraqis are u
Read more

Not so Kind...

Image
I am very pissed. I do not have many kind words towards my fellow Iraqis. Let me qualify here, before you start jumping to conclusions. I have no kind words towards that category of Iraqis who gave it away for Free to the Americans and the Iranians. I have absolutely no respect for them, no consideration and zero sympathy. I have zero respect for those bastards living and working in the Green zone. I have total disdain for those who voted and now come meagerly complain about "lack of the promised democracy"..."but we voted" broken record. Sure you voted. You voted for your sects and your wallets. I have absolutely no sympathy for those who applauded and filled their blogs with hurrays "Saddam is gone" and now cry over poor Iraq...and congratulate themselves with cheap words of sympathy coming from the occupier. It took a bunch of your kind to make it happen. Now you have lost it all. I do not want to be too cruel and say you deserve what you are getting be
Read more