Burning News...

I called my lovely good friend Nadia, a sunni ( if you know how much I hate giving those sect qualifications) married to a wonderful man , a shia, living in a predominantly shi'a neighborhood in Baghdad.
She was crying softly on the phone and I could barely hear her speak. Finally her husband picked up the conversation and gave me the news.
As some of you may know, most of Baghdad has been without electricity for some time now.
Nadia was heating water on some kerosene heater, she wanted to bathe her kids.
She tripped and the boiling water fell all over her legs, arm and chest.
She cannot get to a doctor because they had already received death threats from the Mahdi & Co death squads and she fears leaving her house. So does her husband. They might never make it back if they go past that front door.
Her burns have turned to huge pus filled blisters and from what she described, I think the burning wounds are infected now. She cannot sleep, cannot eat, cannot walk from the pain.
Since the nearest pharmacy is a few blocks away and again too dangerous to reach, her husband upon the suggestion of some friend, is applying pads soaked in vinegar on the burns to disinfect them. And of course the burning pain is worsening and the blisters getting bigger and bigger, covering all her legs, her arm and her chest.
She said:" I feel I have chains around my feet, they are heavy and I cannot feel them anymore,what have I done to deserve this? Baghdad is burning, and I am burning with it."
I listened to Nadia and her husband and was overwhelmed with feelings of powerlessness.
I could do nothing for them. Nothing at all. Powerlessness and rage, a burning rage.


More murders today and more executions. A "decapitation , a mishap, an accident". Two men wearing red orange jump suits with black hoods on their heads and one head rolled down the aisle. But the supervisor dutifully placed back next to the body.
"An act of God" said the hangmen. But overall , it went all so smoothly despite the bloody mess and very legal, naturally. A video was produced. Journalists were summoned to the Green Zone for a "special viewing".
The two ugly beasts US and the U.K decried the "manner" in which those hangings took place.
Don't you just love democracies of this type ? Beacons of human rights, fairness and objectivity.
Giving birth to an even greater democracy called the New Iraq.

What are they planning next ? Sell Iraqi, sunni, baathist, arab, nationalist, patriotic... blood in plastic bottles in the new free Baghdad market?
Vendors pushing carts and grocery shops would be advertising for it soon.
"Hey, here is a plastic bottle for you, cheap blood, only a dollar a piece . Offer it as a present to your loved ones. Drink it , baptize yourself with it, wash yourself with it, gargle with it or splash it on your burning wounds. Ahh feel the cooling effect! "
Nice job american/iraqi/english/iranian ...vampires. Very nice. A banquet of meat and blood.
If you don't like it raw , we will roast if for you on kerosene heaters. Make sure though, no to burn yourself like my friend Nadia.
Bon appetit.

Painting : Iraqi artist, Mohammed Sami.