An Arab Woman Blues - Reflections in a sealed bottle...

This is a very difficult post for me to write. Not because, I am short of words, but trying to find the adequate words to convey the exactitude of what am about to express is what makes it so difficult... I think, from the all the people I have met both online and offline, there is only one person who will understand, and she happens to be a female friend of mine. I am sure she will understand. Hence I dedicate this post to her. The reason I chose the above title for this post, is because I firmly believe that Iraq and the Iraqi people, both individually and collectively have been used as dumping grounds...and there is no adequate title and name to express it ALL. Dumping grounds for heaps of things. I visualize it-- as Iraq, with her people, as the ground to throw garbage in - human garbage. The rejects of Humanity. Usually in human interactions, people try their best to give, at least on the surface, the best of what they have...or aspire to the best. Iraq and Iraqis on the other han...

Am too tired to write...Bush, Obama, the legacy continues...Iraq is the pits of hell, a hell you created (democraps and republikkkans alike) Damn you. Am too tired to write, so I will let an Iraqi American by the name of TIMZ (Tommy Hanna) rap it for you...for your "sweet" ears... Am too tired to write, so is Iraq...but not for long.

I think I have already mentioned it - I hate domestic work. I find no glory, no satisfaction and no pleasure in cleaning, sweeping, dusting, washing and vacuuming... I noticed my rug, it needs a clean sweep. Major vacuuming. An industrial, highly efficient, manufactured machine to suck out all the dust... But I force myself to do it. I think of it as a stoic enterprise in "character building". And while am building my character, I fantasize that this huge industrial complex has invented a robot that does it all. Go dust! And the robot automatically follows your orders. Go vacuum ! And the robot diligently and meticulously picks every particle lying around. Unfortunately it is a fantasy. By the end of this cleaning ordeal, I personally feel like an automated rusting piece of metal. Oh! but what a feeling afterwards. All is vacuumed clean and spotless... The disorder has magically disappeared. The dirt has been cleared. The unwanted items stashed away...All has been vacuumed. B...

I love Discretion. I guess I am discreet by nature, maybe because I am reserved by nature...or maybe it is due to upbringing, where there were no TV reality shows and where letting your hair down in public was not allowed --- Oprah style. Or maybe because I firmly believe that the realm of the private is sacred, that it is not really necessary to go around flaunting it... I also think that the frontiers, the borders between what is publicly known and unknown are also made of discretion. Discretion comes in many forms, just like anything else, really...And funnily enough, discretion and digression sound the same...flip sounds of the same coin. Let me give you an example, a live example in my memory... In Iraq, prior to our "liberation" sects and religion were not discussed, they were not an issue. Your sect and or your religious affiliation was at your discretion. We were discreet about such matters. Not because we were afraid, but because I and many others intimately understo...

I feel so tired...but I wanted to get this post out, today, in particular today -- the 21st of March. Why ? Because today, in Iraq and the rest of the Arab world, the 21st of March is Mother's Day. This date also happens to be the first day of Spring, also called Nawroz or the New Year as per the Zoroastrian tradition. In Iran for instance, they give 15 days of holidays on this occasion...and only one day for the Islamic Eid...makes one wonders how Islamic the Iranian Republic really is. But that is not really what I wanted to write about. I just find the dates to be too "coincidental". Take for instance the brutal invasion and occupation of our Beloved Motherland. It took place right on the first day of Spring - the New Year as they call it. And today, Obama has offered an olive branch to Iran, its collaborator - its collaborator in the destruction of our Motherland. Coincidences eh ? Tomorrow in Iraq, some will be celebrating the Nawroz, in particular the sectarian foll...

Exactly six years ago, in a dark delivery room, obstetricians and midwives gathered around a tattered mattress covered with torn sheets while rats and roaches scurried past, on the edges of its forgotten walls... Exactly six years ago, her screams of agony were heard, the midwives rushed with no anesthesia, no gloves and no syringes, rushed to watch in anticipation the birth of this new infant... It was designed, genetically modified, cloned and conceived overseas -- implanted in vitro through a brutal gang rape, implanted in her womb on a dark night, 6 years ago. Its conception took over 13 years, and its delivery was not without violent labor contractions and pangs...not without gut wrenching pains... No electricity that night, just the brisk light of projected missiles falling like shooting stars. The obstetricians and midwives rubbed their hands with glee and told her -- watch the fireworks greeting your newborn. A firework of phosphorus green and red bombs... The delivery was slow...

I am in a "talkative" mood today, am sorry don't mean don't disturb you... But you see, am "slightly" disturbed here. No, it's not the "time of the month", either. I was watching " Al Itijah al-Muakess " (opposite directions) on Al-Jazeera (ARABIC - note the capitals here...for in English, you will not be viewing any of it). The theme -- the Objectivity of the Western Media. Ah, that darned word again, Objectivity...gives me the creeps. Two guests : Faysal Dawjee, a South African, from the "electronic site" as they like to call it in Arabic - SALAM. And an English journalist, Hugh Mill -- not to be confused with John Stuart Mill...not that it makes such a huge difference. (If you are not familiar with J.S.Mill, kindly joogle him) So is the Western media biased by any chance ? Of course, my first reaction, which am trying very hard to quell is -- HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. An uncontrollable nervous laughter...quelled for the sake of ...

Message in a Bottle ....

The power of words -- phrases, verdicts and sentences...they take you up and down, they can make you, break you and change your life for ever... In the beginning was the Word...that first sentence uttered...a sentence made of a human breath -- sound, syllables, vowels...and words were discovered...language was born... Syntax was formed, phrases developed, and sentences filled articles, books and libraries... Today, there is a diarrhea of sentences...anyone can utter a sentence, anyone can formulate one, anyone can pronounce one , anyone can decide life and death... The word has become a sword... The sentence has become a prison, a guillotine...has become the gallows... le bourreau du 21 eme siecle... Sentences are emitted, proclaimed and issued...ever so easily, so cheaply, so flippantly, so irresponsibly, so criminally... In the past, the oral word, the verbal contract had meaning, had weight...today it is not longer the case...In the past, a verbal promise was akin to a written vow.....

Oh! Dearie me, how can that be ? How can that be possible that the "greatest and mightiest power on earth " has been abducted, hijacked, detained and occupied by a lobby ? Oh, but it is...and has been for a very long time.... It is not only the Madoffs who have occupied you, you know ! Read this, o' wankers. "The candidate for a leading US intelligence post has withdrawn his nomination after accusing the country's Israel lobby of plumbing "the depths of dishonour and indecency" to assassinate his character...The libels on me and their easily traceable email trails show conclusively that there is a powerful lobby determined to prevent any view other than its own from being aired," Freeman said. "The tactics of the Israel lobby plumb the depths of dishonour and indecency and include character assassination, selective misquotation, the wilful distortion of the record, the fabrication of falsehoods, and an utter disregard for the truth..." re...

I am a clumsy woman...I do things backwards...I am not terribly sophisticated and am not terribly smart either... I missed Women's international day...Instead I posted on the 8th of March, something celebrating, in my own way, the birth of the Prophet. How clumsy can one get ? I could have devoted a whole post to Women instead... But what is done cannot be undone as Shakespeare said...so let me tell you what the Prophet said about the Feminine... Right before he died, he urged his companions to protect women and to treat them with kindness... Following in the footsteps of the Divine Scriptures, he reminded his companions that Widows and Orphans were the responsibility of the Ummah... For those of you who do not know Arabic, Ummah is a derivative of Umm and Umm means Mother. Rahman and Raheem , the two attributes of the Divine, Compassionate and Merciful are derived from the root word... Rahama or Rahm ...meaning respectively -- to have Compassion/Mercy (rahama) or Womb (rahm) A...

I am still hooked to that video I posted yesterday . And you need to watch it, to make sense of this post. Apart from the "humor", and I did find it "funny" in a sad sort of way...I re-watched it several times and I believe that this piece of video provides an accurate background picture of what this Occupation amounts to. I took the time to listen to every single word, the sentences, the reactions of the policemen...etc.. Do not get me wrong, I do not give a fig (please notice my polite tone) about the puppet Iraqi police. Rather I am using this video as some form of oral historiography of the Occupation. I shall explain myself. This very short video reveals many aspects of the American occupation and the interplay of forces on the ground. - the first aspect is the one established fact, and alluded to by the American officer --the vile sectarian nature of the police force and by correlation of the puppet government. It is a known fact for example, that many of the ...

I found this fucking video about a fucking GI training the fucking Iraqi police. The fucking translation is fucking incomplete...The fucking Iraqi sergeant fucking claims that some Iraqis are being fucking arrested because the fucking Americans believe them (Iraqis) are fucking Iranians... So fucking Iranians are in Iraq are they ? No shit ! Who brought them there, yabba, apart from the fucking Americans themselves ? And fucking notice how the Yankee prick is interrogating them (the eyeraki police) and asking them if they belong to the fucking Jaysh Al-Mahdi, the fucking sectarian drillers...but the whole of Iraq is ruled by fucking sectarian drillers...on the lookout for more flesh to fucking pierce and drill... But please do watch the fucking video, as it is very fucking revelatory about the kind of fucking occupation Iraqis live under. I mean, if this fucking Yankee sergeant is treating the fucking Iraqi police that way, can you imagine how he fucking treats the Iraqi civilians ? Bu...

Hamed called me yesterday, I heard some excitement in his voice... - Layla did you hear the news ? - What news Hamed, I do nothing but hear the news... - Obama's speech ya Layla...Obama's speech. - What about Obooma's speech ? - I saw it and heard on Al-Sharqiya TV, it was later announced on another chain. He textually said " The current Iraqi government are all Bush's men " -- implying not his men. - Yeah so ? It is not like he just invented dynamite...we know that already... - Wait, hear the rest...in less than 24 hours later, Talabani flew to Tehran and paid an official visit to Ahamdinejad to discuss urgent "security issues", A.Mehdi cut his overseas trip short and flew to Tehran as well, including a few others from the puppet government... And true enough, Hamed's story was true. I later saw not only Talabani walking the red Persian carpet, more rolling on the red Persian carpet, but guess who came and spent the night in Baghdad ? 24 hours l...