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

I don't think you have read this in any of your news outlet. Someone jumping from the 10th floor in some dump in Indianapolis is more important than the slaughter of the minorities in Iraq, in particular the Christians of Iraq whom you generously came to "liberate" along with others... Two days ago in Baghdad, a Sabaen/Mandaen family was murdered in broad daylight. Their only crime was their religion. Yesterday, 5 Chaldeans from Kirkuk were murdered in cold blood. They belonged to two families. They were just sitting at home, trying to keep safe. The names I was able to memorize are : Bassem, Mona and Suzanne. The Chaldean Archbishop, Louis Zako issued a plea for the world to save the Christians of Iraq from murder. He textually said : " This is a deliberate policy on the part of the government, they fail to protect us...they want us to leave Iraq. We are Iraqis through and through. This is our land too. I ask my congregation to remain steadfast and not to leave this...

Paola Pisi, editor of URUKNET , kindly forwarded me some fresh, official info from the latest UN report as to the rough composition of the bulk of the Iraqi refugees. You can always trust Paola to dig out the exact information for you, and for that am most appreciative. According to official sources - and please bear in mind that official sources only take into account the Iraqis who officially registered with them. So accordingly, the figures/ratios are as follows as per the January 2009 UN Report on Refugees. And I am quoting : " There are also trends in Iraq's refugees. 55% of those registered by the United Nations are Sunnis. Another 18-20% are minority groups such as Christians, Mandeans, Yazidis, Turkmen, and Shabaks, even though they only make up 3-4% of Iraq's population." That leaves only 25% Iraqi Shiites who have also been exiled since the American occupation, since 2003. What is most evident, is that the bulk of the refugees are made of Sunnis -- 55%. Tha...

This is an Appeal to all people of good faith and particularly addressed to those who are currently involved with Iraqi refugees. You see, the truth is being buried even deeper and I, as an Iraqi woman will never accept that to happen without putting up a fight... The truth is being occulted with a black magical spin...and I, will never allow that to happen... But am not God, nor some mythical Super Woman and I cannot do it alone. I need your help. We all know what the American occupation forces have been guilty of in Iraq and in particular Baghdad. Their crimes are more documented at least by the victims. Maybe not in full details because of the huge cover up that the Iraqi puppet government and the American admin and media are engaged in, but nonetheless, the gross abject crimes committed by the Americans are relatively well known in comparison... In comparison to the vicious, sadistic crimes of the Shiites Militias...These on the other hand have not been documented because the cover...

These days, when there are news of explosions going on in Baghdad and its vicinity, like daily, I avoid reading the full story. I just read the headlines. I don't want to know anymore. I don't want to know the number of dead, I don't want to know the exact location, I don't want to know how it happened, who did it, what time, the names, age and sex of the victims...I just don't want to know anymore. I say to myself, if it is anyone I am related to, I will find out about it...sooner than later. Right now, I just don't want to know because -- am saturated. I am saturated with deaths, killings, explosions, people disappearing, people in detention, people in need, people in distress, people losing their homes --- am saturated with numbers, with names of places, with stories and memories that have developed a life of their own now - settling themselves in my mind, in my waking and sleeping hours, like unwanted tenants who have appropriated your private space, like a...

Very impressive, don't you think ? Very impressive the "ouverture" by the "anti-imperialist" "anti-zionist" representative of the Iranian government, bearing the title of President and who goes by the name of Ahmadinejad. I, too, was very impressed. What audacity ! What balls ! The President of Iran rightly exclaimed - Israel, the Jewish state of Israel supported by 99% of the Jews living on stolen land - to be a racist and cruel entity. His "propos" are absolutely correct on that count. And look at the outrage and indignation of the Europeans, all ruffled in their holocaust sympathies. How come they do not extend their holocaust sympathies to the Palestinians living under a brutal occupation for over 60 years, a brutal occupation inflicted by those same holocaust survivors ?! And I do understand the elation and exaltation of all those "well meaning" "anti-zionist" supporters. I can even go as far as to say that I can und...

You know something, there is something worse than an outright occupation... That something worse, is when people try to fuck with your brains...They distort reality, truth, to such an extent, that you are left busy trying not to go crazy....Just in case, you have not noticed, but this is what resistance to torture is all about - not to go crazy. Every time reality hits me, the reality of Iraq hits me, I try to push it away...the ugliness is too much to contend with. The UGLINESS in capital letters. I am sure those who devised this occupation are not too concerned with aesthetics... The Ugliness is not just physical...I wish it were just that. The Ugliness sieves through so many levels, so many levels it is hard to articulate. But if I ask you to trust me on that one, and tell you that I am not the only who feels it that way - will you believe me ? The average Iraqi is used on all levels. When I say he/she is being USED, I mean USED. Used like an object. Used like a thing. Used like a n...

Some of you are already familiar with my dear relative Radhee. Radhee who lives in an all sooooooneee ghetto, in a ghetto where to cross to the other side requires huge detours and being searched through endless checkpoints, and there is no guarantee that he can make it back to the ghetto alive. Radhee stopped going out unless it is imperative. Lately his heart condition has worsened to the point of necessitating angioplasty. Impossible in the "new Iraq " to undergo such a thing. Hospitals don't even have catheters to start with. As I mentioned before, even during the brutal embargo years, Ibn Sina hospital used to perform open heart surgery. Radhee tells me that now he is being followed by a junior MD who has not even graduated and is not specialized in anything. Radhee says there are no doctors left. And rightly so, since over 70 % of the Iraqi medical body has fled. And they are not planning on returning either. Many a times I found myself calling his "doctor...

I woke up with a wonderful feeling this morning. I have not felt that happy in ages. Like when you wake up with a smile on your face...I was smiling. I knew then, that something has been sorted out during my sleep. The troubles with the blog have been sorted out, so it is up and about and running again...but my users stats is still frozen but at 33'000. The detainees have been adding up, I suppose. RELEASE DETAINEE 33'000 NOW ! Unfreeze the bloody thing NOW! And when I woke up, I checked my inbox -- my morning ritual, I found several mails. Great ones for which I thank you all. Very touched. One in particular got me thinking, with racing thoughts, I could not ignore. This person who is VERY committed to my beloved - Iraq, enquired about why my blog was blocked and said to the effect -- Iraq can be forgotten now and the so-called anti-imperialists, the Arabs and the Palestinians can dance over the corpses of 1 million and half Iraqis and celebrate the US-Iranian alliance. Somet...

My cousin Bakr (typical Sunni name) calls me. - Please help us, we must really get out, it has become totally unbearable...it's unlivable, we simply can't continue... Everyday there is an explosion, we can't even make it to the gates of the house. We are surrounded by Iranians and Shiite militias. Even the police cannot be trusted. I never knew the Shiites to be like that. You know X, Y and Z, they had to embrace Shiism, they had to, they had no choice. Your uncle is going crazy, he can't believe what has happened to us. I can't find a job, am too scared to seek one. Your other cousin is too scared to venture out, what if they kidnap him. We can't afford it anymore. We have no more income, no savings left...everything is too expensive. We can't afford it anymore. Nothing functions anymore...I am tired of hearing Persian spoken here and they block all the roads every time an Iranian dignitary passes by... Qum is ruling us. I am too scared for our lives...Plea...

Since most of you out there have short attention span, and reading long articles does not "turn you on" - I am presenting you with part 2 of my interview with Malcolm Lagauche - hoping you have already digested part 1 of the "Fall of Baghdad." - Layla : Hello again Malcolm, let's continue... If I "hear" you right, Americans absolutely had to demonize Saddam to get to Iraq. I am thinking if it was only a question of getting rid of Saddam Hussein, they could have gotten rid of him without having to destroy Iraq and the decades of hard work. Why did they need to destroy the Iraqi infrastructure, the cultural and historical "patrimoine" and more importantly why did they need the collaboration of another country on the axis of evil - Iran - to achieve their aims ? Malcolm : The propaganda was all aimed at Saddam, yet some politicians realized that the country consisted of more than one person. By publicly demonizing Saddam, it was automatic that t...

Some shameless Iraqis and others, will be celebrating 9th of April as a national public holiday - the day of the Fall of Baghdad. Festivities are being planned in the Green Zone on that "special" occasion. Iran will be contributing its poison laced -- candies, tea and pistachios and on the food banquet will lay thousands of corpses...mutilated by its government militias. Fireworks specially imported from America will illuminate the skies of Baghdad - another shock and awe "celebration." I want to join in the "celebrations" as well, but being the black sheep of the Iraqi "family", I will do it my own way... So on this "special" occasion, I have decided to interview Malcolm Lagauche. This interview was not structured and intentionally so. I wanted it to flow, so there was no set of specific questions sent forth...it was one question at a time...a bit like our Iraqi lives, one day at time... - Layla : Hello Malcolm and nice to have you ...

I noticed that my users stats in my profile, has been frozen at the number 32'282 for the past 3 weeks or so. I know for a fact that I get more profile views traffic than that. I wrote to Blogger.com and no reply. I demand that my users stats be freed from its detention no. 32'282. And NOW !

A friend from Greece, sent me this poem. Thank you Y. A poem from an Iraqi prisoner, detained in Bucca Camp. Bucca camp where Kamel and Omar are still lingering there...caught like verses in barbed wire...Are they really there or somewhere else ? We don't know...Maybe we will never know. Maybe one day, they will become ex-detainees too and will compose their "experience" in poetry form...Maybe they will call it "Surviving America". Maybe this is how poets and madmen are born. When I see you, I see Paradise approaching... By Abu Izzuddin. Stop at the ruins and ask the wrecked corner. . . Are my people aware of what's happening to me? Ask the river, does it still remember me? . . . And the people, do they still hold their noses high? Are they sleeping in comfort and in peace? . . . With an unembarrassed smile upon their lips Tell them I am a hostage to humiliation. . . . Oh, my poetry, or have they become deaf My partner, my passion for you is killing me. . . ...

An online friend, Ed, composed a musical piece with the lyrics from my post Year 7 . His son Joshua is on the piano. It is quite painful to hear one's own words in music...more so than writing them... Ed and Joshua, am really touched and I love it. Thank you both and Bless you. For those interested you may leave your comments on Ed's youtube page here . Youtube video : everreadyyy 2.04.09 Composer and acoustic guitar : Ed Schmidt Piano : Joshua Schmidt

I have a tough time falling asleep, hence siesta time or napping is my only way to recuperate... I dozed off this afternoon, and you know when you are in what I call "the twilight zone", just when you are about to fall into deep slumber, but not quite...Guess who visited me ? Go on, have a wild guess. In that semi-state, I had a dream (hopefully it's just a dream and not a vision), I dreamt that Ayatollah Khameini and Ahmadinejad knocked on my door and as I opened it, I was forced by their security forces to kiss both of them on the cheeks (thankfully it was only the cheeks). I tried explaining to the security guards that I had a serious allergy to facial hair, but to no avail... Meanwhile, I could have sworn I heard some major drilling taking place right next to my ears... I woke up in a sweat and with a splitting headache... The major drilling was just the noise of my neighbor's high heels shoes stomping above my head, but when I got out of bed and went to wash my f...

Been told that my posts have no substance...guess what ? I'm going to give you some real substance tonight. Something to sink your teeth into... I have some real important, substantial news - KFC opened in Fallujah. For those who are not into globalization - KFC stands for Kentucky (bible belt, bible thumping redneck, heehaaa) Fried Chicken. Got to love being liberated by "middle America". Why do they call it "middle America"? All of America is middle to me - actually below middle, kind of way below the middle...like way down. But listen, don't want to spoil the good news for ya. KFC opened in Fallujah...now if this is not "liberation" don't know what is. Colonel Sanders has blessed Fallujah with his hormones riddled chicken (heehaaa). Now that's a real achievement for democray, don't ya think ? Bet you, you're into junk food too. So fuckin' lickin' good. Taste buds used to garbage -- yummy so lickin' good. And democracy...