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

Following my previous post here , I just received  fresh information regarding Hiba Al-Shamaree, the fellow Iraqi woman writer/blogger who has been kidnapped/arrested by the Iraqi forces on the 20th of January 2010 in the Sayyediya neighborhood in Baghdad. Her sister has just updated her blog with the following : Hiba Al-Shamaree is arrested and detained by Baghdad's security forces on the charges of supporting the Iraqi Resistance (through her writings), s he will be presented to the Criminal/Penal Court... I am now authorized by Hiba to reveal her true identity to you. Her name : Hanan Ali Ahmad Al Mashadani Age : 33 years old Profession: Doctor in Ophtalmology The charges pressed against her : Inciting to violence and supporting the Resistance and according to informed sources this is a charge that falls under the clause of Terrorism as per the Iraqi law. Hiba lived in Amman with us, but she insisted on going to Baghdad on a humanitarian mission/assignmen...

English Garbage has not changed since the colonial days, since the days of Her Majesty's Empire, for Garbage remains Garbage. The proof, look at not so Great Britain today - a mere lapdog, a poodle, a verminous puppy at America's beck and call. Garbage remains Garbage. England, the UK, not so Great Britain, I will use those terms interchangeably. For me they are all the same and point to the same. The snake's head, the viper's head has become its tail. In Arabic we say "rass al haya el Ingles" . The snake's head are the English...today we say "thayl al haya el Ingles" today they are its tail. And a tail you sure have become, they keep wagging you...but between the head and the tail, garbage remains garbage. It's like there is the surface of a garbage bin and the bottom of a garbage bin and you happen to be at the bottom of the bin. Oh, all those plums in arse (ass for the yanks) exclamations around the Inquiry, oh the Inquiry par exc...

I did say I will continue this post...and you've had several days now to think about that question - What is the American plan for Iraq ? Thus far I have not received any answers. That is quite strange, bearing in mind all the palaver, all the media propaganda, all the paid websites, all the paid bloggers, singing to the chorus of Democracy...and still not one reply to a very simple question... I will pick up where I left off...and I find myself repeating myself like a parrot, and it still amazes me, that 7 years down the line, the majority of people are still totally clueless... It still amazes that since our day of "liberation", when I remind people with figures, they look baffled...and shake their heads in disbelief, unable to comprehend, as if I am talking Chinese... The American plan for Iraq so far has given the following; again to freshen you up even though I full know that it is a fruitless endeavor but I will repeat it again and again, for the record : ...

There are many things I really need to write about. 1) Continue my post on the American plan in Iraq. Today over 3 bomb blasts, over 30 Iraqis dead, the execution of Ali Hassan Al Majeed, and a confirmation of a ban on secular and Sunni electoral candidates. So you had enough time to think about what the American plan for Iraq is. So what is it ? No one has managed to answer that question yet...and don't you dare utter the word democracy in front of me. 2) I also need to write about the disgraceful role of Al-Jazeera both English/Arabic in parroting American/Iranian propaganda in as far as Iraq is concerned. Remind me to do that will you ? This media outlet, behind its high tech, professional veneer and polished facade, is playing a dirty role in promoting and giving further credence to the American, Iranian, Israeli discourse around Iraq. And I am not going to let you off the hook either Al-Jazeera. Until I get to that, I urge you readers to LEARN HOW TO READ articles, rea...

Another long sleepless night...I thought I'd check for the latest news, I really wish I had not. This is something I can't remain indifferent to, this is something  I must denounce, and this is something you must actively fight as well. The Face of Evil is what you need to fight. The Face of Evil and his nick name is VIOLENCE against WOMEN. It must be stopped by any means. ANY MEANS. I have said it before and will repeat it again, Violence against women kills more women than wars, disease and accidents combined. Violence in its most brutal, cruel, evil, sadistic form was seen in the New Iraq, where women were raped, tortured in the most abject of ways, mutilated in their genitals, some by the Shiite militias and some were prisoners of Abu Ghraib and suffered rape and torture by your American brave boys. I even mentioned the story of one Iraqi woman I know of, who can no longer walk because she was repeatedly raped by your brave shits and then had both legs tied apart un...

Can anyone answer that question ? Not answer it just off the top of their heads and blurt out the usual garbage that we have been hearing since 2003, but answer it by looking at the full picture from 2003 until this very day... Politics are not about who says what and when only, politics are about taking an eagle's view of a situation, about understanding the agenda behind political decisions and statements, about understanding who, what, where the key players are from, who do they serve, what is their agenda so on and so forth... Political naivety does not pay. Political immaturity is deadly. Political faith/trust in who says what and when is idiocy. Sure it is important to connect dots, have an eye for details, but the question remains, what is the overall plan, and what are the best ways of achieving it. This is what one should look for when attempting to answer the above question. I can't go through ALL of the events, pretexts and actions that took place since 2003,...

Frankly the subject of Iraq makes me very nauseous. It is not Iraq the concept but Iraqis that make me violently ill....and in second lieu, the Arabs make me violently ill, by Arabs I mean all Arabs including Palestinians... Their discourses make me ill, their blog posts make me ill, their ideas make me ill, their anal-ysis make ill, their articles make me ill... I am as ill as Iraq. And like someone tied down by a long convalescence, waiting for a final prognosis, I want to occasionally throw up from over medication...the medication of anal-ysis, dialysis, paralysis. These articles, discourses, anal-ysis, are like cheap generics, self made and concocted in some kitchen, in some toilet, infected with parasites, and they make my stomach churn... Mediocre copies of the real thing...not even. Slogans thrown here and there, balls exploding with narcissistic pride and stats reviews, sudden out of nowhere experts on the matter...ego trippers masturbating over their publicized names,...

I have no time to finish part 2 of the Uncomfortably Awake previous post. ALL is uncomfortable... The most urgent pieces of news you need to retain for this morning : - First and foremost, there is a killing spree against IRAQI CHRISTIANS IN MOSUL. My very informed sources tell me that those behind the killings are the KURDS. The Archbishop of Mosul is urging for patience in the face of Genocide . Viva American Freedom & Democracy. - Second piece of news, there are very serious death threats being issued regularly against the 500 or so members (mainly Sunni Arabs) who have been excluded from the up coming elections and who belong to the Salih Al-Mutlak bloc of the National Accord Front. First on the list is Saleh Al-Mutlaq himself. Viva American Freedom & Democracy. - Third piece of news. IRAN, bloody Iran is behind the exclusion of those 500 or so members, it is not in the interest of Iran to have a secular party win the elections, a secular party that is clearly anti-...

What a start to the day! What a start. Yesterday I promised myself that I will break that pattern - the pattern of long sleepless nights, where I feel am constantly jet lagged even though my butt has not moved from my chair. I said to myself, "ya Layla - be normal again please" So I struck a deal with my alter ego, that commanding voice of reason and promised it that I will hit the sack early, like real early...like 11 pm is real early for me. I also promised that imperious voice of normality that I shall not come close to my computer before retreating to sleep. Finally, I thought to myself, a full night sleep, no nightmares, no thoughts cogitating in my head about Iraq, Haiti, Afghanistan, Gaza, Iran, the world...just a normal, benign night....and lo and behold, I kept to my promise. Never mind that I woke up startled, feeling am missing something important only two hours later, then forced myself to slumber again, only to wake up another two hours later...I realized ...

Ever since I've started blogging, I have not stopped receiving criticisms. There is always something somewhere someone is not pleased with. Despite the fact that I've put disclaimers on all of my blogs, some still find a window of opportunity to lash their venom, one way or another... I receive messages about every single aspect of these blogs. One does not like the layout, the other does not like the style, the third does not approve of the content, the fourth is not pleased with the language, whatever it is, they will always find a way to stick their noses in... It can be just about anything...anything. The painting, the music, the colors, the subject matter, the style, the poetry, any fucking thing... Listen and listen well and this is my final word on this matter. This is MY writing space and I shall write whatever I bloody well please. I owe you nothing, no justification, no explanation...it is not like I am charging the reader, it is not like I am asking for fi...

Have they managed to bury you, bury you alive in desert sands, in the middle of an orange colored night in the midst of a desert storm.... Erase you, erase you and erase your traces erase your name your origins and your ID your prophets are not from you nor is the alphabet they are the bastards of history let us find them other roots, other fathers away from you... your scent is no longer nor is your name you are an abandoned woman, they stamped your expiry age on imported cans... replaced on shelves of amnesia replaced with museums with statues shrouded in black cloth... You are no longer, the green is not green and the white is only blood germinating in scorched lands germinating in hot sands... I sniff for you like a dog a dog lost in a desert storm... Layla Anwar. Desert Storm 16/17th January 1991 -- present.

When the earth shall quake with its quaking   And the earth shall bring forth her burdens,   and man shall say, ‘What ails her’  On that day she shall tell her tidings, because thy Lord inspires her.  On the day when men shall come up in separate bands to show their works and he who does the weight of a dust particle of good shall see it  and he who does the weight of a dust particle of evil shall see it  (The Koran; Sura 99- The Earthquake) I really can't erase those pictures from my mind...the human tragedy in Haiti is beyond anyone's imagination. Been ardently watching the news, and more pictures are coming forth, hundreds of corpses litter the streets, survivors can still hear groans from under the rubble, families lost, people wandering in the streets not knowing where to go, survivors camping on damp grounds, for the 3rd night running... From what I gathered, no aid has arrived. One family of 5 who lost everything, received ju...

Nothing irritates me more than those left wing jerks sitting behind their computers theorizing from the safety of their homes about who, what and how the Resistance should : be, plan, act... Who are you to start with ? You are a nobody with a theory, with a bible that you carry like some born again fundamentalist fanatic. Your bible carries the name of Marx, Engels, Lenin or some anachronistic personality from the Bolshevik Revolution and its theoreticians..and it has NO bearing, NO influence, NO hold, NO affinity, on the one who is resisting, none whatsoever... Then was then, now is now...before it was Red, today it is Green... And it is no coincidence that it is Green either. It is no coincidence because the new world order as expounded in the post Soviet Union collapse - the collapse of the Red -- made it very clear that its new enemy took on a Green color. Just before operation Desert Storm...I heard American officials talking of the Green threat and the Green flag...Mind...

I can already tell this post is going to tear me apart...just evoking the word Grandma engulfs me with emotions...and memories... I absolutely loved my grandmother...for me she was always young and old at the same time...I have a hundred stories about her...I loved her paradoxes - her innocence and her deep wisdom, her hearty laughter and her suffocated grief, her frailty and her strength, her yielding and her stubbornness, her weakness and her force... My grandmother for me was a source of soothing comfort, of warmth, of affection, of love, of power and of blessings...she would always pray for us, all of us, her grandchildren and she prayed for me... I remember her at different stages of her life, including her old age, when she could no longer walk, she was not that old, just her early 70's, but she saw too much in her life and that had a toll on her... She passed away just before 2003, and however much it pains me to say so - but I am glad she did...I would hate to thin...

We are born to hate says one... Direct descendants of the cowboys, direct descendants of the Founding Fathers. They all look white in this video, and their number is growing, along with their websites... I wonder if the CIA, the FBI, are profiling them at all; are they scanning their intents, are they checking their place of birth, and do they have a data base with their thousands of names listed ? I do not think so... These white men in the video, are not only white...yes they are not only white., some of them are blacks, some latinos and some asians but they look exactly like those men in the video -- because what you see in this video, is EXACTLY THE TYPE of men and women that landed in Iraq and are still in Iraq - sponsored by US STATE TERRORISM. These extremists, fundamentalists, terrorists are a sample of what Iraq has endured since 2003. If you want to see the real face of terrorism, look inside yourselves, look inside America. This is where it all started...

There is really no point trying to find more excuses and justifications, more denial and more masks...IT IS ALL TOO OBVIOUS, even your average idiot can spot it - POLITICAL SHIISM (and its ideology IN PRACTICE) is SECTARIAN. FULL STOP. And it does not take a genius to realize that IRAN IS A FASCIST SECTARIAN SHIITE ENTITY. And it does not take a luminary to realize that America handed IRAQ to the Shiite fascists backed, funded, trained, armed, by IRAN and working FOR IRAN. Get it ? Or is that too complicated for your simpleton minds ?! A series of dangerous developments are taking place in Iraq - not that it has ever stopped, but definitely reminiscent of the events that led up to the 2006 sectarian war, instigated and supported by the USA, Iran and Israel. Two days ago, a sweep of mass arrests of Sunnis took place in Baghdad, Tikrit and Mosul leading to an exodus of families to the Northern part of the country. This mass of arrests came over and above the daily explosions and ki...

I received a very powerful, candid  and touching email from an Iraqi fellow. He wrote it after reading my post Hearts in Exile . I would like to share it with you and with his permission... "...this world is cruel, this world is a whore, a slut, a bitch. this is reality, this world was not meant to be beautiful, this world is cruel and ugly and it is we who have to beautify it...us and none other than us... I have been ignoring myself for so long, ignoring things I hear here and there, ignoring people protests, complaints, tyranny, death...death...I have been ignoring death, people's screams, people's loss, crime, murder, rape, poverty, destruction...everything...I have been ignoring everything within myself and my surroundings...ignoring it all, giving a blind eye and a deaf ear. I had and still have the ability to ignore myself, my pain, my suffering, my depression, my ups and downs, my sorrow...fact is we are now a cursed family, we are a broken family, we are a ...

Someone asked me the question if the noun Al- Qaeda in Arabic means latrine ? This very short post will give you different meanings for the word al-Qaeda, including some etymological roots - by no means exhaustive as Arabic is a complex and rich language. Every noun in Arabic derives from a Verb. Qa'ada is the verb to sit Maq'ad is a noun meaning --  a seat, a chair, a position,  and a polite word for bottom. i.e the part of the body that one sits with/on. Qae'da is another noun meaning - the base/foundation of something, can be thing, concept, etc... Qae'da also means - the generally agreed upon rule. Like you can say al qaeda is - meaning - ordinarily that would be such and such... Qawa'ed means Grammar and can also mean the rules or foundations of something. Qawa'ed al Qanoon , or Qawaed al Adab -- i.e the rules of Law, or the rules of Literature...i.e the agreed upon definitions/rules of something. Other etymological derivatives from t...

A daring title but one well worth pondering... This topic has been on my mind with a growing urgency and now is the time to face it head on... It is no easy subject as so much has already been said about who and what constitutes Al-Qaeda. Tons of literature and films have been produced since 9/11, all claiming to know who Al-Qaeda is. I don't know for sure who Al-Qaeda is nor do I have immediate answers...but what I do know is how to link dots...I love linking dots. Don't you ? So I spend my thinking time linking dots...picking details here and there, gathering them together to get the bigger picture that will take me closer to the Truth...I am no investigative journalist, but I do love detective work. So who is Al-Qaeda ? Wrong questions give wrong answers. The question to ask is - Does Al-Qaida as an ORGANIZATION really exist ? Now that is a much smarter question to start speculating with... Last week, someone suggested I watch a documentary by the BBC called ...