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

This is a rushed post, I need to jot down my thoughts before they rush out... Nasrallah - he's no Sayyed for me, threatens grave and dire consequences if there's a follow through in the Hariri Tribunal - meaning he's threatening a civil war in Lebanon based on sect. That was foreseen when the Hezb of the Charlatans kept all the characteristics of an armed militia, and joined the Lebanese political process. Does that remind you of anyone else ? Yep it sure does - it reminds me of the Iran backed, funded, trained militias and death squads who murdered Iraqis with impunity and joined the Iraqi political process as Shiite parties. Why Nasrallah's threats - typical of a neighborhood's thug. And why now ? Did the latest Wikileaks revelations show anything that bothers Iran by any chance ? And in the same vein, why the latest announcement for the lynching of Tariq Aziz, charged with "deliberate crimes and murder against humanity" - murder against whom ex...

It is important that I continue with my thoughts, I do not wish to lose any of the insights am getting, the many levels of Truth I am grasping...I am hungry but food can wait, I am sleepy but sleep can wait, I need fresh air but breathing can wait...I am not just doing this for the reader, I am also doing it for me. An ex boyfriend once told me I should have become a detective - he said sniffing the Truth is in your blood. I think he's right. I love story telling and the use of metaphors, symbols and allegories in the narrative, because through these, the Essence of things is revealed. Rational analysis is important too, but in dire circumstances when the unthinkable is experienced, analysis means paralysis - you go round and round in circles, because what's lying in your guts, beneath the logical rational mind is not being addressed...so how can I possibly waste a moment like this one ? And what prompts me so, except Love ? It's really very simple isn't it ? For ...

This may be one post or a series of posts - I don't know yet. I shall leak my own thoughts as I see fit... Yesterday's Wikileaks release of classified US Army documents were an important turning point for me personally and for me as an Iraqi. But not only for me, I know of other Iraqis who sighed with a little, a LITTLE relief. I caught one on Twitter who wrote - I love you Wikileak, maybe now I can sleep with a little peace . I uttered out of the blue - in some sort of automatic writing - We demand to know from America and Iran why you killed, tortured, raped and exiled us. As an Iraqi, I felt that I was slowly waking up from a long nightmare. I held on to that feeling and I hardly slept at all ...something was churning inside of me. I needed to get to the bottom of it. It was not the familiar rage, nor the all too familiar sadness, there was something more...hence this post. I spent many hours reading the actual War Logs on Wikileaks Website. Names have been erase...

The Universe, the Cosmos, Awareness, Consciousness, Love, Hate, Friendship, Life...the triumph of Love over Death....All is made of many levels...so is History. There is the Beginning and there is the End. There is the beginning of Civilization and there is the end of Civilization...and there are the gray areas in between, the pangs of Death and Rebirth. History's many levels are made of beginnings and ends...and those gray areas. Some beginnings illuminate the world and some of its endings darken it into total Obscurity. So how do we define History ? Most probably by its contribution to Civilization - by its insertion in the Civilization process... Civil-ization process. Civil, civic, civility, civilization.... If I take the above as some preliminary definition of what History is, then Fukuyama is correct. This is the end of History - but not for the same reasons. I don't know about you, but for me, History resides in tangibles...eternal tangibles, that withstan...

I carry many secrets inside of me...I am no partisan of letting your hair down in public. Not that I care so much about reputation, whatever I do or say, I am absolved...yes, you see I take the words of your Lord so literally...I figure I have paid well in advance...so it's not my reputation that is at stake...but I do care for the people I love...I am very protective of them. I don't want to use their sufferings as feed for a blog post, and am always very cautious to protect their anonymity...not only out of fear, but out of respect...respect for their pain. Pain too requires respect, just in case you did not know. So am a bit of a prude, I allude to things, write around a subject...of course inside am dying for the Truth to be grasped, like some spring flower you pluck to smell its full fragrance... Yet, still, Respect prevents me from divulging too much. Yet, the secrets I harbor, the intimate details of what happened, leave me so sleeplessly raw. Maybe this do...

There is no clash of civilization or culture ---there is a clash of ignorance. This is the age of Ignorance, this is the Jahiliya. Many like to believe that the Jahiliya is a period that is bygone. Not so, the Jahiliya is ever present - every where. It is present in the West and it is present in the East. So are the idols that characterize this period. There is Belief  - you inherit that stuff from your family, environment, school, society and there is Faith. Faith is not Belief. Faith is something that one works on, cultivates, infused with much Grace. Grace is not tied to any race, sect, culture or civilization...Grace is above and beyond...like Rain, it falls on everyone... It is with this in mind, that I want to approach the subject of Islam and the Other. And it is with this in mind that I want to tackle the West and Islam. I am not sure I want to use the current terminology that one often comes across in today's literature on this topic - words like -- tolerance, ac...

I am very, very pissed off. Really, truly pissed off. I am pissed off at Iraqis and at their complacency, silence and apathy...I really am. Daily I receive not less than 50 to 70 emails all in Arabic - all articles on Iraq. Sorry but that's not good enough. It's not good enough at all. These are emails circulating within a closed circle and they are not made available in English to a wider public. There are thousands of Iraqis who have good command of the English language, they live in the US, England and elsewhere, scattered all over...what are you doing exactly ? The Answer is NOTHING. You are doing NOTHING. The Iraqi blogosphere and social media is as shameful and as pathetic as the current Iraqi situation. Why aren't more of you on Twitter or Facebook - writing and informing people in English ? Why, what exactly are you waiting for ? But you are good at leaving teary comments on youtube songs...Well this is not what's going to save your asses. Daily in you...

I get to meet all sorts of people online...and in some way am grateful. Am grateful because everyday I learn more about human idiocy and human courage... I've met some really vile people - a great majority, and I've met some good people - a minority. You meet all sorts...literally...a microcosmic world made huge right before your very eyes...and I keep on learning... Today I met a Vet, who said to me : I could almost feel your anger. If I were from Iraq I would have rage. Have bits from Vietnam, was on wrong side. I'm anti-war, but it's because I was in Vietnam. I soon learned we are not the 'good guys'.I went to war  to kill and win medals. Naive. But I met HER on my 1st day. The Girl I met on Christmas Day 1968. I felt God put HER there to show me what war really is... then he added : Layla your country was always a great civilization...I'm ashamed of what my country is doing to it... And this was my reply to him : Thank you...I (oddly enough...

The nightmare is not ending...the nightmare will never end as long as the Iranian/American collaboration is not publicly acknowledged by the Arabs, the West and the International Community as a whole...and in particular the media, mainstream and alternative alike. We, Iraqis, have been saying it for years, since 2003...but no one listens to us...even Iraqi Shias are saying it - yet no one hears us... The last in line, is yet another machination by that fascist State called Iran in Iraq's future. Future: we have no bloody future...not when you are a under a dual American Iranian occupation, not to mention the tangible Israeli presence in so-called Kurdistan. It's been over 7 months since the Iraqis dipped their fingers in that cursed purple ink, in so-called democratic elections, imposed by the Occupier- Democracy by Force, a travesty that has cost us thousands of dead, amputated, missing and exiled...an election process that was marred with blood and deaths... What Freed...

When it comes to Iraq...am like a Tigress -- exclusive, territorial, and very possessive. Call it nationalism, call it patriotism, call it chauvinism, call it whatever you like. I don't give a fuck how and what you call it. Iraq runs in my blood, like oxygen --thicker than blood, and as yielding as water...you can't grab the thing... whatever you do... Feels like a child fighting during a school recreational break --when other kids try to bully you and steal your candies -- I'd pull back, kick and fight back, till my last breath, shouting -- this is MINE, you can't take it. I did not like being bullied as a child and today, I am ready to bite anyone's head off if he/she tries to bully me, in any way... And it's exactly the same for Iraq. Video : Bashar Al-Azzawi rendition of Nohee. Iraqi traditional song.