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Blog
from Baghdad - updated a couple of times a day and appears to
be from someone in Baghdad with a net connection. It is estimated
that only some thousands have net access in Iraq and that they
are mainly regime employees. So
this is fascinating if only to judge who and where it might be
coming from. CIA, genuine lone voice, wonder along with the rest
of us. Has screen shots from Iraqi TV and pics. NB: Some ISPs
treat underscores as illegal in hostnames. Depending on your ISP
you may not be able to access this blog address. Google cache
maybe throw up the pages for some of you. We are now posting
extracts every few hours. With written permissin from blogger
"salam pax".
http://dear_raed.blogspot.com/
:: Monday, March 24, 2003 ::
The
last two days we didn’t have internet access. I thought that
was it and started what a friend called a “pblog”, what
you will read is what should have been the entries for the 22nd
and 23rd.
Blogger and Google have created a mirror to this weblog at [dearraed.blogspot.com]
for those of you who have trouble with the underscore in the URL.
There are not enough words to thank the people at Blogger for
their help and support.
22/3
4:30pm (day3)
half an hour ago the oil filled trenches were put on fire. First
watching Al-jazeera they said that these were the places that
got hit by bombs from an air raid a few miniutes earlier bit when
I went up to the roof to take a look I saw that there were too
many of them, we heard only three explosions. I took pictures
of the nearest. My cousine came and told me he saw police cars
standing by one and setting it on fire. Now you can see the columns
of smoke all over the city.
Todat the third in the war, we had quite a number of attacks during
daytime. Some without air-raid sirens. They probably just gave
up on being able to be on time to sound the sirens. Last night,
after waves after waves of attacks, they would sound the all-clear
siren only to start another raid siren 30 minutes later.
The images we saw on TV last night (not Iraqi, jazeera-BBC-Arabiya)
were terrible. The whole city looked as if it were on fire. The
only thing I could think of was “why does this have to happen
to Baghdad”. As one of the buildings I really love went up
in a huge explosion I was close to tears.
today my father and brother went out to see what happening in
the city, they say that it does look that the hits were very precise
but when the missiles and bombs explode they wreck havoc in the
neighborhood where they fall. Houses near al- salam palace(where
the minister Sahaf took journalist) have had all their windows
broke, doors blown in and in one case a roof has caved in. I guess
that is what is called “collateral damage” and that
makes it OK?
We worry about daytime bombing and the next round of attacks tonight
with the added extra of the smoke screen in our skies.
23/3
8:30pm (day4)
we start counting the hours from the moment one of the news channels
report that the B52s have left their airfield. It takes them around
6 hours to get to Iraq. On the first day of the bombing it worked
precisely. Yesterday we were a bit surprised that after 6 hours
bombs didn’t start falling. The attacks on Baghdad were much
less than two days ago. We found out today in the news that the
city of Tikrit got the hell bombed out of it. To day the B52s
took off at 3pm, on half an hour we will know whether it is Baghdad
tonight or another city. Karbala was also hit last night.
Today’s (and last night’s) shock attacks didn’t
come from airplanes but rather from the airwaves. The images Al-jazeera
is broadcasting are beyond any description. First was the attack
on (Ansar el Islam) camp in the north of Iraq. Then the images
of civilian casualties in Basra city. What was most disturbing
are the images from the hospitals. They are simply not prepared
to deal with these things. People were lying on the floor with
bandages and blood all over. If this is what “urban warefare”
is going to look like we’re in for disaster. And just now
the images of US/ UK prisoners and dead, we saw these on Iraqi
TV earlier. This war is starting to show its ugly ugly face to
the world.
The media wars have also started, Al-jazeera accusing the pentagon
of not showing how horrific this war is turning out to be and
Rumsfeld saying that it is regrettable that some TV stations have
shown the images.
Today before noon I went out with my cousin to take a look at
the city. Two things. 1) the attacks are precise. 2) they are
attacking targets which are just too close to civilian areas in
Baghdad. Looked at the Salam palace and the houses around it.
Quite scary near it and you can see widows with broken glass till
very far off. At another neighborhood I saw a very unexpected
“target” it is an officers’ club of some sorts
smack in the middle of [………] district. I guess
it was not severely hit because it was still standing but the
houses around it, and this is next door and across the street,
were damaged. One of them is rubble the rest are clearing away
glass and rubble. A garbage car stands near the most damaged houses
and help with the cleaning up.
Generally the streets are quite busy. Lots of cars but not many
shops open. The market near our house is almost empty now. The
shop owner says that all the wholesale markets in Shorjah are
closed now but the prices of vegetables and fruits have gone down
to normal and are available.
While buying groceries the woman who sells the vegetables was
talking to another about the approach of American armies to Najaf
city and about what is happening at Um Qasar and Basra. If Um
Qasar is so difficult to control what will happen when they get
to Baghdad? It will turn uglier and this is very worrying. People
(and I bet “allied forces”) were expecting things to
be mush easier. There are no waving masses of people welcoming
the Americans nor are they surrendering by the thousands. People
are oing what all of us are, sitting in their homes hoping that
a bomb doesn’t fall on them and keeping their doors shut.
The smoke columns have now encircled Baghdad, well almost. The
wids blow generally to the east which leaves the western side
of Baghdad clear. But when it comes in the way of the sun it covers
it totally, it is a very thick cloud. We are going to have some
very dark days, literally.
We still have electricity; some areas in Baghdad don’t after
last night’s attack. Running water and phones are working.
Yesterday many leaflets were dropped on Baghdad, while going around
in the streets I got lucky, I have two. After being so unkind
to the people at [industrialdeathrock.com] I don’t know whether
I should post images or not.
And we have had another email attack, this time I was lucky again
and have copies of those, the sender is something called [blablabla@hotpop.com].
I have not checked on that yet. Three of them are to army personnel
and two to the general public in those they gave us the radio
frequencies we are supposed to listen to. They are calling it
“information Radio”.
:: salam 4:41 PM [+] ::
...
I
have internet again will post soon.
but i really have to apologize to the people at [www.industrialdeathrock.com]
because the amount of traffic this blog has been getting cause
their servers to go down, I am very sorry. I should have been
more careful.
looking thri my mail i see that this blog has also been causing
blogspot problems. sorry. and Blogger has been generous again
with me and allowed this to go and and help. thanks. my mail box
is full because of the last two days of internet blackout, going
thru them now.
:: salam 3:24 PM [+] ::
...
:
Friday, March 21, 2003 ::
as
usual Diane comes to the rescue
IS SALAM PAX REAL?
please stop sending emails asking if I were for real, don't belive
it? then don't read it.
I am not anybody's propaganda ploy, well except my own.
2 more hours untill the B52's get to Iraq.
:: salam 6:05 PM [+] ::
...
The
most disturbing news today has come from Al-Jazeera, they said
that nine B52 bombers have left the airfield in Britain and flying
“presumably” towards Iraq, as if they would be doing
a spin around the block. Anyway they have 6 hours to get here.
Last night was very quiet in Baghdad. Today in the morning I went
out to get bread and groceries. There were no Ba’ath party
people stopping us from leaving the area where we live, this apparently
happens after the evening prayers. But they are still everywhere.
The streets are empty only bakeries are open and some grocery
shops charging 4 times the normal prices, while I was buying bread
a police car stopped in front of the bakery and asked the baker
if they had enough flour and asked when they opened; the baker
told me that they have been informed that they must open their
shops and they get flour delivered to them daily. Groceries, meat
and dairy products are a different story. One dairy product company
seems to be still operating, not state owned, and their cars were
going around the city distributing butter, cheese and yoghurt
to any open markets. Meat is not safe to buy because you wouldn’t
know from where and how it got to the shops. Anyway we bought
fresh tomatoes and zucchini for 1000 dinar a kilo which would
normally be 250. and most amazingly the garbage car came around.
The Iraqi Satellite Channel is not broadcasting anymore. The second
youth TV channel (it shows Egyptian soaps in the morning and sports
afterwards) also stopped transmitting. This leaves two channels:
Iraq TV and Shabab (youth) TV. They are still full of patriotic
songs and useless “news”, they love the French here.
We also saw the latest Sahaf show on Al-Jazeera and Iraq TV, and
the most distressing minister of Interior affairs with his guns.
Freaks. Hurling abuse at the world is the only thing left for
them to do.
On BBC we are watching scenes of Iraqis surrendering. My youngest
cousin was muttering “what shame” to himself, yes it
is better for them to do that but still seeing them carrying that
white flag makes something deep inside you cringe.
we sit infront of the TV with the mao of Iraq on our laps trying
to figure out what is going on in the south.
:: salam 3:13 PM [+] ::
...
blogrolling.com
:: Thursday, March 20, 2003 ::
the
all clear siren just went on.
The bombing aould come and go in waves, nothing too heavy and
not yet comparable to what was going on in 91. all radio and TV
stations are still on and while the air raid began the Iraqi TV
was showing patriotic songs and didn't even bother to inform viewers
that we are under attack. at the moment they are re- airing yesterday's
interview with the minister of interior affairs. THe sounds of
the anti-aircarft artillery is still louder than the booms and
bangs which means that they are still far from where we live,
but the images we saw on Al Arabia news channel showed a building
burning near one of my aunts house, hotel pax was a good idea.
we have two safe rooms one with "international media"
and the other with the Iraqi TV on. every body is waitingwaitingwaiting.
phones are still ok, we called around the city a moment ago to
check on friends. Information is what they need. Iraqi TV says
nothing, shows nothing. what good are patriotic songs when bombs
are dropping
around 6:30 my uncle went out to get bread, he said that all the
streets going to the main arterial roads are controlled by Ba'ath
people. not curfew but you have to have a reason to leave your
neighborhood, and the bakeries are, by instruction of the Party,
seeling only a limited amount of bread to each customer. he also
says that near the main roads all the yet unfinished houses have
been taken by party or army people.
::
salam 10:33 PM [+] ::
...
I
watched al sahaf on al-jazeera. he said that the US has bombed
the Iraqi sattelite channel, but while he was saying that the
ISC was broadcasting and if it really did hit the ISC headquarters
it would have been right in the middle of baghdad. what was probably
hirt were transmiters or something. all TV stations are still
working.
:: salam 4:28 PM [+] ::
...
Now
that was really unexpected. When the sirens went on we thought
we will get bombs by the tom load dropped on us but nothing happened,
at least in the part of the city where I lived. Air-craft guns
could be heard for a while but they stopped too after a while
and then the all clear siren came.
Today in the morning I went with my father for a ride around Baghdad
and there was nothing different from yesterday. There is no curfew
and cars can be seen speeding to places here and there. Shops
are closed. Only some bakeries are open and of course the Ba’ath
Party Centers. There are more Ba’ath people in the streets
and they have more weapons. No army in the streets. We obviously
still have electricity, phones are still working and we got to
phone calls from abroad so the international lines are still working.
water is still runing.
the english speaking radio station on FM is now replaced by the
arabic languge state radio program broadcasting on the same wave
length. i just say thet because last night just as the BBC was
broadcasting from baghdad (yes we have put up the sat dish again)
their news ticker (or whatever you call that red band down there)
said that the Iraqi state radio has been taken over by US broadcast.
We watched saddam’s speech this morning, he’s got verse
in it!!
:: salam 1:23 PM [+] ::
...
there
is still nothing happening im baghdad we can only hear distant
expolsions and there still is no all clear siren. someone in the
BBC said that the state radio has been overtaken by US broadcast,
that didn't happen the 3 state broadcasters still operate.
:: salam 6:40 AM [+] ::
...
air
raid sirens in baghdad but the only sounds you can here are the
anti-aircraft machine guns. will go now.
:: salam 5:46 AM [+] ::
...
It
is even too late for last minute things to buy, there are too
few shops open. We went again for a drive thru Baghdad’s
main streets. Too depressing. I have never seen Baghdad like this.
Today the Ba’ath party people started taking their places
in the trenches and main squares and intersections, fully armed
and freshly shaven. They looked too clean and well groomed to
defend anything. And the most shocking thing was the number of
kids. They couldn’t be older than 20, sitting in trenches
sipping Miranda fizzy drinks and eating chocolate (that was at
the end of our street) other places you would see them sitting
bored in the sun. more cars with guns and loads of Kalashnikovs
everywhere.
The worst is seeing and feeling the city come to a halt. Nothing.
No buying, no selling, no people running after buses. We drove
home quickly. At least inside it did not feel so sad.
The ultimatum ends at 4 in the morning her in Baghdad, and the
big question is will the attack be at the same night or not. Stories
about the first gulf war are being told for the 100th time.
The Syrian border is now closed to Iraqis. They are being turned
back. What is worse is that people wanting to go to Deyala which
is in Iraq are being told to drive back to baghdad, there was
a runor going around that baghdad will be "closed" no
one goes in or out [check the map go from Baghdad in a N/E direction
until you reach Baqubah, this is the center of Deyala governerate]
people are being turned back at the borders of Baghdad city. There
is a checkpoint and they will not let you pass it. there are rumors
that many people have taken the path thru Deyala to go to the
Iranian border. Maybe, maybe not.
If you remember I told you a while ago that you can get 14 satellite
channels sanctioned by the state, retransmitted and decoded by
receivers you have to buy from a state company. This service has
been suspended. Internet will follow I am sure. Things on Iraqi
TV today:
- an interview with the minister of interior affairs. Turned the
volume down, didn’t want to hear anything.
-
demonstrations in Iarqi cities
-yesterday the last 500 prisoners from the Iraq-Iran war were
being exchanged.
I can’t believe they are still doing this, for fuck’s
sake that war ended in 1989. every Iraqi family can tell you a
hundred heart braking stories about things that happen when you
have thought you brother/father/son is dead and he suddenly appears
after 10 years.
:: salam 12:21 AM [+] ::
...
::
Wednesday, March 19, 2003 ::
-
:: salam 11:32 PM [+] ::
...
I
would have posted something earlier today but there was a lot
to do and my brother reminded me that we have to go refill the
car and that was two hours of wasted time waiting. It is not as
bad as two days ago but the gas stations are still crowded. A
couple of hours after I wrote that two police cars were standing
near gas stations to keep things in order we went out again and
there were more party members wearing their olive-green uniforms
with Kalashnikovs in gas stations but today it is back to the
police cars. There is a rumor that they will open the “special”
gas stations for the public too, there are four of these in Baghdad
used only by “them” or whoever has the right ID.
Before I go into what was going on today I really want to thank
all the people who have been sending emails and letting me know
that they care and worry about what will happen in Iraq, thank
you so much. I hope you understand that it takes a bit of time
to answer your questions so please don’t be angry if I don’t
reply promptly. I print them out for Raed to read and he is totally
baffled. some of them I wish I could publish or print and paste
on light poles. Thank you very much.
And as a thank you here is a little web-gem. a true ohmigod moment.
This is an image I found on [spaceimaging.com]. It is rather large
but worth every second. Below I have posted a color coded thumbpix
to give you a little info.
The
feature most people would recognize when not seen from the top
is the grand festival square (which is not a square at all. It
is a semi-circle) it is in light blue. This is the one which has
two huge intersecting swords at its entrance. The building below
the semi-circle is the grand stand; this is the place that saw
the big army marches last winter. The road to the right of it
is called the Zaitoon (olive tree) Street, it has lots of olive
trees obviously. On the green side of that street (the green area
is a residential area called Harthiya) live many big wigs, don’t
bother you CIA types reading the blog, they are empty now. The
yellow area is the Zawra public garden, you see it here during
the renovation period. They have just finished working on the
garden. The brown longish thing down the left of the image is
the clock tower of Baghdad, a very very hideous building and it
houses the museum of Saddam’s presents (the ones he got from
everybody, there was an article about a couple of months ago in
the guardian I think). The blue square is a building that has
been hit twice (desert storm and desert fox) after desert fox
they decided to do a redesign since it was hit really bad. It
is still unfinished but it does look nice. The red area is something
I see with you for the first time. This is off boundaries to Iraqis,
the whole area is a “presidential Palace”. The Sijood
palace can be seen from the other side of the river and it is
one of the most beautiful palaces, I really hope it does not get
its “havoc recked”. I see it as a museum or some sort
of academy in the future, I really like it.
A
couple of weeks ago journalists were exasperated by that fact
that Iraqis just went on with their lives and did not panic, well
today there is a very different picture. It is actually a bit
scary and very disturbing. To start wit the Dinar hit another
low 3100 dinars per dollar. There was no exchange place open.
If you went and asked they just look at you as if you were crazy.
Wherever you go you see closed shops and it is not just doors-locked
closed but sheet-metal-welded- on-the-front closed, windows-removed-and-built-with-bricks
closed, doors were being welded shut. There were trucks loaded
with all sort of stuff being taken from the shops to wherever
their owner had a secure place. Houses which are still being built
are having huge walls erected in front of them with no doors,
to make sure they don’t get used as barracks I guess. Driving
thru Mansur, Harthiya or Arrasat is pretty depressing. Still me,
Raed and G. went out to have our last lunch together.
The radio plays war songs from the 80’s non-stop. We know
them all by heart. Driving thru Baghdad now singing along to songs
saying things like “we will be with you till the day we die
Saddam” was suddenly a bit too heavy, no one gave that line
too much thought but somehow these days it is sounds sinister.
Since last night one of the most played old “patriotic”
songs is the song of the youth “al- fituuwa”, it is
the code that all fidayeen should join their assigned units. And
it is still being played.
A couple of hours earlier we were at a shop and a woman said as
she was leaving, and this is a very common sentence, “we’ll
see you tomorrow if good keeps us alive” – itha allah
khalana taibeen – and the whole place just freezes. She laughed
nervously and said she didn’t mean that, and we all laughed
but these things start having a meaning beyond being figures of
speech.
There still is no military presence in the streets but we expect
that to happen after the ultimatum. Here and there you see cars
with machine guns going around the streets but not too many. But
enough to make you nervous.
The prices of things are going higher and higher, not only because
of the drop of the Dinar but because there is no more supply.
Businesses are shutting down and packing up, only the small stores
are open.
Pharmacies are very helpful in getting you the supplies you need
but they also have only a limited amount of medication and first
aid stuff, so if you have not bought what you need you might have
to pay inflated prices.
And if you want to run off to Syria, the trip will cost you $600,
it used to be $50. it’s cheaper to stay now. anyway we went
past the travel permit issuing offices and they were shut with
lock and chain.
Some rumors:
It is being said that Barazan (Saddam’s brother) has suggested
to him that he should do the decent thing and surrender, he got
himself under house arrest in one of the presidential palaces
which is probably going to be one of the first to be hit.
Families of big wigs and “his” own family are being
armed to the teeth. More from fear of Iraqis seeking retribution
than Americans.
And
by the smell of it we are going to have a sand storm today, which
means that the people on the borders are already covered in sand.
Crazy weather. Yesterday it rains and today sand.
:: salam 3:12 AM [+] ::
...
::
Monday, March 17, 2003 ::
impossibly
long lines in front of gas stations last night, some even had
two police cars in front of them to make sure to no "incidents"
occur.
the price of bottled water jumped up 3 fold.
on "shabab TV- youth TV" there were announcements that
the NUIS (national union of iraqi students) is selling. water
pumps and tanks, hard helmets, small electrical generators and
most surreally Chemical-biological attack protection chambers,
in the picture they showed it looked like an octogonal barrel
layed on its side with two bunks in it and some starnge equipment
on the outside. no prices just a phone number.
rumors of defaced picturs of Saddam in Dorah and Thawra Districts
(maybe maybe not)
and the cities of Rawa and Anna are so full of people now you
wouldn't find a hut to rent, it was pretty safe to be there during
the first war and people who have the money are renting placed
there hoping that it will be safe this time.
the dinar is hovering around the 2700 per dollar and the hottest
items after the "particle-masks" are earplugs, they
can't be found in shops and you have to pre- order.
:: salam 8:48 AM [+] ::
...
::
Sunday, March 16, 2003 ::
[RANT]
No one inside Iraq is for war (note I said war not a change of
regime), no human being in his right mind will ask you to give
him the beating of his life, unless you are a member of fight
club that is, and if you do hear Iraqi (in Iraq, not expat) saying
“come on bomb us” it is the exasperation and 10 years
of sanctions and hardship talking. There is no person inside Iraq
(and this is a bold, blinking and underlined inside) who will
be jumping up and down asking for the bombs to drop. We are not
suicidal you know, not all of us in any case.
I think that the coming war is not justified (and it is very near
now, we hear the war drums loud and clear if you don’t then
take those earplugs off!). The excuses for it have been stretched
to their limits they will almost snap. A decision has been made
sometime ago that “regime change” in Baghdad is needed
and excuses for the forceful change have to be made. I do think
war could have been avoided, not by running back and forth the
last two months, that’s silly. But the whole issue of Iraq
should have been dealt with differently since the first day after
GW I.
The entities that call themselves “the international community”
should have assumed their responsibilities a long time ago, should
have thought about what the sanctions they have imposed really
meant, should have looked at reports about weapons and human rights
abuses a long time before having them thrown in their faces as
excuses for war five minutes before midnight.
What is bringing on this rant is the question that has been bugging
for days now: how could “support democracy in Iraq”
become to mean “bomb the hell out of Iraq”? why did
it end up that democracy won’t happen unless we go thru war?
Nobody minded an un-democratic Iraq for a very long time, now
people have decided to bomb us to democracy? Well, thank you!
how thoughtful.
The situation in Iraq could have been solved in other ways than
what the world will be going thru the next couple of weeks. It
can’t have been that impossible. Look at the northern parts
of Iraq, that is a model that has worked quite well, why wasn’t
anybody interested in doing that in the south. Just like the US/UK
UN created a protected area there why couldn’t the model
be tried in the south. It would have cut off the regimes arms
and legs. And once the people see what they have been deprived
off they will not be willing to go back, just ask any Iraqi from
the Kurdish areas. Instead the world watched while after the war
the Shias were crushed by Saddam’s army in a manner that
really didn’t happen before the Gulf War. Does anyone else
see the words (Iran/not in the US interest) floating or is it
me hallucinating?
And there is the matter of Sanctions. Now that Iraq has been thru
a decade of these sanctions I can only hope that their effects
are clear enough for them not to be tried upon another nation.
Sanctions which allegedly should have kept a potentially dangerous
situation in Iraq in check brought a whole nation to its knees
instead. And who ultimately benefited from the sanctions? Neither
the international community nor the Iraqi people, he who was in
power and control still is. These sanctions made the Iraqi people
hostages in the hands of this regime, tightened an already tight
noose around our necks. A whole nation, a proud and learned nation,
was devastated not by the war but by sanctions. Our brightest
and most creative minds fled the country not because of oppression
alone but because no one inside Iraq could make a living, survive.
And can anyone tell me what the sanctions really did about weapons?
Get real, there are always willing nations who will help, there
are always organizations which will find his money sweet. Oil-for-Food?
Smart Sanctions? Get a clue. Who do you think is getting all those
contracts to supply the people with “food”? who do you
think is heaping money in bank accounts abroad? It is his people,
his family and the people who play his game. Abroad and in Iraq,
Iraqis and non-Iraqis.
What I mean to say is that things could have been different; I
can’t help look at the Northern parts of Iraq with envy and
wonder why.
Do support democracy in Iraq. But don’t equate it with war.
What will happen is something that could/should have been avoided.
Don’t expect me to wear a [I heart bush] t-shirt. Support
democracy in Iraq not by bombing us to hell and then trying to
build it up again (well that is going to happen any way) not by
sending human shields (let’s be real the war is going to
happen and Saddam will use you as hostages), but by keeping an
eye on what will happen after the war.
To end this rant, a word about Islamic fundis/wahabisim/qaeda
and all that.
Do
you know when the sight of women veiled from top to bottom became
common in cities in Iraq? Do you know when the question of segregation
between boys and girls became red hot? When tribal law replaced
THE LAW? When Wahabi became part of our vocabulary?
It only happened after the Gulf War. I think it was Cheney or
Albright who said they will bomb Iraq back to the stone age, well
you did. Iraqis have never accepted religious extremism in their
lives. They still don’t. Wahabis in their short dishdasha
are still looked upon as sheep who have strayed from the herd.
But they are spreading. The combination of poverty/no work/low
self esteem and the bitterness of seeing people who rose to riches
and power without any real merit but having the right family name
or connection shook the whole social fabric. Situations which
would have been unacceptable in the past are being tolerated today.
They call it “al hamla al imania – the religious campaign”
of course it was supported by the government, pumping them with
words like “poor in this life, rich in heaven” kept
the people quiet. Or the other side of the coin is getting paid
by Wahabi organizations. Come pray and get paid, no joke, dead
serious. If the government can’t give you a job run to the
nearest mosque and they will pay and support you. This never happened
before, it is outrageous. But what are people supposed to do?
thir government is denied funds to pay proper wages and what they
get is funneled into their pockets. So please stop telling me
about the fundis, never knew what they are never would have seen
them in my streets.
[/RANT]
:: salam 1:37 AM [+] ::
...
::
Saturday, March 15, 2003 ::
the
big momma of all demonstrations is going on and I will be stuck
in the office for ever. maybe i will take a walk and watch the
show. Operation "Office Evac" is now in its final phase.
any day now.
:: salam 10:30 AM [+] ::
...
::
Thursday, March 13, 2003 ::
Today
is a public holiday, in the Muslim calendar it is the 10th of
Muharam, or Ashura (3ashura2) for Shia Muslims. A pivotal date
in the history of Shia. Today is the day Imam Hussein was killed
in Karbala/Iraq. Which in the words of Shiapundit “is a time
for grief, reflection, and ibadat . Nothing else.”
My mother is Shia from Karbala, so each year we wake up in the
morning (it is 1am as I write this) to the sound of the “3azah
al 7ussain – the lament of Hussein” from the radio,
not very pleasant. And after that we hear the stories of the public
laments that used to take place in Karbala, now they are banned.
The last three days of the Imam’s life are acted out throughout
the whole city of Karbala. I’ll give you an idea of these
last few days, I hope the Shia readers will excuse me if I don’t
get it fully right:
Basically
it is the story of the battle between Imam Hussein, the grandson
of the prophet Mohammed, and Caliph Yazid on the Kerbala desert
in 680 A.D.
Imam Hussein is to return to Kufa/Iraq after he has been reassured
that the people there will help him in his struggle after he had
fled to Mecca under the threat of being assassinated by Yazid’s
people. On his way back the horse he is riding stops at a certain
place near the Euphrates and doesn’t move. When the Imam
asks the name of this place he is told it is the desert of Karbala
(karrun wa bala2) which roughly means harm and calamity. He tells
his followers that this is the place where he will be killed as
prophesied. Tents are put up and they are very soon after that
surrounded by Yazid’s army. The Imam does not have many people
with him and most of them are family members with women and children.
We’ll move a bit quickly thru the events now. First their
water supply is cut off for three days, and then the battle starts,
family members of the Imam die one after the other trying to protect
Imam Hussein including his young sons. After all the men have
been killed, Yazid’s army moves thru the camp and burns the
tents down. Imam Hussein’s head is then taken to Damascus
to prove to Yazid that al-Hussein has been killed.
Now
imagine this being enacted in real life thru the whole city, to
this day there is a district in Karbala called “Mukhayam
– the camp” which actually used to be the site of the
tents for the play. The most hated role that had to be played
is the role of the soldier who will kill Imam al-Hussein, my aunt
tells me it usually ends with the people running after him throwing
stones until he hides in one of the houses. Groups of lamenters
would then move thru the city, from the scary – groups of
people hitting themselves with whips on their backs for not being
there to help al- Hussein in his tragedy, to the poetry reading
groups of students, to the solemn lawyers. People would come from
all over Iraq, and from as far as Pakistan to join with their
own lamenters. In houses and mosques you would see loads of men
and women listening to the “maqtal – the killing of
Hussein” beating their chests and crying. There is even special
food for these days cooked in the streets.
I have seen nothing of this ever. It has been banned as long as
I can remember; it is considered a public unauthorized demonstration.
Laments can be held in houses but not the big play in the streets
of Karbala. Lately even the cooking of (qima - minced meat with
chickpeas) and (Harissa - something which looks a bit like gruel
actually) in public has been banned. My aunt just came from Karbala
today said that the army is all around Karbala, which happens
every year.
Comment (226)
:: salam 2:17 AM [+] ::
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:: salam 2:13 AM [+] ::
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::
Wednesday, March 12, 2003 ::
here
is something fun to read, unlike the comments down there where
we engage in index-finger wagging at each other. this i got from
Douglas who has always been thoughtful and sends me artcles from
french magazines or newspapers translated. thanks douglas, this
one is exceptionally good.It is about events before the first
Gulf War.
if vous parlez francais then go to this link:
[Un après-midi avec Saddam]
if you are no-french-please then go to this link, I hope i have
not done a faux-pas by posting your translation douglas:
[An Afternoon with Saddam]
it is on an abandoned blog.
my favourite bits:
......blablabla........“You
can tell comrade Fidel Castro,” he (Saddam Hussein) said
getting up, “that I thank him for his solicitude. If the
troops of the United States invade Iraq, we shall crush them like
that,” he concluded resoundingly, stamping the carpet several
times with his shining military boots... The audience had ended...........blablabla........Without
asking us to repeat what happened again, he (Fidel Castro) only
asked the Gallego to imitate with his own feet the gesture with
which Saddam had shown how he would crush the Americans.
It's
like watching two kids talking about a fight in the playground,
me crush you lika cock-a-roach, youyou.
We'd rather not talk about who crushed who. As for the next "Mother
of all Battles".... one word (shock'n'awe). learn it in arabic:
al-ithara wa al-faza. that's like putting stones in the middle
of mud-cakes and throwing them at me, cheater.
:: salam 12:49 PM [+] ::
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::
Tuesday, March 11, 2003 ::
In
one of the posts down there I wrote that I seem to have only one
Iraqi reader, well i was wrong. I have two and a half (half Iraqi
half Chinese). what is really exciting is that the second reader
is a girl here in baghdad, she's 23 years old and is a computer
geek (well, engineer), and she agreed to write something for the
blog. she will go by the name "riverbend". pleae give
her a warm welcome, i hope she decides to join the weblog and
write as often as she can in the next couple of weeks, without
further ado i give you "Riverbend"
Salam,
you've reminded me that we have to get to duct-taping the windows
(did you use an 'X' pattern or the traditional '*'?). [Salam:
the * star is good but with particularly big windows I have been
using a plus and Xs in each quadrant].We've all been talking about
the war, discussing the possibilities, implications, etc. but
it really hit me yesterday when I got home and 'lo and behold!
There were no pictures or paintings on the walls! So I asked,
stupidly, "Where are all the pictures?" I was told that
they've been 'put away' because who knew what might come tumbling
down if a bomb fell particularly close... I then pointed to a
funky black steel chandelier that no one seems to pay any attention
to and reminded them that it should be a more immediate worry,
not the pictures... It is beginning to look like a Gothic death
trap. I have visions of it coming down on my head...
Otherwise, yes, we are living normally- going to work, cleaning
house, eating, drinking. Life doesn't stand still every time America
threatens war. It gets more difficult, true enough, but it goes
on- which, by the way, is driving the foreign journalists crazy.
They want some action here and seeing people go about their daily
lives is just a waste of time and film, it seems.
Be careful with the gasoline, Salam, a whole family burned to
death the other day because their gasoline storing facilities
weren't adequate (is that considered 'friendly fire'?)- hope you’ve
got it stored in a safe place.[Salam:yeah we saw that on TV, pretty
nasty, my mother freaked ofcourse] We’ve stocked up on candles
(dozens of ‘em) but my mother is starting to eye my collection
of scented candles anyway. So you can anticipate the scene- hundreds
of bombs flying overhead, the deafening sound of planes, blended
with murmured prayers, in a semi-dark room smelling faintly of…
lavender. And that smell will forever be consecrated in my mind
along with the rest of the ‘war memories’- candles,
duct tape, kerosene lamps and lavender…
On a not-quite-completely-different subject- I had a flash of
déjà vu this morning while reading the news- did
you read this ? *sigh* Aren’t the Americans *ever* going
to get tired of war?
riverbend
the
next time,if riverbend decides to join she will be part of this
group blog (yes it was supposed to be a group blog but raed is
such a lazy bastard). I'll be happy to forward ant mail to her
until she makes up her mind whether to put her addy here or not.
Comment (191)
:: salam 1:30 PM [+] ::
...
sometime
ago I promised to show you the new 10,000 Dinar bill, it has been
issued around 4 months ago and might become a part of this country's
history soon.
please excuse the quality i don't have the scanner at home, if
you click on the image you'll see the backside of the bill. what
you see beside the picture of the prez is the unknown soldier
monument in baghdad.
the dinar hit a new low tonight, $1=2700 dinars. the wholesale
markets in Shorjah stopped buying and selling today to see which
way the dinar will move next.
:: salam 2:41 AM [+] ::
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:: salam 2:41 AM [+] ::
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::
Sunday, March 09, 2003 ::
A
BBC reporter walking thru the Mutanabi Friday book market (again)
ends his report with :
“It looks like Iraqis are putting on an air of normality”
Look, what are you supposed to do then? Run around in the streets
wailing? War is at the door eeeeeeeeeeeee! Besides, this “normality”
doesn’t go very deep. Almost everything is more expensive
than it was a couple of months ago, people are digging wells in
their gardens, on the radio yesterday after playing a million
songs from the time of the war with Iran (these are like cartoon
theme songs for people my age, we know them all by heart) they
read out instructions on how to make a trench and prepare for
war, that is after president saddam advised Iraqis to make these
trenches in their gardens.
But in order not to disappoint the BBC; me, Raed and G. put on
our “normal” faces and went to buy CDs from Arassat
Street in a demonstration of normality. After going first into
Sandra’s fruit juice shop and getting what people from foreign
would probably call a poor imitation of a banana and apple smoothie,
we spent half an hour contemplating the CD racks at music shop.
Raed being the master of talk-and-slurp-at-the-same-time technique
was trying to steal away my “normality” by reminding
me that I will be wasting my 10,000 Dinars because there will
be no electricity for the CD player. I explained to him that I
am planning on operating a pirate radio station and need to stock
on music for the masses I plan to entertain, said in a matter
of fact voice and Raed didn’t even blink which made Mr. music_shop_owner
look at us very suspiciously at this point so we moved to the
next rack. But since I buy the stuff that would otherwise sit
and collect dust he didn’t say much and was very happy to
take away 12,500 Dinars. I bought five instead of the planned
4 CDs, many thanks to Malaysian bootleggers for providing us with
cheap CDs. The deftones, black rebel motorcycle club, erykah badu
and the new amr diab (here for audio clips if you are interested)
have joined the Pax Radio CD racks. Other normal stuff we did
this week:
- Finished taping all the windows in the house, actually a very
relaxing exercise if you forget why you are doing it in the first
place.
- installed a manual pump on the well we have dug because up till
now we had an electrical pump on it.
- bought 60 liters of gasoline to run the small electricity generator
we have, bought two nifty kerosene cookers and stocked loads of
kerosene and dug holes in the garden to bury the stuff so that
the house doesn’t turn into a bomb.
- prepared one room for emergency nasty attacks and bought “particle
masks” - that’s what it says on the box – for use
if they light those oil trenches, the masks just might stop our
lungs from becoming tar pits. They are very hot items since the
word on the trenches spread, you can buy one for 250 Dinars and
they are selling faster than the hot cakes of bab-al-agha.
- got two rooms in our house ready to welcome our first IDPs -
internally displaced persons – my youngest aunt who is a
single mom with three kids because she lives farthest away from
the rest of us and another aunt from Karbala in the south. Hotel
Pax is officially open for the season, no need to make reservations
but you might need to bring a mattress if you come too late. Other
news/rumors:
- Party members are going around the city telling people to stay
in their homes if anything happens. Do not go out in the street.
Everything will be brought to you, they have dug wells in many
places with generators beside them to pump the water out and they
will be distributing the water. If there is a need to move out
of the house wait until the party car comes to take you. They
have gone around and asked which households own more than one
car, taken down names and numbers, rumor has it that they are
going to appropriate any extra car if the need arises. Anyway
you will not be able to drive your car around, people like doctors
in state hospitals have been given badges to stick on their cars
and so have party members, you will have to have some sort of
permission to move around when the curfew takes place the moment
an attack starts. Because of that we have issued our own curfew
from last Friday, headcount at 10:30 pm. with so many people in
the house a roll call is the only way to make sure everybody is
here. And we are counting on the Americans to attack at night.
If they start the attack during the day they would have mayhem
on the streets.
Comment (11)
:: salam 6:43 PM [+] ::
...
Tips
on how to become super popular in the office:
Listen to what everybody is talking about and then surprise with
cool info from the web. It helps if Google is still blocked and
no one has yet figured out that there is life after Google. Today
the million dollar question was who the hell is Barbara Bodine?
well the ones who listen to BBCworldservice were asking the rest
were just going whatwhatwhat?
The
plan calls for a northern and southern sector to be administered
by two retired U.S. Army generals, sources said.
A central sector, including Baghdad, will be administered by Barbara
Bodine, a former U.S. ambassador to Yemen, the sources said.
We
will for the moment try to ignore whether this means a divided
Iraq or federalism thrust down our throats or a redraw of the
Iraqi map because this will be after all the decision of the invaders
liberators, we have the right to remain silent otherwise we get
smacked upside the head.
Anyway, Dogpile came to the rescue and I was the internet super
hero when I showed them THIS and more ooh’s and aaah’s
when I showed the THIS, I should have charged 250 Dinars for each
viewing, actually thr biggest surprise was finding out that she
was in Iraq in 1983 as Deputy Principal Officer in the US embassy
here. General reactions? You can imagine the fear of castration
the Iraqi males are going thru at the moment, don’t expect
this to be swallowed very easily, and to divert this unease they
would just say something along the lines: “she doesn’t
look very pretty does she?”. One person who doesn’t
actually work here but was dragged by a colleague to see the picture
said: “ you know it is their intention to destroy the pride
of the muslim man” . Tread carefully is what I say; change
shouldn’t be plunked on people’s heads like this, especially
when there already is an atmosphere of mistrust and unfriendliness.
Someone said this will be like having another Gertrude Bell, I
am not sure this is good. [two interesting links: The female Lawrence
of Arabia and the Gertrude Bell Project with an amazing photo
library, thanks a million for the link A., he is the only Iraqi
reader I have apparently].
:: salam 11:49 AM [+] ::
...
::
Thursday, March 06, 2003 ::
Article
in the CSmonitor.com
you see that woman on the right [piclink] her name is not Janon
as the article says, it is Jinan (the name means heavens) and
she is the evil witch of the department of architecture. You can
see it in her smile. The woman on the left makes the whole engineering
college march to her whistle, really very strong and well known
women in the college of engineering. One of them has a very eloquent
daughter apparently:
"I
hope they see us as people," says the increasingly anxious
Nihal, in a separate interview. "It's a feeling you can't
describe: You worry about yourself, and your family, and aunts
and uncles in their houses - it's like your heart is in a million
pieces all over the place, and you don't know how to keep it together."
and
Jinan kicks ass too:
"It's
funny," she says of the cultural disconnect. "Why should
we be sitting here trying to convince you that we are OK? Why
should I have to make you feel like we are people worth living?"
-------------------------------
The dinar is miraculously keeping its cool and still around the
2360 for a dollar, the lowest it ever got during the last 10 years
was 2500 for a dollar but I think we will hit that bottom in the
next couple of weeks. A relative of mine who works at a bank says
that everybody who comes into the bank is complaining that “al
suq waguf – the market is at a standstill”. They are
a “private bank” - there is no such thing as a private
bank really, they are all partially owned by the state - they
have been told to stock on biscuits, dates and water, can’t
imagine why, as if anyone is going to come to work when things
start dropping on our heads. But to be fair, after GW I the banks
opened pretty fast, people who lived near their work place and
could walk to work did just that, the banks limited the amount
you are allowed to take from your account to 100 dinars which
was around $200 or so at the time, today 100 dinars buys me a
pack of local chemical-flavor bubble gum. Since we are talking
about money today was payday. It is amazing what the sentence
“we’re sorry but you know how things are at the moment
blablabla” can do to your paycheck, in one single year I
have gone down from $200 to $100 and hit rock bottom at $50, in
retrospect deciding to go back to living with my parents was the
wisest decision I have made for quite a while. My friend G. is
getting half his salary in money and the rest in alcohol, really
no joke, but good imported stuff which we wouldn’t buy anyway.
His fatcat-filthyrich boss turned seriously Muslim and is giving
away his stash of the devil’s beverages. Good for us, I say.
------------------------------------ Human Shields Bashing #124
"Basically,
they said we are not going to feed you any longer," said
John Ross, an American who has been active in radical causes since
he tore up his draft card in 1964.
Excuse
while I wipe the tears from my eyes. Outoutout. He could have
at least say something more in line with his “radical cause”.
This is a bit insulting actually for some reason I feel offended.
FEED YOU? Why does the Iraqi government have to friggin’
feed you, you have volunteered to “help” in country
which can’t feed its own population properly (well it could
if it spent a bit less on itself and on people like you). There
is another good bit:
The
activists accused the Iraqi authorities of trying to use them
as pawns in the war with America.
oh,
shockhorror, what a surprise. Back to where you came from. Don’t
wait for thank you speeches, outoutout.
The
bitter flight from Iraq follows a showdown with the Iraqi authorities
who demanded that they decamp from their hotels in central Baghdad
and take up their self-assigned roles as civilian protectors.
No
no, just stay in your hotels, buy souvenirs and make fun of the
backward ways of these Iraqis, hope you sent all your friends
postcards telling them about the pita and tahini you have been
eating while strolling around Baghdad, you tourists. Did you take
enough pictures of children begging in the streets to show your
friends back home how much you care about the plight of the poor
in the third world. Bet they were all shaking hands and promising
to see each other at the next “worthy cause” party.
------------------------------------- Today is “mumarasa
- practice” day in Baghdad (maybe tomorrow too nope I checked
it was a one day thing), all the security forces, police, civil
defense units and the like excluding the army are going thru the
motions. Besides parading up and down all over the country all
units were supposed to go thru the events of an “emergency
situation”. The funniest were the policemen; they have been
issued army helmets with green camouflage fluff on it. All the
main squares and intersections had at least 12 people wearing
their full gear, carrying Kalashnikovs and a couple of extra ammunition
magazines. There were also firefighting guys with big red cars
and Kalashnikovs, everybody gets to carry guns (I don’t get
where the myth that firefighters are sexy came from). And other
assorted killing machines mounted on cars, some were going around
the city some were stationed. They all looked a bit self-conscious
and hot because of the helmets. It was around 24C at noon today,
pretty warm to be wearing all the stuff they had on.
People in Basra are saying that for them it does feel like war
already, lots of raids down there. A couple of days ago in the
7 o’clock local news bulletin they showed a number of Ba’ath
party members overseeing the burning of leaflets (the ones which
look like $100 bills) they only said it was in the southern parts
of Iraq. I wish someone can bring me one of them, imagine the
ebay potential it would have in a couple of months time.
There is an incredibly strong rumor that Uday is in Russia (Belarusia),
what makes it even more suspicious is this; I wrote that google
was blocked from last night, well now it is open but type a search
for anything in Russia and you get the “access denied”
page on the search results.
And have you seen the speech by Izat Ibrahim in the Islamic Summit
today, was that diplomacy in action or what? Calling the Kuwaiti
foreign minister a monkey, he actually called him a monkey, and
insulting his “moustache” – a very serious offence
in Bedouin code, like insulting his manly pride – we have
a master in abuse hurling in our government. Although Libya and
Saudi Arabia did quite well a couple of days earlier. And they
ask why the Arab nations are such a farce; it is because we have
kings and presidents who behave like kids in a sandpit.
Comment (56)
:: salam 1:22 AM [+] ::
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