Democracy Clinically Dead

October 25th 2009:

BOOOOOOOM… 155 nos. innocent people dead

▼
▼
▼
▼
▼
▼


October 31st 2009 (Halloween Special!):

VOTE for the new Iyad Allawi Coalition!

Baghdad Fanta Festival

Before my trip back to Baghdad, I received an email from a friend who wrote to me that if I would be lucky enough to catch that week’s Fanta Festival, and I thought that probably Fanta Company – the fizzy, fruit flavored soda drink, has had a marketing campaign in the capital to celebrate the signing of the Air Cargo Handling contract with the Sharjah-based RUS Aviation :))

Upon my landing at the airport I did not see any signs of such festivities apart from the terrifying heat wave that struck my face when I exited the airport door. Two days after my arrival, I woke up that morning and looked out of the window, and there it was, the Baghdad Fanta Festival at full swing. A glowing red-orange color was filling the entire place around my house. When I went out to investigate what the hell it was I was swarmed with little tiny particles of dust or sand or what ever the hell it was! The heat at 8 am!, however, added to that agonizing feeling. It was sickening. That day the Fanta festival lasted through out the night. The next day when I called my friend who wrote me that email, he told me that I was unlucky, the Fanta festival normally lasts 2-3 days and he reassured me that I will catch the next week’s festivities!!

In the past we were quite used to the fact that Baghdad would witness maximum 2 nos. sand storm a year and after the war of Kuwait its frequency increased up to 4-5 times, but nothing like this red-orange stuff. However, since 2004 the sand storms are being so recurrent that they have commenced to sweep the land every month and now it is even becoming a weekly phenomenal. Last month, the newspapers wrote about them and the government explained that these sands are partly due to the huge amount of reconstruction sites that are taking place in the cities!! So I took the government’s response to the test and I called an environmental engineer – who was a staunch opponent of the Baath party, and is currently a professor at a university in Baghdad, to get his views about the matter. When I told him about Al Maliki’s reasons behind those storms he said that Al Maliki is as pathetic as the invaders forces. He said that for quite sometimes now, the skies are filled with small red dust that penetrates the leaf pores and kill the planting orchards that have remained in our country- like the cypress and eucalyptus trees. This dust will hinder these trees and other vegetations to metabolize as the leaves become covered with a layer of sticky red dust. He said that the environment of Iraq has seen series of setbacks since the draining of the marshes in the eighties of the last century, then grinding the desert environment with military tanks and heavy machineries as well as the radioactive dust generated from the use of the uranium in 1991. He added that after the U.S. invasion in 2003, the destruction of the geographical nature of Iraq, and specifically southern Iraq were completed on top of the early elimination of thousands of palm trees in the southern Iraqi city of Basra during the Iran-Iraq War, in order to facilitate military operations. The Iraqi environment were turned into soft terrain to not withstand the storm when the wind gains speed to perpetuate particles of red mud (not sand) of heavy density, but small-scale, to spread over long-distance from the south to the north of Iraq, and on its path it kills trees and plants, pollute the air, endanger the lives of hundreds of thousands of people at risk of asthma attacks and other respiratory problems. He says if we take air samples to test them at a laboratory we will see that the city is exposed to huge amount of red dust, and by analyzing those dust components the world will know the truth about the contaminated air we breathe in Iraq.

He finally adds that to make matters even worse Iraq is facing an unprecedented drought since five years now as the levels of both the Tigris and Euphrates rivers have reached the lowest recorded because of the giant dam projects in upstream countries.

When I heard that, I remembered on my last trip overseas, I met a Brit who proudly told me that he was MBE holder, and I thought he meant MBA, however, he corrected me by emphasizing MBE, which stands for Member of the British Empire - an honored badge given by the queen of England, a few steps from the comfort of her chair, to all those who served in south of Iraq during this war, for more than 5 years… And I thought no wonder why the British Empire is left to dust!!!!

Seed it

From : Richard SullivanInstitute of Near Eastern & African Studies (INEAS)

We are writing to invite you to endorse April 26 as International Seeds Day (ISD) to educate the public at your city about patent seeds, genetically modified food, agribusiness under globalization and Order 81.People worldwide acknowledge the sixth anniversary of the Iraq War on March 19/20. But many don’t know of another war taken place in Iraq. It is the war against Iraqi farmers and the future of agriculture.

April 26 (2004) marks the fifth anniversary of the issuing and signing of Order 81 (see full text below) by Paul Bremer, the administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) who was appointed in 2003.Order 81 gives full rights to American agribusiness corporations such as Monsanto to control the future of Iraqi seeds and agriculture, prohibits Iraqi farmers from reusing their traditional seeds and forces them to buy seeds and Agricultural material from USA companies.

Endorsers will participate in some or all of the following:

* publicize April 26 as an International Seeds Day (beginning on March 23) on the Internet, via email, postage mail and/or in their events.* organize teach-ins or any other event they see fit on April 26 to educate about patent seeds, the future of agriculture, terminator seeds technology and Order 81* help publicize the International Seeds Day (ISD) through alternative and mainstream media as well as post the list of events taken place on April 26 worldwide beginning on March 31 through alternative and mainstream media on Internet, distribute via emails and announce in public events.We greatly appreciate your help in making ISD a worldwide success.Cordially,Richard SullivanInstitute of

Near Eastern & African Studies (INEAS)
P.O. Box 425125
Cambridge, MA. 02142 USA
Tel: 1 (617) 86-INEAS (864-6327)
Website: http://www.ineas.org/* Order 81- Full text:http://www.mindfully.org/Farm/2004/Iraq-Plant-Variety-Law26apr04.htm

Shish Kebab Ministries!

When Firas walked into the passport department to apply for a new passport they told him that he needed to pay 700 US dollars to process his application. When he argued that this amount was much higher than the normal renewal passport fees he was told that the fees are not fixed! On his way out someone told him that he ought to try the Shish Kebab man that serves Kebab near the front gate!! When Firas spoke with the Shish Kebab man – out of shear joke- about assisting in getting the passport renewed, the Kebab man took the paper work and went inside; 10 minutes later he walked out with the passport papers stamped for a mere 550 US dollars!! The Shish Kebab man at the front gate has special discount rates for passport renewal!!!

Another friend had finally had his home door bell rung by the municipality – after 5 weeks of complain. He was waiting for a new cable to be installed from a government-owned, neighborhood generator to his house. None of the cable was going to be within his house premises. The electrician charged him for the cables, for the labor, and for the tools fees a (depreciation of using the tools!!) and when our friend argued why he would pay for something which is considered a government property, the electrician told him that the government property was people’s property too!! Of course, by then our friend was not much surprised because he had only managed to get a municipality electrician come to his house when the tea-man - who serves tea at the front gate of the Water and Electricity Department, helped in getting him a municipality electrician sent to his house for a small fee of 10 dollars!!! – Our friend waited for more than 5 weeks when he tried to get the municipality attention on his own which was proven to be futile. The tea man, conversely, has his saying at the Water and Electricity Department!!!

A few months back a private contractor barged into our ex-neighborhood with his equipment and paved the entire derelict streets and later disappeared, which we thought it called for a big applause. A few days later the streets were all flooded!! The contractor, while paving the streets, buried the entire sewerage system!!! 4 weeks later another contractor began digging a new sewerage system and the work was left unfinished until today!

Those examples are not unique; these are the daily Best Practices of our newly re-born country.

Things are screwed up anew, and guess who is calling back?!

One well-respected businessman was killed in Al Mansour district two weeks ago in a car bomb that meant to kill the head of the interior ministry – south region. A car bomb in Al Karada claimed the live of a loved teacher and children are again being the victim of kidnapping in Al Dawadie area. The madness returns in the aftermath of the elections and the announcement of Obama’s ‘reasonable’ withdraw from Iraq.

The latest news of Ezzat Al Douri’s (Saddam’s vice president) open letter to the ex-Baathists army officers (24000 nos. of which 9000 nos. of highly paid) to heed to Al Maliki’s call to return to their previous jobs is a living proof that a plan is under way to strengthen the Baathists. This plan will rely solely on the out come of Obama’s direct talk with the Mullas of Iran.

Ezzat’s letter also calls for the university professors and the obsolete Baathists students union to “report back to duty!” in the new Iraq and to take part in the ever crystallizing scheme of ‘prevalence’.

The green zone soon will no longer exist as such and the American embassy will be the sole symbol of the invasion power in the capital. Everything is moving at a “double cheese whopper” speed of pickles. One interrupter for the invaders is given a gun to protect himself! He told us “the fucking Americans are throwing in the towel!” Another fat cat that works inside the US embassy and lives in the green zone has no idea of wtf is going on in the city… like living in a Trobriand land.

“The Baathists are coming back” one professor said. “We need to build it up from the core; this is our way of doing business”!!!

like white, like black!

- Hey, Macain. I’m borrowing this Baathists contacts dossier for a couple of days; I need to take some notes down!!!
- Any time big brotha!

Fatoma goes to Hollywood

Fatma or Fatoma when she’s pampered, is an average stature of a woman that never managed to surpass her high school level. When she moved down the road from our house she was already married to a man 27 years her senior while she was only 20 years old. Fatoma gave birth to 3 children and as the days went by she sort of become the macho of her family - driving the family car, quite fast; doing the grocery shopping, running errands, and looking after her children in some what precarious way. Along the years she gained her fame for being a bit loose and one day a friend told me Fatma got her self a boyfriend, during which she got pregnant with her 4th child (a son)– not to insinuate infidelity here, but people did talk about it. Fatma’s loud voice and her driving style were quite unique and recognized by everyone in the neighborhood.

After her husband’s death she turned the house garage into a candy shop to make an extra living. Before the fall of Baghdad Fatma’s children were already married and moved out except for her son. After the fall we heard Fatma moved to Nasriya and the empty house was occupied by barking dogs and a few strange men. But beginning of 2008 Fattma moved back. When I retuned to Baghdad for a few days she saw me and she looked quite joyful. She wore a veil that was a bit pushed back to show the rather cheap henna color of her hair, and she told me ‘Khaloudi (Khalid), your hair cut is nice and look like those ‘Emrikkan’ (American) soldiers and like in Hoolie-ood (Hollywood) films.

she talked about how things are getting better in terms of security but she added that there is neither electricity nor water, but she insisted that the security is very good but the generator in the neighborhood was broken for 10 days without getting it fixed because the services are very bad. She told me her children stopped sending her money and the kilos of tomatoes are very expensive now yet the security is good at the supermarket. While she complained about how corrupt the government employees are and how she would throw the electricity bills at their faces and never pay it out she simultaneously praised the government, again, for the security and for the pay raise her sister got for teaching at some elementary school. She says that the government is doing its best but the people are dishonest and futile, especially the young people. She asked me if I went to Hoolie-ood when I was in Emrikh (America), and she told me her daughter had filed for asylum to go to Emrikh while she is in Amman where “the Jordanians – sons of bluffers, are giving her hard time.” She said “Khaloodi now we have voting not like before, Saddam never cared about voting, but this Gawad (pimp) Al Hakim promised to kill people if not elected.”

I remember once Fatma said that when you break an Iranian bones you find shit! And today Fatma is exercising her right to become a neighborhood representative for Iyad Alawi’s constituency. Every day we found her at her house doorsteps distributing Dishdash (Arabic long white dress) and children toys to the poor to win their hearts! She told me Iyad Alawi is a nice man and will help the people and I wondered how did Alawi managed to recruit a person like Fatma. Before I excused myself she told me ‘Khalid, “will you go to Hoolie-ood again?’ and I replied “no, perhaps you Fatma should go there” and she felt quite happy about it.

The next day when I left to the airport we drove pass her house and heard some funny music amplified from a little radio next to Iyad Alawi’s picture on the front gate, and Fatma busily passing out Deshdash and other items to a few passersby. I contemplated for a moment and whispered to my ears: Fatoma goes to Hoolie-ood!