Honestly, we Iraqis are really suffering from the problem of Identity, it's quite difficult to define our identities in a word, saying that we are just Iraqis is such a higher stage that we are not going to reach soon. Nowadays, ID are Shia'i or Sunni!
Before that we had those clashes between the different ideologies controlled the Iraqi society - if not societies - among the last century and especially before the American Invasion. Ba'athism, communism, and Shia party (Da'awa) but the last one wasn't that famous or important back then. Before the Ba'athists took control over Iraq, we haven't seen any real hate and fight between Iraqis (Here I'm talking about those who are into politics and culture etc), we had this sense of respecting the multiculturism in our society and the other Ideologies. But by the time of Ba'athists and especially Saddam (Go back to Nabeel's song- a book about an Iraqi poet living in London) we had a real BATTLE in Iraq. And those dark emotions were moving from a generation to the next. In my case, I have an extreme hate toward Ba'athists, I just hate them, I want to erase them from the face of world, if they are 4 millions, so what? we can kick those out of Iraq as they did to more millions of Iraqis. But my feelings were making me blind that I was believing anybody who was telling me that this or that writer has written a poem about Saddam saying that He's the fucking Arab hero! I was believing anything because I was under the feeling of REVENGE!
I forgot that there are thousands of Iraqis inside Iraq who had to say that they r Ba’athists so they can live and feed their families, I forgot that all the teachers and doctors and other employees had to say that they are Ba'athists to get a job. My country is really tough to live in.
I still believe that every Ba'athist who harmed an Iraqi has to be punished by being kicked out or sent to jail (I'm against Capital punishment).
We have to notice that Iraqis are sometimes harsh to each other that u c Iraqi writers, artists, politicians fighting each other and say that this or that was with Saddam. It's a new movement in the Iraqi society. An easy one. A movement that never existed in any other societies where the brothers eat each other.
God Help my Iraq (if there's a God!) ~~
Before that we had those clashes between the different ideologies controlled the Iraqi society - if not societies - among the last century and especially before the American Invasion. Ba'athism, communism, and Shia party (Da'awa) but the last one wasn't that famous or important back then. Before the Ba'athists took control over Iraq, we haven't seen any real hate and fight between Iraqis (Here I'm talking about those who are into politics and culture etc), we had this sense of respecting the multiculturism in our society and the other Ideologies. But by the time of Ba'athists and especially Saddam (Go back to Nabeel's song- a book about an Iraqi poet living in London) we had a real BATTLE in Iraq. And those dark emotions were moving from a generation to the next. In my case, I have an extreme hate toward Ba'athists, I just hate them, I want to erase them from the face of world, if they are 4 millions, so what? we can kick those out of Iraq as they did to more millions of Iraqis. But my feelings were making me blind that I was believing anybody who was telling me that this or that writer has written a poem about Saddam saying that He's the fucking Arab hero! I was believing anything because I was under the feeling of REVENGE!
I forgot that there are thousands of Iraqis inside Iraq who had to say that they r Ba’athists so they can live and feed their families, I forgot that all the teachers and doctors and other employees had to say that they are Ba'athists to get a job. My country is really tough to live in.
I still believe that every Ba'athist who harmed an Iraqi has to be punished by being kicked out or sent to jail (I'm against Capital punishment).
We have to notice that Iraqis are sometimes harsh to each other that u c Iraqi writers, artists, politicians fighting each other and say that this or that was with Saddam. It's a new movement in the Iraqi society. An easy one. A movement that never existed in any other societies where the brothers eat each other.
God Help my Iraq (if there's a God!) ~~
11 comments:
Hello to you Sumerian Girl,
I just wanted to tell you,
that you are doing a great job with your blog. I hope that you will continue to write, and perhaps describe what life is like in
Southern Iraq. I hope you don't get discouraged and that you stay well.
I found an old poem of mine, so I will tell it to you:
Paths At Night
Paths at night, lose the right.
Trees become friendly, hugging frenzy.
Rocks overturn, balance burst, plunge head first.
Grass binds feet in time.
Spiders weave attachable webs, collect the dead.
Wind, neither whispers nor howls,
but casts into oblivion.
Alrighty, back into hiatus por moi.
Take Care.
MG
Hello,
I hope I haven't scared you away from blogging. Just a silly poem.
Hi Mr. Ghost
Nice name, ha?
Sorry, got buzy, that's all ..
Keep visiting me ..
nice having u here,
Sumerian Girl
Hi Sumerian Girl,
How are things going for you?
I hope all is well.
I am always interested in reading about history and cultures - and one of the books I read recently was about the Iraqi Jews. The author was the daughter of an Iraqi Jew and she returned to Baghdad in 2003/2004 to research Jewish culture and history in Iraq.
One of the things I was hoping you could tell me, is do Iraqis still
Have their Finjans read, which is apparently a form of divination done by Iraqi women using coffee grounds ?
And do Iraqis still eat
Anba, a sandwich of crusty bread filled with mango pickle?
Hi Mr. Ghost,
I'd love to read that book, plz let me know what's its title.
See, ofcourse, they still read Finjans, it's part of our methology, and if you try, it will amaze u. Eventhough, I don't believe in those things but I like those beautiful things from our heritage.
But that sandwich, I really haven't seen anybody eatin it a long time ago. Maybe being from the new generation doesn't allow me to see stuff like that. but in anyways, Iraqis would love to eat Mango, but tomoato in Iraq is expensive, so we don't even dream of apples to dream of Mango :)
ta ca
Hi Sumerian Girl,
I hope things are nice for you.
Where I live, no mangoes either, but they grow a fruit here called cranberries. A very tart or sour berry, it's usually made into sauce or juice.
People usually eat cranberry sauce
with turkey on Thanksgiving and other holidays like Christmas.
The name of the book is:
Last Days in Babylon
the history of a family, the story of a nation
By Marina Benjamin
New York: Free Press, 2006
Here are some notes from the book I took:
P. 59 The Dellalah = Marriage broker in Iraq
The Dellalah, would be “incredibly well informed, knowing which boy was in need of a wife and exactly which girl would suit him... the dellalah was nonetheless considered a woman of many talents. She knew how to spot good breeding and how to recognize an educated mind and she understood the necessity of having an equality of wealth and social standing between the families involved in any given union. More discreetly, the dellalah could be relied to uncover anything unseemly that lurked hidden in the past of a prospective bride or groom.”
P. 53 Iraqi Candy
“syrupy baklawas-stuffed full of chopped nuts, cut into diamond shapes, and piled into tall, sticky heaps-and trays of deep fried, bright orange zingoolas, which dripped syrup and were shaped like scribbles. On the sales counter, star-shaped masafans made from honeyed ground almonds sat beside crunch sesame snaps, and trays stacked with coconut macaroons... but it was the aloocha that Regina eyed greedily. They were sticky toffee stars that stuck to your teeth and had to be sucked off slowly.”
P. 62 Honor Killing Jews and Woman’s Rights
“In Regina’s day it was universally understood in Arab culture that a woman was not an independent being but came under the authority of her husband or father. She had no rights. Her will was regarded as something to be broken, and her intelligence an asset only only if she had no ambition to use it. It followed that her chief asset was her person and specifically her chasteness, this being an almost sacred thing that her father had to safeguard. What every father feared beyond all else was that his daughter would disgrace herself on his watch, for then he’d be obliged to administer the traditional Bedouin punishment and preserve the family honor by killing her.
The Baghdadi Jews adhered to a somewhat watered down version of these beliefs. Honor killings were unheard-of in the community, although they occurred from time to time among rural Jewish populations that were ‘Bedouinized.’ Yet even among educated Jews in the cities it remained a given that a woman’s chastity was everything, the principal item of worth she was deemed to possess and, therefore, everything she had to lose.”
P. 153 Concentration camp for Jews
“...Jews who had figured prominently in the wathba uprisings were already being herded into a concentration camp in the southern desert, along with other supposed enemies of the state, such as communists. However at the end of June the government upped the ante and declared Zionism to be a state crime under paragraph 51 of the Iraqi Criminal Law. From then on Zionism would be an offense punishable by death.”
P. 189 Law No. 5
“The new law, which was ratified on March 10. Decreed that the possessions of Jews who had relinquished their Iraqi nationality were to be confiscated by the government and that their liquid assets were to be frozen with immediate effect. Overnight, virtually the entire Jewish community was transformed into paupers. Community leaders petitioned the British for help, but the British were reluctant to intercede with the Iraqi government in so delicate a matter when Israel was displaying the same intransgence toward the Palestinians.”
Pp. 190-191 Some Of The Effects of Law No. 5
“the Jewish Chronicle claimed that under the custodian general who was appointed to oversee the sequestration and disposal of all property belonging to denaturalized persons, ‘forty liquidation committees’ have been set up and these have seized hundreds of business premises, cars, and large quantities of merchandise.’ Everything that the Jews possessed was confiscated. And what didn’t go straight into the Iraqi treasury began stacking up in warehouses around Baghdad. Confiscated gold and jewelry were stored at the National Bank. Perishable foodstuffs and livestock were sold on the open market.
The paper went on to report that Baghdadi Jews were subject to a ‘reign of terror’ in which gangs of hooligans cruised Jewish neighborhoods, burgling and vandalizing Jewish property, and that the police were arresting Jews simply in order to extort money from them. The Jews felt victimized on every level. Once the Iraqi government had placed them beyond the law, they became easy prey for anyone wishing to maltreat them, from Muslim business rivals fed up with Jewish domination of the markets and pan-Arab nationalists
who felt all along that the Jews were a kind of cancer on Arab society...”
The book really provided me with a lot of insight into Iraqi society
and Jewish culture in Iraq.
Alrighty, Sumerian Girl, you take care and stay safe, and God bless you.
Hi Sumerian Girl,
I've reading a few blogs from Iraqi persons lately. I'm must say that yours is one of the most intelligent I've read so far.
There is no hate in your words. Lots of angriness and sadness but no hate. I guess it's not easy not to hate in your situation.
I'll keep on reading you as long as you keep on writing.
I wish you all the best and hope you'll stay safe.
Thank you for opening our eyes.
Take good care
JM
Hi again Mr. Ghost,
the book seems interesting, u know, this way of exploring and viewing the east in a way or another .. there are better ones ofcourse ..
Dear Jean ,
I feel honored for what u've said, I was more interested in writing at the beginning, but it seems hard those days, when the status becomes worse and worse by the time ..
I'm trying best to present the puriest Iraqi reality away from the machines of war and Media ..
hope to c u again
Hello sumerian girl,
I understand what you feel. But you know that writing is more powerful than people think it is. So keep it up !
It is such a hope to read you thoughts on the Iraqi jews for example, or on Israel. It is such a relief to see that in the Iraqian youth there is such a clear and intelligent view on what's happening, not blinded by some of the dangerous ideas coming from one side or the other. You are the future of the Iraqian society. I hope (I know) you're not alone.
As long as there are people out there to read your words, you have to keep it on. Your a witness.
Besides, you're doing it very fine !
See you around !
thanks a lot jean
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