The blood bath in Iraq goes on and on, so ferocious it is that it puts my mind in a state of hibernation. I am going to be honest with you. I can't read or watch the news anymore. I can't analyze or reason anymore. I never thought that I am that soft.
So, while I am floundering in puddles of despair and hopelessness, I decide to escape to my perpetual comfort zone: Poetry.
It all began when I was lying down in bed today (alone of course) after watching the horrible scenes from Iraq on news-channels. I then decided to switched off the bloody TV. It was dark and quiet. I was getting drowsy, when a thin echo of an old poem started to skulk to my ears. A poem called “The Rain Serenade”. For the late Iraqi poet, Badr Shakir Al-Sayyab.
Badr was was borne on 1928. his first poetry collection was published when he was 19. He was arrested more than once during the British mandate and the monarch ruling that followed because of his political views. He died young when he was only 38 years old, after a very eventful life, and long struggle with illness
This particular poem was written somewhere during the 1950s, however, it ironically sounds like today, full of metaphor and allegory. The following is a discretionary translation of the last part of this poem, the original arabic text is available here. (I apologize in case of any mistakes in the translation)
“.....
And there is hunger in Iraq.
And in it, crops are thrown in the harvest season.
So that the ravens and the locusts get sated.
And so that the Shawan and the stone grind.
Horse mills revolve in the fields, surrounded by men.
Rain...
Rain..
Rain.
And how many tears have we shed in the night of farewell.
And then we console ourselves, lest we get blamed, with the rain.
Rain..
Rain.
And since we were little kids the sky used to,
get cloudy in winter,
and the rain falls.
And every year the turf gets green, and we get hungry.
There has never passed a year without hunger in Iraq.
Rain...
Rain..
Rain.
In every raindrop yellowed or reddened by corollas.
In every teardrop from the hungry and bare bodies.
And in every drop from the slaves' blood.
There is a hint of a smile, awaiting the birth of a new mouth.
Or a nipple blossoming in the mouth of an infant.
In the world of the young tomorrow, the endower of life.
Rain...
Rain..
Rain.
Iraq will be greensward with rain!”
Saturday, November 25, 2006
Monday, November 13, 2006
The fallacy of American Democracy in Iraq.
Normally, I would neither have the appetite nor the interest to write about politics. However, when you live in the Middle East, the last thing you need to do is to keep passively away from observing a stormy geopolitical atmosphere.
Two Iraqi engineers have joined our office in the past few months. Very talented fine young men, both are master degree holders. The reasons they fled Iraq weren’t financial. When I asked them why did they leave the ‘prospering Iraq’ their reasons couldn’t be more obvious: the sectarian violence and the lack of security in general.
I witnessed for myself how the Iraqi psyche is suffering deep and irreparable fractures. I could even notice symptoms of post-trauma-stress on one of my new colleagues.
Once when we were driving to a business meeting, we had this political chat, I found it was a good chance to learn how the first elections in Iraq have gone.
On January 2005, the first ‘democratic elections’ in the history of the New Iraq were held; we saw it on TV. Lots of Iraqis have rushed to the ballots to cast their votes; again we could see that on TV. (But on western media channels only, because Al Jazeera office was already shut down and I am still questioning the impartiality of Al Arabyia coverage). I can even remember Christian Amanpour (the senior CNN correspondent) shedding the tears of happiness when she saw what she claimed to be ‘an unexpected participation’ on the Iraqis people’s part.And so I asked this colleague of mine whether what we saw on TV was real or not. He cracked a bitter smile and said: “you saw the tip of an iceberg!”
For the sake of an easy reading, I will refer to my colleague as H for the remainder of this post.
H parents are living in a Sunni stronghold called Al Tarimya, 35 Km to the north of Baghdad. According to a recent unofficial estimation, some 300 thousands people are living in that area.H told me that during the 2005 elections, the committee of Al Tarimya didn’t receive any ‘electoral forms’ which were supposed to be sent from some central authority in Baghdad. So people have end up registering their name and casting their votes on a blank piece of paper. Those papers were eventually stacked and sent to Baghdad for counting.
H has learnt afterwards that those papers were never counted, for that it was compulsory for all Iraqis to use the electoral forms. The forms that were never sent to Al Tarimya from the first place.The votes of all eligible voters out of 300.000 people weren’t counted.
Now that doesn’t sound very democratic, does it?
I completely agree that casting one’s vote in a democratic atmosphere is a wonderful thing, and that the freedom of choice is the paramount requisite for establishing a prosperous country whether in Iraq or elsewhere.
However, I also believe that there is nothing worse than imparting privileges of democracy on a sectarian basis.
A very important lesson should be inferred from the American adventure in Iraq; democracy is not imported merchandise. It is, in its best case, a pristine homemade product, incubated and agreed upon by the people, nurtured slowly and gradually with love and care.
May God bless Iraq, and help put it back on the track of recovery…
Two Iraqi engineers have joined our office in the past few months. Very talented fine young men, both are master degree holders. The reasons they fled Iraq weren’t financial. When I asked them why did they leave the ‘prospering Iraq’ their reasons couldn’t be more obvious: the sectarian violence and the lack of security in general.
I witnessed for myself how the Iraqi psyche is suffering deep and irreparable fractures. I could even notice symptoms of post-trauma-stress on one of my new colleagues.
Once when we were driving to a business meeting, we had this political chat, I found it was a good chance to learn how the first elections in Iraq have gone.
On January 2005, the first ‘democratic elections’ in the history of the New Iraq were held; we saw it on TV. Lots of Iraqis have rushed to the ballots to cast their votes; again we could see that on TV. (But on western media channels only, because Al Jazeera office was already shut down and I am still questioning the impartiality of Al Arabyia coverage). I can even remember Christian Amanpour (the senior CNN correspondent) shedding the tears of happiness when she saw what she claimed to be ‘an unexpected participation’ on the Iraqis people’s part.And so I asked this colleague of mine whether what we saw on TV was real or not. He cracked a bitter smile and said: “you saw the tip of an iceberg!”
For the sake of an easy reading, I will refer to my colleague as H for the remainder of this post.
H parents are living in a Sunni stronghold called Al Tarimya, 35 Km to the north of Baghdad. According to a recent unofficial estimation, some 300 thousands people are living in that area.H told me that during the 2005 elections, the committee of Al Tarimya didn’t receive any ‘electoral forms’ which were supposed to be sent from some central authority in Baghdad. So people have end up registering their name and casting their votes on a blank piece of paper. Those papers were eventually stacked and sent to Baghdad for counting.
H has learnt afterwards that those papers were never counted, for that it was compulsory for all Iraqis to use the electoral forms. The forms that were never sent to Al Tarimya from the first place.The votes of all eligible voters out of 300.000 people weren’t counted.
Now that doesn’t sound very democratic, does it?
I completely agree that casting one’s vote in a democratic atmosphere is a wonderful thing, and that the freedom of choice is the paramount requisite for establishing a prosperous country whether in Iraq or elsewhere.
However, I also believe that there is nothing worse than imparting privileges of democracy on a sectarian basis.
A very important lesson should be inferred from the American adventure in Iraq; democracy is not imported merchandise. It is, in its best case, a pristine homemade product, incubated and agreed upon by the people, nurtured slowly and gradually with love and care.
May God bless Iraq, and help put it back on the track of recovery…
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
The New Mercedes Benz Museum
One of the landmark projects completed this year was the Mercedes-Benz museum in Stuttgart, Germany.The design was selected through an architectural competition; the concept presented by the Dutch firm UN Studio has won the first ranking. Their organic-like concept, which is a further development and evolvement of the Guggenheim museum in New York, is also a resemblance of two interlacing helical DNA strands, which are connected at the top. Thus, visitors are not required to take an elevator; exhibiting zones are placed all along the walkways. Each one of those ramps twirls in a haphazard manner, transferring floorings to walls, and walls to ceilings. The plan’s shape symbolizes a trefoil, in an obvious attribute to the company’s emblem and the car hood ornament.This project is quite unique I must say, the geometry is very complicated, which has added a big challenge to the structural engineering of it.
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