I've met Omar by chance. To be clear, the Omar I've met was not the Omar I was speaking with about Iraq, Saddam, theater pigeons and war. The Omar I've first met was the one who sold me my first prepay Verizon phone. It was the day after I came back from Israel- overwhelmed by Boston's amazing weather- and needed to replace my cell phone that did not work anymore, due to a finished contract.
Omar (the one from Verizon) asked me where I'm from, and once I realized he's from Iraq, and that we're neighbors from the same troubled region, we developed a great conversation which had nothing to do with cellphones or Verizon contracts. He told me about his longing for his country, about his life as a refugee in the States, and I told him about my interests and ideas about home- that as much as I miss it, it's hard not to criticize its politics.
We part ways, and continued our summer- I had a new phone, and he continued his work at Verizon and his academic career at BU.
I started working at the CST, and as hard as I tried , I couldn't find any reliable books and references about Iraq, the Gulf war or the peculiar relations between Iraqi and pigeons... Everything is from a Western point-of-view; either from American reporter, or American soldier, and I didn't want it to be my ground for the research of the third vision in the play.
And then I had my Eureka moment- and I've decided that it will be a good idea to contact Iraqi people I know... and so, I came back to the Verizon shop in Harvard Square, and begged Omar to share some of his memories/thoughts/experiences/ favorite Iraqi writers with me.
Luckily, he did not think I'm a creep, and sent me an email with a list of his fellow Iraqi friends- who can help me with my research.
And that's how I've met the Omar. Omar Bazzaz. The first Iraqi I've met to talk about all I didn't know, and wouldn't have known, about Iraq.
We set in C3 in Central Square, I introduced myself, took out the play, and the then it started- one of the most interesting conversations I had in a while.
We started discussing about the play- what does he think about the 3rd vision, and if he found some faults in the play.
Omar told me that he really liked the play, and how it focuses on the suffering of the Iraqi people. When I asked him about the story of Ali, the character, and the misery he describes in the vision, Omar answered me clearly; that it was as bad as I can imagine, and in order to survive in Iraq at that time, you had to sell everything. Ali's description of the cheap books at the sidewalks, and the continues searching for food- are all vivid images that Iraqisneeded to go through every day under the sanctions that the Western world brought about as a punishment for Saddam's invasion to Kuwait.
Pigeons, Omar reveled, is a very common hobby in Iraq, and many houses inhabitant them. However, trading them is a costume of the poor societies in Iraq, and consider to be quite despicable. Omar added, that Iraqis who grow pigeons for trading, are been marginalized; for example, the Iraqi court doesn't consider pigeons traders as a reliable witness in court. People from the high class society, like Omar's family, used to have pigeons too- but only doves. He asserts that doves inhabiting was belong to the middle-upper class society- and therefore, he wondered about Ali and his pigeons, and if he came from a high class family or not (after all, Ali had many pigeons other than doves).
Another thing that struck Omar, was Ali's age. Omar believes that there is a great problem to solve about Ali due to Wallace's character description. According to Omar, in '91 there wasn't any general draft to the Iraqi army. If there was a general draft, and the play is taking place in 2000, Omar was supposed to join the Iraqi army at the age of 19, if in 2000 he is "at his late twenties." Omar thinks that that doesn't make sense, because Ali seems to come from a good socio-economical background- not from a family that has to send her child to the army at such a young age.
Although military service is mandatory in Iraq, educated men can get away from that pretty easily. Did Ali voluntarily joined Saddam's army? Why did he joined the army at such a young age? Did he receive his education before or after his military service?
There are many questions to answer about Ali, but at least I got more details about the daily lives of Iraqis under Saddam regime, and the cruel reality under the American occupation.
Omar told me that life under Saddam was miserable, but the American occupation is even worse. Ali reflects the misery and impoverished reality of Iraq under the sanction in the 90's. Omar confirmed it all: the story about the pencils is true, the kids in Iraq barely had papers to write on. Omar emphasized the great effort Saddam's government had made to compensate for the lack of food and water; differently from the lives under the American occupation, the Iraqi government provided basic food for the entire Iraqi population. The food was bad, but at least it was something.
When it came to health and medicine, things were more complicated. Saddam couldn't compensate for the need of medicine, and as written in Ali's vision, many people died due to the simplest reasons: small infection, or a flu. Iraq's ones best in the region medical facilities, became a place of horror and death. Doctors, if they could, fled the country, although there was no country to welcome them. Death and poverty ruled the streets, the economy was destroyed, and crime increased once people turned to desperate actions of stealing and murdering for food and money. Infrastructures were damaged or destroyed, people had no job. The average salary was one dollar a month.
It was fascinating to see how Wallace nailed so many details and politics into this vision, and how well she represents Iraqis like Omar- who grow up in Iraq and suffered both wars- the Gulf War and the American occupation. I would like to investigate further Ali's possible reasons for joining Saddam's army, and to question Omar's insights.I just need to remember that there's so much you can reveal about a character- you cannot have it all.
Omar gave me references to some Iraqi authors and singers that might help me as I continue my research, and I'll be looking for their books and web sites this coming week.
Meanwhile, you can join this FaceBook group OLD IRAQ, which is full of Iraqi nostalgia and longings to the country of palms and doves. As Ali says- "I remember. I remember. Everything we say these days begins with 'I remember'", and I guess many Iraqis feel the same. Maybe they truly feel that all that is left is the past, that the present is harsh, and the future is too distant and vague for them to look at.
Maybe this project is one of many that will change that.
Yours truly,
Renana
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