This must be stop somehow.
I mean, It's not my job to point out the one who should be accused, but someone need to take responsibility for what happened few days ago in Iraq.
The Iraqi army blames the US troops for stepping out too early, without bringing out any real solution for the mess they created there since the invasion.
Everyone suspect al'Qaida for organizing this suicide bombing- fearing that they are looking for the US militant forces to step out of the country so they can take over the country.
All of it just makes me wonder who should I follow- Obama's promises to step out of Iraq- will it do any good? Should the US stay in the area until 2020, like the Iraqi military stresses them to do so? What will be the best solution for the Iraqi people?
What a mess. And there aren't enough words to express my personal frustration.
All of this personal turmoil came up to me especially after I read some parts of the on-line version of Baghdad Diaries by Nuha Al-Radi. What a piece... so funny, cynical, scary and moving- all at the same time. I wish I could upload it all here, but I can only access it with my Brandeis ID (well... sorry about that. But at least there are some benefits of being collage student). Anyway, I'll bring you some parts that really stood up for me.
The writer is an Iraqi woman in her 50's who documents the days of the 2nd Gulf War, when the Western allies bombed the city of Baghdad. Her diary was supposed to be written for a short period, just for couple of days, until the bombing stop. Unfortunately, she needed to hold on of this diary for many months after- when she exiled Iraq to go to Jordan, and in Jordan- when she was looking for her identity in a foreign country, among strangers.
She did not recites the dates, just the number of the days. Like she totally lost a hold in time.
At the 10th day she writs:
"I say 'Read my Lips,' today is the tenth day of the war and we are still here (in the house). Where is you three to ten days swift and clean kill? Mind you, we're ruined. I don't think I can set foot in the West again. If someone like myself who is Western educated feels this way, what about the rest of the country? Maybe I'll just go to India"...
(Al-Radi, Nuha, Baghdad Diaries, p. 19)
Wailing through smile, smiling through wail... I'm amazed by how brave this woman can be under the constant firing of missiles over her city, Baghdad.
Al-Radi uses the same sharp humor like Ali in our play, and she also emphasizes the vision's two important themes: poverty and birds.
"The birds have taken the worst beating of all. They have sensitive souls which cannot take all of this hideous noise and vibration. All the caged love-birds have died from the shock of the blasts, while birds in the wild fly upside down and do crazy somersault. Hundreds, if not thousand, have died in the orchard. lonley survivors fly about in a distracted fashion. "
(Ibid, p. 27)
"Stealing has become the latest fashion. Everything has to kept under lock and key. Generators go for thousand, bicycles too. Cigarets are worth a fortune, kerosene lamps are valued like gold . Shopkeepers who live near they store stay open, but most gods are sold off crate tops on the sidewalks, odd bods selling wicks, batteries, matches- anything that is available.
The other day a house was robbed and when the owners reported it to the police they said'We have no petrol to make a special visit. I will have to wait 'til we go on petrol in the area' "...
(Ibid, p. 28)
Ali's stories become so vivid after reading these passages. Although one may see a bird as a cliche
image for freedom, for me it become so special now, looking at it through the eyes of the Iraqi
people, who could not feel free at their own homeland.
This cruel reality caused many Iraqis to flee their country- away to freedom, like a pigeon, like a bird.
But does a bird represent only freedom? Please follow Al-Radi, and the last image she took from her
country before she left to her life in Exile in Jordan.
"While I was making photocopies in a shop, I looked out of the window and saw a few sparrows.One of them had no tail, but all of the sudden it took off and flew away. So I said to theowner of the shop that that the bird had no tail, so how could it fly? He answered 'don't worry,the whole population of Iraq is in the same position, and they are surviving.' The birdwill survive, too; it will not have a good guidance sense, it will have difficulty with balancing,in turning right or left, but it will survive. I thought it was the most appropriate and descriptive metaphor of the present state of the people of Iraq."
(Ibid, p. 130)
Oh my, it's sad to look at an Iraqi diary from 91, and look at this country 19 years later, and to realize
that this sparrow still has no tail.
Yours,
Renana
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