Shocking!!

I was watching the news less than an hour ago, there was a report about the general conditions of children living in Iraq. It's nothing new, I know, we all are familiar with how bad the current situation is, and we all saw pictures and reports about this specific issue. But still, it doesn't fail to astonish me every single time I watch or hear about it. It is nothing to be described less than a disaster!!!

Imagine that the mortality rates of children till the age of 5 is 10%. It means that of every 100 child, 10 will die from various reasons including diarrhea and recently cholera!!!! If this number doesn't strike you, don't keep reading!

This puts Iraq who was one of the top ranking countries in health facilities in the lowest ranks of health care! It is now officially the worst in the region, and one of the worst in developing countries of the world!!!!

I was trying to write down some more numbers and talk about other conditions like education and so on, but I think there is nothing more important than a child's health! After all, if he's dead, what good does it do him if they provide him with a desk at school???!!!!

Coming to the next point, like all of you, I felt helpless, there is nothing we can do to solve this problem! But I have a part of a solution!

This is a copy from a project plan made by a friend of mine in Iraq, Ausama Idrees, who is a medical student, an activist and an Oxfam Australia action partner :

I'm starting a project here in the city where I currently live, this project is about helping the Orphans through supplying the only two Orphanages with essential materials that they desperately need.

Through this project we – me and a team of other students- will try to achieve the following:

1- Buying the orphanages heaters and carpets, and this should be done as fast as we can since winter is on the doors and they don't have any heating.

2-The project also will cover the renovation of an existing room to be used as an entertainment room for the children.

3- Provide the orphanages with some educational books, stories and toys and also change the environment in those houses into a healthier and happier one.

Any donation by you will directly help more than 60 orphans living in those two orphanages and will be a gate into other projects that tends to help the Iraqi orphans in the near future.

The Project will start as soon as we complete the fund raising stage. And it will be monitored and supervised by qualified people and by Oxfam Australia as well.

We will make mid and final evaluation for the project and will follow up with it and monitor the needs after that.

We will also do our best to publish the final result of the project on the internet so that you can follow up with what your donations have made.

You can donate online here.

And you can also donate directly through Money Gram.

Donation can be also transferred to one of the local NGOs if it's necessary.

Help those children, help us improve their situation.



Back to me, please consider donation, or share any other ideas! Those children need your help, just imagine that the one dollar you donate can help save a child's life!!!

If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate, I am ready to answer all of them, and if you want to contact the project organizer, this is his e-mail address "Neo1073@yahoo.com"

We need your donations, but we also need your prayers so don't forget the children of Iraq!

That place called home, back to Iraq!!!

A few days ago, I celebrated my 20th birthday. It didn't feel the way others make it sound like, I don't feel like an adult all of a sudden nor do I feel young with a life waiting in front of me and accomplishments to achieve. It doesn't feel at all. Maybe it's because age stopped meaning anything to me. The number of "old" individuals who make no sense at all nor act their "age" makes me never count it in when I am measuring a person!!

The winter is here, it's cold in the morning and windy but still no rain. I am waiting for the rain. Somehow it feels cleansing, maybe if I stand in it for a while I'd feel better, maybe more pure "spiritually speaking of course, standing in the rain in Cairo means nothing less than a laundry disaster"!

A week from now, my family is going back to Iraq. By family I mean my uncle, his wife and children, my aunt and my cousin. I am not very comfortable saying that I don't want them to leave. Coming to think about it, as an Iraqi who loves her country, if all those who left didn't come back, who is to rebuild it again. Where are we going to find the genius minds and the hard workers who will revive it again, make it more or less the Iraq we all miss with the clean streets and the beautiful houses and buildings?!
That was me thinking objectively, trying to justify it one way or another.

On the other hand, my aunt and cousin have been living with us for the last year becoming a vital part in our small family which won't feel any easier to be separated than if it was one of us, the original members leaving. Leaving the emotions aside, and the way we adore this little girl, is it really safe to go back??!

I keep asking myself this question without finding a satisfying answer. Can we say that walking in the streets of Baghdad or anywhere else in Iraq now is as safe as walking in the streets of Cairo??
How safe is it really?!

Leaving the safety aside, as it is very relative and differs from one place to another, If you go back, what kind of life is waiting for you there?! Can people re cope with the kind of life there again? How would it feel to be back to electricity for a few hours everyday? Not having hot water in the freezing nights of winter? Not finding proper medical treatment if your kid gets sick in the middle of the night?! And the list goes on and on!

Do you risk a comfortable, safe life in a country other than yours to go back to a place that doesn't even look the way you remember it because you miss it? miss your friends? miss your life there? Are you sure it would be remotely close to what you imagine???!

It is a bit over a year since my uncle died in a car explosion in Baghdad, leaving a little girl of a year and a half without a mother nor a father. We managed to get her here, she was admitted to one of the best schools in Egypt, even better than the one I myself went to! She goes out and plays, has friends and people who adore her. I can take her to the mall with my friends to spend a day while she is running all over the place playing and pretending to hold a camera and shooting us with it! Is my uncle going to be happy knowing that his child was forbidden of something this good, of basically a some how granted future, to go back to that unknown place called home, just because it is home?!!!!!

I am confused.

Jasim Show!

This is the definition of killer funny!!!


P.S only Iraqis will understand this!

BUSTED!!

WOOOOHOOOOO, I THINK I SOLVED THE MYSTERY!!

I just came across this picture on IraqSlogger.com, and the comment goes like this:

BAGHDAD, IRAQ - MAY 24: An Iraqi boy climbs boards a boat to cross the Tigris River on May 24, 2007 in Baghdad, Iraq. A number of Iraqis have turned to use boats to cross the banks of the Tigris River after the bombing of at least four bridges in Baghdad.



Remember how we all after this series of bombing bridges and building walls, we all started throwing accusations of them being sectarian acts by some one with interest in separating Baghdad into Sunni and Shiite areas restricted for each other!! I remember I myself started making fun of how stupid I think it is, how obvious the way things are going.... And of course as Arabs we all invented the usual conspiracy theory involving Israel and the Mossad etc. etc., you know, the way we always do....

Now watching these pictures were like a shock to me, I suddenly realised that we were all wrong!!

The thing happening behind the scenes which I am about to revile now is going to be a surprise to all of you, so please hold on tight to your seats, sit down if you are reading while you are standing, prepare for the shock:


IT'S THE BOAT DRIVERS"or whatever you want to call them"!!

picture this with me, a group of those boat owners gather in a meeting to search their current situation.... The business is really bad these days, you know people are more worried about their asses than taking a trip in the Tigris, beside, they'd rather spend their money on buying fuel than taking a boat with their chicks!!

What is the solution?! what can we do?! we can't earn our living like this specially when we can't go fishing because you know how it is with 30 years of throwing deadly chemicals and wastes into the river, by now all the fish are probably looking like TMNT "teenage mutant ninja turtles" so fishing them is not an option!

P.S from the writer ..... I know it sounds dump, a fisherman knowing about TMNT but bare with me here, you got the point, that's the important thing!!


Now back to our fishermen, a long silent pause domains until a voice comes from among them..... I have an idea!!!

*What idea? tell us please!!
*It's kindda cranky, I am not sure if you would agree to it...
*just tell us anything, we are desperate here, can't you see?! We would go for anything, just talk!
*......... Blow up the bridges.
*huh?!
*You heard me, lets blow up the bridges, people won't find a way to cross the river and they will have to come back to us!! We would be the only way for them to get to their jobs and houses...
Everyone will be crawling to get in the line for a ride!!
*mmmm.....!
*C'mon, think about it. It's a really good idea, no one will ever suspect the poor guys who spent their lives sailing in the river!!
*..........
*..........
*..........
*..........
*It sounds like a good idea to me!
*yeah, me too!
*But guys....
* Oh shut up, no buts, we need to feed the family " said in a dangerous mob way", and I will do anything to prove my loyalty to the family.
*...........
*So are you with us or not?!
*........... I am sorry, but this is against my morals, I can't help but think of all the people who would get killed in such a massacre!
*Okay soft boy, I am afraid we can't leave any witnesses behind.... KILL HIM!!!

"sound of a fight and someone getting slayed eventually"



I will leave the rest for your imagination, I think you know how it must have gone, just some explosives, easy to attach them to the bases of the bridges using their boats, no one will suspect why they were roaming around the area, after all, it's their job!!

Now, I bet if you get some of those CSI people with their weird devices, they will find traces of saliva, sorry chemical stuff used for making home made explosives on their hands, urine and hair maybe even disect one of them and search for it in his lungs!!

you can find some more pictures that support my accusations here!
Notice the devilish looks in their eyes, you know what they say, once a murderer, forever a murderer.

I guess they underestimated how genius I am or just never thought I'd see those pictures!!








P.S I was simply joking above but I am happy that at least one party got benefit from these massacres!

I love ME!!

More than 32 people have been killed and 90 others wounded in two separate explosions in Baghdad while eight more US soldiers have been reported killed.

Police said at least 10 people were killed and 35 wounded on Tuesday when a car bomb exploded in a busy market in the southwest of the Iraqi capital.

Police sources said the bomb targeted civilians in the mainly Shiite district of Amil.

Earlier in the day, at least 22 people were killed and 55 wounded when a parked minibus exploded in central Baghdad.

The bomb went off in a busy commercial area where many day labourers, mostly Shiite, often wait for work.

Meanwhile, Al Mahdi Army was accused of setting a Sunni mosque and 50 houses on fire.


Hallelujah, thumbs up everyone, you gave us one nice bloody day!!
Is it just me or does it really keep getting better and better??!!!


P.S won't even talk about the the 3 lecturers who were abducted with their English bodyguards, that was a nice one!






Okay, to keep things updated, this month "May" was considered the worst month for American troops in 2 years, a sum of 122 soldiers were announced dead!

On the other hand, for Iraqis, we have 2000 dead, of course you can add another 2000 to get the real picture as more than half of the injured usually die out of incredibly lousy medical care and they are not counted!