August 7, 2006
V-Day's mission is to end violence against women and girls worldwide. As such, we stand in opposition to war. We ask all political leaders to break the old paradigm of responding to violence with more violence. Instead we urge them to seek more sophisticated solutions that work to reveal the root causes of violence and transformation of violence rather than the escalation of it.
Following is a statement from our V-Day Karama partners on the ongoing violence in Lebanon and Gaza. “Karama,” the Arabic word for dignity, is a unique partnership with nine countries of the Middle East and North Africa: Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Sudan.
-V-Day
STATEMENT FROM V-DAY KARAMA PARTNERS
As Arab organizations and representatives of human rights efforts, as citizens in countries living under political violence and different types of occupations, and as women working together to gain peace with dignity, we oppose all forms of violence.
Therefore, we condemn the horrific attacks and extreme military force being used against civilians, including women and children, in Lebanon and Gaza. We condemn the rush to inflict weapons and killing instead of attempting non-violent negotiations and prisoner exchange.
We condemn the United States government's material and political support of the attacks by Israel, the G8's one-sided response, and the deafening silence from some Arab Governments which ignores and condones the heinous scale of civilian casualties and infrastructural damage suffered by the families and communities of Lebanon and Gaza—more than 650 death in Lebanon and 106 in Gaza since 25 June 2006.
As the Israeli air strikes continue well-past 1,500 bombings, as the death and destruction mounts, we condemn the disproportionate harm being done to Lebanese and Palestinian civilians—taking lives, health, homes, livelihoods, economic development, the rule of law, infrastructure, and governance for years to come. In just the past few days, Beirut has seen the appearance of 500,000 displaced families and refugees.
We are women leaders from nine countries across the Arab Region, linked through V-Day Karama, addressing violence against women from every angle of society and politics. When political and military violence erupts, our work begins there.
This includes the conflicts elsewhere in Iraq and Sudan that have leveraged exponential political, military, and humanitarian crises that undermine community and human security for a generation. As the Karama partners we are coordinating common actions to cease these crises. "Karama" means dignity, a prerequisite for establishing peace and keeping an end to violence.
We are women in the region asking the international community and international human rights organizations to take a decisive stand against the attack without any neutrality. We believe that this is the time for these organizations to show their support of our issues and to act immediately to cease fire, take urgent action for solidarity with Lebanese and Palestinian people, and to provide humanitarian assistance for the displaced.
Starting immediately, Karama partners in and around Lebanon and Gaza have set forth the following actions:
- Hold a prominent event on the 2nd of September in Jordan by V-Day Karama, Al Gad News Paper and TV Satellite Channel, and Arab Women Organization of Jordan to support women's NGOs in Lebanon in their struggle for providing humanitarian assistance.
- Activities to support Lebanese women's organizations in the nine countries that Karama work in, as Lebanese people start facing shortages in food, medicine, and fuel.
- Distribute the statements and calls from Lebanese Civil Society Organizations to the international organizations and UN agencies.
- In Addition to activities will be held by Karama partners in each of the Arab Countries.
Organization/Country
1. V-Day Karama
Based in nine Arab countries (Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Algeria, Morocco, Syria, Sudan, and Tunisia) with headquarters in Egypt and a regional office in Jordan
2. Arab Women of Organization
Jordan
3. Women in Communication Society
Algeria
4. The Human Forum for Women
Jordan
5. Women Will of Iraq
Iraq
6. ACT
Egypt
7. Egyptian Family Foundation
Egypt
8. The Egyptian Centre for Women's Rights
Egypt
9. Syrian Committee for Women Causes
Syria
10. Research Centre for Refugees Studies
Jordan
11. Kafa (Enough) Violence and Exploitation
Lebanon
12. Hey Institute
Egypt
13. The Lebanese Democratic Forum for Women
Lebanon
14. Najdeh, Palestinian Women Forum
Lebanon
15. Al Nadeem Centre
Egypt
16. Jordanian Society for Professional Ethics
Jordan
17. Women Organization to Combat Illiteracy
Jordan
18. The Jordanian Society for Development
Jordan
19. Izdihar Project for Family Development
Jordan
20. Al Asera Al Bedaa' Society
Jordan
21. Al Nakheel Society
Morocco
22. The Alliance for Syrian Women
Syria
23. UMI Society
Egypt
24. Women and Society Organization
Egypt
25. Union de l'Action Féminine ,
Morocco
26. The Society for Women In Crises
Algeria
27. The Egyptian Centre for Housing Rights
Egypt
28. The Center for Studies & Programs of Alternative Development
Egypt
29. Al Hassna Magazine
Lebanon
30. Jordan Society for Profession and Work Ethics
Jordan
31. Women Movement for Peace Society
Algeria
32. EACPE
Egypt
33. Mosawa Network,
Jordan
34. The Egyptian Forum for Women and Development,
Egypt
35. Salmmah Centre for Gender and Development
Sudan
36. Siha Horn of Africa Network,
Sudan
37. Women's Centre for Legal Aid and Counseling,
Palestine
38. Women against Violence,
Palestine
39. Eve Centre for Counseling,
Morocco
40. Tunisian Women Society for Research and Development
Tunisia
41. The Arab Society for Sociologists
Tunisia
42. The Arab Alliance for women
Egypt
43. Center for Egyptian Women Issues
Egypt
44. Gender Centre for Research And Training
Sudan
45. Women Society for Solidarity with Urban Families
Algeria
46. The National Union for Algerian Women
Algeria
47. The National Committee for Women and Sport
Algeria
48. National Society for Women's Development
Algeria
49. The National Organizations for Families Victims of Terrorism
Algeria
50. The National Society for Urban Women and development
Algeria
51. Parliamentarian Women's Forum
Algeria
52. Society for Enhancement of Women's Activities
Algeria
53. Iqra' (read) Society)
Algeria
54. National Society for Family Development
Algeria
55. The Moroccan Society for Advocating Women's Rights/ Fama Centre
Morocco
56. The Moroccan Society for Combating Violence against Women
Morocco
About V-Day Karama
In 2005, V-Day continued its initiatives in Africa, Asia and the Middle East by launching the Karama Program, envisioned by V-Day Special Representative and Karama Chair, Hibaaq Osman, in Cairo, Egypt. “Karama,” the Arabic word for dignity, is a unique partnership with nine countries of the Middle East and North Africa: Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Sudan. Through women's organizations and inter-regional agencies such as the Arab League and the African Union, Karama brings together women, men, governments, activists and artists to examine the impact of violence on women's health, education, and economics, and to create and encourage campaigns at the national, regional, and international levels to end violence against women, tailored to the cultural realities of the target country. Headquartered in Cairo, Karama works closely with organizations working in different sectors, and on different issues in each society, such as education, health, religion, art, economics, and policy.
23 September 2006
An Open Letter to President Bush, Read by Eve Ensler at V-Day Paris
March 31, 2003
Paris, France
Dear Mr. President,
I am writing as a woman, as a citizen of the world, as an American who has just visited 16 countries, including Afghanistan, Jordan and Pakistan, working with V-Day, a global movement to stop violence against women and girls.
I am writing because I believe your war on Iraq reveals your profound lack of understanding of the world.I am writing because I believe your war on Iraq reveals your profound lack of understanding of the world.
I believe your war indicates a desire to dominate, rather transform, heal, improve, or build relationships.
I do not think you understand that the United States is one country and one culture and not the only country and culture. That the spirit of domination threatens the world’s diversity and difference—the very forces that are most magical and essential to the human experience.
I do not think that you have sat with the panicked Afghan women in Kabul who believe the war will shift attention away from their country and thus bring an end to their short-lived security. I do not think you have seen the desperate face of the woman in a Ramallah refugee camp, a widow who just lost her two sons. I do not think you have been privy to the generosity of the Muslim women in the ghettos of Cairo, in the kitchens of Bosnia, in the high offices of Jordan. I do not think you have allowed these people to enter you.
I think you are in the process of polluting all that is great about America, destroying the dream, erasing the years of struggle for democracy, human rights, self-determination, tolerance and peace.
Here is a response to some of your terribly dangerous misconceptions, based on what I have seen in my travels:
1. The Muslim world is not populated by terrorists. Most people long for peace, long for justice, long for cooperation.
2. Muslims do not hate Americans. They despise the current American government as they feel it has no respect for their values, culture, religion, or ways of being. They are suspicious of a government that bombs places like Afghanistan with the promise of reconstruction and then abandons the job before the majority of people have heat, water or electricity. Terrorists are born in the cracks of broken promises.
3. The people of the Muslim world want to love Americans, as the experiment of democracy in the United States has been a great inspiration to them.
4. The loss of American lives is not worse then the loss of Iraqi lives or Israeli lives or Palestinian lives or Bosnian lives or Afghani lives. Three thousand deaths--whether it be in the World Trade Center or the streets of Baghdad or in Mazur Sharif—will always be equal to the destruction of three thousand dreams, stories, and families.
5. You cannot help people through force or violence. You help people by serving them, by asking questions, through humility, by being engaged in a process of discovery, admitting that you do not have answers and seeking answers together. You help people by providing safety and resources so they can do their best thinking. You help people by trusting they have the capacity to help themselves.
Mr. President, there is a new paradigm. I have seen it manifest itself everywhere, from Manhattan to Manila, Sarajevo to Johannesburg. Women and men who have suffered enormous violence are not buying AK-47s or machetes or weapons of mass destruction. They are not plotting retaliation or revenge. I have seen how in the Rift Valley of Africa the women who were mutilated are now opening safe houses to protect young girls from Female Genital Mutilation. In Houston, Denver, New York, Los Angeles, and Kauai, women are telling their stories of rape and domestic battery, risking shame and embarrassment so other women will be free. In Juarez, Mexico, women activists are risking assassination as they speak out against the murder and disappearances of hundreds of poor women. In the refugee camps of Peshawar, Afghan women who lost every right under the Taliban are bringing up girls and boys to be equal. In the community centers of Mostar, women who were raped during the Bosnian war are working with soldiers to heal their trauma. In Islamabad, women are risking Fatwa to save other women from acid burnings and honor killings. In the streets of Paris, women are risking everything to hide women from their pimps and save their daughters from sex slavery. These are the new warriors--those who transform the violence into healing. Those who are creative and imaginative and careful in their response.
Women and men all over the world know that the time of violence is over. Your war will not divide or distract us or undo this new paradigm. Yes, the story of violence is in our bodies. But so is the new determination and strength. We grieve the centuries of rape, bombings, brutality, and cruelty. We refuse to act in kind. Instead we hold and transform this violence, and we do everything in our power to prevent this from happening again to anyone, anywhere.
We urge you to stop the bombing, to stop the dominating.
End the old paradigm. Join us here on the other side.
Sincerely,
Eve Ensler
Activist/Playwright/Founder, V-Day
Paris, France
Dear Mr. President,
I am writing as a woman, as a citizen of the world, as an American who has just visited 16 countries, including Afghanistan, Jordan and Pakistan, working with V-Day, a global movement to stop violence against women and girls.
I am writing because I believe your war on Iraq reveals your profound lack of understanding of the world.I am writing because I believe your war on Iraq reveals your profound lack of understanding of the world.
I believe your war indicates a desire to dominate, rather transform, heal, improve, or build relationships.
I do not think you understand that the United States is one country and one culture and not the only country and culture. That the spirit of domination threatens the world’s diversity and difference—the very forces that are most magical and essential to the human experience.
I do not think that you have sat with the panicked Afghan women in Kabul who believe the war will shift attention away from their country and thus bring an end to their short-lived security. I do not think you have seen the desperate face of the woman in a Ramallah refugee camp, a widow who just lost her two sons. I do not think you have been privy to the generosity of the Muslim women in the ghettos of Cairo, in the kitchens of Bosnia, in the high offices of Jordan. I do not think you have allowed these people to enter you.
I think you are in the process of polluting all that is great about America, destroying the dream, erasing the years of struggle for democracy, human rights, self-determination, tolerance and peace.
Here is a response to some of your terribly dangerous misconceptions, based on what I have seen in my travels:
1. The Muslim world is not populated by terrorists. Most people long for peace, long for justice, long for cooperation.
2. Muslims do not hate Americans. They despise the current American government as they feel it has no respect for their values, culture, religion, or ways of being. They are suspicious of a government that bombs places like Afghanistan with the promise of reconstruction and then abandons the job before the majority of people have heat, water or electricity. Terrorists are born in the cracks of broken promises.
3. The people of the Muslim world want to love Americans, as the experiment of democracy in the United States has been a great inspiration to them.
4. The loss of American lives is not worse then the loss of Iraqi lives or Israeli lives or Palestinian lives or Bosnian lives or Afghani lives. Three thousand deaths--whether it be in the World Trade Center or the streets of Baghdad or in Mazur Sharif—will always be equal to the destruction of three thousand dreams, stories, and families.
5. You cannot help people through force or violence. You help people by serving them, by asking questions, through humility, by being engaged in a process of discovery, admitting that you do not have answers and seeking answers together. You help people by providing safety and resources so they can do their best thinking. You help people by trusting they have the capacity to help themselves.
Mr. President, there is a new paradigm. I have seen it manifest itself everywhere, from Manhattan to Manila, Sarajevo to Johannesburg. Women and men who have suffered enormous violence are not buying AK-47s or machetes or weapons of mass destruction. They are not plotting retaliation or revenge. I have seen how in the Rift Valley of Africa the women who were mutilated are now opening safe houses to protect young girls from Female Genital Mutilation. In Houston, Denver, New York, Los Angeles, and Kauai, women are telling their stories of rape and domestic battery, risking shame and embarrassment so other women will be free. In Juarez, Mexico, women activists are risking assassination as they speak out against the murder and disappearances of hundreds of poor women. In the refugee camps of Peshawar, Afghan women who lost every right under the Taliban are bringing up girls and boys to be equal. In the community centers of Mostar, women who were raped during the Bosnian war are working with soldiers to heal their trauma. In Islamabad, women are risking Fatwa to save other women from acid burnings and honor killings. In the streets of Paris, women are risking everything to hide women from their pimps and save their daughters from sex slavery. These are the new warriors--those who transform the violence into healing. Those who are creative and imaginative and careful in their response.
Women and men all over the world know that the time of violence is over. Your war will not divide or distract us or undo this new paradigm. Yes, the story of violence is in our bodies. But so is the new determination and strength. We grieve the centuries of rape, bombings, brutality, and cruelty. We refuse to act in kind. Instead we hold and transform this violence, and we do everything in our power to prevent this from happening again to anyone, anywhere.
We urge you to stop the bombing, to stop the dominating.
End the old paradigm. Join us here on the other side.
Sincerely,
Eve Ensler
Activist/Playwright/Founder, V-Day
This Is Most Fragile Time for Afghanistan
After her most recent trip to Afghanistan, playwright and women's activist Eve Ensler pleads for the U.S. to keep its promises to stabilize the country, which she likens to a patient at a dangerous point of recovery.
I have just returned from Afghanistan. This was my third trip. I write now because the situation is urgent. Afghanistan today reminds me of a person who has been seriously ill. She is just beginning to recover, the fever has broken and there are those early moments where she suddenly feels alive. We know this is the most dangerous time. The energy is part of the fever itself, a kind of delirium, but the patient thrilled with the possibility of living, if not protected can go wild with activity. This exertion can have deadly consequences. In the case of Afghanistan this somewhat frenzied, disorganized activity comes not just from a momentary recovery-a ceasing of bombs falling but from a deep panic that the recovery is short lived and not guaranteed and so everything must be done now or it will disappear forever.
I would say this is the most fragile time I have experienced in Afghanistan.
Under the Taliban it was a tortured, ruinously oppressed country, but women in particular knew what to prepare for, they knew how to defend themselves against the madness, they could identify their enemies, they were braced for violence. They had learned how to maneuver in clandestine ways. Now for example, the situation is less clear, there is the pretense of liberation, although the ongoing threat of violence can be felt.
For example, at our recent women's leadership training conference women, who were visionary about the future, felt compelled to still wear burqas. On March 8, there were huge events celebrating International Women's day. One event at the Afghan Women's Union unveiled a statue symbolizing women's freedom and power. Hundreds attended. A day later the statue was stolen. The Women's Minister who in theory is the symbolic representative of Afghan women cannot move anywhere in the country without bodyguards. Although women are now working to create new businesses, build schools, open hospitals, the majority of the people in Afghanistan still live without heat, electricity or running water.
Having spent time in recent months with Afghan women in Kabul, as well as women and men in Amman, Cairo, Ramallah, Islamabad, and Peshawar, I can say that the Muslim world is highly suspect of the intentions of the U.S. government. They are watching Afghanistan. It is the test case. If the U.S. does not deliver security, substantial aid and reconstruction, we may never recover the trust of the Muslim world. If we turn our backs on Afghanistan, if we do not fulfill our promises, there is a good chance that the patient will never recover nor will she fulfill her dream of a free, safe and prospering Afghanistan. Terrorists are born in the cracks of broken promises.
- Eve Ensler
Eve Ensler, playwright of "The Vagina Monologues," is the Founder and Artistic Director of V-Day, a global movement to end violence against women and girls.
This commentary appeared on Women¹s eNews (http://womensenews.org) on April 30, 2003
http://www.vday.org/contents/vday/press/media/0305021
I have just returned from Afghanistan. This was my third trip. I write now because the situation is urgent. Afghanistan today reminds me of a person who has been seriously ill. She is just beginning to recover, the fever has broken and there are those early moments where she suddenly feels alive. We know this is the most dangerous time. The energy is part of the fever itself, a kind of delirium, but the patient thrilled with the possibility of living, if not protected can go wild with activity. This exertion can have deadly consequences. In the case of Afghanistan this somewhat frenzied, disorganized activity comes not just from a momentary recovery-a ceasing of bombs falling but from a deep panic that the recovery is short lived and not guaranteed and so everything must be done now or it will disappear forever.
I would say this is the most fragile time I have experienced in Afghanistan.
Under the Taliban it was a tortured, ruinously oppressed country, but women in particular knew what to prepare for, they knew how to defend themselves against the madness, they could identify their enemies, they were braced for violence. They had learned how to maneuver in clandestine ways. Now for example, the situation is less clear, there is the pretense of liberation, although the ongoing threat of violence can be felt.
For example, at our recent women's leadership training conference women, who were visionary about the future, felt compelled to still wear burqas. On March 8, there were huge events celebrating International Women's day. One event at the Afghan Women's Union unveiled a statue symbolizing women's freedom and power. Hundreds attended. A day later the statue was stolen. The Women's Minister who in theory is the symbolic representative of Afghan women cannot move anywhere in the country without bodyguards. Although women are now working to create new businesses, build schools, open hospitals, the majority of the people in Afghanistan still live without heat, electricity or running water.
Having spent time in recent months with Afghan women in Kabul, as well as women and men in Amman, Cairo, Ramallah, Islamabad, and Peshawar, I can say that the Muslim world is highly suspect of the intentions of the U.S. government. They are watching Afghanistan. It is the test case. If the U.S. does not deliver security, substantial aid and reconstruction, we may never recover the trust of the Muslim world. If we turn our backs on Afghanistan, if we do not fulfill our promises, there is a good chance that the patient will never recover nor will she fulfill her dream of a free, safe and prospering Afghanistan. Terrorists are born in the cracks of broken promises.
- Eve Ensler
Eve Ensler, playwright of "The Vagina Monologues," is the Founder and Artistic Director of V-Day, a global movement to end violence against women and girls.
This commentary appeared on Women¹s eNews (http://womensenews.org) on April 30, 2003
http://www.vday.org/contents/vday/press/media/0305021
VM in the ME
I am writing from Cairo. Today we were part a truly momentous event, the opening of Bayat Hawa, the first shelter in Egypt for battered women. This event not only opened the first safe place for women here, but it broke open the silence and invisibility of women’s pain. It signaled that change is possible. I spent the afternoon in the new house, listening to a group of women who have suffered and continue to suffer enormous violence. Most of them had been beaten by their husbands, their brothers, their fathers. Traditionally, women do not report this to anyone as “privacy” of the family is valued above all else, and there are no laws that would protect them from such assault. If women complain, they risk their husbands, marrying another wife and taking their children away from them. Saffa, a fifteen-year old girl who was beaten by her father for years, was married at 14 and then seriously beaten by her husband. She has now moved back to her father’s house where the abuse continues. As Saffa told her story the sadness in her eyes was matched by the depth of her desire for a new life, for education, for a way out.
[...]
The policies of the United States are in many cases, escalating this war. If we look at Iraq as one example, we see that under the terrible tyranny of Saddam Hussein, women lived difficult lives, but they were actually one of the most liberated and free in the Middle East. Since the U.S. invasion and occupation, the situation has becoming increasingly desperate. Women now face ongoing abductions, honor killings, and fundamentalist oppression. They are being raped and acid burned. They do not feel safe leaving their homes or keeping jobs. Shariah law – which could seriously limit their rights - is likely to become part of the new constitution.
Where people feel threatened and undermined by outside invasion, fundamentalism grows. Fundamentalism survives on the suppression and silencing of women. As the United States sustains policies of empire building and hegemony, in the supposed name of “security”, women throughout the world, become increasingly imperiled and insecure.
As I have traveled these last eight years, I have had the honor to meet women and men across this planet who have witnessed or suffered enormous violence, and rather than getting an AK47 or a machete, they feel this violence, grieve this violence and allow it to transform within their beings. Then they devote their lives to making sure it never happens to another woman or girl. We have come to call these people ‘Vagina Warriors.’ There are thousands, perhaps millions of these warriors in the world. They are fierce, obsessed, can’t be stopped, driven. They are citizens of the world. They cherish humanity over nationhood. They are done being victims. They know no one is coming to rescue them. They are community makers. They bring everyone in.
They are women and men who constantly sacrifice their own personal security and by doing so create real safety and freedom for the rest. They realize that the end goal is becoming vulnerable, realizing the place of our connection to one another rather than becoming secure, in control and alone.
- Eve Ensler
http://www.vday.org/contents/vday/vmoment/wfntest
[...]
The policies of the United States are in many cases, escalating this war. If we look at Iraq as one example, we see that under the terrible tyranny of Saddam Hussein, women lived difficult lives, but they were actually one of the most liberated and free in the Middle East. Since the U.S. invasion and occupation, the situation has becoming increasingly desperate. Women now face ongoing abductions, honor killings, and fundamentalist oppression. They are being raped and acid burned. They do not feel safe leaving their homes or keeping jobs. Shariah law – which could seriously limit their rights - is likely to become part of the new constitution.
Where people feel threatened and undermined by outside invasion, fundamentalism grows. Fundamentalism survives on the suppression and silencing of women. As the United States sustains policies of empire building and hegemony, in the supposed name of “security”, women throughout the world, become increasingly imperiled and insecure.
As I have traveled these last eight years, I have had the honor to meet women and men across this planet who have witnessed or suffered enormous violence, and rather than getting an AK47 or a machete, they feel this violence, grieve this violence and allow it to transform within their beings. Then they devote their lives to making sure it never happens to another woman or girl. We have come to call these people ‘Vagina Warriors.’ There are thousands, perhaps millions of these warriors in the world. They are fierce, obsessed, can’t be stopped, driven. They are citizens of the world. They cherish humanity over nationhood. They are done being victims. They know no one is coming to rescue them. They are community makers. They bring everyone in.
They are women and men who constantly sacrifice their own personal security and by doing so create real safety and freedom for the rest. They realize that the end goal is becoming vulnerable, realizing the place of our connection to one another rather than becoming secure, in control and alone.
- Eve Ensler
http://www.vday.org/contents/vday/vmoment/wfntest
23 August 2006
Window on Iran
From: Fatemeh Keshavarz
To: undisclosed-recipients:
Sent: Wednesday, August 02, 2006 6:42 PM
Subject: Window on Iran
Dear Friends,
In the past few months, the U.S. media coverage of Iran has gone from bad to unbelievable. It used to emphasize the negative and leave out the positive. It now appears to be inventing information that those of us in close contact with Iran are unable to trace. For example, in May 2006 there was a report in the papers here that the Iranian Jews will be forced to wear a uniform. Last weekend, another breaking news was: Ahmadinejad is imposing a ban on the use of foreign words. There is no truth to either of these (I won't list more).
Some of us in the Iranian American community feel that, due to the explosive conditions in the Middle East, we must provide our American friends and family members with possibility of access to reliable information, small as its impact might be. This is why I have put this e-mail update together to keep you informed of events in contemporary Iran. Its frequency would be once a week -- unless there is significant breaking news. I have made contact with friends who will monitor the news in Iran, and I will try to follow reliable publications here. Needless to say, I will not be able to be comprehensive.
If you feel you don't need these updates, please let me know to take you off the list. If you wish to check how informed you might be about Iran, take a look at the following questions:
On the issue of the Iranian nuclear program, did you know that:
* The Iranian supreme religious leader issued a legal decree (fatwa) on November 6, 2004 in which all development, production, and use of nuclear weapons is considered against the Islamic principles and should not be undertaken under any circumstances.
* Iranian nuclear facilities have been inspected over 2000 time during the past three years (some surprise inspections) by the IAEA and nothing illegal has been found. The IAEA's report has specified "to date, there is no evidence that undeclared material are related to any weapon's programs."
* Iran is home to tens of thousands of people affected by Saddam Husain's chemical weapons, and people have a strong feeling against the use of such weapons (I know some of these people personally).
* Iran has described the package of incentives from the west as potentially acceptable and announced a while ago that there will be an official and detailed reply by August 22nd, 2006.
On the issues related to the local politics, did you know that:
* the Taliban are an enemy of Iran and have engaged in regular assassinations of Iranian diplomats.
* The Iranian regime considers al-Qa'ideh a terrorist organization.
* Iranians held night long vigils to commemorate the victims of 9/11.
* Iran does not support the Shiite extremist Moqtada al-Sadr, and prefers peace, stability, and democratic elections in Iraq because it does not wish its own Kurdish population to aspire to separatist ideas and because a democratic election in Iraq will give a prominent role to the Iraqi Shiites.
* According to all major historians of the region, in reality, Iran exercises little influence on the Hezbollah.
On the social and cultural front, did you know:
* the latest best-selling titles in Iran are the DaVinci Code and Hillary Clinton's My life in (Persian translation)
* according to the latest statistics, close to 70% of the Iranian university students are women
* IVF, and gamete donation, as well as transsexual operations are legal in Iran.
* Iranian cinema produces critically acclaimed films (often openly critical of the regime).
* Iranian women golfers, race car drivers, and polo players compete internationally.
I hope my next messages will be much shorter. Please let me know if you wish your name to be taken off this list, or if you wish to add someone's name to it. I will send out my first update message soon.
Best,
Fatemeh Keshavarz
========================
Fatemeh Keshavarz, Professor and Chair
Dept. of Asian and Near Eastern Languages and Literatuares
Washington University in St. Louis
Tel: (314) 935-5156
Fax: (314) 935-4399
To: undisclosed-recipients:
Sent: Wednesday, August 02, 2006 6:42 PM
Subject: Window on Iran
Dear Friends,
In the past few months, the U.S. media coverage of Iran has gone from bad to unbelievable. It used to emphasize the negative and leave out the positive. It now appears to be inventing information that those of us in close contact with Iran are unable to trace. For example, in May 2006 there was a report in the papers here that the Iranian Jews will be forced to wear a uniform. Last weekend, another breaking news was: Ahmadinejad is imposing a ban on the use of foreign words. There is no truth to either of these (I won't list more).
Some of us in the Iranian American community feel that, due to the explosive conditions in the Middle East, we must provide our American friends and family members with possibility of access to reliable information, small as its impact might be. This is why I have put this e-mail update together to keep you informed of events in contemporary Iran. Its frequency would be once a week -- unless there is significant breaking news. I have made contact with friends who will monitor the news in Iran, and I will try to follow reliable publications here. Needless to say, I will not be able to be comprehensive.
If you feel you don't need these updates, please let me know to take you off the list. If you wish to check how informed you might be about Iran, take a look at the following questions:
On the issue of the Iranian nuclear program, did you know that:
* The Iranian supreme religious leader issued a legal decree (fatwa) on November 6, 2004 in which all development, production, and use of nuclear weapons is considered against the Islamic principles and should not be undertaken under any circumstances.
* Iranian nuclear facilities have been inspected over 2000 time during the past three years (some surprise inspections) by the IAEA and nothing illegal has been found. The IAEA's report has specified "to date, there is no evidence that undeclared material are related to any weapon's programs."
* Iran is home to tens of thousands of people affected by Saddam Husain's chemical weapons, and people have a strong feeling against the use of such weapons (I know some of these people personally).
* Iran has described the package of incentives from the west as potentially acceptable and announced a while ago that there will be an official and detailed reply by August 22nd, 2006.
On the issues related to the local politics, did you know that:
* the Taliban are an enemy of Iran and have engaged in regular assassinations of Iranian diplomats.
* The Iranian regime considers al-Qa'ideh a terrorist organization.
* Iranians held night long vigils to commemorate the victims of 9/11.
* Iran does not support the Shiite extremist Moqtada al-Sadr, and prefers peace, stability, and democratic elections in Iraq because it does not wish its own Kurdish population to aspire to separatist ideas and because a democratic election in Iraq will give a prominent role to the Iraqi Shiites.
* According to all major historians of the region, in reality, Iran exercises little influence on the Hezbollah.
On the social and cultural front, did you know:
* the latest best-selling titles in Iran are the DaVinci Code and Hillary Clinton's My life in (Persian translation)
* according to the latest statistics, close to 70% of the Iranian university students are women
* IVF, and gamete donation, as well as transsexual operations are legal in Iran.
* Iranian cinema produces critically acclaimed films (often openly critical of the regime).
* Iranian women golfers, race car drivers, and polo players compete internationally.
I hope my next messages will be much shorter. Please let me know if you wish your name to be taken off this list, or if you wish to add someone's name to it. I will send out my first update message soon.
Best,
Fatemeh Keshavarz
========================
Fatemeh Keshavarz, Professor and Chair
Dept. of Asian and Near Eastern Languages and Literatuares
Washington University in St. Louis
Tel: (314) 935-5156
Fax: (314) 935-4399
Facts from Palast
The Fear Factory
I'm going to tell you something which is straight-up heresy: America is not under attack by terrorists. There is no WAR on terror because, except for one day five years ago, al Qaeda has pretty much left us alone.
That's because Osama got what he wanted. There's no mystery about what Al Qaeda was after. Like everyone from the Girl Scouts to Bono, Osama put his wish on his web site. He had a single demand: "Crusaders out of the land of the two Holy Places." To translate: get US troops out of Saudi Arabia.
And George Bush gave it to him. On April 29, 2003, two days before landing on the aircraft carrier Lincoln, our self-described "War President" quietly put out a notice that he was withdrawing our troops from Saudi soil. In other words, our cowering cowboy gave in whimpering to Osama's demand.
The press took no note. They were all wiggie over Bush's waddling around the carrier deck in a disco-aged jump suit announcing, "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED." But it wasn't America's mission that was accomplished, it was Osama's.
Am I saying there's no danger, no threat? Sure there is: 46 million Americans don't have health insurance. IBM is legally stealing from its employees' pension plan and United Airlines has dumped its pensions altogether. Four-million three-hundred thousand Americans were injured, made sick or killed by their jobs last year. TXU Corporation is right now building four monster-sized power plants in Texas that will burn skuzzy gunk called "lignite." The filth it will pour into the sky will snuff a heck of a lot more Americans than some goofy group of fanatics with bottles of hydrogen peroxide.
But Americans don't ask for real protection from what's killing us. The War on Terror is the Weapon of Mass Distraction. Instead of demanding health insurance, we have 59 million of our fellow citizens pooping in their pants with fear of Al Qaeda, waddling to the polls, crying, "Georgie save us!"
And what does he give us? In my own small town, the federal government has paid for loading an SUV with .50 caliber machine guns to watch for an Al Qaeda attack at the dock of the ferry that takes tourists to the Indian casino in Connecticut. The casino dock is my town's officially designated "Critical Asset and Vulnerability Infrastructure Point (CAVIP)." (To find the most vulnerable points to attack in the USA, Al Qaeda can download a list from the Department of Homeland Security -- no kidding.)
But that's not all. Bush is protecting us from English hijackers with a fearsome anti-terrorist tool: the Virginia-class submarine. The V-boat was originally meant to hunt Soviet subs. But there are no more Soviet subs. So, General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin have "refitted" these Cold War dinosaurs with new torpedoes redesigned to carry counter-terror commandoes. That's right: when we find Osama's beach house, we can shoot our boys right up under his picnic table and take him out. These Marines-in-a-tube injector boats cost $2.5 billion each -- and our President's ordered half a dozen new ones.
Lynn Cheney, the Veep's wife, still takes in compensation from Lockheed as a former board member. I'm sure that has nothing to do with this multi-billion dollar "anti-terror" contract.
Fear sells better than sex. Fear is the sales pitch for many lucrative products: from billion-dollar sailor injectors to one very lucrative war in Mesopotamia (a third of a trillion dollars doled out, no audits, no questions asked).
Better than toothpaste that makes our teeth whiter than white, this stuff will make us safer than safe. It's political junk food, the cheap filling in the flashy tube. What we don't get is safety from the real dangers: a life-threatening health-care system, lung-murdering pollution production and a trade deficit with China that's reducing mid-America to coolie status. Protecting us from these true threats would take a slice of the profits of the Lockheeds, the Exxons and the rest of the owning class.
War on Terror is class war by other means -- to keep you from asking for real protection from true menace, the landlords of our nation give you fake protection from manufactured dangers. And they remind you to be afraid every time you fly to see Aunt Millie and have to give up your hemorrhoid ointment to the underpaid guy in the bell-hop suit with a security badge.
Oh, hey, you never got the punch line.
So, Osama Walks into This Bar, See? and Bush says, "Whad'l'ya have, pardner?" and Osama says, "Well, George, what are you serving today?" and Bush says, "Fear," and Osama shouts, "Fear for everybody!" and George pours it on for the crowd. Then the presidential bartender says, "Hey, who's buying?" and Osama points a thumb at the crowd sucking down their brew. "They are," he says. And the two of them share a quiet laugh.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2984547.stm
tuesday april 29, 2003
excerpt:
The United States has said that virtually all its troops, except some training personnel, are to be pulled out of Saudi Arabia.
The decision was confirmed by US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld during a joint news conference with Saudi Defence Minister Prince Sultan.
Saudi Arabia is home to some of Islam's holiest sites and the deployment of US forces there was seen as a historic betrayal by many Islamists, notably Osama Bin Laden.
It is one of the main reasons given by the Saudi-born dissident - blamed by Washington for the 11 September attacks - to justify violence against the United States and its allies.
But news of the US pull-out does not mean the campaign is over for Bin Laden and his followers, according to the BBC's Arab affairs analyst Magdi Abdelhadi.
Their agenda now goes beyond the boundaries of one country, he says. Their goal is to liberate all Muslim societies from foreign troops and what they see as ungodly secular rulers.
I'm going to tell you something which is straight-up heresy: America is not under attack by terrorists. There is no WAR on terror because, except for one day five years ago, al Qaeda has pretty much left us alone.
That's because Osama got what he wanted. There's no mystery about what Al Qaeda was after. Like everyone from the Girl Scouts to Bono, Osama put his wish on his web site. He had a single demand: "Crusaders out of the land of the two Holy Places." To translate: get US troops out of Saudi Arabia.
And George Bush gave it to him. On April 29, 2003, two days before landing on the aircraft carrier Lincoln, our self-described "War President" quietly put out a notice that he was withdrawing our troops from Saudi soil. In other words, our cowering cowboy gave in whimpering to Osama's demand.
The press took no note. They were all wiggie over Bush's waddling around the carrier deck in a disco-aged jump suit announcing, "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED." But it wasn't America's mission that was accomplished, it was Osama's.
Am I saying there's no danger, no threat? Sure there is: 46 million Americans don't have health insurance. IBM is legally stealing from its employees' pension plan and United Airlines has dumped its pensions altogether. Four-million three-hundred thousand Americans were injured, made sick or killed by their jobs last year. TXU Corporation is right now building four monster-sized power plants in Texas that will burn skuzzy gunk called "lignite." The filth it will pour into the sky will snuff a heck of a lot more Americans than some goofy group of fanatics with bottles of hydrogen peroxide.
But Americans don't ask for real protection from what's killing us. The War on Terror is the Weapon of Mass Distraction. Instead of demanding health insurance, we have 59 million of our fellow citizens pooping in their pants with fear of Al Qaeda, waddling to the polls, crying, "Georgie save us!"
And what does he give us? In my own small town, the federal government has paid for loading an SUV with .50 caliber machine guns to watch for an Al Qaeda attack at the dock of the ferry that takes tourists to the Indian casino in Connecticut. The casino dock is my town's officially designated "Critical Asset and Vulnerability Infrastructure Point (CAVIP)." (To find the most vulnerable points to attack in the USA, Al Qaeda can download a list from the Department of Homeland Security -- no kidding.)
But that's not all. Bush is protecting us from English hijackers with a fearsome anti-terrorist tool: the Virginia-class submarine. The V-boat was originally meant to hunt Soviet subs. But there are no more Soviet subs. So, General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin have "refitted" these Cold War dinosaurs with new torpedoes redesigned to carry counter-terror commandoes. That's right: when we find Osama's beach house, we can shoot our boys right up under his picnic table and take him out. These Marines-in-a-tube injector boats cost $2.5 billion each -- and our President's ordered half a dozen new ones.
Lynn Cheney, the Veep's wife, still takes in compensation from Lockheed as a former board member. I'm sure that has nothing to do with this multi-billion dollar "anti-terror" contract.
Fear sells better than sex. Fear is the sales pitch for many lucrative products: from billion-dollar sailor injectors to one very lucrative war in Mesopotamia (a third of a trillion dollars doled out, no audits, no questions asked).
Better than toothpaste that makes our teeth whiter than white, this stuff will make us safer than safe. It's political junk food, the cheap filling in the flashy tube. What we don't get is safety from the real dangers: a life-threatening health-care system, lung-murdering pollution production and a trade deficit with China that's reducing mid-America to coolie status. Protecting us from these true threats would take a slice of the profits of the Lockheeds, the Exxons and the rest of the owning class.
War on Terror is class war by other means -- to keep you from asking for real protection from true menace, the landlords of our nation give you fake protection from manufactured dangers. And they remind you to be afraid every time you fly to see Aunt Millie and have to give up your hemorrhoid ointment to the underpaid guy in the bell-hop suit with a security badge.
Oh, hey, you never got the punch line.
So, Osama Walks into This Bar, See? and Bush says, "Whad'l'ya have, pardner?" and Osama says, "Well, George, what are you serving today?" and Bush says, "Fear," and Osama shouts, "Fear for everybody!" and George pours it on for the crowd. Then the presidential bartender says, "Hey, who's buying?" and Osama points a thumb at the crowd sucking down their brew. "They are," he says. And the two of them share a quiet laugh.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2984547.stm
tuesday april 29, 2003
excerpt:
The United States has said that virtually all its troops, except some training personnel, are to be pulled out of Saudi Arabia.
The decision was confirmed by US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld during a joint news conference with Saudi Defence Minister Prince Sultan.
Saudi Arabia is home to some of Islam's holiest sites and the deployment of US forces there was seen as a historic betrayal by many Islamists, notably Osama Bin Laden.
It is one of the main reasons given by the Saudi-born dissident - blamed by Washington for the 11 September attacks - to justify violence against the United States and its allies.
But news of the US pull-out does not mean the campaign is over for Bin Laden and his followers, according to the BBC's Arab affairs analyst Magdi Abdelhadi.
Their agenda now goes beyond the boundaries of one country, he says. Their goal is to liberate all Muslim societies from foreign troops and what they see as ungodly secular rulers.
12 July 2006
Jordan Times
Project seeks to get more women into the workforce
By Grace Peacock
AMMAN — Civil society organisations joined forces with the business community, government representatives and the European Union yesterday to tackle the high rates of unemployment among women in both Jordan and Gaza.
“We want to find a way to help men and women work together. We want to target women of all parts of society and help them use the skills they have to match them with a job,” said Elena Abu Adas, managing director of Tatawor Association, a nonprofit organisation that hosted the workshop.
Over 70 people took part in Tatawor’s project ‘Free to Work’ — a 24-month initiative financed by the European Commission to determine employment opportunities in Jordan and Gaza and help women assess their skills, undergo further training and ultimately find a job.
“Unemployment here is really high and we want to know why most of the unemployed people are women?” said Mariam Abu Adas, Tatawor’s project manager.
She pointed out that women account for 82 per cent of Jordan’s unemployment rate.
A recent report by the Ministry of Labour put the country’s unemployment rate at 15 per cent, while the poverty rate is estimated at 14.8 per cent.
“There are so many women here who are disempowered because they don’t have jobs. But if they use their skills to find work then they could really be empowered,” she added, explaining that the policy framework in both Jordan and Gaza needs to change to make the workforce more accessible for women.
Abu Adas also hopes to challenge what is commonly referred to as the “culture of shame” that exists in these regions whereby women are prevented from working due to objections from family members.
The project Free to Work is in its first stage and is designed to study the economy for actual and potential markets and identify the resources needed to develop further job opportunities.
Women who take part in the programme will have their skills analysed and will receive personalised training to help them meet their career aims and ambitions.
“We hope to assist a wide range of women from 16 to 60, educated or uneducated from all walks of life,” said Abu Adas, who encourages unemployed women to contact Tatawor.
Hanan Quirdy is a mother of three and says she was the first female industrial machinery driver in Amman. She believes the Free to Work initiative will help other women break through the same barriers she experienced to take on what has traditionally been a man’s job.
“This project helps me and other women be more sure that we can do what we want. It’s become my own personal challenge to do this job and be a driver and it should be every woman’s challenge to find herself the job they like,” she said.
For more information on the Free to Work project, call: 554 6556 or email info@tatawor.org.
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
By Grace Peacock
AMMAN — Civil society organisations joined forces with the business community, government representatives and the European Union yesterday to tackle the high rates of unemployment among women in both Jordan and Gaza.
“We want to find a way to help men and women work together. We want to target women of all parts of society and help them use the skills they have to match them with a job,” said Elena Abu Adas, managing director of Tatawor Association, a nonprofit organisation that hosted the workshop.
Over 70 people took part in Tatawor’s project ‘Free to Work’ — a 24-month initiative financed by the European Commission to determine employment opportunities in Jordan and Gaza and help women assess their skills, undergo further training and ultimately find a job.
“Unemployment here is really high and we want to know why most of the unemployed people are women?” said Mariam Abu Adas, Tatawor’s project manager.
She pointed out that women account for 82 per cent of Jordan’s unemployment rate.
A recent report by the Ministry of Labour put the country’s unemployment rate at 15 per cent, while the poverty rate is estimated at 14.8 per cent.
“There are so many women here who are disempowered because they don’t have jobs. But if they use their skills to find work then they could really be empowered,” she added, explaining that the policy framework in both Jordan and Gaza needs to change to make the workforce more accessible for women.
Abu Adas also hopes to challenge what is commonly referred to as the “culture of shame” that exists in these regions whereby women are prevented from working due to objections from family members.
The project Free to Work is in its first stage and is designed to study the economy for actual and potential markets and identify the resources needed to develop further job opportunities.
Women who take part in the programme will have their skills analysed and will receive personalised training to help them meet their career aims and ambitions.
“We hope to assist a wide range of women from 16 to 60, educated or uneducated from all walks of life,” said Abu Adas, who encourages unemployed women to contact Tatawor.
Hanan Quirdy is a mother of three and says she was the first female industrial machinery driver in Amman. She believes the Free to Work initiative will help other women break through the same barriers she experienced to take on what has traditionally been a man’s job.
“This project helps me and other women be more sure that we can do what we want. It’s become my own personal challenge to do this job and be a driver and it should be every woman’s challenge to find herself the job they like,” she said.
For more information on the Free to Work project, call: 554 6556 or email info@tatawor.org.
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Poems
I wrote these when I was still in Jordan, and just now found them on a disk...
Found
You are reminiscent of the
Desert of my dreams.
An unattainable desire,
A need that will not be filled,
The only place resembling home,
An emotion I have yet to claim...
Or lay a finger on.
If love exists it is in your gaze.
As elusive as that which
Stirs my heart to passion.
Wadi Rum
The Canadian Geese have arrived, with them memories of the desert have also taken flight.
I had awoken at 5.30 in the morning to catch the miracle of the desert sunrise. It was surprisingly cold, my breathe visible upon my pale hands - I suppose I'd never believed a place so hot and dry could get so ghastly cold.
Peering out of the beitshar across the flat plane of sand to the crest of the wadi we were encamped within, I began to trek to where the land seemingly disappeared from the eye, but not the mind. I wondered at the piles of sand at the base of this rocky outcropping where I found myself in the early morning twilight. Gently stepping onto the top of one my leg was immediately engulfed to the knee, surprisingly reminiscent of the snow drifts of my winter home.
Finally finding a place where I felt comfortable I settled in for the sunrise that had always inhabited my dreams.
In front of me tiny feet marched across the ripples and waves of sand. I could only guess at who they might belong - Rodent? Scorpion? Better not to think of what might reappear to take the journey back to whence it had come.
Gradually, nudging its way above the distant peaks, the sun began its daily pilgrimage above one jabal and then another.
Startled; looking up for a plane, tank, or unknown monster. A sound like a million running, pounding feet, yet closer to the sound of a jet taking off. Sounds like this make the simple word sound seem too small and unable, or maybe unwilling, to capture the full measure of what was heard.
Across the horizon a flock of birds whose size was incomprehensible appeared and disappeared as quickly.
Desert silence returns; was that the true sound of a bird? Where had it previously hid before that instant? Could it be that they only shared their true essence in the absence of all others...
Missing
Unrecognizable to those that
Surround me.
Living in distant lands
And memories.
The sandy wind blowing through
My hair,
Tangled and uncontrollable-
Resembling the web of
My life.
Blown back into
My present reality,
Walking sidewalks that fade to
Desert horizons inside
My mind.
Neither belonging
Here
Nor there;
The world I was born into
And that of
My own choosing.
Found
You are reminiscent of the
Desert of my dreams.
An unattainable desire,
A need that will not be filled,
The only place resembling home,
An emotion I have yet to claim...
Or lay a finger on.
If love exists it is in your gaze.
As elusive as that which
Stirs my heart to passion.
Wadi Rum
The Canadian Geese have arrived, with them memories of the desert have also taken flight.
I had awoken at 5.30 in the morning to catch the miracle of the desert sunrise. It was surprisingly cold, my breathe visible upon my pale hands - I suppose I'd never believed a place so hot and dry could get so ghastly cold.
Peering out of the beitshar across the flat plane of sand to the crest of the wadi we were encamped within, I began to trek to where the land seemingly disappeared from the eye, but not the mind. I wondered at the piles of sand at the base of this rocky outcropping where I found myself in the early morning twilight. Gently stepping onto the top of one my leg was immediately engulfed to the knee, surprisingly reminiscent of the snow drifts of my winter home.
Finally finding a place where I felt comfortable I settled in for the sunrise that had always inhabited my dreams.
In front of me tiny feet marched across the ripples and waves of sand. I could only guess at who they might belong - Rodent? Scorpion? Better not to think of what might reappear to take the journey back to whence it had come.
Gradually, nudging its way above the distant peaks, the sun began its daily pilgrimage above one jabal and then another.
Startled; looking up for a plane, tank, or unknown monster. A sound like a million running, pounding feet, yet closer to the sound of a jet taking off. Sounds like this make the simple word sound seem too small and unable, or maybe unwilling, to capture the full measure of what was heard.
Across the horizon a flock of birds whose size was incomprehensible appeared and disappeared as quickly.
Desert silence returns; was that the true sound of a bird? Where had it previously hid before that instant? Could it be that they only shared their true essence in the absence of all others...
Missing
Unrecognizable to those that
Surround me.
Living in distant lands
And memories.
The sandy wind blowing through
My hair,
Tangled and uncontrollable-
Resembling the web of
My life.
Blown back into
My present reality,
Walking sidewalks that fade to
Desert horizons inside
My mind.
Neither belonging
Here
Nor there;
The world I was born into
And that of
My own choosing.
10 July 2006
Courtesy
I read this article in the Saint Louis Post Dispatch on July 3rd, and wanted to laugh my ass off. Who'd have thought!?!?!?! Courtesy? I mean that must have taken some real geniuses in D.C. to come up with that one. What saddens me is that they are trying to put it off as a cultural phenonemon. I'm sorry, but if you break into my house, kill or beat up the men in my family, and then yell at me to answer questions possibly using force, shit I'm NOT answering you. I'll spit in your face, and give you a reason to be doing what you're doing. This is NOT cultural!!!!!! Arabs are not inately violent people who are out there trying to kill Americans, its human nature to be pissed and in shock when something like this happens to the people you love. What is cultural is that these women probably only know these men, and very few if any others. Family is everything, and you don't talk to strange men, so maybe if these soldiers wer taught something about Middle Eastern culture they would learn that men and women do not socialize outside of the family sphere and sometimes work.
SECTION: INTERNATIONAL NEWS
LENGTH: 885 words
HEADLINE: U.S. Troops Try Courtesy in Iraqi City
BYLINE: By ANTONIO CASTANEDA, Associated Press Writer
DATELINE: RAMADI Iraq
BODY:
U.S. troops are switching tactics in the fight against insurgents in parts of this rebellious city, replacing confrontation with courtesy in hopes of winning public trust and undercutting support for the militants.
It's too early to assess the change, which is largely confined to the more affluent western areas of Ramadi, a city of 400,000 people that is considered the most violent in Iraq's restive Anbar province.
Still, U.S. officers believe the new approach is paying off. Attacks are down enough in western Ramadi to allow Iraqi soldiers to patrol larger areas without Americans at their side.
"We've had some success in making inroads to the population there," said Army Col. Sean MacFarland, commander of the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, which oversees all U.S. military forces in the city. "We're beginning to see a turn there for the better."
Marines based in western Ramadi now regularly knock on people's front doors instead of storming through. Instead of roaming the streets in armored Humvees, Marines took a census of the area sitting down and listening to people's concerns and complaints.
"You'd be surprised at how many people in Ramadi are shocked when we knock and ask to come in. And in Arab culture, it makes all the difference," said 2nd Lt. Ryan Hub of Sumter, S.C., who as a teenager lived in Kuwait for two years while his Air Force officer father was stationed there.
To reinforce their goodwill gestures, Marines are trying to repair Ramadi's water works to demonstrate that Americans can improve conditions. Reconstruction projects in the city have long been stalled because of persistent sabotage by insurgents.
The changed approach also applies to the Iraqi army. Marines recently held public meetings where residents could scold Iraqi soldiers for allegedly mistreating residents and stealing from their homes.
"It was time for a different fight in Ramadi," said Capt. Max Barela, 36, commander of Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment. "I've been told that we're conducting ourselves more as police than Marines."
Less U.S. firepower is being used. Commanders say they are content to let gunmen escape if retaliatory fire could injure civilians or cause serious property damage.
No airstrikes have been called in by Barela's unit, which arrived here in March. During the winter, Marines ordered more than a dozen aerial bombings in western Ramadi.
In more dangerous areas of the city, Marines still use aggressive tactics such as blowing in doors with shotguns when residents don't immediately answer the door to evade possible gunmen. But they want to get away from that.
"You've got an enemy that understands the effects of our mistakes," Hub said, referring to damage caused by U.S. forces that insurgents trumpet in propaganda. "I think part of the battle of Ramadi is the (information campaign) that insurgents are winning."
Earlier this year, Marines believed the city was not ready for softer methods. Tactics such as random vehicle searches took a sharp edge: Marines would toss stun grenades at randomly selected vehicles, then rush the drivers with guns pointed.
"If you're treating everyone like terrorists, kicking down doors and tearing through their homes, that's what you'll get terrorists," said Cpl. Daniel Tarantino, 21, of Gainesville, Ga.
There is little sign of change in central Ramadi, where street battles are common, or in southern neighborhoods where few American patrols have ventured in months. And violence still flares in western Ramadi, although at lower levels.
But Marines believe the new approach is working in the west, where wealthier and better educated Iraqis live. The provincial governor, along with hundreds of fellow tribesmen from the Alwani clan, live in the area. Two sprawling U.S. bases are nearby.
Basic military tactics have also helped reduce violence in that area. Marines installed concrete roadblocks on getaway routes once used by insurgents. Marines also walk some 15-20 miles a week through the area's streets, citing the refrain, "Patrol it or you don't control it."
Even here, though, the tension of war still grates on Marines. One Marine, sweating during an overnight patrol that snaked deep into the city, cursed at a boy in a driveway to keep his lights off. Another Marine struggled to contain his temper with an Iraqi man who didn't understand English.
"It's difficult for a lot of Marines to accept. It's not the Marine ethos," Hub said of the new tactics. "The history of the Marine Corps is that they're known for overwhelming firepower."
Commanders point to the long stretch of devastated buildings that make up downtown Ramadi to skeptics who argue that the city's people first need to fear the U.S. military before order can be restored.
"It requires 10 times more discipline to win a counterinsurgency than to win a total war. Any Marine can go out in the city and kill people, but this requires discipline, and to think more," said 2nd Lt. John Warren, 27, of Greenville, S.C.
Barela, the company commander, concedes the approach carries added risks, but says his Marines try to vigorously follow tactics that make them "hard to kill." Several Marines in the company have been wounded but none have been killed.
"We've risked a lot to put ourselves in contact with the Iraqi people," Barela said.
LOAD-DATE: July 3, 2006
SECTION: INTERNATIONAL NEWS
LENGTH: 885 words
HEADLINE: U.S. Troops Try Courtesy in Iraqi City
BYLINE: By ANTONIO CASTANEDA, Associated Press Writer
DATELINE: RAMADI Iraq
BODY:
U.S. troops are switching tactics in the fight against insurgents in parts of this rebellious city, replacing confrontation with courtesy in hopes of winning public trust and undercutting support for the militants.
It's too early to assess the change, which is largely confined to the more affluent western areas of Ramadi, a city of 400,000 people that is considered the most violent in Iraq's restive Anbar province.
Still, U.S. officers believe the new approach is paying off. Attacks are down enough in western Ramadi to allow Iraqi soldiers to patrol larger areas without Americans at their side.
"We've had some success in making inroads to the population there," said Army Col. Sean MacFarland, commander of the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, which oversees all U.S. military forces in the city. "We're beginning to see a turn there for the better."
Marines based in western Ramadi now regularly knock on people's front doors instead of storming through. Instead of roaming the streets in armored Humvees, Marines took a census of the area sitting down and listening to people's concerns and complaints.
"You'd be surprised at how many people in Ramadi are shocked when we knock and ask to come in. And in Arab culture, it makes all the difference," said 2nd Lt. Ryan Hub of Sumter, S.C., who as a teenager lived in Kuwait for two years while his Air Force officer father was stationed there.
To reinforce their goodwill gestures, Marines are trying to repair Ramadi's water works to demonstrate that Americans can improve conditions. Reconstruction projects in the city have long been stalled because of persistent sabotage by insurgents.
The changed approach also applies to the Iraqi army. Marines recently held public meetings where residents could scold Iraqi soldiers for allegedly mistreating residents and stealing from their homes.
"It was time for a different fight in Ramadi," said Capt. Max Barela, 36, commander of Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment. "I've been told that we're conducting ourselves more as police than Marines."
Less U.S. firepower is being used. Commanders say they are content to let gunmen escape if retaliatory fire could injure civilians or cause serious property damage.
No airstrikes have been called in by Barela's unit, which arrived here in March. During the winter, Marines ordered more than a dozen aerial bombings in western Ramadi.
In more dangerous areas of the city, Marines still use aggressive tactics such as blowing in doors with shotguns when residents don't immediately answer the door to evade possible gunmen. But they want to get away from that.
"You've got an enemy that understands the effects of our mistakes," Hub said, referring to damage caused by U.S. forces that insurgents trumpet in propaganda. "I think part of the battle of Ramadi is the (information campaign) that insurgents are winning."
Earlier this year, Marines believed the city was not ready for softer methods. Tactics such as random vehicle searches took a sharp edge: Marines would toss stun grenades at randomly selected vehicles, then rush the drivers with guns pointed.
"If you're treating everyone like terrorists, kicking down doors and tearing through their homes, that's what you'll get terrorists," said Cpl. Daniel Tarantino, 21, of Gainesville, Ga.
There is little sign of change in central Ramadi, where street battles are common, or in southern neighborhoods where few American patrols have ventured in months. And violence still flares in western Ramadi, although at lower levels.
But Marines believe the new approach is working in the west, where wealthier and better educated Iraqis live. The provincial governor, along with hundreds of fellow tribesmen from the Alwani clan, live in the area. Two sprawling U.S. bases are nearby.
Basic military tactics have also helped reduce violence in that area. Marines installed concrete roadblocks on getaway routes once used by insurgents. Marines also walk some 15-20 miles a week through the area's streets, citing the refrain, "Patrol it or you don't control it."
Even here, though, the tension of war still grates on Marines. One Marine, sweating during an overnight patrol that snaked deep into the city, cursed at a boy in a driveway to keep his lights off. Another Marine struggled to contain his temper with an Iraqi man who didn't understand English.
"It's difficult for a lot of Marines to accept. It's not the Marine ethos," Hub said of the new tactics. "The history of the Marine Corps is that they're known for overwhelming firepower."
Commanders point to the long stretch of devastated buildings that make up downtown Ramadi to skeptics who argue that the city's people first need to fear the U.S. military before order can be restored.
"It requires 10 times more discipline to win a counterinsurgency than to win a total war. Any Marine can go out in the city and kill people, but this requires discipline, and to think more," said 2nd Lt. John Warren, 27, of Greenville, S.C.
Barela, the company commander, concedes the approach carries added risks, but says his Marines try to vigorously follow tactics that make them "hard to kill." Several Marines in the company have been wounded but none have been killed.
"We've risked a lot to put ourselves in contact with the Iraqi people," Barela said.
LOAD-DATE: July 3, 2006
02 June 2006
Wall by Simone Bitton
WALL (Mur) is a cinematic meditation on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in which the filmmaker blurs the lines of hatred by asserting her double identity as Jew and Arab. In an original documentary approach, the film follows the separation fence that is destroying one of the most historically significant landscapes in the world, while imprisoning one people and enclosing the other.
On the building site of this mad wall, daily utterances and holy chants, in Hebrew and in Arabic, defy the discourses of war, passing through the deafening noise of bulldozers. MUR offers its spectators a last glimpse of the beauty of this land and the humanity of its inhabitants a moment before they disappear behind the wall.
http://www.wallthemovie.com
http://www.stopthewall.com
I watched this film last night...Actually early this morning, but that is neither here nor there. I couldn't sleep for the pain it evoked in my soul. Here are some of the thoughts I wrote down while I was watching Wall...
~Seperation creates an enemy without a name or face that is only known through society, i.e. family upbringing and social stigma.
~Socially instilled fear and racism/nationalsm. Is nationalism as bad as racism? Both are mere concepts/ideas/intagible thoughts that evolved at the same time in history (1850ish). (ONLY) A century and a half has brought us to this point. Both create boundaries between people - superiority based on ideas that have no real tangible basis.
~Use of the repressed to build their own imprisonment.
~I began by loving all things Jewish. Their religion was like a mystical meoldy to my soul.
The Holocaust seared these people to my being and I felt connected not only through beauty, but the terror of lost lives.
This love affair lasted for many years and sustained me through my worst trials. Things began to slowly change for me. The first intfatada shook me and brought me to tears; the second made me question everything I held dear.
How does the oppressed become the oppressor? How do they forget the lessons in their own history? What world do I live in for this to be reality?
My childish dream to live on a kibbutz and die an old lady wandering the streets of Jerusalem has changed to those of the outraged warrior. I now ask how I can help to bring change when peace is only to be found in the mosques and temples, the hearts of individuals, and the innocence of babes, as it lies no where else in this war torn land.
Neither are the other, they are us. The only thing that seperates us is culture and tradtion and the pride that stops us from seeing the why that lies therein. When we understand these things we see that all along we were killing our OWN brothers and sisters in needless meaningless battle.
~The question is what you see
~A possessive mad love from those who had survived the ghettos of Poland. Like Rachel the Poet;
"I shall lock the doors to my heart
And cast the key into the sea
My heart shall know no more dread
Upon hearing you approach
I have but one consolation;
That I have brought this on myself"
Shuli Dichter, Maanit Kibutz:" So sarcastic. So terrible. So cynical! Its beyond irony. So to console ourselves for killing ourselves we'll write in history books that we brought it on ourselves. That will be our sole consolation.
Silence frightens me most. Desperate people keep silent. I'm not despaied. I'm fighting. "
On the building site of this mad wall, daily utterances and holy chants, in Hebrew and in Arabic, defy the discourses of war, passing through the deafening noise of bulldozers. MUR offers its spectators a last glimpse of the beauty of this land and the humanity of its inhabitants a moment before they disappear behind the wall.
http://www.wallthemovie.com
http://www.stopthewall.com
I watched this film last night...Actually early this morning, but that is neither here nor there. I couldn't sleep for the pain it evoked in my soul. Here are some of the thoughts I wrote down while I was watching Wall...
~Seperation creates an enemy without a name or face that is only known through society, i.e. family upbringing and social stigma.
~Socially instilled fear and racism/nationalsm. Is nationalism as bad as racism? Both are mere concepts/ideas/intagible thoughts that evolved at the same time in history (1850ish). (ONLY) A century and a half has brought us to this point. Both create boundaries between people - superiority based on ideas that have no real tangible basis.
~Use of the repressed to build their own imprisonment.
~I began by loving all things Jewish. Their religion was like a mystical meoldy to my soul.
The Holocaust seared these people to my being and I felt connected not only through beauty, but the terror of lost lives.
This love affair lasted for many years and sustained me through my worst trials. Things began to slowly change for me. The first intfatada shook me and brought me to tears; the second made me question everything I held dear.
How does the oppressed become the oppressor? How do they forget the lessons in their own history? What world do I live in for this to be reality?
My childish dream to live on a kibbutz and die an old lady wandering the streets of Jerusalem has changed to those of the outraged warrior. I now ask how I can help to bring change when peace is only to be found in the mosques and temples, the hearts of individuals, and the innocence of babes, as it lies no where else in this war torn land.
Neither are the other, they are us. The only thing that seperates us is culture and tradtion and the pride that stops us from seeing the why that lies therein. When we understand these things we see that all along we were killing our OWN brothers and sisters in needless meaningless battle.
~The question is what you see
~A possessive mad love from those who had survived the ghettos of Poland. Like Rachel the Poet;
"I shall lock the doors to my heart
And cast the key into the sea
My heart shall know no more dread
Upon hearing you approach
I have but one consolation;
That I have brought this on myself"
Shuli Dichter, Maanit Kibutz:" So sarcastic. So terrible. So cynical! Its beyond irony. So to console ourselves for killing ourselves we'll write in history books that we brought it on ourselves. That will be our sole consolation.
Silence frightens me most. Desperate people keep silent. I'm not despaied. I'm fighting. "
17 March 2006
You can’t wash your hands when they’re covered in blood
By: Hart Viges
My name is Hart Viges. September 11 happened. Next thing I was in the recruiting office. I thought that was the way I could make a difference in the world for the better. So I went to infantry school and jump school and I arrived with my unit of the 82nd Airborne Division. I was deployed to Kuwait in February 2003. We drove into Iraq because Third Infranty Division was ahead of schedule, and so I didn’t need to jump into Baghdad airport. As we drove into Samawa to secure their supplies my mortar platoon dropped numerous rounds on this town. I watched Kiowa attack helicopters fire hellfire missile after Hellfire missile.
I saw C130 Spector gunship...it will level a town. It had bet-fed artillery rounds pounding with these super-Gatling guns. I don’t know how many innocents I killed with my mortar rounds. I have my imagination to pick at for that one. But I clearly remember the call-out over the radio saying “Green light on all taxi-cabs. The enemy is using them for transportation.” One of our snipers called back on the radio saying, “Excuse me, but did I hear that order correctly? Green light on all taxi cabs?” “Roger that soldier. You’d better start buckling up.” All of a sudden the city just blew up.
Didn’t matter if there was an innocent in the taxi-cab – we laid a mortar round on it, snipers opened up. Next was Fallujah. We went in without a shot. But Charlie Company decided they were going to take over a school for the area of operations. Protesters would come saying, “Please get out of our school. Our children need this school. We need education.” They came back, about 40 or 50 people. Some had the bright idea of shooting AK-47s up in the air. Well a couple of rounds fell into the school...
They laid waste to the group of people. Then we went to Baghdad. And I had days that I don’t want to remember. I try to forget. Days where we’d take contractors out to a water treatment plant outside of Baghdad. We caught word that this is a kind of a scary place but when I arrived there’s grass and palm trees, a river. It’s the first beautiful place that seemed untouched by the war in Iraq. As we were leaving, RPGs came flying at us. Two men with RPGs ran up in front of us from across the road. “Drop your weapons.” “Irmie salahak.” They’re grabbing onto women and kids so [we] don’t fire. I can’t take any more and I swing my [gun] over. My sight’s on his chest, my finger’s on the trigger. And I’m trained to kill but this is no bogey man, this is no enemy. This is a human being. With the same fears and doubts and worries. The same messed-up situation. I don’t pull the trigger this time...it throws me off.
It’s like they didn’t tell me about this emotional attachment to killing. They tried to numb me, they tried to strip my humanity. They tried to tell me that’s not a human being – that’s a soft target. So now, my imagination is running...What is he pulled his trigger? How many American soldiers or Iraqi police, how many families destroyed because I didn’t pull my trigger. After we leave this little village we get attack helicopters, Apaches, two Bradley fighting vehicles, and we go back. And we start asking questions. Where are they? Eventually they lead us to this hut where this family is living, and myself and [another soldier] started searching for AK47s, for explosives, for RPGs, you know...evidence. And all I can find is a tiny pistol, probably to scare off thieves. Well because of that pistol we took their two young men... Their mother is at my feet trying to kiss my feet like I deserve my feet to be kissed. Screaming, pleading. I don’t need to speak Arabic to know love and concern and fear. I had my attack helicopter behind me, my Bradley fighting vehicle, my armor, my M4 [semi-automatic] with, laser sight. I’m an 82nd Airborne killer.
But I was powerless...to ease this woman’s pain. After I came home I applied for conscientious objector [status]. I’m a Christian, what was I doing holding a gun to another human being? Love they neighbor. Pray for those who persecute you, don’t shoot them. I get my conscientious objector packet approved. I’m free. It’s all gone now, right? No! I still swerve at trash bags...fireworks...I can’t express anything. All my relationships are falling apart because they can’t (...) understand me.
How do they know the pain I’ve gone through or the sights I’ve seen? The innocence gone, stripped, dead? I couldn’t stand the pain. People were leaving me. I couldn’t cut my wrists. So I called the police. They come stomping through my door. I have my knife in my hand. “Shoot me.” All of a sudden I was the man with the RPG, with all the guns pointed at him, thinking “Yes, we can solve the world’s problems by killing each other”. How insane is that? Lucky I lived through that episode. See, you can’t wash your hands when their covered in blood. The wounds carry on. This is what war does to your soul, to your humanity, to your family.
* The Independent
My name is Hart Viges. September 11 happened. Next thing I was in the recruiting office. I thought that was the way I could make a difference in the world for the better. So I went to infantry school and jump school and I arrived with my unit of the 82nd Airborne Division. I was deployed to Kuwait in February 2003. We drove into Iraq because Third Infranty Division was ahead of schedule, and so I didn’t need to jump into Baghdad airport. As we drove into Samawa to secure their supplies my mortar platoon dropped numerous rounds on this town. I watched Kiowa attack helicopters fire hellfire missile after Hellfire missile.
I saw C130 Spector gunship...it will level a town. It had bet-fed artillery rounds pounding with these super-Gatling guns. I don’t know how many innocents I killed with my mortar rounds. I have my imagination to pick at for that one. But I clearly remember the call-out over the radio saying “Green light on all taxi-cabs. The enemy is using them for transportation.” One of our snipers called back on the radio saying, “Excuse me, but did I hear that order correctly? Green light on all taxi cabs?” “Roger that soldier. You’d better start buckling up.” All of a sudden the city just blew up.
Didn’t matter if there was an innocent in the taxi-cab – we laid a mortar round on it, snipers opened up. Next was Fallujah. We went in without a shot. But Charlie Company decided they were going to take over a school for the area of operations. Protesters would come saying, “Please get out of our school. Our children need this school. We need education.” They came back, about 40 or 50 people. Some had the bright idea of shooting AK-47s up in the air. Well a couple of rounds fell into the school...
They laid waste to the group of people. Then we went to Baghdad. And I had days that I don’t want to remember. I try to forget. Days where we’d take contractors out to a water treatment plant outside of Baghdad. We caught word that this is a kind of a scary place but when I arrived there’s grass and palm trees, a river. It’s the first beautiful place that seemed untouched by the war in Iraq. As we were leaving, RPGs came flying at us. Two men with RPGs ran up in front of us from across the road. “Drop your weapons.” “Irmie salahak.” They’re grabbing onto women and kids so [we] don’t fire. I can’t take any more and I swing my [gun] over. My sight’s on his chest, my finger’s on the trigger. And I’m trained to kill but this is no bogey man, this is no enemy. This is a human being. With the same fears and doubts and worries. The same messed-up situation. I don’t pull the trigger this time...it throws me off.
It’s like they didn’t tell me about this emotional attachment to killing. They tried to numb me, they tried to strip my humanity. They tried to tell me that’s not a human being – that’s a soft target. So now, my imagination is running...What is he pulled his trigger? How many American soldiers or Iraqi police, how many families destroyed because I didn’t pull my trigger. After we leave this little village we get attack helicopters, Apaches, two Bradley fighting vehicles, and we go back. And we start asking questions. Where are they? Eventually they lead us to this hut where this family is living, and myself and [another soldier] started searching for AK47s, for explosives, for RPGs, you know...evidence. And all I can find is a tiny pistol, probably to scare off thieves. Well because of that pistol we took their two young men... Their mother is at my feet trying to kiss my feet like I deserve my feet to be kissed. Screaming, pleading. I don’t need to speak Arabic to know love and concern and fear. I had my attack helicopter behind me, my Bradley fighting vehicle, my armor, my M4 [semi-automatic] with, laser sight. I’m an 82nd Airborne killer.
But I was powerless...to ease this woman’s pain. After I came home I applied for conscientious objector [status]. I’m a Christian, what was I doing holding a gun to another human being? Love they neighbor. Pray for those who persecute you, don’t shoot them. I get my conscientious objector packet approved. I’m free. It’s all gone now, right? No! I still swerve at trash bags...fireworks...I can’t express anything. All my relationships are falling apart because they can’t (...) understand me.
How do they know the pain I’ve gone through or the sights I’ve seen? The innocence gone, stripped, dead? I couldn’t stand the pain. People were leaving me. I couldn’t cut my wrists. So I called the police. They come stomping through my door. I have my knife in my hand. “Shoot me.” All of a sudden I was the man with the RPG, with all the guns pointed at him, thinking “Yes, we can solve the world’s problems by killing each other”. How insane is that? Lucky I lived through that episode. See, you can’t wash your hands when their covered in blood. The wounds carry on. This is what war does to your soul, to your humanity, to your family.
* The Independent
What Iraqis Really Think About The Occupation
By: Tom Hayden
The lack of critical media coverage at the beginning of the Iraq War is widely acknowledged. But the media’s failure to cover Iraq voices of opposition is arguably a greater default.
The mainstream media convey the impression that there are two categories of Iraqis – the handful of fanatical jihadists and the majority who show their yearning to be free during January’s elections. In this paradigm, our troops are seen as defending, even cultivating, a nascent democracy. Not surprisingly, a Fox News poll in February revealed that 53% of Americans believed the Iraqis wanted our troops to stay while only 35% thought the Iraqis wanted us to leave.
To a public fed this distorted narrative and nothing more, the actual facts may be too jarring to believe. There has been little or no coverage of these realities:
A majority of Iraqis in polls favor US military withdrawal and an end of the occupation. At the time of January’s election 69% of Shiites and 82% of Sunnis favored “near-term withdrawal”. Surveys done for the Coalition Provisional Authority in June 2004 showed that 55% majority “would feel safer is US troops left immediately.”
A recent summary of numerous Iraqi surveys, by the independent Project on Defense Alternatives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, concluded that a majority of Iraqis “oppose the US presence in Iraq, and those who strongly oppose it greatly outnumber those who strongly support it.” The PDA report went on to say that “the fact that [these surveys] have played little role in the public discourse on the Iraqi mission imperils US policy and contributes to the present impasse.”
The only Iraqis who strongly support the US occupation are the Kurds, less than 20% of the population whose semiautonomous status is protected by the United States, and who are represented disproportionately in the Iraqi regime. By backing the Kurds and southern Shiites, the United States is intervening in a secretarian civil war. The US-trained Iraqi security forces are dominated by Kurdish and Shiite militias.
In mid-September of this year, the 18-member National Sovereignty Committee in the US-sponsored Iraqi parliament issued a unanimous report calling for the end of occupation.
In June, more than 100 members of the same parliament, or more than one-third, signed a letter calling for “the departure of the occupation”. They criticized their regime for bypassing parliament in obtaining an extension of authority from the United Nations Security Council.
In January, US intelligence agencies warned in a “grim tone” that the newly elected Iraqi regime would demand a timetable for US withdrawal, which indeed was the platform of the winning Shiite party. After the election, nothing came of the worry. The winners simply abandoned the campaign pledge that helped elect them.
In June, the former electricity minister of the Coalition Provisional Authority, Aiham Al-Sammarae, created an organization to begin dialogue with 11 insurgent groups. The London Times reported that high-ranking US military officials joined one round of talks.
In 2004, 20 Iraqi political parties formed a National Foundation Congress to become a public voice for withdrawal. In May 2005, it held a second Congress, releasing a three-point platform demanding a withdrawal timetable, an interim international peacekeeping force, and internationally supervised elections. Virtually none of these realities have been reported in the American media, with the exception of articles by Nancy Youssef of Knight-Ridder.
These various Iraqi peacemakers deserve to be heard by Congress and the American people. Some of them are risking their lives. Al-Sammarae reportedly discovered a car bomb next to his Baghdad home.
Another high-status Iraqi leader, who asked that his name not be used, wrote of being “active in trying to bring the US and UK embassies to negotiate with heads of the opposition in Iraq [...but] unfortunately had been dismissed by representatives of both countries. He did meet with some of the US senators who visited Baghdad some time ago and suggested ideas but it seemed that no one was really interested in settling the issue and military force was believed to be the only means of stopping the uprising and insurgency.”
What could account for the failure of the mainstream media either to report these facts or interview these respected opponents of the war? There are apologists like Charles Krauthammer, who falsely asserted in the Washington Post that “there is no one to negotiate with”, as if military suppression is the only option.
But what accounts for the failure of more objective reporters to notice what is before their eyes? Are they embedded in the biased assumptions of empire? Supportive of the American troops? Blinded by the paradigms presented them?
From its beginning, this war has been one of perception. Perhaps the media elites, whose collaboration with the Pentagon gave public justification during the 2003 invasion, now worry that if they report that a majority of the Iraqis we are supposedly “saving from terrorism” are actually calling for our departure, any remaining support for the war will collapse.
* The Nation
The lack of critical media coverage at the beginning of the Iraq War is widely acknowledged. But the media’s failure to cover Iraq voices of opposition is arguably a greater default.
The mainstream media convey the impression that there are two categories of Iraqis – the handful of fanatical jihadists and the majority who show their yearning to be free during January’s elections. In this paradigm, our troops are seen as defending, even cultivating, a nascent democracy. Not surprisingly, a Fox News poll in February revealed that 53% of Americans believed the Iraqis wanted our troops to stay while only 35% thought the Iraqis wanted us to leave.
To a public fed this distorted narrative and nothing more, the actual facts may be too jarring to believe. There has been little or no coverage of these realities:
A majority of Iraqis in polls favor US military withdrawal and an end of the occupation. At the time of January’s election 69% of Shiites and 82% of Sunnis favored “near-term withdrawal”. Surveys done for the Coalition Provisional Authority in June 2004 showed that 55% majority “would feel safer is US troops left immediately.”
A recent summary of numerous Iraqi surveys, by the independent Project on Defense Alternatives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, concluded that a majority of Iraqis “oppose the US presence in Iraq, and those who strongly oppose it greatly outnumber those who strongly support it.” The PDA report went on to say that “the fact that [these surveys] have played little role in the public discourse on the Iraqi mission imperils US policy and contributes to the present impasse.”
The only Iraqis who strongly support the US occupation are the Kurds, less than 20% of the population whose semiautonomous status is protected by the United States, and who are represented disproportionately in the Iraqi regime. By backing the Kurds and southern Shiites, the United States is intervening in a secretarian civil war. The US-trained Iraqi security forces are dominated by Kurdish and Shiite militias.
In mid-September of this year, the 18-member National Sovereignty Committee in the US-sponsored Iraqi parliament issued a unanimous report calling for the end of occupation.
In June, more than 100 members of the same parliament, or more than one-third, signed a letter calling for “the departure of the occupation”. They criticized their regime for bypassing parliament in obtaining an extension of authority from the United Nations Security Council.
In January, US intelligence agencies warned in a “grim tone” that the newly elected Iraqi regime would demand a timetable for US withdrawal, which indeed was the platform of the winning Shiite party. After the election, nothing came of the worry. The winners simply abandoned the campaign pledge that helped elect them.
In June, the former electricity minister of the Coalition Provisional Authority, Aiham Al-Sammarae, created an organization to begin dialogue with 11 insurgent groups. The London Times reported that high-ranking US military officials joined one round of talks.
In 2004, 20 Iraqi political parties formed a National Foundation Congress to become a public voice for withdrawal. In May 2005, it held a second Congress, releasing a three-point platform demanding a withdrawal timetable, an interim international peacekeeping force, and internationally supervised elections. Virtually none of these realities have been reported in the American media, with the exception of articles by Nancy Youssef of Knight-Ridder.
These various Iraqi peacemakers deserve to be heard by Congress and the American people. Some of them are risking their lives. Al-Sammarae reportedly discovered a car bomb next to his Baghdad home.
Another high-status Iraqi leader, who asked that his name not be used, wrote of being “active in trying to bring the US and UK embassies to negotiate with heads of the opposition in Iraq [...but] unfortunately had been dismissed by representatives of both countries. He did meet with some of the US senators who visited Baghdad some time ago and suggested ideas but it seemed that no one was really interested in settling the issue and military force was believed to be the only means of stopping the uprising and insurgency.”
What could account for the failure of the mainstream media either to report these facts or interview these respected opponents of the war? There are apologists like Charles Krauthammer, who falsely asserted in the Washington Post that “there is no one to negotiate with”, as if military suppression is the only option.
But what accounts for the failure of more objective reporters to notice what is before their eyes? Are they embedded in the biased assumptions of empire? Supportive of the American troops? Blinded by the paradigms presented them?
From its beginning, this war has been one of perception. Perhaps the media elites, whose collaboration with the Pentagon gave public justification during the 2003 invasion, now worry that if they report that a majority of the Iraqis we are supposedly “saving from terrorism” are actually calling for our departure, any remaining support for the war will collapse.
* The Nation
Staying Alive
By: Ahdaf Soueif
In Baghdad on any given day you might come across her. I will not tell you her name – but you’ll recognize her. She is tall and slim, has silver hair and dresses in black with black trainers and thick black socks. Her husband, now dead, used long ago to be an Iraqi ambassador. Now she sets out from her home every morning and walks. She walks through the streets looking and listening and asking questions. Her project is to memorise what is happening to the people and the daily life of her country. She’s eighty-eight and doesn’t have much time.
None of us has much time.
Have you ever seen a patched book? Here it is: SJ’s slim volume The Poet. SJ has a Ph.D. in Arabic literature from Baghdad University. The ancient piece of machinery coaxed into printing her book either dries up or floods. On pages where the damage is too bad SJ writes out the missing words by hand on a piece of paper and glues it in place. ‘War gives birth,’ she writes, ‘and mothers do the bringing up.’ She sells The Poet at 125 dinars a copy, hoping eventually to pay back the 3,000 dinars it’s cost to produce. Three thousand dinars equal one dollar and fifty cents.
I’m asked what Arab women are doing in these critical times. They are doing what they’ve always done: toughing it out, spreading themselves thin, doing their work, making ends meet, trying to protect their children and support their men, turning to their sisters and their mothers for solidarity and laughs. There was a time, I guess, when women’s political action was born of choice, of a desire to change the world. Now, simply to hold on to our world action is thrust upon us.
F is an Egyptian architect. She has always been active in women’s organizations. She did voluntary literacy work with poor urban women and her book on mothers and children was published by the UNDP. Her husband is one of the fourteen anti-war activists detained recently in Cairo. Last Monday she and her two daughters, both engineering students, went to visit him in Tora jail. Her daughters were astounded at the hundreds of women and children waiting to visit political detainees. Children were waiting to visit grandfathers in their seventies. F’s husband is from the left but the majority of the detainees are Islamists. The majority are unofficially detained. They have never been to court and there is no document that gives them prisoner status. They are not allowed to give power of attorney to anyone. Without documents wives cannot draw their husband’s salaries, cannot travel, cannot marry off a daughter or even bury a child. Because of the conditions in the jail, the detainees’ families have to provide them with food, clothes, books, cigarettes. The distance from the centre of Cairo to Tora jail is twenty miles. Because the detainees have no official status there is no agreed system for visits. The women show up and hope that they and their provisions will be allowed in. If they are not they have to come back the next day. F and her colleagues now find themselves campaigning at least for the proper application of the hated emergency laws under which Egyptians have laboured since 1981. In the Arab world today, the human rights of women are indivisible from those of men.
The emergency laws proscribe demonstrations or unauthorized public gatherings. Five of the marches that have taken place in Cairo over the last two weeks have been women’s marches called by women’s NGOs and timed with the Women in Black demonstrations across the world. Unlike marches involving men they managed to reach both the American and Israeli embassies. Men who demonstrate get shot before they come anywhere near these, but the authorities are still wary of brutalizing women in public. It seems, though, that their patience may be wearing thin; the latest demo saw 150 women cornered by some 2,000 riot police so their protest took place in front of Shepheard’s Hotel round the corner from the American embassy. Today’s demonstration in front of the Arab League headquarters will link Iraq and Palestine, for while the world’s attention is on Iraq, Ariel Sharon’s army shoots at ambulances and bulldozes houses down on top of pregnant women. Since November 2000, 51 Palestinian women have had to give birth at checkpoints. Twenty-nine of these 51 babies died.
And yet Palestinian women continue to have babies. Is that a political choice? At the centre of most women’s lives ate the children. Soha, a nursing student, breaks down and cries in her home in Aida Camp when a rocket whizzes through her kitchen window at supper-time and out through the facing wall into the mercifully empty bedroom. Her mother tells her to buck up and not scare the children. It is sobering to note that the first Palestinian woman to make the political decision to become a human bomb was a nurse, caring daily for children injured or maimed by Israeli bullets. In between these two extremes – the giving and the giving up of life – hundreds of thousands of women go on about their business as best they can.
A great many of the cultural workers in the West Bank and Gaza are women. Marina Burhan operates a childrens’ theatre out of Beit Jala despite her roof having been blown off. Carol Michel keeps the small cultural centre in Bethlehem working – curfews permitting. Suad al-Amiri restores houses in the old city of al-Khalil (Hebron) and takes the Israeli army to court when they try to demolish her work. Tania Nasir researches traditional embroidery patterns. Adila Laidi stages concerts and painting competitions in Ramallah despite her computers being ripped apart and excrement smeared on her walls again by the army. ‘By responding to the occupation, interpreting it through art, we are no longer its victims, we work our own will upon it.’ She says. Vera and Tania take advantage of a sudden lifting of curfew to slip out and have highlights put in their hair. They say it makes them feel stronger and able to cope with the soldiers.
Karma, though sixty years younger than our Baghdad friend, does not walk the streets of Ramallah. She sits at home and compiles the Hearpalestine newsletter and website, recording what she can of the daily demolitions, expropriations, arrests and killings. Keeping the children alive. Keeping culture alive. Preserving history and telling the story – these seem to be at the heart of our women’s concerns right now.
Peter Hansen, writing in the paper last Wednesday of the terrible hunger in Gaza, says that ‘the Palestinian extended family and community network have saved the territories from...absolute collapse.’ Women are the backbone of these families and networks and they are performing the same function in Iraq. Families who have, share with those who have not, through the agency of the churches and the mosques.
Last night IK told me that her mother, in Baghdad, has sold the Virgin’s golf. An icon of the Virgin that has been in the family for more than 300 years. A neighbour in trouble – Christian, Jew or Muslim – would come and whisper a prayer, perhaps make a pledge. When the afflicted was healed, the traveler berthed, the child conceived, the neighbour would fulfil the pledge. Over the decades the Virgin was adorned with the most delicate filaments of gold. To her children’s appalled protests that the gold was not hers to sell, their mother replied that the Virgin had no need of gold when there were people in the city who were starving. But what comes next? Where do you go after you’ve sold the Virgin’s gold?
* The Guardian, 13 March 2003 published this in a shorter form. The full essay appeared for the first time in Mezzaterra, 2004.
In Baghdad on any given day you might come across her. I will not tell you her name – but you’ll recognize her. She is tall and slim, has silver hair and dresses in black with black trainers and thick black socks. Her husband, now dead, used long ago to be an Iraqi ambassador. Now she sets out from her home every morning and walks. She walks through the streets looking and listening and asking questions. Her project is to memorise what is happening to the people and the daily life of her country. She’s eighty-eight and doesn’t have much time.
None of us has much time.
Have you ever seen a patched book? Here it is: SJ’s slim volume The Poet. SJ has a Ph.D. in Arabic literature from Baghdad University. The ancient piece of machinery coaxed into printing her book either dries up or floods. On pages where the damage is too bad SJ writes out the missing words by hand on a piece of paper and glues it in place. ‘War gives birth,’ she writes, ‘and mothers do the bringing up.’ She sells The Poet at 125 dinars a copy, hoping eventually to pay back the 3,000 dinars it’s cost to produce. Three thousand dinars equal one dollar and fifty cents.
I’m asked what Arab women are doing in these critical times. They are doing what they’ve always done: toughing it out, spreading themselves thin, doing their work, making ends meet, trying to protect their children and support their men, turning to their sisters and their mothers for solidarity and laughs. There was a time, I guess, when women’s political action was born of choice, of a desire to change the world. Now, simply to hold on to our world action is thrust upon us.
F is an Egyptian architect. She has always been active in women’s organizations. She did voluntary literacy work with poor urban women and her book on mothers and children was published by the UNDP. Her husband is one of the fourteen anti-war activists detained recently in Cairo. Last Monday she and her two daughters, both engineering students, went to visit him in Tora jail. Her daughters were astounded at the hundreds of women and children waiting to visit political detainees. Children were waiting to visit grandfathers in their seventies. F’s husband is from the left but the majority of the detainees are Islamists. The majority are unofficially detained. They have never been to court and there is no document that gives them prisoner status. They are not allowed to give power of attorney to anyone. Without documents wives cannot draw their husband’s salaries, cannot travel, cannot marry off a daughter or even bury a child. Because of the conditions in the jail, the detainees’ families have to provide them with food, clothes, books, cigarettes. The distance from the centre of Cairo to Tora jail is twenty miles. Because the detainees have no official status there is no agreed system for visits. The women show up and hope that they and their provisions will be allowed in. If they are not they have to come back the next day. F and her colleagues now find themselves campaigning at least for the proper application of the hated emergency laws under which Egyptians have laboured since 1981. In the Arab world today, the human rights of women are indivisible from those of men.
The emergency laws proscribe demonstrations or unauthorized public gatherings. Five of the marches that have taken place in Cairo over the last two weeks have been women’s marches called by women’s NGOs and timed with the Women in Black demonstrations across the world. Unlike marches involving men they managed to reach both the American and Israeli embassies. Men who demonstrate get shot before they come anywhere near these, but the authorities are still wary of brutalizing women in public. It seems, though, that their patience may be wearing thin; the latest demo saw 150 women cornered by some 2,000 riot police so their protest took place in front of Shepheard’s Hotel round the corner from the American embassy. Today’s demonstration in front of the Arab League headquarters will link Iraq and Palestine, for while the world’s attention is on Iraq, Ariel Sharon’s army shoots at ambulances and bulldozes houses down on top of pregnant women. Since November 2000, 51 Palestinian women have had to give birth at checkpoints. Twenty-nine of these 51 babies died.
And yet Palestinian women continue to have babies. Is that a political choice? At the centre of most women’s lives ate the children. Soha, a nursing student, breaks down and cries in her home in Aida Camp when a rocket whizzes through her kitchen window at supper-time and out through the facing wall into the mercifully empty bedroom. Her mother tells her to buck up and not scare the children. It is sobering to note that the first Palestinian woman to make the political decision to become a human bomb was a nurse, caring daily for children injured or maimed by Israeli bullets. In between these two extremes – the giving and the giving up of life – hundreds of thousands of women go on about their business as best they can.
A great many of the cultural workers in the West Bank and Gaza are women. Marina Burhan operates a childrens’ theatre out of Beit Jala despite her roof having been blown off. Carol Michel keeps the small cultural centre in Bethlehem working – curfews permitting. Suad al-Amiri restores houses in the old city of al-Khalil (Hebron) and takes the Israeli army to court when they try to demolish her work. Tania Nasir researches traditional embroidery patterns. Adila Laidi stages concerts and painting competitions in Ramallah despite her computers being ripped apart and excrement smeared on her walls again by the army. ‘By responding to the occupation, interpreting it through art, we are no longer its victims, we work our own will upon it.’ She says. Vera and Tania take advantage of a sudden lifting of curfew to slip out and have highlights put in their hair. They say it makes them feel stronger and able to cope with the soldiers.
Karma, though sixty years younger than our Baghdad friend, does not walk the streets of Ramallah. She sits at home and compiles the Hearpalestine newsletter and website, recording what she can of the daily demolitions, expropriations, arrests and killings. Keeping the children alive. Keeping culture alive. Preserving history and telling the story – these seem to be at the heart of our women’s concerns right now.
Peter Hansen, writing in the paper last Wednesday of the terrible hunger in Gaza, says that ‘the Palestinian extended family and community network have saved the territories from...absolute collapse.’ Women are the backbone of these families and networks and they are performing the same function in Iraq. Families who have, share with those who have not, through the agency of the churches and the mosques.
Last night IK told me that her mother, in Baghdad, has sold the Virgin’s golf. An icon of the Virgin that has been in the family for more than 300 years. A neighbour in trouble – Christian, Jew or Muslim – would come and whisper a prayer, perhaps make a pledge. When the afflicted was healed, the traveler berthed, the child conceived, the neighbour would fulfil the pledge. Over the decades the Virgin was adorned with the most delicate filaments of gold. To her children’s appalled protests that the gold was not hers to sell, their mother replied that the Virgin had no need of gold when there were people in the city who were starving. But what comes next? Where do you go after you’ve sold the Virgin’s gold?
* The Guardian, 13 March 2003 published this in a shorter form. The full essay appeared for the first time in Mezzaterra, 2004.
Post Letter
This is the letter that I wrote after the bombings in Amman.
Hey Ya’ll,
How are things going in the US of A and around the world, wherever you may be stationed at this point in time ;o) This is a letter that I’ve been putting off writing, but here we go...
On Wed. November 9th at 9.30pm terrorists bombed the Radisson SAS, Hyatt Regency, and Days Inn. 57 people were killed and 100 were injured. The majority of the deaths came from a wedding party at the Radisson SAS, where a husband and wife wearing explosive belts walked into the party. Thankfully the wife’s belt did not detonate for whatever reason, so there were fewer deaths than what may have been. I do not know what stories you are receiving about this in America, and if it has even crossed your mind that I am here, because the Middle East is the Middle East and names blend together.
When the attack happened I was visiting Wadi Rum (the desert) and Petra (Indiana Jones movies), so I was very much removed from the scene (289 km). To many this isn’t much of a relief, since Jordan is still Jordan and distance melts when you really do not know what is going on with someone you care about.
Immediately we were informed of the attacks, and I suppose that is one of the aspects about this country that is more advanced than America, cell phones work literally everywhere. We (SIT) were in the Middle of the desert with nothing around for miles, but Bedouins, tents, camels, and lots of sand, but none the less we found out about the attack before many others in Jordan.
For me this strikes very close to home, because my host father owns the Amman Sheraton, and this very well could have happened in his hotel. As it is, one of the victims (and naturally the family that survives her) was a member of my family’s church that I attend. Lecturers have lost children, and in general Jordan as a whole has been affected in one way or another. While I may not be a citizen and I have only been here for 2 months, Jordan has become my home. This bombing is much closer to my heart than 9/11 or any of the other bombings, because it is personal, and I have no real connection to these other places or the people that inhabit them.
I have never been to the Days Inn or the Hyatt Regency, but the first day I met my family I attended a wedding at the Radisson SAS and went through the exact same motions as the wedding that ended in tragedy. I can see the men that park the cars, the tourists watching the jubilation in a state of awe, the waiters that diligently waited on the wealthy, and the beautifully decorated banquet hall that was destroyed. It was my first real Middle Eastern experience, and before any of this happened it was a vibrant memory, but now it has taken on a different tone that resounds with sadness.
Both the fathers of the bride and groom died in the blast, as well as one of their mothers. The groom spent days in the hospital, and entire families were destroyed, only leaving one or two members surviving, several of them lonely children - Bodies were carried out in luggage racks, guests treated other guests as best they could. In general the images that have emerged make every day seem a little different after viewing them; at times more precious and others a place where forks and spoons can become instruments of death to the unsuspecting.
The following day there were rallies and peaceful demonstrations throughout Amman; Friday Palestine showed their support for their sister land and held their own. Iran, Palestine, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and other neighboring countries immediately issued statements of support and condemnation of the act. I have not heard of Syria and Iraq, but anything is open for them, and really I think immediate support would be surprising to people here from either of them. I am getting pictures of the rallies that a friend took and I will send those along soon. I wanted to view these occasions myself and show my support, but it just wasn’t a safe place for women in general and an American woman in particular.
The country was given Thursday off from school and government workers (Friday and Saturday are the weekend here; Sunday was King Hussein’s BDay, so everyone was already scheduled off for that), so families stayed close to home and dealt with their wounds in a very Middle Eastern fashion. Family and loved ones are really the most important thing here and everything revolves around them, everything. People returned to their family land or home, visited grandparents, aunts and uncles, and regained strength from their support. Other than rallies, religious gatherings, it really felt like the world had slowed to a near crawl. It was the first time since I’ve been here that I saw the very basic grocery stores, pharmacies, and stationary stores closed. Even during the Muslim holy days of Ramadan and Eid these stores were open for different periods of time.
Overall, things were just dealt with differently here. Today marks a week and the country is for the most part back to its normal working order. It is not that Arabs are cold and feel things less than Americans, because from what I have experienced, almost everything is tied to some strong emotion. It is just that they do not allow their emotions to carry them into a frenzy and they have already experienced so much heartache that anything else that happens in their lifetimes (or within easy remembrance, which a long time in this part of the world) is almost too deep to invoke tears and raw emotion.
There was an initial fear of nationalism going too far and people turning against the Iraqi refugees in the country. That has died down, and was only an initial response. The circles that direct the cities traffic are covered in flags, banners, and signs announcing Jordan’s unity. The bride of peace has become the symbol of the city, and she is being constantly contrasted with the female bomber.
Yes, I can honestly say that Amman is safe. Amman was always safe, just as America is safe...Actually; I have felt much safer here than I have usually felt within the States. Al Qaeda can strike anywhere, and no one’s security is going to completely stop them. Jordan has one of the best secret services in the world and they have found out every large scale attack that has been set against the country. Al Qaeda resorted to methods that were harder (near impossible) to trace in their simplicity. They have never targeted individual civilians (that is the work of the Syrian extremists), and go for things that will cause the world to look at them. In that aspect in makes me cringe to see Zarkarwi’s (Sorry don’t know how to spell it in English) name condemned on banners, because that in itself is acknowledging him and he must love the thought of his name being all over his homeland’s capital *sigh*
There might not be anything to be afraid of, but it is scary to see the once peaceful city on full alert. Before it was rare to see police officers, except for guiding traffic and responding to calls and the military guarded the embassies, palaces, etc, but now they are everywhere. When we first pulled into Amman from our trip there was a HUGE tank guarding the front of the American Embassy, and even though it is gone now, there is extra security everywhere. It is scary in a way that is useless, because there is nothing to be afraid of, but it is like watching something you love bristling in fear and your heart breaks for it, longing to calm the fears, but knowing you can’t.
Thinking about my safety, I have literally never felt threatened here and I know that if someone did try to hurt me I would just have to scream and there would be all kinds of men coming to help. It is haram (sin, shame) to hurt a woman in the streets, especially a stranger. I have been pinched a couple of times, but all it took was a look of disgust on my part to make them feel small, and to remind them that I am like their sister. Now, that would be haram!!
The biggest thing to fear here is the natural issues that can not be helped. Insects that cause illness, lack of water, or dirty water – All things related to poverty and developing nations. While Jordan may receive more money than the majority of other countries in the world from Aid and Relief organizations, there is a disparity that is disgusting, and of course the rich keep profiting from the game.
Ok, I want to leave you with a few paragraphs from the Jordan Times:
What We’re Made Of 11.11.05
A mix of shock, outrage and grief pervades minds and hearts as we try to pick up the pieces of so many shattered lives and come to terms with the cowardly brutality that took away so many loved ones on Wednesday night.
It is the deepest and most painful wound to have ever been inflicted on this nation. But we will recover, stronger in our resolve to defend our way of life, protect our security and stability, fight for the values and principles we all share as Jordanians – East and West Bankers, Muslims and Christians, Bedouins, Circassians, Chechens, Armenians.
We were attacked because of what Jordan stands for, because of what it represents in this region and beyond: A model of stability and security in a constantly turbulent area, an example of moderation and tolerance amidst bloody wars and religious and ethnic tensions, a success story of modernization in a gravely underdeveloped region.
Terrorists hit Jordan because it embodies what they despise the most; Peace. They hit us because we are the champions of the true Islam of tolerance, dignity, respect for human life and understanding of the other.
They hit us because we have always been at the forefront in the fight against terrorism, long before September 11, long before the “war on terror: became as integral part of US policy, long before Washington and all other Western capitals had ever even heard of Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden.
The response of the state to the heinous crimes of Wednesday night is swift and firm. As His Majesty King Abdullah vowed immediately after the blasts, those responsible will be brought to justice.
We take pride in our unrivalled security services and our highly professional law enforcement agencies; they have won countless battles and will win this one too.
We also take pride in the exemplary response of the Jordanian people, in the dignity they show as they bury their dead, in the resolve with which they stand united in the face of terror, hatred and violence.
By early Thursday morning, some had already draped windows and balconies with Jordanian flags. Others had hoisted the country’s banner on their cars. Most companies regularly opened for business, reflecting the determination to go on with the productive and peaceful lives of which terrorists tried to deprive us. Families went about their usual business, renewing their trust in the security forces and their allegiance to the principles this country represents.
This is how we respond to those who try to take from us what we hold dearest: By upholding it more strongly and firmly than ever.
That is the best description of Jordanian emotion I think exists in English. Very well stated – Anywho that is my life right now. Tomorrow is the last day of classes for me and then I start on my Independent Study Project. Hopefully I will be moving to Jabal Amman into an apartment that a fellow student and myself found. We are still waiting to hear back from the owner who was in Lebanon. It will be awesome to be so close to the city center and to be able to better observe the life of the city. I live so far out in the suburbs now it is a bit difficult at times to get anywhere without spending a lot on taxis (relatively speaking). More will follow as life continues, but I will be home in almost exactly a month, so hopefully there will be time to catch up with people before the semester begins.
Lotsa Luv from Amman
–Danie
داني
Hey Ya’ll,
How are things going in the US of A and around the world, wherever you may be stationed at this point in time ;o) This is a letter that I’ve been putting off writing, but here we go...
On Wed. November 9th at 9.30pm terrorists bombed the Radisson SAS, Hyatt Regency, and Days Inn. 57 people were killed and 100 were injured. The majority of the deaths came from a wedding party at the Radisson SAS, where a husband and wife wearing explosive belts walked into the party. Thankfully the wife’s belt did not detonate for whatever reason, so there were fewer deaths than what may have been. I do not know what stories you are receiving about this in America, and if it has even crossed your mind that I am here, because the Middle East is the Middle East and names blend together.
When the attack happened I was visiting Wadi Rum (the desert) and Petra (Indiana Jones movies), so I was very much removed from the scene (289 km). To many this isn’t much of a relief, since Jordan is still Jordan and distance melts when you really do not know what is going on with someone you care about.
Immediately we were informed of the attacks, and I suppose that is one of the aspects about this country that is more advanced than America, cell phones work literally everywhere. We (SIT) were in the Middle of the desert with nothing around for miles, but Bedouins, tents, camels, and lots of sand, but none the less we found out about the attack before many others in Jordan.
For me this strikes very close to home, because my host father owns the Amman Sheraton, and this very well could have happened in his hotel. As it is, one of the victims (and naturally the family that survives her) was a member of my family’s church that I attend. Lecturers have lost children, and in general Jordan as a whole has been affected in one way or another. While I may not be a citizen and I have only been here for 2 months, Jordan has become my home. This bombing is much closer to my heart than 9/11 or any of the other bombings, because it is personal, and I have no real connection to these other places or the people that inhabit them.
I have never been to the Days Inn or the Hyatt Regency, but the first day I met my family I attended a wedding at the Radisson SAS and went through the exact same motions as the wedding that ended in tragedy. I can see the men that park the cars, the tourists watching the jubilation in a state of awe, the waiters that diligently waited on the wealthy, and the beautifully decorated banquet hall that was destroyed. It was my first real Middle Eastern experience, and before any of this happened it was a vibrant memory, but now it has taken on a different tone that resounds with sadness.
Both the fathers of the bride and groom died in the blast, as well as one of their mothers. The groom spent days in the hospital, and entire families were destroyed, only leaving one or two members surviving, several of them lonely children - Bodies were carried out in luggage racks, guests treated other guests as best they could. In general the images that have emerged make every day seem a little different after viewing them; at times more precious and others a place where forks and spoons can become instruments of death to the unsuspecting.
The following day there were rallies and peaceful demonstrations throughout Amman; Friday Palestine showed their support for their sister land and held their own. Iran, Palestine, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and other neighboring countries immediately issued statements of support and condemnation of the act. I have not heard of Syria and Iraq, but anything is open for them, and really I think immediate support would be surprising to people here from either of them. I am getting pictures of the rallies that a friend took and I will send those along soon. I wanted to view these occasions myself and show my support, but it just wasn’t a safe place for women in general and an American woman in particular.
The country was given Thursday off from school and government workers (Friday and Saturday are the weekend here; Sunday was King Hussein’s BDay, so everyone was already scheduled off for that), so families stayed close to home and dealt with their wounds in a very Middle Eastern fashion. Family and loved ones are really the most important thing here and everything revolves around them, everything. People returned to their family land or home, visited grandparents, aunts and uncles, and regained strength from their support. Other than rallies, religious gatherings, it really felt like the world had slowed to a near crawl. It was the first time since I’ve been here that I saw the very basic grocery stores, pharmacies, and stationary stores closed. Even during the Muslim holy days of Ramadan and Eid these stores were open for different periods of time.
Overall, things were just dealt with differently here. Today marks a week and the country is for the most part back to its normal working order. It is not that Arabs are cold and feel things less than Americans, because from what I have experienced, almost everything is tied to some strong emotion. It is just that they do not allow their emotions to carry them into a frenzy and they have already experienced so much heartache that anything else that happens in their lifetimes (or within easy remembrance, which a long time in this part of the world) is almost too deep to invoke tears and raw emotion.
There was an initial fear of nationalism going too far and people turning against the Iraqi refugees in the country. That has died down, and was only an initial response. The circles that direct the cities traffic are covered in flags, banners, and signs announcing Jordan’s unity. The bride of peace has become the symbol of the city, and she is being constantly contrasted with the female bomber.
Yes, I can honestly say that Amman is safe. Amman was always safe, just as America is safe...Actually; I have felt much safer here than I have usually felt within the States. Al Qaeda can strike anywhere, and no one’s security is going to completely stop them. Jordan has one of the best secret services in the world and they have found out every large scale attack that has been set against the country. Al Qaeda resorted to methods that were harder (near impossible) to trace in their simplicity. They have never targeted individual civilians (that is the work of the Syrian extremists), and go for things that will cause the world to look at them. In that aspect in makes me cringe to see Zarkarwi’s (Sorry don’t know how to spell it in English) name condemned on banners, because that in itself is acknowledging him and he must love the thought of his name being all over his homeland’s capital *sigh*
There might not be anything to be afraid of, but it is scary to see the once peaceful city on full alert. Before it was rare to see police officers, except for guiding traffic and responding to calls and the military guarded the embassies, palaces, etc, but now they are everywhere. When we first pulled into Amman from our trip there was a HUGE tank guarding the front of the American Embassy, and even though it is gone now, there is extra security everywhere. It is scary in a way that is useless, because there is nothing to be afraid of, but it is like watching something you love bristling in fear and your heart breaks for it, longing to calm the fears, but knowing you can’t.
Thinking about my safety, I have literally never felt threatened here and I know that if someone did try to hurt me I would just have to scream and there would be all kinds of men coming to help. It is haram (sin, shame) to hurt a woman in the streets, especially a stranger. I have been pinched a couple of times, but all it took was a look of disgust on my part to make them feel small, and to remind them that I am like their sister. Now, that would be haram!!
The biggest thing to fear here is the natural issues that can not be helped. Insects that cause illness, lack of water, or dirty water – All things related to poverty and developing nations. While Jordan may receive more money than the majority of other countries in the world from Aid and Relief organizations, there is a disparity that is disgusting, and of course the rich keep profiting from the game.
Ok, I want to leave you with a few paragraphs from the Jordan Times:
What We’re Made Of 11.11.05
A mix of shock, outrage and grief pervades minds and hearts as we try to pick up the pieces of so many shattered lives and come to terms with the cowardly brutality that took away so many loved ones on Wednesday night.
It is the deepest and most painful wound to have ever been inflicted on this nation. But we will recover, stronger in our resolve to defend our way of life, protect our security and stability, fight for the values and principles we all share as Jordanians – East and West Bankers, Muslims and Christians, Bedouins, Circassians, Chechens, Armenians.
We were attacked because of what Jordan stands for, because of what it represents in this region and beyond: A model of stability and security in a constantly turbulent area, an example of moderation and tolerance amidst bloody wars and religious and ethnic tensions, a success story of modernization in a gravely underdeveloped region.
Terrorists hit Jordan because it embodies what they despise the most; Peace. They hit us because we are the champions of the true Islam of tolerance, dignity, respect for human life and understanding of the other.
They hit us because we have always been at the forefront in the fight against terrorism, long before September 11, long before the “war on terror: became as integral part of US policy, long before Washington and all other Western capitals had ever even heard of Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden.
The response of the state to the heinous crimes of Wednesday night is swift and firm. As His Majesty King Abdullah vowed immediately after the blasts, those responsible will be brought to justice.
We take pride in our unrivalled security services and our highly professional law enforcement agencies; they have won countless battles and will win this one too.
We also take pride in the exemplary response of the Jordanian people, in the dignity they show as they bury their dead, in the resolve with which they stand united in the face of terror, hatred and violence.
By early Thursday morning, some had already draped windows and balconies with Jordanian flags. Others had hoisted the country’s banner on their cars. Most companies regularly opened for business, reflecting the determination to go on with the productive and peaceful lives of which terrorists tried to deprive us. Families went about their usual business, renewing their trust in the security forces and their allegiance to the principles this country represents.
This is how we respond to those who try to take from us what we hold dearest: By upholding it more strongly and firmly than ever.
That is the best description of Jordanian emotion I think exists in English. Very well stated – Anywho that is my life right now. Tomorrow is the last day of classes for me and then I start on my Independent Study Project. Hopefully I will be moving to Jabal Amman into an apartment that a fellow student and myself found. We are still waiting to hear back from the owner who was in Lebanon. It will be awesome to be so close to the city center and to be able to better observe the life of the city. I live so far out in the suburbs now it is a bit difficult at times to get anywhere without spending a lot on taxis (relatively speaking). More will follow as life continues, but I will be home in almost exactly a month, so hopefully there will be time to catch up with people before the semester begins.
Lotsa Luv from Amman
–Danie
داني
16 March 2006
First
I found my old typed letters that I sent to a professor during my stay in Jordan. Here is my first...
September 2005
The first sight when you walk into the SIT – Study Abroad office is this awesome Turkish rug in muted earth tones. It is not Islamic, with the classic tower pointing towards Mecca, but rather a tribal design, and made of durable cotton. The first few days it was mentioned in passing as a thing of beauty and something that every student would enjoy returning home with in December. As the days passed a white tag began to slowly emerge from beneath the carpet, and eventually the name, “Pier One Imports” was visible for all to see.
That “Turkish” rug reminds me a great deal of this place. On the outside something might look oriental, but eventually the tag appears and shows it is a Western representation of the real thing. Of course the opposite is true as well; something can very well appear Western and be an Eastern imitation. In saying, nothing is as it appears. Nothing is especially what an American can imagine that has never been outside of the Western world. In thinking about this I think that perhaps the Middle East is the most poorly represented area of our time. If you search you can find, maybe not easily, but you can find information that examines the real state of a nation from a citizen’s perspective on just about anywhere in the world; books, movies, etc can be found on any subject, except for when it comes to the Middle East. Excuse me, I forgot – Terrorism and Palestine, no, let me correct myself Israel produce countless works, very often from people who have never stepped foot in the Middle East or read the entire Koran – Once again, like the rug, appearing to be real, but in fact an imitation.
So after all of that I bet you are wondering what does exist in the Middle East? A world of beauty, mystique, virtue, religion, passion…Should I go on? Or should I stop and give you time to challenge your perceptions? Honestly, when I arrived here I didn’t know what to expect. I had spent the entire summer reading the Jordan Times (www.jordantimes.com), but what did it tell me besides what the government was up to and how the educated people who wrote for the paper felt about it? Usually, the statements of critique towards the government were based on foreign policy (sound familiar) and the government spending too much time worrying about what the rest of the world thinks, and not the common Jordanian. Basically, I stepped unknowingly into a world that was totally different than anything I’ve ever socially known.
Let me tell you about today, which is pretty normal in my run of days: I woke up at 6am, hurriedly dressed and went downstairs for Turkish coffee and cake with my host parents and little sister. I made lunch to take with me to class and then I was out the door by 7am with Baba (dad) and Merna, my little sis. At 7.15 I am dropped off at the Abdoun exit and from there I take a taxi to my school, and I have to speak to the taxi driver completely in Arabic, because he (it is always a he) 90% of the time doesn’t speak English. I didn’t know Arabic before 3 weeks ago, so some days are better than others, and some days I can’t remember anything to say. I am at my school by 7.30 and then I wait for Jumanna, one of my Arabic teachers, to arrive and unlock the door because I am always the first person there. Jumanna and I talk until class begins at 8.30 when we have Arabic until noon. After lunch there is a lecture by a prominent Jordanian and then we are free for the rest of the day. Today I took a taxi from school to the little stores around my house in Khalda and bought a few school supplies before I went home. When I get home there will be another “real” lunch waiting for me, and then I am free to either take a nap (which almost every Jordanian does in the afternoon) or study. The evenings are studying, coffee time, dinner, tea time, and more studying. Sometimes I go out to the internet café and other times the mall, Swofeah to shop, or the park, but my family gets upset when I am home late, so I tend to come home as early as possible.
My family is Greek Orthodox Christian and fairly strict with me, as they accept me as one of their daughters and I have basically the same rules as they do.
I’ve been lucky and not gotten sick *knock on wood* since I’ve been here, but other people have gotten stomach viruses or similar illnesses and had to go to the hospital. The biggest worry here is dehydration, because you can do next to nothing and still dehydrate and you never even knew it was happening. Example of the dryness here is with road kill, back home it disintegrates pretty fast because of all the humidity that is in the air, but here things tend to mummify instead…There is a dead cat on the edge of the road by my house that has looked exactly the same since the moment I have arrived 3 weeks ago. It is that hot and dry. My biggest health issue has been the mosquitoes. I am apparently having an allergic reaction to them and swelling into these huge hives from the bites. They are small to the point that they are nearly invisible, but they leave welts that are killer.
September 2005
The first sight when you walk into the SIT – Study Abroad office is this awesome Turkish rug in muted earth tones. It is not Islamic, with the classic tower pointing towards Mecca, but rather a tribal design, and made of durable cotton. The first few days it was mentioned in passing as a thing of beauty and something that every student would enjoy returning home with in December. As the days passed a white tag began to slowly emerge from beneath the carpet, and eventually the name, “Pier One Imports” was visible for all to see.
That “Turkish” rug reminds me a great deal of this place. On the outside something might look oriental, but eventually the tag appears and shows it is a Western representation of the real thing. Of course the opposite is true as well; something can very well appear Western and be an Eastern imitation. In saying, nothing is as it appears. Nothing is especially what an American can imagine that has never been outside of the Western world. In thinking about this I think that perhaps the Middle East is the most poorly represented area of our time. If you search you can find, maybe not easily, but you can find information that examines the real state of a nation from a citizen’s perspective on just about anywhere in the world; books, movies, etc can be found on any subject, except for when it comes to the Middle East. Excuse me, I forgot – Terrorism and Palestine, no, let me correct myself Israel produce countless works, very often from people who have never stepped foot in the Middle East or read the entire Koran – Once again, like the rug, appearing to be real, but in fact an imitation.
So after all of that I bet you are wondering what does exist in the Middle East? A world of beauty, mystique, virtue, religion, passion…Should I go on? Or should I stop and give you time to challenge your perceptions? Honestly, when I arrived here I didn’t know what to expect. I had spent the entire summer reading the Jordan Times (www.jordantimes.com), but what did it tell me besides what the government was up to and how the educated people who wrote for the paper felt about it? Usually, the statements of critique towards the government were based on foreign policy (sound familiar) and the government spending too much time worrying about what the rest of the world thinks, and not the common Jordanian. Basically, I stepped unknowingly into a world that was totally different than anything I’ve ever socially known.
Let me tell you about today, which is pretty normal in my run of days: I woke up at 6am, hurriedly dressed and went downstairs for Turkish coffee and cake with my host parents and little sister. I made lunch to take with me to class and then I was out the door by 7am with Baba (dad) and Merna, my little sis. At 7.15 I am dropped off at the Abdoun exit and from there I take a taxi to my school, and I have to speak to the taxi driver completely in Arabic, because he (it is always a he) 90% of the time doesn’t speak English. I didn’t know Arabic before 3 weeks ago, so some days are better than others, and some days I can’t remember anything to say. I am at my school by 7.30 and then I wait for Jumanna, one of my Arabic teachers, to arrive and unlock the door because I am always the first person there. Jumanna and I talk until class begins at 8.30 when we have Arabic until noon. After lunch there is a lecture by a prominent Jordanian and then we are free for the rest of the day. Today I took a taxi from school to the little stores around my house in Khalda and bought a few school supplies before I went home. When I get home there will be another “real” lunch waiting for me, and then I am free to either take a nap (which almost every Jordanian does in the afternoon) or study. The evenings are studying, coffee time, dinner, tea time, and more studying. Sometimes I go out to the internet café and other times the mall, Swofeah to shop, or the park, but my family gets upset when I am home late, so I tend to come home as early as possible.
My family is Greek Orthodox Christian and fairly strict with me, as they accept me as one of their daughters and I have basically the same rules as they do.
I’ve been lucky and not gotten sick *knock on wood* since I’ve been here, but other people have gotten stomach viruses or similar illnesses and had to go to the hospital. The biggest worry here is dehydration, because you can do next to nothing and still dehydrate and you never even knew it was happening. Example of the dryness here is with road kill, back home it disintegrates pretty fast because of all the humidity that is in the air, but here things tend to mummify instead…There is a dead cat on the edge of the road by my house that has looked exactly the same since the moment I have arrived 3 weeks ago. It is that hot and dry. My biggest health issue has been the mosquitoes. I am apparently having an allergic reaction to them and swelling into these huge hives from the bites. They are small to the point that they are nearly invisible, but they leave welts that are killer.
30 January 2006
Key extracts: Saddam court tirade
[Saddam denounces the court as being run by Americans and says he and his seven co-defendants will reject any lawyers appointed by the court.]
Saddam Hussein: "Anyone appointed by you we reject them. This is my right, to give up my right to an attorney. [pointing at the court appointed lawyers] If you stay here you are evil people. This is my right, don't force me."
Judge Rahman: "I am not forcing you."
Saddam Hussein: "I respect you as an Iraqi, unless you have given up your Iraqi nationality."
Saddam Hussein: "I want to leave the court."
Judge Rahman: "You do not leave, I allow you to leave when I want to."
[Judge Rahman orders him to leave]
Saddam Hussein: "You are an Iraqi, you cannot order me like that. I led you for 35 years."
Judge Rahman: "I have practised law for the last 35 years. I am the judge and you are the defendant, you have to obey me."
Saddam Hussein: "I understand my rights and the rights of the others. The defendant is innocent until proven guilty, that's what we learned in the law while we were students."
Saddam Hussein: "Down with traitors! Down with America!"
[Saddam is led from the court]
Saddam Hussein: "Anyone appointed by you we reject them. This is my right, to give up my right to an attorney. [pointing at the court appointed lawyers] If you stay here you are evil people. This is my right, don't force me."
Judge Rahman: "I am not forcing you."
Saddam Hussein: "I respect you as an Iraqi, unless you have given up your Iraqi nationality."
Saddam Hussein: "I want to leave the court."
Judge Rahman: "You do not leave, I allow you to leave when I want to."
[Judge Rahman orders him to leave]
Saddam Hussein: "You are an Iraqi, you cannot order me like that. I led you for 35 years."
Judge Rahman: "I have practised law for the last 35 years. I am the judge and you are the defendant, you have to obey me."
Saddam Hussein: "I understand my rights and the rights of the others. The defendant is innocent until proven guilty, that's what we learned in the law while we were students."
Saddam Hussein: "Down with traitors! Down with America!"
[Saddam is led from the court]
Jordan Times
Women bear brunt of poverty in post-invasion Iraq
By Ahmad Fadam and Nafia Abdul Jabbar
Agence France-Presse
BAGHDAD — Umm Ziyad, her husband, two sons and granddaughter were just making ends meet in a one-room hovel in Baghdad when a suicide bomber decided the best way to attack a police station was to drive through the carwash where her husband worked.
“We didn't used to need anyone. He worked and we could make do, but now it's obvious that we are in need,” said the widow, swathed in black and looking much older than her 46 years.
But one year after she applied for government assistance, she has heard nothing and her eldest son, Ziyad, has dropped out of high school to support the family with occasional work.
Poverty has exploded across Iraq in the aftermath of the 2003 US invasion.
A recent study by the United Nations Development Programme and International Monetary Fund shows that 20 per cent of the population has fallen below the international poverty line $1 per day a person.
The numbers of families registering for assistance with the labour and social affairs ministry has more than tripled since the war to 171,000 and even that, according to Leila Kazem, a director general at the ministry, is a “drop in the ocean.”
“After the war, a new dangerous issue arose in Iraqi society — poverty, which is clear to everyone,” she said, blaming unemployment and violence which has been killing off the main bread-winners, something “which is happening every hour of every day.”
The families, however, do not receive any special treatment at the ministry. “We don't have a separate category for victims of terrorism, we just talk about needy families,” she said.
Violence is hitting families, already weakened by decades of war and international sanctions under the regime of Saddam Hussein, who were just surviving and now have lost their sole means of income.
“We were afraid a war would come and then it happened and our father is gone now,” Umm Ziyad said, referring to her husband.
As she tells her story, the electricity cuts out and her other son Ali, who is still in school, steps out into the twilight to finish his homework.
The family, which lives in the northern Baghdad neighbourhood of Qahira, is being helped by Umm Murad, who works with the social programmes of the Iraqi Turkmen Front.
“I know over 80 families in a perilous economic state and I am helping about 20 of them,” she told AFP.
“You can see them for yourself, any place you go just ask, there are hundreds of them — no one knows the exact number... Most families who have six sons maybe only one or two are working, usually as policeman or soldiers.”
She promised to help Umm Ziyad negotiate the massive lines of applicants at the swamped labour ministry where hundreds try to register for assistance and suggests she feigns an injury to get additional money.
Female heads of household under a certain age receive limited assistance if they are deemed able-bodied enough to work.
For many willing to go out to work, there is simply no job.
“I tried after my husband was gone to be the father and the mother at the same time for my children,” said Atiyaf Mohammed, who lost her husband when he was caught in crossfire between insurgents and US soldiers.
“I graduated from the faculty of chemistry, so I went to the education ministry, knowing there are job opportunities,” said the mother of four, who graduated in 1994.
At 30, there are still hints of the beautiful, young university graduate with flowing brown hair whose picture is pinned in the living room of the crumbling house where she lives with her husband's parents in the Sunni neighbourhood of Adhamiya.
“They said, `where have you been for the last 10 years' and they didn't give me a job,” she said, her dark eyes flashing with anger. “Now I am on the same level as the ignorant and uneducated.”
“The Iraqi government is taking care neither of the Iraqi people, nor of the orphans, widows or elderly,” she charged.
Mohammed has survived so far by cobbling together donations from various social and religious charitable institutions and scoffs at the low level of government assistance.
“What's the good of 50,000 dinars [$35] every three months from the social affairs ministry, it's not enough,” she said.
The ministry acknowledges that the level of assistance, which it says is more like 50,000 dinars a month, is insufficient and a new law will raise the monthly family assistance to between 70,000 and 120,000 dinars ($50 to $85) depending on family size.
Friday-Saturday, January 27-28, 2006
By Ahmad Fadam and Nafia Abdul Jabbar
Agence France-Presse
BAGHDAD — Umm Ziyad, her husband, two sons and granddaughter were just making ends meet in a one-room hovel in Baghdad when a suicide bomber decided the best way to attack a police station was to drive through the carwash where her husband worked.
“We didn't used to need anyone. He worked and we could make do, but now it's obvious that we are in need,” said the widow, swathed in black and looking much older than her 46 years.
But one year after she applied for government assistance, she has heard nothing and her eldest son, Ziyad, has dropped out of high school to support the family with occasional work.
Poverty has exploded across Iraq in the aftermath of the 2003 US invasion.
A recent study by the United Nations Development Programme and International Monetary Fund shows that 20 per cent of the population has fallen below the international poverty line $1 per day a person.
The numbers of families registering for assistance with the labour and social affairs ministry has more than tripled since the war to 171,000 and even that, according to Leila Kazem, a director general at the ministry, is a “drop in the ocean.”
“After the war, a new dangerous issue arose in Iraqi society — poverty, which is clear to everyone,” she said, blaming unemployment and violence which has been killing off the main bread-winners, something “which is happening every hour of every day.”
The families, however, do not receive any special treatment at the ministry. “We don't have a separate category for victims of terrorism, we just talk about needy families,” she said.
Violence is hitting families, already weakened by decades of war and international sanctions under the regime of Saddam Hussein, who were just surviving and now have lost their sole means of income.
“We were afraid a war would come and then it happened and our father is gone now,” Umm Ziyad said, referring to her husband.
As she tells her story, the electricity cuts out and her other son Ali, who is still in school, steps out into the twilight to finish his homework.
The family, which lives in the northern Baghdad neighbourhood of Qahira, is being helped by Umm Murad, who works with the social programmes of the Iraqi Turkmen Front.
“I know over 80 families in a perilous economic state and I am helping about 20 of them,” she told AFP.
“You can see them for yourself, any place you go just ask, there are hundreds of them — no one knows the exact number... Most families who have six sons maybe only one or two are working, usually as policeman or soldiers.”
She promised to help Umm Ziyad negotiate the massive lines of applicants at the swamped labour ministry where hundreds try to register for assistance and suggests she feigns an injury to get additional money.
Female heads of household under a certain age receive limited assistance if they are deemed able-bodied enough to work.
For many willing to go out to work, there is simply no job.
“I tried after my husband was gone to be the father and the mother at the same time for my children,” said Atiyaf Mohammed, who lost her husband when he was caught in crossfire between insurgents and US soldiers.
“I graduated from the faculty of chemistry, so I went to the education ministry, knowing there are job opportunities,” said the mother of four, who graduated in 1994.
At 30, there are still hints of the beautiful, young university graduate with flowing brown hair whose picture is pinned in the living room of the crumbling house where she lives with her husband's parents in the Sunni neighbourhood of Adhamiya.
“They said, `where have you been for the last 10 years' and they didn't give me a job,” she said, her dark eyes flashing with anger. “Now I am on the same level as the ignorant and uneducated.”
“The Iraqi government is taking care neither of the Iraqi people, nor of the orphans, widows or elderly,” she charged.
Mohammed has survived so far by cobbling together donations from various social and religious charitable institutions and scoffs at the low level of government assistance.
“What's the good of 50,000 dinars [$35] every three months from the social affairs ministry, it's not enough,” she said.
The ministry acknowledges that the level of assistance, which it says is more like 50,000 dinars a month, is insufficient and a new law will raise the monthly family assistance to between 70,000 and 120,000 dinars ($50 to $85) depending on family size.
Friday-Saturday, January 27-28, 2006
28 January 2006
I Am Sullied
December 6, 2005
"I Am Sullied"
Suicide Before Dishonor in Occupied Iraq
By GARY LEUPP
I cannot support a mission that leads to corruption, human rights abuse, and liars. I am sullied. I came to serve honorably and feel dishonored. Death before being dishonored any more.
Having written a last note, and placed it by his bed in his trailer on a U.S. military base near Baghdad, on the afternoon of June 5, 2005 Colonel Ted S. Westhusing put his 9-mm. service pistol to his head and blew his brains out. He was 44, survived by a wife and three young children.
Â
Quite a number of U.S. troops have committed suicide in Iraq, or upon return home. According to the Washington Times, 24 soldiers' deaths in Iraq were ruled suicides in 2003, nine in 2004. But the Washington Post reports that "Thirty-one Marines committed suicide in 2004, all of them enlisted men, not commissioned officers. The majority were younger than 25 and took their lives with gunshot wounds, according to Marine statistics."
Â
How many committed suicide in Iraq it does not say. But war experience is surely linked to the incidence of suicides by veterans who bring the war back with them. Between March 2004 and August 2005 three Special Forces Iraq veterans took their lives after their homecomings.There were a rash of reports about this issue in late 2003-early 2004, but it tapered off and I find no cumulative 2005 statistics about military suicides on line.
In any case. the level has caused official concern and consternation.
Â
According to the Post (Feb. 25, 2005):
Military psychiatrists are puzzled by the suicide rate in Iraq, saying that it makes little sense in comparison with those in past conflicts. The accepted wisdom in military psychiatry is that the level of suicides--- far from increasing during wars --- drops as the survival instinct kicks in among the personnel in the conflict zone. Just two suicides were recorded among US personnel during the entire Gulf war in the Nineties. What is also unusual about the rate in Iraq, in comparison with Vietnam, Korea and the Second World War, is that everyone serving in the all-volunteer forces has already been screened for their psychological suitability. They have also been briefed on combat stress and trained to counter any suicidal feelings, following a rash of military suicides which embarrassed the Pentagon in the late Nineties.
Puzzling indeed, then, that an officer pretty much removed from the combat zone, an enthusiastic career man and devout Catholic, would off himself as he apparently did last June.
Â
Or maybe not so puzzling. What's special about this case is that Westhusing was a specialist on ethics, a West Point graduate who had taken seriously its code that "a cadet will not lie, cheat or steal - or tolerate those who do," who had received his Ph.D. in philosophy from Emory University for a dissertation on the meaning of honor, and returned to West Point to teach philosophy and English. He didn't kill himself because of battle stress or feelings of guilt following his role in a specific firefight. Looks like he put a bullet through his head because he felt the mission itself-the war---was dishonorable.
I don't mean to idealize him. Anyone receiving special forces training, serving in Honduras in the 1980s, and becoming a division operations officer for the 82nd Airborne, based at Ft. Bragg, N.C., has to have some major ethical baggage as far as I'm concerned. I think he should have realized before volunteering for duty in Iraq in the fall of 2004 that the mission involved corruption, human rights abuses and lying. On the other hand one must admire his capacity for moral indignation once he saw for himself what was going on.
Â
Westhusing's assignment in Iraq was to oversee the Virginia-based USIS, a contracted security company paid $79 million to train Iraqi police in special operations. He became aware of charges that USIS had cheated on its contract, providing fewer trainers than agreed upon to enhance its profit margin. It had, he was informed, covered up the killings of two Iraqi civilians and the illegal involvement of USIS personnel in the assault on Fallujah. He reported these charges, but felt troubled both by his friendly relations with the USIS management (although he wrote to his family that he "disliked" them and felt "they were paid too much money by the government") and the failure of investigators to find fault with them.
Â
T. Christian Miller, who has researched this story for the Los Angeles Times, and has had access to Westhusing's emails to his family, described the officer's mindset at the time of his death to NPR:
What worries him most, clearly, is his feeling that profit has overtaken military values like duty honor and county in Iraq. In the final note he leaves in these emails home and these conversations with his friends, he talks about "I didn't come here to be surrounded by greedy contractors. I didn't come her to be a part of a mission that's being corrupted by concerns of money." Things like that.
Miller adds:
For me in some ways it becomes a metaphor for the way that the Iraq War has been fought, which is to outsource a lot of what's been done to private companies so that rather than having idealistic soldiers or young bureaucrats or whatever doing the work in Iraq, you have people doing them for motives that aren't altruistic and pure but for the bottom line.
That is to say, the colonel was just too pure to deal with this corrupt corporate world.
Â
In his LA Times piece Miller cites a military psychologist, Lt. Col. Lisa Breitenbach, who avers in Miller's paraphrase that "Westhusing had placed too much pressure on himself to succeed and that he was unusually rigid in his thinking. Westhusing struggled with the idea that monetary values could outweigh moral ones in war." He quotes her directly: "Despite his intelligence, his ability to grasp the idea that profit is an important goal for people working in the private sector was surprisingly limited. He could not shift his mind-set from the military notion of completing a mission irrespective of cost, nor could he change his belief that doing the right thing because it was the right thing to do should be the sole motivator for businesses."
Â
In other words, in the military shrink's best judgment, the deceased ought to have flexibly accepted the fact that "doing the right thing" should not be the sole motivator for business! He should not have been so bummed about the corporate corruption, abuses and lies that flourish so much in today's Iraq. He shouldn't have taken the academy code so seriously or had such a limited grasp of the importance of profit to the private sector in liberated Iraq. Surely that slipping grasp explains the psychological instability that led him---"despite his intelligence"---to take his life.
Â
Such explanations take the puzzling and pathologize it. But that seems unfair to the deceased. In his dissertation, Westhusing writes he was "born to be a warrior" which makes me think of the Japanese samurai whom I've studied in some detail. In Japanese martial society, up until the nineteenth century anyway, those born to be warriors maintained a long tradition of honorable suicide. A samurai would take his destiny into his hands and slit his belly for various reasons: to avoid capture, to follow his lord in death, to force an erring superior to reflect and change his ways. Samurai who had committed all but the most egregious crimes were allowed to honorably disembowel themselves rather than face the executioner's axe, crucifixion or other vulgar punishments. Or the samurai shuffled off this mortal coil, usually unbidden, to wipe out a defiling stain on his (or her, there being female samurai) honor. There was nothing nuts about it; it was perfectly rational. When one couldn't go on with honor, one honorably dispatched oneself, buoyed into the beyond by the belief that one's progeny would understand and take pride in the purification.
Â
"I am sullied. I came to serve honorably and feel dishonored. Death before being dishonored any more."
Â
Warrior and scholar, tenured professor, loving husband and father, too honorable a man to carry on in his defiling assignment. Maybe not despite his intelligence, as Breitenbach suggests, but because of it.
Â
May I suggest we honor Col. Westhusing by redoubling our efforts to oppose the lying, cheating and stealing which is the Iraq War? And support the honorable troops dishonorably dispatched to Iraq by urging them to refuse to kill on behalf of that private sector whose morality he came to doubt? And hope that they'll live, looking forward to another world which is really possible---in which profit doesn't overtake duty and honor?
Â
Gary Leupp is Professor of History at Tufts University, and Adjunct Professor of Comparative Religion. He is the author of Servants, Shophands and Laborers in in the Cities of Tokugawa Japan; Male Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan; and Interracial Intimacy in Japan: Western Men and Japanese Women, 1543-1900. He is also a contributor to CounterPunch's merciless chronicle of the wars on Iraq, Afghanistan and Yugoslavia, Imperial Crusades.
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He can be reached at: gleupp@granite.tufts.edu
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Source: www.counterpunch.org
"I Am Sullied"
Suicide Before Dishonor in Occupied Iraq
By GARY LEUPP
I cannot support a mission that leads to corruption, human rights abuse, and liars. I am sullied. I came to serve honorably and feel dishonored. Death before being dishonored any more.
Having written a last note, and placed it by his bed in his trailer on a U.S. military base near Baghdad, on the afternoon of June 5, 2005 Colonel Ted S. Westhusing put his 9-mm. service pistol to his head and blew his brains out. He was 44, survived by a wife and three young children.
Â
Quite a number of U.S. troops have committed suicide in Iraq, or upon return home. According to the Washington Times, 24 soldiers' deaths in Iraq were ruled suicides in 2003, nine in 2004. But the Washington Post reports that "Thirty-one Marines committed suicide in 2004, all of them enlisted men, not commissioned officers. The majority were younger than 25 and took their lives with gunshot wounds, according to Marine statistics."
Â
How many committed suicide in Iraq it does not say. But war experience is surely linked to the incidence of suicides by veterans who bring the war back with them. Between March 2004 and August 2005 three Special Forces Iraq veterans took their lives after their homecomings.There were a rash of reports about this issue in late 2003-early 2004, but it tapered off and I find no cumulative 2005 statistics about military suicides on line.
In any case. the level has caused official concern and consternation.
Â
According to the Post (Feb. 25, 2005):
Military psychiatrists are puzzled by the suicide rate in Iraq, saying that it makes little sense in comparison with those in past conflicts. The accepted wisdom in military psychiatry is that the level of suicides--- far from increasing during wars --- drops as the survival instinct kicks in among the personnel in the conflict zone. Just two suicides were recorded among US personnel during the entire Gulf war in the Nineties. What is also unusual about the rate in Iraq, in comparison with Vietnam, Korea and the Second World War, is that everyone serving in the all-volunteer forces has already been screened for their psychological suitability. They have also been briefed on combat stress and trained to counter any suicidal feelings, following a rash of military suicides which embarrassed the Pentagon in the late Nineties.
Puzzling indeed, then, that an officer pretty much removed from the combat zone, an enthusiastic career man and devout Catholic, would off himself as he apparently did last June.
Â
Or maybe not so puzzling. What's special about this case is that Westhusing was a specialist on ethics, a West Point graduate who had taken seriously its code that "a cadet will not lie, cheat or steal - or tolerate those who do," who had received his Ph.D. in philosophy from Emory University for a dissertation on the meaning of honor, and returned to West Point to teach philosophy and English. He didn't kill himself because of battle stress or feelings of guilt following his role in a specific firefight. Looks like he put a bullet through his head because he felt the mission itself-the war---was dishonorable.
I don't mean to idealize him. Anyone receiving special forces training, serving in Honduras in the 1980s, and becoming a division operations officer for the 82nd Airborne, based at Ft. Bragg, N.C., has to have some major ethical baggage as far as I'm concerned. I think he should have realized before volunteering for duty in Iraq in the fall of 2004 that the mission involved corruption, human rights abuses and lying. On the other hand one must admire his capacity for moral indignation once he saw for himself what was going on.
Â
Westhusing's assignment in Iraq was to oversee the Virginia-based USIS, a contracted security company paid $79 million to train Iraqi police in special operations. He became aware of charges that USIS had cheated on its contract, providing fewer trainers than agreed upon to enhance its profit margin. It had, he was informed, covered up the killings of two Iraqi civilians and the illegal involvement of USIS personnel in the assault on Fallujah. He reported these charges, but felt troubled both by his friendly relations with the USIS management (although he wrote to his family that he "disliked" them and felt "they were paid too much money by the government") and the failure of investigators to find fault with them.
Â
T. Christian Miller, who has researched this story for the Los Angeles Times, and has had access to Westhusing's emails to his family, described the officer's mindset at the time of his death to NPR:
What worries him most, clearly, is his feeling that profit has overtaken military values like duty honor and county in Iraq. In the final note he leaves in these emails home and these conversations with his friends, he talks about "I didn't come here to be surrounded by greedy contractors. I didn't come her to be a part of a mission that's being corrupted by concerns of money." Things like that.
Miller adds:
For me in some ways it becomes a metaphor for the way that the Iraq War has been fought, which is to outsource a lot of what's been done to private companies so that rather than having idealistic soldiers or young bureaucrats or whatever doing the work in Iraq, you have people doing them for motives that aren't altruistic and pure but for the bottom line.
That is to say, the colonel was just too pure to deal with this corrupt corporate world.
Â
In his LA Times piece Miller cites a military psychologist, Lt. Col. Lisa Breitenbach, who avers in Miller's paraphrase that "Westhusing had placed too much pressure on himself to succeed and that he was unusually rigid in his thinking. Westhusing struggled with the idea that monetary values could outweigh moral ones in war." He quotes her directly: "Despite his intelligence, his ability to grasp the idea that profit is an important goal for people working in the private sector was surprisingly limited. He could not shift his mind-set from the military notion of completing a mission irrespective of cost, nor could he change his belief that doing the right thing because it was the right thing to do should be the sole motivator for businesses."
Â
In other words, in the military shrink's best judgment, the deceased ought to have flexibly accepted the fact that "doing the right thing" should not be the sole motivator for business! He should not have been so bummed about the corporate corruption, abuses and lies that flourish so much in today's Iraq. He shouldn't have taken the academy code so seriously or had such a limited grasp of the importance of profit to the private sector in liberated Iraq. Surely that slipping grasp explains the psychological instability that led him---"despite his intelligence"---to take his life.
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Such explanations take the puzzling and pathologize it. But that seems unfair to the deceased. In his dissertation, Westhusing writes he was "born to be a warrior" which makes me think of the Japanese samurai whom I've studied in some detail. In Japanese martial society, up until the nineteenth century anyway, those born to be warriors maintained a long tradition of honorable suicide. A samurai would take his destiny into his hands and slit his belly for various reasons: to avoid capture, to follow his lord in death, to force an erring superior to reflect and change his ways. Samurai who had committed all but the most egregious crimes were allowed to honorably disembowel themselves rather than face the executioner's axe, crucifixion or other vulgar punishments. Or the samurai shuffled off this mortal coil, usually unbidden, to wipe out a defiling stain on his (or her, there being female samurai) honor. There was nothing nuts about it; it was perfectly rational. When one couldn't go on with honor, one honorably dispatched oneself, buoyed into the beyond by the belief that one's progeny would understand and take pride in the purification.
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"I am sullied. I came to serve honorably and feel dishonored. Death before being dishonored any more."
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Warrior and scholar, tenured professor, loving husband and father, too honorable a man to carry on in his defiling assignment. Maybe not despite his intelligence, as Breitenbach suggests, but because of it.
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May I suggest we honor Col. Westhusing by redoubling our efforts to oppose the lying, cheating and stealing which is the Iraq War? And support the honorable troops dishonorably dispatched to Iraq by urging them to refuse to kill on behalf of that private sector whose morality he came to doubt? And hope that they'll live, looking forward to another world which is really possible---in which profit doesn't overtake duty and honor?
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Gary Leupp is Professor of History at Tufts University, and Adjunct Professor of Comparative Religion. He is the author of Servants, Shophands and Laborers in in the Cities of Tokugawa Japan; Male Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan; and Interracial Intimacy in Japan: Western Men and Japanese Women, 1543-1900. He is also a contributor to CounterPunch's merciless chronicle of the wars on Iraq, Afghanistan and Yugoslavia, Imperial Crusades.
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He can be reached at: gleupp@granite.tufts.edu
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Source: www.counterpunch.org
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