Friday, May 02, 2008

I am Very Very Happy

Sami Alhaj, the reporter of Aljazeera who have been in Guantanamo for six years without being charged of anything and was tortured often, have been released finally. I have often prayed for him, and i am very very happy for his release, i feel like i know him, i pray for all those who face injustice to get what they deserve.

Please, it's very important that you read the full piece here... and also, watch the video below..

Saturday, April 12, 2008

Maz in SF/Hou/LA


Forward this message to a friend

For those of you who wondered what I look like up close...well, here you go.

 

In Toronto today for some shows tonight. It's Spring here, which means it's wet, cold and unfriendly to bald men who have no hair to warm their heads. Could use some global warming in these parts.

 

Here's a list of upcoming shows. Please tell your friends in these cities. Thanks:

 

April 22-26 - San Francisco

The Punchline 

With Kirk Fox and Ali Mafi

Tickets at - www.punchlinecomedyclub.com

 

May 1st - Houston

Final Axis of Evil Show

Tickets at - ticketmaster.com - enter "Axis of Evil Comedy" for tix

 

May 3rd - LA

8pm & 10pm 

M Bar with Bret Ernst, Dwayne Perkins and Joey Herman

Tickets at - www.groovetickets.com - enter "Maz Jobrani" for tix. 

This is a small venue so it will sell out fast. Going to be an intimate show. 8pm show is open to all ages and has a dinner menu minimum. Second show is 18 and over if you are in before 9:30 and 21 and over after that.

 

Hope to see you soon,

 

Maz

 

P.S. Thanks to Ben Bernous for the rather intimate picture. 

 


 

Perfect Nose Productions, Los Angeles, CA 90019


Saturday, April 05, 2008

Considering...


If you think that my repeated visits to the neighbors house recently, are strictly to answer their calls to help with their computers problems and got nothing to do with the cute 19 years old 6 feet tall daughter that just moved to live with them, you would be sadly mistaken. However i would appreciate very much how highly you think of me:D

**kidding kidding ya qalbal mukhrij:D**

So!

In one of the visits to their place, which happens to be conveniently sitting 6 feet away of our door, i noticed a little pile of books sleeping on a chair somewhere -and i happened to look at the chair's direction because it was close to the computer and nothing else, of course!- so i reached and held the books, half a dozen of palm-size books, having shiny covers carrying long titles written in a big bright English font. Now for you who don't know yet, i developed a love relation with these little palm-size books, started when the nice Chikitita gave me the book of All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten which i enjoyed very much, if you haven't read that one i think you should:), and it seems that that passion for these books was showing in my eyes when i held the books -or in my mouth, i might have been drooling- which made their mother offer me to take them, "Enjoy yourself! i was about to get rid of them, i had them from back in the time i was in college" said the mother, "yippee:D", thought Khalid :P

Later on in our place, and after i was done day dreaming about... the computers! **yaba walla datshaqa!** i checked the books and while most of them had novel-y titles one of them caught my attention, it said something about a "story of a man whose love to his country was equaled by nothing but his love to freedom" hmmm! interesting! i thought!

And that's when the journey with Patrick Henry began.

I fell in love with the story of that man **that's a lot of falling in love in one post** and his freedom loving spirit, his courage, the way he sees nothing below the sky as a limit. His iron voice and his firing words ring in my ears although I never heard them spoken. The way that country boy, a failure at everything in life until the age of 24, an unemployed family man with children, thought that he can make something out of himself, and made a nation. It inspires me beyond imagination, i have always believed and repeated to others, how i believe that one man can change a nation, how one man can change the world indeed, it takes only one man, that has the ability to say the right word, in the right place, the right way, to be able to lead the masses, it takes one man indeed, to lead the masses into achieving history-size victories.

I pray that if i wasn't meant to be that man, to able to find him at least, and to be of help to this nation to gain unity and liberty one day.

----------------------------------------------------------

during a great speech, the appearance of the speaker always changes. Patrick henry seemed to grow taller, and his eyes brighter, as his powerful voice was heard throughout the church.

"They tell us sir that we are weak, unable to fight an enemy so powerful. but when shall we be stronger? will it be the next week? or the next year? will it be when our guns are taken away from us? and a British soldier is inside every house?"
" Sir, we are not weak, if we know how to use those things which the God of nature placed in our power. Three million people armed for liberty and in such a country as ours, can not loose"

"The battle sir, is not to the strong alone. It is to the ever watchful, the quick, the daring. It is too late now to move back, there is no way out but in slavery"

"Gentlemen may cry peace, peace. but there is no peace. our brothers are already in the battlefield. Why stand we here doing nothing? is life to dear, or peace so sweet, that we can buy it at the price of slavery?"

Patrick lowered his head and crossed his hands as if they were tied together. After a moment of silence he raised his eyes and hands towards the heaven, and said in a voice that seemed to reach deep in every ear "Do not allow it, oh, God" He slowly looked down at the ground, his hands still crossed, one over the other, as if they were tied. He seemed weighted down, as a man who had lost all hope.

"i know not what course others may take..."

suddenly he stood, and said:
"But as for me..."

He spoke the words through a firmly set mouth, his white face and bright eyes becoming fearful to look upon. Men moved forward in their seats, their faces white their eyes angry. Then came the loud, clear word:

"Give me liberty..."

And he said the word liberty slowly and carefully, everyone in the church looked at him. Then, he uncrossed his hands and raised his arms, his face now shining with joy. He stood straight and unafraid - a free man.

He stopped, and then he let his left arm fall powerless to his side and raised his right, pointing towards his heart, as if he were going to kill himself. In a slow and even words, he said:

"or give me death!"

Not a word was spoken; nor a sound was heard. And if ever a silence was powerful, that one was. For in that silence, the wheels of history were moving. As happen perhaps once in a life time, the right words, beautifully spoken by one leader, had decided the course of the future.

------------------------------------**End of quotes**

At the end, Patrick dies next to his beautiful Dorothy and 17 children, lived like an honorable man and a loving father and husband, and died right where he loved, in their house in the country, surrounded with trees and birds, where his freedom-loving soul belongs.

*A tear*

A moment of silence and piece for all the Patrick Henries of the world.

Thursday, March 06, 2008

Mam3oo6

Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Cold, hard facts.

Cold, hard facts...

Monday, March 03, 2008

What A Billion Muslims Really Think

A very interesting post:

Following the 9/11 attacks, President Bush claimed that Muslims hate America for its freedoms. Since then, 50,000 Muslims in 35 countries were surveyed by Gallup, the largest poll of Muslims ever. The results represent over 6 years of study and are outlined in a new book by Dalia Mogahed and John L. Esposito entitled “Who Speaks For Islam? What A Billion Muslims Really Think”. The survey was based on face-to-face, hour-long interviews. I’m really looking forward to reading it, especially having read a great deal of Esposito’s literature, but here are some of the preliminary findings I found interesting, as outlined in an op-ed and a BBC article:

- It showed that Muslims and Americans are equally likely to reject attacks on civilians as morally unjustifiable.

- Those who do choose violence and extremism are driven by politics, not poverty or piety.

- Of the 7 percent of respondents who did believe that 9/11 was justified, none of them hated our freedom; they want our freedom. But they believe that America — and the western world in general — operate with a double standard and stand in the way of Muslims determining their own future.

- The vast majority of young Muslims aren’t dreaming of going to war; they are dreaming of finding work. When asked about their hopes for the future, Muslims of all ages said they want better jobs and security, not conflict and violence.

- Muslims want self-determination, but not an American-imposed and defined democracy. They don’t want secularism or theocracy.

- What the majority wants is democracy with religious values.

- The radicals are better educated, have better jobs, and are more hopeful with regard to the future than mainstream Muslims. But they’re more cynical about whether they’ll ever get it.

- 9 out of 10 Muslims are moderates

- Muslims say the most important thing Westerners can do to improve relations with their societies is to change their negative views toward Muslims, respect Islam and re-evaluate their foreign policies.

Saturday, March 01, 2008

More About Ghaza...



The Palestinian president has accused Israel of "international terrorism", saying its assault on Gaza constitutes "more than a holocaust".

Mahmoud Abbas's comments on Saturday came as more Israeli air raids brought the total death toll over four days to 88 people, at least a third of which have been children, according to medical sources.

Fifty-four people were killed during Saturday's raids alone.

"It's very regrettable that what is happening is more than a holocaust," Abbas told reporters in Ramallah.

"Children who are barely five-months old are being bombed by the Israeli army."


"We tell the world to see with its own eyes and judge for itself what is happening and who is carrying out international terrorism."

Khaled Meshaal, the exiled Hamas leader living in Syria, also denounced the Israeli attacks against Gaza's civilians as "the real holocaust".

Abbas later requested an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss the Israeli incursion into the Gaza Strip, a spokesman for the Palestinian leader said.

Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera's senior political analyst, said that "at best" Abbas could hope to get a Security Council resolution condemning the Israeli action.

"And as we know, Israel has ignored tens of UN Security Council resolutions over the last 40 years and hundreds of UN assembly resolutions - so this is going to be more talk and probably not much will come out of it in the end," he said.
Children killed

Rana el-Hindi from Save the Children, speaking from inside the Gaza Strip, told Al Jazeera that children were suffering greatly from the Israeli bombardment.

"In the last three days at least 19 children have been killed ... it's a real concern for all organisations here," she said.

"Most of the time, when we go into the field and talk to the children about their fears and concerns, they are always afraid of a new [Israeli] invasion to the Gaza Strip - and obviously the current situation is just ... what they fear."

She said the number of children being hospitalised was increasing "day after day".

Eissam Younis, director of the Al Mizan Centre for Human Rights in Gaza, told Al Jazeera that the Israeli army was "intentionally and systematically targeting civilians" and criticised world powers for their muted response.

"Israel puts itself above the law because the international community is always silent," he said.

READ THE REST HERE

Ghaza...



From The Black Iris :

“The more Qassam fire intensifies and the rockets reach a longer range, they will bring upon themselves a bigger shoah because we will use all our might to defend ourselves,” - Israel’s deputy defence minister, Matan Vilnai, refering to the current military operation in Gaza, stating that Palestinians would bring on themselves a “bigger shoah,” using the Hebrew word usually reserved only for the Nazi Holocaust of the Jews. His spokesman later tried to play down the force of his language, saying he meant only “disaster”. “He did not mean to make any allusion to the genocide,” the spokesman said. [source]

Talk about calling a spade a spade.

More than 70 Palestinians have been killed in the past four days.

Some of the dead include a six-month old boy, two 15 and 16-year-old siblings and a mother who was preparing breakfast for her kids.*


From And Far Away :


When words fail you. When you can’t have a decent discussion while visiting family because your eyes keep wandering to images of a flaming Ghaza on the muted television. When you feel guilty of posting a random post because you feel like you should be doing something more solid and more productive- something of value to those poor souls. When you can’t think of anything but that these people are your people, with only religion and barriers keeping you apart. When you spend the whole month thinking of what a horrible, unjust world this is, and how tiny and worthless you really are, sitting in the comfort of your living room, trying to avoid news channels, discussing the weather.

Tomorrow, you will get up, put your clothes on, drive to work, have your morning cup of coffee, and have the same day you have had for a while.

The world is an ironic place. You can give up once you realize that everything is futile, sit back, and decide to put all your faith in god, who will “solve everything eventually”. You can give up once you realize that everything is futile, sit back, and decide to spend your life working for your own needs and desires, building a happy future for you and your immediate family, all the while becoming a selfish, self-centered, quite futile person in the process. Or you can talk, discuss, and analyze the matters of the world for 50 years, spending your time arguing with labour parties and NGOs, then look back in your old age and realize that all those pointless years wasted on philosophizing have been as futile as really doing nothing at all.

.................................................

Those two just said it all.

I can't put my feelings in words, words fail to express what i want to say, but i want to update the numbers and say that until now, since the beginning of Today, 60 have been killed, and 150 injured, most of them are in a critical condition.

Friday, February 01, 2008

More than one million Iraqis dead since 2003 invasion: study

January 30, 2008

LONDON (AFP)
— More than one million Iraqis have died because of the war in Iraq since the US-led invasion of the country in 2003, according to a study published Wednesday.

A fifth of Iraqi households lost at least one family member between March 2003 and August 2007 due to the conflict, said data compiled by London-based Opinion Research Business (ORB) and its research partner in Iraq, the Independent Institute for Administration and Civil Society Studies (IIACSS).

The study based its findings on survey work involving the face-to-face questioning of 2,414 Iraqi adults aged 18 or above, and the last complete census in Iraq in 1997, which indicated a total of 4.05 million households.

Respondents were asked how many members of their household, if any, had died as a result of the violence in the country since 2003, and not because of natural causes.

"We now estimate that the death toll between March 2003 and August 2007 is likely to have been in the order of 1,033,000," ORB said in a statement.

The margin of error for the survey was 1.7 percent, making the estimated range between 946,000 and 1.12 million fatalities.

The highest rate of deaths throughout the country occurred in Baghdad, where more than 40 percent of households had lost a family member.

According to a July 2007 estimate by the United States, Iraq's population is around 27 million.

The country has been wracked by conflict since the March 2003 invasion which deposed dictator Saddam Hussein, with United Nations estimates putting the number of displaced people from the conflict at more than four million, nearly half of which have fled to neighbouring countries.

A small number of those refugees have begun returning to Iraq -- around 20,000 arrived from Syria in December -- the Iraqi Red Crescent said earlier this month, suggesting an improved security situation.

Thursday, January 31, 2008

Look through our windows :D

Stuck home for couple of days due to a heavy snow session:D look how beautiful the photos are! :)

Friday, January 25, 2008

4.5 millions Orphans in Iraq, a tragic situation

Baghdad,Voices of Iraq – (VOI). New reports of Iraqi Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs released in 16 January, 2008 with new disaster numbers of children situation in Iraq. This report was declare that in Iraq now 4.5 millions Iraqi orphans with 500 000 living in streets without any home or family care about thier, as well as there are only 459 orphans in governmental houses of orphans.

The dramatic facts in this report also, there are 800 Iraqi orphans in American Iraqi prisons until January 2008 (700 orphans in Iraqi prisons and 100 another orphans in American prisons.

In a Baghdadi popular market, Mustafa Fadhil, a ten year old child, sits waiting to carry the items purchased by individuals who are out doing their shopping, for some trivial income that he needs to help his family following his father’s death who was a victim of the violence in Iraq.
From time to time, Mustafa imagines himself back again in classroom; a dream that disappears when a customer, looking for a carrier, calls him “I left school and started working when my father was killed in a mortar attack that targeted our house around two years ago, and I have been responsible for my family since then,” Mustafa said to Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq – (VOI).
In an attempt to depend on himself in order for himself and his family to survive under such severe circumstances, Mustafa limits his plans to the requirements of daily life. “I stopped thinking about my future, and what I would be when I get older.”

There are many children like Mustafa, orphans and street-kids that live a current tragic reality in Iraq, with an unknown future awaiting them, especially when considering that there are no pre-existing legislations or decrees that protect them and their rights.

The statistics of the Iraqi Ministry of Planning and Development Coordination show that there are 4.5 million orphans in Iraq, 500 thousand of them living in the streets.
At one of the intersections of Al-Karada, a Shiite neighborhood in downtown Baghdad – the capital of Iraq, Nassir Saadon, a 14 years old teenager, sells candy. “I live in a tragic situation and poverty, because my parents were divorced around two years ago,” adding, “I chose to sell candy because it is a job that doesn’t require a large amount of money, but the income is hardly enough to feed me. I feel that my future is unknown; if I even have a future.”

The Islamic Foundation of Woman and Child, a non-governmental organization, believes that with the current tragic circumstances of children in Iraq, a generation will grow up cultivated in an atmosphere of rebellious violence. Amal Kashefal-Ghetaa, the president of that foundation, explained that “Due to the current situation, a massive change took place in the lives of children that forced many of them to leave their schools and friends to go to work; a matter that affects them mentally.”

The Iraqi government, according to Kashefal-Ghetaa, “is not sponsoring those children, despite the fact that the social component representing them is getting wider, because of the violence in Iraq;” demanding the legislation of laws that sponsor these children.

The Iraqi Parliamentary Committee of Woman and Child have a pessimistic vision regarding the future of children in Iraq. Naddera Aif, a parliamentary member of this committee and affiliated with the Iraqi Accordance Front (IAF) told VOI “I have a pessimistic vision regarding the future of families in Iraq, due to the current violence, displacement, poverty, and family fragmentation. There are 4.5 million orphans, in addition to 800 children in prisons, 700 of them in the Iraqi detentions, and the rest in American custody, all accused of terror or issuing false statements.”

According to Aif, the Parliamentary Committee of Woman and Child recently suggested a number of laws in that regard, such as the laws of Orphans Fund, The Childhood Fund, and the Organization of Childhood Sponsorship, “These laws represent a temporary solution that will be discussed by the Iraqi parliament in this year,” Aif said without further details.

The Orphanages Department at the Iraqi Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs considers that childhood in Iraq suffers the loss of rights comparing with their counterparts in the neighboring countries. “Kids in Iraq are deprived of health care in schools, playing with their friends, and the right to self-expression,” Abeer Al-Chalabi, the manager of that department said to VOI, adding that many children in Iraq are subjected to sexual harassment, some of them are conducting hard jobs unsuitable to their ages, and others use begging to earn their living.

In Iraq, as al-Chalabi confirmed, there are 18 orphanages, 4 in Baghdad, and the rest are distributed throughout other provinces. The total number of orphans in all these orphanages is 459.

The sociologist, Atheer Kareem, told VOI that the negative situation that children in Iraq are experiencing will increase their suffering, unless the government in Iraq responds by issuing legislations that sponsors them and protects their rights. “Violence and bloodshed will have negative mental effects on kids, and their personality, and it would be difficult for a generation to grow up in a healthy manner without the required environments.” [Source]

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Meen Irhabi!

Monday, January 21, 2008

It All Started In Their Hearts..

The Darkness, it all started in their hearts. And then to Gazza it marched, to wrap everything with cruelty and coldness. The houses and the children, and the weeping mothers that just lost their childredn in yesterday's attack. Darkness and silence, carried their wails throughout the streets, to echo throughout the world.

From their hearts it all started, then fountained out, as racism and hate, as collective punishment.

Watch it here.

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Ron Paul, what do you think of him?!

Saturday, January 19, 2008

CRP...not anymore

Dear Everyone: Due to personal reasons, Faiza Alaraji and myself are no longer related to the Collateral Repair Project.

We don't know the people that are working on it currently in Jordan, and hence we don't guarantee the integrity or effiency of the project anymore.

HOWEVER, we as a family still carry on our projects in supporting the Iraqi refugees families in Jordan and Syria as well as the IDPs inside Iraq, like we have been doing for years now, you can always contact us for more details.

End of the press release :)

Thursday, December 20, 2007

FINE I AM GONNA WRITE A POST [updated with photos]

This is when minister of foreign affairs Khalid Jarrar and minister of comedy and media Maz Jobrani met...




A photo of the ministers discussing issues involving world peace...


A photo of the camera man, with the ministers in the background holding hands (:O what a scandal)...


Just another photo...


And the meeting was over, like all other officials meetings, with a lot of recomendations and decisions that will never be implemented:P


----------------------------------------

FINE I AM GOING TO WRITE A POST!!

Dear God i am happy i am not married to any of you, nagging commentors and email senders i would have killed myself long time ago.

:D

Alright!

So i have been away for a while. You would think that i was busy. But i wasn't really, at all. You would think i was depressed over the continuity of the situation in Iraq. But no, not really. I got used to that. Another common reason for not blogging is that a blogger simply doesn't feel like it. But actually that's not that case either, I want to blog! but the problem is that i can't seem to make myself do it, for some reason. I think that after all the time since the war, i started to believe that talking about it is not gonna solve it, working on it can help though!

I sort of started to see that working on solving the humanitarian problems and needs of Iraqi refugees is the smallest of things that can be done, on a personal level. And can actually make a difference, you can go sleep knowing that you helped a family, ten families or a hundred families sleep better that you provided them with blankets in this harsh winter, or have a sense of satisfaction knowing that you helped families start their own micro project to have an income source to support themselves. It's something, i am telling you. I feel that by helping in that filed, i can actually do something on the ground while doing the talking part online, Don't get me wrong, the talking part is important to support the Iraqi cause, it is, but as a friend put it: you have to put your money where you put your words. I think that saying of hers, should be written with gold water and hanged all over the world. Imagine if everyone put their money where they put their words? what a lovely world would it be!

Hence, we have been sending emails left and right, to friends and family, extended family, bloggers, online friends and whatnot. Practically everyone we could reach, to convince them to donate whatever they have, to fund our projects of supporting Iraqi refugees in both Syria and Jordan, and build micro projects for them [visit the site, it has photos and details about the projects, and also you can donate online wherever you are], or through just buying them basic life needs and sometimes pay their rent or cover such needs, since they live in Jordan illegally and therefor are not allowed to work, just to add to their miserable situation.

I have all faith that people that read Tell Me a Secret have genuine concern about Iraqi people, and then i ask you to visit the link provided above, which leads you to the Collateral Repair Project where you can learn about it, and also demonstrate your generosity, or the lack of there is :P

On more personal news, i still have a month or so before i graduate [OK, i myself can't believe it until it happens, i have been delayed over 2 years because i left Iraq and came to continue in Jordan] so pray for me that i do graduate this January, please.

Not much have been going on, today is the second day of the Adha Eid, the longest holiday in the Muslim calender, and you usually spend the Eid visiting relatives and friends, dressing well, and eating chocolates and cookies in every house you visit, and coffee too, these are the traditions, and also you typically give children money in Eid, so it's all about joy, and it lasts for 4 days, meanwhile pilgrimages in Mecca finish the rituals of Haj, and should be going back to their families soon, wherever they are, to find celebrations of welcoming back and receive visits from all loved ones congratulating them for preforming the Haj, asking God to accept their Haj and good deeds.

I have had the pleasure of meeting two Iraqi bloggers lately, Chikitia and Miraj, who happened to be in Amman for a little while, it was great pleasure to get to meet them.

Also, i got to meet a very nice guy, Maz Jobrani, he and The Axis of Evil Comedy Tour were in town [They are amazing you gotta watch their show if they are ever in your town] and i bought their tickets long before the show time, but then next day the company organizing the event called and asked me to return the ticket or buy another one because the event is for couples only, i was so sad about that and had to return it, i wrote a heart-tearing whining and wailing email to Maz Jobrani, their most famous team member, and i explained the situation to him, he replied very quickly and promised to let the organizers look into it, next thing i know i got a phone call from the organizers, Showtime Network, apologizing for the mistake and offering me two free tickets [knowing that each was sold for about $65] I was happy about it, i went to the show with other friends, ones that were lucky to get their tickets already, a Jordanian blogger with his sister, and another friend with her fiance. Anyways! not only did i get free tickets, but they also took me to the backstage where i met Maz Jobrani, they filmed the minutes we spent together where we talked about the importance of their work in breaking stereotypes about middle east people. And that little meeting with Maz has a good chance to end up in the film of their tour in the ME [buy it and see me;) totally worth it!], and then we all watched the show and laughed until our cheeks hurt and went back home after midnight, it was a lovely evening, i don't remember having so much fun since i left Baghdad.

Majed is here for the Eid, so that's a very nice thing too, we haven't seen in him in months. Maybe Raed will visit later with Niki, the Jarrars rarely ever, ever get together in real life anymore, so that's a big thing to gather them under one non-virtual roof for a while:)

My cat got sick and died:( i know:( no vets could do anything, but it's alright i am sure she is in cats heavens now. so it's ok. And i got a new little kitten, his name is Tigger / tigar /. And he is so cute, aren't all kittens?:)

I bought an ipod :D does that mean i am accepting American liberation or something?:P
don't even dream about it, i just appreciate good technology **grin**

I will publish the photos of me and Maz once he emails them to me inshalla [you promised Maz!][Update, as you can see above he did! yay:D] and since this post broke my wall of silence, i hope that other posts will follow soon..

Take good care of yourself everyone, it's been lovely to meet you all again!

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Ramadan Mubarak

It's the first day of Ramadan :*)

So excited:D

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

About the so-called Anbar Progress!

A group of good friends made a film in Iraq about the alleged progress in Anbar governorate, the results are very good. And I have to say It's heroic for foreigner journalists to go around Iraq now to shoot films and ask questions, absolutely heroic.
Jacquie Soohen [Update: I just discovered that Jacquie was just sitting around and looking pretty!], Richard Rowley and David Enders, great work guys, thank you very much.

Watch the 20 minutes film here:

Part 1:

Part 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsQ6twcWevY

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Want to Help Iraqis?

Hello everyone.
I apologize for my extended absence, life kept me busy for the last few months.

People always ask me how can they help Iraqis?

In many ways, if your government is involved in this war, you can do a lot of work to put pressure on it to withdraw their troops or cut their support, and you can do so either by demanding your representitives in the government, individualy and by organizing moves and gathering as much people as possible to do that. A great and essential thing to be done is to work on public awareness, by learning about the situation in Iraq and teaching your local community, organizing speaking events, hosting patriot Iraqis or people sincerely involved in the Iraqi issue, people that have been to Iraq or at least the ME and can give you a sense of the situation. You can organize many of these speaking events in your local community, university, church etc.

ON the other hand!

Mom has been working volunteerly for years now to improve the living conditions of Iraqis in Iraq and Iraqi refugees in Jordan. If you want to learn more about the projects she is doing then please read the post she has on her blog, she talks about the micro projects she funds that helps Iraqi families make a living, since Iraqis in Jordan are not allowed to work unless they have legal residency, and it's next to impossible to have one, most Iraqi families have no source of income, and are in real need for any kind of help, the Jordanian and Iraqi governments have ignored them, and international community abandoned them, UNHCR and other NGOs are doing very, very small work when compared to the numbers of refugees and the size of their needs. If you are willing to help, please read mom's post:

About CRP , why ?


http://www.collateralrepairproject.org/

peace upon you.....Since the beginning of the war against Iraq 2003, I was in Baghdad with my family,Before the war, I was just a mother of three boys, and Civil Engineer, working as executive manager of our firm in Baghdad.Main things in my life , was my family and my carrier.After the invasion, my life was changed, as what happened to many people inside Iraq or outside.The destruction of the country, violence with bloodshed, continued to be a daily ritual in our days.Since that time I started to work with Iraqi women NGOs in Baghdad, my aim was to help poor families, especially who lost their providers, by funding micro projectfor each family, to keep them survived and independent.

But the Iraqi women I was working with them that time, refused my vision, they were from business women, who were seeking for projects to fund their own projects.After I have left Iraq due to bad security conditions, and kidnapping of my son Khalid, the family decided to leave and settle in Jordan in 2005,We kept working to send medical supplies and water units to Iraqi hospitals, then I started to visit poor Iraqi families here, my network started to be bigger and bigger by the passing of time.

First, I tried to visit rich Iraqi families asking them to help their poor brothers and sisters, but they refused, I was very sad and disappointed, but by the passing of time, I decided to give micro loans to fund micro projects, the money was either from donation of friends, or from my pocket, its OK, I just want to see the change of the life of these families, on the ground.I was happy to see a family like Abo Abbas, I helped them with 320$ to buy special gas oven for Iraqi round bread, the man worked together with his wife and kids to mix flour with water, cut the pieces, spread it on wooden plates, then put it in the hot oven, when its ready , I saw their kids used their bike to deliver the bread for Iraqi restaurant around,…

After one month, the family moved to another house, I visited them , it is much better than the old one, the furniture was repaired, they looked in better conditions, I felt happy for them..This small loan changed their life to the better,..When I used to email my new friend Sasha, we talked about these stories, I sent her many stories about poor Iraqi families here with their photos, we talked many times and discussed many ideas about how can we help them?We agreed that micro loans is a kind of tiring operation, we need some one who will follow them to get the money back, If we can fund each poor family with small budget like 200$ , less or more, it will be easier for all the parts, the donor, the family, and for our teams.We decided then to announce about CRP, and put stories with photos , about these poor families here, who has no legal residency and no right to work , so how can they keep themselves survived?Should we ask them to go back home in Iraq to face death?What is the solution?

I think CRP (www.collateralrepairproject.org)now is working to help these Iraqi families who are refugees , with no right to work, with no legal residency,..May be we can help them in a way or another , to keep them survived, until we all can go back home , one day…Then, about our proposals for projects inside Iraq, its either for IDP who are suffering from the lack of basic needs, or for poor Iraqi families inside many provinces who are abandoned from the government due to corruption controlling the country in this dark era..Hope the positive change will happen in Iraq, one day, and Iraqis will go back home to rebuild their country by their own hands,Amen..


Faiza Alaraji
Iraqi mother,
Civil Engineer
Blogger.

Sunday, March 18, 2007

The Fourth Year

The fourth year has arrived.
and counting.
my biggest fear is that i will be sitting on a chair every year, posting about the fifth year, seventh year, 20th year of occupation and it's harvest of blood, pain and disappointment.

The policy and decision makers of the United states of American has turned into the most arrogant idiots, drunk with power to the point that they can't drive their way home from Iraq anymore.

We have a saying: God supports a just nation even if it was an infidel nation, and destroys an unjust one even if it believed in him. And it's about the time to say it, USA have became the unjust nation that needs to be removed, not removed off the map with a nuclear bomb i mean, but removed from it's position as the leader of the world.
USA doesn't have the moral superiority propaganda on it's side anymore. It's a mere mission of greed and aggression that its leading in the world now: If we don't like you, we shoot you. If you don't give us your wealth, we shoot you, and if you don't like us for doing this to others, we gladly shoot you too.

This has to come to an end.

I don't see hope in the elections system in the states, or in the government structure as it is, to make any changes in that unjust country and change it's leading imperialist mentality that is messing the world now, and planning to mess it far more in the future.

I remember an old cartoon, of Santa standing over a hill looking at a city full of chimneys and thinking: why me?!

And this is what people living in our region wonder often: why us? why do you wanna hurt us? why do you wanna occupy us? why can't you just leave us live alone? is it the oil? what a bloody curse it is, it brought us nothing but agony, just take it and go away. Just like what you would say when a thief faces you in an ally at the middle of the night: "take my wallet, but please don't hurt me". That's how desperate people are.

for four years I have been pleading for peaceful ways of ending the occupation. Trying to cooperate with the peace movements here and in the states to find a way out, but as we can all notice, our efforts are in vein. The US government cares about nothing at all, nothing, as long as they have the guns and bullets to do what they want to do, they will do it, and you wusses can condemn and protest all you want all around the world; we have the guns and the guts, and we are staying the coarse, they say.

And I personally now don't believe anymore in any of that peace message, simply because it doesn't work. And if you have any preaching about that, keep it to your protests to feel better and then go home to sit safely with your children, and save me the crap, please.

The sad, hurtful truth, is that the one and only thing that works, and will work, is to cause the greatest harm possible to the American army in Iraq and other occupied countries, so much to the points that the politicians, the MPs that vote for the country budget, the media that are all facilitating the continuity of this occupation, are so afraid of the reaction of the other Americans, the good Americans, and believe that they will seriously kill them if they don't stop that occupation, only at that point, the occupation will end.

And here is the thing: "the good MPs" who in this particular subject should be the democrats who are trying to demand to take the troops home, aren't really good at all, they don't give a damn about Iraq or Iraqis, they don't know the first thing about Iraq and Iraqis, they just know for sure that people are so upset in the states, the polls say that people think this war is a total failure, and what a greater opportunity than this: go with the wave and demand what people in the streets want to get back to the office, all the way till the next democrat president's urges drives him to have sex with someone in the white house that is naturally not his wife and hopefully a woman.

Back to our point, even those upset Americans wouldn't have been so upset, (well the very most of them at least to give credit to the really good ones that i call the heroes), if they didn't see that their army is failing, and that more and more body bags are flying home, and more and more billions of their own money is being spent on somewhere other than their own needs and schools and health care. which totally makes sense of course if you disregard the tiny little fact of that those billions are being spent to illegally occupy a country and kill it's people and steal it's natural resources and take away their freedom and enforce a policy on them and install a puppet government that if the Americans themselves weren't protecting it's members 24/7 people would have eaten them alive, and if you disregard that fact that the real problem is actually the part of the army that is not in body bags, yet.


you would say that this talk is too harsh, and that would make us lose the sympathy of the international community.
international community my ass. Where were they for the last four years? Just too afraid to say no to America or simply don't care to. They didn't prevent the war and they still yet didn't end the occupation. So I really don't give a damn about their sympathy, it obviously and as proven by experience doesn't do much anyways.

I say again: if it wasn't that the American army is losing by all means, most of Americans wouldn't have moved a hand, or a tongue to demand the withdrawal of the army from Iraq.
So after all, resistance does work.
of course it does work. Haven't you read the history?
Any occupied people revolt immediately or eventually, and when people do, armies never stand a chance, says history.
Yes the resistance, the national patriot resistance, the one that is attacking the American army and the other occupying armies, and everyone that helps them and protects them. Not the terrorists that are killing Iraqis, weather Sunna or Shea, no not those. Those nobody knows who they are and where were they before the occupation, they somehow grew and flourished under the umbrella of the occupation, and i dare say as a direct reason of it; when Bramer created the concept of the sectarian based distribution of government, it all started, and that was over a year after the war, so for a whole year Iraqis were heavily loaded with weapons and under a completely safe environment, and they didn't jump on each other, no sectarian tension was registered that led to battles, no Iranian or Iranian based militias killing Sunna and definitely no Sunni militias killing Shea too, neither, and if you go to Jordan or Syria now, there are about a million Iraqi refuge in each of these countries alone, ran out for their lives from the hell-y situation in Iraq, and among those millions of people we never heard till this very moment of any fight or any sort of sectarian based problems, which means that as i said: this sectarian tension was created politically by the occupation: divide and conquer.
But back to what i was saying: The national patriot resistance, the simple everyday Iraqis that can't be self centred and say: let Iraq fight on it's own, we will hide in our houses. No sir, no madam, they didn't. They left their lives and Jobs, as any hero in any occupied country would do, held their weapons and started to fight. And they did indeed make the life of the strongest army in the world a living hell, no doubt,they taught them the lesson: if we bite each other's fingers, you will be the ones to scream first.

Iraqis are in Iraq, the proper place for Iraqi people!, and have no where else to go, and will stay there and will fight there till the end, because simply they are too proud to be occupied, and simply because they have no where else to go after most of the countries in the world decided they won't open their doors to Iraqis and won't hold their burden, countries including USA itself, that accepted a tiny number of Iraqi refuges since the war, a shameful three figures number.
what a shame. what a shame.

And even terrorism itself, which is the killing of innocent people for no crime they did [excluding that done by the occupation at this particular context], is not making the life of the US army any easier too, it's just another indicator of how bad they are running the battle ground and how much they lack the ability to control the security in Iraq. Hell, news here are nothing but the death toll of the day.

So as a conclusion i have to say: That it's shameful enough, and hurtful enough to say, and sad enough yet truthful enough, that for most Americans it actually requires terrorism that kills innocent people, and resistance that kills thousands of Americans and burns billions of American money, to make them demand an end to an occupation, but still basing on their own losses and not because of the feeling of responsibility or guilt over what they did to Iraq, now correct me if i am wrong here, but there is something seriously wrong with this moral equation here.

It sounds to me, that after 4 years of occupation, that America is a nation of selfish people, too busy with their lives and joys to care about how their own country is screwing the world, instead they really concentrate on getting fatter, rockin' and rollin', watching the Oscar night and reality shows -other than the show: "kill all Iraqis", of course- and mourning the slut Anna Nichol Smith. And the "God fearing" ones are chasing gays while clapping to Bush the Ape that his pictures can be used as a scientific evidence of evolution.
what a shame. what a shame.

I bleed inside my heart when i write this and certain names and pictures of certain Americans come to my mind. Sincere truthful people, more Iraqis than the pigs in the green zone are, and more of God people than Bush and his gang can ever be even if some of them are secular, and more humane than a lot of other Americans that know nothing about the world, don't want to know anything about it, and support Bush blindly like he is their own God. And I can imagine the good guys' agony living among those people and trying to enlighten them and teach them that the way to God goes through loving others, and not through killing them and their families. I see them thinking of Iraqis and talking about Iraq everyday and everywhere. Sometimes leaving their country, their homes and lives to come here and see how is it really with their own eyes, and to see what can they do to hold their responsibility as Americans. To see how can they stop their unleashed country from occupying other countries and killing more people and spreading more terror and hate in the world. Yes, it's the responsibility of every American to think that way. If anyone should have the right to be proud of being American and sing the national anthem, it should be those heroes.

Sad fourth birthday hateful spiteful occupation, Sad fourth birthday dear beloved Iraq, i miss you, and i promise you that there will be an end, soon.
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