Festival of death of April 28

It is still happening as usual, exploding cars, that kill hundreds of innocents in street, but the difference in the last events is:
It is happening in the occasion of Sadam’s birthday at April 28, and in the occasion of announcing the new elected government in Iraq. The message from Sadam and his gangs was very loud and clear:
We are still enjoying our thefts of billions of dollars from you Iraqis, and we decided to continue showing you that the price will be high if you choose saying yes for freedom, and no one in the world can keep you away from our revenge now and in the future.
Death festival was not only in Baghdad and it’s surroundings, today the same gangs of the last dictator (assuming so) put explosives in the grave of great historian writer in Mosul, the grave is located in a crowded public market, after the explosion, no one can estimates how many people were dead because the remains are only a small pieces of bloody flesh.
Many Arabic countries are still calling it (resistance) but any natural human being must say : it is the ( festival of death ) committed by dirty savage criminals.

To build a bridges among honest bloggers

All bloggers would be invited to share their reporting on each post, and good credible stories that are broken on the Internet find their way into coverage in the mainstream media.
It is true .The bridge is already there.... It's called a web browser. If the bloggers have anything worth saying, the message would get out .After the Tsunami, a blog that was only like 3 weeks old became the #1 blog in the blogosphere in just a few hours because he linked the videos of the event. When there is content, the blogosphere is breathtakingly efficient.
What is really going on here is something else. The trolls have had a stronger influence because we have had no ideas to oppose the trolls and they routinely manage to find a way to be cheering on our daily suffering and pains.
being good blogger, play the victim card; "You bloggers online keep citing what is said on honest blogs and not on dishonest blogs and talk to mainstream media sites directly if you can.
Some will say this is just silly. The media has more than enough contributors already; they don't need the blogosphere to play back-up.
Indeed, if there were more close people to the events then bloggers would have much material, because they are spreading every where on the ground.
Why don't the honest bloggers just get on their blogs and find something impressive to say?
Try to ignore all nonsense and troll comments, as it is still happening in Iraq blog count blog.
We need affirmative action for boring posts and comment that are not related to our country condition.
Just use your imagination and let us share useful ideas to build strong bridges among us .

Who cares ??

Newly married couples in Iraq are being given a helping hand from the Ministry of Trade in starting a new life.
They are being offered building materials for homes at a reduced cost to local market prices, as well as the chance for them to pay in installments.
This announcement from Ministry of Trade is welcomed.
OK …. What about the OLD married families with three or more kids owho spent their whole life giving every thing to Iraq!! Their blood, wealth, youth, experience, and hard efforts ….and get nothing till now , they are still paying most of the family income just to rent a small house or apartment only.
Who will care about thousands of Iraqi families who don’t own even one meter square of land to build any shelter on it?
Supposing they have land , but those people are not working in the government ,and aren’t able to buy the land , and cannot take any support from any bank because they are working privately , then who will care about them ?
There is a big problem in Iraq about residential areas, we are the Iraqi citizens do need critical support from our Government and from other world countries to solve this problem.
At least two or more families are living in each house in Iraq.
To give you an example , before the last war the price for 200 square meter area of medium rank land is about 10000$ , now price for same land after the war is 60000$ .
In both cases it is very hard for average Iraqi to buy it. Saddam gave millions of distinguished residential lands to his people, now they are selling these lands with millions of dollars.
As a conclusion I can tell you some thing as a rule in Iraq: God is the only hope for the poor people and no one else …

Blogging as a challenge

During the past few days I have received e-mails from several readers asking how to maintain the entrepreneurial spirit when so many people in any forum around us are throwing negative comments.
A reader asked for suggestions on how to handle friends who intrude on your ideas or comments.
Blogging, like life, can be a challenge and, surrounding yourself with people who throw negative or non-supportive comments at you and your endeavors can make the challenge more difficult , but creative thoughts come out this way during hard times.

Exploding morning

Today at 8.20 AM , a bombed car exploded on a highway in Mosul creating a cloud of smoke and dust that hovered over the road and nearby forest.
I was in my friend’s car in the morning crossing the bridge when the accident happened , both of us were on our way to work, the explosion caused the car to shake , it was about 500 meters from us , soon after a while we saw three strykers vehicles with full speed heading to the location , but I don’t know the casualties yet.
We both are lucky for not being in the wrong place and time , but who knows about the next time ?
Every day we expect bad things to happen in the city as usual in a way that we consider each passing day and we are still in one piece as a win in destiny.
In the last 10 days , the accidents of bombed cars were obviously increased in the city.
From time to time on some building walls in the city , you can see a spray-painted graffiti, it says : “ Warning to all policemen: You will be killed.” And you can see later that the owners of the buildings erase the death threat against the Iraqi policemen and those who want to volunteer as a policemen.

WiFi internet Project needed here

After the falling of Sadam’s Regime , internet was first entered to our city through satellite connections in internet café . Then two major private local companies monopolized internet distribution to Houses , hospitals , schools , and even official directorates.
Prices and services for the internet are very high - (75$ to 50$ depending on speed and downloaded data volume )- as compared to services in other parts of the world.This amount paid by each subscriber here is high , assuming that his average income is about 200$ monthly , then he must pay at least 1/3 of his income to internet service.
Students are the most affected persons , they do need internet but can’t pay for it unless they get some help from others or parents.
The most important thing for my 2 millions residents in the city now , is providing a broadband wifi internet service with a reasonable price .
Once I negotiated an European company to start the project here , they liked it after studying it , but unfortunately their representative told me that they changed their mind after some delay in two projects in greece that obliged the company to stop this project here .
I don’t know who and why ? but from my blog I am asking any company who would like to start this business here , such a project will be very helpful for our public and also very profitable for them , in fact I have some useful technical information about such a project and just waiting a sign to do my best for my city.
I do have some other wonderful projects needed also but will talk about it later.

Don’t blame Islam

There is a misperception in the west that Islam promotes terror, women repression and backward thinking. I don’t blame westerners for viewing Islam the way Muslims portrayed it ; I blame Muslims for misbehaving in the name of Islam. There has never been a greater enemy to Islam than Muslims themselves; Muslims misrepresented Islam and made it look like that.
I believe that one of the lessons that a lot of people missed, is that religion evolves. Two examples to point out; first, Muslims believe in all prophets from Abraham to Mohammed - including Moses and Jesus - and the revelations given to them by the one God (Allah).
We know that it’s all about good and evil, and we also know that the rules and guidelines changed or to be more specific, increased from one prophet to the next depending on the circumstances, but why?
Since God knows everything, the rules and guidelines could have been given more or less the same to all of them! But the rules change with time and depending on the circumstances; i.e. they evolve.
Second example is alcohol. God banned alcohol in stages; first, Muslims were not allowed to pray while drunk; but then after that rule was broken, God forbidden alcohol. It could have been easily banned in the first revelation; but it had to evolve.
These are clear indications that Islam - or any religion for that matter – should evolve, as long as it doesn’t offend God (Allah).
It’s all about interpretation! The rules and guidelines can be interpreted differently, as we have different sectors within Islam that have different interpretations, depending on the way it’s been look at and who looked at it. Therefore, these rules and guidelines should also be interpreted differently depending on the time and place.There are three factors that contributed to Islam’s bad image:
1. Tribal culture
The tribal culture is a serious problem; albeit, many Arabs have been urbanized, their culture is derived from the tribal culture, especially when it comes to women and honor. Women were repressed before Islam; but many were also repressed after Islam! The reason is not Islam, it is the tribal traditions!
Islam advocated equality between human beings regardless of race and gender. But because the gender issue can be argumentative, I will say - for argument sake - that Islam differentiated between men and women; but even then, Islam undoubtedly gave women more rights than what women had anywhere else at that time - 1400 year ago - which should’ve been embraced and progressed not regressed; only tribal mentality didn’t give up all traditions that easily. Female infanticide was one of the tribal traditions that Islam prohibited!
Honor killing is not an Islamic practice, it’s a tribal tradition to preserve the honor of the tribe/family; yet many justify this act as an Islamic law! Islam does not distinguish between men and women when it comes to punishment, whether it’s for unlawful sex or any other reason. But to justify honor killing as an Islamic law, all you need to do is to look at the rules and guidelines with a tribal mentality.
Therefore, it is important to differentiate between Islamic culture and the Middle East culture. For example, Islam prohibit sex before marriage for both men and women; whereas the ME culture only prohibit women! Non-Muslims in the ME are part of ME culture which is influenced by tribal culture; therefore, they consider honor - and other values - same way their Muslim neighbors consider it.
2. Fundamentalists :
If you accept that Islam can be interpreted differently depending on how you look at it; then you will accept that fundamentalists can justify what they advocate! To be honest, I find it hard to understand how they justify killing innocents in the name of Islam!
The problem of many fundamentalists is that they are retrogressive; now that makes all the blinded followers retrogressive too. They either look back at the Caliphate's era or the Prophet’s era, and they dream of making today look like centuries ago! Therefore, their actions and interpretations are not of today, but of centuries ago.
There is no need for me to talk about the roots and reasons for terrorism as it is irrelevant to this subject; however, what is relevant is the damage caused by terrorism. Terrorism damaged Islam and Muslims more than anything else; the impact of 9/11 on the Muslim community around the world was gigantic; Muslims became target of racism and hatred; Westerners looked at them differently after that day; Islam became a feared religion, a religion that export terrorism and oppress women! And I don’t blame westerners because they love their freedom and democracy and want to protect it, I blame the fundamentalists and their followers who don’t want to evolve!
3. Leaders of Muslim countries
Most of the leaders don’t care about Islam more than they care about their own people! However, what they care about is the chair and for that they need to justify their existence, the emergency laws, the oppression, etc; and what can do the job better than pro-Arabism, anti-Imperialism and anti-Zionism!
Pro-Arabism, anti-Imperialism and anti-Zionism, that sounds like the Islamic fundamentalists agenda! Exactly! They have the same agenda and for their survival, they have to encourage the retrogressive fundamentalists! Could that backfire?
Furthermore, they persecute, oppress, torture and unjustly kill their own people; women - and human - rights are appalling; justice is merely a tool used to protect themselves and Islam is the excuse!
I think history repeats itself; I always compare the Arab Muslim world today with the European Christian world few centuries back, i.e. in the Middle Ages. The Church was powerful then, and later were in a power struggle with the state; but what happened when the church was powerful? Were there any human - and women - rights? How about anti-Semitism? What about justice? Sort of similar to what we have now in the Muslim world! We are just few centuries behind! But it looks like we are catching up.
Islam is being abused by Muslims and that’s why it has a bad image. Justice for Muslims and Islam would be served best if we get rid off tyranny, fundamentalism and tribal mentality and replace them with secularism, freedom and democracy.
written by an Iraqi Expat , Ahmad

How can you help our sick children

This is the second year after our efforts succeeded in establishing a non profit society in Mosul for treating the sick children with THALASSEMIA.
All people in the society are working free of charge as a charity ,because all of them having a sick children with this disease .We get at last a small clinic , with volunteers doctors , and, we established a data base for blood donors ,and financing support to pay for our daily expense.
We received office facilities from world organizations, from Japan and USA.
But we still need most important medicine (Desferal) that is given to the patients free of charge to save them.
I am not a doctor, but usually I spend most of my part time in holidays to help them in maintaining their online communication and making a web page design for them free of charge to reduce the daily expenses.
Every one is doing his best for the sake of the (1000) patients, who are (Muslims, Christians, Kurdish, Yezidis, and Turkuman).
All patients in the society are seeking your support of any kind, if you feel that you can do something to help those children please send me an email .This society name is (Ninava Thalassemia society).

Blood on asphalt , the daily scene

This morning I was going for my appointment with my dentist. Clinic location in down town. During my visit to the clinic there was a big balcony with a window enabling waiting patients to see the street. About 1 PM , I was reading a newspaper waiting for my turn in the clinic , suddenly , there was a high explosion , looking through the window , I saw a police pickup car with the driver’s side destroyed and there were four bleeding policemen two of them still in the car and the other two on the street.
After a while about thirty soldiers from Iraqi security forces arrived from nearby police stations and start evacuating the wounded policemen in other police cars.
Part of this security force start chasing the man who threw a grenade on the police car, he escaped from the narrow alleys towards the old city houses.
It was really terrifying to see many civilians hit also asking for help from other people , but no one have the courage to come close after seeing policemen shooting in the air to keep the crowd away.
Wounded people helped themselves to reach any available shelter around them in the shops, clinics, and electronic selling shops.
Policemen arrested six of the shop owners who saw the accident for interrogation .
It is really very hard job for police and soldiers in the city , they have to protect themselves and the wounded , also they cannot trust any one from the civilians to get help from them , also they have to chase the terrorist in the most dangerous and crowded area in the down town.
I am seeing these scenes every day ,I am praying to God to keep us safe and to help our new government to Control the security condition again .

Another spring will vanish soon

People in Mosul from long ago used to go out in family picnics at holidays.
Unfortunately this is the third spring that will vanish soon in fast coming summer heat without any picnics, of course the reason for that is security.
My city till now is not completely safe, people are still afraid to go out in the surrounding green fields because it was full of villages that exported a lot of terrorism to the city.
Many captured criminals and terrorist’s origin is from these villages especially that are located in the south and southern west.
Yesterday, me and family were trying to cross the bridge, when we heard a very high explosion on the other bank of the bridge. In a quick action we turned our direction to the next bridge, because we knew that the traffic will stop and a big traffic jamming will appear soon.
Later we saw choppers and US stryker vechiles coming fast from the nearby airfield.
The casualties are about eight Iraqi civilians. It’s happened almost every day and every where in downtown. Today, for example, I heard six high explosions, this number is considered above average due to the occasion of April 9.
In the last two days many searching points appeared in the streets, security forces are checking every thing, even looking inside the mobile names list for any suspected one.
Jalal Talabany, the new presidents, gave some hints for the occupation resistance, that it is the time now to have new start with political resistance and leaving military resistance, showing his intention to accept them in the new democratic political process in new Iraq.

Good luck Iraq

Today was the first day in Iraq’s modern history to have a new president without using weapons in getting the leadership , which is really a big progress in our life , although most people were upset for the delay in this process .
What’s funny, that Sadam was watching TV showing all that to him but we could not figure out his inside reaction during the show?
Also we saw a lot of reporter’s crowd, without any order, asking questions randomly causing a lot of noise around the new president.
I still remember in the last years, when reporters are whispering with frightened voices, and could ask only what Sadam’s likes to hear.
I am quite sure that Arabic citizens in most of the Arabian countries are confused in estimating the results of this progress in Iraq.
Sooner or later, Arab nations will achieve advantages from the new democracy, if we keep it clean and honest now and later, wishing for all of Iraq to stay in one piece and free for ever.

How to understanding our country better

Democracy is a form of governance, which has been poetically referred to as a government for the people, of the people and by the people. That means that the people of a democratic country have the power to make decisions for themselves and their country. They have a chance to influence and shape their nations today and tomorrow. This in itself is a huge responsibility; a responsibility so big that every decision should be taken with a lot of consideration and deliberation.
In this modern day world, one doesn’t seem to have time to give a thought to what is happening in their family member’s life, so where will they find time to think about the country. A simple survey would reveal that most of us must know what is happening in the government and country in this critical changing stage in Iraq.
But then one valid question would be where can we find such information that will help us become more responsible citizens. The various media channels always seem to be giving only a lop-sided perspective.
What we need is an unbiased and factual view into the politics of our country and the events of our government. But from where we can get required information that will give us a chance to participate and interact with our elected representatives and various issue groups in Iraq ???.
This is my big question ?
Till now I failed in finding the answer.

Trying to Kill our history

It was not enough for terrorists in Iraq to kill us, now they have bombed the famous historic Minaret of Samara city.
This Minaret was one of the most important historic sites in Iraq, built in 1270 A.D by Almu’tasim Abbasid Caliph .
We can still remember when Talban fighters in Afganistan when they bombed the historic statue of Buda , all the world refused that action , but we are hearing nothing now when it’s happened in Iraq.
Aljazeera news channel mentioned this topic as an ordinary accident that happened everywhere without any comment .
Now every thing is getting clear , because we are paying our historic dignity beside our blood , I just hope the Arabic and Western world could be fair enough to act quickly for helping this suffering nation.!!