A Message of Peace

Indigo Daisy, Thank you....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Today is a very Important day in the lives of Millions of Iraq.

It is simply their Birthday today, well.... Officially it is may be not quite the day they were born.

it started some decades ago when the Governments of Iraq started issuing Identity cards to Iraqis, but the problem is if you didn't have a birth certificate then the government official was advised to enter the 1st of July as the date of birth.

So the Chance of telling a middle aged Iraqi Happy Birthday today and him smiling back telling you thank you how did you guess? is very high.

Happy Birthday! wishing you all the best,

Zappy!

PalTalk or Studying Iraqi Mentality

I have been introduced to PalTalk, which is like any other Chat hosting program but with loads of control by administrators, and of course it depends which room you enter. Some are pure rubbish and other are quite decent.
Browsing through the Iraqi rooms I stumbled against many that Insult people, some glorifying Saddam, Some Glorying Terrorism and other ideas and Ideologies and religious matters. However I did find a Room that I have stuck to Called IRAQ University IRAQI. (the spoken Language in this room is in Arabic and Other than Iraqi's are not allowed to give an openion during the Political hours of the Room between 19:00 and Zulu)The reason is the owner of this Chat room is a decent person who you could say is unbiased to any Idea that is presented, I also found out that its one of the oldest rooms in PalTalk that is being mostly visited by Iraqi’s from overseas and Mainly Iraqi’s who took refuge in the Rafha Camp in Saudi Arabia back in 1991, but then that’s another story.

If you just sit and just listen you shall understand many things about the Iraqi Individual’s personality, how some believe their Ideas are righteous and anyone who disagrees with these individuals should be ridiculized being called either a Ba’ath sympathiser or a terrorist among other things.
So it seems that people’s Natural behaviour has a greater emphasis on what you learn as an individual.

One individual is what I can honestly say is a butt Kisser who Idolizes the U.S. Republican Party and hates to the core his own fellow Iraqi, this individual has the capability of anoying even the most Cold Hearted person in his opinions and Ideas. he reminds me so much of Dr. Mowafaq Al-Rubaie.

7th of April

Its seems so long since I started....

Happy Birthday to myself my Children My wife and Family, God has spared us for a reason

Salam

Zappy!

El-Basrah

I don’t think I have mentioned that I was born and lived my early life in Basrah.

Basrah was a mistake, by that I mean the location of the current city, it was built in the early days of the Islamic conquest as a fort city, this location had seen many bad days since the Battle of the Camel (look it up) and the Revolution of the Zing, It has seen since 1978 continuous disruptions starting with the massacres against the Dawa Party members (up to 1982), the execution of any students of Basrah University called “abdul Zahra” in 1980 and of course eight years of war 1980-1988, this includes the continuous artillery shelling by the Iranians from Abadan between 1982 and 1988. this of course didn’t end there, Basrah also suffered from Saddams invasion of Kuwait 1989 and the uprisings of the people of Basrah against Saddam in 1990 & 1999.

The “Bu-sar-was” have suffered a lot, the major problem has always been and still is the lack of potable water, most people, who can afford to by RO water from the water tanker lorries suffer from lack of minerals and some people suffer from radiation from the depleted Uranium used by the coalition forces in 1990.

Looking back, I remember the nice things in Basrah, the Sinbad Island with its Summer Cafeterias and Restaurants under the Palm trees and the stepping stones on the small lakes.

The old Port Club which was located in Maqal near the old Maqal port, the lovely Cornesh looking over Shatt-al-Arab.

Basrah had dozens of night Clubs located in the Wattani Street, and a decent amusement park, Kuwaitis and Saudi Arabians used to come over during the summer holidays to enjoy Basrah and its facilities and of course meet their extended Families.

Basrah also has some strange neighborhood names like the slum of “khamsa meel” which translate to Five miles, and “Khamseen Hoowsh” which translates to fifty houses. Basrah also has a small village called “abu al khaseeb” which is mainly a large plantation of Date palms and theres a Old man there who sales the Original Halawat Nahar Khoz which is a lovely sesame type of sweet goo that you could get addicted to.

Basrah used to be one lovely City, the people are very polite and kind however nothing remains the same.

Five Years....

Five long years.....

most of them in tears..

so many have left Home...

the lucky reside in Tombs..

at least some still live

though without a Soul..

I wonder how much more to go?

would I be buried at Home?

Raseef 28

I assume I’m one of the few lucky people who have survived Iraq, looking back the years, though I truly try not to, I only remember the good things in my life, the gathering of Friends on “Rasseef 28” that’s what we used to call on of our friends front door because we used to gather there nearly each day when we were teens.

Cruising the streets of Al-Mansour and going to Al-Sa’a'ah Restaurant. Then when I really miss home I call some of my not so fortunate friends who have either never managed to get out of Baghdad or are (Visitors) of Syria, Egypt and (this you will not Believe) Darfur, Sudan and Ghana!!!

I then feel that my Heart has collapsed on itself. Or like its being squeezed inside some kind of a vice.

I’m meeting a friend of Mine from the gathering of “Raseef 28” at the Canary Wharf next week, I haven’t seen him since 1990, when he called me the other day saying he’s on a business trip to the U.K. and he managed to get my Number through another “Raseef 28” Mutual friend, I really had one hell of a flashback.

I miss home, I miss my friends but then we have all lost our Country, its very sad but its true, losing a country is something that can happen, it happened in Iraq, as it Happened decades ago in Poland and might happen again in another country..

Don’t ever let someone take your home away from you.

Invasion U.S.A.

it seems that her Majesty's Government is about to take over the U.S., this statemet was anounced early this morning...

In light of your failure to nominate competent candidates for President
of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of
the revocation of your independence, effective immediately. Her
Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all
states, commonwealths, and territories (except Kansas , which she does not
fancy).

Your new prime minister, Gordon Brown, will appoint a governor for
America without the need for further elections. Congress and the Senate will
be disbanded. A questionnaire may be circulated next year to determine
whether any of you noticed.
To aid in the transition to a British Crown Dependency, the
following rules are introduced with immediate effect:

You should look up "revocation" in the Oxford English Dictionary.

1. Then look up aluminium, and check the pronunciation guide. You will
be amazed at just how wrongly you have been pronouncing it.

2. The letter 'U' will be reinstated in words such as 'favour'
and
'neighbour.' Likewise, you will learn to spell 'doughnut' without
skipping
half the letters, and the suffix -ize will be replaced by the suffix -
ise.
Generally, you will be expected to raise your vocabulary to
acceptable
levels. (look up 'vocabulary').

3. Using the same twenty-seven words interspersed with filler noises
such
as "like" and "you know" is an unacceptable and inefficient form
of
communication. There is no such thing as US English. We will let
Microsoft
know on your behalf. The Microsoft spell- checker will be adjusted to
take
account of the reinstated letter 'u' and the elimination of -ize. You
will
relearn your original national anthem, God Save The Queen.

4. July 4th will no longer be celebrated as a holiday.

5. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns,
lawyers,
or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists
shows
that you're not adult enough to be independent. Guns should only be
handled
by adults. If you're not adult enough to sort things out without
suing
someone or speaking to a therapist then you're not grown up enough
to
handle a gun.

6. Therefore, you will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything
more
dangerous than a vegetable peeler. A permit will be required if you wish
to
carry a vegetable peeler in public.

7. All American cars are hereby banned. They are crap and this is for
your
own good. When we show you German cars, you will understand what we
mean.

8. All intersections will be replaced with roundabouts, and you will
start
driving on the left with immediate effect. At the same time, you will
go
metric with immediate effect and without the benefit of conversion
tables.
Both roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British
sense
of humour.

9. The Former USA will adopt UK prices on petrol (which you have
been
calling gasoline)-roughly $6/US gallon. Get used to it.

10. You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call French
Fries
are not real chips, and those things you insist on calling potato chips
are
properly called crisps. Real chips are thick cut, fried in animal fat,
and
dressed not with catsup but with vinegar.

11. The cold tasteless stuff you insist on calling beer is not
actually
beer at all. Henceforth, only proper British Bitter will be referred to
as
beer, and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be
referred
to as Lager. South African beer is also acceptable as they are pound
for
pound the greatest sporting Nation on earth and it can only be due to
the
beer. They are also part of British Commonwealth - see what it did
for
them.

12. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as
good
guys. Hollywood will also be required to cast English actors to
play
English characters. Watching Andie McDowell attempt English dialogue
in
Four Weddings and a Funeral was an experience akin to having one's
ears
removed with a cheese grater.

13. You will cease playing American football. There is only one kind
of
proper football; you call it soccer. Those of you brave enough will,
in
time, be allowed to play rugby (which has some similarities to
American
football, but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds
or
wearing full Kevlar body armour like a bunch of nancies). Don't try
rugby -
the South Africans and Kiwis will thrash you, like they regularly
thrash
us.

14. Further, you will stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to
host
an event called the World Series for a game which is not played outside
of
America. Since only 2.1% of you are aware that there is a world beyond
your
borders, your error is understandable. You will learn cricket, and we
will
let you face the South Africans first to take the sting out of
their
deliveries.

15. You must tell us who killed JFK. It's been driving us mad.

16. An internal revenue agent (i.e. tax collector) from Her
Majesty's
Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all
monies
due (backdated to 1776).

17. Daily Tea Time begins promptly at 4 pm with proper cups, never
mugs,
with high quality biscuits (cookies) and cakes; strawberries in season.

God save the Queen.

Only He can.