Read Faiza's latest post-- read it NOW
posted by Helena Cobban
Faiza al-Arji is a compassionate, very smart and percipient Iraqi engineer (and the mother of three talented, hard-working young adults.)
Faiza has been in Amman for around a year now, working hard to get desperately needed water-treatment systems back to the distressed communities in her homeland.
Every well-off westerner who buys silly little plastic bottles of water for no reason should stop immediately and donate all the money saved to Faiza's project.
Anyway, today we finally have the English translation of the long post that faiza put onto her blog in Arabic last week.
She writes about the many contacts she has with doctors and others coming out of Iraq:
All stories are entangled, sometimes contradicting, but they tell about the conditions in the sad Iraq today, the conditions of the sad Iraqi people, as if they are tossing in fire, escaping one fire to another… from the fire of daily killings, kidnapping and panic, to the fire of expatriation in neighboring countries; indescribable suffering and humiliation, without a legal residency permit, without the right of acquiring a job, without the right to educate their children, while free medical treatment is provided to an extent by some organizations, but very limited…
The reality conditions of the Iraqis say that the entire world abandoned them, and even those who want to help them are helpless, tied handed, and scared…
That is what I have seen from the reality of the organizations working to help Iraq; it is not a matter of administrational corruption or bad programs, but the organizations, even the big ones, are helpless and tied handed, afraid of Bush and his administration, because then he would accuse them of supporting terrorism, if they helped the miserable, sad Iraqi people…
The world is living a dangerous phase of its history, as evil people control the decision-making in the major countries, frightening all who try to do good, accusing them of serious charges to destroy their reputations and future…
But there are still some brave men and women who do not care or fear… they extend the humanitarian-aid hand to Iraq and the Iraqis, individually or through non-governmental organizations. We pray to God to bless them, support them, stabilize them, and give them the strength to do good, amen.
She writes about the terrible daily living conditions for the million or so Iraqi refugees in Jordan.
She writes:
Where is the responsibility of the Iraqi government?
Where is the responsibility of the American government?
Where is the responsibility of the United Nations?
These three should bear the responsibility of what happened to Iraq, excluding others…
These three laid down the legitimacy of this war, and are still evading the responsibility of what human catastrophes befell Iraq… they are still hiding what is truly happening in Iraq, their declarations always lying, saying that all things in Iraq are moving in the healthy direction, that issues are moving towards the better…
I think that the first step to solve the problems of the sad, wounded Iraq is to admit, by those three that the situation is catastrophic, and to present humanitarian aid to the Iraqis inside who were displaced from their homes and still are, to those who were wounded or crippled because of the violence and bombings, to those who lost the head of their family and their daily bread source. Those three should take responsibility for all that is happening to the Iraqis, to compensate the devastated families with medical and nutriment aid, to solve the problems of the displaced by getting them back to their homes, by providing protection to their residential areas by a national, clean Iraqi Army, one distinguished with high professionalism, not infiltrated by sectarian gangs and militias who would kill their citizens….
But the painful reality is that the Iraqi government lives isolated from the sufferings of its people, its men broadcast speeches that do not belong to reality, but whoever hears them believes that Iraq is sinking into happiness and welfare; there are just a few terrorists from Al-Qai'ida, whom we will eliminate, then live happily ever after…
It is a catastrophe when a lying, thieving administrator becomes the head responsible in a small-scale company… then what is the size of the catastrophe in a country like Iraq, which became under the mercy of officials most of whom are liars and thieves?
Oh, poor Iraq…
She writes:
Now , Iraqis are divided into supporters of the occupation, and rejecters of it…
According to my assessments and observations since the beginning of the war until now, the supporters are a minority of beneficiaries who work with the present government or with the occupation; companies and contractors, and those are completely isolated, fearing to mingle with the Iraqis in fear for their lives inside Iraq, but those of them who are here in Amman declare their opinions openly without fear, and of course they drive the latest models of cars, they and their sons and daughters, they own the most luxurious palaces in Amman, and frequent the fanciest restaurants and nightclubs…
Those do not suffer; no problems of residency, children education, medical treatment, or any financial crisis. Those say that Iraq is well and going in the right direction, they love Bush and Blair, seeing them as their model in life…
I met a number of those people, finding them like parrots who repeat the same talk, and there isn't an atom of pity or mercy in their hearts towards the poor Iraqis, because for them, life is just a chance, and their chance is now, while the rest are weak fools who do not know how to manage their lives, and so deserve what befalls them…
It seems that the multitude of money blinds the hearts and the eyes…
I don't know, but I feel disgust and aversion towards them, I feel they are like insects that suck the blood of humans, living for themselves without thinking of others…
Those people think of nothing but money; how to earn it, how to enlarge their bank balance, not caring whether it was in the right way or the wrong, legitimately or illegitimately, for them; these are chances not be missed, and the people who live by the principals, according to them, are just naïve people, living in a non-realistic world…
The other faction of the Iraqis are the poor majority, those who suffered all the disasters of Iraq; they suffered the past wars, they suffered from the blockade, and from this last war. They lost the taste of settlement and comfort, and are still waiting for conditions to improve in Iraq. These people love Iraq, and find no meaning to life without it, or away from it…
These people's lives are threatened every day in a random way since the beginning of the war till now, they either lost a family member, or were exposed to kidnapping, threats, displacement, or were forced to travel and leave their houses…
These are the victims whose voices no one hears, and whose complains no one heeds…
And they are the majority of the Iraqi people…
These people reject the idea of Sunnie-Shia'at, because they are a mixture of this and that…
But those who approved of the war, who walked in the procession of Bush and his administration, agree to the marketing of the Sunnie-Shia'at story, for political purposes and financial gains, and these can be achieved if the sectarian federalism was applied, a federalism that will fulfill their interests, they work in the government, they have their parties, and their parties have sectarian militias that ravage corruption in Iraq, whose victims are the poor Sunnie - Shia'at Iraqi people; they kill, kidnap, and bomb, to force the Iraqi people to accept the idea of dividing Iraq, and thus they drive Bush's project in the new Iraq…
She has some horrendous narratives that arriving Iraqi doctors have told her, about violence in the heart of the hospitals...
She writes,
Violence feeds more violence…
Iraq needs diplomacy in dealing with events, the national reconciliation needs diplomacy, hearing the other party's opinion, while stubbornness and stupidity are reasons to destroy Iraq and rip it apart…
And the leader of this stubbornness and stupidity is the American administration and its stupid policy in Iraq, since 2003 until now…
The Iraqis need someone to unify them and collect their hearts, to bring them near each other to discuss common points… the Iraqis need someone to spread the culture of forgiveness among them, to forget the past…
But this evil American administration divided the Iraqis and provoked them against each other, utilizing the mistakes of the past in the worst possible way…
And what did it reap but ruin and destruction upon it, and upon these poor Iraqi people…
This is the reality of the situation, but Bush eludes, denies, and tricks himself and his people…
Iraq now is moving in the wrong direction, And this daily violence is the biggest evidence….
She writes:
Then I met the wife of one of our relatives, whom Saddam deported from Iraq, because he was a Shia'at of Iranian origins, during the war between Iraq and Iran...
She said- the Intelligence took over the house, my children and I were subjected to hardships, my husbands suffered expatriation as he went to Syria. He was a rich merchant in Iraq, then lived poorly in poverty and died in Syria… she said the Iraqi Intelligence kept chasing her and demanding that she cooperates with them, she lived through tough and frightful days…
Of course her story made me sad, and I asked her: but are you satisfied with what is happening in Iraq now?
She said: of course not; when the American tanks entered into southern Iraq where I used to live, I told the people- do not be happy, for Iraq will be destroyed…
I felt how big is her suffering and sorrow; her husband died away from her, while she was a beautiful young lady, her children deprived of their father, because of Saddam's regime's injustice…
But what can the solution be?
Shall we amend Saddam's injustice by shedding the blood of more Iraqis?
Is throwing off the regime by the intervention of a foreign country the solution?
Of course the regime in Iraq should have been changed, but not by this dumb foolish way…
The Iraqis should have been left alone until the appropriate time comes along, to change the leadership they didn't want; changing from the inside, by the people's will would have been a mature, balanced and intelligent step, without outside intervention, bloodshed, or ignorant dumb policies that do not comprehend the nature of the Iraqi society and its history, and do not know how to solve its problems in a just way without instigation, spite, and revenge….
The mistakes of the American policy in Iraq are deadly and cannot be justified… hundreds of thousands of Iraqis died for four years, there is an on-going violence, and not much hope on the horizon…
Hope is diminishing day after day…
If Bush does not change his policy in Iraq, withdraw his armies, and leave the occasion to the sincere Iraqi nationalists to take over the decision-making in Iraq, then the daily series of catastrophes and bleeding will keep on… And these sins will continue to be committed everyday in Iraq against a poor nation. Bush is responsible for these crimes in the first place, then every villain, thieve or criminal who encourages him to remain there….
And at the end, as the Iraqis always say: Nothing goes right but what is right…
Meaning- Iraq will be liberated, and build its future…
But when?
Who can guess for how many years we shall wait?
Five? Ten? Twenty?
May God help Iraq, and the Iraqis.
Amen. May God help the Iraqis-- but may She/He also help us antiwar Americans to bring our country to its senses, to bring our troops home in an orderly way that is also compassionate to the Iraqis-- and to bring a new era of truthfulness, accountability, and compassion into our own nation's political life.
Thank you, Faiza, for the vivid directness and thoughtfulness of your writing. |
