More optimism.

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:: On many occasions, some readers describe us as (over optimistic bloggers) and others question the degree to which we represent our fellow citizens.
I won’t say that we represent all Iraqis, but we do so as much as we care for their interests and participate in building a better future for them.
And we are optimistic, that’s right, but we do not exaggerate things. Our optimism comes from our daily life observations and from logical prediction of events and their consequences. I’m not trying to pretend that we’re sharp minded bright thinkers; we’re normal Iraqis with some patience and some reason.
You remember all the hysteria that accompanied the 137 announcement with all the inflammatory comments and reactions. And you may remember what our reaction was.
Yesterday, the GC cancelled that announcement forever, 15 members voted with canceling 137, 5 with keeping 137 and 5 remained silent. This voting was in response to the suggestion made by Dr.Rajaa Khuzaee (a female member in the GC).
From this, one can conclude that 137 -from the beginning- was illegitimate, and more important it’s reassuring that Iraqis will never accept to return to the dark ages.

:: Ayatollah Al-Sistani made a declaration few days ago, in which he said that he’s not demanding a theocracy in Iraq, but he pointed to the necessity that the new government should respect the religious rights of Muslims as they represent the vast majority of the population; he also showed his satisfaction with the report of the UN envoy to Iraq about the elections issue.

:: Dr. Abbas (the minister of health) said that the GC formed a special committee to track back all suspicious contracts that were done under Saddam’s regime to locate all the violations in those contracts that drove the money to Saddam’s pocket or to some of his allies as bribes (and to return the stolen money to the Iraqi people). Dr. Abbas mentioned some contracts concerning sonar devices, dental chairs! and renal dialysis equipment.

:: Iraq received back his smuggled money from Lebanon. About 19.5 billion Iraqi dinars were smuggled to Lebanon last month, now that money is back to Iraq and investigations are performed to discover the smugglers.

:: The 4th. Battalion of the new Iraqi army (1024 soldiers) graduated today after finishing the basic training course.

:: Internet centers are providing their services in the colleges and universities one after the other. Today I visited my college and was surprised to see an internet center in the main yard in the college (I was there 3 weeks ago and nothing was indicating that this will happen). The prices are really encouraging (1/3 of the usual cost elsewhere), actually I envied the students and wished that I'm a student once again!.

*some of the news from Al-Sabah newspaper.