What happened yesterday was an extremely significant turning point that will leave its marks on the future of the region.
The world stood astounded at the sight of the masses that challenged death yesterday to plant the seed of hope in those boxes and now the enemies of the change cannot deny all that; the people have said their word clear and loud in their purple finger revolution.
Why was the world surprised? And what were the motivations of the people who have never experienced democracy before?
There were so many misconceptions about Iraq and these were the reasons why viewers from outside as well as many Iraqis were surprised. In the past few months, the media have played a big role in reflecting a blurred image about the will and preparations of Iraqis to hold the elections, not to mention exaggerating the size of the "militant groups" and their capabilities.
The world has discovered yesterday-Iraqis are included here-many facts that correct those misconceptions; now it's become clear the weakness of the terror groups and their limited geographical distribution and I think that the low number of attacks we witnessed yesterday wasn't the result of the security measures alone but largely because of the limited areas these groups exist in and this rendered them capable only of launching attacks within their strongholds as the roads between provinces were blocked. Thus I believe that yesterday's attacks have identified the places where the terrorists mainly reside.
The over exaggerated estimations for the strength of terrorists have also contributed to intimidating the people but even with that, the silent majority moved forward led by the natural human desire for freedom and by the belief that elections can make their lives better. The people think of elections as a one day struggle that can prevent suffering on the long term.
The silent majority has realized that elections are good and serve the people's interests; they don't know much about practicing democracy as they never lived under one but it's the common sense of the people who see how democratic nations enjoy stability and prosperity that led them to this conclusion.
Maybe the "fatwas" from the religious leaderships contributed to this too but I don't think "fatwas" were the main reasons behind the excellent turnout. I expect the results to reveal that many Shea't voters didn't vote for the lists favored by the clergy. Even the list of the "united national alliance" which is expected to be among the big winners wouldn't have gotten all this popularity among voters if it had included too many clerics as less than 10% of the candidates in this list are clerics while the rest are technocrats, Sunni, Kurds, Turkmen and people from other religious minorities; without this variety in the list, it would've been resting now at the tail of the choices list.
What happened yesterday reminds me of the fall of Saddam and they way Iraqis expressed their delight on the 9th of April, only that yesterday's carnival was greater, louder and more specific. Are we going to learn the lesson from yesterday?
I am afraid from being trapped in an ecstasy that directs our attention away from making use of the achieved victory; this victory is represented now by the feeling of Iraqis that freedom lovers and democracy supporters are the majority and they're everywhere and that there exists a strong unity among Iraqis against terror threats.
Every person has realized that he's not fighting alone in this battle and that all Iraq, from the very north to the very south is sharing this view even in the cities where security is a big concern, like Diyala, Mosul, and Tikrit; even in Fallujah, the boxes weren't empty.
The majority wasn't silent yesterday and the people's confidence now is at its peak and we should encourage and invest this feeling now and rebuild the bridges between us, I mean the government, the coalition and the people so that we can find the best way to exterminate the terrorists and the criminals who we know now how few and isolated they are.
The joy of victory can make us lose important positions if we allowed it to delay us from making use of the advantage we achieved over the terrorists now.
What we do need now is balanced optimism and a search for new and improved methods to deal with the remaining tasks.
On the other side, all those who stood against the change will regroup again and launch another campaign to criticize and lessen the significance of this revolution and they will try to find gaps in the process to shake the confidence and the determination of the people.
I also call those who are pessimistic about the situation to make their pessimism balanced if they want to find solutions for the problems they expect to erupt.
The reaction of the dictators and the enemies of freedom remains predictable; the neighboring countries and the Arabic media will try to find new weapons to use against the ongoing democratic process and these new weapons could be even more cruel this time.
We here remain assured that we've put our feet on the right track and that the bright future we wish for Iraq has become much closer after the 30th of January but we all have to reevaluate our previous assumption according to the new facts on the ground in order to find the best way we can push the process to further successes.
Mohammed.
New points of view about the future of Iraq and the Middle East.
Monday, January 31, 2005
Chrenkoff's "Good news from Iraq" part 20 is now up.
You can find a ton of election-related links and a variety of good news about Iraq from the last couple of weeks.
A huge and informative piece as usual.
You can find a ton of election-related links and a variety of good news about Iraq from the last couple of weeks.
A huge and informative piece as usual.
Sunday, January 30, 2005
The people have won.
We would love to share what we did this morning with the whole world, we can't describe the feelings we've been through but we'll try to share as much as we can with you.
We woke up this morning one hour before the alarm clock was supposed to ring. As a matter of fact, we barely slept at all last night out of excitement and anxiety.
The first thing we saw this morning on our way to the voting center was a convoy of the Iraqi army vehicles patrolling the street, the soldiers were cheering the people marching towards their voting centers then one of the soldiers chanted "vote for Allawi" less than a hundred meters, the convoy stopped and the captain in charge yelled at the soldier who did that and said:
"You're a member of the military institution and you have absolutely no right to support any political entity or interfere with the people's choice. This is Iraq's army, not Allawi's".
This was a good sign indeed and the young officer's statement was met by applause from the people on the street.
The streets were completely empty except for the Iraqi and the coalition forces ' patrols, and of course kids seizing the chance to play soccer!
We had all kinds of feelings in our minds while we were on our way to the ballot box except one feeling that never came to us, that was fear.
We could smell pride in the atmosphere this morning; everyone we saw was holding up his blue tipped finger with broad smiles on the faces while walking out of the center.
I couldn't think of a scene more beautiful than that.
From the early hours of the morning, People filled the street to the voting center in my neighborhood; youths, elders, women and men. Women's turn out was higher by the way. And by 11 am the boxes where I live were almost full!
Anyone watching that scene cannot but have tears of happiness, hope, pride and triumph.
The sounds of explosions and gunfire were clearly heard, some were far away but some were close enough to make the windows of the center shake but no one seemed to care about them as if the people weren't hearing these sounds at all.
I saw an old woman that I thought would get startled by the loud sound of a close explosion but she didn't seem to care, instead she was busy verifying her voting station's location as she found out that her name wasn't listed in this center.
How can I describe it!? Take my eyes and look through them my friends, you have supported the day of Iraq's freedom and today, Iraqis have proven that they're not going to disappoint their country or their friends.
Is there a bigger victory than this? I believe not.
I still recall the first group of comments that came to this blog 14 months ago when many of the readers asked "The Model?"… "Model for what?"
Take a look today to meet the model of courage and human desire to achieve freedom; people walking across the fire to cast their votes.
Could any model match this one!? Could any bravery match the Iraqis'!?
Let the remaining tyrants of the world learn the lesson from this day.
The media is reporting only explosions and suicide attacks that killed and injured many Iraqis s far but this hasn't stopped the Iraqis from marching towards their voting stations with more determination. Iraqis have truly raced the sun.
I walked forward to my station, cast my vote and then headed to the box, where I wanted to stand as long as I could, then I moved to mark my finger with ink, I dipped it deep as if I was poking the eyes of all the world's tyrants.
I put the paper in the box and with it, there were tears that I couldn't hold; I was trembling with joy and I felt like I wanted to hug the box but the supervisor smiled at me and said "brother, would you please move ahead, the people are waiting for their turn".
Yes brothers, proceed and fill the box!
These are stories that will be written on the brightest pages of history.
It was hard for us to leave the center but we were happy because we were sure that we will stand here in front of the box again and again and again.
Today, there's no voice louder than that of freedom.
No more confusion about what the people want, they have said their word and they said it loud and the world has got to respct and support the people's will.
God bless your brave steps sons of Iraq and God bless the defenders of freedom.
Aasha Al-Iraq….Aasha Al-Iraq….Aasha Al-Iraq.
Mohammed and Omar.
We woke up this morning one hour before the alarm clock was supposed to ring. As a matter of fact, we barely slept at all last night out of excitement and anxiety.
The first thing we saw this morning on our way to the voting center was a convoy of the Iraqi army vehicles patrolling the street, the soldiers were cheering the people marching towards their voting centers then one of the soldiers chanted "vote for Allawi" less than a hundred meters, the convoy stopped and the captain in charge yelled at the soldier who did that and said:
"You're a member of the military institution and you have absolutely no right to support any political entity or interfere with the people's choice. This is Iraq's army, not Allawi's".
This was a good sign indeed and the young officer's statement was met by applause from the people on the street.
The streets were completely empty except for the Iraqi and the coalition forces ' patrols, and of course kids seizing the chance to play soccer!
We had all kinds of feelings in our minds while we were on our way to the ballot box except one feeling that never came to us, that was fear.
We could smell pride in the atmosphere this morning; everyone we saw was holding up his blue tipped finger with broad smiles on the faces while walking out of the center.
I couldn't think of a scene more beautiful than that.
From the early hours of the morning, People filled the street to the voting center in my neighborhood; youths, elders, women and men. Women's turn out was higher by the way. And by 11 am the boxes where I live were almost full!
Anyone watching that scene cannot but have tears of happiness, hope, pride and triumph.
The sounds of explosions and gunfire were clearly heard, some were far away but some were close enough to make the windows of the center shake but no one seemed to care about them as if the people weren't hearing these sounds at all.
I saw an old woman that I thought would get startled by the loud sound of a close explosion but she didn't seem to care, instead she was busy verifying her voting station's location as she found out that her name wasn't listed in this center.
How can I describe it!? Take my eyes and look through them my friends, you have supported the day of Iraq's freedom and today, Iraqis have proven that they're not going to disappoint their country or their friends.
Is there a bigger victory than this? I believe not.
I still recall the first group of comments that came to this blog 14 months ago when many of the readers asked "The Model?"… "Model for what?"
Take a look today to meet the model of courage and human desire to achieve freedom; people walking across the fire to cast their votes.
Could any model match this one!? Could any bravery match the Iraqis'!?
Let the remaining tyrants of the world learn the lesson from this day.
The media is reporting only explosions and suicide attacks that killed and injured many Iraqis s far but this hasn't stopped the Iraqis from marching towards their voting stations with more determination. Iraqis have truly raced the sun.
I walked forward to my station, cast my vote and then headed to the box, where I wanted to stand as long as I could, then I moved to mark my finger with ink, I dipped it deep as if I was poking the eyes of all the world's tyrants.
I put the paper in the box and with it, there were tears that I couldn't hold; I was trembling with joy and I felt like I wanted to hug the box but the supervisor smiled at me and said "brother, would you please move ahead, the people are waiting for their turn".
Yes brothers, proceed and fill the box!
These are stories that will be written on the brightest pages of history.
It was hard for us to leave the center but we were happy because we were sure that we will stand here in front of the box again and again and again.
Today, there's no voice louder than that of freedom.
No more confusion about what the people want, they have said their word and they said it loud and the world has got to respct and support the people's will.
God bless your brave steps sons of Iraq and God bless the defenders of freedom.
Aasha Al-Iraq….Aasha Al-Iraq….Aasha Al-Iraq.
Mohammed and Omar.
Friday, January 28, 2005
Go Iraq...go!
Less than 48 hours left before the people of Iraq experience free decision making for the first time in their country's modern history.
It's a moment of pure freedom but still surrounded by lots of dangers just like any beautiful rose surrounded by spikes.
There is fear from the enemies of freedom who have their weapons already prepared to intimidate us and stop us from choosing our future.
But at the same time we're full of hope as we know that we've put our feet on the right track and even if we make a bad choice once, we know that we will have the chance to reevaluate the situation again.
No more tyrants ruling the country for decades.
We're standing before a historic moment and I won't be exaggerating if I said that it's an important moment for the whole world; we're standing before a crossroads and everyone should watch and learn from the rebirth of Iraq.
Regardless of the winners in the se elections, those who opposed the elections and resisted the change will have to deal with the new reality.
In 48 hours from now, the dying dictatorships and their filthy tools, the terrorists, will find themselves facing an elected legitimate government in Iraq.
The tyrants nightmare is becoming reality, now they will have to deal with the scariest word in their dictionaries; THE PEOPLE'S CHOICE.
The terrorists have challenged the bravery of the Iraqi people but they messed with the wrong people. The people have accepted the challenge; democracy and elections are not a luxury for Iraqis, it's an issue of life or death. And the terror brutal campaign has only made the people more determined to go on with the change.
The results of some recent polls that have shown how determined Iraqis are to hold the elections might have surprised you, but they weren't a surprise for us; we're not the kind of people that kneel to terror and the sights of blood and beheadings.
Saddam had tried all tools of oppression, killing and torture he could find against our people (including WMD's) but he failed to make the people believe in his hateful regime. And that's why the people abandoned him and now, he and his regime are just a bad old tale from the past.
On Sunday, the sun will rise on the land of Mesopotamia. I can't wait, the dream is becoming true and I will stand in front of the box to put my heart in it.
Mohammed.
It's a moment of pure freedom but still surrounded by lots of dangers just like any beautiful rose surrounded by spikes.
There is fear from the enemies of freedom who have their weapons already prepared to intimidate us and stop us from choosing our future.
But at the same time we're full of hope as we know that we've put our feet on the right track and even if we make a bad choice once, we know that we will have the chance to reevaluate the situation again.
No more tyrants ruling the country for decades.
We're standing before a historic moment and I won't be exaggerating if I said that it's an important moment for the whole world; we're standing before a crossroads and everyone should watch and learn from the rebirth of Iraq.
Regardless of the winners in the se elections, those who opposed the elections and resisted the change will have to deal with the new reality.
In 48 hours from now, the dying dictatorships and their filthy tools, the terrorists, will find themselves facing an elected legitimate government in Iraq.
The tyrants nightmare is becoming reality, now they will have to deal with the scariest word in their dictionaries; THE PEOPLE'S CHOICE.
The terrorists have challenged the bravery of the Iraqi people but they messed with the wrong people. The people have accepted the challenge; democracy and elections are not a luxury for Iraqis, it's an issue of life or death. And the terror brutal campaign has only made the people more determined to go on with the change.
The results of some recent polls that have shown how determined Iraqis are to hold the elections might have surprised you, but they weren't a surprise for us; we're not the kind of people that kneel to terror and the sights of blood and beheadings.
Saddam had tried all tools of oppression, killing and torture he could find against our people (including WMD's) but he failed to make the people believe in his hateful regime. And that's why the people abandoned him and now, he and his regime are just a bad old tale from the past.
On Sunday, the sun will rise on the land of Mesopotamia. I can't wait, the dream is becoming true and I will stand in front of the box to put my heart in it.
Mohammed.
A report about the first wave of Iraqi ex-pats casting their votes.
"Iraqis in Australia cast the first votes in their homeland's long-awaited election on Friday, and celebrated the historic moment by dancing in the streets.
Exiles gathered at nine polling stations around Australia, some proudly displaying the blue ink on their fingers which proved that they had cast their ballots"
Thanks to Fayrouz for the link.
"Iraqis in Australia cast the first votes in their homeland's long-awaited election on Friday, and celebrated the historic moment by dancing in the streets.
Exiles gathered at nine polling stations around Australia, some proudly displaying the blue ink on their fingers which proved that they had cast their ballots"
Thanks to Fayrouz for the link.
Thursday, January 27, 2005
Wednesday, January 26, 2005
In a surprising economic development, the exchange price of the Iraqi Dinar has jumped from its steady value in the past 12 months (1460/ 1 US $) to approximately (1300/ 1 US $) this morning!
This change in price was completely unexpected because the exchange price of Iraqi's currency has a long history of substantial drops prior to and during crises times. while having an overnight 10% increase in the exchange price indicates that the market is expecting something good to happen.
From my experience, wide fluctuations in the exchange price are only temporary in most of the cases and the price would return to a figure that is slightly different from the starting point, within days or a few weeks.
Maybe it's just a result of introducing coins back to the circulation, which were absent for over a decade. Or perhaps Iraqi trade-masters and economists have a different sense about the current "crises" and the post-election phase.
I can't tell but the coming weeks certainly can.
This change in price was completely unexpected because the exchange price of Iraqi's currency has a long history of substantial drops prior to and during crises times. while having an overnight 10% increase in the exchange price indicates that the market is expecting something good to happen.
From my experience, wide fluctuations in the exchange price are only temporary in most of the cases and the price would return to a figure that is slightly different from the starting point, within days or a few weeks.
Maybe it's just a result of introducing coins back to the circulation, which were absent for over a decade. Or perhaps Iraqi trade-masters and economists have a different sense about the current "crises" and the post-election phase.
I can't tell but the coming weeks certainly can.
A funny and creative Volkswagen commercial via Baghdad Dweller
Q- Why suicide bombers must drive VOLKSWAGEN (polo)??
A- You can find the answer here.
Q- Why suicide bombers must drive VOLKSWAGEN (polo)??
A- You can find the answer here.
Sunday, January 23, 2005
Our friends over at the Iraqi NGO "Friends of Democracy" have launched their websites that provides election news service just this morning.
It's now up in both, Arabic and English languages. The Arabic Site also provides free Arabic blogs using the recently created "Arabic blogging tool".
They're receiving many daily reports from a bunch of reporters distributed all over the country with the efforts focused mainly on the events related to the preparations of the "Electoral Commission of Iraq" and the Iraqi political parties for the 30th of Jan elections, as well as the people's opinions, concerns and hopes regarding that historic awaited day.
I can tell that their reporters are not as "professional" as the ones working for AP, Reuters or other news agencies and they don't use the same fancy equipment but I found their reports informative and worth reading as they provide access to news, observations and fine details from the daily life in the various cities of Iraq; the kind of things that are considered by the MSM as 'tiny and insignificant news'.
You will also find some posts that included interviews with government officials, politicians and ordinary people on the streets; with a ton of interesting photographs; covering different aspects of life in Iraq in these days.
It's now up in both, Arabic and English languages. The Arabic Site also provides free Arabic blogs using the recently created "Arabic blogging tool".
They're receiving many daily reports from a bunch of reporters distributed all over the country with the efforts focused mainly on the events related to the preparations of the "Electoral Commission of Iraq" and the Iraqi political parties for the 30th of Jan elections, as well as the people's opinions, concerns and hopes regarding that historic awaited day.
I can tell that their reporters are not as "professional" as the ones working for AP, Reuters or other news agencies and they don't use the same fancy equipment but I found their reports informative and worth reading as they provide access to news, observations and fine details from the daily life in the various cities of Iraq; the kind of things that are considered by the MSM as 'tiny and insignificant news'.
You will also find some posts that included interviews with government officials, politicians and ordinary people on the streets; with a ton of interesting photographs; covering different aspects of life in Iraq in these days.
I just want to add a short comment regarding this…thing.
Zarqawi claims that the rule of the majority violates the principle that laws must come from a divine source.
Has he forgotten that the opinion of the majority was respected in the early days of Islam? Has he forgotten that the prophet himself used to ask the citizens of the "Madina" for their opinion (and folow it) in more than one ocassion when a critical decision-making was needed?
I'd like also to ask Zarqawi another question: if the majority was to mean the Talibans or the radical Wahabists, would he be against that majority?
Let's ignore the ridiculous content of the tape and the sick ideology of its source and let's move to the motives of releasing this tape at this time.
Frankly speaking, I think there's a good possibility that this tape is either fake or mere show-business because this tactic used to be Saddam's defense method against rumors; whenever there was a rumor about him being sick or injured he would appear the very next day, all the day on TV, radio, newspapers and even toilet papers to prove that he's still alive and in power.
So it could be either Zarqawi himself trying to prove that these rumors (thanks Roger, I haven't been watching TV lately) are just rumors or it could be one (or a group) of his aides using his ghost to keep the people living in fear and to cover their loss.
Anyway, if the tape was true, then it isn't going to make any difference, because the people here already know that Zarqawi and his criminals are against the elections and they have realized that those terrorists will try everything to stop the elections from happening.
I mean, the threat didn't appear out of the blue; it was there all the time and despite that threat, the people have made up their mind and expressed their willingness to vote and take the risk.
Hundreds of car-bomb attacks and nearly 2 years of killings haven't stopped the majority of Iraqis from declaring their will to vote or to run for offices. Now is it possible that a stupid tape can do that? I don't think so.
If we agree to live in fear for one day then we're going to live in fear forever.
Today, the terrorists are using the elections as an excuse to murder the "infidels" and they will never run short of other insane excuses in the future, they will find something else; maybe soccer will justify Jihad against the "infidels"!
Zarqawi claims that the rule of the majority violates the principle that laws must come from a divine source.
Has he forgotten that the opinion of the majority was respected in the early days of Islam? Has he forgotten that the prophet himself used to ask the citizens of the "Madina" for their opinion (and folow it) in more than one ocassion when a critical decision-making was needed?
I'd like also to ask Zarqawi another question: if the majority was to mean the Talibans or the radical Wahabists, would he be against that majority?
Let's ignore the ridiculous content of the tape and the sick ideology of its source and let's move to the motives of releasing this tape at this time.
Frankly speaking, I think there's a good possibility that this tape is either fake or mere show-business because this tactic used to be Saddam's defense method against rumors; whenever there was a rumor about him being sick or injured he would appear the very next day, all the day on TV, radio, newspapers and even toilet papers to prove that he's still alive and in power.
So it could be either Zarqawi himself trying to prove that these rumors (thanks Roger, I haven't been watching TV lately) are just rumors or it could be one (or a group) of his aides using his ghost to keep the people living in fear and to cover their loss.
Anyway, if the tape was true, then it isn't going to make any difference, because the people here already know that Zarqawi and his criminals are against the elections and they have realized that those terrorists will try everything to stop the elections from happening.
I mean, the threat didn't appear out of the blue; it was there all the time and despite that threat, the people have made up their mind and expressed their willingness to vote and take the risk.
Hundreds of car-bomb attacks and nearly 2 years of killings haven't stopped the majority of Iraqis from declaring their will to vote or to run for offices. Now is it possible that a stupid tape can do that? I don't think so.
If we agree to live in fear for one day then we're going to live in fear forever.
Today, the terrorists are using the elections as an excuse to murder the "infidels" and they will never run short of other insane excuses in the future, they will find something else; maybe soccer will justify Jihad against the "infidels"!
I have just found this site of the "Middle East media research institute" where you can view and read the transcripts of some Iraqi elections video advertisements.
Friday, January 21, 2005
When we said weeks ago on this blog that we expect 80 % of the eligible voters to participate in the elections we were considered to be far from representing the main stream opinion in Iraq.
Now, I guess the results of this poll which were published on the Washington Post tells the naysayers something and proves that we didn't build our predictions from vacuum.
Still, there's one part of the Post's piece that I don't agree with:
"The poll, which surveyed 1,900 Iraqis in all but two of the country's 18 provinces. Poor security made two in the far north, Nineveh and Dohuk, inaccessible. The margin of error was plus or minus 3 percentage points"
Because Duhok (not Dohuk) is one of the safest cities in the country. I understand that its proximity with Nieveh (Mosul) makes access rather difficult from that particular road but that's not the only road to reach the city which can be accessed from Erbil or even from the borders with Turkey.
What I want to say here is that the result would've been even higher if Duhok was included in the survey and the percentage would be undefined in only one province rather than two.
Now that the Iraqi people have made their choice clear, it's the interim government's and the coalition's responsibility to clear the way for the people so that they can practice their freedom of choice.
Now, I guess the results of this poll which were published on the Washington Post tells the naysayers something and proves that we didn't build our predictions from vacuum.
Still, there's one part of the Post's piece that I don't agree with:
"The poll, which surveyed 1,900 Iraqis in all but two of the country's 18 provinces. Poor security made two in the far north, Nineveh and Dohuk, inaccessible. The margin of error was plus or minus 3 percentage points"
Because Duhok (not Dohuk) is one of the safest cities in the country. I understand that its proximity with Nieveh (Mosul) makes access rather difficult from that particular road but that's not the only road to reach the city which can be accessed from Erbil or even from the borders with Turkey.
What I want to say here is that the result would've been even higher if Duhok was included in the survey and the percentage would be undefined in only one province rather than two.
Now that the Iraqi people have made their choice clear, it's the interim government's and the coalition's responsibility to clear the way for the people so that they can practice their freedom of choice.
Arthur Chrenkoff provides a comparison between the counts of "positive and negative" stories (that are related to Iraq) in the media on one average day.
"But it's one thing to have a gut feeling about media negativity and another to know exactly how negative the coverage is"
Well said Arthur.
"But it's one thing to have a gut feeling about media negativity and another to know exactly how negative the coverage is"
Well said Arthur.
Thursday, January 20, 2005
Our turn to speak now.
Sarah Boxer (boxer@nytimes.com) in her latest piece on the NYT tried hard to put together some rotten limbs to produce a creature that satisfies her fantasy but she ended up introducing a new mutant to the readers and to the methods of journalism.
It wasn't a surprise for me as it was just another reproduction of the old ways of the corrupt side of the MSM in dealing with facts and events.
One short look at the "article" shows how naïve the writer was and how old the methods used in writing this post are. This post has fixed another nail in the casket of the gasping media.
I won't be exaggerating if I said that I find a close resemblance between the ways of the media and those of terror in dealing with events; both are using ugly and cheap maneuvers to get attention. These methods could be even horrible and dangerous but never convincing.
It doesn't seem that the media is working hard to catch up with time and progress; at least the performance says so.
Let's go back to the "article" itself and particularly to its beginning; the writer allowed herself to put all the accusations in the front and considered the possibility that we are Iraqis as the last possible theory on the list.
Maybe she thought it's too much for us to be Iraqis and love our country at the same time, so she added "who have mixed feelings…".
From Boxer's point of view, an Iraqi who supports America's efforts in liberating his country from the worst tyrant in modern history and rebuilding his country after that is either a paid agent or a mentally confused person. As if clear thinking is an exclusive gift that only a journalist from the NYT could possess while anyone outside her office is simply confused.
If Boxer had spent few more minutes in reading any of our posts she would've learnt that we're first of all, pro-Iraq. We never ceased to look forward for a new Iraq that is democratic and prosperous and the reason why we are pro-US is because we saw that America-the people and the administration-has made the right decision by liberating Iraq and this certainly serves the interests of both nations.
We're advertising for nothing but the new Iraq that we've always dreamed of and we believe that having America's support is a necessity and a vital element in the process.
We're still looking forward to seeing a strategic partnership between the two nations; a partnership from which both countries can benefit.
Boxer has forgotten to mention a single word about our efforts in building the "Arabic blogging tool". We've been doing that for months now with support from the American people via "Spirit of America".
She forgot to acknowledge that we're trying through this project to spread freedom of speech in the Arabic world by giving our people the opportunity to voice their opinions through a tool that overrides the barrier of language.
Now, as I understood it, journalists are usually in support of anything that brings freedom of speech, and more tolerance and understanding while lessening violence.
But maybe it's just that this tool will be the response that Boxer and her colleagues fear the most; they will have to deal with thousands of Iraq the models when our countrymen begin using this tool.
The fact that her pathetic article might endanger us and our friends over at Friends of Democracy will not stop us from continuing the work we're doing and we're determined to accomplish what we've started because we feel responsible towards our readers and we don't write our posts to throw stupid accusations here and there.
As much as I was annoyed by that "article" I cannot describe my happiness when I began reading the reactions and defense posts and comments from our brothers in the big family of the blogosphere as well as from our regular readers.
These were much bigger than that mutant little incoherent group of words of Boxer's.
I would like to thank you all my friends and once again I promise that I won't disappoint you.
I can write a book about this "article" that has more holes than Swiss cheese (we have Swiss cheese here incase you don't know that Sarah!) but I'm not going to waste my time or our readers' on this as we all have more important things to do.
Mohammed.
It wasn't a surprise for me as it was just another reproduction of the old ways of the corrupt side of the MSM in dealing with facts and events.
One short look at the "article" shows how naïve the writer was and how old the methods used in writing this post are. This post has fixed another nail in the casket of the gasping media.
I won't be exaggerating if I said that I find a close resemblance between the ways of the media and those of terror in dealing with events; both are using ugly and cheap maneuvers to get attention. These methods could be even horrible and dangerous but never convincing.
It doesn't seem that the media is working hard to catch up with time and progress; at least the performance says so.
Let's go back to the "article" itself and particularly to its beginning; the writer allowed herself to put all the accusations in the front and considered the possibility that we are Iraqis as the last possible theory on the list.
Maybe she thought it's too much for us to be Iraqis and love our country at the same time, so she added "who have mixed feelings…".
From Boxer's point of view, an Iraqi who supports America's efforts in liberating his country from the worst tyrant in modern history and rebuilding his country after that is either a paid agent or a mentally confused person. As if clear thinking is an exclusive gift that only a journalist from the NYT could possess while anyone outside her office is simply confused.
If Boxer had spent few more minutes in reading any of our posts she would've learnt that we're first of all, pro-Iraq. We never ceased to look forward for a new Iraq that is democratic and prosperous and the reason why we are pro-US is because we saw that America-the people and the administration-has made the right decision by liberating Iraq and this certainly serves the interests of both nations.
We're advertising for nothing but the new Iraq that we've always dreamed of and we believe that having America's support is a necessity and a vital element in the process.
We're still looking forward to seeing a strategic partnership between the two nations; a partnership from which both countries can benefit.
Boxer has forgotten to mention a single word about our efforts in building the "Arabic blogging tool". We've been doing that for months now with support from the American people via "Spirit of America".
She forgot to acknowledge that we're trying through this project to spread freedom of speech in the Arabic world by giving our people the opportunity to voice their opinions through a tool that overrides the barrier of language.
Now, as I understood it, journalists are usually in support of anything that brings freedom of speech, and more tolerance and understanding while lessening violence.
But maybe it's just that this tool will be the response that Boxer and her colleagues fear the most; they will have to deal with thousands of Iraq the models when our countrymen begin using this tool.
The fact that her pathetic article might endanger us and our friends over at Friends of Democracy will not stop us from continuing the work we're doing and we're determined to accomplish what we've started because we feel responsible towards our readers and we don't write our posts to throw stupid accusations here and there.
As much as I was annoyed by that "article" I cannot describe my happiness when I began reading the reactions and defense posts and comments from our brothers in the big family of the blogosphere as well as from our regular readers.
These were much bigger than that mutant little incoherent group of words of Boxer's.
I would like to thank you all my friends and once again I promise that I won't disappoint you.
I can write a book about this "article" that has more holes than Swiss cheese (we have Swiss cheese here incase you don't know that Sarah!) but I'm not going to waste my time or our readers' on this as we all have more important things to do.
Mohammed.
Radio Interview This Friday Jan 21
Radio Station WBAI 99.5 FM New York City has asked for an interview and Mohammed has accepted. We have a satellite phone this time, so we're hoping for better luck in getting a connection into Baghdad.
On-Air Host: Mario A. Murillo
Studio line: +1 212-209-2900
Scheduled Date & Time: The radio station will attempt to contact Mohammed during a two hour period starting at 2:30pm (Baghdad). The state of telecommunications in Baghdad is not the best so it is impossible to predict the exact time the brothers will be on. The interview should last between 20 and 30 minutes.
Friday, January 21, 2005 at 02:30:00 PM (Iraq/Baghdad)
Friday, January 21, 2005 at 06:30:00 AM (USA/New York/New York City)
Friday, January 21, 2005 at 11:30:00 Zulu
Links:
Live Streaming
Mario's Show 'Wakeup Call' Daily Descriptions
On-Air Host: Mario A. Murillo
Studio line: +1 212-209-2900
Scheduled Date & Time: The radio station will attempt to contact Mohammed during a two hour period starting at 2:30pm (Baghdad). The state of telecommunications in Baghdad is not the best so it is impossible to predict the exact time the brothers will be on. The interview should last between 20 and 30 minutes.
Friday, January 21, 2005 at 02:30:00 PM (Iraq/Baghdad)
Friday, January 21, 2005 at 06:30:00 AM (USA/New York/New York City)
Friday, January 21, 2005 at 11:30:00 Zulu
Links:
Live Streaming
Mario's Show 'Wakeup Call' Daily Descriptions
Tuesday, January 18, 2005
Monday, January 17, 2005
SAY NO TO AL-JAZEERA
Iraqi sites guide has linked to a message on sotalIraq.com (voice of Iraq).
The message calls all Iraqi politicians, journalists, thinkers and writers to boycott Al-Jazeera and not to accept any invitation from this network to appear on its shows, especially Al-Ittijah Al-Mo'aakis (the opposite/direction).
This program tries always to show the real Iraqi patriots as traitors, thieves or at least as puppets of America and the West and denies them the right to defend themselves and their points of view as the host is keen on interrupting them every other 5 words while giving the other guest (who is usually a huge fan of Saddam and other dictators) most of the program's time to say whatever he wants including using abusive language against the guest on the other side of the table. Not to mention that the phone calls that come during the program's time are filtered in a highly selective way that passes all the calls that are approved by Al-Jazeera and 10% of the calls that agree with the poor Iraqi guest.
And actually this has reminded me of an interesting thing; almost all the polls that are conducted by Al-Jazeera end up with similar results and I believe that the ratio of 81% vs. 19% is the most common outcome of these polls (need I tell you on which side these 81% are!?).
The site is accepting signatures from Iraqis inside and outside Iraq to support this message which condemns the extreme bias of Al-Jazeera regarding the situation in Iraq and the obvious anti-Iraqi, anti-democracy ideology of the network.
The message has also referred to the latest scandal related to the suspicious relationships of this network with the heads of the ex-regime in Iraq, namely Uday and Abd Hmood.
This scandal-which is not the first and certainly not the last to be uncovered-was brought to the surface in a documentary broadcasted on Al-Hurra TV last week.
Here are some pictures that show the former manager of Al-Jazeera Mohammed J. Al-Ali and Faisal Al-Qassim who runs the particular show I mentioned above with Uday, Abd Hmood and the Iraqi Intelligence officer in Doha/Qatar (why am I not surprized?)
1…2 …3 …4 …5 (sorry for the poor quality; this is all I could find)
More than 861 Iraqis (including myself) have signed the message until this moment.
Here's the link to the message (In Arabic).
The message calls all Iraqi politicians, journalists, thinkers and writers to boycott Al-Jazeera and not to accept any invitation from this network to appear on its shows, especially Al-Ittijah Al-Mo'aakis (the opposite/direction).
This program tries always to show the real Iraqi patriots as traitors, thieves or at least as puppets of America and the West and denies them the right to defend themselves and their points of view as the host is keen on interrupting them every other 5 words while giving the other guest (who is usually a huge fan of Saddam and other dictators) most of the program's time to say whatever he wants including using abusive language against the guest on the other side of the table. Not to mention that the phone calls that come during the program's time are filtered in a highly selective way that passes all the calls that are approved by Al-Jazeera and 10% of the calls that agree with the poor Iraqi guest.
And actually this has reminded me of an interesting thing; almost all the polls that are conducted by Al-Jazeera end up with similar results and I believe that the ratio of 81% vs. 19% is the most common outcome of these polls (need I tell you on which side these 81% are!?).
The site is accepting signatures from Iraqis inside and outside Iraq to support this message which condemns the extreme bias of Al-Jazeera regarding the situation in Iraq and the obvious anti-Iraqi, anti-democracy ideology of the network.
The message has also referred to the latest scandal related to the suspicious relationships of this network with the heads of the ex-regime in Iraq, namely Uday and Abd Hmood.
This scandal-which is not the first and certainly not the last to be uncovered-was brought to the surface in a documentary broadcasted on Al-Hurra TV last week.
Here are some pictures that show the former manager of Al-Jazeera Mohammed J. Al-Ali and Faisal Al-Qassim who runs the particular show I mentioned above with Uday, Abd Hmood and the Iraqi Intelligence officer in Doha/Qatar (why am I not surprized?)
1…2 …3 …4 …5 (sorry for the poor quality; this is all I could find)
More than 861 Iraqis (including myself) have signed the message until this moment.
Here's the link to the message (In Arabic).
I have received this photograph from friend in kirkuk. It shows the locals standing in a line waiting for their turn at the gate of a voters' registration office.
Some of you have asked me to post photos for the signs and posters on the parties and candidates on the streets, so I'll try to take a tour and shoot some photos, hopefully by tomorrow.
Some of you have asked me to post photos for the signs and posters on the parties and candidates on the streets, so I'll try to take a tour and shoot some photos, hopefully by tomorrow.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)