Landing at the Iraqi Blogodrome · Global Voices
Salam Adil

The day I lost my hair
mother had dragged me out to shop
the wait for lulls in incessant crossfire
had not come to a stop
and the children were hungry
for more than just candy
check points where faces
had traces of
trashed deaths
dying answers in stillborn questions
struggling to extract
the last breath of a meaning
for the wait
it was then that the shots hailed
into the skull of a walking doll
and life stopped
right there in the remaining footprints
of the once skipping child
it was right there
that her hair came down
with a thud
on the dirt
And I walked home…
Without my mother
Who was still shopping, not stopping
and I sheared my head
and shred the tresses
into the waiting mirror…
Thikra who was once Iraq's # 1 ballerina still lives in Iraq with her mother. This is what happened when they shot a child at a checkpoint ‘by accident’ in front of her…
poem by ZZ in The Words That Come Out
If you read no other post this week read this one:
Gligamesh goes for a night out in Dubai and finds the people empty:
The demographics were plenty, people from all races, lots of Brits and Arabs though, and it was amazing how many Arabs were congregated in one place, I don’t experience that much often, but nightclub guys I do not know why, all look the same, most of them have the same look, either in Canada or UAE, its almost I try the impossible to read how stupidly from their faces, but I do not see books, I am judging, but they do look like that, they look vain, empty, pleasure worshiping creatures, I figured out at one instance, if we people try as much as we try to be happy, try to help my country or other countires, it would have been that way, if we tried to study political thought process, and its applications, the world would have been a different place, but we all commercial, and all the people who do come to these commercial hubs, do what they have to do, and they are the ones who do things, who make the planet go forward not really as in forward probably forward in emitting CO2, all those people do things, but the people who really advent politics, people who made and are making political theories are only in books I read, the rest are politicians with agendas killing my country.
Just like we have money poverty, we have intellectual poverty, we have activism poverty, all those people who do philanthropy in politics are so small in number to people who do philanthropy and good will to entertain their penises, veginas, excuse my acute vulgarity but I felt he world is vulgar, insensitive, and superficial, it makes people who love and are couples smart, really smart! It makes married couples for a long time, geniuses.
Explosions and explosions
When your country has been torn apart and the world turned upside down beneath your feet, it is the familiar that you cling on to. A bridge in Baghdad destroyed by an explosion raised widespread mourning from Iraqi bloggers yet other exlospions barely raise a few eyebrows.
Iraq the Model explains: “This was an attack on both a vital infrastructure of the city and our morale, let alone the innocent lives that were lost in this vicious attack. What we lost today was not just a bridge, it was a piece of the Baghdad history.”  Zappy adds: “This really was a blow to each Baghdadi, they managed to break our Hearts by blowing up the oldest bridge in Baghdad the Sarafiyah Bridge also named “Al jisr al-Hadedee” the Iron Bridge.
Many people had been effected emotionally as another Major feature of Baghdad has been destroyed.”
Konfused Kid now understands how Shia felt after the Al-Askari shrine was bombed. He writes:
a friend came and told me about Sarafiya Bridge – and as I saw the picture of that great structure on which I tread upon many days of my life, I just couldn't take it anymore. I'm really afraid of what might happen if structures I really care such as Imam Ali in Najaf or Abu Haneefa in Adhamiya are destroyed, now I can understand how Shiites felt when al-Askari was destroyed, it's horrible, just horrible i tell you, I pictured myself wearing the same armed belt, the same grenades and going around here to find where … does that sick … Harith al-Dhari lives so I can just give him the taste of his medicine once and FOR ALL. What use is us? All we do is just sit around and do nothing as our country is destroyed by those pigs, those monkeys, those apes, Remember why I was so pissed off about that Star Academy bimbo? Because when al-Askari shrine happened I was really optimistic about the Sunnis and Shiite finally proving to the world that it doesn't matter … So when I watched those 7 million asses voting and lauding it as some big deal I get a serene sense of Deja Vu… I'm beyond hate, beyond insanity now, beyond everything.
A&EIraq feels the same about the bridge and those behind its bombing: “I don’t know what to say, it was not only a bridge; it’s a symbol. Symbol for Baghdad, for love and for the ancient days. It was just a nice thing we had and yet, we lost. To everyone who likes to defend whatever he calls it; resistance, Jihad or what else, I really wish you loosing everything, I wish you suffer forever, I wish you see whatever dear to your hearts being destroyed while you’re helpless.”
aNarki-13 feels nothing for the people blown up in parliament but more for the bridge:
Three politicians wasted, So What?
Three dozen are already lined up to replace them.
I feel more hurt by a big pile of rusty steel falling in the river Tigris, than by the death of flesh-and-blood human beings, “elected” to govern us.
Why? because i FEEL MORE CONNECTION WITH THAT LUMP OF STEEL THAN WITH THOSE DEAD F***S…
LET THOSE (….) FEEL WHAT THE REST OF IRAQ IS GETTING…
all said and done, God have mercy on the dead.
And Baghdad Treasure is haunted by the image of those that died that day:
I kept thinking about how did the people who were on al-Sarrafiya bridge feel when they found their bodies riddled with shrapnel… Driving, going to work or school, thinking of death while driving and then Boom! Everything is gone, the bridge and themselves. Images of people’s bodies falling in the Tigris haunted me. What were these poor people saying to themselves in the distance between the river and the destroyed bridge as they were falling? …
When is this madness going to stop? Oh Baghdad, my heart breaks for you with every brick falling, with every blood dropping, with every tear flowing, with every Iraqi dying.
There is News and There is News
Some times you cannot be sure who to believe and you realise that the mainstream media is just one source like any other.
The report of demonstrations against the US presence by the Sadrist movement vary widely from one source to another. Omar at Iraqi the Model watches the demonstrations on television and calls them “pitiful”. He writes: “His aides were hoping to gather a million marchers for yesterday but all they could manage were less than ten thousands, that's even when they bussed people from Baghdad and Basra.”
On the other hand Zeyad has taken a different impression from photos on his IraqSlogger site.
And then there is the bombing at the Iraqi parliament cafe where the media reported eight dead including two MP's. Yet Baghdad Connect a blog not known for exaggerated reports gives an eyewitness report that conflicts widely:
38 people have been killed and 18 have been wounded including 8 Americans in the blast of what appears to be a suicide bomber. Amongst the instantly killed are 8 nos Sadrists, 3 nos. of the Mr. Mutlaq’s list including Mr. Mohd. Awad and 4 MPs from El Tawafuq (including Al Jabouri and Al Jumayli). Other bodies were taken folded from the bombing site.
And as for the reason behind the bombing of the parliament the mainstream media only gives vague answers. Raed fills in the picture by actually bothering to ask the MP's themselves:
The official spokesman of a secular group that lost an MP in the explosion announced that the attack was aimed at silencing “nationalist MPs who are against splitting iraq and against the oil law”. Looking at who was killed and injured in the attack, it seems like they were ALL nationalists. Also, considering that the parliament was just about to begin debating the oil law this week, the timing of the attack was very convenient
Now there is an original concept.. actually quoting the targets of the bombing as part of the news report. Mainstream media please take note.
And Finally…
You get a call from your aunt to help set up her new computer. As any self-respecting blogger knows it is their duty to help out even if the rewards are just a ‘Thank you’ and a sandwich. aNarki-13 gets that call but things are not quite as they seem…
A13: “its no problem, everything is color coded, blue into blue and green and so on..”
B: “What colors? there are no colors!”
at this point i'm thinking that the mouse and keyboard have black connectors, and henceforth the trouble in “putting the pc together”
B: … i saw FULL PC prices and they were so expensive, 700$s and more, the one i bought cost me much less than half that.. i bought it from Company X..”
at first my eye-brows attempted to leave my face, then came back with her explanation, i thought: she didn't buy a Brand-Name system, the guys at Company X (which is very famous and very reliable around here) must have custom-built it.. at least she seems smart enough to buy cheap..
i put the monitor on the desk (a nice LCD -17″ish?- she got it for like 200$.. one day i'll get one of those, they look and display nice) connect the cables and route them thru the back of the desk, then i put the keyboard and mouse in place, speakers as well, then i ask for the case itself so i can connect everything and leave early..
her little daughter (age 12) comes in, carrying the case single-handedly, as if carrying a cellphone or something similar of weight (i'm in shock for like 3 seconds, this girl is half my age, yet she's already carrying cases in ONE HAND?? Scary little girl!) .. in her other hand, a power supply.
i realize the case is empty…
At which point things start to go downhill.