Iraq

Silk Road

When we thing about the Middle East how often do we merely think of the violence and the bloodshed?

A while ago I had the fortune of seeing the amazing Hidden Treasures from the National Museum Kabul exibition. You learn in school, of course, that ancient “mesopotamia” and all the other places that sound to the student more like fairy tales than actual locations were the cradde of civilisation during a time when Europeans were basically still living in caves. But it is easy to forget that all these marvels, Assur and Sumer and the Persian Empire, are the very geographic places we still see in the TV news all the time. I, too, forgot. Until some years ago I was at a UNESCO / Blue Shield conference and upon the long stream of presenters was an archaeologist almost in tears about the fashion in which Allied troops would trample throgh the very ruins of Babylon without even realising. Ulitmately she had a deck of playing cards, similar to the one featuring the US’ most wanted terrorists, printed showing the most important heritage sites of Iraq hoping someone would remember to thread lightly in these ancient lands.

These days I have been considering travel destinations for later this year and to my own surprise I found myself lay eyes on places I knew I cannot go: The ancient sites of Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan; the cradle of civilisation where every rock tells a story or two or three. I want to see how the ancient Silk Road winds through the ranges of northern Afghanistan and Iran; I want to see the marvellous Persian gardens and the ruins of all those places we learnt about in history class much like they were from another world. But of course I cannot go there for they are drenched in blood and chaos that can re-errupt at any moment. There are still, and that is for a reason, travel warnings for Iraq and Afghanistan and the boycott of Iran means you cannot even withdraw money from an ATM or use a credit card there – leaving you stranded without cash in an emergency.

So as I looked longingly upon those fairy tale places it dawned on me with new strength how much more there is to the Middle East than terrorism and war and IEDs blowing up everyone that comes too close. I wonder how long it will take until I can travel there and feel welcome and secure and all of a sudden I just cannot wait for the time when the conflict is nothing but a memory and heritage sites are being given a new lease of life.

Five years ago I went on an extended field trip to Croatia. I had been there as a child, before the civil war, and I still remembered the place nobody ever thought would descend into chaos; a place with people much as we were where we would go to unwind and enjoy the sea and the hospitality and great cuisine of her people. And then the war came and all we ever got to see again of Croatia were endless streams of traumatised refugees. For ten or so years Croatia, too, was one of these places you just could not go.

So going there again after the debris had been cleared and an emancipated Croatia was on its way of becomming an European Union member had something magic. Visiting Dubrovnik, that medieval gem that was almost destroyed by the ferocity of civil war but had been rebuilt to its fully glory was special. Yes, there were still the traces of shelled houses never rebuilt as soon as you left the main road; a reminder of just how little time had passed; but seeing Croatia again after the war was a pointer how there is always a time after. Eventually.

And now looking upon the Mesopotamian high cultures I wonder and hope whether in another ten years these, too, might just awake from their uncomfortable rest and once again become sites to be marvelled at by generations to come with the war but a chapter of a very, very long and glorious history.

– Migdalit

I love quotes! A How-To on going to war

Hey folks,

yesterday, when researching quotes for my democracy-article I found another rather intriguing quote from a not-at-all political correct source. (And one I know mentioning his name will boost my stats again *hehe*): Mr Hermann Goering, minister to a long-gone “1000 years” German “Reich”:

“Naturally the common people don’t want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.”

– H. Goering

Sometimes I think I have a clue where exactly in history to look for former US-President (George W. as well as George) Bush’s inspirations and historic mentors …

Oh I just love historic quotes! And somehow I guess I’m into politically incorrect sources too:

“Don’t ever trust a statistic you haven’t forged yourself!”

– H. Goebbels

I just wonder whether those people who produced them some decades ago had any idea how accurate they would be …?

shabbat shalom and a magic weekend

yours,

Migdalit

nobody cares – especially not UNSC

Good morning everybody,

what I just had to read casually overflowing the headlines kicked me awake better then any coffee could have possibly:

UN security council approves Gaza cease-fire resolution

This happened just at the point where for the first time since I’ve come in contact with the whole mess in the Near East I’ve had real hope that the international community would come to its senses and recognize Israel’s right to defend her citizens. Where they would see that some 700 casualties, of which about 500 – even after UN-quoted Palestinian sources – are unlawful or lawful combatants is not a genocide. Nobody stopped the US when they marched into Iraq like Rambo killing thousands of actually civilians. Nobody gave a shit at UN. And now nobody gives a shit about Western Negev residents who have been under constant rocket fire for years while diplomacy – the carrot – gravely failed and failed and failed. There is no word of Israel’s filed complaint about weapons being stored at a UN school nowhere. There is not as much as a syllable about why Hamas kept promoting rockets instead of Pita – as Lila put it – over years and years thereby keeping Gaza residents depending on international food aid of which, of course, nobody mentions that it has been delivered by Israel and Israeli drivers risking their lives going to a place as dangerous as the crossings into Gaza. And no, not dangerous because the Israeli would shoot at their own people to prevent goods from arriving at Gaza – it’s sad but I know there are enough people cynical enough to actually believe that out there – but because Hamas does.

But the war has to stop. It has to stop now. So UN writes in her resolution which unfortunately doesn’t seem to have been published yet at neither UN’s Middle East site nor UNSC’s information center. I’d love to read it after all those hints in the media but I’m afraid the bottom line will stay just the same then that in Lila’s blog or the media: Israel has to stop her actions. Period. There seems to be some weak remark that “measures have to be taken” to prevent the smuggling of weapons into Gaza (where did they get all those rockets from anyway? Have they really smuggled them all in over the last years? I wouldn’t have thought that they had so many Grad rockets in Gaza) and something about “stopping every violence against civilians” – of course without the slightest emphasis to Israeli civilians under fire but instead a lot about poor, suffering Gaza residents. Does UNSC really and seriously suggest Israel moves out of Gaza now while leaving Be’er Sheva under rocket fire???

Sorry guys, I have to comprehend that.

so long

Migdalit

Hunting Down Normality

Hey guys,

this morning before going off to university I read that Baghdad, besides terrorism and being a city in a state that might be more serious then “just” war, is planning an underground system. Something so striking normal and crucial for a city Baghdad’s size that, hadn’t I known any better, I would have sworn things were improving in Iraq. The article’s journalist astonishlingly describes a Baghdad that hasn’t been seen in the news lately; a city obviousely recovering slowly but staedily from a terrible war:

In October, planning got under way for an above-ground commuter train line in the city’s west, which is set to remove thousands of cars from an approach into Baghdad known as bomb alley. And throughout the weeks since, a series of roads, and one highly symbolic bridge, have again been reopened to cars and pedestrians. The al-Aaimmah bridge linking the mostly Sunni neighbourhood of Adhamiya and the predominantly Shia district of Khademiya was opened last Tuesday three years after nearly a thousand Shia pilgrims died in a stampede on the span.

Berlin-style walls put in place to keep Shias and Sunnis apart, have been gradually coming down. A 5-metre high barrier separating the Shia area of Abu Safeen and the Sunni zone of al-Fudal, was removed almost two months ago. Violence has yet to return. [source]

Could it really be that Baghdad is finally on its way of finding a new way of normality, of daily routine? Is the Great War of Christians versus Muslims or Westerners versus Easterners or whatever really moving on as are the US American GIs? Where to? To Afghanistan? Or still to Iran in the end?

Or is Baghdad no more, no less then finding to the same kind of normality Tel Aviv and Jerusalem found? Is it finally giving up on the idea that things might improve during any given time but trying to make a living of the situation no matter how terrible it is. With Israel generations and generations have fought their battles on many battlefields – situated in their home as well as at the frontline – nurished by the hope that their children wouldn’t have to fight anymore. I remember before I went off to Israel I talked to my boss at that time – an elderly man with a huge deal of life experiance who had become something like a mentor to me – and I mentioned it might be a good time to set foot in Israel for there had to be peace one day soon now and then I might be there before everybody else came running and get a lot of business opportunities out of it. He shook his head in sadness and replied he too, had thought that when he went to Isreal sometime in the 1970ies. Yet there had been no enduring peace. “But there has to be peace one day! This can’t go on like that forever!” I claimed. He said it very well could and today I all too often consider him being right.

As it appears to me the young generation of Israel – people my age – have pretty much given up on the idea of peace anytime soon. They are the third, sometimes fourth generation born into the conflict, they have never known anything else. So all they do is trying to get through one day after the other; ignoring the conflict; ignoring the danger. They go out partying all night knowing that it could very well be their very last night. There’s no sense in waiting for “better times” anymore for that “better times” might never take place. Never at all.

Is this the kind of normality Baghdad is heading for? A normality of war and terror. Just not giving a shit anymore out of desperation and hopelessness. I hope not!

yours,

Migdalit

Brave

Shabbat Shalom everybody,

I have introduced a new category to my blog which is simply to be labelled “hope.”. Hope as in: “those (people / things / organisations / facts / …) give me hope.” It is a tragedy yet a fact that within history and journalism things that give us hope are way less important then those that take it from us. Yet perhaps we have to remember that this doesn’t mean there are less things that would give us hope out there then things that’d take it from us. Never believe in statistics you haven’t forged yourself.

This girl however should absolutely be a part of history as it is passed on to our children. It’s not making a mistake to begin with that counts but hitting the brake early enough:

Girl suicide bomber, 13, hands herself in to Iraqi police

A 13-year-old girl wearing a vest packed with explosives turned herself in to Iraqi police north of Baghdad yesterday because she did not want to become a suicide bomber, the US military said.

Iraqi forces in the restive city of Baquba removed the bomb from the girl, who then led them to a second vest, also loaded with explosives.

Lieutenant Commander David Russell, a US military spokesman, said: “Reports are that she approached the IPs (Iraqi police) saying she had the vest on and didn’t want to go through with it. If she was forced to put on the vest or if she did it voluntarily, that is still being reviewed.”

[…]

A german source added the girl led the policemen directly into the terrorist’s hiding place where another explosive vest was found.

I hope there are good souls in Iraq right by her side who’ll make sure she’ll have a safe life someplace – either in Iraq or even better outside – which won’t be an easy task to accomplish after someone handed her photograph to the press. She’s a brave girl. I mean she’s only 13 and had the courage to do what a lot of 31 year olds would never have done: She hit the brake in time. She really deserves a reward. And she deserves to be remembered as a good example by her own people as well as by everybody else.

yours,

Migdalit