Saturday, July 7, 2007
Farewells
By M.H.Z
It’s a picture I took of a beautiful sunset in Baghdad. I named it “the last sunset” because it was the last one I’ve seen in Baghdad before I left to Erbil, and the next step would probably not be back to Baghdad, may be a place so much far away.
I’ve been thinking: how can I describe this period of time we are going through?
It is the “era of farewells.”
After that, I wondered if any Iraqi hasn’t yet said quite a number of goodbyes to dear and loved ones, loud, or deep in his/her heart. Many Iraqis have made their farewells to Iraq and are not thinking about going back.
In all the texts I’ve read and written, we are reporting, criticizing, attacking, defending, and even dreaming. I keep asking myself and wish so deeply that I can find an answer: “Am I really doing something for Iraq?” I mean, I honestly want to do something, and that’s what made me do this, write my thoughts. People are reading, commenting. Maybe they are convinced, or pissed off. It’s a big community, but is it a real one? Or is it just a virtual community, where at last we push the “Shut Down” button and find ourselves out in the real world, with more farewells to be said?
A small world has successfully been created here, “the Iraqi Blogosphere” as called by many. I talked a little about this through a post on my blog “who are the Iraqi bloggers.”
Can we think of a way to make this virtual world more effective beyond the shutdown button? Maybe if we try and get people to become part of this world, like how Omar did, inviting other writers to put their thoughts on his blog, maybe we can invite other Iraqi people beside other bloggers and make them share their thoughts with us. Try to make this world alive and closer to the real one. We don’t just want to be vague lines in history books for the coming generations. We shouldn’t be a line in a nook or magazine: “the wave of Iraqi bloggers at the century, who shared their sorrows and miseries and happiness in words that recorded the era quite clearly.” Is that what we are? Historians?
I love You Iraq
It’s a picture I took of a beautiful sunset in Baghdad. I named it “the last sunset” because it was the last one I’ve seen in Baghdad before I left to Erbil, and the next step would probably not be back to Baghdad, may be a place so much far away.
I’ve been thinking: how can I describe this period of time we are going through?
It is the “era of farewells.”
After that, I wondered if any Iraqi hasn’t yet said quite a number of goodbyes to dear and loved ones, loud, or deep in his/her heart. Many Iraqis have made their farewells to Iraq and are not thinking about going back.
In all the texts I’ve read and written, we are reporting, criticizing, attacking, defending, and even dreaming. I keep asking myself and wish so deeply that I can find an answer: “Am I really doing something for Iraq?” I mean, I honestly want to do something, and that’s what made me do this, write my thoughts. People are reading, commenting. Maybe they are convinced, or pissed off. It’s a big community, but is it a real one? Or is it just a virtual community, where at last we push the “Shut Down” button and find ourselves out in the real world, with more farewells to be said?
A small world has successfully been created here, “the Iraqi Blogosphere” as called by many. I talked a little about this through a post on my blog “who are the Iraqi bloggers.”
Can we think of a way to make this virtual world more effective beyond the shutdown button? Maybe if we try and get people to become part of this world, like how Omar did, inviting other writers to put their thoughts on his blog, maybe we can invite other Iraqi people beside other bloggers and make them share their thoughts with us. Try to make this world alive and closer to the real one. We don’t just want to be vague lines in history books for the coming generations. We shouldn’t be a line in a nook or magazine: “the wave of Iraqi bloggers at the century, who shared their sorrows and miseries and happiness in words that recorded the era quite clearly.” Is that what we are? Historians?
I love You Iraq
posted by 24 Steps to Liberty at 9:19 AM | Permalink | 
5 Comments:
At September 6, 2007 10:54 PM, 
Hi Ali and thank you for blogging for us. I'm in the US and try every day to petition my government to get their soldiers out and send reconstruction aid instead. I am heartsick and ashamed at what my country has done to yours. Please keep speaking up, describe your lives, keep it real for us. Our news doesn't tell us anything except the 30 second "uplifting" feature they look so desperately for. We don't see the bodies of the victims, we don't hear "why" - only "what."
I said goodbye to my friends, family, home, soccer fields, resturants, and the streets of my hometown, Baghdad.
But, I will never say goodbye to Iraq. If my body is in elsewhere, my heart is still in Iraq.
I always wondered if what we write here effective or we are just wasting time.
Are we being heard or we are screaming and hearing our echoes back.
I hope we are heard. I really do.
If not, then we shall scream loader.
Nice post