BlogIraq

Day by day, and I may say hour by hour, life is getting worse in Baghdad. And I would like to congradulate al the people feeding the sectarian violence starting from Adnan Al-Dulaimi and going to Harith Al-Dhari, Muqtada Al-Sadr, Abdul-Aziz Al-Hakeem, and everyone else whose existence is so tide up to sectarianism.

I have a couple of short stories today, incidents, if we may call them. The first happened and a fully Sunni area in Baghdad called Amirya. Which lies in the western part of Baghdad and kind of close to the Airport. Few days ago in Amirya, a guy waved for a taxi. The taxi driver stopped and asked the passenger where would he like to go. The passenger asked the driver if he would go to "Al-Sadr City", which is the Shiite home of Muqtada Al-Sadr followers. The driver agreed to go to Al-Sadr City. The passenger pulled out a gun and shot the driver and killed him…!!!!

"Why?" you might be asking. Its because the drivers agreement to go to Al-Sadr City means that hes is a Shiite. So, that a reason good enough to kill him.

The other incident is kind of the opposite. It took place in a big market in Baghdad called Jamila. A guy waved for a Taxi. The driver asks the passenger where would he like to go. The passenger says that he would like to go to "Al-Yarmouk", which is a predominantly Sunni area with some guys from Al-Qaeda wandering around every once in a while. Then, the driver pulls out a gun, and shoots the passenger..!!!

There is no "Why?" needed for that one too. Going to Al-Yarmouk District means that the passenger is Sunni. And that is a good enough reason to kill him.

Oh man life has become so cheap. I wonder a year from now, how many Iraqis will be there in Baghdad. Its kind of painful to see all the lovely things that you though forgranted just be taken away from you. I mean now single Iraqi thought that one day it would be daily near-death experience to go to school for example. No one thougt that life would turn its ugly face to us.

The problem is, this is not the worst that it can get. Things will get worse during the coming few months. And I wish, my God I pray everyday, that this is as bad as it gets. I remember Kevin Costner once saying, in The Postman, "stuff is getting better. Stuff is getting better every day." 

Well, I don't think so. I don't think so my friend. Stuff is getting worse. Stuff is getting worse every day .

About a month ago, there was a proposal for a new Iraqi Parliament Law that should set the “rights” of the Iraqi Parliament members. It was published in some Iraqi newspapers and was circulated among many Iraqis by email.

I will mention some of the elements of that new law proposal:

1. The head of the parliament has the degree of the president of Iraq and has ALL the rights and privileges of the president.

2. The deputies of the head of the parliament have the degree of deputies of the president of Iraq and have all the rights and privileges of this degree.

3. The parliament members have the degree of PRIME MINISTER of Iraq and have all the rights and privileges of this degree.

4. All members of the parliament and their family members shall have diplomatic passports and shall continue to have these passports after the end of the member’s service time (which was set to 4 years). So, lifetime diplomatic passports for ALL members and their families..!!!

5. The president and members of the parliament after the end of their service shall have half the number of security personnel they had during their service time. And the other half should be transferred to the staff of the Ministry of Defense with their full salaries and privileges.

6. Each member will be given a piece of land in Baghdad or in any other city of his/her choice.

I was wondering if the parliament in the United States or the United Kingdom gives such privileges to its members. Few days later, Al-Sabaah news paper published a piece of addition to this law proposal here (Arabic). The addition says:

“As a replacement of the lunch meal that used to be provided to the parliament members during their sessions, an monthly amount of money will be given to them that is between 3 to 5 million Iraqi Dinars (about 2350 to 3900 USD).”

Usually there are no more than 12 sessions per month for the parliament, taking into consideration that actually no more than 4 are actually held. This leaves the members with no less than 200 dollars per meal for each parliament member..!!!

In Iraq, a fancy meal in a fancy restaurant CAN NOT cost, no matter what, more than 60 USD. This whole lunch meal thing, costs the people of Iraq about 10 million dollars a year.

The problem with this big bunch of thieves called the “Iraqi Parliament”, is that they are the highest authority in Iraq now. No one can say no or no one can change what they do but them.

By this open stealing law, they have proved that they are nothing but a bunch of thieves that suddenly found themselves as the highest power in Iraq. The big horrible fact is that they are elected. I will not discuss now the forgery that happened in the elections. But I have to admit that a big part of the Iraqi people actually voted for those shitbags. Day by day they are proving all the people who elected them wrong. I have seen a couple of sessions of the parliament and it was ridiculous to the maximum. They don care to discuss the things that actually matter to the weary people of Iraq.

Maybe passing this law is a down payment of the reward to be given to them for passing the new Oil and Gas law. This Oil and Gas law, which will be approved no matter what we do, is the gift to all the countries who have participated in “Liberating” Iraq. You can see the draft of the law here.

This is absurd. I mean every one in Iraq knows how fucked up thing are getting, and about 40% of the Iraqi parliament is out of the country. They are being patriotic by getting drunk in the night clubs of Amman, Dubai, Beirut, Damascus, and Europe. Isn’t it time for a change, people?

This is the kind of “freedom” that the US brought us. Thank you Mr. Bush. And more to come.

This is what we used to call "Nissour Square" in Baghdad, after a bombed car "incident".

After Al-Mutanabbi St. and Al-Sarrafiya Bridge, we have Al-Nissour Square. Does anyone know what is next?