Riverbend's "Baghdad Burning"
Part of my nightmares lately has to do with Iraq. I’ll tell you how.
The rumpus created by Jean Sasson's comment on my article ‘Mayada’ got me discussing the whole issue with my friends. As part of our debate/discussion, Nijaz forwarded a link to a blog by the name 'Baghdad Burning' written by an Iraqi girl whose pen name is ‘Riverbend’; she was 24 when she started blogging about the war that started in 2003. For the past week or so I’ve been continuously reading her posts, I started with her articles posted this year. It was like reading a sequel of ‘Mayada’, for the situation of Iraq and its people was pathetic, actually, worse than pre-war times. I didn’t know whether to feel pity or sympathetic or plain disgusted by the state of affair in that country.
Ramadan, the holy month of fasting starts tomorrow (technically, today). It’s basically abstaining from eating and drinking from dawn to dusk. The purpose is mainly to know how it’d be to be hungry or thirsty. Abstinence is not limited to just food and drink, you can include smoking, anger and a whole of other things in your list.
Then, I was thinking about Riverbend's entries about daily life in Iraq now. In many of her articles she mentions about the availability of electricity, or rather the non-availability. When I read all that, I thought of those long 12 or 18-hour power cuts back in Kerala – life for me used to be a standstill on those occasions. Thinking back to what Riverbend said, I couldn’t even comprehend how they kept going with life without enough water and electricity (even fuel for that matter!!). I thought, to really understand the plight of those people, like how we refrain from food n drink, perhaps if we did fast on electricity, then we might get the picture. Just a thought.
If I start talking about the acts of terror, the bombings – suicide or otherwise, the insurgents or even the Iraqi politicians, then I could go on and on for pages. It would be best if you read the blog, to get a good picture. Now you know why my nightmares.
Riverbend’s got excellent writing skills; and her sense of humor (sarcastic) is worth mentioning. I applaud her for the courage it takes to blog as an insider, coz it really looks risky and for her determination or drive to let the world know what actually is happening in occupied Iraq.
May their sufferings find an end soon – that’s the only prayer I can say for them now.
The rumpus created by Jean Sasson's comment on my article ‘Mayada’ got me discussing the whole issue with my friends. As part of our debate/discussion, Nijaz forwarded a link to a blog by the name 'Baghdad Burning' written by an Iraqi girl whose pen name is ‘Riverbend’; she was 24 when she started blogging about the war that started in 2003. For the past week or so I’ve been continuously reading her posts, I started with her articles posted this year. It was like reading a sequel of ‘Mayada’, for the situation of Iraq and its people was pathetic, actually, worse than pre-war times. I didn’t know whether to feel pity or sympathetic or plain disgusted by the state of affair in that country.
Ramadan, the holy month of fasting starts tomorrow (technically, today). It’s basically abstaining from eating and drinking from dawn to dusk. The purpose is mainly to know how it’d be to be hungry or thirsty. Abstinence is not limited to just food and drink, you can include smoking, anger and a whole of other things in your list.
Then, I was thinking about Riverbend's entries about daily life in Iraq now. In many of her articles she mentions about the availability of electricity, or rather the non-availability. When I read all that, I thought of those long 12 or 18-hour power cuts back in Kerala – life for me used to be a standstill on those occasions. Thinking back to what Riverbend said, I couldn’t even comprehend how they kept going with life without enough water and electricity (even fuel for that matter!!). I thought, to really understand the plight of those people, like how we refrain from food n drink, perhaps if we did fast on electricity, then we might get the picture. Just a thought.
If I start talking about the acts of terror, the bombings – suicide or otherwise, the insurgents or even the Iraqi politicians, then I could go on and on for pages. It would be best if you read the blog, to get a good picture. Now you know why my nightmares.
Riverbend’s got excellent writing skills; and her sense of humor (sarcastic) is worth mentioning. I applaud her for the courage it takes to blog as an insider, coz it really looks risky and for her determination or drive to let the world know what actually is happening in occupied Iraq.
May their sufferings find an end soon – that’s the only prayer I can say for them now.