The Show Most Go On

I saw a post today on Facebook saying that "why our live is hard? because we dont let go the sad memories"

it is true it is hard because we keep remember the bad and sad memories, we even carry it with us all our lives and we don't think of the good memories in the same level of details like the sad ones.
and this is one of our problems as Iraqis we keep carrying the bad sad history.
I was once asked to create a timeline for Iraq and the first question was what was the biggest change in Iraq History? my answer was the Mogul occupation to Baghdad, I didn't say for example Iraq being the first country in the middle east who become a member in the United nations countries, or having the first TV station in the middle east...etc, it most be bad and sad thing to start with.
but I realized that we should be happy and live our lives, so I decided that from today I need to start thinking always in the good memories and also start creating good happy moments for me to remember in the future, so I hanged out with my friends and had really a good time,and then I get back home with a smile,and as usual my dad is watching the news and as usual the news in Iraq shows you only the stories of death, so to change the mood in the house I was showing my dad a YouTube video on one of the Iraqi dancing bands who dance Chobi traditional Iraqi dance, so his reaction was yelling and saying that "these are bad people are dancing while people are killed, its not a good time to dance or celebrate", I was as well trying to pass to him the inspiration of today and was trying to tell him dad yeah I know there is people get killed today and every day and we spend our lives seeing people getting killed but that dos not mean we should stop living and have a normal life,

(THE SHOW MOST GO ON)

Ordinary Day in Baghdad

Baghdad Today

Months ago I decided to stop blogging and write anything any more since its wont change any thing.

but here I am again start writing again, I'm going to write about an ordinary day in Baghdad the city I am from and the city I love, once I heard someone says 'it is hard to be in love with the city you cant love to live in it any more"

it is hard... for me I love Baghdad but I reached a point when I can say that's it I cant take it anymore I need to have a normal life, its not worth it to be optimistic all the time.

so lets go back to the Baghdadi ordinarily day.

my ordinary day starts with a huge traffic jam made by security checkpoint who are not doing anything just look or not  looking at all these cars, so basically my day starts with 2 hours driving in a suppose  to be 5 min driving road.

arriving to the office pissed off until I got my morning coffee and cigarette 

 started working, and then email popes up from our security manager to let us know that crazy 6 suicide bombers taking hostages in the human rights ministry building and ends his email with (ALL OUR STAFF OK)

but their staff are not this is what it comes to my mind and then remembered I know a friend who works there. 

trying to reach that friend but cant reach him, after lots of phone calls and reaching out to people not even in Baghdad we reach him, he is OK nothing wrong with him and he is not in that building who is full of people wants to kill everybody to have a meal with the savior of their believes and have nice time with virgins maybe.

any way my friend ends his call by saying (don't worry we are all OK and we DON'T KNOW anyone from the hostages).

but again there is someone knows them and they do have families care about them.

then work hours are done and its time to go home so since I live in the other side of the river I have to cross the bridge and I always like to look quickly at the river on that time when the sun become shy and tries to hide in the water I turn my head to see big smokes coming from one of the buildings, I think to myself its only an ordinary explosion.

reached my home and get out of the the car to open a chain my neighbors put to protect our neighborhood from the monsters outside (silly idea I know) but its only to make us not feel guilty when that monster attacks and we tell ourselves at least we tried 

little girls pass by me with smile and asks me with a strange accent to help me open the chain after a small chat I understand they are from Syria, and I asks myself are they really coming to Baghdad to seek peace???

what should I care at least they are smiling, and that smile was the highlight of my ordinary day.

Noof

30-1-2014

You Are Next

Sitting in the taxi with my sister ... passing by a picture of Saddam, defaced ('Saddam you son of a bitch you will never come back') ... me laughing and then turn my head to the taxi driver, my laughter subsiding ... ten years later sitting in a bus passing by a picture of an Islamic leader, me laughing with all my heart ... someone turning to me: 'are you laughing at our great leader?'

I was born in 1989. My generation was raised on the idea of loving the great leader, raised to be the great soldiers needed to kill the enemy; not that we needed to know who the enemy was - the great leader would handle that. The same goes for any ideas or opinions we might have. After 2003 this idea is over - it's up to my own decisions from now on. Ten years later, nothing has changed here, except for seeing every day numbers of people killed, by different methods, such that it makes no difference to me if ten or a hundred are slain. They are numbers, and I need not think of them. At this point I start to realize that I am losing my humanity. I should be affected by these numbers. They are real people, with real families, just like me. From this moment I started to think that if I remained silent, I would be the next to be killed, another number to be added to all the others.

                                                     YOU ARE NEXT 

انت التالي ...you are next

انت التالي عشر سنوات على سقوط الصنم ومازلنا في خندق الموت لا للارهاب نعم للحياة سنرتدي اليوم تي شرتات نكتب عليها (انت التالي ) لتنبيه الصامت من انه ممكن ان يكن التالي كن معنا الساعه الخامسه في ساحة الفردوس واجلب معك تي شيرت وسبري للكتابه وشموع للذين رحلوا "You Are Next"..5 pm..at Firdaws sq....bring a T shirt to write this slogan on..with candles to light..for the martyrs..daily increasing count..the gathering organized by the young..who are not sure if they will be next as target...join us..we will be there

شكرا ساندي

ادخل مسرعه هروبا من غضب ساندي الغير مسيطر عليه ...الكل يقلب قنوات الاخبار عبر التلفاز والانترنت بحثا عن رقم جديد لضحاياها ويتذمرون من تصرفها الغير مهذب لكنهم لا يعلمون ان ساندي قامت بجمع اكثر من 50 شاب عربي لم تجمعهم عروبتهم ولم تنفعهم اغانيهم عن بلاد العرب اوطاني من الشام لتطوان 

 ساندي اليوم قامت ما لم يقم به اي قائد عربي ..رغم انهم جمعتهم قصور وولائم فخمة لكن لم تجمعهم قراراتهم يوما .

لكن ساندي جمعنهم ليعملون على مشاريع وافكار تجمعهم معا كشباب لا اوطان.

افتح الفيسبوك ..اجد صفحاته مملوئة بشباب يكتب عن كيف ان الرب انتقم لهم بأس امريكا وانزل عليهم غضبه توبيخا لهم لافعالهم ودخولهم حرب على العراق ...لكنة لم ينزل غضبه عليهم حين قتلوا بعضهم البعض 

لكنهم لم يعلموا بان ساندي تمر اليوم بمدن جمعت من هرب من بلده خوفا من حكومات ترعاها عين الرب

ابتسم ...وادعو الرب ان يغضب ساندي

علها تمر بالقادة العرب ......وتجمعهم                                                     

نوف عاصي 

28\10\2012 

تبا لكم ولديمقراطيتكم

للديمقراطية مفاهيم عديدة خصوصا لمن لم يعلم عنها شيئا مسبقا

في مطلع الحياة الجديدة للعراق (اي بعد 2003) كان مفهوم الديمقراطية لطالبات مدرستي يحمل معنى واحد هو (الاستغناء عن الزي الموحد) كان الجميع في تلك المرحلة يتحدث عن الديمقراطية وكيف ستكون حياتنا بوجود الديمقراطية 

 اصبح للديمقراطية معناُ اخر في حياتي بعد ذلك ...اذ ان الديمقراطية هي ان اختار من يمثلني حكوميا ...همممممم (يرادلها صفنه) وبشرط ان اجدد خياراتي كل 4 سنوات ...حلو  لحد هسه الديمقراطية حلوة

ثم تبين لي بعد ذلك ان الديمقراطية ايضا تعني ان اعبر عن رأيي بكل حرية ولي حرية التظاهر ضد الاشياء التي اريد تغييرها في (بلدي الديمقراطي)

اصبح للديمقراطية اضافة اخرى هي ان اعبر عن رأيي في اي مكان وزمان وبالوسيلة التي ارغب بها (لا ترة صارت كمرة وربيعة)

وبالطبع ان اختار ديانتي وطقوسي دون تدخل وضغط من احد 

وبالطبع انا المحظوظة لاعيش في بلد جاءته الديمقراطية تازة وجديدة جدا لدرجة بدأنا نخطيء فيها في المفاهيم ...فحينما اسمع اليوم كلمة (ديمقراطية) من فم سياسي عراقي اضحك بشدة على سذاجتي لتصديقي اياهم ...فيا اصدقائي ما لا تعرفونه في عراقنا الديمقراطي الجديد هو المفاهيم الجديدة كلش كلش للديمقراطية

فالديمقراطية العراقية هي عبارة عن 

فالانتخابات عبارة عن تقسيم للسلطة بين مجموعه مصالح وجيوب متنكرة على شكل سياسيون وبرلمانيون وممثلون للشعب والاربع سنوات التي تحدثنا عنها (من دبش تصير)

اما اذا لم تعجبني شغلة السياسيون ورحت اعبر عن رأيي في ساحة التحرير او كتبت على الفيسبوك رأيي فوحدة من ثنين يا يعتقلوني من (كهوة ارخيته) او يهكرون الفيسبوك مالتي 

اما بالنسبة للديانة (لن اتحدث عنها احسنلي)

ولكن حينما يتم تدمير البلد وايقوناتة ورموزة من قبل ازلام الديمقراطية ...فاحب ان اقول لهم 

                               تبا لكم ولديمقراطيتكم  

نوف عاصي 

بغداد

17\9\2012

We & Them

There is an Iraqi quote says "me and my brother against my cousin and me and my cousin against the stranger"I think all the Iraqis raised on that quote...so I was raised to be Iraqi first and then I'm Arab I don't remember that someone talks to me about how to be human... no act like Iraqi and then act like Arab so the world for me it's two half there is Us and there is Them and of curse I'm not spouse to talk with the Them side that makes me always think in the other side or how I should be living on that side "the grass is greaner there" until I got the chance to be in an exchange program took me to the (them) side and my shuck was they are just like us and then I got an AHA moment when I realized that there is no such a thing call we and them it's all of us ...on that moment I understanded my humanti...the point is don't ever let any one decide for you  and it's about time to change its now what the world call it "the youth awakening " and yeah it's about time to try to speake at loud I think this is the most important massage I got from a youth form under the name of (next generation speaks) there was alots of young people from all over the world speaking about the youth and their problems ...their life...and how to work together as youth.

Noof 

Baghdad

5\6\2012