All mixed up. Of success....soccer, IQ and Culture.

Today, I was at my friend’s house to watch Germany and Argentina play. Oh my god, at first I thought they were like two concrete walls playing, and the game was only ball reflections, left to right and right to left, I was about to be hypnotized at one moment, but thank goodness, the Argentinean goal woke me up.
Both strong teams, although I kind of disliked the game, both were aggressive and the referee was not too honest, he gave this Argentinean guy (duno his name) a yellow card FOR Nothing! And there was this Ballack dude, he totally acted out when he cupped his hand over his nose, yeah right, he must be an A student in his drama class back in school, honestly, he did not even fell or hit his nose.

Anyways, both teams were tough, good great defenses, aggressive, fast, furious and want to win.

But one thing that distinguished the Germans, is their nerve made of steal ----Their Mental Power. The Germans never lost a penalty kick ever since 1976, they were determined, and they kicked the ball at ease, while the Argentineans, the look of fear, frustrations and anxiety was written all over the faces, especially those two players whom they lost the two kicks for Germany.

Believing in one’s ability and feeling at most comfort when doing something that needs an intricate detail of completion or endeavor is the top-notch requirement for success. But of course one has to know truly where his/her abilities at and how to direct his/her potentials, but then one should not be unconfident in the conviction that they can not do it.

The Germans they usually have high self-esteem, they believe in their abilities, they work hard to get where they want, no wonder why they are so proud of their superb technology and inventions!

And it somehow made me think back, I was once surfing the Internet and I came across a website about IQ correlation to countries’ wealth and success. How countries with high IQ tend to be more productive industrial countries and wealthy. I was somehow upset and felt it was untrue since the earliest of inventions were in the Middle East. But then this website led me to search for more contrary evidence to what the website champions.
And so I ended up reading internet materials about sociological factors, on how minorities back in the early 1990s -- when racist jokes were triumphed in America, used to do poorly in schools as compared to their improved performance if not above average when these racist jokes abolished or that change that the American culture witnessed to a more tolerant society. One prime example was the Jewish Poles. Also, they were some evidence of how black African kids do great in their early years but then slope down, and this is mainly to the stereotypical images they are fed by society of how African American are like.
And somehow I can relate that to my high school experience, I remember all my teachers used to scare the kids of how University is hard and it needs a lot of work, and my school was known as the gang school but then the name changed to refugee camp, but in my time they were mainly poor white kids, and apparently my school did not have much of graduates that go to University, very few. As for the messages portrayed about university in other schools, primarily in schools that have mainly rich kids are totally different, and it is all about nurturing their abilities, and I knew that since one of my best friends changed from the poor kids’ school to rich kids’ school, well the rich kids’ school they were mainly whites, and her being wearing the Hijab, she stoked out like a sore thumb, and according to her, her Chemistry teacher somehow treated her initially as stupid. But then she is a tough girl and she knows she is smart, and now she is a medical student, I think her success is mainly is that because she comes from a highly educated family, she knows she has it all, how about kids who have not being told that they can do it or come from cultures that are hampering

Not everyone has the believe and the conviction of their abilities, what if you come from a society that is pessimistic, and suppresses the individuals all the time, what if the society likes to chill out all the time and likes laziness, what if the society is conventional in every term possible and the orthodox way will always kill creativity, definitely each society will vary in productively and performance. The west is creative, they are innovative and work according to a plan, the East Asians (the Asian tigers) are very hardworking people, they never give up, and they work according to a plan. Of course, one cannot dismiss political conditions and that’s another story.

So to be successful, you gota know urself, and have the mental power to never let urself down. Alright?!

The fireworks yesterday.

Another fireworks, and another single year for me. But honestly this year's fireworks had a way much higher pitch in sound, I swear I was chicken scared, somehow reminded me of the Iranian-Iraqi war along with the Gulf war. I swear, just the sound of the missle when it takes off made me remember Khumayni il jayif. And honestly, all the blue and red was like a vignette of my life back then, when my older sister used to ask my mom if she can go see over the windows whilst the Americans beat the hell out of us, well sis watch it no matter what mom said, she can alway play hide and seek and it is quite frankly the same thing, but one is entertainment and the other one is actual war.
Though, at times it made me feel like I was in the middle of star wars or an allien invasion especially when the fireworks have this visual effect that it is coming towards me.
But it is amazing, it is one of days where the city i live in feels like it has an actual population. Oh, well that is Canada, peaceful and nice :)

Identity

The last couple of years especially since the American invasion on Iraq, identity has became like a sword cutting Iraqi ties, or something like a concentrated, venomous acid dissolving beautiful pictures of Iraqi bonds and relationships.Sunnism and Shi'asm became rather a notorious topic that many started talking about it audibly, to be honest I have had a couple of conversations with Canadian Iraqis from my generation (early twenties) and we all discovered that we discovered out sects only when we came to Canada, I never knew that my parents were Sunnis, adding fumes to fire, non-Iraqis love asking the question when they know I am from Iraq, whether I am this or that, it seems it gives them a boost that they are actually know the ins of the Iraqi society. In the matter of fact, when I recall my childhood memories in Iraq, I can hardly vision of which one of my friends were Shi'as or Sunnis, and I just recently discoved that Shi'a Kurds are called Fayles, and somehow with deductive analysis I discoved that my best friend back home was a Fayle Kurd, however, there are friends who I could not reach an exact approximation on whether they are Sunnis, Shi'as or Sushis.It might be ignorance on my behalf but Iraq's society did not have such a divisive epedemic, at least through my experience. It is crazy though, how this issue is becoming widespread. The other day my two sisters went to visit my parent's friends especially that mom is working somewhere else, so we need to keep in touch. While my sisters were watching Davinci Code, mom's friend was talking on the phone with Khala B, and both are from different sects and they are friends since UAE before migrating here, and according to my sisters they had an ongoing heated arguments about this ever so infamous topic, Suna and Shi3a. I just hate it. I think people should just shut and never talk about it, or if they wana talk about it, they should replace their closed-minded heads with an open-minded ones. Yes, we need a surgical operation. And I am sick and tired of being bombarded with this topic every step I go.But this issue had made me look at my family, it made me look at my roots, and where I come from, I have just recently about two years ago discoveredd new things about my dad.Dad is from Baghad, however due to the craziness that Iraq is enduring, I kind of searched his background, he is not actually one hundred percent originally Baghdadi, his dad is originally from Iraq's holliest cities Karbala, and his mom is from Haditha, the Anbar province, west of Iraq. Haditha, which is by now famous due the masscare that happened against its people done by the American soldiers avenge. How interesting, so my dad is a Sushi. Welcome democracy, enlightment, it is something interesting and cool to have in the family.This discovery made me feel the carefree reaction like the one I got when I first listened to Michael Jackson's song of "it does not matter if it is black or white", and then my mind went back tracking to trace the joy of the 1970s the era that I was not born in, and my dad suddenly appeard as a memorabilia of the 1970s. No wonder why is he so good looking and carefree, probably because he is made through a heated, democratic, fiery sexual intimacy between sunni and shi'a bodies. Such lucrative-- hot---seductive never thought to be imagined intercouse and intimacy between my grandparents, one whom I never seen, is just a desperate attempt of my brain to collect my flying everywhere, hyper, sensual nervous system, that such marriage is widely thought to be odd nowdays, a sunni from western Iraq and Karbala2i shi'a, WOW! My grandparents are the democrats of the democrats, and right on the face of all the secterian supermacists and haters!But the sad thing is, that before it was an alright thing, but now it is such a big thing jointed with my big ideas of a peaceful united Iraq!It seems that my dad followed suite after grandmother along with his siblings, but all his uncles and cousins from his father side, all are Shi'as.As for my mother's site, she is not entirely one hundred percent Basrawi, only half, her mom is a beauty from Baghdad, and my grandfather is proudly a basrawi. Both are sunni arabs, so not much fun there really! Only different provinces.So my roots cover a big Chunk of Iraq from the west to the south and to the centre of Iraq, Baghdad.With all the stuff happening, one of my sisters is planning to marry a Shi'a just to make things even more cool. It is interesting how identity shapes decisions, interactions and human relationships, but not alot of people realize how adaptable we are to accomodate differences, but such realization is not felt yet in Iraq's political sphere!But then again, I am a Canadian and I lived in Jordan and Malaysia and I befriended with many types of people of many different backgrounds, so my roots are more vivacious and rich as I loved people accross continents, and cultures, and even my identity as an Iraq won't stop me from reaching to others, and to help others if I can. As an Arabic poet once said "kha6awati Ana", so yes, my steps make me, and hope if I can walk the world to be the world at heart.

BB

BB or BiBi in Iraqi means nana or grandmother.

oh well, mom called today since she is works in North Carolina, and told me that bb went back to Basra. I was shocked. It was a brief conversation since mom wanted to talk with my dad. Apparently my grandmother left UAE early today and arrived an hour or so afterword in Basra, she took an airplane. I felt that my uncles were so horrible that they would let an old woman go back to such a dangerous zone. Apparently it was my grandmother's decision, and she wanted so, since the militias are stealing properties of the people who left, so she wanted to go back there, so they know that there is a person there. And I asked mom that if there is a big possibility that they would hurt bb, aparently mom thinks that she is an old woman and they would hardly harm her.

I dunno the whole thing sounds ma a3ruf shlon. we'll c what will happen.

Emails and Phone calls.

I contacted today Amensty international via the phone, left a msg and I told them what I know. I also, emailed human rights watch to whatever emails I got online, mostly US headquartes like Washington etc, however the email to toronto@hrw.org came back as an email failure. How bad, I live in Canada, and the only e mail to Canada was a failure.

I browsed through their sites http://www.hrws.org & http://www.amnestyusa.org . HRW had a section of how a person can get into the action of doing something, like blogging for human rights, it sounded cool but I am already kind of doing that, but I must admit I am new.

I do not know, it seems there is not much I can do really except than talking and writing, although I feel at times to go back to Iraq and shout "Hey, people we should love each other" and throw a hippie party or yell, "never listen to foreigners and stick to each other". I sound stupid but that is how I feel, I feel like a little kid inside, I remember when I used to be a Kid reading history, I always wondered why do people go to war with each other, why can't we all be nice and good to each other and live happily after. Even though after finishing my degree of International Relations, and I have took courses like Conflicts and resolutions, I can not help but still think that little kid kind of a way. But it somehow led me to realize - not that i did not know that before, that people are so easily brain washed, easily frightened. There is not much of independence but only dependence on what the top dog has to say, if all the people who share thie little kid instinct can unite rather than being loser, idealist intellectuals, then something can happen.

but No honestly, why is it always that the Iraqi people are always controlled either by foreign powers, dicatorial local powers or ideologies that are outmoded and archaic. Is it probably because they never let themselves free, and independent? Feeling free I must admit is not an Iraqi thing, you always gota listen to parents or whoever in Charge, it is a patriarchical culture anyways . We just have to break away, and run freely, but not everyone finds that even necessary or possible.
oh well I am dreaming,
I think I am just venting , ciao for now.

I am Iraqi, and I will do something to Iraq.

I will do something.



My mother is from Basra, and yes your first initial demographic, remote sensing, stereotypical, wrong intellectual perception is that she must be a shi’a. Well I am sorry, mom is not a shi’a but a sunni, that is one thing that most people do not know about Basra is that it is or it used to be a big metropolitan area, and you have all kind of Basrawis from Shi’as, Sunnis, Christians, to Mandeans and what have you. It used to be known as the Florida of the Arabs with its awesome palm trees and blue Shat Al-Arab, back in the Seventies Basra was even the Iraqi city to be more than Baghdad (but thanx to Sadam it was completely destroyed in the 1980s). It was a city of tolerance, never my mom said shi’a or sunni , there was no fitna or sectarianism, if my mom was ever proud of something as her background, proud of Basrawis' fishes and great yummy shrimps, and proud of the Basrawis' simplicity as oppose to Baghdadis’ vulgarity, mind you, my dad is from Baghdad!

However, with the latest development in Iraq and especially in Basra, this spirit of tolerance is gradually being erased, and turned to a tide of fundamentalism, hazardous not to my country Iraq, but hazardous to dear relatives of mine, my uncle, grandmother and auntie!
The Sunni Basrawis have an ultimatum to leave Basra no longer than the fourth of July, my uncle have left to live temporary – his visa is only two months, with my other uncle in the UAE, but he will be leaving within few days with his family and my grandmother to Syria as many Iraqis found refuge there. My auntie and her husband they are still in Basra but they will be leaving shortly to Northern Iraq, the reason she is able to reach the northern point of Iraqi Kurdistan is because she is married to a Kurd, and he does not know how to speak Kurdish, since he lived most of his live in Basra.

Is this how Basra becoming, is this how tolerance and peaceful livelihood to be erased and wiped out just like that?

It is the Iranian intervention and influence is to be blamed, it is the death squads, Faylaq Badr, and all the rest of the fundamentalist groups to be held liable for this crime! Many will brush me as simply a sunni, however I do not identify myself as a sunni but as an Iraqi, and I do not have any sectarian agenda to say what I say, because simply I am not saying this, but eyewitness accounts through my uncle’s experiences in Basra, from raiding and bombing sunni mosques whom my uncle escaped one time , to killing the engineering dean in Basra because of his background, to now sunni evacuation in Basra.

Also, according to my uncle, the sunni Basrawis have send a delegation to the prince of Kuwait asking him to open the Kuwaiti borders for their lives, however he refused, because if he does or accepts such request, the matter will be politicized and internationalized. But how about people’s lives, if there are people who can afford to go to Syria or to UAE temporary, then how about the ones who can not, how about the impoverished poor, where would they go?

I will do whatever I can, I will be sending emails to amnesty international, human rights watch, talk with a Kuwaiti lady I know off and see if she can do anything, the Kuwaitis must do something, I mean they have distances relatives who are Basrawis, the lady herself is married to a Basrawi.

But my resolution of what I can do is forming gradually, and this is what I will do for the time being:


Ø Form a network of Iraqis regardless if they are outside or inside Iraq, however the priority is given foremost for the ones who live inside Iraq, since they can supply the information needed of human rights abuses and eyewitness accounts


Ø Keep an open mind and high Iraqi nationalism is required – Iraqi interests above all.

Ø Everyone reports from the region they know best, they can choose otherwise if they want to, however for technicality purposes, expertise is required, at least. For example, I am reporting of human rights abuses that Sunni Basrawis face does not mean I care about the Sunnis or southerners only, it is where I have my contacts, and this is where I get trustworthy information, and they are my relatives. I am well aware of Sunni fundamentalist groups that have extensive human rights abuse accounts regarding Shi’a victims.

Therefore, my resolution is to champion tolerance and peace by fighting fundamentalism, extremism and sectarianism, and that is by reporting human rights abuses of what is happening which most of the time hidden from us to know.

crazy ramblings

How do you know if a general population is bad? is it by the number of war frequencies, injustices and oppression? what if the majority was good and a few minority is the one responsible for the evil widespread? what if a country was like a weak woman raped and raped again and again for its bountiful breast and high mountainous dignity?
what if the grand fathers of their grandfathers were the inventors, creative and moraly conscious whom they had feminists fighting for the rights of the oppressed, union partisans, true communists, true muslims or christians, true hearted-people? what if a population who is generations ago was aware of injustices and fought gainst it, and the new is a population, is damp, boring, and accepting of the realist ache of injustice? what if a this new population is constrained by the laws of their grandfathers whom they sweated blood of their martyrdom to justice, what if this constrain and the culture of 'doing things' right is the reason , The Reason?
but what law? what if the powerful can tresspass anything? what if the few who are capable of change are denied these laws?
what if a country never had the chance to forumulate its own laws whether bcz of foreign intervention or the evil powerful?
what if the ethos and the aspiration of the 'good' nation can never be since good is divided between sects and ethinicites?
what if history and situations are the reason?
how a good revolution happen? how goodness can trumpet into succinct laws, at least relatively keep things in check?
what if goodness is always defined through religion or no religion? what if goodness is always dictated and never felted?
what if making making good is definite but by sacrifice, who is willing?


إذا الشعب يوما أراد الحياة فلا بد أن يستجيب القدر
و لا بد للليل أن ينجلي و لا بد للقيد أن ينكسر

قاسم الشابي



Yes, we need will, believe in the will, believe in goodness, and have the sha3b or the nation and not sub-nations mutasha3ibeh.
And yes I want my country and the goodness of my country back!

but am i willing to scarifice me?

Never.

Never let those hypocrites, bitter-hearted people make you to loose hope in idealism. I am an idealist and forever I will be, naivety is not my quest nor me, forever I am...an idealist!

So, can you climb this!

My fears...

My fears, they are like a ball made of glass, and I will smash it into pieces...and forever!