Global Voices Online

With a major report to congress by America's top general in Iraq and the British withdrawal from Basra, politics is my main course for today. But there is much more - and if you read to the end - I present Aboosi the Iraqi Human Beatbox.

Marshmallow26 makes her design for an Iraqi flag. She explains her design:

I've seen so many designs of the Iraqi flag and they all impressed me and inspired me to create another one…

Frankly, the flag Idea represents a nation in a simple but strong way simultaneously.
So here is my new design for the Iraqi flag…I LOVE IRAQ

So this essence of her Iraq - Oil, Love and some pretty trees in between. I love the design :)

Wishing you Ramadhan Kareem

Sunshine gives the essential guide to Ramadhan. She says:

To all of my friends and readers, specially the Muslims, blessed Ramadan (Ramadan Karim), may all of your dreams come true.

And for my Iraqi friends and readers, may this Ramadan be peaceful, and we'll all live a peaceful life, without killing, explosions, and shootings…
In Ramadan god answer the prayers , let's all pray for a new shining and peaceful day for Iraq, may the terrorists vanish and we have a developed country, I am writing this post feeling positive and full of hope..

If you read no other blog posts this week read these

Riverbend graces the blogodrome with one of her ever so rare posts. Although rare, you still realise why she is one of the great Iraqi bloggers. Her moving depiction of her experience as an Iraqi who decides to become a refugee is something that not only other Iraqis can relate to but also anyone around the world. Here is an extract…

It was a tearful farewell as we left the house. One of my other aunts and an uncle came to say goodbye the morning of the trip. It was a solemn morning and I’d been preparing myself for the last two days not to cry. You won’t cry, I kept saying, because you’re coming back. You won’t cry because it’s just a little trip like the ones you used to take to Mosul or Basrah before the war. In spite of my assurances to myself of a safe and happy return, I spent several hours before leaving with a huge lump lodged firmly in my throat. My eyes burned and my nose ran in spite of me. I told myself it was an allergy.

Iraqi Mojo was, however, not so impressed…

I started thinking about our own escape from Iraq in 1982 … I am an Iraqi American who escaped Saddam's horrors in 1982… We didn't have the luxury of taking whatever we wanted with us (one suitcase for 4 kids), and we couldn't tell the world about it - our parents didn't tell us kids we were leaving the country until the day we left, because they didn't want anybody to know - they were afraid the Baathists in our neighborhood (one particular family, really) might suspect…

I'm sorry that Riverbend and her family have to leave Iraq, but they are very very lucky compared to most Iraqis.

How I really wish I could summarise Sunshine's posts in a few sentences, but, it is simply impossible. You must find a quiet moment, open up your browser and read it in full. it ranges from friends to parties to the murder of innocents. She concludes:

I pray for my family's safety and all the innocents and people I love, hoping one day god will answer my prayer..
The situation in REALLY bad, everyday a mine, car bomb, or shooting awake me. I want to start my day with something nice, like the peg top's sound not a horrifying sound, not a loud explosions and shrapnels' sound falling on my house, I want to wake up and stay few minutes in my bed stretching and yawing not running and hitting the furniture ! (that's a dream I am not sure if it'll come true soon, sometimes I feel it is like Lucifer's dream to enter the paradise :D)

The Week in Politics

Electricity cables by Last of Iraqis

Electricity: Last of Iraqis takes the Iraqi Minister of Electricity to task on his recent statements. The minister said that the ministry needs about $50 Billion to fix the electricity supply and 36-48 months to finish the work. He also said that the national grid is producing 5000 megawatts while it should produce 9000 megawatts. Last of Iraqis responds:

I don't know much about electricity… but I think what the national grid is producing is more than half of what it should produce , that means the electricity should be available at least for 8 or 10 hours! … then I would like to ask him why the electricity didn't came to my block for 5 days now? 5 days without electricity and he is saying that it produces more than half of what should it produce . Well , I know the answer , because they are not being fair in giving the electricity.for example ; the neighboring block has electricity almost all day long… wherever there is a house for someone in the government the electricity never outages in his neighborhood….

another thing about the time to finish the power plants , he said it takes 36-48 months , we have heard this thing before , we heard that the electricity will be excellent by the year 2007 , that's what they said in 2003. If it takes so much time how did Saddam finish the rebuilding of the power plants in less than a year ? was he a wizard or something? it was in a worst condition after the gulf war , it was totally destroyed .it's true that it wasn't very good right after the war , but the outages were much less than now.it was according to a schedule.and before the beginning of the war we used to have electricity at least 20 hours a day, that's the ultimate dream now.

General Betray-us: Oops let my bias show. I mean General Petraeus of course. Several bloggers had something to say about his report on progress in Iraq. Even before Petraeus reported to congress Neurotic Iraqi Wife had something to say about it:

that much awaited report from Crocker and Petraues means nothing. A big fat nothing. Im not holding my breath and I dont think any wise person should. The real stories are here, here with the Iraqis. I dont need a top notch General to lie to me anymore. I dont need to read a report that is so full of spin and prepared by arrogant people to contradict everything I know. Everything I need I hear from the real people who live not in the GZ but out there, out there in the red zone. No I dont need a report that is prepared by people who wear armoured vests and carry guns and have about 30 security guards watching their every step. Nope, I dont need that, because I have the simple Iraqis who risk their lives on a daily basis just by coming to work.

Iraqi Pundit cheers Petraeus' report and jeers at the media. He writes:

t's been apparent for some time that Petraeus has achieved enough success in Iraq to blunt attempts by the Democratic leadership and its fans at the NYT to force an early troop withdrawal.

But, 24 Steps to Liberty is not so convinced:

For months now we’ve been hearing about the “success” and “stability” some parts of central Iraq are enjoying due to the “successful” surge that Bush tasked earlier this year… Although any human being with the smallest working brain would know that this is not true…

“We are finally getting somewhere in Iraq,” Michael E. O’Hanlon and Kenneth M. Pollack said…. They went to Iraq and spent eight days only, shuttled in armored vehicles when they weren’t flying in black hocks. Eight days… and did they meet Iraqis? NO…

“Last week we strolled down its streets without body armor,” they said about Ramadi. But did they tell us that it was ONE street only? No. they said “streets.” Did they tell us that this street was blocked four years ago and no car is allowed to move on it? Did they tell us that the street only leads to the US troops barracks, which means average Iraqis don’t use it anymore?…

I don’t get it. How can the Americans be so foolish? Why don’t they ask questions? Why don’t they check the information that is being fed to them? …

If it is such a success in Anbar, where are the construction projects? Why don’t we see one factory back to working there?… And why we don’t see one single street being cleaned up of the rubble of four years of destruction? And why do we still see cement barriers and barbed wires everywhere?

Last of Iraqis looked at the statistics in Petraeus' report. he was surprised to say the least:

am I living in Iraq or what? I'm not saying that the graphs and statistics are fake, but they are inaccurate

And he takes each statistic apart:

first of all in this time of the year most Iraqis leave Iraq for a vacation… Iraq is almost empty at this time of the year , so there are fewer numbers to die… [also] twice the number of the dead are missing civilians and this is something every Iraqi knows…

Now let's see about the explosions , attacks and sectarian violence how could they count that? every day I hear explosions but they don't mention it , then sure they wouldn't count it , just like today , there were two loud explosions which I heard but no one said anything about it!

How could they count the attacks ? no one can do that ? and the sectarian violence is something that can't be counted no matter what the effort is , for example as the case of my family when they were threatened by Al-Qaeda first and then by Al-Mahdi Army , my father didn't go to police because they are corrupted , and they might be in the Mahdy-Army so he will jeopardise our lives if he did that.What my father did is what all the Iraqis do , this is the smartest thing to do , even in my case that I talked in my earliest post “I shouldn't be alive” I didn't report it , … what I want to say is that sectarian violence can't be measured and even if I believed that the explosions and car bombs are less than before as the report said , I wouldn't believe that sectarian violence decreased no matter what graphs they show me , I live in Baghdad and I know it , it's the same if not getting higher.

But he adds, ” the withdrawal of the US troops specially in this time is not a good idea , that's what I think.”

British leave Basra: Fayrouz wonders about the British withdrawal from Basra. She writes:

My first reaction was: there were British troops in Basra?

What's the point of having the troops in Basra when they watch the militias fighting each others for turf without stopping the madness. They also watched the Iranians replace the Iraqi face of Basra with an Iranian one. From what I can tell, the British troops were having a picnic in Basra. The Medal of Shame goes to you all. …

I say to the British troops, “Leave and don't let the door hit you.” Most of my Basrawi AND American friends share my opinion.

As for Basrawis, they'll survive the next round of violence like they've done for the last 27 years. For them, it's another day in hell.

Baghdad Connect says all they want in one line:

Brown: British forces withdrawal was pre-planned and not an act of Defe(c)at(e)

And Finally:

Marshmallow26 has found the Iraqi equivalent of the human beatbox Meet Aboosi…

 

 Aboosi: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

For me this is a very small part of the true wealth of the Iraqi people. Even with the deepest poverty, and worst of violence, iraq can still produce gems like this.