I started blogging in February 2003 and have made it habit to blog almost everyday. This page is where I note down my thoughts, opinions and critique of almost everything. Please note that this is an adult blog and would require the reader to be thick-skinned. Oh, and some of the stuff here may be gay related so proceed at your own risk. No refund given for offence taken.
The quagmire he predicted in '94 is the reality now. All that he said would happen have happened. So why did Dick the VP forgot what he said as Dick the former secretary of defence? Amnesia brought on by advancing years?
Iraq has always been the Balkans of the middle-east. It was a quagmire for the Ottoman Turks, then the UK and now, the US. And I doubt America can quit it within the foreseeable future. I guess very soon, they will have to bring back the draft to get more troops into Iraq and to support future operations in hot spots that may spring up suddenly in the rest of the world.
Four years on, bombs are still going off and no one seems to be winning. The only thing that is certain is that scores of people die everyday. For the lucky few who manage to flee to Jordan and surrounding countries, life has not been that kind either. Caught up in a limbo and in a country that is not their own, their stories have never really been told. Not only did they leave a country where they were in mortal danger, but they have left behind lives, relatives and loved ones (dead or alive) that they may never see again.
In less than a year, George Bush Jr will leave the Oval Office. He has it easy, former presidents lead pretty comfy lives with lucrative deals waiting for them. But the lives of those destroyed by his war in Iraq will never return to the way it was once he is out. And I guess the current lives of families like those of Amira, Aseel Qaradaghi, Hassan Jabr and Zeinab Majid in Amman is not a concern for the man whose irresponsible stupidity have destroyed.
Read their stories in the link below. I know a majority of us are suffering from Iraq fatigue. But reading their stories serves to remind us that even though Saddam Hussein was a murdering tyrant, their lives under him was relatively much more stable and comfortable then what it currently is under Bush. And no, the democracy and freedom that was promised with the invasion force has not arrived. I doubt those two ideals are even remotely in the minds of Iraqis who struggle just to survive on a day to day basis. The only "freedom" they have now is a lawless one that allows extreme groups (local and foreign) to kill as many Iraqis as they want.
I can't believe the news today I can't close my eyes and make it go away. How long, how long must we sing this song? How long, how long? 'Cos tonight We can be as one, tonight.
Broken bottles under children's feet Bodies strewn across the dead-end street. But I won't heed the battle call It puts my back up, puts my back up against the wall.
And the battle's just begun There's many lost, but tell me who has won? The trenches dug within our hearts And mothers, children, brothers, sisters Torn apart.
Sunday, bloody Sunday. Sunday, bloody Sunday.
How long, how long must we sing this song? How long, how long? 'Cos tonight We can be as one, tonight. Sunday, bloody Sunday. Sunday, bloody Sunday.
Wipe the tears from your eyes Wipe your tears away. I'll wipe your tears away. I'll wipe your tears away. I'll wipe your bloodshot eyes. Sunday, bloody Sunday. Sunday, bloody Sunday.
And it's true we are immune When fact is fiction and TV reality. And today the millions cry We eat and drink while tomorrow they die.
The real battle just begun To claim the victory Jesus won On...
I was directed to this article by my friend's blurty post. It's from men.style.com and it is an incredible and harrowing story about a gay Iraqi by the name of Ali Hili (real name suppressed to protect him), his tribulations and persecution faced for being gay as well as the numerous stories of his friends and other Iraqis who were killed because of who they are.
The litany of abuses and horrific death is mind boggling:
Haider "Dina" Faiek (male transsexual) - beaten by uniformed officers who doused her with gasoline and set her on fire while she was still alive.
Emad (transgendered woman) - killed by being run over with a car, literally, with tyre marks over the body.
Ahmed (gay) - hand grenade thrown onto his friend's lawn while he was visiting, sending shrapnel through the windows and embedding it in their faces.
Ahmed's friend (gay) - Assailants shot him dead in his home, execution-style.
Ahmed's boyfriend (gay) - As he was entering the local gym with Ahmed; assailants ambushed them there and opened fire. Ahmed reached the bathroom and hid there; his boyfriend was killed.
Two teenagers were killed, reportedly for working as gay prostitutes; an actor was holed up with five others in an impromptu shelter; another transgendered woman was assassinated; a lesbian couple from Najaf were slain, etc.
It seems to have started with a fatwa issued by the Shia Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani who said that anyone involved in homosexuality "should be killed in the worst, most severe way possible."
Of course one would think upon reading this, "So what? Many Iraqis are dying every day. What difference does it make if they die because they are Sunni or Shia, gay, straight or transgendered, etc?"
And further more, reading and hearing about bombings and killings of ordinary Iraqis everyday have somehow numbed us to the brutality that is the reality of life in Iraq after Bush's adventure. I stand guilty of that too.
But reading the above article somehow brought that awful reality closer to me. The only similarity between Ali and me is that we are both gay men. Apart from that, we are as different as a white European is different from a black African living in say... Nigeria. However his story made him a real person as opposed to just another casualty figure if he had died as a result of the ongoing sectarian war or as a result of being killed for his sexuality. Thank god he made it out alive.
And if we think that this really doesn't concern us, we need to remember that regardless of whether we are straight or gay, who we are and where we were born in is a result of our involuntary and compulsory participation in the great ovarian lottery (to use Warren Buffet's term).
What if we were born a gay man or woman in Baghdad instead of here in Singapore or wherever we are living now in relative peace and prosperity?
Do read Ali's story, it may be a bit long, but I can assure you that it's not boring. In it, you will get to meet a kind and charitable gay couple like Jean Philippe de Bliek (41) and Edwin Dadema (48) and you get to discover that Amsterdam is a stopover hub in the great gay Underground Railroad for gay people in search of freedom.
On a slightly different note, I find it kind of ironical that this whole chaos that is Iraq now is a result of Bush's attempt to liberate that country from tyranny, oppression and dictatorship.
It's obvious to anyone that the country now is in the grips of something that is way more oppressive, tyrannical and dictatorial than Saddam Hussein. That tyrannical dictator is chaos and hate, and it emanates not just from one single source like Saddam, but from a host of people, known or unknown, influential and powerful or not, and armed with some very serious weapons and an awful agenda. It seems like the country was kicked out of purgatory and directly into hell.
And on the subject of Bush, I read this very interesting article on Yahoo News (directed there by my sister) recently.
GUATEMALA CITY - Mayan priests will purify a sacred archaeological site to eliminate "bad spirits" after President Bush visits next week, an official with close ties to the group said Thursday.
"That a person like (Bush), with the persecution of our migrant brothers in the United States, with the wars he has provoked, is going to walk in our sacred lands, is an offence for the Mayan people and their culture," Juan Tiney, the director of a Mayan nongovernmental organization with close ties to Mayan religious and political leaders, said Thursday...
...Tiney said the "spirit guides of the Mayan community" decided it would be necessary to cleanse the sacred site of "bad spirits" after Bush's visit so that their ancestors could rest in peace...
The rest of the article is available via the linked title above.
Thank god Bush's term is ending soon. But sadly, the chaos he created in Iraq will not disappear when his term ends. I frankly doubt if it's going to end anytime soon.
CURRENT
TOP