At the time that everyone was watching the news on TV to have a clue about what’s going on in Iraq, I was actually there. As an Iraqi girl I was just like any other girl, seeing everything through the Family window with no self-taken opinions - until the war started on 2003 when everything I thought I knew became nothing,
After two months into the war and after weeks of struggling, I found my way back to reality and normal life took its part again - BUT during all of that, there was still a lot going on around me of that which I don't know about. After a very short while, stories started to flow up to the surface and people started talking and chewing on things that you won't believe if you hear; events got closer, touching family members and friends.
I was quietly listening until the day I saw things by my own eyes. It was a normal school day and students were all in their classes and after almost 20 minutes of the Math lesson, we heard a sudden voice of a girl screaming and crying downstairs. Yeah, "What’s going on?" was exactly the question on our minds.
As our teacher walked out of the class, we followed her downstairs and since we were all over the age of 14, in that school, we knew that there must be something serious that made a growing on girl cry like this. As we got closer to the Manager's office, the rush around the door was getting bigger – teachers, student and of course the rest of us. We were asked to keep away but we were so above normal curiosity that we got close enough to listen.
The girl had calmed down but she was still crying and talking at the same time, still in a kind of a hysterical condition. This was what she said, "I don't know where to go; they are giving him drugs to blow himself up. I don't want my brother to be a terrorist." It was a shock.
I talked to the girl, later. She was 18 years old, living together with her family in a simple house, in one the suburbs of Baghdad. She came to the manager that day to help her brother who had joined a group of rebels (terrorists) and they made him a drug addict, just like scores of others and were willing to use them (under drug effects) as suicide bombers.
After that day in my school, I knew that I will have to find the truth about what’s going on around me - to know what they don't and won't let us know - the hidden realities. They tell you terrorists are saving your country - but they aren't. As you see, they are killing your friends - brothers, sons and more - by the dirtiest ways you could ever imagine.
It was extremely sad for me to know, later, that by the time our manager phoned the police to go to the girl's house, the boy was already dead - and the girl with her family were threatened to be killed if they didn't leave their house and never return. What’s worse is more of those things are still happening and there’s more of what you and I still don't know about.
It's really sad how human beings can be so heartless - attracting a young boy, 15-16 years old, making him a drug addict, abusing him to steal, kill and then die. It's insane - but we can always say "There is a lot of love and mercy in this world; things will be better soon."
I still didn't meet that side - or maybe it's another thing I don't know about.
Rafaa
Please also see:
Kris Kristofferson, ‘In The News’ http://kriskristofferson.com/news
After two months into the war and after weeks of struggling, I found my way back to reality and normal life took its part again - BUT during all of that, there was still a lot going on around me of that which I don't know about. After a very short while, stories started to flow up to the surface and people started talking and chewing on things that you won't believe if you hear; events got closer, touching family members and friends.
I was quietly listening until the day I saw things by my own eyes. It was a normal school day and students were all in their classes and after almost 20 minutes of the Math lesson, we heard a sudden voice of a girl screaming and crying downstairs. Yeah, "What’s going on?" was exactly the question on our minds.
As our teacher walked out of the class, we followed her downstairs and since we were all over the age of 14, in that school, we knew that there must be something serious that made a growing on girl cry like this. As we got closer to the Manager's office, the rush around the door was getting bigger – teachers, student and of course the rest of us. We were asked to keep away but we were so above normal curiosity that we got close enough to listen.
The girl had calmed down but she was still crying and talking at the same time, still in a kind of a hysterical condition. This was what she said, "I don't know where to go; they are giving him drugs to blow himself up. I don't want my brother to be a terrorist." It was a shock.
I talked to the girl, later. She was 18 years old, living together with her family in a simple house, in one the suburbs of Baghdad. She came to the manager that day to help her brother who had joined a group of rebels (terrorists) and they made him a drug addict, just like scores of others and were willing to use them (under drug effects) as suicide bombers.
After that day in my school, I knew that I will have to find the truth about what’s going on around me - to know what they don't and won't let us know - the hidden realities. They tell you terrorists are saving your country - but they aren't. As you see, they are killing your friends - brothers, sons and more - by the dirtiest ways you could ever imagine.
It was extremely sad for me to know, later, that by the time our manager phoned the police to go to the girl's house, the boy was already dead - and the girl with her family were threatened to be killed if they didn't leave their house and never return. What’s worse is more of those things are still happening and there’s more of what you and I still don't know about.
It's really sad how human beings can be so heartless - attracting a young boy, 15-16 years old, making him a drug addict, abusing him to steal, kill and then die. It's insane - but we can always say "There is a lot of love and mercy in this world; things will be better soon."
I still didn't meet that side - or maybe it's another thing I don't know about.
Rafaa
Please also see:
Kris Kristofferson, ‘In The News’ http://kriskristofferson.com/news