Iraq at a glance

Tomorrow is a day of feast, the Greater Bairam which lasts for 4 days, so there is a vacation for 4 days, but the governing council gave Thursday as a holiday too so all the governmental institutions will have a vacation until Saturday.
More than 2 millions hajj are now in Mecca in Saudi Arabia to go on pilgrimage.
I want to explain what will they do today and tomorrow there:
All the pilgrims are in Mecca and going to move to Arafah mountain, they must reach there before sunset, they will stay near that mountain till the dawn then they’ll pray the ‘ dawn prayer’ then head to an area called ‘ AlMuzdalafah’, they are going to collect 21 stones and reach to an area called ‘Muna’ to pelt with these stones at 3 places in Muna, i.e seven stones at each place ( they throw them at Satan).
After that they’ll go back to Mecca and start the ‘Tawaf’ or the roving around Al-Ka’aba ( Allah’s house) seven times, then they’ll head to ‘Al-Safa’ and ‘Al- Marwah’ near Al-Ka’aba, they must trot seven times between these two areas.
If that is the first pilgrimage for the person, he must have his hair cut, otherwise, he can shave his beard and mustache only.
Then he offers an immolation ‘corban’ to Allah, so he can offer a sheep or ewe or anything else to deliver their meat to poor people.
After that he’ll take the white clothes off and put on his ordinary clothes then do the Tawaf again around Al-Ka’aba seven times too.
And that’s it.
Then all the pilgrims will return to their homes.
In spite of the exhausting trip and the ‘sevens’ there; they come back with cheerful hearts and wide smiles because they did a great work, visiting Allah’s house.
The psychological relief makes them forget all the fatigue !
However, that was the pilgrimage which occurs every year in this ‘Hijri’ month ‘ Thee AlHijjah’.
Of course I don’t believe in such things, but I like getting information about everything !
So tomorrow is Eid, And everyone says to the other ‘ Inshallah hajji’ which is (a wish for pilgrimage in the future by the will of God.).
..........
bye

My brother and I were on our way back home, we reached the street which leads to our neighborhood and saw about 6 Iraqi police cars and members of the IP.. one of the police cars was carrying the wounded people.. on the opposite side of the street there was a car which has been destroyed and the family were crying and shouting.. we couldn’t stay for a long time because the IP was warning the people and ordering them to leave the area and get back to their homes.
The glass of the shops and cars filled the street.. the scene was horrible.. and distressful..

There is some bad news about the money transfer and it looks like Ays may not get the money until Feb-2. For additional details go here.

Update* Finally some good news to report. e*Trade has processed the wire request a little earlier than expected (and correctly this time I hope) and sent me the first receipt that the money has gone out. I'll ask them about getting me confirmation from the Jordanian bank as soon as possible.

## Many readers asked me about the money transfer, today I went to the Credit Bank of Iraq, the official told me that they haven’t received the money yet, I asked her when it was going to be available, she told me to come on Tue. Or Wed. , because the money transfer passes through two stages to reach Iraq so it takes around a week to be received in Baghdad.


## There was something funny happened in the village here in Basra,
in the morning I was standing by the door of the health center watching at the pupils walking to get to their school…. When they saw me.. they were gazing at me with beautiful smiles.. then one of them waved at me exclaiming in English ‘ Hi Mister, Hiiiii…..’ !!
Another kid started to shout at his friends ‘ Come on…. He is British… come on’ !!!!
Then they started to pass in front of me !! and whispering to each other !!
They thought that I was British !!

I told my boss about the kids’ happiness when they saw me and thought I was British, then I asked her about the relation between the British soldiers and the residents of the village, she said:
“ They are very kind and cooperative, the children made friendships with them ! they were waiting for the British everyday, The people here are poor and kind-hearted, they were suffering so much under Saddam, many young men were imprisoned, executed or died during Iraq-Iran war, we are waiting for the progress here, I hope things will get better''

### It seems that some Iraqis have destructive genes in their bodies !!
Yesterday, a worker who was trying to repair the electric converter of our neighborhood, when he finished his work and the converter started working normally, he said: “ this converter is useless and if you continue to call us whenever it stops working, our boss will send us again to repair it only and will not agree to change it for you, those engineers are careless! the important thing for them is that the converters ARE WORKING, no matter whether they work properly or not”.
“ what can we do? Surely there are no new converters to be replaced.”.
he replied :
“ no.. they have new ones ..listen.. I will give you an idea: one of the neighborhood’s residents must go out at night and destroy the converter using a gun or anything else, then when you call us to repair it, the engineer will certainly agree to change it for you'' !
When I heard that I laughed.. but he said “ don’t laugh.. I am talking seriously…I swear ”.
Then I realized that he was really talking seriously !

Huh.. What a great idea !!!! destroying my neighborhood’s converter…! nonsense….

Aaaahhh …Al-Sistani…I am sure you want us to be in a trouble.
What did you mean when you said that you’ve decided to make a government? Is this ‘Al-Sistani government’ accepted by ALL the Iraqi people? Who has told you that the Kurds and Sunnis agree with you?
I don’t like this person.. he should not put his nose in everything, he is not even an Iraqi!
And not all the Shiites agree with him..yes.. there are some Shiites groups who never follow him and do not agree with Al-Sistani to be their religious advisor, they say that he has no researches concerning Islamic knowledge, i.e they suspect in his knowledge.
Many others suspect in his relation with Saddam, how did he come to Iraq? Why Saddam left him and did not kill him like Muhammed Baqir Al-Sadr, Muhammed Sadiq Al-Sadr and may be Muhammed Baqir Al-Hakim?
There is another thing ... Where was Al-Sistani when Saddam was the president who killed his people and millions were suffering? Everyone was acknowledged about the mass graves, executions, oppression, unfair sentences and many other crimes.. all of that , according to Islam should be stopped, so if Al-Sistani wants to apply all his Islamic rules and can not bear the (Wrong), why didn’t he talk a word at Saddam’s face? Why? Why didn’t he say: this is tyranny and must be ended?
Also, Islam claims: if someone faced a tyrant and that tyrant executed him, Allah will see him as a martyr and will be awarded in paradise! and this martyrdom is a great thing , every Islamic leader wishes to be a martyr to get the paradise!
So if Al-Sistani is really..deeply believer; why didn’t he sacrifice for Muslims like others?
Speaking of those Islamic leaders, I think..or I am sure that they are all imposters, and they don’t care about anything but themselves.
Frankly talking.. I am worried about what will happen in the coming 6 months, before and after the elections of the Iraqi government and the way of elections, because if Mr.Sistani feels that this is unfair; he will certainly announce his f***ing word ‘Al-Jihad’ and we ( Iraqis and Americans) will face another war.. different war, which will be very dangerous.
When I said that not all the Iraqis follow Al-Sistani, I did not mean that he has no followers.. no.. he has hundreds of thousands of idiots ..sorry.. followers ! every follower don’t know his a** from his elbow, the followers will carry out Al-Sistani’s words at once, they think that they will be awarded by ‘Al-Jannah’ or the paradise if they do that.
So all of those followers will be brainwashed by just a click from Al-Sistani’s finger!
I am so concerned about all of that.. I hope the American government will deal with him carefully and smartly, because any mistake will not be forgiven by this Islamic leader.

Dear friends,
I sent an account no. of a bank in Iraq called 'the credit bank', this bank has an account in another bank in Jordan/Amman, I sent it to my friend Mr.Tom Villars, the kind and great man who helped me in improving my blog and now he is helping me in collecting money from paypal to be spent on paying internet fees and to buy a camera, or other useful things to improve my blog.
BUT,
Mr. Tom Villars now is facing a trouble ( I am sorry Mr. Tom), he has posted the following on the Iraqi Blogger Technical Support the site was built by Mr.Tom to inform people about paypal donations.
" Update: A Mr. Wong from the US Treasury department spoke to me today about the wire transfer. He asked a couple questions about what the money was to be used for and besides telling him it was to help Iraqi bloggers, I asked him to read AYS's website. Right now he has the wire on hold, but said things should be cleared up by tomorrow (Tuesday Jan-06). Was a little surprised a $750 transfer tripped a threshold somewhere in the bowls of the US government that caused them to actively investigate what was going on. Have to give them a point for actually being on the ball and hopefully they don't earn a bunch of demerits for delaying the money transfer more than necessary. I'll keep everyone updated as developments happen."
So, if anyone can help Mr. Tom Villars in that, just send him an e mail.
I'd be very thankful to all the people who could help.

Update* The money transfer has been approved. More details can be found here

Do you want the bad news first or the bad news !!
We went to the hell, sorry... To the village that we will work in, it is 45 minutes away from the center of Basrah and we saw the dental center, the dental chair is broken .. ..There is no civilization !! We can't go anywhere.. There is nothing to do ...
I saw something significant.. The people are tall .. Most of them are tall.. Do you know why?? Because there is a huge mass of mud stuck under their slippers !!!! Yes, there is mud everywhere.. We returned to the hotel in Basrah with brownish trousers!!
The boss told us that the dental chair will be changed as soon as possible.
On the bus I told Omar that I was concerned that we would lose our minds there !! And stop thinking !!
Anyhow, we sat down ( Omar, another friend and I) thinking and everyone said something good there.
The good things are:
- The house is newly built like the other houses in other medical centers, which is one of the plans of rebuilding hospitals, medical centers and doctors' houses.. These plans began a few months after the liberation.
- Omar, the other friend and I are at the same house.
These were the good things only.
There is another thing which is very very important and till now we don't know anything about it.. The internet access.. Some said that there were telecommunications there, others said 'forget it' !!
I will inform you about it later.
We will get back to Baghdad tomorrow morning.
I am really confused.. The greatest problem, for me, is the computer and internet access, I can't live without them.
I will post from Baghdad tomorrow..Bye.