Kurdistan Bloggers Union

I am not sure if I am one, but I can say I am a contributor,
after reading this, I felt so happy that I am doing something "might be" useful oneday regardless of the fact that I do this for the sake of my nation's fate, but that news is directly related to a humanitarian disaster which needs immediate action!

those who can and are willing to send even a pound (or dolar), please do not hesitate, they can direct you!

anything you can donate, even clothes! those in UK please check that part of it out if you are struggling to find a place to contact, make sure your read the comments!
and
this

Now this would be very good for ppl like Mr.Al-Obaidi who enjoys the freedom by the UK authorities while backbiting them on al-jazeera, claiming that Saddam was a hero and Bush is the bad-guy: here you are sir, you had no son,daughter, wife or parents been burried alive right? so you shut up and continue charging ppl 25 Sterlings for 100 arabic words you translate in stockton on tees and pray for Tony Blair not to kick you ass and send you back to the camels...
"SULEIMANIYAH, Iraq, Dec 29 (AFP) - 16h30 - Labourers digging the foundations for a new hospital in Kurdish northern Iraq uncovered a mass grave on Wednesday containing an estimated 60 bodies, local officials said"

I will send you a Link mr Obaidi..lets go personal if you like

Mr.Mohammed al-obaidi or I should say Mr. Knows Nothing Al-Jazeera Drugged, writes on Al-Jazeers probably thinking that Kurds are still sleeping in the mountains and will not be able to read what he writes about them, here he writes about My Town's genocide before saying anything else I should say that Dr.N.O.Karim is going to sue you legally for your allegations on him in your article on the antiKurdish channel Al-jazeera.
Mr.Al-Obaidi lives in UK and just like other Arabs he is here to exchange his arabic IDs and passports to the breeze of freedom in UK. That is why he can speak english, too. I wil study his background and will write more about this Chemical Ali supporter.
Mr. you are not the first person to say this and we all know very well that you got those information from your imprisoned dictator Saddam. Let me just tell you without any proof, just by looking at your writing how you cant fabricate the story:
first of all, why going all the way round to Israel and coming back to the war on Iraq, you should have had it in your dummy mind that we shouted this genocided but no one heard us as soon as it happened and we have cassettes and voices proving the attack's launching order. Talking about Kurdish leaders has nothing to do with the order from the Council of Command in your previous regime, they knew nothing about it, and the israeli Kurdish organisations and any links between us if there are any, were all formed after the world was shocked (except arabs like you) by the chemical attack on Halabja.
Linking our cause to your coward attitude against Israelis and your incapableness of fighting them changes nothing of the fact that you guys killed 5000 people of my nations, go on and get objective evidence Mr.Translator, as your colleague I am sworn to say the truth not to fabricate anything!
"Pelletiere's report also said that international relief organisations that examined the Kurdish refugees in Turkey failed to discover any gassing victims." you wrote..
For Arab Leaders Sake, just tell me where did you get this? where there any Halabjaeean fled to Turkey? or there was no survival route apart from going up on to the mountains or flee to Iran, Turkey for your information is hell away from Halabja and there is no way to get to Turkey unless you might have thought that Iraqi army helped us pass through the mountains by jets or through the cities by super confortable buses and took us to Turkey Mr.Aljazeera Drugged!
...look at this comment Mr:
""And it is an especially crucial issue right now. We say Saddam is a monster, a maniac who gassed his own people, and the world should not tolerate him. But why? Because that is the last argument the US has for going to war with Iraq.""
you are dumb, clumsy and knows nothing, USA's last argument has never been that and the wold knows that they went in to Iraq because you guys needed a lesson and that is why it was launched, dont you still get it that your butts must be kicked then you behave humanly?

I am not a professional in gasses and stuff, but I survided it by the coal we used as soon as we started coughing, but if you dont believe the HRW reports then continue your arabic translations and if you have time take your professionals and you personally go to Halabja, ask the people to direct you to where C.Ali is going to be tried at, may be you could defend him, as you seem to be a very good solicitor.
CHAK will be in contact with you soon!

Odd title for such a horrible year, but I'm weird like that
So how about using the holiday season as an excuse to add a light touch to all this. This traditionally could be done by posting pictures or stuff written by kids who can't spell, wont do that.. partly cos dyslexia isn't cute. Or by exploiting a pet... u know dress it up in something u shouldn't and put it into something odd like a basket or cloth liner or something.. like this site for example am not even sure if it's real, check out that second pic.. the "cat" needs exorcism and fast

No instead humor... humor is good, humor doesn't steal ure food and it doesn't necessarily hurt your eyes so here are few links that are bound to get a laugh

John Fanzine:
Definitely has the funniest stuff I've ever read on the web. Though the funniest ones I found are thrown in the drivel barn section. Like "Page the Oracle"... pure genius, memories of so many wasted hours trying to follow shows of that caliber.

But check the other sections out like the TV wonder and Gloopy Minstrel.

as for visual, group x have finally released a new video (well kinda new, wasn't aware of it till brothers forwarded it)

also homestarruner:
an ace animation site , especially the sbemails (like the japanese cartoon and video games one) and the "teen girl squad" cartoons in the toons section, the most random animation ever made.

Other site are available under the really funny but not relate section in the sidebar

I may not be able to post for the next 2 weeks so an advanced merry christmas, happy new year and according to hallmark kwanzaa and national mentoring month

... because it seems to be the case according to AFP, as a statement tells, concerning the killing of 5 Turkish policemen in this district :

"Turkish leaders denounced monday "despicable trap" where 5 Turkish policemen lost life friday, in Norhern Iraq, a region controlled by Kurds. They promised to enlighten all the circumanstances of the massacre, during an official ceremony for the victims. ."

Well until today, I believed that Kurds have an authority neither on Mosul nor Kirkuk, precisely because Turks did protest immediately after the fall of Saddam, and refused Kurdish presence in these regions. So if Mosul is now a dangerous chaos they have not much way to do for finding the guilty persons.

Is it just me or are these elections as ominous as how iraq was just before the war. thinking of it things were actually more relaxed than this pre-war, I mean then we could call iraq and we would get the usual "no Biggy" talk from relatives (my relatives in iraq and kurdistan are the type that usually minimize anything and everything), but now its more "we don't know to be honest". I am all for elections but somebody provide these ppl with safety. Look at the level its arrived to.. look how in control these animals are when they can pull election workers out of their car on a busy street and kill them execution style without anyone doing anything about it. Its sick and its pathetic.
And you know how ppl go on about these secret organizations that act like a cult and rule the world.. like zionism, freemasonry and that odd yale group they kept talking about during elections that both bush and kerry belonged to (I'm not even sure it was yale but something around this idea). Ok here's one which I think is more vile that the other... human rights organizations. Ok laugh.. u done. Now here's my explanation... these human rights laws... when and where have they actually protected innocent human beings...they didn't protect the Kurds under saddam (or iraqis for the matter) the kurds in turkey syria or iran, they didnt protect chileans under pinochet and now they're not protecting the ppl of darfur from the sudanese government, so what exactly is there point there. On the other hand look at these ppl milosovic, pinochet, saddam, the ba'ath and the criminals in iraq. Could they be any more protected. And these ppl have the nerve to go on about how the court is not legitimate. If I was judge in the saddam trial i'll just give each of them a chance to play russian roulette with a loaded machine gun, though that would make their death too easy. I know its not the organizations exactly that are responsible (well partly) its the way they allow other ppl to use their laws.

For example Qassim Daud at a press conference was asked how come you can't at least execute these ppl, he was like what can you do we catch them red-handed doing the act and all the EU countries come up to us with all these human rights laws threatening us to not write off our debts if we even show a picture of one of them.

Sometimes its just better to forget the entire thing, you know leave iraq for a bit... like today we were watching this show on Roj Tv about Shano, a kurdish dance group, who were trying to make it to the edinburgh fringe festival. (To those interested here is some info about the troubles they had getting there and here is a mini-bio of the guy behind it )... and seriously it was really good and when they finally showed them dancing it was great... According to my dad they do more through their dancing for the kurdish cause than any political party can. I wish I could find a video of the thing. So basically it was one hour of a really good show then it finished and we switched on to other channels and we get the news of kurds being killed in kirkuk (kurds again being treated like sub-humans in their own city), kurds not being allowed to vote in kirkuk (yeah and 70,000 as well), iraqis dying on the street and in mosques, iraqis getting beheaded and iraqis getting kidnapped. These are the times when you see how different kurdistan is from the rest of Iraq... I mean in kurdistan a music festival just wrapped up in iraq its just death,death,death ok i know kurdistan is not perfect but its heavenly compare to that. And you wonder why kurds aren't even willing to integrate... honestly if this was your country would you?

Emmunah's posted an interesting post about Banaz Ali , the kurdish woman who ended up being interrogated by the FBI because of a computer glitch. Also another good read is this article (via kurdish) called Kurds at the Nexus of Global Politics

I was searching for kurdish songs to post on kbu a while back when I came across this site that had a song from a concert in the anniversary of the halabja massacre. Now it has been a really long time since I've heard it and honestly it is one of the most moving songs I have heard

To those who aren't exactly sure what halabja is but keep hearing it thrown around for the past two year's here is a flash file that summarizes it very well. And remember that this was just part of a campaign that systematically destroyed 4,500 villages and cities and taken over 180,000 lives all at the hands of a government that everyone is scurrying to defend at this moment. Wonder how our new found lovers of freedom (only for criminals mind you) will defend Mr poor victim of imperialism once the bastard's on trial next week. Though actually at this point I won't be surprised if acts like this happen again and again since the ppl with this mentality are to this day are taught that they can kill as much as they want and still be considered victims. And at the level that brainwashing is spreading there is very little chance that these people will ever evolve.

Now this is what is great about this song, it is the total other extreme of what these beings stand for. Even with all the injustice and oppression inflicted by the baath and its supporters, there were no suicide bombings , no constant calls for death, no live-link beheadings none of that... Just a concert with a beautiful and haunting song and that is the huge difference between them and us.

Check this song out for yourself ... it takes a few seconds to become clear. Also anyone know the full lyrics of this song (or where to get them), that link above was for the 1999 med tv concert, the original one was performed back in either 1991 or 1992.

This might not get to anywhere, and given I have very little time to even read my emails, but I was listening to BBC Radio2 telling the terrifying story of the unlucky Iranian femail "Layla M.":
at 9 she was forced to be pregnant,
she was forced to work as a prostitute for the last 10 years; guess by whom? (HER MOTHER!)do you call her a mom?
she was sold to an Afghan man(physically, I would not call him a Man),
she was pregnant again in 14,
she was sentenced to 100 lashes by the Ayatollah courts; she Survived,
Layla now with mental problems is facing execution on grounds of "Adultry"!!
she is on the verge of execution now, callers were saying:
"Bush should have gone to Iran not Iraq!"
"where are those men who malested,raped Layla"
"In iraq, thousands like Layla died no one cared for them"
"What shari sentences an innocent girl to death after 19 years of horrifying life"
.....I say:
I just couldnt keep my tears, THIS IS AWFUL, I wish I was living in a small village and would not be able to hear all this happenign on this small world!
If the world has an ounce of mercy....someone Save her!

New Iraq Mass Grave May Contain 500 Bodies

Every day more victims are found, and I hope that they receive justice.
I would say more, but words fail me in the face of tradegy.

Has it already been a year since the great arab hero was found in a hole that was way too clean to accommodate his filthy carcass.

I can tell you that day was great, a giant footprint on the face of everything he stood for and the people whom he represented. Unfortunately it just didn't last too long.

Rumors about his capture came in the morning and we kept switching between all the news channels for any update, unfortunately we landed on jazeera on they had some guy on in a calling screaming while probably foaming at the mouth " its was the kurds, the kurds we know what their plan are"... cool we've now been upgraded 2nd only to jews for all the problems that face the average brainwashed arab.
And then I think arabiyah (or probably it was jazeera again) called a member of the ex governing council in his background there were sounds oululation and he said yes it is true. We still weren't convinced but we waited till the press conference that followed. Yes the "we got him" sounds corny but it did wonders then, We kept watching and waiting thinking where they would pop saddam out of, would he be sitting in the crowd, would he bought on stage, would he show up in a cage, where? the talks by bremer and pacahachi just seemed too long

But then the pictures of Mr lice himself were shown on the screen, at this point i was scared we were going to be reported as a nuthouse... the outburst of screaming and jumping that came with it was intense, and it would stop for a while to hear what the ppl were saying then start all over again.
If april 9 was all about phonecalls this day was manily sms's. Phoneacalls came a close second though. All those cheesy "we got him" messages going about, even when we were watching the thing i was getting msgs like "just woke up to the news" , "check us out... kurdish intelligence" , "did u hear those journalist shouting... aah happiness" , "hey someone even called bremer his brother...great stuff".

And again ppl started being hopeful again that things may get better, everyone was saying now security will be better, maybe as a bonus electricity will be fixed and ppl will get jobs... maybe maybe…

So wow what an anti-climax that followed

Unfortunately electricity never sorted out, no new jobs were created (for iraqis that is) and the security situation spiraled out of control. Massacres like the 1st of february and 3rd of march followed. News out of Iraq sound like plots of really bad slasher movies, mass graves are still being produced to this day.

The joy we had out of saddams capture was constantly being sucked out by shameless neo-baathists in the east and west about "afterall he was a president/muslim/arab he shouldn’t have been treated this way" forcing us to encounter all new forms of low among humanity

The fact that saddam was found cowering in a hole like a coward somehow transformed into more arabic hero moments. a leader who defied the americans till the end (um i must ask... how?)

The americans didn't soothe things either, the hole saddam was found in was cemented up a few months later... fueling more conspiracy theories and missing the iraqi ppl out on a goldmine of a tourist opportunity.. I myself would have paid loads to see the place.

And what about saddam, on last weeks episode of barnamay barnama (a pretty good kurdish sketch show that sometimes tends to drag on a bit) one of the characters was going on about how saddams cell was the safest place in iraq. Which is what I already believed in anyway, think of it the only person in iraq who doesn't have to worry about waking up alive, his health is constantly monitored by the red cross whom have decided to cease all work in iraq and solely be on operation saddam douche-watch or his preferred mailboy
His menu seems to be getting more and more elaborate
He ha s a daily shower of Human rights protetion, while none given to iraqis.
He can rest easy that his family who have stolen most of iraqs money are living in luxury in jordan (not sure how far luxury in jordan gets u but luxury nonetheless) where his gruesome twosomes children are attending expensive private schools all coutrtesy of our ever bloodsucking neighbors (forget bad neighbors we are living in a neighborhood of crooks and thieves)

His family don't have to pay one cent for the debt and backwardness they’ve put the country though in fact are allowed to continue stealing more money, while the paybacks are left for the iraqis
There you go, the best ad for dictators... you can kill as much as you please using middle eastern rights but be protected by all forms of western rights when you are caught.

This year has been another year of hell for iraqis and heaven for saddam and
his sort lets hope next year this situation would be reversed and multiplied.

a new and democratic Constitution, recognizing the existence of Kurds, guaranteeing the right to have a public educational system, to have media in their own language and the right to found associations, institutions and parties in the aim to promote the free expression of their culture and their political wishes ;

a general political amnesty in order to found a climate of confidence and reconciliation and to begin a new chapter and let violence and armed conflicts ;

Starting, with the support of Europe a vast program of economic development for the Kurdish area, including especially the rebuilding of more than 3 400 Kurdish villages distroyed in 90s and inciting measurements for the return to their home of the three million displaced Kurds.

There is a new link on the page to a site called "There is no Northern Iraq", can someone let me know you made that up? Kani from the American Kurdish Information Network (in which the site links to) would like to thank that person personally.
Thanks
Delal

No not the japanese dish that sometimes doesn’t even contain fish (california roll u confuse me) but a spoof nickname for ppl who are half sunni half shiia, the first time i heard it I thought it was a euphemism for something. And I hate when something comes up that’s obviously new but ppl go on about it as if they've had it all along "c'mon u don't know sushi?", and its funny with ppl going about saying "I'm a sushi he’s a sushi she's a sushi"
Trust it to be iraqi since its related to food, more of a case of ah so u want us to segregate fine but leave the decision to our digestive system.
I wonder if there are other dishes to be made of all the other mixes of ethnicities the country has been divided into so far :Assyrian, Chaldean, Kurdish, Sabei, Shia, Sunni, Turkmen, Yezidi (apologies if I missed anything out here)

The thing is alot of iraqis are half and half, though much fewer during this generation cos' some ppl came along and decided even marriages could be used as political bonus points. Just thinking of all the Iraqis we know, we definitely are a mixed bunch. I remember my mother telling me in her uni years there was this indian-movie love story between a sabei and shiaa, unfortunately it didn't end like an indian story and they couldn't get married... no major fight scenes either or dancing on hilltops... why did i use this metaphor anyway.

Though until the last few years I wasn't aware of this deep split between the others, I mean yeah we know they are different for example like the kurds and arabs but thats not from a racist point of view, genealogically speaking we have more in common with german and finns than with arabs. But what I mean is that recently its got to a point where I hear ppl saying any fault there is with an iraqi is due to his ethnicity, "yeah but he's a *insert race* what do u expect, they're all like that you see". And it was only few years back that ppl were asking oh are u shia or sunni. And how each person from these groups have silly beliefs and how they are conjuring plans against each other. What is it with these ppl when they wanna feel proud of their origins it should mean humiliating others. I mean from my perspective yes I am very proud to be Kurd but that doesn't mean I should go find a group of people who have done nothing to me and start picking on them… hmm maybe this a method used for people who have nothing else to be proud of then.
And to add to it there's talk of a civil war starting, though the ones still talking about a civil war now are the ones who have been dreaming about it since April 9. And as far I'm aware there’s only one group causing all the problems in Iraq yes the majority of this group are sunni arabs but more specifically saddamites and islamists who don't care if Iraq is wrecked as long as heir hero isn't in power. And if a civil war means everyone turning against them then be it.

I'm not making this up

Concussions Kept Tintin Forever Young -- Study

This was first brought up in the comments section on Ladybugs post about comic books

Check this part out
"Cyr, who wrote the study with the help of his two young sons, noted that Tintin had been knocked out 43 times by serious blows to the head."

Find anything strange there?

A. There's a guy out there who actually wasted time and effort publishing this work
B. Tintin only passed out 43 tmes? Thats way too little, the guy (if u can call him that) would collapse at sudden wind change

It even gets better........

We hypothesize that Tintin has growth hormone deficiency and hypogonadotropic hypogonadism (a disorder of the pituitary gland) from repeated trauma. This could explain his delayed statural growth, delayed onset of puberty and lack of libido," Cyr wrote.
........

Among the main reasons for Tintin's injuries were blows from a club, bullet wounds, explosions, car accidents, chloroform poisoning and falls

Normally I am a very optomistic person, sickeningly so, but every once in a while I come across an article that just makes me want to slam my head into a wall..like this one...
As World Human Rights Day approaches, Reporters Without Borders calls on President Bashar al-Assad to respect press freedom
Yes, I know that in the past I have always been an outspoken advocate of freedom of the press, speech, etc (it is all of those silly American ideals I have) but honestly, can we really expect the Syrian government to care? How many NGO's have called upon this country and that to change their ways, with little success for the most part? How important is public awareness over various issues, when those that are directly affected remain the silent majority.
There is your morning tidbit, take it for what you will.

Mullah Krekar could be linked to Allawi attack plot

How many times time are they going to let him free , he's a co-founder of ansar al islam, what are these ppl doing protecting him

Somehow these countries who've assisted turkey (and previously iraq) in stripping away the basic human rights from kurds are suddenly crapping out all types of rights in order to protect this simian

It's not like the git's even grateful; even though he's lived in one european country and obtains the nationality of another he comes up with compost like this:

In an interview that took place in June 2001, Mullah Krekar described Osama Bin Laden as the "jewel in the crown of the Muslim nation".

He has also described democracy as "heresy from beginning to end".

Oh and like every other dingy islamist he traffics drugs to fund his cause
Instead of complaining why muslims and foreigners don't mix into their culture why can't they at the same time stop defending garbage like this

What it is with mullah title that makes them so lovable in europe, I mean yes they exist elosewhere but they don't get away with half the stuff these european versions do.
I mean look at this Sheikh Hamza, Caliphate of Cologne (until earlier this year) and Omar Bakri all have impending death and arrest warrant in their home countries are yet are protected by millions of dollars worth of security and even more amnesty laws.

If norway needs to do some cost-cutting why don't they just send Krekar to kurdistan. I'm pretty sure keeping him in any kurdish city town centre for more than 2 mins would do the trick. And the kurds don't have this "oh he’s one of us so we must protect him" the same way the others do this is more "unfortunately u are a kurd that’s exactly why you'll be getting this treatment"
And to adapt it to his mentality, he can get the Islamic punishment as well, since anything democratic is heresy

How come kurds without the mullah title get lampooned constantly in these countries (ok fair enough there's was a shamreful amount fraudsters and black market/"eeshy rash" workers from the last generation of refugees) but even they don't get discrimination act protecting the mullahs.

Take the Ay family for example; they were kurdish asylum seekers from turkey. What democratic treatment did they receive? They've spent 15-16 years to get any sort of asylum in europe. The family with children where kept in a detention center in scotland for over a year, the father was deported to germany then to turkey where he subsequently disappeared (as most kurds in turkey do), where was the uproar then
How many people have heard of their story anyway?
Though there is a sorta happy ending ... after they were deported to germany a court was kind enough not to send them back to turkey

Back on the topic of islamists, the attack on the US embassy in jeddah. Look how the terms change when you switch the word iraq with saudi.
These people were criminals instead of legitimate resistance against a puppet government, no cleric came up to sign a petition for more jihad on american targets, not one human rights peep over the killing of the jihadis, families of the criminals didn't receive their little congratulatory telegram on their martyred son, no newspaper articles and op-eds showing us the view from a poor disheartened jihadi, the policemen killed were considered dead because they were doing their job, instead of rightfully killed dogs who serve the american purpose.

And this from the country who created all the ideologies, funny world.

The genocide mentioned in the bbc news article as "alleged" is renewed every time I walk by the tree in Manchester City Center, glancing at the writing "in the memory of the 5000 people died in Halabja by chemical weapons in Kurdistan on the 16th Of March 1988".

"Controversial giant media corporation" BBC says a dutchman will be charged for Supplying the Jailed Arab Hero Saddam Husain with weapons originated from USA and Japan!

read it here

remember there is no Northern Iraq

DOZ should be presented by a bookshop of Diyarbakir, which had to withdraw it from its list, for representatives of the council warned that they would not give a place to this bookshop if it keep DOZ among its choices. After a long and hard discuss, the representative of the bookshop, Murat Bey had finally obeyed, and than kept his place in the show. Some Kurdish politicians are pkay, indeed : no need for Turkish authorities to forbiden Kurdish writings, they do the job themselves.

(source : kerkuk-kurdistan).

So, do you want to know the reason ? It is just because the mayor of Diayarbakir, Osman Baydemir, is a DEHAP member. And DOZ, created by Ahmet Zeki Okçuoglu, is a free publishing house, which had always rejected the intellectual Turkish terrorism, as much as the PKK's one.

Ahmet Zeki Okçuoglu, we remindit, is presently a political refugee in Germany. He was a lawyer during a long time in Turkey, and a publisher of Kurdish books. He was always opposed to the PKK, wich he consider with disdain as brainless morons, who distroyed the Kurdish culture and killed its writers, exactly like Turks did. So Ahmet Zeki was put on the PKK black list. But it did not prevent Öcalan (who is never stupid concerning his own interest) to call him immediately after his arrest in 1999 February to defend him. At this time, everybody in Turkey trembled by hearing Öcalan's name, but Ahmet Zeki, for the cause of Kurdish people, accepted to be the first lawyer of PKK leader. So he was the main target in Turkey, many times threatened and attacked by Turkish nationalists, while in the same time, he had to face the PKK, especially when he dropped the case, being sick by his client's cowardness, who thought only to save his head and in that aim, beg pardon to Turks. Then, Ahmet Zeki, because he refused that treason, faced a campaign of the PKK, outraged that someone dared to criticize its divine president, who, a hand on his heart and tears in his eyes, prayed Turkish mothers to forgive him...

DOZ has ever had a pro-kurdish and even pro-kurdistani reputation, with a bit partiality for Barzani. A nightmare for both PKK and Turks, of course. Last year, because it has published Masud Barzani's book, "Barzani and the Kudish national liberation movement".DOZ had some trouble again with Turkish justice .

So what about the DEHAP ? Well this kind of acts shows one more time that DEHAP members are either puppets manipulated by Turks and the PKK in the same time, or goodwillingly Kurdish politicians, rescued from the HEP, DEP, HADEP parties, but boxed between their "comrads" and Turkish authorities.

i was reading kurdo's post about airports.
Seriously what the hell. Is Iraq ever in a situation where countries like turkey and jordan don't benefit. Iraq pre-saddam they benefited, with saddam they benefit, iraq gets sanctions they benefit, war-time they benfit again aftermath benefit GALORE.

I thought Iraq was meant to be liberated not thrown at the mercy of these glorified theives. Seriously can an iraqi take a dump without paying something silly like a toilet paper charge to one of these countries.
I thought we would get capitalism galore starbucks, costa, virgin, hmv, mmm applebees. Not these over-charged underthought products these guys are pumping in.

At least during the sanctions it was bearable, because iraqis had to pretend that no one knew about these smugglung rings and that it was OK to turn a blind eye to expired food and medicine that were throwing in along with their other useless products.

Now whats their excuse for allowing them to take advantage of iraq like that. Why do we have still pay turkey and jordan just to get to iraq there many many other transit places. Like instead of turkey how about cyprus.. Larnaka has decent size airport or what about athens.. it's pretty much the same as Istanbul's aiport except I remember the last time i visited there seemed to be a lot of people cutting their toenails about the place but hey that was before their airport was revamped so probably now these toenail cutters get caned or something.

Oh and jordans airport , I'm telling 2 experiences both horrible, once i even saw a nun there grumbling about the service while taking her luggage (i was shocked to see a nun outside a school or hospital but hey an agitated nun muttering under her breath ... a treat).
If they're so keen to please regional countries why don't they choose other middle-eastern airports whose business models don't revolve around what pisses the hell out of travellers : lets not tell the passengers or even give an indication about which baggage carousel their bags would end up in or even better let all the battered luggage from different airlines get thrown out of one baggage carousel the stampede part is great, or how about chaining the trolleys to the ground that has to be pure genius and to top it all off the guy who decided lets be more efficient we have 6 passport checks, how shall we work around this... I know lets make 3 rows for jordanians and 3 for the REST OF THE WORLD (a jordanian friend was like don't take that away from us its one of the few special moments we have in jordan)

Actually the trolley thing i remember i was really annoyed cos for some reason i didn't see the chain and I pulled back pretty strong pull only to get really bad backlash so i said -insert mumbled expletive- "why are they chaining trolleys now" and this equally annoyed man with alot of luggage behind us who was standing with his wife and was like "so they don't fly".

And why was suleimany's airport given to the turks to fix? have u seen the state of their constructions in turkey... and how their buildings fall domino-like at the simple tremor of the ground. Why is it that Iraqi owned construction companies abroad have a million obstacles in their way to get started in iraq but these ppl are given a blank card.

It's not likle they're bringing anything new into the country it's just leftovers they have. Take iraqiya tv ... supposedly an iraqi channel yet all it contains is re-runs from lebanese tv channels sold to iraq at a price-tag of upto $28,000 an episode . And these things are old... i mean if say LBC had miss gonorrhea 2005 we would be getting miss gonorrhea 85. Every other satellite channel is talking about chaos and destruction in iraq and when then switch back onto this channel there's some old lebanese cookshow or fashin show, how is that even relevant. I think now they've moved to old egyptian shows now.

I'm trying to think what exactly is it that these countries produce that is probably useful... so far nothing. Oh wait the produce some brand of chocolates, turkey has ulker and jordan has ghandoor. Of course its just rips off of chocolates already out there.. ulker has this fake mars bar even mascarding in the black and red outfit while ghandoor has this wannabe lionbar i think its called safari. And is there anything more heartbreaking and dissapointing that a chocolate that could have been.

Wait actually they do have a world-renowned export... terrorists, the rest of the world manufactures products they manufacture terorrists. I wonder if there's way were we can send them back, u know a refund policy. We don't even want the money for them. You pack them up in a van or cage (or whatever jihadis are packaged in) and drive them into the countries they came from and let them loose. Oh wait the good part don't let the authorities know where that is, so they can have all the fun and joy of jihadis holy war firsthand, automatic feedback. Terrorism out of Iraq without human rights shoved up our face all the time cos' as you know huuman rightas abuses don't exist in those countries.

This book is out to get me. Don't you hate it when u say that ure not interested in something and it keeps getting rubbed in your face. I mean i heard of this book while back and just ignored it and since then its everywhere... everybody's reading the damn thing. Ppl i speak to have to mention it at some point, news stories about its "controversy" were afire, the blogs were talking about it a while back, the kid i pick up with my brother from school was reading, the receptionist at my gym is reading and every damn bookshop in the country has it at the entrance of the store and for the fun of it they just decide to give it different covers.. now available in paperback, special edition,abnormally rectangular shaped form . And to top it all off tom hanks would be acting in the movie vesion of it. I think that may push me to read it. So far most people have said that it was either ok or too except the one person who said it was life-changing

Speaking of mind-garbage sidney sheldon has released another book... i thought he was dead. They're great travel reading and are ok once you get passed the fact that the character have more hormones than brains, the twists at the end are good. I never seem to get them but then again i'm not exactly thinking when im reaing these things who else is there ah yes good old jean sasoon, i only read that one book about this saudi royal, and from what i've heard most of the stuff she says is actualyl true but come on how many more book is she planning to write in the same method. She always comes across as "look this is a sensual woman oppressed in the restrictive arabic (pronounce araYbic) environment and this is me beneftting off her supposed misery" Now she's released a book about afghanistan and iraq(the woman follows trends doesnt she)
Anyway her books are always thrown next to some military diaries and the neverending books about osama and saddam.
Actually this one time i went in the bookstore to buy a newspaper and this guy was in front of me in the queue. I think he was saudi cos of the red and white ghutra/headgear (i could be wrong cos the stuff he was saying sounded kuweiti) Anyway and he was telling the bookshop guy why are you still selling books about saddam. this man bye bye. And the bookshop guy was muttering something about "this isn't my shop i just work here i dont buy these". So ghutra guy was like "ok tell ure boss no more saddam ok".. its funny when u realise most ppl dont actually give a damn