Judgement Day

Emad's father died so we visited the wake.  The family welcomed us and poured more pepsi and we said the first Surah of the Qu'ran as is the custom.  The Exordium.  I sat quietly while the muslims held their hands palms up and whispered from memory: ...praise be to god, lord of the worlds... master of the Judgement Day..."  Afterwards silence prevailed.  "Can we speak?" I asked BBA Mohammed.  "Yeah, sure."  "Are all these men family?"  Mohammed spoke with the men.  "They're brothers--Emad's uncles," Mohammed pointed to six older men.  "Everyone else is family too."  Chai was served (I drank a cup for you, Walter).  Then Emad said the Iraqi Army had turned away several out-of-town family members--but eventually agreed to allow visitors with valid ID cards.  We gave Emad money for the burial as we left, another Arab custom.

In the HMMWV soldiers played"Brass Monkey" by the Beastie Boys on their ipod.  "Brass monkey, that funky monkey.  Brass monkey, junkie."

Proof there is something irreverent about every sober moment in Iraq.

Water Theft

Yesterday we escorted a crane to a poor farm area in order to rip out buried irrigation pipes. These pipes provided water to fields of tomatoes, cucumbers, and hay. "That's a corn field there," said BBA Mohammed. I've never seen corn here so we argued about this for a minute.  All the pipes we destroyed were illegal. Farmers siphon water from nearby government canals to keep from having to clean their own canals. "Did you ever think the government would come here and do this?" I asked one delinquent farmer. "I've been taking this water for a long time," he said.

In 1982 Saddam paid Turkish engineers to build 150km of canals in Yusufiya for irrigation and potable water. At the time Yusufiya was world renown for date palm trees. But Saddam's wars prevented important irrigation maintenance. Until recently Al Qaeda shot or threatened government workers who tried cleaning the canals. Nasar, the Yusufiya government irrigation engineer, asked American and Iraqi soldiers to escort him into the fields. The farmers knew they were breaking the law and didn't argue when the crane smashed their pipes. One farmer gave us lunch: unleavened bread, salted cucumber slices, wheels of cheese, fried eggs, and marmalade that everyone sipped from the same jar.

the Path of Literature

A'adil is a short, leather-brown Iraqi man with ashen hair and deep set eyes.  He smokes "5 Star" cigarettes and always wears trim khakis.  "My life was school, the army, the wars, all of it was controlled, it was as though I lived in a tunnel," he explained.  "I don't want this generation to have the same experience."

 

Though he has a Chemical Engineering degree and Newspaper editing experience, A'adil fixes televisions.  Even plasma screens.  He repaired one on the patrol base.  When I heard he was a writer I asked him to teach a class at the renovated Community Center (a project completed by the Infantry company here).  A'adil agreed to teach poetry.

Last night was his first class.  15 teenage boys attended: sitting in two rows, taking notes, and standing up to ask questions.  "What is poetry," A'adil rhetorically asked, "An expression of the human soul with special words--to reach a certain aim or goal."  Ali translated all this for me on the fly.  "There are two types of poetry: classical or 'vertical poetry' and modern," continued A'adil.  "Any questions?"  A boy raised his hand, "sir, will there be an exam?"  "No," laughed A'adil, "I want to give you this class to teach you the way of literature instead of killing."  Another boy asked, "are there long poems?"  It was a good class.

A'adil read a poem by Dr. Hazim Souleman entitled: Waiting.

You say wait a minute, Spring will come

For Spring is fruitful all the time.

Winter has gone and Springtime has come

but Spring became like Winter.

There's no generosity that I expect

And you were not truthful with me and I am disappointed.

You are as you are in both seasons:

A scent that looms; a natural light.

"This poet was executed by Saddam Hussein," said A'adil.