Keeping a sense of humor between Baghdad's ever-encroaching walls
McClatchy's Iraqi staffer Laith has a great little post on the Inside Iraq blog, describing one instance of how Baghdad's people keep their sense of humor --and therefore, their sanity and humanity-- as they deal with the ever-mushrooming system of high concrete walls that the occupation authorities have been using to physically quadrillage the city.
(*Quadrillage is a fancy French-in-Algeria term for using physical barriers and stringent movement controls to "divide and rule" a subject population. Guess where the US occupiers got this "walling in" idea from, in modern times... )
Laith wrote that usually he finds the long wait to get through the gaps in the wall are frustrating in the extreme. But on the day he was writing about, this happened:
- I was only three steps away from the gap but I didn't want to pass because I kept listening to the funny comments of the young men. A group of young men started talking as if we are in Palestine passing through the big blast wall that was made the Israeli authorities.
Young man 1:- "how is the situation in Gaza?"
Young man 2:-"It's very bad. The Israeli tanks surround the city and bothering the civilians (referring to the American Humvees which we saw near the main residence area.)
Young man 3 "I don't know about that. I just came from Rafah and everything was fine."
I started laughing in pain. We make fun of our pains always but that was never the solution for the big problem of occupation. I'm afraid that one we would envy the People in Palestine because in spite of the improvement of the security situation, the Iraqi authorities insist on putting more blast walls. I'm afraid that I might wake up one day and I find an Iraqi checkpoint near my room's door searching me every time I get in and out. I think at that time, I would be happy if I can travel to Gaza (the real Gaza in Palestine) for some peace.