Its been many months since I linked to a post by one of McClatchy's Iraqi bloggers. Time to rectify that:
The word democracy is normally used to express the people's ruling or role, but in Iraq this word is losing its meaning.
For the last five years, many mistakes and bad actions had been done by Iraqi officials and Americans' by the name of Democracy. One of those things what happened on Monday afternoon, Sadrists called for a strike in our neighborhood as a kind of protest against what they call the non-stop arrests of Sadrists by the security forces.Till now, the matter is normal and they have the right to do it, but when they order people to do it without their willing is the wrong thing. The strike started on Monday with closing all kinds of shops, but the bakery ones. On Tuesday, the matter became bigger and more serious when the Sadrists ordered the schools to close their doors for students, prevented employees to go for their offices, asked the mini bus drivers (Kia minibus) to transport people and closed the main green grocer market which supply south and west Baghdad with vegetables and fruit.
I suffered with my family for the last two days as many people did .I was out of Baghdad forgetting the miserable life that Baghdadi people do for two days only. I was about to have one week away of Baghdad, but I got a phone call from my dad telling me that the oculist we found last week notified him that he would make the operation for my mother on Tuesday morning instead of May (5) the date which was on schedule.
I was happy to hear that news and I cut my holiday coming back to Baghdad! As soon as I entered my neighborhood I witnessed the tension on people's faces seeing the shops closed .When I asked my brother told the whole matter and he said that some Sadrists member asked him to close his shop for three days and my father couldn't make a diabetes test for my Mom in the clinic which is needed before having the operation as the clinic is closed, too
.
We decided to take mother to the hospital two hours before the operation's time which was at nine on Tuesday morning to have the test in Karrada neighborhood where the hospital is. Sadrists members stopped us three times and prevented us to be out, but the fourth route we took had some people who understood the case and let us go for hospital!
Luckily, we had the test and the operation done on time though it took us five hours to have mother be out of the operation room.
We thanked God that the operation was done after long suffering to have an oculist in this country having some people who were about to prevent my mother having it for a strike which may cost people's lives and was about to cost mother's sight.
I just wanted to ask the people who did the strike of the bad and good points of such a strike, but I didn't. The matter is obvious as hospitals, schools, offices, food stuff and transportations are not available.
At that time, my mind brought back to Saddam's regime when Baathists were doing the same thing ordering people to close shops and ask for money from people without their willing with different excuses.
When Iraqis are drawing an equivalence between their lives under Saddam to their lives today...
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