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An Average Iraqi

An Average Iraqi is just a fictional character whose....well, fictional. I will use this character to make a comparison between him and real human beings like myself or any one else.

Name:Hassan
Location:Baghdad, Iraq

My name is Hassan Kharrufa. I am a 20 year old Iraqi student. I study civil engineering at the Department of Building and Construction at Al-Jami3a Al-Taknologia (The Tecknology Univirsity), Baghdad, Iraq.

Iraqi Bloggers BiographyUpdated November 11

Sunday, February 27, 2005

22 Down

  A couple of days ago, a couple of terror gangs were caught in Mosul, one of them was named "The liberation Army", but I can't remeber the name of the other one. However those terrorists seem all to have been recruited by Syrian Intelligence for cash, they were transferred to Syria were they received training on different handy works. They were being paid dearly and some of them were promoted to what they call a prince if he slaughters more than 10 persons, and his pay is increased respectfully. They did many horrible things for small amounts of cash even so. The Iraqia TV channel showed the whole thing, but it doesn't have an internet site so I couldn't find any links to this story.


  All of them started fighting Americans at first and then turned to other jobs like kidnapping. They knew the people that worked with them but they knew their contacts to Syrian intelligence only by figure, so they are untrace-able. The interrogating officer got pretty mad at them at the end of the interrogation, I don't blame him. That's what an average Iraqi would have done.


  Next on the blog news: Cile (Xer-Files) has started blogging recently, pass him by and say Hi. He says he started blogging because of me, I say I started blogging because of Najma (A Star from Mosul) and so the show goes on, lets see who is going to start blogging because of Cile.

Thursday, February 24, 2005

Make up Your Mind

  It has been a week since college started out again, it is a breather to be able to go out again and enjoy being with friends. The only fun-spoiler is getting there and back, but I have already wined about that so I'll just pass on it this time.


  Each day when I wake up and head to college the weather is more hot than cold, or let's just say cool. But it doesn't take it much more than the 4 hours of my lectures times in college for it to cool down. So by the time I get home, which is like 6 Pm the sun would have vanished and I am more like an ice cube. So sun do me a favor and MAKE UP YOUR MIND, because I don't know what to wear.


  I told a couple of guys about the blogger and a project evolved about getting the department an offical blog, but it is still an idea. I'm hoping it will become a reality because it could turn into a really good thing. But as I said still a project.

Saturday, February 19, 2005

Time War

  My endless battle with time is how to spend it, and when I get bored it means I'm losing, and right now I'm losing. Usually when I get bored I would go out, spend time, come home late stuff like that. It seems like a million years ago. I don't think that after the war I hung out after 8 PM. I actually have nothing to do when I'm home, and my best way to spend time is to go to college, get some homework, some times the phone can kill an half an hour or so, but college is the best of my allies.


  It looks like our new president is going to be the Kurdish Jalal Talbani -I'm not sure how to spell his name- although he is not there yet but he's just around the corner, so I'm not going to judge him or anything because I virtually know almost nothing about him, I'll just wait and see how it turns out. Generally the situation is better after the ellections, big explosions are becoming less and less frequent, minor fightings are tireless but less altogether, so the future looks bright after all.

Tuesday, February 15, 2005

Trip to College

  Today I took my trip to college, I study Civil Engineering in the department of building and construction. The way to college takes roughly about an hour and a half, depending on the traffic and army convoys, which travels much slower, will not take any one passing them, and will shoot any one who doesn't take the hint.


  Even so, that is not the worst thing, because the convoys actually move, unlike another situation. Imagine a very busy T intersection which barely moves whith the precence of traffic control, now take the traffic control out, what will you have, the answer is CHAOS.


  The way back is a bit better because the traffic is lighter since most people are already home back from work, it's beggining to get dark, and NO ONE goes out in the dark unless he's got some kind of a death wish. Since most hijackers are out in the night and most of the fights between americans and terrorists occur at night, and believe me you don't want to be there when it happens, bullets will be flying all over the place, explotions here and there, see one and you have seen them all.


  Now I'm drifting off point, so back to the trip. One time during the gas/gasoline shortage the car actually ran out of gas, great just what i needed. And it picked the greatest place to stop, it was over some bridge so we couldn't just leave it there we had to push it down and find some place to park it, the driver went to get some gas but we couldn't wait for him, there just wasn't enough time. So we went on our own that day. But it seems he managed to get some gas and picked us up on our way back.

Saturday, February 12, 2005

Unwillingness to understand

  Just a while ago i recieved a message from someone in France. I guess many of you have heard of the kidnapped French jouranlist; Florence Aubanas and her guide in january, 5th. So this message was about her, the sender sent with the message another message for her and asked if i can post it in my weblog. So here is my answer to him:


Unwillingness to understand



Florence,



  Now it's been 38 days since you disappeared and I feel the omnipresence of your absence.


  Absence of a journalist involved in the defense of democracy values; absence of a very appreciated woman.


  Now it's 38 days there is a lack in the journalist profession, as if it was missing some letters in the word "liberty". Or as if an arrow -the arrow of intolerance- sanked into "liberty".



  Your absence, this lack, this emptiness are growing every day. And I stumble over the sentence "unwillingness to understand".



  That's absolutely certain that the pen of the journalists and the image of the photographs are essential defences facing the war, facing exactions, facing corruption. Your articles, as those of your colleagues, are so much pillars for democracy. One of these pillars will lack, and democracy will shake! So your presence in Iraq disturbs. As Ingrid Bettancourt in Colombia also does. As Enso Baldoni did. But I still do not understand how one can kidnap or murder



  Then, which French people could ignore that you disappeared ? Which one and more, which journalist ? Which student in a school of journalism ? Nevertheless, this morning, I read only 650 messages on Liberation's forum and hardly 1200 on that of "Reporters without frontiers" Hardly 1800 support and sympathy messages. I read them all. Only a few come from colleagues. Even so, certainly your kidnappers have direct access to these. Since the beginning of the invasion of Iraq, we noticed that terrorist and islamist fighters are masters in the art of communication with internet. But, where? Where are the supports of thousands of journalists, press correspondants, photographs, local reporters, students in journalism? The more the days flow, the less I understand these absences



  So Florence, all that, is too much. Much too much.
Get back soon! It will give meaning to the word "liberty", still drastically reduced this morning. Then, I hope we will work together to resolve these unwillingness to understand. For no more Abdel Hussein Khazaal, Guy-Andre Kieffer, Fred Nerac, Giuliana Sgrena and many others at the cover of world newspapers or sticked to the front of town halls!



Thierry

Monday, February 07, 2005

Mr. Know it All

  One of the main behaviors of the average Iraqi, is that he doesn't like to say "I dont' know"; he'll propably start talking and drift off point, sometimes it's good, but that is a rare case. Reminds me of someone but am not going to say who. For example, I walked into a store the other day to buy a certain program, so i asked the guy if he had it, from his first words i knew he had never heard of it but he wouldn't simply addmit it. So he starts piling everything he had on the desk, and when he finally couldn't find it he said "Well i guess i ran out of it", no comment.


  On the other hand it is sometimes hard to get down the prone of pride escpecially if you are considerd an expert in some field and then you're asked a question that you don't have the faintest clue about, now how about THAT. An average Iraqi would have changed the subject which is a very good solution, what would you do. I'm waiting.

Thursday, February 03, 2005

Prologue

Prologue

   The average Iraqi is a person who walkes fast, talks tough, breathes air filled with home made smoke and God knows what else gases a bomb releases and sometimes it is worth his life to cross a street or drive a car.


   Take me for example on Wednesday i was driving a car, I had already bought some stuff, getting home with the car was the least of my troubles. Turned out I was wrong. The car never made it home, not my home anyway. Yeah that's right i was robbed but i wasn't shot because i did what i was told to do, not exactly what the average Iraqi would have done but that is just fictional anyways, i mean no one is exactly AVERAGE.


   But i can guess what the average Iraqi would have done. He would have propably tried ramming their car with his or pull a gun something like that. Well my car was new so i would rather give it to them than destroy it and keep it, and i didn't have a gun, not that i would have used it anyway. So either i pull a rabbit from the hat or give it to them, i chose life.


   Ok now the average Iraqi would go to the cops and report it, i did that of course but i wouldn't put my bets on them because most of them are volunteers and they are not trained cops and believe it or not a good proportion of them are actually ex-convicts. So they are fruitless, which means only one thing; my car is a GONER