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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

Friday, September 30, 2005

Ramadhan Kareem

     Away from politics today, some of might know it, and some might not know it, but we Muslims, have our own calendar, although it is also made of 12 months, but each month is either 29 or 30 days long. The first year of this calendar was made the date the prophet Muhammad traveled from Mecca to Al-Madena Al-Monawara. So the date today is Sha`ban 25 1426. This calendar is Hijri, sometimes it is tricky to switch between those two calendars, but I use this site to make those switches. In this calendar we don't depend on the sun like the Gregorian calendar, we depend on the sightings of the moon. So depending on these sightings, next Tuesday or Wednesday is going to be the next month, Ramadhan.


     Ramadhan is the holiest month of the Higri calendar. In Ramadhan fighting is Haram, meaning that a Muslim may not carry his weapon and go to war, because Ramadhan is a peaceful month (but we don't get our hopes on that). Also in Ramadhan Muslims fast (this might be a tricky expression). It means that a Muslim will not eat or drink anything between dawn and sunset. It is a tradition for the Iraqis to wake up at 3 Am roughly, and eat a big breakfast, which we call "Sohor", before the war, some men used to go out to the street at 3 Am with drums, they would drum there way around, waking people up. I remember when I was a child, I used to stand by the window, watching the neighborhood coming alive, darkness changing into Leigh. I remember that one neighbor would open the windows out of her room and yell at another neighbor; "What are you having for Sohor". The other one would reply, and ask the same question, then another reply, and the two women would close the windows and go back inside to prepare the meal.


     During Ramadhan the city is different, and the people are different, restaurants would hang curtains on their windows. When sunset come, the streets are almost empty, some people might be moving around, but most of them would be home, with their families, having a well earned meal.


Sunshine also posted about Ramadhan.



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Monday, September 26, 2005

A Woman's Life in Baghdad Part II

  Compare your childhood to the childhood of your children.


"My childhood was before Saddam rose to power, it was happy, I went to kindergarten, which my 6 years old daughter was deprived from, she hasn't been to a zoo, or a playing ground. I used to go cinemas a lot with my family, while all 3 kids of mine hadn't seen or went to a cinema. We can't even go in a family picnic, because of the lack of security.


"We started traveling around in 1965, we went to England and Lebanon regulary, we also visited Jordan, Syria and Turkey, compared to my kids who hasn't been outside Iraq. Right now traveling outside Iraq is possible only to some Arabic countries, and from there to other countries. But most countries treat Iraqis in bad manner, treating them as if they were.... Terrorists. My own father as an example, he tried to go to England last summer on a business trip, to go to England he had to go to Jordan first, then to the British embassy where he was supposed to get a visa, but they wouldn't give it to him. My father is 77 years old man, what kind of damage can he make there.


"Right now, there are no means of fun for teenagers, so they either spend their time in their neighborhood, and that is not a good thing, or they might bring their friends home, or spend their times indoors, on the computer or TV. My older son is capable of driving a car now, but we don't let him go out with the car, or use it to get to his university in fear of hijackers, or kidnappers, especially that my husband is a well-known architect all throughout Baghdad."



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Saturday, September 24, 2005

A Woman's Life in Baghdad Part I

  An interview with a woman from Iraq, this idea is actually Cile's idea. She gave the questions, I asked, the woman answered.


  Tell us how was your life before the war, what was positive then, and what was negative, compare it to the current situation.



"As much as the situation before the war was bad, I prefer it to the presents situation. Before the war, the main problems we had in daily lives, was the disappearance of ethics, bribes in the authorities, and mistreatment to the citizens by them. This was due to the low financial income for most Iraqis. The management of these authorities was also incapable in terms of education and efficiency.


"The positive sides o the situation before the war were, mostly security. Robberies, kidnappings, killings and hijackings were low or none. As for the current situation, the financial income of Iraqis has risen noticeably, and the management of authorities, are trying to put the right men in the right places, honest, educated and experienced.


"Personally I prefer the situation before the war on the present situation, because safeness is something irreplaceable. Everyday, when my husband and kids go to their work or schools, I stay home, worried about them from suicide attacks, hijackings and getting shot by Americans. Hijacking is not something new to us, my two kids were hijacked roughly a year ago, and one of my kids almost got kidnapped in the process. So I prefer Saddam on the present situation."



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Thursday, September 22, 2005

The Carnival of the Relatives

  Once again, the Carnival of the Relatives, which is Najam's idea, is back to give me a headache, it takes a lot of time to put this together. Anyway, here goes:



Uncle Truth Teller is the first:


According to age, Emotions follows:


Well, Aya Grany hasn't posted, and my Uncle is sadly not posting any more, so the next one should be Rose, here are her posts:


The next blogger, is someone who didn't have anything to do in his time for the last couple of weeks, so he killed his time by blogging. Hassan is next:


I'm older and she is younger, so Najma comes next:


Now, HNK is my next guest, her posts:


After a little chat with her, Dalia said she is very busy, and spending most of her time studying, promises she will be back when she have the time.

alright then, cat lovers, here she comes, Raghda:


The last one in my list, and youngest is Sunshine, she posted:



That was the Carnival of the Relatives, if you want more, see what the Other Side is saying.



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Tuesday, September 20, 2005

British Smash Into Iraqi Jail to free 2 Detained Soldierss

  This was the headline, if you read on this is part of what you will read:


Iraqi security officials on Monday variously accused the two Britons they detained of shooting at Iraqi forces or trying to plant explosives. Photographs of the two men in custody showed them in civilian clothes.
When British officials apparently sought to secure their release, riots erupted. Iraqi police cars circulated downtown, calling through loudspeakers for the public to help stop British forces from releasing the two. Heavy gunfire broke out and fighting raged for hours, as crowds swarmed British forces and set at least one armored vehicle on fire.
Witnesses said they saw Basra police exchanging fire with British forces. Sadr's Mahdi Army militia joined in the fighting late in the day, witnesses said. A British military spokesman, Darren Moss, denied that British troops were fighting Basra police.


  We saw the story on local TV, It all began when an Iraqi checkpoint in Basra discovered a car filled with explosives, two british men in civilian uniform were in the car, I'm not sure if there was an exchange of fire or wasn't, but the Iraqi police was able to take the two in custody, later to a detention center in the city. I have no idea what they were going to do with all that much explosives, and why they weren't in uniform, but it is obvious they were doing something illegal, because British tanks went through the walls of the jail, fighting with Iraqi police in order to get those two commandos out, and in that process about 150+ prisoner escaped, aren't those detained supposed to be criminals or even terrorists, and now they are back in the streets. Way to go.


  The British government denies using force to get the soldiers out, and claims they used diplomatic reasons to get the soldiers out. This will probably mean that the British government has something to hide, doesn't it, or why wouldn't they go to the easy way. The reason is that it would have probably taken longer, or that the Iraqi police might do some investigation with two commandos and might discover a few things they aren't supposed to know.



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Sunday, September 18, 2005

Driving Rules in Baghdad

  I just got this in an email from a friend of mine, I liked it very much, so I translated it then posted it, I think anyone who has been to Iraq will like it very much:



  • When you are driving your car in Baghdad, you will treat all other drivers as your enemies, and you will be treated likewise. Except for the US forces and their tanks of course, but still you will be treated as an enemy.

  • You must not use any turning signal, whether it is a flasher, or hand signal, because that will reveal your intentions to the enemies, if the situation gets desperate, give a signal for a left turn, then turn right, and whatever happens let it be.

  • Pedestrians are obstacles in your way, don't care about them and don't even look at them. But.. You must not hit, or roll over any one of them, unless you are ready financially to face the consequences.

  • Use the following principle when driving in Baghdad: "If your car is old, then anyone who wants to keep his car better step out of the way, but if your car is new, then stay away from the old cars because they are ruthless enemies, and their drivers are looking for a way to get some financial support"

  • When you enter a "turn-around" you must not look to your left at the cars coming from the other direction, because if you look at them, this means that you are paying attention to them, and thus you must give them some space to move, and thus loosing one your new rights after the war

  • When you are in a traffic jam, you will follow this rule "The first one to hit his car from forward....Gets to pass". But do not use this rule with busses, in fear for your fenders, and the bus driver won't even notice that you have hit him. And of course don't use it with the US army vehicles, in fear for your life...
  • When driving slowly, don't leave any space between your car and the car in front of you, because leaving such space will mean that another car might squeeze in this place, and that will cost you your dignity, according to the current standards.

  • When driving fast, you must stick to the car in front of you, so that the driver ahead will notice you then one of those three things will happen:

  •      1. if the driver is very polite, or a coward, he will give you the lane to go past him, and then you have made a victory and you behold the right to look down at him while you pass him.
         2. if the driver is not very polite, he will give you the lane to go past him, but you might hear some words containing animal names, and some other words also, you should have anticipated that, and your answers must be prepared.
         3. if the driver is not polite at all, which is what most drivers are, he will not give you the lane, and he will start slowing down, forcing you to slow down too, and then there might start a small war in fire arms, so you must pass him from the right or you will lose that battle.


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    Friday, September 16, 2005

    Personality Explosive

      Most of you would have heard of the recent explosions in Baghdad, if you haven't check out the Washington Post. Before getting into the topic, let's explain a few things.


      Shortly after the invasion, this new way of attack appeared, suicide bombs, the people who do this, do it because they have some kind of a believe, that when they die, they will be Shahids (martyrs). This might be true when fighting foreign forces, if we look at them as "Occupying Forces". But when it comes to killing the Iraqi police, or NG personnel, it is a different story. Then there are the killing of civilians. In Islam, killing is Haram (prohibited), unless in battle, or self defense. But killing civilians and especially muslims is a special case ,In Islam anyone who kills a single Muslim is considered someone who has killed all muslims, on the contrary, someone who saves a Muslim is considered someone who has saved all muslims. So whoever did those bombings, had the believe that those people weren't Muslims .


      Now the explosion at Kadhimiyah happened at a place we call (Mastar) in Arabic, which is a place were laborers gather up for work, when any car pulls over there, they would all gather around it, would even compete with each other for the driver's attention. So when the van pulled over that morning, they all raced to the car, gathered around it, when the car exploded. So whoever did this suicide bomb, was targeting those laborers, because he believed they weren't Muslims, so he did believe he is going to be a Shahid (martyr) by this explosion. If that person believed that those laborers weren't Muslims, then he might as well, has believed that a lot more weren't, probably millions, so if such believe does exist, it will put almost every Iraqi citizen in danger. Because whoever did that suicide bombing, he wasn't alone, there were others surely, and they might have the same believe as he does. That those people aren't Muslims and it is Hallal (allowed) to kill them.



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    Monday, September 12, 2005

    US Soldiers driving style

      Since the day I first saw a stryker on the street I was amazed at what it was capable of doing in battle, but after a few months I became to hate that thing more than any abrahams or bradly, because unlike them the stryker can easily move around the city, but it is nevertheless not suitable for driving in the busy streets of Baghdad. The way the soldiers drive it is not a help at all, imagine this situation:


      You are driving at Baghdad Al-Jedida (New Baghdad) highway, at almost a speed of 140 km/h (roughly 80 mi/h), you spot an American convoy coming on the other side of the road, so you say to yourself, they are coming, and I'm going, there is no trouble at all. But suddenly the lead stryker takes a sharp turn over the central island, and comes over your side of the road, the soldier on the top of the styker starts shooting warning shots, signaling you to stop or be shot. Now you are coming at high speed and you want to get the car at a full stop in almost 50 meters, maybe you can hit the brakes hard enough to make it, but what about the cars behind you, it is the highway after all, so you'll probably get your car punched through from behind. So maybe next time you will take choice number two, take your time in stopping so that the car behind you doesn't hit you, but the soldiers ahead see that you have failed to get your car to a stop, so they stop if for you, the hard way. You will get a full round of bullet all over you car, your engine is a complete wreckage now. You might even be SHOVED aside by the next stryker in line. Look at the bright side, you are still alive....


      Real Story: My cousin in mosul, a year younger than myself. Was driving in Mosul, at a street called Al-Jamia (College) street, the street is three lanes wide, two of these lines were already taken by the benzene queue, leaving only one lane for traffic to be moving in it, so that creates a traffic jam, my cousin is stuck in it, he can't move his car in any direction. Then, an American convoy comes from behind, at high speed, the car behind him is able to slip between two cars from the benzene queue, while my cousin is stuck, unable to move his car, only by a slight turn to the right, but doesn't create enough room for such a big car, the stryker never slowed down, it hit my cousin's car so hard it crushed his trunk, and sent his car inside the car in front of him, then went over the central island, in the WRONG SIDE direction, again my cousin hears cars screeching from a far, and bullets fired in the air. Now is that kind of driving suitable for a city. My cousin went out of this safe and sound, thankfully. But the car is going to need a lot of work to be done until it is drivable again.


      In order not to make this post, a whine'n'blame kind of post, I have a few suggestions. It has been decided a long time ago that no military convoy is supposed to be patrolling inside the city, in any case there is nothing in the city that the National Guards won't be able to handle like the US strykers. Such fire power is only needed when fighting large groups of insurgents, or making assaults on their hiding, like the assault made on Tal Aafar, and even there, most of the NGs did most of the fighting, but simply patrolling the streets looking for terrorists is not the job of the US stykers to be doing. It is a war machine after all, not a peace keeping one.



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    Sunday, September 11, 2005

    IN HIS EYES: Hijacking attempt..... Again

      First of all, you might notice that I'm being a more active blogger than I used to be, this is generally because I'm spending most of my time these days home, in front of my computer, so I have nothing more to do than keep posting. I have been trying to figure out a way to right this post a few days ago, until I got a few ideas from Najma. So the AVIRAQI in this post is my own father:


    "8 Months ago when my son Hassan, came running down the street, banging the door, I knew something major has happened and that it was going to change our lives forever. I was right, Hassan came with the news of the hijacking of our car, a black BMW has intercepted him, and hijacked the car by force. From that day on, our driving has became different, I have started to look into cars, how they drive, checking the rear view mirror every second to make sure I wasn't followed, even my driving became more aggressive to make sure that if anyone was thinking of following me to take my car, he is going to think twice before he does it.


    "But sometimes people just have to try, It happened a couple of days ago, I was coming back from work, roughly in the afternoon, I was driving through a narrow side road, a little more than two cars in width, when I noticed that a small car ahead of me was moving real slowly, and it looked like the driver was looking at his rear view mirror too much, as I got closer to the car, it made a turn to another side road, and dissapeared from my site, but it looked like it has stopped. I immediatly pressed the pedals, and the car jumped forward, 35 years driving, this was just a piece of cake. When I reached the side road the car had turned to, I kept going, and sped up, I saw one of the two men in the car, had gotten out of his car, and was pulling back the hammer of his handgun, preparing to take aim, but I had already stepped out of his view, and speeding down the road, lowering his chances of a lucky shot. But thank god, he didn't shot, guess he already knew it was a waste of time.


    "This has happened at a time we were saying that Baghdad has gotten a little better than just before the war, now 3 years later, nothing has changed from security perspective, I still could have gotten killed that day. Iraq is still in need of a lot more work done regarding security issues."



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    Saturday, September 10, 2005

    IN HIS EYES: An Average Iraqi meets a not so Average Iraqi

      This is a real story that happened during the years Saddam was in power. I was telling it yesterday to my friend Mad Canuck, and that was when the idea of turning it into a post evolved, he was the one with the suggestion to make it an IN HIS EYES post, I really liked the idea, and here it is in a post. I hope you enjoy:

    "I'm the manager of one of the steam based Iraqi electric plants, I remember clearly that day, we were running low on steam, which made our production less than 100%, and I was running everywhere trying to find a solution to the problem, then, the phone rang at my office, announcing that someone "Really high up" was coming to the plant today. OH CRAP. The last thing I need now, is someone in power going through the plant and asking, why haven't you done that and that. Not to mention that I might lose my head today, if HE didn't like something here.


    "That someone was Hussein Kamel, he was the minister of industry at that time, someone that has only went as far as primary school, then quit studying, anything could go wrong if he misunderstood something. As I was showing him around, I kept trying to sound in charge, the man for the job, maybe I'll through the day that way. The he asked:



    HK: "So I see, but you haven't told US the reason why the plant is not going on full power"   Easy one


    AVIRAQI: "Well sir, the plant is going low on steam"   I said the whole phrase in Arabic, but I said the word (steam) in English.


    HK: "Is that the only reason???"   One is enough


    AVIRAQI: "Yes sir, steam is our only problem now.."


    HK: "Alright then, I'll get you all the steam you need"   What the....

    He turned to his bodyguard

    HK:"Issue these orders: I want all the steam in the country packed up and brought to this plant, NOW."   Oh my GOD, didn't see that coming..


    "He left the plant, unaware of his fault, as I was TERRIFIED to tell him. Later in the evening, a presidential order was issued, that no technician was allowed anymore to speak any foreign word in front of any government employee..."


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    Thursday, September 08, 2005

    The Sunnis are in

      I was chatting with Treasure of Baghdad, he led my attention to an article posted by the Washington post, the article is titled Iraqi Sunnis register to vote in droves, that made me think. They are right, the last couple of times I went to the mosque, there were posters all over the walls, and they were distributing leaflets about the necessity of voting. Fact is that in the last voting, most Sunnis failed to vote, and I'm one of them, but this time is going to be different. Almost every Sunni I know has already registered to the voting, the Imam at the mosque tells at the end of each Friday sermon how necessary it is to go vote, although he gives other reason, like not letting US take control over Iraq, but the result is the same, people deciding their own future themselves, by voting instead of other means.


      One of these leaflets, I remember, told about the results of the last voting, when most Sunnis missed it, and the results expected if they vote now, it was titled, The Comparison Between the Two Wrongs, as I saw it, since that leaflet was written as a religious leaflet, not a political one. It made a comparison between the results of voting and not voting. It specified the only reason in not voting as "The refusing of these elections as they are illegal.". But it specified the goods achieved in voting as "Participating in the government, getting the Americans out of the country as soon as possible by peacefully means and making the country a safe place to live in for the first time since 35 years"



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    Tuesday, September 06, 2005

    The new driving system, a solution or a problem itself

      As a solution to the continuous traffic jams, and heavy traffic all throughout the Iraqi capital Baghdad, a new system of driving has been initiated in the city of Baghdad. The new system stipulates that cars with even license numbers can be driven a day, and the next day they can't, instead cars with odd license numbers are to be driven that day, but can't be driven the day next. This only applies to private cars, not public transportations, so the number of cars in the street is reduced heavily, but on what cost.


      This new system will make most people stay at their homes if they can't drive their cars, because most Iraqis use their cars to travel around, since the city is vast, and the public transportations are a mess, it takes a private car to move around, because taking taxis 3 or 4 times a week is just impractical. I have seen what other countries use for fighting traffic jams, for example in the US a method they use is to set up a high occupancy vehicle lanes, during rush hours. Those lanes can only be used by a bus, taxi or a car with more than 3 peoples inside. But this method is going to be very hard to follow in Iraq, because the traffic system is very fragile, and most checkpoints are more occupied with searching cars for bombs and weapons to bother themselves with lanes violators.


      While other practical solutions can be found, for example after the war, many cars have entered the country, meaning that many families now have more than one car in the house, and it is true, many families have cars for father, mother and sons. That means more cars on the road, and definitely trouble. One might consider allowing only one car for each household, to cut the number of cars. Another solution is the roads itself. Sometimes traffic conjugations happens when the road is blocked with concrete blocks so that only one lane is open, or in many cases, the road itself is very bumpy, and can't be taken fast, cars need to slow down and take it slow to cross it. Plus many roads has been blocked for military reasons after the war, that has turned the traffic from the big main roads, into the small side roads, sometimes those roads are only big enough for one car coming and one car going, not a good replacement for a 3 lanes come and 3 lanes go main street.



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    Monday, September 05, 2005

    IN HER EYES:The Big Day

      Today I went to the university, this is the first day of the second attempt exams. I saw most of my friends, they either came to take the exams, or they came just for the same reason that I did, to see each other. It's amazing how much someone might look different to you, after not seeing him for 3 months. I myself has changed during the months I spend at engineering field training. Well, since I don't have anything of much significance to post, I think I'll try a second IN HIS EYES post. The hero here is a friend of mine, that has just tried the second attempt, because she couldn't try the first one as the roads for her house were blocked at the time.


    "My house is in Salman Pack... Just outside of Baghdad. That has always made it a problem for me to reach the university, for a boy it might be easy to take a taxi and get to the university by his own, but a girl's life in Iraq is different from a boy's one. I can't take the taxi on my own, so when the roads are blocked, or when the car is down, I don't go to the university. One such day was on the first day of the first attempt exams three months ago, what could I have done, I had to go back to the house, and start studying for the next exam, like nothing has happened.


    "I knew from the day I skipped the exam that I was going to face a tough challenge at the second attempt, I don't know why, but it is a habit in Iraq that the second attempt exams are always impossible. I spent those three months preparing for this day, it is after all my Big Day. It is strange how you feel that all the information you have memorized or studied would disappear in a flash before you inter the classroom, but they all get back when you see the questions on the printed paper...


    "My friends always tell me that I'm a high maintenance person, and that was exactly what I was that day. When the professor asked us if anyone had a question about the questions, I asked him a million one, I didn't leave a dot or a comma without double checking it, no diagram and no table was left behind, I even checked if the question were put in a single paper or two papers. Finally the professor asked me to shut up and just answer the questions however I want, because he had other classrooms he had to check, and if I kept going, the time will be up and he will not be able to check them out. I laughed in myself, he was right, I was too excited and too stressed to make any decision by myself that day. Finally I did fairly well, considering that one of the questions came from a chapter we hadn't seen earlier, and it wasn't included in the first term exams, why would he do something like that. Although I was frustrated when I first saw it, but I calmed down when I saw that the questions had an option which would allow me to pick five questions out of seven to solve them. So I think I have done all I could do, now I have to sit, pray and wait until the results come..."



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    Saturday, September 03, 2005

    IN HIS EYES

      A few days ago I read a comment that was posted by The Kid Himself, the comment was posted to Encounters post. He said:


    "Nice blog, i am linking to u....Keep on writing but i have a bit of a suggestion about ur average Iraqi plot device, why don't u write him in stories? i feel that u have not used this to its full extent...So far u have only said the Average Iraqi would do so-and-so in such a situation, while u could give him more detailed features (average Iraqi features, write from his own perspective, how he reacts to certain situations, BE HIM)..."


    That got me thinking, "Now why didn't I think of that". I really liked the idea, and that is when I came up with the idea of these post, IN HIS EYES. These posts are going to be stories that are told by people I know, other Average Iraqis. Before I get into the post, I would like to take a minute to announce the beginning of a new Iraqi blogger: Baghdad Treasure is my newest Iraqi Blogger Friend. Back to the post:


      "I depend on my car for my living, no I'm not a taxi, am more like a driver. I work for a company and I only drive certain people, but when I don't anything better to do, I might stop for a ride or two. So here I'm in a usual afternoon in Baghdad, I was supposed to go refuel the car, but the fuel station was closed for lunch, so I though I should go find something better to do, and come back in half an hour or so to get back in the queue. So when I saw him waving his hands for taxi, I decided I would stop and see where he is going, if it was far I have to refuse. But it was near, and the guy looked like a decent kind of guy, so I wasn't worried when I picked him up. He asked me to stop once for a smoke, gave me one, told him I don't smoke, really nice. When we reached the place he wanted to get off, I stopped the car, and then everything happened quickly.


      "He jumped at me, grabbed my hand with one of his arms, and with his free hand unlocked my door. I don't know where the other one came from, but he was ready, he opened the door, and hit my with the back of his gun, by that time I was coming out of shock so I caught his arm, but the other one pushed me out of the car, and kept yelling at his partner; "Kill him!!! Finish him". I don't know why he didn't, but by that time, I was exhausted, I'm too old for this. He pulled me out of the car, hit me again, at the same place and left me. I remember hearing the sound of my car's engine coming back to life, and then sounds became a blur. For a few minutes I stayed there, then I stood up, looked around but there was no one, I walked hardly back to the main street, but I didn't have any money with me, my head was all blood and it was dripping on my clothes too. Someone stopped his car for me, he drove me to a friends house, where I cleaned myself a bit, borrowed some money and got home".


      "What can I say, the car is now gone, I will file the theft, not for the hope that it might be found, because I'm pretty sure it is gone forever, but I want to be sure that if someone uses it for something illegal the police won't come to me saying that this is your car and you have done such and such with it."


    Please remember, that I'm not the one who had this experience, it is some other Iraqi, in which I have told his story like he is saying it. The Kid Himself thanks for this idea, I hope I'm getting it right...



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