Shoe Democracy

ديمقراطية القنادر ؟

عبد الأله سباهي

بحثت بجد عن البداية التي استخدم فيها الإنسان القنادر ( الأحذية ) وهل للقنادر استخدامات أخرى غير المخصصة لأجلها أصلا . وبحثت فيما إذا كان لها دور في التربيته النفسية والاجتماعية .
فوجدت أن المسألة " أعتق من اليمني وعدت بخفي حنين .
وجدت في كتب التاريخ أن القنادر والأخفاف دخلت الأساطير والأدب الديني وحتى في الكتب الدينية المقدسة مثل ( اخلع نعليك يا موسى إنك في الوادي المقدس – قران كريم- ) . و وجدت أن ( القنادر ) دخلت الأدب العربي كبطل للقصة ، كما في قصة ( أبو القاسم الطنبوري) وكذلك في الأدب الغربي كما في قصة ( سيندرلا ) حيث لعبت القندرة دورا أساسيا في مصير الأمير .
ويصل الحرص على الحذاء إلى الحد الذي دخل فيه في أمثالنا الشعبية مثل ( بيه ولا بالأحمري ) . و ( جوعان يعلجله بعلج وحفيان لابسه حذه ) ...إلخ.
ثم وجدت ملكات وأميرات رصعن أحذيتهن بالجواهر كطريقة لإظهار نعمة الله على عبده كما فعلت الأميرات العباسيات والأندلسيات وغيرهن .
وفي تأريخنا القريب كان العراقي يحافظ على حذاءه الجديد ولا يلبسه إلا بعد أن يبلى القديم ويعجز الرقاع عن إصلاحه .
دخلت القنادر في السياسة أيضا على يد الرئيس السوفيتي خرشوف في هيئة الأمم المتحدة وكذلك على يد أبو تحسين عند الإطاحة بتمثال الصنم صدام .
كان لصناع الأحذية في العراق مكانة مرموقة . فلا زلت أذكر صانع أحذية العائلة المالكة الأسطة ( بطمنيان ) في شارع المستنصر وكيف كان ابنه الأخرس يستنكف من الانحناء إلى الأرض لالتقاط الدرهم الذي سقط منه عليها ، بينما كان أجري في تلك الفترة درهما واحدا لا غيره لليوم الواحد .
وجاءت عادة استخدام الحذاء كسلاح أو استخدامه كوسيلة للضرب والحط من مكانة المضروب به في فترة الحكم العثماني وعلى يد ولاته و وكلائهم المتعجرفين في العراق. ثم شاعت تلك العادة بين (الأشقيائية) وانتشرت بين المجرمين وحثالة المجتمع .
ولكن في السويد استخدمت القنادر كوسيلة لتحقيق الديمقراطية على يد العراقيين !
فقد سمعت بأن أحدهم كان يلقي خطابا في إحدى الندوات في إحدى مدن السويد الجنوبية. وقد أغاظ الخطيب الفظ مستمعيه بعباراته النابية فراحوا يرشقونه بالقنادر حتى أن البوليس السويدي المذهول من تلك الممارسة" الديمقراطية" هب لنجدته وإنقاذه من القنادر التي ملأت المسرح .
في بلد مثل السويد يرشق العراقيون وهم دعاة حوار وديمقراطية الخطيب الذي لا تروق لهم كلماته بالقنادر ! ترى بماذا يرشقوننا اليوم دعاة الديمقراطية في بغداد ؟

أما آن الأوان لنا أن نتحضر ونترك ديمقراطية القتل والقهر والمحاصصة ؟
وندحض القول بالقول والكلمة بالكلمة لا بالقندرة أو اللكمة ؟
كتبت شيئا عن ديمقراطية القنادر قبل زمن واليوم .
وما اشاهده يوميا من قطع للرؤوس وجرائم فرق الموت والمفخخات والقتل والتهجير بحجة إعلاء دين الله ! ونصرة مذهبه وبحجة تحرير الوطن وتحقيق الحقوق القومية وغيرها. يجعلنا ندعو لتطبيق ديمقراطية القنادر في عراقنا المنكوب بدل هذا الموت أو نترحم على كل دكتاتور مجرم عاث فسادا في دار السلام .

17/1 /  2007   

"Dream Deferred"

I write to inform you that the Hands Across the Mideast Support Alliance (HAMSA) has re-launched the "Dream Deferred" Essay Contest on Civil Rights in the Middle East.  Anyone under the age of 26 can enter, and finalists can win up to $2,000 in cash prizes!

The contest (see http://hamsaweb.org/essay) challenges young Americans and young Middle Easterners to express constructive ideas for individual rights in the world's least-free region. 

Judges for the essay contest include Azar Nafisi (author of the best-seller Reading Lolita in Tehran), Shafeeq Ghabra (founding President of American University in Kuwait) and Gloria Steinem (founder of Ms. Magazine), as well as noted Middle Eastern bloggers Ammar Abdulhamid of Syria and Mahmoud Al-Yousif from Bahrain. 

We hope to awaken American and Middle Eastern youth to the reform efforts of brave individuals in the region.  Ultimately, we aim to inspire young people to support these initiatives and to contribute their own ideas for civil rights programs. 

The deadline for the contest is January 31, 2007 and we hope you consider submitting an essay.  If you have any questions please send an email to dream@hamsaweb.com. 

Thank you,

Emmanuel Benhamou
Essay Contest Coordinator

Iraq Plays today at Khaleeji 18

What a feeling... what is it with this powerful tug at our hearts and lungs called my country?

"Dulce e decorum est pro patria mori" a cynical poem by Wilfred Owen... It is sweet and fitting to die for ones country. Is it?

well there is so much gained by sport, like the game being played today, but death? Well people now are killing & being killed not for ones country but rather for someones belief (true or untrue that is debateable), someones thought.. and they think its for the motherland, they CLAIM it's for the motherland.

Today, Iraqi's from all across the UAE are showing the true mettle of our nation, all of us, Muslims (Sunnis, Shiites), Christians (Catholics, Chaldeans & Orthodox), Sabean Mandaen and people from all mixes of faiths, races and beliefs who are united by being Iraqi, are going to Abu Dhabi to support our team on their first match.

Buses are going out from Sharjah & Dubai which have been sponsored by generous Iraqi businessmen fighting to dissolve the divide created by malicious opportunistic fools.

We are hoping to have more financial support to have buses go out for each and every game our team plays to resist in our own peaceful way, as sport is, the rift created. To try, in someway, to show those who are causing this, that we as Iraqi's are united, even if they try to divide us, we will fight it peacefully, through sports, and other civil ways.

So for the sake of this unity and on this peaceful land of the UAE (May God almighty protect it and keep it thriving with success under its gracious leadership across the seven Emirates), may our teams play their best and may the best playing team win.

Turmoil الفتنة

 

 

الفتنة

شعر الأستاذ المحامي تحسين عبد الجبار إسماعيل

 

من وحي هموم العراق الجريح

 

بيت شعر قرأته منذ أعوام      وأدركت صـدق ما جاء فيه

"رب يوم بكيت فيه ولمــا    صرت في غيره بكيت عليه"

شرح الواقـع المرير لقومي     ولشعبي في كل ما يعنيـه

كيف صرنا ننازع الجــار   وكنـا من قبلهــا نحميـه

كـان حتى اليهـودي فينـا   آمنــا ليس من يؤذيـــه

فإختلاف الأديان أمل من الله    مـا لنـا قط شــأن فيـه

إنها الفتنة المريعة فاصحـو  آن أن تدركـوا الذي تبتغيـه

يصرخ البعض قائلا انت سني  فابعــد ودع علي وبنيـه

شأنهم شـأن من كفَّر البعض   كــأن الحساب رهن يديه

وتناهى لعقله إنه الحــق     وأمر التكفيرحكـر عليــه

منطق ما أقــره الديـن      ومـا من مسلم يرتضيــه

كلنا شيعة الإمـام فمهـلا هو فخـر الرسول بل وأخيه

فاعملوا الفكر أخوتي حيث أنا  منـذعشنا لبعضنــا نفتديه

ولنا موطن حفظناه بالحـب    حذاري من أن نفـرط فيـه

العراق الحبيب أوشك ينهـار   فهبّـو لوحـدَةٍ تنجيـــه

 

دبي كانون ثاني 2007

Iraq, Islam.

They are doing to Iraq what has been done to Islam.

Sectarianism & a different 'Conspiracy Theory'

I don't understand.

Look, Listen & Learn. That also happened to be the name of a school book at primary school. Children understand yet adults choose to be blind.

The U.S. is supposed to be intelligent. They must be - they should be. Otherwise how else would they be able to manipulate most of the world? Let us not kid ourselves! They do.

So speaking from this prospect, why the hell did they allow or permit for the glorification of Saddam.

Here you have people calling him brave, hero not less. Others support it by his refusal to have his face covered as one who is not afraid to face death.

Look at it from this perspective please, Had his face been covered, people would have doubted to the last minute that the person hanged was Saddam, there would have been claims that it was fabricated.

Odd. Well planned.

Additionally, even the bravest of men who believe in their cause, have blind faith in their deeds, especially those who claim to be faithful to God; whether Moslem, Christian or Jew, would still at the thought of meeting their maker; tremble ever so slightly, would feel for a moment an instant of “What if..?” He showed that he went through none. As described by all those who seem to have become his new best friends, “he was brave, he did not tremble, and he responded to those who taunted him strongly and eloquently”. At the hanging, someone recited a prayer & chanted Mudtada Al Sadrs name; another psychotic mind perhaps deserving a similar ending for his atrocities and hands that are bathed in blood, but that’s a whole different story.

Someone: “Muqtada, Muqtada, Muqtada”
Someone else: “To hell!”
Another: “Please no, Please no” (as in no comments)
Saddam: “such a good….”
Saddam: “This is ….. what…. wanted”
Someone else: “To hell”
Saddam: “….the enemies”

So here this shows how he has nerves of steel, so they say, he is even arguing with some of the spectators. What human about to face death can do that – go on, I know you’re dying to glorify him… It is not glory, nor is it strength, it is one of two: this man is utterly convinced in that what he has done was absolutely right and he is bereft of any wrong doing and that he is absolved of any sins OR (a strong or) as one BBC reporter said at his trial:
“Saddam was being led out of the courtroom following the announcement of his sentence and his route would make pass in front of me, the man had a slight smile and a look on his face that said that every thing went as he had wanted”

This had all been expected, planned. A colleague of mine stated something that rang true, why allow him this image in court of a defiant strong man of God, a man able to sway people’s minds (albeit some people) with his passionate words.
Then continue with this charade for his execution, face uncovered-hanging-fallen-face shown.

Here's the deal, Saddam was executed on one case, that of Dujail which is a Shiite issue. So they didn't wait to try him for Halabcha; The Anfal case which was Kurdish.

The took the pleasure from many Kurdish, they took the pleasure of many Sunni’s; they took the pleasure of many Christians, Jews & Sabeans, and a lot of Shiites. Why? Because he was compared to the Eid Sacrifice. He never deserved that honour of being compared to a sheep being sacrificed at Eid for God. Why??? He was a monster, why was the pleasure of seeing him have a just punishment be taken away from many? Because he was GLORIFIED. The full extent of his horrors weren’t put forth in court.

Saddam Hussein is a man who has put many to death, perhaps his smile might have been a form of curiosity to find out what it is that put the look of terrified horror on his victims faces, perhaps it was because things were going “as he’d planned”. I somehow believe that.

Are you saying that the supposed video was leaked? Give us credit for some intelligence. I actually was expecting, no, awaiting it the next day.

Feed sectarianism & fanaticism.

Even for his hanging, though the government is equally Kurds & Arabs, no Kurds seem to be present, even though there was mention of their presence, make all Iraqi Shiites look like supporters of Muqtada Al Sadr, make all Iraqi Shiites look like they are loyal to Iran. Allow all hell to break loose.

The million dollar question is: Now, what’s the plan?

You have made your enemy & the enemy of many, a hero, why? Is he going to spend the rest of his life sipping martinis on some far away island with a smile on his face observing the goings on?

Fed up!

To all those who object to the hanging of Saddam Hussein; whether based on religion, international relations, external policies, human rights, animal rights, any rights please think of all those he put in the human meat grinder, think of the prisoners in underground prisons which he built shut before he went in to hiding. Think of all those who are suffering now & today, think of all the children killed by his chemical warfare and those left deformed.

Think of everyone who has lost a father, a mother, a sister, a brother a child or any member of family under his rule. Think of all the girls who were raped and murdered by his sons of which he knew about, Think of all the MEN who were raped under his rule, think of the victims where he'd let loose on them trained vicious dogs hungered for days, think of all the academics who were tortured and executed,

Think of those who were executed by mistake, and then his regime would apologise for it. "Sorry we executed your son by mistake".

So when you can place yourself in any of their shoes - NOT - whilst sitting in the comforts of your home then we will listen to you defend him.

Oh! As for all who claim Arab nationalism/Islam, where were you when Saddam was doing all this to his people? Busy feeding the fire of fanaticism or stoking it with sectarian thoughts. WHERE WERE YOU THEN? Islamists claiming this to be inhuman and humiliating and against the religion; think of the many torture chambers with stains of blood that the years can't remove. Think of Iraq during the past 20 years when people had no drinking water at times when Saddam would save all the sweet water for his dolphinarium. Money spent on his fine suits and arms while children were getting sicker by the minute.

His death may or may not solve much, his absence is better than his presence & his death, though tame in manner compared to what he usually likes, is some form of peace for all REMAINING relatives of his victims.

If anything, please have some respect for some of his victims, may you never see what they saw.