M Blog

After reading the selected readings for this homework assignment I decided to talk about two of the questions which were: “Why are date palms so important to the Iraqi People” and “Describe the custom of evening tea in Iraq”. Date palms are so important to the people in Iraq for many different reasons. For one, the majority of people who live in Dhuluaya are farmers who make their money and live off the palms and dates. If people start bulldozing these, they will have no income. “A palm tree is known as a “nakhla” and never fails to bring a sense of satisfaction and admiration. They are the pride and joy of Iraqi farmers and landowners” (Riverbend, 103). Iraqi’s love being around the palm trees and they make them feel happy. Lastly, the palm trees serve as homes for many different types of birds during the winter months, and in the summer months the “female” palms provide hundreds of dates. These trees are very important to the Iraqi people.     The custom of evening tea in Iraq is much different then what us Americans would consider it to be. Although the way to do it varies from different families the majority of it stays the same. There are three steps to make the tea that would be, “First, a kettle of water is put on the burner to boil. Next, the boiling water and a certain amount of tealeaves are combined in a separate teapot and put on a low burner just until the tea leaves rise to the top and threaten to boil over. Finally, the teapot is set on top of the tea kettle on a low burner and allowed to ‘yihder’ or settle” (Riverbend, 108-109). Tea is very important to the people of Iraq, and the majority of families sit down every afternoon, no matter how busy they are to discuss their day and to drink their amazing tea.

This part of the reading was very informative; it allowed me to get to know the different needs, necessities, and customs of the majority of Iraqi people.

I chose to write about the story from Alive In Baghdad called, “Iraqi Teens Work To Help Their Families” , which was published in October 15^, 2007. In the podcast it talks to three different Iraqi teenagers who basically describe their life in Iraq. They talk about how they constantly work to help support their families, but because of the war, it is harder for them to go to work because of there is no safety.  One of the children who really caught my eye was a young boy named, Hussein Kamal.  He had worked with his father and uncle since he was a young boy, mostly doing carpentry and painting the furniture. I thought it was interesting because he was about the same age as my brother, and yet they come from two different places. My brother would never think of being able to know how to make doors, and couches at this age, yet Hussein didn’t think that it was weird at all, it was just how he was used to living. I also thought it was interesting how he kept bringing up that there is no real safety in Iraq anymore and any time you leave for work or go some place, your risking your own safety, which I thought was very sad. In the background of the video everything was all dirty and dusty in their homes and work places. All the plants seemed to look dead or dying. The buildings were cracking and looked very nimble and old. Nothing looked very clean, or new. A viewer would learn a lot from watching this video, mostly they would learn how Iraqi children spend their time, and how much different they are from American children, mostly due to the war. I think this video is the same to some of the videos ive seen about Iraq, yet instead in this, the children were not saying the war was bad because we were fighting terrorism, just that we should keep terrorism out of Iraq. I think the most memorable thing in the video was just seeing how smart these children were, and how mature they are for their age, because they have gone through so much more than any child in America could ever think of going through.

http://aliveinbaghdad.org/2007/10/15/iraqi-teens-work-to-help-their-families

After reading the selected readings from Baghdad Burning by Riverbend. I decided that I wanted to know more about the place, Tikrit. It was first mentioned on page 63 and it said, “Suddenly, they showed American Troops standing solemnly in a 9/11 Memorial Service being held in…Tikrit (wher Saddam was born)!!” (63). I thought that this was an interesting quote, and since it is the place where Saddam was born I kind of wanted to learn more about it, as well as wanting to know more about an Iraqi city, other than Baghdad. After resarching the place on Wikipedia (I know! I know!), I found out alot of information. The town of Tikrit is located a little northwest of Baghdad, on the famous Tigris River that Riverbend has already talked about. The town is said to have a population of about 560,000 and is the administrative center of it’s province. Tikrit not only housed Saddam, but many of his other party members resided their as well. It had a very deep history (I couldnt really follow it, it was very confusing). But after researching this area I realized how well-developed it is, and how much history it has behind it. You never really get to hear about any other cities or towns in Iraq other than Baghdad for the most part, and I thought it was very interesting to learn more about a town and its history.

Works Cited:

“Tikrit.” Wikipedia. 2008. 9 Apr. 2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tikrit>.

Dear Riverbend,

                        After reading your past blogs about your living situation and many other topics I have been forever changed. I couldn’t believe how “ignorant” our media has been over this whole war. They have made me feel “ignorant” as well since I have never been correctly educated on your culture, religion, Iraq, and the exact state of the war. This really opened my eyes when you said,

“The Truth: Iraqis lived in houses with running water and electricity. Thousands of them own computers. Millions own VCRs and VCDs. Iraq has sophisticated bridges, recreational centers, clubs, restaurants, shops, universities, schools, etc. Iraqis love fast cars (especially German cars) and the Tigris is full of little motor boats that are used for everything from fishing to water-skiing” (34).

We have been taught our whole lives basically that places like Iraq and Iran are third-world countries that are completely poor, have no access to technology or anything like that. After reading your blog, I realized how wrong that is, and how I have been taught the wrong concept for the longest time, that you are just like us over in America and have the same resources and recreational things that we do. Other than that it really bothered me after reading your blogs how much American’s misinterpreted how women are suppose to dress. You opened my eyes and made me realize that women aren’t being forced to wear Hijabs, like we think and that the majority of women actually wear jeans, skirts, etc like everyone else in the world. Your blog truly has educated me so much more on the war over in Iraq, and the actual culture of the Iraqi people. Thanks so much for enlightening me.

Baghdad Burning: A girl blog from Iraq. New York: Feminist Press, 2005.

The author of this book is a girl from Iraq who calls herself, Riverbend. This book was written online as a blog, so that she could talk about her feelings about the war and also show and tell people what exactly is going on in Iraq from someone who lives there’s point of view. I will learn a lot from reading this book. I think that I will benefit a lot from this book because we are constantly viewing the war from our American perspective, but being as young as we are and naive I feel that we never really get to actually see other people from different culture’s perspectives on what’s going on, and how it affects other people from different places. After reading the forward by Ahdaf Soueif and then the introduction by James Ridgeway I got a clear idea of what the book was going to be about, as well as a very good education on the war in Iraq etc. I think read some of Riverbend’s entries and was very intrigued with her style of writing and humor. This book is completely relevant to what we are learning in our ITW Blog class right now, as well as it is completely relevant to what is going on in the world around us. I think, after “pre-reading” this book, that Riverbend isn’t truly trying to “talk badly” about Americans and our choice to invade Iraq, I believe that she is just trying to see how bad it is hurting her and her people and to express her true feelings about what is going on. I think that this book holds many benefits and will help me learn a lot about the war, as well as pose some problems, such as I might not agree with Riverbend as much as I would like. Over all, this looks like a very beneficial book to read for this class.

In the foreword to Baghdad Burning, Soueif talks a lot about the book and what it is all about. It talks about how the book has a serious impact, and is a very sad read. I liked how the foreword not only explains kind of what the book is going to be about, but it argues some of Riverbend’s exact arguments, such as when Riverbend reminds us, “We watch American movies, listen to everything from Britney Spears to Nirvana and refer to ever brown fizzy drink as ‘Pepsi’”(foreword, viii). They talk about the actual invasion in the foreword and also talk about some Iraqi culture, to slowly educate you before you read the actual book. In the introduction it talks more about Riverbend exactly, talking about how she has basically “made the war and occupation real in terms that no professional journalist could hope to achieve” (Introduction, xi). I like how it talks about her lifestyle, and how she has made such an impact on not only women in Iraq, but also many readers of her blog over in America. After reading the introduction it made me very curious and excited to read Baghdad Burning. It seems very intriguing to learn more about the war on a more personal level from someone who is actually going through it. I also liked the background the introduction gave about the Middle East, but I felt that it was at times too much to comprehend. I agree with both Soueif and Riverbend that the US invasion into Iraq has been devastating all over the world, especially in Iraq. I feel that the majority of my impressions on the war are the same as to theirs, yet I feel that they are also very distant because I am constantly surrounded by bias material here in the US, as well as the simple fact that I do not live in Iraq, and I am not enduring the same kind of pain that Riverbend has been going through. I am very excited to read this book!

HW 30:

I don’t know if I exactly have “A room of my own”. But I do have my own bedroom where I can go and no one will really bother me there, other than back home, I don’t think I have much privacy, especially at college. Woolf believes that every woman should have a room of their own to experience their own minds, to let themselves think and be able to study and learn by themselves. I think that this is a great vision, but I honestly don’t think too many woman in our society today have enough time to find a room that is completely and totally quiet, and not be bothered for a long period of time. I think that because our society is so fast pace, women have less and less time to “be alone”, its not that we don’t want to, but its just it is harder and harder to find, which I think Woolf would be very disappointed about, yet she would be happy that women in fact now have every right to be who they want to be, and they don’t have to hide their intelligence. Woolf would be very happy with the improvement of women in the society, in chapter 5 she says, “I had come at last, in the course of this rambling, to the shelves which hold books by the living; by women and by men; for there are almost as many books written by women now as by men” (Woolf, 79). This quote shows that even in her time period things were changing drastically for women, and I think if she were alive today she would definitely be shocked at how much it has changed from even then. In Chapter 6 she kind of talks about male authors and concepts, she says, “It is not only that they celebrate male virtues, enforce male values and describe the world of men; it is that the emotion with which these books are permeated is to a woman incomprehensible” (Woolf, 102). I think she basically thinks that males have taken over for the most part, and they’re writings focus on mostly male concepts, so women are left out. I think that even if not every women has a “room of their own” today, that Woolf would still be happy because there has been such a drastic change in how women are portrayed, and I think she would be shocked as to how much more respect women have, and can finally show their true intellect.

With apologies to Virginia Woolf:

The blog that I would like to ponder is from the website called, Jezebel. This very explicit site had many interesting blogs but one simply caught my eye. I began idly reading the blog which was called,  ELLE’s “Intelligent Women” Issue Is Kinda, Well, Dumb.”.  This blog talked much about how ELLE Magazine always has a certain issue about Intelligent Women, but like most other people in society, they chose women who “fit in” with society. This is ridiculous and makes me very angry. It talks about how the magazine always has their Intelligent Women be famous, beautiful models or actresses. This is outrageous, and makes me quiver with anger! There are plenty of very intelligent women out there, such as myself who could be put on this issue, yet we are left out. Why you ask?  Because men would like to see beautiful, “intelligent” women, they don’t care how smart they are in fact, only how beautiful they are. This is preposterous and needs to be ended. 

http://jezebel.com/372028/elles-intelligent-women-issue-is-kinda-well-dumb

After reading Chapter Two in Virginia Woolf’s, A Room of One’s Own, I found one really challenging element which I was very interested in which was, Patriarchy. I have been learning alot about Women’s Rights and Patriarchy in one of my classes this semester, so while reading this chapter it really came out at me. While reading the chapter I couldnt help but feel bad for the narrator becuase she was having such trouble understanding exactly what “Women and Fiction” meant. Patriarchy was a huge theme in this chapter I believe, it was constantly being brought up. The narrator says on page 25, “Why did men drink wine and women water? Why was one sex so prosperous and the other so poor” (Woolf, 25)? I think this was a major element in patriarchy in the reading. Why were men so prosperous and women not? Why are men able to have freedoms that women werent aloud to have, it all just doesnt make any sense. I found that the narrator wasn’t really sure what to do about patriarchy either, she didnt really have a set mindstate about how she felt about it exactly, and I got that vibe becuase on page 26, “Have you any notion how many books are written about women in the course of one year? Have you any notion how many are witten by men” (Woolf, 25)? I think that she knows that something is unfair, clearly but she also doesnt understand completely why women arent given the same rights as men. After reading Chapter 2 it is clear I felt very strongly about the element: Patriarchy, and the narrators views on it.

The paragraph that I found very interesting was the third paragraph on page 84. I found this paragraph very interesting because people were going crazy, worrying about if the Salem Pax was killed in bombing and attacks due to our military against Iraq. I thought this was a bit ridiculous, just because he was from Iraq and because our country was at war with them, if he didn’t write on his blog for two or three days people would automatically think something happened to him due to the war. I’m not saying, that it isn’t a reasonable suggestion, but not everyone who lives in Iraq is going to get attacked and hurt because of the war. I thought that this paragraph was very amusing because I couldn’t believe that millions of bloggers would freak out over something that little, or even more so over a blog. “Salem Pax was the most famous blogger during that conflict (he later signed a book and a movie deal)” (Kline, 84). I think that this quote is ridiculous personally!  He became famous basically because he blogged about politics during the Iraqi war, and lived there as well. I don’t think that should make someone famous at all.  In other words, people could move to places that have issues in our world and blog about them and gain many of readers, and then hopefully become famous? I just think it is kind of ridiculous.  My conclusion, then, is that if you want to become famous then maybe you should start getting interested in politics and war and move to Iraq, or other places with issues and start blogging about them, then maybe you can get millions of people to worry about you when you don’t blog for a week, and maybe even get your own movie and book! I think it’s ridiculous, personally.