- Haifa Street in Baghdad was of course named after a Palestinian
town now under Israeli occupation. It used to be a street, actually a neighborhood,
where all denominations cohabited.It also had specially designed buildings
overlooking the Tigris river, reserved for academics only.
-
- Iraqi academic , from all backgrounds, "ethnic"
affiliations, "sects" and "religion" and from different
fields of specialization lived in those buildings on Haifa Street, rent
free, courtesy of the Iraqi government. This was part of Saddam Hussein's
government campaign to promote education and to encourage individuals to
strive for a career in academic knowledge and teaching thereafter.
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- A letter was sent to me via e.mail, a letter of despair
and tragedy written by an Iraqi professor who lived on Haifa Street. I
am going to translate the whole thing for you.
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- "My name is Ahmed Kamal Nabil . I am a university
professor since 1975. I live on Haifa street. On the 7th of January, I
went out to buy some food since we had been without anything to eat since
the day of the Eid (30th December). My wife, two daughters and one small
grandchild stayed at home.
-
- Since there was no transportation and in view of the
military presence surrounding Haifa street, I was unable to regain my apartment
fast enough. Moreover, an unusual movement in our neighborhood made me
very suspicious . I saw some elements of the Iraqi militias shooting on
the door of our building. I immediately informed my family by phone so
they may leave promptly. They tried to but the militias refused them exit.
-
- What followed was even more brutal. The upper floors
of the building where we lived were totally destroyed and my wife was informing
me (on the phone) that she and my daughters were few minutes away from
an imminent Death. What could I do?
-
- I begged a neighbor to help us. At first he refused,
then he agreed to courageously face the American and Iraqi forces and come
to the rescue of my family, thus helping them seek refuge in another building
close by which was not targeted.
-
- The following day, at dawn, my family discovered a dead
street, in ruins. My wife and my kids left Haifa street with the only luggage
they had, the clothes on their bodies. The militias raped our home . They
ransacked and looted all of our belongings.
-
- In the space of a few minutes, we lost everything we
worked for and owned. My books, my souvenirs, my diplomas, my notes, my
research papers and my personal diary. In sum, all of my memory carefully
constructed over a span of half a century has gone out. Gone to sleep for
ever. Now we are back to zero.
-
- My family is scattered, lodged by different relatives
and strangers. Throughout my career , I have never committed one act of
hostility vis a vis the Iraqi authorities or the American occupation forces.
I filed a complaint but the policeman at the station was unimpressed. He
told me that my only crime is that I was living in a street of "terrorists."
-
- If I had chosen to return to Iraq, my country, after
studies in Europe, it was with the aim of bringing to my people the knowledge
I acquired in the West. I have conducted and supervised dozens of Phd theses
and I have taught thousands of students.
-
- What happened to me on the 7th of January is tragic.
Is that the destiny of Iraqi intellectuals and researchers? Is that the
reward for those who opted for neutrality, independence of thought, spirit
and honor? What crime have I committed by not wanting to give in to violence
and terror and by insisting on continuing my work - that of teaching in
Iraq ? "
-
-
- Yes Haifa street, the street of academics and the brain
drain of the New Iraq. Over 500 university professors have been assassinated
since the "liberation." 500 individuals who have spent years
studying, researching, teaching, forming, training, disseminating knowledge...
-
- Last week, over 100 students were massacred at the gates
of al Mustansiriyah University. It is beyond the shadow of doubt that universities,
academics and students are the favored targets in Iraq.
-
- Why is that so, did you ever ask yourself? I think the
answer is simple. Universities , academics , students are the last bastion
of the spirit of critical thinking. The last line in the Resistance against
political manipulation and terror of the new Iraq.
-
- Universities refuse the presence of militias within their
walls. Academics are the few who raise their voices denouncing the political
madness that is surrounding them. Students are still young free thinkers
difficult to ideologically control.
- Moreover, academics refuse to be dragged in or sucked
in the role of representative or mouth piece for the occupation or for
its puppets.
-
- Academics are targeted because people respect and listen
to them when they dare speak out. And academics are targeted because the
New Iraq has become one big looting field run by mercenaries, thugs, politically
corrupt opportunists, sectarian agitators, fanatical dark minds, and barbarians.
-
- And they want it to remain that way. They want to make
sure that Iraq will never raise its head again . Hence the "beheading",
the brain drain of all intellectuals. In the new Iraq, there is no place
for knowledge. Knowledge is their antithesis.
-
- Hundreds of academics escape to other countries or simply
change careers. Some have become grocers or taxi drivers as these occupations
are less dangerous than being a university professor. Those who have refused
either, have been killed or have ended up like our professor above. Destitute,
homeless and stripped of everything. This hemorrhage of intellectuals is
programmed, it is part of the American reconstruction plan.
-
- In contradiction to what the Americans claim, the reconstruction
of Iraq does not take place in big projects but starts with the "grey
matter", that stuff between our ears and called our brains. Can anyone
conceive of a country without doctors, engineers, scientists.....?
-
- Well Iraq has become such a country. The reconstruction
of Iraq american style does not need this grey matter. It can dispose of
it, hence it encourages the hemorrhage to continue. To the point that Unesco
is thinking of offering 400 bullet proof vests to professors who insist
on staying on and teaching plus a direct telephone line for those who feel
they are under threat of being killed. Unesco is also envisaging to offer
financial help to widows of academics thus encouraging others to not abandon
their jobs as lecturers. Something they do, from fear of leaving a family
behind in need- should they be targeted and assassinated.
-
- Today, over 50 people have been killed in Haifa street.
People are under siege in their apartments, with no food, no water, no
electricity and unable to venture out. The occupation forces, the Iraqi
"army " and the militias have forbidden the evacuation of the
injured or the dead. They are left to die slowly in agony or to rot away
on Haifa street. Just like the academics who inhabited its buildings.
-
- Yes this is what has become of Haifa Street, a drained,
desolate, burning, bleeding Street...of the New Iraq.
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- http://arabwomanblues.blogspot.com
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