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The Hanoudi Letter: 200,000 Visitors |
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Tuesday, 19 June 2007 |
When I started contemplating this blog, I was very hesitant and extremely worried. I was hesitant because I imagined that I would not have the stamina and the time to keep it going. I was worried that what I would be talking about is not going to be good enough to the intelligent and sophisticated audience to whom it was mainly directed. But I was greatly encouraged to go ahead by three extremely good American friends, a lady, a young army officer and one of my nephews who is an excellent computer specialist, this astonishing trio was very kind supportive and helped me make up mind and now after two and a half years after starting the hanoudi letter my worries seems to have been needless and unwarranted, the blog has in fact been a reasonable success if it is to be measured by the number of the visitors it has attracted, by mid June 2007 there was 200,000 visitors.
A blog is similar to a personal diary, an online window with which a person is willing to share his thoughts or whatever he or she are going to fill its pages with whoever is willing to share them. The word blog is derived from web and log [web log], the first proper blog appeared on the internet in 1994 and by May 2007 there was more than 70 million blogs. My own arose from the tragic shock which followed the shooting of my son and the complications which followed his injuries and sent him into a vegetative existence a very serious damage to his life and which to put it very mildly turned my life and that of my family upside down. I had to stop working and do my share in the collective effort needed to keep him alive a very difficult, an extremely stressful and a very expensive job. This job requires a 24hours a day care and observation, he is unable to move, he is fed with a naso-gastric tube and breathes through a tracheotomy. His position needs changing several times a day, he needs regular physiotherapy and needs help with regard to a score of other vital functions, we are keeping him at home. We are taking care of him ourselves, my own shift begins at about midnight and continues to 8 in the morning which leaves few hours for reading and writing and the updating of the hanoudi letter which came out of that loneliness and misery.
On December 10, 2004, The Hanoudi Letter first appeared, here is a link to the first article:
First article
Updates started to appear every week for more than two years after this introduction, but I was unable recently to keep this schedule and I am now sending a posting once a month. This is a very delicate and sensitive work, each update needs a lot of preparing and researching before writing and the final version of an update is the result of no less than 4 or 5 greatly changed or even discarded drafts before deciding on a final version. It has always been a fairly difficult endeavor and I was on the verge of abandoning it on several occasions but always came back to it. Two very strong considerations compelled me to go back to the key board, the first was the story of my unfortunate son which I wanted to be kept always alive and not to be forgotten like those of hundreds of other Iraqis who were the victims of the current mayhem at home, the hanoudi letter was also a very useful platform for my several pleas for help and support in our own family's struggle. The other consideration to keep this thing going was my utter disillusionment and alienation with the barrage of disinformation we have been constantly subjected to by the international information industry which was very often of a very mediocre quality and no more than sensationalized pieces of news which were concocted from outside the field. I have personally insisted that a proper understanding of the current situation in Iraq should be based on reporting from inside the mess, the Iraqi mess has certain elements which cannot be appreciated by someone who is reporting from the outside..
The Hanoudi Letter has been a success, at least a reasonable success when it is measured by the number of its visitors and the quality of the messages it has been receiving over the long months of its existence, I was intending to insert some of those messages now, but I am left with only very little space for that. Alas I would like to emphasize here my very sincere gratitude and indebtness to all of those who wrote them and to the tens of thousands of visitors to this humble blog, every body has been absolutely kind and generous, but I would like to close this piece by excerpts from a letter which I received recently from an American friend, an astonishingly nice and intelligent person who met me under extremely unusual conditions after the end of the last war a meeting which started a great friendship which blossomed over the years into a real brotherhood. I am quoting from that letter not to aggrandize myself, but because of the depth of feelings of my friend and the beauty of his words. This is what my friend said:
My Dear Najeeb,
I have over the last few days taken the time to review many of your letters beginning with the first postings and ending with the most recent ones. I continue to be amazed at two things.
1-your incredible ability to capture the environment of Iraq in writing. Your words reach out to those that have never been to your country and it frames the reality of the desperate situation.
2-each one of your letters sends a message of hope for the future of Iraq. You have incredible courage.
I talk about our friendship, your wonderful family and your efforts to help us understand the differences between our cultures and the tragic shooting of Nazar, I continue to pray for peace.
Please give my deepest regards to your family,
Brother Eric
On Sunday June 17 at 8:15PM the hanoudi letter crossed a very important landmark, the number of its visitors reached 200,000.
Najeeb Hanoudi
Amman/Jordan
Monday, June 18, 2007
Emai:
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