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The Hanoudi Letter: A Third Anniversary and a New Record |
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Monday, 24 December 2007 |
When I started this blog, I was worried that I was wasting my time and that the exercise I was contemplating was futile and a waste of time. Three outstanding individuals: A lady American radio journalist, and a highly treasured young American officer and one of my nephews a real computer wizard, these three believed that what I was contemplating was a very good idea and that I would be saying something rational and objective in a world which is dominated by media giants who are not informing the people, but rather misinforming them. The first installment of The Hanoudi Letter appeared on the 10th of December 2004, it was a piece about Iraq’s old history which was entitled The Mesopotamian Civilization, this was followed over the long months of the Iraqi nightmare by pieces about that and other topics which seem to have justified my friends’ faith because on the third anniversary of The Hanoudi Letter the number of its visitors has crossed the 250,000 mark.
The first letter was inserted in this blog from Baghdad, the great city was still without electricity as part of the deterioration of the general situation in the country which followed the invasion of the country by Americans who share a great deal of responsibility for this deterioration because of their failure to honor their pre war promises and the political structure they created in the country which is nothing but a big failure and a joke. I was in my old house which was in terrible darkness so I lit a candle not to celebrate the birthday of The Hanoudi Letter, but to honor a fascinating very wise old Chinese saying: "Do not curse the darkness, lit a candle."
The Hanoudi Letter was a dream, this dream would be a medium into which I would print some of my views and ideas about few subjects which are of a special interest to me, history, geopolitics, ethnic-religious conflicts and the current situation in this country in a weekly personal letter of about 1400 words that could be viewed on the Internet from The Hanoudi Letter web site. This was not going to be a news bulletin in the classical sense, it is a personal site by which I am trying to present my opinions and analyses on questions related to the subjects I have just mentioned. I am certain that news about the situation in Iraq will force itself on the project because of the dangers it is posing to our very existence.
The current situation in Iraq is very serious and extremely Dangerous, the increasing frustrations and disappointments of the people with the unfulfilled American promises regarding the reconstruction and rehabilitation of this country is creating a very hostile environment and a very serious resistance to their presence to which they are responding very harshly and aggressively is increasing the resentment and opposition and creating a very dangerous vicious circle which is making the future very bleak indeed.
The dream is almost realized, today at the time of writing this piece the letter has been viewed by more than 250,000 visitors, a lot of them are from places as distant as Liberia and Uzbekistan amongst many others, the letter has at least proved that the world has become really flat and the earth is a truly small village. In the introduction I wrote 3 years ago that I very sincerely welcome every possible criticism and constructive objections to my views and during the three years of the existence of The Hanoudi Letter I had many extremely intelligent and very smart criticism, but unfortunately these were much less than what I have been hoping for, I have always tried to be as rational and objective concerning the topics I tackled especially those about the current situation in Iraq.
The last few years since the shooting of my son and the dilemma we have been going through were very special years, but last year was special, it was the year towards the end of which we arrived in the United States after receiving the permission to settle there. The state department initiated early February 2007 a program whereby Iraqis who have suffered in the current violence, which is sweeping country as result of working with the Americans and the coalition or have been known as friendly to the Americans and who were now in mortal dangers because of these associations were granted the choice to resettle in the United States. We were a clear-cut case and we applied; our application went into what at times looked like a non-ending process, but we in my family were always treated very graciously and respectfully by all the people who were involved in the selection process to all them. The nice and very efficient young men and women in the UNHCR office in Amman, the international organization for migration and the American jury who made the final decision in our case paving the way for us to resettle here, to all these lovely persons I would like to convey my best wishes and regards to them all we will forever be very much indebted to them. The processing of our application took a little less than one year, but we were finally told that we were scheduled to leave on November 14 which we did, we arrived in Detroit, Michigan and were reunited with my other son Samer who had been living there for the last five years.
America is a fascinating place, its size a continent, its demography very diverse religiously, ethnically and culturally. All this lends to a truly astonishing dimensions that makes it very often extremely difficult to understand especially when one is looking at it from far away. I have always wanted since my graduation from medical school in 1957 to live and work in America and tried on several occasions in the past, but I have always been unsuccessful until very recently when were granted the chance to resettle in the States. We are a little less than six weeks in America, Nazar is in a nice clean and a very efficient rehabilitation center and nursing home he is getting a much better care than what we have been able to provide when we his mother and myself have been recently in Amman which in fact was the most important reason to ask for resettlement in this country, a better care for my unfortunate son.
I have avoided talking about the current situation in Iraq, I wanted to say something more jovial and nice and also because I have always insisted that any discussion of what is going on now in Iraq should emanate from inside the country and not from some cozy office which belongs to one of the major media giants in New York, Washington, Los Angeles or Atlanta. Having been almost totally disconnected with what is happening at home for almost all of last year, but there are some very important points which I feel like being able to talk about with a reasonable objectivity, the political situation is as murky and confused as it has been for so long now, the government is paralyzed with half of its member already resigned or not attending its meetings. The security situation is slightly improved because some of the major groups involved in the violence are re-thinking their tactics it is possible that this improvement in the level of death and destruction could be god forbid be easily reversed. The situation at the Iraqi Turkish border is still very tense and explosive with very serious repercussions on what is going on in the other parts of the country.
Tomorrow is Christmas, the birth of Jesus Christ our lord and savior I wish you my treasured friends, my esteemed colleagues my kind and supportive family and especially those of you who have been helping over the long months with their prayers, their moral support and love and their money, and to all the visitors of The Hanoudi Letter my best wishes for a Merry Christmas and a very happy and prosperous New Year. And to America and its people who have been very generous and kind to us, I am praying that things will soon enough be a bit better at home and I would be able to write something more intelligent and cheerful.
Najeeb Hanoudi
Monday, Dec. 24, 2007
Berkley, Michigan
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