Iraq: A Salute to the People of Egypt

This post is part of our special coverage of Egypt Protests 2011.

It is now too late for Hoseni Mubarak simply to leave. He should now be arrested and put into a trail[sic]…

…so says Hammorabi.

now that you've spitted

on our wounds

the salty saliva stings

mixed with tears,

daggers

in open scars.

Salt purifies.

you see,

am purified,

pure

very pure

always pure,

so pure.

rubbing Salt

on bleeding hearts

on bleeding souls

you are strong

so powerful…

I bow to your power

I surrender

a slave

you, a master

the Salt merchant.

the Lot family

turned into statues of Salt

crystallized Salt

stones of Salt

monuments of Salt.

they looked back

to a past

decreed to be dead

vanquished

they looked back

with longing

they turned to Salt.

I've escaped

ran away

from statues

idols

of Salt.

I did not look back

yet you follow me

rubbing your Salt

into my wounds.

Layla Anwar- 26.1.2011. Nowhere.

In a week where events have been moving so fast that even the web can't keep up I will attempt to gather some initial reactions of the Iraqi blogs knowing this may probably be all irrelevant by tomorrow.

Healing Iraq is cautiously optimistic:

I don't know if Iraqis are watching the developments in Egypt. I'm cautiously optimistic myself, but I also can't help worry that the people's revolution will be stolen again.

Salam Adil (that's me) talks about a great Arab revolution:

I asked my father, a veteran of the 1958 Iraq revolution, what he thought of the events in Egypt. His answer… “this is a world revolution”. I agree. It is more than Egypt, the era of dictators is over.

The Egyptians are famous for their jokes. And Imad Khadduri posts a picture of some typical black humour:

Mubarak.jpg

and repeats an interesting conversation between some of his friends:

“Jim is right…only the Americans were stupid enough to think the people of Iraq would accept to be colonised.”

“Also it proves the fallacy that war was necessary to topple Saddam. If the people really want it and are ready, they know what to do.
Jim”

“Salute to the people of Tunisia, Egypt (and Palestine, Jordan, Yemen, etc.)
Salute to the children and grandchildren of Jamal Abdul Nasser. Freedom, liberty, justice, anti-corruption, and dignity are worth the ‘day of reckoning’ for those that do not listen to the will of the people.
The wretched of the earth; the unarmed, poor, and deprived people of Egypt (and the other countries) have finally demonstrated that “give me liberty or give me death” is true today in 2011 as indeed at was for the past 250 years.”

Layla Anwar is reserving her jubilation at the end of Mubarak's reign. She explains:

I've kept fairly silent on the latest wave of protests and “revolutions” that have suddenly gripped the Arab world. And that deliberately so.

I am in a waiting period, observing not only the impulsive reactions but more importantly WHO will fill the political power vacuum.

And Finally:

In other news Sunshine braves Chicken Pox to celebrate her 19th Birthday and explains how she is different now she is one year older:

I realized that, satisfaction is not when I have everything I want, it is when I feel happy about everything I have .

And my value as a person is not measured with the things I own, in fact when people value themselves depending on material things and they are humiliating themselves.

,they are in their lives, I realized that to be happy and successful doesn't mean I have to believe in my models’ thoughts or live like their lives to achieve the same, but, I can have my unique way to succeed and add their experiences to mine, and learn from their patience and strength ..

I realized that Simplicity is everything ..

I realized that, when I have a family and good health, then I have everything..

Happy birthday Sunshine and, dare I say, by the time you read this – happy birthday new Egypt!

This post is part of our special coverage of Egypt Protests 2011.

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