Iraqis boycott the American goods!!
Hi everyone, I know you are going to say where I have been hiding all this time?
Well, I don't know, the time is passing so quickly. I took a driving license, I found a good job but I had to quit after a few days, many problems faced me including that I could not find some nursery suitable for my daughter and don't ask me why and how. Because we have many problems here in this country that I am sure you did not hear about in any other country. Anyway I did not write this post to discus this issue but to let you know my news.
As for the news of Iraq, all I can say "I pray that God can protect it from civil war, I can see the tension now between sunnis and shiaas.
Between you and me, the leaders now are doing exactly what Saddam had done to them, kidnapping, illegal arrests and torturing, and nobody could proof who is doing this and why. A few months ago a friend of my husband was arrested from his work by some people who came and said they are from police and they want him for few questions, they took him and till now more than two months no one knows anything about him even his family. They went to interior ministry who denied that. And many others who don't know their fate yet. If this was not done by the government, at least they should start looking for them or start to make investigation about that but not to shut their mouths and sit without doing anything especially it is done with the name of the government , and if those people were guilty why don't they submit them to the court. this is not only my question but from all the angry people I meet every day here and there, In Iraq and in UAE and from chats all around the world.
I made some friends now, all are Iraqis. Not very much compatible with me but are better than sitting alone. The problem that I faced here and found it very weird is that all the Iraqis that I met, are very different than the real Iraqis, or the Iraqis that I used to meet before, many of them I knew them before but they have changed. A strange phenomenon that I found among Iraqis and I find it very worrying is the increase of extremist Muslims between Iraqis. I know many Iraqis in Iraq started to become extremist after the war due to the circumstances we have, but I never thought that I found more here in UAE especially those people are here for along time, and in UAE you can find from all the nationalities in the world. The rate of hijab between Iraqi women has increased here also, and some of them are covering their faces which I found very strange because we don't have this in the Iraqi culture even with these circumstances. In Iraq you can see the women only wearing the hijab but not covering there faces. Few days ago we went out with my husband's friend for a picnic it was the first time we went out together, and there were another family that we met there. I was very astonished when one of the men asked us (the women) to sit alone and a little far away from the men. Me and my husband put our chairs together but then we sat separately and when we started to eat our lunch we had to separate the food into two halves, I did not understand the way these men think, they see women every where. why we can not eat anything in front of them. Anyway this picnic will be the last with them definitely. We have another normal group that we will go out with whenever we want to go out for a picnic. But I was very angry that day not because of me but for the other women who accept this from their husbands to treat them as nobody.
Another thing that I found very common among the Iraqis here in UAE is that they has boycotted all the American goods. I asked many people why they do that and when they started doing this, they said they started before 9-11 due to the American position with Israel and the number of people who boycott increased after Baghdad's fall. I told some of them that in Iraq I have never heard anyone boycott the American goods, so why you do so? They said we have many alternatives here unlike Iraq and in this way we can express our anger to their policy in Iraq!! Their boycott also includes not eating in American restaurants or drinking cola or pepsi they drink something similar to it made in Saudi Arabia I think. And even they go to tiny details and ask for it, for example they don't make shopping from some shops that are not American but they cooperate somehow with Isreal, I don't want to give the names of the shops .I think the boycott idea started first among the Egyptians against the American policy towards the Palestinians and then the Iraqis started do the same thing, I don't know if other nationalities are doing the same thing or not.
We know 6 Iraqi families here,3 of them has been boycotting, and when I asked how many Iraqis are doing so, they answer me, too many!!. Maybe this will not affect the economy of the United states but it should send a certain sign to the US government.
Well, I don't know, the time is passing so quickly. I took a driving license, I found a good job but I had to quit after a few days, many problems faced me including that I could not find some nursery suitable for my daughter and don't ask me why and how. Because we have many problems here in this country that I am sure you did not hear about in any other country. Anyway I did not write this post to discus this issue but to let you know my news.
As for the news of Iraq, all I can say "I pray that God can protect it from civil war, I can see the tension now between sunnis and shiaas.
Between you and me, the leaders now are doing exactly what Saddam had done to them, kidnapping, illegal arrests and torturing, and nobody could proof who is doing this and why. A few months ago a friend of my husband was arrested from his work by some people who came and said they are from police and they want him for few questions, they took him and till now more than two months no one knows anything about him even his family. They went to interior ministry who denied that. And many others who don't know their fate yet. If this was not done by the government, at least they should start looking for them or start to make investigation about that but not to shut their mouths and sit without doing anything especially it is done with the name of the government , and if those people were guilty why don't they submit them to the court. this is not only my question but from all the angry people I meet every day here and there, In Iraq and in UAE and from chats all around the world.
I made some friends now, all are Iraqis. Not very much compatible with me but are better than sitting alone. The problem that I faced here and found it very weird is that all the Iraqis that I met, are very different than the real Iraqis, or the Iraqis that I used to meet before, many of them I knew them before but they have changed. A strange phenomenon that I found among Iraqis and I find it very worrying is the increase of extremist Muslims between Iraqis. I know many Iraqis in Iraq started to become extremist after the war due to the circumstances we have, but I never thought that I found more here in UAE especially those people are here for along time, and in UAE you can find from all the nationalities in the world. The rate of hijab between Iraqi women has increased here also, and some of them are covering their faces which I found very strange because we don't have this in the Iraqi culture even with these circumstances. In Iraq you can see the women only wearing the hijab but not covering there faces. Few days ago we went out with my husband's friend for a picnic it was the first time we went out together, and there were another family that we met there. I was very astonished when one of the men asked us (the women) to sit alone and a little far away from the men. Me and my husband put our chairs together but then we sat separately and when we started to eat our lunch we had to separate the food into two halves, I did not understand the way these men think, they see women every where. why we can not eat anything in front of them. Anyway this picnic will be the last with them definitely. We have another normal group that we will go out with whenever we want to go out for a picnic. But I was very angry that day not because of me but for the other women who accept this from their husbands to treat them as nobody.
Another thing that I found very common among the Iraqis here in UAE is that they has boycotted all the American goods. I asked many people why they do that and when they started doing this, they said they started before 9-11 due to the American position with Israel and the number of people who boycott increased after Baghdad's fall. I told some of them that in Iraq I have never heard anyone boycott the American goods, so why you do so? They said we have many alternatives here unlike Iraq and in this way we can express our anger to their policy in Iraq!! Their boycott also includes not eating in American restaurants or drinking cola or pepsi they drink something similar to it made in Saudi Arabia I think. And even they go to tiny details and ask for it, for example they don't make shopping from some shops that are not American but they cooperate somehow with Isreal, I don't want to give the names of the shops .I think the boycott idea started first among the Egyptians against the American policy towards the Palestinians and then the Iraqis started do the same thing, I don't know if other nationalities are doing the same thing or not.
We know 6 Iraqi families here,3 of them has been boycotting, and when I asked how many Iraqis are doing so, they answer me, too many!!. Maybe this will not affect the economy of the United states but it should send a certain sign to the US government.
posted by rose at 8:27 AM
12 Comments:
Rose,
It is so good to hear from you!
It is amazing to me that you can detect a rise in fundamentalist beliefs even in such a short time. I would normally expected social change to occur more slowly.
"I was very astonished when one of the men asked us (the women) to sit alone and a little far away from the men. ... Anyway this picnic will be the last with them definitely"
Glad you are boycotting these strange people.
They have a mistaken belief system. God could not possibly agree with these crazy ideas. If God does believe these things, then I don't want to be a part of his idea of heaven anyway.
Hi Rose! First time I've checked your blog in weeks, and you have a brand new post up! I'm so lucky :)
This sounds so strange with Iraqis acting differently in the UAE than in Iraq. Perhaps they are trying to make their opinions perfectly clear (to others) in the UAE?
The boycott... I saw a post about that on an Egyptian blog some time ago. I think it was started by a Palestinian group, quite a few years ago? I know there's a website that lists all companies that are "jewish owned" or that are considered to be zionist. This list seems to contain just about every American company, somehow, even companies I have worked for and that I know are not affiliated in any way with Israel :)
I guess it's not much of a leap from that LONG list to simply boycotting all American goods. I don't have a problem with that. I don't buy French goods, myself. I know it doesn't make any difference, but it makes me feel good.
Anyway, god to hear from you! Please keep blogging!
Oh, by the way Rose, I suggest you enable the blogger feature to do a word verification on comments? It seems to elimate almost all the spam.
Rose!
Finally a post! Thank you for keeping this blog going!
Yes boycotting is nothing! Japan just did it to our beef! Oh well!
Dearest Rose,
I used to live in UAE, Sharjah and Dubai, Iraqis do not know one another very well and Iraqis are in the thousands there. It depends where you meet them.
Be aware that this is religion distinguishing political stances. I had and stil have wonderful connections to Iraqi people that are, more, sane. Iraqis have changed to the better and worse. But the good still DO exist.
Hang in there :)
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
QQUOTED from Programmer craig: The boycott... I saw a post about that on an Egyptian blog some time ago. I think it was started by a Palestinian group, quite a few years ago? I know there's a website that lists all companies that are "jewish owned" or that are considered to be zionist. This list seems to contain just about every American company, somehow, even companies I have worked for and that I know are not affiliated in any way with Israel :)
I agree. I used to live in UAE before and after 911 and at a time my family were influenced to do much of the same boycotting. The boycotting rumor was that most of the western American products like McDonalds, Burger King ...(including frozen goods, drink) were 'funded' and 'owned' by Israelis. We gave up on this diet of theirs but there were still alot of people who continued to purchase these foods and products regardless.
One of the old Palestinian tricks to change the Middle Eastern face.
welcome back!
Thanks for what you have written. Life in Iraq turned to be a hell. I live in Baghdad and I feel this tension increasing day after day and no one, literaly, no one is trying to stop it. I am completely disappointed by the Americans and the avenger politicians whose main aim is to get revenge. They feel that Iraqis were spoiled under Saddam and that they were the only ones who were suffering under Saddam. Thank you Thank you Thank you for talking about it. People in the world have to know what is really going on in Iraq.
I'm so glad to see you back too Rose. Your whole family has been able to give us in North America and around the world, a more vivid picture of what is going on in the life of the average person in the Middle East. Keep blogging and being the real news for us.
Kim
Thanks for sharing this. Very interesting stuff. It is unfortunate all of the victims in this war, many we don't even realize...
Matt
Who gives a shit, what you guys over there fucking boycot. At least if I buy good old american good I know they won't fall the fuck appart as soon as I put them on at least I know they will last cause I don't want to suck chinese cock all my life and buy all their cheep assed fucking shit.
A boycott unless it effects them in a large way will not establish anything, if you decide that a boycott is a statement it has to have a significant economic effect or is just a whisper in a crowd, I believe that a boycott of electronics happened a few months back and no one bought comet lcd tv it made no difference at all and was really a waste of time and effort.
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