ِA brother, a sister or none…???

Hi everyone, long time no see ;-). I really don't have any news to write here, it is boring isn't it?. Speaking about politics has become useless to me, it will not change the facts of what will happen in the future and I don't think that what I see and feel will make any difference to anyone or to what will happen to my own country. So I will try to avoid writing about the Iraqi situation, I had enough and you too. Also from what I wrote and from your comments I understood that if you are not living there you do not know how life looks like and unfortunately many of you are so influenced by the American policy which in the outside looks like ideal goals that cannot be implemented in real life.

Anyway, I have good news!!! I and my Husband are expecting a new baby after a few months (five months from now). I'm having some complications that I wish will end and safely continue my pregnancy. The last month was the worst to me and my husband, I had a high risk of losing the baby and I had to lay in bed for 3 weeks. You can imagine how the house became, A MESS. And Ahmed had to do all the work by himself from cleaning to cooking and taking care of Farah and everything, and he never did that before so it was so hard to him.
Things are better now, we brought a maid to help me in the morning and I started cooking. This is the only thing I'm allowed to do now. I can't go out or sit or walk for more than 15 minutes continuously. So I'm still under alarm and that's killing me. I have what they call a Placenta Prevai , but my doctor said I will be OK but need to be more careful.

Before that I found a part time job as a Secretary in a Nursery School, I accepted the work because it was part time and I could take Farah with me when she finished her
school, But after one month of work I had to quit because of my pregnancyL.
PS. I became 29 years a month ago, we did not celebrate because we were having very bad times due to my health situation.

Farah is doing good at school, she will graduate from her class and the school invited us for the party. She is eager to know everything about my pregnancy and she asks lots of questions, sometimes I don't know what to tell her. Last time I saw her opening my pregnancy book trying to look for pictures of babies inside their moms. I and Farah watched a TV report about the development of the fetus inside the uterus, she was too excited and she kept asking questions, and everyday I have to answer many of her infinite questions. She told me she want a brother not a sister, and I asked her why? She told me because if she have a sister she will fight with her on toys when they will play!! I try to tell her that we still don't know what we will have, and it might be a sister or brother. But she insist on having a brother and refuses the sister idea completely. She told me all her girl friends have brothers not sisters, why wil she be different!! And her friends of boys have sisters as well.

So we will wait till we know the sex of the baby and then see what to do with her after that. I think she will be jealous from the new baby especially after being the only child in our family for 5 years and all the attention focus only on her.

So this is a brief of my news, stay in touch, take care and bye bye.

Sorry will not be enough

I have nothing to say. It is all written here by my sister. I'm so angry now and in need for an explination.

UAE boycotts Danish goods!!

All the markets in UAE continue to boycott the Danish goods for the fourth day, even famous series such as Spinneys and Carrefour have joined the campaign against the Danish government and have asked it for an apology.
The case has began in September, when a Danish newspaper first sparked a furor by publishing 12 cartoons, one of which depicted the Prophet Mohammed wearing a turban shaped as a bomb with a burning fuse.
Islamic tradition bars any depiction of the Prophet, even respectful ones, out of concern that such images could lead to idolatry.
According to local newspapers, this boycott made the Danish companies lose between 150 and 200 million Dhs ( about 60 million dollars till now).
Yesterday I went to do some shopping from Carrefour which I think is French series of hypermarkets, and saw some empty shelves with signs wrote on them (here where sold some Danish goods), the same thing with Spinneys but without any sign, just empty shelves.
The Danish newspaper did apologize for this act, But I think when it was too late.
Now the Muslims around the world want an official apology from the Danish Government .
Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said he could not apologize on behalf of the paper, he said: “I would like to emphasize that the Danish Government condemns any expression, action or indication that attempts to demonize groups on the basis of their religion or ethnic background.
The Danish prime minister refused to apologize because it was against their constitution, since the newspaper was a private company.
The crisis is still on, but I think it will be solved within a few days, because so many Danish companies are loosing millions everyday, and this boycott will lead to some discussion.
The Boycott is not only in UAE, but also in Saudi Arabia and many other Muslim countries.

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.

Work problem

I have started looking for a job but I'm facing some problems:
First one is the long working hours and that means my daughter will be alone for a long time. She will start her school in the next few days but she will come back at 1:30 and she will be alone. I know you will say bring her a babysitter, this is what I was thinking about. But again I'm facing another problem: Are they qualified enough to raise my daughter and spend hours with her alone everyday? Here in UAE all of the babysitters and housemaids are either from India or Philippine and all of them from the poor uneducated levels, so How can I let them raise my daughter?
Second issue, even if I agree to put her with them that means the babysitter will wait for her when she is back from school, and this is another problem what if that lady did not come on time? Where my daughter stay?
I'm still looking for a part time job as this will be the best solution but I still can't find any place that agrees for that.
I saw many women who are working full time and put their children with the maid, I did not like this, I hear many tragic stories that make me terrified and in the same time I want to practice my right to work and to do something to myself, but still confused.

I am enjoying the freedom

Hi everyone, yes I am still alive. The chances here to be killed are very limited unlike Iraq. Anyway I did not write anything before because I don't know what to write. Believe it or not we had an electricity cuts twice during the last 3 months! Once happened in Dubai last month due to a technical problem and lasted for a few hours and the second due to maintenance in my building and they notified us before they cut it off. Anyway my life here is so simple and comfortable and I feel very relaxed here. Yesterday I was talking with Ahmed (my husband) about how long we have been here and we did not have a headache because in Iraq we used to have headaches so much, besides I had problems with my colon most of the time when I was in Baghdad now I don't.
Every now and then I sit down and think about my life 3 months ago before we came here and compare it with today. I don't know how we were able to stand it. Now I know what real life means, maybe before I didn't know the difference that much, but today I know and I feel sorry for Iraqis. They don't deserve this.
Few days ago we celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary, it was the first time I was able to go alone to the markets and buy a present to my husband without him. Even before the war I was not able to go alone in Iraqi markets for many reasons one of them I was young and usually hear many molestation. Here I can go anyplace anywhere alone even in the middle of the night. Now I do most the shopping alone and sometimes I go out to buy few things after 11 pm alone with no fear of anything. I think here I know the word FREEDOM very well.

My daughter is living normal kids life, we take her to playing areas a lot and to parks (when the weather is good), we bought her a bike and she plays with it in the park. We registered her in school which she will join in next September.
Last time we had electricity cut in our building as I said for maintenance, Farah (my daughter) started to cry and when I asked her why are you crying she said you said only in Iraq the electricity goes off , not here.

For me, the first two months here I had nightmares, one of them I dreamed of a rocket was running after me and I woke up very tired from running. Now I don't but I still panic every time I hear a sudden sound.

Maybe this will be my last time to write, many Iraqis are writing their Diaries in blogs and telling you their stories, so you will not need me anymore. I read many blogs everyday to see if things are getting better in Iraq or not. But till now things are getting worse everyday. No water, no electricity, and no fuel. No sign for near improvement even in the far future. I still hope one day things will be normal as here and we will return to our home again.

New update: we went to a wedding party in Sharja, the wedding was for a relative of mine. Most of the guests were Iraqi doctors, since the groom and the bride's family are doctors. it was a very nice party but what distressed me was the number of Iraqi doctors I saw in that wedding, you can not imagine how many doctors I saw and that means there are no more good doctors left in Iraq. One of the doctors who sat near us in the table said that he left Mosul one year ago and left his family in mosul but when things started to get worse he brought them here 5 months ago. And the other I talked with said he came here recently and his family are in Jordan waiting for their visa. By the way as I hear, they said the government here are not giving residency to Iraqis anymore I don't know why. And that doctor I talked with said he got his residency but failed to get one to his wife and children, so they are waiting in Jordan.
Since we left Iraq, many of our relatives and friends started to think of leaving Iraq, but it is not that easy, first of all nobody is giving visa to Iraqis in most of the countries as we are considered terrorists. I still can't understand, during Saddam's regime we couldn't have visa for political reasons and when he is out we still can't have it. Me and my husband where lucky to have it.
My cousin couldn't follow her husband in Qatar because of the visa, her husband got his visa because he is Egyptian, but she couldn't because she is Iraqi. And now he is working in Qatar and she is waiting in Egypt.

Diary of Rosebaghdad

Hi everyone, sorry for not writing for along time. Well we finally settled down and moved to our new home (apartment). I was waiting to write when we have full time internet at home but today we discovered that it will take us more than a month till we could get an internet access due to some construction works in our area and our area is still new so they have to install new cables for the DSL internet. Anyway I was thinking what shall I name my blog after I had left Iraq and I will name it Dairy of Rosebaghdad till I found a more suitable name for it. The last month was so tiring because we had to look for an apartment and then started furnishing it from zero and all without a car and with a child. It is very difficult when you have to do all things alone and without help from anyone and in a strange country. We found an apartment somewhere between Sharjah and Dubai but it is considered to be in Sharjah. I prefer to live in Dubai but the rents there became so expensive as they said during the last six months and in Sharjah life is cheaper and we could save money more than in Dubai. Our apartment is big and very nice but the building is still new so we don't know our neighbors yet.

Let me talk about Sharjah and Dubai as the way I see it : Dubai is cleaner and contains large green places with flowers which I miss very much here, in Sharjah all you see is sand and when I say sand I mean exactly like desert with minimum amount of green grass. Sharjah is very small and crowdy most of the population here are Arabs and Indians or from Pakistan while in Dubai you see Indians besides the other nationalities. If you want an intertainment you have to go Dubai. For me I did not like Sharjah at all it is very different than Dubai. Anyway my apartment is opposite to a new large mall which is the biggest in Sharjah. It is very nice and very elegant, my area did not exist till the last couple of years until this mall was built ,but still all the streets are under construction which means lots of sand everywhere.

The way to dubai from our place takes about 15 minutes but not at the rush hours of course and I can easily reach many places in Dubai faster than if I was in Dubai itself. My husband's work is rather far away from our house it takes him about more than an hour to reach his work and to return back.
One thing is very noticeable here is the amount of Indains in Emirates, you can say I consider my self living in India more than in an Arabic country, most or you can say all the taxi drivers are Indians, most of the sellers in shops and supermarkets are Indians or from Philippine but the majority from India even you can find their food is more familiar in markets than Arabic food. Now I have 3 Indian neighbors in my floor and of course you can find different levels from Indians, the highly educations to the poor ones. (It is said that Indians form about 67% of the population in Emirates)!!!

For me I still feel lonely, and every time I sit alone and think of my parents my eyes are filled with tears, I hope they were with me to stay safe. Life here is so simple and you can get everything simply, we lived in a very hard conditions that made me have a shock the first few days, I was even afraid to cross the road alone, I was scared!!! I was acting like the movie (Blast from the past). Sometimes I say to myself oh my God how did we bare all this in Iraq, look how those people live. This should be our life too we are also human beings and deserve to live the way others live. My mother asked me in her letter how does life without bombs look like? Do you know this sentence made my eyes full of tears, we don’t deserve this and I can't find a new hope for peace in the near future. Things in Baghdad are still the same as I left or maybe worse. Last week there was a battle in a street near close to my house and in the middle of the day, today my sister in law called to say they are safe because a car bomb exploded near their house which is also near mine. Everyday I hear about a car bomb that exploded in Baghdad or Mosul, do you know what I do? I send an SMS to my mother asking her if everyone is ok, and wait for a reply. I'm still here but my thoughts and heart are still in Iraq because all my beloved ones are there, my family my friends and my relatives. I feel lucky to leave because I think I was going to lose my nerves if I had stayed in Iraq anymore worried about my husband when he is out, can't send my daughter to school and can't look for a job. Now here we are looking for a school for my daughter so she can join in a new term which starts in September. And after she will join the school I will start to look for a job or a part time job.
By the way my niece started her own blog. She lives in Mosul and most of my news about Mosul where from my sister. I talked a lot about them before now I let her talk about her life and her family's life in Mosul. She is 14 years old. The URL for her blog is :

http://www.livesstrong.blogspot.com/


Thank you for sharing my thoughts. I really hope to stay in touch with you all. Bye for now.