A Universal History of Infamy

I spent a restless night, with dream fragments, rather than dreams. In the last fragment my mother's best friend, who is an avid Bush supporter (which has been causing screaming arguments with my mother) came over to my house and asked where my parents were. I said they went to vote. For Kerry. She asked in this affectionate-mocking tone that she always adopts when I, "in my youth and idealism" try to critique her ideas: "what if they just said they were voting for Kerry to calm you down, what if they are really doing the sane thing and voting for Bush?" I said "what if your two sons die in Iraq?"

I checked my email and got a letter from my journalist friend who is in Baghdad now. I am putting it here for everyone caught in the pre-election media blackout on Iraq and also because while we spend the next 24 hours obsessing about tomorrow's election, this is a reminder of everything real that we mean when we say that the Bush Administration is a monster.


Hi Veronica, Great hearing from you. I hope you are enjoying Ecuador. It
must be great to be away from the United States of Paranoia!
As for myself, as you know I am back in Baghdad. i Arrived about 10
days ago. Things are intense. Daily bombings and attacks. People are afraid.
Tension is rising.
I visited a church yesterday that was bombed about two weeks ago. An old
Palestinian man looked at the destruction crying:" Tell Bush that this is
all his fault."
It does not matter whther you are Christian or Muslim in Iraq, you are
still against the occupation and the Bush regime.
I seem to be one of the few Western journalist who leaves the
hotel at this point. The fear of something happening is increasing. Esp.
after the bombing of the the Al-Arabiya office in Baghdad two days ago. Many
Iraqi journalist have been killed, not to mention the estimated 200000 Iraqi
civilians killed.
If you ask me and the Iraqis, we all say in one voice it was not
worth it. If anybody in the States thinks that it was worth it or as an
American woman said on talkshow shown on BBC two days ago : " The Iraqis
should thank Bush."
Our question is for what? For 200000 civilians dead. Women being afraid of leaving their houses. Parents afraid of sending their kids to school. People of being afraid of being outside after dark. Haliburton and other US
companies robbing Iraq. Hospitals lacking resources. US soldiers destroying
Iraqi homes, looking for Al-Qaida that was not in Iraq before...
Tell the people in the US who tell us that we should thank Bush that they
should come here and look for themselves and to receive our gratitude.

Take care, Urban
You can reach me at the following sat-phone number:
+________________
As of now I also have an Iraqi cellphone:+______________!!!!!!

If you want to look at my pix, go to:
www.urbanhamid.com

more pictures

Yesterday I went mountain-biking (that's right, hahahaha, me on a mountain bike) down the Pichincha Volcano and into the Cloud Forest. It was breathtakingly beautiful and I was concentrating very hard on not flying off the bike (I fell twice, and my final verdict is, I prefer horsies), and so the goal of not thinking about the election for a few hours was achieved. Here are some pictures, in order of descent:

This is at 4600 meters (or 15,000 feet) and it's fucking cold

( Read more... )

And also for good measure:




Which Woman of Beauty Are You? Find out! By Nishi.

plans

So check this out. Since I can't be with my near and dear tomorrow, I took measures. (Actually my nearest and dearest best friend totalvirility with whom I was living during the 2000 election, in our Brooklyn Apartment above the Worst Chinese Restaurant Ever fell asleep that night before the Great Ambiguity started and I was transfixed to the TV by myself anyway). So I got a room in a small hotel with a cable feed for tomorrow night. I got alcohol. I feel terribly Leaving Las Vegas except with the election in lieu of suicide.

In Central Florida Jesus is voting for Bush. We will have until tomorrow to see if he is in the "majority" (ha!), but, as I just wrote to apropos, I am preparing myself for the possibility that this will be a long drawn out legal dispute and tomorrow night will be outrageous but anticlimactic.

I doubt I will sleep tonight.