Riverbend, the eloquent anonymous blogger from Baghdad, has just posted again. She and her family are leaving Iraq, to where they do not know.
There are moments when the injustice of having to leave your country, simply because an imbecile got it into his head to invade it, is overwhelming. It is unfair that in order to survive and live normally, we have to leave our home and what remains of family and friendsâ┚¬Â¦ And to what?
It’s difficult to decide which is more frightening- car bombs and militias, or having to leave everything you know and love, to some unspecified place for a future where nothing is certain.
May their escape be fast and safe, and may they soon find a place to call home. So too for all refugees of the war started by the imbecile.
Comments from Baghdad…
“There are moments when the injustice of having to leave your country, simply because an imbecile got it into his head to invade it, is overwhelming. It is unfair that in order to survive and live normally, we have to leave our home and what remains o…
There are tens of millions of refugees from wars around the globe– often started by imbeciles. The most common criticism of the late Boris Yeltsin is that he started the “unnecessary” war in Chechnya… The war in Sri Lanka could have been stopped at so many times, but all efforts by all parties failed, because in each instance, someone on one side or another thought war was a good idea.
I am sad to hear that Riverbend and her family are being forced to leave their country. The thought crossed my mind that in some ironic twist they might end up in the U.S.A.
It makes my family losing our home because of the housing crash, etc, seem like cake and cookies. I hope she finds happiness and peace.
CTman brings up an good point: what we consider crises in the U.S. rarely compare with what others live with in a daily basis. Americans need to get out more, and see how lucky we [the vast majority of us] really are.
I wouldn’t say that we are lucky… But there is a huge difference between “bad” and “FUBAR”. We will start over (again), and we don’t have to dodge bombs and bullets daily.
DJ has lived in Sri Lanka on and off and has experienced Third World conditions in war zones up close and personal.
Losing a home must certainly be a hard thing to go through. May you land well and then prosper.
When I first went to India, there were no rental homes or apartments in some places (e.g. what was then Madras). If you didn’t own your home, you slept in the street. I remember my shock at seeing people of all ages line up to get their place to sleep on a concrete traffic island.
I’m sorry CTman is going through what he is right now. But I’m glad, too, that odds are, one way or another he and his family will have a roof over their heads.