Fairuz has a song called “indi sika feek” which means I have faith in you / I trust you. It should be our national anthem. It says:

I have faith in you
I have hope in you and what more do you want.
There is nothing more I can give
All my sentences end with you.
I have faith in you and this should be enough.
I know we will be able to pull ourselves together it just takes time. If you stop thinking this way you’ll fall apart. Some people have sent emails saying that I am not as “witty and fresh” as I used to be. I am sorry it is really hard to keep your wits these days let alone be witty. I was reading some of the stuff I wrote last October, I wish I had the rage I had in me then. Now I just feel disappointed, my city is becoming fuck-up-central. It is frustrating, how long do you think the coalition forces can keep their cool in the face of the constant attacks? How are they going to deal with the constant sabotage of infrastructure? We have no country or government anymore; they used to talk about “nation building” we ended up with nothing.
An Iraqi reader who lives abroad sent me an email which he got from Iraq on the 7th of July. We’ll assign him the spokesperson duties today.

>Subject: A letter from Baghdad
>From:
>To:
>Sent: Monday, July 07, 2003 10:06 AM
>
>
>Dear friends,
>
>If you wonder why I haven't sent you anything lately;
>well, I started writing a long letter a week ago but
>while describing the extremely bad situation we were
>in last week (All Baghdad stayed without electricity
>for more than 3 days with very weak water or none in
>some places, plus a big fuel shortage for generators
>and cars), I was listening to the coalition
>broadcasting for the Iraqi people. They ware talking
>about all low priority stuff like printing "New
>passports" for Iraqis, Mr. Bremer attending a Symphony
>for the Iraqi Symphony group, and such stuff, without
>any mentioning of the fact that about 5 million people
>were living under a temperature of 47 degrees and
>without electricity and water for three days :-/
>You know, I reviewed my "dream list" back then; there
>was no "New passports" in it. It just contained three
>simple wishes: Electricity, Water, and Security.
>(This will make a nice motto instead of the old famous
>"Unity, Freedom, and Socialism", I might as well start
>a party of my own with this motto. It will sure make
>me very popular).
>Are such wishes to much to ask in the new millennium,
>and when you are under the occupation of the greatest
>power in the world?
>If you say be patient. Well, apart from the last 23
>years, remember the ex-regime has fallen for about
>three months now.
>
>Back to the letter I intended to write. So while
>listening to these great news, I felt so desperate and
>frustrated (Not from the Americans actually, but from
>the situation we are in), that I simply tore the
>message.
>
>The situation here is getting more complicated. You
>are hearing about the killing of the US soldiers every
>day. Neither me, nor anyone I know agrees to this.
>This should not be the way to solve thing. It is only
>making things worse. US soldiers are getting so tense
>in dealing with people. If such acts are not stopped,
>we will never have peace.
>
>There are also the destructive acts being done by
>unknown groups. They are destroying vital resources
>like electricity, water, and oil pipes.
>Some say they are people loyal to the ex-regime,
>trying to make things so bad to make people hope for
>its return.
>Others, say they are from Iran, just damaging the
>country.
>Some even say that they are done by the Americans to
>keep people busy with such stuff (A policy that the
>ex-regime used to follow).
>I, personally, am getting more convinced by the first
>opinion.
>
>What depresses people here is that there seems to be
>no short-term solution to all this. Electricity,
>water, and oil pipes are an easy target and hence we
>will always feel threatened, specially when we think
>of July and August ahead. "The true heat is yet to
>come".
>
>Nevertheless, we have no choice but to wait and see if
>the promises being given to us will be fulfilled, and
>lets only hope for the best.
> >As for other aspects of our life here:
> >- Do you know that the number of newspapers reached 73
>and the count is increasing. The same for Parties. We
>have two persons claiming the throne (if there will
>ever be one). People here have no respect for almost
>all of these parties. Most of them just took the
>buildings they like illegally and make them their
>centers. Imagine a party steals a building when it
>starts and expects to be respected.
>
>- The best job for anyone now is selling cold Pepsi on
>the road. The customers are often US soldiers trying
>to survive the heat. The amount of Pepsi trucks you
>see being unloaded everyday is incredible.
>
>- Finally, the mobile network, which is being
>installed by MCI, has started working. It is still
>limited now but it is supposed to extend to public use
>mid-July. Thy funny thing is that our code is the same
>as New York. So we are considered as if we are in New
>York!!!!!!!
>I will try to get a mobile soon. Then you can call me
>with very cheap prices because international calls to
>the US is always the cheapest and as you know - We are
>in NY :-)
>
>Some body living in Baghdad