UN work nature, is it controversial?

I always see the work of the United Nations as a controversial one: it sometimes directly endorses the wars or it does it indirectly by turning its eyes, closing its ears and mouth while on the other side it helps the victims of these wars.

In 2003, it couldn't stop the U.S.-led invasion and now it begs to help Iraqis who are affected by this war.

In its recent appeal on 9 May, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) called on international donors for more US $127 million to help continuing its assistance programs for Iraqi internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees throughout the end of 2008.

The appeal was the second in this year as the first one was in January which was for US$261 million but it has so far received only US$134 million and spend them all.

But Iraqis, like Basil al-Azawi who heads the Iraqi Commission for Civil Society Enterprises, a coalition of over 1,000 Iraqi non-governmental organizations (NGOs), are skeptical and demand the international body to cooperate with local NGOs and present detailed documents on their expendtures.

Al-Azawi told the UN IRINnews that local Iraqi NGOs "have no idea how this [aid] money is being spent. Some organisations present detailed documents on their expenditures, others do not.”

“There is a perception that huge sums are being paid as high salaries to these organisations’ employees or being paid as rent for their buildings,” al-Azawi added.

kassakhoon@gmail.com

Iraqis face no danger in Lebanon !!! why???

As Arab governments and others around the world are either warning their citizens in Lebanon to be more cautious or helping them to leave the country or preventing those who want to head there, Iraqi Foreign Affairs Ministry came up today with this controversial statement:

"Iraqis in Lebanon are in good health and there is no fear on their lives," Foreign Undersecretary Labid Abawi told the US-funded Radio Sawa. "For the time being we don't have such a plan (to evacuate Iraqis from Lebanon), there is no necessity for this," Abawi added.

How lovely to hear the government says so....do you agree?

No wonder to hear such thing as this government doesn't care about its citizens' lives inside Iraq who are being killed in tens everyday.

kassakhoon@gmail.com

What a shame...

I just heard from a friend of mine that the prestigious American news agency, the Associated Press (AP) still treats its Iraqi employees in Baghdad office with a very humiliated way: they have to get searched twice before they get inside the office and they have to bring food with them, like construction workers, as they are not allowed to enter the kitchen and eat like other foreign staff.

What a shame....such companies must be grateful to those Iraqi employees because they are the ones who are behind their success in this war-devastated country as they have the big role in the work as we all know that the foreign journalist can't go out and do stories except to the Green Zone area.

But fortunately this is not the case with all news companies.

For instance, at the one I work with there is food for all of the employees....don't get me wrong with this as it is not a matter of food but instead it is a matter of showing respect to the other and let those real heroes feel they are partners with their foreign colleagues and their employer is not an extension to the U.S. occupation on their land.

Moreover, none of those AP's Iraqi employees has a written contract but instead they only have vocal ones and of course the purpose of this is clear: AP wants to make its obligations toward those people unclear and leave these obligations be decided personally unlike the foreigners who have their employer's commitments clear in their contacts before going to this war-torn country.

Another thing I heard from my friend is that AP is facing a lawsuit which has been filed by two of its former Iraqi employees at an Iraqi court as they were not paid the appropriate compensation when AP dismissed them last year.It is because they had no contracts to protect their rights so that they have to fight.

It is something really hurtful and shameful that in addition to danger the Iraqi journalists face everyday, their rights are lost as such companies making use of the lawless situation in Iraq.

I say to such companies: this not the way to say "thank you" to those people whom support has been the main reason behind keeping your work up all these years in this country.

And to the Iraqi government, Association of Iraqi Journalists, local and international NGOs and organizations I say: you can't divert a bullet fired on an Iraqi journalist but you can protect his rights at least to keep the story of this country gets out to the world.

In another subject, the AP's Managing Editor for International News, John Daniszewski appointed Tuesday Robert H. Reid as Baghdad's new bureau chief.

kassakhoon@gmail.com

Iraq loses its history as well

A hurtful and shameful story is brought today by Robert Fisk on how the cradle of civilization, Iraq, is losing its history as antiquities are being plundered for the pleasure of private collectors worldwide.

"The near total destruction of Iraq's historic past – the very cradle of human civilization – has emerged as one of the most shameful symbols of our disastrous occupation," Fisk says in Belfast Telegraph .

"The use of heritage sites as military bases is a breach of the Hague Convention and Protocol of 1954 (chapter 1, article 5) which covers periods of occupation; although the US did not ratify the Convention, Italy, Poland, Australia and Holland, all of whom sent forces to Iraq, are contracting parties" he adds.

Please join me in thanking our "liberators".....

Disneyland in Baghdad

WOW.....it is really chilly news The Times Online brought today to war-devastated Iraqi people and especially the children: an American company will pour millions of dollars to build a massive American-style amusment park in downtown Baghdad.

The Los Angeles-based C3 holding company has been sold a 50-year lease on the site by the Mayor of Baghdad for an undisclosed sum, Sonia Verma reports to The Times Online from Dubai.

Who knows may be this project will let Iraqis see another face for America instead of its military arsenal we see everyday since 2003 and the killings and devastation they have brought.

I hope that this idea will be achieved and never finds its way to the corruption reports which are overwhelmed Iraq over the past five years and....and...and....

kassakhoon@gmail.com

Take it or leave it...

Iraq's top oil official on 22 April threatened oil majors, who are in negotiations with his war-torn country on deals to increase the country's oil output, that Iraq may abandon the deals if they fail to sign them by June, Spencer Swartz reports to Dow Jones Newswires.

Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani's latest threat is the first strong statement after many upbeat ones he and other oil officials used to state since these negotiations were declared in 2007. Officials predicted to sign these deals in March.

"Iraqi workers have already increased production by about 500,000 barrels a day over the past year and could continue adding capacity without the foreign companies, Shahristani said. However, he added, their know-how and technology would greatly facilitate the process of increasing production capacity there."

Do somthing...

Iraq's well known woman activist and lawmaker, Safia al-Suhailh, made today an appeal to the Iraqi government to act immediately to curb the killing of women in one of Baghdad's western neighborhoods by militant groups.

Although al-Suhail did not name these groups but residents told the UN IRINnews that Mahdi Army militiamen, the armed wing of Shiite radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr were behind such killing.

"Over the past six months 15 women were killed in al-Salam neighbourhood for religious reasons or because they had criticized the militants, or because of their previous affiliation to the Baath Party [disbanded party of ousted President Saddam Hussein]," al-Suhail told IRIN.

kassakhoon@gmail.com

Briliant!!!

Aha, what a brilliant idea is this.....Iraqi parliament mulls issuing a law banning imports of toy guns and fire works to protect children from developing aggressive behavior, Sinan Salaheddin reports to the Associated Press.

Samira al-Moussawi, head of the parliamentary committee on women and children said that her committee, which has drawn the draft bill, is planning to put it in front of the parliament on 23 April.

"The culture of violence has prevailed in our society and controlled the Iraqi family, and that has affected the culture of children," al-Moussawi said in her interview.

"It has become a habit among a majority of our children to take what they want by force and we want to change this culture," she added.

Wondering how many laws we need to protect the coming generations from this war impacts and is it only a matter of issuing laws....?

kassakhoon@gmail.com

This is an example...

Iraq's self-ruled Kurdistan Regional Government has taken a fresh initiative with launching a new official Web Site for its Presidency Office.

www.krp.org provides visitors with the latest news, press releases and speeches for its President Masoub Barzani in addition to a clear email addresses for him and other departments in his office.

This new Web Site will work in parallel to the official one http://www.krg.org/ which is already saw success in providing journalists and other visitors with up-to-date information.

As I hail this initiative, I'm really keen to see the Iraqi central government and its ministries to have their media offices to do such a step.

kassakhoon@gmail.com

Seatbelt ??? what about other problems???

As if our Mr. Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, after "achieving victory on outlaws" in Basra and Baghdad thinks that law and security have been maintained and that Iraq "once insecure country" is now a normal one.

And for that he has ordered a law only implemented in normal countries: car drivers must wear seatbelt or face a 30,000 Iraqi dinar (about US$ 31).

It's fine and I'm not against it at all but this only works if our life conditions just like the ones in our neighboring countries at least.

I think the countless checkpoints and blast walls around Baghdad make it completely impossible to travel fast enough to cause accidents around the city.

When the government wants to maintain the law in streets, it first must impose it on its convoys and more importantly on the U.S. military and foreign security contractors ones who all show no respect to traffic rules and speed any way they want with sirens blaring and guns pointed.

So I advise my esteemed government to tackle the country's problems starting from the absent security to enable nearly 6 million Iraqis return to their homes and find solutions to our political and economic problems before imposing such laws.

kassakhoon@gmail.com

Government Media Offices...

As a journalist works in Iraq, I do believe that the first thing the Iraqi statesman must do when he takes office is to set up a very professional media office by carefully picking up a spokesman who can actively get in touch with all media outlets who deal with the Iraqi story.

And through this spokesman, the governmental institution must get a very clear and rich Web Site where all the needed information (of course those are allowed to be published) are available for everyone such as press releases, reports, contacts to officials and so on.

And also, a weekly briefings must be held to help media outlets follow up with their achievements and future plans.

In my modest seven-year old experience in journalism with international media outlets, some of those Iraqi spokesmen and their offices are very very cooperative, try hard to keep media outlets updated with all their activities and spare no efforts to help them.

While others have become professionals in how keeping journalists in turmoil when they need anything: they rarely answer their phones and never call back later and their common pretext is " I'm in a meeting" or "I was busy with meetings".

An example for that, NO OFFENCE HERE, is the Oil Ministry Spokesman Mr. Assem Jihad who rarely helps journalists with Iraq's oil developments which I believe its the most important story now in Iraq.

I do believe that amid the huge oil developments in Iraq, Iraqi Oil Ministry must hold such weekly briefings to speak about, for examples, negotiations with majors to develop oil fields and other future plans.

Iraqi Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani only appears before media when he leaves Iraq to take part in conferences and never invites journalists to his ministry.

I call on everybody not to be sensitive with this but I do believe that these spokesmen and media offices are the real forefront of their institutions.

kassakhoon@gmail.com