Vendredi 18 février 2005 - Temps de guerre

My endless battle with time is how to spend it, and when I get bored it means I'm losing, and right now I'm losing. Usually when I get bored I would go out, spend time, come home late stuff like that. It seems like a million years ago. I don't think that after the war I hung out after 8 PM. I actually have nothing to do when I'm home, and my best way to spend time is to go to college, get some homework, some times the phone can kill an half an hour or so, but college is the best of my allies.
It looks like our new president is going to be the Kurdish Jalal Talbani -I'm not sure how to spell his name- although he is not there yet but he's just around the corner, so I'm not going to judge him or anything because I virtually know almost nothing about him, I'll just wait and see how it turns out. Generally the situation is better after the ellections, big explosions are becoming less and less frequent, minor fightings are tireless but less altogether, so the future looks bright after all.

Lundi 14 février 2005 - Entrée au collège

Today I took my trip to college, I study Civil Engineering in the department of building and construction. The way to college takes roughly about an hour and a half, depending on the traffic and army convoys, which travels much slower, will not take any one passing them, and will shoot any one who doesn't take the hint.
Even so, that is not the worst thing, because the convoys actually move, unlike another situation. Imagine a very busy T intersection which barely moves whith the precence of traffic control, now take the traffic control out, what will you have, the answer is CHAOS.
The way back is a bit better because the traffic is lighter since most people are already home back from work, it's beggining to get dark, and NO ONE goes out in the dark unless he's got some kind of a death wish. Since most hijackers are out in the night and most of the fights between americans and terrorists occur at night, and believe me you don't want to be there when it happens, bullets will be flying all over the place, explotions here and there, see one and you have seen them all.
Now I'm drifting off point, so back to the trip. One time during the gas/gasoline shortage the car actually ran out of gas, great just what i needed. And it picked the greatest place to stop, it was over some bridge so we couldn't just leave it there we had to push it down and find some place to park it, the driver went to get some gas but we couldn't wait for him, there just wasn't enough time. So we went on our own that day. But it seems he managed to get some gas and picked us up on our way back.

12/02/2005 - Incapacité à comprendre

J'ai reçu un message de quelqu'un en France. Je pense que beaucoup d'entre vous ont entendu parler du kidnapping de cette journaliste française, Florence Aubenas et de son guide le 5 janvier. Aussi ce message est pour elle, celui qui me l'a expédié m'a demandé si je pouvais le mettre sur mon blog.

Florence,

Now it's been 38 days since you disappeared and I feel the omnipresence of your absence.
Absence of a journalist involved in the defense of democracy values; absence of a very appreciated woman.
Now it's 38 days there is a lack in the journalist profession, as if it was missing some letters in the word "liberty". Or as if an arrow -the arrow of intolerance- sanked into "liberty".
Your absence, this lack, this emptiness are growing every day. And I stumble over the sentence "unwillingness to understand".
That's absolutely certain that the pen of the journalists and the image of the photographs are essential defences facing the war, facing exactions, facing corruption. Your articles, as those of your colleagues, are so much pillars for democracy. One of these pillars will lack, and democracy will shake! So your presence in Iraq disturbs. As Ingrid Bettancourt in Colombia also does. As Enso Baldoni did. But I still do not understand how one can kidnap or murder
Then, which French people could ignore that you disappeared ? Which one and more, which journalist ? Which student in a school of journalism ? Nevertheless, this morning, I read only 650 messages on Liberation's forum and hardly 1200 on that of "Reporters without frontiers" Hardly 1800 support and sympathy messages. I read them all. Only a few come from colleagues. Even so, certainly your kidnappers have direct access to these. Since the beginning of the invasion of Iraq, we noticed that terrorist and islamist fighters are masters in the art of communication with internet. But, where? Where are the supports of thousands of journalists, press correspondants, photographs, local reporters, students in journalism? The more the days flow, the less I understand these absences
So Florence, all that, is too much. Much too much.
Get back soon! It will give meaning to the word "liberty", still drastically reduced this morning. Then, I hope we will work together to resolve these unwillingness to understand. For no more Abdel Hussein Khazaal, Guy-Andre Kieffer, Fred Nerac, Giuliana Sgrena and many others at the cover of world newspapers or sticked to the front of town halls!

Thierry

A 09h09, Cile a rajouté :
Florence Aubenas, Giuliana Sgrena, Enzo Baldoni et d'autres courageux journalistes ont tenté et tentent encore de raconter ce qui se passe en Irak. J'espère sincèrement que les Irakiens vont encourager ce que font et ont fait ces journalistes: des questions critiques, des enquêtes et des recherches encourageantes, en décrivant les faits, les évènements et les développements. Faites-le savoir. Les dangers de ce que Robert Fisk décrivait récemment comme "le journalisme d'hôtel" sont énormes. Tout comme les dangers du journalisme "conférences-de-presse" avec les déclarations pré-formatées. Ne laissons pas se développer l'espèce "embarquée". Il est nécessaire que les gens sortent, posent des questions, racontent ce qui se passe.

07/02/2005 Monsieur "je sais tout"

Une des caractéristiques de l'Irakien moyen, c'est qu'il ne sait pas dire "je ne sais pas"; il va commencer à parler, puis dérivera. Parfois, c'est bien, mais c'est rare. Cela me rappelle quelqu'un mais je ne sais plus qui. Par exemple, l'autre jour, j'entrais dans un magasin pour acheter un certain programme, et je demandais au gars s'il l'avait. A ses premiers mots, j'ai compris qu'il n'avait jamais entendu parler de ce programme mais il n'était pas question qu'il l'admette. Alors il commença à empiler sur son bureau tout ce qu'il avait, pour finalement me dire "Bon, je pense que je suis en rupture". Sans commentaires.
D'un autre côté, il est parfois difficile de descendre de son piédestal, surtout si l'on est considéré comme expert dans un domaine donné, et que l'on vous pose une question sur laquelle vous n'avez pas la moindre idéee, comment sortir de cela? Un Irakien moyen aura changé la question, ce qui est une assez bonne solution en fait.

02/02/2005 Prologue

The average Iraqi is a person who walkes fast, talks tough, breathes air filled with home made smoke and God knows what else gases a bomb releases and sometimes it is worth his life to cross a street or drive a car.
Take me for example on Wednesday i was driving a car, I had already bought some stuff, getting home with the car was the least of my troubles. Turned out I was wrong. The car never made it home, not my home anyway. Yeah that's right i was robbed but i wasn't shot because i did what i was told to do, not exactly what the average Iraqi would have done but that is just fictional anyways, i mean no one is exactly AVERAGE.
But i can guess what the average Iraqi would have done. He would have propably tried ramming their car with his or pull a gun something like that. Well my car was new so i would rather give it to them than destroy it and keep it, and i didn't have a gun, not that i would have used it anyway. So either i pull a rabbit from the hat or give it to them, i chose life.
Ok now the average Iraqi would go to the cops and report it, i did that of course but i wouldn't put my bets on them because most of them are volunteers and they are not trained cops and believe it or not a good proportion of them are actually ex-convicts. So they are fruitless, which means only one thing; my car is a GONER