Someone told me the other day, that I needed to be more "objective" about Iraq...
She added, in her typical Western analytical mind, her mind geared towards "enquiry and impartiality", that "objectivity" would help me assess the situation better...
She was trying to make me understand -- my situation better...see it from a different perspective, a perspective that would neatly fit into her mind...or into whatever her mind can absorb, a rational empirical mind...
"Let us put feelings aside", she said...she was the detached ,impartial observer of our tragedy...of our carnage...and she wanted me to understand. Understand what ?
My cells do not need to understand, they know...my eyes do not need to understand, they saw, my ears do not need to understand, they heard...Understand what ?
That the color of blood is red ? That history has been erased and turned into ashes and modern ruins ? What is there to understand ?
What is there to understand about bulging bellies and bulging eyes wasting away in radioactive toxicity ? What is there to understand about mass graves that are still being unearthed as I type...what is there to understand about a society torn apart, living behind tall walls and ghettoes...
What is there to understand ?
What is there to understand about half a million orphans living in the streets of Baghdad or 5 million orphans scrounging for shelter and food, or millions of widows waiting for death ? What is there to understand ?
One grave digger said " business is down, but it is still business...as usual."
They asked him if his job gave him the blues...
He replied " not at all, I feel secure and peaceful with the dead..."
Understand that, if you can -- in your "objective", "impartial" minds...
You never lived in a tent, nor do you go begging for residency permits to be renewed...you do not hide your accent, nor your origins, you do not need to pretend that you are not here, nor there... Now, that is objective.
And the sound of bombs and endless stories of absent ones are not your daily music either...and lost relatives in ghost prisons are not part of your scenery...and you do not safely tuck away pictures of what used to be your home and you don't ask a traveller to discreetly take pictures of it so you will never forget...so it can stay in your "objective" minds...
When they call you and ask you "do you need anything from here" you do not say " send me some earth in a plastic bag, so I can smell it again..."
How can a nose be objective and impartial ?
But please remain impartial...so the Westerner can understand...
Because his mind is a pigeon hole, where everything is classified by order...by alphabetical lists, like a deck of cards, the famous deck of cards...ABCDEFG...1234567...process orders...what comes first....what comes last...the wonders of the enquiry mind. Microscopic lenses dissecting human lives...for the noble aim of Objectivity.
Like a neatly framed painting...order...make order out this chaos if you can...
Make order of this collapsed tower, this collapsed fortress, make order...so we can all become so objective and understand...understand what the mind can no longer comprehend...
You do not need order, I need order...I need order, they need order...we need orderly grounds, because we are all hanging there by a thread and the profound abyss is below us...we need order, not you.
That is why Iraqis preferred daily mantra is "security, security...we don't want food, we don't want water, we don't want electricity, just give us security..."
And who made them so insecure ? Who took away order from them ? Who is it that objectively studied them in order to break and destroy them ?
Who else, but that same mind that enquires into objectivity...
And if it only stopped here...
Not only that, but you are distrusted, disbelieved, and accused of exaggerations...
The impartial mind does not believe you...Does not want to believe you. Because your language has changed, you speak another language...a language he does not understand...a language he created but which he cannot master...
So you find yourself in a position where you need to prove with "facts" what this objective mind created in your life, with deeds...
It becomes incumbent upon you to bring proof and evidence of the chaos they created...of the destruction they wrecked...
And you find yourself in a malicious bind, a bind that you did not even ask for...a bit like an innocent prisoner bound by chains and not knowing if he will ever exit this dark dungeon... you too, become a prisoner of this discourse, of this "objective" mind...
You find yourself in a corner, where they placed you. Just like an innocent prisoner trying to remember facts to tell to the judge, if he ever sees one...facts like numbers, dates and names....the prisoner makes a list in his head, alphabetical and numerical lists in order...in a perfect order...
I walk around carrying a pad and a pencil. I need to give proof, to back up my claims, my reality. I have to jot down names and dates, numbers in a morgue, precise information backed by "concrete solid evidence", so I can appease the objective mind...I become a prisoner of the discourse. Their discourse.
I even feel it when I write on this blog...
Could you be more specific ? Can you explain why ? You need to provide evidence. Can you change your style ? You need some editing. Provide links. Back your claims. Change your language. The wording in English is not correct. Do you need to use these foul sentences ? This makes no sense. This is not politically correct. That is insulting. Why bring this up now ? This is not the time for it. You are lacking objectivity. You are generalizing. It did not happen that way. This is pure propaganda. You are lying...
Mince your words Woman, turn them around, change their colorings, give them new dimensions, weigh them, objectify them just like they objectify you and them, so they can understand in their objective minds...the intent, extent and depth of their own indifference and destructiveness...
Turn your inner and outer world,
banish the desert storms and the whirlwinds,
dam the rivers
stop the currents
erase the feelings with a rubber, blank them out,
become the zombie of PTSD
appeal to them, so they can pity you.
this is what they want to hear, need to hear...
their flip side is the Savior...
the objective savior
who needs to understand before he saves...
before he saves you, from himself...
Yet at the same time, control yourself, control your feelings and emotions because the objective mind does not accept what drops out from his frame...what is not aligned in with his thoughts...
Rise above it all and become the Nietzchean superman and superwoman...become God like, but don't show your Godliness because the objective mind cannot take anything that is not empirically proven...
So do not label them but label yourself...they need the labels, after all they labelled you. Labelled you and given you a code bar too. Digital prints and eye scans. Biometric measures and numbered you. Fit the label...so they can understand, objectively understand.
Sidestep your pain, your sleepless nights, your grief, your loss, your confusion, your isolation, your absent ones, sidestep your heart...and fit the label.
Listen well and explain calmly, don't get over excited, don't bring up the past, focus on the here and now, on the future...objectively.
Tear it away...uproot your memories, uproot your pain, uproot yourself, and become Impartiality, a living example of Blankness.
This is what you need to do, to be understood by the Objective Mind.
Alternatively -- you rip the objective portraits and pictures, you tear the information and the data, you dig even deeper into your inner wilderness, into your thorns, into your wounds...let them bleed again, expose them to fresh air and sunlight, expose them to Life...
A rebirth, not the one they told you about, not their birth pangs nor their labour pain, the pains of their new world order, but yours...your new world order...
Expose them to History and to Life, so you can live again.
Do not let them cut your tongue with "objectivity".
Hurl it, roar it...
Become the warrior and the poet of your own Liberation...with Wisdom, an ancient Wisdom, your ancient Wisdom.
Painting: Iraqi artist, Raed Saeed Farhan.
She added, in her typical Western analytical mind, her mind geared towards "enquiry and impartiality", that "objectivity" would help me assess the situation better...
She was trying to make me understand -- my situation better...see it from a different perspective, a perspective that would neatly fit into her mind...or into whatever her mind can absorb, a rational empirical mind...
"Let us put feelings aside", she said...she was the detached ,impartial observer of our tragedy...of our carnage...and she wanted me to understand. Understand what ?
My cells do not need to understand, they know...my eyes do not need to understand, they saw, my ears do not need to understand, they heard...Understand what ?
That the color of blood is red ? That history has been erased and turned into ashes and modern ruins ? What is there to understand ?
What is there to understand about bulging bellies and bulging eyes wasting away in radioactive toxicity ? What is there to understand about mass graves that are still being unearthed as I type...what is there to understand about a society torn apart, living behind tall walls and ghettoes...
What is there to understand ?
What is there to understand about half a million orphans living in the streets of Baghdad or 5 million orphans scrounging for shelter and food, or millions of widows waiting for death ? What is there to understand ?
One grave digger said " business is down, but it is still business...as usual."
They asked him if his job gave him the blues...
He replied " not at all, I feel secure and peaceful with the dead..."
Understand that, if you can -- in your "objective", "impartial" minds...
You never lived in a tent, nor do you go begging for residency permits to be renewed...you do not hide your accent, nor your origins, you do not need to pretend that you are not here, nor there... Now, that is objective.
And the sound of bombs and endless stories of absent ones are not your daily music either...and lost relatives in ghost prisons are not part of your scenery...and you do not safely tuck away pictures of what used to be your home and you don't ask a traveller to discreetly take pictures of it so you will never forget...so it can stay in your "objective" minds...
When they call you and ask you "do you need anything from here" you do not say " send me some earth in a plastic bag, so I can smell it again..."
How can a nose be objective and impartial ?
But please remain impartial...so the Westerner can understand...
Because his mind is a pigeon hole, where everything is classified by order...by alphabetical lists, like a deck of cards, the famous deck of cards...ABCDEFG...1234567...process orders...what comes first....what comes last...the wonders of the enquiry mind. Microscopic lenses dissecting human lives...for the noble aim of Objectivity.
Like a neatly framed painting...order...make order out this chaos if you can...
Make order of this collapsed tower, this collapsed fortress, make order...so we can all become so objective and understand...understand what the mind can no longer comprehend...
You do not need order, I need order...I need order, they need order...we need orderly grounds, because we are all hanging there by a thread and the profound abyss is below us...we need order, not you.
That is why Iraqis preferred daily mantra is "security, security...we don't want food, we don't want water, we don't want electricity, just give us security..."
And who made them so insecure ? Who took away order from them ? Who is it that objectively studied them in order to break and destroy them ?
Who else, but that same mind that enquires into objectivity...
And if it only stopped here...
Not only that, but you are distrusted, disbelieved, and accused of exaggerations...
The impartial mind does not believe you...Does not want to believe you. Because your language has changed, you speak another language...a language he does not understand...a language he created but which he cannot master...
So you find yourself in a position where you need to prove with "facts" what this objective mind created in your life, with deeds...
It becomes incumbent upon you to bring proof and evidence of the chaos they created...of the destruction they wrecked...
And you find yourself in a malicious bind, a bind that you did not even ask for...a bit like an innocent prisoner bound by chains and not knowing if he will ever exit this dark dungeon... you too, become a prisoner of this discourse, of this "objective" mind...
You find yourself in a corner, where they placed you. Just like an innocent prisoner trying to remember facts to tell to the judge, if he ever sees one...facts like numbers, dates and names....the prisoner makes a list in his head, alphabetical and numerical lists in order...in a perfect order...
I walk around carrying a pad and a pencil. I need to give proof, to back up my claims, my reality. I have to jot down names and dates, numbers in a morgue, precise information backed by "concrete solid evidence", so I can appease the objective mind...I become a prisoner of the discourse. Their discourse.
I even feel it when I write on this blog...
Could you be more specific ? Can you explain why ? You need to provide evidence. Can you change your style ? You need some editing. Provide links. Back your claims. Change your language. The wording in English is not correct. Do you need to use these foul sentences ? This makes no sense. This is not politically correct. That is insulting. Why bring this up now ? This is not the time for it. You are lacking objectivity. You are generalizing. It did not happen that way. This is pure propaganda. You are lying...
Mince your words Woman, turn them around, change their colorings, give them new dimensions, weigh them, objectify them just like they objectify you and them, so they can understand in their objective minds...the intent, extent and depth of their own indifference and destructiveness...
Turn your inner and outer world,
banish the desert storms and the whirlwinds,
dam the rivers
stop the currents
erase the feelings with a rubber, blank them out,
become the zombie of PTSD
appeal to them, so they can pity you.
this is what they want to hear, need to hear...
their flip side is the Savior...
the objective savior
who needs to understand before he saves...
before he saves you, from himself...
Yet at the same time, control yourself, control your feelings and emotions because the objective mind does not accept what drops out from his frame...what is not aligned in with his thoughts...
Rise above it all and become the Nietzchean superman and superwoman...become God like, but don't show your Godliness because the objective mind cannot take anything that is not empirically proven...
So do not label them but label yourself...they need the labels, after all they labelled you. Labelled you and given you a code bar too. Digital prints and eye scans. Biometric measures and numbered you. Fit the label...so they can understand, objectively understand.
Sidestep your pain, your sleepless nights, your grief, your loss, your confusion, your isolation, your absent ones, sidestep your heart...and fit the label.
Listen well and explain calmly, don't get over excited, don't bring up the past, focus on the here and now, on the future...objectively.
Tear it away...uproot your memories, uproot your pain, uproot yourself, and become Impartiality, a living example of Blankness.
This is what you need to do, to be understood by the Objective Mind.
Alternatively -- you rip the objective portraits and pictures, you tear the information and the data, you dig even deeper into your inner wilderness, into your thorns, into your wounds...let them bleed again, expose them to fresh air and sunlight, expose them to Life...
A rebirth, not the one they told you about, not their birth pangs nor their labour pain, the pains of their new world order, but yours...your new world order...
Expose them to History and to Life, so you can live again.
Do not let them cut your tongue with "objectivity".
Hurl it, roar it...
Become the warrior and the poet of your own Liberation...with Wisdom, an ancient Wisdom, your ancient Wisdom.
Painting: Iraqi artist, Raed Saeed Farhan.
