Raghda zaid is a 13 year old girl who loves cats—a lot. Pictures of big cats, tiny cats, cats with umbrellas, cats in mailboxes, melon-headed cats, cats dressed up like ducks, pictures of pictures of cats! She also seems to like pink and flowers and enjoys school and writing. But most of all she likes cats. I can tell that she has more passion for cats than most people have for anything.
Amidst the cat pictures Raghda tells us a bit about herself:
Every one how has a [blog] wrote a subjct under the name( a bout me) so. i'll write about me: I am Raghda zaid, I am 13 years old, I am from Mosul but I live in Baghdad. I love the computer and using the internet, I love to read magasines and, I like cats, I have a cat but I keep it outside the hous because the cat maight bring diseases. I love to visit Mosul very much, I visit it each year in the summer holiday.
Later we see some really original cat posters that Raghda created herself with captions, like:
Sometimes…
when you're happy…
no one sees your smile…
Then you get into the usual 13 year old girl stuff:
The day before yesterday a big bomb exploded in Baghdad in Al -Rabee street near my house, Alot of peaple died in that explosion, and alot of cars were burned and so were the shopes. The man who did this has kild alot of peaple (women, children, men). and i'm so sorry for losing lots of iraqi peaple.
You know kids! All they ever think about is bombs and innocent dead.
Ahh.. and then more cats and happy pictures of waterfalls. Even a nice poem:
Friendship is most important thing in the world, Some times our friend could be our father, mother, brother or sister. The meaning of friendship depend on how we know this person and how much we could trust him.
Then more nice stuff:
The security something we all miss, even the Americans solders have no security, they have a sign on there vehicles saying “keep 100m distance or you will be shot”, imagine you are driving in a crowded road and an American patrol want to use this road, where will you go and how to keep the 100m distance, this is the reason that all our roads are almost in stand still state.
If any driver wasn’t able of keeping the distance he will be shot. And if these patrols want to clear the road for them they don’t use horn or silence, but they use their guns.
This is obviously just the kids imagination, I'm sure. We would have heard about this kind of stuff over here in the US. We care a lot about this kind of stuff. We love freedom. And peace! We love peace and freedom! Freedom and peace and persuit of happiness are our values. This is a thirteen year-old girl, what does she know? All this girl cares about is cats.
Via Simon.
Word from Raghda
I received email from Raghda on 09 February, 2005 and it pains me a great deal to say that the irony with which this article was meant to be read did not translate well:
Hello,
I'm Raghda Zaid(Baghdad Girl).
I read what you wrote about my subject (Life in Baghdad) and i think you are very misstake, because what i wrote was the truth. And I wish you can come to baghdad and tray to walk near the Americans patrols (even you are an American) and see what will happen to you, visit my blog by your self and read the comments about my writes. Even i am 13 years old but i can see what happen in my homeland and i don’t have to lie, if people who 13 years old in your town can’t see the different between vision and troth then you'll have a big problem you'll have to fix it.
Raghda
That destroyed me.
To Raghda
I sent the following response in an attempt to clear things up:
Oh Raghda, you've broken my heart.
I am very sorry to hear that you read my post that way. I had not considered that you might read it someday. If I had, I would have included some kind of explanation as language nuances can cause problems with interpretation. I know that you are telling the truth and I know that the patrols are bad. I know that you are dealing with something that I (and most of my countrymen) cannot even imagine.
And you are still full of love and compassion and hope.
I pointed to your blog because your outlook on life is an inspiration to many and you bring a real face and personality to the people we're waging war against (something we don’t get in the mainstream media).
The post was meant to be read with extreme sarcasm. I'm strongly against current US policy in Iraq. There are many of us who can see that it is a war on the Iraqi people and that we're causing unimaginable pain and grief. The post was meant for those who refuse to believe that real people (you!) exist and are truly and seriously impacted by the occupation.
I was pretending to write from the perspective of an American who blindly accepts everything seen in the mass media, such as low civilian casualty, high voter turnout, little to no damage to Iraqi infrastructure (electricity, water), and other misinformation.
Perhaps if I explain how the last piece might be read by someone living in the US and surrounded by constant pro-US-at-all-costs propaganda, it would make this more clear:
This is obviously just the kids imagination, I'm sure. We would have heard about this kind of stuff over here in the US.
In the US, there’s a mentally of If it’s not on the news, it’s not
happening
and it is hurting the people’s ability to organize dissent
against the occupation. This attitude towards Iraq becomes very hard to
accept when reading your weblog — what reason would you have to lie about
such things? Why would you talk about cats and school and then just make up
stories about US soldiers murdering civilians because they range to close to
a vehicle? The type of thinking I was emulating was meant to show just how
stupid it sounds.
We care a lot about this kind of stuff. We love freedom. And peace! We love peace and freedom! Freedom and peace and persuit of happiness are our values.
Freedom, peace, and happiness: these words are repeated so often in the media and by politicians that they have become hollow – the people have lost their meaning. We all love to speak of these things but in action we often end up opposing them.
> This is a thirteen year-old girl, what does she know? All this girl cares > about is cats.
YOU know what freedom, peace, and happiness are! YOU understand the value in these terms because they are being disturbed right now. When you talk about “cats”, I hear “freedom”. In some weird way, I was trying to make the point that we, the freedom-loving americans, should take a page from your book and start thinking more about cats and less about hollow words.
Again, I'm extremely saddened to hear that my post upset you. I hope this clears things up a bit. I wish the best to you, your family, and your cats :)
Please take care of yourself,
Ryan
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Discuss
Wow, your reply to Raghda’s email got me a little choked up. I think in America today, extreme sincerity actually adds more spice to life than extreme sarcasm. Thanks for sharing!
— Victoria on Sunday, March 09, 2008 at 10:06 PM #
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