I wanted to tell you about an old Iraqi couple that I know.
The man and his wife are now US citizens. When I visited them last, they were studying for their exams to become citizens. You have to know a certain amount of English, American history, etc. The husband knows English moderately well, but his wife barely knows a word. She only knows Surath and Arabic.
So, we got to talking, and he showed me the paperwork for him and his wife... stamped by the Department of Homeland Security and what-not. Then, he showed me his old Iraqi passport, which must have been at least 20 or more years old. It was green, and everything was in Arabic and English. There were stamps from Iraq, Jordan, the Coalition Provisional Authority, and the US. One funny stamp read that he could travel to all countries, "EXCEPT ISRAL" (meaning Israel).
He and his wife are both over 70 years old. Now that they are citizens, they are officially "retired". They are very poor...getting food stamps and what not.
Throughout our conversation, the husband said repeatedly, "I am an American now. / This is the life./" He showed me a power of attorney form that he filed and sent to Iraq for his son, who lives in his house in Baghdad, so that his son might be able to collect on his retirement. He worked for an Iraqi bank for 27 years, then retired, and still gets a retirement salary...but since he's in the US, they didn't have any proof that he was still alive, so he had to get all of this documentation from local and state and federal offices, have it shipped to Washington, stamped by the Iraqi embassy, and then shipped to Iraq. At the bank, he was in charge of the credit division. He numbered his applications starting at 1, and when he retired, the number was somewhere over 32,000... my god! He also worked part time as an accountant at a company for 30+ years, where they imported from every country, except Israel!
He told me that in the 70s, 1 dinar was equivalent to $3.2 US Dollars. At that time, he had something like 300,000 dinars in the bank. If only he would have converted his money then... now, a US Dollar is worth 1500 Dinars. So, his money, which could have easily been worth a million US Dollars or more, is now worth about $750. Imagine, if you can, living in Baghdad in the height of its prosperity, with a middle-class to upper-middle-class job. He would work for 6 hours per day, and after work spend time with his family, go out with his friends to a club, drink, hunt gazelles, swim in the Tigris (or is it the Euphrates?), and do any number of things. / "This is the life/", he kept saying. In America, you wake up, work, come home tired, eat dinner, shower, and your day is done. There isn't time for family, for anything... he kept saying these things, and then "This is the life." Obviously he is smart enough (unlike most of our people) to realize the gap between fantasy America and reality America.
His son in Iraq lives in the house that he owned, in Baghdad...a big, nice house. There is no electricity, no clean water, nothing. He doesn't work or leave the house out of fear... what a life. His 4 daughters also live in Iraq, and are all married. They call him from time to time, and say "What can we do?" When he took his citizenship exam, they asked if his wife could pass the test, and he told them the truth... "My children are in Baghdad and she cries throughout the day, she worries, she can't sleep. She doesn't speak a bit of English." and they just passed the test for her. That surprised me a bit. They asked this old man, "Will you take up arms to protect America?" and he said "Yes". I can't believe that they would ask this...of a 71 year old... he also has a son and daughter in Australia, and 3 daughters in New Zealand...yes... Apparently there are a lot of Assyro-Chaldeans there now. The poor guy has trouble sleeping at night, and often stays up and drinks. His children fear for their lives, and he fears for their lives.
Since he was an accountant for so long, and is out of practice, he keeps a ledger (words in Arabic, numerals in English, ...although technically they are actually Arabic Numerals) of each account that they have...and he's done this since their first month in the US in 1999. Do you see how depressing this is? I mean, here is your average (or above-average) Iraqi family. The man is educated, humane, reasonable. He was a loyal citizen of Iraq (both of his sons fought in the Army against the Americans), and is a loyal citizen of the US. He doesn't spout off religious BS... and look at all that he had going for him...and how America basically ruined his life (he never said this - it is a conclusion that I have drawn)...and the irony of it all is that now he's here. And how many countless untold thousands or millions are the same way? My heart goes out to the Iraqi people...especially Assyro-Chaldeans, who like this man, have endured so much. On the one hand, it is depressing... but on the other hand, they are still holding on, which is inspiring. It helps me think that maybe the human spirit can triumph over this aggression and mayhem. His family, spread throughout the world, isn't giving up...even the kids (now 30-40 years old) in Baghdad. Even he has hope that things will improve there, although he realistically concedes that the US will probably never leave Iraq, and that it is essentially a 51st state.
He told me about a picture of Geroge Bush, Sr. which was in front of the Al-Rashid hotel, on the ground. This Iraqi female artist made it, so that people would walk on his face before going into the hotel. During the war, the US sent a tomahawk missile into her house...and the blast was so powerful, they didn't even find her body parts. He said "What technology this is!"
It just got me to thinking that we need to extricate ourselves from the socio-economic system which has ruined his life. What could he have done differently? Yet at the same time, he and his family are still holding on.
Life goes on...
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