After reading my friend Mariam Wissam's blog post "Enough circulates" http://mariamwissam.blogspot.com/2011/01/enough-circulates_30.html I suddenly decided that I too want to write down how I feel in these historical times so I could come back to them one day and remind myself how I felt there and then.
My family left Iraq while I was at the age of 3 and have never been back... yet! Since then I have lived in London, Kuwait, the UAE and now Montreal. Such dwelling might have resulted in growing up feeling not belonging to anything or anywhere yet the exact contrary is what had happened. I grew up with a strong sense of belonging to two things: 1. Being an Iraqi & 2. Being an Arab.
This is the result of the upbringing of two people that engraved it in me everyday of my life..From a mother that is as Iraqi as the Euphrates to a father that grew up in Iraq, studied medicine in Egypt in the 60s during the glorious days of Jamal Abdul Nasser & hearing about him being an Arab Nationalist and how all Arabs are one.
In spite of all that, it is no secret to anyone who is even slightly aware of our region that the past 30 years have been nothing but a time of weakness, surrendering, corruption, dictatorships, negativity, divisions & backwardness in MOST Arab nations. People my generations have grew up amid all this and have only heard about Arab glories, strength, honor, dignity, revolutions & victories in history books, Ramadan tv series & our elders to the point where some might've doubted they even happened. On the other hand almost all of us believed that history would not repeat itself & what has gone is gone.
Well... History does repeat itself and we have discovered that the tales we heard and the movies we've seen are not the result of wild imagination but a true spirit that surprisingly have not died and is still very alive in the hearts of the people who witnessed them and passed on to the next generation.
Since mid Dec 2010 in Tunisia where the seed of this awakening was planted & spread out to Egypt I have never been more proud of being an Arab. It's not just because of what our brothers and sisters in Tunisia and Egypt have bravely done (And still doing) but equally because of how my brothers and sisters from all Arab countries inside and outside the Arab world suddenly became one nation again regardless of where we live and whether we live the same situations of the people of Tunisia & Egypt or have been blessed with a better life.
A friend on facebook said "jokingly" that I should become a reporter since I was updating my twitter & FB status every minute with updates on the protests and what we're calling now the revolution. I know I might've sounded like an obsessed political freak like someone else has also said but this was history in the making and regardless of the 7 hour time difference between me and Egypt & my many responsibilities with the kids & all but I was not gonna waste time watching TV or sleeping while knowing that THIS was happening in My world.. I was going to a part of it in any way I know or can.
Call me silly but this is how I feel and it feels damn good.
Last month we were ALL Tunisians, this month we are ALL Egyptians.. I wonder what we'll be next month?!
