Tuesday, March 08, 2005

A unique personality or a Psychopath. ??

Hassan in his first post write about some strange structure of iraqi personality. It is hard to confess that he was write about most of what he said. I have to add that iraq personality is somehow differ from others.
Some called it double personality, not like schizophrenia, they did that intentionally, propably the causes is related to their cultural and educational as well as environmental backgrounds.

There is some thing unique to the Iraqi people, and that they like challenges and don't accept to loose, but they will not accept to win without opposition.
simple example; few days ago, there were a severe shortage of fuel, kerosine and gasoline, there is a long line on the gas stations , the cars arranged in 3-4 lines, only one line is enter the station, so at the enterance there were a mess, every one wants to enter first, some time they fight with guns for that, but if you were in line and stoped to let the one beside you to enter first, he will refuse and insist that you will enter first. This behaviour will be applied to different aspect of daily life. Between the good guys he is the best, between the bad he is the worst.
They do silly things and they know for sure that those things are wrong.

Other thing, is that the people here, accept any thing they heard, especially if this thing meets their wishes, or close to their believes.

I remember a funy story happened about fifty years ago,
at that time the peoples were very simple, there were no TV, even the radio set was new and only limited persons have radios in their houses, I was a child at that time and I remeber the story very clearly.

I was with my father in his place of wark in the downtown, we noticed a lot of peoples go in hurry toward the main police station (called at that time the general police center, because it contains all the divisions of police even the traffic police), some people are comming back with strange expression on their faces, a woman stopped near us and started to explain what happened, "there is a man changed to a donkey, the police took him (the donkey) to the general center, I saw him sitting on a chair there" the woman said in confidence !!.
off coarse no body beleive her but the people still going to that direction in waves.
My father asked me to go there and look what is the matter. I saw a hundreds of people in front of the general center, the police men pushing them back, there was an officer told the peoples that there were nothing, it is only a rumer. But they still there looking for mor news.
Later we heard the real story.
A police man trying to arrest a man who was guiding a donkey behind him, the man escaped leaving the donkey, the police man took the donkey to the police center, people in the way asked him " why you arrested this donkey" he answer joking with them "this is not a donkey, this a man changed into a donkey !"
The simple poor people believed him at once and started to distribute this news. Every body wanted to witness this miracle.


Now aday the people are more educated and by the virtue of TV and other media, they knew what is going o around them. but still some strange stories are believed by some peolples.


2 comments:

waldschrat said...

Aha, the comment facility is working today - yesterday it was broken, a problem with the software I suspect.

Your story is indeed a funny one, but also a valuable insight into the culture of Iraq.

I am very fond of your writing. You seem to choose your words and the ideas you present very carefully, and the picture you present of life in Mosul in difficult times is very helpful for someone far away who wants to understand. I find that stories on TV in the USA too often only describe violence and danger and bad feelings. I have tried reading the English version of Al Jazeera but it is much the same. The real story of Iraq is your story and the story of other bloggers like you.

I got an account at Blogspot so you will know that I am the same person tomorrow as I am today. One reason I was reluctant to do so before is I already have a blog on another blog server. The reason I originally started that blog was that I needed an anonymous identity to be able to post comments on my stepdaughter's blog. I have no children of my own and my wife's daughter by a former marriage is the only child I will ever be able to claim. She is now 22 and lives in another city. For reasons only children understand she long refused to answer my phone calls and emails, and adopting an identity not linked to my real identy was the only way I could correspond with her. Sometimes the only way my wife and I can be sure she is alive is from the posts in her blog. It is a sad story, but it explains why I started a blog myself, and you may find it interesting.

I wish you well!

Sacramento, California

A Free Writer said...

Salam Alaikum
Do you believe that we can still see people with this mentality till today in Mosul !!

If you don't believe me , you can make a try story and see resul