I don't know what possessed me but I went around the corner to the local CD store and asked that beautiful young woman behind the counter for "a really big pop star-Iraqi idol type" an ended up with a great al saher CD. Of course it's all in Arabic and I can't understand the words, but it sounds romantic to me.
I dialed Nesreen 'till I got through and let a minute of al saher play before I said, "Hello, colleague."
Here's the first half of our conversation:
"Hello, colleague."
"Hello. Do you know who this is?"
"Of course. I just bought the CD. It's al saher."
"It is beautiful. Yes. You know my brother is in his...'organization'?"
"Band."
"Yes. Band. He is in his band. I told you he was a musician. He plays violin."
"Of course I can't understand the words, but I like the music. And I like the connection to your brother...so many connections."
"Yes. You know one of his musicians died...in an explosion."
"oh my god!"
"This is something natural here. Here in Iraq. You know this."
<<silence>>
"Did you hear about the 20 students kidnapped?"
"No. No. What is this?"
"It is on the news. Did you see this?"
"No. I haven't been able to watch the news these past few days."
"They were taking exams. You know we have combined schools for the exams so they were of many ages. They came with masks and their guns. "
"What school was this?"
"They are from different schools. These were 3rd graders...about 15 years old.
<<silence>> The situation is very, very terrible and very horrifying..."
I'm thinking that we'd better start putting together an enormous support effort for the Iraqi people. They're gonna need it.
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