Shihab Al Tamimi- Salamat

Hi. Today the head of the union of the Iraqi journalists Shihab Al Tamimi was seriously injured when unknown militants shot him today in Al Waziriya district in an attempt to assassinate him. In Iraq if you were a well known journalist, artist, scientist, professor or any well known person then you should be really extremely worried about the safety of yours and your family. Since 2003 many Iraqi journalists were killed, kidnapped, or seriously injured. Last year the godmother of all Iraqi journalists Ms Amal Al Mudaris was seriously injured when 'THEY' tried to murder her. Now she's in Syria suffering from the high expenses of her medical treatment. Why all this rage against journalists anywhere in the world and especially in Iraq ? May be because SOMEONE doesn't want the truth to be revealed. With my love. Yours forever, Lubna.

A regular Baghdadi day

Hi. One of the chronic problems that poor Baghdadis are facing since 2003 is the lack of electricity. In my house we get 1-2 hours electricity daily from the government, sometimes 3 hours. But we also 'buy' 9 hours electricity daily from the 'generator man'. The 'generator man' is our neighbour. He owns a private generator that generates electricity and we pay him almost 55$ monthly for 9 hours electricity daily. So we spend almost 13 hours daily with no electricity which is a very awful thing, isn't it ?! Especially in the summer when the temperature reaches 50 celsus during the day. I have a dream that one day the government gives us 12 hours electricity instead of 2. Is that too much to be asked ?! With my love. Yours forever, Lubna. PS, Dr.Hisham, Amy, ZK and Ian, THANKS A MILLION to all of you my good friends.

Brains As Targets

Hi. On Sunday the 17th of Feb. 2008 a "security" force broke into the college of dentistry-Baghdad University. They arrested the former dean of the college Prof.Dr.Osama Al Mulla, Prof.Dr.Riyadh Uttman, and 3 college employees and took them all to unknown place. They've also beaten one student. Also on Wednesday the 23rd of Jan. 2008 the dean of the college of dentistry-Baghdad University Prof.Dr.Munthir Murhij was assassinated in Baghdad. Such incidences happen alot allover Iraq and sadly don't get a fair share of media coverage. There's a systematic plan to empty Iraq silently from it's brains. The game goes like this : THEY threaten the BRAIN. The BRAIN leaves Iraq. If the BRAIN refuses to leave, then THEY kill the BRAIN ! And so many BRAINS had to leave Iraq because of the threats they've received. So they had to choose between their lives and staying in their country. Oh my God ! What a harsh choice to be made ! Satistics say that 1000 Iraqi doctors have fled Iraq and 222 Iraqi doctors have been assassinated since 2003. The cultural structure of our society is beings slowly disrupted day by day, and that -in my opinion- is the greatest loss of my Iraq. With my love. Yours forever, Lubna.

Thanks

Hi. I'm Lubna and I live in Baghdad, Iraq. I'm 21 years old and I'm also a fourth year medical student. In this blog I'll be telling you stories about our regular daily Baghdadi life that you will not get the chance to hear about from your media. Just to say a very big THANK YOU to my Precious friend Ian from Arizona, who has created this blog for me. Also I do want to say a very big THANK YOU to all my precious friends who work in the WHYS programme on the BBC World Service. Without their love and support I wouldn't be sitting here and blogging. They gave me the most important thing that anyone could give you : Confidence in myself. Speak to you later. With my love. Yours forever, Lubna.