Life is full with contrasts. Yesterday I witnessed two different cases which made me feel happy and sad at the same time.

  I was at work doing my daily job in addition to the daily violence report, which records all incidents of violence across Iraq . I have been working for McClatchy since March 2007, and there has never been a day when there was no violence to report in the whole country. Yesterday, for the first time, there was no violence to report. Yes, there were a few days in Iraq without incidents reported, but in the whole country! So it was a great day. One day without violence.

I was so happy to witness that. I was waiting, sorry for this word, waiting to put down the items reported, but that waiting was negative having no idea what do. The negative report means a positive thing for Iraq and Iraqis.

  This happiness didn’t last long, as I had a phone call from my brother telling me that my cousin had passed away after ten years of struggling with many different diseases. He was a POW in Iran for 18 years and only came home in 1998.

  Meanwhile, most of my cousin's family members were in Najaf cemetery making a visit to the father in his grave who died in August. Thus, the brothers and sisters weren’t with Abdul Rahman, my cousin, when he passed away.