Today is one more sandy summer day in Iraq. A sandy day in Iraq means an endless suffering for all Iraqi and when I say all Iraqis, I mean all regular Iraqi people who are not officials, politicians or parliament members because those three levels of Iraqis do not know anything about our life as normal Iraqi people. Each of them has his or her own life style which includes travels everywhere and sending the family to live mostly in Europe or USA and of course having a giant generator in his or her villa in Iraq that can provide the necessary power to turn on as many AC units as they need. When I say regular Iraqis, I am talking about those poor people who depend of the private small generators they have which can provide them with six or seven Ampers which is rare enough to turn on two air coolers and few lights. Those people who do crazy preparations and strict procedures to stop the conquer of dust especially if they have members in their families who are infected with  asthma or any kind allergy.

    Among all the kinds of public services that Iraqis need, the electricity power supply isthe most important ones. Except for Kurdistan region which has almost 20 to 22 hours of power supply a day, all the rest 15 Iraqi provinces have it for less than five hours a day and even these five hours are not full five hours. Two days ago, I called a friend in Basra in south Iraq and he told me that even within the one hours they have each four or five hours, they have a power failure.

        I don't know what the Iraqi ministry of electricity was doing during six years since the invasion but definitely it did not implement any project because the power supply did not improve, on the contrary, it became worse. As an Iraqi man, I can not trust any more what the Iraqi government say about rebuilding this country.   

        Imagine living in such weather when you have national power supply for only four hours a day. I took these two pictures at 2:30 pm Baghdad local time. The highest temperature today in Baghdad is 109 F and the lowest is expected to reach 83

   Nothing is more exciting for a journalist than reading upbeat reactions about a story he wrote--and this is exactly what happened to me when I read the reactions about my baseball story http://www.mcclatchydc.com/iraq/story/71740.html  ] I loved every single word the readers wrote because they wrote with real feeling. From "The Rachel Maddow Show" on MSNBC to a man inMinnesota

who wanted to send a baseball rulebook, the generosity of so many Americans to a small group of young men who just wanted to play baseball has been overwhelming.  As a result of these and other contributions, the baseball team is getting new baseballs, bats, gloves, spikes and uniforms.  The uniforms show the Iraqi flag on the left breast, the player's number on the right and, across the back, 'Iraq Baseball.'  The dozens of contributions will bring this team to life and help it to be a real baseball squad. Take this letter from Justin Horton, Old Greenwich, Conn.:  "I just finished reading your story about the Baghdad baseball team. I know there is probably quite a logistical nightmare involved in an American citizen shipping items to Iraq, but I was wondering if you knew of any way that I could send these guys the baseball rulebook they were looking for butcould not find. I'm a recent college graduate so my means are fairly limited, but I would love to be able to send them something, and I could afford to pay for the book and whatever shipping costs would have to be incurred. If you have the time and have the information, it would really mean a lot to me to be able to send them the book."

          He wrote this after I mentioned in the story that the assistant coach went to a book fair at Baghda University looking for a baseball rulebook.  He didn't find one.

        It is always the same among ordinary people, like all the Americans who felt touched by the team's story and reached deep to help players they don't know and will never see play. These kinds of people feel one another's pain, especially when governments stand on the sidelines or, worse, introduce weapons to the field. Governments everywhere have their own measures for relations with one another, and those relations are based only on interests--not to matters of the heart or soul.

        The positive feelings of people about the baseball story will have an equally positive effect on the Iraqi baseball team. I talked to the assistant coach, ane he couldn't believe all the donations that were being mailed for them. He promised to work hard with all the team to say a practical THANK YOU to all donors.

        I wish governments all over the world, especially our Arab neighbors, would show similar sympathy and generosity of spirit toward the Iraqi people.  We don't need them to send us donations. We only want them to accept the truth that we are no longer the old regime, but a new nation, trying to find our way in the world.  We don't need their donations of death.  Like all the Americans who gave so much to a few young guys learning a new sport, we want our neighbors simply to accept that we Iraqis are trying to learn a new way, a new life.

    During the '70s and '80s, Iraq started exporting a few goods to several countries, especially food products. We also used to make electrical equipment that met local demand. For years,  Iraqi industry lived its golden age.
    When the Iraq-Iran war broke out in 1980, most of our industries were converted to make military hardware. Instead of making televisions that bring joy and happiness to people, we started making rockets that bring death and sorrow. We also started importing low-cost, low-quality goods from China and Singapore.
    When that war ended in 1988, I hoped that we would start a new reign of focusing on our own society's needs more than anything else, but the Saddam Hussein regime soon took Iraq deep into terrible problems by invading Kuwait in 1990. From then till now, Iraqis' life has gone from bad to worse. These days, we even import most of our food from neighboring countries like Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan.
    I really don't know when we are going to take care of our our needs and re-start industry in Iraq, which was once was one of the best in the Middle East.
    Yesterday, the weather reports told about a sandstorm covers the entire region.  The storm started in Iraq.
    This is not a good start for exporting to neighboring countries. I hope we soon start exporting useful products that can bring joy to others--and bring us some money.

    According to the news agencies, President Obama assigned his deputy Biden to oversee the political reconciliation in Iraq. The man is

    For the first moment, it looks so normal piece of news especially for those who don not have a clear idea about the Iraqi political situation but since the man is going to oversee the most important point that keeps the unity of Iraq, I was really surprised with the news. In fact, I did not know whether to laugh or cry because a deeper look to the whole issue makes many people wondering like me and asking few simple questions like these 

1- Does President Obama know that Biden is the politician who adopted seriously the idea of dividing Iraq into three parts (Shiite part, Sunni part and Kurdish part) in order to solve all the problems? This ideology gives one idea. The man has no idea about Iraq and its complicated mixed combination. Biden simply thinks that dividing the country will bring peace which is completely wrong because those people who implement the attacks will never stop killing the innocent people in my country. In fact, dividing the country will encourage them and give them the best excuse for more killing and they will keep saying that they target the occupation and its supporters. If President Obama knows about Biden's ideology, then the question is (why him?) I am sure there are many American politicians who can do this important and dangerous mission.

2- By the way, what does (oversee) really mean? To advise? To suggest? To watch or to interfere?

3- I do not know whether President Obama asked his deputy if he knows how many political parties we have in Iraq and what their demands are.

4- Since we are talking about the iraqi political reconciliation, Is the vice president going to discuss the issue with the Iraqi politicians or he will only depend on the American politicians and military commanders in Iraq?