More of the s(h)ame

After taking a short break from my usually "serious" political posts and from blogging all together, I tried to get back into "my mode" all day today but I just couldn't. I hit my usual daily visits to the BBC, Aljazeera, Washington Post, NYTimes, and the blogosphere in the hopes that a bright yellow bulb would light in my head or that something would catch my attention and produce a post, but alas, nothing. Nothing new that is.

Yes, the Iraqis finally managed to form themselves a government despite pressure from the Americans and from each ethno-religious faction to do this or that, or hand this ministry to this Shiite or that Kurd.

Meanwhile, the average Iraqi doesn't really give a damn because he's sitting at home, unemployed, afraid to be out buying groceries at 5 pm, listening to gun shots and mortars exploding outside his home, and attempting to rationalize the death of a close relative. He's also contemplating packing up and taking his family across the border like thousands of other Iraqis who simply find life in Iraq unbearable in every sense of the word.

Oh, and we can't forget about the Palestinians, can we know. An Israeli air strike killed a grandmother, mother, and her 4-year old son who were riding with a member of Islamic Jihad, the "target" of another Israeli state sanctioned assassination plot. In another incident, an explosion in an elevator killed 2 and seriously injured a dozen others including Tareq Abu Rajab, the head of intelligence for the PA. To make matters worse, Palestinian security officials accused Hamas of attempting to assassinate Abu Rajab, while Hamas called on all parties to remain calm and not jump to conclusions. This comes after Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas' continuous attacks and accusations of Hamas' involvement in the Jordan weapons smuggling fiasco. As if Hamas is still a party in opposition, and not a party in control of government, Abbas treats the Hamas-led government almost as an enemy, further enforcing the idea that a civil war is inevitable in Palestine, which I find highly unlikely. Hamas is not helping its image either by refusing to participate in investigations or respond fully to the accusations hurled at the government.

Meanwhile, the average Palestinian is caught in the middle of an international "mind game" that is essentially starving and killing dozens of innocent people as we speak because they decided to democratically hold a party accountable for years of corruption, theft, and utter recklessness in their handling of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict as well as internal Palestinian affairs.

Normally I would be feeling frustrated and angry at all this. The problem is I feel nothing...almost indifferent. It's like déjà vu every day. So what's the difference? The other day I was watching the regular Aljazeera headlines at the top of the hour and what caught my attention was that there was no report of a car bomb or similar explosion in Iraq. I kept on listening, and even reading the headlines scrolling on the bottom of the screen, waiting for the number of dead today. But it wasn't in the top headlines. It's sad. Why do I notice such things? Have the car bombs become a norm? An expected headline everday? Do I just wait for the "number" of people who have lost their lives because some bastard decided he was powerful and smart enough to be able to drive a bomb laden car through a crowd on a Baghdad street? And what's the different between 10 and 75 anyway?

Or those poor souls in Darfur, protesting and begging for some attention from the world. Don't even get me started.

I wish I could visit the moon or Jupiter for a few days, or maybe a few months.

[technorati tags: Iraq, politics, government, Palestine, Hamas, Israel, Darfur, failures, moon]