A stroll down Haifa street...

Layla Anwar

...A letter was sent to me via e.mail, a letter of despair and tragedy written by an Iraqi professor who lived on Haifa Street. I am going to translate the whole thing for you (...) Yes Haifa street, the street of academics and the brain drain of the New Iraq. Over 500 university professors have been assassinated since the "liberation." 500 individuals who have spent years studying, researching ,teaching, forming, training, disseminating knowledge... Last week, over 100 students were massacred at the gates of al Mustansiriyah University. It is beyond the shadow of doubt that universities, academics and students are the favored targets in Iraq. Why is that so, did you ever ask yourself ? I think the answer is simple. Universities , academics , students are the last bastion of the spirit of critical thinking. The last line in the Resistance against political manipulation and terror of the new Iraq.(...) Today,over 50 people have been killed in Haifa street. People are under siege in their apartments, with no food, no water, no electricity and unable to venture out. The occupation forces, the Iraqi "army " and the militias have forbidden the evacuation of the injured or the dead. They are left to die slowly in agony or to rot away on Haifa street. Just like the academics who inhabited its buildings. Yes this is what has become of Haifa Street, a drained,desolate, burning, bleeding Street...of the New Iraq...

continua / continued