Wednesday, February 21, 2007


we got back to Mina and the first thing i noticed was that the other sisters from Switzerland got to the tents way before us and secured there places, some of our lot managed to find there original place but me and salma ended up as refugees with no place to call our own sniff sniff, some body had taken our place and they where intent on not leaving.

so we stood looking at each other for a while not knowing where to go what to do, shrugging our shoulders and conscious of the fact that we didn't want to get into any arguments with any one, seriously we didn't utter a word to a single person, didn't question the sisters as to why they took our places, just stood staring and laughing. i was contemplating converting to a bat, hanging myself from the feet upside down from the metal pole and sleeping the way bats do, but then i realised that the blood would rush to my head and it would probably explode all over the hajjis, not a nice sight.

eventually we found a miniature spot and plonked our sleeping bags on the floor and fell asleep, i was really tired, there was allot of noise but i was oblivious to any one or anything, sleep land was where i was headed, i swear when ever you guys get to do hajj you must and i will type must in capital MUST just to emphasise how important this item is, you Must buy an eye cover thing, for you will not be able to sleep without it and its the next best thing since sliced salami, it will keep you sane and give you some sort of comfort and sleep so NEVER EVER leave Britain or your countries without them, at one point i was wearing it on my forehead constantly i looked like i was about to go fly a plane or something, pretty cool if i say so myself.

i hadn't slept very long, actually hardly at all because just as i was getting comfortable, a lady with her 2 sons walks in and makes us get up and move, just as i thought i had found asylum and was about to become a citizen of Mina tent me and salma became refugees all over again, i did protest to the lady telling her that the reason we where in that place was because some one had taken our place, to which she said 'not my problem' well what could we say, we smiled and stood up and looked around for a place to at least rest our heads, my head felt like it was getting heavier by the minute...

we asked one of the ladies if she didn't mind moving her luggage to the side of the tent to make space, but she refused and wouldn't budge, how great did we feel!!! one of our lot kept saying just squash next to us, but seriously there wasn't space for an anorexic ant never mind a full grown human but in the end we did, we squashed up mega style and that was to be our place for the next 3 nights, cozyyyyyyyy.

so again i plonked myself on top of a thousand sleeping bags and zonked out, i woke up a couple of hours later and was chatting away to some of the girls when some one got a text from England, she shouted 'oh my god' and then said 'Saddam is dead'it didn't register with me at all as to who she meant, Saddam? which Saddam? duh!!!!

it then clicked in my head, Saddam the former leader of Iraq, wow, you see we hadn't been in touch with the world news for quite some time so we where not aware of what was happening in the world, to be honest i was not expecting that type of head line, so it did come as a complete shock to every one, i didn't believe it at first because its happened before in Mina a couple of years ago where it was announced that sharon of Israel had been killed and the Palestinian camp in Mina where rejoicing and all sorts bless, then it turned out to be one big lie so i thought maybe it was the same, but it turned out to be true, Saddam was hung on eid day.

it really was unexpected and even though he was sentenced to death, i didn't expect it to be put into action so fast, if anything i thought he would eventually walk away with his life.

it was the topic of the moment for like an hour but then every one had to go to the jamarat so peoples minds where preoccupied with the up and coming crowds and the fear of death at jamarat so Saddam was put to the back of every ones minds.

later when we where at Madina and we had caught up with the news, then it began to register, i am not a fan of Saddam and he had so much to account for, but i get the feeling that his hanging was a way of shutting him up, ie some one else had more things to hide than Saddam,Washington's secrets are safe for now that is hmmmmmmm

The shameless, outrageous, covert military support which the United States - and Britain - gave to Saddam for more than a decade remains the one terrible story which our presidents and prime ministers do not want the world to remember. And now Saddam, who knew the full extent of that Western support - given to him while he was perpetrating some of the worst atrocities since the Second World War - is dead but what of his partners in crime? where is the justice in that? he faced many more trials, bigger crimes he had committed but was executed before facing those trials and you really do question why that is?


Sloboden Milosevic before his death in prison (god knows how he died) was facing trials upon trials for his crimes towards the Bosnians througth an international war crimes tribunal sitting in the Hague so why not the same for Saddam? either would have been far better than the process we witnessed.

that's my 2 cents worth, we did hear some celebrations coming from the shia later that evening but other than that he wasn't really discussed, we started to get ourselves ready for the jamarat...

just of the topic, yesterday i ate an orange that had travelled all the way from Libya, it was one of those blood oranges and it was delicious mmmmmmm.

19 comments:

Brave Heart said...

Haja WA ,i think u must give ur trip a name like the road to Mecca or WA in Haj land, some thing like that.
orange from Libya that's very nice,send to me one

Anglo-Libyan said...

those Swiss sisters have become a firm part of this diary :o)
you are a nice person unlike that lady that refused to move her luggage to give you a space to sleep, how could she?? I would remove her luggage myslf and go to sleep, tough luck to her.

Chatalaine / شاتالاين said...

I could hardly believe that you were treated as badly as that. You are an amazing person to be able to ignore such behavior. I would find it hard to call them sisters after that.
You are a special person.

Anonymous said...

didn't u realise that the air felt different in Mina compared to what it was like the first tiem we went there? i dunno how to describe it...felt like eveyone was more relaxed..esp after the Jamarat :o) we had the guys tent next to ours, and Mashallah can the brothers snore!!!!

white african said...

thanks brave, i may just do that :)

i dont have any oranges but next time i get any i will fax one to you deal?

anglo it really was tempting to grab her luggage and chuck it but a sense of calm does take over and you just have to ignore it, later she felt guilty and apologised but it was to late for that.

chatalaine thank you so much, but belive me god gives you patience that you never thought you had, in any other situation i probably would not have reacted in the smae manner.

amena how you doing sis? your right the atmosphere is different and people are alot calmer, i liked it more in mina after coming back rather than when we got there first time.

we where directly next to the brs to and your right they really can snore, maybe they where bears dressed up as human men?

Anonymous said...

Omg...wat if they were!!! Wudn't b surprised to be honest! :-) lol

LadyCroc said...

I am wondering why people behave so badly towards each other when on hajj?
Hajj is supposed to be some kind of "mathaba" where people come together without fighting to do their pilgrimage; then they can always fight each other afterwards again.

Brave Heart said...

i think i saw u yesterday Haja WA,were U wearing a full of black, holding a sebha and leading a group of girls?

white african said...

safia you see all sorts of people at hajj honestly, amazing and the not so amazing sadly.

brave lol yep that was me :@)

Brave Heart said...

u know WA ,i didn't c u be4,but i saw some of ur pics in the blog.
i was sitting opesite London eye waiting my bus.
u just pass me with ur friends looking 4 ur bus i think,when i saw ur eyes i knew that u r WA,i have ability to know people from their ayes and i can judge them from their voice,BUT I WASN'T SURE cos i thought the life is not small like this,but to be honest there is a some deference between ur personality which i draw for u from ur blog ,and the personality which i saw for 1 or 2 minutes.any way nice 2 meet u

white african said...

brave you should have said sallam when you realised it was me.

we where kind of lost looking for our coach, they told us infront of the london eye but when we got there we where told to go some where else.

its interesting what you said about personality, we really do have certain images of a person then when meeting them they can be tottaly different.

i hope i wasnt worse lol..

Brave Heart said...

me too i was looking 4 my bus i walked the imbankment road up and down more than 5 times.
about say slam i told u,and things happen in just 1 or 2 minutes,i wasn't sure the girl is u,imagine that one guy come to one girl with a group of her friends and say slam WA,imagine that she is not WA she is White Asian or other kind of white names,i think all the group will be laughing at me,to be honest i know ur true name cos u r quite famous person,next time believe me i will say big slam.
about personality i just spot u 2 times when u passed me with ur friends i can't come up with more results but sure it wasn't worse, u looked very serious and a very controller person i know leading a group of girls is very difficult.the thing made me smile ur sebha u remind me by my grandmother and mu aunt they always hold sebha,the other thing about sebha ,i used to work in corrupted company in libya and all the corrupted mangers were holding sebha all the time not for tsbih but for counting the money they stole.

white african said...

wow brave it really is a small world subhnallah.

so you know my really identity hmmmmmmmm you do realise that i must destroy you now :)

the sebha thing started after i got back from hajj, sometimes i feel like an old lady but then i would rather be an old lady than a corrupted manager or even a mukhabarat god forbid.

Brave Heart said...

ohhhhhh WA, no need to destroy my i'm peaceful guy ,i swear.
i'll tell u how i know ur identity.
last summer i planed to go a demonstration against Toni in Manchester i think in sep, but i didn't, i don't remember why,i saw the demonstration on tv, i phoned my friends there they told it was very nice and they told me there is a Libyan girl daughter of Mr ???(i met ur father one time as well) gave a speech in the demonstration ,and u mentioned that in one of ur posts, and i'm knowing that Libya is very poor country cant has two talent girls in the same time with the same activities in the same city, that's how i knew ur identity. as i told u no need for destroying me.

white african said...

lol brave, ok i guess i will let you live :)

i did give a speech in manchester and i was soooo nervous, and i dint realise it was going to be on the internet lol.

i cant belive how such a small world we live in.

Brave Heart said...

thank you WA, i appreciate ur kindness.it's really small world

Brave Heart said...
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Brave Heart said...
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