Posted on 03/30/2007 3:29:39 PM PDT by jmc1969
For four long years, life has been brutally unkind to most Iraqis, but Friday night they had one of those rare moments to focus beyond the daily violence that is swallowing their lives. One of their own took first prize in the Arab version of American Idol.
In Baghdad, a city that becomes deserted and plunges into darkness after nightfall, residents who had electricity to watch televisions celebrated with gunfire that briefly pierced the quiet just before midnight.
Wearing a turquoise evening dress, Shadha Hassoun, wrapped herself with the white, red and black flag of Iraq and broke into tears as fans swarmed the stage in Beirut, Lebanon, where the contest was held and broadcast live throughout the Middle East.
"Her triumph will show the world that Iraqis will still sing despite their wounds," Israa Tariq, a homemaker from Baghdad's al-Ghadeer neighborhood, said before Friday's final episode.
Hassoun's run to the final in what is perhaps the Arab world's most watched TV entertainment program coincided with a particularly painful time in Iraq.
More than 500 people had been killed in the last six days alone. Most of them perished in a series of horrific suicide bombings targeting busy markets and in a sectarian massacre where innocent men were dragged out of their homes and shot execution-style.
Dubbed the "Daughter of Mesopotamia" by fans, Hassoun has for weeks served as a pleasant distraction for a people in year five of a war that harvests scores of Iraqi lives each day.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
I really wish they'd use blanks when doing this.
I bet that we will have some suicide bombings in America if Sanjaya wins.
One of the judges, Al-Simon, doesn't insult the wannabes, he merely shoots them.
"....year five of a war that harvests scores of Iraqi lives each day"
"harvests"...the pathological WaPo never disappoints.....
"celebrated with gunfire that briefly pierced the quiet just before midnight."
Brilliant! Are these people all braindead?
Everytime the Iraqi soccar team wins a big match the celebratory gunfire starts for long periods of time and people die.
??? Are they saying there's no electricity, or what?
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