IRAQ: A cat brings out the humanity in Iraq
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By Mohammed Rasheed in Baghdad
It’s Ramadan, when most Muslims fast from sunup until sundown, so I decided to drive home during the period just after sundown when I knew people would be inside eating and traffic would be light.
But when I arrived in my neighborhood, there was a huge traffic jam. I thought it was a security checkpoint stopping cars, so I relaxed and began listening to music in the car. After a while, though, none of the cars moved. I got out to see what was wrong.
About six cars ahead of me, I saw a red sedan. A few people were standing around the car, looking panicked. I began to worry, thinking the car must be a bomb ready to explode. I began to approach, thinking I might have to just abandon my own car in the traffic jam and run away from whatever threat the sedan posed. There were men in dishdashas, boys and other people, all peering beneath the car.
With the latest bombs being used so frequently in Iraq -- so-called sticky bombs, which are stuck to the bottoms of vehicles -- I was virtually certain there must be one of these stuck to the bottom of the car. Why else would everyone be looking under it?
I realized I was foolish to be walking up to what might be a car ready to blow up, but then I saw something strange. The men looking beneath the car all had one hand out, stretched toward the car, and were gently rubbing their fingers and thumbs together. Then I saw it -- a tiny, skinny gray kitten beneath the car.
The driver of the red sedan had seen it and didn’t want to run it over, so he had stopped. Others had stopped too, and now they all were trying to lure the frightened cat from beneath the car so we could all drive down the street. After a few minutes, the kitten emerged into the light. Everyone had huge smiles. The driver of the red car held the little cat in his hand, and someone else brought food over. We all watched the cat eat.
It was such an amazing event, and it wiped out all the ideas I had that Iraqis have become cruel. So often when I look at people’s faces in the street, they look afraid and grim, and they are rude when they drive. But after seeing the way a kitten stopped traffic, I am more optimistic and have hope for a better future.
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