Tuesday, November 13, 2007

HW34:Responding to Riverbend

Today as I was reading Baghdad, I read about many new facts of Iraqi people. Gold plays a large role in their lives. When Riverbend's aunt reached checkpoint she got very nervous, because she was carrying all of her jewels in her leather bag. Their jewelry is very precious to them, because they don't have very many valuables. Gold is a part of the Iraqi culture and plays a part of "family savings", this has increased ever since 1990. People converted their money to gold and jewelry, because gold's value doesn't change whereas money's value does. "People pulled their money out of banks before the war, and bought gold instead" (Riverbend, 100). It was so precious to the people of Iraq, and the American soldiers basically said that they weren't good enough to own gold. She had said about two Iraqi's marriage, once they are married the man gives the woman a mahar made of all gold jewelry. Paraphrasing what she had said that they do to prevent Americans from taking their jewels, they find unusual hiding places and often hide them in their clothing. "It was a game for days, during May, when the raids began and we started hearing tales of the 'confiscation' of valuables like gold and dollars during the raids" (Riverbend, 101).
Another importance to the Iraqi citizen's are date palms. This is a way for people to make money by growing date palms ( different types of palm trees). These trees are also known as "nakhla", and no yard is complete without one. These trees are a great significance. " In the winter months, they act as "resorts" for the exotic birds that flock to Iraq" (Riverbend, 103). Paraphrasing what she said about the summer months, the female palms provide hundreds of dates and are a good storage source. Many different food sources can be made out of different substances from the dates. These trees serve as a main source of many things to the people of Iraq. "Each tree is so unique, it feels like a member of the family... I remember watching a scenes from the war a couple of days after the bombing began -one image that stuck in my mind was that of a palm tree broken in half, the majestic fronds wilting and dragging on the ground" (Riverbend, 105). The way she explains this is almost as if she were looking at a dead body, that is how important they are to her.

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