How I met my first Iraqi
How I met my first Iraqi
We moved today from Hörn to Schwäbisch Gmünd. To handle this we called a.l.s.o., a local unemployed self-help organization about renting a truck from them; one of the services a.l.s.o. offers is handling short distance moves at low cost. Two guys from the organization came by earlier in the week to see how much stuff we had to move and to figure out whether the truck was big enough. They thought it would be and said we would have to go pick it up and drive it ourselves and return it with a full tank of gas afterwards. We agreed to the price and conditions and had decided that today would be the day.
Upon arriving to pick up the truck we were told that one of the guys who were supposed to help us had not arrived. Only one guy was there and he was called Ali. We were introduced to him and he and I got in the truck to drive back to Hörn. On the way we spoke in our broken German of where we were from and it turned out that Ali was from Iraq, from Baghdad.
He is the first Iraqi I have ever met despite the fact that my country is occupying his. I find it to be incredibly ironic that I would meet my first Iraqi in Germany, helping me do our move. The war is a complete tragedy, the reasons used to invade Iraq are total shams, and the situation has been going from bad to worse to terrible since the invasion. His being in Germany is a result of the war. He felt he had to get his family out of Iraq at all costs and sold everything to be able to do so.
Ali is a great guy, hardworking and very funny. He has been in Germany for about two years and spoke of how he paid $45,000 for a handler to take him and his wife and three children to England. They ended up being detained at the train station in Berlin and are now living outside of Schwäbisch Gmünd. He was not opposed to the American invasion although he thought the occupation had been going on far too long and that the politicians in Iraq were all corrupt. His family was scattered, some living in Syria, some in Egypt, others elsewhere and them in Germany.
He had no idea how long they would stay in Germany. He said that he had studied engineering and had worked in the oil fields in Iraq and had had work in Germany but had now been unemployed for about a year. He had to work at a.l.s.o. because he received social assistance from the German government. They did not receive very much though, housing assistance, a monthly stipend for each child and about 300 Euros a month. For his work at a.l.s.o. he was paid 1 Euro an hour. This was due to a new law in Germany that mandated that all able bodied people receiving social assistance had to work and their work would only pay 1 Euro an hour because of the state aid they were already receiving. 1 Euro an hour does not go very far in Germany or anywhere in Europe for that matter.
We talked about our situations during the move. He said that there were good Germans and bad Germans, just like anywhere. His kids were having difficulty being able to do Praktikums, or internships. They were told that this was not necessary for them to do, although according to him it was completely necessary and in fact essential. He also felt that the Germans did not have much of a sense of humor. I began to wonder if I would find that to also be the case.
We finished the move in record time. What we felt at first might take four hours only took three. We paid Ali and returned the truck to the a.l.s.o. office.
We moved today from Hörn to Schwäbisch Gmünd. To handle this we called a.l.s.o., a local unemployed self-help organization about renting a truck from them; one of the services a.l.s.o. offers is handling short distance moves at low cost. Two guys from the organization came by earlier in the week to see how much stuff we had to move and to figure out whether the truck was big enough. They thought it would be and said we would have to go pick it up and drive it ourselves and return it with a full tank of gas afterwards. We agreed to the price and conditions and had decided that today would be the day.
Upon arriving to pick up the truck we were told that one of the guys who were supposed to help us had not arrived. Only one guy was there and he was called Ali. We were introduced to him and he and I got in the truck to drive back to Hörn. On the way we spoke in our broken German of where we were from and it turned out that Ali was from Iraq, from Baghdad.
He is the first Iraqi I have ever met despite the fact that my country is occupying his. I find it to be incredibly ironic that I would meet my first Iraqi in Germany, helping me do our move. The war is a complete tragedy, the reasons used to invade Iraq are total shams, and the situation has been going from bad to worse to terrible since the invasion. His being in Germany is a result of the war. He felt he had to get his family out of Iraq at all costs and sold everything to be able to do so.
Ali is a great guy, hardworking and very funny. He has been in Germany for about two years and spoke of how he paid $45,000 for a handler to take him and his wife and three children to England. They ended up being detained at the train station in Berlin and are now living outside of Schwäbisch Gmünd. He was not opposed to the American invasion although he thought the occupation had been going on far too long and that the politicians in Iraq were all corrupt. His family was scattered, some living in Syria, some in Egypt, others elsewhere and them in Germany.
He had no idea how long they would stay in Germany. He said that he had studied engineering and had worked in the oil fields in Iraq and had had work in Germany but had now been unemployed for about a year. He had to work at a.l.s.o. because he received social assistance from the German government. They did not receive very much though, housing assistance, a monthly stipend for each child and about 300 Euros a month. For his work at a.l.s.o. he was paid 1 Euro an hour. This was due to a new law in Germany that mandated that all able bodied people receiving social assistance had to work and their work would only pay 1 Euro an hour because of the state aid they were already receiving. 1 Euro an hour does not go very far in Germany or anywhere in Europe for that matter.
We talked about our situations during the move. He said that there were good Germans and bad Germans, just like anywhere. His kids were having difficulty being able to do Praktikums, or internships. They were told that this was not necessary for them to do, although according to him it was completely necessary and in fact essential. He also felt that the Germans did not have much of a sense of humor. I began to wonder if I would find that to also be the case.
We finished the move in record time. What we felt at first might take four hours only took three. We paid Ali and returned the truck to the a.l.s.o. office.
posted by paulmediaeye at 1:53 AM
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