Rage against the machines

My homeland, my homeland

Glory and beauty, sublimity and splendor

Are in your hills, are in your hills

Life and deliverance, pleasure and hope

Are in your air, are in your air

Will I see you? Will I see you?

Safely comforted and victoriously honored

Safely comforted and victoriously honored

Will I see you in your eminence?

Reaching to the stars, reaching to the stars

My homeland, my homeland

My homeland, my homeland

The youth will not tire, 'till your independence

Or they die, Or they die

We will drink from death, and will not be to our enemies

Like slaves, like slaves

We do not want, we do not want

An eternal humiliation, nor a miserable life

An eternal humiliation, nor a miserable life

We do not want, but we will bring back

Our storied glory, Our storied glory

My homeland, my homeland

My homeland, my homeland

The sword and the pen, not the talk nor the quarrel

Are our symbols, Are our symbols

Our glory and our covenant, and a faithful duty

Moves us, moves us

Our glory, Our glory

Is an honorable cause, and a waving flag

Is an honorable cause, and a waving flag

O, behold you, in your eminence

Victorious over your enemies, victorious over your enemies

My homeland, my homeland

This is the anthem of my country, Iraq.

It's a common experience to sing this anthem every Thursday in pre-university educational institutes. Our teachers would make us line up, sing this anthem and raise the flag. This would be followed by a salute when the flag is raised.

A flag is many things; It's a symbol of a country. It's a symbol with colors that bleed with history, values and traditions. It's something that people fight, bleed and fight for.

Iraqi law judges the act of dropping the flag as treason, but is it really that bad? Why does this flag demand unwavering loyalty when it has given us so little? Is it too bad to yearn for another flag?

Nationalism is a stupid concept; we're born in a place without a choice, but we're supposed to choose it as our home for the rest of our lives and give unwavering fealty?

How many people bled for a country, simply, for being born there? How many mothers lost their children in wars waged by those who're in power sitting in their comfortable, elegant leather chairs. Is it a crime to want for more, to demand a better standard of life even if it means living elsewhere?

As an Iraqi national, I've grown accustomed to the sound of explosions, gunshots, helicopters and tanks patrolling the neighborhood. My childhood was spent in a small house without the ability to socialize in settings such as kindergarten as those were closed due to the threats of war. I can distinguish between fireworks and gunshots quite easily. I wonder if children from other countries have similar struggles. Do they have to worry about the soaring unemployment, rising extremism or upsloping violence?

Recently, Iraq has had a surplus of protestors demanding for a better overall quality of life. Those protestors got shot with live bullets and tear gas bombs with the ability to kill instantly if it makes contact with the body. Some of them got kidnapped, 300 killed and over 10,000 injured. Is it such a crime to want to live like decent human beings?

The governments and those in power must realize that the people are learning how to swim; we will stay afloat and refuse to sink like stones and battleships. Prophesizing writers are welcome to join the revolution. Powerful men need to head out battle cries. 

We will shake windows and rattle walls. A loser today might be a winner tomorrow. The times are changing, as the great Bob Dylan once mentioned. The sons and daughters of today are beyond our control. The slow one will later be fast, the first one will later be last as the times are changing.

San Algamal