"The abandoned elderly are war’s other victims in Iraq; Home for seniors serves Sunnis, Shi’ites, Christians" by Ned Parker and Caesar Ahmed, Los Angeles Times | August 9, 2009
There they go again: putting a SMILEY FACE on a TURD!!!!
BAGHDAD - They are old men and women who have lived through the monarchy, Saddam Hussein, the US-led invasion, and religion-fueled civil warfare.
Now, they putter about in a house on the Tigris River, passing the time on cots with pink sheets, in whitewashed rooms, with the faint smell of sweat mixing with the odor of sewage from the waters outside their windows.
The guests of the Mercy Home for the Elderly, a residence for indigent senior citizens, come from across Iraq and include Sunnis, Shi’ites, and Christians. Funded by prominent Shi’ite cleric Ayatollah Hussein al-Sadr, the two-story stone building, opened in November 2006, houses 43 men and women who have nowhere else to go.
Oh, a Shi'ite named Sadr funds it, huh?
I'm BELIEVING the SECTARIANISM LIE less and less every day!
At midday, they gather at plastic tables in the lunchroom, where they often eat a meal of lamb before retreating to a hallway to chat or sit by themselves thinking about the past, when they still had families, loved ones, their health, and, for some, their wits.
Thank you, George Bush!!!!
The elderly in Iraq traditionally lived with relatives, but as conditions worsened in recent years, some families abandoned their parents, a brother, or sister. Some were sent to Mercy by their kin; others were brought here by a hospital or the police after they showed up penniless on the doorstep of a mosque.
Manager Hadi Hamid Taie says his guests are mostly victims of the violence and economic hard times that followed the American-led invasion six years ago. “This phenomenon is new,’’ Taie says. “According to our religion, it is not permitted to abandon your parents. On the contrary, Islam requires that you take special care of them.’’
Oh, they are SO MUCH BETTER than US!!!!!!!
In 2007, at the height of the violence, Mercy had 73 residents. But as the situation has improved, some children have taken back their relatives. The home has open beds and can easily take care of those who show up at its doors. And people continue to arrive, victims of bloodshed, poverty, and instability.
Najea Abdul Hussein, 72, is an emaciated woman with a look of fear and helplessness. Ten months ago, she lived with her younger sister and her family in Hurriya, a neighborhood in western Baghdad. It was then, she said, that her sister ordered her to leave, shouting: “I can’t take care of you. Go to your brothers.’’
Najea Hussein said she headed off past alleys, palm trees, and sand-colored brick houses toward the western bank of the Tigris. Najea Hussein was her husband’s second wife, the one he spent all his time with, she recalls, because she was young and pretty. They lived together for 20 years before a heart attack struck him down. It was to Hurriya that she returned as a widow, to live with her mother and help keep house for her five brothers. And it was here that she was abandoned all these years later.
But, but, but.... we liberate women from Muslim heathens here in Amurka!!!?
Unless my j**s*** media LIED TO ME AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!
She finally reached the Tigris, ready to throw herself in, she said. But a policeman spotted her, she said, and pulled her rail-thin body away from the bank. After a hospital stay, after no family member claimed her, she was sent to Mercy. She pointed to Taie, the home’s manager, a graying, balding man, and said he is like a parent to her. “I was confused and helpless and had nowhere else to go before.’’
This is considered SUCCESS in Iraq, huh?
Please, mercy, jewsmedia.
