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Writings by Cathy Breen
May 25, 2008
Dear Friends,
Affectionate greetings to you. It is a beautiful sunny Sunday here in New York City. Since my return to the states in early December of 2007, the time has been filled primarily with the activities of community life. We have had several deaths of beloved folks at the Catholic Worker, but we also await with great anticipation the birth of a new baby any day now! There have been visits to the Philadelphia area to see my own family, three trips to Washington, D.C. for meetings, and speaking engagements mostly in the northeast.
As I write you, a great portion of the floor in my room is covered with bags of used clothing, clothing which will hopefully find its way to needy Iraqi refugees in Jordan and Syria. Yes, their situation has become so desperate that they have no money to pay rent let alone buy clothing. I have tried to raise money at some of the speaking events to wire to Iraqis in Jordan so that they won’t have to return to Iraq. The plight of Iraqi refugees has worsened as increasing numbers have reached the end of their funds and with no legal residency are unable to work.
February 28, 2008
Dear Friends,
I began this letter the other day on a bus returning from a two-day trip to D.C. where Maryknoll’s Social Concerns office had set up meetings with various groups to address the Iraqi refugee crisis. This was the third trip to D.C. since my return to the states in early December, part of an ongoing strategizing with Maryknoll colleagues as to how we might make real the desperate situation of Iraqi refugees. We’ve been able to convey concrete concerns and questions to a Congressperson with an entry to Homeland Security, to the Congressional Progressive Caucus, to the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, and others.
On this particular trip I was not traveling alone. I was accompanied by a dear Iraqi friend who was also going to D.C., and it was wonderful to have so many hours to catch up with each other. While on the bus a member of his family in Baghdad called on his cell phone, bringing their reality there close to us. Security has improved we heard due to the fact that the city is divided up with countless checkpoints and barriers. “It is like being in prison” he said.
Amman, Jordan
November 25, 2007
Recent media reports depict large numbers of Iraqis returning to their country. “Thousands of Iraqis living in Syria have headed back home in the past weeks.” (Jordan Times, Feb. 23,2007) Some reports attribute this to improved security in Iraq. While the death rate and incidence of suicide bombs has decreased in recent weeks and months—most welcomed news—it seems that necessity is what is driving Iraqis home. As has long been the case in Jordan, visas for Iraqis in Syria are not being renewed and their money has run out. Returning Iraqis have also said they would prefer to die with dignity in their own country, rather than face the contempt and humiliation they feel in Jordan and Syria.
Amman, Jordan
November 21, 2007
Kathy Kelly will be joining me for the last stretch of my stay in Jordan, and I have been puttering around trying to ready the apartment for her coming. This morning, in an attempt to straighten up the piles of papers and files which have accumulated over the last three months, I’ve been going through newspaper clippings. I am also awaiting a telephone call today to give an interview, so the task serves as a helpful review of events deemed newsworthy here in the Middle East. What are the recurring themes and opinions coming out in their news? What messages and words from the region would we do well to heed in the U.S.?
Amman, Jordan
November 19, 2008
Iraqis teach me many things. One is to laugh in spite of myself. I chuckled the other day as I sent a newspaper clipping off to my dear friend Cynthia in Vernon, N.Y. I knew she would enjoy the story “Lonely in Baghdad? Chat up a Bird.” The article speaks of dozens of Baghdadis ignoring the threat to their lives as they flock on Fridays to the animal market Al Ghari. “I don’t go out of my home because of the danger” says one customer. “I decided to buy a parrot who can entertain me.” The son of a prominent seller of exotic animals at the market said “Our situation at the time of Saddam was much better.” He explained that during the former regime pet lovers from Iran and Russia used to regularly visit Al Ghari. “Today we have local customers who like to have birds in their homes, as these people do not step out. But times have changed” he says. As he points a finger to a group of animals, suddenly an African Grey parrot—a new arrival—shouts out: “Down with Bush!” (The Jordan Times, Nov. 15, 2007)
Amman, Jordan
November 13, 2007
As media attention around the world has shifted to a U.S. military attack against Iran, there are glaring incongruities with respect to the Iraq war that we are failing to address.
November 5, 2007
Amman, Jordan
Yesterday I visited a family whose 10 year old son is
working for 8JD a week, that is about $10. A sweet
faced slip of a child, he smiled as I took a picture
of him at his work place. His father meanwhile
suffers the humiliation of idleness and the inability
to support his wife and other children. Beset by
death threats, they fled to Amman about ten months
ago; their home in Baghdad is now occupied by militia.
I felt embarrassed as I offered them a small gift of
money, money from a family in the states who wants to
help Iraqis stuck here. The family is in need of
basic foodstuffs, furniture, blankets and a heater as
winter approaches. They once had work, a car and
their own home. I met the wife and mother with her
smallest child in tow on a bus last week. We were
both making our way to the UNHCR. She to beg
assistance.
October 27, 2007
Amman, Jordan
Dear Friends,
It is Saturday morning, and I just hung up the telephone. “Please pray for him” the mother asked me, referring to her son. Here in Amman from Baghdad, he is in the operating room as I write you, in an attempt to save his right eye. I will call him Fadi, though that is not his real name. Fadi already lost his lower right leg to a suicide bomb while going in a taxi to his classes at the university. Stopped at a checkpoint—Fadi was sitting next to the driver—a car pulled up alongside them and exploded. Scars from glass and metal wounds are visible on the whole right side of Fadi’s body.
I visited with this mother and Fadi a couple of days ago. As incredible as it seems given the tragic circumstances, Fadi was able to complete his studies. Just weeks ago he graduated from the University in Baghdad with a degree in Engineering.
October 15, 2007
Amman, Jordan
Dear Friends,
Fall has come to the northeast of the U.S. from where I hail. Although it is still T- shirt weather here in Amman, I imagine the leaves falling from the trees, a symbol of the passing of life, a forecast of the cold grip of the coming winter months. It is a natural phenomenon. The landscape will become barren and stark until spring arrives, if indeed spring comes again.
October 10, 2007
Amman, Jordan
Dear Friends,
Yesterday I returned from a trip to Damascus, Syria. While I was there I had the opportunity, together with a young Iraqi Moslem friend, to visit the ancient Syrian monastery of St. Moses the Abyssinian. About 80 kilometers north of Damascus and 1320 meters above sea level, the stark and barren landscape brought back memories of Bolivia where, over a span of about ten years, I periodically sought silence in a hermitage hidden in the bowels of the Andean mountains.
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