Purple Pride

The purple fingers belong to a group who voted in the recent elections in Baghdad. Dr Mohammed a 25 year old dentist tells us that his friends in the photo are Sunnis, Shiites and a Kurd. Dr Mohammed blog is called Last-of-Iraqis and he is my favourite Iraqi Blogger. He is no wild optimist as is shown in the item he posts, but he gives us hope. In part he states -

I woke up with hope, hope for Iraq to be taken along the correct path by its sons. I woke to the noises voters were making in the street. As I dressed I was thinking about how different this election would be. Most of the people I know were not voting based on sects, but on sense. We are sick to death of corruption and sectarianism, and desperate for a change.....With the sparse crowds, I had only a short wait before the employee found my name in the list and gave me my voting paper. I took it to the booth and chose what I believed was best for Baghdad, then I painted my finger purple — it might look ugly, but I like it and I’m proud of it. At the same time, a child reached the table and insisted on painting his finger, too; everybody smiled because he was so happy about it.....On my way home I developed an obsession of looking at the fingertips of every man and woman I passed. Too many had no ink. I hope the electoral committee does its part better than we did. I hope the election will not be fraudulent and the winners will not let us down. And I hope the people who didn’t vote this time will do so next time, and a real democracy will be achieved in the land where the first laws of the human race were set.

Better still go to his blog here.