Eastern Liberty: All This Sun and Very Little Fun.

Another day and I'm sitting here without anything to do. I'm searching for a good channel to watch but as usual, nothing really captures my interest. Sadly, television is the only entertainment women really have and nothing good is on. It's 120 degrees outside and I'm thankful for the few hours of power a day we get so I feel cool (Baghdad only averaged 5 hours of power per household for the entire month of July.) But our lives are so drab and boring, even monotonous.

All the luxuries of the west are missing in our democracy. The movie theaters, parks, swimming pools, malls, amusement parks, theaters-even sports stadium for matches or local competitions. Those with money now leave Iraq for vacation, for shopping, for rest and recuperation. But for those of us who are just middle-class, and especially the women, we are stuck here, bored out of our minds. We are not living, we are merely existing.

Of course we can't have such diversions until we fix the infrastructure. Fix the electricity, the water, the roads, the schools, even the government if such a thing is even possible. I couldn't agree more. Read More