Between presence and absence, and in the people’s eagerness to watch it, chaos surrounded the situation as to whether the artist Kazem El-Saher would attend the opening ceremony of the Gulf of Basra or not.
From affirmation to denial, social networking sites were buzzing, news sources varied on news sites, and a crowd attended the stands of the Palm Stadium in Basra with wishes to see their artist singing about his country and homeland.
All eyes were directed towards the gates of the stadium to enter Al-Saher, but as soon as the minutes began approaching to announce the start of the football ceremony and the arrival of the artists Rahma Riad and Hossam Al-Rassam to perform the opening songs of the tournament, the audience despaired of the presence of Abu Wissam.
The reasons were many and many, so that some used his blogs to justify or curse, some of whom said, “Al-Saher requested an imaginary sum estimated at three million dollars and a private plane that would take him and his accompanying team back and forth, including his private doctor.” Others believed that he feared for his life because of the confused security situation in the country, especially since Al-Saher had close relations with the symbols of the former regime, including Uday Saddam Hussein, and some of them liked to wake him up.
While another team believed that the artist Kazem El Saher had left his homeland irrevocably.
The harshest and most difficult kind of begging is to find a country begging its children for the word, just like the picture of an elderly man extending his hand in order for his children to give him what they offer for their generosity.
Perhaps the memory of the people of Iraq is not that high from Alzheimer’s, so that they forget the memories of the Babylon Festival, which was resounding in the eighties with Arab and foreign bands on the amphitheaters of the ancient city of Babylon, accompanied by most Arab and foreign singers. Arab writers and those belonging to the Arab League.
And before that, Iraq was the stage in which Kawkab Al-Sharq sang Umm Kulthum and Fayrouz, and the Tunisian voices of Lotfi Bouchnak, Rabab Al-Kuwaiti, Amina Fakhet and many other jewels of voices resounded on its stages.
Even in his most difficult days and times, when the siege cut off his life, dreams, and livelihood, Baghdad theaters received the artist Adel Imam, the director Salah Abu Saif, and many artists whose planes landed at Baghdad International Airport.
But today, Kazem El-Saher did not attend the Basra Khaleeji party, perhaps because it is no longer the homeland that Abu Wissam recognizes. Do we blame politics or politicians, or even get upset with Kazem? Maybe everyone is complicit in the conspiracy.
Politics in the homeland killed art and extended its sinful hand to sports, leaving no door for life to enter without closing it.
The story of Umm Kulthum may have passed through the memory of the ambassador of the Iraqi song, and he remembers from it that the lady of Arabic singing, and after the setback of June 1967, faced accusations because of her songs soaked in love, longing, and fondness, which some thought was a drug that caused defeat, which prompted her to think about retiring, but she soon retracted her decision and raced With artists to perform concerts outside Egypt and collect donations for the war effort under the slogan (Art for the War Effort). At that time, the song was competing with patriotism and belonging, and there was a difference between the two times.
The watcher should have been the voice of Iraq in whose name he shakes hands with the country’s guests and at the forefront of their recipients, and the people are proud of their righteous son, and not be a setback for him.
We watched and waited until the conscience was filled with longing to see Al-Saher among his family and his people, but the wait evaporated when the referee whistle announced the start of the match.
Abu Wissam, I wish you were with us to tell the guests that the children do not forget their homeland, which taught them as children the meaning of the scale (do re mi…) You may have your reasons for not attending, who knows.
In any case, the whistle would sound for the opening of the two Gulfs of Basra, whether the watcher attended or not…and that is the year of life in the homeland.
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