I do not see a shiny future for you Mama, though I am optimistic still.

No country truely has a shiny future, and never will.

What I see is the chance for you & Sunshine and other Iraqi bloggers to use your words, and your knowledge and popularity to help Iraq in the securing its future.

Allow me to expand a little on this:

The media wants and believes word-for-word the writings you and Sunshine write.

If you write a straight-out plea with a very particular purpose, we can make it happen.

Small possibilities represent undiscovered much larger possibilities.

Inhalers may be one way to help you and your family, sure- and that shows that blogs have potential,

but bloggers need to take up the challenge now- and realise their abilities to reach people, and in doing so connect and network.

Push the truth out and imagine the whole world is reading this, because that is the only way to make the world read it.

This is THE ONLY WAY to WAKE UP THE WORLD and MAKE THEM HELP YOU.

People around the world rally behind individual oppressed towns among whole populations, just because the media picks up the story.

If every Iraqi blogger pushed out the truth as if the whole world must know- then we would push their individual stories into the media. I could do it alone if I had to, and there were enough stories.

Use your potential powers here- people will be awakened so much more by individual stories, than by irrelevant statistics. People will want to know about Iraq again- they just don't want to read the same old stories the papers print- because the papers can't get any other stories.

Fill in the void with something worthwhile and interesting, everyone loves a war story when they havent experienced it themselves- no one likes a repetitive news story.

Ahh- Even the future of Australia is shakey- with the current tensions between us & Indonesia :
your shiny future may not come, but it does not have to be a dull, broken one either.

You have your daughter, and she has you- and you both have us.

Please. Don't forget that.

[olivebranch out]