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Louis Yako
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Born
Iraq
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September 2020
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Louis Yako
If I told you, it would cease to be a mystery!
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Bullets in Envelopes: Iraqi Academics in Exile
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published
2021
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4 editions
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أنا زهرة برية [I am a Wildflower]
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published
2016
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سرطان في كل مكان [Cancer Everywhere]
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published
2025
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“Denial"
We persist in our denial, again and again… We persist far too much, until we become like that bad, obscure writer who imagined that the whole world hated him and was plotting against him. And our poor writer kept on denying, even as he lay on his deathbed, where he firmly instructed his wife that he would never forgive the world and would not receive a single visitor until he died. As for his poor wife, she would knock on the door from time to time, out of pity and compassion for his condition, then return to tell him that visitors had come to check on him— but that she had turned them away, just as he had instructed. [Original poem published in Arabic on June 7, 2026 at ahewar.org]” ...more Louis Yako |
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![سرطان في كل مكان [Cancer Everywhere] by Louis Yako](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1752515137l/238750350._SX50_.jpg "سرطان في كل مكان [Cancer Everywhere] by Louis Yako")
“Don’t talk to me about the bright side,
for if it were bright, I would have seen it, and there would be no need for you to show it to me…” Louis Yako |
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“It is complicated,’ they say. I am so sick of this response. Many people use it repeatedly to escape depth and confronting reality. They use it to take solace in the fact that they don’t know (or don’t wish to know) the ugly truth of what is happening right in front of their eyes. They reduce crimes, injustice, war, pain, hunger, rape, and everything that must be unpacked, dissected, and confronted to this: ‘It is complicated.’ They say this about COVID-19, too. Oh, how I have grown to hate this response. Every time I hear this statement from someone, it sounds like ‘I am a loser’ to my ears. ‘It is complicated’ is the favorite response of lazy brains that refuse to think and do. Oh, my friends, I insist it is not complicated. If you really want to know, it is not so complicated. However, if you are really looking for reasons and excuses to justify your silence, complicity, and to protect your self-interest, then you are absolutely right – it is complicated!”
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“Oh, my friends, the first wish I have for the new year is to change the worn-out greeting: 'happy new year'. There is no happiness, only fleeting moments of joy. There is nothing new under the sun, only new ways of looking at the same eternal challenges and unresolved questions. There is no point in wishing for a perfect health in a profoundly sick world – the view is much clearer and more interesting when living on the edge. And so, I wish you all endurance as we go through another difficult year. I wish you courage to snatch a few more days (or moments) of joy as another year slips through the fingers of Time. I wish you much strength to maintain your equilibrium as we face new earthquakes of uncertainty in the coming year. Most of all, I wish we never give up on the possibility of doing things otherwise. And, of course, I wish you much love.”
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“This is precisely why the mainstream media’s language has failed us, it has not been telling us what we really need to know, because their language marches in step with that of the bankers, warmongers, oppressors, and executioners. We need a new language of radical love not radical hate.”
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“Real wisdom lies not in just paying attention to what is being said, but in what is omitted from speeches.”
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“Isn't it quite ironic that we may be coming to a day when we may find all kinds of full-time, steady and secure jobs at universities for all, except jobs for educators?”
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“We have to bear in mind that oppression is almost never imposed on people in one big dose, because that could trigger an immediate revolution and uprising. Instead, oppression is given in small doses in such a way that each dose in itself is insignificant or negligible, but it is the total amount of these small doses that creates a great state of oppression and injustice.”
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“The whole concept of “competition” needs to be revisited. In my view, competition and wisdom are two different paths that will never intersect ... we need to seek wisdom rather than playing games and politics against our peers to get status and power.”
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“We must rethink and change the worn out concept of the “job market” under capitalism, which is designed to dispose of people in a second if deemed unprofitable to the system.”
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