- BAGHDAD, Iraq -- College
students whisper the word when they spot U.S. troops in Baghdad streets.
Vandals scrawl the word across military vehicles. Sneering taxi drivers
mutter it when convoys block their cabs.
-
- "Ulooj," they say, and while some use it with
disdain and others more lightheartedly, it's unmistakably not a nice reference
- though what precisely the ancient term from Arabic literature means depends
on whom you ask. Among the translations offered: pigs of the desert, foreign
infidels, little donkeys, medieval crusaders, bloodsuckers and horned creatures.
-
- While no one can quite pin down the original definition,
Iraqis agree on the modern definition: "It's the American military,"
said Maria Hassan, a 23-year-old history major at a university in Baghdad.
"We use this word from the past for our occupiers of the present."
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- The revival of "ulooj" (pronounced oo-LOOZH)
is the handiwork of Mohammed Saeed al Sahaf, the alternately comical and
caustic information minister from the former Iraqi regime.
-
- In the first days of the war, Sahaf sent Iraqis running
for their dictionaries when he used the word in a speech to describe advancing
U.S. forces. Today, "ulooj" lingers as the unofficial national
nickname for American soldiers, even among many who profess support for
the U.S. presence.
-
- "The Americans always use fancy words for their
operations here - Desert Storm, Iron Grip - so we should also have special
names for them," said Ahmed Kandeel, a 20-year-old Egyptian who attends
university in Iraq. "What does 'ulooj' mean, anyway? Isn't it 'pigs
of the desert?' "
-
- Ali al Khateeb, who translated Sahaf's live remarks into
English for foreign journalists during the war, said he was stumped the
day his former boss mentioned "ulooj" at a news conference. Khateeb
said he racked his brain for a suitable translation as Western reporters
stared at him with impatience. He finally settled on "the enemy"
for lack of a better definition.
-
- "I went to my old professors after that press conference
to ask them for a more precise word," said Khateeb, who's now a producer
for an Arabic-language satellite TV station. "One told me it means
'little donkeys' and the other said it's `big monsters with small minds.'
No one can say for sure. It was an obsolete word before the war."
-
- Few soldiers are aware of their new moniker. Iraqi children
delight in shouting it as they smile and wave to passing U.S. troops, who
happily return what they think is a genuine greeting.
-
- Alaa-Edin Elsadr, an Arab-American spokesman for the
U.S.-led coalition, knows soldiers sometimes use derogatory terms for Iraqis,
but he said that was no excuse for "ulooj."
-
- "Our people tell us it means something like 'animals,'
" he said. "It's definitely not funny. If someone wants to create
a nickname for us, there's not much we can do about it, but we feel it's
culturally insensitive."
-
- Salah al Qureishi, a linguistics professor at al Mustansiriya
University in Baghdad, said he consulted four dictionaries when he first
noticed his young students casually using a word he last recalled seeing
in yellowed texts describing the conquests of a seventh-century Islamic
ruler.
-
- "I was astonished," Qureishi said. "I
thought, 'Where on earth did they get this word?' "
-
- Qureishi said the information minister unearthed "ulooj"
because he "wanted to find words not used by common people so he would
stand out as superior and intellectual." He said "ulooj"
also was a good example of how Saddam Hussein, the ousted dictator with
notoriously flowery speeches, enjoyed invoking Islam's golden age to remind
his countrymen of Iraq's glorious past. The only problem was, most Iraqis
weren't quite sure what their former leaders were talking about.
-
- Qureishi pulled a tattered old Arabic dictionary from
his desk drawer and flipped to the entry for "ulooj." He ran
his finger down several derogatory meanings, but stopped and laughed when
he came to the last definition on the list.
-
- According to the al Waseet dictionary, a rare alternative
interpretation of "ulooj" is "strong men" or "good
fighters."
-
- "I don't think Sahaf ever saw this definition of
'ulooj' when he was looking for names for the Americans," Qureishi
said with a smile. "Saddam would have beaten him."
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- © 2004 KRT Wire and wire service sources. All Rights
Reserved.
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- http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/special_packages/iraq/7638723.htm
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