Yesterday I was searching YouTube for classic music when I stumbled upon Jorge Donn dancing to the rhythm of Ravel’s Bolero. The video took me back at least 30 Years. This Video was one of the time-fillers on the Iraqi TV in the 80s; mostly broadcasted before the 8 or 10 o’clock news. It was not the only wonderful music act used for filling the gaps between the programs, there was also Mozart’s requiem and his Opera The Magic Flute (a lovely and colorful cartoon version I still couldn’t find on the net), the Swan Lake Ballet and some others I don’t remember right now. But I like the Bolero most of all, and although it played in France, I had my own movie running in my mind whenever I listened to it.
I imagined that the war with Iran was over and the soldiers were rising slowly from the ruins of the battle and walking back to their families and loved ones. The more instruments start to play the more soldiers were walking home. When they reached Baghdad, the women and children came out of the houses and welcomed them. That was when Geraldine Chaplin starts singing: “Ahhhhh ahhhhh”. Finally everyone was home safe and sound celebrating the endless peace with the beat of the drums.
My dream came true on the 8th of August, 1988 when the war ended. Hope and Happiness filled the country. It was the biggest Party I had ever seen. The whole country was celebrating and for the first time Iraqis didn’t celebrate with gun shots. No, instead of shooting in to the air, as they used to do on weddings or when Iraq won an important football game, they celebrated with water. Everybody was splashing water around. Turning the country into one big water splash party for almost a month.
Unfortunately, this happiness didn’t last for long, as in my dream.
We had only the chance to celebrate the first anniversary in 1989. The second was destructed by the loud drums of war announcing a new age of violence and misery.
Although the melody is not very joyful, listening to Bolero still fills my heart with hope.
I hope you enjoy listing to it too 🙂