If my mother got angry or frustrated with me, she'd say...
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... and the basic translation of that is "Oh, how beautiful is freedom"
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But where is freedom?
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Close my eyes, I can still hear my ummi saying
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Where is our freedom?
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This is for Baghdad, the place of my mothers birth
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The cradle of civilization, for what it's worth
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The land I've never the seen, culture I've never known
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Iraq is in my heart, my blood, my flesh and bones
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The air I've never breathed, fragrance I've never smelled
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The pride I never had, the nationality that I never felt
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Saddam was bad, are the American's even more so?
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They made me grow like I was missing part of my torso
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But I never picked up a grenade in my garden
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I never saw people I love die starving
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I never saw my family die through many years of sanctions
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While the ruler's family lived in palaces and mansions
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Never had a family member kidnapped for a ransom
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Never lost a friend to violence that was random
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Bombings, occupation, torture, intimidation
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A million dead people doesn't equal liberation
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Close my eyes, I can still hear my ummi saying
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Listen!
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Where is our freedom?
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Forget division based on ethnicity or religion
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Whether you Sunni, Shia, Kurdish or Christian
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Pain is still pain if you're a person that's missing
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We all deserve a life in this earth that we live in
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Is there enough words that can say
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How deeply Baghdad is burning today?
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And it's not about pity, hands out or sympathy
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It's about pride, respect, honour and dignity
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Babies being born with deformities from uranium
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Those babies aren't just Iraqi, they're Mesopotamian
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What I view on the news is making me shiver
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Cause I look at the victims and see the same face in the mirror
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This system of division makes it harder for you and me
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Peace is a question, the only answer is unity!
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So many dreams about this place that I've never seen
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The place my family had to leave in the 70's
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Close my eyes, I can still hear my ummi saying
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Where is our freedom?
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It rains white phosphorus in Fallujah
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This is for those that won't live to see the future
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Sorry that I wasn't there, Sorry that I couldn't help
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I'm sorry for every tear, Sorry you've been put through hell
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Still I feel like an immigrant, englishman amongst arabs and an arab amongst englishmen
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Like I said they never gave me the culture
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But they did give me Kubdad Haleb, Hakaka and Dolma
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Ana isme Kareem,
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Wa ohmre thalatha wa-'ishrun,
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Umi min Baghdad, wa abuya min Dover,
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And that's the combination that I carry on my shoulders
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Still I rep, till my death, Till they kill and seal my flesh
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From now all the way back to Gilgamesh
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Such a villianized and criticized nation
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You will always be the cradle of civilization
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Close my eyes, I can still hear my ummi saying
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Where is our freedom?
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In my sleep, in my dreams Motherland I can still feel you calling me
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In my sleep, in my dreams Motherland I can still feel you calling me
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In my sleep, in my dreams Motherland I can still feel you calling me
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I can still feel you calling me
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I can still feel you calling me
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-----------------
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The Cradle Of Civilization
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Lowkey |