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Numbness of the Mind Paradigm in Haruki Murakami’s After the Quake and Iraq’s After the Quake
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Haruki Murakami (1949-present) is a contemporary Japanese writer whose works have been translated into fifty languages and won him plenty of Japanese and international awards. His short stories are well constructed in a weird realistic manner and are mixed with elements of surrealism. His novels and short stories fall under the genre of magical realism. One of the major revolving themes that Murakami wrote about was the haunting feeling of emptiness and disconnectedness in a world which seems to care much for materialism and self-interests.

    The paper explores two of Murakami’s short stories in his book After the Quake (2000) and the relevance of their themes and characters to Iraq after the quake. Literally, Iraq may never have witnessed a real earthquake, but one can say its metaphorical meaning has a great implication upon the lives of its people. The reference to Iraq after the quake in this paper would focus on the aftermath of the 2003 War such as: the feeling of disconnection among people, disinclination in life, feelings of deprivation and depreciation, and the corruption of leaders and politicians. Likewise, though Murakami’s short stories chosen in this paper do not deal with the actual earthquake, its implications can be felt as we read the stories. His characters witness a sense of disconnectedness and the feeling of being unappreciated even when they do the hardest and most dangerous jobs.

    Two of Murakami’s short stories “UFO in Kushiro” and “Super Frog Saves Tokyo” are tackled to show the paradigm and comparison between the lives of these characters (that are actually a reflection of Japanese lives in mid 1990s) and the restricted depressing life of the Iraqis in the postwar era of the 2003 War. Both have experienced fragmentation, despair and lack of self-worth due to the reasons that are explained in this paper. The Iraqis however, may have experienced a deeper suffering where one can say they have reached a state of the numbness or enslavement of the mind and feelings. The paper also highlights that animosity should be dissipated from the hearts of people specifically in politicians and top leaders. Though it is a complicated world, man should conceive that the prosperity of mankind rests in his own hands. Cherishing the diversity of cultures and understanding each other’s moral principles are the means to diminish evil in order to reach the desired bliss.

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Publication Date
Tue Sep 01 2026
Journal Name
Modern Sport
Development and Psychometric Validation With Normative Levels of the Spotlight Effect Scale Among Students of Physical Education and Sport Sciences
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The Spotlight Effect, defined as individuals' tendency to overestimate the extent to which others notice and evaluate them, has important implications for psychological functioning, social interaction, and performance in educational and sport environments. Despite previous studies have addressed the Spotlight Effect theoretically and empirically, no validated instrument has been specifically developed to assess this construct especially among students of Colleges of Physical Education and Sport Sciences. This study aimed to develop and validate a Spotlight Effect Scale and establishing normative levels for its interpretation. The descriptive survey approach was used, involving 555 students from Colleges of Physical Education and Spo

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Publication Date
Sat Oct 01 2022
Journal Name
Case Studies In Thermal Engineering
Comparative assessment of the performance and combustion attributes of a free piston linear generator fuelled with CNG and CNG-CO2
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Publication Date
Mon Jan 01 2024
Journal Name
Iraqi Journal Of Hematology
Provisional diagnosis of clinically significant hemoglobinopathies and decision on suitability for marriage as part of the premarital screening program in Iraq: Iraqi Society of Hematology Guidelines
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Publication Date
Mon Mar 14 2016
Journal Name
Iraqi Journal Of Market Research And Consumer Protection
Determine the chemical content of Bay (Laurus nobilis L.) leaves extract and its effectivenss against some bacterial species: Determine the chemical content of Bay (Laurus nobilis L.) leaves extract and its effectivenss against some bacterial species
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This study has been performed to study the inhibitory effects of crude plant extracts of Bay (laurus nobilis) leaves against some bacterial isolates represented by Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermids, Proteus vulgaris, Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli, and Pseudomonas aeroginosa in vitro. The results showed that percentages of essential chemical of laurus nobilis leaves which represented by moisture, total oil, total ash, crude protein, crude fibers, carbohydrites and caloric values in dry weight are 5.96, 4.28, 14.2, 8.75, 24.8, 76.99%, and 284.92 kcal/100g respectively, the percentages of some major and minor mineral elements of laurus nobilis leaves powder which represented by Mg, Fe, Cu, Pb, Cd and As, are: 0.211, 0.1

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Publication Date
Fri Jan 01 2021
Journal Name
المجلة العراقية لدراسات الصحراء
Effect of water requirements on the cultivation of vegetable crops ( Analytical study agricultural geography
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The effect of water requirements in the cultivation and production of some vegetable crops (summer and winter) was studied in order to determine the importance of water during the different stages of growth in order to carry out the vital processes, as most of the physiological processes within plants in general are affected directly or indirectly by the presence of water, and the research has reached To the fact that moderate soil moisture is important in the germination of crops, as its decrease negatively affects the failure to germination, the failure to elongate peacocks, or the production of incomplete fruits. As for the increase of that moisture, it causes great damage to the vegetable crops, such as their exposure to diseases and pe

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Publication Date
Tue Dec 15 2020
Journal Name
Al-academy
Treatments with Graphic Techniques for the Scene in Theatrical Show (Applied study): عماد هادي عباس -محمود جباري حافظ
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The current research studies the digital techniques in order to identify the treatments with graphic techniques for the theatrical scene, which includes a number of programs and treatment tools with digital technique to identify the visual and aesthetic dimensions and outputs achieved in the design of the theatrical scene in addition to the options, that they provide in the design of a system of hypotheses for the theatrical world, In order to be an experimental mediator in achieving the creative hypothesis, which limited the research with a pivotal objective which is: identifying the digital techniques employed in the graphic digital design for the scene in the theatrical show. The research lies in its objective limits stated in the met

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Publication Date
Tue Sep 15 2020
Journal Name
Al-academy
The Directorship Vision in Epic Drama Shows " AWNI KROMI AS AN EXAMPLE": فرحان عمران موسى-مصطفى لطيف محسن
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  The theory of the epic theater has received wide attention by filmmakers around the world because of its great impact on the artistic work of the theater and its relationship with societies, and among these directors the Iraqi directors have been influenced by the epic theater and its applications in the show.
In order to find out the effectiveness of these influences on the Iraqi director, I found the need to do this study, which was divided into an introduction and a theoretical framework that included two topics. The first topic (Philosophical References and the Intellectual Foundations of the Epic Theater Theory) deals with the philosophical foundations that crystallized the epic theory of Burch and the mechanism of working

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Publication Date
Sat Oct 01 2022
Journal Name
Baghdad Science Journal
Modeling Jar Test Results Using Gene Expression to Determine the Optimal Alum Dose in Drinking Water Treatment Plants
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Coagulation is the most important process in drinking water treatment. Alum coagulant increases the aluminum residuals, which have been linked in many studies to Alzheimer's disease. Therefore, it is very important to use it with the very optimal dose. In this paper, four sets of experiments were done to determine the relationship between raw water characteristics: turbidity, pH, alkalinity, temperature, and optimum doses of alum [   .14 O] to form a mathematical equation that could replace the need for jar test experiments. The experiments were performed under different conditions and under different seasonal circumstances. The optimal dose in every set was determined, and used to build a gene expression model (GEP). The models were co

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Publication Date
Thu Nov 17 2022
Journal Name
Association Of Arab Universities Journal Of Engineering Sciences
Effect of Using Grids On the Behaviour of Portland Limestone Cement Self Compacted Concrete.
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The civil engineering field currently focus on sustainable development. It is important to develop new sustainable and economic generations of concrete, using eco-friendly materials in the construction industry with a fair amount of costs and minimizing the impact upon the environment by reducing CO2 emissions from the cement industry as a whole while still obtaining high cement quality and strength. The main objective of this research is to clarify the mechanical behavior and ability to use Portland limestone cement in producing self compacted concrete, due to the beneficious effec of the limestone cement economically and enviromently. The research investigates the effect of using steel and polymer meshs as reinforcement, where the results

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Publication Date
Thu Sep 01 2011
Journal Name
Journal Of Economics And Administrative Sciences
Determination Of The Efficient Production Plans For Al-Shaheed Public Company By Using Tatget Motad Model Under Risk And Uncertainty
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The research aims to derive the efficient industrial plans for Al – shaheed public company under risk by using Target MOTAD as a linear alternative  model for the quadratic programming models.

The results showed that there had been a sort of (trade- off) between risk and the expected gross margins. And if the studied company strives to get high gross margin, it should tolerate risk and vice versa. So the management  of Al- Shaheed Company to be invited to apply the suitable procedures in the production process, in order to get efficient plans that improves it's  performance .

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