READING AROUND THE IRAQI BLOGOSPHERE: Many new faces. (I’m looking for blogs by Iraqis in Iraq now, written in English.) …The upshot is, this will be the last time I try a comprehensive read-through of the Iraqi blogosphere! That’s really exciting: There are just way too many Iraqi blogs for me to keep up with. I’ll be reorganizing the blogroll over there to reflect the ones I expect to read fairly often. I think the Iraq Blog Count is now up to 73. If anyone can think of something especially cool to do to celebrate when they reach 100, maybe let them know (and cc me, if you don’t mind).

My old familiar 2002 piece on blogs and liberty in the Middle East.

Anyway… here’s what I’ve got:

Most exciting news to me: The Return of Salam Pax. Even though he’s going away again for a month. He’s making another movie. (“Another”? When do we get to see the first one?) Anyway, a must-read, and as soon as he gets back it will be going on the daily-stops list.

Inactive (i.e. hasn’t posted in a really long time): Gee in Baghdad and Ishtar Talking.

Blogging regularly: Nabil’s blog (Iraqi sports news), A Family in Baghdad, Road of a Nation, Hammorabi, RiverbendBlog (Baghdad Burning), Secrets in Baghdad, Messopotamian, Iraq at a Glance, Iraq the Model, Healing Iraq, and all the new blogs listed below.

New! (to me, anyway–mostly via Nabil’s blog and Iraq Blog Count): Almuajaha (news and opinion with comments boxes), Iraqi Passport (filmmaker returns to Iraq from US), Life in Baghdad, A star from Mosul, Baghdad Girl (whoa, an Iraqi catblog!… 13-y.o. girl in Baghdad), DBubble (mostly pictures and brief factual notes), Iraqi Girl, Suhax (translating, reports from Baghdad’s Green Zone), Pictures in Baghdad (photoblog), Iraqi Letter to America (anti-war commentary), Glimpse of Iraq (personal reflections and commentary from the same person who writes Iraqi Letter to America), That Story Goes On (a creative writing blog!–looks like one blogger starts a story and then commenters continue it), Iraqi Blogger (aka No Pain No Gain), Abbas Kadhim (“Reflections on the Middle East, Islam, Politics and Theology”), Neurotic Iraqi Wife (…truth in advertising), Shlonkom Bakazay? (political commentary), Diary from Baghdad (27-y.o. wife, mother, and civil engineer).

Quotes: From A Family in Baghdad: “I always wonder: what is the difference between a man lying, and a man telling a half truth??? I don’t know….for there are many aspects of explanations.All right, Bush meets some Iraqi men whom Saddam Hussein cut their hands for dealing in dollars by the Black Market some time…the punishment was cruel, and In-human.And Bush volunteers to have artificial limbs fitted to those men, courtesy of the American government, or his personal account.He uses the subject as an advertisement for his humanity…So, why doesn’t he take some Iraqi children whose limbs were amputated by cluster bombs, dropped by the occupation forces on Iraqi villages, and have artificial limbs fitted to them?? Does he have the audacity to show the American people the other side of the story?? Why?? If he was a just, merciful, humanitarian man, let him complete the picture…That is how I understand courage and justice. And this is how I want the American people to think when looking at our reality, so the picture would be complete. So there would be honesty with one’s self…..”

[later in same post, which is long and covers lots of topics and which you should read:]

“Going back to the Iraqi Business Women Society…the Society is new, poor, and in need of research, proposals, projects, and locating some funding for those projects…. I have a lot of various ideas, which I wrote down as small projects. I visited some factories of Hand-Made and Mechanical Carpets, who are state-owned factories, their products are beautiful and lovely, I am thinking (as a project) of buying some of it to export to Europe and America and other countries… I was also thinking of exporting pieces of the lovely Iraqi Hand-crafted products …thinking that part of the profits gained by these sales would revert back to the society to buy new products, and the other part would be used to buy winter clothes and school bags to a number of poor students, as a contribution from the society to re-build the local community…There are some Non-Iraqi societies working here, who have very good funding from abroad…they are researching in defending women’s rights, enlarging the political contribution, and democracy building. I attended a lecture today…by the title: Violence against Women.The Doctor spoke about cases of violence against women, its damaging effects upon their personalities, and upon society… then the girl responsible for that Society Branch said she would show some slides next week, pictures of women who were violently treated by their families. She said she is preparing for a symposium bout the discrimination by mothers against children, and some other painful, realistic stories… and a family whose crippled daughter burned herself, because she couldn’t face their sarcasm…Most of the attendants left…I approached the remaining ladies and the Doctor who gave the speech, and said: I have some comments, if you please…She said: Be our guest….I said: Who decides the program of the lectures? And who steers them in this direction??They said: We do, what’s wrong with it?I said: These programs are suitable for a society living in normal conditions, and in peace, like the societies of America or Europe… like an Operah show, and her weird stories. But our society is torn apart, just out of war….the lectures are supposed to be aimed at keeping the Iraqi family bound, not to show painful, provoking cases. Displaying the pictures of violence is a provocation to violence…. They said: We want to make the women more aware.I said: A woman should not leave here feeling provoked against her husband and family, she should be made aware by another way…without altering priorities… and I took the pen and wrote on the board: ( The Most important thing is to keep the family’s unity). They shouted to my face: How? Give us your ideas; we do not want some general speech… I said, All right, in the next lecture I will give you ideas.”

whole thing

From Baghdad Girl, after lots of pictures of cats: “Yesterday my father was driving his car and suddenly the car stopped …..Why because the car break down, So he left it in a parking area and he went for calling help and he informed two american check point near the car that he will leave the car and get help.

“When he returned back with the help he found his car’s window broken, A man in the parking area told him that an american patrol hit his car with aston and broke the window.

“can you believe that, What they did was very bad and hostile, My dad didn’t do any thing wrong!!!”

here

From Riverbend: “It makes me miserable to think that Christians no longer feel safe. I know we’re all feeling insecure right now, but there was always that sense of security between differing religions. Many Iraqis have been inside churches to attend weddings, baptisms, and funerals. Christians have been suffering since the end of the war. Some of them are being driven out of their homes in the south and even in some areas in Baghdad and the north. Others are being pressured to dress a certain way or not attend church, etc. So many of them are thinking of leaving abroad and it’s such a huge loss. We have famous Christain surgeons, professors, artists, and musicians. It has always been an Iraqi quality in the region–we’re famous for the fact that we all get along so well.”

here

From Iraq Blog Count: “Has anybody noticed the high percentage of dentists in the Iraqi blogosphere. Ays from Iraq at a glance is a dentist, so is Zeyad from HealingIraq. Two of the brothers posting on Iraq The model are dentists as well. What’s up with that?

“Is there maybe something about being a dentist that makes somebody want to blog as well. You know how dentists always talk with you when you can’t answer back because your mouth is open and you are in pain? Perhaps all dentists like a captive audience.

“Or maybe it is an Iraqi conspiracy to get people in the west to brush their teeth three times a day. There might be subliminal messages in hidden in their posts.

“Which begs the question:How many dentists does it take to change a light bulb in Iraq?Non, why bother the electricity is hardly on.”

here

From Suhax: “I found a new hangout in the i-zone, the Bunker bar. You know you’re in a war zone when the local bar has an RPG mounted on the wall as well as mines and other types of weapons. You know you are in Iraq when the bar stools at the local bar are made out of rockets and missiles. Of course, the entire place is an actual bunker — talk about safe partying.”

here

From Iraq the Model: “…As for the reactions in the Arab media, it wasn’t unusual that all what they have focused on yesterday, was the explosions around the building where the meeting [of the interim Iraqi national conference] took place, while the event itself; the meeting, the free discussions, the exchange of opinions and the plans for the future, were something they weren’t concerned about. Others focused on the fact that some members (around 10%) didn’t attend, showing this as some sort of a failure, as they are used to 100% attendance, 100% voting (yes) and 100% cheering. They (Arab media as well as some Arabs) stand confused at what’s happening in Iraq. They are looking at us as if we were aliens, wondering what happened to the obedient well behaved Iraqis. How can they revolt against their ancestors heritage? Why are they acting differently to their arab and Muslim brothers? Why did they accept the ‘west’s ideology’ and betrayed their own leadership?”

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and on Sunday: “…The other crime that cannot be forgiven is what happened in the ‘religious court.’ I think that if what happened gets a fair coverage, it will destroy the Sadr movement and rid it of any possible left support among Iraqis. What happened in this court was huge and was the worst crime since the end of the war. It resembles to a great extent what used to happen in Saddam’s prisons in a way that makes us feel unsafe once again. Frankly the scene that was broadcasted on TV, shocked me and terrorized me. I started to feel really afraid and my mind recalled moments and pictures I’ve tried so hard to overcome the fear that they generated inside me for decades.”

whole thing