Baghdad weblog

shotamoose

If this isn't the right forum for this thread, please feel free to move it.

Dunno if anyone knows of this, but I've found a weblog by a fellow (nick)named Salam Pax, who lives in Baghdad. It's called 'Where is Raed', and is well worth a read if you want an idea of what life is like in Iraq at the moment (from his point of view, at least). Problem is that when I checked it today at the usual address - http://dear_raed.blogspot.com/ - the link didn't work. But then going here seemed to work.

As a taster, here's an extract from today's entry:

And there is the matter of Sanctions. Now that Iraq has been thru a decade of these sanctions I can only hope that their effects are clear enough for them not to be tried upon another nation. Sanctions which allegedly should have kept a potentially dangerous situation in Iraq in check brought a whole nation to its knees instead. And who ultimately benefited from the sanctions? Neither the international community nor the Iraqi people, he who was in power and control still is. These sanctions made the Iraqi people hostages in the hands of this regime, tightened an already tight noose around our necks. A whole nation, a proud and learned nation, was devastated not by the war but by sanctions. Our brightest and most creative minds fled the country not because of oppression alone but because no one inside Iraq could make a living, survive. And can anyone tell me what the sanctions really did about weapons? Get real, there are always willing nations who will help, there are always organizations which will find his money sweet. Oil-for-Food? Smart Sanctions? Get a clue. Who do you think is getting all those contracts to supply the people with “food”? who do you think is heaping money in bank accounts abroad? It is his people, his family and the people who play his game. Abroad and in Iraq, Iraqis and non-Iraqis.

Do support democracy in Iraq. But don’t equate it with war. What will happen is something that could/should have been avoided. Don’t expect me to wear a [I heart bush] t-shirt. Support democracy in Iraq not by bombing us to hell and then trying to build it up again (well that is going to happen any way) not by sending human shields (let’s be real the war is going to happen and Saddam will use you as hostages), but by keeping an eye on what will happen after the war.

As I say, well worth a look, unfortunately it'll probably disappear - along with lots of other features of Baghdad - in the next couple of weeks or so. Oh, and some people think the blog's not authentic, that the guy doesn't actually live in Baghdad. Seems realistic enough to me though.

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

a bientot

The aforementioned webpage ( dear_raed.blogspot.com ) is working today and here's another piece linked with the gung-ho American, British and Spanish ***PEOPLE's imminent war against the PEOPLE of Iraq........

From www.innatenonviolence.org

Our theatre correspondent Abby Peacock writes on the forthcoming production of
The Playboy of the Western World by John Millington Synge
at the World Court Theatre

The c by Bertie Ahern
Directed by Gunnar Merchant
Produced by S.O. Oyle

ast offs: Christopher Mahon played by George W Bush
Pegeen Mike played by Tony Blair
Old Mahon, played by Iraq
Widow Quin played by Jacques Chirac
Shawn Keogh played
While it may be unusual to review a forthcoming dramatic presentation, it was felt that this production, even though still to come on the (world) stage, is so explosive that publication now is warranted. It threatens to drop a bombshell onto the way life is portrayed.

Christy Mahon is a liar and a braggart, so the casting of George W Bush is a master-stroke, and it is a role which he plays with great relish and accomplishment. To have Pegeen Mike, the person most taken in by Christy, who falls head over heels in love with him, played by Tony Blair is another tremendous feat in the casting of the play. Meanwhile Bertie Ahern as the obsequious, toadying Shawn Keogh, who is afraid to stand up to anyone – especially the powers that be - is very apt. The play being set in a shebeen is very suitable for Bertie Ahern and friends who seem to be opening or pictured visiting pubs every other day (and have done nothing to tackle escalating alcohol abuse and resultant problems).

If you know the play, the people are initially taken in by Christy Mahon and his lies about how he killed his father. Violence at a distance seems heroic, and Christy Mahon’s stature is high. But when people discover his lies, and then his very real attempt to kill his father in front of them, they are shocked, disgusted and horrified. Violence out of sight can make the perpetrator a hero; but the reality of violence is very different, it has no mythic qualities, only blood, pain and mourning, and when they see Christy Mahon ‘kill’ his father before them then Christy becomes an outcast rather than a hero. The people want Christy brought to justice.

This is clearly a play for our times. It is hard to say too much about the acting at this time but a few comments are in order. Bush as Christy Mahon, and Blair as Pegeen Mike, both seem to try too hard to be fully believable. But Blair does portray well the gullibility of Pegeen Mike at being taken in by Bush’s Christy Mahon, who becomes emboldened by the lies he tells; people’s belief in him strengthens him further so that he feels anything is possible. It is the realisation by the people of his lies which is his undoing. He loses all his power to impress.

The play ends with Pegeen Mike’s words: “Oh my grief, I’ve lost the plot surely, I’ll not be becoming the playboy toast of the western world.” The play itself is normally a strange and heady mixture of tragedy and comedy but this production avoids the comedy entirely. I am afraid to inform you that despite this production’s deficiencies which are legion (US and British armies in fact), it is really unmissable; it is going to be BIG, in fact it is going to go ballistic, and you won’t be able to avoid the accompanying publicity and fireworks. Touring, or should I say ‘cruising’, soon to a theatre of war near you.
.
What other commentators said:
“This one will run and run, on the road to Basra” – The Irish People
“What a play, boy” – Globallsisation Review
“It’s the aftermath of the play that I would be after being worried about” - The Plain People of Ireland


***p.s. Tell me who elects the government?
so stop this silly nonsense about our great love for the American (U.S.) people........

Biffa Bacon

Here are some much better weblogs:
Andrew Sullivan
Little Green Footballs
Tim Blair

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

Lionel Vinyl

shotamoose

Our man in Baghdad is still going, just about, at http://dear_raed.blogspot.com/. He expects his internet access to go soon, along with the state satellite tv service. Interesting quote:

Today the BaÂ’ath party people started taking their places in the trenches and main squares and intersections, fully armed and freshly shaven. They looked too clean and well groomed to defend anything. And the most shocking thing was the number of kids. They couldnÂ’t be older than 20, sitting in trenches sipping Miranda fizzy drinks and eating chocolate (that was at the end of our street) other places you would see them sitting bored in the sun. more cars with guns and loads of Kalashnikovs everywhere.

Gambler

I just heard from a friend that the blog was traced and has turned out to be a fake.. has anyone else heard about this?

Hobbes

Originally posted by Gambler
I just heard from a friend that the blog was traced and has turned out to be a fake.. has anyone else heard about this?

That is the current running theme with conspiracy sites. That it is CIA run. Raed's take on it is to just F'off and don't read the site.

I've only glanced in on the site occasionally. I'm not entirely sure how it is promoting any agenda except for someone who doesn't want to get a bomb on his head.

Beëlzebooze

there was coverage on the blog on news.bbc.co.uk yesterday, and some other international papers. They have tried to verify the blog, but the BBC guys could only see that trafic was coming through lebanon, they also quoted "Salam Pax", by saying, "if you don't believe it, don't read it"


the blog does sound convincing, the author is not for or against any of the parties per se, he is just describing daily life of a country/town at war.

shotamoose

I really don't think it's fake. Have a look at this , which seems like it might be the very start of the blog, in July 2002. Now, for someone who's just a front for the CIA/Saddam/Osama/whoever he spends a lot of time talking about dietary supplements that improve the taste of your sperm and how spiderman will make you gay . Granted, he also seems at the time to be living not in Baghdad but in Jordan, but still this bit just sounds too random and not-for-widespread-consumption to be faked.

Actually, reading the old entries you learn (or think you learn) quite a lot more about 'Salam'. As far as I can make out he's gay, and doesn't know whether to see himself as Arabic or Western. Raed's his boyfriend, I think, and has been away a lot - maybe hence the title - but according to this entry was apparently in Badhdad as of March 21st.

pro_gnostic_8

One war -- so many warblogs.
Two new directory sites dedicated to this alternative to mainstream news orgs are
www.warblogging.com
www.warblogs.cc

shotamoose

He's back blogging again ...