...

...

Goodbye, But Wait...

لن أقوم بإضافة أي مدونة الى الدليل ، وبما إنني الشخص الوحيد الذي كان يقوم بذلك - فان هذا يعني إفتراضيا توقف الموقع عن العمل كما يبدو.

على أية حال، سأستمر بإضافة كل جديد في المدونات العراقية إلى دليل المدونات العراقية التجريبي.

I'm not going to add any more blogs to the Iraq Blog Count. It doesn't seem that anybody else is interested in adding blogs but me, so this could very well mean that this side is practically dead.

However, I will still be adding blogs to The Iraq Blog Count Experimental. which still needs to be renamed and perhaps a few touches added here and there. but nothing too much more than what it already is.

The IBCExp is merely Blogger's Blog List which list of all the Iraqi blogs, sorted by most recent posts.

New Blogs Again and Again

So many new blogs, we need to hire somebody: 

1. Iraqi Maqam is a different kind of blog, it is nerdily obsessed with classical Iraqi music, and has a well organized YouTube companion that posts on a regular basis. 

2. Khalid from Iraq goes prolific on us with five blogs, which is always bad for us indexing type people ; he seems interested in the Iraqi blogging scene (of sorts) to put up a blog commenting on the best and worst : Iraqiblogupdates.blogspot.com

3. You know Salam Pax is at it again! this time Wordpress and with the oft-touted moniker: The Baghdad Blogger, blogging anew from Baghdad. He's also the first Iraqi twitterer of sorts. 

4. Noor el Qamar is written by a "young Iraqi Muslim girl living in the US", self-explanatory. 

5. Mhmd of Moo Iraq is a young Iraqi who is just experiencing his home town after living abroad for all his life, he appears to be a friend of Touta's brother. His blog is rather cynical, frank and not yer usual run of the mill. i like.

Shroogy, Sana, Mosul4All, Dhayy, Sahar al-Dabbagh, God Eat God, Sahaab,

[ENGLISH] Shroogy Pride seems infatuated with Muntadhar al-Zaydi, a family member perhaps? 

[ARABIC] It looks like we have another Blogfamily in the making, Attawie's two sisters join the blogosphere, it seems this particular family has a flavor for the arts, while the eldest, Dhayy Awtani, talks about her love for the flute amidst a strong dose of  Iraq nostalgia, the youngest Sana's Words I Wish Were Mine features poetry and flowery political commentary. Let's see what mom and dad will come up when they blog. 

[ENGLISH] Mosul4All confirms the emergence of a subgenre in the Iraqi blogsophere, the Mosullite Girl Blogs, generally personal blog about likes and dislikes as well as sparse commentary on flying Iraqi shoes and Islamic ceremonies.

[ENGLISH] G0dEatG0D is another atheist blog, this one is in English and based in Jordan. No, I don't have anything to do with this one. 

[ARABIC] Iraqi poet Saad Jassem's Maktoob blog, موسيقى الكائن  focuses on poetry. 

[ARABIC] Another Maktoob blog for Mohamed Sunbah, largely interested in politics. 

[ARABIC] Sahar al-Dabbgh, another prominent Kitabat.com writer, has her own blog. al-Dabbagh is an expert in body lanugage and she analyzes the body language of Iraqi politicians with painstaking detail.

[MIXED] Sahab has three blogs, each dedicated to collecting articles about a controversial Iraq shelter: al-Amiriya Shelter which was bombed by Ameican warplanes during the 1991 war, al-Jadriya Shelter, where torture of Sunnis was systematic during the tumultous administration of Interior minister Badr-affiliated Baqir Solagh in 2005, and al-Hanaan Orphanage, where unfed and unattended children were found locked up in 2007. 

 

ضي أوطاني

It's my honor to introduce this new addition to the Iraqi blog sphere, an Arabic based blog that does a great job tickling the emotions of the lovers of Iraq :)

With no further delay, ladies and gentlemen, please visit the new blog: ضي أوطاني

www.awtani.blogspot.com

Ishtar, Crosseyed Ant, Rassid, S6efan, Aziz Hijjiya (4 Arabic, 1 English)

* Notorious Kitabat writer, self-proclaimed 'Saddamist' and mass grave-denier Ishtar al-Iraqiya adopts the blog format to publish her writings. (Arabic)

* A rather interesting, light-hearted blog is 'Namla 7ola', at first it was hard (in a good way) to fathom who is the person behind this blog, as it had a strange narrative, a 'cross-eyed ant' recounting the social misadventures of a yer run-of-the-mill Iraqi young man, the ant device seems unexplored other than for the cutesy element, which is strange but after a few days the mystery is resolved when the writer decides to tell us a little more about herself:

As someone that had left Iraq years ago, and as a girl whose life-style and experiences vary from those of a guy, I heavily rely on old recounts by siblings and relatives pertaining to their Baghdad-habits, as well as stories told by various friends and net-users as a source of inspiration for the haps and mishaps of Choo8i's life under the current situation in Iraq. Iraqi slang is often used to express certain things and notions as opposed to their English counterparts, just for a firmer bond to the daily life of your average Iraqi youth, down to his manner of speech.

The purpose? The net is full of angry bloggers, appeased bloggers, support and opposition to this party and that public figure. Your average Joe, Choo8i, represents the overlooked part of society where people live the day attempting at as much a taste of normalcy as circumstances would allow, not wasting precious time over futile political debates.

Another blog that's been lying around for a while is al-Rassid, it doesn't take a lot of guessing to figure out the political orientation for this blog:  

منظمة مجتمع مدني تعنى برصد جرائم الاحتلال الاميركي والايراني في العراق وجرائم الميلشيات الصفوية الشيعية والكردية وكل القوى التي لا تؤمن بالعراق الواحد

A strongly anti-Wahhabi prolific blog is Stefan, while it carries many signature Shi'i terminology, it seems to have been written by a secular atheist:

الاسم : سطيفان ابن ابي نعل النجدي السلفي ( رضي الله عني )- التحصيل العلمي : بكلوريوس جهاد من الجامعه الوهابيه في المهلكه السعوديه حاصل على الدكتوراه في فن الذبح على الطريقه الجهاديه من معهد افغانستان العالمي للنحر و التشويه والدتي كانت تساعد المجاهدين في الشيشان حيث انها تعمل كشرموطه يقصدها الروس فينقض عليهم المجاهدون و هم في فراشها والدي لم اعرفه ابدا قالت لي والدتي انه استشهد قبل ان يتزوجها سميت ب سطيفان نسبة الى خلقي الحسن و اخلاقي العاليه سنة الولاده :5480 هجريه ( التعامل بالميلادي حرام ) متزوج من 12 زوجه و لدي 416 ابنا و بنتا كلهم مجاهدون انشاء عبد الوهاب شعاري في الحياة : انكح تنكح

On a different note, Baghdadiat Aziz al-Hijjiya, written by Lina Aziz al-Hijjiya, sets out to publish the writings of Aziz al-Hijjiya, which is concerned with narrating the style of life and customs in early 20th century Baghdad:

بغداديات لتصوير الحياة والعادات قبل مائة عام . تراثيات بغدادية تبحث في الحياة البغدادية القديمة حسب رؤية الشخصية البغدادية التراثية عزيز الحجية

New Blogs (Arabic-English)

Violet for Iraq belongs to the category of day-to-day memoirs of Iraqi teenagers, a blog that talks about. well you know. She also has an Arabic blog in which she publishes poetry. While Aws Ayad opens his blog by being furious about a college incident with a girl.

Ali The Translator seems to confirm the fact that Iraqi translator blogs are making a niche, he talks about stuff such as politics, and also his experiences in Tal-Affar.

حبيبي يا عراق مدونة إسلامية شيعية احيانا يخالطها شيء من وقائع الحياة التي تعيشها صاحبة المدونة: العراقية بنت العراق

Khalid al-Qishtini خالد القشطيني

Khalid al-Kishtini, a prominent Iraqi writer in the al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper, has recently started a blog. It seems he is keeping this blog to publish the naughty bits that can't make the cut. I would've published this entirely in Arabic but he has one English entry (which is quite interesting), so maybe he'll be bilingual.

مدونة للكاتب العراقي المعروف خالد القشطيني و الذي يكتب يوميا في جريدة الشرق الأوسط, قد يتفاجئ الزوار بمحتوى المدونة - تبدو المدونة مخصصة للطرائف التي لا يمكن نشرها في الشرق الأوسط و سرعان ما يتضح ان هذا يندرج تحت عنوان واحد ألا و هو "الجنس" فيبدو ان القشطيني عابث و ماجن شأنه شأن اي أديب ذو بنان ولكن لا ريب ان المقالات لا تزال مصبوغة بأسلوب القشطيني الذي يمكن وصفه باللطيف الرصين فهو لا يعرف الإبتكار المجنون حتى في مجونه هذا...فعلى سبيل المثال:

كنت مع رهط من الشباب في مقهى دينوس بلندن عندما وقع نظري في ايام دراسة الرسم على فتاة حسناء من ويلز. استهوتني بجمالها وتقاطيع وجهها فدعوتها الى البيت لأرسمها. ادركت ما وراء الأكمة فاعتذرت و قالت ، يمكنك ان ترسمني هنا في المقهى اذا شئت. نفضتيدي من الموضوع. دفعت عنها فاتورة القهوة و انصرفت. بعد بضعة ايام استلمت هذه القصيدة من احد الحاضرين لم اعد اتذكر اسمه و قد ارخ فيها تاريخ الواقعة ، إذ قال
لفاتنة من البيض الحسان
من الولش الغواني لست تدري
بهن المحصنات من الزواني
"هلمي ارسمنك غدا." فقالت
غداة غد ، و في المقهى الفلان
فقال: بمرسمي حيث استتمت
زيوت الرسم و الورق الثخان
فقالت لا و من اعطاك عقلا
و علمك التحايل في البيان
اداة الرسم تحملها سلاحا
على فخذيك مشحوذ السنان
و لكن كل ما تبغيه مني
خلوع الثوب عن ذاك المكان

Irregular Blogs : Saddam Hussein's Nephew

The son of Saddam Hussein's sister and former bodyguard, Al-Hussein Arshad Yassin writes omewhat irregularly on, as expected, his blog is very defensive of Uncle and Uncle's policies regarding several topics, including Iraqi Jews :

Now we come to the part where you are all waiting for. So how did Saddam Hussein defend Iraqi Jews? In the year 1992 there was nothing left of Iraqi Jews only 40 families refusing to leave the country. In the year 1992 a Palestinian Muslim threw 2 grenades on a Jewish synagogue in Baghdad killing 2 Jews and one Muslim (the synagogue’s guard). The Palestinian was put on trial and was sentenced to death. My uncle Saddam Hussein (my mother’s brother) gave a speech on TV. I was only 8 years old at the time and I remember nothing of this accident but today I asked my father to tell me what really happened since my father was my uncle’s head of security and bodyguard for 27 years from 1968 after leaving Najaf (where he use to study in the Hawza) till 1995 where he retired. My dad remembers this speech very well, he told me; your uncle went on TV and addressed this speech to the Palestinians living in Iraq saying that any Palestinian holding a grudge on Jews I ask him to leave the country an do his business in Palestinian. I will refuse to let people make out of Iraq a field of personal vendettas. And these Jews are Iraqi in the first place and they are under the protection of the Iraqi government because they are Iraqis and they hold the Iraqi nationality and they have the rights like any Iraqi. Any Palestinian wishing to make a show of his muscles and manhood let him go to Palestinian and make his killing there and not killing Iraqi Jews that have not harmed anyone and have not harmed any Palestinian living in Iraq.

Meanwhile, Iraqi Ghost, a teenage Iraqi boy wrestles with his Iraqi identity (irregularly as well).

Two New Interesting Blogs

We apologize for omitting those two very interesting Iraqi blogs that has been laying around for a while, the first is Sundus Abdulhadi's Mesopotamian Contemplations, a seldom blogging Iraqi artist based in Canada, she has been making a buzz lately around the Arab media for her painting 'Inana in Damascus', which is a commentary on prostitution of Iraqi women in Syria. Her recent post tells us about the story behind the painting's popularity, from American blogs to Arab media.



Second blog is for the Iraqi rapper The Narcycist, a previous member of the Iraqi hip-hop group Euphrates which contributed some very good music to the seminal Iraqi documnetary "Voices of Iraq", He has a way of adding Iraqi pharses and names just at the right moments, you can sample some of The Narcyist's politically-themed music on YouTube, such as this seminal song : 'The Letter'. The Narc's blog is an attitude-packed discussion of rap music, politics, and life for Iraqi and Arabs in the Western word, here is a flavor of his writing in which he is ranting about the influence of Gulf money on rap music and the image of Arabs in the West:

So, Here is a new track by some dude called Ron browz featuring the one'n'only Busta Rhymes. Funny, I was bumping THE COMING, Busta's first record, while pumping iron the other day (3ish). Once again, the American assumption that all brown people are the same gets jumbled into one joint. India is not Arabic people. They are indian. And not indian like 'injan you varmits'. Indian like close to Paskistan, India like one of the most beautiful places on earth. Anyway, this is what happens when you invite cats out to places like Dubai or the anywhere in the Gulf for that matter and not invite them out to Palestine and/or Iraq (interchangeable at this point.) Totally totally totally ignorant. Arab money is long if you were in the Gulf, or are someone who has taken advantage of the War. Ask lil'hamoodi in Naseriya what money is. He'll tell you electricity and a carton of two day old eggs (if he's lucky).

Arabic / English Blogs

I apologize for all the bloggers here but I couldn't really make time between my laziness to add your blogs, and this is where I make due with this mega-post:

Son of Tigris has a very elegant blog with a neat theme complete with an animated attractive blog title, he is an IT specialist and his main interests are technology, technology and tech...nology.

We seem to have caught Touta just as she begins to unravel in Fog al Nakhal, only two posts down the line and she seems rather hesitant, but let's hope she develops a passion for blogging that equals her passion for learning.

Net Marketing In Iraq is a very unique blog for an Iraqi blog, it is primarily focused on netmarketing techniques in Iraq. Don't ask, I don't know.

يكتب أزهر مهدي في مدونة جلجامش - القاصد منذ مدة و قد اختار ان يخطرنا بمدونته مؤخرا, تتضمن مواضيع ثقافية شتى و هو مؤخرا يقوم بنشر قصائد مترجمة للشاعر الإيراني عمر الخيام

مدونة أنت حر للكاتب المسرحي العراقي احمد الصالح مدونة أدبية تتناول عدة محاور ثقافية و صحافية ربما سياسية و بالأخص ما يتعلق من السياسة بالثقافة.

متهجولون في الغربة هي مجهود جماعي لمجموعة من المدونين العراقيين منهم خاتون و أبا الحسن تتناول مشاكل اللاجئين باسلوب خفيف الظل وهي من اكثر المدونات الناطقة باللغة العربية نشاطا...نتمنى لها الإستمرار

تقودنا مدونة المتهجولون الى هارت روز, عراقية في الإمارات تدرس الطب, تتحدث عن مواضيع إجتماعية و مجريات حياتها اليومية, في أخر تدوينة لها تسرد لنا إنطباعاتها عن دخول غرفة الولادة.

مدونة الكاتبة عبير عبد الغفور عراقية مقيمة في مصر

مدونة شعاع العصر للكاتب علي هادي, يصفها فيقول :

مساء الخير والسعادة سيداتي سادتي الاكارم قد توصف ادراجاتي وصف الرمزيةمرة ووصف الجنون مرات اكثر وهنا ( انا مجنون اذن انا موجود) ربما يكون للجنون فنون اولها شكرا واخرها اسف على الازعاج

مدونة تميل الى مناقشة المواضيع السياسية و الدينية و من ثم كل ما يجول بالخاطر

و الشعراء و الصور

هذه مجموعة مدونات ناطقة باللغة العربية رصدناها مؤخرا.

نبدأ بمدونة - مشيئة - و هي مدونة رائعة فعلا للشاعر العراقي المغترب في السويد سعد الياسري
مدونة متمكنة لغويا و تحتوي على نماذج من شعر الياسري اضافة الى نسق المدونات الطبيعي, يتحدث عن السياسة و الفن و الأدب, يقول معرفا بنفسه:

حين تسرّبت من رحم أمّي – دون مشورتي طبعًا - ؛ خرجتُ مغلّفًا بكيس , و ما زالت أمّي تظنّ بأنّها نبوءة , و أنّي سأبلغ ما لم يبلغه الأوائل ولا الأواخر . حديث الكيس هذا متواتر في عائلتنا حتّى أنّ أبي قال عنه ( حديث حسن بسند لا بأس به ) . في المستشفى ؛ حيث ولدت بالقاهرة الجميلة والمزدحمة , تطوّعن الممرضات لتسميتي , فكانت الأسماء تتراوح قيمتها وثيمتها بين القومجية والإسلاموية نظرًا للمدّ السائد وقتذاك, حتى حسم أبي النزاع و أسماني " سعدًأ ..* أنا الآن في العقد الثالث من عمري , و قد قضيت نصفه أو يزيد خارج العراق , و حين أفكّر بالانتماء فلا تعنيني – حتمًا – خطوط الطول والعرض , إنّما الفكرة التي يغرسها الوطن في مخيّلة أبنائه , و العراق غرس في مخيّلتي قصيدةً لا تموت و حنينًا لا ينساق بسهولة إلى وصلة الردح الوطني . أنا رجل بلا وطن , و وطني – الجغرافي على الأقل – يحترق و يسكرُ بدمه العاقّون من أبنائه , بولاءات ناقصة

ننتقل الى مدونة سما اللامي, عراقية من ميسان تسكن الإمارات حاليا, تكتب في مدونة قهوةع المفرق,يغلب على مدونتها النسق الشعري.

من المدونات الشعرية الأخرى مدونة الشاعر حبيب السامر, ومدونة الشاعر رياض البكري.

و بعيدا عن الشعر, تحكي لنا سوالف خاتون بالعراقية العامية آخر مغامراتها بأسلوب خفيف (و ذلك أمر يفهم من روابط المدونين التي تضعهم على صحفتها من شلش العراقي الى مدونة الياسري - بلد المليون مولدة) بينما يبوح الصحفي أبو الحسن بكل ما يجول بخاطره على مدونة أبو الحسن: السياسة و المجتمع,

Informative Iraqi Blogs

Mosul is a fine Iraqi city that has gifted writers. They usually write about important things that we often would want to cherish. One recent informative blog I have encountered is Mosul4All, which gives us background about a student's experiences in medical school. It's quite a personal take on things and that makes it very unique to some of us.

We just hope more bloggers will be encouraged to write. It's way of expression of our love for our dear Iraq.


wahnews.com zacquisha.com awryt.com chieflymusing.com hairstylesandnails.com healthtalkandyou.com

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• Film Acting
• Dancer's Domain
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• Golden Girls Quotes
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• Saints Car Club
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• Hurdler Page
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• Jake Gyllenhaal Fan Club
• Moon Rider
• A&F Models
• Super Pong
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• Soda Traders
• Rent Empress
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• Integrity Library
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• Myanmar Institute of Technology
• The Chess Haven
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• Fusion Recipes
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• Johnny Bravo Site
• Survey Land
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• Pilgrim's Products
• Oregon Lawyers
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• Olympics Page
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• Jeffrey Scott Band
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• Internet Data
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• Redhead Hair Site

Iraqi Insights

"I have an American passport and a Sunni name. It has been suggested to me not to dream of stepping a foot inside Baghdad for at least another fifty years. I haven't seen Baghad or Iraq since I was two years old."

so begins Mona, who is apparently interested in what You (myself included) have to say.

Iraqi Insights is an open forum for Iraqis of all generations and locations to gather and share perspectives.

Mona continues:
"The idea for this site is that I will post something...a question, a thought, a quote, an article, every now and then...and I hope to illicit your responses through the "comment" function.

There are more ideas on earth than intellectuals imagine. And these ideas are more active, stronger, more resistant, more passionate than ''politicians'' think.

We have to be there at the birth of ideas, the bursting outward of their force: not in books expressing them, but in events manifesting this force, in struggles carried on around ideas, for or against them.

Ideas do not rule the world. But it is because the world has ideas... that it is not passively ruled by those who are its leaders or those who would like to teach it, once and for all, what it must think.
-Michel Foucault"

So, welcome, Mona, to the Iraqi blogodrome, hope you enjoy your stay here with us, and.. i dont know what else to say!

for YOU readers, why dont you run along now and share your thoughts and opinion with everyone :)

Amir al-Magamee3, Zaid

Zaid is a 21-years-old Chemical Engineer who maintains a blog, Road to Inner Me, where he talks about soccer, college and other things he finds interesting.

All the following blogs are Arabic.

Amir al-Magamee'a, a resident doctor in Kut, and the well-known writer from Kitabat.com has created his own blog to gather some of his writings that tackle heavy politics with heavy language.

Another Kitabat.com writer with his own blog is the serious Ali al-Hamdani.

Abu Hasooni is a seldom-blogging, secular man from Basrah.

Hadeel is a newborn atheist born in 1989, she writes about her difficulties of living in a Muslim society as a woman on her blog.

Mahmood [Arabic]

A conservative Sunni Muslim Pharmacist of 25 years occasionally commenting about politics and religion. He has pictures of Harith al-Dhari on his personal heroes list. Here is his about page:

مسلم عراقي صيدلي…. وإن شئيم أضيفوا أي شيء من الممكن وصفي به

أسكن بغداد، ولدت فيها ولا زلت أسكنها

ولدت في يوم الإثنين 21 ذو القعدة 1403 الموافق 29 آب 1983

درست في مدرسة الصمود العربي الإبتدائية ( 1989 - 1995 )

والثانوية في ثانوية المتميزين للبنين ( 1995 - 2001 )

ثم درست في كلية الصيدلة بجامعة بغداد ( 2001 - 2006 )

والآن أنا صيدلي بمستشفى أبي غريب العام ( منذ 25 آذار 2007 وحتى الآن )

Good Blogs

I've been laughing a lot during my blog-hunting these days, mostly due to:

ARIDO [ARABIC]

Ahmed Khalaf al-Musawi is an Iraqi atheist from a southern Shi'i background, who is well known in the Arab online atheist community as some sort of a godfather, his writings have a style that I daresay would rival Shalash al-Iraqi's in quality, his style is unique: complete disregard of punctuation that gives an impression of a classical Arabic book, complete ignorance of spelling, and a very flowing narrative filled with an extraordinarily surreal sense of words.

It somehow seems to me that Iraqi Atheists are the largest of all the Arab atheist communities, well, after what's going on in Iraq, who could blame them.

أرشيف طالب عجوزي Diaries of a Lazyass Student [Arabic]

a rather typical Iraqi blog for a college student in his early twenties, except that he can be extremely funny. don't miss احداث فتحت لاصحابها بوابة...الاردن

Less funny but more in the vein of mainstream Iraqi blogs is the serious and brooding is Baghdad Kassakhon [Storyteller], written by a journalist living in Baghdad.


Iraqi Interpreter is a great blog written live from where the action is by a 20-year-old Iraqi interpreter, giving us a much needed firsthand insight in the trials and tribulations of Iraqi interpreters, he is honest, angry and we get to watch him toughened by his life experiences.

Serendipity

A new blog by two new bloggers: Surreal and Ammar Kanno.

Surreal:

I was born here where am living now! in the eighth of May 1986, my name is..., its not important, "silliest things we hold are our names" NIZAR QABANI

I know him and I'm telling you, he's one humorous, helpful and intelligent man, and he looks very good in his black suit, red shirt and red tie that he wore to his graduation party! :)

Ammar Kanno:

"A very ordinary man..."

..whom I do not know.. but he seems to have such a talent as a poet.

They have very recently started to blog and so there's no telling how the blog is going to turn out.. Hopefully however, it's going to last as long as they can breathe!
That's what you told me Surreal and I'm not going to forget it ;)

Enjoy

Neurosurgery in Iraq

They say "blogging is difficult but its harldly brain surgery." But this one is. Dr. Haitham H. Shareef writes about all the latest developments in the field of neurology in Iraq. So if you are a brain surgeon looking for like-minded (no pun intended) people or desperate to know if you can get your suprasellar arachnoid cyst treated with endoscopy in Baghdad... this is the blog for you.

What I like about this blog is that it is so ordinary. It shows whatever happens to Iraq we will always bounce back.

So now we have brain surgery what next.. rocket science? oops lets not go there!

New Blogs

2 New Arabic Blogs (I'm thinking of adding them in a separate blogroll), and 2 English Blogs.

Arabic:

Ali العراق من الخارج
مدونة لعراقي في أمريكا يتكلم فيها عن رؤيته العلمانية للعراق و ضرورة فصل الدين عن الدولة
Free Human حاتم عبد الواحد
مدونة الكاتب و المثقف و الإعلامي العراقي حاتم عبد الواحد الذي تنشر مقالاته في عدة مواقع الكترونية عراقية- مدونة ثائرة على الدين عموما و فيها أيضا قصص عن بعض المثقفين العراقيين
English:
Iraqi Translator blogs from Iraq where he works as a translator with the American troops, this is the first blog of its type, his English is far from perfect and hasn't blogged so far about anything important but he's bound to have some interesting stories to tell in the near future.

I also advice you to check the blog Najma added below, Mosul is in heart, it's occasionally funny, lively and has a lot of personal feel in it.

Also, a blog we counted as "stopped" has recently featured a new article, Abbas Kadhim [not me, a published Iraqi academic in America] writes about a Post-Surge Iraq.

New Blogs Added

In addition to Baghdad Dentist and Iraqi Psychatrist, I have added links to two other Iraqi blogs.

Iraqi Plume holds the title of the only Iraqi blog actively detested by blog darling Sunshine, who accuses her of plagiarism, there are some [huge] angles to this claim, but still, some rather wonderful things began through imitation, besides, the blogosphere could use a few cheery girls anyway.

Inside Iraq is a blog written by Iraqi journalists working in the McClatchy newspapers, it often contains some useful insights.

Iraqi Psychatrist - Colors of Mind

A friend of mine told me this story: When he was six years old, he couldn't sleep at night, his parents decided to let him visit a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist asked him questions and perscribed him medicine, I asked my friend if it did anything, and he said: Yes, I became able to sleep, but only because I didn't want to see the psychiatrist again.

This little anecdote describes the idea that Iraqis in general are skeptical about a person visiting shrinks, automatically associating them with lunacy, and this is why we have today a refreshingly different blog about an Iraqi psychiatrist who stirs up conversations about the origin of Iraqi cockroaches during a formal dinner, talks to dead idols while he's alone, and quite simply just about everything you'd expect from an Iraqi who decided to choose the quizzical career of a psychiatrist in a land where mental disease is associated with Djinn possession. Saminkie is an interesting fresh graduate living in Iraq, often trekking between Baghdad and Mosul. His blog focuses more on personal experiences than dredging political commentary, an essential attraction of blogs and a severely missing one in the Iraqi Blogosphere. While Saminkie often commits gramatical errors, his posts are genuinely worthy to read, if anything, it's because of his unusual profession, he introduces himself as:

Wellcome to my blog, it is about my interests which I think many share me: PSYCHIATRY comes first cause am a resident doctor in psychiatry hoping that I will be a specialist in 4 years; IRAQ HISTORY cause am iraqi and like history especially the summerian and babylonian era; and all the siences that are linked to both psychiatry and Iraq history and that will be a long list.....
well you gonna have nice time with my blog...

Baghdad Dentist

With a recommendation from one of my favourite bloggers, this blog certainly got my attention. Baghdad Dentist is, well, a dentist and he's from Baghdad - but he's working in Mosul. Only into his third post, his reports of the events around him and his life in Mosul makes unmissable reading. Here is his introduction in his own words...

I'm a dentist (fresh graduate). I lived my 23 years in baghdad and living the 24th in mosul. I moved to mosul temporarily since the beginning of violence and the deteriorated security situation.
I lived the best times in baghdad especially in baghdad college secondary school where I graduated from.
I have an obcession of electronics especially computers and communication staff, so I studied in an institute of electronics during summer holiday when I was 15. my big desire was to be an electronic engineer, but the temptation of being a dentist and keen on progress in electronics field (being creative in two fields at the same time) override.
And that is what im going to achieve, working now in a specialized dental centre as a rotator dentist and the rest of the day with computers especially in baghdad I began to make deals to fix used laptops but it’s a small business for the while time. As a rotator dentist im trying my best to get use of my seniors' experience and im planning to get the master degree this year.

Uncensored ArabWomanBlues

Layla Anwar of the blog An Arab Woman Blues can hardly be described as a shrinking violet - for example, here she is writing about Islamists:

I absolutely detest, abhor, despise, hate, the current Iraqi government. I hate the fucking mullahs. I hate Sistani, Maliki, Jaafari, Muqtada al Sadr, Al Hakeem and there rest of the smelly retards - all those sectarian Shia shits from Iran. I can’t stand Iran’s Ahmadinajad, Khomeini, Khatemi, Khameini...Kha, kha, kha, khara...(khara is shit in Arabic) I am totally allergic to the snake Nasrallah and his fucked up sectarian Hezbollah, who says one thing and does another.

But it does not stop there...

I am a fed up with the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, the Salafists, the Wahabists...

And I am talking here as a WOMAN. These bastards stand against everything women of my generation fought for.

Erm, yes, quite ... you get the point. So it may come as some surprise to know that she has come up with a new blog called "Uncensored Arab Woman Blues". After diatribes of the kind above, what on earth has she got left to censor???

If you think about it, the answer is blindingly obvious. In her new blog, the hard woman of Iraqi blogs lets out her soft soft squishy side. And Layla comes over as a complex, vulnerable, sensitive person that you really want to get to know. I am slowly becoming a fan. Here is her own introduction...

This is proving more difficult than I imagined.
It's as if there are certain "red lines," I am not supposed to cross, transgress.

On the one hand, I am probably expected to continue fighting the fight - for the most part alone. My other blog is completely devoted to Iraq, even though that was not my only intention. I guess starting this one is an attempt on my part to affirm my own territory, my own space...Only for me. Hence no remarks will be allowed.

The other thing that feels like a stumbling block and which am hoping to turn into a stepping stone - is that old voice in my head that keep repeating in an automated fashion "what will people say"

Again, it feels as if I have stumbled on some big taboo that I need to break down, or chisle away at, sculpt it and change its forms hoping that the final product, will be a piece of personal art.

Two Iraqi Bloggers Off The Market

Eerily in sync with this blog post about Iraqis marrying all over the uneasy piece in Iraq ; two Iraqi bloggers publish freakishly similar picture-posts announcing their engagement ; Marshmallow26 and Micho Meme, alif mabrook.





To top it off, Micho Memo had apparently engaged into the 'family', into a reclusive blogger called Lion King. who celebrated himself on his blog.

This Is Too Much

Anyone complaining about rising Islamist influence in Iraq hasn't seen Iraqi blogs, where the hell are the Islamic blogs? I can't think of any! On the other hand, this is the third atheist blog in a row.

Poor Iraqi is a half-Kurdish man writing from Erbil, he has only two posts so far and the last one is in October, which might mean he lost interest, but anyway, this is his introductory post:

اولا السلام على الجميع اعرفكم بنفسي انا عراقي من اب كوردي و ام عربية وفي الرابعة والثلاثون من عمري متزوج ولدي 2 من الاولاد اكملت الدراسة الثانوية الفرع الادبي ومن ثم اكملت سنتين في معهد المعلمين وحصلت شهادة الدبلوم في بغداد ومن ثم اكملت الخدمة العسكرية الاجبارية البالغة سنة ونصف ,احب القرأة كثيرا وبعد تعمقي بالديانة الاسلامية وتأثري بأصدقائي من المسلمين ذوي المذهب السلفي السني الوهابي واطلعت ايضا على باقي المذاهب الاسلامية والفلسفية وقرات عن علم الكلام في الثقافة الاسلامية دخلت في متاهه فكرية ضلت تراود فكري حول تناقضات الدين ,وبعد دخول الامريكان واسقاط نظام صدام واطلاعي على الانترنت الذي كان ممنوعا في العراق او مراقبا في احسن الاحوال نمت لي قناعة ترك الدين من خلال الافكار التي ترسخت لي وتلك الحقائق الدامغة على ضعف هذا التفكيرالقاصر اي التفكير الديني , فالدين عبارة عن حاجة نفسية للأطمنان الذاتي والاستقرار فهو باختصار صنع الانسان كما صنع الانسان القديم صنما من الطين ليعبده , فيما تطور العقل فصار هذا الاله لا يرى ولكن يحسب له الف حساب,انا اقتناعي ليس الحاديا بل اعتقد ان هناك مكونا ذكيا كون الوجود لكن ما هو لا احد يدري لا عبقري يجمع الناس من حوله ويقول ان رسول الاله قد نزل عليه ولا مسكين قد قال انا ابن هذا الله. والانسانية تنتظر الجواب وشكرا

And his other post lays down his supposed theory of superior intelligence of some races over others, citing the black man's lack of civilization as an example.

Peace Angel & A Free Man

Hey! I can't remember for the life of me when was the last time somebody updated this blog, it seems like the Iraqi blogodrome is experiencing a menstrual pause, for what it's worth, let's skip speculations and stick to indexing.

Perhaps one of the effects of a religious war of any sort is an angry Godless reaction, while infidel Iraqi bloggers have long been a fixation here, i mean, hey, the first Iraqi blogger was an atheist, but it was not until Iraqi Atheist came about that blogs began to emerge totally focused upon religion-bashing, and today we present to you Iraq The Land of Sand and Ash, this arabic-language blog is heavily inspired by perhaps the most well-known Arab atheist blogger, the Emirati Ben Kerishan, going as far as copying his paragraph-image-paragraph writing rhythm and his own distinct phrases and terms such as 'the Land of Sands', unfortunately, he doesn't seem to possess the same uncanny wit or depth of Kerishan, ending up like a secondhand copycat, he introduces himself as :

في اوائل العشرينيات من عمري تركت العراق,فاقدا كل امالي في ان اعود اليها يوما,القيت بشرا برمجت ادمغتهم بايديولوجيات و افكار رمليه تحدد نمط حياتها و تفكيرها,جاعلين لانفسهم اعداء وهميين وليس لهم اعداء اصلا,انتبهوا هم اعدائكم,و هم يكذبون عليكم

اين هي عقولكم يا امه الرمال؟؟؟

On a less reactionary note, Peace Earth is a friendly blog in its formative weeks, blogging in Arabic about such fundamental truths as friendship, peace, and understanding. on his/her (but more likely her) most recent post, the Angel ponders the relativistic nature of 'best':

هل تذكرون اقلام المدرسة عندما كانا واحدا اطول من الاخر ففي بعض الاحيان كنت افضل الاكبر لانه مريح في الكتابة وفي بعض الاحيان كنت امسك اصغر قلم لكي اتحداه باصابعي الصغيرة اننا نرى الافضل بنسبة احدهما بالاخر انها نظرية النسبية التي قال بها انشتاين في احد الايام و تمشي معنا طوال ايام حياتنا فنحكم على الاشياء والاحداث كما تعلمنا فتكون هنالك افضلية لما هو اكبر واجمل واغنى ليس هنالك مشكلة في هذا انه شيء نسبي وموجود كل شيء ياخذ حقه في هذا ولكن المشكلة عندما يوجد شخص يحاول ان يصبح الافضل بان يقمع غيره ويحبطه ولايتكلم الا عن اشياء سلبية قد لاتوجد في الاخرين في الواقع! انهم الضعاف في علم النفس تسمى هذه بالاسقاط بان يحاول الفرد يخفي عيوبه عن طريق القاءها على غيره انهم نماذج موجودة بكثرة من لايعرفون طرق النجاح ولكن وان اصبحوا ناجحين يوجد دائما من هم افضل منهم انهم في الواقع الاناس الطيبون الذين لايعتبرون ظهور البشر سلما لنجاحهم وسيبقون افضل من كل من سبق انهم اصحاب رسالات السلام...

الأديـــان مـن صـنـع الإنـسـان .. أثير العرا

Atheeriraqi has dedicated his blog to the promotion of atheism (in Arabic). What more is there to say? Well quite a lot actually. If you read Arabic or want to use Google's web page translator you can read his (very) detailed arguments. Atheer writes:

"The blog is about criticizing relegions, mostly Islam because I know more about it, but also something about christianity and judism, focusing on the conflict between science and the holy books, which proves definetly(from my point of view) that the religions are man-made not from the creator, the blog does not discuss about the existance of a God(although I am interested in) because I do not have yet a clear opinion about that, I think that the existance of a God is a very complicated issue."

Indigo-Daisy

I know I am stretching the definition of 'Iraqi' here, but Deborah Abdulla is married to an Iraqi and her children are half Iraqi. Anyway, its such a great blog that I will have to make her my honorary Iraqi for the week just to include it.

Indigo-Daisy is about poetry (her own and others), peace, recipes and fun. Here is a sample...

The laws of my soul

there are three major types of laws that people will follow,

the laws of the land,
the laws of the church,
and the laws of the soul

if there should come a time when they are not equal, and I must choose one over the other
I shall choose to follow my soul,
for I can step outside of the land and the church,
but I can not step outside my soul.

~Deborah Abdulla

LGBTQ of Iraq

LGBTQ of Iraq blogs in Arabic and, he assures me, soon, in English about Lesbian and Gay issues in Iraq. Lesbians and Gays are regularly singled out and targeted by the various armed groups in Iraq.

Most Iraqis of my father generation will make a face like they have seen something disgusting when you mentions gays. But even my father would point out that a delegation of gays from the UK visited Iraq in the 1930's because, at that time, gays had more rights in Iraq than they did in Britain. This is because what you did in the privacy of your own home in Iraq is treated as your own business and nobody else's. Now with the extremist militias running freely imposing there own perverse laws not even the home is safe. And rights for gays and lesbians has become an important issue. Simply because if don't care about this one then you will be next.

Armenian Issues

I read today one Iraqi football fan saying "Iraqi is like a bunch of flowers not a pie to be divided". And Ara Ashjian is one of those flowers, reporting from Baghdad on the travails of the Iraqi Armenian community. Read here to find links to all the Armenian blogger, the latest issues worrying the Armenian community in Iraq to the Iraqi Armenian who became a health minister in the UK!

Being, the oppressed

NOTE: Original post by Salam Adil restored after a little "Konfusion".

They say "If you go looking for trouble, you will find it". April Girls goes looking for beauty and finds it in abundance. She introduces herself as:

I believe in God, in humanity, in non-violent communication and in a global-unity-in-diversity that allows each and every culture its own specialness, while setting them all in the context of a universal care and fairness that honors the uniqueness of each.

And she takes a unique perspective on world events. Here she writes about the second bombing of the Samarra shrine:

There are 6,601,676,326 ways to God. (Right now.) That many ways to worship, to think, to talk, to act, to take in this world. Has that not been realized? So what is with all this 'holier than thou' attitudes running rampant? And on a universal level I have to add! What is going on? Do you not believe you are walking on the One True Path? Is that not enough? Does your path force you to hurt, rape, murder and destroy this planet?

More Blogs

1. Last of Iraqis: Iraqi dentist who is a relative of Zeyad, still living in Iraq, and that's a big plus. A solid blog with perhaps the best blog-coverage so far of the 2nd Askari incident, as well as an interesting video of Adhamiya. Blogs dilligently.
2. Kurdistan Diary: Okay, don't flame me for this but Kurdistan is still part of Iraq at least nominally so far, this one anyway has interesting stuff to say, starting with this unusual post about wanting to fight for the troublesome PKK.
3. Check out this another Kurdish blog from an engineer in Irbil, The World Has Another Face, however if he didn't say he is Kurdish you would hardly recognize it, filled with the same emotions and sentiments for Iraq as any other normal Iraqi, this blog is mostly poems written in Arabic, he has another blog, which is mentioned on his sidebar, which is filled with interesting pictures.

I also added the new blog URL for 3eeraqimedic, who deleted her blog on a panic moment but we managed to persuade her otherwise.