Blogger picks up charcoal after visiting Al-Mutanabbe St.

More art, and another artist (sorry, that link's about a month old, but still a good story). Meanwhile art imitates life, Iraq's first post war soapie.

And one more (sorry, this is a bit of an old link too, from December last year) another artist inspired by Al-Mutanabbi St "I rushed to the used booksellers in al-Mutanabbi Street in the centre of Baghdad, who sell old books every Friday and I ..."

Freedom take 1.

Freedom take 2.

Ihath, is this a karaoke challenge or what? That is a bootkickin' hard act to follow...

Well, where i am winter is on its way around, so the earth is probably showing itself towards summer in Iraq. Long days to short and short to long, refreshing to think of an axis in terms of that spindle upon which our globe spins. I could lip-synch Stevie Wonders "world, keep on turning..." but am going to torture anyone reading with another Ben Harper song instead...

She's Only Happy in the Sun

I know you may not
want to see me
on your way down
from the clouds

Would you hear me
if i told you
that my heart is
with you now

She's only happy
in the sun
she's only happy
in the sun

Did you find
what you were after
the pain and the laughter
bought you to your knees

But if the sun
sets you free
sets you free
you'll be free indeed

She's only happy
in the sun
she's only happy
in the sun

Everytime i
hear you laughing
I hear you laughing
it makes me cry

Like the story
of life
of life
is hello goodbye

She's only happy
in the sun
she's only happy
in the sun

She's only happy
in the sun
she's only happy
in the sun

(actually, she is just as happy in the rain, when the seasons change).

Blogs on the move... Omar Masry can, for now, be found at Iraq 2.0 service will resume shortly.

Also, noticed these two links on Omars blog; A Force More Powerful - nonviolent power to change lives and nations, and; Bringing Down A Dictator - the removal of Slobodan Milosevic by nonviolent strategy.

While Omar plans to resume blogging, there are other Iraq blogs that are haunted by the date of their last post. Some bloggers may have just slipped away, returning to the mechanics of daily survival, the absence of others gives pause for thought. Now is a good time to mention them;

g. in Baghdad one of the first Iraq blogs. Last post Sept 20 2003
Ishtar Talking first bilingual Iraqi blog, blogged from Basra. Last post 2003 09
some of what i think about a soldiers blog, read his last post; Nov 5 2003
The Other Side - Joshua Kucera a freelance journalist who was based in Erbil, his editors demanded he stop posting to the site until the war ends. Either the war has not ended, or Joshua is posting somewhere else (can't find where, have searched a few times), or... well, who knows. Last post March 28 2003
Joshua Kucera Joshua posted articles here for a while. First post May 20 2003, last post June 30 2003.

Josh update; Joshua Kucera is well and working somewhere else in the world now.

Wires a lighting and sound installer, who went to Iraq to install lighting and sound in the Palestine Hotel. Now she is going to Amman.

Healing Iraq has a guest blog feature here.

BBC news hosts Mid East pen friends.

Raed in the Middle new blog...test, test, lost between the east and the west...

A Family in Baghdad - The war diary. Faiza, Wed 19 March 2003; It’s very quiet and silent outside, but I can feel the silence smiling and telling us “you’ll miss meâ€‌.

L'Oreal used to have this colour, Helsinki blonde, but now? The possibilities, I hardly can wait... Baghdad Beige...Burnt Basrah, Arbil Umber, Ramadi Red...

...moving on. To foodlinking; Delights from the Garden of Eden - A Cookbook and a History of the Iraqi Cuisine.

New Today: 2
Total: 38

ahlanwasahlan new blog, keep you eyes peeled right here for messages from Abu Hadi.

New today: 1
Total: 36

On this day in 2003

March 20 2003

On this day last year in the morning, before leaving home, I kneel in front of the radio before switching it off, as I hear that flights have left I try to mutter "you bastards" under my breath but instead my mouth stretches into an involuntary sob and tears take my face by surprise. I go to work feeling shattered. On this day last year everyone is quiet, but for the sound of news presenters and the silent patter of millions of hits on web news sites. Everyone, everywhere, in every country, city, town and offbeat track is waiting. Some are waiting for their cue. Demonstrations have been organised to synchronise with the day the first bombs fall on Iraq. In something of a ripple effect, a bomb drops on Baghdad and thousands of placards flap across the globe, like butterflies, like migratory birds preparing to take leave, an evacuation of the soul.

On this day last year rationality deserts us, all.

Radio in Iraq, about this time last year.

At some stage on this day last year I shuffle through old things, looking for a song, I find it Sinead Oconnors Drink before the War (ever noticed how everyone sings differently those lines "So stop, something something, something not gonna something"? Mine is; "So stop, you bastards are not goin' t' heaven") This time this year I dig out Ben Harper;

Ben Harper Amen Omen

What started as a whisper
slowly turned
into a scream
searching for an answer
where the question is unseen

I don't know where you came from
and I dont know where u'v gone
old friends become old strangers
between the darkness and the dawn

Amen omen
will I see your face again
amen omen
can I find the place within
to live, my life
without you

I still hear you saying
all of life, it is chance
and is sweetest, is sweetest, when at a glance
but I live
I live a hundred, a hundred lifetimes in a day
but I die a little
in every breath that I take

Amen omen
will I see your face again
amen omen
can I find the place within
to live my life
without you

I listen to a whisper
slowly drift away
silence is the loudest, parting word, you never say
I put, I put your world
into my veins
and now a voiceless sympathy is all that remains

Amen omen
will I see your face again
amen omen
can I find the place within
to live my life, without you

Amen omen
will I see your face again
amen omen
can I see your face again
amen omen
can I find the strength
to live, my life

On this day in 2003

March 19 2003

President George Bush II addresses the nation, again.

Incidentally, found this by chance, The Collective Shadow in War: Gulf War I it was published Jan 02 2002. It need not even apply necessarily to Gulf Wars, in fact the collective shadow need almost necessarily apply to any group, even those you might think it least likely to.

On this day in 2003

March 18 2003

Weapons inspectors are pulled out of Iraq, Saddam makes a last-minute bid to avert war, admitting that Iraq had once possessed weapons of mass destruction to defend itself from Iran and Israel - but insisting that it no longer has them. Some journalists head out of Iraq towards Jordan while others remain. The media gears up.
Two peace activists target a B52 in RAF Fairford. They were stopped after attaching photographic images of ordinary Iraqi people labeled collateral damage? to the fence, planting white poppies, a symbol of peace and sowing seeds to represent life.

At dawn in a largely deserted oceanic former penal colony, two friends climb to the top of a national icon. Normally the small, dry, continents politicians would leap at an opportunity to exult such patriotic, endearing, qualities as mateship and larrikinisim. On this day last year there are no ministerial belly laughs. National security has been breached by little more then an exterior decorators instinct and the tools of the home improvement trade, paint rollers and an operatic rouge.

On this day in 2003

March 17 2003

US, Britain and Spain abandon resolution. On this day last year i am weary. I stare at the ceiling and wonder if it is worth getting up. Iraq braces itself. The world braces itself. I remember people staring listlessly at news stands, public transport is very quiet, only the clatter of heels on peak hour station platforms, a glazed and news fatigued population on its way to work. The day the UN resolution is abandoned a stealthy silence falls, an unreality bomb drops on the western world. Most of us become small mammalian creatures scuttling towards our small securities, our burrows. On this day last year, in a southern hemisphere city.

On this day in 2003

March 16 2003

Spanish premier Jose Maria Aznar has said that a war in Iraq would be legal. The US president, George Bush, said what he thought too. In Memoriam, this day in 1998. On this day last year, a baby girl is born. A mother thinks of naming her Nouria.

On the eve of death, life. At the close, dawn draws dusk behind it, a shroud without sentience. The sun unforgiving, the moon impartial. Life taken, life given, in vane.

On this day in 2003

March 15 2003

Coalition drops nearly a million leaflets. See leaflets. Some of the leaflets contain messages "used to inform Iraqi people about United Nations Security Council resolutions".
Barely a day before the leaflet drop, Bush prepares to meet with two allies "in a last-minute attempt to head off what looks to be an embarrassing defeat at the United Nations for the resolution backed by the U.S., Britain and Spain which would authorize war on Iraq."

Was that, like, pre-emptive, pre-meditative, pre-sumptuous, or just pre-posterous?

A cloaked visitor has left a cryptic message in the shoutbox... i think they are pointing to Betool Khedairi's feature in the Jordan times. Find out more about Betool Khedairi.

This might be just a little blog, but hey - its valued at 3,456.35 pretend B$, ok so its time to sell, though things are looking steady after the initial spike, quiet consistent really, a bit like snail racing.

Just discovered the blog count is on the Blogshares index. This is kind of like finding out somebody has been holding an auction for your bedsit or placing bets on the colour of your underwear. Could your blog be listed? Decadent, and yes you can afford it anyone can play blogshares for free.

Iraq The Model, which dedicates itself to publishing new points of view about the future of Iraq, has published a sobering post exploring that issue close to all our hearts - the future of the earth. A luxury that we cannot afford Ali talks about the development of nuclear weapons, noting that in chess: making...the safest move is the shortest way to lose.

Mindful that the analogy to a game of chess is an uncomfortable one, what then is the riskiest move? In chess the object is to capture an opponents most powerful piece, the ideal outcome checkmate rather then stalemate. In our world none of us desire to be either wiped off the board nor suspended in limbo, and some of us seek a solution whereby all chess pieces remain free and on board - in essence an entirely new game. Apart from the implications of such an analogy perhaps the riskiest move, where nuclear arms are concerned, would be for every country to stop pursuing nuclear war technology and to dismantle all the nuclear arms that they already possess. This is extremely risky for all countries involved because each is afraid that nobody else is brave enough to follow suit and some even argue that they do not know how to safely undo what they have done.

If this move could be achieved, it would be the best move humanity has ever made in declaring trust and peace in one another. It will be a long time before people will trust each other enough to do this, but it is inevitable if not in our lifetime. If we do not make this move the risk of nuclear accident can only increase. Whether these weapons are ever deployed intentionally or not, the production of arms is a form of calculated madness and we can not expect madness to always be able to contain itself.

Feeling down? Feeling Blue? Low? Need sumpink 2 pep u up? ... Ihath is selling Miracle Pills, yes gentle readers, these are totally legal and guaranteed to improve your, urm, all areas of your life. Now pop along to Ihaths quickly and read more about it (she even comes out with sordid details of shady past as closet tv watcher).

Now that you have your miracle pills what else could you be needing? Perhaps you have been thinking of learning an Arabic phrase or two? Well lucky you, Faiza is here with Faiza Teaches You Arabic yalla, go see Faiza now.

Maa’ Assalama


New Today: 1
Total: 35

Trying out a feature provided by blogrolling. If you scroll all the way down the bottom of the sidebar (all the way down the very bottom, past the babble fish and the very quiet shoutbox) you will see the new blogrolling-powered-links, which are essentially all the blogs that have been linked here so far. The ones that have been published in the last 48 hours will have a small orange piece of text saying new post beneath them.

Objective; to help read through every single blog all the time to see if there are any new posts/more new Iraq blogs.

Update: well the "new post" text worked in orange when i tested it, but now it seems to be showing up in black (which isn't so readable against dark blue, damnit, does that mean the colour scheme has to change all over again? and just when the decore was looking so optimistic)

Later update: after blogrolling links have been visited they turn orange and indigo, groovy hey (go on, click one, u know u want to try it) yalla, stop fiddling now (that is, i must stop fiddling now).

Iraq Blog Count has been quoted by Glen at A Brooklyn Bridge who has this other neat little quote on his site ~ "If I can't dance, I don't want to be part of your revolution. -- Emma Goldman"

Anyway, as i said to Glen, speaking definitively, Emigre is neither Iraqi nor male, Emigre is an alias, and its wearer only human (although flattered by mistaken identity, I wouldn't want to mislead anyone).

Blogalization something interesting and vaguelykindofsortoflosely related.

Another new blog from the Torso Blogist Iraqi Expatriot Talking this time Blogist blogs in english, from Sweden (the third largest Iraqi exile colony in the world - learn somethink nu everyday hey). Smart looking blog too. Think Blogist is worth keeping an eye on. Maybe s/he will start blogging in Arabic/Persian/Turkish next?

New Today: 1
Total: 34