Carnival of the relatives

First, dad:

• News from the city of Buhrez.
• Bad days.
• Update.

Then Hassan:

• A come back.
• Electricity Vs Water.
• Let's talk about the National Guards.

Me:

• My very first letter.
• Surprise!
• What's happening?
• The days of our life.
• Mad Canuck.
• What's happening?
• Posting a photo.
• What's happening?

Kais (Yes, I was surprised myself to see him posting!):

• New news.
• My school.
• After holiday.
• Golden sun.

HNK:

• My blog.
• I am blind, I can't see the truth.
• What happened to my mind?
• Still alive.
• It's Iraqis life, it's my life.

Dalia:

• Bye.. I'll travel.

Raghda:

• White cat.
• Cat.

And finally Sunshine:

• Sad sunshine.
• At home again.
• Weddings.
• Photo.
• Summer holiday.
• My lovely vase.

Also, you might want to see this:

• Patriot Daily.
• Today in Iraq.

NEW ! More ! Another Blog !

أنا أسترالي

New: 1
Total: 135

Now please someone explain to me why people apologise for blogging in Arabic - I've seen it right across the board. From the Co-alition sympathiser to the no-war aesthete. "Dear .... I am sorry, this blog is in Arabic". Que?

I mean, isn't apologising something someone does after spilling coffee over someone else's keyboard, or treading on someone's toes, or while wringing hands in the defendants box for crimes against humanity? Isn't it something human resources contorts itself with during redundacy payout meetings: "I am sorry, we did it for your/our own good"? Isn't "sorry" something an autocracy says when it finally comes to terms with it's predecessors burdens, it's stolen generations, it's incarcerations and stripping bare the globe of all diversities - isn't it something a logger says after a slow and late dawning as he wakens in the silence following the cut-off shriek of his chain blade to find the last tree at his feet. A gesture in futility. "I am sorry, I cannot help". A word that heals so little when uttered in vain and means so much when spoken with honesty.

Isn't it, the hardest word?

Why then do people apologise just because a blogger chooses a different text. Like half the english speaking world even understands blogs written in "english". Why apologise for another reader's shortfalling? Besides, a determined monolinguist will probably just go find a translation tool.

God I go on don't I. Sorry.

New blog !

Sooni; expressing himself.

Little is known about Sooni at this point, except to speculate he has been extending advances in perhaps ill-concealed (although honourable?) plot to stem brain-drain and "re-patriate" potential-ex-Canadians.

As always, reserving judgement (in so far as can be expected).

New: 1
Total: 134

Link Credit: ihath.
Originality quotant: trolls Arabic blogs in English.
Concensus: welcome as usual.

Added to the sidebar

A writer of a blog (The daily Iraqi Cheese Grader) wrote asking me to add him to the link.. While looking at the template for the (Gone to Iraq to work) category, I got lost among the too many links here..

I thought I'd say that I've added him to the sidebar here as I think you wouldn't notice till a long time to come if I haven't.

Najma
PS: Nabil is finally done.. He's FREE!

New Blog !!! 133 !!!

Yet another fantastic blog. Wafaa' Al-Natheema (great name).

New; 1
Total; 133

Blog survey invites you...

The MIT media lab (MIT) sent an invite to "an important academic study regarding weblogs". Seeing as this weblog belongs to a number of people, it's visitors as much as anyone, am posting up the invite here for anyone who's interested (not intending sabotage of MIT's sample, but bloggers like to share things).

Hi there,

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is conducting an important academic study regarding weblogs. We are investigating the role of weblogs in the lives of their authors. Does your weblog make you more connected to the rest of society? Does it increase your chances of getting a job or finding information that you are looking for? To answer these questions, which are very important to our research, we ask for your help.

Your weblog has been randomly selected as part of a small group among millions to represent the entire community of weblog authors. We obtained this email address from what we assume is your weblog:

http://iraqblogcount.blogspot.com

If this is NOT your weblog, we would appreciate it if you could tell us by clicking on this link:

http://blogsurvey.media.mit.edu/optout (NA - this is all of our weblog.)

This is not a commercial marketing survey, but scholarly research to be used in academic publications such as journals, conferences and books. By participating in this study you will be assisting scientific research and contributing to a better understanding of how weblogs are influencing people's lives. We would like you to please fill out our short survey (about 15 minutes or less, on average).

To take the survey, either follow this link:

At this point the email gives a link and login key - but it only looks like one person can use it. I went to their info site and read more. It says "Everyone who maintains a weblog is welcome (and encouraged) to take the survey... Your responses are extremely important to us, and we thank you greatly for your time!" There's a consent form here and you can request a survey login key here.

Your help is greatly appreciated. If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to contact me, or consult the link at the end of this email.

Yours Sincerely,
Cameron Marlow
MIT Media Laboratory

http://blogsurvey.media.mit.edu/help

Iraq Blog Count randomly selected? Well, perhaps. Oddly, I found the exact same MIT Weblog survey Information at http://www.radiovoxpopuli.org/help as well. Here's some other bloggers who've been randomly selected;

blog quebecois
proxientunit
Multiblog

And lastly but maybe most interestingly, a worthwhile reading bit by Fernanda B. Viegas, Media Lab MIT.

Blogger's job board

I’ve been knocking this idea around in my head for a while…

What if companies could post online jobs that were specifically open to Iraqi bloggers . Not that only bloggers would be considered, of course, but ones where they would really appreciate having a blogger be hired. And where bloggers could respond to those offerings?
The reason I ask, is that I’ve been watching Iraqi's bloggers , they were all independant
without any financial support , risking their lives and families , most of them were trying to gave help to their people , many of them are students without any income , paying high fees for private internet connection.
I guess this idea would be acceptable by majority of Iraqi bloggers.
Please respond to this blog about you thoughts ,and suggestions that help .Good luck.

Held Hostage!

Nabil imprisoned! Locked in a small dark room for weeks on end! Forced to recite corruptive text!

"I am dying"

- Nabil

(He is studying).

In the middle of the middle...

Jordan blogs, just for a change.

Update! How coincidence! Raed just posted about Jordanian street vendors and feminine emancipation.

Carnival of the relatives

First dad's posts, from both his and the family's blogs:

• Suicide bombs.
• Picture of the old city Mosul.
• Another old picture of Mosul.
• Jack Kemp, Jimmy Carter & Saddam Hussein.
• The bent Minaret.
• Ancient Iraqi civilization.
• Moslawi news.
• Tikrit news.

My posts, from both the family's and my blogs:

• What's happening?.
• What's happening: on private lessons?.
• Web pages from people in the middle east.
• Strawberryfields: Leaving home, going home.
• A glimpse of Iraq.
• Forcing myself to post.. Will it work?.
• Who are the Iraqis?.
• You don't have to give up the day job.

HNK's posts:

• I am what I am Mr.Anonymous.
• What's happening!.
• Days of my holiday.
• Days come, days go.
• Hi and welcome.
• Yahoooo. Don't worry, I am happy now.
• I am 16.
• Thank you.
• Hi all.
• Yes, I am blaming again.
• Water!.

Dalia's posts:

• Palms (Iraq/Basra).
• The marshes of southern Iraq.
• Funny picture.
• Flowers from our garden.

Sunshine's posts:

• My diary for the last two days.
• I am in Baghdad.

Phew, finished.. This took much time to write! I guess this is the punishment for not posting it before!

Riverbend Razz's Friedman

Thank goodness, for to the point plain speaking;

This isn't about Sunnis and Shia or Arabs and Kurds. It's about an occupation and about people feeling that they do not have real representation. We have a government that needs to hide behind kilometers of barbed wire and meters and meters of concrete- and it's not because they are Shia or Kurdish or Sunni Arab- it's because they blatantly supported, and continue to support, an occupation that has led to death and chaos. Read whole thing. And then read some more.

Behind the more tag

Finally got around to looking at a "more" tag option. Are a few blogger modifications out there, settled for this one.

What this means; can post screeds and screeds of related "filler" stuff to pad out the gaps between linking (rare) blogs.

The beauty of the more tag; you can post whatever you damn well like and then shield it all with a link, so obnoxious and lazy passers-by who can't lift an index finger to click "read more" are self-screened by their own volition. And voila, blog is left with discerning and agile readers such as yourselves who have bothered to check out what is going on "behind the scenes".

Tricksy huh. Well anyway, let's see if it works.

Was wondering about turning off the anonymous commenter option too, because basically only one person seems to use it - some guy called "anonymous" who is wasting his time pretending to be one thing and then the other when he could be feeding starving children or simply saying no to war (which is what he really means to say but doesn't know how to without being a charlatan).

Well, looks like I just convinced myself to turn off the anonymous option then. Any complaints - send to emigre.

It's ok, you can still comment without anyone knowing your particulars. Just make up a name, like anonymous does the rest of the time. (Oh hear him, merrily crowing over how successfully he ruined everything for the honest anonymous by constantly speaking in the same tone of voice from both sides of his mouth. Hear him crow, while we loosen his saddle belt and he slips off the mount, his sermon flapping in the breeze, a cracked and sweat stained harness). Goodbye anonymous, your baiting days are done. The cavalry have shot themselves in the foot. Long live the end of war.

If anyone else who posts to this blog wants the anonymous option back, alright then, we can.

Until the end of time...

Saddam to be tried for "the killing of tens of thousands" who "rose up against him in 1991". Good. Next can we trial Bush (plural) please, for "the killing of tens of thousands" who have "risen up against him (plural)". It shouldn't take long to whip up some kind of a case, if Saddam's trial is any indication.

Saddam Hussein could face up to 500 charges, but he will be tried on only 12 "thoroughly documented" counts because prosecuting him on all would be a "waste of time", the Iraqi government said. more

Maybe the war crimes Saddam/Bush/Abu Ghraib echo is putting a hold on the 500 other charges Saddam could be tried for. Maybe, if Saddam gets an easy trial then Bush and Co'd have an easy deal too. Wouldn't you think. If they get nabbed that is (don't worry 'bout trialing J Howard, his badly woven raft of platitudes is unraveling at the rate of knots an Orca wouldn't outswim. I expect we'll have him doing a concilatory spell in detention 'no time at all. Soon. Er or later. Blair wouldn't look bad in a neighbouring re-educative cell either).

War maketh the dictator.

Drawn out Doug hostage saga update - what we hear in Aus.

Sheik Taj el-Din al Hilaly made contact with Doug's captors when no other official could, passed on medication (for Doug's heart condition) when no other official could and even met up with Doug "eye to eye", when no other official could.

And this is what Alexander Downer has doesn't have to say;

Alexander Downer, would not comment on Sheik al Hilaly's claim that he had seen Mr Wood, except to say the mufti was making a good contribution. more.

"Making a good contribution" ? Come off it Downer, this isn't a charity event at your local school fete, if we were going to make analogies like that, Sheik Hilaly has baked more scones then you ever could.

Meanwhile, Kevin Rudd tries to wheel mileage out of Sheik Hilaly's lines for Kevin Rudd's own political gain.

Labor's (Australian) foreign affairs spokesman, Kevin Rudd, called for public comment to be restrained.

Give it a break Rudd, it was funny when Sheik Hilaly told Downer to can it - it is not funny when you tell "the people" to can it.

Why Keven Rudd calls for restraint on public comment;

"because this is an ongoing challenge for the Government".

An "ongoing challenge for the Government"? What. Has. The Government done. Zilch. The only challenge for the government (plural) is saving face. What's left of it anyway (go back and hassle Vanstone about immigration, Rudd, if you want to appear effectual).

Blogcount update

The Blog Herald counts over 60 million blogs worldwide for May.

The Blog Herald hazards a guess there are approx 100,000 blogs in the mid east. They even quoted Iraq Blog Count numbers, almost (thankyou note to Blog Herald - if you are reading, 132 blogs have been counted here. Not to say it won't reach 151 one day. To be less tactful. Not 151 yet. Being as interested in accuracy as most other bloggers are. That still sounds a bit nebulous doesn't it, oh well).

Arabblogcount has linked 200.

The wiki estimates there are 65,000 active Iranian weblogs in persian (out of 2,000,000) although their source link, blogcensus, was busted when I tried visiting it.

And Blogcount.com suggests measuring overlap.

"nuff counting now, see you later when have (another) moment to drop by.

'nother new blog

Dear Baghdad - letters to Baghdad, from Vahal.

As always, emigre does not endorse or verify (she just counts and is distracted by flippancy).

New; 1
Total; 132

Has it been that long already?

hnk - happy bithday.

What kind of gift to give a blogger? A random poem? Hmm, choosing poems completely at random...

In the light of the silent stars that shine on the struggling sea,
In the weary cry of the wind and the whisper of flower and tree,
Under the breath of laughter, deep in the tide of tears,
I hear the Loom of the Weaver that weaves the Web of Years.

~ Alfred Noyes

oh, oh, and this one;

This is just to say

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

~ William Carlos Williams

And this !

At the Window

I have not always had this certainty, this pessimism which reassures the best among us. There was a time when my friends laughed at me. I was not the master of my words. A certain indifference, I have not always known well what I wanted to say, but most often it was because I had nothing to say. The necessity of speaking and the desire not to be heard. My life hanging only by a thread.

There was a time when I seemed to understand nothing. My chains floated on the water.

All my desires are born of my dreams. And I have proven my love with words. To what fantastic creatures have I entrusted myself, in what dolorous and ravishing world has my imagination enclosed me? I am sure of having been loved in the most mysterious of domains, my own. The language of my love does not belong to human language, my human body does not touch the flesh of my love. My amorous imagination has always been constant and high enough so that nothing could attempt to convince me of error.

~ Paul Eluard

I should stop. But not before linking to the Dylan Thomas random poem generator, click at own peril... anyway, have a great birthday.