"Yes we are all finding our voices now, suddenly everyone has an opinion. Everyone thinks he/she should be involved. Talking to all the volunteers in the cities we’ve been to really gives you a push. There was an article before the war, I think by makiya but I am not sure, saying that Iraqis after all this time have been depoliticized. You wouldn’t think so after walking in the streets these days. The people we deal with are my age or younger, we are not apathetic about the politics of this country. The University of Baghdad will be a very interesting place to be in these days."~ Dear Raed.
The quote above is from a particularly lenghty entry that explores the involvement of the Iraqi youth in the midst of all the chaos that was bombarded on them. Infact, Dear Raed is a blog maintained by an Iraqi youth who documented the movement of the U.S. armies during the recent war against Saddam Hussain. The entries are interesting, and sometimes very solemn and moving.
A quick google search lets you know of the extreme popularity of this blogs activities. Given the depth and clarity of Salam's posting, it's hardly surprising that his blog built a huge fan following during the war. The reverence is flabbergasting. Some of the blogs that come across as die hard followers are:
Around March 24, 2004 the blog was rendered inactive because Baghdad lost power and the telephone lines were knocked out, which raised questions of the blog's legitimacy. I'm hard pressed to say that the blogger is/was genuine because BBC, one of my favorite news sites, published a celebratory article to announce his return from the "hiatus" (along with the other bloggers listed above).
If you haven't seen it, then I strongly recommend taking a look at the Dear Raed posts and archives. It's amazing how one blogger was able to provide the world with the progression of the war in real time from the eyes of a local.
Posted by NehaBawa at October 28, 2004 10:21 PM | TrackBack