The clever, palendromic Raed, looking for a little peace in Baghdad, or wherever. This from MSNBC.com's Weblog Central:
Weblog centralMarch 19, 2003 / 1:34 PM ET
LIVE FROM BAGHDAD
For the almost uninterrupted glut of war coverage flowing from the media, none of it has captured the humanity and the practical reality of the Iraqi citizenry like the Where is Raed? Weblog. (Technical note: reaching this blog has been hit and miss this afternoon as U.S. troops move toward war on Iraq.)
Ostensibly based in Baghdad, Where is Raed? is written by a person blogging under the pseudonym of Salam Pax, a tech-savvy Iraqi whose mastery of English provides for vivid descriptions, cutting wit, and thoughtful commentary. In the past there has been some discussion of the veracity of the writer’s claims, but those appear to have been resolved, with several bloggers offering testimony to Salam’s authenticity —and frankly, the more you read, the less doubt there seems to be.
The back story of the “Where is Raed” Weblog is difficult to discern. Salam presents himself as an architectural engineer of some kind, and Raed is his friend. At this point, autobiographical explanations are distinctly avoided in the uncertain environment of Saddam Hussein’s regime, as they can mean the end of the blog, not to mention the end of Salam. Readers across the blogosphere held their collective breath last December, when Salam’s public profile rose too high (the result of being featured in a Reuters news article) and he closed down the blog for a while out of fear of being discovered by Iraqi officials.
Ultimately, Salam’s personal details are less important than his situation as American forces advance across the desert. He describes life under the gun in such compelling detail that mainstream media reports pale by comparison.
Take, for example, this description by veteran war correspondent Peter Arnett to NBC’s Tom Brokaw Tuesday night:
“There was a run on supplies of food, a run on supplies of gasoline, businessmen boarding up their shops. They know it’s going to happen, Tom, and they’re just preparing as best they can for the action.”
Now Salam’s words on the same scene:
“Wherever you go you see closed shops and it is not just doors-locked closed but sheet-metal-welded-on-the-front closed, windows-removed-and-built-with-bricks closed, doors were being welded shut. There were trucks loaded with all sort of stuff being taken from the shops to wherever their owner had a secure place. Houses which are still being built are having huge walls erected in front of them with no doors, to make sure they don’t get used as barracks I guess.”
Once you become familiar with Salam’s writing style and his ability to bring readers into the lives of the residents of Baghdad, you find yourself waiting all day for Salam to post to give the latest inside scoop on what it’s really like.
Where else can you learn about the war songs being played on Iraqi radio and what they mean to the natives who hear them over and over — and find themselves singing along in spite of themselves?
Where else can you learn about the fluctuations in the value of the dinar, the Iraqi currency, and what it means to the quality of life to the people who have to spend it to get what they need to live and survive an attack by the United States
For all the sunburned TV correspondents reporting in front of tank-dotted desert backdrops with the wail of Muslim prayers in the background, how many, like Salan, can smell the air and know a sandstorm is coming?
While it’s never a good idea to believe rumors you hear, especially on the Internet, this Weblog does say something about the culture from which it comes. Where else do you find out what the rumors are on the Iraqi street? Did you hear the one about the trenches filled oil to be set on fire to disrupt the laser guidance on U.S. weapons? Did you hear the one about Saddam’s brother trying to talk him into leaving — and consequently being put under house arrest in a building likely to be a U.S. target?
And the blog itself is only half the story. Where conventional news reports would end once the correspondent has said his piece, Salam’s readers can respond to what he writes. Of course, conventional media is more technically sound, and even as I write this, the feedback function for the “Where is Raed” Weblog appears to be on the fritz. For the most part, the comments, when they are accessible, maintain this Weblog’s established standards for depth and sensitivity.
When Salam explains that Iraq has cut off his access to the Google search engine, readers offer alternatives. In a humorous follow-up, Salam used Dogpile to become the office hero as the only person in his office able to find out who Barbara Bodine is after word spread that she would be the new U.S.-appointed administrator of a region of Iraq including Baghdad.
As Salam explains that the hottest item in Baghdad right now is a face mask to filter out smoke, dust, and other airborne hazards of the coming violence, his readers offer tips on how to make the masks more effective. Some offer to send him more. The second hottest item in Baghdad? Earplugs.
When Salam tells of how he has to bury his stash of fuel in the yard so that it doesn’t end up blowing up his house if an American bomb lands too close, readers offer tips on how deep to bury it and other advice on how to protect his equipment from the rumored U.S. “e-bombs,” designed to short out Iraqi defense electronics. They offer helpful hints on how to clean the makeshift face mask he’ll use to filter out the smoke from possible oil fires in his area.
Interestingly, Salam’s post in the wake of the Bush ultimatum had nothing to do with the countdown to war. We already know that while this blogger supports the idea of democracy in Iraq, he does not favor war as a means of achieving that end. Instead, Salam gives us a tour of Baghdad using a satellite photo. One of the more amazing revelations is that the photo is allowing Salam to see behind the walls of a presidential palace for the first time.
As I post this, President Bush’s 48-hour deadline has dwindled to the single digits. The blogosphere anxiously awaits further news from the last Weblogger in Baghdad.
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