Where is Raed ?

2009-01-09T20:28:00.001+03:00

Collected Salam Pax blogs and new blog on my wordpress blog: Salam Pax

2004-08-18T11:24:00.000+04:00

2004-04-10T02:16:00.000+04:00

I think Hiatus is the word. Thank you very much ladies and gentlemen.

2004-04-06T16:04:00.000+04:00

Remember the days when every time you hear an Iraqi talk on TV you had to remember that they are talking with a Mukhabarat minder looking at them noting every word? We are back to that place. You have to be careful about what you say about al-Sadir. Their hands reach every where and you don't want to be on their shit list. Every body, even the GC is very careful how they formulate their

2004-03-23T21:13:00.000+03:00

just a couple of posts long but already sounding like a winner And then do you know what Fiona Katie did next??? Fired an AK47! Yes, the very first thing I did in Baghdad, just moments after I got out of the vehicle, I borrowed an AK47 from an Iraqi and fired it (into the air). it is a bout a girl with a tool kit in Iraq apparently. This is why I love blogs, a million times better than

2004-03-20T20:01:00.000+03:00

and another public announcement we have finished cutting the Karbala film. It is 13 minutes and 38 seconds long and I am very happy with the result. it should go on air either the 24th or the 25th on Newsnight. It is really good and if you have a chance to see Newsnight you should take a look. I am very glad that I had a chance to see the Ashour thing and to be able to film it as well. It is not

2004-03-16T22:40:00.000+03:00

I am still alive. I have just been given a 10 minute breather from the small dark room I sit in to script and edit the films for Newsnight. The first one, about the one year anniversary not Karbala, will go out tonight. check the Newsnight website to see if they put a version online. What you can go check out now is a very interesting poll (PDF file). Look thru it, I think it will give you a very

2004-03-06T01:00:00.000+03:00

I am sorry, please accept my apologies for not updating. My mind doesn't seem to be able to multi-task any more, I am in filming mode, and with a certain person here with a whip in her hand, I can't even get a chance to check my emails. Karbala was one of these things I will never ever forget in my whole life, I don't care what you think of the rituals that are practiced, the fact is that the

2004-03-03T01:05:00.000+03:00

salam i was trying to call your phones all the day long, i hope u didnt die in the karbala explosions I'm coming back to baghdad next week

2004-02-25T02:53:00.000+03:00

ummm.......we have Arabic [Big Brother] now. The plot to make the whole world eat and watch the same things is going pretty well, don't you think?

2004-02-25T01:23:00.000+03:00

Raed you should have been here today, how could miss out Ashura? Well, you still have 5 more days to get your ass back to Iraq and in Karbala, We are approaching a very important date in the Shia calendar; this is something that has not been publicly commemorated for the last 25 years. Today is the third day in Muharam, in 7 more days the Shia Imam (saint?) al-Hussain will be killed in a

2004-02-21T19:36:00.000+03:00

I am concentrating all my efforts on growing a beard these days. I read on a web site somewhere that if I sit in total darkness with little balls made of aluminium foil stuck in my ears it will grow faster. I have been giving it a try for a week now, it is not working. I sit in front of the mirror for hours willing my beard to grow. Happy Islamic New Year Y'all Now, go easy with that

2004-02-12T18:42:00.000+03:00

The first time I got an email from an American soldier in Iraq I wasn’t sure how to react. These days I read a couple of US soldier blogs and a couple even send me emails every now and then. I was answering one of them from [Mr. Somewhere-in-the-north-of-Iraq] when I decided later to post it on the blog. So here it is. And on a more personal note; No [Mr. Somewhere-in-the-north-of-Iraq], it doesn

2004-02-10T15:54:00.000+03:00

The Wise Oracle of Gotham asks:"Mister President, can you give us the names of three National Guard Service colleagues who served with you between May 1972 and October 1973?" She would have also liked to ask whether he has ever snorted coke? Blame her for making me think that Kerry might be able to be the superhero who will save the universe. I do think Iraqis should worry about the

2004-02-10T15:15:00.000+03:00

You live in this place for most of your life and you think you know most of the religious festivals and traditions in your country, right? Wrong. I walked thru Karada street last night only to be surprised by men standing in the middle of an intersection giving away sweets and candy to people in cars and a couple of kids with what was supposed to be fireworks. Karada (which is a predominantly

2004-02-09T04:16:00.000+03:00

Shamless self promotion. The coolest cover the of the book has to be the Japanese edition and a Polish blogger told me about a site that sells the Polish edition. Update: A reader from Brazil sent me a link to a sitr selling the Brazillian edition, they seem to have chosen a starnge format.

2004-02-07T05:04:00.000+03:00

Yesterday was Raed's birthday, did you wish him a good one? I bet you didn't, shame on you.

2004-02-07T04:52:00.000+03:00

The plan was to spend 5 days in Sulaimaniya, cousins 4 and 5, my brother and I. To go to the north of Iraq for Eid, but at the first day of Eid we saw those horrible attacks in Erbil and decided it would probably be better not to go. The plan was to go there take pictures and blog, well the plan fell flat on its face and I will have to do this from my bedroom in Baghdad. I have a confession to

2004-02-07T03:15:00.000+03:00

A couple of months after the war ended the US army started blowing up UXO’s (unexploded ordinance – it took me forever to figure out what those three letters meant). They issued a warning saying that explosions on the top or half hour were controlled explosions. Just so that we wouldn’t freak out. Almost half a year later I still look at my watch every time I hear an explosion. I noticed my

2004-02-07T03:07:00.000+03:00

It all becomes a mess the moment the poor traffic policeman decides to take a break, one of the main features of post-war Baghdad are the amazing traffic jams. The cool thing is the moment it gets too crazy someone will jump out of his car and do the policman thing, waving his arms around and shouting, or the newspaper guy will volunteer.

2004-02-07T02:47:00.000+03:00

In a simple small room with blue mattresses laid on the floor to sit on, Ayatollah Sistani, one of his sons and an assistant met a group of Sunni university professors, tribe leaders and dignitaries. During the 3 hour meeting not one single verse from the Quran was recited, he expressed his fear that federalism might lead to the fragmentation of Iraq and said that if the elections had to be

2004-01-28T00:50:00.000+03:00

It transmits on 107,7 FM in Baghdad, which really is at the end of the frequency range of most radios, some don’t even go that far. The station-breaks on it have people sounding like the Simpsons saying things like “I haven’t had so much fun since Afghanistan” – this is such bad taste, it’s hilarious. The DJ’s call each other Sergeant So-and-so, which freaks you out the first time you hear it, I

2004-01-26T02:54:00.000+03:00

Start your week with THE WACKY IRAQI. well it is the middle of the week for us here, it doesn't make a difference for him he is still wacky.

2004-01-25T01:10:00.000+03:00

Long post alert, you will not be quizzed on it and there are no prizes for reading the whole thing. I just had to get all this off my chest Salam Pax: The Clandestine Diary of an Ordinary Iraqi Don’t you just hate that title? To start with I would never use a word like clandestine, and what is wrong with [Salam Pax: The Baghdad Blog]? It gets worse, the German title is [Let’s Get Bombed

2004-01-24T16:43:00.000+03:00

Tell you a little secret: A lot of issues can be solved using the following ingredients: - Chocolates (something nice, like a packet of maltesers) - A little Poem (stolen from someone who can use words much better than you) - Copy of Newsweek (latest issue) well the last item is optional. Yes he is OK, and will go to Amman for a week with his brother he changed his mind, he will stay for

2004-01-23T01:08:00.000+03:00

So do I at least be the first on-blog break up? No. it is not funny. Raed?......... Raaaaed?.................. I stood at your door for an hour, I knew you were inside, but you wouldn't open. do we have t do this in public? answer my emails at least.

2004-01-22T20:08:00.000+03:00

It was a special day. Here I am, drinking vodka alone at 3 in the morning, in the house of my family. One year ago I was staying in Amman, waiting for my visa to go to Saudi Arabia to marry my first love and ex-fiancé, I was finishing my studies for Masters Degree, and I was working as an architect in a small engineering office. I will not exaggerate and pretend this is my first jump

2004-01-21T21:13:00.000+03:00

Iraqia (the Iraqi Media Network TV) made a very strange decision tonight; it is right now showing the full state of the union speech. And they are going to have a panel discussion about it later on as well. Does this make us the 51st state? Does it? Eh? Does it, does it? Do we at least get effort marks for that? Dear editors at Iraqia, the state of the union speech is a news ITEM, an important

2004-01-21T16:03:00.000+03:00

Saddam's two older daughter are looking for a country other than Jordan to host them. link to article in al-sabah, Arabic.ÇÈäÊÇ ÕÏÇã ÊÈÍËÇä Úä ãßÇä áÅíæÇÆåãÇ ÎÇÑÌ ÇáÃÑÏä The article says that Jordan informed the two women that if they wanted to stay in the country they will have to respect the host country and not to get involved in politics. Oh shock horror! what politics, why can't they just

2004-01-21T15:56:00.000+03:00

Raed is out having lunch with someone form the other gender. I bet he doesn't know that The female of the species is more deadly than the male, his fault. My horoscope in al-sabah said that I should get someone to alphabetize my music CDs with. The last three days I got stuck on Muse's [Apocalypse Please]And it's time we saw a miracle Come on it's time for something biblical To pull us

2004-01-20T11:01:00.000+03:00

Where Is Raed and Baghdad Burning are Bloggie nominees. Best middle east or african Blog category. Unfortunatly I will not be able to witness the glamour of Bloggie Awards Ceremony if I win, ahhh, to walk on that red carpet and to give my thank you speech. You can still vote.

2004-01-20T02:46:00.000+03:00

More on the Family Law issue. The following link might be of interest to those of you who can read arabic. Az-Zamman has an article by Suhad Al-Khafaji who writes about the Family Law issued in 1959.ÞÇäæä 88 ááÃÍæÇá ÇáÔÎÕíÉ æÖÚ ÞæÇÚÏ ãÊíäÉ áÊãÇÓß ÇáÚÇÆáÉ ÇáÚÑÇÞíÉ Although Al-Khafaji is critical of the 1959 Family Law she also states the good reasons why we need to improve on that law and

2004-01-20T02:21:00.000+03:00

And the Iraqi dinar is still being smuggled out of the country. Is it the smell of the fresh notes? Today the Iraqia channel showed an egyptian caught smuggling 5 million Iraqi dinars and half a kilo of hash to Kuwait. Actually my first reaction was "Half a kilo? where can I get that?" but let's leave this out of the blog. On a much grander scale Mr. Badran, our minister for interior affairs is

2004-01-20T02:03:00.000+03:00

Four Iraqi policemen were killed in the latest attack. This brings the number of Iraqi policemen killed since April to 600 (the link is to an arabic article in Az-zamman, from AFP). One of those 600 lives around the corner from my parents house. He was threatened several times and a bomb was placed near his house once, which was luckily dismanteld before it could do any harm. He was shot six

2004-01-20T01:32:00.000+03:00

I was in Karadat-Mariyam 4 hours after the explosion. Obviously couldn't get very near to where the actual explosion happened and to tell you the truth I didn't really want to. An old man sitting in front of his shop told me, in a very matter-of-fact way that whoever did this could never be Muslim, Christian or Jewish "I doubt that he is even human". I think that sums up the general feeling

2004-01-19T19:53:00.000+03:00

Actually, the explosion in front of the Presidential palace two days ago happened in the 13th anniversary of the 1991 war, the war that destroyed everything, but left the rest of Iraq and his neighbors to be milked slowly. There was a boring 80s American movie about rodeo and bulls on mbc/channel 2 (my favorite movie channel). That clown who saves the hero every time reminded me of the UN

2004-01-18T18:05:00.001+03:00

did u see the explosion of the day god damn it!!

2004-01-18T18:05:00.000+03:00

Today, the number of American soldiers killed in Iraq reached to 500. But no one even mentioned that, it was the “Bremer Dinar” scandals day The Iraqi Dinar lost 50% of its value over a night (from 950 – 1400), after discovering that our CG is selling Billions of Dinars to the world under the brand new operation called “screw up your self, your neighbors, and your national currency”. :”) I

2004-01-17T12:12:00.000+03:00

It is saturday and you might have some time to spend reading blogs? Why not go check out Faiza's latest post she turns all maternal and wise on us: Today I want to explore a new topic for discussion. As a result of many questions I got by email and in order to alleviate the boredom that I feel and to alleviate the general feeling of depression in Iraq, I decided to talk about something

2004-01-17T11:42:00.000+03:00

Late Thursday the governor of the Iraqi National Bank went on Iraqi TV to announce that the National Bank will be buying the dollar for 1350 dinars (250 dinars more than the market price) in an attempt to level the dinar and slow down its rise. All exchange shops adjusted their prices accordingly and on friday the exchange rate was between 1350 and 1380. A reader sent me an email telling me

2004-01-17T10:23:00.000+03:00

It seems the haircut Raed got did more than just clear the mess on his head, it also cleared the mess *in* his head and he was able to write an almost coherent blog. So in celebration of this glorious event today's pictures will have Raed's haircut as a theme. It doesn't have a sign and the old man inside couldn't cut in a straight line if his life depended on it and he will mess up the

2004-01-16T18:06:00.000+03:00

Bremer is at washington discussing the authorities hand over to Iraqis. TRICKY-QUESTIONS-AWARD of the year.. … And the winner is: DO YOU WANT AMERICANS TO LEAVE? Yes = hmmm.. you baathist pro saddamist bastard .. arrest him No = OK! Here we have another evidence how much the Iraqi people want us to stay I remember the days before the war when people from the

2004-01-16T00:35:00.000+03:00

More on the Family Laws issue. Al-Sabah has today on its front page a statement by Jalal Talabani, Kurdish Governing Council member, saying that Decision No. 173 by the Iraqi Governing Council cannot be passed because illegitimate. Yesterday Al-Sabah said that the decision was signed by all IGC members except one. Could be Talabni who has not signed the decision while the women on the IGC

2004-01-14T23:19:00.000+03:00

You would have thought a news item like this would get a bit more attention since one of the protesters was one of our newly appointed ministers: Iraqi women protest proposed changes to family laws Azzaman has it on the top right side of the front page, Asharq Al-Awsar on the top left. About 100 Iraqi women led by a minister protested in central Baghdad against a Governing Council

2004-01-14T19:20:00.000+03:00

Look what we have in our sky, what do you call it? Balloon .. airship .. blimp .. It was flying over Abo-Ghraib the other day, Abo-Ghraib is the small district to the west of Baghdad, where the main prison is located. I’m sure its full of bad-anti-freedom people :”) Whatever.. Baghdad is going through a critical economical transmission period,, today is the last day of the

2004-01-14T18:01:00.000+03:00

Has anybody been following what is happening to the Iraqi dinar the last couple of weeks? It seems someone stuck the dinar on a Helium filled balloon and let it loose, the dinar keeps getting stronger and stronger; the foreign exchange market in Harthiya is in total shock. If things keep going the way they are the dinar will be worth twice as much as it was a month ago. At new year’s the

2004-01-14T16:55:00.000+03:00

I have proof that there are people in Illinois, USA have a great sense of humor. I got the following email from Mr. M G, Subject: America Dear Mr. Pax The United States of America needs your assistance in restoring democracy here. ............ ............ Turnout in primary elections is traditionally low, about 15%. Since Bush is unopposed, turnout in the Republican primary will be

2004-01-14T01:32:00.000+03:00

As seen on the streets of Baghdad, start queuing up for those $60 per month jobs.

2004-01-14T01:10:00.000+03:00

The picture I mentioned in the blog below.....readers have sent me links to it. Go take a look, it is the third picture down. I still think it smells fishy.

2004-01-13T01:40:00.000+03:00

After quite a long time without the picture of Saddam in newspapers he is back in all of them. The number of newspapers is increasing day after day, when I went to buy newspapers a couple of days ago (most of the papers are weeklies or come out twice a week, cost concerns) I found two new ones. A paper called al-qasim al mushtarak (the common ground) and a cultural weekly called al-Adeeb (the

2004-01-13T01:32:00.000+03:00

The helicopter was so low it made the car rumble.

2004-01-13T01:28:00.000+03:00

The number of people who have changed their names from Saddam to other names have reached 820. Almost daily you see in the official Iraqi newspaper announcements of people changing their names.

2004-01-13T01:26:00.000+03:00

The city of Karbala is facing a real problem with the Iranian tourist, all land owners are kicking out their tenants in favor of Iranians renting rooms for much more than a doctor, pharmacist or a barber could pay. The governorate (maybe in the future, the independent state of Karbala) is trying to enforce a rule to stop those landlords form evicting trades.

2004-01-13T01:25:00.000+03:00

More and more off-license shops are closing down. In the Ameriyah district where you used to find 7 shops in [Amal Shaabi] and [Munathama] streets now there are non. One shop has been attacked twice and the most recent attack was two weeks ago. A friend of ours who had a shop there has written in big letters on the shop “will never open again” just so that his shop doesn’t get RPG-ed *again*

2004-01-12T19:05:00.000+03:00

Tried to get a better internet connection than the one I have, went to DijlaNet. Up six floors on foot only to be told that I have to pay a $2000 setup fee and $400 a month for a 46k/46k connection. right. I think the dial up thing I have now is just super fine, don't you think so? The only good thing about getting up that high is having a chance to get a picture of the baghdad skyline from

2004-01-10T16:55:00.000+03:00

I fought with her again, let’s hope I did leave too much mess and destruction to go back again this time.. pmpm .. Our problems re-identify the meaning of deja vu Jumping from one city to another, and from one country to another is not solving my problems anymore. Anyway.. Word of the day: Privatizing :”) I remember myself giving a boring lecture about the socio-cultural changes in

2004-01-08T18:21:00.000+03:00

You should all go read Zeyad's latest post NOW! Go, what are you waiting for.

2004-01-08T02:46:00.000+03:00

sometime between christmas and new year's I went for a walk in karrada and played a game with a tiny digital camera; a picture every 20 steps. some turned out bad and some ok. click on small to see big. --------------------------------------------- sat-dishes in Karrada, you can get them in any color you want, bright fiery orange (as in my blogs) seems to be a hit. You have to assemble

2004-01-08T01:42:00.000+03:00

The Hearts and Minds article by Hassan Fattah, link provided by Gila, thanks a million. if that link didn't work try this Now go read that it is the best thing you can do in the next 15 minutes. He also has a blog. He is in Jerusalem now.

2004-01-06T00:53:00.000+03:00

Back in Baghdad. The boredom of the 12 hour drive from Amman to Baghdad was alleviated by a black BMW which kept following us for almost 40 minutes. Raed and I were on the verge of freaking but kept trying to act as if it wasn’t as nasty as it looked. Getting picked as a target for a carjacking from all the masses of cars going thru the Iraqi-Jordanian border should make you feel special I guess.

2004-01-03T22:14:00.000+03:00

Hope you all had a great new year with as few bangs as possible, as you all know ours was quite loud. I am not in Baghdad again, and my mom tells me that new year's eve was like war because of all the explosions. OK announcement number one: THE MIRROR SITE TO THIS ONE, THE ONE CALLED [dearraed.blogspot.com ie the one without the underscore between dear and raed] HAS BEEN HACKED. THE MIRROR WAS

2003-12-30T02:01:00.000+03:00

It is going to be a great year, no question. Go get drunk and promise you will not watch the news for the next three days, it's all bad anyway. Peace, out!

2003-12-26T22:23:00.000+03:00

More from Faiza. here and here (look for the bits where it says "translation"). You really should go read what she writes. try to imagining a nasal whine and words thrown at you at machine gun speed, it will help visualize how Faiza would talk to you. There was a time when I spent more time in Raed's house than at my parents and Faiza is almost like one of my mom's sisters to me. She has a very

2003-12-26T01:07:00.000+03:00

Tonight the daily thuds started a bit earlier. It was around 10 and MBC2 was showing [Sleepless in Seattle], I am a bit embarrassed to say this, but I am a sucker for a Meg Ryan movie. The only problem was the sound of the explosions was a bit too close, it wasn’t just the thud we got used to the last two days but a very deep rumble as well, My mother couldn’t stand it any longer after a while

2003-12-25T19:01:00.000+03:00

OK!! I mean .. Don't freak out! anyone can translate whatever he wants anyone can say whatever he wants I mean .. unless its pro-saddam or anti-bush or pro-terrorism or .. whatever.. :") Explosions didn't stop yesterday, nothing new, but .. mmm.. did anyone else hear the sirens? or was it just another nightmare? usually my nightmares have either Italian girls dumping me, or American

2003-12-25T03:55:00.000+03:00

oh dear, now this was not meant to happen. A certain site Raed has linked to, a site we do not aprove of neither support ideologically, has translated the last blog I and Raed wrote and decided to use it as proof of certain weapons used in a recent incident. Neither I nor Raed are weapons experts and we have not been asked for permission by the person who translated to arabic or the persons who

2003-12-24T23:31:00.000+03:00

The same thing exactly happened last night, at around eleven the battle starts. You hear distant thuds, it sounds like someone jumping on the floor above you. When i go out i can't see any flashes but the thuds are very numerous like a proper battle, and you can also hear the sound of distant helicopters. it went on until 1am last night. Tonight it has just started 10 minutes ago. I am more than

2003-12-24T19:34:00.000+03:00

I spent last night in my family's house. Everyone looked very moody and grumpy, Khaled was having problems with uni_girls, Majed was studying for his religion examination, mom was typing more and more diaries on her PC, and my father was reading something. The boom boom boom thing happened at midnight, and no one had enough energy even to wonder what was happening, but the breaking news at

2003-12-23T15:03:00.000+03:00

Iraq Blog Count. an excellent idea. More Iraqis online than you would have thought eh? S/He calls the family in baghdad blog a [Blog Sitcom]. I have just translated Faiza's (the mom) post and sent it to raed but until it is posted on the site I know Faiza will not mind having the translation here. Take it away Faizait is five in the evening. Electricity just came back, it has been off since

2003-12-23T14:14:00.000+03:00

FlyingChair.net is doing an Asia Blog Award thingy and has a Best Iraqi Blog Category. Go on vote for MeMeMeMe.

2003-12-23T12:53:00.000+03:00

As Mr. Raed (who I am not sure whether I am speaking with or not, it depends on the state of my cold) as he clearly demonstrated in the previous blog, Mullah Bremer's Fatwa prohibiting the buying and selling of Gasoline on the black market has become just another excuse for the gas sharks to get even more money out of us. The renamed Iraqi TV Channel [al-iraqia] is trying to do an awarness

2003-12-22T14:44:00.000+03:00

Yeah .. that "thing from the opposite sex"'s name is Hamsa (i.e. whisper) and she will eat you alive after reading your post :") (She's more a storm than a whisper..) We went to an expensive restaurant, food was ok but their wine was very bad, it tasted like vinegar. So I did a small "drama queen" thing and they opened a new bottle of vino rosso for us. In fact the interesting thing happened

2003-12-22T14:06:00.000+03:00

I am not only sick I am slowly dying. I think I had 40 degree fever two days ago and I still can't stand straight and I am very bitchy. Raed calls me once and never does again as if he is going to catch a bug thru the phone, G. calls me just to tell me he might be going on a trip to Syria and say "go go" the moment he hears my cough, my brother doesn't let me use his internet account and the

2003-12-21T22:02:00.000+03:00

It was hilarious listening to the son of Gaddafi yesterday, his name is "Sayf el Eslam" (i.e. the sword of Islam), and he looks like the Libyan version of Uday Saddam Husein. maybe not that bad .. whatever .. He was giving us a classic piece of Arabic speech making, but it sounded more rhythmic than usual. "Arabs" he said "proved they cannot be trusted" cool man! go on! "If we take a look at

2003-12-18T22:14:00.000+03:00

One day .. TWO MASKS .. THE FIRST MASK: The Iraqi translator, coming to a secondary school at AlAmryya to help "them" arrest students. Students don't have the right to go on demonstrations. Americans came with pictures of pupils, a list of their names, and arrested them FROM THEIR CLASSES. The headmaster couldn't speak a word. THE SECOND MASK: The Iraqi Fedayi (one of the fedyeen) running

2003-12-17T15:35:00.000+03:00

hey hey hey! Who is playing the big brother's role here? Fun Fact 1: Salam decided to delete my last entry about Saddam because it was "politically incorrect", with bad taste too Fun Fact 2: I will change the site's title to : RAED vs SALAM :") whatever .. THREE to TEN years behind bars, is what I'll get if "they" got me buying petrol from the "black market"!!!! I was reading this arabic

2003-12-15T16:31:00.000+03:00

Why do all the interesting things happen when I am not in baghdad? at first I couldn't believe it when I heard it, I got too excited when they reported that the vice president Izat Ibrahim was arrested and then it turned out to be nothing, so my reaction was "yeah right". but the images on TV left no chance to doubt. He looked like a tramp getting a physical and for some reason you expected him

2003-12-15T16:20:00.000+03:00

2003-12-11T17:36:00.000+03:00

This is what happens when you sell your soul to the devil, he is allowed to sit on the blogs you write until he wants to put them in his paper. The scary DVD blog finally is on the G2 pages, here it is: In the looters' market, a DVD singing the praises of the so-called resistance is selling like the hot bread of Bab al-Agha

2003-12-07T13:09:00.000+03:00

Iraqi Census More dirt on the issue. I didn’t exactly dig that out it just fell into my lap. The Census thing was being discussed since August at the Census Bureau, talk about budgets and possible donations from Japan were on the table for a very long time. The Census Bureau got to a point where it was organizing meetings with neighborhood councils to discuss the details of the whole thing.

2003-12-07T12:59:00.000+03:00

Oh, it will be the right ball please; I am too fond of the left one!

2003-12-07T12:54:00.000+03:00

I spent most of the day at home reading [Persepolis] -have a look, this is one of the stories it is called The Trip, - a comic book written by Marjane Satrapi. It is too scary how much we have in common, Iraqis and Iranians I mean. The hate campaigns which were directed towards each other seem to have had the same effect on Iranians as on us, and the same methods were used. Religion, the promise

2003-12-05T17:30:00.000+03:00

Rain rain rain, the whole city looks like a puddle of mud and everything is too slippery because the rain is not strong enough to wash things away, it is just stupid drizzle and everything is wet. I found G. he sent me an email saying that he is living with the Guardian people (???) in baghdad and that I should give him a "fucken" call. G. what are you doing with the Guardian when you are

2003-12-04T21:33:00.000+03:00

U.S. Rejects Iraqi Plan to Hold Census by Summer I just read yesterday in the "official Iraqi Newspaper" i.e. the coalition funded Iraqi Media Network thing that they have abudget allocated for the census, funny that they say the americans have rejected it now. I am sure they have someone reading the Iraqi papers so how could they allow this to get to press. A few months ago an american press

2003-12-04T20:50:00.000+03:00

Nasty surprise today in the morning. The guy who owns the electricity generator came by to tell us that he has just raised the price of electricity from 2000 dinars to 3500 dinars per amp and if you don't like it go spend your days in darkness, oh and he is not turning on the generator after 2am. tough luck insomniacs. These neighbourhood generators are our main source of electricity since the

2003-12-03T12:07:00.000+03:00

Yes I know it is a bit confusing now that we have two poeple writing in the same blog, and I *do not* want to be associated with Raed's ramblings. His mind functions in strange ways. So to make things easier I am trying to color code, Firey Orange is me and boring white is Raed. This is test blog. Test test tesssst. I bought the scary CD *this is a [Where is Raed] special announcement*

2003-12-02T18:44:00.000+03:00

Today.. ummm.. I saw a camel in Baghdad :") Camels look really ugly .. they have big lips .. huge lips .. so when they try to smile (just to say hi to you) they look like someone with the "duhhh" expression on his face One of the restless questions in my head is about camels, why are camels related to Arabs in the western media? (besides the question of why my italiana girlfriend dumped me,

2003-12-01T20:01:00.000+03:00

Can't he at least say hello? HELLO Salaam? where have you been hiding for the last two weeks? I mean .. how can he just come back like this? whatever Electricity is still on strike, we didn't have neither electricity nor matches for yesterday's night, and we kept on calling Abo Husien the guard to lend us his lighter every couple of hours .. poor man. This problem with services is really

2003-12-01T14:48:00.000+03:00

I think it was 4 months ago when I spent three nights in Sammara because it is the closest place to Tikrit which didn't make your skin crawl and it actually had hotels. It was an empty hotel and me and the manager enede up chatting because we both had nothing better to do, I told him that I thought the city there was very quiet and it seemed very peacful, just a bunch of Iranian tourists visitng

2003-12-01T14:21:00.000+03:00

From Riverbend's blog on the 29th The most amusing thing about his visit was watching Chalabi and Talabani jumping up and down at the airport, cheering and clapping as Bush made the rounds. Muwafaq Al-Rubai'i, also a member of the Governing Council, was just embarrassing- he was standing on tiptoe and clapping like a 5-year-old watching a circus clown. That was such an embaressing sight, I

2003-12-01T13:45:00.000+03:00

I feel like a scary taxi driver magnet. Why do I always get the weirdest ones. Today's taxi driver had a tape with songs praising the work of "the brothers" in Falluja. I sat there stiff wondering if I should just open the door and jump, in the end I did get myself together to ask him what that was and he was happy to tell me who it was and where to get a copy of anti-american pop songs. Well,

2003-11-30T20:36:00.000+03:00

Fun Fact: Hillary Clinton was here too! why dont anyone tell us before these people come! .. however .. Finally I found Salam, he came back two days ago. The good news that he's going to start writing "seriously" again :) welcome back Salooma I discovered that Jo was writing some stuff about our visit to the south and the work of Emaar;the Iraqi organization I founded some months ago .. and

2003-11-28T19:32:00.000+03:00

I FEEL BLESSED!! BUSH WAS HERE!! He just stayed for three hours, what a shame. Or was it thirteen? .... Whatever .... :) I just came back from the south. This time Tara and Jo came with me, we went to Nasryya through Hilla, Najaf, Diwanyya and Samawa, and an American truck was that near > < to kill us all. It feels strange to be stopped by smiling soldiers coming from Spain (hola hola), Holland

2003-11-25T18:59:00.000+03:00

grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr .. I am angry now .. I AM angry .. and "THEY" come and ask you "why don't you like us?" ... I will tell you why .. >>>> I was just stopped by an American check point .. they let me stand under the rain .. in the mud .. for more than 15 minutes .. a soldier pushed me in a very strong way that I nearly fell down, and the other was investigating me: Why do you have a camera in

2003-11-23T14:37:00.000+03:00

G. came yesterday to my place, with two red wine bottles, Jo was there too. We were discussing the same issue "why don't me and G. have a direct relation?" .. when you are not here we never see each other! ,, we are ""friends in law"" :) where are you now? when are you coming back? yalla .. come to enjoy having electricity for three hours a day. Yes >> THREE<< warm nice hours. 6ayyeb in the

2003-11-21T15:50:00.000+03:00

i hate english.. i hate writing in english.. whatever.. salam you cannot imagine the scene at AnNasryya, i mean .. It's not just about the italians' building .. It's about the entire neighborhood! Houses in the circle of 1000 meter are living without windows, without doors, and with cracks in their walls. The explosion was so huge that it blow off the doors and fences and trees of all the

2003-11-20T01:39:00.000+03:00

G in Baghdad wouldn't write on his blog but he just sent me a wickedly funny email, sorry G this is what happens when you have blogger friends. Here is what he wrote: tell your friends in London that G in Baghdad would have appreciated them much more if they had demonstrated against the atrocities of saddam. And if you could ask them when will be the next demonstration to support the people of

2003-11-16T14:51:00.000+03:00

so raed still remembers his password to this blog Raed would you please write in english, they don't have any arabic OS 'puters here in london. I can't read what you are saying. you would not believe what happened to me, my wallet got stolen. I am so happy i don't have any credit cards, don't ask where and how, let us just say allah was trying to tell me something and I wasn't listening. Bush

2003-11-12T20:41:00.000+03:00

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2003-11-11T18:53:00.000+03:00

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