The current state of Iraq from Iraqi perspectives?

August 10, 2005 8:43 AM

I want to know more about how Iraq is recovering, but I'd like news and info from the perspective of common Iraqi citizens. All the news stories are either about the insurgent battles, polls and data solely used for political purposes by western partisan groups, or the new government solely in its relation to US withdrawl.

I've found a few Iraqi blogs (Iraq the Model has been good), but I'd also like to see some detailed news stories that get into the daily life, preferrably outside of big insurgent battleground cities. How is the economy (as opposed to 2 yrs ago, 10 yrs ago)? How is the new government and how is the peoples' response to it? What are the best sources for this type of info?

posted by p3t3 to law & government (9 comments total)

I doubt you're going to find an unbaiased commercial news source from Iraq on either side at this point. Balancing Al-Jazeera with US news isn't going to get you a complete picture in any way, but may allow you to pick out the bits of truth from the chaff.

I'd say, be thankful for blogs.
posted by Kickstart70 at 10:30 AM on August 10, 2005

You might find some useful facts digging around the Brookings Institute. I'm not sure it is what you want though. With such an insurgence happening I find it difficult to believe that there's much in the way of active local media save for the bloggers - and check out their blogroll links and perhaps email them and ask them. I would also scout the english language Arabic news services like al-jazeera.
posted by peacay at 10:43 AM on August 10, 2005

With such an insurgence happening I find it difficult to believe that there's much in the way of active local media save for the bloggers..

Good point. I thought maybe I was just missing some of these stories in the swarm of insurgence based news coverage, but you can't blame reporters for not wanting to be in the middle of things right now I suppose.

In that case, does anyone have any favorite english language Iraqi blogs as of late? Salam Pax has been offline for some time and I've not had a chance to read too many others of the same caliber.
posted by p3t3 at 11:09 AM on August 10, 2005

Here's a pertinent report from the Brookings institute- via this thread.
posted by loquax at 12:30 PM on August 10, 2005

Here's a selection of blogs too (I haven't read them all, so I have no idea about some of the content):

Hammorabi
Healing Iraq
Iraq at a glance
Iraqi Bloggers Central
THE MESOPOTAMIAN
(A long list of other Iraqi blogs from Healing Iraq)
posted by loquax at 12:35 PM on August 10, 2005

My friend Jake went to Iraq on his own for exactly this reason. He blogged, interviewed, filmed, recorded, and bit-torrented his way around a good-sized chunk of the country. You can read all about it in his Livejournal; it starts here. No bullshit - this is probably as real and unbiased as it gets.
posted by autojack at 12:48 PM on August 10, 2005

Baghdad Burning: "Girl Blog from Iraq... let's talk war, politics and occupation."
posted by Doohickie at 1:01 PM on August 10, 2005

common Iraqi citizens...

Any blogs coming out of Iraq require certain resources the common Iraqi citizen will not have, especially outside of the larger cities.

My answer, and I'm not trying to be facetious, is to go over to the country (as a volunteer for an NGO or soldier, for example) and meet your definition of the common Iraqi citizen and ask them about the Iraqi recovery. I don't think any other method would bring satisfaction, and the one I suggest is impractical and very dangerous.
posted by gsb at 1:04 PM on August 10, 2005

Thanks everyone. I think between that very comprehensive data collection by the Brookings Institution and then the individual personal accounts from various blogs, I'm starting to get what I wanted.

For a perfect answer to what I'm after, gsb is probably right. If I were not tied down with family, work, etc, I might actually consider a trip to Iraq. But this will for now. Thanks.
posted by p3t3 at 4:38 AM on August 11, 2005