Monday, May 09, 2005

Interview with an Iraqi student

My blogging arch-nemesis MJ has posted a very interesting interview he conducted with a Baghdad Iraqi student. I love to hear first person accounts about the situation in Iraq, whether it be soldier blogs about soldier lives, or Iraqi blogs about life of the mainstream Iraqi civilian (albeit, the Iraqi civilian with a computer connection and a good grasp of written English), and this interview definitely offers a perspective you won't necessarily see elsewhere. Here is the last paragraph:

I want to say to the people of America that we are thankful for your sons and daughters. We know that it has not been easy for you either. Our sons and daughters are dying by the thousands. We console with you. Your military is the best in the world. So is your compassion. Bring us your compassion. When I was in USA it was the greatest time of my life. There is so much happiness in USA. You dream so big. We are ready to dream now.

2 Comments:

Blogger Chris said...

Hey thanks for the link.

My friend Ahmed is a pretty cool guy.

His internet connection and grasp of the English language was brought to my attention earlier today as well.

He doesn't have an internet connection. He walks to a local newspaper office, which on occassion has internet service. I forget if it's www.baghdadtoday.com or www.iraqtimes.com that he does this at.

I think he does research for the paper, and does some IT things also. Most young Iraqi's are very computer/internet literate.

As for his English, that's all his own. He is very fluent. I only had to make a couple grammitical changes to his script, mostly for clarity. He also speaks very good French.

Something else that surprises me, and probably others as well, is that cell phones are very common. In fact, most have free cell phone service. For all the setbacks they have had in the last decade, especially the last few months, they are still able to have internet and cell phones. Occassionaly I will get a phone call from him because his cell phone is free. But, they have no running water, so go figure.

Thanks again.

1:01 AM  
Blogger neurotic_wife said...

Thanx calivalleygirl for the link.It was a great interview...

2:02 PM  

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