Pen-Elayne on the Web

Iraqi Blogger Debate

For me, one of the most wonderful aspects of blogs from Iraqis like Salam Pax and Riverbend (links at sidebar) is what happens to the people who read them. You can't come away from Where Is Raed? or Baghdad Burning and continue to see these folks as part of an amorphous mass living in some backwards culture (i.e., Them). After reading their day-to-day travails in a land under U.S. occupation after an invasion none of them wanted, you (at least I) can't not care about them, and by extension about their friends and neighbors and countrymen. And I learn so much even from their disagreements with one another, as Salam responds to Riverbend today regarding al-Hakim's death. This is the kind of technology use that jazzes me - when people throughout the world come together via this amazing tool to learn about each other and civilly debate and learn and realize our common humanity even when our leaders don't.