I went back to Thaura, formerly Saddam City, the place where millions of poor Shi’ites live in Baghdad, where all the looted stuff gets sold. I wanted to see where the poorest people live and we went out in search of Haya Tinik, metal plate neighborhood. To just say that the roads there are unpaved is misleading. It’s more like the neighborhood was built on an enormous pile of dirt, garbage and sand. There are dunes or hills of the garbage/sand. Not graceful, sweeping dunes, but irregular mounds jutting out of the ground. My driver, Thamar, who is always very careful about his very beat-up 10-year-old Mazda drove so slowly and tried to wend his way between these mounds. He didn’t like going there because of the roads. Amjad, the translator, didn’t like going there because he was scared to death.
Baghdad — Horrible Hospitals, Jews, Hot Days, Angry Shi’ites
I complain about how hard it is to work and then realize how lucky I am to be here. And see some Hebrew and the most depressing hospital.
One quick note. I love getting emails about the site, but I hardly get any. It’s so nice to hear from people. I feel sometimes isolated here, disconnected from the states and how people are thinking about these things. So, please do write, if you’d like. Also, as I wrote before, check out my friend, Jen’s site at www.mideastdiaries.com/jensite. We’re traveling together some of the time and then doing different things some of the time and she has a different way of writing about things.
Baghdad – Happy to be back, hating the Americans
I gleefully return to Baghdad, drink too much, and become depressed about the American overseers of this country.
I’ve been back in Baghdad a few days but have been running around so much and, really, socializing too much, and I’ve just not sat down and written. I was in Amman the right amount of time. When I was driving back in to Iraq, I felt excited. I was so glad to be coming back and eager to start reporting again. That’s good. I was pretty burned out when I left.
I came back with a friend of mine, Jen, and she’s started writing a web diary as well at www.mideastdiaries.com/jensite . We’ve been traveling together the last few days, so her diary covers what I haven’t been writing. Maybe I felt OK to take a break, since she was posting things. So, go read her diary as well. I haven’t read it yet, because I wanted to write fresh, so maybe we’re covering the same ground here. Probably are. But with excitingly different perspectives.
Amman – Sleeping and luxuriating
I finally make it out of Baghdad and enjoy deluxe accomodations and comfy sheets.
I’m in my five-star hotel in Amman right now, luxuriating in air conditioning, minibar, room service, and I’m watching Seinfeld on TV (even though it’s the crappy last episode). It feels almost too good to be true. I slept most of the day. Saw a couple bad movies: Daredevil and, please forgive me, Maid in Manhattan. Amman doesn’t have many good movies. Had a great dinner at Amman’s best Italian restaurant last night with a friend. The point I’m making, is that it’s just lovely being here. Though, I am struck by what a boring town Amman is, how little there is to do, how unlovely the place is. I feel kind of in a fog, really.
It does make me realize just how stressful and hard life is in Baghdad. I certainly realized while I was there. But being away, it’s all so clear. I hate to sound like a prima donna, but just having nice sheets and pillows is so pleasant. Somehow, all the laundry I do in Baghdad comes back really stiff and scratchy. There is no air conditioning. It’s so hot and dusty. And I never can just relax. I always feel like I’m missing a story or something or I’m just antsy and buzzed. Being in a place where there is nothing to do, no news to report, oh, it’s nice. Continue reading
Baghdad – Politics and Guns
Traveling around Baghdad talking to it’s future leaders makes me feel kind of sick.
I spent the day going around to the different political parties, trying to figure out what their plans are for the future of Iraq’s economy. I found it so interesting to see how much action is going on, so many different groups making big plans for the future. We started off at the INC, Ahmed Chalabi’s group. They have taken over this huge country club. There are tons of men walking around in suits carrying kalachnikovs and other automatic rifles. There is this feeling among all the people I spoke with there of such practiced slickness. Just like mid-level PR people in the US who have learned to be smooth and talk in full paragraphs about how great their company is. But they haven’t learned to soften their slickness with some actual earnest honesty. I’ve never seen so many Iraqis without mustaches and with hair gel. Chalabi, as you probably know, is the very controversial leader of the Iraqi National Congress. He stole a huge amount of money from a bank in Jordan and just all around seems like a scumbag. The Defense Department Hawks love him, the CIA and the State Department hate him. I saw a few Americans at his country club. They wore civilian clothes but seemed sort of military. They wouldn’t talk to me. One guy had a Cubs hat and I pretended I was a big Cubs fan and was desperate for news on how they’re doing, just so I could talk to him. He all but ran away from me, calling out that the Cubs were doing fine last he heard. There are also lots of tribal chiefs walking around. They wear the dish-dash robe covered with a dark gauzy robe covering, usually with gold fringe. They look desert regal. Some are powerful and rich and run big tribes, others are as broke as everyone and run small, poor tribes. I didn’t get much useful reporting done. The people were too slick to tell me anything. But all the hushed conversations I was seeing, and everything I’ve heard about Chalabi made me feel this is the place where big things are happening. There is a feeling of power and knowledge, like these guys know what is happening in Iraq and are setting things up for themselves. They also have their own army, the Free Iraqi Forces, which have their own uniform and work under the command of the US Army. I can’t back this up, but my sense is they’re going to be running the show here and that’s bad. They are sleazy. Continue reading
Baghdad – Lovely dinner, gunfire
How to live a good life on the road.
I took the day off and barely left my hotel. It was a much-needed rest. My translator and driver came by at 2 and we went to lunch. At lunch my translator was telling me about how he has satellite TV for the first time. Saddam outlawed it and now everybody has it, as, I think, I’ve written. He said, ‘do you know this program, Friends? It is so funny. It’s the best show I’ve ever seen.’ He had never heard of it. ‘Rachel is very beautiful and Joey is very funny,’ he said. He also likes Phoebe and feels bad for Ross and all his bad luck with wives. I asked if he had seen Frasier or Seinfeld. No, never heard of them. Simpsons? ‘I heard about this show but never saw it.’ The other new show he’s excited about is Remington Steele but he doesn’t like McAlley (Alley Mcbeel). We then went to a store that sells pirated movies on CD. It’s strange that they have all these blockbusters, like James Bond movies and lots of action/adventure. Then they have these smaller films, like Adaptation and Donny Darko. I don’t get it. Continue reading
Baghdad – Sex and Politics
I eat food, realize I’m a colonialist and learn what sex means to iraqis.
I feel like I don’t have a lot to write today. I’m particularly exhausted. I had a very early briefing from the US Treasury department people in charge of rebuilding Iraq’s banking system. Nothing like getting up after 4 hours sleep for a talk on banking. Yay. I actually met the guys yesterday when I crashed one of their meetings. To prepare for the meeting, I read all these articles about how the Bush administration plans to transform the Iraqi economy from a socialist to a capitalist economy. All these huge plans. I heard the treasury guys were meeting with the Iraqis at a certain place at 2. I showed up a bit early, waited a little while and then the Americans showed up. Two old white guys and one younger yuppyish guy. They wore full US military protective gear and were surrounded by armed soldiers as they walked in to this house where the Iraqi bankers hang out. I just walked in with the Americans and nobody asked who I was or what I was doing, so I got to go in to the conference room and sit right next to them. It’s this big conference table and at it were all these leading Iraqis from the Finance ministry and Central Bank and the chairmen of the leading banks of Iraq. You keep hearing that the restructuring of Iraq is an Iraqi-led process, the Americans are serving as advisors. But watching these Americans walk in and just take control of the meeting, it was so obvious that they are completely in charge and the Iraqis are supposed to just do what they’re told. Continue reading
Baghdad – Oil and Fire
Visiting an oil refinery, getting a sense of the oil industry–surprisingly strong–and visiting a fire at a gas station.
I had the best reporting day I’ve had in a while. I started as I always do at this house where the Central Bank and the Ministry of Finance people go to hang out, since there is no longer a Central Bank or a Ministry of Finance. They just sit there all day and talk. I’ve been told this guy Mr. Karim is the only one of them meeting with Americans. There doesn’t seem to be any way to actually speak with the Americans to find out how they are restructuring the economy of this country. So, every day, the first thing I do is drive to this house and ask for Mr. Karim. And every day I’m told I just missed him, he’ll be back tomorrow. Now, this is partly my fault. They always tell me to come at 9 and I never seem to get out of bed ’til 10. But, hey, I’m working hard and need the rest. Today is May Day, a national holiday in Iraq. I was surprised that most government workers are taking this holiday off. Surprised, because there is no government. They’re not getting paid. They’re just sitting around waiting. But they still take the holiday off. Makes sense, I guess. Anyway, there were only three people standing in front of the house and, to my shock, one of them was Mr. Karim. I shouldn’t have bothered. He wouldn’t talk to me. But he did tell me to come back on Saturday at 2. The Americans, some technical people from the Treasury Department, will be there to meet with the technical people from the ministry of finance. So, I’ll go there at two. Continue reading
Baghdad – Sick and Tired, but thoughtful
I spend the day in bed and write a lot.
There is so much need in Baghdad, it’s so awful. And it surrounds you every where you go. I had my driver drop me off a block from the hotel. While walking back, one man stopped me and asked if I’m American. He spoke English pretty badly but enough to say he desperately needs work, could I hire him as a translator. While I was explaining to him that I have a translator, another guy came up and asked me if he could use my Sat phone. Then a whole group of people surrounded me and were saying things in Arabic that I didn’t understand. I just walked away. The compound where all the reporters are has all these people just asking you for things all the time. I used one guy as a translator my second day here. He wasn’t that good and there’s something sort of nervous and aggressive about him and I don’t want to work with him. Almost every time I leave the hotel, he’s right there, asking me if he can work with me. I keep telling him I have somebody and I don’t need him and he says, every time, that he’ll just wait at the hotel all day for me just in case. He doesn’t do this quickly and elegantly, he follows me everywhere I go and tells me how hungry his family is and that my new translator has money and doesn’t need it as much as he does. There are also all these little kids. There’s one girl, maybe seven, who is very beautiful and she walks right next to you grabbing at your sleeve, “Mister, one dollar. Mister, one dollar.” Continue reading
Baghdad – Frustrated Ranting
I’m tired, it’s hot, and I bitch a lot.
Working in Baghdad has changed. It’s no longer a place where you can walk outside the hotel and the stories hurl themselves at you. It’s now hard work finding stories. It’s odd, because it doesn’t seem possible something would change that quickly. But it has and everyone is talking about it, all the reporters anyway. I’ve been working so hard this week and I haven’t gotten a single story done. It’s embarrassing and so frustrating. Especially after the previous week where every single day I did unbelievable stories that just presented themselves to me–and most days I turned away two or three stories that also presented themselves to me but I didn’t have the time. Today, for example, I wanted to do a story about all the satellite dishes I see being sold on the street. They’re everywhere. Saddam outlawed them, punishment was six months in prison and some huge fine. He didn’t want anybody seeing outside information about his regime. Now, anybody with $200 can get one and so many people are. So, I wanted to interview a salesman and then go home with someone getting a Satellite Dish for the first time. See what they think of their first full glimpses of Western excess on TV. We went to a few satellite dish shops and the salespeople were so boring. Last week, I couldn’t find a boring person. Everyone was telling such great stories. These guys were so dull: yeah, I sell dishes. Isn’t it amazing that you can sell them freely? It’s the same as before. But before you sold them in secret, risking jail or death. I wasn’t worried, it was fine. I found a guy who installs these dishes. He said during the regime he installed 20 dishes in seven years. In the last week, he’s installed 50. He’s getting much better. He used to need 2 hours to set up a dish, now he gets it done in 30 minutes. Continue reading