[Dean's World] Dave Schuler: Two Years of CotL

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Posted by Dave Schuler:
Two Years of CotL
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1158073702.shtml


   Today's Carnival of the Liberated marks the end of the second year of
   the Carnival at [1]Dean's World under my editorship. It remains my joy
   and my privilege. I am continually grateful to Dean for the
   opportunity to give the Afghani and Iraqi bloggers a taller platform
   for their work and thoughts and, indeed, that's what I strive for the
   Carnival to be: their platform. To the best of my ability I attempt to
   represent all points of view and hold my own opinions and ideas in
   check.

   This post will be different.

   Preparing the Carnival is quite a bit of work. I monitor roughly 200
   English language Iraqi blogs and 3 (3!) English language Afghani
   blogs, reading between 100 and 1,000 posts in a typical week. The work
   has become increasingly discouraging.

   First, it's discouraging because there are so few Iraqi and Afghani
   bloggers. When I started editing the Carnival there were roughly 100
   Iraqi bloggers. That grew to about 200 by my first anniversary. It's
   still about 200. There are, perhaps, a few more Arabic Iraqi blogs
   that I don't monitor because my Arabic isn't good enough. By
   comparison there are thousands of Iranian blogs.

   The most ardent Ba'athist supporters among the Iraqi bloggers have
   mostly left the country (along with quit a number of other Iraqi
   bloggers) and, although I continue to monitor their blogs, I don't
   include them in the Carnival.

   There used to be quite a number of English language bloggers posting
   from Iraqi Kurdistan. They're all inctive now. A possible exception to
   this is Miriam of [2]Pearls of Iraq (for some reason I suspect that
   Miriam is a Western woman who has converted to Islam and is living in
   Iraqi Kurdistan).

   Quite a few of the blogs that I do monitor are inactive or post only
   very occasionallyâonce every couple of months. I think there are
   probably a number of reasons for this but I suspect that Aunt Najma of
   [3]A Star from Mosul speaks for many of the other Iraqi bloggers in
   her most recent post:

     All of a sudden, my blog doesn't seem to be much of an interest to
     me. It used to own me entirely, I thought in English all the time,
     and no matter what happened, my first thought was what to write
     from it in the blog.
     My interest in the blog might have something to do with my interest
     in the current events. I haven't watched news for a long time, I
     wouldn't even know if the third world war was on!

   I don't think this is simple blog fatigueâI think it goes much
   farther. If Iraqi bloggers are at all representative of the
   best-educated and most-engaged people in Iraq, I think they are weary
   unto death. They're exhausted.

   And that brings me to the other change in the Iraqi blogosphere over
   the last two years: the profound change in tone. In the period leading
   up to and immediately following the elections many of the Iraqi
   bloggers expressed considerable hope and joy, even euphoria. Now only
   the very most pro-U. S. Iraqi blogs i.e. [4]Iraq the Model are showing
   any light whatever.

   Here's [5]Hammorabi from two years ago:

     In Iraq we are one nation, Christians, Sabians, Muslims as Sunni &
     Shia, and other religions. The Churches which were hit by the
     barbaric thugs are not holy places for the Christians alone but
     they are holy places for all of the Iraqis irrespective of their
     religions. They are holy for being used by human being and by
     Iraqis our brothers and sisters. They are now holy places for every
     Iraqi!

     Our brothers and sisters who have been killed in the attacks of the
     Iraqi Churches are not only Christians but Muslims as well. The
     Iraqi blood mixed together to tell the thugs that we are one body
     and the foreign bodies are them. Sooner the Iraqi body will expose
     and destroy them for ever.

   Here's [6]Hammorabi from this week:

     The deterioration in the Iraqi condition is overwhelming and
     involves every aspect of the life. Iraq just described now as the
     most dangerous place in the world.

     There is no doubt that the USA failed in its Middle East and war
     against terrorism at least in Iraq. It is the reverse indeed that
     the terrorism increased and the USA in a big problem now. If they
     leave Iraq to the terrorists then the consequences are very well
     know for the region and the world. If the US stayed it is even
     worse because the terrorists are using the excuse to increase their
     bases in the region and to recruit for this from everywhere. On the
     other hand the failure in Lebanon in addition to Iraq will make the
     new Middle East that Dr Rice called for is far from reaching.

   The assertions of Iraqi solidarity are gone and replaced by
   discouragement and blaming the United States. The only ray of hope (if
   that's the right word for it) is that Hammorabi was saying that Iraq
   had descended into civil war two years ago.

   What I do link to is discouraging enough. I don't bother linking to
   the really discouraging stuff: mostly incoherent rantings and ravings,
   linking to hit pieces in the press and propaganda sites. The reason
   that I don't link to is because it's incoherent not because I disagree
   with it (although I do).

   Next year at this time I hope that I have lots more work because there
   are many more new Iraqi and Afghani bloggers and it's more fun because
   they're posting about joys and hopes as well as sorrows. For that to
   happen things will have to change. I can only pray that those changes
   are taking place quiety, slowly, and largely out of sight.

  Shameless self-promotion:

   Please drop by my blog, [7]The Glittering Eye. I'm not as good-hearted
   as Dean but I occasionally have something interesting to say.

   Cross-posted to [8]The Glittering Eye.

References

   1. http://www.deanesmay.com/
   2. http://pearlsofiraq.blogspot.com/
   3. http://astarfrommosul.blogspot.com/2006/09/whats-happening.html
   4. http://iraqthemodel.blogspot.com/
   5. http://hammorabi.blogspot.com/2004/08/ugly-barbarism-news-about-zarqawi-was.html
   6. http://hammorabi.blogspot.com/2006/09/failure-of-iraqi-example-since.html
   7. http://www.theglitteringeye.com/
   8. http://theglitteringeye.com/?p=2329