Photos & celebrations

I've just set up a photo page. So far there are just a few photos of friends from my last few weekends and about 40 photos of a building site in Baghdad which I posted up to help an Iraqi friend who is trying to find investors to support his little project - just about the only real "reconstruction" actually happening on the ground. But I'll try and post up all my photos from Iraq in the next couple of days.

I went to a celebratory rally with some young Iraqi friends outside the Houses of Parliament last night, it was being filmed by the Iraqi Media Network - did any friends in Baghdad spot me? (actually, I know none of you watch the state media).

Later I had supper with two older Iraqi friends to chew over all the implications of Saddam's capture and discuss how this effects the Jubilee Iraq campaign. One of them had just finished a two hour interview with Al-Mutaqele, an arabic satalite channel, and was frustrated at how many of the Arab callers to the program (aside from Iraqis and Kuwaitis) had criticised him for welcoming Saddam's capture, and accused him of being an American stooge. This to a guy who has campaigned for years against the US sanctions, against the war and is now on the board of Occupation Watch. He said that some Arabs can get very blinkered and see things in black and white - "Saddam was against the Americans, so if you are pleased that he was captured then you must be with them", I pointed out this is very similar thinking to Bush's "You're either with us or with the terrorists."

It's been one of the great pleasures of working on Jubilee Iraq that I've been able to work with people who have much more complex political views than the black & white sylogisms of either the Arab extremist or the American Neocon varieties, and who are willing to adjust their views as situations change or new evidence comes to light.