Brian has posted up some excellent interviews on his blog with some of my closest friends from Iraq. Merky talks about his detention in Abu Ghraib and Camp Bucca, Majed talks about his first experiences after the war, and Sami of Muslim Peacemaker Teams relates the amazing story of a brave Sunni who died rescuing drowning Shias after a bridge collapse.
Apparently my sister-in-law in Ohio regularly checks this blog for updates and has told me off for not writing more often. I've got a little to report today, as it's my last day working on Peacemakers and next week I'm starting work on From Crisis to Opportunity, a new project of the Oxford Research Group to develop more inclusive and legitimate approaches to conflict in the Middle East.
A bigger development for us is that Jenny is now in her third week with a small and quirky accountancy firm which focuses on auditing charities. As it will take Jenny three years to qualify as a chartered accountant, it looks likely that we will be staying in London for at least that long - also conviniently about the time needed for Jenny to get British citizenship.
Looking beyond our little lives, I haven't really got anything coherent to say about Iraq today. I'm in a catatonic state these days as the violence continues unabated. Rather than reading a rant from me, I direct you instead to my friend Zaid al-Ali's latest article on Opendemocracy critiquing Peter Galbraith's book on dividing Iraq. Also visit Riverbend who has blogged at last after a 2.5 month hiatus that got us all worried for her, and Jeff's new blog War Every Day on Electrionic Iraq. The BBC aired a powerful and distressing documentary this week filmed by a doctor in Yarmouk hospital in Baghdad - it shows the real results of the violence in Iraq which we rarely see.
If you are in London on Sunday go and join in the No More Fallujah's peace camp outside Parliament. I might join it if I can get back in time from Birmingham where we're doing a workshop on CPT at a Fellowship of Reconciliation conference.
