Back in Baghdad

Hi folks. Sorry for not blogging for ages - if its any consolation I haven't been calling my mum so often, and I'm afraid you guys are second in line... but I'll try to be more a more faithful blogaspondant in the future.

I've actually had three gorgeous, though hectic, weeks in the US & UK meeting my habibti's family and introducing mine to her. I was a few hundred miles north of New Orleans when the Hurricane hit, and my heart goes out to all those who have suffered. How strange that a large section of the Southern US has, as many have noted, been transformed into a situation of chaos reminiscent in some ways of Iraq.

On the course of my travels I was fortunate enough to attend the inaugural conference of the International Association of Contemporary Iraqi Studies (IACIS) and met many old friends and was impressed by the contributions of new faces. I presented a paper on the role of the IMF in Iraq (some of my Iraq colleagues in Jubilee Iraq will be attending the IMF Autumn meetings next week to argue the case of economic justice and self-determination) and read out a friend's paper on US involvement in the Constitutional process (as he was unable to attend himself). This created quite a minor diplomatic incident as it was reported by the media and made its way to the US Embassy in Iraq, who were not best pleased.

I left Iraq on the 17th August, by which time the Constitution was scheduled to have been completed, and learnt on my return that it was still up in the air... and even now its still not confirmed. We expect that tomorrow it will be formally agreed in the National Assembly (although of course significant segments of the population are unsatisfied with the drafting process) and then the printing and distributing of 5 million copies with begin in haste. The referendum is exactly 4 weeks away, and unfortunately almost any outcome in it is likely to be divisive. For this reason I'm working to support Iraqi initiatives towards reconciliation.

In the few days I've been here hundreds of Iraqis have died in bombs, not to mention assassinations and random shootings by Coalition soldiers. About a year ago I would have been able to list off the dates and circumstances of every major bomb and, whenever a new one went off, I'd be up on my roof looking for the smoke and desperately calling all my friends living near the area of the explosion. But these days I've got to admit I hardly notice the blasts, sometime a dozen a day, which are now a kind of routine background city noise like ambulance sirens. I'm surreally insulated from it all.

If any of you are coming out here this year, do get in touch, and I'm always willing to be of whatever small help I can to any organisations or individuals doing positive things for Iraq.