HW 34: What's Important to Riverbend

The role of gold in family savings in Iraq has changed since the beginning of the war. According to Riverbend who wrote Baghdad Burning, “Gold is a part of our culture and the role it plays in “family savings” has increased since 1990 when the Iraqi Dinar (which was $3) began fluctuating crazily. People began converting their money to gold-earrings, bracelets, necklaces-because the value of gold didn’t change. People pulled their money out of banks before the war, and bought gold instead” (100). What Riverbend is trying to stress is that gold is an important part of Iraq’s culture and now in these times of stress trying to hold onto their wealth in gold has been extremely hard.
Date palms are important to Iraqi people because they use them for so many different things. For example Riverbend points out, “Dates are also used to produce “dibiss,” a dark, smooth, date syrup. This dibiss is eaten in some areas with rice, and in others it is used as syrup with bread and butter. Often it is used as a main source of sugar in Iraqi sweets” (104). They are not only useful in material ways but the Iraqi people have taken to them as something they can be proud of and they stand for what the Iraqis believe in.

HW 32: Responding to Riverbend

Akila Al-Hashimi is a member of the Iraq counsel. In Riverbend's book Baghdad Burning Riverbend talks about her after there was an attempt on her life. She had been leaving to go to work with her bodyguards, her brothers, and two pickup trucks full of armed men cute her off and wounded her in the foot, shoulder, and the stomache. She was taken away in an American ambulance to somewhere no one knows where. Riverbend talks about how depressing it is because she felt like Al-Hashimi was one of the only decent members on the counsil. It also made her upset because it showed how no female is safe no matter how high up she is. She feels as though some were bitter towards her because she didn't wear a hijab and she was female (Riverbend 75-76).

HW 31: Responding to Riverbend

I would like to learn more about Ba'athists. In reading Baghdad Burning by Riverbend I came across this term on page 45 and it made me curious. What I have found out is that the Ba'athists are insurgents led by the former Saddam Hussein. What that has to do with the book is Riverbend is talking about an interview with Al-Jazeera and how he says in the interview that he feels the extremists, loyalists, terrorists, Ba'athists, and people from neighboring countries were responsible for the assasination of Al-Hakim. That made me question what Ba'athists were because I have heard the term before but didn't know what it meant. I found an article talking about Ba'athists but there isn't anything on wikipedia about them. the link is http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/32911/. It is interesting that Scott Ridder of Alternet talks about what the Ba'athists have done in Iraq for example, "The chaos and anarchy that dominates the Iraqi domestic scene today is a direct result of the Canal Hotel bombing, and represents the underlying strategy of the Ba'athist insurgents, which is to create the conditions within Iraq where the Iraqi people have lost faith in the American occupier and their proxy Iraqi government to bring about peace and stability" (1).

Ridder, Scott. Alternet. 2006. 6 Mar.
http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/32911/

Riverbend. Baghdad Burning. New York, NY: First Feminist Press, 2005

HW 28: "An Open Letter to Riverbend"

Dear Riverbend,

After reading the first few of your blogs my heart broke for you, your family, and your country. I can only imagine what it must be like to have so much ripped away from you all at once. Not only do you have to worry about your life being taken, but quite literally it already has. Everything that you knew, your job, your liberty, your equality has been taken away so how much of a life does that really leave you? It is so easy for me and other Americans to sit back in the comfort of our same every day lives and to claim that we feel for you, but we really have no idea. I know there are some people in America who have had parallel experiences with everything being ripped away but we have always had the comfort of knowing that our country was seemingly indestructible, until recently that is. I can only offer you the comfort of knowing that your voice is being heard, even as far away as New England, we hear you.

HW 27: Annotated Bib for Baghdad Burning

Riverbend. Baghdad Burning. New York, NY. The Feminist Press, 2005

This is a book comprised of blogs written by a young woman living in Iraq. She writes as frequently as she can and has a very smart and understanding view on the politics surrounding her. The book goes into her life and she takes you with her throughout her experiences with this war going on between America and Iraq. This book fits into our course perfectly because she is a woman who is blogging to make a difference not just for herself but for others as well. It is also very eye-opening to the politics of our country and how other people see our country. I’m sure there will be some in our course reading this who will take offense, but I will not be one of them. What I hope to get out of it is a clearer understanding of a first hand account of this war. It puts a face to a faceless bunch of people who are being victimized by this war.

HW 25: Overview of the Overview

The forward to, Baghdad Burning by Riverbend is written by Ahdaf Soueif. The introduction is written by James Ridgeway. The forward is a brief overview if you will on the book. She talks about what is important in the book, like saying that it has a lot of politics in it but that it is interesting because it isn’t ideological but different because it is a first hand account of someone experiencing those politics. She talks about what this book should do for people which is basically to open their eyes to this war which isn’t happening to all of us like it is to Riverbend. The introduction goes more into depth about specifics to the book like who Riverbed is and where she lives. It also gives short narratives on the Gulf War and the 2003 war. It also gives Iraq’s history very briefly. My own views on this war are probably very similar to Riverbend’s. Soueif’s and Ridgeway’s. I am very much against it and the Bush administration in general. We have witnessed extreme and horrible atrocities in the past six or seven years and I feel like all of it is for the wrong reasons. Of course what Soueif and Ridgeway have laid out is a very different account than what most people learn in their history classes, but I have been fortunate enough to be in college for most of this and have seen and heard the real story.