Salam Pax
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Salam Pax (Arabic and Latin for "peace") is a pseudonymous blogger from Iraq whose site "Where is Raed?" (see external links) received notable media attention during (and after) the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Within his blog, Salam discusses the war, his homosexuality, his friends, disappearances of people under the government of Saddam Hussein, and his work as a translator for journalist Peter Maass. Pax's site is titled after Pax's friend Raed, who was working on his master's in Jordan: he didn't respond promptly to email, and so Pax set up the weblog for him to read. In May 2003, The Guardian tracked the man down and printed a story indicating that he did indeed live in Iraq, with the given name Salam, and was a 29-year-old architect.
First circulating the blogging community, discussion eventually reached the New York Times, with some pundits speculating that the blogger was secretly a US, Israeli, or Iraqi government agent spreading disinformation about the war. Pax continued to post updates to the site after it was temporarily blocked in Iraq. During the war, he gave accounts of bombings and other attacks from his suburb of Baghdad until his internet access (and the electrical grid) was interrupted. Pax remained offline for weeks, writing entries on paper to type later. Later entries discuss the chaotic postwar economy and a June 1, 2003 entry (http://dear_raed.blogspot.com/2003_06_01_dear_raed_archive.html#200369579) appears to celebrate an anarchist effort, centered in Adil, to provide free Internet access to all of Iraq. It turned out not to be run by political anarchists, but by Iraqi geeks who ran the prewar Internet cafes in Baghdad for Uruknet, the former government ISP. Pax's weblog entries have been collected and published as Salam Pax - The Baghdad Blog (2003).
In August 2004, after having not updated his previous blog for several months, Pax started a second blog titled "shut up you fat whiner!" (see external links)
He also worked as a journalist for The Guardian, writing both columns and featured articles. In October 2004 he was sent to the United States by The Guardian to report on the American presidental race and current thought there on the subject of Iraq. Since then, nothing further by him has appeared in the paper. In February 2005 a series of filmed reports by Salam Pax, produced by Guardian Films and transmitted by the BBC's Newsnight won the Royal Television Society Award for Innovation.
Quotes
- "One day, like in Afghanistan, those journalists will get bored and go write about Syria or Iran; Iraq will be off your media radar. Out of sight, out of mind. Lucky you, you have that option. I have to live it."
- "There were days when the Red Crescent was begging for volunteers to help in taking the bodies of dead people off the city street and bury them properly. The hospital grounds have been turned to burial grounds..."
- "You can follow the trail of the foreigners by how much things cost in a certain district."
External links
- Where is Raed ? (http://dear_raed.blogspot.com/) - Salam Pax's weblog
- Salam's story (http://media.guardian.co.uk/newmedia/story/0,7496,966935,00.html) - article from The Guardian, dated Friday, May 30, 2003
- The Baghdad Blogger goes to Washington (http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1332687,00.html) The Guardian, October 22, 2004
- Salam Pax Is Real (http://slate.msn.com/id/2083847) - Slate article, by Peter Maass, posted Monday, June 2, 2003
- Raed in the Middle (http://raedinthemiddle.blogspot.com/) - Raed's blog
- shut up you fat whiner! (http://justzipit.blogspot.com/) - Salam Pax's new blog started in Aug 2004.de:Salam Pax