Speaking of George Orwell and illustrating oppressive states through first-person stories in the last post, speaking of blogging as a courageous act, speaking of the personal is political...
Let's add humor and the humane as essential to staying sane. This is a must-read account of a blogger's time in an Iraqi prison dated July 30, 2005. Snippet from Tell Me a Secret below (alerted via Riverbend of Baghad Burning's post). Khalid shares:
In one of the floors in the same building, there is another prison, a bigger one called “The Palace of Hospitality” (doesn’t this remind you of [George Orwell's]1984? The ministry of love and stuff?) Where recently a father and his son were arrested, and the son died at night because his rips [ribs] were broken after they beat him, and then they spelled hot water on his body, he kept moaning of pain for the whole night, said Abo Ayid, who slept right beside him, and then he died...
If you were wondering how did we spend our time in jail… I’ll tell you.
We read Quran a lot, we prayed five times a day, we had three meals a day, and we praise God for long periods of time too. We sat all together talking and telling jokes and stories about our lives…
At night, while trying to sleep, I mostly was thinking of what I should write in my next post!
That last line was spoken like a true blogger, er citizen journalist. Khalid, I'm glad to hear you are fine. His brother Raed, a fellow blogger, is calling for basic rights for Iraqi detainees in prison. Included are actions we can take by writing our embassies, etc.
Technorati tags: citizen journalism, suffragette
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