What’s it like living in Iraq?
One of the blogs I’ve been reading lately is Baghdad Burning. If you have ever wanted to know what it is like to live in Iraq day to day, read this. Riverbend writes it well and pulls no punches. She is angry about the invasion, her nation getting ravaged by the Coalition and most of all, I think, losing her job as a database analyst. They had grrl DBAs in Iraq once, doctors and lawyers too, but not now. Iraq is descending into fundamentalist Islamic chaos and you can thank the Coalition for it. There was a time in Iraq when Christians and Muslims worked side by side and women could wear jeans. Not now.
In one post, she describes how on-site computer hacks get done:
My father has a friend with a wife and 3 children who is currently working for an Italian internet company. He communicates online with his ‘boss’ who sits thousands of kilometers away, in Rome, safe and sure that there are people who need to feed their families doing the work in Baghdad. This friend, and a crew of male techies, work 10 hours a day, 6 days a week. They travel all over Baghdad, setting up networks. They travel in a beat-up SUV armed with cables, wires, pliers, network cards, installation CDs, and a Klashnikov for… you know… technical emergencies.
I’m glad I don’t live there. But I feel bad that she does.
