:Connecting the Dots

Lately I’ve been looking at blogs and video podcasts from Iraq and other areas in the Middle East.  After reading about the situation in Iraq in the New York Times and listening to pundits discuss it on Meet the Press, I felt I was missing a critical piece of the picture.  We spend a lot of time talking about the war’s meaning to America and Americans: Is it a help in the War on Terror or a hinderance?  How is it affecting America’s position and credibility among the countries in the world?  Will it expand into a regional conflict?  But what does it all mean to the people of Iraq?  I knew long ago that we had failed to “win” their hearts and minds, but what’s in those hearts and minds now?  And, more specifically, how do the hearts and minds of Iraqis differ from one another: mainstream media speak of “the Iraqi people” or the Sunnis and the Shi’ites, but rarely do they take that next step and actually try to represent the diversity of thought and feeling among the Iraqis.

Blogs fill that void nicely.  The one that seems to be getting the most press lately, a video blog, is Alive in Baghdad.  It’s a series of short video interviews with normal Iraq citizens trying to keep their lives going in the midst of a war: a father trying to get medical care for a sick child, a Catholic priest reflecting on co-existence of Muslims and Christians, and so on.   Two others that I’ve enjoyed are Me-vs-Myself and Raed in the Middle.  I found them through Best of the Arab Blogs, which contains links to dozens of English language blogs from the Arab world.

I hope a lot of American students are seeing these blogs, but I fear they are not.  How are kids learning about this war and what role should their schools and teachers play?  There are dozens of great social studies and current events lessons here.  And each blog represents an opportunity for an American student to actually connect with an Iraqi via e-mail, Skype, whatever…  Here’s an opportunity to actually do social history as it happens: I hope we don’t let it slip away.

(Photo by DAVID GREENHALGH)