Posted on 10/22/2004 6:23:02 AM PDT by OESY
Spirit of America, led by Jim Hake [raised] money to equip six Iraqi TV stations in Al Anbar province. The project was led there by the First Marine Expeditionary Force and the Army....
The Spirit of America's Iraq democracy project came together.... The pro-freedom Iraqi bloggers [posted]their delightful account of a first-ever trip beyond Iraq's borders... at iraqthemodel.com. Other Iraqis... are willing to take personal risks to educate the Iraqi people about the meaning and purpose of democracy before that January election date....
To get the word out, the Friends of Democracy plans to use all available media. Plans so far include:
Documentaries. A new Iraqi NGO called Civic Pillar is acquiring, through friends in Holland, documentaries showing (with subtitles in Arabic) other nations' experience with new democracies....
Public service announcements. They are soliciting Iraqi celebrities (athletes, artists, authors, actors, poets) to do TV spots explaining what democracy means to them, or urging people to think beyond tribe or sect to the future of a new Iraq. A prime mover here is the new government's Minister of Women's Affairs, Narmin Othman....
Via the Internet, the bloggers want to hook up 50 to 100 pro-democracy student groups around the country. Do such groups really exist? The bloggers insist they do....
Other projects include citizen roundtables and townhall meetings, which will be taped and distributed to broadcast outlets around the country. They hope to get Iraqis used to the until-now alien idea of free speech and open debate. There are even plans for an Iraqi Federalist Papers. The idea here is to ask a group of Iraqi intellectuals to write on constitutionalism and the rule of law. They would publish a booklet, solicit responses, hold point-counterpoint debates and tape them for broadcast....
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Good posting.
I'll give a link to Spirit of America here:
http://freedomstruth.blogspot.com
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