Baghdad Blogger [The adventures of Salam Pax]

His irreverent web diary became an internet sensation during the war. Now, in the first of his fortnightly Guardian columns, Salam Pax reports on life in the Iraqi capital

Vacancies: President needed - fluent in English, will have limited powers only. Generous bonuses." This appeared on the first page of the Ahrar newspaper. Another new weekly. Newspapers are coming out of our ears these days. There are two questions which no one can answer: how many political parties are there now in Iraq? And how many newspapers are printed weekly?" Most of these papers are just two or four pages of party propaganda, no license or hassle. Just go print. I am thinking of getting my own: "Pax News - all the rumours, all the time".

On the first page of the Ahrar paper you will also see a picture and a column by the founder and chief editor. When the newspaper guy noticed how I was staring at the picture he said: "Yes, it is the guy who sells Znood-al-sit [a popular Iraqi sweet]". From pastry to news, wars do strange things to people.

I got five papers for 1,750 dinars, around $1.50, it felt like I was buying the famous bread of bab-al-agha: hot, crispy and cheap. When the newspaper man saw how happy I was with my papers he asked if I would like to take one for free. Newspaper heaven! It turns out that no one is buying any copies of the paper published by the Iraqi Communist workers party; he just wants to unload it on me. Look, I paid for the Hawza paper so why not take the commie one gratis?

Although the ministry of information has been broken up and around 2,000 employees given the boot, the media industry, if you can call it that, is doing very well. Beside all the papers we now have a TV channel and radio; they are part of what our American minders have called the Iraqi media network. My favourite TV show on it is an old Japanese cartoon (here it is called Adnan wa Lina). It is about what happens after a third world war when chaos reigns the earth. Bad choice for kids' programming if you ask me. Some cities have their own local stations and there are two Kurdish TV channels. But the BBC World Service killed in one move a favourite Iraqi pastime: searching for perfect reception. The BBC Arabic service started broadcasting on FM here and it is just not the same when you don't hear the static.

The staff of the ministry of information is being given $50 as a final payment these days: lots of angry shouting and pointing at al-Jazeera cameras. Other civil workers had better luck - the people at the electricity works got paid by the new salary scheme suggested by the Bremer administration (the range is from 100,000 to 500,000 dinars, $100-$500: the people at the lower end got a raise and the people at the top got the cream taken off their pie) and as if by magic the electricity workers try a bit harder and the situation gets better.

Gas is still a problem. But if you drive 15 minutes out of Baghdad you'll find gas station owners who would beg you to come and fill up. Down in the south of Iraq you will find Kuwaiti gasoline, but Baghdad is a mess. There is a rumour that the gas rations given to stations here are being bought up and smuggled to Iran or Turkey. Not so strange. Looted cars were being smuggled through the same route - there was, in the middle of Baghdad, a huge parking lot where looted cars were being auctioned to be taken to the north. It took the western media three weeks to find out about that.

But the main concern of people in all Iraqi cities is still security. You hear stories about day-time robberies in streets full of people. The newest method is to bring a kid along, get him to jump into an open window and start screaming. Four thugs will follow, accusing you of trying to run the kid over, then they kick you around a bit and take the car. All the while, bystanders will be giving you the meanest looks, you child molester, you. You'll be lucky if they don't pull out a gun.

Actually, the coalition forces are coming down hard on people they catch in possession of guns. Car searches are more frequent and if they find a firearm they will cuff you, put a sack over your head and - here comes the question: and what? We still have no laws. A couple of weeks ago it was said that they can only keep someone arrested for 24 hours. Now it is said that male, female and juvenile prisons have been opened. I don't want to be an alarmist and make it sound as if no one goes out on the streets. On the contrary, a lot more shops have opened. In Karada street, where most of the electronic appliance shops are, the merchandise is displayed on the streets (14-inch TVs seem to be very popular) schools are open and exams are scheduled for July. The traffic jam at the gate of the University of Baghdad is like nothing you have seen before. The junk food places in Harthiya are open again and full of boys and girls. The streets of Baghdad are a nightmare to drive through during the day because of the number of cars. But this all ends around 7pm when it starts getting dark.

The problem is that efforts to make Baghdad more secure are being really slowed down by the latest incidents in Fallujah, Heet and Baghdad.

I heard today that one of the infantry divisions is being put back in combat mode. The Military presence has been increased in the streets and soldiers don't look as calm as they did a week ago. Al-Jazeera and Arabiya show angry Iraqis who say things about the promises that America has not kept and the prosperity of which they see no sign. Iraqis are such an impatient lot. How could it be made clear to these people that if they don't cool it and show some cooperation there is no way anyone will see this prosperity? I really don't want to see this country getting caught in the occupier/occupied downward cycle. I know it won't.

While talking to a very eloquent taxi driver the other day, he started accusing the media of not giving a chance to someone like Al-Sistani [one of the two leading Shia clerics] to show another, non-militant, side of Hawza [the influential college of Shia theologians in Najaf]. He was telling me of a Friday prayer khutba in which the imam told them to cooperate with the Americans. They did get rid of Saddam and they should be given a chance to prove their good will. He invited me to come and listen to the khutba next Friday. Maybe, maybe. My friend G might be right after all when he was trying to convince me that the sentence "reasonable imams in Hawza" is not an oxymoron.

Salam Pax is an Iraqi who (like millions of others) lived through the recent war and managed to write a Blog (weblog) about it. Both before, during and after the war I found Salam's first hand accounts of life in Iraq to run circles around the so-called professional reporters. While CNN was telling us before the war that shopkeepers were covering their windows, Salam was telling us how the shopkeeper's supplies were and what was going through the shopkeeper's head.

Although there's been a lot of speculation that Salam Pax is fictional (or worse A Propagandist), turns out he's actually an interpreter for western reporters and now he's sold out and hit the big time as he's signed on to do a column for the guardian.

Cool! I especially enjoyed the Slate article, which I had missed. I started reading Salam Pax's blog during the runup to the war - glad to learn that he's real and seems to be a nice guy as well as a good writer.

Most of these papers are just two or four pages of party propaganda, no license or hassle. Just go print.

I'm going to call this a good thing.
Let a thousand flowers bloom.

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