Monday, December 5, 2011

Us us us us us us, and them them them them them them: Americans & Iraqis

My hope is that this post allows various Iraqi voices to speak for themselves, rather than me making a case for them.




"You're American and we're Iraqi. You're not Bush and we're not Saddam."
-ANONYMOUS IRAQI MAN

Quote as recalled by United Statesian activist Jodie Evans. The man was responding to her question: "Why are you being so nice to us?"

Jodie Evans spoke at this year's Connecting for Change conference, which I went to and enjoyed. Presenters and workshops explored topics including youth empowerment, environmental activism, women's rights, local food, alternative journalism, healthy school lunches, and wild edibles*.
 
*This link is for the 2012 wild edibles workshop because I couldn't find a page about the one they had in 2011.

You can see Jodie's entire 22 minute speech here.
 



Shoot an Iraqi describes an artistic endeavor of Wafaa Bilal, an artist and professor who immigrated to the U.S. from Iraq in 1992 to escape repression under Saddam Hussein’s regime. In 2007, he spent a month in a small Chicago gallery in the line of fire of a paintball gun that people could shoot at him over the internet. Internet viewers could also see and chat with Wafaa. By the twentieth day, he had been shot at over 40,000 times, and hackers had programmed the gun to fire automatically. By the end, more than 60,000 people (people, not just shots) from 130 countries shot at him.

Yellow paintballs were used because yellow is the color of the Support Our Troops ribbons


"Uprooted" by Iraqi artist, Naman Hadi

"Birth" by Iraqi artist, Dalia Mohammad

"Kliem of the South" by Iraqi artist, Ahmed Nussaif


Also,

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