Blogs from Baghdad, East, Iraq, Middle East

The Swahili City states went through their collective apex from 600-1450 AD because of the Indian Ocean Trade Networks. The majority of these city states went under the control of the Sultan empire. After this all were later conquered by the Portuguese empire where their trade economies all remained relevant but their roles were diminished in some capacities. While the Portuguese never gained full control of the cities, their dominion was enough to weaken the independent cities' trading power, and after the Portuguese threat had been removed, the city-states never fully regained their dominance or significance in trade. Today the cities mentioned in this blog have vastly different economies from one another, however, areas along the East African coast are still very involved in international trade, some of which occurs on the same trade routes used ... read more

Shorty and stocky, with a faultless white shirt and always with a smile ready, Faris drove his black sedan, a private taxi, through the streets of Baghdad along with his two companions, a perfect replica of the Tintin twin policemen, Thompson and Thomson. Sometimes stopped the car to allow us to take some pictures. Then Faris looked toward the horizon, above the river. Where one thousand years before the city was founded. With the right hand, between the index and middle fingers, he kept moving their misbaha beads.... five .... three ... seven ... I fixed my eyes on. A misbaha is nothing else than a rosary, usually made with wooden beads, ivory or amber, but the most common are die cast in plastic. In the early days of Islam loose stones ... read more

Letter No. 4: The driver rushed the cordon and . . . 'Blat! Blat!' I fired twice By David J. Jenkins, USU class of '98 December 20, 2004 � Hello everyone. Greetings from Baghdad . . . Well, as I was just telling someone in a personal e-mail, it is always calm before the storm. I have been hesitant to send this message out, as it has been a tumultuous week. Our platoon was assigned to a cordon and search. Our two Scout platoons were "asked" to go downtown and apprehend some known bad guys. The Recon element did the search and siezure, and our Shooter element set up the cordon, blockading the street in front of the hit site and searching suspicious vehicles and pedestrians. Our vehicle was parked in the middle of the street, ... read more

Letter No. 2: Your call cannot be completed . . . because the telephone building burned down By David J. Jenkins, USU class of '98 December 8, 2004 � Hello everyone. Greetings from Baghdad . . . I emerged from "the house" early one morning, about 0400. I was going to the phone center to make a call, and as I exited the building, I looked up to see a huge plume of white smoke rising into the air, into a cloudless blue sky, with the full moon behind it, giving this rising mass an iridescent glow. I continued on across the complex and as I rounded 1st Cavs building, I could see the yellow and white lights bouncing off the buildings like a pinball machine. I contined on and rounded the last building to see ... read more

I'm still somewhat chastened by the HUGE response to my posts about Manila- 80,000-plus hits and more than a thousand comments, 99% agreeing with me, the rest mildly offensive (I publish those with real names attached - most don't have them) and a tiny minority of four girls, Filipina rich kids, resident abroad who were so egregiously abusive I was lost in despair at what they represent. What also amazed me is the number of folk who had the time to comment on what was essentially a trivial moan after a bad trip... but then again, you could ask the same question of me. Why bother to write this stuff? Actually I only do it for fun when hanging around in a Costa Coffee shop at some airport like I did the other day in Dubai ... read more