Check these out:
1. Salam Pax's original blog at tinyplanet.org/iraqblog
2. "Shut up, you fat whiner!" at justzipit.blogspot.com
3. Salam Pax for The Guardian newspaper: http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/salampax
4. An article by Slate journalist Peter Maass: http://www.slate.com/id/2083847/
5. Salam Pax's new blog at http://salampax.wordpress.com/
And this quote, from Salam Pax and published on The Guardian's website, in the article "I Became the Profane Pervert Arab Blogger":
My name is Salam Pax and I am addicted to blogs. Some people watch daytime soaps, I follow blogs. I follow the hyperlinks on the blogs I read. I travel through the web guided by bloggers. I get wrapped up in the plots narrated by them. I was reading so many blogs I had to assign weekdays for each bunch, plus the ones I was reading daily. It is slightly voyeuristic, especially those really personal blogs: day-to-day, mundane stuff which is actually fascinating; glimpses of lives so different, and so much amazing writing. No politics, just people's lives. How they deal with pain or grief, how they share their happy moments with anybody who cares to read.
And I cared. We had no access to satellite TV, and magazines had to be smuggled into the country. Through blogs I could take a peek at a different world. Satellite TV and the web were on Saddam's list of things that will corrupt you. Having a satellite dish was punishable with jail and a hefty fine because these channels would twist our minds and make us do bad things. They spread immoral values. Of course he and his buddies were incorruptible so they could watch all the satellite TV they wanted.
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