Out of Iraq

The occupation of Iraq by the USA and the UK will end. The liberation of Iraq can only be realised by the Iraqi's themselves. The Iraqi people receive a lot of help, and some of it unsolicited, from armies and mercenaries, from friends and family, from God maybe.
But a lot of solicited assistance is not forthcoming, simply because it is too risky for aid organisations. The situation in Iraq is changing by the week; there is no program to support civil society, independent media or liberating cultural production. Most civil organisations and projects have only recently started and are closely connected to specific political or religious interest groups. A lot of independent civic live remains to be invented. And the Iraqi's are dependent on support and assistance from outside, especially from Iraqi's living in exile.
But Iraq is not a desert. It is a country of clay tablets and hard disks, of powerful poetry and surprising web logs, a nation of activists, artists and mediators. These voices are isolated, unheard and closed in or shared on web sites that nobody reads. However they harbour the power of survival: the thing that does not kill you, makes you stronger.

Tigris Stream Time

The Tigris is a river that flows from the Turkish mountains through Kurdish, Syrian and Iraqi lands to Basrah in the south. It is both a natural connecting element and a metaphor for the continuity of history and culture, for imagination and liberation. In Baghdad its banks have been ruined by Saddam Hussein and again occupied by military forces of the Coalition. In the north the Tigris is object of mega projects like the Great Anatolian Project, in the south the marshes are the scene of lasting havoc of pollution, repression and resistance. The Tigris itself is in need of liberation: it can become part of public life again, and a source of civilization like it used to be in Sumerian times.
Radio Reedflute takes the Tigris as the starting point for doing just that: the stream will be transformed into a stream of sounds and images on the internet, through local radio stations and web based networked projects it will promote civil activities in architecture, poetry, music and popular expression. Architects, artists and reconstruction workers will be challenged to look at Baghdad from the river and reshape the public sphere. Reclaiming the Tigris entails regaining the pleasure, but also processing the pain.

Al Merbed documentary

Al Merbed is the name of the annual Poetry Festival in Basrah, in the south of Iraq.
This year, from April 2 till 4, was the first time after the fall of Saddam and brought together Iraqi poets, writers and other artists from all parts of Iraq and from the diaspora.
Until last year Saddam exploited this well known festival for his own political purposes, but this time it was free: a celebration of liberation, a meeting of old friends a first attempt to deal with past pains and articulate a future for free artistic expression and contributing to enlightenment and development of Iraqi society at large.

Under the current circumstances at the beginning of April, when the crisis started to gain significance on a daily basis, the festival was held in a closed environment of the Hotel and a Hall with only invited participants. However, a lot of readings and meetings have been documented on Minidisk and on camera.

The first aim of this Merbed documentation project is to publish all this material on a web site and on a CD-ROM, in collaboration with the Iraqi National Union of Writers (chapters Basrah and Baghdad), with Radio Reedflute and with RastaSoft. This will open an avenue for publishing more of the artists present at Al Merbed, collecting texts, translations, pictures, press clippings, etc. The web site will be updated regularly, moderated by trained web editors from Iraq.
This web site and the (equally updated) CD ROM distributions would serve the purpose of completing and expanding the documentation, showcasing the project on radio programs, cultural events and (international) festivals and gatherings, and of course anybody interested in contemporary cultural life, who has access to the web.
A so called toolbox of software and content specially assembled for Iraqi radio makers and cultural activists would be the logical extension of this line of development.
The longer term perspective is to create a much wider outreach and participation of next years Merbed, by creating a parallel on-line platform, which would enable live streaming and interactivity from other locations.

International conference on free media and culture in Iraq
Istanbul, Turkey October 2004

The purpose of this two-day conference is to bring together artists, journalists, cultural activists and donors that are committed to the future of a free media culture in Iraq. The aim is to promote cultural expression and freedom of communication, to be the cardamom of peace, democracy, tolerance, reconciliation and justice in Iraq. The conference will focus on independent and do-it-yourself publishing activities on internet and radio.

The Conference consists of

The conference will be open for all.
There will be a public program, with parallel working sessions, cultural events, radio programs, etc.
It will be an opportunity for donors, publishers, etc. to gain deep insight and meet real people.
Languages: Arabic, Turkish, Kurdish, English

Preparatory meetings will be held in Baghdad, Diyarbakir and Amsterdam.

contact: info@streamtime.org