Rich's Website

Rich's Website

Blog Post for the 19th of November

One of the final chapters talks about one of the hardest working civil servants in Iraq named Barham Salih, and Filkins writes about a conversation Salih is having with a woman whose son is kidnapped and must fork over 5,000 dollars or else he will be killed. This chapter got me thinking about some political officials in Iraq that are actually good people, Salih retrieves 5,000 in cash and tells the woman he will help her. But mainly my point is that not all of the political officials in Iraq were corrupt people and not all of them followed the hand of Saddam. I think that being a good political official or good politician in Iraq must of been damn near impossible because if anyone ever went against Saddam they would be killed and also their families would be hurt. The temptation to revolt against Saddam would only lead to death, and I'm sure a very brutal one. That's one of the most annoying things about this war, whenever someone up-rises and causes a stir they always threaten their family too. It just seems so unfair in the unofficial rules of war. But getting back to my main point, I think that those good politicians who were honest, brave, and weren't corrupt are reaping the benefits today in a more democratic Iraq, at least I hope they are.

Forever War: Great Journalism

Almost all finished with the book and one chapter talks about how the government officials in Iraq are either all dead or are hiding somewhere. Filkins talks about how one of the Governors went near crazy and lived with solely marines in the rubble of his hometown. Then Filkins talks about the two worlds of the government and where they lived. This is apart of the book that I like the most because Filkins clearly has a vast supply of knowledge on the subject, he has been reporting on the middle east since 1998. But this is where you get to appreciate his journalism on the subject. He gives the reader a great understanding of what's going on, and describes certain situations perfectly. He easily could of just mentioned that half of the government is either dead or in hiding, but he went even further and talked about some of the officials and what happened to them. He draws you in with knowledge and interest on the subject. Filkins has the ability to use the current situation he is in and mix it with his background journalism to power this book, it's clear why he is over there reporting.

Potential Essay #3 Topic

For the third essay or essays, I would first like to do a piece that would be in a magazine, and right now I'm just kicking around the idea of having the piece be about the recent downfall of technological tools or websites that have fallen complete off the earth in the last five years or so. The piece would center around new technology such as the iphone and the billion apps it has for it and facebook and how they've put so many companies out of business. Some of the companies that no longer seem to be talked about anymore are tivo, napster, community webshots, payphones and landlines, gps navigations. The piece will then focus on what will happen in the next five years, will we just have a phone that does everything for us? Right now this is just and idea I'm working on .. .. .. I'm hoping to develop in to something I could send into a magazine.