19 March 2013
Before joining The Electronic Intifada on staff in 2010, I was primarily a radio producer and the host of Flashpoints, an investigative newsmagazine on the Pacifica Radio Network. My first day on the job was 19 March 2003, the day of the “Shock and Awe” bombing campaign on Baghdad led by US occupation forces. It was also three days after US activist Rachel Corrie was killed by an Israeli-modifiied US-made Caterpillar bulldozer in Rafah, Gaza.
Ten years, and countless deaths, injuries, traumas, internal displacements and environmental catastrophes later, Iraq is still struggling under the weight of an entrenched privatized occupation and fomented civil violence. And those American and European officials who instigated the invasion, war and occupation based on mendacious allegations have yet to face prosecution for their countless war crimes.
In collaboration with the incredible online magazine ShakomakoNET, I produced an hour-long radio program featuring the voices of scholars, artists, journalists and activists reflecting on and assessing the last decade of social, political, economic and environmental upheaval created by the occupation of Iraq. These voices don’t only capture the last ten years of this calamity, but also the resilient spirit of Iraqis that has continued to flourish in spite of all that has happened, and continues to happen every day.
The radio program is being made available by ShakomakoNET as a free resource to stations, programmers and journalists around the world who are interested in sharing an important and relevant piece with listeners, many of whom were deeply impacted by the war on Iraq ten years ago, and who still work tirelessly for justice in Iraq, in Palestine and in our own backyards.
For much more coverage of Iraq’s past, present and future, check out ShakomakoNET and especially the 10 Years section — featuring more interviews, downloadable “Remember Iraq?” posters by Jenny Grossbard, art pieces (including one by EI contributor Nidal El Khairy), original music compositions and Ahmed Habib’s “A Dummy’s Guide to Iraq.” The radio program is part of a wider initiative to create a resource kit for community organizers, activists and all people affected by the occupation of Iraq to forge out responses and disseminate information as a means of making sure that this is not just another anniversary that passes us by.
Interviewed on the radio program are:
- Dahr Jamail, journalist and author of Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq and The Will to Resist: Soldiers who Refuse to Fight in Iraq and Afghanistan
- Dr. Sabah Alnasseri, political science professor at York University
- Liisa Schofield, activist and anti-poverty organizer
- Ali Issa, activist and organizer with War Resisters’ League and journalist with Jadaliyya
- Sundus Abdul Hadi, multimedia artist
- Rijin Sahakian, artist and co-founder of Sada, a non-profit project supporting new and emerging arts practices through education initiatives in Iraq and public programs internationally
- Ahmed Habib, writer, journalist and part of the editorial team at shakomako(dot)NET.
