A day in the life of Baghdad

Several of you know that Shashank is currently in Baghdad for a month covering what will probably be the biggest conflict story of our generation .... and so in order to maintain some form of intelligent conversation with him - i've been scouring everything that i can on the situation .... and i am ashamed to realise how immune i have become to reading about what is happening in Iraq .... the newspaper stories feature a body count, a bomb, and a sect .... and then i just switch off .... its just like it was during the wars in Bosnia etc ... or even in general the whole of Africa ... the same story repeated just with different numbers and players ...

Anyhow in an attempt to educate myself - quite aside from Shashank's own blog (what will Playboy make of him now?!) .... I came across the following blog Inside Iraq written by the Iraqi staff of the McClatchy bureau there .... a truly heartfelt account of day to day life in Baghdad - far more poignant and insightful than any newspaper article .... i commend it to you.