If you post a Tweet about Baghdad....
On March 20, I posted, on Twitter, pictures of the relatively new Dijlah Village development in Baghdad, with the caption, “Baghdad, 20 years later.”
The development is genuinely impressive. It reminds a great deal of the new The Wharf in Washington D.C.s SouthWest Waterfront. Except—as one DC resident noted—there is actually parking at Dijlah Village, unlike at the The Wharf.
I knew, in the moment I posted, that the responses would be rich and varied and that I was at serious risk of—in Twitter speak—”being dragged.” I’m not naïve—I was born at night but it wasn’t last night. I’ve been on the Iraq account long enough to remember the Sturm und Drang around the ten year anniversary in 2013. Iraq hits lots and lots of nerves for all kinds of reasons—some noble, some base.
Even so, the responses were interesting, and provide a kind of anthropological snapshot. I think the responses divide neatly into categories.
1. Iraqis aren’t allowed to have nice things.
I think the responses here come in two flavors. The first, by far the majority, has the sentiment of essentially, “Since I don’t approve of the US invasion and Americans and Iraqis died, Iraq must remain crappy, lest a good result be used as justification.”
The second focuses on Iran. The exact complaint is difficult to follow, but essentially it also maintains that since Iraq has ties to Iran, that Iraqis must, again, perpetually suffer.
2. “Sampling error.”
Admittedly, the most clever response I received consisted simply of those two words, “Sampling Error" (from an Iraqi who works at one of the promising institutions in Iraq’s nascent entrepreneurial ecosystem, so not surprising). Others put the same message in less cute and/or more graphic terms. Essentially, the position seems to be that showing a particularly, and admittedly unrepresentative, nice part of Baghdad requires that you also show all the less flattering aspects as well.
Okay, maybe. Fair enough. But I do look forward to watching this standard be enforced consistently. So be put on notice, one is not permitted to post a picture of (e.g.) Times Square, the Eiffel Tower, or the Gateway Arch without posting alongside them pictures of the least desirable neighborhoods in close proximity. Standards must be upheld.
3. “This is the Green Zone.”
No. It’s not.
4. “This is built by money laundering.”
That Dijlah City—and for that matter, every other mall and/or restaurant in town—is involved in money laundering (and/or other organized crime) is both pervasively rumored and exceedingly plausible. Yes.
Is that somehow specific to Iraq? Isn’t it a safe assumption that any development and/or commercial real estate you see—anywhere in the world—has a seamy underside? That’s always been my working assumption….
Finally, thanks to those who engaged—even if by just hitting “like”— with Iraq’s real but very incomplete progress, exemplified by, but not limited to, this thought.
