Het Archiefforum

Diary for the Period 1-10 March 2007

Thursday, 1 March
The internet system had been not working since Wednesday. Therefore, I was unable to read my e-mails. Sometimes, a few of the e-mails need urgent response from me. My inability to reply quickly puts me often in an awkward position. The deputy head of the computer department contacted the engineers of the state-owned company to repair the internet system.

The engineers promised to restore the system within 24 hours. But, I was sure the engineers would not fix the problem. It usually takes them several days and sometimes several weeks to restore our internet system. Since the early days of 2007, I have been removing with the help of some young workers the Monarchical and Presidential Collections from its present location to my office. The Collections have some valuable books. The vast majority of the books were gifts sent to the heads of the State (i.e. the Kings or the Presidents) from 1921, (i.e. when the Iraqi State was established) and 2003 (i.e. when the Saddam Regime collapsed). A good friend of mine, who used to work as the CPA (Coalition Provisional Authority) adviser on libraries between mid-2003 and mid 2004, told me about the whereabouts of the Monarchical and Presidential Collections and the fact that they would be looted if one did not take an prompt action to safe them. I told him I was more than willing to safe these invaluable collections if he helped me. I needed his help, because the collections were kept in a garage within the former Presidential Complex. The latter was located in the Green Zone, which was (is still) heavily guarded. My friend had ID that enabled him and his companions to enter the Green Zone. The problem was that he had no authorization to take the collections let alone bring a big truck to the Green Zone, which we definitely needed to move the collections to the INLA. We were extremely lucky to be helped by someone who was influential in the CPA at the time. That person got us the much needed permission to take the collections and to bring a big truck to the Green Zone. My friend, the driver of the truck and I needed to pass through a series of US checkpoints. It took us two hours just to reach the garage from the main gate of the Green Zone. The collections were hidden in an abandoned office inside the garage, where I found thousands of secret files and records belong to the Presidential Place. They were guarded by one US army officer. As these secret files and records were highly sensitive for political reasons and extremely important historically speaking, I approached the officer, asking him why these secret files and records were kept untidily in the garage? He replied that they would be used by the future Iraqi Court when Saddam and his henchmen would be put on trial. Then I asked him if I could read some of them? He refused in a polite manner, explaining that his duty was to look after these secret files and records until the Iraqi government decide their future. After I ended my conversation with the US army officer, my friend and I began to put the Monarchical and Presidential Collections inside the truck. It took us one hour. As the truck was not able to carry more books, I put what remained of the books in my friend's car. It took us another 50 minutes to arrive to the INLA (Iraq National Library and Archives). We were very exhausting physically. Thick dust covered our clothe, faces, hairs and hands. My friend and I enjoyed a lot our little adventure, and were very glad that we saved important collections from looting.

I am keeping all the Monarchical and Presidential Collections in my office for security reason. My office is guarded day and night. I hope that one day, when peace and security prevail, I will be able to display these collections in public.

For a few months, we have been facing a big problem concerning the publication of our books, such as the national bibliography. Last year, it took the Directorate of Cultural Affairs (CA), which is a part of the Ministry of Culture, 7 to 8 months to publish just two of our books; and we found out that the books were poor technically speaking. The paper and the ink were of substandard quality. The costs of the two books were too high. Moreover, we wasted a lot of time and efforts unnecessarily. According to State's regulations, we cannot print our books and journals in private companies, unless state-owned companies confirm formally that they cannot do the job for some reason. Therefore, I asked the Minister for his permission to allow the INLA to print its books through private companies. He refused, asking me to fine the CA according the terms of the written agreement between the two parties. I informed the Minister that I had already done that. At the same time, I asserted that imposing fines would not solve our publication problem, and asked the Minister to consider his decision. In the last meeting of the Ministerial Council, the Minister wanted the two Directorates (the INLA & the CA) to reach a compromise that would be satisfactory for both sides. I reluctantly accepted the Minister's initiative, but I did not hide my resentment, emphasizing that any new agreement would not work, as the CA would not adhere to it. The time proved that I was right. The INLA has been trying in vain to reach agreement with the CA, since the last meeting of Ministerial Council. Therefore, I decided to send another letter to the Minister on Monday, asking his permission to allow the INLA print its books by private companies. It would cost much less and the quality would be much better. Everybody at the ministry of culture knows that the CA is the most corrupt, inefficient and disorganized directorate. I told the minister about what I thought of the CA and its staff.

In the evening, a Spanish journalist from El Pais newspaper contacted me. She interviewed me by phone. The interview was short, focused on the INLA.

Friday, 2 March
I spent the day writing. I miss my old time when I had an adequate amount of time to do some historical researches. I am planning to complete a 20-page research on the Kurdish Community in Baghdad by the end of this month.

Saturday, 3 March
I spent the day writing my little research. I spent some of my time thinking about the historical documents, microfilms and photos, which returned to us last week. I quickly reached a conclusion that the first cleric, who claimed to have saved our collections from looting in April 2003, did not give us back a portion of our collections, which moved to a Mosque in al-Sadr City. I also think that the second cleric, whom I met last week, knew about what the first cleric did, and decided to return the remaining documents, microfilms and photos to us. I do believe that the second cleric is an honest person, unlike the first one, whom I did not trust from the very beginning. I even told some of my American friends not to believe the claims of the first cleric about his heroic role in saving our collections from looting following the destruction of the INLA.

Sunday, 4 March
The road traffic was unbelievably heavy. It took me 55 minutes to arrive to the INLA. The checkpoints are being increased daily. The soldiers and the police officers search cars and passengers alike. Many of these checkpoints are placed in wrong locations. Sometimes, one car will be stopped and searched by several checkpoints in the same road! At present, ordinary people do not complain. But, I am pretty sure that they will express their resentment, as their movements are being increasingly restricted day by day. Our national guards and police officers must reconsider the distributions of their checkpoints by analyzing the roads map of Baghdad. People are wasting valuable times in the heavy traffic. It is very difficult for a lot of civil servants, university student and teachers to go to their work. The disruption of our daily life is the main aim of the terrorists and the armed gangs, who wage their campaign of terror to destroy all types of normality of the people. Unfortunately, the rash actions of the national guards and the police, which cause daily chaos and confusion, play into the hands of the outlaws.

As soon as I entered my office, I went directly to the internet to see if was repaired. I was surprised to find the internet was working. It was the first time in which the repair of the internet system took just four days. Usually, it takes three to five weeks. The reason for the delays are corruption. Corruption is widespread phenomenon in all the government departments and institutions, including our ministry. None of the three successive ministers of culture tried seriously to remove the corrupt elements or to put an end to all types of corrupt practices. Corruption is the main threat to our society and people; it is far more dangerous than terrorism. Widespread corruption has been hindering my efforts to modernize the INLA, since my appointment in December 2003. I have been forced to put my ideas into action behind the back of those who are above me. Without resorting to unconventional methods and tactics, it would have been impossible for to reconstruct the INLA. No minister or any influential person encouraged or assisted me to breathe life into the INLA. I was lucky to have very good friends in many countries, including, Italy, Czeck Republic, Britain, America, Holland. These friends worked very hard to help me reopen all the departments of the Library and the Archive. Publications, restoration and micrographic laboratories, computers, printers, internet system, furniture and many things were sent from abroad. My staff and I will never ever forget those people who stood by us. It is very sad to the Iraqis to see that all the countries, especially the Arab ones, which we did help in past, did not even contact us. The destruction of the INLA is lesson for us, although it is a very harsh one.

At 9.10, I met the head of the Department of Accountancy. To solve the issue of the transport, he proposed to replace the existing cars with bigger ones. This would help us reduce considerably the cost of the transport service. I thought it was a good idea. So I asked him to contact the contractors immediately, and to inform me about the outcomes as soon as he could.

At 10.00, I met Miss Th., who works as the head of IT and Library at the School of Administration. The School is just 500 meter away from our building. Miss Th., who came to my office without a prior notice, asked if we would take part in her School's book fair, which will be held on 22 March. I said yes, and asked her if her library received any of our publications. She said no. She was surprised to learn that we managed to publish all the issues of the National Bibliography, as there was a huge gap between the years 1997 and 2003. I asked some librarians from the department of Exchange and Acquisition to join the meeting. At the end of the meeting, we agreed to send copies of all our publications and some of our surplus books and journals to the School. We agreed also to take part in the book-fair, where we will display some of our rare books, which we recovered after the looting of April 2003.

I received Mr. F, who took his family to a neighboring country in November 2006, after he received a death threat. His house was looted and confiscated by one of the Militias. His family stayed behind, and he returned alone. I was extremely glad to see him, he is an asset in my office. Saddam executed his father in the late 1960s. We talked for several minutes about the changes that took place in his absence. I proposed that he should head the department of public relations, which needed someone to bring life in it. He agreed in principle. We decided to meet again tomorrow concerning the redefining of the activities and tasks of the department of public relations.

Our young workers began to move all the extra copies of our collections from the book stacks to the basement of the building where they would be kept until we distribute them among academic and local libraries in Baghdad and in the rest of the country. Following my appointment, I noticed that the INLA had several copies of the same book. Sometime, we had ten copies of the same book! I proposed that we should keep only three copies of each book (the finest copies of course), and remove the remaining copies from the library stacks. To do so, I needed the approval of the former minister of culture. The new minister ordered the formation of a committee whose task would be the distribution of the extra copies. I was not happy with what the minister proposed, as I knew that the extra copies would be giving to the wrong people. So, I shelved the idea of distributing the extra copies, and I am waiting for the right time to implement my idea.

A Journalist from Washington Post contacted me to see if I would be available to meet him tomorrow. I said to him that he could come around 9.00-9.30.

Before leaving my office, I read an article on the INLA published in the Guardian on 28 February. The writer was generous in praising our efforts to keep the INLA open for our readers.

I received an important email from our the representative of the Library of Congress. I was asked to sign a Memorandum of Understanding that will establish the principles on which the LC and the INLA can cooperate. The INLA will benefit from the LC's World Digital Library. The LC's officials, whom I met last year, kindly agreed to provide us with the necessary equipment and to train some of our staff. I highly value this project, as a numbered countries from the Third World have been able to enter the world of digital library.

In the evening, I read the national newspapers. In the second page of al-Mutamar newspaper, I came across a little statement I made a few days ago, in which I demanded the government to separate the INLA from the Ministry of Culture and to link it directly to either the Council of Ministers or the Presidency. I also demanded that the INLA's director had to be granted extensive financial and administrative responsibilities so that he or she could carry out a series of fundamental changes in the fields of organization, legislations and personnel. I know my little statement will make some people unhappy. It is my dream to make the INLA independent of the ministry of culture. Our subjection to that ministry is the main reason why we cannot go forward as fast as I like. I cannot appoint any librarian or archivist without first getting the approval of the minister, and this proved difficult to obtain on many occasions. For instance, In November last year, I sent a letter to the Minister asking his approval of the appointment of 9 young graduates, whom I needed to fill certain gaps in some departments, such as the administration, computer and cataloging. The Minister refused to give his approval. I sent another letter to him two weeks ago, emphasizing that my institution needs new blood in order to make real progress; but he refuses to answer it. This is just one of many problems I face. The Prime Minster told the media that he will replace a number of his ministers. I have no choice but to wait and see.

Monday, 5 March
(This day will be always remembered, as the day when books were assassinated by the forces of darkness, hatred and fanaticism.)

The traffic was predictably very heavy. My car was searched at a checkpoint. The police offers were polite.

Miss. M. came to my office to say good byes. She has already moved to Basra, after the murder of her brother. I asked her not to be sad, as I was certain she would come back to us some time in the future.

At 9.00 someone from the Washington Post office rang me, informing me that the reporter would be a bit late. Therefore, I decided to meet the staff of the English Collections, as I planned earlier. The English Collection section is in the last floor, which much more damaged than other floors. The smoke caused by the fires of mid-April 2003, dust, high temperature, the breakdown of the ventilation system and most importantly the shortage of electricity supplies took their toil on the library collections. We have around 66,300 English books in various subjects. The oldest book goes back to 1845. Twelve librarians work in the English collection section, and all of them speak English. The inventorying work has started in September 2005 when three librarians undertook to make new cataloguing cards replace the missing ones during the mid-April fires in 2003. They had also to classify, catalogue, correct past mistakes and clean hundreds of other books. It has been a very difficult task, as the books storage area had no air conditioning system several months. The old conditioning system had been removed during the Saddam Rule for unknown reasons! The frequent power cuts, especially in the summer, make it very difficult to work inside the books storage area. However, my staff went on doing their task, even when the temperature rose to 48 centigrade. During the meeting, they complained about the power cuts, temperature and the dust. They asked me to provide them with good gloves, pens and white inks. Towards the end of the meeting, the head of the security of the building informed me that two people (one foreigner and one Iraqi) were waiting for me. I told him to take both men immediately to my office, and that I would meet them in 5 minutes.

I introduced myself to the Washington Post reporter and his Iraqi colleague, before the interview. I was asked various questions about culture in general and INLA in particular. We talked frankly about the security situation and impact on the INLA and its staff, etc.

As we were talking, a huge explosion shook the INLA's building around 11.35. We, the three of us, ran to the nearest window, and we saw a big and thick grey smoke rising from the direction of al-Mutanabi Street, which is less than 500 meter away from the INLA. I learnt later that the explosion was a result of a car bomb attack. Tens of thousands of papers were flying high, as if the sky was raining books, tears and blood. The view was surreal. Some of the papers were burning in the sky. Many burning pieces of papers fell on the INLA's building. Al-Mutanabi Street is named after one of the greatest Arab poets, who lived in Iraq in the middle ages. The Street is one of well-known areas of Baghdad and where many publishing houses, printing companies and bookstores have their main offices and storages. Its old cafes are the most favorite place for the impoverished intellectuals, who get their inspirations and ideas form this very old quarter of Baghdad. The Street is also famous for its Friday's book market, where secondhand, new and rear books are sold and purchased. The INLA purchases about 95% of new publications from al-Mutanabi Street. I also buy my own books from the same street. It was extremely sad to learn that a number of the publishers and book sellers, whom we knew very well, were among the dead, including Mr. Adnan, who was supposed to deliver a consignment of new publications to the INLA. According to an early estimation, more than 30 people were killed and 100 more injured. Four brothers were killed in their office.

Immediately after the explosion, I ordered the guards to prevent all my staff from leaving the building, as there was a possibility of another bomb attack. My staff and I were watching the movement of a number civilian and military ambulances, carrying killed and injured people. It was a heartbreaking view.

Almost ten minutes after the explosion, the Washington Post's reporter and his Iraqi colleague left the building. Their destination was unsurprisingly al-Mutanabi Street, the site of the massacre. Before the end of the meeting, we agreed to meet again next morning to continue the interview. After I arrived to my home, my wife told me that a big bomb blast shook our house at 11.30 and that dust and smoke covered our neighborhood. Fortunately, no one was hurt.

At 18.10, I was the guest of a Spanish radio that broadcasts to Spain and Latin American. I answered by phone series of questions about the INLA, its staff and the security challenges. The interview lasted 15 minutes.

Almost one hour later, the Reuters reporter in Baghdad rang me, asking me some question about the al-Mutanabi Street's car bomb attack, its history and cultural importance.

I watched the night news bulletin. The car bomb attack against Al-Mutanabia shocked all Iraqis regardless of their religious and ethnic background. The President, the Prime Minster and some other high-rank officials condemned the attack. Our political leaders are the best when it comes to the 'extremely difficult' task of issuing condemnation statements, while the annihilation of our culture and intellectual class goes on before their very eyes everyday.

At 20.25, my brother rang from London, asking me if everybody was fine. I reassured him that we all were fine. Then, as usual, we talked about politics, our friends and families.

Tuesday, 6 March
It was one of bloodiest days, as hundreds of civilians were either killed or injured by a series of car bomb and suicide attacks.

The war between the Minister of Culture and his Deputy became public, when the latter published an article in the main national newspaper, al-Sabah, viciously attacking the Minister, accusing him of being a terrorist, a killer and a sectarian! It has been for some time that Ministry of Culture was literally divided into two groups: the first group is Sunni dominated, led by the Minister, and based in the new building in the al-Haifa Street, and the second group is Shi'i dominated, led The Deputy Minister of Culture, and based in the former building in al-Zaiyonah district). This Cultural Sectarian War has completely paralyzed the Ministry of Culture. It has affected me too, even though I have stayed away from this sectarian nonsense from the very beginning, focusing on doing my tasks. I hope that the Prime Minister will intervene decisively in the matter before it is too late by removing all those people who have been involved in this sectarian cultural war.

At 10.00 I had a meeting with the staff of the Restoration Laboratory. Ten people work at the Laboratory, two men and eight young women. The Czech government provided us with all the necessary equipment and trainings, which enabled us to set up a modern restoration laboratory for the first time in the INLA's history. So far, six people (4 women and 2 men) have been trained in Czech Republic, Italy and Iraq. I hope that the INLA's restorers will enter an advanced training course this year. One of our original plans was that our trained staff would train other people from different cultural and educational institutions.

I began the meeting by explaining my plans to develop the Lab., such as providing its staff with more training and tools. My friend Rene Teijgeler, who served as a cultural adviser to Ministry of Culture during the CPA's period, informed me that the Dutch Blue Shield was willing to fund a project to purchase some tools and other necessary items for the INLA's Restoration Lab. I prepared a list before sending it to Rene. The head of the Lab, who is a practiced archivist, asked me to increase the number of his assistants, as there were many restoration works to be done. Last year, he held several training courses for our young archivists and for the archivists of the Ministry of Interior. He and his deputy, Miss. Na, always busy doing some experiments to find new solution for problems they face during their restoration works. They are the most creative people among the INLA's staff. They teach their Iraqi colleagues what they learnt from foreign experts. It was great news to hear all the staff enjoyed their daily works at the Lab. At the end of the meeting, I suggested that we should make a documentary film of the process of restoring some of our damaged documents and records, so that it can be used in future training programmes. I also suggested that the Lab's staff should write down the number, the type, the extent of damages of each item they would restore and how much time it would take them to do the job. My personal assistant wrote down the main points of the meeting.

The Washington Post reporter and his Iraqi colleague came to the meeting, 15 minutes before it ended. After the meeting, I introduced both of them to the head of the Lab, who answered some of their questions. The Washington Post reporter wanted to take some direct notes on the INLA's daily works. The reporter, his Iraqi companion, my personal assistant and I went to the Computer Department, where I would have another meeting with its staff.

Last year, 25 people worked in the Computer Department. Now, only 16 people work in the Department. Three women are on maternity leave, one went abroad and three left the INLA for security reasons. So far, the Department lost two of its young staff. Both men were married and had BA in computer science. Apart from two people all the staff of the Department are young. The head of Department, Miss Am, is a library graduate. She is loved and respected by her staff. She treats her colleagues kindly, as if they are member of her own family.

The INLA lost its four old computers during the Mid-April 2003 fires and lootings. There was no computer department in the INLA, when I was appointed. Just three weeks after my appointment, I purchased four computers behind the back of the Minister of Culture. He was given a promise by some country that his ministry would provide with hundreds of computers. But he did not a single computer even after a year and a half. I did not want to wait to setup the computer department, which I viewed as essential step for the process of modernizing the INLA. At present, the INLA has more than 130 computers, including some laptops. All the departments use computers in doing their tasks.

I began the meeting by asking series of questions about their works. I was told that the Arabic collections can be searched on the internet. For our on-line-catalogue we have been using Winisis System, which we upgraded from an old system, named cdisis. We have been using the same system for our English collections. Using modern systems are extremely expensive and require computers with special specifications.

The Computers and the Catalog Departments issue jointly a monthly publication, called Rawafid Thaqafiyah. It reviews all the publications and thesis that the INLA get hold of. We send this publication free of charge to all universities throughout Iraq and to other important cultural and educational institutions.

The staff of the Computer Department is busy with typing three volumes of the Baghdad Memory Project. I asked Miss Na to improve the INLA's website. I know that I am asking too much of her, as she the only web-designer we have, following the tragic death of the other web-designer, Ali, late last years. I asked Miss Na to train four of her colleagues, so that they can share the burden of running the web-site with her. I also asked the head of the department to renew her efforts to train those librarians and archivists who do not know how to use a computer. Last year, more than 7 computer training courses were held in the Department of Computers. The security situation and power cuts prevented the Department from its plan to train 30 people from different departments.

Halfway through the meeting, the power was cut. The meeting ended at 12.35. Thirty minutes later, the reporter and his colleague left the building, after we said our good byes.

Wednesday, 7 March
There was no heavy traffic. I arrived to my office around 8.00. The fighting between the National Guards and a group of armed men in al-Haifa Street began at 6.00 and lasted until 8.15. I heard sporadic exchanges of fire for a few minutes. National guards arrested 36 armed men, after searching the area house by house. The National Guards was also able to defuse a detonated car in Bab Al-mudham near the INLA.

Our technicians began to repair a number of windows, which had been broken as a result of Monday's car attacks against al-Mutanabi Street. At last, I was able to sign an important Memorandum between the Library of Congress and the INLA. The memorandum establishes the principle of cooperation between the two institutions on the World Digital Library project. The memorandum will be supplemented by a technical agreement that decides what equipment and training will be needed to implement the project. I am pinning my hopes on this project to scan a huge portion of our collections of invaluable historical newspapers and journals, before we lose them forever. The colour of the papers changed into dark yellow and became extremely fragile. In other words, these collections are on the brink of total destruction. This state of affair is result of several factors, notably neglect of the former directors, the inexperience of the staff, the negative effects of the mid-April Fires, and the power cuts that have prevented us from providing the right temperature and humidity in the storage areas.

Before leaving my office, three members of the INLA's Woman Society " al-Ferdos" invited me to their party, which they decided to hold on Thursday to celebrate Woman Day. Celebrating Woman Day every year has become part of the INLA's traditions, since my appointment in 2003.Al-Ferdos Society was founded two years ago by a group of female librarians and archivists to defend their rights and to have a strong voice in the administration of the INLA. It is a new experiment, which has helped to raise the confidence and morale of my female staff in a country where male values are totally dominating all aspects of life.

At 15.00, I took my wife and son to my in-laws. She wanted to spend some days with her parents. I stayed from 40 minutes and then left to see my friends. The day before, my wife prepared several meals for me, and told me what to eat on what day!

After the night news bulletin, the Deputy Minister appeared in a cultural programme, in which he renewed his attack on the Minister of Culture.

Thursday, 8 March
The traffic was light today. The reason is that the government have restricted movements of private cars, i.e. one day for cars that have odd numbers and one day for cars that have double numbers.

As I expected, I received a call from the Minister's secretary concerning my press statement, in which I called the government to separate the INLA from the Ministry of Culture. I told the Secretary that I would tell the Minister what I said exactly to the media, when came back from his foreign visit. I believe the Minister and office are making an unreasonable connection between the statement I made and the article written by Deputy Minister in which he attacked the Minister.

At 10.00, Al-Ferdos society's members gathered in one the main rooms to celebrate the Woman Day. The spokesperson of the Society read out the programme of the party, and then invited me to make a short speech, a thing that I always hate to do. In my speech, I pointed out that "we should all be proud of the fact that the INLA is the only government institution in Iraq, where its female staff were able to form their own society", and "we must not forget our five colleagues who died recently". At the end of my short speech, I undertook to support the Society's efforts financially and morally by donating some money to the Society and by sending an official appreciation letter to all of its members in recognition of their crucial role in the resurrection of the INLA. Cakes, chocolates and Pepsi-cola were distributed in a very friendly and happy atmosphere.

At 11.00, I left the INLA. My destination was al-Mutanabi, the scene of the last carnage, where Iraq intellectuals decided to get together in honor of all those who died in the car bomb attack. There were eleven people from the INLA in my company. We took with us two cameras to document this unprecedented event. Amidst the ruins and destruction caused by the car bomb attack a group of very angry and sad Iraqi intellectuals stood. There were TV cameras, reporters and journalists. The spokesman of the Iraqi Writers Union, and a number of poets, novelists and writers either made short speeches or recited some sad but powerful pomes. It was very heartbreaking occasion. I was glad that I was not the Minister of Culture! Everybody was angry about the ineffectiveness and carelessness of the Ministry of Culture. The intellectuals became furious when unexpectedly the Director of the Cultural Affairs made a speech on behalf of the Minister of Culture. He was unwelcome and uninvited guest. The audience interrupted his speech more than once. No one was willing to pay attention. Unlike my fellow director, I was well received by the intellectuals, as I was known for my blunt criticism of negative cultural policies adopted by successive federal governments and shortsightedness of the political class. Two of my companions filmed the destroyed area, while I took some photos. It is undoubtedly imperative to document this event for its historical values. It is the day, when both people and their books were massacred concurrently.

Immediately after the end of the gathering, some workers found the body of an old man under the wreckage of a destroyed bookstore.

At 18.25, my wife rang me from her parents' house. She told me off for going to al-Mutanabi, as she considered it to be a very dangerous place. It did not take me long to discover how much my wife was suffering from an illness called double standard, as she did not hesitate herself to go for shopping in al-Shurjah (the main commercial district), which is not too far from al-Mutanabi. The former is widely considered the most dangerous place in the country. It has been the terrorists' most favorite target, even in comparison with the Green Zone, which is the seat of government, parliament and the most important embassies.

Friday, 9 March
I spent the day alone in my home, writing and reading.

The National Guards defused two bomb cars in al-Shurjah area. My wife's parents live in a very old area called Suq al-Ghazil, which 200 meters away from al-Shurjah. In the afternoon, I went to see one of my close friends. We discussed the crisis inside the Ministry of Culture. It has been virtually divided into parts, Sunni and Shi'i, while the head of government has turned a blind eye on the crisis. My friend prepared a draft for a new legislation for the Ministry of Culture. It was a good one, and asked me if I could read it and make some suggestions. The old-fashioned elements, who are mostly ex-Ba'athists, did not like the draft. I advised my friend to postpone the submission of the draft, and wait for the right time, i.e. reshuffling of the Cabinet.

Saturday, 10 March
Three bombs exploded in my neighborhood. Two bombs went off at 7.30. They violently shook my flat, as I was watching some TV programme. At 13.20, another bomb exploded in my neighborhood. It shook my flat. I spent the whole day writing and reading in my room.