Iraqi Schoolyard Rhymes

[MSgt213]

A quick reminder to my rapidly-diminishing cadre of loyal readers: I'll be appearing tonight on The Majority Report, the Air America Radio program hosted by Janeane Garofalo and Sam Seder. I'm on at 9 PM Eastern time. Other guests will include, I kid you not, Joan Jett and Ivy Meerapol, the granddaughter of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. They skimmed the cream first, obviously, and I'm the coffee grounds at the bottom of the filter. Tune in for hilarity!

Now for today's original content. Since I restarted this site about a month ago, I've been in constant contact with Raul, the last Iraqi teenager with access to the Internet. Raul has grown a lot since the United States illegally invaded his country, bombed his apartment building, killed 75 percent of his family, and tortured two of the members of his punk band, Baghdad 123, in the Abu Ghraib prison. He's also worked as personal assistant to both Jay Garner and L. Paul Bremer, moonlighted with a private U.S. security firm, and accidentally joined a local chapter of the al-Sadr brigade.

It's been quite an adventure for young Raul! The boy has become a man. Most recently, he took a job as a teacher at a newly-opened grade school in a Baghdad suburb. Here's a letter I received from him recently.

"Dear Neal: It's my second week here at the Richard Perle Academy, and I've never been happier. These children are so bright and willing to learn. I can see the hunger for knowledge in their faces as I instruct them about the essential tenets of democratic life: Pluralism, tolerance, equal treatment under the law, and love for the Lord. I try to mute the last tenet a bit, but it's hard because the Coalition always has a Supervisor in my classroom.

Though the students are eager and quick to master their lessons, the reality of their non-school lives sometimes seep in. I've lately been taking a tape recorder to the playground to capture their schoolyard chants. They reveal, I think, some disturbing truths about the occupation. Children never lie. We must listen to the children. I publish several of the chants now: see link for chants

http://www.nealpollack.com/

[troublemaker]

1. I hate to be a spoil-sport, but...

Okay, this is all made up... right? It's a satire of some sort but the post doesn't really let us in on that. (There's not really a school in Iraq called The Richard Perle Academy, for instance.) And why do these rhymes rhyme in English? If they are translated from Arabic then they shouldn't rhyme. Also, the content isn't too credible.

Abid Kufti, dressed in mufti,
Went to Najaf cause he was goofy
Bought a plate
Ate a date
Took up arms ‘gainst the United States

I assume the corespondent's name, Raul, is a hat-tip to Hunter Thompson, but Hunter's Gonzo Journalism wasn't outright fiction. So what's up with this?

BTW, there was a very funny (and interesting, and real)compendium of Baghdad graffiti collected on SLATE a while back that's fun to read. I offer the link for no political reason (I don't agree with all sentiments expressed) but for the comedic look at how a different culture does insults: http://slate.msn.com/id/2093154/entry/2097273/