From The Daily Star (Lebanon), a verbal tour of a city’s hopes and fears:<\/p>\n
Each dawn, Baghdadis discover the helpless victims of the city\u2019s nightly battles: its walls, scarred by a ferocious war of words. In a city where graffiti was once punishable by death, there\u2019s barely a surface that doesn\u2019t shout a political position…<\/p>\n
But for the most part, the Arabic script that crisscrosses every wall in this city is like American talk radio writ large: obscene, inaccurate and often hilarious political abuse. Like shock jocks, Baghdad\u2019s hundreds of anonymous new pundits even interrupt each other: Every night, warring scribes scratch out each other\u2019s manifestos and superimpose their own, turning Baghdad\u2019s kilometers of gray concrete walls into a cacophony of public opinion.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a very dangerous matter, this matter of the writing,\u201d says Amir Nayef Toma, 52. \u201cBecause through it, you can understand the entire feelings of a people \u00ad their suffering, their feelings and even their hopes.\u201d Toma is the Virgil of Baghdad\u2019s graffiti inferno. A retired army officer and full-time scholar of the word, he wanders through the city transcribing the city\u2019s nocturnal tirades and translating them into English. For the price of a cup of tea, he\u2019ll take you on a guided tour of the raucous new souk of ideas. <\/i><\/p>\n