[imc-baghdad] APPEAL/UPDATE from Al-Muajaha, Baghdad 15 May

[viviane]

Here's a fundraising appeal I sent out to most of my network yesterday. I
know that it'll bring in some money, I'm just hoping it will come on time
for whoever leaves next for Iraq.
Viviane
========

>>Subject: Iraq IMC - "Al-Muajaha, the Iraqi witness"


Aloha!
The people of Iraq have undoubtedly got a lot of work to do before they are
really liberated. Part of this is the establishment of their own independent
media.
A dozen Iraqis "unconnected with either the previous Ba'athist regime or
with the successor American government" came together and have been working
on this project [with very little $, electricity and phone on and off and
*very* limited equipment]. They are now printing their first [bilingual
Arabic-English] issue of  "Al-Muajaha, the Iraqi witness," already posted at
http://www.almuajaha.com/  [although it seems that the site is down at the
moment, I haven't been able to access it yet].
They are sponsored by Voices in the Wilderness.
In their Mission Statement, they say, "Al-Muajaha is an independent Iraqi
newspaper representing all levels of Iraqi society. We aim to help the world
understand Iraq, and to help Iraq understand the world. For decades, almost
all governments in the world, including our own, abused and terribly ignored
the basic humanity of the Iraqi people, Al-Muajaha aims to provide an open
forum for all Iraqis to freely debate current issues, and in so doing
educate themselves and the world. We aim to support the legitimate desires
of the Iraqi people by providing a voice for them that reach the world, and
we hope to promote understanding of the fundamental equality of all peoples
and nations under both human and divine law."
They sure need support, financially very especially. If you'd like to help,
your donations are more than welcome.
>>Checks should be made out to "UCIMC" and have "IMC-Baghdad" in their memo
line.
Checks can be sent to:
Urbana-Champaign IMC
ATTN: Treasurer
218 West Main St.
Suite 110
Urbana, IL 61801

There are two options for making donations on-line:

Network for Good -- link available at:
http://www.ucimc.org/info/display/support/index.php -- 100% of the
donation goes to the UCIMC (i.e., one avoids paying Paying Paypals fees).

PayPal (if folks insist):
https://www.paypal.com/xclick/business=donations%40ucimc.org&item_name=IMC-B
aghdad+Donation&item_number=IMC-Baghdad&no_note=1&tax=0&currency_code=USD

If donors want a copy of our tax determination letter, it is available
online at:  http://www.ucimc.org/newswire/display/6802/index.php<<

or else [in the UK] to Bristol Indymedia, Box 7, Greenleaf Bookshop, 82
Colston Street, Bristol BS1 5BB, please indicate that the money is for Iraq
IMC

In solidarity,
Viviane<<
==========

-----Original Message-----
From: imc-baghdad-admin at lists.indymedia.org
[mailto:imc-baghdad-admin at lists.indymedia.org]On Behalf Of Ramzi Kysia
Sent: Thursday, May 15, 2003 7:35 AM
To: imc-baghdad at lists.indymedia.org
Subject: [imc-baghdad] APPEAL/UPDATE from Al-Muajaha, Baghdad 15 May


All,

The first issue was printed last night. Unfortunately,
power went out mid-print & it wasn't ready until 11am
(too late to sell it to the news "vendors" here, and
the staff didn't have much success trying to hawk it
themselves, lol). Will try again tomorrow morning...

The costs for printing this first run came to $1,150
for 5,000 copies. The dollar has been dropping
steadily, and is worth less than 25% of what it was
just after the war, so... costs are up. I covered the
first run out of my pocket, but... if we don't have
too much success selling the paper this first time
out, we're going to be in pretty big trouble, pretty
quick...

I passed along the request for the folks at Al-Muajaha
to write something about their political leanings, and
they responded with the below message. Usually I help
them with their English, but they asked me to send
this out as is, so...

I have, of course, kept folks here updated on what's
happening on the list, but it might be useful if
someone would write a detailed letter to them, from
the list, post it to the list for comments/feedback,
incorporate that feedback, and then tell me to foward
it to them (just a recommendation :-))

-Ramzi

15 May 2003

To Whom it May Concern,

The staff at Al-Muajaha like to say and express all
the troubles that we are facing. First we don't have
funding, although we put a lot of announcement in the
website, and in all the hotels in Baghdad that full
with press and TV channels. We were asking for a small
help, but no one responded. That's right, they said
it's a great thing, no one did it before, especially
for young people like us, but what we get until now
it's just compliments - which it can't be exchanged in
any bank.

You know that don't make any sense, because they paid
for this war billions. One missile cost more than $1
million. They're paying a lot of money for those war
things, but no one paid any attention for a group of
young people trying to do a precious thing for the
Iraqis, and Iraqis trying to represent the masses. No
one, no one - and by they way, we didn't ask for
millions or billions. We're asking about 25 or 30
thousand dollars only just to bring some equipment in
order to make the work. Because we don't have an
office, we don't have computers, we don't have the
telephones, we don't have electricity, we don't have
anything, and you going to see the pictures of the
first issue - it's good, but we shot these shots by
cheap camera.

We try to be independent. If you don't help us to do
that, should we go three different ways to do it?

1) Should we ask American military for help?
2) Should we ask the Parties and Factions (like Ahmed
Chalabi) for help?
3) Should we ask the fancy people in Iraq for help?

These will be the same thing. Our repsonsibility as
Iraqi youth, to make a start for Iraqi independent
media, as the base of a great building, but you know
that great pressure is on the base.

We as Iraqis not used to ask anyone for help, like the
very difficult life for 30 years. When we asked now it
is because we are witnesses. We call our paper "The
Iraqi Witness." We want to tell you that we are
independent media and you can support us, but we are
not for sale.

Sincerely,
Haider Hamza
Yassar Farouk
Mohammed Al-Jubaili
Salaam Al-Jubouri
Khalid Jarrar
Majid Jarrar
Waleed Rabi'a Al-Merza
Hamsa Mohammad
Hekmat Mohammad
Hosni Mohammad
Salaam Al-Onaibi

Al-Muajaha Core Staff



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