Ayub Nuri's story, the story of an Iraqi fixer:-
In a war zone, a fixer is a journalist's interpreter, guide, source finder and occasional life saver...
I supported the war, as did many of my countrymen and pretty much all the fixers. We thought that only a powerful outside force could take on the job of ousting the dreadful Saddam. . .
I spent the next three years as a fixer and watched as my country learned a painful lesson: sometimes when you try to fix something, you break it even more. . .
During Saddam's regime, the media were controlled by the state, and journalism was not an enviable profession. But only a few months after Saddam was toppled, there were more than 100 newspapers being published in Baghdad alone. It was a turning point in the history of the Iraqi media. . .
Soon, however, the situation in Iraq grew much worse. The insurgency spread to cities, and all foreign nationals became targets. The insurgents hated fixers. They called us "collaborators". They broke into my apartment three times in Baghdad, but luckily I wasn't there. ..
Many of the fixers fled Iraq and are now refugees in neighbouring countries. Some of those who remained have big families to feed, so they stay. But some fixers I know refuse to leave the country merely out of loyalty to their trade. . .
We welcomed the US war with a lot of hope. We changed careers and became fixers to help Iraq. Some of us paid with our lives. Now we are no longer sure we will ever be able to fix anything.
It is heart-breaking, the false dawn of hope for the bright and brave.
I've put on a couple of posts on my blog as part of a campaign that such people who worked for British forces should be given refuge here.
There is a piece over at Bloggerheads and also at Nether World. There is also a group on Facebook. I've never been on Facebook before - coincidentally a friend asked me to join today.
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