'Hello, can you hear me?'
How simple is it to pick up the telephone or your cell phone and call someone? It happens countless times a day all the world over.
For years Iraq lagged behind the rest of the world in terms of communications because Saddam did not want the Iraqi people to have access to mobile telephones. His fear was that people would have an uncontrollable tool to mobilize against him and his government.
After the war the military contracted MCI to set up an internal cell phone service. A few months later an Egyptian company set a public cell phone service called Iraqna. It serves most of central Iraq and for its users it is more a source of aggravation than a mode of communications.
Traditional greetings in Middle East can take up to a minute. As soon as you get into your conversation, more often then not, the signal drops out. That is why the network is affectionately called "Iraqna never available."
That’s why most news organizations have their own communication networks in their offices to contact the outside world.
But, the height of absurdity came last night when a newspaper colleague of mine here in Baghdad called the states to find her colleague who is a patient of my cousin who is a doctor.
The colleague called my cousin in the U.S., who called my brother in the U.S, who called me in Baghdad to get in touch with my newspaper colleague down the street. That must be one of the longest local calls in history.
Troops no longer just phone home
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