The weblogs of Salam Pax and Anne Frank During World War Two, diaries were private and intimate. Anne Frank wrote in seclusion in her room at the back of the house. Before the Internet existed. These days we use weblogs to present our thoughts. If the world is not coming to us, we will go to the word. During the Iraq war, Salam Pax showed us how Anne Frank could have used the Internet. Baghdad, 7 September 2002. Somewhere in that city of six million people, a 28-year old Iraqi decides to start an Internet diary. By then he, as well as everybody else in Baghdad, has been waiting for the inevitable: an invasion and bombardments. However, life goes on. Despite a diligent censor, information still flows freely in and out of Iraq courtesy of the Internet. Salam Pax describes his daily activities. He informs us of his preparations for the war. To him, a few candles, drinks, good books and tasty chips appear sufficient to live through the bombing raids. The war comes and goes. Salam Pax survives. His weblog escapes the spying eyes of the Iraqi censor. However, in the first four days of the war, remote controlled missiles and 'smart' bombs destroy Baghdad's telephone exchanges. In the afternoon of Sunday 24 March, the Baghdad blogger sends his last message for a while to come. Salam is probably the first famous blogger, but certainly no pioneer. More than eight years earlier, a young American put his website on the Internet. He made his corner of the World Wide Web into a virtual diary. Four years later, such websites are given a name: weblogs. At the start of 1999, the Internet contains 23 weblogs. Shortly afterwards, through 'we-blog', weblog becomes 'blog', a website with links, articles and accompanying comments by a 'blogger'. Initially, fewer than a hundred blogs can be found on the Internet. In the autumn of 2000, however, already thousands of bloggers can be found behind their computer on a daily basis. They collect articles, provide comments and talk about their lives. Every phenomenon has its defining moment. The blogs have theirs on that beautiful, but catastrophic September 2001 morning in New York. Following the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon many people want to share their experiences, opinions, thoughts and feelings with the world. By then, we have already become more extroverted than before in chatrooms and on Internet forums. Many express themselves on those trusted places on the worldwide network. Others see blogging as a solution. Furthermore, blogging is no longer a typical American affair. Thanks to the Internet and user friendly software the world has come within reach. By now, the Dutch are also present in the bloggers' universe. When his friend Raed leaves for Jordan, Salam Pax decides to start a blog as well. Initially, they only want to stay in touch with each other. However, war is imminent and the world aims its gaze at Saddam Hussain's country. Soon Salam emerges as 'the voice of Iraq'. After four days of war, Salam Pax is without access to the Internet. Nevertheless, he keeps writing about his life in Baghdad. His fellow-bloggers do not forget about him. On 7 May 2003, his diary appears on Diana Moon's Letter from Gotham, the blog of a New Yorker writing under a pseudonym. Two days afterwards, regular contributions start appearing again on Where is Raed?, the blog of Salam and his friend Raed. Are blogs really diaries? In our diaries we retreat from our surroundings. Sometimes, that is our way of dealing with events in our environment. Bloggers, however, are extroverted and form a close community with members world wide. The true blogger provides links to her favorite haunts in the blogosphere. As a result, life in the Netherlands is only a few clicks away from Baghdad. Where is Raed? takes us to Kerbala and talks about Islamic festival days and religious rituals, but with one simple click we arrive in New York by means of Letter from Gotham. Diana shares her life with us and shows us the America of Bush and Kerry from the inside out. The next click takes us to the Israel of Imshin's Not a Fish (provincially speaking). She brings that country alive. It is the Israel after the killing of sheik Yassin that you do not get to see in the media. A world-shocking event followed by an ordinary working day. When the mouse subsequently selects Harry's Place we have arrived closer to home, namely in England. The road to the Netherlands follows the trail of the euro. A nightmare for many English people, but via Harry a Fistful of Euros leads to Jurjen Smies' No Cameras in the Netherlands. In five clicks we move from Baghdad to the Netherlands. In our country the first blogs appear in the summer of 1999. A year later the total numbers over a hundred. Adam Curry's Dutch Curry is one of the most popular blogs. It is a virtual diary, but also a 'who is who in the media'. However, Dutch Curry also has an English version. In May 2002, the world comes to that spot on the web for Adam's side of the Fortuyn story: The big lie. Almost two years later, in the run up to the European elections, he starts a relay blog for politicians. Gerrit Zalm is handed the first baton. Blogging politicians? It is not so strange as it sounds. Establishing a direct connection with voters appeals to them. Gerrit Zalm has been maintaining an Internet diary for quite a while. The same applies to Jan Marijnissen, who takes over the baton from Zalm. Nevertheless, they are not bloggers. In vain you are looking for links. Commenting is impossible. The blogs are virtual soapboxes and certainly not office watercoolers in the blogosphere. Politicians just want to be heard, much like 'the ordinary Dutchman'. In 2004, thousands of Dutchmen are writing in their virtual diaries on a daily basis. Interesting Dutch blogs are hard to find. For example, you can start at Onderhuids, Komma Punt Log, Charlotte's Web or Ushering in Banality. What follows is a journey of discovery along a chain of boring, interesting and vanity driven blogs. Often the quality of the texts is irrelevant. Just read Salam Pax. His texts are no literary highlights. However, he allows us to be in Baghdad for a while. Together with him we live through the flipside of the media's story. A year ago, President George Bush declared major combat in Iraq over. Unfortunately, the reality is rather different. Iraq has hit the news headlines again. Those of us who want to follow the news by means of eyewitness accounts can, apart from reading Salam Pax, also check out the Iraqi blogs of Baghdad Burning, Healing Iraq, Iraq the Model, The Mesopotamian, Iraq at a glance and Hammorabi. These diaries are always worth your while, but more so if unrest is stirring in Iraq. Perhaps the popularity of a blog depends on the conditions under which it is being written? Do wars make blogging more interesting or do they even make them more important? Amsterdam, 12 June 1942. Anne Frank is living in the back of the house on Prinsengracht 263. She has gone into hiding with her family. This way they hope to survive the war. The Netherlands has been occupied for over two years. Regularly, Anne listens to Radio Oranje, the station of the government in exile. A minister points out the importance of diaries. After the war, diaries can provide insight into the occupation. Anne makes a decision. She will write a book. For after the war. Unfortunately, peace arrives too late. On 4 August 1944, she is arrested and transported to transition camp Westerbork. Later on she finds herself in concentration camp Bergen-Belsen. A few months before the liberation she dies of typhus. Fortunately, her diary survives. In 1947, the first version appears. It is a voice from a dark past. However, what would Anne have done with a blog? Would she still be alive today if she had been able to write online about the persecution of the Jews? Anne was looking for an audience. The Internet would have given her one. She could have let the world know what Germans and Dutch were doing to the Jews. Her blog, Het Achterhuis, would have been a cause for confusion. Who is Anne Frank, is she 'real', can we trust her, is she a propaganda tool for the Allies? These are also the questions asked of Salam Pax. Sometimes the truth is uncomfortable. Perhaps Anne's blog would have been censored. Possibly she would have been unable to have access to the Internet. Maybe the Germans would have arrested her anyway and, despite everything, she would still have died. However, afterwards nobody could have said, 'I did not know'. The flipside of the media's truth Salam Pax relates the Iraqi side of the story. He shows the war beyond the media glare. Bloggers write about themselves, but also about the countries in which they are living. From behind a computer screen you can meet people and discover countries. The media no longer determine what you know. In Canada, for example, the Iranian Hossein Derakhsan's Editor: Myself points the way to Iran. Living in China is a virtual gate in the Chinese wall. Stories and anecdotes by bloggers make abstract world events understandable. Iraqis, Americans, Israelis, Chinese and inhabitants from other countries acquire faces, they become like you and me. If only the Internet had existed much earlier. The Holocaust could perhaps have been prevented and an elderly Jewish woman from Amsterdam and a young Muslim from Iraq could today have looked each other in the eyes.