Ajaloolistest valimistest Iraagis

Ajalooline sündmus, mis ei oleks ilma USA ja koalitsioonivägede jõulise sekkumiseta saanud sündida. Vaatamata sellele, et Afganistaani valimised olid oodatumast rahulikumad ja edukamad, avaldas enamus meediast arvamust, et Iraagi valimistest ei julge inimesed osa võtta, sest oht terrorivalangus surma saada on liiga suur. Õnneks reaalsus ei peegeldanud kirjutajate eelarvamusi. Voice of America vahendab:

Voting stations in Iraq have closed, but official results will not be known for more than a week. Iraqi electoral commission officials say voter turnout on Sunday has exceeded all expectations. Turnout was especially heavy in Shi'ite and Kurdish-dominated regions of the country.

A spokesman for the Iraqi Electoral Commission, Farid Ayar, says, based on preliminary surveys from polling centers, he believes about 60 percent of the 13 million registered voters went to the polls on Sunday to elect a new 275-member Iraqi assembly.

Üllatav oli ka Iraaklaste valimisentusiasm, mida suutsid suurepäraselt edastada mõned iraaklastest blogijad nagu võib lugeda Iraq the Model'ist:

The media is reporting only explosions and suicide attacks that killed and injured many Iraqis so far but this hasn't stopped the Iraqis from marching towards their voting stations with more determination. Iraqis have truly raced the sun.

I walked forward to my station, cast my vote and then headed to the box, where I wanted to stand as long as I could, then I moved to mark my finger with ink, I dipped it deep as if I was poking the eyes of all the world's tyrants.

I put the paper in the box and with it, there were tears that I couldn't hold; I was trembling with joy and I felt like I wanted to hug the box but the supervisor smiled at me and said "brother, would you please move ahead, the people are waiting for their turn".

Yes brothers, proceed and fill the box! These are stories that will be written on the brightest pages of history.

Kahjuks tundub seda küünilisem ja triviaalsem paljude Euroopa "realistide" hoiak, et demokraatia ei sobi islamiusku rahvastele. Vägagi tabava ja kohati üpris terava kirjatükiga samal teemal on hakkama saanud Mark Steyn:

The Afghan election worked so well that, there being insufficient bad news out of it, the doom-mongers in the Western media pretended it never happened. They'll have a harder job doing that with Iraq, so instead they'll have to play up every roadside bomb and every dead poll worker. But it won't alter the basic reality: that today's election will be imperfect but more than good enough. OK, that's a bit vague by the standards of my usual psephological predictions, so how about this? Turnout in the Kurdish north and Shia south will be higher than in the last American, British or Canadian elections.

...

The naysayers in the Democratic Party and the U.S. media are so obsessed with Rumsfeld getting this wrong and Condi getting that wrong and Bush getting everything wrong that they've failed to notice just how surefooted both the Kurds and Shiites have been -- which in the end is far more important. The latter, for example, have adopted a moderate secular pitch entirely different from their co-religionist mullahs over the border. In fact, as partisan pols go, they sound a lot less loopy than, say, Barbara Boxer. Even on the Sunni side of the street, there are signs the smarter fellows understand their plans to destroy the election have flopped and it's time to cut themselves into the picture. The IMF noted in November that the Iraqi economy is already outperforming all its Arab neighbors.

...

raq's going to be better than OK, that it will be the economic powerhouse of the region, and that the various small nods toward democracy going on in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and elsewhere suggest that the Arab world has figured out what the foreign policy ''realists'' haven't: that the trend is in the Bush direction. When Amr Moussa, secretary-general of the Arab League, warned that the U.S. invasion of Iraq would ''destabilize'' the entire region, he was right. That's why it was such a great idea.

Loomulikult ei lase osad meediakanalid ennast positiivsetest uudistest häirida, eriti kui on vähegi põhjust millestki negatiivsemast kirjutada. Mitmed blogijad jälgivad teraselt New York Times'i ajakirjanike tegevust. Üks nendest jälgijatest, Ann Althouse, tegi ka ühe huvitava avastuse selle kohta, kuidas artiklil netis pealkirja vahetatakse ja seda loomulikult negatiivses suunas:

TIME HEADLINE
09:24 High Turnout in Baghdad Points to Early Success
10:24 Amid Attacks, a Party Atmosphere on Baghdad's Closed Streets
18:26 Insurgent Attacks in Baghdad and Elsewhere Kill at Least 24
20:50 Attacks in Baghdad and Elsewhere Reportedly Kill Several Dozen

Nii üht kui teist saab öelda ka Eesti kahe suurima päevalehe Iraagi-teema kajastamise kohta.

Postimees tundub jätkuvat olevat välisuudiste kajastamisel kõige informeerituma ajaleht artikliga Terrorit trotsides andis enamik iraaklasi oma hääle, samas kui Päevaleht suudab kõigele vaatamata silma paista negatiivse suhtumisega nagu eksitav artikli pealkiri Iraagi ajaloolised valimised möödusid keset pommiplahvatusi näitab. Jääb üle täheldada, et enda artiklis mainib Päevalehe ajakirjanik ainult kahte plahvatust ja 35 hukkunut.

Hukkunutele ja nende omastele kindlasti tragöödia, kuid väita, et "valimised möödusid keset pommiplahvatusi" tundub kuidagi tobe - ebaprofessionaalne isegi ainult artikli sisule toetudes.

Jätkuvalt leidub aga ka neid, kes raatsivad kajastada ja tähelepanu pöörata Iraagist tulevatele positiivsetele uudistele. Kahtlemata on neist tuntuim Chrenkoff, kelle blogist alguse saanud "Good News From Iraq" on leidnud endale kodu Wall Street Jouranal'is. Soovitan soojalt kõigile neile, kes tunnevad ennast negatiivsuse laine alla mattumas ajal, kus mitte ainult iraaklased vaid suur osa Lähis-Ida rahvastikust (ja meediast!) vaatab lootusrikkalt tulevikku.

Stabiilse, ohutu ja demokraatliku Iraagini on veel pikk tee, kuid algus on palju lubav ja terroristidele saadetud sõnum enam kui selge!