Prashant Rao: slideshow photograph 1
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Baghdad’s protest movement: despondent and divided

by Prashant Rao

Note: This article was originally published by AFP on January 31, 2012. It can be found in full here.

BAGHDAD (AFP) – Nearly a year after national rallies rocked the government, Iraq’s protest movement is a shadow of its former self, after the authorities cracked down and demonstrators themselves became divided.

While thousands of people took to the streets on February 25, Baghdad’s Tahrir Square — flooded last year by protesters calling for reforms on the heels of regional revolts — now sees barely 100 people at Friday rallies.

And many of these now shout pro-government slogans or are plainclothes security officers.

Organisers of last year’s protests paint a picture of a movement suspicious of its own members, unwilling to risk what rights groups have condemned as unnecessary restrictions instigated by a “budding police state.” (more…)

May 16, 2012 | Categories: Iraq, Politics, Society | Tags: , , , | Comments Off

My First AFP Video – Initial Lessons

Readers of this blog will know that I’m trying to learn how to do more photos and videos to become more of a “multimedia” journalist (whatever that is). I did some training at AFP in Hong Kong to learn how to do “webclips”, and put together a little video about an Iraqi Ramadan game. So when my videojournalist colleague Nafia Abdul Jabbar’s camera broke down a couple days ago, shortly before he and I were to conduct an important interview, I immediately said I wanted to give it a try. My reasoning was, in the worst case scenario, I’d screw it up and we wouldn’t have any video, which would have been the case whether or not I tried. Best case scenario? I learn a couple things and begin to add a new skill.

So it was with that goal in mind that I set off with my trusty Canon 550D to the Adnan Palace in Baghdad’s Green Zone. Forgive me if this post is long, but I want to get down all my difficulties and lessons (and there were plenty), so that I remember them, and hopefully they’ll be of some use to you too. (more…)

Apr 03, 2012 | Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , | Comments Off

Udaipur and Jodhpur – Islands and Forts

The entrance to Udaipur's City Palace

Udaipur and Jodhpur were both fantastic in their own rights, and no one should miss them on a trip through Rajasthan — the beautiful Jag Niwas and Jag Mandir islands in Udaipur, and the incredibly imposing Mehrangarh Fort in Jodhpur, both making for a tremendous trip for dramatically different reasons. You can probably guess, I loved both.

As a side tip, if you’re visiting Mehrangarh, make sure to shell out for the audio guide — it’s easily the best and most interesting one I used in India.

This is the third of three posts on my India trip, I hope you enjoyed them! (more…)

Mar 31, 2012 | Categories: India, Travel | Tags: , , , , , | Comments Off

Jaipur and Jaisalmer – Fort-astic

The view from atop Jaisalmer Fort

Rajasthan is of course picturesque for many reasons, and two of the main ones are its incredible forts and palaces — Amber Fort in Jaipur is enormous and Jaipur’s City Palace is fantastic, while Jaisalmer Fort is incredible, if only for the fact that people still live in it.

The two cities are otherwise very different. Whereas Jaipur is the bustling capital of Rajasthan, Jaisalmer is a small desert town close to the border with Pakistan. I loved them both for very different reasons, and wish I could have spent more time in each. (more…)

Mar 24, 2012 | Categories: India, Travel | Tags: , , , , , , | Comments Off

Agra, Delhi and Hyderabad – my ‘Golden Triangle’

The Taj Mahal

Last year, I went on a whirlwind trip through a small part of north India — starting out in Agra (after arriving in Delhi the previous night), I went to Jaipur, Udaipur, Jodhpur and Jaisalmer, before returning to Delhi and then moving on to Hyderabad. Somehow, while complaining of how hectic my parents’ annual trips through India used to be, I’ve managed to replicate them almost exactly.

In this post, I’m putting up some photos from Agra, Delhi and Hyderabad — I’ll put up pictures from Rajasthan in a separate set.

Let me know what you think in the comments below!

(more…)

Mar 21, 2012 | Categories: India, Travel | Tags: , , , , , | Comments Off

To HDR or not to HDR?

After reading this excellent post with tips for using Instagram (written by Anthony Quintano, Senior Community Manager for NBC News), I went ahead and downloaded a couple of the iPhone photography apps he recommended: Pro HDR and Color Splash. Both are great applications and are really fun to play around with, but while Color Splash has no real news value, I had never really used an HDR app before, so I didn’t know what the ‘rules’ were — what is and isn’t ok, if anything, in news photography?

First, the basics. (more…)

Feb 25, 2012 | Categories: Technology, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Comments Off

Facebook Comments for your blog – a How-To

For whatever reason, my posts get inundated with spam, and while I sometimes generate a few hundred hits on individual posts, they don’t generate a tremendous amount of comments. I’d been thinking for a while of switching to Facebook comments to see if that could help rectify this.

Obviously, it’s too early to say if it’s had any impact, but I thought I would give it a try anyway, and put finger-to-keyboard to show you just how easy it is if you have a WordPress blog.

  1. Download the Facebook Comments plug-in. DO NOT go to your WordPress plug-in menu and search from there. The first plug-in you’ll see is NOT THE SAME plug-in (I made this mistake initially).
  2. Upload the ZIP file to your WordPress dashboard using the upload feature in the plug-in menu, and once it’s installed, activate it.
  3. Create a Facebook app and label it whatever you want. I labelled mine ‘Comments’.
  4. Once you’ve created the app, add your site’s URL (in my case, http://www.prashantsrao.com), and domain (prashantsrao.com).
  5. Copy the Facebook app ID, and head over to the plug-in’s settings screen, where you can copy it in. Save the new settings at the bottom of the page.
  6. OPTIONAL: To turn off WordPress comments on all your new posts, go to the ‘Discussion’ tab in your WordPress Settings, and untick the box that says ‘Allow people to post comments on new articles’.
  7. OPTIONAL: To turn off WordPress comments on old posts (pre-Facebook Comments), go to the ‘Discussion’ tab in your WordPress Settings, and tick the box that says ‘Automatically close comments on articles older than ____ days’, and fill in the blank box with ’1′.
  8. You’re done!

A couple things: You can play with the width of your comments box to suit the width of your blog, and change a wide variety of settings, as well.

UPDATE (26/02/2012): I added Step 7, and edited Step 6, to make clear how to close off WordPress comments.

Good luck, and get commenting!

Feb 21, 2012 | Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: , , | Comments Off

Iraq violence to rise if leaders row: experts

by Prashant Rao

Prashant’s note: This article was published by AFP on January 17, 2012. It can be found in full here.

BAGHDAD (AFP) – While the chances of all-out sectarian war in Iraq appear slim, violence will remain high and at risk of worsening if the country’s leaders do not end their political standoff, experts say.

Iraq has suffered several mass-casualty attacks directly targeting communities or sects in the wake of last month’s US withdrawal and coinciding with a political row that has pitted the Shiite-led government against the main Sunni-backed bloc.

But though the threat of civil war is often raised in talks on the country’s future, analysts say an improved Iraqi security force coupled with greater Sunni Arab participation in politics and popular opposition to communal violence make such a scenario unlikely. (more…)

Jan 17, 2012 | Categories: Defence, Iraq, Politics | Tags: , , , , | Comments Off

Christmas in Iraq

A soldier stands atop the Church of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, in east Baghdad, as congregants attend Christmas mass.

The church was struck by a suicide car bomb on July 12, 2009, that left four people dead and 21 wounded.

An Iraqi security officer stands guard atop the Church of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart during Christmas mass (PHOTO: Prashant Rao)

(Click on the photo for a larger version)

Dec 25, 2011 | Categories: Culture, Defence, Featured, Iraq, Society | Tags: , , , , , , | Comments Off

Mheibes – a multimedia essay on Ramadan in Iraq

On August 10, I went with a couple of colleagues to check out Iraqi men play a game of Mheibes during Ramadan in Adhamiyah. Adhamiyah was playing Saba Abkar, an adjacent neighbourhood.

TANGENT: A version of the video of the bottom filmed entirely on the iPhone 4 has been shortlisted for the Grand Prize at the Original iPhone Film Festival, in the Non-Fiction category. I’d really appreciate it if you could check it out, and ‘like’ it. Ok, shameless self-promotion over.

For a primer on the basic rules, I defer to the story we eventually wrote on the game:

The game begins with a player from one team draped under a blanket moving among his teammates and secretly handing a ring — which is “mehbis” in Arabic — to one of them.

The rival team designates one of their own to find the ring. If he is unsuccessful, the team that hid the ring gains a point. If he finds it, his team must hide the ring and try to rack up points of their own.

The first team to reach a pre-agreed number of points wins.

Again, from the AFP story:

Mheibes is played across Baghdad, and in several other Iraqi cities throughout Ramadan, with matches typically starting after the dusk iftar meal that breaks the daily fast.

In Karbala, the holy Shiite city in south Iraq, authorities have organised a Mheibes championship, pitting localities from around the country against each other.

Teams from Baghdad, predominantly Shiite southern cities such as Diwaniyah, Najaf, Kufa, and mostly Sunni towns like Baquba and Mussayib, are all taking part, according to Salem al-Naqqash, the captain of the Karbala team.

How does a game of Mheibes look? Check out this video I filmed:

Dec 23, 2011 | Categories: Culture, Iraq, Society | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off