Alive in Baghdad - Iraq - Baghdad is Like Grand Theft Auto

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Living in an war zone and spending much of your day under curfew means you'll end up with a lot of time on your hands.? Many young people in Baghdad end up doing what others their age all over the world do, and that's play video games. Wisam explains to us the difficulties inherent in playing videogames, what his favorites are and some analysis of his current situation as well.

Although we attempted to shoot a number of other interviews, to produce a piece with a wider perspective of the role videogames have begun to play in the lives of Iraqi youth, due to the security situation we were unable to find others willing to talk on camera.

It should also be noted that those able to occupy themselves with videogames are a small percentage of the populace of Baghdad. For example, the amount of money Wisam spends on electricity each month is nearly equal to the average per capita income in Baghdad.

Many youth, lacking outlets such as these, access to education, or gainful employment, are turning to militias and resistance groups as a way to fill their time.

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• GTA
• Grand
• Theft
• Auto
• video
• games
• Iraq
• Baghdad
• AliveinBaghdad
• youth
• education
• war

[someoneON]

well, its an option.. but maybe he doesnt want to go to america.. everybody would call him terrorist anyways there too.

[Evi1Jester]

Yes.

[marklvrd]

@Brian567899 no people die in the U.S for dumb reasons, not no reason like military accidently dropping a bomb on your cousins house and killing everyone...

[katbulldogs]

Theres def. a reason

[Brian567899]

People die in the US for no reason too.

[Brian567899]

@941jax Dude  its called a joke. Calm down

[941jax]

@underpantsjihad WTF there is ps3 and Xbox 360 in IRAQ because im from Iraq but now I live in Canada. By the way Iraqi people love 360 more than ps3 but at that time there weren't alot of this systems.

[09GTAplayer]

this is awesome it goes from being stuck in your house and not being able to goe outside then to ya it final fantasy has great graphics i like gta i wonder if he knows about xbox 360 and ps3 but aside that nonsence people are dying there for no reason really speaks to me

[09GTAplayer]

@underpantsjihad ya kid cant go to the gamestop stuck playin san andreas lol 

[gordoput0]

Final fantasy 12 LOL

[blendmax]

what ..? i think u guys have no idea what is looks like to be an Iraqi citizen no where else in this world would like u to go to there country no matter who u are they look at u in the different way they think ur a terrorist , and they wouldn't allow u to go out of the country, it is really sad to be an Iraqi citizen cuz even when u try to go to a neighbor countries they treat u so bad an they investigate u about everything