Have you noticed that a disproportionate number of Iraqi bloggers seem to be medical doctors, dentists, medical students, and dental students? I have. I attributed it to attainment of higher educational levels, higher disposable income, and possible greater access to the Internet (through affiliation with universities and hospitals). These may all be true but it doesn’t seem to be the whole story.
When I was preparing the Carnival of the Liberated this morning, I stumbled across this post from Truth Teller of A Citizen of Mosul who is a medical doctor (I probably should have included it in the Carnival):
I have told you before that I am a medical doctor, I graduated from Iraqi Medical College in 1972, the study in the medical college is six years. I have my post graduate study here in Iraq too.
The study of medicine is in English language for both pre and post graduate. After graduation, we use to have 12 months residency as junior doctor in one of the general hospital, we have to rotate in all branches of medicine to practice clinical application of medicine, now they change the rules and the training period extend to 24 months.
If that’s true all over Iraq (I suspect it is) it suggests another reason for the number of bloggers in Iraq who are health care professionals: they read and write English so they’re able to have an English-language blog.
People commonly point to industries like aerospace and computer technology (for which English is the universal language) as proliferators of American soft power. But health care may be yet another area in which the English language unites us with countries in which English is not the official language.
UPDATED: Submitted to the Beltway Traffic Jam.
You should also notice that a good number of Iraqi bloggers know each other offline, either by blood or by profession.
I can think of at least 10 of the Iraqi blogs that are members of just three families.