Baghdad's 2004 Top 10 List

By RAWYA RAGEH



BAGHDAD, Iraq -The Top 10 distinctive sounds heard in Baghdad's daily life.  What Iraqis say they “listen” to:



Gunfire.
“We hear no birds, we hear bullets. It's the most disrupting sound,”
said George Nichola, a 23-year-old literature student. “I automatically
start seeing scary images in my mind,” he added. “It's like being in
the Wild West.”



The
clatter of helicopters. “… those army helicopters flying all the time
above us,” said Khawla Adnan, a 40-year-old former civil servant.
“…they fly at such low altitude, and the kids get really scared,” she
added.



Sirens
in the Green Zone, the fortified home of the U.S. Embassy and
headquarters of the interim government. “This particular siren really
depresses me,” said Umm Mustafa, a mother of two and a Green Zone
resident. “I wonder what its use is? The Green Zone is frequently
attacked anyway and the siren goes off after the attack takes place, so
what's the point?”



Silence.
“Believe it or not, what petrifies me most is when it gets quiet, I
feel like it's the silence that precedes a storm,” said Chaki Shukri,
41. “Normalcy for us is the noise of helicopters, gunfire, explosions
and sirens.”

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