After an absence of more than one year, we couldn’t resist coming back to cyberspace after all that continues to happen to Iraq and Iraqis. We also couldn’t sit by idly and let millions of Iraqis waste their precious surfing hours at sites that do little more than reprint other people’s news and offer low quality music. Here, the content is original and hopefully insightful. Nobody should be afraid of expressing what or how they feel about issues that are of the utmost importance to us, and we certainly aren’t. There is a need for building bridges between Iraqis worldwide, inside and outside the land between two rivers. shakomakoNET is committed to providing interesting articles, facts, critiques, interviews, and insights into what it means to be Iraqi.

We also want this to be a flourishing forum where ideas can be exchanged freely, respectfully, and in a constructive manner. This project is the result of the hard work of young Iraqis around the world who all share a common and relentless love for everything Iraqi. We want to be part of a challenging and provocative experience that will hopefully find its place in the minds and hearts of Iraqis from different backgrounds. Although this site has as one of its focuses the discussion of occupation and various elements that can be categorized into the intellectual and sometimes too intellectual free-for-all known as politics, we refuse to affiliate ourselves with any particular political party or organization. We are not neutral, however, about our allegiance to the Iraqi people and in defending their rights to live as free and prosperous individuals, free of occupation and sectarianism. We hope that this will be frequented by everyone, and not by Iraqis alone, for we also intend to create a progressive and independent discourse that is truly Iraqi and not packaged as a segment on the nightly news.

Our country is an expression of differences and similarities at the same time. We are committed to illuminating all the different colored and sized gems that make the Iraqi landscape so unique and inspiring. In the end, we realize that the mind’s ability to create and destroy is infinite. This is an ongoing project aimed at stimulating people worldwide to get up, think, speak, organize, and mobilize. We hope that you will return and enjoy our regular updates, and even contribute to our design and content.