Baghdad journal

BAGHDAD - For the first time in a decade, the circus - albeit an underwhelming one - was back in Baghdad.

A circus' coming to town may be a routine event in most cities. But in battered Baghdad, even if it was not the Greatest Show on Earth, its arrival was yet another step in this city's efforts at building a more normal life, to move beyond the war, occupation and sectarian violence that made it hard for anyone to laugh, let alone marvel at dancers jumping rope.

The circus is called the Umbrella Circus. It has just one small ring, and there is not a commanding ringmaster. What it does have, though, are dancers, a woman swinging from a trapeze (without a net, but with a harness), and a grand finale of a man clad in an Iraqi flag plunging swords down his throat.

Although the circus may not be as exciting as the advertisements, which included tigers, trained poodles and a massive snake, many children appeared transfixed by the sight of a large tent and the trapeze hanging over the ring.

Before each show, children are invited into the ring, and those brave enough are put into a harness and hoisted to the top of the tent.

"For 10 years, we haven't seen anything like this," said Faisil Falleh, 56, who took his family to the circus. "I haven't seen anything in my life like this."

There were smiles, for sure, but also a degree of disappointment in the absent tiger and snake, which the promoters said was sick. No one seemed too upset about the absent poodles, though.

"The kids were complaining that there were no animals," said Hadi Hazim, 34.

"For a whole week, my kids were asking me if I would take them," he said as he stood next to his young daughter. "I wasn't going to take them, but they kept on asking, so I relented."

As Mr. Hazim spoke, his voice was nearly drowned out by the sounds - not of the circus - but of helicopters that were taking off and landing in the nearby Green Zone. This remains Iraq, after all, and for now there are still about 39,000 American troops here, though they are all to exit before the end of the year. The circus offered not so much a respite from violence, but a reminder of just how odd normal has become here for Iraqis.

The circus, which is scheduled to run for six months, has two shows a day. A ticket costs $12. Cotton candy - called "lady's hair" in Arabic - costs $1.

The tent holds 1,400, and so far the largest crowd has been about 1,000. On a typical night, about 500 people attend a show. Although the promoters are Iraqi, the dancers, trapeze artists and other performers are from various countries across the Middle East and Eastern Europe.

Earlier this year, the Ministry of Tourism helped bring the circus promoters to Baghdad after a run of shows ended in the southern city of Basra, in part because the show was a bit too liberal for the residents, who tend to be religious.

"We have generations in Iraq who don't know what a circus is," said one of the promoters, Jasim Mohammed Saeed. "Right now we aren't making profits, but we hope that the turnout will increase."

He added: "Nobody is working in this business in Iraq. It is just us."

The New York Times

(China Daily 11/06/2011 page10)