THIS TOO SHALL PASS:

With an agenda of hope, Iraqi media mogul funds the arts: Publisher Fakhri Karim is using his influence and wealth to fuel a cultural revival in Iraq. (Sam Dagher, 6/11/07, The Christian Science Monitor)

[Fakhri Karim, owner of the Baghdad-based Al-Mada newspaper, a Shiite Kurd] has been using his own money, plus the backing of Messrs. Talabani and Barzani, to change the mood of Iraqis through cultural and educational events to demonstrate that there is still hope despite the daily bloodshed.

He says that he wants to prove to the current political elite that the polarization of Iraqis – and their embrace of hard-line Islamic movements – is only a temporary self-protection phenomenon following the immense void left in the wake Saddam Hussein's regime.