Lessons from Iraq's first-time voters

In 2006 and 2007, Osama Salim didn't miss a single day's school at Baghdad College for boys.

That was quite an achievement.

Baghdad College is in Adhamiya, a largely Sunni Muslim district of Baghdad which for months was occupied and menaced by al Qaeda in Iraq.

They've gone now but the memory of those days is still vivid.

Of the 1,800 students at the college at the time, only about 300 made it regularly every morning.

I met Osama with four of his friends, all 18 years old - Atar Keyhan, Becker Shakir, Mustafa Ibrahim Younis and Mustafa Abdel Karim.

Last Sunday they all went out to vote for first time.

Osama didn't make it to the polling station - soldiers wouldn't let him pass. The others succeeded.

"It was great voting for the first time," they said, "It was great to choose our leaders. It was a great feeling."

They all agreed when one of them said: "Voting is an obligation."

I asked them if they had access to the internet at home. Three said "Yes."

I asked them if they used Facebook. "Sometimes." They find it a useful way of making contact with other students in Iraq and overseas.

But they don't think Facebook and the internet are very important parts of their lives.

They are more concerned about incessant power cuts in Baghdad and water that isn't fit to drink.

And there was a clear message to students in Britain. They should count themselves lucky and have a serious attitude to studying and work hard - and not spend valuable time on frivolous things like Facebook.

Occupation

I asked if because of all the challenges in Iraq, did they automatically work hard?

"Yes, yes," they chorused, "There is no free time. We work all the time we have."

As the British elections are looming, I wondered if these Baghdad students were aware of the main party leaders in the UK. Gordon Brown? Yes. David Cameron? Silence. Nick Clegg? Blank faces.

One of the students was disappointed that Gordon Brown had defended the invasion of Iraq when he gave evidence at the current Chilcott Enquiry into the Iraq War.

"It was an occupation. The occupation of Iraq was a great error," he said.

All these students are football-crazy. All Iraq is football-crazy. I asked Osama, Atar, Becker and the two Mustafas which national and club teams they supported.

Brazil and Liverpool. Argentina and Barcelona. England and Real Madrid. Egypt and Liverpool. France and Barcelona.

Five young Baghdad students, all speaking to me in fluent English at a college that was founded by American Jesuits in 1932.

When it became clear that these Christian priests had no predatory intentions to convert students to Christianity, they were accepted - partly because of an ethic the Jesuits shared with their Iraqi students: hard work.