Close to Baghdad's protest hotspot of Tahrir Square, a sandy Tigris River bank offers some relief from the revolution: youths kick around footballs and smoke shisha pipes to booming hiphop music.
Unemployed and penniless, another man here, Ali, is intoxicated by the wind of revolt that has swept through
Iraq since early October in the biggest wave of street rallies since the 2003 US-led invasion.
"Tahrir Beach", as its occupants call it, has maintained the carnival-like atmosphere of the
protests before they were marred by bloodshed and fear.