NYT: Constitutional Crisis? On Streets, Talk Is About Everyday Needs

[Pirate Smile]

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Aug. 25 - Ali Sami's hands were flying around his photocopying machine like a short order cook's. With customers waiting in his small Baghdad copy shop he was not about to pause for anything, especially not a question about Iraq's new draft constitution.

"What constitution are you talking about?" Mr. Sami, a Shiite, said sardonically. "We are fed up with this thing! We would prefer to solve our problems first, such as electricity, water and security. How come they gathered to approve the constitution while Iraqis are slaughtered?"

-snip-
"What can I do with a constitution if I have no water, gasoline and electricity?" asked Hanan Sahib, 29, a Shiite database operator at a telecommunications company in Baghdad, echoing Mr. Sami's thoughts. The main problem, she added, was security, particularly for women. Iraqi leaders and the Bush administration hope that a constitution with widespread public support will help to legitimize democratic rule and undermine the Sunni-backed insurgency that is trying to topple the government and drive out the United States forces.

In spite of the obvious sectarian divides among the country's political parties, and a sectarian tinge to some of the country's violence, a random sampling of ordinary Iraqis here and in several other cities this week revealed that sentiment about the constitution often does not hew to any such divisions. In fact, many Iraqis say, religious allegiances rarely intrude on everyday life: Shiites marry Sunnis, Muslims shop alongside Christians, everyone waits in the same long lines to get gas and suffers the same power and water shortages.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/26/international/middleeast/26voices.html?hp

[Newsjock]

1. The future America

everyone waits in the same long lines to get gas and suffers the same power and water shortages.

I have a nagging feeling this is the life we're all looking at here as well, sooner rather than later. Except I doubt that we'll take it as stoically as the Iraqis.