In Iraq, the Most Coveted Item Now Is a Passport

[BeyondGeography]

By SOMINI SENGUPTA
The New York Times
Published: July 16, 2004

AGHDAD, Iraq, July 15 - There is one thing the sovereign state of Iraq can offer its citizens today, and Iraqis are banging down the doors to get their hands on it: a passport out of the country.

On a recent morning in front of the newly reopened passport office, bodies pressed on bodies for a chance to get inside. Pink and yellow files, each containing a precious passport application, waved in the air, as a young man tried to climb onto a rust-orange gate to get the attention of the bureaucrats inside. In the chaos, a sign that hung above the front door toppled to the floor.

At one point, Iraqi policemen charged at the crowd, wielding batons. A couple of shots were fired in the air. The line, if it can be called that, disintegrated and the crowd retreated toward a barbed wire fence before lunging forward again.

Jobless, rattled, fed up, Iraqis are dreaming of getting out.

"Escape from Iraq" is how Muhammad Kadhum, 26, a college student, described his intentions. "I cannot live here in Iraq. I cannot feel like a man."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/16/international/middleeast/16pass.html?hp

[trotsky]

1. Yessir, really winning the peace.

What a clustercheney.

[soothsayer]

2. plus, since over 200 academics and doctors and professionals have

been systematically assassinated (by whom, they're not sure), they are also making a beeline out of there. An unfortunate "brain drain" for that country to suffer.

Haifa Zangana (Iraqi-born novelist, painter and former
political prisoner) talks about it in a July 8 audio interview on this site:

http://www.visionaryactivism.com/radioshow.htm