Staying Cool by a Pool, in Baghdad

[babylonsister]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/23/AR2007062301266.html

Staying Cool by a Pool, in Baghdad
Family Defies War, Summer Swelter and Power Cuts With Rooftop Retreat

By John Ward Anderson
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, June 24, 2007; Page A14

BAGHDAD -- Sitting poolside under a gauzy green canopy in short pants and a T-shirt, munching fresh fruit and bite-size sweets, carpet salesman Amir Rahim tries to keep Iraq's war at bay.

He pays no more attention to the helicopters that roar overhead than he would to a passing truck, except that the street in front of his house is blocked off by concrete barriers. The rat-a-tat of AK-47s is so frequent that it's possible not to hear it anymore. And the new rooftop pool has eased his family's cabin fever, offering a refreshing substitute for visits they no longer make to parks, clubs, markets and friends' homes.

But one byproduct of the four-year war is so pervasive that it is impossible to ignore. As the blast furnace of summer brought 115-plus-degree days, vast areas of Baghdad -- including Rahim's neighborhood -- still have as little as one hour of electricity a day, leaving the capital's 6 million residents to sweat and stew.

"We're getting about one hour every four days, and we don't have cold water or the refrigerator, so we're buying ice from the market," said Rahim, 32, who lives in the Karada neighborhood. In the market where his wall-to-wall carpet shop is located, "every five minutes there is a quarrel or fight because of the heat," he said. "Just yesterday, people were fighting each other, boxing and kicking each other, over a piece of apricot."

The military might focus on a new security plan, Iraqi and U.S. politicians might fuss over political reforms and timelines and reconciliation, but in the streets and homes of Baghdad, the demands are more elemental -- to flick a switch and get some light, to turn a faucet and get some water. The lack of such necessities breeds discontent, and lofty talk of more elections and constitutional reforms seems like a twisted joke from a government that cannot walk, let alone run.

"You talk about sharing oil revenues and constitutional reforms -- why should we care if we don't benefit from it?" asked Zainab S. Shakir, an Iraqi official at the U.S. Institute of Peace in Baghdad. The provision of basic services, she said, is directly related to improving Iraq's security.

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