Seven Years of War and Still No Power to the Iraqi People

[unhappycamper]

Seven Years of War and Still No Power to the Iraqi People
by Paul McGeough
Published on Saturday, October 16, 2010 by The Sydney Morning Herald (Australia)

In the searing heat of the Iraqi summer, the difficulty of life with virtually no electricity is hard to comprehend.

But overlay it with the physical and spiritual challenges of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, and the big cities become time bombs ticking at the feet of government.

Or they would, if there was a government. For seven months the country has been paralysed by the failure of the political parties to agree on the make-up of a new government after national elections in mid-March. So with nobody in charge in Baghdad, Iraqis vent their spleen on the streets - being doused by water cannon or arrested and, in some cases, shot by the police.
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Summer in Baghdad is not just a hot spell. Day after grinding day and for weeks at a stretch, the temperatures reach anywhere between 46 and 49 degrees. Airconditioning fails. Elevators stop working. Life, seriously, is a bitch.

~snip~

In August, flashlights were produced on the bench of the Iraqi Federal Supreme Court, so judges could read case documents when a mechanical glitch in the court's back-up generator collided with a regular failure in the national power grid. Acting Electricity Minister Hussain al-Shahristani was embarrassed when the lights went out during a fast-breaking Iftar dinner which he hosted for the Baghdad media last month.

[Hannah Bell]

1. kick. longer than our participation in WW1&2 combined. for what?

[madrchsod]

2. so little georgie to finally show his dad who the real man in the family is

[WinkyDink]

5. More psychological truth than humor (IMO, also to prove to HIMSELF, being one who is

obsessed with the heads of bald men).

[stray cat]

3. Iraqi groups with the real power are murdering other iraqis

[WinkyDink]

4. Why should I bother my beautiful mind about such things?

[spanone]

6. ...we set them free, to die