[lit-ideas] Green Republic in Iraq

 
This is Riverbend's latest post.  If you don't know  who she is, ask me.  The 
"Green Zone" news is particularly  disturbing.
 
_Baghdad  Burning_ (http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/)  <<Tuesday, June 21, 
2005

General Update...


The cousin, his  wife S. and their two daughters have been houseguests these 
last three days.  They drove up to the house a couple of days ago with several 
bags of laundry.  âThere hasnât been water in our area for three daysââ 
The 
cousins wife huffed as  she dragged along a black plastic bag of dirty 
clothes. âThe water came late  last night and disappeared three hours 
laterâ what 
about you?â Our water had not  been cut off completely, but it came and went 
during the day. 

Water has  been a big problem in many areas all over Baghdad. Houses without 
electric water  pumps donât always have access to water. Today it was the 
same 
situation in most  of the areas. They say the water came for a couple of 
hours and then disappeared  again. Weâre filling up plastic containers and 
pots 
just to be on the safe side.  It is not a good idea to be caught without water 
in the June heat in Iraq.  

âI need to bathe the children and wash all these clothes,â S. called to  me 
as the older of the little girls and I hauled out their overnight bag. âAnd  
the sheets- you know nothing has been washed since last weeks ajajaââ We 
call 
a  dust storm an âajajaâ in Iraq. I donât think thereâs a proper 
translation 
for  that word. Last week, a few large ajajas kept Baghdad in a sort of pale 
yellow  haze. What happens when an ajaja settles on the city is that within a 
couple of  hours, the air becomes heavy and thick with beige powdery sand. 
Visibility  decreases during these dust storms and it often becomes difficult 
to 
drive or  see out the window.

On such occasions, we rush about the house shutting  windows tightly in a 
largely futile attempt to keep dust out of the house. For  people with 
allergies 
or asthma- itâs a nightmare. The only thing that  alleviates the situation 
somewhat is air conditioning. The air feels a little  less dusty when thereâs 
an 
air conditioner pumping cool air into the room.  

One dust storm last week was so heavy, E. slept for a couple of hours  during 
its peak and woke up with little beige-tipped lashes from the dust that  had 
settled on his face while he was dozing. You can even taste the dust in the  
food sometimes. These storms can last anywhere from a few hours to several 
days.  

After the ajaja is over and the air has cleared somewhat, we begin the  
cleaning process. By this time, the furniture is all covered with a light film  
of 
orangish dirt, the windows are grimy, and the garden, driveway and trees all  
look like they have recently emerged from a sea of dust. We spend the days 
after  such storms washing, wiping, polishing and beating dust out of the  
house.

âIâve been dying to wash the curtains and sheets since the ajajaââ  S. 
breathed, pulling out dusty curtains from the plastic bag. She paused  
suddenly, a 
horrific idea occurring to her, âYou have water, right? Right?â We  had 
water, I assured her. I didnât mention, however, that there had been no  
electricity for the better part of the morning and the generator was providing  
only 
enough for the refrigerator, television and a few lights. The standard  washing 
machine consumed too much water and electricity- we would have to use  the 
little âNationalâ washing tub, or âdiaper machineâ as my mother called 
it.  

The pale yellow plastic washing tub is a simple device that is designed  to 
hold a few liters of water and to swish around said water with a few articles  
of clothing tossed in and some detergent. Next, the clothes have to be removed 
 from the soapy water and rinsed separately in clean water, then hung to dry. 
 While it conveniently uses less water than the standard washing machine, 
there  is also a risk factor involved- a sock or undershirt is often sacrificed 
to the  little plastic blade that swishes around the water and clothes.

We spent  some of yesterday and a good portion of today washing clothes, 
rinsing them and  speculating on how our ancestors fared without washing 
machines 
and water pumps.  

The electrical situation differs from area to area. On some days, the  
electricity schedule is two hours of electricity, and then four hours of no  
electricity. On other days, itâs four hours of electricity to four or six 
hours  of 
no electricity. The problem is that the last couple of weeks, we donât have  
electricity in the mornings for some reason. Our local generator is off until  
almost 11 am, and the house generator allows for ceiling fans (or 
âpankasâ), 
the  refrigerator, television and a few other appliances. Air conditioners 
cannot be  turned on and the heat is oppressive by 8 am these days. 

Detentions and  assassinations, along with intermittent electricity, have 
also been contributing  to sleepless nights. Weâre hearing about raids in 
many 
areas in the Karkh half  of Baghdad in particular. On the television the talk 
about âterroristsâ being  arrested, but there are dozens of people being 
rounded up for no particular  reason. Almost every Iraqi family can give the 
name of 
a friend or relative who  is in one of the many American prisons for no 
particular reason. They arenât  allowed to see lawyers or have visitors and 
stories 
of torture have become  commonplace. Both Sunni and Shia clerics who are in 
opposition to the occupation  are particularly prone to attacks by âLiwa il 
Theebâ or the special Iraqi forces  Wolf Brigade. They are often tortured 
during 
interrogation and some of them are  found dead. 

There were also several explosions and road blocks today. It  took the cousin 
an hour to get to work, which was only twenty minutes away  before the war. 
Now, he has to navigate between closed streets, check points,  and those 
delightful concrete barriers rising up everywhere. It is especially  difficult 
to be 
caught in traffic and that happens a lot lately. Baghdad has  been cut up 
into sections and several of them may be found to be off limits  immediately 
after an explosion or before a Puppet meeting. The least pleasant  situation is 
to 
be caught in mid-day traffic, on a crowded road, in the heat-  waiting for 
the next bomb to go off. 

What people find particularly  frustrating is the fact that while Baghdad 
seems to be falling apart in so many  ways with roads broken and pitted, 
buildings blasted and burnt out and  residential areas often swimming in 
sewage, the 
Green Zone is flourishing. The  walls surrounding restricted areas housing 
Americans and Puppets have gotten  higher- as if vying with the tallest of date 
palms for height. The concrete  reinforcements and road blocks designed to slow 
and impede traffic are now a  part of everyday scenery- the road, the trees, 
the shops, the earth, the skyâ  and the ugly concrete slabs sometimes wound 
insidiously with barbed  wire.

The price of building materials has gone up unbelievably, in spite  of the 
fact that major reconstruction has not yet begun. I assumed it was  because so 
much of the concrete and other building materials was going to  reinforce the 
restricted areas. A friend who recently got involved working with  an Iraqi 
subcontractor who takes projects inside of the Green Zone explained  that it 
was 
more than that. The Green Zone, he told us, is a city in itself. He  came back 
awed, and more than a little bit upset. He talked of designs and plans  being 
made for everything from the future US Embassy and the housing complex  that 
will surround it, to restaurants, shops, fitness centers, gasoline  stations, 
constant electricity and water- a virtual country inside of a country  with 
its own rules, regulations and government. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to  
the 
Republic of the Green Zone, also known as the Green Republic.

âThe  Americans wonât be out in less than ten years.â Is how the argument 
often begins  with the friend who has entered the Green Republic. âHow can 
you 
say that?â Is  usually my answer- and I begin to throw around numbers- 2007, 
2008 maximumâ  Could they possibly want to be here longer? Can they afford to 
be 
here longer?  At this, T. shakes his head- if you could see the bases they 
are planning to  build- if you could see what already has been built- youâd 
know 
that they are  going to be here for quite a while. 

The Green Zone is a source of  consternation and aggravation for the typical 
Iraqi. It makes us anxious because  it symbolises the heart of the occupation 
and if fortifications and barricades  are any indicator- the occupation is 
going to be here for a long time. It is a  provocation because no matter how 
anyone tries to explain or justify it, it is  like a slap in the face. It tells 
us 
that while we are citizens in our own  country, our comings and goings are 
restricted because portions of the country  no longer belong to its people. 
They 
belong to the people living in the Green  Republic.

- posted by river @ _3:21 AM_ 
(http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/2005_06_01_riverbendblog_archive.html#111931026591153031)

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