[lit-ideas] our childrens' children, Chinese ingenuity, democracy, oil...

  • From: JimKandJulieB@xxxxxxx
  • To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Thu, 5 Jan 2006 09:22:25 EST

 
_http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/_ (http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/) 
 
Wednesday, January 04, 2006

2006...


Here we are in the first days of 2006. What does the â6â  symbolize? How 
about- 6 hours of no electricity for every one hour of  electricity? Orâ 6 
hours 
of waiting in line for gasoline that is three times as  expensive as it was in 
2005? Or an average of six explosions per day near our  area alone? 



The beginning of the new year isnât a promising one. Prices  seem to have 
shot up on everything from fuels like kerosene and cooking gas, to  tomatoes. A 
typical conversation with Abu Ammar our local fruit/vegetable vendor  goes 
something like this:


R: âOh nice lemons today Abu Ammarâ give us  a kilo.â

Abu A: âThey are Syrian. You should see  the tomatoes- if you think these are 
nice, take a look at those.â

R: âHmmmâ they do look good. Two kilos  of those. How much will that be?â

Abu A: âThat will be 3600  dinars.

R (feigning shock and awe): â3600  dinars! What? That is almost double what 
we paid a week agoâ why?â

Abu A (feigning sorrow and regret): âHabibtiâ you know what my supplier has 
to go through to bring me these  vegetables? The cost of gasoline has gone up! 
I swear on the life of my mother  that Iâm only profiting 50 dinars per kilo
ââ

R: âYour mother is dead, isnât  she?â

Abu A: âYes yes- but you know how  valuable the dear woman was to me- may 
Allah have mercy on her- and on us all!  The dogs in the government are going 
to 
kill us with these pricesââ

R (sighing heavily): âYou voted for the  dogs last year Abu Ammarââ

Abu A: âShhhâ donât call them dogs- itâs  not proper. Anyway, itâs 
not 
their fault- the Americans are making them do itâ  my Allah curse them and 
their 
childrenââ

R (with eyes rolling) and Abu A (in  unison): ââ and their childrenâs 
children.â


A few days ago, the cousin took me to buy a pack of  recordable CDs. The 
price had gone up a whole dollar, which may seem a pittance  to the average 
American or European, but it must be remembered that many Iraqis  make as 
little as 
$100 a month and complete families are expected to survive on  that.

âB. why has the price of these lousy CDs gone up so much???â I  demanded 
from the shop owner who is also a friend, âDonât tell me your supplier  has 
also 
pushed the prices up on you because of the gasoline shortage?â I asked  
sarcastically. No- supplies cost the same for him- he has not needed to stock 
up  
yet. But this is how he explained it: his car takes 60 liters of gasoline. It  
needs to be refueled every 2-3 days. The official price of gasoline was 50 
Iraqi  dinars before, so it cost him around 3000 dinars to fill up his car, 
which 
was  nearly two dollars. Now it costs 9000 Iraqi dinars IF he fills it up at 
a gas  station and not using black market gasoline which will cost him around 
15,000  dinars- five times the former price- and this every two to three days. 
He also  has to purchase extra gasoline for the shop generator which needs to 
be working  almost constantly, now that electricity is about four hours 
daily. âNow how am I  supposed to cover that increase in my costs if I 
donât sell 
CDs at a higher  price?â

People buy black market gasoline because for many, waiting in  line five, 
six, sevenâ ten hours isnât an option. Weâve worked out a sort of  
agreement 
amongst 4 or 5 houses in the neighborhood. According to a schedule  (which is 
somewhat complicated and involves license plate numbers, number of  children 
per 
family, etc.), one of us spends the day filling up the car and then  the 
gasoline is distributed between the four or five involved neighbors. 



The process of extracting the gasoline from the car itself  once it is back 
at the house was a rather disgusting and unhealthy one up until  nearly a year 
ago. A hose was inserted into the gasoline tank and one of they  unlucky 
neighbors would suck on it until the first surge of gasoline came  flowing out. 
Now, thanks to both local and Chinese ingenuity, we have miniature  gasoline 
pumps to suck out the gasoline. âThe man who invented these,â My cousin  
once 
declared emotionally, holding the pump up like a trophy, âdeserves a Nobel  
Prize 
inâ something or another.â

I know for most of the world, highly  priced gasoline is a common concern. 
For Iraqis, it represents how the situation  is deteriorating. Gasoline and 
kerosene were literally cheaper than bottled  water prior to the war. Itâs 
incredibly frustrating that while the price of  petrol is at a high, one of the 
worlds leading oil-producing countries isnât  producing enough to cover its 
own 
needs.

There is talk of major  mismanagement and theft in the Oil Ministry. Chalabi 
took over several days ago  and a friend who works in the ministry says the 
takeover is a joke. âYou know  how they used to check our handbags when we 
first 
walked into the ministry?â She  asked the day after Chalabi crowned himself 
Oil Emperor, âNow WE check our  handbags after we leave the ministry- you 
know- 
to see if Chalabi stole  anything.â

I guess the Iraqis who thought the US was going to turn Iraq  into another 
America werenât really far from the mark- we too now enjoy inane  leaders, 
shady 
elections, a shaky economy, large-scale unemployment and soaring  gas prices.

Goodbye 2005- the year of SCIRI, fraudulent elections, secret  torture 
chambers, car bombs, white phosphorous, assassinations, sectarianism and  
fundamentalismâ you will not be missed.

Let us see what 2006 has in store  for us.

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