Iraq's Economic Catastrophe

[chlamor]

Iraq's economic catastrophe

Zaid Al-Ali, Al-Ahram Weekly



Zaid Al-Ali argues that corruption and mismanagement are behind Iraq's ailing economy


APRIL 7, 2005 - For 13 years, Iraqis were subjected to the most comprehensive international sanctions regime ever created. They were not permitted to sell or to purchase anything on the international markets, their businesses crumbled, infrastructure rotted and families starved. The only reprieve to this incredible suffering was the United Nations' Oil-for-Food programme, which was entirely financed by the Iraqi people themselves. At the time, many complained that the programme was being used as means to continue the repression of the Iraqi people, and that its administration was corrupt, but this fell on deaf ears. As a result of this desperate situation, many argued that the only way to improve the situation was for a clean break, and so some who would have otherwise voiced opposition viewed the American invasion in 2003 with tacit approval. The war was indeed a breaking point, but who would have thought that the situation would deteriorate even further under American rule?

Incredible as it may seem, in the past two years, Iraq's economic situation has worsened, living standards have declined, and poverty as well as child malnutrition have increased. According to a number of non-governmental organisations in Iraq, the unemployment rate could be as high as 65 per cent, a figure that is not disputed by the Central Statistics Bureau in Baghdad. In addition, the World Food Programme estimates that one in four Iraqis survive on food rations that are distributed by the Ministry of Trade, while 2.6 million Iraqis are so poor that they are forced to resell part of their rations in order to buy basic necessities such as medicine. Meanwhile, according to the UN Human Rights Commission Report and the Oslo-based Fafo Institute for Applied Social Science, child malnutrition rates have doubled to almost eight per cent since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime. Finally, because of the decrepit state of the country's infrastructure, millions of Iraqis have to do without clean drinking water for days, this at a time when an equal number have access to electricity for only four hours a day, and sometimes have to line up for an entire day in order to purchase gas for their cars.

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Perhaps most importantly for most Iraqis, rehabilitation of the electricity sector has been wholly unsatisfactory. Iraqi engineers often boast that despite the incredible onslaught that was launched against their country's infrastructure in the war in 1991, in which almost nothing was spared from devastation, they were nevertheless able to reinstate the electricity supply within months. The situation today is a pitiful joke in comparison. In the period immediately preceding the 2003 war, Iraq's electricity network produced on average 95,000 MWh, which was not enough to service the entire country but it was at least a reasonably high and stable supply. Between November 2004 and the end of January 2005, the network was only able to muster an average of 80,000 MWh, and sometimes dropped to less than 50,000 MWh. The result has been severe blackouts throughout the country, leaving some families with access to electricity for less than four hours a day.

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During the 18th and 19th centuries, much of the world's poor clamoured and rose up in violent revolution on many occasions as a result of food, and more particularly, bread shortages. Today, electricity is the basic necessity that people can no longer afford to live without. Without electricity, there can be no communications, no healthcare system, no learning and no industry. There may still yet be time to remedy Iraq's economic catastrophe, but if nothing is done soon, it is difficult to imagine that the Iraqi people will forgive their current rulers or their occupiers.

http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m10965

[pretzel4gore]

1. the entire world is pro iraqi people

yet this shit goes on. and on. and on