The Common Ills: The continued poverty in oil-rich Iraq

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

The continued poverty in oil-rich Iraq

Why do people protest in Iraq? For many reasons. Including the huge poverty in a country that brings in billions each year.

Al Mada notes a CNN special on Iraq and describes a small child digging through a pile of waste in an attempt to collect anything that might bring a profit -- bottles, cans. The child is 12-years-old and the provider for the family. UNICEF estimates 23% of Iraqis live beneath the poverty line. This as All Iraq News notes that the US Embassy in Baghdad issued a statement announcing that the US Agency of International Development (USAID) had spent a billion dollars on various projects in Iraq. They're bragging about five years of 'economic development' but the Iraqi people don't see a damn thing.

Or maybe they do. Maybe they visit the US Embassy in Baghdad's website and see the news that the White House is granting $155 million "in additional humanitarian assistance for the Syrian people."

USAID proclaims, "USAID investments in Iraq focus on: strengthening Iraqi provincial governance; increasing community and civil society participation; bolstering economic reforms to expand the private sector; strengthening rule of law and human rights; improving delivery of key services; preparing for the 2013 provincial elections; and continuing to assist with the return and resettlement of displaced persons." They brag about $261.1. million they spent in 2011. They have nothing to brag about. $189.3 million went to "Democracy and Governance."

Iraq can't pass a budget. It's so bad that Alsumaria reports supporters of Moqtada al-Sadr have launched a sit-in outside the Green Zone. Why? To get the budget passed. This follows yesterday's announcement that the vote on the 2013 budget was again postponed.

Hans Christof von Sponeck (Antiwar.com) makes some sense in a meandering article:

An immensely oil-rich country but 22.9% out of the est. 33 million Iraqis have been living in poverty and many more have to survive under near-poverty living conditions. The GNI per capita/annum (2011) amounted to a mere $2.640 (WB). Transparency International classified Iraq’s public sector corruption among the highest in the world – ranking 169 out of 176 countries (2012).

We get it, Grandpa, you resigned as the head of the UN World Food Program in Iraq in 2000. Guess what? There was a war launched on Iraq in 2003. Try factoring that into your column as something other than an aside. Iraq's a young population and they're a suffering population. They don't have time for Grandpa's tales of the 90s.

The median age is 21 years. 2013 minus 21 is 1998. Your tales of the 90s are ancient history to the Iraqi population which is more concerned with the immediate effects of the ongoing war.

And while the sanctions were crippling (no one's denying that), that time period is rated as better by most Iraqis who remember it than the current period today.

FYI, there's going to be a lengthy pause between the two entries this morning. Sorry.

The following community sites -- plus Adam Kokesh, The Diane Rehm Show, NPR's Music, Tavis Smiley, Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox, Black Agenda Report, the Pacifica Evening News, Antiwar.com, C-SPAN, Iraq Inquiry Digest and Susan's On the Edge -- updated last night and this morning: