Saturday, August 13, 2022

Iraq sees the effects of climate change early and the political stalemate continues

THE SUN reports:


To feed and cool his buffaloes, Hashem Gassed must cross 10 kilometres (six miles) of sunburnt land in southern Iraq, where drought is devastating swathes of the mythical Mesopotamian Marshes.

The reputed home of the biblical Garden of Eden, Iraq’s swamplands have been battered by three years of drought and low rainfall, as well as reduced water flows along rivers and tributaries originating in neighbouring Turkey and Iran.

Vast expanses of the once lush Huwaizah Marshes, straddling the border with Iran, have been baked dry, their vegetation yellowing. Stretches of the Chibayish Marshes, which are popular with tourists, are suffering the same fate.

“The marshes are our livelihood -- we used to fish here and our livestock could graze and drink,“ said Gassed, 35, from a hamlet near Huwaizah.

Southern Iraq’s marshlands were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2016, both for their biodiversity and their ancient history.

But now, beds of dry streams snake around the once verdant wetlands, and the area’s Um al-Naaj lake has been reduced to puddles of muddy water among largely dry ground.


Maybe some day, in the earth's moments, people will take climate change seriously?  Maybe.


Iraq is going to be one of the hardest hit countries by all projection models.  


There's no government in place currently to address it in Iraq.  But other countries have existing governments and they're not addressing it either.  


Protests continue in Baghdad.  Followers of Moqtada al-Sadr protested Friday but the cult saw a large number of people show up to protest Moqtada and his demands.  NEWSGRAM reports:


Members of al-Sadr's parliamentary bloc resigned but instead of allowing his rivals — the Coordination Framework — to try to form a government, al-Sadr has demanded the parliament be dissolved and that early elections be held. It's unclear whether he has any legal basis for those demands.

The inter-Shiite power struggle has left Iraq in political limbo and exacerbated the economic crisis. The impasse, now in its 10th month, is the longest in the country since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion reset the political order.

"We are protesting against the occupation of parliament and those who threaten the judiciary," said university student Abbas Salem, who was part of the rally Friday by Iran-backed groups.

Salem carried a poster of a top Iranian general, Qassim Soleimani, and a top Iraqi Shiite militia leader, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, who were killed in a U.S. drone strike in January 2020. He said he worries that if al-Sadr forms a government, he will disband the Popular Mobilization Forces, an umbrella of mostly Iran-backed Shiite militias.

Another protester, Ahmad al-Maliki, 52, said they are opposed to al-Sadr followers' "occupation of parliament" and added that Iraq needs a new government as soon as possible.



As these protests continue, others are getting fed up.  Laure Al Khoury (AFP) reports:


Two rival Shiite Muslim blocs are holding competing sit-ins in Baghdad, ramping up tensions in conflict-weary Iraq, but shopkeeper Mustafa says he's more worried about how he's going to make a living.

"We have no work," said the man in his forties as a lone fan pumped hot summer air around his clothes store.

The two camps are "defending their personal interests", he charged, declining to provide his surname due to security concerns.

Political deadlock has left Iraq without a new government, president or prime minister following general elections 10 months ago.

[.  . .]

An anti-government protest movement that erupted in late 2019 was instead met with a deadly security crackdown.

"We didn't even manage to cross the bridge that led to the Green Zone," said 50-year-old communist activist Ali Jaber, recalling the 2019 protests.

"It took them eight minutes," the civil servant said of the Sadrists, alleging "indulgence" by the security forces.

He dismissed the demands of both the Sadrists and their rivals.

"It's not a fight to build a state, it's the ultimate political conflict in the name of their own interests," he said. "They are in another world."

Analyst Lahib Higel from the International Crisis Group said the demonstrations were "less a people's revolution than an intra-elite fight, mainly pitting Sadr and his political backers against Maliki and his".

The standoff has "exposed once more the fragility of Iraq's post-2003 political system", she said.


We've been noting the Iraqi consensus that Moqtada was getting a pass (due to the sitting prime minister) that other groups did not when they protested in the past.  We noted the rumor circulating over a week ago that the sitting prime minister had issued a stand-down order to security forces regarding Moqtada's cult.  We also noted that there were people who frustrated by the protests and that a call for new elections will most likely, if it takes place, see Moqtada get his more traditional results -- far less representation in Parliament -- because he only did well because so many chose to sit the election out.


Moving over to music,  Bobbie Gentry wrote and recorded "Ode To Billie Joe" which went to number one in1967.




Other notable covers include Diana Ross & the Superemes' from their album REFLECTIONS . . .




And The 5th Dimension's cover from their double album LIVE!



It's a great song and we're noting it because CRAPAPEDIA.  Someone e-mailed the public account about the Dylan parody number of this song that WIKIPEDIA notes.  As I read over the other recordings, I see no mention of these two covers.  REFLECTIONS, by Diana Ross & the Supremes, actually sold as did The 5th Dimensions' LIVE!  I'm sure there must be a 'logical' reason CRAPAPEDIA has again short-changed the same groups of artists that they forever short change.

The following sites updated:




Posted by at