Los Angeles Free Press Issue 2.10

Iraq - Grandeur & Destruction. Part I

by Layla Anwar

Breakthrough & Nostalgia

    When I say and repeat that you Americans have destroyed everything in Iraq, I am met with scorn and anger.
    Some of you are too simplistic and equate destruction with buildings in ruins.
    Having a limited vision, you can’t go beyond the material, the physical...
    I reiterate, you Americans have destroyed everything in Iraq. And I mean EVERYTHING.
    Since 1958 until 2003, Iraq, its government and its people strove relentlessly to build a modern nation state.
    The biggest developmental boom took place under the Baath regime and in particular under Saddam Hussein. Like it or not.
    In 1972, the oil was nationalized. By 1982, illiteracy and preventable diseases were eradicated.
    Education including higher education was free of charge. The government would disburse 5000 grants yearly for postgraduate studies abroad to England, Germany, Russia, France...
    By 2003, Iraq accounted for 30,000 scientists. Yes, you read me right, 30,000 scientists. And when in 2003, Bush said that Iraqis were very educated people, he knew what he was talking about.
    Now you understand why the targeting of academics, scientists and intellectuals was part of the American plan. It was actually no.1 on the agenda way before "sectarian warfare" broke out.
    Since, over 600 scientists and academics have been murdered in cold blood, the rest have fled and many are reported missing...
    University libraries and schools were booming with books and publications, the National library in Baghdad held the most ancient manuscripts ever to be found.
    Iraqis were known to devour books, and Baghdad was a publishing center. Books would even be distributed free of charge to other Middle Eastern countries including some parts of Africa.
    The Universities were equipped with the latest technology and labs. The student dorms were specially designed to accommodate the highest number of students – a lot of them came and studied and lived free of charge in Iraq. They came from Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Somalia, Algeria, Malaysia, Indonesia, Egypt, Sudan...
    In the medical field, Iraq was considered the most developed nation - along with its educational system - in the whole of the Middle East. Both WHO and UNICEF stated that Iraq on these two fronts could be considered as having overcome "underdevelopment" and was ready to join the "developed world."
    All specialists were sent abroad for post-doctorate research and for further specialization.
    We had the most advanced hospitals, with the latest equipment, there were health dispensaries in every neighborhood. Medication was subsidized, and all you needed to do was pay a symbolic fee of 1 dinar. 1 Dinar for a medical visit and that was it.
    Infrastructures were diligently built. Roads, highways, bridges, sewage system, electricity, telecommunications, industry, commercial buildings, hotels, agribusiness... All of these were built by Iraqis. Not some foreign labor, but Iraqis themselves.
    In fact, Iraqis were the main asset. And the government under Saddam Hussein, invested heaps into the main riches of Iraq - its people.
    Women were particularly favored during that time. We had equal rights, equal pay, 2 years maternity leave, we could divorce when we saw fit, no one would tell us how to dress, 70% of us were working women, we had access to schools, universities, education, government institutions...We could travel, drive, and run our own businesses.
    Some of us were professors, others doctors, teachers, engineers, scientists, archaeologists, financial managers, diplomats, judges, lawyers, artists, singers, writers, actresses...
    We could walk the streets alone, during the day and night, we could go out, dress as we pleased (within reasonable limits), marry whom we wanted in a civil court if we had so wished... Polygamy was forbidden and domestic violence was punishable by law.
    Our children had access to free schooling, free meals, free health care and were vaccinated free of charge. Iraq had the lowest child mortality rate in the whole of the Middle East. Our children went to good schools with heating, with desks and chairs, they had enough to eat, they had places to go to and play, they had parks and gardens, swings and playgrounds, they had a mother and a father and grew up into healthy adulthood.
    Those who had lost their parents were either taken care of by the rest of the extended family and were given a governmental pay allocation or placed in orphanages that were subsidized and supervised by the government. And trust me that government was quite strict with any form of abuse, if it ever happened.
    The few gays we had, were tolerated and were not harassed or targeted and were not tortured or murdered in broad daylight.
    Minorities like the Kurds had their own regional autonomy. Saddam Hussein built them universities and schools where they could teach and learn in their own language. They were allowed their own press in Kurdish, their culture - music, customs and their own style of dress. They were free to circulate in the whole of Iraq, attend universities and live anywhere they wished.
    In fact a lot of them remained in Baghdad . They were allowed to be part of the government and were represented in it. We had Kurdish ministers and ambassadors.
    And intermarriage between Kurds and Arabs was very common. Kurdish even became a compulsory secondary language in Baghdad’s high schools.
    Other minorities like the Sabeans, the Yazidis and the Turkmen were allowed to form associations, practice their own religion, language or ethnic customs... And again, intermarriage was common.
    Christians were protected, particularly protected. They were given posts in government. Had access to all the Iraqi institutions, owned their own businesses, were free to worship as they pleased, the government even had a special budget for the construction of churches. They were allowed Sunday off instead of the traditional Muslim Friday. They celebrated their religious holidays in all freedom, they were Iraqis before anything else... They were even free to have their own hospitals, schools, and pension homes.
    The Shiites formed the bulk of the government employees and the army. They were considered as Iraqi citizens first and foremost, were allowed to worship in their own mosques and study in their own religious centers, they had access to education, housing, employment, higher studies, high governmental posts, ministerial posts, diplomatic posts...
    They were allowed to marry anyone they pleased. And the fact is that the rate of intermarriage between Iraqi Shiites and Sunnis was the highest in the Middle East compared to let’s say Bahrain, Kuwait, Lebanon or Saudi Arabia where Shiite minorities exist. There is not one Iraqi family which is not of mixed sects - Sunni/ Shia.
    Iraq produced Shiite doctors, professors, scientists, artists, sportsmen...
    Palestinians, they used to call themselves Iraqi-Palestinians, numbered around 35,000 in total.
    They were specially protected by Saddam Hussein and his government. They were given equal rights just like the Iraqis, were allowed to own their businesses, marry - marriage between Iraqis and Palestinians was common - had access to free schools, universities, grants, medical services just like any Iraqi.
    Palestinians were considered the rightful owners of a just cause and they were fully and unconditionally supported - no matter the cost or the consequences. And that is the way to do it.
    Culturally and artistically, Iraq was a truly booming place. Baghdad was known for its poets, writers, artists, musicians, painters, dancers...
    And Saddam Hussein invested heavily in Iraqi art.
    There was a special Institute for plastic arts, sculpture and ceramics. The Iraqi school of Art was known to be the most prominent in the Middle East and produced many famous names that were later emulated by other Arab artists.
    Furthermore, to encourage both Iraqi and non-Iraqi art, the Iraqi government under Saddam Hussein, established cultural offices supervised by its cultural attachés abroad.
    For instance you had an Iraqi cultural center in London, one in Paris and another one in Geneva.
    These centers would promote Iraqi and non Iraqi artists, organize Iraqi dance festivals, Iraqi exhibitions of crafts and traditionally designed clothes, would invite traditional Iraqi musicians...
    The aim was to bridge any cultural gaps between the Arab world/Iraq and the West. And all these activities were free of charge. The government paid for everything - every single activity and covered all the costs it entailed.
    As some of you may know, Iraq is the land of the first civilizations known to humankind. The skeleton of the Alphabet started in Sumer with the first cuneiforms. Even cooking recipes were engraved on tablets. Techniques for civil construction, agricultural irrigation and also the preliminaries for urban planning - all took root in this ancient civilization. Epics, poetry, music, jurisprudence with Hammurabi’s over 700 codified rules, philosophy and metaphysics also took root in this land...
    I don’t want to go into Mesopotamian history right now, but suffice to say, that Iraq counts for the highest number of archaeological sites in the world, covering thousands of years, and bearing witness to different epochs of history. From the Sumerians right through to the monotheistic prophets and beyond...
    Before the sanction years, and I will touch on the sanctions years in my next chapter, the government under Saddam Hussein spent millions of dollars in the restoration, preservation and protection of these sites that are considered part of the universal patrimonial heritage according to UNESCO’s definitions.
    The hanging gardens of Babylon were even considered part of the 7 wonders of the world. Not anymore. They have been replaced by Petra in Jordan.
    The Iraqi museum was home to thousands of priceless artifacts, numbered, classified and recorded. Experts in ancient history and archeology would spent unlimited hours excavating, restoring, preserving, protecting and teaching our Mesopotamian heritage that stretched all the way to the Abbasid Caliphate right into Modern Iraq.
    Right up to the sanctions years, and despite the Iran-Iraq war, one can safely say that the Iraqi state was a fully modern functioning independent entity. When I talk about state I am not only talking of governmental institutions.
    There were these, and there was the army, a modern strong capable army. But state also entails other societal institutions, like universities, schools, hospitals, cultural bodies, associations... infrastructural systems, civic society and national and cultural identity.
    The Iraqi State and its ideology overcame tribalism, sectarianism, ethnic chauvinism... And it was a fully functional State without outside help. It was run by Iraqis for Iraqis.
    I am absolutely convinced that, had Khomeinism not appeared on the scene - and Khomeinism was greatly helped to accede to power thanks to the West ...
    I am absolutely convinced had there not been this tumor called political Shiism, and Persianism.
    I am absolutely convinced that had Iraq not had such disgusting treacherous neighbors - Iran, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait...
    I am absolutely convinced had Iraq been truly allowed to continue on its developmental path without having to constantly ward off outside influences, it would have become a fully fledged Arab Democracy with its own specificity.
    In fact Iraq had ALL the necessary prerequisites and ingredients to become so.
    It had a strong government with a vision, it had institutions, it had eradicated illiteracy and had a highly educated population, it was developed in more ways than one...
    And this, the West can never accept, nor the rest of the feudal backward Arab states, nor the criminal Israel and Iran.
    And it is with the objective of destroying what the Iraqi government and in particular Saddam Hussein took great pains in building in only 3 decades, and 3 decades are not much in the history of a country, the Americans came to invade and occupy...
    America’s objectives and the primary goal on its agenda was the erasing of the Iraqi identity because America understood that it was precisely that identity that proved to be America’s main stumbling block despite years of grotesque, criminal sanctions. Sanctions, previously unknown to contemporary mankind.
    Not since the League of Nations, has anyone witnessed such a collective effort to destroy and steal the soul of a nation that tried to stand on its own two feet alone with its own resources.
    And its resources were:

a hardworking, intelligent, educated people
its natural geography
a) the finest quality of crude oil gushing from the biggest, largely unexplored oil reserves in the world.
b) sweet water flowing from two rivers.
c) a fertile land
its deep, ancient, historical roots from which it drew pride and moral strength.

    A deadly combination for the covetous, barbaric West and for their bastard criminal whore mistresses the Jewish State of Israel and Persian-Iran.
    Here was an independent, progressive, modern, secular, strong, proud, Arab identity... that freed itself from the shackles of the Ottoman then British colonialism and on its way towards true economic, political, intellectual and moral independence... Here was a country who refused to be a lapdog, a slave that would bow down... And that was simply not acceptable.
    And the breakthrough that started as a dream and took root in reality, was forbidden to further unfold... Not only was it forbidden to unfold, it had to be smashed, destroyed to pieces. It was in fact a must.

Reprinted with permission from An Arab Woman Blues - Reflections in a sealed bottle...

Illustrated by Iraqi female artist Zainab Abdel Qader.

Replace Plurality Elections

Problem: Most places in the United States use plurality elections where the candidate with the most votes is elected. This is fine when there are only two candidates in a race. When three or more candidates compete for an office, the winning candidate often receives less than fifty percent of the vote. This means that a majority of votes actually preferred someone other than the person who was elected. This violates the commonsense democratic principle that a candidate elected to a single winner office, such as mayor or governor, ought to be preferred by a majority of voters.

Solution: Under IRV, voters rank candidates in order of preference. If a candidate receives a majority of first choices, he or she is elected. If no candidate receives a majority, the candidate with the fewest first choices is eliminated. Voters who ranked the eliminated candidate first now have their ballots counted for their second choice. This process continues until one candidate earns a majority.
By ranking candidates, voters are able to express their true preferences without worrying about wasting their votes or spoiling the election and helping elect their least favorite candidate. For this reason alone, IRV often leads to higher turnout and stronger democracy. Candidates need to build a base of first choice support, but also reach out to the broader voting population in order to be acceptable to the majority.

Replace Primary Elections

Problem: Most primary elections are plagued by low voter turnout and high taxpayer costs. States spend millions of dollars to hold primaries that are essentially just private nominating processes for political parties. In jurisdictions with strong partisan leanings, these low turnout party primaries determine who will represent all voters from that district.

Solution: Under IRV, voters rank candidates in order of preference on a single ballot. If a candidate receives a majority of first choices, he or she is elected. If no candidate receives a majority, the candidate with the fewest first choices is eliminated. Voters who ranked the eliminated candidate first now have their ballots counted for their second choice. This process continues until one candidate earns a majority.
With IRV, multiple candidates from a political party are able to run together in the general election without splitting their party's vote. No primary is necessary. Candidates are elected in a single, high turnout election, thereby strengthening democratic accountability. In addition, taxpayers only need to fund one election instead of two.

Who Uses IRV?

In use in the United States:

Arkansas (overseas voters)
Burlington, VT
Cambridge, MA (Proportional voting method of choice voting)
Cary, North Carolina
Hendersonville, North Carolina
Louisiana (overseas and military voters)
North Carolina (certain judicial vacancies)
San Francisco, CA
Springfield, IL (overseas and military voters)
South Carolina (overseas voters)
Takoma Park, MD

In Use Internationally:

Australia (House of Representatives and state/territory lower houses)
Ireland (President)
London (Mayor)
Fiji
Papua New Guinea
Malta

Check out this FLASH DEMONSTRATION of how it works, or have it explained in this POWERPOINT PRESENTATION BY THE MUPPETS.

http://www.instantrunoff.com/

I'm Down Here in Mexico Where it's WARM!
Survivor Puerto Vallarta, Episode 7

By Jane Stillwater

     Geez Louise! If I'm not worrying about global warming, gas prices, the idiots in the White House or the "war" in Iraq, I'm worrying about how to protect myself from having to sell apples on the street corner and learning to commune with the ghost of FDR! Listen, if any of you have anything else out there that you want me to worry about, let me know. I'm on a roll!
     My friend Joe Thompson just e-mailed me, "Jane, the cold hard facts are that it's truly going to be a credit card Christmas this year. And then the layoffs and inability to pay off the cards will come next. I'm looking for the real crisis to hit sometime in March after Christmas has settled out and the bills come due from Christmas shopping. The only thing holding off a full-blown recession now is Christmas shopping. But the real crunch will come when all those fantastic pension funds begin to dry up and people's pension checks are suddenly downsized. Places like Florida will be in some real deep crap." I feel you, Joe. Even in PV and Yelapa, the endless stream of American tourists is already drying up.
     Then I got an e-mail from my friend Claudette. "Jane, I wouldn't say that the economy has been destroyed, but anyone with a living brain cell would admit that our economy has taken a serious wound, inflicted by the current housing problem. I was just at a conference in Miami, where a representative of the Federal Reserve Bank was on a panel discussing the trends in the local real estate market. She said that one needed only to look at the number of high-rise buildings in downtown Miami that were completely dark at night to see the problem. Developers are slowing down their development so that they can keep their construction loans in place because they know there will be no sales at the end of the development phase." So it's not just me? The Feds are worried too?
     "Another panelist - a real estate broker - said that in the Miami area there are over 40,000 listings," Claudette continued, "yet they only closed 600 transactions in the past month. That means that there is already a six-year supply of housing, using simple math: (40,000/600)/12. But that's only the tip of the iceberg, so to speak. People have been using their homes as ATM cards, refinancing in order to get cash out as values increased. With real estate values falling, people will no longer have that ready source of cash to finance other major purchases." A credit card Christmas? Even that might not happen.
     "Families will find themselves in a position of being unable to sell their homes, either because the sale would not generate enough cash to pay off all the liens against the property or because there are no purchasers, because credit has tightened." I don't have to worry about that. I don't have any outstanding debts on the one hand but no one is standing in line to offer me credit cards either. "We are just beginning to see the ripple effect of the sub-prime mortgage problem, and it is not going to be solved quickly."
     I'm in freaking Mexico. On the freaking Mexican Riviera! I gotta stop worrying. Time for a siesta.
     "No, Jane," replied the voice of my conscience. "It is time for you to start making preparations for the Great Depression of 2008 so that when it arrives, I won't have to listen to you complain and whine all the time about how you had known that all this was coming for at least a year and yet had done NOTHING to prepare for it."
     So. What can I do? What can I do to prepare ahead of time for the Great Depression of 2008? I mean besides hiding out in Mexico and pretending that what is happening to the rest of my country isn't happening to me?

Merry Christmas

This one is a quick read. I consumed it all while waiting for a delayed flight. It occurred to me while reading that Michael O’McCarthy must believe that the world we now enjoy is rapidly headed in the direction of the fictional one he paints – one of dictatorships and Front Line Defenders. His tale is intended as cautionary. Sitting there in the airport, after enduring liquid-free, shoeless security queues and listening to incessant loudspeaker warnings to report suspicious activity, it was easy to wonder if elements of “Rebels in Hell” were just a little believable for comfort. - Kathleen Hayden -	HIGH TIMES columnist Paul Krassner is the editor of Pot Stories For the Soul – stories by and about Hunter Thompson, Ken Kesey, Stephen Gaskin, Jack Herer, Allen Ginsberg, Michele Phillips, Wavy Gravy, Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Mountain Girl, Harry Shearer, John Sinclair, Robert Anton Wilson, Mark Mothersbaugh and many others. Introduction by Harlan Ellison. Winner of the Firecracker Alternative Book Award and a Quality Paperback Book Club selection.	KTWS, 98.3, The Twins plays classic rock in Central Oregon. This book humorously documents some of the radio stunts involving the author and the disc jockeys at The Twins. Those who listen to The Twins are referred to as “Twinsters” and their motto is, “Being a Twinster is not a spectator sport.” Most of the events described in this family-humor book actually happened except for the part where the author finally loses that last 15 pounds and becomes an exotic dancer. Names would have been changed to protect the innocent but there aren’t any.	For some, Jane Stillwater might be an acquired taste. She has a gift for skewering the pompous with a phrase, of unabashedly pointing out which emperors lack clothes. If one is a die-hard conservative still giving George Bush manly love, Jane's writing will probably be infuriating. (At least one can hope.) She writes from a personal perspective and the chronicle of her overseas odysseys read like a combination of Mark Twain and Jack Kerouac. For the seriously open-minded who enjoy a good chortle. - S. R. Thornton -
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