Baghdad, Iraq
John Farrell
Voices in The Wilderness

1. Move around without fear. This is one of the biggest concerns. I talked to someone yesterday who said that he and his family have given up on expecting anything from Bush except security. If the US could only provide security then that would be a start. Women are especially at risk of rape and murder, and often don’t go out at night even in large groups. Many say that if the country were truly safe then Iraqis wouldn’t need any help to begin to establish their own systems of governance; they could do this on their own. The US has shown itself to not able to provide security, though, and the 11 pm curfew means that people really can’t travel freely in the evenings or go to visit a family’s home unless they decide to stay there for the evening. Iraqis can’t get passports yet, and even if they get permission to leave the country they are often afraid that if they do so they will not be allowed back into Iraq.

2. Work for a living. While Iraqis are continually accused by US troops of being thieves or “Ali Babas,” the US soldiers’ new word for thief, the unemployment rate has skyrocketed in Iraq, reaching 60% by many estimates. Many people blame the incidence of thievery on the criminals that Saddam Hussein released from prison just months before the war, while others blame the obvious lack of employment. In truth, however, it seems that most people are taking their situation of unemployment with great dignity. As aid agencies such as Oxfam continue to pull out of Iraq, along with UN officials, the situation will likely get worse as it gets more difficult to get food rations. It is hard to get an exact unemployment figure, though, because there are really few organizations working in Iraq that are able to do the sort of broad-range studies necessary to determine this. Most NGO’s in Iraq are so scared for their lives that they are unwilling to go door to door or to have any interaction with Iraqi people. Even Iraqis are afraid to go out.