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In this post I'm going to talk about an aspect of the Iraqi crisis that has rarely been mentioned and discussed, it has been in the dark despite its significant importance and effect on Iraq and Iraqis.
I though about this post while I was in the market buying fruits and vegetables, While I was walking in the market looking at the merchandise I noticed something that got my attention; most of the vegetables and fruits are imported! Majority are Syrian! That's really weird; the markets in a country that has two rivers and extremely fertile soil is importing food from neighboring countries! My thoughts and memories started to link to each other for a reason or a conclusion.
Neither climate nor agriculture or economics are my fields of specialty but it doesn't need a specialist to notice the changes in the Iraqi climate and the deteriorations in the agricultural fields during those five years that followed the war, I noticed dramatic changes in the climate and the availability of agricultural products in the Iraqi market, immediately after the war I noticed that Iraqi products are scarce in the local markets and people said that's because farmers are exporting them (smuggling) to the neighboring countries because the products of the Iraqi land are knows for its special taste so there is a high demand on them and the farmers get higher profit if they export it…everybody loves the Iraqi products. Then as the years pass the products begun to disappear from the Iraqi markets and increase in the neighboring countries' markets (like Kuwait), later it begun to disappear from the neighboring countries as well as in Iraq and now it is scarce inside Iraq and outside it. Climate changes was another obvious thing after the war, year after year it's getting hotter, I remember before the war and two years after it when I used to sit in my room the fan was enough, it's true that it gets hot sometimes but I was able to survive and if the electricity comes and the air conditioner works for two hours my room gets cold, even in 2005 when I got back from Jordan to my parents home before they do after 3 months without air cooling the house, I remember the temperature was bearable but in 2007 when I was returned from Jordan after being denied entry I remember when I got back to my house and opened the door, I swear to god it was like opening a door to hell although the house was left for only 36 hours without air cooling! It's getting hotter in Iraq every year maybe it's because the global warming but I'm sure the global warming effects are so obvious in Iraq and it's more than most of the countries of the world, one can feel that the weather got crazy here, this year we were punished by the several sand storms and the swinging temperatures.
As I said before I'm not an agricultural engineer, climate or geography specialist but I think all the above happened for the following reasons…first of all the agriculture in Iraq is deteriorating because of the lack of support for the farmers from the government, the government and the ministry of agriculture is paying no attention to the farmers and their needs, they are doing nothing to improve or even maintain the services required for agriculture, many of the farmers had to leave their farms and areas because of sectarian violence and threatening, a lot of the farmers were killed by the "security forces" whether Iraqi or American for suspicion or they died as collateral damage during the war or after it, majority of the farmers who don't do farming are in jails specially in the south I heard rumors that most of the farmers in the south of Iraq are kept in Buka jail, while in the middle and west of Iraq they are either killed or in jails also, on the other hand we have the increased expenses to maintain a farm and get a good products so some decided to leave farming while some decided to export it to the neighboring countries and some decided to plant weeds and produce Hashish since there is no law in Iraq and drugs gives good money and finally the Kurds are building dams on the rivers and they are holding the water in the north and that caused to lower the level of the rivers (which is easily noticed) and that impacts the agriculture in the rest of Iraq…those were the main reasons in my opinion for the deterioration of agriculture in Iraq, I can't believe that a whole winter passed and I was able to find Iraqi orange only once and it was more expensive than the imported Egyptian orange! I can't believe that Iraqi grenadine was available only for one week and it was so expensive! I remember how cheap it was.
The deterioration in agriculture was the reason behind the climate change as I think; people say that what used to be farms became a desert now in the south middle and west of Iraq and that's one of the main reasons behind the sand storms that we suffer from now because there are no trees and plants to hold the sand storms, Iraq is suffering and it's transforming, I know people are dying in Iraq and they can't be even counted but what will we inherit our children even if the situation improved and Iraq became free again and everything is settle? What will we inherit them? A destroyed land? A desert? a community filled with hatred?…My country is being destroyed in every possible way, corruption is wherever you turn your head, even the land of Iraq is suffering, everything beautiful in Iraq is being killed, Iraq is dying and most of them are watching him struggling death while they say to their selves "no, it's not, everything will be good, the future will be bright and everything will settle, sacrifices must be done…..blah blah blah" what more should we sacrifice? We sacrificed our land and soil, we sacrificed our dignity and we sacrificed our children, men and women, we sacrificed our homes and left it to thugs to steal it while we were forced to live as refugees, now it's the dream and the ultimate wish for the Iraqi to be a refugee in any country, we sacrificed our careers, we sacrificed our professors, scientists and doctors, we sacrificed everything, Iraqis lost everything and till this moment there is no real light at the end of the tunnel. And when I said "we" I didn't meant my self only but Iraqis in general and when I said "sacrificed" I meant forced to sacrifice.
I though about this post while I was in the market buying fruits and vegetables, While I was walking in the market looking at the merchandise I noticed something that got my attention; most of the vegetables and fruits are imported! Majority are Syrian! That's really weird; the markets in a country that has two rivers and extremely fertile soil is importing food from neighboring countries! My thoughts and memories started to link to each other for a reason or a conclusion.
Neither climate nor agriculture or economics are my fields of specialty but it doesn't need a specialist to notice the changes in the Iraqi climate and the deteriorations in the agricultural fields during those five years that followed the war, I noticed dramatic changes in the climate and the availability of agricultural products in the Iraqi market, immediately after the war I noticed that Iraqi products are scarce in the local markets and people said that's because farmers are exporting them (smuggling) to the neighboring countries because the products of the Iraqi land are knows for its special taste so there is a high demand on them and the farmers get higher profit if they export it…everybody loves the Iraqi products. Then as the years pass the products begun to disappear from the Iraqi markets and increase in the neighboring countries' markets (like Kuwait), later it begun to disappear from the neighboring countries as well as in Iraq and now it is scarce inside Iraq and outside it. Climate changes was another obvious thing after the war, year after year it's getting hotter, I remember before the war and two years after it when I used to sit in my room the fan was enough, it's true that it gets hot sometimes but I was able to survive and if the electricity comes and the air conditioner works for two hours my room gets cold, even in 2005 when I got back from Jordan to my parents home before they do after 3 months without air cooling the house, I remember the temperature was bearable but in 2007 when I was returned from Jordan after being denied entry I remember when I got back to my house and opened the door, I swear to god it was like opening a door to hell although the house was left for only 36 hours without air cooling! It's getting hotter in Iraq every year maybe it's because the global warming but I'm sure the global warming effects are so obvious in Iraq and it's more than most of the countries of the world, one can feel that the weather got crazy here, this year we were punished by the several sand storms and the swinging temperatures.
As I said before I'm not an agricultural engineer, climate or geography specialist but I think all the above happened for the following reasons…first of all the agriculture in Iraq is deteriorating because of the lack of support for the farmers from the government, the government and the ministry of agriculture is paying no attention to the farmers and their needs, they are doing nothing to improve or even maintain the services required for agriculture, many of the farmers had to leave their farms and areas because of sectarian violence and threatening, a lot of the farmers were killed by the "security forces" whether Iraqi or American for suspicion or they died as collateral damage during the war or after it, majority of the farmers who don't do farming are in jails specially in the south I heard rumors that most of the farmers in the south of Iraq are kept in Buka jail, while in the middle and west of Iraq they are either killed or in jails also, on the other hand we have the increased expenses to maintain a farm and get a good products so some decided to leave farming while some decided to export it to the neighboring countries and some decided to plant weeds and produce Hashish since there is no law in Iraq and drugs gives good money and finally the Kurds are building dams on the rivers and they are holding the water in the north and that caused to lower the level of the rivers (which is easily noticed) and that impacts the agriculture in the rest of Iraq…those were the main reasons in my opinion for the deterioration of agriculture in Iraq, I can't believe that a whole winter passed and I was able to find Iraqi orange only once and it was more expensive than the imported Egyptian orange! I can't believe that Iraqi grenadine was available only for one week and it was so expensive! I remember how cheap it was.
The deterioration in agriculture was the reason behind the climate change as I think; people say that what used to be farms became a desert now in the south middle and west of Iraq and that's one of the main reasons behind the sand storms that we suffer from now because there are no trees and plants to hold the sand storms, Iraq is suffering and it's transforming, I know people are dying in Iraq and they can't be even counted but what will we inherit our children even if the situation improved and Iraq became free again and everything is settle? What will we inherit them? A destroyed land? A desert? a community filled with hatred?…My country is being destroyed in every possible way, corruption is wherever you turn your head, even the land of Iraq is suffering, everything beautiful in Iraq is being killed, Iraq is dying and most of them are watching him struggling death while they say to their selves "no, it's not, everything will be good, the future will be bright and everything will settle, sacrifices must be done…..blah blah blah" what more should we sacrifice? We sacrificed our land and soil, we sacrificed our dignity and we sacrificed our children, men and women, we sacrificed our homes and left it to thugs to steal it while we were forced to live as refugees, now it's the dream and the ultimate wish for the Iraqi to be a refugee in any country, we sacrificed our careers, we sacrificed our professors, scientists and doctors, we sacrificed everything, Iraqis lost everything and till this moment there is no real light at the end of the tunnel. And when I said "we" I didn't meant my self only but Iraqis in general and when I said "sacrificed" I meant forced to sacrifice. 
23 comments:
Globalization comes to Iraq. For all that we grow in the US, much of what we have in our stores in the way of fruit and vegetables are imported. I'm sure it's very difficult for farmers in Iraq. The oil industry can't seem to manage and that's priority number one, so you can imagine what it's like to be a farmer there. Meanwhile, there are food shortages all over the world. Be glad you have what you have in your markets. I hear there are food riots in some countries over the lack of rice.
I figured I should chime in here, as I have an economics BS and I've been reading this blog for several months now without commenting. Mohammed, the economic phenomenon your experiencing sounds like a pretty basic issue of supply any demand. With the destruction of farmland, the supply of Iraqi produce has decreased to the point that imported products have become cheaper and more plentiful. Hence, the disappearance of Iraqi produce. Its the beauty of the market at work, rather than pay outrageous prices for Iraqi goods, the markets become saturated with foreign goods and everyone still eats at a reasonable cost. No food shortages. As many are quick to cast globalization in a negative light, it should rather be obvious that this is an example of the positive effect of foreign at work. If/when the Iraqi farm sector recovers, Iraqi goods will come right back. Your right, the problem here is the security situation.
ljm,
The reason that there are food shortages all over the world is that those countries rely on significant imports of U.S. food exports. When the dollar loses value, food becomes more expensive for those importers, and as a result they can't afford it; hence riots and food shortages. As far as I know, Iraq is not a significant importer of U.S. food stuffs, they import more regional goods from places like Syria,as Mohammad mentioned, so the collapse of the U.S. dollar hasn't had the same kind of effect on food supply in Iraq. This isn't a negative effect of globalization.
- Greg
Thank you for the information. It makes so much sense that of course it would be getting hotter with less farming going on. Those beautiful green plants are so good at processing our wastes and cooling our environment. Without farming weatherization can strip the land of fertile soil, as I assume the increased sand storms are doing. This is leading to long term hardships. I can imagine that the carbon output from the war and occupation only add to the degradation of the farmland. So much pollution in the air, plants can only do so much. And without them, as we have learned from the slash and burn politics of the rainforest, we are destined to destroy the entire planet. And diverting water is a great way to turn fertile soil into desert, as we have learned in this country. Anytime we try to subvert nature we must expect to pay dearly.
We do import a lot of crops in the US, that is true. But it is for much different reasons than Iraq. We want bananas in the winter, so import them. We want cheaper prices, so import them. We have no problem eating cheap foods that is grown by the sweat and exploitation of third world workers as long as we get it cheap, however we complain that corporations are moving jobs overseas. We want it all and yet we can sit in judgment of other sovereign nations and lecture on civil rights and morals. We have this right because of manifest destiny which allows us to commit unspeakable sins without having to answer for them. Machiavelli believed the ends justify the means.
I do not know if I am alone in my thoughts, but it seems that the US is getting tired of Iraq. I have to dig more to get news. I worry that as the war and occupation affect our bottom line, and we are finally asked to make sacrifices ourselves, we will decide that we are done. Much like Vietnam, I worry that we will not clean up our mess nor will we learn from our mistakes. The no exit strategy didn't take anything into consideration, much less the things you describe today. I think that we would be much less inclined to brazenly wage war if we were asked to be responsible for it. When we entered WW2 Americans knew full well there would be sacrifices and made them. Every citizen had a responsibility to the war effort and as such had a responsibility for the war. When this does not occur, wars can be waged carelessly and citizens do not feel culpable.
That is one sick and callous comment, ljm. You must be a Zionist.
The oil industry can't seem to manage and that's priority number one
For whom? Cheney and Bush and co (and Israel), that's whom. No, the oil industry is NOT priority number one - feeding Iraqi people is.
Globalization comes to Iraq.
Globalization is not what is happening in Iraq - no, the US invaders and occupiers have destroyed a fully functioning society.
much of what we have in our stores in the way of fruit and vegetables are imported
And your country is similar to Iraqi, how?
I'm sure it's very difficult for farmers in Iraq.
The US invaders destroyed orange and date palm groves. The US occupiers have detained thousands and thousands of civilian Iraqis and killed hundreds of thousands more. You don't get much opportunity to run your farm if you are in a US jail or shot dead by the Americans.
Meanwhile, there are food shortages all over the world. Be glad you have what you have in your markets. I hear there are food riots in some countries over the lack of rice.
Because mega-corps is growing bio-fuels, not because of anything that Iraqis have done. Don't tell Mohammed - from your safe seat in a Western country - to *enjoy* the impoverishment of Iraq.
One day soon, you might find yourself rioting for lack of food.
@Anonymous, 9 May 2008 8:56 AM
Its the beauty of the market at work, rather than pay outrageous prices for Iraqi goods, the markets become saturated with foreign goods and everyone still eats at a reasonable cost. No food shortages.
What are you smoking? There ARE food shortages in Iraq. The price of food has rocketed (is not "reasonable".)
You are not seeing Keynesian economics in Iraq, you only think you are. Honestly, someone with "an economics BS" should be able to concentrate on details better. (I read "an economics BS" as "an economics BullShit" at first but perhaps I wasn't that far wrong.)
I find it absolutely incredible - and deeply depressing - how people like ljm and this "anonymous" are so casual about and unmoved by the cataclysmic suffering - every sort of deprivation - being endured by Iraqis these past months and years, since the illegal US-led invasion.
LJM,
the situation is not globalization...you are right there is food but so many people don't have the money to buy it...do you know that 40% of the Iraqi children are suffering from malnutrision? do you know that living in Iraq is more expensive than living in Jordan (which is considered one of the most expensive countries).
Anon,
the begining of your analysis is good but I think there are things that you didn't know about.
the problem is security and corrupted government also...and as Indigo said the prices aren't reasonable at all...it's skyrocketing now...for example for food only I spend a minimum of 600$a month (just me and my wife) and my payment is 500$ a month!!! and don't forget I'm a dentists and my payment is considered fairly good in Iraq as an employee...I might be buying some expensive stuff but if one wants to live...just live and survive he will need at least 250-300$ for a couple( the range of employees paiments in Iraq is 200-300$) and one must not forget the other things like the gas, the payment for the generator, the rent (if one doesn't own a house and the expensive transportation.
Chelli,
well said...you mentioned polution and that stuck in my mind and I felt the urge to talk about it.
I'll begin with the simplest things...whenever I wipe my face or nose with a tissue (wet or dry) I notice that it turns black or gray? that's polution.
tub water can't be used for drinking...we drunk from it for a month and my wife had an inflamation in her stomach and that's when we started buying imported water despite we have two rivers! that's polution. most of the Iraqi women who live or lived in Iraq faced complications in pregnancy or they gave birth to a disfigured children? most of it because of polution and some because imported canned food that have never been tested if it can be consumed!!! the countless number of cancers cases...the countless number of malignant tumors.....etc.
@Indigo
"What are you smoking? There ARE food shortages in Iraq. The price of food has rocketed (is not "reasonable".)"
I see absolutely nothing in the middle east regional news, international news, or blogs that would suggest that there's any significant food shortage in Iraq, let alone evidence that the global food crisis is having any serious impact there. Care to post a link?
FYI, my assessment has nothing to do with Keynesian theory; its consistent with both neoclassical and Austrian economic theory. In other words, every economist would agree. You clearly don't know what you're talking about.
indigo,
Mohammed asked for an economic analysis of what was going on based on the evidence available. I provided it. Don't confuse food shortages with suffering. There was a severe demand collapse following the invasion which, though its currently reversing gradually, led to widespread unemployment and eventual starvation. When the people in Iraq that have jobs are earning enough money to feed themselves, then that indicates there is no food shortage.
@Anonymous, 9 2008 5:49 PM
I see absolutely nothing in the middle east regional news, international news, or blogs that would suggest that there's any significant food shortage in Iraq, let alone evidence that the global food crisis is having any serious impact there. Care to post a link?
Here you are - took me 10 seconds to find - did you even look?
The number of Iraqi children who are born underweight or suffer from malnutrition continues to rise and is now higher than before the U.S.-led invasion, according to a report by OXFAM and 80 other aid agencies.
Iraqi children's malnutrition rates are on a par with Burundi, a central African country torn by a brutal civil war, and higher than Uganda and Bolivia. Almost a third of the population, 8 million people, needs emergency aid, and more than four million Iraqis depend on food assistance. 11 Jan 2008
Now go and find and read the OXFAM report for yourself.
@chelli, 9 May 2008 2:08 PM
I do not know if I am alone in my thoughts, but it seems that the US is getting tired of Iraq. I have to dig more to get news.
You are not wrong.
As the U.S. military death toll in Iraq hit 4,000 and the war entered its fifth year, a study by the Pew Research Center found that the number of news stories about the Iraq war has fallen dramatically in the past year. ... the percentage of news stories devoted to the war dropped from an average of 15% of all stories last July to just 3% in February of this year.
For the civilians in Sadr City in intolerable conditions, things are about to get even worse.
The 2.5 million residents of the densely packed slum that is Sadr City have been warned to evacuate. Stadiums in the vicinity and international aid agencies are preparing to receive a fresh batch of refugees. ... people are trapped, unable to flee. Indeed, the last six weeks have seen Sadr City subjected to indefinite curfew. US forces make regular nighttime incursions, in addition to over 20 miles of security blast walls that make up the partitioned city. Iraqi soldiers have refused to allow humanitarian aid into what is becoming a Gaza-esque siege. ... In the worst case scenario, Sadr City could become a new Fallujah, where over 70% of the city was destroyed and subsequently rebuilt - effectively as a working prison with biometric scans determining access. Guardian 9 May 2008
The authorities in Baghdad say they are preparing for an exodus of thousands of people from eastern parts of the city. BBC 7 May 2008
Truly, America has unleashed hell upon Iraq, far worse than anything Saddam did.
Mohammed,
Your report on the deterioration of agriculture in Iraq is so sad. Only yesterday my husband said the fruit and vegetables in England don't taste as good as we used to have in Iraq and he is right.
As you know well.... Iraq is home to the oldest agricultural traditions in the world. You might find this interesting:-
Paul Bremer issued "100 Orders" to transfer Iraq's economy and legal ownership of Iraqi resources into the private hands of U.S. corporations.
"Order 81 deals specifically with Plant Variety Protection (PVP) because it is designed to protect the commercial interests of corporate seed companies. Its aim is to force Iraqi farmers to plant so-called "protected" crop varieties 'defined as new, distinct uniform and stable', and most likely genetically modified. This means Iraqi farmers will have one choice; to buy PVP registered seeds. Order 81 opens the way for patenting (ownership) of plant forms, and facilitates the introduction of genetically modified crops or organisms (GMOs) to Iraq. U.S. agricultural biotechnology corporations, such as Monsanto and Syngenta will be the beneficiaries. Iraqi farmers will be forced to buy their seeds from these corporations. GMOs will replace the old tradition of breeding closely related plants, and replace them with organisms composed of DNA from an altogether different species, e.g., bacterium genes into corn. In the long run, there won't be a big enough gene pool for genetic viability."
"Upon purchasing the patented seeds, farmers must sign the company's technology agreement (Technology User Agreements). This agreement allows the company to control farmers' practices and conduct property investigation. The farmer becomes the slave of the company. Like U.S. farmers, Iraqi farmers will be "harassed for doing what they have always done." For example, Iraqi farmers can be sued by Monsanto, if their non-GMO crops are polluted by GMO crops planted in their vicinity. The health and environmental consequences of GMO crops are still unknown. GMO-based agriculture definitely encourages monoculture and genetic pollution. Moreover, this will further increase the already polluted Iraqi environment as a result of tens of thousands of tons of 'depleted' uranium dust, napalm, chemical weapons, and phosphorous bombs."
"Farmers will also be required to buy fertilisers, herbicides and insecticides, against plants disease. Iraqi farmers will be required to pay royalties for the new seeds and they will be forbidden from saving seeds. In other words, Iraqi farmers will become agricultural producers for export, a recipe for the introduction of hunger in Iraq, not unknown in many developing countries. Unless an independent sovereign Iraqi government repeals these edicts, they will override Iraq's original patent law of 1970, which, in accordance with the Iraqi constitution, prohibited private ownership of biological resources".
"Furthermore, Order 81 ignores Iraqi farmers' old traditions of saving seeds, and using their knowledge to breed and plant their crops. It also brutally disregards the contributions which Iraqi farmers have made over hundreds of generations to the development of important crops like wheat, barley, dates and pulses. If anybody owns those varieties and their unique virtues, it is the families who bred them, even though nobody has described or characterized them in terms of their genetic makeup. If anything, the new law -- in allowing old varieties to be genetically manipulated or otherwise modified and then "registered" -- involves the theft of inherited intellectual property, the loss of farmers' freedoms, and the destruction of food sovereignty in Iraq."
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=HAS20051212&articleId=1447
Um Ayad
Mohammed,
In your reply to Chelli you mentioned the disfigured children, countless number of cancers cases and malignant tumours. Much research has been done on the weapons America used on Iraq such as tens of thousands of tons of depleted uranium. White phosphorous was used in Fallujah and probably elsewhere. Research shows this has polluted the Iraqi people as well as the environment. I know the US government and Americans will deny this but medical evidence shows different.
Here is some articles for you:-
In 1996 and 1997 UN Human Rights Tribunals condemned DU weapons for illegally breaking the Geneva Convention and classed them as 'weapons of mass destruction' 'incompatible with international humanitarian and human rights law.' Since then, following leukaemia in European peacekeeping troops in the Balkans and Afghanistan (where DU was also used), the EU has twice called for DU weapons to be banned.
In the first Gulf War, 340 tonnes of the illegal weapon, depleted uranium- nuclear waste, was used, with inevitable horrific and contaminating results on people, the environment and subsequent dreadfully deformed babies. About 2,500 tonnes of DU have been used in the second Gulf War. 800 tonnes is (allegedly) equivalent to the atrocity of 41,000 Nagasaki atom bombs. In the early Nineties, the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority warned that 50 tons of dust from DU explosions could claim a half million lives from cancer by year 2000.
Dr. Chris Busby, the British radiation expert, Fellow of the University of Liverpool in the Faculty of Medicine and UK representative on the European Committee on Radiation Risk said the following:
"I'm horrified. The people out there - the Iraqis, the media and the troops - risk the most appalling ill health. And the radiation from depleted uranium can travel literally anywhere. It's going to destroy the lives of thousands of children, all over the world. We all know how far radiation can travel. Radiation from Chernobyl reached Wales and in Britain you sometimes get red dust from the Sahara on your car."
http://wwwinabstentia-andrewk.blogspot.com/2008/03/depleted-uranium.html
Soldier Health Scare Back in News
Lori Brim cradled her son in her arms for three months before he died at Walter Reed Army Medical Centre in Washington.
Dustin Brim, a 22-year-old Army specialist had collapsed three years ago in Iraq from a very aggressive cancer that attacked his kidney, caused a mass to grow over his oesophagus and collapsed a lung.
Lori Brim has joined other parents, hundreds of other sick soldiers, legislators, research scientists and environmental activists who say the cause of their problems results from exposure to depleted uranium, a radioactive metal used in the manufacture of U.S. tank armour and weapon casings.
See this video
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/042007B.shtml
DEPLETED URANIUM
EDUCATION PROJECT
http://www.iacenter.org/depleted/du.htm
US forces 'used chemical weapons' during assault on city of Fallujah
Powerful new evidence emerged yesterday that the United States dropped massive quantities of white phosphorus on the Iraqi city of Fallujah during the attack on the city in November 2004, killing insurgents and civilians with the appalling burns that are the signature of this weapon.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/us-forces-used-chemical-weapons-during-assault-on-city-of-fallujah-514433.html
Um Ayad
Mohammed,
I do know about the terrible situation of malnutrition in Iraq. The high food prices are terribly unfair. My point was an economic point more than a social point. Countries that used to export rice for example have put out "no export" orders so countries that rely on importing rice to survive are really in trouble. Even in the US, the price of food has gone up dramatically with the fall in the value of the dollar and the high cost of fuel.
As for Indigo's comment about me being a zionist for my comment about oil being priority number one, that was snark. I have no idea what she thinks that comment has to do with zionism. That's a topic for another blog, not this one.
Sadr effectively surrendered Sadr City to the government today, look for those prices to be going back down soon. Best regards!
Mohammed, you are so right.
first, i have to confess, i have been reading your blog for quite a while but have never commented. as much as one can say they are enjoying reading about the situation in iraq and your ongoing struggles and scares, i am glad you're writing and letting us know how things are in your life there. blogs like yours are so important for telling the rest of the world how it really is in your country.
i found this post about agriculture and climate change really interesting. i'm not an expert but it seems to me that even if every farm in iraq ceased to function, it would not explain the extreme heat.
so, of course, i went looking for answers/explanations. this is what i found -
Among other things, the war itself is producing enormous amounts of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Because U.S. forces in Iraq are so reliant on combat planes, helicopters, and armored vehicles to conduct basic operations, they are using, on average, 16 gallons of oil per soldier per day – four times as much as soldiers in Operation Desert Storm and 16 times as much as those of World War II. Add up all the U.S. soldiers and sailors in Iraq and neighboring countries and aboard U.S. ships in the Gulf, and this works out to about 3 million gallons per day – equivalent to daily consumption by the entire population of Bangladesh. To this must be added the carbon dioxide released by pipeline and refinery explosions, the aircraft used to ferry U.S. troops in and out of Iraq, and other war-related activities. (see http://www.fpif.org/fpifinfo/4432).
as for the children born with deformities and a variety of complications, i wonder how much might be attributable to oil refineries in iraq? i can't find anything that solidly says there is a link. i only know that i used to live in a town in eastern europe that had many oil refineries and there is an insanely high incidence of all sorts of cancers and unusual auto-immune diseases there.
all that aside, mohammed, i think of you and your wife, your extended family and friends and all the people of iraq every single day. i pray for peace and for your safety. please keep writing!
Greg:
"The reason that there are food shortages all over the world is that those countries rely on significant imports of U.S. food exports. When the dollar loses value, food becomes more expensive for those importers, and as a result they can't afford it; hence riots and food shortages."
Eh, sorry but if the dollar loses value the price for commodities bought from the US and paid with dollars are of course becoming cheaper for importing countries, not more expensive. The dollar is cheaper to buy hence the dollar-priced goods are also cheaper. A low dollar boosts US exports, now as always.
The three main reasons for global food shortages, or rather increases in the global price of food, are:
1. Oil is more expensive (even taken into consideration that the dollars it takes to buy oil is cheaper) which increases costs for production and transportation of food.
2. Crop output is increasingly used to generate fuel, as in sugarcane or corn to ethanol, which puts added strain on the supply side.
3. More formerly poor folks, notably in China, India, etc. can now afford to, and do, eat more meat. Meat consumes more crops when produced for food than if people eat the crops directly.
Of course this resonated around the globe and most notably in the poorer regions. Also note that none of the factors are likely to be reversed more than possibly temporarily.
In Iraq I would guess that the major reason is caused by, as Mohammed stated: the "deterioration of agriculture in Iraq"
Further I would say that the war in itself is not causing climate change. Sure, tanks and planes use gas but put in a global context it's of negligable importance. CO2 doesn't stay over one country, heating it, just because it's let out there.
I would guess that the war has much more impact on the production and transportation. Run down irrigation facilities that no one repairs. Roads not safe to travel to bring goods to the market. Farmers who have fled or are unable to work. All those things.
So the war has deteriorated the agriculture directly, not through added global warming.
If the last years in Iraq have been uncommonly warm it may well be partially caused by global warming but the global warming is not an effect of the war.
//Marcus
@Indigo
I find it absolutely incredible - and deeply depressing - how people like ljm and this "anonymous" are so casual about and unmoved by the cataclysmic suffering - every sort of deprivation - being endured by Iraqis these past months and years, since the illegal US-led invasion
Hear hear, Indigo. I find it breath taking at times.
Mohammed,
I spend a minimum of 600$a month (just me and my wife)
God. I can't believe it's so much. It must be so hard for families who don't earn a good wage to survive and feed their kids.
There was a story in one of the papers here in Ireland recently about families who were living in abandoned government building from Saddam's time and are now being evicted by the Iraqi army. Apart from those who are displaced, is there a lot of homeless people in Baghdad?
Jg,
I know you must be sorry for those familes who were evicted from the government buildings, but take the truth from me, take the truth from someone who lives in the conflict zone....don't feel sorry for them, for many reasons...first of all because those building's aren't Saddam's buildings they are Iraq's building and they are buildings that can be used by the government...and most of those who came and took pver the government buildings are not homeless, they had homes but they want to live in the city center....second, most of them are criminals and thugs who were responsible for many of what is happening, they have an extreely negative effect on the area they live in. this might be a part o th stupid Maliki's plan to evict all the government buildings from the partys and indivitual who took over them...butclearly he can't get Badir brigade out of those buildings!!! about the homeless, I can say that more than 60% of Iraqis are homeless but that doesn't mean they live in the street but I mean they have lost their homes due to sectarian violence or security situations or their homes were taken by force by people like those who lives in the former government's buildings or memebers in the militias...so so many Iraqis have left their homes and lived in their relative's or switched houses with other people or fled Iraq and their homes was taken over.....If 'm going to talk I'll never finish.
Mohammed, I ran across this article which describes what is happening to Iraq:
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" The World Bank recommends price liberalization, which means higher prices of basic commodities, including food. Prices were previously state-controlled and kept at artificially low levels. The Bank wants to raise food prices to meet international levels in an effort to increase productivity in Iraqi agriculture. Family incomes, however, are not rising to meet the higher prices, and the majority of Iraqi families may not be able to afford basic food needs. The Bank also calls for the reformation of the state-subsidized food rationing system. The food rationing system is comprised of the universal distribution of food baskets and, according to the UN/WB Joint Needs Assessment, has been “widely credited with preventing mass starvation and malnutrition.” The Bank wants to transform the system from a universal subsidy to a targeted subsidy for the most vulnerable groups in Iraqi society, which will mean that a large portion of the Iraqi population will stop receiving their food baskets. ""
http://www.greens.org/s-r/37/37-15.html
This is in line with the American free-market ideology that they imported to Iraq. They always wanted to get rid of the basic food ration in Iraq. The theory is, as prices go up, so more people will produce food.
Bremer and the other insane imbeciles that thought this was a solution to Iraqi food problems evidently never tried to grow food in a desert country with unreliable water, no electricity and in the middle of civil strife and occupation. May a very hot part of hell be reserved for them.
Marcus,
Good comment at 10:01. I would just like to add a few things.
1. There are currently a number of countries restricting grain exports, including China, India, Vietnam, Kazakhstan and Russia. In short, hoarding. Japan has a stockpile of about 1.5 million tons of rice which it keeps off the market to boost the income of local farmers.
2. The demand for US grain has gone up. As you said, the slide in the dollar has been one catalyst. But the weak dollar has also dampened US imports, causing a shortage of shipping containers here. So there is a longer wait in the shipping of our agricultural products.
Bruno,
The problem with subsidies is that if they grow too large, they have a stifling effect on the overall economy. There is a fine line to walk between helping and hurting.
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