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Baghdad Life
Journal correspondents report on evolving conditions in Iraq

‘Poorest Country in the World’

By Gina Chon

The International Monetary Fund and United Nations both recently said that 2008 looks like a promising year for Iraq. The IMF said it expects to see gross domestic product growth of 7% and oil production to rise by an additional 200,000 barrels per day, bringing total production to 2.2 million barrels per day.

The U.N. also praised the progress made in national reconciliation, with the Iraqi parliament passing the Accountability and Justice Law last weekend. The legislation allows some former Baath Party members to have government jobs. Both agencies said Iraqi leaders needed to build on that momentum and continue making political progress.

And there is no doubt that security has gotten better. My Iraqi friends who live in Baghdad were amazed at the crowds of people celebrating the New Year on the streets, at parks and in restaurants. They said even during Saddam Hussein’s regime, they did not see such a celebration.

But I also hear a lot of pessimism from my Iraqi friends and basic services seem like they are actually getting worse. The national electricity grid shut down recently and the government has faced difficulties in getting it back online in some areas. One friend was describing to me how she has only one hour of electricity per 12 hours so she must do all the cooking, laundry, and bathing in that hour. But she doesn’t know when that hour will be and it changes on a daily basis. So she worries about leaving home and possibly missing that one hour of electricity.

Another friend was telling me that his two small children, who are 9 and 7, are suffering because they have no hot water. His wife has to boil water so the kids can bathe. But they often do not have enough fuel to heat water. My friend takes his showers at his office, where there is hot water.

It’s winter here and that means many Iraqis need additional kerosene to fuel their heaters. With continuing shortages of oil-related products, Iraqis have to ration their supplies and, for some, that means having heat on only at night when it is the coldest.

“We have so much oil but it seems useless,” one friend said. “We are the opposite of rich. It seems like we are the poorest country in the world.”

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