Iraqi Teachers’ Strike, and Other Notes on Life in Iraq

Given the US media blackout on the lives of ordinary Iraqis, we have to go elsewhere to get an idea of what life is like there.

McClatchy’s blog for their Iraqi reporters is one of the few places I know of where we still get something like unfiltered accounts of life in Iraq, for Iraqis.

Did you know that teachers recently went on strike?

December 18, 2007

Teachers’ Strike

For the first time, teachers feel that their union has remembered its staff and it starts working for them.

The teachers’ union called for a strike two weeks ago to be for one simple day put Sunday 16th of this recent month as a start demanding all teachers of the fifteen Iraqi provinces ( without the other three provinces in Kurdistan region in the north of Iraq) to take part in it. As this step is for the benefit of them , teachers of Basra, Anbar , Mosul , Baghdad and the other provinces in the south , west , east and centre of Iraq carried  it out hoping to get its result so soon.

The aim of this strike is to make those teachers of the south and centre of Iraq in a balance with those teachers in Kurdistan region by having the same salaries and privilege. Teachers in Kurdistan get double and they reach triple the salaries of those in all over the country. The question is why we have this double standard in dealing with teachers.

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Googling about, I can find a snip of info about the teacher’s strike from a news site called “Aswat Aliraq”:

— snip —

Meanwhile, the independent daily al-Mada newspaper covered a planned strike by Iraqi teachers on Sunday. Speaking to the newspaper, the deputy head of the Teachers’ Syndicate, Burhan Nema, said “Iraqi teachers will stage a sit-in as part of a protest campaign that calls for improving the living standards of 500,000 families living in poverty.”

Urging the government to put them on equal terms with their counterparts in the Kurdistan region, the protestors said that they will go on indefinite strike if their demands are not met, according to Nema.

Back at McClatchy’s blog, today an unnamed (all posts are anonymous for safety) reporter describes an argument with a cab driver about the safest route to take:

December 20, 2007

friendly argument

— snip —

I told him “at least its safe” and that was the point when the politics talk started. He said ” people now started fighting Al Qaida and they are awakened now. They formed awakening council in many Sunni neighborhoods including Adil” I laughed sarcastically and said “why are they awakened? Were they sleeping when Al Qaida killed thousands of innocent people?” At that point, I can say the political struggle started. We argued for about 30 minutes. After a long fight, we agreed on one point. We agreed that so many promises were made by the American administration and by the Iraqi government _ so many promises that were never fulfilled.  He started laughing and said “I feel so sorry because I participated in the election. I though that Saddam’s days were over but now I feel sorry because we have many small Saddams who were brought by the USA. The old Saddam had been kicked out by the Americans but who will help us to end the days of the new Saddams if the USA keeps supporting them”. I didn’t answer him because I couldn’t find an answer.

As an ironic juxtaposition to the above, Alternet notes that “Bush, Maliki Break Iraqi Law to Renew U.N. Mandate for Occupation”:

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On Tuesday, the Bush administration and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki pushed a resolution through the U.N. Security Council extending the mandate that provides legal cover for foreign troops to operate in Iraq for another year.

The move violated both the Iraqi constitution and a law passed earlier this year by the Iraqi parliament — the only body directly elected by all those purple-finger-waving Iraqis in 2005 — and it defied the will of around 80 percent of the Iraqi population.

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(hat tip to Steven D at Booman Tribune for that the Alternet story.)

Back at McClatchy:

December 12, a woman describes the craziness required to get an electricity generator through a checkpoint.  

Let there be light

This is the very last time I will attempt this, I say to myself as I drive towards the checkpoint. If they won’t let me through this time, I will give up the idea of going home.

— snip —

This is a new soldier, I haven’t seen him before. “Is it big?”, “No, there, you can see it in the pickup truck behind me.”

He looks at me very suspiciously then walks off to take a look. “OK. But you must get us a letter from the owner” That’s easy! I am the owner. I took out my ever ready notebook and pen. “I am the owner. What shall I say?”, “No. Not from you. From the owner.”. “I am the owner. What do you want me to write?”, “NO. NO. NOT FROM YOU – FROM THE OWNER”, “I AM THE OWNER!!”.. .

He looks baffled. “Then get me a letter from the fitter who repaired it.” He was so fresh from the back of nowhere that he could not conceive of a generator being owned by a woman. What to do now?

I ring my nephew. I had wanted him to stay clear of the generator; he was driving several cars behind me. I give him specific instructions, and wink in the phone. He comes.

“Assalamu Alaykum. How are you doing, my cousin? What about my generator, my aunt says there are problems …”, “Oh, the generator, is it yours? No, not really, we just can’t let it through without a letter from the owner that’s all. And your aunt here, the Hijiya, doesn’t seem to understand.”,

“Never mind, my cousin, you know how it is … (making a face and rolling up his eyes). This is my ID, keep it with you until I install the generator and come out. Come with me if you like, and after you are sure that I have taken the generator to my house, you can give it back to me.”

“No, no. This letter is enough. Yalla, go through.”

I was so intent on my own business; I hadn’t noticed that more than fifty cars had piled up behind me blocking the road. Oh no! Flushed faces – angry eyes, but no one out of their car to fight – yet. “Quickly, Hammoudi – lets go!” And we drive off.

And today there shall be light in my home – again.

December 14, a reporter hopes that a recent trouble-free car trip portends a lasting peace.

The First Tour

Yesterday morning I made a tour to different areas in Baghdad which I would never think or dream to pass through a year ago.

I didn’t mean to make this trip, but I had an appointment with my sister and her husband to go to the main directorate of passports in east Baghdad at Risafa bank. I live in Amil neighborhood in the south west of Baghdad at Karkh bank while my sister and her husband who don’t have a car live at Ameriyah neighborhood in the west bank

So I, with my brother, the driver, have to pick them up from there to go to our final destination in Rusafa bank.

The great thing is that my brother decided to take the highway that joins my neighborhood with Ameriyah through Ja’amia and Khadra’a neighborhoods which were with Ameriyah the main bases for Qaeda and terrorists till the beginning of this year.

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December 10, a prose-poem thanking Allah for favors large and small.  You really have to read this one in its entirety.

December 10, 2007

Thanx Allah

For those who doesn’t believe in God (Allah), I have some evidences that our mighty creator is everywhere.

When I see the chaos in the Iraqis streets and when I see that the traffic police can do nothing with the crazy Iraqi drivers, I know that Allah gives some of them patience to bear the craziness of the majority of them.

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When I see my family, all of them (more than 11 members)gather around one kerosene heater and they are all satisfied and don’t feel cold, I get sure that Allah help us by putting Iraq in such place on earth where we don’t have snow in winter because we would be all dead.

Then I see the failure in electricity that lasts for about twenty hours a day, I feel that Allah love us because we are not that type of people who care about staying awake all the night to watch TV.

— snip —

______________________________

I wonder if it is possible to comprehend the enormity of what America has done.