Iraq conference + day job update

The Reconstructing Iraq conference which I spoke at on Monday went reasonably well. On the plus side I didn't mumble, stutter or get stuck (my usual fears with public speaking), got an invitation to speak at a similar conference in the US and was thanked afterwards by a number of people, including a delegate from a Russian oil company - very bizarre!

Update on my day job (NPC): There now a 3-page summary of my guidebook on philanthropic giving to tackle AIDS in South Africa online. I'm currently working on one about cancer in the UK, might be doing AIDS in India early in the new year, and then it's likely I'll do a long project on prisoners and ex-offenders in Britiain for much of 2004. My big hope is to get the go ahead to do a guidebook on peace and reconsiliation worldwide, which would involve visiting lots of amazing grassroots projects in conflict zones and trying to secure lots of funding for them.

Missing Iraq

I've been suffering from a bit of culture shock since I've been back in England. I'm used to walking out on the street and immediately being bombarded with calls of "Hello Mister!" from kids, handshakes from shabab (youths) and invitations from old men to "stikhir" (sit down) and drink tea. Now I leave my flat on a cold overcast morning and spend half an hour standing squashed in the Underground on my way to work, during which time not a single person makes eye contact or acknowledges my existence.

Here's something bizarre. Some of my friends are protesting next week outside a conference for companies trying to win contacts in Iraq, they are taking a huge Iraq-shaped cake and will be offering delegates a slice to represent the corporate takeover of Iraq. The bizarre thing is that I'm not going to be involved in the protest because I'm speaking at the conference! I got a call this week from the conference organisers and am hurridly preparing a presentation this weekend. I'm going to explain why companies should support cancellation of Saddam's debt, and also argue a business case for them operating ethically in Iraq. Instead of making a quick buck from unfair contracts and being chased out when Iraqis take over, if companies employ Iraqis on good terms, partner with Iraqi companies and generally treat Iraqis with fairness and respect, then they will benefit in the long term as Iraq prospers. I feel very out of my depth, but thankfully my friend David has stepped in to help.

There's a new US soldier blogger online, Boots on Ground. One of his first posts notes that Iraqis "aren’t all that different than us Americans", which is an enouraging observation of shared humanity. The final version of my visit report is online by the way: Iraqi views on debt and reparations (pdf).

Finally, off the topic of Iraq completely, I was very excited to meet one of my heros this week - Zackie Achmat. He heads the Treatment Action Campaign in South Africa, which lobbies on behalf of people with HIV/AIDS. Zachie is HIV+ himself, but refused to take antiretroviral drugs (which he could afford to buy) until the South African government agreed to make them available to poor people as well. Back in August there was a U-turn in SA policy, as i mentioned, and in principle the government is now committed to providing universal access to drugs, though roll out may take 3-5years. Zackie has therefore been taking drugs for 7 weeks now, and says his energy level has doubled. In the last few years he's struggled to concentrate enough to read a single book a year, but has now read 4 in the last 7 weeks alone. Here's a picture of us:

Back in the UK

I've had some worried emails due to the absence of blogs for a few day. Thanks for the concern, but the reason is just that I was traveling back to London. I'm going to be pretty busy the next few days catching up on my day job (starting a study of cancer in the UK), endlessly repeating the same Baghdad stories to friends, and trying to get the Iraqi views about debt heard at the Madrid conference. I'll post up some more photos in a couple of days.

For your reading pleasure there's a new Iraqi blogger in town Healing Iraq, Salam Pax is blogging again (keep an eye on the fierce Goggle battle between him and Riverbend for the top slot on a search for "Baghdad blog") and I'm keen to get the Iraqi Voices group-blog thing I mentioned off the ground soon. Other Iraq links on my Future of Iraq Portal, hopefully that'll keep you all busy and out of trouble for a while.

Old and new

I spent 3 hours today waiting at the Governing Council building for a meeting with a member which ended up lasting just 3 minutes! Most of the time waiting I was chatting with the Nepalese guards. For those non-Brits, the Gurkas are the crack regiment in the British Army, uniquely made up not of Brits but of soldiers from Nepal. The practice dates back a couple of hundred years - the British Raj in India found the Nepalese hill tribes such tough opponents that they finally agreed to stop fighting and hire them instead. Now a private security company has hired retired Gurka soldiers and is using them to guard the most sensitive locations in Iraq. There's a funny kind of symettry in this: one of the last remnents of the British Empire working as outsourced employees in support of new outsourced US Empire. Maybe in a few years time there will be a regiment of Kurdish Peshmerga patroling Cuba on behalf of the US.

Pigeons and Passats

It's Friday today, the weekend in Iraq, and I've had my first really relaxing day so far. I spent most of it with my friend Jamil and his family, up in far north of Baghdad in one of the poorest Shia slum areas, named "the Torch of Islam". The dirt roads between houses are full of sewerage which often seeps into the rooms, and a dozen people live in 3 room houses. It's poor but welcoming. I played with the children, ate a huge meal, debated with the local cleric and learnt all about pigeons.

Iraqis are fanatical pigeon fanciers. In many of their gardens there are flocks of fifty or more birds of every colour and shape. Sometimes they race them, taking them up to Samara or Mosul and letting them find there way home (this was how urgent messages used to be carried before telephones). But mainly they're just for fun, much as people in England keep dogs (which are considered unclean in Islam, and so rarely kept as pets). It was wonderful seeing my Iraqi friends proudly displaying their birds and explaining the lineage and qualities of each individuals. After quite a lot of false starts, I learnt how to catch and hold a pigeon gently, and I've got some great photos which I'll try to post up tomorrow.

Something I've wanted to post about for a while - because it's constituted a big chunk of my time in Baghdad - is the traffic. Firstly the cars themselves. The sanctions inhibited the import of new cars and spare parts for old ones, so Iraqis made do with their impressive technical skills, and kept a fleet of ancient cars running for years beyond their natural lifespans. Apart from the newly imported black BMWs without licence plates (beware), most of the Iraqi cars are battered and misshapen, making strange and worrying noises - but they run pretty well. Practically every other car you see is an identical Volkswagen Passat, reminiscent of the uniformity of the Model T Ford days. These cars have a "Made in Brazil" logo on their rear window - which I'll explain in a moment - and, for not discernible reason, often have a Batman symbol on their boots. The Brazil link explains the proponderance of these cars - apparently Saddam's wife owns (owned?) a factory in Brazil which made these models, so in the 1980 hundreds of thousands of them were imported to Iraq and distributed as part of the regime's patronage to its supporters.

If one assumes that every battered car without passengers is a taxi, you're likely to be correct about 70% of the time, so it's incredibly easy to find a ride in Baghdad. There's no such thing as computerised fair counters, so you haggle with the driver before getting in. It's incredibly cheap for a foreigner. This evening, for example, when I returned from Jamil's house about an hour's drive from my hotel, the fare was less than one and a half dollars. The fares are so cheap partly because fuel is still almost free at about 5c a gallon, and because of the competition between all the taxi drivers (many of whom you'll find have graduate degrees).

The traffic is very congested, partly as a result of the lack of border controls leading to the import of huge numbers of cars from Jordan, and partly because of the collapse in order. Traffic lights get ignored in a country used to regular power cuts which render lights irrelevant, many road surfaces are in serious state of despair, and drivers pretty much ignore any traffic laws. On one of my first days my driver took a short cut by doing a U turn and driving the a couple of hundred meters in the opposite direction to the oncoming traffic on one of the cities' main three lane highways! In the few weeks I've been here there has been a noticeable increase in traffic police, and I feel a deep respect for these valiant people who stand in the middle of crossroads trying to direct four lines of cars, all of whom are trying to push ahead. Although bizarrely the traffic seems to flow quicker left to its own devices without the police, still I appreciate in principal their attempt to bring some order to Baghdad's majnoon (crazy) traffic.

My wierd photo...

A couple of people have asked what on earth is happening in my photo on the top left corner of this page. No, I'm not drinking from a big wine glass, or speaking into a fuzzy microphone... in fact I'm blowing bubbles, one of my favourite pastimes. I should really have brought some bubbles to Iraq, as there is an urgent need for fun here. Even better, my friend Jo Wilding is bringing over some circus performers to entertain at schools and in the streets - see www.circus2iraq.org! The photo is in fact from a protest for the cancellation of third world debt at the annual summit of the G8, the richest countries in the world.

The difference a day can make...

Today has been much more sucessful. Sinan Al Shabibi, who's the new Governor of the Central Bank, returned to Baghdad after a few weeks in Geneva and we managed to meet up. He was very gracious to give me an hour of his time on the second day of the new currency when he's very busy. He told me it was actually easier to do his job when he was in Geneva because of between access to internet and phones, than it is when he's in the Central Bank office in Baghdad! This is the same story I've heard in many of the ministries and ties in with my own frustrating experiences - hopefully in a few months the communications will be better, then Iraqis will really be able to get down to the hard work or rebuilding their country - not just the physical infrastructure, but the institutional and social infrastructure (skills etc.) as well, which Sinan explained had been ravaged by twenty five years of Saddam's reign of terror.

I also met a representative of Muqtada Al Sadr. I'd hoped to meet his Shadow Finance Minister, but apparently he hasn't been appointed yet. Sadr City (the poor Shia slums to the North East of Baghdad) was crawling with US soldiers in expectation of trouble in the run up to Muqtada's big rally in Najaf tomorrow.

The other good news is that I finally managed to meet up with my Iraqi friend Jamil, it was sooo wonderful to see him after two and a half years. We went to the British Council to apply for a job I saw they had on offer, but annoyingly it was closed when we arrive - hoping to try again on saturday. He needs a job so he can get a flat for his family - currently he is living with his parents (he's mid-40s) his wife and children are living with their relatives at the other end of Baghdad, because there is no room for them to live together. If anyone reading this is in contact with NGOs working in Baghdad who might need a translator / guide / office manager then Jamil would be perfect, one of the most genuine and reliable people I know.

I arrived back this evening to find grass outside my hotel. Well, a patio of bright green fake grass. Mauyed, the lovely proprietor of the Al Fanar Hotel where I stay (anyone coming to Iraq please stay here, its only $25 a night, half the price of most hotels, and so friendly - more like a family than a hotel) had an idea to create a little garden area since the security zone around the neighbouring Palastine hotel was extended, blocking the Fanar carpark with concrete barriers and razor wire. I'll try and post a photo later, its quite surreal! Mauyed explained that before the war at least 50 of his 96 rooms were continually rented, now its down to a maximum of 18 - and he as 70, yes 70, staff on the payroll, none of which he has the heart to fire, so he's just hemoraging his savings. So come and stay here, a great place for a holiday with some winter sun right on the bank of the Tigris. Actually I'm serious, Iraq is a great place for streetwise backpackers, particularly if you bother to learn a few words of Arabic - you'll recieve a warm welcome and many free meals, and the danger is not so great so long as you are obviously not a soldier and treat the people you meet with respect.

I've had one of my random ideas - to create an "Iraqi Voices" blog - a group blog involving dozens of Iraqis, so that there would be a varied commentary updated hourly rather than daily or weekly like most blogs and newspapers. If you know any Iraqis you use the net and have good english who would be interested in this (or are such a person yourself!) then please drop me an email!

Draft version of the debt consultation

I've muddled together a brief (5 page) summary of the Jubilee Iraq consultation on Iraqi views about the $200bn foreign debt and reparations (the reason I'm here in Baghdad). Here is a MS Word document , and here's a less flashy html version

Just one of those days...

Today was the anniversary of the 100% "referendum" in favour of Saddam last year, it was also the first day of the new dinar notes without Saddam's head on. There's been a lot of tension in the air and a heavy presence of soldiers. I came back to my hotel just now to find the proprieter sitting with his head in his hands - everything was going wrong: few guests, little water, problems getting supplies... and the fortifications around the Palastine hotel 200 meters away are extending each day, as if to gobble up the poor little Al-Fanar hotel.

I've had a frustrating day today, probably my low point in Baghdad. The finale just now was wandering into a roll of unexpected newly laid razor wire in the dark and cutting up my legs and new trousers. From 8am-6pm I drove all around Baghdad - Saddon to Mansour to Kadhamia to Sadr City, back to Kadhamia, to Rashid Street and then Karada, and every single meeting I had arranged was cancelled "bacher inshallah." In the process I managed to twice miss my dearest Iraqi friend Jamil (who was my flatmate in Jordan for 5 months) who I've been trying to meet with since I arrived two weeks ago, but with phones not working it's been so difficult. Anyhow, there's my moan. Obviously a lot of people in Iraq have much more serious things to moan about.

On a lighter note, here's that man walking a sheep (passed some bemused soldiers outside the Palastine hotel) I mentioned yestarday:



Apparently Bremer was trying to flirt with one of my Iraqi friend's girlfriend. She is one of the few Iraqis to have got a job with Bechtel and was at a CPA reconstruction meeting. She'd very beautiful and caught Mr.Bremer's eye, and he invited her to come up for a ride over Baghdad in his helicopter. Luckily she had the wits to decline pleading a fear of heights, otherwise my friend (on the left below) might well have become the next bomber.

It seems I'm a Zionist

That last post prompted a few responses from people. I must stress that I was just reporting my host's views, not in any way endorsing them. One reader questioned the Ben Gurion reference, and I can't authenticated it. Another reader, who is an Iraqi exile in the UK, said that story about Hallabja was a lie propogated by the mukabarat (secret police). He said that even if the Iranians had captured Hallabja, it would not have been a threat to Baghded (400km to the south). That was my own response when I was told the story.

Anyhow, what is interesting is the difficulty many Iraqis have in discerning the truth. I don't mean that offensively, I'm sure I would be the same if I'd lived for decades under the brainwashing of an oppressive regime which controlled most of the flow of information, and required citizens to accept the official line or risk persecution. When I was living in Jordan a few years ago I met many very intelligent Iraqis who sincerely believed the most bizarre conspiracy theories - no event is straightforward it seems, there must always be hidden causes, usually involving the dreaded trio of Zionists, Americans and freemasons. The inteligence agencies certainly have meddled in other countries' affairs for decades, and sometime quite significantly, but they are only one component of the complex myriad of factors determining world events. I guess in some ways its comforting to people to believe in a big conspiracy - at least someone is in charge!

As it happens I was suspected of being a Zionist today. What started out as one of my most promising meetings ended in horrible confusion. I was meeting with the Democratic and Peace Front, a grouping of 18 small parties, one of whom, the Iraqi Peace Party, had invited me along to their gathering. Representatives from every party were sitting around a couple of plastic tables in the White Palace (a former royal residence which now seems to be a kind of civil society convergence centre). It was quite exciting to see this grassroutes democracy in action.

I handed around my usual Jubilee Iraq intro sheet (translated into Arabic by Wajeeh Elali, a lovely Iraqi-Canadian economist), with a few bullet points of data about the debt and some questions about which types of debt and reparations they think should/shouldn't be paid, how claims should be negotiated and so on. Unfortunately one of the delegates appointed himself as my translator, and it seems he didn't do a very good job, as the discussion rapidly decended into heated exchanges between him and the other 17 people in the room in arabic, with only the odd phrase or two getting translated to me.

The loudest voice was the chairman's and, piecing together later what when wrong, I think he misunderstood my question about the best way of negotiating with the creditors. His view (a fairly common one) was that Iraqis are not responsible for any of Saddam's debt or reparations whatsoever and, therefore, if I was asking questions about a negotiation process, then I must be wanting to try and make Iraqis pay something. Ergo I'm probably some kind of Israeli agent disguised as a humanitarian NGO. Of course my aim is quite the reverse, but unfortunately a nerve had been struck, translation had broken down, and I didn't have a clue what was going on until after I'd left and my Iraqi guide explained what had transpired. I think part of the problem is that Iraqis have little experience of NGOs, and have a conditioned distrust of people - essential for survival under Saddam. Other NGO friends have also told me that people assume they are agents of some kind. This doesn't prevent Iraqis from treating us with warm hospitality, but it does mean that we have to earn their trust not take it as a given.

Riverbend mentions Muqtada Sadr's new shadow government. This has been the main topic of conversation in Baghdad today, and I'm also surprised it hasn't had wider coverage. I was hoping to meet Sadr in Najaf last week, but it didn't happen. I'm going to try and track down his new shadow finance minister tomorrow to see what he thinks about the debt.