http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19394334/
"We're getting about one hour (of electricity) every four days, and we don't have cold water or the refrigerator, so we're buying ice from the market," said Rahim, 32, who lives in the Karada neighborhood. In the market where his wall-to-wall carpet shop is located, "every five minutes there is a quarrel or fight because of the heat," he said. "Just yesterday, people were fighting each other, boxing and kicking each other, over a piece of apricot."
"If we want electricity, we need a generator, and we need fuel and we need money. And if you can't get a job, then the insurgents come and pay our kids to work for them."
During the summer, he spends his entire salary -- about $950 a month -- to repair and run the generators and keep his family's home powered for 14 hours a day -- and that's without air conditioning. The remaining 10 hours they have no electricity.
With monthly incomes in Iraq averaging about $200, most people here have far less power.
Not everyone has a pool, of course. In fact, almost no one does, particularly on the roof. But the heat is unbearable, so amid the daily car bombs, suicide attacks and mortar strikes -- and the uncertainty that accompanies every commute to work or visit to the market -- Rahim made a pact to do everything he could to create a decent life for his wife, Abeer, and their two children.
Buying fuel is a different matter. Even though Iraq has the world's third-largest oil reserves, there is a severe fuel shortage here. So rather than waiting in gas lines for up to eight hours and paying about $1.15 a gallon, most Iraqis buy it on the black market for about $3.30 a gallon.
"You'll die if you wait in line with this heat," Rahim said, explaining that a friend who recently went to fill up his gas can at 5 a.m. finally made it to the pump at 2:30 p.m.
Dubious statistics
A May 31 U.S. Embassy "fact sheet" about the electricity situation in Iraq asserted that Baghdad receives an average of eight hours of power a day. A spokesman for the Ministry of Electricity said residents received six hours of power a day.
But no one knows who's getting it. In an informal canvassing of nine major neighborhoods in Baghdad -- from Shiite Sadr City in the northeast to Sunni Khadra in the west, and a mix of Sunni and Shiite areas in between -- residents in eight neighborhoods said they received about two hours of electricity a day.
"They go on TV now and say they spent billions for electricity and water projects in Baghdad, but where are they?"
"Forget about reconstruction -- what we are waiting for is change in the whole state," he said. "I just want one sincere, honorable person running Iraq. If he rules, even if we have to wait five or six years, there will be hope. But with the people we have now, even if you build 100 power plants, there's no hope."
After reading this article about how the folks in Baghdad are now reaping such great benefits as a result of the war, I am confounded as to why in the world anyone there would have any ill feelings for the United States. I guess if any of them complain about the current situation, we need to remind them that "at least now you are free to vote in democratic elections" (where Uncle Sam picks who gets on the ballot). What a bunch of ingrates! They should all be relishing in their suffering with 115 degree heat. A small price to pay for the many benefits we have brought them.....
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