 |
|
Iraqis wait to buy papers.
|
By
Samir Haddad, IOL Correspondent
BAGHDAD, March 4, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – The US-led occupation of Iraq
has played its toll on almost all aspects of life. The change –
whether for better or worse is left for days and years to clarify –
is leading to an almost complete reshaping of the political, economic,
social and cultural structure of the oil rich Arab country.
Unemployment
is one of the plagues. To get a job in Iraq, you need to learn a
foreign language, especially English, to know how to deal with
computers or to know how to “lead”.
As
a result, specialized centers are fast growing. One can tell by the
hundreds or even thousands of newspapers ads or street signs promoting
such centers.
Common
among almost all job ads is the condition of “fluent English”.
Observing
the rapid change, many Iraqis were skeptical. “You have to know the
language of ‘Ok and Yes’ [English] to secure a job,” one Iraqi
told IOL.
But
many others took the matter more seriously.
“I
began to attend English courses after I found ads making learning a
foreign language a necessary qualification to get a job,” said
Khalil Atta, a 27-year old who had an MA in business administration.
The
increased demand for translators to work for the US army, foreign
contractors, foreign TV and Radio stations, or even to work as
correspondents for dailies and magazines was only natural to give an
added value to language centers in occupied Iraq.
Such
centers were almost a taboo under ousted Iraqi president Saddam
Hussein’s regime, but they flourished remarkably after US-led
occupation forces rolled into Baghdad.
Change
|
|
A file photo of Iraqi children studying near the rubble of a destroyed building in Fallujah. |
Some
believe the changing atmosphere, generally, had some positive aspects
to it.
According
to Jassem Mohamed, a lecturer at
Baghdad
University, the tendency created an atmosphere of competitiveness in
the Iraqi society.
“I
had to go to one of these centers every day after work. It is
challenging.”
Naturally,
owners of the language and computer (teaching) centers are encouraged
by the boom and opting to further promote their businesses.
Ziyad
El-Ani, for one, divided his center (Unlimited Horizons) into six
sections, personal development, language learning, administrative
enhancement, cadre training and creativity development.
“These
are all for boosting human development of Iraqis,” said El-Ani.
Female
Roles
The
Iraqi women were not left out.
Asmaa
Mahmoud, 28, said some businessmen have opted for her center to
enhance their skills of administration and leadership.
The
centers also have an eye on women, many of them had to work for a
living after the US-led invasion, that left 300,000 people dead,
according to British medical newspaper Lancet.
Miriam,
an Iraqi woman, founded a center for training women on horticulture
and netting. “We teach them how to work for a living,” said Haifaa
El-Suweidi, one of the center’s officials.
Other
centers took the idea even farther. A center or rather a society
called “Development” in Baghdad trains Iraqis on how to attain the
sort of culture of awareness necessary for “rationalizing matters
and thinking soundly under pressure”.
Rawaa
Mohamed, an Iraqi female, said she enlisted for one of these programs
to be able to “think and act” in a better way.
“Knowledge
Gap”
Zeinab
El-Khazali, a sociology professor at the Faculty of Arts,
Al-Muntansiriya
University, attributed the thriving business of language and development centers
to “long years of deprivation”.
“Iraqis
are eager to learn about modern sciences after they were shocked by
the wide knowledge gap after the fall of Saddam. They found themselves
confronted with a modern technology, with no clue how to deal with
it,” El-Khazali said.
She
also referred to the competitive atmosphere prevailing in the country
with the shift to what termed as an “institutional system” in the
country.
“That
created a strong incentive for Iraqis to compete for a better
future.”
Some
hope the change would counterbalance the shortage of university
teachers, or what was called brain drain, following the wide-scale
assassinations targeting “Iraq’s scientific and academic
fortune”.
Many
Iraqi children dropped out of school in the 1990s after the imposition
of US sanctions and in 2003 after the US-led invasion that left many
schools closed and sacred off many students.
Read
Also…
