Sunday, December 28, 2003

Gas lines seemed a bit shorter today, still ridiculously long though. Everyone shares the blame for it: Halliburton, for not getting the refineries up to standard fast enough and then price gouging the military, smugglers stealing oil and charging ridiculous markups for gas, and most importantly, the insurgents.

One Iraqi at the convention center (where CPA has briefings) told me that the rumor on the street was that the attackers were justifying harming Iraqi people by claiming they were blowing up pipelines going to Israel. Only one problem: the pipeline that used to run to Haifa 40+ years ago is ruined. Now if the US is really “stealing oil” to give it to Israelis, why would it be importing oil from Turkey, Kuwait, and now Iran? And why would insurgents be blowing up pipelines coming from refineries in the North and South into Baghdad?

The fuel situation is a prime example of how devastated Iraqi society has become. People fear that the next day there won’t be any fuel, just like they might fear civil war or revolution and start hoarding fuel or constantly keeping their tanks full and getting back in line all the time, which only adds to the fuel lines.

When a people have little faith in their government or its stability, they are reluctant to focus on improving civil society, and corrupt practices become necessary to ensure survival.

It is interesting how more Iraqis go to the fuel stations guarded by Americans - apparently they have more trust in the lines and fuel quality and are not being gouged when we are in charge.

On the brighter side, I got to see some women’s groups working with CPA on starting women’s centers throughout Iraq. Another focus is going to be on getting more women to run for elections on the national level and the neighborhood/district advisory councils the military has helped form in just about every village in Iraq. There is also a need for books (Arabic preferred) to place in libraries in these women’s centers (help would be appreciated).

I also got some huge boxes of supplies donated by Americans back home to give out to Iraqi children. While I was happy to see everything, I noticed none of the food products included pork or anything that might be deemed offensive, except that I did find a bunch of toy guns. Sorry guys! Iraqi kids absolutely do not need to be carrying around toy guns; send them toothpaste or toothbrushes instead. Thanks anyways.