Friday, September 03, 2004

Fruits and Vegetables on the rise in Iraq

After the War...? Fruits and Vegetables prices rise in Iraq
Accounts from a woman in Baghdad
Posted Sept. 3,2004

And we are also concerned about the reports of Iraqi
Police and ICDC ( Iraq
Civil Defence Corps) being used in the front line
against the Resistance
in Nagaf, Sadr City and other places. Is this America
trying to create
tension, strife and civil war - not between Sunni and
Shia (that didn't
work), but between the Resistance and
government/coalition employees?

Today we bought some fruit and vegetables, and in yet
another example of
how the ordinary Iraqi suffers, we found that the
recent upsurge in
Resistance has caused prices to rise.
Tomatoes,
eggplants, onions, grapes
and water melons had all gone up in price (and that's
just what we
checked). Tomatoes and water melons had almost doubled
in price from 10 p
a kilo to nearly 20 p a kilo. This is because
'Jamila', the main
wholesaler for all the food in Bagdad , situated in
Sadr City , has had to
shut down due to the fighting. The shopkeepers are now
having to travel
out of Bagdad to Mahmoudya or Yusefia for example (30
and 40 kilometres
away respectively) to obtain their wares. The travel
and time costs are
then passed onto the customer, just as the taxi
drivers have to charge
more when they end up sitting in a petrol queue for
one day a week instead
of earning money working.

Where will all this end, I don't know? But I feel
certain that if America
pulled out and went home, the situation would be sure
to improve. A Muslim
peacekeeping force may work here, but NOT if it works
under or with the
Americans. If they do this they will become America 's
canon fodder - just
as the Iraqi men in the Iraqi Police and ICDC are now.

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