Life in Iraq

Survey reveals suffering of Iraqis
GANNETT NEWS SERVICE

BAGHDAD -- In one of the most comprehensive surveys on living conditions in Iraq, the United Nations reported Thursday that many Iraqis have poor access to clean water, live in overcrowded conditions, struggle to stay in school and often live in homes without sewage systems.

"The people of Iraq are struggling," said Staffan de Mistura, representative for the U.N. Development Program in Iraq. "This may sound obvious. But it has been proven in this report."

The report does not compare conditions now with living conditions in Iraq under Saddam Hussein. But it does show that some basic services -- electricity, water, education -- have worsened since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, said Alia al-Dalli, an official in the UNDP Iraq office.

"Although the physical and social infrastructure is there, services are deteriorating," she said. "These figures give an indication not only of how things are at the moment, but of how things have been going."

Researchers for the Iraq Living Conditions Survey 2004, one of the most comprehensive studies of life in postwar Iraq, interviewed 21,668 households nationwide last year on such topics as housing, nutrition, employment and education.

The last similar survey performed was in 1997, but the government survey did not include the Kurdistan region to the north, al-Dalli said. The recent survey sampled all 18 provinces, she said.

The latest survey was a joint effort of Iraq's Planning Ministry and the UNDP. Among the findings:

10 percent of families suffer from overcrowding. In the countryside in Ninevah province, 14 percent of families live in huts. In rural areas to the north, 25 percent of homes have been destroyed by war.

85 percent of households have unreliable electricity, and 29 percent rely on alternative sources of power, mostly generators. Power in many parts of Iraq was intermittent under Saddam's regime as well.

80 percent of families in rural areas use unsafe drinking water.

37 percent of households are connected to sewage networks.

10.5 percent of Iraqis are unemployed, and among youths the rate is 19 percent. That is a sharp decline from the 75 percent unemployment rate immediately after the fall of Saddam's regime.

The median hourly wage is about 54 cents.

Women die during childbirth at a rate of 193 out of every 100,000 births in Iraq, compared with 23 per 100,000 in Saudi Arabia and 850 per 100,000 in Yemen.

Almost one-quarter of children from 6 months to 5 years suffer from chronic malnutrition.The report also looked at war-related deaths. According to its data, the war has claimed the lives of about 24,000 Iraqi civilians and Iraqi military personnel. Children younger than 18 accounted for 12 percent of the deaths, it said.

"The survey, in a nutshell, depicts a rather tragic situation of the quality of life," Iraq's new planning minister, Barham Saleh, told The Associated Press.

here is a related article about iraq.. very sad stuff:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/051105A.shtml

It sounds like inner New York city..

and this also is life in Iraq.

I'm sorry to post something so graphic and upsetting, but I felt very strongly in my gut that we need to SEE the consequences of our actions. This is, literally, our tax dollars at work.

I have a 13 month old daughter, and to see this person (her father?) and this girl...well...I feel it in my soul and feel such incredible rage and sadness. THIS is being done in MY name??!! In your name... in OUR names.

And for what? For some fucking lies??!! FUCK YOU!!! FUCK YOU!!!!


http://home.comcast.net/~gold9472/wearebastards.jpg

It's a powerful image, but it IS something that needs to be seen by every American. The "Mainstream Media" under the control of our Government, has sanitized everything that's going on over there... although these images can be gruesome, and sad, they are essential to understand what exactly is going on over there...

the next time you watch the news, imagine that you are stuffing your face with twinkies. They both have about the same nutritional value.

We are living in a time when anything not distincly 'pro-American' is labeled liberal propoganda and 'anti-christian'.

Does the above photo fall into the 'Thou Shall Not Kill' commandment, or was there some kind of preemptive loophole?

Unfortunately, that is one of a number of pictures I've seen that reflect the horror of life in Iraq. I think that one right there is too much. And that happens every day in this war. The headlines tell us how many have died, but not how many injured, not how many are left without parents, children, families. That one picture should be enough to stop this war. How can anyone justify what happened to that child?