[whataretheysaying] Mary Madigan: Getting better all the time..

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Posted by Mary Madigan:
Getting better all the time..
http://whataretheysaying.powerblogs.com/posts/1174405481.shtml


   Michael Totten reports from [1]Iraqi Kurdistan:

     Iraqi Kurdistan is still a Third World country in many ways â there
     is no sewer system, for instance, and the electricity fails every
     day. Unemployment is high. But itâs a Third World country with
     hope, and it is rapidly moving upscale. New houses cost more in and
     around Erbil than they do in some parts of the United States. An
     average sized 200 square meter lot can cost as much as 150,000
     dollars â and thatâs before a house is built on it. There are
     literally thousands of brand new houses here in this city, and the
     population is still just a little bit shy of one million.

     Arabs are moving up here from the center and south â when they can,
     and as long as they are cleared by internal security â and theyâre
     hired to do menial jobs the Kurds no longer want. Sunni Arabs were
     once the oppressors of Kurds. Now they are reduced to the same low
     status as migrant Mexican workers in the United States.

     The ancient old city walls next to downtown are an impressive
     sight, but inside the walls is a vast slum. Well, it was a vast
     slum until recently. A few months ago the residents were moved out
     so the city government can fix it up and restore it.

     Erbil isnât pretty, as Paris and Vienna are pretty. Some of it is
     aesthetically brutal, and much of it is still rough around the
     edges. But itâs stimulating and interesting all the same. The
     go-go-go and build-build-build attitude is infectious. Every time I
     come here it looks cleaner, and richer, and more like a normal
     place...

     ..Kurdistanâs rise flips Iraq on its head. The Kurds are ahead, but
     they started from nothing. Under Saddamâs regime they had the worst
     of everything â the worst poverty, the worst underdevelopment, and
     worst of all they bore the brunt of the worst violence from
     Baghdad. 200,000 people were killed (out of less than four million)
     and 95 percent of the villages were completely destroyed.

     The Kurds seem happy and well-adjusted. Scratch the surface,
     though, and any one of them can tell you tales that make you
     tremble and shudder. Everyone here was touched by the Baath and by
     the genocide. If living well is the best revenge, the Kurds got
     theirs.

   More on Iraqi Kurdistan at [2]Michael Totten's Middle East Journal and
   [3]Patrick Lasswell's Moderate Risk.

References

   1. http://www.michaeltotten.com/archives/001407.html
   2. http://www.michaeltotten.com/archives/001407.html
   3. http://moderaterisk.net/