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2 ROVING IN THE RED
ZONE Inside Sadr City By Pepe Escobar
BAGHDAD - This is the
24-square-kilometer theater where a great part of
Iraq's future is already being played out; a vital
element in US President George W Bush's surge; the
place Pentagon generals dream of smashing into
submission; one of the largest and arguably most
notorious slums in the world: Sadr (formerly
Saddam) City.
Sadr City is also, along
with Gaza and the West Bank, the
theater of the already
evolving 21st-century war, pitting the high-tech
Western haves against the slum-dwelling Third
World have-nots. If the Bush administration had
any intention of conquering any hearts and minds
in Iraq, this is where it would be trying the
hardest. Reality spells otherwise.
Sadr
City is an immense grid in eastern Baghdad of
ramshackle one-story buildings covered with dust -
not unlike slums in North Africa or Pakistan. Main
streets such as Boulevard Gouarder are lined with
Iraqi, not partisan, flags. A few black flags
denote houses of descendents of the Prophet
Mohammed's family.
There are photos of the
late ayatollah Muhammad Baqr al-Sadr - killed by
Saddam Hussein's goons - even in billboards
advertising mobile phones. Muqtada al-Sadr's
office is a modest building near the main
crossroads - not far from the street market that
was hit by a horrific bombing in January that
killed 250 people and wounded more than 400. There
are plenty of sidewalk funeral tents - as is the
custom in Iraq. Residents who fall victim to the
carnage in Baghdad can be counted by the dozens on
certain days.
Vans or pickup trucks
carrying coffins pass by (in other parts of
Baghdad, usually in the morning, pickup trucks
carrying bodies or body parts pass by, severed
legs and hands dangling). The radio station of
choice is Peace 106 FM. Kids in Argentine soccer
jerseys play in the streets alongside women in
full chador (no chance of seeing any woman
unveiled). Gasoline on the black market - promoted
by kids by the curbside waving plastic containers
- is extremely expensive: 80 US cents a liter. But
there is no shortage of battered vehicles in the
streets; the local buses look like rolling
cadavers.
People have only one hour of
electricity every six hours; sometimes nothing for
two or three days. The majority cannot afford big
generators (one ampere costs 9,000 dinars, almost
US$8). So the answer is the cheap made-in-Korea
Astra portable fuel generator, selling for $200 a
piece. There is no phone service; virtually
everybody carries a mobile phone.
Hussein
al-Motery is the general administrator of the
municipality of Sadr City, the man ultimately
responsible for the well-being of almost 3 million
people, more than half the population of Baghdad.
Every day, after sunset prayers, rows of people
come to his modest house to ask for favors or jobs
("I'm always in contact with the people").
Unemployment in Iraq is usually estimated
at a whopping 60%. Hussein has no figures, but in
Sadr City it may be even higher ("Even people with
university degrees have no jobs"). Hussein admits,
"I was lucky, I graduated, I have the chance to
own a house." Eleven people per house - usually
sleeping in the same room - is a fact of life all
over Sadr City.
Sadr City is a giant
dormitory. Hussein says, "Baghdad would become a
ghost city if people from Sadr City would not go
there to work." He adds, "Sadr City has become the
symbol of stability for Baghdad and Iraq. Many
merchants in Baghdad come from Sadr City."
Community life is indeed stable; this is a
peaceful, harmonious dormitory. Hussein describes
local people as "naive, they accept everything,
they have a great sense of sacrifice". Residents
confirm they feel secure inside Sadr City, but
never outside. They are not in the habit of
complaining; a common expression is Sali ala
al-Nabi ("Pray for the Prophet"), meaning in
the end everything will be all right.
Take
Hussein Maheidel, from Amara in Shi'ite southern
Iraq, who has been living in Sadr City for the
past 30 years. He was a construction worker, but
has been handicapped for the past 12 years because
of a nerve problem in his back. All the best Iraqi
doctors have left the country, so an operation
might not be successful.
He has no pension
to support his family of nine children. So he's
being helped by the office of Muqtada, who pays
his monthly rent of $100, a figure considered low
in Sadr City. The average monthly rental for a
house in the neighborhood is $750.
The
Maheidel family lives in bleak poverty and sleeps
in the same small room. But the head of the
household is not complaining. He hopes his
children "will not be workers, like myself". They
are all in school; the unfortunate exception is
his six-year-old daughter, who spends the day
caring for her father (he walks on crutches). The
expression of infinite sadness in her eyes is
extremely disturbing. There are polite smiles in
Sadr City - but the impression is they are
directed to the foreign visitor. Resignation in
sadness seems to be the feeling among most adults.
Maheidel believes Muqtada "is a good
leader". He says, "The Americans came to our house
at night, walking; they didn't
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