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While bombs are exploding daily in
Baghdad, the Kurds are experiencing an economic boom
24.6.2005
Excerpts from an article in the Berliner Zeitung,
By Olivia Schoeller, June 14, 2005
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ERBIL/SULIMANIJA:
Rashid Tahir Hassan's office in the Kurdish Ministry
of Finance resembles a small Kurdish memorial. On
the wall behind his gigantic black desk hang two
pictures of the legendary Kurdish fighter Mullah
Mustafa Barzani in heavy gold frames; on the console
underneath is a plate with his likeness. The room is
adorned with photographs of Kurdish villages and the
city of Erbil, the seat of the Kurdish autonomous
region in northern Iraq.
Hassan himself seems to embody the Kurdish
mentality. When he has something positive to say, he
looks melancholy. "Since the Fall of Saddam Hussein
the Kurds have been born again," said Rashid Tahir
Hassan, lowering his eyelids and pausing. He takes a
sip from his glass of tea and glances out the
window. Then he adds, "We no longer live from one
day to the next; for the first time in our history
we are planning for the future."
A glance out of the window of the Director General
for Finance of the Kurdish regional government shows
how far the future of Kurdistan has already
flourished: around the Ministry of Finance, as in
many places in the city, buildings are shooting up.
Apartment buildings, offices, warehouses, it looks
as if everywhere in Erbil is under construction.
Money, that is a key word today in the northern part
of Iraq. You are never allowed to call it Northern
Iraq because that offends every Kurd. To the Kurds
the region is Kurdistan, liberated Kurdistan, as
most residents call it today. Liberated from Saddam
Hussein and years of oppression. Liberated from the
religious constraints of the Islamists and seemingly
ready for a new future that goes much further than
the older generation can even imagine.
Travelling by car from Erbil to Suleimaniyah, it's
difficult to believe that this part of Iraq has
anything to do with the country known from the TV
news. While car bombs explode daily in Baghdad and
new mass graves are discovered around the so-called
Sunni Triangle, the Kurds are experiencing a regular
boom. Not only is Erbil under construction, but also
in Dukan new roads are springing up, and in many
villages vacation homes are being built. The demand
for home ownership and the wish for improvement in
the infrastructure are so great that the cement
factory in front of the gates of Suleimaniyah has
been put back in operation.
The clearest sign of the new boom in Kurdistan is
the increase in salaries. Before the fall of Saddam
Hussein a white collar worker earned 22,000 Iraqi
dinar per month (around $148)--today 158,000,
according to the Ministry of Finance. A clear sign
of the upswing is the fact that Kurds have meanwhile
become too expensive for some jobs.
On the side of the road between Erbil and
Suleimaniyah you discover tents with Iraqi and
Chinese flags in honour of guest workers from China.
Thirty-eight men from Beijing who speak neither
English nor Kurdish nor Arabic are widening
Kurdistan's highway network. They sleep at night on
cots in tents on the edge of the construction site.
In Suleimaniyah you find more guest workers from
their own country.
Iraqis from Tikrit or Baghdad are moving to the
north because there is work here and a better
security situation. During the time of Saddam
Hussein the Kurds suffered under the UN sanctions
and the additional sanctions of Saddam Hussein's
regime.
Now the table has been turned. According to the
Ministry of Finance, Kurdistan receives 17% of the
receipts from petroleum sales. Under Saddam Hussein
they received almost no oil money, according to
Director of Finance Rashid Tahir Hassan. Kurdistan
is today the most prosperous region of the country,
and Suleimaniyah is the poster child of economic
growth. On every corner of the city you find
Internet cafes fully occupied, department stores
opening, and naturally the inevitable Ma Donal,
Kurdish for McDonald's.
In the streets of Suleimaniyah, not only is there
more security than in Baghdad but also more freedom
than in the southern part of the country. You see
women with and without headscarves, you see them in
black garments or in jeans with tight t-shirts, you
see them openly drinking beer in the afternoons. In
restaurants and on the streets you hear cell phones
ringing, whose rings sound like pop versions of
eastern music. According to young people, there is
even a hill in Suleimaniyah which is called the
Necking Hill. Lovers can spend an evening alone
without having to fear the penalty.
And something else is different in Kurdistan: they
like Americans here. Both US presidents, father and
son Bush, are considered liberators of Kurdistan.
The elder, because he imposed the 1991 no-fly zone,
which made the Kurds more independent and laid the
groundwork for today's turn for the better. They
treasure the son because he brought down the
dictator in 2003.
"We always believed that only communism would free
us from Saddam Hussein. Now we've learned that we
needed the Americans for that" said Nazar Kahailany,
a Kurd. The Kurdish dissident was tortured under
Saddam Hussein and fled to Germany 20 years ago.
Now he contemplates the future of his country in the
lobby of the Ashti Hotel in Suleimaniyah. Every
evening he meets with politicians from Suleimaniyah,
and most of the time his friend Nahamd Baban is also
there. For him it wasn't difficult to understand the
anti-war sentiment of the Germans. Nevertheless, as
a Kurd he is still amazed that George W. Bush, in
spite of all protests, had the courage to bring down
this dictator, thereby liberating the Kurds.
Source: Berliner Zeitung (Translated from the
original German by Donna Wiss, 17 June 2005.)
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