When will the government wake up?

 

By Jamal Mudhafar

 

Azzaman, April 17, 2006

 

It seems our government is fast asleep, snoring over pillows filled with ostrich feathers and if it wakes up – and that is a big if – it immerses itself in soft and luxurious armchairs.

 

It is simply oblivious to the suffering of the Iraqi people gripped by one deadly crisis after another.

 

The nation is reeling from pain and the government looks on as a bystander. It has fortified itself within the Green Zone (U.S. military and civil headquarters in Iraq), distancing itself from the tragedies, calamities and disasters afflicting the Iraqi people.

 

The government has lost control and is no longer in a position to halt the descent towards total collapse of the state as represented in the absence of security and basic services.

 

Has the government any idea about the spiraling prices? Does it know how much a liter of kerosene and or a gas cylinder cost today? Does it have any idea about how many minutes a day Iraqis have access to power from the national grid?

 

Is the government aware that the price of the gas cylinder has reached 25,000 dinars while it was sold for only 250 dinars under the former regime?

 

As we compare conditions now with those under the former regime, there are many who would blame us for drawing such parallels.

 

But they forget that the practices of the government force us to make such comparisons. In order to comprehend the reality we need to compare between conditions under the current government and conditions under the former one.

 

The government has in fact imposed these comparisons on us. Almost everything that happened since the downfall of the former regime nearly three years ago points to more trouble ahead. In short there has been no good news.