Report from OxFam says life in Iraq sucks worse, now! Who knew?
International donor funds are better spent on
emergency aid like food, water and medicine.
Humanitarian activist Basma al-Khateeb will tell you
that Iraq doesn’t need any more reconstruction projects or development
programs now. International donor funds are better spent, she says, on emergency
aid like food, water and medicine. “We are facing a huge humanitarian
catastrophe,” says al-Khateeb, who works for the Iraq al-Amal Association,
an Iraqi NGO. “No one is acknowledging how big the humanitarian
catastrophe
is.”
Khateeb offers a number of grim statistics showing that Iraq is quickly becoming a disaster zone. Violence in recent years has left roughly 3 million women widows and created about 5 million orphans, she said. Unemployment for much of the country is as high as 60%. Tent cities are springing up in Baghdad to house the estimated 2 million internally displaced people adrift in Iraq.
Just one chunk of the statistics. Yeah, I know it’s meaningless to people who care nothing about who “we” kill to get “our” way:
About one in three people in Iraq now is desperate for the basics of life. Four million Iraqis (about 15% of the population) regularly cannot buy enough to eat. And 28% of children are malnourished now, compared to 19% before the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. As summer heat reaches its annual highs here, 70% of Iraqis go without adequate water supplies, a figure up 20% since 2003.
In an interview with an ordinary Iraqi in extraordinary circumstances, Younis Mahmoud, the captain of Iraq’s Cinderella football team: “I want America to go out,” he said. “Today, tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow, but out. I wish the American people didn’t invade Iraq and hopefully it will be over soon.”
Khateeb offers a number of grim statistics showing that Iraq is quickly becoming a disaster zone. Violence in recent years has left roughly 3 million women widows and created about 5 million orphans, she said. Unemployment for much of the country is as high as 60%. Tent cities are springing up in Baghdad to house the estimated 2 million internally displaced people adrift in Iraq.
Just one chunk of the statistics. Yeah, I know it’s meaningless to people who care nothing about who “we” kill to get “our” way:
About one in three people in Iraq now is desperate for the basics of life. Four million Iraqis (about 15% of the population) regularly cannot buy enough to eat. And 28% of children are malnourished now, compared to 19% before the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. As summer heat reaches its annual highs here, 70% of Iraqis go without adequate water supplies, a figure up 20% since 2003.
In an interview with an ordinary Iraqi in extraordinary circumstances, Younis Mahmoud, the captain of Iraq’s Cinderella football team: “I want America to go out,” he said. “Today, tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow, but out. I wish the American people didn’t invade Iraq and hopefully it will be over soon.”
Posted: Tue - July 31, 2007 at 07:40 AM