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FREEDOM IS
FORGETTING TYRANT'S NAME
Ireland
Irish Independent
Dublin 2004
Alexis Molina
"Freedom is when you forget the spelling of the tyrant's name and your
mouth's saliva is sweeter than Persian Pie, and though your brain is
wrung tight as the horn of a ram, nothing drops from your pale-blue
eye."
THESE words belong to a man who knew the value and responsibility of
real freedom: by 1976, the date attributed to this poem, Joseph Brodsky
had been through a Soviet show trial, labor camp and forced exile. A far
cry from the venomous spite piled upon Iraqi history by the well-fed,
nothing-to-fear pundits of doom and gloom greeting last week's handover
of power in Baghdad with epithets like "ex-CIA", "Marshall [sic] law"
and "a year of wasted opportunities".
The journalists who put quotation marks around "liberation" in 2003 are
failing to see the reality - Iraq did regain its independence, on June
28, and the Iraqi people are on the path to erasing their tyrant's name.
To be precise, the road from serfdom is long and arduous. Yet the Iraqis
are learning their freedom - as of June 2004, 68 per cent of them
express confidence in the interim government, 73 per cent approve of the
new Prime Minister, Ayad Allawi, and 84 per cent support the new
President, Ghazi Yawar. And up to 80 per cent of population believes
that the new government, army and police forces will have a positive
impact on the country. (Incidentally, these numbers are well above the
approval ratings for the EU, yet the anti-Coalition pundits are not
questioning Brussels' legitimacy.) Far from fearing martial law, 76 per
cent of Iraqis feel freer to express their political views in public
today than at any time before the liberation, while more than 80 per
cent feel freer to exercise their religious beliefs.
So let us get other records straight. Drawing, as before, on the hard
facts from the Brookings Institution, Gallup Polls and other sources,
can we conclude that 2004 was "a year of wasted opportunities"? Magic
mushrooms aside, no.
On March 8, the Iraqi Governing Council approved the Transitional
Administrative Law (TAL) that will serve as the country's interim
constitution between now and the 2005 elections, which 67 per cent of
the Iraqi population expects to be free and fair. Unprecedented for the
region, it guarantees freedom of religion and speech, rights to organise
political parties, to demonstrate, to strike, to receive a fair trial.
It prohibits discrimination based on gender, nationality, religion or
origin.
To back it up, today more than 600 Iraqi judges preside over more than
500 courts independent from Governing Council and Coalition Provisional
Authority (CPA). More than 170 newspapers and 70 radio stations operate
throughout Iraq. Few of these rights are enjoyed by the people living
under the regimes, such as the PLO, benignly overlooked by our press and
subsidized by the EU.
The Governing Council and CPA have "wasted" a year on delivering
millions of metric tons of food and products in Iraq, opening the
country's 240 hospitals and more than 1,200 clinics. In a "wasted year",
the Iraqi healthcare budget was US$950m - a 74-fold increase on 2002.
More than 90 per cent of Iraqi children received immunizations, and
doctors' salaries are now at least eight times what they were under
Saddam.
The Council and CPA opened all 22 universities, 43 technical colleges,
as well as over 90 per cent of the primary and secondary schools. The
Coalition refurbished 3,900 schools and provided 58,500 teaching and 1.5
million student kits. Teachers earn up to 25 times their former
salaries. Under the new regime that our grey cardinals of doom dismiss
as the invaders' puppet, women's centers offering training and education
opened throughout the country.
As of today, water delivery has been nearly doubled on the pre-war
levels, electricity generation is at over 95 per cent of the pre-war
capacity, while over 1.2 million phones are operating in the country - a
46 per cent rise on 2002. The national unemployment rate in April-May
2004 was 28-45 per cent, relative to 50-60 per cent in 2003. CPA alone
created 435,000 jobs, while reinvigorated lending and a strengthening
currency contributed to a significant increase in entrepreneurial
activity.
The truth demands that we do not overlook the difficulties. In the
absence of law enforcement, Iraq's progress is hampered by the continued
violence against people and property. Since 2003, the most dangerous
kinds of violence from Iraqi public perspective were (in order of
decreasing importance): sectarian war, suicide bombers, explosive
devices and street crime. In terms of private concerns, the priority is
different: street crime, explosive devices, military actions and suicide
bombers.
All said, over the last 12 months, 1,771 Iraqi civilians died due to
acts of insurgents and Coalition forces - a homicide rate that falls
below that of some OECD (1) countries. Furthermore, despite claims of
CPA unpopularity, 76 per cent do not believe their lives were made worse
by the Coalition and 85 per cent feel safer with CPA in place.
These figures tell the real stories of Iraq. This is a learning curve.
Transition to democracy in the Soviet Union taught us that in a society
opening up to pluralism and freedom of press, scandalous facts
temporarily take hold of the nation's perception of reality: learning
about freedom does make your brain "tight as the horn of a ram".
So let us set the record straight - on June 28, Iraq rejoined the world
community as a sovereign state, but it will take time before the Iraqis
taste their Persian pie of prosperity and generations before they erase
Saddam Hussein from their memory. I doubt our zealots of
anti-Americanism ever will.
Constantin T Gurdgiev
Constantin T Gurdgiev is a lecturer and research associate at Trinity
College Dublin. He is also a director of the Open Republic Institute,
Dublin.
OECD (1)
Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development
OECD MEMBER COUNTRIES
Twenty countries originally signed the Convention on the Organization
for Economic Co-operation and Development on 14 December 1960. Since
then a further ten countries have become members of the Organization.
The Member countries of the Organization and the dates on which they
deposited their instruments of ratification are:
AUSTRALIA: 7 June 1971
AUSTRIA: 29 September 1961
BELGIUM: 13 September 1961
CANADA: 10 April 1961
CZECH REPUBLIC: 21 December 1995
DENMARK: 30 May 1961
FINLAND: 28 January 1969
FRANCE: 7 August 1961
GERMANY: 27 September 1961
GREECE: 27 September 1961
HUNGARY: 7 May 1996
ICELAND: 5 June 1961
IRELAND: 17 August 1961
ITALY: 29 March 1962
JAPAN: 28 April 1964
KOREA: 12 December 1996
LUXEMBOURG: 7 December 1961
MEXICO: 18 May 1994
NETHERLANDS: 13 November 1961
NEW ZEALAND: 29 May 1973
NORWAY: 4 July 1961
POLAND: 22 November 1996
PORTUGAL: 4 August 1961
SLOVAK REPUBLIC: 14 December 2000
SPAIN: 3 August 1961
SWEDEN: 28 September 1961
SWITZERLAND: 28 September 1961
TURKEY: 2 August 1961
UNITED KINGDOM: 2 May 1961
UNITED STATES: 12 April 1961 |
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INFOCUBA
