Go to an economic development textbook from the late seventies like Todaro's which has a table on income distribution and another development index. look at Iraq in the fifties and compare with the rest of world, as I recall, iraq was probably the worst. that was the period of british/hashemite rule in iraq. take the UNDP tables on development in the eighties and look at Iraq and you will see one small success story in development especially in socialized health and education and gains for women in what was similar before, that is the fifties, to Saudi Arabia regarding the treatment of women. then follow closely the political cycle in Iraq, in particular how it was cornered by turkey, shahinshah Iran and Saudi Arabia. in particular observe how the Iraqi Kurds armed with American weaponry fought the successive Iraqi regimes until the government capitulated in 1975- the Algiers accords, one in which the state relinquished so! vereignty to its only waterway to Iran among many other losses. harassments continued up to 1979 by Iran�s shah at the behest of uncle Sam. come 1979 the theocracy in Iran upholds the shah's accords and even asks for more concessions, then of course, war but now with the real enemy, the Iranian state reborn in an Islamic Shiite gown. there was really no break in the state of the conflict of the post independent iraq; conflict in Iraq and particularly military conflict was almost always there. It is hard to build anything socialized or even hinting to social in the new world order middle east. It even appears to me that the US is comfortable with the Islamic fundamentalist because even if they win they are socially so backward that the arabs, the muslims and for that matter the third world will lose. The choice in the arab world may boil down to choosing quasi socialist dictatorships or despotic theocracies.
Ihave asked Samir Amin about the separation of the social from the political in the Arab world, and he says it was not a good idea. the islamist may have a good nationalist position but without a progressive social agenda they cannot win the war.
one Iraqi poet, actually the best Arab poet in my Arab friend's opinion, says:
not a day has gone by in which Iraq did not witness misery or hunger.
Badr Shaker alsayab
"Devine, James" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
an economic development text book from the late seventiesBefore the Kuwait war, Iraq had lots of oil bucks, so that Saddam could do a lot of good things for the people in order to build up his legitimacy without detracting from the all-important feathering of his own nest. (Saddam's politics are amazing similar to another oil critter, Dubya.)
JD
> iraqi gov't, at one time, was among handful
> that accepted principle of spontaneous
> settlement(more commonly known as squatting)
> in addressing housing issues...
>
> approach involved relatively low-cost
> upgrading of 'shanties' with roads, sewer, electricity,
> water...low rents & community
> links were sustained while infrastructure
> development created jobs...gov't would
> offer people sites on which to build their
> own residences (providing construction
> guidance as well)...folks received tenure
> security and protection against rent
> inflation... education and! health facilities
> were built to service such areas...
>
> result was string of villages in which
> residents could preserve/practice culture,
> maintain/foster mutual help & support...
> communities helped cushion people against
> urban isolation/alienation *and* blocked
> use of inappropriate western planning/
> zoning ideas... michael hoover
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