Replies to post #27133 on Zeev's Turnips Talk Politics (ZTTP)

[goodluck]

Violence Erupts at Protests by Iraqi Jobless
2 hours, 48 minutes ago

By Andrew Gray

[EDIT: Notmuch has changed--right.]

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqis demanding jobs set cars ablaze and threw stones on Wednesday while local security forces responded with gunfire to disperse protests reflecting frustration at the parlous state of the postwar economy.


Violence erupted at demonstrations in Baghdad and the northern city of Mosul on the day occupying authorities in Iraq (news - web sites) sought to launch a new era of normality with the start of the first school year since Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s downfall.


In central Baghdad, several dozen protesters looking for work at a U.S.-backed local security force hurled stones at the building. Flames and black smoke poured from a police car and a civilian vehicle while gunfire echoed around the area.


Members of a crowd of several thousand threw stones at an employment office in Mosul. Some chanted support for Saddam.


"I need a salary now -- I've been out of work since the war," said Ayid Khalid, 24, a former builder.


Police and security guards fired shots in the air and the crowd began to disperse.


The volatility of postwar Iraq has helped keep the political spotlight on the decision by President Bush (news - web sites) and British Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites) to go to war despite strong opposition from many countries including traditional allies.


The U.S. Justice Department (news - web sites) launched an investigation on Tuesday into claims that Bush administration officials blew the cover of a CIA (news - web sites) agent by leaking her identity to a newspaper columnist because her husband was a critic of the case for war.


Opponents of Blair's decision plan to voice their anger in a debate on Wednesday at the annual conference of his Labor party. But Blair has staunchly defended his actions, saying taking on Saddam sent a powerful signal to other countries.


"If we didn't take a stand on Iraq, how on earth were we going to get North Korea (news - web sites) back into a proper dialogue and Iran properly cooperating with the International Atomic Energy Agency?" he told BBC radio on Wednesday.


POLICE FIRE, PROTESTERS TAKE COVER


At the Baghdad protest, near a hotel where Western reporters and other foreign workers are based, police fired automatic rifles and pistols as demonstrators took cover behind buildings.


"We didn't shoot at the beginning. We think this is a democracy and they can express their point of view. But then they started firing," policeman Falah Hassan said at the scene. He said several people were wounded.


Protesters said they had come repeatedly to the office of a force set up to guard state property to look for work.


"Most of us were soldiers and then they disbanded the army and all the soldiers became jobless," one man said. "We've filled out forms and two months later, still no result."


The U.S.-led administration running Iraq disbanded the old Iraqi army, viewing the force as a tool of the deposed Baath party. The first soldiers for a new army are due to graduate from a training course in the next few days.


International officials have estimated the unemployment rate in Iraq may be running at around 50 percent.





Washington says it is working hard on Iraq's economy, making foreign investment easier and employing tens of thousands of people in reconstruction projects. But is says it will take time to undo damage from years of war, mismanagement and sanctions.

Iraq's plunge into poverty is also reflected in the state of its schools. The occupying authorities say they have renovated about 1,000 schools but new term began with many still in disrepair and new textbooks yet to arrive.

This year teachers' salaries are higher and pledges of allegiance to Saddam and the Baath party are off the curriculum. But postwar crime means some parents are reluctant to let their children out of their homes to begin the new era in education.

"The salaries are a good thing," said Hana Hassan, who works at the Dafaf al-Nil school in west Baghdad.

"But I haven't seen any changes yet, apart from the salaries. Lots of students haven't come back, they are scared. And we don't have books."

[harrypothead]

There is discontent within the White House itself, as the ever growing "Credibility Gap" grows at home and abroad. Bush has been a disaster for this country. Our children and children's children will be left to pay the tab. Fox is spinning no-problemo with Wilsongate, NO CRIME!


Credibility Gap

Why the White House can’t drive a stake through the story of Niger, uranium and the CIA agent

Sept. 30 — It started out as just 16 words in the president’s State of the Union address. But like all good examples of political chaos theory, it’s the smallest details that can cause the biggest dislocations. If only the White House had dropped the brief line about Saddam’s nuclear program and the link with Africa. That, at least, was the sentiment inside the Bush administration back in July, when it first got a taste of the kind of trial by fire that Tony Blair, the British prime minister, has been enduring for months.

BACK THEN, AT THE start of summer, the White House halted the runaway train by tying two senior officials to the track: George Tenet, the director of the CIA, and Stephen Hadley, deputy national security advisor to the president. With not one but two officials sacrificing themselves (at least with public admissions of guilt), the seemingly technical story just evaporated into the summer heat. But the truth is that the story never went away. The White House tactics of dumping on Tenet and Hadley left many inside the administration—including at the White House itself—bitterly disappointed with their own leadership. That bitterness did not fade over the summer.

http://msnbc.com/news/974087.asp?0sl=-43

"Bushhaters/Bushbashers"?

===============================

Fortunately, Iraqi children will be retuning to school today as our own schools go to crap. We Americans are such a benevolent people, aren't we??

Back to School in Iraq

By Aws Al-Sharqy
IOL Correspondent - Baghdad
30/09/2003

The fourth of October, which marks the beginning of the new academic year in Iraq, will see hundreds of thousands of Iraqi students at primary and high schools and universities go back to school amid a climate of worry and, at the same time, optimism.

Many are concerned that the escalation of looting, kidnapping and theft that mushroomed as a result of the lack of security, law and order under the rule of the US occupation will increase Iraqis’ fears and worries, which were heightened by last week’s bomb blast that shook the Al-Hariri High School for girls in the Al-Azamiya area. The diffusion of another bomb in one of the departments at the Al-Mansour College in the Al-Andalus area did little to diffuse Iraqis’ concerns.

Others are optimistic about what they term “the bright future” of the educational process in Iraq after the lifting of sanctions and the removal of an autocratic regime that controlled everything in Iraq and imposed school curricula that were not in keeping with the development of science and human culture - curricula that focused on ‘the single hero’ concept, idolizing the hero and glorifying his feats and acts of war.

In an interview IslamOnline conducted with Ali Al-Hmeri, principal of the Al-Waleed Preparatory School, he said, “In the past years, schools in Iraq, particularly elementary, preparatory and secondary schools, were badly neglected - allegedly because of sanctions. Basic school requirements were not met: there was a tremendous shortage of tables, blackboards, laboratories, teaching equipment and sports facilities. The previous regime increased the parents’ burden by forcing them to bear the costs of school maintenance, and parents were required to contribute towards fixing classroom doors, replacing broken windows, purchasing light bulbs, etc.”

Increasing Salaries

It is interesting to note that one of the first actions that the US coalition forces took after they occupied Iraq was to embark on a massive campaign to maintain school buildings; they commissioned Iraqi contractors to do the necessary school renovations within a short period.

Sami Al-Rabi’i, director of planing at Al-Rasafa Education Directorate said, “The most significant action taken by the occupying force was to increase the salaries of teachers and university professors, which jumped to more than 10 times the salaries earned during Saddam’s rule. Teachers who used to earn the equivalent of five dollars per month now earn $180 US. This has improved the living conditions of educators, who were impoverished and deprived. A few days ago, the Ministry of Education announced that it would adequately provide students with sufficient notebooks, pens and other school supplies; thus students would no longer be required to purchase these items from local markets the way they did before the occupation.”

Ayman Al-Bahili, PhD, researcher at Al-Mustansiriya University Research Centre, said, “In an attempt to demonstrate its desire to uplift educators and win them over, the occupation authority has actually increased their salaries. This increase is not a grant given to educators by the US administration: at the end of the day, it is part of Iraqi funds; it is a propagandistic tool used to improve the image of the occupation, which is no longer welcome in Iraq. The danger lies in the concepts and ideas that the occupation intends to include in new school curricula to promote its own interests.”

Bahjat Al-Awqati, PhD, professor at the Al-Rafidain University, said, “The problem that a large number of students at various faculties and institutes still face is high tuition fees, which doubled this year. These fees, a heavy burden that most students can not bear, have stirred up many reactions in the press and other media.”

Mrs. Batool Al-Jaza`iri, vice-principal of the Ibn Majed Preparatory School, said, “The real problem that worries thousands of teachers these days is the decision made by the Iraqi Governing Council and the US administration to dismiss leading members of the Baath Party even if they have not committed any crime. This has resulted in a major crisis given the fact that this decision has affected tens of thousands of teachers and highly specialized university professors and has had a tragic impact on the lives of hundreds of families.”

Changes to the Curricula

Abdul Jabbar Al-Hakim, a journalist, said, “Given the US control of all aspects of Iraqi life, including education, the current situation in Iraq forebodes dangerous consequences: school curricula will be set to serve the interests of US imperialism; everything that solidifies students’ sense of patriotism or strengthens their affection for their religion will be omitted from the curricula. Today, it is no longer surprising to hear that many individuals advocate naturalization of relations with the Zionist entity or oppose nationalistic notions, Arabism, and Islam. Introducing these changes in school curricula is the real motive behind the occupation forces’ interest in schools and education not only in Iraq but also in all Arab and Muslim countries.”

Muhammad Hasan Ziab, general director at the Ministry of Education, said, “The vital challenge that currently faces the educational process is the introduction of drastic changes to school curricula. The previous regime had politicized curricula at all educational levels, including primary schools. Committees specialized in various sciences have been formulated to introduce curricula changes that are consistent with the development of these sciences. These committees would omit all that focuses on the concept of ‘a leader whose rule is dictated by necessity’ and glorifies the individual, remove Baathist ideas and concepts, which pervaded all curricula, and do away with materials that incite enmity between Arabs and Persians and interpret historical events through chauvinistic or narrow minded, racial perspectives.”

Ziab adds, “We have started intensive courses to prepare teachers and train them in the most advanced teaching methods that are adopted in developed countries. A number of teachers will be sent abroad to enhance their knowledge and hone their teaching skills. We will also invite highly skilled educationists from Arab and friendly nations so that we can benefit from their expertise and experience in advancing our educational process, an improvement from which we hope to reap benefits in the near future. We have embarked on a program to provide computers - which were considered an unnecessary luxury by the previous regime - to a number of schools and hope to extend this program to cover all schools. We contemplate introducing a subject that deals with computer science at various educational levels. The Ministry of Education will also furnish schools with modern laboratories equipped with cutting edge equipment. We will endeavor to provide all that is necessary to raise the educational and scientific levels of Iraqi students and to enhance learning in a transparent and democratic climate because a sound education is central to a healthy society.”


The articles posted on this page reflect solely the opinions of the authors.

===============================

The pope is in a bad way too. He also opposed to the war.

NEWS STORY
Ailing Pope is 'in a very bad way,' aide reveals
Roman Catholics urged: 'Pray for him'

Richard Owen
The Times, London With files from The Daily Telegraph


Wednesday, October 01, 2003

http://canada.com/national/story.asp?id=A9805BDC-3993-4A66-8A6B-F5F68E6914CB

The far-right knows where he's is headed too.

[hap0206]

coal -- seems like Tony can handle the fight OK
===========
"This is a testing time but it is a test not just of belief, but of character"
Prime Minister Tony Blair

I want us to go faster and further - Tony Blair
Tuesday 30 September 2003
The Prime Minister firmly restated his political ideology to the Labour Party conference in Bournemouth today. He told thousands of delegates that "New Labour was never a departure from belief. It is my belief." On public services he said that we should be proud of what we've done so far because it was based on Labour values. Tony Blair got a seven-minute standing ovation and told delegates that "choice is not a betrayal of our principles, it is our principles."

http://www.labour.org.uk/