According to neoliberal economists, the free market’s a panacea for all ills, including. apparently, civil war. The Iraqi government, holed up in Baghdad, is unable to govern day to day and on the verge of collapse, but one thing it can do is push through neoliberal structural adjustments to usher in a free market.
I wonder whose idea that was?
On the face of it it’s a totally pointless move, given the breakdown of Iraqi civil society and the fact that there’s a bloody civil war on – but then again, the free market’s ultimately what this war’s about, so it could be argued that this economic tinkering is relevant, if only in a sick sort of way.
Of course the people it will affect most will be women and children, as usual.
I can hardly conceive how it must be to be female in large parts of Iraq. I don’t have the guts of a Jill Carroll, so I have to use my sketchy imagination, news reports and blogs – but what with disease, death squads, neighbours turned enemy, seemingly random suicide bombings, family members dragged away by troops, your children’s teachers murdered in front of their eyes, potential rape and having to go back to the chador, life must be terrifying. I can barely imagine the physical difficulties, but what’s really hard to comprehend is just how scared people must be all the time.
Against this horrific backdrop meals have to be cooked, children fed, laundry washed and dried – all the usual tedious routine of life, of feeding and clothing a family and running a household. Even when income, fuel and supplies are erratic and the threat of sudden death omnipresent, all that and more has still got to be done and it’s the women who have to do it.
There’re regular food shortages and meat is scarce and expensive. Some products have seen their prices increase by as much as 300 percent or more. In 2002, lentil beans were sold for about US $0.50 per kilogramme. Since then, the retail price has jumped to around US $2 per kilogramme, but at least there were the rations to rely on.
Until now.
Food Rations Cut Hurting Poor
The government has slashed subsidised food, despite rising poverty.
By Daud Salman in Baghdad (ICR No. 170, 29-Mar-06)A government decision to cut food rations has hurt poor Iraqis who cannot afford high prices on the open market, say economists and Baghdad residents.
Despite rising poverty, the government has decided to cut the food ration budget from four to three billion US dollars in 2006, as the country shifts from a socialist to a free market economy.
The Iraqi government has provided subsidies on basic food items such as flour and sugar for decades. The United Nations expanded the programme when the country was under crippling economic sanctions.
However, subsidies have now been cut on staples including salt, soap and beans. Trade ministry spokesman Faraj Daud said the government will continuing to supply Iraqis with free rice, sugar, flour and cooking oil.
The ministry claims that items that were once scarce during sanctions are now widely available on the open market and therefore do not need to be distributed by the government.
Approximately 96 per cent of Iraq’s 28 million people receive food rations managed by 543 centres. The UN World Food Programme estimated in a 2004 report that one-quarter of the population is highly dependent on the rations, warning that without them “many lower-income households, particularly women and children, would not be able to meet their food requirements”.
Daud, however, insists that the ministry has studied the impact of cancelling the subsidies and found it would not hurt families economically.
For Qadiryia Mohammed, a mother of eight with a disabled husband who cannot work, the cuts are devastating.
“We have no income and totally depend on the rations,” said Mohammed, 48, from Baghdad’s al-Karkh neighbourhood. “The cut on some items and problems with food distribution might force us to beg.?
The ministry of labour and social affairs reported in January that more than two million Iraqi families are living below the poverty line and that poverty had risen by 30 per cent since the US-led invasion in April 2003.
[…]
What exquisite timing.
Oh well, I guess when the babies are crying for food, their mothers can give them their purple fingers to suck while singing them lullabyes about the wonders of western capitalism.
Read More: Iraq War Iraq Women Feminism Neoliberalism
David Frucht
UPDATE: Much more info on the royal progress available at 
