Iraq: Duty to the People in Dangerous Oversight

An article was posted today on CNN regarding the current standings of the public unrest in Iraq. Services that we take for granted as basic rights to life, including clean streets and food, are being ignored by politicians in Iraq. Statistics in this broken nation are startling. According to Iraq's Defense, Interior and Health ministries 259 people were killed in the month of January 2011, with 363 others wounded. Another statistic that brings the urgency of this issue to an entire new level is the fact that the unemployment rate to which Iraq stands currently is 45%.

The latest protest that occurred recently brought 1000 participants to al Hamza, which is a deprived Shiite area directly south of Baghdad. Protesters acted in violence, hurling rocks at officials and in return the officials fired shots into the crowd, severely injuring three protestors. The main issue that the protestors were dying to voice was that the lacked basic necessities like reliable power sources and water. Another large frustration, as indicated by Fadhil Hussein, who was a 50 year old protestor at the rally, noted that this pattern of ignorance of its civilians by the Iraqi government has been this way for decades without any relief. Abu Sajad, another protestor, commented that sewage was flooding the streets after heavy rains, and the government had done nothing to clean up the mess, let alone prevent it from happening in the future. This article alone mentions another 6 protests that occurred surrounding the same issues. The Iraqi people are beginning to lash out on their government protectorates because they are indeed lacking the services that they need to live, which they have every right to do.

In my mind, many questions were raised on this topic, such as why countries like Iraq can be in such an extremely dire position. Sometimes you are taught in classes on various topics that every situation and every entity has its strengths and weaknesses, but eventually it all balances out to make an even looking picture. However, in our examination of the globe, power and resources and health are at such an uneven distribution sometimes it is easier to just write it off as "that is just they have lived, and always will".

This is the reason that I am studying global health- because I really want my mind to reach further beyond my comfortable walls of understanding into these more difficult topics to accept. It is hard to think that people actually live in the conditions with sewers overflowing into the streets and the fact that officials are lacking the open minds and ears that they need to listen to the people. But on the other hand, is it the government officials of Iraq that are lacking sufficient listening skills? Or is it instead a stark lack of resources and a complete state of deprivation that the rest of us in the world need to be attending to?

The article that I found can be followed at this link:

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/meast/02/03/iraq.protests/index.html?iref=allsearch