A Newcomer's Impressions of Baghdad
By JOHN AFFLECK
AP
Mar 4, 1:24 PM
BAGHDAD (AP) - The Iraqi parliament building is a former convention center, a place that might host a high school graduation or a health fair in the United States - if somebody cleared the barbed wire and sand bags from the gate.
Walking recently into the dressed-up conference room where lawmakers debate the future of their embryonic democracy, you couldn't help but notice the cheap ceiling tiles in the hallway outside or the wires hanging through the spaces between them.
Set aside the bombings and the daily body count for a moment.
What has also made a deep impression, as a first-time visitor to Baghdad, is how much Iraq reveals itself as a giant work in progress. It's most vivid in the gulf between what is reality for Iraqis and what others would regard as the baseline for a working society - where citizens are generally safe and can count on basic services.
Sometimes this disconnect presents itself in obvious ways, like when there's a big explosion in the distance - and no one stops what they're doing or even looks up. But often they are mere subtleties, as when the treadmill stops in the middle of a workout for a moment because the power just kicked over from the national system to a generator.
The examples are so plentiful that even a newcomer like me can't miss them.
(Continued here.)
AP
Mar 4, 1:24 PM
BAGHDAD (AP) - The Iraqi parliament building is a former convention center, a place that might host a high school graduation or a health fair in the United States - if somebody cleared the barbed wire and sand bags from the gate.
Walking recently into the dressed-up conference room where lawmakers debate the future of their embryonic democracy, you couldn't help but notice the cheap ceiling tiles in the hallway outside or the wires hanging through the spaces between them.
Set aside the bombings and the daily body count for a moment.
What has also made a deep impression, as a first-time visitor to Baghdad, is how much Iraq reveals itself as a giant work in progress. It's most vivid in the gulf between what is reality for Iraqis and what others would regard as the baseline for a working society - where citizens are generally safe and can count on basic services.
Sometimes this disconnect presents itself in obvious ways, like when there's a big explosion in the distance - and no one stops what they're doing or even looks up. But often they are mere subtleties, as when the treadmill stops in the middle of a workout for a moment because the power just kicked over from the national system to a generator.
The examples are so plentiful that even a newcomer like me can't miss them.
(Continued here.)
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