43% of Iraqis live in absolute poverty – government report

[jmc247]

Source: Azzaman

Poverty is rampant throughout Iraq with more than half the population lacking basic means to survive, a government survey shows.

The survey by the Central Statistical Bureau says that 43 percent of Iraqis suffer from ‘absolute poverty’ and another 11 percent of them live in ‘abject poverty’.

Both terms are measures aid organizations use to quantify poverty in the world and they refer to people below poverty level.

The study is the result of a nation-wide survey of families across the country and takes into consideration the millions of Iraqis who have been displaced or forced to flee abroad.

Read more: http://www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname=news\2007-05-02\kurd1.htm

[LynnTheDem]

1. Dear people of Iraq; send your

"DEBT OF GRATITUDE" to George w. bUsh; the man responsible for your current plight.

[uppityperson]

2. I hate this shit.

Interesting website, thank you.

[central scrutinizer]

3. but Saddam gassed his own people

and ran rape and torture rooms, and and and and and why do you hate Murika so much?

[ckramer]

4. Saddam also offered security and made Iraqis proud too

why do you hate Murika so much?

[Barrett808]

5. k & r

[fasttense]

6. Seems the neocon version of free trade fails yet again.

When Bremer installed himself in Saddam's old palace, and added an extra ring of barbed wire, he implemented the free trade policies of the neocons:

He created a flat tax on corporate and individual income capped at 15%.

He sold off Iraqi banks to 3 of his favorite financiers.

He eliminated usury laws on excessive interest rates.

He eliminated all tariff protections so war torn Iraqis had to compete with cheap Chinese junk, increasing unemployment to 60%.

He opened the borders to all foreign workers.

He stripped tariff protection for the nation's farmers and eliminated taxes on foreign-grown food.

But of course, he left alone the dictators prohibition on public-sector labor unions. On Dec 2003, Bremer arrested the entire board of the Iraqi Workers Federation of Trade Unions.

Sounds like what the bushes are turning the US into. No wonder the Iraqis have such desperate poverty.

[dazzlerazzle]

7. Bremer's 100 orders

There was little or no coverage of the "Bremer 100" orders. When you look at some of them, it looks more like a invasion to pillage than to remove a dictator and free the people.

[douglas9]

8. Replace with New Orleans

If we replaced the word New Orleans for L2R would the stats change much?