The day before yesterday, I was reading a local newspaper and suddenly a headline drew my attention. "What should we do and what the Municipality should do".Back in the 1980s, I remember how Baghdad was clean and neat. The streets were so clean, traffic signs everywhere and traffic policemen stood monitoring if someone violates the law. People were so clean and organized.
Today, Baghdad looks miserable, dirty, and terrible. It is strange that this dirtiness increased after the invasion of the Americans to Iraq. Tanks and humvee hummers, completed the tragedy by driving on the sidewalks and destroying all the fences of the highways.
The author of the article in the newspaper said whenever an official of the Baghdad Municipality appears on TV, he says "we don't have that magic stick." Does cleaning the streets need a magic stick? Where are all the money Iraq has? Then, the author moves to criticize the people for being so uncooperative to clean their city. But the problem is that Iraqis now do not respect law and order as they did not previously. I know it is hard to say but that is the truth. These people did not make Baghdad clean and organized because they respected the law. They did that because they were afraid of Saddam! Yes, Saddam. Being a tyrant, he used to punish the people severely to the extent he forced the people respect law.
Iraqis should RESPECT law. They should be aware that the cradle of civilization is collapsing day after day and the only way to restore it is to work as one hand to prevent that. It is not difficult.
Just today, I read on a website that the World Bank allocated 85 million dollars to Baghdad Municipality projects, which include water projects, sewerage, and major designs of the capital. The question comes, what happened to the 85 million dollars????! Stolen of course!
