Baghdad struggles to keep a normal routine

BAGHDAD: As he’s done for 20 years, Haji Taleb came to the city’s Shorja market yesterday to hawk packets of rat poision — never mind that US forces have penetrated the city and black-clad members of Saddam Hussein’s Feda-yeen militia were in the streets. “Why shouldn’t I?” asked the smiling Taleb. “No war will stop me from trying to earn money in an honest way.”

Tens of thousands of residents of this ancient city are fleeing. But others, despite days of relentless bombing, no electricity and the nearness of US forces, are struggling to carry on as usual. Yesterday, with the sound of explosions ringing intermittently throughout Baghdad, Taher Al-Haddad proudly declared to a visitor that he has not closed his spice store for a single day since the war began. “Business is not great, but I must come and see what I can taqtaq,” said al-Haddad, using the Iraqi Arabic vernacular for “to see if there is money to be earned.” His shop is in the covered section of Baghdad’s Shorja market, famous because one can buy anything, from television sets and stereos to clothes and kitchen utensils. “Do you have any ground cardamom?” asked a customer, dressed in the turban and robes of a Muslim cleric. “No, but maybe I’ll have it tomorrow,” replied al-Haddad.

Because coalition forces entered the capital Saturday, there were not many hawkers in the Shorja market and most stores were closed for the first time since the war began March 20. A few beggars, including children as young as five, roamed the market. The street hawkers who did show up knew exactly what would sell: cheap Chinese-made flashlights, batteries and water containers. They did a brisk business, even though prices have doubled during the war. Curiously, a shop selling lovebirds remained open. Tens of thousands of Iraqis, meanwhile, continued to flee Baghdad, heading to the north and northeast to escape what their leaders promise to be a street-to-street battle for the city. The long lines of vehicles included trucks, buses, cars and pickup trucks. With them they took blankets, mattresses, stoves, food and water. The vehicles drove past several Soviet-era tanks and armoured personnel carriers stationed in the north and northeastern sections of the capital.

Electricity went off in Baghdad, a metropolis of five million people, on Thursday evening. By yesterday, power was restored to a few areas, but most of the city remained without electricity. The outage has meant no running water, compounding the woes of the capital and giving it the feel of a city under siege. Long lines at gasoline stations underscored the sense of crisis. Already, the city’s telephones were down; the US-led air campaign took out Baghdad’s telephone exchanges. Yesterday afternoon, Red Cross workers in Baghdad reported that several hundred wounded and dozens of dead had been brought to four city hospitals since Friday, the International Committee of the Red Cross said. The ICRC could not say how many were civilians. The advancing US forces have not deterred some in Baghdad from showing defiance. A street hawker selling cigarettes from a wooden tray tucked a huge Iraqi flag into his belt, explaining: “This is my response to the American aggression.”

Tribesmen helping troops and security forces defend the city have hoisted banners bearing the names of their tribes at sandbagged positions. Many policemen and ordinary Iraqis flash the “V” for victory sign upon seeing foreign journalists. Iraqi state television remains on the air in the capital, broadcasting patriotic songs. State radio is also broadcasting, exhorting Iraqis to defend their nation. Like elsewhere in Iraq, the residents of Baghdad were handed up to six months of food rations before the war broke out. The state-run ration system gives Iraqis, among other things, wheat flour, sugar, lentils, soap, milk, beans and detergent. But most have to shop for items like vegetables and fruit, the prices of which, according to retailers, have shot up by nearly 50 percent since the war began.

“We are barely managing,” said Hussein Mohammed, a 21-year-old street hawker recently discharged from the army. He carried a shopping bag filled with potatoes and bread. “We manage with the simplest of food,” said Mohammed who, like most Iraqis, lives in a house with an extended family: his mother, three sisters, a brother-in-law and two nephews. There were signs of fear in the city yesterday. At one point, armed men ran toward an area where rumors said a coalition pilot had parachuted into the city. The gunmen’s cars screeched to a halt, Hollywood style. They jumped out of the vehicle with Kalashinkovs at the ready, and sprinted to a spot in the middle of high-rise apartment buildings. They found nothing.