'In only their fourth session since being elected in March, members of Iraq's parliament on Sunday demanded to know what happened to the estimated $1 billion allocated for welfare funding by the Finance Ministry for 2010.
"We should ask the government where these allocations for widows' aid have gone," demanded Sadrist lawmaker Maha Adouri of Baghdad, one of the women who make up a quarter of the legislature's 325 members. "There are thousands of widows who did not receive financial aid for months."
Another legislator said farmers have not been paid for wheat and other crops they supplied the government for at least five months.
The cause of the shortfall was unclear, but officials have worried that the deadlock over forming a new government since March's inconclusive election ultimately would lead to funding shortages. Whatever the cause, the welfare cutoff has been felt among Iraqis.
"We are sick people and others are old, and not getting our welfare puts us in a financial crisis," said Fatima Hassan, 54, a widow who lives with her four children in Baghdad's Sadr City slum.'
3 comments :
The "new Iraq" gets better and better, eh?
What a pity we can't blame this on "Saddam". That would have been expedient.
No this cannot be blamed on Saddam. Maliki's govt is entirely to blame. But Iraq's economy was terrible before 2003.
"After 2003 Iraqi markets has changed & increased, I can tell there is a great skip between now & before 2003, When Iraq was under Saddam's regime,we had few numbers of markets; goods & food were expensive, many people were living with limited income, & imagine how much was the salary for employee? 3000 Iraqi Dinar, (on Saddam's regime, when 1 Kilo of meat was 1800 Iraqi Dinar)!!! very little for a family who has one income coming from father or husband, I remember very well, we had a flour with pieces of wood in it, Iraq has lots of money from oil while the people were hungry.
We were living "from hand to mouth", we couldn't buy fruits, or milk, or new clothes; only the rich people & Saddam's followers were living well, many people forced to buy secondhand clothes which they were used from other countries & been send to Iraq( till now we have many people getting these kind of clothes), we were tailored our clothes, which was a blessing at that time!
But after 2003, I can tell many families get a better salary, & women involved in job's field supporting her family too, markets spread, Iraqi markets has revived after a bad & hard time for most Iraqis during 1991 - 2003, internet & cell phones has reached to people & many goods has entered markets, but it's missing for good quality, some are fake goods, cheap one."
Of course the Iraqi economy was terrible. Sanctions had strangled Iraq. That doesn't take much to figure out.
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