From the Heart of Kurdistan Region - Kurdish Globe

The Kurdish Globe No. 370, Tuesday, October 02, 2012 6The Kurdish Globe No. 370, Tuesday, October 02, 2012 7Sheikhalla, a market full of violationsHe drops his head intohis hands and peers outfrom behind his fingers.It isn’t a half-witgesture, perhaps he istrying to mock whenasked how much hemakes per month. Heclears his throat as ifbraced for a toughcompetition andstates “Everybody inKurdistan has amagic wandfor money!”I, pivot my shoulders to thewooden chair in a café, where allpeople seem to have fun, shrugand ask what does “magic wand”mean here? He slurs the lastwords a little, like a speaker justgetting started, “It means thateverybody everywhere in Kurdistanmakes money easily -morethan enough.”He is sodden with hope. GhafourSoran, a taxi driver fromErbil, the capital of Kurdistan,is not in a propertied class but amiddle class who makes $2000USD per month. He is married toa housewife who has no incomeat all. Together they raise threechildren. He owns a half-finishedhouse and tries his best to completehis house by the end of nextyear. He saves $1200 USD permonth.“I live like a king,” he stateswith a barking laugh and complainsa bit about the lack of basicservices in his neighborhoodsuch as the streets are not paved,there are water and sewage shortagesas well as an absence ofpublic parks, libraries, schoolsand hospitals.Throughout my interviews, Ihear different people in differentfields saying, the Kurdishboom is unprecedented. Inflationis rife. Average families make$2500-3500 a month. No cars,no goods, no fruit, no furniture isever stuck in the markets. Peoplebuy them day in , day out. Yougo to a furniture store, all Kurdistanis there to buy furniture. Youvisit the downtown; all peopleare there shopping and moneyflies out of the hands of everyone. You go to the car shows,people are busy bargaining andbuying 2013 models and brandnew cars.Ako Khalid, an economist livingin Kurdistan with a doublecitizenship: Kurdish and German,states that Kurdistan is really“the land of money” and theMoney rains in Kurdistan“The land of money and kingish Life”boom is at its peak.Though the price of real estateis more expensive than in Istanbul,Paris and even California,people still buy villas, lands androws of houses! One 200 metersquare house- two floors is worthone million USD in an undevelopeddistrict called Kalar in thesouth east of Kurdistan. One meterof land in Erbil hits five thousandUSD. These prices werenothing more than a dream somefive years ago in Kurdistan. AsKhalid says everything is up forgrabs in Kurdistan you just needto “put your trust in the rightpeople” and you can wake up thenext day as a millionaire.Kurdistan has become also theland of big companies competingfor the consumers who don’tknow what it is like to taste localfruit, vegetables and other diets. For them almost everything isimported from Turkey and Iranand some European and Gulfcountries. Pepsi and Coca Cola,Mercedes and Ford are goodexamples. And Chinese, Europeanand American oil firms beateach other very hard to sign oilcontracts with the Kurdistan RegionalGovernment (KRG) andrush to get started. The funniestpart, and possibly the worst, isthat Macdonald hasn’t showedup yet in this big market wherethousands of families have dinneroutside. As Khalid says whenone sees the restaurants full allthe time, even during brunchtimes it is easy to think that nobodyeats at home in Kurdistan.“And that’s a big sign that peoplehave money in this part of theworld.”But Khalid thinks that thisboom is not robust in Kurdistanand “it might plunge soon” becausethere is control over nothing.He terms the situation like“it’s a wild free market”.Both Soran’s sons and a daughter,go to school and this needsmoney, of course. He can manageall this only by the incomehe gets from his taxi. However,there are people who are taxidrivers and at the same time areworking in public sectors too.Many policemen are taxi driversafter they finish their shift oncall. You can find many teachers,civil servants, health staff, educationpersonnel and even headmasterswho own a taxi and workat their leisure. Everyone canbe a taxi driver for there are noregulations, restrictions and ruleswhatsoever to prevent someonefrom being a taxi driver and havinga taxi. Khalid claims that thisis one of the conundrums of thewhole boom because even villagersleave their villages and becometaxi drivers in Kurdistan.Soran says he will save money for the bad days after he finishes his house.A traffic policeman, on conditionof anonymity, says that30 per cent of traffic staff havetaxis and work as taxi drivers aftertheir formal work hours. Theleast monthly salary of a trafficpoliceman is $1200 USD. Hesays that he earns twice morethan his salary per month.The Public are not only taxidrivers. They own shops, minimarkets,buses, houses to rentand one can go down the unfinishedlist.Walid Khidir is a primaryschool teacher, at the same timehe owns a mini-market in a busyneighborhood in Duhok. Heearns more than $4,000 USDper month. He also says that helives like a king. As a matter offact, through my interviews Ihear many people referring tothat “Kingish Life” they have inKurdistan. I eagerly ask Khalidto explain what is a “KingishLife” and how does it look liketo live like that. He wiggles andtakes several seconds to reorganizehis thoughts in another caféwhere people seem happy in theirKingish outfits. The Kingish lifemeans to have best of best: bestcar, best house, best indoor, bestjob, at least one trip per year tooutside Kurdistan, another housefor renting, whatever you wantyou can buy with what you earnmonthly.The Kings in Kurdistan stillcomplain about basic serviceslike water, bad roads, sewageshortages and others. Khidirbuys water from the water tanks.“I buy 500 liters of water everyother day.” Soran used to buywater but recently the local governmenttackled the lack of waterand now he has water from thenational pipelines.“You can manage all problemsif you have a good income,” heproudly states.Others think that the smallestand simplest move would makehundreds of US dollars. KarimHussein, another economist andteacher of economy in a highschool in Suleimaniya, states thatthe reason behind the fact of havinggood incomes is that peoplehave more than one job. “Whateveryou do, how you move andwhat job you have can collect formore than three thousands permonth. And that’s for a middleclass family; for others it is evenmore than that.”Both economists Khalid andHussein agree that the political,economic, social and businesstumble in Iraq is a big reasonwhy Kurdistan’s boom gets biggerand bigger every day.“It’s like blowing a balloon.One day it will burst and manywill badly fell down,” adds Husseinwith a serious look.Soran concludes by sayingthat after his house is built completely,he will start saving somemoney for the days after the balloonblows.Goran SabahGhafourErbillohangoran@yahoo.comGLOBE PHOTO/Goran SabahGLOBE PHOTO/Safin HamidWalking through theSheikhalla Market, themost crowded marketin Downtown Erbil, onewould imagine that thereare no laws or regulationsin this area.Sewage water is beingmixed with garbage collectedon the street rightin front of a butcher shop.This produces an intolerableodor and hundreds ofinsects are attacking themeat in the shop as wellas the fruit and vegetablesin the grocery shop nextdoor.In this market, wherepeople shop mainly forfoodstuff and home necessities,and where allthe foodstuff wholesalersare located, one cannotwalk easily, having to passthrough narrow openingsbetween cars, carriages,stuff showcased on thepassageway and garbage.Most of the shop ownershave occupied the passagewayswith their productsand the streets withtheir cars. According toKarzan Mohammed Amin,a shop owner, the shopowners are competing onoccupying the largest partof the passageways withtheir wares.Not only are the passagewaysblocked, but also thestreet as well. Two rows ofcars park on the right handside of the street and oneon the left, this is in additionto numerous carriageswhich are selling stuffon the street. The crowdreaches its peak late in theGLOBE PHOTO/Safin HamidA man walks past a pile of garbage in Sheikhalla, downtown Erbil.afternoon.Virtually everything issold in this market rangingfrom foodstuff, veggies,fruits, kitchenware,cleaning products, cloths,electrical fixtures, homeappliances, pipes, bicycles,motorcycles and manyother things. Even most ofthe city’s money exchangeand money transfer officesare located in the heart ofSheikhalla.If monitoring committeesof the health and municipalityministries passby this street, they would,based on their regulationsand procedures, closedown all the shops due tonumerous violations andtrespasses.A street vendor who wasselling fruits on a carriageexpressed his gratitude towardsgovernment for allowingeveryone to do hisbusiness and earn somemoney. But a shop owner,on the other hand, seemedto be exhausted from allthese violations and crowdand said “violation alsohas a limit, but here it haspassed all limits.”One can rarely find agarbage container or evena plastic bag in any shopsand everybody throws offhis/her garbage on thestreet, creating mountainsof garbage by end of theday, while just metersfrom this different kinds ofuncovered food are sold.Another street vendorwas selling dairy productson the street in the sun andargued that no governmentofficial has informed himthat dairy products shouldbe stored in a specific temperaturerather than in thesun and in the dust.Rahman Hashim, a middle-agedman who was inSheikhalla to buy somefoodstuff, told the Globethat lack of governmentcontrol is the major factor“because if governmentdoes not control andmonitor such issues, sucha chaos would easily becreated.”Although the marketmonitoring teams visit themarkets to ensure that allthe regulations are followedand many placesare closed down and finedfor violations on a dailybasis, it would seem thatthis regulatory body doesnot exist in Sheikhalla.Erbil Governorate to relocateThe new building 30% built; the old place to be converted to a parkA supervising engineer at the site of Erbil Governorate's new building, Erbil, October 1, 2012.The new building of Erbilgovernorate, which is nowunder construction, is locatedon the 60 meter ringroad of Erbil, couple ofhundred meters from theParliament and the MinisterialCouncil buildings.The project is built ona 32,000 square meter ofland and the budget of theproject is IQD 36 billion(approximately US$ 30million.)A Turkish constructioncompany is implementingthe project and it hasalready completed 30% ofthe project.The supervising engineerof the project saysthe building has 5 floorsand consists of 200 roomsProfileSheikhalla Marketis one of the oldestand most crowdedmarkets in Erbil,located a coupleof hundred meterssoutheast of the citadelby the NishtimanModern ShoppingComplex.Due to the fact thatprices in Sheikhallaare relatively lowerthan the averagemarket prices, still alot of people resortto this place to buytheir daily needs.The crowd runsfrom dawn to dusk.Hersih Hussien, DeputyMayor of Erbil and headof the infractions’ committeeadmitted that thereare a lot of violations takingplace in a regular basisin Sheikhalla and they areaware of that.“We are planning to reorganizethe whole marketfrom zero,” Husseintold the Globe. “Thereare a large number of lowincome people who earntheir livings in this marketand we don’t want to hurtthem till we find a betteralternative and we relocatethe whole market to a newplace where everyone cando his business while allregulations are followed.”and a number of conferenceand meeting halls aswell as a cafeteria.Nizar Omar, Director ofErbil’s Parks, says afterthe old building is evacuated,it will be destroyedand the place will beturned into a park.The current building islocated in the center ofthe city right next to theErbil Citadel. The place isno longer very convenientfor governorate due to theheavy traffic and lack ofsufficient parking area forthe thousands of peoplevisiting the governorateon a daily basis.