Iraq's unschooled children evidence of devastation's depth

[babylonsister]

Iraq's unschooled children evidence of devastation's depth

By Corinne Reilly | McClatchy Newspapers


BAGHDAD — At age 14, Ahmad Razaq has worked more jobs than he can count. He's painted houses, cleaned office buildings and supervised a janitorial crew. Lately he spends his days washing cars for a few dollars a week outside a dingy hotel in Baghdad.

He's never set foot inside a classroom. He's only heard about school from friends. He can't read or write, and he figures he never will.

"I want to go to school, but I think it's too late for me now," Ahmad said, standing outside his family's dilapidated shack in Baghdad's Karrada neighborhood. "Besides, you need money to go to school."

This is the way many Iraqi children live, working for meager wages or staying at home instead of going to school. Though Iraq's Education Ministry disputes their statistics, the United Nations and aid organizations estimate that about a fifth of school-aged children here don't attend. Girls and children who live in rural areas are particularly affected.

Violence has dropped dramatically across Iraq in recent months, but fallout from the bloodshed — lost livelihoods, broken families and disrupted institutions — will linger for a long time. Children begging for money or selling cold sodas from the side of the road are everywhere in Baghdad, even during school hours. As much as anything, they bear witness to all the rebuilding that's left for Iraq.

"There are so many ways it will hurt our country's future if more children don't join school," said Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish member of Iraq's parliament. "It hurts our economy, our standard of living, our entire development."

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http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/54529.html

[LeftishBrit]

1. This is so tragic.

This war has brought nothing but destruction.

[Enthusiast]

3. Not to hear the Administration's

talking points. You would think it was paradise in Iraq.

[spelldmilk]

2. What's the big deal? Isn't this just

"collateral damage"? I mean, hey, We're the Great Liberators, right? Besides, who really needs school? These kids are getting taught real life skills, right? "At age 14, Ahmad Razaq has worked more jobs than he can count." So what if he can't figure an abstract mathematical equation, I bet he can quote a price! And that's what the Free Market is all about, right? He'll sell sodas to…someone, and then uses that money to buy food for the family, thus supporting local commerce. That's the trickle down effect that talking heads are always bringing up, right?
None of that "liberal elite" book "learning," just drop some Bibles on the country. I heard it said that chocolate and staples, like flour and sugar, worked in WWII, but this is the 21st Century. We've moved beyond any real need for sustenance merchandise. Thes heathens need the Good Word.
Wait, "He can't read or write, and he figures he never will," they can't read? We can drop picture bibles. Yeah. Problem solved, nation building begun.

My stomach hurts. I'm tired of children dying. The greed has become suffocating. This is all like some horrible, horrible screen play that should never have been optioned because the plot was pathetic.

[babylonsister]

4. I'm also tired of children dying and being denied basic rights that

they had prior to our blowing up all that they knew. It's very sad, and just about no one is talking about it. So we will. Thanks.

[LynnTheDem]

6. Iraqis were better off under Hussein than they are now, especially

the kids.

The entire world knows it; America = worse than Hussein.

And that's also going to blowback on us in a big way.

[Igel]

5. Article doesn't pass the critical thinking test.

She can't even be bothered to assert the point of her article, or provide the available numbers actually needed to support the inference.

Insyead, she wants us to infer enrollment's down since 2002 on the basis of unstated, assumed facts buttressed by emotion.

I can sympathize and empathize, and not let that get in the way of my thinking. I can only suspect that the omitted facts don't go the direction she needs them to go (then again, I've read about how the state of Iraqi education in 2002 and before, and 2004 and after, so it's no surprise she selectively cites facts and depends on "oh, that's so sad" to fill in the gaps).

[vagabund]

7. Is this the "liberation" Bush was talking about?

Not MY idea of being liberated.