FEATURE-Violence, inflation eat into Baghdad stores
07 Dec 2006 12:30:25 GMT Source: Reuters
(This is one of a series of stories on life in Baghdad issued on Dec 7) By Aseel Kami BAGHDAD, Dec 7 (Reuters) - Lina is madly in love but is dreading her wedding day in two weeks -- she's afraid the bakery will be closed, the photographer won't open his studio and the hairdresser will run out of hairspray. Soaring inflation, bombs, kidnaps and shootings at markets and on bandit-ridden roads used by supply trucks are stifling Baghdad's shops and businesses, wrecking the brief economic revival that the end of United Nations sanctions brought to the capital and stifling Iraqis' once-famous joie de vivre. Small shop-owners and businesses are struggling to keep stocks running on everything from light bulbs to toothbrushes, chocolate bars to disposable razors. Lina, 33, is in despair. "When my friend married in July it was bad but this is worse. I'm terrified to go shopping. I should be happy, but I don't feel like a bride." Baghdad's wholesale Shorja market, one of the city's oldest and a key supplier for countless small shops scattered across the capital, has been bombed frequently. In a brazen daylight attack last month, gunmen kidnapped dozens of porters at the market, which has recently cut its business hours. "There is stagnation in the market," complained Wisam Badia, a 40-year-old shopkeeper in central Baghdad. "A year ago I used to make $100 a day. Now I make $50 a day." Abdul Hussein, another shop-owner, said it was getting harder for small businesses to purchase their goods at wholesale markets such as Shorja because of the violence. "The vehicles that carried the goods used to have big posters painted on them advertising the goods they deliver, but not any more. They've erased these posters. They are afraid they might be killed or kidnapped." Pointing at a U.S. military convoy rumbling past, he asked: "How do you expect people not to be afraid when you see scenes like this? People might not be afraid of the Americans but they are afraid of explosions that might happen near them." HARD TIMES Abu Mohammed, who owns a small store in the central Karrada district, said gloomily: "Because of the bombings and the shootings, Shorja is closing early now. They are too afraid to open. You never know what you are going to find in Shorja if you go so for the small stores it has become very hard." Inflation is running above 50 percent a year but lately prices of some imported luxuries such as coffee and chocolate have leapt by 50 percent in just a week or so. Many stores in Mansour, once an upscale shopping district with lively restaurants, are shuttered with signs reading "For Sale". Mass kidnappings -- a common plague in Baghdad -- have taken place in neighbourhood shops, restaurants and electronics businesses. Barbers and bakers have been gunned down. Butchers at a meat factory outside Baghdad were kidnapped recently. With Islamic militants pressing their agenda for a strict interpretation of Islamic law, alcohol shops in Christian areas have been bombed and set on fire. Beefed-up security and inflation cut into profit margins, unless producers and shopkeepers pass on the higher cost to consumers. All this is making life miserable for Iraqis. Ask bride-to-be Lina, who fears what should be one of the happiest days of her life will be a disaster. "I feel such a burden when I think of what might happen on our wedding day."
