I giornali sbagliano come al solito (il dinaro irakeno sale ed e' stabile...) - gz
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By: GZ on Giovedì 13 Maggio 2004 03:01
Si sta verificando qualcosa di simile a quello che e' successo a inizio 2003 quando i media hanno distorto in modo grottesco la guerra in iraq e il risultato e' stato che di colpo da aprile le borse si sono riprese nel mezzo di quello che avrebbe dovuto essere un disastro. E la stessa cosa era successa in misura minore a fine 2001 con l'Afganistan.
Non voglio dire ovviamente che l'Iraq sia l'unica questione (e comunque le borse sono piu' care ora), ma la cosa importante da tenere a mente e' che i grandi media tipo corriere della sera hanno la funzione piu' che altro di offuscare la realta'.
Ad esempio: la moneta irakena, il dinaro, valeva PRIMA DELLA GUERRA circa 2000 dinari per 1 dollaro e oscillava anche del 20% in una settimana ed era scesa fino a 4000 dinari per 1 dollaro in aprile 2003.
E adesso ? con tutta questa crisi, caos e violenza incontrollabile che ti dipingono sara' sicuramente messa peggio no ?
Sorpresa.... il dinaro, ora e' stabile sui 1400 dinari per 1 dollaro e oscilla pochissimo, non e' mai stato cosi' stabile.
Cosa vuole dire ? Ad di la delle solite balle dei media in realta' ^se un legge qualcosa sui siti di gente che ABITA in Iraq la situazione si sta in realta' stabilizzando e la moneta ti dice la verita', a differenza dei titoli dei giornali#http://iraqthemodel.blogspot.com/archives/2004_05_01_iraqthemodel_archive.html#108436947326518439^
------------------------ da ^iraqthemodel.blogspot.com#iraqthemodel.blogspot.com^ (questo pezzo di oggi e' semplicemente spettacolare) ------------------------------
Before the war, the Iraqi Dinar was a pathetic piece of paper that could be easily faked, and during Saddam’s times its exchange value dropped from 1 Dinar for 3.33 US$ before the Iraq-Iran war to about 2000 Iraqi Dinar for each single US$ at 2003 with variable changes in between. We never trusted that Dinar, and the tiniest political change or even rumor, used to cause a huge swing in the exchange price of the Iraqi Dinar that sometimes reached 20% of its value in a single day up or down. In one occasion it dropped from 3000 Dinar for each US$ to about 600 Dinar for each US$ in few weeks and then back into 2000 after 2 months, and part of that was sometimes planned. Saddam’s regime used to sell dollars at half the market price, for about one week or so, in small amounts and spread rumors that the sanctions were going to be lifted as part of a secret agreement, and when the price goes below even that of the bank, as many people change their dollars into dinars in the hope that it will rise more, the Mukhabarat, through their men in the market, would buy back more than what the banks had sold, striking two birds in one stone; giving Iraqis a false hope to keep them busy and stimulate the greed of rapid fortune that occurs at such circumstances, and getting extra profit to keep his regime a live (this was not just a guess, I’ve knew this from many Mukhabarat’s men with big mouths).
The results were as expected disastrous; few people get rich and thousands get bankrupt, which led in many times to furious disputes between people about unsettled businesses or debts in Iraqi Dinars that mounted to murder in some cases. Those were the peaceful and stable times.
Let’s take a look at the chaos we are living now. Iraq is certainly not what one can call a stable country compared to the rest of the world but is it really as messy and desperate as the media want us to believe?
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I think that most people agree that the exchange price of a country’s currency is one of the indicators of the state of that country’s economy and one that when combined with the average income would help in giving a prediction of the future of this economy and the political future of that country as well, as economy and politics are so adherent to each other. Now the Iraqi Dinar was never trusted before the war, and my family was one of the hundreds of thousands of families that changed all the Iraqi currency they had into US Dollars just before the war which caused the exchange price for the Iraqi Dinar against the US Dollar and other foreign currencies to drop uncontrollably from 2000 for each dollar to about 4000 in a period of a month that proceeded the war. After the war the Iraqi Dinar returned to the previous figure and with the introduction of the new Iraqi Dinar, the exchange price improved to around 1500 by the beginning of 2004 with few shakes during the early period. Since January 2004 and till now and despite all the given factors of instability, the exchange price remained almost constant with a marginal variation from 1430 to 1460 and never dropped below 1400 nor did it ever rise above 1500!! What should that tell us?
Is it possible that Iraqis are that dumb to believe in their currency and that their economy is stable and rising!? Are they really stupid enough to by all this crap about a prosperous Iraq in the future? Or are there solid economic changes that make it so hard to shake despite all the efforts the friends and brothers of the Iraqi people are putting? Don’t they ever think of revolting against the Americans? Note that I’m talking about the majority here.
Back to the average income issue. Some readers may remember that I said my salary was about 17 US$ before the war. Shortly after the war it was raised to 120 US$. Three months after that, they made it 150 US$. Two months later it became 200$(although the truth should be said that they promised that it was going to be 250$) and when I went with one of my colloquies (who gets an exact payment) to receive his salary this month (I still haven’t get paid for 6 months due to some beaurocractic problems that has just been solved), the accounter said to my friend "congratulations! You are getting a new rise starting from the next month and your salary will be around 300 US$!"
Now I know this is still a very low figure compared to what doctors get in other countries, but look at the pace of the raises; 120, 150, 200, 300 all in one year! I mean it’s spooky. What will it be the next year, 500$? And what about 3 or 4 years from now? A thousand or can I dare and say few thousand dollars? Will we get more than what the Syrian, Egyptian Iranian and even Saudi doctors!? What a disaster will it be to the mullahs of Iran, Bashar Al-Assad and the king of Saudi Arabia?
Some people, including some Iraqis, are fooled by the media as it tells them that the prices are higher than before. This is not true, as the prices of ALL the imported goods have lowered especially with only 5% import tax and with no Uday or Qusay to take their share of the merchants’ profits. The only prices that have risen are those the of the local goods and the wages of laborers and services provided by private businesses, but that was only by 2 to 3 folds at maximum compared to the unbelievably high rise in the income of the government employees who represent most of the working Iraqis which should explain the former fact as a healthy sign of economical growth, not the opposite.
Others are fooled by what the media keeps screaming about the unemployment. And this is the most stupid lie I’ve ever heard to which I have only one question: Who are those unemployed people?? I dare anyone to answer this!
Everyone who knows enough about Iraq should know that millions of Iraqis were employed by the government, but most of them had second jobs (I used to run a small shop with my brothers beside my job as a doctor, and of course I gave it up soon after the war) except for those who took illegal advantages from their original jobs. The rest were involved in private businesses that paid more but were very risky with all the shakes in economy and all the restrictions from the old regime. After the war some of those who were employed by the government were expelled, but most of them are back now. For God’s sake even most of the Ba’athists and the security agents are back to their jobs now! The only people who are out of job now are Saddam’s special security agents and higher ranked Ba’athists who sucked the Iraqi people’s blood for decades. May I ask how many are those, and should we really sympathies with them this much? Besides, most of them made fortunes and fled out of the country or are using it to start their own businesses and no one is preventing them from that. But wait a minute! Maybe they are talking about the hundreds of thousands of soldiers in the old army who were paid no more than 10 thousand Iraqi Dinars (5 US$)! Now that is something really bad, to deprive a soldier from a job that paid him 5 $ and cost him 10 times of that in transport and bribing the officers besides his DIGNITY!
The bottom line, and to talk more seriously, is that this picture the media is giving us about Iraq is almost convincing, even to me, if it wasn’t for this insignificant detail, and something must be done to make it right before most Iraqis start to realize that! But to be fare our Arab and Muslim brothers supported by the legitimate Arab leaders and cheered by most of the major media are aware of that, and of the dangers of the vicious circle of (prosperity-stability-more prosperity-more stability) that the Americans and the Iraqi traitors (like myself) are trying to establish. They (our brothers) are doing all that they can; bombing oil pipelines and ports, beheading foreigners in the name of Iraqis and Allah, attacking electricity stations, creating chaos that allows thieves to loot everything they can, yet it’s still not working!! The Iraqi Dinar stands stable despite some Arab governments formally warned their citizens from dealing with it, the oil production is increasing, the markets are full of goods, most Iraqis are busy working, studying selling and buying and the average income is rising!