CPTnet
13 June 2005
IRAQ REFLECTION: Abu Nawas Street
by Greg Rollins
Last summer my teammate Max and I took one of our many walks down Abu Nawas
Street. Abu Nawas runs along side a park adjacent to the Tigris River. When
the U.S. ousted Saddam, they closed off seven blocks of Abu Nawas to
protect the Palestine/Sheraton hotels and several business offices.
Concertina wire, waste-high concrete barriers and multiple checkpoints
choked and divided the road. Almost all the shops and homes in the area were
closed. Only authorized vehicles could drive on that part of the street.
People who wanted to walk in the area had to pass through checkpoints where
guards would question them thoroughly about their business. Dust and weeds
filled the park.
On the day Max and I passed, U.S. soldiers and Iraqi work crews were
preparing to take down the concertina wire. The soldiers told us that Abu
Nawas was going to re-open. Life would return to the area; shops would open,
vehicle traffic would resume and people would once more walk throughout the
area without any problems. A few weeks later I saw work crews begin to
rebuild the park and the sidewalks damaged over the previous year and a half
by U.S. tanks.
When I was here in February I passed through the Palestine/Sheraton
several times. The clean up of the park and sidewalks was still taking
place. The workers were pulling out the weeds and laying down green sod.
but something didn't look right. The street no longer had concertina wire
but it did have more concrete barriers.
Recently I walked down Abu Nawas. The U.S. Army is still there. The
concrete barriers are still there, many of them no longer waste-high but two
or three metres high. The park that was green grass in February has fallen
to dust and weeds once more. The shops are still closed. They look
forgotten. The checkpoints let fewer people pass. Abu Nawas hasn't changed
as the soldiers told us it would. Perhaps they lied, or perhaps they were
misinformed or maybe no one cares what happens to Abu Nawas St. Whatever
the answer is, it made me think. If you compare these several blocks of Abu
Nawas to Iraq, how long will it take to rebuild the rest of the country? And
when it is rebuilt, how will it be rebuilt? With bigger concrete barriers
and stricter checkpoints? With lies or misinformation? Perhaps no one will
care. As the infrastructure here continues to crumble, many Iraqis feel
their country has already fallen to dust and weeds.
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