Chaos rules Baghdad

Have you ever been to a city where you cannot have a conversation in the streets because of the noise of generators? A city where long cues of cars lineup in front of gasoline stations? A city where black market vendors of gasoline are everywhere? A city where residents keepAK47 rifles inside their houses to protect themselves against possible looters? A city where walking at night is dangerous while driving a car alone is not recommended?

This is not West Beirut during Lebanon's civil war. This is Baghdad which was ruled for the past three decades with an iron fist. This is a city where the powerful central authority vanished overnight giving way for anarchy and chaos.

The biggest concern of Baghdadis here is a possible lapse into permanent chaos. "What are we waiting for? We don't know. Police were presumably back to work, but they are also looting on behalf of the law," said Bassel Orfali, an engineer who was robbed while walking with his wife outside their garden's fence.

Orfali visited a friend and saw him sitting next to a Klashnikov rifle. "I should buy one. Can you show me where to get it from?" Orfali asked the friend.

"There is a huge arms market in the Revolution (formerly Saddam) City but I doubt you can reach that destination safely," the friend answered. "Just make do with what you have."

"I only have a pistol and this is rubbish. I must buy an AK47. I served in the army in 1991 and I know how to use it. Before his deposition Saddam distributed seven million guns to Baghdad's residents while I sit back armed with a pistol only," Orfali argued.

The lack of security was also apparent in the fall of prices of several commodities. Anyone can buy a 2003 Mitsubishi 4-wheel drive for $4, 000. "These are all stolen cars. Most people here will have to register their belongings with the formation of a new government since government archives were all burnt," said Omar, a Kurdish armed house guard.

Several other businesses also flourished here namely the selling of television satellite receivers and satellite-phones also known as Thuraya phones.

Satellite television receivers were banned under Saddam Hussein. With the regime's downfall, people are buying the massively imported Turkish-made commodity which prices are on the decline. "I used to sell every set for $400 a week ago but the price fell now and I sell the piece for $200," said Samir Ghazi, a shop owner in the Jamiaa Quarter.

Meanwhile, a Thuraya phone is sold for $700. Not all people can avoid buying such phones but several people stand with their Thuraya phones in the streets and sell their services. "A minute is for 2, 000 Iraqi Dinar (around $2). A second is for 50 dinars," according to a Thuraya owner standing at one of the streets in Mansour.

Also standing everywhere in the streets of Baghdad are venders of gasoline. The price of gasoline at gas stations jammed with a several km long cue of cars waiting for hours is 50 Dinars for regular 50-octane and 300 Dinars for 80-octane liter of gasoline. On the black market, the price is 500 and 1000 dinars respectively.

Prices shot high as the exchange rate for the dollar fell by half from 2, 000 dinars for every dollar to 1, 000. Reasons behind this fall, economic analysts here say, include the US authority's dollar spending when paying salaries of state employees.

"The Iraqis adapt fast to unfavorable circumstances, but I hope this would not become the rule and would still be an exception," Orfali argued. "We want a government and we want it fast because there is a thin line between democracy and anarchy," he said.