Imperial Life in the Emerald City

Imperial Life in the Emerald City is this new book I heard about through Barnes and Noble’s podcasts which is one of the podcasts I listen to these days (The Guardian’s podcasts on Books being another one). It describes what has been termed as the Green Zone of Baghdad under American occupation for about 16 months, post Saddam. It is written by Rajeev Chandrasekharan, a journalist for the Washington Post.

Among other things, it describes absurdities - sometimes weird incidents, sometimes downright annoying decisions taken by Americans under Bush, in Iraq. Sample this – a 24 year old with no financial experience is entrusted with the task of reviving & running the Baghdad Stock Exchange. Another 21 year old whose previous professional highlight was driving an ice cream truck, was entrusted with the rehabilitation of the Interior Ministry of Iraq. These and other such appointments were part of the setting up the Green Zone. Other such instances of misplaced zeal include rewriting the Iraqi tax code and traffic rules, etc. I won’t even discuss the selection process of the people who were sent as part of the administration.

It must be quite exasperating for the average Iraqi to have been subjected to this, after having hoped for a democracy.

Assuredly, the above book contains political overtones, but it must be definitely bewildering for people like me, whose life is normally unaffected by the conflicts in the Middle East, except through petrol prices. I don’t see myself reading the book, but the fact that I am dwelling on it and to this extent shows how much it affected my mind to hear what Iraq has been through. Good luck to the Iraqis.