{"id":41826,"date":"2019-12-05T09:22:10","date_gmt":"2019-12-05T09:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=41826"},"modified":"2019-12-05T09:22:10","modified_gmt":"2019-12-05T09:22:10","slug":"iranian-oil-minister-to-meet-opecs-barkindo-in-vienna","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=41826","title":{"rendered":"Iranian oil minister to meet OPEC\u2019s Barkindo in Vienna"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nDIWANIYAH\/IRAQ : Chants demanding complete regime change have echoed across Iraq for weeks, but what first brought demonstrators onto the street was the profound poverty of one of the world\u2019s most oil-rich countries.<\/p>\n

\nAnd that is what has kept them there, with protesters brushing off the resignation of Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi as failing to root out the rampant corruption that denies them jobs and public services.<\/p>\n

\nIn the southern protest hotspot of Diwaniyah, one of the poorest agricultural areas in the country, Umm Salah has joined rallies every day outside the provincial council.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cI\u2019ve suffered in my country, even though it\u2019s a rich country,\u201d she told AFP, carrying an Iraqi tricolor.<\/p>\n

\nThe 57-year-old widow has been protesting every day since October with her seven children, none of whom are employed.<\/p>\n

\nThey walk 4 km to reach the protest camp as they cannot afford a taxi from the worn-down informal shelter where they live.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cMy husband died four years ago because we are poor and couldn\u2019t afford medical treatment in private clinics or hospitals abroad,\u201d Umm Salah says.<\/p>\n

\nIraq suffers from an extremely dilapidated health care system, with hospitals severely under-equipped and doctors often threatened on the basis of political or tribal disputes.<\/p>\n

\nDespite Iraq being OPEC\u2019s second-largest crude producer, one in five of its people live in poverty and youth unemployment stands at one quarter, the World Bank says.<\/p>\n

\nThe government has been the largest employer by far for decades but has recently struggled to provide jobs for a growing number of graduates.<\/p>\n

\nAlready, youths make up 60 percent of the 40 million-strong population, which is set to grow by 10 million more before 2030.<\/p>\n

\nThe future looks even bleaker given predictions that heavy crude exports \u2014 which fund more than 90 percent of Iraq\u2019s state budget \u2014 will become less profitable as the world shifts to other energy sources.<\/p>\n

\nFor now, protesters blame the staggering joblessness rates on a patronage system that hands out work based on bribes, family connections or party affiliation instead of merit.<\/p>\n

\nMuhannad Fadel, 30, dreamt of a government post when he graduated years ago with a degree in physical education, but his diploma opened few doors for him.<\/p>\n

\nAfter a brief stint as a university lecturer, Fadel sought other work but his monthly income didn\u2019t rise above $100.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cI started to drive a taxi but I was afraid some of my students would recognize me,\u201d he told AFP.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThen I opened a little confectionary store on the ground floor of our home and I make around 5,000 dinars a day,\u201d or just $3,
he added.<\/p>\n

\nScraping together some savings, Fadel could marry but not buy a house, so his new wife moved in with his family.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cOur whole family together earns $150 per month. How is that possible in one of the countries with the most oil in the world?\u201d
he said.<\/p>\n

\nFor him and many protesters, the root of the problem is a political class more interested in earning money and paying homage to regional backers than in improving Iraqi infrastructure, or people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThey\u2019re corrupt and steal the people\u2019s money to give to Iran and other parties,\u201d Fadel said bitterly.<\/p>\n

\nIraq is ranked the 12th most corrupt country in the world by watchdog group Transparency International.<\/p>\n

\nA recent government probe found over $450 billion in public funds were lost to embezzlement, fake contracts or salaries for so-called ghost employees
since 2003.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThe deterioration of the economic conditions of Iraqis is the main reason for protests, as 8 million Iraqis live under the poverty line,\u201d said Moussa Khalaf, an economic history professor
in Diwaniyah.<\/p>\n

\n

\nSPEED<\/span>READ<\/h4>\n
\n
\n

\nDespite Iraq being OPEC\u2019s second-largest crude producer, one in five of its people live in poverty and youth unemployment stands at one quarter, the World Bank says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\nA series of flare-ups before the major wave of protests erupted in October had hinted at the conflagration that was to come.<\/p>\n

\nIn September, local authorities began demolishing unauthorized houses in the shrine city of Karbala, in Basra in the south and in the central city of Kut.<\/p>\n

\nThe settlements are home to 3 million Iraqis, many of them the poorest of the poor.<\/p>\n

\nThat same month, a young man in Kut died after desperately setting himself alight when authorities seized his mobile kiosk.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cYou need an economic policy that makes use of resources based on scientific and economic facts, not on privileges or political gains,\u201d says Khalaf.<\/p>\n

\nProtesters have clung on in the streets and public squares even days after Abdel Mahdi stepped down.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cOf course that\u2019s not enough,\u201d one young demonstrator in Baghdad\u2019s Tahrir Square told AFP about bringing down the head of government.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cWe won\u2019t leave our barricades until the regime falls, until we get jobs, water, electricity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\nAnother protester, 45-year-old Hussein Maneh, slammed the government for its years of failure.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cSince 2003, they\u2019ve done nothing but increased poverty, destroyed agriculture and industry, impoverished schools and hospitals, created confessionalism, and stole our oil,\u201d he fumed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DIWANIYAH\/IRAQ : Chants demanding complete regime change have echoed across Iraq for weeks, but what first brought demonstrators onto the street was the profound poverty of one of the world\u2019s most oil-rich countries. And that is what has kept them there, with protesters brushing off the resignation of Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi as failing…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":41827,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41826\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/41827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}