IRAQ: For a Baghdad man, no southern comfort

Assad lived in a middle class neighborhood of south Baghdad. Years earlier, he had bought a piece of land next to his parents’ house and built a modest home for his wife and kids. After the war, he started a very good business, selling electronics, especially satellite TV receivers.

A few months ago he and his family decided to leave the neighborhood because it was coming under the control of extremists. On the last day before moving, his 17-year-old brother was kidnapped. He remains missing.

They moved to one of the southern provinces where it’s safer for them. He calls friends in Baghdad every day. “I will keep calling you, because you can speak proper Arabic,” he said, making jokes about the southern accent.

He opened a new business there, a shop for electronics. He started selling LCD televisions, microwaves, stereo systems and of course lots of satellite receivers.

“I imported every thing that runs on electricity,” he said.

But it seems that it was a mistake. People there were not interested in high-end electronics. One day he called laughing.

“Check this out,” he began. “A guy came to the shop and spent like 10 minutes examining the stuff in the shop. I asked him; ‘Can I help you, sir?’ The guy replied, ‘Do you sell yogurt here?’”

Despite his laughter, he was sad because no one cares for his products, and also he also feels homesick, perhaps longing for the Iraq he once remembered, as shown in the video blow

“I miss my house,” he said. “My whole life I wished to own my own house, and as soon as the dream came true, we left.”

He checks in every day with people who still live in Baghdad, waiting for a miracle so he can go back home. All the while he entertains himself with stories about his uncultivated clientele.

“A guy came to buy a satellite receiver, and he was looking at the boxes that I have,” he said recently.
The customer began examining one receiver programmed to connect to several Middle East satellites including Badr 4, the satellite of the Arabsat network.

“What is this? Badr?” the customer asked.

“It’s a new satellite network,” Assad replied.

The buyer was shocked. “Oh, my God,” the man said, “The Badr Brigades launched their own satellite?”

He had confused the new station for the Shiite militia that runs southern Iraq.

— Mohammed Rasheed in Baghdad

Video: Once upon a time in Iraq, life wasn't so bad.