it's a case of the Failed Leviathan. When the Lawman on the white horse (Hobbes'
Leviathan) rides into town, he's supposed to not just toss the bandits out (as in the
classic flick, THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN) -- he's supposed to create law and order so that
the folks who sacrifice their independence to him can live normal lives. (or so the
scenario goes...) But this Lawman wasn't really interested in that task, being more
interested in exploiting the town for his own use and not thinking through what was
necessary to maintain or create order. He ends up being more like the late Mobutu Sese
Seko, exploiting the country while destroying order.
Jim
-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Ballard [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Wed 9/10/2003 3:36 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc:
Subject: Re: [PEN-L] Iraq Today: Pirate, pillagers, and smugglers plague Basra
port
Sounds like chaos to me. The breakdown of the State
due, not to class conscious activity, but to a
free-market turned into a free-for-all--class divided
social relations without benefit of the rule of
bourgeois law and its police.
Too bad the breakdown of the Iraqui State isn't an
example of anarchy at work.
Socialist greetings,
Mike B)
--- Michael Pollak <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> [An idyllic scene from the quiet, British, Southern
> part of the country]
>
> URL:
> http://www.iraq-today.com/news/business/00009.html
>
> Economy
> Date posted: 09.09.2003.
> Law & order
> Pirates, pillagers, and smugglers plague Basra
> port
> By Ahmad Mukhtar
>
> ABUL KHASIB - Port manager Hamid al-Jabriy says
> he can stand at
> the waterline and see pirate speedboats, armed
> with RPG rocket
> launchers and PK machineguns, some 500 meters off
> the wharves in
> the narrows of the Shatt al-Arab waterway,
> waiting for their prey.
>
> The guards at his gate, meanwhile, shrug and say
> they can't
> possibly do their job - they don't have the guns
> to fight looters,
> and even if they did manage to kill one it would
> only land them in
> a tribal blood feud. One of them recalls how he
> once got up in the
> middle of the night to use the bathroom. When he
> came back, his
> cot was missing.
>
> By land and by sea, the port of Abu Filoos in the
> town of Abul
> Khasib has a bit of a security problem.
>
> Iraq's second port after Umm Qasr, Abu Filoos -
> roughly
> translatable as "Mr Moneybags" - used to fuel the
> thriving
> commercial markets of Basra. Now, it's become the
> sugar daddy for
> pillagers who pray on whatever commerce dares to
> enter.
>
> The guards, says al-Jabiry says, fears looters
> -if you shoot them,
> you'll get pulled into a tribal dispute which
> will end either in
> revenge killing or the payment of blood money
> compensation.
>
> Some in the area have decided that if you can
> beat them, join
> them. Painted on the vow of a vessel docked at
> the nearby al-Ashar
> wharf is the following warning: "This ship is
> under the protection
> of the "al-Qaramsha" - a tribe once known for
> trade in dairy
> products and scrap, now for racketeering.
>
> Al-Jabiry, for his part, says that he appealed to
> the Americans,
> the British, and the local governor for help. In
> desperation, he
> appealed to local tribal leaders and the Supreme
> Council for the
> Islamic Revolution in Iraq, who provided him with
> weapons and fast
> boats to chase the pirates.
>
> However, his quarry can always take refuge on the
> Iranian side of
> the waterway. Another problem is administrative
> disorder. After
> the port was looted during the war, officials
> turned to private
> subcontractors to provide equipment and
> longshoremen. The private
> businessmen, however, generally deal directly
> with the owners of
> vessels, rarely coordinating activities with the
> port
> administration. The result is chaos on the
> wharves.
>
> Coming into Iraq via Abu Filoos are cars, plastic
> goods, and
> canned foodstuffs. As for export, many
> commodities that are either
> required for industrial development or are likely
> to have been
> stolen are banned from leaving the country, so
> little more than
> cottonseed, wool, and jute go out.
>
> Legally, that is. Abu Filoos officials know very
> well that they
> are a haven for smugglers.
>
> Iraqi fishermen, they say, used to be considered
> vital to the
> country's food stability, so the old regime gave
> them a quota of
> diesel to motor down the Shatt al-Arab to fish in
> the Arabian
> Gulf. An intelligence outpost at the mouth of the
> sea would verify
> their catch to make sure they were doing what
> they were supposed
> to do.
>
> These days, however, the security outpost is
> gone, but the
> fishermen still receive their diesel. Instead of
> bothering about
> the Arabian Gulf chasing fish, port officials
> say, many fishermen
> simply sell their quota to passing boats.
>
> Officials recall one fishing boat that demanded a
> refill of diesel
> after its initial quota had "run out." It blocked
> entrance to a
> wharf to a cargo vessel, claiming that it didn't
> even have the
> fuel to motor out. Rather than give into
> blackmail, the officials
> proudly recall, they simply got a lift and
> hoisted the offending
> vessel away.
>
> Despite the port's troubles, Al-Jabiry thinks
> most of his problems
> could be solved by centralized policing. A strike
> force armed with
> fast boats to chase smugglers and pirates, he
> says, would perfect
> the solution.
=====
*****************************************************************
"Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute,
and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty
girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute.
THAT'S relativity."
Albert Einstein
http://profiles.yahoo.com/swillsqueal
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