Youth leave, imported crops invade villages

From Voices of Iraq.

This article writes about how life is changing in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. It focuses on agriculture in and around the town of Arbil.

“Agriculture is no longer a core activity for the population because the youth, as is the case with most villages in Kurdistan region, left to the city in search of clean jobs,” Hussein explained to Aswat al-Iraq - Voices of Iraq - (VOI). The 40 year- old villager noted, “We are unable to meet our needs from cultivation and we started to rely on imported crops.” Derbaz, 21, who left his village to Arbil, capital of Kurdistan region, said “our village Sablakh lacks basic services, a matter that makes life there impossible.” “Working as a farmer is no longer enough to feed my family of eight,” the young man who is working now in Arbil explained.

What this article fails to write about is why things have changed. The why is not obvious unless one examines the current context.

Prior to 2003, Iraq was a agrarian society in many respects prevented from importing many food stuffs due to sanctions. Northern Iraq has now changed and is a bustling metropolis. As a metropolis, farmers were unable to keep up with the needs of people with now more wealth. Imports started coming in. Imports were in fact cheaper allowing less and less folks to work the fields and move to the cities for higher paying jobs, better schools, etc.

Nowhere in this article does it express people are suffering for lack of food. Instead, food is abundant, it just is not any longer locally grown. Later down in the article, the truth is finally written.

Hassan, 52, notes “we used to spend months in cultivation until we got the harvest, but now we only sit down in coffee houses and depend on our sons who earn higher salaries from their new jobs.” “Even old men now depend on subsidies from the government and no one is willing to work as a farmer any more,” he ironically said. A local governmental official attributed the tendency among the youth to leave their villages for the big cities to the lack of basic services, absence of good schools, and non-existence of amusement centers in the villages.

These villagers are not suffering. They are sitting down at coffee houses and depending on their son's higher salaries they get from the cities. The older generation is apparently getting subsidies from the government and no longer need to work. They no longer toil for months in fields.

Far from pain and suffering. What is happening in Kurdistan region of Iraq is progress from a free, democratic system.

Notice, the article says nothing about violence from the war in this region.

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