If you're looking for a Kalashnikov rifle, bathroom tiles, amphetamines, an Iraqi passport or a new pair of shoes, there's a place in southern Iraq that can meet all your shopping needs.
Basra's Old Market, a noisy, stinking outdoor emporium of stolen goods, sits happily between the city's main police station and a mosque, seemingly unworried and untouched by any authority.
One end of the market is a dumping ground for everything that was ripped from Basra's public buildings in the looting frenzy that followed the city's fall in the US-led invasion which ousted Saddam Hussein in April.
The best of it is long gone. Now salesmen sit forlornly next to piles of wooden doorframes, broken computers, odd pieces of office furniture and stacks of ceramic tiles chiselled from the walls and floors of bathrooms.
Next are car accessories, wing mirrors, hub caps and bits of engines extracted from parked, stolen or broken down cars.
"Ali Baba, all Ali Baba," muttered Hussam, using Iraq's generic term for thieves. A student, Hussam says he is appalled by the lawlessness in postwar Basra that has allowed petty theft to flourish.
But then again, his uncle's car needs a new fan belt, and he won't find one cheaper anywhere else.
"They steal from us and we buy from them," he said, eyeing a grubby stallholder with distaste. "That is how our economy works now. There is no government, no law to stop them. So what can we do?"
Away from the street, past old women beggars sitting in the dirt and children selling fluffy yellow chicks stuffed into a cardboard box, is the more serious business of the market.
Piles of bullets, Beretta hand-guns and Kalashnikovs are laid out carefully next to ornamental knives and silver jewelry. Hand grenades and machineguns are also said to be available but not on open sale.
The asking price for a Kalashnikov is US$150; Hussam says he could get one for less than US$100.
Drugs are much cheaper. Amphetamines, Viagra, diazepam, valium, high-dose painkillers all sell for just 250 dinars (US$0.12) a strip.
Many come from hospitals and pharmacies looted after the war. According to Basra lore, the amphetamines were standard issue for Saddam's Fedayeen militia, and have since found their way to market stalls.
Whatever their provenance, the drugs are feeding addiction among Basra's youth. A survey by the aid agency Save the Children found that 60 percent of the city's adolescents regularly take prescription drugs bought at markets and off the street.
Mahmoud Naeem, selling drugs from a wooden table, said he used to work for the city administration and lost his job because of the war. He doesn't know what he is selling and doesn't care who is buying. It's just a living.
British troops controlling Basra and the Iraqi police they have trained have launched numerous raids into the market to shut down drugs and weapons stalls.
But in a city where tens of thousands have been left unemployed by the collapse of Saddam's huge state sector, it's hard to keep a good business down.
"I do this to feed my children," said Naeem, looking stony faced at the little foil strips tied with elastic bands. "And as long as they need food I'll keep doing it."
At the end of the market, beyond the fake designer clothes and fly-infested fish and meat stands, one stall has attracted an eager, jostling audience.
Basra's new passport office is a carpet-covered desk next to an open sewer, run by Mohammed and his two assistants. Last week Mohammed got hold of more than 60 blank Iraqi passports looted from the city's official office some time after the war.
The dark green booklets are in pristine condition. All they need is the holder's details, a photograph and of course the "official" stamp, of which Mohammed has two.
Iraq's US-led administration invalidated all passports issued after the start of the war, but this is of little concern to Mohammed's customers, some of whom he says have already used them to reach Kuwait, Jordan and Syria.
The documents sell for US$200 each, and Mohammed has only 13 left.
While he talked about his new business, another customer turned up with a photograph and money. The self-styled immigration officer carefully noted down his name and details, each stroke of the pen watched by an envious crowd.
Among all the delights of Basra's Old Market, it seems that a way out is the most coveted commodity of all.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
NOVEL METHODS: The PLA has adopted new approaches and recently conducted three combat readiness drills at night which included aircraft and ships, an official said Taiwan is monitoring China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) exercises for changes in their size or pattern as the nation prepares for president-elect William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. Tsai made the comment at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, in response to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu’s (王定宇) questions. China continues to employ a carrot-and-stick approach, in which it applies pressure with “gray zone” tactics, while attempting to entice Taiwanese with perks, Tsai said. These actions aim to help Beijing look like it has
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,