Eminent Domain a la carte

BC -

It is infuriating, exasperating and sickening feeling that the Iraqis go through each time they find out that those who had been are being simply replaced with those who want to be, and without any commitment to a real change.

Just like the old ways when the government of Saddam used to confiscate lands off of the unwanted and sell them cheap to preferential clients, the current political power hubs are trying very hard to emulate and even outwit the past.

As if it’s not enough that the GZ was a Saddam’s ex-stronghold, and the houses that have been occupied by Saddam’s clients are replaced with those of the current political figures, of whom some have not paid a single Dinar for the rightful owners during the past three years (especially those houses in the posh El-Emirat Street of Al Mansour District) Now we have the trend extended to the other provinces.

Below, is a deed dated March 22, 2005 that illustrates the selling of a prime property in Nejef to Mr. Al-Hakim by the government, when Mr. Adel Abdul Mahdi was the finance minister, at 1% the actual market price per square Meter! And what is maddening is that the land was used by the Baath party!! which either means that there are rightful owners to the land, or the land belongs to the people and should not be disposed of until a new law is passed by the parliament regarding the Baath party previous property laws.





I guess those who abide by institutional segmentary constitutions and cultures are brutish and static, and only ‘gifts’ and give-away can liberate them from their follies.