Kirkuk Archbishop Says Iraq Needs ‘Marshall Plan’ !

[DinarThug]

CNN. Broadcasting While The Bishops Call Check-Mate !

 

 

 

First Published: 2017-11-08

Kirkuk archbishop says Iraq needs ‘Marshall Plan’

Rebuilding of Iraq by Marshall Plan style aid necessary for country’s confidence in future following destabilisation by American intervention says Mirkis.

Middle East Online

"The only thing that will succeed is a rebirth arising from the grassroots"  

LOURDES - A top Catholic cleric from Iraq says his country has "lost all confidence" despite the rout of the Islamic State group, and needs an economic and cultural "Marshall Plan".

"It's much deeper than simply giving money," Yousef Thomas Mirkis said after addressing a meeting of French bishops in the southwestern French pilgrimage town of Lourdes.

Mirkis, the Chaldean archbishop of the northern diocese of Kirkuk, said the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 had "opened a Pandora's Box, and today we see the consequences of the destabilisation of the entire region."

Iraq will long struggle with "many difficulties," said Mirkis. "We know that sectarianism has failed, American-style democracy has failed. The only thing that will succeed is a rebirth arising from the grassroots."

He said that if young people under 30, who make up some 60 percent of the population, "do not rise to the occasion, nothing can be done."

The 68-year-old cleric, who received some of his training in France, thanked the French Catholic Church for its support to hundreds of Iraqi students who fled to Kirkuk from areas that fell to IS during a sweeping 2014 offensive, especially the jihadists' Iraqi bastion Mosul.

He urged the bishops to further their support for Iraq, which has lost more than half of its Christian population in recent years. Today, they number fewer than 350,000.

"One of the world's oldest Christian communities is disappearing in Iraq before our eyes amid widespread indifference," he told them on Tuesday.

Chaldean Christians are the most numerous in Iraq. Before the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003 they numbered more than one million, including more than 600,000 in Baghdad.

- Emigration 'not the answer' -

The prelate said IS at its peak had many people in its thrall, even if they were "not won over to the ideology".

He added: "The media talk about the defeat of Daesh (an Arabic acronym for IS)... but there is the mentality that Daesh created."

The human, socioeconomic and political situation "must be taken into consideration," he said.

"You cannot ignore the (need for) stability in a country that has lost all confidence in the future, so there's really a lot of work to do," added Mirkis, who is also archbishop of Sulaimaniyah, in Iraqi Kurdistan.

The "yes" vote in an independence referendum in September in the Kurdish region -- opposed not just by Baghdad but also Iran, Turkey and the Kurds' Western allies -- impeded the return of Christians to Mosul and nearby Qaraqosh, he said.

Mirkis said investing in students in Iraq was cheaper than providing scholarships in France, adding: "Emigration is not the answer, it's an uprooting, a loss of identity."

He added: "A Marshall Plan is much, much better than spending 2,000 euros ($2,300) to put a student through a year of university."

Mirkis said Iraqi universities "need the experience of a country like France, which also once needed to rebuild its country" -- in the aftermath of World War II.

link

[DinarThug]

http://www.alliraqnews.com/mod.....ryid=68079

Rehabilitation of the second largest church in Iraq and the Middle East

2017/11/9 12:30

 

Said an Iraqi civilian activist, said Thursday that dozens of young Iraqi Muslims , they make the second largest church in Iraq and the Middle East rehabilitation, the center invited fellow Christians to return to their homes and practice their rituals again.
 

"Dozens of young Muslim volunteers from the city of Mosul have rehabilitated Chaldean Church in the center of Talkif district, 1 km north of Mosul, in Nineveh province, the second largest," said civilian activist Musallam Mohammed Fadel al-Hayali. Church in Iraq and the Middle East. " 

He added that "the rehabilitation work included the removal of rubble, and erase the effects of fires and removal of the jungle, with the reconstruction of the church bell, the church was built in 1912. "This step is an invitation to the Christians who have abandoned their city to return to their homes and to practice their rituals and rituals with all security and peace," Hayali said. 

Terrorist gangs extended their control over Talqif in early August 2014, forcing tens of thousands of its residents, mostly Christians, to flee into northern Iraq.

On August 31, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced the liberation of Nineveh Province after nine months of fighting to expel Daqash, who has been in control of the city since June 10, 2014.

[DinarThug]

http://www.almaalomah.com/2017.....09/253284/

A US report: begging in Iraq has become a lucrative job

12:46 - 09/11/2017

 

 

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The phenomenon of begging in Iraq has turned into a lucrative job, not only for the elderly and women, but also for children of all ages, marketplaces, traffic junctions, nearby places of worship and hospitals, a US report said on Thursday. In 2003.

"Children beggars can not be blamed for exploiting them by brokers and organized networks," the newspaper Middle East Banker quoted a trader in Baghdad as saying. "This phenomenon threatens drivers and passers-by when beggars' Acts that are not limited to the request for sympathy, but have gone beyond that and have sometimes become a threat. "

"The spread of such networks has become a concern for everyone. I am afraid of driving on the streets because of beggars and what they can do if they refuse to help them. Some of them throw stones at cars, others carry sharp objects like knives and blades.

For her part, said social researcher Raoua Jubouri "begging turned into a job used by everyone, while brokers earn millions through this task, children beggars get nothing but crumbs at the end of the day. Some became addicted to drugs and alcohol, while others became street children exploited by organized networks. "

"There are a lot of arguments to beg. Some complain that there is a sick child in the hospital in serious condition. Some people print leaflets or write on a piece of paper that they are homeless and need help to support their families. There are also women standing near checkpoints with children they may hire for begging. In addition, there are those who sell gum or wipes at intersections, or beg to wash your car. "

"Most beggars are exploited by gangs and brokers who have relationships that protect them from those who have religious or political forces," she said.

For his part, spokesman for the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs Ammar Menem said that "the vote of the Council of Ministers on the draft law against trafficking in human beings and submit it to the House of Representatives to be legislated represents an important step towards reducing this phenomenon and its negative impact on society. This will contribute to reducing the phenomenon of begging in the streets and the exploitation of beggars by unscrupulous people. "

Interior Ministry spokesman Saad Maan said that "there are those who supervise the work of beggars in Baghdad and guide them and provide them with protection from the security services." Adding that "the security services can not prevent the phenomenon of begging once because of the spread of poverty throughout the country. However, they warn that beggars continue to approach security departments and institutions. " 

[Rockymtnhi]

Sounds just like San Diego, San Francisco, Los Angeles, etc. 

[ChuckFinley]

You can add, Hampton, Newport News, and Williamsburg VA. Too.   

[Theseus]

16 hours ago, DinarThug said:

http://www.almaalomah.com/2017.....09/253284/

A US report: begging in the US has become a lucrative job

12:46 - 09/11/2017

In cities around the US people stand on corners of busy intersections with cardboard signs that read "Homeless need money" The same sign was used by another person earlier in the day. When the individual tires of the sweltering heat in the summer and the frigid air in the winter, they retire to their BMW and wipe the dirt off their face and drive back to their multi-million dollar homes. You would think this is happening on the street corners of the ghettos of America. Nope, this is your Congress men and women who lambast you for spending and being in debt. Yet in the hallowed halls of government back door deals beg for more and spending is on exponential curve all at the behest of our future children and elderly. It's always future children that this or that is needed for. Never for the current children. No longer are the children our future but the future children are our future. Well one might ask how far out into the future? One could quote a Star Wars opening sequence as being Far Far Far away our future children rise up against... you get the idea. So today begging in the hallowed halls of our government goes on like some Iraqi beggar in the streets of Mosul for a pittance here and there. If you want to be rich, if you want to no longer beg and whimper, then the job of the future is not in STEM rather it is found on the ballot. Even the worst Iraqi politician knows this!

 

There fixed the headline. 

Edited November 10, 2017 by Theseus