BY J BROOKS SPECTOR

The beach resorts on the Delmarva

Peninsula, located between
Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic
Ocean, are popular with Washing-
tons chattering class throughout
the muggy Washingtonsummer, but
the area also has small towns whose
roots go back to before Americas
Revolutionary War in the 18th cen-
tury. And so this area was a good
place to digest a week of Washing-
ton meetings with congressional
aides, international economists and
foreign policy analysts.
A year ago, most people thought
this election would be a referendum
on Iraq, but Americas growing eco-
nomic difficulties have now made
the economy an even bigger con-
cern for American voters.
Moving in right behind the econ-
omy is a growing clamour for health
care reform, fuelled by rising med-
ical costs and the inevitable gaps in
coverage even for those who have
medical plans and health insurance
(and nearly 50 million Americans
do not). Concerns about the econo-
my and health care are usually
issues that help Democratic Party
candidates win elections.
These economic concerns also
have important foreign policy
aspects, however. One is growing
support for protectionist trade poli-
cies that supposedly are a shield
against the continuing loss of man-
ufacturing jobs in America, even
though some experts argue automa-
tionand increasing productivity are
as important for job losses as compe-
titionfromnations suchas China or
Mexico.
Hillary Clintons call to negotiate
better terms for America under the
North American Free Trade Agree-
ment (Nafta) made a contributionto
her victory in the recent primary in
Ohio and these same views may also
give her an April 22 win in Pennsyl-
vania, keeping her candidacy alive
throughout the American summer.
Officials of the Democratic
National Committee said they look
forward to the moment the Oba-
ma/Clinton fight is decided so the
party can take on Senator John
McCain in the general contest. But,
because the Obama/Clinton strug-
gle has generated such interest and
so many financial contributions and
because it has brought so many
new voters into the system, some
states that have beenreliably Repub-
lican for a generation could be up
for grabs in the general election.
Senators Obama and Clinton
remain close in the all-important
delegate race Obama has more
elected delegates, Clinton still a few
more of those super-delegates, cur-
rent and former Democratic offi-
cials. So, there remains a slim
chance either will win the number
of delegates needed to clinch the
nomination, unless either candidate
can somehow convince the nearly
800 super-delegates as a group to
support himor her.
The Florida and Michigan pri-
mary results previously were
declared off-limits in the delegate
race because both states violated a
party decision to keep the New
Hampshire primary and Iowa cau-
cus and races in two other small
states as the first steps in the cam-
paign. But gaining these delegates
might be the way to the nomination.
The essence is: can the Democ-
rats effectively disenfranchise more
than 5 million voters in their pri-
mary campaign, even as the party
tries to drawnewvoters nationally?
Michigans job losses and protec-
tionist sentiment and Floridas
many Hispanic voters could push
both delegate totals substantially
into Clintons column if new pri-
maries take place. As a result, the
Obama camp may yet oppose new
primaries, or procedural and finan-
cial difficulties could sink plans to
redo these primary elections.
Regardless of who wins the
Democratic nomination, some ana-
lysts argued to me that a Democrat-
ic victory might mean difficulties
for an easy renewal of the African
Growth and Opportunity Act, or
even a successful conclusion of the
Doha trade round. (A liberal inter-
national trade regime remains
important for South Africa as this
country continues to try to gain
access and market share for manu-
factured products globally.)
Obamas foreign policy team is
well populated with advisers with
an interest in Africa, including
Anthony Lake, the former national
security adviser, Susan Rice, the
former assistant secretary of state
for African affairs, and at least
until she resigned after calling
Hillary Clinton a monster in the
British press Samantha Power,
journalist and Harvard academic.
Power is best knownfor her Pulitzer
Prize-winning book on genocide.
Several unpaid advisers to the
Obama camp spoke privately about
efforts to get the campaign to focus
substantively on Africa beyond
Darfur and genocide, that is.
But, Susan Rice may have finally
begun to do just this with a recent
article in The Washington Post that
highlighted the problems of weak
African states and Americas need
to pay more attention to poverty
alleviationand re-establishing part-
nerships with key African states in
support of stability and growth.
Clinton last month called for the
need to end genocide in Darfur and
to intensify anti-HIV/Aids, TB and
malaria programmes.
Both candidates have, in effect,
acknowledged some positive
impacts of the Bush presidency on
Africa. But, as one conservative
policy analyst noted, upgrading
Africas ranking in the overall
American foreign policy agenda is
important. Yet what exactly can be
downgraded to make more roomfor
Africa on this crowded and con-
tentious list?
G J Brooks Spector is a senior visit-
ing lecturer in international rela-
tions at the University of the Witwa-
tersrand and a former American
diplomat. He recently returned from
a month in the United States. He
writes in his personal capacity
T
he man had spotted the
pretty young woman and
given her his number. He
thought Zara, a young
Baghdadi medical student he had
seen partying with her colleagues
aboard a boat on the Tigris, might
just be his bosss type.
Girls and young women lived in
fear of being spotted and randomly
picked for the Iraqi dictators eldest
sons sadistic pleasure. When she
didnt call, he stalked the halls of the
medical school where Zara trained
until she simply refused to attend.
After two months, Uday Saddam
Husseins man finally lost inter-
est. You dont know the fear I lived
in, said Zara. I literally shook for
months.
This is one reasonwhy Zara (who
does not want her surname pub-
lished) lives in London and will
remain grateful till her dying day
that the Americans came to liberate
her country.
That was the way she felt even
before the kidnap and torture in
December 2003 of her father, a cardi-
ologist, one of the first victims of
what became a commonplace crime
the $20 0000 ransom, his subse-
quent release, and the baffling deci-
sion of the Americans to free the
gang that carried out the crime.
Five years on from the start of
the invasion and almost universal
condemnation of the Allies mistak-
en path, Zara remains resolute in
her support.
Despite the terrible price Iraqis
have paid, she feels the deathof Sad-
damhas at least givenIraq a chance.
She knows she has to qualify that
statement.
She lives withher Iraqi husband,
an architect, and young daughter in
the safety of London, her parents
have relocated to northern Iraq
because of the violence in Baghdad,
while her sister in Jordan studies
English literature. Her brother, also
a doctor, lives in England.
One of the things she thought
she would never see is the sectarian
divide that has caused a virtual civ-
il war. Zara is not only beautiful and
extremely clever and engaging but
also half Sunni and half Shia, the
product of a mixed marriage, com-
mon in the old Iraq.
She may not be very optimistic
about Iraqs short-term prospects,
but life under the former regime
was intolerable. I was not a practis-
ing Muslim, but I started to pray
that the Americans would come.
With the invasion only hours
away onMarch19 2003, Zaras father
closed his practice and went home.
He stood on the roof of his house in
Karada, a Sunni neighbourhood in
Baghdad, willing the American hel-
icopters to come, shouting and
cheering them on. He told me this
over the phone and he was crying,
he was so happy. He was very
against the Baathists.
She also cannot understand the
anti-war protests that took place.
These people simply have no idea
what life was like before. They are
idiots, she says simply, and then
apologises. Sorry, she adds imme-
diately after, and tells the story of
being scouted for Udays pleasure
that instilled such fear in her.
Living under the Saddam
regime was like living with Big
Brother, she says, reminding us of
how toxic everyday life was.
We felt Big Brother inside our
bedroom, my father even felt him
inside his bed, under the sheets. It
was terrible.
My father couldnt evensay any-
thing in front of us out of fear when
we were children.
He, too, and the rest of the fami-
ly havent changed their minds on
the war despite the devastation and
the impact this conflict has had
around the globe.
On April 9, Wisam, her brother,
found himself in Firdus Square in
the centre of Baghdad whenthe stat-
ue of Saddam Hussein was being
hacked down. Caught up in the
excitement of the moment, releas-
ing decades of repressed emotion
and hatred, he joined the crowd and
hit the statue with his shoe.
Zara and her husband,
Mustapha, watched the action from
London.
A recent poll of public opinion
commissioned by four major broad-
casting companies, including ABC
News and the BBC, suggests that
Iraqis are more optimistic about
their lives than they have been for
more than three years. The results
suggest that people think things will
continue to improve.
Zara would like to move back to
Baghdad, were it not so dangerous.
She understands the irony of her
views. I think I am speaking on
behalf of many true Iraqis who
were not in the Baath party, no mat-
ter where you were fromor who you
were Sunni, Shia, Kurd or Christ-
ian we were all suffering and we
were all hoping to get rid of the
regime.
That fear still exists and it is why
she requested that her family name
not be used.
Later this year, Zara will begin
her first job as a house doctor at a
hospital in north London. Despite
having pushy parents (her mother
is a gynaecologist), it was always
her dreamto practise medicine.
She didnt have much trouble
accomplishing it, coming in the top
20 of her graduating class in Iraq.
Had she been a member of the
Baath party, her marks would have
been significantly higher.
There was pressure on students
to join the ruling party, but her
father refused to allow it.
I asked himwhen I was 17 years
old and in secondary school if I
could join so I could get the 10 extra
marks that the party immediately
added to your score.
Even if I couldnt get into med-
ical school, he absolutely forbade it
and, actually, I agreed. Only people
who were incredibly opportunistic
joined. There was no excuse inbeing
a Baathi.
Her parents were doing their
post-graduate degrees in the United
Kingdom when Zara was born in
London before the family returned
in 1980. Despite having a British
passport, she found it difficult to
leave Iraq in August 2002, to move
back to be with her husband whom
she had met when he returned to
Baghdad to visit his family.
Wearing a hijab and abaya, the
headscarf and long black robe, she
went with her father to the passport
office near their home, pretending to
be an illiterate housewife.
My father was talking on my
behalf, and I acted very shy, as if I
had been left in the corner for my
whole life. When I was asked for my
signature I told them I couldnt
write.
Although right-handed, she used
her left hand to scribble something.
I asked if that was enough, and the
official said okay.
Zara had been practising medi-
cine for two years by that time.When
she came to London, she discovered
that she was pregnant. It wasnt
planned and I was in denial because
my plan was to do the conversion
course so I could practise.
When her daughter was born,
she put her studies on hold. They
chose the name Carmen because
they wanted her to be anglicised;
they call her Kooky and, like most
five-year-olds, she is pretty cute.
Its fear, if you look really deep
down, fear of being rejected by soci-
ety. But she also has an Arabic
name, which is Karama. It means
dignity or pride.
One day she hopes the situation
will stabilise and they will return.
Its only a dreamand I dont think
it will come true, but at least there
was a change. Otherwise it would be
Uday or Qusay in power, Saddams
notorious sons, and then there
would be no hope.
MARCH 23 2008 THE SUNDAY INDEPENDENT 15 DISPATCHES
You dont know the fear I lived in
A young mother and doctor now living in England tells of family life under the evils of Saddam Husseins rule, writes Heidi Kingstone
Zara, who prefers not to divulge her surname for fear of reprisals on her family in Iraq, recalls the time when she stopped going to medical school lectures to escape being stalked by Saddam Husseins sons
retainers. The men were constantly on the lookout for pretty young women to entertain their sadistic young masters PHOTOGRAPH: HEIDI KINGSTONE
Economics takes a front
seat in US election race
Communists are on the
comeback trail in Germany
Supporters wait to get the autograph of Democratic presidential hopeful Senator Barack Obama after he spoke about
Iraq and national security in Fayetteville, North Carolina, this week PHOTOGRAPH: ALEX BRANDON, AP
BY CRAI G WHI TL OCK
Nineteen years after the fall of the
Berlin Wall, the old East German
Communist Party is making a
comeback.
Known these days simply as the
Left, the ex-communists have broad-
ened their appeal by playing to Ger-
mans anxieties about globalisation,
wealth distribution and welfare
cuts.
After scraping along for years,
the Left now draws the support of
one in seven Germans, some polls
show making it the third most-
popular party in the country and a
potential kingmaker in next years
federal election.
The Lefts rebound has stunned
Germanys mainstream political
parties, which had written off the
ex-communists as relics of the Cold
War. Instead, the Left has upended
the countrys once-stable political
system, increasing the odds that it
could come to power in a coalition
government.
Most supporters of the Left live
in economically struggling eastern
Germany, where nostalgia remains
strong for the years of communist
rule. Inthe past several weeks, how-
ever, the party has won seats for the
first time inregional parliaments in
the western states of Hesse and
Lower Saxony, as well as the city of
Hamburg.
The mood is giddy in the Lefts
party headquarters in eastern
Berlin, located in the same building
that housed the German Commu-
nist Party until 1933, when the
Nazis came to power. After years of
ridicule, the Lefts leaders are being
taken seriously as a political force.
But even they arent sure how far
they can go or whether their cur-
rent success is a flash in the pan.
The ultimate outcome is still a
question mark, acknowledged
Dietmar Bartsch, the Left partys
general secretary and a member of
parliament.
Weve had very strong success
inthe most recent elections. But the
question is how long that will con-
tinue.
Since 2005, Germany has been
ruled by what people here call a
grand coalition, a partnering of
the two biggest parties: the Christ-
ian Democrats and the Social
Democrats. The arrangement was
forced after the Left scored 9 per-
cent of the vote and made it
impossible for either of the big
parties to form their usual ruling
partnerships.
The coalition has proved
unwieldy, forcing both sides to
water down their agendas as they
struggle to share power. The prime
beneficiary has beenthe Left, which
has stepped into the void as the
countrys leading opposition group.
The biggest loser has been the
Social Democrats, whose approval
ratings have plummeted.
Defections to the Left have accel-
erated since Gerhard Schroeder, the
last social democratic chancellor,
approved a series of cuts in unem-
ployment and pension benefits
starting in 2003.
The Left calls for a full restora-
tion of welfare benefits that have
beencut inthe imperialist United
States. Its critics warn that if it
came to power, the Left would soak
the richwithhigher taxes and with-
draw Germanys military from
international commitments, includ-
ing peacekeeping operations in
Afghanistan, Lebanon and Africa.
Andreas Schockenhoff, a deputy
parliamentary leader for the Chris-
tian Democrats, accused the Left of
having no real plan for governing.
He said Germanys other parties
have a responsibility to treat the
Left as an outcast, the same way
they shun neo-Nazi groups that
occasionally winseats instate legis-
latures.
They are playing a role of
obstruction and protestation,
Schockenhoff said of the Left in an
interview.
It is a populist approach, very
demagogic. They want to blame any
political change in our system on
globalisation and are outside the
democratic consensus that we had
until now.
Bartsch said the Left needed to
lay such doubts to rest.
We have to be a serious party,
he said. We are committed to act-
ing in a democratic way. For us,
change in society is only possible
through democracy no ifs, ands or
buts. Washington Post
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