Baghdad postmen pine for days of vicious dogs-- Times/UK

[TexasLawyer]

The Times April 17, 2006

Baghdad postmen pine for days of vicious dogs
From Daniel McGrory and Ali Hussain in Baghdad

IN A city where virtually nothing works and where anyone in uniform is as likely to shoot you as to help you, Faiq Mahmoud still makes his daily postal round. He must vary his route to outsmart kidnap gangs and sidestep the insurgents roaming his troubled neighbourhood of Aadhamiya in northern Baghdad but he insists that the gunmen will not stop his mail delivery getting through.

A short, slightly built figure, Mr Mahmoud has plodded down these streets for six years, although nowadays he regularly passes dismembered corpses and bombed-out cars. He is supposed to start at 8am but turns up much later. The suicide bombers usually do their worst in the morning. so he appears when he believes that it is safer.

His bosses at the Ministry of Communications are so desperate to keep the service operating that postmen have licence to work as they please. Nobody wants to sport the smart new outfits that replaced the brown overalls they wore during the time of Saddam Hussein. “A uniform would make you a target,” Mr Mahmoud said. “The kidnappers go for any government employee, so we are in disguise.” He pointed to his striped T-shirt and scruffy jeans.

<snip>

Residents smothered him with gratitude. One man burst into tears, kissing Mr Mahmoud on both cheeks and filling his pockets with sweets when he delivered a letter from abroad containing a visa that meant that the family would soon join the exodus. “It does make me feel good when I see the happiness people get from receiving a letter in their hand,” he said. “It is also a reminder there is some sort of normality amid the madness of Baghdad.”

Much of his time is spent playing detective. So many people have fled the suburb — or have had their homes destroyed — that he must track down the person, not the address. He said: “I have my own intelligence service. I ask shopkeepers, street sellers, children — anyone. But I know this area better than the police.”

<snip>

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,170-2138132,00.html

[TexasLawyer]

1. See-- the press does focus on some good things!

An Iraqi man's overflowing joy-- that he now has the papers allowing him to get-out-of-Dodge.

"Residents smothered <the postman> with gratitude. One man burst into tears, kissing Mr Mahmoud on both cheeks and filling his pockets with sweets when he delivered a letter from abroad containing a visa that meant that the family would soon join the exodus.

“It does make me feel good when I see the happiness people get from receiving a letter in their hand,” he said. “It is also a reminder there is some sort of normality amid the madness of Baghdad.”"