Sunday in the Park with(out) Saddam

A January 13 article in the NYT, by Sabrina Tavernise, describes citizens of Baghdad enjoying the holiday of Eid al-Adha (Festival of Sacrifice) at two popular parks in the city, Jadriya lake and the Al Zawraa amusement park. The article featured photographs, by Ashley Gilbertson, of Iraqis enjoying amenities familiar to American park users, including dangerously high slides and preening young men on jet-skis.

Note the flagrant disregard for safety: the handstand, use of an occupied lane, metal railings, hard surfaces below (Image from NYTimes, by Ashley Gilbertson).

At Jeff Ruby's Tigris Waterfront, the ladies can't resist the sensuous buzz of the personal watercraft. The presence of Oakley sunglasses would indicate a complete transition to democracy, allowing for the withdrawal of American troops (unattributed, but copyrighted, image from Detroit News reprint of NYTimes article, presumably by Ashley Gilbertson).

(Image from NYTimes, by Ashley Gilbertson)

A boy wades on the shore fo a lake formerly named for Saddam (Image from NYTimes, by Ashley Gilbertson).

Tavernise described a variety of activities engaged by park patrons:

Both of Baghdad's two main parks - the lake in the Jadriya neighborhood, and Al Zawraa, a sprawling area of concrete canals, a zoo and an amusement park - were bustling with families this week. The scenes could have been from Coney Island. Boys played with beach balls. A girl sped by on roller skates. Children played sword-fighting with sparklers. Cotton candy was consumed in large quantities.
In Al Zawraa, Mr. Sadiq could barely contain his brood. Six children, ages 4 through 16, raced from ride to ride, demanding more time on Ali Baba's Magic Carpet - a boat-shaped ride that moved like the hands of a clock - and squealing on swinging chairs.

She also described the familar amsuement-park thrill of vicarious participation in the dynamics of other families:

A few yards away, her parents sat in white plastic lawn chairs watching the water. Her father, Qusay Jabr, said that he would not go back to the time of Saddam Hussein, but that his new life was also troubled. As if on cue, an American helicopter flew overhead.
"That's the negative," he said, pointing to the sky.
His 14-year-old nephew was shot and killed in Baghdad at a checkpoint while he was riding with his father after curfew, he said, and two colleagues were killed in a suicide car bombing in Baghdad last fall. His two daughters have less freedom because of the violence. Even visiting the park was not easy, he said.
"I haven't taken my family outside for a long time," Mr. Jabr said. "They're always complaining, always asking me."
That frustration was twisted into the face of his wife, Amira Dahel, who sat scowling in a coat of fake white fur during the conversation. "Men are dogs," she hissed, with an intensity that could only have come from a recent argument.

As always, note the presence of white plastic lawn chairs, as were in Ebocha.

Story and images were also found with AFP.
(Image from theglobeandmail.com, by Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP/Getty Images).

Note the roof made of corrugated fiberglass, one of my favorite materials, found the world over, like the white plastic chair.

(Image from courant.com, by Karim Sahib/AFP/Getty Images).

Franklin Roosevelt enumerated a fifth freedom, "Freedom to enjoy the Rinky-Dink." Shamefully abandoned in prosperity of post-war America, it is fiercely guarded in post-Saddam Iraq.