Trina's Kitchen

Monday, November 22, 2021

Jimmy Dore on the John Deere workers' win

Important news from Jimmy Dore.

Good for the John Deere workers.

This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot" for Monday:

Monday, November 22, 2021. Still not final count on the votes in the October 10th elections, another legal challenge heads to the court to toss the results, a 12-year-old is forced into marriage by an Iraqi court, and much more.

Reminder, Diana Ross' THANK YOU album is out but the elections results in Iraq are still hidden. "Let's Do It" is a track on Diana's new album.

MEMO notes:

Iraq's Fateh Alliance, the country's most prominent Shia coalition, yesterday announced that it had filed a lawsuit with the Federal Court to annul the parliamentary elections results.

Leader of the alliance, Hadi Al-Amiri, said "sufficient evidence" had been submitted to the Federal Court on Thursday "to annul the results of the parliamentary elections".

The Fateh Alliance includes the political wing of Asaib Ahl Al-Haq, which the United States has designated a terrorist organisation, and the Badr Organisation, which has ties with Tehran and fought alongside Iran in the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.

Irregularities were noted in the lead up -- including the new manner to count how many participated. In addition there were active efforts to disenfranchise various groups. The most public was the efforts to disenfranchise the militias. Let's drop back October 3rd:

There's been a set back for one voting bloc. YENI SAFAK reports:

Iraq’s Independent High Electoral Commission on Saturday announced the exclusion of the Hashd al-Shaabi militia, or Popular Mobilization Forces, from the list of security forces who will vote in next week’s parliamentary elections.

"The commission formally addressed the Popular Mobilization Authority to submit the names of their members to be included in the register for the security forces eligible to vote," spokesman Jumana Al-Ghalai said in statements cited by the Iraqi News Agency.

But the Shia militia group did not submit the names of its members on the specified date, according to Al-Ghalai.

They're referring to early elections which take place October 8th. As Mina Aldroubi (THE NATIONAL) explains, "This means fighters must return to their home districts to cast their ballot."

Other groups were disenfranchised. Human Rights Watch spent the weeks leading up to the October 10th elections noting that the challenged and disabled were being disenfranchised -- and explaining how to address this. Despite their shining a spotlight on this issue, the Iraqi government -- including the electoral commission -- refused to do anything to address this issue. Assyrians were another group disenfranchised.

There were lies throughout the coverage in the west. Supposedly Moqtada al-Sadr wasn't participating which would have meant that his bloc wasn't participating. You can't announce in August you're participating and be on the ballots. Moqtada had 90 candidates running for the Parliament. Early results indicate that 70 may have won. But it was one lie after another. One distortion. The claim that the final results would be known the day after the election because they had switched to electronic voting and much more.

It has been one lie and one distortion after another. The Iraqi people were not enthused about the elections to being with -- it was the lowest turnout since the 2003 invasion -- and nothing that has happened since has instilled any trust in the process.

We'll note this Tweet.

Iraq’s Sadr condemns pressure on election commission to change results

muhabarishaji.com

Iraq’s Sadr condemns pressure on election commission to change results - Muhabarishaji News

The leader of Iraq’s Sadrist movement, Shia cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr, yesterday condemned “political and security pressure” exerted on the country’s

Miss Moqtada is not pleased. Who cares? Princess got paid off by the US government in August, paid off nicely. Who cares what Moqtada thinks. Jason Ditzy and the so-called ANTIWAR.COM club does. They live to lap at Miss Moqtada's PTM. They can't get enough of it. They shape coverage to suit Moqtada, they distort to suit Moqtada. It's a lot like all those years they spent celebrating Nouri al-Maliki. A thug who destroyed Iraq. And they've never apologized for it. They've never acknowledged how wrong they were. They just move on and pray no one notices. Part of the blame for being wrong goes to Patrick Cockburn -- you know, the "Iraq expert" who can't stop writing about US politicians because, after all, that's what an "Iraq expert" working for a UK publication does, right? No one forced them to listen to that loon. They chose to. And it led to their applauding a thug and mass murderer. When do they plan to take accountability? Considering Jason Ditzy is still distorting reality when it comes to Iraq, I think they need to get honest. Real damn quick.

And let's be clear for Jason Ditzy, no results are being changed. If the outcome is different from the projected results of October 11th? Those weren't final results. You really need to grow the hell up and grasp how damn little you understand about Iraq. Reading the occasional western report on Iraq does not inform you enough to be commenting.

As for pressure -- Moqtada condemning pressure? Anyone who knows his history has to be laughing. Remember when he conducted a poll among his cult for who he should support for prime minister? Remember who won and who lost in that poll? Jason Ditzy doesn't even know what we're talking about. ANTIWAR.COM slept through that -- like so much else. And then what did Moqtada do? Under pressure from the Iranian government, Nouri ignored the results his own followers delivered.

Only an idiot offers the commentary Jason Ditzy offers. An ahistorical idiot who never paid attention but thought listeneing to Paddy Cock-burn talk to Scott Horton counted as essential knowledge.

This would be the same Paddy Cock-burn who got the execution of an Iraqi woman wrong and, when it was pointed out loudly online for a full week, went back and corrected it without ever noting that he'd corrected how the woman was executed. Standards? Patrick has none.

War has destroyed Iraq and Iraq's been damaged by the thugs the US has put in charge of the government. They've destroyed the rights of women. Here's only one example. AFP reports:

An Iraqi court adjourned a hearing Sunday to allow a man to formalise his religious marriage to a 12-year-old girl, according to a lawyer for the girl's mother, who opposes the union.

Rights activists protested outside the Baghdad court with banners such as "the marriage of minors is a crime against childhood", while lawyer Marwan Obeidi told AFP the case had been postponed until November 28.

The legal age for marriage in Iraq is 18 but can be lowered to 15 in cases of parental or judicial consent, according to charity Save the Children.

"Religious marriages are not permitted outside civil or religious courts but these types of marriages still happen regularly and can be formalised on the payment of a small fine," it said in a recent report.

The mother, who refuses to be identified, said her daughter Israa had been "raped" and that the girl's father kidnapped her.

Layal Shakir (RUDAW) reports:

Israa was raped by the man her father forced her to wed, according to activist and feminist Yanar Muhammad. “The cleric went and married her to a rapist husband and he is here today to ratify the contract in court,” Muhammad told Rudaw’s Halkawt Aziz early on Sunday morning.

She was among a group of women protesting outside the courthouse where Israa’s mother was trying to stop the legalization of the marriage.

The Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq (OWFI) in a statement on Facebook demanded the abolishment of Israa’s marriage contract and called for the imprisonment of her father and the man she was forced to marry. It also called for the enactment of a law that criminalizes all marriages of minors.

Israa’s case inspired rage on social media after the community police published a statement on October 29 saying that the child, in the presence of her father, brother, and so-called husband, confirmed that the marriage took place with her consent, and “without anyone forcing her.” Social media users accused the authorities of complicity in what they described as a crime.

“Iraq is selling our daughters,” Muhammad said angrily, questioning whether the law protects girls or not.

Nisrine Jaouadi (MOROCCO WORLD NEWS) adds, "The news sparked an uproar among right activists who took to the streets to protest outside the Baghdad court, carrying banners reading 'the marriage of minors is a crime against childhood'." The Borgen Project notes:

According to The World, a public radio program, Iraq’s gross domestic product (GDP) decreased by $38 million from 2013 to 2017 due to decreasing oil prices and economic collapse in its struggle against ISIS. Many associated the decrease in GDP with an increase in the percentage of child marriages, which rose to 24% in 2016, surpassing the percentage of child marriages in 1997 by 9%. The trends in these percentages indicate that there is a correlation between the percentage of child marriage in Iraq and the country’s economic state.

According to the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO), the percentage of women aged 20-24 who married before the age of 18 was 27% in 2018, indicating that the current female population of those married before the age of 18 in Iraq consists of 5.6 million out of 20.7 million women. FIGO also reports that child marriage is more common among impoverished families who reside in rural areas, rather than among wealthy families who live in urban areas. The percentage of child marriages in rural versus urban areas differs by 1%, signifying that approximately 207,000 more young girls enter into early marriage in rural areas than urban areas.

Iraq’s Personal Status Law

Iraq’s Personal Status Law forbids child marriage and increases women’s marriage and custody rights. Despite the sound solidarity of this law, article 8 of Iraq’s Personal Status Law allows for a judge to authorize an underage marriage if the judge concludes that the action is urgently necessary or if the father of the bride gives his approval of the marriage.

Child marriage supporters in Iraq continuously push for proposed amendments to the Personal Status Law to abolish legal difficulties when forcing children into marriage. The parliament in Iraq has rejected these proposals, including an amendment that would allow for families to have their own laws in religious communities, thereby authorizing the families to offer their 8-year-old daughters for marriage.

Article 8 of the Personal Status Law allows a loophole for judges to authorize underage marriages with or without permission from a father, even though the article is noncompliant with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which works to gain equality for women and eliminate patriarchal norms that discriminate against women.

We'll note this Tweet:

CHILD ABUSE. #ChildRights activists protested against a marriage of a 12-yr.-old girl outside a Baghdad court on Sun. saying “the marriage of minors is a crime against childhood”. Child marriage is common in #Iraq and other Arab countries. @SavetheChildren
 https://rightscorridor.com/religious-marriage-of-12-year-old-girl-causes-outrage-in-iraq/

Women protest against the legalisation of a marriage contract for a 12-year-old girl, near the Kadhimiya court in Iraq’s capital Baghdad, Nov. 21, 2021 (Photo: Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP/Channels TV)

2:00 AM · Nov 22, 2021

In other news, XINHUA reports:

Although 18 years have passed since being arrested by the U.S. forces and detained in notorious Abu Ghraib prison, Alaah Karim Ahmed still keeps his identification bracelet, as a reminder of the brutality of the U.S. occupation in Iraq.

In an interview with Xinhua at Ahmed's home in the town of Duluiyah, Salahuddin province, the 39-year-old former prisoner recalled the shameful abuse and brutal torture by U.S. soldiers against detainees in Abu Ghraib prison.

On Nov. 30, 2003, Ahmed was arrested by U.S. soldiers when heading to start his campus life at the Tikrit University in Salahuddin.

Ahmed was in the wrong place at the wrong time. When the university freshman got out of his car, a roadside bomb hit a U.S. patrol on the main road. Ahmed was arrested immediately.

Ahmed recalled his traumatic experience in U.S.-run prisons in Samarra and Tikrit, before being transferred to Abu Ghraib prison to begin his misery with torture and an unknown fate.

"I was severely beaten, handcuffed and shackled. They once hung me upside down for more than an hour," Ahmed told Xinhua while showing scars of torture that are still visible on his body.

Kat: 's "Kat's Korner: If you can snap up Adele's 30, do so, if you can" went up early this morning. The following sites updated:

Saturday, November 20, 2021

Hot and Sour Soup in the Kitchen

Paula e-mailed "It's soup weather" and I have to agree. She also note this Hot and Sour Soup recipe:

HOT AND SOUR SOUP INGREDIENTS:
To make this hot and sour soup recipe, you will need:
Broth: Either chicken or veggie stock (or broth) will do.
Mushrooms: I highly recommend using shiitake mushrooms, but shiitake mushrooms or even button mushrooms would also do.
Rice vinegar, soy sauce, chili garlic sauce, ground ginger: To flavor the broth.
Cornstarch: To thicken the broth.
Eggs: Which we will whisk, and the drizzle into the soup to make those lovely egg ribbons.
Firm tofu: Which we will cube and add to the soup.
Green onions: To stir into the soup and also sprinkle on top as a garnish.
Toasted sesame oil: An essential flavor in the soup, which we will drizzle at the very end.
Salt and pepper: Hot and sour soup is traditionally made with white pepper, which (heads up) has a different and much stronger flavor than black pepper. I recommend adding in a pinch, and then you can always add in more later. Or if you don’t have white pepper, black pepper will also do.
Optional: Many restaurant versions of hot and sour soup are also made with bamboo shoots. I’m personally not a fan of them, but you are welcome to add some in if you would like.

HOW TO MAKE HOT AND SOUR SOUP:
To make this hot and sour soup recipe, simply…
Make your cornstarch slurry. Whisk together 1/4 cup of the stock and cornstarch until combined. Set aside.
Bring the soup to a simmer. Add the remaining stock, mushrooms, bamboo shoots (if using), rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, ginger and chili garlic sauce to a large stock pot, and cook until the soup reaches a simmer. Stir in the cornstarch slurry and continue cooking for a minute or so, until the soup has thickened.
Drizzle in those beautiful egg ribbons! While stirring the soup in a circular motion with one hand, use your other hand to slowly drizzle the whisked eggs into the soup.
Season the soup. Stir in the tofu, half of the green onions, and sesame oil. Then season the soup with salt and black pepper (or white pepper) to taste.
Serve. Ladle up your servings while the soup is nice and hot, garnished with extra green onions.

I love egg drop soup but I love hot and sour soup even more. Love it. It's probably my favorite soup to order - -even ore than tortilla soup and I love tortilla soup.

Now for some important news. Branv\co Marcetic (Jacobin) reports:

Back in the aftermath of the 2016 election, as Democrats scrambled to blame Russia, James Comey, the media, and anyone else they could think of for Hillary Clinton’s loss, another factor went largely unremarked. Two weeks before voting, officials announced that premiums for health insurance plans bought on the federal exchange were going to soar 25 percent in 2017 — or, if you counted the thirteen states at the time that ran their own exchanges, 22 percent.

Would Clinton have won without it? It’s impossible to say. But it’s hard to believe that more bad news from the dysfunctional, insurer-friendly reform put in place by the sitting Democratic president, on whose legacy she was running, didn’t have some kind of effect. (“Obamacare is just blowing up. . . . It has to be replaced with something much less expensive,” Donald Trump said when the news broke.) And it’s even harder to believe the government’s assurances that, as long as people just switched to a cheaper, less effective plan that wasn’t even an option in many places — and they figured out how to take advantage of the subsidies and tax credits they probably didn’t know about and might not even qualify for — it wouldn’t make a difference.

Well, if Mark Twain was right that history rhymes instead of repeats, then we might just be coming to the end of a stanza right now. Again, we have a major upcoming election, in this case the 2022 midterms, and again, we have a spike in health care premium costs born of Democratic failure.

Last week, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that the monthly premiums for Medicare Part B in 2022 are set to increase by $21.60. It’ll be the largest dollar hike in Medicare’s history according to the AARP, and at 14.5 percent, the third-largest percentage increase since 2007. This is on top of a jump in the cost of several Medicare deductibles.

This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot" for Friday:

Friday, November 19, 2021. Prior restraint -- a trademark of the Biden era?, Joe continues to misuse the FBI to protect his daughter, Mosul remains scarred, the media works hard to let the officials in the KRG off scott free and much more.

Starting in the US, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press issued the following statement:

Today, a state court in New York entered a prior restraint at the request of Project Veritas against the New York Times ordering it to “refrain from further disseminating or publishing any of Project Veritas’ ‘privileged materials'” in its possession, pending a court hearing next week. The order also bars the Times from “further efforts to solicit or acquire” Project Veritas’ “attorney-client privileged materials.”

The following may be attributed to Bruce Brown, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press:

“This is the first prior restraint entered against the New York Times since the Pentagon Papers, and it is an outrageous affront to the First Amendment.

“Prior restraints — which are orders not to publish — are among the most serious threats to press freedom. The trial court should have never entered this order. If it doesn’t immediately vacate the prior restraint, an appellate court must step in and do so.”

The Reporters Committee regularly files friend-of-the-court briefs and its attorneys represent journalists and news organizations pro bono in court cases that involve First Amendment freedoms, the newsgathering rights of journalists and access to public information. Stay up-to-date on our work by signing up for our monthly newsletter and following us on Twitter or Instagram.

That is a huge overstep. Prior restraint.

It's getting a lot of attention. IN fact, it's getting more attention than a related -- and much more important -- matter. Joe Biden's misuse of the FBI.

Joe's abusing the power of the office and that is a high crime. Who is he protecting by the way?

His drug using daughter who apparently kept a sex diary and then, high and stoned, lost it.

Joe's using the FBI and the Justice Dept on this matter.

That's an abuse of power. It's a misuse of the government. Should, heaven forbid, the US suffer another 9/11 tomorrow, he would need to answer to the American people why he used government resources illegally to protect his daughter and how that harmed the safety of the nation since these misused resources should have been focused on issues pertaining to the safety of the American people.

That's not what the president does. It's an abuse of power.

Your forty-year-old daughter's an adventurer (or slut, whatever you prefer) who documents her drugs use and extra-marital sex? That's your personal problem. Stop abusing government resources and misusing the taxypayers' money to try to protect your daughter. Maybe buy her some condoms out of your own money (or whatever you've forced Hunter to grift for you) but stop misusing the US Justice Dept.

Your daughter's slutting around is not a national security matter. It's an embarrassment but, sadly, your whole family's become that. Your misuse of the power of the office is an abuse and does qualify as a high crime. You should apologize immediately. If the House flips, as history suggests it will and as polling predicts it will, in the mid-terms, your actions are begging the GOP to bring impeachment charges against you.

The move is as dumb as AOC. And apparently that's what we're currently stuck with: Idiotic statements and moves from what passes for the Democratic Party. From MEDIAITE:

Ocasio-Cortez is a frequent target of outrage and derision by her GOP colleagues, but she gave as good as she’s gotten in this clip. She “complimented” the House Minority Leader for managing “to speak for over an hour with one of the lowest vocabularies I have ever seen, coming from a member of House Leadership.”

She did not give good. She embarrassed herself yet again. Seh's still the same corporatist airhead that I said she was before she was sworn in. Seh's a fake ass and one of The Fraud Squad which most people now get. But she's also an idiot. Read the above and grasp that she crafted it with the help of three people and she still comes off as an idiot. Referring to what someone said, what was spoken, she states it was "one of the lowest vocabularies I have ever seen."

She can't even do bitchy right, she's that stupid. You don't see someone use a low vocabulary, you hear them use it. What a stupid moron. Instead of all the time she spends on her makeup -- far too much for someone in Congress -- she should try to work on her comprehension skills and on her word usage. In fact, someone should gift her with a thesaurus.

And, no, Alexandria, that's not a sex toy.

Turning to Iraq, THE DAILY SABAH reports:

Turkish contractors and consultancy firms can be a part of projects involving infrastructure, hospitals, schools and public buildings in Iraq. This cooperation can be further facilitated by a reversal in discrimination regarding the conditions of fair competition as well as the easing of processes required to do business, a Turkish trade official said Friday.

Oh. Now it makes sense. The government of Turkey is terrorizing Iraqis in northern Iraq and dropping bombs and starting fires to create jobs? Oh, that makes it alright then. Let's stop calling them terrorists

No. They're terrorists and it's past time that they were treated as such.

And people have fled from that region due to the violence.

Instead of defending the people, the KRG is blaming others.

That's beyond nonsense and it's shameful. Various politicians are inventing lies to cover up for their failure to protect the citizens of the KRG from Turkey.

Liar Aydin Maruf is only one KRG official lying to the press.

He insists that people are fleeing because of the PKK.

Huh?

How is that?

The PKK is not new to the KRG. The PKK is a pro-Kurdish body -- extremely pro-Kurdish -- that took up arms in the 80s in what they saw a response to the never ending attacks -- physical attacks -- on Kurds in Turkey and elsewhere. There have been many deahts since -- innocents as well as those two main groups engaged in the struggle PKK members and members of the Turkish military.

The PKK isn't burning down forests in the region, that's the Turkish military. They claim that they have to burn things down -- it's that old 'to save the village, we had to burn the village' crap -- insisting that without burning things down, the PKK will be able to hide.

The region has various small villages and farmers. They are the ones being harmed by the actions of the Turkish military. A military, please note, that's not even supposed to legally be in Iraq.

Two days ago, AFN NEWS explained:

Soran Omer, who was elected MP in the Iraqi elections in October, released information on the Kurdistan Regional Government's attitude towards the Kurdish migrants who have been stranded at the Polish-Belarusian border.

In a post on his Facebook page, the Kurdish parliamentarian revealed that the regional government sent letters to the European countries on the matter.

According to Soran, the regional government designated the Kurdish migrants at the Polish-Belarusian border as terrorists and criminals and accused some of them of being human traffickers who abducted women and children.

COMMUNIST PARTY: INJUSTICE IS THE CAUSE OF MIGRATION

In the meantime, the Kurdistan Communist Party held a demonstration in Hewlêr (Erbil) to express their concerns over the migration from the region.

A statement was read out by Raber Mexdîd, head of the youth wing of the party’s Hewler branch.

“The lives of migrants at the Polish-Belarusian border are in huge jeopardy because of the cold weather and hunger. We call on the United Nations and other international organizations to fulfil their responsibilities and address the precarious conditions of the migrants,” the statement said.

The statement added that the erosion of freedoms and lack of justice, basic services and job opportunities are the reasons for migration.

Let's stay with reality. Mosul has not been rebuilt all this time later. That shouldn't be a controversial observation. Yet whenever we make it there are people (Americans) who just know that they know better. One e-mailer insists, "Everything's fine, people are fine, it's all rebuilt and everyone has gotten on with their lives. There are no scars and no healing necessary. You spend too much time watching MSNBC."

MSNBC doesn't cover Iraq. Why would I watch that channel? RT covers Iraq. Regularly. At any rate, the scars remain and the healing is not complted. Let's note Doctors Without Borders:

“I still remember the exact moment I understood what it means to be neutral and impartial,” says Abdulrahman Dhannoon Khaleel, MSF Project Coordinator Support in West Mosul, Iraq. “This was 2017; I had only been with MSF for a short time then. We were working in a makeshift hospital in the Nablus neighbourhood, in West Mosul, close to the front line. And injured people were arriving at our hospital every hour.”

Between the fronts

Between 2016 and 2017, the Iraqi Security Forces, supported by a US-led international coalition, launched a military offensive to retake Mosul from the Islamic State group, who had been occupying the city for three and a half years.

“The situation was chaotic,” Dhannoon recalls. “One day, we received a wounded child in the MSF makeshift hospital. The six-year-old was being interrogated on the suspicion that his father was a member of the Islamic State group. We put ourselves in front of the boy and protected him. The only thing that mattered to us was that he needed medical help.”

Abdulrahman Dhannoon Khaleel, MSF Project Coordinator Support in West Mosul, Iraq “One day, we received a wounded child in the MSF makeshift hospital. The six-year-old was being interrogated on the suspicion that his father was a member of the Islamic State group. We put ourselves in front of the boy and protected him.”

“In the end, it turned out that he and his parents were civilians,” continues Dhannoon. “They tried to flee the city but did not manage to escape the fighting. They were swept away by the battle and got stuck in the old city - a maze of small streets and historic houses, until the neighbourhood was liberated. In the chaos, the young boy was separated from his parents.”

Now, more than four years later, the devastating effects of the war are not only still visible, but also still strongly felt in Ninewa governorate, northwest Iraq, and in its main city, Mosul. Many people are still displaced; people’s psychological trauma remains largely untreated, and many of the damaged health facilities are not yet fully functional again.

Hope for the future

“I was here when the Islamic State group took the city in 2014 up until the end of the war. It is impossible to explain what that was like,” Dhannoon remembers. “There are simply no words for it... It was like being tortured from the inside. There was no future... nothing.”

“The things we have experienced put a heavy burden on us. Nobody talks about that though,” says Dhannoon. “Yes, the war is over, yes, the city is safer, but you can still see a lot of anger and pain in people’s eyes wherever you go.”

Yes, the war is over, yes, the city is safer, but you can still see a lot of anger and pain in people’s eyes wherever you go. Abdulrahman Dhannoon Khaleel, MSF Project Coordinator Support in West Mosul, Iraq

“People here want to look forward,” Dhannoon continues. “Many would say that they are happy, but in reality, we have seen a lot of misery, really a lot of misery.”

Just like its people, Mosul is fighting to get back on its feet. The traces of the war still shape the cityscape, but reconstruction efforts are progressing.

MSF teams are trying to heal both the physical and psychological scars of the war by providing access to much needed healthcare for the heavily affected people of Mosul. We run a hospital offering free neonatal, maternity, and paediatric services in the Nablus neighbourhood, on the west bank of the Tigris River.

Further east, in Al-Nahrawan, one of the poorest neighbourhoods of Mosul, another similar project is run by our teams. At both locations, an average of up to 1,000 children are born and cared for each month. In eastern Mosul, MSF also offers reconstructive surgery and comprehensive post-operative care at the Al-Wahda Hospital. There, our teams provide much-needed care for people injured by accidental or violent trauma.

From January to October 2021, we provided 1,029 surgical interventions, 4,494 and 1,351 inpatient and outpatient consultations respectively. Psychological support and health counselling services are also available at all three locations.

A recovering health system

“People tend to think that when a battle is over, things naturally go back to normal,” explains Esther van der Woerdt, Head of Mission for MSF in Iraq. “But the truth is that recovery takes years – not to say decades.”

“Many of the basic infrastructure were destroyed or damaged during the battles and many of them still need to be rebuilt or rehabilitated,” says van der Woerdt. “Public healthcare structures in Mosul are struggling to cover the needs, and some people still cannot afford healthcare, either because they have lost everything in the conflict and/or are hardly making ends meet after they lost their livelihood. In that sense, the free healthcare services that we offer are quite essential for the people.”

“People tend to think that when a battle is over, things naturally go back to normal. But the truth is that recovery takes years – not to say decades.” Esther van der Woerdt, Head of Mission for MSF in Iraq

Besides providing healthcare services, we are also helping the city’s health system to get back on its feet and are providing the required support to ensure it can cope with new emergencies. In 2019, MSF rebuilt a hospital dedicated to the treatment of infectious diseases in the east of Mosul, to improve access to health services for the local community.

And between March and December 2020, we supported Mosul’s health system in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, by temporarily transforming our 62-bed post-operative care centre (known today as Al-Wahda Orthopaedic Hospital), in the east of the city, into a COVID-19 isolation and treatment centre for suspected and confirmed COVID-19 cases.

From the time MSF transformed the hospital into a COVID-19 facility until returning to our regular activities, our teams cared for 975 COVID-19 patients. To further extend the support to the COVID-19 response in the Ninewa governorate, MSF also ran a 16-bed intensive care unit between November 2020 and April 2021 to offer advanced care for severely and critically ill COVID-19 patients, where 14 patients were cared for.

“Our activities in the city are evolving with the context,” says van der Woerdt. “And we’re trying to adapt to the best of our ability to people’s medical needs, guided solely by our medical ethics and neutral and impartial principles.”

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