I was struck by this passage from today's Globe and Mail on the murder of Canadian Zaid Meerwali in Iraq:
Mr. Meerwali was targeted because he was a Shia Kurd, his brother said. "We are Shia. Shia believe in democratic society." Munir blamed former Baath officials and Sunni insurgents for the slaying. "They don't like to see people from Canada coming over there. They lost their businesses."...Mr. Meerwali's family said he studied at Toronto's Seneca College to become a chartered accountant and that he went to Baghdad six months ago to start a business importing food and computers.Has it really come to being a turf war about the wholesale trade? This makes me very sad and I am not sure exactly why other than the obvious loss of a very promising person who tried to do the right thing.
Comments
Flea - August 16, 2005 12:22 PM
I think you are missing his reference to the "Baath officials and Sunni insurgents". If he is correct in his supposition, this is not a turf war in the wholesale trade but the continuing fight against the fascists.
Alan - August 16, 2005 12:54 PM
No I wasn't - that is the point: to what extent is the "fascism" of the Ba'athists an economic turf war. Of course, you and I have no idea. This Iraqi-Canadian family would have some and expressed it as I quoted above.