The Resilience of Markets

 

(p. A11)  Bystanders pulled an 8-year-old boy from the charred wreckage of a marketplace where the poor come to buy used clothes and household goods.  Two of three explosions in the city claimed the lives of at least 17 people, including the boy’s parents.

Vendors said the bombs, which killed seven people, were planted in wooden carts by two strangers who set up shop near the entrance and exit to the market and left just before the explosions.  After the initial shock of the explosions, shoppers and vendors resumed haggling over underwear and socks, eating shish kebab and turnips sweetened with date syrup.

"If I would go home, then what would my family eat?" said vendor Jabbar Shnawa, 35, who, after the explosion, sold a compact disc for 500 Iraqi dinars, about 40 cents.

 

For the full story, see:

Hennessy-Fiske, Molly.  "Saddam could be hanged by weekend."  St. Louis Post-Dispatch 12/29/2006):  A1 & A11.

(Note:  article originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.)

 

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