Scooters in Iraq... (Long)
Posted: Tue Dec 25, 2007 3:45 pm
Below is an article culled from tne NY Times about how scooters are
catching on in Iraq. Notice how many are cheapo Chinese clones and
the tech who says they always break down, while the Japanese ones do
not...
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A New Sensation in Iraq: Motor Scooters
Published: December 25, 2007
BAGHDAD — Violence may be down in Iraq, but road rage is up.
Scott Nelson/World Picture Network for The New York Times
Motor scooters, increasingly popular in Baghdad, sharing a street
with a backgammon player.
Every day, more cars venture onto Baghdad's dust-choked streets,
adding to epic traffic jams and sending blood-pressure levels through
the roof, as drivers spew invective, gesticulate wildly and
steadfastly ignore any and all driving laws.
But tens of thousands of Baghdadis have found an antidote in the
venerable motor scooter. Often imported from China and bearing almost
familiar names like "Yomaha" or "Mucati Classic," scooters have taken
the city by storm, providing a nearly ideal way of getting about in a
war-weary town riddled with checkpoints and bedeviled by car bombs.
"I love it, it's really great," said Hathan Jawad, a 35-year-old with
gray-flecked hair and a tobacco-stained smile. "When there's a
traffic jam I can just weave around the cars, or go onto the
sidewalks."
He had just bought himself a brand new, gunmetal gray "Yomaha
Classic" for 911,000 Iraqi dinars, or $750. It was worth every dinar,
he said, and not just because it allows him swift passage through
Baghdad's lengthy traffic snarls.
Guards at checkpoints often wave scooters through. Soldiers tend to
view scooter drivers with less suspicion because, unlike people in
cars, their bodies are in plain sight. Scooters are easy to navigate
around blast walls.
They also cost a fraction of the price of a new car and require far
less gas, a bonus in a country where fuel prices are soaring. One
scooter vendor said many of his recent buyers were refugees returning
from Syria who had sold their cars, depleted their savings and could
afford little else.
Mr. Jawad loves his scooter because, quite simply, it is fun, what
with the wind whipping through his hair and car drivers gnashing
their teeth as he blithely scoots by.
"You know, I feel very happy on my scooter," he said.
Baghdadis insist that traffic in their city was orderly under Saddam
Hussein. But since his fall, chaos has reigned on the streets.
Electricity is in short supply and traffic signals rarely work; the
few that do are ignored. People drive on the wrong side of the road,
on medians, on sidewalks. Hours are lost daily to what people here
simply refer to as "the jam."
These days, reasons for buying scooters can stretch beyond saving
money and time. Ownership carries the implication that one is of
lesser means, a good thing in a city where having money draws
attention of the wrong kind.
"People don't want others to know that they have enough money to buy
a car," said Safa Mustaf, a 30-year-old scooter vendor. "A new car
can cost $20,000 or $30,000, and there is militia everywhere. If they
see your car, they might ask to borrow it. Or kidnap you."
Mr. Mustaf, who wears cowboy boots and has an easy grin, runs a shop
in what is known as the motorcycle market in central Baghdad. The
market street runs beneath a web of jury-rigged electric wires that
stretch like plastic string. Its sidewalks are lined with mud-caked
used motorcycles, oily engine parts and row upon row of shiny new
scooters.
Mr. Mustaf's top seller, imported from China, is the "Super Yanaha
Helux," in cherry red. It costs $850, has shiny chrome rear-view
mirrors and a speedometer that goes up to about 90 miles per hour, a
speed he swears it can reach.
Mr. Mustaf opened his shop 18 months ago, when there were only two
other scooter vendors between him and the sand-colored mosque that
sits at the north end of the motorcycle market's street. Since then,
another half dozen scooter shops have opened, he said, with more on
the way. People prefer scooters over motorcycles, he said, because
they are easier to ride.
"Since I opened, the number of scooters on Baghdad's streets has
grown by 50 times," Mr. Mustafa said proudly. How many scooters,
then, were on the city streets? He smiled broadly, and offered a wild
estimate. "A million!" he exclaimed.
A thriving support network for the care and maintenance of scooters
and motorbikes also lines motorcycle row. One technician, begrimed
and in blue overalls, said he had benefited from the increased number
of Chinese imports.
"The Japanese ones, they never have defects," said the technician, as
he untangled a nest of wires springing from a partly dismantled
scooter. "But the Chinese ones, their electric wiring always goes."
Yet dark clouds hang over Baghdad's scooter drivers. The police have
started enforcing a traffic law that requires owners to register for
expensive scooter licenses. They have also started barring smaller,
slower scooters from the city's streets, saying they are unsafe on
Baghdad's roads.
Scooter accidents are increasing. And suicide bombers have been known
to ignite their explosives on scooters, so the police and soldiers
have begun stopping and searching some scooters and their drivers.
Such troubles seemed far from Mr. Jawad's mind as he revved his
prized Yomaha one recent sunlit afternoon. He squinted, lighted a
cigarette and slipped on a pair of plastic mirrored sunglasses. His
son, Amir, 12, was riding with him, and looped his arms around his
father's waist.
"My wife tells me not to drive fast," Mr. Jawad said, sharply
inhaling the smoke. "I never obey what she says." He paused, exhaled
and reconsidered. "But my son is with me." So that day, he said, he
would go about 50 miles per hour.
Then he drove off into the anarchy of Baghdad's streets.
catching on in Iraq. Notice how many are cheapo Chinese clones and
the tech who says they always break down, while the Japanese ones do
not...
#########################################################
A New Sensation in Iraq: Motor Scooters
Published: December 25, 2007
BAGHDAD — Violence may be down in Iraq, but road rage is up.
Scott Nelson/World Picture Network for The New York Times
Motor scooters, increasingly popular in Baghdad, sharing a street
with a backgammon player.
Every day, more cars venture onto Baghdad's dust-choked streets,
adding to epic traffic jams and sending blood-pressure levels through
the roof, as drivers spew invective, gesticulate wildly and
steadfastly ignore any and all driving laws.
But tens of thousands of Baghdadis have found an antidote in the
venerable motor scooter. Often imported from China and bearing almost
familiar names like "Yomaha" or "Mucati Classic," scooters have taken
the city by storm, providing a nearly ideal way of getting about in a
war-weary town riddled with checkpoints and bedeviled by car bombs.
"I love it, it's really great," said Hathan Jawad, a 35-year-old with
gray-flecked hair and a tobacco-stained smile. "When there's a
traffic jam I can just weave around the cars, or go onto the
sidewalks."
He had just bought himself a brand new, gunmetal gray "Yomaha
Classic" for 911,000 Iraqi dinars, or $750. It was worth every dinar,
he said, and not just because it allows him swift passage through
Baghdad's lengthy traffic snarls.
Guards at checkpoints often wave scooters through. Soldiers tend to
view scooter drivers with less suspicion because, unlike people in
cars, their bodies are in plain sight. Scooters are easy to navigate
around blast walls.
They also cost a fraction of the price of a new car and require far
less gas, a bonus in a country where fuel prices are soaring. One
scooter vendor said many of his recent buyers were refugees returning
from Syria who had sold their cars, depleted their savings and could
afford little else.
Mr. Jawad loves his scooter because, quite simply, it is fun, what
with the wind whipping through his hair and car drivers gnashing
their teeth as he blithely scoots by.
"You know, I feel very happy on my scooter," he said.
Baghdadis insist that traffic in their city was orderly under Saddam
Hussein. But since his fall, chaos has reigned on the streets.
Electricity is in short supply and traffic signals rarely work; the
few that do are ignored. People drive on the wrong side of the road,
on medians, on sidewalks. Hours are lost daily to what people here
simply refer to as "the jam."
These days, reasons for buying scooters can stretch beyond saving
money and time. Ownership carries the implication that one is of
lesser means, a good thing in a city where having money draws
attention of the wrong kind.
"People don't want others to know that they have enough money to buy
a car," said Safa Mustaf, a 30-year-old scooter vendor. "A new car
can cost $20,000 or $30,000, and there is militia everywhere. If they
see your car, they might ask to borrow it. Or kidnap you."
Mr. Mustaf, who wears cowboy boots and has an easy grin, runs a shop
in what is known as the motorcycle market in central Baghdad. The
market street runs beneath a web of jury-rigged electric wires that
stretch like plastic string. Its sidewalks are lined with mud-caked
used motorcycles, oily engine parts and row upon row of shiny new
scooters.
Mr. Mustaf's top seller, imported from China, is the "Super Yanaha
Helux," in cherry red. It costs $850, has shiny chrome rear-view
mirrors and a speedometer that goes up to about 90 miles per hour, a
speed he swears it can reach.
Mr. Mustaf opened his shop 18 months ago, when there were only two
other scooter vendors between him and the sand-colored mosque that
sits at the north end of the motorcycle market's street. Since then,
another half dozen scooter shops have opened, he said, with more on
the way. People prefer scooters over motorcycles, he said, because
they are easier to ride.
"Since I opened, the number of scooters on Baghdad's streets has
grown by 50 times," Mr. Mustafa said proudly. How many scooters,
then, were on the city streets? He smiled broadly, and offered a wild
estimate. "A million!" he exclaimed.
A thriving support network for the care and maintenance of scooters
and motorbikes also lines motorcycle row. One technician, begrimed
and in blue overalls, said he had benefited from the increased number
of Chinese imports.
"The Japanese ones, they never have defects," said the technician, as
he untangled a nest of wires springing from a partly dismantled
scooter. "But the Chinese ones, their electric wiring always goes."
Yet dark clouds hang over Baghdad's scooter drivers. The police have
started enforcing a traffic law that requires owners to register for
expensive scooter licenses. They have also started barring smaller,
slower scooters from the city's streets, saying they are unsafe on
Baghdad's roads.
Scooter accidents are increasing. And suicide bombers have been known
to ignite their explosives on scooters, so the police and soldiers
have begun stopping and searching some scooters and their drivers.
Such troubles seemed far from Mr. Jawad's mind as he revved his
prized Yomaha one recent sunlit afternoon. He squinted, lighted a
cigarette and slipped on a pair of plastic mirrored sunglasses. His
son, Amir, 12, was riding with him, and looped his arms around his
father's waist.
"My wife tells me not to drive fast," Mr. Jawad said, sharply
inhaling the smoke. "I never obey what she says." He paused, exhaled
and reconsidered. "But my son is with me." So that day, he said, he
would go about 50 miles per hour.
Then he drove off into the anarchy of Baghdad's streets.