I landed in Iraq few years ago, and looking forward to meet personally?my team in Baghdad for the first time.
I did not know what to expect, but despite all the challenges facing this great country, I found only generosity, hospitality and mostly a strong will for life; I salute my team in all Northeast Africa and Levant cluster, but a special one to my team in Iraq who showed?a deep fighter spirit.
I had the opportunity to walk around normal people, experience their food and work in a positive environment.
Each country is a special experience….so stay tuned to read more about my cluster.
- During ancient times, lands that now constitute Iraq were known as?Mesopotamia?(“Land Between the Rivers”), a region whose extensive alluvial plains gave rise to some of the world's earliest civilizations, including those of Sumer, Akkad, Babylon, and Assyria. (https://www.britannica.com/place/Iraq
)
- ?People in Iraq speak Arabic, Kurdish, Turkoman, Assyrian and Armenian. Most people in Iraq are Muslim.
- The country is known for its?poets? architects? painters and sculptors?who are among the best in the region, some of them being world-class. Iraq is known for producing fine handicrafts, including rugs and carpets among many other things.( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_Iraq
)
- The country is home to the world’s earliest system of writing, cuneiform script, with characteristics including different wedge-shaped marks on clay tablets. It was invented by the Sumerians and was first used around the 31st century BC.
- Iraq has two major rivers – the Tigris and the Euphrates. The region between the rivers, which is known as Mesopotamia, is considered to be one of the oldest civilisations in the world, alongside Ancient Egypt.
- The traditional Kurdish way of life was nomadic, revolving around sheep and goat herding throughout the Mesopotamian plains and the highlands of Turkey and Iran. Most Kurds practiced only marginal agriculture ( https://www.britannica.com/topic/Kurd
)
- Borne from a long history of strife, Kurdish culture places value on individual freedoms. Whether it be overt religious tolerance, strides towards equality in the status of women, or democratic government, Kurdish culture values individual life and has fiercely defended its ability to live free from external rule. (https://thekurdishproject.org/history-and-culture/
- Islamic traditions indicate that Noah’s ark was built in the Iraqi city of Kufa by the Prophet Nuh (SAW).
- The capital city, Baghdad, was the largest multicultural city of the middle ages.
- As with many Middle Eastern countries, it is offensive to eat with the left hand in Iraq.
- The common superstition of being afraid of black cats originally began here.
- In 2015, a rare weather phenomenon brought hail storms to the country, causing a river of frozen water to flow through Iraq’s desert.?https://www.muslimaid.org/media-centre/blog/8-surprising-facts-about-iraq/
- Economic Performance in a blink : https://bti-project.org/en/reports/country-report/IRQ
- Due to falling oil prices and the challenge posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, Iraq’s GDP per capita decreased dramatically from roughly $6,000 in 2019 to nearly $4,500 in 2020 (after experiencing growth of 2.1% in 2019 following a period of contraction during the conflict with IS).
- The World Bank estimates that Iraq’s total GDP will drop by 9.5% in 2020, from $234 billion in 2019. GDP growth is however expected to rise by 2% in 2021, if conditions don’t deteriorate.
- With the Iraqi dinar pegged to the U.S. dollar, CPI inflation has been traditionally low in Iraq, at 0.4% in 2018 and even -0.2% in 2019. But given the current economic challenges, the deficit in the public budget, and the decrease of foreign currency reserves, inflation is expected to reach an average of 2% in the upcoming years.
- Unemployment rates have increased dramatically, from 8.0% in 2012 to 13.7% in 2020 (Trading Economics 2020).
- Iraqi authorities have reported a big increase in foreign visitors IN 2021: 145% increase in visitors from 2020; This means around 2 million foreigners came to Iraq in 2020. in March 2021, the Iraqi government decided to grant visas on arrival to citizens of dozens of countries. This included permanent member states of the United Nations Security Council and European Union countries, as well as Japan, South Korea, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Switzerland. All these countries have advanced economies. https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2022/02/iraq-receives-145-more-foreign-visitors-2021#ixzz7PVLWwStm
- Iraq tourism statistics for 2019 was 3,593,000,000.00, a 80.92% increase from 2018. Iraq tourism statistics for 2018 was 1,986,000,000.00, a 32.88% decline from 2017. Iraq tourism statistics for 2017 was 2,959,000,000.00, a 5.16% decline from 2016. https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/IRQ/iraq/tourism-statistics
- Iraqi cuisine is one of the oldest in the world. Some tablets found in ancient Iraqi monuments that date back to the Babylonians show recipes for preparing food in temples during religious holidays. However, modern Iraqi food is mostly inspired by Persian and Turkish cuisine, as the Ottoman empire had a big influence over that region. Although the country gets most of its goods imported from neighboring countries, Iraqi’s try to make the most of their treasured natural resources, mainly dates and ambar rice, which has a very distinctive smell, high protein content, and is slightly bigger in size than usual basmati rice. https://www.chefspencil.com/most-popular-iraqi-foods/
