25,000 Dinar bills. The 25,000 D note sounds extreme and unneccessary,
and might create a few problems when dealing with such large a note.
But most importantly they looked impossible to forge, which was the
reason they were made in the first place.
People have been having a lot of trouble with their money the last 6
months. First the problem of the 10,000 dinar bills, billions worth of
these notes were looted from banks and banks' printing storages, and a
large majority of these were without printed serial numbers. But the
looters cleverly solved this little annoyance, they simply stole the
whole bank press and machinery along with the ink used and other
details, and started to print their own numbers and notes. So the
greedy idiots at Al Kifah street (which is the Wall street of Baghdad)
decided not to deal with the 10,000 bills at all and bought them at
prices ranging from 6500 to 8000 per note. Of course merchants
followed and that was that. No matter how genuine your notes were,
nobody would take them at their real value. Add to this problem that
most Iraqi merchants, businessmen, and families had exchanged their
smaller notes with 10k notes before the war, and you get the picture.
And in the first month the CPA decided to give salaries in 10k bills
which didn't help at all. Central Bank and CPA officials stated all
the time that 10k bills were valid and that there was no truth in the
rumours that indicated otherwise, but people wouldn't listen.
Another problem which surfaced in the last 2 months was the 250 dinar
bill. We have two kinds of these, the old one which was used during
the 90's and the new one which started circulating last year. Both
have Saddam on them, but the second is smaller. Anyway, AL Kifah st.
financial 'experts' were out of ideas how to make more money, so they
decided to spread a rumour that most of the small 250 D bill were
forged, and so they wouldn't deal with them anymore, except of course
they would gladly buy them at lower prices. I couldn't imagine people
would be so stupid to believe this, but sadly they bought it. In
present day Iraq, rumours work better than official statements, people
for some reason always believe the rumour and think that any official
statement is just a cover up or some sort of conspiracy to fool them.
Iraqis never trust their governments, and they don't believe what they
say due to obvious reasons from their late history. The American
adminstration in Iraq should know that by heart and they should act
accordingly to gain the peoples trust.
Back to the Dinar. In the last 30 years we have experienced so many
changes in currency that I would need a whole book just to mention
them and state the differences between each.
The ones that are currently in circulation fall in two groups:
First, the 'swisry' Dinar which means Swiss (where they were usually
printed) which were in use during the 80's up to a couple of years
following the first Gulf war. It was a very stable currency and it's
exchange rate with the dollar was 0.33 Dinars. It remained in use in
the autonomous Kurdish territories till this day. it comes in 0.25,
0.5, 1, 5, 10, and 25 Dinar notes. Today one swisry Dinar equals 250
new Dinars, so one Dollar would equal 7-8 Swiss Dinars. This version
was used as the template of the new Iraqi Dinar which would look the
same except colored differently.
Second, the tabu' Dinar (tabu' means printed) which falls into 3
subgroups:
A) locally printed versions of the swisry Dinar with some minor
changes. They are no longer in use today.
B) locally printed new Dinars with Saddam's picture on all of them.
They come in 25, 50, 100, and 250 Dinar notes. This was at the time
the value of the Dinar started to fall against the Dollar. These are
the ones mainly used today in Iraq.
C) locally printed smaller Dinars, also with Saddam's picture on them.
They come in 25, 50, 100, 250, and the infamous 10,000 Dinar notes.
These were at first favoured because of the 10k bill which would allow
people to store their money in smaller amounts of notes, whereas they
usually had to deal with the problem of carrying large sacks of money
in 250 D notes which would bring unwanted attention. But this last
version of the Dinar faced problems in post Saddam Iraq, so they are
less used today.
So all this mess would obviously highlight the importance of a new
currency in Iraq today. If it were only to get rid of Saddam's picture
from our money which seems to mock us everyday smiling back at us. it
was enough for that reason alone. Some people marked this day , 15/10,
as the 'second fall of Saddam', I agree with that. 'His' face will now
be forever erased from our memory. It's a great day for Iraqis.
You can see the new notes here
Al-Zahf Al-Kabir
I'm not sure if the American adminstration deliberately chose this day
, October 15th, to start circulating the new Dinar or if it was purely
coincidental. Nevertheless the timing is wonderful and so symbolic.
Iraqis know this day to be 'thikra al-zahf al-kabir' or the
anniversary of The Great March, it can also be translated as The Great
Crawl which is more accurate. Saddam's version of elections. It was in
October 15th 1995 that Saddam decided to show the world how Iraqis
want him and only him to be president 'for life'. So he set up voting
centers all over Iraq, so that the people would vote for their
'beloved leader'. Of course it was absurd, there were no other
candidates, no political parties, no nothing. Mukhabarat and security
agents had already started spreading rumours on the street that the
paper you would submit had some kind of watermark that you could be
traced by. Of course there was nothing like that, but it was a message
to Iraqis that no one could even dream of saying no. The paper ran
something like this (I don't recall the exact wording): 'Do you vote
for president Saddam Hussein (Allah preserve him), Yes, or No'. It was
actually a poll. And it was creepy enough for everyone to say Yes. Of
course the voting procedure was carried out in a democratic fashion,
armed Baath members hanging around the centers, and sometimes even
voting for you, nobody simply could secretly write no and fold the
paper and submit it. It was all scrutinized by party members. But some
people somehow DID write no, but it didn't change anything. It was all
prearranged. It was just a farce. The next day Izzat Ibrahim AlDori
(revolutionary council vice president) announced the results proudly
to the world: %99.9. And that was it. Each following year after 1995,
October 15th was a day for celebration. Last year Saddam pathetically
realized the need for another show, seeing how things looked bad for
him. It was pretty much the same thing, but this time the results were
%100! I clearly remember it because I was almost killed that day. The
party announced that people can celebrate that day in any way they see
fit; which really meant that they were allowed to celebrate by
shooting in the air. After a few hours everyone who owned a
kalashnikov started frantically shooting. In the evening the dark sky
became red with the glow of bullets. The streets were filled with
young party members celebrating. I was standing in front of my house
watching crazy teenagers shooting in the air while driving by in cars
when *CLANG* a stray bullet hit the metallic door I was leaning
against just inches from me. I stood there dumbstruck for a few
moments. Obviously someone thought it would be more fun to shoot at
people instead of in the air, since he was practicing his right in
celebrating for his leader and it was impossible that he would be
punished for that even if he killed someone in the process. I remember
stifling my anger then storming into the house shouting at everyone
and threatening to tie every party member I know in the neigbourhood
by their feet to my car with a rope and drag them through town as soon
as we were 'liberated'. Of course I was told to shut the f*ck up. The
method I mentioned above is called 'sahel' in Iraqi slang, and its
part of our political heritage. About 50 years ago when the monarchy
was overthrown, the Iraqi prime minister then Nouri Alsaeed and the
crown prince Abdul Illah were dragged around baghdad this way after
they were killed. I have a picture of it but its too graphic to be
posted. And during General Kassem's reign after that, Communists used
to kill their opponents this way, which ironically enough were either
Baathists or Arab nationalists. Kirkuk and Mosul witnessed the
bloodiest of these events during the late fifties. I am digressing.
What I meant to say, is that most people expected 'sahel' to return
after the fall of Saddam's regime. But it didn't. Actually people were
very tolerant towards Baathists in general following the war, which to
tell the truth surprised me. They even protected them from angry
people who wanted revenge in some neighbourhoods. They forgot and
chose to forgive them for all the blackmailing, harrassment, and
secret reports most of them were guilty of. Talk about tolerance. Of
course there were incidental cases of revenge that happened and are
still to this day. A friend of mine always tell me that if Baathists
were 'sahel'ed at that time, they wouldn't have dared to carry out
attacks against Americans and Iraqis today. I'm not sure if I agree
with him or not. But I AM sure that they wouldn't have dared to openly
go out in armed demonstrations calling for the return of Saddam to
power, and insultingly carrying his pictures and shouting Baathist
slogans. As we have witnessed today in Adhamiya and Hay
Al Tikarta in Baghdad. And in Ba'quba and Faluja.
I actually expected that Saddam would broadcast a message to Iraqis
today, reminding them of the fact that he is still legally their
'elected president', as he has occasionally done in the past few
months. But he has been mysteriously silent for a while. Maybe the
Americans are really closing in on him as they say. I want to live
long enough to see him caught ALIVE. the possibilities would be
endless. I'm sure it would be a great day for some real celebration in
Iraq. I just hope the Americans won't make the stupid mistake of
killing him like they did with his sons. Some might ask 'but wouldn't
you like to see him killed?'. Believe me I would. But I would rather
see him alive and humiliated for all he has done to this country and
to humanity. I'm not even sure a trial would satisfy me. I want him to
be put in a large glass cage at Fardus square where his statue once
stood. It should be bulletproof so that no idiot would simply come and
shoot him. He would sit in rags and be fed garbage once a day. People
from all over Iraq and the world would come to watch him until he
rots. It would be our national zoo, our primary tourists attraction. I
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