NPR = Nationally Puzzling Radio
As I was rushing around getting for work this morning, I heard this story on NPR:
Plastic Surgery Popular in Iraq
"Morning Edition, October 10, 2005 · Deborah Amos reports on the new craze in Iraq: plastic surgery. Well-off Iraqis are seeing Western-style pop music videos featuring thin women with small noses and deciding to go under the knife."
Among other astounding assertions the story seemed to suggest that lots of Iraqis are much wealthier than they were "under Saddam," so now they have disposable income to spend on luxury purchases like plastic surgery, and access to western television makes Iraqi women want to look more like western women. I had to pick my jaw up off the floor before I could brush my teeth.
I have friends who have recently served in Iraq, and a few who are there right now. Even the ones who fervently believe the situation there can be improved do not give the impression that things are very good there at the moment. The delivery of water, electricity and other municipal services is still lagging behind what it was "under Saddam." Violence, and attempts to control the violence, are huge impediments to industry and commerce. Oil production still has many challenges. So how is it that Iraqis are, as the story said, wealthier now than they were "under Saddam"? Where is all this money coming from?
Ultimately I guess we are supposed to be reassured that Iraqi women can be brainwashed into self-hatred of their bodies, and deep down they want to be just like us, and surely will begin conforming to US mores, and doing what we tell them, soon. Later this morning the "audio" will be available at the NPR website, and I need to listen to it again to see if it was as stupifying as I am remembering it. I'll update this when I can listen to the story again and confirm my memories of what it contained.
UPDATE: Ugh! The story is introduced as something that can be explained by Iraqis' powerful "hope for the future," and as a "small sign of a larger trend." A "steady diet of pop culture" has made Iraqi men dissatisfied with the bodies and faces of their wives, and rendered women unhappy with their own appearances, and somehow this is "a sign of progress" for Iraqis who "don't know what the future will hold, but can at least control what they will look like."