Friday, July 25, 2008
Democracy, Whiskey, Sexy: Casino gambling in Iraq?
Remember "Democracy! Whiskey! Sexy!"? Well, perhaps we will see some of that.
Via Jungle Trader, is casino gambling coming to the cradle of civilization?
Iraq's investment committee is studying projects proposed by U.S. and Russian firms to turn Saddam Hussein's palace near the site of ancient Babylon into a tourist site with a casino, an Iraqi paper said.
Government paper Al-Sabah quoted Saleh al-Muslimawi, governor of the Babil Province about 85 kilometers (55 mi) south of Baghdad, as saying that the projects also entailed the restoration of museums in Babylon. He declined to give the companies' names.
Babylonian architectural and religious monuments are on the list of investment options compiled by the province's authorities, the paper said.
The lavish hill-top palace that belonged to former dictator Saddam Hussein - who was executed by hanging in December 2006 - overlooks the ruins of Babylon and the Euphrates River.
Commentary
This strikes me as good news in at least three respects. First, it seems like a classic deal between real estate developers and a government that needs support for one or another public good. So, just as developers in the United States will build affordable housing or protect wetlands in exchange for permission to build a golf course or a heap of McMansions, the firms bidding on the casino project would also restore museums or other culturally important sites damaged in the war. In Iraq, that may be as close to good government as they are likely to get.
Second, it suggests that the religious factions that want to stamp out vice and enforce Islamic law are losing their influence to the (relatively) tolerant center.
Finally, money is always a good barometer of social stability. If there are private investors looking to put money into Iraq, perhaps the recent improvements in security and government are more sustainable than, well, the pessimists claim.
2 Comments:
By 
davod, at
Sat Jul 26, 07:47:00 AM:
How can they get past the fact that sharia law is the basis for Iraq law?
PS: A while ago, I attended a meeting where one of the attendees had a bit to do with setting up the law in Iraq. He had no problem at all with using Sharia as the basis.
By TigerHawk, at
Sat Jul 26, 08:07:00 AM:
I will confess that I know essentially nothing about sharia, and the extent to which it is susceptible to being all things to all people. My guess is that there is vast room for interpretation among even principled scholars, much less corruptible ones. Perhaps the real issue is the relative influence of radicals.
