Farmers must plant and harvest. Musicians must make music even with worn out strings. Painters paint with what ever brushes are at hand. Doctors are the worst off. They have been well-educated and work in large general hospitals, but the equipment is broken and medicine is in short supply or absent.
Antibiotics are beyond improvization.
Yet Neam Ahmad makes ceramic art of such beauty that the heart is lifted. The Atala family raises enough food for hundreds. The Kurdish Iraqis in the City of Olives are robust and opimistic. But heaven help you if, as Kamal, you become seriously ill. Many people, including US government planners, knew in 1991 what would follow the distruction of the Iraqi electrical and water systems.