The water is dangerous to drink and the electricity is unpredictable so trash pick-up is a real luxury. As much as the people of Iraq have suffered they have also gone on with their lives as best they can. Children, as the ones in Basra, will play anywhere. 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.