In cities like Mosul, entire neighbourhoods remain just rubble. Even in the capital, many Iraqis have been living for years with crumbling buildings and potholed streets.
But, in a bid to make a good impression on Pope Francis, Iraqi authorities rushed to rebuild, redecorate and restore and in the process showed Iraqis a country that could be.
It also sparked a wave of cynicism and even anger.
Before the visit, streets were repaved and lined with flowers and plants, vibrant murals were painted on bleak grey blast walls around churches and public buildings and for the first time, Iraqis saw the Great Ziggurat temple of Ur lit up at night.
“No need to rush Baba, we are waiting for you,” one Facebook user said.
But that raised questions – why, after years of waiting, did it take the Pope visiting to spur action.
“Just in a period of two weeks, we have seen streets paved and cleaned, buildings rehabilitated and painted, street lights fixed, parks rehabilitated with new plants and fountains.
“This is proof that they are capable of doing anything in a very short period of time."
Then, within a few hours of the pontiff’s plane taking off from Baghdad airport to return to Rome on Monday, municipal authorities started to undo their hard work.
The power generator that lit Ur at night was back on a flatbed, even the bedding plants lining streets were dug back up and taken away.
Mosul activist Ali Y Al Baroodi shared pictures on Twitter showing how bleak the city’s streets looked once the greenery of the plants, trees and flowers were gone.
Mr Al Baroodi said Mosul Mayor Zuhair Al Araji assured that the flowers had only been removed temporarily. But in a city ravaged by war and that has suffered years of neglect, it did little do assuage public anger.
A glimmer of hope
The visit and the atmosphere it created brought optimism to Iraqis who have suffered from political wrangling and deteriorating living conditions since 2003.
“I’m optimistic because the message was loud and clear from the Pope,” Baghdad resident and activist Mustafa Abid told The National.
He took part in anti-corruption protests in Iraq in October 2019.
“I’m sure there will be good results for the country, mainly in terms of bringing peace,” Mr Abid said.
“But I’m not counting on the government in this. Instead, the society and the people who will interact positively with the calls made by the Pope."
He said the government and political parties wanted to exploit the visit to “polish their pictures” before elections in October.
“One of their tricks is to call for holding a national dialogue conference where the politicians, who are part of the country’s problems, will sit,” he said.
“If the government is serious, it knows what the people need and from where it should start. It needs to stop foreign intervention first and to improve the people's living conditions through offering services and jobs."
How the UAE gratuity payment is calculated now
Employees leaving an organisation are entitled to an end-of-service gratuity after completing at least one year of service.
The tenure is calculated on the number of days worked and does not include lengthy leave periods, such as a sabbatical. If you have worked for a company between one and five years, you are paid 21 days of pay based on your final basic salary. After five years, however, you are entitled to 30 days of pay. The total lump sum you receive is based on the duration of your employment.
1. For those who have worked between one and five years, on a basic salary of Dh10,000 (calculation based on 30 days):
a. Dh10,000 ÷ 30 = Dh333.33. Your daily wage is Dh333.33
b. Dh333.33 x 21 = Dh7,000. So 21 days salary equates to Dh7,000 in gratuity entitlement for each year of service. Multiply this figure for every year of service up to five years.
2. For those who have worked more than five years
c. 333.33 x 30 = Dh10,000. So 30 days’ salary is Dh10,000 in gratuity entitlement for each year of service.
Note: The maximum figure cannot exceed two years total salary figure.
How Tesla’s price correction has hit fund managers
Investing in disruptive technology can be a bumpy ride, as investors in Tesla were reminded on Friday, when its stock dropped 7.5 per cent in early trading to $575.
It recovered slightly but still ended the week 15 per cent lower and is down a third from its all-time high of $883 on January 26. The electric car maker’s market cap fell from $834 billion to about $567bn in that time, a drop of an astonishing $267bn, and a blow for those who bought Tesla stock late.
The collapse also hit fund managers that have gone big on Tesla, notably the UK-based Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust and Cathie Wood’s ARK Innovation ETF.
Tesla is the top holding in both funds, making up a hefty 10 per cent of total assets under management. Both funds have fallen by a quarter in the past month.
Matt Weller, global head of market research at GAIN Capital, recently warned that Tesla founder Elon Musk had “flown a bit too close to the sun”, after getting carried away by investing $1.5bn of the company’s money in Bitcoin.
He also predicted Tesla’s sales could struggle as traditional auto manufacturers ramp up electric car production, destroying its first mover advantage.
AJ Bell’s Russ Mould warns that many investors buy tech stocks when earnings forecasts are rising, almost regardless of valuation. “When it works, it really works. But when it goes wrong, elevated valuations leave little or no downside protection.”
A Tesla correction was probably baked in after last year’s astonishing share price surge, and many investors will see this as an opportunity to load up at a reduced price.
Dramatic swings are to be expected when investing in disruptive technology, as Ms Wood at ARK makes clear.
Every week, she sends subscribers a commentary listing “stocks in our strategies that have appreciated or dropped more than 15 per cent in a day” during the week.
Her latest commentary, issued on Friday, showed seven stocks displaying extreme volatility, led by ExOne, a leader in binder jetting 3D printing technology. It jumped 24 per cent, boosted by news that fellow 3D printing specialist Stratasys had beaten fourth-quarter revenues and earnings expectations, seen as good news for the sector.
By contrast, computational drug and material discovery company Schrödinger fell 27 per cent after quarterly and full-year results showed its core software sales and drug development pipeline slowing.
Despite that setback, Ms Wood remains positive, arguing that its “medicinal chemistry platform offers a powerful and unique view into chemical space”.
In her weekly video view, she remains bullish, stating that: “We are on the right side of change, and disruptive innovation is going to deliver exponential growth trajectories for many of our companies, in fact, most of them.”
Ms Wood remains committed to Tesla as she expects global electric car sales to compound at an average annual rate of 82 per cent for the next five years.
She said these are so “enormous that some people find them unbelievable”, and argues that this scepticism, especially among institutional investors, “festers” and creates a great opportunity for ARK.
Only you can decide whether you are a believer or a festering sceptic. If it’s the former, then buckle up.
