Tuesday, January 20, 2004

And the Iraqi dinar is still being smuggled out of the country. Is it the smell of the fresh notes?
Today the Iraqia channel showed an egyptian caught smuggling 5 million Iraqi dinars and half a kilo of hash to Kuwait. Actually my first reaction was "Half a kilo? where can I get that?" but let's leave this out of the blog.
On a much grander scale Mr. Badran, our minister for interior affairs is now in the middle of trying to explain what 20 billion dinars are doing on a plain going to Beirut. Let us just hope that the Governing Council didn't suddenly get the Dinar Fever and wanted to get a piece of the pie for itself as well.

FunFact: what do 20 billion Iraqi Dinars weigh? One and a half tons. (according to Az-Zamman)

The Iraqi charge d'affairs in Beirut is trying very hard to make sure the Lebanese do not "politicize" the issue, the Lenbanese governmnet is worried that the money is to fund certain groups in Lebanon. My worry is that it was going to fund leisure trips for GC members, they are used to it, after getting all that money from the US and UK just to sit in an office having to work for your money must seem like a drag