Scooters from China flood streets of Baghdad
Scooters from China are now new sensation in Iraq.
Every day, more cars ventury onto Baghdad’s dust-choked streets, adding to epic traffic jams and sending blood-pressure levels through the roof, as drivers spew invective, gesticulate wildly & steadfastly ignore any and all driving laws.
But tens of thousands of Baghdadis have found an antidote in the venerable motor scooter.
Often imported from China and bearing almost familiar names like Yamaha scooters have taken the city by storm, providing a nearly ideal way of getting about in a war-weary town riddled with checkpoints and bedeviled by car bombs.
“I love it, it’s really great,” said Hathan Jawad, a 35-year-old with gray –flecked hair and a tobacco-stained smile.
“When there’s a traffic jam I can just weave around the cars, or go onto the sidewalks.”
He had just bought himself a brand new, gunmetal gray Yomaha Classic for $750,imported from China. One scooter vendor said many of his recent buyers were refugees returning from Syria who had sold their cars, depleted their savings and could afford little else.