Iraqis look on the funny side

Oil on troubled waters?

Just six weeks after the fall of Saddam Hussein, a new weekly satirical newspaper has appeared in Baghdad.

Named Habazbuz after a 1950s publication, it describes itself as a "weekly independent satirical newspaper, neither Eastern nor Western, privately financed and authorised by the pulse of the street".

The first issue came out on 12 May.

The cover illustration shows a choir of Iraqis singing "Water, water, electricity, electricity!" and "Gas and oil, gas and oil!"

A US soldier sings a solo: "Oil, oil, O children of God!"

Rationed humour

One article imagines that the US administration has set up a rationing system prior to leaving Iraq.

Asked whether she is crossing out or adding items to their ration card, a woman in a chador and flip-flops says:

"... My suggestion is that you should give a year's rations in advance... who says this government will last? We no longer believe anyone... Those poor people before them did not stay long, only 34 years."

A young man wearing headphones says every family should have a modern CD player, while a portly estate agent suggests they should be given money instead.

A peasant farmer likes the ration-card, without which "we would have been eaten by foxes".

Old habits die hard

In another piece, a know-all complains when an official accosts him about the ration cards, saying bureaucrats can't interrupt him going about his business any more.

When the official says he's from the security department, that changes everything:

"Security? Why didn't you say so in the first place? Listen, brother, the rations are more than enough. After all, what is food and drink? Dignity is the most important thing. In fact, we don't even need food. The most important thing is that you stay well."

BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.