Iraqi postmen on mopeds brave gun battles

The New York Times reports that in a country where “the bizarre regularly scrambles daily routines,” Iraqi postmen on mopeds brave gun battles to deliver the mail. There are no mailboxes in Iraq, so they deliver to the person, not to the address — a task that has become far more complicated in the past three years, the article said.

But still, six days a week, postmen hand-deliver thousands of letters, to greetings so warm that they often include dances and high-pitched warbles of sheer joy. “It’s something wonderful to get a letter,” said Ibrahim Ismail Zaiden, a postman in Dora. “The paper, the stamp, the envelope. It’s not just a piece of paper. It is something sacred.”

Of course, Saddam Hussein stamps are a thing of the past. Now, new stamps depict, colorfully if unimaginatively, various means of Iraqi transportation, including a raft, a horse and carriage, and a canoe piled high with grasses.

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