Iraqis try not to lose cool amid summer blackouts

BAGHDAD, June 30 (Reuters) A cartoon in an Iraqi daily this week showed a young couple sitting at a table sipping drinks. The woman asks: ''When are we going to get married?'' Her reluctant suitor replies: ''When we get better electricity.'' The joke may not be new -- the punchline used to be ''When the war is over'' -- but Iraqis have given it a new twist as they try to stay cool in oppressive summer heat on just a few hours of electricity a day.

With the onset of the hottest months of July and August, the temperature in Baghdad, for example, will soon touch an energy- sapping 50 degrees Celsius, making it one of the hottest places on the planet. Today it was 43 degrees Celsius.

Summer is traditionally the time when Iraqis take annual leave, and the lucky few who can afford it will escape the heat and the relentless violence to the relative cool of neighbouring Syria and Jordan.

Before the 2003 US-led war that ousted Saddam Hussein, only the Iraqi elite travelled abroad. Most Iraqis spent their vacations at home -- going to social clubs, picnicking in parks and visiting friends and family.

That is still possible in the more stable Kurdish north and parts of the Shi'ite south, but in Baghdad a dusk-to-dawn curfew, lawlessness and constant power outages mean there are few sources of entertainment to distract from the heat.

Under Saddam, the capital's smarter districts had almost 24 hours of electricity. But since the war that has plunged to about six hours a day, due to insurgent sabotage and an attempt to share electricity more evenly around Iraq.

WORLD CUP ''I save every penny to go abroad. I can't stay the whole summer in Iraq. There's no entertainment,'' said Mohammed Yousif, 34, a civil servant, who plans to spend two weeks in Syria.

''But I will spend the rest of summer at home, waiting for the power to come back on so that I can switch on my air conditioner,'' the Baghdad resident told Reuters.

One source of escape from the heat and violence this year has been the soccer World Cup, which has kept Iraqis glued to their televisions, power outages allowing.

''What do you mean summer holidays?'' says Huda, 34, laughing bitterly. ''What with the heat, security and lack of electricity, the only outlet for now is to watch the World Cup, if there is power,'' said the government employee who lives in Baghdad.

''When I go to work we just talk of who has been kidnapped and who has been killed.'' Dina, a university student, and her husband are among the lucky few who will escape Iraq for most of the summer. Her father-in-law owns an apartment in the Jordanian capital Amman.

''We spend every summer, July and August, there,'' she said.

But for those travelling by road, the return journey from Syria and Jordan soon ensures they lose their cool. Getting out of Iraq can be difficult but getting back in can be even harder.

One elderly Baghdad couple returning from Syria in June were stuck for hours in a long line of vehicles at the border. Their journey home took 18 hours, after arriving on the capital's outskirts to find a night-time curfew already in force.

''When I remember the suffering we faced on our way back to Baghdad, I forget all about how much we enjoyed our holiday,'' said Um Riyadh, 74.

REUTERS SHB ND1558