Help us, they are swamping us with
things to do....Inch Allah
February 18, 2003
We visited a pediatrics hospital and "Amiriyaher
Shelter" in the morning.
The hospital was apparently suffering from lack
of medical supplies. It seemed that there were enough number of doctors
and nurses, but what they could do was obviously limited, such as administering
glucose intravenously, or supplying oxygen seemed to be the best they
could do. The doctors pleaded us for help. A child whom I took a photograph
looked as though in very serious condition, but there was nothing we
could do. We hesitated to take photographs for our lack of power as
to help the dying children.
( a hole on a Amiriyaher Shelterl
ceiling where a bomb had penetrated)
"Amiriyaher Shelter" was literally
a graveyard. There were hundreds of gravestones of those killed by a
direct hit of a missile, standing in front of the building. There was
a sign saying:"Why is the U.N. inspectors not inspecting here?"
hanging from the building. We thought that people around the world must
know this reality before kicking off an argument whether George W. Bush
is wrong or Saddam Hussein is evil. History shows that those weak getting
killed first, and if things change dramatically in Japan, it will be
the same.
(:a girl suffering leukimia. Is her illness something
to do with Depleted Uranium bullets?)
After taking lunch, we participated in a "peace
demonstration" from the hotel to the headquarters of UNSCOM, a
United Nations Commission conducting the series of weapons inspections
in Iraq. We have made some banners after arriving Baghdad, and carried
them in the demonstration. For Brigadier Number 1, it was a commemorative
debut to a political demonstration.
Anyway, our schedule have been too tight, and
everyone--not just the Team Desert Fox-Eye but the other non Iraqis
on this tour. We are writing this report at 3 a.m. in the morning. Just
browsing through our report may give you the idea that we are enjoying
our stay in Baghdad, but actually we are really coping with the schedule.
Oh, let us have some fun time with Iraqi ladies.
(SURA, a young Iraqi lady whom Brigadier Number
1 intended to ask for a date...no, an important source of information)
February 19, 2003
A Peace Conference is to start today. After a
20-minute bus ride, we arrived at a grand international conference hall.
Children clad in camouflage suits welcomed us at the lobby. As we took
our seats, the Iraqi national anthem was played, with us standing to
show our respect. Earphones were provided to non-Arabic speaking people,
and the conference provided us with English simultaneous translation.
However, as we have been telling you, we are exhausted from the past
few days, so what you hear is lullaby, whether it is Arabic or English....We
dozed off.
(:A people participating in a
demonstration in front of UNSCOM)
The meeting was titled as a peace conference,
but the actual purpose of the conference is basically to praise Saddam,
kissing his ugly ass. They have invited people from abroad for a kind
of camouflage. Of course we have been quite aware of the fact, but as
journalists and photographers from abroad attended the conference, so
kissing Saddam's ass too much is not really a wise idea. The Iraqis
are somewhat clever and somewhat not.
We learned that Governor Okawa, of Okawa Kogyo,
arrived at Baghdad a day after we did. We do not know him very well
but he seems to be a a comedian caricaturizing himself as a hard core
right-winger.
We attended in another demonstration in the afternoon.
The weather today was probably equal to that of mid-April in Tokyo.
Brigadier Number 1 and Number 2 marched in the demonstration wearing
our team T shirts, prepared to show the presence of "Team Fox Eye"
here in Baghdad. One of the T shirt bore the message:"Suspect those
crying for justice!" with Mr. Miyazaki's signature. There, we have
legitimately achieved one of our goals to represent Mr. Manabu Miyazaki,
our Leader.
Demonstration was actually staged by the Iraqi
government, so officers on police cars and motorcycles, showed us smiles,
which we believe they seldom provide under normal circumstances. The
motorcycles they were using was Suzuki GSX750. It seems that Iraqis
do not have to wear helmets when riding motorcycles. But we saw few
motorcycles here in Baghdad, and we do not know why.
According to Brigadier Number 1, who had attempted
to flirt with Iraqi ladies, the most affordable car here in Iraq is
made in Malaysia, with engines made by Mitsubishi Motors Co. It costs
about 3,200 U.S. dollars. Sounds very reasonable for us Japanese, but
for Iraqis they are still very expensive. So, half of the cars we see
on the streets are tattered. The price of gasoline is less than a dollar
per liter, but we wondered how Iraqi gas stations made their living.
The conference is supposed to go on tomorrow,
or rather today, and day after tomorrow, but if it is possible to avert
Iraqi staffers' constant surveillance, we plan to hit the streets and
see how ordinary Iraqi citizens are living.
Wait for our next report, but don't expect too
much,
(:It's envious to learn that gasoline
costs only a cent a liter)
http://www.bushcartoon.com/
