Hooray, Iraq; Farewell
to Baghdad
February21,2003 Last day of the "Baghdad
Peace Conference" and tour of Babylon
As we have mentioned in our earlier report,
we were fully aware of the fact that this "peace conference"
is a staged propaganda by the Iraqi government, but since our visit
to Baghdad was made possible by being invited to this event, we could
not evade from attending it. On the other hand, we felt it obliged
to observe what would go on in the conference. However, we were not
too comfortable.
It was mainly because people were crying out
to praise Saddam Hussein so often while conference was in session.
We were sure that those staged applauses must have been made by members
of the Baath Party. And of course, the conference is held in the largest
conference hall in Baghdad, making absolutely nobody to stop them.
(Look at all those Saddam pins!)
The effect of such agitations is that they
would only turn off a few consciencious Iraqis and non-Iraqi people--like
us-- who were invited here and taking peace in Iraq seriously.
How did we feel? Forget about why we have decided
to visit Baghdad. We've been here a few days, meeting with local people.
It is just so natural to feel sympathy for people whom you get acquainted
with.
However, our impression was that even the moderates
seemed to be supporting Saddam. It is possible that like Japan during
WWII, people may be eavesdropping so it may be dangerous for people
to express their true feelings towards the nation's leader. But we
thought there was something more to it.
The sense of pure nationalism, feeling of devotion
to your motherland, is universal, but we believe people should possess
interests to foreign countries. But, people we believed to be intellectuals,
from students studying science in a university and staffers of the
conference who took care of participants as translators, did not possess
such feeling. We felt not only disappointed, but also forced to think
about Iraq's possibly tragic future.
(a sign welcomes us to the country
of "Great Leader Saddam Hussein")
Those people understand English because they
are studying in universities. Not only those people studying English
as their major, but half the textbooks used in science are written
in English, and understanding English is an obligation to complete
their studies.
If that is how the system goes, we thought
their interest may expand beyond the language, but there seemed to
be little of such an interest. The lack of interest may derive from
the fact that Iraq has been under economic sanctions since the end
of the Gulf War. And the tention that has been building up for the
past few months. Both of them come from English speaking world. In
addition, it is extremely difficult for Iraqi people to leave their
country. Even if they could actually leave, the only route they have
to go to the outside world would be the 1,000 kilometer trail to Amman.
The conference ended with another huge appraisal
for Saddam, and we headed for the ancient remains of Babylon, a 90
minutes drive from Baghdad in the afternoon. The city is famous for
Hammurabi's Code of Laws. But we could barely see its "old"
presence. Most of the buildings were apparently constructed recently.
This may be another negative legacy of Iraq starting from Iran-Iraq
War.
(We felt sad to see buildings resembling shoddy
amusement park rather than Great remains of Baghdad)
February 22, 2003
Hooray to Baghdad
It took us 14 hours to come to Baghdad on a
160 kph SUVs--4 hours were necessary to pass the immigration and customs
at the Jordanian-Iraqi border. Therefore, we estimated that it would
take us even longer if we took bus back to Amman. We left the hotel
at 5:30 in the morning. Our flight out of Amman to Amsterdam leaves
2 a.m. the next day, so you may have some idea how far Baghdad really
is.
(three-lane highway is simply
awesome)
However, our concerns was a bit far-fetched,
since the bus was speeding to its maximum speed of 120 kph or maybe
faster. And it did took us another 4 hours to be permitted entry to
Jordan, but none of us complained because we have already experienced
the bureaucracy on our way.
As we dozed off, the bus entered city of Amman.
It was raining. We had some rains in Baghdad, and we learned that
it rains in the middle east. The driver of the bus was Iraqi, who
was seemed to be unaccustomed to Jordan, so he maed stops once in
a while, asking locals for directions.
(Dearest Saddam sees us off
at the border)
Some of us were interested in visiting Dead
Sea, approximately two hour drive from Amman, if time was allowed.
However, there was apparently a rule or regulation that an Iraqi driver
is only allowed to drive between Baghdad and Amman and Jordanian driver
is only allowed to drive between Amman and Baghdad.
So the wish to visit Dead Sea was declined,
and we arrived at the airport around 9 p.m., five hours for the flight.
The airport was bit shabby even though it was an international airport,
with no proper restaurants. There were only two fast-food restaurants
and in order for us to get there, we had to check in and pass the
immigration.
However, officials at the KLM check-in counter
told us that they would only begin their check-in operation from midnight.
One of us told them that some people here were sick (actually there
was a young man who was not feeling well), and let us check in at
10:30 p.m.
We arrived at Amsterdam in the early morning
hours, and had some free time for ourselves until the flight to Narita,
which leaves at 2:15 p.m. We have decided to go to central Amsterdam,
taking the train. Walking in a very cold morning, dazed, was a feeling
somewhat similar to leaving a long long Saturday night party. It was
strange, to be back, to be in Europe. We were now at a completely
different world. We would be back in Japan, another completely different
world. On the morning of 24th, Narita was snowing with some sleet.
We felt we were finally back.
(Herds of sheep in the wilderness;
scene maybe unchanged for the past 2,000 years)
The reports were made by the Team Desert Fox-Eye,
with Takechiyo and Hige-Oyaji.
これはおもしろい
http://www.bushcartoon.com/
