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LOCAL News :: Middle East
Ellen Barfield, Dec. 17, E-mail From Baghdad
This e-mail continues Ellen Barfield's correspondence from Iraq, thanks to Max Obuzweski's quick postings. Ellen will be in Iraq for over a month more and will try to stay in touch as frequently as she can.
Sent: Monday, December 16, 2002 8:13 AM
Subject: Ellen in Iraq Mon. 16 Dec, 2002
Hello all.
Sorry to be so long writing. It is hard both because of restrictions here and because we are many using one computer.
Finally got into Iraq last Thursday with the four Canadian women I was on a visa list with. We had a rapid trip across the desert with Razak, the brother of Sattar, the great Voices in the Wilderness driver I have met before. It has been good to see Sattar and other Iraqis I know from previous trips, as well as many activists I know who are here-Kathy Kelly of course, Cynthia Banas, Alan Pogue,
Charlie Liteky.
Things look better here-construction cranes, some new cars, traffic jams which I have never seen before-and attendant pollution-not good but a sign of more economic activity anyway. I attribute the new energy to quite a few countries saying fooey on travel restrictions several years ago. When I was here in Oct 2000 several countries flew planes in, some with business delegations, so economic activity picked up. Many people are still desperate though, and we were told by a merchant today that the Iraqi dinar was trading at 2400 to one US
dollar, when one dinar was worth $3.30 in 1990.
And it is all the more cruel to contemplate the pending war just when the Iraqis have been able to begin to pick themselves up a bit. It feels really schizophrenic to just go about our daily lives and see the Iraqis doing that, and yet feel the bombs hovering in the air above us.
We had a great press conference at a water treatment plant, with signs saying it would be a war crime to bomb it, and plan a candlelight vigil at an electric plant soon. Sean Penn just visited here and held a pretty good press conference.
The Canadians will deliver musical supplies-strings, rosin, reeds, chin rests, collected by members of the Vancouver Opera Symphony to the Baghdad Symphony at a
reception this evening. We make as much anti-war and solidarity noise as we can here, and I know you do the same where you are.
Don't expect frequent missives from me, but I'll communicate when I can. Thank you all for your support.
Peace, Ellen Barfield
Subject: Ellen in Iraq Mon. 16 Dec, 2002
Hello all.
Sorry to be so long writing. It is hard both because of restrictions here and because we are many using one computer.
Finally got into Iraq last Thursday with the four Canadian women I was on a visa list with. We had a rapid trip across the desert with Razak, the brother of Sattar, the great Voices in the Wilderness driver I have met before. It has been good to see Sattar and other Iraqis I know from previous trips, as well as many activists I know who are here-Kathy Kelly of course, Cynthia Banas, Alan Pogue,
Charlie Liteky.
Things look better here-construction cranes, some new cars, traffic jams which I have never seen before-and attendant pollution-not good but a sign of more economic activity anyway. I attribute the new energy to quite a few countries saying fooey on travel restrictions several years ago. When I was here in Oct 2000 several countries flew planes in, some with business delegations, so economic activity picked up. Many people are still desperate though, and we were told by a merchant today that the Iraqi dinar was trading at 2400 to one US
dollar, when one dinar was worth $3.30 in 1990.
And it is all the more cruel to contemplate the pending war just when the Iraqis have been able to begin to pick themselves up a bit. It feels really schizophrenic to just go about our daily lives and see the Iraqis doing that, and yet feel the bombs hovering in the air above us.
We had a great press conference at a water treatment plant, with signs saying it would be a war crime to bomb it, and plan a candlelight vigil at an electric plant soon. Sean Penn just visited here and held a pretty good press conference.
The Canadians will deliver musical supplies-strings, rosin, reeds, chin rests, collected by members of the Vancouver Opera Symphony to the Baghdad Symphony at a
reception this evening. We make as much anti-war and solidarity noise as we can here, and I know you do the same where you are.
Don't expect frequent missives from me, but I'll communicate when I can. Thank you all for your support.
Peace, Ellen Barfield
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