CPTnet
May 24, 2003
IRAQ: CPTers act out live cartoon
[Note: Photos of the live cartoon are available at
http://www.cpt.org/iraq/iraq.php ]
On May 21, in Baghdad's Paradise Square, CPTers dressed up as a U.S.
soldier and an Iraqi school teacher with signs in Arabic and English saying:
U.S. Soldier
Job: Guarding Oil Ministry
Pay: $4000.00 / month
Iraqi Teacher
Job: Forming Young Minds and Future Leaders
Pay: $0.00 - $20.00
The live cartoon attracted the attention of several media reporters and
affirmation from about 40 Iraqi civilian passers-by. One Iraqi school
teacher from Negev stopped to explain that his area was being neglected by
U.S. authorities and aid organizations.
On May 14,15, and 20, the team visited four schools in Baghdad where most
teachers have been providing classes for more than 2600 students without a
salary. At least some have received a one-time payment of $20.00. In the
current economy, that's barely enough to buy the following basket of
groceries: · 2 kilograms of milk powder · 2 kilograms of
meat · 2 two kilograms of oranges · 6 liters of bottled
water and · 30 eggs.
In all the schools CPT visited, most of the staff's needs for
transportation, medication, clothing etc. for their families are not being
met. However, they insisted they despise charity and want to be civil
servants paid with Iraq's own riches.
One principal cleaned up her school herself and had Iraqi engineers remove
the bullets that littered the area. She went in person to invite each of
her teachers back, as there is no telephone communication in most of
Baghdad. Although computers, carpets and loudspeakers have been looted from
her school, her classrooms are full of children.
In another school in the Palestine Street Neighborhood, children returned
to class after U.S. forces cleaned up some unexploded ordnance. But on May
12, a young school boy found 30 more ordnance on the other side of a wall
about 20 feet from the school. The children were sent home until U.S.
forces came again to clean up.
The teachers and principals that CPT members talked with at all four
schools commented at length on the incompetence of the coalition forces and
their failure to provide a interim government helpful to the people.
Current CPT-Iraq team members are Lisa Martens (Winnipeg, MB) and Stewart
Vriesinga (Lucknow, ON).
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