CPTnet
December 18, 2004

IRAQ REFLECTION: La La Land

by Maxine Nash

Recently, I was working in CPT's office. My colleague Tom Fox was in the
office with me, working on the computer. Next to the computer he had placed
a kerosene lamp so he could see the papers from which he was working because
the electricity was off. In Iraq, the name for a kerosene lamp is "La la."
I was struck by the sense of the bizarre as I watched Tom using the latest
in technology with the assistance of lighting my grandmother would have
used.

The absurdities shout at me every day. It's more affordable and easier to
own a car here now, but you wait in line for two days at the gas station for
fuel. The country now has "freedom" but it's difficult to travel outside
Baghdad because the roads are too dangerous. I needed to go the doctor the
other day but the doctor was gone, having fled to Jordan because doctors
have been the targets of death threats. Saddam is gone so Iraqis should be
speaking out about their ideas and opinions but people are afraid to speak
out for fear of reprisals from armed actors--both resistance fighters and
U.S. troops.

Last week I spent one night with an Iraqi family that I lived with for two
months last year. My Iraqi "mom" had some new kitchen cupboards. She
explained that she had bought them from a friend whose 15 year-old child had
been kidnapped. The friend was selling off household items in order to pay
the ransom.

Selling off the kitchen cupboards in order to buy your child back? Am I
living in la la land?

The unreality reached a new high the other day. Tom was on the roof of our
building enjoying the sunshine. He looked down at the street and noticed
four humvees with about twenty U.S. soldiers who had stopped to get a soda
and to play with the kids. Tom thought it was a nice scene, showing
soldiers in a different light than we are used to seeing them, so he took a
photo. His action brought the wrath of the troops upon us and our building
as five heavily armed soldiers came to the door, demanding we open it, and
then proceeded into the building shouting questions and demands, "Who took
the photo?" and "Give me the camera."

I have to say that, probably for the first time in my life, I was frightened
of U.S. soldiers. But after we talked with them, they changed from scary GI
Joes to Jeff and Billy with wives and families of their own back in the
U.S., as well as fears and apprehensions about being on the front line of
this war.

Perhaps it's time for us all to do a reality check about la la land, and
consider the effect of the United States' choices and actions regarding
Iraq.