[Mb-civic] Re: Mb-civic Digest, Vol 4, Issue 62

[Michael Butler]

Sandy,
Items 10 & 11 in this issue had an html which was scrubbed and as a result
there was nothing to read. Can you send text?
Bear

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> 
> Today's Topics:
> 
>  1. Over 100,000 civilians deaths in Iraq (Harold Sifton)
>  2. Re: Ian's response re EMAIL WITH A FRIEND (Ian)
>  3. NYTimes.com Article: 9/11 Families Group Rebukes Bush    for
>     Impasse on Overhaul  (michael at intrafi.com)
>  4. Alternet: God On Their Side (michael at intrafi.com)
>  5. Alternet: The Doper Vote (michael at intrafi.com)
>  6. Two Peoples, One State (Cheeseburger)
>  7. Robert Fisk on Margarat Hassen kidnapping (ean at sbcglobal.net)
>  8. NY Times report on Florida plus more from Palast on FL    ballot
>     dsyfunctions (ean at sbcglobal.net)
>  9. Re: Ian's response re EMAIL WITH A FRIEND (Lyle K'ang)
> 10. Re: Over 100,000 civilians deaths in Iraq (Alexander Harper)
> 11. Re: New light shed on the death of Socrates (Alexander Harper)
> 
> 
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Message: 1
> Date: Thu, 28 Oct 2004 15:16:52 -0400
> From: "Harold Sifton" <harry.sifton at sympatico.ca>
> Subject: [Mb-civic] Over 100,000 civilians deaths in Iraq
> To: "MB Civic" <MB-civic at islandlists.com>
> Message-ID: <000a01c4bd22$b0ac8310$1327e440 at Harold>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
> 
> The New Scientist reports that through scientific study over 100,000 plus
> Iraqi Civilians have died, directly and indirectly because of the US
> Invasion/War !
> 
> http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99996596
> 
> I think that this is more than the deposed dictator Sadam had killed ?
> 
> Later H
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> ------------------------------
> 
> Message: 2
> Date: Thu, 28 Oct 2004 15:53:12 -0400
> From: "Ian" <ialterman at nyc.rr.com>
> Subject: Re: [Mb-civic] Ian's response re EMAIL WITH A FRIEND
> To: <mb-civic at islandlists.com>
> Message-ID: <010101c4bd27$c1aef760$99ca6c42 at ianb0ky45i5r2b>
> Content-Type: text/plain;    charset="iso-8859-1"
> 
> Michael:
> 
> The dark forces do not "come" from organized religion.  It may well be that
> organized religion does less (far less) than it should to fight those
> forces, and, either by not doing so, or by misguided active participation,
> may (and probably does) add to those dark forces, or at least makes them
> stronger.
> 
> I also agree that we all have the right to believe in whatever we want, and
> to say so.  As the old cannard goes: "I may not agree with what you say, but
> I will defend to the death your right to say it."  However, as I'm sure you
> wold agree, we also have a responsibility to try to (humbly, patiently,
> lovingly) convince others of the correctness of our point of view if we
> truly believe they are misguided - whether spiritually, politically,
> economically, or otherwise.  Again, I stress that this responsibility must
> be undertaken not from a prosyletizing, ram-it-down-the-other-persons-throat
> approach - which is how so much "persuasion," both spiritually and
> politically, is currently (and wrongly) undertaken, but from a patient,
> humble and loving approach.
> 
> Finally, you are, of course, 110% correct in noting the "terrible" aspect of
> "continuing violence in the name of God."  Indeed, any Jew, Christian,
> Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Jainist, Zoroastrian or other "believer" is
> dangerously misguided if they do not understand this, and try to find
> Scriptural or other "support" for a pro-violence and/or pro-war stance.
> Because although some faith-based texts (e.g., The Bible, The Qur'an, and
> others) do have historical violence, and even some admonitions to violence
> in specific circumstances, there is NO religion, faith or spiritual belief
> of which I am aware (and I have read the underlying texts of almost all of
> them) in which the underlying scripture or text supports a generally violent
> approach to life and living it.
> 
> Peace.
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Michael Butler" <michael at michaelbutler.com>
> To: "Civic" <mb-civic at islandlists.com>; "HAIR List"
> <mb-hair at islandlists.com>
> Sent: Thursday, October 28, 2004 2:07 PM
> Subject: [Mb-civic] Ian's response re EMAIL WITH A FRIEND
> 
> 
> Dear Ian,
> I respect your views. I feel the dark forces have come from organized
> religion. We all have the right to believe in whatever and to say so. The
> terrible aspect is the continuing violence in name of God.
> I know you have the same desire for Peace.
> Love,
> Michael
> 
> ------ Forwarded Message
> From: "Ian" <ialterman at nyc.rr.com>
> Date: Tue, 26 Oct 2004 17:43:42 -0400
> 
> Subject: Re: [Mb-civic] EMAIL WITH A FRIEND
> 
> Michael:
> 
> I was intrigued by one of your comments.  You said: "Spirituality is the
> only future and that wont come from religion. God or the Gods are playing
> too many tricks. It can only come from within. We had a chance in the 60's
> and we were not strong enough to overcome the dark forces.  Now they seem to
> be on both sides of the aisle."
> 
> As a minister, I would be remiss in not asking: have you considered the
> possibility that the very approach used in the 60s, and that you are
> suggesting now again - "it can only come from within" - is the very reason
> WHY you "were not strong enough to overcome the dark forces?"
> 
>> From the Judeo-Christian perspective, this "come from within" approach is
> the very approach that STRENGTHENS the "dark forces" AGAINST the positive
> spirituo-religious forces that might avail against them.
> 
> Yes, I know that many (perhaps most) non-believers have a dim view of
> "religion," due to the way that all of them have been bastardized, co-opted
> and apostatized.  However, I reiterate that "Religion is about laws and
> behavior; faith is about a relationship with God (and Christ)".
> 
> In this regard, I, too, have serious concerns and misgivings about what has
> come to be called "religion."  But that does not change my feeling - and my
> understanding of my faith - that putting one's faith in oneself and one's
> "better nature" or "good conscience" is dangerously misguided, and only
> gives "the enemy" (whomever or whatever you perceive him/it to be) more
> "fuel for the fire."  It is only when we put our faith in God - and refrain
> from attempting to use our own efforts (spiritual or otherwise) - that the
> "dark forces" might be overcome.
> 
> This does not mean idle worship (pun intended); i.e., simply praying and
> hoping that things will change.  Certainly, even Christians (and other
> believers) have an obligation to be active in trying to effect change for
> the betterment of all people.  But to suggest that "God or the Gods are
> playing too many tricks," and that we can - or even should - somehow attempt
> to hinder God from His work (whether or not we are happy about the outcome
> of that work: "His ways are not our ways") would seem to engender flagrant
> arrogance or "pride" - the deadliest of all sins.
> 
> Peace.
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Michael Butler" <michael at michaelbutler.com>
> To: "Family Finance" <michael at michaelbutler.com>; "Civic"
> <mb-civic at islandlists.com>; "HAIR List" <mb-hair at islandlists.com>
> Sent: Tuesday, October 26, 2004 3:04 PM
> Subject: [Mb-civic] EMAIL WITH A FRIEND
> 
> 
> Compadre,
> 
> Were we not lucky to have lived in that era? Notwithstanding the
> circumstances, Warfield or whatever, I hate to say it, sounds like an old
> saw but things were better those days for everyone.
> Now where and how do we go? Spirituality is the only future and that wont
> come from religion. God or the Gods are playing too many tricks. It can only
> come from within. We had a chance in the 60's and we were not strong enough
> to overcome the dark forces. Now they seem to be on both sides of the aisle.
> I have great fear for the kids and more so for my grandchild. What a bleak
> future they are facing. We need to continue to try to right this boat. The
> important things are family and friends, the more the better. Compassion is
> the keyword, so abused by our our current president. Let us hope the next
> one does show that peace and love are the only objectives that will work.
> 
> Michael
> 
>> Don Miguel,
>> 
>> Ah, Warfield. What a wild (and well managed) place! I remember bringing
> the
>> Bauls of Bengal there one dark winter night for one of your soir?es and
> your
>> butler -- suspicious of these dark skinned joyous eyed Bengalis in their
>> lunghis, sandals and Marks and Spencer overcoats -- fed them in the
> kitchen.
>> They then made their music and blew everyone away. If I remember, George
> and
>> Patty Harrison gave me a ride home that night to Wentworth where I was
>> staying with Don'o(van). Those were the days, eh? Don't envy you living in
>> America now in that cyclotron of fear spawned spin, altered perceptions
> and
>> partisan vendettas. Against the greater reality, it's all so petty.
> Everyone
>> is bending the facts and objective truth is the victim. Instead of facing
>> the music, Lib and Con alike are feeding the cacophony. Everyone is too
> soft
>> and comfortable and ignorant of the greater world. It doesn't matter who
> the
>> president is to the Middle East, they're on their own fools ride of denial
>> and destruction. That clock's been ticking for centuries and the chimes
> are
>> deafening. The next decade is going to be helter-skelter to say the least.
>> Antonio
> 
> _______________________________________________
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> 
> 
> ------------------------------
> 
> Message: 3
> Date: Thu, 28 Oct 2004 12:54:58 -0400 (EDT)
> From: michael at intrafi.com
> Subject: [Mb-civic] NYTimes.com Article: 9/11 Families Group Rebukes
> Bush    for Impasse on Overhaul
> To: michael at intrafi.com
> Message-ID: <200410282049.i9SKnZ2k004944 at dune>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
> 
> The article below from NYTimes.com
> has been sent to you by michael at intrafi.com.
> 
> 
> 
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> \----------------------------------------------------------/
> 
> 
> 9/11 Families Group Rebukes Bush for Impasse on Overhaul
> 
> October 28, 2004
> By PHILIP SHENON 
> 
> 
> 
> The principal advocacy group for victims' families blamed
> President Bush and some House Republicans for failing to
> enact the 9/11 panel's recommendations.
> 
> http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/28/politics/28panel.html?ex=1099982498&ei=1&en=
> d6a2a6b5bbad2194
> 
> 
> ---------------------------------
> 
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> For general information about NYTimes.com, write to
> help at nytimes.com.
> 
> Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
> 
> 
> ------------------------------
> 
> Message: 4
> Date: Thu, 28 Oct 2004 14:38:41 -0700
> From: michael at intrafi.com
> Subject: [Mb-civic] Alternet: God On Their Side
> To: mb-civic at islandlists.com
> Message-ID: <200410282138.i9SLcfeV019479 at alternet.org>
> 
> 
> This story has been forwarded to you from
> http://www.alternet.org by michael at intrafi.com
> 
> 
> 
> -------------------------------------
> God On Their Side
> http://www.alternet.org/story/20328
> 
> &#147;When people think of the relation of Christianity to the political
> scene, they think of the right rather than the left,&#148; says one expert.
> Here is a look at the rise in evangelism that&#146;s tipping the country
> Republican.
> -------------------------------------
> 
> 
> 
> ------------------------------
> 
> Message: 5
> Date: Thu, 28 Oct 2004 14:42:19 -0700
> From: michael at intrafi.com
> Subject: [Mb-civic] Alternet: The Doper Vote
> To: mb-civic at islandlists.com
> Message-ID: <200410282142.i9SLgJlc021226 at alternet.org>
> 
> 
> This story has been forwarded to you from
> http://www.alternet.org by michael at intrafi.com
> 
> 
> 
> -------------------------------------
> The Doper Vote
> http://www.alternet.org/story/20269
> 
> Orthodox leftists seem to be incapable of understanding the size and intensity
> of the anti-drug war movement. Do they think these people don't vote?
> -------------------------------------
> 
> 
> 
> ------------------------------
> 
> Message: 6
> Date: Thu, 28 Oct 2004 17:14:57 -0500
> From: Cheeseburger <maxfury at granderiver.net>
> Subject: [Mb-civic] Two Peoples, One State
> To: mb-civic at islandlists.com
> Message-ID: <4.3.2.7.0.20041028164109.00d63ed0 at mail.granderiver.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
> 
> Re:  Two Peoples, One State
> 
> 
> No matter how many times I read it, how many times different people from
> different countries write it, how many different analysts from different
> camps agree on it, how many news outlets report it, nor how many people die
> from it, I will always continue to be amazed that the Israelis would rather
> ship all their Niggers to a New Auchwitz or kill them all before giving up
> some Real Estate which never belonged to Israel to begin with.
> 
> I always thought they needed them to clean their toilets, mop their floors,
> and kiss their boots.
> 
> I use the term "NIGGERS" on purpose here, not from some abysmal trait,
> desire or habit.
> 
> For in all REALITY The Israelis treat The Palestinians just about *exactly*
> as our American "Good Old Southern Boys" (among others) used to treat Black
> people here in America, and continue to refer to them in various
> deroggatory epithets.
> 
> There remain some people in America who if they had their way even today,
> all Black people would be loaded up on boats and shipped "Back To Africa".
> 
> They don't want them owning land.  They don't want them owning Real
> Estate.  They don't want them owning anything.  In fact, they are taking up
> space that the Nigger-Haters here in America want to raise their own people
> on.  And they shouldn't have none of those rights things or voting shit
> either.
> 
> There remain 4 major ways to go that these American Nigger-Haters continue
> to profess, ship all of them out of the country, kill them all, put them in
> little camps and let them out now and then to clean our toilets, or return
> America to the "Good Old Days" where they are openly Nigger and the
> Nigger-Haters will again gloriously be referred to by them as Master.
> 
> 
> And thus, amazingly and proudly, stands Israel itself even today in this
> Modern Age.
> 
> 
> No different than any other White Supremist Nigger-Hater in America today
> or in the days of outright Slavery here in the good old USA.
> 
> And we give Israel HOW? many Billions of OUR Tax Dollars EACH year to
> continue oppressing, torturing, and murdering their Niggers...????
> 
> About 4 Billion Dollars a year.
> 
> We as Americans should be proud that we can aid Israel in their Nigger
> beatings, Nigger killings, and Nigger abusing, and the murders of all their
> Nigger women and children.
> 
> After all, what was Democracy born for if not such glorious things.
> 
> We always knew the "South Would Rise Again".
> 
> We just never realized they would be speaking Hebrew.
> 
> It remains a comforting thought that the people who stole the place that
> little baby Jesus was born in the first place, just like we stole America,
> still have the good sense to keep all their Niggers under control.
> 
> America hates Niggers, Jesus hates Niggers, the Israelis hate Niggers.
> 
> We're with you, Israel...!!
> 
> Just say the word, and we'll get Clem, and Rupert, and Salem, and the coon
> dogs, load em all up into the back of the pickup truck, and take off across
> the Atlantic if you can't manage to handle all them Niggers by yourself.
> 
> We always knew our Tax Dollars here were going to good use.
> 
> It's always great to find out for sure though.
> 
> It gives us a warm fuzzy feeling all inside and brings a smile back to our
> faces we haven't seen since the days of Jefferson Davis.
> 
> Just take a hint from us experienced coon killers over here in the USA though.
> 
> Kill all the Nigger men and children, but save some of the Nigger women.
> 
> They're always still good for fuckin' after a nice drink of moonshine.
> 
> Keep up the good work.
> 
> We're behind you a hundred percent over here.
> 
> Jesus loves you.
> 
> p.s.:  It really makes us feel good that you and us are so much alike, but
> a word of caution to you Israelis, if you see any of them filthy Jews over
> there, round 'em all up with those damn Niggers, they're just as bad.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> =============
> Ean wrote:
> 
> http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article3157.shtml
> 
> Two Peoples, One State
> By Michael Tarazi, The New York Times, 4 October 2004
> nytimes.com/2004/10/04/opinion/04tarazi.html
> 
> Israel's untenable policy in the Middle East was more obvious than
> usual last week, as the Israeli Army made repeated incursions into
> Gaza, killing dozens of Palestinians in the deadliest attacks in more
> than two years, even as Prime Minister Ariel Sharon reiterated his
> plans to withdraw from the territory. Israel's overall strategy
> toward the Palestinians is ultimately self-defeating: it wants
> Palestinian land but not the Palestinians who live on that land.
> 
> As Christians and Muslims, the millions of Palestinians under
> occupation are not welcome in the Jewish state. Many Palestinians
> are now convinced that Israeli support for a Palestinian state is
> motivated not by a hope for reconciliation, but by a desire to
> segregate non-Jews while taking as much of their land and
> resources as possible. They are increasingly questioning the most
> commonly accepted solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict -
> "two states living side by side in peace and security," in the words
> of President Bush - and are being forced to consider a one-state
> solution.
> 
> To Palestinians, the strategy behind Israel's two-state solution is
> clear. More than 400,000 Israelis live illegally in more than 150
> colonies, many of which are atop Palestinian water sources. Mr.
> Sharon is prepared to evacuate settlers from Gaza - but only in
> exchange for expanding settlements in the West Bank. And Israel
> is building a barrier wall not on its land but rather inside occupied
> Palestinian territory. The wall's route maximizes the amount of
> Palestinian farmland and water on one side and the number of
> Palestinians on the other.
> 
> Yet while Israelis try to allay a demographic threat, they are
> creating a democratic threat. After years of negotiations, coupled
> with incessant building of settlements and now the construction of
> the wall, Palestinians finally understand that Israel is offering
> "independence" on a reservation stripped of water and arable soil,
> economically dependent on Israel and even lacking the right to
> self-defense.
> 
> As a result, many Palestinians are contemplating whether the
> quest for equal statehood should now be superseded by a struggle
> for equal citizenship. In other words, a one-state solution in which
> citizens of all faiths and ethnicities live together as equals. Recent
> polls indicate that a quarter of Palestinians favor the secular one-
> state solution - a surprisingly high number given that it is not
> officially advocated by any senior Palestinian leader.
> 
> Support for one state is hardly a radical idea; it is simply the
> recognition of the uncomfortable reality that Israel and the
> occupied Palestinian territories already function as a single state.
> They share the same aquifers, the same highway network, the
> same electricity grid and the same international borders. There are
> no road signs reading "Welcome to Occupied Territory" when one
> drives into East Jerusalem. Some government maps of Israel do
> not delineate Israel's 1967 pre-occupation border. Settlers in the
> occupied West Bank (including East Jerusalem) are interspersed
> among Palestinian towns and now constitute nearly a fifth of the
> population. In the words of one Palestinian farmer, you can't
> unscramble an egg.
> 
> But in this de facto state, 3.5 million Palestinian Christians and
> Muslims are denied the same political and civil rights as Jews.
> These Palestinians must drive on separate roads, in cars bearing
> distinctive license plates, and only to and from designated
> Palestinian areas. It is illegal for a Palestinian to drive a car with an
> Israeli license plate. These Palestinians, as non-Jews, neither
> qualify for Israeli citizenship nor have the right to vote in Israeli
> elections.
> 
> In South Africa, such an allocation of rights and privileges based on
> ethnic or religious affiliation was called apartheid. In Israel, it is
> called the Middle East's only democracy.
> 
> Most Israelis recoil at the thought of giving Palestinians equal
> rights, understandably fearing that a possible Palestinian majority
> will treat Jews the way Jews have treated Palestinians. They fear
> the destruction of the never-defined "Jewish state." The one-state
> solution, however, neither destroys the Jewish character of the
> Holy Land nor negates the Jewish historical and religious
> attachment (although it would destroy the superior status of Jews
> in that state). Rather, it affirms that the Holy Land has an equal
> Christian and Muslim character.
> 
> For those who believe in equality, this is a good thing. In theory,
> Zionism is the movement of Jewish national liberation. In practice,
> it has been a movement of Jewish supremacy. It is this domination
> of one ethnic or religious group over another that must be defeated
> before we can meaningfully speak of a new era of peace; neither
> Jews nor Muslims nor Christians have a unique claim on this sacred
> land.
> 
> The struggle for Palestinian equality will not be easy. Power is
> never voluntarily shared by those who wield it. Palestinians will
> have to capture the world's imagination, organize the international
> community and refuse to be seduced into negotiating for their
> rights.
> 
> But the struggle against South African apartheid proves the battle
> can be won. The only question is how long it will take, and how
> much all sides will have to suffer, before Israeli Jews can view
> Palestinian Christians and Muslims not as demographic threats but
> as fellow citizens.
> 
> Michael Tarazi is a legal adviser to the Palestine Liberation
> Organization.
> =============
> 
> 
> 
> Cheeseburger
> 
> - Where has the sparrow gone now that I need its song.
> 
> 
> 
> ------------------------------
> 
> Message: 7
> Date: Thu, 28 Oct 2004 15:21:01 -0700
> From: ean at sbcglobal.net
> Subject: [Mb-civic] Robert Fisk on Margarat Hassen kidnapping
> To: ean at sbcglobal.net
> Message-ID: <200410282251.i9SMpJJe005192 at dune>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
> 
> 
> The Independent via ZNet - October 21, 2004
> http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=15&ItemID=6468
> 
> Kidnapped Humanitarian
> 
> by Robert Fisk
> 
> Margaret? Margaret Hassan kidnapped? She who said to me that soon,
> very soon, "there will be more than one lost generation" in Iraq?
> 
> Is there no end to the kidnappers' targets? Margaret Hassan was abducted
> at 7.30 yesterday morning on her way to work running Care International's
> Iraq operation. Soon afterwards, Arabic al-Jazeera television showed her
> sitting in a room looking calm, if concerned. It also showed close-ups of
> her identification papers and said an unnamed Iraqi group claimed it had
> kidnapped her.
> 
> Margaret was the enemy of United Nations sanctions on Iraq. She is the
> symbol of all those who believe that Iraq - a real, free, unoccupied Iraq
> - has a future; and all we can be told is that she, too, has joined the
> legion of the unpersons, the "disappeared", the list of those who, because
> of their language or the colour of their eyes or their nationality, have
> slipped into Iraq's dark hole.
> 
> The ultimate disgrace yesterday was to hear British diplomats who
> supported those deadly sanctions weeping their crocodile tears for
> "Margaret".
> 
> Tony Blair rushed to say Britain will do all that it can to secure her
> release. "There is really a limit at this stage what I can say to you, but
> obviously we will do whatever we can," he said, while standing beside the
> UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, in London.
> 
> "It shows the kind of people we are up against that they are prepared to
> kidnap somebody like this. We do not know which group it is."
> 
> But Mr Blair, remember, fully supported the sanctions which Margaret
> loathed. And, of course, he supported George Bush's invasion that led to
> the chaos that has engulfed Iraq.
> 
> Kidnappers have killed at least 35 foreign nationals in Iraq since the
> invasion. Iraqis seen as co-operating with the occupation forces or the
> US-backed Iraqi interim government have also been targeted for kidnapping.
> This week two Macedonian contractors who had been abducted were beheaded.
> And two weeks ago the same fate befell the British contractor Ken Bigley.
> And now Margaret has been taken. Margaret, who above all is a
> humanitarian.
> 
> I first met her when The Independent exposed the use by the Americans and
> British of depleted uranium munitions in the 1991 Gulf War, and the
> explosion of cancers and leukaemia that afflicted Iraqi children in the
> years that followed. Readers of The Independent donated 250,000 for
> medicines and Care - for which Margaret worked - undertook to distribute
> the vaccines around the hospitals of Iraq. Margaret and her Dublin
> colleague Judy Morgan found the trucks to take these vital medicines
> across Iraq to try to save the small creatures in the children's "wards of
> death".
> 
> I watched Margaret cajole the truck drivers, plead with the hospitals,
> bargain with the air-conditioning moguls to deliver vincristine and other
> fluids to the children's hospitals in the October heat.
> 
> For 30 years Margaret has devoted herself to Iraq. She started working for
> Care International soon after it began operations there in 1991 at the end
> of the Gulf War. She has a staff of 60 Iraqis who run nutrition, health
> and water programmes the length and breadth of the country. She is married
> to an Iraqi and, though Irish-born, she carries British and Iraqi
> nationality.
> 
> She "considers herself an Iraqi national", Amber Meikle, Care
> International's spokeswoman, said yesterday. "We want to stress that she
> sees herself as an Iraqi. Iraq is her home. She has been living there for
> many years and would never consider coming back to Britain."
> 
> Margaret is a driven woman, as I recall so well. Every week, every day,
> every hour, the evidence of human tragedy on a massive scale - a UN
> sanctions disaster which they could do little or nothing to alleviate -
> mounted on their desks in the Care office in a fly-blown estate of
> Baghdad.
> 
> Yesterday, I went back to an old blue-covered notebook and an interview
> with Margaret. It is dated 5 October 1998. In the margin, I have written
> of her: "She doesn't shout when she speaks, but her indignation - uttered
> above her office's hissing air-conditioner - comes across as a cry, angry
> and frustrated, from someone who is tired of listening to platitudes."
> 
> These were black days, but the tragedy continues to unfold for her adopted
> nation. "This is a man-made disaster," she told me, banging her right hand
> into the palm of her left. "Yes, some people have benefited from what we
> have done. But we can't solve the problem of Iraq. It's got no economy. We
> can't replace this with aid."
> 
> Margaret pulled a thick file across her desk back in 1998. "What use can
> we be here?" she asked. "Now if this was a Third World country, we could
> bring in some water pumps at a cost of a few hundred pounds and they could
> save thousands of lives. But Iraq was not a Third World country before the
> [1991] war, and you can't run a developed society on aid. The doctors here
> are excellent - many were trained in Europe as well as Iraq - but because
> of sanctions, they haven't had access to a medical journal for eight
> years."
> 
> Margaret suspected that westerners had somehow divorced themselves from
> ordinary Iraqis during the 13 years of UN sanctions.
> 
> "I don't think we see them as people," she told me. "If you see someone
> suffering, if you have a grain of humanity in you, you have to respond to
> that. Sanctions are inhuman and what we are doing cannot redress that
> inhumanity.
> 
> "They are contrary to the UN charter which enshrines the rights of the
> individual. It's a contradiction, a hypocrisy. It's Dr Jekyll and Mr
> Hyde."
> 
> There were times when even she was almost beaten. I remember one
> afternoon, after she had sent our medicines to the doomed cancer babies of
> Baghdad, when Margaret seemed defeated.
> 
> "The people here are really, really suffering," she said. "Do people know
> what it's like for a mother to wake up each morning not knowing how to
> feed her children? I don't think westerners see Iraqis as ordinary
> people."
> 
> Before the war to remove Saddam Hussein, Margaret was among the many
> who warned the British Government that an invasion and occupation would
> produce a humanitarian crisis in a country already severely weakened by
> the embargoes.
> 
> It is the ultimate irony that a woman who was brave and good and decent
> enough to oppose the shameful sanctions with which we chose to purge the
> Iraqi people should now be taken by kidnappers in Baghdad.
> 
> If ever there was a true friend of Iraqis, it is Margaret Hassan. Brave,
> outspoken, steadfast, she is a heroine. Her captors should be humbled that
> they can speak to so fine a lady.
> 
> (c) 2004 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd
> 
> -
>