Copyright: http://www.iviews.com
Published Thursday January 27, 2000
By Susan Schwartz
What follows is an interview with Mrs. Lorraine Al-Rawi.
Lorraine is a convert to Islam. Her husband is Iraqi and
she is the mother of six children, the youngest a
daughter only a few months old. Lorraine has travelled
to Iraq, and has reported on conditions in that
beleaguered nation -- specifically the disastrous effects
of the United States sponsored embargo.
Lorraine has toured Iraq extensively. She and two of
her daughters, Kouthar, 12, and Marwa, 11, have
initiated a campaign "One Million Postcards for Iraq"
that has received national publicity.
Susan: Lorraine, will you tell us how many times you
have visited Iraq since the imposition of the embargo?
Lorraine: I have visited Iraq three times since the
embargo and have spent a total of three months there.
Susan: Were any of the Iraqis you met reluctant to
speak out?
Lorraine: None of the Iraqis we met were reluctant to
speak out. They were actually happy that someone
wanted to hear the stories they had to tell and that
their voices could be heard.
Susan: Will you tell us with perhaps some illustrations
about how the embargo has affected the infrastructure?
How the embargo has affected schooling? How has the
embargo has affected the diet of the population?
Lorraine: The embargo has affected the infrastructure in
many ways. One example would be contaminated
water. Iraq is unable to purify all the water that the
society needs. The power plants are in a poor state of
repair, and the electricity is cut on a regular basis.
Believe me, when the temperature is 140 degrees
Fahrenheit, it is not pleasant. The air stands still, and
breathing becomes difficult. Imagine a person who
suffers from asthma and has no access to medicine.
Medicine -- even non-prescription medication that we
take for granted -- is virtually non-existent due to the
embargo.
As for schooling, Iraq had a 90 percent literacy rate
before the embargo. Now it stands below 50 percent.
Children have been forced to leave school and sell
trinkets and personal items on the street in order to
survive. I attended a high school chemistry class that
was experimenting, with no success, with chemicals
more than 10 years old. Not surprisingly, they could
not achieve results.
As for diet, I know and know of children who have never
tasted meat. The current oil-for-food rations provide a
very basic diet of rice, tea, flour, beans, oil and sugar.
There are virtually no fruits, vegetables, eggs or meat
included. The rations last an average of three weeks,
and on the last week, many of the families literally
starve. With many of the salaries in the neighborhood
of $3.00 a month, families still have to take care of all
normal necessities and extra food, if at all possible.
Susan: Before the embargo, Iraq had a medical
program free to all its citizens. It was on a par with
Western nations and was considered by many to be a
model. How has that changed since the embargo?
Lorraine: That system has collapsed. It has
deteriorated to the level of a third world country. Iraq
still has an educated population of doctors, but they
have very limited equipment and very few drugs. One of
my aunts through marriage died of a gastrointestinal
ailment that could have been successfully treated by
items we can purchase in any drugstore in the West.
Susan: Can you, after your numerous trips to Iraq,
trace the descent of that nation?
Lorraine: As I answer these questions, Iraq is
flourishing in many ways, yet dying as a nation in
others. The people there have faced extreme hardships
in life, and they continue to survive.
The Iraqis fix things in incredibly creative ways. In this
country when an appliance is broken, it is replaced
immediately. In Iraq, a generation of very ingenious
problem solvers is being born. The loss of 250 children
a day would devastate any nation.
Susan: People in a nation effectively under siege must
suffer in their family relations. What have you observed
in that arena?
Lorraine: I have seen first hand how family relations
suffer. My sister-in-law's husband has been out of the
country for four years working abroad to support his
family in Iraq. She has been forced by this situation to
raise two teenage sons and a daughter by herself.
During the important formative years of their lives, they
had essentially one parent. And, of course, families
suffer psychological damage every day from the
incredible stress brought on by the effects of the
embargo.
Susan: During the Spring of 1999 you returned from
Iraq with a young child who could not receive the
medical care she needed in Iraq. Could you tell us
something about her, her condition and how she is
faring now?
Lorraine: The child is scheduled for surgery on March 3
of this year. Her name is Maha, and she is 11 years
old. She faces several serious surgeries before she
can get back on her feet. Her condition, which is
congenital, could have been treated at an early age
had the medical system present before the embargo
still been operative. She could have been spared so
much suffering. As for her daily life, she has learned
English and is first in her class in school. Maha was
born with scoliosis, which resulted in severe deformity
in both feet and stiffness of all joints.
Susan: Please tell us about your postcard campaign.
Lorraine: The postcard campaign is going strong. Two
of my daughters are collecting one million postcards to
give to the President [of the United States] to protest
the economic sanctions. The postcards come from all
over the world and are largely, but not exclusively, from
children. We will continue to collect them until the
sanctions are lifted. Everyone is invited to submit a
postcard. One may join the campaign by sending a
card to: One Million Postcards Campaign, P. O. Box
1141, San Pedro, CA, 90733. The card may contain a
message opposing sanctions or a picture or both.
More information can be found on our website at:
http://member.aol.com/hamzaha/iraqichildren.
Susan: Do you have plans for expanding it?
Lorraine: Yes, we do have plans to expand it. We
would like to travel more on behalf of the program and
to have more people join our efforts.
Susan: If you had a message for the readers about the
Iraqi embargo, what would it be?
Lorraine: The message I have for readers is that
children are never responsible for adult actions. No
matter how much governments disagree with each
other, children should not be the victims of subsequent
hostile actions. Children have rights, and the rights of
Iraqi children should be acknowledged. End the
embargo for the sake of the children! I wish and pray
that the sanctions are removed promptly and that the
new millennium will bring renewed hope for the children
and people of Iraq and for all the world's suffering
children.