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22 January 2004

Greetings:

Bruce has left Iraq and news articles (this one I found was 7 hours
old according to the search engine I used!) are starting to
appear.this one from The Edmonton Sun:

Thursday, January 22, 2004

Bruce's Baghdad blues

By CP

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands -- Bruce Cockburn, just back from a trip to
Baghdad, says no one there believes the Americans invaded their
country to free them from a dictator.

Although many Iraqis are relieved that U.S. forces have removed
Saddam Hussein from power, "the prevailing belief in Iraq right now
is that their only agenda is oil," Cockburn said yesterday.

And the continuing lack of security and basic services like
electricity are fuelling resentment against the Americans, the
Canadian singer said in an interview.

Travelling light with only a camera, knapsack, sleeping bag, notepads
and a guitar, Cockburn set off earlier this month on the trip to get
a better sense of what life is like for Iraqis.

"And what's happening in Iraq is pivotal to the unfolding of history
right now," he said. "This is the most blatant test of America's
empire-building capacity at this moment in history and it's a test of
the neo-conservative agenda, so I wanted to see what that looks like
up close."

The Ottawa-born singer is known for championing social causes, having
taken trips to other war-torn countries like Cambodia and Mozambique.
His songs, such as Lovers in a Dangerous Time and Waiting for a
Miracle, often comment on social issues.

On this trip he travelled with three American friends -- a bishop, a
health worker and a photo journalist. They visited squatter
communities, hospitals, schools, cultural centres, maternity clinics.
The feeling of not being safe is one of the biggest concerns in
Baghdad, Cockburn said. Making matters worse was the absence of
reliable essential services such as electricity, gas and telephones.

"We tend to think of electrical power so we can play our CDs, but
electrical power is required to pump sewage," he said. "So when the
power goes off, the sewage floats up into the streets. The kids are
playing in it."

"There's a complete social breakdown," Cockburn said. "I met so many
people who reminded us that even Saddam restored electricity within a
few days of the first Gulf War."

Cockburn said he ran into a lot of anti-American sentiments. "I
didn't find a single Iraqi that thought that the Americans had
invaded Iraq to rescue them from a dictator."

Here's some links to other articles currently running in the Canadian
press:

Bruce's Baghdad Blues Edmunton Sun
http://www.canoe.ca/EdmontonNews/es.es-01-22-0090.ht

Canadian Singer Gets Close Look at Iraq
http://www.canada.com/entertainment/story.asp?id=48877595-57B4-4BFB-
8317-C6D89B5A4B7D

That's it for tonight!

Peace,
Suzanne Myers
editor@...

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