Children in Iraq

Tuesday, February 18, 2003
05:14:04 PM
Baghdad: Today we went to a childrens hospital. It was very difficult to see this and to video it. The children were very sick, the familes were there crying. Babies in incubators, babies in their mothers arms. The mothers were all there taking care of their children. All the children had family present. Some fathers were there standing by just watching. We interviewed a doctor who said the disease is a blood disease called "kalazar" (or something like that), and with a medication called "pintastat", which is not very special, and if the medication is adminstered for twenty one days, that there is a 95 percent recovery. Without the medication 70 percent will die. The medication is being sanctioned by the un and the usa. This is total insanity, it is cruel, barbaric and sickening. One man stopped us and asked us to video some babies, one of them was his. Fathers were there helpless, mothers were there dressed in black and weeping. It is difficult to shoot video of this. But it's important. One mother said that she had a disease from the time of the 1991 war from chemical weapons and that now her baby was suffering from the same disease.

Thursday, February 20, 2003
00:39:38
(at Al Amiriya bomb shelter) After the action most people gave interviews but i just played with the children. It was fun, i was totally mobed by them and shooting lots of video and exchanging names and hello and shaking dozens of little hands. It was very beautiful, the children are very beautiful.... they know very little english but want to show off what they do know, "hello" and "hello mister" are very popular, one little girl came up to me and said "I love you" i told her i love her too, then several girls started saying it... so cute... so precious... so beautiful... this i hope is the next generation of peace activists. I gave my name and "skill" to several boys, said hello aboout a thousand times, picked some of them up with one hand, and repeatedly played tug of war with my own arm.

Sunday, February 23, 2003
05:12:29
Mosul: Our first stop is the childrens hospital... ouch... this hospital has 200 beds... and 2 to 3 children die here a day. The levels of malignant dieases has increased by a factor of ten since the 1991 war. Beautiful children dying. Their parents by their side, helping to take care of them. Holding the oxygen masks, feeding them, staying by their sides. Every child had their parents there.

Stop the war, stop all war!