Kaj Halberg - writer & photographer
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Iraq 1973: Snippets from Iraq
Iraqi farmers near the town of Aziziya, southern Iraq. (Photo copyright © by Kaj Halberg)
In the Residence Department, Baghdad:
“Mister, if you want a 3-month-visa for Iraq, you must go to our embassy in Kuwait!”
In the Iraqi Embassy, Kuwait:
“Mister, if you want a 3-month-visa for Iraq, you must go to the Residence Department in Baghdad!”
Questions and opinions of Iraqi students:
“Mister Arne, Mister Kaj, can you like went to my village?”
“Mister Arne, Mister Kaj, can you know about oil civilization?”
“Mister Arne, can you like drink a cigarette?”
“There is too much dead in Iraq!”
“There is too much land in Iraq!”
“There is too much birds in Iraq!”
“I like Hitler. He killed Jews.”
“This man is the sister of my father.”
Police controls along roads:
“Mister, where you go?”
“Mister, where are go?”
In the town of Nasiriya, a young man approaches us and says: “Hello, I am the tourist guide of this town. Where would you like to go? Museum?”
However, we have now been in Iraq for a month and are well aware, that if someone presents himself as a tourist guide, he is invariably an agent from the ubiquitous secret police.
We ask him about the population of Nasiriya, and his answer is somewhat unprecise: “Very big!”
Asking a man in a town in central Iraq:
“Hello, where is the road to Diwaya?”
“I will follow you to police!” (That is, the secret police.)
Secondary school class, Aziziya. (Photo copyright © by Kaj Halberg)
(Uploaded February 2016)
(Latest update July 2019)