Chapter 54 your ancestors

Back from the restored ancient city of Babylon, everyone was silent all the way, but I kept thinking about cuneiform writing.The modern fakes seen on the city walls are associated with the real inscriptions of the local ancients four or five thousand years ago.Thanks to the efforts of archaeologists in deciphering the cuneiform writing, we know that there are genuine verses in this clay tablet. These verses show that disaster and disorder were already the subject of this land four or five thousand years ago.For example, anonymous poets are often looking for their goddesses: O our goddess, When will you return to this desolate homeland?

The goddess also replied: he chased me, I fled like a bird from the temple; he chased me, I escaped the city like a bird. Alas, my hometown, It's too far away from me! This is the soft voice that came from here four or five thousand years ago. Following this ancient poetic sentiment, we decided that we must look for an elementary school and a children's hospital today. It soon got his wish, because the authorities here are very willing to complain to the outside world about the bombing, siege and embargo against them in this way. Children are always exciting. We walked into the classroom of what is said to be the best elementary school in Baghdad. The children, led by their teachers, shouted: Down with America!Oppose the embargo!Don't hurt us!Long live President Saddam!After shouting, sit with your arms folded, which is different from the sitting posture with your hands behind your back in the classroom when we were young.Most of the children had a bad complexion and looked at us with their big deep eyes open very stiffly, without a smile on their faces.

Lu Yu bent down and asked a boy in the front row to take out his textbook to have a look. The textbook the boy took out was wrapped in plastic paper, but there were many torn pages inside.The teacher explained that the torn pages of the textbook were not caused by the child. Due to the embargo, there was no paper, and the textbooks could only be used by one grade and handed over to the next grade. I don’t know how many children’s hands have been transferred. You can see it like this They are all so cherished and wrapped in plastic paper. This kind of detail made us very sad, and we immediately remembered that when we were in Jordan, an old man said that it is best to give some small stationery to Iraqi children.We actually bought some, and hurried to the car to take them out, and each distributed some pencils, erasers, pencil sharpeners and the like.Small things are stuffed in pairs of soft little hands, I really regret bringing too little.

I went to the playground and saw that a class was having a physical education class. The girls skipped rope and the boys played football.I went to the boy's side, picked up the ball and slapped it on the ground, but there was no elasticity at all. It turned out to be a cracked hard plastic ball.The teacher said that there are only three such broken plastic balls left in the school, and they won't last long. We know that this is the best school. We don't know what will happen to other schools. In Iraq, the proportion of out-of-school children is probably not a small number.I asked the officials here, and the answer is that there are no out-of-school children, only a few drop-outs.This statement is obviously not true, as long as you look at any street corner in broad daylight, you will know.

When we left the elementary school, we saw two boys passing by the door pushing a large flatbed cart.Gui Ping quickly stopped them, and Lu Yu rushed over to ask them. They were two brothers. The elder brother was thirteen years old, and he stopped to answer questions openly, while the younger brother went to pull two flatbed carts by the side of the road. This elder brother has slightly curly hair, a dark complexion, shy and mature eyes, and at a glance, he knows that he has already borne a heavy burden of life.Asked why he didn't study, he said calmly that his father died in the war, and his mother and sister were still at home.This terse answer silenced us all.

I took out two ballpoint pens from my pocket and stuffed them in the brothers' hands. I wanted to say something, but I finally didn't speak.Yes, children, you may not be able to read or write, and you don’t need ballpoint pens, but do you know that your ancestors were the first to invent writing in the world.When you are free to pull the cart, even draw a few strokes like your ancestors carved cuneiform.This thought comes from your eastern nation that invented oracle bone inscriptions. Going to the Children's Hospital made me even more uncomfortable.So many very sick children, many of them infants, waiting for medicine, which is embargoed.On each bed in the ward sat a mother in black, holding her child expressionlessly.Lu Yu wanted to open the topic and asked a mother: Such a young child is so sick, you must have not finished talking in your heart, and this mother burst into tears, choking with sobs.Lu Yu wanted to apologize, but he already had tears in his eyes.

We wanted to leave some money for every mother in the ward, but as soon as we found out, we were strictly stopped by the person in charge of the hospital.I had to walk out of the ward and wander the corridors.In the corridor, there are many posters, all with children as the theme.One was headlined: Embargo kills Iraqi children.Another, titled Remember, depicts a pair of big eyes of a baby. A lot of words from different directions came out of my mind, and I couldn't understand it for a while. I would like to say that the reasons for many international punishments may be just, but in the end, the real recipients of the punishment are a large group of the most innocent people.The person you most want to punish still has top international wealth.

Although international punishment can cause economic chaos in a country, for a totalitarian country, this kind of chaos can actually nourish a class that uses power for personal gain. Do you think that long-term extreme poverty can breed people's resistance to the regime?Wrong, the fact is right in front of our eyes, when people lack freedom of choice, they can adapt to everything, including adapting to poverty; the direct consequence of poverty is not resistance, but the loss of dignity, and groups that have lost dignity are more able to accept totalitarian rule. Some people also know that the ultimate recipients of punishment are the people, but they think that the suffering of the people is a kind of psychological punishment for the rulers. This is also wishful thinking.Whipping a son can make a father sad, but the relationship between the ruler and the people here is not father and son, or even president and voters in your mind.

Of course, I also want to say something about another aspect.You are known as the modern lions, dare to resist the siege of dozens of countries, right and wrong here has its own public opinion, and I will not comment for the time being; but since you are a masculine man, why do you always push the poorest children and women in the front for publicity, which has caused a lot of trouble? The pity of others?A man should protect children and women even if he suffers. Why are you doing the opposite? The above are just the emotions of a literati, and are of no importance. I think there will be no difficulty in publishing them outside this country.

I think I have the right to express these sentiments, as a pilgrim of Babylonian civilization.Babylon is related to the whole world, and everything in front of us is related to Babylon. November 13, 1999, Baghdad, overnight at Rasheed Hotel