A man limps through the door of a Baghdad hospital. In the crowded entrance, a child comes up to him and pointing to the man's bandaged leg, asks in all innocence, if he had hurt himself playing football.
At first the question puzzles the man. His brow furrowed, he suddenly remembers he is wearing sports clothes and understands the reason for the boy’s odd query.
You see, in July 2003, a bullet wound would have been the likeliest reason someone went to hospital in Iraq, so a bona fide sports injury really would have been news.
Offering a small smile, the man shakes his head in response. Seemingly satisfied, the child runs off into the throng.
It is a true story. Looking back, I find it to be a bittersweet recollection from a time of confusion and turmoil.
Although it was 10 weeks after the official end of the US invasion of Iraq, from the look of things at Al Kindi General Hospital, the war seemed still in full swing.
Already in April, at the height of the invasion, the International Committee of the Red Cross had warned that Baghdad’s hospitals were overwhelmed by the flow of war-wounded patients. Access to clean water was also a major concern. By the summer, the situation had not greatly improved, as far as I could tell.
Al Kindi was one of Baghdad’s main hospitals. It would not have been my choice to go there, or to any hospital at all – given my seemingly minor injury, received during an armed robbery at the house where I had been staying while living in the Iraqi capital. But I had been sent there by the police who were investigating the crime. And I was told that it was correct procedure for me to visit a government hospital.
A history of Al Kindi Hospital in this century is also a part of the history of Iraq. As well as the casualties of war, the hospital has served anti-corruption protesters of 2019 targeted for demanding their rights, the infected during the Covid-19 pandemic, and the victims of ISIS terror attacks.
Staff have been attacked by the angry and grieving relatives of the deceased. Two decades ago, its doctors also defended the hospital during the post-invasion looting. There was also a high-profile case of staff being accused of rape in recent years.
Chatham House research shows that even today Iraqis struggle to get adequate access to medicine and treatment due to the corruption that has held back the country from overcoming decades of conflict.
While I waited to be seen by a doctor, who eventually confirmed that an X-ray showed my knee only required a course of physiotherapy to heal, I listened to the agonised screams of a child being sutured without anaesthetic. I was told there was a shortage of it. Brutal times. I considered myself lucky I didn’t need surgery or pain killers.
Throughout the main corridor of the hospital, I heard the lamentations of people grieving their loved ones. In the gloom – electricity was rationed there too – I felt as if I was in a place of purgatory. In such circumstances, it is painfully ironic to note that the origins of the word hospital imply a place of shelter.
For those of us who enjoy lives in peaceful countries, a hospital is where we go to get better in the hope of improving well-being. More often than not it fulfils our needs.
In wartime, for civilians, a hospital can be a sanctuary and a place of suffering. If you need medical treatment, where else can you go but to a hospital? And what happens when a hospital is caught up in conflict and hit by ordnance or rockets? Where should you go instead? And when patients' mental health deteriorates, because it cannot be separated from physical health, then the damage can last a lifetime. Even when the fighting stops, recovering physically and mentally is not easy.
The only solution then is to protect hospitals at all times, but especially in war. To never take medical services for granted, and to make sure the talented and dedicated people who staff hospitals, anywhere in the world, are as cared for as they care for patients. This course of action would serve humanity well, be it in Iraq, Ukraine or Gaza.
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COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Graduated from the American University of Sharjah
She is the eldest of three brothers and two sisters
Has helped solve 15 cases of electric shocks
Enjoys travelling, reading and horse riding
MATCH INFO
Wales 1 (Bale 45 3')
Croatia 1 (Vlasic 09')
MATCH INFO
Quarter-finals
Saturday (all times UAE)
England v Australia, 11.15am
New Zealand v Ireland, 2.15pm
Sunday
Wales v France, 11.15am
Japan v South Africa, 2.15pm
Sunday's games
Liverpool v West Ham United, 4.30pm (UAE)
Southampton v Burnley, 4.30pm
Arsenal v Manchester City, 7pm
The Bio
Favourite vegetable: “I really like the taste of the beetroot, the potatoes and the eggplant we are producing.”
Holiday destination: “I like Paris very much, it’s a city very close to my heart.”
Book: “Das Kapital, by Karl Marx. I am not a communist, but there are a lot of lessons for the capitalist system, if you let it get out of control, and humanity.”
Musician: “I like very much Fairuz, the Lebanese singer, and the other is Umm Kulthum. Fairuz is for listening to in the morning, Umm Kulthum for the night.”
Company profile
Name: Tharb
Started: December 2016
Founder: Eisa Alsubousi
Based: Abu Dhabi
Sector: Luxury leather goods
Initial investment: Dh150,000 from personal savings
The specs
Engine: 5.0-litre supercharged V8
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Power: 575bhp
Torque: 700Nm
Price: Dh554,000
On sale: now
It's up to you to go green
Nils El Accad, chief executive and owner of Organic Foods and Café, says going green is about “lifestyle and attitude” rather than a “money change”; people need to plan ahead to fill water bottles in advance and take their own bags to the supermarket, he says.
“People always want someone else to do the work; it doesn’t work like that,” he adds. “The first step: you have to consciously make that decision and change.”
When he gets a takeaway, says Mr El Accad, he takes his own glass jars instead of accepting disposable aluminium containers, paper napkins and plastic tubs, cutlery and bags from restaurants.
He also plants his own crops and herbs at home and at the Sheikh Zayed store, from basil and rosemary to beans, squashes and papayas. “If you’re going to water anything, better it be tomatoes and cucumbers, something edible, than grass,” he says.
“All this throwaway plastic - cups, bottles, forks - has to go first,” says Mr El Accad, who has banned all disposable straws, whether plastic or even paper, from the café chain.
One of the latest changes he has implemented at his stores is to offer refills of liquid laundry detergent, to save plastic. The two brands Organic Foods stocks, Organic Larder and Sonnett, are both “triple-certified - you could eat the product”.
The Organic Larder detergent will soon be delivered in 200-litre metal oil drums before being decanted into 20-litre containers in-store.
Customers can refill their bottles at least 30 times before they start to degrade, he says. Organic Larder costs Dh35.75 for one litre and Dh62 for 2.75 litres and refills will cost 15 to 20 per cent less, Mr El Accad says.
But while there are savings to be had, going green tends to come with upfront costs and extra work and planning. Are we ready to refill bottles rather than throw them away? “You have to change,” says Mr El Accad. “I can only make it available.”
Essentials
The flights: You can fly from the UAE to Iceland with one stop in Europe with a variety of airlines. Return flights with Emirates from Dubai to Stockholm, then Icelandair to Reykjavik, cost from Dh4,153 return. The whole trip takes 11 hours. British Airways flies from Abu Dhabi and Dubai to Reykjavik, via London, with return flights taking 12 hours and costing from Dh2,490 return, including taxes.
The activities: A half-day Silfra snorkelling trip costs 14,990 Icelandic kronur (Dh544) with Dive.is. Inside the Volcano also takes half a day and costs 42,000 kronur (Dh1,524). The Jokulsarlon small-boat cruise lasts about an hour and costs 9,800 kronur (Dh356). Into the Glacier costs 19,500 kronur (Dh708). It lasts three to four hours.
The tours: It’s often better to book a tailor-made trip through a specialist operator. UK-based Discover the World offers seven nights, self-driving, across the island from £892 (Dh4,505) per person. This includes three nights’ accommodation at Hotel Husafell near Into the Glacier, two nights at Hotel Ranga and two nights at the Icelandair Hotel Klaustur. It includes car rental, plus an iPad with itinerary and tourist information pre-loaded onto it, while activities can be booked as optional extras. More information inspiredbyiceland.com
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 261hp at 5,500rpm
Torque: 405Nm at 1,750-3,500rpm
Transmission: 9-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 6.9L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh117,059
How to help
Send “thenational” to the following numbers or call the hotline on: 0502955999
2289 – Dh10
2252 – Dh 50
6025 – Dh20
6027 – Dh 100
6026 – Dh 200
