2003-02-25 10:43 pm

Mapmaker

Spent the last three hours trawling the web trying to find out whether Iraqis want a war or not.

As far as I can tell, they're divided on the issue.

So in the absence of any Iraqi concensus, I've decided that they don't.

The top deck of the night bus often gets steamy, especially when it is full. About three weeks ago, a young Arab man began to write on the windows. Everyone watched him. He wrote slowly in big letters.

F

U

(Ah, I thought. Charming)

C

K

(Confirming my fears)

Y

O

U

He stopped and thought for a second, and then wrote:

B

U

S

I wasn't sure why he was exhibiting this diffused hatred towards the bus, or the people on the bus. A generalised hatred of westerners, I thought.

Then he added an H, and it all became clear.

Most people laughed. The Arab man reached up and lazily scratched out the words with his hand, and behind me I heard a young German say: "No, no. Don't rub it out."

But the Arab man was drawing something else. It was a strange blob, that looked like an anvil. In the middle of the anvil he wrote the word IRAQ. Then near the top he wrote very slowly, the word NORTH. Across the bottom he wrote SOUTH. Then next to North at the top he wrote a longer word:

KURDISTAN

His face was defiant and proud when he turned to sit down, and nobody said anything.

I went home and I lay in bed for a long time thinking about it. I couldn't sleep, and eventually I got up and drank a lot of gin.

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