LAM-17

The Lost Iraqi Boy

/ kevinhobbs

| Letters to Ambrose Merton # 17, 1999

The following extracts are from The Diary column, edited by Matthew Norman, and published in The Guardian newspaper.

17 March 1999

I am distressed by Tam Dalyell’s wilful refusal to… stop being beastly to poor Robin Cook. By way of justifying bombing Iraq… Cookie cited a boy – now aged 16 – who has been in prison since the age of five for throwing a stone at a mural portrait of Saddam… However, when asked for details, such as the boy’s name and that of the prison, Cookie became vague, merely insisting his source was reliable. Cynical old Tam was unconvinced by this, and tabled a parliamentary question asking for the source of this heart-rending tale. After prevaricating for weeks, the written answer finally came on Monday. That impeccable source, said Robin, was the Defence Secretary… Tam has now tabled a question to George Robertson…

19 March 1999

Mr Robertson responded, “I will reply” he said, in a written reply, “answer shortly”. Take your time, George. There’s no hurry at all.

24 March 1999

Here, then is George’s written reply. “The information came to me from my noble friend the Minister for Defence Procurement [Lord Gilbert…] who was told of the case at a private occasion by a reliable source who had been in Baghdad at the time.” George’s answer continues: “I am withholding further details under Section 12 of the Code of Practice on Access to Government relating to the privacy of an individual.” Presumably, in other words, the informant was a spook. “The account is consistent with other accounts of the repressive brutality of Saddam’s regime. For example, the Iraqi National Accord [an anti-Saddam outfit funded by the CIA and MI6] a six-year old boy was accused together with his father of participating in an uprising against Saddam. He and his father were shot.” Amnesty International’s Iraq specialist was yesterday unable to find any record of this new case, or other the other one with which George concludes his reply – that of a 12-year-old boy imprisoned for three months because his father had opposed Saddam. Having received his reply, Tam Dalyell yesterday went to the Commons’s Tabling Office to put down a follow-up question requesting from George the names of these two new boys… the Tabling Office refused permission, citing the same source-protecting Section 12…

Angel & Devil on Your Shoulder 1

/ kevinhobbs

Sandy Hobbs | Letters to Ambrose Morten # 17, 1999

My four year old grandson, Owen McLaughlin, recently told me that it is the devil who makes you do bad things. He sits on one of your shoulders, while an angel sits on the other. What are the origins of this concept? Biblical devils and angels seem to me to be human size. Biblical devils may be inside people (and hence can be cast out) but I can find no reference to one sitting on a shoulder.

Yet, the concept is a fairly familiar one to me. It can be found in popular culture. In the film, National Lampoon’s Animal House (directed by John Landis, 1978), Larry Kroger (Thomas Hulce) is in a bedroom with a girl who passes out drunk. A small devil figure (red, carrying a trident) appears on one side of the screen, encouraging him to have sex with her. An angel (with halo and harp) appears on the other side of the screen encouraging him to stop. Neither is strictly speaking “on his shoulder” but both could be said to be at his shoulder.

In the Oor Wullie comic strip annual (published by D.. C. Thomson, 1976) there is a story in which the schoolboy hero, Wullie, finds the answers to a forthcoming exam. His “Bad Self” and “Better Self” appear hovering in “clouds”, respectively inducing him to use and not use the answers. Although not called a devil and an angel, these figures are protrayed as such. “Bad Self” has horns, pointed ears and horns. “Better Self” has wings and a halo. As in the previous example, they are not actually on the hero’s shoulders.

There is film called Angel On My Shoulder (directed by Archie Mayo, 1946) which I have not seen. Although the title suggests a link with the concept Owen mentioned, this may be misleading. Synopses in reference books indicate that the story concerns a dead gangster given a “second life” on earth by the Devil.

Is there a connection with lines which occur near the end of Shakespeare’s Othello? Gratiano, seeing the body of the murdered Desdemona, expresses his satisfaction that her father is already dead. If the father had seen her, he would have cursed “his better Angel from his side” and committed suicide. If he had a “better Angel” by his side, does that imply he also had a “worse Angel”?

Can any reader more familiar with religious lore provide more background?