The newsroom office manager is a portly, moustachioed man in his fifties. Clearly once wealthy - he has two houses he tells me - fate has delivered a rather lowly task of looking after the office of a major news outlet. So he sits all day in the empty space and tries still to exude an air of importance about himself and his role...
"I have applied to be a British citizen" he proudly boasts to me. " I went to the embassy and they say it will take 1-2 months. "
"why do you want to be a British citizen?" I ask. "Because being an Iraqi citizen is hell" he spits back. We still have corruption, the new government will still look after itself and not the country and I want to go to where my mother lived - Birmingham, England."
Then he asked me out to dinner - I wish you better luck in Birmingham, mate!
Being an Iraqi citizen is hell, has been hell and he is right, will probably continue to be hell from what I have seen.
The infrastructure is shot to pieces - literally in some cases. Jobs are hard to come by, the average wage a pitiful $20 a month. Equipment and supplies are desperately thin on the ground, especially in hospitals and schools.
In our short trip I have seen endless new campaigns that we could run - not least a basic Keep Iraq Tidy campaign. There is rubbish everywhere - piled in fly swarming heaps on the streets in Baghdad.
In the villages it is even worse, but at least it gives the goats something to chew on.
The other day one of our drivers was ripping plastic wrappings from our water bottles and just leaving them where they dropped. I told him we shouldn't leave our rubbish in the middle of the road. Sorry he said, and smiling broadly he picked it up and dumped on the side of the road instead - creating a new heap for others to add to. I've got a long way to go to persuade them there is a reason to be more careful when there are so many other issues to concern them.
But I did see progress today - a garbage truck!!! In fairness even in the short time I have been here I have noticed more people clearing more rubbish and rubble - but it is a battered city, a battered country and they have a long way to go.
Iraq certainly seems to have welcomed us now we have "outed" ourselves. Rianne goes sampling in full Greenpeace gear with our yellow flag flying proud on the front of the Gypsy. She says it's a great
feeling when our car is recognised and people seem pleased to have her in their midst.
But just because we made the news one day, just because Mike finally got on the telly (he's always going on about being on the telly!!!) doesn't mean we stop now. We need to turn our little action into real pressure to clean up Iraq - and I don't just mean the rubbish. Lets start with the radioactivity and leave the garbage for the goats for now.
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