I've been half alseep on the sofa of our stupefying office for the last ten minutes, idly watching Mike lose the really important document he was working on, courtesy of the Baghdad heat and power supply messing with his computer. Mine has already died and we are all getting so tired now, I couldn't even muster the energy to feel sorry for him. It really saps your strength - especially inside.
But I was instantly roused by two things - the loud screech of car wheels narrowly missing the tank outside our hotel as it sped round the corner, and the quiet little ping of the aircon coming back to life. It's a tiny noise - but we are now all tuned to it in a desperate and pathetic way.
So, I'm awake, I'm still here and we are still working.
The other day we were invited to interview a senior member of the Iraq Atomic Energy Commission, the local equivalent of the IAEA. It's not the first high level invitation or interview we have had. I guess people realise that we can make a noise.
He was cagey at first - he asked Mike how he could be sure we didn't work for Bremer - the man heading up the the US civil administration - and by the way, the man who says he's responsible for public health and of course there is no health problem here.
Anyway, Mike looked at him incredulously and muttered - "What with this hair?" (He's got a lot woolier since we took his photo nearly a month ago!)
Eventually he warmed up a bit, and it was clear that he felt he could not go too far .... but we all knew what he thought and what he wanted to say. And credit where it's due - he could have just ignored us. Here, like so many other places, politics is power, knowledge is power and people believe in order to say something with effect you need to be on the inside. Alternatively you could do what we do and just do something.
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