Fairy tales often have a universal appeal and draw children of all nations into their magical world. Pinocchio is no exception where the Blue Fairy rewards moral behavior and grants a puppet flesh-and-blood status.

I do doubt, however, that children in Iraq or Afghanistan could understand why an inanimate, man-made object would ever want to be a child of the flesh and blood kind. In their world, the flesh of children is there for the maiming and the blood for flowing –unlike those beautiful, sacrosanct objects of art which must be preserved and doted on.

As the British Independent reports, “an international band of curators and historians anxious not to repeat the damage inflicted on Iraqi treasures during the Gulf War 11 years ago are appealing to the American government to take the historic sites into account.” ()

A similar surge of concern was observed when, about six months before the 9/11 attacks, Afghanistan made a brief appearance in the news. The world was outraged then, but not because hundreds of thousands children’s lives were flickering away in refuges camps where lack of education, food, and opportunities stole away their childhood and diseases and lack of medical care made sure many never grow into adults. The world was not outraged because the Taliban regime was denying medical care to women (and children) by not allowing women healthcare workers to work and men to take care of women. The outrage was not that the United States had pushed the U.N. to slap economic sanctions on the country -because of its refusal to turn over Osama bin Laden- that made things worse for the worst off, the poorest, the most vulnerable in the country (according to some estimates, the sanctions increased the price of basic medicines up to 50%) without providing leverage or means to make things better.

It was the 1,400-year-old Buddha statues carved into the mountainside at Bamiyan that triggered the heart-rending cries of concern. The New York Times (03/19/01) reported that Taliban envoy Rahmatullah Hashimi explained that the decision was made after an international NGO offered money to restore the statues but refused to allow the money to be used in refugee camps — where 300 children had just died. Hashimi recounted that the NGO was asked that “instead of spending money on statues, why didn’t they help our children who are dying of malnutrition?” Upon being told that “this money is only for statues”, they decided to destroy them.

Germany, Malaysia and Japan joined Russia, India, United States, Egypt and others to decry the barbarity. Offers poured in: money to restore the statues, money to remove the statues for safekeeping somewhere else, money to change the rulers’ minds. Money that had not been pouring in for the refugee camps, for food, for clean water.

Now the world’s archeologists and curators are afraid a similar outrage will occur to the historical artifacts in Iraq. The Independent quotes Helen McDonald, of the British School of Archaeology in Iraq, based at Cambridge University, who explained that last time the Iraqis had tried to move a great deal of their most important objects out into storage in the countryside and that they have already begun to do so again.

“But some things are immovable, such as huge stones. If a bomb hits a museum or something, that would be it,” she said.

Sure enough, she notes, “The British School of Archaeology in Iraq has written [about this]. They wrote to the Foreign Office during the Gulf War to express concern, not just on the humanitarian grounds but the effects that it would have on the culture.”

Bombing of stones isn’t the only potential cause of horrors, according to Charles Tripp, of the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. He warns that in the wake of the Gulf War, sanctions had inadvertently caused as much damage to the archaeological sites of Iraq as direct attack. Trip notes: “The conditions of poverty had led to much looting of archaeological sites and site museums, which often contained significant finds even after the best items were removed to Baghdad. Numerous finds have turned up on the art market in the West.” Dr Tripp observes that “there is a lot of temptation in a destitute country to rip something out that has a saleable value in the West.”

Yes, especially since UNICEF reports that at least half a million children have died due to those sanctions. () I can imagine parents looting and prying loose every single stone, rock, tablet, gem or otherwise inanimate object in that country to try to obtain food or simple medicines.

It has been reported that when a journalist asked Mahatma Gandhi what he thought about Western Civilization, he replied, “it would be a good idea.”

Indeed, it would be a good idea; unfortunately, it’s unlikely we’ll be able to muster that up in short order so we need a more serious, urgent and miraculous intervention.

We need the Blue Fairy who turned Pinocchio into flesh to perform a reverse miracle.

So here goes.

Please, Blue Fairy, turn the children of Iraq into stone. The older the stone better. Stone with cracks and signs of aging and weather damage would be perfect. Hopefully, that will evoke some protective reflexes and caring in their direction.

And, Blue Fairly, while you are at it, please do the same for the children of Afghanistan which is once again facing famine since the investment required and promised has not been delivered, and the children of Southern Africa which is in the midst of a progressing famine due to the drought which might have been triggered partly by global warming, and the children in Central America which is now threatened by famine thanks to the crisis in the coffee industry which never paid farmers more than a pittance of their enormous profit.

If Blue Fairy does not come through, I encourage the Iraqis to start their own make-a-wish foundation, which grants wishes to children with terminal illnesses. Of course, in Iraq, because of the sanctions, easily curable diseases like cholera and treatable childhood problems like leukemia are often terminaland then there are the congenital birth defects in the depleted-uranium-polluted south.

That make-a-wish foundation should take those children, whose childhood we have collectively destroyed, to the precious museums and let them play with all those precious stones and tablets. The children should paint them with indelible ink. They should throw them to the ground from high buildings to see from which floor they pulverize most easily. They should be encouraged to play team games and see which team can hammer a tablet into dust fastest.

Maybe, just maybe, what must surely be the collective wish of all those children and their families will come true. Maybe, amidst the predictable outrage over crushed stone, the world will notice them.

And maybe, just maybe, the biggest miracle of all will happen without the Blue Fairy — our hearts of stone will turn into flesh and blood.

ZEYNEP TOUFE is a doctoral student in Austin, Texas. She can be reached at

The Sacramento Municipal Utility District is setting the stage for the next Trinity River fish kill. The SMUD board voted to do this despite the Hoopa Valley tribe asking SMUD to drop a lawsuit that would damage both the river and fish.

The recent deaths of 30,000 fish on the Klamath River in Humboldt County are a tragic indication of how political expediency combined with economic greed can destroy a unique part of California’s environment. The Klamath River is connected to the Trinity River, which runs through our reservation. Many of the dead fish in the Klamath River came from our tribal fishery.

These fish died because they did not get enough water. The water was given to farmers in Oregon who illegally opened the water gates while the federal government did nothing to protect the rights of either Native Americans or endangered salmon.

As chairman of the Hoopa Valley tribe, the loss of these fish grieves me. We have performed religious dances for thousands of years to give thanks for this source of food and spirituality.

We cooperated for 20 years with the U.S. Department of the Interior to develop a plan to share waters of the Trinity River with out-of-basin users. In the past, those users have taken up to 90 percent of the river’s water and have devastated fish spawning. When former Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt signed an agreement in 2000 to leave 47 percent of the water in the river, SMUD joined Westlands Water District in a suit blocking the agreement.

Utility economists calculate it would only cost the average Sacramento utility consumer $2 a year more if SMUD’s share of Trinity River water was held to 53 percent. This seems a small price for saving an endangered species and one of the last wild and scenic rivers in America.

But, when the Hoopa Valley tribe asked SMUD to drop its lawsuit, the board voted 6-1 to continue it. (Susan Patterson voted against continuing the suit.) This from a board with a public mission statement promising energy “in an environmentally responsible manner.”

This is especially sad in light of an October 1 Sacramento Bee article noting that “SMUD could soon be raising more money than it needs through rates.” Some SMUD board members are running for re-election and are talking about giving customers a rebate. If board members really want to give their customers something significant, they should consider giving the water back to fish in the Trinity River.

Clifford Lyle Marshall is chairman of the Hoopa Valley tribe.