- No one messed with Saddam Hussein Karim. Being named
after the Iraqi president meant respect and power, but that was before
the dictator was overthrown and pulled out of a spider hole.
-
- Now the nation's thousands of Saddams are queuing up
to change their once illustrious moniker to something more in tune with
the times.
-
- More than 300 are in the process of changing their names,
and each day several forlorn-looking Saddams visit Baghdad's directorate
of citizenship, where deed polls are granted. Many more are too scared
to own up in public and have quietly adopted a new identity.
-
- "It's the most depressing thing in the world to
be called Saddam Hussein," said Saddam Hussein Karim as he completed
the final paperwork for his name change.
-
- Parents used to be given $200 if they used the name for
their sons, now it brings discrimination and humiliation and fear of arrest
or attack.
-
- Saddam Hadi said: "My parents thought if I was called
Saddam I would get a head start in life. Instead they've given me a curse."
-
- "I tried to get a job with the Iraqi police,"
said Saddam Hussein Karim. "The police colonel took me aside and said
he didn't want any Saddam Husseins in his police force."
-
- Saddam Hadi said: "It is just plain embarrassing.
Whenever I think of the name Saddam I see a dirty old man living in a hole.
-
- "I'm sure that's what people think when they say
my name - that's why I need a new one."
-
- Yassen Taher al-Yassery, the citizenship director, said:
"I once knew someone called Zbaal. It means rubbish in Arabic. That's
what the name Saddam means to us now."
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- http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/01/27/wsad27.
xml&sSheet=/news/2004/01/27/ixnewstop.html/news/2004/01/27/wsad27.xml
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