"Mum, did you know that Mansour secondary school has been closed because of swine flu?"

    That caught my attention.

    Mansour School is one of the better schools in Baghdad - and really up-scale. If Mansour was closed – what was happening in other schools?

    The very next day while keeping an eye on the election law in parliament, I saw a sheet of paper on the table in the media area that read "Swine Flu …", That was the second round in as many days.     

    I picked it up and found it to be a copy of a request made by a committee in the parliament, "We hope that we will be given a fortnight during which schools are closed so that we may prepare and provide schools with the necessary hygiene materials to prevent the spread of swine flu amongst our beloved children." 

    Since my son came to me with that question, three days ago, I have been trying to find out what is happening with schools and swine flu – But no one is talking. Neither ministry of health or education is going public with it – until today.

    "I don't know why everyone is making such a noise about the few cases of swine flu in Iraq while it is the lowest count in all the countries of the region" said Dr. Khamees al Saad, deputy to the minister of health. "There have been only 113 cases of swine flu in the whole of Iraq, 55 of them in the southern province of Wasit, 21 of whom have been successfully treated and discharged, 21 in Baghdad, and the rest around the country. Some neighbouring countries have thousands of cases.     

    We are satisfied that everything necessary is being done. The ministries of health and education are co-operating on this."

    He added that the number of schools closed down was exaggerated, "Only 10 schools have been closed – not 50 as the rumors are saying! Six of them are in Baghdad: in Kathmiyah and Ghazaliyah."

    There is just one question I would like to ask: Were our officials taken by surprise by swine flu?What were they doing over the summer holidays? The summer break for schools in Iraq is three months long – Couldn't they have "provided schools with the necessary hygiene materials to prevent the spread of swine flu amongst our beloved children." then? – Before all the kids went to school and became in danger of catching swine flu? And where on earth would we get proper medication if swine flu spread to large numbers of school kids? From the hospital dispensaries, that are one of the centres of corruption in Iraq?

    Should I wait for my son's school to close? Or should I keep him away from it?

    Should he just go on going to school every day?

    Who do I believe?

    Our politicians have lost their credibility to such a degree that I – as an Iraqi mother, just don't know what to believe – or who to believe, or where to turn if anything happened.