For Saddam’s surgeon, a new (Haven) life
The Corvus Art Gallery on Whalley Avenue is a long way from Saddam Hussein’s former palace in Iraq. Ala Bashir has worked in both.
In fact, Bashir, the man who once served as the Iraqi dictator’s plastic surgeon, is now working out of an art studio located just two miles from central campus, though he has barely made a blip on Yale’s radar.
Bashir, it seems, has lived a double life. During his 15-year stint as a high-ranking plastic surgeon to the Hussein family, which ended with the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, he worked with a team to treat around 22,000 injuries in...
“It is beyond extraordinary to traverse...
the roads Ala Bashir did, to witness and somehow 'hold' the horrors no human should ever have to see, to maintain integrity against all comers, and to emerge from it a gentler, more gracious man
than most men who live lives of privilege or even normalcy. There is glory in this man, there is a knowing in his heart, there is the softest flutter of angel wings about him.
Survival is a powerful thing. Many have done it. Thriving, on the other hand, with the power of that compelling force flaring behind you, carrying thousands with you, who hadn't the power to do it on their own, that, my friend is an extraordinary something."
So Saddam's doctor found the good life in America as an "Artist". How come he doesn't go back to Iraq and help those in dire need of medical care. Is it because he can't run away from his past as a baathist. Why is he here anyway. Mr. Bashir maybe your art stinks. Go find another dictator to work for.