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During the Gulf war, when I was doing my doctoral fieldwork in New Caledonia, the Kanak population were generally sympathetic towards Saddam Hussein ("If war is not the answer, what is?" THES, August 23). Little boys were named after him, cats and dogs called after him and although some excused this by saying "It's just a name in the news", others told me how much they admired Iraq for standing up to the imperialist West, whose only motive was to gain control of Iraq's oil.

If people in the French Pacific saw Saddam as a hero, it is very likely that today admiration for him is widespread throughout the world, in all the remote corners that we rarely hear from.

Margaret Taylor

London