b, I agree with you it was impressiv, I saw it too and can only recommend it. However there were of discussion in the newspapers as some people felt offended. Though I never quiet could understand why. But maybe because it was not new to me, having worked a few months at the Anatomical Institute of the local University during my studies.

Posted by: Fran | Mar 4 2005 16:49 utc | 3

Thanks beq. 😛

Posted by: Fran | Mar 4 2005 17:34 utc | 5

Don’t know yet where to go for your next vacation? Well here is an idea, from the NYT.
THE STRUGGLE FOR IRAQ: ENTREPRENEURSHIP; Iraqi Businessman Sees War-Ravaged Country as a Potential Tourist Attraction

”You’ve got all the ingredients,” Mr. Hindo said, pointing excitedly at a large map of Iraq on the wall in his spacious offices off Karrada Street. ”People still think of this as the birthplace of civilization. You’ve got Babylon and Nineveh, and near Ur you’ve got the site of the garden of Eden.”
Mr. Hindo, a 55-year-old entrepreneur, does not just want to lure history buffs. He envisions package tours, four-star hotels and resorts, American families cruising in minivans down new superhighways, water-skiing, maybe even a Disneyland on Lake Habbaniya. Religious tourists will flock to see where Job and Jonas died, or to the Muslim holy cities Najaf and Karbala.
”They will kiss the shrines and they will spend,” he said with a smile, tapping the map and kissing his fingers.

Well, wow, imagine going to a Disneyland in Iraq! I also liked the following assement of Iraq by Mr. Hindo.

”You know why people get politicized here?” he asked, eyebrows rising impishly. ”They lack entertainment.”

I guess Disneyland would solve that problem. But of course he wants to be on the safe side.

Like any good businessman, Mr. Hindo is hedging his bets: he has founded a private security company and is training 1,200 guards.
…
After the war, it would have been easy to go back to importing liquor, Mr. Hindo said. But tourism gives him a chance to be a pioneer.
…
Mr. Hindo plans to begin by offering three basic tour options, all starting in the southern city Basra, which has a working airport. The two-day tour will focus on the ancient city of Ur. The four-day tour will extend into the center of Iraq, including Najaf and Karbala. The weeklong tour will go north into what was once Nineveh and the kingdom of Assyria.
”In the north, there are beautiful lakes that have never been used,” Mr. Hindo said, his finger tracing a line on the map. ”In the south, there are the marshlands. Saddam dried them up, but once you put water through it will be a Middle Eastern Venice.”
To help make his point, he took a reporter to see the ruins of a Babylonian building in eastern Baghdad.
Emerging from his sport utility vehicle, Mr. Hindo led the way into a wide field littered with trash. Gunshots rang out on the edge of the field, but Mr. Hindo was undeterred.

Well, and you do not only get Disneyland, you also get the real thing, not just make believe gunshots, but real ones. So yeeeeeephy, lots go and have fun.

Posted by: Fran | Mar 4 2005 18:24 utc | 7

This story didn´t any echo in the press and blog world until now. I wonder why.
‘Brooklyn’s Abu Ghraib’

Defense attorneys call it Brooklyn’s Abu Ghraib. On the ninth floor of the federal Metropolitan Detention Center in Sunset Park, terrorism suspects swept off the streets after the Sept. 11 attacks were repeatedly stripped naked and frequently were physically abused, the Justice Department’s inspector general has found.
The detainees – none of whom were ultimately charged with anything related to terrorism – alleged in sworn affidavits and in interviews with Justice Department officials that correction officers:
# Humiliated them by making fun of – and sometimes painfully squeezing – their genitals.
# Deprived them of regular sleep for weeks or months.
# Shackled their hands and feet before smashing them repeatedly face-first into concrete walls – within sight of the Statue of Liberty.
# Forced them in winter to stand outdoors at dawn while dressed in light cotton prison garb and no shoes, sometimes for hours.
…
The Justice Department’s inspector general has substantiated some of the prisoners’ allegations – and some incidents were captured on videotape. But the Justice Department has declined to prosecute any federal correction officer at MDC.
…
None of the inmates who spoke to The News said they were ever asked to testify. All said they were ready to do so.
“It’s a whitewash,” said Steven Leegan, an attorney for Indian Muslim inmate Mohammed Jaweed Azmat. “This was a mini-Abu Ghraib in Brooklyn.”
In fact, “It was worse,” he said, “because these were not guardsmen thrown together but supposedly highly trained federal corrections officers doing the same thing long before we sent troops into Iraq.”

Welcome to America!

Posted by: b | Mar 4 2005 19:25 utc | 9

it’s disgusting what makes the business press. some call them entrepreneur’s, other’s recognize it as exploitation, but if there is one positive from that nyt article, i think mr. hindo just increased the size of the bullseye on his back…
democracy now aired some good coverage on brooklyn’s “abu ghraib” this past tuesday. (transcript included)

Posted by: b real | Mar 4 2005 19:40 utc | 11

Italian hostage released and then shot by US troops. Italian intelligence officer killed. Link.

Posted by: beq | Mar 4 2005 20:38 utc | 13

Sorry beq, didn’t see that you already postet the story.

Posted by: Fran | Mar 4 2005 20:44 utc | 15

i imagine it has everything to do with the fact that she writes for a ‘communist’ newspaper that does not mince its words in its opposition to this criminal war
of course it could be another in a line of thousands of incompetences that have caused the deaths of innocent people but we know now that it is standard operation procedure
the americans have murdered & i use the word advisedly many many journalists in iraq – it is being done intentionally as the murders of al jazeera staffers make perfectly clear
it is not new – wherever us imperialism establishes its reign whether it be indonesia, phillipines south east asia, greece & latin america – the murders of journalists, writers & commentators follow as night follow day
how anyone in sane mind could defend the presence of this evil & criminal force in the middle east is beyond me
but what is clear – that the innate rascism within the american character comes up trumps – because for the so called ‘press’ in america the death of their colleagues does not matter at all – it interests them no in the least
they safely scream from behind their desks squealing like overfed pigs at the trough & they discredit as they do in so many ways – whatever honour remains in that occupation

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Mar 4 2005 21:39 utc | 17

take it back, rgiap.

Posted by: slothrop | Mar 4 2005 23:20 utc | 19

upps – before you start beating each other
inate can be:
1 : existing in, belonging to, or determined by factors present in an individual from birth : NATIVE, INBORN
2 : belonging to the essential nature of something : INHERENT
3 : originating in or derived from the mind or the constitution of the intellect rather than from experience
I checked the German translations too which also has three distinguished meanings and I do think r’giap (not a native english speaker as far as I know) was applying the 3: definition.
Sometimes please give us foreigners just some slack on the precise use of the english/american language.

Posted by: b | Mar 5 2005 0:10 utc | 21

& slothrop
in your appreciatioon of strauss – do not forget that he comes from a lineage -intellectually – that connects in a far realer way with the german historian & think er of the 19th century heinrich von treitschke – there is an adoration of authority in strauss that can be read in the five tomed history of germany by treitschke & a thinker whom i have an enormous ambivalence, hannah arentdt herself had an enormous ambivalence towards strauss on precisemy those grounds
yes strauss wrote well but so did ernst junger & that doesn’tt make his ideas any more attractive

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Mar 5 2005 0:23 utc | 23

Innate in German could also be (by reverse translation) imminant, peculiar, inherited plus several other meanings. I am not sure what r’giap intended or not with his use of “innate”. He may want to explain that further or he not – whatever.
I want to warn from taking such words as pinpoints when different languages are involved. I did fall into that trap on some occasions and it didn´t prove usefull to do so.
I once said “I will cry if they win” and did mean I would like them winning but some stupit folks thought this to be offensive against that team. It was not – they beat me up anyhow.

Posted by: b | Mar 5 2005 1:02 utc | 25

b
i think it can be taken as read that you interpreted the ‘innate’ in the way it was intended

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Mar 5 2005 1:35 utc | 27

This could get nasty:
Turkey deploys 1,357 troops in Northern Iraq

ANKARA, March 3 (Xinhuanet) — Turkey has deployed 1,357 military personnel in northern Iraq to fight against members of the outlawed Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK), said Turkish National Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul on Thursday.
Gonul was quoted by semi-official Anatolia News Agency as saying, “Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) have deployed 1,357 personnel in northern Iraq to fight against the PKK, gather information regarding the developments in the region and work as liaison officers under US forces in Kirkuk, Mosul and Tal Afar.”

Posted by: b | Mar 5 2005 12:21 utc | 29

Mr Kravchenko was found with two gunshot wounds, in his country house in the early hours of the morning.
This is quite a bit different from the suicide mentioned in Bernhard’s link. This guy must have been truly despondent to shoot himself twice…
These dark actors playing games mentioned around the time of the David Kelly “suicide” are sure keeping busy.

Posted by: dan of steele | Mar 5 2005 15:06 utc | 31

@b
i too have wondered why Brooklyn Abu Grahib has not received more attention. same with jane mayer’s excellent article in the new yorker, now on truth out, on u.s. renditions, “the new paradigm.” should be required reading for every member of congress. sorry still haven’t figured out to link properly, bu this is the url: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/020905M.shtml

Posted by: conchita | Mar 5 2005 16:29 utc | 33

racism is most definately innate, inherent & highly institutionalized in the american character. this is hardly a controversial point to make. same goes for many of the other “civilized” nations, though i doubt there are many ann coulter’s playing such a sanctioned role and getting the high visibility in those other nations that they do here.

Posted by: b real | Mar 5 2005 20:42 utc | 35

40 years later, Harry Belafonte still goes marching on

Posted by: Selma | Mar 6 2005 23:41 utc | 37

YOWZA
M Shahid Alam delivers a Swiftian aria, bel canto all the way. Damn, he’s good. I knew some of the basic facts behind this, but he’s put them well and every sentence rings with controlled Swiftian rage.

How does the US pet economy compare with the world’s poor economies on a per capita basis? In 2003, the 142.7 million dogs and cats in the United States enjoyed a per capita consumption of $2523. The per capita income of world’s 2.3 billion people in low income countries (LICs) was $2190 in 2003 international dollars. This means that the average mammalian pet in the US had a considerably higher standard of living than the average man, woman and child living in the LICs.
The American dogs and cats enjoyed a much larger advantage in their living standards over many individual LICs. The advantage over Sierra Leoneans was 4.8 to one; 4.1 over Tanzanians; 2.8 over Nigerians; 1.3 over Bangladeshis; and 1.2 over Pakistanis. The average Indian had a small advantage of 1.1 over American dogs and cats. The Chinese had a larger lead of 2.0. It is heartening to note that these disparities are considerably smaller than the yawning gaps that emerge when we compare people in the rich countries against people in the poor countries.
One might think that these more upbeat comparisons give reasons for optimism for the world’s poor. Given the smaller disparities between the poor people and rich pets, the poor people can at least dream that once the great humanitarian project of globalization begins to yield its trickle-down benefits to the poor, they will, in the not-too-distant future, be able to catch up with the dogs and cats in the United States.[…]
Does this mean that if the poor people could be used as pets by the rich, this would greatly improve their chances of deriving stronger gains from globalization? If this is indeed true, we can confidently expect that the US delegate to the World Trading Organization will soon propose appropriate changes in the global trading regime to allow for the large-scale adoption of children from poor countries as pets by people in the rich countries. I have no doubt that this proposal will command unanimous support from all the civilized peoples of the world – who, thankfully, inhabit the rich countries.

Ouch.

Posted by: DeAnander | Mar 7 2005 5:37 utc | 39

Compare and contrast- Lebanon and Bolivia. Will the US cheer the people’s demand for change:
Link

Posted by: biklett | Mar 7 2005 7:07 utc | 41