The Invisible Library

Christian is an aquaintance of my friend, Jenny. He’s in Iraq working as a contractor (an actual contractor, not one of those �contractors� who rape inmates and start firefights). He�s sending dispatches back to let everyone know what it�s like living and working over there.

Kuwait - April 23, 2004

This is Christian writing from Kuwait. This is my first dispatch from the Middle East. By now, I think I’ve included all those who expressed an interested in the newsletter. If you should wish to stop receiving these e-mails, let me know and I will remove you.

As most of you already know, I am working with Louis Berger (the US contractor responsible for many development infrastructure projects) on rebuilding the various Iraqi ministries needed for a successful government - transportation, communications, health, and justice. I have a year contract and will be living and working in the Green Zone. My role is to manage payroll and perfrom various admin task. I may even participate in the hiring process for recruiting Iraqis.

I don’t yet know how often I will write these. It totally depends on the situation on the ground in Baghdad. I will write as often as experience dictates. That is, as I experience things that I feel are important I will write them down and report them (This is also depends on my internet access).

Many of you expressed an interest in this newsletter since you wanted to get an inside perspective. I must admit, that is one of the many reasons I signed up for this. I really want to know what is going on and why.

I don’t yet know what things I can or cannot write about so don’t be suprised if there are any voids of info that I don’t touch upon.

I also don’t yet know how much internet access or time I will have so don’t be alarmed or surprised if I don’t write you back immediately regarding any individual e-mails or questions.

I guess that about covers it.

Just a few days into my stint and it has alread been an adventure!

Flew business class into Kuwait yesterday morning via British Airways - best airline food I’ve ever had. Plenty of wine on the flight too. In theory, alcohol is non-existent in Kuwait. Air pollution seems to be a problem. A dismal haze seems to hang around the horizon and some longer term residents have complained of respiratory problems or new allergies. Despite the enormous wealth of the country, shepherds, their flocks, and camels roam beside the first rate highways making for a bizarre contrast.

My hotel is on the coast and includes beaches with great views of massive oil tankers filling nearby or floating lazily out along the hazy horizon. Upon arriving at the hotel, our airport bus was searched for a bomb under the carriage. For this, the guards use a mirror stuck at an angle off of the end of a pole - kind of like a dentist’s mirror. This allows them to see the underside of the vehicle.

There is a massively overpriced Starbuck’s at the hotel which is quite the hangout in the evening when tens of Arab men (usually dressed in long white robes complete with headgear) and women sip from Starbuck’s labeled mugs. I guess that’s globalization for you. The coffee tastes exactly the same as at home.

I quickly made a friend when I went downtown with an Indonesian employee of the hotel. He was a young guy with a wife and kid back home which he is helping to support via his comparitively substantial wages. Kuwait has an extremely large immigrant population. Mostly Indians but there are also significant numbers of Philippinos, Indonesians, and various Eastern Europeans.

He took me to a few shops where I purchased an Arabic phrase book, Arabic music CD’s, and Marlboro Reds (very cheap - about $15 a carton) - not that I’m a heavy smoker but they might be a good bargaining currency and I don’t know how available or expensive they will be in Baghdad. Later, we ate at an Indonesian restaurant and he insisted on paying the majority of the check!

After dinner, we went to a Catholic church and I found an Indian priest during an Indian wedding celebration (maybe they are originally from the Goa region?). He blessed my St. Christopher medal which I promised my mother I would wear for my protection.

Today, I was issued my PPE or Personal Protective Equipment. This included a gas mask, hood, duffel bag, pistol belt, canteen, kevlar vest, and helmet. All US army standard issue. The vest and helmet are needed for the 20 minute ride from Baghdad International Airport to the Green Zone. All the various zones are labeled either Green, Amber, or Red. The airport is apparently Amber. I was also instructed as to how to put on my mask and shown how to inject Nerve Gas antidote into my leg. This of course occurred after I was shown grizzly photos of what Small Pox and Mustard Gas victims look like after exposure. This was probably the freakiest experience to date.

Most of the people running these briefings are ex-US military. In fact, most of the civilian contractors seem to be ex-military. Although I have nothing but respect for the service men and women, I am glad there are also people like myself with a very different perspective. To date, I have not met too many people who are as interested as I am in the cultural, historical, and political aspects of this entire venture. That is one area where I feel I will make a strong contribution since I am extremely interested in understanding as much about the history and cultures of Iraq as much as possible. I have recently been reading a biography of Saddam Hussein so that I may familiarize myself with the last 50 years of Iraqi history.

The mood of most people seems to be very upbeat and most are very excited to be part of someting so vital to the well being of the globe. Granted, there are also those who are here to make a quick buck via the substantial salaries. Some people have reinvested their earnings in the Iraqi currency. I gues you could call it a bet on the success of the entire project.

Met some Brits who are also doing their part. Most of the British civilians work in the South - especially in Basra. Of course these are the areas where the British exercise control. Everyone is disappointed about the Spanish pullout which was also followed by Portugal and Honduras. Everyone recognizes that the UN will be playing a role when things settle down. What that role will be is still up in the air. There is also tremendous ambiguity as to what Iraqi sovereignty on July 1st will look like. Everyting is always changing.

I must say that the majority of the people I’ve met are sincere in their efforts and feel they are contributing to the freedom of the Iraqi people. Freedom is not a phrase just thrown around but sincerely uttered and meant. Although there of course is tremendous debate about the intentions of the US administration regarding Iraq, have no doubt that there are those who are here because they want to do the right thing.

I guess that’s about it for now. I leave for Baghdad on a C-130 tomorrow morning and will write again as soon as I have the opportunity.

Christian

My sister in law, Seargant Naomi Sanchez, of the 1st Cav.,615thASB, in her jeep, somewhere in Iraq.

National Poetry month ends friday so I thought I’d take us out with a Haiku by the undisputed master, Basho:

Waterjar cracks:
I lie awake
This icy night.

If Hollywood studios could deliver their dream products in their dream formats, they would send every first-run film via electronic pipes to thousands of theatres around the world. Digital projectors would emit high-quality images on screens. And the studios could control which versions got to which theatres. Theatres in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, India, Singapore, or Utah might receive versions that lacked nudity. Theatres in New York, Amsterdam, and San Francisco might receive versions with extra nudity. If audiences registered disappointment with a particular ending, studios could quickly adjust and beam out a revised version with a new ending. Studios could even send multiple versions to the same theatre — a PG-rated version for all shows before 8 p.m., and an R-rated version for all shows after 8 p.m. The storage capacity of DVDs would allow multiple versions on the same disc, so that families could watch “Titanic” without the naked scenes if the kids were in the room and with those scenes when the kids fall asleep. And once each home is connected with a pay-per-view jukebox, there would be no need for the DVD. Families could just order up their preferred digital stream. Ideally, of course, Hollywood would save on the cost of casting and re-shooting scenes by replacing as many human beings (or “blood actors,” as they are known) with computer-generated cartoons.

There are some formidable obstacles to this dramatically efficient vision. First and foremost, there is the up-front cost. No one wants to pay the billions of dollars it would cost to retrofit theatres with digital projectors. Until there are enough digital projectors, there is no incentive to distribute digital prints. Human beings are the most formidable of these obstacles. Actors, directors, and editors have some power in Hollywood. And they do not want their labor replaced or their status as artists compromised any more than it is already. Studios already issue different cuts of films for different foreign markets and airline viewing. But they do so after negotiations with directors and editors, and after the films have either failed or succeeded in domestic release.

As Hollywood creeps toward this digital vision, George Lucas leads the pack. His last two films, “Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace” and “Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones,” were filled with digitally generated extras where blood actors might have served in the 1970s. Several major characters, including the inexplicable Jabba the Hutt and the blatantly racist and annoying Jar Jar Binks were (fortunately) digital creations. The same technology that allowed Lucas remarkable control over his characters gave his fans the opportunity to undermine his control of them. Early in 2001 rumors began flying around Internet sites and chat rooms that someone had taken “Episode I: The Phantom Menace” and created something called Episode I: The Phantom Edit. The Phantom Editor, who remains incognito, had shortened the film by about 20 minutes, removing most of the scenes that focused on Jar Jar Binks. Without dialogue, Jar Jar Binks was a much less offensive character. In addition, the Phantom Editor removed some of the stilted dialogue and awkward verbal gestures that Lucas had installed to appeal to children. Soon after the rumors of the edit started spreading, copies began appearing in VHS form at Star Wars and science fiction conventions. And digital copies flew across both from peer to peer and via peer-to-peer networks like Gnutella. The 700 megabyte DivX file took many hours to download even with the fastest connection available. But the demand for the file was not about getting “The Phantom Menace” for free. It was about seeing a better version and celebrating the anarchistic revolution that had allowed a lone film critic to take control of the content and connect with thousands of others who shared his appreciation of the Star Wars saga. Lucas was reportedly curious about the cut. But his company, Lucasfilm, warned fans that sharing these copies and files constituted copyright infringements of the original film.

~The Anarchist in the Library, by Siva Vaidhyanathan [via Salon]

As Mr. Vaidhyanathan points out (in this excerpt form his forthcoming book) There is an intriguing phenomenon happening: the clash between two wildly different forces on the Internet, each vying for expression. On the one hand we have the Anarchist Editors, willfully defying the will of the artist and the law of the land to create different (and arguably better) versions than was intended by the artist, and on the other side, we have the Legal Authoritarians like the DCC and the MPAA, fighting to keep control of art (and by extension, the will to express one�s creativity) in the hands of Corporations.

This is a thorny issue and obviously I�ve already drawn sides if yo want to judge by my characterizations. But the inescapable fact remains that American copyright laws have gotten way out of hand. This issue goes well beyond whether or not Micky Mouse is a cultural Icon that belongs in the public domain (though the same could be argued for Star Wars) it strikes at the heart of creative freedom and expression. As Vaidhyanathan points out:

Until the rise of fixed and legally protected media products like television shows and feature films, humans had the power to adapt and re-use elements of their cultures. American communities quickly adopted Harriett Beecher Stowe’s novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” to the local stage and undermined its abolitionist messages. Uncle Tom was soon a stock comic character in minstrel shows. Stowe gave birth to Uncle Tom but America kidnapped him, changing him into something she would neither recognize nor celebrate. Those are the risks of releasing messages upon the world. An author cannot control how a character, idea, or plot will be read, re-fashioned, or criticized. But copyright law’s restrictions on the production of derivative works and the integrity of the original work alter that dynamic somewhat.

Luckily for us, there already exist a world of classics in the public domain or else we�d never get to see Shakespeare’s plays or read Mark Twain�s books without having to pay exhorbinant fees to Megaconglomerates. And you can forget about making a film version if the Illiad.

But should the mere threat of litigation and eternal damnation int he eyes of the Film Director�s Guild stop us from coopting our own culture and remaking it to suite our needs? The Goblin doesn�t think so.

The Goblin is an amateur Russian digital video editor named Dmitri Puchkov. Not satisfied with merely watching illegal copies of Hollywood films, he has differentiated some products within the rather crowded Russian video market. The Goblin re-dubs the films into colloquial Russian, trumping the rather unsatisfying subtitle translations.

The Goblin’s greatest hits are the re-dubs of the first two of the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy. He turned Frodo Baggins into Frodo Sumkin and the rest of the “good” characters into caricatures of incompetent Russian officials. The evil Orcs became Russian gangsters. Gandalf the Wizard constantly quotes Karl Marx. Puchkov originally made the new versions for his friends, but they made copies and spread them widely. Pirate video merchants all over Russia are distributing Goblin edits, which are in high demand, for about $10. The Goblin is currently working on a Russian “Star Wars” edit. Certainly, by throwing out the old soundtrack and revising the characters completely, the Goblin is producing a fairly new work, one that does not directly compete with the original in the marketplace. No one who wants to watch the original “good” Frodo Baggins would want the Goblin version in its stead. But the real value of the Goblin edit is that it uses a familiar English text and Hollywood production (and New Zealand settings) to comment on Russian politics and society. This is multilayered cultural criticism and revision on a par with the minstrelization of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” Woody Allen’s Occidentalization in “What’s Up Tiger Lily?” and Leonard Bernstein’s urbanization of “Romeo and Juliet” into “West Side Story.” It should make some feel queasy and others giggle. It should make everyone pause and think.

What are the implications to the status of Hollywood labor if, as writer Peter Rojas explained, all films are to be considered permanent “works in progress”? Should creativity be reserved for professionals and experts? Or will teenagers in their basements and libraries be able to soup up or strip down the signs, symbols, and texts that make up such an important part of their lives? Will Hollywood, bolstered by the political power of the United States government, be able to dictate the form and format of distribution around the globe? What are the implications for local cultural forms if powerful media companies use law and technology to ossify their advantages? In lawsuits, congressional hearings, and international negotiations, Hollywood studios claim they need maximum and near permanent control over their products to justify the massive investments they make in production, marketing, and distribution. But clearly, the issue is not just a commercial one �- it’s cultural as well. Yet the commercial film industry and the governments that do its bidding are willing to go to extreme measures to preserve their global cultural and commercial standing.

At least, they think they will. But human ingenuity and creativity is boundless. There have always been pirates; there will always be pirates. Some will be caught, and some will become so large that they will become artists in their own right. and then, two thousand years form now, their stories will be coopted and rewritten, turned into something culturally significant and different than their creator intended. that�s how art is made.

For whatever reason, there is a dromedary on the lawn.

This cartoon just about sums it up.

Daily Kos correspondant, Trapper John is reporting almost-live from the March for Women�s Lives on the Mall in Washington DC. My good friend, Jenny is there also, along with, apparently, almost one million other people. Way to go everybody! Let�s tell those armchair cowboys in the White House to stay out of our bodies!

I’ve had a longstanding fascination with plants, which I blame on my grandmother, who was a fanatic about her garden. Once, we went on a hike in a federal nature preserve and my father and uncle had to physically restrain her from transplanting a rather striking specimin, remnding her that stealing in a nature reserve is a federal crime. There’s a longstanding literary tradition surrounding various botanicals of a ghastly nature as well, from the deadly and seemingly-deadly concoctions that Shakespeare’s apothecry delt in, to the little old ladies in Arsenic and Old Lace. So, naturally, when I heard about this Poison Garden in England, I was intrigued:

The dell at Alnwick Castle in Northumberland will lie under a perpetual miasma of “deliberately spooky” mist, enlivened by a copper snake rearing from a grotto and hissing vapour, triggered by sensors as visitors creep past.

“It should be quite an experience,” said Caroline Holmes, the garden’s poison plant consultant, who takes a gleeful relish in her subject.

“The plants will be fascinating. Henbane, for instance, has the most evil-looking flowers, and mandrake grows in a distinctly sinister fashion.”

Due to open in August, the Poison Garden is the latest part of Alnwick Gardens, a �42m extravaganza on the estate of the Duke and Duchess of Northumberland.

Although originally scoffed at by many conventional gardening experts, the terraced cascades, labyrinth and �3.3m treehouse village, which is currently being built, have become a big attraction.

[edit]

“The Poison Garden will be full of excitement and intrigue, especially for children,” she said. “More seriously, it will a safe place for visitors to learn about the dangerous side of plants.”

[edit]

The final choice of hundreds of plants has yet to be made, but other strong candidates include nepata, known as catnip or cats’ cannabis because of its effect on felines, and monk’s pepper, which alters the hormonal balance in both sexes.

Darnel, the only known poisonous grass, which increases its dangers by attracting the toxic fungus ergot, is likely to grow alongside castor oil plants, the source of the terrorist-scare poison ricin.

“Some of the plants are going to be quite hard to track down,” said Ms Holmes, “but one of the educational things about the garden is the fact that many of them are very familiar.”

[edit]

The cultivation of most of the varieties will not be difficult - venomous plants, like weeds, tend to grow prolifically, and many of them also produce vivid flowers, leaf patterns and coloured fruit or pods.

“They’re not always the sort of thing you can buy in your local garden centre,” Ms Holmes said, “but we know where to get hold of all of them.”

I�m buying my ticket, right now.

Leading miserabilist and former Smiths front-man Morrissey has fallen foul of the Homeland Security dragnet, according to BBC radio reports. It is not yet clear whether or the US officials involved had listened to Meat is Murder, or whether they thought they had a match on notorious Manchester terror mastermind Anwar al-Morrissey.

Morrissey is now a resident of Los Angeles, and was reportedly detained for some time at LAX airport. The BBC quotes him as saying that there was some problem with his passport, and that he was briefly suspected of being a terrorist. But he’ll have been used to that in his musical career. And now he’ll have one of those letters from the Department of Homeland Security saying he’s not - but we doubt that’lll cheer him up much. [Register]

Those diabolical terrorists! it was there plan all along to lull us into a false sense of malaise by playing us twenty years or so of British New Wave with clever lyrics, and then, just when we thought he was merely another 80�s rocker, slowly dissolving nto obscurity, Bang! The true, awesome furry that is Morrissey, the Sleeper Terrorist would be unleashed upon the world, in downbeat, droning lyricism, as he slowly tried to drive us all to suicide. Simply ingenious.

What nefarious terror plot, left simmering since the eighties, will be exposed next? Perhaps it will be revealed that Simon Lebon is really a member of the IRA, or Robert Smith, the true leader of Hammas.

I’ve run out of pictures of Lucy for the time being (though soon I will have plenty more, so Lucy fans, despair not!) To fill the void, Pansypoo has graciously sent me several pictures of her numerous cats.