Foreign News Update
I’ve only been away from home for a little less than three months and already it feels like the States is a foreign country, with the amount of time and energy we give to the petty news of home no more then you give to obscure news from Iraq.
That observation stuck in my brain this morning as I skimmed two magazines sent to me by a kind soul, Harper’s and The Atlantic Monthly. The Atlantic – thick, wordy – and Harper’s, the same but even more pretentious, are literary news magazines. The latter is quite old, originally covering the Civil War with vivid reporting and wonderful pen & ink illustrations, and is now a very liberal (not progressive, the editors are too cynical - besides, you can’t be progressive and live in New York, duh).
What struck me was the generally inward focus of the magazines (at least from an editorial point of view), as if the center of the universe is Washington, DC, or New York City. In both magazines the War is used as a foil to reflect arguments or draw analogies regarding political or social events at home, rather than what’s going on in Iraq or Afghanistan or in less well known places.
I guess my point is that I’m arguing the same thing – now that I’m here in southern Iraq, the politics that matters is not who controls Congress or what color tie Senator X wore or who accepted a political donation from that union or this company, but who sits on the Basrah provincial council and who is the Chief of Police or which faction controls the trash collection contracts. Funny, here I was, intending to write how out of touch the magazines were from Iraq (which is undoubtedly true) and I’ve realized that I’m also out of touch with home. I suppose that just confirms the old adage that all politics is local, and reinforces the need to read foreign newspapers like the Times of India or the Daily Star in Beirut – they provide different and thoughtful views of the universe.
I also recommend Art Spiegelman’s article Drawing Blood: Outrageous cartoons and the art of outrage in the June 2006 Harper’s. It is a great article that demystifies the Danish cartoon controversy (for those who haven’t seen them, he prints the supposedly offensive cartoons – for which I give the magazine much credit, as few American periodicals have had the courage to do so). One of the best lines: “As a secular Jewish cartoonist living in New York City, I start out with four strikes against me, but I really don’t want any irate Muslims declaring holy war on me (although I’m not at all religious, I am a devout coward).” It is a good read, and very insightful.
Today’s picture of the day is a picture of a school on the road in Basrah province, probably built with your tax dollars. I snapped the picture as we drove by, and the wall was too high to see inside, so I don’t know who was there. You hoped it was full of kids, but a small voice whispered to me that it was empty until I saw the flicker of a hand in a window. One has doubts about everything working here, given how difficult it is to accomplish the simplest things, but like seeds growing into trees, one is constantly surprised at the resilience of ordinary people.
For past Brown Sand Sailor entries and pics, visit: Brown Sand Sailor Web Site