Scofflaw Diplomacy

Matthew Evangelista

The last decade has not been an easy one for the peace movement in the United States. The end of the Cold War saw many of its key goals achieved—reductions in nuclear weapons; withdrawal of Soviet and American troops from central Europe and substantial cuts in conventional weaponry; the end of the Soviet war in Afghanistan and US military intervention in Nicaragua; the demise of com­ munist rule and the promise of democracy in Eastern Europe and Russia. Yet subsequent challenges divided the movement—if we can still speak of it in those terms—with erstwhile allies taking opposing positions on US policy. Some former opponents of US intervention in Central America, for example, endorsed send­ ing the marines to reinstate the ousted presi­ dent of Haiti, Jean Bertrand Aristide, whereas others suspected US motives and balked at the use of military power even to right such an obvious injustice. Some critics of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization who had protest­ ed against the alliance’s deployments of US Jack Sherman nuclear missiles in Europe in the 1980s came, a decade later, to support the expansion of munities of Iraq, destroying thousands of vil­ Kuwait in 1990. The USSR backed UN mous cost—especially in the long term—to NATO right up to- Russia’s borders in the lages and displacing or killing tens of thou­ Security Council resolutions intended to the civilian population. In combination with interest of stability and democracy. Others sands of people—many of them attacked induce Iraq’s withdrawal. Gorbachev, whose the punishing sanctions regime, the toll on continued to see NATO as part of the problem with chemical weapons, which the Iraqi rhetoric and ideas often drew upon those of innocent civilians over the decade since the rather than the solution and wished it would forces also used against the Iranian army. A the peace movement, advocated a nonviolent Gulf War has been devastating. go the way of the Warsaw Pact and cease to UN-brokered ceasefire ended the war with approach, at least to start. Thus, the Soviet Perhaps most disturbing to the peace move­ exist. Many peace activists who in the past Iran, but Hussein hardly paused to catch his Union, a major supplier of weapons to Iraq, ment was not only that the economic sanc­ had steadfastly opposed bloated US military breath. In August 1990, he ordered an inva­ endorsed the US proposal for a UN-spon­ tions—intended as a nonviolent alternative to budgets found themselves calling for the sion of neighboring Kuwait, ostensibly in sored arms embargo. Then it supported an war—failed to secure Iraq’s withdrawal from United States t& use its air forces to bomb response to a dispute over oil production. overall trade embargo with a naval blockade Kuwait. Pursued tenaciously by the United Serbian targets in Bosnia and Kosovo, and to Once Iraqi forces had overwhelmed Kuwait’s of Iraq’s oil tankers. When Iraq still refused States, long after Iraq’s defeat, and exploited send ground troops to halt the genocidal limited defenses, Hussein declared the coun­ to withdraw its forces from Kuwait, the for propaganda purposes by Hussein, the sanc­ actions of Slobodan Milosevic. Others found try’s annexation while his troops carried out a Security Council issued Resolution 678 tions wrought terrible damage on the weakest, the bombing-for-peace approach unaccept­ brutal occupation in which Kuwaiti citizens authorizing the use of “all necessary means” most innocent members of Iraqi society. able, especially when carried out by the and foreign guestworkers (Palestinians, to reverse the Iraqi invasion, a transparent Does the peace movement then deserve NATO alliance in the face of opposition from Indians, and others) suffered qjike. euphemism for military force. Iraq was blame for the dangerous mess that Iraq has key members of the United Nations Security The peacemakers’ toolkit—negotiations, given until January 15, 1991 to comply. The become? Hardly. If Saddam Hussein is a Council. arms control treaties, conflict resolution—did Soviet Union joined the three other perma­ monster, as hardly anyone would doubt, the No issue has been more troubling for sup­ not seem very effective in dealing with nent members of the Council who voted in United States is in many respects his Dr. porters of peace than Iraq. As a new genera­ Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. Those techniques favor of the resolution—the United States, Frankenstein. Viewing Iraq as a secular bul­ tion of activists emerges to protest the Bush were developed in the context of a superpow­ Britain, and France—while China abstained. wark against Iran’s Islamic revolution, the US administration’s rush to war, it would do well er nuclear rivalry, which, as British historian The USSR, through its special envoy Evgenii government encouraged its aggressive actions to reflect upon the problems that the Iraq situ­ and disarmament activist E.P. Thompson Primakov, a Middle East specialist who had against the Ayatollahs’ regime. For years US ation has posed for the peace movement over famously put it, was mainly about itself. known Saddam Hussein for years, tried to and other Western companies knowingly sold the years. The traditional approaches pursued Neither the United States nor the Soviet persuade Iraq to face realty and withdraw. Iraq the components that enabled Hussein's by peace activists have not proved very suc­ Union intended to attack each other (although But Hussein would not even do his “friend” scientists to pursue development of chemical, cessful: nonviolent resolution of disputes, they invaded countries in their “spheres of the courtesy of allowing Soviet civilian and biological, and nuclear weapons. During the sensitivity to the “security dilemma” (the influence” many times). The arms race military advisers to leave the country; he pre­ war against Iran, the United States provided notion that even countries that procure served the domestic interests of the ruling ferred to keep them as hostages, in a futile satellite imagery to assist the Iraqi air force in weapons solely for defensive purposes can elites on each side, but was in turn vulnerable attempt to undermine the uneasy Soviet sup­ locating Iranian targets for chemical-weapons appear threatening to others), and reliance on to unilateral initiatives of restraint promoted port for military action. attacks. In planning his assault on Kuwait, economic sanctions and UN resolutions as from the grassroots. It ended when the Soviet Operation Desert Storm—the war against Saddam Hussein is widely believed to have alternatives to military action. Saddam leadership under Mikhail Gorbachev heeded Iraq— began on January 16, 1991, the day received a green light from the United States Hussein’s rule of the country has led Iraq into the advice of transnational activists and pur­ after the expiration of the Security Council in his infamous meeting with Ambassador two disastrous wars. Barely a year after com­ sued a conciliatory foreign policy under the resolution. Thirty-three countries participat­ April Glaspie. The United States evidently ing to power in 1979 he provoked a war with banner of “new thinking.” All that was need­ ed in the war, but the United States clearly failed to anticipate the voraciousness of Iran over a boundary dispute, anticipating an ed was for the United States to acknowledge dominated the military campaign. The strate­ Hussein’s appetite for aggression, as he swal­ easy victory against a country in the throes of the change, and Ronald Reagan, to his credit, gy was heavily dependent on massive bomb­ lowed Kuwait and claimed it as Iraq’s nine­ Islamic revolution. The war dragged on for did so, even if his successor, George H.W. ing, with much damage inflicted on basic teenth province. eight years, with no clear victor, but with a Bush, feared that he was being too hasty. infrastructure—electricity grids, sewage and In opposing the Iraqi invasion, George toll of well over a million victims. In the What finally persuaded the first President water systems, communications facilities. Bush groped for justifications that would lead midst of the war, Hussein’s army pursued a Bush that Gorbachev’s changes were real Destruction of such targets undoubtedly hin­ separate campaign against the Kurdish com­ was the Soviet reaction to Iraq's invasion of dered the Iraqi military forces, but at enor­ continued on page 8 page 2 The BOOKPRESS November 2002 Everyone is Innocent slandering them. Among other things, Sure, both sides had innocent motivations a no brainer. The one people get stuck on is Jeremy Weir Alderson Palestinians can blame Israelis for usurping when this whole conflict started and the one about just exactly whose wrongs are land, conducting a brutal occupation, wag­ sure, as Anne Frank said, “people are truly we supposed to overlook? Again, choosing ing a war against them, rejecting peace ini­ good at heart,” but come on. To say between the options is just a practical mat­ Dan Cook, writing in response to my com­ tiatives and slandering them. Of course, to a that both sides are innocent is to gloss over ter. By all reports, God likes it when we ments about the Israel/Palestine conflict house built on such a firm foundation, one the grotesque crimes both sides have remember our own wrongs, and likes it even (Bookpress, October 2002), crosses the line can add storey after storey (or story after committed. Whatever happened to, “No more when we forget someone else’s. It’s and makes numerous misstatements o f fact. story), and, as if that weren’t enough, both justice, no peace?” called forgiveness. And, in the end, it’s not Most egregiously, he accuses me o f calling sides can vent their fury at the press for not The answer is that the truest of all the that there can be no peace without justice. for the destruction o f the Dome o f the Rock reporting accurately why the other side is to truths in the Middle East is that something It’s that there can be no justice without and The Al Aksa Mosque in Jerusalem. I blame for everything. is going to have to be overlooked. The real peace. never made any such statements, and actu­ It’s hard to quibble with a position that’s question is should we be overlooking rights ally agree with Cook that such actions would so perpetually satisfying but, let’s face it, or overlooking wrongs? Well, actually, Jeremy Weir Alderson was the host o f be disastrous. the one-side-is-guilty argument provides too that’s not the real question because that one’s the Nobody Show on WEOS. Nonetheless, Cook s letter is a pretty good much of a good thing. Sure, that feeling that illustration of exactly what I am decrying you’ll never walk alone is wonderful when about the left s attitude toward Israel. There it’s because so many people are on your side. Crossword Puzzle seems to be a belief out there that if we can But it’s a little less congenial when it’s just say enough awful things about Israel, because you wouldn’t dare to visit the other CCD + ” by Adam Perl just pressure Israel enough, just blame Israel side without the company of an armed pha­ enough for everything, then the road to lanx. Come to think of it, what with peace will open up. This is, quite simply, Palestinian suicide bombings and Israeli madness. airstrikes, it even gets a little difficult to walk Even Israelis willing to admit their coun­ in groups. And, if the one-side-is-guilty try s wrongs know that Israel did not create folks have their way, after a while there the Middle East conflict by itself. Instead, won't be anybody left to do any walking at this crazed blame-making will only embold­ all. en the most aggressive elements among the The both-sides-are-guilty position is, if Palestinians while stiffening the resistance nothing else, a little more practical. For one o f the least compromising Israelis. The left s thing, both sides pretty much agree that God approach to Israel is an invitation to war, takes a peculiar interest in the Middle East. not peace. And by all accounts, God likes it when we I have tried to set forth some o f my views repent and take responsibility for our on the real road to peace in the column wrongs. Since both sides pretty much agree below. that God could squash us all like bugs, pleas­ When it comes to the Palestinian-Israeli ing God is, maybe, more important than conflict, only three viewpoints are possible: pleasing any particular party. Also, this one side is guilty, both sides are guilty or position does have the advantage of opening both sides are innocent. Each has its advan­ up a potential dialogue for peace. tages—and its drawbacks. Take, for example, the issue of readmit­ The biggest advantage of the one-side-is- ting Palestinian refugees to Israel. It’s one guilty position is that it is, by far, the most thing to take back a group of people who popular option and, what’s more, if you say, “It’s about time you despicable so-and- believe this, you’ll never be at a loss for so’s did the right thing. Now we’re going to words. This is important, because a lot of sit in our old homes and let our hatred leach people are afraid of public speaking and out at you.” And it’s another thing to take in even some people who like to be the center a group of people who say, “Look, we all of attention are a bit abashed when it comes did wrong, let’s get along.” Anyone can see to expounding on matters that could lead to that the prospects for a harmonious democ­ World War Three. Fortunately, as long as racy are a lot better with the latter group ACROSS 3. Weak, economically* you can blame someone else, you'll never than with the former. And the same logic 4. Gunpowder, e.g. run out of accusations. applies to all the thorny issues, like who con­ 1. Oft signed item 5. Heights Among other things, Israelis can blame trols the Temple Mount, the extent of terri­ 5. “Not_____in the world” 6. Gives up Palestinians for not recognizing the legiti­ torial compromise, and whether Arafat or 10. Spread 7. Does one’s part macy of their claim to Palestine; preventing Sharon ever faces a war crimes tribunal. 14. Healing plant 8. Fan noise Jewish immigration and, thus, making more Unfortunately, the both-sides-are-guilty 15. Georgia crop 9. Compass point Jews die in the Holocaust; waging a war position has its downside too. For one thing, 16. One of Chekov’s sisters 10. Gets on against them; rejecting peace initiatives and people thinking this way won’t exactly be 17. Marked the score? 11. “Bom Free” star the life of the party—any party. And it’s 20. Collection 12. Not fer The hard to imagine a peace settlement that 21. Ground items? 13. It may be found in tatters requires every single adult on both sides to 22. Zany 18. Fear or Hope gO O K P R E SS be a perpetual bore. Once you’ve taken your 23. Some are great 19. Trivial

P ublisher & Editor share of the blame, what have you got left 24. Email folder 23. As well jack Goldman to say? Even in the Middle East, there must 26. Serving qids 24. Blind spots? Assistant Editor be some other purpose to life than endless 29. Riders 25. For one Elizabeth Herrington self-flagellation. Certainly people on both 32. They’re unrefined 26. Mother_____ Production & Design sides believe they began with good inten­ 33. Respond 27. Venue Josh French tions in their minds and hearts. They still 34. Kids’ game 28. Terminal Fiction Editors want to live in the spirit of their highest 36. Get the naked truth? 29. Phones won’t take them James McConkey & Edward Hower hopes, and that's not likely to happen if 40. Brian of song 30. Chopin opus P oetry Editor everyone adopts the both-sides-are-guilty 41. Ceases 31. Nobel Peace Prize winner of 1978 Gail Holst-Warhaft position which is, after all, just one big 42. “____- 12” 33. Upsets Contributors downer. 43. McNally’s output 35. Masterpieces Jeremy Weir Alderson, David Brazil, Which brings us to the both-sides-are- 45. Space_____ 37. Forms Michael Doliner, Matthew Evangelista, imvocent point of view. The biggest virtue 47. Elects 38. Middle____ Elizabeth Herrington, Gail Holst- of this position is that it’s true. The Jews 48. New Rochelle campus 39. Zip Warhaft, David Regenspan, Janet Steiner, Judith Van Allen did nothing wrong in presenting their rather 49. Five-star powder ingredient 44. They may be sore musty deed to the Promised Land. Sure, it 52. Queens’ stadium Illustrators 45. Stick Jack Sherman, Don Karr was a bit unusual, but it was certainly not a 53. Detroit org. 46. Over crime to have survived 2000 years of exile 56. Hates to swim? 48. “____the Sheriff” The entire contents of The Bookpress are copy riqht © 2 0 0 2 by T he Bookpress, Inc.. All rights or to want to survive for 2000 more at home. 60. At any time 49. Gulf state reserved. The Bookpress will not be liable for Similarly, who can fail to understand why 61. Chopper part 50. “Scream” star Campbell typographical error or errors in publication. the Palestinians didn’t want to give up one 62. Superman’s mother 51. Followers Subscription rate is $12 per year. T he Bookpress Is inch of the land they thought was theirs? 63. Costner role 52. “___ girl!” published eight times annually. March through May and September through December. Can anyone say that if the positions had 64. Die down 53. Jazz home Submissions of manuscripts, art. and letters to been reversed, the Jews would have done 65. Breakfast option 54. Dynamic start the editor should be sent. SASE. to: better? Israel isn’t exactly rushing to with­ 55. Stole The Bookpress draw from the West Bank and Gaza, now is DOWN 57. End of an ex? DeWift Building it? True, there’s a downside to the both- 58. Kind of story 215 N. Cayuga Street. Ithaca. NY 14850 (607) 277-2254: fax (607) 275-9221 sides-are-innocent argument, the biggest 1. Heels 59. 2001 biopic one being that it fudges the bitterest truth. 2. Sheltered See answer on page 6 November 2002 The BOOKFRESS page 3 What Came First is Last

Sebald shows us Grunewald’s art as the Aleutian Islands, Sebald’s presentation of the And closest to the beholder’s eye David Brazil attempt to grasp the apparent arbitrariness of story is mostly concerned with Steller’s The new generation of Moabites is con­ nature. But strangely, this wrestling, which approach to and return from the New World. ceived. After Nature seems so agonizing, forms the ground for the From the solar eclipse, Grunewald learned When for the first time I saw By W. G. Sebald greatest triumphs of his art. In a discussion of how to present the end of the world; in his This picture the year before last, tr. from German by Michael Hamburger the central panel of the Isenheim altarpiece, explorations, Steller discovered what still per­ I had the strange feeling Random House which is a graphic and nightmarish depiction sists at the end of the world. But to learn what O f having seen all of it 116 pp., $21.95, cloth of the Crucifixion, Sebald suggests that the he must, he too must pass through the chaos: Before, and a little later, painter was able to imagine the darkness that Crossing to Floridsdorf In some remote corner o f the universe, settled over the earth at the moment of All was a greyness, without direction, On the Bridge of Peace, poured out and glittering in innumerable Christ’s death by recalling his experience of a with no above or below, nature I nearly went out of my mind. solar systems, there once was a star on which solar eclipse: in a process of dissolution, in a state clever animals invented knowledge. That of pure dementia. We are all children of history, but Sebald, was the haughtiest and most mendacious Most probably Grunewald painted bom in 1944 in Germany, was the inheritor of minute of "world history”—yet only a and recalled the catastrophic incursion When the Bering expedition, which a country which had initiated previously minute. After nature had drawn a few breaths of darkness, the last trace of light returned without Bering, who had perished unimaginable crimes, and for which it paid a the star grew cold, and the clever animals flickering from beyond, after nature.... during the winter, rebuilt a boat out of the devastating price. We are not only the chil­ had to die. wrecked shell of their original vessel, dren of soldiers; we must also live amidst the “On Truth and Lies in an Extra-Moral Nature itself taught Grunewald Steller had to discard all of the botanical wreckage of their wars. Sebald’s reference to Sense,” Friedrich Nietzsche how to imagine the final, spiritual samples and notes that he had made. his birth and the birth of the Biblical Moabites also reminds us that Winfried Georg Sebald, to my human generation is part of the mind one of the finest contemporary ongoing chaos of nature, which authors, died unexpectedly a year we attempt to bind with the ago this December. For those orderly system called of us who were ardent read­ history. But his­ ers of his work, it came as a tory is only the severe blow. Austerlitz, his record of the dam­ fourth book, had just been released age we have done in in this country, and it was clear that trying to escape our original place he was writing at the top of his pow­ in nature. ers. Now his first posthumous pub­ The artist has the double task of lication, After Nature, has been interpreting both nature and what published in this country in a trans­ we have wrought in nature, the lation by Michael Hamburger. It is a after-nature which we have made. free verse poem in three sections, We are left to grapple with which was actually composed prior attempts at a reasonable explana­ to the books which have been pub­ tion. The first section of the poem lished thus far. Although it came opens with a quotation from the first, we read it as we receive it, last. second canto of Dante’s Inferno, It is a striking precis of the themes in which Dante asks Vergil to be and techniques that Sebald’s later his guide through the depths of the works would develop, and it is also underworld. This is how we are to a presentation of Sebald’s views on read Sebald’s biographical-poetic both the nature of art and the strug­ presentations of Grunewald and gle of the artist to find a form Steller: he is their student, they adequate to the chaos of human have something to teach him. It experience in the natural world. seems to me that each one of these The first section of the poem, men tried to construct a system of “... As The Snow On The Alps,” order with which to capture the deals with the life and work of phenomenal world. In his poem, the painter Matthias Grunewald. Ill liniju Sebald is looking at two who tried, Griinewald, a shadowy figure in different ways: one, through art about whom we know little, and and a kind of faith; the other, whose very name is uncertain in through science and a kind of rea­ the historical record, was commis­ son. And in the process of investi­ sioned by an Antonine monastery gating and modelling the world, to paint an altarpiece for their hos­ both men discovered that its sense pital chapel in Isenheim, Germany. was no sense at all. The painter This work, which is considered and the scientist were both archi­ one of the masterpieces of the tects of inadequate systems of German Renaissance, depicts the po aoov^ o order. And the uncertainly of the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, and author does not permit him to take several scenes from the life of the either as a model. In fact, neither desert saint Anthony, the patron of ...... man can be a teacher, because the monastery. Anthony, who dwelt Don Karr nature is the true teacher, from in solitude in Egypt, was plagued by which the patient man: demons who tempted him into madness and darkness. In this appearance of the work’s title Almost nothing survived except the notes he despair. Grunewald’s depiction of these in the text, Sebald introduces the dual mean­ was able to make when he returned to Russia slowly learns, from the tininess scenes of demonic torture is hellish. For ing of a painting executed after nature, that is, and wrote down what he could gather “into of the figures and the incomprehensible Sebald, it is also exemplary of the painter’s in imitation; and also of what is subsequent to the dust/of an endless inventory”. beauty of nature that vaults over them worldview: nature, what persists after it is gone. Both the The subject of the third section is Sebald to see that side of life that natural world and our earthly natures, which himself. As so often in his work, the spur to one could not see before. To him, the painter, this is creation, are perishing as we watch. When he received recollection is a photograph, in this case of his image of our insane presence word of the mass execution of peasants family. Neither his mother nor his father have To paraphrase Hector Berlioz, nature is the on the surface of the earth.... involved in an uprising, Grunewald, like any particular recollection of the last war, the best teacher, but it kills all of its pupils. Yeats Anthony, declined to leave his dwelling-place Second World War, during which Sebald was has told us that “once out of nature I shall And, for Sebald, what is the logic of our any longer. He had seen enough. bom, but the thought of Nuremberg in flames never take my bodily form from any natural presence? Grunewald’s travels were all restricted to brings to Sebald’s mind a painting: thing”. There shall be none of us after nature Germany. But Sebald’s second subject, the but what remains of what we have made. To try out how far it can go naturalist Georg Steller, traversed Europe, by Altdorfer depicting Lot Despite his fears and scruples Sebald speaks Is the sole aim of this sprouting, Russia, and the Bering Sea in pursuit of with his daughters. On the horizon to us with this same voice, the voice of a dis­ Perpetuation and proliferation knowledge of the natural world. Attached to a terrible conflagration blazes tant but powerful hope: Inside us also and through us and the second expedition of Vitus Bering, which devouring a large city. through was dispatched to explore the New World, Smoke ascends from the site, The wind drives us into flight The machines sprung from our heads, Steller travelled to Alaska and was party to the The flames rise to the sky and Like starlings in the hour when All in a single jumble, great disaster that befell the expedition. In the blood-red reflection The shadows fall.What remains to the last While behind us already the green Although poor planning and the weak leader­ One sees the blackened Is the work undertaken. Trees are leaving their leaves and ship of Bering, who was a broken man by the Facades of houses. Bare.as often they appear in Grunewald’s time of this expedition, forced the surviving In the middle ground there is a strip Pictures, loom up into the sky.... crew to winter under terrible conditions on the O f idyllic green landscape. David Brazil lives in Ithaca, NY. Page 4 The BOOKPRESS November 2002 The Making of the New Library

occupied by the Finger Lakes Library different sources provided the foundation for the slightest economic downturn. Regardless Janet Steiner System. In addition, the library and the the new strategic plan. A community survey of how many Americans love and use public county are active participants in the Cayuga of users and non-users was conducted by the libraries, regardless of how many campaigns Green development project, ensuring that the Center for Applied Research in Library and we mount to inform the American public For two hundred years, American have library’s potential to physically expand is not Information Science (CARLIS) at the State about our value, and regardless of the size of found their way out of poverty, ignorance compromised by the project. University of New York at Buffalo in the library or its geographic location, public and parochialism through public libraries. November of 2001, one year after the new libraries seem to be in a constant state of And despite predictions that libraries will Vision and Reality library opened. The survey results were fiscal jeopardy. become obsolete and replaced by digitized thought-provoking and illuminating. For In New York State, the Regents information on the Internet, in recent years The library has now doubled in square example, we learned that 61% of the resi­ Commission on Public Libraries studied the new libraries have been built in San footage, tripled in seating capacity and has a dents of Tompkins County said they used the issue of financial support (and non-support) Francisco, Phoenix, Chicago, Denver and shelving capacity for 20 years of collection library, while another 7% indicated that they of public libraries and recommended that San Antonio. Here in Tompkins County, the growth. Usage of the community meeting used other public libraries in Tompkins public libraries seek stable, secure and tiny village of Newfield has renovated and room has tripled, reference queries have County. 84% of our users said they were sufficient funding by becoming public expanded its library, the Ulysses Philomathic library districts. Library in Tmmansburg moved into its new Public Library districts are defined by two facility in 2001, and the Tompkins County basic elements: the budget is voted upon by Public Library opened the doors of its new the taxpayers residing within the district and building at the end of 2000. the library is governed by a board of trustees The story of the Tompkins County Public who are also elected. Library starts in 1863, when Ezra Cornell New York libraries which have moved to chartered the Cornell Public Library. Cornell the public library district have seen their per deeply believed that a free public library capita support double. According to the would be useful in “increasing the knowl­ report issued by the commission, average edge and elevating the moral and religious funding is $55 per capita in communities standards of the people.” Buying the proper­ where there is a public vote on the library’s ty and funding the building, Cornell saw the budget, compared with $24 in communities library open at the southeast comer of Tioga where there is no vote. and Seneca Street on December 18, 1866. These data did not escape our strategic Cornell University was founded later with its planning committee. In fact, the library first meetings of trustees and graduations trustees had already convened a broad-based held in the Cornell Public Library. The three- coalition of county libraries and county leg­ story building included a Lecture Hall with a islators to investigate the possibility of creat­ stage and balcony seating 800 people, room ing a public library district for Tompkins for up to 30,000 books, and leased space for County. While simple in concept, the public tenants. It served the Ithaca community until library district model is complex in 1960 when it was demolished during urban Tompkins County Public Library Tompkins County, due to overlapping char­ renewal. tered service areas. A hybrid model which In 1968 the Cornell Public Library became increased by 63%, and circulation is up by extremely or very satisfied with the level of protects the autonomy of each library while the Tompkins County Public Library and 20%. Public programming attracted more service that they received. This puts producing the needed increase in revenue is moved into its new home on Cayuga Street. than 10,000 people in 2001. Our door count Tompkins County Public Library in the top under consideration. Thirty-two years later, on November 20, is approaching 650,000 people annually. And ranking of other public libraries in the coun­ 2000 the new Tompkins County Public despite the increase in public Internet termi­ ty in terms of user satisfaction. “TCPL users The Next Five Years Library moved to the comer of Cayuga and nals, users can expect to wait in line before are more satisfied with their library than 17 Green Street, the site of a former they can get on-line. of 19 other libraries for which CARLIS had For the immediate future, the library’s Woolworth’s Department Store. The increase in space allowed us to offer comparable data..”(TCPL Users Survey p. 7) strategic plan will focus the resources of the The story of how we moved from the 1995 new services like a Health Information How much should Tompkins County pay library on eight directions. Just as the 1995 Strategic Plan to a new library has been doc­ Center, public exhibit and display opportuni­ for library support? Our users suggested $98 plan indicated that success would hinge on umented and preserved in an 80-minute ties, and book drops open 24/7. A digital per capita, while non-users proposed $44 per an improved and expanded physical facility, video “The Making of the New Library,” microfilm scanner extends new possibilities capita of support. This contrasts dramatical­ this report starts with the premise that future which can be checked out at the library. to those using microfilm.And users can e- ly with the reality—in Tompkins County the success will hinge on achieving fiscal stabil­ Community involvement, private/public mail their questions to the Ask A Librarian per capita support for all five chartered pub­ ity At press time, the strategic plan is near­ financial support and strong leadership service, providing the best in professional lic libraries is less than $23. The full report ing completion. The focus points are as fol­ ensured a successful project. Inspired archi­ library service to those who don’t have the (267 pages) is available at the library. lows: tects, staff stakeholder participation, and time to come in to the library. In addition to the community survey, the o Pursue Secure, Stable and Sufficient hundreds of iterations of floor plans resulted A solar energy system resides on the roof, committee reviewed data which compared Funding in a library which continues to receive rave and provides 20%-40% of the library’s ener­ the Tompkins County Public Library to other o Continue to Improve the Collection reviews, and which was highlighted in the gy demand. An information kiosk located on libraries in the country serving similar popu­ o Expand Reference and Information 2002 Architectural Issue of Library Journal. the Avenue of the Friends provides immedi­ lations and with similar circulation. The data, Services When we built the new library we built a ate information about the amount of energy contained in the library’s 2020 Report (avail­ o Stabilize and Expand the Staff facility that would meet the projected space being generated by the solar panels. able at the library), showed that our library is o Increase the Investment in Technology needs of the community for the next twenty below the median in terms of collection size, o Emphasize Public Programming years. The library expects to complete its Data Collection hours open, and staff size. o Reach out to New and Diverse Users growth on this site in 2010 when it will The committee also spent time consider­ o Establish Evaluation Measures for All expand into the 7500 sq. foot space now Collecting information from a number of ing trends in public libraries, especially the Library Services continuing impact of technology on library operations. These trends include partnering The strategic plan provides clear evidence with other community agencies, incorporat­ of outstanding stewardship of the library and L iste n to ing user-friendly technology, offering cus­ its assets by the Board of Trustees. The tomized and personalized service, enhancing Friends of the Library provide financial sup­ fo r the library’s web page with community port at a level far beyond what most public progressive information, and increasing the role of pro­ libraries in this country could even hope for. WEOS fessional librarians as “creators of knowl­ The Foundation's Board of Directors contin­ and edge” rather than locators of information. ues its amazing success in private fundrais­ 89.7 FM/88.1 FM ing. The staff of the library are committed to alternative Fiscal Reality delivering the best possible library services Geneva/lthaca news programs today and are eagerly planning specific ini­ The irony of the strategic planning initia­ tiatives to implement the strategic plan. tive is that it is taking place during a chal­ Our library represents the heart and soul of Democracy Now!, m -f, 9-10 am . lenging fiscal time. Retaining a vision for the our community. Our belief as Americans that future while being confronted daily with the we can be anything we want to be has no prospects of a significant (20%) reduction in greater symbol than the American public Free Speech Radio News Unwelcome Guests county funding was difficult. County funding library. Our library, like those of many other Pacifica reporters against a program about wealth, represents 70% of our revenue. cities, towns and villages, continues to flour­ power and people's As we discussed what new library servic­ ish and to fulfill the mission started by Ezra censorship resistance to the es would be important to offer in the next Cornell one hundred and thirty-nine years Monday-Friday, New World Order five years, we were simultaneously asking ago. what library services would be reduced or 6-6:30 p.m. Sundays, 9-11 p.m. eliminated in the next five months! Janet Steiner is Director o f the Tompkins Libraries have always been vulnerable to County Public Library in Ithaca. November 2002 The BOOKPRESS page 5 Tough Times for Libraries UPCOMING EVENTS AT can include books, records, papers, Elizabeth Herrington floppy disks, data tapes, and computers with hard drives. Times are tough for public libraries these days. Nationwide they face challenges both Permits the FBI to compel production political and economic, as the double wham­ of library circulation records, Internet my of terrorism and recession takes its toll use records, and registration informa­ Ammiel Alcalay on the functioning of what are among this tion stored in any medium. Alcalay incisively advances some unfashionable but country’s most enduring public institutions. often convincing positions on the politics and culture Faced with spending cuts and shrinking Does not require the agent to demon­ o f the Middle East, winning greater exposure for a budgets, libraries have been forced to find strate “probable cause,” the existence wide range of Sephardic writers both through his own ways to cope with higher demand and of specific facts to support the belief writings and by editing and translating anthologies that decreased funding. Maurice Freedman, pres­ that a crime has been committed or that showcase their work. ident of the American Library Association, the items sought are evidence of a calls this situation a tragedy. “The tragedy is crime. Instead, the agent only needs to Thursday, November 7 ,7:30pm. The Bookery. that at the time when libraries are most need­ claim that he believes that the records ed and most in demand, funding is being cut he wants may be related to an ongoing and hours of access curtailed,” he said, in an investigation related to terrorism or interview with The Bookpress. intelligence activities, a very low legal Zelda Lockhart Many libraries nationwide have simply standard. had to shut their doors for periods of time Set in Mississippi and Missouri in the 1970s, this (the Tompkins County facility closed all Libraries or librarians served with a strong debut novel tackles harrowing themes weekend during the summer). Seattle’s search warrant issued under FISA rules of family violence and abuse. Lockhart's narrative library, for example, has announced it will may not disclose, under penalty of law, is straightforward and lyrical, Odessa's voice is close the entire week before Christmas, due the existence of the warrant or the fact believable and the evolution of her character in to citywide budget cuts. Cincinnati will that records were produced as a result the face o f overwhelming alienation is as engaging as it is heartbreaking. increase fines and reduce the number of of the warrant. A patron cannot be told hours the main library and every branch that his or her records were given to the . Saturday, November 9 ,2:30pm. The Bookery. library are open to the public by an average FBI or that he or she is the subject of of four hours per week. Under consideration an FBI investigation. is the closing of some of the branches. “Libraries are coping in whatever ways (For additional information on the ALA’s they can. Budget cuts are hitting most city position on the USA Patriot Act, see Roald Hoffman and county agencies hard right now,” www.ala.org/washoff/terrorism.pdf and Freedman said. www.ala.org/washoff7FreedomofSpeech9.pdf Taking a well-deserved break from being a Nobel Prize There are more than 16,000 public library winner, author, poet, professor and playwright, Roald outlets—one in almost every community The Future Hoffman will be reading from Soliton, his new across the country. In fact, there are more collection of poetry. Sometimes funny, and always care­ public libraries than there are McDonald’s Yet the ALA is optimistic about the future. fully observed and reflective, his work is intriguing, outlets, Freedman noted. “The future of the book is assured,” said mysterious, ambitious, and accomplished. Freedman. “The public library is a store­ Libraries and Liberty house of freely available information in Sunday, November 17,2:30pm. Tompkins County Public library. print, electronic, and other formats—a role Meanwhile, libraries face another threat: that guarantees its future existence. It also that embodied in the USA Patriot Act (a fine is a center to which the community comes example of putting the acronym before the for a host of reasons—to attend programs, Trevor Pinch meaning): “Uniting and Strengthening to read a newspaper, to meet and be with America by Providing Appropriate Tools other members of their community, to get Trevor Pinch, science professor at Cornell Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism the friendly assistance of the reference University and closet rock and roller will be Act.” librarian when a website can’t be found, a reading from his new non-fiction book, Analog The latest study available (Jan/Feb 2002), nugget of information is elusive, for an Days: The Invention and Impact of the Moog conducted by the University of Illinois at entertaining book to read, or for a multitude Synthesizer. This promises to be a fantastic Champaign, indicates that about 8% of of other reasons.” multi-media presentation. libraries (85 out of a survey sample of 1,020 Yet every library is different, he noted. libraries) report that authorities have Libraries are uniquely local institutions and Sunday, November 2 4 ,2:30pm. Tompkins County Public Library. requested information about their patrons reflect the flavor of their communities. But pursuant to the events of September 11. there are some broad themes and principles Since then, according to Freedman, the that bind them together: Libraries are places due process procedures that protected the of opportunity. They are places for educa­ Russell Bourne privafcy of library users in 49 out of 50 states tion and self-help. Because they bring access have been transcended by the provisions of to all, they bring opportunity to all. In this With dexterity and eloquence, Bourne weaves his the USA Patriot Act. way, libraries are the same as they have been considerable research into a compelling narrative of the “If the survey correctly reflects activity in since the first U.S. public libraries were ways in which Native American religions both meshed libraries, we have some reason to be con­ established in the 1800s. . and clashed with those of the settlers. It was, he writes, cerned. The government has always recog­ “But libraries also are technology power­ a time when the two "religions shuddered, gave good for nized that what you read and think are an houses, community meeting centers and good and bad for bad, and changed in order to survive." extension of free speech. We’re concerned hosts to public programs ranging from that the USA Patriot Act allows a much author readings to film series, Freedman Sunday, December I, 2:30pm. Tompkins County Public library. lower level of judicial scrutiny before law said. “Libraries are changing and dynamic enforcement is allowed to search library places that continue to strive to meet the records. Our major area of concern is the diverse needs of their users. Almost all invasion of privacy for people who use the libraries offer free public Internet access and library,” Freedman said. classes to teach people how to find what they The legislation originated late last year need effectively. Eight out of 10 libraries Edward Hower with Attorney General John Ashcroft, who offer cultural programs for adult audiences.” M odem terrorism , like ancient beliefs in spir­ asked Congress for additional powers that The only thing certain, Freedman its and ghosts, thrives in lush, beautiful Sri he claimed were needed to fight terrorism in concluded, is that there will continue to be a Lanka, the setting of Edward Hower's new the wake of the events of September 11, need for libraries and the expert assistance novel. Although this book will not be com­ 2001. Few amendments were made to of librarians. mercially available until January, M r H ow er Ashcroft’s initial proposal to Congress, and The sheer volume of information avail­ has graciously decided to preview it in Ithaca. the bill became law without any hearings or able in print and online demands the skills markup by a congressional committee. of librarians—the ultimate search engines. Sunday, December 8 , 2:30pm. Tompkins County Public library. According to the ALA, the section of the Libraries continue to be America's great act that specifically hits libraries (and book­ information equalizers—the only place peo­ stores and the media, for that matter) ple of all ages and backgrounds can find and includes the following: freely use such a diversity of resources, along with the expert guidance of librarians. Section 215: Access to Records Under Events at the Library are co-sponsored Foreign Intelligence Security Act (FISA) Elizabeth Herrington lives in Ithaca, by by Tompkins County Public Library. >; Allows an FBI agent to obtain a search way of New York City, Atlanta and Sao warrant for “any tangible thing,” which Paulo. Books are available at 10% off the day of the reading. 273-5055 • WWW.THEBOOKERY.COM page 6 The ROOKPKKSS November 2002 Purity, World Music Mediterranean,” Roberto Raheli, leader of Gail Holst-Warhaft the group Amarime, which performs tradi­ tional music from Puglia in southern Italy, suggested that the “Mediterranean voice” New York World Festival, Music was a form of opposition to the “European Around the Mediterranean, presented by Union voice.” the World Music Institute and Center for Like a number of performers at the week­ Traditional Music and Dance, New York end festival, Raheli has researched and City, September 20-22, 2002. revived a style of music that was all but extinct when he became interested in Rebetika, the Blues of Greece, Grigoris it. Inspired by the revival of folk music Maninakis and friends at Cornell’s in Naples in the 1980s, Raheli went back to Barnes Hall, November 1st. his native Puglia and listened to old singers who still remembered the type of music asso­ Maria Farandouri in concert at Barnes ciated with a healing ritual used to counteract Hall, November 7th. the poisonous bite of the tarantula, the pizzica taranta. Raheli and his group What is Mediterranean music? The of musicians use flutes, an accordion, question inevitably provokes other ones: tambourines, and a loud, rough vocal style What do we mean by “Mediterranean that gives an impression of authenticity. culture,” or the more recently coined term, “Raheli is passionately committed to preserv­ “Mediterraneanness?” And where does ing his musical culture,” the program notes Mediterranean music fit into the broader explained, and “to that end, Amarime per­ phenomenon of world music? Is it a sub­ forms with a minimum of contaminazione, or genre, or simply a convenient geographical mixing of styles.” This sounds remarkably limitation? At the World Music Institute’s like the rhetoric of the purist flamenco revival^ first New York World Festival on September of the 1960s or the authentic rebetika revival 20-22, titled “Music around the groups of the 1970s in Greece. If it is possi­ ble to generalize about the extraordinarily diverse musical styles represented at this fes­ CAFE DEWITT tival, it is that most belonged to two distinct types: purist revivalists like the Puglian marzipan belgian ensemble and unashamed fusionists like the waffles Spanish group, Radio Tarifa. In terms of purity and impurity, no two I basil cheddar groups had less in common than Radio grits Tarifa and Amarime. There is a growing lit­ I cornbread erature in ethnomusicology on the phenom­ enon of musical style-mixing. Groups like scones Radio Tarifa are considered performers of “hybrid,” “world,” “melange,” or “fusion” eggs florentine music, and, depending on your point of view, eggs benedict they either represent what is innovative and healthy in “ethnic” music or its opposite. Petros Pandis and Maria Farandouri, Argentina 1970. pain perdu Such a discussion may seem trivial in North America, where national identity is not gen­ de Canto Jondo in the 1920s, to the debate Mediterranean festival. Led by Fain Duenas, SPECIALS CHANGE erally centered on the question of musical between Antonio Mairena’s “authentic” Vincent Molino, and the wickedly camp EVERY W EEK purity, but it is taken very seriously in other gypsy style and fusions with American jazz singer Benjamin Escoriza, the group has not DEWITT MALL, cultures, and nowhere in the world have the in the 1950s and 1960s, flamenco has been turned its back on traditional music. Both arguments been fiercer than in Spain. the focal point of Andalusian and, more Duenas—who performs on lute, guitar, and A From its emergence as a commercially suc­ broadly, Spanish identity for more than a cen­ percussion—and Molinas, a French-born 3473 cessful genre in the 1860s, through Federico tury. By the 1980s, when record companies flute player, have done a great deal of Garcia Lorca and Manuel de Falla’s Concurso introduced the term, “new flamenco,” to mar­ research on Arab music, incorporating con­ ket the experimental “impure” flamenco temporary North African elements into their music, it merely reflected what had been music in a gesture that retraces the histori­ T h e going on for two decades in Spain. Whether cal trajectory of flamenco. The end product, JOIN THE we consider this a form of “globalization” or however, is not the recreation of a tradition­ a reaction in some way to the particular polit­ al style, but, as Duenas explains it, a “bor­ FRIENDS OF ical conditions of Spain, where “pure” derline, a no-man’s land, and most of all, a flamenco had become institutionalized as an balcony over the Mediterranean.” However affirmation of conservative nationalism, much it may draw on older styles, it is also Enclosed is my contribution to Spanish groups were among the first and most the unabashedly slick product of a group of □ Please send my Friends of T he Bookpress. successful musical style-mixers in Europe. professional musicians with a degree of complimentary subscription They picked up whatever appealed to them— showmanship that makes them an impossi­ □ $25 □ $50 □ $100 aother $_ to T he Bookpress as a gift to: jazz, rock, salsa, classical, ethnic music from ble act to follow at a folk festival. Name: Morocco and other countries—and mixed Radio Tarifa’s success raises the question Name: ______Address: these styles with elements of flamenco to cre­ of what world music is up to. Does the Address: ______ate a wide variety of new Spanish music that World Music Institute of New York repre­ thumbed its nose at purity. sent the remarkably successful international Phone: Decades of disdain for purity may be why business of selling world music or does it Radio .Tarifa stole the show at the seek to celebrate and encourage the cultural □ Please keep my contribution anonymous richness of New York City and its boroughs? Answer to Crosszvord Puzzle According to its directors, Robert Browning and Ethel Raim, who also represent the T he Bookpress is a non-profit organization All donations are tax-deductible Center for Traditional Music and Dance, wmu tUMUMty mum Astoria was chosen as the location for the Return to: HEJUULJtttiJtlHIiaEIIIEJlU weekend festival partly because it had been The Bookpress □ H ill MIIIMM EJHMIUM the site of the Queens Ethnic Music and 215 N. Cayuga St. HIHtllU HL1PJIfl Dance Festivals, held between 1976 and Ithaca, NY 14850 HUEJIUHM HIUHHUUH in mm upjwuiu mm 1991, and partly because of its ethnic diver­ T he Bookpress welcomes HtlMJlHEJIUUUJUEJHMEJEJty sity. Many of the people who attended this miu uuMEiu mimi year’s event were the sort of New Yorkers Comments, Si emissions, HEIHIilHUU HEJULUHU who love folk music of almost any variety and Letters to t he Editor UIHHH Hfciryu and have been attending such events for Visit US on-line a twwwtlu’lxiokery.com/bookpivss EltiJHtilU UHH years. Wearing embroidered blouses, Balkan MUHIlllUEJUJUUUIlUEIElU sandals, and hoop earrings, they greeted or call us at: (b<)7) 277-2254 MPJUM UJHHEJEJ HM UH each other fondly and participated with UMEJI21 EJU H H H U H flU experienced good cheer in the Greek dance November 2002 The BOOKPRESS page 7 and the Goddess Hera workshops. The other main contingent The ensemble Mikrokosmos, led by consisted of members of the various ethnic Grigoris Maninakis, is a case in point. communities of Queens, who had come to Grigoris Maninakis is one of my favorite listen to music from their native countries Greek musicians. A professor of engineer­ and predictably barracked for their ing at CUNY Brooklyn, a cantor in the own home teams. Orthodox Church and singer of urban Greek The festival organizers are familiar with music, Maninakis is regarded as the leading the local musical scene and they chose their exponent of the style of music known as performers well, but there is an inevitable rembetika or rebetika in this country. 1 first downside to juxtaposing, say, a Serbian brass heard Maninakis perform in the small band with a performance of Yemenite song. “Mikrokosmos” club in Astoria twenty years The Mediterranean might have some kind of ago, and I never tire of his voice. He and abstract cultural voice, but its traditional his band will be performing at Barnes Hall musical voices are as heterogeneous as any on the Cornell campus on November 1st and in world music. Lumping them together for he should not be missed. Maninakis is a a festival is bound to give all but the hardy relentlessly modest performer, a quality that folk-festival regulars musical indigestion, shines in a small space and may have caused while detracting from the “pure” folk music. him to forfeit a larger career. The popularity Take the case of the two Sardinian launed- of rebetika on the world music scene has das performers who were unlucky enough to demonstrated that this music has universal follow Radio Tarifa. They perform on a type appeal, but it works best where there is inti­ of folk clarinet from Sardinia that consists of mate contact between the musicians and three single-reed cane pipes using the tech­ Maria Farandouri, Melbourne, Australia 2001. their audience. The sepulchral hush of nique known as “circular breathing.” The Barnes Hall may not be ideal, but it is small sound produced is more like a bagpipe than enough to be able to generate some kefi, the a clarinet, and the musicians, Roberto Corona high spirits without which such music and Stefano Pinna, played their instruments should never be heard. with great skill, but on a large open-air stage, Maninakis’s performance at Barnes Hall following the electrifying ethno-chic of is part of a week’s activities on the Cornell Radio Tarifa, they were doomed to the shoals campus devoted to modem Greek culture. of quaint revivalism. The climax of the week’s events will be a To some extent, the Mediterranean music performance, also in Barnes Hall on festival succeeded in being both an interna­ November 7th, by the legendary Greek singer tional and a local folk festival. The main Maria Farandouri.'She has been called the events were staged in the beer garden of the Joan Baez of Greece, but she is much more. Bohemian Hall, with dance workshops and As the lead singer for the composer Mikis panels taking place inside in an auditorium. Gregory Maninakis and his Mikrokosmos Ensemble. Theodorakis, she sang with him on every Tasty food of various ethnic varieties was continent, recording and performing with available and, since it was a warm weekend, maintaining traditional form while allowing an important addition to the festival, remind­ John Williams, Zubin Mehta, Mirian the audience and musicians from a dozen for all kinds of experimentation. ing us that the brilliant musical heritage of Makeba, Leo Brouwer, and the Turkish com­ different countries mingled cheerfully, bal­ The current political situation deprived the medieval Andalusia moved south as well as poser, Zulfu Livaneli. She is probably best ancing their plates of falafel and plastic beer festival of what would certainly have been in every other direction. known in Europe and Israel for her interpre­ cups in the sun. If there were some musical another highlight: Sheikh Hamza Shakkur, The Astoria festival reflected both changes tation of Theodorakis’s song cycle, events that were less appealing, one could the Al-Kindi Ensemble, and the whirling in the world-music scene and the steady Mauthausen, and in Latin America, for always attend a panel in the adjacent hall. dervishes of Damascus were to have been demand for ethnic music of any variety. The her performances (in Spanish) of the One of the more interesting panels was led the event’s closing act, and anyone World Music Institute initially responded to Neruda/Theodorakis oratorio Canto General. by the master ‘ud player and violinist Simon who has seen their international the growing demand for that elusive com­ The Guardian said of her voice that it was “a Shaheen, and was called “Stringing Across performances is aware that they are spectac­ modity during the 1980s and 1990s by bring­ gift from the Gods of Olympus.” Francois the Mediterranean.” It included demonstra­ ular. Unfortunately, both they and the male ing a series of first-rate performers to New Mitterand’s comment was “she is the god­ tions on the lud, kemenje, Cretan lyra, and members of Zakia Kara-terki’s Algerian York from India, Damascus, Tehran, Africa, dess Hera of my imagination.” Farandouri bouzouki. Shaheen is one of a growing num­ ensemble were denied visas. Zakia Kara- and Istanbul. Their concerts, held in was world music before there was a world ber of ethnic-music performers who like to terki’s group reinforces the notion of the Symphony Space and Town Hall, were the music industry. She collaborated with have their musical cake and eat it, too. He Mediterranean as cultural conduit, with cen­ first opportunity New Yorkers had to listen Turkish musicians, singing in Turkish long plays and records traditional Arab music turies of interaction from north to south and to such music regularly in a central location, before such interactions were politically cor­ with his New York-based group, the Near east to west. Kara-terki was born in instead of sporadically at small venues that rect. She sang Kurt Weill in Germany, Eastern Music Ensemble, and at the same Tlemcen, Algeria, center of a rich were hard to find. As someone who loves Neruda in Cuba, Mauthausen on the site of time plays and composes for a fusion-music Andalusian culture established by Muslims many kinds of what is generally called “eth­ the concentration camp. Those who come to group, Qantara, which he founded in 2000. and Jews who fled there during the fifteenth nic music,” I am grateful to the Institute for hear her on November 7th will hear not the Shaheen has written and performed on the century Reconquista of Spain. Coming from bringing so many outstanding performers to goddess Hera, perhaps, but a voice which film soundtracks for The Sheltering Sky and a family of master musicians, she plays and this country, but I am also aware that many could start a revolution with a single song. Malcolm X. He is a performer who moves sings in what is called (after the city of of these performances depend, as they effortlessly back and forth in musical time Granada) the Ghamati style. Despite her col­ should, on a very particular context for their Gail Holst-Warhaft is the director o f the and space, confirming the possibilities of leagues’ absence, Kara-terki’s presence was real impact to be felt. European Studies program at Cornell.

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER In his boldest and bravest NICK HORNBY novel to date, Author Nick o»»ihor of ABOUT A BOY ood HIGH FIDELITY Hornby enters the heart, mind, and sould of a woman who, confronted by her husband's for more info see our m u flicksheet, call us at 255- sudden and extreme spiritual § 3522. or visit us on the web: conversion, is forced to learn Afghan Alphabet ;?§ cinema.cornell.edu "how to be good"— for better friendly Persuasion:______Iranian Cinema After the Revolution or worse... Blackboards "A thorny parable...very funny and shrewd." — Salon.com "Hornby is a writer who dares to be witty, intelligent, and emotionally generous all at once." — The New York Times Book Review Battle for the Soviet Ukraine Schors "Fearless." "Hilarious." lov 12 —Soft FrancHco Ctowwcfe —VSA feOjy Riverhead Books ❖ *13 Paper Farewell, America page 8 The BOOKPRESS November 2002 Scofflaw Diplomacy continued from page 1 with Iraq. However justified the critique of confident that Israel would not use its nuclear On a modest budget and in the face of the US behavior, it is unlikely to reassure arms unless the very survival of the state were Iraqi government’s consistent deception and Americans to support US military action. Americans about Iraq enough for them to at stake. Few would give Iraq the same efforts to undermine its work, the inspections Saddam as Hitler seemed a bit exaggerated, oppose the war. Moreover there does not benefit of the doubt, although a recent CIA regime achieved a great deal. With a team of higher prices at the gas pumps, crassly insult­ seem much to be gained by playing down the report suggested that the event most likely to 21 international arms control experts, and sup­ ing in the assumption that US citizens cared danger that Saddam Hussein poses. The provoke Iraq’s use of weapons of mass porting staff, UNSCOM conducted 250 mainly about their pocketbooks. Appealing to point is to put that danger into perspective destruction would be a US invasion. inspections between 1991-98. The IAEA con­ the United Nations Charter, to the fundamen­ and to consider what greater dangers the For many Americans, fear of Saddam ducted a further 500 inspections during rough­ tal right of national sovereignty and defense United States risks by rushing into a war. Hussein’s nuclear intentions is one of the ly the same period. Iraq initially claimed that against aggression, appeared to do the trick. After the September 11th tragedies, the more plausible rationales for war put forward it was in compliance with the Nuclear Never mind that the US government itself was danger that naturally preoccupies many by the Bush administration (as long as evi­ Nonproliferation Treaty and denied that it had only selectively sensitive to such appeals, Americans is terrorism, and, particularly, the dence of Iraq’s connections to al Qaeda terror­ conducted any nuclear activities beyond those ignoring or abetting over the years the threat of further attacks by the al Qaeda ists remains flimsy). Here the criticism of already monitored by the IAEA. Inspections, Chinese annexation of Tibet, the Indonesian organization. One of the strongest arguments double standards, however telling, serves however, revealed an extensive, secret effort invasion of East Timor, Israel’s “security against war with Iraq—one that hawks and poorly as an anti-war argument. Yes, the oriented toward the production of nuclear zone” in southern Lebanon and illegal occu­ doves alike can embrace—is that it will dis­ United States possesses the most destructive weapons, including several undeclared proj­ pation of Palestinian lands. Many Americans tract the United States from a necessary focus force of nuclear weapons the planet has ever ects to enrich uranium for use in weapons. put aside their doubts and hoped that Bush’s on preventing terrorism. Hawks will empha­ known; it is the only country to have used UNSCOM’s work was equally effective in vision of a New World Order would be one size spreading US armed forces too thin and them, against Hiroshima and Nagasaki; it has identifying illegal weapons programs. The founded on respect for the rule of law and the the implausibility of being adequately pre­ developed the world’s most advanced arsenal commission found 80 undeclared SCUD mis­ institutions of international governance, such pared to counter a sudden terrorist threat of chemical arms and is at the forefront of siles, 45 warheads adapted for biological or as the United Nations. while troops are engaged in a major battle in research on biological weaponry. Moreover, chemical use, and 30,000 chemical muni­ In retrospect, one can doubt the extent to Iraq. A full-page advertisement in the New the current administration has abandoned or tions. Iraq had initially denied the existence which such high mindedness motivated the York Times in mid-September made this sought to undermine key international treaties of any biological weapons program, but Bush team. Much of the administration’s case. It was signed by more than two dozen intended to control weapons, from the Anti- UNSCOM inspectors confronted Baghdad behavior smacked of the triumphalism that leading professors of international security Ballistic Missile Treaty to the Biological with enough evidence that the government has since become the defining feature of US policy, most with a reputation as hard-nosed Weapons Convention. But such an argument, acknowledged several production facilities, foreign policy. The Gulf War provided an “realists.” Doves can endorse these concerns a pot-calling-the-kettle-black approach, does where anthrax and botulinum toxin were opportunity, not to be missed, to make clear and add additional ones: that war in Iraq will not seem to resonate with the American pub­ developed, and declared 25 SCUD warheads which country won the Cold War and would kill many innocent civilians and sow the lic. It is also in evident tension with another and more than 150 aerial bombs prepared for dictate the terms of the peace. seeds for further terrorist activity. argument one sometimes hears from peace use in biological attacks. This is the father’s legacy, which the son Here the issue of double standards becomes activists: we need not worry about a nuclear­ When the inspectors left in 1998, they had inherited along with many of the advisers relevant. Critics of the United States, in the armed Iraq, because it would always fear a been unable to locate many weapons compo­ who helped fashion it. The new US National Middle East, for example, will make much of devastating US nuclear retaliation if it sought nents for which they had evidence (from ship­ Security Strategy, issued in September 2002, the selective US concern about violations of to use its own weapons. Principled opponents ping invoices, cross-references in other Iraqi makes explicit that the United States intends UN resolutions and pursuit of weapons of of nuclear arms, who understand them as documents, and so forth). The missing items to continue its military domination of the mass destruction and wonder why Israel gets weapons of genocide, should resist taking this include missile warheads, rocket fuel, and world and to prevent the rise of any potential a free hand in both domains. The Security tack. A long-term objective of the peace some 17 tons of growth media for biological challengers. The administration has rejected Council’s Resolution 242, for example, movement should be to stigmatize the posses­ agents. Iraq failed to account for thousands of a range of international treaties, from the requires Israel to withdraw its armed forces sion of nuclear weapons, so that they will no suspected chemical munitions and some Kyoto Protocol on global warming to the from territories occupied in the 1967 war (and longer be a symbol of great-power status, to 4,000 tons of precursor chemicals which the International Criminal Court—reflecting a for Israel and its neighbors alike to acknowl­ which challengers like Iraq aspire, but a sign government insisted it had destroyed (but not go-it-alone attitude that is out of step with edge “the sovereignty, territorial integrity and of moral depravity. That end is not served by under UNSCOM supervision, as required). American public opinion and international political independence of every State in the invoking US nuclear might as an anti-war These chemicals, if they still exist, could be realities. Bush, in his speech to the United area and their right to live in peace within argument. turned into thousands more weapons. If Iraq Nations on September 12, implicitly secure and recognized boundaries free from Fortunately there are better arguments for follows through with its promise to allow the acknowledged that the unilateralism had threats or acts of force” - a clear requirement opposing unilateral US military action with­ return of UN inspectors, they will clearly have gone too far, as he sought to put concerns to accept Israel’s right to exist). US tolerance out seeming complacent about Iraq’s nuclear their work cut out for them. about Iraq in the context of UN resolutions. of Israel’s continued military actions in the potential. No country wants Iraq to have Despite impressive mobilization over a rel­ Official US acknowledgment of the impor­ occupied territories, despite their justification weapons of mass destruction, whether or not atively short time period, the peace movement tance t>f the United Nations, however fleet­ as a response to terrorism, will strike many in the United States has them. The point is that was unable to influence a majority of the US ing, provides an opportunity that the peace the region as inconsistent with insistence on threatening to invade the country in order to Congress to refrain from endorsing President movement should not miss. The speech nev­ Iraq’s strict adherence to UN dictates. On the topple Saddam Hussein is hardly likely to Bush’s war resolution. In the days leading up ertheless left many doubts about the adminis­ question of “regime change,” at least, the US diminish his fervor for obtaining the only to the vote, it was nearly impossible to get tration’s sincerity. The perennial issue of seems more consistent. It favors overthrow­ weapons that he might hope could deter such through by telephone to the offices of New double standards was unavoidable. Iraq is ing Saddam Hussein and looks the other way a US attack. The system of international York’s senators. Charles Schumer’s line was hardly the only country to have flagrantly as Israel seeks to do the same with Yasser inspections developed at the end of the 1991 constantly busy and calling Hilary Clinton’s violated UN resolutions, invaded and occu­ Arafat. In this case, the consistency will only war, despite its flaws, did more to hinder number yielded only this encouraging mes­ pied neighboring territories, pursued secret serve to create more enemies for the United Iraq’s pursuit of weapons of mass destruction sage: “Senator Clinton’s voice mailbox is full. programs to develop weapons of mass States and boost the popularity of both Arafat than any military action. A natural argument Good-bye.” Yet a key argument, advanced by destruction, and perpetrated or condoned acts and Hussein, neither of whom would other­ for peace activists—and one that a majority of many peace activists and supported by broad of terrorism against innocent civilians. wise garner much sympathy in the region. Americans could endorse—is to insist on a segments of American public opinion, did By itself, accusing the United States of Furthermore, Israel’s undeclared possession role for the United Nations and an emphasis apparently get through. Many of the pursuing double standards does not constitute of several hundred nuclear weapons has never on restoring a meaningful inspections regime. Democratic representatives and senators who an effective argument against going to war drawn US criticism. US officials seem The history of the UN inspections in Iraq issued the Bush administration a blank check attests to their effectiveness as well as offer­ for war nevertheless offered various (non­ ing ample evidence why they were and still binding) qualifications as they justified their A N E W YORK TIMES BESTSELLER are necessary. The original regime was creat­ votes. In effect they argued that the United “Entirely successful: distinct, ed by Security Council Resolution 687 in States should not initiate war against Iraq inhabited, vivid, and real.” 1991. Iraq accepted its terms as part of the without specific endorsement from the United w — The Washington peace agreement that ended the war. The Nations Security Council and support from Post Book World inspection system depended on two organiza­ US allies. It may be that the blank check will tions, the already existing International prove more meaningful to the president than Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), established the qualifications, but here is where continued 4 “Gravely appealing.” to monitor civilian nuclear power plants and activity of opponents of the war can play a cru­ — People prevent diversion to weapons production; cial role—by stressing the potentially disas­

* 7 and the newly created United Nations Special trous consequences of a go-it-alone approach. “Chevalier’s prose is as Committee (UNSCOM), intended to discov­ The long-term agenda of the peace move­ . fc ' * , A radiantly effective as well- er and destroy facilities involved in develop­ ment, regardless of how the current Iraq situ­ tended silver.” ment and production of chemical and ation is resolved, should be to emphasize the biological weapons. UNSCOM withdrew its role of international institutions and law. The — Entertainment Weekly teams from Iraq in 1998, as Hussein’s regime United Nations Security Council is not with­ continually hindered its work and as out its faults, dominated as it is by the world’s “At once elegant, daring, UNSCOM itself came under criticism for major nuclear powers, four of which (France, original, and compelling.” allowing its staff to engage in espionage. Britain, Russia, and the US) have oil interests UNSCOM was superseded in December at stake in Iraq. Yet it is precisely the other * FALLING ANGELS — Kansas City Independent 1999 by the UN Monitoring, Verification, and major powers that should be concerned about Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC, creat­ US pretensions to act independently of any TRACY CHEVALIER Plume -*• $13 Paper ed under Resolution 1284), which up to the current crisis has not had access to Iraq. continued on page 9 November 2002 The BOOKPRESS page 9 Prospects for Peace in Israel/Palestine

ous offer” by more recent Prime Minister of siege and blockade and making full use ideologically committed Jewish settler David Regenspan Ehud Barak, but this offer was turned down of anti-terrorism rhetoric, Sharon could movement to increase government inter­ by Arafat, who chose a course of violence stall for more time to allow more Jewish vention in the economy again by speeding and terrorism. This claim is central to settlers into the occupied territories. up the settlement process and riding On Thursday, October 3, a Palestinian justifications for repressing Palestinian Ajad described life as it is now under roughshod over Palestinian aspirations. and an Israeli academic professor came to nationalism. occupation: sixty per cent unemployment; The result was the first and second Cornell to speak on “War in the Middle Meanwhile, Ajad maintained, the civil institutions such as finance and edu­ Intifadahs. Thus, Peled concluded, eco­ East: The Case for a Just and Realistic assumption that there is something intrin­ cation offices destroyed and their comput­ nomics had as much to do with the cur­ Peace Between Israelis and Palestinians.” sic in Palestinian culture or beliefs that ers confiscated; roadblocks that keep sick rent situation as ideology. The professors, Islah Ajad of Bir Zeit leads to violence represents a convenient people from medical care and cause preg­ Professor Ajad’s account was vivid and University and Israeli Professor Yoav Peled way for Israelis and their American allies nant women to give birth at checkpoints; a moving, while that of Professor Peled of Tel Aviv University, are part of a group to avoid taking responsibility for the humiliating reliance on international offered a perspective on the Israel- of Israeli and Palestinian academics cur­ actions of the Israeli govem-ment and its humanitarian aid for survival. Her own Palestine conflict that is not often heard. rently touring the United States, Faculty for army. Ajad reminded her audience that the workplace, Birzeit University, has been Nevertheless, the “case for a just and real­ Israeli-Palestinian Peace. Ajad and Peled Oslo/Camp David process was intended to shut down for eight months due to road­ istic peace” was never made, in the sense presented their views on what went wrong be a gradual one, based on the principle of blocks (to avoid international condemna­ that no realistic outline was offered for get­ with the Oslo peace process and how the land for peace, and that the Palestinian tion, the shutdown is de facto rather than ting from here to there. When one ques­ current critical state of affairs in Israel and leadership accepted this principle and official policy). Often shot at by Israeli tioner asked the speakers how they Palestine came about. asked for time to build up a peace con­ soldiers, students have been told to avoid proposed to get Israelis and Palestinians Not surprisingly, the scenario that they stituency at home among people who had the campus because the administration can­ out of the mess that they are in, Professor described was bleak. The Oslo process is suffered years of Israeli domination. Rabin, not keep them safe. Peled replied that academics solve nothing dead and the current Israeli regime under too, she said, acted on this understanding. Professor Peled took a more academic in the “real world,” and when they try they Ariel Sharon is on a collision course with However, Ajad asserted, even before approach, offering an economic analysis of often make things worse (then what, one the very idea of Palestine, making maxi­ Rabin’s assassination in 1995 Israel the peace process and why it failed. Israel’s might ask, was he doing there?). Professor mum use of the “war on terror” concept as attempted to weaken the Palestinian lead­ original economy, he explained, represent­ Ajad demurred from this dismal view, a cover to promote its aims. Echoing the ership, an effort that gained momentum ed a blend of free-market capitalism with offering the hope that, as academics message of an e-mail written by Israeli after Rabin’s death. As to Barak’s “gener­ centralized control of the economy. The did during the Vietnam War era, they academics currently circulating around the ous offer,” no one can be sure what the powerful Histradrut, the umbrella organi­ could educate people to in turn move world, they warned that Sharon and his offer was or how it was originally under­ zation for all the labor unions, controlled things in a more positive direction. allies are pushing for an American inva­ stood, because nothing was written down. half of the economy and made sure that But that was as close as she came to sion of Iraq solely to be able to expel In the end, Ajad claimed, the Israelis led unprofitable enterprises were subsidized in offering a plan. Palestinian civilians while the “fog of war” the United States intermediaries to belief order to ensure full employment. After One has to question the value of such a obscures the actions of the Israeli army. that they had well-defined terms to be Israel’s victories in the 1967 and 1973 wars, public seminar if it leads to feelings of In other words, things are only getting fulfilled, when in reality the terms kept the efforts to maintain a military and set­ pessimism bordering on despair, as it did worse. changing. tlement presence in the occupied territories for this writer. The most positive develop­ Professor Ajad spoke first, stating her According to Ajad, the attack of also represented further public investment ment, mentioned only in passing during intention to “deconstruct the prevailing September 11 served as Ariel Sharon’s and control of the economy. According to the question period, was the recent phe­ discourse” concerning the current situa­ excuse to bury Oslo for good and link his Peled, the “right-wing” project of dominat­ nomenon of Israeli reservists refusing to tion. In particular, she addressed the com­ war on the Palestinians with the “war on ing the territories thus served the interests serve in the occupied territories. Would mon assumption that the Camp David terror,” comparing Arafat to Bin Laden and of the “leftwing” project of maintaining that this seminar had focused upon the agreement (1993) between then Prime the Palestinians to the Taliban, thus dele- government intervention in economic brave souls who are out there struggling Minister Itzhak Rabin and PLO leader gitimizing the Palestinian struggle. By affairs. to solve the Israel/Palestine dilemma in Yasser Arafat eventually led to a “gener- placing the Palestinians under a virtual state With the election of Menachem Begin such practical, real world ways. That and the empowerment of his right-wing would have made an afternoon one could Likud bloc, this balance of private and pub­ get through without a desire to reach for lic interests began to come to an end, Peled the nearest painkiller. said. Begin was committed to the “liberal­ Scofflaw Diplomacy ization” of the economy. Thus, Peled David Regenspan, a former congrega­ explained, his surprise move to make peace tional rabbi, is completing a novel about continued from page 8 Eastern Europe and Russia, such as Vaclav with Egypt and his agreement to withdraw Jews and Muslims in medieval Spain, City Havel, used to argue that if people would live from the Sinai was really no surprise. Begin of Pomegranates. He lives with his family international legal constraints. There is a and act as if they were free, then they could wanted to develop free markets within the in Ithaca. growing recognition across the world of the create the parallel structures for an alternative Middle East, which required peace agree­ value of law as a means of governing the to the regimes which sought to control them. ments. international system. Evidence is found in In his essay, “The Power of the Powerless,” Peled explained that, starting with the the widespread support for such initiatives as Havel wrote that the work of the so-called Begin years and continuing through the the Kyoto Protocol within the environmental dissidents was “based on the principle of “national unity” government of Likud and PIANOS sphere, or the Treaty Banning Land Mines in legality: they operate publicly and openly, Labor, the power of the Histradrut was • Rebuilt the area of security, or the International insisting not only that their activity is in line weakened while free-market economics • Reconstructed Criminal Court in the realm of human rights. with the law, but that achieving respect for were strengthened. Israel had invaded • Bought The United states constitutes a notable the law is one of their main aims.” As the Lebanon in the early eighties to drive out • Sold exception to this general trend of support for peace movement seeks to limit the dangerous the PLO; now, the Israeli army was with­ • Moved international law. In fact, the US resistance to excesses of the Bush administration’s unilat­ drawn from most of that country. The • Tuned international law hints at a change in the role eralism in places like Iraq, it should keep its defense budget was reduced. The occupied of law in the international system. In the past, eye on the bigger prize. The goal would be, territories began to attract investors and to as E.H. Carr has pointed out and most other in Havel’s words, “achieving respect for the develop some markets and industries. observers have agreed, international law was law,” for international law in this case, on the At the same time as peace and free mar­ established by the dominant powers to serve part of the United States. kets developed, Peled said, the income dis­ and perpetuate their interests. Today much of parity within Israeli society grew the impetus for new initiatives in internation­ Matthew Evangelista is a professor at drastically during the nineties. Israeli al law comes not from the United States, the Cornell’s Department of Government and society became Americanized, with its most powerful country in the system, but director of the university’s Peace Studies very rich and its very poor. Social servic­ from countries that are trying to rein in US Program. He is the author, most recently, o f es were slashed just when they were need­ Itliaca Piano Rebuilders power or at least get the United States to • Unarmed Forces: The Transnational ed most. Those Israelis who were forgotten (607) 272-6547 abide by the rules. Movement to End the Cold War (Cornell) and by prosperity, notably the Jews of Middle 310 4th St., Ithaca (Off Hancock St. 2 blocks from Rt. 13) In the dark days of the Cold War, demo­ The Chechen Wars: Will Russia Go the Way Eastern origins, became increasingly Complete rebuilding services. No job too big or too small. Call us. cratic opponents of the communist regimes in of the Soviet Union? (Brookings Institution). angry. They formed an alliance with the

THE LUDGATE’S GOURMET FARM STORE PRODUCE the most unique farm market In the county FARMS Open 365 days a year Estate-Grown Olive Oils 9 A.M. TO 9 P.M. Fresh Cut Flowers • Fresh, Organic Fruits & Vegetables • 1552 Hanshaw Road Coffee Beans • Gourmet Specialty Foods 'Local Baked Goods ITHACA,N.Y. Beans, Rice, Grains, Nuts • Dried Fruit 257-1765 Specialty Flours • Nutritional Supplements \0 The BQOKPRESS November 2002 ’W\vew to Take the Pumpkin Out of the Pot Botswana and South Africa, 1 developed a through government policy. As the women citizens could pass their citizenship Judith Van Ah&n tremendous respect for the way the Botswana foreign minister said during on to their children. The new law also made Batswana have resisted white minority dom­ debates some years ago about aid for special provision for non-citizen wives to Far and Bey on’ ination and created a democratic society that African famine, “In Botswana, we have become citizens easily and quickly, but not By Unity Dow significantly provides for people’s needs, as droughts, but we do not have famine.” non-citizen husbands. This law was enacted Aunt Lute Books well as admiration for the women who are Currently, all the countries in Southern into a rapidly urbanizing society, at exactly 199 pp., $11.05, paper trying to overcome the sexism that reflects Africa are dependent on foreign aid to avert the time that greatly increasing numbers of both old customs and new possibilities for famine except Botswana and the much larg­ women were taking wage jobs and becom­ The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency abuse. er and agriculturally rich South Africa. The ing aware of the need for legal rights as they Alexander McCall Smith For me, reading these novels is like mak­ continued stability and growth of the moved both geographically and culturally 240 pp., $11.05, paper ing a virtual return visit. They bring back Botswana economy has produced a great away from the obligations and protections vividly many of the positive experiences I expansion in the availability of wage jobs of kinship-based village life. As urbaniza­ Tears of the Giraffe had living there—the sense of connection for both women and men, in an economy tion and the pool of salaried and waged 208 pp., $11.05, paper between women, the wicked Tswana sense that is continuing to grow, although now women increased, so did opposition to gov­ By Alexander McCall Smith of humor, the excitement of the women’s threatened by AIDS. ernment and customary discrimination Anchor Books, 2002 movement, and my intense experience of the All three of these books are set in the late against women and support for women’s land itself, the immensity of the flat, flat 1990s, after the fall of the apartheid govern­ equal rights. If people in the U.S. know one thing about Kalahari and of the night sky with its unfa­ ment in South Africa. They assume the his­ Growing opposition to the Citizenship Botswana, it is likely to be the assertion that miliar constellations undimmed by urban torical context of colonialism, the migrant Law led to the formation in 1986 of the it has the highest rate of HIV infection in lights, the sounds and smells of the bush, labor system, apartheid threats, and the more women’s rights organization Emang the world. Perhaps they even know the cur­ the absolutely inexpressible awe of seeing a recent women’s rights movement, but the Basadi!—Stand Up, Women!—a name rent reported rate of infection: 39%. Tragic full-grown elephant walk across the road history is usually referred to rather than adapted with a pointed change from the and difficult as the situation of HIV infec­ right in front of your car , and the parade of recounted. As a context, it is useful to know national anthem, which urges men to “stand tion is, it is still only part of what should wildlife through your kitchen as well as in more about that history in order to under­ up and defend the nation,” but women to define the country and its people. Having the bush. These books also remind me of the stand the world the characters in these books “stand up beside your men.” Emang Basadi! lived in and studied Botswana, I often feel frustrations of dealing with Botswana live in, and particularly how the women set out to educate women about their exist­ frustrated and angry to see them identified bureaucracy and sexism and of the poverty characters, both those challenging and those ing rights and agitate for greater equal rights, only in terms of HIV/AIDS. In many ways and abuse and blocked aspirations of many. suffering from the current social system, starting with the new Citizenship Law. It Botswana is exemplary—for its multiparty For those unfamiliar with Botswana, they came to be as they are. chose not to affiliate with any political party, democracy, honest government, free educa­ offer a significant amount of information The precolonial agro-herding system of and in 1986 no political party had a plank tion, economic development, and remark­ about the country, its history, and conditions the Batswana required the year-round labor on women’s issues or a women’s wing able women’s rights movement. It is a today. of boys at cattle posts distant from the vil­ During 1987 and 1988 I attended many contradictory mix of deep-rooted sexism and The Batswana and the other peoples they lages, but the full-time labor of girls only meetings, workshops and conferences organ­ openness to change, of great disparities in have incorporated (some willingly, some during the short farming season. When mis­ ized by Emang Basadi! and listened (most­ private wealth and great strides in govern­ not) into their polities in this hot, dry, land­ sionaries arrived in 1817 and set up schools, ly) to the many heated discussions about ment programs to increase everyone’s locked region survived for generations by many girls went to schools and many boys women’s inequalities and the abuse they suf­ “social wage,” of an inward focus on things herding cattle year-round, farming for a few did not. When diamonds were discovered in fer, and what needed to be done about it. Batswana and a long history of speaking out months in the October to February rainy sea­ South Africa in 1867 and gold in 1886, When I left in early 1989, issues of women’s against white minority rule while surround­ son, and gathering wild crops and hunting young men were recruited as migrant mine rights had been pushed into public discourse ed by bigger, more powerful white minori­ wild game in the “hungry time” before har­ workers, a system that continued into the by Emang Basadi!, through their organized ty-ruled countries. vest. They resisted the continued attempts 1980s. Although migrant labor has seriously activities, publications, press coverage and I first visited Botswana in the late 1980s, of Rhodesia and South Africa (in the person diminished, and workers in Botswana dia­ letters to the editor. But neither the when the women’s rights movement was just of Cecil Rhodes and his cohorts) in the late mond mines live in adjacent towns with full Citizenship Law nor other laws had been getting organized, and lived there for two 19th and early 20th centuries to annex their family services, the social burden of almost changed. years, 1987 and 1988. I became a member land by trickery and armed raids. 100 years'of male labor migration is still In 1990 women from EB joined with of a multi-national collective, the purposely In the 1950s, the Bangwato, the largest of heavy, reflected in the 50% rate of female­ women from the Women and Law Project misleadingly named Southern African the Tswana groups, resisted pressure from headed households in Botswana today as of Southern Africa to support a suit filed by Literature Society (SALS), which provided the British to accept a replacement for well as the HIV infection rate. Unity Dow, a human rights lawyer and publications and videos from the mass dem­ Seretse Khama as their chosen Kgosi As Botswana developed its own diamond founding director of the Methaetsile ocratic movement in South Africa to anti­ (“chief’) because of his marriage to a white mines and began to diversify its economy Women’s Information Center in Mochudi, apartheid bookstores and groups in Europe Englishwoman. There were serious protests and expand its service sector in the 1980s, about 50 km north of Gaborone, the capital as well as to residents in Botswana. in support of Khama, with strong, loud par­ there was a large pool of educated young city. Dow argued that the Citizenship Law In that collective I became friends with a ticipation by Bangwato women, and women ready to fill jobs usually taken by violated the Botswana Constitution. The founding member of the new women’s although Khama never was installed as men in other parts of Africa. Botswana had government appealed to customary law, group, Emang Basadi! (Stand Up, Women!), Kgosi, he became the first President of been rapidly expanding educational oppor­ arguing that the Constitution was premised who recruited me to come to EB meetings. Botswana. (The entire saga, in a somewhat tunities, and girls were well positioned to on Tswana patrilineal tradition, and that cus­ So my political work in Botswana became breathless but engaging narrative, can be take advantage of that expansion. Education tomary law should take precedence in areas doubled: working in the SALS collective found in Michael Dutfield’s A Marriage o f is now free through university, for those who of family law. In 1991 a High Court judge, and providing various other kinds of sup­ Inconvenience: The Persecution o f Seretse pass the required examinations. Girls out­ in a decision upheld on appeal, ruled for port for the African National Congress, and and Ruth Khama [Unwyn Hyman, 1990, number boys until the last year of secondary Dow, explicitly arguing that women “can no also going to women’s rights meetings, con­ out-of-print]). school, and the percentage of women stu­ longer be viewed as being chattels of their ferences, and workshops organized by Seretse and Ruth Khama became an dents at university is approaching parity. By husbands,” but must be vieufcd as equal cit­ Emang Basadi! My friend from SALS, who important political symbol to the oppressed the 1990s female urban literacy (half of izens in all areas of law. The law was is a Senior Lecturer in the English Africans of South Africa: in the 1950s there women live in cities or semi-urban areas) referred back to Parliament for revision in Department at the University of Botswana were frequent cover stories in the black was almost 90%, and overall female literacy 1992, but the government continued to and the daughter of a wealthy Batswana South African magazine Drum featuring the 79%, both about 5% higher than male liter­ stonewall. family, found it wryly amusing that I had Khama marriage and then the Khama chil­ acy. More than two-thirds of the total work By 1993, Emang Basadi! decided to come to her country and was studying her dren, emphasizing how healthy and happy force is in paid employment, and more than launch a new strategy of targeting political women’s movement, when she was the third they were, and, certainly intentionally, there­ 45% of those paid workers are women. candidates and parties and urging women to generation of postgraduate degree-holders by tweaking the noses of the South African These women workers form the base of vote for those who supported women’s in her family (her doctorate was from whites who were so opposed to having a the women’s rights movement, and the high­ rights. In explicit response to male mem­ Germany), whereas I was the first genera­ symbol of interracial marriage and procre­ ly educated sector of privileged professional bers of Parliament asking that familiar ques­ tion of my family even to attend university, ation on their doorstep. women, about 5% of employed women, pro­ tion, “What do women want?,” Emang and didn’t hold a doctorate at the time. I Botswana, from being called a “basket vides most of its leadership. At independ­ Basadi! issued The Women's Manifesto, found it embarrassing, but I also felt the case” by the West at independence, has ence, women and men over 21 were given * which told them. In the 1994 election, more sweetness of being able to use the protec­ transformed itself into a stable middle- the right to vote, and in the 1990s the voting candidates sympathetic to changing the law tion of my U.S. citizenship to work for the income country today. The economy is driv­ age was lowered to 18. In the last national were elected, and a new non-discriminatory ANC. At the time, almost all Americans in en by the export of gem-quality diamonds, election in 1999, overall turnout was 77%, law, still based on descent, went into effect Botswana were government officials and discovered a year after independence, and and women were a majority of voters, as in January 1996. Keboitse Machangana, comfortable supporters of Reagan’s cozy developed by a partnership cleverly negoti­ they are of the population. The 1999 elec­ chairwoman of Emang Basadi! in 2002, said relationship with Pretoria, so our house and ated by the government with DeBeers tion was dubbed “The Year of the Woman” of the Citizenship Act victory and its repu­ our activities were not likely to draw the Corporation of South Africa on terms of by one Botswana newspaper, because of the diation of custom in favor of equal rights, attention of the South African agents in equal ownership of the company that man­ gains made by women as both elected and “Since then, there has been no looking Botswana. ages the diamond industry, Debswana. On appointed officials. But the seeds of that back!” The weekly Gaborone newspaper I have returned since for visits both to this base, significant development and victory go back to the 1980s. Mmegi (The Reporter) editorialized in Botswana and, after the election of the ANC diversification of the economy has taken The women’s movement was galvanized January 1996: government in South Africa in 1994, to place, with a great expansion of infrastruc­ by the passage in 1982 of a new and dis­ South Africa to visit friends who were ture, education and health services, and gov­ criminatory Citizenship Law, which replaced Women are evolving into a powerful refugees and militants in Botswana during ernment welfare and drought relief citizenship by birth in the territory to citi­ constituency in Botswana. They have the anti-apartheid struggle. Besides the ties programs for the needy. Botswana has food zenship by descent, but only from the father I developed with friends from both security without food self-sufficiency, in the case of married women. Unmarried continued on page 12 November 2002 The BOOKPRESS page 11 Pipeline Dreams ically, we saw that higher prices were not governments when they see their situation ate circumstances. There is no substitute Michael Doliner able to spur increased supplies in the is hopeless, or simply occur as collateral for oil. Alternative fuels can help some­ United States in the ’80s. Production in the damage in the war. The specter of flaming what, but not much. With an American vic­ lower forty-eight states has continued to oil wells, a vivid memory from the last war tory, the rest of the world would find itself The proposed war with Iraq is about oil, decline since 1970, regardless of market in the gulf, could, and probably would, utterly dependent upon the United States not about Saddam Hussein. Hubbert’s incentives, energetic exploration, and tech­ reappear. for its survival. How many countries would Peak: The Impending World Oil Shortage nological ingenuity. Market incentives, in Even if military victory is quickly be likely to accept such slow strangulation? (Princeton Univ. Press, 2001), by Kenneth spite of their power, were not able to pro­ achieved without this result, it will be Even without a war, the world will have S. Deffeyes, a Princeton geologist, is an duce more oil when there wasn’t any more difficult to protect the oil fields, pipelines, to leam to live on less. But sudden depriva­ argument for the thesis that conventional to produce. and other infrastructure. The economic sit­ tion would cause collapse into a pre-indus­ oil production will reach a peak at some Scientific opposition rests almost exclu­ uation in Iraq could not improve very trial condition, a fate that could inspire a time during the present decade, probably sively upon evidence from the U.S. much, for that would drain yet more oil resort to desperate measures. If Saddam between 2004 and 2008. Production will Geological Assessment 2000. Deffeyes esti­ from the market. Just the energy needed to Hussein is insane enough to use weapons of remain on a plateau for a few years, and mates the total endowment of the earth— rebuild what the war will destroy will mass destruction, then we must assume oth­ then, probably at the end of the decade, all the oil that has ever existed and will strain the already taxed world oil produc­ ers, under even more intense pressures, begin to decline rather precipitously. This ever exist here—to be about 2 trillion bar­ tion capacity. With continued misery will might resort to similar measures. After all, assessment is supported by, among others, rels; Thomas S. Ahlbrandt, the project man­ come desperate opposition. As we have most of our recent wars have been fought C. J. Campbell and Jean Laherrere, both ager for the USGS Assessment 2000 seen in Afghanistan, it is not as easy as it against former allies. But even if no hostili­ retired oil exploration geologists who have estimates earth’s endowment to be 3 tril­ once was to set up puppet governments. ties with well-armed former friends follow worked for major oil companies. Mathew lion barrels. Both writers agree that the dis­ Even a small, disgruntled remnant of the an attack on Iraq, in the present era of glob­ R. Simmons, an investment banker for the puted trillion barrels, if they exist, are yet population with only the most rudimentary alization the American economy could not oil industry and a member of President to be discovered. If the extra trillion bar­ of weapons could inflict serious damage survive the destruction of the other major Bush's energy “team” also supports rels exist, they might hold off the peak for on an oil pipeline. The United States would economies. Although the outcome of any this view in a number of papers, one of only ten to fifteen years, given historical need to create a wasteland to protect war is unpredictable, the coming oil produc­ which he gave in a symposium jointly rates of growth. Thus, even if Ahlbrandt is against this. tion peak and subsequent shortage are not. sponsored by Simmons’s bank, Simmons right, the peak will be pushed back only Perhaps it is in such a wasteland that the and Company International, and Baker ten to fifteen years. United States plans to perch. Seated upon Michael Doliner lives in Ithaca. He stud­ and Boggs, James K. Baker Ill's law However, Ahlbrandt has no evidence for this charnel pile of wealth it will toss bones ied politics and philosophy with Hannah firm. his claim. Discoveries have been declining to whoever joined the coalition—or double- Arendt during the Vietnam War. With the exception of the Persian Gulf since 1965,.but Ahlbrandt predicts they, will cross them if the pile becomes too small. states, Russia, Norway, Venezuela, and a suddenly begin to rise. The “Assessment” But it is hard to see how a pile stable enough few others, virtually all other countries are contained predictions for discoveries start­ to sit on will result. Oil companies will move Tie ?lew l/ork Ttmee ISeeUef/er oil importers. Although Britain has been ing in 1995. Here are Colin Campbell’s in to produce the oil. How will the United self sufficient thanks to the North Sea oil comments upon them: States assure that this oil will flow to it at fields, this will soon come to an end, for below-market prices? The flow of oil is GARRISON the North Sea fields have already peaked, The USGS forecast, as a Mean esti­ difficult to track and easy to divert. and are in decline. The only place most of mate, that 674 Gb (billion barrels) are Shortages anywhere will force price increas­ KEILLOR the world can draw its oil from is five to be found between 1995 and 2025, es and will tempt oil companies, or those Persian Gulf states, for the Russian fields which means an average of 25 Gb a who work for them, or those who can black­ ------are also in decline. Nor will the Caspian year. So far, the average has been only mail or bribe those who work for them, to basin prove to be another Middle East. All 10 Gb, when above average perform­ divert the flow of oil to those who will pay this and more has been considered by ance should be expected because the the most for it. A huge black market fed by Lake Wobegon Deffeyes and the other geologists who have larger fields are usually found first billions of dollars in potential profits will carefully evaluated the situation. because they are the biggest targets. overwhelm the agency entrusted with pro­ Summer 1956 Regardless of what those in the Bush tecting the United States monopoly. We all administration say or even think, this com­ Thus it is almost certain that the peak is know how well the United States has suc­ * ing oil shortage is the central political con­ imminent, but even if not imminent, soon. ceeded in interdicting the drug trade into the Th«? funukwt American writer arill open tor buafrw**.' -~Th»c text of their war threat. An oil shortage, if The war against Iraq, whatever the pretext, United States. How well could it succeed in unplanned for, will plunge the world into a will be an attempt to monopolize the keeping oil from leaking out of monopoly depression which will grow ever more remaining oil. If this attempt is made, the control into other countries all of whose severe as the shortage increases. result will be disastrous for everyone. With governments were part of the black market International tensions will grow in the fight Iran already in the “axis of evil,” and Saudi- itself? Indeed, American transnational cor­ over the limited supply. Thus the war, if it American relations deteriorating daily, it is porations, many of whom have interests comes, will be against not only the Persian certain that not only Iraq, but also the entire elsewhere, might actually work against the "...at least as real as Gulf states, but also against oil importers— Persian Gulf is the target. For it will do the monopoly control for the benefit of their for­ Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha Europe, China, and Japan among them. The United States no good to gain additional eign subsidiaries. As we all know American effects of oil deprivation are so drastic that oil from Iraq only to lose the supply from CEOs are not above seizing a few profitable County, Twain's Hannibal, other governments cannot avoid assuming Saudi Arabia. The monopoly, to work, must opportunities. Free market pressures would and some of the Chicago that the United States intends to monopo­ funnel oil to the United States at below- soon make a joke of the monopoly. neighborhoods, in Dreiser, lize supplies. With the stakes so high, to market prices. Thus the present situation And indeed, Americans as well as citi­ Wright, or Bellow." assume anything else would be simply neg­ will not provide the needed monopoly. zens of the rest of the world might hope — Chicago Tribune^ ligent, for an industrialized country with­ But the outcome of the war is unlikely to that this happens as quickly as possible. For out sufficient oil will fall back into a be what the United States might hope. It is if somehow the monopoly did control oil pre-industrial state. possible that the Persian Gulf oil fields will flow, other countries, armed with far more "Of course, this is the gen­ Whatever American intentions, professed end in flames as a result of the war. This weapons of mass destruction than Saddam esis of Keillor's genius, a or even real, once the United States con­ might be done intentionally by the present Hussein, would find themselves in desper­ love for quirky detail, an trols the Persian Gulf it has the rest of the ear for the comedy of self- world by the neck. Thus the tacit threat: those who want a bone had better join the i i o N a i. ii !• s i s i: i. i. i-: it righteousness, and an eye pack. We must remind ourselves that in ten for the foibles that make years or less, assuming we continue to live us human." as tve can Hope tor. in our present profligate way, there will not car vj — The Christian be enough oil to go around. Deffeyes’ con­ Science Monitor clusion, in Hubbert’s Peak, is this: “To summarize, it looks as if an unprecedented crisis is just over the horizon. There will “A staggering fictional debut that "He's Will Rogers with" w ) be chaos in the oil industry, in govern­ matches journalistic accumulation, of i v n c r j grammar lessons, Aesop ments, and in national economies.” This detail to natural narrative■flair. ’’ without the ax to peak in oil production is far more impor­ The guardian f l grind, the common man'st tant to the world than whether or not Saddam Hussein stays in power. Moliere. " Some people disagree with Deffeyes and ttich H«w t'fi.pi* — The Houston Chronicle “This poignant and powerful account cli.iitjgcd !>> <''l»»trii|'li!f.* other former oil geologists who predict the catries the pulsing beat of a sensitive, l i t VVw Ytfktr coming peak. M. A. Adelman is an econo­ "Think Huckleberry Finn imagination iind the challenge of mist who holds to the thesis that increased Geraldine Brooks in hormonal overdive. oil prices will spur exploration and pro­ moral complex-ity.” ...Irresistable." duction. Adelman contends that mineral Publishers Weekly wealth is essentially inexhaustible. His — Kirkus Reviews arguments rest on market principles: If $ 1 supply fails to meet demand, higher prices Penguin Hooks * V f Pager Penguin Books ❖ 14 paper will spur an increase in supply. Yet histor­ page 12 The BOOKFRESS November 2002 When to Take the Pumpkin Out of the Pot

continued from page 10 acknowledge what is wrong and seeks help sign proclaims, efficiently and effectively, in Gaborone, as South Africa continued its from a traditional diviner, who leads her to and when she has done so, she moves on. campaign to terrorize Botswana^and her always been a potentially strong block blame her best friend for putting a curse on As she says to herself while cooking her people into turning against the ANC and the as they constitute the majority of vot­ the family. Mosa fears that she, too, might pumpkin stew after finishing a case, anti-apartheid struggle. Although many ers, especially in the countryside. be infected, but feels that she cannot tell her Batswana became more suspicious of However, in the past women did not mother. To resolve these problems and It was time to take the pumpkin out of strangers, neither they nor their government vote as a block rallying around common reconnect with her mother and surviving the pot and eat it. In the final analysis, backed down from their opposition to issues. With the momentum that brother, she must work through conflicts that was what solved these big prob­ apartheid and their disdain for “the Boers.” women’s civic associations like Emang between customary beliefs and her “educat­ lems of life.You could think and think Instead of giving in, they expanded their Basadi have set in motion in conscien- ed” perspective. and get nowhere, but you still had to eat army and set up roadblocks on all roads tising women about their rights, any Mosa, along with her friends, also faces your pumpkin. That brought you down leading into and out of cities and towns, and political party which does not court severe pressure from teachers and other to earth. That gave you a reason for eventually caught, tried and imprisoned a women in the future will be doing that influential men in the community for sex. going on. Pumpkin. group of commandos, to the apartheid at its own peril. The girls worry that they must give in or regime’s embarrassment. lose their chance at education, crucial for Mma Ramotswe is compared on one book Despite the continual threat of comman­ The ruling Botswana Democratic Party the jobs they seek—a very real problem in cover to Miss Marple, and she herself refers do attacks and the periodic actual murder­ apparently learned this lesson. Other dis­ Botswana. The declining percentage of girls to Agatha Christie in explaining to skeptical ous raids, Botswana was generally safe for criminatory legislation in significant areas in the last years of secondary school mostly men that she is a “lady detective.” She cer­ its citizens and foreign guests, whether of employment and property law has been results from the requirement that they with­ tainly shares with Miss Marple a skill for expatriates, tourists, refugees or militants. changed without additional court cases, and draw from school if they fall pregnant, and close observation, logical deduction, and a We experienced Botswana as an incredibly a Law Reform Committee has been charged many do, as the result of sexual relations politeness that to some people conceals her safe place to live and travel. I took many with evaluating all legislation for gender with teachers and other older men. Mosa absolute determination,. But she is also very trips by car with my daughter Adrian, ten bias. Botswana has adopted a national Policy and her friends work out a strategy that different, and these novels are not “detec­ years old when we arrived, camping and on Women in Development, a National reflects the realities of Botswana today. tive fiction” in any expected sense. Miss staying in cottages by ourselves at game Gender Program and Gender Plan of Action, In contrast, The No. 1 Ladies ’ Detective Marple essentially catches murderers and parks in Botswana and in southern and and houses the newly created Gender Unit Agency and Tears o f the Giraffe are not nov­ turns them over to the police to get their western Zimbabwe (where there were also of the Southern African Development els about women’s collective struggles for punishment in the criminal justice system. roadblocks). The main direct impact on us Community. Emang Basadi! and the their rights, and AIDS is scarcely mentioned. Mma Ramotswe has individual friends who of SADF terrorism was that the first Women’s NGO Coalition it led were partic­ But, despite having been written by a white are policemen and asks for their help in gain­ Setswana we learned, after the polite greet­ ularly successful in the 1999 election. Their male expatriate, they vividly bring to life a ing information, but for the police as an ings, “ Dumela, Mma” or “ Dumela, Rra,” message was carried into public visibility feminist heroine, Precious Ramotswe, who institution, she has little respect. As she says was to understand and answer roadblock on tee-shirts (“Democracy without a woman was cared for and taught to read before start­ in one case, “The police had a limited inter­ questions: “Where are you coming from? in power belongs to the past” and “Dear ing school by a cousin after her mother’s est in pursuing crime, and certain sorts of Where are you going? What’s in the boot?” President, Members of Parliament, death, a cousin who, in the early 1960s, crime interested them not at all. The Once the soldiers heard our U.S. accents, (Councillors and All Candidates: In 1999 we “wanted Precious to be clever...and sensed involvement of the country’s most powerful or, to be precise, heard that we did not have will vote for those who advocate for the possibilities for change.... Women were figures in witchcraft would certainly be in South African accents, we were waved women’s rights. Are you one of them?”) to beginning to speak amongst themselves the latter category.” Mma Ramotswe seeks, through. On one trip we had my daughter’s placards (“Vote a Woman! Suckle the about their lot.... One day, women would instead, a very African resolution of her stuffed doll, Gretchen the (large) Bear in Nation!”) to the appropriation of Miss be able to sound their own voice, perhaps, cases: social reconciliation and personal jus­ the boot, and on looking in the young sol­ Universe: when Miss Botswana, Mpule and would point out what was wrong. But tice, privately arrived at. Watching how she dier politely said, “Dumela, Bear,” and Kwelagobe (an aspiring pediatric neuro-sur­ they would need to be able to read to do does this and thinking about the difference waved us on our way with the customary, geon and prize-winning runner at Maru-a- that.” between her “detecting” and that of Miss “Tsamaya sentle, mma”—literally, “Go Pula Secondary Schpol), won the Miss Precious fouhds the fir