New York, New York
In 2003, Donald Rumsfeld estimated a war with Iraq would cost $60 billion. Five years later, the cost of Iraq war operations is more than 10 times that estimate. So what’s behind the ballooning figures? Joseph E. Stiglitz and Linda J. Bilme’s exhaustively researched book, The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict, breaks down the price tag, from current debts to the unseen costs Americans will pay for many years to come. Watch the remarkable video/animation (starring Trade Gothic) here.
From the good folks at Good—(thanks Matt).
Guantánamo, Cuba
Though now heard about infrequently in the news, the United States’ illegal detention center at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base and the hundreds of so-called “enemy combatants” still held there (some for over seven years without even the basic protections granted by the Geneva Conventions) have not been forgotten—out of sight does not mean out of mind. Thanks to designer colleagues in Spain for the gno! initiative.
Images: “Guantànamo: an icon of lawlessness” poster; detainees upon arrival at Camp X-Ray, January 2002.
Middletown, Connecticut
It was great to hear today from a former Hartford student of mine, Kyle Green (thanks for the Biodiesel photo), who married his college sweetheart two weeks ago (Congrats!) and is now working in Middletown, designing touch screen kiosk interfaces. Two years ago, Kyle was part of Mix06, a collaborative design project undertaken by students in Hartford and Melbourne, Australia that explored similarities and differences between Indigenous and Immigrant cultures in both the USA and AUS.
Stumbled across these—on flickr™ here…
Abu Dhabi & Jerusalem
Greetings on this fine day to both Muslim and Jewish friends around the world… Eid al-Fitr for the former (a Muslim holiday that marks the end of the Islamic holy/fasting month of Ramadan), and Yom Kippur for the latter (also a fast and the most solemn day of the Jewish holidays). Father Abraham (along with son Ishmael/Isaac) looms large in both belief systems… and of course in Christianity as well. Best wishes to all… let’s give peace a chance, eh?
Image: detail from Laurent de LaHyre’s 1650 painting Abraham Sacrificing Isaac, at the Musée des Beaux-Arts d’Orléans. See the full image here.
New York, USA
I met Dana Bartelt by chance on an airport shuttle bus to downtown Prague in June of 2002, during my first year as Icograda president. Two days later we crossed paths again at the Icograda Identity/Integrity Conference in Brno, Czech Republic, held in conjunction with the 20th Brno Biennale. Dana handed me a disk of images from Don’t Say You Didn’t Know/Posters for Palestine, an initiative she had spearheaded using propaganda art to shed light on the sustained (some would say nefarious) support the U.S. provides to Israel in its ongoing occupation of Palestinian land and its oppression of the Palestinian people. Among the images in the collection, Rajie Cook’s The Star stood out for the power and clarity of its statement re: organized Zionism as an internal force in American political life… a topic often considered taboo (and quick to trigger accusations of Antisemitism).
Here’s a snip about Rajie from The Electronic Intifada: “Born in 1930, Palestinian-American artist Rajie Cook has had a very successful career in graphic design. The ‘Symbol Signs’ that hang in airports internationally, communicating purely through icons rather than text, were designed by Cook and his design firm. He has been honored by President Reagan and the ‘Symbols Signs’ project has been acquired into the Smithsonian’s collection. However, Cook is not done creating work that intends to communicate. Born in the United States to parents originally from Palestine, the violence and continued injustice that consume his homeland spurs him to make Joseph Cornell-inspired boxes that comment upon various aspects of the conflict…” Read more about Rajie’s passionate work here, and visit his website to see more of his assemblages and posters here.
Poster images: The Star (1996) and The Dollar (2007), both © Rajie Cook.
Winnipeg, Canada
Travel details are confirmed, and the Poet is making final preparations for his trip to the prairies. For friends, family, and poetry fans in the Manitoba area, here are the dates, times, and venues of Sam W. Reimer’s confirmed book launches, poetry readings (and signings) during the second week of October:
Winnipeg – 8pm on Monday, 6 October,
McNally Robinson’s Grant Park store,
(The Prairie Ink Restaurant).
Morden – 7pm on Tuesday, 7 October,
Pembina Hills Arts Centre (wine & cheese, etc.).
Steinbach – 7:30pm on Friday, 10 October,
Mennonite Heritage Village museum.
More information is available at www.samwreimer.com. A bit of background on Gray Matter Graffitti (the poetry book I edited/published with Sam W. earlier this year) is available at this post. Photo credit: Dan Schellenberg.
Lucknow, India
…Mohandas Karmchand Gandhi was born 139 years ago—on the eve of the anniversary of his birth, Indian children dressed as the Mahatma pose for photos. On 15 June of last year the United Nations General Assembly voted to establish 2 October as the International Day of Non-Violence. (Photo from The New York Times slide show here: by Pawan Kumar/Reuters)
Poster image by Josh MacPhee of justseeds.org
Following is an alphabetical list of the countries bombed by the United States since the end of the Second World War (the citizens of these countries represent roughly one-third of the people on earth)…
Afghanistan 1998, 2001-present
Bosnia 1994, 1995
Cambodia 1969-70
China 1945-46, 1950-53
Congo 1964
Cuba 1959-1961
El Salvador 1980s
Grenada 1983
Guatemala 1954, 1960, 1967-69
Indonesia 1958
Iran 1987
Iraq 1991-present
Korea 1950-53
Kuwait 1991
Laos 1964-73
Lebanon 1983, 1984
Libya 1986 (and again in 2011)
Nicaragua 1980s
Pakistan 2003, 2006-08
Panama 1989
Peru 1965
Somalia 1993, 2008
Sudan 1998
Vietnam 1961-73
Yemen 2002
Yugoslavia 1999
Universal truths about war…
“There is no honorable way to kill, no gentle way to destroy. There is nothing good in war. Except its ending.”
— Abraham Lincoln
“Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish by the sword.”
— The Bible, Matthew 26:52
“I dream of giving birth to a child who will ask: “Mother, what was war?”
— Eve Merriam
“Can anything be more ridiculous than that a man should have the right to kill me because he lives on the other side of the water, and because his ruler has a quarrel with mine, though I have none with him?”
— Blaise Pascal
“You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake.”
— Jeannette Rankin
“Those who prefer victory to peace will have neither.”
— Anonymous
