Editorial

I’ve been in-country for one day. I’m jet-lagged and overwhelmed by the complexity of my 24-hour experience in the Green Zone in Baghdad: the omnipresent armed guards, the ubiquitous dust in the air, the monochromatic landscape (no color, especially no green), and the incomprehensible mission.

Yesterday we had workmen come to the house to look at the water pump on the roof. In the afternoon we noticed a leak in one bedroom on the second floor and we had no idea where it was coming from. Last night we discovered water dripping through the air conditioner in another bedroom on the second floor (the air conditioner had not been turned on). We suspected something was leaking on the roof. Because it was dark, I suggested we use my Maglite flashlight (which I brought like a good Boy Scout for just such an unplanned need). When I opened the drawer in my bedroom where I thought I put it, the Maglite was gone, as was the bag of connectors, chargers, and a digital voice recorder.

I had been in country less than 24 hours and I had been ripped off! I felt violated and betrayed by the people I came to Iraq to help. I still had my camera, but it would fast become useless because the charger for it was gone.

Fortunately, my panicked anger turned out to be unnecessary, because when I later opened a different drawer, looking for something else, I found my Maglite flashlight, the bag of connectors and chargers, and the digital voice recorder, which had only gone missing from my befuddled memory.

I was both deeply embarrassed and greatly relieved. I had not imagined the amount of extreme disorientation I had from my first day in-country, and how it affected my ability to remember and think clearly.

10 March 2009

We met with a member of the Council of Representatives’ (COR) Members Affairs and Parliamentary Development Committee. He said that the COR is not going to move any controversial legislation this year, prior to national elections at the end of the year. He said that voter participation in the recent January elections was down (36% of Iraqis did not participate in the elections) because Iraqis are less preoccupied by violence and because the sectarian parties whose candidates were elected in 2005 have not fulfilled their promises to deliver public services. Some Iraqis did not vote because they felt their vote would not change things, or because there are no effective state institutions that are serving people’s needs. In this regard, he said it is important that revenue from Iraq’s resources (principally the sale of oil) be seen as going to benefit the Iraqi people. He said it also is important that the upcoming elections are perceived to be fair and honest.

In the afternoon, we went to the United Nations Assistance Mission to Iraq (UNAMI) compound which is surrounded by very high “T-walls” (high concrete walls thick at the base, which in profile look like inverted Ts). We met with several UNAMI officials who began by saying the Iraqi 12th Army Division is in the north of the country close to the Kurdistan border. At the moment, things are quite tense between Iraqi Arabs and the Kurds there, and even an inadvertent incident could provoke war. UNAMI had considered asking the two sides to pull back and sit down and talk, but even such a request could be seen by both parties as unacceptably provocative.

12 March 2009

We met for lunch with the Dean of the Baghdad University College of Law, which was founded in 1908 and is the oldest law school in the Middle East. Its graduates include Iraqi President Jalal al-Talabani and Chief Justice Medhat Mahmood.

More than 80 Baghdad University faculty members have been murdered by extremists since 2003. Here, being a professor comes with a very high price, indeed.

13 March 2009

Last evening as I was leaving the DFAC (dining facility) of Sabre International (our “life support contractor”), I saw several flashes in the sky and a moment later heard several almost simultaneous loud noises. I was startled, stopped for a few seconds, and then walked back to Utah House across the street. I thought to myself that the flashes and loud noises seemed awfully like mortar and rocket attacks I experienced in Vietnam forty years ago.

This morning I read in the New York Times online that the IZ did receive rocket fire last night.

Welcome to Baghdad.

17 March 2009

Sabre International, our life support contractor and landlord, emails us a daily security brief about incidents around the country. Two items today struck me as noteworthy for different reasons: On March 16 gunmen in Dohuk kidnapped a young man and took him to Mosul City. The unknown gunmen have demanded US$30,000 from his relatives for his release. The level of kidnap and ransom incidents are increasing in line with a poor domestic economy and a subsequent increase in crime to finance both the insurgency and criminal ends.

On March 15 an Iraqi soccer player was shot dead by a spectator as he was about to score the equalizing goal during a soccer match in Hillah. The shooting occurred in the last few minutes of the game between two rival local sides. According to a local security source, the striker was shot in the head during the match between Sinjar and Buhayra. The suspected killer was immediately arrested and is being held in custody while Iraqi police carry out an investigation of the incident. This killing is unlikely to be related to anything more than an overzealous supporter overreacting. The U.S. Embassy is warning its personnel that the kidnapping threat is increasing in the International Zone as the Zone changes from Green to “Orange” (i.e., more Red), and the checkpoints are being taken over by the Iraqi military and more vehicles from the Red Zone will be entering the Green Zone over time. Because of these changes, the Embassy provides its personnel with kidnapping threat recognition and survival training which we intend to take.

At lunch we met with the head of the State Shura Council, which dates back to 1933 and acts as an administrative court, and vets draft legislation to ensure constitutionality and compliance with existing laws. He is a tall, thin, elegant man who has practiced law in Baghdad for nearly 50 years. He has a wonderful sense of humor (he said, for example, that, if an Iraqi falls on the ground, he will strike one of three things: oil, water, or ancient artifacts). He is an engaging storyteller who uses stories to convey important points. For example, he told a story about King Faisal II who needed to have eye surgery in 1932, but his doctor told him that the surgery could not be done in Iraq. To go to Sweden and pay for the surgery, the King requested 500 Iraqi dinars from the Iraqi Parliament. The Parliament reviewed the King’s request and decided not to grant him the money, because there was no legal basis for doing so. His point was that as far back as 1932 the law in Iraq has prevailed, and all are equal in the eyes of the law.

Today after lunch was the monthly meeting of the Anti-Corruption Working Group at the U.S. Embassy.

When I attend long meetings like this in the U.S. Embassy, I sometimes doze off momentarily. When I snap to, I often forget that I am in Iraq, and instead feel like I am in a government office building in Washington, D.C. This is very discombobulating.

* * * *

[This was another 16-hour day; how can I explain why I often work this hard?]

19 March 2009

I’m now convinced that our work with Iraqi leaders should be conducted in Arabic by American Arabic speakers because translation creates two different problems.

First, when Arabic legal terms are translated into English, often several different English synonyms are used by translators for the same Arabic term. This creates either confusion or the appearance of differences that do not actually exist. This happens again in the other direction when English legal terms are translated into Arabic.

The second problem is that the translation process is very inefficient and truncated. The Iraqi speaker may talk for several minutes, but the translator then gives a ten-second summary that leaves out a lot of detail. If the translator interrupts the Iraqi speaker to translate every sentence, the process is very disjointed and time-consuming. And there is little opportunity as in a typical conversation for the Iraqi and American speakers to ask simple clarifying questions that increase mutual understanding.

20 March 2009

Today (Friday) is the first day of the Iraqi weekend (the work week here is from Sunday through Thursday). I’m sitting at a computer in the big conference room typing this report. Other members of the Project are sitting at their respective computers working on their own reports. We typically work seven days a week, often more than 10 to 12 hours a day even on weekends.

The following notes are from a presentation made recently about the near-term future of the International Zone where we live and work: Main Message: Calm down, don’t freak out; we’re working hand-in-hand with the Iraqis as they gradually take back the IZ; but changes are afoot, so remain vigilant!

Security Changes: We are currently coordinating with the GOI [Government of Iraq] via the Security Sub-Committee, a joint GOI-USG [U.S. Government] coordination committee called for in the SOFA [Status of Forces Agreement]. It is important to the GOI, and notably the Prime Minister, to show that the IZ is transitioning to Iraqi control, however gradually. They want Iraqis at all IZ checkpoints, and eventually they want Iraqis to provide all IZ security. But calm down: this won’t happen for some time.

The GOI intends to open a major highway through the IZ, an important symbolic milestone that will, it is hoped, finally allow Iraqis to move freely through the IZ and will be an important practical solution to the intense traffic situation within the IZ. This highway will include what is referred to as “the sunken road,” which has been closed since our invasion. It’s dilapidated, unpaved (or barely paved), and in need of major repairs before being used as a highway. Repairs on this part of the expected highway won’t be complete until May 15th at the earliest.

The most important consequence of this “sunken” highway involves the Al-Rashid Hotel, which will be separated from the rest of the IZ by this road. However, the GOI and USG have agreed that the hotel will remain within the IZ, and that security accommodations will be arranged to ensure that it remains a safe place to frequent. Despite rumours, the July 14th Bridge is not expected to re-open anytime soon; it will need significant repairs and advance preparation before opening.

Though there has been a significant drop in “significant security incidents” in the past year, there has been a recent up-tick. But this is thought to be a temporary hick-up; and the downward trend is expected to continue.

Small/petty crime remains a threat within the IZ. Use the buddy system! Including when you are in a vehicle.

Bottom line: the IZ is safer than the rest of Baghdad, but not safe. Remain vigilant.

21 March 2009

Today I went with three people from the Anti-Corruption Office in the U.S. Embassy in a three-car, up-armored Embassy PSD (Personal Security Detail) convoy to the Hotel Al-Massour in the Red Zone for a workshop.

In Utah House we have two sets of PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) consisting of vest-like body armor and a Kevlar helmet (one set is black and the other is desert-sand). When we go into the Red Zone in an Embassy convoy, we must wear PPE, which is fairly heavy (it’s been 40 years since I wore a flak jacket and steel helmet in Vietnam, and I was much younger and in much better shape then than now).

Once we arrived at the hotel, two of our PSD came in with us and served as our openly-armed bodyguards, sitting in the back of the conference room during the meeting, and accompanying me to the men’s room during a rest break.

The workshop dealt with bribery in Iraq, which is endemic. Bribery occurs in every Ministry. Bribery goes by a variety of names: gift, tip, facilitation fee, etc. Bribery is very difficult to prove because it occurs in secret, citizens are cynical or uninformed, and citizens are afraid to make a complaint, afraid that the person to whom they report bribery is himself corrupt, and afraid to testify in court.

23 March 2009

We have a new Iraqi member of staff here, Zahir, who started today as a translator and interpreter. We will have another Iraqi interpreter and translator, Ali, starting in a couple of weeks. Ali will be our principal interpreter (he has been for five years the interpreter for the British Ambassador to Iraq in the British Embassy here).

This morning our Iraqi office manager, Linda, asked me what I saw as the future of Iraq. I said I thought Iraq was poised on a knife’s edge. On one side is the possibility of peace, stability, unity, and prosperity. The other side has renewed sectarian violence, instability, disunity, and perhaps fighting between the Kurds and Iraqi Arabs. I said, “Which side Iraq chooses is for Iraqis to decide.”

I immediately realized I had misspoken: no one really makes such a decision. Things like that happen because of forces no one person decides or controls. I felt worse than a fraud, because Linda is expecting her third child in August, and she wanted a real answer.

24 March 2009

The power was out at Utah House for over three hours in the middle of the day, which prevented our access to the Internet and email. Fortunately, power outages here usually last only a few minutes, and don’t happen every day.

This morning I went to kidnapping threat awareness and hostage survival training at the U.S. Embassy. Kidnappings have evolved from terrorist kidnappings a few years (which often ended in the beheading of victims), to more criminal gang-related kidnappings-for-ransom today. (Today, however, criminal gangs sometimes do sell their hostages to al Qaeda-in-Iraq insurgents.)

26 March 2009

The central dilemma of the Iraqi state is, on the one hand, the whole constitutional system is based on the premise that the country is a federal state, but at the same time, the system is deadlocked on eminently federal problems: who owns the country’s oil and gas; internal boundary disputes; regional and sectarian militias, etc., etc. The tools of democratic federalism theoretically can solve these outstanding problems institutionally, rather than by force. However, almost no one thinks Iraq is going to evolve into a peaceful federalist democratic republic anytime soon.

The concept of federalism for Iraq emerged from the Iraqi opposition-in-exile group in London more than 15 years ago and was first publicly discussed at a conference in London in 1992. After Saddam Hussein was deposed in 2003, the United Nations supported the concept of federalism for Iraq in United Nations Security Council Resolution 1546 (8 June 2004). Article 1 of the Iraqi Constitution adopted in 2005 explicitly talks about Iraq as a federal republic, and federalism is found in a number of other constitutional articles, including Article 65 which calls for the creation of a Federation Council “to include representatives from the regions and the governorates that are not organized in a region.” The Federation Council is intended to be a counter-majoritarian body of the Iraqi Parliament (like the U.S. Senate) to give the regions a strong voice in the central government in Baghdad. However, the Iraqi Council of Representatives (like the U.S. House of Representatives) in the past four years has not yet enacted legislation creating the Federation Council.

One alternative to a federal republic is bloody civil wars (one between the Sunnis and the Shi’i and the other between the Kurds and Iraqi Arabs are possible). I have no idea what the Iraqis are going to do to one other once American forces leave their country at the end of 2011, or even before then, for that matter.

27 March 2009

Today I drove along the Tigris on a road on top of a dike separating the river from a manmade lake originally built for Saddam Hussein’s murderous son, Uday.

Because today is Friday (the first day of the weekend here) there was virtually no traffic. I parked the car and walked along the road for 10 minutes. There were bulrushes along both sides of the Tigris and Uday’s lake. This was the most green I’ve seen since arriving in Baghdad three weeks ago.

6 April 2009

Anthony Shadid of The Washington Post reported that “A series of six car bombs struck markets, a police convoy and a gaggle of workers in Shiite Muslim neighborhoods Monday, killing 32 people and wounding more than 120 in one of the most violent days in the capital in months.” There is some suggestion that sectarian violence is going to increase in Baghdad because the government is no longer paying the Sunni “Sons of Iraq” (al-Sahwa) to fight insurgents rather than the central government.

Sahwa fighters, who numbered as many as 100,000 across Iraq, were backed and paid by U.S. forces until the government took over the program beginning in October 2008. Without a process of formal reconciliation with the Shi’i majority, Sunni leaders may decide they have to rejoin the insurgency.

7 April 2009

I was scheduled to go to Baghdad University and travel in a U.S. Embassy PSD convoy through the Red Zone. Early in the morning I got an email from the Embassy saying that the PSD convoy had been cancelled and therefore the trip to Baghdad University College of Law to meet with the Dean would have to be rescheduled. Only later did I learn that President Obama was in Baghdad at Camp Victory on the military side of the Baghdad International Airport, which obviously was why the convoy was cancelled.

One of my friends at the U.S. Embassy later sent me a heads-up email about the possibility of IDF (“indirect fire,” i.e., rockets and mortars) on Easter Sunday: Bearing in mind that last Easter was a day where we took a lot of incoming, and in light of the recent uptick in violence in Baghdad, I would like to advise you of at least the possibility of incoming rounds on that day. Please check with Sabre on this as well. In the past we have seen attacks during our Christian holidays and despite the fact that Sadr City isn’t the Wild West anymore, a reasonable person might take precautions and be warned.

9 April 2009

Last night and until mid-morning there was a fairly good rain which Baghdad desperately needs. This morning when the clouds cleared, the temperature went up quickly, but we could see blue sky because the rain had cleared the dust from the air, at least for a short time.

During the day we had about a dozen brief power outages, some lasting just a few seconds. When that happens, it bumps everyone off the Internet and disrupts email on some PC computers even after the power comes back on.

Today is Baghdad Liberation Day (i.e., the city was liberated six years ago on 9 April 2003), which is an Iraqi holiday, so our Iraqi staff is liberated for the day.

12 April 2009

I attended Easter Mass in the chapel at Forward Operating Base Prosperity. Father Dave (who is a Lt. Col. in the Chaplains Corp in the Army Reserve in Omaha) conducted. There was a Filipino rock band and choir that provided enthusiastic music for the service. The celebrants included Americans, Brits, Colombians, Fijians, Peruvians, Poles, Ugandans, etc., etc., etc. Who knew this war would create such an international celebration of the death of the Prince of Peace?

17 April 2009

We met with a senior adviser in one of sections of the U.S. Embassy. She has been in Iraq for five years and knows a great deal, but is frustrated with the pace of change in Iraq. She finds the laws I am reviewing (concerning commercial arbitration and foreign ownership of real estate) to be “nice,” but ultimately pointless in the absence of implementing regulations and coordination among Ministries. She said it is great to say that a foreigner can own real estate legally, but when the Ministries cannot agree with each other on how to make that a reality, there can be no implementation and thus no foreign investment where foreign ownership of land is required.

I wondered why she chooses to stay here year after year.

19 April 2009

Last night two rockets were fired from eastern Baghdad across the Tigris River and impacted in the Green Zone. I did not hear the explosions, although one of my friends, who lives at the U.S. Embassy, said he did. According to Brian Murphy, reporting for the Associated Press, “The Green Zone was last targeted by rockets or mortars on Jan. 15.” [What about March 13th, Mr. Murphy?]

24 April 2009

This was the first Friday in a long time that felt sort of like a weekend (which it is here). Several of us drove to Forward Operating Base Prosperity and ate at the DFAC there and then had coffee at the Green Beans shack near the PX. It was fun to sit and talk and watch people. We concluded that there seem to be more contractors than soldiers, and probably more foreigners than Americans. This war is truly a multi-national experience.

Last night and this morning we had a sand storm. A window on the first floor of Utah House was left open and the air in the rooms on the first floor was filled with dust as fine as tan talcum powder. The housekeepers cleaned my desk at about 8:00 am and two hours later enough dust had fallen from the air that it was possible to write my name in the new dust on my desk. The guards outside our gate wore surgical masks all day.

At about 9:30 this morning the IDF siren inside our perimeter wall came on and then went off after less than a minute. Hours later I heard a large explosion in the distance (which I learned was the controlled demolition of an unexploded rocket that landed inside the U.S. Embassy compound).

The number of suicide-bomber attacks in the Red Zone has been increasing recently. Yesterday in Muqdadiya, a town in Diyala Province, 56 Iranian Shi’i pilgrims were killed by a suicide bomber, and in Baghdad a woman with a child blew herself up and killed more than 20 people. Today outside Baghdad’s most revered Shi’i mosque, twin suicide bombers killed at least 60 Iranian Shi’i pilgrims.

I cannot comprehend this wilful Muslim-on-Muslim violence. The indiscriminate killing and maiming of innocent Iraqi and devout Iranian Shi’i by other Muslims is clearly irreligious, but no Sunni has issued a fatwa against it. Why?

I am often too busy to reflect on what is happening here, what we are doing, what the Iraqis endure every day, and where this is all headed. When I have a reflective moment, I can only repeat a childlike prayer, “God, bless these people and grant them peace.”

30 April 2009

Our translator Ali and I met today with representatives from the State Shura Council.

One reminds me so much of the late George Dibble (the University of Utah art professor and renowned Utah watercolorist who was my next door neighbor for 10 years): tall, thin, balding, with a clipped moustache, gleaming eyes, and a winsome smile. He has worked at the Iraqi Shura Council for 47 years. We met in the lobby of the Al-Rashid Hotel and many people came up to him to say hello; he is obviously a much beloved figure in Baghdad professional society.

We talked generally about the role of the Shura Council as a politically-neutral institution, which technically vets legislation initiated either by the executive branch or the Parliament. We talked more specifically about recent bills drafted to attempt to encourage foreign investment and promote economic development in Iraq. We agreed that, although new legislation is important, far more important is creating a culture of collaboration and “customer service” among and within the GOI institutions that have responsibilities for encouraging and facilitating investment and development.

After this meeting, we met with a law professor at Baghdad University College of Law, who chairs the Shura Council’s drafting committee on international arbitration. The drafting committee is contemplating an arbitration statute that would create an international commercial arbitration center in Iraq, similar to ones in Egypt, Jordan, and the Gulf states. I suggested that this will not increase the confidence of American or European investors who are comfortable with arbitration administered in Paris or London or Brussels. I encouraged the drafting committee to use the UN’s UNCITRAL model arbitration act as a template for writing the Iraqi statute on international commercial arbitration; I learned this will not happen.

Afterward, I recognized that the most gratifying part of my work here is interacting often with dedicated GOI professionals and daily with our resilient Iraqi staff members (office administrators, interpreters, and translators).

Our Iraqi staffers are wonderful people who give their best at work and at home, with studied patience in the face of traffic jams, power outages, and the demonstrable threat of unpredictable, life-destroying violence. I feel blessed that they are willing to share parts of their familial and inner lives as my teachers. Each of them has multiple stories of courage and fear and suffering and loss. Their humor, borne of unimaginably horrendous experience, is quick and penetrating and ironic. Their laughter at what can only be called the Kafkaesque conditions that comprise everyday Baghdad life is liberating and inspiring.

Ali told me at lunch today that, in spite of all the risks he and his young family face in the future, it is better now than before, because now at least there is hope, when before there was none. I pray their hope is warranted and that it protects Ali and his family from all the very real evils that surround them every moment of every day. [I learned in December that Ali and his family are emigrating to Scotland in January 2010.]

I love these people—helplessly and unconditionally.

1 May 2009

Our translator Zahir had the following post on his blog in March 2007 and photo of a Baghdadi sky in January 2006. I thank Zahir for his permission to share these:

Baghdad . . . Baghdad . . .
Days pass, and here I am, sitting alone, under the light of my laptop screen, when there is no electricity, as I hear nostalgic songs about Baghdad.

I have to admit that, being away from home on and off for the past couple of years, and for longer periods recently, is a factor in this nostalgia; and perhaps getting to know more Baghdadis residing in Sulaimaniya is the main reason for this. Every time we meet, we speak about Baghdad, and how we used to spend the evenings here and there, and how we used to walk around, looking at shops, eating sandwiches or ice-cream; back when there was a night life in the greatest city in Iraq.

Baghdad is now divided within us. There is a little Baghdad in each of us. Baghdad, to whom I’d love to refer as “she” instead of “it”, is verily like a beautiful woman, that is so dear to every one who really knows her; but now, she is suffering from an illness which has a rare cure; a cure that is difficult to get.

This is how we Baghdadis feel. We cannot do anything but pray for the safety of our loved ones who are still there, and pray for Baghdad’s well-being. And here we are; crying, smoking, or both, whenever that bittersweet memories of Baghdad are recalled. The worst, heart-mangling feeling in the world is when you see someone you really love, fading away before your eyes, and you can do nothing to save them, but pray.

It is like an 18th Century love story, where one cannot see his beloved, except when she goes out in the morning to bring water from the spring or river; and when she doesn’t come on time, he worries and worries, until he is told later that she is gravely ill.

Many of us, exiled or self-exiled Baghdadis, are unfortunately unable to visit Baghdad the beloved, for one reason or the other; but our spirits fly there, with every dove as the day breaks, kissing every palm tree, eating pastry and cream for breakfast at street corners, and embracing the sweetness of cardamom flavored hot tea cups.

“Our city is beautiful, Her name is Baghdad

She is a bride sent from Heaven to Earth, I haven’t seen anyone as beautiful as her

* * * *

O, city of Peace, O, you paradise, O, you with the most beautiful eyes,

Our city is beautiful, Her name is Baghdad, She is a bride sent from Heaven to Earth”

Baghdad, I will love you forever.

2 May 2009

Last night I met with Dr. Peter Bartu who has served as a senior political adviser on disputed internal boundaries (DIBs) in Iraq to UN Special Representative Staffan de Mistura, head of the UN Assistance Mission to Iraq (UNAMI). Peter helped write the UNAMI DIBs report, including about the highly contentious areas in and around the oil city of Kirkuk in north-central Iraq. At the moment, the draft has been distributed only to Iraq’s highest political leaders for their comments.

Kirkuk is a special case among disputed areas. It is the center of the Iraq’s petroleum industry. The Kurdish Democratic Party wants to make Kirkuk the political capital of Kurdistan. Iraq’s minority Turkmen claim Kirkuk as their ancestral home. Many Arabs live there today as a result of the Saddam regime’s Arabization policy which displaced Kurds and Turkmen and resettled Arabs in Kirkuk in the 1980s and 1990s.

I met with Peter (who is leaving Iraq this week to rejoin his family in Berkeley, California) because I would like Peter to serve as a special adviser to our Project on issues within his unique expertise.

Why is he so special and unique?

Peter is a former Australian Special Air Service officer who as a young Captain was an adviser in the early 1990s to Lt. Gen. John Sanderson, the Australian military commander of the UN Transitional Administration in Cambodia following the Vietnamese occupation of that country. Peter got this extraordinary opportunity because he had studied Cambodian culture and history as an undergraduate and, as he says, “I was one of four Australians at the time who knew how to speak Khmer.”

Peter also served as a political adviser with the UN Assistance Mission in East Timor in the late 1990s. He served briefly in 2001 as a security adviser to the Australian government but resigned over his disagreement with its treatment of asylum seekers.

From 2001 to 2003, he was a political adviser to the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General to the Middle East Peace Process. In December 2002, Peter was one of 60 international UN staff members in Gaza who called on Israel “to hold its military to account and protect all UN and other aid workers operating in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) from harm, in accordance with international humanitarian and human rights law.” Their “call for justice” followed the death of a UN worker, Iain Hook, who was shot by an Israeli sniper on 22 November 2002. The Israeli military refused to permit an ambulance in to assist Mr Hook and he bled to death.

Peter has a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley. He wrote his dissertation on the history of the UN peacekeeping operations in Cambodia between 1991 and 1993. Peter is married to the Cambodian scholar, Penny Edwards, author of Cambodge: The Cultivation of a Nation, 1860-1945. They met when they were both in Cambodia in the early 1990s. They are the parents of three children. For fun, Peter is an open-water, long-distance swimmer who has competed in the Alcatraz to San Francisco race.

7 May 2009

This morning one of our group asked if I had heard the explosion at 5:00 am. I had not. I slept through it. This may be a function of my loss of hearing (from age and artillery fire in Vietnam 40 years ago) but more likely is due to my use of air conditioning here. At night I crank the air conditioning in my bedroom down as low as it goes and sleep under a blanket. The white noise of the air conditioner covers the prayer call of the muezzin at 4:00 in the morning (and also the sound of a 5:00 am explosion), the dogs barking at intervals during the night, and the rooster-crowing from the little farm next door (which, by the way, got a small camel during the past week).

10 May 2009

Happy Mother’s Day from the Emerald City!

Like everything else in life, “timing” with respect to the Iraqi constitutional amendment process “is everything.” Two months ago knowledgeable folks were saying that proposed constitutional amendments were “dead” and would not even be considered by Parliament this year. This has changed abruptly in the past few weeks. The newly elected Speaker of the Iraqi Parliament was one of the three principal leaders of the constitutional revision committee, and he intends to try to move “his” amendments through Parliament before the end of the year. Yesterday the Prime Minister publicly stated that he too supports the constitutional amendment process in Parliament this legislative term.

11 May 2009

The Red Zone Rocket Man woke me up about 5:45 this morning despite the fact that my in-room air conditioner was cranked down to “Arctic” and was furiously pumping out cold air. From the loud sound of the explosion, I knew the point of impact had to be within a mile of Utah House. The IDF warning siren started blaring about a minute after the attack, and the all-clear signal (imagine the sound of a London ambulance siren) was given about a minute later. For the past few months, rockets into the Green Zone have been fired one at a time, on average of one per week. They have all been 107-millimeter rockets (about four inches in diameter and about four-feet in length) fired off home-made “rails” (a shallow metal trough into which the rocket sits before it is fired; the direction in which the rail points determines the direction of the rocket’s path, and the vertical angle of the rail determines the rocket’s altitude and therefore distance) (visualize a right-angle triangle with the rocket lying on the hypotenuse). These rockets are not “smart” weapons that can be targeted to hit a specific building, but rather are designed to be fired many at a time to saturate a “box” (like a neighborhood).

Here in the Green Zone, whether you are in the wrong part of the wrong box at the wrong time is a matter of luck—bad luck.

14 May 2009

At 4:06 am yesterday there was a 107-mm rocket fired into the IZ, the fifth in seven days.

15 May 2009

Today and every day this week the high temperature has been 100+. Baghdadis have said that we have had a mild spring, but now we are heading into summer. On Tuesday it is supposed to be 43 degrees C. (109 degrees F.). I asked one of our translators how hot it gets here in the summer and she said 50 degrees C. (122 degrees F.) is not unusual. She said Baghdadis have an expression that, in August, “it gets hot enough to melt the nails in the [house] doors.” It could be worse, she said. We could be in Basra, where it is not only this hot but also very humid.

16 May 2009

Today is a very special first for the Project. Our lawn was mowed for the first time! We have been urging, pleading, and cajoling our landlord for a lawn since February. In March, Sabre’s gardener raked the dirt, planted grass seed, and has been watering the dirt twice a day since then. At first, we thought the birds had eaten all the seed, because they were there helping themselves every morning. However, over time, new grass grew until this morning it was about 10” tall. One of our Nepalese guards used a push-mower to cut the grass while the Iraqi gardener put the cut grass into a wheelbarrow and carted it off (to a new compost pile?).

The lawn is not perfect. The grass is just a thin, fragile (but green) carpet. There are still bare spots, but even there sprouts of grass are beginning to grow. In a few more months, we should be able to put our lawn furniture on our “lawn” and enjoy the warm desert air outside at night.

Oh, that our lawn may presage the future of Iraq!

During lunch today, a rocket exploded in the road about a block and a half away, seconds before the IDF attack siren came on. The rocket “did not have my name on it” (as I used to joke in Vietnam 40 years ago).

17 May 2009

Our translator Ali and I attended a conference on attracting foreign investment in Iraq at the Al-Rashid Hotel. During the morning break, Ali and I talked with the head of the State Shura Council about international commercial arbitration. I gave him a handout I prepared which Ali translated into Arabic recommending three things Iraq could do to improve foreign investor confidence in international commercial dispute resolution:

• Enact the UNCITRAL Model Act for International Commercial Arbitration;
• Ratify the New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards; and
• Empower a specialized Iraqi court with arbitration law expertise to stay litigation, compel arbitration, and enforce foreign arbitral awards.

He said that the Shura Council had approved the New York Convention years ago, but a long succession of Iraqi governments has refused to ratify it.

Afterward, Ali and I met in a breakout session on the legal framework for foreign investment, including dispute resolution. There were about a dozen Iraqis (more than half of whom were law professors). I asked Ali to make the arbitration presentation to the group in Arabic, and his presentation provoked a lively discussion. (I told him that law professors universally insist on having the last word.) He was very pleased when I told him that, despite not being an expert in arbitration, he gave a much better presentation in Arabic than I could have done in English by means of his translation.

18 May 2009

In the category of “you’ve got to be kidding,” the International Zone Badging Office, which was recently moved to Forward Operating Base Prosperity, is now open. The name of the new office is “The Meadowlands.” The old office was called “Ocean Beach” and had plenty of beach but no ocean. The new office has plenty of surrounding (sand-covered) lands but no meadow.

There must be a young US Army officer who is a bored liberal-arts college graduate who makes up these names for his private amusement.

21 May 2009

Today I left Iraq to begin the two-day trip home to Utah.

Two 107-mm rockets landed at about 7:00 am at Baghdad International Airport. At about 8:30 in the evening, a 107-mm rocket hit the front gate of the high-rise apartments across the street from the U.S. Embassy. Also, an American contractor was abducted and stabbed to death in the Green Zone that same evening.

I still cannot explain “bad luck.”

This article appeared as a web extra for The Grinnell Magazine, Winter 2009.

Twenty-five years ago I helped kill dozens of other human beings.

At that time I was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Grinnell College with two degrees in philosophy. I also was an expert in directing 100-pound high explosive projectiles to scream from the sky and burst among the living.

I have experienced the cusp of modern American history. From the backyard barbecues and fall football games of the 1950s, to the selfishness and cynicism of the 1980s and 1990s. And in between were the protests, marches, craziness, and killing.

Grinnell took a gamble by accepting me and giving me a scholarship following an unpromising first semester at MIT. I felt at home at Grinnell in its small town atmosphere and rural environs. I met many others who were both very serious and oddly zany. I felt stretched and expanded as I shed an old skin.

Grinnell taught me that life is full of inherent ambiguity and real complexity. I learned that not everything is worth wanting, having, or doing. I found an intensity and tapped an unsuspected reservoir of energy and creativity. Grinnell was the prism that refracted my little beam of light and truth into a rainbow of potentiality. I left Grinnell planning to become a college philosophy professor.

Three years later I was an artillery fire direction specialist in the United States Army in the Mekong Delta region of South Viet. I had enlisted in the Army despite a graduate deferment to go to Yale. I elected to be sent to Vietnam — the only promise the Army every kept. I left behind a wife, a life, and a career track in academia that I never recovered.

Why did I do this? Was I so unhappy in an unhappy first marriage? Was I ashamed of my father who had avoided military service in World War II by working as a railroad fireman until the fighting was over? Was I a patriotic child of America bound by duty to serve God and country? Was I curious as many others before me to “see the elephant” and observe my reaction? I really don’t know. It could be some of this, or all of it, or something completely different.

Somewhere I once read that the root cause of delayed stress reaction among Vietnam veterans is guilt. It has taken 25 years for me to sense the enormity of killing all those people and helping to destroy their universe. I still dare not look this fact square in the face. What would I say to the grandparents, parents, spouses, children, brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, cousins, nephew and nieces of all the ghosts? How would I start? And where?

Having turned 50 this year has brought the past closer. I feel my own mortality and the presence of the ghosts heavy by my side. The weight is actually comforting. I will not collapse under its burden. It gives me some real measure of substance, stability, and purpose.

Earlier this year I pulled from a closet shelf the cigar box full of Vietnam memorabilia that I have carried with me all these years. I had the medals and insignia framed. The frame hangs in my office. On my desk is a brass Buddha from Vietnam cast from spent artillery shell casings. Close by is a replica of the “Thousand-yard-Stare” statue at the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Grinnell seems further away than ever in my life. I don’t know whether I will make it back there again, or why. Instead, I need to visit the Wall, which I have avoided like a nightmare. I also need to return to Vietnam. I especially need to pay homage to ghosts at the “Wagon Wheel.” There, one afternoon, in the intersection of three canals near the Plain of Reeds, eight people departed this earth. Six thousand meters and 30 seconds away, I had plotted their demise. I am their witness and they must not be forgotten.

I wonder if we do have souls. And if those souls survive our bodies. And if those souls can communicate, and embrace, and apologize, and cry, and forgive.

Reprinted with permission from The Grinnell College Blue Book, 1996, as a web extra for The Grinnell Magazine, Winter 2009.

On Saturday, Nov. 21, Chalutzim hosted a challah-baking workshop. Participants learned how to make challah, a braided egg bread served on the Jewish Sabbath. The challah baked at the workshop was given to the local foods Thanksgiving meal held the next day.

This article appeared as a web extra for The Grinnell Magazine, Winter 2009.

Liz Reischmann and Brendy Peralta (both ’12) mix up the yeast. By Aaron Barker ’11

Waiting for the yeast to bubble. By Aaron Barker ’11

Melanie Rockoff, Aude Bouagnon, and Max Calenberg (all ’12) measuring and mixing. By Aaron Barker ’11

Andrew Marcum, Rebecca Hughes, and Meryl Spencer (all ’12) make the dough. By Aaron Barker ’11

Carla Eckland ’13 works with the challah dough. By Aaron Barker ’11

Sophie Klein ’10 and Peter Macfarlane ’12 separate the dough before braiding. By Aaron Barker ’11

Preparing to braid the challah. By Aaron Barker ’11

Peter Macfarlane ’12, Eric Miner ’11, and Allie Greenberg ’10 have fun as they get ready to braid the challah. Courtesy of Rebecca Heller ’11

Erica Seltzer-Schultz ’12 and Sophie Klein ’10 braid the challah. By Aaron Barker ’11

Braiding the dough — students experiment with four braids. By Aaron Barker ’11

Debbie Stein (Rabbi Stein’s wife) (far left) helps Peter Macfarlane ’12 and Katie Queen ’11 braid the challah. By Aaron Barker ’11

Katie Hawley ’11 (left) and Lilith Ben-Or ’12 prepare the challah for baking. By Aaron Barker ’11

Emily Ullberg ’12 shows off the final product. Courtesy of Rebecca Heller ’11

Emily Ullberg ’12, Rebecca Heller ’11, Allie Greenberg ’10 proudly display the finished challah. Courtesy of Rebecca Heller ’11

Beautiful (and delicious)! By Aaron Barker ’11

Jim Holbrook ’66 graduated from Grinnell with a passion for philosophy. He was on the brink of entering the Ph.D. program at Yale when his plans fell apart.

It was 1968. Martin Luther King was killed, and then Bobby Kennedy.

“The world seemed a little crazy,” Holbrook says. “I found myself feeling like what I really needed to do was join the army.”

His next stop — Vietnam.

Dong Tam was the headquarters base camp of the Ninth Infantry Division in Vietnam. Holbrook served at the Fire Support Base Moore west of Dong Tam.

Holbrook in front of the Fire Direction Center bunker at Fire Support Base Moore.

Holbrook was an artillery fire direction specialist in the U.S. Army in the Mekong Delta region of South Vietnam.

Artillery experts often suffered hearing damage from firing the big guns.

One of the six 155-mm howitzers in B Battery. It could shoot a 95-pound projectile about 10 miles and drop it within an area less than the size of a football field.

Holbrook calculated the trajectory of artillery shells on plywood like this.

Showering under the blue sky of Vietnam.

Shaving required a steady hand and a helmet full of cold water.

Like all soldiers, Holbrook became familiar with the care and use of weapons like this one.

One of the batteries in Holbrook's artillery battalion had 155-mm self-propelled howitzers.

Occasionally the gunners in Holbrook's Battery would 'frag' the FDC tent with a tear gas grenade.

Holbrook on Easter Sunday in Vietnam (note the crosses in the background).

A collection of shrapnel and mortar and rocket shells fired at Fire Support Base Moore.

 

All photos courtesy of Holbrook. This article appeared as a web extra for The Grinnell Magazine, Winter 2009.

This postcard, postmarked 1913, depicts three of Grinnell’s most famous “ghost buildings.” From left: Chicago Hall, Blair Hall, and Alumni Hall. The rear of Goodnow is visible in the background, just to the right of Chicago Hall. Blair Hall is often considered one of Grinnell’s most beautiful structures.

Grinnell House, a stately Georgian structure at the corner of Park Street and Fifth Avenue, served as the home of Grinnell College’s presidents from 1917 to 1961. John H.T. Main was the first president to live in Grinnell House. Today it is a guesthouse for the College.

This rebuilt barracks building was moved to Grinnell from the Sioux City Air Base and served as Grinnell’s student union from 1947 through 1963, when the Forum opened.

Rand Gymnasium was built in 1897 and given to the women of the College by Carrie Rand, instructor in social and physical culture at Grinnell. In his history of the College, Joseph Wall ’41 wrote about the restrictions placed on women students’ physical activity: “Properly attired in heavy, many-layered, and restrictive garments, women could find physical exercise only in the decorous, ladylike strolls, like nuns always in pairs. … That the females survived this restrictive regimen designed to protect their innate weakness is, ironically, testimony to the strength of their constitutions.” Rand Gymnasium burned down in 1940.

This reunion picnic in 1912 brought together alumni from the class of 1907. The picnic fare probably featured box lunches — see the many boxes scattered about. The Men’s Gym is visible in the background.

The cornerstone of the Men’s Gym was laid during Commencement in 1899. It would be known as the Women’s Gym after Darby Gym was completed in the mid-1940s.

Construction of the South Campus dormitories and Quad Dining Hall, circa 1915. President John Main dreamed of a residence hall system at Grinnell that would resemble the Oxford system, offering men and women a campus where they could live in small “homes” that would foster the community he deemed essential to the education of young people.

This postcard image of the brand-new South Campus dormitories reveals a tennis court in the foreground. Tennis was considered “the ideal sport” by Grinnellians around the turn of the 20th century, according to Grinnell College in the 19th Century by Joseph Wall ’41. An 1890 report to the trustees asserted that tennis is a “peculiarly healthful amusement — adapted to both sexes — free from muscular injury and over-exertion incident to baseball and football.”

Main Hall, circa 1915, still under construction. The new women’s Quadrangle was dedicated later that year with the ceremonial “lighting of the fires.” President Main handed a lighted torch to physics faculty member and Dean of Women Fanny Gates. From the torch, six tapers were lit and handed to six women students, one for each cottage, to kindle the fires in the new hearths.

Railroad tracks brought bricks and other materials to the construction site for the North Campus dormitories, which welcomed their first (male-only) residents in 1917. Ernest Jaqua 1907, assistant to President John Main, wrote, “We are planning Grinnell’s growth not for the next few years, but for 10, 50, and a hundred years.”

Originally published as an online web extra for The Grinnell Magazine, Winter 2009. Images of postcards courtesy of Mickey Munley ’87.

Dr. Craig Henderson ’63 recently brought his perspective on health care reform to the Grinnell campus in his talk, “A View from Inside the Death Panels,” sponsored by the Wilson Program. Dr. Henderson presented a contrast to the controversy that has surrounded “death panels” in recent months by providing detailed and valuable insights into how a real-life panel operates.

Dr. Henderson, one of the nation’s top cancer experts and a Grinnell trustee, served on the Harvard faculty for 18 years and was CEO and chair of SEQUUS Pharmaceuticals, a biotechnology company. Today, he is a member of the Medical Advisory Panel of Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS), a confederation of 39 independent health insurance companies that collectively insure approximately 100 million Americans, or one-third of the population. The group is an advisory panel that reviews various treatments and tests to determine whether they meet preset criteria of safety and effectiveness.

Dr. Henderson explained that about two-thirds of the panel’s members practice medicine and see patients on a regular basis. He described the panel’s function as “evaluating the results of comparative effective research.” Of the roughly 20 voting members, the majority are not BCBS employees, and the group includes medical organization representatives, statisticians, and an ethicist.

The panel evaluates new surgical procedures, drugs, laboratory and radiological evaluations using a list of five specific criteria, including the amount of scientific evidence available and the quality of the studies involved. Popular perceptions about the efficacy of health care, though, are often not consistent with the panel’s conclusions, Dr. Henderson said.

Public pressure can compete with effectiveness data to influence coverage decisions, Dr. Henderson said. He cited the case of a procedure to relieve the pain of fractures caused by osteoporosis. Early studies and anecdotal evidence gave it the status of a miracle cure, and the use of the procedure doubled from 2003 to 2009. Several insurance companies covered the procedure. The panel, however, concluded that there was insufficient evidence to draw conclusions about its efficacy. Later, two randomized, double-blind studies reported in the New England Journal of Medicine found that the procedure had no beneficial effects.

According to Dr. Henderson, panels such as this fulfill an important role in exploring these vital questions as the nation tries to come to an agreement about health care reform.

Originally published as an online web extra for The Grinnell Magazine, Winter 2009

My Experience: Naida C. Tushnet ’61

My story is that I came to Grinnell in 1958 as an early entrant (didn’t graduate high school) from an East Coast suburb.

Not only was I Jewish, but also I came from a secular Jewish, left-wing family. I think my Grinnell experience solidified my Jewish identification because I was seen as “odd” in a number of ways.

One small story: I was very blonde and have a fair complexion. During my first week at school, a classmate from a small Midwestern town and I were sharing information. When I said I was Jewish, she was astounded. She had never met a Jew and thought they all had dark complexions. When I said that I was, in fact, Jewish, and that all my family was fair, she thought a minute. And then she said, “Oh yes, I guess you really are Jewish. You wear half slips.”

I was too young and too taken aback by that particular stereotype to ask what she thought wearing half slips meant, but when I tell this story now, everyone thinks it was an image of Jewish girls as a little bit slutty.

My secular, left-wing background was also a subject of some issue to the other Jews at Grinnell. But in the next two years, two people I knew from before Grinnell with similar backgrounds became Grinnell students, so I didn’t feel so isolated … although isolated enough that I did summer schools and heavy course loads so I could graduate in three years.

Originally published as a web extra for The Grinnell Magazine, Winter 2009

Each student in the course Tyrants and Tunesmiths: Music and the State in Modern Europe wrote a review based upon the experience of the performance, but adopting the perspective of a particular cultural or political figure from the original premiere in 1900 in Rome.

According to Assistant Professor of History Kelly Maynard, the exercise provides a good way for students to apply the historical training they have been receiving in this unique course to their evening at the opera.

Two students share their reviews:

• Kim Knudsen ’10 — Role: Offended Catholic
• Anne Weeks ’10 — Role: Eager-to-Please Reviewer

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Kim Knudsen ’10 — Role: Offended Catholic

Kim Knudsen ’10 wrote this review of Tosca from the point of view of an offended Catholic.

Italian Opera Insults Catholics

by Kim Knudsen

The weather in Rome is quite miserable this time of year, but the activities of the Holy Year have done much to keep my mind off the cold and the rain. After being thoroughly exhilarated by my religious activities, I decided to enjoy some of the sites of Rome and was fortunate enough to be able to see the new opera by Puccini called Tosca. Although my recounting of these events may sound positive, Rome is the location of many small anticlerical factions, which although annoying to those traveling for the Holy Year, did very little to bother us. The one place I was not expecting to see these hostilities was at the Teatro Costanzi, where Tosca premiered. Although I was delighted in being able to participate in the events of the Holy Year, my voyage was troubled by the anarchists who caused strife around the city as well as the events of Tosca, which darkened my mood.

The city itself was crowded and so was the opera theatre. The streets were overrun with individuals unable to find a hotel room who had to resort to living outside. Luckily, I was able to find a hotel due to my early arrival in Rome. The Teatro Costanzi was also filled to capacity with Italian dignitaries and I heard that Queen Margherita also attended, but I was not fortunate enough to see her with my own eyes. Being quite excited when the opera was scheduled to begin, I was concerned when it was brought to a halt and there were rumors of a bomb threat being murmured around me in several different languages. Besides their nervous mumblings, the audience was altogether polite, even though there were attendees that held very negative views of Puccini, including several of his critics. The building itself was rather luxurious, and although it was able to hold a large number of people, was very crowded, and the seat that I occupied was quite far away from the stage, so distant in fact, that I wished that I had brought some opera glasses. The sound carried well, even to my far away seat, even though I was unimpressed by what I was hearing as a whole, but if a more favorable opera was performed there, I can imagine my opinion to be far more positive than it is.

Tosca is done in by its very poor taste, as it is very violent and the characters seem to be lacking in any unique characteristics, but aspects of the opera besides the plot were performed beautifully. The technical characteristics of the opera were well done, including the lighting as well as the costumes, especially Tosca’s when she was in a crimson gown. The color was rather stunning and reflected the violence that would occur later in the opera, a foreshadowing, if you will, through her garment. The lighting was beautiful, as well as the props, which added to the setting. The major problems I had occurred in the second act of the opera. The setting was very minimal compared to the rest of the opera and although the lighting was stunning and added a frightening element of the shadows of Tosca and Scarpia climbing up the wall, much of the effect was lost due to my seat. I was unable to see whether Scarpia remained on stage though Tosca’s aria and this desire to know lost some of the suspenseful effects that were occurring in other parts of the opera.

This opera was rather disturbing due to its portrayal of the Catholic Church. The opera contains two murders, a suicide, a torture scene, and an attempted rape; all of these elements disturbed me greatly. Yet, the portrayal of Scarpia, a police commander who seems devout but is willing to mislead characters and use his power to influence others’ actions, is probably the most disturbing character to me. The man is a representation of the Catholic Church and to have him be so deplorable in nature astounds me, and to add insult to injury, the fact that this premiered during the Holy Year is very offensive. Aside from the plot, the singers performed exquisitely and their acting helped to add some life to the characters that were not very developed. The music was also rather disappointing, as some of the music does not relate to the stage action at all. For instance at the beginning of the third act, a beautiful sweet song begins with a lovely flute and French horn melody, but the scene opens on Cavaradossi who believes he is going to be executed. The scene, I thought, should have darker music to go with the mood. The lead soprano was excellent in supplying the necessary emotions with her voice, and her arias gave me chills several times during the performance. Both the singers and the performers did the best they could to add the necessary sensations into the pieces they were performing, because the libretto was short, blunt, and right to the point of action and had little room for the feelings of the audience to come to fruition, instead going from major event to major event without a period of calm.

Overall, I have mixed feelings about my trip to Rome. Although I immensely enjoyed the events of the Holy Year, seeing the opera Tosca has upset me and made my experience in Rome one that I would not care to repeat. Although the technical aspects of the opera were rather enjoyable, the plot and the characteristics of Scarpia have left a sour impression in my mind of how the Catholic Church is portrayed in its home country. If the opera had been different, I would have enjoyed my experience in Rome a lot more. In fact, I could not understand why the performers received several curtain calls, perhaps only for their skill and not Puccini’s; regardless, I clapped along in order to be polite, but as a whole I was not impressed by this opera. If I were to do this again, I believe that I would enjoy the events of the Holy Year very much and hope that the city itself is in less discord, but I would not attend an opera for it might give me a false impression of how the church is operating in Italy. Until then, I am very content to be back in my Spanish homeland and will continue to celebrate the Holy Year in a safer, more enjoyable place.

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Anne Weeks ’10 — Role: Eager-to-Please Reviewer

Anne Weeks ’10 wrote this review of Tosca from the point of view of an eager-to-please reviewer.

October 3

Giulio Ricordi

Casa Ricordi
2 Via Berchet
20121 Milano

Signor Ricordi,

Please find enclosed a copy of my review of the October 3 premiere of Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca at the Chicago Lyric Opera, to be published in tomorrow’s paper. I hope that you will find it sufficiently complimentary for the promotion of Puccini’s work, and that I have preemptively addressed some of the points likely to be criticized by Signor Torrefranca.

The opera was a pleasure to watch, and I sincerely hope it does not suffer the box office disaster you anticipated.

Yours,

Anne Weeks, freelance music critic

Enc.

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October 4

Tosca: Puccini’s Latest Triumph

by Anne Weeks

Years of waiting have finally been rewarded! Last night’s premiere of Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca at the Chicago Lyric Opera was an event worthy of the international reputation of Verdi’s heir. After such a performance, it may now be said that even on a crisp, overcast Chicago night, a ray of Tuscan sun may shine.

Although far from the composer’s home, the Chicago Lyric Opera has proven itself a worthy vessel for Puccini’s masterpiece. The elegant décor of the opera house, reminiscent of its prestigious European counterparts complete with golden flower motifs and richly colored wall panels, befits the début of such a highly anticipated work. Modern advances, however, also have their place: the orchestra is hidden in a pit below the stage, after the German fashion, and there is not a single obstructed view in the house. This last improvement was, to be sure, much appreciated by the multitudes of spectators who filled the theatre, anxious to be among the first to witness the newest Italian triumph. Come from far and wide, these people filled the theatre with countless languages, no doubt expressing their great anticipation, as we awaited the beginning of the piece, but all was silent as the curtain rose and the music began.

From the first, the remarkable acoustics of the venue, seemingly tailored to the needs of Puccini’s music, were noticed. Not a note of the beautifully exposed woodwind passages, nor a word sung onstage, was lost to the eager ear of the spectator, even in the highest tier of seats where perched your humble correspondent, and the powerful harmonic passages, incorporating the entire orchestra, filled the hall. This extraordinary dynamic range, and the variation in orchestration which so expertly sets the tone, showcase the composer’s individuality: refusing to be bound by Wagnerian ideas of organicism, he rises above any such equation to create a music that is truly Italian.

The production of the opera was also fantastic. The lavish costumes were realistic, tailored to the role of each character so that the visual aspect alone could be used to supply each figure’s pedigree. My readers in Italy will appreciate my noting that the representation of a cathedral was very well done, even in America, showing a great attention to detail. Scarpia’s bureau and the castle were also well represented, with the former set in an Italian color scheme dominated by red and gold and the latter an accurate likeness of a typical Italian fortress. However, it was not the sets themselves that were most impressive, but the lighting. In the second act, especially, the use of shadow to suggest actions taking place just off stage was a brilliant innovation. Nonetheless, even this carefully crafted space would not do justice to the opera, were it not populated by singers worthy of Tosca’s premiere.

Performers can make or break an opera, no matter how brilliant the composer, and, with so much of the opera devoted to scenes with only one or two characters, Tosca is especially dependent on the quality of the singers. The Chicago Lyric Opera is, therefore, fortunate to have such talents as Deborah Voigt, in the title role; Vladmir Galouzine, as Tosca’s lover Cavaradossi; and James Morris, as the devious Baron Scarpia. The chemistry between Voigt and Galouzine is especially remarkable in the first act, with their spectacular performance of the repartee between Tosca and her lover, and, of course, during the moving duet in the last act as Cavaradossi awaits execution.

All of the performers not only sang magnificently, but also truly embodied their character, perfectly conveying the host of complex passions found in this opera. Puccini’s skillful portrayal of emotions reinforces the Italian nature of his art: here there are no Germanic formulas, but only spontaneous feeling that warms the work from within like the Italian sun. In this way, Tosca is an improvement, even over its predecessor, La Bohème, in that the new work represents man’s strongest passions, and not merely an ambiance, as certain critics had claimed of Puccini’s earlier work.

The quality of the performance was not lost upon the audience, which was almost completely silent during each act and seemed quite fascinated by the action on stage. Each intermission, however, saw the halls outside the theatre filled with people of all ages, from young children to those of an advanced age. It was heartwarming to see the crowds that had gathered, many in elegant attire, to view the latest work of Italy’s most talented and beloved composer. The singers were called out for numerous curtain calls, facing thunderous applause from the delighted American audience. Yet again, Giacomo Puccini has proven himself the successor to the internationally renowned Verdi, a composer whose works will continue to remind the world that Italy is now, and always shall be, the home of great opera. I congratulate Signor Puccini on his latest triumph and speak for many, I am sure, when I express my impatience for his next success.

For those who wish to view the latest Italian masterpiece for themselves, a production of Tosca is planned in Rome, where tickets will soon be available. For more information write to Ricordi Publishing House at:

Casa Ricordi
Via Berchet 2
20121 Milano

Originally published as an online web extra for The Grinnell Magazine, Winter 2009

Photos Courtesy of the Grinnell College Archives except where noted

For 150 years, the community of Grinnell and Grinnell College have grown and thrived, side by side, sharing a name as well as a beloved place. The Grinnell College Archives provided this photo slideshow, offering a look back at where we've been.

Grinnell’s second hospital was located in this house on the corner of Sixth Avenue and Elm Street. It has now been restored.

The view looking west on Fourth Street, with the Merchants’ National Bank on the right (designed by renowned architect Louis H. Sullivan in 1913) and the Candyland, a popular student hangout, just up the street.

Central Park after the 1889 fire, which devastated a section of downtown bounded by Main and Broad Streets and Fourth Avenue and the Rock Island Railroad tracks. Visible in the photo are the temporary huts of the downtown merchants who were displaced by the fire.

This postcard offers a bird’s eye view of Commercial Street in Grinnell.

The devastation of the Congregational Church after the 1889 fire ravaged Grinnell.

Generations of Grinnellians found a warm welcome and sweet treats at Cunningham’s Soda Fountain, shown here in January 1956.

Just before Commencement in 1882, a cyclone killed two students and destroyed the College’s two buildings. The Rev. David O. Mears, who was in Grinnell to deliver the Commencement address, later wrote: “There was a fearful terror of blackness and the deadly roar -- and all was still as if the shrill whistling train of death were passed. There was only death and ruin left in its track.”

Grinnell, circa 1899, with large homes on the west side of High Street, between Fourth and Fifth Avenues.

The imposing edifice of the Grinnell Junior High School seems to reflect the seriousness with which the community regards education. The building is now the Community Center downtown, across from Central Park.

Grinnell’s largest clothier occupied a choice storefront at the corner of Fourth Avenue and Main Street in downtown Grinnell.

Spurgeon’s Department Store was for many years a staple for shoppers in downtown Grinnell. The building is now the home of Grinnell Home Decorating.

Stewart Public Library on Broad Street as it looked in 1912. Funded by Joel Stewart, the library had seen just over a decade of service when this photo was taken.

The original Strand Theatre opened in Grinnell in 1916 at 921 Main Street, which is today the site of the recently restored and refurbished movie theatre of the same name.

Two rail lines intersect at Grinnell’s Union Depot, the Chicago Rock Island and the Central Railroad of Iowa. The depot opened in 1893 and served as a hub for passenger rail service until the early 1980s.

The west side of Broad Street as it appeared prior to the construction of the Merchants National Bank. (Postcard courtesy of Mickey Munley ’87)

Attorney Josh Tepfer ’97 is one of the founders of the Center on Wrongful Convictions of Youth (CWCY), part of the Bluhm Legal Clinic at Northwestern University School of Law in Chicago, Ill. He shared this video about Johnnie Lee Savory, who hasn't been exonerated but is one of the center's clients seeking testing. Tepfer also shared this link to footage from an actual juvenile false confession, Michael Crowe, who confessed to killing his sister.

This article appeared as a web extra for The Grinnell Magazine, Fall 2009.