After Baghdad fell, its museums, galleries, and libraries were looted. Priceless artifacts from the Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphate to the present were stolen. The meticulous Baath partys library of documentation was burned and the national library structure was damaged and burned. Now, Saad Esaknder, the director of The House of Books and Documentation in Iraq is trying to rebuild the library that once held the seeds of modern mathematics, science, and art.
Visitors have come asking to look through the books, hoping to find the evidence that will allow them to reclaim family homes and land appropriated by Saddam Hussein's regime.
"We tell them: 'Sorry we can't help you,' because we don't know how much has been lost, perhaps 90%. It will break the heart of a lot of people," Mr Eskander said. [ ]
During the Saddam years the library functioned as a quiet instrument of dictatorship. Little was done to preserve records, such as the important Ottoman property deeds, and many books were simply relegated to an unseen "forbidden books" section.
"This was a dictatorship afraid of new ideas, new theories, new concepts that would question their cultural conformity. They were afraid of anything new," said Mr Eskander. "They wanted conformity. They didn't believe in multiculturalism and the multi-party system."
This in turn means that introducing new ideas and challenging recent history has brought its own dangers. Like many government officials in the new Iraq, Mr Eskander has been threatened since he started work in December last year, after the former director was sacked.
This was a dictatorship afraid of new ideas, new theories, new concepts that would question their cultural conformity. They were afraid of anything new," said Mr Eskander. "They wanted conformity. They didn't believe in multiculturalism and the multi-party system."
That's simply barbaric! Fortunately, there's Bush to lead them to the light. I hope that someday Iraq, just like contemporary America, will be a democracy afraid of new ideas, new theories, new concepts that would question their cultural conformity...
Christopher
Portland, OR
November 2002
DEC 21, 2004 09:42 PM