the guy by the door …

The SLA has not been in the news much since Patty Hearst
settled down to suburban life in Connecticut. Yet, I met with the newly
annointed leader of this organization just last week. The Special
Libraries Association has had a longer run than the Symbionese
Liberation Army.

… and here is the latest example. Young Professor Luboš had a student
fall ill and unable to take the final exam so he arranged for a
colleague [whom I know and respect] to supervise the exam at home in
Central New York.  Mr. President, this is precisely the kind of
flexibility we should be encouraging. But NOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

Pf. Luboš attributes this to recalcitrance of the unions. He is by his
own admission a reactionary and a theorist [I can’t decide which is
worse :)] Being an experimentalist and Union Representative [HUCTW] I
told him that I am not sure the blame lies with my colleagues in HUCTW.
By and large, union members don’t make policy. Unlike my fellow Union
Representative Geoff Karens, I’m sure you know what a “Management
Rights” clause is and how it defines the dividing line between policy
and implementation.

There was another rather egregious case that occurred in your absense.
We had a homeless alumna living in the gates for more than a year [i.e.
two winters] while an army of administrators passed the buck. It was
Harvard Labor [Union and contract] that kept her from freezing to
death.

But detailed blame aside,  I agree with Pf. Luboš that the response of administration, makes no sense whatsoever. May
I suggest that as a  re-entry excercise, you get the student
h(is|er) grade. I will help you. Hopefully by the time you reach the
parties involved they will already be aware of the public interest in
this problem.

Sincerely yours,

the guy by the door

P.S.

Unless quantoken has a unique ability to measure tachyonic states, h(er|is) comment is totally wrong.

From CODE PINK aka Women Say No to War!

“This is not the world we want for ourselves or our children. With fire in our bellies and love in our hearts, we women are rising up – across borders – to unite and demand an end to the bloodshed and the destruction.”

Dear friends–

This week, in celebration of International Women’s Day, a courageous group of Iraqi women will converge in Washington DC to hold George Bush and Congress accountable for the chaos, the killing, the violence that is engulfing their nation. They represent Shias, Sunnis and Kurds, religious and secular women. They are united in their horror at the killings, their outrage at the Bush administration and U.S. elected officials, and their determination to stop the violence.

We can stand with them in solidarity by signing the Code Pink’s Urgent Call for Peace, at www.womensaynotowar.org. On March 8 the signatures are to be delivered to officials in Washington DC and to U.S. embassies worldwide. The full text of the statement can be found at www.womensaynotowar.org. Nationals of any country are welcome to sign. The campaign is not limited to women. You and everyone you know is invited.

As the organizers of this action say, “This is not the world we want for ourselves or our children. With fire in our bellies and love in our hearts, we women are rising up – across borders – to unite and demand an end to the bloodshed and the destruction.”

Eleanor
——
Code Pink is not soley a creature of the internet. They appear in numbers at events around the country, including Crawford, Texas [and Cambridge, Massachusetts. :)]

“>

Four miles from Bush’s Ranch, the supporters of Cindy Sheehan, co-founder of Gold Star Families for Peace, stopped because the McLennan County Sherriff’s Department said the group had disobeyed orders by walking on the roadway, not the grassy shoulder. Supporters included members of Veterans for Peace, Gold Star Families for Peace, Iraq Veterans Against War, Vietnam Veterans Against War, CodePink Austin, and the Crawford Peace House. [Lone Star Iconclast.]

“>

Nothing new from the Mainstream Media. I had hoped for something from the blogosphere, but alas only this one post from the Right Truth with a belated rehash of mainstream reportage. I question Minister Jabr’s identification of the kidnappers. The demand for the release of a small number of women detainees is much more focussed and limited in scope than any other demand from Iraqi insurgent groups. It seems like a different group. And Mr. Jabr certainly has a personal stake in the matter. Regardless of who is holding her, it would not serve their interests to kill her and keep it a secret. I may not agree with Mr. Jabr about who is holding her but I agree with his conclusion. She is alive.

Media credit: Nafis M. Azad, Collegian Students release white balloons into the air, symbolizing their prayers for the release of Jill Carrol

As Dan Kennedy pointed out some days ago in his blog Media Nation, the mainstream media cannot appear overlyself-absorbed. Presumably that partially explains the silence leading up to the Feb. 26 deadline. Also, the U.S. Government probably convinced the media that attention would jeopordize attempts to rescue her. I think the reverse is true, which is why I flapped about it. I know I am but a butterfly in the winds of the world wide web, but the web is a complex nonlinear system. It probably has directions in which it has sensitive dependence on initial conditions. A butterfly flapping his wings in one place can cause a typhon on the other side of the world.

There was some mainstream coverage around the time of the deadline and the blogosphere essentially followed suit. The silence returned. There is a problem of fatigue. How many ‘no news’ news bits are people willing to read? Even the guy by the door has to worry about that.

Perhaps the techtopian dream of ordinary people all over the world breaking down the barriers of space, time, censorship, and hatred has not been realized in Iraq well enough to help Jill. Or perhaps it’s unreasonable to try to create a typhon in place where there is one already going on.Apparently the previously reported detente between the Sunni’s and the Shia was a mere flash in the pan. TV coverage on one of the Boston channels compared an early video tape of Jill with the last one received. I agree with their male terrorism expert. She did appear frightened to distraction in the early tape and calm and resolute in the latter. He opined that she is her own best instrument of survival. This may be self-serving for those who won’t dothe right thing to save her. It may be self-serving for those of us who have run out of improbable ideas to help her. But it is probably true.

At 8:55 PM Baghdad time [12:55 pm US/Eastern] CBS4Boston issued this fairly enigmatic report Officials Believe Jill Carroll Is Alive. There is not a hint of why they believe this. I hope this turns out to be more than a peak on a roller coaster ride for Jim and Katie. True or not, at least it suggests that our government and the would-have-been proxy government in Iraq have a suspicion that the whole world is watching.

We are.

At 8:55 PM Baghdad time [12:55 pm US/Eastern] CBS4Boston issued this fairly enigmatic report Officials Believe Jill Carroll Is Alive. There is not a hint of why they believe this. I hope this turns out to be more than a peak on a roller coater ride for Jim and Katie. True or not, at least it suggests that our government and the would-have-been proxy government in Iraq have a sense that the whole world is watching.

We are.

Several sources cite midnight as the deadline set by Jill’s kidnappers. I have lost track of which ones. I’m not totally sure that midnight Feb. 26 doesn’t mean 11 hours and 59 minutes ago. Or does it mean a minute from now?

The important thing. I’m not giving up.

I got distracted and lost track of the time. The sun went down in Iraq perhaps four or five hours ago.
Editor and Publisher has posted about the so far fruitless attempts to rescue Jill. To readers of Al Jazeera and ‘the guy by the door’ this is not news. Musafir picked up on the Monitor’s coverage of Allan Enwiya, the Iraqi interpreter [2nd story down] killed when Jill was abducted. Musafir adds background from Riverbend’s Baghdad Burning. Riverbend knew Allan and fondly remembers him in his January 12 post Thank You for the Music... It seems Allan loved his wife, his young children, his community and Pink Floyd.

The blog Mia Culpa has a vigil for Jill.

It is already past noon. The net is quiet of new news about Jill. Someone at the Boston office of AP has not forgotten Jill. TV outlets around the country are running this fairly bald release. Two US soldiers died overnight. Five Iraqi’s died this morning. It is an ordinary day in Iraq.

“Our forces raided some suspected places, but she was not there,” said Maj. Falah
al-Mohammedawi, an official at the Interior Ministry. “We are watching the situation
closely.”

I suppose I believe that they are making some effort. It would be quite a feather in their cap, if they could recover her. But it seems far less likely than negotiating.

And for Jill.

In Baghdad it’s 3:00 AM Sunday February 26, the day Jill Carroll’s kidnappers have set as a deadline for their demands. There was reasonable press about Jill on Tuesday February 21, but the bombing of the Askawira Mosque on Wednesday February 22 caused Iraq to erupt and pushed Jill to the back pages. Those wanting to negotiate her release would have found it quite hard. Three hours ago Agence France Press posted “Iraq’s Sunnis and Sadr’s movement make peace“. Hopefully, this will make negotiation for her release possible. Since we are going to take more time on the Dubai Ports World deal, we could focus on Jill for a bit. I have yet to find a good e-mail address that might be timely. It is only hours to sunrise.

Three Arab TV Jounralists Die in Iraq

“>	“>
Atwar Bahjat [inset]. Remains of her and her crew. [Al Arabiya.]	Atwar in Western dress. [Al Jazeera]

Three journalists reporting for the Arab satellite TV
network Al Arabiya died covering the bombing of the Askariya Shrine [also
known as the Golden Mosque] in Samarra. Anthony Loyd of the Times leads
his article “Half Sunni, half Shia — a target for everyone” with:
 
There were so many reasons not to kill Atwar Bahjat. She was half
Sunni, half Shia, a woman, an Iraqi, 30 years old, a native of Samarra
and a renowned journalist for the Dubai-based al-Arabiya news channel.

Yet kill her they did.  …

Reporters sans fronti

“>

Jill has already joined Marla Ruzicka and Margaret Hassan
in the ranks of monumentally brave women. But Jill, as far as we know
is still alive.  Threatened with execution unless the U.S.
Government releases women prisoners held in Iraq, Jill has so far
gotten two stays of execution despite chest beating by the
administration.Gareth Porter reports in Inter Press Service, that the release of  six women previously cleared of suspicion was delayed.
He also points out the 98.6% of all detainess have ultimately been
cleared. The claim that the U.S. doesn’t negotiate with terrorists was
questioned when 66 American hostages held in Tehran were released twenty minutes after Ronald Reagan’s Inaugural address.
Wikipedia, citing an impressive array of sources, finds these
suspicions unproved. Still the timing of the hostage release is
worrisome. Peter Singer, professor of bioethics at Princeton,
publishing an op-ed in the Los Angelos Times, points out that the Israeli government has successfully negotiated the release of hostages from Hezbollah. 
And given the 98.6% clearance rateof detainess, what fraction of one of the five
remaining women detainees is a big enough security threat to be worth
Jill’s life?

I heard mention of a rally today for Jill sponsored by students of the
UMass student paper where Jill once worked. However, I could not find a
time and place. Jill graduated from UMass Amherst so it might 
have been out there. The Mass Media news room at Umass Boston did not
answer the phone.
I’ll try to get to the Vietnam Memorial by sundown.

Let’s honor the memory of Marla and Margaret. Bring Jill home.

..[or even flood for that matter] shall keep my scholars from their chosen labors. I simply won’t allow it.

The Littauer Library is was Open Sunday

“>

“>
Of course, I can’t do it alone. He has a stronger [and younger] back. a better Union …	… and a bigger shovel.

I would like the MBTA Police to please notice that I was not actually in Andrew Station when I took the gentleman’s picture. Also, I would like to show the circulation people who came to work to today, but I can’t because HCL management doesn’t allow pictures in the library. [I would have liked to show you the throng of intrepid scholars that came today, but the same rule forbids it.]

�H�la, compa�ero!

I have lived my whole adult life in “mixed” neighborhoods, yet I have learned very little Spanish. Google Translate says compa�ero means “companion”, but as I have heard it spoken, it seems to have much more “la vida” than that.

Woman photographer at TeaLuxe – wide shot.

“>I saw the top of the laptop and knowing that the table tops are made of copper, I wondered if the laptop was simply reflecting that. Not so, the laptop is itself copper colored. I was taken with the panoply of color. I asked to take a picture. She asked about publication. I gave her my blog card and she agreed. In fact, what she said about print rights sounded generous. She is herself a photographer. So I hope she will advise me on technique. With a simple point and shoot camera, about the only thing you have to remember is that you are interacting with the camera’s program. Mostly I shoot action. People doing stuff. What they are doing is more important that the settings. But in this case I probably should have [and she would have tolerated ] taken time to experiment with settings.

The thing I need most help with is the “people” parts. How do you approach people as subjects. More importantly, how do sell stuff? At age 58, I really could use a marketable skill. Despite 15 years at Harvard, I have about 2 years worth of retirement benefits.

One lesson I’ve alreadly learned:

I should have taken this shot instead of cropping it out of the other. I’m old. I’m afraid I may be too old to flirt with dignity. [Flirtation is by nature ambiguous.] But I am quite single if that helps any.