Iraq: A Decade of Devastation
 |
| An Iraqi woman looks at the damage inside the Amiriya shelter in Baghdad, in which 403 civilians allegedly died when it was bombed by American missiles during the Gulf War in 1991.Three relatives of the womandied in the bombing. (AP Photo/Jassim Mohammed) |
Editorial
1999 Shehadi Winner (click here for info)
Stiflling Democracy Within Palestinian Unions
Nina Sovich
ARTICLES
"And They Called It Peace": US Policy on Iraq
Phyllis Bennis
Sanctioning Iraq: A Failed Policy
Sarah Graham-Brown
Daghara Dispatch: A Lost Generation
Elizabeth Warnock Fernea
Depleted Uranium Haunts Kosovo and Iraq
Scott Peterson
The Public Health Impact of Sanctions: Contrasting Responses of Iraq and Cuba
Richard Garfield
The Politics of Consensus in the Gulf
Marc Lynch
A Shaky De Facto Kurdistan
David Aquila Lawrence
Shaykhs and Ideologues: Detribalization and Retribalization in Iraq, 1968-1998
Faleh A. Jabar
Elusive Justice: Trying to Try Saddam
Joost Hiltermann
Interviews Set: Americans Against the Sanctions
What About the Incubators?
Kathy Kelly
Resources for Activists
Between Iraq and a Hard Place: Jordanian-Iraqi Relations
Curtis Ryan
Letter from Kuwait
Fred Halliday
REVIEW
Le lute de Bagdad--Naseer Shamma
Elliott Colla
 |
| A US Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt serves as a backdrop as Defense Secretary William S. Cohen addresses US personnel at Al-Jaber Air Base, Kuwait. (Helene c. Stikkel/DoD Photos) |
(Scott Peterson covers the Middle East for the Christian Science Monitor.)
These two techniques--the impressionistic and the imagistic--come together most powerfully in "al-'Amiriyya," which refers to the bomb shelter targeted by the allies during the 1991 air campaign, where more than 400 Iraqi civilians, mostly children, died. Shamma's piece begins with a lilting, sentimental melody that is interrupted by screeching air raid sirens--an effect generated by Shamma's frantic picking. Amidst the confusion and panic that follow, you hear a calm determination to prepare for the coming air strike. Then, as if upon the close of the last blast door, missiles rain down, their explosions drowned out by the screams of other incoming bombs and screams of victims below. At this point, the sharply defined sound images are painted over with more impressionistic strokes--the piece slows and turns darkly reflective before ending on an optimistic note. Part of this piece's power emanates from Shamma's ability to convey so many distinct sounds and images on a single stringed instrument--one can only imagine the impact on listeners when Shamma first performed the piece in the ruins of al-'Amiriyya on the one-year anniversary of the massacre.
These two techniques--the impressionistic and the imagistic--come together most powerfully in "al-'Amiriyya," which refers to the bomb shelter targeted by the allies during the 1991 air campaign, where more than 400 Iraqi civilians, mostly children, died. Shamma's piece begins with a lilting, sentimental melody that is interrupted by screeching air raid sirens--an effect generated by Shamma's frantic picking. Amidst the confusion and panic that follow, you hear a calm determination to prepare for the coming air strike. Then, as if upon the close of the last blast door, missiles rain down, their explosions drowned out by the screams of other incoming bombs and screams of victims below. At this point, the sharply defined sound images are painted over with more impressionistic strokes--the piece slows and turns darkly reflective before ending on an optimistic note. Part of this piece's power emanates from Shamma's ability to convey so many distinct sounds and images on a single stringed instrument--one can only imagine the impact on listeners when Shamma first performed the piece in the ruins of al-'Amiriyya on the one-year anniversary of the massacre.
ليست هناك تعليقات:
إرسال تعليق