World Heritage push for "Garden of Eden"
Report, United Nations Environment Program (Sep 10, 2008)
A plan to list as a World Heritage Site an area known as the Fertile
Crescent, and thought by some to be the location of the Biblical
'Garden of Eden', has been unveiled by the United Nations. The initiative, to be supported by funding from the Government of
Italy, aims to further the protection and conservation of a significant
wetland of global cultural, natural and environmental importance. The Marshlands, spawning grounds for Gulf fisheries and home to species
like the Sacred Ibis, were almost totally drained and destroyed by the
former Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein during the 1990s and early 21st
century.
Ghosts From the Land of Milk and Honey
Marie-Helene Rousseau, Institute for War and Peace Reporting (Mar 29, 2008) Immortalised in stark black and white, two photographs
of everyday life in Iraq confront visitors to the Pomegranate Art
Gallery in the heart of SoHo, New York City. This is the only gallery in New York City to specialise in
modern Middle Eastern art. Its current exhibit, "Contemporary Iraqi Art," features the work of 16 Iraqi
artists, many of whom have fled Iraq and now live scattered across
Europe and the Middle East.
The Art of Kareem Risan and the Uranium Civilization
Maymanah Farhat , Electronic Iraq (Jul 23, 2007)
Characterized by two coinciding histories since its first cities were
founded six thousand years ago, Iraq has experienced both the pinnacles
of world civilization and large scale destruction at different times in
its history. Subjected to unyielding violence and ruin, Iraq currently
has the world's attention. Yet its rich cultural narrative continues in
the work of its artists. Conscious of their complex history,
contemporary Iraqi artists employ a diverse visual culture that
utilizes and projects its multiple identities.
"I Know Shut Up": New Iraq Documentary Offers Rare Glimpse of Detention and Life After
David Boodell, Electronic Iraq (Mar 23, 2007)
Filmmaker David Boodell reviews The Prisoner Or: How I planned to kill Tony Blair, the new film by the the director of Gunner Palace. The film retraces the story of Iraqi journalist Yunis Khatayer Abbas from house raid to detention to release. Found guilty of nothing, the film is an unusually complete portrait of the perils of life under occupation.
What's absent from Farah Nosh's series of images taken in Iraq in early 2006 is just as important as what she shows us. Included in the exhibition Inside Out currently showing at the Gage Gallery at Chicago's Roosevelt University, Nosh's series is comprised of stark black-and-white portraits of Iraqi amputees, all of them injured as a result of the war. In her deceptively simple images, viewers are first confronted with what is obviously absent and then made to associate more abstract notions of "missing." Nosh's subjects stand or sit in sparely decorated rooms, most of them looking at the camera as they would in a studio portrait.
Review: Iraq in Fragments
Muhammad Idrees Ahmad, Electronic Iraq (Jan 30, 2007)
In the years since the invasion of Iraq, many documentaries have attempted to record its consequences: the violence; the occupation; the plunder. The focus has ranged from the anthropological to geopolitical, just as the production has varied from the bland to the spectacular. With the urgency of the political reality taking preeminence, the myriad documentary renderings have hitherto failed to present a sustained portrait of life in occupied Iraq. Iraq in Fragments — the distilled product of more than two years and 300 hours of filming — is James Longley's splendid contribution towards filling this void.
Comedians & Writers raise in San Francisco raise money for Slain Iraqi Comedian Walid Hassan
Statement, Reporters Without Borders (Jan 9, 2007)
Reporters Without Borders was delighted with the outcome of a benefit held in San Francisco on January 8th, 2007. "This benefit was an impressive show of solidarity on the part of Bay Area comedians and writers, a tribute to one of their own - Iraqi comedian Walid Hassan - who was murdered in Baghdad last November," the international press freedom organization said. "Money raised will help Hassan's relatives get through the very difficult situation they are facing because of the loss of the head of the family." The proceeds will go to Hassan's family through a special fund set up by Reporters Without Borders to support Iraqi journalists and their relatives.
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