A Thank You Letter to Leah Garchik for Her Column on "Official Secrets" and Katharine Gun

Dear Leah,

Thank you for your write-up of the screening of "Official Secrets."  Until I read about this today, I knew nothing about Katharine Gun, but like so many thousands of the rest of us, I knew the planned "shock and awe" attack on Iraq was a war crime, and again like thousands, I protested in an attempt to stop the planned attack and invasion.  The media deserve credit for letting us know the truth, and that goes for the SF Chronicle too.  (I still have some of the articles from that time.)

I met Daniel Ellsberg at the Castro Theater in February of 2003, where he was speaking along with Joan Baez in an evening with Reno, Rebel without a Pause .  You may have been there, but if not, there's a DVD of her performance piece.  I wonder whether anyone made a video of that night, when Joan Baez sang the song "This Is My Song," which the Indigo Girls also sing.  You can get both on YouTube.

At the time that Collin Powell had the task of justifying the war on Iraq at the United Nations, I read that officials covered the tapestry version of  Guernica, showing the horrors of war, and of course we all read AT THE TIME , that a big hunk of the "fine" British intelligence was plagiarized from a  paper written by a student at the Monterey Institute, Al-Marashi--even his misspelled words and incorrect punctuation.  (He said later that if they'd let him know they were going to use his paper, he could have given them more up-to-date information.)

I wish the information that Katharine Gun and others provided before the US and England marched forth to Iraq had stopped them from waging war, but they were determined to target Iraq.  It's hard to believe that it was Gun who was in danger of losing her job rather than Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld.  Bush got re-elected!

Thanks again,

Tina

More from the Department of Modern Languages and Literature, SFSU

In addition to the arpilleras shown here, there was a display put out by Nahid Aria ,  Public Relations & Diversit Coordinatore at the office of district attorney Nancy E. o'Malley in Oakland.  This included paintings she has done like the one we're posing near in the picture below.

Also as part of the program, there were talks by Dr. Mohammad Salama of the Arabic Program, Lubna Safi of UC Berkeley, Dr. Olivia Albiero, of the German Program, Dr. Mitra Aria of the Persian Program, Tu Minh of the SF Asian Women's Shelter,

Arpilleras: Crafts by Refugee Women and Other Approaches to Helping

On Friday, April 19th  Shehla and I attended "Arpilleras: Crafts by Refugee Women," a very informative seminar/colloquium/exhibit organized by Ana Luengo and her Spanish 831 graduate students at SFSU. 

Ana gave the overview of Friday's program, which culminated in a talk by Barbara Torres Baquedano, who obtained her MA in Cultural Studies at the University of Bremen with the thesis "There is no tomorrow without yesterday, " an analysis of collective memory in the text of the Valech Report, a report on political prison and torture in Chile between 1973-1990.

For the past 4 years, Barbara Torres Baquedano has worked with refugee women in Bremen, helping them express themselves through a Latin American art form, Arpilleras, shown here:

The arpilleras (burlap pictures)  created by individuals (rather than the communal ones)  give the name and native country of the refugee as well as the path they took.  For example in the one above, Amira says her journey to Bremen  was Somalia-Ethiopia-Sudan-Libya-Malta-Germany.  

They also explain the message, "What I want to say with my picture."  In the case of Amira, she wrote "At the bottom of my painting you can see a table set.  In the foreground I have sewn a plate with food.  When I sewed and embroidered my burlap, I was thinking that I would like to train as a cook, but during the course of this workshop I realized that maybe I am more interested in helping people.  Since I speak many languages,  I would like to learn German and then become a social worker or salesperson."

I was particularly interested in this workshop for at least three reasons.  I know Ana Luengo and am always impressed by the projects she takes on; I'm concerned about refugee women, and I am interested in Bremen , Gemany, because a friend I've had since 1963 (when we were penpals on two sides of the ocean) lives in Bremen.  It seemed a surprising place to have a Latin American art form used to help refugee women from Syria, countries in Africa, and other places.  .  

Continued on another blog post