A Glorious Day

My oh my. What a beautiful day in the neighbourhood.

I got to have fish nuggets for lunch.

Gonna see not one but two concerts tonight.

Gonna get tickets to see Final Fantasy in Kingston.

ANNNNNND I got tickets to see the amazing, the wonderful, the incomparable

ARCADE FIRE.

Here is a little diagram I made to illustrate what the awesomeness will be like:

As you can see, the LazyLibrarian and I are going to be serenaded all night by Win and Regine who will never stray from stage left.

I am really, really stoked for this.

rgsc

The Diary of the Director of the Iraq National Library and Archives

Burnt entrance of the INLA, 2003

I officially can no longer complain about work. While I like to bitch about the silly trials in my everyday working life, reading the entries from November 2006-January 2007 from the diary of Saad Eskander, the Director of the Iraq National Library and Archives, has illustrated what real tribulations are. The diary is posted on the British Library website and can be found here (with my thanks to the posting on Arcan-L for letting me know about it). It is an amazing, and continuing, story of how the staff of the NLA are struggling to keep their collections and themselves safe in the worst imaginable conditions. Here are a few extracts, I highly recommend reading the full diary.

Entrance after restoration (ca. 2005?)

From November 13, 2006

I received bad news, as soon as I arrived to my office. In my absent, INLA was bombed twice and snipers' bullets broke several windows. Fortunately, no body was hurt. My staff withheld these information from me, when I contacted them. They claimed that they did not want me to be worried and to spoil my visit.

I spent the rest of the week trying to advise a number of my employees what to do, as they got death threats. The Sunnis, who lived in Shi'i dominated districtwere given an ultimatum to abandon their homes and the Shi'is, who lived in a Sunni dominated district, had to leave their homes. So far, two of my employees were murdered, the first worked in the Computer Department, and the second was a guard. Three of our drivers, who worked with us by contract, were murdered and three others were injured.

Impact of Sectarian Violence on the INLA's Staff (December 2006)

Number	Type of impact
4	Unlawful Death (assassinations)
66	Unlawful Death of Relatives (e.g. Sons, Daughters, Brothers, Sisters, Cousins, Uncles, Aunts, Nephews)
2	Kidnapping
6	Kidnapping of relatives (e.g. Sons, Daughters, Brothers, Sisters, Cousins, Uncles, Aunts, Nephews)
58	Death Threat
51	Displacement
3	Plundering
3	Damage to Houses
3	Other Material losses

Note: Total Number of the INLA's staff is 464 (including 39 Guards).

From January 23rd, 2007:

At 11.30 a.m., intensive exchange of fire in the al-Fadhil area. Most of the roads were closed. Our guards were re-deployed. One window was smashed as a result of the explosions. I was informed on the same day that two of our technicians were kidnapped by unknown armed men in Al-Ghazaliya area. Fortunately, both were realised unharmed, thought they were verbally abused. Mr. C, the head of the Restoration Laboratory, received a death threat. He and his family left their house. I visited the Restoration Laboratory. It was hit by 5 bullets. Two windows were broken as a result. One of the restorers told me that her brother was murdered ten days a go for sectarian reasons. Another restorer told me that he cousin, who lived in Mosul, in northern Iraq, was also murdered for sectarian reasons. I did not know about these two incidents. I discovered that a number of my staff do not inform the administration about their ordeals for fear of reprisals.
I received more bad news about Miss D, an accountant. Her father and brother were both injured after the terrorists opened fire on them. The reason for it D 's father and brothers refused to leave their house, after they received a death threat