Aught Six: Act Three

This is the third and final installment of this blog's 2006 version of As the World Turns (for a look back at "Act One” and “Act Two,” click here and here). As with the first two acts, most of this stuff here has been lifted directly from the weekly e-mail reports I get from Harper's Magazine's Weekly Review. Some has also come from our good friends at wikipedia.org

Scene 1: Africa
On Thursday, December 21, 2006 war erupted between the insurgent Somalian Islamist militia and a coalition of Ethiopia and the UN-recognized transitional government of Somalia.[9] Peace talks between the interim government in the North and the Islamists of the south broke down had broken down on November 1st.

In recent months, Islamist militia backing the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) had taken control of much of the southern half of Somalia, normally through negotiation with local clan chiefs rather than by the use of force and had stayed clear of the government headquarters town of Baidoa, which Ethiopia said it would protect if threatened. In September, the transitional Somalian government called for intervention by a regional East African peacekeeping force, a move that was opposed by the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) leaders, who lobbied

African Union (AU) member states to abandon plans to send peacekeepers—particularly Ethiopians—to Somalia (Somalia and Ethiopia fought a bitter war in 1977–78 over the Somali province of Ogaden, which has been ruled by the Ethiopians since the partition of Somali lands in the first half of the 20th century).

Three days after heavy fighting began on December 21st, Ethiopian forces launched airstrikes against the Islamist Militia across Somalia in support of the interim government. This was Ethiopia’s first public admission of involvement in Somalia.

[10] Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said that he was waging war against Somalia's Islamists to protect his country's sovereignty. On Monday December 25, 2006 Ethiopia declared war on the Islamic Courts Union, and one Ethiopian jet fighter strafed the international airport in Mogadishu, without apparently causing serious damage, but prompting the airport to be shut down. With the help of Ethiopia, government troops re-entered the capital Mogadishu on 28 December 2006, after Islamist fighters fled the city.

According to Peter Beinart, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, “Ethiopia may caputre some terrorists, but it is also making a play for dominance in Africa’s horn. Somali Islamists have already vowed to wage guerilla war against the country’s new occupiers. If Ethiopia tries to make Somalia its puppet, it could spurt a nationalist insurgency backed by archrival Eritrea. And that could spark a regional war.” (TIME, January 15, 2007)

Scene 2: The Americas
In September, Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez objected to the smell of sulfur in the U.N.'s General Assembly hall, and offered to relocate the U.N.'s headquarters to Caracas.

In October, in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, a man named Charles Roberts entered a one-room Amish schoolhouse and shot ten girls, killing five (that's Roberts and his family in the photo at left); he then shot and killed himself. What made the event memorable for me was the stunningly compassionate reaction of the Amish community. “We must not,” said the grandfather of one of the slain girls, “think evil of this man.”[BBC News]

During an October debate with his Democratic rival, Jon Tester, Senator Conrad Burns of Montana said that President Bush has a secret plan for winning the war in Iraq, but that Bush is not going to share his plan with the world.[Billings Gazette][FT] In the November mid-term elections, six incumbent Republican senators, including Burns and Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, were defeated as The Republican Party lost its majority in the House of Representatives and the Senate. (Burns lost his race by fewer than 3,000 votes.)Republican Party Chairman Ken Mehlman subsequently resigned.

In December, Congressional announced that beginning in January members of the House would work five days a week. "Keeping us up here eats away at families," said Rep. Jack Kingston (R., Georgia), who spends more than half his week at home. "Marriages suffer. The Democrats could care less about families--that's what this says." The Democrats were also trying to stop smoking on the Hill, and attempting to block a $3,300 congressional raise.

Also in November, Actor Michael Richards, who played Kramer on the TV show Seinfeld, was videotaped repeatedly screaming a racial epithet at a heckler.

In December, "donnybrooks and yelling matches" preceded the four-minute swearing-in ceremony of Mexico’s new, right-wing President, Felipe Calderon.

Scene 3: Europe
On September 17, 2006, an audio recording surfaced, allegedly from a closed door meeting of the Hungarian Prime Minister's MSZP party held in May, shortly after MSZP won its April parliamentary election. The recording captured prime minister Ferenc Gyurcsany claiming that his winning re-election campaign was based on lies. "We lied in the morning," said Gyurcsany. "We lied in the evening."

After the recordings were made available, protest demonstrations started near the Hungarian Parliament demanding the resignation of Gyurcsány and his government. Eventually about 40,000 participated in the protests. So far no resignations have been submitted.

Scene 4: Israel and Palestine
In October, Israel pulled out of southern Lebanon, where, according to the UN, up to a million cluster “bomblets” remain unexploded.

In December one million Hezbollah supporters rallied for the ouster of Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora, a U.S. ally.

Scene 5: Asia
On September 19, General Sonthi Boonyaratglin staged a coup d'etat in Thailand, dismissing the prime minister and revoking the constitution.

In October, North Korea detonated a nuclear bomb.[BBC News]

Also in October, Journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who criticized Russia's Chechnya policy, was found shot to death in an elevator.[InterFax]

In November, Bangalore, the high-tech capital of India, renamed itself "Bengalooru," to more closely resemble the city's medieval name, "Bendakalooru."

And by December, the Taliban had established a "mini-state" in Peshawar, Pakistan.

Scene 6: The History Stacks
Scientists claimed that at the current rate of consumption, global seafood supplies will be obliterated by the year 2048.

Scene 7: The Cemetery
Augusto Pinochet (in the photo at left with Henry Kissinger) died. In1973, Pinochet led a military junta to power through a coup d'état, deposing the democratically-elected Socialist President Salvador Allende and establishing a military government. In 1974, Pinochet appointed himself President and remained in power until 1990.[2][3] Stating that Chile was under siege by communist subversives, Pinochet implemented a series of security operations, with support from the United States and other South American military governments, in which (according to the Rettig Report) around 3,000 suspected or known dissidents and leftists were killed, and (according to the Valech Report) around 30,000 more were tortured.[4][5]

Scene 8: Iraq
In October, research by U.S. epidemiologists and Iraqi physicians found that 654,965 Iraqis have died as a result of the Iraq war.

In October, nearly four months after the arraignment of PFC Steven D. Green, eight other soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division faced courts-martial in Kentucky for the rape and murder of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and the killing of her family in March. [NYT] In November, one of them, Army Specialist James Barker admitted to raping the girl and helping murder her family.

On November 23, two hundred fifteen people were killed in a massive bombing and mortar attack on a Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad, marking Iraq's largest single-day death toll since the U.S. invasion. The killings prompted Shiite militiamen to seize and burn alive as many as twenty-four Sunnis; other Shiite residents of the capital threw stones at Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

After the midterm Congressional elections in November, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld resigned, and to replace him President Bush nominated Robert Gates, a member of the Iraq Study Group and former head of the CIA, who was investigated in 1991 by the office of the independent counsel for his role in the Iran-contra scandal, and was suspected to have passed military intelligence to Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

On December 30th, Saddam Hussein was hanged.

Scene 9: Al Qaeda Situation Room
A CIA intelligence report declassified in September concluded that prior to the Iraq war, Saddam Hussein "did not have a relationship, harbor, or even turn a blind eye toward," Abu Musab al-Zarqawi or Al Qaeda.

Scene 10: The Courts
In October, U.S. District Judge Kenneth Hoyt reduced the jail sentence of former Enron CFO Andrew Fastow from ten years to six, citing the prolonged suffering of the Fastow family in his decision. Later that same month, Former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling was sentenced to 24 years in jail. “I feel terrible about what happened,” Skilling said, referring to the company's collapse, which cost investors and employees more than $62 billion in devalued stock and pension plans. “That's not to say I did something wrong.”[New York Times]

Scene 11: The Executive Office
In September, the United States Justice Department claimed that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales "had his timeline mixed up" when he denied the United States had deported a Canadian citizen to Syria, where he was tortured.

Also in September, President George W. Bush confirmed the existence of secret extra-territorial prisons operating beyond the scope of American law. The U.S. Army promised to stop intimidating prisoners by placing hoods over their heads, or by simulating their drowning, or by threatening them with dogs, and President Bush emphasized the fine line between "alternative" interrogation methods and torture.

In October, Bush signed the Military Commissions Act sent to him by Congress, which suspends the right of habeas corpus for terrorism suspects (that's a Guantanamo detainee in the photo at right) and grants immunity to CIA interrogators and government officials, such as President Bush, for violations of the War Crimes Act. [NYT][Chicago Sun-Times]

A United Nations official claimed that the United States has become a role model for prisoner-abusing governments around the world.[Washington Post]

Scene 12: Hope?
A federal judge ruled that American paper currency discriminates against blind people. At right, you can see designs for the new, brass Presidential dollar coins that will go into circulation this year.

And in the November mid-term elections, six incumbent Republican senators were defeated as The Republican Party lost its majority in the House of Representatives and the Senate (see "Scene 2: The Americas", above).

Home for the Holidays

I Resign

On Tuesday at 2 p.m., the 3-member version of my working dissertation committee met for the first time to discuss the drafts of the first three chapters of my five-chapter dissertation which I gave them about a month ago. Just having the meeting was an enormous step forward as it signifies that my dissertation advisor finally deemed these first three chapters to be worthy of committee consideration (I have been writing and revising these chapters since time immemorial). Each of the committee members had sent me their comments before the meeting, so I knew what to expect coming in (the reviews were all positive), but the meeting itself became an occasion for all present to make an official declaration that 60% of the diss is ready to go (though I want to make some revisions and amendments based on their questions and suggestions). Now that long road to the land of Three Letters and Two Periods has been reduced to this: Chapter Four (which I have done significant research on) and Chapter Five (which I’ve written significant stretches of) and the appropriate approvals thereof.

In order to dedicate my (nearly) full attention to the completion of this final struggle, I turned in a resignation letter to City Colleges of Chicago today. I expect my final workday here to be January 31st.

¡Que los cumplas feliz, Lise!

Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving, I am thankful that:

1) I can take an elevated train rather than a subway to work;

2) I have flexible work hours;

3) Since taking this new job working for the City Colleges of Chicago in August, I have already made more money by Thanksgiving than I would have made teaching composition courses at UIC until next summer;

4) I get to hang out with Emilio for a couple hours every weekday morning and the two of us get to spend the whole day together at least two days a week;

5) Mari and I are able to leave Emilio at home in trusted, loving hands when we are at work;

6) Despite my busy schedule I am still able to go to the movies on a regular basis;

7) I have finally been given the go-ahead to assemble a working dissertation committee, I have given that committee “near final” drafts of 60% of my dissertation, and the committee is giving me encouragement;

8) Long silences have not diminished my best friendships;

9) The Cowboys are winning;

10) I have enjoyed victories, laughs, thoughtful conversations, good meals and good performances;

11) I have learned a thing or two about myself, the world, and the people I love;

12) I have Emilio;

13) And I have Mari.

Make Theater History

In ten to fifteen minutes, you can help create the next great American drama. Click this link, answer some questions, offer your theatrical guidance and on January 25th, 2007, the Neo-Futurists will produce "America's Most Wanted Play," written and directed by Greg Allen (a hero of mine) based on our collective wishes.

The Neo-Futurists will also be staging "America's Least Wanted Play," the negative image of all that we desire, but that might also be interesting in a darkly revealing way.

Chavez the Sensible

Here's some more crazy talk from Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez (for those of you who don't subscribe to TIME.)

TIME: Why do you attack President George W. Bush with such jolting language?

CHAVEZ: I believe words have great weight, and I want people to know exactly what I mean. I'm not attacking President Bush; I'm simply counterattacking. Bush has been attacking the world, and not just with words--with bombs. When I say these things I believe I'm speaking for many people, because they too believe this moment is our opportunity to stop the threat of a U.S. empire that uses the U.N. to justify its aggression against half the world. In Bush's speech to the U.N., he sounded as if he wants to be master of the world. I changed my original speech after reading his.
. . .

TIME: Do your feelings about Bush reflect your feelings toward
America in general?
CHAVEZ: No. I revere America as the nation of Abraham
Lincoln, Martin Luther King and Mark Twain--who was a great anti-imperialist,
who opposed U.S. adventurism in the Spanish-American War.

The caption of the 1899 cartoon at right has John Bull (that is, England) saying, "it's really most extraordinary what training will do. Why only the other day I thought that man unable to support himself." The figures depicted as savage children are identified as Puerto Rico, Hawaii, Cuba, Philippines, and the Mariana Islands--Uncle Sam's spoils from the Spanish-American war.

The Distinguished Mr. Lewis

Big ups to the Longfaced Jackal (see the gagged one in the photo at right), who got great reviews for his performance in ReMeChi Theater's production of Orphans by Lyle Kessler. Jack played a role made famous by John Mahoney (of Frasier fame), when Gary Sinise directed it for Chicago's Steppenwolf theatre in 1985. I wasn't able to get to the ReMeChi production until its closing night (so if you didn't see it, you're out of luck) and Jack asked me not to read the reviews until I'd seen the play. I finally got around to Googling them yesterday and was psyched to find that they were so positive. Orphans is not the kind of play I would seek out if I didn't know someone who was in it (I look for more experimental, historical or canonical fare in my stage life), but I thought Jack did a great job. Probably my favorite quote from the reviews I read (Jack says the show got 9 reviews in all) was the one described our Mr. Lewis as "already distinguished on the storefront circuit for his Vronsky in Anna Karenina and Agamemnon in The Orestia last season" (both of which I saw).

Sad Day at the Rock

Saturday nights will no longer be the same, for The Great Chris Parnell will not be back for SNL: Season 32. As the most loyal readers of this blog know, Chris (a native of Memphis who was born, like I was, in 1967) is the only 4-time repeater in the Favorite Celebrity category of my yearly Time Capsule. So say farewell to Merv "The Perv" Watson. Adieu, Tato, manservant for Nuni and Nooni. Adios Tyler of Applachian Emergency Room, with your cornucopia of anal mishaps (the can of Axe body spray, the jar of cotton balls, the plastic bowling pin, and my favorite: the Native American rainstick). May we never forget the quick, but nervous wit of Wayne Bloder, brother of Kip (played by Jimmy Fallon) or the vicious rap style, featured of late in "Lazy Sunday." The sight of you in a blue Speedo taking a dump on somebody's lawn and then scurrying away will ever be seared on our collective brain. If they ever come out with a Best of Chris Parnell DVD (and they should), put it on my wish list.

You Go, Hugo!

I just finished reading a transcript of the address Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez delivered at the United Nations on Wednesday in which he vilified George Bush. The video clip I saw indicates that he got big laughs with the Devil references. The New York Times report confirms this. The standard media response (echoed by The Daily Show with John Stewart), though, seems to be that Chavez is crazy. I'm going with funny, though --at least with the devil stuff. The sulphur touch was delightful. I also agree with much of what Chavez says, both here and in other venues.

Here's how Wednesdays' speech begins:
Representatives of the governments of the world, good morning to all of you. First of all, I would like to invite you, very respectfully, to those who have not read this book, to read it. Noam Chomsky, one of the most prestigious American and world intellectuals, Noam Chomsky, and this is one of his most recent books, Hegemony or Survival: The Imperialist Strategy of the United States. [Holds up book, waves it in front of General Assembly. See second photo from the left above.] It's an excellent book to help us understand what has been happening in the world throughout the 20th century, and what's happening now, and the greatest threat looming over our planet.

"The hegemonic pretensions of the American empire are placing at risk the very survival of the human species. We continue to warn you about this danger and we appeal to the people of the United States and the world to halt this threat, which is like a sword hanging over our heads. I had considered reading from this book, but, for the sake of time," [flips through the pages, which are numerous] "I will just leave it as a recommendation.

"It reads easily, it is a very good book, I'm sure Madame [President] you are familiar with it. It appears in English, in Russian, in Arabic, in German. I think that the first people who should read this book are our brothers and sisters in the United States, because their threat is right in their own house.

"The devil is right at home. The devil, the devil himself, is right in the house. And the devil came here yesterday. Yesterday the devil came here. Right here." [crosses himself] "And it smells of sulfur still today. Yesterday, ladies and gentlemen, from this rostrum, the president of the United States, the gentleman to whom I refer as the devil, came here, talking as if he owned the world. Truly. As the owner of the world. "

36 Feliz

The birthday festivities got started on Sunday the 17th this year, with a visit to the Lincoln Park Art Faire (live music, hot dogs, lawn-rolicking) and the Lincoln Park Zoo, where Emilio saw his first white-lipped deer (native to China), sea lion and gorilla. Buses then transported us to Target (new sheets and dish towels were on our to-buy list), dinner at the Flourish bakery on Bryn Mawr Avenue, a visit to the Bryn Mawr swing set (you may have seen the video record on The Emilio Report), and a short walk home through pouring rain.

On Monday, birthday greetings started coming in via e-mail and phone from Fort Worth, Buenos Aires, Madrid and Paris, and I came home from work on Tuesday bearing gifts: a leather shoulder bag, ear rings, a silver money clip/i.d. holder. The three of us then headed to Olé Olé--one of the few neighborhood restaurants we had not visited, where we dined on croquetas de jamón, albondigas, sopa de tortilla, pollo con arroz, carne asada, Morning O's and Enfamil formula.

Back at the house, a cake was presented, candles were lit, and our neighbor Brian (a chef at Café Bernard at 2100 N. Halsted) dropped in to take a family portrait. A song was then sung, a video filmed (see image above), a fork employed, and a good time was had by all.

Aught Six: Act Two

Welcome to the second installment of this blog's version of As the World Turns (for a look back at "Act One," click here). As with the first installment, most of this stuff has been lifted directly from the weekly e-mail reports I get from Harper's.

Scene 1: Africa
On May 30th, the June 5th edition of TIME reports an International Rescue Committee estimate that 3.9 million people have died from war-related causes since the conflict in Congo began in 1998, making it the world’s most lethal conflict since World War II (Congo, the second-largest country in Sub-Saharan Africa, has a population of 63 million people and is larger than California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas combined.)

Some Congo history from TIME: “ . . . Congo won its independence [from Belgium] in 1960. But within months its first elected Prime Minister had been killed by Belgium- and U.S.-backed opponents because of his growing ties to the Soviet Union, an assassination that eventually opened the way for army general Mobutu Sese Seko (see photo at right) to grab power. A U.S. favorite during the Cold War, Mobutu presided over one of the most corrupt regimes in Africa history.

"In 1996 neighboring Rwanda and Uganda jointly invaded Congo to eliminate the Hutu militias, known as the Interahamwe, that had been responsible for the Rwandan genocide and were hiding in Congo’s eastern forests. As the invading armies advanced across the country, Mobutu fled, and the invaders installed a small-time rebel leader named Laurent Kabila as President. But things got worse. In 1998, after Kabila got too friendly with the Interhamwe, Uganda and Rwanda invaded Congo again, triggering what became known as Africa’s first world war. The scramble for power and resources dragged in forces from eight African neighbors, pawned a myriad of Congolese factions and set off campaigns of ethnic cleansing. Kabila, as nasty and corrupt as his predecessor, was shot dead by one of his bodyguards in 2001.

Laurent's son Joseph Kabila, 29 (see photo at left), assumed power. One year later, after some arm twisting by continental power South Africa . . . the young leader and most of the rebel groups and foreign forces fighting in the country signed a peace deal. A national army was formed, aimed at integrating soldiers who had previously been trying to kill one other. . . . But in some parts of the country, the fighting has never really stopped.”

The IRC says that though the peace deal was signed more than 3 years ago, 1,250 Congolese still die every day because of “war-related causes—the vast majority succumbing to diseases and malnutrition that wouldn’t exist in peaceful times.”

In June, an Islamic militia takes over Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, routing U.S.-backed warlords. In August, Ethiopia denied reports that it had attacked Somalia, but Somalia declared an "all out holy war" on Ethiopia.

In July, a United Nations official in Sudan lamented that violence in Darfur has gotten worse since the signing of a recent peace accord.

Also in July, the five-year-old world trade talk known as the Doha round because that's the city they started in, broke down over agriculture policies: The U.S. has been pushing for the EU and others to end their agriculture tariffs, with others responding that the U.S. first needs to cut back its farm subsidies—and that is a no-go. Bad news for cotton-producing African countries like Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali (see map at right).

Scene 2: The Americas
In May, Alvaro Uribe (at left) became the first president to win re-election in Colombia since 1892.

In June, former President Alan García beat Ollanta Humala in Peru's runoff presidential election. During his last presidency, which ended 16 years ago, García led Peru into an economic collapse, but he was able to gain approximately 55 percent of Sunday's vote. Some analysts believe voters elected García more as a rejection of Humala—who had been endorsed by Hugo Chavez of Venezuela—rather than as an endorsement of the former president.

Meanwhile, in the U.S., the Senate voted for the ninth consecutive year to keep the minimum wage at $5.15 per hour, and House Republicans declined to renew the 1965 Voting Rights Act because it was unfair to Southerners.

In July, Felipe Calderon (see electoral poster at right), the candidate of Mexico's conservative Institutional Revolutionary Party, was apparently elected president of the nation, though Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the leftist mayor of Mexico City, refused to concede and demanded a complete recount.

It was reported that advisers at federally funded "pregnancy resource centers" in the United States were telling women that abortions increase the risk of cancer, infertility, and mental illness.

Scene 3: Europe

In August, under pressure from U.S. officials, authorities in the United Kingdom announced the discovery of a terrorist plot to blow up as many as ten passenger planes in the air, possibly by using explosive liquids hidden inside sports-drink bottles. Twenty-one suspects were arrested. Carry-on luggage was banned on flights in and out of Heathrow airport.

Scene 4: Israel and Palestine

In May, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (see photo at right) called on the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority to accept the goal of establishing a Palestinian state (and thus acknowledge Israel's right to exist); if Hamas does not comply, he said that he will call a national referendum on the issue.

In June, it was reported that an Israeli artillery shell killed at least seven civilians, including five members of one family (including young children aged ten, three, and one) who were picnicking on a beach in Gaza. Israeli officials expressed regret and said that the shell had been aimed at a target 400 yards away from the picnic. Later, however, the Israeli military absolved itself of responsibility in the deaths. An Israeli committee admitted that Israeli forces fired six shells on and around the beach, but found that a mine planted by Hamas (or possibly a buried shell) had, by coincidence, exploded and killed the family at around the same time as the shelling. A former Pentagon battlefield analyst said that the shrapnel and craters he found at the scene of the explosion were consistent with shelling by Israelis, as were the wounds suffered by survivors.

Hamas declared that it would no longer abide by a 16-month-old cease-fire and fired a rocket into Israel.

In July, Palestinian militants conducted a raid in Israel and abducted an Israeli soldier, whom they carried to Gaza via a secret tunnel. Israel retaliated by bombing Gaza's main power plant, two bridges, the offices of Palestine's prime minister and interior minister, and a soccer field, and by arresting as many as 64 Palestinian officials. Palestinian militants demanded that Israel release all Palestinian prisoners who are women or under the age of 18.

Later in July, war erupted between Hezbollah and Israel after the Lebanese militia launched Operation Truthful Promise against Israel by crossing the border and capturing two Israeli soldiers. Israel countered by staging Operation Just Reward against Lebanon, bombing roads, bridges, power stations, fuel depots, ports, and airports, and killing numerous civilians. Hezbollah bombed Haifa, surprising Israel with the range of its rockets and killing at least eight civilians.

Ehud Olmert, prime minister of Israel (see photo at left), said Hezbollah's war on Israel was a ruse to divert attention from Iran's nuclear weapons program.

In August, after an Israeli bombing raid killed 54 people, including 37 children, in the Lebanese village of Qana, Beirut residents set fire to a U.N. headquarters. Israel agreed to suspend some bombing operations for 48 hours in order to investigate the deaths. Israeli bombs later struck a U.N. post in southern Lebanon, killing four peacekeepers. U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said the targeting was "apparently deliberate," and Olmert called Annan's comments "premature and erroneous."

Hezbollah guerillas fired several hundred rockets into towns in northern Israel, hitting a laundry detergent factory and a cemetery, and injuring at least 31 people. Nine Israeli soldiers were killed in an ambush, and Israeli officials claimed to have killed some 200 Hezbollah "operatives" since the outset of hostilities.

Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah (see photo at left) boasted that his forces were inflicting "maximum casualties" and warned Israel that if it "bombed our capital Beirut, we will bomb the capital of your usurping entity." Ultimately, ,however, Hezbollah accepted a U.N. ceasefire resolution, and agreed to allow Lebanese and U.N. troops to serve as peacekeepers in southern Lebanon and subsequently declared victory in the 34-day war. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert pledged that Israel would "do better" in what Defense Minister Amir Peretz referred to as "the next round."

In September, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan denounced Israel's use of cluster bombs, and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert refused to lift a seven-week-old blockade on Lebanon.

French president Jacques Chirac said that sending 15,000 United Nations troops to Lebanon was "excessive."

Scene 5: Asia

In May, the Nepal House of Representatives declared the King of Nepal (see photo at right) to be powerless.

In June, the United States announced that it would join 5 other nations in demanding that Iran immediately suspend uranium-enrichment activities. In August, Iran was launching missiles at Kurds and cracking down on "decadent" satellite dishes.

In July, North Korea launched six rockets over the Sea of Japan, including a Taepodong-2 intercontinental ballistic missile, which apparently was aborted after just 40 seconds.

Bombings on trains and in train stations killed 181 people in Mumbai, India, and led India to postpone peace talks with Pakistan.

In August, the Sri Lankan air force bombed an orphanage and killed dozens of schoolgirls, and the Tamil Tigers failed to kill the High Commissioner of Pakistan with an exploding rickshaw.

Scene Six: The History Stacks

In June, The Army Corps of Engineers admitted that its incompetence was largely to blame for the destruction of New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina.

In August, Nobel-prize winning German novelist Günter Grass (see photo at left) announced that he had once been a member of the Nazi SS.

Scene Seven: The Cemetery

In September, Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter, died after a stingray stabbed him in the heart.

Scene Eight: Iraq

In May, the Los Angeles Times reported a top U.S. ground commander in Iraq telling his officers that some U.S. troops have been their "own worst enemy" because of how they've dealt with Iraqis. "We have to understand that the way we treat Iraqis has a direct effect on the number of insurgents that we are fighting," he said.

Later in May, The New York Times and Los Angeles Times front what military officials say appear to be the murders of two dozen Iraqis by Marines last November. A congressional official said the shootings were "methodical in nature." The Marines reportedly killed a few unarmed men taken from a taxi. Then they went into houses, where they killed women and children. An initial press release from the military said most of the civilians were killed by a "roadside bomb." The NYT, which has the more detailed report, asked a "senior defense official" how many Iraqis were really killed by the bomb. The answer: "Zero." The military only investigated after TIME started digging and reported the story back in March. The killings are now the focus of three investigations, including one into the possible cover-up. "When these investigations come out, there's going to be a firestorm," one retired military lawyer told the Washington Post. "It will be worse than Abu Ghraib—nobody was killed at Abu Ghraib."

In July, four U.S. soldiers in Iraq were being investigated for raping a woman, then killing her and three other members of her family; it was suggested that the accused, Private Stephen D. Green, of Midland, Texas (see photo at left) may have spent up to a week planning the attack. A week later, five more American soldiers were charged in the case and Iraqi prime minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki denounced the immunity of American soldiers in the case. It was later reported that Green had said that, in Iraq, "killing people is like squashing an ant, I mean, you kill somebody and it's like, 'All right, let's go get some pizza.'"

It was later announced that May was the deadliest month for Baghdad residents since the beginning of the American occupation.

In August, it was pointed out that the United States has been fighting in Iraq for as long as it fought Germany during World War II and thousands of U.S. Marine reserves were involuntarily recalled to active duty to offset a lack of volunteers for the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In September, The Pentagon announced that civilian casualties in Iraq had increased recently by more than fifty percent, and death squads were said to be torturing and killing as many as 1,800 people per month.

Scene Nine: Al Qaeda Situation Room

In June, United States forces succeeded in killing Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, with two five-hundred-pound bombs that were dropped on a safe house north of Baghdad. Zarqawi reportedly survived the bombing at first and even tried to get away but was strapped to a stretcher, where he died.

In August, Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman lost the Democratic Senate primary election to anti-Iraq-war candidate Ned Lamont (the Lamont campaign made a lot of hay out of the photo at right). Lieberman then announced that he would run as an independent candidate. Vice President Dick Cheney said that Lamont's victory was encouraging to "Al Qaeda types." One week later, Lieberman said that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld should resign.

Scene 10: The Courts

While acknowledging that Khaled al-Masri (see photo at left)--an entirely innocent former detainee of the U.S. government-- "deserves a remedy" for allegedly being tortured by the CIA, a federal judge dismissed al-Masri's case this past May because allowing it to proceed would expose government secrets.

In July, the high courts of Georgia and New York both upheld bans on gay marriage.

Scene Eleven: The Executive Office

In June, it was reported that the Pentagon has decided to remove a reference to Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions-- the one that bans torture and cruel treatment as well as "outrages on personal dignity, in particular, humiliating and degrading treatment"--from a new edition of the Army Field Manual on interrogation. The change, which would reverse decades of military policy, follows President Bush's declaration in 2002 that the Geneva Conventions do not apply to "unlawful combatants" such as terrorists.

In June, three detainees at the American prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, committed suicide using nooses made from clothing and bedsheets. Navy Rear-Admiral Harry Harris said "I believe this was not an act of desperation but an act of asymmetric warfare against us." All three men had been in the camp for about four years and had recently engaged in a hunger strike.

In July, The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that President George W. Bush had overstepped his authority in establishing military tribunals for Guantanamo Bay detainees.

President Bush also said that he was "willing to abide by the ruling. "It didn't say we couldn't have done--couldn't have made that decision, see?" Bush added. "They were silent on whether or not Guantanamo--whether we should have used Guantanamo. In other words, they accepted the use of Guantanamo, the decision I made."

Scene Twelve: A Note of Hope

In June, the worldwide rate of HIV infections stabilized for the first time in history.

The Map of Africa at right is colored according to the percentage of the adult (ages 15-49) population with HIV/AIDS. Data from UNAIDS - the majority of percentages are from 1999, although several are more recent (2001, 2002).

Also Sprach den Mann auf dem T-Shirt

Die Arbeiter haben kein Vaterland.

Die Proletarier haben nichts in ihr zu verlieren als ihre Ketten. Sie haben eine Welt zu gewinnen. Proletarier aller Länder, vereinigt euch!

Nuevos Tios Pasan Diez Dias en Chicago

Lunes 7: Llegada a la una de la tarde, sans maletas . . . merienda de empanadas árabes y mango seco . . . paseo por el lago Michigan (sugerencia de Emilio) . . . paseo por el centro en un coche alquilado . . . paseo por Oak Park . . . el estudio del arquitecto Frank Lloyd Wright . . . la casa donde Hemingway nació . . . cena en el diner “Peterson’s Emporium”

Martes 8: Tuna melt en el Kopi café . . . primer viaje en el “El” . . . compras en La Milla Magnífica . . . gumbo en Heaven on Seven . . . llegada demorada de maletas (entregadas por un matón de discotecas)

Miercoles 9: Wiggleworms (clase de música de Emilio). . . visíta a Navy Pier . . . vuelta en la rueda de Chicago . . . cena (L’Appetito) al aire libre a los pies de John Hancock . .

Jueves 10: Visíta a Evanston (foto abajo) . . . tomates verdes fritos en el Dixie Kitchen . . . tarta de “chocolate molten lava” en Chili’s . . . primera visíta al Art Institute de Chicago . . .

Viernes 11: Tour de arquitectura Art Deco en el centro, guiado por María José (con ayuda del Pocket Guide to Chicago Architecture). . . . vuelta al Art Institute de Chicago . . . "Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind" en el Neo-Futurarium--momentos estelares: “Playing with (a totally stupid ass) fire (a.k.a.: “Shampoo!”); “Wipe Out!”; “Step Forward, Mighty Warrior” . . .

Sábado 12: Le Tour de Foster en bici . . . baño en el lago Michigan . . . kayak en el rio de Chicago (“¡horrible!”; recuerdos de una tarde de terror en China) . . . festival de música de Grant Park: Misa Criolla de Villalobos en el Pritzker Pabellón de Frank Gehry . . . I-Love-Madonna-fest . . .

Domingo 13:
Segundo baño en el lago Michigan . . . Festival Coreano con Fernando y Lisa y los “Tumblers” de Jesse White . . . Sushi . . . Pizza de Pizza Capri

Lunes 14:
Subída al piso 95 del rascacielos John Hancock . . . la primera carioca de tres (ganó Gerardo)

Martes 15: El Museo de Arte Contemporaneo . . . concierto de jazz al aire libre (“atentado a “La Chica de Ipanema”) y baile de Emilio . . . la segunda carioca de tres (ganó Mari) . . .

Miercoles 16: Almuerzo (Corner Bakery) al lado del rio Chicago en la Plaza de los Veteranos de la Guerra de Vietnam . . . Ultima visíta al Millenium; sesion fotográfica con el “Bean” . . . cena (pot roast) en Charlie’s al aire libre . . . postre en Sweet Occasions . . . última carioca de tres (ganó Gime)

Jueves 17: Despedida

Debido a mi trabajo, no pude pasar todo el tiempo que quisiera con Gerardo y Gimena. Espero que puedan volver pronto. Y estamos esperando con ganas noticias de su visíta a Nueva York donde estarán siete dias antes de volver a España.



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Ode to a Brother

Takes off from work to fly up when you're in a pinch.

Brings the love.

Solves problems.

Brings to mind the character of "Mr. Wolf," who saves Jimmie Dimmick's bacon in Pulp Fiction . (That's Harvey Keitel as Wolf and Quentin Tarrantino as Dimmick in the photo at right).

Bounces your son on his knee.

Gives him a Karl Marx t-shirt.

Plays patty-cake with him.

Gives him his bottle.

Sings to him. And then offers him his body as a deluxe sleeping pillow.

Drives the car you rent (he has insurance) and chauffeurs you around the city.

Carries boxes of books up and down the stairmaster in your hallway to the rented car three stories below. Assumes all assigned tasks. Understands and forgives your organizational manias. Talks you through the purchase of a new car seat for your son and then installs it.

Takes you to see an All-Star Soccer game and talks you through the play and the players.

Shares your tastes in food and sport. Talks you through the purchase of shelves and drawers for your closets. Buys the tools needed to install your new shelves and drawers and then installs them himself. Catches mistakes before they happen and repairs the mistakes that have already been made. Stays up until 4:30 in the morning, encouraging you to get it all done and then goes through piles of paperwork crap that you have put off sorting for months and maybe even years and sorts it. Gets up with you four hours later to get on the stairmaster again to take move more boxes into storage, leaving just enough time to get him back to the airport for his return flight.

Such is my brother. And for that I am profoundly grateful.