Laila Lalami

Edward Sorel, the illustrator (see some of his wonderful drawings in the Atlantic Monthly) has one thing to say with regard to the impending war in Iraq:
“Vietnam was a clear case of us being not only in the wrong place but on the wrong side. It was much easier than this. Here one group of religious fanatics represented by George Bush and Mr. Ashcroft is pitted against religious fanatics even more despotic than they are. I find the whole thing very confusing. So I take my tranquilizer and go to funny movies.”
More of artists’ responses to the war on Iraq in this article from the New York Times.

Colin Powell’s speech, which had been promised to be an “Adlai Stevenson moment” can be read here.
So is it a smoking gun? I’m not convinced.
Powell’s claim is that Iraq is hiding weapons, and he showed some pictures and presented intercepts. That’s great material to give to the inspectors, who under the aegis of the UN, can go verify them on the ground. At the moment, Iraq does not seem to represent as much of a clear and present danger because if there are weapons and if they are hidden, they would be very tough to deploy. So what is the rush for a pre-emptive war? And if the Administration has known all this about Iraq, why didn’t it come forward with them before September of 2002 (a conveniently close moment to the mid-term elections) and, crucially, why hasn’t it alerted the inspectors about this intelligence so that they could verify the claims? The lack of hard evidence seems to indicate not cageyness but lack of hard evidence.

Take a look at what the rest of the world is saying about Iraq.
Link via Maud.

Saw this in Time magazine at the bookstore yesterday and it intrigued me:
“Heard any good Palestinian jokes lately? In TV news clips, the inhabitants of the occupied territories don’t seem to be a laughing people. That’s one reason Elia Suleiman’s Divine Intervention is a cure for nagging ethnic generalities. This Palestinian sort-of-comedy has a sly wit that amuses and disturbs in equal, salubrious measure. From the Santa Claus who gets a cleaver in his chest to the Israeli cop who relies on a blindfolded Arab prisoner to give directions to a stranger, the film mixes the deadpan delight of Buster Keaton’s classics with the elegant image framing of a Robert Bresson tragedy.
And here’s the best joke. The film, which won the Jury and Critics’ prizes at Cannes, is not eligible in the foreign-language Oscar category. The apparent reason? Each film has to be nominated by its home nation and Palestine is not a nation. (Neither is Hong Kong, but that region does get to choose an Oscar candidate.)”
But there’s more to life than Oscar. Read more about Elia Suleiman’s movie: Ninja Babe in Jerusalem.

That’s what Gregg Easterbrook argues in this Time Magazine article (link via adnan.) His position is that “unfortunately, the core problem that lay at the heart of the Challenger tragedy applies to the Columbia tragedy as well,” namely the following engineering nightmares: the spacecraft used for the space shuttle is much too large for the way in which it is used; the design is therefore too risky for the flights taken (the design is three decades old); and, due to the spacecraft size, the flights are extremely expensive. Based on this, he suggests using astronauts only when absolutely necessary (which may not always be the case on the space shuttle.)
There are at least two problems with his (otherwise well-wrought) argument. One: the use of an international crew of astronauts is a major PR boost for NASA and, by extension, the US, so there’s a huge political motivation to keep the flights coming. Two: there are powerful (i.e. lobbying) contractors who benefit from the continued used of the space shuttle, and it’s unlikely that their clout is going to be ignored by folks on Capitol Hill. Read the article here.

It’s Tuesday, so it’s time for Harper’s weekly review.

The always sharp and caustically funny A.L. Kennedy picks ten controversial books for you lucky readers to ponder:
“Taking offence at books is a centuries old tradition. This may concern a question of personal taste, political expediency, or a desire to guard the malleable from dreadful things that they might take to. Plato wanted Homer kept from immature readers, Caligula was keen to suppress The Odyssey in case the Greek style freedoms it suggested caught on. What follows is a list of books which trouble, which are awkward, and many of which have offended at some point – although, Lord knows, not one of them leaped into an unwilling reader’s hand and forced them to study every line. My aim is not to offend but to illustrate that freedom of the imagination is something we sacrifice only at great risk and that sometimes we may be prepared to resist real evil by meeting its fictional self.”
See her list here. And what would you have picked?

The Guardian has an article about a proposed King’s College honorary fellowship for Edward Said, which is polarizing opinions between his supporters and those critical of him due to his (well-known, and non-literary related) position on the government of Israel. I suppose they won’t be conferring a fellowship on Noam Chomsky anytime soon!

Sylvia Plath’s daughter is none too thrilled with the new movie on her mum, produced by the BBC, with Gwyneth Paltrow in the role of the gifted yet suicidal poet. As a result, none of Sylvia Plath’s poetry will actually be used in the film. I was mildly interested in the movie, but not anymore since, if the poetry is banned, the movie will inevitably focus on two things: Plath’s relationship with Ted Hughes, and the suicide. In other words, Plath will get the same treatment that Frida Kahlo received in the Salma Hayek movie (more about her stormy relationship with Rivera than about her art.) And it sounds as though that’s how the movie will be marketed: love affair between two great minds. Yawn.

There is a report today that NASA removed some advisers who had warned on safety of space shuttles and that more money was needed. (It was long known that budgets had been tight for the last few years at NASA.) Given the disaster, any space shuttle flights will probably be postponed for a long while, but I wonder if NASA’s budget needs will be addressed or sacrificed (again) for other expenses (like defense.)