It always could be worse

These are some excerpts from the diary of Saad Eskander, the Director of the Iraqi National Library and Archives. The rebuilding of the INLA was recently featured on the PBS news magazine NOW (which I have paid less attention to since Bill Moyers left).

Mr. Esaknder's diary is maintained online by the British Library.

13 November, 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.

Sunday, November 19, 2006
It was a very tense and noisy day.

I heard several explosions; some of them were not too far from my office. Exchange of fires and siren of ambulances followed the explosions. My staff got used to these daily events and make some funny jokes.

We did not have electricity before 9.30 a.m. I have been trying in vain to persuade the Ministry of Electricity to give us uninterrupted electricity supply between 8.30 a.m. and 3.00 p.m.

Tuesday, November 20, 2006
At 11.00 a.m. I received devastating news. I was informed that Ali Salih was assassinated in front of his younger sister. Ali was a bright young man. I sent him to Florence in Italy to be trained as a web-designer. Upon returning, he and Nadia began to construct and run our official web-site. He was the symbol of the modernization and reform process of the National Library and Archive. I employed him in January 2004, like many other young librarians and archivists. I hoped that the new generation could lead the way.

It was a very sad day. All the people who knew Ali were weeping that day. All were depressed and morale was at its lowest. Amal, the head of the Computer Department where Ali used to work, could not control her sad feelings. When staff evacuated the building and went home, Amal was still in her office weeping silently. I was the last one to leave. But I had a strong feeling at the time that Amal was still alone in her office. So I decided to go to her. After 15 minutes talking, I was able to persuade her to go home. I did not hide from her my true feelings that I was extremely worried about the safety of the rest of my young staff.

And it goes on and on like that. By comparison, I once was concerned that my physical well-being was imperiled by a library patron's insistence that she not be required to pay her 75 cent fine for returning Prayer of Jabez three days late. Oh and there was that time when I nearly contracted "The Plagues". In California, it appears that library staff are subject to random attack from rodents and/or prophylactics. But obviously, none of these experiences can compare to what these librarians in Iraq have been through.

There is one... hint of familiarity though. Here's a fun game. I'm going to link to a few pictures of destroyed libraries below. At first glance and without cheating.. as there are some obvious tells, Can you guess which are from Iraq and which are from New Orleans?

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