Here is an excerpt from a recent Chris Hitchens column in which he suggests that people donate books to a fledgling university campus in Kurdish Iraq. I am going to send off some technical books. Perhaps you might think about sending a new copy of your favorite book, whatever it is.
http://www.slate.com/id/2194308/ As anyone who has read the Arab Human Development Reports<http://www.palestineremembered.com/Acre/Articles/Story1346.html>will know, the Arab regionwhich at the time of the Abbasid caliphate <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbasid> in Baghdad was one of the world centers of humanistic learning and philosophyis in a profound crisis of intellectual unfreedom. It boasts of no great centers of study; it translates pathetically few books from other languages and cultures; it is prone to waves of intolerance and fanaticism under which books are actually burned. Thus the attempt to reverse this trend and to lay the foundation of a liberal and cosmopolitan education for the next generation of educated Iraqis is of the highest importance from every conceivable point of view. I recently received a progress report from Sulaymaniya from Thomas Cushman, who is a professor in the sociology department at Wellesley College and the founding editor of the *Journal of Human Rights<http://www.wellesley.edu/JournalofHumanRights/> *. He tells me that the American University attaches very special importance to the establishment of a library in English. An initiative has been set up to furnish the campus with the most up-to-date books that can be provided. As Cushman writes: What I did was ask colleagues to donate books, which they did in good numbers. We sent thirty cartons of first-rate books, especially on global affairs, history and literature and they are housed in the new library. The university is especially in need of technical books, social science books, software even. Nathan Musselman, the Prefect of the University who is teaching a class, wrote to me thrilled to tell me that the students were now writing their term papers in English and using many of these books as their main sources for research. He is greatly desirous of receiving more, now that the initial library is set up. So the idea is to get people to donate in a more micro way; to send one or two new, current and important books (perhaps they have review copies, extra copies, etc) to the new library of the University. All of these small polyps could yield a substantial coral reef of knowledge for the new generation of students there. So here's what to do. Have a look at the university's Web site<http://auis.org/>. Get some decent volumes together, pass the word to your friends and co-workers to do the same, and send them off to: Nathan Musselman The American University of IraqSulaimani Building No. 7, Street 10 Quarter 410 Ablakh Area Sulaimani, Iraq (+964) (0)770-461-5099 It's important to include the number at the end. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;203748912;27390454;j Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:263863 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
