November 19, 2006
Current Events
"Iranian dissident Zahra Kamalfar has been living with her children under unspeakable conditions in the transit area of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport for 73 days. A one-time demonstrator against the extremist theocracy, she escaped from an Iranian prison when on a two-day furlough to visit her children. She ended up being buffeted from country to country. Now in imminent danger (possibly Monday, if the Russians cooperate) of being taken back to the Islamic Republic..."
Posted by jb at 08:03 AM | Comments (0)
November 17, 2006
More Notes from Long Lost college Friends
Hi, JBBV,
It took me a long time to think of a factoid. I don't normally think in
factoids. But i am thrilled with your having presented me with a way to
communicate that won't overwhelm you. I am on board.
I was a Funeral Director for a year, ending in April 2006. I have seen
hundreds of dead bodies. One of the embalmers where i worked had a sticker
on her car which read, "I see dead people." I wore a black suit every day.
And one for the present: I live in a tailor shop. I manage the tailor
shop. The tailor who owns it lives here, too, and we are domestic partners.
There is a tangerine tree by our balcony which is sufficiently confused by
the perpetual summer here that it often puts out a new crop of tangerines
before the last crop is even ripe-- and while the crop before that one is
still hanging, juicy, from its branches.
--
Posted by jb at 08:34 PM | Comments (0)
November 13, 2006
Excerpt
From Anne Applebaum’s book on the Gulag:
At one point during the late 1930s, the authorities suddenly decided that prisoners undergoing interrogation were to receive no packages from their relatives whatsoever, on the grounds that even “two French rolls, five apples, and a pair old pants were enough to transmit any text into prison.” Only money could be sent, and that only in round numbers, so that the sums could not be used to spell out “messages.” Yet not all prisoner families had enough money to send…
To solve this problem, the prisoners of Butyrka resurrected a phrase from the early days of the Revolution, and organized “Committees of the Poor.” Each prisoner donated 10 percent of his money to the committee. In turn the committee purchased food items for prisoners who had none. This system went on for some years until authorities decided to eliminate the committees by promising some prisoners “rewards” of various kinds for refusing to participate. The cells fought back, however, and ostracized refusers. And who, asks Shalamov, “would risk placing himself in opposition to the entire group, to people who are with you twenty four hours a day, where only sleep can save you from the hostile glare of your fellow inmates?”
Posted by jb at 02:47 AM | Comments (0)