Revolve Magazine - N1 - Winter 2010/11

MERCENARIES

IN MEXICO Mexico is struggling with the challenge of private armies – the mercenary phenomenon is back and growing around the world.

Norman Finkelstein On Realizing Power

Afghanistan

Death of a Horse

A Novella by Andrés Barba

Issa Kazah Interview : Syrian Sculptor

Green City : Brussels Sustainable Buildings

Portugal Leading Electric Mobility

The New Delhi Metro Ride the Indian Subway

Kalashnikov Society

10 €

n° 1 | Winter 2010/11 www.revolve-magazine.com

29 contemporary art fair Thu 28 April - Sun 1 May 2011 Preview & Vernissage: Wednesday 27 April. By invitation only

www.artbrussels.be

Latin : revolvere, to turn over, roll back, reflect upon Middle English : revolven, to change direction Old French : revolver, to reflect upon

Welcome to You are holding the first issue of REVOLVE ! This No. 1 includes some of our best 2010 political essays, energy projects and emerging artists. Paper is precious and we chose quality over quantity. You can find much more on-line : www.revolve-magazine.com. Please refer to the back of this issue for our forthcoming coverage in 2011.

As you read this winter issue, you will find unsettling news and photos about Mexico and the spread of mercenary armies, and provocative views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Afghanistan with which you may not agree. REVOLVE does not endorse any side – we advance a different angle on the world we live in today because the status quo of contemporary conflicts is simply not conducive to more prosperous relations.

Politics

On a lighter note : we registered in Belgium in 2010 and chose to highlight Brussels as the ‘green’ city of this issue. With Brussels, we open a new series on how cities around the world are making their streets, buildings, and transport more pleasant and sustainable.

REVOLVE features the Metro of New Delhi, India, as a prime example of improved transport.

With the exponential growth of urbanization, this is a daunting challenge around the world.

Energy

In these pages, you will also notice a focus on art with the first chapter of a new book by a prolific Spanish author with complementary photos, plus the excellent work of a promising Syrian sculptor, and glimpses into new design & style coming out of London, Brussels and Ljubljana. REVOLVE believes in promoting upcoming artists and start-ups as vehicles of innovation and creativity.

Art

Unlike other media outlets that provide blurbs and snapshots from around the world or others that extend at great length about party politics that usually generate complaisance, REVOLVE provides new and refreshing perspectives with insightful essays and interviews, innovative projects and inspiring people that are making things happen.

To view more essays, projects and artists, please visit www.revolve-magazine.com.

We are the only international & multilingual magazine to provide POLITICS | ENERGY | ART on-line and now in print.

If you want to promote a person, place, project or product, please contact me with comments or suggestions: stuart@revolve-magazine.com Stuart Reigeluth, Managing Editor

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Contents

Mercenaries In Mexico | 06 Mexico is struggling with the drug cartel militias, but they are not the only ones : private armies are proliferating around the world.

Cover Photo by Spencer Platt of Juárez, Mexico.

Graphic Design Filipa Rosa

Afghanistan: Kalashnikov Society | 12 After 10 years, Afghanistan is now the longest war in U.S. history.

Here's what it looks like.

On Realizing Power | 18

Web Design Manolo Bevia

An interview with Norman Finkelstein, the renowned Jewish-American academic about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and much more…

Illustrator InfoGraphics Oldemar

Green City : Brussels | 24

Contibutors

See what the capital of Europe is doing to make its buildings more sustainable.

Adwan Mohamed Aman Mojadidi Andrés Barba Anita Patil-Deshmukh Boštjan Videmšek Charles Mahoney Dimitris Bouris Ermonela Jaho Hélène Dieck Ignacio Álvarez-Ossorio Issa Kazah Jim Krane Nadia Muhanna Nicolas Rossier Norman Finkelstein Paola Romero Radwan Ziadeh Stuart Reigeluth Uffe Kaels Auring

Portugal : Electric Cars | 26 At the forefont of renewable energy efforts in Europe, Portugal is now installing charging points for electric cars.

The New Delhi Metro | 28 Take a ride on the New Delhi Metro now connecting the Indira Gandhi Airport to the center of India's capital.

Death of a Horse | 32

Photographers

Read the first chapter of the prolific Spanish author, Andrés Barba, complemented with images from ‘Sillas’, by the Spanish photographer, Antonio Cid.

Spencer Platt Jure Eržen Ulla Munch-Petersen Francis Groff Uroš Hočevar PUKAR (INDIA) Johan Spanner Mustafa Quraishi REVOLVE (ISSN : 2033-2912) is registered in Belgium, No. 0828676740.

All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part without written permission is strictly prohibited.

Printed with vegetable-based ink on 100% recycled Cyclus Offset paper by Van Ruys printers, Rue de l'Orient 50-52, 1040 Brussels.

Distributed by Tondeur in Belgium and SGEL in Spain.

For all matters related to submissions and subscriptions, please write to: info@revolve-magazine.com.

Syrian Sculptor | 40 The culture critic, Nadia Muhanna, explores the sculpture of Issa Kazah in the Old City of Damascus to find out what making art is really like in Syria.

Design & Style | 46 Check out the new products (from bags to blouses to bowls) of three successful start-up retail shops in London, Brussels, and Ljubljana.

Forecast : Summer 2011 | 50

SUDAN - SLOVENIA - HAITI

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MERCENARIES IN MEXICO Mexico exemplifies a modern state struggling with the rising challenge of private armies – the mercenary phenomenon is back and growing around the world.

Writer: Charles Mahoney Photographer: Spencer Platt

After a two-century hiatus, private mercenary armies are reappearing as influential actors in domestic security settings, challenging Max Weber’s widely accepted definition of the state as an entity possessing a “monopoly on violence” within its territory. These mercenary organizations, often funded by drugs and control of valuable natural resources, are testing

Charles Mahoney is a PhD candidate at the University of California, Los Angeles, and a dissertation fellow at the Institute of Global Conflict and Cooperation.

He can be reached at cmahoney@ucla.edu.

Spencer Platt is an award-winning photographer for Getty Images.

the capability of governments to enforce laws within their borders. The strongest private armies now rival traditional armed forces and have no loyalty or display of patriotism to the state or to any credo other than to increase their power and wealth. Like corporations, they seek financial gain and the benefits that accompany wealth. Like terrorist and insurgent groups, private armies strive to increase their power and influence within a country; yet in contrast to such ideologically motivated movements, mercenaries have no political objectives.

Over the past two decades, countries as diverse as Colombia, Afghanistan, Mexico, the United States, and Sierra Leone have grappled with the emergence of mercenary armies and the ensuing implications for government policies. The return of these forces should not come as a surprise. Prior to the 19th

Both were in the “murder city” of Juárez, Mexico, in 2010.

century, many conflicts were characterized by the use of hired soldiers to defend the interests of non-state entities running the gamut from tribes to empires. Today, the increasing influence of processes associated with globalization is eroding the power

Also read : Murder City, Ciudad Juarez and the Global Economy's New Killing Fields by Charles Bowden. New York : Nation Books, 2010.

6 | Politics

of the modern nation-state and thus opening the window for private armies to operate successfully once again. Official state undertakings, such as international aid, finance, and general governance, have incited opposition from non-state groups that have led to the creation of private mercenary armies to challenge the power of the state.

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Everything Old is New Again Mercenaries (well-trained and -paid soldiers) are as old as civilization. In the 13th century BC, Ramses II hired soldiers for successful wars of conquest that would eventually result in posterity for him as the great “Ozymandias” – Egypt’s most celebrated pharaoh. In the 3rd century BC, the Greek kings of Syracuse employed the “Sons of Mars” to fight in the Sicilian Wars against Carthage. During the North American Revolutionary War, King George III hired German soldiers known as “Hessians” to help quell the rebellious British colonies.

Over two hundred years later, the United States Army, the most powerful fighting force on the planet, hired Blackwater USA, a private military company, to provide security services to government officials and CIA agents in the Iraq War. Following numerous incidents of reckless violence in Iraq, it was later discovered that Blackwater had taken extensive part in special operations throughout the country. The outrage caused by scandalous behavior led Blackwater to change its name to Xe Services in an effort to resurrect its tarnished image. Xe Services remains the largest private security contractor in the USA. Today, Blackwater is just one of many private armies around the globe. When based in the developed world, these armies are typically legal entities contracted by governments or multinational corporations to provide security services. Other large mercenary contractors based in the US include

DynCorp, Triple Canopy, and Military Professional Resources Inc. Outside the USA, companies such as Aegis Defense Services (UK), Unity Resources Group (Australia), and the Omega Group (Norway), are contracted in danger zones to provide security to aid workers and government officials. When

private armies originate in less-developed states, they are typically illegal or lie in a gray area and resemble “Robin Hood”-style militias or paramilitary self-defense forces.

Many illegal private armies are funded by the drug trade or by access to valuable natural resources, such as diamonds or oil.

Buying Professional Soldiers The fundamental advantage enjoyed by modern private armies over governments is their ability to lure talented soldiers into their ranks through the promise of higher wages. For example, a Blackwater soldier in Iraq could expect to earn 10 times as much as his counterpart of equivalent rank in the US Army. In less-developed countries, the difference between the earnings of the

private corporation soldiers and those in national armies is even greater. For instance, in Mexico an average soldier makes just $200-$300 a month. Conversely, Mexican private armies, funded by the narcotics trade, are able to recruit some of the best Special Forces soldiers into their ranks with paychecks that can earn them well into the hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.

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In addition to causing top military talent to jump to the private sector, the low wages paid to army personnel in developing states make defections more likely and generally result in lower troop morale and performance. For example, over the past six years more than 150,000 Mexican troops have deserted the army. The likely cause of these desertions is low pay coupled with the menace of fighting against drug cartels; the risk is simply not worth the “reward” for many Mexican soldiers. In contrast, the exorbitant amounts paid to mercenaries by drug cartels often translate into highly motivated and loyal cadres. The risk for mercenaries is surely higher than it is for members of national ­armies; however, the

potential payouts are so great that the members of private armies are willing to risk their lives and carry out precarious operations.

Why can’t states compete with the wages offered by private organizations? First, the rise of private military corporations comes at a time when many countries and international peace-keeping organizations are cutting back on military spending in an attempt to reduce budget deficits within their own borders. Companies such as Blackwater formed in response to business opportunities created by the downsizing of the U.S. Armed Forces. Second, private armies are often smaller and more streamlined organi-

zations than national armies. The leaders of private armies have realized that traditional “pitched battles” between armed forces are increasingly rare. Thus, they can construct their relatively small armies to respond to services that the market demands. These “services” generally involve security, special operations, and assassination.

By focusing on demand and discounting the possibility that large armies will once again be utilized by states (as in the 19th and 20th centuries), private military companies can keep the overall number of soldiers low and thus can afford to pay each individual soldier a higher wage. The intersection of these two trends has enabled the influence and wealth of mercenary forces to increase, while the capability of states and international bodies appears to be decreasing. This convergence has resulted in two alarming trends: 1) developed states have seen the rise of private, for-profit military corporations that fulfill roles previously carried out by the armed forces of governments; 2) developing countries have exper­ ienced the growth of private military ­organizations, often as powerful as the state’s armed forces, that threaten governments much the same way as insurgencies and terrorist organizations.

Mexican Private Armies While Blackwater and other security contractors based in the developed world present problems to both the United States and the citizens of the countries in which they operate, they are presently not the most dangerous type of private army. Since developed states typically have sufficient military and police strength to reign in mercenary organizations within their borders, the ability to control and, if necessary, disband private military companies exists. In contrast, countries with less powerful and professional militaries face greater challenges from emerging private militias within their borders. The rise of mercenary forces

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is especially likely in weak states that possess natural resources or are involved in the illegal narcotics trade. Profits from this commerce are regularly used to finance private militias. A prototypical example of this has occurred in Mexico, where a lengthy and brutal drug war fought over the past decade has resulted in the creation of one of the most powerful mercenary forces in the world: Los Zetas.

For many years, the narcotics trade in Mexico was governed by a quid pro quo relationship between the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) and long-standing drug

cartels. During the 1970s and 1980s, conflict between the state and cartels primarily consisted of skirmishes between police forces and lower level thugs. “Collateral damage” would also occur as a result of “turf” battles between the cartels. For over two decades, the drug trade did not lead to large-scale nation-wide conflict. However, in the 1990s, the Mexican drug industry would take an ominous new turn for two major reasons: First, the demise of the Cali and Medellín cartels in Colombia allowed the Mexican cartels to fill the market vacuum left by the

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demise of their Colombian counterparts. Cocaine trade routes that had once run out of Colombia and through the Caribbean shifted and began to run through Mexico, resulting in huge profits. Second, for decades the PRI and the drug cartels had a mutual understanding known colloquially as “Plata o Plomo?” (Silver or Lead?). Under this system, the cartels would bribe PRI members and the party would respond by turning a blind eye to cartel activity and also avoid the unpleasantness of cartel intimidation.

This relationship kept levels of drug violence in Mexico at a minimum. But in 2000 the PRI lost national elections to the Partido Acción Nacional (PAN) and with the incumbent President Vicente Fox the tacit understanding that had existed between the PRI and the cartels was rattled. Then, under pressure from the United States, Fox’s successor, Felipe Calderón, opened all-out war on the cartels in 2006, and drug-related violence increased to new and unprecedented levels in Mexico.

Beginning in the 1990s, the new profits flooding into the Mexican drug industry were especially lucrative for the Gulf cartel, which by 2000 controlled the majority of cocaine and methamphetamine trafficked into the United States as the result of its domination of key transit cities, such as Nuevo Laredo, Monterrey, Reynosa, and Matamoros. In 2000, the Gulf cartel’s leadership decided to solidify its dominance of north-eastern Mexico by increasing the capability of its security arm: the mercenary army known as Los Zetas was born.

Los Zetas are currently one of the Mexican government’s primary foes in the decade-long drug war. Although the group functions now as a drug cartel, it has ­unconventional origins. Los Zetas did not begin as a criminal gang, nor did they have experience in organized crime or the narcotics trade. Rather, the original members

Initially, the creation of Los Zetas appeared to be a move of strategic genius by the Gulf cartel. The highly-trained paramilitary force enabled the cartel to consolidate its position as the dominant organization in the cities of Nuevo Laredo and Matamoros in the state of Tamaulipas. In addition, Los Zetas permitted the

of Los Zetas were from the Mexican Armed Forces’ elite Airborne Special Forces Group (GAFES) – trained in security, special operations, and assassination. In the late 1990s, select members of GAFES were secretly recruited by the Gulf cartel, which then transformed these troops into Los Zetas, its own private army. The goal of this strategy was to enable the cartel to consolidate power in its home state of Tamaulipas and eventually become the dominant player in the Mexican drug trade.

The cartel’s leadership paid Los Zetas for protection as well as to carry out strategic operations that would weaken its rivals.

In subsequent years, numerous members of Mexico’s armed forces as well as federal and local police would be lured to join Los Zetas and other similar groups for the promise of higher wages and benefits.

Gulf cartel to ­expand into other regions of Mexico where the Sinaloa and Juárez cartels had previously been the dominant orga­nizations. The brutal precision with which Los Zetas carried out their operations resulted in the Gulf cartel expanding the scope of the mercenaries’ activities. Instead of a force dedicated solely to security and assassination, Los Zetas became one that also collected debts, identified and created new drug trafficking routes, engaged in arms trading, money laundering, and managing potions of the cartel’s finances. The creation of Los Zetas caused an im­ balance of power between competing drug orga­nizations. The group was so professional and well-trained that they represented an existential threat to the other organizations.

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In response to the challenge posed by Los Zetas, the Sinaloa cartel, a major rival of the Gulf cartel, created two private paramilitary forces called Los Negros and Los Pelones.

Then, in 2003, the Sinaloa cartel perceived an opportunity to take the fight to the Gulf cartel’s home state of Tamaulipas and use its newly-created mercenary armies in an all-out war. The Sinaloa cartel’s “opportunity” involved the capture of Osiel Cárdenas, the Gulf cartel’s kingpin, who was imprisoned by the Mexican government. With this watershed event, the Sinaloa cartel sensed that the time was right for expansion and sent its two new mercenary forces to Nuevo Laredo in an effort to destroy the Gulf cartel and Los Zetas and take-over the drug corridor responsible for 70 percent of all the cocaine and methamphetamine trafficked into the United States. A bloody turf war erupted, conducted by hired ex-soldiers, for the city of Nuevo Laredo.

Between 2003 and 2007, Los Zetas and Los Negros engaged in brutal combat for control over a major gateway to the drug trade in the United States. During this time, over 600 residents in Nuevo Laredo were killed. The turf war claimed the life of the city’s police chief and, for over a year, no one was willing to assume the post for fear they would face a similar fate. Los Zetas and Los Negros also killed journalists who wrote disparaging pieces about them in the press. In one such incident, the editor of the city’s largest newspaper, La Mañana, was murdered for his newspapers’ “unflattering” coverage of the cartels.

When the fighting ended in 2007, the cartels declared a truce. Under the terms of the new deal, the Sinaloa cartel was permitted access through the Nuevo Laredo trade route, but had to pay a tax on all goods shipped through Gulf cartel territory.

Although it appeared that the Nuevo Laredo turf war had ended in a stalemate, Los Zetas emerged more powerful than it had been prior to the conflict. In many aspects, Los Zetas had taken-over the functions previously carried out by the Gulf cartel. Then, when Gulf cartel leader Osiel Cárdenas was extradited to the United States, and no longer able to run the organization, Heriberto Lazcano, the leader of Los Zetas, separated the organization from the Gulf cartel, which in effect made Los Zetas a competitor of its creator.

To fight the war against Los Negros and the Sinaloa cartel, Los Zetas had been granted access to the Gulf cartel’s vast financial resources. With this money, the group recruited several hundred new members and armed itself with AK-47s, bazookas, sub-machine guns, and other advanced weaponry. They also bought wiretapping technology and other high-tech intelligence gathering equipment. With their new weaponry and troops, Los Zetas were able to prevent the Sinaloa cartel from wresting control of Nuevo Laredo.

After four years of war, persistent conflict and death took its toll on both the Gulf and Sinaloa cartels, and significantly reduced the profits of both organizations.

Having been granted great responsibility by the Gulf cartel, Los Zetas had learned how to manage a narcotics organization. Following their separation from the cartel, they began to expand their own drug smuggling organization into dozens of other Mexican states by using the same brutal tactics they had used to wear down the Sinaloa cartel.

Los Zetas also began to earn large sums of money through kidnappings, extortion, and even stealing oil from state refineries. Over the next two years, Los Zetas grew to become one of Mexico’s most profitable cartels. By 2009, the U.S. government branded Los Zetas the most dangerous criminal organization operating in Mexico.

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The growing power of Los Zetas threatened not only the citizens of Mexico, but the dominance of both the Gulf and Sinaloa cartels as the major drug trafficking organizations in Mexico. Following its truce with the Gulf cartel, the Sinaloa cartel, desperate to control a corridor to the U.S. market, transferred Los Negros to Ciudad Juárez in an effort to take control of the city from the Juárez cartel.

The Juárez turf war, conducted between the armed wings of both cartels, has made the city one of the most dangerous in the world for the past three years. The constant fighting for the better part of a decade, however, had the effect of weakening the Gulf, Sinaloa, and Juárez cartels while enabling Los Zetas to expand their organization throughout the country.

Presently, Mexico is poised to experience what may be the most brutal period of drugrelated violence in its history. Formerly adversaries, the Gulf and Sinaloa cartels, fearful that Los Zetas could grow to dominate the Mexican drug business, have aligned themselves with the upstart Familia Michoacan cartel and declared war on Los Zetas. The three cartels call themselves the “New Federation” and have made it their mission to destroy Los Zetas, who they claim are “too brutal.” In whatever manner this war comes to an end, the transformation of a former mercenary army into one of the most powerful criminal organizations on the planet should serve as a warning to both states and organizations about the danger of private armies.

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Managing Mercenary Warfare While Blackwater and Los Zetas are different in many ways, they represent a growing trend in global security, the outsourcing of warfare to market-driven, for-profit organizations. What both groups clearly demonstrate is an example of the classic principleagent problem: the interests of a superior and its contractor are never in complete alignment, and contractors are often likely to act in their own self-interest rather than in the best interest of their employers. In the case of Los Zetas, the group usurped the business of their former employer, the Gulf cartel. In the case of Blackwater, the organization’s employees did not adhere to the laws, regulations, and general standard of conduct expected of U.S. government security contractors.

While it would be pleasant to imagine a world where the role of private armies decreased or remained stable over the coming decades, the opposite is likely to be the case. Simply put, the market demand for private security is high and likely to increase. The employers of mercenaries: states, legal corporations, and criminal organizations, are likely to increase their use of private security force in order to advance their interests. Because of widespread budget and debt crises, states are likely to outsource operations to “leaner” more efficient private military organizations. This will allow governments to save money by only

employing forces when needed rather than training and paying for excessive numbers of troops, most of whom are not on active duty. Legal corporations operating in developing states, including oil, mining, and technology companies, will hire private security firms to protect their interests in

countries where safety cannot be guaranteed by local police forces. Finally, criminal organizations involved in the drug trade are likely to use their ever-expanding profits to cement their positions of power within countries and to secure their trade routes and intimidate competitors.

Mercenaries are hired soldiers who fight for money rather than for their countries. Although a major feature of warfare throughout human history, mercenaries largely disappeared from public consciousness in the 19th century. As states industrialized and professionalized their national armies, the need for mercenary forces diminished. The emergence of the modern nation-state with its capacity to conscript soldiers and create a powerful national identity among citizens, thus constructing fighting forces that could fulfill national defense needs, made often untrustworthy mercenaries obsolete. Private armies were believed to be nothing more than an anachronism for military historians to study as a bygone oddity. Now the opposite appears to be the case: major warfare between states has all but vanished, while asymmetric war – carried out largely by mercenary forces – has reemerged as a fundamental characteristic of contemporary conflict. The mercenary phenomenon is back and private army autonomy may well continue to grow around the world.

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AFGHANISTAN Kalashnikov society After a decade, nowhere in the world has the western model for exporting democracy failed more spectacularly than in Afghanistan. Confronted by a resurgent Taliban and allied to a corrupt central government, this is now the longest war in U.S. history – and it has spread to Pakistan.

Writer: Boštjan Videmšek Photographer: Jure Eržen

Five years ago, President Hamid Karzai issued an official decree essentially outlawing political parties, which explains why the voting booths set-up for the latest Afghan parliamentary election looked so deserted. The “free and fair”

Boštjan Videmšek and Jure Eržen are foreign correspondants for the Slovenian newspaper DELO.si.

election in the midst of all-out war was policed by no less than 200,000 members of Afghan armed forces, plus tens of thousands of NATO soldiers.

Paradox gave way to shameless swindling in this fascinating theatre of democratic absurdities.

The trouble is that the greater the fiasco of exporting democracy is proving to be, the more doggedly the West is striving to make it happen.

Throughout the long and violent history of these lands, the systems of governance imposed from without have turned out to be potentially lethal assaults on the region’s most basic stability.

This time is no different. Last year’s presidential election in Afghanistan was marked by an abundance of cheap swindling and the incredible impotence of the international community as it gazed upon a monster of its own creation.

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“When the Taliban regime fell, my heart was filled with joyful expectation. Now it’s 2010 and the situation is only getting worse. Anywhere you look, all you see is trouble. We’ve had many casualties and many more people are bound to die. In every conflict like this, the heaviest price is paid by the women and children – even more so in Afghanistan where the position of women is worse than elsewhere in the world. As the president of the Red Crescent, my job is to be as neutral as possible. Every day I meet victims of our countless mistakes. Our organisation has spread across almost 90 percent of our territory. This is the kind of access no one else has. Everyone is putting Fatima Gailani, President their faith in us. This is why every of the Red Crescent minute out of every day I am in direct contact with Afghan realities.

The Surge Strategy The sky above Kandahar is crowded with bombers, gunships and military transport planes. In this province, the long-awaited NATO offensive never officially began. At the moment, no less than 20,000 U.S. troops are fighting the Taliban here. Kandahar is widely considered to be the womb of the Taliban movement. The U.S. forces are determined to pursue a new strategy as envisioned by the ISAF chief commander General David Petraeus. Petraeus’ predecessor, General Stanley McChrystal, was forced to step down in June 2010 for being too honest. For a long while, McChrystal was planning a great offensive into the territories now totally controlled by the Taliban, tribal militias and opium dealers. McChrystal’s plan was based on a close cooperation with the Afghan security forces as well as the support of the local tribal leaders. But in April 2010, after the tribal elders met President Karzai in Kan-

dahar, McChrystal’s plan was discarded.

The elders spoke vehemently against any forthcoming NATO offensive – so President Karzai, knowing that additional civilian casualties would further weaken his grasp on power, publicly stated that, were an offensive to take place, he would back the insurgents. Moreover, the elders made an appeal to the members of the government forces to disobey the orders of foreigners. This put the U.S. in a predicament : at some crucial juncture, the government forces could very well turn against the foreign occupying forces. Fortunately for the U.S. forces, the Afghan troops are weak, inexperienced and poorly motivated.

For a number of years, General David Petraeus served as the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq. When he moved on to subdue Afghanistan after Iraq, Kandahar saw an escalation of military intervention. The goal of these manoeuvres was to gradually retake a number of key strategic points in

I never discriminate: I am determined to give the same care to a wounded Taliban soldier as I would to a wounded member of the government forces. In the current situation, I can do far more as a humanitarian worker than I could as a member of the Afghan parliament.

I hear that the authorities are now negotiating with the Taliban. This is unfathomable to me.

Is this what we have been fighting for? Are we just going to give up after so many people died? Peace always takes some honest compromising – but the sort of peace that is arrogant enough to dictate terms is no peace at all. When we were governed by the Taliban, things were pretty quiet, but the entire country was turned into a giant prison. What will they expect us to give up if the government and the Taliban strike a deal? Women's rights? Free speech? Our future?”

the province. But the NATO mission failed to heed the lessons learned so brutally by the former Soviet invaders. General Petraeus was determined to apply his ‘Iraqi doctrine’ on Kandahar as well. The idea was literally to buy the cooperation of local militias – but what worked moderately well in Iraq didn’t at all in Afghanistan. Afghan tribal ties and local traditions are much stronger. U.S. strategists should have read more history to learn that you simply cannot buy an Afghan fighter. The best you can hope for is to rent him for a while – which is essentially like playing Russian roulette with your troops. As the U.S. wasted more substance on this illconceived venture, the Taliban regrouped and spread out across the province. The U.S. had been counting on at least some modicum of local support, but now they found themselves caught in a mousetrap and the casualties began to pile-up.

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“I don’t think anything can surprise us now,” says Ahmad Khan, a local tribal elder, sitting in a tea-house at the city bazaar in Uruzgan province. “For more than thirty years, we have known only war. All of those who came here were driven out. Our province is special, you must understand. We are an extremely independent people. We have always lived like our Pashtun brothers in the Pakistani tribal lands, but now both the Americans and the Taliban are trying to force themselves on us. Both are set to boss us around, and now the people here are angry – hardly a day goes by that is not marked by heavy fighting somewhere nearby. We want peace, but the Americans are

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shelling our mountain villages and the Taliban are raiding them for supplies. We fear the Taliban – we are not ignorant, we know what goes on elsewhere in Afghanistan…

But let me tell you, there is nothing that we fear more than the American bombs.”

Bravo Company from 1st Squadron, 2nd Cavalry Division of the U.S. Army descends from the hills above the Tsekzu village in the Urzugan province. The soldiers make their way down slowly. All of them know they are treading on enemy territory. The unit has never entered the village which lies in the middle of seemingly endless cannabis fields. Amid its desert

surroundings,­ the plant’s jaunty green color strikes everyone as simply surreal.

The scorching sky is scratched by lowflying Apache helicopters. The intelligence gathered from the ‘not-very-reliable’ Afghan police suggests this is the ‘special’ type of village where both U.S. forces and the Taliban are unwelcome.

“I’m getting seriously fed up with this,” Sergeant Nagy, 22, says as we make our way down the goat-trail. “If you ask me what the hell we are doing, I couldn’t tell you why the hell we’re here. Every day is the same.

Nothing ever changes. The people here hate our guts and we keep trampling gar-

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dens and orchards in full battle gear. One of these days, we’re sure to get our asses kicked.” As we walk on, Sergeant Nagy starts running out of breath. The morale of the men is low and depleting. The platoon is coming back from two days of patrolling terrain that counts as no-man’s-land during the day, and is ruthlessly dominated by the Taliban at night.

Lieutenant Dewey, the platoon commander, warns us to keep our heads as low as possible. This is sniper territory. “Above all,” he rasps: “you need to scan in all four directions at once. And don’t forget to scan for the mines under your feet. Watch each other’s backs, okay? We could be attacked at any minute. We’ve never been here before. The people here don’t know us. They have absolutely no reason to trust us.”

Lieutenant Dewey is 26. His men’s faces are etched with anxiety. After nine years of war, it’s getting increasingly hard to find a suitable motive to keep doing this.

The village is spread out over part of the valley. Instead of a welcoming committee, the U.S. soldiers are met by a few barefooted village children. The soldiers are much too alert to feign goodwill. We enter the cannabis fields and joke about how the smell reminds us of a high-school toilet. Irrigation ditches nearby are completely dry.

Here and there among the clumps of weed, you can find tiny huts made of dried mud with gaping holes instead of doors and windows. Anyone who knows anything can tell this is a perfect place for an ambush.

Every sound makes the soldiers jump.

Wali Mohammed, a major with the Afghan police, is very nervous. Major Mohammed is a tribal elder who demanded a pair of new combat boots to join the U.S. troops in patrolling the village. The children are making fun of him, but he is not allowed to slap them around to get them in line.

The platoon assumes its tactical formation as it enters the heart of the village where

everyone is expecting a Taliban ambush, and halts for a minute as a hot breeze stirs the fields of hallucinogenic greenery. Then a loud boom is heard from the neighbouring hills, followed by several more. U.S. artillery is providing back-up. “Move on!” crackles the command over radios.

A group of U.S. soldiers is slowly advancing down the dusty road. The beginning and the end of the column are marked by a man aiming a machine-gun at gawking passers-by who do not seem to care.

“Stop every vehicle the moment you see it – the very instant!” Lieutenant Dewey orders. Here, the possibility of a suicide attack is very high. In these demented times, when terror is waging war on terror, suicide attacks have become a way of communication on the battlefield. Death lurks everywhere, all the time. The U.S. Army built its confidence on hi-tech fire-power, but in guerrilla warfare there is no tolerance for hubris.

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Waiting for the Taliban As the U.S. soldiers step into the village, the bustle grinds to a halt. Old men, drinking tea and smoking home-grown tobacco in the shade, glare at the infidel invaders.

“Greetings. What do you want from us?”

Haji Ahmadamou, a village elder, asks them.

The Afghan interpreter for the Bravo company tells the old man that they would like to know whether the village is frequented by the Taliban. If so, they would like to know for what purpose. Admirably cool-headed, Mr. Ahmadamou replies that the Taliban have come to Tsezku several times to collect money, food, fuel and clothes. Never

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once, he adds, did they kill, hurt or kidnap anyone. The village elder then strikes up a conversation with Major Mohammed who had joined this patrol in order to ‘make a good impression’.

they came, they brought war with them.”

The major is being less than truthful. In the hills and valleys patrolled by U.S. troops south of Tarin Kowt, the Taliban have attacked checkpoints manned by the Afghan police and took control of several of these checkpoints. Since the Dutch-trained policemen are operating ‘independently’ here (meaning cut off from the rest of the world), the Taliban have gained a lot of ground. The local police have been known to aid them by supplying weapons and Ford Ranger vehicles. The last three months have been the most depressing times for the international forces since the Taliban regime fell in November 2001. The casualties among foreign soldiers are almost fifty percent higher than among Afghan security forces.

“The Taliban here are mostly local boys from the neighbouring mountain villages,” Major Mohammed says. “They are different from the Taliban in Helmand or in the east.

The fighters here have family ties with the villages so most of them do not attack the locals. What could they possibly get out of it? So far, the local Taliban had only been fighting the foreign soldiers. Foreigners have never been welcome here. Every time

“This is Taliban territory,” says Lieutenant Thriplett. “They control the hills and the green strips along the river that the ­Afghan security does not dare patrol because they’d get lynched.” Thriplett was the leader on the daylong patrol we just ended. During the patrol, his men dug into the trenches and pointed their weapons at the village two kilometres further on where a few hours ago a Taliban attack was re-

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pelled. After the Taliban determined that the U.S. forces were too strong, they scattered.

Two insurgents were killed in the attack. As the big guns from the nearby artillery outpost start ripping the sky, the U.S. soldiers became worried and confused. “Dammit, I hope this doesn’t land on our heads!” Thriplett yelled at one point. “I’m pretty sure the guys doing the shelling have no idea we’re down here.” During the last few weeks, Thriplett’s men had been taking part in various skirmishes on a daily basis. “I don’t want to die from friendly fire!” one of the soldiers howled while desperately seeking cover. The 155 mm shells kept shrieking above our heads. Their targets were located a few hundred meters from our position and the ground shook.

Most of the young Afghan policemen seemed unperturbed by the shooting. In general, they tend to avoid any form of combat since they are so inadequately armed and so poorly trained. They hid behind the marijuana plants, smoking, drinking tea and smiling. The sound of war has long become the soundtrack of their lives.

“Every day it gets worse,” Major Torjan Nachin says just before the American shell-

ing starts again. “The Taliban are getting ever stronger. There is nothing we can do.

The people here are afraid of them so they won’t tell us where they’re hiding. The Taliban are taking away their food, clothes and money. In the last few months, a lot of the young men disappeared from the villages around here. Now they are fighting for the enemy.” Nachin commands a small police outpost in the village of Setrbaba. A week ago his vehicle drove straight into an ambush. The driver was killed and two policemen were badly wounded. Nachin, miraculously, walked away without a bruise. “I guess someone up there really likes me!” the bearded major beams. So far, the Taliban made three direct attempts to assassinate him. The bomb they planted recently took out his house. Despite his nine lives, Major Nachin – like most of the Afghan policemen around here – refuses to wear the official uniform. He also refuses to join the U.S. forces in patrolling the local villages.

As long as the police refrain from upsetting the routine of the villages, the Taliban mostly leave them alone.

with the police,” Thriplett muses. “But in the long run, it is the only chance we’ve got.

Sooner or later, we’re bound to leave this place. Our job is to make sure that when we do, the entire country doesn’t get overrun by the Taliban in a matter of days. Our aim right now is to avoid combat whenever possible, but the region is crawling with Taliban. We could live with the clashes, but the greatest danger is the improvised explosive devices (IEDs) placed along the roads. In these last weeks, my unit alone found 26 IEDs. A month ago, one of them killed one of our guys. He was from Indiana.” As the shelling slowly stopped, the Americans joined with the Afghan police to set up a temporary checkpoint on the road connecting Tarin Kowt to the countryside and began to stop passing vehicles. The vehicles were being searched for weapons. According to official sources, this year 72,400 Kalashnikov rifles went missing in the south of Afghanistan.

Originally, these guns were intended for the government forces but a large portion of them were supposedly sold to the Taliban by the police.

“It’s going to be a while before we can start to rely on any sort of effective cooperation

To view full essay and more photos, visit: www.revolve-magazine.com

| 2010 / 11 17

Norman Finkelstein is an internation­ally-respected scholar and the author of several books including Beyond Chutzpah : On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History ­(University of California Press, 2005), The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering (Verso, 2000), and Image and Reality of the ­Israel-Palestine Conflict (Verso, 1995). His new book “This Time We Went Too Far”: Truth and Consequences of the Gaza Invasion (OR Books, 2010) is an analysis of the 22-day invasion carried out by Israel between December 27, 2008 and January 18, 2009.

Photo by Ulla Munch-Petersen

Finkelstein on Realizing Power

An interview by Danish/Palestinian researcher, Adwan Mohamed, and media analyst, Uffe Kaels Auring. Copenhagen, November 2009.

The Peace Process : A Fig Leaf for Israel to Annex Palestinian Territories What does it take to get the peace process “back on track”?

Norman Finkelstein | We should judge the phenomenon by the practical results, not by the label. There’s been no peace process. There’s been an annexation process; there’s been a colonization process; there’s been an appropriation process. Judging by the outcomes, I think a reasonable inference is that there’s been no peace process, so I don’t see any point in using that phrase, it’s just become a fig leaf to enable Israel to annex the territories it occupied in June 1967.

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The Oslo Process : A Complete Success Can you talk about the role of the Palestinian Authority in the resolution of the conflict?

On brokering peace in the Middle East, the US consistently tries, and consistently fails.

The idea of the US being a broker in the peace process is ridiculous because if you look at the record over the past 30 years it’s been Israel backed by the United States that’s blocking the resolution of the conflict.

The United States is not trying to achieve a resolution: the US is the main obstacle to a resolution of the conflict. Were it not for the United States blocking the will of the international community, the conflict would be resolved tomorrow.

Obama : A Little Bit Confused What are your expectations of the Obama administration in the Middle East?

There’s no reason to have any expectations.

Obama himself is focused on the domestic agenda, and on international affairs his entire administration consists of holdovers from the Clinton years and from the Bush administration. So the reasonable expectation is that it will be pretty much business as usual. Some minor changes, but otherwise there is no reason to be optimistic.

What about his famous Cairo speech?

I don’t know why people were so enthusiastic about it. There were a few statements he made which weren’t the worst. He came out in support of a woman’s right to wear the hijab. I think that was a good statement.

But otherwise, this was right after the massacre in Gaza, and he used the occasion to lecture Palestinians on how they shouldn’t use violence. The Palestinians shouldn’t use violence? I think he is a little bit confused about what happened in Gaza.

The reason the US and Israel created the Palestinian Authority was for it to act as collaborators to repress the Palestinians and enable Israel to continue its appropriation of Palestinian lands. The Israelis were very clear about it. After the first Intifada which was very taxing on them, they said they wanted to rationalize the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, and rationalizing it basically meant having Palestinians do the dirty work instead of the Israelis. Israelis were squandering too much time in what they called “police actions” while they were supposed to be training for wars. They wanted to withdraw the Israeli army and hand over to the Palestinians the dirty work of policing. And as was being said at the time: “If Palestinians kill Palestinians, Palestinians torture Palestinians and so forth, then human rights groups won’t complain about how we [Israelis] carry on.” That was the main purpose and in that respect the Oslo process was a complete success. It created a class of collaborators who are now doing all Israel’s dirty work.

Can you elaborate on how the collaborator class works in practice, and how it compares with the aspirations of the Palestinian population?

People have this idea that collaborators walk around with a sign saying: “I am a collaborator”. But collaborators usually pretend that they are working for the people and they sometimes engage in denunciations of the regime which they’re actually working for. In South Africa, for example, when they created the Bantustans, people like Chief Buthelezi every once in a while denounced the South African government.

When the South African apartheid regime offered KwaZulu sovereignty, he refused it because he said: “You are giving us garbage, we don’t want it”. But still, he was a collaborator. Chief Matanzima, who headed Transkei, another Bantustan the South Afri-

can apartheid regime created, would also every once in a while give a fiery speech denouncing the South African government.

In that regard the Palestinian Authority is basically the same. If you recall, the Oslo peace agreement was supposed to last for a five-year interim period. And the reason they made it a five-year interim period is that they wanted to gradually groom a class of collaborators who would begin to enjoy the power and the privilege and wouldn’t want to give it up. It takes time to create that kind of class of collaborators. They knew that in about five years time you get used to your limousines and you get used to your villas and become accustomed to your accumulated bank account, and you feel very reluctant to give that all up.

And by the end, they had succeeded in creating the class of collaborators who would do what the Israelis wanted them to do. It’s not that they wanted to collaborate, but they were going to anyhow because they knew the price of not doing it. They had five years of the good life and didn’t want to go back to living like everybody else.

And so, the Palestinian Authority does not represent Palestinian aspirations. That’s why, every once in a while, they throw out the idea that we are going to dissolve the Palestinian Authority. Of course they are not going to dissolve the Palestinian Authority because if they do so, there go all their privilege, all their power, all their Swiss bank accounts. They’ll never do it.

The only problem the Israelis had after five years was Arafat because even though Arafat was a corrupt thug and an imbecile, he still had a residue of this nationalist conviction, and he was not going to accept the garbage that they were offering him. People like Abbas will do anything. He would settle for a toilet with a Palestinian flag on it but he cannot because the Palestinians would rebel. Arafat, yes, he was a little bit afraid of the wrath of the people also. He often said: “I’m not giving up on Jerusalem. Do you want me to get a bullet in my head?” He knew that if he would give up completely on

| 2010 / 11 19

Jerusalem, he would get assassinated. But even though Arafat was terrible, he still had a nationalist passion.

You can read about it in Shlomo Ben-Ami’s book Scars of War, Wounds of Peace (2005).

He was Israel’s foreign minister during the Ehud Barak period. He said: One of the purposes of the Oslo Accords was to repress the genuinely democratic movement of the first Intifada and to put in place a class of people who would do Israel’s bidding.

EU : Complicit in Crimes against Humanity Can you talk about the role of the European Union in the conflict?

The view of the EU is that the Middle East is American turf. They just do what the United States says, so it’s been dreadful.

When Israel imposed the blockade on Gaza which Amnesty International has called a “flagrant violation of international law”, and which the Goldstone mission called a “possible crime against humanity”, the EU went along with the blockade. The EU is partly responsible for the criminal suffering of the Palestinians in Gaza. And the other role that the EU basically plays is they set up all these NGO’s which suck out all the talent from the Palestinians. These NGO’s typically end up working for some foreign government. And then they will be careful not to rock the boat because they are afraid of losing the money. The basic purpose of the

NGOs is to pacify those elements of Palestinian society that are talented. They suck up all the talent, and pacify or neutralize that talent as Israel gets on with its business of confiscating Palestinian land and resources and torturing the people.

Do you believe that foreign aid to the Palestinian Territories can help promote peace?

There is no peace process. If there was a peace process you would have an argument. There is an annexation process and the purpose of the EU is to pacify those elements in Palestinian society that otherwise would be playing leadership roles in resisting the occupation. The EU supplies the bribes to keep them quiet and pacify them.

Your coming book about the war in Gaza …

There was no war in Gaza, there was a massacre. For there to be a war you have to have two sides firing at each other. There was no firing from the Palestinian side.

There were no battles in Gaza. Go look at the testimonies of the Israeli soldiers.

They are called “Breaking the Silence”. You should read it; it’s only a few pages. One soldier after another says: “We never saw an Arab – we never had a battle”. Some of them said: “we were disappointed – we wish we had a battle, but there was none”.

So how can you call that a war? One soldier said: “It was like a child with a magnifying glass burning ants”. When I was a kid I

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For more details : www.orbooks.com

20 | Politics

had a magnifying glass and I burned ants.

I admit it, I’m not proud of it. But I never thought of myself as being involved in a war. It was a massacre.

Israel’s Goldstone Complex What do you think will be the impact ­ of the Goldstone Report?

The impact has been huge already. There is no question about that. There was a good article in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. One of Israel’s propagandists goes around to American universities and tries to mobilize support, and he says wherever we go all we hear is: “Goldstone, Goldstone, Goldstone, Goldstone, Goldstone”. It’s been a complete disaster for them. And the important question is why?

Goldstone’s Report was preceded by a dozen other human rights reports saying more or less the same thing as him. Amnesty International put out two human rights reports on the Gaza massacre. Human Rights Watch put out five reports. And then there were a slew of others, and they were quite good. So why is it the Goldstone Report that has had such an impact and not the other reports?

The answer can’t be that it’s because the Human Rights Council commissioned the report, because Israel has already shown complete contempt for the Human Rights Council. So, what’s the reason?

Over the past 30 years Israel has refined its ideological weapons to neutralize any criticism so that if you criticize Israel you are an anti-Semite, a self-hating Jew, or a Holocaust-denier. But now along comes Richard Goldstone. He’s Jewish, he’s a Zionist, he says he loves Israel, he says he devoted his adult life to working for Israel, he says his mother was an activist in the Zionist women’s organization, his daughter went to live in Israel, he sits on the board of governors at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, he has an honorary degree from the Hebrew University, and he’s also a distinguished international jurist. He was the chief prosecutor for the war crimes in Rwanda and chief prosecutor for the war crimes in Yugoslavia.

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So now Israel went into panic mode. He doesn’t sound like an anti-Semite, and he doesn’t look like a self-hating Jew. He says: “I love Israel”. He also doesn’t sound like a Holocaust-denier, because he says: “the reason I went into international human rights law was because of the Nazi Holocaust”.

And he doesn’t look like a dupe or a fool. It simply doesn’t seem plausible that the chief prosecutor for Rwanda and Yugoslavia is a fool. So if all of those explanations are eliminated, there is only one explanation left: He wrote what he wrote because it is true. And that for Israel is the nightmare scenario: being confronted with the facts. Because Israel’s whole strategy over the last 30 years has always been: change the agenda, let’s talk about anti-Semitism, let’s talk about the Holocaust, but let’s not talk about what we are doing. So, a while ago, when Benyamin Netanyahu was in the UN, where there was a discussion of the Goldstone Report and of Iran, he used his whole time talking about the Holocaust. That’s their strategy. But the big problem with Goldstone is that he is no longer able to change the subject. What are you going to call him?

How will this report translate into actual effects and bring about change?

People who want to achieve justice have to use the report. They have to do exactly what they are doing now. Wherever the Israelis go, just keep hitting them with the Goldstone Report. When former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was lecturing at the University of Chicago last year the students unfurled a banner, one in Arabic, one in English with one word on it: “Goldstone”. And they kept hitting him with the Goldstone Report. Answer it: its 575 pages, let’s hear your answer. The report says you were targeting civilian infrastructure, you were killing people holding white flags, you were using Palestinian children as human shields, you were taking Palestinian detainees and throwing them into sand pits surrounding tanks. It is a very grisly, ghastly picture of what went on, and he concluded that the purpose of the attack was to “punish, humiliate and terrorize a civilian population”. Well, that’s not a war – it is called terrorism.

A Brake on the Military Juggernaut?

The Goldstone Report might help bring about a shift in public opinion, but as long as Israel retains its geo-strategic importance to the US, does it really matter?

You have to look at Israel. Israel sees that the Goldstone Report matters. Why are they now devoting so much energy to trying to refute the Goldstone Report, why are they in panic? If you read the Israeli papers now, it’s “Goldstone” all the time. They realize how dependent they are on public opinion. I think that there’s this misunderstanding about Israel, people think Israel can get away with whatever it wants. No, it can’t. They feel a lot of the pressure and that’s actually the main outcome of the Goldstone Report.

The massacre in Gaza came just two years after the massacre in Lebanon. People are tired of it. There are a number of prominent Israeli columnists who said that this is a disaster for us because we won’t be able to attack again. I think that is accurate. They are not going to be able to get away with it, and that’s a very important outcome. Public opinion is a force that Israel remains and always has been very concerned about.

Israel has many agencies devoted full time to external propaganda. Unless you think that Israelis are completely irrational, which I don’t think they are, why are they investing so much of their resources in propaganda unless their image is important? They are

worried that public opinion will put a severe brake on their military juggernaut which is out of control.

Since the first Intifada, Palestinian conditions have become harsher and Israeli attacks have caused more civilian casualties. Public opinion may have shifted somewhat, but the prospects for a resolution seem bleaker than ever. What will it take?

What you said is not entirely accurate.

When Israel invaded Lebanon in June 1982 they killed about 18,000-20,000 Lebanese and Palestinians, overwhelmingly civilians.

Now in the case of the invasion of Lebanon in July 2006, it was 1,200. And the uproar was bigger during July 2006 than it was in June 1982. There are limits to what they can do. Israel thought they could get away with what they did in Gaza, because, as you recall, they did not allow any journalists in during the massacre. And until this day Israel is not letting human rights organizations enter Gaza. Human rights organizations still have to enter through Egypt.

But it was a big miscalculation. Some of the Israelis understood that when it was over and foreigners were going to be able to get in there was going to be a big problem. Israel still blocks any cement from going in, any glass or anything, so that there can be no rebuilding. That’s one of the stupid things Israel did. So when Goldstone went into Gaza he saw exactly what Israel did even though it was six months later because they couldn’t rebuild anything. If they had been a little smarter they would have let supplies in

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American Radical was released in February 2010

by Baraka Productions and Ridgen Film in New York City. For more information : www.americanradicalthefilm.com Nicolas Rossier is an award-winning independent film-maker and reporter. He directed, Aristide and the Endless Revolution (2005) and interviewed the former Haitian President, Jean-Bertrand Aristide on November 7, 2010. An excerpt of the full interview about the current political situation, the 2004 coup d'état, Aristide's forced exile and his possible return to Haiti can be viewed with other clips on www.revolve-magazine.com This is the first in a series of interviews with controversial former heads of state.

so you could not see so much the disaster they created.

On the other hand, it is also correct to say that in Gaza 2008 Israel descended to a new level of barbarism. In every other case from June 1967, what the Israelis did had an element of war. In June 1967, it was a war even though it was a turkey shoot.

1973 was a war. 1982 was a war with the PLO – it wasn’t much, but something. Lebanon [2006] was not only a war, but Israel lost against Hezbollah. In the case of Gaza, there was no military component. It was just a pure massacre and that’s what the Israelis said themselves. One Israeli strategic analyst said: “You are making a very big mistake if you go around saying that we’ve won the war, because there was no war.” In fact he said that there were no battles in Gaza.

And that was a new level of barbarism. It was just a massacre of a civilian population.

Enforcing the law : We have to do our part Following Gandhi, you advocate non-violent resistance as a way to peace, but you’ve also argued that

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Israel has to suffer a military defeat, because if that doesn’t happen, why should they change their tactics?

How do these go together?

They don’t go together. It’s really one or the other. I think either can achieve the goal. If I were head of state of the Palestinians, I would recommend that the General Assembly should submit to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) the question of the legality of the siege of Gaza. Then the International Court of Justice would have to rule that the siege is illegal under international law, that it is collective punishment, and that it’s a flagrant violation of the Geneva Conventions. Then the Palestinians would have two rulings because the ICJ has already ruled that the wall [annexing large parts of the West Bank] is illegal under international law. And then there would be a possibility for Palestinians in the West Bank and in

Gaza to jointly engage in massive civil disobedience. It would not end the occupation, but it certainly would create momentum if Palestinians in the West Bank mobilized in massive numbers to bring down the wall using the ICJ opinion as their justification while Palestinians in Gaza peacefully tried to end the blockade by walking through it, again using the ICJ opinion.

And of course, we have to do our part because if the Palestinians are left alone Israel will just slaughter them. But if we do our part and mobilize public opinion, explaining that the only thing the Palestinians are trying to do is enforce the law, I think there’s a very good chance the wall can be brought down and the blockade can be broken and then that may build more momentum.

It’s like Gandhi with the Salt March. The Salt March for Gandhi was not really the salt is-

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sue. If you actually look at the outcome of the Salt March, it didn’t get much. Gandhi chose the salt issue because it affected every level of Indian society. From the rich to the poor, they all had to pay the salt tax. And he was looking for an issue that would affect everyone in Indian society and thereby potentially mobilize every member of Indian society. He was also looking for an issue which no moral person could doubt the validity of: paying a tax on salt – a basic necessity for diet – Gandhi felt that was it.

In the end he did not get much: the British were willing to cancel the tax for the poorest Indians. But that was not what Gandhi wanted. For Gandhi, the Salt March was a way of building the momentum and mobilization of Indian power, to then use as leverage in negotiations. So, even though many people thought the Salt March was a failure, he did not. Immediately after he suspended civil disobedience, he went to London for negotiations even though he did not expect to come away with much. He had a very good sense of power and he realized that the Indians were not yet in a strong enough position to get what they wanted.

Palestinians: Exercise Your Power And the same thing is true here. I think the Palestinians can end the siege and can bring down the wall or get significant modifications. This is a way of energising the Palestinian society for the longer battle. Because that’s just the way anything meaningful in this world happens. Nothing meaningful in this world happens if somebody gives it to you. There was a famous abolitionist in the United States of African descent, Frederick Douglas, who said: “No struggle, no progress”. As an individual or as a society, you do not progress unless you challenge yourself. If you’re a person and everything is handed to you in life, you don’t develop character, you don’t really develop your intellect, you don’t develop anything…

The only development is when you constantly challenge yourself, constantly struggle. It’s the same thing with a society. The purpose of any of these engagements in massive civil disobedience is to show people that they have the power to control their

own lives. Once you realize you have that power, nobody can tell you what to do.

But if you just sit around, “What is Obama thinking, what is Clinton thinking?”, you don’t get anywhere. It’s pitiful. That’s not the way adults carry on. If you are an adult you want control over your own life. You don’t want a Messiah, I don’t want somebody to free me, nobody can free you, you can only free yourself. Nobody can free you. So, the challenge is for Palestinians to exercise the power they have. And they do have the power, Israel can not beat them. Israel can not – if the Palestinians realize their power.

I don’t care what Obama thinks. He’s like all of them and all they care about is power, their own power. If he were white, you would call him Bill Clinton.

10,001 Ways to repress Our Human Potential Do you think it is possible to resolve ­the conflict without addressing US imperialism?

Everything has its limits. It’s not just US imperialism. We have a global system which places huge limits on what we can achieve.

I don’t believe any problem is solved. Everything is just one step towards making the world a better place. When I grew up we all believed in a socialist revolution, one Big Bang, and then everything would be perfect. But it’s not the way the world works.

The world, in my opinion, works like rungs in a ladder. And I’m more than happy if in my lifetime I get to see in one little corner of the world people manage to climb one rung. The battles are not over; the struggle is not over. There are always ways to improve the world, ways to make the world a better place, discovering all sorts of ways in which we are repressed in our human potential. Because, what is society except 10,000 ways in which our potential as human beings is repressed, and then trying step by step to remove those obstacles, remove those impediments and enabling people, to the extent it is possible, to realize some happiness in the real world? But

there are 10,000 ways in which, since the day you were born, your potential is being repressed.

When I was growing up, there was not even a conception of what women were capable of. A woman was a home-maker – and at most a schoolteacher. That is incidentally why the schools got so bad in the United States. The smartest women were teachers.

Once women realized they could become lawyers and doctors, they stopped being teachers, and the quality of the teaching went down. But we discovered 10,001 ways in which the potential of women was being limited by our society which we did not even have an idea or concept of yet. I remember the first time I was on a train and I heard over the public address system a woman announcing “The next stop is...”. A woman engineer on the train? That’s impossible. Or a woman bus driver? And that’s a lot of what life is about: You discover ways in which human possibility is limited.

I was just in South Africa. I never, ever saw poverty like in South Africa. It was a throwback. I don’t think the cave people lived like that. I could not believe it. And I asked the people who were showing me around: “What percentage of the people live like this?” They said: “80 per cent”. How much did the end of apartheid accomplish? You know, it accomplished something. People do not want to go back. As Ela Gandhi, Mahatma Gandhi’s grand-daughter, said to me: “It’s true. In South Africa, it’s literally true: The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. Not just relatively, absolutely.” How much did it accomplish?

Not very much. But did it represent a step, a little rung on the ladder to get rid of apartheid? Yes, it did. But we should not have illusions. We can accomplish just so much. The power organized against us is so huge. We have these institutions which have endured for centuries, institutions of concentrated power. People are working 24/7-365 trying to figure out how to maintain this system. And most of us have maybe an hour or two a week that we can give over to doing some good deed.

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BRUSSELS + REVOLVE

Green City : Brussels Homes, offices, companies and collective facilities are responsible for 70 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions in Brussels. In 2007, the capital of Europe did not have any passive (zero emissions) building and launched a call for projects to promote building and renovation with high environmental performance. The aim was to show that projects are technically and economically feasible in Brussels. From 2007 to 2009, a total of 117 of 172 submitted building projects were approved and subsidized for a total of €18.5 million.

With the launch of the exemplary building projects, the Brussels Capital Region has ensured a break in the trend of the construction sector by promoting other ways of renovating and building that are environmentally friendly by : saving energy, saving water, reducing carbon emissions, and choosing ecological material (window and wall insulation, green roofs, etc.) The Brussels Capital Region is making ecological building projects a visible reality to persuade even more people to build and live sustainably! By 2013, Brussels will have 80.000 m2 of passive buildings.

An exemplary building project is recognizable in the city by the plaque on the façade.

Visit the Brussels Capital Region website and download the winner’s information by using the interactive map : www.bruxellesenvironnement.be/batimentsexemplaires

Who can participate To be eligible for the call for projects, the buildings must be located in the Brussels Capital Region and have one of the following intended purposes of use: • Single family residence • Collective residence • Collective facility (school, hospital, kindergarden, youth center, sports hall, etc.)

• Office, commercial or industrial facility

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The project may comprise a new building, renovation or a combination of both.

All designated purposes are possible, from small (120 m2) to large building projects (10.000 m2 or more) are eligible.

It’s cheaper to renovate a building than to start from scratch in Brussels… If you see a façade standing and the rest of the house/building gutted, that’s why.

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BRUSSELS + REVOLVE

Building Projects

Here are two examples of building projects going up around Brussels

Caméléon store

• The orientation prevents sunlight from heating the parts of the building that are heated by the store business

The basics for free cooling Caméléon is a rapidly-growing Brussels-based company that sells major brand-name clothing at several outlets throughout Belgium. €2.5 million were invested in this new sales building of 17.000 m2 that serves as a flagship of ecological commercial property. The innovative design (free cooling) combined with the production of renewable energy will enable Caméléon to prevent the emission of 7.250 tons of carbon dioxide over the next 30 years.

Producing green energy The overall target for renewable energy production is 65 MegaWatts /year, based on harvesting solar and wind energy with photovoltaic solar panels on the ‘green’ roofs and the first wind turbine of this size in Brussels with an installed power of 25 kW and 50 MWh/year. The two photovoltaic fields represent 128 m2 of solar panels providing around 15 MWh/year. The 2.000 m2 ‘green’ roof maximizes rainwater retention that is recovered and used.

• Automatic openings allow for nighttime natural air cooling Retail clothing stores generally have high air conditioning requirements. The presence of customers in the stores, together with the lighting to showcase products, generates a lot of heat. This building’s architecture was designed specifically to dissipate that heat:

• High ceilings permit cool night air to circulate throughout the building • the use of concrete provides high thermal inertia by storing coolness of the night • the heat generated by artificial lighting systems is minimized by using natural light and installing low-energy lighting systems

L’espoir (Hope) An Ecological Collective Housing Project

Living in wood, but why not in trees?

Nature is not only present in the materials, but also in the shape: the façade will be clad in a tree-like structure that will be overgrown by deciduous plants (Virginia creeper and wisteria).

This element plays a practical role in the management of the sunlight, and also symbolically, of being in the trees...

In 2004, the non-profit “Community Centre Bonnevie” launched a project, in collaboration with the non-profit CIRE (Coordination and Initiatives for Refugees and Foreigners) and the Housing Fund of Brussels Capital Region, to enable fourteen low-income Molenbeek families living in poor housing conditions to buy a house for a very modest construction price. The selected families formed the assocation “L’ESPOIR” under CIRE’s protection and out of their meetings in three study groups a program emerged that was intended for future designers to use materials with low environmental impact for energy-efficient building.

Durable Architecture A timber frame construction with seven lower duplex apartments (floors 0 & 1) and seven upper duplex apartments (floors 2 & 3). The wooden skeleton was divided up and spread throughout the length and height of the building made of wood stairs from Wallonia, blown cellulose, certified timber and linoleum. All the homes have two floors and two orientations (front and rear), which gives them the spatial qualities of real maisonettes. This approach is also seen in the finish of the façades, by using several colours and because the lower and upper duplex apartments look different at the front and at the rear: this way the lower duplex apartments have a personalized façade on the street side (as regards composition and colour) and a neutral façade on the garden side, whereas this is the exact reverse for the upper duplex apartments.

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portugal + REVOLVE

Mobi.E : Portugal at the forefront of electric mobility The Portuguese electric mobility model, Mobi.E, is unique.

With a single card, it is possible to charge the battery of any electric vehicle at any charging point around Portugal with electricity supplied by any retailer. Mobi.E was conceived with an open-access and market-oriented philosophy, with the goal of attracting private investors and benefiting the users, promoting a fast expansion of the system.

An initiative already underway In June 2010 José Sócrates, the Portuguese Prime-Minister, inaugurated in Lisbon the first charging point of Mobi.E. It was the first of a pilot infrastructure network comprising 1,350 normal charging points distributed around 25 municipalities all over the country and 50 quick charging points located in the most important highways connecting these municipalities. This network will be completed by June 2011 and will be the first of its kind in the world.

Private operators are already investing in their own charging points, adding up to the pilot network.

The charging infrastructure is the most visible action of a program which is being developed since early 2008. However, many other ­actions were implemented.

(1) A consortium of research centers, software houses and equipment manufacturers developed the business model, the IT platform and the equipments.

(2) The legal framework of electric mobility was defined.

(3) A set of incentives and procurement policies was established.

In order to foster demand the Portuguese government defined a tax exemption for the acquisition and the circulation of electric vehicles (EVs), a tax reduction for private customer and company fleets and a €5,000 direct subsidy on purchase for the first 5,000 EVs sold. Additionally, 20 percent of the vehicles acquired for the public fleet from 2011 onwards must be electric and since July 2010 all parking places in new buildings must be infrastructured for electric mobility.

National scale Mobi.E has a truly national scale. Some European cities or regions are implementing their own electric mobility programs. However, they do not communicate with each other. Mobi.E proposes a ­national and integrated system, meaning that users can travel from city A to city B and charge their car batteries.

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portugal + REVOLVE

A system focused on the user The User : the center of the system The User is the citizen or the company using the system to charge the EV, independently of the model or the automaker.

With a single card, a user may charge the battery of any electric vehicle (EV) at any charging point around the country with electricity supplied by any retailer. And this is the most relevant feature of Mobi.E : it is focused on the user rather than being focused on a monopolistic company or system.

The Operator : the physical interface The Operator is the entity that manages the charging points.

Every charging point will be identified by the Mobi.E logo.

Therefore, the User may charge the EV in any charging point independently of the Operator. The Operators are remunerated according to the electricity that passes through its infrastructure.

In order to promote competition and create a robust system, Mobi.E has a universal access policy. This means that every car manufacturer, electricity retailer or operator main join the system. How does it work? Mobi.E defined four roles within the system.

The Electricity Retailer : where the competition lies Electricity Retailers are the entities selling electricity (via the charging points managed by the Operators). And this is where competition lies. In order to differentiate from competition, every Retailer will have the possibility of proposing different electricity tariffs and associated services. In fact, the Mobi.E card has the possibility of aggregating other services, such as the payment of car sharing, car parking, public transports, etc. It will even be possible to create bundles for mobility electricity and domestic electricity. Every User may have a contract with any Retailer (or more than one).

The Managing Authority : a clearing house At the top of the system there is a Managing Authority which ensures the integration between all the stakeholders through the integrated management of financial, information and energy flows within the electric mobility network. All Retailers may have a share at the Managing Authority equity.

Mobi.E is implementing a pilot charging infrastructure with charging points distributed around 25 municipalities all over the country

Mobi.E EV charging station in Lisbon

Mobi.E www.mobi-e.pt

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The New Delhi Metro Writer : Stuart Reigeluth Photographer : Mustafa Quraishi

In New Delhi, apart from the high-class hotels, there’s another – much more unexpected – clean place : the Metro.

In a haze of smog consisting of minuscule sand particles and ­urban air pollution, the streets are littered with trash and stained by spots of ‘paan’ juice spit, but underground in the Rajiv Chowk stop ­beneath the central square of Connaught Place, the air is fresher and the floors have neatly painted yellow or pink arrows indicating where men must line-up and what part of the platform is reserved for ‘women only’. When the metro stops, passengers pour out of the cabins as others squeeze in and crunch together until the next stop. Rajeev, an Indian entrepreneur, says with disdain: “how much rubbing was done between the stops?” The stops are far, but people are calm, quiet, and stare out of the opaque windows. Most people cannot afford private drivers and the 10 to 20 rupees (15-30 cents) for a single trip is not bad or you can get a ‘Smart Card’ pass.

The loudspeaker inside the cabins announces the next stop in Hindi that a lady then repeats in English. People begin to push and shove and by the time the doors open you’re being jostled back and forth and thrown out onto the platform – it’s a little like pogo dancing without the hard music. You slip the blue plastic coin into the exit slot and push through the metal gate. It’s well indicated that “carrying ticket beyond exit is punishable offence attracting a fine of Rs. 200 / or imprisonment.” Spitting and sitting on the ground are also forbidden and somehow respected by Indians. It may be the awe of authority that enforces these new codes, but it’s certainly not the soldiers slumping behind their sandbags inside the entrances, staring sleepily at their colleagues scanning travelers rapidly after the metal detector machines. When you land at the Indira Gandhi International Airport and take the new metro line that opened in November 2010 to the center of Delhi, you’ll see those soldiers in the metros and streets of the capital providing a sort of state security.

Don’t ask why, just enjoy the ride.

For more details : www.delhimetrorail.com

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| 2010 / 11 29

30 | 窶右nergy

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| 2010 / 11 31

DEATH OF A HORSE Andrés Barba Chapter One Writer: Andrés Barba Photographer: Antonio Cid

Death of a Horse won the 2010 Juan March short novel award and will be published by Pre-Textos in Spain next March/April 2011.

Andrés Barba (b. 1975, Madrid) is the author of Versiones de Verónica (Torrente Ballester 2006 Award), La recta intención, Ahora Tocad Música de Baile (2004), and La hermana de Katia (2001), all published

by Anagrama, Barcelona.

Antonio Cid is a Spanish photographer based in Madrid. These photos are part of a series called “Sillas”.

To see more of his work, visit : www.antoniocidfoto.tumblr.com

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“She’s only twenty-two, no more than a girl,” he thought to motivate himself while waiting by the door of her house, but at the same time he looked in the rear-view mirror and involuntarily grimaced, as if her presence made him depreciate his own face a little. In reality, he already knew that it was easy to fail. For him, not her.

And that maybe he was already defeated beforehand. He had seen her about ten times and each time he had felt differently, as if Sandra, more than a twenty-two year-old girl, were a multi-faceted polyhedron form, or something without defined limits, a countryside so transparent that it would inevitably dissolve. The first time she did not seem as clever and attractive as they had said. Then, suddenly, she certainly seemed so, but he could no longer go back on that first impression, and so the next time was as if a movement had been made and he was now trapped by her, without knowing how. During those meetings, they had had four or five banal conversations. The deepest one had been about literature, about some North American short-story writers that they both liked but for different reasons. Sandra knew that he gave literature classes at the university as a visiting fellow, that he knew the terrain well, and that he was twelve years older than her, but she leveled the conversation from the beginning as equals, as if it were a given that there were no reason for his opinions to be more worthy than hers.

He was amused by most everything she said, and despite the two or three comments that really surprised him, he could not avoid taking on a professorial tone with her, not so much out of vanity, but rather as a kind of pure defense mechanism. Afterwards, when they said goodbye, he had felt a little angry with his own sadness,

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no specific need whatsoever, just a kind of longing. At times, he wondered if he were not projecting other dissatisfactions, other wounds on Sandra, but then he saw her again and it did not seem so anymore. Sandra was twenty-two, but she was clearly wiser and more resolved than he was.

Another aspect that added a certain mystery to Sandra’s appearance in his group of friends – besides the obvious age difference – was that nobody knew exactly where she had come from. She had just simply showed up, like someone’s second cousin, a beautiful and know-it-all and chatterbox cousin, who liked to be around adults. She had caused the same effect as a happy guest would in a well-to-do family whose tedium is broken by the stranger’s presence. The group had adopted her like a desired mascot, but nobody desired her in particular more than he did. This was manifested by the fact that he was the only one that did not openly flirt with her.

with that sadness he had felt over the past year and that really had nothing to do with Sandra. This was a sadness that did not judge the events that were composing his life, rather the pace these events took – a speed, on the other hand, he had always wanted and foreseen. The most probable scenario was that in a few years he would soon be made a full-time professor: he had allies with influence in the department and there was no real competition, and yet everything he experienced seemed at times like an infantile version, falsified perhaps, of what he had predicted his life would be.

He felt alone.

He did not know why that sadness had manifested itself so poignantly during those times he had talked with Sandra.

He certainly liked her; there was no doubt about that. Perhaps he liked her in a different way than he usually liked women.

He felt no urgency in sleeping with her, nor to seduce her, or for her to seduce him.

At first, it was like an overall need to have her ‘on his side’ and to be caught with her in some closed space. It was a real feeling, powerfully authentic, but it expressed

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One of those nights had ended with them almost accidentally kissing. They had stayed with three other people until very late and when he went to say good-night to her, they found themselves in the bathroom doorway. He had had a lot to drink and he put his hand on her hip – miniscule hips, like a little girl’s.

“I’m going,” he said.

She kissed him directly on the lips, briefly at first and then more intensely, as if her kisses had some slightly deranged and unpredictable rhetoric.

“So you go around, like this, kissing everyone?” he asked.

“Of course,” she answered, “that’s what life’s about: going around kissing people.”

“Come home with me.”

“And what do I say to the boys?”

“Whatever you want.”

“No, not now. Another day,” she answered smiling.

But when they met two days after that night it seemed to him that she was strangely distant while still being affective, or perhaps he was, without knowing why, as if he had flirted with the edge of a ravine which thank God he had not fallen into, but even so he would have liked to fall. The inside of that image was still obscure and disturbing, and delicate. He had partly persuaded himself that she was not for him, but he could not help feeling constantly attracted to his girl whose essential quality seemed to be precisely that kind of arrhythmia of character and humor. Fantasy made him persevere more than reality, but when she approached that same sadness of this year assaulted him, as if life had wrinkled him, much more

34 | literature

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than with punches, but rather by the systematic gift of getting everything he wanted.

challenge as eating seventy eggs.”

For him, Sandra’s intelligence seemed to contain as much audacity as it did ingenuity, and since it was uncertain, sometimes her sentencing tone bothered him. It was as if he saw before him a smart and quick girl, so sure of herself, and only one step back, barely concealed, a strange woman waiting perhaps, as if this woman were making secret signals to him, signals that in part only he was able to read.

Sandra’s life, on the other hand, seemed incontestable. She had just finished her degree in tourism and was working in a travel bookstore attending to clients and writing blogs. She wanted to make various guide books that would read like theological additions, and in the bookshop where she worked she wrote some small reviews of travel books that he had looked at a dozen times and that often had taken him aback with her strong, most Mohican, opinions. She said, for example:

Then the enchantment dissolved and he had the irritating sensation of being trapped in a fruitless attraction. He tried to stop thinking of her and was in fact able to not think of her. A week or two passed and life took its course without Sandra, as if life were suspended in its own inertia. Thinking about her again was something that happened, like accidents do, or like the steaming pans left out in the kitchen, the cigarette holes in the sofa, or something perhaps that was born of the same marrow – the thought of Sandra fit like a tumor that made him fall towards her unconsciously.

“The traveler is the greediest voyeur.”

She said: “It’s not difficult to realize that mister X has serious problems being happy sitting at home.”

And concluded her articles with sentences like: “Sometimes you just have to leave, and that’s it.”

She signed:

Rather than being in love, he was more used to “discovering being in love”, but in Sandra’s case sometimes he had the feeling of exercising an active resistance. And once again Sandra’s blogs:

S.M. He read her articles with the avidity of someone trying to discover a secret. Sandra’s humor jumped like hares from beneath the most unexpected rocks: she often laughed about pretentious authors and the modern writers; she loved the classics and those affected by madness equally as much; and she threw clay jars of boiling oil on the ‘macho’ authors, as she called them, those writers who set challenges like crossing a desert on foot or crossing an ocean in a canoe.

“Traveling, good traveling, is a benevolent bore.”

And once again her voice, when they happened to meet by chance: “I was praying for you to appear.”

Like a foreshortening, a puncture, a burn: “I’m almost always sincere,” she said, “but everything I told you today was a lie.”

“Crossing an ocean in a canoe,” she proclaimed, “is as absurd a

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At times she was able to make him angry out of pure nonsense, but then she would pull back from her play-acting and appeared as a normal person. She came close to him, did not run away, was almost calm, seemed more simple. It’s a game, he thought, it’s only a game, but for him sadness made him play more seriously than he would have liked, or perhaps it was precisely his sadness that impeded him from playing and assuming all the consequences.

When he got home he had the same feeling as when he was a boy and his mother called him to come in for dinner; a sudden interruption in time, of real time, as if the only vibration and certainty of time were those moments spent with her and when changing that time a kind of change of scale simultaneously was produced that even made his own apartment seem small. He told himself then with forthrightness that this was an absurd story, and felt at ease for a few days. He would call an old lover and have sex with her. He drank a little more, as though he wanted to get it all out of himself.

He was waiting outside the door of her house, uncomfortably nervous. Over the past two days, the idea of taking that car trip alone with her to his friend’s house had come back to him like a recurrent thought that fluttered around him, occurring and dissipating again, as if suspended, morphing just as quickly from a droll erotic fantasy that worried him before, into something rather vain and a second later a little cowardly. The day the others had all left for the country house, neither of them could travel then, and so they agreed to go together by car the following day. It was, in fact, a somewhat accidental way of getting her number that until then he did not have.

He called her the afternoon before their trip and they agreed that he would come by to get her. She gave him her address and he was astonished that they only lived four blocks away.

“We’re almost neighbors,” he told her.

“Oh, really?” she answered with an overdose of happiness, “too bad we never crossed each other in the street.”

And he replied, yes, that’s too bad. Her voice changed on the telephone, it was more paused, more adult, despite seeming nervous too, like a twisted image full of knots, overlapping upon itself, and yet, still clear.

He saw her appear at the door and wave to him, smiling. She was carrying a sports bag and she had put on a short summer dress.

Her skin was still too pasty because spring had hardly begun, but it seemed to suit her just as well. From afar it was hard to appreci-

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ate her beauty. She seemed like a pupil, or one of those first-year university students that were in some of his classes and that sometimes fell in love with him. From up close, her beauty was adult-like, almost a little noble. She had light brown hair and she usually had short loose strands that rounded off her face; her lips were thick and small; and her nose was prominent without being big. Her face, however, had a harmony that surpasses the simple addition of composing elements. She was a little neighborhood Cleopatra with coquettishly irregular teeth, a fraudulent beauty perhaps, but maybe for that reason it was more moving than if she had been more orthodox. She had a sweet smell that was only perceptible from very close, resembling the clean smell of a house, or of almonds. Her body was a domestic beauty, just the opposite of her nature.

“Hi professor,” she said opening the car door.

She called him “professor” – an endearing humiliation.

“Hi.” “Have you had breakfast?”

“Yes.” “I haven’t. Would you mind if we had a coffee before going? I’m starving.”

“Sure, we have plenty of time.”

He felt a strange pleasure watching her devour two croissants, a coffee and an orange juice, as if eating with a good appetite were an act of happy generosity, regardless of his presence, a kind of innocence.

When she ate, she seemed a little more childish and he liked that, because it left him in the clear.

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“I like this trip,” she declared.

“Yes, it’s nice out today. And wait till you see Pablo’s house, you’ll like it a lot.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, it’s in the middle of nowhere.”

“I like things lost in the middle of nowhere.”

“Well nothing could be more so than this one.”

“Then I couldn’t be happier.”

That was the tone of their conversations: agile, somewhat stupid and somewhat smart, determined by the sensation of wanting to beat the other with some definitive remark. Then they were quiet again and a few minutes later they were back at each other.

When they got into the car to leave, they both felt a wave of happiness. He turned to her and, while changing gears he looked at those thin and really white legs, with a strange kind of familiarity, as if he had seen her naked many times already. That way of calibrating each other seemed mutual and somewhat relative. She talked of her family, her two brothers, the recent divorce of her parents. Her use of words was a little contrived, but she looked at him candidly as though she were saying, I know who you are, I am not a little girl, you don’t have to lie to me, tell me what you want and then I’ll know how to be, don’t let me do everything. She told stories well with a kind of zeal for detail and some jumps in time that, far from hindering the narration, made the story more intriguing and less credible: it was as if a lie occurred to her every five minutes and she had to go back and justify it and then forward again, to adorn it as it deserved to be. The more efforts she made to please him, the more he felt left out in a mysterious place, partly fortunate, but uprooted from his real life. The good mood diluted a little with the physical attraction.

From time to time he turned to look at her speaking and it seemed that her face was even smaller and more extraordinary. Then, when he had to pay a toll, he searched for coins in the ashtray, deliberately grazing her leg, and also when looking for CDs, while driving, he opened the glove-com-

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partment leaning slightly on her knee, feeling the rounded white bone, but then she got a little nervous and said drily: “Leave it, I’ll look.”

He retracted again.

“Put in what you want.”

“No, tell me which one you’d like.”

“It doesn’t matter.”

And he remained childishly serious. Suddenly she said: “You’re such a boy.”

He took a while to answer and when he did it was without humor: “That’s very possible.”

They were quiet for about twenty minutes, listening to the CD that Sandra had picked. He did not feel hurt or nervous, just that something was simply going to happen, and then it would dissipate again, like every time he was together with her – the elastic feeling of that entire year, not sadness, not an indisposition, rather a kind of misfortune, as if life were perfectly open while being disturbingly disappointing, as though arriving at a certain point, he could foresee it all, like a writer who has planned out all the scenes of their novel and all they have to do is write it, and that’s why they do it with reluctance, or tiredness, and perhaps surprised that it’s not really worth it.

“I was nervous.”

“Why?” “About the trip.”

He turned towards her. Sandra smiled and changed the topic immediately, without ­being nervous.

“What a pretty countryside.”

“Yes.” She lit a cigarette. She had the talent of smoking well and she knew it. Her face seemed to pearl up while smoking, or fill out. She talked of her parent’s divorce again. She described the morning her mother left the house, and her mother’s companion waiting. She told the story in nervous prosody, like a muscular pang, but she made no banal commentaries nor did she dispatch any topics about the duration of love. It was as if Sandra had lived the same divorce that occurred many years ago, and what just transpired was but an incarnation of a thought already formulated.

“In reality, my whole life I’ve been so scared of resembling my mother that I think for that reason alone I’ve ended up resembling her,” she said; and after some silence, “what’s your mother like?”

“She died four years ago. She was a complicated woman.”

He appreciated that Sandra skipped the condolences.

“Complicated like me?”

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“No,” he smiled, “complicated in a sadder way.”

It had been years since he had talked about this issue with anyone besides his father and those who knew him had learned to avoid the topic, but he appreciated that Sandra asked him straight out.

It was as if he wanted to talk about it, but from a distance, despite the persistent feeling within him that everything had occurred yesterday afternoon.

“She was,” he continued, “one of those people who believe that happiness is a question of will.”

“So what’s it a question of?” Sandra asked.

“Of talent, I suppose, like most everything.”

Sandra smiled.

“When my mother left home I was reading Kafka’s letters to Milena and I learned a whole part by heart because it was exactly what was happening before me. I can learn very long fragments – I like to – it’s really simple actually, when you learn the technique you can memorize pages and pages.”

She turned off the music.

“You want me to recite it?”

“Recite what?”

“The part I learned.”

“Of course.”

“Here it goes” – there was a slightly theatrical silence in the car, she leaned back a little in her seat and turned towards him, pulling open her seat belt. The smell of shampoo drifted over to him and he looked at her out of the corner of his eye, like watching a student taking their exam: Many times I feel as though we are in a room with two opposing doors, and that each one is grabbing a door handle, and that when one of us barely blinks the other is already behind their door, and now if one of us utters a word then the other closes their door and disappears. The door will be opened again of course, because perhaps this is a room that cannot be abandoned. If the first one did not resemble the second one so much, if they stayed quiet, and at least pretended to not look at the second one, if they turned their full attention to cleaning up the room as though it were a room like any other… but instead, they do exactly the same as the other, and sometimes even both are behind their respective doors and the beautiful room is empty.

“That’s very nice.”

“No,” she said, “no it’s not.”

She smiled and turned on the ­music again.

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ISSA KAZAH

Syrian Sculptor, Damascus Issa Kazah, Sculptor Damascus, SYRIA

“I prefer listening to music without lyrics; singing sometimes bothers me, especially when it involves repeated lyrics, because I do not like talking,” says the Syrian sculptor, Issa Kazah, who

Nadia Muhanna interviews Issa Kazah in Damascus for REVOLVE to find out more about this upcoming artist.

Nadia writes for Syria Today, visit her blog: www.nadiamuhanna.wordpress.com

doesn’t mind spending days without speaking to anyone. He spends those days in his small studio in the old part of Damascus, surrounded by his sculptures that are all over the place.

Isolation is his constant companion, especially as he prepared for his fourth exhibition at the beginning of 2010 in Kozah Gallery.

| What was the beginning like?

It is not easy to be a sculptor, because unlike other visual art forms, sculpture is very expensive and it requires specific tools and a special studio. These high costs were the reason behind my interrupted career start: After I graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts I had to do something else to earn a living. In order not to distance myself too much from the artistic world, I chose to work in commercial photography. I therefore stopped sculpting for a year, but I kept reading art books and visiting exhibitions, which facilitated my return to sculpture.

I rented my first studio in a farm that is an hour and a half drive from Damascus. I worked there with another sculptor under harsh conditions, as we lacked the basic commodities like water and electricity.

However, I later managed to rent a studio of my own in Dumar (an area in the suburbs of Damascus), and then in old Damascus. Today I can dedicate myself to my art, and only have to work in photography two days a week to make ends meet.

| Where do you get your ideas from?

Artists are part of this society and can no longer shut themselves off and live in isolation from their surroundings as they used to in the past. I am provoked by the stories, wars and breaking news that surround us from every angle and inevitably leave a trace in my work. For instance, Israel’s war on Gaza last year left a big impression on me that showed in my work. — As he says this, Kazah points to a bronze sculpture that represents three people queuing in front of a locked door: in the front stands a man, behind him a woman and a child; they stand upright, looking at the door with patience and determination, their bodies seem frail and their heads resemble skulls.

I think that the importance of a piece of art lies in the idea first and then its style. The idea determines the form of my sculptures.

I sometimes stop working for months if I have not had the right idea, whereas at other times the ideas flow inside me and I work for days in my studio without seeing anyone and enjoying my isolation. My

Walking, 2005, Bronze, 19 x 4 x 35 cm

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| Both your father and uncle are

2006, Bronze, 13 x 4 x 28 cm

architects and you claim that you carry architecture “in your genes”. To what extent has architecture influenced your work as a sculptor?

Architecture has influenced the way I build my artwork. After all, sculpture is very similar to architecture for a sculpture is a unit in space just like a building is. Therefore, sculptors should have a good sense of architecture and proportion. It is also important that he finds the right fulcrum point. That’s why the base constitutes 50 percent of the composition of my sculptures which though small in size (they usually range between 25 and 35 cm) give the impression of a monumental sculpture. | Which art has influenced you most?

Primitive art, be it Chinese, African or Arab, attracts me more than modern or contemporary art. Cave paintings fascinate me.

Opening, 2009, 13 x 9 x 32 cm

Freedom 2, 2008, Bronze, 10 x 10 x 27 cm

favourite time is the morning; I wake up early because ideas come to me at dawn, and I draw sketches for them, these being an essential part of my work.

Their simplification of form motivates me in my work because I feel that this fascinating legacy that the primitive man has left us should continue. | You have accelerated the casting

process in your works. Could you tell us more about that?

I use plaster directly, avoiding clay and other casts. Usually, sculptors assemble an armature then they apply clay to build the form from the inside out. Once they are satisfied with the form of the sculpture, they create a plaster cast for it on which they later on spread an insulating material and fill with plaster to get a plaster version of the clay sculpture. At the end, they apply sand or lost-wax (which is usually applied to more delicate artworks) casting on it to get the final bronze sculpture.

I skip the plaster casting by immediately applying plaster instead of clay to the armature. It’s harder this way because while clay is easy to form, plaster is rigid so you need to achieve the right form immediately because you can’t modify the form later.

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Syrian sculpture is still in its birth process, and lacks artistic accumulation and quantity. This doesn’t mean that there is not any Syrian work of high standing. But unlike painting which is more mature due to the greater artistic numbers and interest that it has enjoyed from and by Syrian artists, sculpture still needs more time and a more artists to gain greater international value.

Despite its strong presence in the past, in Palmyra for instance, sculpture is still recent in Syria. And that’s because it was banned for religious reasons and did not appear again in Syria until the beginning of the past century.

Sculpture began developing considerably but slowly in the 1970s, when the government began supporting it and capital was invested to encourage the sculpture movement. Generally, art does not develop under poverty. Rather it requires the existence of a rich class capable of acquiring artwork, thus helping the artists to produce.

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This long absence of sculpture in Syria, which lasted for hundreds of years, had a big impact on the artistic identity of Syrian sculptors. Here again I compare sculpture to architecture. Syrian architecture is either very old or an imitation of modern architecture abroad. I have trouble finding a clear identity for modern Syrian architecture just like I have trouble finding one for sculpture. | Where do you find yourself as a sculptor between these two identities?

Simplification of form and the human figure has a strong presence in my work. But since it’s the idea that determines form in my works, each of my sculptures has a different style. Every idea can create a wholly different sculpture and therefore my work oscillates between abstraction and realism, and its surface between rough and smooth. I don’t follow one art school or current but use them as tools to express my ideas.

2008, Bronze, 7 x 7 x 30 cm

2009, Bronze, 15 x 10 x 50 cm

Old Damascus, 2008, 19 x 4 x 32 cm

| What do you think about where Syrian sculpture stands today?

now selling for millions at international auction houses like Christie’s and Sotherby’s. To what extent did this sudden change affect Syrian artists?

This was going to happen, but probably at a slower pace. In any case, it has had a positive impact on Syrian artists. While many Syrian artists made it into the international art scene before, this global interest in Middle Eastern art made success much easier and faster for the new generation of artists.

The value of Syrian art competes with Arab and international art and therefore deserves to take its place internationally and to be sold at international prices. As a result, artwork by some Syrian artists has become unaffordable for Syrian collectors, but that doesn’t affect Syrian art in general.

| Unlike in the past, Syria’s visual art scene has developed rapidly in the last few years. Syrian artworks are

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The end, 2005, Bronze, 13 x 5 x 21 cm

2009, Bronze, 25 x 20 x 20 cm

| Many Syrian critics have censured

this “illogical” and “sudden” rise in the prices of artwork, considering that it has transformed it into a commercial good.

What do you think of this as a Syrian artist?

The artist, like everyone else, needs to live and needs money to continue in his art.

I do not think it is wrong for young artists to produce some commercial art to make money and thus be able to make the high standard artworks that they want.

Young artists need financial support; this is sometimes granted by a gallery promoting their work or someone who believes in their talent, but if they have neither and do not come from a rich family, they have no choice but to do other things in order to earn a living.

S­ yrian economy’s relative isolation from the world market. Its effects were therefore more psychological than material. But the market has recently begun to stagnate and art is one of the first things to be affected in such crises for it is not considered a necessity but a luxury. Overall, the effect has not been major.

important position in the Arab art scene.

What about sculpture?

Sculpture, in general, does not have much presence in the Arab world today. The Arab country that is most prominent in sculpture today is probably Egypt, where sculptors went back to sculpting a little before the Syrians. Iraqi and Lebanese sculptors also stand out. But I imagine that the climate in Syria is the best today for sculpture, compared with the rest of the Arab countries, and recently, several sculptors have appeared, a good sign for the development of Syrian sculpture in the near future.

2005, Bronze, 32 x 4 x 30 cm

| What impact has the economic crisis had on Syria’s art market after its sudden development and the rise in prices it has witnessed in recent years?

| Syrian painting occupies an

The effect of the crisis has appeared only recently. When the economic crisis reached its peak abroad, the Syrian market remained active, due mainly to the

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GALLERIES. A selection of 180 international contemporary and modern art galleries.

FOCUS RUSSIA. 8 Russian galleries and the country’s main contemporary art foundations plus guest collectors invited to take part at ARCOmadrid_ 2011.

SOLO PROJECTS. A section throwing a spotlight on Latin America with projects by individual artists chosen by Luisa Duarte (Brazil), Julieta González (Venezuela) and Daniela Pérez (Mexico).

OPENING. This new programme invites young European galleries with special attention lent to emerging artist.

EXPERTS FORUM. A platform for analysis open to the public, discussing issues on the art object, its production, creation, appreciation and presentation, dedicated to collecting and Russia.

PROFESSIONAL ENCOUNTERS. A total of 6 meetings organised to coincide with ARCOmadrid_ 2011 at which renowned players in the art world can exchange ideas on projects and interact with participating galleries.

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Design & Style This winter Revolve is proud to present a new retail shop in downtown Brussels, the inspiring work of Lemonlu in London, and a new brand of bags from Slovenia.

These are all original ventures that provide glimpses into authentic products.

A 2010 start-up, Village Verve is worth a stop to shop for the latest new brands.

After a trip to Syria this fall, Lemonlu has come-out with new products that show some evident Arab influence. For those of you who have been to Damascus, these broaches and tea kettles will be reminiscent of the old city with a mix of cosmopolitan design. And for an equally classy new brand, look at the work by one of Slovenia’s leading designers, Gojka Rak, and her new collection of women’s bags.

Next summer 2011 we’ll take you south for new design & style from the shores of the Mediterranean.

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Lemonlu + REVOLVE

London

Lemonlu Lemonlu London is a chic, cosmopolitan online boutique full of eye-catching products from around the world. From jewellery and accessories to homeware, lighting and gifts, every product has a story to tell and we are passionate about sharing these with you.

Urban. Ethnic. Chic. Three words that sum up our philosophy and our range. Contemporary takes on traditional products and designs : a celebration of all that our interconnected world has to offer.

Lemonlu London Ltd 89 Honeycrock Lane Redhill RH1 5JN United Kingdom info@lemonlulondon.com +44 (0)845 060 8899 www.lemonlulondon.com

We have developed a network of talented artisans, designers and suppliers to bring you original, high quality, often hand-crafted items for you and your home. We are immensely proud of this network and collection, which can’t be found anywhere else either online or on the high street and we work hard to keep our collection fresh, unique and full of one-of-a-kind products.

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Village Verve + REVOLVE

Brussels

Village Verve 46 rue Van Artevelde 1000 Brussels Belgium +32 (0)2 207 11 11

Village Verve is a contemporary fashion boutique for women situated in the dapper Dansaert district of Brussels. We specialize in burgeoning brands that are gaining international traction, but are not broadly available in the Benelux region.

In fact, the majority of the brands are exclusively available at Village Verve!

64 rue du MarchĂŠ au Charbon 1000 Brussels Belgium +32 (0)2 513 35 03

Our product selection will appeal to the confident, multifaceted woman with a fashion-forward spirit and varied wardrobe. From city blight to city lights, from workplace reserve to nighttime verve, we bedeck both the demure and the jazzy.

www.villageverve.be

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Naramo + REVOLVE

Ljubljana

Medvedova 1 1000 Ljubljana Slovenia gojkarak@yahoo.com +386 40 688 887 www.naramo.si

Naramo A new brand of bags founded by the Slovenian designer Gojka Rak. Manufacturing leather goods is in her family tradition, but Gojka decided to branch off and create her own style. NARAMO sounds Japanese and literally means “on the shoulder” in Slovene.

Gojka Rak has been nominated for the prestigious Slovenian designer of the year award and in 2010 she participated in a contest for new shopping bags organized by ONA, the largest women’s lifestyle magazine in Slovenia: her eco-friendly bag “Eko Logika” won the best motto which makes sense for an endurable and useful product.

“I am inspired by simplicity: a simple design and basic function unifies objects. This minimalism is very convincing to me. In fact it is the guiding principal of my work. I think of women who may want to have something original and that can easily fit with their personal style. I focus on the right choice of material and colors,” Gojka explains. Her bags are all hand-made with high-quality Italian leather, sometimes combined with other materials, like wool and techno. This mix creates a diverse and unique ensemble of classy bags for women.

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REVOLVE 2011 Looking Ahead Secession of South Sudan Upcoming georgian artist The arab gas pipeline

Managing Editor : Stuart Reigeluth stuart@revolve-magazine.com

+ Energy - europe | russia | china

+ Mediterranean - water & energy

+ Country reports - india | emirates | turkey On display at top energy events around the world!

Editor-at-Large : Sijbren de Jong sijbren@revolve-magazine.com Editor-at-Large : Francesca de Châtel francesca@revolve-magazine.com

Coordinator : Barbara Pereira barbara@revolve-magazine.com

NEXT ISSUE : SUMMER 2011 Exclusive Interview : ARISTIDE ON HAITI SLOVENIA's 20 years of independence Mediterranean Design & Style

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