The Guardian newspaper recently printed an article by Stuart Jeffries about Saad Eskander, the director general of the Iraqi national library and archives. A former soldier in the Kurdish Resistance Movement, Eskander returned to Baghdad after years of exile in Britain because he wished to have a role in the rebuilding of his country. In his current job he is helping to create a base of knowledge and culture that he hopes will assist in unifying and healing his homeland. It is a job full or frustration and peril, the frustration coming from the loss of material through theft, looting, or the simple removing of documents without permission (including a large number of documents taken by the U.S. military and the CIA). Yet through it all, Eskander remains hopeful about his country's future and the role he can play in building that future.
This remarkable article about a remarkable person can be found here.
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