Keeping Culture in the Warfire: Diary of Saad Eskander

I come to know Saad Eskander via the post Culture Under Siege: A Diary of Iraq's National Library by Max Magee. Saad Eskander, the director of the Iraq National Library and Archives, are rebuilding in very hard conditions the collection of the library, which has been looted during the early days of American invasion. Just image the endless violent events in Iraq, the perilous condition, the limited help of the authority and the difficulty in interacting various forces etc, the story of Saad and colleagues' sustaining the culture in the warfire is actually a heroic episode of intellectuals. If fortunately peace returns to Iraq someday in the future, we should thank them for keeping the culture from entirely disappearing.

It reminds my some Chinese heroes in Anti-Japan War and in the Culture Revolution. It is a tradition of Chinese intellectuals to protecting the Chinese culture most of because of an instinct. That is why China can have an continues of civilization history of over five thousand years.

And now I see the same instinct in Saad and his colleagues. I hope the Iraq war can damage the regime but not the culture, because the regime is of the politicians but the culture is the treasure of all Iraq people, or the human being as a whole.

Related Links:
1. Culture Under Siege: A Diary of Iraq's National Library
2. Online Diary of Saad Eskander at the British Library