CONTACT CAROLINE
facebook
rss
tumblr
twitter
goodreads
youtube

  • Home
  • Write Away Blog
  • Books
    • Books
    • Trompe l’Oeil
    • Heart Land
    • Gothic Spring
    • Ballet Noir
    • Book Excerpts
  • Video Interviews
  • Press
    • News
    • Print Interviews
    • Plays
    • Ballet Noir in the Press
    • Trompe l’Oeil In The Press
    • Gothic Spring In The Press
    • Heart Land Reviews
  • Contact
  • About
  • Resources
    • Writer Resources
    • Favorite Blogs
    • Favorite Artists



Syria’s Monuments Men

May 15, 2015
by Caroline Miller
Bryan Schatz, Isis, looting cultural treasures, Syria's Monuments Men
0 Comment

“Next to oil, looting is the best-paying sector for Isis…” admits Michael Danti of the U. S. State Department Syrian Heritage initiative.  (“Syria’s Monuments Men” by Bryan Schatz, Mother Jones, May/June 2015, pg. 12.)   What the terrorists don’t destroy, they allow looters to carry off for a fee or a khums, as it’s called under “a Shariah provision that requires individuals to pay the state a percentage of the value of any treasure taken from the ground.” (Ibid, pg. 12.)  In one province alone this policy has garnered Isis in Syria $36 million dollars. (Ibid, pg 12.)

 According to Danti, these artifacts are purchased by dealers who can afford to sit on their treasure for years until the provenance is forgotten.  By selling valued artifacts,  Isis achieves two objectives.  It raises money to buy weapons and it demoralizes a country by robbing it of its cultural heritage.  Working against their objectives are Syria’s Monuments Men who, for the past two years, have been risking their lives to salvage treasures in their war torn country.  The Obama administration has helped by banning the sale of Syrian art objects. 

 Despite the best intentions of honorable people, saving Syria’s treasures seems to be a losing game.  Still, a perverse good derives from the looters’ work.  In their hunger for profits, they are saving antiquities that might be destroyed by the war.  Eventually, these treasures will find their way into one of the major museums in the world.  Should peace ever come to Syria, a new battle will begin over who owns these cultural pieces.  (Blog 2/26/15.)  

In the worst of times, the evil that men do may have  good outcomes.  As I noted in yesterday’s blog, life is not lived in shades of black and white.  Ours is a complex world.

Syria's Monuments Men

Syria’s Monuments Men Courtesy of www.motherjones.com

 

Social Share

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

*
*

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Contact Caroline at

carolinemiller11@yahoo.com

Portland, Oregon author Caroline Miller had distinguished careers as an educator, union president, elected official and artist/advocate.

Her play, Woman on the Scarlet Beast, was performed at the Post5 Theatre, Portland, OR, January/February 2015

Caroline published a serialized novelette, Marie Eau-Claire, on the website, The Colored Lens.  She also published the story Gustav Pavel,  a parable about ordinary lives, choice and alternate potential, on the website Fixional.co.

Caroline has published four novels

  • Ballet Noir
  • Trompe l’Oeil
  • Gothic Spring
  • Heart Land

Subscribe to Caroline’s Blog


 

Archives

Categories

YouTube-logo-inline2 To access and subscribe to my videos on YouTube, Click Here and click the Subscribe button.

Banner art “The Receptive” by Charlie White of Charlie White Studio

Web Admin: ThinPATH Systems, Inc
support@tp-sys.com

Subscribe to Caroline's Blog


 

Contact Caroline at

carolinemiller11@yahoo.com

Sitemap | Privacy Notice

AUDIO & VIDEO VAULT

View archives of Caroline’s audio and videos interviews.


Copyright © Books by Caroline Miller