2008.02.13: February 13, 2008: Headlines: COS - Togo: Writing - Togo: Journalism: Drama: Iraq: Time Out: The subject of Packer’s melancholy drama is a group that has been covered less assiduously in the national media: the Iraqis who actually did welcome and assist the U.S., and were hung out to dry in the hard winds of anti-American reaction
Peace Corps Online:
Directory:
Togo:
Special Report: RPCV George Packer (Togo):
2008.08.24: August 24, 2008: Headlines: COS - Togo: Writing - Togo: Journalism: Leader-Telegram: George Packer says he prefers being the only visiting journalist in town to joining the media herd that follows candidates and probes their staffers for new nuggets of inside information:
2008.08.22: August 22, 2008: Headlines: COS - Togo: Writing - Togo: Journalism: Drama: Iraq: Sun-Sentinel.com: Based on his reportage for The New Yorker, George Packer has written a moving if unsubtle play about the Iraqis who worked for Americans in the early years of occupation :
2008.02.13: February 13, 2008: Headlines: COS - Togo: Writing - Togo: Journalism: Drama: Iraq: Time Out: The subject of Packer’s melancholy drama is a group that has been covered less assiduously in the national media: the Iraqis who actually did welcome and assist the U.S., and were hung out to dry in the hard winds of anti-American reaction
The subject of Packer’s melancholy drama is a group that has been covered less assiduously in the national media: the Iraqis who actually did welcome and assist the U.S., and were hung out to dry in the hard winds of anti-American reaction
Based on a 15,000-word report that Packer wrote last March, Betrayed follows several Iraqi translators—the even-tempered Adnan (Zuaiter), the eager Laith (Greene) and the beautiful young Intisar (Aadya Bedi)—as they negotiate labyrinths of American utilitarianism and indifference, with limited help from their sympathetic boss (Mike Doyle) at the defensive American embassy. Inevitably, much of the dialogue is expositional; but although Packer tactfully omits some of his essay’s more terrifying details of sectarian violence, the play has a sobering impact, and is rendered with solemn dignity by director Pippin Parker and his capable cast. One leaves sharing the translators’ frustration at the supposed saviors who brought freedom’s door to Iraq, then guarded it against entry. Journalist George Packer served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Togo.
The subject of Packer’s melancholy drama is a group that has been covered less assiduously in the national media: the Iraqis who actually did welcome and assist the U.S., and were hung out to dry in the hard winds of anti-American reaction
Betrayed
Culture Project. By George Packer. Dir. Pippin Parker. With Waleed F. Zuaiter, Sevan Greene. 1hr 45mins. No intermission.
Caption: OREIGN SERVICE Zuaiter, left, and Greene, right, try to help to the U.S. Army. Photograph: Carol Rosegg
Even the most vociferous defender of the war in Iraq would have to concede that the White House’s sales pitch for the invasion was substantially off the mark: The Iraqis were supposed to greet American soldiers with open arms, not concealed weapons. Journalist George Packer has slogged through the quag in a series of articles for The New Yorker, where he is a staff writer; now he has distilled some of his findings into his first play. Its title, Betrayed, could apply to any number of treacheries related to the war: the hoodwinking of the American public, for instance, or the maltreatment of veterans at Walter Reed. But the subject of Packer’s melancholy drama is a group that has been covered less assiduously in the national media: the Iraqis who actually did welcome and assist the U.S., and were hung out to dry in the hard winds of anti-American reaction.
Based on a 15,000-word report that Packer wrote last March, Betrayed follows several Iraqi translators—the even-tempered Adnan (Zuaiter), the eager Laith (Greene) and the beautiful young Intisar (Aadya Bedi)—as they negotiate labyrinths of American utilitarianism and indifference, with limited help from their sympathetic boss (Mike Doyle) at the defensive American embassy. Inevitably, much of the dialogue is expositional; but although Packer tactfully omits some of his essay’s more terrifying details of sectarian violence, the play has a sobering impact, and is rendered with solemn dignity by director Pippin Parker and his capable cast. One leaves sharing the translators’ frustration at the supposed saviors who brought freedom’s door to Iraq, then guarded it against entry.
—Adam Feldman
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Headlines: February, 2008; RPCV George Packer (Togo); Peace Corps Togo; Directory of Togo RPCVs; Messages and Announcements for Togo RPCVs; Writing - Togo; Journalism; Iraq
When this story was posted in August 2008, this was on the front page of PCOL:
Peace Corps Online The Independent News Forum serving Returned Peace Corps Volunteers
| Dodd vows to filibuster Surveillance Act Senator Chris Dodd vowed to filibuster the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that would grant retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies that helped this administration violate the civil liberties of Americans. "It is time to say: No more. No more trampling on our Constitution. No more excusing those who violate the rule of law. These are fundamental, basic, eternal principles. They have been around, some of them, for as long as the Magna Carta. They are enduring. What they are not is temporary. And what we do not do in a time where our country is at risk is abandon them." |
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Story Source: Time Out
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Togo; Writing - Togo; Journalism; Drama; Iraq
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