It’s interesting to note that Eddie Jones, now a national hero here, seems certain to hold on to his coaching position, in the short-term at least. Over the ditch, John Mitchell’s job is up for grabs. But look at the records of the two coaches: one has a hugely favourable win/loss ratio while the other doesn’t and one has claimed two key trophies off the other. Eddie isn’t on the winning side of either equation.
In fact, Eddie’s trophy cabinet is now bare: no Webb Ellis trophy, no Bledisloe and no Tri-nations. Mitchell brought two of those home this year.
Funny ol’ world, innit?
Mitchell may have his issues with the media and there are rumours of “dark forces” being at work, but we should maybe remember Clive Woodward got six years to get Dad’s Army into shape to win this thing.
Anyway, talking about empty cabinets, I was tripping around the web the other day and, being a bit of an archeology geek (sad, I know), came across this interview with the US officer in charge of investigating the looting of the Baghdad Museum. Colonel Matthew F Bogdanos reports on what’s still missing:
“You have the public gallery, with what people call the display quality items. Originally 40 items were taken from there, and we've recovered 11, so there are 29 missing. Turning then to the storage rooms, there were about 3,150 pieces taken from those, and that's almost certainly by random, indiscriminant looters. Of those, we've recovered about 2,700. So there's about 400 of those pieces, excavated pieces, missing from the storage rooms.
“The final group is from the basement. The basement is what we have been calling the inside job. And I will say it forever, like a mantra: it is inconceivable to me that the basement was breached and the items stolen without an intimate insider's knowledge of the museum. From there about 10,000 pieces were taken. We've only recovered 650, approximately. Right now, the total number missing is 10,100, total.”
So, it’s around 13,000 items looted with 10,000 still missing. In addition a large number of items were smashed. And you know what that means folks! Yes, it’s time for more choice cuts from our friends at NZ Pundit! This from Craig Ranapia suggesting just 25 items were missing:
Yes 13,000 is a bit down on the original 170,000 misreported (that was the number of items in the museum in total). But 25? Sorry Craig, 13,000 is the correct figure with most of that, the stuff in the basement, suspected by US investigators as an inside job.
And while John Mitchell may be fighting some dark forces, that's nothing compared with what's going on here. Why did Iraqis wreck their own culture? Well, in the case of the basement they appear to have been paid to do it. Some say it was an inside job planned before the war even started, an inside job done to order, an inside job planned from outside Iraq.
That's why so few of these items have been recovered, why so many have left the country so quickly and are now turning up in places such as the US and Italy.
Who on earth would do that sort of thing? This from the Spectator.
“Stealing a country’s physical history, its archaeological remains, has become the world’s third biggest organised racket, after drugs and guns.
"There are those who argue that it shouldn’t need to be illegal at all. There are those who say, look, the free market should operate here. Why shouldn’t a private collector be allowed to buy an antiquity and keep it in his bathroom, maybe next to the bidet, or as a tasteful holder for the Toilet Duck, if he wishes to do so, and if both he and the seller are happy with the price?
"You will not be surprised to hear that many of those who argue this way are American. You may not be surprised, either, that shortly before the invasion of Iraq, and with the spoils of war on their mind, some of these people formed themselves into a lobbying organisation called the American Council for Cultural Policy (ACCP). This group want a ‘relaxation’ of Iraq’s tight restrictions on the ownership and export of antiquities. They object to what they call Iraq’s ‘retentionist’ policy towards its archaeological treasures. (I love the pejorative use of the word ‘retentionist’ in this context; ‘Goddam sand-niggers want to retain all their history!’)”
Yes, what the world really needs is a free market in antiquities.
While some try to deny the museum looting ever happened or to minimise it, or say it was Iraqis trashing their own heritage, the questions of who looted the basement and who was behind them remains wide open.
And this is cold comfort: “The rumour that the US is planning to “liberalise” Iraq’s tough laws on the export of antiquities, widely reported in the international press, derived from a meeting in Washington on 24 January between the American Council for Cultural Policy (a privately funded association of collectors and lawyers) and Pentagon and State Department officials.
"The council’s treasurer, William Pearlstein, was later quoted in the US magazine Science as describing Iraq’s laws as “retentionist”, and he wanted to see “some objects certified for export.”
"American Council for Cultural Policy president Ashton Hawkins told The Art Newspaper that what Mr Pearlstein had done was to voice his personal opinion after the meeting, and that this, did not represent council policy. He insisted that “there had been no discussion of Iraqi law” at the Washington meeting. “Changes to the present law of 1936 (amended in 1974-75) would in any case be impossible before the establishment of a new democratically elected government.
"Under international law, an occupying power can only alter laws on humanitarian or public order grounds. Nevertheless, the fact that Metropolitan Museum director Mr de Montebello is now suggesting that international museums should participate in new archaeological excavations and receive export licences suggest that Mr Pearlstein’s views would enjoy some support.”
But that assumes the US will respect the Haig Convention, which it has signed. Unfortunately it is flouting it all over the show, introducing new taxes (and in the process flouting its own founding principal that there should be “no taxation without representation”), privatizing state assets, and trying to lock these changes down before the Iraqi people get a chance to express their democratic wishes.
That’s the American way of democracy. It's called crony capitalism.
Sigh.