VVVVOOOOLLLL....11116666 NNNNOOOO....33331111 AAAAuuuugggguuuusssstttt 11113333----11119999,,,, 2222000011110000 WWWWeeeeeeeekkkkllllyyyy

ISSN 2152-9124

TThhee WWeennddoovveerr TTiimmeess(((( 4444 3333 5555 )))) 6666 6666 5555 ---- 2222 5555 6666 3333

(((( 7777 7777 5555 )))) 6666 6666 4444 ---- 2222 1111 0000 1111 FFFF aaaa xxxx :::: (((( 4444 3333 5555 )))) 6666 6666 5555 ---- 7777 9999 6666 6666

nnnneeeewwwwssss@@@@wwwweeeennnnddddoooovvvveeeerrrr tttt iiiimmmmeeeessss .... ccccoooommmm

On Friday, ZZ Top will per-form at the PeppermillConcert Hall at 8pm. They area well known blues rock band,from the 70s. Comprising ofBilly Gibbons, Dusty Hill andFrank Beard the trio's originallineup has been intact for over40 years.

ZZ Top was inducted intothe Rock and Roll Hall ofFame on March 15, 2004. CubKoda wrote, "As genuineroots musicians, they have fewpeers; Gibbons is one ofAmerica's finest blues gui-tarists working in the hardrock idiom ... while Hill and

Beard provide the ultimaterhythm section support.” Thisshow is sold out.

Howie Mandel will take thestage on Saturday at 7pm. Heis a stand-up comedian, televi-sion host, and actor. He is wellknown as host of the NBCgame show Deal or No Deal.Before his career as a gameshow host, Mandel was bestknown for his role on the NBCmedical drama St. Elsewhere.He is also well-known forbeing the creator and star ofthe children's cartoon Bobby'sWorld. Tickets for the showstart at $25.

ZZ Top andHowie MandelPlays the Concert Hall

NUGGETWINNER

Last week at the WendoverNugget, Henry L. fromMagna, Utah, won $15,057 ona Blazing Sevens $5 progres-sive machine. He wasn’t theonly big winner at the Nugget,check out page 3.

Speed WeekStarts Saturday

Speed Week at the Bonneville Salt Flats starts on Saturday,August 14th. There are over 500 cars, trucks, bikes and streamlin-ers that will be attempting land speed records during the event. Toattend, take Exit 4 on I-80, the one that says Bonneville Speedway.The gate will be open at 7 a.m. or earlier all seven days of SpeedWeek.

Speed Week is ran by the Southern California TimingAssociation and located four miles east of Wendover, Wendover.Bonneville is the world’s oldest and largest race track.

The Wendover Timesgoes to Heidenheim,

Germany!By Deeanna Croasmun

The Wendover Times hasbeen given the opportunity totake part in a global project thatcelebrates the local newspaperas it represents unique places inthe world. As part of this proj-ect, this week’s edition of TheWendover Times will be dis-tributed in Heidenheim,Germany.

Heidenheim has a populationof about 50,000 and is the cap-ital of a small district in south-ern Germany. Heidenheim liesin the State of Baden-Wurttemberg (Capital isStuttgart, home to Mercedesand Porsche), four miles awayis the State of Bavaria (CapitalMunich, where Oktoberfestfestival is held). The city ishome to many big industrialcompanies, most of which spe-cialize in very sophisticatedmachinery. The town’s home-page is www.heidenheim.de,and there is an English transla-tion.

Two international artists,Tina O’Connell, from Ireland,and Neal White (from theUnited Kingdom) have devel-oped this art/media project tocreate a global network of localnewspapers and were awardeda prestigious public art com-mission. According toO’Connell and White, theirproposal seeks to understandhow a local newspaper repre-sents the identity of a commu-nity. Celebrating the role ofsuch cherished publications,and the way in which theyreflect local concerns, success-es, interests and culture, theproposal aims to bring manydifferent papers together fromdifferent countries, in order tohighlight the importance of thelocal paper against the back-drop of a global media space.

“We are confident that it willappeal to readers who wouldlike to gain some insight intowhat it is about the makeup ofdifferent cultural, political, eco-nomical and social context thatdefines a place, not on a grandlevel, but through a local view.By opening up other uniqueplaces in the world, we believeit will make readers reflect andcelebrate what it is that makestheir own community unique,”said White.

Newspapers from variousplaces throughout the worldhave been invited to worktogether through the localnewspaper of Heidenheim, theHeidenheimer Zletung, whichis supporting the project.According to Dr. HendrikRupp, editor of Editor ofHeidenheim Zletung, “TheWendover Times will be ourfirst Partner. Within one yearwe are planning about six toeight more partnerships.Contacts so far include localnewspapers in Iceland, Iran,India, Australia, Ukraine,Ireland and Germany. There isa small village in Bavaria, bythe name Heidenheim too, andNeal found that fantastic. Thisepisode will close this projectsomewhere in summer 2011.”

According to Dr. Rupp, thisproject was presented to theHeidenheimer Zletung as partof an art project that is put on inHeidenheim. “In 1997,Heidenheim started the artproject ‘HeidenheimerBildhauersymposion’ (whichmeans sculptors symposium). It

is held every three years, so weare now in our fifth season,called ‘Work 10’ (for 2010).

This year for the first time,artists were invited to workwith our publishing house.They were offered a quantity ofpages to fill with whatever theywanted. The artists chosenwere Neal and Tina, and ratherthan having us print their pic-tures or whatever, they present-ed us with “Where isHeidenheim” – the idea of aglobal network of local news-papers.”

In July, a large mobile signthat asks the question 'Where isHeidenheim?' was erectedinside the HeidenheimMuseum of Art. It has beenphotographed, and the image isbeing distributed to each of thenewspapers taking part. Duringthe upcoming months, they willtake turns running articles -‘Where is Heidenheim?’- intro-ducing the project. Exchangeshave begun between journalistson the Heidenheimer Zletungand the participating newspa-pers to connect them throughrelevant details to Heidenheim.

As a result of the running ofthe story in the WendoverTimes, the full page that carriesthis week’s story will be print-ed as a full page insideHeidenheimer ZIetung. Inaddition, this edition of TheWendover Times will also bedistributed to the people ofHeidenheim from a newspaperbox next to the sign for onemonth. Currently the sign isindoors, but it is scheduled tobe moved outdoors at a laterdate.

Over 12 months, O’Connelland White hope that they willbe able to include local news-papers from around the world,in their own languages, andculminating in an exhibition ofthe papers and a reading roomin the Town Hall ofHeidenheim. This readingroom is expected to includeother researched materialsincluding maps, books by localauthors, school projects, corre-spondence etc. At the end of 12months, a final dispatch thatsummarizes the project will beavailable.

Stay tuned to upcoming edi-tions for more details on “TheWendover Times goes toHeidenheim, Germany.”

Where is Heidenheim?

Wendover Airport DirectorJim Petersen was invited tospeak at an educational sympo-sium on the island of Tinian thispast week during the 65thanniversary of the first atomicbomb to be used in a war. Thesymposium was held to tellabout some of the placesinvolved in the ManhattanProject. The speakers were Dr.Roger Meade who discussed"The Creation of the LosAlamos Laboratory", Dr.Anderson Giles who presented"The 509th CompositeBombardment Group", Mrs.Nancy Bartlit who talked about"The Growth of Los Alamos",Jim Petersen who presented"Wendover Field: Home of the509th" and John Coster-Mullenwho talked about "Little Boyand Fat Man". Don Farrell ofTinian spoke about"Demobilization". MajorGeneral Douglas Owens, ViceCommander of the PacificAirForces,

Col. Tod Finfgal, ViceCommander, 39th Wing attend-ed and General Carrol "Howie"Chandler, Vice Chief of Staff,USAF, also spoke.

Petersen took his two sons,Tom and Mark, on the trip toTinian Island. They toured theareas where the 509th Groupwere with the B-29 “Enola Gay”Bomber. They saw the bombpits that loaded the atomicbombs. Those pits are onlyfound in two places, Wendoverand Tinian Island. As historygoes, the B-29 Bomber leftWendover in July 0f 1945, head-ing for Tinian Island in thePacific. On August 6th, 1945,they flew from Tinian Island todrop the first atomic bomb onHiroshima, Japan. Three dayslater a second bomb wasdropped on Nagasaki, theJapanese surrendered and WorldWar II was over.

Today, Petersen is in chargeof restoring the Enola GayHangar at the Wendover Airport.

Airport Director Visits Tinian Islandon Atomic Bomb 65th Anniversary

Drag Racing - SundayOn Sunday, August 15th, Wendover Raceway will open at 12

noon for a day of drag racing down the quarter mile track. Allhot rods and street cars are invited to race side-by-side at theevent.

The weather is expected to be sunny, clear and 90 degress forthe day. See www.wendoverraceway.com for more info.

The Sixth CasinoThe sixth casino in Wendover, Nevada, is the Pilot Casino,

located inside the Pilot Travel Center. With its recent expansion,the Pilot Casino now has 90 slot machines. It is open 24 hours aday but it doesn’t have any hotel rooms like the five big casinos.

According to Pilot Casino General Manager Ryan Albright,“We do have some very special slot machines, like the new ‘Sexand the City’ game. It’s the only one in town and it gets twice theplay of any game on our floor. It’s a multi-level progressive withmultiple bonus rounds.”

The travel center and the Pilot Casino are on Wendover Boulevardright across the street from the Red Garter Hotel Casino.

� Limerick Leader, Saturday, March 26 2011 www.limerickleader.ie

St Patrick’s Day parades

Small village enjoys big, green parade

Children from The Cute and Clever Kids Creche leading the way at the Castleconnell St Patrick’s Day parade

Pictures: Dave Gaynor

BE GREEN and think green was the theme of the St Patrick’s Day parade in Castleconnell and villages throughout Ireland are green with envy at the size of their parade.

Fittingly, Ahane GAA players won the “Most Green” category as they were resplendent in their green jerseys. Mary Gleeson, chairperson of the Ahane/ Castleconnell/Montpelier Community Centre said there were between 300 and 400 participants.

“Castleconnell Scouts’ colour party led off the parade from the Castle Oaks House Hotel to great applause. Matt McCormack was a brilliant St Patrick and he led a big mixture of different groups including St John’s Brass and Reed band, who performed in the city parade earlier; Ray Hogan’s martial artists; creches; Limerick Youth Service; young sports stars; Castleconnell Drama Group and many more. Everyone looked magnificent. It was the most enjoyable parade to date,” said Mary. The parade was also recession friendly as it was to free to take part in it.

“In these times we didn’t charge anything, whether it was a commercial float or otherwise. We just thought let them come down and promote their wares,” said Mary.

Over 2,000 clapped and applauded as the parade went in to the village and finished up near the SuperValu. The fun wasn’t over then either as children had the chance to win Easter eggs. Mrs Gleeson is already thinking about next year’s parade and says all ideas are welcome.

CaStleConnell

Donal o’regan

Erin Burke, Safi, Tara and Gaudi Trepel, and Grace Burke keeping an eye on the parade

ACM Kidz School decked out in green before heading off for the Castleconnell parade

Future GAA stars from Ahane having a ball as they march on Castleconnell

Bandits on the loose! Tristan O’Sullivan, Kathlyn Coleman and Robert Bourke had a great day

TRANSATLANTIC rower Sean McGowan spent his second consecutive St Patrick’s Day cooped up in his 24-foot boat Tess but the circumstances couldn’t have been more different for the Farranshone man.

Sean was over halfway across the ocean when he celebrated St Patrick’s Day “with a gone-off Mars Bar” last year. For 2011, he and Tess were hoisted along O’Connell Street as Sean was one of five local sporting heroes who led the parade as grand marshals. Sean was joined by rugby’s John Hayes, hurling’s Gary Kirby, hockey’s Eimear Cregan and soccer’s Eoin Hand.

But it was the youngsters from Limerick’s various GAA, rugby and other sporting clubs who took pride of place as Limerick celebrated its year as European City of Sport. They were among over 4,600 participants who took part in a colourful parade from O’Connell Avenue to Merchant’s Quay, making it the country’s biggest in terms of participation. It was also the biggest in the country outside of Dublin in terms of the crowds who came out to watch - 70,000 in all.

“It was a fantastic parade truly showcasing the best of Limerick sport and our hundreds of community groups who put in such a wonderful effort with their imaginative floats,” said Mayor Maria Byrne. “We were blessed with the weather and the thousands of spectators on the streets really enjoyed themselves.”

See letteRS, PaGe 16

Mike Dwane

Linda Ledger, manager of the St Munchin’s community centre, leads her little parade goers down O’Connell Street Pictures: owen south anD aDrian ButLer

Sporting Limerick has real ballnLimerick hosts Ireland’s second largest parade as over 70,000 people line the streetslimeRiCk City

Princesses for the day were Sarah Quinlan, Kayleigh O’Dwyer and Seana Looney, Carew Park

Garrowen rugby club members, Fergus Sheehan and Danny Lenihan lining out for a great cause

Jack Enright with his grandson Jack Enright junior, Clonlara part of the Eco Warm float

Anthony and Laurel Mackessey, Rhebogue and Leanne Curtis, Garryowen having a great day

Little miss sunshine Aine Carr gets a perfect view of the parade thanks to Conrad Ryan

Ross Keogh, Dooradoyle and Callum Clancy, WestonBrothers Adam and Aaron McCormack, Ballysheedy, enjoying the parade in Limerick city

Hats off to Leah, Kathleen and Stephanie Bourke, Thomondgate, who were in a festive mood

Gabrielle and Mairead Steed, Rearcross

Young at heart: James Crowe, Dublin Road

Yodith Moloney, Ashbrook enjoying his view

Wayne Kearns and Alex Houlihan, Caherdavin

Glen Noonan, Carew Park; Abbie Quinlan, Jamie Murphy Quinlan and Alannah Kiely, all of Carew Park

THIS very page of the Limerick Leader’s City edition, featuring a wealth of colourful pictures of local people enjoying St Patrick’s Day, will be reproduced in full in the pages of the Heidenheimer Zeitung, a local daily newspaper based in southern Germany.

The question of whether the world is truly a globally connected place was the springboard for this cross-cultural newspaper exchange, as Limerick woman, Tina O’Connell, an artist living and working in London, developed the ‘Where is Heidenheim?’ project at the invitation of Penelope Curtis, the director of the Tate Britain.

Tasked to submit a proposal for a sculpture biennale in Germany, Tina began to examine “the idea that we think we are globally connected”.

Along with fellow London-based artist Neal White, Tina was invited to essentially develop a

public art commission for the pages of a local newspaper, and selected the Heidenheimer Zeitung.

The results have been impressive; working with other regional newspapers around the world, Tina has developed the project to the point that full pages from newspapers around the globe have been carried in the Heidenheimer Zeitung, as will this page of the Limerick Leader that you are now reading.

“I had never heard of Heidenhem before, didn’t know anything about it - so that is where the tagline ‘Where is Heidenhem?’ came from,” explained Tina.

“We did a bit of research and we put together a proposal focusing on the idea of being globally connected.

“We decided on the simple idea of trying to get local newspapers from around the world to give a page of their copy to the Heidenheimer Zeitung, meaning readers in

Germany will get to read a complete page from these other newspapers,” she added. Newspapers from Utah and India have already been involved, while it is hoped that Icelandic and Lebanese papers will also co-operate with the project.

With an average daily readership of 33,000, Heidenheim citizens will now see this page reproduced in full in their local paper, as well as receiving a shipment of several hundred Limerick Leader City editions. We hope they enjoy them!

Mayor of Limerick, Maria Byrne - the city’s 814th first citizen - believes the initiative is an “immensely positive one” and sent warm greetings and an invitation to the citizens of Heidenheim to visit Limerick.

“We have a fabulous city here and we are European City of Sport 2011 and we would be delighted to welcome our new German readers to Limerick any time,” said Mayor Byrne.

‘Where is Heidenheim?’ project links newspapersalan owens

The Heidenheimer Zeitung newspaper office in Germany: the paper is participating in a cross-cultural exchange with the Limerick Leader

The cottage where Field Marshall Sir William Slim lived and planned his “Defeatinto Victor” turnaround for the Allied troops in the battle for Imphal and Kohimain 1944 against the advancing Japanese Imperial army.

A temple of the indigenous faith Sanamahiinside Kangla. Most followers of the faith arenow Hindus. The major religions in Manipurare Hinduism, Christianity and Islam.

A view of the underbellyof the flyover that cuts theImphal city centre verti-cally into two.

A polo player leads his ponies out of the Mapal Kangjeibung pologround after a match on March 1, 2011 afternoon. Modern polooriginated in Manipur, the capital of which is Imphal. The traditional game of Sagol Kangjei (hockey on horseback) was picked up fromManipur by British administrators in the 19th Century and modernised.

The western gate of Kangla, the seat of power of erstwhile sovereign kingdom of Manipur.Manipur was annexed into the Indian Union in 1949 under controversial circumstanceswhen the then king Bodhachandra was kept under house arrest in Shillong where he hadgone on an official visit and forced to sign the Merger Agreement on October 15, 1949.

Two girls pose before the graves of Allied soldiers killed in Imphal during the battle forImphal. There are two such war graves in Imphal maintained by the Commonwealth WarGraves Fund. There are also one in Kohima in Nagaland, one in Guwahati and another inJorhat, both in Assam.

A scene of Paona Bazarin Imphal which is domi-nated by Chinese madegoods brought fromacross the border on theNational Highway 39.This highway is envis-aged to become part ofthe planned Asian High-way soon.

Unused World War-II airport at Koirengei in an Imphal suburb. There are five suchwartime airports in the Imphal valley.A familiar landmark now overshadowed by a

flyover. The statue of King Bheigyachandrataming the legendary Tekhao elephant.

These pictures are a part of a public art project, “WHERE IS HEIDENHEIM?”based in the Heidenheim Zietung, a local newspaper of Hedienheim in Germany.The project format was developed by artists Tina O’Connell from Ireland andNeal White from the United Kingdom. Connecting globally many ‘local newspa-

pers’, the project occupies public space as an exploration of the connection be-tween a community and its own printed voice. The first link paper to take part inthe exchange with Heidenheim Zietung in August 2010 was ‘The Wendover Times’from Utah in the USA. Imphal Free Press is the next stop.

RTE: winds of change or a passing breeze?RTE: winds of change or a passing breeze?RTE: winds of change or a passing breeze?RTE: winds of change or a passing breeze?RTE: winds of change or a passing breeze?The topic of education

in Manipur has various layers of complexi-

ties considering the way alleducational institutions getsaffected by the cycle ofbandhs, curfews, schoolclosures etc. On one hand

is the apathy that exists inGovernment schools whereteachers hanker after in-crease in their salary struc-tures while on the otherhand we have privateschools mushroomingaround us. The irony lies in

the fact that teachers in theprivate sector are grosslyunderpaid, and work overtime while the standard ofeducation in Governmentschools is such that parentswho teach in Governmentschools actually send theirchildren to the private runschools! Yet, every privateschool is not the answer toputting in value in educa-tion. There have been manycases where schools havebeen set up and vanishwithin less than a year; ofschools running withoutany recognition and floutingnorms etc.

Yet, with school academicsessions just around thecorner, most parents who arelooking towards the schooladmissions of their childrenwould be busy keeping awatch on admission normsand procedures. Schools ontheir part, but specificallyprivate run institutions arebusy running advertise-ments in various media formsto hold the attention of theparents. It has long been anorm for young children tobe submitted to entrancelevel examinations. But postApril 1, 2010 it may not bethe same anymore for privateschools.

April 1, 2010 was whenthe Right of Children to Free

FOOTNOTESFROMA DIARYChitra Ahanthem

and Compulsory EducationAct or Right to EducationAct (RTE), came into effectafter it was passed by theIndian parliament on 4 Au-gust 2009. The Act providesfor free and compulsory edu-cation for children between6 and 14 in India. It has itsshare of social protection forchildren of weaker sectionsand those with special needswith the Act specifying thatthe State must even providefor transportation supportfor such children. One inter-esting feature is the specifi-cation that every schoolmust have a school manage-ment committee in place thatis to be comprised of par-ents (75%) and the remain-ing being teachers, commu-nity leaders, education ex-perts etc. The Act also putsthe impetus on the state toensure that parents sendtheir children, which is ob-viously aimed at keepingchildren who do labour. Todo this, the Act specifiesthat no extra fees will betaken from children inschools as capitationcharges (exam fees, labora-tory fees and others).

In the context of Manipurwhere academic sessions areaffected by the regular cycleof bandhs, strikes, curfewsand school shutdowns thanks

to the fragile law and ordersituation in the state, parentsand guardians have looked atthe easy way out by encour-aging private classes, alsoknown as “tutions”. The RTEAct bans teachers working ingovernment or private el-ementary schools are bannedfrom taking private classes.But mostly, while Governmentschools looks set to have theirinfrastructure resources beingupgraded it is the privateschools that will have theirwings clipped. They can nolonger subject a child to testsor interviews for admissions,which will now have to bebased on random selection.

The RTE provisionscover quite a lot of groundand one column will not suf-fice to cover every bit of it.For now though, we canbegin by looking at theManipur context of how theAct needs to be imple-mented and ensured. Thefirst mandate for the StateGovernment would be to geton board the various Stu-dent groups and civil soci-ety organizations asstakeholders towards ensur-ing the right to education.Unless there is a consensusthat education be left out ofthe sphere of disturbancesthat happen in the state, theAct will not really transfer

into anything of value.Schools and school stu-dents have borne the bruntof various politicalagitations in the state so farevery year. The 3 monthlong shut down of schoolsin 2009 is a case in pointhere.

An important inclusion ofthe Act is the ban on cor-poral punishment in schoolsand that students cannot bedetained or expelled. Butwhat of violence among stu-dents? I will make my pointby illustrating with the ex-ample of a private school inManipur, (the school will notbe named) which has par-ents as the mainstakeholders and part of themanagement board. Thisexample will reflect what canwell happen in every schoolwhen School ManagementCommittees with parents asmain stakeholders come intoeffect: a student beat up an-other student to the pointthat the second student suf-fered from concussions anda broken nose. The childwho was involved in thebeating had been implicatedin other acts of violenceagainst other students in thepast and the school head de-cided on expulsion. Theschool managing board didnot allow this to happen and

the head of the school re-signed followed by otherteachers.

The question here is notwhether the school headshould have expelled thechild in the first place butwhat the school board wasdoing when the earlier casesof student violence hadbeen reported. Would teach-ers have to pay every timesuch cases came to light?Just as every child has aright to free education, everystudent has the right to be-ing in a safe environment inschool. Unless there isstrong support system oftrained counsellors atschools to look into mattersof student violence andother juvenile behaviour,keeping a rein on disciplinaryaction may affect the moraleamong teachers.

End-point:Education is a huge in-

vestment for the future andall stakeholders have toensure that the opportuni-ties that the RTE gives tothe citizens of the country,but specially its young citi-zens are properlychannelized. Having saidthat, the gaps in the Actand its application to thelocal context of Manipurneed to be looked at thor-oughly.

Rebuilding Myanma...Rebuilding Myanma...Rebuilding Myanma...Rebuilding Myanma...Rebuilding Myanma...from previous pagegeopolitical as well as stra-

tegic points of view. On theIndian side terrorism pronestates like Arunachal, Nagaland,Manipur and Mizoram shareborder with Myanmar. Theproblem of insurgency andeconomic underdevelopment inthis region cannot be ad-dressed adequately withoutIndia's cooperation withMyanmar on these issues.

Indo- Myanmar relationshipis also significant due to India'semphasis on Look East Policy.Growing Myanmar China rela-tions may affect India's improv-ing our relations with Myanmar.

Bangladesh needs to takeextra caution and subtle diplo-matic policy as some interna-tional political analysts say thatMyanmar cannot be trustedwith sensible pacific intensions.If it were otherwise, then itwould not push into Bangla-desh as many as 3000000 Mus-lims of Myanmar origin from itArakan state in 1988 after inflict-ing tortures on them in a man-ner not much different from theethnic cleansing of the Muslimsin Bosnia by the Serbs. Theyattribute to the fact thatMyanmar is no democracy or apluralistic society where clamourfor human rights, adherence tointernational norms and stand-ards have any chance of a pa-tient observance. It is one of the

few Stalinist type bastions of to-talitarian governance in theworld today. Ruled by a bunchof xenophobic generals whoseinstincts are further faced byugly racialism? Myanmar todayis pariah state in the internationalsense. But the country has thelargest military in south eastAsia and the fanaticism of itsleaders to be guided by no rea-son in dealing with outsiders.And these dealing make it dan-gerous for any neigbouringcountry to be tangled in bitterconfrontation with it.

But the highest stress onBangladesh's part to counterMyanmar's aggressivenessshould be put on diplomacy.China has the greatest influenceon Myanmar at present.

China also is a friend ofBangladesh. Bangladesh mustuse its China card to restrainthe generals in Rangoon fromindulging in any misadventureagainst it. It should also seekto apply all other forms of in-ternational pressure onMyanmar to rethink its aggres-sive plans against Bangladesh.But everything should bedone in peaceful, ingeniousand subtle ways. The re-nowned nineteenth centuryAmerican columnist and ora-tor Wendel l Phillips said, "Eter-nal vigilance is the price of lib-erty". Bangladesh must under-stand its meaning.

Imphal Free Press IMPHAL, SUNDAY, MARCH 6, 2011 PAGE 2

3 العدد 17 • حزيران 2011

Where is Beirut? What is Beirut? These questions bring to mind many contradictions and many conflicting definitions. At once we are Mediterranean, Arab, Lebanese, Armenian, Palestinian, Sri Lankan, Filipino, Ethiopian, Phoenician, people of the Mountain, people of the Sea, Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, and at once this city is an idea, a home, a refuge, a workplace, and a reality.

“The city that would not die: Beirut is as raw as the soul of a teenager, that easily enters your heart,” photographer Lara Zankoul once said. And she forgot to mention, it’s as whimsical، radical، angry and as prone to love affairs and violence as that teenager as well.

We all have “our Beirut” and our own version of this crazy city, but maybe the one thing that unites us all is how sad it makes us how little people outside of Lebanon understand this place. American intellectuals have proclaimed that the “world is flat,” and yet when I fly to Istanbul, less than two hours away, I am met with shocked, confused looks when I explain where I’m coming from. Maybe this place is flat, but we still have a lot to learn from and about each other.

So, ÒW here is Heidenheim?ÓThe “Where is Heidenheim?” project was originally started by visual

artists Tina O’Connell from Ireland and Neal White from the United Kingdom as a way to examine global interconnectivity and the role of local media. As a part of the project, in a partner city a page will be written about the project in the local newspaper and this page will be simultaneously printed as part of the Heidenheim Zietung, the newspaper of the small town of Heidenheim, Germany.

The artists explain the project by pointing to the immaterial nature of communication in the contemporary world and the desire to create linkages between people who otherwise might never be aware of one another. As Neal White explains on his website, “the work occupies physical space globally and locally” and is “both material and immaterial, an event structure for a contemporary world.”

The project also offers a glimpse into local identity construction and presentation, for we decided to include photographs that asked our new friends in Heidenheim a question back: “Ayna Beirut?” We sought to envision our metropolis through the eyes of its inhabitants and so asked the Hibr team to take a picture of what reflects “Beirut” to them. We all know our beloved city; now is our chance to try and explain to people who sometimes feel a world away from our “teenage” city.

Genießen, Heidenheim!

Alex Shams

Top left photo by: "Where is Heidenheim?" organizersRest of the photos by Hibr Lubnani in different parts of lebanon

3 العدد 17 • حزيران 2011

The question of whether the world is truly a globally connected place was the springboard for this cross-cultural newspaper exchange, as Tina O'Connell, an artist living and working in London, developed the 'Where is Heidenheim?' project at the invitation of Penelope Curtis, the director of the Tate Britain.

Tasked to submit a proposal for a sculpture biennale in Germany, Tina began to examine the "idea that we think we are globally connected".

Along with fellow London-based artist Neal White, Tina was invited to essentially develop a public art commission for the pages of a local newspaper and selected Heiden-heimer Zeitung.

The results have been impressive, working with other regional newspapers around the world, Tina has developed the project to the point that full pages from newspapers around the globe have been carried in the Heidenheimer Zeitung as will this page of the Tasmanian Country that you are now reading.

"I have never heard of Heidenheim before, didn’t know anything about it - so that is where the tagline ‘Where is Heidenhem?’ came from,” explained Tina.

“We did a bit of research and we put together a proposal focusing on the idea of being globally connected. “We decided on the simple idea of trying to get local newspa-pers from around the world to give a page of their copy to the Heidenheimer Zeitung, meaning readers in Germany will get to read a complete page from these other newspapers,” she added. Newspapers from Utah and India have already been involved, while it is hoped that Icelandic and Lebanese papers will also co-operate with the project. With an average daily readership of 33,000, Heidenheim citizens will now see this page reproduced in full in their local paper, as well as receiving a shipment of several hundred Tasmanian Country editions. We hope they enjoy them!

Rex Gardner, Chief Executive Officer of Davies Brothers Pty Limited, publisher of the Mercury, Sunday Tasmanian, the Tasmanian Country and the Gazette believes the initiative is an “immensely positive one” and sent warm greetings and an invitation to the citizens of Heidenheim to visit the beautiful countryside of Tasmania. “We have a fabulous city with some wonderful history of our own and we would be delighted to welcome our new German readers to Tasmania any time". said Rex Gardner.

'Where isHeidenheim?'project linksnewspapers

The Heidenheimer Zeitung newspaper office in Germany: the paper is participating in a cross-cultural exchange with the Tasmanian Country