The land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers is said to be the cradle of civilization. Archeologists have found evidence that man gathered in cities, hunted, traded and prospered in this area that is now part of Iraq more than 7,000 years ago.
One of the single most important collections of that 7,000-year history was at the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad. On Thursday and Friday the 28 galleries of the museum were ransacked and most of its treasures looted by the newly liberated people of Iraq. Ancient stone carvings, cuneiform tablets, ceramic urns, even a solid gold harp from the Sumerian era were all taken or destroyed.
On Sunday the people of Baghdad moved on to lay waste to the National Library and Archives. First they looted then they burned, turning archives of Ottoman royalty, letters from the court of Sharif Hussein of Mecca (the man who started the Arab revolt against the Turks), and every doctoral dissertation ever written in Iraq to ash, blown away in the wind. When the vandals were done they moved on to the Library of the Korans.
Critics say U.S. soldiers did not do enough to prevent the looting and now the world has lost important records of civilization, while the Iraqi people have been stripped of some of their history.
On the other side of the world from Iraq and, given the 11 hour time difference, about the same time as the National Library and Archives was going up in flames, nearly 300 people gathered at the Westin in Whistler Saturday night to raise money for Whistler’s first permanent library and museum, a place for the literature and history of this town. The Imagination dinner and auction – one of at least eight local fundraising events between April 11 and 18 – was a big success, raising $58,000. That total, in tough economic times, is one measure of the importance people place on the proposed facility. But there is a long way to go before it is a reality.
The Whistler library/museum building has a $10 million price tag. The municipality has committed $5 million toward the construction cost but one year of fundraising for the second $5 million has produced only about $650,000, and most of that came in one donation from the Whistler-Blackcomb Foundation. It’s been obvious for a while that in the present economy raising another $4.35 million is going to be tough.
At one time it was suggested by municipal hall that the proponents of the Nita Lake Lodge project put up $3 million for the library/museum, which would have been enough to get construction going this spring. That cash contribution, plus another $2 million to retire the debt on Millennium Place, would have produced the bed units the Nita Lake Lodge proposal requires.
But polling by the Nita Lake Lodge people found much greater public support for buying a piece of John Zen’s lands near Alpha Creek, transferring the bed units from that land to the Nita Lake Lodge property at Creekside and preserving most of the Zen lands in their natural state. That is the current proposal, which will go to a public hearing April 28, so there is no new money for the library/museum building.
But clearly the present "temporary" library and museum facilities are inadequate and an embarrassment for a town that welcomes people from all over the world every day. The library’s roof leaks and insufficient space has forced the library to store part of its collection in a container. Much of the museum’s collection, meanwhile, is in the crawlspace of an unused building, infested with packrats and their feces. There aren’t any solid gold harps in there, but there are records and treasures of Whistler’s past.
So, what to do about building a proper library and museum for Whistler? The plans are under review by the municipality and a survey is being drafted to gauge public opinion. The general mood has been clear in previous surveys and was reinforced at the Imagination dinner: people want a proper library and a museum. What they are willing to pay or give up for those facilities is the question.
The options appear to be:
• Ask if there is some money available from senior levels of government (although they may also be looking at the First Nations Cultural Centre and saying there is only so much money for a building in Whistler);
• Hope there might be corporate money available after July 2 if Vancouver-Whistler is awarded the 2010 Olympics;
• Prey a donor comes along with a contribution large enough to award naming rights, as the Young family did for Maurice Young Millennium Place, to kick start fundraising efforts again;
• Review the current plans and see if construction could be done in phases and the costs spread over a longer time;
• Put other capital projects on hold and have the municipality fund the entire $10 million building;
• Go back to the drawing board and come up with plans for a less expensive building.
We aren’t dealing with 7,000 years of history or original correspondence between sheiks, but in establishing priorities we are defining who we are.
