The Foreign Service Journal, November 2005

In a Sept. 4 speech in Bayou Le Batre, Ala., Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice — an Alabama native — praised other countries for their generosity, “People have said that America has been so generous in times like this in other places, and now it is time to be generous to America.” Rice thanked a large and diverse group of donor countries, ranging from large and powerful countries like France and China to small ones like the Bahamas and even Sri Lanka, itself still recovering from the devastating tsunami of December 2004. More of Rice’s commentary can be found at the State Department’s International Information Programs Web site ( http://usinfo.state.gov/gi/ Archive/2005/Sep/05-187847. html ). Close allies of the United States, like Canada, have sought to improve relations by participating during the recovery effort. To compensate for the loss in oil production along the Gulf Coast, Canadian oil producers agreed to step up oil production to near full capacity. This is an impor- tant development given that relations between the two countries were recently soured over a NAFTA trade dispute in which the Bush administra- tion chose to ignore a ruling to refund five billion dollars in lumber tariffs. In another example, Israel — a longtime ally and the largest recipient of aid from the United States — is consider- ing whether in the aftermath of Katrina, to decline a $2.25 billion aid package intended for the Gaza disen- gagement plan, among other purpos- es. The Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz quoted U.S. Ambassador Daniel N O V E M B E R 2 0 0 5 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 17 C YBERNOTES Site of the Month: Project Gutenberg In a world where you can chat with friends or strangers, play poker, shop or take a college class without leaving your computer, a new online trend has evolved: reading e-books on your desktop or laptop. It all started with Project Gutenberg ( www.gutenberg.org ), th e first and largest single collection of free electronic books on the Web. Resembling its namesake, the Gutenberg press, which drastically reduced the cost of printed text and thereby made material available to the masses in medieval Europe, the digital library contains 15,000 public-domain e-books to date and continues to grow every day. Each downloadable e-book is available at no cost to anyone with a computer and Internet access, providing readers with texts ranging from fiction to analytic reports to sheet music, composed in languages from around the globe. Most e-books are the reincarnations of out-of-print texts whose copyright dates have expired; Project Gutenberg has spared them from literary extinction. In an effort to “change the world,” founder Michael Hart developed Project Gutenberg to make literature free and accessible to all in 1971. In his mission statement, Hart explains: “Project Gutenberg is powered by ideas, ideals and idealism — not by financial or political power.” Hart typed the first text, the Declaration of Independence , himself, but the organization has expanded to hundreds of volunteers in the past three decades. Hart is dedicated to minimalist bureaucracy within his organization, reflect- ing his anti-establishment beliefs. As he explained to an interviewer ( http:// www.planetebook.com/mainpage.asp?webpageid=376 ), th is includes specifically opposition to copyright laws and the subsequent commercialization of information, which, in his eyes, hinder literacy and education, discriminate against the poor and, ultimately, undermine basic democracy. Hart hopes that his project will provide millions of e-books in every language to billions of peo- ple in every corner of the globe. “Project Gutenberg stands for opening, not closing, doors,” he says. — Brooke Deal, Editorial Intern F or what can be heard around the world, in the wake of the invasion of Iraq, the prisoner abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib, and the controversy over the handling of detainees at Bagram and Guantanamo Bay, is that America is less a beacon of hope than a dangerous force to be countered. — The Advisory Committee on Cultural Diplomacy, Sept. 29, quoted on www.salon.com