Timesonline reports that Llewellyn Werner, chairman of C3, a Los Angeles-based holding company for private equity firms, is dumping $500 million into The Baghdad Zoo and Entertainment Experience – an American-style amusement park featuring a skatepark, rides, a concert theatre, and a museum.
The park is being designed by the same firm that developed Disneyland.
Werner will retain exclusive rights to the development project. He told the Timesonline:
“I wouldn’t be doing this if I wasn’t making money,” he said. “I also have this wonderful sense that we’re doing the right thing – we’re going to employ thousands of Iraqis. But mostly everything here is for profit.”
Petraeus is a “big supporter” of the park, according to the Timesonline.
Does a Disneyland-style amusement park in a volatile, war-torn country reek of cultural hegemony and yet another excuse to privatize more of Iraq’s resources for US profit? It does to me.
Tonight I am working on an editorial for our Campus Progress sponsored magazine, The InterActivist. Our staff decided to deviate from AP guidelines when it comes to racial identification. After talking to professors in the diversity studies and cultural education departments, we chose to capitalize "Black" and "White" as they refer to racial identities, not just colors. Also, we chose to move away from Hispanic, as the word is imperial and colonial in itself, describing the Conquistadors that raped and pillaged the indigenous Americans. Does anyone have any ideas on these issues? Should AP style be changed? Does anyone have any language preferences? These conflicts are always so interesting to me.
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