[leps-talk] Re: COLLECTING declining, not just collections

Sat Apr 19 10:26:18 CDT 2003

Hi,

The problem isout of focus, the problem is not who distroy (stolen) the
National Museum of Irak, but what could be a good protection for Museum
against that. Years of work, hard work, scientific work, collecting (yes,
collecting !), collecting piece by piece the stuff to create collections
[nobody collect collections], thousands of small pieces of the humanity
knowledge.... lost. Why ? I do not care ! Opening the debate about who and
why will hidden the real important thing : how to avoid museum destruction.

The Hannover Museum of Natural History (Germany) was destroyed by bombs
during the World War II, that's a fact. Fromwho were the bombs ? Was it
correct to drop them ona Museum ? Losts of questions... But my point is that
part of the P. Nagel material was destroyed, including types and I need
those types for astudy now... Will be a lot of work to define if the types
are really destroy or if they were in othher collections. Another lot of
work to create Neotypes.

I guess that the questions about Tigris civilisations, thousands years
before the stupid Irak war, will be easy to answer, now without the local
Museum.

Another wonder is if the destructionof theNational Museum is really casual
(collateral effect) or if it is part of the destruction of the National
image of Irak. Like destruction of image of indian (Inca, Maya) by Spanish
just to say they were savage people and we give them civilization. What did
we give to Irak ?

Anotherpoint is that we limit thescope of collection to insects. If we open
the view... what about other collections : art ? ethnics ? is there also
problems ? They have no image problems, I think art collections is a good
way to save human history and to show to the childrens.... If the problem is
only with animal collections we have an imageproblem (kill for the
collection !). As someone tells that Herbarium has also problems, it seems
the problem is not only image, as normally we do not kill plants to put in
herbarium, we just cut a part of it. Some knows if art museum has problems
???

Sincerely,

Jean-Michel.

Dr. Jean-Michel MAES
MUSEO ENTOMOLOGICO
AP 527 (Do not use DHL or similar !)
LEON
NICARAGUA
tel 505-3116586
FAX 505-3110126
jmmaes at ibw.com.ni

www.insectariumvirtual.com/termitero/nicaragua (Home page)
www.museum.unl.edu/research/entomology/database2/honduintro.htm
(Scarabaeidae)
www.windsofkansas.com/nicaragua.html (Odonata)
www.geocities.com/krislinde/pdf/JMMAES.pdf (bibliografia)
www.estasemanatv.com/05012003/04.asx (mariposas)

Matematica :
1 + 1 = 2

Biología :
"Bajo las condiciones más rigurosamente controladas de presión, temperatura,
volumen, humedad y otras variables, el organismo hará lo que le dé la real
gana" - A. S. Sussman

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ron Gatrelle" <gatrelle at tils-ttr.org>
To: <TAXACOM at USOBI.ORG>
Cc: "TILS talk" <TILS-leps-talk at yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, April 18, 2003 1:14 PM
Subject: [leps-talk] Re: COLLECTING declining, not just collections

> What has happened in Iraq will only make things worse on _collecting_ as
> the "spin" now is that it was "professionally looted" to benefit "_private
> collectors_."    Myself, I don't believe that at all.   I guess our press
> and world have never heard of the "scorched earth"  strategy of retreating
> armies and dictators.  It seems to have not come into anyone is the
> presses' field of thought that the destruction of the NH museum there was
> planned and carried out by the government of Iraq for the purpose of
> blaming the Coalition.   Did Nero burn Rome and blame it* on the
> Christians?   How about Hitler, fire and the** Jews?  Saddam is from that
> same mold.   Looters burned the National Library there?  Looted hospitals?
> We are being asked to believe the average Iraqi on the street is a
> cultureless, bone head, thug - I don't believe that at all.   Why not the
> obvious - the hospitals and libraries trashed were the work of the
Saddam's
> fanatics who took off their uniforms and dawned civilian clothes.   They
> didn't "melt away", they torched everything to instigate riots and
infurate
> the locals against the US presence.
>
> OR
>
> It has also apparently not yet occurred to anyone that the pillaging was
by
> the staff itself.  The first story was that it was just general looters
and
> ignorant theives.  Now it is being reported that it was by professionals
> who knew exactly what they were doing as they had keys and fork lifts.
You
> bet they did.  I can't wait for the FBI to get there (replacing the press)
> as the first suspects will be THE STAFF!!!!!.   If it looks like an inside
> job - IT IS.  Ooops, I forgot, museum staffs are all angels though and
have
> never stolen, nor would steal, from their esteemed institutions.
>
> * I am fully aware that our modern historians debunk this.
> ** Likewise, there are some today who say the holocaust never happened.
>
> People believe what they want.  The biggest fools in the world are the
> smart ones - blind intellectuals.  Blinded by their by prejudices and
> agendas.
>
> There has been as is an agenda to vilify collectors and collecting.
> Collections are now banned in many Science Fairs; amateur bug and plant
> collectors are called killers and equated to Ivory poachers.   Collecting
> is declining for a reason, there has been a long politically correct
> campaign against it.  Now that the chickens produced by this ignorance
have
> come home to roost in our museums, we don't like it.   Well, where did we
> think this would all end up at?    If collecting is no longer needed (even
> evil) then plant, animal, and insect collections aren't "good" (important
> or needed) either.
>
> My editorial venting for this year.
> Ron Gatrelle
>
>
>
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