Coney Island baby

There is a great article from Der Spiegel on murals in Baghdad. I have pretty mixed feeling about the whole thing. I am for safety, security, and non-violence. But I am pretty against walling off cities. There seems to be winners and losers whenever that is done. It also doesn't solve anything. It's a complicated issue.

I found the following passage a little worrisome -

One of the artists, Talib Muhsin, told Associated Press that the project had two goals: "We are trying to help Iraqis to coexist with these concrete barriers and accept them in their life as de facto and can't be moved -- at least for the time being," he said. And he added: "We Iraqi artists wanted to say that Iraqis are like other communities who love peace and want to get rid of this situation to live normal life."

Accepting barriers? My prediction, look for some anti-barrier graffiti soon.