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<TITLE>Re: [Tlc] Roxanna Brown: First feedback from Washington Congressional delegation</TITLE>
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<DIV id=idOWAReplyText86944 dir=ltr>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>Dear List
Members;</FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>I see Roxanna Brown's sudden
arrest and death as a shameful failure of the US government to protect its
citizens while living and working abroad. This might be the greatest case
against the government's negligence. I am a US national who has worked for over
a decade overseas in South Korea, Thailand, and Burma and was deeply disturbed
by what happened to Roxanna.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>Making sure that no harm
comes to US citizens is an important part of State Department policy and
work.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>Here a scholar who has
advanced American interests in a peaceful way through teaching and scholarship
in a foreign country, her whole life, at no expense to the American government,
a much more praiseworthy and preferable way to advance American interests than
the use of force and warfare, was treated without any respect at all, as though
she was an enemy of state. (the so-called "green zone" of Bagdad might be an apt
negative metaphor of what she did not have, see Naomi Klein: <A
href="http://www.harpers.org/archive/2004/09/0080197">http://www.harpers.org/archive/2004/09/0080197</A>)</FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>I think the best way to
honour her (and to pursue the avenue for redress mentioned above) would be
through a retrospective of her work, to make people aware of the contribution
that she did make to her field and to the foreign country she lived in, both in
a more popular form, published in the media, and a more scholarly form,
published in a journal. This would have to be done by someone intimately
familiar with her work. I saw her name several times recently in a book devoted
to ceramics finds near Mae Sot at the TCDC library at the Emporium. These loose
ends need to be brought together. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>When Donald Stadtner told me
of her death, I immediately ran up to breaking news at the Bangkok Post and
helped write the news item. </FONT><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>We
talked about what more could be done afterwards. I'm glad to have found a group
of people who care about this issue. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>I only met Roxanna once, at
the Mon conference at Chulalongkorn last year, but it has become clear after her
death, that she has been an example to be emulated by other Americans and
westerners, even though they may not realise it yet. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>Sincerely,<BR>Jon
Fernquest<BR>Educational Services, Bangkok Post,<BR><A
href="http://readbangkokpost.com/">http://readbangkokpost.com/</A></FONT></DIV></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT size=3></FONT> </DIV>
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