James Yee
James Yee came to Vassar today and spoke about his work, till his arrest in 2003, as a military chaplain in the prison at Guantanamo Bay. Yee’s visit provided the occasion for me to cajole my Urban Studies colleague Lisa Brawley to come to my class and share with us her unpublished piece “The Airstrip and the Cage.” An excerpt from Lisa’s report on the boomtown that is Guantanamo:
“If it weren’t for Camp Delta beside the sea, and the enormous iguanas, Guantanamo would seem very much like a small, typical American town.” It has, at least, the predictable strip: McDonalds, Subway, Pizza hut, KFC. Thursdays are karaoke night at one of the base’s two bars. The base maintains its own schools, its own water supply, its own power system, which includes the recent addition of four wind-powered turbines (Gitmo goes green). A second gym is being built, as are stucco-ed townhouses that cluster along curvilinear streets. On Chapel Hill, one can now attend a four-year college; classes began in January 2004. There is a grassless golf course, a bowling alley, and an outdoor movie theater. There are forty-five cable channels, including HBO. Flush times on Guantanamo were signaled by the arrival of Starbucks. Asked about the recent upsurge in amenities, a base commander remarked, “Everyone wants to feel like they are going home after work.” … Work to upgrade and expand Joint Task Force housing and other base facilities is ongoing. Finally, managing the regime of labor on Guantanmo includes rendering the labor of torture routine–not only for those who have chosen to make a career of interrogation, but also for an all-volunteer military comprised, increasingly, of the casualties of neoliberalization. (In the base newsletter, a Gitmo naval officer explains her choice to join the Navy: “I joined when I’d had enough of Dunkin’ Donuts and Kmart.”) The American suburb being built on Cuban soil helps to ensure that staffing the U.S. global war prison remains an acceptable alternative to working in Walmart.
Photo: Brennan Linsley/AP
