Headline Nov 20, 2014/

''' OWNING UP : 

TO THY DARKEST HOURS + '''

HONOURING TRUTH  -even in wretched dirty wars, should be the foremost duty of every great student.

So, every leader in the world is, to a very high degree, an artist of darkness. A gatherer of fallen, trampled on, petals: 

Visitors to the three-story gallery take in halls of silent horrors  -snapshots, letters, even the bones of the dead-

And come face to face with a wall of  1,000  photos of those arrested and never seen again. But poking wounds is risky,  especially in Latin America:

Where some of the worst  human-rights atrocities are just coming to light.

Chile is not the only country in Latin America seeking to reconcile its past. Peru went on to begin architecture and constructing  -to build  Lugar de la Memora.

Plans to open or upgrade human-rights museums are underway in Guatemala, Argentina, and Mexico. At one level, these are monuments to renascent democracy, which was-

Shutdown across Latin America in the  1970s  and  1980s, with terribly devastating consequences. Some 3,065 people were killed under Pinochet, who ruled from 1973 to 1990.

Ten times that many fell to serial juntas in Argentina from 1976 to  1983, while 70,000 Peruvians were killed by terrorist group or state security forces between 1980 and 2000.

Remembering victims publicly is not new  -think Holocaust museums, or South Africa's Apartheid Museum  -nor is the laudable claim behind such memorials: that societies must own up to their darkest hour so as never to repeat it. 

What's different   -and dangerous-  about Latin America is how fresh the wounds are.

''The Holocaust memorials went up when most of the victims and perpetrators were long gone,'' says Princeton historian Jeremy Adelman.

''In Latin America, they're walking in our midst.''

Managing memories is now part of the job description of the new generation of Latin American leaders, and how they fare at the task may determine the fate of the hemisphere's still-tender democracies.   

Clearly, the monuments have been painstakingly planned.

A jury of international architects, including Kenneth Prompton and Rafael Moneo, selected the design for Peru Museum.

Chile's $ 19 million Memory Museum, designed by Brazilian architect Marcos Figueros, dominates an entire block Santiago.

Argentina's  Memory Museum, newly relocated to the city of Rosario, includes exhibits from the dirty wars in Honduras, Algeria, the Soviet Union, and the Balkans.

Some offer interactive galleries where visitors can transport themselves, via  ''virtual technology'',  to the past, and all feature personal effects, letters and photographs of those who died or disappeared.

At their best, these museums are an attempt to inoculate societies against their basic inclinations.

''We must consolidate a democratic culture that can save us from  fanaticism drive home the idea that   ''terror cannot be combated with terror''  says Mario Vargas Liosa, the novelist who heads the planning group for the Peruvian Museum.

The danger is that remembering turns into a political banner, reviving historical animosities and institutionalising an ideological battle over who controls memory.

In Latin America this is not a disinterested process, much less an effort to work at Forgiveness,'' says Brazilian political analyst Ammaury de Souza.

''It's a struggle over who gets to write history''.

More than posterity is at stake. Memory Museums are the latest cultural spinoff of the  truth-seeking probes that arose with resurgence of Latin American democracy.

And tragically, rival political groups have seized on these initiatives to replay smoldering conflicts.

But for a great future to unfold, Latin America will have to come to terms with the past.

Easier said than done and undone : ''Only injuries thoroughly cleaned can heal.''

Now Mariam, Haleema, Sara, Paras, Areesha, Hyder, Faizan,  Sorat, Reza/Canada  let us see you all,  got on with-

Sam Museum Of History in the Ecosystem  

With respectful and loving dedication to all the Students, Professors and Teachers of the world : 

''Who never contributed - Who never helped''  !WOW! -the World Students Society Computers-Internet-Wireless 

With respectful dedication to the Students, Professors and Teachers of Latin America. See Ya all on !WOW!  -the World Students Society Computers-Internet-Wireless:

''' Arts '''

'''Good Night and God Bless

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless