Where once monkeys and parrots screeched in cages, there is only the sound of water gurgling along a brick waterway bordered by cypress and citrus trees.
This morning, based on a 12-hour patrol with a four-boat unit, it appeared that American and coalition naval forces had gained almost complete control of the waterways bordering Iraq and Kuwait near the city of Umm Qasr, a strategic port where American and British marines are battling Iraqi troops.
It's a 500-mile long waterway that borders China's Liaoning province on one side, and North Korea on the other.
The War of 1812 highlighted for Great Britain the vulnerability of Upper Canada Ontarioo) because of the need to send supplies and reinforcements by way of the St . Lawrence River awaterway that bordered the United States for most of its passage between Montreal and Lake Ontario.
Some residents near the Intracoastal Waterway in Cameron Parish, bordering Texas, were told to evacuate.
Mr. Dabbagh, the government spokesman, said any training from the Americans should help Iraq maintain the security of its borders, waterways and airspace, which American military leaders have said the Iraqis need help protecting.
Mr. Hussein set the stage for war with Iran by repudiating a 1975 agreement that had settled a disputed over the Shatt al Arab, the strategic waterway along their border.
They gently banter, act out scenes that involve a flesh-eating ghost (drawn from an unrealized project of Mr. Apichatpong's called "Ecstasy Garden"), ruminate on the political history of the border waterway, look at the hypnotic wake patterns of speedboats in the river and listen to a guitarist, who improvises a wistful melody for the film's duration.
FOR most neighbouring countries, an agreement on the use of a shared waterway, some big cross-border investments or talks on remodelling a border crossing would be workaday, technical issues.
As a result, the mighty Rio Grande, an international waterway and an international border, has turned into a drying dribble, just yards short of the ocean.
