I rode Greyhound Friday to visit Om-Taromeet down in bone-dry S. Florida. I've ridden 14 hours on a bus before, but never in this country. The price was right and I was curious. I think the buses are nicer overseas. Sure, I've ridden my share of souq buses and those have their own beauty. And, the ridership does not seem to be as broad based. Greyhound doesn't have to have a higher quality bus, just as your average city bus doesn't have to run on time, because important campaign donors aren't riding either of them. I know I'm not paying for any $5,000 a plate meals. I don't have a car and I don't want one and I spend a lot of time talking about the politics of mass transit with other riders while we wait for mysteriously delayed buses and trains.
My seat-mate, traveling back to our shared hometown with her two kids, agreed with me. She's a recent Florida refugee, fleeing low wages, ridiculous cost of living, a "teach to the test" school system, and few prospects for improvement. She was taking her pre-teens to their grandmother's before starting a new job. Fourteen hours gives you a chance to get to know somebody. How many times have you traded phone numbers with somebody at the end of a domestic flight?
Her son, who asked that I call him "Bubba", won my heart. He's in 4th grade and either wants to be a scientist or a football player. He's a bit heavy set and quick quick with a smile, with a wide moon face. I was reading a collection of essays on Sufism and he was watching me.
"Do you have another book?" he asked.
"Um, yeah," I replied, thinking there's no way a 4th grader would be into reading about "a Sufi path of transformation". "You might not like it. It's not light reading."
"That's ok, I'll read anything," he insisted.
So, I dug the book out of the bag under my seat and handed it over before returning to my reading. Twenty pages in, under the chapter subheading The Annihilation of the Ego, Bubba tapped me on the shoulder.
"This is a really cool book."
He eventually put the book down and challenged me to his own version of Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader. Granted he's only in 4th grade, but some of his answers were a little suspect.
"Where is the largest forest in the world?"
"Um, the Amazon, so Brazil," I guessed.
"Noooo," said Bubba, rolling his eyes.
"Uh, ok, where is it?"
"Alabama."
I love that kid.
I also made friends with an older man from Chihuahua who was returning to the horse farms of central Florida. He was incredibly patient as I tried to dislodge the gears of my Spanish brain, though he was a bit confused with the odd Arabic word that forced its way into our conversations. He showed me a tiny photo of he and his wife, who lives back in Mexico, dangling from his key chain in red plastic heart.
I had to sprint off the bus in Orlando to use the "facilities" and a gaunt woman was slowly opening the door. She spun around when she heard me coming up behind her and smiled sweetly. "Thank, God! I thought there were no other white people on our bus," she said, sounding truly relieved, as she let me pass her on my way through the door. What could I say to that?
Despite the friends I'd made, I was glad to see Om-Taromeet and her adorable, yet neurotic pound dog when they picked me up.
I'll be there for just over a week, so don't expect too much productivity while I try, try, try to get in a dive or two while I am here. I've been out of the water too long and my gills are about dried out!
Salaam.
26 May, 2007
24 May, 2007
Hope
I spent a blessed day with the amazing children at the International Community School, a chartered public school with a large number of immigrants and refugees in the student body. It was designed that way; to bring local students together with newcomers; to make the foreign less so; to create a better world. I helped out with Ms. Li's 1st grade class. Among the 18 children in her class today there is an Iraqi Kurd, a Liberian, a Bosnian, an Ivorian, some Somalis, and a few locals. This is a truly special place. There are children of every color, creed and, it seems, country. And they all live and learn together in ways we adults seem to have forgotten.
Tiny, but big mouthed Sabrina, the child of Somali refugees, tosses her head back and cackles, the sunlight sparkling along the row of red sequins at the brow of her shoulder length burgundy hijab, as she spins round and round with the other kids until dizziness overtakes her and she falls over giggling. I ask Nazdan, an Iraqi Kurd who has lived in the US for two of her seven years, in Arabic if she speaks Arabic in addition to Kurdish at home and she rolls her eyes at me and smirks before flopping into my arms for another hug. Late in the day it is these two who beg me to stay and play with them during aftercare.
At the start of the day Ms. Li's class sings a simple song, "Hello, Friend", and end the day with a similar song, "Goodbye, Friend." They sing it first in English, then French, then Spanish, then Chinese, and they are working on Kurdish lyrics.
There are children here who have lived through things most of us cannot imagine. And yet here they are, running, playing, arguing and resolving things together. My new friend Huda, originally from Somalia and a 3rd grade substitute teacher for the day summed it up:
"You want to take a picture of these kids as they are together and show it to all of the adults out there and say 'this is how it's supposed to be!'"
With everything going on in the world, these children really give me hope. It was a really lovely day.
Salaam.
Tiny, but big mouthed Sabrina, the child of Somali refugees, tosses her head back and cackles, the sunlight sparkling along the row of red sequins at the brow of her shoulder length burgundy hijab, as she spins round and round with the other kids until dizziness overtakes her and she falls over giggling. I ask Nazdan, an Iraqi Kurd who has lived in the US for two of her seven years, in Arabic if she speaks Arabic in addition to Kurdish at home and she rolls her eyes at me and smirks before flopping into my arms for another hug. Late in the day it is these two who beg me to stay and play with them during aftercare.
At the start of the day Ms. Li's class sings a simple song, "Hello, Friend", and end the day with a similar song, "Goodbye, Friend." They sing it first in English, then French, then Spanish, then Chinese, and they are working on Kurdish lyrics.
There are children here who have lived through things most of us cannot imagine. And yet here they are, running, playing, arguing and resolving things together. My new friend Huda, originally from Somalia and a 3rd grade substitute teacher for the day summed it up:
"You want to take a picture of these kids as they are together and show it to all of the adults out there and say 'this is how it's supposed to be!'"
With everything going on in the world, these children really give me hope. It was a really lovely day.
Salaam.
23 May, 2007
Little Mosque on the Prairie
Maybe you've heard about this show, maybe not. I have and simply assumed that because it is produced by CBC (as in Canada folks) I wouldn't be able to see it. Thanks to a post by HijabMan we can all enjoy it. At least until a U.S. network buys the rights, "tweaks" it for a U.S. audience, and creates an un-funny knock-off. Happy viewing. I love this show.
(wanders off ululating - 'cause she just likes doing that when something good comes along)
Episode 1,Pt.2, Pt.3
Episode 2, Pt.2, Pt.3
Episode 3, Pt. 2, Pt.3
Episode 4, Pt.2, Pt.3
Episode 5, Pt.2, Pt.3
Episode 6, Pt.2, Pt.3
Episode 7, Pt.2, Pt.3
Episode 8, Pt.2, Pt.3
Salaam.
(wanders off ululating - 'cause she just likes doing that when something good comes along)
Episode 1,Pt.2, Pt.3
Episode 2, Pt.2, Pt.3
Episode 3, Pt. 2, Pt.3
Episode 4, Pt.2, Pt.3
Episode 5, Pt.2, Pt.3
Episode 6, Pt.2, Pt.3
Episode 7, Pt.2, Pt.3
Episode 8, Pt.2, Pt.3
Salaam.
Cross-cultural communications
I slouched amongst the women and cushions lining the walls in the long narrow salon, my hair catching in the grit of the earthen walls of the house. I had been at the wedding for hours at first enjoying time with a few men and boys from the family and listening to music then gathering with the women in another room to drum and sing.
I wondered if my host family was worried I never returned for dinner. I had stopped by to congratulate the bride and groom, which I now knew was not the way thing were done, around 5:30 and I guessed it was now after 12am. I was cold, hungry and tired, but excited to be some sort of honored mystery guest at the festivities. I didn't know the young couple getting married, but their family was related to the family I was staying with. Of course most everybody in the village was related to my new family. In little Amazigh villages like Hadida, about an hour east of Ourzazate and well off the beaten path, a wedding can stretch for days. I was beginning to wonder which day we were going to be fed.
Everyone was chattering away, weddings being a great opportunity to network with relatives from far off, when a young girl kicked off her shoes and entered the room carrying a brass basin and kettle used for washing your hands before and after meals. Relief seeped down through my bones because food would surely follow.
The young girl wore the incongruous layers of clothing favored in the bled that some of the other women wore; a wild assortment of textures and patters starting with thermal leggings and topped with a spangled headscarf wrapped and tied around the head instead of the neck in what I termed "country style hijab". She took small steps across the many carpets, carrying the basin carefully, the kettle perched on top.
I wore my own post-modern Amazigh get-up: hiking socks and thermal leggings under a traditional tiered and embroidered Amazigh skirt that I never actually saw a single Amazigh women wearing (but Peace Corps staff insisted we purchase so as not to stand out) topped with my funky camouflage print fleece jacket and the black headscarf a few of the women tied on me when I tried to be excused to run home and fetch my winter hat.
I was ready to wash and eat. But then I noticed something odd. The girl stopped in front of each woman and bent slightly as if to ask permission. Everybody always washes before a meal. Everybody. Yet as I watched this time each woman waved the girl off towards the next woman seated beside them. And this was repeated by each woman until the young woman was about three women from my left.
Surely, I thought, I knew what was going on, so I pushed back the sleeves on my jacket to ready myself to wash my hands. The woman seated next to me looked at me, smiled and softly said, "O-ho," or "no" in Tamazight. I smiled back but insisted on reaching out to indicate to the girl I wanted to wash. She looked at me as though totally confused, but smiled and looked over her right shoulder at some of the other women in the room. I was met with a barrage of sweet but insistent "O-ho"s and some explaining in Tamazight that was far beyond my level. Everyone was smiling and the women closest to me laughed and slapped my shoulder a bit in jest.
Finally a large women with a serious face seated across the room from me signaled sternly for the girl that she would wash. As she washed her hands, quickly and roughly, two more girls entered the room, one lugging a portable gas burner and the other carying a huge tray with rows of tiny, jewel-like glasses and the ingredients for tea: a large tin of gunpowder green tea, another tin with chunks broken from a sugar cone, and stalks of fresh mint. The girls lay the items in front of the woman, who began the process of making tea for the 50 or so women in the room.
Finally I understood. By agreeing to wash you are agreeing to the task of making tea for a room full of connoisseurs. These women had already accepted me for me and shown me every day that they loved me, but there was no way they were letting the foreign girl (taromeet) make the tea yet.
It was delicious.
Salaam
I wondered if my host family was worried I never returned for dinner. I had stopped by to congratulate the bride and groom, which I now knew was not the way thing were done, around 5:30 and I guessed it was now after 12am. I was cold, hungry and tired, but excited to be some sort of honored mystery guest at the festivities. I didn't know the young couple getting married, but their family was related to the family I was staying with. Of course most everybody in the village was related to my new family. In little Amazigh villages like Hadida, about an hour east of Ourzazate and well off the beaten path, a wedding can stretch for days. I was beginning to wonder which day we were going to be fed.
Everyone was chattering away, weddings being a great opportunity to network with relatives from far off, when a young girl kicked off her shoes and entered the room carrying a brass basin and kettle used for washing your hands before and after meals. Relief seeped down through my bones because food would surely follow.
The young girl wore the incongruous layers of clothing favored in the bled that some of the other women wore; a wild assortment of textures and patters starting with thermal leggings and topped with a spangled headscarf wrapped and tied around the head instead of the neck in what I termed "country style hijab". She took small steps across the many carpets, carrying the basin carefully, the kettle perched on top.
I wore my own post-modern Amazigh get-up: hiking socks and thermal leggings under a traditional tiered and embroidered Amazigh skirt that I never actually saw a single Amazigh women wearing (but Peace Corps staff insisted we purchase so as not to stand out) topped with my funky camouflage print fleece jacket and the black headscarf a few of the women tied on me when I tried to be excused to run home and fetch my winter hat.
I was ready to wash and eat. But then I noticed something odd. The girl stopped in front of each woman and bent slightly as if to ask permission. Everybody always washes before a meal. Everybody. Yet as I watched this time each woman waved the girl off towards the next woman seated beside them. And this was repeated by each woman until the young woman was about three women from my left.
Surely, I thought, I knew what was going on, so I pushed back the sleeves on my jacket to ready myself to wash my hands. The woman seated next to me looked at me, smiled and softly said, "O-ho," or "no" in Tamazight. I smiled back but insisted on reaching out to indicate to the girl I wanted to wash. She looked at me as though totally confused, but smiled and looked over her right shoulder at some of the other women in the room. I was met with a barrage of sweet but insistent "O-ho"s and some explaining in Tamazight that was far beyond my level. Everyone was smiling and the women closest to me laughed and slapped my shoulder a bit in jest.
Finally a large women with a serious face seated across the room from me signaled sternly for the girl that she would wash. As she washed her hands, quickly and roughly, two more girls entered the room, one lugging a portable gas burner and the other carying a huge tray with rows of tiny, jewel-like glasses and the ingredients for tea: a large tin of gunpowder green tea, another tin with chunks broken from a sugar cone, and stalks of fresh mint. The girls lay the items in front of the woman, who began the process of making tea for the 50 or so women in the room.
Finally I understood. By agreeing to wash you are agreeing to the task of making tea for a room full of connoisseurs. These women had already accepted me for me and shown me every day that they loved me, but there was no way they were letting the foreign girl (taromeet) make the tea yet.
It was delicious.
Salaam
22 May, 2007
Lebanon/Nahr al-Bared Updates
Just a wrap-up of updates on developments in and around Nahr al-Bared in Lebanon:
Exclusive Al-Jazeera Images from Inside Nahr Al-Bared
UN Relief Convoy Attacked While Attempting to Deliver Aid to Camp
Thousands Flee Besieged Lebanese Camp
Residents Say Militants Armed, Reclusive
'Massacre' at Lebanon Refugee Camp
BBC In Pictures: Clashes in Lebanon
Rami Khouri Opinion Piece from The Daily Star
Arab Governments Promise Military Help for Beirut
Hezbollah backs Lebanon's Army in Standoff with Sunni Group
US mulls military funding plea from Lebanon
Responses from Lebanese bloggers (incl. Ashraf and Golaniya)
Some translated reactions from Arab Press
Be sure to read these articles from Robert Fisk from The Independent:
A Front Row Seat for this Lebanese Tragedy
The Road to Jerusalem (via Lebanon)
Be sure to look at updates from Ashraf on Palestine For Us.
Salaam.
Headlines and hate
Compare these headlines:
Some US Muslims Justify Suicide Attacks
or
Muslims 'well integrated' in US
or
Poll: 1 in 4 young U.S. Muslims support suicide bombings
or
Most U.S. Muslims reject suicide bombings
Each of these headlines refers to the same story, a recently-completed Pew Research Center survey of Muslim Americans, the first of its kind ever undertaken. Here is the result in a nutshell, according to Pew:
"The first-ever, nationwide, random sample survey of Muslim Americans finds them to be largely assimilated, happy with their lives, and moderate with respect to many of the issues that have divided Muslims and Westerners around the world."
You can download the complete report and view the results here.
People will report the Pew study they way they want to, as is the nature of statistics. You can chose to highlight that a strong majority of Muslim Americans do not see a conflict between being a devout Muslim and living in a modern society, believe newcomers should adapt and integrate into society, and reject extremism and terrorism, or you can highlight the 5% that expressed favorable views of Al-Qaeda. I am not saying ignore the 5% or any of the other parts of the survey, but please put them in context.
One result that everybody in the U.S. should pay attention to:
53% of those polled report it has gotten to be more difficult to be Muslim in the U.S. since September 11, 2001. With incidents like this, or this, or this, or this, or maybe if you ask Alia Ansari...it's not hard to see why those respondents feel this way.
Salaam.
Some US Muslims Justify Suicide Attacks
or
Muslims 'well integrated' in US
or
Poll: 1 in 4 young U.S. Muslims support suicide bombings
or
Most U.S. Muslims reject suicide bombings
Each of these headlines refers to the same story, a recently-completed Pew Research Center survey of Muslim Americans, the first of its kind ever undertaken. Here is the result in a nutshell, according to Pew:
"The first-ever, nationwide, random sample survey of Muslim Americans finds them to be largely assimilated, happy with their lives, and moderate with respect to many of the issues that have divided Muslims and Westerners around the world."
You can download the complete report and view the results here.
People will report the Pew study they way they want to, as is the nature of statistics. You can chose to highlight that a strong majority of Muslim Americans do not see a conflict between being a devout Muslim and living in a modern society, believe newcomers should adapt and integrate into society, and reject extremism and terrorism, or you can highlight the 5% that expressed favorable views of Al-Qaeda. I am not saying ignore the 5% or any of the other parts of the survey, but please put them in context.
One result that everybody in the U.S. should pay attention to:
53% of those polled report it has gotten to be more difficult to be Muslim in the U.S. since September 11, 2001. With incidents like this, or this, or this, or this, or maybe if you ask Alia Ansari...it's not hard to see why those respondents feel this way.
Salaam.
5 Confirmed Dead in Ankara Bombing
News reports are just coming in about a large explosion in Ankara's Ulus district. According to reports so far there are 5 dead and 80 wounded. I am waiting to hear from people I know there, who I was with just a few months ago, and am very worried. I deeply hope this is not a sign of things to come for Turkey. I don't have anything constructive to add, just venting about my worries.
Salaam.
Salaam.
21 May, 2007
Blogging About the Situation Inside Nahr al-Bared
Ashraf Shouly at Palestine For Us is posting reports he is receiving from friends inside Nahr al-Bared, the Palestinian refugee camp near Tripoli, Lebanon that is currently being shelled by the Lebanese military as they face off with members of Fatah al-Islam, an armed Palestinian group with alleged links to al-Qaeda and Syria, which Syria denies. Caught in the crossfire that began Sunday are the noncombatant residents of the camp. According to the ICRC, the general population of the camp numbers 40,000. Casualty figures vary, about 70 so far, including 27 Lebanese soldiers. ICRC and aid groups are struggling to evacuate the wounded and get food and water to residents of the camp.
While I understand that a 38 year-old agreement bars the Lebanese from entering the Palestinian camps and thus limits their options, I am concerned about shelling a camp of 40,000 from a distance, inevitable civilian casualties, and the effect of all this on Lebanon as a whole. Sunday brought a bombing in a Christian area of the city and Monday a bombing of a Sunni Muslim district.
In the mean time, head to Ashraf's blog and read for yourself.
Salaam.
While I understand that a 38 year-old agreement bars the Lebanese from entering the Palestinian camps and thus limits their options, I am concerned about shelling a camp of 40,000 from a distance, inevitable civilian casualties, and the effect of all this on Lebanon as a whole. Sunday brought a bombing in a Christian area of the city and Monday a bombing of a Sunni Muslim district.
In the mean time, head to Ashraf's blog and read for yourself.
Salaam.
Disneyland al-Sharqiya
I am pretty sure I know how I would feel if I were an Iraqi, living without so much that we living elsewhere take for granted, and saw this behemoth going up in my city. Of course, it's in the not-actually-so-safe Green Zone ("Incoming, Mr. Prime Minister."), so most Baghdad residents will not actually be able to get anywhere close enough to see it. I don't care how nice the pool is if it's in mortar range.
Salaam.
Salaam.
18 May, 2007
United States Social Forum
I'll be volunteering for, attending, and blogging about the United States Social Forum, which will be held in Atlanta June 27-July 1. Hope some of the rest of you will be there, too. The schedule of workshops looks interesting and includes several sessions on Palestine-related topics and some potentially exciting workshops on Islam and social change. We shall see....
A new world may be possible, but you have to get off your ass to make it happen.
Salaam.
A new world may be possible, but you have to get off your ass to make it happen.
Salaam.
Two more journalists murdered in Iraq
Cameraman Alaa Uldeen Aziz (left), 33, and soundman Saif Laith Yousuf (right), 26, two Iraqi journalists working for ABC News, were forced from their car by gunman as they left work Thursday and their deaths were confirmed by ABC this morning.
The last count by Reporters Without Borders, not believed to include Aziz and Yousuf, of journalists and media staff killed in Iraq since March 2003 was 174.
According to ABC News, Aziz is survived by his wife, his two daughters and his mother. Yousuf leaves behind his fiancee, his mother and brothers and sisters.
I cannot fathom murdering journalists. Aside from taking that life, the killers are, in a sense, taking countless other lives by keeping others' stories from being told. We need to hear these stories; be reminded of those living through this nightmare are not simply numbers. Sometimes one story can make the difference.
Salaam.
Insha'allah.
17 May, 2007
What do all those squiggly lines mean?
Oversight is generally not regarded as being amongst the U.S. government's skill sets. (See Halliburton, KBR, $12 Billion US CASH!....) And then there's al-Hurra, "The Free", broadcasting in Arabic from the state of Virginia to the Arabic speaking world courtesy of your tax dollars and mine.
I only know of one person who watches the channel. The first family I rented a room from in Damascus lived in the U.S. for a number of years before returning to Syria. The father, born and raised in Syria as a Muslim, insisted I refer to him as 'John' instead of his kunya and was exceptionally insistent on telling me how much he hated "stupid...lazy....mindless...untrustworthy..." Arabs and Muslims until the day I moved out (about a week after moving in). But, my, did he love watching al-Hurra and always offered to change the channel to it whenever I was home, once offering to let me "watch some real news." Perhaps tellingly, the only content I ever saw broadcast the few times I tried to watch the channel were fashion runway shows. Our nation's brave message to the Arab world - "Stop eating and wear more overpriced, uncomfortable, and overly-revealing (even for me) clothes". Winning countless hearts and minds, indeed.
Unfortunately, while their fashion sense is keen their common sense is not. The people running al-Hurra in Virginia apparently neglected to hire any editorial supervisors who actually spoke Arabic. One might see this as a problem when your content is in Arabic and sometimes feeds live.
Such was the case, it seems, when they let Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah speak live for about an hour last December. Apparently, Nasrallah made comments inciting violence against Israel. Shocking. You let Nasrallah go live on air and he said what? That was followed by a broadcast of comments by Hamas leader and current Palestinian PM Ismail Haniya supposedly supporting the assertion of Iranian President Ahmadinejad that the Holocaust against European Jews was a myth. Again, not too surprising. Syndicated columnist Joel Mowbray, referring to Nasrallah, claimed on CNN "By the five-minute mark, he told the people in the audience, who were firing their guns in celebrations, not to waste their bullets, and to save their bullets for where they belong, the chest of the enemy, the Israeli enemy." I have yet to find full transcripts of either broadcast.
What do these squiggly lines mean?
The Middle East Subcommittee of the US House of Representatives grilled members of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, who oversee several US funded broadcast outlets including Radio Sawa, VOA, and Radio/TV Marti, about this on Wednesday. Subcommittee chairman, Rep. Gary L. Ackerman, D-N.Y, asked the $63 million dollar (current annual budget) question:
"Doesn't anybody watch the broadcasts?"
Rep. Ackerman was referring to the station's supervisory staff, but the question is just as valid for their intended audience who usually refer to the station as "the American propaganda channel" or thereabouts.
Secretary of State and de facto Broadcasting Board of Governors member Condaleeza Rice was asked in March by the House Appropriations Committee's Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, which provides funding for al-Hurra, about the incidents and admitted that "mistakes had been made".
Most of the critics are making Larry Register, al-Hurra's recently appointed news director and a former executive producer at CNN, out to be all but a member of a sleeper cell for the supposed changes wrought under his leadership. Register was appointed a month before the Nasrallah speech. CNN reporter Brian Todd paraphrased the criticism of Register: "[he] focused coverage less on corruption and human rights abuses in the Middle East, and more toward anti-American events, like the Holocaust-deniers conference in Tehran." Nine members of the Subcommittee on Foreign Operations sent a letter on May 9 to Sec. Rice calling for Register to be replaced.
My main criticism is that with almost $70 million surely they could buy a copy of al-Mawred or hire somebody who speaks fluent Arabic. I know people, Larry. Arabic speakers, lots of them. Call me.
Again, al-Hurra means "The Free" and free speech is often messy, but always necessary. Do I agree with what Nasrallah and Haniya said? No. Do I want my tax dollars going to support a platform for such statements? No. Then again, I wouldn't want my tax dollars to support a station that only broadcast one side of things that felt good and easy for the U.S. government to broadcast. Personally, I don't think the governments should be in this business in the first place. What message are we sending about censorship if we censor? How is al-Hurra different from the state-owned channels in the region? If you want to be a legitimate news organization, you have to look at everything, which often includes some uncomfortable things, and from a balanced perspective. Of course it also helps to have somebody in the building who can speak the language.
Salaam.
I only know of one person who watches the channel. The first family I rented a room from in Damascus lived in the U.S. for a number of years before returning to Syria. The father, born and raised in Syria as a Muslim, insisted I refer to him as 'John' instead of his kunya and was exceptionally insistent on telling me how much he hated "stupid...lazy....mindless...untrustworthy..." Arabs and Muslims until the day I moved out (about a week after moving in). But, my, did he love watching al-Hurra and always offered to change the channel to it whenever I was home, once offering to let me "watch some real news." Perhaps tellingly, the only content I ever saw broadcast the few times I tried to watch the channel were fashion runway shows. Our nation's brave message to the Arab world - "Stop eating and wear more overpriced, uncomfortable, and overly-revealing (even for me) clothes". Winning countless hearts and minds, indeed.
Unfortunately, while their fashion sense is keen their common sense is not. The people running al-Hurra in Virginia apparently neglected to hire any editorial supervisors who actually spoke Arabic. One might see this as a problem when your content is in Arabic and sometimes feeds live.
Such was the case, it seems, when they let Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah speak live for about an hour last December. Apparently, Nasrallah made comments inciting violence against Israel. Shocking. You let Nasrallah go live on air and he said what? That was followed by a broadcast of comments by Hamas leader and current Palestinian PM Ismail Haniya supposedly supporting the assertion of Iranian President Ahmadinejad that the Holocaust against European Jews was a myth. Again, not too surprising. Syndicated columnist Joel Mowbray, referring to Nasrallah, claimed on CNN "By the five-minute mark, he told the people in the audience, who were firing their guns in celebrations, not to waste their bullets, and to save their bullets for where they belong, the chest of the enemy, the Israeli enemy." I have yet to find full transcripts of either broadcast.
What do these squiggly lines mean?The Middle East Subcommittee of the US House of Representatives grilled members of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, who oversee several US funded broadcast outlets including Radio Sawa, VOA, and Radio/TV Marti, about this on Wednesday. Subcommittee chairman, Rep. Gary L. Ackerman, D-N.Y, asked the $63 million dollar (current annual budget) question:
"Doesn't anybody watch the broadcasts?"
Rep. Ackerman was referring to the station's supervisory staff, but the question is just as valid for their intended audience who usually refer to the station as "the American propaganda channel" or thereabouts.
Secretary of State and de facto Broadcasting Board of Governors member Condaleeza Rice was asked in March by the House Appropriations Committee's Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, which provides funding for al-Hurra, about the incidents and admitted that "mistakes had been made".
Most of the critics are making Larry Register, al-Hurra's recently appointed news director and a former executive producer at CNN, out to be all but a member of a sleeper cell for the supposed changes wrought under his leadership. Register was appointed a month before the Nasrallah speech. CNN reporter Brian Todd paraphrased the criticism of Register: "[he] focused coverage less on corruption and human rights abuses in the Middle East, and more toward anti-American events, like the Holocaust-deniers conference in Tehran." Nine members of the Subcommittee on Foreign Operations sent a letter on May 9 to Sec. Rice calling for Register to be replaced.
My main criticism is that with almost $70 million surely they could buy a copy of al-Mawred or hire somebody who speaks fluent Arabic. I know people, Larry. Arabic speakers, lots of them. Call me.
Again, al-Hurra means "The Free" and free speech is often messy, but always necessary. Do I agree with what Nasrallah and Haniya said? No. Do I want my tax dollars going to support a platform for such statements? No. Then again, I wouldn't want my tax dollars to support a station that only broadcast one side of things that felt good and easy for the U.S. government to broadcast. Personally, I don't think the governments should be in this business in the first place. What message are we sending about censorship if we censor? How is al-Hurra different from the state-owned channels in the region? If you want to be a legitimate news organization, you have to look at everything, which often includes some uncomfortable things, and from a balanced perspective. Of course it also helps to have somebody in the building who can speak the language.
Salaam.
Happy Birthday, Alan
Today marks captured BBC reporter Alan Johnston's 45th birthday. He was abducted in Gaza on March 12. A group called Jaish al-Islam released a video showing his BBC ID and calling for the release of all Muslim prisoners in British custody. There has been no direct word from Mr. Johnston since his abduction.
Salaam.
Salaam.
16 May, 2007
Oh, if ONLY!
Thank you CNN International for 12 seconds of bliss before reality crashed the party.
Bush. Blair. Whatever.....
Thanks SO much to mediabistro for the screencap.
Bush. Blair. Whatever.....
Thanks SO much to mediabistro for the screencap.
A Sad and Not-so-surprising week for Syria
It has been difficult to read the news out of Syria this week....
Prominent writer Michael Kilo and Mahmoud Issa were each sentenced to three years in prison on charges of "weakening national sentiment" in part due to their signing of the 2006 declaration calling for improved Lebanese-Syrian relations.
Sulaiman Shummar and Khalil Hussain were sentenced the same day, in absentia, to five years in prison for "weakening national sentiment" and "undertaking acts and writings unauthorized by the Syrian government that may expose Syria to aggressive acts or spoil its relations with another state." Shummar, member of the political bureau of the unauthorized Worker's Revolutionary Party and a leader of the National Democratic Gathering, and Hussain, member of the Kurdish Future Movement, are in hiding or have fled the country and it remained unclear as to whether the five years for each charge were consecutive or concurrent sentences.
These most recent prison sentences follow the sentencing on May 11 of human rights activists Dr. Kamal al-Labwani and Anwar al-Bunni. Dr. al-Labwani, a physician and founder of the Democratic Liberal Gathering, was sentenced to life in prison (ultimately reduced to 12 years) with hard labor for "communicating with a foreign country and inciting it to initiate aggression against Syria" due to his travels to Europe and the US in 2005. Al-Bunni, a human rights lawyer, was sentenced to five years in prison for "spreading false or exaggerated news that weaken the spirit of the nation." The "exaggerated news" referred to a statement by al-Bunni claiming that a man had died in a Syrian jail because of the inhumane conditions.
According to the Constitution of the Syrian Arab Republic:
"Freedom is a sacred right. The state protects the personal freedom of the citizens and safeguards their dignity and security." (Article 25, line 1)
"Every citizen has the right to freely and openly express his views in words, in writing, and through all other means of expression." (Article 38)
I hope these sentences are overturned. I also hope the US State Department will use the informal talks between Rice and Mouallem at Sharm al-Sheikh as a jumping-off point for more substantive talks. The silent treatment serves neither side well.
Also, President Bashar Al-Assad has been nominated by the newly-elected Syrian parliament as the only presidential candidate for the nationwide referendum to be held on May 27. According to the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA), exams for students, scheduled for the same day, have been postponed to enable the students to, according to the National Union for Syrian Students "show their support.
According to SANA, the Union's statement also said that the "referendum embodies national aspirations and dignity". In my opinion, the men imprisoned this week embody those same things. Read their words and decide for yourself.
Despite its troubles, I love Syria and the many people I met during the months I lived there. Not one person there ever had a problem distinguishing me from my government and I don't have a problem doing the same for them. I hope to return to see my friends soon and pick up where I left off.
Salaam.
Prominent writer Michael Kilo and Mahmoud Issa were each sentenced to three years in prison on charges of "weakening national sentiment" in part due to their signing of the 2006 declaration calling for improved Lebanese-Syrian relations.
Sulaiman Shummar and Khalil Hussain were sentenced the same day, in absentia, to five years in prison for "weakening national sentiment" and "undertaking acts and writings unauthorized by the Syrian government that may expose Syria to aggressive acts or spoil its relations with another state." Shummar, member of the political bureau of the unauthorized Worker's Revolutionary Party and a leader of the National Democratic Gathering, and Hussain, member of the Kurdish Future Movement, are in hiding or have fled the country and it remained unclear as to whether the five years for each charge were consecutive or concurrent sentences.
These most recent prison sentences follow the sentencing on May 11 of human rights activists Dr. Kamal al-Labwani and Anwar al-Bunni. Dr. al-Labwani, a physician and founder of the Democratic Liberal Gathering, was sentenced to life in prison (ultimately reduced to 12 years) with hard labor for "communicating with a foreign country and inciting it to initiate aggression against Syria" due to his travels to Europe and the US in 2005. Al-Bunni, a human rights lawyer, was sentenced to five years in prison for "spreading false or exaggerated news that weaken the spirit of the nation." The "exaggerated news" referred to a statement by al-Bunni claiming that a man had died in a Syrian jail because of the inhumane conditions.
According to the Constitution of the Syrian Arab Republic:
"Freedom is a sacred right. The state protects the personal freedom of the citizens and safeguards their dignity and security." (Article 25, line 1)
"Every citizen has the right to freely and openly express his views in words, in writing, and through all other means of expression." (Article 38)
I hope these sentences are overturned. I also hope the US State Department will use the informal talks between Rice and Mouallem at Sharm al-Sheikh as a jumping-off point for more substantive talks. The silent treatment serves neither side well.
Also, President Bashar Al-Assad has been nominated by the newly-elected Syrian parliament as the only presidential candidate for the nationwide referendum to be held on May 27. According to the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA), exams for students, scheduled for the same day, have been postponed to enable the students to, according to the National Union for Syrian Students "show their support.
According to SANA, the Union's statement also said that the "referendum embodies national aspirations and dignity". In my opinion, the men imprisoned this week embody those same things. Read their words and decide for yourself.
Despite its troubles, I love Syria and the many people I met during the months I lived there. Not one person there ever had a problem distinguishing me from my government and I don't have a problem doing the same for them. I hope to return to see my friends soon and pick up where I left off.
Salaam.
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