Political | Cultural Glimpse

September 19, 2014

Utilizing the Constitution to Stop ISIS

When I picked up my kindergartner from school the other day, he was wearing a white, red, and blue paper hat he made in class. I asked him what it was for, and he said, smiling, “It’s constitushi day.”

“What?” I asked.

“It’s constitushi day,” he said with an even bigger smile.

“Mom, it’s Constitution Day,” my daughter explained.

I was glad that the teachers had the children pay special attention to this important day, so kids can learn the value of the constitution at an early age. As drafted, the Constitution’s purpose was to create a government that had enough power to act on a national level, but without so much power that individual’s fundamental rights would be at risk.

But many adults need to revisit the values of the Constitution, and act upon this privilege that in many countries is obsolete. Having been raised under Saddam’s totalitarian regime, I can tell you that people in the United States do not fully utilize the political freedoms bestowed upon them. Oftentimes this freedom is taken for granted. If that continues, I’m afraid that one day we will see ISIS strolling around in our neighborhoods.

“ISIS is here, they’re capable of striking,” CNN national security analyst and former CIA operative Bob Baer

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September 12, 2014

Have we Turned 9/11 into a tradition rather than a lesson?

I watched the ceremonies performed yesterday in honor of those who died in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Across the country, the names of victims were called and people stood in silence to remember the dreadful events of that day. Broadcasters talked about how the “threat of terrorism” still lingers on 13 years later, and I wondered, what lesson have we learned from this attack, if we learned any lesson at all?

The 9/11 Commission left many questions unanswered because of the initial destruction and removal of evidence and the budget being limited to $15 million, whereas $30 million was given to dig up the dirt in the Bill Clinton Monica Lewinsky scandal. In order to really honor the victims, we should make a greater effort learning a lesson from the events that led to their loss – not just perform ceremonies.

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August 23, 2014

Mayor Lawrence Bringing Women & Minorities to the Table

A few days ago, a Chaldean colleague invited me to join him to the Detroit Chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists. The meeting was held at Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History and the guest speaker was Mayor Brenda Lawrence of Southfield.

I had previously met Mayor Lawrence, when earlier in the year she spoke at an International Woman’s Day event. Given her motivational stories, her pride in her work as “a public servant”, and her down-to-earth personality, I was glad to have this opportunity once again.

“The voice of women and the voice of minority are very important,” said the Mayor. “There is a window to see things from them that people without diverse background have not seen.”

A real go-getter, Mayor Lawrence refused to sit down when in the past she lost a political race.

“We as women allow ourselves to be a ‘loser’ when we lose,” she said. “We often allow others to define us. But my grandmother always told me, ‘Don’t ever let someone tell you to sit when you have the right to walk through the door and stand in the room.’”

She stresses the importance of having more women and more minorities at the congressional table, because, she said, “As they say, if you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.”

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August 21, 2014

The History of Warren

This morning I was doing some research about the City of Warren when I stumbled upon a website that not only had in depth information, but it offered a free book and DVD. I got dressed and drove to the Village Book Exchange, where a copy of the book was available.

“I can pay something for it,” I told the woman at the counter.

“Nope,” she said. “The author – a professor – wants to give it to people for free.”

“Thank you,” I said. “This is a beautiful gift.”

Professor Wesley Arnold, a historian, compiled over one hundred pages of colorful pictures and detailed information from the time Macomb was nothing but marshland and forests. I have had the chance to go through parts of it, and I can say that so far it is filled with “Love, Peace and Freedom” – the title of his DVD.

For more information, visit macombhistory.us

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August 10, 2014

Obama, Obama, Where Are You?

Obama, Obama, where are you? Iraqi Christians they need you!”

Today thousands of people marched for miles on Ryan Road in Sterling Heights, asking that our President help the Iraqi Christians.

ISIS has started taking children, mothers and fathers to a park in Mosul and systematically beheading them, then putting their heads on a stick.

While it is easier to create a mess than clean it, President Obama, you must help clean this mess! Once it’s cleaned, if it even can be at this point, the next big question should be, “The criminals who helped start this genocide, this bleeding of Iraq, where are you now?”

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July 31, 2014

The French Again Come to the Aid of Iraqis

When in October 2010, Al Qaeda members laid siege to Our Lady of Deliverance Church in Baghdad, killing 58 and wounding 78 in a bloodbath, French leaders immediately opened their doors to the Christian Iraqis.

Now they’re doing it again. French leaders announced they are adopting added measures to help Iraqi Christians.

I thought about the French filmmakers who came all the way from France to do a documentary about Iraqi-Americans.

Our leaders – whether artists or politicians – have the responsibility of doing more than the French to help the country they went in to liberate.

“The last 10 years have been the worst for Iraqi Christians because they bore witness to the biggest exodus and migration in the history of Iraq.”

– William Warda, Hammurabi Human Rights Organization

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July 25, 2014

The Tomb of Prophet Jonah and Prophet Daniel Blown to Pieces

The Radical Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) destroyed Shrines belonging to two biblical prophets – high revered by both Christians and Muslims – Prophet Jonah, dating back to the 8^th Century B.C. and Prophet Daniel.They’ve also destroyed 11 churches.

ISIS has, in one month, destroyed or damaged 30 shrines, ordered genital mutilation of girls, told Iraqi shops to veil mannequins, and kidnapped and raped countless girls and women.

This proves that I was right when in 2008, I wrote the article “Operation Iraqi Freedom Enslaved Iraqi Women” where First Lady Laura Bush raves about how this war is going to liberate Iraqi women. I should write another article entitled “Operation Iraqi Freedom Enslaved the Iraqi People.” But by now, hopefully everyone knows this, I would think, so there’s no need.

You can read Operation Iraqi Freedom Enslaved Iraqi Women: https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/the_iraqi/conversations/topics/4358

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June 12, 2014

Terrorists Won – Now We’re Really Safe!

Over the weekend, the second largest city in Iraq, Mosul, fell and yesterday Saddam Hussein’s home city of Tikrit has fallen. Is Baghdad next in line in what CNN calls “rapid takeovers”? So far, more than 500,000 civilians have fled the fighting that was brought about Islamic Militants.

My opinion? Joshua Blain described it best in his post to a CNN article:

“The reality is that this is all our fault. While Saddam Hussein was indeed a dictator and corrupt, he did not tolerate Islamic extremist groups in his country because they were a threat to his secular regime. Though a dictator, he maintained stability in the country and overall the people lived in peace and had a great education system. We then went in and destabilized the country by removing Saddam and leaving a massive power void, allowing extremist groups to flood the country. In essence we created the very environment we said we were going to eliminate. The great irony is that to the people of Iraq, we are the weapons of mass destruction.”

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April 18, 2014

Banned in Egypt for being too Sexy!

The Egyptian-made movie, “Beauty of the Soul” was just banned in Egypt for scenes deemed sexually provocative. The film, starring a famous Lebanese singer Haifa Wehbe, was said to have been inspired by Monica Bellucci’s 2000 hit “Malena.”

In an interview yesterday, the director of the film asked those who helped in the decision to ban the film if they had ever seen it. Their response was “No, but we saw the ad.”

“If you are going to ban a movie, couldn’t you have at least watched it first?” he asked in frustration.

“Do I have to smoke a cigarette in order to know whether or not it’s bad for you?” answered one of the officials.

As I watched the debate, a movie called Wrong Turn came to mind. One day I was flipping the channels when I came across four gruesome men killing and slicing people in ways too disgusting to comprehend. Using hammers and lawnmowers and butcher knives and axes, they pierced peoples’ ears, slit their mouths, jabbed their eyes, cut off their heads and held it up like a trophy.

None of the gory scenes in Wrong Turn were edited – oh, except the nipples of a dead woman. As her corpse hung naked upside down while one of the killers butchered her neck like one would a lamb, so he could detach her head, her nipples were hazed.

Ironically, breasts are a natural thing that almost everyone sees in real life every day. God made them for a great purpose. They feed and nourish babies. Violence and killing are the exact opposite of what breasts represent, yet breasts are seen as the “enemy” to society’s eyes and violence as the “norm”?

Conrad Hilton was right. In his biography, he talked about how he had tried to ban or lesson violence from TV shows but realized he was not going to see it happen in his lifetime. Well, evidently, not in any lifetimes anytime soon, since horror and violent films keep escalating. Wrong Turn, for instance, is releasing its 6th sequel this year and for the Arabic news channels’ coverage gets bloodier and bloodier.

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March 3, 2014

Changing the Future – Through the Eyes of French Filmmakers, An Iraq Veteran, and Iraqi Americans

Iraq veteran Alejandro Villatoro was trained to view everyone in Iraq as a potential threat, with a weapon pointed at them. After a while, he began to ask himself, “The Iraqi people, were they ever our enemy?”

When the documentary My Beloved Enemy was released last week, I was anxious to watch the stories of Iraqi Americans, especially that of my mom, Shamamta. French filmmakers Claire Jeantet and Fabrice Catérini did a great job portraying the real lives of this immigrant population. But what they also did was weave within these stories the testimony of a young Iraqi veteran whose observation and honesty is truly touching.

“Coming back from the war I was confused,” said Villatoro. “I wasn’t sure if what I did was right for my country or the Iraqi people.”

Villatoro ended up joining Veterans Against War, which helped him heal and put him in peace with himself.

“I’m still proud of where I came from, and I still sometimes wear my uniform,” he said. “But I have taken a proactive role to educate the community about the consequences of war.”

Villatoro can’t forget the past, but he has learned to forgive himself in order to move forward. This is how he, and the people who made and participated in this film, can help change the future.

http://my-beloved-enemy.inediz.com/?a=387 (click here to watch My Beloved Enemy)

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Category: Political