Feb

29

Distorting the Facts: The Media on Israel’s Gaza Attack

February 29, 2008 | 2 Comments

On my way into DC today, I flipped through the pages of the Express (a Washington Post publication) to find the coverage on the latest in Gaza. Not so much surprised, but more sickened to my stomach, I quickly read the brief piece which was topped with an image of the burial of an Israeli man killed by a Hamas rocket attack. It would not have been difficult for the Express to put two images side by side to depict the misery in Gaza as well, where Israeli forces have “missed” their “precise” targeting of militants and killed six children, including a 6-month old infant. No mention was made of the brutal killing of the infant. No Palestinians were quoted in the piece. To be exact, the article was cited at the end from the (AP), as the Express pulls news from the Washington Post and the news wires, but it was still clearly selective in its choice of photos and which article from the news wires to include. A badly written one at that. But it gets worse.

The BBC headline reads “Israel Warns of Holocaust,” placing the focus, as usual, on Israel’s security and its attempts to “defend itself” without much acknowledgment of Israel’s continued occupation of Palestinian territories, and its siege of Gaza as the reasons behind the rocket attacks. Several Israeli officials are quoted, but no Palestinians.

The NYT piece this morning leads with an image of the Palestinian infant being buried, while the article begins with details of the Hamas rocket attacks, their range, their origin, and the minimal damage they have inflicted on Israel towns. The article mentions the four boys playing soccer who were killed while quoting an Israeli official who insinuated that the kids were at fault for playing soccer in that area. The very LAST sentence in the article mentions three more Palestinian boys and the infant who were killed on Wednesday, a fact that should have been highlighted before the description of Thursday’s events.

This trend repeated itself across most mainstream media outlets. For more accurate news about what’s going on in Gaza, here are some helpful links:

Electronic Intifada

Palestinian Center for Human Rights

Al-Jazeera

A tribute to Mohammed, the infant killed by Israeli forces:

Feb

25

Rising Inflation Creates Unease in Middle East

February 25, 2008 | 2 Comments

That’s the title of a timely piece in the NYT today about the growing concerns over the worsening economic conditions in the region. Although I don’t live there, I constantly hear about the rise of living costs every time I talk to my family members in Jordan. With every call, we hear about fuel prices rising, basic groceries out of reach, and not much being done to alleviate these crises. My middle-class grandparents have income from a small business and sons working in the Gulf who support them financially on a regular basis, but they are still feeling the pinch. I can’t even begin to imagine how hard this winter has been and continues to be on those who do not have anywhere near this kind of support. Families who have children to feed, books to buy, houses to warm, and lives to live are barely making it. With all the investment and wealth going into the region, one would hope that the revenue would be distributed evenly, but knowing the highly bureaucratic and corrupt regimes is enough to ruin that seemingly logical equation.

“Now we have to choose: we either eat or stay warm. We can’t do both,” said Abdul Rahman Abdul Raheem, who works at a clothing shop in a mall in Amman and once dreamed of sending his children to private school. “We’re not really middle class anymore; we’re at the poverty level.”

“About two-thirds of Jordanians now believe there is widespread corruption in the public and private sector,” said Mohammed al-Masri, the public opinion director at the Center for Strategic Studies at the University of Jordan. “The middle class is less and less able to afford what they used to, and more and more suspicious.”

Read the full article.

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Many in Jordan are feeling the squeeze of higher prices. At a mall in Amman, the empty aisles reflect people’s inability to spend. (Bryan Denton for The New York Times)

Feb

23

Lest We Forget: Gaza Is Still Under Siege

February 23, 2008 | 1 Comment

Headlines of a prison break disappear off the front pages, empty verbal protests expire, pictures of candles on Facebook profiles are replaced, and the spotlight disappears as 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza continue to suffer under an internationally imposed siege. The cage has been sealed yet again, and the innocent are left to fend for themselves.

Narratives Under Siege (4)

Ard El Insan uses a holistic approach, offering mothers ongoing support in child nutrition, breast feeding, and other parenting skills. But the centre Medical Director, Adnan Al-Wahaidi, is adamant the Israeli siege is exacerbating child malnutrition in the Gaza Strip. “The consequences of this siege and closure have been very severe for babies and young children” he says. “We have documented noticeable increases in recent rates of child malnutrition, especially chronic malnutrition. For example, there have been serious increases in child stunting, which is a proxy for chronic malnutrition, because it indicates prolonged exposure to malnutrition.”

Israel’s ongoing siege and closure of the Gaza Strip is chronically affecting every aspect of life in Gaza, including access to fresh food and water. Fresh meat has been scarce for weeks, and now there are also shortages of fresh fruit. Meanwhile chronic power cuts across the Strip have left fifty percent of Gaza households (around 750,000 people) desperately short of fresh drinking water, because there isn’t enough fuel to power their electric water pumps more than 4-6 hours per day.

A siege means that for any reason imaginable, a Gazan cannot leave the territory of the Gaza Strip. Medical reasons, a death in the family, pursuing education, travel for business are reasons not compelling enough for the Israeli and Egyptian authorities to allow someone to leave this mass prison.

In the past few days, 3 Palestinian patients from the Gaza Strip, including a woman and an infant, have died due to denial of their access to medical treatment outside the Gaza Strip, which suffers from the lack of appropriate medical equipment and a shortage in medicines. Additionally, many ambulances have stopped operation due to the lack of fuels as IOF have sharply decreased the amounts of fuels allowed into the Gaza Strip. [press release]

Three Palestinians patients? Among 1.5 million? “Three” is just another day in Gaza. The story won’t make the headlines on BBC unless it exceeds ten… CNN needs twenty to make an effort to report it. Even if you hear about those “three,” you wouldn’t hear the story of one of them, 34 year old Reem, with this much detail:

According to investigations conducted by PCHR, on 16 February 2008, Reem Fu’ad Mahmoud al-Batash, 34, from Jabalya, a mother of 6 children, died as IOF delayed her access to medical treatment at Ekhilov Hospital in Israel for 5 days. Al-Batah suffered from a brain clot on 11 February 2008. She was evacuated to Kamal ‘Edwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, and from there, she was transferred to Shifa Hospital in Gaza City as she was in a serious condition. Due to the lack of appropriate medical equipment and the shortage in medicines, doctors decided to transfer her to Ekhilov Hospital in Israel. According to sources of the Palestinian Ministry of Health, on 11 February 2008, an application to obtain permission for her to travel to Israel through Beit Hanoun (Erez) crossing was submitted. IOF delayed considering the application for 5 days. On Friday morning, 15 February 2008, her health condition seriously deteriorated and she was pronounced clinically dead, before the Palestinian Ministry of Health received admission from IOF to allow her to travel to Ekhilov Hospital. Since she was in a very critical condition, it was not possible to transfer her to the Israeli hospital, and she died at approximately 09:00 on Saturday, 16 February 2008.

Rest in peace Reem, you are in a better place, but there are many more left in the misery called Gaza. Only God can save them, because humanity has forsaken them.

—

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Relatives of a Palestinians killed in an Israeli missile strike mourn his death in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanun. An Israeli missile strike in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanun killed three Palestinians near the border fence with Israel on Saturday, a Palestinian hospital official said. (AFP/Mahmud Hams)

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A Palestinian girl joins a protest in the Rafah refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip. Merchants across the Gaza Strip closed their shops in a half-day strike to protest against Israel’s blockade of the Hamas-ruled territory. (AFP/Said Khatib)

Feb

20

A Land Called Paradise

February 20, 2008 | 1 Comment

The winners were announced today in the One Nation: Many Voices competition sponsored by Link TV. The theme, “Muslims in America: Stories not Stereotypes,” encouraged the public to submit relevant videos to be judged by Danny Glover, Kareem Abdul-Jabar, Mariane Pearl, Azhar Usman, and Sarah Abbasi.

The grand prize winner is a short video entitled “A Land Called Paradise” after Kareem Salama’s song which is used throughout the video (Salama is a Muslim American country singer). In cooperation with the Muslim American Society’s Media Foundation, Lena Khan wrote and produced a short and entertaining video that is also a powerful message about the humanity of the average Muslim American. Congratulations to all the participants and winners who produced a great collection of videos, each of which expresses a different aspect of our community that really reflects our diversity. You can view them here. And a big thank you to Link TV for sponsoring this great competition and recognizing the talent among Muslim Americans.

For your viewing pleasure…

Read about all the winners in this article in the USA Today:

Young filmmakers put lives of Muslims in focus

By Jason Millman, USA TODAY

Muslim Americans say they often feel like strangers in their own country, and the struggle to overcome stereotypes became more complicated after 9/11.

So when given the chance to tell their stories, more than 100 young Muslim American filmmakers poured their creative energies into producing four- to five-minute films about Islam and its followers for an online competition. Winners are being announced today.

More than 18,000 people voted online for six finalists in six categories. A celebrity panel of judges, including former basketball star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, actor Danny Glover and Mariane Pearl, wife of slain journalist Daniel Pearl, selected winners in the six categories, who receive $5,000 each. There will be one $20,000 grand prize winner.

“Film is one way, one avenue, in which we can change the perception of men, women and children who share the Islamic faith,” Glover says. “I found what I saw to be both insightful and informative, and I was really moved by it.”

Many of the filmmakers relied on humor and some good-natured self-ribbing, but in the end, the message was clear: Muslim Americans are, above all, Americans. […]

Feb

12

OBAMAnation in the Nation’s Capital Region

February 12, 2008 | Leave a Comment

This morning, my sister and I drove to the high school near our home and voted in the Virginia primary. We waited for about 15 minutes in line, which wasn’t bad at all. Voting took no more than one minute. Unlike the local elections back in November which were very confusing to say the least, the single ballot in today’s primary was very simple.

In Virginia, you can vote in either the Republican or Democratic primary and you don’t have to be registered with either party. The election volunteers ask you if you would like a Democratic or Republican ballot, which I thought was somewhat invasive of my privacy since people in line can hear you indicating your preference.

Although the weather was bitter cold today and a rain/sleet/ice mixture covered the region, voter turnout appears to be higher than expected:

Election officials throughout the region reported potentially record-breaking voter turnout today in the first-ever Potomac Primary, as voters seemed eager to take part in one the most closely contested and historic presidential races ever.

“Something or someone has energized the voters,” said Rafael Beltran III, chief of elections at the polling station in the Verizon building in Arlington. “For the first time in years, some candidate or some message is coming out loud and clear.”

More than 930,000 people participated in Virginia’s Democratic primary, according to early estimates, a massive 130 percent increase over the voter turnout in the 2004 presidential primary vote in the Commonwealth.

Just one year ago, I was blogging about the rally for Obama at my alma mater, GMU, and although excited to be there, I was still skeptical of Obama’s campaign. Putting skepticism aside, I would never have predicted that he would come this far a year later.

Tonight, I am a happy camper, and a proud Virginian/DC Metropolitinian! We’ve taken advantage of the spotlight placed on this year’s primary with high turnouts and by voting for change and a hopeful future. We gave Obama the delegate lead he needs to ride the next few primaries with great momentum. We’re now officially part of the OBAMAnation :)

moi after voting today

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Obama at a rally I attended one year ago

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Feb

11

Where and When to Vote Tomorrow in DC, MD, and VA

February 11, 2008 | Leave a Comment

If you are confused about where and when to vote in tomorrow’s presidential primary, the information below will be helpful.

In Virginia:
Click here to search for information about your district, polling place, etc. All you need is your name, DOB, and locality. If you do not get any results, try changing your locality (ex: depending on where you are in Alexandria, you could be considered under Fairfax County and not Alexandria City).

Polls will be open 6 a.m. - 7 p.m. If you are in line by 7 p.m. you will be allowed to vote.

In Virginia, you are not required to register any party affliation. You can vote in either Republican or Democratic primary, but not both. When you arrive at the polling center, you will be asked if you want a Democratic or Republican ballot.

Check this FAQ page (pdf) for more information.

In Maryland:

Click here to search for information about your district, polling place, etc. All you need is your name, DOB, and zip code.

Polls will be open 7 a.m - 8 p.m. If you are in line by 8 p.m. you will be allowed to vote.

If you are 17 years old, and will be 18 by November 4, 2008, you may vote in tomorrow’s primary. (more info)

Check this FAQ page for more information.

In Washington, D.C.:

Click here to find your polling place using your address. Click here to find your voter registration status using your name, DOB, and zip code.

Click here to view a sample ballot for tomorrow’s primary.

Polls will be open 7 a.m - 8 p.m. If you are in line by 8 p.m. you will be allowed to vote.

And for more information on all the candidates, please visit the Vote Smart website. Educate yourself and do your part by voting!

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No excuses, let’s ROCK THE VOTE and make it count!

Feb

8

Beyond Super Tuesday: Voting Strategically

February 8, 2008 | 3 Comments

What is most entertaining and exciting about politics is the unpredictability of the events. No matter how much you know about the elections, the candidates, the rules, and the ins and outs of the system, you cannot always accurately predict what will be next. (I’m not talking about the Syrian presidential elections, which are rather predictable.) Armed with poll numbers and knowledge of the political scene, pundits attempt to make predictions but are usually surprised like the rest of us when the results emerge.

Super Tuesday was just this kind of day for pollsters, commentators, analysts and journalists. While many had predicted that the show would be over by Wednesday morning, I am ecstatic that it is far from over! I’m not as ecstatic about Hillary doing better than Obama, but I’m still confident that we have at least a couple weeks to go before we can call it a day. For more selfish reasons, I’m excited because the primary in Virginia is only days away, and this time, OUR VOTE REALLY COUNTS! Had the battle been settled on Super Tuesday, our votes would not mean much in the grand scheme of things. More so because I’m voting Democrat, every single vote will count because of the way the delegates will be distributed proportionally (unlike the winner take all Republican system). I’m glad that this is the way it turned out this time, but I am disturbed in general by how undemocratic this system is, as certain states get to vote earlier and have a much bigger say in this election. This happens in the general election as well, with regards to the Electoral College. That’s just another post in itself so I’ll save that rant for later.

Most importantly, however, a huge responsibility rests on the shoulders of those who will vote in the next few weeks. Our country has been through a lot over the past eight years, and our president is responsible for many “mistakes” that we will have to deal with for years to come. In choosing the candidate for president, I not only pondered their positions on the subjects I care most about—civil rights, foreign policy, education, health care, the economy—but also their chance of winning in the general election. My stomach churns at the thought of another Republican in the White House for four or eight more years. I simply do not know what I would do with myself. And that’s why I will vote for Barack Obama.

The Republican party is fragmented at the moment. It’s as disunited as it can be, with conservatives in the party shunning John McCain who has tried to appeal to them desperately. If only Romney wasn’t a Mormon, they thought, he would be perfect. Too bad that religion matters so much in our liberal democracy, or else the Republicans would’ve been happy with their candidate. There is only one possible person who can unite the Republican party in November: Hillary Clinton. If Hillary wins the Democratic nomination, the Republican party will be united by their hate for her and nothing (no really, nothing) will deter them from coming out in strong numbers to vote against her. Hillary carries a lot of baggage, simply seeing Bill standing next to her at a campaign stump will repulse most Republicans to the core (despite what Ann Coulter will tell you about voting for Hillary if McCain is chosen). And you can bet on independents for voting for McCain in large numbers rather than Hillary.

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There is no doubt in my mind that Obama has the strongest chance of defeating John McCain in November if both are chosen by their respective parties. Obama has shown a strong showing among independents, and even some Republicans (see www.republicansforobama.com). And if experience is an issue, must I remind you that Dubya’s “experience” didn’t do much for us?!

NYT columnist Nicholas Kristof addresses this issue today in a piece entitled, “Who is More Electable?”

When pollsters offer voters hypothetical matchups, Mr. Obama does better than Mrs. Clinton against Mr. McCain. For example, a Cook Political Report poll of registered voters released this week found Mr. McCain beats Mrs. Clinton, 45 percent to 41 percent. But Mr. Obama beats Mr. McCain, 45 percent to 43 percent. The latest Washington Post/ABC News poll found similar results.

Mr. Obama also has the highest approval rating of any major candidate among independents, 62 percent, according to a recent Pew Research Center poll. He also has unusually low negatives, which gives him upside potential.

Mr. Obama does surprisingly well among evangelical Christians, an important constituency in swing states. For example, Relevant magazine, which caters to young evangelicals, asked its readers: “Who would Jesus vote for?” Mr. Obama was the winner and came out 27 percentage points ahead of Mrs. Clinton.

We have to think strategically. We want to win in November. We want change. We want hope. We don’t want more of the same. We don’t want the Washington Establishment. We don’t want to create another dynasty. We want to make history. By voting for Obama, we can.

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