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Me&Music

I’m a geek in many ways, but in particular, I am a music geek.  I was raised on it: My dad was a full-time professional musician (drums, bass, guitar, and vocals) until I was in my teens, and my mother plays flute and sings recreationally.  As most kids were sung to sleep with lullabies, I [...]

30.01.2009

7 Comments

Size Matters

I know this is an awfully silly post to kick off my new blog design.  I can’t help it.  /explanation. Last weekend Yazan chatted me up with a fun fact: Marlboros in Japan are nearly 20% shorter than those back in his home country of Syria.  His question: “Do you think Marlboro Japan is being [...]

28.01.2009

2 Comments

BBC: “Just trying to stay neutral”

“The hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who in time of great moral crises maintain their neutrality.” – Dante Last week, the BBC made the decision not to air an appeal on behalf of the Disasters Emergency Committee for Gaza on the basis that “the BBC’s impartiality was in danger of being damaged.” [...]

25.01.2009

9 Comments

Hope

From Jewish Voice for Peace. There is also one featuring an Israeli woman with “I refuse to occupy” written across her cheek. I found this one more striking. Obama’s choice of Irish-Lebanese George Mitchell for Middle East envoy bodes well.

24.01.2009

No Comments

Morocco: Disappearing the Amazigh

So it looks like the Moroccans are at it again. Instead of just letting people be who they are, the government is still going on about their naming laws. In other words, if you want to give your child an Amazigh (Berber) name, tough luck. Moroccan human rights groups recently proposed a list of Amazigh [...]

21.01.2009

26 Comments

What will it take?

Bold is mine: We are the keepers of this legacy. Guided by these principles once more, we can meet those new threats that demand even greater effort — even greater cooperation and understanding between nations. We will begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people, and forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan. With old friends [...]

20.01.2009

5 Comments

Voices without Votes Inauguration Liveblog

Starting at 10:00 a.m. EST, Voices without Votes will be hosting an inauguration liveblog to say goodbye to our project. VwV, which I stepped gracefully out of around the time Obama was elected, was a big part of my life from February to November and in addition to giving me plenty of work to do, [...]

20.01.2009

No Comments

I love this

From the award-winning documentary, “Playing For Change: Peace Through Music” (playingforchange.com)

19.01.2009

No Comments

In Appreciation

It’s been a long two weeks.  It hasn’t felt right to blog about anything personal, despite the fact that I haven’t stopped observing the insanity of daily life and taking notes and have been dying to write about it all.  I continue to amuse myself by watching people on the bus from behind dark glasses.  [...]

18.01.2009

4 Comments

“Gaza Children”

There’s something about the clean sharp lines of Abdellah Derkaoui’s work that makes him one of my favorite political cartoonists (along with Carlos Latuff and Steve Breen, the latter of whose cartoons I often fundamentally disagree with).  Derkaoui uses such bright colors, his intent is always clear. MSNBC cartoonist Daryl Cagle has posted a selection [...]

15.01.2009

6 Comments

Boston Marches for Palestine…Again

Because I was not feeling very well, had a meeting online at 10, and was on the radio at noon, I regretfully did not attend the funeral procession for the victims of Gaza this afternoon in downtown Boston. Held by the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee, today’s somber event was intended to remember the 827 Gazzawis killed [...]

10.01.2009

No Comments

What you should be reading…

Israel won’t let foreign journalists into Gaza, but they’re losing the media war nonetheless. Haunting images of dead Palestinian children flood global newspapers, Al Jazeera captures images of white phosphorus exploding over Gaza. I don’t see how it isn’t obvious to everyone that this has become genocide. 763 Palestinians dead. Seven hundred and sixty three. [...]

08.01.2009

10 Comments

How can I help?

A number of people have e-mailed me asking what they can do to help financially. As the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) reports on Twitter, the Palestinian Red Crescent is in need of money for medical supplies, and the UNRWA is working on supplying flour. After failing to figure out how to donate to SARC [...]

06.01.2009

1 Comment

Two Wars

The terror and destruction does not look as if it will come to an end anytime soon. Friends are growing weary. Today, I got a call from my friend Mohammed Omer, who is from Rafah. While he is fortunate enough to be in the Netherlands right now (Fortunate? He’s there because he was beaten brutally [...]

05.01.2009

1 Comment

Boston Stands for Gaza

I spent a good part of yesterday outside in the Boston cold (it was the invigorating type, not the bone-chilling kind, not that I would have noticed if it had been the latter). A rally march in solidarity with Gaza and Palestine was planned for noon; I arrived at 11:30, and at that point there [...]

04.01.2009

6 Comments

I Love Gaza

-Bronx, NY. From KABOBfest.

02.01.2009

2 Comments

Proportionate?

Even three is too many. 430, however, is a massacre.

02.01.2009

2 Comments