Finally I get it. I understand now what it is I believed in on voting day in 2008. Hearing Obama speak to the country and hearing him challenge us on such a personal level–to care for ourselves, protect our children from debt, improve ourselves and hold our legislators accountable to bringing better policies in to law–that is what inspired me before the election and what I look forward to for the next 8 years.

I’m so glad a twitter alert from a friend responding to tonight’s speech to a joint session on O’s budget reminded me to turn on my radio. It was heartening to hear the lively hooting & hollering from congress…and made me so curious to see, I finally went to the television.  It was a bonus to see the eager smiles of some lawmakers when their priorities were discussed.

*****

What a fantastic idea–asking every American to get some education. “No more quitting on yourself or your country.” Volunteerism in exchange for college credits?! National service? New Hatch & Kennedy bill?Awesome.

****

This idea of shining a light on all the unbudgeted items gave me pause. No kidding–we don’t know the price of war? We never budgeted for natural disasters? Again, his agenda is to keep reminding congress that a new era of governing is here: one where the needs of the public are foremost in each lawmaker’s minds.

****

Extra long pause for the military support comment. Making sure everybody stands? About time we put money where vets need it most–in recovering from certain trauma from serving in the ME.  YEAH! CLOSING GITMO! Joint chiefs clapping for the “we don’t torture” comment.

*****

“In our hands lies the ability to shape”….calling out examples of ordinary citizens doing the obvious & right thing….this is how Obama is teaching the rest of us to redefine ourselves and make simple choices to take small actions for each other and improve our communities.

****

“tells us about the people who sent us here”….O is always reminding congress–an audience used to power and privilege–that they are public servants. All of us watching are also reminded that those men & women work for us and our country. That implies our involvement, our need to talk with those public servants in order to shape this world together.

11:57 p.m.  I have no words to put here, but saw an image that reflected perfectly my feelings: streaming tears on Jesse Jackson’s face. Way back in ‘88 he planted the seeds in believing voters like me–that a black man could rise to the primary seat of power in our country.

“Anything is possible”–this is the message the whole world has wanted to hear for a long, long time. it’s as if we’re terribly thirsty for a leader who knows how to take us back to the mountain top.

12:02: while it’s totally appropriate to thank Biden as his partner, it seems in some way like Hillary Clinton has been the one who walked along the hard campaign trail with him the most.

12:06: Let’s hear it for those millenials!

12:04: NEW PUPPY?! Oh the names speculation that is about to hit the news. Oy!

12:07: Yes we can get there! Obama is always the pragmatist, but what better time to sober up exhilarated crowds than at your victory speech? He’s helping us cope with the election hangover we’re about to have come Wednesday.

12:09 “Let us summon a new spirit…” Obama must realize by now that he’s been doing that with every minute of his campaign, with every speech, every endorsement, every Youtube song. Neighbors have been reaching out to each other, voters have called and visited each other. Americans have remembered to hold their own campaign conversation.

12:10: WE ARE NOT ENEMIES BUT FRIENDS….he’s right to acknowledge he must earn the friendship of those who didn’t vote for him.

12:15 Ann Nixon’s story is everyone’s story. She was alive through so much that’s important to our history–all the things that we’ve learned about from parents and grandparents about what makes us Americans. That she came so far, from enduring overt racism to seeing MLK’s assassination to casting her vote for a black man, finally brings me to tears.

12:17 Oprah, dry your tears! Obama put the challenge out to all of us to clean up this country, work for justice and make this world better for our children. We have work to do!

Finally, my ownly nagging feeling: I wish he had smiled while giving his speech. I know, he needed to appear stern to start whipping this country into shape. Or perhaps it was his grandmother’s death. In any case this has been a long road for the now graying Obama, and his weariness makes the victory bittersweet.

Uncle Sam

I smelled something funky right away in Larry Littlefield’s post that includes the tiresome phrase “Youth of Today” in the title (so we know right away where this is going).  He’s gracious enough to qualify his finger pointing by suggesting that while the 70% youth are apparently too slack to be military material, it may not be ALL their fault:

So there you have the youth of today. They are starting out bankrupt in a bankrupt country. That’s what I was worried about before. In addition, a majority are stupid, fat, sick, addicted or criminals. But others are more socially engaged as citizens, and as Grimm [Dr. Robert Grimm, the Director of Research and Public Policy for the Corporation for National and Community Service] pointed out, those who are socially engaged as citizens, statistically, are far more active and healthy. I had heard that all the social indicators – from teenage pregnancy to drug use to high school graduation rates – had improved compared with 30 years ago when I was in high school, so the 70% figure came as something of a shock. It sounds like the uneven distribution of income and institutional collapses are just part of the problem. We have a personal collapse as well.

Can we back up a minute? Littlefield is concerned about this figure given by Lt General Benjamin C. Freakley (I love the surname), a recruiter for the U.S. Army. I suppose this guy has it tough right now, trying to defend a poor recruiting rate. If you were him, would you blame it on today’s youth being unattracted to the situations they see our troops facing (roadside bombs, “100 more years” in Iraq, high survival and amputee rate of injured troops), or would you blame the low signing rate on kids playing too much X-Box and eating too many Doritos?

A 2003 report by the Board on Behavioral, Cognitive and Sensory Sciences and Education (BCSSE ) called “Additutes, Aptitudes and Aspirations of American Youth: Implications for Military Recruitment” looked at a variety of factors in order to advise the military on how they may improve recruitment. NOTE: The date is important, as it is pre-Surge and may not reflect an even greater shift in attitude away from signing up for those fat military bonuses. The report says, for example:

In light of the September 11, 2001, attacks and subsequent terrorist threats to the United States, it seems unlikely to us that force sizes will be reduced in the near term from their current levels. We also do not see clear evidence of factors that would result in a significant increase in net force size.

Just keep that in mind.

So kids these days…in light of the competitiveness of college applications, the opportunities to learn just about anything on the internet, the creeping social advances towards multicultural awarenes that can put cracks in glass ceilings…..are they really less intelligent? Hard to believe. In fact, it turns out the military want to raise the testing bar as weapons technology becomes more advanced. They’d prefer recruits with computer experience.  From the report, it sounds like the BCSSE thinks the military should do what they promise in  ads that say, “The Army strengthens you, and your future, with expert training in one of over 150 different jobs for Soldiers on Active Duty and over 120 in the Army Reserve” by following the reports advice:

There have been few major changes in the occupational distribution of first-term personnel in the past 10 years, but future military missions coupled with advances in technology are expected to require military personnel to make greater use of technology.

Recommendation: We urge that the Services resist the notion that recruit aptitude and education targets must continue to be raised, and we recommend that they continuously review their performance requirements and the related training of new recruits to ensure that beginning knowledge gaps are filled when necessary and that unnecessary training is abandoned quickly. To the extent possible, training changes should be anticipatory, especially for new systems.

It also turns out that too many kids are too smart for the military, not too stupid. The report acknowledged the military recruiters’ goal of grabbing youth right out of high school, and posed the problem that, of the 4.5 million kids now growing up in the U.S., most have moms that spend a lot of time making sure they learn at home and in school. That inspires them to go to college, not basic training!

The socioeconomic characteristics of parents, such as their levels of educational attainment, have a large effect on the aspirations and decisions of youths, especially concerning higher education. Average levels of maternal education for teenagers have increased markedly and will continue to do so over the next two decades, a result of increases over time in educational attainment in the population. This is important, given the positive relationship between maternal education and the educational aspirations of youth….Within the next two decades, the majority of youth will be raised by mothers who have completed at least some college.

The proportion of young adults who have had one or more parents with military experience has fallen dramatically and will continue to fall in the coming years….Although the annual number of births has increased in recent years, children are increasingly raised by highly educated parents and by parents who have no direct experience with the armed forces, factors that are negatively related to interest in military service.

Then there’s the problem of the military not being all it’s cracked up to be. That can hurt recruitment and discourage those that took the bonus from coming back for more. Troops don’t reenlist as much as they used to, according to the report, but the surveys are new and there isn’t much historical data to determine why. The researchers offer this:

We reviewed data on attrition rates across the services at 6, 12, 24, and 36 months and observed that attrition rates at each of these points in time have consistently increased over the past 15 years….Personnel who are dissatisfied with their Service experience return to their home towns spreading word about negative aspects of military service, which makes the job of the recruiter much more difficult….the messages the military sends to its members also find their way to potential recruits, and vice versa. Also, the messages veterans pass along to friends and family members can either encourage or discourage enlistment.

May I offer some possible POST-2003 reasons of my own: Guantanamo Bay, Walter Reed and PTSD.

Still thinking we just have a lazy, slacker population of youth who don’t deserve the privilege of serving in the military? I don’t deny for a second that we have serious social problems to address involving obesity, sweetened beverages, McDonald’s, Wii as a substitute for sports and an continued propensity for marijuana to be condoned in spite of harsh first offender drug laws. I just ask writers like Littlefield to consider for a moment why he’s so shocked when he hears a military officer say 70% of our kids don’t “qualify” for service. Perhaps it isn’t because the’re unqualified, fat little horrors. Perhaps it’s because the military recruiter’s new tactic is to make military service seem elite and exclusive in an attempt to drive up his numbers.

ITN logo

I thought I had it tough squeezing through crowds at Union Square to get a good shot of the spectacle created by protesters supporting the Free Tibet movement. Jon Ray, a reporter for ITN in the UK, had it much worse.

Ray and a cameraman were reporting on a protest near the Olympic games in the Chinese Ethnic Culture Park when police shut him down. See the video of the protesters and Ray’s arrest here.

ITN’s reaction: “We intend to protest in the strongest possible terms to the Chinese authorities and seek assurances that the treatment meted out to Mr Ray will not be repeated.”

Meanwhile, the IOC continuing to say they support open access to journalists. Does this sound like an active reaction? It’s best summed up by Steve Gosset:

So much for free media access during the games. ITN and the International Olympic Committee registered their concerns. Hopefully, the Chinese will do more than just yawn.

Last week I had the chance to attend an opening at Pomegranate Gallery in SoHo for the new show “Oil on Landscape: Art From Wartime Contemporaries of Baghdad,” curated by a former military officer who served in Iraq until 2007, Christopher J. Brownfield.

I reported on the story with my classmates from the CUNY J-School: Shuka Kalantari, who put together this great webpage for our story, and Tyler Mitter, who shot video.

As a collection from Baghdad, the art covers a wide range: from renderings of eye-witnessed violence to scenes of everyday life for Iraqis. The show evoked in me a sense of loss. The artists and many guests who know Baghdad miss a place that cultivated Middle Eastern culture. What they have in its place is a devastated home many can’t even return to until conditions improve and their lives are no longer at risk.

Naturally, the conversation around this art is political. What everyone seemed to agree on was the idea that art can help an individual transcend fear and anger and develop a better understanding through the feelings and experiences expressed. Visitors and artists seem to almost reach for each other with a desire to connect and make the war go away.

Reporting by Craig Thompson and Annie Shreffler

Ernesto Rosales freely admits that he and his wife, Maria Reyna, are undocumented immigrants. After living in Queens with their children for eight years, it’s hard for them to believe Maria could ever be deported.
They crossed in to the US from Mexico near Tijuana when Maria was four months pregnant. She narrowly avoided a miscarriage in the mountains east of Tijuana. They paid a coyote $4,000 to fly them from Arizona to New York and now live in Woodside, Queens.

[CLICK ON IMAGE TO VIEW SLIDESHOW]
Ernesto and Maria say they never expected the care and concern they have been shown by New Yorkers. Their first child, Alejandro, was born At Metropolitan Hospital in Manhattan and diagnosed with Down Syndrome. Maria had to visit him at the hospital for the first month. Then, when he was three, Alejandro was diagnosed with leukemia, and treated at Sloan-Kettering Memorial Hospital. Once Alejandro could travel, the Make-A-Wish Foundation flew the family to Orlando to see Mickey Mouse. Maria keeps the dozens of stuffed animals her son received on top of a cabinet and has two albums full of pictures showing his time in the hospital and their Florida trip.
Alejandro finally began school this year, at the age of 8, and receives occupational therapy and special education at PS 9 on Grand Avenue in Queens. Alejandro’s little sister, Evelyn, is four and will start school next year.
Earlier this year, Maria and her sister-in-law took a train to see relatives in Chicago, but were stopped near Buffalo by immigration officials. The women were arrested and put up in a hotel rather than in a holding cell, as she was traveling with Alejandro. She will appear before a judge on May 16th. Her lawyer has told her, regardless of the needs of her son, her chances of staying in the US are very slim.
“They (the immigration authorities) don’t care about the rest of the family,” said Ernesto. “They don’t care who the kids stay with. They only care about her.”

Maria’s situation is not surprising. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a division under the Department of Homeland Security tasked with enforcing US immigration laws,. have ramped up their activity lately, stopping trains and buses at borders and even reaching into the borough of Queens. Raids in New York City used to be unusual. Now they are fostering a climate of fear and forcing community groups to engage in aggressive educational counter-tactics to ensure that immigrants know their rights before ICE knocks on their door.

Maria’s Legal Case
Despite being her son’s primary care giver, Maria she has very little legal footing to prevent her imminent deportation.
“Children are never a good enough reason,” said Theodore Rothman, 37, an immigration attorney practicing in New York City. “The child can stay and be a ward of the state.”
Rothman also said that if parents were allowed to stay because their children were born in the US, it would create havoc on the legal system.
“It would be a policy nightmare,” he said. “It would overwhelm and create a huge backlash against the system. You can’t just reward illegal immigrants for (having US-born children), because it undercuts the people who are doing it the right way. It goes to the contrary of the rules of the country.”
In 1996, the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility (IIRIR) Act was passed. The act toughened regulations regarding undocumented workers in the US, expanding the criminal grounds for deportation and giving immigrants far less legal recourse. It also changed the definition by which an immigrant could claim a ‘removal waiver.’ This waiver’s delicate wording, could hav been Maria’s defense due to her child with exceptional needs, before it was changed. Previous to 1996, an immigrant had to show “extreme hardship” to stay in the U.S., but after 1996, a person had to show “exceptional and extremely unusual hardship.”
“The law doesn’t provide any benefit for her just because of her child,” said Alan Wernick, professor at Baruch College and director of the CUNY Citizenship and Immigration Project. “Either the child goes to Mexico, or stays with other relatives. It’s a very tragic outcome.”
Ernesto is aware that the law will not benefit them.
“We just work for a better life, that’s why we came,” he said, speaking for Maria, who is just learning English. “We don’t do criminal things. We work hard and don’t make any problems, but the law doesn’t understand.”

Amtrak and Greyhound: “Raids on Wheels”

Maria was detained by ICE agents after they boarded her train in upstate New York and asked passengers for identification, a practice that is becoming more frequent but that remains contentious.
“Sadly, we think there are families being fed into the deportation system through the trains and buses,” said Maria Muentes, the co-founder of Families for Freedom, a defense network for immigrants facing deportation that calls the ICE boardings ‘raids on wheels.’
Families for Freedom has recently begun an awareness campaign geared towards immigrants to let them know that when customs officials board a bus or train, they are not required to answer any of their questions without an attorney present.
“They claim that they are simply stepping up border inspections but essentially they are bringing the border to you,” said Juan Carlos Ruiz, Director of New York New Sanctuary Movement, in a press release. “It’s easy pickings for them to target unsuspecting people on these buses and trains but a nightmare for New York City families who will face deportation as a result of having taken that train or bus ride.”

Trouble in Queens: Training for the Knock on the Door
The raids on the buses and trains are but one small part of the enforcement efforts by ICE in New York. In Queens, house raids are becoming more and more common. ICE agents knock on apartment doors, seeking out tenants or others who cannot prove they belong there.
“We’ve definitely seen an increase in fear, and an increase in stories going around the community in the last six months about house raids,” said Valeria Trevis, the executive director of New Immigrant Community Empowerment (NICE) based in Jackson Heights. “But it’s hard to get the stories first hand, because ICE doesn’t publicize where the raids have been. But we have had members who’ve said, ICE came to my door, they were looking for somebody.”
NICE has included in their English instruction a program called “ICE Raids Emergency Readiness Plans.” This Orwellian-sounding program preps people on what to expect when someone from ICE knocks on their door. It is imperative that immigrants do not let the ICE agents into their apartments, the program explains, because once inside, the agent has the legal power to remove anyone at will from the apartment.
“We train them to be afraid to open the door,” Trevis said. “We’re teaching people to ask ICE for a warrant, to slip the warrant under the door, and if the warrant is not for people living in the house, they don’t have to open the door.”
These preventative classes are indicative on the climate of fear that persists within the mindset of the membership that Trevis serves.
“Doing this work, you sometimes forget about the shock factor,” she said. “In a lot of ways it’s amazing that we have to teach community members about these training techniques. But the community gets intimidated, and lets ICE inside the door.”
Aside from house raids and ICE knocking on people’s doors, there have also been incidents of workplace raids. Recently, two businesses on Roosevelt Avenue were raided for selling social security numbers. There was also the case of the Fresh Direct workers in December of 2007, a story that sent a chill through the immigrant community.
Fresh Direct workers were attempting to unionize. To counteract this, the company threatened the workers with a raid on their work authorization records. The company was able to use a provision in the Patriot Act that gave them immunity from any legal repercussion if they submitted to an ICE audit. According to the New York Times, the company lost 100 workers, who quit for fear of their work status being revealed, and subsequently failed in their union drive.
“People in the community know about the Fresh Direct case,” said Trevis, “so that also makes them fearful about both workplace and house raids. After the Fresh Direct situation, some people were actually afraid to go out on the street or to go on the trains.”

The Many-Tentacles of ICE
While it is impossible to give one entity responsibilty for the increased level of fear among immigrants in Queens and elsewhere, the ICE is, judging by its published statistics, winning the deportation battle.
In 2006 alone, ICE set new records for alien removals, up to 187,513 in that year alone. ICE does focus on tracking down those who have criminal records or who have ignored previous deportation decisions, or been accused of document fraud. ICE officials did not return calls seeking comment.
“We’re kind of seeing an overall more aggressive enforcement all around the five boroughs,” said Maria Muentes. “In every aspect of civil life, we’re seeing more house raids and workplace raids.”
ICE has also increased its number of employees. The agency’s Web site, showsthe number of fugitive operation teams tripled in the year 2005 and records were set in 2006 for total number of worksite enforcements.
While these statistics reflect nationwide trends, in New York City many immigrants were relieved when Mayor Michael Bloomberg enacted Executive Order 41 in 2003, prohibiting civic agencies from inquiring into and disclosing the immigration status of individuals. New York earned the moniker of being a ‘sanctuary city’ because of this. However, a loophole in this order allowing for agency workers to ask about immigration status if there is a suspicion of illegal activity has enabled ICE to pursue immigrant cases at prison facilities.
“These kinds of enforcement mentality and activities,” said Juan Carlos Ruiz, “has really done away with the significance of who is legal and who is not. It has been rendered insignificant. If you are an immigrant, unless you are a citizen, even if you have a green card, once they identify you as a criminal, forget it. They are piggybacking immigrant cases onto these petty criminal cases.”
In addition, ICE has implemented in the New York City region the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program (ISAP), a pilot, voluntary program that allows detained immigrants to wear ankle bracelets and move around the city.
“ISAP is meant to be an alternative to detention, so for folks who are in detention it’s an alternative,” said Janis Rosheuvel of Families for Freedom. “But you can only be outside for 12 hours and you have to check in with an immigration official three times a week. It really works against their freedom of movement.”

Community Groups, Networked and Active
Many groups in Queens are active with educational programs and campaigns. The groups help with green card, work visa, and naturalization paperwork, but are more aggressively educating immigrants about their legal rights New Immigrant Community Empowerment is perhaps most in touch with people in the Queens community.
“The membership are low-wage workers in precarious industries such as child care, construction and the restaurant industry,” said Valeria Trevis. “We are doing a lot of preventative work.”
Cathy Ellen Rosenholtz is the pastor at St. Jacobus Evangelical Lutheran Church, located at the nexus of Elmhurst, Woodside, and Jackson Heights. The small congregation is made up of people from ten countries.
“We’re in the midst of a community of diverse immigrants,” she said. “I talk to families and walk the streets, and people just want a good job and good schools for their kids and are willing to work hard for it. It’s clear they want to be active contributors to the community. And the Bible says that we’re called upon to welcome strangers. It’s essential to who we are.”
Rosenholtz helped facilitate a meeting of the Fresh Direct workers and organizers in the church gymnasium. She also helped fund an undocumented woman’s flight back to Peru to take care of her ailing mom after her Queens-based factory was raided by ICE workers and her undocumented status was uncovered. They have also held well-attended immigrant workshops in tandem with the Immigrant Legal Resource Center and Families for Freedom.
“We see at a local level the human consequences of political decisions,” she said. “I just hope that people at the local level can be heard.”

In Woodside, Depression Kept At Bay
Maria and Ernesto’s unfortunate story stands in for many families facing the harsh side of immigration enforcement.
“She needs to stay here,” Ernesto said. “It’s not a life with her in Mexico.”
Their apartment is a bedroom and small sunroom separated by a locked door from the bathroom and kitchen they share Ernesto’s brothers’ families. . Despite the small quarters, the family seems comfortable and wants the opportunity to make a life for themselves here.
“If you’re a criminal and you go outside and make problems,” he said, “this country doesn’t need you. Because this country has to be an example for other countries.”
But he struck a philosophical tone about Maria’s possible deportation, noting, as he said, “life, it continues.
“You don’t have to be depressed,” he said. “I work hard and I’ll send her money, and see what’s going to happen. The life is very long. It’s hard, it’s not easy. I’m not concentrating on my job because of this, I’m just thinking, what’s going to happen? But you don’t have to get depressed.”

photo by Roisin O’Connor

Just a day after the shutdown, it was easy to talk with shoppers who purchased knock-offs, and I even spoke with a vendor long enough that he expressed his great dissatisfaction with the whole system he is caught up in–from the exploitative boss who expects him to take the risks and the heat, to the label executives that demand a city crack down. The question everyone on Canal Street was left with is: Was this the best use of the city’s resources? Is it a big deal to protect labels from imitation? Is it worthwhile to put people out of work? Certainly the shoppers and the street peddlers don’t pose a threat to anyone, so is it worth the hassle? Why or why not?You can decide after reading and listening to more of their stories whether or not you would close shops and confiscate the illegal goods.

I feel invigorated by the pace set for the live-blog event I did at Tuesday’s AUC/ICFJ film screening. It’s true that journalists get a bang out of their work just from the energy required to get the story. It took some time for me to find a stride between reading subtitles and responding to the meanings in each short film. This format was new to me, but I can see why so many people like it.

Annie interviews Craig Duff (Photo by Alaa al Dajani)

The audio section of the reporting came a little easier to me. I admit, I was intimidated to pop up and interview a room full of film makers and journalists. What I discovered was that, knowing what it’s like to be in my shoes, everyone I spoke to was gracious and helpful.

Alaa, one of the students there to present a film short, sent me this photo and said, “now I can easily share yesterday with my family and friends back in Cairo. They haven’t seen the blog live though but I am sure they will enjoy it and appreciate it.”

It’s cool to count people in Cairo as I consider who my audience is!

The following is a live-blog post of the documentary shorts screening, “First-Person Films: Student Documentaries from Egypt”, sponsored by The American University in Cairo and the International Center for Journalists, hosted in New York City’s Tribeca Grand Hotel.

Six films were shown: The Art of Mandur (Fan Mandur), Kasr El Masr: Palace of Critical Care, A Life on the Nile , Away from Home, Lokmet Eish (Making a Living), The No Choice (about blogger Alaa Abd el Fatah) and Resonance (the story of a determined Oud player).

10:00 Craig is the last to leave

One sure side-effect of live blogging is head swim. That being said, if I collect my thoughts for just a minute, I see that we just spent the evening witnessing the power of video storytelling. Guests talked about the foot ironer, the sailor, the Iraqi mother as if they understood on a deeply personal level what their lives are like. There was some undertone of joy at having the opportunity to learn about people half a world away.

One other result of an evening well spent–exhaustion. I’m grateful to Craig for taking a few more minutes to tell me his thoughts on how the screening went, and some of what he took away from his time in Cairo:

Craig Duff Interview

9:30 The Room Clears

Just a few guests are left…I jumped into the middle of one conversation to have a few words with our visiting film maker and any guests still willing to talk:

Alaa Al Dajani

8:30 After Party

Where does the time go when you’re munching nuts and cheese? Guests aren’t eager to brave the cold quite yet. They’d rather chat, and they are all enthusiastic about the films they saw.

Listen here.

7:45 the Q & A

My computer and I had to part ways for this portion of the evening…it’s a mic thing. There were plenty of questions (though none for me to relay from any comments! Too bad.) Overall, it was clear the audience connected with many of the characters in the film. Their questions were about how the people are now, where they are, if they have rebuilt relationships we were concerned about, etc. And of course, some genuine amazement at the ER scenes, to which Craig said most Egyptians would not be so surprised by what they saw if the film were to make it on television.

I’m off to interview guests!

7:30 Oud

Mustafa Said Mohamed Anta is portrayed with determination from a young age, when he defies his father to learn to play the Oud. A great moment is when his ire is raised by a young student of his who doubts he’ll be able to apply to music school.

Clearly he wants to bring his country into the new century and embrace what is beautiful about the music that is in his soul. He says, “If there was no hope, I’d be composing commercial music”

7:20 Just Blog NO?

Not for the blogger-activist Alaa Abd el Fatah and his family. It took me a while to grasp the meaning behind this story. This isn’t about blogging an opinion and getting into trouble with the law, this is a life choice that a man and woman (Alaa’s parents) made even before all their children were born.

They raised their family to step into the fray, add their bodies to the count, stand up and be heard. They attend demonstrations together like we might go to the movies–or that’s how it was before things became really violent. Now they know what it’s like to be beat, sit in jail, and petition for friends. There is not family time that isn’t political time. It’s their life choice, and their courage comes through loud & clear.

7:00 If only my grandmother had known: FOOT IRONING?

Yes, he (note: it’s a MAN’S job) curls his toes to hold the iron. Even better: who needs that little iron sprayer we have when you can just spray water over a garment with your MOUTH? I like the music Farah El Alfy, Haidy Ammar and Habiba Yussr chose to keep this light and fun.

The foot ironer feels this is his destiny, all he knows, and it paid to educate his children. He walks with a crooked back and a proud heart….but I’m not sure I should regret my wash & wear clothes.

6:55 Iraqi Mothers

One image of this Iraqi refugee family stopped me short: the little girl thumbing a newspaper with images of war in her home country. Her sadness becomes ours in the short film, as we see her hugged repeatedly by her mother. Mother Om Olma is determined to keep her family together, happy and forward looking despite tears when she misses her own mother.

While we watch her children kick a ball in the yard, Om Olma tells us if everything is taken away from her but security, she will still be happy. That is a lot for us Americans to ponder.

6:50 Boat with a View

A boatman tries to make a living & talks about the hassles of government that slow him down & can result in an immediate/arbitrary change of career if he gets the answers wrong. I feel for him, and long for a chance to catch the vision captured in those great shots.

6:40 Everybody’s ER

Chaos seems to reign in this hospital–and yes, the film maker deserves kudos for this access! Anger, tears and desperation (both of patients and doctors) is palpable. Families swarm in on doctors & slow the process…administrators resort to harsh words to maintain order. The basement scene at the end makes everything at first seem hopeless, but the speaker says “There is no worker like the Egyptian worker,” turning the story upwards with determination and hope.

6:30 Potter & Son

A touching story, told so quickly, about two potters, father & son. The younger tries to find his own artistic path and keep his bond with his father, the older feels so strongly about keeping the craft a tradition after working so hard to become what he is now. Timeless and universal.

6:15 small weather delay!

A little snow stuck and slowed down our trains, but that didn’t keep guests away, just a little late. We’re just starting now after brief remarks. Here are photos to keep you busy while I watch:

Alaa & Craig

Alaa Al Dajani, Craig Duff, David Irons & Elisa Tinsley