I saw the show tonight and it made me think of Eric Falt who worked at UNEP then became #2 at UN DPI in New York where he replaced an Egyptian and is taking over the #2 job at UNESCO.

Why that? It is because DRIVING THE SAUDIS was conceived in cooperation with The International Theatre Institute of Paris that is connected to UNESCO. This means that there is still some honesty left at UNESCO – something impossible to find at the  Department of Information and Communication of the UN in New York. Under Egyptian Ahmad Fawzi the Department was all about safeguarding the interests of the oil kings. Under French Eric Falt there was no change – only a make believe of bringing in the UN Correspondents Association in decision making and the results are even worse then the starting line. What will he do when he gets to Paris? Will activities like showing DRIVING THE SAUDIS in conjunction with ITI be considered not Halal anymore?

My first posting about this one woman show was based on their publicity and I thought that the waste of oil money by the oil kings is the main issue. Having seen it now my feeling is that it is much more about the place of a woman in the Saudi Royal family.

Actually – there is no Saudi State only a privately owned huge piece of real estate that belonged to King Ibn Saud and was passed on to his descendants that multiply like rabbits – with 30 wives if not one hundred. We understood that there are only 4 at one time and they are released simply by saying three times, in the presence of a witness,  that the owner sends them off. The whole thing turned my stomach and what is the UN for? What is a the new “UN Women” creation for? What did UNIFEM do all these years? Who at the UN has said anything about this sort of slavery at the age that overpopulation does us all in. A woman must produce sons in order to have a chance to survive some longer before being replace by a younger one.

I clearly will not do justice in this second posting to the content of this reality play – and reality it is in every minute of it – in the real sense of the word. I will write more about it and hope it will get to the public’s attention and people will not shy away anymore from what it presents. The UN Headquarters are not worth the money the world spends on it if no effort is made to follow up on 21st century slavery – even if the women involved think that they benefit from the lavish life-style as long as it lasts.

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The New York Fringe Festival is the largest multi-arts festival in North America, with more than 200 companies from all over the world performing for 16 days in more than 20 venues.

DRIVING THE SAUDIS, with and by Jayne Amelia Larson, was [performed at the historic SoHo Playhouse and was about 2/3 full. Those that came early – about 50 people – looked to me as Middle Easterners. Those that arrived closer to the start were younger and looked like theater students.

The SoHo Playhouse was home to playwrights like Edward Albee, Terrance McNally, A.R. Gurney … Previously it was under the Village South & Spectrum Theatre name, and even housed at the start of the last century the Tammany Hall (New York City Democrats Hall) “Huron Club.”

I met the producer of the play – Patrick Terry – who hails from the NYU Tisch School of the Arts (Drama and Production) and is connected to Peter Goldfarb, Vice President of UN’s International Theatre Institute. From Terry I learned that the content of the play will be gathered also in a book form.

Again, getting back to the history of the play, both, Larson and Terry said that it is all true. Larson who is a theater person, director, actress, in her own right, for money reasons took on this job of being part of a group of 15 drivers that were serving a family of 7 Saudi Royals and their entourage of 50 that includes cooks, nannies, security, secretaries …, that came to Los Angeles for aesthetic surgery and shopping that lasted 50 days. They were spread out in 4 hotels. When she got the job to be chauffeuring the princess and her daughter, it turned out that she had to chauffeur also the hairdresser to Las Vegas. The family came with $20 million and that money was spent. The help had to leave their passports with the hired ex-American military and one of the help, from Sudan, at the airport, when she got the passport in her hands, simply ran away and refused to board the private 747 for the return trip to Saudi Arabia.

Larson digs into the social implications of what she saw and learned. She has sympathy for the three women she talks about – the princess, her daughter that would have loved to go to UCLA but was already promised in marriage, and a Lebanese nanny that with her earnings put through college her siblings back in Lebanon. She speaks of the men as always in need to have someone to insult bellow them in the pecking order. The men never looked into he eyes and this seemingly in an attempt to show respect. And yes – when she applied for the job, she was interviewed and there was no question about her driving only if she was not Jewish. (“You are not Jewish? Not Jewish!”)

Oh yes, I will have more on this in further postings.

DRIVING THE SAUDIS asks where our gas money really goes — and provides some answers by following the grueling adventures of a chauffeur who whisks Saudi Royals through a Beverly Hills shopping/plastic surgery vacation. Visit www.drivingthesaudis.info.

DRIVING THE SAUDIS is a one-woman show based on Larson’s real life experience as a chauffeur for a family of Saudi Royals visiting Beverly Hills—for 7 weeks of shopping and plastic surgery. As the only woman in a detail of almost 50 drivers assigned to the family and its extensive entourage, Ms. Larson details her invitation inside one of the most closely guarded private monarchies in the world. DRIVING THE SAUDIS explores and challenges American perceptions of beauty, culture, religion, and the subjugation of women, through the curious eyes of the actress-turned-chauffeur.

This multi-media piece includes original film footage and found stills which illuminate the story and content.

JAYNE AMELIA LARSON
Miss Larson received an undergraduate degree from the College of Arts and Sciences at Cornell University, and a graduate degree from Harvard University’s Institute of Advanced Theater Training under the tutelage of Robert Brustein. She has also studied with Patsy Rodenburg from the RSC, Larry Moss, Rod Menzies, The Groundlings, and Boris Imas of the Moscow Art Theater. As a working actress, she has performed extensively in regional and New York theaters, and has made numerous television and film appearances including a series regular on Judging Amy, The Gilmore Girls, The Huntress, Club 7, and The Illusion, in which she plays opposite Kirk Douglas, released this past year. Her solo show, More Than Naked, premiered in Los Angeles as part of the acclaimed 2006 Edge Of The World Theatre Festival. She is now developing a new solo show, Driving The Saudis, and recently workshopped it at the Off Broadway Theater in Boston, at Hollins University, at the Naked Angels In Progress Series, and at Cornell University.

She has served as literary manager and part of the acting company of the award-winning theater group, The Wilton Project. Upon request, she has coached privately in Los Angeles for several years and has also taught workshops at Cornell University, University of Redlands, and the University of California State Northridge.

In addition, Ms. Larson was the VP of Development at entitled entertainment, an independent film company producing many award winning films including Thirteen Conversations About One Thing with Matthew McConnaughy, Amy Irving, and Alan Arkin; LA Riot Spectacular with Charles Dutton and Snoop Dogg; Levity with Billy Bob Thornton and Kirsten Dunst; The Illusion with Kirk Douglas and Michael Goorjian; and Aurora Borealis starring Donald Sutherland, Josh Jackson, and Juliette Lewis.

CHARLIE STRATTON (director)
Mr. Stratton has directed theater in the U.S., Europe and Asia. He was the Co-Artistic Director of the Los Angeles based Wilton Project, an award-winning theatre company which focused exclusively on the development and production of new material. He has worked extensively with the New York based theater companies Naked Angels and New York Stage and Film where he recently directed a production of FINKS by Joe Gilford starring Josh Radnor and Jennifer Westfeldt. Additionally, he frequently directs, produces and writes for television and feature films. He is a graduate of The Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at Harvard University.

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This is a re-posting as I saw the play today and found that there is much more to it then I wrote above. As such I will have several postings on Driving the Saudis – starting with a second posting today. (The editor – Pincas Jawetz)

We originally posted this on August 24, 2010.

This has become now a tradition – a tour of Jazz places/restaurants of Harlem during one of the evenings/nights of the yearly Harlem Week.
Obviously, this is a promotional thing – but if you want to find out what is going on – this is a tremendous one-time occasion.

We went by big Greyhound bus and several Greyhound employees went along. The “safari” was organized by Marko Nobles of Harlem Week Inc. and promoted through Rubenstein Adssociates Inc. Robin Verges. www.HarlemDiscover.com

We made 9 stops. I will not go over the tour chronologically, as it was very varied, but will touch upon the highlights.

Obviously – the outstanding place is the old-timers’ LENOX LOUNGE  at 288 Lenox Ave. that was renamed Malcolm X Bulevard – between 124 and 125th streets. They had Danny Coakley & Friends playing in the fabulous Zebra Room where every Jazz Great has performed.   The September program is great and for the September 15th they have booked comedian Paul Mooney.

The place was full – this was our third stop and we arrived about 6:45 pm. The food looked very good – classic American South and the drinks were named after star  musicians.  www.LenoxLounge.com

From there we drove short distance to SHOWMAN’S at 375 West 125th Street Between St. Nicholas Avenue & Morningside Avenue. This is another place with great history but it is smaller and did not hold up as well. They had Jery Weldon but the program said Henry Warner and The New Perspective. Only a few people sat at the long bar.   www.myspace.com

Next let me note the DWYER CULTURAL CENTER where lots of activities go on that galvanize the Harlem communities – that includes backing up all forms of art including the theater. www.dwyercc.org

Going to the new developments in Harlem, let us start with the newest that was actually the starting point of the tour and is heavily backed by the Harlem Chamber of Commerce. This location has actually two separate French West African (Senegalese) enterprises of the same owners: Our point of attention THE SHRINE BAR RESTAURANT and its neighbor THE YATENGA FRENCH BISTRO & BAR. As we got there at 5:30 pm both places were nearly empty and the music at The Shrine started only 5:45 in our honor. I saw the featured singer, Lady Cantrese, but never heard her. At The Shrine the food is mainly toasts and among the drinks they call Shalom an intriguing mixture of scotch and amaretto. The Bistro has quite an interesting menu. W assume the ida might be to go to the bistro for the food and then to the nicely African decor of the Shrine to listen to the music. The place has potential.

The location is 2269-2271 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd or what is actually 7th Avenue, between 133-134 Streets.
 www.yatengabistro.com

For food lower it seems that The Debrouillard Restaurant Group has planted several sites in Harlem. I understood that two Latin American brothers are behind these enterprises located in Spanish Harlem – none of them is called Ricardo – but the RICARDO’S STEAK HOUSE is an outstanding steak house we visited, and it does not shy away from empanadas either. Further, they honored us with a very good cognac called Conjure. The featured performer was Janice Robinson and, backed up by a L:atin two-men band was very good. The location is 2145 Second Avenue between 110-111 Streets. www.RicardoSteakHouse.com

As said, they own also CEVICHE BAR & TAPAS at 2312 Second Avenue, and astonishingly, POETS DEN GALLERY & THEATER also nearby at 309 East 108 Street. They seemingly have planted here strongly a Latin American (Colombian) corner.

Not to be left behind, the Italians have also come back to Harlem, albeit not to the extreme East side but on Fifth Avenue.
That was actually the last stop at GRAN PIATTO also noted as CUCINA CON AMORE at 1429 Fifth Avenue.
 wwwthelauraman.com and the menu has something for everyone from the health conscious to the American Southern. www.Londell Restaurant.com 2620 Frederick Douglas Blvd. that is 7th Avenue.

The biggest place, and to me a disappointment, was UPTOWN GRAND at 2110 A.C. Powell Jr. Blvd. (btwn.125 & 126 Str. that did not offer anything as was advertised. Instead of a restaurant we saw a big hall with young people milling around with a rather good Latin band being totally neglected. We did not see the featured Performer Pucho, but when we came in we saw leaving Lady Cantrese whom we saw at the beginning of the evening but did not get to listen to here there either. I assume there was some misconnect regarding this place. Wednesdays must be their night for the young folks.www.UptownGrandHarlem.com

That leaves us with another place to which I cannot do justice. That is TERRACE IN THE SKY in the backyard of Columbia University on the roof of Butler Hall, at 400 West 119 Street – between Morningside Drive & Amsterdam Avenue. This is an elegant glass enclosed and roof outdoor as well, French-Mediterranean restaurant with breathtaking views, in all directions, of the Manhattan skylines. www.terraceinthesky.com That was our fourth stop – right after Showman’s, so we got there before 8 pm, but there were no guests left and the musicians was packing their instruments. In short – nothing except we got good Hennessy cognac which I insisted to drink straight. On the other hand, having arrived when darkness was starting to set in – just the right time to see the beauty of the place. This is a weekend dating place for Columbia University and I wonder what is the true reason for not

The Environment at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and THE BIG BAMBU on the roof.

THE BIG BAMBU opened on April 27, 2010 and the second stage (Stage ii) on Friday August 13th -  There will be yet a third stage!

This is a growing Environmental Sculpture if you wish, or a Roof Garden Installation if you prefer, or Elevated Pathways if you are functional.

You can climb it under the supervision of a guide – mine was Naomi Takafuchi who took me to up to 40 feet above the roof-top (which is 110 feet above Central Park ground) and made it possible for us to see the wide horizons of the New York Central Park, and the closing in by tall buildings.

The Monumental Sculpture was conceived and executed by the identical twin brothers – Doug and Mike Starn – born 1961.

They called the work BIG BAMBU: You Can’t, You Don’t, and You Won’t Stop. We found that the explanation is in the numbers – 100 feet long, by 50 feet wide, by 50 feet high and filling as much space of the Iris and Gerald Cantor Roof Garden, as available. Visitors can view the construction in progress that will go on through fall 2010. What then? Who cares? It might take off and travel somewhere else. The real joy is in building it – and for us – to walk through it. Up and down and then, vegetation on the roof has joined in by creeping along. It starts reminding me of the canopy walks of the Amazon I reached years ago via Iquitos, Peru. Only the monkeys outside, looking at us, are missing. However – clearly fun. A major financial contributor to this structure was Mayor Bloomberg, other contributors were from the Polsky  and Caroll family funds.

Oh well, there will be 5,000 interlocking 30 and 40 foot long bamboo poles held together by ropes provided by the Mammut Sports Group, Inc. Yes, there will be 50 miles of nylon ropes in use.  Don’t smoke there, but I got no clear answer if a beer cooler would be OK? I saw one ideal location up there, a bench and some bamboo ends that looked like being there exactly for the use as beer-can holders.

The installation is featured on www.metmuseum.org

For those not in the know – The Museum is at 1,000 Fifth Avenue, and you go in through the 81st Street entrance.

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Further, so we do not talk only art – I used the occasion to ask the museum’s information folks – what about Green activities at the Metropolitan? They rolled out before me the existance of a Museum’s Green committee chaired by Whitney Donhauser of the Museum President’s Office. They meet every three months to view how departments use energy, become more efficient energy users in order to turn the buildings “green.” One of the outcomes was the replacement of over 70,000 square feet of flat roofs across the museum, almost two acres, with reflective insulative material. My question, why not some photovoltaics got no answer.

Am I also a bigot? Pols clueless on Ground Zero mosque. By Nat Hentof, Jewish World Review August 25, 2010 / 15 Elul 5770 The angry national debate over Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf’s intention to build a mosque two blocks north of the horror of 9/11 at Ground Zero has been further fueled by supporter Nancy Pelosi declaring, “I join those who have called for looking into how … this opposition to the mosque is being funded.” If one of her sleuths knocks on my door, this opponent will readily state that I need no outside funding as a reporter who is deeply investigating the motivation of Imam Rauf’s choice of this site of mass murder for the mosque. I will add that, of course, all American Muslims have their First Amendment right to exercise their freedom of religion in their place of worship. There have been other mosques in New York City built without opposition. That freedom is not at stake here. As for Rauf’s inflammable site choice, however, one of a growing number of construction workers pledging they will not work on this mosque (New York Daily News, Aug. 20), Dave Kaiser, a blaster, explains: “I wouldn’t work there, especially after I found out about what the imam said about U.S. policy being responsible for 9/11.” Imam Rauf said was interviewed on CBS’ “60 Minutes” (Sept. 30, 2001) by Ed Bradley. (I have the transcript.) Asked how he felt as a Muslim “knowing that people of your faith committed this act,” Imam Rauf spoke about Muslim reaction throughout the world “against the policies of the U.S. government, politically, where we espouse principles of democracy and human rights and where we ally ourselves with oppressive regimes in many of these countries.” “Are you in any way suggesting that we in the United States deserved what happened?” Bradley asked. “I wouldn’t say that the United States deserved what happened,” Rauf answered, “but the United States’ policies were an accessory to the crime that happened. … Because (the United States has) been an accessory to a lot of — of innocent lives dying in the world. In fact, it — in the most direct sense, Osama bin Laden is made in the U.S.A.” Were the heads of government in Iran, Hamas and Sudan also “made in the USA?” Imam Rauf has refused to call Hamas a terrorist organization and had no comment when, on Aug. 15, Mahmoud al-Zahar, its co-founder, strongly supported the Imam’s mosque near Ground Zero, saying, Muslims “have to build everywhere” (Associated Press, Aug. 16). Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said the support by Hamas of the Imam’s mosque carried no weight because “Hamas is a terrorist organization.” Why, yes, it is, Imam Rauf, with its suicide bombers and endless rockets into Israel. How else can suicide bombers be characterized? This imam — widely lauded in much of the press as “a moderate” Muslim — is not reticent, however, in his firm commitment to Sharia (Islamic law), which regards women as far less than fully human. In the Dec. 9, 2007 Arabic newspaper Hadi el-Islam, Rauf insisted: “Throughout my discussions with contemporary Muslim theologians, it is clear an Islamic state can be established in more than just a single form or mold. It can be established through a kingdom or a democracy. The important issue is to establish the general fundamentals of Sharia that are required to govern.” I would greatly appreciate it if Imam Rauf explained, maybe Pelosi will ask him, more fully what he meant in his 2004 book, “What’s Right With Islam is What’s Right With America.” In it he declares: “American Constitution and system of governance uphold the core principles of Islamic law.” Rauf says Sharia law is a core principle of Islamic law. Does that also include a core principle of our Constitution? This 2004 book’s title in the English-language edition yields to a different title for non-English-speaking readers in Malaysia, reports Andrew McCarthy (“Rauf’s Dawa from the World Trade Center Rubble,” nationalreview.com). This alternate title in Malaysia brings us right back into the civil war here about the imam’s mosque near Ground Zero: “A Call to Prayer from the World Trade Center Rubble: Islamic Dawa in the Heart of America Post-9/11.” What does “dawa” mean? McCarthy explains: “Dawa, whether done from the rubble of the World Trade Center or elsewhere, is the missionary work by which Islam is spread. … The purpose of dawa, like the purpose of jihad, is to implement, spread, and defend Sharia. … through means other than violence and agents other than terrorists.” As of this writing, Imam Rauf is on the State Department tour (financed by us) of Arab nations in the Middle East. He has been on four such State Department tours — two under George W. Bush. Says State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley (New York Post, Aug. 20): “I wouldn’t be surprised if he talks about the ongoing debate within the United States, as an example of our emphasis on religious tolerance and resolving questions that come up within the rule of law.” Does our State Department include Sharia as being within our rule of law? At the end of that news story, we are told that Rauf “is not allowed to fund-raise on the trip.” Yet, in the Aug. 18 New York Post, Geoff Earle and Tom Topousis report that “in an interview overseas, he (Rauf) said ‘he would also tap Muslim nations for help.’” I would not be surprised if Saudi Arabia ultimately becomes a generous contributor, but not quite in the agreement with the State Department’s “emphasis on religious tolerance.” New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg charges that opponents of Imam Rauf’s mosque “should be ashamed of themselves” and are bigots. Me, too, Mr. Mayor? If you want to join Speaker Pelosi in investigating me, your honor, I’d be glad to oblige. I’m just doing my job as a reporter. I wish more reporters had gone beneath the shouting on both sides. There’s another part of the First Amendment in addition to the free exercise of religion: The press is free to investigate the reasons for Imam Rauf’s fixation on the 9/11 location of his mosque. And why does this location make Hamas glow? ——————————————————————————————————– Nat Hentoff is an old-time professional journalist – neither left nor right – he wrote for them all. Nathan Irving “Nat” Hentoff (born June 10, 1925, in Boston) is an American historian, novelist, jazz and country music critic, and syndicated columnist for United Media and writes regularly on jazz and country music for The Wall Street Journal. Hentoff was formerly a columnist for Down Beat, The Village Voice, JazzTimes, Legal Times, The Washington Post, The Washington Times, The Progressive, Editor & Publisher and Free Inquiry. He was a staff writer for The New Yorker, and his writing has also been published in The New York Times, Jewish World Review, The Atlantic, The New Republic and Commonweal. Hentoff  graduated from the Boston Latin School. He was awarded his B.A. with the highest honors from Northeastern University and did graduate work at Harvard University. In 1950, he was a Fulbright fellow at the Sorbonne. In June 1955, Hentoff co-authored with Nat Shapiro Hear Me Talkin’ to Ya: The Story of Jazz by the Men Who Made It. The book features interviews with some of the best-known names in jazz, including Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington and Paul Whiteman. He went on to author numerous other books on jazz and politics. On December 31, 2008, the Village Voice, which had regularly published Hentoff’s commentary and criticism for fifty years, announced that he had been laid off.[3] In February 2009, Hentoff joined the libertarian Cato Institute as a senior fellow.[4] In January of 2010 however Hentoff returned and wrote one article for the Voice. In 1972 Hentoff was named a Guggenheim Fellow.[5] He was awarded the American Bar Association‘s Silver Gavel Award in 1980 for his columns on law and criminal justice. In 1985 he was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Laws by Northeastern University.[6] In 1995 Hentoff was given the National Press Foundation‘s Award for lifetime distinguished contributions to journalism.[7] In 2004 Hentoff was named one of six NEA Jazz Masters by the US National Endowment for the Arts, the first non-musician to win this award. That same year, the Boston Latin School honored him as alumnus of the year. In October 2005, Hentoff was honored by the Human Life Foundation at their third annual Great Defender of Life dinner. In 2002 Nat Hentoff became a member of the Board of Directors of The Jazz Foundation of America.[8] He has worked with The Jazz Foundation to save the homes and the lives of America’s elderly jazz and blues musicians including musicians that survived Hurricane Katrina. Hentoff has written multiple articles about the Jazz Foundation of America for The Wall Street Journal,[9], and the Village Voice [10] bringing attention the plight of America’s pioneering musicians of jazz and blues. Political commentary Hentoff is known as a civil libertarian, free speech activist, anti-death penalty advocate, pro-life advocate. He supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq and is an advocate of Zionism and Israel. While once a longtime supporter of the American Civil Liberties Union, Hentoff has become a vocal critic of the organization for its advocacy of government-enforced university and workplace speech codes.[11] He serves on the board of advisors for the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, another civil liberties group. Hentoff’s book, Free Speech for Me — But Not for Thee, outlines his views on free speech and excoriates those who he feels favor censorship in any form. Hentoff was critical of Bush Administration policies such as the Patriot Act and other civil liberties implications of the recent push for “homeland security.” He was also strongly critical of Clinton Administration policies such as the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996. In February 2003, Hentoff signed a letter circulated by Social Democrats, USA advocating the removal of Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq on human rights grounds, citing reports detailing Hussein’s disregard for fundamental liberties. In March and April of that year Hussein was deposed by a US-led invasion, launching the ongoing Iraq war. In summer 2003, Hentoff wrote a column for the Washington Times in which he supported Tony Blair‘s humanitarian justifications for the war. He also criticized the Democratic Party for casting doubt on President Bush’s pre-war assertions about Iraq’s alleged weapons of mass destruction in an election year. An ardent critic of the Bush administration’s expansion of presidential power, Henthoff in 2008 called for the new president to deal with the “noxious residue of the Bush-Cheney war against terrorism.” Among the national security casualties have been, according to Henthoff, “survivors, if they can be found, of CIA secret prisons (“black sites”); victims of CIA kidnapping renditions; and American citizens locked up indefinitely as “unlawful enemy combatants.”[12] He has advocated prosecuting members of the Bush administration, including torture lawyer John Yoo, for war crimes.[13]

Weather Beacon: Erik Guzman

Weather Beacon is an oracle for the digital age. Merging Wi-Fi technology and industrial engineering, this kinetic sculpture receives data from the Internet and emits a code of flashing lights, forecasting the weather and inviting the public to connect to their physical and invisible surroundings.

Presented by Arts World Financial Center. Sculpture operates 24 hours a day, though December 31, 2010

Weather Beacon has been made possible, in part, by a grant from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council with the generous support of The September 11th Fund.

location:   World Financial Center Plaza   map

price:	Free
website:	www.artsworldfinancialcenter.com
phone:	212-945-0505 —————————————————————————————————————————————– Also: July 12 – September 3, 2010 Monday – Friday, 12 – 4pm WFC Courtyard Gallery View Map The Drifting Encyclopedia is an assemblage of American oddities, scientific and historical ephemera, questionable accounts and implausible representations thereof. Part Victorian cabinet of curiosities, part roadside attraction, this immersive art installation houses exhibits that echo the themes of unlikely connections and contemplates the actual, illusory and anomalous nature of love. The Drifting Encyclopedia is created in correspondence to Undercurrents & Exchange, a series of performances in the WFC Winter Garden.

Dickstein Shapiro at the Upcoming Power Dealmaking Summit.
September 14-15, 2010
New York, NY

with the help of Infocast – at The Concierge Conference Center at
780 3rd Avenue, New York City.

Dickstein Shapiro’s Energy Practice supports and participates in leading conferences covering issues and challenges that are important to the energy industry. The 2010 Power Dealmaking Summit brings together buyers and sellers, asset managers, institutional investors, private equity, hedge funds, and other serious players in the power industry. This timely and comprehensive program features an outstanding faculty of industry leaders who will share their knowledge and insights into the drivers and issues that will make a difference as the M&A market heats up, the capital markets strengthen, and an $80 billion wave of refinancing hits this vital industry.

Friends and clients of Dickstein Shapiro may use Code 106709 when registering with Infocast to receive a 50% reduction in tuition for the Summit. If we may be of any other assistance, please let us know.

We hope to see you there.

Larry Eisenstat, Energy Practice Leader Moderator: Corporate Perspectives on the Market-Creating Value in the New Environment eisenstatl@dicksteinshapiro.com

Buz Barclay, Energy Practice Partner Chairman, Power Dealmaking Summit Moderator: M&A Dynamics and Trends barclayb@dicksteinshapiro.com

Power Dealmaking SUMMIT AGENDA.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010
8:00 – 9:00 Registration & Continental Breakfast

9:00 – 9:15 WELCOME & INTRODUCTION FROM THE SUMMIT CHAIR
Bernays T. (Buz) Barclay, Partner,
DICKSTEIN SHAPIRO, LLP

9:15 – 9:45 Keynote Address: COMING TO TERMS WITH UNCERTAINTY
Pundits are saying that domestic shale production will be sufficient to keep the US in a low gas price world forever; but we’ve heard this before. They say that demand for electric power comes roaring back when recessions end; but does an increased emphasis on demand side management and efficiency make this time different? Hot weather can change the economics of power production in a summer. A delay in a new transmission lines can add millions in revenue to one power plant and send another into bankruptcy. What are the important drivers of uncertainty for energy markets? How do you measure them? And, most importantly, how do you integrate the extreme uncertainty in today’s power markets into a valuation framework that supports term sheet development and negotiations?
Art Holland, Vice President, Utility & Risk Services, PACE GLOBAL

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9:45 – 10:15 Report OUTLOOK & TRENDS AFFECTING DEALS & VALUES
The road ahead is highlighted by an expert survey and analytical insights regarding many of the factors, trends and circumstances that are driving project, asset and corporate M&A and financing deals to market and determining their value.
Interest rates, fuel prices, government policy, legislation and regulation, overhangs of un-invested capital and dis-investing capital, market functions and dysfunctions, cross-border interests, economic and monetary (FX) issues, carbon and climate change, availability and cost of equity and debt in the bank and institutional markets and more.
Robert Mudge, Partner, THE BRATTLE GROUP

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10:15 – 10:45 Morning Networking Break & Private Meetings

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10:45 – 11:15 Report THE MOUNTING CHALLENGES OF REFINANCING
$27 Billion of credit facilities and nearly $2 Billion in bonds extended to non-regulated power companies and projects will mature in 2012. Through 2015, the unregulated power sector faces about $83.1 billion of maturities, almost $61.4 billion of which is in the form of credit facilities, including revolvers, syndicated letter of credit facilities and term loans. This factor alone may cause a significant segment of the power industry to recapitalize, change ownership, and re-direct its business strategies over the next few years, while new power assets will also be vying for development, construction and growth capital. This session will provide the latest information on the scope and character of the impending refinancing challenge facing the industry.
A.J. Sabatelle, Senior Vice President, MOODY’S INVESTORS SERVICE

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11:15 – 12:30 CORPORATE PERSPECTIVES ON THE MARKET: CREATING VALUE IN THE NEW ENVIRONMENT.
In the wake of the financial and economic crisis, power companies find themselves in a new business environment. Their challenge is to identify the critical strategic threats and opportunities and act to change, adapt, exploit, survive and sustain. This panel of top executives from major corporate players in the power industry will discuss where they are placing their bets and how they expect to create value in this environment
• Where are we in the business cycle in the power industry?
• What value creation strategies make sense in the industry for the intermediate future? To what extent will the IPP model continue to be sustainable vs. the integrated and regulated utility model?
• Will there be a trend toward the return of utility ownership and re-regulation?
• How will financing and re-financing requirements affect business models, opportunities and competitiveness in the industry?
• What are the prospects for industry consolidation in the coming years? For asset acquisitions and divestitures in the near term? For new project development?
• How are the conditions in the credit markets going to affect buying and selling decisions?
• What are buyers’ outlooks for asset and business valuations? What are they for sellers?
• What are corporate outlooks for financing and capital markets in the next 12 months?
Moderator: Larry F. Eisenstat, Partner, DICKSTEIN SHAPIRO LLP
Panelists:
Paul Cavicchi, Executive Vice President, GDF SUEZ Energy North America
J. Andrew Murphy, Executive Vice President & Regional President, Northeast, NRG ENERGY
Paul Stauder, Senior Vice President, Covanta Americas Business Management, COVANTA ENERGY CORPORATION
Richard Straebel, Senior Vice President, MARUBENI POWER INTERNATIONAL, INC.
Kelly Tomblin, Vice President Corporate Strategy & Services, INTERNATIONAL POWER AMERICA, INC.
Thomas B. White, President & CEO, KGEN POWER CORPORATION

——
12:30 – 2:00 Group Luncheon

——
2:00 – 3:15 PRIVATE EQUITY ROLES IN POWER DEALS
In the past, private equity has been a prime mover in the power industry, both in asset deals and in corporate M&A and restructuring. What roles are private equity investors looking to play going forward? Is it time to liquidate and move to other industries, or are there still ways to find and create value with sufficient liquidity in reasonable investment horizons in the power industry? In this session, private equity players discuss where they are reloading for more investment and where they are changing directions or realigning their strategies.
• What market trends are the most important for private equity strategies
• How do private equity firms add value in the power sector?
• What role will private equity play in the current power market?
• What sectors of the power markets offer the most attractive opportunities for private equity firms?
• How do the financing markets affect the distinctive criteria private equity uses when making investment / divestiture decisions?
• Where are valuations headed? Are buyers able to meet the expectations of sellers in the current markets?
• How is the current credit environment affecting private equity strategies?
Moderator: Todd Alexander, Partner, CHADBOURNE & PARKE LLP
Panelists:
Scott Brown, CEO, NEW ENERGY CAPITAL
Charles Costenbader, Associate Director, Treasury & Commodities Group, MACQUARIE ENERGY, LLC
Brendan T. Fitzgerald, President, ENERGY & INFRASTRUCTURE ADVISORS, LLC
Douglas Kimmelman, Senior Partner, ENERGY CAPITAL PARTNERS
Andrew Schroeder, Senior Partner, ENERGY INVESTORS FUNDS
Juliet Wallace, Director, DENHAM CAPITAL MANAGEMENT, LP

———–
3:15 – 3:45 Afternoon Networking Break and Private Meetings
———-
3:45 – 5:00 M&A DYNAMICS AND TRENDS
What are the dynamics that will shape M&A deal flow in the coming year? Economic growth? Flights to safety? Foreign investment? Regulatory uncertainty? Legislative risk? Fuel costs? We have seen big deals, small valuations, significant consolidations, dramatic divestitures and great hopes. What will make sense in the coming year? Our panel of dealmakers will describe the landscape as they see it, and identify the trends to watch – or get ahead of.
• What will the deal flow look like over the coming year and why?
• How will fuel and power prices impact deal and deal flow?
• Who will be the buyers and who will be the sellers?
• What can be expected in terms of valuations and bid-asked spreads?
• How will the refinancing wave drive M&A?
• How will the capital market investor appetite affect deals?
• Will legislative or regulatory risk be a driver for any M&A activity?
• What can be expected in renewable company and asset A&D?
Moderator: Bernays T. (Buz) Barclay, Partner, DICKSTEIN SHAPIRO, LLP
Panelists:
John F. (Jay) Beatty, Managing Director, NEW HARBOR, INC.
Matt Gibson, Managing Director, GOLDMAN SACHS & CO. James Metcalfe, Global Head of Power, UBS
Timothy Vincent, Partner, GREENTECH CAPITAL ADVISORS
Carl Weatherley-White, Managing Director, BARCLAYS
5:00 – 6:00 Summit Reception
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
8:00 – 9:00 Registration & Continental Breakfast
9:00 – 9:05 WELCOME & INTRODUCTION FROM THE SUMMIT CHAIR
Bernays T. (Buz) Barclay, Partner, DICKSTEIN SHAPIRO, LLP
Power Dealmaking Summit
———
9:05 – 10:15 CREDIT, THE CAPITAL MARKETS AND DEAL FINANCING
With the capital markets back to normal, will they provide the means to support new M&A and asset deals as well as refinancing $83 Billion in existing IPP debt? At what price? Will the sellers be able to staple financing to an asset as they did once? This session will explore the deal financing opportunities available in the market, examine the deal structures being adopted, and hammer out what is the best market to raise capital in.
• What debt financing is available to support future deal flow? Under what terms?
• Does the bank market have sufficient capacity and appetite for the opportunities that are coming up?
• Is the high-yield debt and B-loan market back? What type of transactions will it finance and on what terms?
• How will transactions need to be structured in the future to be successfully financed?
• What special issues do merchant plants face in their re-financings? Will bankruptcies wash out a lot of equity from the merchant part of the power industry?
• Will new merchant plant deals be financeable in the near future
Moderator: James Drzemiecki, Senior Managing Director, FTI CONSULTING
Panelists:
Ralph Cho, Executive Director, WEST LB SECURITIES, INC.
Mark Dennes, Director, Power & Energy Project Finance –
North America, BNP PARIBAS
Jack Paris, Managing Director, CITI
Edward Sondey, Managing Director, BofA MERRILL LYNCH
David H. Williams, Managing Director, Power & Utilities Group, CIBC
Raymond Wood, Managing Director, Energy Group, CREDIT SUISSE
——-
10:15 – 10:45 Morning Networking Break and Private Meetings
——
10:45 – 11:45 DEBT INVESTORS’ PERSPECTIVES ON FINANCING AND REFINANCING POWER DEALS
The appetites and preferences of debt investors in the private placement markets will in large measure shape the outlook for dealmaking and refinancing in the capital-intensive power industry. In this session, ultimate purchasers and holders of the unregistered securities of power projects and power industry companies, and their agents, will share their perspectives on the market, their appetite for financing deals in the power industry as opposed to their alternative investment opportunities, and the factors driving market pricing and liquidity.
• What kind of deals are debt investors looking for?
• What is driving covenant negotiations and pricing?
• Is the market expected to continue to be open and liquid?
Power Dealmaking Summit
Moderator: James Drzemiecki, Senior Managing Director, FTI CONSULTING Panelists:
John Anderson, Senior Managing Director/Head, Power & Project Finance, JOHN HANCOCK FINANCIAL SERVICES
Jamie N. Manson, Head of Power, INVESTEC NORTH AMERICA LIMITED
Stephen Petricone, Managing Director, FORTRESS INVESTMENT GROUP
____
11:45 – 12:00 FINAL THOUGHTS
Bernays T. (Buz) Barclay, Partner, DICKSTEIN SHAPIRO, LLP
12:00 Noon The Summit Adjourns
 http://www.infocastinc.com/index.php/con…

 http://asiasociety.org/style-living/food…

Fasting this Ramadan? Follow these few key guidelines to eating well and staying healthy during the holy month.

By Rafaya Sufi

Fasting this Ramadan? Or have friends who are? Follow these few key guidelines to eating well and staying healthy during Ramadan.

Since its foundation, Ramadan is celebrated with vigor amongst Muslim communities. A typical day of fasting consists of consuming an overnight breakfast at dawn, restricting any food and drink till sunset. Muslims may continue to eat and drink after the sun has set till the next morning’s fajr prayer at dawn.

The key to maintaining a healthy lifestyle during the month depends on a few practical points.

1. Water: For starters, proper hydration is essential. Fasting does not mean that all bodily functions stop requiring water. Headaches, fatigue, fuzzy thinking, irritability, and illness are often caused by inadequate hydration. We need half our body weight each day to just maintain normal bodily functions. To determine your water needs, use this simple formula:

Your body weight in pounds/2 = The amount of water you need to drink in ounces a day

So, If you weigh 180 lbs/2 = 90 oz/day, minimum

2. Replace Sugar With Fruit (when possible): What’s better than eating a delicious slice of cake (or baklava, or brownie, or some chocolate mousse, or….) once you break your fast? Fruit! Yes, this is a hard one, so quit complaining and follow these instructions for healthier you. You may think you deserve a piece of your favorite dessert after all those hours of restraining, but sugar robs our bodies of minerals and vitamins. During a period of fasting, our bodies need to hold on to as many minerals and vitamins as possible, so don’t let them escape just by giving in to your craving (after all, this is a month of self-restraint). Try baking this nutritious Fried Banana recipe at home as an alternative to sugar-loaded desserts.

3. Soup: A quick, easy, and nutritious food to consume during Ramadan is soup. Soup provides deep nourishment and is easily absorbed by the body. It is also a great way to meet your water needs, and if you blend all the good stuff together, picky eaters will never question what they are eating! After you break your fast, have some soup, and make it a staple diet for the month. Try making some delicious, vitamin-packed Mulligatawny soup at home.

4. Eat Slowly/Don’t Overdo It: What’s the rush? You have all evening! There is a tendency to eat really fast amongst people breaking their fasts. Trying to pack in 101 activities within the first few minutes of breaking your fast, which includes eating 101 foods, can cause some serious indigestion. Avoid that awful feeling by slowing down. Take small bites so you can chew well. The longer you chew your food, the less work your digestive track needs to do and you absorb more nurturance. So overall, it’s a win-win situation.

5. Vitamins and Minerals: Load up on them! Unfortunately, food today is not as nutritious as it was once. Unless you’re consuming 100 percent organic foods, you’ll probably need to replenish your body with lost electrolytes and vitamins. The top nutrients to look at are vitamins C, B-complex, zinc, E, and A. Vitamins C, A, and E along with zinc are known as antioxidants, and unless you’re living under a rock, antioxidants are in–they’re the latest health trend these days because they do wonders for your body. Eat fresh fruits, berries, and vegetables in abundance! B-complex vitamins are great at relieving stress, so be generous with those. Most Americans are already deficient in the B-complex vitamins due to eating high amounts of refined and processed foods, so skip the white bread, and opt for a whole-wheat option instead. Enjoy this healthy Ginger Tea to combat that tired feeling after fasting all day.

That’s all for now, folks. Have a healthy Ramadan!

Watch and learn how to make Harira soup

Traditional Moroccan Soup (Ramadan Special)

cookingwithalia

• Harira -  moroccan soup /soupe marocaine (Ra…101,767 views sousoukitchen
• queue Soupe Harira moderne

We decided to post this in recognition of the fact that it presents material that shows ways of thinking that are very different from ours, but may also have true meaning to the several constituencies that read the source from where we picked up this article. Be they evangelical Christians, Orthodox Jews, or devout Muslims – a circle of groups that despite seeming differences among themselves are quite united in their views of the Middle East.

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The ‘Zionist plot’ to build a mosque.

By Wesley Pruden, Jewish World Review - August 24, 2010 / 14 Elul, 5770

The Ground Zero mosque, which is stirring such a sandstorm in New York City, isn’t so popular in certain precincts of the Middle East, either. Some Muslims there think President Obama and Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York are nuts. Impotent and irresolute, too.

Some of the true believers in Arabia say the mosque is a conspiracy hatched by the Jews to set out a clear and permanent connection between Sept. 11 and Islam, a constant reminder of an attack on America led by devout Muslims. Dr. Abd al-Muti Bayumi, a prominent fellow of the Islamic Research Academy of Al Azhar, sometimes regarded as “the Vatican of Sunni Islam,” says the construction of a mosque anywhere near Ground Zero is the child of a “devious mentality” to connect the dots of Sept. 11 and Islam, to stoke memories of barbarism in the name of Islam.

Another Arab notability, Dr. Amna Nazir, a professor of doctrine and philosophy at Al Azhar, calls “building a mosque on this rubble indicates bad intention — even if we wished to shut our eyes, close our minds and insist on good will.” These are not the empty sentiments of good will and sensitivity so beloved of the girly men of the West. They’re statements of concern that “Zionist conspiracy” aid in construction of the Ground Zero mosque will ultimately damage Islam. Dr. Bayumi, for one, preaches suicidal jihad to demonstrate that his heart is in the wrong place: “I say in all honesty that we recruit the people of Islam, and instill in them the spirit of the true jihad, which is death for the sake of Allah, for the sake of our faith.”

The skepticism and hostility in Arabia to building the Ground Zero mosque — and until recently the proposed mosque was bigger news in the Middle East than in Minneapolis or Memphis — contrasts sharply with the enthusiasm of Muslims for the project in America. What do Muslims in Arabia know that Muslims in America don’t?

Sounds like a lot. Raymond Ibrahim, associate director of the Middle East Forum, author of “The Al Qaeda Reader” and guest lecturer at the National Defense Intelligence College, thinks it’s a result of culture and geography: “I believe it has to do with the differing mentalities of Western, or ‘indigenous,’ Muslims. The [indigenous Muslims], who have had little experience of the West, simply cannot believe that Muslims [in America] would be so foolhardy as to pursue such an obvious affront to their host nation.” An indigenous Muslim can’t believe that even an infidel nation would tolerate the insult. He knows what a similar insult, such as the construction of a Christian chapel in Saudi Arabia, would invite in an Islamic country. Not knowing very much about the world, the indigenous Muslim expects a similar result from the infidels.

Muslims here, on the other hand, have learned to game the system in the West, particularly in America, where the elites’ thirst for moonshine is unquenchable. Muslim troublemakers have learned to expect apologies and excuses for anything they do so long as they invoke the right liberal weasel words, such as “tolerance” or “pluralism” or “dialogue.” They’ve learned that talk of “building bridges,” particularly if the bridges lead to nowhere, are preferred fare in the salons of the elites. Insulting Americans invites only apologies, accompanied by abundant bowing and curtsying. George W. Bush went to the Islamic Center in Washington only six days after Sept. 11 to preach that “Islam is peace,” that “when we think of Islam, we think of a faith that brings comfort to a billion people around the world.”

Too bad for both George W. and Islam, but that’s not what most people here think of Islam. You couldn’t expect Michael Bloomberg to understand any of this, but Barack Obama, the son and stepson of Muslims who received his early education in Islamic schools, must know better. He should be familiar with the Islamic worldview that warm and fuzzy feel-good talk — what we once called “appeasement” — correctly invites contempt from men with strongly held conviction, however evil that conviction might be.

The American elites no longer understand strongly held convictions, good or evil, religious or political. The church and synagogue is only a place for rites and ritual, a place to marry your daughters and bury your dead. But devout Muslims really believe. They never apologize for who they are or what they believe. They have only contempt for the platitudes they have learned to use so effectively in hoodwinking the West — and for presidents who peddle the moonshine.

*:-.,_,.-:*’“’*:-.,_,.-:*’“’*:-.,_,.-:**:-.,_,.-:*’“

Fareed Zakaria: Right these days – Germany is booming – not China or the other developing counties. The US is falling behind compared  to both of them.

German Consumers did not over spend on credit cards like in the US.
Germany still has manufacturing going on – they did not switch to outsourcing like the US. The government encouraged and sustained manufacturing.
German manufacturers did not fire workers – they retained them for the return of better days by going to half time work.
Germany instituted reforms in such areas as pension systems, the labor market was freed – so their workers are less expensive but still have work

GERMANY – WITH THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE GLOBAL ECONOMY HAS REGAINED BY NOW ALL THE JOBS THAT WERE LOST NEVERTHELESS DURING THE RECESSION.

———————

China is now in second place in the global economy. In 2030 China will overtake the US.

Niall Ferguson wrote “High Financier” about Goldman Sachs and Ascent of Money.” Sees 14% growth in China.

Zachary Karabell spoke of “Super-fusion” of the US and China economies and looks at the US where it took 18 months to make grants for green business while it took China a plain government decision to achieve a similar goal.

Minxin Pei, a former Chinese dissident that goes back to Tiananmen Square, and works now with Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said that most dictatorships misallocate resources but the Chines did better – this because they believe the government must show competence to have claim to power, but is behind in environmental protection and education.

Tina Hachigian, added – With a per capita income income one tenth of the US China chose instead to have to say more on intellectual property and trade.

Karabell thinks it is now beneficial to have China as the weaker party in Chimerica – but China wants more like we saw in its relations to Australia. China is dependent on investments from abroad and the World is doing better when China is doing well.

Ferguson thinks the marriage may be now on the rocks and perhaps beyond counselling.

Nina Hichigian did not think this will happen very fast – We work together on Terrorism, north Korea (though not as well lately, on CLIMATE CHANGE – if this will not happen we all are sunk.

Pei still did not forgive China and said they will be lucky to grow 7% for the next 10-15 years – this because workers will get higher wages. The low labor costs were the strength.

Niall Ferguson seems rather optimistic by saying that we will witness in China the fastest INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION and an economic story rather then an ideological radicalization. They have had it already and now he sees the evolution of a large middle class. THEY WANT HIGHER WAGES BECAUSE THEY WANT TO CONSUME. And here Pei added -  AND DO NOT THINK OF THE “Square.” That is as in Tienanmen Square.

Nina said that 40% of Americans think they are already the domineering power today (that is China), but if we make right domestic policy decisions in the US we could still be ahead.

——

But did she look at Washington lately? Is this Washington capable of making decisions or every tea cap holder will just stay in the way? Did anyone look at Germany? Is there anything to learn from them still, or the boat has left already and the US is just irretrievably behind?

—–

And Fareed’s reading recommendation for the week:

The Birth of Plenty: How the Prosperity of the Modern World was Created by William Bernstein.

Bernstein argues that from the birth of civilization until 1820 there was little change in the standard of living. And then all of sudden came the prosperous life.

And what brought about such a change? Science, innovation, communication and more.

Fareed says this is a fascinating look at how we got to where we are today, with lessons for how we can continue to be prosperous.

————————————-

Footnote: We read in the paper that France looking at Germany that is again doing well – says that because it fell deeper, Germany got up faster. Oh well! We would have expected better logic from a tall good looking French Finance Minister.

Imran Khan Niazi (born 25 November 1952) is a retired Pakistani cricketer who played international cricket for two decades in the late twentieth century and has been a politician since the mid-1990s. He is considered a National hero in Pakistan.

Currently, besides his political activism, Khan is also a charity worker and cricket commentator.

In April 1996, Khan founded and became the chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (Movement for Justice), a small and marginal political party, of which he is the only member ever elected to Parliament.^[3] He represented Mianwali as a member of the National Assembly from November 2002 to October 2007.^[4] Khan, through worldwide fundraising, helped establish the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital & Research Centre in 1996 and Mianwali’s Namal College in 2008.

He is an outspoken intellectual with Pakistan at his heart – if this is not an oxymoron.

The good looking Imran was educated at Aitchison College, the Cathedral School in Lahore, and the Royal Grammar School Worcester in England, where he excelled at cricket. In 1972, he enrolled to study Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Keble College, Oxford, where he graduated with a second-class degree in Politics and a third in Economics.^[8]

On 16 May 1995, Khan married English socialite Jemima Goldsmith, a {Jewish} convert to Islam, in a two-minute Islamic ceremony in Paris. A month later, on 21 June, they were married again in a civil ceremony at the Richmond register office in England, followed by a reception at the Goldsmiths’ house in Surrey.^[9] The marriage, described as “tough” by Khan,^[7] produced two sons, Sulaiman Isa (born 18 November 1996) and Kasim (born 10 April 1999).^[10] As an agreement of his marriage, Khan spent four months a year in England. On 22 June 2004, it was announced that the Khans had divorced because it was “difficult for Jemima to adapt to life in Pakistan”.^[11]

Khan now resides in Bani Gala, Islamabad, where he built a farmhouse with the money he gained from selling his London flat. He grows fruit trees, wheat, and keeps cows, while also maintaining a cricket ground for his two sons, who visit during their holidays.[7

He is Fareed Zakaria’s favorite Pakistani.

Today Imran said that it is when the flood waters recede we get to know the full extent of the disaster that is still growing these days.

People were left without food, shelter, the cotton crop for income, the cattle, – this is 20 million people completely destitute.

Pakistan has not come to terms how to deal with this. He went a couple of times to the camps and saw people fighting over the goods that were brought in. The government has to put the army to keep them from fighting.

You speak of Cathrina – but Bush did not go to visit his chateau and burnish the image of his son when the flooding went on!

There is no help money coming in and there is no leadership in Pakistan now.

Fareed asked: Islamic fundamentalists make inroads just because there was no government – is that true?

And the anwer was clear – The WORLD MUST STOP TO LOOK AT AN ISLAMIC COUNTRY JUST BECAUSE A RELIGIOUS PARTY DOS CHARITY WORK – FOR PAKISTAN THIS IS NOT AN ISSUE.

IF THIS CONTINUES FOR THREE MONTHS THE COUNTRY WILL IMPLODE WITH 20 MILLION PEOPLE NOT HAVING WHERE TO GO.

The US is pulling out its combat forces from Iraq, but the Sunday TV main topic was THE MOSQUE.  As always – the best conversation was on Fareed Zakaria’s CNN/GPS program.

His guest were Bret Stephens from The Wall Street Journal and Peter Beinart – Senior Political Writer at the blog The Daily Beast, Associate Professor of Journalism and Political Science at the City University of New York, and a Schwartz Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation – till 2006 he was with The New Republic and still lives in Washington DC.

Stephens said that the legalities are clear but the issue is if this Mosque at that location advances interface dialogue and the answer is NO!

Beinart said you cannot divorce the right for building a Mosque from the right to decide where to build it. What about military bases? Will you next say that because there is sensitivity to Americans killed in wars in Muslim countries you cannot have a Mosque on a military base?

Stephens asked – wait – what if the German Government decides to build a tolerance center across the street from a concentration camp – this is much more like the present case.

Zakaria said – that is about irrational sensitivity – do you call this bigotry?

Stephens answered that the rights are indisputable and Bret said that you cannot ask people in the right not to use the right – this is equal to taking away the right.

Zakaria concluded that we talk past each other so the discussion is over. And that is the true state of these matters today.

We hope that Zakaria realizes now that his returning a prize to the ADL of the Bnei Brith was – well – premature.

Also, as he said that the discussion is really not ended – we suggest he invites next time also Anne Barnard whose article in today’s New York Times he did mention.

Anne Barnard is now on the city desk of the paper, but she is not a newcomer to these issues as sh worked in the Middle East – in Israel, Palestine, Iraq and Egypt. She has seen sensitivities from very close – not your regular city desk person. We know Anne for many years – actually since she was a kid – and have met her in different locations as well. We continue here with her material and hope she continues to keep her sights on the developments we expect when Imam Raouf returns from his Middle East tour.

———-

Further comments about Beinart. His parents immigrated to the US from South Africa and work in Cambridge where he was born. His mother remarried theater personality Robert Brustein. Beinart is Jewish and belongs to a liberal synagogue in Washington.

Peter Beinart has written: “The Icarus Syndrome – A History of American Hubris,” HarperCollins, June 1, 2010, and
“The Good Fight: Why Liberals–and Only Liberals–Can Win the War on Terror and Make America Great Again,” HarperCollins, May 2006,

Beinart was a supporter of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.[7] and in a recent essay, he has argued that the tensions between liberalism and Zionism in the U.S. may tear the two historically-linked concepts apart.[8]

After leaving The New Republic, in 2007-2009, Beinart was a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

———-

Further comments about Bret Stephens: He was born in 1973 and grew up in Mexico City. Stephens went to the University of Chicago and the London School of Economics.[2]

Stephens began his career at the Journal as an op-ed editor in New York and later worked as an editorial writer for the Wall Street Journal Europe in Brussels. In 2006 he took over the “Global View” column from George Melloan, who has retired.

Between 2002 and 2004 Stephens was editor-in-chief of the Jerusalem Post, a position he assumed at age 28 – the youngest person ever to hold that position. He is the winner of the 2008 Eric Breindel Award for Excellence in Opinion Journalism.
In 2005, Stephens was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, where he was previously a media fellow. He is also a frequent contributor to Commentary magazine.[3]

———

Fareed Zakaria promised that on his program this emotional discussion will be rational – what he did not say was that he is in effect pitting against each other two well qualified Jews. We do not believe that THE MOSQUE – that is that particular Mosque – is only an issue for Jews. We indeed believe that his next panel will pull in other “suffering souls” as well.

————————————————–

Feisal Abdul Rauf’s Balancing Act in Mosque Furor – NYTimes.com

The full article by our friend Anne Barnard, as above, but as published front page The New York Times had the title:
Complicated Balancing Act for Imam in Mosque Furor – Complicated Balancing Act for Imam.
 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/nyregi…

It includes The Imam’s history and his father’s history – both of them highly interesting people. While the father was an employee of the Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, and eventually led to the construction of the New York Islamic Center cum Mosque at the corner of East 96th Street and 3rd Avenue in Manhattan, Feisal became the Imam of the Sufi congregation downtown. Then he attempted also the building of a large Center cum Mosque.

William Sauro/The New York Times

Mr. Abdul Rauf’s father, Muhammad, in 1968. He ran the Islamic Center of New York.

————————-

Far away from New York, in Bend Oregon (by Western Communications, Inc.) retained the New York Times in print – name of the article – but our friend’s article was reshaped  as follows:
 http://bbedit.sx.atl.publicus.com/apps/p…

Complicated balancing act for imam in mosque furor.

By Anne Barnard / New York Times News Service

Published: August 22. 2010 4:00AM PST

Muslims need to understand and soothe Americans who fear them; they should be conciliatory, not judgmental, toward the West.

That was Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf’s message, but not everyone in the Cairo lecture hall last February was buying it. As he talked of reconciliation between America and Middle Eastern Muslims — his voice soft, almost New Agey — some questions were so hostile that he felt the need to declare that he was not an American agent.

But one young Egyptian asked: Wasn’t the United States financing the speaking tour that had brought the imam to Cairo because his message conveniently echoed U.S. interests?

“I’m not an agent from any government, even if some of you may not believe it,” the imam replied. “I’m not. I’m a peacemaker.”

That talk, recorded on video six months ago, was part of what now might be called Abdul Rauf’s prior life, before he became the center of an uproar over his proposal for a Muslim community center two blocks from the World Trade Center site. He watched his father, an Egyptian Muslim scholar, pioneer interfaith dialogue in 1960s New York; led a mystical Sufi mosque in Lower Manhattan; and, after the Sept. 11 attacks, became a spokesman for the notion that being American and Muslim is no contradiction — and that a truly American brand of Islam could modernize and moderate the faith worldwide.

In recent weeks, Abdul Rauf has barely been heard from as a national political debate explodes over his dream project, including somewhere in its planned 15 stories near ground zero, a mosque. Opponents have called his project an act of insensitivity, even a monument to terror.

In his absence — he is now on another Middle East speaking tour sponsored by the U.S. State Department — a host of allegations have been floated: that he supports terrorism; that his father, who worked at the behest of the Egyptian government, was a militant; that his publicly expressed views mask stealth extremism. Some charges, the available record suggests, are unsupported. Some are simplifications of his ideas. In any case, calling him a jihadist appears even less credible than calling him a U.S. agent.

Growing up in America

Abdul Rauf, 61, grew up in multiple worlds. He was raised in a conservative religious home but arrived in America as a teenager in the turbulent 1960s; his father came to New York and later Washington to run growing Islamic centers. His parents were taken hostage not once, but twice, by American Muslim splinter groups. He attended Columbia University, where, during the Six-Day War between Israel and Arab states like Egypt, he talked daily with a Jewish classmate, each seeking to understand the other’s perspective.

He consistently denounces violence. Some of his views on the interplay between terrorism and American foreign policy — or his search for commonalities between Islamic law and this country’s Constitution — have proved jarring to some American ears, but still place him as pro-American within the Muslim world. He devotes himself to befriending Christians and Jews — so much, some Muslim Americans say, that he has lost touch with their own concerns.

“To stereotype him as an extremist is just nuts,” said the Very Rev. James Morton, the longtime dean of the Church of St. John the Divine, in Manhattan, who has known the family for decades.

Since 9/11, Abdul Rauf, like almost any Muslim leader with a public profile, has had to navigate the fraught path between those suspicious of Muslims and eager to brand them violent or disloyal and a Muslim constituency that believes itself more than ever in need of forceful leaders.

One critique of the imam, said Omid Safi, a professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina, is that he has not been outspoken enough on issues “near and dear to many Muslims,” from Israel policy to treatment of Muslims after 9/11, “because of the need that he has had — whether taken upon himself or thrust upon him — to be the ‘American imam,’ to be the ‘New York imam,’ to be the ‘accommodationist imam.’ “

Akbar Ahmed, chairman of Islamic studies at American University, said Abdul Rauf’s holistic Sufi practices could make more-orthodox Muslims uncomfortable, and his focus on like-minded interfaith leaders made him underestimate the uproar over his plans.

“He hurtles in, to the dead-center eye of the storm simmering around Muslims in America, expecting it to be like at his mosque — we all love each other, we all think happy thoughts,” said Ahmed.

“Now he has set up, unwittingly, a symbol of this growing tension between America and Muslims: this mosque that Muslims see as a symbol of Islam under attack and the opponents as an insult to America,” he added. “So this mild-mannered guy is in the eye of a storm for which he’s not suited at all. He’s not a political leader of Muslims, yet he now somehow represents the Muslim community.”

Andrew Sinanoglou, who was married by Abdul Rauf last fall, said he was surprised the imam had become a contentious figure. His greatest knack, he said, was making disparate groups comfortable, as at the wedding bringing together Sinanoglou’s family, descended from Greek Christians thrown out of Asia Minor by Muslims, with his wife’s conservative Muslim father.

“He’s an excellent schmoozer,” Sinanoglou said of the imam.

Many different Islamic influences

Abdul Rauf was born in Kuwait. His father, Muhammad Abdul Rauf, was one of many graduates of Cairo’s Al-Azhar University, the foremost center of mainstream Sunni Muslim learning, whom Egypt sent abroad to staff universities and mosques, a government-approved effort unlikely to have tolerated a militant. He moved his family to England, studying at Cambridge and the University of London; then to Malaysia, where he eventually became the first rector of the International Islamic University of Malaysia.

As a boy, Abdul Rauf absorbed his father’s talks with religious scholars from around the world, learning to respect theological debate, said his wife, Daisy Khan. He is also steeped in Malaysian culture, whose ethnic diversity has influenced an Islam different from that of his parents’ homeland.

In 1965, he came to New York. His father ran the Islamic Center of New York; the family lived over its small mosque in a brownstone on West 72nd Street, which served mainly Arabs and African-American converts. Like his son, the older imam announced plans for a community center for a growing Muslim population — the mosque eventually built on East 96th Street. It was paid for by Muslim countries and controlled by Muslim U.N. diplomats — at the time a fairly noncontroversial proposition. Like his son, he joined interfaith groups, invited by James of St. John the Divine.

Hostage crisis

Unlike his son, he was conservative in gender relations; he asked his wife to not drive. But in 1977, he was heading the Islamic Center in Washington when they were taken hostage by a Muslim faction; it was his wife who challenged the gunmen on their lack of knowledge of Islam.

“My husband didn’t open his mouth, but I really gave it to them,” she told The New York Times then.

Meanwhile, Abdul Rauf studied physics at Columbia.

In his 20s, Abdul Rauf dabbled in teaching and real estate, married an American-born woman and had three children. Studying Islam and searching for his place in it, he was asked to lead a Sufi mosque, Masjid al-Farah. It was one of few with a female prayer leader, where women and men sit together at some rituals and some women do not cover their hair. And it was 12 blocks from the World Trade Center.

Divorced, he met his second wife, Khan, when she came to the mosque looking for a gentler Islam than the politicized version she rejected after Iran’s revolution. Theirs is an equal partnership, whether Abdul Rauf is shopping and cooking a hearty soup, she said, or running organizations that promote an American-influenced Islam.

A similar idea comes up in the Cairo video. Abdul Rauf, with Khan, unveiled as usual, beside him, tells a questioner not to worry so much about one issue of the moment — Switzerland’s ban on minarets — saying Islam has always adapted to and been influenced by places it spreads to. “Why not have a mosque that looks Swiss?” he joked. “Make a mosque that looks like Swiss cheese. Make a mosque that looks like a Rolex.”

In the 1990s, the couple became fixtures of the interfaith scene, even taking a cruise to Spain and Morocco with prominent rabbis and pastors.

Abdul Rauf also founded the Shariah Index Project — an effort to formally rate which governments best follow Islamic law. Critics see in it support for Taliban-style Shariah or imposing Islamic law in America.

Shariah, though, like Jewish law, has a spectrum of interpretations. The ratings, Kahn said, measure how well states uphold Shariah’s core principles like rights to life, dignity and education, not Taliban strong points. The imam has written that some Western states unwittingly apply Shariah better than self-styled Islamic states that kill wantonly, stone women and deny education — to him, violations of Shariah.

After 9/11, Abdul Rauf was all over the airwaves denouncing terrorism, urging Muslims to confront its presence among them, and saying that killing civilians violated Islam. He wrote a book, “What’s Right With Islam Is What’s Right With America,” asserting the congruence of American democracy and Islam.

That ample public record — interviews, writings, sermons — is now being examined by opponents of the downtown center.

Those opponents repeat often that Abdul Rauf, in one radio interview, refused to describe the Palestinian group that pioneered suicide bombings against Israel, Hamas, as terrorist. In the lengthy interview, Abdul Rauf clumsily tries to say that people around the globe define terrorism differently and labeling any group would sap his ability to build bridges. He also says: “Targeting civilians is wrong. It is a sin in our religion,” and, “I am a supporter of the state of Israel.”

“If I were an imam today I would be saying, ‘What am I supposed to do?’” said John Esposito, a professor of Islamic studies at Georgetown University. “‘Can an imam be critical of any aspect of U.S. foreign policy? Can I weigh in on things that others could weigh in on?’ Or is someone going to say, ‘He’s got to be a radical!’”

——————————————————————–

Could it be that the solution leads to a true CORDOBA HOUSE OF CULTURE AND INTER-RELIGIOUS UNDERSTANDING with all Cordoba three religions having footholds at the center – not  a Mosque.

In this case what if Rabbi Marc Schneier who started together with the East 96 Street Islamic Center’s Imams his good-will exchanges gets a foothold and offices there? The Battery Park Holocaust Museum could be linked, and the Archbishop of the Trinity Church of the neighborhood as well – that is with offices in the building. This would call for a joint board and joint ownership in the name of good intentions. It would be considered a step towards healing within the possible of the memory of 9/11/o1 within reach of the 10th memorial of the event. Clearly – this does not answer the call for a larger Mosque, neither will this be a place with Synagogue and church – we know that the institutions must be separate.

If separation is preferred, then a gesture of exchange of real estate for a different location would be appreciated.

——————————————————————

President Obama also went on TV today – breaking his vacation because of the media attacks on him branding him a Muslim.

Obama blamed this crazzy media culture when the main issue is the pulling out from Iraq but the focus is on “THE MOSQUE” – is this just an August diversion? By whom?

Michel Martin (an Emmy Award winning American journalist and correspondent for ABC News and National Public Radio. After ten years in print journalism, Martin has for the last 15 years become best known for her news broadcasting on national topics.), asks whom are we talking about as media? It is just the Conservative Pundits that keep on drumming? Or is there by now a symbiotic relationship between the right wing bloggers and the main-stream media? It does not make sense to pretend that there is not a concern with Islam. We heard on TV that Glen Beck said Lincoln Day has no meaning for him – so he calls for a rally at the mall on that day. Aha I said – if that is so – why do you expect more consideration from adherents of Islam – Americans or otherwise? Are Americans so dam by now that they cannot see that insensitivity breeds more insensitivity?

This is written as last night I discovered new pits in the bus-network of the city.

The fact that nobody knows how you cross by bus the East River – that may be just a problem of information distribution.

The fact that many times the computerized card does charge twice when you transfer from bus-to-bus or subway-to-bus, may be a problem of intentional or just plain lack of maintenance of the charging machine.

The fact that lately buses were discontinued like cross-towns – M30 for example; routes shortened like M104 – what used to be a convenient “book reading way” to get from Columbia University to the UN, and now ends at Times Square; runs at larger intervals like the long line M15 – all this makes the taxi industry happy – we understand the political aspect and the reality of political life in New York City.

But what I discovered last night boggles the mind. In front of the Memorial Hospital and Research Center of Sloan Kattering Memorial Cancer Center – between East 67 and 68 Streets – last week a brand new bus shelter was established including the sign: “THIS IS NOT A BUS STOP – THE BUS STOP WAS MOVED ONE BLOCK SOUTH.” What? Why? Who Pays?

Now, the old stop was in front of the hospital for tens of years at the convenient location for the folks coming cross town, on East 68 Street from the West Side, with M66, catching the uptown M15, and those arriving from downtown and catching the cross-town M66 on East 67 Street. Moving it one block to the South, in front of a Church, close to East 66 Street makes no sense because M66 does not go through East 66 Street! True, there were no park meters in front of the Church either – so what?

Was this because the doctors at Sloan-Kattering needed the front available for the taxis that bring them to work?
The patients do not use that entrance. If the doctor’s lobby had to have its way, why build the new shelter in a place it was not wanted?

Is the Mayor ready to look at this little problem, and see that it is a very valid reason to investigate his own big problem with what is obvious deterioration of the Administration of his public transport system policy and management – specially when it is about the bus network? I brought the public transportation lagging policy up before – this with the Manhattan Borough President Mr. Scott Stringer. Is he ready to step in and fill the void?

It is easy to sum up the situation in regard to Muslims being believed that they intend to lead a healing attempt while creating a furor that can only result in a new heating up of deep sentiments. If the intent was by some to build a Mosque at the place of victory over the infidel, but the Muslim majority was – or was not – part of that intent – is now irrelevant. The way out can be by moving the new Islamic Center to some place – “in eye contact” – across the water – Brooklyn, Staten Island, New Jersey – and dedicate it as originally stated  to a CORDOBA HOUSE – rather then the limping  Park 51 Project.

We want also to point at the clearly sluggish pace of donations to Pakistan as another outcome from this last stand taken by Muslims in America – and the threat hanging over America’s head that 100 million young Pakistani Muslims, helped by extremists at their moment of physical constraints, rather then by their own government, nor by the Western cultures, as nothing less then the evolution of Bin Laden because of his fight against the America propped up Saudi regime.

The reality is that internal disagreements in the Islamic world are being projected against US Administrations that support out of convenience the existing regimes in these Islamic countries, and the extremists stood up in efforts to oppose their own leaders, and only secondly, took upon themselves to fight the protectors of the hated regimes.

The US people are not supposed to understand all of that when faced with a 9/11 and are not to be stepped upon even in a case where the superficial right as well as the deep meaning of American Democracy is on their side. Clever Arab States will try – like the Obama Administration is trying – to build bridges rather then burrowing in the trenches of the small print. Go ahead and show magnanimity.

By the way, could little Kuwait that offered $5 million to Pakistan, without ever having been involved in the dismantling of that country, or the UAE at $1.5 million, tell the much larger Saudi Arabia, that shipped its own Jihadists to Pakistan being part of the internal fracas there, that according to UN listings offered now peanuts to Pakistan – could they do some more when compared with the US offer of $150 million. Actually – just remember those two planes of Bin Laden family being shipped out from a US under air embargo by the Bush family, those days immediately following 9/11. There are very good reasons for Americans to be mad and for Arabs to take the low road that we suggest can be in this case the real high road.

———————

From all that sea of articles in the press of today – I pick the following as it is the easiest – it is from aol:

NATION
Construction Workers Oppose Mosque Near Ground Zero

by Hugh Collins, Contributor to aol News.

NEW YORK (Aug. 20) — The proposed Islamic center near ground zero is facing stiff opposition from a group that will be vital if the plan is to be realized: the New York City building industry.

Construction worker Andy Sullivan has set up a “Hard Hat Pledge” on his website, calling on construction workers to vow not to do work on the Park51 community center and mosque, the New York Daily News said.

Diane Bondareff, MCT
Mosque opponent Andy Sullivan stands outside the site of the proposed mosque and Islamic center on Park Place near lower Manhattan’s ground zero on Thursday.

Sullivan is not alone. Several New York construction workers interviewed by AOL News declared their opposition to the project.

“It doesn’t make any sense to be there,” said Eduard Nika, a marble worker. “The mentality these people have, it’s not anything to do with religion.”

The planned mosque and community center two blocks from the site of the 9/11 terrorist attacks that killed 3,000 people has spiraled from a local zoning issue into a national political debate.

Public figures such as Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich have blasted the plan, saying it is an insult to the families of the victims. The Anti-Defamation League, whose mission statement says it exists to fight “all forms of bigotry,” has said the center should be built at another location.

Others, such as Mayor Michael Bloomberg and President Barack Obama, have said that while they understand the strong resentment the project arouses, any effort to block the Islamic center would infringe on American values of freedom.

Handyman Frank Rivera, who said three of his relatives were in the World Trade Center at the time of the attack but survived, believes the project would be bad for New York City and an insult to the families of victims.

“It shouldn’t be there. It’s a slap in the face,” Rivera said.

Like Nika, he said he would sooner quit his job than work on the project.

But not everyone is opposed to the Islamic center. Mike Bakovic, who works in interior construction and painting, said he’d work on the project — even if he didn’t get paid.

“Muslim people have the freedom or religion, same as everyone else, the Jew, the Catholic, everyone else,” Bakovic said. “Islam is peaceable, like every other religion. “

Louis Coletti, president of the Building Trades Employers Association, told the Daily News that labor unions had not taken a “formal position” on the plan. Still, he said it was ” a very difficult dilemma for the contractors and organized labor force.”

http://www.Qwanz.com/nymosque Tanya from Qwanz.com gives an update on what is happening on the Park 51 (Ground Zero Mosque/ Cordoba House) issue that has been dividing the country. Learn more on the topic and continue the conversation by clicking on the link above!

fromAri Rabin-Havt, Media Matters for America <info@mediamatters.org> date Wed, Aug 18, 2010 at 5:48 PM subject Dr. Laura quits: Bigotry has consequences. Last week, Dr. Laura Schlessinger went on an extended, racially charged rant on the air, using the N-word 11 times and promoting a divisive view of race in America. She tried to bury her mistake, pulling the audio from her website — but you were there to expose her racially charged rhetoric and to challenge her advertisers to take a close look at what they were supporting. Advertisers including Motel 6 and General Motors began to drop or reconsider their sponsorship of her show. And last night on Larry King Live, Schlessinger announced that she would bring her radio show to an end. Thanks to your help, Media Matters was able to not just expose Dr. Laura’s racial views to the public, but also to work with our allies to show that bigoted comments are unacceptable and have consequences. Join the fight for better media — support Media Matters today. However, we still need your help to support our important work. Around the clock and every day of the week, the Media Matters staff works hard to shine a light on right-wing radio and conservative misinformation in the media. We won a victory this week, but the fight for a fair, honest, and responsible media goes on. With radio hosts like Rush Limbaugh race-baiting and fearmongering, and Fox News mixing right-wing talking points, falsehoods, and the outright promotion of political candidates, Media Matters’ work is more important than ever. You can be part of this critical fight. Join the fight for better media — support Media Matters today. Will you donate today to help Media Matters continue its important work? Thank you for your support. Ari Rabin-Havt Media Matters for America

We have not entered this controversy until now because we sensed from the first moment that we really do not know enough about what is behind the effort to build a Muslim Cultural Center near the Holy Ground where Islamic terrorists incinerated more then 3,000 people. It is still in my memory how I watched in real time the event on TV and the ash that settled on me and that I did breeze, when going down to the site. The 9/11 ground is Holy like the ground at Auschwitz is Holy and I have no second thought about this – nor do I think anyone else is entitled to second thoughts about this. Ahmadi-nejad is a non-person just because of this sort of transgressions and I have no doubt about that.

Now, can you take it out on all Muslims and on the whole Islamic world – clearly not!
Do I expect Muslims, like I expect non-Muslims, to understand my feelings – surely yes!

Are Muslims entitled to build a cultural center and a prayer space that is a Mosque – right there? I DO NOT KNOW!
Half of me says clearly YES – they are entitled to do as anyone else does! My other Half says – wait a minute – who are these Muslims that are ready to dish out $200-300 million – clearly, $100 million is not enough – this to build a SECOND Muslim cultural center in Manhattan – in an area of few Muslim residents? There is already one on East 96 Street and 3rd Avenue that was paid by the Oil States (we remember that it was Kuwait that coincidentally is also the root of the Imam involved in the present issue)  and is a lovely institution that serves the Muslim communities in Manhattan and the UN. Do we need a second space for the Libyans and Iranians, the Saudis and the Pakistanis, the nice poor people that immigrated to the US and the government people of States among whom we can point fingers at enemies of the US? Whatever – there will be a mixed bag – we know that. But, had the center been planned for let’s say Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, down in the 8th Avenue area of Brooklyn, somewhere across the river in New Jersey, places with larger Muslim communities, it would have been more in place then plopping down a second center in Manhattan – and raising hell near the Holy Ground of 9/11. Was this insensitive from start – or plainly provocative? This clearly is not the same thing as the black person in Alabama that wanted a hamburger and coke at the regular counter.

OK, so why near Holy Ground? I do not think that the US media was up to what was needed to answer this question. Not even our TV guru – indeed the one person we watch regularly on Sundays – Fareed Zakaria – lived up to this needed investigation. He simply announced that he will return the prize he got from a Jewish organization that lauded him for fighting for equality of people. Obviously, Jews should be the first to fight for equality for all – why do they have difficulty with this 9/11 Mosque?

Even President Obama got trapped here – he clearly made the right statement that Muslims have the right like everyone else to build their places of warship wherever they wish, but really – why insist on creating disharmony while preaching harmony.
After quite a while of sitting on the sidelines, President Obama made his statement and clearly got clobbered by those that just wait around the corner in their effort to harm him, and do not care if it harms the US as well.

Before returning to the point – the reason I write on this today, let me brandish my own credentials as having been alongside Rabbi Marc Schneier – right there in person – physically not just mentally – when he started his direct cooperation with the last two Imams of the Islamic Center on 3rd Avenue and East 96th Street. That was and is the kind of effort that can bring communities together – here in the US – this without having to face difficulties over there in the Middle East. Some in the Jewish community turned away from Rabbi Schneier because of those days, but these efforts have now extended to Europe and a meeting was just held in Vienna. All of these efforts are documented on our website.

Further, I went to the location where the cultural center is supposed to be built and I wrote about a great entertainment event I witnessed there. I clearly was instinctively positive about the whole thing – so here my evidence that I do not come from the wing of bigots. But nevertheless, I think I see it differently when my eyes opened up now.

Please see our review: http://www.sustainabilitank.info/2010/05…

Now, why do I write today?

This because of The Financial Times of this weekend – as it was delivered to subscribers in New York City (not as it is on the internet – please note this comment as well).

The Golden Age of Spain was under Muslim domination in Spain when Jews and Arabs cooperated in preserving Greek culture. Cordoba is indeed the symbol of Jewish, Muslim and Christian co-existence in Spain, and it was ended by the Christians.
Cordoba is the ideal – but in Islamic culture you do not build Mosques to celebrate co-existence.
You build Mosques to celebrate conquests and victories over the infidel.

I did not realize this earlier – it was a picture in The Financial Times that had the courage to remind us of this!

Now, does this throw  shadows over the two main proponents of this 9/11 Mosque?
I would not say so, but I would say that one must ask for transparency of all the funding for this project. Further, granted that the proponents are entitled to build the Mosque in that location, but they have nevertheless to explain the Cordoba harmony that they hope to achieve with moves that are unwelcome – NOT BECAUSE OF RELIGION BUT BECAUSE OF THE ISSUE OF HOLY GROUND AND THE INCINERATION OF OVER 3,000 PEOPLE – INCLUDING MUSLIMS – BY A BAND OF MUSLIMS THAT DID NOT CARE FOR THE CORDOBA IDEALS.

WITH ABOVE IN MIND – AND THE OBAMA REMARKS AS LEAD – WHY NOT SIT DOWN AND FIGURE ANOTHER LOCATION – BE IT RIGHT ACROSS THE WATER FROM THE PREVIOUS TOWERS – IN BROOKLYN OR NEW JERSEY – THIS IN FULL HARMONY WITH ALL OTHER GROUPS INVOLVED EXCEPT THOSE THAT WERE BEHIND THE MISTAKEN CHOICE OF THE PRESENT LOCATION.

To be fair to the Muslims that work in lower Manhattan, actually there are now two Mosques in the area as we learned from Anne Barnard. There is since 1970 the Masjid Manhattan on Warren Street, four blocks from ground zero; also Masjid al-Farah that moved in 1985 from Mercer Street to West Broadway, about 12 blocks from ground zero, and is led by Imam Faisal Abdul al-Rauf who is the man that set his eye on the new site at the vacant Burlington Coat Factory contending the present space has become too small at times like this week’s breaking of the fast at Ramadan.

Also, from Josef Joffe, the Jewish editor of important Die Zeit of Hamburg, and in the US fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, his knowledge of the Al-Quds Mosque of downtown Hamburg, taught him that Mohamed Atta and other terrorists that perpetrated 9/11 saw in that Mosque their spiritual home. That is where Imam Muhamad al-Fazazi used to preach venom and murder throughout the 1990s, opining that “Christians and Jews should have their throats cut,” In 2003 a Spanish court gave him 30 years for planning attacks on Jewish Institutions in Morocco. So, that Mosque was not just a center of prayer and Joffe says that it took so long to close it because given Germany’s Nazi past, Germany was slow to act before full evidence was at hand. The next Imam at that Mosque was an immigrant from Syria – Mamoun Darkanzali whom investigators defined as  “elder statesman of Jihad” – Bin Laden’s man in Germany  -preaching that Allah will kill the infidel while hiding under the German Law.

The US has its example with US-born Imam Anwar Al-Awlaki who was the spiritual leader at the Dar al-Hijra mosque in Virginia, one of the US largest Mosques, and who was lauded in an October 2001 New York Times article as a leader capable of merging East and West not realizing that even the name Hijra being there as a sign of preparation for revenge – because this was the Prophet’s exile from Mecca to Medina, where he plotted that revenge, and the killing of his hosts? Now Awlaki who it turned out was personal mentor to quite a few of the Jihadists that were active in the US, and President Obama has authorized the military to assassinate him in his hiding place in Yemen.

All of the above clearly does not have to reflect on Imam Faisal Abdul al-Rauf who seems to be a decent man, but then, because of decency, it is rather expected he realizes that people are justified if they worry that things not proper might be transacted at a Muslim meeting place at a location with sad history. Decency would then require decorum by avoiding potential conflict. After all Mosques have a history, and were built in the past in places to commemorate that history, rather then lament about it. Years ago we were looking for the first Imam to say that suicide bombers do not go to heaven to sit next to the Prophet – but they go rather to hell. We are still waiting for this sort of short simple statement to the believers.

For further overview – please continue to read  and digest the very unusually frank eye-opener that was handed down to us in the print edition of The Financial Times.
 http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/bf1110d8-a5b0-…

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Posted in Archives, New York, Reporting From the UN Headquarters in New York, Reporting from Washington DC, The US States

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We posted the following as an announcement over three months ago. Since then the announced meeting for South East Europe is history and we are convinced that a similar meeting should be held at the UN. The more you tell about climate change the better it will be for our conscience – it is like the Jewish telling on Passover of the going out of Egypt. It just reminds us of the need to leave also areas of contemporary transgressions and of a “land of promise” that we define to ourselves.

It is this sort of “Yes We Can” and “Can Do”  that is able to prop up our imagination rather then the mush of global hope of “Seal the Deal” – what we need are the EVIE doers of that article rather then new committees or commissions. That is why we re-post it as a stale information that says more.

We are just back from our New Hampshire trip with all kind of ideas for postings and discovered in our stats that the following article still has readers today – so it is the easiest think for us to bring officially attention again to the article as part of our new series propelled by the New Hampshire fact finding trip.

“Teaching Climate Change and the United Nations System” event – May 17&18, 2010 in Belgrade. It is about Sustainable Development in the South East Europe Region. UN Headquarters will be represented by ASG Ambassador Thomas Stelzer. The car shown by Project EVIE is a Chinese E6.”

Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on April 24th, 2010
by Pincas Jawetz ( PJ at SustainabiliTank.com)

–
 http://www.sustainabilitank.info/2010/04…

We found among our REFERRERS a terrific blog and in turn we recommend it to you – our readers:

http://witsendnj.blogspot.com/

WHAT: BICYCLES AS TRANSPORT: FROM ALTERNATIVE TO MAINSTREAM.
WHEN: August 12^th, 6:00pm – 8:00pm

WHERE: Center for Architecture, 536 LaGuardia Place, (between Bleecker and West Third Streets)

CONTACT: call (212) 683-0023

BACKGROUND: Bicycles represent among the most sustainable forms of personal transportation. Cities such as Amsterdam and Munich have integrated the bicycle as a key component of transportation modes, and have developed infrastructure, regulatory and cultural changes as a part of this shift. How can New York City make this transition from “alternative” to “mainstream?” This panel, with expertise in the fields of urban planning, transportation planning and bicycle advocacy will attempt to answer this question through presentation and discussion.

Speakers:

Jon Orcutt, Director of Policy, NYC Department of Transportation

Caroline Samponaro, Director of Bicycle Advocacy, Transportation Alternatives

Jack Schmidt, Director, Transportation Division, NYC Planning