Sulayman’s Stories

An excellent quote I found in my class reading of Public Health and health care systems and policies

A CASE FOR REFOCUSSING UPSTREAM: THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF ILLNESS
by John B. McKinlay

My friend, Irving Zola, relates the story of a physician trying to explain the dilemmas of the modern practice of medicine:

“You know,” he said, “sometimes it feels like this. There I am standing by the shore of a swiftly flowing river and I hear the cry of a drowning man. So I jump into the river, put my arms around him, pull him to shore and apply artificial respiration. Just when he begins to breathe, there is another cry for help. So I jump into the river, reach him, pull him to shore, apply artificial respiration, and then just as he begins to breathe, another cry for help. So back in the river again, reaching, pulling, applying, breathing and then another yell. Again and again, without end, goes the sequence. You know, I am so busy jumping in, pulling them to shore, applying artificial respiration, that I have no time to see who the hell is upstream pushing them all in.”

Source: I.K. Zola, “Helping Does It Matter: The Problems and Prospects of Mutual Aid Groups,” Addressed to the United Ostomy Association, 1970

Printed in: The Sociology of Health & Illness: Critical Perspectives, Seventh Edition, by Peter Conrad, p 551

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I received this via email. Every Muslim organization should set up a program against gambling and use current research and statistics to stop these dangerous behaviors.

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“They question thee about strong drink and games of chance. Say: In both is great sin, and (some) utility for men; but the sin of them is greater than their usefulness. And they ask thee what they ought to spend. Say: That which is superfluous. Thus God maketh plain to you (His) revelations that haply ye may reflect.” (Quran 2:219)
In Texas the poorest citizens, who together earn only 2% of the state’s total income, buy 10% of lottery tickets.
2/3 of the hard-core gamblers in detention admitted stealing specifically to finance their gambling.
There are 5.5 million “pathological” and “problem” gamblers in this country today and an additional 15 million who are considered to be at risk.
Some 2.5 million Americans will gamble online this year, putting an estimated $5.5 billion in the pockets of online casinos.
65% of pathological gamblers commit crimes to support their gambling habit.
The FBI estimates that in excess of $2.5 Billion is wagered on the NCAA Tournament each year. In 2003, the gross revenues from gambling were $72.9 billion — more money than Americans spend on movie tickets, theme parks, spectator sports and videogames combined!

Anti-Gambling Groups

• National Council on Problem Gambling:
  http://www.ncpgambling.org
  
• Gamblers’ Anonymous
  http://www.gamblersanonymous.org
  
• The National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling
  http://www.ncalg.org
  
• Texans Against Gambling
  http://www.texansagainstgambling.org
  
• Coalition Against Gambling in New York
  http://www.cagnyinf.org
  
• CasinosNO
  http://www.casinosno.org

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Current TV aired a short clip of living on less than $2 a day, which is what 2.8 Billion people live on. If you cannot see the video above, go directly to the page

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I love to fly. Been on a number of airlines, from AA to Delta to United to Southwest to my current favorite, JetBlue. I’ve also taken British Airways, Lufthansa, and Alitalia, and think the first two are much better than the American ones. British Airways was elegant and seemed upscale, and Lufthansa was efficient (they conducted stretching exercises for the passengers in their seats and had on-board schedules of flights).

Reading the Ask the Pilot blog, I’ve started to notice the Middle Eastern airlines that try to outdo each other in opulence. Next time I fly, I want to be on Emirates, or something close. Look at this First class seat/bed, they even give you pajamas! Look at another picture, is that a big video screen and mini-bar? Etihad Airways has a 6-foot bed and 23-inch screen. Emirates’ Airbus A340 has its own private cubicles, and lavish looking dinners. Pretty neat, considering I heard its a 14 hour flight. Heck, they even change the lighting during the flight, like at sunrise. Compare this to the rest of the world; Japan Airlines’ first class seats are just not as cool. Heck, United’s business class looks lousy by comparison. Didn’t I hear that one of the Gulf airlines is going to have small private cabins with even showers?

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Google announced yesterday that it was making available 10 million images from Life magazine’s archives (photos and etchings) dating back to the 1750s. Only a small percentage of the images have even been published. The rest have been “sitting in dusty archives in the form of negatives, slides, glass plates, etchings, and prints.” At this point about 20% of Life’s archive is online; the rest is promised within months.

Here’s the Google page of LIFE photo archive

I do love photos, and Google has made them very easy to search using Google Image. You just type in a word and it will search the captions for it. There’s some nice ones they suggest, like Taj Mahal, and as a tip they suggest “Add “source:life” to any Google image search and search only the LIFE photo archive. For example: computer source:life ”

Well this was a great tool so I started searching through some predictable keywords: New York University,  mosque, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Mecca, etc. There were some great photos in all of them, and I encourage you to browse through those. They even have extra-large sizes on some of them, soif you need desktop wallpaper for your computer or iPhone, here’s a nice place to browse.

One of the amazing things is that there are some very old photos of Islamic things, that supposedly haven’t been shown publicly or published before. I should note that Life’s captions like to use archaic terms like “Mohammedan” or “Moslem” so keep that in mind if you’re searching. (One is even captioned as “An islam praying onboard a ship.”) That aside, I found some fascinating photos of Islam in America in the 1940’s; Jazz star Dizzy Gillespie making salat in 1948 or New Mosque in Washington (I assume it’s the famous Islamic Center of Washington).

Some other notable photos I found:

• Shia commemoration of Ashura in Karachi, Pakistan 1948, and 1947
• Free Kashmir rally in Karachi, 1947
• Casualties of the India-Pakistan partition (see more under ‘related images’)
• Badshahi Masjid Lahore, 1947
• Eid-ul-Fitr at Jami’ Masjid, Delhi, India, 1946: Wudu 2 and pool 2, Qayaam, Rukoo, Sajdah, Qa’da-i- Akhira, Duaa
• Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem, 1948, in color 1945, and entourage and brief pic of Al-Aqsa
• Welcome to Tehran sign during the Shah’s reign, undated
• Wedding of the Caliph(?) of Spanish Morocco, 1949
• Egypt 1953, months after independence
• Muhammad Ali, 1963
• 2004 Cover of Time Magazine
• 1979 Cover of Time Magazine (ever notice its never positive?)

There’s a lot more in the archive, and I spent nearly an hour poring through it. If you found something noteworthy, leave a comment.

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With all the sudden controversy and grumbling in the Muslim blogosphere, barely 7 days after everyone celebrated the election of a not-Muslim-but-lived-with-them-and-sympathetic black President, I think we need to make some things clear. Obama is not going to be the perfect candidate, Muslims were being killed by America’s actions before, and still will under Obama, but the hope is that he will steer America to a path where it does less harm.

I decided to make a list of campaign promises that Obama made, to help us judge how big of a difference he made and whether he kept to his word. This will help prove skeptics right/wrong, depending on how he performs. Feel free to suggest more and I’ll add to it. In addition, I will strike them off as he completes them (although some will take longer than others, even as long as 2 terms).

1. End war in Iraq by removing all combat troops by 2010
2. Dismantle any permanent bases in Iraq
3. Spend $2 billion on Iraqi refugees in neighboring countries
4. Meet directly with Iran, N Korea, and Cuba
5. Make progress on Israel-Palestine Conflict
6. Reduce tuition by reforming financial aid and with $4000 tax credit
7. Destroy Al Qaeda and Defeat Terrorism Worldwide
8. Teach the US military to understand different cultures and languages
9. Curtail lobbyist power
10. Be bipartisan
11. Healthcare reform
12. Give healthcare coverage to every child
13. Work to decrease abortions
14. Close Guantanamo
15. Ban torture and waterboarding
16. Stop warrantless wiretapping
17. Net neutrality
18. Invest in green technology
19. Carbon Cap and trade
20. Make 10% of America’s electricity from renewable energy by 2012
21. Improve Public Health and Preventative medicine
22. Immigration reform
23. Middle-class tax cuts
24. Political appointees for merit-based reasons instead of party loyalty
25. Work to end genocide in Darfur
26. Cut extreme poverty around the world in half by 2015 by doubling foreign assistance to $50 billion
27. Increase funding to First Responders (Firefighters, Ambulance, etc)
28. Increase minimum wage to $9.50/hour by 2011
29. Expand Hate Crime laws
30. End Racial Profiling
31. Strengthen Civil Rights Enforcement
32. Bring science back into the White House
33. Separate church and state
34. Remove legal immunity for Military Contractors

The fine print: Keep in mind that these are things he either said on the campaign trail or posted on his campaign website.

I’ve discovered that his website is crammed with promises and ideas, so I’m only listing the ones that I think interest readers, and ignoring ones that don’t affect me, e.g. senior citizen care. Maybe in 4 years I’ll draw them all several hundred up and see how many he’s lived up to, maybe make a percentage he kept.

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I’m seeing a lot of sudden disappointment in Obama, because he picked Rahm Emmanuel as his Chief of Staff, as his first act of office. Rahm Israel Emmanuel, a high-ranking democrat, will be Barack Hussein Obama’s Chief of Staff in the White House.

People are grumbling to me that Obama is picking a Zionist to the position, and that Obama will disappoint them on Middle East policy. Well, he may disappoint many on the policy, but that’s due to other things like his AIPAC speech where he talked about giving all of Jerusalem to Israel and moving the US embassy there and made other promises that made his Arab and Muslim supporters feel let down a bit.

“Let down” was an understatement; there were threats by Arabs and Muslims to vote for Nader or stay home on election day. The Muslim blogosphere was not happy. Ok, even I was disappointed that a candidate who broke with the Party Line and said he would talk to Iran and North Korea suddenly snapped to the Orthodoxy and kowtowed to AIPAC again. (Before someone scolds me, how often has pro-Palestine stuff in Congress passed over AIPAC’s objections? Why does AIPAC outspend all Arab organizations by 50-1?) More rational people said Obama has to please constituents, he can’t get elected without AIPAC’s blessing, etc. and may lead the country on a saner course once elected. However, that attitude seemed to dissolve among some supporters once Rahm Emmanuel got picked.

Rahm Emmanuel is drawing anger because his father was a member of Irgun, a Jewish terrorist group. He’s being portrayed as a Zionist, due to his father’s ties and also because he volunteered with the IDF during the first Gulf War. As Chief of Staff, he will be the Gatekeeper to Obama himself, meaning that he can choose what advisors can speak to him or not, and set the agenda for the President’s meetings. It’s a powerful job, and Bush’s Chief of Staff got in trouble for keeping Bush in the dark about some of the seedier things done in the administration, and Cheney’s chief of staff was indicted on perjury pursuant to an investigation over the violation of federal laws.

That being said, be reasonable people! While I’m concerned about Emmanuel’s views on the peace process (I can’t easily find them as of yet), some of the accusations are just silly. Here are the facts:

1. It’s Chief of Staff, not Secretary of State or any position where he’d have direct control over the Middle East peace process or the ability to ram an agenda through.

2. Rahm Emmanuel is going to, have to, follow along with Obama’s already-announced policies, strengthened by the fact that a landslide voted him in. If he didn’t agree with Obama’s plans on Iran or Iraq, then he would not have taken the job, or even voted for McCain, or pulled a Lieberman on everyone. He didn’t, so we can relax a bit.

3. Ali Abunimah, of ElectronicIntifada.net pointed out that Emanuel’s middle name is “Israel.” Do you really want to go there? 20 months of people bashing Barack Hussein Obama over his irrelevant middle name, and I thought maybe you of all people would know better.

4. In Hebrew, Rahm (רעם) means “thunder” and Barack (ברק) means “lightning.” (OK, maybe not quite) (source)

5. Enough about people’s fathers, already. Obama got almost nothing from his father. Tariq Ramadan is barred from America because his father and grandfather helped create the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, something he’s repudiated. Enough with the double standard. So far, I didn’t see anything about Emmanuel repudiating Irgun or extremism or his father, which does cause me concern. However, if Rahm Emmanuel repudiates Irgun and extremism, then I’ll be somewhat satisfied. if he does not, then we do have cause for alarm.

6. Israel-loving Right-wingnuts are going berzerk with rage (and a tinge of racism), claiming “he left his own Jewishness” and are referring to him as a “House Jew.” His crime?

One of his proudest moments during the Clinton Administration “was an event that touched his political sensibilities and his personal ties to Israel: the 1993 Rose Garden signing ceremony after the Oslo accord between Israel and the Palestinians. Rahm directed the details of the ceremony, down to the choreography of the famous handshake between Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat.”

They’re saying that Obama will destroy Israel, and this is a “Machiavellian” attempt to “surround yourself with ‘jews’ as you destroy Israel.” To be fair, this is the same wingnut blog that claimed Obama’s father is Malcolm X.

Pretty laughable, the pro-Israel crowd is starting to agitate that Obama will destroy Israel, while the pro-Obama crowd worries that he’ll wipe out Palestine. Sounds like a normal presidency.

7. So what if he’s Jewish. Most American Jewish people are more likely to support Peace Now than the Likud party. So no knee-jerk reactions from you. Clinton picked Richard Ben Cramer to be in charge of negotiating peace between Israel and the PLO, and he apparently was a fair broker. He bent Israel’s arm to get them to compromise at the table with Arafat, and took a heck of a lot of criticism from Jewish commentators as a result, but did his job despite being called a ‘disloyal Jew.’

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Back to reality, people had insanely high expectations of Obama. The reality of the future is setting in, and its not as good as those expectations. How can people be disappointed already? He hasn’t been President yet. I’m not seething as some of my friends are, because I didn’t see Obama as some perfect figure (though God it felt good to indulge that fantasy a lot these last few days). I think Umar Lee said it best:

Muslims looking for Obama to change everything will be disappointed. Muslims looking for him to make some gradual changes that will benefit all of society and change the direction of government will probably be fulfilled. There are even subtle ways Obama will benefit Muslims. For example just having someone with his name can open the minds of many Americans that this is not just a nation of Smiths and Robinsons anymore. It will also open the worlds eyes to the fact America is a lot more racially and ethnically complex than we often get credit for.

If you were looking for a Muslim-compatible candidate, then I think you should have been looking for Ron Paul.

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From a forwarded message:

Many people don’t realize the way that Muslims pray (making ablution, prostration, etc) is actually the same or very similar to the way in which the bible describes the praying of Moses, Jesus, and other prophets (peace be upon them). These are a few examples, taken from islamawareness.net:

Lets see, how the Muslim Prayer can be compared to the Prayer in Bible.

First thing in muslim prayer is the Adhan or the call to prayer.

“O you who believe! when the call is made for the prayer….hasten to the rememberance of Allah ” – (Holy Quran 6:29)

“And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, make thee two trumphets of silver…that thou mayest use them for calling of the assembly…And when they shall blow them, all the assembly shall assemble themselves to thee at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation” – (Numbers 10:1-3)

Now, when the faithful come to the Mosque they take off their shoes so that they may enter the house of worship in bare feet.

“When he came to the fire, a voice was uttered: O Moses! I am the Lord, therefore put off thy shoes, for thou art in the sacred valley of Tuwa.” – (Holy Quran 20:11-12)

(And god said to Moses), “Draw not nigh hither; put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.” – (Exodus 3:5, also ACTS 7:33).

So, before standing for prayer, Muslims make Ablution, washing their faces, hands, feet, etc.

“O you who believe! when you rise up for prayer, wash your faces and your hands as far as the elbows, and wipe your heads, and wash your feet to the ankles.” – (Holy Quran 5:7)

“And Moses and Aaron and his sons washed their hands and their feet threat; when they went into the tent of the congregation they washed as the Lord commanded Moses.” – (Exodus 40:31-32)

After this, the Muslims stand for prayer facing the Kaaba or the Great Mosque in Mecca.

“So turn thy face towards the sacred Mosque, and (O Muslims), wheresoever ye may be, turn your faces towards it.”

“Now when Daniel…went into the house; and his window being open in the chamber towards Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime.” – (Daniel 6:10)

The House of Worship or the Mosque is a place of peace and serenity, withouth images or idols of worship, and simple with a carpet on which to sit or stand and to meditate.

“God forgiveth not (the sin of) joining other gods with him;..one who joins other gods with God, hath strayed far, far away (from the Right).” – (Holy Quran 4:116).

“I am the Lord thy God… Thou shalt have no other Gods in front of me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in earth beneath, or that is in water under the earth…” – Exodus 20:2-5.

In the Prayer, Muslims bow down before God, and make obeisance to Him, by touching the ground before them with their foreheads.

“O You who believe! bow down and prostrate yourselves and serve your lord, and do good that you may prosper.” – (Holy Quran 22:77)

“And he (Jesus) went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed…” – (Matt 26:39).

“And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship…” (Joshua 5:15)

“And they (Moses and Aaron) fell upon their faces…” (Num 20:6)

“And Abraham fell on his face…” – (Genesis 17:3)

And lastly, when the prayer is over, the Muslims spread out their hands to God, asking forgiveness, seeking his Blessings, beseeching his protection for mankind.

“Our Lord! Give us good in this world and good in the hereafter, and defend us from the torment of the fire.” – (Holy Quran 2:201)

“…when Soloman had made an end of praying all his prayer and supplication unto the Lord, he arose from before the altar of the Lord, from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread up to Heaven” -(1 Kings 8:54)

“And Jesus Lifted up his eyes and said, Father, I thank Thee that Thou heardest me. And i knew that Thou heardest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that Thou hast send me.” – (Jhon 11:41-42)

So, you can see that it is Islam (which means “submission to God’s Will”) which correctly continues in the tradition of the previous prophets.

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It seems that NYC is honoring Eid-ul-Fitr this year with a Green Empire State building:

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Kurt Vonnegut Jr. has a lot to say about Massacres. He witnessed the firebombing of Dresden in World War II. His novel Slaughterhouse Five is based on it and his experiences since.

It is so short and jumbled, Sam, because there is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre. Everybody is supposed to be dead, to never say anything or want anything ever again. Everything is supposed to be quiet after a massacre, and it always is, except for the birds.

And what do the birds say? All there is to say about a massacre, things like “Poo-tee-weet?“

I have told my sons not under any circumstances to take part in massacres, and that the news of massacres of enemies is not to fill them with satisfaction or glee.

I have also told them not to work in companies that make massacre machinery, and to express contempt for people who think we need machinery like that.

 

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