tomas December 2nd, 2008
FRIDAY DECEMBER 12, 2008 6-12PM
406 MAIN STREET BEHIND RITMO LATINO
IN WATSONVILLE
JOIN US FOR A CELEBRATION OF THE FULL MOON AND OUR SACRED MOTHER TONANTZIN/GUADALUPE
THERE WILL BE LIVE ACUSTIC MUSIC, OPEN MIC, POETRY READING, AND HOT CHOCOLATE (BRING YOU OWN CUP)
tomas November 29th, 2008
Connecting Universal Struggles
Posted in: Illume Updates, Caffeinated Muslim
Bushra Burney | Nov. 24, 2008 | 12:33 AM
Bushra Burney is a member of the South Bay Islamic Association Media Committee and is content editor and blogger for Media and Islam
On Saturday, November 22, Santa Clara University was home to a panel presented by Project Greenlight, Omeid International and Illume Magazine titled Connecting Universal Struggles. This event was the last of three events produced by Omeid in an effort to raise money to build an orphanage for children displaced in Afghanistan.
The panel consisted of Tomas Alejo of the Brown Berets, Shamsia Razaqi of Omeid, Kim Pearce, professor of Communications at DeAnza College, Pietro Calogero, an Urban Planner who has spent time in Afghanistan, and hip hop artist and social/political activist Immortal Technique. Representing Illume were panelists Imam Zaid Shakir and filmmaker/writer Naeem Randhawa and moderator Adisa Banjoko, journalist. Guided by a mix of questions from Banjoko and by some of their own prepared statements, the panelists spoke about experiences that ultimately made it clear that the struggle of Afghanistan is our own struggle and that there is much that we can do locally as well as internationally.
Professor Pearce began the presentations by speaking on the topic of Human Rights Communication and Evolution of Consciousness. With her presentation, she put the audience in the right frame of mind for the rest of the panel. She spoke about how we all need to figure out what each of our role is to promote quality, dignity, and respect. In order to do so, she said, we need to observe how we act with those not like ourselves and also be able to understand that we need to look at each situation and act in a manner that fits the complexity of that particular situation.
Naeem Randhawa, filmmaker and also the writer of Illume’s previous cover story Tea With the Taliban, shared his experiences with the audience and panel. After he described traveling within Afghanistan under protection of a general and his squad in order to get footage of the country’s schools, Randhawa told the audience that they have a responsibility to help the people of Afghanistan because they are now aware of the conditions that the people have to endure just to get something as basic as an education.
Imam Zaid Shakir went further and said that we all need to not only look at other countries but also look “under our nose” as poverty and other issues plague communities around us as we may remain blissfully unaware.
Tomas Alejo of the Brown Berets, a group whose goal it is to help those who are marginalized locally, continued with Imam Zaid’s rationale that we need to also help those within our own communities. Alejo told the crowd that the community needs to be both economically and physically involved. He believes that the youth should be kept out of the military and instead given an education in which they are not taught “domination and conformity” but instead “tolerance and self sustainability”.
Immortal Technique (real name Felipe Coronel), who performed both Thursday and Friday in an effort to raise money for Omeid, talked about his upbringing and then why he was helping out Omeid International with their cause. He felt he needed to speak for Afghanistan because of the need for justice. He felt that this was a “true and righteous cause”.
The evening was filled with insights from the diverse panelists. Randhawa spoke about being surprised about the hope that the citizens of Afghanistan still exhibit despite living in war torn conditions for the past 30 years. He talked about how all of us, him included, get caught up in the petty things in life and yet here are these people whose everyday life can become a constant struggle and are still able retain some level of optimism.
Pietro Calogero, who is currently completing his dissertation on Urban Planning and has lived and taught in Afghanistan mentioned something quite interesting. He brought up Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and that theoretically fulfilling the first layer of basic needs, that of food and shelter, should be enough. Yet, he found that for the people of Afghanistan, the need to fulfill their spiritual self - Self Actualization as portrayed in the topmost layer of the Hierarchy - was in fact a basic need for them. Also, he tied into a concept that Professor Pearce spoke about. He said we need to understand a place like Afghanistan first in order to ask the right questions.
Imam Zaid Shakir ended the night with a short statement in which he summed up the reason for all of us being there. He emphasized the need for charity and told all of us to consider it an investment for our soul, to enhance our spirituality. This is just the beginning though. Shamsia Razaqi of Omeid said the orphanage they hope to open in Afghanistan will be able to house and provide the needs for 20 children. She mentioned that there are thousands of children who could use such facilities. There is still so much to be done.
Looking back at the event, one is able to grasp the enormity of what lays ahead. For any of us to make an impact on either our local community or the international community in order to combat such things as poverty, homelessness and lack of resources for an education, we need to look within ourselves to see what it is as we can and should do. “The purpose of life is life with a purpose,” Immortal Technique said at one point. Words to live by.
All photographs are © 2008 Ali Khan & Khan-Artist Productions. All rights reserved. Photographs here used with permission.
tomas November 28th, 2008
Immortal Technique, Hip Hop and the Lost Children of Afghanistan
An interview with Shamsia Razaqi
From Silicon Valley de bug Magazine
By Justin Collins
It seems like humanitarian aide can include good music. Omeid International and Project Greenlight have been busy connecting local Hip Hop fans to benefit shows to aide “Afghanistan’s children of war.” After a sold out show at San Francisco’s DNA Lounge and a massive free show in UC Berkeley’s main quad featuring some of Hip Hop’s greats Immortal Technique, Chino XL, Da Circle; was followed by a Santa Clara University panel discussion. I was able to meet my old friend Shamsia Razaqi, who was speaking on the panel discussion with Felipe Coronel AKA Immortal Technique, Imam Zaid Shakir, Professor Kim Pierce, Naeem Randawa and Tomas Alejo of The Watsonville Brown Berets. Adisa Banjoko hosted and directed questions to the other speakers on the conditions children face in war torn Afgahnistan.
Shamsia is an organizer and long time staple in the local Hip Hop scene as a writer for Silicon Valley De-Bug Magazine and a contributor to Cupertino’s 91.5 KKUP show Block to Block Radio. She now lives in the east bay and has went on to co-found the humanitarian aide organization Omeid International to raise awareness of the conditions Afghan kids face and is working with Project Greenlight to build The Amin Institute in Kabul, an orphanage/school for children left with out parents or an educational system. The name Omeid means “Hope” in Farsi. Omeid International is a grassroots organization inspired by Shamsia after taking a trip back to a land the land of her parents.
The road has been hard but with some notable supporters they are not alone in the struggle. Omeid International has been having concerts, fundraisers hosting speakers up and down California and a film festival in the works. This ambitious project will break ground in early 2009 on the initial facility that will house 20 orphans, 3 widows with medical and psychiatric facilities. The children will be housed in gender specific areas, have access to a balanced diet as well and a safe and secure environment to learn and grow. As that site is in use, Phase 2 will be a larger facility that will provide services to up 200 kids as well as offer a community health center as well as job training to folks above the K-5 age of the proposed school. Doctors will be on site to provide care to the countless children suffering Post traumatic stress due to war, famine and lack of medical care.
Shamisa took some time to talk about what drives her fight for the kids of her homeland.
JC: Where did you grow up?
S: I was born and raised on the South Side of San Jose, I went to High school at Oak Grove and then DeAnza College. I got my bachelors from Cal State Hayward in Political Science and Pre- Law. I am doing my Masters Degree at SF State in International Relations with a specialty in Foreign Policy of the Middle East and Human Rights.
JC : How did you meet Immortal Technique?
SR:I met Tech 3 years ago at Rock the Bells and told him about our cause and that we need help. By the way, we raised over $37,000 with Tech!!!
JC : Nice, how did you get your start in the nonprofit world?
SR- I started out as a writer for Silicon Valley De-Bug and other local magazines, then I started working as a health advocate for Afghan Refugees out here in the Bay at the Afghan Coalition, and also worked on several political campaigns and as a recruiter for the Professors union- CFA. It all turned when I went to Afghanistan and saw how serious the situation was there. If you remember I wrote a piece about it in De-Bug.
JC : Yeah I remember, you are a good writer, how did Omeid come together?
SR:Then a little while after me and my two cousins started this foundation from the ground up. We have done everything our selves every step of the way until now.”
JC : What is Omeid all about?
SR: Our organization Omeid International is focused on restoring the hope that has become extinct in the lives of Afghanistan’s orphaned children. Over the past few decades’ hope has been lost in the struggle to survive and resist the everyday ravages of war. We believe that by restoring hope to the lives of these orphans of war we can begin the healing process, and start rebuilding the country and its people. One cannot happen without the other.”
JC : What is your title at Omeid International?
SR:I am a co-founder, Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. I, along with President and C.E.O, Mariam Razaq, and C.F.O. Mojgan Mohammad created Omeid International in 2006.”
JC : Do you have any plan’s to write a book and document the cause?
SR: I hope I will write a book one day godwilling.
JC : Do you have any thoughts on the election of Sen Obama as the first black and more importantly a social activist as President?
SR: I prefer not to discuss politics in relation to my work with omeid, since we are a non-political, non-religious human rights based organization.
JC : What is your goal at Omied International?
SR: Our goal is to restore hope to the lives of Afghanistan’s children of war, by removing them from a state of anguish, isolation and persecution toward a future of hope, opportunity and justice. We are a 501 c 3 human rights based non-profit, public charity based out of the Bay Area in California, and Kabul Afghanistan. The ultimate goals of our project are not only to house and protect orphans, but also to provide all the tools for proper development. These include access to regular medical and psychiatric care, education and nutrition. We deeply believe that the epidemic of violence that characterizes failed states in the third world, is a cycle that can and must be broken. States like Afghanistan cannot be rebuilt solely through infrastructure but the people also need to be rebuilt. The past several generations have witnessed little more than war crimes and the rape of their nation, in the midst of all this they had to survive by any means necessary. A Prime example being the Taliban, which was created by orphans in refugee camps, we want to prevent the rise of another Taliban, by providing another way out- by providing hope and breaking the cycle of violence.
JC : Do you think Hip Hop has an strong under current of activism?
SR: With out a doubt, Hip Hop can be used as a tool for social change. I think Immortal Technique and his supporters are a testament to that. Music can be a beautiful and powerful expression that inspires some of the rawest emotions. Hip hop is a vehicle for truth, and for telling your story to the world, a story that is otherwise overlooked by popular standards. Even from its roots hip hop has been about expressing the strife of urban life- the untold story- it has evolved with the help of Technique and others like him as platform not only to speak on it but act on it. Project Green Light is just that- everyone is listening and agrees that something needs to be done- and hip-hop is the vehicle, but the people, the fans, the fresh minds that feel something when they hear a song- they are the ones who can mobilize true social change. Hip Hop just plants the seed. The response from Project Green light has been immense, the number of donations and people interested in volunteering their time and help is proof that hip-hop can inspire social change both at home and abroad. It’s been far too long that hip-hop has been a sleeping giant- dormant amidst the vacant and vain top-forty rubbish. Its time for a hip-hop renaissance.
JC : How do other artists get involved?
SR: The needs of Afghanistan’s orphans are so dire we do not discriminate against anyone willing to help. It’s not about hip-hop, religion, politics or any of that hype and divisive rhetoric. It’s about finding people with the heart and determination to address such a serious issue. We are willing to work with a broad spectrum of supporters, but the reality of it is everyday people don’t have the time or passion to even think about these issues- they are just jaded in their own struggles. It takes passionate people to stand up and fight for these children.
JC : What is Hip Hop’s role in connecting young people from across the world.
SR: Hip Hop already is a bridge between cultures and we have seen it transpire throughout South and Central America, Asia and the Middle East with young kids using hip-hop to tell the stories no one else cares to report on. How we will use it is uncertain for now. We definitely want to offer children of the Amin Institute different artistic outlets; perhaps Hip Hop can be one.
For more information on the work of Omeid International please visit:
http://www.omeid.org/page4HIP1.html
Please direct all donations to
http://www.omeid.org/page5GETINVOLVED.html
Please also check out Shamsia’s deeply moving personal stories@
www.siliconvalleydebug.com/Story/1120/story%20/shampiece.html
www.siliconvalleydebug.com/story/0131/Stories/massgrave.html
tomas November 25th, 2008
This Sunday (11/16/08) over 200 community members came out to join the 15th annual Peace and Unity March that was organized to demand an end to violence. The event was sponsored by the Watsonville Brown Berets, the Watsonville Peace and Unity Coalition, the Student Empowerment Project.
The first March was organized in 1994 after the tragic murders of Jessica (age 9) and Jorge Cortez (age 16). For the last 15 years, the Watsonville Brown Berets, along with families of fallen victims and other community members, have organized the Peace and Unity March to promote unity in our barrios. Utilizing the medicines and ceremonies of our indigenous roots to help in this healing process as well as the message of social justice and liberation, the march has been an important reminder of the necessity of constant community participation. Over the last 15 years, more than 80 residents of our community have lost their lives to violence. It is important to keep the memories of these victims alive.
We would like to say thank you to everyone who assisted in organizing this march.
For more photos check out: http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/11/17/18551995.php
