National American Indian Heritage Month is celebrated every November

http://amlife.america.gov/amlife/diversity/american-indian-heritage-month.html

Washington — Each November, National American Indian Heritage Month pays tribute to the legacy of the American Indians and Alaska Natives — the first Americans — and celebrates their enduring contributions to the history and culture of the United States.
Today, there are nearly 5 million American Indians and Alaska Natives in the United States, or 1.6 percent of the total population, and this is expected to jump to 8.6 million, or 2 percent of the population, by 2050.

Most American Indians live in metropolitan areas and not on the 227,000 square kilometers of land held in trust for reservations. The states with the highest percentage of American Indians and Alaska Natives are Alaska (18 percent of its population), Oklahoma (11 percent) and New Mexico (10 percent).

There are 562 federally recognized Indian tribes in the United States. The largest, by far, are the Cherokee and Navajo nations, according to the 2000 U.S. census.
Navajo is the most widely spoken American Indian language, and almost one-fourth of Navajos speak a language other than English at home — the highest percentage of all tribes. Unfortunately, only one-half of the 300 or so native languages once spoken in North America still have any living speakers. (See “Navajo Textbook Aims to Preserve Language, Culture.”)
A recent study by the public opinion research organization Public Agenda found that non-Indians have little knowledge of the active, vibrant culture of American Indians today. There was a consensus among both Indians and non-Indians in the study about the need for more education on American Indian history and culture. (See “American Indians Seek Greater Understanding, Recognition.”)

The first U.S. state to set aside a day to recognize the importance of American Indians in the nation’s history was New York, in 1916. National American Indian Heritage Month was first designated in 1990 under a joint congressional resolution approved by President George H. W. Bush, the current president’s father.
Each year, the sitting president issues a proclamation, as did President George W. Bush this year.

THE CREATION OF AMERICAN INDIAN HERITAGE MONTH
The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs provides some background on what has become an annual celebration of the culture and contributions of American Indians and Alaska Natives.

What started at the turn of the century as an effort to gain a day of recognition for the significant contributions the first Americans made to the establishment and growth of the United States has resulted in a whole month being designated for that purpose.

One of the very early proponents of an American Indian Day was Arthur C. Parker, a Seneca Indian, who was the director of the Museum of Arts and Science in Rochester, N ew York. He persuaded the Boy Scouts of America to set aside a day for the “First Americans” and for three years they adopted such a day. In 1915, the annual Congress of the American Indian Association meeting in Lawrence, Kansas, formally approved a plan concerning American Indian Day. It directed its president, Reverend Sherman Coolidge, an Arapahoe, to call on the country to observe such a day. Coolidge issued a proclamation on September 28, 1915, which declared the second Saturday of each May as an American Indian Day and contained the first formal appeal for recognition of Indians as citizens.

The year before this proclamation was issued, Red Fox James, a Blackfoot Indian, rode horseback from state to state seeking approval for a day to honor Indians. On December 14, 1915, he presented the endorsements of 24 state governments at the White House. There is no record, however, of such a national day being proclaimed.

The first American Indian Day in a state was declared on the second Saturday in May 1916 by New York Governor Charles S. Whitman. Several states celebrate the fourth Friday in September. In Illinois, for example, legislators enacted such a day in 1919. Several states designated Columbus Day as Native American Day, but it continues to be a day observed without any recognition as a national legal holiday.

In 1990, President George H.W. Bush approved a joint resolution designating November 1990 “National American Indian Heritage Month.” Similar proclamations have been issued each year since 1994.

See the U.S. Census Bureau Web site for a fact sheet on American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month and additional data on the American Indian and Alaska Native population.
Both the U.S. Library of Congress and the National Park Service have Web pages devoted to American Indian Heritage Month. The Library of Congress Veterans History Project includes a guide to American Indian and Alaska Native military veterans and interviews with former Navajo “code talkers” Keith Little and Merril Sandoval.

For more information, see “American Indian History, Culture” on America.gov and the Web site of the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs. The Web site of the U.S. Embassy in Berlin lists numerous information resources on Native Americans.

November 2008 Fact Sheet from US Census Bureau in PDF: http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/facts_for_features_special_editions/012782.html

I am deeply saddened by India’s terrorist attacks.

I stayed at both the Taj Majal AND The Taj Palace hotels in Delhi (September 2007) and felt perfectly secure and pampered. I cannot imagine hiding in my room and surviving off the minibar while explosions and fires rage outside. These events will no doubt have a negative impact on travel and tourism.

I pray for the families who lost loved ones. I pray for peace and conflict resolution in troubled parts of the world.

Obama Family Gave Out Thanksgiving Food at my Grade School, St Columbanus, Today

President-elect Barack Obama and his family spent an hour handing out chickens, potatoes, bread and other Thanksgiving food to poor families on Chicago's South Side Wednesday morning after Obama introduced his latest economic advisors. Then he shook hands with Catholic grade school students ecstatic to see him.
Many of the poor and homeless -- some of whom come for food every Wednesday -- screamed in disbelief as they entered the parking lot of St. Columbanus church at 71st and Calumet Drive and realized the reason they had been wanded by the U.S. Secret Service was because Obama, his wife and daughters, were standing there ready to pass out the food usually handed out by volunteers.
"At Thanksgiving, it's important for us to remember people in need," Obama said. "They told me the number of people coming here is up 33 percent from last year."
About 600 families got food, said Kate Maehr, executive director of the Greater Chicago Food Depository. That's up from 270 families last year, said the Rev. Matt Eyerman.
This is the fourth year in a row Obama has handed out food before Thanksgiving. Last year, he did it in New Hampshire.
"We started seeing increases as early as last year January," Maehr said. "In April, we started seeing double-digit increases.
"Happy Thanksgiving -- hey, don't forget your chicken," Obama said after hugging one woman who screamed when she saw him. Declining to give an autograph, he said, "If I sign autographs, I can't pass out my chickens."


Michelle Obama and their daughters, Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7 , stood beside their father also handing out food in the 43-degree weather beneath the elaborate 99-year-old stained glass windows of St. Columbanus church. Obama wore a leather jacket while Michelle and the girls were bundled in winter coats and hats.
Obama said it was important to bring his daughters because, "I want them to know how fortunate they are and that they have to give back," Obama said.
As he finished handing out the chickens, Obama turned and looked up at the windows of St. Columbanus School where the pre-K through 8th graders were furiously waving and screaming from their second- and third-floor windows, their screams barely audible through the closed windows.
"Hey Michelle, look," he pointed as she waved back.
"We've got to go in there and say 'hi' to those kids," he told his wife, much to the chagrin of the Secret Service, which frowns on spontaneity.
The Secret Service asked school officials to bring the school's 300 students down to the assembly hall.
"Secret Service for Barack Obama said we'd better gather the children quickly. It was like a fire drill. They said, 'can they make it down in five minutes?'" Eyerman said. "For Barack Obama, they could make it down in five minutes."


The enthusiasm was off the charts as Obama entered the room and attempted to shake hands with the children as young as five and pre-Kindergarten. Some grabbed onto his leather jacket sleeves and would not let go, trying to climb up in his arms.
"I just wanted to come by and wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving," Obama said. "What I'm thankful for is my family, my friends, my community."
He asked the kids who would be having turkey and macaroni and cheese. Prompted by Michelle, he asked, "Who's getting good grades?"
"Listen to your teachers," Obama said. "One of you might end up being president."


"Who likes math?" Obama asked the students. His daughter Malia did not raise her hand until her mom gave her a playful slap and she raised her hand.
Obama took two questions from the kids. One asked what it was like to be president.
"I'm not the president yet ... once I'm president I'll let you know what its like," he said.
A girl asked him what it was like to have so many people following him.
Obama said he appreciated the members of the Secret Service and the press who he said were missing spending time with their families so they could accompany him.
He and Michelle jokingly asked members of the Secret Service to identify themselves by raising their hands. They did not.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/obama/1300994,Obama-food-pantry-112608.article

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/26/obama-familys-thanksgivin_n_146725.html

Kimchi For the Soul in Seoul

Here is a great shot of 2200 volunteers making Kimchi for the poor in Seoul, Korea.

Here is the accompanying text:

Volunteers make kimchi, traditional pungent vegetable, to donate to needy neighbors for winter preparation in front of the Seoul City Hall Thursday, Nov. 20, 2008. About 2,200 housewives made 130 tons (117 metric tons) of kimchi. Made with cabbage, other vegetables and chili sauce, kimchi is the most popular traditional food in Korea.(AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Beauty Around The World

Oprah did an eye-opening show focusing of concepts of women’s beauty around the world.
http://www.oprah.com/slideshow/oprahshow/20081024_tows_beauty/1

Cultures that were featured included France, Oman, Brazil, Iran, Burma (Kayan), Japan, New Zealand (Maori), Indonesia, Ethiopia, India, and Mauritania. Topics included diets, tatoos, stomach flatteners, lingerie, skin whiteners, hair extenstions, plastic surgery, skin softeners, nose jobs, and over-eating to get fat.

The underlying messages were that:

1. Beauty is in the eye of the beholding culture. In Mauritania, bigger is better and fat is beautiful. Even stretch marks are beautiful. Diets are non-existent and no diet products are available. The downside is that girls are routinely force-fed starchy foods (till they vomit) in order to fatten them up to attract a husband. The high obesity rate there causes lots of medical problems such as heart disease and diabetes. Some women consume black market pills created to increase the appetite of camels and cows. But, the women don’t have the same poor body image issues as women in Europe and the Americas who kill themselves to be thin. Being divorced also heightens a woman’s appeal because it proves she is desired by other men.

Regarding Mauritania’s love of plump women, Oprah sang, there’s a place for us….

2. Women, all over the world are willing to go to great lengths (even risking death) to live up to their culture’s beauty standards. Plastic surgery is becoming increasingly more common all over the world. Who knew that Brazil had the second largest plastic surgery volume; and that even in Muslim Iran, where women are covered from head-to-toe, nose jobs are very common. Nose jobs are so common in Iran (60,000 per year) that wearing a nose job band-aid is a status symbol worn by women years after the actual surgery and by women who have never had the surgery.

A survey conducted by Dove reveals that 90% of women around the world wish to change some aspect of their bodies. Too bad women can't be more like men who are generally comfortable in their bodies.

How do different religions define death?

Religions have updated their definitions of death since life support technology was invented. The verdict is still out in some cases. Here is an article discussing this matter:

A Washington, D.C., court will hear arguments on Wednesday in the case of Motl Brody, a 12-year-old Orthodox Jewish boy who was declared dead last week by hospital officials. Though the boy's brain has stopped functioning completely, drugs and a respirator are keeping his heart beating and his lungs inflating. According to his parents' strict religious beliefs, this means that Motl is still alive, and the family is therefore arguing to keep the boy on life support. How is death defined in other religions?

Usually, the same way it has traditionally been defined in all cultures: by a lack of vital signs. Most world religions lack a clear doctrinal statement that certifies when, exactly, the moment of death can be said to have occurred. For most of human history, there was no need for one since prior to the invention of life-support equipment, the absence of circulation or respiration was the only way to diagnose death. This remains the standard of death in most religions. By the early 1980s, however, the medical and legal community also began to adopt a second definition of death—the irreversible cessation of all brain functions—and some religious groups have updated their beliefs.

Jewish arguments both for and against accepting brain death can be found in the Talmud, the sprawling record of rabbinical discussions on law and ethics. Some strands of Talmudic law hold that those who have been decapitated or had their necks broken are considered dead, even if their bodies continue to move—an argument that many take as proof that total loss of brain function counts as death. Other scholars point to a section from the Babylonian Talmud, tractate Yoma, which states that if you come across a collapsed building on the Sabbath, you must uncover victims at least up to their noses to determine whether they are dead or alive, as "life manifests itself primarily through the nose as it is written: In whose nose was the breath of the spirit of life"—a reference to the Genesis story of the great flood. (For a longer discussion of the Jewish definition of death, see Chapter 12 in this book.)

Christians who ardently support the traditional circulatory-respiratory definition of death tend to be fundamentalists or evangelicals. They may point to Leviticus 17:11, which states that "the life of the flesh is in the blood," or Genesis 2:7, which describes how God "formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being." Most mainstream Protestant groups in the United States accept brain death as a valid criterion for death, as does the Roman Catholic Church, though that ruling is not without controversy.

In 1986, the Academy of Islamic Jurisprudence—a group of legal experts convened by the Organization of the Islamic Conference—issued an opinion stating that a person should be considered legally dead when either "complete cessation of the heart or respiration occurs" or "complete cessation of all functions of the brain occurs." In both cases, "expert physicians" must ascertain that the condition is irreversible. However, the academy's statement was merely a recommendation to member nations, not a binding resolution, and the question remains an open one for many Muslims.

In 2006, the family of a Buddhist man in Boston who had been declared legally brain-dead argued that, because his heart was still beating, his spirit and consciousness still lingered and that removing him from life support would be akin to killing him. In a Boston Globe article about the case, a professor of Buddhism explained that, within Tibetan Buddhism, a person has multiple levels of consciousness, which may or may not correspond with brain activity.
Got a question about today's news? Ask the Explainer.

Explainer thanks Courtney Campbell of Oregon State University, Fred Rosner of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and Stuart Youngner of Case Western Reserve University.
Nina Shen Rastogi is a writer and editor in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Article URL: http://www.slate.com/id/2204242/
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The Miami International Book Fair is Here This Week!

It is my favorite annual event and attracts hundreds of the best authors worldwide. Many consider it to be the best book festival in the US. So far, I have seen Cornell West, Tavis Smiley, Gore Vidal, and I plan to see Naomi Klein, Scott Mc Clellan, Carl Hiassen, Vernon Jordan, Salmon Rushtie, Dave Barry and many more.
Here is an article published in the Miami Herald:

Miami book fair speaks volumes about local passion for books
BY ANDRES VIGLUCCI

The Miami Book Fair International, widely known as one of the biggest and best in the country if not the biggest and best, started out small. Really small. Or the idea behind it did: to borrow some folding tables and sell used books in Bayfront Park.

Had the beginning actually been that inauspicious, we wouldn't be talking now about the fair's 25th annual edition, which opens Sunday evening with headliners Cornel West and Tavis Smiley -- what timing! -- discussing race and America at Miami Dade College's downtown campus.
Nor would there be reason to ponder once again -- as fairgoers mob several blocks of downtown Miami, filling readings by authors celebrated and obscure, lining up for signings, snapping up books by the tens of thousands -- this annual riddle: How does a bookish event attain such success and longevity in a town better known, fairly or not, for sunburns and hangovers?

Go back to 1984.
As luck would have it, Eduardo Padrón, head of the downtown campus of what was then Miami-Dade Community College, which owned the tables, rejected the used-book sale.
Padrón invited the organizers, including a young bookseller named Mitchell Kaplan, to breakfast and nudged them to think big: How about a street fair like Barcelona's famed book festival, which he had just visited? Why not have it at the college? And why not invite authors to read, speak and sign and sell books? And why not make it fun for people not that into books?

`LIKE-MINDED PEOPLE'
Kaplan and his coterie needed no arm-twisting. Kaplan had been hosting authors at his tiny, literature-focused Books & Books in Coral Gables since its opening two years before. He was selling some serious books; he knew there were hungry readers in Miami.
''As in any car-culture city, people didn't know there were other like-minded people here,'' Kaplan, still the book fair's chairman, recalls. ``Eduardo Padrón threw the weight of the college behind this thing, at a time when people thought the only books being read here were nonprescription-drug books. I knew better, but there were few models for what we were doing.''
No one was prepared for what happened at that first fair.

Throngs of greedy book lovers materialized in the forbidding ghost city of downtown, lining up for readings -- sometimes having to shove their way in -- and buying books right and left. Organizers were shocked and giddy. So were the authors and the publishers Padrón and Kaplan had had to beg to come. Thus, the template for every future fair was set.

Pulitzer Prize winners, Nobelists, poets and historians, Kennedys and Watergate burglars, mystery writers and celebrity authors, movie stars and rock stars, satirists, cooks, cranks and critics -- even Barack Obama -- have appeared at the book fair, some of them more than once. Some can't seem to get enough of it. (I saw him in 2006!!)

''Year in and year out, the Miami book festival gets stronger and stronger,'' says journalist David Rieff, author of two books on Miami and a frequent fair guest. ``It now can compete with any literary fair in the world in getting anyone to come.

``This is an important place to go as a writer, to see other writers, to publicize your book, to get noticed. They've made it a place that writers want to be.
``One thing is the broadness of it. It's a very big tent. That's one of its great strengths.''
But something else happened along the way, too.
The discovery of a core of numerous local readers and, along with it, a small group of talented but virtually unknown home-grown writers with original voices and a potent sense of this peculiar place, began to nourish a new idea of South Florida as -- get this -- a literary place. And as the fair has grown in scope and prominence, so has the reputation of South Florida as a locus for literature.

James W. Hall, Carl Hiaasen and Dave Barry, among others, got their first broad exposure at the book fair. Since then, prominent poet Campbell McGrath has made South Florida his muse, and Russell Banks is living part time and finding inspiration in Miami. The city has also become home to Haitian-American writer Edwidge Danticat, who this year won the National Book Critics' Circle Award for Brother, I'm Dying, a family memoir.
All are fair stalwarts and will appear again this year, although Danticat only as an attendee because she is ``extremely pregnant.''

''If I'm not giving birth, I will be in the audience,'' she says with a laugh.
Miami's American Exotic continues to attract the carpetbaggers as well. Tom Wolfe is now famously at work fictionalizing the place, and Scotsman Irvine Welsh of Trainspotting fame has set his new crime novel in South Beach.
They've all come here for different reasons. But for 24 years, the fair and South Florida's flourishing literary community have nourished each other, and the fair is the annual homecoming dance.

`A LITERARY CENTER'
''The book fair has turned Miami from a town that was not all regarded as a literary center into one that very much is,'' says Les Standiford, one of those then undiscovered writers and now a bestselling fiction and nonfiction author as well as longtime director of the Creative Writing Program at Florida International University, which produced Dennis Lehane, who wrote Mystic River.
''To me, it's certainly heartening to know that every year there is going to be this tremendous celebration of the act of reading and writing,'' he adds. ``It's a yearly pat on the back.''
And great business, too. It's the publishers, agents and writers who now plead for invitations. Fair administrators guesstimate that $2 million worth of books are sold during the weeklong event every year.
''My publicist is thrilled to death that I'll be at the book fair this year,'' says Standiford, whose new book, The Man Who Invented Christmas, tells how Charles Dickens came to write A Christmas Carol.
Rich as it is, the parade of literary stars is hardly the only factor contributing to the book fair's mass appeal.
From the start, organizers say, they followed the democratic mantra of ''something for everyone.'' Thus, next weekend's street fair, the ethnic-food booths, the celebrity authors, the cookbook authors, the musicians and TV actors, the occasional political figure, the popular and ever-expanding Children's Alley, and this year, a new program focusing on graphic novels and comics for children and adults.

And just as significant are programs in Spanish, French and Creole, which draw eminent authors from Latin America, the Caribbean and Europe, broadening the fair's audience and appeal.
''It's this extraordinary feast,'' Danticat says. 'This book fair has grown in terms of the organizers' vision of it. Part of it is the diversity of writers and the diversity of readers. Writers from all over the world come here, which is kind of singular, operating in all these different languages.''
Moreover, several authors attest, the fair is very well run. Crates of books are delivered on time to author appearances.

Squads of volunteers are deployed to pick up authors and ferry the stars around -- sometimes catering to their whims, as with the famed author who, Padrón recalls without naming names, demanded a particular brand of high-end Scotch at the dais.
A fair offshoot, the Florida Center for the Literary Arts, with a tiny staff, has become the umbrella organization managing the $2 million main event as well as a series of year-round programs. The center helps draw grant money to supplement income from food and book sales, admission fees, corporate sponsors, kiosk rents and substantial funding from the college and Miami-Dade County, among other public entities, says Executive Director Alina Interián. Padrón, now overall president of Miami Dade College, retains his office downtown and an active role in supporting the fair.

Not that there haven't been glitches and mishaps. When Leo Buscaglia, an author known as The Love Doctor, drew several times more people than could fit into the auditorium at an early fair, Padrón had to shout at unruly attendees to behave.
Rarely have there been serious disruptions, although the occasional audience member who refuses to surrender the microphone during questions is ejected. One eminent Talmudic scholar was befuddled when heckled from the back of the room by a Jews for Jesus zealot, Kaplan recalls.

Yet, crowd enthusiasm has led to magical, spontaneous moments. At the first of several fair appearances by radio host and author Garrison Keillor, someone asked him to sing something, and he led the packed auditorium in Tell Me Why.
Another time, Kaplan cringed as a young audience member addressed Nobel Prize winner Czeslaw Milosz this way: ''Yo, Czeslaw, you married?'' But Milosz responded that his wife had recently died, and he movingly read to the mesmerized crowd a new poem he had written for her.

''A lot of writers like to come here to the book fair because there is such an atmosphere about it,'' Danticat says. ``It's always a good surprise for writers who come here and see so many people interacting with books.''

IMPRESSIVE GUESTS
The experience can be especially gratifying -- and rewarding -- for lesser-known authors, humorist Dave Barry says.
'You can be sitting in the authors' lounge, some first-time writer, and in comes John Updike,'' he says, flipping through a copy of this year's fair guide, which prompts him to add: ``You'd be hard-pressed to find a collection of authors like this anywhere at any time.
``For a lot of first-time authors, it's the best experience they will have on tour.''
He should know. At the first fair, recalls book fair co-founder Raquel Roque, she was astonished to see a frenzied, overflow mob shove its way into a mid-size room when Barry's reading was announced over speakers in the street. He was then but a humor columnist at The Miami Herald with a small-press book to his credit.
''That's when I realized how big he was going to get,'' Roque says.
Barry, who has been to almost every fair, and possibly to every single one -- the record is not conclusive -- says those who claim that people in Miami don't read are proved wrong each November.

''We're not supposed to be that kind of town,'' he says. ``But the fair's not a fluke. People don't just come out for the big names. Even the people you never heard of, the little panels, reliably get people to come. You know the big auditorium, the Chapman room? They fill that thing over and over all day long. It's amazing.''

Oh, and the weather helps, too.

What Does Arab Mean?

What does Arab mean?

a. A nationality
b. A religion
c. A race
d. A geographical area

The answer is none of the above, really.

Arab is a culture. The three unifying features of the Arab world are language (Arabic), religion/law (Islam, Koran in Arabic) and geography (24 countries in Middle East and Africa). The term Arab refers to a culture that originated in Arabia and in the 7th century, expanded to include most of the Middle East and Northern Africa. Most Arabs practice Islam, the worlds 2nd largest and fastest growing religion. Not all Islamic nations are of the Arab world including: Turkey, Pakistan, Iran (Persians), Indonesia, Malaysia (60%) and Afghanistan. Not all Arabs are Muslims. For example, there are sizable numbers of Christians living in Egypt, Iraq, Palestine, Jordan, Syria, Malaysia, Sudan, and Lebanon. Of course, Israel is considered a Non-Arab nation in the Middle East that is largely Jewish with two distinct ethnic heritages: Shephardic (Mediterranean, Middle Eastern), and Ashkenazic (Eastern European).

Arabs make up less than 25% of the worlds Muslims. There are more Muslims in Indonesia, for example, than in all Arab countries combined. Large populations of Muslims also live in India, Iran, other parts of East Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Islam has a strong Arab flavor, though, as the religion's holiest places are in the Middle East, and the Koran (Quran) was originally written in Arabic.

Finally, not all people from the Middle East are Arabs. The four main language groups in the Middle East are Arabic, Hebrew, Persian and Turkish. Other significant language groups are Kurdish and Berber. Arabs are largest in terms of population.------------------

What about the Arabic language?
Arabic is the native language of 150 million people and the official language of 20 countries. It is one of the languages of the UN and it is tied with Bengali as the 4th most widely spoken language in the world.

Spoken Arabic is different from written Arabic. Written Arabic is Classical Arabic that is used for all writing, formal discussions, speeches, broadcasts, and most importantly The HOLY KORAN. Followers believe the Koran came directly from God so the language is sacred. More than most cultures, speakers of Arabic feel their language is superior to all others. Classical Arabic is prestigious, while Arabic dialects carry little prestige. To learn classical Arabic requires many more years of study than English. It is rich in vocabulary and grammatically complex.
Arabic is written in the 28-character Arabic alphabet. In Arabic, a character may change depending on its placement in the word or sentence. Arabic letters are connected like script. Fine writing is called calligraphy and is held in high regard and appreciated as an art form in the Arabic culture.

The spoken languages are Formal Arabic and Colloquial Arabic, which includes many dialects and subdialects. Some differ so much from one another that many are mutually unintelligible and they cannot be understand by outsiders. Like Chinese, all native users understand the written language while some dialects are not universally understood by other Chinese speakers.

Arab Americans
There are 1.2 million Arabs in the US. 850,000 Americans reported Arab ancestry in the 2000 census. Another 340,000 reported combined Arab and non-Arab ancestry
80% report they are White
46% were born in US
83% are US citizens
75% speak English at home and or very well
41% have bachelors or higher
They are multiracial: white black yellow
They are multiethnic: ie Persian, Indian Egyptian
They are multicultural: religion, language, food, dress, gender roles
The United States has, at different times, classified Arab immigrants as African, Asian, white, European or as belonging to a separate group. Most Arab Americans identify more closely with nationality than with ethnic group.------------------

Ethnicity of Arabs in the US:
Lebanese 29%
Egyptian 15%
Syrian 9%
Palestinian 7%
Jordanian 4%
Moroccan 3.6%
Iraqi 3.5%

Religion of Arabs in the US-The Majority are Christian
Catholic 35%, Muslim24%, Eastern Orthodox 18%, No affiliation 13%, Protestant 10%
The largest ethnic background of US Muslims is African American (47%) followed by South Asians (24%)
The largest Muslim populations worlwide live in 1) Indonesia, 2) Pakistan, and 3) India.-------------

Additional Notes
Before 1960, as many as 90 percent of Arab immigrants were Christians, but recent immigrants are mostly Muslim. There were several prominent sects within the Christian population: Maronite Christians from Lebanon, Coptic Christians from Egypt and Chaldeans from Iraq.The new immigrants settled in or near established Arab-American communities. The Detroit metropolitan region, especially Dearborn, attracted a steady stream of Arab immigrants after 1965 and may have the largest number of recent Arab immigrants. Most came from a variety of occupational backgrounds and found work in the auto industry or in other working-class employment, although not all Detroit Arabs sought such employment.---------------

Christian Chaldeans, an Iraqi minority in a Muslim country, were among the first to take advantage of the 1965 Immigration Act. About one thousand lived in Detroit before passage of the act. After 1965 their numbers increased, until by 1974 they accounted for approximately one-seventh of Detroit's estimated 70,000 Arab-Americans. They opened grocery stores and established a reputation in that business similar to that of Korean grocers. By 1972 the Chaldeans were running about 278 stores in Detroit, and assisting others in the United States. Another large Arab-American settlement in Brooklyn had attracted earlier Lebanese and Syrian migrations. Los Angeles lured many Coptic Christians from Egypt, part of the Egyptian immigrant wave after the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.--------------

Some well-known Arab Americans are: Danny Thomas, Paula Abduul, Omar Sharif, Tony Shaluub, Paul Anka, Christa McAuliffe, the teacher/astronaut who died aboard the space shuttle Challenger; Indy 500 winner Bobby Rahal; Heisman Trophy winner and NFL quarterback Doug Flutie; creators of radio's American Top 40 Casey Kasem and Don Bustany; Mothers Against Drunk Driving founder Candy Lightner; Jacques Nasser, president and chief executive officer of Ford Motor Co., and Helen Thomas, former dean of the White House press corps.

Bhutan Measures GDH-Gross Domestic Happiness

The nation of Bhutan, an insular society resists the momentum of globalization. It will be interesting to watch how long its new prince can preserve the old traditions and values while blocking out the influence from the outside world.

Here is an article highlighting Bhutan’s focus on its measure of success: Happiness.

New king vows to shield Bhutan in globalize world
THIMPHU (AFP) — Bhutan's new king vowed Friday to shield his remote and traditionally insular Himalayan nation from the negative forces of globalization.

In a speech the day after his lavish coronation ceremony, 28-year-old Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck said he would protect the landlocked country's unique culture and traditions by pursuing the principle of 'Gross National Happiness.'

"My deepest concern is that as the world changes we may lose these fundamental values on which we rest our character as a nation and people," King Wangchuck, now the world's youngest reigning monarch, said in a speech to tens of thousands of people.
"Henceforth, even as more dramatic changes transform the world and our nation, as long as we continue to pursue the simple and timeless goal of being good human beings... we can ensure that our future generations will live in happiness and peace," he said.

"That is the essence of Gross National Happiness. Our most important goal is the peace and happiness of our people and the security and sovereignty of our nation."

The crowning of the new king Thursday capped a year of sweeping changes for the country, which is sandwiched between Asian giants India and China but has never been colonized.
Bhutan held its first democratic elections for a new parliament and prime minister in March, as part of a plan by the former king to modernize the country by relinquishing the Wangchuck dynasty's absolute power.

The revered former king, who is 52, abdicated two years ago, saying he wanted to match the shift to democracy with a change of face in the white-walled palace that overlooks Thimpu.
The country, home to just over 600,000 people, is one of the most remote places on earth.
It had no roads or currency until the 1960s, allowed television only in 1999 and continues to resist the temptation of allowing mass tourism -- preferring instead to allow access to only small organized groups of well-heeled visitors.

Eloquence!

Eloquence!

President-Elect Barack Obama.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/04/obama-victory-speech_n_141194.html

The World Wants Obama to Win Because It Wants Change

Here is a moving presentation and song (World of Friends) featuring people from across the globe who hunger for change that Barack Obama can bring. It uses the metaphor of the bridge to convey how Obama will help to the US to build bridges with the rest of the world. Some countries included are Greece Hungary, China, Germany, Japan, Cambodia, Ireland, Thailand, Guatemala, Israel, Luxemburg, Egypt, Indonesia, and The Netherlands.

Bridges for Obama: American supporters of Sen. Barack Obama have been staging rallies abroad at world-famous bridges to show support for the Democratic presidential candidate and his pledge to span old political divisions.
The Obama Song (World of Friends): Japan-based American musical artists created and performed this song to celebrate Sen. Obama's historic candidacy and to inspire us all to change the world.
See it here: http://blip.tv/file/1338283

Hope!

US couple values democracy and travels 9300 miles, in 22 hours, through four cities, (costing $5,000), to vote.

The New York times reports on a couple who traveled from India to New York to vote because their absentee ballots never arrived. Here is the article:

November 1, 2008
About New York
When Use It or Lose It Means Traveling 9,300 Miles to Vote
By JIM DWYER
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/01/nyregion/01about.html

Before she left for the Bangalore airport on Tuesday, Susan Scott-Ker checked the mail one final time.

Nothing.

For nearly a month, she and her husband had been waiting for their New York State absentee ballots to arrive in India, where she has been working since the summer. A week ago, they realized that even if the ballots arrived before the election — a proposition that was growing more dubious by the minute — they had almost no chance of getting them back in time to be counted.

They had already called the American Consulate, to no avail, and had looked into hiring a round-trip courier service.

“We had a long talk about it,” Ms. Scott-Ker said. “We could go on holiday to a beach somewhere. Or we could come back here and vote. It was a long talk. We decided it was important to stand up and be counted.

“We bought the tickets that Friday, the 24th.”
On Tuesday evening, she and her husband caught a flight from Bangalore to New Delhi, about 1,100 miles. The next leg of the journey, 7,500 miles, took them to Chicago. By 5:30 on Wednesday morning, they had cleared immigration and customs at O’Hare International Airport, and flew the last 700 miles to La Guardia. Their journey of 9,300 miles had taken 22 hours.

It is possible for a traveler to go farther in one direction on earth — but not much. When all their expenses are counted, their trip will have cost them about $5,000, Ms. Scott-Ker said.

Experts say Americans are showing more interest and passion about this election than they have in nearly 50 years. But it is still likely that one-third of the eligible voters will not take part — much less spend two full days traveling around the world to do so.

For Ms. Scott-Ker, 45, a native of New Zealand, and her husband, who was born in Morocco, the votes they intend to cast on Tuesday in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan will be their first, ever. They became American citizens on Nov. 30, 2007.

“We became citizens so we could vote,” Ms. Scott-Ker said. “We’d lived here 13 years on green cards, paid lots of tax money, but you have no voice within the system.”

A few months after they were sworn in as citizens, Ms. Scott-Ker was transferred to Bangalore by her employer, Accenture, a management consulting, technology and outsourcing company, as its marketing director for India. She kept her eye on the election, filing the voter registration forms in August and getting the confirmation in early October. Then she discovered that an absentee ballot would require a separate application to the city Board of Elections.
“In this highly technological age and city, do we need to be mailing applications halfway around the world, just so you can get a piece of mail sent back to the same place?” Ms. Scott-Ker wondered aloud.

In a word, yes. So, she said, she followed the requirements “to the letter. I even provided an addressed envelope for the ballot to be sent back to us so it would be absolutely perfect, as it would have to have been for the India postal service.”

Still, no ballots came. The Board of Elections in Manhattan — its funding cut this year in a dispute with the mayor — has been laggard in sending out absentee ballots, officials say. Ms. Scott-Ker and her husband, a university instructor, knew nothing of that squabble.
“We realized we’re not going to get to vote, and we were all geared up to do this,” she said. “We thought, maybe a friend could get the ballots for us in Manhattan and have them couriered to India, and we could courier them back. There were so many ifs and buts. I didn’t want a bureaucratic process to get in the way of casting a ballot.”