#Hussein Al-alak

[totallyhussein-blog]

Winnie the Pooh is inspiring Manchester’s kids to read

It's great news from Wood Street Mission and the Books Forever Appeal! Over 8,000 children's books have been donated so far and amongst them are the stories of Winnipeg the Bear -aka the real life Winnie The Pooh- and the Canadian veterinarian Harry D. Colebourn.

I'm positive that books like these will inspire Manchester's young people to read and with more WSM Book Roadshows planned in our city's schools, Wood Street Mission are still in need of brand new or good condition pre-loved books for children and young people.

In 2022, WSM distributed over 20,500 books to disadvantaged young people across Manchester and thanks to support from the public, it's brilliant that each child gets to take home 5 books to keep. Through such acts of kindness, you are helping to overcome barriers that children in low-income families face.

But did you know that donating to Wood Street Mission’s 'Books Forever Appeal’ couldn’t be easier? You can drop off a book in person or have it delivered direct to the Wood Street Mission, 26 Wood Street, Manchester, M3 3EF, The UK.

Wood Street Mission is located next to the John Rylands Library on Deansgate. You can also visit woodstreetmission.org.uk for more information or to make a secure online donation.

[wearepeace]

“Walking and talking are two very great pleasures, but it is a mistake to combine them. Our own noise blots out the sounds and silences of the outdoor world." ― C.S. Lewis

[007chana]

https://totallyhussein-blog.tumblr.com/post/708807790665334784/churches-unite-for-earthquake-relief-in-syria

[totallyhussein-blog]

Armenia to recognize 3rd August as Day of Commemoration of Yazidi Genocide

The Armenian Parliament voted this week to designate August 3rd as the official commemoration day for the victims of Yazidi Genocide. The bill submitted by ethnic Yazidi MP Rustam Bakoyan passed the first reading with 88 votes in favor. Armenia will thus become the first country after Iraq to enshrine this into law.

“Genocide is a crime against humanity, and it is the biggest crime. This is a direct result and a direct consequence of incorrect and improper condemnation of the Armenian Genocide in 1915. The destinies of Armenians and Yazidis are quite similar, and our destinies have always crossed paths. We have often found ourselves in the same situations in different stages of history,” Bakoyan said as he presented the bill.

“The Republic of Armenia, adhering to the policy and priority it adopted in the process of prevention and condemnation of genocides, in 2014 condemned the genocide of Yazidis in Iraq from the high podium of the United Nations. In 2015, the Yazidi genocide in Iraq was condemned by the Armenian National Assembly factions, and in 2018 by the National Assembly,” the MP said.

“The prevention of genocide and crimes against humanity is one of the priorities of Armenia’s foreign policy,” Deputy Foreign Minister Paruyr Hovhannisyan said, adding that Armenia actively supports the measures aimed at the prevention and condemnation of the mentioned crimes, the processes of further development of tools and mechanisms for the prevention of genocides and other mass crimes, both on bilateral and multilateral cooperation platforms.

[totallyhussein-blog]

Explore the life and legacy of Gertrude Bell

Gertrude Bell was an archaeologist, travel writer, explorer, and political administrator responsible for creating the borders of the countries of the Near East after World War I and for laying the foundations of the modern state of Iraq. Gertrude Bell made important contributions to archaeology and a greater understanding of the cultures of Mesopotamia and ancient Persia through her books, including what is still considered the best translation of the Persian poet Hafiz’s work.

Queen of the Desert is the compelling story of Gertrude Bell, archaeologist, linguist, and author whose passion for the Arab peoples turned her into an architect of the independent kingdom of Iraq, a role driven by an unyielding spirit. Drawing heavily on Gertrude's personal diaries and letters, journalist Georgina Howell paints an intimate portrait of a Victorian woman who gave up her world of privilege and plenty to navigate the complex geopolitics of the Middle East.

Letters from Baghdad tells the extraordinary and dramatic story of Gertrude Bell, the most powerful woman in the British Empire in her day. An explorer and political powerhouse, Bell shaped the destiny of Iraq after World War I in ways that still reverberate today. More influential than her friend and colleague T.E. Lawrence, Bell was an outspoken critic of the policies of the British colonial office.

The Baghdad Archaeological Museum was established with the help of the British author Gertrude Bell in 1926. In the 1920s the Museum was under the Ministry of Public Works while under the Ministry of Education in the 1930s. The Iraqi National Museum is now the only institution dedicated to protecting the comprehensive and collective archaeological heritage of Iraq from loss or destruction, in order that it may be enjoyed and studied by the present and future generations.

[totallyhussein-blog]

Meet Richard and Mildred Loving. Celebrate love and universal justice

When Richard and Mildred Loving awoke in the middle of the night, a few weeks after their June 1958 wedding, it wasn’t normal newlywed ardor. As NPR reported, there were policemen with flashlights in their bedroom. They’d come to arrest the couple.

“They asked Richard who was that woman he was sleeping with? I say, I’m his wife, and the sheriff said, not here you’re not. And they said, come on, let’s go”. Mildred Loving recalled that night in the HBO documentary The Loving Story.

The Loving’s had committed what the U.S State of Virginia called unlawful cohabitation. Their marriage was deemed illegal because Mildred was Black and Native American; and Richard was white. Their case went all the way to the Supreme Court. And on June 12th, 1967, the couple won.

Now, each year on this date, “Loving Day” celebrates the historic ruling in Loving v. Virginia, which declared unconstitutional a Virginia law prohibiting mixed-race marriage — and legalized interracial marriage in every state.

“Under our Constitution, the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides within the individual and cannot be infringed on by the State.”

Loving Day is the anniversary of this historic court decision for interracial marriage. Celebrated every year on June 12th, Loving Day is a global day of visibility, education, and community.

People around the world observe LovingDay.org in meaningful ways. Everyone is welcome and it can be especially significant for interracial couples, multiracial families, people of mixed race heritage and those with similar lived experiences.

[totallyhussein-blog]

Meet the Arab Americans, whose heritage is a roadmap to education

Have you ever visited the Arab American National Museum or checked out their book awards, film festivals and concerts? The museum “provides people with a more authentic and real representation of what it means to be Arab American.”

“We communicate the American narrative in the voices of Arab Americans. They express their experiences in their own words,” says Diana Abouali, director of the Arab American National Museum, located in Dearborn, Michigan.

Arab immigrant stories aren’t well-known among mainstream America. And what little Americans do know about Arabs is often informed by negative stereotypes.

Arab Americans are a diverse community that come from 22 Arab countries stretching from northern Africa to western Asia. But once they settle in the U.S., the museum director says, they become as American as they are Arab.

Ralph Nader is known for his lifetime of activism and fearless critique. Yet in this fresh and inspiring book The Seventeen Traditions: Lessons from an American Childhood, Nader takes a look backward - at a serene and enriching childhood spent in bucolic Winsted, Connecticut.

In his most personal writing to date, Nader fondly describes his father’s restaurant and how it taught him about work, community, how to share in the spirit of others, along with the value of his mother’s Lebanese cooking and how it defined his relationship with his heritage.

[totallyhussein-blog]

Defeating wars legacy is the right to independence and job security for disabled people in Iraq

Iraq is failing to implement its national laws ensuring employment rights for people with disabilities, leaving job quotas for Iraqis with disabilities unfilled and hundreds of thousands unemployed, Human Rights Watch have said.

In 2019, the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which monitors the international treaty, estimated that Iraq had one of the largest populations of people with disabilities in the world, at around 3 million people, a result of decades of armed conflict. The 2019 protests also left some 25,000 people wounded, of whom some 5,000 live with permanent disabilities.

“Legal promises to employ people with disabilities in Iraq are not translating into real job opportunities,” said Sarah Sanbar, Iraq researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The gap between law and practice leaves hundreds of thousands of Iraqis with disabilities struggling to earn a living.”

“Despite having one of the largest populations of people with disabilities in the world, Iraqi authorities are failing to meet their needs,” Sanbar said. “The government should make sure their commitment to providing job opportunities for Iraqis with disabilities isn’t an empty promise.”

The Chaldean Community Foundation is rooted in Chaldean cultural heritage, serving new Iraqi-Chaldeans to the USA. Since their conception, the CCF has dedicated its efforts to advancing their work in the US Chaldean community. Their Breaking Barriers schemes for disabled people, is deserving of greater media attention and wider public support.

[totallyhussein-blog]

Manchester's Little Free Libraries are a world of pure imagination

I absolutely adore the Little Free Libraries which are located here in Manchester and last weekend, it was wonderful to contribute the entire 'Chronicles of Narnia' along with the classic story 'Five Children and It'.

These creative small boxes are scattered across the city and contain a world of pure imagination. All you do is donate a book, take a book and help by spreading the word. They're magic!

[totallyhussein-blog]

Not silent! Yazidi's need justice to survive, heal and thrive

Almost ten years ago, ISIS seized large swaths of Iraq and Syria and launched a genocidal campaign against the Yazidis in northern Iraq.

In August 2014, shortly after ISIS declared a caliphate, they attacked Sinjar, the northern Iraqi Yazidi homeland. More than 400,000 Yazidis fled their homes and tens of thousands took refuge on Mount Sinjar where they remained stranded and hungry for weeks.

Over 3,000 Yazidis, mostly men and elderly women, were killed, and around 6,000 women and children were captured by ISIS. The captive women and children were targeted for sexual slavery and trafficking, while the boys were trained to fight for ISIS.

The 2015 documentary Escaping ISIS, recently released on FRONTLINE’s YouTube channel, presented the gripping, first-hand accounts of Yazidi women who escaped ISIS with the help of an underground network.

Now, almost a decade later, while ISIS’s so-called caliphate has collapsed, the Yazidi community is still dealing with the aftermath of the terror group’s brutal rule. FRONTLINE examines the challenges many Yazidis still face as they seek justice, reunite with family members and attempt to rebuild their community.

[totallyhussein-blog]

A Jewish family story speaks about a lesser-known Iraq

The Mother of Kamal opens in Highgate, London, after a sell-out run last year! The Mother of Kamal is being performed at Upstairs at the Gatehouse in Highgate from 19 – 28 January. Are you going to see it?

It's 1948 in the slums of Baghdad. A working-class Jewish mother finds her two sons arrested by the Secret Police. Inexplicably, one is imprisoned while the other is set free. Um-Kamal is reluctantly drawn into the orbit of the Communist Party, risking all to save her teenage sons and hold her rapidly fragmenting family together.

The play was not written to suggest easy solutions to complex issues. But it does tell, almost allegorically, the story of an Iraq that many people will not have known existed. Prior to 1935, the different ethnicities and religions that made up Baghdad had coexisted without significant conflict, though by the 1940s things had begun to shift.

As Um-Kamal and her sons struggle to navigate rising oppression, it is the diverse community around them which comes together to oppose the threats of fascist mobs and arbitrary bureaucratic injustices. And when government thugs looking for trouble come, it is their Muslim friends who shield Um-Kamal and her family.

[totallyhussein-blog]

Educate and take action against genocide

During a special session held on 17 April 2024, the National Assembly of Armenia unanimously voted on a draft resolution to designate August 3rd every year as a day to commemorate and honour the victims of the Yazidi genocide.

This atrocity was committed by the terrorist organisation known as Islamic State (ISIS) in Sinjar in 2014, resulting in widespread suffering and loss of life.

The bill was introduced by Rustam Bakoyan, a representative from the Civil Contract Party and the Deputy Chair of the Standing Committee on Protection of Human Rights and Public Affairs. It garnered approval with a majority of 88 votes during the initial reading.

As the Kurdistan Regional Government explained, furthermore, Paruyr Hovhannisyan, Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister, stated that preventing genocide and crimes against humanity is one of the priorities of Armenia’s foreign policy.

In 2018, Armenia’s parliament unanimously passed a resolution recognising the 2014 mass killings of Yazidis in Iraq by ISIS as genocide. The resolution called on the international community to track down and prosecute those directly responsible for the killings.

The Yazidis are the largest religious and ethnic minority in Armenia and are recognised as a special ethnic component. According to statistics, the population of Yazidis in Armenia ranges from 35,000 to 50,000.

[totallyhussein-blog]

With the stroke of a brush. Meet Iraqi artist Fairoozan Abdullah

Growing up in Baghdad, Iraq, Fairoozan Abdullah remembers painting as far back as the age of five. The young artist went on to earn a bachelor's degree from the College of Fine Arts at the University of Baghdad and teach art in the Iraqi capital for many years.

At 30, Fairoozan and her family were forced to leave Iraq, however she continued to paint as a refugee in Georgia, Romania, and Yemen. In 2010, a United Nations refugee program allowed her to go to the US. It was after planting roots in South Carolina that Fairoozan began her paper quilling journey.

The dynamic art form of paper quilling involves taking strips of paper and rolling them into different shapes to create detailed designs. The result looks just like a regular painting, with each strip representing a brushstroke.

[totallyhussein-blog]

Exploring the global landscape and the different ways to be American

In 2003, when Kathy Saade Kenny, the granddaughter of Palestinian immigrants, stumbled upon a mysterious cache of letters stored in an old See’s candy box tucked away in the back of a closet in her mother’s Los Angeles home, she was intrigued.

As Susan Bell explains, inside the box were more than 130 letters written by her grandmother, Katrina Sa’ade. A successful businesswoman, Sa’ade had migrated to California from Palestine, via Mexico.

Suspecting the letters could provide a treasure trove of information about her family history, Kenny was excited to read them. However, as a third-generation immigrant, she didn’t possess the necessary key to unlock their secrets: The letters were written in Arabic.

Sarah Gualtieri describes this scene in her book Arab Routes: Pathways to Syrian California (Stanford University Press, 2019), which explores how an Arab American community came into being in Southern California. In doing so, Gualtieri, associate professor of American studies and ethnicity, history and Middle East studies at USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, re-inscribes Arabs into California history.

“Traditionally, California history hasn’t done a very good job of recognizing the deep roots of the Arab community here in the state,” Gualtieri says. “My book also pushes against this idea that circulates very widely in the media that Arabs are new immigrants, and that they are always somehow more Middle Eastern than they are American.”

Enlisting the help of a Palestinian historian and translator, Kenny embarked on a journey to unlock the secrets of her grandmother’s past. The translated letters revealed a complicated divorce case between her grandmother and her then-husband — a case that took her grandmother back and forth to Palestine.

“Kathy comes to understand her grandmother’s journey as a migrant, as a woman who came from Palestine to California through this unfolding mystery that’s revealed through her letters,” Gualtieri says. “Not only does Kathy discover an untold family drama, she starts to understand this whole dimension of her life in a new way. This helps her connect to her sense of Arabness and refine her identity as an Arab American.”

Gualtieri says the Arab American community often works to reconstruct their connection to their Middle Eastern roots. Many of those she interviewed during her research tended to mute their identity as Arab Americans — often, she says, because they came of age in the 1950s and ’60s, when, just as now, there was considerable hostility toward Arab countries.

The Latin American connection

The realization that people’s origins are frequently much more complex than they may appear on the surface is a key theme that runs through Gualtieri’s research. We tend to think of immigration as a unilinear journey, she argues, and don’t pay enough attention to the important role that’s played in shaping immigrants’ identities by the places where they live and spend time along the way.

Since the late 19th century, Syrian and Lebanese migration, in particular, to Southern California has been intimately connected to and through Latin America, and especially Mexico.

“This Latin American dimension of the Arab history in Southern California is not well known, and I wanted to tell that story,” Gualtieri said. “My book looks at what I call ‘other pathways’ to the U.S., and specifically to California, in particular at this southern route that so many Arabic-speaking migrants took to come to L.A.”

Gualtieri’s research goes beyond the Ellis Island stereotypes to uncover the stories of this Syrian American community, one both Arabized and Latinized, revealing important cross-border and multiethnic solidarities in Syrian California.

Sleepy Lagoon murder

Among them, she reveals the Syrian interests in the defense of the Mexican American teens charged in the 1942 Sleepy Lagoon murder.

Twenty-two alleged members of L.A.’s 38th Street Gang were accused of the murder of another Mexican American youth, José Díaz, who had been found unconscious and dying near a Commerce, California, reservoir.

Nicknamed “Sleepy Lagoon,” the reservoir was a popular swimming spot for Mexican Americans denied entrance to segregated pools. Seventeen defendants eventually went to court as the largest mass trial in California history took place in an atmosphere of intense prejudice and racial discrimination.

This scene on the cover of Sarah Gualtieri’s latest book showing acrobats performing at Muscle Beach near Santa Monica, California, is set against the backdrop of a Syrian American cafe.

Gualtieri tells the story of what became an infamous miscarriage of justice through the lens of one of the lead defense lawyers in the case, a Syrian American named George Shibley.

“When we understand this celebrated but difficult trial in California history through the eyes of a Syrian American lawyer, we can see the kinds of solidarities that emerged between Arab Americans and Mexican Americans in Los Angeles at that time,” Gualtieri says. “Rather than telling this story through the lens of conflict, we can shift to understanding it as a fascinating story about solidarity and the potential for interethnic coalition building.”

Different ways to be American

At a period in history when we are facing increased Islamophobia, and increased hostility to immigrants, Gualtieri says she would like people to take away the idea that there are different ways to be American.

“Something that’s always troubled me as a scholar in this field is the way in which Arabs are often seen as being unAmerican. Too often we think of Arabic-speaking migrants and their children as being somehow more connected to the region of origin than they are to the region of settlement,” Gualtieri says.

“This book offers a rich history of how integrated Arabs are into the Southern California fabric.”

The striking cover of Gualtieri’s book is a perfect illustration of this. It shows acrobats performing at the celebrated Muscle Beach in Santa Monica, California, in the 1940s. It’s an iconic Southern California scene and the backdrop is Khoury’s — a Syrian American café.

“I like that idea of thinking about the presence of an Arab cafe owner in such an iconic story of California leisure,” Gualtieri says. “I want readers to obviously be struck by the tumblers, but also to look beyond them and to see another layer — this Syrian American café where people probably went to buy a soda while they watched the acrobatics.”

[totallyhussein-blog]

5, 4, 3, 2, 1...Thunderbirds Are Go!

“I can't believe it's been 4 years, since I took part on Salford's Run Media City with my good friend Tracy.  It was also fabulous, to adorn our Thunderbirds costumes and promote the international rescue efforts of the AMAR International Charitable Foundation.

We're incredibly proud of what AMAR has achieved in Iraq and this includes the school for orphans, which the AMAR Foundation built in Basra back in 2016. Since opening its doors, the school has grown to become a sanctuary for kids who have lost parents to conflict or illness.

The school boasts modern facilities and provides a broad curriculum, so children get the best start in life. The teaching staff are also equipped to assist children's emotional development and this allows the young people to grow in a nurturing and supportive environment.

This picture was taken on our second Run Media City adventure for the AMAR Foundation and I've also done the Manchester 10K for AMAR's efforts in Iraq. If you're looking for a challenge and believe in welfare, healthcare and education, then why not run for AMAR? We'd love for you to join us!”

(pictured is Hussein Al-alak and Tracy Hollowood on the Run Media City 5K in Salford for the AMAR International Charitable Foundation. You can contribute to AMAR’s ongoing work here)

[totallyhussein-blog]

Lawrence of Arabia. The man, the myth and the facts

Few British soldiers have a greater legend attached to them than Colonel TE Lawrence - better known as Lawrence of Arabia. His military and diplomatic efforts have drawn some distinction.

But it is Lawrence’s immense cultural impact in the century since his First World War exploits that has attracted the most attention.

Thomas Edward Lawrence was born in Tremadog, Wales on 16th August 1888. From a young age he exhibited an active interest in architecture, monuments and antiquities.

Between 1907 and 1910, Lawrence studied History at Jesus College, Oxford. During this time, he toured France by bicycle, collecting photographs, drawings and measurements of medieval castles.

This would form the basis of his dissertation. In 1909, he completed a remarkable solo 1,000-mile trek through Ottoman Syria visiting Crusader castles.

Following his studies, Lawrence became an archaeologist. He worked in Egypt, Palestine and Syria, at that time all part of the Ottoman Empire.

This first-hand knowledge and experience earned him a posting to Cairo after he enlisted in the British Army in October 1914. He served in the intelligence staff of the British Middle East Command in the First World War campaign against the Turks.

Seven Pillars of Wisdom is a biographical account of T.E. Lawrence's experiences during the Arab Revolt of 1916–18, when he was based in Wadi Rum (now a part of Jordan) as a member of the British Forces.

With the support of Emir Faisal and his tribesmen, he helped organize and carry out attacks on the Ottoman forces from Aqaba in the south to Damascus in the north. You can also listen to Seven Pillars of Wisdom on Audible.