The Holocaust on the Arabic news

When Poland passed its new law restricting speech about the Holocaust, the BBC Arabic had a whole discussion dedicated to it.

They didn't say anything that you probably haven't already heard on the American news, and actually, I couldn't really follow it. But before they started talking, they did show some footage and photos taken at concentration camps, I think mostly at Auschwitz:

Do Arab women vote?

England has been celebrating the 100-year anniversary of when some British women got the right to vote.

So the BBC Arabic took the issue to Arab women. I think most Arab women have the right to vote, but not all exercise that right. Why not?

This lady says: I don't think I've voted for three years; no one deserves my vote.


This next lady was speaking from Iraq:

She says: yes, I voted, but then the results came back saying that 99% of people had voted for the president (did I hear that wrong??) so where was my vote? But I still vote. I have a right to give my opinion as a women and as a citizen, and I'll never let go of that right.

This girl said: I hope when people vote, that they vote for what's good for future generations.

Dying children in Yemen

The BBC Arabic visited a hospital in Yemen full of dying children.

The hospital has very little equipment, as there's been a lot of bombing in Yemen over the last few years. This doctor, for example, is explaining that conditions are much worse than just a year ago - and they weren't good a year ago to start with.

Here is one of the dying children:

He is three years old, and I think he was starving to death. The hospital doesn't have anything that can help. His own family tries to take care of hm.

And this is all happening at the last functioning hospital in this particular city. It's called Hudaida, and it's on Yemen's coast. The streets of this city are filled with displaced people.

The streaming got blurry, unfortunately, but in the back of this scene you can just see a kid about 10 years old bouncing a baby on his knee:

This city is important for Yemen, because it is the main port where ships come in, bringing food and medicine. But there is nothing coming in now, because Saudi Arabia has laid siege to it. Saudi Arabia is also the country - with the help of weapons from the United States and the UK - bombing Yemen.

Here is the stock-still port:

And a worker from the World Food Programme explaining about the siege, and how so many are hungry:

In the meantime, cholera has also broken out. This boy, Yahya, is 13, and is struck down with cholera, I think they said along with 18 of his family members.

They were still at the hospital when the three-year-old child died. Here, his father is carrying the body away. They said they wanted the cameras there to show the world what was happening. 

Letter from our own correspondent - Chicago

While driving through Chicago on a desperate hunt for Arabic meat and Arabic food, we encountered many emblems of human rights struggles.

First, we drove past the Centro Romero. This is an organization that helps immigrants on Chicago's northeast side. It is named for the Catholic clergyman in El Salvador who spoke out about the rising civil war in his country during the 1970s. One day, while he was giving the mass, he was killed. We watched a movie about him in Spanish class. 

Just a little while later, we drove past a park named for Dr. Janusz Korczak. 

Dr. Janusz was a Polish doctor who set up an orphanage for Jewish children. When they were all forced to go into the Warsaw ghetto, he stayed with the children and kept the orphanage running. He had them writing newsletters and putting on plays. One day, all the children were deported to the death camps. A lot of people apparently offered to get Dr. Janusz into hiding, but he stayed with the children all the way. Here is his Wikipedia page.

The last place we saw was Jane Addams' Hull House. We had to hike to see it. On the way there, we ran into Chicago's finest:

Hull House is very inspiring. It was a place that supported women and immigrants starting in the late 1800s:

Unfortunately, it was closed, but I took pictures through the windows:

I wish they'd put more information about Jane Addams and her house outside the museum. But at least, I can say I visited and stood before the original Hull House.

Siege of Homs

(February 10-13, 2014)

The first time I remember seeing the UN in the news was during the war in Kosovo. Now that the UN is involved with evacuating people in Syria, it reminds me of that time. It is nice that when two or many groups are fighting, everyone (except for those who shoot at them) is willing to allow humanitarian workers to separate the innocent from the fighters.

As the evacuation of the Syrian city Homs extended over several days (and is still on-going), the BBC Arabic spent a lot of time covering it. They talked about it every hour, and with different people.

This man has just left the siege, and is showing off his rations to the camera-man, who is simply another man leaving the siege and catching the moment with his own camera. Says the bearded man: they gave us a bottle of olive oil! Am I supposed to drink it? Says the camera-man: no, you're going to make fried eggplants with it.

Another camera-man caught up with this lady and her daughter. The lady was distraught and crying, because her son Wisaam had disappeared. Where did you see him last? asks the camera-man. The mom is too disoriented to know, she just shakes her shoulders helplessly. Pretty soon, her daughter starts crying, too. Wisaam!!! screams the mom. Wisaam!!! cries the girl in echo. Wisaam! shouts the camera-man. Wisaam! screams the mom in despair again. Wisaam! cried the girl, her voice hoarse. I hope they found the boy.

Here are Homs residents being taken away by bus.

Here is a girl sitting and waiting with her turquoise book-bag.

But even though some people are being evacuated, I think they said that there's hundreds of thousands of people inside the besieged area.

The UN and Red Crescent people organizing the evacuation said the circumstances were dire in the Homs Old City, that there were people who had not eaten meat for two years. The siege has last a year and a half.

This man had just been evacuated, and spoke live to the BBC Arabic from Homs via Skype.

He said that upon evacuation, they were given some fruit and coke. The sound was too distorted for me to understand much. But I think he said he was at one point stuck or captured or something. And then the UN people monitoring the situation caught wind of what was happening, and helped him get unstuck and uncaptured. The man said, "yes, walahi, the UN did ..."

Here are Red Crescent people taking people out on stretchers:

Here are the UN and Red Crescent people making sure everyone is getting something to eat and to drink:

The Red Crescent people wear the red, and the UN people the blue.

But it was not a perfect operations. First, I think the humanitarian workers were shot at by unknown snipers at one point, so they had to pause.

Second, the Syrian government put restrictions on who got to go free, at the last minute. All women, young children, and old people were free, but boys older than 15 years, and all men younger than 65 were not. I think that caught everyone by surprise.

The men who did not meet the conditions were taken to a school, where the Syrian government stood guard over them. The UN did not like that, so it sent its own people to the school to keep an eye on things and make sure no one was mistreated. I think they said that the UN managed to get 100 of those men released, but there's lots more. In fact, I think I heard them say that 300,000 people were stuck in that school, but I probably heard that part wrong.

Here's a World Food Programme worker surrounded by the evacuees, conferencing with his colleague driving the car:

Blurry line of UN cars coming through:

A Red Crescent ambulance:

A UN worker talking with the BBC:

A UN car coming at full speed, as you can see by the streak of dust behind it. The blue UN flag is flying from the car. Those cars would come at full speed, stopping just before they rammed into the throng of people at the other end of the empty road. I wondered why. Maybe they are crossing a no-man's land where the aid workers and evacuees are being shot at, and they have to move fast.

And that is the sad story of the Homs evacuation, as told by the BBC Arabic.

The last I heard, the UN halted the evacuation, because they did not like all those men between ages 15 and 65 being sent to the school and kept there.

Sochi's past

(February 6, 2014)

The BBC Arabic wasn't as bad as some news sites - they didn't go on and on about the Fifth Ring That Wasn't at Russia's Opening Ceremony. They only showed footage of the perfectly synchronized fireworks.

The day before, however, the BBC Arabic under presenter Malak Jaafar did a segment about the ethnic cleansing of the Circassians. The Circassians used to live in Sochi until they were kicked out, and now they are not allowed to return home. More than 90% of them now live outside of Russia.

Here they are campaigning for their rights:

So Malak put a stern question to an Arabic-speaking Russian, or an Arab guy living in Moscow, and he said:

First of all, you are talking about 19th century history. Sorry about that. If that's the case, then we can talk about what the British and French did as occupiers and colonizers as well.

Arab-speaking man in Moscow

Malak: But unlike the French and British, you never pulled back from Sochi; you've never allowed the Circassians to return to their homeland.

Russian guy: Sure, that's what all the distorted western journalists say. We know about the voices out there, but the Circassians who are still living in Russia are happy! So there.

Malak: of course, that's obvious, because most of the Circassians have been kicked out of their homes, so the ones remaining are sure to publicly agree with the current government.

Russian guy: looks taken aback.

Then, Malak spoke with a Circassian man currently living in Frankfort, Germany. He was speaking via Skype. That man said: Russia has banned all the Circassians from even traveling to Sochi. We can't even visit. We want Russia to grant us visas.

In Arabic, the "Circassians" is pronounced as al-Sherkis.

What happens when girls ride donkeys?

(February 7, 2014)

Every so often, the BBC Arabic does a segment about female circumcision. It is called al-khitaan in Arabic. Today, this was induced by a UNCEF report that came out.

BBC Arabic presenter Malak Jaafar was directing.

 Malak and UNICEF

First, they showed which Arabic countries had landed on the report. Iraq was on the list with the lowest rate of female cutting (8%). Well, I think most Arab countries have a rate close to zero, but this report just ranked countries with a problem.

Next came Yemen, with 23%. Yemen passed a law against al-khitaan in 2001:

And you thought you couldn't read Arabic!

Next came Sudan:

Egypt, always causing trouble, where 91% of women are cut, although a law was passed against it in 2008. Malak discussed that later with an Egyptian doctor ...

 And Somalia, with a 98% rate.

Egypt was the focus for the rest of the segment. Malak showed some opinions of random people on the Egyptian street, mostly men, and all of whom said the 2008 law against FGM needs better enforcement.

And then, Malak did an interview with a twinkly-eyed Egyptian doctor, who was a riot:

 Basically the bluntest conversation I've heard on the BBC Arabic, so blunt I blush to transcribe it all.

Malak asked something like: why is female circumcision so prevalent in African nations?

Egyptian doctor: it's not because they're Black! It's because of the old ways of patriarchy.

Malak: In Islam, men can marry four wives, but women can marry only one man. Isn't al-khitaan just another way that Islam controls women?

Egyptian doctor: No! It is not about Islam. In Judaism, female circumcision is written into the Torah [I don't know if that's true]. There are Christian Copts here in Egypt, and they practice al-khitaan. They're Christian, not Muslim!

Malak: your activism against al-khitaan is such a liberal idea. Don't you get push-back when you go to rural villages and try to convince them not to cut their daughters?

Egyptian doctor: actually, we can talk to them about it. They tell us, "if we don't cut our girls, it will open up a can of worms: because, we don't want our girls to ride donkeys and feel any sort of anything." So we tell them, "when boys ride donkeys, don't they feel something? and therefore, why don't we cut them?"

Continues: Then the villagers we speak with say, "oh!"

Malak: well, if there's a law in Egypt against al-khitaan, why is it that 91% of the female population is cut (and this figure has been steadily increasing.)

Egyptian doctor: the law is just symbolic, something the government did to shut up the international community. It's been this way ever since Sadat and Mubarak. I've been blocked many times from speaking about the bad effects of female cutting on TV. My books have been banned. I was kicked out of the Health Ministry [I think that's what she said] because I spoke out about it!