Saturday, April 17, 2010

MOVIES,MUSIC & YUMMY ICE CREAM AS DHAISY CAME TO MAINE

                   2010 Maine African Film Festival
The past week was an amazing one for me. I am on the board  and organizing committee of the Maine African film  festival and we just had our second  Annual festival. Beautiful movies were screened and the attendance was fair and I had fun at the closing party was  fill with, friends, fun and  good music all night. 
             Dinner with Dhaisy
    Just when that fun  was ending I had to transition into a new kind of fun, I was joining some community and religious leaders, and students  to have  dinner with Dhaisy Khan from New York. She was in  Portland Maine to give a lecture at the '2010 Douglas Schair Lecture on Genocide and Human Rights' and the theme of her presentation was 'MUSLIM WOMEN and the AMERICAN  EXPRESSION of ISLAM.
  Dhaisy is the Executive Director and Co-founder of the American society for Muslim Advancement(ASMA), she is also the founder of The Women Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equity(WISE) and also Muslim leaders of Tomorrow. the dinner was at the Portland Harbor hotel.and the food was excellent but her personality was the icing on top of the perfect night.  There was many community members there to make her feel at home.
              
  CIVIL RIGHT AND DIVERSITY DAY  - AUGUSTA MAINE
   As if that was not enough, I had an appointment with a high school in Augusta, the capital city of Maine. Monday was the Civil right and diversity day organize by the Civil Right Team  at CORNY High School in Augusta Maine, and I was to do a  two presentations on being a Muslim in America (Islam 101)and one on being an immigrant...  I was greeted by a group of smiling students and was ushered into the 'food' room where there is anything from bagel to munchkins and of course coffee, tea and some juice to go with. I was treated like a local ' champion' with one student waiting to attend all my needs. it felt good so much that i text one of my friends in Portland and said I was moving to Augusta.
            My presentation went well I was impressed by the students' engagement through all three sessions.  Most of the  questions  were  interesting, some were silly but genuine,a lot were   honest  questions from young high school students who  wanted to learn about my beliefs and  where I was coming from. I  had lunch and some yummy Ice cream and was praying that I don't fall asleep driving back to Portland.
                               DHAISY' S LECTURE WAS FANTASTIC
  I walk into the Hannaford hall at the University of Southern Maine the room was full like all the past annual Douglas M. Schair Memorial Lecture on Genocide and Human Rights, people were eager to hear what she has to say. She delivered a powerful lecture , answered many question to the satisfaction of the audience. Once again Maine have demonstrated that it is possible for us to co-exist and lean from each other. Thanks to the Hudson Foundation and the Scahair family for making this lecture  possible, for more info on some of the wonderful things they do in our great State please visit them at    
   www.http://hudsonfoundationmaine.org

  Quote of the day:
'There is only one country in the world in which Muslims are FREE and it is the  USA' .....Dhaisy Khan

 
 

Thursday, April 1, 2010

IF I HAD COFFEE WITH PRESIDENT OBAMA IN PORTLAND MAINE.......

 Dear President Obama,
  Welcome to Portland Maine, by the time you read this, your plane is already left the shores of this beautiful Northern New England City, but I will go ahead and  read  from what was on the list of our coffee social (meeting) that never happened,  first and foremost I will share with you what is going on in Portland or Maine for that matter .  The Catholic Dioces in Portland made a big head line last week when they informed a local non profit (Preable street)  that not only to refund the  money they(Catholic Church) have giving them to help the homeless, but they will not fund the organization's projects  any more, Because the non profit supported gay marriage  movement during the last general elections and that makes me wonder where lies the compassion that religious organizations preach if they will chose politics over humanity . Then on the political front I was at a rally a few days before congress passed the 'Obamacare' bill that you are here to promote and every one at the rally ws angry and protesting against an insurance company that was increasing its premium.
   Mr president, YOU will have been impressed by the young people in my youth group, I will send you their pictures, last Thursday we volunteered at an event in Freeport to raise money for the YMCA and on Friday we also volunteered here in Portland at another Fundraiser to support a Pro-Bono legal NGO 'Immigrant Legal advocacy Project' (ILAP)that helps local immigrants with their immigration paper works for free or small fee and on Sat we went to the soup kitchen in the morning and then did another project in the afternoon, you see how busy I keep the youth around here? Oh there is another movement here in Portland that was planning to meet you with placards, they want comprehensive Immigration reforms and another want to make sure that the local legal residents can vote during local elections(What do you think about that) I will not tell any one what your opinion is, since it would have been between the two of us.
      Mr President yesterday I was hoping we were going to meet so I wrote it on my face book and ask my Face Book friends to give me questions that I can pass it on to you , guess what ? about 21 people responded, some of them really thought I was going to have coffee with you and   pass on some of the questions they wanted me to ask you. Two of them are from my motherland Ghana, and the rest are my friends here in Portland, I am going to cut and past this face book questions so that you can read it over coffee in the white house during the Easter festivities..  Below are some of the questions my friends wanted me to ask you, Mr President :
 
Ivy Nana Amoah Boyd
Ivy Nana Amoah Boyd
Hmmmmmmmm? good one.
Yesterday at 6:51am ·
Lisa Savage
Lisa Savage
Mr. Obama, why do you keep bombing civilians?
Yesterday at 6:54am ·
Panji Anoff
Panji Anoff
are u a wolf in sheeps clothing??
Yesterday at 6:57am ·
Sarah Demarest
Sarah Demarest
I'd tell him that I'm sorry we thought a single man could change the entire fate of our nation and ask him what we can do to help. (:
Yesterday at 7:03am ·
Deborah Lynch Riddell
Deborah Lynch Riddell
I agree with Sarah
Yesterday at 8:08am ·
Pauline Tuyisenge
Pauline Tuyisenge
ask him to come up with a good program that will show every child in USA the importance of having a college degree
Yesterday at 8:48am ·
Lisa Veleff Day
Lisa Veleff Day
I think you need to ask him if I can join you! :)
Yesterday at 10:03am ·
Christina Bechstein
Christina Bechstein
Follow your heart Pious, you will (or would, I hope will!) know exactly what to ask.
Yesterday at 10:50am ·
Dawn Miller
Dawn Miller
Why have you been dishonest? Why have you re-instated the Patriot Act, how come you have not brought our troops home, why are you still recieving funding from corporations and putting their agenda in place, rather than what you said you would do?
Yesterday at 11:22am ·
Simone Van Der Loo
Simone Van Der Loo
how do you like your coffee...?
Yesterday at 11:50am ·
Anne Dalton
Anne Dalton
I ditto Deb and Sarah.....
Yesterday at 12:03pm ·
Blak Kofe
Blak Kofe
does he remember me from our brief encounter in Ghana???will he support my NGO for maternal health?the margaret djanie memorial foundation.
Yesterday at 12:24pm ·
Badr Sharif
Badr Sharif
Keep pressuring Israel. And don't listen to AIPAC.
Yesterday at 12:43pm ·
Sara Rahman
Sara Rahman
if i were to meet him, amidst all the political conversations, i'd ask him if he likes lobster, and if so...if he'd like me to score him some at boat prices.
i guess what i am saying is i would keep it real...be real.
Yesterday at 1:36pm ·
Jonathan Bergman
Jonathan Bergman
...does he watch Saturday Night Live?
Yesterday at 4:55pm ·
Sara Brobst
Sara Brobst
I don't know what I would ask, but I would tell him "thank you" for potentially creating such a traffic mess in Parkside that I get to leave work at 1pm:)
Yesterday at 6:35pm ·
Nickie Avery
Nickie Avery
I would ask him how, in the real world, our government (while it might be one of the better government systems in the world) might actually focus on fixing issues vs. getting re-elected or "beating other side". Represent, Pious!
Yesterday at 9:53pm ·