10.12.2001

So I'm back to overcommitting myself again.. last week I spoke at Barnard on Body Aesthetics, it was entitled "Body Outlaws," which also featured Nomi Lamm, and Ayana Byrd & Lori Tharps. Very sharp women. I'm also part of the 20 women who are involved in the upcoming Young Womens Leadership Summit that will be happening at Barnard. We recently had a dinner and brainstorming session. Very interesting wide variation of women collected, from politicos, to yuppie types who are presidents of their own companies, to artistic activistic community types.. proves to be incredible (hopefully!)

Just came back from the North America Consultation for Women of Philippine Ancestry. An intensive teach in on issues affecting Filipina women. Much info on sex trafficking, domestic workers, prostitution. Upsetting to realize that Arroyo has reopened the US bases in the Phils., in preparation for the "war on terrorism" (sure, if it makes them feel better at killing more innocents, I saw a young Afghani child whose body was practically blown up, are they satisfied yet?!) Sex workers in the Phils. are prepping for business. Great. When are we going to learn to keep our fingers in our own pies? Then we're surprised when there are uprisings? Why we train Bin Laden in terrorism with the CIA, in order to battle the Soviets? We wonder why Muslims are mad for imposing our standards on them? The continuous colonization that's disguised as our do-gooding? We wonder why CNN won't tell us of the US military guys who entered a Muslim holy mosque, drunk and and disrespectful of the space, and the subsequent anger of Muslims?

I started crying when I heard we bombed Afghanistan. Collateral damage? Even when we kill our own. Are we satisfied yet?



The Coalition for the Human Rights of Immigrants (CHRI) has compiled a resource packet geared toward leaders and organizers of community, faith-based and labor organizations, in order to help them educate their constituencies in the wake of the Sept. 11 tragedy. Much of this packet will also be useful and appropriate for community members in general.

We will start mailing out print copies of the packet this coming week
(Oct. 15) to those who request them. We can also send them via fax.

However, the quickest and easiest way to get the packet is via email: all of the contents (see below) are available via email immediately as MSWord 97 attachments (except the general NLG "Know Your Rights" flyer which is in MS Publisher 98) and as plain message text. Each of the documents is also available separately, as attachments or plain text. Please email your request to chri@itapnet.org, specifying the format you want (plain text and/or attachments); whether you want the whole packet or only certain items from it (please specify which ones); and whether you want English and/or Spanish version (asterisks below indicate which items are currently available in Spanish). [A Spanish version of this announcement will go out within a few days, as soon as we have more of the packet available in Spanish.]

The CHRI resource packet contains:

1) Cover letter with list of packet contents & action ideas**
2) Talking points on the crisis & its impact on immigrants**
3) Questions & Answers on Islam*
4) Questions & Answers on Arabs & Arab-Americans**
5) Resource sheet (including hotlines, funding sources, educational
resources)
6) NY Immigration Coalition's sheet on how to access WTC-related
benefits
7) Anti-racism / pro-immigrant posters
8) Flyer against proposed anti-terrorism (anti-immigrant) law*
9) National Lawyers Guild (NLG) "Know Your Rights" flyer (general)***
10) NLG's "Know Your Rights" leaflet for non-citizens***

(*Spanish version available now / ** Spanish to be available soon / ***
The NLG flyers are available as a single leaflet including information for
both citizens & non-citizens)

For information or to request packets:

Coalition for the Human Rights of Immigrants (CHRI)
Coalicion para los Derechos Humanos de los Inmigrantes
339 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10012
tel 212-254-2591 / 888-575-8242 (888-57-LUCHA)
fax 212-674-9139 email chri@itapnet.org
web site: www.itapnet.org/chri

___________________________________________________


Urgent need for paid Chinese language interpreters for FEMA

Dear Friends,

We need your help as soon as possible with getting Chinese language (Mandarin and Cantonese) interpreters for FEMA. Some of the Chinatown agencies have been contacted already but I wanted to also get the word out to our list of attendees for the last ICAN meeting on the the September 11th attacks. FEMA will be visiting Chinatown households to assess community needs related to disaster relief and other needs arising from the September 11th attacks and desperately needs interpreters. If the community doesn't provide interpreters they plan to use the auxilary police.

WHEN: For the next 2 months, starting right away
HOURS: any part of 7am to 7pm, 7 days a week
PAY: about $15/hour
HOW MANY: looking for a pool of about 20 interpreters
PROCESS: Please forward names and phone numbers to me.
I will compile and fax to DOJ, which is helping FEMA and they will call you back to schedule a
time to fill out application forms.

Please circulate this announcement. Thanks.

Chung-Wha Hong
Advocacy Director
New York Immigration Coalition
275 Seventh Avenue, 9th Floor
New York, NY 10001
(212) 627-2227 x. 228
cwhong@thenyic.org

___________________________________________________


Lessons from the Past, Building for the Future
The Asian American Movement


Roundtable Discussion and Reception with an intergenerational panel of Asian activists

Featuring contributors from the new anthology Asian Americans: the Movement and the Moment by Steve Louie and Glenn Omatsu

Panelists (so far)

Jay Mendoza, Phillip Vera Cruz Justice Project
Miriam Ching Louie
Monica Ly, API FORCE
Steve Louie

Friday, October 12th, 2001
7-9 pm

Asian Resource Gallery
310 Eighth Street/Harrison
Oakland Chinatown

$5-10 donation requested at door, but no one turned away

Copies of the anthology will be on sale for $15

This event is organized by Asians and Pacific Islanders for Community Empowerment(API FORCE)

For more information, contact 415-704-3476.

___________________________________________________


Some articles on women's voices post-WTC

If you feel like you haven't been hearnig women's voices on the WTC crisis as much as you should, especially Afghan women's voices, below are a few articles that may be of interest from Working For Change, Salon, and NPR.

1. Laura Flanders, Working For Change:
www.workingforchange.com/printitem.cfm?itemid=12070
Behind the media veil
Laura Flanders - workingforchange.com

2. Janelle Brown, Salon:
www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2001/10/02/fatima/index.html

Members of RAWA protested outside the Foreign Office in Islamabad, Pakistan, while U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan was holding talks with Pakistani officials during a two-day visit in March. The Taliban's bravest opponents An underground resistance of Afghan women risks torture and execution to alert the world to the regime's atrocities. One freedom fighter tells Salon her story.

3. National Public Radio (NPR)
SHOW: All Things Considered (9:00 PM ET) - NPR
September 27, 2001 Thursday
LENGTH: 350 words
HEADLINE: Domination of Op-Ed pages by men since September 11th

NPRclip

Commentator Geneva Overholser is concerned that a large segment of the population has not been heard from since September 11th, at least not on the opinion pages of US newspapers.

___________________________________________________


Boycott Starbucks

Shortly after the Towers collapsed, 3 EMS workers entered the "Battery
Park City Starbucks (212-482-1180), " just 3 blocks north of the towers, and asked for water to aid the victims. STARBUCKS WOULD NOT GIVE THEM THE WATER FREE BUT CHARGED $130.OO!!! for 3 cases of water, which the EMS workers paid for out of their own pockets!!!

Please join the Nationwide Boycott of all Starbucks. Their starry vision of mucho Bucks blinded their greedy eyes to their chance at helping their fellow American Brothers (andconsumers) dying and helpless just feet away from their establishment. Its time for the American Consumer to hit Starbucks with a knockout boycott blow that will leave these greedy monsters with only dizzying stars in their eyes at how empty their pockets have become!

Buy your coffee elsewhere, stick your head in and let them and their customers know that their "Community Care" is all bull. Their Actions have spoken louder then their P.R.

ALL Starbucks has DONE AT THIS MOMENT IS APOLOGIZED and reimbursed the EMS workers. STARBUCKS HAS NOT EVEN MADE A MONETARY CONTRIBUTION TO THE MANY WTC RELIEF FUNDS AS A DIRECT APOLOGY FOR THEIR SELFISH ACTIONS.

AT the very least please pass this on to your friends so all consumers are educated to the fact that Starbucks puts the buck before the helping hand. Give them the P.R. they deserve. Thank you. The following is the AP story on the Starbucks incident as it appeared on Drudge WEd 9/25)

Starbucks Apologizes for Charging NYC Rescue Workers for Water" By ALLISON LINN AP Business Writer

SEATTLE (AP) -- The head of a Brooklyn ambulance company said Tuesday that the president of Starbucks has personally apologized after rescue workers in New York were forced to pay a Starbucks shop $130 for water to treat victims of the terrorist attack.

Shortly after the Sept. 11 attack, rescue workers rushed into a nearby Starbucks store to get water to treat shock victims, Rapisarda said. Ambulance company workers said employees in the shop demanded they pay $130 for three cases of bottled water. The workers paid cash, out of their own pockets.

Midwood Ambulance Service President Al Rapisarda said he received a hand-delivered reimbursement check -- and a personal call from Starbucks president Orin Smith -- after reports of the incident became public.

``It was a misunderstanding with Starbucks,'' Rapisarda said after talking to Smith.

Midwood Ambulance Service alerted Starbucks to the incident in an e-mail, which was obtained by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

Smith said Tuesday he did not know why the coffee shop near the World Trade Center towers charged the rescue workers.

“It's totally inconsistent with the kind of behavior we would have expected from our people, so it has been very upsetting to learn of this,'' Smith said in an interview with The Associated Press. Reached by telephone, the manager of the shop, the Battery Park Plaza Starbucks, declined to comment.

___________________________________________________


*******
THE AUDRE LORDE PROJECT
Community FYI:
THIRD WORLD WITHIN - PEACE ACTION COALITION
FRIDAY October 12th, 6-10pm (FREE):
Living In the War Zone: No More Lost Lives
An evening of testimony and performance from around the world
-- URGENT NOTE: BROOKLYN COLLEGE FORCES CHANGE OF LOCATION. NEW SITE:
105 E. 22nd St., 4th floor (Manhattan)
*******
The following excerpt is forwarded from the TWW-Peace Action Coaltion
listserv. (to subscribe to the listserv, send a blank email to:
tww-peaceaction-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

In the current political climate, many of us know that speaking out in the interests of peace and justice is being framed in dangerous ways. TWW-PAC had planned on holding an event calling for "No More Lost Lives" this coming Friday at Brooklyn College. The event is still on
(information below), but as of this weekend, Brooklyn College administrators created unacceptable obstacles to the event taking place at its original location.

TWW-PAC had intended for the event to be in Brooklyn -- specifically
recognizing the need for these types of events in outer boros, and in
communities of color. Due to the last-minute requirements from
Brooklyn College, we have been looking for a new site since Sunday,
but were unable to confirm an adequate site in Brooklyn that would
permit the pro-peace and justice politics of the event. While the
site we will be using is not ideal, we hope that you will join us --
and tell others to join us -- in unity against the loss of more lives, and in solidarity against the current conditions.
------------
THIRD WORLD WITHIN - PEACE ACTION COALITION presents

LIVING IN THE WAR ZONE:
NO MORE LOST LIVES
an evening of testimony and performance from around the world

Friday October 12, 6-10pm
105 E. 22nd St., 4th floor (Manhattan)
(6 train to 23rd St.)

As we struggle to come to terms with a time of heightened violence in
our communities, city, nation, and around the world, we must seek a
true understanding of its root causes through an investigation of acts of terror that expands far beyond the events of 9-11. The last several decades have been a time of vicious war for nations of the
Third World and peoples of color, a war most often perpetrated by the
US military and government. On Oct. 12th, we will hear testimony
from those who live with this war to help us contextualize the violence of 9-11. As the media and government seek to dehumanize peoples and communities they wish to make into targets, we recognize the urgent need to affirm the humanity of all peoples. We will celebrate this humanity through sharing of music, dance and other cultural performances from around the world. Join us as we seek truth, applaud life and call for peace.

*******
Third World Within - Peace Action Coalition (TWW-PAC) was initiated by the NYC Coalition Against Police Brutality (CAPB), in the aftermath of September 11th. TWW-PAC consists of over 20 NYC-based organizations run by and for People of Color -- many that have worked together against police violence, the prison industrial complex, racism, xenophobia, homophobia/transphobia, sexism and other issues. In mourning the lives lost on September 11th, we have come together at this time to help build a movement to mourn and honor lives lost; resist racist/xenophobic backlash; oppose war and US-sponsored retaliation; and demand social and economic justice for Third World and Indigenous peoples within and outside the US.

The Audre Lorde Project:
Center for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Two Spirit and Transgender
People of Color Communities
85 So. Oxford St. * Brooklyn, NY 11217 * USA
Tel: 718-596-0342 * Fax: 718-596-1328