Consulate Distributions
Distributions for Monday August 25, 2008
Peace Process
Resignation of Israel’s Olmert Will Not Stop Mideast Peace EffortIsraeli and Palestinian negotiators assess progress in Washington Israeli Prime Minister
Ehud Olmert’s resignation announcement will not disrupt U.S. efforts to promote Middle East peace through a two-state solution by the end of the Bush administration, says Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.“We continue to be committed to the goals of Annapolis,” Rice said July 30 following a “fruitful” meeting with Israeli and Palestinian negotiators. “We continue to watch parties and to work with parties who are working very, very hard toward an agreement.” (more) (بالعربية)
Religious Freedom and Diversity in the U.S.
U.S. Religious Freedom Owes Debt to Colonists’ Radical Document Flushing Remonstrance urged tolerance, foresaw modern religious rights
The ancient, fragile document now lies protected in a glass case, its revolutionary, eloquent prose barely visible, its pages scorched. But the principle of religious freedom promoted by a small group of English settlers in the Flushing Remonstrance has survived the centuries. Flushing is a neighborhood in Queens -- one of the five boroughs that collectively make up New York City -- and is located about 16 kilometers east of Manhattan, New York.Dated December 27, 1657, the Flushing Remonstrance is the earliest known document in America to argue for religious freedom. A group of Flushing residents used it to petition the Dutch colonial government to uphold freedom of conscience and permit religious pluralism. It is considered by historians to be a precursor of the guarantee of religious freedom in the U.S. Constitution. (more) (بالعربية)
One New York City Neighborhood Is a World of Religious Diversity
Flushing, New York, is home to more than 200 places of worship
The street blocks in Flushing, New York, may seem long to walk on a hot summer day, but they make the distance between the world’s many religions seem short. On one block alone, the Kissena Jewish Center faces a Hindu temple, Shree Swaminarayan Mandir, which neighbors the Boon Church of Overseas Chinese Mission, which faces the Singh Sabha Sikh gurdwara. This block exemplifies the rest of Flushing, a neighborhood 16 kilometers east of Manhattan that compacts more than 200 places of religious worship into 6.5 square kilometers. Flushing is a community in Queens, one of the five boroughs that together make up New York City. A short walk around the neighborhood takes a visitor past 151 Christian churches (many are Korean), 30 Buddhist temples, seven Hindu temples, six Jewish temples, four Muslim mosques, two Sikh gurdwaras, two Taoist temples and a group practicing Falun Gong, according to statistics compiled by R. Scott Hanson, visiting assistant professor of history at the State University of New York at Binghamton. (more) (بالعربية)
A Halal Meat Business Thrives in New YorkTaken over by founder's son, the shop now has more non-Muslim customers
In the days before major Islamic holidays, there is an unusual sight in Ozone Park, an outlying corner of New York. A long line of people wait beside a pen holding several hundred goats and lambs between low buildings.One after another, customers choose an animal, which is weighed and then slaughtered according to Islamic dietary law: A butcher utters a few words in praise of Allah before cutting the animal's throat.This is Madani Halal, a thriving family business founded in 1996 by an immigrant from Bangladesh and taken over in 2003 by his American-born son. In part due to continuing growth in the immigrant population in the United States, the business is expanding and is about to begin a wholesale poultry operation after a $2 million investment.Riaz Uddin, 73, has been in America since he arrived in Boston in 1956. He worked as a dishwasher and then a cook in a kosher restaurant. He married a Catholic woman from Puerto Rico and opened two bars in New York. It was a classic American success story, but he wasn’t happy. (more) (
بالعربية)
America’s Eastern Orthodox Communities Show Tolerance, DiversitySurvey shows congregations as middle class, politically moderate
Among more than 200 places of worship in Flushing, Queens, arguably the most religiously diverse neighborhood in the United States, there stands St. Nicolas Orthodox Shrine Church, the largest Greek Orthodox parish in America. It is just one of many Eastern orthodox parishes in the larger New York metropolitan area. Among them are the parishes of the independent Orthodox Church in America and the Moscow-affiliated Russian Orthodox Church in the USA, as well as Bulgarian, Serbian, Romanian and several other Eastern Orthodox churches.This diversity within religions is encountered in many areas in the United States with large immigrant populations, and reflects the rich, complex and sometimes contentious history of orthodox Christianity in North America. Today, Eastern Orthodox Christians constitute less than 1 percent of the adult U.S. population, with the highest percentage in Alaska. But orthodox Christian communities can be found nearly everywhere in the United States, especially in the Northeast and the West. (more)
Amish Free to Maintain Traditions in Modern World Use of technology varies among Amish
Driving through Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, a traveler might find a line of cars creeping along the pastoral countryside. Somewhere ahead, an ambling, horse-drawn wagon likely carries members of the steadfast Amish community rooted there.Visitors might regard what they see in Lancaster as a symbol of people who live a 19th-century style, shun modern technology and prefer a primitive existence without electricity or modern plumbing. This common view of the nearly 220,000 Amish adults and children who live in 27 U.S. states and Ontario, Canada, is somewhat misguided. Author David L. Weaver-Zercher, an associate professor of American religious history and chair of the Department of Biblical and Religious Studies at Messiah College in Pennsylvania, has studied popular perceptions of the Amish and says much of what people believe about the Amish stems from what the media has depicted. (more) (بالعربية)
U.S Elections 2008
Journalist Daniel Schorr Says Youth Vote Key to 2008 Election
Alleged news media favoritism to Barack Obama subject of new study
Record-breaking voter registration by young people will be “one of the big stories” of the 2008 U.S. presidential election, famed journalist Daniel Schorr tells America.gov.The senior news analyst and commentator for National Public Radio said the youth vote could decide the election. Polls suggest a majority of young Americans support presumed Democratic nominee Barack Obama over presumed Republican nominee John McCain. Schorr said he found it “electrifying” that young people have expressed a desire to vote in this year’s election in much greater numbers than in other years. Increased voter turnout among young people in 2008, as shown during the primary season, is an “important new fact,” said Schorr. (See “Young Americans Paying Close Attention to Presidential Race.”)
In a journalism career of more than six decades, Schorr has reported on major news events from the U.S. Congress’ anti-Communist hearings of the 1950s to the President Bill Clinton impeachment hearings of the 1990s. He won three Emmy awards for excellence in coverage of the Watergate scandal in the 1970s, and was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Society of Professional Journalists in 1991. (more) (بالعربية)
United States at “Turning Point” as Voters Go to Polls November 4
Major shifts in U.S. society suggest 2008 election particularly significant
The 2008 U.S. presidential election campaign will reflect dramatic changes in American society, political analysts tell America.gov. Iowa State University political science professor Steffen Schmidt said the 2008 vote will be a “watershed, seriously important election.”The election would be important, he said, even without a global terrorism threat, or that the presumed presidential nominees are Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama, who could be the first African-American U.S. president.Important elections occur “when there is a general shift in the paradigm [basic structure] of society,” Schmidt said Examples in U.S. history include the 1861-1865 Civil War and the Great Depression of the 1930s. (more) (بالعربية)
Space and Climate Change
Effect of climate change on biodiversity in Lebanon: a preliminary review
Produced by: Society for the Protection of Nature in Lebanon (2008)
Lebanon does not currently have baseline data on which to formulate climate adaptation and mitigation measures. This paper aims to prompt dialogue on the anticipated impact of climate change on the country, acting as a preliminary literature review and consulting experts to identify key species in Lebanon which may be impacted by it.
Each section of the report focuses different flora and fauna as well as the environments they inhabit and points out key impacts of climate change. In addition, the experts consulted suggest a number of species to be used for monitoring purposes. (full report)
Martian Soil, Chemistry Hold Surprises for Scientists
NASA extends Mars lander mission by five weeks, through September 30
The stubborn stickiness of Martian soil and the unconfirmed discovery of a chemical called perchlorate, which is naturally found on Earth in places like Chile’s cold, extremely dry Atacama Desert, are two findings from NASA’s Phoenix Mars lander that scientists were not expecting.Since landing on the northern plains of Mars May 25, Phoenix has been studying soil with the wet chemistry laboratory of the spacecraft's microscopy, electrochemistry and conductivity analyzer (MECA); the thermal and evolved-gas analyzer (TEGA); a microscope; a conductivity probe; and cameras."Mars is giving us some surprises," Phoenix principal investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona-Tucson, said during a July 31 briefing. "We're excited because surprises are where discoveries come from.” (more) (بالعربية)
U.S. Space Agency Confirms Water on Mars
Spacefarers “boldly go where no one has gone before,” scientist says
As NASA celebrates 50 years of space exploration, laboratory tests by the agency’s Phoenix lander, whose survey of the Martian surface began May 25, have found chemical proof of water on the Red Planet. Scientists have seen evidence for water ice on the planet in observations by NASA’s Mars Odyssey orbiter and in disappearing chunks that the Phoenix cameras documented in June, but this is the first time Martian water has been “touched and tasted” by sophisticated instruments, said William Boynton of the University of Arizona, lead scientist for Phoenix’s thermal and evolved-gas analyzer, during a July 31 briefing. (more) (بالعربية)
Internet Access for the Blind
The Blind Can Now Use the Web from AnywhereInventor’s Web browser is open-source and free
Less than 1 percent of the 38 million blind people in the world have a screen reader, a software program that reads the contents of a computer screen aloud.Even those who can afford the $1,000 price tag often need to use the Web when they are not at their own computers. There just has not been anything inexpensive that was readily available in a public library or an Internet cafe or on a friend’s laptop. Until now.In May 2008, Microsoft awarded its first Accessible Technology Achievement Award to Jeffrey Bigham, a 27-year-old doctoral candidate in computer science at the University of Washington, for creating WebAnywhere, a self-voicing Web browser that enables blind and visually impaired people to access the Web from any available computer. (more)
U.S. Olympic TeamU.S. Olympic Team Reflects America’s Global RootsAthletes hail from every region of the world
When the U.S. Olympic team marches onto the field for the opening ceremonies of the Summer Olympics in Beijing August 8, the 596 American athletes will not just join fellow athletes from more than 200 nations around the world -- they will, in a very real way, be a microcosm of that world. In sports as varied as boxing and table tennis, archery and track, gymnastics and rowing, U.S. Olympic athletes’ prospects for the gold are enhanced by the presence of athletes who trace their roots to other nations. Whether they or their families came to the United States to pursue economic opportunities, continue their education or escape war and civil strife, all of these athletes will proudly represent their adopted country in Beijing. (more) (بالعربية)
