It's Peaceful سلمية

Amman - Jordan
Friday after another people kept going to the streets asking the government to stop the corruption and adopt reforms. Until this one Friday when the special forces of police attacked journalists and protesters, this awful treatment grabbed global attention to the uncontrollable violence against protesters. Here’s the New York Times report on ithttp://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/16/world/middleeast/16jordan.html?_r=1  
 I was truly disappointed with the painful event, therefore I decided to express my emotions and reflections on the happenings with a song named Selmeyyeh or Peaceful in English.

Arabic Lyrics:

سلمية

سلمية.. بنت حلال وأصلية      بدها تخلّف رجال جدية

 لا تربكها حرام بتعبر عنا هي.. سلمية

عم بتشد عودها       وإيدها بتفتحلك

اسمعها وشوفها        على مهلك 

بس لا تخوفها لا تكسفها      وجهّا لا تعلملها 

    بالمنقل لا تسفئها  

سلمية سلمية             مش ماخدة صفوف جانبية 

    حرّة كريمة وعقلانية

وإذا رأيك غير هيك    تعال وحاورها يا بي

سلمية

سلمية.. أحضنها افهما ولا تتسرع     عن سماع الرأي لا لا تتمنع

ولا لا تخونها لا تشتمها                معالمها لا تشوّهلها 

  من قدرها لا تحرمها 

سلمية.. سلمية.. سلمية

English Lyrics (Translation): 

It's Peaceful

Original and innocent   

Ambitious and serious 

Don't confuse the poor thing

It speaks for us.. peacefully 

It's growing strong with arms open

Hear it and see it, no pressure

But don't scare it don't embarrass it  

Don't deform it's face 

With guns don't resist it

Peaceful, it's peaceful 

Not taking any sides

Generous, free and rational 

And if you have another opinion

come an have a conversation with it 

Don't deprive it from it's destiny

It's peaceful, it's peaceful 

It's peaceful 

Embrace it, understand it and don't rush 

Don't avoid listening to the other opinion 

Don't consider it as betrayal 

Don't curse it neither deform it

Merging interests

In my life I get involved in different activities. Some are commercials while others are voluntary. Integrating both of them can be critical on one hand and an investment of time and effort on the other. It reminds me of content syndication that keeps going on for tens of years.

Here's an application of what I'm talking about:
I have been invited to take part in Mahdia (about 50km north of Rabat) - Euro-Mediterranean conference on the Role of Interfaith Cooperation in Immigrants' Integration kicked off, with the participation of more than fifty people representing different religious beliefs from all over the world. As well as leadership training workshops. And I also had the chance to promote my non-profit (International Solution Based Art).


This trip required a 4 days absence from work, which can be problematic sometimes.So I offered my manager to have my trip documented and later added to www.d1g.com as original content. Here's a glimpse of how it looks like



 
        



  

A day of therapy in a Juvenile Detention Center - Eau Claire County

Gaining trust to visit an American governmental institution is one of the things that increased my interest of being a student in the USA. A lot of people try to limit our ambitions as Arabs, even worse as females. But you see, a hypothesis will always be in doubt until proved right. I am writing today to give a tiny example of how Intersectionality can be challenged.

I have been in a Psychology of Music class with UWEC professor Lee Anna Rasar for a couple of months. She always offers examples from her job as a music therapist in the Juvenile Detention Center. The center is part of Children's Court Services Department, its mission is to protect children as well as the community, provide accountability to juvenile offenders, and assist families in the preparation of their children for a healthy, responsible adulthood.

By talking to Pro.Lee Anna and sharing opinions about world issues and organizational work, she got to know me better.Later on, she asked me to join her in a music therapy session in the Juvenile. I was thrilled for the offer and suggested making a presentation about United Religions Initiative and the country I came from (Jordan).

After sending my legal papers to prove identity, I was accepted to spend 3 hours with the kids and share with them my knowledge about different issues. And that's exactly what happened, on April 21st 2011 I accompanied my professor to the detention center in Eau Claire. We passed through the procedure of searching stuff that we had, to make sure we didn't have any sharp tools.

When I got there I found out that Pro.Lee Anna had told them a week before that they had a special guest coming from another country and that they would have to guess what country after meeting me, and that finally I would tell them. So when I got there, they kept trying to get me to tell them! I wouldn’t – so they were really intrigued about me. I saw it in how they were observing my accent, moves and facial expressions. At first I introduced myself, told them about my psychology/journalism education, my radio show and the URI organization. Later on I got them to guess the country I came from by asking them the name of a famous Basket Ball player -Michael Jordan-.I asked them to introduce themselves, one of them was very interested in Mythology and Literature this guy looked like he was 12 but he actually is 16 a very sharp and enthusiastic kid, the level of the crime he is prisoned for is pretty high! Another girl looked very shy, she refused to share her interests, that one girl was pregnant and was really proud of being a mom. She wasn't showing yet.Some of the other juveniles believe that she is trying to convince herself that she is proud but they don’t think she is really proud. They think she is scared and is trying to convince herself. 

After the introduction I told them that I had a short movie to show. I brought them a 10 minutes documentary film about United religions Initiative's corporation circles at work in different countries. I chose this film because it reflects a lot of visual harmony and love between different people from different cultures, which could open their eyes to places not only beyond detention centers but overseas too. 

Here's the movie:

They silently watched the movie, we discussed the idea of different religions and some of them shared what they know about Judaism and Islam since they all were Christians. One of them asked me if it's possible to be a part of URI if he had a record. I spontaneously answered with a yes, as long as you have a good idea that would unite people from different religions together and do beneficial activities to their communities -you can be a part of us, especially if you had an idea for a program for juveniles that you want to develop when you're done, it can be wonderful!- He smiled and I couldn't be happier. Later on, I grabbed my guitar and played them a couple of songs that I wrote about dreams of freedom and hope, family and friends. I also sang them the Hamster song which is a song in Arabic by Sheesheh Band. They absolutely love the language and the rhythm. Then my professor asked me to talk about Global Spices which I brought photos of my guests and the studio. One of them was asking me to have him as a guest sometime, I told him: only if I met you a month ago, I already had an American guest! I also brought blank papers with me to write their names in Arabic, it made them laugh as I wrote the name of their guard in Arabic too. One of them asked me to write the name of his girlfriend. I did!

The session ended with Baklawah -Arabic Dessert- they absolutely loved it and offered me Jam and peanut butter sandwich in return. We said farewell as the day with the Juveniles was over.

Global Spices (Live Radio show)

Twice a week, Global Spices brings you the culture of a country in an hour.
This is the basic idea of my radio show on WHYS 96.3 Eau Claire community radio, a progressive liberal 8 years old local station. Global Spices started with the beginning of the spring semester 2011, when I had to find myself an internship that could demonstrate and develop my skills in Media. I got to come up with an idea to propose for the station, nothing sounded better than diversity to spread awareness about.
My idea of the program aspires to breaking stereotypes. Every time I get a guest from a different country/nationality, he/she comes with traditional music from their country. I come with alternative music from that same country. We meet behind the microphones and sail away with music we've chosen, moreover we discuss  politics, faith, food, education, entertainment, relationships...etc we talk about the country my guest came from and compare what happens there to the United States. We talk about the obsticles this person went through, his experience of becoming a minority in a new place,  and his opinion about the American society, pointing out things he'll be leaving or taking from here when he goes back home.
Being a URI youth ambassador gives me more space to give examples from these people's countries about religious harmony, peace after war and healthy patriotism. Examples that prove how in the end of the day, we all belong to one human family. The people I interview are mostly young; they are eager to learn and criticize the place they came from. Especially in a country like the United States, that claims freedom, hard work and independence. It is nice to see how international people perceive American culture.
I consider myself lucky for being in Wisconsin at a time that people are standing up -inspired by the revolution in the middle east- against a governor that seems to be working against unions.
Until last week I had guests from Germany, Venezuela, United Arab Emirates, Costa Rica, France, China, Ethiopia, Pakistan, Serbia, India, USA, Malaysia and Jordan. My next spice is going to be Mongolian. If the idea of my show appealed to you, please don’t hesitate to give me an ear by tuning in to WHYS 96.3 if you were in Eau Claire or paste this link to your browser: www.whysradio.org, at these times:
(WI, USA):
Sundays 3pm - 4pm
Tuesdays 6pm-7pm

Hop on to:
WHYS Radio 96.3 
or, www.whysradio.org