archives
Monday, January 31, 2005
Not Chaldean
From Iraq, featured on Dennis Prager's show of 24 Feb 2005, http://www.ayadrahimtriptoiraq.blogspot.com/
Counting the vote from Southern California.
Polling site officials estimated that more than 95 percent of the 3,900 people who registered in Irvine turned out to vote; Irvine, is the only polling site in the Western US and the last to close in the world.
In case you get bored reading this blog entry about Iraqi out of country voting, you can always read the http://www.buzzmachine.com/archives/2005_01_29.html#008968 blog collection at Jeff Jarvis' Iraqi voting compendium, which I found on Bryan's www.horror-report.com
I'm Jewish, so know some Iraqis that are Chaldean (from my hometown of San Diego) and some that are Jewish (from having grown up in Los Angeles). I lived briefly in the UK, where I met Muslim Iraqis who were nice enough to walk me to synagogue on Friday night. I hope you will consider voting for the first time in 50 years in the upcoming Iraqi national election. Since San Diego's Chaldean community has yet to post information on its official web-site, which was last updated in 2004 http://www.chaldeanaid.org/, I'm going to try to put information here.
Remember to "Vote early, vote often!" (just kidding) See 11/2000 Kay Daly article on Chicago http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/printer-friendly.asp?ARTICLE_ID=16460
Articles herewith are reproduced in part or summarized under the Fair Use exception of 17 USC § 107 for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use.
http://www.iraqocv.org/php/index.php?lang=eng Iraq out-of country voting The official web-site, which is buried in a graphic from the LA TIMES. The directions from San Diego are wrong, according to Mr. Fuad, who answered the phone when I rang on Friday, 21 Jan AM. There was a phone number listed on the web-site, but it's no longer there. The graphic on page B10 of the 1/18/2005 Orange County edition of the LA Times lists 1-800-916-8292.
So, what happened this past week? According to http://www.iraqocv.org/php/content.php?link_id=88&lang=eng the official web-site, as of 2005-01-26: From Amman, Jordan: 280,303 expatriate Iraqis around the world have registered to vote in Iraq’s Transitional National Assembly Election through the International Organization for Migration’s (IOM) Out-of-Country Voting (OCV) Program. Last day of registration: 24,643 Cumulative total: 280,303
This I got from the Jewish Press, which arrived to my door a week late from New York, carrying meast news: You can google it up with http://www.google.com/searchhl=en&lr=&q=orly+halpern+Iraqi+election+Jordan or read a version at http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1105845489270
(Jan. 17, 2005 2:10 Updated Jan. 17, 2005 7:01) Jordan polling station could bar Iraqi-Israelis from historic election By ORLY HALPERN
Articles from LA Times can be found with http://www.latimes.com/search/dispatcher.front?target=article&Query=Expatriate+Iraqi+vote
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-011705iraqivote-g,1,6542105.graphic shows the distribution of the American Iraqi population and where the polling places have been established (published 18 Jan Tues on page B10)
[the web is a bit slow tonight, but I'm nearly certain when I read Fridays' LA times there was an article describing the election of a parliament with 100 slates possible, 7,000 candidates (including women, too!), and the size of the parliament.--mkg]
http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20050113-104220-6243r.htm starts with "Tens of thousands of Iraqi Jews with Israeli citizenship could vote in the upcoming Iraqi election if they could mail absentee ballots, although it's unlikely that they'll get the opportunity, local community leaders said. " [See how similar the effect of the unreachable polling place is for the head of the community. --mkg]
"It could be an opening for future relations between Israel and Iraq," said Mordechai Ben-Porat, a Baghdad native who oversaw the immigration of 130,000 Iraqi Jews to Israel shortly after its establishment. "I'm encouraging voting among Iraqi Jews, both those in Israel and those elsewhere in the world." But Mr. Ben-Porat, 80, conceded that few, in any, Israeli citizens of Iraqi origin will vote, because they must travel to Jordan to cast ballots. "If they made election stations in Israel, I would vote, but I won't go to Jordan. I don't have time for it," he said.
"Our main concern and the overwhelming complaint in our community is that it's not feasible for many people to travel twice to a place far from their home," said Jafar Qazwini of the group Future of Iraq in Los Angeles. "For example, there will be five stations in L.A., but none in San Diego, Phoenix and San Francisco." Mr. Ben-Porat, who heads the Babylonian Jewish Heritage Center in the Tel Aviv suburb of Or Yehuda, estimated that 244,000 Iraqi Jews live in Israel and an additional 45,000 reside elsewhere.
Israeli Housing Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, who left Iraq at 12, told the Ha'aretz newspaper that he didn't think Israelis would vote in Iraqi elections out of a sense of loyalty to their new home. But others said there was no conflict in participating in the Iraqi vote, noting that large numbers of American and Ukrainian expatriates with Israeli citizenship recently participated in elections in those countries. At the time of the Iraqi-Jewish exodus, the community had been stripped of their citizenship cards, barred from universities and subjected to pogroms. Despite the scars of discrimination, Iraqi Jews still romanticize sultry summers in Baghdad and boast about the country's first finance minister, Yehezkel Sasson, who was Jewish.
"We still listen to Iraqi classic music, and we're still fans of the Baghdad orchestra," said Sheffi Gabbai, also a Baghdad native who hosts a program on Iraqi culture on Israel Radio's Arabic broadcast. "I want democracy in Iraq because I want to visit cemeteries of my ancestors, my neighborhood, and my school," Mr. Gabbai also said he wouldn't travel to Jordan to vote, but added that he would gladly send an absentee ballot to Jordan's embassy in Tel Aviv. • Nicholas Kralev contributed to this report in Washington.
Articles from San Diego Union:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20050118/news_1n18iraqi.html
By Anne Krueger and Leslie Wolf BranscombSTAFF WRITERS
January 18, 2005
San Diego County, with about 30,000 Iraqis, has the third-largest Iraqi population in the country, behind Detroit and Chicago. Those who want to vote in the election must register in Irvine by Sunday, then return to vote between Jan. 28 and 30. To prevent fraud, absentee voting is not allowed.
"I just can't see how a lot of people are going to get two days off and vote," said Auday Arabo, president of an association that represents many Iraqi grocers in San Diego County. "It's too much of a burden."
"I would have voted, but I'm not going to drive that far to register, then come back, and go back again," said retired state Sen. Wadie Deddeh. "I am interested, but honestly, I am not going to drive four hours to vote."
Deddeh, 84, immigrated to New York City in 1974 and became a U.S. citizen in 1953. He spent 27 years as a state legislator.
"Ever since I became a U.S. citizen, I have never ever missed a vote," Deddeh said. "If by a miracle they say you can do it in San Diego, I'd go and register tomorrow."
Arkan Somo, 43, doubts he will make it to Irvine because of family and work responsibilities.
Somo, who recently ran for El Cajon City Council, said an employee of the gas station he owns is out sick, and he can't afford to be short-handed now.
His wife won't vote, Somo said, because she has to care for their four young children. There is school and soccer practice to consider. When would they find time? "I really want to, but it will be kind of tough," he said.
...Richard Haisha, a La Mesa insurance broker, was puzzled by the provision that allows people born in the United States to vote as long as their fathers were from Iraq.
"I'm an American citizen, but my father was born in Baghdad," he said. Haisha, 38, said his father left Iraq in 1956, and he was born in Detroit.
"I received a one-page letter about the election, mailed to the Chaldean community here," Haisha said. "But it was all in Arabic, and that doesn't do me any good."
http://breakingnews.nypost.com/dynamic/stories/I/IRAQ_OVERSEAS_VOTE_US?SITE=NYNYP&SECTION=HOME 17 Jan AP article by Gllian Flaccus on elections
The seven-day registration period ends Jan. 23. Voting will begin Jan. 28 and continue until the Jan. 30 election in Iraq for an assembly that will draft a constitution and choose a president.
Eligible voters can be American citizens, but must be 18 or older, have been born in Iraq, hold citizenship or prove that their father was Iraqi.
35,000 Iraqi immigrants expected to register at the polling station set up at a decommissioned Marine base in Southern California
About 240,000 Iraqis are eligible to vote in the United States, according to Roger Bryant of the International Center for Migration, which is in charge of the overseas voting for the Iraqi government.
Registrants headed to a polling station in Irvine, about 50 miles south of Los Angeles, found themselves searching for an address that didn't exist on the decommissioned Marine base. Most Iraqis interviewed said they had spent hours looking for the polling site, which saw light turnout.
The U.S. polling stations were monitored by armed guards and metal detectors. In Nashville, those seeking to register could not go directly to the two election sites, but had to gather at a hastily arranged location to board a bus.
Hussan Al Taee drove seven hours to Irvine from Phoenix to register to vote in his native country's first modern election. In London Saieb Jabbar said, "We lived in a dictatorship a long time, and it's the first time in my life, in my 48 years, that I can vote in Iraq."
Eligible Iraqis abroad - estimated to number 1.2 million - can vote in Britain, Australia, Sweden, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Iran, Jordan, the Netherlands, Syria, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and the United States.
Associated Press writers Stephen Manning, Dee-Ann Durbin, Colin Fly, and Ed Johnson contributed to this report.
© 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy.
http://www.aaiusa.org/news/must_read01_04_05.htm 4 Jan AP article by Gllian Flaccus on elections [my synopsis follows]
"The Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq in Baghdad authorized an out-of-country vote in November and enlisted the International Organization of Migration to organize it. "
90,000 foreign-born Iraqis in the United States
[age of voter eligibility not given]
Iraqi-born adults need two forms of identification, including proof of Iraqi birth.
Iraqi Americans with Iraqi-born fathers may also vote.
[no criteria given for establishing above.]
Jeremy Copeland is IOM official overseeing the balloting in the United States. He claims that the rule of registering in person and then returning to vote is necessary to prevent fraud.
"Some Iraqi Americans wanted polls to be set up in San Diego, the city with the third-largest population of Iraqi immigrants after Detroit and Chicago. The request was turned down for lack of time, Copeland [is reported to have said in the article.]
30,000 Iraqis live in Canada; [five voting centers]: Three voting centers are planned for the Toronto area and one in Ottawa and one Calgary, Alberta.
organizers say they have the capacity to count up to 1 million votes in 14 countries
the registration period conflicts with the Hajj [this no longer applies. I need a refernce for this, but the Hajj ended on Friday 21 January with the festival in commemoration of the attempted sacrifice of Abraham's son Ishmael. --mkg]
Counting the vote from Southern California.
Polling site officials estimated that more than 95 percent of the 3,900 people who registered in Irvine turned out to vote; Irvine, is the only polling site in the Western US and the last to close in the world.
In case you get bored reading this blog entry about Iraqi out of country voting, you can always read the http://www.buzzmachine.com/archives/2005_01_29.html#008968 blog collection at Jeff Jarvis' Iraqi voting compendium, which I found on Bryan's www.horror-report.com
I'm Jewish, so know some Iraqis that are Chaldean (from my hometown of San Diego) and some that are Jewish (from having grown up in Los Angeles). I lived briefly in the UK, where I met Muslim Iraqis who were nice enough to walk me to synagogue on Friday night. I hope you will consider voting for the first time in 50 years in the upcoming Iraqi national election. Since San Diego's Chaldean community has yet to post information on its official web-site, which was last updated in 2004 http://www.chaldeanaid.org/, I'm going to try to put information here.
Remember to "Vote early, vote often!" (just kidding) See 11/2000 Kay Daly article on Chicago http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/printer-friendly.asp?ARTICLE_ID=16460
Articles herewith are reproduced in part or summarized under the Fair Use exception of 17 USC § 107 for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use.
http://www.iraqocv.org/php/index.php?lang=eng Iraq out-of country voting The official web-site, which is buried in a graphic from the LA TIMES. The directions from San Diego are wrong, according to Mr. Fuad, who answered the phone when I rang on Friday, 21 Jan AM. There was a phone number listed on the web-site, but it's no longer there. The graphic on page B10 of the 1/18/2005 Orange County edition of the LA Times lists 1-800-916-8292.
So, what happened this past week? According to http://www.iraqocv.org/php/content.php?link_id=88&lang=eng the official web-site, as of 2005-01-26: From Amman, Jordan: 280,303 expatriate Iraqis around the world have registered to vote in Iraq’s Transitional National Assembly Election through the International Organization for Migration’s (IOM) Out-of-Country Voting (OCV) Program. Last day of registration: 24,643 Cumulative total: 280,303
This I got from the Jewish Press, which arrived to my door a week late from New York, carrying meast news: You can google it up with http://www.google.com/searchhl=en&lr=&q=orly+halpern+Iraqi+election+Jordan or read a version at http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1105845489270
(Jan. 17, 2005 2:10 Updated Jan. 17, 2005 7:01) Jordan polling station could bar Iraqi-Israelis from historic election By ORLY HALPERN
Articles from LA Times can be found with http://www.latimes.com/search/dispatcher.front?target=article&Query=Expatriate+Iraqi+vote
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-011705iraqivote-g,1,6542105.graphic shows the distribution of the American Iraqi population and where the polling places have been established (published 18 Jan Tues on page B10)
[the web is a bit slow tonight, but I'm nearly certain when I read Fridays' LA times there was an article describing the election of a parliament with 100 slates possible, 7,000 candidates (including women, too!), and the size of the parliament.--mkg]
http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20050113-104220-6243r.htm starts with "Tens of thousands of Iraqi Jews with Israeli citizenship could vote in the upcoming Iraqi election if they could mail absentee ballots, although it's unlikely that they'll get the opportunity, local community leaders said. " [See how similar the effect of the unreachable polling place is for the head of the community. --mkg]
"It could be an opening for future relations between Israel and Iraq," said Mordechai Ben-Porat, a Baghdad native who oversaw the immigration of 130,000 Iraqi Jews to Israel shortly after its establishment. "I'm encouraging voting among Iraqi Jews, both those in Israel and those elsewhere in the world." But Mr. Ben-Porat, 80, conceded that few, in any, Israeli citizens of Iraqi origin will vote, because they must travel to Jordan to cast ballots. "If they made election stations in Israel, I would vote, but I won't go to Jordan. I don't have time for it," he said.
"Our main concern and the overwhelming complaint in our community is that it's not feasible for many people to travel twice to a place far from their home," said Jafar Qazwini of the group Future of Iraq in Los Angeles. "For example, there will be five stations in L.A., but none in San Diego, Phoenix and San Francisco." Mr. Ben-Porat, who heads the Babylonian Jewish Heritage Center in the Tel Aviv suburb of Or Yehuda, estimated that 244,000 Iraqi Jews live in Israel and an additional 45,000 reside elsewhere.
Israeli Housing Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, who left Iraq at 12, told the Ha'aretz newspaper that he didn't think Israelis would vote in Iraqi elections out of a sense of loyalty to their new home. But others said there was no conflict in participating in the Iraqi vote, noting that large numbers of American and Ukrainian expatriates with Israeli citizenship recently participated in elections in those countries. At the time of the Iraqi-Jewish exodus, the community had been stripped of their citizenship cards, barred from universities and subjected to pogroms. Despite the scars of discrimination, Iraqi Jews still romanticize sultry summers in Baghdad and boast about the country's first finance minister, Yehezkel Sasson, who was Jewish.
"We still listen to Iraqi classic music, and we're still fans of the Baghdad orchestra," said Sheffi Gabbai, also a Baghdad native who hosts a program on Iraqi culture on Israel Radio's Arabic broadcast. "I want democracy in Iraq because I want to visit cemeteries of my ancestors, my neighborhood, and my school," Mr. Gabbai also said he wouldn't travel to Jordan to vote, but added that he would gladly send an absentee ballot to Jordan's embassy in Tel Aviv. • Nicholas Kralev contributed to this report in Washington.
Articles from San Diego Union:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20050118/news_1n18iraqi.html
By Anne Krueger and Leslie Wolf BranscombSTAFF WRITERS
January 18, 2005
San Diego County, with about 30,000 Iraqis, has the third-largest Iraqi population in the country, behind Detroit and Chicago. Those who want to vote in the election must register in Irvine by Sunday, then return to vote between Jan. 28 and 30. To prevent fraud, absentee voting is not allowed.
"I just can't see how a lot of people are going to get two days off and vote," said Auday Arabo, president of an association that represents many Iraqi grocers in San Diego County. "It's too much of a burden."
"I would have voted, but I'm not going to drive that far to register, then come back, and go back again," said retired state Sen. Wadie Deddeh. "I am interested, but honestly, I am not going to drive four hours to vote."
Deddeh, 84, immigrated to New York City in 1974 and became a U.S. citizen in 1953. He spent 27 years as a state legislator.
"Ever since I became a U.S. citizen, I have never ever missed a vote," Deddeh said. "If by a miracle they say you can do it in San Diego, I'd go and register tomorrow."
Arkan Somo, 43, doubts he will make it to Irvine because of family and work responsibilities.
Somo, who recently ran for El Cajon City Council, said an employee of the gas station he owns is out sick, and he can't afford to be short-handed now.
His wife won't vote, Somo said, because she has to care for their four young children. There is school and soccer practice to consider. When would they find time? "I really want to, but it will be kind of tough," he said.
...Richard Haisha, a La Mesa insurance broker, was puzzled by the provision that allows people born in the United States to vote as long as their fathers were from Iraq.
"I'm an American citizen, but my father was born in Baghdad," he said. Haisha, 38, said his father left Iraq in 1956, and he was born in Detroit.
"I received a one-page letter about the election, mailed to the Chaldean community here," Haisha said. "But it was all in Arabic, and that doesn't do me any good."
http://breakingnews.nypost.com/dynamic/stories/I/IRAQ_OVERSEAS_VOTE_US?SITE=NYNYP&SECTION=HOME 17 Jan AP article by Gllian Flaccus on elections
The seven-day registration period ends Jan. 23. Voting will begin Jan. 28 and continue until the Jan. 30 election in Iraq for an assembly that will draft a constitution and choose a president.
Eligible voters can be American citizens, but must be 18 or older, have been born in Iraq, hold citizenship or prove that their father was Iraqi.
35,000 Iraqi immigrants expected to register at the polling station set up at a decommissioned Marine base in Southern California
About 240,000 Iraqis are eligible to vote in the United States, according to Roger Bryant of the International Center for Migration, which is in charge of the overseas voting for the Iraqi government.
Registrants headed to a polling station in Irvine, about 50 miles south of Los Angeles, found themselves searching for an address that didn't exist on the decommissioned Marine base. Most Iraqis interviewed said they had spent hours looking for the polling site, which saw light turnout.
The U.S. polling stations were monitored by armed guards and metal detectors. In Nashville, those seeking to register could not go directly to the two election sites, but had to gather at a hastily arranged location to board a bus.
Hussan Al Taee drove seven hours to Irvine from Phoenix to register to vote in his native country's first modern election. In London Saieb Jabbar said, "We lived in a dictatorship a long time, and it's the first time in my life, in my 48 years, that I can vote in Iraq."
Eligible Iraqis abroad - estimated to number 1.2 million - can vote in Britain, Australia, Sweden, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Iran, Jordan, the Netherlands, Syria, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and the United States.
Associated Press writers Stephen Manning, Dee-Ann Durbin, Colin Fly, and Ed Johnson contributed to this report.
© 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy.
http://www.aaiusa.org/news/must_read01_04_05.htm 4 Jan AP article by Gllian Flaccus on elections [my synopsis follows]
"The Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq in Baghdad authorized an out-of-country vote in November and enlisted the International Organization of Migration to organize it. "
90,000 foreign-born Iraqis in the United States
[age of voter eligibility not given]
Iraqi-born adults need two forms of identification, including proof of Iraqi birth.
Iraqi Americans with Iraqi-born fathers may also vote.
[no criteria given for establishing above.]
Jeremy Copeland is IOM official overseeing the balloting in the United States. He claims that the rule of registering in person and then returning to vote is necessary to prevent fraud.
"Some Iraqi Americans wanted polls to be set up in San Diego, the city with the third-largest population of Iraqi immigrants after Detroit and Chicago. The request was turned down for lack of time, Copeland [is reported to have said in the article.]
30,000 Iraqis live in Canada; [five voting centers]: Three voting centers are planned for the Toronto area and one in Ottawa and one Calgary, Alberta.
organizers say they have the capacity to count up to 1 million votes in 14 countries
the registration period conflicts with the Hajj [this no longer applies. I need a refernce for this, but the Hajj ended on Friday 21 January with the festival in commemoration of the attempted sacrifice of Abraham's son Ishmael. --mkg]
