On this week’s episode of Truthdig Radio in collaboration with KPFK: the great Bill Moyers on the desperate state of our democracy, Nomi Prins on the scandalous IMF and Cole Miller on grass-roots philanthropy.
Lineup:
0:35 - Nomi Prins
7:09 - Cole Miller
21:20 - Bill Moyers
Click here to listen to the program or read the transcript.
Updated: Friday, 06 May 2011, 7:31 AM EDT
Published : Thursday, 05 May 2011, 10:51 AM EDT
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - Hamzah Al-Daeni has seen and lived through more than any 8-year-old should. In May 2008, he was playing in the yard of his family’s home in Iraq when an American missile landed nearby. He lost his leg, and several family members were killed.
“His house is right in the middle, between the American Army and (forces loyal to the opposition,”) said his translator, Shadia Kanaan. “He was almost caught in the crossfire, and so the American missile hit right in front of the house.”
But a local organization, Healing Children of Conflict , is trying to help. And for the first time, they’ve brought a child to the US, to Grand Rapids, for treatment.
“Initially there was one hospital in Iraq and they told him he had no chance of making it,” Kanaan told 24 Hour News 8. “So this is kind of a miracle.”
His father, Imad, was desperate to get help for his son. “(Imad) says the trauma, the experience of what happened to his son was so traumatic, and he was very angry at the American Army,” Kanaan said.
Though not independently confirmed by 24 Hour News 8, Healing Children of Conflict said the shrapnel that injured Hamzah came from a missile only used by US forces in Iraq.
Imad already sold their house and car, among other possessions, to help pay for medical bills. So he turned to the country he blamed for his son’s injuries.
He connected with Healing Children of Conflict, a Grand Rapids-based organization with a mission to help children seriously injured in conflicts involving the United States.
“For him to come here and see this humanitarian effort, it really changed his mind completely,” Kanaan said of Imad. “He’s seeing things from a completely different perspective. He’s actually very grateful for that.”
A welcoming ceremony took place Thursday at the Ronald McDonald House of West Michigan. Hamzah will be in Grand Rapids for several weeks for treatment and to be fitted with a prosthetic leg.
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Las Cruces-based funky rock band Finnigan and the No Gooders is no stranger to performing at Mountain View Market’s Co-Op Rocks.
Jesse Medina, the band’s guitarist and vocalist, said the event always brings out a variety of people of all ages.
Finnigan and the No Gooders will perform with other artists for the latest Co-Op Rocks Ð “No More Victims” Valentine’s Day benefit concert — from 6 p.m. to midnight tonight at Mountain View Market, 1300 El Paseo Road, Suite M.
No More Victims raises money to provide medical care to Iraqi children injured by the war, even bringing them to the United States for medical treatment, which Medina said is a cause his band wanted to support. (more…)
ONTARIO, Calif. - The truth is sometimes lost in the translation. Especially when an Iraqi boy visiting the United States for the first time is asked what he wants to be when he grows up, and answers with the candor of a child.
“I want to be a pilot,” 8-year-old Mustafa Dinar said in Arabic, “so I can fly a plane and drop bombs on Americans.”
Ikbal Fartous was stunned by her son’s frankness, so when she translated for the news media in this strip-mall suburb east of Los Angeles, she censored his words. She said only that Mustafa wanted a bike. And he did. Mustafa had mentioned the bike after saying he wanted to bomb Americans. (more…)