Dismantling Dismay

General Humanitarian Event Tips
by Ruben Vaughan III

Coordinating an event to feed the poor, make children smile or to service humanity in general takes planning and a dedicated team. In basic preparations for a humanitarian event your team must be assembled, assigned task and coordinated with an aim of a fluid success. Fluidity implies choosing the path of least resistance, feigning away from micromanaging but at the same time paying attention to details. The details are the people you are serving, their families, their feelings, their needs and their happiness. The stimulating feeling one gets as they realize some one genuinely cares about them and the condition they are in surpasses perception. . . .

More at: Dismantling Dimay

FEMA? Hezbollah?

Personally seeing the ongoing devastation in New Orleans, reminded (vis-a-vis Affad Shaikh) me of a quote I enjoyed last year:

'So Hezbollah is giving $4,000 each to the residents of South Lebanon and promising to rebuild their towns. Seeing such quick actions, we should disband FEMA - after its woeful performance in New Orleans - and outsource the job to Hezbollah.'

Updated!

Check it out, both Muslamics and HHR have been updated!

Super Store!

I have a confession to make: I went shopping at a Wal-Mart Super Store. We didn't have a choice. It was the only thing in town that would have everything we needed.

We tried alternatives though - Get this, when we asked the woman at the hotel's front desk if there were alternatives she asked why we didn't want to go to Wal-Mart. She thought it was because maybe it would be too crowded! She gave us the name of and directions to another grocery store. We couldn't find it! We drove around for about 30 minutes, navigating the one-way streets and the Bourbon Street (there were all sorts of people out and about, and drunk well before dark) closure to no avail. We couldn't find it; we couldn't even see it.

So yes, today while away from home on a social justice expedition in Louisiana, I shopped at a Wal-Mart Super Store. I believe it's the first time I've been in a Wal-Mart in quite a few years (and those times didn't count because they were in Canada and because I wasn't yet aware of the social issues surrounding Wal-Mart).

Random Observations:

1. It was packed!
2. Given how cramped the streets of Metairie are, the Wal-Mart is a bit of a ways out of the area - but it's an oasis of parking and open space!
3. Nothing seemed to be on sale; everything was just really cheap.
4. A random African American man said "Salaams" to me. I believe this was the first official random Muslim encounter I've had out here (not including the Muslim cab driver on Saturday morning in SF).
5. The majority of the individuals shopping at the Wal-Mart were African American. The same is true about the folks who were working there.

We bought $176 worth of groceries at Wal-Mart! One thing is for sure, I figured out why they are called Super Stores!

1. They had everything there!
   
2. You would not believe how much food we got for $176! (Not very surprising given their employees barely make any money and definitely don't have any benefits.)

I was tempted to take a picture of all of the Wal-Mart grocery bags we lugged back to the hotel, but I held back. Somehow, I don't think that would have been the best memory.

Ya'Allah please grant us refuge from evil capitalist schemes like that of Wal-Mart.

Alhamdulillah.

So, Alhamdulillah I just got word that my Moot Court brief will not be needing revision over Spring Break. Now though, I no longer have any excuses to justify not having started to pack for Louisiana!

BTW a few of us are trying something out. Bloggers gone wild? Your feedback would be appreciated.

Alhamdulillah for the victory in the Senate today! Major props to Muslim Advocates, MPAC and the ACLU amongst others. For those of you out there who don't vote, this should be taken as a sign that we, the electorate, actually do have some power.