VOA-- CONNECT
EPISODE 20
((AIR DATE: 06 01 2018))
((TRANSCRIPT))
OPEN ((VO/NAT))
((Banner))
Sand Mandala
((SOT))
Many kids came to me, “when I saw you doing the Sand Mandala, that helped me so much to finish my education.”
((Animation Transition))
((Banner))
Returning Art
((SOT))
We’re sending a clear message that if you engage in this black market, we will find you, we’ll prosecute you, and we will seize the artifacts and return them.
((Animation Transition))
((Banner))
Ramadan Kareem
((SOT))
So, the boxes that they’ll be assembling today, although distributed for Ramadan, are to all families in need of all different phases. ((Open Animation))
BLOCK A
((PKG)) US BORDER SERIES
((Banner: Along the Border))
((Reporter/Camera: Ramon Taylor, Arturo Martinez))
((Map: San Luis, Arizona; San Luis Rio Colorado, Mexico; El Centro, California; Mexicali, Mexico))
((Locator: San Luis, Arizona))
((JUÁN GONZÁLEZ, SEASONAL WORKER FROM MEXICO))
This is a calm border. There’s crime, but it’s not much, like other large cities.
((CANDELARIO VIZCARRA, SEASONAL WORKER FROM MEXICO))
It’s very calm on both sides. I’ve lived all my life in San Luis, Mexico and since I began crossing (for work) four, five years, they’re very similar.
((HERIBERTO GONZÁLEZ, BORDER RESIDENT))
Calm here and there, even between the two governments and everything..
((MARÍA HERRERA, BORDER RESIDENT))
It’s safer here because the police are more vigilant. It’s more protected.
((KIRSTJEN NIELSEN, SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY))
We have no idea what’s coming through areas that we do not have a way currently to properly and adequately surveil.
((Locator: El Centro, California))
((BILL DUBOIS, BORDER RESIDENT))
Illegal immigration is a danger. You should know who comes into the country and why they’re coming, how long will they stay here, and who are they.
((STEVE ANDRADE, BORDER RESIDENT))
They’re leeching our system, and I pay so much taxes every month, believe me, that it pisses me off that all my money goes to those people. You know what, I get nothing out of it! Bottom
line is, the wall -- go for it. National Guard -- go for it!
((Courtesy: Alfa y Omega))
((Locator: Mexicali, Mexico))
((LAURA ELENA JIMÉNEZ, COORDINATOR, MANA PASTORAL CENTER))
They would come on the train, and would always ask for food. And because we’re with the church, the father said one day, “we should create a migrant house, no?”
((LAURA ELENA JIMÉNEZ, COORDINATOR, MANA PASTORAL CENTER))
We had a small (bedbug) problem, and had to take out the mattresses so we could spray. There are two identical rooms, with four bunks in each one. Sometimes I think we don’t truly understand the situations that these people are living.
Sometimes I’ll ask them, “why don’t you stay in your country with your family? Only beans, but at least you’re together?” “You just don’t understand what we go through in other countries,” they’ll tell me.
((MARIO HERNÁNDEZ, MIGRANT FROM GUATEMALA))
If you have a business and don’t give (the gangs) money -- an extortion -- they kill you. First they threaten you, and if you don’t come up with the money, then they kill you. That’s how it is.”
((MERLÍN SAUCEDA, ASYLUM SEEKER FROM HONDURAS))
(Gang members) killed my dad when I was five years old. And the ones that killed him now don’t trust me. They think I’ll seek revenge, and they’re looking for me.”
((DONALD J. TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES))
Are you watching that mess that’s going on right now? With the caravan coming up? Are you watching this? And our laws are so weak, they’re so pathetic, given to us by Democrats.
((Locator: Calexico, California / El Centro Sector))
((JORGE RIVERA, US BORDER PATROL, EL CENTRO SECTOR))
We’re looking here at a construction site. We are installing now a 30-foot border wall system that is going to consist of about 2.1 miles here from behind me, all the way to the near river.
The main thing is you can see through it, that’s the main thing. This is one of the areas where we receive the most assaults in the nation against agents. So, we’re avoiding rockings (rocks thrown), people coming in to just do harm.
I can tell you that back in 2000, this sector alone apprehended about 240,000 people. Last year, that number went down to about 18,000. It’s been known that infrastructure, technology, and more agents have helped that number to deter illegal immigration, illegal activity in general, and we’re now doing a better job.
((Locator: Mexicali, Mexico))
((MÓNICA OROPEZA RODRÍGUEZ, DIRECTOR, ALBERGUE DEL DESIERTO))
All this border control that the U.S. implemented with Mexico, what happened as a result is that many of those who brought drugs would now kidnap migrants and make them do their work. In Sonora, there are still guys who cross -- who try to cross in Sonora -- and they’re bringing backpacks full of drugs, without even knowing it. They’ll tell them, “You have to bring this and turn it in once you arrive. That’s your form of payment.”
((Locator: San Luis, Arizona))
((GREG, BORDER RESIDENT))
About the National Guard, I totally agree. They don’t go and attack nobody. I mean, it’s just to protect the borders, and I agree.
((CANDELARIO VIZCARRA, SEASONAL WORKER FROM MEXICO))
If it’s for narcotrafficking and trafficking of persons, then it’s good.
((MARÍA HERRERA, BORDER RESIDENT))
It’s very difficult. We don’t want to militarize the border, because you’ll be at home, and always afraid, with the kids. But you also want them to be far from all of this. With narcotrafficking, kids are monopolizing right now. Just along this border, you’ll see kids from school. They’ll cross, and they’ll bring drugs.
((MEREDITH MINGLEDORFF, U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION))
Obviously, you can’t affect security with only one solution, right? So, you have to have a layered approach. It does us no good to have security cameras or technology if there’s no agent to respond if we see something, right? So, you have to apply the different tools in the different areas.
((Locator: Mexicali, Mexico))
((RAMON TAYLOR, VOA NEWS)) ((OFF CAMERA))
Will you try again?
((CÉSAR FERNÁNDEZ MORALES, DEPORTED MEXICAN MIGRANT))
No, not anymore.
((RAMON TAYLOR, VOA NEWS)) ((OFF CAMERA))
Not anymore?
((CÉSAR FERNÁNDEZ MORALES, DEPORTED MEXICAN MIGRANT))
Not anymore. It’s very difficult.”
((RAMON TAYLOR, VOA NEWS)) ((OFF CAMERA))
Why’s that?
((CÉSAR FERNÁNDEZ MORALES, DEPORTED MEXICAN MIGRANT))
The border is tightly guarded. There are no more possibilities.
((LAURA ELENA JIMÉNEZ, COORDINATOR, MANA PASTORAL CENTER))
Sometimes some will come to me and ask, “How can I go back like this, defeated?” I tell them, “No, you’re not returning defeated. You’re returning alive.” Many have stayed on the path and wanted to return but couldn’t. “Hold on to that,” I tell them.
((MERLÍN SAUCEDA, ASYLUM SEEKER FROM HONDURAS))
65 kilometers is how long you walk to get to the train. There, they stole my backpack and shoes. I walked about 15 kilometers barefoot. This trip has been very tough. But ultimately, everything is going to turn out okay.
((MARIO HERNÁNDEZ, MIGRANT FROM GUATEMALA))
If I would have come sooner, maybe (my children) wouldn’t be dead. Maybe they would be here with me. One chooses to disappear. You ask yourself, “What am I doing here?” They already took away
the people I love most. So, It’s better. You get disappointed. And once you’re disappointed, you’re willing to do whatever it takes.
TEASE ((VO/NAT))
Coming up….
((Banner))
A Syrian Girl
((SOT))
I wanted to try to find a way to understand not just the war, but understand that moment of being seven years old.
BREAK ONE
BUMP IN ((ANIM))
BLOCK B
((Banner: The Arts))
((PKG)) WHEN I WAS 7 – SYRIAN GIRL MURAL
((Banner: When I was 7))
((Reporter/Camera: Shahzad Khokhar))
((Adapted by: Philip Alexiou))
((Map: Minnesota, Minneapolis))
((PHIL HANSEN, ARTIST))
The name of this project is “When I was 7.” It all came about when I ran into Bana ((Courtesy: Bana Alabed Twitter)) and her story and hearing about her and the Syrian war and her experience in Aleppo, and then trying to relate that to my own life experience. And I could not relate to that in any way, shape or form.
((Courtesy: Bana Alabed Twitter))
Stand with Aleppo.
((PHIL HANSEN, ARTIST))
I wanted to try to find a way to understand not just the war, but understand that moment of being seven years old and how different that can be for everybody, depending on their life experience, where they are in the world and what their life happens to entail.
So, I asked people to share a story with me about when they were seven years old. A memory, some sort of experience that they went through. Then I hand wrote all those stories to create the picture.
I worked on it, kind of, piece meal throughout the year as I was hearing more stories, collecting more stories from the people.
I’ve actually never met Bana, never spoken to her. I didn’t even reach out because this project was about viewing her and her life from afar, and so it’s really about creating that experience of having the distance and being able to try to view somebody from that distance.
The message of this art work is that it’s very easy to get lost in our day to day. It’s very easy to get lost in the modern world. To see our experience and always be looking at the future and to, maybe, not pay so much attention to those around us.
For anyone in Syria who happens to see this project, as an American artist, I can’t even comprehend what they’re going through, what they’re experiencing. But I think, well, hopefully they understand that were seeing what they’re going through, that we are trying to understand it, and hopefully all of that adds up to a collective whole, where there’s some sort of understanding and action.
((ANIMATION W/ GFX, CAPTIONS, PHOTOS))
((Banner: Bana and her family are now living safely in Turkey. She has written a book, Dear World))
((PKG)) TIBETAN SAND ART
((Banner: Mandalas of Sand))
((Reporter/Camera: June Soh))
((Map: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania))
((LOSONG SAMTEN, SPIRITUAL DIRECTOR, TIBETAN BUDDHIST CENTER OF PHILADELPHIA))
When I was a teenager, at the age of 17, I had a privilege to enter into His Holiness Dalai Lama’s monastery in India. I have been studying sand mandala ever since then. So it’s a long time.
((Banner: A mandala is a Buddhist and Hindu spiritual symbol))
What I’m doing now in the Philadelphia Folklore Project is the center of the mandala.
If, let’s say, we decided to do a whole mandala compassion, it’s at least going to take three weeks to complete.
Mandala represents the universe. Mandala represents home of the god and goddesses. We will say the deities.
I came here in 1988 to the United States to do the sand mandala in New York City at the American Museum of Natural History. That was the first time displayed the Tibetan unique sand mandala to the public. Ever since then I’ve had a great opportunity to create the sand mandalas all over the United States and Canada, a lot of parts of the world.
These are uniquely designed. Many, many, many, many, many years. So, passing through artist to another artist to another artist to another artist.
So, the color has a meaning. Shape has different meanings. Not my design. It didn’t come out of my own idea.
((Courtesy: Losong Samten))
((LOSONG SAMTEN, SPIRITUAL DIRECTOR, TIBETAN BUDDHIST CENTER OF PHILADELPHIA))
In the winter of 1959, crossed the Mount Everest. It took us two months to cross. You cannot travel during the day. And so scared and not enough food, not enough clothes. I was age of 5. I have seen, I mean, unbelievable dead bodies, people dying without food. I became a monk at age 11 when I was in school, refugee school.
When I am doing this mandala at the universities and in the schools, many kids came to me, “when I saw you doing the sand sandala, that helped me so much to finish my education.” Patience.
((NATS))
Dismantle has many different reasons. One thing is, dismantle is a beauty, whatever we see as a beauty on the earth, never be everlasting as a beauty and impermanent, impermanent, comes and goes. It’s like a season.
((TRACI CHIODRESS, GALLERY VISITOR))
I think it’s powerful to see something so beautiful created, and then taken apart, and to be done in a community with a group of people of different ages. I just think it’s an important type of practice.
((NATS))
((PKG)) IRAQI ARTIFACTS
((Banner: Returning Art))
((Reporter/Camera: Sandzhar Khamidov))
((Adapted by: Aisha Handerson))
((Map: Washington, D.C.))
((JOHN PAUL LABATT, HOMELAND SECURITY INVESTIGATIONS))
My name is John Paul Labatt. I’m a special agent with Homeland Security Investigations in New York City.
((Banner: Starting in 2009, representatives of the US corporation Hobby Lobby smuggled thousands of ancient artifacts from Iraq. Destined for the owners’ Bible Museum, the artifacts were seized, the company fined, and the items returned to Iraq))
((JOHN PAUL LABATT, HOMELAND SECURITY INVESTIGATIONS))
So, as part of our regular duties, we investigate the smuggling of cultural artifacts into the United States and this was part of what we normally do.
((FAREED YASSEEN, IRAQI AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED STATES))
Not only do they enforce the law, they serve as a sense of historic justice, and they help in the fight against criminal and terrorist networks. They serve a sense of historic justice because they are returning items to their natural homes and to a nation that is very attached to its cultural heritage.
((JOHN PAUL LABATT, HOMELAND SECURITY INVESTIGATIONS))
We’re very proud to be here today at the home of the ambassador. It’s an honor to be able to return these pieces of history to the Iraqi people. It’s not only the history of the Iraqi people, it’s the history of all people. These are some of the earliest writings ever documented. And, really, all of man should celebrate today.
Most of these artifacts have been looted from areas that were previously unexcavated. So, it’s impossible to know what was found in the ground. It’s just no way to tell. We’re sending a clear message that if you engage in this black market, we will find you, we’ll prosecute you, and we will seize the artifacts and return them.
TEASE ((VO/NAT))
Coming up….
((Banner))
Serving Others
((SOT))
He was definitely one person that I definitely would have wanted to serve next to.
BREAK TWO
BUMP IN ((ANIM))
BLOCK C
((Banner: Selflessness))
((PKG)) GHANAIAN AMERICAN RESCUER – FIRE HERO
((Banner: The Ultimate Sacrifice))
((Reporter/Camera: Salem Solomon))
((Adapted by: Bronwyn Benito))
((Map: New York, New York City))
((STAFF SGT. RUBEN MARTINEZ-ORTIZ, FRIEND OF EMMANUEL MENSAH))
I would want to serve with somebody like Emmanuel Mensah. You know, there’s people that join the military for, you now, whatever reason and stuff like that, but then you know who you'd want to serve next to and he was definitely one person that I definitely would have wanted to serve next to.
((MARGO PERKINS, NEIGHBOR OF EMMANUEL MENSAH))
He used to call me ‘Mom.’ Whenever I needed something done, he always did it.
((KWABENA MENSAH, FATHER OF EMMANUEL MENSAH))
Everybody that knows him, if you ask them that if you called him, he would help you.
((MARGO PERKINS, NEIGHBOR OF EMMANUEL MENSAH))
Emmanuel, oh my goodness, anytime.
((STAFF SGT. RUBEN MARTINEZ-ORTIZ, FRIEND OF EMMANUEL MENSAH))
He was motivated. He was. He was very motivated to start his career because he wanted to be a cop eventually. That’s what his goal was. He wanted to be a cop and in order for you to be a cop, you need to be a citizen. So, he figured the National Guard would help him.
The last text that I received from him was in Thanksgiving, actually. Basically he thanked me for making him the person that he was today and that was a soldier. And that right there, I think about that a lot. I do.
I was home and they told me that, you know, there’s a fire happening in the Bronx. They found, like, dog tags and they couldn’t recognize the corpse, but they knew the name. They told me to go online real quick and find out if that’s him. And when I saw it, I was like, that can’t be right. That can’t be him.
((KWABENA MENSAH, FATHER OF EMMANUEL MENSAH))
He will find a way. But for him to have that courage and get people out. Comes first, went back again into the fire. One of the facts of this hasn’t, the fire department hasn’t come. They had to have them coming, but they haven’t got there yet. And then got another person and went back in, and then went back again, back and forth. The last person he got out was a pregnant woman.
((STAFF SGT. RUBEN MARTINEZ-ORTIZ, FRIEND OF EMMANUEL MENSAH))
Couldn’t believe it. I started thinking about when I first met him and I was like, you know what, it makes sense. Like he, he was that type.
((KWABENA MENSAH, FATHER OF EMMANUEL MENSAH))
It was the smoke that, you know. And then when they found him, he lives on the third floor, they found him on the fourth floor trying to go in and rescue somebody else.
((STAFF SGT. RUBEN MARTINEZ-ORTIZ, FRIEND OF EMMANUEL MENSAH))
He went above and beyond and he didn’t have to, and he barely started his career. He just came out of training.
((Courtesy: New York Army National Guard))
So, I could just start picturing what else he could have done throughout his career. What he could have accomplished throughout his career with a mindset like that.
((KWABENA MENSAH, FATHER OF EMMANUEL MENSAH))
His legacy has to be remembered for the time and that is twofold has to remain remembered. He came to this world to do what he did.
And once and for all he did what he was supposed to do and is out of this world. But, he has to be remembered as a hero.
((PKG)) RAMADAN FOOD PACKAGES
((Banner: Ramadan))
((Reporter: Deborah Block))
((Camera: Mike Burke))
((Adapted by: Martin Secrest))
((ANIMATION W/ GFX, CAPTIONS, PHOTOS))
((Banner: Many of the world’s 1.8 billion Muslims are observing Ramadan. One of the Five Pillars of Islam, the holy month is devoted to increased prayer, the breaking of the daytime fast with iftar, an often communal meal and performing acts of charity ))
((Map: Falls Church, Virginia))
((Locator: Dar al-Hijrah Islamic Center, Falls Church, Virginia))
((Banner: Islamic Relief USA assembles food packages during Ramadan. The boxes are for refugees from Iraq and Syria, or anyone in need regardless of faith))
((TAHANI JABARIN, Dar al-Hijirah Islamic Center))
We’re distributing the Islamic Relief boxes, which have the rice, oil, sugar - all the items that any mother would like to have in her kitchen to start a meal. And specifically, during this time of the year, which is Ramadan, the month of fasting, people do appreciate that this extra box is coming to them through Islamic Relief. And, as one of the people who actually came and received, she said, “Yes, I look forward every year to come and get one of those boxes.” So, having this extra box coming during this month, would definitely help many of our families.
((SAID DURRAH, Islamic Relief USA))
We have two shifts, so it’s not too much on the volunteers. We had about 500 boxes we did in the first shift. That was from about 10:00 to 1:00 o’clock, and so this shift will go probably close to 5:00 or 6:00 o’clock. They will be another 50 volunteers that will do another 500 boxes.
((ALI HUSSAIN, Volunteer))
To me, honestly, it’s just a matter of serving those really in need all around the world, and especially here in the United States. I come over here, and I know that I’m making a dent, and making some sort of a difference in helping people. Being able to volunteer, and be around other volunteers, this type of energy, and really all for the sake of just doing good work, really just motivates me to keep going and moving forward.
((SAID DURRAH, Islamic Relief USA))
There’s a misconception out there that a lot of people that are receiving the box did something wrong in their life, or they deserve what they (get). No, this is not right. These are just humans just like us, and everybody, really, is one paycheck or one medical emergency from being on the other side of this distribution. We always tell this to our volunteers: “Be happy you’re closing the box, and say ‘Alhamdulillah,’ and thank God every day, because there are people who are opening this box who never thought that they would have to, but they hit a tough time in their life. So, for me, it’s great to see the look in their eyes and their faces, because boxes like these don’t just give them food we think they’ll need. It’s food that they actually will use to create their meals, to feel like a full family. That’s why we all do this, that’s why our whole office does it, because of that feeling.
NEXT WEEK / GOOD BYE ((VO/NAT))
((BANNER))
Living Free
((SOT))
((BANNER))
Creating Comfort
((SOT))
CLOSING ((ANIM))
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BREAK THREE
BUMP IN ((ANIM))
SHOW ENDS