HBO, Tribeca Film Festival, Cannes and Traverse City Film Festival have all featured the documentary film… “Baghdad High.”

The documentary features four male high school students in Baghdad, all very typical youths who are just trying to live, study, look forward to a college future and have girlfriends while video taping each other and themselves for director, Laura Winter.  They defy our stereotypes in so many ways.  Each is from a different ethnic/religious background: Sunni, Shia, Kurd and Christian.  They attend a multi-ethnic high school, segregated only by gender.

While they worry about their own futures and any possible peace in Iraq, their daily lives are more consumed with passing exams, attending school as they navigate checkpoints, having fun and goofing off with one another and other family members featured in their personal and totally appealing video diaries.

The most amazing aspect of the film viewing was a question and session with the director Laura Winter and one of the student filmmakers, Ali, who is now living in the US.  During the q&a, one audience member asked if the other three boys had any idea how many people were seeing and praising their amateur videography.  Laura Winter helped Ali communicate (his English is quite good, but halting) that the other boys really had no concept of the films warm welcome by audiences, since they are still living in Baghdad and it is hard for them to perceive what Ali is experiencing.

So… one ingenious audience member suggested a little video clip that could be posted to Youtube so that the other boys, Hayder, Mohammed and Asnan could see through Ali’s ‘eyes’ what kind of reception their efforts are getting.  Here it is for the viewing:

Such a random blog post for a tshirt, pseudo-political website! However, when not engrossed in the news of the day, or the perfect storm of a world spinning seemingly out of control, this blogger is a pretty good home repair, painting, staining, decorating afficianado. So this post is dedicated to an incredible Minwax brand product that can be worked as stain, as faux finish, or any number of imaginative projects. Love it!! Thanks Minwax…. and ALL of you adventurous and creative home-enhancers who have recommended it. Those of you who know….The power of Gel-Stain.

We here at Tshirtjihad want to dedicate this post to NBC Washington Bureau Chief, Tim Russert. Much more than a political pundit, Russert exemplified character and integrity. He was one of the few television journalists really worth watching. His personal life gave witness to the reality of this depth of character. A devoted father, husband and son, Russert and wrote a best-seller in 2004 about his life, featuring his dad.

His passion was politics, but behind this was a greater passion for family and for faith. Fittingly, just before his passing from this life, his last days were spent well….. in Italy with his family, celebrating his son’s college graduation.

H is presence will be well-missed this election season… and in the days to come when we go looking for quality journalistic work.

It seems he made it. Now, doesn’t that victorious expression look just like our fabulous tshirt????

Burma

“No Access……”

New Cyclone Storm Developing………

With Heavy Rains……..

China

And as many as 26,000 buried in rubble in China…..

There may be many posts coming along on this topic. Sorry. If you have no interest in what happens to the victims of this cyclone, check back in a week or so. We may (or may not) be onto something else.

Today’s news tells us that the military junta has seized World Food Program supplies and will hinder any more relief effort. According to the US State Department Press briefing aired last night on Cspan, there can be no real relief effort until at least one agency is allowed access in country to plan a distribution infrastructure. Now, with the UN aid program effectively shut down…. what can anyone do? These people might have another one to two weeks before disease and exposure become as deadly as the storm itself.

Many others are online trying to disseminate news and information. Here are a few…

Myanmar sites:

http://myatthura.blogspot.com

http://www.mayburma.com

http://ratchasima.net

http://www.Irrawaddy.org

http://jotman.blogspot.com

The Irrawaddy is a very good news resource…. if you are getting sick of all the CNN links!

In our archives on this blog are more than one reference to this struggling nation. Now, there is this horrific news of Cyclone Nargis and this once prosperous nation, sometimes called the ‘rice bowl’ of Asia, endures even more suffering. CNN has hosted a lot of helpful information for those who care to learn.  An even more in-depth perspective can be found at www.voicesforburma.org.

Go to this CNN page on their website and find out more about how you can impact their world:

Here are some of the ways you can help:

• Intl. Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent
• World Food Programme
• Save the Children
• World Vision
• UNICEF
• International Rescue Committee
• International Medical Corps

We have a saying in our household as a joke…. and insider thing that most people don’t get until we let them in on it. For example, the other evening at dinner a friend told us that he can watch infomercial length ads for “Girls Gone Wild” early in the morning on some random cable channel. We joked… “Yeah, that’s why they hate us.” The meaning had to be explained that the hatred directed toward the Western world by Islamic extremists (and perhaps not so extremist, non-Islamists) can be linked to our propagation of degraded values. So, in conformity with our little inside joke…. here’s a fun little video -

Some recent news headlines are nothing short of apocalyptic… so here are few to ponder over -
The Big Thirst in the NYTimes about the future (or lack thereof) of oil.

The Seeds of Disaster in the Washington Post about the global food crises.

A Silent Tsunami from swissinfo.ch;  again about the global food crises.

Churches Fear Zimbabwe Genocide from the BBC with a pretty self-explanatory title.

Faustian Economics; Hell hath no limits by Wendell Barry, debuting in Harper’s magazine May issue.

So, another blog entry on the Clinton or Obama nomination??… it just seems a tad ridiculous today.