Why the US won't employ Arabists

There's an important article in Newsweek about the US government refusing to employ Danny Kopp who recently moved back to the US last year after spending his life in Jerusalem where his parents pastor the Baptist church. He speaks perfectly fluent Arabic and understands the region better than anyone I know but apparently he is considered to be "too close". When my wife Jenny was considering applying for a job with the State Department a few years ago she was told that although she would pass all the examinations there was no way she would be posted to the Middle East precisely because of her experience there - they just wanted people who can "represent American culture and policy" not genuinely engage with the countries where they are posted. The State Department told Newsweek that its arabic-speaking staff had only increased by 15% since 2001 - so in 5 years in which the US has spent over a trillion dollars in Homeland Security and in obliterating Iraq it has made no effort to hire people who actually understand the issues. Its no surprise that US policy in the Middle East (not to mention elsewhere) is such a mess if they filter out the very people who could craft a sane and sensitive engagement. The British Foreign Office has its own problems, but it at least promotes Arabists rather than blocking them.

Newsweek also has an interview with Rev. Andrew White, the vicar of the Anglican church in Iraq and a close friend whose political views are essentially the opposite of mine but who's love for all the people of Iraq is very genuine.

More articles about our registry and wedding

I just did a Google and found some more articles about our Wedding registry that I wasn't aware of. We continue to find the interest amusing as we didn't think that asking for charitable donations as wedding presents was particularly unusual and really is one of the least strange things about our lives! Here a good piece in the Rocky Mountain News (Colarado paper) "Some save a piece of the wedding cake for the needy". Here's the press release that The Big Day (who managed our registry) sent out about us, I should note that the figures given in it for the number of beneficiaries are incorrect.

After all the embarrasing praise we've had for the rather unremarkable act of including some opinions for donations in our wedding registry, its rather refreshing to see this critical article by Lindor Reynolds in the Winnipeg Free Press "Save the world, fund a honeymoon" (here is the Google cache of it to avoid registering). "I've found the registry for do-gooders Jenny and Justin... [thence follows a list of both the charitable items on our registry and items related to our honeymoon]... Maybe it's me, but didn't it used to be traditional to have the honeymoon you could actually afford? And not to call it charity if it's just wrapped around a list of extravagant desires?" Ouch. In response to Linor, let me explain the thinking behind our registry. As people whose lives are split between many countries lot and who anyway don't like being cluttered with lots of possessions we asked most of our guests not to buy the standard wedding gifts. We would have been quite happy with peoples presence and/or prayers, but people naturally like to buy gifts at weddings, and so when we came across a website which enabled people to give cash instead of objects, but to do in a more personal way of contributing towards our honeymoon, this made sense. And as a time when a lot of money is being spent on our wedding and honeymoon, we didn't want to forget others, hence the inclusion of donations for medical aid for Iraqi children, funds to support a Palestinian friend's wedding and provision of livestock for subsistance farmers through Heifer International. So far we've had a total of 63 gifts to these three causes, totalling over $1200 and representing more than a quarter of the gifts we've recieved. We're grateful to everyone who's given. Interestingly the most (outrageously) generous gift we received came from an Iraqi.

I've just seen that Mil Rai has blogged about the wedding. He's an amazing Nepalese-English activist/writer who took a day out of his US speaking tour to attend the wedding. I didn't get more than 2 minutes to talk to him (this is the way with weddings) but I was so delighted he came and his reflections are interesting reading as always: The Resistance Wedding, Christian Song, Resistance Wedding Litany, The Other Cheek (his final post raises some important questions which I'll blog a response to in the future).

Back from Honeymoon!

We had a wonderful honeymoon in St.Lucia, in spite of Jenny getting stung about 200 times by tiny jelly fish while diving. We're now in Missouri where she is packing up her life in preperation to move to London on Sunday (her UK settlement visa came through in double quick time, el-hamdullilah). Next week will be busy planning the UK-half of the wedding festivities (i hope to see lots of you there!) and also we're trying to find interesting jobs related to the Middle East / conflict resolution / development etc. (any ideas welcome!). Our official wedding photos are online here (I gave the wrong link before) and there are also some on Raed's and David's and Tim's websites.

Married!

Can you believe it? I'm struggling to! Some pre-wedding photos should be posted here and I'll put up a link to the Wedding day photos as soon as they're online (any guest reading this please email us any snaps you took). We're off on honeymoon in an hour so bye for now! - A very happy Justin.

Our wedding registry story on St.Louis TV

Jenny and I thought that probably the most normal thing about our relationship was our wedding registry, but somehow the media have got interested in it. KMOV, the local TV station in St.Louis came and interviewed us about it today and it aired on the 5pm news and is the most viewed news item on their website here. Its kinda embarrassing. Watch out for the bit in the video where they zoom in on me picking a piece of lint out of Jenny's hair - apparently the camera was running when they were sorting out the sound levels and they chose to play this - it's a bit like the intro to Farenheit 911 which catches Wolfowitz, Bush and others making faces and doing their hair prior to interviews when they don't realise the camera is running! The reporter apparently thinks everything in life comes in 20s, i'm not sure where she got that from, also her description of Tuwani "a village in West Bank where almost everyone lives in caves with their sheep" sounds a bit funny but actually isn't too far from the truth.

They edited out all the politics in our interview of course. For the record there's a reason why Palestinians need sheep donated - because the settlers kill their folks and because of the economic blockade by Israel and the West. Also, Iraqi children wouldn't be needing medical aid - in a country which used to have good universal free health care - unless we'd seriously messed the place up through our wars, sanctions and occupation... Anyhow I can't blog any more as we're deep into wedding planning and Jenny is pulling me away from the computer...

Pre-wedding photos

Jenny and I wandered out in St. Louis' Forest Park (the largest municipal park in the US, twice the size of Central Park) with a photographer friend of the family to get some pre-wedding photos as we have very few decent ones of us together. The full set is here

Our wedding in the Globe and Mail...

This is hilarious article about"ALT WEDDING REGISTRIES" by Karen Von Hann in Canadian Globe & Mail (3 June 2006) mentioning our wedding registry, which the journalist stumbled acro

"What to get the couple who have everything? How about livestock? When Jenny, 24, and Justin, 27, tie the knot next week, the two Christian peacemakers, who are based in Amman, have asked their wedding guests to chip in for sheep and goats for needy Arab families. "Justin and I don't feel the need to develop an extensive dining collection," explains Elliott, who believes that "having a lot of things just weighs you down." She adds: "We want our wedding to reflect our values and set the tone for our lives, so this made sense." As it happens, Jenny and Justin may be trendsetters, yet they are also an altruistic exception. Most couples, finding themselves with little need for the traditional essentials of setting up house, are finding novel ways to romance what they see essentially as an opportunity." [continued...]

So I turned 28 this morning - yikes! I'm leaving the Middle East in a few days to head to St.Louis Missouri for the wedding (on 17 June) then honeymooning in the Caribbean then settling in London and franctically searching for jobs for Jenny and myself. It feels strange and in a way disloyal to be moving on with my life when so many friends are trapped in Iraq with little hope. Still my Iraqi friends have given me their blessing, and while I probably won't be in the country for a while I'll try to stay involved. CPT-UK held a retreat this weekend, reported here, sadly as I'm not in country yet I couldn't attend.

Chomsky on CPT

Speaking at the American University of Beirut in Lebanon this week, Noam Chomsky painted a gloomy picture of international affairs under the US empire. At the end, when he was asked by a member of his audience "Is there any hope?", he mentioned "International solidarity movements, such as those in Central America and Palestine, and Christian Peacemaker Teams, who actually go to places being bombed by the U.S. and live with the people." On this note, here is an article in the Scotsman about Jan Benvie who did CPT training with my in Jan 2005 and is now joining them full time. Also here is an interview (Realaudio format)on CBC with former hostage Jim Loney.

Memorial service for Tom Fox

Today there is a memorial service for Tom Fox in Washington. As I'm here in Baghdad I sadly can't attend, but I remember his simplicity, commitment to Iraq and non-violence, practicality and gentle nature. He was far from a perfect man, but Jesus shone through him very clearly. Here are a few words written for his memorial by Norman Kember, who spent the first 3 months with him in captivity:

"His loyalty to the CPT ethic of nonviolence was outstanding. He led worship in Quaker style and in Bible Study followed the 4 exercises for each: first impressions, relevance to our life experience, difficulties in understanding and how the message would change our life. His contributions to these discussions were often profound and based on his extensive reading. It was like having Rene Gerard present with us. I remember Tom for his outstanding humanity. We often heard explosions in the city and he would pray for the victims and their families. He reminded us that our deprivations in captivity were paralleled by those in the lives of many in Iraq and the wider world. In captivity he volunteered to take on the greater discomforts. In the many hours of talks together he gave us insights into his love of music, of the natural world and his family. I salute Tom Fox."

Easter Freedom

Holy Saturday is an appropriate time to be in Baghdad. In the Gospels it is a time of gloom. Jesus has been seized by a religious militia, brutally tortured and then executed. His lifeless and mutilated body is lying in a stone tomb. His family and disciples have run out of hope and were probably afraid also for their own lives.

That situation has a immediate resonance here in Iraq. Today dozens of families will be searching through the gruesome photographs in Baghdad morgue, in search of answers they do not want to find, or discretely burying a loved one with a single executioners bullet hole in his head. The situation here is very dark indeed, as one Iraqi told me today about a vision of "a huge devil hovering over the whole country." But... we know that Holy Saturday is not the end of the story... tomorrow comes resurrection. Iraq may have to wait a little longer than that for a new government, let along a new life for its people, but as I worshiped today with the Iraqi congregation of St.Georges Baghdad, shared communion and heard their stories of suffering, I was strengthened by their faith that though the situation remains grim Jesus has indeed conquered the power of death.

As my CPT friend Jim Loney, who was freed from his kidnappers in Baghdad last month, eloquently writes today in the Toronto Star: "There are no easy answers. We must all find our way through a broken world, struggling with the paradox of call and failure. My captivity and rescue have helped me to catch a glimpse of how powerful the force of resurrection is. Christ, that tomb-busting suffering servant Son of God, seeks us wherever we are, reaches for us in whatever darkness we inhabit. May we reach for each other with that same persistence. The tomb is not the final word."