Yearly Archives: 2008

TRANSMARA, KENYA – It is five in the morning, and we are climbing the winding dirt road that leads to the entrance gate of the Maasai Mara, Kenya's famous wildlife reserve. Emmanuel Tasur, our Maasai guide, is explaining the rite of passage where a young Maasai warrior, or moran, kills a lion.

On September 22, 2008, U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey issued an important order relating to victims of female genital mutilation (FGM).  Mukasey instructed the Federal Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) to reconsider a decision from a 2007 case in which the board denied protection from removal (deportation) to a 28-year-old woman who was a victim of FGM in her native Mali.  BIA’s decision severely limited the ability of FGM victims to obtain asylum and similar forms of relief from removal in the United States.

As of July 1, 2008, there are several new vaccination requirements for refugees and immigrants who are getting their Green Cards (Adjusting their Status).  These requirements come from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).

Many companies are asking “What to do about an employee’s home when he or she is moved to a new job location? This is an increasing tough and costly question with the real estate market tightening throughout much of the country.

There’s no record that Alaska Governor and Republican VP nominee Sarah Palin uttered anything more than the obligatory complimentary congratulations to the woman that beat her out for the Miss Alaska title in 1984.

A highly respected son of Africa, Thabo Mbeki, who nine years ago stepped into the giant boots of Africa’s most admired hero - Nelson Mandela - as democratic South Africa’s second President, has been told to bow out un-ceremoniously.

Brooklyn Park, Mn– Senator Barack Obama made history as the first black man in the United States to be a major political party’s nominee for the office of the president. Obama accepted his party’s nomination in Denver at the Democratic National Convention at the end of August.

St. Paul, MN-Freedom of expression and the power to summon your government, the two most important principles of democracy played out at the Republican National Convention (RNC) in St Paul, Minnesota. Among an estimated 15,000 protesters that took to the streets of downtown St Paul on Monday, September 1 was about 300 Somalis who were protesting against “the U.S. sanctioned Ethiopian occupation of Somalia.”

You’ve heard it before and it will be said again: we are witnessing history in the making. The 2008 U.S. Presidential Election is right around the corner and the Democratic Party presidential nominee is an individual who has instilled hope and optimism in the hearts and minds of all Americans, including its newest immigrants.

What do you expect from an ensemble of legendary musicians paying tribute to a legend? You expect a performance that will keep you on your feet all night with your hands in the air as you raise the roof. Such was the night granted to patrons at the Dakota Jazz Bar and Restaurant when saxophonist Pee Wee Ellis, horn player Fred Wesley Jr., singer/guitarist Cheikh Lo, singer/guitarist Vieux Farka Toure, singer Martha High, percussionist Pappa Assane M’baye and singer Fred Ross put their incredible talents together to present Still Black, Still Proud: The African Tribute to James Brown.

If God must break your leg He will at least teach you to limp…
In his opening line of the “The Translator: A Tribesman’s Memoir of Darfur”, Daoud Hari least prepares the reader for the tragic events and resulting heartbreak. The book chronicles Hari’s life as a translator for journalists and genocide investigators in the western Sudan region of Darfur and the refugee camps of Chad. His experience is unbelievably true as he comes close to death several times.