This was printed in The Daily Reveille, LSU’s daily newspaper.Who this Shirien Elmasraya girl is…no one knows.

Hurricane relief workers experience prejudice

By: Shirien Elmasraya

Posted: 3/28/08

Imagine trying to save someone on the verge of death, but they refuse. No, they are not insane or suffering from depression – they are prejudiced.

The room was dim. Dark, wooden walls surrounded him as he was being filmed on camera. He leaned forward in his chair, slowly telling the chilling stories he encountered after the hit of Hurricane Katrina. The darkness of the room coincided with the darkness that surrounded his narrative.

“It was like a ghost town. It was like a horror movie,” said Islamic Relief worker Ruben Vaughan. “You saw helicopters, humvees and you saw dogs, some were dead. And then you’d see cats and some were dead. And you wouldn’t really see anybody else.”

As he explained the situation, those who were interviewing him looked on as if they were frozen in time – as if they were in complete disbelief.

“We [Muslims] are a small group here, but we were able to help people in mass scale,” Vaughan said. “The best thing we’ve been able to do is to deal with people individually, let them know we’re Muslim, and even though you aren’t Muslim, we can still help you. We can still get along, we can have a friendship and learn from each other.”

Vaughan was being interviewed for a documentary produced by Leechon Films, a Muslim owned and operated film company, to debut at LSU in August.

The film is called “Tufaan,” which is Arabic for “Great Storm.” It is about the stories of the Muslim victims and relief workers of Katrina.

“If people who aren’t Muslim just realize that Islam has been around since the first man Adam, that we aren’t aliens, that we aren’t foreign and that Islam comprises of every race and background out there, then they can realize that they don’t have to fear Islam,” Vaughan said.

During the first week after the hurricane, Vaughan said he saw two very different reactions from non-Muslims who saw Muslim volunteers driving supplies.

“I remember there were a group of brothers bringing supplies to the affected areas,” said Vaughan. “On their trip they were asked by different people what they were doing. One group of people would say, ‘We don’t need your help. You can just take it back.’ And the other group of people would load up their cars and help them on their [the brothers'] way.”

Vaughan, former firefighter and former squad boss for FEMA back when the Columbia Space Shuttle blew up over Texas, sought out relief organizations to join after Katrina. He wanted to make sure he got to the affected areas to help in any way he could.

He contacted Islamic Relief, and because of his background in relief work, he was allowed to go to New Orleans at a time when only select individuals could go into disaster-ridden areas.

He explained how some of the male volunteers have beards and the women volunteers wear hijab, a head cover. Unfortunately, some of these volunteers faced difficulties from the very same victims they were helping who were prejudice against Muslims.

“I want the non-Muslims out there to know that they don’t have to fear people who are trying to help even though they see a hijab,” Vaughan said. “And they don’t know what to do or say because they are caught off guard because of all the negative things they see in the media.”

Vaughan still remains in Baton Rouge and is continuing with the hurricane recovery effort.

Prejudice is real. And while human beings see race and religion, disasters know no prejudice. It affects everyone.

I encourage everyone to attend the debut of the documentary when it’s released in August.

Leechon Films plans to donate a percentage of the money made by selling DVDs of the documentary to the hurricane recovery effort.

** To see the original column click HERE , and you can see the comments students have made below, warning they’ll mostly be hate comments lol ***

I was reading Seth Godin’s blog (the father of permission marketing), and he had quite an interesting post today titled, “Why bother having a resume?” — This spotlight is dedicated to him. See below to read what he wrote.

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In the last few days, I’ve heard from top students at Cornell and other universities about my internship.

It must have been posted in some office or on a site, because each of the applications is just a resume. No real cover letter, no attempt at self marketing. Sort of, “here are the facts about me, please put me in the pile.”

This is controversial, but here goes: I think if you’re remarkable, amazing or just plain spectacular, you probably shouldn’t have a resume at all.

Not just for my little internship, but in general. Great people shouldn’t have a resume.

Here’s why: A resume is an excuse to reject you. Once you send me your resume, I can say, “oh, they’re missing this or they’re missing that,” and boom, you’re out.

Having a resume begs for you to go into that big machine that looks for relevant keywords, and begs for you to get a job as a cog in a giant machine. Just more fodder for the corporate behemoth. That might be fine for average folks looking for an average job, but is that what you deserve?

If you don’t have a resume, what do you have?

How about three extraordinary letters of recommendation from people the employer knows or respects?
Or a sophisticated project they can see or touch?
Or a reputation that precedes you?
Or a blog that is so compelling and insightful that they have no choice but to follow up?

Some say, “well, that’s fine, but I don’t have those.”

Yeah, that’s my point. If you don’t have those, why do you think you are remarkable, amazing or just plain spectacular? It sounds to me like if you don’t have those, you’ve been brainwashed into acting like you’re sort of ordinary.

Great jobs, world class jobs, jobs people kill for… those jobs don’t get filled by people emailing in resumes. Ever.

I’m currently taking an English class that focuses on the news media called, “Who’s Watching the Watchdogs?”

One thing we covered this week which I found extremely interesting was how photos – a lot of the time – are not a proper representation of reality. If you disagree, perhaps you want to see the examples I’m about to give you. Depending on what instance you decide to capture a photo, it could make a world of a difference as to the emotional reaction people have when seeing it.

Below, is one of the most famous pictures in American History. It’s a picture of soldiers raising the flag at Iwo Jima, Japan during WWII.

This is one of the most reproduced images of all time. I want you to stop and analyze the picture for a minute… what type of emotions does this picture evoke? What is the story or the message this image tells you?

Well, most of us see the representation of struggle. The soldiers placing the flag amidst the rubble. Patriotism. That they are exhausted yet determined to raise the flag of victory… correct?Now, look at the video of the same incident. See if the photo evokes the same emotions as the video:

Here’s another:

This image was altered for no other reason than to create drama. The man who altered this photo was later fired from the Los Angeles Times.You know what gave it away? Look closely in front of the soldier’s leg.. you’ll see the back of the Iraqi man that is sitting behind him also in front of him.

If you are interested in photography or plan to make films – specifically photo journals and documentaries- make sure that you are depicting reality for what it really is. Don’t take a picture of the one kid at Islamic school sleeping, while the others are captivated by the teacher and say that Islamic School is not of the same quality as public schools.

WAllahu ta’ala alem.
~Shirien