File - Citizens Magazine

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America Through the eyes of New Americans
Issue № 1, JANUARY 2010
$1.50
Terrorist 9-11
Trial in New York:
Good or bad
idea to hold
terrorist
Trial in New
York?
Assemblywoman
Janele Hyer-Spencer
p. 6
Taking
Taking Risks
Risks for
for Social
Social Justice
Justice
Joe Manfredi:
«love of cars bridged
all barriers» p. 4
The World on Fire:
Debating Our Hottest Issues
p. 8
www.citizensmagazine.com
WА
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Citizens l WELCOME
nd, thank you. You are holding in your hands
the first issue of a brand new publication,
«Citizens» magazine. Despite the risk, in
a very tough and uncertain economy, we
started this magazine as a voice of working Americans of
all backgrounds, cultural, political, ethnic and religious. We
seek to raise our voices and be heard by those in positions of
power: Politicians, officials, media providers, etc. Through
this magazine, we intend to express our concerns as well
as yours, to move beyond the dichotomy of conservatives
versus liberals, to find the best answers to our concerns as
citizens.
The American Dream is a fundamental promise to each
and every citizen that they have the opportunity to advance
beyond their current condition to better lives, rich with opportunity. The American dream has drawn immigrants to our
soil for more than 400 years, who have in turn contributed to
building the economic, religious, political and cultural institutions that define our nation. Because so many immigrants
have brought skills and ideas from other areas of the world,
America has always been part of wider global networks.
New York City in particular, including the outer-boroughs,
has long been enriched by immigrants and international
connections.
Citizens magazine seeks to recognize the accomplishments, talents, culture and opinions of outstanding citizens
in the New York region. Each issue will showcase leaders in
politics, business and the arts, as well as the poetry, fiction,
fashion and music within their diverse cultures. We will not
shy away from controversial, «hot» issues, but will attempt
to explore them from many new angles. We believe that
only by learning from the strengths of each other’s cultures
and opinions, can we realize our potential.
Arkadiy Fridman
(President, Citizens magazine and SICC)
In the Soviet Union, where I am from, there
was total government control of everything —
ideology, the economy and even one’s private
life. This was the socialist state I fled before coming to America. Now I am confused: Where is
America going? I fear some of the same conditions I endured in the Soviet Union are becoming a part of America’s
system. In starting this magazine I aspire to share some of
the ways we can reaffirm that the American dream, with
both its rights and its promises, is safe. Our borough, region
and nation were built upon civic-mindedness of both leaders
and ordinary people. This magazine offers a forum for these
different views.
Citizens Magazine
Staten Island, NY 10306,
219 Jefferson Ave.
Phone: (866) 531 4554
Email: info@citizensmagazine.com
Advertising Department: ads@citizensmagazine.com
Lori Weintrob (Editor, Citizens magazine and Wagner College professor)
I am increasingly conscious that we are all
global citizens. My interests are more cultural
than political. I’m thrilled to be a part of this
magazine because it will showcase the rich cultural tapestry of our local community. I hope it will inspire readers
to gain a greater understanding of our neighbors and the
global cultures that shape all of us. I feel strongly that all
new immigrants should be able to express themselves and
their opinions, regardless of their politics, religion or legal
status. I understand what refugees from socialist countries
endured, but I want to remind readers that there are many
kinds of socialism that were less oppressive, even positive
— French, Norwegian, German, Canadian. And, France’s
health care system has been ranked by the World Heath
Organization as the best in the world. It has many free market aspects, particularly regarding accessibility of doctors. I
lived in France for two years and I know it firsthand.
Boris Borovoy (Editor, Citizens magazine)
I don’t take American freedom and democracy for granted. Coming from «the Evil
Empire,» as the Soviet Union was once called,
I fear that modern socialism intends to keep
people in their place. Even in Europe, the mentality is feed ‘em, cure ‘em, entertain ‘em, but keep them
away from real power. How many start-up companies from
those European socialist countries got world-wide recognition and became international business superstars in the last
40 years? Except for Virgin Records in Great Britain, there is
no other. In contrast, a host of American start-ups—Yahoo,
Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple--became multi-billion
dollar companies. As editor of Citizens I intend to introduce
readers to the perspectives and dynamic ideas of «New»
American business owners.
Ilya Galak
(General Manager, Citizens Magazine)
People who lived under Communist rule are
often allergic to left-wing ideas. But that doesn’t
mean we should promote right-wing agendas
exclusively. The truth over whether health care
reform, bank bailouts, or the war in Afghanistan are being handled well is a more complex issue, more
detailed, and more nuanced than those espoused by the
far right and the far left. As general manager, I will ensure
the magazine represents a collaboration of many journalists across the political spectrum, from very liberal to very
conservative. This magazine will remain all-inclusive. We all
have our own opinions, but what matters is that we act as
good people. And good CITIZENS.
Citizens Magazine Online
Editorial views do not always coincide with the opinion of the
authors. We are open for discussion and debate. Welcome any
opinions and suggestions. Thank you for being with us.
Please send your comments to: general @citizensmagazine.com
-3-
Citizens l Business
Joe Manfredi: «Love of Cars
Bridged all Barriers»
By Lori R. Weintrob
R
ecognizing as a young Italian immigrant that the «love of cars
bridged all barriers», Joe Manfredi made a «lifelong commitment
to be part of every American’s dream to own an automobile». Joe
Manfredi, founder of the Manfredi group and owner of 11 auto
dealerships throughout New York City, is a first-generation immigrant success
story. He has instilled his values and a tradition of excellence in his five children,
15 grandchildren and one great-granddaughter. «How do you explain your
success?» we asked him on a recent October afternoon.
His father, Nick, had
immigrated in 1929,
first to Argentina, then to
America, with only a brief
return to Italy to marry
Isabella. He had arrived
in America not unlike many ItalianAmericans after the passage of restrictive immigration quotas in 1924: By
jumping ship, with only the address of
a cousin in his pocket. In the 1930s and
40s Nick Manfredi worked hard both
on the railroads and as a longshoreman. Sorely missing his father, Joe,
entering his teenage years, pressed
for his family to be reunited. In 1952,
he prevailed and they arrived in New
York on the pier at 42nd Street. His
father greeted them with firm advice:
«By tomorrow, at 6:30am, you will go
to work and to school. There are three
careers you can count on in America:
mechanic, electrician or plumber.
Choose one».
The next day, 14-year-old Joe was
pumping gas at 59th Street in Brooklyn,
at Safe Rambler Motors whose owner
hailed from Naples. His first English
«lessons» were customers’ orders for
one to 10 gallons, although, Manfredi
adds, «in that neighborhood there was
lots of Italian spoken». Soon he asked
to work in the small repair shop and,
in between day studies at Automotive
High School and night classes in automatic transmission repair, became a
trusted trouble shooter.
When his boss retired to Florida in
1964, Manfredi took over the shop
and dealership. He took a risk and
soon after, at age 26, invested in a
Toyota’s first New York state dealership in East New York.
«Toyota had been selling on the
West Coast since 1958», Manfredi
explained, «but they were ready to
move east».
To friends who thought it too great
a risk to buy a franchise for a Japanese
car, he pointed out some advantages:
«It was small and economical. You
could buy a good car for $2,000».
So in 1970 he opened a Toyota
dealership on Coney Island Avenue
(which he owned until 1998) and a
year later he opened a third, this time
Subaru Auto Sales, Inc. With his children in Catholic schools in New City,
-4-
In 1959, Joe and Esther Manfredi
wed. This year they are celebrating
their 50th wedding anniversary.
Manfredi (bottom row, left) as a young
mechanic in Brooklyn, shortly after arriving
from Southern Italy.
Joe with wife Esther, seen here with
Suzanne Summers, wins first place among
Toyota Dealerships.
near Nyack, Manfredi had long days
commuting and even worked nights
sometimes at local restaurants for extra cash. Gradually he decided it was
time to move closer and built a house in
Southeast Annadale. He then opened
the first Toyota dealership on Staten Island in 1987.
Manfredi shares his success with his
wife of 50 years, Esther, who also was
bon in Mola di Bari. When they first
met at his sister’s confirmation, Manfredi shocked his mother by announcing, «That’s the girl I’m going to marry
someday». Soon after he asked her
father for permission to take her out.
Together they raised four girls—Isabella, Antoinette, Anna, Joanne — and a
son, Nick, who is now a partner in his
customer-focused, quality service family business. Manfredi credits his wife’s
hard work raising a family as a vital ingredient in their success. And their annual summer gathering to make tomato
sauce with his grandchildren is one way
Joe and Esther Manfredi pass on their
rich Italian cultural heritage.
Because his accomplishments «depended on the help others gave me»,
Manfredi remarked, he believes he
has a responsibility to give back to the
community. And that he does. He donated an ambulance for the use of the
townspeople of Mola di Bari, Italy and
built a monument in the town plaza to
the «Italian Emigrant», sculpted by
G. Saverio Costantini. He organized
student exchanges and himself visited
four times a year. He has served on the
Citizens l Business
In 1983, Joe Manfredi received the «Man of the Year» Award from
the Italian Board of Guardians for dedication and charity in the
Italian community of Brooklyn.
board of directors of Maimonides
Hospital in Brooklyn since 1990. In
1983, he received the award for
Man of the Year from the Italian
Board of Guardians. He is known
for helping friends at a moment’s
notice. His empathy reaches beyond
the Italian-American community to
those of any background or creed.
A fan of soccer in his youth, Manfredi recognizes that sports plays an
integral role in teaching children
valuable team and leadership skills.
He supports local baseball teams.
He has served as president of the
Italian-American Soccer League
and in the late 1990s briefly owned
a semi-professional team, the Vipers
One of Joe Manfredi’s favorite pastimes is soccer.
Here he rallies a young team to victory.
-5-
— but had trouble finding a soccer
field on Staten Island. He served as
a member of the board of directors
of the U.S. Soccer Federation.
Most impressive and touching is
Manfredi’s modesty as he pays tribute to the factors that explain his success, with tears in his eyes. He offers
the following advice to young and
old, wisdom gleaned during a long
climb to the top of his field: «Work
hard, listen when people talk, learn
as much as you can--and save or
invest whatever you make.» Possessing a culture acquired in Italy
and refined in New York’s melting
pot, topped off with generosity and
both local and global communitymindedness, Manfredi surely makes
a worthy role model for the 21st
century.
Citizens l Politics
Taking Risks for Social
Justice: A Leader in
Island Politics
By Lori R. Weintrob
I
n 2006, Janele Hyer-Spencer
won her first election as assemblywoman of the 60th
District, representing Staten
Island and Brooklyn, with her family by
her side. Her father was in a terminal
stage of cancer, yet he and her mother
managed to accompany her on the
campaign trail. During her father’s two
battles with cancer, Hyer-Spencer’s
mother had to take two jobs to pay for
health insurance.
«I was very close to my father», –
said Hyer-Spencer, with sadness in her
voice, – «so his death was particularly
difficult.»
The assemblywoman makes time to
run races to benefit cancer research,
paying tribute to his memory. Her family’s personal experiences navigating
the medical system also inform her political actions.
«I often speak about my father’s
cancer to raise awareness of the need
for better health care and coverage»,
– Hyer-Spencer said.
Indeed, she has worked to make
health care more accessible and affordable for children and seniors – voting on behalf of prescription drug discounts for seniors, and to expand Child
Health Plus, the state children’s health
insurance program, to more kids.
Early in life, Janele Hyer-Spencer
developed a passion to «right» the
system and bridge cultural divides.
Her commitment to improving Staten
Island is an extension of her devotion
to strong families and to the need to
preserve quality of life for all.
Both her parents grew up on farms
in the American South and imparted
values of hard work, but struggled
economically. When she was about
9, her mother entered her in a contest
for «Little Miss McHenry», where the
prize was dance lessons. Other beauty
contests allowed her luxuries the family wouldn’t have been able to afford.
Her mother worked as a seamstress
and secretary; her father, «a jack-ofall-trades», worked at various times as
a delivery driver, a grain inspector for
the U.S. government and a partner in
the family drapery business. Their ethnic backgrounds were a mix of Irish,
German, Yugoslavian and Serbian.
With her sister, Donelle, they moved
-6-
from Missouri to Philadelphia and then
to Chicago. Hyer-Spencer loved adventure, including horseback riding.
In junior high school, Hyer-Spencer
began her first petition-writing campaign. Frustrated that girls were consigned to home economics classes,
which taught sewing and cooking,
while boys took industrial arts to learn
building and architecture skills, HyerSpencer organized her classmates to
protest.
During her first internship in the
early 1980s at a shelter for victims of
domestic violence in Elgin, Ill., HyerSpencer saw the tragic consequences
of a cycle of poverty and violence
writ into the faces of severely abused
women and children. She developed a
commitment not only to aid victims of
abuse but more generally «to change
the world», Her first master’s degree
in social work at Aurora, Ill., became
a step toward an M.A. in public policy
from the City University of New York
(Queens) and then a J.D. from their
law school, aided by a generous scholarship.
Upon graduation, Hyer-Spencer
was hired by New York City’s Administration for Child Services (ACS), where
she prosecuted cases for child neglect
and abuse. Appointed lead prosecutor
on a class action lawsuit, Hyer-Spencer
left ACS to seek more hands-on work.
She then became legal director of My
Sister’s Place, a leading not-for-profit
agency to aid victims of abuse.
As an attorney in private practice
specializing in family law, Hyer-Spencer began to do legal work for the
Staten Island Democratic Party. She
also volunteered to do voter outreach
and registration. In 2003, the late John
Lavelle, who represented the 61st Assembly district until his death in 2007
and was impressed by her commitment
to social issues, encouraged HyerSpencer to run for public office against
Matthew Mirones. Finally, in 2006,
she was victorious.
Hyer-Spencer’s husband, Douglas
Spencer, works for Citigroup and can
often be seen at her side. They first
met while square dancing in the sixth
grade and they have since enjoyed
many sailing vacations with his family.
Citizens l Politics
Janele spends time with her
father Jerry, shortly before
his death, at Port Washington,
Long Island, in the boat she
and her husband Doug own
For their honeymoon, they shared the
ultimate adventure canoeing the backwaters of Upper Canada.
Among the highlights of HyerSpencer’s time in office are numerous
initiatives and projects to benefit her
constituency, from promoting alternative energy Green Zones to establishing a computer lab at Staten Island’s
South Beach. Protecting the local environment is essential to the health and
well-being of families in her district—
that’s why she has sponsored legislation in the Assembly to stop natural
gas drilling near the New York City
watershed. On the transportation committee, she proposed discounts on E-Z
Pass privileges to SUNY and CUNY
Janele meets with SICC executive director
Assemblywoman Arkadiy Fridman to discuss
plans for the state-of-the-art East Shore Community Center.
students, designed to assist students
at the College of Staten Island. She
is now chair of the sub-committee on
insurance investment practices to address issues such as credit defaults. In
addition, she has brought her lifelong
fight for domestic violence victims to
the Assembly, sponsoring legislation
to protect them from employment discrimination and to develop education
and prevention programs for young
women.
Her contributions to community
organizations include capital funding
for the Alice Austen House, the Staten
Island Zoo and the Staten Island Community Center (SICC). Many local merchants and advocates for youth in the
borough have expressed enthusiasm
for the SICC project to create a multicultural community center and revitalize South Beach’s Sand Lane location,
home to the old Beachland Amusements arcade.
Hyer-Spencer offers this advice to
young Americans interested in seeking leadership roles: «Get involved in
things you care about. Do anything!»
As her own path has demonstrated,
«There is no one template», only opportunities to serve.
Assemblywoman Janele Hyer-Spencer sponsors an
annual Women’s History Month essay contest to inspire
students to be «all they dream of being». Staten Island
winners in 2009 from left to right: Ashley Huertas; Indira Ardolic; Sarah Gabrielle Montelibano.
Citizens l economics
The World on Fire:
Debating Our Hottest Issues
W
ith Mike Petrov, CEO and co-founder of Digital Edge, the editors of Citizens Magazine, Inc. held a
roundtable on taxes for small businesses, the health care plan, bank bailouts, and Obama’s record,
which drew as much fire as insights into the «hottest» questions on our minds.
Before forming his own company, Mike Petrov worked as an information architect in e-commerce and with a major bank,
becoming one of the «stars» of the dot-com era. Educated in the former Soviet Union as a nuclear engineer, Petrov spent
six years creating proprietary programming for CPU chips for the Russian Army's Nuclear Division. Digital Edge builds
strong relations with the community through the Digital Edge «Key to the Future» scholarship for local high school students
and through volunteer work with the March of Dimes, College of Staten Island Hillel chapter and The Global Campaign for
Microbicides to prevent HIV. Digital Edge is a member of the Staten Island Chamber of Commerce.
Ilya Galak: The U.S. economy
appears to be stabilizing after declining for four straight quarters, but the
recovery has been weak so far; some
economists are suggesting that we
are far away from it. How does small
business feel today? Does government
stimulus initiative make a difference?
Mike Petrov, CEO
and co-founder of Digital Edge
Mike Petrov: We simply don’t
feel it. The government has promised
help for small businesses, constantly
repeating that the convergent actions
will create more jobs and an environment for small businesses to prosper. In
reality, if you look at the stimulus plan,
you can see that the government mostly
offers additional credit and very minor
tax deductions.
We don’t need credit. We are using
only the funds that we have. We do not
spend more than we make and are fiscally responsible.
The tax credits that would apply will
not cover a single, small salary. So it is
virtually nothing for us – empty words.
Also, the government has extended
unemployment coverage, which will
automatically raise our workers compensation insurance, which will hit our
bottom line and those tax credits will
not cover this new expense.
We see that there is nothing done
for small businesses. The government
spent billions of dollars very ineffectively. There is no accountability for
the money spent. If you remember,
only after funds were distributed did
the government realize that there was
no control or as the media stated,
«strings» attached to the money that
was distributed. Failing financial institutes still paid bonuses, rewarding their
employees for a huge failure.
It is an insult for small businesses. If
we make a wrong decision, we starve,
work twice as hard, and spend less
time with our children and families to
stay afloat.
If small businesses operated like the
government does we would all have
been out of business a long time ago.
Nobody should cover behind «too big
to fail» or the complexity of the economy or federal monitory policy.
It is simply bad management and
overall a failure.
IG: Is the United States at a critical
-8-
turning point away from small government? We came from a socialist country in search of economic freedom. Is
the United States headed towards its
own brand of socialism?
MP: We are definitely going toward socialism, which is ironic because
we came here to escape it and here we
are being thrown back into it again.
Somehow utopian ideas keep coming
back. The ideas of controlling poverty, health, lives, futures, and happiness are not new concepts and all are
praised by idealistic «compassion.»
Humans are so not perfect. We think
we can control, we think we can better
manage. In reality we can model only
simple situations. Here is mathematical
example. If you drop a match, you can
create a mathematical model of its fall.
Weight, initial forces, gravity… However, when you drop all the matches from
a matchbox, it would be impossible
to mathematically model the free fall
of multiple matches. We would not be
able to mathematically model all the
events, inter-related forces, and account for all circumstances. Life is much
more complicated, like the problem
of exactly calculating a box of falling
matches. We are just not smart enough
to calculate outcomes. We are only
smart enough to find good explana-
tions after an event has happened.
This is not the first social experiment
and not the last one. Government is not
an answer for happiness. It is all philosophical thoughts.
Personally I think the biggest problem of the current trend is that we reward failures, sponsor laziness and
inability to succeed, punish productiveness and success, and suppress competition in the name of fairness. We
ex-Soviet Union citizens saw it all, we
lived it. Read Russian history around
1870 – 1880, you will be amazed.
Around that time Russian libertarians
completely paralyzed law enforcement and broke the ability of government to govern using the utopian ideas
of Marx and Engels. Then when freedom slowly transformed to anarchy,
they could not hold the order and in
1917 the criminals took over.
I hope this is in the past and it is not
the American way, but I am very worried when I look at our dependency on
oil, our debts to producing countries,
our inability to build, our division and
inability to unite, our inability to find
uniting ideas, our complacency.
IG: How can we stop the government from printing more money? Why
does the government print money to
bail out big corporations?
MP: It is very hard to stop the government from printing. I am afraid it is
impossible. Look at the fiscally responsive politicians. I think one of them is
Ron Paul. Nobody listens to them. They
are mocked for being anti-progress
isolationists. However, we should try,
we should start at the local level. We
should watch how local politicians
spend money. With new ways of distributing information I hope we will be
re-thinking what political success and
what failure is. There are services available for a political reality check. We
have Consumer Reports, Better Business Bureaus. The same mechanisms
could be implemented for the government. People should check those services before they go voting. Politicians do
not feel responsibilities and right now
the link between political success or
failures and reward or punishment by
constituencies simply does not exist. In
business there is a simple link between
success and rewards, in private and
As a business owner,
I feel like I have three
additional silent
partners: overall
city, state, and
federal taxes cut into
more than half of
our gross revenue
public companies. We should create a
link between votes and real outcome.
I really hope that new generation of
voters will make a difference. Obama
showed how young population can be
energized engaging technology, social networks, and new ways of communicating. I think that those newer
mechanisms will eventually create an
environment when politicians will feel
pressure for decisions and actual outcomes.
I am sure if we ran a referendum,
the people would not approve the
government’s decision to give away
money to help other counties when we
have so many internal problems and
debt that will have to be paid by our
children.
I hope such opinion-expression
though new ways of communication
will be available in near future.
IG: We have high taxes. That’s why
companies move overseas.
MP: As a business owner, I feel like
I have three additional silent partners:
overall city, state, and federal taxes
cut into more than half of our gross
revenue.
It is definitely socialistic redistribu-
tion. The government runs projects that
the majority of people doesn’t want
and approve. I don’t have exact examples but I witnessed a situation when
a major international store was trying
to open a new location and the community protested. We saw that a very
small part of the community was protesting, but they created such a noise
that it felt like the whole community opposed it, even though the majority was
silently approving it. We were running
technology for this marketing effort
and could see all the details. The company spent tons of money and effort to
pull that silent majority and prove the
case that the protestors were less than
3 percent of the population.
Likewise, the majority would not
support half of the government spending if we could vote for it. I am sure
that decision to send money overseas
to support «something» would not fly
if we had a nationwide referendum.
There is no fiscal responsibility or accountability. This is why taxes are high.
I would put the spending history of
each individual politician in the voting
booth. Maybe that would stop them.
I would agree on taxes if we as a
country would build something. However, we don’t really build. The country’s infrastructure is in very bad shape.
Why can’t we create more work building something, even Egyptian pyramids – I am joking… I am talking about
roads, bridges, transportation, solar
power plants, something. Just not giving out money for free….
A few years ago, New York was
pushing to open a train station somewhere in the Bronx and wanted to increase transportation fees to finance
the project. If the MTA were a private
organization, it would support to raise
money to make money. The company
would have to convince investors to
invest, that the project would be profit-
I am not a politician or sociologist. I am a
businessman. I think we all should be working
on: staying debt free, being independent from the
government, keeping them responsible for their
promises and actions and vote
-9-
able, in one way or the other. But the
government can just increase taxes
without worrying about the outcome. I
am sure when the project is done, nobody would think about lowering the
cost so people would think that something was really done for them!!!
In such taxation environments that
we have companies and people will
be looking for a relief. Companies will
try to figure out a way to do business
more profitably. They find ways to use
global economy mechanisms to get the
best outcome. But it creates additional
competition and new global economy
game rules.
Look at the way New York taxes
people out, the same way the U.S.
Government taxes businesses out.
Most of production is gone.
IG: Small businesses make money
off of big corporations.,,. «What is
good for Ford is good for this country.»
This country is great because of Boeing, IBM, Microsoft, military contracts,
ship building, and other big businesses
that produce products. But some executives take advantage.
MP: Banks and the government
are buying our souls, our business, and
our future. We -– «small business,» -–
need to be self-reliant. We should be
able to survive on our own and pay for
our children’s education without borrowing. We need to go back to the era
of self-reliance and individual responsibility.
The biggest cause of the last crisis
is not the real-estate bubble. The biggest reason is that policy makers were
keeping the cost of money too low for
too long. We, businesses and people,
got used to the idea that money is too
cheap. We are borrowing left and right.
We are selling our souls for debt.
To fight this, we have to live responsible lives. Time is tough – tighten our
belts, switch Mercedes to smaller cars,
better American… move to smaller
houses if we have to. Debt is bad. If we
are talking about our founding fathers,
let’s talk about the way of living in the
past. People did not enjoy cheap mon-
ey. They could not spend more than
they had but they were self-sustaining,
they were free and happy.
My grandfather right after World
War II found himself with eight children on his hands in a partially destroyed house. He taught his children
to feed rabbits, made primitive cages
for them… in six months the family was
fed, warm and doing OK.
We are talking a lot about freedom
and the way government takes it from
us. I have a recipe for this; to be free,
first you have to be debt free.
is a utopia, I think. The implementation
I think will be horrible. We will have
hospitals with the smell of the Brooklyn
DMV. I have also calculated how much
for each person it would cost to insure
everyone uninsured – somewhere
around $70 per person. Maybe the
government will bring it down (not that
I have even seen or heard of a government making anything less expensive).
Let’s say $50 or $40. Who is ready to
chip in?
IG: Churchill once said that democ-
Look at the way New York taxes people out,
the same way the US Government taxes
businesses out. Most of production is gone
IG: What is your opinion about
health reform?
MP: It’s better to fix systems that
are already in place first. Karl Marx
and Lenin had good ideas but implemented them badly. So are the ideas
for the bailout and healthcare.
The government should fix what
we have now. There was a communist
song: «We will destroy the old world
down to its foundation and then rebuild a new world. If you were nobody
in the old world, you will be everything
in the new world.»
We all know how it was rebuilt… I
don’t think that reconstruction worked
well. So I am very skeptical with this
idea of demolition and re-build, especially when it is done by governments.
Look where we are with Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. On an individual level it is a good thing to have
all those programs. But on the national
level the way it is managed is a disaster. No one in government – neither
Republicans nor Democrats, showed
an ability to build something. What
did the government build successfully
recently? We have plenty of failures
so far. The biggest one is the bailout.
And again: The ideas are good, the
implementation is suffering. The idea
to drive medical costs down and insure
all people will be good even though it
- 10 -
racy is not perfect but there’s nothing
better. We need to be sure not to crush
it, like in China, Cuba, and Russia.
Coming from Eastern Europe, we are
afraid of these changes, afraid of big
government.
MP: Plato said that perception
depends on personal experience. ExSoviet Union people have a different perception as we have a different
experience and witnessed the niceties
of socialism. We didn’t hear or read
about it. We didn’t dream about it, trying to create a perfect world. We lived
it. We lived its reality. And I am really
sad watching how a great country is
stepping toward the socialistic route.
I am not a politician or sociologist. I
am a businessman. I think we all should
be working on: staying debt free, being independent from the government,
keeping them responsible for their
promises and actions and vote.
One additional subject that I wanted to touch is children. We should teach
our children to think the way we think,
to check reality the way we check it,
project our experience and vision on
them. We cannot let schools and colleges take their attention with their utopias and lab-generated ideas.
If we work on our personal independence and our children’s future we
will be happy and ultimately, free.
Citizens l Society
Death in the Boxing Ring
Interview with Sergei Artemiev
By Ilya Galak
B
Timeline of Ring
Fatalities:
oxing is big money. Boxing is fame. Boxing is a spectacle. That is
why it attracts such overwhelming attention, while touching the interests of so many – bread and circuses. Perhaps, that is why not
everything that happens in professional boxing finds adequate
evaluation.
In fact, the events in
the boxing ring should be
evaluated much easier; as
professional boxing – is
life. Just like in life, it offers
place for tragedy, as well as
comedy. A boxer confined
to a wheelchair is always
a tragedy. A boxer opening his gown with no boxers
underneath (as it happened
with Timmy Larkin in 1942)
is a comedy. A Boxing Hall
of Fame champion drowned
in his own bathtub, like Albert Chalky Wright – is a
tragicomedy.
Just like in life, there is always a place for heroism, in
boxing. A prospective boxer Craig Bodsianowsky got into a car accident, and had his leg amputated at
the knee. His will power was extraordinary enough to help him come back to
the ring, and keep fighting on a prosthetic leg, demonstrating his high class
mastership.
There is also place for cowardice, as when a two-meter-tall Anjey Golota
missed Mike Tyson’s punch and started running away from the ring in the
middle of the fight.
Still, the same question has been bothering me for a while: why is that
despite medical control and plenty of referees, the tragedies on the ring keep
happening? Of course, it is often a referee’s fault by letting the winning boxer
finish the ‘floating’ rival. Often it is the managers’ fault , pushing their boxer
to fight an incommensurably stronger one, or while unprepared physically or
technically.
A boxer has a right to refuse continuing the fight, but in theory only. People blaming boxers who become handicapped because they didn’t quit fighting in time, simply don’t understand the ring fighter’s psychology. Perhaps,
here lies the answer to my question: the blame is on boxers’ character, will
power, and courage.
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March 21, 1993. In 1990 Sergei Artemiev, the World light weight
Champion, moved to the US, having
decided to become a professional
boxer. Three years later the newspapers wrote about the death of this Russian boxer in the ring. Fortunately, the
death was clinical. Artemiev has completely recovered after heavy brain injuries. However, he put a heavy cross
on boxing.
October 9, 1999. Caracas, Venezuela. During the fight for the Latin
American Champion title, 23-year-old
Carlos Barreto (1998 world champion
by WBA) got knocked out by Jose Luis
Valbuena. The doctors never managed
to take Barreto out of his coma.
October 25, 2000. Boston, USA.
25-year-old Robert Benson, having
had won all his 14 previous fights, finished the drawn fight with Steve Dotse
(Ghana). After the first tie he felt sick
in the locker room. He spent 5 days in
coma, after which he passed away.
October 30, 2001. Jakarta, Indonesia. 19-year-old Donny Maramis never regained consciousness and
died in a hospital after missing a right
hook from Stenly Catalo.
February 4, 2002. Thailand.
28-year-old local boxer Chachtaj
Phaizitong lost consciousness after
a striking punch from the Russian Alexander Bararut. The doctors stated
drastic decrease of blood pressure.
They could never save his life.
February 7, 2002. Jakarta, Indonesia. 20-year-old Johan Fransiskus
lost a fight by technical knockout from
his compatriot, Slamet Nizaru. Three
days later he died of brain hemorrhage.
April 26, 2002. The Philippines.
21-year-old Manuel Sajas got knocked
out in the 9th round of his fight. He died
never having regained consciousness.
July 24, 2003. Uta, USA. 5 seconds before the end of the first round,
American professional Brad Rone
missed a powerful punch from Billy
Zumbran. Rone managed to get up by
himself, but 10 seconds into the break
he fell down. The doctors diagnosed a
heart attack. The day before the tragedy, Rone’s mother dies. He was hoping to send $800 dollars from the fight
to her funeral.
These are just very few of almost
600 registered ring fatalities.
Is that enough?
Sergei Artemiev still
got the Golden Belt
From the dossier: Sergei Arteries.
Born January 20, 1969 in Leningrad.
Citizens l Society
Started boxing at the age of 10. The
first coach: Gennadiy Mashianov. The
winner of the USSR 1987 Boxing Cup;
the finalist of the youth division of the
USSR 1988-89 Championships; the
winner of three international championships 1987-88: multiple champion
of Leningrad; participant of two match
meetings USSR – USA. Received his
professional license in 1990. Won 18
out of 21 fights in professional boxing ring by knockouts, lost 2, drew 1.
In 1993, he was recognized by professional organizations as a universal
champion in the lightweight class by
WBA, WBC and IBF
Says Sergei Artemiev:
I went into professional sports at
the end of 89. The tabu on professional boxing had just been lifted. The most
awarded masters of boxing got the
first professional titles. I got in the second batch. They didn’t want to let me
go though. At that time I was already
training in the national team with Alexander, my older brother by two and
a half years. Sasha (Alexander) is a
famous boxer, a multiple Champion of
the USSR, the winner of the first Goodwill Games, a participant of the Seul
Olympic Games. I was still young, not
yet 21. The authorities just said: “We’ll
let the older Arteries go, but not the
younger, he hasn’t done enough for
his Motherland yet.» But I made a firm
decision to leave. I had my first fight in
the circus on Tsvetnoj Boulevard, in the
beginning of January of 1990. Boxed
for 4 rounds with Alexander Boskunov,
and our drawn fight was recognized
to be one of the most beautiful. I remember at the end of the evening, the
chief coach of the national team, Konstantine Koptsev approached me. He
knew me well from the youth league.
He said --You made a big mistake. You
should have continued with the amateur boxing. With your potential you
could even win the Olympics, and then
ask for much bigger money. Then you
could leave, wherever you wanted. But
you made your choice, and I wish you
luck.
A promoter from Detroit came. He
looked at our sparrings – we were
training as a small professional team
in Podolsk. He chose several guys, including me. Two weeks later another
American promoter came. We signed
a contract with him, and on February
3, 1990 we came to New York.
There were five of us: heavy weight
Yuriy Vaulin, Igor Ruzhnikov, Victor
Yegorov, my brother, and I. First, in
America they decided to compare us
to the Russian fellows who had already
left before us. They had trained in Canada for 2 months by then. They calmed
me down -– Don’t worry, you’re just
fine. Maybe I was already distinguishing myself. After the sparring they left
all five of us.
We were inexperienced of course.
Signed small contracts, for 3 years. The
»
- 13 -
14
Citizens l Society
«
12 started joining us. First, my wife Lena – then get in the ring, and still win.
first year they were supposed to pay us
$25,000, about $2,500 a month. The
second and third year – $50 thousand.
The rent was paid by the promoter, by
the way. Then it was said that if one becomes a world champion, US champion, or enters the first 10 ratings by one
of the professional organizations, the
contract gets prolonged for 3 years.
came. When we first met, she was indifferent to boxing. Sometimes, we
even argued what to watch on TV:
movies, or fights. But then she got to
love it, and even offered to change the
channels herself. We practically had
no problems in daily life. We quickly
adjusted to the American way of living. Also, there are many Russians in
Brooklyn: Russian stores, restaurants,
newspapers, radio, TV.
Earned thanks
to the coach’s diarrhea
– So, how did your career
shape in the new country?
– I had 20 fights, 1 drawn, 1 lost.
13 fights won by knockouts. They told
me if I defeated Bryant Paden, then I’d
become a world champion among the
professionals. After the fight all three
judges awarded me the victory. There
was a glamorous celebration: I was
invited to Trump Plaza in Manhattan.
There were many TV reporters, journalists, and even the legendary Joe
Frazier, who fought Muhammad Ali.
Of course, my feelings couldn’t be
compared with anything.
– Did the money start pouring
in non-stop?
– The first year I only got $17,000.
And they didn’t pay a penny for
the first 9 fights. Only the 10th fight
brought in something for me, and only
because our coach Tommy Gallagar
(he made a pretty penny on us) didn’t
go – he had a stomachache. After the
fight I was given a check, and only then
I realized how much I’d been loosing.
But I got lucky again! The famous boxer Oleg Karatayev fought splendidly
in Cuba, even Fidel took a picture with
him. Then, many promoters tried to
sign a contract with Karatayev, but the
USSR Sport Committee said that Oleg
– was a national asset, and he won’t
be let go.
We first lived in the suburbs of New
York, in a three story house. Then all of
us gradually transferred to Brooklyn.
About three months later our wives
In the ring it wasn’t so easy. I almost immediately realized the difference between the amateur boxing and
professional . The style, the manner
of fighting is quite different. But most
importantly – the length of a fight.
The professionals separate all boxers into several categories, not just by
their weight, but also by the number of
rounds they fight. There are 4-round
boxers, 6-, 8-, 10-, 12-round ones.
There is naturally a big difference between 6– and 8-round fights. Some
never manage to overcome these barriers: physical loads are too high.
I started, like everybody else, with 4
rounds. The first fight was in Reno, Nevada. And it rolled from then on. The
first rivals were also inexperienced,
with 1-2 fights history. I defeated almost everyone, but can’t say it was
easy; I got it hard sometimes.
My brother didn’t make it that well.
Why? He is naturally talented, I still
consider him my icon, he had ideal
technique; I even tried to imitate him at
first. Then later I developed the fighting
style of my own. But he’s not the most
hard working guy. I remember when
in amateur boxing, he could not work
for a month, and then train vigorously
for a week or less – a couple of days
- 14 -
But professional boxers can’t maintain such rhythm. First, he was getting
it right, and then he lost it. In ’92 he
broke his arm in the 8th round with a
strong rival. After that he had a couple
of sparring rounds, and then my tragedy followed, and he decided to quit
boxing. But during the very first demonstration in the States, the specialists
immediately said that if anyone would
ever become world champions from
our five, that would be the Armetievs.
And they named me first.
On December 30th, 1992 my mom
came to the States, and the next day
my son was born. We called him Piotr,
after Peter the Great, the founder of
our city.
Mama asked to buy her a thick
notebook, to keep a diary. She wrote
about everything in there: when Petya
woke up, when he ate, when he was
put to bed. And about our lives, too.
And I was already in the first tens in
all three major organizations – WBA,
WBC and IBF, and kept proceeding
towards my main dream – the Golden
Belt of the world champion.
The surgeons considered
me doomed
– On March 21, 1993, American newspapers were flashing
the titles “The death of Russian
boxer in the ring in Atlantic City.»
What happened there?
– It’s no longer difficult for me to
talk about it. I take these questions normally. First, my fight with Carl Griffith
for the champion title by the American
Boxing Association was scheduled for
January 10th in Taj Mahal, Atlantic
City. I had an opportunity to fight right
there for the USBA title, but then my
prize would have been $125, 000.
In case of victory over Griffith, my fee
would have gone up to $250 thousand. Great difference, you see. And
I decided to become the US champion
first.
The misfortunes began on January
5th. We went grocery shopping with
my mom. At an intersection I started
the car on a green light, and then felt
a strong hit in the left wing, even a tire
broke. I opened the door, and saw
three guys coming out of the car that
hit us. One was huge, the other two
were shorter, but quite fit. I said: “ OK
guys, it’s your fault, so you either pay
right here, or give me your documents,
and we’ll call the police.» And here the
huge guy spat in my face. My mother
tried to hold me back, but no way! I
tumpled the huge one down with one
punch, then another one, and the third
one just ran away. But I also run fast.
He had a pony tail. I still remember it
bouncing on his back. I ran for some
15-20 meters, but dropped it, didn’t
get him. Meanwhile, the big one got
up, wanted to fight. So, I taught him a
lesson again. And then I heard right in
my ear: Police! Nobody move! I turned
my head and saw a gun right in my
face. And a man, dressed all in black.
Turned out it was a security guard from
a nearby jewelry store. And the people
gathered around. Not a busy intersection, but it’s Brooklyn. The police came
later, and a witness said that never in
his life had he seen such a slender guy
fixing three huge thugs like that.
The saddest thing was that I injured
my right arm in that fight, my finger
joints still don’t bend completely. And
so, the fight with Griffith, my 21st fight
Citizens l Society
had to be rescheduled for March 21st.
Then I don’t remember anything,
and just tell as it was registered in my
mom’s diary. 10 days before the fight
I got sick. Came back from training,
felt bad, but still went grocery shopping with Lena. But I didn’t go jogging
that evening. Took my temperature –
38,90Centigrade (1020F). The fever
stayed for 7 days, then they got it down
with some injections and pills. All and
all, I didn’t get well enough. I hadn’t
slept for 5 nights before the fight.
Wandered around groggy during the
day, and could’t sleep at night. Once,
my mom woke up from some noise.
Turned out, I was walking around the
apartment, yelling out curses. She said
– Seriozha, what happened, you are
gonna wake your son up! – And I was
almost crying – I can’t sleep!
Then I would go to sleep, but wake
up 2 hours later. And every night like
that. So, by the day of the fight I was
dead. In the morning I even asked my
friend for some sleeping pills. Sure
enough, he didn’t give me any, but he
realized, that I wasn’t doing well at
all.
– Could the fight with Griffith
be rescheduled?
– If I had a Russian coach, maybe
this is what would have been done. But
in America, I was naturally trained by
an American. And he decided that I
should fight. Why? Before that I won
two fights against very strong opponents, many even said that I wouldn’t
go through. Nobody took Griffith very
seriously. He didn’t have that strong
of a punch. Out of 29 fights, he only
won 10 by knockouts. And I hadn’t lost
for two years. And I was sure of myself also. And besides that, it is against
professional rules to reschedule a fight
for the second time.
In 1993 Artemiev, burning
with fever, came out to fight
Carl Griffith for the Champion’s title. The fight was
stopped by the doctor in the
last round, when Sergey was
already barely breathing.
As a result, he underwent
clinical death, and began to
learn living from the start,
quitting boxing forever.
The fight with the American Carl
Griffight. He’s a white guy, good boxer. In this fight I was going for the USBA
title. And my fee was only $10,000. I
would have taken the money any way,
whether winning or losing. I was winning the first three rounds, became
worse in the fourth. In the fifth I started
missing punches, due to sickness and
sleepless nights. The referee turned out
to be a rare scum – he saw what was
going on with me, but never stopped
the fight. Even Griffith told him: I don’t
know what’s going on, but the Russian
keeps missing all the punches. And the
audience kept scanning: Stop the fight!
My brother ran up to my coach and
told him to throw out the white towel.
But everyone has his own interest, and
the coach said that it was ok, and Ser-
»
- 15 -
16
Citizens l Society
«
12 Estefan, after her severe car accident.
gei ‘is gonna do this guy!’ And so, in
the last round, I couldn’t do anything
anymore, and just fell on the ropes,
and the referee called the doctor. My
eye brow was badly slashed, and
bleeding heavily. At that moment, the
doctor demanded to stop the match,
and they took me into the corner, but I
was already out of it. As soon as I got
up, I fainted. 27 minutes later I was in
surgery, undergoing skull trepanation.
All this time I was unconscious. The surgery went for four and a half hours.
There were three surgeons operating,
two said I was a dead man, and the
third one said I’d live, but would remain paralyzed. This brain injury is no
nonsense.
The third surgeon questioned death,
but said if I’d come back, then I would
definitely be paralized for life. Boxers
usually never make it after such injuries. They even told me: Sergey, you
now have two birthdays: January 20th
and March 21st.
When I came around, I called for
my mom. She came up to the bed, crying, but I didn’t recognize her. I said I
knew that woman, but she wasn’t my
mother. Then Griffith called. Turned
out to be a great guy. Apologized in a
soft voice. He felt it in the fourth round
already that my punches were getting
weaker. And in the 6th round I was
punching as if I didn’t see him. So, the
referee who let it all happen was also
guilty. I’m not angry with Carl, this is
boxing.
When I was discharged from the
hospital, the bills started coming. Together with the surgery, the treatment
was about $60,000. The promoter
refused to pay. I got $10,100, and
had no insurance. The insurance was
another story.
Later, while watching the recording of the fight with Griffith, the doctors
agreed that the brain hemmorhage
was sustained not just by one strong
single punch, because there wasn’t
one. I was also lucky because in the
10th round my eye brow got badly
slashed, and the fight was stopped. If
we kept on fighting, I would have never survived. And then I fainted and left
the Taj Mahal on a stretcher.
I stayed in coma for 12 days. The
doctors consider my survival a miracle.
Two out of three surgeons didn’t believe in the fine outcome. One of them
operated on the famous singer Gloria
- 16 -
In general, all boxers in the first ten
are insured for half a million, some –
for millions of dollars. Initially, I was insured by my promoter, but for a small
amount. During the 4th year of contract
he told me to get insured by myself, for
as much as I wanted. And I never did,
because of that sickness before the
match with Griffith. In any case, I had
no such money. And Sergei Artemiev’s
Fund was opened in America.
Different people helped. Mostly,
regular Americans. They sent checks
for $20, $30. I remember one letter,
written by a 10-year-old boy. Well,
maybe the parents composed it, and
he wrote it. And included a check for
$5. I stopped counting letters when the
count came up to 132 or 133. I got
about 150. The pleasant thing was that
most people really considered me the
World Champion. My friends didn’t
leave me alone either, the hockey
players: Darius Kasparajtis, Vladimir
Malakhov, Pavel Bure, Sergei Zubov.
Alec Baldwin visited me in the hospital,
you probably know this actor. And another Holywood star – Dustin Hoffman
Citizens l Society
– even wanted to make a movie. He thought that I should
play the main role myself, and he would play the coach.
Poets Ilya Reznik and Tatyana Lebedinskaya dedicated
poems to me – “To the Legendary Boxer» and “Russian
guy from Petersburg.» Some Russian fellows wrote a song
“Keep me.» And one American called his composition “I’ll
Fight for Life.» I am eternally grateful to all who supported
me in difficult times.
And I still got the Golden Belt. It’s hanging in my New
York apartment. Three major organizations agreed and
gave me the title of the universal world champion. At the
press conference, after the Belt award, the famous Joe
Fraizer approached me: With such technique, punch and
pressure you should definitely be the World Champion,-he
said– I’m very happy for you. Frazier invited me to his birthday, but unfortunately, I couldn’t come. Now I regret – I
missed an opportunity to meet Muhammad Ali himself there.
One of my favorite boxers, after my brother of course.
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The Boxer buried alive
«The Death of Russian Boxer. Everyone was
shaken by the tragedy of Sergey Artemiev,
who left for America to look for his sports
fortune in the professional ring. He died of
injuries sustained during a severe fight».
– How did it happen that the newspapers wrote
about your death?
– Probably because it was clinical. It was enough for
flashing titles. Anyway, I survived after a long time in coma.
Then I learned again how to walk, talk, eat… When I regained consciousness I got a call in the hospital from Carl
Griffith, the guy I fought last. He said he was really sorry
about what happened, was praying for me. I was very
touched by that, especially considering, it was not his fault.
– You became better, returned to your normal
life style. How did it go further for you?
– It so happened that I separated from my wife. But we
are still on friendly terms, living close by. Lena is raising my
son, I see him every day. I receive pension from the state, I
am a very proud American citizen. I got married again to
a wonderful woman named Olga, and it’s going well. She
used to be a lawyer in Moscow, and then immigrated to the
US. She helped me a lot during my difficult period, and I’m
very grateful for that.
I understand you are talking about the difficult period
meaning…
Yes. It so happened that at some point I started having
problems with alcohol. I found some consolation in it. But
thanks to Olga, I don’t drink anymore, and even contemplate some creative plans. Maybe I will write a book. I lived
to tell this tale to many, many people.
- 17 -
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Citizens l Terrorism
Americans Rally in
Thousands to Protest
Eric Holder’s Terror
Trial Decision
Despite Cold, Heavy Rain and Wind, Large
Crowd Gathers To Protest Trying Terrorists as Civilians
NEW YORK, DECEMBER 5, 2009 — Today, several
thousand protesters gathered at Foley Square in New York
City to rally against Attorney General Eric Holder’s decision to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammad and 4 other 9/11 coconspirators as civilians in federal court.
Despite bitter cold, strong winds and heavy rain the
crowd stayed through the 2-hour rally. The event was organized by the 9/11 Coalition to Never Forget and featured
speakers representing 9/11 family members, first responders and our troops.
Among the notable moments: actor Brian Dennehy read
a statement from Judea and Ruth Pearl, the parents of slain
Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. Dennehy, reading their words, said «We, who witnessed the darkest side of
hell, and have since spent every moment of our lives studying the anatomy of terror, we refuse to accept the strategy
of normalization that Holder’s decision represents. Terror is
a crime against society, and should not be tried in the same
court as crimes against individuals or against a particular
country».
- 18 -
Dennehy was one of several entertainment stars who issued a statement
challenging Holder’s decision to bring
the terrorist detainees to New York
City for civilian trials, along with Robert Duvall, Jon Voight, Danny Aiello,
Robert Davi, Elisabeth Hasselbeck and
Ben Stein.
As the rain continued to pour and
the wind howled, the crowd’s enthusiasm never waned, sending a powerful
message to those seeking to bring war
criminals like the 9/11 mastermind to
trial in US civilian court: New Yorkers
and their fellow Americans view this
issue as one of national and Constitutional survival, and they will fight Holder’s decision all the way.
Source: 911neverforget.us
- 19 -
F
ive men, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, have been held for
years in secret detention camps overseas, and most recently, at the
Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba. The Bush administration chose to
interrogate these men for information about the al Qaida network.
After a year of internal debate, the Obama administration has now decided it
can try them for their crimes in a civilian court.
David G. Savage, Chicago Tribune
Good or bad idea to hold
terrorist trials in New York?
Outraged New Yorkers said yesterday
that admitted 9/11 mastermind Khalid
Sheik Mohammed and four other terrorists deserve to be put to death – and some
even volunteered for the job.
«Kill them without a trial. Just
a bullet in the head and say goodbye. Why waste taxpayer money?» – said Thomas Pland, 70, a truck
driver from Astoria, Queens.
«If they want me to do it», – he
added, – «I will».
Sounds like republicans doesn't it, why
waste millions of dollars when a 25 cent
bullet will do.
www.nypost.com
- 20 -
Forty-five percent of the New Yorkers surveyed say it's a good idea to hold the trial in
New York City, while 41 percent call it a bad
one.Fourteen percent «just aren't sure », – the
Marist Poll reports.
While 47 percent of those surveyed say the
location of the trial will not affect the likelihood
of another terrorist attack occurring in New
York City, «a significant proportion are concerned the trial will put a bull's eye on the city».
Indeed, 40 percent believe the trial which the
Justice Department plans to conduct in New
York for several detainees at Guantanamo
Bay, Cuba, will increase the possibility of another terrorist attack in the area, the Marist Poll
has found.At the same time, most New Yorkers – 67 percent – voice confidence that law
enforcement officials will be able to handle the
potential security risks associated with such a
high profile trial in Manhattan. Only one in five
lack faith in the cops.
by Mark Silva,
swamppolitics.com
I am confident in the
ability of our courts to
provide these
defendants a fair trial,
just as they have for
over 200 years».
Eric Holder
Because even the guilty
have a right to court. And this
is a nation of laws.
Steven J
www.answers.yahoo.com
Americans at Odds With
Recent Terror Trial Decisions
Majorities would prefer trying 9/11 kingpin in a military
court, away from New York
PRINCETON, NJ – By 59% to
36%, more Americans believe accused Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid
Sheikh Mohammed should be tried
in a military court, rather than in a
civilian criminal court. Most Republicans and independents favor holding the trial in a military court, while
the slight majority of Democrats disagree.
by Lydia Saad
- 21 -
Kristina + Arseni =
Diana Pelevine
О
n Oct. 23, 2002 in Moscow, during a performance of a popular musical «Nord Ost,» 912 people, audience members, actors and staff were
taken hostage by 52 heavily armed Islamic terrorists. This so-called
«suicide brigade» comprised mostly of Chechens, included 19 women.
Chechnya is a largely Muslim breakaway republic with which Russia has been at
war.
The demand of the terrorists was the withdrawal of all Russian troops from Chechnya. This demand was not met by the Russian government. Three days into the siege,
a knock-out gas the formula of which is still kept secret – was administered into the
auditorium. Special forces stormed the building. All terrorists were killed, but also
130 hostages died, 125 of them from the effect of the gas.
Two months ago, in a cozy Russian
Orthodox Church in St Petersburg,
Fla., a 6-month-old American boy
was being baptised. He was receiving
blessings to live a long and happy life.
His life will, in some respects, be lived
for the young Russian «Romeo and Juliet», Kristina and Arseni, with whose
names he will travel through life. The
name of the boy is Kristian Arseni. He
is the nephew of Kristina Kurbatova, a
young actress from the Moscow musical taken hostage by Islamic terrorists,
one of only five survivors of the tragedy. Kristina Kurbatova and Arseni
Kurilenko died from the knock-out gas
during the rescue operation. They were
only 13 years old.
Until the tragic day of the siege,
almost every night they rushed to the
theatre to do what they loved: Perform,
dreaming of great acting careers. The
parts they were playing in the popular
musical represented their first experience on a big stage, and one they cherished. In the musical they played two
teenagers whose friendship promised
to grow into real love. Perhaps it was
the magic of the stage or the magic of
youth that brought their onstage love
into their offstage lives.
Kristina kept their first date a secret.
Her mother found out about it from Arseni’s mother only after their deaths.
On stage they sang the musical’s most
popular song, «This is Love». The song
could be heard outside the theatre during the long days of the siege. Under
the rain, sobbing, the actors’ friends
were singing it to support those inside
who, sadly, couldn’t hear them.
Arseni Kurilenko and Kristina
Kurbatova, the young actors of
the musical «Nord Ost»
- 22 -
Men in masks gathered up the
young actors of the musical on the
mezzanine level of the auditorium. It
was hard to believe that this was really happening. They were hungry
and thirsty and couldn’t sleep but,
most of all, they wanted to go home.
«I want to see you, mommy», – were
Kristina’s last words to her parents
during a phone call. Throughout the
three horrific days of the siege, Arseni
held Kristina’s hand. Like a real man,
he was trying to keep her calm. Little
did they know that their souls, invisible
to the eye, like the gas that killed them,
would leave that auditorium together,
but not through the foyer.
Anastasia, the late Kristina’s older
sister, and Kristin Arseni’s mother, remembers everything as if it happened
yesterday. She remembers the coffin
with her beloved sister being carried
across the cemetery and placed next
to Arseni’s. She remembers relatives
holding up her mother who was almost
fainting. She remembers her father’s
face frozen with pain. She can never
forget her mother’s scream in the
morgue. In that moment she knew, «This
is it». not yet quite understanding what
this would mean for her. A bag full of
oranges fell out of her hands. She had
bought them for her sister, but at the
hospital the man in the white overcoat
said, «You’re in the wrong place, you
have to go to the morgue». Then, seeing their reaction, quickly added, «But
it could be a mistake». «Of course it’s
a mistake», – Anastasia kept thinking.
Anastasia and Kristina before
the tragedy
Years have passed, not healing the
family’s wounds. Anastasia’s mother
was not in good shape and was often
hospitalized. Everything was left as it
was in Kristina’s room, her toys, books,
and schoolbag. Photographs on walls
all around the apartment reflected that
other life: Family holidays, Kristina’s
first day of school, rehearsals for the
musical. Anastasia became stronger
than she ever thought she could be.
She never told her parents that since
the tragedy she would often suddenly
pass out or that she skipped lectures at
the university to go the cemetery. She
missed her sister more with every passing day.
Before the tragedy, they were
entering a new stage, when the age
difference of eight years was not so
significant anymore, and they were
quickly becoming best friends. Anastasia chose not to share her pain
even with friends, feeling that her grief
would burden others. And sometimes
it seems it did. Standing by her sister’s
grave she once overheard someone
say: «Look at this marble gravestone. It
probably came from our tax money».
Anastasia felt that no one cared about
the sorrow of those who lost their loved
ones in the tragedy. She believed that
their approach was, «We weren’t affected by it so why should we care?»
She didn’t want to stay in that country.
She wanted to run from it.
Anastasia met Natalia Pelevine in
the summer of 2006, when she flew
to London for the opening of Natalia’s
play based on the events of the siege.
It seemed strange to her that a young
woman who grew up in England and
didn’t lose any relatives or friends in
the siege felt that tragedy so deeply
and shared their pain. Before staging the play, she traveled to Moscow
to meet with the families of those who
died and ask for their permission. The
play opened in a small, North London
theatre.
The red seats of the auditorium
were strikingly similar to those in the
ill-fated Moscow theatre. The staging
was very realistic, with actors sitting
among the audience. Many in the audience cried. Relatives came out into
the foyer with tears in their eyes. Natalia cried with them. The night before
the premiere, she asked them if they
were certain they want to attend it, if
it wouldn’t be too much for them. In
the theatre foyer as she was answering reporters’ questions, she held their
hands. Anastasia also participated in
many interviews and TV appearances
during their London stay, with Natalia
always by her side. Since then she was
always with them no matter where she
was. She attended every anniversary
meeting, went with them to the cemeteries, remembering those who never
left that theatre.
Natalia became like an older sister to Anastasia, sharing her problems
and the toughest times. When Anastasia made the decision to move to the
United States, she asked Natalia to
calm her parents’ fears and concerns.
Now they live relatively close to each
other-Natalia in New York, and Anastasia in Florida. When Anastasia
found out that she was going to have
a baby, she asked Natalia to be the
child’s godmother. She knew what her
answer would be.
Baptism of Kristian Arseni
O›Connor, 2009, Florida
In a small church, Natalia ever so
carefully and gently held her godson in
her arms. She will from now on share
the responsibility for this young American boy. Kristian Arseni O’Connor in
the arms of Natalia Pelevine. There is
some esoteric wisdom about that.
Memorial to the young couple
at the Vagan›kovskoe cemetery
in Moscow
- 23 -
Citizens l HealthCare Reform
Why Health Care Reform?
A Secular Jewish Perspective
By Robert Paul Wolff
Robert Paul Wolff
Emeritus Professor of Philosophy
“
Whether or not you have health insurance right now, the reforms
we seek will bring stability and security that you don’t have today.
”
This isn’t about politics. This is about people’s lives.
This is about people’s businesses. This is about our future.
Robert Paul Wolff was born in New
- PR E S IDE N T BAR AC K OBAMA
York City in 1933. His family on his father's side came from Poland, via Par- get – a waste of roughly $880 billion gency room, whether they have insuris, in 1880, and was originally named each year. And in categories like infant ance or not. To help the sick and ailing
Zarembovitch. His mother's family mortality and deaths in childbirth, we is an authentic expression of our better
As the passing of health insurance reform draws near, the defenders of the status quo in Washington
came from Romania. Dr. Wolff was compare not with the developed na- nature as human beings.
are growing fierce in their opposition and using misleading information to defeat the chance of real
For as long as anyone can rememeducated at Harvard, and has taught tions of Europe and Asia but with unreform. Health insurance reform will protect people against unfair insurance practices; provide quality,
at Harvard, The University of Chicago, derdeveloped nations in Africa and ber, Jews have been at the forefront of
affordable insurance to every American; and bring down rising costs for families and businesses —
efforts to make society more humane,
Columbia, and the University of Mas- Latin America.
this shouldn’t be about Washington politics. It’s about American lives, businesses and our future.
The huge, complex, virtually un- more caring, and more just. It is writsachusetts. He has published 21books
readable
health care re- ten deep into Jewish traditions that the
on
philosophy,
and to
thedispel these1,000-page
It’s never
been economics,
more important
outlandish rumors and myths. Learn the facts and share
form bill that was passed by the House sick should be nursed, the hungry fed,
theory
of education.
He isfamily
now retired
them with
your friends,
and neighbors.
and lives with his wife in Chapel Hill, of Representatives and now is about the oppressed freed, and the wronged
North Carolina. Dr. Wolff's son, Pat- to be debated in the Senate, for all given justice. The present effort to rerick, won the U.S. Chess championship its faults, addresses these fundamen- form America's health care system is
You Can
Keep
Ownis Insurance
Health
Insurance
firmly
in that Consumer
great tradition.
twice.
His
son,Your
Tobias,
teaching at tal problems in a cautious, intelligent,
Protections
Reform
isn’t
about
putting
government
in
charge
of
your
health
insurance;
it’s
There
has
been a great deal of talk
promising
fashion.
It
will
stop
insurHarvard Law School this semester.
about putting you in charge of your health insurance. If you like your doctor,
The security YOU GET from health
about
the «public option.» Charges of
ance
companies
from
denying
you can keep your doctor. If you like your health
care
plan, you can
keep
your coverinsurance
reform:
health
care
plan.
«socialism»
have been made rather
age
to
men,
women,
and
children
with
Most Americans get health insur• No Discrimination for Pre-Existing
ance through their employer, either pre-existing conditions. It will extend carelessly in the debate. But a little
Conditions
Reform Will Stop “Rationing” — Not Increase It
private or public. That works well so coverage to 36 million Americans reflection shows that government parReform will not lead to a “government takeover” of health care or “rationing.”
Expenses,
ticipationOut-of-Pocket
in the provision
of health
right now,
arecurrently
uninsured. And• itNo Exorbitant
long
you don't
your many
job or
On theas
contrary,
reformlose
will forbid
formswho,
of rationing
that are
Deductibles or Co-Pays
being
used
by
insurance
companies.
insurance
is
well
within
the
American
will
take
a
first
step
toward
reining
in
change jobs. But when you get a new
• No Cost-Sharing
for Preventive
Care on Meditradition. Every
senior citizen
job, you may be out of luck if you al- costs.
Reform Will Benefit Small Business — Not Burden It
care
is
part
of
a
plan
that
is a Ill«public
Health
care
is
fundamentally
a
ready have some medical problem
• No Dropping of Coverage for Seriously
Health insurance reform will ease the burdens on small businesses and
issue,
an ideological
or po- option» [including me!]. Every member
that
needsthetreatment
– what
is firms
called
help level
playing field
with big
who moral
pay much
lessnot
to cover
their
• No Gender Discrimination
employees
on
average.
of the Armed Forces, every member of
litical
issue.
A
family,
a
village,
a city,
a «preexisting condition» – or if your
Congress
or theCaps
Administration,
or Lifetime
on Coverage every
new employer does not offer health a nation has a moral responsibility •toNo Annual
The “Euthanasia” Distortion on Help for Families
Federal
Judge,
every
postal worker
make
sure
that
everyone
is
cared
for
insurance as a benefit. As a result of
• Extended Coverage for Young Adults
It’s a malicious myth that reform would encourage or even require euthanasia
heand
or provides
she fallstheill.option
No mother is part of a plan that is a «public opthe
complicated
of health
insur- when
for seniors.
On thesystem
contrary,
reform empowers
families
• Guaranteed
to
get
resources
and
accurate
information.
tion.» Insurance Renewal
would
turn
her
back
on
her
sick child.
ance that has grown up in this counThe reform efforts are not perfect.
try, Americans are as a nation getting No village would allow a man to die
Your Medicare is Safe, and Stronger with Reform
Nothing
bywhat
human
beings
without
at
least
trying
to
give
him
mediLearn
More
anddone
tell us
myths
we ever
sub-standard care. We do not live as
Reform would simply eliminate waste and unnecessary subsidies to insurance
should
address
next
long
as folks
most
developed
coun- cal assistance. All of us believe that is. But they will make America a more
companies,
notincut
Medicare
benefits.
Visitcaring,
WhiteHouse.gov/realitycheck
humane, and healthy society.
tries. We spend about 40 percent more when there has been car accident, the
Reform
Won’t
Add
to
the
Deficit
—
it
Will
Bring
Down
as a nation for the health care we do victims should be rushed to the emerLong Term Costs
President Obama has demanded that health insurance reform not add to
the deficit, and has identified hundreds of billions of dollars in savings
- 24 - by
eliminating unnecessary subsidies to insurance companies through Medicare.
Skyrocketing health care costs pose the biggest threat to our fiscal stability
in the long term under the status quo, and reform is imperative to bring down
Citizens l HealthCare Reform
Rabbi's Comments
By Rabbi Shlomo Uzhansky
Nachas Hebrew Sunday School, nachas4u.com
А
fter reading the article
written by the esteemed
Dr. Wolff claiming that
the heath care revolution is in line with Jewish ideals, I felt a
need to defend my culture and tradition from these false accusations.
Death panels, rationing of healthcare and taking the freedom of choice
away from the people, never did and
never will have anything to do with
Jewish values. When asked by a potential convert to describe the whole
Torah while standing on one foot, a
great Jewish sage Hillel responded
«Don’t do to others what you would
not like to be done to you». And while
«Love your neighbor like you love
yourself» is the foundation of Judaism,
«love» is a feeling, not an action. And
when trying to give to some, we are
not allowed to take away from others.
Yes, we must never ignore a plea of the
needy. Yes, something must be done
to help the uninsured have access to
some kind of an option. But to sink the
country $848 billion further into debt
and ruin the existing healthcare system
for all others is just not fare.
There is a limit as to how much one
must give up in order benefit the other. Did you know that by Jewish law
almost under no circumstances is one
allowed to give more than 25% of his
income to charity? The Torah is just as
concerned with you as it is with someone else. A few years back, a friend
of mine’s brother (Google «the G-d’s
Postman») gave away $2500000 to
charity in one night, during the Jewish holiday of Purim. The next day he
was killed in a car accident, leaving
his family with almost no means to exist. The equity in the business he relied
upon to continue living after the «giveaway binge» had vanished with the
collapse of the economy. Some lessons
to be learned…
If you prize choosing your own
cardiologist or urologist under your
company's Preferred Provider Organization plan (PPO), if your employer
rewards your non-smoking, healthy
- 25 -
lifestyle with reduced premiums, if you
love the bargain Health Savings Account (HSA) that insures you just for
the essentials, or if you simply take
comfort in the freedom to spend your
own money for a policy that covers the
newest drugs and diagnostic tests -–
you may be shocked to learn that you
could lose all of those good things under the rules proposed in the two bills
that herald a health-care revolution.
In short, the Obama platform would
mandate extremely full, expensive,
and highly subsidized coverage – including a lot of benefits people would
never pay for with their own money –
but deliver it through a highly restrictive, HMO-style plan that will determine what care and tests you can and
can't have.
To turn a functioning (yes, I agree,
far from perfect) system into one that
many would suffer from for the sake
of a few has nothing to do with Jewish values. I do admire the presidents
desire to help the 40 million uninsured,
but not at the expense of the 200 million others.
Citizens l People
«We are New York»:
TV series portrays Immigrants
as Backbone of Empire City
By Lori R. Weintrob
«We are New York» is a new TV
series airing Saturdays at 4 p.m. and
Sundays at 7:30 a.m. on Channel 25
(or Channel 22 on Cablevision). Mayor Bloomberg’s Office of Adult Education co-produced this series with the
City University of New York (CUNY) to
«capture the spirit of people who have
come from all over the world to make
New York City their home», according
to the new website for the show.
Citizens magazine interviewed
one of the chief writers, Kayhan Irani,
who was hired as a principal writer by
Anthony Tassi, executive director of
Adult Education in the Bloomberg administration. Irani has a strong commitment to using the arts to create spaces
for civic dialogue and has run theater
workshops in New York, Pakistan and
Iraq. She is co-editor of the book Telling Stories to Change the World: Global Voices on the Power of Narrative to
Build Community and Make Social Justice Claims.
Question: What was your favorite episode of «We Are New York»
and why?
Irani performing in Los Angeles as part of the
Asian Pacific Performance Exchange Program at
the University of California
- 26 -
Irani: My favorite episode is
called «The Wedding». It shows how
our happiest memories rely upon the
contributions of immigrants — from
the food we choose (sushi or quesadillas) to the labor of the taxi drivers,
band musicians, the head waiter, even
the photographer. The seamstress, a
Chinese immigrant, stays up all night
to make last-minutes adjustments on
the wedding dress. The episode is a
metaphor showing how immigrants
make the entire city tick. It counters the
idea that immigrants are a drain on our
economy.
This episode was recently screened
on Staten Island, at Beso restaurant in
St. George, through a partnership of
Mayor Bloomberg’s office, CUNY language immersion program, Make the
Road and El Centro de Hospitalidad.
College students who are new immigrants attended the screening. [CUNY
language immersion students will participating in a community-building project by English to lower-level speakers
at El Centro.]
Question: How did you become
interested in exploring immigrant experiences for the theater?
Irani: I was born in Bombay, India, lived briefly in Iran and India, then
moved to the United States when I was
3. I grew up in Rego Park, Queens, with
friends who were Russian, Chinese and
Korean. In fourth grade, I wrote a play
about women’s rights, about a suf-
fragette abused by her husband. I was
an artist from an early age, and I felt
very sensitive about issues of justice.
My parents encouraged my interest in
theater and writing and I attended LaGuardia Performing Arts High School.
In 2000, I first experienced a performance workshop in «Theater of the
Oppressed» and recognized that it
could channel my passion for the arts
and social justice. I went back to CUNY
and majored in «Theater and Social
Change».
Question: Your first highly acclaimed one-woman show was a response to 9/11. It was performed in
both New York and Pakistan. What
were you trying to convey in this performance?
Irani: What happens when a society allows people to be scapegoated:
I was exploring the perspective of
women — from the INS security agent
to the widow of a detained Muslim man
— in the wake of 9/11. The play opens
in a Sikh temple, with a Sikh woman
receiving a threatening phone call that
the temple is going to be burned down.
This is based on the true aftermath of
9/11: The first hate-based homicide
victim was a Sikh man whose attackers
targeted him on his wearing of a turban - ignorant of what that stood for.
I was concerned about the fragmentation of society, of our government’s
divisive practices; detention of Muslim
men, the separation of families and
Citizens l People
Kayhan Irani, «We Are New York» of Parasi, Indian Zororastian faith writer,
giving a book talk in San Francisco
lack of legal representation.
Question: What is the role of the
arts in a democracy?
Irani: We need to practice, rehearse what it takes to make a democracy for it to exist. We need to practice
Scene from «The Wedding»
- 27 -
forming ideas and discussing them in
groups with people who hold different ideas. The arts provide a forum to
express our ideas and to reflect upon
them. The arts can be a tool for personal growth and to explore the world.
We want to live safely and securely
with mutual respect and understanding
of all people. Theater can be a way
to build up these skills needed to live
in a healthy democracy. Civic spaces
aren’t just the halls of Congress, we
practice democracy in church basements or classrooms or nail salons. We
can create spaces of civic engagement
right where we live. The arts are one
way to promote voice and agency and
to be better citizens in a democracy.
For more information about the
show «We are New York» go to http://
www.nyc.gov/html/weareny/
html/about/about.shtml
Citizens l People
«Honesty and openness
are attributes of real
strength»
Interview with Alan Ross, Attorney in Law. By Arkadiy Fridman and Boris Borovoy
- 28 -
Citizens l People
M
r. Alan Ross is a real «mensch.» A self-made man, he spent the first 30 years of his life in the former Soviet
Union, and, after graduation from Hertzen's Pedagogical Institute in Leningrad, worked as a history teacher in high school, was a «refusenik», and a Jewish scholar and thinker. He left the former Soviet Empire on
Valentine's Day, Feb. 14, 1988, to pursue freedom, a better life, and happiness. After short stops in Vienna
and Ladispoli, he eventually came to New York with a little half-empty briefcase and no plans for the future...
A.R. – ... I had nobody in New
York – no relatives, no friends, no acquaintances. My only possession was
a piece of paper with the phone number of Moishe-Chaim Levin, Lubavicher Rabbi from Crown Heights, friend
of Rabbi Hirsch, Lubavicher from Moscow. Rabbi Levin was the first person
ever to show me support here and he
organized some real help. He found
my first apartment and my roommate,
so I could survive. Then, I found my
first job in JASA as a paraprofessional
social worker. Later I started working for NYANA and at the same time,
studied in the School of Social Studies
in Yeshiva University. And, finally, in
1991 I came to Syracuse University,
the famous School of Law. I was kind of
an «old man» compared to the young
preppy kids from the upper crust of
American society. That's how I became
a lawyer.
A.F. – It's quiet interesting... Normally lawyers here are children of
wealthy families, or somebody, who
came here as kid or teenager. It's a
very unusual story by all means.
A.R. – My whole life is an unusual
story. I was normal Soviet kid from a
much-ssimilated Jewish family. I didn't
know anything about Tradition, Torah,
Talmud, etc. But somehow, I became
interested in spiritual matters. I had
my religious education before I came
to United States. It was whole new dimension of life, a whole New World,
new meaning... so organic to me, so
natural. When I discovered myself,
I realized – I can’t stand in «sovok»
anymore, I have to find another place
to live my life, to fulfill my purpose, because every human being has his own
purpose.
B.B. – The purpose of a human being, according to Kabbalah, is «Tikkun
Olam», Repairing the World, freeing
pieces of Divine Light from «klipot»,
spheres of Darkness.
A.R. – From different points of
view we can see different purposes
of life. However, we have very limited
vision, and we can't create anything
even remotely decent by ourselves.
Every time we try – we just create horrible mistakes. Political, economical,
ethical – you name it.
A.F. – I respectfully disagree with
you, Alan. Humankind has created art,
culture, philosophy... and a good example: the American Constitution.
A.R. – That's happened, when G-d
offered his help to the people, when the
«messenger became a message», providing his will to enlighten the World.
All of modern civilization is based on
the moral imperative; natural law is
given to us through sacred books. Not
only Torah, but the Koran, the Gospels,
the Bhagavat Gita, etc. Our problem is
in wrong interpretations, wrong directions, talmudically speaking, «Avoda
Zara», useless work.
B.B – Can you provide some more
details?
A.R. – For example, what exactly
happened to America in a last 40
years? We strayed away from the Protestant ethics of our forefathers, by the
creation of a consumer society, where
«greed is good» and people must
«keep up with Joneses». The result is
an epical economical collapse such
as the one we can't help experiencing
now. Because ethical motivations became obsolete, spirituality transformed
in self-parody. All society became obsessed with vulgar, materialistic things.
We borrowed and borrowed and borrowed, and now we can't pay even the
minimum anymore. Don't tell me about
cycles in economy – this crisis is systematic. Because the whole construction is
made wrong, on foolish principles. The
system has got to have a serious crash
or re-invent itself. Period.
- 29 -
A.F. – So, do you believe we
should revert to the initial American
forefathers for our answer?
A.R. – No way. Times are changing, as Bob Dylan sings – in the era of
our forefathers, there were 13 colonies,
all on the East Coast, with fairly primitive natural economies, and governing
them was relatively easy. Now, the
situation has tremendously changed,
has became unbelievably difficult and
complex. A good thing: America was
always in a crisis situation. There were
never any good times. And every time,
America had the resources and the guts
to overcome this fast, furiously, and
efficiently. Yes, we are living through
the most difficult challenge ever. But I
strongly believe in my country.
B.B. – We believe in it too, that's
why we are here. Do you have any
suggestions on how to survive in such
a crisis?
A.R. – Live your life. Crisis is systematic, millions like you are involved...
it's not good and it's not bad. I don't
think America will be crushed this time,
but seriously damaged and transformed into something more spiritual,
ethical and efficient. Hope that we'll
learn the lesson. We must learn lessons
throughout our lives; that is why we are
brought into this world. And if you feel
like everything is clear for you, that
means you've got insufficient information. Because there is no such thing as
«almost good enough». I hope this is
clear.
Well, it was very clear for us,
when we talked to Ross – not a
very young, but a very wise gentleman, he somehow warmed
us with tremendous hope. Everything is going to be alright,
then... But we have to work hard
to make it real. Very hard.
Citizens l Restaurant Review
Old Cafe
O
By Inga Voloshin
ld Cafе` is a hidden gem, and those of us who happen to stumble
upon it should consider ourselves among the luckiest of people. Recently, I was fortunate enough to discover this heartwarming restaurant. It was one of those evenings where I wasn’t exactly hungry, but
I knew that I needed to eat, and after a long week of work, cooking was simply
`
out of the question. As soon as I walked through the doors of this quaint little cafe,
any preconceptions that I might have had about this place were challenged. In
` The decor,
fact, this continued to be the case during my whole visit to Old Cafe.
`
the atmosphere, and especially the food exceeded my expectations in every way
possible.
The restaurant was dimly lit, and
its walls were covered in old photographs and pop art from the early
to mid-1900s (some of which I later
learned were contributions from customers). The furniture, ranging from
soft cushioned couches to slender, Parisian-style stools, though mismatched,
worked in perfect harmony to achieve
a very welcoming space. Just when I
thought things couldn’t get any better,
I looked up to see my all time favorite Hollywood classic, «Some Like it
Hot», being projected on a screen. At
this point, I was more than pleasantly
surprised; I was in my ultimate comfort
zone – a sort of warm, homey paradise if you will. But as a natural born
critic I wondered if the food would be
as satisfying as the setting.
As I examined the menu, an involuntary smile came to my face. The
menu was not too big and not too
small, which came as quite a relief.
Furthermore, it was easy to read, the
prices were extremely decent, and the
selection was unlike anything I had
ever seen. As a person who likes to act
on cravings, it is often the case that I
come to a restaurant really excited
about eating a particular dish, and of
course that dish or anything of its nature is nowhere to be found. This menu,
however, spoke to me and every one of
the cravings I didn’t even know I had.
As I mentioned before, I wasn’t really
hungry upon arrival, but as soon as I
began to read the menu I couldn’t help
but salivate at the sight of such items
as «Blue Cheese Fondue», «Zucchini
«Muffin»
«Tabule»
Carpaccio» and «Five Spice Smoked
Chicken». I noticed various international influences. I have to admit, this
did make me skeptical, only because
there is an abundance of restaurants
today that unfortunately get lost trying to do too many different things. As
soon as the first course arrived, however, I understood that this restaurant
did not belong to that category; it not
only talked the talk but also walked the
walk.
The first course, tabouli – a combination of bulgur, roasted vegetables
and fresh herbs all nestled in charm- 30 -
ing little fresh pepper boats – was a
perfect start to my meal. The bright,
complex flavors that presented themselves in just one little bite managed
to excite my palate. Before I knew it I
had quickly polished off my plate, and
was eagerly awaiting the next course.
The «Chimichurri Mussels» that I had
next were a thing of beauty. The large,
succulent mussels were bathed in a
beautiful green sauce that not only displayed the chef’s mastery of sauces,
but his ability to take classical flavors
to the next level – his own. The boldness of the sauce’s herbs was perfectly
balanced by a slight sweetness and
velvety consistency. I noticed that the
fragrant smell of herbs was not only
coming from my plate but from the
bouquets of fresh sage that decorated
the tables in the restaurant. As it turns
out, the chef has multiple uses for the
herbs grown in his own herb garden.
` «BBQ Brisket» is perfecOld Cafе’s
«Couscous and lentil salad»
Citizens l Restaurant Review
tion on a plate. It is bold enough for
the ultimate carnivore, yet still undeniably delicate. Smoked to perfection
and then gently coated with the chef’s
signature BBQ sauce, one bite of the
melt-in-your-mouth brisket left an unforgettable imprint on my taste buds.
Already at the height of my satisfaction
level, dessert managed to raise the bar
even higher. The delivery of the decadent dessert by the chef himself (something he likes to do with all customers)
made it all the sweeter. I washed down
my soul-soothing dessert with a framboise dessert beer, and I was in a state
of euphoria.
After learning a little bit about the
chef, it is unsurprising that my dining
experience in Old Cafе` was such a
positive one. Though quite young, Chef
Slava Kravchenko has several years of
culinary training and experience under
his belt. After nearly five years of culinary training in Kiev, Chef Kravchenko
«Blue Cheese
Fondue»
«Baby red potatoes with caviar»
completed the French Culinary Institute
here in New York City, and for the next
nine years, went on to work for some
of the most prestigious restaurants and
catering companies in the country.
Despite his impressive repertoire and
massive talent, Chef Kravchenko remains quite modest.
«BBQ Brisket»
Chef Slava
Kravchenko
I interpreted his modesty and
laid back style as being consistent with his food, which according to him has «no rules.» According to me, the food at Old
- 31 -
` can be described with just
Cafе
one word: Good.
Old Cafе`
4125 Hylan Blvd,
Staten Island, NY 10308
Phone:718-608-8557
«This menu spoke to me and every one
of the cravings I didn’t even know I
had».
Citizens l Sights to see
Sights to See
By Yirmeyah Beckles
Lower East Side Tenement
Museum
Visit the first
museum in the
United States
to preserve a
tenement, the
original apartment building
where so many
Jewish,
Italian and Polish
immigrant workers came in the early
1900s. Downstairs a German tavern
has been recreated.
Each tour tells a story about a family — sewing clothes, singing songs,
shopping, or in mourning and trying to
get by with little. A National Historic
Site, the Tenement Museum is unique in
its depiction of the life of urban immigrants, a shared history that has long
been ignored. Many good restaurants
surround the museum, located at 108
Orchard Street. Go to www.tenement.
org for directions or call (212) 4310233.
— Did you know?
— Jewish and Italian immigrants
and their children made up 43%,
or almost half (!), of the population
of NYC in 1920?
Sandy Ground Museum
On October 28, 2009 Rep. Michael E. McMahon met with twelve quilters from the Sandy Ground Historical
Society, who presented him with their
historic Strawberry Quilt to hang in his
Washington DC office. The Strawberry Quilt commemorates the strawberry
farmers of Sandy Ground who created
a successful business venture from soil
too sandy for vegetables! You can’t
see this quilt but go see others, like the
one above showing the oystermen who
came to Sandy Ground from Maryland after New York State abolished
slavery in 1827. On the South Shore
of Staten Island, at the intersection of
Bloomingdale and Woodrow Roads in
Rossville, the Sandy Ground Museum
offers a chance to learn about a unique
part of our local history through quilts
and other exhibits!
sandyground
New York Transit Museum
Walk through a subway tunnel.
Pretend to work in a token booth. See
exhibits on bridges and trains. If you
walk down into this station in Brooklyn, at the corner of Boerum Place and
Schermerhorn Street, you will find an
underground subway museum in the
unused Court Street subway station.
Transitmuseum-main Full
Around 1960, the station began to be
used as a set for movies, most notably
the 1974 film The Taking of Pelham
One Two Three. Go to www.mta.com
for information or call (718) 6945100.
— Did you know?
— Some of the best oysters eaten in New York City were once
grown in the waters around Staten Island.
!
— Did you know that Staten Island
Rapid Transit (SIRT) is celebrating
its 150th Anniversary in 2010?
— The first train on Staten Island
ran in 1860 from Eltingville to
Clifton, then called Vanderbilt’s
landing, home to Cornelius
Vanderbilt, one of the richest businessmen ever.
Put yourself in the picture photo contest:
Send us a picture of yourself or your family at a New York City site
that you enjoy visiting. Tell us briefly why you like to go to that
park, museum or historic site. Each month we will feature the best
and most original photos. Please send in your letters to editors
- 32 -
Citizens l NYC Neighborhoods
Port Richmond, The «Fifth
Avenue» of Staten Island
by Phillip Papas and Lori R. Weintrob
В
uilding on Mayor Bloomberg’s new initiatives, the TV series «We Are New York» and the Immigrant Heritage Week in
April – both reaffirming the role of immigrants in the success of New York City, Citizen magazine will feature each month
a profile of a community where immigrants have made and continue to make a difference. This month we look at a neighborhood on the North Shore of Staten Island, Port Richmond, connected to New Jersey by the Bayonne Bridge.
From the 1920s to the 1960s, the main
street in Port Richmond was known as «The
Fifth Avenue of Staten Island,» for its shops
and movie theaters — many managed by
immigrants. Parades down Port Richmond
Avenue, to mark «Flag Day», drew thousands of spectators
A center of shipbuilding and manufacturing until World War II, Port Richmond
earned the title «league of nations» as it
drew a wide variety of immigrant workers
to the area. By the 1930s, one librarian
wrote: «There are fair-haired Scandinavians, Scotch, English, Irish, Italians, Greek
and Negro children, and perhaps other
nationalities I have not noticed». From
the American Revolution to the Wars in
Iraq and Afganistan, these immigrants and
their descendents have served our nation
proudly in the military.
Most Famous Residents: Port Richmond
was the birthplace of Cornelius Vanderbilt, one of the richest men in the «Gilded
Age», who earned his wealth by building
and managing steamboats and railroads,
then an emerging technology. Eberhard
Faber was a German immigrant who came
to New York to develop factories and market his family business — Faber pencils. Today 25% of American pencils are marked
with his brand. And, when the waters of
the Kill van Kull became too polluted for
swimming, the Fabers donated their land to
create a park and public pool, where you
can still swim today.
Business: Born in Molauos, Greece, Emmanuel Katsoris opened the Port Richmond
Square Candy Kitchen in 1911, where he
sold homemade ice cream and candies to
many local factory workers during World
War II. His sons continue to manage Superior Chocolatier, a company now located
on South Avenue that markets its products
nationally.
Photo Credit: Linda Forte
Photo courtesy of George
and Evangeline Katsoris
Religion: St. Mary’s of the Assumption
Church was founded in 1855 for German
and Irish quarry workers; the photo here
depicts the classroom in the 1950s. In addition, Jewish business owners from Latvia
and Austria founded to Temple Emanu-El,
Staten Island’s first conservative synagogue, in 1907 and in the 1920s, the priest
of the local Polish parish, St. Adalbert’s,
who spoke Italian, aided mothers from Italy
at St. Roch’s Italian parish who spoke no
- 33 -
English and needed lessons.
These photos are two of over 200 images from the new book from Arcadia Publication (2009) by Phillip Papas, Associate
Professor of History, Union County College,
New Jersey and Lori R. Weintrob, Associate Professor of History, Wagner College.
Dr. Papas and Dr. Weintrob have both
been involved with the Staten Island Historical Society for many years. Dr. Weintrob sits on the editorial board of the Staten
Island Historian, the Society’s semi-annual
scholarly publication. Since 2005, history majors from Wagner College have
participated in internship programs and
have conducted academic research at the
Society’s vast archives under the direct supervision of Dr. Papas, a resident archival
researcher for the Society. One of these
students was even hired by the Society to
complete the Staten Island Borough President’s exhibit!
Citizens l ANNOUNCEMENTS
In next issues of «Citizens» Magazine:
»
»
«Closed» – Trade Unions.
Are they destroying
Industrial America?
Government Creates No Jobs, Unions Kill
Jobs! Small business'
create upwards of 75%
to 80% of all new jobs.
If small business is failing, there are no new
jobs. Without a robust
small business community, there can be
no economic recovery.
All the stimulus money
in the world going to
Obama’s big business
campaign contributors:
unions,
government
employees,
banks,
Wall Street, will not end
the recession... Prevailing Wage Act requires contractors to
pay artificially high union wages on all state-financed and
city-financed projects from road repair to school construction. Taxpayers could save hundreds of millions of dollars
annually if the law were permanently repealed. Our studies
reveal prevailing wage laws' negative effect on job creation
in the construction industry and their discriminatory impact
on many workers.
»
«On a Top of the World» –
Interview with Stefania Fernandez, Miss Universe 2009
Stefania Fernandez
is 18 years old from
Merida, Venezuela.
She is Galician, Polish,
Russian, and Ukrainian origin. Aside from
the «Miss Universe»
title, Stefania also won
the “Best Body“, “Best
Face“, and “Miss Elegance” awards.
«Per Aspera ad Astra!»
– Interview with Oksana
Baiul, Olympic Gold
Medalist and Figure Skating World
Champion
Oksana
Baiul
was born in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine. She
was raised solely by her
mother, Marina, after
her parents divorced
when Oksana was two
years old. Marina died
of ovarian cancer when
her daughter was thirteen; Oksana had already lost her maternal
grandparents and she
had no other relatives
to care for her. For a
while, Baiul was looked
after by her coach, but
when he emigrated to Canada, she was left on her own and
was soon sleeping on a cot at her hometown ice rink.
»
«Media Sapience» – How to
sell an Enthusiasm to the
Consuming Society
What was an
«Obama-mania»:
sociopolitical phenomena or clever
marketing
stunt?
Who's owned the
copyrights for President image? Are we
gone too far in «Celebrity Craze», and
where is the limit?
The bitter truth...
- 34 -
Galit Couture
A
Citizens l fashion
native of Ukraine, Galit has become known for her signature opulent evening and
bridal gowns rendered in silks, satins and lace. Her desire to create stunning
fashions came to her early, on and as a girl she made her own doll’s clothing.
She went on to develop her skills and knowledge of the fashion industry first
in Europe, then in Israel, and finally in the United States where she launched Galit Couture
in 1997.
Galit's designs have appeared in Contemporary Bride magazine and
she was the focus of a recent article in the New York Times. She participated
in Couture Fashion Week, in New York. Melissa Hunter, an actress, Fox reality
TV star of Joe Millionare and TV host, chose one of her dresses to wear on the
Oscar Red Carpet in 2007.
«I enjoy working with my clients, and want to make them as happy and comfortable as possible», – says the designer. With her broad knowledge base
and natural talent, Galit strives to make her clients' dreams come true. In addition to her own bridal boutique, Galit's designs are available at high-end boutiques in New
York, Michigan, California, Moscow and Baku.
«Galit's creations are truly stunning», – notes producer Andres Aquino. «Her work represents pure couture styling and detailing and are the stuff of fairy tales. What woman
wouldn't love to wear one of these gorgeous dresses?»
Galit Couture
1702 Sheepshead Bay Road
Brooklyn , NY 11235
718-646-8190
www.galitcouture.us
- 35 -
«Best of Both Worlds»: ISLANDER›S
KIDS puts Learning into Day Care
Ella Fridman had a vision. With
30 years experience in both European and American systems of education, she sought to open a school
that combined both methods of
education. Soon after she arrived
in the U.S. in 1994, that dream became the foundation for ISLANDER'S KIDS Learning Center...
Drawing on her experience in the teaching field,
she focuses on screening the most experienced,
well educated, compassionate teachers to join the
daycare center. The faculty works together as a
family with «open hearts» to care for every child
as their own.
ISLANDER'S KIDS Learning Day Care Center has been established since 2004. This center
has unique education programs for their 2- and
3-year-old classes. They can be proud of their
FREE UNIVERSAL PRE-K, advanced Kindergarten
programs and NYC and NYS Licensed professional teachers. To help working parents, they open
their doors from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., year round.
They offer many specialized programs for children to get involved, open up, and express themselves through ballet, folk and modern dance, piano, violin, guitar, vocal, art, and chorus classes,
kick boxing and boxing sports programs.
ISLANDER'S KIDS Learning Day Care Center
is a «HOME AWAY FROM HOME» where your
child will learn and grow with confidence. The center’s goal is to provide structure, encouragement,
a safe environment and an education as children
discover the beauty of the world around them.
219 Jefferson Ave Staten Island, NY 10306
(718) 979-5315; (718) 979-5331
Email: info@siccnyc.org
Website: www.siccnyc.org

File - Citizens Magazine

Transcription

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