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Arab-Americans delight in Miss USA victory
NEW YORK – Donald Trump's Miss USA pageant sure knows how to make headlines.
Arab-Americans rejoiced Monday over t
Meanwhile, some harsh critics wondered if Trump's Miss USA organization was trying to send a message, sniping that the victory amounted to "affirmative action," or implying the first runner-up, Miss Oklahoma USA, suffered unfairly because of an answer she gave supporting Arizona's new immigration law.
All this comes, of course, a year after 2009 runner-up Carrie Prejean and her views on gay marriage dominated the headlines. Suddenly it seemed like the pageant had become a battleground, albeit in bikinis and flesh-baring gowns, for the hot-button political and social issues of the day.
If all that weren't enough, photos emerged of Fakih pole-dancing in skimpy shorts and a tank top in a radio show contest in 2007. The show's producers said they'd been contacted by representatives of the Miss Universe contest requesting more photographs and information. But the show also noted — correctly — that the photos were no more provocative than anything on the Miss USA website.
In any case, Arab-Americans were elated by the victory of Fakih, who was born into a powerful Shiite family in southern Lebanon and whose family said they celebrate both the Muslim and Christian faiths.
"With all the stigma that goes around — especially after 9/11 and how people portray Muslims and Arab-Americans — it's just a great way to knock down all those barriers," said Dewnya Bakri-Bazzi, 22, a Muslim law student from Dearborn, Mich., who uptated her Facebook status to read, "woot woot who knows maybe I can be the next Miss America?"
Abed Ayoub, the legal director for the Washington-based Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee, called the win significant. "It shows our country's diversity and the opportunity it offers all citizens."
He decried the negative blog postings as "disgusting."
"Rima had a great event," he said. "Her religion and race was not an issue during the competition, and I hope not during the judging either. She won on beauty, elegance and eloquence."
Not that Fakih and her family hadn't been prepared for negative publicity. Even before the pageant, Ayoub said, when Fakih had won her state pageant, his group had helped prepare the family.
"We told the family they should expect this," Ayoub said. "We told them that some people spew hatred. But she was strong. She held her ground."
Pageant officials said their records were not detailed enough to show whether Fakih was the first Arab-American, Muslim or immigrant to win the Miss USA title. The pageant started in 1952 as a local bathing suit competition in Long Beach, Calif.
A winner in the 1980s may have had a Lebanese parent, Ayoub said, but having a winner of Arab descent was exceedingly rare nonetheless. The group's regional director in Dearborn, Mich., Fakih's hometown, said the victory was especially sweet given the current political climate.
"We did not choose to be in the hot seat," Imad Hamad said in a telephone interview. "But the tragedy of Sept. 11 put us in the hot seat and imposed a new reality. Also, we have the background of anti-immigrant sentiment, in Arizona, and efforts by some to pass a similar law in Michigan. So this victory is a reaffirmation that America is America, the land of the brave and the land of opportunity. Rima now she can be a role model for all our young people."
Some noted that Fakih had stumbled when, in a question about birth control, she called it a "controlled substance." And she nearly stumbled, quite literally, on her gown because of its long train. But she stayed upright.
As for Morgan Elizabeth Woolard of Oklahoma, she was asked a question — by actor Oscar Nunez of NBC's "The Office" — about Arizona's new immigration law. She said she supported the law, which requires police enforcing another law to verify a person's immigration status if there's "reasonable suspicion" that the person is in the country illegally.
"I'm a huge believer in states' rights. I think that's what's so wonderful about America," Woolard said. "So I think it's perfectly fine for Arizona to create that law."
Conservative bloggers like Michelle Malkin suggested the question was a trap. The pageant's judges, who included skater Johnny Weir and NBA star Carmelo Anthony, were unavailable for comment Monday, as was Trump, whose office said he was too busy to speak about the pageant.
Fakih was born in Srifa, a village in southern Lebanon that was heavily bombed during the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war. She moved to the United States with her family in 1993 and attended a Catholic school in New York. Her family moved to Michigan in 2003.
Her sister, Rana, who moved back to Lebanon a few months ago for a new job, said she had spent the night exchanging messages with her father, Hussein, and another sister, Ruba, who were attending the competition.
"It was a beautiful surprise," she said from Srifa. "It was not easy for Rima to reach this title. We're very proud as Lebanese Americans and as Lebanese that Rima reached this point despite all the pressures and stereotyping about Arabs and Lebanese. She made it. She fought and reached her goal."
___
Associated Press Writers Bassem Mroue in Beirut, Oskar Garcia in Las Vegas and Jeff Karoub in Dearborn, Mich., contributed to this report.
___
Online:
http://www.missuniverse.com/missusa
Arab-Americans delight in Miss USA victory
NEW YORK – Donald Trump's Miss USA pageant sure knows how to make headlines.
Arab-Americans rejoiced Monday over t
Meanwhile, some harsh critics wondered if Trump's Miss USA organization was trying to send a message, sniping that the victory amounted to "affirmative action," or implying the first runner-up, Miss Oklahoma USA, suffered unfairly because of an answer she gave supporting Arizona's new immigration law.
All this comes, of course, a year after 2009 runner-up Carrie Prejean and her views on gay marriage dominated the headlines. Suddenly it seemed like the pageant had become a battleground, albeit in bikinis and flesh-baring gowns, for the hot-button political and social issues of the day.
If all that weren't enough, photos emerged of Fakih pole-dancing in skimpy shorts and a tank top in a radio show contest in 2007. The show's producers said they'd been contacted by representatives of the Miss Universe contest requesting more photographs and information. But the show also noted — correctly — that the photos were no more provocative than anything on the Miss USA website.
In any case, Arab-Americans were elated by the victory of Fakih, who was born into a powerful Shiite family in southern Lebanon and whose family said they celebrate both the Muslim and Christian faiths.
"With all the stigma that goes around — especially after 9/11 and how people portray Muslims and Arab-Americans — it's just a great way to knock down all those barriers," said Dewnya Bakri-Bazzi, 22, a Muslim law student from Dearborn, Mich., who uptated her Facebook status to read, "woot woot who knows maybe I can be the next Miss America?"
Abed Ayoub, the legal director for the Washington-based Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee, called the win significant. "It shows our country's diversity and the opportunity it offers all citizens."
He decried the negative blog postings as "disgusting."
"Rima had a great event," he said. "Her religion and race was not an issue during the competition, and I hope not during the judging either. She won on beauty, elegance and eloquence."
Not that Fakih and her family hadn't been prepared for negative publicity. Even before the pageant, Ayoub said, when Fakih had won her state pageant, his group had helped prepare the family.
"We told the family they should expect this," Ayoub said. "We told them that some people spew hatred. But she was strong. She held her ground."
Pageant officials said their records were not detailed enough to show whether Fakih was the first Arab-American, Muslim or immigrant to win the Miss USA title. The pageant started in 1952 as a local bathing suit competition in Long Beach, Calif.
A winner in the 1980s may have had a Lebanese parent, Ayoub said, but having a winner of Arab descent was exceedingly rare nonetheless. The group's regional director in Dearborn, Mich., Fakih's hometown, said the victory was especially sweet given the current political climate.
"We did not choose to be in the hot seat," Imad Hamad said in a telephone interview. "But the tragedy of Sept. 11 put us in the hot seat and imposed a new reality. Also, we have the background of anti-immigrant sentiment, in Arizona, and efforts by some to pass a similar law in Michigan. So this victory is a reaffirmation that America is America, the land of the brave and the land of opportunity. Rima now she can be a role model for all our young people."
Some noted that Fakih had stumbled when, in a question about birth control, she called it a "controlled substance." And she nearly stumbled, quite literally, on her gown because of its long train. But she stayed upright.
As for Morgan Elizabeth Woolard of Oklahoma, she was asked a question — by actor Oscar Nunez of NBC's "The Office" — about Arizona's new immigration law. She said she supported the law, which requires police enforcing another law to verify a person's immigration status if there's "reasonable suspicion" that the person is in the country illegally.
"I'm a huge believer in states' rights. I think that's what's so wonderful about America," Woolard said. "So I think it's perfectly fine for Arizona to create that law."
Conservative bloggers like Michelle Malkin suggested the question was a trap. The pageant's judges, who included skater Johnny Weir and NBA star Carmelo Anthony, were unavailable for comment Monday, as was Trump, whose office said he was too busy to speak about the pageant.
Fakih was born in Srifa, a village in southern Lebanon that was heavily bombed during the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war. She moved to the United States with her family in 1993 and attended a Catholic school in New York. Her family moved to Michigan in 2003.
Her sister, Rana, who moved back to Lebanon a few months ago for a new job, said she had spent the night exchanging messages with her father, Hussein, and another sister, Ruba, who were attending the competition.
"It was a beautiful surprise," she said from Srifa. "It was not easy for Rima to reach this title. We're very proud as Lebanese Americans and as Lebanese that Rima reached this point despite all the pressures and stereotyping about Arabs and Lebanese. She made it. She fought and reached her goal."
___
Associated Press Writers Bassem Mroue in Beirut, Oskar Garcia in Las Vegas and Jeff Karoub in Dearborn, Mich., contributed to this report.
___
Online:
http://www.missuniverse.com/missusa
Lebanon's 'Shankaboot' brings Arab drama online
TAALABAYA, Lebanon (AFP) – Driving through Beirut's maze of alleys can demand a certain death-defying flair. So it co
The online series follows happy-go-lucky Lebanese delivery boy Sleiman as he zooms through the streets on his "Shankaboot," a name invented for his scooter and title of the drama, delivering food, medicine, a gas cylinder or an oversized floral lampshade which he balances on his head.
"What we aim for is to keep the series close to ordinary, daily life, to the way people are on the streets," said Katia Saleh, producer of the first Arabic-language online sitcom.
Funded by the BBC World Service Trust in cooperation with Saleh's production house Batoota Films, Shankaboot pays tribute to aspects of Beirut overlooked on local television: quirky city residents, underage drivers, class, drugs and prostitution rings.
While films, music and television must first pass muster with Lebanon's general security, using the Internet as a medium has given Shankaboot unprecedented freedom.
As the online use of Arabic grows at record speed and more and more young Arabs gain access to the Internet, Shankaboot makes a change from the diet of Latin American and Turkish soap operas so popular in the region.
The script is witty and crude at the same time, echoing the everyday vernacular of the Lebanese rather than the polished Arabic of dubbed soaps.
"What's popular in the Arab world is Mexican and Turkish drama, and I think Shankaboot has appealed so widely to so many people first because it is well-made and second because it speaks to them," Saleh told AFP on the set in the eastern village of Taalabaya where the crew was shooting season two.
"It speaks their language."
While the Beirut cityscape is dotted with landmarks easily recognisable to anyone who has visited, director Amin Dora instead chose to focus on the city "as Beirutis know it."
"In season one, what I aimed for was to reflect the reality of life in Beirut," Dora said. "We avoided everything artificial. We want to show Beirut as it is."
The quest for authenticity also prompted Dora to cast first-time actors in most of the key roles.
"I think what really helped the authenticity come through was the acting, which is a direct reflection of the reality of the people of Beirut," Dora said.
Starring as Sleiman is first-time actor Hassan Akil, 17, who like his peers was attracted to the project's script and medium.
"I don't watch Lebanese television at all. I think it's totally fake," Akil told AFP on set. "I don't think I would have continued to play Sleiman if the script was fake ... But this is something else, and I'm proud to be contributing to it."
And even before its official launch in May, Shankaboot has already become a hit in the online world with more than 7,000 views and 5,000 Facebook fans, or "Shankaddicts."
"I'm very surprised - and happy -- with the series' success among Lebanese expatriates and foreigners," said Dora. "After the Arab world, most of our hits come from the United States.
"A major concern for us was download time, because we didn't want the viewer to give up on the downloading process," he said of the five-minute episodes.
The first season is made up of 11 episodes during which viewers meet the lovable Sleiman, the beautiful runaway Ruwaida and the enigmatic Chady, whose story is not unveiled until season two.
Sleiman and Ruwaida's lives become intertwined when, chatting on his phone as he speeds down the street, he knocks her over down as she emerges from a bus.
As the complex plot unravels, the series looks at issues of abuse, drugs, and poverty, dotted with generous doses of comic relief.
Season two takes Sleiman, Chady and Ruwaida to the eastern Bekaa Valley -- Lebanon's Wild West -- and introduces characters from rural life, far removed from cosmopolitan Beirut.
Actor Nasri Sayegh, who plays the dark, sinister Chady, said what drew him to the project was its loyalty to the reality of life in Lebanon.
"Lebanon's 'nakha,' its unique flavour, comes out on the screen ... In season one it was Beirut and in season two it is the Bekaa. You can see it, smell it, taste it," said Sayegh, 31.
"Sleiman is the main character," the actor added. "But the real hero is the city" -- from Beirut to the Bekaa and wherever else the noisy little Shankaboot takes the series.
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