Author Archives: edandrus

If you are already tired of the two candidates running for president you now know what your

third option can be. Jill Stein recently received the nod from the Green Party to challenge President Obama and Mr. Romney (in states where the Green Party is on the ballot). Here on informuscitizens.com we often discuss immigration issues as they relate to the Democratic and Republican parties. Giving a little attention to a third alternative may be helpful. According to the Green Party platform regarding immigration, “The Green Party stands

firmly for social justice for all those living in order viagra this country regardless of their immigration status. Above all, policy and law must be humane, anything less would be inconsistent with our Green Values, and with our nation’s values.” Furthermore, they declare, “The U.S. needs a complete overhaul of its immigration laws. Our current situation has created extreme social injustice. Millions of people are living and working in the U.S. with no legal status, making them subject to extreme exploitation and abuse. Immigration raids are terrorizing the immigrant community. Families are being broken up. Employer abuses of undocumented workers are rampant.”

If this sounds like something that interests you or that you may want to support check out their platform in full at: http://www.gp.org/committees/platform/2010/social-justice.php#1002510 and scroll down to the immigration section. Here is the link to read their whole platform: http://www.gp.org/committees/platform/2010/index.php

Often it seems we think of things in a binary fashion.  For example: good-bad, white-black, illegal-l

egal.  To some extent it is probably human nature to perceive the world around us in these terms in order to build a foundation that allows us to understand the events that surround us.  At some point it is necessary for us to rise above a binary point of view and examine all the complications and combinations of life that fill in the scale between black and white.  Many people want to view immigration is such stark values that dismisses the wonderful and edifying qualities other peoples and cultures have to offer.

Why have I been thinking about this?  I have a co-worker whose father is from Jordan and his mother is from the U.S.  My friend Amjad is a photographer and does wonderful work that highlights “tension.”  Tensions that at first glance may seem opposites, but upon further reflection can illuminate links that bridge perceived differences.  When we attempt to understand and obtain a wider view, then we can see the beauty in peoples, concepts, cultures, and perceptions where before we only saw diametrically opposed ideas.

Here is a description about his art:

Medieval depictions of historical events in Shi’a art and illuminations often depict the prophet Muhammad with a golden flame enveloping his head or show his face entirely shrouded by a veil; an attempt at reverence in both his depiction and non-depiction. This primary tension regarding how images operate and their power to narrate versus their potential to transform into something more seductive and dangerous is instrumental in my own approach to image making. The conceptual translations of these concerns to modern depictions of geopolitical and religious violence are not hard to make within the context of contemporary media as well as art and indeed manifest within my photographs.

As an artist simultaneously attempting to navigate photography’s contemporary role in art and populist models of thought as well as its relationship to art history, I find inescapable parallels between the photograph’s exacting abstraction of the world and our inclination to adore them as empirical objects. I am inclined to employ this representational tension as a means to explore both the volatile and mercurial problems of my ancestral background in the Middle East.

If you would like to view Amjad’s work here is the link:

http://amjadfaur.com/home.html