The Inside Assyria Discussion Forum

=> What Chaldeans in Detroit lack

What Chaldeans in Detroit lack
Posted by Jeff (Guest) - Thursday, August 31 2006, 5:41:29 (CEST)
from 69.14.30.71 - d14-69-71-30.try.wideopenwest.com Commercial - Windows XP - Mozilla
Website:
Website title:

Chaldeans in Detroit lack...

... leadership
... identity
... meaningful pride, but are full of empty pride
... culture
... political will and influence
... the list goes on and on

The only meaningful Chaldean organizations that exist today are the Chaldean American Ladies of Charity, and the ACC (Arab & Chaldean Council). The rest of these groups are by and large extremely ineffective. The Ladies of Charity were able to build a senior citizens home, they have regular programs with Chaldean youth, they provide social services, etc. The ACC provides thousands with meaningful services each year.

The group (now defunct and disbanded) formerly known as "CARE" (Chaldean Americans Reaching & Encouraging) had the potential to be a force of change and progress within the community, however due to a dictatorial style of leadership which is ever present in most of our community organization, progress was stifled and the group eventually fell apart. Not to mention that tens of thousands of dollars in funds were drained with no apparent results or benefits to the community...

The Chaldean Federation of America (CFA) essentially no longer exists. Nobody is really sure what the group ever did, save a scholarship event and commencement each year, but they sure attracted people to their annual dinners. Passing of the gavel, anyone?

So where does that leave us?

I recently heard from several credible sources that Shenandoah country club was so strapped for cash that they forced the good folks who raised money for the Chaldean Community Cultural Center (a closet-sized area which will one day, perhaps, be built into the social club and perhaps educate people about our history...albeit incorrectly) to hand the money over due to the establishment operating in the red for so long. What a pathetic state of affairs.

So, back to square one. What is the solution? Support the only two groups that actually have accomplished anything (the valiant and ever-excellent Ladies of Charity and the ACC), or attempt to start another group which could achieve some specific aim or satisfy a specific need within the community?

For example, it is widely known that Chaldeans as a group have more grocery stores than any other ethnic, religious, or cultural group in Michigan. I had the idea of putting together a very focused plan which would allow the Chaldean businesses to donate non-perishable food each month, or each quarter to a food drive which would benefit Chaldeans (and even non-Chaldeans) who are in need. I figured, rather than ask people for money time and again for this charity or that charity, we can create an institution (we have the resources) which could effectively solve the problem of Chaldeans (mainly in the 7 mile area) that are at or below the poverty level not having adequate food. But what happened when I suggested this idea to community "leaders"? It was shot down immediately. And don't tell me that there are no poor Chaldeans because I met them. I volunteered for the food drive that CARE used to put on for several years in a row, and there really are Chaldeans struggling to survive.

This is just one example of many where our community, with its extensive business prowess could help ourselves and become empowered... but unfortunately those in charge lack foresight, wisdom, or the courage to change the status quo.

There's one person in particular who embodies all that is wrong with our community. I can picture him in my head as I write this, see his two-faced demeanor, hear his hyena-like laugh, and wonder just how the community can become so indifferent... it's because of poor leadership. Leadership makes all the difference in the world. Leadership can galvanize the community and raise it to unprecedented heights... or, it can cripple the community in unfathomable and ultimately pitiful ways.



---------------------


The full topic:



Content-length: 4326
Content-type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
Accept: text/xml,application/xml,application/xhtml+xml,text/html;q=0.9,text/plain;q=0.8,image/png,*/*;q=0.5
Accept-charset: ISO-8859-1,utf-8;q=0.7,*;q=0.7
Accept-encoding: gzip,deflate
Accept-language: en-us,en;q=0.5
Connection: keep-alive
Cookie: *hidded*
Host: www.insideassyria.com
Keep-alive: 300
Referer: http://www.insideassyria.com/rkvsf4/rkvsf_core.php?.1EHa.
User-agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.0.6) Gecko/20060728 Firefox/1.5.0.6



Powered by RedKernel V.S. Forum 1.2.b9