Traci Tong in the Year of the Dragon celebration in Boston.

I love that for one day, every year, I get to be in the middle of the best party thrown in Boston’s Chinatown.

And it’s all because of Chinese New Year. Well, technically, the Lunar New Year. And this year is the most important of the Lunar New Year zodiac signs — the Year of the Dragon.

There are 12 animals in the Lunar Zodiac line up — the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and boar. But it is the dragon that represents everything important to the Chinese culture — wisdom, power and wealth.

To welcome in each new year and new animal, dancers will get underneath decorative paper lion heads, or carry poles holding up a clothed serpent like dragon and make their way through the streets of Chinatown. They’re all dancing to the thundering of drums and the crashing of cymbals. Firecrackers are thrown at your feet, scaring the beejeezus out of you. All of this intended to chase away those evil spirits.

The lion dancers will stop in front of a restaurant, a shop, or any type of business that wants you. The lions are given heads of lettuce and often oranges to “eat” which they then toss back out to the audience symbolizing the sharing of the wealth and good fortune. Hidden underneath the lettuce is a red envelope with money, payment to the dance troupe for chasing away the bad luck.

You’ve never seen so much produce strewn in the streets of Boston’s Chinatown.

These lion and dragon dances date back to roughly the third century BC when the dancers would go from village to village. It requires a lot of strength, endurance and artistry and it’s so physically demanding that women were not allowed to participate.

Thankfully, that didn’t stop Cheng Imm Tan, a reverend and director of The New Bostonians with the city of Boston.

She started the Gund Kwok troupe — the only Asian Women’s Lion and Dragon dance troupe in the United States. Gung Kwok means “heroine” in Chinese and the troupe was established to allow Asian women to express their power and creativity through the lion and dragon dances.

At the end of January, our troupe, more than 20 of us, braved the chill and the wind for seven-and-a-half hours, as we visited more than 100 establishments in Boston’s Chinatown.

We were cold, and sore, weary… but it was all worth it.

The highlight was inaugurating our new seven-person dragon named Goldie — with me at the head for the first time ever and during most auspicious of all years and animals.

Next year: the Snake. I don’t know if I want to be in that head.

Happy New Year!

That was the verdict Tuesday from the jury in the terrorism case of Tarek Mehanna.

The jury in Boston convicted him of conspiring to help al-Qaeda and plotting to kill US soldiers in Iraq.

After Tuesday’s verdict, the 29-year-old defendant could be sentenced to life in a prison.

Prosecutors in the case said that Mehanna was born and raised in a Boston suburb and traveled to Yemen to attend a training camp.

His defense lawyers said it was to study Islam.

Anchor Marco Werman talks to David Cole, professor of Law at the Georgetown University, about the verdict.

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Marco Werman: I’m Marco Werman, this is The World. Guilty on all counts — that was the verdict today from a jury in the terrorism case of Tarek Mehanna. The jury in Boston convicted him of conspiring to help al-Qaeda and plotting to kill US soldiers in Iraq. After today’s verdict, the 29-year-old defendant could be sentenced to life in prison. As we reported yesterday, Tarek Mehanna was born in the US and raised in a Boston suburb. Prosecutors said he traveled to Yemen to attend a terrorist training camp. His defense lawyer said it was to study Islam. Both sides agree that after returning to the US Mehanna began translating al-Qaeda documents and distributing them on the internet. David Cole is a law professor at Georgetown University. So the verdict of guilty came in part as we said as a result of Mehanna’s translating documents, and the prosecution said that was material support of terrorism. What’s your reaction to that?

David Cole: Well, the statute under which he was prosecuted, the material support statute, is remarkably broad and defines material support to terrorist organizations to include not just the provision of arms and the provision of money, or the provision of any kind of tangible aid, but also through speech. So, under the statute you can be convicted and thrown in jail for merely engaging in speech that is provided to or done in coordination with a terrorist organization. It’s a very, very sweeping statute.

Werman: So legally what are the implications for free speech in this country if translating documents can be interpreted as support for terrorism?

Cole: Well, it’s very concerning. I mean there are many news organizations that have for example, put up links to some of Osama Bin Laden’s statements. Are they providing material support to al-Qaeda by doing so? We in this country have seen the dangers of government prosecuting people for speech. The history of the First Amendment is sort of built on a series of cases in which the government prosecuted people for advocating crime, but in fact what they did was criminalize descent. Prosecuted people who spoke out against WWI for example, prosecuted people in the McCarthy era for advocating communist ideas, and ultimately the Supreme Court recognized the danger of this sort of criminalization of descent by saying you’ve gotta prove when you’re prosecuting someone for their speech that their speech was intended and likely to produce eminent lawless action — very, very tough standard to meet. But the reason that that standard is tough is because of the danger of criminalizing descent. And in this case by using the material support statute the government avoided that test altogether. There’s no showing that any of his internet activity was intended or likely to produce any eminent action or ever lead to any illegal action whatsoever.

Werman: The jury in the case deliberated pretty quickly and came back with the verdict of guilty. What does the speed of the verdict indicate to you, if anything?

Cole: Well, I mean again, this is the danger. When you criminalize speech, that permits the government to put on all kinds of evidence about people’s political views and inclinations. And if those inclinations are ones that we the majority don’t like, there’s a real risk that juries will convict them not for engaging in or actually furthering any kind of violence, but for engaging in speech that we find profoundly troubling. And that’s what the First Amendment is designed to protect, but in this case doesn’t see to have done that work.

Werman: So, David Cole, how significant is this as a legal precedent?

Cole: As you may know, the Supreme Court took up a case involving the material support statute just a year and a half ago. In fact, I argued on behalf of a human rights group in the case. And the Supreme Court said there’s no First Amendment problem with prosecuting people for engaging in speech with or on behalf of a group that’s been labeled terrorists, even if that speech advocates nothing but peace and human rights. So…

Werman: What was their justification?

Cole: Their justification was that anything you say on behalf of a group might sort of burnish its legitimacy and it can then use that legitimacy to go out and raise other support. Then it could use that support to engage in criminal activity. I mean it’s a very attenuated chain of causation, not the kind of causation that the Supreme Court at least in the past has said is required when you make speech a crime. So we’ve now come to the point where we’re making pure speech a crime regardless of its actual connection to any concrete criminal conduct, and that’s a very, very dangerous place to be.

Werman: Law professor David Cole at Georgetown University, thank you very much.

Cole: Thanks for having me.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.

For most of the last 40 years, radio station WILD in Boston was the go-to place for African-American music, news and talk featuring talk shows hosted by the Reverend Al Sharpton and Tom Joyner. But earlier this summer all that changed.

In June, Boston’s “Home for Classic Soul” quietly turned Chinese when WILD began leasing its air time to an English language service of China Radio International, a product of the Chinese government.

The programs are an eclectic mix of news and information on Chinese culture and society interspersed with syrupy English and Chinese pop music and the occasional Chinese language lesson.

A one hour-long program focused on the Chinese custom of confinement for new mother’s in the first month post-partum. No driving, no leaving the house, no cold food and no washing your hair.

Boston Globe columnist Alex Beam has spent much of his summer listening to the new Chinese WILD. He found some of it amusing — features on hermaphroditic butterflies and snoring police at Beijing hotels, for example. But he also detected a decidedly pro-Beijing bias on some news stories.

Even so, Beam thinks China International Radio might just work.

“I think it could easily be as effective as Voice of America, Deutsche Welle,” Beam said. “I think you’re hearing Chinese people talking about China, there’s always a huge interest all over the world. I think good will does spread that way in the sense that people care that others are reaching out to them.”

While China Radio International has been peddling its programming overseas for many years, an hour here and there, WILD is only the second station in the US, to adopt the Chinese format full time. The radio initiative is part of a much larger charm offensive to try to improve China’s image overseas. Beijing has even marketed itself alongside the bright lights of Broadway.

Harvard Professor Joseph Nye has written extensively about China’s use of soft power. He says there are limits to how much goodwill China can create through government projects.

“Well I think the Chinese don’t understand that a lot of American soft power comes from our civil society, it’s outside the government,” Nye said. “And the problem that CCTV or China Radio International faces is that its a governmental organ. And if its propaganda, it’s not attractive, and doesn’t produce soft power.”

Nevertheless, China is throwing a reported $6.5 billion into this soft power initiative. But AM radio may not get them much bang for their buck. The ratings at the new WILD are dismal: they are reaching only half of their previous audience, about 500 listeners during any given 15 minute interval.

Radio Industry watcher Greg Fitzgerald, whose agency distributes the English language program of Germany’s Deutsche Welle, says international broadcasters who ‘pay for play’ lack the credibility to attract American decision makers. But Fitzgerald says, finding an elite American audience may only part of their goal.

“Some people in different industries like to see dots on a map and if you are in the Information Ministry and you can point to that map and say ‘see we’re on in Boston, people do hear what we have to say’ as a propaganda tool and can be effective within institutions, but in terms of actually reaching listeners, it has very little impact,” Fitzgerald said.

China Radio International is still trying. It broadcasts in 43 languages including Spanish, Russian and Arabic and claims to reach 300 million people. But putting your programming out there is not quite the same as actually finding someone willing to listen to it.

Debo Band’s performance at the Sauti za Busara festival

No, I haven’t discovered the secret to time travel. I’m just experiencing a profound feeling of déjà vu today.

Just like that June day 17 years ago, I’m mourning the Canucks loss in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals.

But it isn’t the repeated sporting loss that has me remembering 1994. It’s the embarrassment I’m feeling about being from Vancouver.

I’m embarrassed that my city is in the news this morning because of angry drunken people rioting after the game. People took to the streets last night and they set cars and garbage cans ablaze and smashed windows.

And they showered giant TV screens with beer bottles and danced on overturned vehicles.

And I’ve seen it all before.

This is what happened when the Canucks lost in 1994 to the New York Rangers. Drunken rioters took the streets on that June night for some post-game looting and burning.

Yes, it hurts to lose. I’m a Canucks fan and I was heartbroken to watch last night’s game. The Canucks have had a great run and it looked like this was their year to win the Cup.

But it wasn’t meant to be.

And when the game was over the Canucks players shook hands with the Bruins players and congratulated them on their victory. I saw Bruins goalie Tim Thomas stop to offer warm words and a pat on the shoulder to Canucks goalie Roberto Luongo.

It was a dignified end to a hard-fought series.

When the riots happened all those years ago, Vancouverites were shocked at the violence and destruction.

But it is not 1994.

We can’t be shocked anymore.

In Vancouver, losing a hockey game is an excuse for some people to destroy property and steal things. I’m sad we lost the game.

I’m embarrassed we haven’t learned to lose with dignity.

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Marco Werman: The Vancouver Canucks are one win away from claiming Hockey Stanley Cup. They’ll try to earn that victory tonight against the Bruins here in Boston. The Canucks lead the series, three games to two, but Bruins have the home ice advantage tonight. One of their longtime do-or-die fans is Bill Estabrooks. But here is the thing about Estabrooks, he’ll be pulling for the Bruins as he watches the game from home in Nova Scotia, that’s in Canada and he won’t be alone. Mr. Estabrooks why are you cheering for the Bruins?

Bill Estabrooks: Well I’m a longtime Bruins fan. I was a Bruins fan before Bobby Orr played for the Bruins. I grew up on the Tantramar marshes, which is basically at the head of the Bay of Fundy between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. And as a little guy I listened to transistor radio, of course and I always sat [?] when the Bruins games on. That’s the original connection with them. Subsequently then of course it’s just been a concept like affair with [?] hockey in this part of the country and then the Bruins have always been my team.

Werman: Well, you need to help us out here because you’re not only a Bruins fan, you’re also, you know, an official, a public face, you’re a member of parliament to Canada and Nova Scotia’s Transportation Minister. So what is the connection between Halifax and Boston?

Estabrooks: So, Werman  what does that have to do with being a Bruins fan?

Werman: (laughs), I’d expected I’d be rooting for -,

Estabrooks: I mean I can be [xx] bad at being a Bruins fan just as well as being a patronizing politician too, you know.

Werman: So, what is the connection between Halifax and Boston?

Estabrooks: Well, in the, prior to politics, might be I should point out to you that I was a History teacher in the public school system here in Nova Scotia. The connection of course is in the First World War there was an explosion when two ammunition ships collided in Halifax harbor. It basically destroyed the downtown poor of Halifax environment[?], with over 2000 people dying and in the midst of that natural disaster that happened at that time, the very first city that responded was, with nurses and with doctors and with a shipload of supplies and food, were the people of Boston. So in return we’ve always had a strong connection. We make sure we send a Christmas tree down to Boston, just thanking them again for their help those many long years ago. Right, that’s the history, that was pretty good, I guess from the old History teacher.

Werman: Well that’s interesting, because History apparently goes real deep for you, deeper than National sports allegiances?

Estabrooks: Well, National sports aside, I know of many Canadians are saying you know that as a, I, you know, patriotic public figure, I should be cheering for Team Vancouver. Eh, not so much OK. Like, there’s a lot of reasons to cheer for the Bruins, they’ve got some Canadian kids playing for them. My connection comes down to the fact that Brad Marchand also constitute of mine, we’re the Marchand family within my community and I’ve known barely since he was a little boy and he’s one of those great hockey players, you’ll love to have him on your team. You hate him when he doesn’t play for you, so.

Werman: (laughs)

Estabrooks: He’s got a special connection issue, and particularly he’s had a great playoff run and it’s great to see him doing well.

Werman: Now your support of the Boston Bruins, I wonder if you know, those are kind of like fighting sentiments up in Canada. There’s a picture of you on the front page of the Boston Globe today and you’re missing a couple of teeth, did that come about because of your support of the Bruins?

Estabrooks: (laughs) No those aren’t recent losses. I lost one playing hockey and I lost another one playing hockey university football. But, yeah, it’s a tradition in my home, like when the Bruins are playing in the playoffs, I, you know, I take my teeth out. I mean, that’s old timers hockey, I just continue to play old timers hockey here in Halifax area, but that’s all just part of being a Bruins fan. I’ve been a hockey fan, anybody who’s a fan of hockey, of course understands the passion of the game and what it brings out in this country and I’m sure in the Boston area too. I mean loyalty is a wonderful particularly through the ins and the outs and the downs and ups of professional sports, so, Bruins have had a great ride and there’s only one way to finish the season, like we say and that’s of course to win it all.

Werman: Bill Estabrooks who is a member of the Canadian parliament and Nova Scotia’s Transportation Minister, he’s also a Boston Bruins fan. Thanks very much for speaking with us.

Estabrooks: Go Bruins, go.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.

(Photo: Mark Wilson)

• Club d’Elf official website

The faithful at Anfield Road (Photo: Jon Cockley)

We’re looking for the home-town of one of the most famous sports teams in the world. No, not the Yankees, not even the Red Sox – although the Sox are involved in this story. Their owner, John Henry, is making a play for an English soccer club.

The team is named after this city in the northwest of England. And right now, feelings are running high. The fans don’t like the current American owners of the team. And they’re not sure about the prospective new American owner.

You can take a ferry across the Mersey to reach our mystery city. If you don’t have it now, well, think Fab Four. So where are we?

The answer is the city of Liverpool, England – home of the once glorious Liverpool Football Club. That’s the soccer team that Red Sox owner John Henry is trying to buy. The team is currently owned by another couple of Yanks: Tom Hicks and George Gillett. They’re not too popular with the fans who accuse them of loading the team with debts instead of trophies. Marc Gaier, is a reporter with BBC Radio Merseyside, and has been a Liverpool soccer fan since birth.
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LISA MULLINS: I’m Lisa Mullins and this is The World. We took a ferry ‘cross the Mersey to reach the answer to our Geo Quiz today. The answer is the city of Liverpool, England, home of the once glorious Liverpool Football Club. That’s the soccer team that Red Sox owner John Henry is trying to buy. The team is currently owned by another couple of Yanks, Tom Hicks and George Gillett, and they’re not too popular with the fans, who accuse them of loading the team with debts instead of trophies. Marc Gaier is a reporter with BBC Radio Merseyside, and he’s been a Liverpool soccer fan pretty much since birth. So what are people saying when they heard the news first that John Henry is going to be taking over the team? What was the scuttlebutt? What were people saying?

MARC GAIER:  Well, I have to say, who are the Boston Red Sox? Now you might find that strange and I consider myself a member of the Red Sox nation, but baseball is not a big sport in England. So people don’t know enough about the Boston Red Sox and they certainly don’t know enough about John Henry, so, as I say, they’re welcoming the fact that’s somebody’s interested, but I think the story that we’re looking at now, and there are two parts to it, one is from our perspective, who is John Henry and how much money is he worth? And the other question, you might find this a bit amusing, is nobody actually knows at the moment who owns Liverpool Football Club. Whether the board can make the decision or the actual owners, or whether the owners have divested this decision to the board and it’s going to court next week.

MULLINS:  It’s going to court next week. So that’s the environment that John Henry is stepping into. By the way, when you say that nobody really knows much about John Henry and the Boston Red Sox, you Marc Gaier, are the exception to that, aren’t you?

GAIER: Yeah, I have relatives in the Boston area and so I’ve been over a few times and I have been to Fenway Park. I have seen Carl Yastrzemski play if that counts for anything.

MULLINS: That was my favorite, number eight.

GAIER: Yeah, and I remember he even had the Ford franchise in [SOUNDS LIKE] Lynn, opposite my cousin’s lumber yard. That’s how much I remember from the 1970s. So, I know who the Red Sox are. It resonates with me. But I’ve got to say for most people in the UK, nobody has a clue.

MULLINS: Marc, do you know the theme song at Fenway Park?

GAIER: Is it Neil Diamond?

MULLINS: Yeah. You want to give us a few bars? Cause I’m going to ask you about the Liverpool song then.

GAIER: Well, I can get – I have sung along to Neil Diamond at Fenway Park. Fortunately, the other 35,000 or so voices have drowned me out, and Sweet Caroline I think you want me to sing?

MULLINS:  Yeah.

GAIER: No way. The song they sing at Liverpool is, believe it or not, is You’ll Never Walk Alone, originally from the musical Carousel, but was recorded as a single by one of the Mersey Beat bands you may have heard of, Gerry and the Pacemakers. And it is sung by Liverpool fans before every game.

MULLINS: Including you?

GAIER: I try my best. And the fans sing it and they wave – they sort of hold their scarves above their heads, so it’s a sea of red and white, those are the team colors. They would also sing it, say, at the end of a big match if they were winning, but it’s usually the rallying song before the match. When you walk through a storm, hold your head up high, and I suppose that’s what you always have to do in life.

MULLINS: Okay, Marc.

GAIER: [INDISCERNIBLE] to sing.

MULLINS: I can tell. I’m not even going to ask again. Marc Gaier, thank you so much. Really nice to talk to you. Marc Gaier, reporter with BBC Radio Merseyside, and a fan of not only the Liverpool football or soccer team, but also the Boston Red Sox. Thank you, Marc.

GAIER: Thank you very much.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.

• Video: Watch Seu Jorge Perform ‘Cirandar’
• Seu Jorge’s Blog

Anchor Marco Werman interviews Seu Jorge for PBS

Watch the full episode. See more Sound Tracks.

Seu Jorge Sings ‘Oluan’

Watch the full episode. See more Sound Tracks.

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MARCO WERMAN: One of my favorite tunes of this just departed summer is from Brazil. Maybe you heard it a couple of months ago on the program. It’s from the latest album by singer Seu Jorge. The tune, “Saudosa Bahia” was originally performed by another cool Brazilian samba cat, a singer from the ‘60s named Noriel Vilela. Seu Jorge is a lot like him. Both have baritones that are so smooth, they insist you stick around to hear more. But unlike Vilela, Seu Jorge is Brazilian living in the larger world, and also listening to the larger world. Jorge’s newest album features him alongside players from the experimental Brazilian rock group Nacao Zumbi. Together with Seu Jorge, they call themselves Almaz. And on their debut, they do covers of songs by Michael Jackson, Roy Ayers, and the German early-techno band Kraftwerk. Seu Jorge says it was his new guitarist who suggested they cover Kraftwerk’s tune “The Model.” As Jorge explains, they love an eclectic range of songs. And though they may play them sometimes unrecognizably, they try and duplicate the feel of the original.

SEU JORGE:  For example “The Model,” we try and conserve the same vibe as the first version.  I think everybody in the band respects so much these songs because we love these songs.

WERMAN:  So who are some of the great interpreters of songs that you really like? I mean, do you listen to Frank Sinatra?

JORGE: Sure. Sure. Especially because he’s complete. He’s not just a singer. He’s acting, he’s dancing, and he’s very gorgeous. He’s a gorgeous guy. All qualities for one artist. You know Beyonce, dancing, acting, you know, singer. In Brazil, I’m trying to do the same.

WERMAN: And Seu Jorge is doing that. His musical star was rising in 2002 just as he landed his biggest film role. His portrayal of the ruthless favela gangster Knockout Ned in the movie City of God drew international acclaim. It was an intense role for him to play, he says, because it mirrored his own life. Both Seu Jorge and Knockout Ned lost siblings to violence. But they reacted differently. In the movie, Knockout Ned seeks revenge. When Seu Jorge’s brother died in real life when they were teenagers, he says that’s when he decided to make music. Jorge’s personal tragedy doesn’t seem to emerge when he brings his show on stage though. It’s a Brazilian party, an acoustic baile funk. But Seu Jorge says even with the party in the foreground, his brother is never far away.

JORGE: The sad moments and the sad memories. Because I never forget my brother. He’s still, for me, he’s still there. Like my brother very very funny kid. Really funny. Everybody laugh a lot with him. My mother, my daddy, my other brothers. And me especially. Because he’s really very funny, have a talent for making people laugh. It’s incredible.

WERMAN: To see my full interview with Seu Jorge, come to TheWorld.org. And while you’re there, you can also see and hear the full version of this tune, “Olua.” The video was shot on a fire escape here in Boston. It just feels like Seu Jorge is serenading you personally. We serenade you every day from the Nan and Bill Harris Studios at WGBH. Our theme music was composed by Eric Goldberg. Have a great weekend.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.

It occurred to us here at The World that observing the holy month would be even more difficult if you work in the food industry. There’s a Pakistani-Indian restaurant just down the street from our office called Darbar. We walked over to pay them a visit and see how they manage during Ramadan. We were greeted by owners Gulman Khalid and his brother Irfan. Download MP3

• Darbar Restaurant Opens in Boston

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JEB SHARP: It’s one thing to fast all day.  It’s another thing to fast all day when you’re a chef, surrounded by the tempting products of your labor.  That’s the case with Gulman Khalid and his brother, Irfan.  They own a Pakistani-Indian restaurant called Darbar.  It’s about a five-minute walk from our studios.

SHARP: Hello, I’m Jeb.

GULMAN KHALID: How are you?  Hi.  Nice meeting you.

SHARP: We want to know what you’re cooking, and how Ramadan is going.

KHALID: It’s very good.  This is spinach, onion – I just get ready, a little bit brown, and then I put the chicken inside, and all spice [INDISCERNIBLE]

SHARP: What changes in the cooking during Ramadan?

KHALID: Usually, it’s a very festive month.  And homes here, in Islamic family, they’ll all get up in the morning around 3:30 and start preparing, you know – perhaps they’re making the ghee and some yogurt and – you have to force the first couple days, because 3:30, who wants to eat.  And then you have around 16 hours, 17 hours all day, you know, without any food.  So whatever – you want to manage to have something in your stomach.  In our cooking right here, we have, during the day, we have – nobody is here, because most of the people, they’re going to mosque and they’re breaking their fast.  And we are catering to mosque, and some families, they order food, “All right, we’re gonna take for 60 people,” or, “for a hundred people, food, to the mosque.”

SHARP: So you’re cooking all day.

KHALID: Yeah.

SHARP: For food for people when they break their fast.

KHALID: Yes.

SHARP: And what is it like to cook all day, to be around food, in the kitchen, when you’re hungry?

KHALID: We don’t get hungry.  When you see food all the time – we are not hungry, hungry, you know?  And it’s a wonderful feeling, actually, Ramadan.  Just try a couple days.  Come with us, you know – it’s wonderful.

SHARP What does it feel like?

KHALID: Feel like – just great.  You are cleaning yourself.  You are cleaning your body, you know.

SHARP: Do you have Muslim friends who don’t observe Ramadan, who come –

KHALID: Ah, yes, yes, yes.  Absolutely, you know.

SHARP: What’s that like?  Do they come in to eat?

KHALID: No.  Nobody comes here.  Nobody comes here.  And I – they do respect – if they have something they’re doing, they’re doing home.  They’re, you know, whatever.  But nobody who is not Muslim and they’re coming, [INDISCERNIBLE] “All right, give me the food.”  You know.  Nahari is – everybody loves Nahari.  It’s a beef shank –

MALE VOICE: Beef; good beef.

KHALID: It is a shank meat, and it doesn’t break it.  It’s very soft, very yum, yum, yum.  And you serve with the cilantro and green pepper.

SHARP: You may not be getting hungry, but I am getting very hungry.

KHALID: Well, we have the food ready.  Help yourself.  And it’s on the house.

SHARP: Get a look at the chefs, walking the fine line, cooking during Ramadan, at theworld.org.

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This text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

KATY CLARK: I’m Katy Clark. This is The World. Thousands of people were left without a home and stranded when last month’s earthquake hit Haiti.  Penaisse Macary was one of those who was lost in the chaos after the disaster struck.  Macary is a 16-year-old boy studying in Port au Prince.  He was desperate to contact his mother in the U.S., but he wasn’t able to call her.  So he texted the BBC’s Creole language radio station. He wrote, “I am homeless.  The person responsible for me is dead, my mother is Simone Macary. She is American but cannot help me. The Embassy is closed and I am on the street.”

Penaisse gave his mother’s phone number to the BBC.  It turned out to be the wrong number.  So the BBC broadcast a message to Penaisse asking him to try again. The boy heard the message and texted the correct number again.  This time it was correct.  And earlier this week the BBC called Simone Macary to tell her that her son was alive and trying to reach her.  Simone Macary joins us from Everett, Massachusetts.  Simone, what happened?  How did you find out that your son was okay?

SIMONE MACARY: My son, ah, my son was looking for me.  They called me.  They said, “Simone, somebody looking for you.”   They say, “Simone,”  They say, “Your son is looking for you.”  He said, “Your son’s life is saved.  We see him.”  I say, “Oh, my God. I’m shaky.”  I was happy. I’m so happy.  My son talked to me. He called me yesterday and this morning he texted me this morning.  I’m so happy.

CLARK: Simone, the BBC in Haiti found your son and interviewed him.  We’re going to play a bit of that interview for you now.  It’s in Creole so perhaps you can translate a bit of it for us.

PENAISSE MACARY: [Speaking Creole]

SIMONE MACARY: Hallaleujah, hallaleujah.

CLARK: Hello, what was your son Penaisse saying right there?

SIMONE: Yes, my son say, “I was looking for him.  I can’t find him. So he say he listened to the radio, BBC so he call.  He give my phone number. He give everything so they try to call him.  And BBC go over there.  They take my son and go to station radio and I hear my son’s voice.

CLARK: What was it like to hear his voice?

SIMONE: When I’m listen to my son’s voice, I think my son is talking to me.  I’m confused.  I say, “Yes, Penaisse, this is mommy.  This is mommy.”  But no he’s on the tape just listen to his voice.  I just close my eyes so I put my knees on the floor.  I say I hear my son’s voice I’m close my eyes and I say, “Praise the Lord.  Thank you, hallaleujah and God bless America.  God bless this.”  I’m so happy.

CLARK: So are you going to be able to go to Haiti?  Do you have plans now to get down there?

SIMONE: February 20.  I buy my ticket, everything.  I’m going there to see my people because I will now go there to cook my people.  Whatever I can give five people, ten people food, I will now go there.  I can stay.  I can cook.

CLARK: So you have a ticket for February 20th?

SIMONE: Yeah, I get ticket already.

CLARK: Oh, good.

SIMONE: I got ticket.

CLARK: Will you be bringing Penaisse back to the U.S.?

SIMONE: That’s what I want.  I want to bring him back because he was stay there for school.  No school in Haiti.  Nothing.  And now he still sleep on the street.  No school.

CLARK: He’s still living on the street?

SIMONE: Yeah, because everybody sleep on the street.  They’re still living on the streets. Yes.

CLARK: Has he been able to been able to get enough to eat and to drink?

SIMONE: I don’t know but tomorrow I’m going to get my paycheck tomorrow.  Tomorrow I’m going to send some money to buy something for him, but I can’t eat because I don’t know if my son is good.  I don’t know.  God, he knows. God, he knows.

CLARK: Simone Macary’s son Penaisse is in Port au Prince.  She had not heard from him since the earthquake hit on January 12th.  Her son reached out to her through the BBC’s Creole language service.  Simone Macary, thank you for your time and all of the best to you and your son.

SIMONE: Thank you.  I love you.  I pray for you. Okay?

CLARK: And a footnote to that story.  The BBC which co-produces this program launched its Creole language radio program in the days following the earthquake in Haiti.  The program’s aim is to provide a lifeline to survivors, and to broadcast information about missing people.

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This text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

MARCO WERMAN: There was a reminder today that terrorism is not just a threat outside the United States. Federal authorities announced the arrest of a 27-year-old man at his parents’ home in a Boston suburb. The man is accused of plotting to carry out a terrorist attack on US soil. The World’s Matthew Bell has details.

MATTHEW BELL: An FBI search warrant details the government’s case against 27-year-old Tarek Mehanna of Sudbury, Massachusetts. It says Mehanna has been talking about and planning violent jihad for years going back to before the attacks of September 11^th. It says he traveled to Yemen in 2004 to take part in terrorist training and then he lied about the trip to the FBI in 2006. The most chilling allegation from the government says in 2003 Mehanna and several other men planned to kill people at a shopping mall here in the US. Justice Department spokesman Michael Loucks announced the arrest of Mehanna today in Boston. Loucks said Mehanna and his co-conspirators tried to get automatic weapons from a reputed gang member named Daniel Maldonado.

MICHAEL LOUCKS: They had discussions as I said regarding how to do it; whether to do it from multiple entrances; what to do when emergency responders arrive. And one of them took the step to go to Maldonado to try to utilize his, what they believed to be his gang contacts to obtain automatic weapons. It ended, so far as alleged, when Maldonado indicated all he could obtain for them were handguns. And then that member of the group reported back to the rest of them that they couldn’t obtain automatic weapons and they determined it was no feasible to go forward.

BELL: Government documents say the evidence against Mehanna includes testimony from at least two of his former co-conspirators along with taped telephone conversations. If the allegations and the FBI search warrant are true, Mehanna appears to be someone who was radicalized some years ago but not very successful in carrying out his violent plans.

BRUCE HOFFMAN: He’s I think one step beyond the wannabe but not quite the full step to the full-fledged terrorist.

BELL: Bruce Hoffman is a terrorism expert at Georgetown University. He says the most worrisome thing about this arrest is that it’s just the latest in a recent string of foiled terrorist plots here in the US.

BRUCE HOFFMAN: For many years the United States thought that this problem of homegrown terrorism was a phenomena that happened somewhere else that was restricted to Europe or perhaps South Asia but that wouldn’t affect the United States for a variety of socio-economic reasons. I think what we’re finding now is that there are more of these people at least that have been radicalized and unfortunately more that have become violently inclined.

BELL: This arrest comes less than a month after the arrest of Najibullah Zazi. He received terrorist training overseas and he’s accused of plotting a bomb attack in the US. Tarek Mehanna on the other hand appears to have tried but ultimately failed to attend the terrorist training camp in Yemen. For The World I’m Matthew Bell.

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Marco Werman and Erica Hirshler at the MFA

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Anchor Marco Werman talks with Erica Hirshler, a Senior Curator at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston about the Parisian background of painter John Singer Sargent’s 1882 masterpiece “The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit.”

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MARCO WERMAN: In the 19^th century Paris was the capital of the art world. Artists from around the world went there to train and exhibit their work. Many were American. One of them was John Singer Sargent. In 1882 Sargent painted a portrait of the four daughters of an American family living in Paris. The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit is considered one of the masterpieces of the late 19^th century. Art historian Erica Hirshler has just written a book about the rich story behind the painting. It’s called Sergeant’s Daughters: The Biography of a Painting. I met Hirshler at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston where she is a senior curator. The museum is also home to the Daughter’s of Edward Darley Boit.

ERICA HIRSHLER: The picture is big. That’s the first thing to note about it. It’s about seven and a half feet tall. And one interesting thing about it is that it’s square which is not the usual portrait or landscape format that we expect. So the figures are spread across this big, square, composition. And they’re four little girls, each one wearing one. Three of them in white pinafores and the littlest one in a white dress. Two of them stand in the background, in the shadows. One of those girls leans against one of the large Japanese vases that are in the hallway represented here. One stands … .

WERMAN: Yeah the actual vases are here from the Boit’s home.

HIRSHLER: These are in fact the vases that the Boit’s owned and were given to us by the family. And the vases, along with the painting, traveled back and forth across the Atlantic along with the family. It’s sort of amazing to consider that kind of thing.

WERMAN: And something that just kind of immediately strikes me is that the background is kind of drab but these expressions are so clear on these girls.

HIRSHLER: Well the great art of this picture I think is that some parts are very clearly defined. The little girl on the rug or the expression on the face of Isa who stands at the left. And other parts are very mysterious almost like these girls have come out of Alice in Wonderland.

WERMAN: So I mean once you start to dig there’s obviously much more here than meets the eye. I mean we know from your book that Sargent and the Boits had in common kind of a well-to-do Massachusetts background, Harvard connections, and they generally preferred living in Europe. What was it like for American ex-patriots at the end of the 19^th century just trotting around the world like that?

HIRSHLER: Well it’s really like reading Henry Jame’s novels. That sort of back and forth between the Americas and the life in Europe that was so different and also so appealing for Americans of a certain class. This idea of being an American abroad and that sense of transience that you were in Paris now but maybe you’d be in Italy in a few months or back in Boston.

WERMAN: And I imagine at the time if you were doing that you weren’t just in the upper 10 percent; you were in the upper one percent of society.

HIRSHLER: Well you were pretty well off. But what we forget is that it was cheaper for Americans to live in Europe in the 19^th century. The housing expenses were less and you could live in a grander style abroad sometimes than you could at home.

WERMAN: Tell me about Sargent a bit. He was born in Italy. He studied art a bit in Florence and then went to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. I mean did Sargent have an advantage in that he came from American money? Or was it really all about talent and originality for him?

HIRSHLER: I think Sargent was comfortable. I don’t think … . He certainly wasn’t in the same income bracket as the Boits. But for Sargent Europe was the place to be. Paris at this time was really the international capital of the Western art world. And people flocked there from every country. There were more Americans probably than anybody else but artists from Finland, Germany, Argentina, everywhere came to Paris which was renowned for its art schools. It was renowned for its international exhibitions, where an artist could show his work and get international press. And it also was the center of the art market. So if you were an artist Paris was absolutely the place to be.

WERMAN: So what did the critics say after they saw this large, square, painting of these four sisters at the Salon 1883.

HIRSHLER: The reviews at the Salon which was a giant international exhibition that was sponsored by the French state and one of the highlights of the international art year, were absolutely mixed. Some critics loved it for the way that it took an old subject and made it new again. And others were totally perplexed by the sort of big empty spaces that surround these four girls and for the disconnection between them. Some of them called it four portraits in one picture. One of them called it four corners and a void. And a lot of them found it very unconventional for its day.

WERMAN: So in spite of the modesty of this painting, the way these girls look, they do seem like they’re headed for a life destined for debutant balls and you know great marriages. What happened to them?

HIRSHLER: Well they were in fact of a class to be destined for debutant balls and great marriages and that’s one of the interesting stories that circles around this picture. In fact none of these girls ever married. And some people feel that this painting in some way is a premonition of what was going to happen to them – that their loneliness displayed here somehow shows that. But it’s a painting that continues to attract attention and great love and admiration. It’s one of the most popular paintings in the museum. It’s a monument of its own time but it’s also reflective of our own interests and I think that’s one of the things that makes it so special.

WERMAN: Erica Hirshler, art historian and the author of Sargent’s Daughters: The Biography of a Painting. Thank you for showing us the painting and for talking to us about it.

HIRSHLER: You’re very welcome.

WERMAN: The Boit daughters donated the painting to the Museum of Fine Arts in 1919 after their father’s death. We’ve posted pictures of the painting plus information about Erica Hirshler’s book at The World dot org.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.

The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit by John Singer Sargent (1882)