New Show on Immigration

Maria Haymandou’s latest blog post

I recently came across an interesting article about a TV pilot that’s been filmed in Kenya, called “Usoni”.  The show takes place nearly 50 years from now, in 2063.  By this time, all of Europe’s volcanoes have come to life and erupted, causing horrific devastation.  Dense clouds of volcanic ash plunge the entire continent, the birthplace of western civilization, in darkness.  Chaos descends, as the air becomes polluted and unbreathable.  To survive, people are forced to flee to the last place of Earth where the sun continues to shine: Africa.  It tells the story of Ophelia and Ulysse, a young interracial couple who desperately try to escape Europe’s conditions and head to Africa in an effort to find a better future for themselves and their unborn child.

The main characters, Ophelia and Ulysse, are a young couple escaping chaos in Europe.

This TV show sets forward a really interesting question: what if the issues of migration to Europe were turned upside-down?  Immigration from other countries to Europe has frequently posed a puzzle to Europeans.  America is a nation of immigrants; roughly 99% of the country is descended from people who have come to the United States any time between the 17th century and today.  Europe, on the other hand, is a completely different story, since the majority of the population is descended from people who have for the most part been living in the same region since the Middle Ages.  Therefore, when immigrants from other parts of the world began arriving en masse to Europe in the middle of the 20th century, a lot of Europeans were terrified.  Many of them were concerned that their countries were gradually being “taken over” by foreigners, a sentiment that echoes to this day.

According to Usoni creator Marc Rigaudis, the show is meant to comment on the trend of immigration.  The show begins on the small Mediterranean island of Lampedusa, which is a frequent destination for refugees seeking to enter the EU.  The journey to this small island is a harrowing one for would-be immigrants, as ships frequently sink.  And if they survive the journey to Europe, they still have to face rampant discrimination in their new home.  To comment on this injustice, Rigaudis thought it would be interesting if all of this was reversed.  Rigaudis originally developed this idea for a feature film, however, as a college professor, he collaborated with his students to turn this into a TV series.

According to Cherie Lindiwe, the 21 year-old director of the series, the concept of the show should resonate with everybody across the world, not just in Africa.  It’s a story that people could watch and it would open their eyes to the issue of immigration.  Rigaudis still plans to turn this idea into a feature film, named “Future” (“Usoni” means “future” in Swahili).  He is also discussing with Kenyan and international channels about developing it into a full series to air on TV.  One condition, however, is that it has to be an African production if it finally gets picked up.

Usoni’s pilot was first screened in November at USIU, but will be premiering Monday at the Alliance Francaise, the French cultural center in Nairobi.

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Fun Places in Brooklyn

Maria Haymandou’s latest blog post!

As a resident of Brooklyn, it’s very easy for me to take the borough’s many exciting hot spots for granted.  However, no doubt there’s a good reason for the hype Brooklyn has received the past 10 years or so from young people; it’s a hot, exciting area with a lot of great stuff going on.  I thought that I would share some of the places that I know and love, and that people should check out!

Barcade on a busy night.

A couple months ago, my Cousin and I were wandering through Brooklyn on a lazy Sunday afternoon and came across “Barcade”, a craft beer bar that is also filled with retro 80s arcade games.  It’s a great spot to hang out, drink delicious beer and burn some quarters on such arcade classics as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Rampage.  I’ve only been there on Sunday, so I have no idea how crowded it can get on a Friday or Saturday night, although I imagine that the wait to get in a round of Pac-Man could be a long one indeed.  The one problem with the brilliant concept behind Barcade is that the control areas of many arcade games are slightly slanted, which can equal spilled beers.  Thankfully, there are little plank areas near every game station for you to lay your beer glass.

A collection of delicious smoked meats and foods from Fette Sau.

Good barbecue in the Northeast is hard to find.  But you know what they say: if you can’t find it in New York, you probably won’t find it anywhere.  And sure enough, New York is home to some great places for barbecue.  Manhattan is home to Mighty Quinn’s, while Brooklyn has got its fair share of delicious joints.  The only one I’ve been to is Fette Sau in Brooklyn.  The line to get in, especially on a weekend night, is a bit overwhelming, but the food is well worth the wait.  Without a doubt, the tastiest thing there is the pork belly.  When you go, it might be a good idea to avoid food with bones in it, such as ribs.  This isn’t because they don’t taste good (they’re absolutely delicious), but because you pay for meat by the pound, you want to get your money’s worth.  A lot of people have spoken about Briskettown as well, also in Brooklyn, although I have yet to check it out.

Lomzynianka is so small that you can very easily miss it.

Greenpoint is well-known for its large and vibrant Polish community.  Even with the influx of young professionals into the region in and around Greenpoint, the neighborhood’s Polish culture remains strong.  The streets are lined with countless Polish restaurants, grocery stores and butcher shops.  The tastiest of these, however, is a little restaurant called Lomzynianka, located on Manhattan Avenue.  The restaurant is very small, and poorly labeled, so unless you’re looking for it, you’ll probably miss it.  Once you walk in, there are fewer than 10 tables of various sizes in this tight little space.  The heavily-accented owners only accept cash, and if you want alcohol, you have to bring it yourself (thankfully, there’s a bodega right down the street readily stocked with beer).  However, your dollar goes a long way out here, which is a rarity anywhere in New York borough; the portions are generous to say the least, and everything on the menu is under 10 dollars.  One of my favorite things to order is the “Polish platter”, a large plate with all of the pierogies, bigos (a pork/sauerkraut stew), kielbasa and stuffed cabbage you can eat.

The interior of Tørst.

Less than a five-minute walk from Lomzynianka lies Tørst, a bar filled with exotic and exciting craft beers, all of which are served in fancy wine glasses.  However, be careful: all of the beers have exceptionally high alcohol contents, which put even the biggest beer connoisseur’s tolerance to the test.  Tørst’s owner is from Denmark, and has given his bar a minimalist, hardwood interior that reminds one of Scandinavia.  I’ve never had the food there, but I’ve heard good things; every Sunday afternoon, they have a “Sunday Roast”, where $15 gives you a generous helping roasted pork shoulder, pickled red cabbage, cranberry beans and rapini.

The lanes of Gutter.

Not too far from Lomzynianka (or Tørst) lies Gutter, a dive bar that also has a bowling alley.  Dimly lit, and covered from floor to ceiling with retro beer posters and filled with old, beaten-up tables and chairs, Gutter reminds one of a bar in 1970s Wisconsin or Minnesota.  The eight bowling lanes come from a 1970s bowling alley in Ohio, and while they look extremely beaten-up and ratty, you can’t help but have fun when you’re there.  In the back room is a small concert hall, where live shows play on the weekend.  I’ve only been twice in my life: once on a Saturday night at 2am, when the buzz was dying down.  Since it was pretty quiet, my friends and I were able to bowl a couple of rounds without much of a wait.  The other time I went was early on a Friday night, when the bar was operating in full swing and a live band was playing in the back room.  That time was a different story; my friend and I couldn’t even get a seat anywhere, and the wait to get a bowling lane was estimated at two hours.

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Marshall Frank Talks

Maria Haymandou’s latest blog post!

Marshall Frank, shown here, is now a successful author of crime dramas.

I recently came across an article where now-retired Miami-area homicide detective Marshall Frank talks about the best ways to get murderers to confess to murders.  This reminds me a lot of the HBO program “True Detective” that I’ve been watching recently, where Matthew McConaughey’s character, a pessimistic homicide detective in rural Louisiana named Rust Cohle, is known throughout the police force for his ability to get people to confess to murders.  Even though it’s a very small part of the show, there are a couple scenes where Rust smoothly coaxes murder confessions out of several suspects.

In the article, Frank talks about how he got Paul Eugene Rowles, a convicted murderer and predator who was arrested in 1972, to confess to strangling his neighbor, Linda Fida.  How did Frank get Rowles to confess?  He simply made friends with him.  And it took just about half an hour.  Sitting extremely close to Rowles, Frank would lean toward him during the interrogation.  He worked to seem like he was interested in him.  There was another cop in the room while the interrogation went down, but he just stood there and stayed quiet.  After a while, Rowles blathered the confession out.

According to Frank, being able to successfully interrogate suspects one-on-one requires patience.  You can’t come across as if you’re personally involved, or like you’re mad, angry, impatient or putting on pressure.  According to Frank, the classic good-cop/bad-cop scenario that occurs in the movies isn’t what happens in the real world.  Frank’s interrogation methods can be broken down into three ideas: firstly, you need to gain their confidence, respect and cooperation.  No matter how horrible, despicable or dangerous the person across from you is, you need to be able to make friends with them.  Second, you need to be able to take your time.  At the beginning of the interrogation, don’t even mention what you’re there for.  Wait as long as needed.  The idea is to get the person talking and feeling good about talking to you.  And finally, you need to work your way into whatever the issue is.  And next thing you know, the person is making a confession.  According to Frank, that’s exactly how it worked.

Through his 30 years as a police officer, Frank claims he never arrested the wrong person in a case.  However, he did come close one time: he one time questioned a man whose aunt claims he assaulted her.  The suspect was adamant about his innocence, like most guilty people are, but Frank had a hunch, and it turned out that the aunt had made the entire story up.

Due to his extensive career, Frank has certain thoughts about the American justice system.  According to him, public defender resources are overburdened, which sometimes contributes to less-than-fair circumstances.  It’s a really uneven system, where some people can afford a good lawyer while others can only afford public defenders.  One public defender he knows compared keeping up with the caseload to the classic scene in “I Love Lucy”, where Lucille Ball can’t keep up with the conveyor belt.  Frank also feels strongly about the death penalty.  He finds it unacceptable that there are probably countless innocent people who have been executed.  He doesn’t feel that society can sacrifice innocent people once in a while so that they can get all of the guilty ones.  Frank thinks that society should consider alternative punishments for dangerous criminals.

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