“It’s not easy to be an activist in the Middle East. Especially if you’re a woman,” Dalia Ziada told the audience Monday night.

The George Washington University chapter of Project Nur, a student-led initiative of the non-governmental organization American Islamic Congress interested in fostering dialogue and understanding between Muslim and non-Muslim students, sponsored a reception honoring Egyptian blogger and human rights activist Dalia Ziada to mark its fresh start as a re-established student organization on campus.

Ziada is the director of the American Islamic Congress’s Cairo branch and advocates the freedom of expression in nonviolent action. Though she lives in a society that restricts total freedom of expression, her blog is her outlet, in which she speaks out against discrimination impacting Muslim women and discusses Middle Eastern politics and Islamic society.

In an e-mail to WRGW News, Amanda Sawit, a Project Nur intern this semester and a member of the executive board of the GW chapter of Project Nur, wrote, "We want people out there to know that this organization is immensely helpful for networking, researching, and learning about Islam and the societies/countries that are grounded in its teachings."

Though there are currently five students in GW's Project Nur, the new student organization is looking to expand. For GW students interested in Middle Eastern studies, politics, foreign policy, communication, Project Nur provides the opportunity for students to apply their interest and studies outside the classroom.

GW's Project Nur will continue to host a variety of events, lectures, films, and other kinds of forums between Muslim and non-Muslim people to promote interfaith dialogue and understanding.

Often, when dining out with friends the bill can cause nervous tension with dilemmas of how to best split the bill, controversy over who is paying and tips being calculated. At Karma Kitchen, this is never an issue.

The bill arrives in a green envelope and reads “Your Bill Total: $0.00. In the spirit of generosity, someone who came before you made a gift of this meal. We hope you will continue the circle of giving in your own way!”

Karma Kitchen is open only for Sunday lunch, when Dupont Circle’s Polo India Club becomes a ‘volunteer-run, pay-it-forward restaurant within a restaurant.’

Owner Arbinda Rajbhandari heard about the original Karma Kitchen in Berkeley, California, and decided to try it in Washington. It opened on February 14^th 2009 and has been able to sustain itself over the past year through guest contributions.

The food is delicious. There is always naan bread, basmati rice and chai tea served. Otherwise the meal is whatever the chef feels like making that day. All of the food is traditional Indian vegetarian cuisine and extra helpings and drink refills are generous.

“Karma Kitchen has become a part of my weekly routine,” said Caitlin Carroll, a sophomore student. “It is a community gathering of people who take time from their busy schedules to share a meal. The positive energy energizes me and inspires me,” said Carroll.

Karma Kitchen is located at 1736 Conntecticut Ave. NW (Polo India Club) on Sundays from noon till’ three.

While some GW students finalize their spring break trips to Cancun, Europe, and other relaxing destinations, others are looking forward to volunteering across the US as part of Alternative Spring Break.

Madeline Bush and Charlie Guinn are leading ASB Kansas, where volunteers will help rebuild the town of Greensburg, Kansas, which was devastated by a tornado in May 2007.

“I was a participant last year on the Kansas trip and absolutely fell in love with the program. I wanted to be a leader for the Kansas trip this year because I felt that my experience last year was so great and I wanted to give the same to another group of GW students,” said Bush, a sophomore who is a double major in human services and psychology. “The Kansas trip is truly eye-opening about the different cultures that exist within the US.”

To raise the $5,000 needed for the trip, each participant sent out 10 letters to friends and family asking them for monetary donations. They also had a late-night bake sale in Ivory Tower, as well as other fundraisers such as the Halloween candygrams and Christmas candy cane deliveries.

Bush said she is anxious about the trip because she and Guinn have been planning it for the entire school year.

“We definitely want to make it the best possible experience for every one of our participants. I think we’re both just really looking forward to the moment when we can be getting our hands dirty in the work and seeing the impact that it makes on our participants.”

Sarah Leibach, who is going on ASB Appalachia to rebuild a room in a family home, is also anxious but excited for the week.

“I’m a little bit nervous just because this is a completely new experience for me; we talked a bit about the region and the problems that people in small Appalachian towns face, but seeing it in reality is sure to be a huge shock,” said Leibach, a junior. “But I’m also super excited: we just got our itinerary and the week just looks incredible.”

“Everyone I knew who went on a trip said they came back with amazing friends and a sense of accomplishment,” said Leibach. “I had no plans for spring break and really wanted to do this before I graduated, so I made it a priority to go.”

Track maintenance this weekend will cause extensive delays on the Orange Line, WMATA has announced.

The Honor Society for International Studies, Sigma Iota Rho hosted Madhav Achary, a research and engineering specialist from ExxonMobil, Wednesday evening.

Despite their role in the oil and gas industry, Achary discussed the company’s main plans and strategies to help support energy efficiency in the 21st century. He mentioned the role technology plays to meet the energy challenge as well as the steps necessary for energy security. He stated some statistics on what has been taking place globally regarding energy: there are 150 tons of coal burned each hour, half a million cars use half a million tons of petroleum each day and the world is using 15 billion BTUs of energy every second. Achary stated a main reason for this extreme energy usage is population increase and with population on the rise, energy demand will follow.

According to Achary, even if the energy use is reported in such high numbers, the key challenges are reducing poverty, improving living standards, supporting economic growth and minimizing the impact on the environment. And just who is it that is responsible for tackling these issues? A country’s national government. This can be done by implementing laws or policies to cap greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) and providing alternate forms of energy. Achary says governments should encourage open international trade and free markets while promoting diversity supply.

According to his presentation, the use of wood for energy since the 1920’s has declined rapidly while the use of coal, oil, gas and nuclear energy has gained prominence. Maybe the negative effect the use of these newer forms of energy is being acknowledged, as there has been a rise in the use of renewable energy since the start of the 21st century.

Achary acknowledged ExxonMobil’s influence of greenhouse gas emissions released from cars and stated that they are encouraging automobile companies to improve their vehicles’ engines, transmissions and A/C units to be more energy efficient and while helping to reduce car exhausts. In addition, cars are being manufactured with more lightweight materials.

Achary said ExxonMobil is working to help mitigate emissions to reduce an environmental impact.

As part of The School of Media and Public Affairs ongoing “Conversation series” The George Washington University had the distinct privilege to host Larry King Thursday afternoon.

In front of a crowd of about 200 students, faculty, and outside attendants in the Jack Morton Auditorium, the usual roles were reversed, as SMPA director Frank Sesno conducted the interview with Mr. King as his guest.

Mr. King described the luck he has had over the course of his career. After the death of his father, he claimed, he “lost interest in school,” leading to his choice to skip college. He did, however, have a dream to go into radio, one that would lead him to a small Miami station, WAHR. After learning the trade, young Larry Zeiger, was presented with an opportunity to host his own show.

Immediately before going on the air, the station manager informed him, Mr. King explained, that he would have to change his name, Zeiger was simply too complicated for the radio. Quickly flipping through a newspaper, an advertisement for King’s Wholesale Liquors inspired his now famous moniker.

After leaving radio to switch over to television, he described his job as host for “Miami Undercover,” moderating debates about contemporary issues, the first step on his path to global stardom as a world-renowned interviewer.

Though the next segment of the interview was mixed with personal anecdotes about his show, “Larry King Live,” many of them funny, Mr. King proceeded to speak directly to the SMPA students, giving them important lessons about journalism and life.

Perhaps one of the most important issues, one that bothers him about news anchors today, is the fact that some journalists have large egos. Instead of simply letting the guest speak, they often include themselves too much in the conversation, using the word “I,” which, as Mr. King explained, rarely shows up in his diction.

It’s important to let the interviewee speak because that’s where the knowledge comes from, a fact that allows Mr. King “to go to college each and every night” because, as he explained, “I never learned anything while I was talking.”

Mr. King also emphasized the point that it’s important to remain calm, no matter who’s sitting in front of you. They’re just people, he stated, “they put their pants on one leg at a time just like everyone else.”

Lastly, he criticized the 24-hour news cycle because it forces organizations, such as CNN, to “run with things” and air a story even if all the facts haven’t been collected yet.

Recently, he stated, his show was contacted by the Guinness Book of World Records, and was presented with the award for longest running show in television history with the same network and the same host. Thinking back about all he’s done, Larry King humbly stated that through all the fame and success, “I’m basically still a little Jewish kid from Brooklyn.”

The Colonials (16-12) lost their final regular season home game on Wednesday to the St. Joseph's University Hawks (10-19) by the score of 80-71. Junior Joseph Katuka of the Colonials led the team with a career-high 15 points while the Hawks were led by Darrin Gavens, who scored 19 points. GW is currently tied for ninth place with Duquesne University in the Atlantic-10 division. The Colonials' final regular season game will be at Temple University on Saturday. Tip off is at 2:00 pm and be sure to follow the game at gwradio.com.

Now that the 2010 Winter Olympic games are over, the National Hockey League has resumed play. On Thursday night, the Washington Capitals (43-13) defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning (26-26) at home, 5-4. The Caps got one goal in first period from Eric Fehr, followed by two in the 2nd from Mike Knuble, and another two in the third from Scott Walker. This was Walker's first two-goal game in over three years. Walker, along with two others, were recently acquired by the Caps and this was their first home game. The Capitals will host the New York Rangers (29-27) on Saturday at 7:00 pm.

The Milwaukee Bucks (31-29) defeated the Washington Wizards (21-37) on Wednesday night, 100-87. Recently acquired John Salmons led the Bucks with 22 points. Andray Blatche and R. Randy Foye led the Wizards with 18 points a piece. The Wizards return home Friday night, facing off against the Bucks again. Tip-off is at 7:00 pm.

The Institute for Security and Conflict Studies hosted a forum titled “The Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan: The Journalistic Challenges” on Monday in the Elliott School of International Affairs. The Washington Post’s Rajiv Chandrasekaran and Ann Scott Tyson and the New York Times’s Michael R. Gordon joined moderator Marc Lynch, the director of GW’s Institute for Middle East to discuss the challenges that face journalists covering the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The reporters spoke of the surprising level of access embedded journalists have to many levels of military personnel and operations. But they also stressed the danger of their situations, as well as the difficulty of gaining access to the Iraqi and Afghan people and government officials. Their narratives covered topics from the intensity of firefights to the tragedy of losing a colleague to kidnapping or murder. The reporters made it clear that war reporting is not at all similar to reporting domestically.

This forum sparked a discussion on the role that the media often takes, of analysts. The panelists agreed that journalists provide intriguing perspectives on and incites into the causes and effects of wartime conflicts, especially when they are able to get truthful opinions from otherwise recalcitrant citizens.

Marc Lynch, in concluding the forum, remarked that we cannot form national opinions or construct security policy on reporting alone. The panelists had varied reactions to this, Gordon perhaps most strongly. Ultimately the speakers agreed that media does have, at the very least, a significant role in shaping the national conscious and some policy. However, Lynch stressed there must be a clear distinction between journalists and policy-makers.

On a more editorial note, international conflicts are never as simple as journalists often paint them - either by necessity or by choice - in order to more aptly appeal to their audiences. Gordon especially focused on the difference between reporters actually working overseas and those reporting from their offices here in the U.S. The perspectives and the knowledge gained from each foster opposing opinions that have contributed to the confusion of finding a solution for an already complicated situation. Ending these wars is likely not as simple as pulling the troops out; nor is increasing troop unequivocally the most effective way to “win” the war.

This discussion may continue on in the public sphere, especially within the media, but the decisions will ultimately be made by policy-makers. Hopefully those policy-makers will take some of what these reporters have learned into consideration when these decisions must be made. The intention of these journalists to learn and tell the true opinions of Iraqi and Afghan citizens, as well as the stories of the American troops, has been vital to obtaining the whole picture of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.


More Information
- Marc Lynch's post on the discussion: http://lynch.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/03/01/war_reporting
- Michael Gordon's articles for the New York Times: http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/people/g/michael_r_gordon/index.html
- Rajiv Chandrasekaran's articles for the Washington Post: http://projects.washingtonpost.com/staff/articles/rajiv+chandrasekaran/
- Ann Scott Tyson's articles for the Washington Post: http://projects.washingtonpost.com/staff/articles/ann+scott+tyson/

On Tuesday night, Prof. Nils Olsen gave his 'Last Lecture' on "Hot Decisions." Dr. Olsen is an assistant professor in Organizational Sciences and Communication teaching statistics, negotiation, and the course he introduced to GW called extreme decisions.

For the first time in its history, the District of Columbia will issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples beginning Wednesday morning.