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METRO DETROIT CHALDEAN COMMUNITY VOL. 20 ISSUE II <strong>MARCH</strong> <strong>2023</strong><br />
Fame,<br />
Fortune,<br />
& Flour<br />
GENEVIEVE<br />
KASHAT’S BID<br />
FOR KIDS BAKING<br />
CHAMPION<br />
Celebrating<br />
International<br />
Women’s<br />
Month!<br />
Featuring:<br />
Jaclyn McQuaid<br />
Rita Soka<br />
Ava Sarafa
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2 CHALDEAN NEWS <strong>MARCH</strong> <strong>2023</strong>
America’s largest arab<br />
and Chaldean law firm.<br />
أكبر مكتب محاماة عربي وكلداني في<br />
الواليات المتحدة االمريكية<br />
مكتب المحامي قاجي<br />
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Getting You Back to You.<br />
it’s Why We Care.<br />
نعيدك الى ماكنت عليه<br />
هذا هو سبب اهتمامنا<br />
Lawrence Kajy<br />
Attorney at Law<br />
املحامي لورنس قاجي<br />
877-KAJY-CARES / kajylaw.com<br />
<strong>MARCH</strong> <strong>2023</strong> CHALDEAN NEWS 3
4 CHALDEAN NEWS <strong>MARCH</strong> <strong>2023</strong>
METRO DETROIT CHALDEAN COMMUNITY | <strong>MARCH</strong> <strong>2023</strong> | VOL. 20 ISSUE II<br />
ON THE COVER<br />
18 Fame, Fortune & Flour<br />
Genevieve’s bid for Baking Champion<br />
By Cal Abbo<br />
FOOD NETWORK<br />
18<br />
FEATURES<br />
20 Driving Forward Thinking<br />
Jaclyn McQuaid at GM<br />
By Sarah Kittle<br />
22 Hard Work Bears Results<br />
Rita Soka profile<br />
By Cal Abbo<br />
24 The Lost Tribe<br />
Chaldeans in Argentina<br />
By Weam Namou<br />
26 Hopeless to Heroic<br />
John Shamou story<br />
By Crystal Jabiro<br />
28 Suicide Prevention<br />
By Jacqueline Raxter, MSW<br />
30 Iraqi Children in the Frame<br />
Where do they play?<br />
By Wilson Sarkis and Alan Mansour<br />
DEPARTMENTS<br />
6 From the Editor<br />
Celebrating Sisterhood<br />
By Sarah Kittle<br />
8 Foundation Update<br />
10 Noteworthy<br />
Nancy Zieah, Mena Hannakachl,<br />
CCF Visits, Lenten Refection<br />
12 Chaldean Digest<br />
Earthquake, Genocide,<br />
Chaldean Patriarchate, Iraq & Iran<br />
14 Religion<br />
Celebrating Lent: Entering<br />
into the desert with Jesus<br />
By Fr. Marcus Shammami<br />
16 In Memoriam<br />
32 Culture & History<br />
Pioneer Habib Hannona<br />
By Dr. Adhid Miri<br />
38 Sports<br />
Set Up for Success: Ava Sarafa<br />
By Steve Stein<br />
40 Dr. Is In<br />
Colorectal Cancer Awareness<br />
By Dr. Rena Daiza<br />
41 Classified Listings<br />
42 From the Archive<br />
36 Fly Me Away<br />
Travel boom continues<br />
By Paul Natinsky<br />
20<br />
<strong>MARCH</strong> <strong>2023</strong> CHALDEAN NEWS 5
FROM THE EDITOR<br />
PUBLISHED BY<br />
Chaldean News, LLC<br />
Chaldean Community Foundation<br />
Martin Manna<br />
EDITORIAL<br />
EDITOR IN CHIEF<br />
Sarah Kittle<br />
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS<br />
Cal Abbo<br />
Dr. Rena Daiza<br />
Crystal Jabiro<br />
Sarah Kittle<br />
Dr. Adhid Miri<br />
Weam Namou<br />
Paul Natinsky<br />
Jacqueline Raxter, MSW<br />
Fr. Marcus Shammami<br />
ART & PRODUCTION<br />
CREATIVE DIRECTOR<br />
Alex Lumelsky with SKY Creative<br />
GRAPHIC DESIGNER<br />
Zina Lumelsky with SKY Creative<br />
PHOTOGRAPHERS<br />
Wilson Sarkis<br />
Celena Soka<br />
SALES<br />
Interlink Media<br />
Sana Navarrette<br />
CLASSIFIEDS<br />
Sana Navarrette<br />
Subscriptions: $35 per year<br />
CONTACT INFORMATION<br />
Story ideas: edit@chaldeannews.com<br />
Advertisements: ads@chaldeannews.com<br />
Subscription and all other inquiries:<br />
info@chaldeannews.com<br />
Chaldean News<br />
30095 Northwestern Hwy, Suite 101<br />
Farmington Hills, MI 48334<br />
www.chaldeannews.com<br />
Phone: (248) 851-8600<br />
Publication: The Chaldean News (P-6);<br />
Published monthly; Issue Date: March <strong>2023</strong><br />
Subscriptions: 12 months, $35.<br />
Publication Address:<br />
30095 Northwestern Hwy., Suite 101,<br />
Farmington Hills, MI 48334;<br />
Permit to mail at periodicals postage rates<br />
is on file at Farmington Hills Post Office<br />
Postmaster: Send address changes to<br />
“The Chaldean News 30095 Northwestern<br />
Hwy., Suite 101, Farmington Hills, MI 48334”<br />
Celebrating Sisterhood<br />
March is International Women’s Month,<br />
which means not only here in the U.S., but<br />
in the United Kingdom and Australia, people<br />
are celebrating us! We also happen to feature a<br />
few articles about the fairer sex in our current issue.<br />
Our March cover is the remarkable Genevieve<br />
Kashat, who competed in the Kids Baking Championship<br />
on Food Network. Whatever the outcome<br />
of the contest, Genevieve and her macarons are<br />
winners in our book. Stay tuned for a future podcast<br />
with her and Cal Abbo.<br />
And we simply had to do a feature on Jaclyn<br />
McQuaid, a top-level exec at GM who is instrumental<br />
to the roll-out of the EV market<br />
in Europe. Jaclyn, along with her twin sister<br />
Jamie Brewer (who also is a top-level executive<br />
at GM), are shaping the way we drive<br />
and even think about the automobile. It is an<br />
exciting time to be an automotive engineer.<br />
(Shout out to Mary Barra who is shaking up<br />
the corporate structure with her diversity initiatives!)<br />
Rita Soka’s story may not be unique to the Chaldean<br />
community, but it does exemplify the hard work, perseverance<br />
and dedication to a goal that makes the community so<br />
successful. Rita decided what she wanted and went for it.<br />
When her ESL test scores for college came back unsatisfactory,<br />
she refocused and took a job as a cashier to improve<br />
her English, moving up at every opportunity. Now she is a<br />
co-founder of her own law firm.<br />
Ava Sarafa is a volleyball star at Marian High School who<br />
is on her way to play for the University of Kentucky. She was<br />
named to the <strong>2023</strong> USA Today All-Star Team and may very<br />
well play in the Olympics one day. (But only if she wants to.)<br />
We are grateful to Genevieve, Jaclyn, Jamie, Mary, Rita,<br />
and Ava – for their courage and faith in taking on roles that<br />
maybe people told them they couldn’t. To quote the great<br />
hockey player Wayne Gretzky, “You miss 100% of the shots<br />
you don’t take.”<br />
FOMO, or “Fear of Missing Out,” may be currently at play<br />
in the travel industry, according to reporter Paul Natinsky,<br />
SARAH KITTLE<br />
EDITOR<br />
IN CHIEF<br />
who interviewed some local travel agents on the<br />
travel boom. After years of restricted or delayed<br />
travel, flights are picking up. Where are people travelling?<br />
Usually somewhere sunny.<br />
Dr. Miri was honored this month to write about<br />
his friend Habib Hannona, a pioneer in the Chaldean<br />
community. “Each time he walks into a room,<br />
a rainbow of hope appears,” said the author. Habib<br />
has done many things in his lifetime, creating art<br />
pieces and writing books and poems; currently, he<br />
is a civil engineer employed by the Chaldean Community<br />
Foundation.<br />
We are grateful to Genevieve, Jaclyn, Jamie,<br />
Mary, Rita, and Ava – for their courage and<br />
faith in taking on roles that maybe people<br />
told them they couldn’t.<br />
Iraq in the Frame continues with a special on the children<br />
of Iraq. In perusing the spectacular photos that Wilson<br />
Sarkis has provided, one question kept coming up in<br />
the minds of CN staff: “Where do the children play?” Turns<br />
out, they play in the streets (a lot of street soccer) and near<br />
churches; ironically, being next to the desecrated places of<br />
worship may now be the safest places for them to play.<br />
Fr. Marcus Shammami returns to the CN as a contributing<br />
writer on the celebration of Lent, Crystal Jabiro tells a<br />
deeply personal story of her cousin’s addiction and recovery,<br />
and the CCF’s Jacqueline Raxter shares resources and signs<br />
of depression that can lead to suicidal thoughts and actions.<br />
It’s a societal problem that won’t go away on its own.<br />
We head into the season of spring this month, and together,<br />
we look forward to the promise of hope and rebirth.<br />
Sarah Kittle<br />
Editor in Chief<br />
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<strong>MARCH</strong> <strong>2023</strong> CHALDEAN NEWS 7
FOUNDATION UPDATE<br />
A Lesson on the<br />
Dangers of Vaping<br />
and E-Cigarettes<br />
The CCF welcomed 7th and 8th grade students from Grissom<br />
Middle School in Sterling Heights to learn about the<br />
effects of vaping on the development of the teen brain. The<br />
information was presented by Henry Ford Health experts.<br />
Students also had an opportunity to participate in<br />
an interactive demonstration showing how tobacco impacts<br />
the lungs and learned about the harmful ingredients<br />
found in vapes and cigarettes.<br />
Henry Ford offers a tobacco treatment service specifically<br />
geared towards teens ages 14-17. To learn more,<br />
email Tobaccofree@hfhs.org or call (888) 427-7587.<br />
CCF President Martin<br />
Manna meets King<br />
Abdullah of Jordan<br />
CCF President Martin Manna had the great privilege of meeting<br />
with King Abdullah of Jordan at the National Prayer Breakfast in<br />
Washington DC earlier this month. The King relayed that Iraq is a<br />
priority for him and invited Martin to meet with him in Amman to<br />
discuss long-term sustainability for Christians in Iraq.<br />
The Future is Now<br />
Wireless Vision, in partnership with the Chaldean Community Foundation, hosted a kickoff event<br />
for 12 professionals within the community who were selected to participate in the first ever Learn<br />
with a Leader Program. Participants gathered at 220 Merrill in Birmingham to enjoy an evening of<br />
food, fun, and interaction.<br />
Learn with A Leader is a 9-month leadership program designed to develop future leaders and<br />
impact the lives of aspiring leaders through monthly development sessions. It will also create networking<br />
opportunities within the community.<br />
Macomb Student Diversity Summit<br />
The Chaldean Community Foundation (CCF) participated in the Macomb Student Diversity Summit.<br />
This annual event provides an opportunity for more than 400 middle and high school students to<br />
dialogue about race relations and current relevant cultural matters.<br />
The CCF facilitated a session meant to provide students a better understanding about why one<br />
might leave their country, as no one story or circumstance is the same.<br />
Former Detroit Lions Player,<br />
Herman Moore, Visits CCF<br />
Serial entrepreneur, NFL All-Pro, and philanthropist Herman<br />
Moore visited the Chaldean Community Foundation to discuss<br />
the Tackle Life Entrepreneurship Program and the Chaldean<br />
Community Foundation’s continued partnership with Team 84<br />
Staffing.<br />
8 CHALDEAN NEWS <strong>MARCH</strong> <strong>2023</strong>
CHALDEAN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION<br />
CAREER<br />
SERVICES<br />
WALK-IN DAYS:<br />
MONDAY, TUESDAY, THURSDAY<br />
8:30AM - 4:00PM<br />
WHAT WE DO<br />
The Career Services Department at the Chaldean Community Foundation offers one-on-one assistance to help<br />
clients identify goals and develop careers.<br />
• CAREER FAIRS<br />
• COVER LETTER WRITING<br />
• EMPLOYER REFERRALS<br />
• FAFSA COMPLETION<br />
• JOB APPLICATION COMPLETION<br />
• MOCK INTERVIEWS<br />
• RESUME BUILDING<br />
• TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES<br />
CHALDEAN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION<br />
3601 15 MILE RD<br />
STERLING HEIGHTS, MI 48310<br />
<strong>MARCH</strong> <strong>2023</strong> CHALDEAN NEWS 9
NOTEWORTHY<br />
CULTURE<br />
Keeper of the Dream: Sterling Heights<br />
immigrant finds her voice as advocate<br />
for linguistic justice<br />
Mena Hannakachl, an OU major in professional and digital<br />
writing is among the recipients of the <strong>2023</strong> Oakland<br />
University Keeper of the Dream Award.<br />
One of Mena Hannakachl’s writing professors<br />
once told her that to thrive in the real<br />
world, she would need to put the languages<br />
she learned while growing up in Iraq<br />
and the United Arab Emirates aside and<br />
conform to standard English.<br />
She refused, and now she’s a scholar<br />
who advocates for linguistic justice and a<br />
mentor to other young writers who speak<br />
English as a second or third language.<br />
Mena was only 4 years old when her<br />
family fled the unrest in Baghdad and<br />
moved to Dubai. Her father, who owned a<br />
successful small business, dreamed of life<br />
in America. In 2015, he moved his wife and<br />
their four children to Michigan.<br />
Mena is now a junior majoring in professional<br />
and digital writing at Oakland<br />
University. She is a recipient of OU’s Keeper<br />
of the Dream Award Scholarship, which<br />
recognizes students demonstrating exceptional<br />
leadership through their involvement<br />
on campus by breaking down racial<br />
and cultural stereotypes and promoting<br />
racial understanding. “The same work I<br />
was told to put aside are the contributions<br />
that were celebrated and validated by the<br />
award,” she said. “I’ve come full circle.”<br />
– Gina Joseph, The Macomb Daily<br />
From left to right: Ron Khoury, CCF Lobbyist;<br />
Rep. Nate Shannon (Shelby & Sterling Heights);<br />
Rep. Angela Witwer (Lansing); Martin Manna;<br />
Rep. Christine Morse (Kalamazoo); Rep. Ranjeev<br />
Puri (Canton); Rep. Jasper Martus (Flushing<br />
& Flint); and Rep. Will Snyder (Muskegon).<br />
COMMUNITY<br />
State Reps visit CCF<br />
Seven state representatives visited the Chaldean<br />
Community Foundation on February 13 to learn<br />
about the daily services that the CCF provides to<br />
40,000 clients annually. Leadership shared with<br />
them priorities for the CCF and the Chaldean American<br />
Chamber of Commerce (CACC), which includes<br />
increasing funding for both the multicultural line<br />
and from the Department of Education for the CCF,<br />
and supporting upcoming bills on lottery and liquor<br />
commissions for the CACC. Both organizations are<br />
focused on providing more affordable housing.<br />
LEGAL NEWS<br />
Double Duty: Editor of Law Review serves<br />
as president of moot court<br />
Nancy Zieah, a liquor store owner/operator<br />
turned law school student, appreciates<br />
the fact that many students<br />
at Cooley Law School are—like her—not<br />
traditional law school students right<br />
out of undergrad.<br />
Zieah started her academy trajectory<br />
with an undergrad degree from<br />
the University of Michigan-Dearborn,<br />
where she was on the honor roll for all<br />
terms. Fluent in Arabic and Chaldean,<br />
she was a delegate in the Model Arab<br />
Nancy Zieah<br />
League and was a member of Amnesty<br />
International.<br />
“I studied political science because it casts a wide<br />
net over societal problems and solutions,” she says. “I<br />
particularly liked studying international politics and<br />
social justice reform. This is probably<br />
what drew me to things like the Jessup<br />
International Moot Court competition<br />
at Cooley, and the expungement fairs.”<br />
The current president of the Melissa<br />
Mitchell Moot Court, Zieah<br />
earned the Trinity Term Top Advocate<br />
Award in 2021 for the highest score<br />
in a single round. Last year she was<br />
a member of the Philip C. Jessup International<br />
Law Moot Court team<br />
that ranked amongst top 30 national<br />
teams in Advanced Rounds.<br />
Her experience with expungement<br />
came from volunteering for Safe and Just, an organization<br />
that hosts expungement fairs in the metro-<br />
Detroit area.<br />
SPIRITUAL<br />
Lenten Evening<br />
of Reflection<br />
Every year the Chaldean Cultural Center hosts a<br />
Lenten Dinner evening with a special emphasis<br />
on prayer and reflection. This year the keynote<br />
speaker is Father Aram, speaking on “Shairwatha,”<br />
Remembrance of the Saints, something<br />
that took place in Iraqi villages before Easter<br />
during Lent. Father Aram chaired a crisis team in<br />
Alqosh and established a medical charity clinic<br />
among other trauma-related work. He speaks<br />
Syriac, Arabic, and English.<br />
Shenandoah Country Club<br />
Thursday March 9, 6-9 p.m.<br />
Email info@chaldeanculturalcenter.org or<br />
call 248-681-5050 or for information.<br />
10 CHALDEAN NEWS <strong>MARCH</strong> <strong>2023</strong>
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<strong>MARCH</strong> <strong>2023</strong> CHALDEAN NEWS 11
CHALDEAN DIGEST<br />
WIKIMEDIA<br />
AINA<br />
Chaldean Patriarchate of Babylon in<br />
Baghdad has reached 74% completion.<br />
Construction<br />
of Baghdad’s<br />
Chaldean<br />
Patriarchate<br />
almost finished<br />
Earthquake damage in Syria<br />
Turkey and Syria reeling from earthquake ‘bomb’<br />
The death toll from the devastating<br />
magnitude 7.8 earthquake that hit<br />
Turkey and Syria on February 6 is continuing<br />
to grow, with at least 40,000<br />
dead and tens of thousands injured.<br />
The Catholic anti-persecution charity<br />
Aid to the Church In Need (ACN) is<br />
sending more than half a million Euros<br />
in aid to Christian initiatives in Syria<br />
as the death toll continues to rise.<br />
From Syria, Bishop Antoine Audo<br />
SJ, Chaldean Bishop of Aleppo, said<br />
that after 12 years of war, “this is a<br />
new tremendous bomb, lethal and unknown,<br />
which falls on us.”<br />
The earthquake was the most violent<br />
in eight centuries. He reported that Aleppo<br />
is “a city of two and a half million inhabitants<br />
without electricity, water and heating<br />
and it is very cold, winter is harsh.” Many<br />
people are living on the streets or in cars,<br />
afraid of further tremors.<br />
The Middle East Council of Churches,<br />
an ecumenical liaison body of the<br />
Churches and ecclesial communities<br />
in the Middle East and North Africa,<br />
called for “the immediate lifting of the<br />
sanctions against Syria and access to<br />
all resources, so that sanctions do not<br />
turn into a crime against humanity.”<br />
The Archbishop of Westminster,<br />
Cardinal Vincent Nichols has written<br />
to Fr. Andrawis Toma, chaplain to<br />
the Chaldean Catholic community in<br />
London, offering prayers and “sincere<br />
condolences” to members of Chaldean<br />
Catholic Church, which has substantial<br />
numbers in the two countries.<br />
– The Tablet/UK<br />
In the implementation of the project for<br />
the construction of the Chaldean Patriarchate<br />
of Babylon in Baghdad, the<br />
Ministry of Construction, Housing, and<br />
Public Municipalities has reached advanced<br />
completion rates totaling 74%.<br />
The project consists of a three-story<br />
structure with huge halls, classrooms,<br />
and a mini building for inquiries at the<br />
church doors. This shows that work on<br />
the project is still ongoing and plans to<br />
finish it are on schedule. Future work<br />
includes installing alabaster flooring<br />
and secondary roofing works.<br />
The patriarchate is in Baghdad,<br />
Iraq, at the Cathedral of Mary Mother<br />
of Sorrows. The current patriarch is<br />
Cardinal Louis Raphael I Sako, who is<br />
supported by Shlemon Warduni, the<br />
archbishop of Erbil, and Basel Yaldo,<br />
the auxiliary bishop of Baghdad.<br />
– Assyrian International News Agency<br />
The Iraqi President, Abdul Latif Rashid, the Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hossein<br />
Amir-Abdollahian, and other Iranian officials.<br />
Iraqi President receives<br />
official invitation to visit Iran<br />
Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid accepted the invitation to visit Iran, which he received during his<br />
meeting with the Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian. The invitation was<br />
sent to Rashid from the Iranian President, Ebrahim Raisi.<br />
Rashid stressed that Iraq and Iran are two neighboring countries, both have historical relations<br />
and common bonds, and both can contribute to strengthening the security and stability in the region.<br />
He is cautiously optimistic about using dialogue to solve regional and international issues.<br />
– Iraqi News Agency<br />
IRAQI PRESIDENT’S OFFICE<br />
French recognition of<br />
the Assyrian Genocide<br />
The French Senate passed a resolution on Wednesday, February<br />
8th, calling on the government to recognize the genocide<br />
of the Assyrian-Chaldeans of 1915-1918 and to make the day of<br />
April 24 a joint day of commemoration for the Armenian and<br />
Assyrian-Chaldean genocides. After discussion, the resolution<br />
was adopted by a vote of 300 - 2.<br />
In the shadow of World War I, the Assyrians (also known as<br />
Chaldeans and Syriacs) living in the southeastern region of the<br />
Ottoman Empire were deported, expelled, and massacred by the<br />
Ottoman Empire, in the same manner as the Armenians. France<br />
recognized the genocide of the Armenians on January 29, 2001.<br />
According to Professor Yacoub, an expert on the subject,<br />
this “genocide and looting of land and property was accompanied<br />
by severe attacks on the cultural heritage. Historical monuments<br />
were destroyed and left abandoned, churches desecrated,<br />
and schools demolished. Libraries of rare books and valuable<br />
manuscripts were squandered and destroyed, such as those of<br />
the Chaldean diocese of Seert or the Assyrian patriarchal seat<br />
in Kotchanes, a small village in Hakkari now abandoned, or the<br />
monasteries of the Syriac Churches in the Tur Abdin region.”<br />
– Assyrian International News Agency<br />
12 CHALDEAN NEWS <strong>MARCH</strong> <strong>2023</strong>
CHALDEAN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION<br />
Educational programs<br />
ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE<br />
ESL 1 (Beginner) Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday<br />
1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.<br />
ESL 2 (High Beginner): Tuesday and Thursday<br />
9:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. OR 5:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.<br />
ESL 3 (Intermediate): Monday and Wednesday<br />
9:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. OR 5:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.<br />
$40 class fee<br />
GED (HIGH SCHOOL EQUIVALENCY DEGREE)<br />
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,<br />
and Thursday<br />
9:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.<br />
Study Math or Social Studies<br />
$50 class fee<br />
LITTLE SCHOLARS PRESCHOOL<br />
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday<br />
9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.<br />
Children aged 3 will attend 2 days a week<br />
Children aged 4-5 will attend 3 days a week<br />
$100 for the year<br />
CITIZENSHIP PREPARATION<br />
Tuesday and Thursday<br />
9:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.<br />
OR 5:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.<br />
$40 class fee<br />
We can’t wait to see you!<br />
Want to learn more? Please contact Rachel Rose at<br />
Rachel.rose@chaldeanfoundation.org or call (586) 722-7253<br />
<strong>MARCH</strong> <strong>2023</strong> CHALDEAN NEWS 13
RELIGION<br />
Fasting from food and things,<br />
however, is only half the battle. The<br />
Bible also tells us that, together with<br />
fasting, a person must also fast from<br />
violence and oppressing others. In<br />
other words, as we fast from food and<br />
other things, we must also keep up a<br />
loving attitude towards others. Think:<br />
as we try to fast in a way that is genuine,<br />
can we truly make an effort to forgive<br />
those who have hurt us and not<br />
hold onto anger? Do not let your past<br />
wounds control you. Talk to Jesus in<br />
prayer about your hurt, your anger,<br />
and your wounds.<br />
Celebrating Lent<br />
Entering into the desert with Jesus<br />
BY FR. MARCUS SHAMMAMI<br />
“Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit<br />
into the desert to be tempted by the<br />
devil. And He fasted forty days and<br />
forty nights…” -Matthew 4:1-2<br />
As the season of Sawma Raba<br />
(Great Lent) begins in the<br />
Church, we must not forget the<br />
point of Lent – to prepare our hearts<br />
and minds for the glory that is the Resurrection<br />
of Our Lord and Savior Jesus<br />
Christ. The Resurrection of Christ<br />
is the central aspect of our faith; it is<br />
the reason why we offer our hearts to<br />
Christ as we celebrate Mass each week.<br />
As you prepare to celebrate the<br />
Resurrection of Christ on Easter Sunday<br />
– the greatest event in all of human<br />
history, and dare I say, the entire<br />
universe – you must ready your heart<br />
to understand this key event of our<br />
faith by traveling and fasting with Jesus<br />
in the desert.<br />
The desert is a place of simplicity.<br />
Simply put, there is not much going on<br />
in a desert – we can imagine a barren<br />
landscape where there are very few<br />
plants, not many animals, the landscape<br />
littered with rocks and dried out<br />
weeds. Going further in our imagining<br />
of the desert, there are not many<br />
hiding places or shelters in the desert<br />
to hide in. There is nowhere that one<br />
would be able to hide in the desert –<br />
everything comes to the surface.<br />
Lent is an invitation for you to take<br />
that courageous step of going into the<br />
desert with Jesus and allowing for<br />
whatever it is that you are hiding in<br />
the darkness of your heart – whether<br />
that be your sins or your wounds – to<br />
come to the surface and into the healing<br />
light of Christ.<br />
How do we travel with Jesus through<br />
the desert? Again, the desert is a place<br />
of simplicity. There are no distractions.<br />
In our busy 21st century lives, distraction<br />
is something at which we have exceled.<br />
Our lives at times can be a series<br />
of distractions and diversions that do<br />
not allow us to think about the bigger<br />
questions of life.<br />
This is precisely why we need to<br />
enter into the desert with Jesus – to<br />
cut out the distractions from our life<br />
and come face to face with the dark<br />
parts of ourselves that we sometimes<br />
want to ignore; to learn more about<br />
Our Savior Jesus Christ, and to detach<br />
ourselves from the things of this dying<br />
world in order to learn to better appreciate<br />
what Jesus Christ has won for us<br />
as sons and daughters of the eternal<br />
Kingdom of God.<br />
The Church calls us to do three<br />
things during Lent: pray, fast, and give<br />
alms.<br />
Prayer<br />
Lent is a time for more prayer. A life<br />
without prayer is a life without the<br />
joy of the presence of God. It is one<br />
thing to fast and to give alms, but if<br />
we are not praying, we are not living<br />
and thriving as Christians but merely<br />
surviving. This Lent, incorporate more<br />
prayer in your life to experience the joy<br />
of knowing God more and more and<br />
enter a greater relationship with Him.<br />
We are especially blessed in this day<br />
and age with so many prayer books (a<br />
favorite is My Daily Bread) and digital<br />
apps (such as the Hallow app) that<br />
help us to pray daily.<br />
Fasting<br />
Fasting is a penance that the Church<br />
encourages us to follow during Lent,<br />
and, from a spiritual point of view, it<br />
symbolizes our dependence on God.<br />
In fasting, we are able to put God at<br />
the center of our lives and put all else,<br />
all created things, to the side. It serves<br />
as a reminder to God and to ourselves<br />
that the things of this world do not rule<br />
over us, only God does.<br />
Almsgiving<br />
Giving alms is, simply put, helping<br />
the poor. There is no shortage of ways<br />
in which we can give to those in most<br />
need. One thing you and your family<br />
and friends might consider this season<br />
is to give to those who were affected<br />
by the earthquakes in the Middle East.<br />
Many were impacted by this tragedy,<br />
and the Diocese, through Chaldean<br />
Catholic Charities, has been working<br />
with volunteers directly on the ground<br />
in Syria and Turkey. To donate, visit<br />
Chaldeanchurch.org.<br />
In addition to these three central<br />
aspects of Lent, there is another spiritual<br />
practice to help you enter the desert<br />
with Jesus – what is dubbed as the<br />
3-1-1 challenge.<br />
3: Give up three distractions or diversions<br />
in your life that are keeping<br />
you away from God. This could be social<br />
media, your phone, laziness, going<br />
out, etc.<br />
1: Add in one additional spiritual<br />
practice into your life. This could be<br />
a Rosary, Chaplet of Divine Mercy, or<br />
reading the Bible.<br />
1: Find that one sin that you continue<br />
to struggle with and work on casting<br />
that sin out of your life for good.<br />
Receiving the graces and help that<br />
come from God from a good confession<br />
will help you a great deal. Learn from<br />
your sin, dust yourself off, and focus<br />
above all else on the way that Jesus<br />
has set before you.<br />
Lent comes from an Old English<br />
word that roughly translates into<br />
“spring.” Let us enter into the desert<br />
with Jesus this Lent, so that we may<br />
undergo new life, a new “springtime”<br />
in our own hearts, ready to receive the<br />
light and the glory of the joy of the Resurrection.<br />
14 CHALDEAN NEWS <strong>MARCH</strong> <strong>2023</strong>
WE ARE<br />
HIRING<br />
Do you possess a passion for bettering the lives of others?<br />
Join our ever expanding team!<br />
Behavioral Health Case Worker • Behavioral Health Therapist<br />
Case Worker • Citizenship Instructor • Client Ambassador<br />
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For More Information<br />
HR@chaldeanfoundation.org<br />
586-722-7253<br />
www.chaldeanfoundation.org/careers<br />
<strong>MARCH</strong> <strong>2023</strong> CHALDEAN NEWS 15
IN MEMORIAM<br />
Najeb Ablahad<br />
Younan<br />
Jul 1, 1954 –<br />
Jan 15, <strong>2023</strong><br />
Bassam Kinaya<br />
Mar 28, 1970 –<br />
Jan 16, <strong>2023</strong><br />
Teares Shaya<br />
Mansoor<br />
Oct 27, 1940 –<br />
Jan 16, <strong>2023</strong><br />
Sharbal Sitto<br />
Jul 1, 1951 –<br />
Jan 17, <strong>2023</strong><br />
Khiloud Orow<br />
Yatooma<br />
Mar 19, 1953 –<br />
Jan 17, <strong>2023</strong><br />
Salem Tobia Konja<br />
Jul 1, 1932 –<br />
Jan 21, <strong>2023</strong><br />
Khalida Abed<br />
Mansour<br />
Jul 10, 1941 –<br />
Jan 21, <strong>2023</strong><br />
Noel Shamon<br />
Kappouta<br />
Jun 10, 1928 –<br />
Jan 22, <strong>2023</strong><br />
Christopher Faraj<br />
Habib<br />
Oct 22, 1972 –<br />
Jan 23, <strong>2023</strong><br />
Catrina Gorges Yousif<br />
Jul 1, 1932 –<br />
Jan 23, <strong>2023</strong><br />
Butrus Hirmiz<br />
Shamoon<br />
Jun 20, 1960 –<br />
Jan 24, <strong>2023</strong><br />
Sabah Salim Zebari<br />
Jul 1, 1943 –<br />
Jan 25, <strong>2023</strong><br />
Heather Jamil<br />
Gomma<br />
Feb 13, 1989 –<br />
Jan 26, <strong>2023</strong><br />
Shafika Mikha Gappy<br />
Karjo<br />
Jul 1, 1929 –<br />
Jan 27, <strong>2023</strong><br />
Hani Yono<br />
Jul 1, 1948 –<br />
Jan 28, <strong>2023</strong><br />
Salim Denno<br />
Apr 16, 1922 –<br />
Jan 30, <strong>2023</strong><br />
Aziz Karjo<br />
Jul 27, 1946 –<br />
Jan 30, <strong>2023</strong><br />
Suad Hanna Peter<br />
May 2, 1933 –<br />
Jan 30, <strong>2023</strong><br />
Nagib Iskander<br />
Wassif<br />
Feb 22, 1935 –<br />
Jan 31, <strong>2023</strong><br />
Sabria Semaan<br />
Bajawa<br />
Jul 1, 1934 –<br />
Feb 1, <strong>2023</strong><br />
Wadia Dabish Brikho<br />
Oct 1, 1931 –<br />
Feb 1, <strong>2023</strong><br />
Michael David Khami<br />
May 23, 1944 –<br />
Feb 2, <strong>2023</strong><br />
Catherine<br />
“Cathy” A. Sesi<br />
Apr 10, 1952 –<br />
Feb 4, <strong>2023</strong><br />
Maisoon Keer Abbawi<br />
Mar 31, 1949 –<br />
Feb 5, <strong>2023</strong><br />
Hikmat Elias Atto<br />
Nov 10, 1933 –<br />
Feb 6, <strong>2023</strong><br />
Adel Bedros Warten<br />
Mardrosian<br />
Sep 1, 1938 –<br />
Feb 6, <strong>2023</strong><br />
Marna Nathniel<br />
Sheekhali<br />
Jul 1, 1937 –<br />
Feb 6, <strong>2023</strong><br />
Zouhair (Remon)<br />
Salim Najjar<br />
Feb 25, 1940 –<br />
Feb 7, <strong>2023</strong><br />
Suria Yousif Shaba<br />
Jul 1, 1937 –<br />
Feb 7, <strong>2023</strong><br />
Badi “Buddy” Abbo<br />
Feb 27, 1937 –<br />
Feb 8, <strong>2023</strong><br />
Eilonka Wilson Yousif<br />
Jun 22, 1978 –<br />
Feb 9, <strong>2023</strong><br />
Sabah Marogy<br />
Jajo Ateek<br />
Jul 1, 1940 –<br />
Feb 12, <strong>2023</strong><br />
George Shamoun<br />
Bazzi<br />
Jul 1, 1929 –<br />
Feb 14, <strong>2023</strong><br />
Nadine Marie<br />
Lirato Yeldo<br />
Apr 27, 1990 –<br />
Feb 16, <strong>2023</strong><br />
16 CHALDEAN NEWS <strong>MARCH</strong> <strong>2023</strong>
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LIGHT<br />
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improve your relationships, and share your feelings<br />
and experiences. Individuals often seek therapy for help<br />
with issues that may be hard to face alone.<br />
In therapy your therapist will help you to establish person<br />
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mental health support. Therefore, all counseling records are kept strictly confidential. Information is not shared without client’s written consent. Exceptions to confidentiality are<br />
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<strong>MARCH</strong> <strong>2023</strong> CHALDEAN NEWS 17
COVER STORY<br />
Caption needed<br />
Fame,<br />
Fortune,<br />
and Flour<br />
Genevieve Kashat’s bid for<br />
Kids Baking Champion<br />
BY CAL ABBO<br />
When Genevieve Kashat was 3 years old,<br />
she watched with awe as her mother<br />
made a rich, delicious, and familiar banana<br />
bread for her family to enjoy.<br />
Years later, this moment would blossom into<br />
something much greater: a budding baking career<br />
and a shot at Food Network stardom. The road from<br />
mom’s banana bread to the Kids Baking Championship<br />
requires just the right mixture of talent, hard<br />
work, creativity, and inspiration.<br />
At just 5 years old, Genevieve became a fan of<br />
Food Network’s KBC and dreamed of entering the<br />
competition herself. As it happens, this was also<br />
the year she learned how to use the oven and bake<br />
a cake. Just a few years after that, she was making<br />
macarons.<br />
These two items would become the staples of<br />
her still-nascent career, although Genevieve would<br />
soon excel in many different areas of baking. After<br />
all, she needed to be well-rounded to compete for<br />
the title of Kids Baking Champion.<br />
One of Genevieve’s key inspirations is her aunt<br />
and godmother, who recently became a Chaldean<br />
Sister. “She’s just awesome,” Genevieve said.<br />
This season of KBC was much different than others<br />
in the past, and according to Genevieve, it was<br />
more difficult. The main addition to the show was<br />
an entrepreneurial theme – Food Network now required<br />
that the kids have a burgeoning baking business<br />
in order to compete. KBC featured challenges<br />
and twists that blend baking and business acumen.<br />
How does Genevieve have a business at the<br />
young age of 11? It all started with Sister Rose.<br />
“My aunt had a little gathering in 2020,” Genevieve<br />
said. “I made macarons for fun. That’s when<br />
I was learning.” During the event, she got outstanding<br />
reviews from those who attended the gathering<br />
and numerous suggestions that she should sell her<br />
baked goods. “If my aunt didn’t have the gathering,<br />
I wouldn’t have started the business,” she said.<br />
Through her business, Gen’s Kreations, Genevieve<br />
focuses on macarons and cakes, but she can<br />
make “literally anything you want.”<br />
While Genevieve usually sells at her local<br />
church, she has also served at a Birmingham coffee<br />
shop, communions, baptisms, and other major<br />
events. 10% of every order goes to charity, specifically<br />
a Chaldean orphanage in Iraq.<br />
Genevieve was contacted by the KBC production<br />
team to go on last season. Her family, however,<br />
had planned a vacation for the same time the show<br />
would be filmed. “It was my aunt’s last time before<br />
she goes to the convent so we wanted to spend that<br />
time with her,” Genevieve said. “I thought I might<br />
not be able to go to KBC.”<br />
Thankfully, Genevieve was invited to the competition<br />
again this year, and her business experience<br />
qualified her for the tough competition. She entered<br />
the competition when she was 10, one of the youngest<br />
competitors, and competed against some kids<br />
who were already 13 years old.<br />
The show itself is filmed over several weeks and<br />
sectioned into several episodes. In each episode,<br />
the kids get to work at their own kitchen toward a<br />
specific goal designed by the judges, in competition<br />
with one another.<br />
The competitions are designed differently. In<br />
some episodes, the show will eliminate some kids<br />
in an individual competition. In other designs, the<br />
contestants split into teams and accomplish a goal<br />
together. Genevieve played a leading role in some of<br />
these competitions. She won half of the show’s first<br />
eight episodes and advanced to the top four kid bakers<br />
before being eliminated.<br />
18 CHALDEAN NEWS <strong>MARCH</strong> <strong>2023</strong>
One of the show’s two judges, Duff Goldman,<br />
is one of Genevieve’s baking idols. She first found<br />
him on YouTube, when she was much younger, and<br />
has been a fan of his informational and entertaining<br />
baking videos ever since. It was only once she went<br />
on KBC that she got to meet and learn from him directly.<br />
“It was just so cool,” she said. “I was speechless.<br />
My own kitchen, with my own name there … I got<br />
to make the kitchen as messy as I wanted to and I<br />
didn’t have to clean it.”<br />
Genevieve also emphasized the importance of<br />
the community of young bakers that she was thrust<br />
into so suddenly. “All of us have the same love for<br />
baking,” she said. “Some of us were better than others<br />
at other things so we kind of taught each other at<br />
the same time. But since we all love the same things,<br />
it was really easy to communicate with each other.”<br />
She also commented on the importance of her<br />
family, not only as taste testers, but as a support<br />
system. Her mother manages her social media and<br />
helps coordinate her publicity; her siblings will try<br />
anything she bakes, hoping that she’ll improve it<br />
next time.<br />
The taste testers play a very important role for<br />
Genevieve, especially when it comes to her macarons,<br />
which are some of her best desserts to make,<br />
because Genevieve can’t taste them herself. “I’ve<br />
never really tasted my macarons,” she revealed.<br />
“I’m allergic to almonds. The shell of the macaron,<br />
the main part, is made with almond flour. But I’ve<br />
tasted the filling before.”<br />
Genevieve’s future is full of potential, and she<br />
has some ideas she wants to pursue as well as some<br />
dreams to share. “I want to have a big bakery with a<br />
nice garden in the back,” she said. “It has a seating<br />
area and all that stuff.” Without a doubt, her dreams<br />
are big.<br />
But now, since she has competed on a baking<br />
show, she really wants to judge one someday. With<br />
any luck, we’ll see her on the big screen, this time<br />
from the other side.<br />
<strong>MARCH</strong> <strong>2023</strong> CHALDEAN NEWS 19
FEATURE<br />
Driving Forward Thinking<br />
Jaclyn McQuaid leads GM Europe<br />
BY SARAH KITTLE<br />
“<br />
European customers are switching<br />
to electric vehicles at a<br />
faster rate than anywhere in the<br />
world.” So says Jaclyn McQuaid, and she<br />
should know. GM is all-in on EV, investing<br />
$35 billion through 2025 in electric<br />
and autonomous vehicle technology in<br />
Europe, and Jaclyn oversees the entire<br />
operation on that side of the pond.<br />
Growing up in Farmington with<br />
her parents, George and Linda Lossia<br />
and three sisters, Jaclyn was a typical<br />
girly girl. She liked dolls and later, boys<br />
and dressing up. She did have a mind for<br />
math and science, and her father encouraged<br />
her and her sisters to pursue S.T.E.M.<br />
interests. An automotive engineer at heart,<br />
his own training at Lawrence Tech was cut<br />
short by the war in Vietnam. Her mom supported<br />
her daughters by being “a go-getter”<br />
and teaching them they can do anything.<br />
“I wanted to engineer roller coasters,”<br />
Jaclyn says with a laugh.<br />
When asked what her childhood was like,<br />
Jaclyn answered, “Fun. What can I say? I have<br />
three sisters.” Jennifer, the eldest, is a principal<br />
lawyer at Fagan McManus. Only 18 months older<br />
than her identical twin sisters, Jamie, who is an executive<br />
chief engineer at GM, and Jaclyn, the three often<br />
felt like triplets. The youngest of the four, Jessica, is<br />
a nurse by profession.<br />
“Being an immigrant made me more driven,” says Jaclyn.<br />
“When you have no established network, you have to<br />
make things happen yourself.” Like most Chaldeans, she<br />
and her sisters were raised to develop a strong work ethic.<br />
She earned both a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical<br />
Engineering and a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering<br />
from the University of Michigan.<br />
Their father’s dream was to be an automotive engineer<br />
at GM, the family favorite automaker. Although he gave<br />
up his dream to support his family, two of his daughters<br />
now have extremely high-level engineering jobs at GM.<br />
Jamie Brewer, Jaclyn’s twin, is the lead engineer on the<br />
Cadillac Lyriq, a vehicle that Jaclyn says is pivotal for the<br />
company.<br />
GM aims to be a major driver of the auto industry’s<br />
transformation, says Jaclyn, and since they basically<br />
pulled out of the region in 2016, Europe is now a blank<br />
slate. Ultimately, the European market will be electric vehicles<br />
only, she asserts. And completely autonomous vehicles<br />
are on the horizon.<br />
“Our flexible Ultium battery platform and the breadth<br />
and depth of our EV portfolio enable GM to offer customers<br />
in Europe a variety of products and services to support<br />
their lifestyles, while also contributing to a future of zero<br />
crashes, zero emissions and zero congestion,” she said.<br />
Mary Barra, the GM CEO, is an inspiration to Jaclyn,<br />
who never felt her career at the organization was compromised<br />
by the fact that she was a woman, at least not within<br />
the organization itself. She recounts one time when she<br />
was giving a presentation on trailering with a truck hitch,<br />
a subject she knew intimately, having worked for 6 years<br />
on truck engineering, when a man in the back yelled out,<br />
“But she’s a girl!”<br />
Barra’s saying, “Hard work beats talent if talent<br />
doesn’t work hard,” resonates with Jaclyn. Her own viewpoint<br />
reminds her that when the going gets tough, she has<br />
the “opportunity to beat hard”; to overcome the adversity<br />
and ultimately come out on top.<br />
It’s a good thing the role is so challenging and satisfying.<br />
She’s living in Zurich now, while her husband Dan<br />
and children Josephine, 16, and Nicholas, 14, remain in<br />
Michigan so the kids can finish the school year. Josephine<br />
is a junior at St. Catherine of Siena and Nicholas is a freshman<br />
at Catholic Central.<br />
They will be joining her in June, but in the meantime,<br />
Jaclyn will spend their spring break with them in the<br />
States. In honor of March and Women’s Month, she will<br />
provide an intimate opportunity for the Chaldean Women’s<br />
Committee to hear her story and ask her questions.<br />
Her daughter will accompany her.<br />
Jaclyn’s husband Dan is one of her biggest supporters.<br />
They met when she was just 20, and they married four<br />
years later. Jaclyn recalls going to his house and seeing<br />
his parents in the kitchen together. They displayed a true<br />
partnership, one that she wanted for herself. She and Dan<br />
have worked together to make that a reality.<br />
Females face barriers in industry every day. Jaclyn<br />
wants to make sure that young people, especially young<br />
women, are not self-limiting their futures, or de-selecting<br />
themselves for future career paths. “It starts in elementary<br />
school and middle school.” She wants them to see<br />
that people who look a lot like them are succeeding, indeed<br />
thriving, in industries that are thought of as nonfeminine.<br />
If you can dream it, do it. Her primary goal, she says, is<br />
to show all young people, regardless of gender, ethnicity,<br />
social class, or physical ability, that they can take their<br />
passion and make a career out of it.<br />
Jaclyn wears high heels and lipstick to meetings. You can<br />
be tech-savvy and feminine, too. Driving the big truck market<br />
into the new dawn, she’s still very much a woman.<br />
20 CHALDEAN NEWS <strong>MARCH</strong> <strong>2023</strong>
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<strong>MARCH</strong> <strong>2023</strong> CHALDEAN NEWS 21
PROFILE<br />
Hard Work Bears Results<br />
BY CAL ABBO<br />
Rita Soka – daughter to Samir<br />
and Najat Elias, an immigrant,<br />
wife, mother, transfusion medicine<br />
technologist, and health care<br />
validation consultant has added yet<br />
another item to her resume. As of last<br />
year, she graduated from Detroit Mercy<br />
School of Law (UDM) and became<br />
a barred attorney – and as of as last<br />
month, she partnered up with her former<br />
professor at Detroit Mercy School<br />
of Law and formed a new law firm,<br />
Taylor Soka, PLLC. Rita’s story tells<br />
of a special kind of perseverance. She<br />
has lived many trials in her lifetime<br />
and expects to see many more in her<br />
newfound career. It started in the early<br />
‘80s, when she was born in Baghdad.<br />
“I was born during the Persian-Iraq<br />
war,” Rita said, reminiscing about her<br />
early childhood and the strife in her<br />
home country at the time. After this<br />
war ended, Iraq faced another war –<br />
the United States/Iraq war – and this<br />
brought much more imminent danger<br />
to her hometown of Baghdad.<br />
“I missed a lot of elementary school<br />
during the war,” she said. “We would<br />
escape and go to Karamlesh for a few<br />
months at a time. That happened twice.”<br />
Rita and her extended family, which<br />
numbered around 25 people, would pile<br />
into her aunt’s small village house in<br />
Karamlesh when Baghdad became too<br />
dangerous. “I think they had two bedrooms,”<br />
she said. They slept wherever<br />
there was floor space available.<br />
Despite this hardship, Rita remembers<br />
her upbringing and education<br />
fondly, and attributes much of<br />
her work ethic, discipline, and love<br />
for education to her Catholic school,<br />
Al-Makasib Elementary and Middle<br />
School and Digla High School for girls.<br />
Rita came to the United States at a<br />
young age, after meeting her husband<br />
in Baghdad and marrying in Jordan.<br />
Steve (Sarmed) and Rita met when he<br />
traveled to Iraq with his family. They<br />
became engaged quickly and married<br />
in Jordan soon after. She finally arrived<br />
in Detroit in 1999, eager to continue<br />
her education, which was her passion.<br />
With the help and encouragement<br />
Rita Samir Soka at the Michigan Supreme Court.<br />
of her father-in-law, Farouk Soka, Rita<br />
applied to Oakland Community College<br />
(OCC), trying to enter the college’s<br />
English as a Second Language program.<br />
Unfortunately, she only knew<br />
English from grade school in Iraq. In<br />
her own words, she had learned English<br />
grammar, but didn’t know how to<br />
communicate.<br />
As a result, she failed OCC’s ESL<br />
entrance exam. This consequence,<br />
however, wouldn’t stop her. She enrolled<br />
in a nighttime English course<br />
to learn the language better and secured<br />
her first job at T.J. Maxx, folding<br />
clothes.<br />
Within a few weeks, Rita was promoted<br />
to a cashier position. Within a<br />
few months, she started to become<br />
comfortable with English. She got a<br />
secondary job at Kroger as a cashier,<br />
but her education plans were once<br />
again halted as she became pregnant<br />
with her first daughter, Celena.<br />
Rita had always dreamed of working<br />
in the medical field, and had a<br />
special interest in pharmacy. Luckily,<br />
her Kroger location was building a<br />
pharmacy while she was a cashier. She<br />
asked the manager if she could help<br />
run it as a pharmacy technician and,<br />
once it was built, helped develop the<br />
business by bringing in new clients<br />
and increasing its sales. In October<br />
2001, her second daughter Sabrina was<br />
born, and she decided to quit working<br />
and raise her children, but she still<br />
dreamed of pursuing an education.<br />
PHOTOS BY CELENA SOKA<br />
Early 2003, Rita went back to OCC<br />
and enrolled in the ESL program focusing<br />
on prepharmacy. In 2005, she<br />
became pregnant and delivered her<br />
last child and only son, Luke, her education<br />
plans were yet again halted.<br />
Just after he was born, the rest of her<br />
family—mom, dad, and siblings, Sarmad,<br />
Linda and Tamara, arrived in<br />
the states. This was the missing piece;<br />
suddenly, she had an extended support<br />
system to help raise her family. At<br />
this point, she went back full force to<br />
OCC to continue her journey.<br />
A year later, Rita graduated from<br />
OCC with honors and a near-perfect<br />
GPA. She entered a Clinical Laboratory<br />
Science program at Wayne State University<br />
with a merit scholarship and three<br />
children at home. Finally, in 2009, she<br />
graduated with a bachelor’s degree,<br />
summa cum laude, and secured a job at<br />
Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit.<br />
Rita initially worked in transfusion<br />
medicine, helping as a liaison between<br />
the medical staff and the companies that<br />
provided blood to the hospital, like Red<br />
Cross. For a long time, Rita wanted to attend<br />
graduate school; she started shadowing<br />
doctors, but after gaining some<br />
experience, realized her feelings were<br />
conflicted. She wanted to work with people<br />
and solve problems, but didn’t feel<br />
passionate about examining patients.<br />
Since Rita’s priorities were her kids<br />
and commuting to and from Detroit was<br />
keeping her away from her family for<br />
long hours, Rita decided to look for a job<br />
near her home in West Bloomfield. Rita’s<br />
Henry Ford manager found her a job at<br />
Providence Hospital in Southfield.<br />
In 2015, almost by chance, she<br />
stumbled upon a new role – the hospital<br />
was upgrading its software and<br />
needed someone to conduct clinical<br />
validation and test the software. After<br />
some time, Rita became an expert in<br />
this role, and was eventually recruited<br />
by the clinical software developer to<br />
do similar work. She accepted the job,<br />
mostly because of its work-from-home<br />
style and excellent compensation, but<br />
she was still unsatisfied working with<br />
machines and not people.<br />
22 CHALDEAN NEWS <strong>MARCH</strong> <strong>2023</strong>
That changed around 2018 when<br />
her daughter Sabrina, who has had<br />
a long-standing interest in the legal<br />
profession and will be attending law<br />
school in August <strong>2023</strong>, told her about<br />
law school. You can attend, she said,<br />
as long as you have a bachelor’s degree<br />
and a decent Law School Admission<br />
Test (LSAT) score.<br />
The first law school she found, after<br />
a quick Google search, was Cooley in<br />
Auburn Hills. She met with a counselor<br />
there and they confirmed what her<br />
daughter said. In fact, they preferred<br />
students with science backgrounds,<br />
because they possess analytical thinking<br />
skills.<br />
Rita’s first attempt at the LSAT was<br />
quick, and she sat for it without knowing<br />
much. Although she applied with a<br />
stellar GPA, her low test score only netted<br />
her a 10% scholarship from Cooley.<br />
With a tuition near 200k, this wouldn’t<br />
work. Her plans were on hold until she<br />
could retake the test.<br />
Rita became an LSAT fanatic. She<br />
signed up for a rigorous, three-month<br />
course that gave her the resources<br />
she needed to become an expert. She<br />
spent almost all of her free time studying,<br />
even her lunch breaks at work.<br />
With hard work comes results, and<br />
that’s what Rita got.<br />
She received a full ride from Cooley<br />
and a 70% merit scholarship from<br />
Wayne State Law School, both of which<br />
she turned down, as well as a personal<br />
phone call from the dean of UDM’s law<br />
school inviting her to a fellowship interview.<br />
After the interview and shadowing<br />
some schools, she decided UDM<br />
was the right fit for her: its Catholic<br />
program and intimate learning setting<br />
is just what she wanted. She accepted<br />
UDM’s offer for 100% of tuition paid.<br />
Rita started school in August and,<br />
despite being older than most students,<br />
quickly rose to the top of her<br />
Clockwise from top of page: Rita Samir Soka’s extended family joined her<br />
at the Michigan Supreme Court for the swearing in ceremony. Rita Samir<br />
Soka is sworn in by Justice Brian Zahra. Justice Zahra poses with Rita and<br />
her family, from left: Sabrina Soka (daughter), Luke Soka (son), Justice Brian<br />
Zahra, Rita, Steve Soka (Rita’s husband), and Celena Soka (daughter).<br />
Rita Samir Soka with her mother, Najat Elias, and father, Samir Elias.<br />
class. After the first semester, she<br />
ranked 21 out of 100 students, but she<br />
was still unhappy. In her second year,<br />
after a clerkship in Detroit with the<br />
prestigious Federal Judge Nancy Edmunds,<br />
her ranking shot up to 11. She<br />
attributes the change to “embracing<br />
the gray area” that exists in law. Seeing<br />
the world in black and white was<br />
something she had to unlearn.<br />
Finally, she graduated in 2022,<br />
ranking 8th in her class, magna cum<br />
laude. She was sworn in as an attorney<br />
on November 11 by Justice Brian Zahra<br />
and was hired by the prestigious firm<br />
Secrest Wardle to work with municipalities<br />
like West Bloomfield, Bloomfield<br />
Township, and Bloomfield Hills.<br />
Soon after she was admitted to practice<br />
in Michigan, her former professor<br />
connected with her and decided to work<br />
in collaboration by forming a new law<br />
firm. Rita and her partner, Alexandria<br />
Taylor, a seasoned attorney, practice<br />
family law, criminal defense and real estate.<br />
Rita wants to bring her cultural and<br />
linguistic knowledge to the courtroom to<br />
help judges and the government understand<br />
her client’s objectives and unique<br />
culture-based circumstances, and she<br />
wanted to start her own practice to focus<br />
more on helping other people.<br />
In one example, Rita most recently<br />
helped a student attorney at UDM who<br />
was representing a woman from the<br />
Middle East. His client had unique cultural<br />
circumstances that only natives<br />
can understand and relate to. Rita<br />
assisted by interpreting for this client<br />
and translating documents, but more<br />
importantly, communicating the specific<br />
cultural importance and meaning<br />
of the client’s circumstances to the<br />
judge. Ultimately, this helped in her<br />
successful bid for asylum.<br />
Rita currently serves on the Associate<br />
Alumni Board at UDM and is a<br />
committee member for the Students<br />
Relations and Mentorship Committee<br />
at UDM and is happy to assist and<br />
mentor students wishing to pursue a<br />
career in law.<br />
<strong>MARCH</strong> <strong>2023</strong> CHALDEAN NEWS 23
FEATURE<br />
From above:<br />
Professor Paulo Botta, at the head<br />
of the table, with descendants of<br />
Chaldean immigrants who arrived<br />
in Argentina at the beginning of the<br />
20th Century. Alejandro Safarov is<br />
third from the right.<br />
The French document of Israel Guiberguis,<br />
from Khosrowa, prior to his<br />
arrival to Argentina.<br />
Verdi Isasha with her son, Simón<br />
Safarov, Alejandro’s grandfather.<br />
The Lost Tribe<br />
Connecting with Chaldean<br />
expats in Argentina<br />
BY WEAM NAMOU<br />
In October 2022, Dr. Paulo Botta<br />
visited San Salvador de Jujuy<br />
and El Carmen, two towns of the<br />
Jujuy province in the north of Argentina.<br />
There he met with descendants<br />
of Chaldean Iranians who immigrated<br />
to Argentina between 1900 and<br />
1930.<br />
Botta, a professor of Social Sciences<br />
affiliated with the Pontifical Catholic<br />
University of Argentina, explained,<br />
“Nobody even knows about that group<br />
of Chaldean families who arrived here<br />
almost a century ago.”<br />
In Pursuit of Knowledge<br />
The trip was funded by the Chaldean<br />
Cultural Center (CCC) in West Bloomfield.<br />
Its objective was to talk with the<br />
members of these Iranian immigrant<br />
families who identify as Chaldean and<br />
gather copies of the documents and<br />
photos they’ve kept as part of their<br />
family lore.<br />
This information will be combined<br />
with the archives in Europe so that Dr.<br />
Botta and his university can reconstruct<br />
the situation of those families at<br />
the end of the 19th and the beginning<br />
of the 20th century and their migration<br />
to Argentina.<br />
The two dozen families in<br />
the towns of Jujuy province were<br />
mainly from Patamur and Khosrow,<br />
villages near Lake Urmia in<br />
the northwest part of Iran. “There<br />
is some evidence they also came<br />
from Tchara, Mar Serges, and Heydarlui,<br />
but we need more information<br />
to confirm that,” said Botta.<br />
Botta and others at the university<br />
found documents about this community<br />
in Madrid, Rome, and Paris. The<br />
documents were produced by Catholic<br />
authorities that had encountered the<br />
community during their trip to Argentina.<br />
In 2019, Botta approached the<br />
CCC to discuss funding the exploratory<br />
field research in Jujuy.<br />
As executive director of the CCC,<br />
I was happy to support this project,<br />
along with the board. We are attempting<br />
to capture information about the<br />
Chaldean diaspora and, like Dr. Botta<br />
and the Pontifical Catholic University,<br />
we are interested in creating a digital<br />
archive of the Chaldean Iranians living<br />
in Argentina.<br />
Identifying as Chaldean<br />
These emigrants and their descendants<br />
spoke Syriac at home until the eighties.<br />
They also spoke Persian and Russian,<br />
but their linguistic identity was tied to<br />
the Syriac heritage; it is clear to see on<br />
the gravestones in the section of the<br />
cemetery in El Carmen where they were<br />
buried.<br />
“My family was quite aware of their<br />
origins and called themselves ‘Kaldani,’”<br />
said Alejandro Safarov, professor<br />
at the Catholic University of Santiago<br />
del Estero.<br />
Safarov spoke to the last surviving<br />
member of the first immigrants, Tato<br />
Kamandaro, now deceased. He learned<br />
that in the beginning, the Chaldean<br />
families in Argentina honored their culture,<br />
identity, and traditions, keeping<br />
them alive through family meetings and<br />
celebrations. That all stopped when the<br />
elders wanted to keep the community<br />
as close as possible by choosing whom<br />
the young people would marry.<br />
“Argentina is a very multicultural<br />
society, and it was very hard<br />
to convince the young, who assimilated<br />
very fast, to stay within<br />
their own community,” said Safarov.<br />
“They married with the locals<br />
and other immigrants.”<br />
The Long Journey<br />
Some of the families emigrated<br />
from Iran through the Ottoman<br />
Empire and France towards<br />
South America. Others arrived<br />
through the territories of the<br />
Russian empire in the Caucasus,<br />
what is today the Republic of<br />
Georgia, and they settled temporarily<br />
in Tiblisi and Batumi.<br />
“My paternal great-grandfather<br />
Martin is from Batumi,”<br />
said Safarov. “They left because<br />
of the consequences of the First<br />
World War, the Russian Revolution,<br />
and religious persecution.”<br />
While Safarov says that his<br />
ancestors didn’t like to talk<br />
about the atrocities of that<br />
time, he remembers his grandfather,<br />
Simon, telling him how he, at<br />
age 13, walked over dead bodies to<br />
reach the ship that would take him<br />
and his mother to America.<br />
“America was their destination,”<br />
said Safarov.<br />
The Vatican and Spanish government<br />
representative in Iran, a priest,<br />
organized the trip for many of these<br />
families. This was mostly during the<br />
First World War, some of the families<br />
told Botta.<br />
The family memories agree on the<br />
help they received from the Catholic<br />
orders working in the region, Lazarists<br />
and Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent<br />
de Paul, who gave them money<br />
and the documents needed for the trip.<br />
24 CHALDEAN NEWS <strong>MARCH</strong> <strong>2023</strong>
Chaldean families in Jujuy, Argentina in the mid 20th century.<br />
Those families had a strong Catholic<br />
identity and since they were only<br />
about 60-80 people, they fully integrated<br />
into the Roman Latin parishes,<br />
losing their liturgical tradition. However,<br />
they still remember the Sign of<br />
the Cross and Our Father in Syriac.<br />
Further Research<br />
Correspondence and photographic evidence<br />
show contact with other Chaldean<br />
families who remained in Iran.<br />
“We can reconstruct the relationships<br />
based on some photos and testimonies<br />
of the families,” said Botta.<br />
Some members of the community<br />
have visited Iran, remaining there for<br />
months with their families. In 1965,<br />
when the Shah of Iran visited Argentina,<br />
they met with him in Buenos Aires.<br />
Contact between the two groups<br />
remained constant until the Islamic<br />
Revolution in 1979; the war between<br />
Iraq and Iran (1980-1988) made it even<br />
more difficult to remain in touch. By<br />
the beginning of the nineties, there<br />
was no more contact.<br />
Those in the family know that in<br />
some cases their surnames where<br />
changed (mainly Russified) or misspelled<br />
when they arrived to Argentina,<br />
but they still can identity the<br />
members of that community as the<br />
following families: Abraham, Acop,<br />
Begzadeth, Chalabe, David, Dávida,<br />
D’Jallad, Guibarguis, Isayo, Kamandaro,<br />
Khallov, Kuryakus, Malik, Mastaram,<br />
Nathanielof, Pabloff, Sarquiza,<br />
and Slivon.<br />
“These families were very happy<br />
to know that there is interest in their<br />
history, and they would love to contact<br />
other members of the Chaldean community<br />
abroad,” said Botta. “Unfortunately,<br />
they live in a very small town<br />
and the new generations don´t speak<br />
foreign languages.”<br />
This research has encouraged<br />
Safarov to study and to understand<br />
more about the history of his family<br />
and where they came from. “It would<br />
be great to connect with Chaldeans<br />
around the world to make people<br />
aware of this part of the diaspora in<br />
Argentina, which welcomed these immigrants,”<br />
said Safarov.<br />
<strong>MARCH</strong> <strong>2023</strong> CHALDEAN NEWS 25
FEATURE<br />
Left: Johnny, his daughter Jacklyn,<br />
his wife Marian, and his mother<br />
Barbara at his program certification<br />
ceremony at Macomb Community<br />
College, December 2022.<br />
Hopeless to Heroic<br />
The Johnny Shamou story<br />
BY CRYSTAL KASSAB JABIRO<br />
It is hard to hide a secret when<br />
one is randomly babbling, chaotically<br />
removing everything from<br />
the freezer, or suddenly talking to an<br />
imaginary cat on the top of the fridge.<br />
These were Johnny Shamou’s odd<br />
behaviors in front of his family while<br />
he was addicted to heroin. His addiction<br />
began with illegally prescribed<br />
drugs as a teenager, and before that he<br />
had smoked cigarettes and dabbled in<br />
marijuana and alcohol once in a while<br />
if it was around. This was because of<br />
his need to “fit in” with the crowd.<br />
The need to be accepted by peers<br />
in school is not a new concept. But for<br />
Shamou, the “newness” was constant<br />
because his family moved several<br />
times over the span of a few years. In<br />
1997, his father Jack went to federal<br />
prison for a couple of years for bootlegging<br />
movies, and the family lost their<br />
big model home in Sterling Heights.<br />
They moved first to a rental in<br />
Rochester and then to a townhouse in<br />
Troy. The Shamous tried to reassure<br />
their son– who was nine and ten years<br />
younger than his older siblings– that<br />
everything would be okay. His mom,<br />
Barbara, and his brother and sister<br />
wanted to protect him from the stress<br />
and pain of their father’s absence.<br />
When Jack came back home, the<br />
Shamous invested in a restaurant. The<br />
dad went back to his gambling ways,<br />
which caused a financial and emotional<br />
strain on the whole family. In a<br />
span of ten years, Shamou had gone to<br />
eight different schools before he finally<br />
graduated from Royal Oak Churchill<br />
Community High School in 2005. It<br />
was after that when his life took a turn<br />
for the worse.<br />
At 18, Shamou tried Vicodin, a prescription<br />
pain-reliever, from a friend.<br />
It gave him a euphoric high and made<br />
him feel powerful. It made his whole<br />
body numb and it made lifting heavy<br />
furniture easier at his job in a local furniture<br />
store. So he craved it more and<br />
more.<br />
“Once you become dependent on<br />
it, you need it to function,” said Shamou,<br />
now 36. “If you do not take it, you<br />
get withdrawals.”<br />
Withdrawals include restless legs,<br />
no sleep, aches and pains, and even<br />
vomiting.<br />
Each pill typically lasts 4-8 hours,<br />
but since Shamou had become dependent<br />
on it, the numbness did not last.<br />
So he was taking 10-15 a day, and one<br />
time, he took 20.<br />
After the opioid epidemic hit and he<br />
was unable to illegally obtain Vicodin,<br />
he started improperly acquiring Oxycontin<br />
and Oxycodone. Then he started<br />
doing heroin, which was cheaper than<br />
the pills and more intense. He was fired<br />
from his job at a local hospital for having<br />
fallen over on a stretcher. The hospital<br />
gave him a second chance because they<br />
support recovery, but he refused to keep<br />
up with their demands, which included<br />
taking Suboxone, a medicine used to<br />
treat opioid use disorder, and reporting<br />
for drug-testing. After one month, he<br />
failed his drug test and was fired again.<br />
Shamou tried hiding this from his<br />
parents, but they caught on. He believes<br />
they were initially in denial, but<br />
they confronted him the first time he<br />
went to jail. He was pulled over for<br />
swerving on the road as he tried to<br />
inject himself with heroin while driving.<br />
He stayed in the Macomb County<br />
Jail for one week before a friend bailed<br />
him out since his parents refused to.<br />
He went home to get clothes and told<br />
his parents he was not on drugs, that<br />
the police were lying. He knew that he<br />
had hurt them but did not care at the<br />
time. All he was thinking about was<br />
how he was going to get his next fix.<br />
The next few years were a battle.<br />
Shamou was in and out of jail and<br />
rehab. His mother and sister, Eva,<br />
started going to Peter’s Angels, a drug<br />
awareness program held at Mother<br />
of God Chaldean Catholic Church in<br />
Southfield. They met other family<br />
members of drug addicts and learned<br />
about a treatment center in Hawaii<br />
that a recovering addict had gone to.<br />
They resolved to send Shamou there<br />
for the two-and-a-half year program.<br />
At first, Shamou thought it was<br />
going to be a vacation. He thought it<br />
might help. He thought he would just<br />
shut his family up. He did not know<br />
the place was going to break him down<br />
to build him back up. He did not give<br />
it a chance. After two months, Shamou<br />
checked himself out and became<br />
homeless in Hawaii, sleeping under a<br />
tree for a week until he got a job and<br />
found a room to rent. Two months<br />
later, he showed up on his parents’<br />
doorstep.<br />
Of course, the Shamous were upset<br />
and urged him to go back, but they<br />
26 CHALDEAN NEWS <strong>MARCH</strong> <strong>2023</strong>
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let him stay so they could keep a close<br />
eye on him. Yet he still managed to get<br />
in trouble with the law– the last time<br />
for possession and use of heroin and<br />
crack while driving.<br />
“2017 was my breaking point,” recalled<br />
Shamou. “After years of abusing<br />
my body and my family, I finally said<br />
‘enough is enough!’”<br />
He went to jail for 30 days and then<br />
rehab for 30 days. Shamou asked for<br />
drug court. Eva, his older sister who<br />
was at her own breaking point, went<br />
in front of the judge and demanded he<br />
send her baby brother to prison.<br />
“I shouted, ‘Judge, we have been<br />
through hell and back! If you let him<br />
out on these streets, it will be blood<br />
on your hands!’” Eva recounted. The<br />
judge even threatened to hold her in<br />
contempt of court. Eva feared that after<br />
several overdoses and lockups and<br />
rehabs, that her brother was going to<br />
be another statistic.<br />
It was not only Johnny suffering; it<br />
was the whole family. His mother especially<br />
would cry all day and night<br />
and was often hospitalized because of<br />
her anxiety.<br />
“My son was dying before my<br />
eyes,” Barbara remembered. “We did<br />
everything we could, but it was ultimately<br />
up to him.”<br />
The judge sentenced Shamou to<br />
drug court, an 18-month program in<br />
three phases that included counseling,<br />
meetings, and drug-testing. At<br />
first, he was upset with his sister, but<br />
he realized her efforts came from her<br />
deep love for him. She had come to<br />
jail and court and the hospital, often<br />
schlepping her young kids along with<br />
her, and she had done everything she<br />
could to save him. He now knew he<br />
was worth more and he was ready for<br />
a new life.<br />
“It was a long road ahead,” said<br />
Shamou. “All of those years of blocked<br />
emotions started revealing themselves<br />
to me, and I had to deal with them.<br />
And I had to deal with the issues of<br />
everyday life. But I had to prove to everyone<br />
I could do it.”<br />
While in recovery, he got a job in a<br />
bottling company making good money.<br />
The long hours kept him busy and<br />
free from thinking about drugs. He no<br />
longer craved them anymore. There<br />
were no more excuses and no more<br />
lies. He would no longer be hopeless.<br />
In the meantime, Shamou met a nice<br />
IF YOU OR A LOVED<br />
ONE NEED SUPPORT,<br />
YOU CAN GO TO:<br />
Your family physician (who are<br />
now allowed to treat and refer<br />
patients with addictions).<br />
www.michigan.gov/opioids.<br />
Call 211 or go to www.mi211.org.<br />
www.familiesagainstnarcotics.<br />
org and find your local area.<br />
Your local coalitions through<br />
church and community<br />
programs.<br />
12.0 in.<br />
young lady named Marian. He was upfront<br />
about his recovery with her, and<br />
she decided to give him a chance. He<br />
finished drug court within 16 months<br />
(instead of the prescribed 18) and was<br />
one of a small number of people to successfully<br />
complete the program without<br />
sanctions since the 1980s. He owes his<br />
recovery to the support of his family, a<br />
great job, and drug court.<br />
“During my addiction, I didn’t put<br />
God at the forefront,” said Shamou.<br />
“My wife went to church every Sunday,<br />
so I did too. God helped me a lot. He<br />
always did. I just didn’t believe it at the<br />
time. God really is there.”<br />
Shamou’s parents and siblings<br />
never gave up on him nor did they ever<br />
stop praying.<br />
“We want people to know about<br />
my son’s story because it will help others,”<br />
said Barbara. “Nobody should be<br />
embarrassed. You have to help your<br />
kids. You have to educate yourselves.<br />
And you have to understand this is a<br />
sickness. But you have to also give<br />
them the space to recover. They have<br />
to want it. We are so proud of Johnny<br />
now. He is heroic, and his wife is<br />
equally amazing.”<br />
Shamou and Marian got married in<br />
2020 and now have a five-month old<br />
baby, Jacklyn, named after his father<br />
who passed away in 2021. He recently<br />
completed a program in robotics automation<br />
at M-Tec through Macomb<br />
Community College and works as a<br />
controls technician. He has been clean<br />
since April 8, 2017.<br />
Johnny Shamou can be found on<br />
Facebook and is willing to support you<br />
on your recovery journey.<br />
Special Guest J BROWN<br />
<strong>MARCH</strong> 18<br />
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JUNE 11<br />
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<strong>MARCH</strong> <strong>2023</strong> CHALDEAN NEWS 27
FEATURE<br />
Suicide Prevention<br />
BY JACQUELINE RAXTER, MSW<br />
RESOURCES:<br />
According to the American Foundation<br />
for Suicide Prevention<br />
(AFSP), suicide is currently<br />
the 12th leading cause of death in the<br />
United States. There is an average of 130<br />
deaths by suicide every day. In 2020,<br />
45,979 Americans died by suicide and<br />
there were an estimated 1.2 million suicide<br />
attempts. The suicide rate in 2020<br />
was 13.48 per 100,000 individuals.<br />
And it may be getting worse.<br />
Throughout this unprecedented pandemic,<br />
studies show that 1 in 4 adults<br />
suffer from suicidal thoughts. Moreover,<br />
40 percent of adults admit to<br />
struggling with severe anxiety and dependency<br />
on drugs since the coronavirus<br />
epidemic changed all our lives.<br />
75 percent of young adults report<br />
having an extremely difficult time coping<br />
with the sudden changes caused<br />
by the pandemic. Fortunately, 93 percent<br />
of those surveyed by AFSP in the<br />
United States think suicide can be<br />
prevented. At-risk suicide prevention<br />
training is geared to train non-mental<br />
health professionals detect warning<br />
signs of suicidal behavior.<br />
Youth at Risk<br />
Suicide is the 3rd leading cause of<br />
death for individuals aged 10-19, and<br />
the 2nd leading cause for ages 20-34.<br />
Based on the most recent Youth<br />
Risk Behaviors Survey from 2019, 8.9<br />
percent of youth in grades 9-12 reported<br />
that they had made at least one suicide<br />
attempt in the past 12 months. Female<br />
students attempted almost twice<br />
as often as male students.<br />
According to the most recent data<br />
(February 2022) from the CDC, 10 percent<br />
of adult Americans have thought<br />
about suicide and a whopping 54 percent<br />
of Americans have been affected<br />
by suicide.<br />
What Can I Do to Support Someone<br />
Who I Think May Be at Risk?<br />
If in doubt, don’t wait — ask the question,<br />
“Are you thinking of harming<br />
yourself?” Alternate ways to ask include<br />
“Have you been so very unhappy<br />
lately that you’ve been thinking about<br />
ending your life?” and “You look pretty<br />
miserable; I wonder if you’re thinking<br />
about suicide?”<br />
If the person is reluctant to talk,<br />
be persistent. Get them alone or someplace<br />
private and allow them to speak<br />
freely without judgement or defensiveness.<br />
Give them plenty of time to identify<br />
their feelings. Listen to them with<br />
your full attention, offer hope in any<br />
form and have resources handy; phone<br />
numbers, counselor’s name and any<br />
other information that might help.<br />
Remember, suicide is not the problem,<br />
only the solution to a perceived<br />
insoluble problem.<br />
Keep Asking<br />
Suicidal individuals often feel that they<br />
cannot be helped so you may need to do<br />
more.<br />
The best referral involves taking<br />
the person directly to someone<br />
who can help. The next best referral<br />
is getting a commitment from them<br />
to accept help, then making the arrangements<br />
to get that help. The<br />
third best referral is to give referral<br />
information and try to get a good<br />
faith commitment not to attempt suicide.<br />
Any willingness to accept help<br />
at some time, even if in the future, is<br />
a good outcome.<br />
Ask and keep asking, “Will you go<br />
with me to get help?” or “Will you let<br />
me help you get help?” or “What can<br />
we do to keep you safe for now?”<br />
Your willingness to listen can rekindle<br />
hope and make all the difference.<br />
If there is a life-threatening emergency<br />
call 911 or go to the nearest<br />
hospital ER.<br />
Call or text 988 (Suicide Crisis<br />
Line) for immediate trained counselor<br />
support.<br />
Contact Macomb County Mental<br />
Health Emergency Crisis Line<br />
24/7 at (586) 307-9100.<br />
Seek support from a professional<br />
physician, nurse practitioner, social<br />
worker, professional counselor,<br />
psychiatrist, or psychologist.<br />
Often, your Primary Care doctor<br />
or insurance provider can assist<br />
with a referral.<br />
A Holding on to Life Toolkit is<br />
available at https://www.mcspc.<br />
org/ToolKit.html.<br />
Chaldean Community Foundation’s<br />
Project Light is available to<br />
assist with mental health treatment<br />
questions during business<br />
hours. Offering services by appointment<br />
for individual intake,<br />
treatment planning, and individual<br />
therapy in a CARF accredited,<br />
private not-for-profit professional<br />
office setting. Call (586) 722-7253.<br />
28 CHALDEAN NEWS <strong>MARCH</strong> <strong>2023</strong>
<strong>MARCH</strong> <strong>2023</strong> CHALDEAN NEWS 29
PHOTO ESSAY<br />
Iraqi<br />
Children<br />
in the<br />
Frame<br />
A photo essay<br />
of the homeland<br />
PHOTOGRAPHY BY WILSON SARKIS<br />
CAPTIONS BY ALAN MANSOUR<br />
Top of page: Kids next to the Sacred Heart Church in Tilkepe. Their parents believe it to be the safest place for their kids to play.<br />
Bottom: Kids playing street soccer in Tilkepe.<br />
30 CHALDEAN NEWS <strong>MARCH</strong> <strong>2023</strong>
Clockwise from top right:<br />
Hassan Ali, a child from Tilkepe, told<br />
me he wants to be a mechanic and<br />
does not want to attend school. His<br />
words were: “Too many students in the<br />
class, and we can’t pay attention to<br />
what the teacher says.”<br />
Children in Iraq make playgrounds where<br />
they are able, including the grounds of<br />
churches. Many were destroyed by ISIS<br />
and are now being rebuilt.<br />
Baghdida Catholic High School.<br />
Schools are getting back to normal<br />
after residents came back to their<br />
homes.<br />
Nahla Valley Middle School in Duhok,<br />
Iraq. All subjects are being taught in<br />
Sureth. The school is funded by the<br />
Assyrian Aid Society of America and<br />
many Chaldeans worldwide.<br />
Baghdida Catholic Middle School.<br />
<strong>MARCH</strong> <strong>2023</strong> CHALDEAN NEWS 31
CULTURE & HISTORY<br />
Habib Hannona: A man of many talents<br />
BY ADHID MIRI, PHD.<br />
Pioneers deserve recognition<br />
and celebration. They serve as<br />
our foundation, a guiding force<br />
toward an advanced and progressive<br />
society. They act as catalysts for passing<br />
wisdom onto new generations,<br />
inspiring individuals to become their<br />
best selves.<br />
Habib Hannona is a living example<br />
of one such pioneer. His achievements<br />
in the United States, Kuwait,<br />
and Iraq exemplify human strength,<br />
enduring spirit, survival, and success.<br />
We write about him using his<br />
historic contributions and academic<br />
recollections in the context of his time<br />
and his generation.<br />
As an author, engineer, linguist,<br />
painter, poet, and historian, Habib<br />
Hannona has had an illustrious career,<br />
illuminating the way for others. As an<br />
historian, he takes a long view toward<br />
a better place and brighter future. As<br />
an engineer, he believes in the construction<br />
of a moral Christian society<br />
and sterling values. His story is a remarkable<br />
one, and he is truly a shining<br />
star in our universal community.<br />
Above: Habib Hannona,<br />
painting his wife, 2010.<br />
Left: Painting a friend, 1959.<br />
Personal Biography<br />
Habib Matti Petrus Hannona Mahanna<br />
Mahlalaeel Nissan Al- Hannona<br />
is a Chaldean Christian, an American<br />
citizen, who was born in the town of<br />
Karemlash in the Nineveh Province of<br />
Iraq in 1943.<br />
The youngest of five siblings, he<br />
has four sisters - Hanneh, Mia/Meriam,<br />
Anisa, and Kameela. His parents, Matti<br />
Putrus and Naiema Behnam Abdal,<br />
were native to the village of Karemlash.<br />
Married to Jamila Suleiman Matti<br />
Al-Qutta after a 4-year love story, the<br />
couple have two daughters, Taghreed<br />
and Tan, and two sons, Thamer and<br />
Ragheed. The 3 older children were<br />
born in Basrah, Iraq, and the youngest,<br />
Ragheed, in Baghdad. Married<br />
since February 4th, 1972, Habib and<br />
Jamila have 11 grandchildren.<br />
Habib came to the United States<br />
with his family on Christmas Eve<br />
1991. He says, “My journey was not<br />
easy; America is the place you come<br />
to change your life. America is the<br />
place to start a new life. That is why I<br />
came to America.”<br />
Education<br />
Habib Hannona completed his primary<br />
education at the Karemlash School,<br />
Um Al-Rabeien Intermediate School in<br />
Mosul, and he attended night school<br />
at Ja’fariya secondary school in Baghdad<br />
in 1960.<br />
Following high school graduation,<br />
Habib joined the Higher Institute of<br />
Languages/University of Baghdad to<br />
study English and German Languages<br />
for two years. From there, he traveled<br />
to West Germany to study architecture.<br />
He returned to Iraq in 1964, eager<br />
to further his education. Habib took<br />
advantage of the opportunities offered<br />
by the Jesuit’s at Al-Hikma University<br />
in Baghdad to study civil engineering.<br />
Many of his talents emerged<br />
during his studies with the Jesuits,<br />
supported by a creative environment<br />
that encouraged painting, literature,<br />
poetry, theater, and scientific research.<br />
He held several personal exhibitions<br />
of his paintings over a period<br />
of three years, 1965-1967.<br />
In 1967, Habib was hired by an<br />
engineering company operating in<br />
Kirkuk, so he postponed his studies<br />
for two years.<br />
In 1968, after the government nationalization<br />
of Al-Hikma University,<br />
he rejoined the University of Baghdad<br />
to complete his studies and graduated<br />
with a B.S. in Civil Engineering<br />
in 1971.<br />
After graduation, Habib worked<br />
with various companies for 3 years,<br />
eventually establishing his own engineering<br />
company for general contracting<br />
in Basra, the Eridu Construc-<br />
32 CHALDEAN NEWS <strong>MARCH</strong> <strong>2023</strong>
From left: Habib Hannona in a 1961 portrait; Working in college, 1965; Habib Hannona 2022. Below: ‘My Mother’ painting by Habib Hannona, 1986.<br />
tion Contracting Company. At Eridu,<br />
he invited his best friends to join<br />
him and together, they implemented<br />
many projects throughout Iraq (1974-<br />
1984) and Kuwait (1985-1990). Habib<br />
lived in Kuwait from 1984 until Iraq<br />
invaded in 1990.<br />
The Gulf War of 1991 was a turning<br />
point and a critical new step in<br />
his life. In 1991, he left Iraq with his<br />
family to move to the United States<br />
of America. The family lived in San<br />
Diego, California until 1995, before<br />
moving to Detroit, Michigan.<br />
Habib the Artist<br />
There is no denying that Habib was a<br />
trailblazer in his early days; he loves to<br />
talk about his artistic interest and reflect<br />
on his pioneering work of drawings.<br />
“I started since fifth grade…and<br />
was influenced by an art teacher (Hazem<br />
Afendi) who encouraged me and<br />
allowed my talent to grow and develop<br />
through several years of practice,”<br />
Habib remembers.<br />
“My first artistic achievement was<br />
drawing a large oil painting representing<br />
‘Mar Gewargees,’ painted at<br />
the request of the Khor-Bishop of Mar<br />
Adday in Karemlash in 1961. I was 18<br />
years old.”<br />
Throughout his artistic career,<br />
Habib completed more than fifty oil<br />
paintings, plus dozens of sketches,<br />
watercolors, and drawings on glass.<br />
According to Habib, his most important<br />
oil paintings are “On the Calvary”<br />
and “Mother.”<br />
The latter was a large painting<br />
that he completed during his stay at<br />
the University of Al-Hikma. The piece<br />
was ultimately donated to the University<br />
Church. After the nationalization<br />
of Al-Hikma University in 1968, and<br />
subsequent looting it was unfortunately<br />
stolen and went missing. After<br />
a 3-year search, the painting was located<br />
and Habib tried to purchase it<br />
back for 1,000 Iraqi Dinar in 1971 from<br />
a collector but was unsuccessful.<br />
Habib did not study art or receive<br />
formal training. He benefited from<br />
the advice of many connoisseurs who<br />
watched over his work and from his<br />
visits to art galleries and museums,<br />
in Iraq and Europe. These activities<br />
helped him develop his artistic vision<br />
and become acquainted with the major<br />
art schools in the world.<br />
His artistic passion and quest for<br />
exploring the world of arts and architecture<br />
made him travel extensively.<br />
He has visited most of the countries<br />
of Eastern and Western Europe many<br />
times; for tourism, knowledge, to visit<br />
museums, and search for historical<br />
sources.<br />
Around the world in 80 days<br />
Traveling is still a favorite activity<br />
whenever his circumstances permit.<br />
In 1984, Habib went on a journey<br />
around the world in 80 days, inspired<br />
by the famous novel of Jules Verne:<br />
“Around the World in 80 Days.”<br />
Habib explained his extreme efforts<br />
to travel, “At that time, the<br />
booking (flights and hotels) and the<br />
planning was not easy; there was<br />
no internet at that time, no smart<br />
phones, no Google or GPS.”<br />
He gathered all the visas from the<br />
countries which he planned to visit<br />
from their consulates in Kuwait, except<br />
the Consulate of United States of<br />
America.<br />
Here is that story:<br />
“This is what happened. On December<br />
12, 1983, I went to the US Consulate<br />
in Kuwait around 8:00 – 8:30 AM to apply<br />
for a visa. While I was in the Consulate<br />
lobby waiting my turn to be called<br />
for submitting my application, looking<br />
through the window, I saw a big ruck<br />
hit the entrance gate and then a big<br />
explosion happened. In moments, the<br />
entire Consulate building collapsed on<br />
our heads.”<br />
Habib’s recounting of the terrorist<br />
attack continues: “I was bleeding<br />
in different spots - my head and my<br />
hands, etc. I lost my bag, my papers,<br />
and my passport. It is hard to explain<br />
my situation at that moment -life<br />
threatening fear. Thanks God, I made<br />
it outside through the rubble, while<br />
I am bleeding. I have climbed on the<br />
exterior wall and thrown myself to the<br />
ground.<br />
“After a few days, I went back to<br />
the US Consulate in Kuwait to look for<br />
my papers. The Consulate was closed,<br />
but they allowed me to go in because<br />
I was one of the victims of the terrorist<br />
attack. The Consulate personnel gave<br />
me my papers and told me that, “The<br />
United States Consulate in Kuwait is<br />
closed for a while, but you can get the<br />
visa from the USA Embassy – Consular<br />
Section in London. Your name<br />
is there.<br />
“That terrorist act has affected my<br />
life for long time.”<br />
Habib’s journey around the world<br />
began on Friday December 23, 1983,<br />
travelling from Kuwait going west<br />
to Istanbul-Turkey. He then headed<br />
CULTURE continued on page 34<br />
<strong>MARCH</strong> <strong>2023</strong> CHALDEAN NEWS 33
CULTURE & HISTORY<br />
CULTURE continued from page 33<br />
to Europe, visiting many European<br />
countries including the United Kingdom,<br />
then on to the USA. Major cities<br />
on the tour included New York,<br />
Detroit, Chicago, Las Vegas, Los Angeles,<br />
San Diego, and the state of Hawaii.<br />
He flew from Hawaii to Sydney,<br />
Australia, then Singapore, returning<br />
to Kuwait on Sunday March 11, 1984.<br />
He made it in 80 days!<br />
Habib the poet and historian<br />
“I am very proud of my early poetic<br />
attempts,” says Habib. “My hobby began<br />
in the early sixties of the last century,<br />
reading local magazines (including<br />
Alf Ba/ABC magazine) and Iraqi<br />
newspapers at the time; some of them<br />
were broadcast by the BBC London<br />
Arabic Radio.”<br />
This pleasant early journey with<br />
words led to his cultural achievements<br />
in the field of writing history.<br />
His research, studies, and topics were<br />
of interest to many, especially with<br />
what Iraq has gone through since<br />
1958, and the tragic events post-2003<br />
that forced thousands of (Christian)<br />
families to leave their homeland under<br />
extinction circumstances, threats,<br />
and murder.<br />
“My love of history stems from my<br />
love for the homeland, for it is the<br />
resting place of parents and grandparents,<br />
and it is the place where<br />
even if we leave it, our heart will remain<br />
in it forever. As for history, reading<br />
history becomes a station of the<br />
cross and reminder that gives hope<br />
and reassurance to man. It is a great<br />
human school, from which we draw<br />
lessons upon lessons.”<br />
Love of Karemlash (Karamlesh)<br />
“Karemlash, my hometown, it is an<br />
ancient town, says Habib. “Its roots<br />
go back to the stone ages and prehistoric<br />
times. Some considered it one<br />
of the oldest human colonies in the<br />
world.”<br />
The oldest name given to Karamles<br />
or Karemlash is “Kar – Mulissi.”<br />
It is an Akkadian name which means<br />
“The City of Goddess Mulissi.” It is<br />
presumed to have been given that<br />
name during the Akkadian Empire in<br />
the Third Millennium BC, most likely<br />
during the era of King Sargon of Akkad<br />
(2371-2316 BC).<br />
World Peace Star Award September 28, 2022<br />
When the Assyrian King Sennacherib<br />
(704 – 685 B.C.) built the Wall of<br />
Nineveh, he named one of the gates<br />
as the Gate of Kar-Mulissi. Sennacherib<br />
also built an underground irrigation<br />
system in the northwestern territories<br />
of Karamles, known today as<br />
Qnaiwat (canals). The current well at<br />
St. Barbara Church in Karamles was a<br />
part of that Qnaiwat irrigation water<br />
system.<br />
The other names given to Karamles<br />
were Er-Ilu-Banu, Uru-Dingir-Nin-<br />
Lil, and Gaugamela.<br />
Present-day Karemlash is a Chaldean<br />
town in Nineveh Governorate. It<br />
is administratively linked to Bartella<br />
sub-district, within the Hamdaniya<br />
district and its center Qarah Qosh-<br />
Baghdida.<br />
Most of the townspeople are Chaldean<br />
Christians, with a minority belonging<br />
to the Syriac Catholic Church,<br />
in addition to a minority of Shabaks.<br />
The history of the town extends back<br />
to more than five thousand years. Famous<br />
for many historical events, the<br />
most famous of which is the great battle<br />
that took place between Alexander<br />
the Great and Darius III in 331 BC.<br />
The town became an important<br />
commercial and religious center in<br />
the region during the Middle Ages.<br />
Among the most prominent churches<br />
and monasteries are St. George Monastery<br />
(6th Century AD), Mar Younan<br />
Monastery, Rabban Yokhana Monastery,<br />
Daughters of Mary Monastery,<br />
Church of the Forty Martyrs, St. Barbara<br />
Church, Virgin Mary Church,<br />
and St. Addy the Messenger Church.<br />
Karemlash has kept pace with<br />
Iraqi history since ancient times, today<br />
it continues its role as a bright<br />
spot on the Iraqi geographical, political,<br />
and religious map.<br />
Interest in Archeology<br />
As a youngster, Habib used to roam<br />
the fields around his beloved Karemlash<br />
and climb its nearby hills. He<br />
was amazed to see that those hills<br />
and dunes surrounding the town are<br />
full of remnants of pottery pots and<br />
artifacts.<br />
Since childhood, he was fascinated<br />
by the hills scattered in his beautiful<br />
hometown, picking up pieces of<br />
pottery scattered here and there and<br />
asking questions: “I wondered who<br />
these belong to, and who used to live<br />
here,” said Habib. Innocent questions<br />
are not devoid of the world of<br />
magic and imagination, and life takes<br />
its course. Habib was immersed in<br />
study, family, sources of living, but<br />
the obsession remains stuck there,<br />
deep inside his soul, looking for answers<br />
that relieve it of anxiety.<br />
“I decided to search for the history<br />
of my hometown of Karemlash. This<br />
made me a permanent visitor to the library<br />
of the Iraqi Museum and its resident<br />
for a long time. I am proud that<br />
my first book was the “The History of<br />
Karamles,” which was published in<br />
1988. The book was a big hit and won<br />
the approval of everyone who viewed<br />
it or acquired it. What made me most<br />
happy was this book became a valuable<br />
reference for many Iraqi as well<br />
as foreign researchers and historians,<br />
such as the American historian Walter<br />
Kaiki. The book was later recognized<br />
within dozens of books written<br />
by researchers who referenced the<br />
book, Karemlash History, as a prime<br />
source for their research.”<br />
Habib’s particular interest was<br />
to write and record historical information.<br />
As a result of his continuous<br />
visits to the Iraqi museum since<br />
the late fifties and sixti esof the last<br />
34 CHALDEAN NEWS <strong>MARCH</strong> <strong>2023</strong>
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century, he became acquainted with<br />
many renowned archaeologists and<br />
researchers such as Dr. Fouad Safar<br />
and researcher/historian Georges<br />
Awad, who encouraged Habib to pursue<br />
historical research and study the<br />
Akkadian cuneiform language.<br />
When Habib Hannona writes about<br />
his love of Karemlash, surely there will<br />
be a lot that can be told about it by other<br />
scholars. He says, “I was honored to<br />
have an introduction and description<br />
of my book by the great historian and<br />
researcher Gorges Awad, and a letter<br />
he sent to me as a precious historical<br />
masterpiece of a beautiful Iraqi town.<br />
Many local newspapers and magazines<br />
reviewed and commented on the<br />
book at the time.”<br />
Habib’s interest in Karemlash<br />
archeological sites contributed to<br />
pushing the Directorate of General<br />
Antiquities and the Directorate of Antiquities<br />
of Mosul to research and excavate<br />
one of the archaeological hills<br />
in town, Tell Ghanam, in 1971. This<br />
was an extension to the excavations<br />
in the town which had been started<br />
by many foreign researchers since the<br />
nineteenth century.<br />
“My hope that the Iraqi government<br />
represented by the Directorate<br />
of General Antiquities and the Department<br />
of Antiquities of the Northern<br />
Region will pay more attention to this<br />
matter because of its great meanings<br />
and deep implications,” says Habib.<br />
“As the bright face and the Assyrian<br />
historical and civilizational identity of<br />
the region will appear, thus eliminating<br />
the certainty of the identity of the<br />
region during the conflicts that these<br />
regions are currently witnessing.”<br />
“In addition,” he continues, “it<br />
will be a magnet for tourists, orientalists<br />
and those interested in these matters<br />
from all over the world, which in<br />
turn will highlight the cultural and<br />
historical depth of the country to the<br />
world; and not only here in the country,<br />
but there are also hundreds, rather,<br />
thousands of archaeological sites<br />
that the state did not pay attention to<br />
but befitting its history.”<br />
From the Author<br />
It has been my high honor and<br />
privilege to write about the man,<br />
Habib Hannona. The Chaldean<br />
community in Michigan is fortunate<br />
to have him among its ranks as a<br />
cultural pillar and distinguished<br />
author. It is no wonder that when he<br />
walks to a room, a rainbow of hope<br />
appears with him always.<br />
We are looking for ways to shine<br />
a spotlight on our distinguished<br />
pioneers and to inspire others.<br />
Perhaps those community members<br />
who blazed the trail and inspired us<br />
might also inspire you.<br />
Acknowledgement of material<br />
from Habib Hannona and Taghreed<br />
Thomas. Excerpts from an article and<br />
interview by Kamal Yaldo. Special<br />
editing by Jacqueline Raxter.<br />
<strong>MARCH</strong> <strong>2023</strong> CHALDEAN NEWS 35
TRAVEL<br />
Fly Me Away<br />
Travel boom continues despite high prices and poor service<br />
BY PAUL NATINSKY<br />
Rumors of the travel industry’s<br />
decline based on pandemic<br />
fears, high airfare prices and<br />
poor, undertrained workers are vastly<br />
overstated. In fact, travel is back at<br />
record levels for <strong>2023</strong> and beyond, despite<br />
the aftereffects of COVID.<br />
Boom<br />
“It’s out of control. People are like, ‘I’ve<br />
got a get out of jail free card and I’m<br />
going because I don’t know when they<br />
are going to put me back in jail,’” said<br />
David Fishman of Cadillac Travel Group<br />
in Royal Oak. He said the “fear factor”<br />
for leaving the state and the country<br />
has been greatly reduced. He is now<br />
booking people for Italy, Iceland, South<br />
America, Costa Rica and Spain.<br />
“it’s a bright future to be honest<br />
with you. I have been in business over<br />
30 years. Now it’s non-stop and I think<br />
it’s going to be busier and busier,” said<br />
Amira Bajoka of Rena Travel & Tours<br />
in Sterling Heights.<br />
At the same time, prices are going<br />
up. “It’s not like before when you<br />
used to have bargains,” said Bajoka.<br />
“(Airfare) to California that was $300<br />
and $400, which we used to think<br />
is too much, now is $500 and $600.<br />
Iraq before the pandemic in January,<br />
February, March we had a special for<br />
around $600 or $700, now minimum<br />
is $1,370.”<br />
“(<strong>2023</strong>) is going to be a recordbreaking<br />
year for every aspect of the<br />
travel industry,” said Fishman. “The<br />
airlines are going to make so much<br />
money they don’t know what to do<br />
with it because they are charging astronomical<br />
amounts of money; hotels<br />
are coming back with a vengeance so<br />
you’re going to see higher prices there,<br />
but service levels are coming down<br />
because of the lack of employees or<br />
trained employees.”<br />
Fits & Starts<br />
The timeline for recovery featured a<br />
“bouncing effect,” said Fishman. In<br />
January 2021, the COVID vaccine was<br />
just coming out. People could get a vaccine<br />
and start traveling. “Then the CDC<br />
said you can travel but you have to get<br />
a test to get back in the country, so then<br />
people did an about face and began<br />
cancelling all their plans again. That<br />
all happened in January 2021 and killed<br />
the first half of 2021,” said Fishman.<br />
“By 2022, the dust started to settle.”<br />
Until the tests to get back into the<br />
country were completely lifted, some<br />
people wouldn’t leave the country.<br />
Other people said, “forget it, I’m traveling<br />
anyway.” Things began picking<br />
up at the beginning of 2022 and in the<br />
second half of 2022, things started to<br />
get really busy, said Fishman.<br />
Darkest Before the Dawn<br />
Fishman has been in the travel industry<br />
for 40 years and gone through<br />
9/11, the internet travel boom, and<br />
the economic downturn of 2007/2008.<br />
“I’ve been through it all and this is like<br />
nothing I’ve ever seen before. I do not<br />
know how I survived it, to be honest<br />
with you.” He said most travel agencies<br />
are gone.<br />
Bajoka said the aftermath of 9/11<br />
was harder on her agency than COVID.<br />
“Two weeks with nothing but refunds,<br />
refunds, refunds. This one (COVID)<br />
they did not give refunds, but gave a<br />
credit. So, when they come back, people<br />
have to travel because they have a<br />
credit in their hands.<br />
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“After 9/11 people were afraid to<br />
travel, so it was slow even when we<br />
came back,” said Bajoka. “This one<br />
we were shut down and as soon as<br />
the pandemic got easier, people<br />
started traveling. They were like,<br />
‘please get us out of here.’”<br />
Bajoka said credits were extended<br />
until the end of <strong>2023</strong>, contributing<br />
to the high demand this year.<br />
Demand remains high even though<br />
credits reflect the purchase price<br />
of airfare before the pandemic and<br />
customers have to absorb the increase<br />
since COVID, although some<br />
downscaled their destinations.<br />
Fishman compared the travel<br />
industry’s experience to that of<br />
the much-publicized struggles<br />
restaurants faced. Restaurants<br />
had it bad during the pandemic,<br />
but if they had the same experience<br />
that travel agencies did, they<br />
would have had to “take the food<br />
back for every meal they served<br />
for the past six months, un-prepare<br />
the food, put the raw ingredients<br />
on the shelf, get the money back<br />
from the customers, and not talk about<br />
food for the next six months to a year.”<br />
Because travel is booked six to<br />
eight months in advance, not a few<br />
Amira Boka in Israel (left) and with a tour group in the Middle East.<br />
days in advance like going out to dinner,<br />
travel agency employees were<br />
working to get payments back to customers<br />
without being able to book and<br />
receive revenue for future travel.<br />
Despite the challenges and his 40<br />
years at the helm of Cadillac Travel<br />
Group, Fishman said he never considered<br />
retirement. He didn’t want a COV-<br />
ID-created departure to be his legacy.<br />
He also didn’t want to leave his 22 employees<br />
in a bind.<br />
Looking Ahead<br />
The future looks promising for the<br />
travel industry. Bajoka said she<br />
books a lot of group travel and<br />
her typical booking of one or two<br />
30-person groups for destinations<br />
in Israel has ballooned to three<br />
groups of 40, with waiting lists. She<br />
said many of the hotels she works<br />
with in Israel and Europe are advising<br />
her to make bookings for 2024<br />
and 2025, before they fill up.<br />
All of this exploding demand<br />
for travel comes amid not only<br />
continued high prices but understaffed<br />
facilities and poorly<br />
trained service workers. Bajoka<br />
and Fishman spoke of long airport<br />
lines and diminished service quality<br />
throughout the travel industry,<br />
including tour operators, cruise<br />
lines, and car rental companies.<br />
Another thing they agree on is<br />
that buying travel services online<br />
is a risk that many refuse to take,<br />
especially in the aftermath of the<br />
COVID pandemic. It seems there<br />
is nothing like using an agency that<br />
has direct relationships with hoteliers,<br />
airline representatives, and others on<br />
the destination end of travel plans.<br />
Just in case.<br />
<strong>MARCH</strong> <strong>2023</strong> CHALDEAN NEWS 37
SPORTS<br />
PHOTO COURTESY OF UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY<br />
Ava Sarafa (second from left) shares a laugh with fellow University of Kentucky signees (from left) Brooklyn DeLete, Brooke Bultema, Molly Tuozzo and Jordyn Dailey.<br />
Set Up for Success<br />
Ava Sarafa heads to the University of Kentucky<br />
BY STEVE STEIN<br />
Ava Sarafa’s storied volleyball<br />
career at Birmingham Marian<br />
High School is over. Now she’s<br />
getting ready for the next stop in her<br />
journey.<br />
Soon, she’ll be off to the University<br />
of Kentucky to play volleyball for the<br />
national powerhouse Wildcats.<br />
“Time has gone by so quickly since<br />
I verbally committed then signed, especially<br />
since I signed,” she said, referring<br />
to September 4, 2021, when she<br />
made a verbal commitment to Kentucky<br />
just one day after completing an<br />
official three-day visit, and November<br />
9, when she signed her national letter<br />
of intent.<br />
“It’s weird. It’s hit me that I’m getting<br />
close to graduation,” she said.<br />
“Marian has been great to me. The<br />
school is like one big old family. Everyone<br />
has your best interests at heart<br />
and are rooting for you so you can be<br />
your best self.”<br />
Sarafa, a setter, was a member of<br />
three state championship teams at<br />
Marian. The Mustangs won titles in<br />
2020-22, Sarafa’s sophomore, junior,<br />
and senior seasons.<br />
Those are team accomplishments.<br />
She has some impressive individual<br />
ones, too.<br />
She finished second in the voting<br />
for the 2022 Miss Volleyball award to<br />
Ann Arbor Skyline’s Harper Murray,<br />
the No. 1-ranked player in the country,<br />
but she was named player of<br />
the year in the state by Max-<br />
Preps, an All-American by<br />
MaxPreps, and the Division I<br />
Player of the Year in the state<br />
by Prep Dig Michigan. Recently,<br />
Sarafa was named one of<br />
the 25 All-USA Team members<br />
who will be honored as nominees<br />
for national Girls Volleyball<br />
Player of the Year. The<br />
winner will be revealed this summer.<br />
Marian, ranked No. 7 in the country,<br />
defeated Northville 22-25, 25-23, 25-<br />
23, 25-11 for the 2022 state championship<br />
at Kellogg Arena in Battle Creek,<br />
averaging its only loss of the season<br />
and finishing 49-1.<br />
Ava Sarafa won three state volleyball championships<br />
at Marian.<br />
When Northville beat Marian at<br />
the Beast of the East Tournament, the<br />
Mustangs were missing two starters<br />
because of injuries. They had something<br />
to prove in the rematch.<br />
Sarafa had 45 assists and 10 digs in<br />
the championship match.<br />
As a setter, she was in charge of or-<br />
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chestrating the team’s offense, making<br />
sure hitter each gets the ball in the best<br />
position to do damage. She has had<br />
more than 5,000 assists in her career.<br />
Sarafa started in varsity as a freshman,<br />
not typical of the sport. She was<br />
one of eight seniors on the team this<br />
year. All were four-year starters.<br />
“We didn’t make a big deal out of<br />
saying this was the last time we were<br />
going to do something. The last time<br />
playing in Marian’s gym, the last time<br />
in a Marian uniform, the last time driving<br />
to a random gym for a quarterfinal<br />
match,” she said. “We were focused on<br />
winning a state championship.”<br />
Sarafa will report to Kentucky on<br />
June 8 for team workouts.<br />
While she’s in Lexington, she’ll<br />
meet with her academic counselor, go<br />
through orientation with the rest of the<br />
incoming Kentucky students, and take<br />
classes during the summer semester<br />
so she doesn’t have a full load during<br />
the season.<br />
She plans on studying business there.<br />
She’s already met the four other recruits<br />
to the Kentucky volleyball program.<br />
She’s the only setter. Kentucky<br />
brings in a setter only every other year<br />
because of its style of play.<br />
At 6-feet tall, Sarafa is taller than<br />
only one other player who is coming<br />
into the program.<br />
“That’s going to be something I need<br />
to adjust to,” Sarafa said. “The girls at<br />
that level are all tall and talented.”<br />
Several attempts were made to<br />
contact Marian volleyball coach Mayassa<br />
Cook for this story.<br />
Marian invites current 6 th and 7 th grade families<br />
to our virtual Spring Information Night. For more<br />
information on admission, tours and tuition<br />
assistance, visit www.marian-hs.org/#admission<br />
or call (248) 502-3033 to become #MarianStrong .<br />
Marian is a Catholic college preparatory school for young women,<br />
sponsored by the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.<br />
<strong>MARCH</strong> <strong>2023</strong> CHALDEAN NEWS 39
DOCTOR IS IN<br />
March is National Colorectal<br />
Cancer Awareness Month<br />
BY DR. RENA DAIZA<br />
Colorectal screening<br />
saves lives.<br />
Part of raising<br />
awareness is helping people<br />
understand the value and<br />
importance of getting regular<br />
cancer screenings for early<br />
detection. As a primary care<br />
doctor, a large part of my role<br />
is preventive medicine. The<br />
goal of preventive medicine<br />
is to ultimately prevent disease,<br />
disability, and death.<br />
Colorectal cancer screening<br />
is one way of implementing this.<br />
Despite the benefits of getting<br />
screened, only about two-thirds of<br />
adults in the United States are on<br />
schedule with the recommended tests,<br />
according to the CDC.<br />
There seems to be a lot of hesitancy<br />
among Chaldean patients when it<br />
comes to cancer screenings - especially<br />
colorectal cancer screens. I spoke to a<br />
gastroenterologist, Dr. Jolian Kathawa,<br />
to break it down for us. Dr. Kathawa<br />
specializes in preventing, diagnosing,<br />
and treating conditions of the gastrointestinal<br />
(GI) tract, or digestive system. I<br />
asked him 5 important questions that<br />
every patient needs to know:<br />
What is colorectal cancer (CRC) and<br />
what are different ways to detect it early?<br />
Colorectal cancer is cancer of the colon<br />
or rectum. It is the third most common<br />
cancer diagnosed among men and<br />
women and it is the second most common<br />
cause of death among all cancers.<br />
It can present in many different ways,<br />
a few of which include patients experiencing<br />
blood in their stools, weight<br />
loss, abdominal pain, changes in their<br />
bowel habits — or they could be completely<br />
asymptomatic.<br />
There are factors which can increase<br />
your risk for colon cancer such<br />
as smoking, obesity, family history of<br />
colon cancer, or certain dietary habits.<br />
There are multiple ways to detect colon<br />
cancer and to prevent it. There are<br />
DR. RENA<br />
DAIZA<br />
SPECIAL TO<br />
THE CHALDEAN<br />
NEWS<br />
ways where we can directly<br />
visualize the colon such as<br />
with a colonoscopy, sigmoidoscopy,<br />
or CT imaging. Then<br />
there are a few stool tests that<br />
can be used as well, such as<br />
FIT testing and Cologuard.<br />
However, the gold standard<br />
(best test) is a colonoscopy —<br />
this is the most efficient way<br />
to detect and prevent colon<br />
cancer. During a colonoscopy,<br />
you are put to sleep by<br />
anesthesia and we use a flexible<br />
scope that is inserted through the<br />
anus to examine the entire colon. We<br />
look for polyps that can be removed in<br />
an effort to prevent colon cancer from<br />
occurring. This is the only test where<br />
we can actually prevent cancer. The<br />
other tests are mostly used to detect<br />
cancer or advanced polyps.<br />
Describe when someone is an appropriate<br />
candidate for FIT test or Cologuard<br />
versus Colonoscopy.<br />
It is important to know that FIT testing<br />
and Cologuard testing is only appropriate<br />
for patients who are at average risk<br />
for colon cancer. Average risk means a<br />
patient has no history of colon polyps,<br />
no family history of colon cancer, no hereditary<br />
conditions that increase their<br />
risk for colon cancer and no history of<br />
Crohn’s disease or Ulcerative colitis.<br />
Also, patients need to be asymptomatic.<br />
So if a patient is complaining of rectal<br />
bleeding, or changes in their bowel<br />
habits, or weight loss, then they should<br />
not undergo these stool based tests. If<br />
a patient uses these stool tests and the<br />
results are positive, the next step would<br />
be to undergo a colonoscopy.<br />
They say a majority of new cases of<br />
CRC occur in people aged 50 years<br />
or older. Why do recommendations<br />
suggest screening earlier now, for<br />
instance, at age 45 years?<br />
The guidelines from the American Gastroenterology<br />
Association were recently<br />
changed to start screening at 45 years<br />
of age for all average risk patients. This<br />
was done after reviewing multiple studies<br />
and looking at the data that showed<br />
colon cancer was rising in patients<br />
younger than the age of 50. The studies<br />
also showed that colon cancer rates<br />
were increasing in patients between<br />
50-60 years of age. So by screening earlier,<br />
we hope to catch these cancers at<br />
earlier stages so that patients can be<br />
successfully treated. We also hope to<br />
prevent many of these cancers by finding<br />
polyps earlier and removing them<br />
before they become cancerous.<br />
“45 is the<br />
new 50”<br />
Can or should CRC screening go<br />
beyond 75 years of age? When can<br />
gastroenterologists make that call?<br />
For patients over the age of 75, there are<br />
no clear guidelines in terms of colon<br />
cancer screening. The American College<br />
of Gastroenterology recommends that<br />
we have a discussion with the patient<br />
and discuss the risks versus benefits of<br />
performing colon cancer screening beyond<br />
this age. It essentially comes down<br />
to the patient’s health, their risk of undergoing<br />
a procedure and their values<br />
or wishes. For example, if we have a<br />
76-year-old patient who is completely<br />
healthy with no significant health issues,<br />
then it may be worthwhile to proceed<br />
with colorectal cancer screening<br />
because we have every reason to believe<br />
that this patient will live an additional<br />
7-10 years. However, if we have a 76-yearold<br />
patient who is on chronic oxygen, is<br />
on dialysis and has significant cardiac<br />
disease, then the risks of undergoing<br />
colon cancer screening most likely outweigh<br />
the benefits. My job, as a gastroenterologist,<br />
is to provide them with the<br />
facts and the risks and benefits of both<br />
approaches.<br />
Any other important facts to know<br />
about CRC and/or screenings?<br />
The main thing I will say is to get<br />
screened. Talk to your primary care<br />
doctor and get screened - it could potentially<br />
save your life. Encourage your<br />
loved ones to do it as well. If you have<br />
questions or concerns about undergoing<br />
a colonoscopy, you can always schedule<br />
an appointment with your doctor to discuss<br />
it in the office beforehand.<br />
Dr. Issam Turk, a gastroenterologist<br />
based out of Rochester and Troy<br />
said, “The hesitancy within the Chaldean<br />
community when it comes to<br />
preventative medicine and specifically<br />
colon cancer screening is a major issue<br />
that needs to be tackled urgently,<br />
especially given that colorectal cancer<br />
is on the rise.<br />
“The classic line that I often hear<br />
from patients and sometimes, my own<br />
family members is, ‘I feel fine. Why do<br />
I need to do this test?’ In the end, although<br />
it will be challenging, we must<br />
continue to raise awareness regarding<br />
this issue and urge our patients,<br />
friends, and family members to get<br />
screened in a timely fashion.”<br />
The outlook for people with the<br />
disease has slowly been improving for<br />
several decades, largely due to screening.<br />
Don’t forget that “45 is the new<br />
50”. If you are age 45 or above, please<br />
talk to your doctor now about getting<br />
screened.<br />
Dr. Rena Daiza is a board-certified<br />
primary care physician at the Henry<br />
Ford Bloomfield Township Medical<br />
Center. She serves as Vice President of<br />
the Chaldean American Association for<br />
Health Professionals and as Co-Chair<br />
of the Chaldean Women’s Committee -<br />
a subgroup of the Chaldean Chamber<br />
of Commerce. Dr. Jolian Kathawa is<br />
a board-certified gastroenterologist.<br />
He is credentialed with Beaumont<br />
Hospital and the Detroit Medical<br />
Center. He practices in both<br />
Farmington Hills and Commerce.<br />
40 CHALDEAN NEWS <strong>MARCH</strong> <strong>2023</strong>
PROFESSIONALS PROFESSIONALS PROFESSIONALS PROFESSIONALS<br />
Phone: (248) 851-2227<br />
(248) 851-BCBS<br />
Fax: (248) 851-2215<br />
rockyhpip1@aol.com<br />
ROCKY H. HUSAYNU<br />
Professional Insurance Planners<br />
Individual & Group Health Plans<br />
Medicare Supplement Plans<br />
31000 Northwestern Hwy. • Suite 110<br />
Farmington Hills, Ml 48334<br />
Over 40 years of experience.<br />
Gabe Gabriel<br />
Associate Broker,<br />
Certified ABR, SFR<br />
29444 Northwestern Hwy, ste. 110<br />
Southfield, Michigan 48034<br />
Office (248) 737-9500<br />
Direct (248) 939-1985<br />
Fax (248) 737-1868<br />
Email MortgageGabe@aol.com<br />
Angela Kakos<br />
Producing Branch Manager - VP of Mortgage Lending<br />
o: (248) 622-0704<br />
rate.com/angelakakos<br />
angela.kakos@rate.com<br />
2456 Metropolitan Parkway, Sterling Heights, MI 48310<br />
Guaranteed Rate Inc.; NMLS #2611; For licensing information visit<br />
nmlsconsumeraccess.org. Equal Housing Lender. Conditions may apply • Angela Kakos<br />
NMLS ID: 166374<br />
Experience • Knowledge • Personal Service<br />
Experience • Knowledge • Personal Service<br />
TOP 1% OF REALTORS<br />
2015 REAL ESTATE<br />
IN OAKLAND<br />
ALL STAR -<br />
TOP TOP 1% OF 1% OF REALTORS IN<br />
2015 2021 REAL ESTATE<br />
COUNTY 1993 – 2015<br />
HOUR MEDIA<br />
OAKLAND IN OAKLAND COUNTY 2021<br />
ALL ALL STAR STAR - –<br />
COUNTY 1993 – 2015<br />
Proudly servingHOUR HOUR<br />
Birmingham, MEDIA MEDIA<br />
Bloomfield, Proudly Farmington serving Birmingham, Hills, Bloomfield,<br />
Each office is independently<br />
Each office is independently<br />
West Bloomfield, Farmington the Hills, Lakes West Bloomfield, the<br />
Owned and Operated<br />
Proudly Lakes and serving surrounding Birmingham, areas.<br />
Owned and Operated Brian S. Yaldoo and surrounding areas.<br />
Bloomfield, Farmington Hills,<br />
Associated Broker<br />
Each office is independently Brian S. YaldooWest Bloomfield, the Lakes<br />
Owned and<br />
Office<br />
Operated<br />
(248)737-6800 • Mobile (248)752-4010<br />
Toll Associated Brian Free (866) S. 762-3960 Yaldoo and surrounding areas.<br />
Broker<br />
Email: brianyaldoo@remax.com Associated Websites: Broker www.brianyaldoo.com<br />
Office (248) www.BuyingOrSellingRealEstate.com<br />
737-6800 • Mobile (248) 752-4010<br />
Office (248)737-6800 • Mobile (248)752-4010<br />
Email: Toll brianyaldoo@remax.net<br />
Free (866) 762-3960<br />
Email: brianyaldoo@remax.com www.BuyingOrSellingRealEstate.com<br />
Websites: www.brianyaldoo.com<br />
www.BuyingOrSellingRealEstate.com<br />
ELIAS KATTOULA<br />
CAREER SERVICES MANAGER<br />
Jaguar Land Rover Troy<br />
Sammi A. Naoum<br />
1815 Maplelawn Drive<br />
Troy, MI 48084<br />
TEL 248-537-7467<br />
MOBILE 248-219-5525<br />
snaoum@suburbancollection.com<br />
Advertise<br />
for As little As $ 85<br />
in our business directory section!<br />
to place your ad, contact us today!<br />
phone: 248-851-8600 fax: 248-851-1348<br />
30095 Northwestern Highway, Suite 101<br />
Farmington Hills, MI 48334<br />
CHALDEAN<br />
AMERICAN<br />
CHAMBER OF<br />
COMMERCE<br />
CHALDEAN COMMUNITY<br />
FOUNDATION<br />
CHALDEAN<br />
AMERICAN<br />
CHAMBER OF<br />
COMMERCE<br />
CHALDEAN COMMUNITY<br />
FOUNDATION<br />
SANA NAVARRETTE<br />
DIRECTOR OF MEMBERSHIP DEVELOPMENT<br />
30095 Northwestern Highway, Suite 101<br />
Farmington Hills, MI 48334<br />
CELL (248) 925-7773<br />
TEL (248) 851-1200<br />
FAX (248) 851-1348<br />
snavarrette@chaldeanchamber.com<br />
www.chaldeanchamber.com<br />
www.chaldeanfoundation.org<br />
3601 15 Mile Road<br />
Sterling Heights, MI 48310<br />
TEL: (586) 722-7253<br />
FAX: (586) 722-7257<br />
elias.kattoula@chaldeanfoundation.org<br />
www.chaldeanfoundation.org<br />
STACY BAHRI<br />
STRATEGIC INITIATIVES MANAGER<br />
3601 15 Mile Road<br />
Sterling Heights, MI 48310<br />
TEL: (586) 722-7253<br />
FAX: (586) 722-7257<br />
stacy.bahri@chaldeanfoundation.org<br />
www.chaldeanfoundation.org<br />
SANA NAVARRETTE<br />
MEMBERSHIP MANAGER<br />
30850 TELEGRAPH ROAD, SUITE 200<br />
BINGHAM FARMS, MI 48025<br />
TEL: (248) 996-8340 CELL: (248) 925-7773<br />
FAX: (248) 996-8342<br />
snavarrette@chaldeanchamber.com<br />
www.chaldeanchamber.com<br />
www.chaldeanfoundation.org<br />
Twitter: @ChaldeanChamber<br />
Instagram: @ChaldeanAmericanChamber<br />
CLASSIFIEDS CLASSIFIEDS CLASSIFIEDS CLASSIFIEDS CLASSIFIEDS<br />
ESTATE SALE<br />
LUXURY HOUSE & ESTATE SALE<br />
4137 Pinehurst Ct<br />
West Bloomfield<br />
Robert Kassa 248-464-1776<br />
Helene Kassa 586-744-2530<br />
AUTOMOBILE FOR SALE<br />
2002 KIA SPORTAGE<br />
48K miles, EC<br />
$5,000<br />
Robert Kassa 248-464-1776<br />
BUSINESS FOR SALE<br />
A SPECIAL TOUCH FLORIST<br />
45464 Van Dyke, Utica<br />
$60,000 Business Only<br />
Margareta Kassa Peters 248-705-4495<br />
Retiring after 32 great business years<br />
<strong>MARCH</strong> <strong>2023</strong> CHALDEAN NEWS 41
FROM THE ARCHIVE<br />
Detroit On Fire<br />
T<br />
his<br />
photo appeared in the August 4, 1967 issue of Life Magazine, detailing individual stories about the unrest in Detroit that summer. Jerry Yono operated<br />
Imperial Market at 9739 Linwood in the city. The sign in the window says “soul brother” because he was so involved in the Detroit community<br />
that the residents considered him important. They hung the sign and stood guard to watch his store. Yono knew the two men; they did not work for<br />
him, and he can’t remember their names, but they were from the community and shopped at his store. While he was standing outside the store talking with<br />
everyone, rioting went on around him. The drug store across the street was looted completely. He saw people carry out a safe, put it into a Cadillac, and drive<br />
away; other people then went in and took everything they could carry before burning the store down. That drug store was owned by a Jewish family.<br />
42 CHALDEAN NEWS <strong>MARCH</strong> <strong>2023</strong>
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