20 September 2006

UN Rallies and Jewzapalooza

Esther Kustanowitz and Drew Kaplan at rally at UN on 20 September 2006(Yes, it's been a few weeks since I last posted - my longest hiatus!)
I thought I would note my recent attendance at a few gatherings this past week.
Along with some other YCT students, I attended the rally at the UN a little over twelve hours ago. There, after having first initially indicating my desire to meet her a year ago, I finally met Esther Kustanowitz in person! (Also, I want to thank her a lot for linking me on her post about the rally (sure to drive up the viewership!).) While there, I also met the owner of my gym, who I found out is an observant Jew(!) (who knew?), which was really cool. On the way there, I met a reader of my blog, which was neat to find out those who do.
On Sunday, I attended - again, with fellow YCT students - the rally in Central Park for Darfur. It was a fine time, nice weather, though I didn't schmooze as much as I did at the one at the UN. My
Ben Greenberg and Drew Kaplan at rally for Darfur in NYC on 17 September 2006 concern for any action to be done is that there needs to be troops inserted into Sudan to protect the people of Darfur, but the Sudanese government has refused to allow UN troops in. So who's supposed to go in in the stead of the troops of the African Union? Short of an invasion, it seems unpleasant.
Both days, however, there was nice weather (thank God). The clear connection to them was this week's beginning of a new session at the UN.
After the rally on Sunday, I went over to the third annual Jewzapalooza (my first) and heard Pharoah's Daughter, which was a pretty decent performance, before heading back uptown. btw, I saw fellow JBLogger ALG at the latter.