Innocents Abroad

“Les Voyageurs” by Bruno Catalano

Photos by Misia Delgado

Walking along Park Avenue in Manhattan, you may notice people are missing parts of themselves. Fortunately, you have not taken a turn into the Twilight Zone but have come across “Les Voyageurs”, or The Travelers, an installation by Bruno Catalano.

The artist, who settled in Marseille after leaving his homeland of Morocco at the age of ten, was a sea traveler who worked on boats. His first torso-less statue was the result of a casting accident, but now the gaps in these bronze statues are a signature of the sculptor.

Drawing from his own immigration journey when creating “Les Voyageurs”, Catalano’s statues depict the bodies of weary travelers, clutching onto a piece of luggage with a gap in their torso. Despite losing a part of themselves, these travelers move forward, luggage in hand.

Carolyn's Trip to Japan

Our trip to Japan was magical. From seeing the stunning Kinkakuji (Golden Pavilion) in Kyoto to eating oysters at the old Tsukiji Market in Tokyo to getting bit by the adorable deer at Nara Park, we had a wonderful time. While our trip coincided with the Rugby World Cup, and we were able to attend a few matches, the trip didn’t just consist of scrums and penalty kicks (yes, I know all the rugby terminology). We had an incredible time eating food and seeing architecture and admiring the peaceful and natural beauty of the countryside (and also made friends with the monkeys at Iwatayama Monkey Park). And yes, there was sake involved.

Jacki's Greetings from Los Angeles

Hi DLG Blog Readers – Jacki here…long time no blog! For those of you who don’t know me, I used to be an attorney with the firm and a frequent blogger. A few years ago, I made the genius decision to throw away my snow boots and move to sunny Los Angeles. I was thinking about the blog since I just had a fun (and informative!) visit with Protima and Carolyn in Los Angeles when we all attended a conference to discuss visas in the arts and entertainment field. Long story, short – I begged Protima for a guest blog because I had the perfect Friday photo!

While walking along Melrose Avenue, I came across the famous Cisco Home wall, normally displaying the “Made in LA” mural, painted over with new details to reflect the importance that immigration has had on shaping the culture of this city and beyond. Rumor has it that the artist behind the Cisco Home wall takeover is “HiJack,” an anonymous street artist who is active in Los Angeles. In a caption to an Instagram post he made about this wall, “HiJack” comments, “We need to remind ourselves of what we are composed of as a city and more broadly as a nation.”

Carolyn's Trip to Hungary

This week’s edition of Friday Photo(s) comes from Carolyn’s trip to Hungary. Carolyn visited historic landmarks in Budapest such as Heroes’ Square, known for its statues commemorating figures from Hungarian history. She also checked out the Hungarian Parliament Building, a World Heritage Site and functional government office, and the Holocaust Tree of Life Memorial, which has the family names of Holocaust victims inscribed in the metal tree, at the Dohány Street Synagogue, the largest synagogue in Europe.

Carolyn and her husband ventured beyond Hungary’s capital to scenic places like Lake Balaton, a popular summer destination that happens to be the largest lake in Central Europe. Near the Balaton and in the many small towns that they drove through, there were tons of sunflower fields as pictured above. Thank you to Carolyn for sharing her beautiful pictures with the blog!

Trevi Fountain

The Trevi Fountain (Fontana di Trevi) is one of the most iconic sights in Rome. This fountain, a late Baroque masterpiece, was designed by Nicola Salvi and completed by Giuseppe Pannini in 1762. The fountain stands about eighty-five feet high and is approximately 160 feet wide. At the center is Pietro Bracci’s statue of Oceanus standing on a chariot pulled by sea horses and accompanied by tritons, similar to how I get around Rome (okay, I wish). While apparently splashing around in the fountain like Anita Ekberg and Marcello Mastroianni in La Dolce Vita is frowned upon, visitors are allowed to toss coins in, since according to legend, those who toss coins into its waters will return to Rome. But don’t worry, at the end of each day the coins are collected and donated to charity.

NY TIMES: “Shah Rukh Khan, ‘King of Bollywood,’ Was Detained at a U.S. Airport for the Third Time”

Shah Rukh Khan, the “King of Bollywood” and one of the most popular actors in the world, was detained and questioned at Los Angeles International Airport last week, making it at least the third time he has had difficulty entering the US. While it is not clear exactly why he was held—Customs and Border Protection (CBP) say they cannot comment on specific cases—Khan has expressed that it is most likely because his name is the same or similar to a known or suspected terrorist.      

Khan announced his detention at LAX to his 20.8 million Twitter audience: “I fully understand & respect security with the way the world is, but to be detained at US immigration every damn time really really sucks.” He added: “The brighter side is while waiting caught some really nice Pokemons.” Previously, Khan was detained in 2009 in Newark while in the United States to promote his film My Name is Khan, which deals with racial profiling of Muslims after the 9/11 attacks, and in 2012, when he was detained in White Plains, New York, on his way to address students at Yale. “Whenever I start feeling too arrogant about myself, I always take a trip to America,” he later told the students. “They always ask me how tall I am and I always lie and get away with it and say 5 feet 10 inches. Next time I am getting more adventurous. ‘What color are you?’ I am going to say white.”

Khan’s many fans as well as Indian officials have condemned the stops and accused officials at American airports of racial profiling. In response, Rich Verma, the American ambassador to India, apologized to Khan on Twitter, saying that they are “working to ensure it doesn’t happen again.” Nisha Biswal, the Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, tweeted: “Sorry for the hassle at the airport, @iamsrk — even American diplomats get pulled for extra screening!”

Khan, who is estimated to have a net worth of $600 million in 2014, making him one of the richest actors in the world after Jerry Seinfeld, wrote in 2013 of being profiled and stopped at airports because of his name:  

I became so sick of being mistaken for some crazed terrorist who coincidentally carries the same last name as mine that I made a film, subtly titled My name is Khan (and I am not a terrorist) to prove a point. Ironically, I was interrogated at the airport for hours about my last name when I was going to present the film in America for the first time. I wonder, at times, whether the same treatment is given to everyone whose last name just happens to be McVeigh (as in Timothy)??

Many innocent individuals have mistakenly ended up on the terror watch list and no fly lists or faced travel problems because of similar names on the lists, including the late Senator Ted Kennedy, Nelson Mandela, and more than one minor, such as six-year-old Ohio girl Alyssa Thomas.

According to an investigation by The Intercept, federal government guidelines allow individuals to be “designated as representatives of terror organizations without any evidence they are actually connected to such organizations, and it gives a single White House official the unilateral authority to place entire ‘categories’ of people the government is tracking onto the no fly and selectee lists.” Curiously, it also allows for dead people to be watchlisted. Political activists as well as Muslims who have refused to become confidential informants have been placed on the lists, leading critics to accuse the federal government of using the no fly list as retaliation. The Guardian reports that Washington had previously denied allegations that Khan was singled out because his name denotes him as a Muslim instead simply stating that someone with the same name is reportedly on the US no-fly list, causing him repeated problems when traveling to the US.