Sent from my iPad2 Begin forwarded message: > From: Kartono Mohamad <mohnuh2...@yahoo.com> > Date: July 30, 2012 > > > Paris adalah sebuah kota di negara bagian Texas, Amerika Serikat. Seorang > dokter asal Pakistan, beragama Islam, terpilih menjadi walikota di kota yang > mayoritas Keristen. Tentau tidak ada "black campaign" yang bernada SARA. > Meskipun sudah jadi walikota, profesi dokternya tidak ditinggalkan. Ia masih > menyempatkan diri menolong orang yang memerlukannya. Tentu bukan akrena > bayarannya. > Berita ini dmuat di NY Times. > KM > > July 27, 2012 > Pakistani-Born Mayor Repairs, and Wins, Texans' Hearts > > By ANAND GIRIDHARADAS > > PARIS, TEXAS — This charming, droopy city needed new fire trucks not long > ago, but, like many American municipalities today, couldn’t necessarily > afford them. The mayor, a small-government Republican, dithered: to buy or > not to buy? He turned to the natural choice for advice on running a Texan > city: Pervez Musharraf, the exiled ex-president of Pakistan. > Mr. Musharraf may seem an unlikely adviser to the mayor of a Southern town > where crickets chirp shrilly and the leafy streets are dominated by places > pledging to fix your truck. But even more unlikely is the man he advised: > Mayor Arjumand Hashmi, a Pakistani-born cardiologist who has become one of > the United States’ most improbable politicians. > He is like the opening line of a joke: “So a Texan, a Muslim, a Republican, a > doctor and the mayor of Paris are sitting at a bar ...” Except that he is, by > himself, all of the people in the joke. > America seems to be an ever more divided, bitter country. Lost amid those > divisions is the story of how a down-on-its-luck town in Texas struck its own > little blow for unity. A little more than a year ago, this city of 25,000 — > overwhelmingly white and Christian — made a Muslim outsider their mayor. (Dr. > Hashmi had campaigned to be one of seven city councilors and, having won, was > voted mayor by the council.) > The mayor swept into office with an immigrant’s zeal: planting hundreds of > crepe myrtle trees on the loop around the city; surprising local agencies > with impromptu visits during his lunch hour; interrupting the “brother-in-law > deals,” as they’re called in the South, that gave contracts to the wrong > people; using tax abatements to lure businesses to Paris. > All this while serving as a cardiologist and leader of a local hospital > catheterization laboratory that is often the only thing standing between the > chicken-fried steaks that patients keep on eating and the deaths they > nonetheless wish to defer. > Which is why Dr. Hashmi, who is in his early 50s, wakes up at 3:30 a.m. most > days. He prays the first of his customary three daily prayers. (He maxes out > to the prescribed five when he can, but says he’s pretty sure Allah wouldn’t > want him stopping to pray when he’s got a catheter up someone’s groin.) Then > he alternates throughout the day between doctor and mayor, doctor and mayor. > At 10:53 a.m. on a recent morning, wearing a muscle T-shirt and cowboy boots > and clutching two phones, he rushed into a hospital lounge and dictated a > report. His next patient wasn’t ready, so he got in his BMW (he’s also got a > Bentley and a Lamborghini and many other cars) and drove to his mechanic to > check on the black S.U.V. he plans to use to host visiting dignitaries. Ten > minutes later, he was again at the hospital, pumping dark dye into a sedated > woman’s heart, searching for blockages. Fifteen minutes later, he was > inspecting Paris’s water plant. > When he was first running, the town erupted with all the predictable > whispers: that he was trying to drive Christianity out of Paris, that he was > a rich doctor trying to buy the town, that he would build a mosque, that he > was a terrorist. > Today he has won over much of the city. (His first council election was 4-3 > in his favor; he was re-elected this year 7-0.) Local citizens speak of him > variously as a blood transfusion and a breath of fresh air, even though some > in the old guard retain their anxieties. > Part of his strategy has been to embrace his newness to the city, where he > arrived in 2006 after many years in Tampa, Florida. He says that, because he > is an outsider, no one in Paris is his cousin or classmate, and that he is > thus free to govern by reason. He says he is trying to save the city from the > cronyism that he has seen strangle his own country: “In most of third world > countries, yes, there are rules and laws and regulations. But it ends up that > related people get things done,” he said. He saw that same phenomenon > afflicting Paris. “I have lived it personally and seen why it doesn’t work,” > he said. > U.S. politicians are wont to conceal the complexity and worldliness in their > backgrounds — as with Mitt Romney’s ability to speak French or President > Barack Obama’s early years in Indonesia. > Dr. Hashmi takes a different approach, speaking Urdu to friends or family in > front of his colleagues, answering the phones with “Salaam aleikum” at times > and at times with “How ya doin’?” His Pakistani accent remains strong. > Just after 11 p.m. that same night, after a full day’s work twice over, he > was sitting on a sofa at home with his family and some friends, nibbling on > flaky cookies specially bought in Lahore. > His beeper sounded. A middle-aged man was at the hospital with chest pains, > and the emergency room doctor wanted his advice. He asked for an > electrocardiogram to be texted to his iPhone. When he saw it, he concluded > that the man needed him. He told the doctor to prepare the catheter, and he > drove away down a dark country road into his Paris. > __._,_.___ > Reply to sender | Reply to group | Reply via web post | Start a New Topic > Messages in this topic (1) > RECENT ACTIVITY: New Members 5 > Visit Your Group > ======================= > Milis Wanita Muslimah > Membangun citra wanita muslimah dalam diri, keluarga, maupun masyarakat. > Twitter: http://twitter.com/wanita_muslimah > Situs Web: http://www.wanita-muslimah.com > ARSIP DISKUSI : http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wanita-muslimah/messages > Kirim Posting mailto:wanita-musli...@yahoogroups.com > Berhenti mailto:wanita-muslimah-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com > Milis Keluarga Sejahtera mailto:keluarga-sejaht...@yahoogroups.com > Milis Anak Muda Islam mailto:majelism...@yahoogroups.com > > Milis ini tidak menerima attachment. > Switch to: Text-Only, Daily Digest • Unsubscribe • Terms of Use > . > > __,_._,___ -- -- . * Posting yg berasal dari Palanta RantauNet, dipublikasikan di tempat lain wajib mencantumkan sumber: ~dari Palanta R@ntauNet http://groups.google.com/group/RantauNet/~ * Isi email, menjadi tanggung jawab pengirim email. =========================================================== UNTUK DIPERHATIKAN, melanggar akan dimoderasi: - DILARANG: 1. 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