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Bronx Pride Still Strong - Even In Iraq

Efrem Williams, a civilian contractor and proud former Bronx resident, keeps up with goings-on in the borough from base in Iraq.

You can take the boy out of the Bronx but you can’t take the Bronx out of the boy - even if he’s in Iraq, by way of Hawaii, Japan and Australia.

Efrem Williams is a civilian contractor in the war-torn country, in the city of Mosul. He went to work there for ITT Global Communications Systems a year ago this week.

He grew up in Soundview, went to Adlai E. Stevenson High School and City Community College, and graduated from New York University in 1981. He has been living all over the globe since. From halfway around the world, on a military base in the restive area about 200 miles north of Baghdad, he keeps up with his beloved Bronx.

“I periodically browse the Daily News, keeping updated on the goings-on,” he e-mailed me recently.

He enjoyed a story in this space about Nisa Rodriguez, a teen and fellow South Bronx resident who is fighting in the Golden Gloves finals this week.

“I came across your article about the female boxer going for sports fame at the Golden Gloves and gold medal aspirations,” Williams wrote.

“It does my heart good to read a story with a positive theme, and a progressive direction.”

We began a correspondence by e-mail.

The Bronx Boro News is available in this borough only. But it’s on the Daily News’ Web site, so this column regularly hears from people who left the borough for upstate, or Florida, or California.

These expatriates just love to read about old friends, or the old neighborhood, and share memories. They also revel in the changes and successes of the present.

But Williams’ missives, coming from a place so distant, truly show a love of his childhood home and a longing for particularly New York things.

“I miss the Bronx, Yankees, pizza, calzone, New York television programming, all the nuances of the city,” he wrote.

“And most of all the hard working/law abiding/salt of the earth New Yorkers. Good people are hard to find, which I suppose is a good thing in a way. Because of the rarity, I appreciate them more.”

Williams joined the U.S. Navy out of college, and during his 24 years, he said, he circumnavigated the globe three times. He has always worked in the communications field.

He lived on military installations in the Philippines, Japan, Middle East and Australia.

He retired from the Navy in 2005 and resides in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Now he’s in Iraq, a far cry from the placid environments and lush scenery he’s lived in, but just as fascinating.

“Mosul is a very interesting and historical place in history … in fact, this area was originally called Nineveh, the cradle of civilization, and the birthplace of Abraham the prophet,” he wrote. “My scope on life has been and continues to be broadened immensely, and my humble beginnings remain a special chapter in my heart,” he wrote.

When asked about the volatile situation over there, he answered, “I tend to take a little of my ‘Bronx instincts’ with me as they come in handy when conditions warrant survival mode to be engaged.” The forward operating base he lives on, outside Mosul, has seen its share of danger.

Insurgents have fired shells over the base perimeter. They’ve planted improvised explosive devices (IEDs) along the nearby roads. Read more..

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Lanakila Washington has $21,000 in his presidential campaign war chest. Most of the money comes from his personal savings.

South Bronx Man Dreams of the Presidency 

By Candice M. Giove

There’s an Air Force One pin fixed to the lapel of Lanakila Washington’s dark green suit, a symbol of a more stately form of transportation. For now, the South Bronx resident, running a write-in campaign for the presidency on his own party line, travels in a more quotidian fashion: stumping via Greyhound and Amtrak.

Be it cramped on a bus or riding on a train, Washington spreads his vision for America to the people he meets along the way, chatting about his write-in candidacy for president and the Humanistic Party, which he created in 2005.

“The people in this country are really, really suffering from what’s going on,” he said, while drinking a peppermint tea at a diner on White Plains Road and Story Avenue. “That’s why I picked this particular time to run.”

While not on the road, Washington remains home participating in focus groups or running his travel agency, though these days he dedicates most of his time to maintaining his website and burning homemade CDs to hand out while campaigning. Each disc contains recordings of two impassioned campaign speeches, one set to music selected by his official campaign DJ (possibly a presidential campaign first).

Sometimes people stumble upon his site, or onto one of his speeches posted on YouTube. He said that his candidacy generated media attention from places as far as Austria and Chile. It also attracted the curiosity of a high school in Georgia, where he eventually wound up fielding two hours worth of questions from eager teenagers.

So far a two day ride to Florida stands as Washington’s longest campaign-by-bus stint. “We had a lot of stops and every time we stopped I gave out the CDs, telling people who I was and just talking to people to the point where it’s like, ‘Okay. I have to get to the bus. The bus is going to leave,’” he said.

He plans to go further, cross country by Greyhound perhaps, like Malcolm X. That trip might be in the works for January, when he attends his first debate in California. As election time nears, he’s considering campaigning by RV.

With such a positive persona, Washington would never outright admit that the paltry odds of winning. “No matter what the result is I feel I have the victory because I’m on the journey. I’m going to take this journey and whatever manifests on election night, November 4th, so be it. I’m ready.”

Washington’s quest for the White House—however dreamy, idealistic, or far-fetched—grew out of his frustration not only with the current administration, but also with the candidates vying to take its reigns.

“I actually don’t hear the other candidates talking about the happiness of the American people,” Washington said. “There are a lot of concerns and issues that the American people have.”

Some of those concerns are health care, the deficit and war. Mainly, he said, no candidate in the race bears an attitude towards peace comparable to his own. His vision includes a nine-month troop withdrawal plan from Iraq.

Once a registered Democrat, Washington dumped the party to create his own, complete with a platform to create a “promise land” inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

“We need to create the promise land based on peace, culture, education and unity through the communities because it starts in communities first,” he said. “It’s about human revolution, which is a bloodless development of the human spirit, where everyone begins to really respect each other and have more compassion for each other and that leads to true peace.”

While on a trip to Atlanta, Washington said that the late civil rights leader appeared in his dream. “He came to me and said, ‘Don’t wait until 2012. Do it now and don’t worry about it. I’m going to be by your side.’”

He’s doing that with a shoestring campaign war chest of $21,000. Most of the money is his savings, little comes from donations. “That doesn’t worry or concern me because people are still coming out and still coming to my aid in terms of saying we really want you in that seat,” he said.

When Washington finishes his tea at the Bronx diner, he mentions that he, his campaign advisor and campaign DJ planned to go dancing one weekend. Then they might head to Atlantic City, where he likes spending time by the ocean. Washington also gambles sometimes.

“I always win,” he said.

SOURCE: Village Voice

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