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Annan said the participation of Sunni Muslims is critical to ensuring the new government would be truly representative, and he urged the Iraqi interim government to "intensity its effort" to draw in Sunnis. In the latest step in their campaign of intimidation, Sunni Muslim militants claimed responsibility Friday for the assassination of a Shiite community leader who had promoted the election on behalf of Iraq's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. Ansar al-Islam said it killed Sheik Mahmoud Finjan on Wednesday because he was a "big supporter of the elections." "We . . . call upon all brother citizens not to participate in the elections because we are going to attack voting centres," Ansar al-Islam said in a statement posted on a website used by insurgents. A separate ambush in Iraq's north killed three officials of a party representing Iraq's Kurds - who, like the Shiites, have been working aggressively for a high turnout in a vote expected to pry power from Iraq's long-dominant Sunni minority. Gunmen killed an Iraqi election official in western Baghdad late Thursday, police said, marking at least the seventh such killing ahead of the vote. Attackers in a passing car fired upon Abdul Karim Jassem Al-Ubeidi as he headed home, police said. Also in Baghdad, insurgents fired rockets Friday night against targets in the centre of the capital, but caused no casualties. Police said two of the rockets exploded near the Sadeer Hotel, which is used by western contractors, and a third fell near the Ministry of Education. The blasts, which were heard across a wide area of the capital, followed a lull of about two weeks in insurgent shelling of targets in the city centre. Elsewhere, insurgents fired a rocket-propelled grenade at an Iraqi police patrol in the Amiriyah district on the western edge of the city. Three explosions also were heard near the main road from central Baghdad to the city's international airport, police said. In other developments Friday: -Twenty-eight Iraqi prisoners escaped as they were being transported by bus from the Abu Ghraib prison west of Baghdad to another facility. Lt.-Col. Barry Johnson said 38 prisoners initially got away Thursday evening, but 10 were recaptured. He gave no further details. -An Iraqi bus collided with a U.S. tank on patrol Friday, killing six of the bus passengers and injuring eight, the U.S. military said.-Robert Reed. Samuel L. Jackson's day in court NEW YORK- Samuel L. Jackson is flippant, brushing off his expansive film career and cool-guy image. His casual clothes fit the attitude: black running jacket, jeans, white sneaks and just a hint of bling in a diamond-ringed watch and a dog tag with his initials around his neck. His impervious ego is surprising, but with nearly 80 films under his belt, he doesn't really need to care what people think of him. With Jackson's articulate nature, along with a greying moustache and glasses, he could pass for a teacher, maybe one who teaches How to Be Hip 101. The 56-year-old actor's latest film, Coach Carter, is based on the real-life story of Ken Carter, a basketball coach in an inner-city high school in Richmond, Calif. Carter benched his whole team because some varsity players weren't performing academically up to standards he set in a contract. Jackson's no fool. He knows his movie isn't going to elicit any big change in how education is generally reviled and athletics revered in schools, but he's OK with it.
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He's happy as long as a few kids see the film and decide they want to study more, or figure out that an education is something invaluable. He answered the following questions in a recent interview: Q: What did you think of Carter when you heard about him? Jackson: I thought it was a refreshing change from always hearing about winning at any cost. I liked that about what he was doing, putting the idea out there that education is worth something, that it's important. That it will get you somewhere. And when the movie idea came my way, I thought it was socially relevant.
Q: Do you agree with his methods? Jackson: Sure, in some ways. Somewhere along the way we lost the idea of a "student-athlete." They have become "athlete-students." But winning on the floor is a reward for doing well in the classroom. If you don't go to class you can still play ball, but you get hurt, maybe you don't run the ball as fast anymore . . . what have you got left? An education is something that can't be taken away. Q: What do you think about the idea that inner-city kids are set up to fail? Jackson: That's true. It's the whole idea that if you show up, you pass on. It's also that they need to see there's an upside to being smart, not just being athletic and hip. I don't think teachers are living up to the standards they should be. They tend to service the kids who pay attention, they don't want to deal with the kids that don't get the grades or that have the problems or that act out. In the city schools, they're also looking out for themselves and their well-being. Q: I have some teacher-friends that wouldn't be too happy to hear you say that. Jackson: I have teacher-friends too, and they are goal-oriented and good at motivating their students, and will work with the kids that need the extra help instead of ignoring them, but I think that's the minority. Q: Was there any instrumental teacher, or coach when you were growing up? Jackson: I think people knew who I was because of my family, and they held me to a higher standard because they knew where I came from. Q: Do you feel like you have to be a role model because of your fame? Jackson: No. I think I need to be a responsible human being, and do things I believe in, and I help out people but I don't do that publicly. It's not my responsibility as an actor to tell you who to vote for, or what cause to believe in or who to give money to. It makes me crazy to hear people in my profession preach about that sort of thing. Q: But you are pretty socially active, and you have been since college, right? Jackson: Ha. Yes. Where are you going with this? Q: Well, I read in 1969 that you held some board members hostage at Morehouse College and got expelled for it. Jackson: I grew up in segregation in Chattanooga. So when I got to college, and Morehouse is a predominantly African-American school, there were no African-Americans on the board, and no student representation. So we solicited to have that put in place and no one would listen. We locked some of them up inside for a few days. And now, they have student representation and African-American board members. And I went back and graduated. Now, of course, my hands are imprinted in the cement. Funny how fame goes. Q: Do you think students would do that today? Jackson: I think it was indicative of what kind of people we were. We thought what we said made a difference. I don't know if people think that anymore. But I bet if the draft was reinstated or something people would start talking, start doing something. It's a shame it takes something so extreme. Q: You started your career in the theatre? Jackson: Yes, I worked on lots of plays. |
