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Chaldeans criticize El Cajon’s attitude

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Saying they feel excluded and underrepresented by the City Council, more than a dozen East County residents of Chaldean descent spoke out for nearly two hours at Tuesday’s City Council meeting in El Cajon.

“I have heard some complaints about the unfair treatment of Chaldeans and other minorities,” said Bishop Sarhad Yawsip Jammo of St. Peter’s Chaldean Catholic Church in El Cajon. “There is no need to stereotype everything. We are here to collaborate, to build this city. We are here to extend hands, to help each other, to build the great city of El Cajon.”

Mark Arabo, who heads the Neighborhood Market Association, rallied minority community members to “confront the City Council on their actions against various groups of El Cajon.” Arabo said Tuesday’s dialogue was the first of many rounds that the Chaldean community is prepared to do as they undertake a fight against what he feels is unfair treatment. Arabo said the immigrant community is looking for more inclusion and fair representation.

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One way to that, Arabo noted, is for El Cajon to do what Chula Vista did, and that is elect council members by geographic district, with district boundaries drawn by a citizens’ commission. Escondido is in the process of making that change.

There are an estimated 50,000 Chaldeans living in San Diego County; about 27,000 of the immigrants are in the East County. Of those, 10,000 to 12,000 are El Cajon residents.

After Arabo and several others spoke, City Councilman Gary Kendrick said the reason for Arabo’s frustration is that “he failed at his job” as head of the NMA in stopping a city ordinance that aims to keep tabs on businesses that sell alcohol to serial inebriates and to underage consumers. Although he later publicly apologized for singling out Arabo, Kendrick said he believed Arabo “is trying to change the council (makeup) to overturn” the ordinance.

Kendrick said El Cajon “has never had any hint of discrimination” and that two members of its Planning Commission, Adel Dankha and Star Bales, are of Chaldean heritage. Bales spoke at the meeting and defended the City Council against discrimination complaints, as did fellow Planning Commissioner Tony Sottile.

Arabo said the discrimination in the city is overt.

“We have a problem in El Cajon, a problem that is more than just comments made by the current mayor,” Arabo said, referring to a story from The Progressive, a magazine that calls itself a “leading voices for peace and social justice” in America.

The story from May 2013 and written by Arun Gupta, is called “Little Baghdad, California,” and described Iraqi immigrants and life in El Cajon. The article quotes El Cajon Mayor Mark Lewis making what Arabo and others who spoke on Tuesday felt were derogatory comments about the Chaldean community.

Arabo and several other speakers made reference to part of the article that says that “Lewis says some Chaldean schoolchildren who receive free lunches are ‘being picked up by Mercedes Benzes.’ ”

“First time, they come over here, it doesn’t take them too long to learn where all the freebies are at,” Lewis is quoted as saying.

Lewis did not deny the quoted material, but said he was concerned with anyone who would allow their children to get free food and not need it, not specifically anyone of Chaldean background.

Former state Sen. Waddie Deddeh, noting his 27 years of “serving and representing everybody faithfully,” was passionate in his defense of the community, and said “I was fairly shocked” about Lewis’ statements. Deddeh said that “Chaldeans have a history, a great history.”

“This is our home, this is our country,” Deddeh said. “We came here because the Statue of Liberty told us, with open arms, give me your tired, your huddled masses... (Chaldeans) came answering the Statue of Liberty. We are looking for mercy, kindness and understanding.”

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