All posts in the topic Minneapolis City council to vote this Friday to become Sister City with Najaf Iraq

Minneapolis City council to vote this Friday to become Sister City with Najaf
Iraq. Call 612-673-3000 or 311 and tell City Council members to say yes! 

Todd Heintz, Jordan
    

Actually, there are some indications that this new sister city relationship
could benefit the City, and our other sister city relationships.  There's an
organization called Sister Cities International (http://www.sister-cities.org)
that helps organize these relationships.  Quoting from their website: "Sister
Cities International applies for grants as they become available and
administers these programs, passing the funds on to the local sister city
organizations."

Entering into the proposed relationship with Najaf could make it more likely
that we might receive more of this funding and support, because SCI is
recruiting more relationships between US cities and cities in the Muslim world
through their "Muslim World Partnership Initiative."
(http://www.sister-cities.org/programs/islamic.cfm)

This proposed relationship is also being actively supported by the Iraq and
American Reconciliation Project, an incorporated a 501(c)(3) that has been an
independently functioning organization for two years.  It has an active board
of directors who are engaged in fundraising, outreach and educational
activities.  IARP has an active, functioning NGO counterpart in Najaf. (See
more here: http://www.mpt-iraq.org/AboutIARP.html)

That was all a long-winded way of saying: no, we don't have any reason to
believe that this new sister city relationship will entail any additional cost
to the City.


Robin Garwood
Policy Aide to Council Member Cam Gordon
Cooper