¿El sur se levantará otra vez?
This is a new one in lunacy…
Jack Davis, a Buffalo New York area candidate in a Democratic Party primary for a congressional election has a new one. Unless he’s elected, apparently, the South will secceed (again?) only this time, the Reconquistadors will be the Confederates. Or something like that.
WASHINGTON — Congressional candidate Jack Davis, in a speech earlier this year, warned that increasing immigration from Mexico could lead to a new civil war between northern states and Mexican-influenced Southern states that may want to secede from the United States.
“In the latter part of this century or the next, Mexicans will be a majority in many of the states and could therefore take control of the state government using the democratic process,” Davis said in the speech. “They could then secede from the United States, and then we might have another civil war.”
Correction on PEMEX and the union
David Agren left a correction to my 20-August post (“Throwing the bums out…“) pointing out that the dissidents within PEMEX are not likely PAN supporters. They could be underwritten by PRD, which would still make sense, the point being that union fights are proxy wars between various political factions.
David knows more about the chincanery of Mexican political infighting than most. He writes today in The (Mexico City) News about the PEMEX union infighting and the impact on any energy reform bill:
…such is the union’s clout that neither the governing National Action Party, or PAN, nor the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, has dared propose altering the union’s relationship with Pemex in their energy reform proposals. Interior Secretary Juan Camilo Mouriño recently said that dealing with the union “is a different discussion,” while PRI senators approved a measure last week saying that they would only support an energy reform package that omits union changes. “People pay tremendous prices for fooling with the union,” said George Baker, a Houston-based energy consultant and expert on the Mexican oil industry.
Only the Democratic Revolution Party, or PRD, which plans to unveil its own energy reform initiative on Monday, has dared to challenge the union, which some analysts say is a foe of the left-wing party.
“For the PRD, the oil workers union is a political enemy,” said Aldo Muñoz, a union expert at the Universidad Iberoamericana. “The Pemex union supports the PRI and, if it suits them, PAN candidates against the PRD.”
In January 1989, as the Salinas administration was looking at restructuring PEMEX, neutralizing the union was also considered vital to the process. Then, as now, the “union boss” was said to be corrupt. The boss in 1989, Joaquín Hernández Galacia, lived modesty, and at least had the virtues of plowing plunder back into worker benefits (including pensions at 100 percent of the retiree’s last salary, union owned markets, farms, factories and social service providers). As Hernández himself later said, “My workers were drunken and corrupt, but they were fearless and bowed to no one.”
Attempting to break the union, Salinas — under the pretext that Hernández was plotting an armed rebellion — had the boss’ home raided by army units. A soldier was killed and a cache of weapons discovered. Never mind that the soldier had been dead a day already (and had been killed in a training accident elsewhere) and that the weapons were army issue, brought in to Hernández’ house with the raid… the wildcat strike that followed gave Salinas the legal excuse he needed to install a new union leadership. And… now… Salinas’ leadership has to be removed, one way or another.
The gods are restless
Tezacatlipoca — Lord Smoking Mirror, god of the world of things, and trickster extraordinaire — gave his own opinion on PEMEX reforms the other day.
Senators Javier Castellón Fonseca, José Luis García Zalvidea, and PRD congressional press spokesman Rubén Sánchez took part in the demonstration held Sunday to show support for PEMEX reform plan worked out by the Congressional coalition of the left (PRD, PT and Convergencia, know as FAP,”Frente Amplio Progresivo” in Spanish and “Fights Among Progressives” in English). Most of the changes would restore PEMEX’s overall structure to what it was before the Salinas “reforms” which broke PEMEX up into several different sub-corporations, reducing the overall number of subsidiaries to two. The board of directors would be restructured, with eleven members, mostly from outside the corporation, with union membership cut substantially. PEMEX would keep more of their own assets for reinvestment and, as it could in the “good old days” contract for outside services, but not give the outsiders a stake in the company. The plan is not supported by everyone within the coalition, but it is probably as close as you’re going to get to agreement to anything even close to the other plans being submitted by the PRI and PAN.
Any plan will mean shifting federal revenues to the taxpayers. During the demonstration, the Senators, and the press liaison had their pockets picked Somebody found Sanchez’ wallet (with no cash — fancy that).
Tlaloc — the rain god — gave his opinion here in Mazatlan on coastal development and timeshares.
Neighborhood associations and environmentalists have been loudly complaining about the shoddy municipal oversight on development projects, and condo builders who seem to think height and size restrictions are suggested minimums, and only meant for full-time Mexican residents, not foreign retirees or vacation rentals. After this weekend’s rains, the three story hillside development — along with that hillside — is no more.
As — so it seems — are the developers, who have skipped town.
From each god according to their ability. To each mortal, according to their needs.
Mississippi spurning…
How much I can write from Mexico on an huge immigration raid (with some extremely troubling features) is an open question. I realize most of the immigration and immigrant rights people are partial to the Democratic Party, but I’d hoped a few people in the United States would be writing more on this, and doing more than just reposting what’s in the New York TImes. That I can do from here (and from Universal, or Reforma or the Cuilican Debate).
From the Jackson Clarion-Ledger/Hattiesburg American:
LAUREL — An estimated 350 Howard Industries workers are being held at an undisclosed location following an early Monday raid that officials say is the largest round-up of its type in Mississippi in recent years.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said the 350 employees at the Laurel plant are in the country illegally.
All entrances to the plant were sealed by heavily armed ICE officers wearing flak vests. Hispanic workers were segregated from other plant employees. Mobile trailers were set up to interview the employees, some of whom were loaded into vans and taken to an undisclosed location.
How one defines “Hispanic” might be worth somebody’s attention (let alone how this isn’t “racial profiling” … or is) as well as what those “undisclosed locations” are.
Two comments on the story were intriguing:
Heres one for you all. the State Auditor, who would be in charge of auditing Howard Industries for tax evasion, is Stacey Pickering. Stacey worked there for a few years and was well supported politically by Billy and Linda Howard. I was told first hand that BIlly and Linda told several of the higher upss (Vp’s) that they will give them x number of dollard to support Stacey’s campaign. Not asked, told. Trust me, I know this very well. So what happens now if/when his time comes to do the Tax Audit of employing 350 illegal immigrants and not paying appropriate taxes like you would a regular legal worker. I can assure you that BIlly and Linda Howard will work overtime not to have to pay what their workes (both legal and illegal) give to them. I know several people that have worked for them and left simply because they (BIlly and Linda) are the only ones making any good money over there. And they make alot.
I don’t think the State Auditor would be reviewing the company’s books. But Billy Howard, the company’s CEO is a major player in Mississippi politics as are the Pickering family. Stacey Pickering was working for Howard when he ran for State Auditor.
I know nothing about Mississippi, or the labor situation in Laurel. This is also worth a look:
Cheap wages is not the main reason for them hiring illegals knowingly. Laurel is small and practically everyone at one time or another has worked for them in some capacity at one of the 4 div. They treat their employees terrible, and have no respect for them at all. They’ve gone through the labor force several times over, and the illegals just fill in the gaps that personell can’t fill with legal citizens. This problem with the illegals will never go away with them because they can’t fill the positions otherwise. It’s a numbers game, if you don’t have enough people to man the lines, you can’t get orders out. The Howard’s would have you beleive that they are the most intelligent and informed people in the world, but act like they don’t have a clue that the 350 people detained were illegals. Keep in mind that this was done on the day shift. Watch and see who takes the fall for hiring these people. Probably the personell mgr that makes 25K a year and did exactly what he was told to do.
Mention was made in the Clarion-Ledger/American story that the raid came after union complaints. Is this true? I notice a pattern of immigration raids following unionization attempts at large employers.
I try to write on Mexico and Mexican history, culture and politics. While, by extension, that sometimes includes other parts of the Americas, including the United States of… in relationship to Mexico (including the border and immigration issues), this is outside what the MexFiles can do. I’d appreciate someone else (a lot of someone elses) picking up on this story.
Rememberances of things past
Joseph Nevins, in New American Media on the loss of simple decency in our dialogue about the border.
[I]n Imperial Beach, Calif. on Aug. 18, 1971 to inaugurate a state park…the First Lady promised to cross the boundary to shake hands with some of the hundreds of Mexican nationals witnessing her visit. As reported in the Los Angeles Times, she declared, “I hate to see a fence anywhere.”
After a member of her security detail cut a section of the then barbed-wire barrier, she traversed the divide and embraced Mexican children, stating, “I hope there won’t be a fence here too long.”
There were no criticisms of Pat Nixon’s statements and actions—at least as indicated by press coverage.
The appearance of what many locals used to call Friendship Park reflects the radical shift that has taken place since the First Lady’s visit.
Maybe the terrorists won?
I always thought the way to fight terrorism was to refuse to be terrified. And that the point of terrorism was to disrupt commerce and ordinary life enough to let a repressive regime take control. Forget Osama bin Ladin (apparently the Bush administration did)… even those who define liberty and justice and freedom in purely economic terms are being cowed into accepting a isolation and repression. And it seems almost no one is willing to do a damn thing about it.
I’m pessimistic that any regime change in Washington is going to resolve the destruction done to U.S. foreign relations and commerce by the Bush Administration (with the connivance of both Democrats and Republicans). Free trade my ass… if you don’t think a police state is here, you haven’t traveled lately…
Every few months, we travel to McAllen…
Arriving at the usual Reynosa/Pharr crossing … I was handing my passport to the border guard and answering the usual “Where are you going?” type questions. As always, I was directed to park in one of the Customs inspections bays and to go to the Immigration office for an I-94 entry permit. Traveling on a British passport (and under the Visa Waiver program) I was unconcerned, as everything, so far, was quite ordinary.
…
I was motioned forward and I gave the officer my passport and the orange form given to me by the border guard outside. The form had scrawled upon it ‘OTM – RQ.I-94’ that is, I was ‘Other Than Mexican’ and that I required and I-94 Entry Permit.
The officer was a greasy-haired, doughy-faced Chicana with gimlet eyes, bad skin and a very visible chip on her shoulder. She leafed through my passport to the last page.
“I need to see proof of solvency and residency”, she growled, in a curiously squeaky way.
Uh-oh, this was new. The only way to genuinely prove one’s economic condition is by bank statements. Not only do I not have a bank account but why would I be carrying statements with me?
…
“The requirement has always been in place for those who fail to present the correct visa!”.…
“We are NOT IN MEXICO!” shouted the CBP officer, visibly reddening.
Needless to say, the U.S. has probably lost another “free trader”.
(21:00 — The New York Times has their story posted, saying “at least 350 workers” said to be in the country illegally were detained. Barbara Gonzalez, the ICE spokeswoman, said dozens of workers had been “identified, fingerprinted, interviewed, photographed and processed for removal from the U.S.” [Which sounds like they may be herded through the courts, or whisked off to detention centers somewhere out of sight, out of mind. ]
At Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Laurel, an interpreter (with an anglo name) was interviewed who was bringing several children to the Church. As in Postville, it’s going to be the Churches that have to deal with these situations. The ICE spokeswoman:
said the workers would be taken to an ICE detention center to “await the outcome of their cases.” She said 50 would be “released into the community” instead of being sent to the center, for “humanitarian reasons,” including medical difficulties or the need to take care of children.
She said no lawyers were present while the workers were being interrogated. “Everyone will have due process under law,” Ms. Gonzalez said.
“Due process” in immigration cases is dubious at best.
And, I have to admit, that while the bump in ‘hits’ is nice (and I don’t have advertising, so it doesn’t change my income — I depend on donations to keep this site going), it should be a little embarrassing that this is being followed from Mexico, and not by the usual suspects in the immigration rights and political people on the blogosphere. Slightly bothersome is that I found out about this not from immigrant rights websites, but from one of those “Stop the Illegals” sites.
(added information after original posting on promigrant.com in boldface)
I don’t have much on this. The Mobile (AL) Clarion-Ledger is reporting only that there is an ICE raid at Howard Industries in Laurel, MS, which appears to be another Postville raid in the making. Laurel is a city of about 18,000 best known for being the birthplace of pop singer Lance Bass and the fictional home of Blanche DuBois (OK, I looked up the place on “Wikipedia” — never heard of it before). Melvin Mack, Laurel’s Mayor says of his city:
From the beginning Laurel has been a city who welcomes “outsiders” and incorporates them into its very fiber. Our Hispanic population has been welcomed by the community, and we are proud of the way that we have worked with them for the cultural enrichment of us all.
Howard Industries is the largest employer in the community. It makes lighting products and electrical equipment. A second Howard facility, in nearby Ellisville, was also apparently been closed by ICE this afternoon.
Three things makes me think this may be a large Postville style raid. The Clarion-Ledger was unable to get hold of anyone at the plant, other than the guard shack at the front gate…
An updated story in the Hattiesburg (MS) American (I know I don’t use AP, but it’s all that’s available, and I’m not directly quoting) says that the plant has had to shut down because the number of people detained has left the plant short of workers.
A second report in the Mobile paper quotes the Rev. Nilpon Garcia, pastor of the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Laurel, who said he had family members of eight Hispanic workers at Howard Industries call him this morning upset about the raid. The Seventh Day Adventists are a tiny sect in the United States, but the second or third largest (after the Roman Catholic Church) denomination in Mexico … found mostly in Oaxaca, Chiapas and Tabasco. It’s still a very small number of people, but eight being detained might suggest a much larger number of detainees who so not members of this particular small community. The pastor of a second church, Rev. Roberto Valez of Peniel Christian Church, was quoted as saying parishioners were picking up children of plant workers from school, and church members were preparing meals when visited by reporters.
Another clue: the local media is giving out an ICE telephone number of relatives to check on the detention of Howard employees.
From the comments in the Clarion-Ledger, it appears that State Auditor, Republican Stacey Pickering was Howard Industries Vice President for Corporate and Media Relations. CEO Billy Howard is a major contributor to Republican candidates: he is listed as giving the maximum legal allowance (2,300) to John McCain in Q2 2008.
But this is the kicker — remember the Postville raids came just as health and safety violations against Agriprocessors were about to being filed. Emma James of the Hattiesburg American is quoting Barbara Gonzales, the ICE spokesperson, as saying the raids were the result of a “union tip.”
Even more interesting, the Laurel Leader-Call reported on 11-June-2008:
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has proposed $193,000 in penalties against Howard Industries for 54 violations of federal safety rules at the company’s two manufacturing locations in Laurel.
The producer of electrical power products is being cited with 36 serious violations and proposed penalties of $123,500 at its Pendorf Road plant, with an additional 15 serious violations and proposed penalties of $41,000 at its Eastview plant. The violations include failing to provide employees with proper protective equipment, and to provide machine guards and lockout-tagout procedures. Lockout/tagout refers to preventing accidental start-up of machinery during maintenance.
Two repeat violations with penalties of $27,500 are being proposed for violations similar to those noted during earlier inspections in 2007. Chemical containers lacked identification labels and chains used as slings for lifting loads were shortened using makeshift measures rather than reducing the number of links.
One citation with a $1,000 penalty has been proposed for the company’s failure to make material safety data sheets (MSDS) readily accessible to employees in their work area. A MSDS provides both employees and emergency personnel with information that is of particular use if a spill or other accident occurs.
“It is unconscionable for an employer to tolerate serious injuries, including amputations, as just a cost of doing business, rather than get out into the production areas and fix these numerous problems before employees get injured,” said Clyde Payne, director of OSHA’s Jackson Area Office.
Updates as I learn more.
Supreme Court, abortion… sound familiar?
Just as in the United States, every time an abortion case comes before the Supreme Court, the pundits and experts all start reading the tea leaves over what the justices might do. This latest case seeks to roll back last year’s changes in the Federal District that depenalized abortion in the first trimester
Seven years ago, the Supreme Court approved the then-new Federal District law that allowed abortions in very strict circumstances — when a child would be born with congenital deformities that made its survival unlikely, or when the mother’s pregnancy was the result of rape or incest. A few states also allow abortion when the family already has several children and another child would be an economic hardship. The more liberal law has not been tested by the court.
The “Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nacion” has eleven “Ministers”, appointed by the Senate. As in the United States, the Ministers have a life-time appointment, but unlike the United States, they elects among themselves the “Presidente” or Chief Justice, who serves a three year term, and may be re-elected. Two previous Presidentes are presently on the court.
In the Mexican Supreme Court, a single judge is tasked with writing a brief recommending a finding, which is then discussed and voted on in an open session… which is televised and distributed on cable television, by the way. The U.S. Supreme Court still does not allow cameras in its chambers, and deliberates behind closed doors. Recommending that the new law — and the old Federal District law be rolled back to the previous federal legislation (which penalizes the woman seeking an abortion with three months in jail) — is Sergio Salvador Aguirre Anguiano.
Minister Aguirre, who has been on the Court since 1995, unlike the other Ministers who are mostly legal scholars or worked as government lawyers, had a political career in his native Jalisco, is a graduate of the Opus Dei influenced Autonomous University of Guadalajara, and had little experience outside his native state. While one other Minister was educated in a Catholic university (José de Jesús Gudiño Pelayo, a graduate of the Jesuit Universidad Iberoamerica), he too made his career in public service, and was a professor in the state universities throughout the country. Several of the Ministers have done graduate work, or taught, abroad — in Spain, England and the United States.
It isn’t expected that Minister Aguirre will be able to convince more than two, and maybe three other justices to accept his arguments. The specific legal issue is whether the Federal District Assembly has the legal authority to write health code issues, but the justices are complaining publicly that the 610 documents presented to the court (along with testimony form the Federal Prosecutor’s Office and the Federal Human Rights Commission, both in support of Aguirre’s position) covers areas outside the law, going into matters of psychology, morals and philosophy and is “too much information” for their deliberations.
Bringing the case to court may backfire for the anti-abortion forces. Should the law be upheld (and I predict it will, by 8-3 or 7-4), several State Legislatures may introduce their own liberalized abortion laws.
Seventy-five points to consider
The Acuerdo Nacional por la Seguridad, la Justicia y la Legalidad isn’t a bad document, but it is not — by itself — going to create a Perfect Union… with liberty and justice for all.
The seventy-five point document is a compromise of sorts among the elites: the federal, state and municipal executives, the political parties, the church and the “mainstream media”. While the kidnapping and murder of a rich kid (as Blogtitlan carped) — and the (largely media created, and wel-organized) public reaction to that murder was the impetus for the Acuerdo, the few “public voices” in the discussion were from organizations controlled by the parties to the agreement. From the beginning, there was political posturing — and still is — with dramatic promises to resign if goals are not met, and challenges by one set of politicos to their rivals to join them in making these kinds of statements.
The agreement itself is very good. Although most U.S. reporting has just focused on increased criminal penalities for crimes like kidnapping, Dudley Althous of the Houston Chronicle was the only U.S. reporter to get to the heart of the proposed reforms.
Facing public outrage over runaway crime, Mexico’s federal and state leaders on Thursday unveiled a coordinated plan to purge police forces nationwide and rebuild the country’s justice system.
“The truth is we are all responsible,” President Felipe Calderon told the National Conference on Security, Justice and Legality. “The proliferation of crime could not have happened without years of protection and impunity.”
The objective, Calderon said, was to create police forces “that protect citizens — not the criminals.”
Calderon and his senior public security officials, in a 75-point agreement with the country’s governors, congressional members and judicial leaders, committed themselves to investigate all local, state and federal police forces within a year, purging officers found to be corrupt.
They agreed to create state anti-kidnapping units, impose harsher sentences for kidnappers and draw up a national strategy to reduce abductions.
They pledged to set up a national system of standards for police and create federally assisted agencies in each state to continually vet police forces.
They called for programs to better select and train judges and the prosecutors who direct criminal investigations.
“We must stop criminality,” Calderon told the meeting held at the ornate National Palace in the heart of the Mexican capital. “And the first step is getting it out of our own house.”
Also highly important — and groundbreaking — is the attention to be paid to financial crimes. Money laundering, like gun-running, are basically ignored by the United States, and Mexico will have to, for the most part, try and control the situation from their own end. More border security was included in the plan. Agreements to introduce legislation lengthening prison sentences for kidnapping and murder — and those dealing with criminal punishment (a promise to build some more prisons) are fairly minor points.
A few — including more identity checks and tracking cell phone use — have some civil rights implications. A very few look at social issues — promising more treatment and rehabilitation for drug addicts, and a call by the Bishops to excommunicate kidnappers and murderers might marginally effect things (though the death penalty, backed only by the Greens [oddly enough] never was seriously considered, I suppose the thought of eternal damnation might dissuade a few desperate characters from criminal action). I would have liked to have seen more attention paid to the social issues — education and job creation — that leads to less glamorous, but much more common street crime — but it is a great start.
None of these are going to happen overnight, and the six month to three year time frame for measurable results might be unrealistic, though that should be enough time to push through the basic reforms. Just setting up better police vetting procedures (and citizen review boards) needs to be thought through. I don’t see where — and I don’t know how — rural municipios will get the funding they need to make these changes (or where they’ll find cops), or what is going to be done with the police and public ministers who are removed… the last thing Mexico needs is a bunch of new recruits for the criminal classes.
The ministerial (“prosecutor”) proposals are excellent. If I understand correctly, public ministers and judges will have special training, and federal officials will be regularly rotated throughout the country. I don’t know a lot about the Spanish court system, but Spanish lawyers who want to be judges and ministers go through special training and are tested to determine their strengths… then assigned to progressively more challenging assignments through their career. This creates ministers who are specialists in one or two areas of prosecution — labor violations or money laundering, for example — who can be dispatched to special needs areas.
As many on the streets, and one important dissenting faction has noted (quite rightly), without an equal commitment to dealing with impunity and economic injustice the package is incomplete. The big downfall of the plan is the expectation of immediate results. American historian Rick Perlstein recently wrote about the “Liberal Shock Doctrine” in the United States:
…most of the reforms that have advanced our nation’s status as a modern, liberalizing social democracy were pushed through during narrow windows of progressive opportunity — which subsequently slammed shut with the work not yet complete.
Perlstein is talking about Franklin Roosevelt’s “New Deal” and Lyndon Johnson’s civil rights packages and “Great Society”… but the same conditions seem to apply in Mexico. Long-range reforms in Mexico usually come with a lot more shocks than in the United States. The United States only had one civil war, and that one took years to materialize. Here, reforms like nationalizing the oil industry in the 1930s, or opening the political system to a strong multi-party system in the 1980s and 90s were accompanied by violent reaction. On the other hand, Mexican political culture (and Mexican culture in general) has always come down to coopting opposition, and a consensus among the elites.
Just creating new laws is not going to be enough:
As it is, half of the signers in the agreement would be in jail if the laws in this country were enforced. What can we expect from a pact signed by [Puebla Governor] Mario Marín, {PEMEX union leader] Romero Deschamps, {Teachers’ Union boss] Elbe Esther Gordillo and a dozen others who are perfect examples of impunity?
Jorge Zepada Patterson, writing in El Universal (my translation)
Will Mario Marín, who had journalists arrested on bogus charges, and protected pedophiles be brought to justice? Probably not. Will the police suddenly become warm and cuddly? Probably not. Will corrupt policial bosses like Elbe Esther still shape the national agenda? Afraid so. But… with some noise, and some drama (already seen in Baja Califonia Norte), this will at least reduce crime as an overwhelming national issue, and open a space for serious work on pressing long-range problems with environmental degradation, economic equality and democracy…
Crime of fashion
Nineteen year old Óscar González’ choice of fashion accessories recently earned him a visit to the Federal prosecutor’s office, for wardrobe function. “Porting ammunition reserved for the Armed Forces” is a federal offense, and those are live M-1 rounds he’s porting.
Obviously, Óscar was only attempting to update a Mexican classic style…
:
(Sombrero tip to ViceMexico)
Small change(s)
I’ve started updating my resources page. Several Latin American websites, blogs have been added, and I removed one tourist resource (Mexonline.com) which still bills itself as “the oldest and most trusted on-line guide to Mexico”. It may be the oldest, but it isn’t trustworthy. Basic factual data (like the rules for importing your car) were completely wrong or out of date. Stick to Rollybrook.com for this kind of information. Lonely Planet’s Thorn Tree Mexico Branch is has long been a good resource for more than just hippies and backpackers. Even the well-heeled traveller will find it an informative and generally reliable source.
I also added a worthwhile Baja Real Estate blog, which deal more with the reality of foreigners living on the border (good and bad) than most foreign sites, and a damn site better than any of the real estate sites I’ve seen. I’m adding a couple of immigration sites later on this afternoon.
Oh… and I found an on-line English translation of Mariano Azuela’s “The Underdogs” — probably the one novel everyone with even the slightest interest in the Mexican Revolution (or the futility of war) should read at least once in their life.
I still haven’t gotten around to updating my media sources. I have two different lists, in different formats, and have to check the links — and get them into a single format — before I update them.
I received an e-mail this morning questioning how I could write about Mexico when I live in Texas. Hey, I know guys who get paid big bucks to sit in Washington DC and talk about places they aren’t. But, it’s a fair question. I do live in Mexico, it’s just I never updated by “Who we are” page until this morning.
Maybe I should be in DC, where I might be paid big bucks, but I’m in Mexico, where I depend on the very small amount I make from writing and translations, and donations:
Sunday Readings: 24-August-2008
And a good time is had by all…
When I was living in Mexico City, I started going to at least one “must visit” site a week. I finally gave up, when I calculated that at the rate of one a week, I’d be well over 100 by the time I finished my tour.
The San Francisco Chronicle’s Christine DeSol doesn’t quite give all the sites, but she did come up with “Ten great reasons to visit Mexico City,” suitable to anyone’s tastes:
The “Manhattan of Latin America” has more nightclubs and bars than any other city; you could spend a month there and never exhaust its party potential. Though the older, more traditional bars are mostly for men, the city has plenty of watering holes where women will be comfortable. Bars at the chic boutique hotels are a safe and stylish bet. The airy, third-floor bar at Ivoire, overlooking Lincoln Park, is a good place have a drink and mix with a crowd of young Mexicans. For dancing, try Love, in the Roma (don’t expect a lot of action until after midnight), or Loma, a restaurant bar in Polanco, with a silvery floor and bizarre lighting.
… It’s not the first place you’d think of for a family vacation, but Mexico City can provide a week’s worth of fun for kids. Chapultapec Park, with its children’s museum, zoo, pony rides, rowboats and bicycle rentals, amusement and water parks, is a world of wonder all by itself.
Cost Plus
…………… PLUS
The border wall is so wrong on so many levels, sometimes we miss the most obvious problems. For that, you need an expert. A North Carolina fence contractor starts running the numbers:
Since I am the owner of Raleigh Fence Contractors, LLC, in the Triangle area of North Carolina, I immediately pulled my calculator out to see the CPF (cost per foot) on this fence. My first problem is that my ProjectCalc Plus doesn’t hold enough digits to calculate past 7 figures! I guess I never knew that since my projects never go over 5 figures. Of course, I haven’t ever landed one of those government projects either! So, after using a different calculator, I determined that we are paying over $3000.00 per foot for a border fence. Is this another version of our government paying $300 for staplers? Why does it cost so much to build this fence? It is a 15′ tall steel mesh fence. So, more research was in order.
Take Me Out To the Ball Game
Saul Landau in the 19-August-2008 Counterpunch asks is it “Baseball Diplomacy or Just Baseball” when a little leage team’s trip to an exhibition game in Havana led to Congressional infighting:
When Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-FL) learned about a scheduled trip of 11 and 12 year old kids from Vermont and New Hampshire to Havana, he suffered a near panic attack. He then demanded an emergency meeting with officials from the State Department and Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). The obedient executive branch agency of course obeyed and scheduled the session.
Diaz Balart and his brother Mario, who also represents a south Florida district filled with Cuban exiles, get their knickers in a twist whenever they learn of any event that might even slightly dent the harsh rules of embargo and travel ban that they along with the other members of the Hate-Castro industry.
The monster within
Edmundo Rocha, Scholars and Rogues, on the hidden human cost to citizens of immigration raids and deportations (The Politics of Humanity: “A Hidden System”)
…many of us would like to believe we are courageous enough to resist unjust authority and would never abandon our core beliefs in the face of social pressures. However, the reality is, we can never predict our actions without being placed in similar situations.
Perhaps no one understands the roots of cruelty better than Philip Zimbardo. He is known for conducting the famous Stanford Prison Experiment, which demonstrated how, under the right circumstances, ordinary people could quickly become amoral monsters.
Mistakes do not happen…
It’s not just “illegals” that are at risk from ICE, and not just along the U.S./Mexican border. Nina Shapiro gets the run-around from government liars spokespersons when she covers the case of the Army veteran held for seven months at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington (13-August 2008 Seattle Weekly, “Detainees Refute Northwest ICE’s Denials of Abuse”):
The report also references work by the NWIRP, which identified nine detainees at the facility, from July 2006 until early 2008, who turned out to be U.S. citizens. Because detainees have no right to a court-appointed attorney, and federal statistics show that most detainees are not in fact represented, it is difficult once detained to prove that you don’t belong there, according to NWIRP executive director Jorge Barón.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) spokesperson Lorie Dankers immediately called the report a “work of fiction” and noted that it cited only anonymous sources….
Immigration officials should be able to determine whether a foreign national is a citizen or legal resident by checking a federal database that registers such information. Josephson repeatedly asked Malloy whether the database had turned up any verification of Castillo’s claims. Malloy said it did not. But there had been a filing screw-up that resulted in two “alien” numbers for Castillo, according to legal papers, and Malloy was checking under the wrong number. In April 2006, Castillo received Army documentation of his service which referred to the second alien number (similar to a Social Security number for immigrants). Still, he was not released until June, after the Board of Immigration Appeals remanded the case back to the immigration judge, who reversed the deportation order.
“ICE never knowingly detains a U.S. citizen,” says Dankers.
But apparently, as Castillo’s case shows, ICE makes mistakes.
Et in arcadia ergo…
ICE isn’t the only branch of Homeland Security to be ripped a new one (justifiably). Emily Feder (18-August-2008 Alternet) found that At JFK Airport, Denying Basic Rights Is Just Another Day at the Office:
After 28 hours of traveling, I had settled into a hazy awareness that this was the last, most familiar leg of a long journey. I exchanged friendly words with the Homeland Security official who was recording my name in his computer. He scrolled through my passport, and when his thumb rested on my Syrian visa, he paused. Jerking toward the door of his glass-enclosed booth, he slid my passport into a dingy green plastic folder and walked down the hallway, motioning for me to follow with a flick of his wrist. Where was he taking me, I asked him. “You’ll find out,” he said…
…After four hours, I finally demanded to speak to the guards’ supervisor, and he was called down. I asked if the detainees could file a formal complaint. He said there were complaint forms (which, in English and Spanish, direct one to the Department of Homeland Security’s Web site, where one must enter extensive personal information in order to file a “Trip Summary”) but initially refused to hand them out or to give me his telephone number. “The Department of Homeland Security is understaffed, underfunded, and I have men here who are doing 14-hour days.” He tried to intimidate me when I wrote down his name — “So, you’re writing down our names. Well, we have more on you” — and asked me questions about my address and my profession in front of the rest of the people detained.
…
I have traveled to many different places, some supposedly repressive, and have never seen people treated with the kind of animosity that Homeland Security showed that night. In Syria, border control officers were stern but polite. At other borders there have been bureaucracies to contend with — excruciating for both Americans and other foreign nationals. I’ve met Russian officials with dead, suspicious looks in their eyes and arms tired from stamping so many visas, but in America, the Homeland Security officials I encountered were very much alive — like vultures waiting to eat.
The “liberal media” …
I don’t know what kind of review — if any — my book will be getting from the New York Times. Their undersanding of Latin America has always been poor at best, and biased at worst, and generally reported by people without a clue as to what is going on. Abiding In Bolivia wonders how the Times missed the obvious fascist goons running around the “autonomous regions”:
Could it be, that actual the pro-autonomy guys driving around with bats, swastikas, neonazi crosses, and calling themselves the “Santa Cruz Youth Union” are actually wanna be fascist youth? That the leaders of the autonomy movement are desperately trying to stoke violence confrontation in order to delegitimize Morales’ hugely popular government and justify their wildest cumtastic fantasies in a golpe de estado? Hmm, so how are we going to explain ourselves out of this one now that we’ve been cheering these racists and fascists on for months in their struggle against Morales?
Ah, the New York Times editorial desk gives us a good one. Call for everyone to deescalate their fiery rhetoric. You know, all that divisiveness Morales has been sowing, forcing our good pro autonomy movement towards violence. Yeah. Morales needs to compromise. That’s it.
Mr. Morales and his rivals must tone down their rhetoric and start looking for a solution. It is possible to empower and improve the lives of Bolivia’s long-neglected indigenous peoples while also incorporating legitimate demands for regional autonomy. An equitable division of the nation’s gas wealth can be negotiated.
Hey, actually I’ve got a suggestion for you asswipes at the NYT editorial desk. Get one of your interns who reads Spanish and have them pull up a copy of the proposed constitution and actually read it. Because you know what they will find. That it does exactly what you’ve just called for. That’s right, the Media Luna gets their autonomy and fair share of gas wealth, along with the impoverished indigenous majority.
mexfiles.net 