tag:newamericamedia.org,2009-04-06://19 2013-05-10T21:44:57Z New America Media is a nationwide association of over 3000 ethnic media organizations representing the development of a more inclusive journalism. Founded in 1996 by Pacific News Service, New America Media promotes ethnic media by strengthening the editorial and economic viability of this increasingly influential segment of America's communications industry. tag:newamericamedia.org,2013://19.11396 2013-05-09T08:05:00Z 2013-05-10T21:44:57Z

Arturo Varela // Translated by Elena Shore ]]> http://publisher.namx.org/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=19&id=103 PHILADELPHIA -- For Ada Bello, a 79-year-old LGBT rights activist, growing up on the island of Cuba was “terrible” due to the risk of being identified as a lesbian. So in 1959, when Bello was in her 20s, she emigrated to the United States, where she became one of the early pioneers of the LGBT rights movement in Philadelphia.

“One’s behavior was enough for them [the Cuban government] to take legal action against you,” said Bello, remembering her youth on the island. “Even though men were the most affected, women had less freedom.”

The consequences of being identified as a lesbian in Cuba were serious.  For some families, it was an affront to their honor that meant having to leave the country entirely.

“I didn’t feel any remorse for being a lesbian, but I knew I was going to have to live my life in the shadows,” said Bello. “So I decided the only solution was to leave the country.”

In Cuba, Bello knew two or three other gay women. At least she thought they were gay, “because in many cases they wouldn’t even confide in each other, out of fear” – no doubt a scenario that is difficult to imagine today.

As a young woman, Bello moved from Matanzas, a town where everyone knew each other and gossiped, to Havana.  She soon discovered that the university community there was just as small as the city where she grew up.

Just before the revolution, in the midst of conflicts between students in Havana and the police, the university shut its doors. When Fidel Castro assumed power shortly thereafter, it didn’t make much of a difference for her or for other gay people on the island – at least at first.

“But then they started to persecute people they considered to be a threat to society,” said Bello. “That included homosexuals.”

Those who were identified in the raids were confined to labor camps.

“When the world learned this was happening, there was a lot of pressure on the Cuban government,” said Bello, who recalled the impact of the Spanish documentary “Improper Conduct,” which exposed the persecution of homosexuals and intellectuals in Castro’s Cuba during the beginning of the Cuban revolution.

“That was a very important moment, when the practice started to change,” said Bello.

By then, Bello had already left Cuba and was attending college in the United States. At that time, getting into an American university was reason enough to be allowed to leave the island.

“When I got to Louisiana I found I had a lot more freedom because no one knew me, and I had a lot more privacy than I did with my family in Cuba,” said Bello. “I was near New Orleans, a big city with gay and lesbian bars.”

After graduating with a major in chemistry, she went to work, always being discrete, afraid that if she were discovered she could lose her job.

The American South, which at first had offered her so much freedom, eventually seemed too small for her and in 1962 she moved to Philadelphia, where she would become a true pioneer in the movement for gay rights.

In the City of Brotherly Love, Bello was a founding member in 1967 of the local chapter of the organization known as Daughters of Bilitis (DOB), which led a year later to the creation of the Homophile Action League (HAL).

“We held peaceful protests against the raids the police were conducting on gay and lesbian bars. They were arresting the customers at night and weren’t letting them go until the morning,” said Bello. “We challenged the police and they realized that there was a group of people that was watching what they were doing and they couldn’t just act unjustly.”

From 1966 to 1968, on the Fourth of July in front of Independence Hall, the first demonstrations for the rights of the LGBT community were held in Philadelphia. Bello participated in the last of these.

A year later the Stonewall riots broke out in New York, a series of violent demonstrations by the gay community against police raids, considered to be the most important events that led to the LGBT liberation movement and the struggle for gay rights.

After helping to organize the first gay rights march in the Big Apple in 1970, HAL organized LGBT conferences until the organization stopped operating in 1972.

“After Stonewall, the methodology was different. It was no longer a question of covert action, but of integrating into the political process, and that required another type of structure,” said Bello.

She later joined different organizations in Philadelphia, such as the William Way Center and the Philadelphia Lesbian and Gay Task Force — which was responsible for the inclusion in 1983 of the protection of homosexuals in a local ordinance that previously only protected against discrimination based on race or religion.

Today, one of the streets where police used to carry out raids on the LGBT community in Philadelphia is named after Barbara Gittings, one of the activists Bello worked with in the struggle.

Bello later shifted her focus to her career, but she didn’t give up her activism.

“When I came to the United States from Cuba, I thought I had arrived in paradise, that I’d found a lot of freedom,” said Bello. “Then I saw all the battles that had to be fought, and that led me to activism.”

Although there is still a long way to go toward equality for the civil rights of the LGBT community, Bello believes that in her 79 years she has seen major changes both in the United States and in her native Cuba.

“In those days, it seemed like it was going to take an eternity, but the speed of the change has been incredible,” said Bello. “Back then we were fighting because they considered us criminals. Now we are fighting for marriage equality, and we have to keep fighting so we don’t return to the past.”

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EGP News ]]> http://publisher.namx.org/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=19&id=103 In hopes of addressing concerns over the safety of seniors and the disabled who often become the target of abuse, the State Assembly has passed two bills proposed by Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia (D-Bell Gardens), one that could help keep the whereabouts of seniors who are the victims of abuse confidential, and another that would require background checks of those employed to provide transportation for the elderly and disabled in Los Angeles County.

Garcia proposed the bills, AB 849 and AB 971 after seeing “loopholes” in laws protecting the safety of seniors and the disabled, said Tim Reardon, her chief of staff.

He said the bills are meant to be “easy fixes” to real problems that impact the community but have not been addressed. The State Assembly unanimously passed both bills last month, but the Senate must also approve them before they can become law.

AB 849, “Keeping Seniors Safe,” will allow elderly and disabled victims of abuse to enroll in a confidentiality program that will help keep their home addresses hidden from their abusers. The “Paratransit” bill, AB 971, would give LA Paratransit; a Los Angeles County based transportation service for the elderly and disabled the authority to conduct background checks on its employees. Current law prohibits employers of this type from asking potential employees to disclose past criminal records or from investigating them on their own.

Garcia, whose district covers Artesia, Bell Gardens, Bellflower, Cerritos, Commerce, Downey, Montebello, Pico Rivera and Norwalk, said Access Service, an LA Paratransit provider, should have the right to conduct thorough background checks of its drivers before they are considered for employment. Read more here.]]> tag:newamericamedia.org,2013://19.11366 2013-05-04T08:20:00Z 2013-05-04T15:51:24Z

Kelly Chung Dawson ]]> http://publisher.namx.org/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=19&id=103 The Immigration Act of 1990 introduced the EB-5 visa, an "employment-based" route to legal permanent US residency - a "green card" - for foreigners with enough money to invest.

Working with privately run regional EB-5 centers, investors must be able to prove that their money has gone toward creation of at least 10 jobs for US citizens, through a venture that promotes "economic growth, including increased export sales, improved regional productivity, job creation or increased domestic capital investment," according to US Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Projects with EB-5 financing include the $172 million Marriott hotel now under construction in downtown Los Angeles. The venture is expected to create 800 temporary construction jobs and 200 permanent jobs.

The program, which sets a minimum investment of $500,000 for projects in high-unemployment or rural areas and a $1 million threshold for other projects, has drawn criticism for creating a system that links the prospect of citizenship to an applicant's ability to pay. Whether it actually creates jobs or stimulates local economies has also been questioned.

A project involving an EB-5 applicant must demonstrate only that it has "indirectly" created jobs, a loophole that has proven easy to slip through. A recent rash of scams targeting would-be investors has caused new problems for applicants, the private operators of regional EB-5 processing centers that match applicants with suitable business opportunities and federal immigration authorities.

The program's supporters point to the benefits such investment can bring to local economies, especially at a time when deal financing by US banks remains slow. Reports of fraud and deals falling apart, the proponents argue, are the exception for a program projected to have almost 10,000 participants this year.

The popularity of the EB-5 contrasts with the picture in 2007, when fewer than 800 people applied. That low number was due to "an onerous application process and lengthy adjudication periods", according to the Government Accountability Office.

But application procedures have since been streamlined, with a heavy push for applicants from China, where growing middle and upper classes have fueled increased immigration to the US.

US Citizenship and Immigration Services reports that of 7,641 EB-5 visas issued in fiscal year 2012, about 80 percent went to Chinese applicant-investors. Hundreds of consulting firms that specialize in EB-5 cases have cropped up in recent years, with advertising on television, radio and the Internet. Some consultants are said to charge as much as $175,000 for handling an application and matching it with a US business seeking investors.

Chinese applicants now have a wide selection of options to choose from, as American companies in various industries compete for EB-5 interest.

The China International Immigration Report found earlier this year that among the country's wealthiest (citizens with assets of over 100 million yuan, or about $16 million), 47 percent were considering moving abroad and 27 percent had already done so. For Chinese with assets of more than 10 million yuan, 60 percent had applied for an EB-5 or already received one.

The real estate website Soufun.com said that of 5,000 people surveyed, 41.5 percent cited better living conditions as a reason for emigrating, and 35.43 percent emphasized educational opportunities for their children.

Immediate family members of EB-5 investors are also eligible for conditional US residency, which is generally approved nine months after the investment has been initiated. Two years later, residency status becomes permanent; eventually the applicant and close relatives are eligible for US citizenship.

The program's higher visibility has been accompanied by scandal. The Securities and Exchange Commission in February sued an EB-5 regional center in Chicago and accused its operator, Anshoo Sethi, of defrauding more than 250 investors of about $156 million for a convention center and hotel project. Most of the investors were Chinese, the SEC said. Its lawsuit claims Sethi mismanaged the investors' money, including $11 million in administrative fees, and falsely marketed the project as a joint project with established hotel companies.

CIS, the nation's immigration enforcement agency, has responded with closer monitoring of regional centers and adding staff economists to assess the economic-impact claims of the centers and the investment-seeking companies with which they do business.

The program will expire in September 2015 unless Congress reauthorizes it, but its long-term future is uncertain. President Barack Obama said earlier this year that he hopes to make the EB-5 visa permanent.
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Kevin Bogardus and Russell Berman ]]> http://publisher.namx.org/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=19&id=103 Black lawmakers and civil rights groups are concerned by a proposal in the Senate’s immigration reform bill that would do away with “diversity” visas that are often a pathway for African and Caribbean immigrants to enter the United States.

Advocates said they haven’t seen evidence yet that a new merit-based program is an acceptable replacement for the diversity visas, which total 55,000 each year and are granted via a lottery.

Hilary Shelton, director of the NAACP Washington bureau, said he is telling lawmakers not to eliminate the diversity program when comprehensive immigration reform moves forward.

“At this point, we are urging lawmakers not to eliminate the diversity visa program,” Shelton told reporters. “This is one of the places in the bill that needs to be addressed. We will work with our friends in the Senate, and we have started working with our friends in the House as well.”

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), co-chairman of the immigration task force for the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), called the Senate bill “a significant step in the right direction” but said his caucus is worried about the plan to eliminate diversity visas.

“With respect to the abolishment of the diversity visa lottery program, the CBC is extremely concerned that it might limit the future flow of immigration for people from certain parts of the world,” Jeffries said. “That’s troublesome, and we’re evaluating the merit-based visa proposal to determine if it’s fair and balanced.”

The diversity program makes 55,000 visas available each year to countries with low immigration rates to the United States. Those awarded the visas are chosen by a lottery, with about half typically going to African immigrants.

Republican lawmakers have targeted the program in the past for elimination, arguing the program’s lottery system can lead to fraud and undermine national security.

The Senate bill proposes ending the diversity visas in 2015 and creating a new, merit-based visa program. It would make 120,000 visas available per year, rising to a maximum of 250,000, depending on the need for them and the unemployment rate. Immigrants would earn points toward visas based on their education, employment, family ties and other criteria.

“The jury is still out on whether the merit-based visas will be sufficient to address the concerns we have identified with diversity visas,” said Wade Henderson, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. “We are concerned but we are still looking, and we are still making a decision.”

Some groups are furious with lawmakers for putting the diversity program on the chopping block.

“This is not a zero-sum game where we take from one to give to another. That is not how comprehensive immigration reform should work,” said Bertha Lewis, president of The Black Institute. “We are really, really angry about this diversity visa business.”

Jeffries said it was “too early to say” whether he would support the Senate bill without changes. The CBC is in talks with lawmakers negotiating a House immigration overhaul, he said.

“The situation is still very much in flux, and we won’t know until the end of the month what that bill might ultimately look like,” Jeffries said.

Rep. Steven Horsford (D-Nev.), another co-chairman of the CBC’s immigration task force, said the group met on Wednesday afternoon to discuss the diversity visa issue.

“We continue to be concerned about the discontinuation of the diversity waiver, and the fact that … African and Caribbean immigrants who are participating in the diversity visa [program] per year could lose that pathway,” Horsford said.

Horsford said CBC leaders have been in talks with immigration reform negotiators in both the House and the Senate. He suggested the merit-based replacement program was included in the Senate bill at the urging of the CBC.

“In large part, this alternative has been proposed because of our concerns with the diversity visa [discontinuation]. Meaning, we brought this issue up when we heard that it was being talked about [being] eliminated,” Horsford said. “And we said, ‘Look, without some meaningful alternative that ensures that all communities, including Caribbean and African immigrants, are protected, then, you know, we [the CBC] would have major concern.’”

Horsford said Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.), another leader of the CBC’s immigration task force, has been in talks with Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), a member of the Senate’s “Gang of Eight,” about diversity visas.

“And now that we have the language, and now that we can see the alternative specifically, we can, you know, begin to work on how it affects our communities,” Horsford said.

Horsford said he expected the House immigration reform bill would have similar language related to diversity visas and the merit-based replacement program.

Shelton of the NAACP said he was hoping for “a strengthening” of the diversity visa program in the immigration reform bill by increasing its numbers of visas and expediting their processing time.

“It has not been demonstrated yet that the merit-based visas that are being lifted up will solve the problems that diversity visas were intended to solve,” Shelton said. “There may be a need for an amendment to fix this problem in the future to help African and Caribbean immigrants.”
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Pilar Marrero, Translated by Jonah Harris ]]> http://publisher.namx.org/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=19&id=103 Traducción al español

As Congress begins to discuss immigration reform, immigrant rights groups, DREAMers and their supporters marched in many U.S. cities, begging the question: Do these marches help achieve the goal of legislation beneficial to immigrants or are they counterproductive?

It all depends on whom you ask and how you interpret history. For Professor Gonzalo Santos, a sociologist at California State Bakersfield, you just have to look at the repercussions of the May 1, 1886 workers’ strike in Chicago.

"It is ironic that we are asking this question today, May 1, which commemorates an 1886 march of the emerging labor movement in Chicago demanding an eight-hour work day. That march was attacked by police, its leaders were eventually executed, and it was quashed immediately. But even so, it was the basis for the worldwide workers’ movement for decades to come," said Santos.

The same could be said, according to Santos, of the 1994 marches against California’s Proposition 187, the national mass mobilizations of 2006, and other marches in recent years. But, he admits, these demonstrations "combined with other actions to attain the eventual social change."

Randy Jurado Ertll, director of Pasadena’s Center of Social Action, said marches can help, but it depends on how they are carried out.

"The community has to mobilize and advocate, but not only on the issue of immigration. It should have the same commitment to other social issues," said Jurado Ertll. "The downside could be if there are multiple competing marches, as has happened in the past, and the Latino leadership is divided. The reality is we have to keep pushing key congressmen and senators to vote for reform that benefits everyone, not just Latinos. "

Pro-immigrant marches have been a significant movement of the last 19 years, but they have not always been seen as positive, at least not immediately. A large Los Angeles march in 1994 against Proposition 187 -- the controversial ballot measure that sought to limit services to undocumented immigrants in California -- was criticized for the number of Mexican flags waved by protesters. Meanwhile the massive mobilizations in various cities in 2006 were considered an important moment in the visibility of immigrants and undocumented workers in this country.

In 1994, the march against Prop 187 did not prevent the measure, which was approved by 59 percent of California voters, but the proposition was later blocked in court.

However, the results of the 2006 immigration can be considered mixed, at least at first glance.

"We must remember that these marches were to protest an extremely harmful law, the Sensenbrenner Bill, but did nothing positive to achieve immigration reform," said Kevin Johnson, dean of the UC Davis School of Law and blogger for Immigration Prof Blog.

Gustavo Bujanda, a Republican activist and critic of the anti-immigrant stance of many in his party, said that in his hometown of Dallas, the 2006 marches were an important wake-up call. "There had never been marches like that here; they were the first in history," said Bujanda. "The marches were positive because they showed the magnitude of the problem, but that does not mean they actually did something to pass immigration reform."

Bujanda said that "in Dallas, it is always the same people calling for marches, increasingly fewer people go and what I see are people who want to take credit and say they are indispensable," he said. "For me those who really help the community are the attorneys handling cases like the one against Farmers Branch and those behind the bill, not the activists who organize the marches -- many of them just want to take credit."

Aly Wayne, an undocumented immigrant and peace activist in New York, said yesterday that as he marched he had no idea the effect the demonstration would have in Congress.

"What I can tell you is that as an undocumented immigrant this is not just a calculation of [the political repercussions in] Washington. A couple of years ago we lost hope that politicians would change their minds and if we come out of the closet as undocumented immigrants, it’s a result of impatience with the system and a shift in consciousness: We refuse to have them continue to see us as 'criminals'," said Wayne.

"The marches are a right and I wish we had them about more things," said Melissa Salas Blair, another Republican critical of her party's anti-immigrant stance of recent years. "But I think that those who support the marches are generally Democrats, they’re not the ones that we need to mobilize and persuade. What is missing are Republican representatives in districts where they are afraid that if they support reform they’ll be voted out. They aren’t convinced by marches."

Christian Ramirez, an activist with the San Diego Immigrant Rights Consortium, said, "We can debate tactics like which flag we should carry, whether we should march with a white or red shirt, but really no one can question whether the people’s right to assemble peacefully is an appropriate tactic. It is a fundamental right in our society and for the health of democracy."


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Kent Paterson ]]> http://publisher.namx.org/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=19&id=103 Picture above: Servando “La Tuta” Gomez Martinez, the presumed leader of the Knights Templar Cartel that controls much of Michoacan, appeared in an April 27 YouTube video.

As immigrants rally in cities across the United States today, another drum beat of protest and revolt beats loudly in southern Mexico. Beginning as a teachers’ strike against a new federal education law last February, the protest is now transforming into a broad popular movement against not only the much-touted Pact for Mexico policies of new President Enrique Pena Nieto, but also the political and economic structures they are based on.

In the bigger scheme of things, the movement is squarely challenging an economic and educational agenda endorsed by the International Monetary Fund, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and Wall Street.

If the movement could be said to have an epicenter, it is in the Pacific state of Guerrero, where the protest against the federal education reform took a big leap this month with the founding of the Guerrero Popular Movement (MPG). Opponents of the law passed last December by the Mexican Congress argue that a new evaluation system imposed on teachers jeopardizes labor rights, and contains other provisions that will foster privatization and increase the cost of sending children to school.

Formed by unions, small farmer organizations, indigenous communities and youth activists, the MPG declared its opposition to the education reform, new mining projects in indigenous communities, any privatization of the national oil company Pemex, and proposals to increase the 16 percent sales tax.

“Now this is not just a movement of the teachers,” proclaimed the Regional Coordinator of Community Authorities, the leadership body of the community police and justice system in scores of Guerrero’s indigenous communities. “It’s a struggle of all-small farmers, parents, students, political and social organizations”

Government officials routinely minimize support for the teacher strike, but the MPG flexed its muscles with two large demonstrations that paralyzed the Guerrero state capital of Chilpancingo earlier this month. According to different estimates, each action drew between 50,000 and 120,000 people.

As its first order of business, the MPG supported an unsuccessful attempt by striking teachers to modify the federal education reform law by passing union-drafted legislation at the state level.

Represented by the Guerrero State Coordinator of Education Workers (CETEG), a large dissident organization within the official SNTE teachers’ union, the strikers combined street protests and occupations of government buildings with intense legislative lobbying efforts and on-and-off again negotiations with Guerrero Governor Angel Aguirre.

At one point sensing victory within its grasp, the CETEG suddenly suffered a major setback when state lawmakers from President Pena Nieto’s PRI party, backed by allies from other political parties including members of the once-emblematic PRD opposition party, approved a state law last week that ignored the CETEG’s main proposals and upheld the federal reform. The pro-reform lawmakers asserted that any legislation differing significantly from the federal law would not pass constitutional muster. They deny the reform will bring educational privatization.

Next act, Chilpancingo exploded.

As many as 9,000 CETEG and MPG supporters surged through the streets April 24 chanting slogans and denouncing the legislators. After a rally, protest leaders urged demonstrators to return to the strikers’ encampment in the capital city.

Whether due to manipulation by publicly unknown elements or spontaneous and uncontrollable rage, a large crowd that turned rowdy ignored the post-rally plans and began heading for the headquarters of the major political parties-left, right and center.

The crowd then trashed the party buildings- without political distinction- but dished out special treatment to the PRI, whose headquarters was thoroughly ransacked and torched. Columns of black smoke poured from the building before the blaze was extinguished.

“When the people rise up for bread, freedom and land, the powerful will tremble, from the Gulf to the Sierra!” the rioters chanted.

While some journalists were reportedly rousted, no one was injured in the violence, expect for one protestor who suffered a hand injury.

The April 24 Chilpancingo incident put the CETEG and MPG on the defensive, as the Mexican commercial media, which has treated the strike with hostility since the get-go, flashed images of the vandalism and the PRI fire. A litany of denunciations flowed from the political and business classes.

While in Acapulco for a bankers’ convention, President Pena Nieto curtly condemned the Chilpancingo violence. Faulting unidentified “external forces” for stoking a violent and intolerant movement, PRD Guerrero Governor Angel Aguirre announced that 39 arrest warrants were ready for strike leaders. Graco Ramirez, governor of neighboring Morelos state, called strike leaders “true delinquents” who should be detained.

Mumblings from shadowy government and media sources variously blamed the mayhem, with no concrete proof, on the EPR and ERPI guerrilla groups and even on left opposition leader and two-time presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador

Acapulco Mayor Luis Walton reiterated an appeal to the CETEG to refrain from blockading the Mexico City-Acapulco freeway, a tactic which led to recent confrontations with the Federal Police. Walton urged the strikers to conduct themselves in a manner that would not affect tourism in Acapulco, which accounts for 40 percent of the economic activity in impoverished Guerrero.

“Of course, the Federation should intervene,” Walton added. “It’s a federal law that motivated this problem. There has to be dialogue. If not, this will not be solved…”

Conversely, more than a few messages praising the trashings and arson attack on the PRI circulated on the Internet, with writers reflecting the seething anger a large sector of Mexican society holds for the government and all the political parties represented in it.

CETEG spokespersons eventually acknowledged that some of its supporters were to blame for a rampage not sanctioned by the leadership

If the conflict over the education reform law wasn’t enough to literally inflame a political crisis, a Guerrero state court added fuel to the fire the same week as the Chipancingo upheaval when it freed two state policemen accused of killing two students from the Ayotzinapa rural teachers’ college, Gabriel Echeverria de Jesus and Jorge Alexis Herrera, during a demonstration in December 2011.

Ayotzinapa is legendary for its student militancy, and the school is the alma matter for the locally revered guerrilla leaders Genaro Vazquez Rojas and Lucio Cabanas Barrientos of the 1960s and 1970s.

Indeed, a favorite chant of thousands of demonstrators in recent weeks has been, “Cuidado, cuidado, cuidado con Guerrero, estado guerrillero.” Simply put, the chant warns the government not to mess with a guerrilla state.

Last week, Ayotzinapa’s current generation of pupils lived up to the college’s reputation when students- reinforced by thousands of supporters from the CETEG and MPG- briefly blockaded the Mexico City-Acapulco freeway in Chilpancingo in a protest against a judge’s decision to free the alleged killers of their classmates.

Rocks were tossed at a contingent of federal officers monitoring the march, who responded with obscene finger gestures, but no major escalation of violence ensued.

For teachers, their movement has entered a critical phase. Trial balloons of replacing the strikers are floating in the air, and students stand to lose an entire semester if the conflict drags on much longer. Regrouping during the past few days, the CETEG and MPG are organizing May Day marches in Chilpancingo, Acapulco and other towns.

While Guerrero simmers, allied popular movements in the states of Chiapas, Oaxaca, Morelos and Michoacan are turning up the heat in their localities. All four states have very active local affiliates of the National Coordinator of Education Workers (CNTE), the CETEG’s national organization, and are witnessing the formation of broad popular fronts like Guerrero’s MPG. The CNTE plans an escalation of protests after May 1, when a large national march with other unions will also be convened in Mexico City.

So far, the movement has not gathered force in any big way in the central and northern border states, but teachers in the Resssiste organization of Ciudad Juarez are reportedly planning to stage a protest on May 1, a Mexican holiday.

Oaxaca education workers’ leader Ruben Nunez said the groundwork is being laid for a national strike against labor, education and energy reforms.

“In the (CNTE), we are preparing the terrain, the conditions, for an ongoing national mobilization,” Nunez said. “In Oaxaca, we already have the possibility, at any given moment, of setting the date for the uprising.”

Perhaps what distinguishes the current movement from previous ones is that teachers and their allies are proposing very detailed, alternative public policies or actually implementing them on the ground, as in the case of Guerrero’s community police and justice system.

Following the lead of Guerrero, CNTE affiliates in Chiapas and Michoacan have now struck many schools.

“We are clear that the ongoing strike reduces the number of school days,” said Michoacan CNTE official Victor Manuel Zavala. “But to not struggle against this badly-intentioned reform is to renounce the existence of public schools.”

In what might be interpreted as an attempt to curb the further spread of the movement, the general secretary of the official SNTE in the Pacific state of Colima has announced that two sections of the organization will not participate in the government-sponsored May Day parade. However, SNTE oficialistas in Chiapas have announced they will participate in a May 1 protest alongside the CNTE.

Union official Jose de Jesus Villanueva said the virtually unprecedented decision was necessary to counter “goon squads” from Guerrero and Michoacan trying to agitate the local teachers. However, it’s more likely the decision was made to curtail any possible, embarrassing protests by rank-and-file teachers against the education reform law.

Like Guerrero, the situation in Michoacan is reported as explosive, with student protests adding to a charged atmosphere.

Since last fall, students from the Tiripetio rural teachers’ college have repeatedly clashed with authorities over demands for resources and a guaranteed quota of 1,000 jobs for graduates. Last week, the “Tiris,” as they have become known, commandeered trucks belonging to Coca-Cola, Bimbo and other food and beverage firms. In Robin Hood style, the students gave away goods from companies that have a profitable business in schools to eager passerby in the state capital of Morelia.

In a message handed to the trucks’ drivers, the students claimed they took the action because of a government cut-off of resources to their schools. In preparation for a large May Day protest in Morelia, the Working Peoples Unitary Front declared that the public was “fed up” with low wages, jobs with no benefits, constant price increases, shoddy public transportation, and attacks on free public education.

Complicating the political landscape is Michoacan’s seemingly entrenched narco-violence, a phenomenon separate from, yet economically and sociologically linked to, the poverty and generalized discontent that underpins current social conflicts.

Simultaneous crises related to narco-violence, insecurity and social demands are tugging at the state, worsened by last weekend’s shoot-out that claimed 14 lives and resulted in numerous school closures in the Tierra Caliente region of the state. Finding himself immersed in a socio-political whirlwind, PRI Governor Fausto Vallejo, who was elected in a controversial 2011 election riddled with allegations of fraud, announced earlier this month he was taking a 90-day leave of absence, presumably to attend health problems.

And in an almost surreal cameo appearance in the unfolding Michoacan drama, Servando “La Tuta” Gomez Martinez, the presumed fugitive leader of the Knights Templar syndicate that controls a good chunk of Michoacan and surrounding states, popped up April 27 on a YouTube video.

Looking like Farmer Jones with a cow in the background for a prop, Gomez criticized Vallejo’s performance as governor and called for dialogue to restore order in Michoacan. The media-savvy Gomez counseled the state and federal governments to negotiate with his organization as well as the teachers and students. “We are delinquents,” he said, “but we are disposed to seek convincing measures to establish order, not only in Michoacan, but wherever we can.”

Octavio Ferris Leal, who served as an intelligence official under the PRD administration of former Michoacan Governor Lazaro Cardenas Batel (2000-2006), contended that a “hydra” of multiple conflicts, many of them connected to organized crime, has reared its deadly head over the land.

“It’s dangerous, since it could provoke a social explosion, not only in an entity governed by an inept and incompetent PRI, but in the entire country,” Ferris warned. “(Michoacan) could be the spark.”

In Guerrero too, the political fuse is very short, illustrated by the April 29 deliverance of Governor Angel Aguirre’s second government report while under the guard of thousands of police and transported supporters. Despite the recent developments in his state, an upbeat Aguirre insisted that “social peace and governance” prevail.

Earlier commenting on the political turbulence, the Guerrero edition of La Jornada newspaper contended that the conflict sprouting from the education reform law is a complex, multi-faceted one that encompasses issues of poverty, rebellious cultural peculiarities, political arrogance, poverty, and the federal abandonment of schools. The daily’s editors appealed for dialogue over repression.

“One could say that Guerrero is a powder keg,” the newspaper editorialized. “All that is missing is a match.”

In a separate piece, La Jornada columnist Raul Suarez Martinez also called for calm in a state that has “lost control.”

As a remedy to the polarization, Martinez proposed the creation of a peace commission for Guerrero similar to the initiative launched in Chiapas after the 1994 Zapatista uprising.

“The causes are different, which is to say they haven’t arrived to the extremes of Chiapas,” Suarez continued. “ It’s clear that only an external commission, removed from the conflict but which understands its roots and possible solutions, can defuse it.”


Sources: La Jornada, April 29 and 30, 2013. Articles by Elio Henriquez and Luis Hernandez Navarro. El Universal, April 25, 26, 29, 30, 2013. Articles by Alfredo Quiles, Dalia Martinez and Ricardo Aleman. La Jornada (Michoacan edition), April 25, 2013. Proceso/Apro, April 23, 24, 25, 28, 29, 2013. Articles by Ezequiel Flores Contreras and editorial staff.

El Sur, April 12, 17, 25, 26, 30 2013. Articles by Lourdes Chavez, Hugo Pacheco Leon, Agencia Reforma, and editorial staff. La Jornada (Guerrero edition), April 24, 25, 26, 29, 2013. Articles by Citlal Giles Sanchez, Hector Briseno, Margena de la O, Raul Suarez Martinez, and editorial staff. El Diario de Juarez, April 12, 18, 23, 24, 25, 2013. Articles by Antonio Rebolledo and Agencia Reforma.
]]> tag:newamericamedia.org,2013://19.11287 2013-04-17T21:00:00Z 2013-04-17T21:19:12Z

Ponte Al Día Editorial Staff ]]> http://publisher.namx.org/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=19&id=103 If there are any winners in the immigration reforms set out by the bipartisan Senate “Gang of 8” in the 844-page bill they released Tuesday night, it would have to be big business — which will see a significant increase in visas allotted to high-skilled workers and a new system of temporary visas for agricultural workers and low-skill laborers — and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) — which not only is entrusted with all aspects of border security but gets a hefty chunk of the bill’s $17 billion price tag to do it.

The bill satisfies few on the left or the right. Republican Rep. Lamar Smith has already slammed the legislation, and hours after the bill was released anti-immigration activists were already protesting outside Sen. Marco Rubio’s office. The conservative Republican and Tea Party favorite quickly released a statement saying the legislation will implement the toughest border security and immigration law enforcement in U.S. history before “a single” undocumented immigrant is able to apply for permanent residence in the U.S.

And that is one of the concessions of the bill that concerns immigration advocates. The bill requires DHS to submit (within six months) a “Comprehensive Southern Border Security Strategy” to achieve the agreed effectiveness rate (90 percent of entries at high risk border sections are apprehended or turned back). Presumably the enhanced security measures would include double-layer fencing, use of unmanned drones and deployment of thousands of new border patrol agents. No undocumented immigrant already resident in the U.S. will be able to file for registered provisional status until this security strategy is approved.

After that, provided the undocumented immigrant has a clean legal record, can pay a $500 fee and the assessed taxes, he or she can register for the provisional status (which does not permit access to any of the benefits of permanent residency but does prevent summary deportation).

Provisional status can be renewed after six years, with payment of another fee. After 10 years, those with provisional status should be able to pay a $1,000 penalty and apply for permanent resident status, which would not be accorded until all existing family and employment green cards have cleared the system.

All of which means undocumented immigrants would have close to a 15 year wait for the possibility of permanent resident status. (DREAM-Act eligible young immigrants and agricultural workers would have an expedited 5-year wait until they can apply for permanent residence.)

And that’s in the ideal.

If the DHS were unable to complete the security strategy to Congress’ satisfaction within the allotted 180-day period, however, a “Southern Border Security Commission” would be appointed (consisting of the governors of California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas and border security experts designated by the President, the Speaker of the House, the House minority leader, the Senate Majority Leader, and the Senate Minority leader) and registry for provisional status would start only after this body could agree on a security strategy for the border. Right now that would mean Jan Brewer, Rick Perry, Susana Martinez and Jerry Brown would play a huge part in whether undocumented immigrants ever see the possibility of a green card.

The Gang of 8’s bill has satisfied neither LGBT advocates (it does not include same-sex spouses in family visas) nor faith-based advocates (who decry the exclusion of siblings and adult children). But the switch from family-reunification priority to skills-based merit visas fits the Gang of 8‘s materialistic approach to reforming immigration. There are benefits to extending the length of time undocumented immigrants stay at provisional status — namely, they continue to generate revenue (rent, food, sales tax and automatic payments into social security, among others) without any access to social security benefits, or government-assisted health care or educational aid. Moreover, the fees, penalties and back taxes to be levied on the road to a green card, no less citizenship, would provide a revenue stream of its own.

Low-skill guest workers also generate income for the municipalities that host them, and under this plan (which creates a new bureau to administrate the W-visas) they would conveniently be sent home after a three-year stint.

In many ways, the practical proposals in the bill are fitted to what we’ve learned from Georgia, Alabama and Arizona: economies are devastated when we institute punitive immigration measures.

But the Gang of 8’s approach is hard to love. And the message it projects couldn’t be more different than the one we are fond of quoting from the Emma Lazarus poem on the Statue of Liberty. No huddled masses for us, thanks, unless they’re temporary and go home after three years. And breathing free? That’s got to wait another 15 years.
]]> tag:newamericamedia.org,2013://19.11231 2013-04-08T07:30:00Z 2013-04-06T00:48:16Z

Tonderayi Mukeredzi ]]> http://publisher.namx.org/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=19&id=103 Ni hao, Chinese for “hello,” or ting bu dong, meaning “I hear you, but I don’t understand,” are two expressions one often overhears today in Zimbabwe’s capital. It is one of the results of tenacious efforts by governments, private companies and individuals across Africa, but in Zimbabwe particularly, to learn the Chinese language and understand China’s culture.

Learning Chinese as a second or third language has been a global trend in the last few years. In Africa, the rapid increase of Chinese investments and trade (China is currently the continent’s biggest trading partner) has spurred the trend.

Zimbabwe’s government has been very deliberate in enhancing its bilateral relationship with China. It launched the Look East Policy in 2003 to give priority to investors from China, Japan, Singapore and other countries from that region. As a result, trade between China and Zimbabwe has been growing exponentially — China is now the biggest buyer of Zimbabwe’s tobacco.

Although learning Chinese dates back to Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle in the late 1960s and 1970s when freedom fighters went to China for military training, the trend has now accelerated significantly, and for different reasons.

Confucius Institute

To spread the Chinese language and culture, the government of China is utilizing a concept called Confucianism. Confucius was a great Chinese philosopher and educator born in 551 BC. The Chinese believe that his thoughts have tremendously influenced Chinese culture and even had an impact other cultures. Chinese people refer to Confucius as “a greater teacher.”

Zimbabwe leads the rest of the continent in the training of local teachers of Chinese, having integrated the Confucius Institute into the University of Zimbabwe’s academic structures in 2007, as part of an expanding network of about 400 Confucius Institutes worldwide. The program has largely been successful, and the university is poised to export surplus teachers of Chinese to other countries as well.

Professor Pedzisai Mashiri, the inaugural director of the Confucius Institute at the University of Zimbabwe, says that one of the institute’s goals is to promote the Chinese language and culture in Zimbabwe.

Because the government is yet to integrate Chinese into the national curriculum for primary and secondary schools, schools that host Confucius classes offer the Chinese language as an extra-curricular activity. More than a thousand students have received such language training through the institute since 2009. A few others are completing studies in China and will join the university soon.

A skill that pays

Observers say there has been a rising demand from organizations and individuals seeking to learn Chinese. Clarence Makoni, the founder of the Cendel Language Bridge, a private company that provides translations, interpretation and foreign language instruction, told Africa Renewal that there are huge benefits in learning foreign languages. Chinese, he says, is by far the most sought after.

“If you look at the rate at which the Chinese are coming into this country,” says Mr. Makoni, “you do not need to be a prophet to tell who is going to be the most significant employer in a few years to come. . . . All the people we train are snapped up by companies as soon as they finish their courses, and they are paid very handsomely.”

He adds that the ability to speak another major language besides English is a great selling point in the marketplace. A Chinese-speaking interpreter can rake in a monthly salary of Z$5,000, while a bilingual secretary with the same capabilities can claim up to Z$3,000 — earnings deemed at the top range in Zimbabwe.

Laston Mukaro, a language consultant and lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe’s linguistics department, says that although his job grading has not yet changed, he is now earning much more after learning Chinese.

“It makes sense to learn Chinese now other than for the reason necessitated by the government’s Look East Policy,” he says. “Chinese is one of the United Nation’s official languages and if you look at the way China is expanding into the world, you can do better if you speak their language.”

Mr. Mukaro also earns a lot of money from exchange programs between China and Zimbabwe. In addition, he frequently consults for the local Confucius Institute. Other benefits include his current work on a handbook for translating between Chinese and Shona, one of Zimbabwe’s main indigenous languages. “For those who travel to and do business with China a lot, and are privileged to tap its diverse tourism, then learning Chinese is practically obligatory and has immense benefits,” he says with enthusiasm.

More expansion ahead

Professor Mashiri says there are plans to open at least five more Chinese teaching points in other parts of the country, and to construct a Confucius Institute building at the University of Zimbabwe. The Chinese Embassy in Zimbabwe has also promised to build a cultural centre to strengthen cultural cooperation between the two countries.

The world is now a global village, requiring people to understand each other’s culture and languages, says Levi Nyagura, the University of Zimbabwe’s vice-chancellor. “We want to see Zimbabwean students get jobs in China. We will continue to work hard to institutionalize the Chinese language, as we have done with the other major world languages.”

There are also suggestions for introducing Chinese into the national curriculum. “The net effect,” argues Professor Mashiri, “is to have the teaching and learning of Chinese cascade from university to secondary and primary schools.”

]]> tag:newamericamedia.org,2013://19.11228 2013-04-07T07:30:00Z 2013-04-06T00:57:23Z

Sunita Sohrabji ]]> http://publisher.namx.org/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=19&id=103
Editor's Note: Ro Khanna, who has been called by the New York Times “a rising star in the Democratic Party,” says he wants to bring the innovative spirit of Silicon Valley to Washington.

FREMONT, Calif. -- Ro Khanna, formerly a high-ranking trade official in the Obama administration, announced this week his bid for California’s 17th District congressional seat, which is currently being held by the venerable Mike Honda.

Khanna and Honda are both Democrats likely to be pitted against each other in 2014, due to new state mandates which allow two opponents from the same party to run against each other in the general election. The district – from which Honda received 73 percent of the vote against Republican challenger Evelyn Li in 2012 – stretches from Cupertino to South Fremont and covers huge swaths of the Silicon Valley. Almost half of District 17’s residents are Asian American; Fremont is home to one of the largest concentrations of South Asians in the United States.

Both candidates have aggressively begun campaigning, 20 months before the general election. Khanna has already amassed $1.2 million for his congressional bid, according to his Dec. 31, 2012 Federal Elections Commission report. He has also recruited several key members of President Obama’s re-election campaign team, including Steve Spinner, who will serve as Khanna’s campaign chair. 

Jeremy Bird, who served as the Obama campaign’s national field director, will serve as a general consultant to Khanna’s campaign. Leah Cowan, formerly a field director with the Obama re-election campaign, will serve as Khanna’s campaign manager.

Honda, who has served in Congress since 2001 and co-chairs the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, has already received endorsements from President Barack Obama, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, and Howard Dean, former chair of the Democratic National Committee.

But Khanna characterized Honda as a politician who did not understand the economic dynamism of his community. “This district at this time needs a voice who understands the global economy, and what policies will foster entrepreneurship and growth,” the 36-year-old Indian American told India-West shortly before announcing his congressional bid. “We need real solutions about how we will compete in a global economy, and someone who can work across the aisle to find common ground between business and labor.”

“Congress has simply not focused on an economic growth agenda or supporting entrepreneurs. We need to have the right tax and trade policies that will encourage companies to stay in the United States and invest here,” he said.

“We need to figure out how to encourage more small- and medium-size businesses to take advantage of overseas markets and export. And we need to foster entrepreneurship,” said Khanna, the author of “Entrepreneurial Nation: Why Manufacturing Is Still Key to America's Future,” which was released by McGraw Hill last August.

Khanna, the former Deputy Assistant Secretary for the U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service in the Commerce Department, said he will push aggressively to make the Silicon Valley’s advanced electronics, semiconductors, and also clean technology products available to markets overseas without unfair tariffs or restrictions. He also hopes to aid small and medium businesses to gain access to capital to be able to export their products abroad.

To keep up with a global economy, Khanna opined that children need to learn to code as a “second language” and to be “exposed to entrepreneurship from an early age.”

In support of Khanna’s congressional bid, Kamil Hasan, founder of Hi-Tek Ventures, told India-West, “Ro represents the values and aspirations of our community very well. He also has a clear understanding of the issues important to the high tech community, and can strongly and pro-actively represent Silicon Valley in Congress.”

An at-large member of the Democratic National Committee, Hasan added, “Silicon Valley needs to get actively involved in helping strengthen our country's competitiveness, and in creating jobs. Ro is capable of achieving this. While we have a lot of respect and regard for Congressman Honda, and appreciate his contributions to the causes of Asian Americans, the time has come for a young and dynamic professional to represent this district.”

Anil Godhwani, co-founder of the India Community Center in Milpitas, said he is also supportive of Khanna’s run. “Given what Silicon Valley needs, Ro is the better choice to represent the tech community,” Godhwani told India-West.

Godhwani, who said he has known Khanna for about a decade, characterized the candidate as an entrepreneur who would bring fresh ideas and new energy to the 17th district.

Barbara O’Connor, former director of the Institute for the Study of Politics and Media at California State University, Sacramento, told India-West that Khanna will have to appeal to the large Asian American bloc which makes up almost 50 percent of the residents of his district. “Mike is well connected with the Asian American community and there’s a huge amount of support there for him,” she said.

“Ethnic groups love incumbents, and they are circumspect of challengers,” noted O’ Connor. “You’re not going to get them to give up an incumbent unless there’s a very compelling reason,” added O’Connor, emeritus professor of communications at CSUS.

“To win this race, Khanna must focus on independent voters and young people, who tend to be less partisan in their voting patterns. Both candidates will have to build large social media campaigns in addition to the shoe leather, door-knocking tradition of campaigns," said O'Connor.


]]> tag:newamericamedia.org,2013://19.11229 2013-04-05T22:30:58Z 2013-04-06T00:05:03Z

Roger Ebert lost his battle with cancer yesterday. He will be greatly missed. Most famous for his film criticism, he was the first movie critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Since 1967, and up to just three days ago...

Suzanne Joe Kai ]]> http://publisher.namx.org/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=19&id=103 Roger Ebert lost his battle with cancer yesterday. He will be greatly missed. Most famous for his film criticism, he was the first movie critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.

Since 1967, and up to just three days ago he wrote a column for the Chicago Sun-Times.

He authored twenty books, and co-hosted several long-running syndicated television shows including Siskel and Ebert at the Movies.

I will remember Roger Ebert not only for his reviews and commentary, but also for his advocacy of Asian American cinema.

I thank Roger Ebert for his outspoken support and standing up (literally) for a film called Better Luck Tomorrow.

When Ebert stood on his theater seat and yelled back at an audience member who was chastising the film's director Justin Lin and his cast on stage for making an "empty and amoral" film, it was a watershed moment in Asian American cinema.

Mind you, this was at the third screening of Lin's film Better Luck Tomorrow at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival where alot is at stake. Filmmakers are hoping that distribution deals are made.

A video posted on Youtube captured the moment. The audience member said, "You know how to make a movie. But why with the talent up there and yourself make a film as so empty and amoral for Asian Americans and Americans?"

Then Roger Ebert gets up and says "What I find very condescending and disturbing about your statement is nobody would say to a bunch of white filmmakers, "How could you do this to your people?!" (applause from the crowd) Then Ebert continues, "Yes, film has the right to be about these people and Asian American characters have the right to be whoever the hell they want to be. They do not have to represent their people."

And as America's influential dean of film critics sat back down in his seat, he had just put Better Luck Tomorrow on the map.

On February 2, 2010 Better Luck Tomorrow star Roger Fan reflects in his blog about his gratitude to Roger Ebert: Titled "Roger Ebert, our uncle from another mother."

Little did I know that Uncle Ebert would play such an important role in my (our) life so many years later at the Sundance Film Festival. Were it not for Uncle Ebert hoisting his large frame atop a theatre seat to loudly exclaim his opinions on the double standard imposed upon “ethnic” cinema and race expectations sprouting from it, I wonder if I’d even be working in Hollywood today. I wonder if BLT would have had enough juice to stand above the larger, more well-funded, highly star-studded competition films. We owe Roger Ebert a lot. Perhaps more than he’ll ever know. We are entwined in so many unexpected ways…

Roger Fan is not alone in his gratitude to Roger Ebert. Ebert's actions in support of that film has meant alot to many of us who would like to see more Asian Americans in filmmaking in front of and behind the camera, as well as more Asian American films to reach wider audiences.

I happen to live and work with many people who are film enthusiasts. So much so, that back in 2002-2003, when Justin Lin put the word out to enlist ground support to help encourage people to go out and buy a ticket to see his movie, we were among his hundreds of unknown, unnamed volunteers. We were on a mission. We also knew that if his movie flopped at the box office, it could be a set-back for Asian American cinema.

At that time, I was helping an internet start-up which had developed a powerful hands-off computerized movie reviews rating system which aggregated the reviews of independent movie critics. The website called RottenTomatoes.com, was created by Senh Duong with his team and founding partners Patrick Lee and Stephen Wang. Back then, this website (AsianConnections.com) was housed and managed on RT's servers so I could help as one of RottenTomatoes' ad directors and Hollywood red carpet movie premiere video producers.

Since it was pre-Facebook and pre-Twitter days, many of us volunteered to do an old school street team effort to get the word out, we bought tickets, posted stories online, and put up flyers and posters. Our writer/editor Lia Chang in New York did an interview with Justin Lin.

On Friday April 11, 2003 just as Better Luck Tomorrow was about to be released for its opening weekend in movie theaters, Roger Ebert posted his review. He wrote that Better Luck Tomorrow was a "brilliantly made film." With Roger Ebert further solidifying his praise for the film, as well as the positive reviews from other movie critics, It was a proud day for Asian American cinema.

With the passing of Roger Ebert yesterday, we've lost a champion. He has been courageously fighting cancer, and then he left us in style. He did what he loved to do all the way up to three days ago - reviewing movies and writing about them for his millions of fans. April 3 was his 46th year as a film critic at the Chicago Sun-Times.

As New York Times' Douglas Martin writes: Mr. Ebert — who said he saw 500 films a year and reviewed half of them — was once asked what movie he thought was shown over and over again in heaven, and what snack would be free of charge and calories there.“ ‘Citizen Kane’ and vanilla Häagen-Dazs ice cream,” he answered.
]]> tag:newamericamedia.org,2013://19.11204 2013-03-31T19:30:00Z 2013-03-29T23:57:04Z

Adrián Sánchez, Translated by Elena Shore ]]> http://publisher.namx.org/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=19&id=103 Photo: Aurelia Ventura/La Opinión

Traducción al español

Health care reform is already helping people struggling to get health insurance. I know -- my mother is one of them.

I was 10 when my mother was diagnosed with chronic lupus, a disease in which the immune system goes awry and attacks healthy tissue. This meant she was among those with "preexisting conditions," making it difficult for my family to get health insurance. The Affordable Care Act, which recently celebrated its third anniversary, is about to make life much easier.

Mom migrated from Mexico to the United States when she was 17, settling in Watsonville, Calif. Being undocumented and not knowing the language, she had few employment opportunities. She worked in the fields and packing industries of Salinas Valley for the next 30 years of her life.

Fortunately, my mother got legal residency when she was in her 30s, which allowed her to pay for health insurance through her employer. Then, at age 40, she was diagnosed with chronic lupus. There were mornings when she woke up almost paralyzed, with no feeling in her left arm and barely able to get out of bed.

I have a lot of memories of visiting my mother in the hospital, bringing her costly treatments and acting as a translator between Mom and health care professionals. At age 16, I started working to help my family since our insurance didn’t cover most of Mom’s hospital bills. Mom tried to enroll in different health care insurance plans that could better address her needs, but she was denied as a result of her pre-existing condition.

That’s about to change. Beginning in January 2014, people like my mother wil be able to purchase health insurance and not have to worry about being denied coverage based on a pre-existing condition.

My mother’s illness got worse in 2007, when my father was hospitalized due to a brain aneurism. She was hospitalized as a result of excessive stress, complicated by a flare-up of her lupus. In those days, I was visiting both of my parents in the hospital at the same time.

My father died during brain surgery, which put our family in serious financial need. Now working part-time and still uninsured, my mother sees the opportunity of the Affordable Care Act as a beacon of hope. The changes in Medi-Cal’s eligibility requirements as a result of health care reform mean that my mom will now be eligible to enroll.

The expansion of Medi-Cal could help millions of people. We need Governor Brown to do what’s fair for all Californians, to have the state continue to supervise Medi-Cal and continue to allocate resources for our counties, to guarantee a solid safety net for those who are uninsured, including the undocumented.

We are now in the process of signing my mom up for our county’s Low-Income Health Program, which acts as a bridge to Medi-Cal for people like her who have the right to join the program in January. Soon, my mom will have the security of having health insurace and knowing that her illness will not ruin her economically. Millions of Americans will soon have the same peace of mind, thanks to health care reform.




]]> tag:newamericamedia.org,2013://19.11199 2013-03-31T10:00:00Z 2013-04-01T07:19:37Z

Thirty-two-year-old Arijit Guha, a Ph.D. student at Arizona State University and founder of the popular Poop Strong campaign, died March 22, after battling stage four colon cancer for the past two years. The Indian American graduate student spoke to India-West...

Monica Luhar ]]> http://publisher.namx.org/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=19&id=103 The Indian American graduate student spoke to India-West in an earlier interview last year (I-W, Nov. 18) about his frustration with a “broken healthcare” system and his struggle to pay the rest of his cancer bills after maxing out on a $300,000 lifetime cap placed by an Aetna student health insurance plan at ASU.

In 2011, Guha was diagnosed with stage four colon cancer after returning from a trip to India with his wife. Soon after, he began to experience gastrointestinal problems and vomited frequently. After consultations with doctors, he learned that he had a large tumor – nearly six centimeters wide — in his colon. Despite undergoing a colonoscopy, the cancer later spread to Guha’s abdominal cavity.

During the months following chemotherapy treatments, Guha used social media to initiate a discourse about the healthcare system, not expecting the CEO of Aetna, Mark Bertolini, to respond. Much to his surprise, Bertolini tweeted Guha and asked Aetna to pay the remainder of Guha’s cancer bills – an additional $118,000 that Guha had accumulated while he was uninsured after maxing out on the student health plan.

“If [someone] has some sort of dire, catastrophic health event, the insurance can’t kick them off because they are too expensive – and that’s exactly why we need insurance more than any other time,” Guha had told India-West in the earlier interview.

Guha was hesitant to credit social media for playing a role in helping pay off the rest of his cancer bills. In that interview, he explained that social media was not the solution to problems that many individuals, both uninsured and insured, face.

“There’s hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people in very similar situations to mine, where they’ve had inadequate insurance or were underinsured. It’s not as if you can expect each person to tweet at the CEO of their insurance company and have their bills magically paid out,” Guha had pointed out to India-West.

In February of 2012, Guha, characterized as a “rabble rouser, do-gooder, mustache enthusiast,” launched his campaign, PoopStrong.org, as a way to pay the rest of his cancer bills by selling t-shirts, bracelets, and other merchandise. But he didn’t just stop there.

Guha told India-West that since Aetna agreed to pay off his remaining cancer bills, he would make sure that the rest of the $130,000 that he had raised through his campaign would go directly to three main cancer organizations: the University of Arizona Cancer Center’s Patient Assistance Fund, The Wellness Community-Arizona, and the Colon Cancer Alliance.

Guha had taken a break from chemotherapy last summer and used the time to travel with his wife and enjoy life. But shortly after, Guha began experiencing abdominal pain and ended up in the hospital again.

“We learned that the tumors had returned and were putting pressure on his bowels, creating blockages and essentially shutting down his GI tract,” a post from his blog titled “Stage IV Hope” noted.

In December of 2012, Guha had a gastrostomy tube placed in his stomach to prevent him from experiencing nausea and vomiting. His vomiting ceased for some time, but other problems surfaced.

Guha ended up undergoing another round of chemotherapy, to regulate his digestive system. But this time, the chemotherapy failed to work after surgeons realized that the tumors had reentered his abdominal cavity. Instead of going through additional rounds of treatments, Guha made the decision to end treatment and focus on hospice care. He died in his home, surrounded by family and friends in Arizona.
]]> tag:newamericamedia.org,2013://19.11129 2013-03-17T10:00:00Z 2013-03-16T01:33:28Z

Staff ]]> http://publisher.namx.org/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=19&id=103 A long batch of tweets excoriating ESPN for broadcasting the World Baseball Classic in Spanish (though the preferred term was actually “Mexican”) and Justin Timberlake’s Hugo Chavez skit on Saturday Night Live prompted a newsroom discussion about whether we — Latinos — are too sensitive about the way we are depicted, or referred to, by non-Latino Americans.

It is not a new conversation. We’ve discussed it before in pop culture terms when we’ve discussed Sofia Vergara’s role in the television show “Modern Family,” Will Ferrell’s turn as a telenovela star in the comedic “Casa de mi Padre” or Jack Black’s interpretation of a luchador in “Nacho Libre.”

We’ve discussed it as well in terms of more serious stories — the immigration discourse, Arizona’s SB 1070 and copycat bills that rely on profiling, and, of course, the pieces we’ve been running about ex Lt. Jonathan Josey being found not guilty of the assault of Aida Guzman by a judge with a lot of disparaging things to say about Philadelphia’s Puerto Rican neighborhood and celebration during which the videotaped incident took place.

Here is the gist of the contrasting arguments you might have heard if you were a fly on the wall of Al Día’s newsroom day before yesterday (when the aforementioned tweets came to light):

Older journalist: If we see but don’t call out derogatory language, stereotyped portrayals or victimization predicated on ethnicity, we fail, both as human beings and as newspaper people.

Younger journalist: We all know this type of behavior (speech, portrayal, etc.) exists, and certainly not only toward us. Why must we continually focus on it? It’s too much, let’s just get on with other things.

The same sort of discussion has taken place online, on Latino-centered social media venues, with much the same generational divide: the older journalists feeling compelled to focus on stories about challenges and injustices, the younger wanting to focus on attainments and advancements.

Is this the Latino generational divide?

We thought so.

But in digging around for studies about Latino studies about discrimination (and there are a lot of them out there) we came upon this: a 2012 secondary analysis of the 2007 National Survey of Latinos by an associate professor at Rutgers found that a whopping 63 percent of Latinos felt that they were discriminated against. One of that report’s findings was that 30-39 year old Latinos perceived the discrimination most acutely.

Then, we happened upon a 2010 NCLR study about Latino youths 15-17. It revealed that almost 83 percent of them reported experiencing discrimination, particularly with regard to stereotypes.

Wow.

So the real difference, then, is how we, as individuals and as journalists, respond to perceived instances of discrimination.

We’d like to ask you, our reader, to weigh in. We’ve put a poll on our website with the same title of this editorial, and a simple yes or no option. Or, leave us your response and why you think what you do in the comment section of the editorial (it appears in English online as well). If you think you need even more room to respond, please consider sending us a longer response via e-mail.

Let’s keep this conversation going.


]]> tag:newamericamedia.org,2013://19.11128 2013-03-16T07:05:00Z 2013-03-15T00:18:20Z

Pictured above: Case manager Ge Thao-Lor, parent Maria Velazquez and case manager Martha Hansen-Newton.CHICO, Calif. -- Ge Thao-Lor remembers growing up without television Monday through Thursday every week. Her mother squirreled away the family's 13-inch TV, hiding it in a...

Leslie Layton ]]> http://publisher.namx.org/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=19&id=103 Pictured above: Case manager Ge Thao-Lor, parent Maria Velazquez and case manager Martha Hansen-Newton.

CHICO, Calif. -- Ge Thao-Lor remembers growing up without television Monday through Thursday every week. Her mother squirreled away the family's 13-inch TV, hiding it in a closet, where it stayed until Friday.

On weekends, Thao-Lor and her 10 siblings were allowed to take television breaks from homework and housework.

Now, as a parent herself, Thao-Lor knows how difficult the job has become. Children carry cell phones from which they call friends, e-mail photos, text messages, and access Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and the entire Internet. They may struggle academically or face pressure to join gangs or cope with family dysfunction.

As a case manager at McManus Elementary School in Chico, Thao-Lor also serves as a parent guide. On March 26, she will begin a six-week session from the Parents on a Mission (POM) curriculum in Hmong. She taught the same workshop series last fall after Chico Unified School District adopted the curriculum for parenting workshops and began presenting it in English, Spanish and Hmong.

The curriculum is based on the book, "Gang Prevention and Schools," by Bakersfield writer and lecturer Richard Ramos, and emphasizes the importance of strong leadership on the part of parents in gang prevention.

"The first line of defense is in the home," said Ramos in a telephone interview. "If children are happy and nurtured, especially in the first 12 years, there's a very good chance that they're not going to join a gang."

Chico Unified is the first school district to adopt the Parents on a Mission (POM) curriculum for internal use. It is also the first organization to present the material orally in Hmong, Ramos said. (Ramos's Parent Action Guide, published in 2011, was printed in both English and Spanish.)

In Kern County, the school district has worked with Ramos to encourage the curriculum's use by youth mentor groups and counselors. The POM curriculum has also been used by community-based organizations in Florida, Texas and in two Canadian provinces.

Chico Unified's family literacy coordinator Shari Zeno stumbled upon POM while conducting an Internet search a couple of years ago. Zeno was looking for a curriculum that could help parents support their children academically and keep them away from gangs, drugs and alcohol.

"I think what's different about Richard's program," Zeno said, "is that it works from inside out. It's about parents doing their own self-growth, instead of just looking at what's wrong with their child and the child's behavior."

Chico's Maria Velazquez said the workshop series dramatically changed her parenting style. As a mother of four children, she has faced a series of challenges; she has seen her oldest son through cancer treatment and had to take a part-time job after her husband was injured at work. "I'm more patient, more calm," Velazquez said. "Before, I got mad."

Velazquez makes sure she has frequent contact with her children, chauffeuring them to activities and watching soccer games, if only for a few minutes.

The POM curriculum emphasizes personal growth, distinguishes between discipline and punishment, recommends adoption of a family mission statement and traditions, and discusses the passing down of family stories. Ramos believes that during a child's first 12 years, parents have a window of opportunity to build a bond of trust and loyalty. After age 12, they face fierce competition for influence over their children.

"The authority of parents seems to be eroding more and more and more," Ramos said. "As a parent, you're in competition, and if you don't understand that, you're not even in the game."

The competition comes from what Ramos calls the "4 Ms" — music, media, movies and magazines.

Chico Junior High School Principal Pedro Caldera said the majority of students he sees being pulled into gangs are Latino. But across the spectrum of ethnicity, he sees people struggling with the job of 21st century parenting.

"All of a sudden," Caldera said, "We're having parents saying, 'We need help.' They're coming in and saying, 'I want to be able to communicate because I see all these things happening.'"

Ramos acknowledged that children of immigrants are particularly vulnerable to gang recruitment. "We came here because we thought it was better, and in a lot of ways it is," said Ramos, whose mother is a Mexican immigrant. "But in terms of the violent culture, it's not."

Ramos said immigrant parents often don't understand the pressure their children face in American culture; he acknowledges that gangs are sown by poverty and racism. Said Ramos: "Gangs are a symptom of larger social problems. What we can do is prevent individual children from joining them."

Thao-Lor said, though, that convincing Hmong parents to participate in the workshop series has been difficult. For Hmong men, one of the biggest cultural shocks in coming to America may be the expectation that they take an active role in family life and child-rearing, she said. And Hmong women may not be accustomed to discussing family life outside their home.

"This is new," Thao-Lor said of the workshops. "It takes a lot for a Hmong woman to raise her hand and say, 'I need help.' We're saying, 'We're here for you.' Little by little it's getting better."

Thao-Lor said there are almost 40 Hmong families with children at McManus, and predicted that at most, 15 will attend the workshops.

Zeno said about 40 Spanish-speaking, 30 English-speaking, and five Hmong-speaking parents have so far completed the workshops.

Zeno and the 10 case managers in Chico Unified hope that more parents become involved as word spreads, and have billed the sessions as helpful for all kinds of delinquency prevention. Earlier this year, Ramos spoke in Chico and the school district had the presentation translated into Spanish and Hmong on closed-circuit television sets.

Ramos developed the curriculum in part out of his own experience growing up in a broken home in "gang-infested" northeast Los Angeles. He developed it in part out of experience later working with gang members and their parents. He now runs a non-profit, the Latino Coalition for Faith & Community Leadership, and separately, a business offering community leaders training in the POM curriculum.

His emphasis on parenting hasn't always helped grow his fan base. "It's a very unconventional approach," he said. "I'm not always popular when I speak at conferences."

In an interview with ChicoSol, Ramos dismissed the "It takes a village to raise a child" axiom as no longer culturally relevant. "It takes parents to raise a child. That's a good saying, but it was meant for a different time and a different culture," he said.

Ramos agrees that communities can be of assistance by providing schools, programs and parks. But gangs won't be eliminated by social programs or law enforcement, he said.

"Most communities say they're doing gang prevention, but what they're really doing is intervention," Ramos said. "We don't want community control, we want community help. The community at large has a role in assistance."

Leslie Layton is a freelance writer who publishes ChicoSol. Contact her at chicosol@sbcglobal.net

]]> tag:newamericamedia.org,2013://19.11105 2013-03-11T08:00:00Z 2013-03-11T03:15:11Z

Monica Luhar ]]> http://publisher.namx.org/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=19&id=103 A civil lawsuit was filed Feb. 15 against the Encinitas Union School District in San Diego County alleging that the district, by providing instruction in Ashtanga yoga, is thereby “promoting religious beliefs.”

The action was filed by The National Center for Law & Policy, an Escondido, Calif.-based nonprofit “legal defense organization” focusing on “protection and promotion of religious freedom, the sanctity of life, traditional marriage, parental rights and other civil liberties.”

NCLP attorney Dean R. Broyles filed the lawsuit on behalf of plaintiffs Stephen and Jennifer Sedlock, parents whose children attend schools in the district.

“EUSD’s Ashtanga yoga program represents a serious breach of the public trust,” Broyles said in a press release.

“The program is extremely divisive and has unfortunately led to the harassment, discrimination, bullying and segregation of children who, for good reasons, opt out of the program,” he added.

The complaint alleges that the school district used state resources to endorse Ashtanga yoga thereby “unlawfully” promoting religious beliefs, and “failed to suspend the Ashtanga yoga program.”

The lawsuit points out that in September 2012, EUSD gave parents the option to opt out of the program, which provides 60 minutes of weekly yoga instruction. Students who dropped the class were placed in “non physical education classes or independent study.”

Ashtanga is a yoga technique developed by K. Pattabhi Jois. It employs yoga breathing techniques to alleviate stress and increase body circulation.

Some parents in the district strongly opposed yoga inclusion in EUSD’s health and wellness program. EUSD received a $533,720 grant from the KP Jois Foundation to fund the programs for students K-6 for the 2012-2013 school year (I-W, Jan. 11, 2013).

According to the NCLP press release, the lawsuit doesn’t seek monetary damages, but wants EUSD to suspend the “Ashtanga yoga program and restore traditional physical education to the district.”

EUSD superintendent Timothy Baird told India-West in a phone interview Feb. 22 that he is disappointed by the lawsuit and that EUSD stands behind the program and will continue to offer it to students because of its health benefits and support from parents, students and teachers.

“This program is not religious. There is no religious instruction whatsoever that goes on with the program," he said. “We’re focused on providing a foundation of physical fitness. There is a component where students learn stress reducing and relaxation techniques, but we offer a very mainstream yoga program that you will find in any gym and many schools throughout the nation.”

Ashwini Surpur, a representative of Yoga Bharati in the San Francisco Bay area, said it is unfortunate EUSD is being sued for introducing yoga into the physical education curriculum.

“At a time when modern society is facing unprecedented stress and its association with non-communicable diseases including heart disease, diabetes and a host of other serious ailments, yoga comes in as a great complementary and alternative therapy modality," Surpur told India-West.

The Indian American said yoga helps children become confident, well-rounded persons and addresses problems kids face, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and other conditions that “may cause them to be violent or opt for horrible acts such as drug abuse and crime.”

“With yoga in schools, we will begin to see reduced incidences of children attempting to harm themselves and others in society,” Surpur said.

The KP Jois Foundation Web site said the group is working to create an effective health and wellness program for kids, particularly in underserved communities. "As part of the school curriculum, this program uses the techniques of yoga, meditation, and proper nutrition to create a positive lifestyle change," the foundation said.

Anupreet Sandhu Bhamra, a Canada-based blogger and journalist, told India-West that yoga — which she asserted is often grossly misunderstood” in the West — is a holistic approach to life validated in numerous studies.

“Either it is practiced as a fancy, hip exercise regime or understood to be a secret religious cult. Neither is true. Yoga does not mean bending backwards, doing a downward dog or (being) able to stand on your head. The poses are just a part of the approach, which in itself is vast, philosophical and includes a complete way of life," she said.

Bhamra, who recently launched the SandhuBhamra.com blog to help people “dispel myths surrounding yoga,” and is teacher certified in yoga, said the lawsuit shows ignorance of yoga and draws incorrect assumptions.

“Yoga is neither religious nor an exercise mechanism,” she said. “Yoga is a way of life, an approach to a healthy body and mind.”

Bhamra has conducted workshops with people of different faiths and no one yet has expressed the opinion that the practice is an “infringement on their religious freedom,” she added.

“You can be a practicing Catholic, Jew, Hindu, Sikh or a Muslim and learn to breathe correctly, stretch your body to activate certain glands, strengthen the core muscles and raise the energy levels of your body by deep concentration and correct diet.”

Chinmay Surpur, a 15-year-old high school sophomore in Cupertino Calif., said he has been practicing yoga for several years and is now a certified yoga instructor through Yoga Bharati.

"I believe that the only religiousness to (yoga) is the fact that it comes from India’s ancient teachings and hence has a little bit of connection to India’s culture,” he told India-West. “It isn’t necessarily religious.”

The Indian American teen lauded the effort of EUSD to provide yoga instruction to students.

“I can say with certainty,” he said, “that yoga has changed my life. It has improved my focus and concentration greatly, which helps me a lot in my studies as well as my daily life. I believe that everyone should have access to the knowledge of yoga.”]]>