Latino unemployment and economic woes increase

Today is Labor Day in the U.S.; an occasion that typically marks the end of summer and is usually a day of rest and relaxation for some. Yet the holiday is also a day to honor those who work hard and diligently in order to provide for themselves, their families, and their communities.

The recession, lack of immigration reform and increasing unemployment have hit Latinos in the U.S. particularly hard. As Lon Angeles-based daily La Opinion noted in an editorial, the weakened economy has hurt far too many people nationwide:

For Latinos the rate of unemployment (13%) is much higher than the national average (9.7%). At the same time, Hispanic workers confront additional problems.

A recent National Council of La Raza report shows just how bleak it is: two of every five Latino workers do not earn sufficient wages to keep their families out of poverty; barely half of employed Hispanics have health insurance through their employers; Latinos are more likely to be victims of employers who fail to pay the compensation due; and Latinos take on the most dangerous jobs with little occupational safety in workplaces that are poorly regulated.

In my family we face the dichotomy of the current labor situation. One of my brothers was fortunate to get a job before the crisis hit and despite massive layoffs he was able to stay in his position. On the other hand, my other brother has had great trouble finding full-time employment; a problem that has been especially common for young adults.

Ultimately all one can do is hope for the best and to try to weather the economic storm as best as possible. Easier said than done, yes, but one has to move forward somehow.

Image- New York Times (“Sergio Fuentes sought help from a state worker while looking through listings in San Jose, Calif.”)
Online Sources- BBC News, La Opinion, AP

World Cup Qualifers: A tale of two coaches

A slate of soccer World Cup qualifiers took place over the weekend. We’ll highlight two matches in particular.

As a player, Diego Maradona was a magician on the field and undoubtedly one of the best soccer player’s ever. His prowess on the field has not translated itself to the bench, however. The doubts over his hiring as Argentina’s head coach have grown after several embarrassing losses including a 6-1 drubbing in Bolivia.

Saturday’s match against bitter regional rivals Brazil should have served as a shot in the arm for Argentina and Maradona. Instead it was Brazil who emerged on top as they became the first country in the Americas to directly qualify for next year’s World Cup:

In other scores:

• Paraguay 1- Bolivia 0 (Paraguay inched closer to joining Brazil in South Africa)
• Chile 2- Venezuela 2 (Both teams shared the spoils in Santiago)
• Colombia 2- Ecuador 0 (Colombia’s victory was marred by violence after the game)
• Peru 1- Uruguay 0 (A last minute goal by last place Peru shocked Uruguay)
  

Javier “El Vasco” Aguirre was reappointed last April to head Mexico after the disappoint Sven-Goran Eriksson era in Mexico. Since then he has proved to be the right man for the job after drubbing the U.S. in the Gold Cup and beating them again in a key qualifier in Mexico City. Aguirre has righted a leaking ship especially after Saturday’s 3-0 shutout of Costa Rica in San Jose:

In other scores:

• U.S.2- El Salvador 1 (Two goals in five minutes helped the U.S. avoid being upset)
• Honduras 4- Trinidad and Tobago 1 (Honduras is one of four teams vying for three direct qualifying places after their easy win)
  

Online Sources- The Latin Americanist, USA TODAY, Canadian Press, YouTube, Reuters, AP, Living in Peru

Daily Headlines: September 7, 2009

* Ecuador: The judge overseeing an environmental damage case against Chevron withdrew himself days after the oil giant claimed that they secretly videotaped him in a bribe scheme.

* Cuba: Belgium became the latest European country to agree to house an inmate from the U.S.-controlled Guantanamo Bay prison.

* Mexico: A suspected member of Mexico’s Juarez drug cartel has been arrested and charged with the murders of seventeen people at a Ciudad Juarez drug rehab center last week.

* Argentina: The government refused to accept further aid from the International Monetary Fund despite credit problems.

Image- MSNBC
Online Sources- Reuters, BBC News, The Latin Americanist, CNN, Bloomberg

Weekend Headlines: September 5-6 2009

* Mexico: Mexico's Health Department will start a new program designed to push immigrants in the U.S. to provide health care for their families still in Mexico.

* Cuba: Cuban state daily Granma released a photo reportedly taken on Thursday of an ailing Fidel Castro meeting with a visiting Chinese senior official.

* Argentina: U.S. and Argentine officials are not pleased with Iran’s approval as defense minister of a man accused of the deadly 1994 AMIA bombing in Buenos Aires.

* Peru: In light of June’s deadly protests the United Nations blasted president Alan Garcia for violating the rights of Peru’s indigenous population.

* Uruguay: Despite having “a reputation as the least corrupt nation in Latin America” Uruguay has been shaken up by a series of corruption scandals regarding the government-owned telecom firm.

* Puerto Rico: In another sign of the commonwealth’s weakened economy, the head of the local Home Builders Association said that over 40,000 construction jobs have been lost.

Image- New York Times (“Edy Patricia Rodríguez, 18, an illegal immigrant, recovered from childbirth last month at the JPS Health Network hospital in Fort Worth.”)
Online Sources- Voice of America, Reuters, The Latin Americanist, LAHT, ABC Online, MSNBC, Xinhua

Most misleading headline of the day goes to...

.. the editors of the Trinidad and Tobago Express. Thinking that the civil war was set to erupt in Honduras, my heart skipped a beat when I saw this headline today:

Honduras charging up for clash with Warriors

Turns out it was the hook for a preview of the soccer match between Honduras and Trinidad and Tobago (nicknamed the Warriors).

Shamlessly playful wording or naive irony? You be the judge.

Daily Headlines: September 4, 2009

* El Salvador: Rest in peace Christian Poveda; the filmmaker best known for his 2008 documentary “La Vida Loca” was found dead in El Salvador. (Above is the trailer for that film which focuses on gang life in Central America).

* Mexico: Hours after Mexican president Felipe Calderon praised the country’s counternarcotics efforts gunmen killed at least eighteen people at a Ciudad Juarez drug rehab clinic.

* Chile: Arrest warrants have been issued to over 120 former agents and soldiers accused of human rights violations during the “Dirty War” dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.

* Peru: The country’s resurgent Shining Path guerillas downed a Peruvian air force helicopter which killed at least three people.

Online Sources- Washington Post, Times Online, BBC News, CNN, MSNBC, YouTube

Daily Headlines: September 3, 2009

* Latin America: Mexico's Baja California peninsula was hit yesterday by the heavy rains and 90 mile-per-hour winds of Hurricane Jimena (image) while meteorologists believe that Tropical Storm Erika will weaken as it travels through the Caribbean.

* Cuba: China strengthened its ties to Cuba by giving the island $600 million in loans and grants for items like improving Cuban telecommunications and investing in agriculture.

* Mexico: Remittances to Mexico dropped by over 19% in July compared to the same month in 2008 according to government figures.

* Brazil: Felipe Massa will miss the rest of this year’s Formula 1 season but should return in 2010 according to his Ferrari racing team.

Image- BBC News
Online Sources- Al Jazeera English, Reuters, Guardian UK, Miami Herald, LAHT

Yet another anti-Latino incident in Patchogue

The Long Island neighborhood of Patchogue has been rocked by another anti-Latino incident.

Local detectives said that vandals broke into the Iglesia Evangelica Refugio de Salvacion last night and left notes filled with "anti-Hispanic comments." The allegedly hateful scribes have been reported by one parishioner as “in Spanish (and) out of a dictionary” yet boasting that “saying that Hispanics didn't rule but white people ruled here”.

Patchogue has been the site of several biased attacks against the area’s growing Latino population. Ecuadorian immigrant Marcelo Lucero was killed last November in a suspected hate crime while anther Latino was beaten last month by a trio of teens.

It was this nervous climate that was highlighted by a Southern Poverty Law Center report released yesterday. The study blasted Suffolk County chief executive Steve Levy for engaging in "verbal immigrant-bashing" since taking office; for example, he insensitively compared the fallout from Lucero's murder to "the discomfort of undergoing a colonoscopy." The report also criticized local police for stoking the flames of fear:

Many immigrants told the center’s investigators that the “police did not take their reports of attacks seriously, often blaming the victim,” the report said. “They said there’s little point in going to the police, who are often not interested in their plight and instead demand to know their immigration status”…

The center’s report urged local officials to adopt several measures — including halting “their angry demagoguery” about immigration, promoting educational programs that encourage respect for diversity, and training police officers to take seriously all allegations of hate-motivated crime.

Image- Gothamist (November 2008 Newsday cover of a vigil held after the Marcelo Lucero murder)
Online Sources- The Latin Americanist, New York Daily News, New York Times, newsday.com, myfoxny.com

Zelaya does DC

Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya met with OAS officials yesterday, where he was assured that members states would not recognize the November elections unless he presided over them. This morning he gave a speech at the George Washington University. Tomorrow he is slated to have his second private meeting with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in nearly as many months, one which media is reporting may prove pivotal in determining whether the US decides to cut off more aid to and deepen sanctions against the Honduran interim government.

The video of the GW event will be available here shortly.

All in all, not a bad whirlwind tour of DC for the heretofore down-on his-luck Zelaya, who was shown actionable support by essentially every constituency in DC he could have hoped for (foreign government representatives, the highest US diplomatic officials, and left-of-center civil society / academia). Will it be enough to get him back in power? Probably not. But it will most likely be enough to make life particularly miserable for a lot of Hondurans for quite some time.

Daily Headlines: September 2, 2009

* Guatemala: In a historic decision, a former Guatemalan paramilitary was sentenced to 150 years in prison for the disappearances of six campesinos during the country’s brutal civil war.

* Dominican Republic: While Muammar al-Gaddafi celebrated his fourth decade in power, Dominican and Libyan representatives agreed to establish diplomatic ties.

* Cuba: Amnesty International urged the Obama administration to drop the “immoral” embargo on Cuba which has deprived Cubans of receiving “vital medicines and medical equipment essential for their health."

* Venezuela: Venezuelan composer and National System of Venezuelan Youth and Children's Orchestras creator Jose Antonio Abreu received Sweden’s top music honor along with musician Peter Gabriel.

Image- BBC News (Investigators continue to dig the presumed graves of dozens of Guatemalans who vanished during the civil war from 1960 to 1996.)
Online Sources- Reuters, BBC News, Guardian UK, Boston Herald, Press Association

Japanese pair wins world tango title

Some stories speak for themselves:

A Japanese married couple has danced to victory in Buenos Aires, knocking the reigning Argentines out of the top spot at the World Tango Championships.

Hiroshi and Kyoko Yamao placed first in the traditional Tango Salon category of the seventh edition of the international competition at Luna Park stadium this weekend.

After earning the highest point score during Friday's semifinal, the couple was praised by the jury for the "dexterity and feeling" of their final performance Saturday evening.

Judges gave second-place honors to a pair from Colombia followed by the host Argentines in third.

Image- AP ("Hiroshi Yamao, right, and Kyoko Yamao, from Japan celebrate winning the Salon category of the 7th Tango Dance World Chamopionship, in Buenos Aires, Saturday, Aug. 29, 2009.")
Online Sources- CBC, AFP

Latino astronaut "tweets" from space

We recently received the following e-mail from NASA regarding Mexican-American astronaut Jose Hernandez:

NASA Astronaut Jose Hernandez to Tweet From Space

HOUSTON - NASA astronaut Jose Hernandez, set to fly aboard space shuttle Discovery on STS-128, is providing insights about his mission on Twitter in both English and Spanish. He is the agency's first bilingual Twitterer.

Hernandez, whose Twitter account is astro_jose, can be followed at:

http://www.twitter.com/astro_jose

Hernandez, who considers Stockton, Calif., his hometown, grew up in a migrant farming family, travelling each year between Mexico and California. He did not learn English until the age of 12.

It will be the first shuttle mission to feature two Latino astronauts. Danny Olivas, who also is of Mexican descent, is among Hernandez's six crewmates.

For Hernandez's complete biography, visit:

http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/hernandez-jm.html

For more information about the STS-128 mission, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts128

Hernandez’ venture has even caught the attention of Mexican President Felipe Calderon who congratulated him and invited him to dinner at the presidential residence after returning to Earth.

The space shuttle Discovery docked with the International Space Station on Sunday where two astronauts from that vessel will return to Earth. The Discovery astronauts are scheduled for a spacewalk today in order to perform outside maintenance.

Image- CNN
Online Sources- E-mail message, AP, CBC

Ecuadorian judge accused of bribery in Chevron suit

Oil giant Chevron has accused the Ecuadorian judge presiding over a major environmental case of misconduct and bribery.

Chevron spokesmen claimed that the video and audio secretly taped showed Judge Juan Nunez admitting that he would rule against the company for environmental damage in the Amazon region. Officials for the firm also claimed that he would be part of a $3 million bribe scheme.

Attorneys representing the plaintiffs in the multibillion dollar case dismissed Chevron’s accusations. Lawyer Steven Donziger said that the video shows Nunez rejecting the supposed bribe despite being pressured from one of the former Chevron contractors who taped the discussions. He also called for an "investigation" into the "sting operation" by the oil company.

The footage is the latest salvo in Chevron’s PR offensive regarding the trial in Ecuador. In February, Chevron's general counsel claimed that a geological engineer serving as a court advisor had acted “biased”. Last May, Chevron execs blasted the suggestion by some stockholders to create an environmental protection report related to the case.

The following is a 20-minute edited video released by Chevron of the meetings secretly taped with Nunez. We’ll let you decide for yourself if the firm’s claims are correct or propaganda:

Online Sources- Forbes, Reuters, YouTube, The Latin Americanist

Daily Headlines: September 1, 2009

* Mexico: Residents of Mexico’s Baja California peninsula are gathering supplies and officials are preparing evacuations ahead of the Hurricane Jimena to hit land tonight.

* Venezuela: Venezuela’s economy may be sagging but the country’s stock market has been pretty bullish this year.

* Argentina: According to a local Jewish group the number of anti-Semitic attacks in Argentina has gone up this year.

* Cuba: The Castro administration is none too pleased that a group of European Union diplomats visited the home of an imprisoned dissident last week.

Image- ABC News (“In this satellite image released by NOAA Monday, Aug. 31, 2009, Hurricane Jimena is seen off the coast of Mexico. Jimena, a dangerous Category 4 storm, could rake southern Baja California by Tuesday evening, forecasters said.”)
Online Sources- Reuters, BBC News, LAHT, JTA