A New Reason To Panic

Move over Bird Flu, here comes Swine Flu. As if it were written by disaster movie writers in Hollywood, I woke up this morning with a new thing to fear in life. A few years back there was a panic over bird flu, and there was even a movie called "Bird Flu Disaster" at one point. The media flooded our homes with any instance of a death related, or closely related to bird flu and the world was in a panic.

Then the news about that dwindled and we moved onto food poison and random scrutiny over peanut allergies and things that seem to not have existed in my neighborhood growing up. They seemed to prevail in higher class neighborhoods, but that's neither here nor there.

The new nightmare that is growing, as of the 24th is Swine Flu. The World Health Organization (Oddly enough called WHO) stated that an outbreak of swing flu in the United States might be the end of the world! I mean, if Bird Flu was as bad as they said it was, and if African Bees were going to mop us up, surely 800 cases of Swine Flu and 60 deaths is cause enough for you to panic, right?

At first, I thought that this was just a very isolated incident. I mean, how many times did Bird Flu hit the West and take out thousands of people? Better yet, how many times have we heard of medical scares? I know in my city, there was a Measles scare, because more and more people are scared of getting vaccinated. However, this might be more than an isolated incident. This morning alone there are reports that people in 2 states have Swine Flu now, and some say 11 cases, others say 2, and you start to piece together the panic inducing media trying to pull together a way to cleverly convince you that you could be next!

So before you finish off your Pig Ear Tacos, or your Snout Burritos (my favorite) maybe you too should be concerned. I mean, there have been a dozen cases since 2005 and all of them were in farm workers with direct contact to pigs. This of course has one Country to blame, and that's what really ties up this story. The finger is squarely pointed at Mexico. So not only must we blame Mexico for our East Coast teens overdosing, we must now blame them for Swine Flu, at least that's the first Country to blame in all these news stories. I mean, surely the U.S doesn't have any questionable methods in raising, farming and slaughtering pigs.

Src - Reuters, The New York Times, AFP, CIDRAP, TNMT, Sarcasm

The Handshake Distraction

All week I've been hit with people talking about the impact of one motion of humanity that has been scrutinized into near parody at this point. It started with right wing pundits getting scared about a book handed to Obama by Hugo Chávez. Right wing and more extreme non-partisan parties were up in arms over the written word. This is the first time I've heard people really squabble in the mainstream over a book, in my life time. Of course, that makes me really young, or really dumb for not referencing "Holy Blood Holy Grail" or "The Da Vinci Code" and the amount of paranoia surrounding those to similar books. However, not since Carter's book about the Middle East has people's interest in a "reading" spiked to epic proportions.

It wouldn't be epic if it were not for the fact that "Open Veins of Latin America" shove "Twilight" from the #2 spot on Amazon.com.

But that's not the focal point of this. I'm talking about the amount of press coverage that was given to the act of a hand shake. That's right, a simple gesture, frozen in time has created a rift in many different places because you now have to side on one of two sides.

The first side will have you backing Obama's decision to talk to Hugo Chavez, even though the meeting seemed obviously coming for some time. Or you're on the side that Obama is shaking hands with what could be the next big enemy for The U.S.

Honestly, by even writing this post, I feel that I'm starting to beat a dying horse. I'm throwing my two cents at this, but as I continue to think about it, I realize what many might have missed. By focusing on the singular activity that might have been a passing moment in time, I have distracted myself from other news stories from around Latin America and even in my home town of Seattle, Wa.

Take this in mind, that this handshake and the discussions that followed, are signs that a myopic view of news and culture will only help us ignore the world around us. Maybe this is the last time I'll visit this, I mean that is really just wishful thinking.

src - Abc News, Sun Sentinel, Idaho Mountain Express, Washington Post, Time, Fox News

Blame The Mexican Drug Wars

I was troubled to hear a recent news story on the AM radio dial in my fair city of Seattle, Wa. It was about the East Coast drug problem amongst teenagers. Because Heroin is now cheaper than a six pack of beer, more teenagers are getting hooked and overdosing.

Some say that America should legalize all drugs, since the drug war isn't working. Others just blame The Mexican drug war, and point fingers. Of course that makes people fight harder for more "border control" which is a joke at this point, right?

Law enforcement officials say heroin has spiked in the northeast. More than half of heroin arrests nationwide happen there. Twice as many heroin users seek treatment than all other regions combined.

On Long Island, it's luring middle class kids like Natalie.

"She was really something else," Doreen Ciappa said.

A straight-A student, a cheerleader. Kids like her are attracted to this cheaper heroin because they don't think its as dangerous as the heroin you shoot into your veins.

"I think we skipped a generation in education. The young kids don't see the perils with heroin." said Nassau County Police Department Det. Lt. Peter Donohue.

My problem with the news is not so much that these people that are living in these communities on the East Coast blame the Mexican drug cartels, as much as it is that they are NOT blaming themselves or their children at all.

It might sound insensitive, but I do not hear a lot of remorse in the voices of people that have children that are "victims" of overdose. These people do not say that their children chose to do drugs, they don't say they were lousy parents, they just blame the Mexican Drug War. I'm tired of hearing scapegoats, and I would prefer to hear someone stand up and say that the teenagers are choosing to do drugs.

There is a serious problem brewing with the American drug influx. It is not that Mexico is solely to blame, it is that we are to blame too. We choose to drink, smoke, and do drugs. We empower the drug cartels more by denying the fact that we have the ultimate power in an easy word; No.

src - ABCnews, Cnn.com

Saint Death Killed by Drugs

It surprises me that for whatever reasons, Latin America likes their idols no matter what. Seriously, think for a moment about how many Latin American Catholics exist, then narrow down into Mexico and consider how many saints are worshiped by Mexican Catholics. It begins to boggle the mind how Latin America is so lost, or at least headed towards being lost, while their neighbors to the north finish off Easter celebrations this past week. I'm sure I was making a good point here, until I realized that Jose Luis De Jesus over in Florida has convinced much of Florida into believing that he is the incarnation of Jesus Christ.

With such a terrible introduction, you're bound to get a few gold gems in here right? Yes. Saint Death is in the cross hairs of the Drug War participants. At least that's what Saint Death's followers are saying, as they try to protest the destruction of a shrine dedicated to the relatively unorthodox saint. Over 5 million followers are claiming that Saint Death is not some fringe believe branch of Catholicism, they truly are citing that this destruction of their shrine is nothing more than disrespect for their religion.

Maybe it's not the religion so much as it is what has happened around the shrines that is getting targeted for destruction. For instance in 2007 gunmen shot and killed three men at a Santa Muerte altar in Nuevo Laredo. At another shrine, in Tepito, a growing black market is booming selling contraband, drugs, and so much more, creating a police nightmare.

"They link her with criminals because many of the people they arrest bear her image. But there are a lot of hard-working people behind her," said protester Ernesto Hernandez, 40, who said he owns a furniture shop on the edge of the capital.

Sounds like a mixed bag of cultural animosity. Whether people are being socially targeted for discrimination, or being persecuted for their beliefs is a topic of debate. However, it seems that wherever the Saint of Death has a shrine, trouble, violence and yes, death seems to follow.

Src - The Guardian, Reuters

Image source - The Guardian

Andres Oppenheimer examines presidential hopefuls

In his latest article, Miami Herald columnist Andres Oppenheimer examined the three leading candidates for the U.S. presidency- Hillary Clinton, John McCain, and Barack Obama. Oppenheimer’s piece focused mainly more on the Illinois senator who has increased his rhetoric on Latin America (Exhibits A, B):

Now that Sen. Barack Obama is the front-runner for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, it's time to answer a question that many U.S. Hispanics and Latin Americans are asking: Would he be good for Latin America?

On the minus side, Obama has never been to Latin America, as he told me in an interview last year. And when I asked him who are the three Latin American leaders he respects the most, it took him a while to scan through his mental C-drive and respond, ''the president of Chile,'' whom he correctly identified as a woman but failed to mention by name. (I didn't press him about the remaining two.)

Obama was quick to add, however, that ''my interest and regard for Latin America is one that has been developing for a long period of time,'' and that he would visit Mexico after winning his party's nomination, before the November elections.

Oppenheimer [image] went on to focus on the differences between Obama and Clinton on several issues including free trade, Cuba, and immigration. Oppenheimer concluded the following:

My opinion: Overall, both Obama and Clinton would be better than McCain for Latin America on the immigration front (a key issue for Mexico and Central America) and worse than the likely Republican candidate on the trade front (a key issue for Panama, Colombia, and South American countries seeking free-trade deals with Washington).

On a related note, Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega may have endorsed Obama by noting that his candidacy represented "for a revolutionary change.”

Sources- MiamiHerald.com, Spero News, The Latin Americanist

Image- noticias24.com

Cohen and Krauze opine on Venezuelan referendum

Amidst the avalanche of recent op/ed pieces highlighting Hugo Chavez’ “defeat” in Sunday’s constitutional referendum (exhibits A, B, C, D); two specific articles have caught our attention. Whether you agree with them or not, they analyze the situation from different angles and are a relief from so many articles that pretty much sound the same.

Roger Cohen’s piece in Thursday’s New York Times praises the referendum and its results as the epitome of democracy. The crux of Cohen’s argument is not Chavez himself but how the U.S. could learn from the referendum:

Venezuela’s democratic credentials are robust for Latin America — democracy has held since 1958 — but pale by U.S. standards. Yet there was a directness, meaningfulness and civic responsibility about the proceedings that make the early running in the American election look pitiful.

Bill Clinton’s latest whining about press coverage of his wife, Mitt Romney’s latest broadside on immigration, the various spins of the Iran intelligence volte-face, and the sterile who’s-got-more-God competition between candidates, look like the machinations of a disoriented power.

The United States needs a new beginning. It cannot lie in the Tudor-Stuart-like alternation of the Bush-Clinton dynasties, nor in the macho militarism of Republicans who see war without end. It has to involve a fresh face that will reconcile the country with itself and the world, get over divisions — internal and external — and speak with honesty about American glory and shame.

Leon Krauze’s very brief essay in PostGlobal blasted Chavez but expressed hope that moderate leftists can benefit from the referendum’s outcome:

More than a battle between left and right, Latin America has long been immersed in a struggle between chavismo, or old-fashioned populism, and chilenismo, or forward-looking, open social democracies. As several of the region’s intellectuals have pointed out, chavismo has been winning the fight mostly due to its Venezuelan patron saint’s oil-enriched coffers and the region’s weird fascination with revolutionary leaders – our infatuation with “Che-chic”, if you will. My hope is that Chavez’s loss – and his recent, demented outbursts against King Juan Carlos and Colombia’s president Uribe – will begin to expose the man for what he really is: a populist narcissist.

That could start some sort of domino-effect. Nothing could benefit Latin America’s transition more than for the region as a whole to have a solid, modern left.

What do you think?

Sources- New York Times, PostGlobal, International Herald Tribune, Economist.com, Newsday.com, boston.com

Image- BBC News (Venezuelan wait in line to vote during Sunday’s constitutional referendum)

Bloggers of the world unite and take over

As a fan of Red Bull New York it is only natural that I post a photo of their latest acquisition, right? (Image via Soccer by Ives)

• First it was “Becks”. Then it was Mexico’s Cuauhtemoc Blanco. Now it’s Colombian striker Juan Pablo Angel who completed his move to play in Major League Soccer. Could argentine Guillermo Barros Schelotto be the next? (Update: This answers my question).
  
• Sound the alarm! Wonkette points out the truly important news in the presidential race: “Barack Obama to join Mexican terrorists.”
• More details are emerging from a trip by a group of New York high school students to Cuba; in short, it looks like the trip was done illegally.
• What are Peruvian bloggers talking about lately? Juan Arellano at Global Voices Online gives us the scoop.
• Critical Miami is keeping track of the news surrounding the 101 Haitian migrants that landed in Florida last month including how some activists are holding a hunger strike.
• It’s been quite a while since we dedicated a post exclusively to music. In the meantime, please check out these two solid music blogs: Zonaindie and La Onda Tropical.
• Remember the hoopla surrounding the “find the illegal immigrant” event at NYU last February? Tomás at Hispanic Tips inform us of another controversial event on immigration at the University of Iowa.
• On a more positive note, Marisa at Latina Lista tells us how students at the University of North Texas are assisting in a micro-loan program benefiting Chiapas, Mexico.
• Latinista links to an opinion article by Frank Morris on the negative impact of immigration on the black community.
• Do you like these blogs? Interested in reading more blogs on Latin America and issues relating to the region? Then check out Best Latino Blogs.

Links- Gothamist, The Latin Americanist, Wonkette, The Offside, Global Voices Online, Who Ate All the Pies?, Who Ate All the Cupcakes?, Hispanic Tips, Latina Lista, Latinista, Zonaindie, La Onda Tropical, Best Latino Blogs