Today's Video: Happy birthday Amon Tobin!

On February 7th the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba entered its 47th year, Boricua rapper Big Pun died in 2000, and the Caribbean island of Granada gained its independence in 1974.

Today, however, we wish to celebrate the birthday of Brazilian electronic musician Amon Tobin. Born in Rio de Janeiro, Amon Adonai Santos de Araújo Tobin is best known for using all sorts of samples in his repetoire such as guitar strumming and classical music. Mainstream audiences may have heard his music incorporated to films like "The Italian Job" and "21".

"Slowly" comes from Tobin's 2000 album "Supermodified" and is a song that illustarates Tobin's prowress for mixing diferent sounds in order to create exceptional music:

Sources- Wikipedia, YouTube, BBC, New York Times, amontobin.com

Weekend Headlines: February 7, 2009

* Costa Rica: Sudan’s U.N. Ambassador called Costa Rica a "banana republic" after his Costa Rican counterpart justly defended any future war crimes indictment of the Sudanese president.

* Peru: A mayor has suggested the legalization of illicit drugs in order to combat “hypocritical” federal drug laws.

* Cuba: Fidel Castro’s latest article blasts U.S. President Barack Obama’s economic plans and questioned what will happen to the U.S. within the next four years.

* Venezuela: Security tapes of the recent attack on a Caracas synagogue have been recovered and will be examined by investigators according to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

* Latin America: The global economic downturn could cause poverty to rise in the region by as much as 15% according to the U.N.

* Argentina: Ex-President Carlos Menem has refused to testify at his trial where he’s accused of secretly trafficking arms during his time in power.

Image- AFP (“Sudanese refugee children from Darfur pictured at the Farchana refugee camp in Chad, June 2008.”)
Online Sources-Reuters, CNN, BBC News, AP, MSNBC

Today’s Video: Nicaragua’s economy - stable or the next Iceland?

Last month, Foreign Policy (FP) examined five countries that could follow Iceland’s recent path of financial and economic ruin. The article looked at Nicaragua and blasted President Daniel Ortega’s increasingly authoritarian tendencies. The article added that the U.S. recession, declining remittances and the falling price of coffee serve as a heavy double whammy against Nicaragua’s economy.

In sharp contrast to FP’s assessment, a report from Worldfocus surmises that Ortega’s pro-business policy has buoyed the Nicaraguan economy. A recent piece shown on the program concludes that growth in tourism and increased investment from the U.S. has helped Nicaragua. (In all fairness, reporter Lynn Sherr also describes the political instability that has rocked the country).

So is Nicaragua’s economy on the rise, on the brink of collapse, or is the glass half-full/half-empty? What do you think?

Online Sources- Foreign Policy, Worldfocus, BBC News

NYU overturns Coca-Cola ban

New York University’s thirty-seven month ban on Coca-Cola products will soon to come to an end.

By a 28-22 vote the University Senate overturned the ban which had been put in place due to the soft drink giant’s suspected involvement in the deaths of Colombian labor representatives.

One of the main sticking points behind the ban was that Coca-Cola refusal to allow an independent review of worker conditions in Colombia. Yet opponents of the ban were aided when Coca-Cola agreed to an assessment of its Colombian business practices by the International Labor Organization (ILO). Supporters of the prohibition argued that the presence of ILO member and director of global labor relations Edward Potter would taint the investigation.

Since 2005 approximately forty other universities aside from NYU enacted bans on Coca-Cola products. Yet a recent Washington Square News (NYU student newspaper) poll of 132 students found a 50-50 split over whether or not to keep the ban.

Coca-Cola vehemently denies the allegations of worker abuse in countries like Colombia and India. Nevertheless, the “Killer Coke” campaign has alleged that Coke’s Colombian subsidiary has ties to rightist paramilitaries:

Isidro Segundo Gil, an employee at a Coca-Cola bottling plant in Colombia, was killed at his workplace by paramilitary thugs. His children, now living in hiding with relatives, understand all too well why their homeland is known as "a country where union work is like carrying a tombstone on your back"...
(In a 2001) lawsuit, Gil's union, Sinaltrainal, the International Labor Rights Fund (ILRF) and the United Steelworkers of America assert that the Coke bottlers "contracted with or otherwise directed paramilitary security forces that utilized extreme violence and murdered, tortured, unlawfully detained or otherwise silenced trade union leaders."

Image- BusinessWeek
Online Sources- Washington Square News, Killer Coke, Time, BusinessWeek

Mormons gain more members

More Latin Americans are joining the Mormon church, according to a Reuters article that followed a Mormon church in Buenos Aires.

Latin Americans make up 5.2 million of the 13.5 million people worldwide in the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints.

The article attributes an increase in membership to "stability." A second temple is planned for Cordoba, Argentina, which will add to one of 33 temples in Latin America for Mormons with restricted entry permits.

Read the story here.

Source and Photo: Reuters

Will Madoff scheme have impact on Latin America?

The Madoff scheme has cost investors billions here in the States. The Latin Business Chronicle reports that Banco Santander, headquartered in Madrid, had clients who lost $2.1 billion in relation with Madoff's alleged scheming. But how might this scheme affect Latin America?

The article offers an array of input. Santander was the largest finanicla group in Spain in Latin America, where the bank managed $200 billion in funds.

Also, many in Latin America probably invested with Madoff but are hesitant to file a suit against him in fear of facing their own countries' tax authorities, the article says.

One source said the Madoff losses should have no impact on the bank's "operating assets and capabilities," particularly if the bank can retain its client base.

Read more here about what advisers had to say.

Source: Latin Business Chronicle

Photo: Finfacsts.ie

Daily Headlines: February 6, 2009

* Peru: According to one report, thirty-three countries- including Peru- are “highly vulnerable” of having their fishing industry suffer due to climate change.

* Mexico: While Mexico has its first bilingual state, parents in Virginia are calling for continued funding of bilingual education classes.

* Brazil: A federal judge has refused to toss out a tax evasion case against race driver Helio Castroneves.

* Haiti: Eleven U.S. legislators have signed a letter calling for an investigation of the Bush administration's role in the 2004 coup d’état in Haiti.

Image- daylife.com (“Hundred of "Guanay" birds fly around a fishing boat next to Asia Island in Peru, Friday, July 4, 2008.”)
Online Sources- The Latin Americanist, BBC News, UPI, washingtonpost.com, haitiaction.net

Today’s Video: “El Norte”, 25 years later

This year marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the widespread release of “El Norte”. The groundbreaking film by Gregory Nava looked at the trials and tribulations of a pair of Guatemalan siblings emigrating to the U.S. The movie shined a light on the immigration debate back when it wasn’t the contentious issue that it is today.

Aside from highlighting immigration, “El Norte” was influential in other ways:

As novelist and (Los Angeles) Times columnist Héctor Tobar points out in an essay in a program booklet accompanying the (25th anniversary) Criterion release, in the early 1980s Hollywood produced a handful of films examining these conflicts, such as "Missing," "Under Fire" and "Salvador." But their protagonists typically were non-Latinos. "El Norte" broke from this pattern by making the young siblings played by Mexican actors Zaide Silvia Gutierrez and David Villalpando the center of the action.

Another factor in "El Norte's" success was the rise of a new wave of U.S. independent filmmakers. Nava was one of several young independent directors, such as Spike Lee, Jim Jarmusch, John Sayles and David Lynch, who, Nava says, felt "there was a need at that time to deal with different sorts of subject matter, different things the Hollywood film was not dealing with."

"El Norte" continues to be as relevant today as it was first released. The movie has been a personal favorite since I first viewed it spellbound and awe over a decade ago in high school. Even to those who oppose legal/illegal immigration, the issues raised by the movie make it a must-watch:

Online Sources- Los Angeles Times, YouTube, imdb.com, Wikipedia

Massive settlement reached in “May Day melee”

Remember the excessive force used by Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers after a peaceful immigrants’ rights march in May 2007?

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

An LAPD report later concluded that “the failing leadership, breakdown in supervision and breakdown in personal discipline” led to the unnecessary show of force by officers.
Repercussions have still been felt nearly two years after the “May Day melee”:

Demonstrators who sued the city in the wake of a MacArthur Park May Day melee in which Los Angeles police fired about 12 dozen rubber bullets into the crowd will receive $12.85 million under a settlement approved Wednesday by the City Council…

Attorney Carol Sobel with the National Lawyers Guild said the $12.85 million payout is the largest single settlement in a demonstration case anywhere in the country.

Hopefully the settlement can heal some of the wounds that emerged between Los Angeles’ Latino community and the city’s police. (Obviously the settlement isn’t a cure-all but it’s a just decision after unjust actions by the police).

Online Sources- The Latin Americanist, MSNBC

GAO questions Radio and TV Marti

A report issued by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) questioned the efficacy of U.S.-funded radio and television broadcasts to Cuba.

The report concluded that less than 2% of Cubans have heard or watched TV and Radio Martí over the past year. In addition, the GAO suggested that the Office of Cuba Broadcasting (OCB) significantly improve its programming and journalistic standards in order to justify its $34 million yearly budget.

OCB director Pedro Roig questioned the report's surveying methods and claimed that the data doesn’t “fully reflect the difficulties in broadcasting to a closed society."

The GAO report also found other interesting nuggets of information such as some watching habits Cubans:

_U.S. officials have little information about how Cuba jams the signals and where its equipment is located. The most recent data indicates most jamming takes place around Cuba's capital, Havana.

_Problems remain with journalistic standards of objectivity and balance on some Marti programs. Sometimes unsubstantiated reports from Cuba are included in news programming.

_ More than 90 percent of the telephone survey respondents say they watch Cuba national TV broadcasts, including such popular U.S. shows as "The Sopranos" and "Grey's Anatomy." Cuba also regularly rebroadcasts portions of CNN on its stations.

Image- daylife.com (“Pedro de Pool, left, Roberto Bermudez, center, and Aristides P. Quinteros, right, are shown during a live broadcast of Radio Marti News magazine "En Directo" to Cuba in Miami, Friday, June 22, 2007.”)
Online Sources- The Swamp, Riptide 2.0, Denver Post, IHT

Research: Latinas delay seeking breast caner treatment

Research revealed yesterday indicates that breast cancer may be harder to treat in Latinas since they wait longer to seek treatment.

According to information disseminated at the Science of Cancer Health
Disparities Conference, two-thirds of Latinas detect breast cancer via self-exam yet on average wait for over a month to seek medical attention. In addition, the study found that screening mammography rates were 83% among U.S.-born Latinas and 62% among Latinas born outside of the U.S. Another set of research concluded that U.S.-born Latinas were more likely to have a number of risk factors for breast cancer such as obesity and a family history of the disease.

Why do Latinas delay seeking breast cancer treatment? Part of it has to do with a lack of health care but there are other factors:

"We asked what the reasons were," said Rachel Zenuk, a graduate student at the University of Arizona Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, who spoke about the study. "A third cited they didn't have insurance or were unable to afford medical care. Or they thought it was not important to report the medical finding to a professional."

Other factors included fear of the results and difficulty scheduling an appointment, she said…

"(Latinas are) not getting more breast cancer than other women, but they're less likely to survive as long," said Dr. Amelie G. Ramirez, a member of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation's National Health Advisory Council and chairwoman of the Komen Foundation National Hispanic/Latino Advisory Council. "The reason is they're diagnosed at a later stage of the cancer."

Image- Associated Content
Online Sources- CNN, U.S. News and World Report

Mexico: Molesting priest accused of fathering child

A Mexican cleric who founded an influential Catholic religious order has been accused of secretly having a child.

In 1941 Rev. Marcial Maciel founded the ultra-conservative Legionaries of Christ, an order that has grown to include about 800 priests and 70000 lay affiliates. In 2006, he was given a slap on the wrist by the Vatican after it was discovered that he molested and former seminarians. (Maciel died in 2007 at the age of 87).

Recent blog posts emerged claiming that despite his strong Catholic teachings Maciel fathered at least one child. The late priest’s double life was said to have lasted “for many years” and included having an affair with a mistress.

The hypocrisy of a priest who couldn’t practice what he preached has rocked the Vatican beyond the Pope Benedict XVII’s controversial de-excommunication decision. The scandal over Maciel’s secret doings has undoubtedly hurt the Legionaries of Christ, which at times appeared to be a cult of personality:

“Father Maciel was this mythical hero who was put on a pedestal and had all the answers,” (Rev. Stephen Fichter) said. “When you become a Legionarie, you have to read every letter Father Maciel ever wrote, like 15 or 16 volumes. To hear he’s been having this double life on the side, I just don’t see how they’re going to continue”…

Father Fichter added: “As Legionaries, we were taught a very strict poverty; if I went out of town and bought a Bic pen and a chocolate bar, I would have to turn in the receipts. And yet for Father Maciel there was never any accounting. It was always cash, never any paper trail. And because he was this incredible hero to us, we never even questioned it for a second.”

Image- Catholic News Agency
Online Sources- The Telegraph, BBC News, New York Times, Catholic Online, Reuters, IHT

Daily Headlines: February 5, 2009

* Latin America: Scientists have discovered the fossilized remains of a massive snake that lived sixty million years ago, was over forty feet long, and weighed about 2500 pounds.

* Cuba: A poll revealed that most Cuban-Americans prefer keeping the trade embargo and travel restrictions on Cuba.

* Mexico: According to the International Federation of Journalists Mexico is one of the world’s deadliest countries for members of the media.

* Peru: Officials celebrated the first shipping container sent from Peru to the U.S. under the recently passed bilateral free trade pact.

Image- MSNBC (“The extinct giant snake (shown in an artist's reconstruction) would have sent even Hollywood's anacondas slithering away.”)
Online Sources- Marketwatch, BBC News, AP, Living in Peru

Vatican offices targeted in Venezuela

Days after the vandalizing and desecration of Caracas’ oldest synagogue, assailants have targeted the Vatican mission in the Venezuelan capital:

Tear gas canisters were lobbed into the Vatican's diplomatic compound in Caracas on Wednesday, the head of the mission said, days after armed men vandalized a synagogue in the capital...

Venezuelan media said two canisters landed inside the compound and two fell outside.

"We totally reject these actions, they cannot be permitted," Giacinto Berloco, who heads the mission, told Reuters.

A spokesman at the Israeli Foreign Ministry insinuated that Venezuela’s government was behind the attack on the synagogue though that was vehemently denied by Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro. Pro- and anti-government factions have accused each other of perpetrating the attack on the Israeli Association of Venezuela on Saturday.

The incident has caught the attention of several U.S. legislators. A group of sixteen Republican and Democratic congressmen wrote to Hugo Chávez and urged him to "end to the intimidation and harassment of the Jewish community" in Venezuela.

Image- AFP (“Men look on at the damage caused by an unknown group inside the main synagogue of Caracas.”)
Online Sources- Reuters, Bloomberg, Xinhua, Guardian UK, MSNBC

Report: ICE raids target nonviolent offenders

A report released on Wednesday by the Migration Policy Institute concluded that nearly three in four immigrants detained by Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) agents were nonviolent offenders.

The study found that in 2004 teams on ICE’s National Fugitive Operations Program were given a quota of nabbing 125 fugitives; yet two years later the quota skyrocketed to 1000. According to the report, this led to the increased use of raids even if those detained lacked criminal antecedents (aside from being undocumented). Some of those detained didn't even have deportation orders against them.

An ICE spokesman tried to downplay the report:

"This report seems to suggest that law enforcement should not arrest any immigration fugitive who does not have a prior criminal conviction, even though they have ignored a judge's order to leave the country," said Ivan Ortiz-Delgado, an agency spokesman. "We disagree."

Despite his best efforts, Ortiz-Delgado’s spinning of the story is off the mark. The report really suggests that ICE’s job to catch “dangerous” criminals is not working well. Immigration officials claimed that the program needed so much funding in order to nab potential terrorists. Yet the results of the program contradict such claims. Why should millions in taxpayer dollars be wasted on such an inefficient program instead of being used for meaningful, fair immigration reform?

In short, who is ICE trying to fool?

Image- ABC News
Online Sources- AP, Star-Telegram.com, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, New York Times

Chilean with HIV denounces forced sterilization

A Chilean woman infected with HIV has petitioned the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) over being forcibly sterilized.

According to the petition submitted by the Center for Reproductive Rights and Chilean-based HIV/AIDS service organization Vivo Positivo, the 27-year-old woman was sterilized against her will at a state hospital immediately after she gave birth. The woman- identified by the initials F.S.- contended that doctors operated on her after they found out she had HIV and despite her never granting consent for such a procedure.

Apparently cases like the one F.S. had to go through are not rare in Chile:

Her case represents a country-wide problem within Chile, according to a 2004 study conducted by VIVO POSITIVO. The study found that, of the women living with HIV who were interviewed who had been sterilized, 29% of them had been pressured by medical staff to do so and 12.9% did not consent to the procedure at all. In addition, the study found that the majority of women had received biased counseling promoting the idea that women with HIV should not become pregnant, irrespective of the fact that, with the appropriate interventions, the risk of transmitting the virus to newborns can be reduced to less than two percent.

The case was brought to the IACHR after a local court ruled that the hospital’s actions were not criminal. Rather, the court mistakenly ruled that it was as a result of an “administrative omission”.

Image- freewebs.com
Online Sources- Times of the Internet, El Maule, Houston Chronicle, emaxhealth.com