Son’s Progress, International Adoption, Sexual Harassment, Donald Trump (unfortunately, still with us), Puerto Rico

My son Jonathan, badly injured in a beating and robbery with an iron bar in Honolulu’s Chinatown, is recovering physically and emotionally from the trauma, but still has not recovered sight in his right eye. He likes to wear colored eye patches. It will take some time for the blood to clear sufficiently for an ophthalmologist to see whether he will need a retinal repair to restore maximum sight in that eye. But his spirits are good and he is glad to be far from the scene of the crime.

As someone who has adopted internationally, namely my son Jon born in Colombia, I’m someone who had gone against the grain by adopting a boy, while girls have always been more available, especially in China, though now that country is shifting away from the almost exclusive permission to adopt girls. (At the time that Jon came into our family, I already had a boy and two girls.) International adoption has been shrinking due to many factors: international politics, tighter rules, greater and more expensive bureaucracy, the trend toward smaller and less child-oriented families, and the proliferation of new fertility technologies such as the use of gestational mothers, egg and sperm donation, and fertility drugs. I know several people who have adopted girls from China, including single women, but apparently single adoption by women (almost never allowed for single men) is usually no longer allowed there.

http://www.newsweek.com/international-adoption-gender-shift-china-688096

This below is regarding a drug raid in Honduras in 2012

D.E.A. Says Hondurans Opened Fire During a Drug Raid. A Video Suggests Otherwise. - The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/23/world/americas/drug-enforcement-agency-dea-honduras.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=photo-spot-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

Not to be nonchalant about sexual harassment and abuse in light of the Harvey Weinstein accusations (and those also against Donald Trump, Bill Cosby, Roger Ailes, Bill O’Reilly, Clarence Thomas, Mel Gibson, and Roman Polanski, among many many other prominent men). However, being the subject of sexual harassment to a lesser or greater degree is practically a universal female experience. It’s not something particularly rare or surprising, so, to me, is not all that shocking when it is revealed; it’s what you would expect under the circumstances. Whether because of testosterone, a bullying mindset, macho culture, male financial and political dominance, or a combination thereof, harassment happens to almost all women routinely, if even to a lesser extent to most of us than among the rich and famous, and also because some women aspiring to enter those upper ranks are complicit in their own denigration. (Anita Hill would back me up on the universality of sexual harassment of women.) Many of these men, Trump and Weinstein included, are unattractive to women, even repulsive, so they try to bully their way into being accepted, at least sexually. Being married and having young children, I found to be temporarily somewhat protective. Getting older also has helped, though not so much in Honduras. Most women pretty much expect it, take it for granted, and try to avoid it. I am certainly not condoning sexual harassment, but not so surprised or shocked when it comes to light. Of course, we women should continue to fight all types of harassment, reveal it, and avoid it whenever possible. I suppose there are a few instances of prominent women bullying men sexually or otherwise, but they are rare and outside the norm, while men harassing and bullying women is probably an almost universal phenomenon. Perhaps in Scandinavia, the pattern has been broken or at least attenuated? Probably the American president has less control over national and international affairs than we would like to imagine, but the idea of his (or potentially her) control is somewhat comforting. Right now, the world feels rudderless, like no one is in charge. Or maybe that a big old cry baby is in charge. You know who I mean. Instead of accomplishing anything constructive and moderately helpful, Trump is enjoying the power and license to be totally destructive, setting out to demolish Obama’s “legacy” any way he can, sort of like an overgrown wayward child delighting in crashing and stomping on whatever lies in his path or captures his flighty attention. It’s a way for him to demonstrate his power and feel self-important. He deliberately picks fights, however small, with everybody, maybe to get attention? He then leaves it to others to pick up the pieces; he often simply sends a tweet to the Republican Congress just to “fix it” without offering any ideas about how to fix it himself, whether Obamacare, NAFTA, NATO, Iran, or DACA, or even what a fix might look like, just saying that the current  policy is terrible, a disaster, so fix it. Then he doesn’t have to think of a solution himself or shoulder much blame should it go wrong. Trump seems unable to learn either from his mistakes, experience, or advice, even the advice of the generals with whom he has surrounded himself, while touting them as being above reproach or human frailties. General Kelly has disproved this with his awkward defense of Trump.  Trump himself could go a long toward improving his own image if he would simply apologize for gross remarks, for instance, say “Sorry” to the bereaved widow whom he offended. Trump’s main modus operandi seems to be pitting “us” against “them,” among the latter, African Americans, Hispanics, foreigners, Muslims, strangers, gays, non-English speakers, and Puerto Ricans who are not really Americans--and also women.  That primitive instinct to stick to the familiar social in-group, evident also in animals, is something many humans have been able to move beyond, especially those of us who have lived and worked in other countries or, more particularly, have joined the Peace Corps. I get do get regular e-mails from Townhall Daily, a very conservative pro-Trump outlet, just to see what the other side thinks and why. It’s still asking for Hillary to be jailed. I also read the Washington Examiner, another conservative outlet which, however, is starting to express some misgivings about Trump. If, indeed, Melania has a body double (as has been speculated) wearing cap and big sunglasses and not speaking aloud, more power to her for avoiding travels with her oafish husband, whom she must regret marrying. Her life may have been tolerable when she and her son spent their days alone together in their NYC penthouse, but spending more time with Donald is not something she seems to enjoy. He’s the kind of overbearing, tone-deaf, overweight middle-aged man who touts his wealth and importance, someone whom most women would gladly avoid. You have to feel sort of sorry for such an unappealing guy who probably has no real friends or loved ones. Now, it’s too late for him to learn new social skills or to discard the habit of lying whenever it suits him. He (as well as his staff) thinks being a military general automatically gives someone unquestioned authority. General Kelly tried to coach Trump on what to say to a grieving widow, but, even so, Trump botched it and Kelly botched it later trying to pick up the pieces. Just repeatedly saying “I’m very, very smart” is not convincing. Apparently, even in college, Trump was a challenged student. But if the guy is unappealing as a man and disastrous playing at being president, the specter of a President Mike Pence is hardly a more welcome prospect. Pence is even more right-wing than Trump, already has alliances in Congress, and has thought through his positions and policies, perhaps making him an even nastier and more effective foe than Trump. So, we all need to be careful what we wish for. The ideal scenario would be for the Trump presidency to blow up right around the mid-term elections, giving the Democrats a majority to confront and counteract either Trump or Pence. If ever we emerge from the Trump catastrophe and want to look back, I should return to these blog pages from 2017 and, I hope, not much longer than that. At the same time, the proliferation of intrusive e-mails touting Trump’s outrages and soliciting funds to counter him is getting rather annoying. And they are preaching only to the converted. And how do we know where that money actually goes? I would go broke responding to them all and responding to any would probably disperse my e-mail address to even more political outlets. Trump and his minions seem not to realize that Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands are US territories and therefore our responsibility. That allows Trump to act as though any post-hurricane help offered there is some sort of charity. At the same time, apart from hurricanes, PR has a fairly moderate climate with houses that don’t need heat and could get by, if properly prepared, without electrical power, as do millions of people all over the world. Cooking over a wood fire is not impossible, as I know from my Peace Corps days and from my annual visits to Honduras. Folks without electricity can and do use candles, kerosene lamps, flashlights, diesel generators, and even car batteries for light. Maybe some such items could be rushed to our Caribbean brothers and sisters to use (with due caution) while the electrical grid is being reconstructed. Of course, ideally, electrical wires would be placed underground, as we have them here in Washington, DC, expensive initially, but promoting protection in the long run.

A couple of postings back, I mentioned but forgot to post the sign put at Hillary’s driveway on the day after the election by her neighbors. Better late than never, here it is:

High Time for Trump to Be Gone, Gone, GONE! Jamaica Police Violence, Death of a Cuban Patriot, Great-grandson’s 10th B’day, Son’s Brutal Attack, Correction

Outgoing Senator Bob Corker has opened wide the obvious question of Donald Trump’s fitness to continue in the presidency. Despite his “babysitters,” Trump is on such a rampage of wanton destruction—including the Iran deal, NATO, NAFTA, DACA, North Korea, Obamacare, and Puerto Rico hurricane aid (what about the Virgin Islands?)---that maybe even Republican lawmakers are starting to have second thoughts, since the good of the country, their own political survival, and that of their party in 2018 is at stake. Never mind details, because they are covered amply in the news, but it seems high time to get rid of President Trump as the nation and the world cannot allow him to continue in office. It may be messy to get him out and his base may become outraged, though even they may also be losing patience, since none of his promises have been fulfilled. We feared the worse for his presidency, but hoped he would learn on the job and that his advisers and daughter Ivanka and her husband might be mitigating forces, but it’s not getting any better, just gets worse and worse.

Last year, Amnesty International released a report, Waiting in Vain: Unlawful Police Killings and Relatives’ Long Struggle for Justice. The report details the catalogue of illegal tactics used by police across Jamaica to ensure that relatives of victims of unlawful killings by the police do not pursue justice, truth, and reparation for their loved ones. According to the report, law enforcement officials in Jamaica have allegedly killed more than 3,000 people since 2000; mostly young men living in marginalized communities. Despite overwhelming evidence of police involvement in the cases, to Amnesty International’s knowledge, only a handful of officers have been convicted of murder since then.

In Washington, DC, in a Congressional meeting room, we in the volunteer Caribbean coordinating group of Amnesty International USA recently held an information session with members of two families directly impacted by this violence in Jamaica, Simone Grant and Shackelia Jackson who were making a speaking tour to raise awareness in the US. Both lost their brothers at the hands of the Jamaican police. My volunteer Jamaica assistant, Sarah Hamilton, accompanied them on their tour. 

Dr. Darsi Ferret, last name sometimes spelled Ferrer, an Afro-Cuban dissident doctor in his 40’s, once imprisoned for ostensibly possessing two bags of unauthorized cement, was found dead in south Florida, cause of death unknown. His photo appears on p. 344 of my Confessions book.

               Dr. Darsi Ferret (L) with another former Cuban prisoner

Turning to more personal matters, my great-grandson De’Andre was here from Clearwater, FL, in early Oct. with his mother for a few days to celebrate his 10^th birthday among us. 

Then my son Jon came east unexpectedly from Hawaii for R&R after a violent robbery and hospitalization in normally peaceful Honolulu (case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time) whereby he suffered numerous injuries, particularly to his right eye, where full restoration of vision will take time and is uncertain. Meanwhile, he wears either an eye patch or sunglasses to spare onlookers the sight of his eye. His return to Hawaii is unlikely in the near term. 

Above, Jon in the hospital with sister Stephanie

Jon in DC area with sister Melanie

Jon on the phone at our house

Correction to my last post from a reader:
u referenced "Christine Jorgensen" as transgendered (medical doctor) tennis player.  i believe u meant Renee Richards. Jorgensen was well known in 1950's tabloids.  RR played tennis. 

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Turkey Imprisons Amnesty Director, Cambodian Leader Asks Peace Corps Withdrawal, Hurricanes, Las Vegas Massacre, DACA, More on Trump & Family, Medicare for All, Probabilities

[Please excuse formatting anomalies, have been having trouble.] Earlier this summer, Turkish authorities detained the director of Amnesty  International Turkey, Idil Eser, and nine other human rights defenders.  All ten are still being held and are accused of “committing a crime in the name  of a terrorist organization without being a member.” Cambodia’s prime minister, Hun Sen, has asked for Peace Corps  volunteers to be withdrawn, accusing them and US officials of siding with  his political opponent. Peace Corps bends over backwards not to be involved  in politics in any way in countries where volunteers serve.  http://www.reuters.com/article/us-cambodia-usa/cambodia-pm-calls-on-u-s- to-withdraw-peace-corps-volunteers-idUSKCN1BQ0DB?il=0 In other Peace Corps news, a former volunteer is astronaut Joe Acaba  (Dominican Republic,1994-96), who launched to the International Space Station for a five-month mission on September 12, 2017, his third trip to the ISS. Meanwhile, former Peace Corps Director Elaine Chao (under President HW  Bush) is being accused of financial corruption, along with other members of the  Trump cabinet. It has been speculated that Trump originally named Chao  Secretary of Transportation to curry favor to Mitch McConnell, hoping that  McConnell might protect him from his own corruption scandals. http:// peacecorpsworldwide.org/ former-peace-corps-director- elaine-chao- busted-for- financial-corruption/ After Irma, I’m especially worried about the many Caribbean islands and communities in   my Amnesty International purview. Caibarién, a small coastal Cuban town that I remember well after visiting there in 1997, was virtually wiped out. As recounted in my Confessions book, I stayed up all night talking with two dissidents there scheduled to appear in court the next morning. The DR seems to have gotten it worse than Haiti, which really had no room to fall further. I’ve spent interesting times on several Caribbean islands or island nations, Puerto Rico, US and British Virgin Islands, DR, Haiti, Cuba, and Jamaica. My granddaughter, great-grandson, brother, nephew, and great (grand?) nephew living in South Florida all survived with no lasting damage. Many friends there are all right, too, including Sirley Avila, a Cuban dissident maimed in a government-inspired incident, though she is worried about her mother and son in Cuba. Trump and his followers may blame hurricanes on gay marriage or simple coincidence, but there has been an unending stream: Harvey, Irma, Jose, Maria. On her trip to Florida, it looked like Melania was wearing flats after criticism of her high heels during prior two Harvey trips. From her rather stoic expression, it looks like she’s definitely getting tired of these appearances, but Trump drags her along anyway. I do think a librarian’s rejection of her donation of some Dr. Seuss books as being “retro” was over-the-top—after all, he is still a beloved children’s author. Probably the librarian was motivated by the more generalized rejection of the Trump presidency. Trump seemed to be enjoying basking in unusual public support with his apparent agreement with Democrats on DACA and a few other matters. But some on his base have complained vociferously, so he’s starting to backtrack. Bannon has vowed revenge if he deviates from the alt-right line. Trump is also vowing to veto single-payer healthcare should it ever cross his desk, something unlikely, but he needs to offer some red-meat outreach to his base. Tweeting a mock video of himself knocking down Hillary with a golf ball is childish, but again more red meat for his base. He could instead, because of the blind faith of many in the base, actually try to educate them. He’s in a bind, cannot please everybody and the electorate is strongly polarized. He’s slowly learning how tricky politics can be. As Trump once observed about healthcare, politics is really complicated! Imagine! He may find that working with Democrats on DACA and other matters actually makes him a deal-maker and that the majority who didn’t vote for him may become less adamant on impeachment, so that would be personally protective for him. His approval ratings went up when it looked like he would support DACA and if there is anything that is important to Trump, it’s public approval. But now, that weasel Jeff Sessions is being vindictive by arresting undocumented people without criminal records in sanctuary cities. I wish that Trump had actually fired him, as it’s hard to imagine a worse AG.    Now, under Trump, we’re seeing civil disobedience, actually sort of a civil war in reverse, with northern states separating from the south and from the authority of the presidency. He is not only fomenting war with North Korea, but within our own borders. General Kelly, where is your control? Meanwhile, son-in-law and official adviser Jared Kushner and First Daughter Ivanka as well as others in the Trump administration have been found to be using private e-mail for sensitive government communications! Where are the cries of “Lock ‘em up!”? Various anti-Trump organizations are having a field day, soliciting funds supposedly to impeach Trump or otherwise oppose him, meanwhile taking their own cut.  But Trump's continuous outrages have left us kind of numb--they fail to shock us anymore.  While Bernie Sanders’ universal health care proposal is a good start to get lawmakers and the public thinking about that possibility, but right now, it’s an idea, a talking point, but something merely aspirational. Republicans may decide that Obamacare is not so bad after all compared to single-payer, which probably the majority of the electorate would actually support. Single-payer would greatly simplify the system and eliminate expensive layers of bureaucracy, layers destined to fight tooth and nail to keep their jobs. There would also be less choice for patients, longer waits, less personal contact with practitioners, and fewer procedures performed, but at much lower cost to the government and to consumers. I belong to the Kaiser health system, much cheaper than other health insurance and which may be a model, with salaried doctors who have no incentives to push for unneeded care—if anything, they may pause before providing any care. Universal care would certainly cost less per patient than our present system, but practitioners would also earn less. As I have often commented here, doctors, nurses, and therapists in other developed countries earn good salaries, but not the very high incomes promoted under our own present system, much of it fueled by campaign contributions and vigorous lobbying. However, I disagree with Bernie that all services should be covered 100%. Kaiser, even Medicare and Medicaid, do have copays. Those copays should stay to prevent hypochondriac or lonely folks from overusing the system, also just to give patients some agency and responsibility and to share costs. Providing more health care to more Americans would increase population due to people living longer and more babies surviving (as is already happening around the world) and also increase age-related illnesses including dementia for the same reason. Heaven help us, now we are learning about trans people who regret their choice and want to go back to their original gender. If it was hard to transition, it’s even harder to reverse it! Maybe folks now have too many choices. If you are feeling that your psyche and physical gender don’t match, it might be best to cross-dress for a few years. Even taking hormones is tricky, because some changes might be permanent, i.e. breasts, facial hair or the removal thereof, voice changes. Even the famous pioneering transitioner and tennis champ Christine Jorgensen, according to an autobiography, went from male to female and back to male, then back to female again. Whew, that would put some serious strain on the health system if it were widespread. It would be interesting to see how many “regrets” there are. Reportedly, a UK researcher seeking fund to explore this question was denied. Was that report real or fake news? The world is becoming very confusing in the Trump era! The New Yorker Radio Hour recently aired a wide raging interview with Hillary Clinton, where she acquitted herself quite admirably in my opinion. Of course, I have always supported her, disagreeing only on her siding with Planned Parenthood in apparently wanting to exclude pro-life Democratic candidates from party support. (I do not oppose the 20-week abortion ban which seems sensible to me—any serious birth defects or harm to the mother would be discernable by then; in the rare case of life-threatening harm to the woman arising later, exceptions could be made.) Clinton is right that a perfect storm of events allowed Trump to gain the presidency, among them were Assange’s WikiLeaks disclosures timed and selected to do maximum damage to her campaign, perhaps guided by Russian operatives. Not for nothing did Trump declare, “I love WikiLeaks!” The problem is, she asserts, that the Russians are still calling the shots and manipulating Trump and his mostly inexperienced staff. I do believe the fact that she is a woman worked against her, as men and even some women don’t like uppity women. God forbid that a female candidate should have any hint of marital infidelity, something many male lawmakers have overcome, including Bill Clinton and Trump himself. Just calling her “Crooked Hillary” and urging that she be lynched is not proof of any wrongdoing. Some right-wingers have accused her of taking advantage of being married to a former president. Yes, she did use that as a stepping stone, just as people in any field take advantage of being the spouse, sibling, or parent of someone who has made it to the top. Trump built upon his father’s business success, after all. More than Trump, Hillary did serve her time politically, as a senator and secretary of state.

Later, an article appeared in the NYorker (September 25, 2017) by editor David Remnick about a wide-ranging interview held with Hillary Clinton about her new book, including about the day after the election, when she was in a state of shock (she was not the only one). Quite touching is the cover that was planned for the magazine if she had won.

I was in Chappaqua that day after, as mentioned before, scheduled to give a talk on my Confessions book at the public library, where everyone was downhearted and few were interested in Cuba policy. Again, here is the sign that neighbors put on the entrance to her driveway. Everyone there was devastated, including me. And it hasn’t gotten better. [Chappaqua photo an sign.] With Trump making a fool of himself and a mockery of our country at the UN in his appearance before that body, poor Hillary must be cringing more than ever over his antics and her loss. Trump says the Iran deal is “an embarrassment.”  He and his UN speech are the embarrassment (as Kelly’s expression during its delivery indicated). And while Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands were reeling under the devastating effects of climate change, at least part of it manmade, Trump was obsessed with slamming kneeling by players and others at football games, simply increasing support for practice. Because of concerns about climate change, I switched my electricity exclusively to wind and solar whether or not it costs more. Anthony Weiner fully deserves to shed tears bout his conviction and prison sentence, which is scant punishment for the great harm his antics have inflicted on this country, leading to the catastrophic presidency of Donald Trump.   On another issue, under Trump, the National Institutes of Health is trying to quietly end a program that funds research into gun violence and how to prevent it. (Maybe the more deaths and injuries there are from guns, the more guns will be sold to folks trying to protect themselves from guns? Is that the NRA’s tactic, more gun profits? It’s a vicious circle.) There is also a bill in Congress to approve gun silencers.   So, another mass shooting has occurred but if guns are so protective, where are the successful armed defenders in these cases? It’s not been happening. Self-defense under the Second Amendment doesn’t encompass a personal arsenal of assault weapons. If people want to have assault weapons for the thrill of shooting them at gun ranges, why not have them kept under lock and key to be used only there? Even if people survive a mass shooting, they suffer greatly, may be permanently disabled, lose jobs and income, and use scarce medical resources. After a horrorific shooting, “gun-rights” advocates invariably say that “this is not the time to talk about gun control.” It is precisely the right time to talk about it and to act on it, just as after three devastating hurricanes back-to-back is the right time to talk about climate change. Why not? Because partisans want to avoid the obvious? Thoughts and prayers are not enough! A moment of silence and flags at half-staff are not enough! So do we just have to accept that these terrible events can strike any of us at any time—is the “right to bear arms” of sufficient social benefit that we all just have to bear the risk of being shot, unlike the citizens of other developed countries where guns are restricted? And are hurricanes the price we have to pay for the freedom of some people to use fossil fuels? I have switched my own electricity to all non-fossil fuels. A potential mass shooter has the “right to bear arms,” which can be a license to kill as the La Vegas case demonstrates, but Americans have no right to medical care and living wage?

Whether the issue is gun violence or climate change or a crime committed by an undocumented person or a rape or anything else, probabilities do matter. Nothing gives us 100% certainty except death. While Trump might hold up a victim of a crime committed by an undocumented or a Muslim immigrant as evidence that such people are dangerous, in fact, immigrants have much lower crime rates than the rest of the population. Of course, if you or your loved one is injured by an immigrant, you don’t care about odds. Likewise, Betsy Devos may find one or two young men falsely accused of rape, but she ignores the many more women rape victims who never come forward or get justice. It’s fine to point cases that deviate from the norm, but they do not negate the norm.

Having a gun may be protective in a given case, but many more people are injured or killed by gun violence, accidental or not. The mere possession of a firearm greatly increases the chance of harm coming to its owner and to close associates. A self-driving car will sooner or later be involved in an accident, but will have fewer accidents than cars driven by fallible humans. A surgeon with an enviable record, if he or she performs enough surgeries, may have a failure eventually. A few planes or helicopters will crash—the effort to make that happen less often has succeeded, but not each and every accident will be eliminated. That’s why we feel relieved when we have arrived safely; it’s not a given. Of course, efforts need to continue to reduce the odds of accidents and very long odds can always come to pass. Lottery winnings and Trump’s ascendence to the presidency are examples.