Cameroonian Artists, Presidential Debate, Netanyahu, Tax Cuts for the Wealthy, Venezuelan Election, EU Peace Corps, Honduran Deportees, Father at School, Bereaved Deaf Parent, Gun Violence, Aung San Suu Kyi, Cuban Five, Under Tents in Haiti, Honduran Model City, Amnesty Urgent Actions on Honduras & Cuba, Baby Panda Dies

Photos above are of Herve, a young Cameroonian artist staying temporarily at my place while using resources at the Museum of African Art. One shows him with his 4-year-old son, now waiting for him back home. The others are of him at a couple of his exhibits. He speaks French, but not much English yet. As I have mentioned elsewhere, my daughter Stephanie and her husband, both biologists, spent 6 months in the eastern jungles of Cameroon doing research on monkeys and plants, camped out in a tent among Baka (pigmy) people there. Poor Herve, his last two weeks of search here were lost when his computer crashed and he had made no backup.


Listening to the first debate between Obama and Romney, I thought Romney did pretty well; he didn’t flub as he often does. He seemed well prepared, though offering very few specifics. We shall see if he has gained momentum from his performance. He has everything to gain from these debates.

Speaking of the election, in a get-together with former co-workers from the occupational therapy association where I once worked, I was surprised when one woman said she is supporting Romney because he was a successful businessman. (Yes, successful in laying off workers and investing off-shore.) A sub-text of her support was that she is Jewish and considers him more protective of Israel. Though we thankfully didn't get into a contentious discussion, she seemed to like Romney's tough talk on Israel-Iran and his apparent siding with Netanyahu about bombing Iran's nuclear facilities. But not everyone in Israel is happy about Netanyahu's war talk, red line, and obvious efforts to affect the US election, although many American Jews (and evangelicals) still buy his arguments. Of course, nothing is certain in life, but I am sure Obama is keeping track of the Iran problem and is trying to reduce tensions and offer Iran a face-saving way out, while Netanyahu is only ratcheting up tensions, perhaps because he genuinely believes that preemptively attacking Iran is the way to protect Israel or maybe he’s only bluffing to increase his own domestic support. I thought his direct appeal to the American public and his cartoonish UN bomb graphic were a little crude and might evoke a backlash among the American public, since the US is bankrolling Israel and doesn’t need Netanyahu to be directing our foreign policy. Of course, there are quite a few Jews (certainly not all) and evangelicals who believe in the “chosen people,” biblical land rights, and in Israel’s exclusive right to have nuclear arms in the Middle East. However, others may feel that Netanyahu has overstepped the bounds and is trying to drag us into a war of his own choosing. All we need now is another war in the Muslim world, with Iran a much more powerful country militarily than either Iraq or Afghanistan. Attacking Iran unilaterally, in my opinion, will only increase the danger for Israel. It’s a very delicate situation. Obama called Netanyahu after his UN appearance and would have had to choose his words very carefully, as the Israeli leader would have no compunctions about revealing details of their conversation that he did not like. Romney also called the Israeli leader. Netanyahu believes he is helping Romney to win, but even if that happens, Romney may not be as pliable as Bibi hopes and may equally resent his meddling.

No big surprise that the Congressional Budget Office has found that tax cuts for the wealthy don’t actually create jobs or boost the economy, they just make some people richer. Some wealthy people may buy a few more things or hire more servants, making a small trickle-down effect, but mostly, they already have everything they ever wanted and are hoarding their money or putting it into off-shore accounts, as Romney has done, perhaps trying to protect their wealth to pass on to progeny, because there is only so much they can actually spend in their own lifetime.

The Venezuelan presidential election is immanent. Venezuelans in the U.S. are allowed to vote, but only at a consulate and the consulate in Miami, where most of them live, has been inexplicably closed, perhaps because most Venezuelans living here have already voted with their feet to leave during Chavez’s time in power, hence are not his supporters. Not daunted, Miami Venezuelans have organized caravans and special flights to take them New Orleans, the next closet consulate, so they can vote.

Recently, I had a conversation with a woman who told me that the EU is starting a program like the Peace Corps. She didn’t give details, but that’s good news, because the need is so great and it also provides an excellent experience for volunteers. I’ve searched on-line and see that the program still in the planning process. Like the Peace Corps, it seems mostly geared toward young people, providing them with training and experience to make them “the leaders of tomorrow.” But there should be no overlooking that yesterday’s or today’s leaders could become “the volunteers of tomorrow.”

During the period 2003-2012, more than 220,000 Hondurans have been deported from the US, with the highest number in this year, 2012. Final figures are not yet available, but it looks like there might be as many as 44,000 this year alone. It’s so difficult and perilous for Hondurans to make that journey across Guatemala and the whole of Mexico that it’s surprisingly that enough make it to allow so many to be deported. I have commented here before that I have seen the deportation flights unloading on the Tegucigalpa airport, with dejected passengers getting off a plane unmarked except for a tiny American flag on the tail. Airport employees told me that was the regular deportation flight, the exact reverse of “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”

Recently, I commented here that in all my school interpretations, usually for annual evaluations carried out with parents of children in special ed, only mothers have appeared on their children’s behalf. Well, yesterday, I had a father for the first time and I commended him for that. “Well,” he said, “I wouldn’t be here except my wife died. I really didn’t want to come, but the school insisted.” He was a man my own age or older who said he had something like 9 kids and, really, it was too much to try to help them all with their education, as he himself had never attended school and didn’t know how to read and write or speak English. Accompanying him was a son in his late 20s who apparently is helping the 17-year-old special ed student, a very diffident boy, who, because of his age, was allowed to sit in the session with teachers and therapists trying to chart his future educational course.

Haven’t discussed it much here, but I belong to a support group of parents who have lost children, The Compassionate Friends. A new parent is the father of a 5-year-old who ran out into the street and was killed by a vehicle. This father is deaf and I have contacted Gallaudet University for the deaf here in DC to see if anyone would be willing to act as a pro-bono sign language interpreter for this grieving father during our meetings.

Another multiple shooting, this time in Minneapolis. Anyone with a grievance and a gun is a menace to the rest of society. A Conn. man shot and killed his son wearing a mask, thinking the boy was a home invader. But, quite obviously, nothing is going to be done before the election, if ever. Ryan has come out even more vociferously than ever for “gun rights.” Suicide now surpasses car accidents as a cause of death, many of those suicides impulsive acts committed with guns. In this area, apparently a man shot his wife and two children before shooting himself in a family murder-suicide. I have a reader who insists that guns protect, though I haven’t seen much evidence of that. Perhaps gun possession does prevent some injuries and deaths, though that’s harder to quantify than cases where someone is actually killed.

Burmese laureate Aung San Suu Kyi was here in Washington and because of my Amnesty work, I received an on-line ticket to hear her speak on September 20. But when the ticket was issued, it required confirmation within 6 hours and I did not see it in time to confirm, so my ticket went to someone else, much to my regret. It’s expected that most people will remain “connected” at all times, checking e-mail frequently. However, I’m an old-fashioned type, with only a fixed home phone and a desk-top computer, so I missed out. Suu Kyi’s case was one that we had worked on for years in Amnesty.

On September 17, 2012, several Americans appeared as spokespersons and among the audience for a Cuban Interests Section presentation broadcast via live webcam (a tactic adopted from the U.S. Interests Section in Havana) rallying support for the Cuban Five’s innocence and attesting to the still inspiring nature of the Cuban revolution, lo these many decades later, despite continued American government hostility. The Cuban government seized American Alan Gross 3 years ago to use as a bargaining chip for the Five's release, but probably matters will remain stalemated until after the November election.

The Cuban Five, my readers may recall, were men convicted of spying in the US who had infiltrated Miami exile organizations and notified the Cuban government of the flight pattern of 2 Brothers to the Rescue planes, which were shot down by the Cuban air force, killing 4. One of the Cuban Five has been out on parole for a year, but not permitted by a judge to leave the US for 2 more years. Interesting that the Cuban Interests Section here in DC is using a webcam, just as the US Interests Section in Havana has been doing from time-to-time, but under much more restricted circumstances there, because Cuban dissidents wanting to talk by webcam from Havana may be intercepted on their way to the US Interests Section by Cuban State Security. Amnesty International has questioned the fairness of the Miami venue of the Five’s trial and has advocated that their wives be allowed to visit, but has not pronounced them innocent.

On September 21, participants at the NYC and DC offices of Amnesty Int’l, along with many other organizations, held a joint meeting via live webcam with Sanon, a Haitian representing FRAKKA, a citizens’ grassroots effort mobilizing around housing initiatives. Speaking in French with interpreters, Sanon traced the roots of Haiti’s current housing crisis from its troubled political past, through the earthquake of January 12, 2010 that killed 300,000 people, to today when 350,000 to 400,000 people remain without permanent shelter. He gave examples of police and landowners colluding to evict squatters without due process and NGOs and government functionaries, along with common criminals, preying on helpless families, wantonly destroying their shelters, arresting, and even killing them with impunity. (Some videos of these events were shown.) The Haitian legislature and president have apparently ignored the situation. The pretext for evicting families is often environmental protection. However, the situation is not completely hopeless and progress is possible. Giving up would only make matters worse. Homeless people are being trained to plead their cases. Pro-bono law offices in the U.S. are being called upon to help. Haitian groups are touring the U.S. to raise awareness and money. One Haitian organization is able to build a decent house for $11,000. Habitat for Humanity and Taiwan are also constructing houses in Haiti, building them to withstand tremors and other acts of nature, some being built right at the quake epicenter. “Under Tents” (http://undertentshaiti.com) is an international campaign for housing rights in Haiti, so check out the website.

Plan for Charter City to Fight Honduras Poverty Loses Its Initiator

By ELISABETH MALKIN in the September 30, 2012 New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/01/world/americas/charter-city-plan-to-fight-honduras-poverty-loses-initiator.html?hp

Apparently the charter city idea has hit up against the very problems it was trying to address—see article.

Urgent actions issued by Amnesty International regarding the situation of human rights defenders in the Americas.

Honduras: Killing of human rights lawyer Antonio Trejo Cabrera exposes dire need for action

Human rights lawyer Antonio Trejo Cabrera died on Saturday evening after gunmen shot him five times outside a wedding ceremony in a southern suburb of the capital Tegucigalpa. He had reported receiving death threats linked to his work representing the victims of human rights abuses amid an ongoing land conflict in the Bajo Aguan region in the north of the country.

Read the press release here: http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/honduras-killing-human-rights-lawyer-sows-fear-2012-09-25


Urgent Action: Cuba – Human rights activists detained in Cuba

Members of the Ladies in White (Damas de Blanco) have been detained in Havana and several other places in Cuba. Some remain in detention and the authorities have failed to provide reasons for their detention or information on their whereabouts.

To read more, take action and share the information, visit: http://amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR25/022/2012/en

Maybe it’s not monumental on the scale of calamities, but we here in DC are lamenting the death of our new baby giant panda, something of a surprise when it was actually born, a rare event. Years ago, at the National Zoo, I saw the playful panda born here before he was shipped back to China when he turned five, as per the agreement with that country. This cub was female, even more of a loss, as she could have been bred when she came of age, since her mother is coming to the end of her reproductive life. Panda breeding in captivity is very difficult in any case, involving calculations of when ovulation occurs and artificial insemination at the precise moment, even then, with minimal chances of success. Not like rabbits! The mother panda apparently mourned her infant’s death, judging by her vocalized laments and she has been cradling a toy ever since as if it were the departed panda cub.

Amish at Eastern Market, Cuban Dissidents, Juvenile Services, Cameroonian Artist, Muslim Rage, Romney, Blog Advice

On Tuesday afternoons, at our local Eastern Market, Amish families arrive from Pennsylvania to sell produce outside, looking rather exotic wearing their traditional attire, hats, and long beards. They transport themselves and their products in what appear to be covered wagons, but pulled by a motor vehicle, usually a truck or pick-up. I suppose that’s because a horse-drawn carriage cannot travel on city streets, so they adapt in that way. Last Tuesday, almost at dusk, I took a photo (above) of one of their parked wagons with a little Amish girl beside it. Afterwards, she ran shyly away, barefoot on that warm September evening.


The second photo is of an historic Cuban dissident, Ana Lázara Rodríguez, whom I met on September 14 at The Institute of World Politics here in Washington, DC, during an event honoring female survivors of communist prisons. A woman my own age, now living in Miami, she has written a memoir entitled Diary of a Survivor: Nineteen Years in a Cuban Woman’s Prison. Her opposition to Batista began when she was only 13 and continued after she became a medical student. Glad to see him ousted, her curiosity was initially aroused by Fidel’s “romantic story,” but not for long. Soon disillusioned, she began working against Castro, “just as against Batista,” mostly using the written word and mockery, “We made fun of him and his long-winded pronouncements. I was not afraid. If they destroyed me, that would spare me suffering and they would no longer have an enemy left to fight,” she said. “I told them, I am free to talk; you are not.” Her freedom to talk was short lived; someone turned her in. She was arrested in 1961 and sentenced to 30 years. “When they burned all my books, I cried,” she admitted, “but I didn’t let them see it.” She endured 19 years of ill treatment, periods of solitary confinement, being moved from one prison to another, hunger strikes, and, during one such strike, prisoners were also denied water. These women, called plantadas, were forced to give blood for hospital patients. Finally in 1979, Ana was freed in an agreement brokered by President Jimmy Carter, who had lifted the ban on Americans traveling to Cuba, and she came to the U.S. in 1980. She took up her medical studies again in the Dominican Republic, but by then in her forties, never practiced medicine in the United States. Once a devout Catholic attending daily Mass, she now feels the church has been too accommodating to the regime. “Communism, fascism, any kind of ‘ism,’ it’s still a dictatorship,” she declared. After I took her photo, I promised to e-mail her a copy, but she has refused to have e-mail, “because then you have no privacy or independence; everything you do can be monitored.”

In Cuba, on September 11, independent LGBT activist Leannes Imbert Acosta was arrested by state security and a planned exhibit opening was disrupted. Cuba only allows regime-sponsored LGBT organizations approved by first daughter Mariela Castro.

For three days in a row, my interpretation assignments were all at Maryland juvenile services. Each time, it was a single mother who didn’t speak English with a wayward teenage daughter or son who does speak English and may have been born here. Very rarely do these kids live with a mother with a husband at home and never in eight years of working as an interpreter have I ever had a father actually come to juvenile services with the youngster. Nor in the waiting room sitting next to English-speaking families do I ever see any fathers present. If a teen gets into trouble, shouldn’t the father be concerned? That may be a big part of the problem. Again, with kids’ health problems in hospitals or clinics, usually it’s the mother only with the youngster, although in the case of surgery, an occasional father has appeared with the mother. It does take two to produce a child.

Herve, an artist from Cameroon, arrived Saturday and immediately wanted to get on the internet with his laptop to notify his family back home that he had arrived safely. But his battery was low and I didn’t have an adapter for his plug-in, only adapters going from here to other countries, not vice versa, but we found the right one at the local Radio Shack. He will be doing research for two months at the Museum of African Art. Something about comparative styles, I’m not sure what, as his English is not fluent. This is not his first trip to Washington; he was here for one day last year to give a lecture. A museum staff member picked him up at the airport and said that obtaining his visa and getting through the airport have become harder than ever now. Surely, with all the unrest abroad, getting even temporary visas will become more complicated and difficult.

J. Christopher Stevens, our Ambassador to Libya killed recently, was once a Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco, 1982-1985, probably where he first learned Arabic. The anti-Islam film or video that led to his death and that of his colleagues was not in general circulation until excerpts went viral on the internet. Google has now blocked access, but a little late. The producer/director (on probation for financial crimes in California) was first identified as Israeli, then as an Arab, an Egyptian Coptic Christian, evoking fury against already beleaguered Copts in Egypt. Of course, such attacks would only seem to corroborate one apparent premise of the video, that Islam is a violent, fanatical, and corrupt religion. It was certainly unknown to the U.S. government and American public until now, when these events have raised its profile, so an attack on American government facilities makes no logical sense. But since when is logic involved? Attacks on the German embassy in Khartoum make even less sense. While Islamist extremists may represent only a small percentage of Muslims, they certainly do a lot of damage, reacting to any perceived or imagined insult or slight, as evidenced by the Danish cartoon controversy, reactions to Koran burnings and some of Pope Benedict’s pronouncements, and now this film. Of course, suicide bombings and the 9/11 attacks are further evidence of such fanaticism, seeming all out of proportion to the alleged original offenses. Is the violence that has swept the Muslim world just an expression of anti-western feeling writ large or of frustrations with their own daily life and with the unfulfilled expectations of the “Arab Spring”? The relative youthfulness of Muslim populations is also a factor, as is the cunning of agitators ready to pounce on any excuse to whip up a crowd. Of course, once such mobs get going, they attract others and inspire copy-cats in other countries. The excitement of the crowd and the thrill of destruction apparently sweep up many young people, already in the habit of fighting and demonstrating. At the same time, western societies and governments, which allow freedom of speech and expression, cannot be policing every piece of obscure writing, drawing, film, or action that might conceivably enrage some folks in the Muslim world.

Mitt Romney would seem to be out-of-touch with middle income voters if he defines “middle income” as $200,000 to $250,000 per year, when the real figure is about $50,000. Most of us would feel downright wealthy if we earned $200,000. In all fairness, Romney did qualify his statement by adding “or less” at the end. Presidential candidates have to be super-careful about saying anything that can be cut into a sound bite, just as Obama’s “You didn’t make this” was excerpted without the qualifier “alone.” And Romney states that there would be no mid-east turmoil if he were president? I suspect it would be worse. The man seems confused about what just he plans to do and what he wants to say. Is that someone who should be president?

Blog advice columns (yes any and all subjects are legitimate blog topics, including how to write a blog) definitely recommend being focused on your blog, also promoting it to a targeted audience, which you are supposed to notify whenever a new posting goes up. I confess to my readers that I am completely unfocused in life and an on my blog, moving in many different directions at once. No wonder I’m always pressed for time! My blog is like a rambling conversation that I would be having face-to-face with you, my indulgent reader, something that probably appeals to only a few, mostly good friends, at least judging from those who actually send me comments via e-mail. I am expressing myself and discussing what interests me and what I hope interests you in a sort of public diary. At the very least, when I am gone, my kids will be able to go through the blog and reconstruct much of their mother’s daily life.

SOS for IHS Medical Brigade, Honduran Journalist Killed, Haitian President Accused of Corruption, Democratic Convention, Profit Motive vs. Sharing, Gun Control Again, Party Platforms on Cuba, More Fake Amazon reviews, Dying Cardinal Critiques Church, Translation vs. Interpretation, Blog Reader’s Critique

The photos shown are of handmade dolls made by indigenous Lenca women living near La Esperanza—thanks to Susan for the photos of items she bought while volunteering there.

OK, folks, we still need volunteer doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and dentists and a ham radio operator for the IHS (Int’l Health Service of Minnesota) medical brigade to La Esperanza, Honduras, starting next Feb. 15. We have interpreters (including me) and helpers, but that’s useless without the basic practitioners. If anyone out there might be interested, please contact ihsmn.org or me ASAP!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Miraculously, according to a report in our local Spanish-language press, Jhonny Carrasco, a special agent with the Honduran national police gave a female reporter whom he had attacked an envelope containing his apology and money to replace the camera he had broken. While he should have been disciplined, that’s better than nothing and, I’m sure, was a huge surprise to the reporter.

The human rights reporting website , IFEX, has three items on Honduras, so check it out: http://www.ifex.org/americas/all/

• Honduran government announces plans for protecting journalists as online reporter is found dead

Journalist José Noel Canales Lagos was killed on his way to work for the online newspaper hondudiario.com; his murder brings the total number of journalists killed in Honduras in the past decade to 30.

• Peasants' rights spokesperson harassed by Honduran authorities

• Honduran government announces plans for protecting journalists as online reporter is found dead

Honduran journalist threatened after broadcasting complaints against water company. A Honduran journalist said he fears for his life after having reported complaints by local residents against the Aguas de Choloma company.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Haiti: Duvalier Lawyer Called to Defend President's Family from Accusations of Corruption

Tuesday, 04 September 2012

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (defend.ht) - The presidential family called on the services of the defense attorney for former President-for-Life Jean Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier, Reynold Georges, to defend them from accusations of "usurpation of title and function" and embezzlement by First Lady Sophia Martelly and the president's son Olivier.

For rest of article see:

http://defend.ht/politics/articles/judicial/3326-haiti-duvalier-lawyer-called-to-defend-president-s-family-from-accusations-of-corruption
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thank goodness the political conventions are over. Does anyone else feel that way? Nothing really earthshaking happened at either one, but, overall, I thought the Democrats gave better, more substantive speeches, perhaps reflecting my personal biases. Bill Clinton was very good, rather long, but full of specifics. I thought Barack Obama gave a rousing speech and came across as more sincere than Romney, who only seemed to want to get elected. Of course, Obama wants to be re-elected too, but he also seems to want to fix problems. However, I must say he is a better speaker than an implementer, although, of course, I do intend to vote for him.

The most interesting part of the Republican convention was Clint Eastwood’s odd narrative, but the Republicans cut that out of the final convention edit. The Democratic platform did support DC voting rights, but not necessarily “statehood,” which has been the push of many local activists. It would be nice to have statehood, but it’s not as important what our jurisdiction is called as that we have congressional representation.

The question posed by Republicans is a strategic one: Are you better off now since Obama has become president? Probably a lukewarm “slightly better” is the answer most people would honestly give, but nowhere near where we were before, mainly back to when Bill Clinton was president, which seems to be where most think we should be. The recovery will continue to be slow no matter who is elected, I predict, but that slowness now is certainly reducing Obama’s popularity and will do the same for Romney if he should win the presidency. Romney voters should not be surprised when and if their man fails to deliver either.

I don’t have TV, so what I know of the convention speeches is only audio. I thought the Demo pro-choice speaker was a little too militant, but that probably reflects my own stance as an adoptive parent, being more pro-life myself, though still a Democrat and an Obama voter. Hispanic voters, too, are pro-life and don’t favor gay marriage either, an issue on which I am fairly neutral—if people want to get married to someone of the same sex, that’s their business. I have gay friends who have tied the knot and I certainly support them. Likewise, I would support access to contraception, including in government-funded health plans. But for me, abortion is a step too far except in cases of rape, incest, and medical problems for mother or child—and if it’s going to happen, early is better than later. I suspect many Americans fall into that same category—we don’t want abortion criminalized, but neither do we want it encouraged or considered just routine. Michelle Obama gave a very good speech. I didn’t hear Ann Romney, but I understand she did well too. I noticed that while Bill Clinton had a prominent role, Hilary, who is pretty popular in her own right, was away in China during the convention. She may really mean it that she is through with politics and is leaving the spotlight at the end of this year.

According to polls, almost all of Romney’s support comes from white voters. The question for Obama, who takes most minority votes, is whether he can win over enough white votes to squeak past Romney. The election at this point looks like a squeaker, however it turns out. In any case, with the white percentage of the total population falling, the Republicans will have a problem long-term. It’s unfortunate that the country is so polarized now along both political and racial/ethnic lines.

Since financial sacrifices are required in light of the deficit and the slow economic recovery, I would ask why shouldn’t those who have more, who really have plenty of money to spare, contribute more? They aren’t even going to feel it if they have to pay a little more in taxes. Their quality of life will hardly suffer. Poorer people will have to give up some benefits, but richer people may only have to give up some money, which for them is actually fairly painless. It’s pitiful that a multimillionaire like Romney pays so little in taxes. I know he tithes to the Mormon church, but that doesn’t reach the majority of needy citizens.

The profit motive is always a strong incentive; certainly in our country, it is much praised, encouraged, and reinforced. It’s only natural for people to want to improve their economic and material circumstances, but there are limits on how much one person or family can spend, even if they have millions. Lottery winners are always faced with a quandary of what to do with their windfall. Super-rich people face that quandary their whole life. They can’t consume and spend it all. Nor can they say they amassed their fortune completely independently. How much they have acquired depends on luck, customers, employees, and government policies (hence lobbying and political contributions), so a “self-made man” is not entirely self-made. In addition to having parents, family, fellow church-goers, and friends, he depends on a whole social and economic network. So no one, even Mitt Romney, can say he built his fortune all by himself.

Furthermore, there has always been a countervailing force in the direction of altruism and sharing. Empathy and group protection are hardwired even in children and animals. Nor is private enterprise guided by the profit motive always the best avenue for accomplishing something –sometimes government or a non-profit entity is more appropriate. Therefore, voters and politicians alike need to question propaganda, coming mainly from the Republican Party, demonizing government, taxes, and assistance for people in need. Even realizing profits, as Henry Ford once pointed out, depends on the ability of ordinary people being able to buy whatever is being sold. Squeezing out every dime of profit from consumers not only may skew the economy but may leave consumers without the wherewithal to continue consuming and keep the economic engine running. I was hoping the Democratic convention might question some Republican values and assumptions. Wealthy people don’t seem as interested in being job-creators, as Romney alleges, but in protecting and hoarding their wealth, including in moving their operations and investments off-shore, as he himself has done. What’s the point of having so much? I suppose to feel powerful, to have bragging rights, to be able to say, “Mine is bigger than yours,” and to be able t run for president if you want to.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I see that some city folks and organizations are now asking politicians to address the gun control issue, but, so far, I haven’t heard of any such plans. It would be a very difficult matter to tackle if every place comes up with different rules since firearms are fairly easy to transport across jurisdictional boundaries. And, at least here in DC, despite voters’ expressed desire for stricter gun controls, the Supreme Court has upheld the “right to bear arms” and knocked down our previous more restrictive laws. Also, Congress has not been shy about imposing laws on the District, since we have no federal voting rights. There is also the problem of so many guns being already in circulation. Personal possession of weapons, other than for target shooting or hunting, would seem to have two major purposes: offense and defense. If everyone else is armed, you may want to be armed too to deter attacks and protect yourself, sort of like nations having reciprocal nuclear deterrence. At least, that’s the argument. But does it work out in practice? I would favor programs that would pay people to turn in their guns to authorities, but only if the supply of new guns were restricted, or else we would just have a revolving door.

In the August 20, 2012, issue of TIME, Fareed Zakaria makes a compelling case for gun control and reducing the sheer number of guns in circulation, however that might be done (he doesn’t say). He was recently suspended for using someone else’s work without attribution in that same article, though the article still appears. It may be available on line, so I won’t repeat everything, just that he points out that the U.S. has 30 times the per capita gun homicide rate of Britain and Australia and opines that we don’t have any significantly higher percentage of crazy people here. In any case, such people are in the millions and we cannot track them all. In our nation’s early history, despite gun advocates’ frequent invocation of the founding fathers, gun control laws, especially against concealed weapons, were actually in effect back then and the enactment of current wide-open and aggressive “guns-rights” laws is a more recent phenomenon. While some pundits have advocated simply accepting that unexpected tragedies will occur in life, Zakaria says we didn’t take that position in regard to 9/11. Nor, I might add, do we passively accept it for myriad other threats such as traffic accidents, cancer, schoolyard bullying, and flood control. Such a fatalistic attitude on the part of Hondurans, in my opinion, is one reason gun deaths are so high in that country. Guns are seen openly everywhere in Honduras, in shops, banks, and even ice cream parlors. Does that make people there any safer? Apparently not, since the homicide rate there is many times ours in the U.S., even though ours is so much higher than in other developed countries.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Involved as I am in Cuban affairs in my volunteer role as a Caribbean coordinator for Amnesty International USA, I’m well aware that the Cuban regime has long justified restrictions on freedom of information, association, and expression as necessary to protect its allegedly superior material benefits from encroachment by the big, bad “empire” (the USA). But now those benefits are being reduced by brother Raul Castro, who insists that is the only way to protect and maintain “socialism.” Meanwhile, the Republican Party in the US is proposing to curtail benefits in the name of protecting the American people from “socialism.” The meaning of the term seems to have become rather murky. Former President Jimmy Carter has again called for the end to the embargo against Cuba, which is coming up for renewal this month. President Obama has relaxed it considerably, I is unlikely to abolish it completely in this election year.

GOP Party Platform on Cuba:

We affirm our friendship with the people of Cuba and look toward their reunion with the rest of our hemispheric family. The anachronistic regime in Havana which rules them is a mummified relic of the age of totalitarianism, a state-sponsor of terrorism. We reject any dynastic succession of power within the Castro family and affirm the principles codified in U.S. law as conditions for the lifting of trade, travel, and financial sanctions: the legalization of political parties, an independent media, and free and fair internationally-supervised elections. We renew our commitment to Cuba’s courageous pro-democracy movement as the protagonists of Cuba’s inevitable liberation and democratic future. We call for a dedicated platform for the transmission of Radio and TV Marti and for the promotion of Internet access and circumvention technology as tools to strengthen the pro-democracy movement. We support the work of the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba and affirm the principles of the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966, recognizing the rights of Cubans fleeing Communism.

Democratic National Committee platform on Cuba:

Under President Obama we have undertaken the most significant efforts in decades to engage the Cuban people. We have focused on the importance of family ties between Cuban-Americans and their relatives still living under oppression. Because of the steps the President has taken, it is now possible for Cuban-Americans to visit and support their families in Cuba and to send remittances that reduce the Cuban people's dependence on the Cuban state. We have taken additional steps to bolster Cuban civil society, expanding purposeful exchanges that bolster independent religious groups on the island and enhancing the free flow of information to, from, and among the Cuban people. Going forward we will continue to support the Cuban people's desire to freely determine their own future.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here below is part of an article foloowing up on the NYTimes article about a man who ghosted Amazon reviews for pay and reminding me of the former Peace Corps volunteer who had slammed my book on Amazon and probably wrote a glowing review or two of his own Honduras memoir. I remember him contacting a bunch of people, including me (before his terrible review of my book), asking us to “vote” for his Honduras book for an award. Fortunately, another Honduras PC volunteer convinced Amazon to remove his biased diatribe against my book. Now, it seems, he is not the only one trying to bring down his competitors by reviews, both positive and negative. Writers should not hide their light under a barrel, but neither should they self-promote shamelessly and by subterfuge, but, as shown below, even famous authors may stoop to using such tactics, encouraged by the relative anonymity of the internet. These tactics also raise doubts about the validity of legitimate reviews.

Crime Writer RJ Ellory Caught Faking Amazon Reviews

Sept. 3, 2012 ABC 20/20

Best-selling crime writer RJ Ellory has been caught red-handed faking both positive and negative book reviews on Amazon. Ellory was writing glowing reviews for his own books and slamming his competitors' books. Ellory, a British novelist, was exposed by fellow writer Jeremy Duns who disseminated his evidence against Ellory in a series of tweets.

"Ellory writes 5-star reviews of his own work on Amazon. Long, purple tributes to his own magnificent genius," Duns tweeted. "RJ Ellory also writes shoddy, sh***y sniping reviews of others authors' work on Amazon, under an assumed identity."

Through a tip and some slip-ups on Ellory's part, Duns discovered that Ellory was posting reviews under at least two pseudonyms, "Jelly Bean" and "Nicodemus Jones." Duns tweeted that he noticed that both of those "users" had given all of Ellory's books five stars and given them praise-filled reviews.

Ellory also panned his competitors. After he was “outed,” he apologized. Good for Duns for noticing and for alerting the reading public.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here below is part of a recent article, which seems to have made the rounds of the internet. I do think change is overdue in the Catholic Church and a revival of the spirit evoked by Pope John XXXIII. The polarization seen in other realms has also hit the church.

In final interview, Cardinal says Church "200 years out of date"

ROME (Reuters) Sept.1, 2012- The former archbishop of Milan and papal candidate Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini said the Catholic Church was "200 years out of date" in his final interview before his death, published on Saturday. Martini, once favoured by Vatican progressives to succeed Pope John Paul II and a prominent voice in the church until his death at the age of 85 on Friday, gave a scathing portrayal of a pompous and bureaucratic church failing to move with the times.

"Our culture has aged, our churches are big and empty and the church bureaucracy rises up, our rituals and our cassocks are pompous," Martini said in the interview published in Italian daily Corriere della Sera.

"The Church must admit its mistakes and begin a radical change, starting from the pope and the bishops. The paedophilia scandals oblige us to take a journey of transformation," he said in the interview.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Although I much prefer face-to-face interpretation to written translation of dry, disembodied medical reports, I will do the latter if requested. Lately, quite a few medical translations have come my way, records originating in Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru Argentina, and Chile. These reports show a high degree of medical sophistication, not only in the use of professional nomenclature, but in providing MRI, EKG, lab, and bone scan reports. Many of the patients apparently have intractable health problems for which they are seeking a second opinion, usually at Johns Hopkins University Hospital in Baltimore. So, they are people of means if they are able to travel to this country and pay privately for their care. None are referred by the public clinics that I typically worked with in Honduras, rather by the type of private clinics that the Peace Corps would use when we volunteers had health concerns.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Finally, one of my alert blog readers points out that so-called “fact-checkers” often need to have their own facts checked, as some have been shown to be in error themselves. Whom can we trust? She also chides me for not reading the whole article about the paid book reviewer, as the guy was eventually “outed” and is no longer in business. However, he did make gravy for a while and his customers probably also benefitted in their own book sales.

This reader is neither a gun control advocate nor an Obama supporter, asking: Would Romney learn on the job faster than Obama has? Would we be throwing the baby out with the bathwater to chuck Obama now after all the lessons he's learned at our expense?

San Jose Obrero, Republican Convention, Williams Leaving Peace Corps, More Shootings, Book Reviews For Sale, Counties Bucking States, Amnesty’s London Website Hacked, Late Son’s Birthday

First, the above photo, which I saw on another website describing the work of San Jose Obrero, really a kind of Catholic Goodwill store in Choluteca, Honduras, where I often buy used wheelchairs, crutches, and walkers to donate to the Choluteca rehab center located nearby. The priest in charge there, originally from Cuba, has made a deal to send donations from the U.S. free to a port on Honduras’s north coast, usually La Ceiba, in empty banana cargo containers. He has offered to let me use some of the space for items I want to send, but my problem is getting stuff to Miami and loading into the containers, then unloading it on the Caribbean coast and transporting it to Tegucigalpa or Choluteca or wherever else I want o distribute it. I have enough trouble just getting around the country myself with luggage I’m carrying, much less trying to engineer such an operation long distance, especially with theft being so common. Still, I salute San Jose Obrero for doing it and although they never give me price break, even though I am donating the items to the rehab center, it’s really been easier for me to buy there than to transport a lot of stuff from home myself. However, I have accumulated a bunch of yard sale crutches which I must take on my next trip somehow.


Well, the Republican national convention is over, thank goodness. Some of its excesses and outright falsehoods were breathtaking. Fact-checkers have pointed out the many misstatements (lies? referred to discreetly in the press as “factual shortcuts”) but Republican partisans don’t look at facts. As for Romney, reportedly at a campaign time-out with veterans, he said that Obama had reduced America’s standing in the world. That’s a laugh. He increased it from the low point where it had fallen with GW Bush. Citizens, if not all leaders (certainly not Netanyahu), of most other countries like and admire Obama and are holding their breath that he will win again to prevent such world disasters as took place during the Bush years, whereas Romney really bombed on his recent overseas trip. As for Romney’s Thursday night keynote, I give him an “A” for effort, though I feel a little sorry for him because he’s obviously trying so hard and wants so very much to be president, something I certainly hope he doesn’t achieve. If not, maybe he can console himself that so many at the convention apparently loved him. His convention speech was actually better than some he has given, with no gaffes that I noticed, so that’s a plus for him.

Mitt Romney made a lot of promises in his speech: creation of 12 million jobs, lower taxes, cheaper gas, abolition of “Obamacare,” support for the needy and elderly, and reduction of the deficit aiming toward a balanced budget. His successful business experience will make all that possible! How? No examples or specifics were offered, just raw numbers. If voters actually believe him, then they deserve the unhappy result, though they’ll take us unbelievers and the rest of the world down with them. When the Supreme Court declared GW Bush the winner of his first election, I was in Honduras, but I remember thinking then, well, maybe when he’s actually in office, he won’t be so bad after all. Actually, he was worse. His name was never mentioned at this year’s Republican convention.

Of the few other convention speeches I listened to, Condoleezza Rice did the best in my view. She sounds like an intelligent woman who writes her own speeches, unlike some others. I thought she laid out the Republican position quite well, even though I don’t always agree with her, and I appreciated her statement that immigrants have found opportunity here and that we must welcome them, a refreshing change from the usual Republican line. It was also nice to see a darker face at a largely all-white convention. Otherwise, I found most of what was said at the convention bland or even sickening. How is that so many whom we call our fellow Americans can be so myopic and, frankly, mean-spirited, anti-intellectual, and greedy? Republicans say it’s un-American to be envious of the rich, since we all have an opportunity to be just like them. Well, fewer and fewer of us are actually achieving that opportunity—is that our own darn fault? Is the pie—are earth’s resources— really infinitely large, large enough that we can all be well off, that we can all be rich? There may be some elasticity, but often one person’s gain becomes others’ loss.

Like many who will be voting for Obama, I don’t support him and the Democratic Party in everything. Although he has offered a modified dream act, his administration has been aggressively deporting people, including going after folks who may have committed minor traffic offenses decades ago—this despite lip service for immigration reform. So, as with anyone else who has been in office for a time, his honeymoon is long over. But Romney and company, talking big about creating jobs and lowering taxes, give no particulars except for less regulation, which doesn’t sound like such a good idea, and allowing the oil pipeline from Canada, while reducing incentives for renewable energy, which will only add to the climate change that has been assaulting our nation and the world. Romney, in his convention speech, snidely accused Obama of being concerned about rising sea levels, while Romney himself was concerned about your own family. Some families in neighboring states were being assaulted by rising waters as he spoke. As a Catholic, I was surprised that Cardinal Dolan seemed to be giving his blessing to the Republican convention, but I understand he will also be at the Democratic convention next week, also Sister Simone, a socially oriented Catholic nun. Some Mid-West voters interviewed on NPR said they would never vote for Obama because they just can’t stand his appearance or Michelle’s either—the Obamas just don’t look like a first couple of the United States should look. Maybe a little bleach cream would help?

And, while I’m on my soapbox in this election year, we residents of the District of Columbia, with a bigger population that Dick Cheney’s state of Wyoming and close to that of other small-population states including Alaska, Delaware, North and South Dakota, and Vermont, each with 2 senators and a congressperson, yet we still have no voting representation in Congress because the rest of the country has ganged up against us. Is it because we have a large black population—although now, for the first time in decades, slightly below 50%--and because our registration is about 95% Democratic? The citizens of the capital of the “free world” don’t have the same voting rights accorded to all other Americans and no one seems to care except us.

Alas, Peace Corps director Aaron Williams has announced his departure in mid-September. He has not stayed the fully allowed 5 years, only 3, leaving now before the election. He is a good man and was always very supportive of me personally, so I’m very sorry to see him go and will be sorrier still if Romney wins the presidency and appoints his own director.

A couple of other multiple fatal shootings, this time in NYC and New Jersey. We’re kind of jaded now, almost getting used to it, the "new nomal." And, unfortunately, some of it is copy-cat, whereby guys with grievances see others going out in a blaze of gunfire and decide to do the same. NYC cops do seem to have had a pretty bad aim in hitting so many bystanders during that particular shooting. Supposedly bullets ricocheted. Also a high school student near here was shot and badly injured by another student on the first day of school. In an election year, it looks like no politician dares to utter a word about controlling either gun proliferation or access to firearms. It’s just a matter of so sorry, you were in the wrong place at the wrong time and now are dead or disabled, tough luck; our hearts go out to you or your survivors and we will say a prayer. Anyone who has a grudge, hallucinations, intends to rob, rape, or commit suicide, or wants to commit terrorism just picks up a firearm. Need we all go around wearing helmets and body armor? And, among other things, what about the cost to our health care and rehab system of treating all these serious injuries? Climate change is another topic not mentioned during this election year, despite weather extremes occurring over the last few years, including during the Republican convention.

As a follow-up to my lament about falling book sales, here’s an excerpt from an intriguing item in the NYTimes (Aug. 27, 2012) about buying laudatory book reviews. No wonder I missed the book-promotion boat now in the digital age! According to the article, in the fall of 2010, Jason Rutherford “started a Web site, GettingBookReviews.com. At first, he advertised that he would review a book for $99. But some clients wanted a chorus proclaiming their excellence. So, for $499, Mr. Rutherford would do 20 online reviews. A few people needed a whole orchestra. For $999, he would do 50. There were immediate complaints in online forums that the service was violating the sacred arm’s-length relationship between reviewer and author. But there were also orders, a lot of them. Before he knew it, he was taking in $28,000 a month.”

What’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. After some state governors have announced that they are standing at the statehouse door, refusing to go along with at least some aspects of “Obamacare,” now in Texas, some counties say they plan to buck the state (presumably in the name of local control). Next, we’ll have towns and cities opposing counties. Where will this chaos and madness end? Having different public jurisdictions asserting their own sovereignty in opposing directions makes for tremendous confusion. This is democracy? Can’t we all just get along and go along once the political system we currently have arrives at a conclusion? Undermining laws after-the-fact makes for ineffective and inefficient governance. Wait until the next election to kick the bums out, or to mount a referendum, do something where voters and the public can weigh in, but don’t just allow political figures willy-nilly to engage in civil disobedience.

Because of Amnesty International’s criticism of the atrocities perpetrated by the Assad regime, its London website has been hacked and items have been posted attacking the Syrian rebels for committing “crimes against humanity.” Cyber warfare has risen to new levels.

September 4 is my dearly departed son Andrew’s birthday, a time of remembrance. It doesn’t seem as though 18 years have gone by since we lost him. Of course, I still miss him.

Medical Volunteers Needed, Hate Crimes, Pussy Riot, Self-publishing, Stay of Deportation, Tax Rates, WikiLeaks, Doctor Shortage, “Vigara”

One photo shows my 4-year-old great-grandson De’Andre taking a break from playing pool. The other is of us clowning around at last February’s IHS medical brigade, a photo just sent to me. If you know of any volunteer doctors, nurses, dentists, or pharmacists possibly willing to join us next Feb., please let me know ASAP.

Was the recent shooting at the conservative Family Research Council in DC as a hate crime, in that the shooter opposed the organization’s stance on gays? Is its position based on political considerations or on religious ones? If the latter, this might be considered to fall into a hate-crime category.

Now the three female Pussy Riot punk rockers have been sentenced to 2 years for criticizing Putin in a one-minute song inside a Moscow cathedral. Time-served (almost 6 months already) would have been more than sufficient for such an infraction, but guess that Putin wanted to send a message. The case has sparked international condemnation, which is not over yet.

An article in the NY Times about self-publishing observes that while an occasional self-published book becomes a best-seller like Fifty Shades of Grey, the majority sell only 100 to 150 copies. At least on that score, I’m ahead of the game, because my book has sold more than 1000 copies, some on-line, some at speaking venues. I’ve given away at least 150 more to family, friends, libraries, and reviewers, so the book is out there in modest quantities. As the article points out, the hardest thing about selling a self-published book is that people don’t know about it. Unfortunately, since the Peace Corps 50th anniversary has passed and since the Peace Corps left Honduras, my on-line sales have plummeted, as I guess that mostly volunteers en route to that country were the ones buying it. Any suggestions from blog readers about how to jazz up sales would be appreciated, as I do partially depend on those sales to finance my annual trip to Honduras and support my projects there. Also, the Salvadoran eatery outside our neighborhood Eastern Market, where I’ve sometimes tried selling my book on weekends, has put up a fenced enclosure around its outside tables, making it awkward for me to set up there any more. And although I enjoy chatting with folks about the Peace Corps when I do set up, it’s hard to be self-promoter for the book either there or anywhere else. I hate to be too pushy. And I hate gimmicks and tricks, like the first person who orders gets a free book or a discount.

As for the quality of self-published books, that’s very uneven—I can testify to that, having reviewed a number of self-published memoirs for Peace Corps Writers. A rare few are gems, but most are just junk and very amateurish. I hate to downgrade them when I post a review (on the Peace Corps Writers’ website), as I can see that an author has often poured out his/her heart and struggled to get words down on paper, but some are just terrible. I still try to find something nice to say while at the same time warning would-be buyers and readers. When a book is self-published, you just don’t know what to expect. That also applies to books from traditional publishers, I might add—some are real doozies, especially diet, dating, and financial advice books and those by someone famous. The latter are just puff pieces and much of their subject matter is trite and, while traditionally published books have fewer typos, all books have some. (I even once found a typo in The New Yorker, the gold standard.) At a public library the other day, I picked up a co-authored sex advice book from a major publisher by Dr. Ruth, whose doctorate is in education, and saw the most inane statements, such as that not spending every minute 24/7 day-after-day with your partner can often enhance desire. (Dr. Ruth was married 3 times, so guess she learned most of what she knew from experience, not from academic study.)

I chose self-publishing myself because it offered me the greatest control in terms of my book’s contents, photos, and design, but the downside certainly is recognition and distribution, especially with so many books coming out every year. If my book got even 1% of the attention and readership that a Dr. Ruth book gets, I’d be thrilled. I think it still has something to offer readers.

Maybe my book has just run its natural life course? Sarah Palin and G W Bush both sold over a million copies of their memoirs when they first came out, but I'll bet none since and, now, if at all, those books are all appearing at yard sales. Meanwhile, Barack Obama's books have staying power, although as friend has observed, once he’s out of office, they won’t be so popular any more.

Most fiction written today falls into a “genre” category: chic lit, mysteries, science fiction, horror, golf, and even sub-niches like African-American romance and detective stories. No more of the great dramas and classics of yesteryear (maybe attention spans are too short for those now). So-called non-fiction titles are mostly “how-to” books, even though the writer may not be an expert at anything. Often these latter books use numerical points, such as “Six Surefire Dating Strategies” or “Ten Steps to a Thinner You.” Never mind whether the author has actually achieved dating or dieting success personally or by helping other people. There are even on-line courses (for a price) that teach you how to write a whole non-fiction book in just days. Most such writing courses or those for marketing your book seem dedicated, as far as I can see, to getting you in the mood, making you feel (over) confident about your own success, expertise, and road-to-riches—never mind the substance of your book—also trying to get you, the would-be author, especially if you are self-published, to shell out money for the course or book that’s being offered. Thus, these advice entrepreneurs are exemplifying the very self-promoting behaviors that they plan to advocate for you and which you then need to implement in turn, like holding your own pre-paid advice webinar where you will also promote your book. It’s like a giant Ponzi scheme, all fluff, no substance, but money changes hands. My book, a simple, honest straightforward memoir, falls outside the usual categories, making it less marketable to a defined sub-group, except maybe to Peace Corps volunteers.

On the first day of the filing for the 2-year stay of deportation for young people, over 1,000 people lined up at one DC-area site. Some young undocumented immigrants have expressed fear that a Romney victory would jeopardize their status, but I can’t imagine Mitt Romney, once in office, undertaking to actually deport them. Even a tea-party Republican like Marc Rubio has suggested accommodating undocumented people brought to this country by their parents as minors. And probably a majority of Americans would not want to witness the spectacle of that group being deported. Romney doesn’t seem like a deliberately cruel guy like some politicians, just kind of an uncomfortable, inept one, who, nonetheless wants desperately to be president, a job he has been running for now for about a decade. He’s been a successful businessman, a governor, in charge of the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, and now he wants to top off his career with the US presidency.

Arizona’s Governor Jan Brewer, on the other hand, is not a nice person. She has announced that she is barring those approved under the new Obama immigration stay from getting state ID’s or driver’s licenses and, I suppose, in-state college tuition as well. She says she doesn’t want these people to be a drag on taxpayers, but if she would just give them half a chance, they would become taxpayers instead. I’d expected other Republican governors to follow her example and now the governor of Nebraska has. It’s worrisome that so many governors are defying the federal government or dragging their feet and failing to cooperate on various measures, first heath care, now this. They seem to want to go back to the old days when southern governors resisted desegregation or even to the time before we were a country, before there was a “United” States. Sheriff Arpaio is in the same mold of nasty, mean people apparently elected by the same, who must be a majority in their jurisdictions or they wouldn’t be in office. Not only is their attitude destructive for getting things done, but may also be a tipping factor in motivating some mass shootings, giving legitimacy to angry and hateful emotions. I hope they provoke a backlash for going too far. What if Brewer, Apaio, or some of their supporters suddenly discovered that they had been brought to the US as undocumented children themselves? Would they, in Romney’s words, cheerfully “self-deport”?

Before leaving the topic of nasty, mean politicians, I would also include Dick Cheney in that category. Past the age of heart transplant eligibility, he still got a scarce donor heart, I suppose because no one in the medical establishment dared oppose his request. Hope his new heart might have given him more empathy for others, though he’s been pretty quiet lately, though not displaying any big change of heart. Unfortunately, the addition of Paul Ryan to the Republican presidential ticket, while it has jazzed things up, has also further polarized the electorate and that is not good. Can we expect four more years of partisan gridlock whoever wins the presidency?

Mitt Romney has come out with a statement that he’s always paid about 13% in income taxes. Heck, many of us have paid a far higher percentage than that on a much tinier income, especially if you count social security contributions. I don’t find that percentage particularly reassuring or any evidence that he’s in touch with the common man.

As for Julian Assange, obviously, the man will do anything to avoid a trial and jail. He’s been complaining about being couped up in the Ecuadoran embassy, but that’s nothing compared to what he might face elsewhere. There he is still a celebrity, can have visitors, can use the phone and internet, and gets three meals a day and a place to sleep. Emerging on the embassy balcony recently, he was shorn of his trademark locks, perhaps trying to appear more clean cut and serious.

I received this message on Facebook: “Julian Assange must be set free as he has not committed any crimes - his only crime is to expose the United States and NATO of crimes against humanity and War Crimes committed by the Western Powers!”

Some of the information I have seen revealed by WikiLeaks has been interesting and informative, some damaging, and some actually helpful to US interests. It’s been a treasure trove of historically valuable material over the time-span represented, showing American and other diplomats around the world sometimes coming off better than might have been expected, appearing more nuanced and capable than their public personas would indicate. However, possible secret wrong-doing or wrong-headed actions by the US and other governments has also been revealed. Filmmakers Oliver Stone and Michael Moore, much of whose work I admire (though they give too much credit to conspiracy theories, in my view), have written an editorial in the NY Times hailing Assange as an honest journalist and free-press advocate.

However, I am not one of those believing that this whole WikiLeaks endeavor is something heroic and that all of diplomacy’s dirty laundry needs to be aired publicly, especially if the original communications were expected to be kept confidential. Some matters are best worked out in private, even among nations. I have no particular comment on the sex charges facing Assange in Sweden, except that one of his accusers has visited Cuba and is reported to be a friend of the Ladies in White. It’s ironic that the Ecuadorian government is offering him asylum in the name of freedom of the press when it routinely jails its own journalists for articles the president doesn’t like. Some Ecuadorian journalists have asked for US asylum even as Assange seeks refuge in Ecuador. The police surrounding the Ecuadorian embassy should carefully examine every box and laundry bag that leaves the premises, as Assange may well be squeezed inside on his way to the airport. Once he arrives in Ecuador, if ever, he will be free to visit Venezuela, Iran, Nicaragua, and even Cuba to bring them his message of press freedom.

Princeton economist Uwe Reinhardt in a NY Times op-ed (Aug. 17, 2012) has reacted to criticism of health care reform based on its supposed aggravation of the physician shortage, especially in primary care, because more patients will be seeking care. Some physicians groups have darkly hinted that doctors might just drop out if reimbursement is insufficient. As Reinhardt points out, they are not going to any earn more money by dropping out because no other profession will give them the top income, in the upper 5% of America’s income distribution, that medicine does.

I usually scroll through my spam folder before emptying its contents, as occasionally something important gets sent there. I would advise spammers to learn to spell! It’s not “lotterie win,” “lonly wife,” “xxxx freind,” or “penis enlargment,” nor is it Vigara or Canadiana Pharmacy, which popps up (whoops! you know what I mean) over and over again. These spammers seem to mostly have sex on their minds, or sex and money. And there are all those notices, in my case purportedly from Yahoo, direly warning of an immediate shutdown if certain information is not provided. I’d be really shocked if one turned out to be real and my account actually was shut down! Or if I won that thousand bucks with my name on it!

Honduran Journalist Seeks Protection, Presbyterian College, More Mass Killings, Olympics, Record Heat, Paul Ryan, Nuns, Reading Matter

According to our local Spanish language press, 120,000 Hondurans live in the greater DC area. Consulates are no longer allowed to receive cash payments for transactions, only money orders or credit or debit cards. Cash is an invitation to pocket the money, so that’s a good step.


Meanwhile, local undocumented Honduran and other young people are lining up to apply for the 2-year deportation stay offered by the Obama administration, an action that may identify them for deportation if Romney wins the presidency.

The wife of deposed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya. Xiomara Castro, is running in this November’s primaries for next year’s elections as a presidential candidate of the Libre Party founded by her husband.

Corruption is nothing extraordinary anywhere in the world, including in the US, but in Honduras, uncovering corruption is dangerous and sometimes fatal for the whistleblower as per the item below.

Honduran journalist fears for safety after uncovering financial corruption

(C-Libre/IFEX) - 2 August 2012, Tegucigalpa, Honduras - "Of course I fear for my life, but I know I am doing what is right," said Ariel D'Vicente, a journalist who uncovered that a million lempiras (approx. US$53,000) seized from the wife of the former finance minister, Héctor Guillen, had come out of a sum of 3.2 million lempiras (approx. US$170,000) in royalty payments collected from shrimp companies in southern Honduras and paid out to an official high up within the Lobo Sosa government.

D'Vicente told the national press that he is aware of the seriousness of his accusations, but added "it is my role as a journalist to report on corruption and as a citizen I have to speak out against financial scandals that impact my country's health and education."

Police commissioner Juan Carlos Bonilla, and the National Commissioner for Human Rights in Honduras (CONADEH), Ramón Custodio, decided to provide the journalist with the necessary support to protect his safety.

Both officials were in agreement that because of these allegations, D'Vicente's life is in danger and that the federal authorities must investigate the matter and protect the journalist. The first step, according to the commissioners, is to provide security measures for D'Vicente and his family.

The Public Prosecutor's Office announced that the journalist will be the main witness in the inquiries into the financial matter, so that at this time D'Vicente is prohibited from commenting on the investigation.

On 31 July 2012, during a routine operation at a post in El Durazno, police seized 1,125,000 lempiras (approx. US$60,000) from the wife of the then minister of finance. The woman, her son, and their driver were freed by the district attorney's organized crime office, but the money was seized by the district attorney pending investigations.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On a recent Megabus trip in Virginia (just before the recent fatal Megabus accident in the Midwest), I met a pair of young men who had just graduated in religious studies from a Nashville Presbyterian college with only 1000 students in all. Interesting to talk with young people living apparently outside mainstream youth culture, guys who don’t drink alcohol, pray daily, and believe in abstinence until marriage. They also were not sure what to do now with their newly minted BA degrees. Become missionaries? Go on to study to become church pastors? Their degrees are somewhat limiting career-wise and opportunities for gainful employment within the Presbyterian church would also be limited, although 1000 students are not a great number to be absorbed. I don’t know how many Presbyterian colleges there are overall. My father, of Scottish heritage, was raised Presbyterian, but in his day, all mainstream churches, at least in the US, had more adherents and stricter expectations, an era Tea Party folks would like to return to.

Another mass shooting, this time in Wisconsin, with a gun reportedly purchased legally. Then three killed in Texas, including the shooter. Only three, does that qualify as a mass killing? We’re almost getting desensitized, as if living a in a war zone. With so many firearms already in circulation, how do we as a nation start to tackle this problem? Are we all just sitting ducks if we go out in public? There will always be people, mostly men, with grievances and anger, who will want to hurt and kill others, and certainly copy-cat behavior is involved, as well as a desire for fame and notoriety, however fleeting. Arms intended for personal defense seem to have little impact defensively—certainly they have not had a role preventing these atrocities. Mental health professionals and criminal behavior experts say it’s hard to predict who will actually carry out a violent offense. Some guys who do so have no prior record of behavior problems and the potential pool of those with anger and other issues is enormous. Other countries seem to reduce the murder rate by reducing the number of firearms in circulation. If we don’t want to do that, then what?

Obama, true to form with the last few killings, offers prayers and lamentations but doesn’t breathe any hint of gun control. Romney has pronounced them individual acts and said that gun laws are not germane. The NRA has been keeping completely silent, although attributing a gun-control agenda to Obama should he be reelected. I certainly hope so. The other factor in the Wisconsin case is misplaced anti-Muslim prejudice because of male Sikhs’ turbans and beards, a poisonous discriminatory atmosphere fomented by Tea Party and other far-right folks. Political and media leaders who feed into such hatred and try to give it legitimacy, including those stigmatizing Obama as a Muslim and born in Kenya, bear responsibility as well.

One of this blog’s readers points out that Obama showed that he knows very little about firearms when he referred to AK47s as more appropriate as battlefield weapons: “Obama would do better to keep quiet on matters he knows little about. The U.S. armed forces don't use AKs, neither the original Russian design nor Chinese knockoffs.”

Again, in the DC area, a toddler has shot himself, this time a 3-year-old who shot himself in the chest, but didn’t die, so may yet survive. Such accidents seem to happen every week, first the boy killing his father, then one killing himself, now this one seriously injuring himself. If adults want to indulge their right to bear arms, they should also have an obligation to keep them safe from use by children or even by adults who might do harm.

The Olympics have gone well, providing a good-news distraction from the usual bad news. Kudos to the UK for pulling them off successfully. I don’t have TV, so only watched at other people’s homes. My new next-door is a sports reporter for the NY Times and went to London with her infant daughter in tow to report on the games. The US won on the medals count. Now, it’s on to the Paralympics!

With record heat this summer, the corn and soy bean harvest has been decimated and wild fires have been taking their toll. We can continue to deny climate change and do nothing about it and just continue to see these effects. Climate specialists predict this will be the hottest year on record ever and July has already been the hottest month.

Romney has energized his conservative base as well as Democratic opposition with his veep pick of Paul Ryan. Ryan has some vote-getting power. The question is whether he will appeal to moderate and swing voters. He has a little more personality and conviction than Romney and is a better speaker, but his message won’t have universal appeal. We might all agree with him that health care costs need to be curbed. Either they will be controlled, as Obama has attempted to do, through better organization, economies of scale, and supporting only outcome-based interventions, or they will be controlled, as Ryan has proposed, by putting the burden on individual consumers to shop around, try to figure out what services they need while being wooed by health care advertisers, and do without when they cannot afford care. Continued growth of this sector cannot be sustained.

Meanwhile, a large portion of American Catholic nuns are seeking “dialogue” with the Vatican, whereas Pope Benedict seems just interested imposing obedience. Ryan, a Catholic, has declined to speak with the nuns. It’s a contest of wills between the nuns and the Vatican. The nuns want to work things out, stay in the church, continue their work in schools, hospitals, and social service agencies with children, the poor, the elderly, and people with disabilities. It would be a huge blow to the American church and to those constituencies and missions if a rupture should occur. Yet nuns are tired of being “put in their place” by an all-male hierarchy. They may be able to observe the vows of poverty and chastity, but obedience is proving a sticking point. The pedophile scandal and cover-up was already a huge blow to the Catholic church, which now faces this additional challenge from the nuns, something in the age of the internet and instant news that may well spread to other countries. I’m Catholic, but, as you might imagine, I side with the nuns. I haven’t abandoned the church because I think the church needs people like me. We are the church—it’s not just the hierarchy. The pope and the Catholic hierarchy, both in Rome and in the US, are short-sighted, in my opinion. Here is a church with more than one billion members in every continent and still growing, with so many dedicated lay and religious members, and yet its leaders are willing to sacrifice much of that to make a point about who’s in charge? I believe Benedict has even said something like: So what if the church shrinks in Europe, as long as it is a more faithful (obedient?) body?

I usually don’t mention the books I’m reading on this blog, but this time is an exception. I read (and write) mostly non-fiction (sometimes reading fiction in Spanish) and just borrowed a trio of books from the public library, all of them provocative. All follow a narrative of economic or power interests controlling or overwhelming ordinary people to their detriment. I would like to think that the authors exaggerate to make their point, but they end up being pretty convincing using nuances, data, and examples. From my brief description, you can decide whether you want to read them.

One is Pornified by Pamela Paul, making the case that access to porn has exploded with the internet—no longer just a matter of a Playboy magazine hidden under the mattress or a seedy “adult” movie theater. Every type of porn is available 24/7 with the click of a mouse: violence, bondage, sadism, group sex, gay, straight, involving children or animals—take your pick. Most consumers are men and many, says the author, become addicted, undermining their relationships with flesh-and-blood women. Not only does internet porn occupy these guys’ time, taking away from work, recreation, and everyday activities, but it projects an image of women being not only busty and beautiful but instantly willing to engage in sexual activities of any type. It takes away from time that might be spent with a real partner and makes actual sex seem tame. It also exploits those appearing in the segments, paying them little and exposing them to desensitizing sex and STDs. However, porn producers know they have a cash cow, which they protect under the rubrics of free speech, personal liberty, and privacy.

Another is a very thoughtful book, a personal and church history, Practicing Catholic by James Carroll, a former Paulist priest inspired by the short tenure of Pope John XXIII (like many of us). He was a fan of the Kennedy brothers and became acquainted with a number of well-known Catholic writers. Like many if not most Catholics, he makes his own judgments on issues of faith and practice, observing that the hierarchy, which warns the laity against being “cafeteria Catholics” practices a cafeteria system itself, such as by protecting pedophile priests rather than molested children, emphasizing the unborn over those facing the death penalty, and opposing contraception but not war.

The third book is Wendell Potter’s Deadly Spin, by a health industry insider who quit a job in “the high six figures” to blow the whistle on the industry’s tactics to scuttle Obama’s health care reform effort while pretending to cooperate. The pretense at cooperation was undertaken because it was felt the “Harry & Louise” tactics used to kill the Clinton health reform effort would not work this time. An early tactic was to systematically undermine Michael Moore’s film “Sicko” and undermine Moore himself, portraying him as someone out to destroy the free-market health care system and the American way of life. That onslaught succeeded to a large extent. I saw the film, which, yes, was slanted and the depiction of Cuba’s health care system was pure Potemkin, but much of it was valid. Mostly, the industry pours money into Republican campaigns and gives talking points to candidates regarding the threat of “big government,” “government bureaucrats,” “a government takeover,” “Europeans-style socialism,” and increased taxes, never mind that the “free market” keeps relentlessly driving up health care costs. Eventually these PR efforts will eventually means that industry folks will end cutting off their nose to spite their face because too many people will end up sick and dying because of lack of care, or go broke, reducing the pool of people left able to pay the high premiums demanded. (That last sentence is me, not the author.) Because of industry efforts, says Potter, the single-payer system favored by most Americans was never enacted and Obama had to compromise on too many issues to gain industry cooperation, giving us a health care reform system that ends up a hodgepodge trying to satisfy all stakeholders and ending up satisfying few, especially among consumers. By successfully creating the “Obamacare” boogeyman, the private health care industry continues to undermine many of the actual benefits of the reform act, for example, by encouraging governors to go against their own constituents by threatening not to expand Medicaid. What can the increasingly impoverished majority do against the industry’s investment in anti-health-care reform advertizing and campaign contributions? We must not listen to these attempts at persuasion and use our vote to go against these moneyed interests. And maybe the conscience of some industry reps will pinch and, like Potter, they will give up their salaries and perks and attempt to alert the public, as he is doing through his book and in congressional testimony.

It took decades for the tobacco industry to finally be controlled. And many people still smoke, including two of my kids. Eventually a tipping point will come for health care, as costs cannot keep rising forever. Real and effective health care reform, Potter suggests, will only happen when voters are able to see through and resist corporate PR. So far politicians and voters have succumbed to the influence of moneyed interests. Other massive PR campaigns successful so far, Potter points out, are the coal industry, big oil, and soda manufacturers. (To his examples, we might add the porn industry, as in Pamela Paul’s book.)

There are many outfits out there promising, for a price, to make a book a bestseller through gimmicks and trickery, the same sort of PR tactics used in politics —or so it seems to me. I do want folks to read my book to get something out of it, but not to buy it out of hype. Maybe that’s naïve and certainly hasn’t propelled my book into best-seller-dom.

Honduran from La Esperanza, Meeting with Freed Dissident, Cuban Dissident Leader Dies, AIDS Quilt, Right to Bear Arms, GAO Grads

In photos in recent postings, you have seen me wearing a red shirt and red shorts. Some 5,000 miles away in Honolulu, my daughter Stephanie sports a similar outfit on weekends, as per the photo of her here holding her pet chameleon.


The other photo is of two former Cuban political prisoners conversing at a meeting in Washington, DC. On the left is Dr. Darsi Ferrer, a recent arrival, described below. The other is Basilio Guzman, one of 26 long-term prisoners freed in 1984 with Jesse Jackson, whose names were given to Jackson by our local Amnesty International group. Guzman, who still lives and works as a carpenter in the DC area, spent 22 years in prison, two longer than his actual 20-year sentence.

At a recent interpretation assignment, this one a license suspension appeal hearing at the Maryland Motor Vehicle Department (not my favorite gig), the client was from La Esperanza, Honduras! I found that out later as we were waiting at the bus stop together after his license was suspended and he was not allowed to drive. Yes, it’s a very small world. By the way, judges in traffic court hearings—or any court appearances—always refer to me as “Madam Interpreter,” a rather formal title. I wonder how male interpreters are addressed?

At a supposed maximum security prison north of Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras, a prisoner with a gun in his possession shot and wounded three other inmates. Two prison officials were suspended from their jobs as a result. At least there were some consequences for those responsible for letting weapons into a so-called high security prison, though probably not of long duration.

In early August, I had the privilege of meeting Darsi Ferrer during a Washington visit. He is an Afro-Cuban physician, a dissident and former prisoner mentioned in Amnesty International’s annual report, arrested for possession of two bags of illegal cement. He and his family had arrived one month earlier as political refugees from Cuba and had been sent by the U.S. government to live in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Dr. Ferrer said he had not wanted to leave Cuba, but his wife has a serious health condition not treatable there. He reported that the Cuban health system is on the verge of collapse, with a hidden dengue epidemic in the east and the cholera outbreak still not under control. He saw the regime as having increasing difficulty coping, especially with controlling communications via cell phones and the internet, severe restrictions notwithstanding. He predicted that the death of Venezuela’s President Chavez would deal a near mortal blow to the regime, which he characterized as holding on by its fingernails.

Another Castro regime critic, whom I met years ago on my Cuba journeys in the early 1990s, was engineer and Christian stalwart Oswaldo Payá, leader of one of Cuba’s largest dissident movements, although before his movement got underway. He was a little past 40 at the time, a very sincere, devout Catholic, trying to figure out how to organize under the strictures imposed by the government. In 1998, after spending three years in detention, he founded the Varela Project, named for 19th-century patriot Father Félix Varela. The project sought reconciliation among all Cubans and presented 25,000 signatures to the National Assembly, requesting a referendum on freedom of association, liberty of expression, press freedom, free elections, the right to operate private businesses, and amnesty for political prisoners. Predictably, the assembly made no response. Payá reportedly said, "I have been told that I am going to be killed before the regime is over but I am not going to run away." He opposed the U.S. embargo and refused aid from American sources. In 2002, he was awarded the Sakharov human rights prize. Subsequently, his namesake son was refused permission to leave the country. He was once an ally of Cuba’s Cardinal Ortega, but more recently disagreed with what he saw as the church’s coziness with the regime.

On July 22, 2012, Payá’s prediction of the manner of his own death may have indeed come true when he and a supporter were killed in a vehicular accident in eastern Cuba. His daughter, Rosa María Payá, announced that they had been run off the road by a truck that had aggressively pursued them. She said there had been witnesses and that his death was not an accident, also that he had called for just beforehand, saying another vehicle was pursuing them.

Indeed, Payá had a forewarning three weeks before that the regime might be after him when his car was overturned in Havana, leaving him unhurt. He said at the time that he couldn’t prove that it wasn’t an accident. The car had been rented for him by a Swedish Christian Democratic youth organization (“Oswaldo Paya, Cuba Dissident, Mourned,” AP, July 23, 2012). His followers directly blamed General Raúl Castro and his military junta for the deaths on the organization’s website. Witnesses pointed to the poor condition of the highway and that the two survivors, both foreigners, were the only ones wearing seatbelts.

The driver, Spaniard Angel Carromero, was arrested by Cuban authorities for vehicular homicide, which could carry a sentence up to 10 years. The other foreigner, a Swede, said he was asleep at the time of the crash and was allowed to return home. Dissidents have pointed out that the driver dares not blame another vehicle while he is Cuban custody. "Whatever they say while in the hands of police or the government of Cuba is necessarily skewed, contaminated, due to the lack of guarantees," Human Rights Commissioner Elizardo Sánchez said. "The Swede can't speak freely because his friend is still prisoner in Cuba."

The official newspaper, Granma, accused the foreign visitors of “counterrevolutionary” activities aimed at “destabilizing the country, creating conditions to repeat what happened in Libya and Syria.” (“Angel Francisco Carromero Charged In Cuba Dissident Oswaldo Paya’s Death,” Peter Orsi, AP, July 31, 2012)

At Payá’s burial service, held on July 24, several dozen mourners were reported beaten and arrested by security forces, 200 of whom surrounded the church. Those arrested were released within two days. “The authorities don’t want the public to know how many people were there and that we’re not afraid of them,” said human rights activist Guillermo Fariñas, one of those arrested.

“Tuesday’s events follow the pattern of short-term detentions and imprisonments we’ve seen
the Cuban authorities carry out time and again as a form of intimidation against dissidents and
human rights activists,” said Gerardo Ducos, Amnesty International’s Cuba researcher.
“Indeed, it was the very kind of repression which Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas dedicated his life to
combating before his tragic death last weekend.”

Two days later, on the occasion of the annual July 26 holiday, President Raúl Castro warned, "Some small factions are doing nothing less than trying to lay the groundwork and hoping that one day what happened in Libya will happen here, what they're trying to make happen in Syria."

Meanwhile, during the month of July, sections of the AIDS quilt were displayed all over Washington, DC, including in the north hall of Eastern Market in our neighborhood, where I met one of the women in charge of the exhibition. I told her about Alex, my Cuban foster son who had died of AIDS and she told me how I could have a panel in his memory added to the quilt. The quilt’s showing coincided with the International AIDS Conference being held in Washington.

As a country and as concerned citizens, we have to ask ourselves whether massacres like Columbine, Virginia Tech, Arizona, and now Littleton, are the price we have to pay for “the right to bear arms”? Does this right extend to any and all citizens, to those who, like the Littleton shooter, amass an arsenal that includes tear gas, explosives, an assault rifle, and multiple rounds of ammunition? If the right to bear arms refers to self-defense, certainly all that is much more than is necessary for personal self-defense. Since my last posting, a local 4-year-old has killed himself with a handgun. Last week, a 3-year-old killed his father. I suppose these children see guns appearing on TV and decide to pull the trigger when they find one. I wonder if there are estimates of the number of murders, accidental deaths, and suicides from handguns versus how many crimes are actually prevented by using handguns? Owners obviously don’t secure them and keep them away from kids, as my own younger son’s experience of being shot in the foot (thank goodness only that!) showed. So what about the right of citizens to life? Their right not to be shot and perhaps killed accidentally or on purpose by someone who is armed? The constitution refers to the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, which are hard to achieve if someone aims a loaded gun at you.

The presidential candidates finally came out with pronouncements on the Littleton shooting. Romney apparently said that gun control would not solve all our problems, a rather bland, non-controversial statement. Obama, speaking to a friendly audience at the Urban League, called for better screening of gun buyers and mentioned that an AK-47 is a battlefield weapon, not needed for self-defense, but made no specific legislative recommendations.

Meanwhile, Romney, supposedly on an international goodwill tour designed to bolster his foreign affairs credentials, has made some blundering remarks offensive to the British, causing at least one commentator to label him “tone-deaf.” “Tin-ear” is another description that comes to mind. That seems to characterize much of what Romney says, especially his extemporaneous remarks. He should stick strictly to the scripts his advisers have prepared for him and bite his tongue if anything else comes to mind.

My visitors attending the GAO course for auditors held their graduation ceremony on July 26, where I was in the audience. There were 21 fellows in all from almost as many countries. The keynote speaker, chosen from among their ranks, was a woman from Zimbabwe, who has asked me to accommodate her, but my space was already full. Despite its somewhat corrupt and repressive government, Zimbabwe usually sends a fellow to the annual GAO course, indicating an attempt to clean things up, at least on the government auditor level. One of the countries represented was China, and I also had a GAO fellow from China staying with me a few years ago. China, despite its communist and authoritarian government, still sends students to the GAO course and also accepts Peace Corps volunteers.