Keeping an open mind

Today I was talking to a friend and she said that I was being prejudiced because I said I only like black. I guess my argument, that I grew up with black and I was used to it, didn’t not dissuade her. So I decided to open my mind and give others a try. 

 I will try white, and since I don’t know how to deal with them I will treat them the same way I do blacks.

 First you have to select them very carefully, look for really good ones. Then they need to be cleaned, they tend to be dirty and sometimes they have rocks with them. I like to use very hot water.

 I wonder how long it would take me to soften them till they do what I want. The black ones can be thought to break down; I wonder if the white ones would be easier to soften up.

 I like to soak them for a few hours; I give them onions, peppers, garlic, spices and water to engorge them, if they are full they are easier to break.

 What would be good spices for whites? Can I use the same I use for blacks? Well, I am going to try and see what happens.

 After a few hours in the hot water they should be soft and ready to go.

 Can wait to eat the whites and see if there is a difference in flavor. I think I will try other colors, maybe red should be next.

Just thinking of a nice bowl of creamy beans makes me so hungry… Real comfort food.

It isn’t just about illegal immigration

This is an article by Ruben Navarrete a nationally syndicated columnist and writer for the San Diego Tribune, that reflects the feelings of many US citizens of Hispanic/Latino ancestry.

U.S.-born Latinos in America are fed up. They’re tired of the ugliness in the immigration debate, and they’re not buying the argument that it does not concern them.

Take it from Janet Murguia, president of the National Council of La Raza, the nation’s largest Hispanic civil rights organization. She recently delivered a passionate and important speech to the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Her topic: the immigration debate and what she labels a wave of hate sweeping the land – one that isn’t limited to illegal immigrants, or even immigrants in general, but that is now splattering onto all Hispanics regardless of where they were born, what language they speak or what flag they wave.

“Most Latinos aren’t immigrants,” she said. “More than 80 percent of Hispanics in this country are U.S. citizens or legal residents. But the truth is, Hispanics understand that this issue is about all of us.”

For some people it is just a matter of having a Spanish last name, having darker skin or “looking Mexican”, to label and discriminate against you. Most people unfairly assume that all Latinos are Illegal Immigrant and that all illegal immigrants are Latinos or Mexican.

Part of the problem is that the right-wingers weren’t content to just attack illegal immigrants. They had to attack an entire culture, which is shared by legal immigrants and U.S.-born Hispanics. And so, a discussion that should have been about exactly three things – improving border security, smoothing the path for legal immigrants, and deciding the fate of 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States – became about outlawing taco trucks, limiting the number of people in a home, blasting pizza parlors for taking pesos, banning Spanish-language library books, and other nonsense.

The way Murguia sees it, immigration is “on the verge of becoming one of the largest civil rights issues of our generation.”

But in this case Murguia has a point. An ethnic group that has always answered the call to duty, and which boasts a higher ratio of Medal of Honor recipients than any other, deserves better.

That’s what I’m hearing from many U.S.-born Hispanics. When they talk to me about the immigration debate, they condemn the hypocrisy of a society that is addicted to illegal immigrant labor but looks for others to blame for the addiction.

Read the rest of the article here

ICE Plans to Deport All Undocumented by 2012, in “Operation Endgame”

 

 

So does this mean that once the wall is ready and Operation Endgame is done, there will be no more Illegals? I guess we will finally be safe and so will be our jobs.

 

 

SAN FRANCISCO — Recent nets cast by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) captured hundreds of undocumented immigrants at worksites nationwide. In their wake, say immigrant rights advocates, family members and attorneys for those arrested struggle to find their loved ones and clients. As ICE expands, though, so will the deportations, the so-called “golden measure” of its success.

The raids form part of “Operation Endgame,” ICE’s strategic plan for “removing all removable aliens” by 2012. They come after years of increased emphasis on enforcement of federal immigration law, according to Black. “There has been a huge ramping up of resources to make this happen.”

You can read the rest of the article here

More related information: ICE: Tab to remove illegal residents would approach $100 billion

Body of student who died in Cuba was returned without brain and internal organs

A women from Bolivia went to Cuba to go to medical school, she died of an undertemined illness and was retuned to her country with no internal organs. 

 The family of Beatriz Porco Calle, a young Bolivian girl who died from a rare illness while she was studying in Cuba, denounced that the Cuban government removed her brain and several internal organs before shipping the body back to Bolivia.

 

Local authorities told Bolivian newspaper Los Tiempos that they are investigating the case.

 

Sofia Porco Calle, a sister of the victim, told Los Tiempos that the Cuban Embassy in Bolivia notified the relatives  that the girl had died, and told them that her body was going to be shipped back to Bolivia.

 

The woman told the newspaper that several Cuban officials who came on the same flight wanted to take the body of her sister to another city to conduct an autopsy, but the family intervened and didn’t allow the body to be moved.

 

“The autopsy was performed at the Hospital de Clinicas. My little sister’s body didn’t have any organs, teeth, eyes, it was without her tongue. There was a sponge in place of her brain and more sponges in her stomach,” the woman said during the press conference.

 

The most incredible part of the story is that Cuban officials told the relatives of the dead student, that the deal that they signed with the Bolivian government says that those students who die while in Cuba will be sent back without their organs.

 

An uncle of the dead student told journalists that Cuban officials “threatened” the family with reprisals if they made the case public.

 

The Cuban government gives no explanation to what happened to this student, they talked about a brain aneurysm and later they changed to an unexplainable terminal illness.  Why would they want to take her organs, her eyes, brain, genitals, tonge, even her teeth?  There has been a lot of speculation that goes from organ trafficking to vodoo…

 

 Read more about it here and in spanish here

 

Raising money Kwami and his ‘alleged’ misstress

I was watching the news and I was baffled. The Mayor of Detroit and his ‘alleged’ mistress have groups of people raising money for their defense.

All of us saw the video of them testifying under oath, then we saw the text messages contradicting their sworn testimony (I believe that is called perjury), then they admitted and apologized for the text messages. She quited her job. He said he would not go away.

I really could not care less about them having an affair; but they used and abused their power, used tax payers money, they fired the cops that investigated them and destroyed their careers, they lied in court and now they claim they are being prosecuted unfairly… give me a break!!

I hope they don’t get away with it. I think those things only happen in corrupt governments. There are charges filed against them for the things that I mention and more. I really hope that justice can be served and I can still believe in the system. I don’t want to see politics and influence working to give them a slap on the wrist.

I was reading in the news how most of the judges in the District Court that is supposed to hear the case donated money either to Kwame or his mother’s campaign.

I remember last year when Christine Beaty was stopped for speeding, and she said to the police officer “do you know who I am?” I think everybody knows now.

What an embarrassment!!

 

 

Taking things for granted

I find it interesting how we start appreciating people and things when we don’t have them anymore.

I used to live in a city surrounded by mountains, a beautiful luscious green valley. We had two seasons, rainy/spring and dry/summer, both warm. When you have gorgeous skies everyday, you soon start ignoring them. I sometimes wondered why people did not dress for the weather, and soon enough I realized the weather was never a factor.

I believe that weather and geography affect the culture and moods of people. I guess it is easy to be optimistic when the sun is out there everyday smiling at you and saying everything is going to be okay.

I come from a worry free; tomorrow will be another day culture. The earth is rich and fertile; wherever a seed falls a tree grows. There is almost no plan for the future concern, there is little grudge holding, at least not for long. Memory is short term. This can be good, but also very bad.

 There is a group of protected indigenous people that live as they did before colonization, and you can see that state of mind reflected in their way of life. They are semi nomadic, the only crops they plant take several months to come out, so they plant them and move on, they live somewhere else plant the crops and leave, in the next place they’ll find the crops ready to use. Their time orientation is focus in today with little planning.

 If you see communities that live in climates where seasons change, they are forced to plan for the future in order to survive. That is reflected in their way of life to this day. They find inventive ways of preserving goods for the winter. They dry and cure meats. They need to create clothing for protection from the elements. The needs shape their behavior and mindset. 

One thing that I miss a lot is the ocean. It used to be half an hour away. Clear waters of warm, white sandy beaches that extended for miles on end. The last time I went to my former home, my husband and I booked our flights so that we could spend the day in Miami, and go to the beach. It was great, as soon as the plane landed, we ran to the beach and the first thing we both did was breath in that ocean. I have been to the beach in the shores of Lake Michigan, it is beautiful and you could be fooled by the fresh water beaches, but there is nothing like the ocean. We didn’t realize we missed it so much until we were there. The waters of Florida are still too cold for my taste.

 

 After spending four to five month of winter, you can really appreciate spring. You can go outside breath in the blue sky and recharge with the sun’s energy. You start coming to life, just like those little blooms that are shooting out of the defrosted ground and the energy pouring out of the emerald green of the grass. All of the sudden the gray starts disappearing, pushed aside by the blossoming colors and smells that awake something inside, that is longing to come out.

 The days have started to get longer; the birds’ melodies carry in the new day. The trees are blooming; soon there will be flowers everywhere.

 Spring is a new beginning, brings hope, everything is coming back to life. It is full of promise…enjoy it, do not take it for granted.

Little green people…Bicho

 

This is one of my kind, nice twist… enjoy

 

The word Bicho is used in Spanish and Portuguese for an insect, an animal, a thing that we don’t know what it is. It has other slang meanings but this is the way it was used in the video.

Alien clarification… on Dumb questions post

Recently I wrote a post called Dumb questions people ask me. Some people asked me to do Dumb questions part 2, while thinking about it I received a comment that stated that “the ‘country’ is not ignorant”, so I felt I needed to clarify.

I don’t think the country is ignorant, I do not think that the people who asked the questions are stupid, they are miss informed. Judging the entire country by the actions of a few is ridiculous to me. That got me thinking that this would be like saying that because some white people are racist, therefore all whites are racist, or that because there are Black men in jail for committing crimes I should be afraid of all Black men, or that because there are some Mexican gangs I should assume that all Latinos are in gangs.

Then I realized that some people think like that, BIG, humongous generalizations that really don’t apply to the group, but just to a few. That helped me understand this person and where he/she was coming from. I have to thank him or her, for helping me figure this out. It helps me understand why when any of the other Latinas in my office says something I get in trouble too. We are like the Borg, sharing the same brain…;)

I think ignorance can be found everywhere and anywhere, no country, religion, race, or social group has the exclusive on either knowledge or ignorance. My posting had the attempt to be amusing and maybe to make people check their own assumptions, but never to try to make “the country” look stupid. I think nobody can accomplish that task, there is enough proof to the contrary.

Only thinking of oneself or LOCAL, seems narrow minded to me. One of the purposes of my blog is to open a mind, if only a sliver, to the views from the other side. Help people see how the other thinks or views the world.

I think than I am no better than you and you are no better than me, we are the same but different and learning about each other is enriching, makes us better.

Alien Migration

 

There has been talk about earth being visited by aliens, are they real or aren’t they?

 

These aliens seem to be vacationing, what if they want to migrate here?

 

Where would be the official port of entry? What type of ID are we going to ask for? Do they have and intergalactic passport? Is that passport good for the US, how about Europe? Do they need visas?

 

So many questions flood my mind. Do we need them to be vaccinated against our diseases or theirs? What if they have a disease that makes us grow a third boob, get a bigger head or grow a second bellybutton? What do we do? Get another piercing so both bellybuttons match?

 

How do we know that they are aliens? Can they pass? A lot of people pass for white or African American, maybe they could too, and blend in… How are we going to discriminate against them if we can’t tell them apart?

 

What if they want our jobs? What if they are smarter than we are? What if the smell funny when they get wet? What if they don’t know how to drive? What would happen to the air traffic, are we going to have air traffic jams because they drive too slow?

 

Ohh no! what if they don’t speak English? would we need bilingual Alien education? Are the phone messaged going to say ‘press 1 for English, 2 para Español, 3 #r%Y&U(J()R%E’.

 

What if they are like Latinos and have more than one race? Would the census be? Mark all that applies:

·        Human

o       White

o       African American/Black

o       Asian

o       American Indian or Alaska Native

o       Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander

o       Two or more races

o       Hispanic or Latino of any race

§ White Hispanic

§ Black Hispanic

§ American Indian and Alaska Native Hispanic

§ Asian Hispanic

§ Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander

§ Some other race

§ Two or more races

·        Alien of any race

o       White Alien

o       Black Alien

o       American Indian and Alaska Native Alien

o       Asian Alien

o      Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander Alien

o       Some other race

o       Two or more races

 

 

What if they have two hearts? Once they get used to our food they would tax our health systems even more, “he has been eating too many BigMac’s he had a double heart atack!!!”

 

 

 

I can just see our way of life going down the tube, people that look different and speak different, strange food, different languages spoken, mixed marriages, new religions (making accommodations for other religions) What if the bring alien drugs or Alien gangs? Aliens always have gangs.

 

 

 

Well on the bright side, we could have a new scapegoat, someone to blame for our ills; we could crack down on space illegals on election year…yeahhh…

 

 

 

 

At TAX time illegal immigrants pay taxes too

I always hear and read the complaint that Immigration places a burden in the local services, so I was surprised when I found this article.

According to an Associated Press Article Illegal immigrants get taxes withheld from their paychecks, they are afraid to file a claim to get a tax return so that money goes to Uncle Sam. They calculate that it amounts to $9 billion dollars a year.

The articles says that the impact on Social Security is significant, because most of that money is never claimed, because illegal immigrants cannot claim Social Security. So it is used to pay legal workers’ Social Security.

“Overall, any type of immigration is a net positive to Social Security. The more people working and paying into the system, the better,” the article said. “It does help the system remain solvent.”

You can find the full article here

Most people don’t know that legal immigrants go thru a period where they are permanent residents, not citizens yet (they may choose to never become citizens). This period last at least 5 years, when you become eligible for citizenship. During that time we pay taxes, SS, unemployment, but are not eligible to receive any of those benefits, and those who never become citizens will never be eligible.