My 18-year-old grandson, after quite a few years of no contact, surprised us by inviting members of my family to his Texas graduation from a small private Christian school, where apparently classes have been conducted mask-free throughout the pandemic. He was one of 21 students in his graduating class, participating in an elaborate ceremony conducted with caps and gowns, flag salutes, anthem singing, and many hymns and prayers. Although we had worn masks in-flight, masks were not so much in evidence in Texas. My older daughter, her daughter, and my 13-year-old great-grandson met me there from Florida. My Texas grandson has grown tall, now measuring 6’1”. We stayed in an Air B&B, rented a car, visited my friends in Austin, went to a theme park, viewed the bats flying out from under the bridge over the river at dusk, and then took a tour of downtown sights, all with my Texas grandson in tow. Our tour included the state capitol area while traveling in an open-air bus that plunged right down into the river, then cruised along the far shoreline to view luxury homes, while swans swam languidly in the river, including a mother swan followed by a row of cygnets. Surrounding palm trees showed drooping fronds from the recent freeze, but were already sprouting new greenery. Texan passengers, comparing our US capitol to theirs, seemed surprised to learn that the national capitol has been fenced off and that a riot had actually occurred there on Jan. 6. (I was a firsthand witness!) Overall, it was a memorable action-packed journey into a completely different world still within our own country. (Again, apologies for odd spacing, very hard to correct.)
In my role as Amnesty
International (AI) USA’s volunteer chair for the Caribbean, I prepared
testimony for the American Friends Service Committee in another state on behalf
of a Cuban man in deportation proceedings. He would not fare well back in Cuba,
not only because he has lived for many years in the United States, but because
his father and brother were well-known human rights activists who had been
imprisoned for their advocacy in Cuba. His father was once an Amnesty prisoner
of conscience. It was therefore
gratifying, after I had submitted expert witness testimony, to hear from his
attorney that his deportation had been stayed. Often, after testifying in
deportation cases, I never learn the final outcome. The same has been true when
I’ve been a court interpreter. But this time, I was happy to hear, “We had our individual hearing in Mr.
[name omitted]’s case. Mr. [X] testified well and credibly, and the judge
granted him relief under the Convention Against Torture. He will be able to
stay in the U.S., and he is being imminently released from detention to reunite
with his family and begin the next phase of his life. I have no doubt that your
compelling and well-written testimony played an important role in the court's
decision, and I am grateful for your work for Mr. [X] and for other asylum
seekers like him.”
At AI USA, as well as on Idealist, Peace Corps career center, Volunteer
Match, and All the Good, we are recruiting for 2 new volunteers, each focusing
on either on Haiti or the Dominican Republic, and also for a new AI USA
Caribbean chair. After 40 years
volunteering with AI USA and 17 years as Caribbean chair, I’m planning to cut
back to a working only on Cuba and to issuing a monthly Caribbean newsletter.
That’s enough!
Having heard Andrew Yang give an
extensive radio interview, he would have my vote if I were a New York City
resident. NYC is now using ranked-choice voting. We’ll soon see how that goes.
With Israel enjoying overwhelming military power, thanks to American taxpayers, that government should use that power with restraint, which did not appear to be happening this last time around. Because the Jewish people as a whole had suffered such horrendous casualties under the Nazis, they should be especially sensitive about inflicting ethnic violence on others, nor is the Holocaust still an excuse to give Israel a pass. It does seem that this last cycle of violence was triggered by Israel’s eviction of Palestinians from Jerusalem and blocking access to a mosque at the end of Ramadan. It has been quite a long time—the whole Trump administration--since Palestinians on the West Bank were offered any US assistance. Still, despite Israel’s control of materials entering Gaza, Palestinians were able to construct quite a few homemade rockets. Now with new martyrs having been created in Gaza, lasting peace seems ever more elusive. Biden, fearful of evoking pro-Israel defensiveness before next year’s Congressional elections, has been treading very lightly on Israel. There has been an anti-Semitic backlash against Jews in the US and elsewhere due to Israel’s actions against civilians in Gaza. Israel is not the only country in the Middle East aligned to a particular religion/ethnicity, but it purports to be a democracy. The Biden administration now seems to be walking a rather fine line, trying to take a more even-handed approach to Israel-Palestine than Trump did, but still avoiding angering Netanyahu and other Israeli officials, and American voters who might support them.
There is renewed speculation that the Covid virus may have originated in a Wuhan lab after all, given that lab workers were apparently hospitalized with an unknown illness before the virus was officially recognized. If that might have happened, the Chinese government will do its level best to prevent any such information from ever seeing the light of day.
One of my daughters, who had Covid last August, is
still experiencing alteration of taste and smell; she was quite thin when
she visited me last fall. Now she has been visiting me again and is still
eating very little. We usually don’t pay much attention to taste and smell among
our senses. USA Today, Life-altering:' As millions cope with smell loss from COVID-19,
researchers find new explanations and possible treatments,https://www.yahoo.com/news/life-altering-millions-cope-smell-093015093.html
Here are my daughter Stephanie, who made a surprise arrival from Hawaii and my granddaughter Natasha, who also made a surprise visit from
Florida. 
I never know who will be walking in after the doorbell rings, but was very glad to see them both. Because of their arrival and the more extensive stay of my daughter, this blog posting was delayed and has grown rather long.
Lin-Manuel
Miranda’s In the Heights, which I saw on-stage in a
Spanish-language version
is now a motion picture actually shot
on-site in Washington Heights itself.
A former visitor from Nepal wrote: About Nepal, yes we are having a bad time with the virus. Experts say we are very close to India per capita although, overall, India seems to have a higher number. To make matters worse, there is no certainty as to when vaccines will be imported into Nepal. So far, they have imported some vaccines in the form of aid from the Chinese but nobody knows their effectiveness. The ones that WHO distributed, developed by Oxford Astra Zeneca were used up by people high up and their relatives in a great, shameless show of abuse of power. But anyway, my family and I are taking all the precautions we can and, so far, we are doing good.
In a local
“progressive” Catholic congregation that I’ve sometimes attended in DC,
the word on an upcoming ritual is to “change the references to ‘Father’ to a
gender
neutral word such as ‘Creator’ or say ‘Father
and Mother God.’” That would not happen in Texas, where, outside of Austin, we
were deep into Southern Baptist country.
Do we still need to mention Donald Trump? His itchy twitter finger has been stilled and his longwinded blog has had few followers. He still makes outrageous statements with every opportunity, but fewer people may now be paying attention. He’s a nightmare that has mercifully evaporated at dawn’s early light, at least around here in Washington, DC, where Trump seems to have faded away completely from our fair city and our national government. Mr. Biden is now firmly in charge in Washington, DC. Those of us living here in the nation’s capital do feel palpable relief with that impetuous clown now gone, gone, gone, while his Trump Hotel sits forlornly empty. We never, ever want to see him to set foot in our city again. On Jan. 6, as local residents, we actually witnessed the mob attack on the capitol, too close for comfort, which he inspired and abetted, and now we see our capitol, the people’s house, all guarded and completely fenced off, thanks, or no thanks, to Donald Trump.
However, Mr. Trump is still alive and well in many parts of Texas
where he remains the rightful president. He has lots of supporters there who continue
to believe his claims of a “stolen” election. Likewise, in W. Va. where my son
lives, I’ve encountered true believers still clinging tightly to Mr. Trump,
even driving around with Trump holograms waving from their back windows. Trump
supporters are unconcerned about that the rest of the world is heralding the
end of Trump’s presidency, because who cares what outsiders think?
A groundhog recently appeared near my son’s home in W. Va., indicating that wildlife there remains alive and well.
We also saw several deer running in unison, too fast to capture
in a photo. The appearance of wild animals is reassuring, even though humans currently
living in the area may be misguided.
Mr. Trump gave a speech in N. Carolina, where he referred to the
Democrats’ “failed agenda” and labeled them as radicals and far-left socialists
creating a “horrible, insane disorder.” He also blamed Dr. Fauci for the
pandemic spread. Trump likes citing fake numbers and using superlatives with
zero backup. His assumption of the US presidency, which he occupied chaotically
for 4 years, gave his voters new oxygen and hopes of returning to the “good old
days.” But now, in a national backlash against him, there may be more impetus
for change, at least in some states, than if Hillary had actually taken office.
The Republican candidate for governor of Va. is trying not to
tie himself too closely to Trump without outright repudiating him either. According
to polls, a majority of Republican voters still believe that Biden’s record-shattering
and definitive plurality of over 7 million votes actually was “stolen.”
How? The proof? Merely that Donald Trump, actually sitting president at time of
the election and then fully in charge of the whole damn country, has simply said
so. How could even a minimally competent president have possibly allowed that
to happen right under his nose? Nothing like that has ever been alleged before (until
now), never once since the days of George Washington. Yet, in Arizona, where
most voters had moved on, a drawn-out ballot recount continued.
Ballot recounts do sow doubts in election integrity. Probably no
election is 100% error-free, but most errors are insignificant, certainly not
totaling more than 7 million votes. Will mid-term results be accepted by
Republicans only if their candidates win? Many Republicans elected or
re-elected at the same time that Trump lost are not contesting their vote
tallies.
Those who still believe that the election was somehow mysteriously
stolen from Mr. Trump also believe that leftwing agitators, not Trump
supporters, stormed the capitol on Jan. 6. Donald Trump, the perpetrator of
such lies, does not actually believe them himself.
Almost a quarter of Republicans believe Satan-worshiping
pedophiles control the US government, media, and financial sector, https://www.yahoo.com/news/almost-quarter-republicans-believe-satan-162343445.html
Book publishers are in a quandary about issuing Trump officials’
memoirs, which will certainly sell well among Trump supporters but will spark a
big backlash otherwise. Mr. Trump has boasted that he is writing his own blockbuster
memoir, “the book of all books,” but since he is virtually illiterate, he’s
going to need some help.
Another mass shooting occurred, 10 people dead in San Jose, California, and numerous
other fatal shootings since. No other developed country comes anywhere close to
our own tally. Is the fabled “right to bear arms” really worth the cost?
Now Texas’s Republican lower House
approved a bill to allow anyone to carry a firearm without a license and
the governor promised to sign it, while on the same day, a woman taking her
children to school was shot and killed by her estranged husband in San
Antonio despite a protective order.
More trigger-happy mayhem in Texas: four members of a Texas
family have been charged with murder after they killed their neighbor in a case
of mistaken identity. According to a local
report, 29-year-old Eddie
Clark III was chased, cornered, and shot to death by four
members of a family who thought he was the person responsible for vandalizing
their home, Associated Press, May
21, 2021
And in Florida, another state
prioritizing “gun rights,” a 3-year-old boy shot his 2-year-old sister after
finding a hidden gun. How many times does this story need to be repeated?
Having a gun in the home is statistically much more dangerous than not having
one at all.
In Georgia, Neighbor
shoots up couple’s home after not being invited to game night, Georgia cops
say, https://www.yahoo.com/news/neighbor-shoots-couple-home-not-160044175.html
Yet there may be hope on the horizon:
NBC News, A quiet bipartisan effort on gun
background checks may have a path to a deal, https://www.yahoo.com/news/quiet-bipartisan-effort-gun-background-162400974.html
In other news, Republican governors in 22 states are cutting back federal unemployment benefits to incentivize workers to take jobs that often pay less than before the pandemic. https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/jobs-are-backbut-pay-isnt-194502445.html
This next item caught my eye
because my late ex-husband of 24 years was totally blind, so I was immersed for
decades in the life of a blind person. I even learned to write and read Grade 1
braille (the simplest version). Even a blurry view of objects would have been quite
useful to my ex. Blind
Man’s Sight Is Partially Restored With Gene Therapy, Using a technique called
optogenetics, researchers added light-sensitive proteins to the man’s retina,
giving him a blurry view of objects. NY Times, 5/27/2021
The decision was a win for immigrant activists and advocacy
groups that have criticized the Biden administration for deporting Haitians
during a period of heightened instability. (Washington Post,
5-23-2021)
Harris, Hispanic Caucus meet on
Central America, https://thehill.com/latino/553994-harris-hispanic-caucus-meet-on-central-america
Vice President Harris Launches a Call to Action
to the Private Sector to Deepen Investment in the Northern Triangle | The White
House, https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/05/27/fact-sheet-vice-president-harris-launches-a-call-to-action-to-the-private-sector-to-deepen-investment-in-the-northern-triangle/ FACT SHEET
VP Harris has a daunting task. Just telling
people “Do not come,” as Harris has done, will have no effect. Stark economic
differences between Central America and the US cannot be bridged, perhaps ever.
(Even undocumented folks earning minimum wage in the US manage to send money
back to their families in their home countries.) Continuing violence is also
hard to remedy, though exporting fewer guns might help. Reinstating Peace Corps
in the region would also make a modest difference, but countries would need to
be safe enough for volunteers to return. Almost impossible to overcome is the longstanding
myth of the USA as the promised land. It’s as strong today as when I
first arrived in Honduras as a Peace Corps volunteer more than 20 years ago.
Here is a repeat posting of collages of some of my Central American photos. There is poverty, yes, but also dignity and
tradition.
Has Honduras become a 'narco-state'?
A lot of credible suspicion
surrounds the president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernández. Honduras is a relatively
small country, both in area and population (almost 10 million). Word gets
around there. Folks often know each other and are pretty aware of what others
are doing. Heck, people there even know me, as I’ve found while volunteering
at a hospital or even when boarding a bus and hearing someone shout out “¡Doña Bárbara!” or even “¡Doctora Bárbara!”
It's hard to believe his own brother was heavily involved in the drug trade and the president knew nothing about it.
El Salvador’s president has approved the use of Bitcoin in addition to the US dollar. It’s only matter of time before cyber currencies overtake so-called “hard” currencies, with money even now being rendered more in on-line bank balances than in tangible paper bills and metal coins.
About Nicaragua, where
I was an election observer back in 1990 when Daniel Ortega was
defeated in a surprise victory by Violeta Chamorro, I’m now feeling
déjà vu. As recounted in my books, I was at Violeta’s home with former President
Jimmy Carter when election returns came through on that long ago election
evening. Now Violeta’s daughter Cristiana Chamorro is under house arrest
and incommunicado to prevent her from running against Ortega, who managed to
get into the presidency once again and refuses to give it up this time. On
pages 80-81 of my Confessions book, you will find photos of me with
Carter then and one I took of Violeta after her 1990 victory.
BBC News, Nicaragua
government detains possible challengers to Ortega
Miami Herald, I know
Daniel Ortega. Trust me, sanctions alone won’t make this dictator hold free
elections | Opinion
BBC News, Nicaragua government detains possible challengers to Ortega
Miami Herald, Haiti
police have become targets of gang violence as OAS mission heads to country
Miami Herald, Biden
administration weighs in on Haiti’s constitutional referendum: ‘We oppose’
AP, Haiti fights large COVID-19 spike as it awaits vaccines
Miami Herald, Coast
Guard repatriates 20 Haitians after boat stopped 11 miles off Lake Worth
“Havana Syndrome,” a mysterious invisible set of long-lasting problems, has afflicted not only American and Canadian diplomats in Cuba, but also in China. At first, it was dismissed, but is now under serious scrutiny, although prevention and remedies are still elusive. Many US Embassy functions therefore have been moved to Guyana, causing tremendous hardship for Cuban visa applicants.
The Week, The
mystery of 'Havana syndrome', https://www.yahoo.com/news/mystery-havana-syndrome-095210246.html
Ft. Worth Star-Telegram,
Biden
forming new panels of experts to study ‘Havana syndrome’
Axios,
Senate bill to provide payments to
victims of mysterious "Havana syndrome" passes unanimously
Biden renews Trump determination Cuba 'not cooperating' on
antiterrorism efforts,
https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/555488-biden-renews-trump-listing-of-cuba-as-state-sponsor-of-terror
NBC News, 2 dead, 10 missing after boat
overturns near Key West, Florida, https://www.yahoo.com/news/2-dead-10-missing-boat-231900595.html?.tsrc=fp_deeplink, Doha Madani, May 27, 2021: At least two people have
died and 10 others are missing after a boat from Cuba overturned off the coast
of Florida. Eight people were rescued about 1 p.m. Thursday 16 miles southwest
of Key West, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. Multiple units are searching
for the remaining passengers who were on the boat that flipped...
The Coast Guard said the eight who were rescued told them the
group left Puerto de Mariel, Cuba, on Sunday, and capsized sometime Wednesday
evening. Officials said the survivors were receiving food, water and basic
medical attention aboard a Coast Guard cutter.
AP, Cuban baseball player defects
after arriving in Florida, https://www.yahoo.com/news/cuban-baseball-player-defects-arriving-035322974.html
AFP, Fourth member of Cuban baseball delegation defects
On
April 29, we in Amnesty International launched a worldwide campaign, The Eternal Flame, to support Cuban artists and others being seriously threatened, harrased,
and detained by the government. After a November 2020 protest, the government subjected these individuals to state
surveillance and house arrest. In March and April 2021, the Cuban’s government
extended their surveillance to include approximately thirty activists. Not long
ago, a Cuban artist was forceably
removed from his home and taken to a hospital by state security agents. [ZS1] [AF22]
Why is one of Cuba's most
rebellious artists still isolated in a government hospital?
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/05/12/americas/cuban-dissident-artist-hospitalized-intl-latam/index.html
New campaign for Cuba, #TheEternalFlame.
Also on the AI website, look for Cuba: Amnesty International and artist Erik Ravelo launch ‘The Eternal Flame’, a digital conceptual memorial in support of San Isidro Movement and freedom of expression
Also on the AI website see: The members of the San
Isidro Movement are human rights defenders who stand to protect a very basic
freedom, the right to peacefully express their minds and souls.
Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas Director, Amnesty Int'l
And: This project represents
the flame of freedom: a flame that never goes out, a contemporary action that
never ends and that is kept alive by our solidarity with artists defending
freedom of expression
Erik Ravelo
Reuters, Cuban government ends leading dissident's hunger strike, https://www.yahoo.com/news/cuban-government-ends-leading-dissidents-163137638.html
The San Isidro Movement led by Otero, a performance artist, is a dissident group that includes a few dozen artists, writers and activists. Members of the San Isidro Movement in November had staged a hunger strike against censorship and harassment of independent creators and activists by the Communist government. Police ended the hunger strike, prompting a rare protest by around 300 people in front of the Culture Ministry in Havana. Authorities since then have vilified members of the group as outside agitators working with the United States. Its members repeatedly have been temporarily detained and often told they cannot leave their homes, with communications cut. Otero was arrested a few weeks ago as he protested a Communist Party congress by sitting in a garrote. Authorities seized or destroyed some of his art. Later, he was taken to a hospital against his will.
Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara: Cuban dissident's health stokes allies' fears, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-56947591
Center for a Free Cuba (CFC). The life of opposition activist and independent
artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara is in imminent danger in
Cuba. State Security agents took him from his home on Sunday, May 2 and transferred
him to the Calixto García Hospital located in the Cuban capital according to
official sources, however, his real condition and location have not been
confirmed by his family or close friends. This secretive situation has
triggered the suspicion of human rights organizations and their defenders
outside the Island, as well as within the country.
I'm still getting on-line ads in Spanish:
Selecciona la cantidad de líneas móviles que necesitas en tu plan
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