Today,
hope my readers had a peaceful Indigenous Peoples’ Day, or Columbus
Day for supporters of Christopher Columbus (in Spain, he was Cristobal Colon). My son Jonathan,
adopted from Colombia, a country named for the explorer, had his ancestry analyzed
and likes to emphasize his indigenous heritage, though he also has Spanish ancestry,
a common combination dating back to the days of Columbus himself.
Art, now known as Arturo, is a former fellow Honduras Peace Corps volunteer,
who, after retiring, recently moved to that country. When he informed me via email
that he was planning to visit El Triunfo, my first Peace Corps site, I managed
to send him (through a convoluted system) a signed, inscribed copy of my book Triumph
& Hope to deliver to someone living there mentioned in my book. El
Triunfo is the “Triumph” of my book title. The recipient was Neris, who
appears with me as a child on the lower righthand corner of the front cover and
whose youthful handwritten farewell appears at the end. Neris is now married
and a mother of three. I last saw her on my 2020 Honduras visit. Art not only
delivered the book, but sent these photos of El Triunfo and of Neris and her children
and also managed to make a phone connection where I got to talk directly with
her. Neris told me that she and her husband had gotten their first Covid shots
and that about 30% of Hondurans are now vaccinated. She said everyone in the
family is doing well and asked when I would be coming back to Honduras. I told
her when and if medical brigades, where I can be of service as an interpreter, come
back, assuming that I still have the strength then. Here is the town and Neris with
her kids. Her daughter is now 12.
While there may
be downsides to the instant global connectiveness afforded by the internet, it
has been wonderful for me to now be able to communicate directly with my
friends all over the world in real time, no longer waiting anxiously for my letter to reach them and for
me to receive a reply. It was even better to be able to talk by phone directly with
Neris (and with Art). When I spent 3 ½ years in the Peace Corps in Honduras back
in 2000-2003, the internet was only just getting underway in Honduras, so I
relied on snail mail and jealously guarded and reread each precious letter. María
Elena, the Triunfo postmistress who, alas, has since died, traveled weekly by
bus to the nearest city, Choluteca, to pick up our town’s mail, where often my
mail was all there was. She had it delivered to my door by a boy a bike who earned
a small tip. By the time I was ready to leave Honduras, I had a whole suitcase full
of letters, all burned in a huge bonfire.
Sixty years ago,
the Peace Corps was first set in motion by JFK’s exhortation: “Ask not
what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.” Now
Peace Corps is starting back up again post-pandemic, ready for 60 more years.
My friends in Nigeria,
where vaccination rates are low, have told they’ve just gotten their first Pfizer
shots.
Lava continues to flow near a residential
neighborhood decimated by the Kilauea volcano eruption on the Big Island of
Hawaii. I have witnessed other lava flows there, spectacular at night,
causing continuous clouds of steam to arise from flowing into the sea. Though I
can be mesmerizing, it’s important not to get too close.
CNN released a survey finding that 78% of Republicans now
believe Biden did not “legitimately” win enough votes, even though he
had the largest plurality in history, over 7 million more votes than
Trump. So Trump’s misinformation campaign is having an effect.
While Biden’s approval
rating has fallen below 50% (Trump’s approval was below 50% during his entire presidency
and his vote total in 2 elections never reached 50%, even though he won office
via the Electoral College.) Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema
have de facto veto power over the Democratic agenda, as either kingmakers or
deal breakers. If there were even 2 more Democratic senators, as would happen
if DC won statehood, something unlikely in my own lifetime, then their clout
would be greatly diminished. (If wishes were horses, beggars would ride!) Republicans
have been doing their level best to prevent Democrats from achieving any major legislative
victories, even if their own constituents would otherwise benefit, though they did
finally make begrudging concessions on the debt limit.
Whatever happened
to bipartisanship? It went up in smoke when Donald Trump came on
the scene. He still holds an iron grip on the Republican Party. His supporters
don’t seem to care about his policies or lack thereof, they just worship the
guy. Do they identify with his flaunting of political norms, with his ability
to get away with lies, misogyny, and probable tax evasion? Republicans oppose
him at their own risk. According to Business Insider, a majority of Republican
voters believe white people now face discrimination and that Christianity is
under attack.
On Sat. evening, Oct. 9, I happened to tune into
Trump’s speech in Iowa, where he called Nancy Pelosi “a nut job” and accused “deranged
Democrat” lawmakers of trying to impose socialism. He berated Republican Senator
Mitch McConnell for not challenging the 2020 presidential election. A mysterious
cabal, “they,” have corrupted the media and interfered with elections. ”They” are
killing babies even after they’re born.
In the US, police
and fire fighters have suddenly gotten religion, claiming religious exemptions
from vaccine mandates.
Reuters, UPDATE
6-French clergy sexually abused over 200,000 children since 1950, report finds [While allowing priests to marry and permitting female
priests, as I’ve long advocated in my books and talks, would not end clergy sex
abuse, it would greatly diminish it.]
Gun violence
continues unabated. A Florida woman shot the T-Mobile
manager who had fired her, though he survived.
Daily News, Staten Island teen shoots mother to death with father’s gun
during crazed quarrel: NYPD
Axios, Afghan
ambassador: Biden doesn’t care about fate of Afghan girls [The ambassador, who is female and a holdover, is probably correct
that Biden is not fretting about anyone still in Afghanistan right now.]
The International
Rescue Committee now helping to resettle Afghan
refugees is the same organization that placed my late
Cuban foster son with my family back in the day. It’s a worthy organization.
Xi, flexing his muscles after subduing Xinjiang and Hong Kong, seems now to be looking at an even bigger
prize, Taiwan. Would the rest of the world risk war to
protect democratic Taiwan? Maybe not could be Xi’s gamble. Biden
has tried to reassured Taiwan and the world that Taiwan is not in any danger. Meanwhile,
economic problems seem to be arising in China.
And after China’s
one-child policy was imposed through forced abortions and sterilizations, Xi is
now encouraging a three-child policy, but Chinese
women are not buying it anymore. Back in the one-child era, I knew a couple from
China with a single offspring who were able to move to the US where they soon
had two more babies. Also, a Chinese visitor to my home at that time lamented
that he and his wife already had a daughter and were not allowed to try for a
son.
The romantic dream of an abundant and carefree
life in these United States is still alive and well in Haiti, Cuba, Central
America, and many other parts of the world. (Across the Atlantic, the dream seems
almost as powerful for migrants to Europe.) It’s an aspiration so strong that
it has persisted ever since I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Honduras more than
20 years ago, and had existed even long before that. Are we who were born here
actually experiencing that problem-free fantasy? When I lived in Honduras, I
tried to talk sense into Hondurans, attempting to incentivize them to improve
their circumstances right there at home, both as individuals and collectively. I
warned them about the risks of the journey, about likely deportation, and that
the US is no paradise, rather a life replete with all the usual human struggles
and tragedies, as my own experience has amply shown. When they didn’t listen and
went ahead anyway, then were deported, I resisted saying “I told you so.” And also
I did my best to help obtain prostheses for unfortunate young men who’d lost
limbs falling off the Mexican freight train called La Bestia, the Beast,
on their journey north.
Migration,
even when the odds of success are low, is a prime example of the occupational
therapy principle of the subjective value of engaging in purposeful activity. As
long as migrants foresee even a small chance of success, they will continue making
the gamble. They will bring along offspring because they’ve heard that parents
with children are more often admitted. As they risk their lives and those of
their kids by trekking through wild jungles or sailing through treacherous
waters in homemade boats, common sense does not prevail. Teenage girls may
disguise themselves as boys and travel with a group of trusted boys. WhatsApp allows
instantaneous cellphone communication among them, so any disinformation is widely
shared. AP, Number of children crossing Darien Gap hits
record high
Mexico has been flooded with migrants, some
of whom remain there. Migrants are all playing a lottery, hoping to be among
the lucky few who actually will make it. Then, if they do get admitted
to the US, the real struggles begin, as I have witnessed myself as a Spanish
interpreter for immigrants in their own homes, court, and medical offices. They
soon realize they have not arrived to heaven on earth.
Axios, Senate
Democrats express "outrage over the cruel treatment" of Haitian
migrants at border
USA Today, A Guatemalan father brought his 10-year-old daughter to the
US-Mexican border and regrets it
Market Watch, Panama
to bury more migrant victims of the brutal Darien Gap
Reuters, Chile
police bust crime ring smuggling Haitian children to U.S., Mexico
Reuters, Two Haitian
families, two diverging fates at U.S.-Mexico border [Two families with
children, one deported to Haiti, the other allowed to join US relatives to
await asylum hearing.]
AP, Haiti
to UN Security Council: Help us handle gang violence
NBC News, Satanic rituals, forced
cannibalism: The kidnappings and extortions of Central
American migrants
At least nine young baseball players have defected during the World Cup in Mexico, officials say. [At least 100 players have defected
over the years.]
Miami
Herald, Jailed Cuban artist Otero Alcántara is on a hunger strike,
other activists join protest
[The
following is in Spanish, so activate your Google translator, if necessary.]
«Arte en resistencia»: exposición digital del
Movimiento San Isidro
La exposición digital del
Movimiento San Isidro, “Arte en resistencia”, es organizada por CADAL junto al
programa Art in Protest de Human Rights Foundation. La exposición muestra
cómo el arte, en cuanto forma de resistencia, se ha transformado en una
práctica cultural en Cuba e incluye obras visuales, audiovisuales y literarias
de Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, Amaury Pacheco, Yasser Castellanos, Afrik3Reina
y Katherine Bisquet, con la curaduría de Claudia Genlui Hidalgo, miembros
pertenecientes al Movimiento San Isidro.
AP, Nicaragua's
President Ortega calls bishops 'terrorists'
Washington
Post, Most
of the Caribbean is under a 'Level 4' travel warning. Islands still want
visitors. The majority of destinations in the Caribbean - as well as
Bermuda and the Bahamas - are characterized by the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention as "Level 4" because of very high rates of covid-19,
which means the public health agency recommends avoiding travel. Those
countries and territories include such popular spots as Jamaica, Puerto Rico,
Aruba, the U.S. Virgin Islands and, as of Monday, Barbados. In all, more than
20 destinations are listed as Level 4.
Another handful - including Anguilla, Bonaire, Turks and Caicos,
and Trinidad and Tobago - are Level 3, which means covid-19 is high and only
vaccinated people should visit. Just a few are at the two lowest levels,
including the Dominican Republic and Cayman Islands.
My son living in W Va.
has always been an animal lover, especially of dogs, but is not allowed to have
a pet now in his rental apartment. Instead, he takes friends’ dogs out regularly
on long walks. Whenever the dogs catch sight of him approaching, they become super
excited.
In a bid to
address modern mores, apparently Superman’s teenage son has “come out” as bisexual. What would Clark Kent say?
My readers
know about my ambivalence about “abortion rights.” I try to make sense of
that concept in the context of readily available and pretty effective birth
control. Brittany Spears says an IUD inserted without her consent has prevented
her from conceiving for years. If women can now prevent pregnancy nearly all of
the time, why is there such a demand for abortions? Is it that now readily
available abortion makes the sexes more equal after unprotected sex?
I am trying to understand the strong views of abortion rights activists.
In my dreams,
sometimes we are speaking Spanish, though less often now than when I was living
in Honduras. For someone like me, who has lived so many years in so many different
places, the kaleidoscope of dreams can play out in different and surprising
ways. And when I was taking anti-malaria medication, I could better recall my dreams.
I dreamt recently
about my father’s maternal grandparents, living out on their wheat farm near Stavely,
Alberta. In my dream, though details are fuzzy, they were homesteaders inspired
by Little House on the Prairie. In real life, my Dad’s father had
immigrated to western Canada from Scotland’s Isle of Islay. Of their 12
children, all of whom survived, the oldest and youngest (my own grandmother)
were girls, with 10 boys in the middle. The girls helped their mother in the
kitchen, as well as with washing and mending clothes and cleaning the house.
The boys worked with their father outside, not only tending the wheat, but
their animals. After all the kids had left home, their father renovated the
house and the parents poured through the Sears catalogue to order brand new
furniture. Finally, their home was just the way they wanted it. One day, they
hitched up their buggy to go into town. But when they returned at dusk, their
house with all the new furniture had burnt to the ground, apparently ignited by
a stray coal. Only ashes were left. My grandmother said her mother really never
recovered from that loss.
When someone we
know seems clueless about a personal issue that is pretty obvious and is fairly
common knowledge, such as that their spouse is unfaithful, or is a liar,
gambler, or a secret spendthrift, we avoid becoming tattletales or disrupting the
delicate balance of their marital relationship or of our friendship. She (or he)
may seem to be maintaining willful ignorance, seeming to overlook telltale signs.
We may also feel that what she doesn’t know won’t hurt her.
Likewise, there are
widespread romance, inheritance, or grandparent scams that prey on personal
gullibility. I’ve encountered all three, but not succumbed to them, though they
are often clever. There’s the man smitten with me just needing a temporary loan,
the official-looking letter with a UK stamp and postmark informing me of a surprise
inheritance, and my estranged grandson calling me after an auto accident. I’ve
mentioned some of these before.
Everyone wants to
be loved, to be useful, and to remain healthy. So out of compassion, we may go
along with a friend overlooking her spouse’s betrayals or her child’s misdeeds
or even her own health prospects after a troubling diagnosis. We don’t want to
be the bearer of bad tidings, so we try to protect our friends. Each of us
lives in a subjective world. So I sometimes wonder if there is something about
my own life and personal relationships from which others are protecting me?
At this point, I may not even want to know.
[This time, ads in both Spanish and French]
Asadores Eléctricos
Montréal
