Hispanic Heritage, No DC Voting Rights, Same-sex in Kenya, China’s Actions, College Students, Life Expectancy, Covid, Gun Violence, Women’s March, Federal Budget, Peace Corps, Caribbean, Partner Abuse, Dreams

A shout-out right now to Hispanic Heritage Month (Sept. 15- Oct. 15), a heritage I share by adoption and celebrate as an honorary Latina, as per a name given me by a Honduran woman. Here I am celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month with a friend out at sidewalk table a few blocks from my home. (On this posting, I am no longer going fret about font and other changes made surreptitiously by blogspot--the reader should just enjoy the variety.]

USA Today, Supreme Court rules against legal effort to give District of Columbia a voting member of Congress [This is a very unfortunate but not surprising decision. After more than 50 years of living in DC, I don’t expect us to achieve voting rights in my lifetime.]

Quartz, Kenya has banned a documentary for portraying a same-sex relationship

In this film, one member of this male couple is apparently married to a woman. In my experience in Africa and Latin America, where same-sex relationships are taboo, it’s not so unusual for a man married to a woman with whom he has children to also have a male lover on the side. As someone of a certain age, I recall observing such arrangements in the US as well in my early adult years. At that time, I witnessed 2 married women with children in an off-and-on relationship and knew single ladies living as long-term “housemates.” We avoided any comment, knowing that same-sex couplings were actually illegal then and certainly considered immoral. So it may be the same now in Kenya, Honduras, and elsewhere.

Evergrande, a Chinese real estate conglomerate, is in trouble now because of its massive debt. The Chinese government is intervening, but exactly how is somewhat murky. https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/24/investing/china-evergrande-group-debt-explainer-intl-hnk/index.html

Meanwhile, in a complicated high-stakes exchange, after Chinese tech executive Meng Wanzhou was permitted to leave Canada, then two Canadians jailed in China were released over the following weekend and a brother and sister were allowed to return to the US.

BBC News, China lets US siblings return home after three years

 

The bare majority of Democrats in the US Senate has given Senators Machin and Sinema outsized power and has put the Biden agenda in a precarious position, especially as more progressive Democrats are also flexing their muscle in the other direction. Will the American people actually benefit eventually or lose it all in this fight?

 

In 1980, 60% of US college students were men. Now, in a complete reversal, 60% are female and the ratio is even worse for minority men. Top business positions are still occupied by men, but the current gender imbalance in college, though different, is as troubling as it was back in 1980.

 

Times have certainly changed since my youthful working life when, as a recent college grad at age 21, more than 60 years ago, I was a social worker at the Alameda County Welfare Dept. in Oakland, California. There, we women employees were required to wear skirts below the knee and nylon stockings and when only the men among us were upgraded to new positions involving punch cards, a forerunner of computing, we did not complain. We just considered it the way the world worked.  

 

Trump’s appointee Postmaster Louis DeJoy has announced with some apparent satisfaction that postal delivery is going to be slowed even further. Can’t his term be cut short?

 

I still like Andrew Yang and his advocacy of ranked choice voting, but it seems as though his day has yet to come.

 

As indicated previously, life expectancy has fallen in the US, reportedly with 2020 showing the biggest drop since World War II, with Covid, gun killings, and increased drug overdose deaths all playing a role. The reduction in life expectancy affected all categories: men, women, Hispanics, and blacks.

 
Covid deaths in the US now top 700,000, the most of any country in the world. Yet vaccination and mask-wearing are resisted by substantial numbers still claiming “individual rights.” Covid shots are not only about protecting an individual, but about protecting others in contact with him or her and reducing the burden on hospitals, as well as on keeping the virus from mutating into more lethal forms. It needs a human body to do that. 

Unvaccinated Texas man’s lower legs amputated after COVID battle. ‘Learn from me’

 

While lots of firefighters have suddenly gotten religion, asking for religious vaccine exemptions, when push comes to shove, they and many other vaccine holdouts eventually will get vaccinated. Few religions actually prohibit vaccination and deniers should not be allowed to rely on vaccinated others to protect them.

 

NY Times, In Portugal, There Is Virtually No One Left to Vaccinate Eight months later, Portugal is among the world’s leaders in vaccinations, with roughly 86 percent of its population of 10.3 million fully vaccinated...About 98 percent of all of those eligible for vaccines — meaning anyone over 12 — have been fully vaccinated...

Tiny Bhutan, shielded by mountains and ruled by a hereditary king, also seems to have vanquished the virus. I just got a message from there:  Hi aunty, has been a long time since I hear from you. Hope you are doing good well. There is no community case for many months in Bhutan, but still we wear mask and follow Covid protocol. We are very happy that with blessings and hard effort by our king and leaders, everything is brought under control. 

 

A promising development regarding Covid is the production of an effective antiviral treatment. Reuters, Merck says research shows its COVID-19 pill works against variants

 

However, while effective Covid prevention and treatment may be within reach, in the US, gun violence continues. The gun death toll in our country now is not a rare anomaly or due to a few freak accidents, but an everyday occurrence.

 

Daily News, 11-year-old girl killed in Wisconsin shooting; 15-year-old boy arrested  

 

The Grio, Illinois boy, 8, killed while playing on porch after shooters fire at family friend

Tampa Bay Times, Man shot and dies after parking space dispute in St. Petersburg

 AP, Boy shot, wounded at Tennessee school; juvenile detained

Washington Post, Shootings never stopped during the pandemic: 2020 was the deadliest gun violence year in decades

During 2020, over 20,000 people died after being shot and an additional 24,000 died by gun suicide. Some 100 Americans die daily by guns. Firearms sales surged during 2020. There are more guns in civilian circulation in the US than there are people. In contrast, in the UK, where neither ordinary citizens nor even most police are armed, the rate of gun deaths is miniscule by comparison. “Right-to-life” advocates need to get behind efforts to stop the US carnage, including supporting curbs on gun access.  

 
I attended the women’s march the day after Trump’s inauguration as a protest against his presidency. Such demonstrations do take place within walking distance of my home. The Supreme Court, where marchers usually end up, is located just blocks away. Because this year’s march was so focused on “abortion rights,” I just decided as both a birth and an adoptive parent not to take part. While having an abortion may feel liberating to a woman, making her more equal to a male partner, the fact remains that if her pregnancy had proceeded, the live birth of a unique human being would have been the probable outcome. That is precisely what an abortion is intended to prevent.

Though abortion has been characterized by advocates as a “Constitutional right,” I don’t recall the Constitution ever being amended to include it, though perhaps it can be inferred under the right to privacy. In any case, the Constitution can always be amended, as I would advise be done to limit “gun rights,” another “right to life” concern. I do take issue now with the 24-week cut off. Perhaps when Roe was decided, no infant born before 24 weeks gestation could survive, but that timeline has moved back since and 20 weeks would be more realistic now. As I have said, I have seen fully functioning (though somewhat delayed) babies born after 21 and 22 weeks estimated gestation.

Abortion efforts have existed throughout history, but have only become more effective in recent times. Prostitutes used to provide sexual outlets for young men while unmarried women guarded their virginity, which protected them from pregnancy. However, unwed motherhood doesn’t carry much stigma today. And largely effective birth control also exists now, unlike in the days when my great-grandmother had 12 children. So demand for abortions should have diminished, as, indeed, it has. I do sympathize with the argument put forward by some women that having an early abortion had allowed them to give birth later when they were more ready to bear and care for a child. And having fewer children has allowed women to work outside the home and to compete with men for jobs, though birth control is mainly responsible there. In Honduras, where abortion is illegal, a young woman I know who became pregnant after a failed tubal ligation, simply went ahead to give birth to the baby, her 3^rd child. She then had the sterilization redone successfully the second time around.

At the recent women’s march, pro-life counter-protesters were identified as “abortion rights opponents,” rather than simply as “abortion opponents.” An advocate with a mustache, self-identified as a trans man with a uterus, made the case for “abortion rights” for “pregnant people” of “all genders,” not just women, indicating why that usage is now in vogue. In the Washington Post style guide, “pregnant individuals” seems to be the preferred term and either that or “pregnant people” is also used by NPR and even by the CDC. Is this justifiable or simply an expression of political correctness?

 

On the issue of acceptable word usage, Black (with a capital B) seems to have replaced African American which replaced Negro before that. Since I used “black” before that word was capitalized, I will continue to do so, deriving my authority from actually having family members with “black” heritage. 

President Biden’s proposed federal budget is somewhat redistributive, since it offers more benefits to lower income folks and increases taxes on high earners. Republicans have now put up an implacable wall of opposition, after they all fell obediently in line when Trump cut taxes on those in higher income brackets. Biden is simply trying to restore some of those tax cuts and go a bit beyond to stimulate the economy. We witnessed a cliffhanger, as Congress first went down to wire on the debt ceiling. Republicans had dared to chance a shutdown by playing a game of “chicken,” willing to risk a shutdown that would have hurt both their constituents and the whole country in order to inflict harm on Biden. How did we ever get to this point? Donald Trump’s brazen partisanship, his relatively small but very hardcore support, and his continued political aspirations make it hard for Republicans to chart an independent course.  

 

Peace Corps is returning to service after the pandemic, starting right now in Belize and launching a program for the first time in Viet Nam, something Vice President Kamala Harris addressed on her visit there in August.  

Daily Beast, The Gangland Murders Forcing Israel to Its Breaking Point [This article highlights the tensions between Israel as a “Jewish state” and the inclusion of a minority of Arab citizens. As the holocaust moves into history, it becomes harder to justify citizenship and citizen identity based on religion.]

 

Larry Palmer, whom George W. Bush named as ambassador to Honduras during my Peace Corps service, has died. With his arm wrapped around me, Palmer towers over me in a photo on p. 92 of my book Triumph & Hope. He was quite tall, made even taller by a white Afro contrasting with his dark complexion. He always wore a smile. President Obama later named him ambassador simultaneously to a whole slew of Caribbean island nations: Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent & the Grenadines, all part of my current responsibility as volunteer Caribbean Coordinator for Amnesty International USA. Here is Palmer greeting children in Barbados.

Reuters, Bahamas and Cuba intercept hundreds of Haitians at sea who were headed for U.S.

 

BBC News, Haiti polls postponed after electoral body is dissolved

 

Haitian migrants are no longer front-age news, but their travails continue. The U.S.’s Long History of Mistreating Haitian Migrants The current tragedy at the border is just the latest fallout from the U.S.’s failed policies toward Haiti. New Yorker By Edwidge Danticat

 

NY Times, Thousands of Haitians Are Being Allowed Into the U.S. But What Comes Next? [The numbers being admitted to await asylum hearings seem to be increasing after the criticism of deportations to Haiti from the Del Rio camp.]

Sun Sentinel, We don’t want you, DeSantis tells desperate Haitians trying to migrate to South Florida

 

Both Haitian and Cuban migrants seem willing to risk everything, even their lives, on the outside chance that they will be among the lucky few, like lottery winners, actually allowed to stay in the US.  

 

Miami Herald, 16 Cuban migrants found near Key West, the second landing along island chain in 2 days  The U.S. Coast Guard says well over 800 people from Cuba have been caught at sea en route to South Florida this fiscal year. That’s up from just 49 in fiscal year 2020...last week, the Coast Guard returned a total of 52 migrants to Cuba that agency crews stopped at sea in several separate incidents off the Keys.

Miami Herald, Cuban migration to South Florida shows no sign of abating as 10 more land in the Keys [Cuban boat people keep on coming to the US, despite their immediate deportation and probable sanctions after their return to Cuba. Because they keep on trying, in flimsy boats they build themselves because such boats are illegal, I wonder if perhaps some might actually be managing to evade US authorities and melt into the Cuban diaspora?]

 

Miami Herald, Cuban artist freed from jail, forced into exile. Other protesters face harsh sentences. [Hamlet Lavastida, reportedly sent to Poland]

 

Miami Herald, Anonymous benefactor buys new home for ex-Castro prisoner after she loses eviction fight [Ana Lazara Rodriguez, age 83, 19-year Cuban political prisoner, whose photo and my interview with her appear in my Confessions book, so I’m very glad she’s OK now.] 

Here she is in her new home.

 

Cuban-born singer Gloria Estefan revealed she was sexually abused at age 9 by a male relative who was also her music teacher. Sexual abuse of children, especially girls, is am all too-common childhood experience.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/gloria-estefan-reveals-was-sexually-abused-was-9-rcna2479

 

Reuters, Fire devastates Honduras' Caribbean resort island of Guanaja  Yes, I’ve been there, a beautiful place. It may have been hard to get firefighting equipment there unless it was already on the island.

 

AFP, Honduras burns 3.3 tonnes of cocaine seized from cartels

 

Gabby Petito is just one of many formerly missing women who have been murdered. Many women experience sexual or physical abuse by a man as children or adults and whenever a woman is found to have been killed, her husband or male partner is the first suspect. That doesn’t mean that her missing fiancé killed Gabby, but if and when he is found, he would be a prime suspect. And Gabby’s downplaying of the problem and taking the blame on herself when questioned by police is a tactic a woman may use to protect her abuser.

Women are much more likely to be killed by an intimate partner than by a stranger. In the US, most murdered women are killed by men and most serial killers are male. Women being killed by men occurs across cultures. Whenever a woman actually kills a man, which does occur in a minority of cases, it is often of an abuser. Sometimes, women will hire a hit man to do the deed for them. Why this gender discrepancy?

Probably male sexual aggression and violence are increased by both testosterone and cultural factors. Testosterone has been linked to aggression in animals, while castration reduces aggression in both men and male animals. So men do have inherent challenges in curbing their sexual and combative urges, which explains their disproportionate imprisonment, though testosterone does wane at older ages when men tend to become more docile. Women may fail to appreciate that male aggression is more than just a culturally supported or freely chosen behavior and may actually be something hard for men to control. However, men do need to learn strategies to manage sexual and physical aggression for their own sake and that of women and other victims. Gun proliferation also needs to seriously reduced. At the same time, serial abusers like Epstein, Weinstein, and Cosby represent a special category of calculated manipulators who used their favorable positions to entrap and abuse women, not simply men overcome by a surge of desire for a particular woman.  

 

Nighttime dreams, to the extent we can even recall them, are amazingly varied, at least in my experience, though certain themes do tend to repeat themselves. In dreamland, I often find myself somehow far away from home, trying to figure out how to get back there, something that a psychologist could probably analyze. Being in an elevator going down many floors is another recurrent theme. It is curious that dream events and other people’s words or actions in our dreams often prove surprising or even shocking to “us” when we ourselves are the source and authors of the whole scenario on an unconscious level. Most dreams quickly fade away unless we make a concerted effort to remember them before they evaporate, as by writing notes upon awakening.  

 

 

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