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
Washington Post, Woman fatally shot in D.C. had obtained protective order against suspect
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
BBC, Cuban baseball players defect during tournament in Mexico
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.
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
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