Hawaii Snowfall, Racing Pigeons, Bilingualism, AIDS Day, Human Rights Day, Gun Rights, Abortion & the Supreme Ct.

 

Reuters, Watch snow fall on Hawaii's dormant volcano

I am among many who have climbed the volcano on the Big Island, but have never seen snow in Hawaii. It now seems to have fallen there before winter snow has even reached mainland USA.

According to website https://www.gohawaii.com/trip-planning/weather. There are really only two seasons in Hawaii: summer (kau) from May to October and winter (hooilo) from November to April. The average daytime summer temperature at sea level is 85° F (29.4° C), while the average daytime winter temperature is 78° (25.6° C). Temperatures at night are approximately 10° F lower than the daytime.

In my own experiences in Hawaii, where my younger daughter still lives and where my son once resided, I never had to wear a sweater nor was it ever uncomfortably hot, though sometimes in the afternoon, an overhead fan would be activated. Besides spending time in Oahu, there Honolulu is located, I’ve also frequently been to Maui and to the Big Island, where similar comfortable weather prevailed, which is what draws tourists to Hawaii any time of year. The main change to look out for there was a sudden downpour. In Hawaii, I’ve never encountered any indoor heating, with air conditioning only in hotels or commercial establishments. So, snow falling would be an unusual event anywhere in Hawaii, though apparently not uncommon at elevations above 11,000 ft. 

I recently heard a radio report about Chinese racing pigeons, some flying with whistles attached, a special feature of such pigeons in China. While China’s whistling pigeons were silenced and kept under wraps during the Cultural Revolution, they are now back again in force, expressing a tradition that goes back centuries.  

In Cuba, I’ve seen racing pigeons kept on apartment rooftops, but without the whistles favored in China since that might call too much attention to a sport that is tolerated there, but not officially allowed. In Cuba, bets are placed on pigeon races and sometimes an owner will send up birds with razors on their feet to cut the strings of rival pigeons to set them free.

In a recent radio interview, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona rightly pointed out that children who speak another language early in life need to be encouraged to keep it up even while learning English, as bilingualism is a great personal asset and something much harder to acquire in adulthood. That certainly has proven true for me. I first acquired rudimentary Spanish as a toddler while we were passing through Central America, though refused to continue to speak it after our family returned to the US. Then, at age 14, I was again exposed to Spanish in Colombia and, though I resisted because I resented being away from teenage friends back “home,” I soon began speaking Spanish out of necessity. Because of my youthful exposure to the language, though I subsequently did not use it for decades, when I joined the Peace Corps in Honduras at age 62, it all came back to me. I was then excused from language classes and was able to explore the local Honduran community on my own.

When I returned to the US after 3 ½ years in the Peace Corps, I embarked on a new career doing Spanish interpretation and translation and on visits to Latin America, am not identified as a “gringa,” which is helpful. Yet native speakers of another language who first come to the US as adults often have trouble learning English, also with shaking a “foreign” accent even after many years. My fellow Peace Corps volunteers really struggled with Spanish and never lost their gringo accent. It’s so much easier to master more than one language in childhood, offering a lifelong advantage to young immigrants that they should try to maintain.

In my dreams, sometimes we speak in Spanish, but less so now than when I was living in Honduras. (But no Covid so far in my dreams—at least that I can remember).

Speaking of bilingualism, does anyone recognize the following languages which come up when I Google my blog? I’d like to think I have an international readership.

२००९ जुलाई २४ – हालसम्म   Të tjerë me emrin

Buy Nothing! According to Google: “The Buy Nothing Project is a social movement that helps neighbors give and receive free items, ranging from food to furniture. ... The Buy Nothing Project is a social movement that has over 6,500 groups.”

The idea is for members to exchange or be gifted, not have to buy, needed items which would certainly put a dent in commerce as we know it if it becomes widespread. It’s also true that much of what is produced is wasted and discarded, filling up oceans and landfills.

World AIDS Day came and went on Dec. 1 and I admit to having missed mentioning it. In Honduras, when in the Peace Corps there, I always helped local young people organize a parade and put on educational skits in that day. AIDS there began with sex between men but soon began affecting women, as in Honduras, as in Africa, men who have sex with men also have female partners because that is the social norm.

Another past due item is this photo just received from a friend in Mexico for a Day of the Dead commemoration. 

 

Today, Dec. 10 is International Human Rights Day. Let’s see if anything happens in Cuba. When I was in the Peace Corps in Honduras (from 2000-2003), I always organized another community parade there with young people featuring songs and carrying banners that we made ourselves.

 

Former Senator Bob Dole, a man who survived serious war wounds, has died at age 98, reportedly in his sleep. My late former husband also was said to have died in his sleep, which seems like a rather peaceful way to go.  

 

[The following article attracted my attention since I visited Solvang when my maternal grandparents lived there, a very charming place.]  Insider, I spent a weekend in Solvang, a Danish town in California wine country, and it transported me to Europe

Still another school shooting has occurred, this time by a 15-year-old in Michigan, again raising questions of whether “gun rights” are actually worth the fatal risks? His parents are now accused of giving the boy the gun he used to murder other students and of fleeing themselves and hiding to avoid responsibility. After purchase, the firearm was reportedly kept in an unlocked bedroom drawer. Years ago, my then-11-year-old son was shot in the foot by another boy who dropped a gun also kept in a parents’ bedroom drawer. The odds of needing to have a gun so readily accessible in the case of an intruder are far outweighed by the risks that a youngster will find the gun and use it to harm or kill.  

Daily News, Mother of accused Michigan school shooting suspect praised Trump for stance on gun rights in 2016 blog post

 

Reuters, U.S. congressman posts family Christmas picture with guns, days after school shooting

A U.S. congressman on Saturday posted a Christmas picture of himself and what appeared to be his family, smiling and posing with an assortment of guns, just days after four teenagers were killed in a shooting at a Michigan high school. "Merry Christmas! ps. Santa, please bring ammo," U.S. Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky tweeted.

Fox News, St. Louis second-grader brought gun to school, district says

 

Some political pundits now speculate that Donald Trump won’t actually run for president again because of the risk of losing, as he certainly doesn’t want to be branded as a “loser.” But by keeping the possibility of his candidacy still alive, he is blocking the fortunes of other potential Republican candidates.

Rolling Stone, Counties That Voted Trump Have Much Higher Covid Death Rates, Analysis Finds A new NPR analysis reveals that since May of this year, people living in counties that voted for Donald Trump have been almost three times as likely to die from Covid-19 than those living in counties that Joe Biden won. 

These are usually anti-vax communities and means that Republicans are dying more often from Covid and thus leaving the voter rolls. Anti-vaxxers not only endanger themselves but also others, especially people with compromised immune systems, and allow mutations to develop as well. Because of such holdouts, it will be almost impossible to eradicate the virus.  

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10280015/Modern-day-slavery-ring-trapped-hundreds-migrant-workers-south-Georgia.html

US slavery, 2021: Human-trafficking ring trapped hundreds of migrant workers picking onions for 20-cents per bucket in south Georgia as part of years-long $200M operation that saw two die and another repeatedly raped.

The indictment alleges workers from Mexico, Honduras, and Guatemala were forced to live in squalor on the business properties, like the farm and property of Charles King, of Kings Berry Farms in Waycross, Georgia.

 

Across the ocean, to avoid treading on the sensitivities of mainland China, Taiwan is acknowledged in the American press and government circles to be “part of China,” although, de facto, it has its own representative, democratically elected government, unlike the mainland. Now Xi seems fixated on bringing Taiwan under his control but will the US and other powers actually allow that or try to maintain the current ambiguous status of Taiwan? The UK surrendered Hong Kong to the latter’s detriment. Xi now claims that China is actually a “democracy,” just of a different sort. It’s true that China has lifted millions out of poverty.

 

China is also investing strategically around the world. Its newest project is a major port to be installed in Equatorial Guinea, a quasi-dictatorial country in east Africa and the continent’s only Spanish-speaking country. I have translated numerous human rights documents from there.

 

Although I have announced my retirement as volunteer Caribbean Coordinator for Amnesty International USA after 18 years, I’ve promised to stay on until a replacement comes on board, so am still on duty. And I remain involved with Honduras, though am unable to return there for volunteer medical brigade duty as low Covid vaccination rates have prevented the brigades’ return.

 

BBC News, Haiti kidnappers release three more missionaries after abduction

 

A former afro-Cuban prisoner of conscience of 17 years, Jorge Luis García Pérez, better known as “Antúnez,” who now lives Miami, was in town recently to promote human rights in Cuba. He is someone featured in my Confessions book. I’ve asked him to give me specific information about Cubans he considers at risk for their peaceful advocacy.

[Here is a private message I just received] The Miami Herald has an article regarding Cuba's allowing foreign firms to partner with local privately owned businesses. This a move toward the Vietnamese model which may be the only chance for the government to continue to stay in power; a mixed system that will permit foreign investment.

After the recent elections in Honduras, according to

The Guardian, Honduras president-elect’s China pledge puts Taiwan and US on edge

 Although Taiwan has donated generously to its poorer allies, including Honduras, it cannot compete with the economic largesse of China, which has showered gifts, loans and investments upon other countries in the region who have switched diplomatic allegiances in recent years. Panama cut ties with Taipei in 2017 and has since seen a wave of Chinese investment.

 

It has been expected that Xiomara Castro, the Honduran president-elect, would sever ties with Taiwan in favor of mainland China, but she seems to be holding out on that so far. Her husband, Mel Zelaya, as former president, formed alliances with Cuba, Venezuela, and Russia.

 

So far, my friends in Honduras seem pretty satisfied with Xiomara’s victory, saying that she has to be better than what they just had with outgoing president Juan Orlando Hernandez, but they do hope she won’t go as far left as her husband did and become allied with Venezuela.

 

Reuters, Honduras begins election vote recount after fraud claims

[I thought everyone had accepted the results!]

 

A newsletter for former Honduras Peace Corps volunteers estimates that the country’s Covid vaccination rate is only 39%, though known cases have not been surging there. I do know Hondurans who have gotten very sick with Covid, but who have since recovered. I wonder if cases there are being properly reported?  

Peace Corps Volunteers, both new and returning, are planning to serve in Belize, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, and Zambia. These volunteers have been invited to serve beginning in late January to March. All volunteers will be expected to contribute to COVID-19 response and recovery efforts, accepting the additional risks associated with volunteering during a pandemic and complying with agency standards for mitigating these risks.

Media wars on abortion are back again in full force because of the Mississippi case now before the Supreme Court. Some childless media personalities are now publicly confessing to having had abortions long ago and many other related news stories have emerged.

Miami Herald, Baby girl found abandoned inside Walmart in a shopping cart, Alabama police say

 

Other reports concern kids abandoned or mistreated, even killed, by parents. Last year, over 400,000 children were reportedly removed from their parents. I’ve worked in child welfare and know that not all biological parents are capable of raising children.

 

People, Premature Baby Born 18 Weeks Early Released from Hospital in Time for the Holidays: 'Grateful’ [She was born at 22 weeks. The abortion limit in Roe is 28 weeks.]

 

USA Today, My great-grandmother died from an illegal abortion. Her story could be one you know soon. [The writer’s great-grandmother may indeed have died after undergoing an abortion, but not before she first produced the writer’s forebearer. USA Today is trying to be evenhanded, as the next article shows.]

 

USA Today, Science proves Roe v. Wade wrong. Humanity doesn't start at 20 weeks Two little boys celebrated their first birthdays this summer, one in Minnesota and one in Alabama – miles apart, but with similar stories. Both born at 21 weeks, Richard Hutchinson and Curtis Means were 131 and 132 days premature, respectively.

 

In the NY Times magazine, The Abortion I Didn’t Have

[Though I haven’t read this article, presumably the author went on to have a child. She is one of few women who have come forward who apparently considered having an abortion but had a child instead.]

 

Washington Post, Overruling ‘Roe’ likely wouldn’t generate the female backlash that feminists expect

Abortions are euphemistically described in US mainstream media, as “abortion services” or “abortion care,” while abortion opponents are not simply “pro-life,” but rather “anti-abortion rights” advocates, with the emphasis on “rights.” There is also the deliberate use of other pejorative terms for pro-lifers like “anti-pro-choice” and “anti-reproductive rights.” “Choice” is a word commonly used in the abortion debate, but unless a woman is raped, didn’t she make a choice to have unprotected sex (though granted that contraception occasionally fails)? Abortion supporters say that women should have control over their own bodies, but doesn’t that control apply to decisions to have sex? Some abortion supporters are saying that a fetus is not “human,” which is a stretch.

 

Abortion defenders correctly point out that abortion efforts have always been attempted throughout history, often in harmful ways. But it’s still debatable whether Roe established a “constitutional right” to abortion, as the decision actually refers to the previously established constitutional “right to privacy.” The abortion pill gives considerable weight to the “privacy” argument as it can be self-administered. Additionally, medical care has not stood still over the last half century, so the 28 weeks envisioned in Roe as the point of “viability” now occurs earlier in a pregnancy; Roe is not sacrosanct.

I won’t mention his name here because my information comes from my former adoption board membership, but there is another Supreme Court justice with adopted children besides Barrett. She has very publicly acknowledged that in addition to her 5 birth children, she has 2 adopted children from Haiti, one with special needs. (Barrett has certainly put her money where her mouth is by adopting 2 children when she already had 5 herself and also a very demanding professional life.)

Admittedly, I am not a dispassionate observer of the abortion issue. I had 2 adopted children born in the US before Roe, son Andrew born in 1967, who died tragically after a work accident in 1994, and daughter Melanie, born in 1968. If Roe had been in effect then, they probably would never have been born. In 1972, I gave birth to Stephanie, then adopted son Jonathan, born in 1974 in Colombia, where I’d lived as a teenager and where abortion is still illegal except in cases of rape or incest. I also had a foster son Alex, born in Cuba as the last of 12 children back when abortion was illegal there, who died of AIDS in 1995. So yes, I do have skin in the game and personal reasons for rejecting the “abortion rights” camp while also supporting the Democratic Party on most other matters.   

 

Chief Justice Roberts asks about the proposed Mississippi law : “...why is 15 weeks not enough time?” (Fifteen weeks is almost 4 months, after all.)

A recent study--US News, Study Shows Women Who Had Abortions Less Likely to Suffer Poverty--purportedly shows that women who wanted but were unable to obtain abortions did not do as well financially as women did obtain them. There are many “what-if’s” in such a study and is a woman who, say, ends up better off financially and childless really in a “better” position than one who has had a child? That’s a rather subjective judgment. Does it mean that more financial assistance should be made available to parents? Biden has certainly been trying to provide that. I would put somewhat more weight on the retrospective value of an abortion for a young, unmarried woman who then may have gone on to marry and become a mother when she was more ready. But our society seems to place very high value any “born” human versus any not yet born, including even those convicted of heinous crimes who, even if executed, must have that done “humanely.” The divide is stark, perhaps because the life of the unborn is so intertwined with and dependent on the life of another?

Physicians typically swear “to do no harm.” Is an abortion harmful to a living being or not? Does the answer depend only on one’s preconceived position?

 

A man in NY State was charged with animal cruelty after abandoning 2 newborn puppies in a shoebox. In this case, the law sided with the puppies.

 

European laws on abortion vary widely, but many have a shorter limit even than the 15 weeks now being proposed in Mississippi and being denounced by abortion supporters. Germany does not even allow legal abortions at all. Of course, the availability of the abortion pill decreases the demand for “abortion services” everywhere and will cause more such clinics to close than any laws.

 

Laws and practices are continually evolving. Sometimes on a Sunday evening, I listen to Dragnet radio shows from 1969 and the early ‘70s based on Los Angeles true crime episodes. Back in those days, those who had committed murder usually were executed, something that doesn’t happen any more in California.

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Estudio Jurídico

 

Contratación de Extranjeros

 

Actualización Laboral

 

Rocas del Mar

 

Equipo Ecológico

 

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