My life at age 86 and what’s happening in DC and around the world

First things first, tomorrow is Cinco de Mayo, Sunday, May 5, commemorating the Battle of Puebla, which took place on May 5, 1862, against an invading French Army, ending in a victory for the Mexican Army over the much better-equipped foreign forces.

It’s been quite a while since the last posting here with much to say this time. This blog serves not only as my way of communicating all around the world, but also as a repository of memory allowing me to check back on prior events. For someone my age, with so many memories to sift through, it’s been helpful to have a timeline and a written record to refer to. Also, my family members, none living locally, can check in with me via the blog.

Yahoo, Despite concern about older adults living alone, these seniors prefer the solo life: 'I love not having to answer to anyone else'

While I agree with those older folks, one of my daughters living at a distance insists on sending over a helper periodically (at my expense) to check on me and report back. If that makes her feel better, then OK. Though not actually necessary quite yet, such visitors are welcome.

For quite a long time, I’ve participated in life on earth with only a few years still left. If the past is prologue, I’m due for several more ups and downs during these final years, as happens in any human life. Surviving the successive deaths of my older son and Cuban foster son has been the hardest challenge of my long life, something not wished on my worst enemy. 

Becoming ill with Covid recently, despite vaccination, was an unwelcome setback, as I’m still not quite back to status quo ante. I also experienced a subsequent bout of vertigo, something very disorienting, apparently related to Covid, with the whole world spinning and spinning constantly all around me, even while I was lying down with eyes closed. Fortunately, it only lasted about 24 hours. A good friend once had it for an entire week.

https://www.wusa9.com/3-year-old girl shot to death in Southeast DC

This just happened last night.

Why am I now getting solicitations from St. Jude’s in Spanish? Those folks know way too much about me!

The internet is obviously both bane and boon. A friend who once lived at my house has moved on, but still gets mail here. He sent me a message after I told him about boxes of medical equipment arriving for him here, which turned out to be part of an elaborate scam. So, beware:

Guess what happened in view of those baggages being sent to your house? I called Medicare and got a competent person. I told her the entire story of the lab that had contacted me out of the blue telling me my doctor had prescribed those braces even though my doctors disagreed. Long story short, it appears to have been a scam. That lab was on the list for a lot of complaints, and mine moved it to the fraud investigation department. I spent two hours on the phone with them. So maybe there will be some action. The stuff in those boxes is valued at $4,599 dollars charged against my insurance and my Medicare with another bogus charge of $1,400. It looks like they got caught. Or at least are in the process of getting caught. 👏🏻👏🏻 I wonder how many others they treated like me. They forged the consent of two of my doctors!

Yes, those items were never requested by me or my doctors. They called me several times for my address, names of my doctors and their phone numbers and addresses. I have refused. I checked with my doctor here and she warned me that it probably was a scam. Medicare told me there is a lot of it going on. They said “These people are using you to scam you and Medicare. If you need what they are trying to sell you, call your doctor and get a prescription. Take it to a pharmacy or lab, an orthopedic supply store that sells braces, whatever you need. We and your insurance will pay for it. I guarantee it will be a better quality item and at a better price. If they call you, call Medicare.”

Those of us already here on earth for quite a few years have noticed so many changes, including with the appearance of folks in ads. No longer is the well-dressed woman in high heels shown vacuuming. Now she’s a little frumpier, looking more like you and me.

Race relations in our country still have ample room for improvement, as I am well aware because of having family members of various ethnicities, though over my long life, some racial progress has occurred. When I was a child living in El Paso, Texas, we attended segregated schools where we sang daily “The Eyes of Texas are upon you, all the live-long day, the eyes of Texas are upon you, you cannot get away.” That seemed support for he existing social order. We attended movies on separate days for whites and blacks, which was just the way things were, accepted much like separate restrooms for men and women today.

 Moving on now, presidential election speculations are in full swing. Between Biden and Trump, Biden seems to be the lesser evil, but I still cannot bring myself to vote for him again. Losing my vote won’t make a difference anyway, as Biden will prevail here in Washington, DC.  

CNN, Trump meets with foreign leaders looking to boost their relationships with GOP leader ahead of election

These foreign leaders are hedging their bets. Mr. Trump recently has had meetings or phone calls with leaders from Bahrain, Britain, Poland, Japan, and Saudi Arabia. He has been fretting loudly about the gag order imposed on him regarding the hush money payments made before the 2016 election. Is all his loud fretting a violation of the gag order?

Donald Trump has been a cheater his entire life and has largely gotten away with it. He avoided the Vietnam draft with a surreptitious diagnosis (“bone spurs”). WebMD says: Most bone spurs don't cause problems. Trump also has been extraordinarily lucky. He’s never actually “won” a popular election, only assuming in the presidency 2016 because of a rare fluke in the US electoral system that awarded him victory despite losing by almost 3 million votes.

NBC, Mitch McConnell says presidents shouldn't be immune from prosecution

                      

Yahoo News, Trump trial updates: David Pecker testifies about election-year hush money payments to Stormy Daniels, Karen McDougal

 

Women’s sports are attracting big audiences. Indiana Fever rookies Aliyah Boston and Caitlin Clark have made their WNBA preseason debut.

Wash. Post, Birthrates in the U.S. hit historic low, CDC data show The number of babies born in the United States fell by 2 percent in 2023, returning the nation to a downward trend.

Same-sex couples, now apparently becoming more accepted and numerous in our country, do not produce offspring without crucial 3rd party help. Pregnancy related deaths in our country have been dropping, now mostly involving mental health concerns, not physical issues.

While on the subject of pregnancy and babies, I must again dispute Planned Parenthood’s ads popping up everywhere seeking contributions with the slogan “Rights, freedom, justice”. Certainly, rights are not being accorded to many unborn babies like those I’ve adopted myself, both in the US before abortions were common here, as well as from abroad. You, I, and every human being has started out as a lowly fetus, then as a baby who finally grew into an adult. And having also given birth myself, I would characterize that as an amazing experience.  

I also must object to Planned Parenthood’s use of the term anti-choice rather than pro-life and, since I’m already on my soapbox, what about referring to sex-change rather than gender-affirming surgery? Of course, I grew up in another era.

As per my memoir Triumph & Hope: Golden Years with the Peace Corps in Honduras, Honduras has been an integral part of my life ever since I first went there at age 2, a very long time ago. I landed back in Honduras again in 2000, after being assigned there as a 62-year-old Peace Corps health volunteer. Fortunately, I was already fluent in Spanish and familiar with the country, so it was a homecoming of sorts. While other newbie volunteers attended Spanish classes, I explored local sights on my own and reconnected with folks I already knew, considering myself lucky to have been sent there by the Peace Corps. 

 During my bath time in Honduras in 1940, my younger brother Bob waited for his turn. (We lost Bob not long ago at age 80.) 

A report and photos of my last Honduras mission appear on my blog posting for August 2022.  I’m now planning a final humanitarian trip there before my passport expires, probably this summer, including to Tegucigalpa, Choluteca, and El Triunfo, my first Peace Corps site. I owe people there a proper goodbye after our more than 20 years of working together, first when I was a Peace Corps volunteer, then on annual humanitarian trips ever since. The only year I missed going was in 2023, after losing $5000 not recovered after the fraud on my bank account.

My Spanish fluency has helped cement my Honduras connections, making some folks there admit they often forget I’m a “gringa.” As usual, when I go this year, I’ll take a new wheelchair for someone there and make monetary gifts. I don’t expect to continue such missions after this one, as Honduras is not a safe country and travel there is difficult, especially for me now in my late 80’s, so this will be my final goodbye, adios, a bittersweet journey.

I’ve just looked at recent temperature readings in the areas where I plan to travel. In the south, in Choluteca and El Triunfo, high temps lately have ranged from 99 to 102 F, with rain on some days. I can’t expect any moderation when I travel to Honduras later this year. The south is simply hot all year. When I lived there during Peace Corps, I’d pour water over my head during the day just to cool off. In the capital of Tegucigalpa, the heat is somewhat more moderate, with high temps there now ranging from 86 to 92 F. Of course, Washington, DC, is not exactly cool in the summer, but is not yet stifling, actually mostly rather comfortable with lots of blooming flowers.

Among folks I plan to visit in Honduras is Neris, whose farewell note appears at the end of my Honduras book. Past 30 and the mother of 3, she now spells her name Nerys.

Here I was with Neris back in 2000. 

And here below, she was again, caring for her baby brother, a task typically undertaken by little Honduran girls. 

 I was with Nerys again in 2022 with the youngest of her 3 children. She now spells her name with a y rather than an i.

I intend to make my farewell visit to Honduras soon, before my passport expires. In El Triunfo, as well as in Choluteca and Tegucigalpa, I’ll make cash donations as usual and again give out “magic towels” to kids, that is, tiny cloth disks that expand into small towels when immersed in water, also, reading eyeglasses to older folks. There is a woman in El Triunfo to whom I always donate cash after she lost her daughter to spina bifida (not that money makes up for such a loss). Spina bifida, like harelip and cleft palate, can largely be prevented if the expectant mother consumes enough folic acid (available in wheat bread, but not in corn tortillas.) After I’d helped the disabled daughter acquire a water mattress, she still developed a bed sore that led to her death. There are several others to whom I will donate, including to folks in Choluteca and at the Triunfo health center, which will also help me choose the new wheelchair recipient. I always take US cash in various denominations in a money belt to give out as needed, allowing recipients to exchange them for local currency. (I even sleep with the money belt.) So that’s the plan. Please stay tuned.

Moving on now, if the UK actually sends asylum seekers to Rwanda, that will certainly help deter irregular immigration. The numbers of undocumented arriving by boat and sneaking ashore would surely shrink. The idea of ending up back in Africa will not be very appealing, nor is Rwanda such a hospitable place. Presumably, Rwanda would be offered compensation for taking in UK migrants.

Most migrants to the UK and Europe, like those to the US, are motivated by visions of a better life and of an improved economic status, as well as expectations of more personal freedoms. Of course, after they actually arrive, they will find themselves facing many new challenges, including the risk of being deported.

I know undocumented folks who have lived here in the US for many years with American-born children, who remain acutely aware of their status. They eagerly wait for offspring to become old enough to get a driver’s license to chauffeur them around. Unable to return to their country of origin for a visit because of the likely inability to return to the US, they often send their kids as emissaries instead.

AP, 5 migrants die while crossing the English Channel hours after the UK approved a deportation bill Five people, including a child, died while trying to cross the English Channel from France to the U.K., French authorities said Tuesday, just hours after the British government approved a migrant bill to deport some of those who entered the country illegally to Rwanda.

Asylum Seekers Already in U.K. Say Rwanda Law Creates New Anxiety

Facing the threat of UK asylum seekers being sent to Rwanda, many are now going instead to Northern Ireland, then crossing over to the Irish Republic, which the European Union joined in 1973. Ireland has been telling the UK to stop sending asylum seekers there. The whole Brexit vote was very unfortunate. 

Reuters, UK's Sunak says nothing will stop Rwanda policy, migrants die in channel

NY  Times, Britain Embarks on an Exercise in Cruelty

Sunak was born in the UK, but his parents were not. After higher education there, he attended Stanford University where he met his future wife. I wonder if he has ever actually been to Rwanda? Rwanda may be willing to accept UK deportees, but only for a price. Some migrants may even have come from that country.

Here again is an image of the t-shirts we sold to benefit Rwandan orphans back in the day. Present-day Rwanda is not a place where most refugees from Africa would feel particularly welcome. 

As the UK tightens its asylum rules, Europe is doing the same. The aspiration of Africans to reach the UK and Europe mirrors that of young people in Latin America yearning to reach the US, “el norte” (the north). It’s been a longstanding cultural belief in many Latin America countries that the US is the promised land. I witnessed it as a Peace Corps volunteer in Honduras the early 2000’s, when folks begged me to take them back with me, and just as strong in more recent years. When I was traveling around the Caribbean, especially in Cuba, I had countless tearful requests. That feeling is less prominent further south in Argentina and Chile, somewhat more economically developed and farther away.  

 Reuters, Haiti's death toll rises as international support lags, UN report says

As days and months have turned into years, nothing at all has been happening to remedy the dire situation in Haiti which has only gotten worse. Former Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who had asked for international assistance back in 2022, has been unable to return to Haiti after a trip to Kenya seeking help. The Dominican Republic on the other side of the island has sealed off its border with Haiti. My own visits to Haiti back in the 1990s showed it to be a lively hub for music, the arts, and dance. My own home is filled with Haitian tapestries, paintings, and carvings from that era, vivid expressions of creativity that could return under the right leadership. However, Haiti is no longer a priority for the US and Canada once active there, abandoned now by the entire world community.  

NY Times, Haiti’s Police Are ‘Begging for Help’ in Battle Against Ruthless Gangs

Writer Edwidge Danticat has identified a fear of many of those born in Haiti: “They fear that they may never see Haiti again. They fear that those in the next generation, some of whom have never been to Haiti, will let Haiti slip away…”

The Gaza war is continuing to occupy center stage.

Amnesty International says Biden must halt arms transfers to Israel

CBS News, Pope Francis says "a negotiated peace is better than a war without end"

 

Telegraph, Pelosi calls for Netanyahu to resign for failing to end Hamas war

Netanyahu should have resigned months ago. A full ceasefire is long overdue in Gaza and, since I’m already on my soapbox, it may be time to even consider a ceasefire in the war between Russia and Ukraine since so little progress is being made there, just more deaths on both sides. 

College protests against Israel’s conduct of the Gaza war have grown and spread. Today’s campus protests remind us oldsters of those once launched against the Vietnam war. Finally, the pressure back then resulted in the US pulling out of Vietnam. Will the same happen with US support for Israel? Arrests being made now just inflame students and their advocates. And this is an election year after all.

Palestinian lives have almost come to be regarded as expendable, mere statistics. Palestinian supporters are now calling the US aid package for Israel “a death warrant”. (Once the hostages are released, Palestinians will lose much of their leverage.)            

It will be unfortunate if the Gaza-Israel war ends up reviving antisemitism around the world, something that may already be happening. Being opposed to Israeli government actions in the Gaza war is not necessarily being anti-Jewish.

USA Today, College protests over Israel's war in Gaza continue following hundreds of arrests

AP, Students at the University of Wisconsin set up tents, protest Israel-Hamas war

Fox, UT-Austin president defends shutting down anti-Israel protests: 'Our rules matter and they will be enforced'

LA Times, USC cancels 'main stage' commencement ceremony

Wash. Post, More than 80 protesters arrested at Virginia Tech, school says

Wash. Post, Students rally, call for American University to divest from Israel

Wash. Post, Pro-Palestinian protesters arrested at Yale as college demonstrations grow

BBC News, Columbia University: Pro-Palestinian protesters refuse to disband

 

Wash. Post, A day after arrests at Columbia, tensions over Israel-Gaza war simmer

AP, University of North Carolina students call on the university to divest from Israel

NY Times, College Protesters Make Divestment From Israel a Rallying Cry [P]ro-Palestinian activists, many of whom are Jewish, see divestment as a clear and achievable way to force colleges to take action …a hundred or so protesters began to chant: “Disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest.”

Yahoo News, Columbia, Yale crack down with arrests at pro-Palestinian encampments. Why are tent cities springing up at elite colleges?

NBC News, Biden to speak at Morehouse College commencement, sparking faculty concerns

Students at Morehouse, like those at other US colleges, have been mounting growing protests over Biden’s refusal to call for a permanent, immediate ceasefire in Gaza. 

Joe Biden is losing not only my vote, but that of many folks under 30.

 

The Grio, Survey shows Black people feel solidarity with Palestinians, reveals how they feel about Biden amid Israel-Hamas war

 

NY Times, College protests live updates: Hundreds arrested as universities crack down on pro-Palestinian encampments

 

LA Times, Massive police operation breaches UCLA pro-Palestinian encampment, makes arrests

 

Arrests of college protesters have also been made at Dartmouth. 

Campus protests have even cropped up at McGill University in Montreal. 

USA Today, Close to 300 ex-Obama-Biden staffers call to suspend military assistance to Israel

Colombia, where I once lived and is also my son‘s birthplace, is among countries severing ties with Israel, www.nytimes.com › colombia-israel-relations, Colombia Will Sever Ties With Israel Over Gaza War –

 

Wash. Post, U.S. campus protests spread to the Middle East and Europe

No 

No ceasefire yet in Gaza, as called for by the sign in my front yard ever since November. The best way to stop a war is just to stop fighting. Agreements can be worked out later when both sides have calmed down.

 

Telegraph, Seventy Israeli hostages have been killed, says captive

 

A video of the captive speaking was released by Hamas.

AP, Hamas official says group would lay down its arms if an independent Palestinian state is established

Khalil al-Hayya has promised peace for 5 years.

 

NYTimes, Living in New Jersey, Grieving for More Than 100 Relatives Killed in the Gaza Strip Adam and Ola Abo Sheriah are absorbing a loss few can imagine, and are striving to help family in Gaza while trying to get their kids to school on time.

 CNN, Almost 400 bodies have been found in mass grave in Gaza hospital, says Palestinian Civil Defense

CNN, UN demands investigation after mass graves found at Gaza hospitals raided by Israel

 AP, A Palestinian baby in Gaza is born an orphan in an urgent cesarean section after an Israeli strike A Palestinian baby girl, Sabreen Jouda, who was delivered prematurely after her mother was killed in an Israeli strike along with her husband and daughter, lies in an incubator in the Emirati hospital… 

Sadly, this tiny girl, not quite ready for the outside world, has died.

CNN, Ambulance driver killed while aiding Palestinians injured in attack by Israeli settlers in the West Bank

An ambulance driver from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society was killed while transporting Palestinians injured in an attack by settlers in the West Bank on Saturday, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said. The 50-year-old driver, Mohammed Awad Allah Mohammed Musa, was killed when the ambulance was hit by gunfire, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) told CNN. Israeli settlers fired the shots, it said.

UPI, Gaza officials say Israeli strikes on Rafah kill at least 9, including 6 children

CNN, Israeli airstrike on Rafah refugee camp in Gaza kills boy, 4, and his  sister, 2

CNN, Israeli precision-guided munition likely killed group of children playing foosball in Gaza, weapons experts say

 

AP, Israeli strikes on southern Gaza city of Rafah kill 22, mostly children, as US advances aid package The US should offer aid to Gazans, but the best aid would be just stopping the war. 

 CNN, ‘My whole family has perished:’ 22 killed in Israeli airstrike on Rafah, hospital staff say

 

Reuters, More than 14 Palestinians killed as violence flares in West Bank

AP, Egypt media cite progress in truce talks as Israel downplays chances of end to war with Hamas

Dpa international, Netanyahu says Israel to inflict more 'painful blows" on Hamas soon

Wash. Post, Israel’s offensive is destroying Gaza’s ability to grow its own food

Doesn’t Biden have any leverage whatsoever over Netanyahu? Biden doesn‘t want to lose the Jewish vote, but not all American Jews support Israel’s assaults on Gaza. Those whom I know personally are opposed.
Is Netanyahu talking tough just to placate critics because he is planning for a ceasefire? Once the hostages are released, Hamas will lose all its leverage. And if the US halts military aid to Israel, as much of the public is demanding, it will lose its leverage there as well. Secretary Blinken has a very hard, delicate job, shielding Biden from much of the responsibility and blame.

CNN, Far-right Israeli ministers urge Netanyahu not to accept ceasefire proposal

Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who has borne the brunt of diplomatic efforts in the Gaza war, tries to placate crowds in Tel Aviv.

AP, Why Israel is so determined to launch an offensive in Rafah. And why so many oppose it

… Netanyahu risks increasing Israel’s international isolation — and alienating its top ally, the United States — if it does attack Rafah. His vocal refusals to be swayed by world pressure and his promises to launch the operation could be aimed at placating his political allies even as he considers a deal…

The Biden administration has used progressively tougher language to express concerns over Netanyahu’s conduct of the war, but it has also continued to provide weapons to Israel’s military and diplomatic support.