Family Visit, Goodbye Raccoons, Income Guarantee, Meaningful Activity, Native Boarding Schools, Haiti, Cuba

    A lot follows this time, partly because of my long involvement with both Haiti and     Cuba, but starting out with a surprise visit from Florida by my granddaughter     and her 13-year-old son, here for a funeral. And now the capitol fence has finally come down!

   

Raccoons that had been bumping up against our 3^rd-floor windows, scratching to get inside, and seen fighting out on the next-door neighbor’s roof, now with berries all gone from the mulberry tree, have moved on. They’ve been seen lately running across the street, perhaps seeking more a more fruitful habitat.

Bravo to President Biden for championing a guaranteed income for families with children, even temporarily, which will not only will help prevent hunger and poverty, but, I suspect, also reduce child abuse and neglect. I say that as a former social worker and juvenile probation officer. Parents raising children, the workers of tomorrow, deserve support. Biden seems to be trying to provide more equal income distribution without calling it that and encouraging families to have more children, since the population is getting older. Life expectancy has also dropped as the result of the pandemic.

AP, US life expectancy in 2020 saw biggest drop since WWII

 

It’s been pretty exciting to journey, virtually, with billionaires Branson and Bezos into space in real time, then come back safely to earth again with them. 

        As mentioned before, I worked for 16 years at the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA). Though I am not an OT, I found occupational therapy very compatible with my social work experience, especially the idea of promoting meaningful (individually and subjectively defined) activity. A former colleague at AOTA sent me this photo of kids engaged in what for them is meaningful activity. And it’s fun!

Washington Post, Boredom's link to mental illnesses, brain injuries and dysfunctional behaviors

[This article shows how lack of meaningful activity in both humans and animals has demonstrable negative effects.]

My friend who grew up in this town and has fond memories, sent me this photo.

It’s quite understandable that an American blind-deaf Paralympian swimmer could not be expected to navigate Japan, a foreign and unfamiliar country, all by herself without an assistant, as is now being mandated by US Paralympic authorities and so has withdrawn. I was involved with issues for blind-deaf people when I worked at AOTA, just mentioned, and I’ve also met some blind-deaf folks through their association with my late former husband, Tom Joe, who was blind though with normal hearing. Special communication was required with blind-deaf people, who were always were accompanied by a sighted, hearing person.

Nor would my late husband have done well alone in a foreign country, though he often traveled in the US alone for his work. Once on an overnight business trip from DC to Chicago, my parents, who lived in Chicago, begged my husband to bring along our 22-month-old daughter, Stephanie, then under 2, who could fly for free sitting on his lap. My parents met them at the other end. Even before that, back in 1972, when I was 7 months pregnant, we traveled around Europe for my husband’s federal government work, all over Western and Eastern Europe, also with 2 preschoolers in tow, quite a logistical feat. Somehow the plight of the blind-deaf Paralympian, has revied these memories for me.

There is a tendency now to downplay gender differences in behavior, attributing much of any differences, such as in male violence and incarceration rates, to cultural factors. Certainly culture has a huge impact on behavior, but so does biology. Among primates and other mammals in the wild, not subject to human culture, males are not only on average bigger and stronger than females, but also more aggressive, especially with other males.   

 

Buzz Feed News, The US Is Now Investigating Its Deadly Indian Boarding School System, And Native Americans Are In Dire Need Of Mental Health Support

This article argues that children raised in boarding schools who survived grew up never knowing how to become adequate parents themselves, hinting that the high rate of child and spousal abuse, alcoholism, and suicide among native people on both sides of the border stems partly from their boarding school experience. 

NBC News, Investigation of Native American boarding schools faces missing records, legal questions

 

NYTimes, Lost Lives: Lost Culture, the Forgotten Story of Indigenous Boarding Schools

Why are red state governors banning vaccine mandates in schools and colleges, by employers, and on cruises (where so many people are together for a time)? Is it just a matter of “individual freedom” to get sick and die and to pass on the virus to others? In neighboring Maryland in June, all Covid deaths were in unvaccinated people. I would certainly hope that a vaccinated person would not die of Covid, though a few have gotten a positive virus test, usually only asymptomatically. And why do so many Republicans oppose mask wearing and vaccinations for Covid? Is it simply to be contrarian, just to champion “individual rights” over concern for others even if it kills Republicans?

And why are Republicans opposed to staffing up the IRS? Do they want to give extra high earners a pass and to starve the federal government of funds to make the Biden administration look bad? Their motivations are a mystery.

We have been experiencing a hot and humid summer here in DC, though not as severe as in the northwestern US and western Canada. Around the globe, there have been recent unexpected heat waves, including in Scandinavia and even Siberia.

MarketWatch, The birthrate in the U.S. fell 4% in 2020 and immigration may be the solution, say economists

And why would the Texas AG be so downright mean as to try to deny young “Dreamers” the ability to work legally after they turn 18? Is the anti-immigrant stance of Republicans due to their effort to keep those with white Anglo Saxon ancestry in the national majority, to prevent more future Democrats from entering the electorate, or what? Majority white people like myself are getting older on average, so we do need young workers like the Dreamers to help support us in our old age.

Now Donald Trump, partly because of merciful bans by Twitter and Facebook and partly because most of his false and bizarre messages have simply gotten tiresome, seems to be losing ground. But his faithful hard core remains dug-in, making many Republican lawmakers and candidates reluctant to ditch him altogether. When asked if they still support his claim of a “stolen” election, they go to great lengths to avoid answering the question.

Mr. Trump is reputed to be planning to run for president again in 2024, bad luck for the Republican Party, which needs to emerge from his grasp. Trump is not young, not in great physical shape with obvious signs of a lack of mental acuity, but Biden is older still and would be 86 if he won and served out a second term. At the same time, for many reasons, including her gender, Harris would probably not be an acceptable alternative to Biden if he didn’t run again. Without Trump at the top of the ticket, Republicans would have a good chance of winning the presidency.

AP, Dutch crime reporter De Vries dies after Amsterdam shooting

 

Business Insider, Leaked Kremlin documents reportedly show Putin wanted to sow chaos in the US by supporting Trump. He succeeded.

 

LA Times, News Analysis: U.S. expands fight against Central American corruption. Will it stem immigration?

 

My special interest in developments now in Haiti and Cuba derives from my personal involvement in both countries, as chronicled in my Confessions book. I must admit at the outset that I have long disagreed with Senator Bernie Sanders and Rep. Maxine Waters on their Cuba stance, especially their lauding of the late Fidel Castro, whose grip is still felt in Cuba today, long after his death. In my book, I mention visiting Waters’ office prior to her own planned visit to Cuba to meet with Fidel, urging her to ask him for the release after 17 years of an Afro-Cuban political prisoner, Antunez (Jorge Luis Garcia Perez), one of our own Amnesty Int’l prisoners of conscience. But she’d brushed me aside, saying she didn’t want to hear anything about political prisoners. The late Georgia Congressman John Lewis was the rare Democrat who agreed to meet with Antunez on a US visit after his release, so I sent him a copy of my book in gratitude and he sent me a nice thank-you note. 

Congressman Lewis in his office meeting with Antunez.

Berta Soler, Afro-Cuban member of the Ladies in White, makes the "L" sign for Libertad (liberty), also used by recent Cuban protesters. 

I’d planned recently to cut back on my volunteer Caribbean responsibilities for Amnesty Int’l (AI) USA, which I’ve carried out for more than 40 years now. But that doesn’t look likely to happen soon given the recent turmoil in both Haiti and Cuba and the lengthy process of recruiting and training new volunteers. Although unpaid, volunteering with Amnesty has been almost like a job for me. Indeed, human rights work has an ability to occupy almost all the hours in the day.

I’ve actually been to many Caribbean countries, to some like Haiti, Cuba, the DR, Jamaica, Bahamas, British and US Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico, more than once, even numerous times. Will I ever be able to go back to Cuba in my lifetime? (I certainly could not go back there otherwise.)

Between 2015 and 2017, I wrote series of articles about Cuba for the Huffington Post, always fact-checked by the Post before publication. At the end of 2017, the Post stopped accepting outside submissions. However, my first article, Peace Corps in Cuba? You Heard It Here First, came out on April 1, 2015. Now, I wonder if that may be a real possibility?

I also went to Haiti several times in the 1990s, mostly for election monitoring and related work. Haiti once attracted tourists and its factories made shoes and clothes for export. Much tourism and manufacturing went downhill after the cholera outbreak in 2010, brought to Haiti by Nepalese UN Peacekeepers deployed after the earthquake, one calamity after another.

Peace Corps in Haiti was suspended in 2005. Then after the massive earthquake there in 2010, Peace Corps Response volunteers (those with prior experience) went back to Haiti to help out. A series of smaller quakes occurred there in late 2020. Now, if life in Haiti can regain some semblance of normality, maybe the Peace Corps can return to help rebuild the country.

Daily Mail [UK], Nikole Hannah-Jones said Cuba is among 'most equal' countries because of socialism

Hannah-Jones [1619 Project writer, said...] she believed the most "equal" and "multiracial" country in the Western hemisphere is Cuba, which she attributed to socialism. [Hannah-Jones reputation has certainly plunged in my estimation if she considers Cuba an “equal” country.]

Washington Post ‘A powder keg about to explode’: Long marginalized Afro Cubans at forefront of island’s unrest

TIME, What the Protests in Cuba Mean for the Future of Communism and U.S. Relations

 

Reuters, Cuba, gripped by unrest, battles highest COVID caseload in the Americas

Reuters, Cuban government holds mass rally in Havana

A show of solidarity by Cuban leadership on Saturday, as thousands attended a government-organised rally in the capital Havana, including President Miguel Diaz-Canel and former President Raul Castro. Many government supporters say they were there to defend the Cuban revolution.

That comes in the wake of unprecedented protests last week, as Cubans in towns across the country marched against power outages, widespread shortages of basic goods and the one-party system. But while the communist-run government admitted to some shortcomings, it mostly blamed those protests on U.S.-backed 'counter-revolutionaries', which it says spread information against the government on social media - and is exploiting economic hardship caused by U.S. sanctions.

Diaz-Canel called on the U.S. to lift its trade embargo on the island nation, denouncing the blockade and what he calls U.S. aggression and terror...With a state monopoly on telecommunications, information regarding the recent protests including the number of those detained has been spotty. Exiled rights group Cubalex says as many as 450 have been detained, although some have reportedly already been released.

Our campaign at Amnesty International on behalf of the San Isidro movement and for the release of former Prisoner of Conscience Luis Manuel Otero may well have contributed to the willingness of Cubans to take to the streets. He and his fellow artists have promoted a song and a saying now popular on the island, Patria y Vida (Homeland and Life), to replace Fidel’s slogan, Patria o Muerte (Homeland or Death). The fact that a Castro is no longer in charge also gives the government less authority,

Reuters, Cuba protests spark demonstrations in Latin America From Miami to Mexico City, protests have erupted across Latin American communities this week in solidarity with demonstrators in Cuba. On Tuesday, protesters in Mexico City gathered outside the Cuban embassy, banging pots and pans, chanting "Free Cuba."

NBC News, Rights advocates blast Mayorkas for saying U.S. will turn away fleeing Haitians, Cubans “It is disappointing to see Secretary Mayorkas, himself the son of Cuban refugees, attempting to foreclose that right for Cuban and Haitian nationals when they most need it,” said Efrèn Olivares, deputy legal director for immigrant justice at the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Under international and U.S. law, asylum-seekers are allowed to make claims no matter how they enter the country.

Engadget, Cuba blocks access to Facebook and Telegram in response to protests

As protests continue in Cuba over the country’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic and the surrounding economic fallout, the Cuban government has moved to restrict access to social media and messaging platforms. According to NetBlocks, an organization that tracks internet access, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Telegram have all been at least partially blocked on the Caribbean island. 

Axios, "No more lies": What drove Cubans to protest

NBC News, Rights advocates blast Mayorkas for saying U.S. will turn away fleeing Haitians, Cubans “It is disappointing to see Secretary Mayorkas, himself the son of Cuban refugees, attempting to foreclose that right for Cuban and Haitian nationals when they most need it,” said Efrèn Olivares, deputy legal director for immigrant justice at the Southern Poverty Law Center

Under international and U.S. law, asylum-seekers are allowed to make claims no matter how they enter the country.

[Part of article repeated here.]

Tourism, mostly from Canada and Europe, dried up along with the hard currency it provided.

·        Mismanagement of the island’s state-run economy, already under a U.S. embargo since 1962, sent Cuba’s GDP crashing by 11% last year, its worst showing since the former Soviet Union stopped subsidies in the early 1990s.

·        Chronic power cuts and shortages of food and medicines have been more acute, while the nearly quarter-million people who have had coronavirus have had to seek treatment from a healthcare system on the verge of collapse.

·        Vaccinations have been scarce since the government decided not to participate in the COVAX sharing program for developing nations and to develop its own shots.

Between the lines: Pockets of overt dissidence had been growing even before Raúl Castro, Fidel Castro’s younger brother and his deputy during the revolution, stepped down in June as head of the Communist Party.

·        Movimiento San Isidro, a young coalition of artists, journalists and academics formed in 2019, urged more Cubans to make their dissatisfaction public.

·        Musicians and San Isidro members, Maykel Osorbo and El Funky, were joined by Yotuel, Gente De Zona, and Descemer Bueno to release the song “Patria y Vida” (Homeland and Life), which became an anthem for this week’s protesters.

·        Its lyrics demand “no more lies” and “no more doctrine,” telling those who cling to the revolution that their time is past.

The growing availability of the internet, though also controlled by a state-run company, has allowed like-minded Cubans to share their frustrations more easily, like they did on Sunday.

·        The protests erupted days after #SOSCuba began to trend on social media, with Cubans demanding humanitarian assistance to address the island’s many crises.

Where it stands: At least one person — 36-year-old Diubis Laurencio Tejeda, who was from an especially impoverished part of Havana — has died during the protests, according to local reports.

·        The government shutdown the internet and phone lines after the first protest on Sunday.

·        Reliable information regarding arrests is hard to come by with estimates ranging between 200 and 5,000 people.

In Washington, the Biden administration has said the protests are “remarkable,” but has not yet indicated whether further policy changes were coming.

In Havana, meanwhile, President Miguel Díaz-Canel has pointed to the U.S. embargo as the cause of his country’s economic woes and accused U.S. authorities of financing and promoting “non-conventional warfare.”

·        On Wednesday, the Cuban government announced that tariffs on the private import of food, medicine and personal care products would be lifted at least until December.

By the numbers: 3.5% of all Latinos in the U.S. are of Cuban ancestry or Cuban immigrants, the fifth largest Latino or Hispanic cultural group.

·        Most live in Florida. The state’s weight in the Electoral College means Cuban Americans have outsized political influence.

Business Insider, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis wants US firms to beam the internet to Cubans via satellite during historic protests

Business Insider, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis wants US firms to beam the internet to Cubans via satellite during historic protests

 

I made several trips to Cuba in the 1990s as a tourist and stayed with Cuban families, traveling from one end of the island to the other, as per my Confessions book. While as a matter of principle, Amnesty Int’l opposes embargos, the US embargo against Cuba is not quite as drastic as it sounds, because Cuba imports most of its food (last time I looked, even more than it produces) from the US and also many of its medicines. Because Cuba has been notorious about not paying its debts, the US requires payment on delivery. So that is perhaps the main practical effect of the embargo. Greatly reduced tourism is probably having a bigger economic impact right now than the embargo.

Regarding my previous statements about the US Cuba embargo, I don’t mean to belittle embargos, which Amnesty In’tl opposes as a matter of principle. They do have a psychological as well as a practical impact. But the Cuba embargo is hardly a “blockade.” Nor is the US the only country failing to extend credit to Cuba. However, most goods imported into Cuba, especially food, because of geographic proximity, do come from the US. And the market price paid by Cuba for those goods is more than offset by largescale remittances sent into Cuba from the United States, $3.5 billion in 2018. I’ve sent money to Cuba myself via Western Union (as well as to Honduras and Nicaragua.) And I don’t recall Amnesty protesting the embargo against South Africa.  But it’s true that the Trump administration suspended Western Union remittances to Cuba in 2020, although there are other ways to send money to Cuba, provided the internet is not shut down. But Western Union to Cuba needs to be restored.

NY Times, The New Generation of Cubans Who Won’t Be Silenced, July 19, 2021, OPINION, Yoani Sanchez

One of several Cuban original artworks I brought back.

 

////////////////////////////////////////

Washington Post, Haiti’s acting prime minister to step down amid power struggle

Acting prime minister Claude Joseph told The Post that he will hand over power to Ariel Henry, who has been backed by the international community, in a move that is aimed at defusing a roiling crisis following the president’s assassination.

BBC News, Haiti: Wife of assassinated President Jovenel Moïse returns after surviving attack, [Excerpt] Correspondents say that as a witness to the attack, Ms Moïse could help investigators understand who carried out the assassination and why.

Haitian police say a group of mainly foreign mercenaries - 26 Colombians and two Haitian Americans - made up the group that carried out the killing. At least 20 have been detained, while three were killed by police and five are still on the run.

Haitian police have also arrested a Florida-based Haitian doctor, Christian Emmanuel Sanon, whom they described as a "key suspect" in the assassination.

AP, Hundreds greet Aristide on return to troubled Haiti

Miami Herald, France pulled off one of the greatest heists ever. It left Haiti perpetually impoverished | Opinion

Haitians are imaginative artists, as shown by this tapestry of a local supernatural figure, a metal goddess, and a carving of boat people leaving Haiti's shores. 

 

(I end every blog with a notice or ad that I get in Spanish via the all-knowing internet.)

 

Por qué bitcoin podría ser algo bueno para El Salvador 

A Correction, My Brother Remembered, Capitol Liberated, Condo Collapse, Covid, Afghanistan, Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and South Sudan

     First, I must confess, looking back at my original blog,                                             https://honduraspeacecorps.blogspot.com/, 

    halted by gmail without warning and requiring me to start this whole new blog,     I found that Andrew Yang had been misidentified there as Andrew Young (I’d        only heard him on the radio and never seen his name spelled out.). Just now, I     tried to correct that long-ago spelling error but guess that posting was too old     and I no longer have access. So, I am currently correcting that right here and     now, yes, his name is Andrew Yang and I still hope he wins a consequential        office someday, as he has a very useful and practical vision, perhaps too far        ahead of our time. 

It’s very spooky when writing a message on gmail, either in Spanish or English, to see corrections pop up, even anticipating what I want to say—and usually right-on. Has that happened to anyone else? Does gmail read our mind? Or is it that our own expressions are entirely predictable and stereotypical, reflecting the society and culture we live in?

Hooray, fencing around the capitol, erected after the Jan. 6 assault by Trump supporters, is finally coming down. It’s quite an eyesore and inappropriate for the “People’s House.”

July 9 was my late (younger) brother Bob Currie’s birthday, a day of special remembrance. He was a well-known south Florida architect whose buildings live on. While some still consider it bizarre, I do favor displaying the body of the deceased at a funeral, as happened at my brother’s funeral, so that everyone knows the right person is really there, is really dead, and won’t be coming back. Likewise, it seems right to have loved ones’ remains found and physically identified in the condo collapse. It does give “closure” in the form of certainty.

From my sister, living in Pa., I’ve just learned that someone can get too hydrated by drinking too much water, even in hot weather, as she recently was hospitalized for excessive hydration.

 A worldwide ransomware attack has again shown the vulnerability of the global computer system so vital to operations in the modern world. My sister and her husband, who refuse to connect to the internet, feel somewhat smug about living their lives completely outside it and free, though much of their existence still relies on internet connections whether they realize it or not. Only remote villages, such as those where I’ve volunteered with medical brigades in Honduras, are truly “off the grid” without any electricity or internet. Yet, even there, passing vehicles are able to transport folks to the outside world.

 AP, Building collapse lawsuits seek to get answers, assign blame https://apnews.com/article/building-collapses-lawsuits-surfside-building-collapse-d4070372e0a7d746962a768155255339

A reader points out that condo unit buyers sign an agreement at the outset to fund “special assessments” levied by their elected condo board; at Champlain Towers, that was $80,000 per unit. It's easy to see that apartment owners might balk at paying $80,000, especially if the place looked and felt pretty solid to them. In a large condo, it would be hard for individual owners to feel much responsibility for the whole. But in this case, their life depended on it. Whom would aggrieved relatives seek to sue in the condo collapse? Their own deceased family members may have shared much of the responsibility. (Demand for Condos is unlikely to rise very soon.)

 

Business Insider, 99.5% of COVID-19 deaths in the US are now in unvaccinated people, CDC head says

TIME, There's a Proven Way to Reduce Gun Violence in America's Cities. We Just Need to Fund It Excerpt: “CVI programs connect people most impacted by violence with the mental health supports they need to begin to heal from complex trauma, and help them develop skills to cope in stressful, sometimes life-or-death situations.” [Gun violence is not just a matter of firearms availability, but also of the emotional state of a shooter.]

 

New York Times, In Michigan, Pro-Impeachment Republicans Face Voters' Wrath

[This article describes folks at a pro-Trump gathering, expressing a view common in rural W Va., where my son lives.] Many of them inhabited an alternative reality in which Trump was reelected, their votes were stolen, the deadly Jan. 6 mob was peaceful, coronavirus vaccines were dangerous and conservatives were oppressed.

Yes, Trump’s continuing powers of persuasion and people’s gullibility are truly mind-boggling. This strange phenomenon of real-world facts being totally rejected may derive from fears of a hostile outside world now being controlled by alien or unfriendly forces. So, when reality collides with facts, it might just be easier for folks to change their view of the facts rather than change the facts themselves. Solidarity with likeminded fellows just bolsters their convictions. Donald Trump has really tapped into a vein. If Trump himself were ever arrested, his supporters would erupt, so it might be best to simply indict his enablers, leaving the man himself to play golf all alone until his final days.

About accusations of election fraud, if elections cannot be trusted, what’s the point of even voting? Maybe that’s the real point of spreading such doubts, something which Republicans may find comes back to bite them.

Daily News, Trump praises Jan. 6 rioters as ‘patriots’ and ‘peaceful people’ “The crowd was unbelievable and I mentioned the word ‘love.’ The love in the air — I’ve never seen anything like it,” Trump was quoted as saying by Politico. “That’s why they went to Washington.” [Hey, I actually live just blocks from the Jan. 6 assault, which according to my own eyes and ears was anything but “peaceful” or a lovefest.]

The Biden administration’s new policy of no longer detaining pregnant undocumented women is an open invitation for some to try to get pregnant before their journey north.

 It is rather exciting to see billionaires looking for new ways to spend their excess money by now launching into space, provided there are no crashes.

 Reuters, Canadian indigenous group takes charge of child welfare services I wonder if we will ever hear from someone who had attended a native boarding school in Canada or the US who might actually have had a pretty good experience and gone on to a successful life? Surely that must have happened sometimes, if anyone now dares to come forward.

 New York Times, Tammy Duckworth on Her Fight to Shield Veterans From Deportation

 After 20 years without success, US troops are leaving Afghanistan. If the Taliban could not be vanquished by American forces, Afghan forces can hardly be expected to do so alone. But it’s their survival, so we’ll see if they prove up to task. Probably not, since the other side has been too relentless over decades, even against the Soviets before the US got involved. Wall St. Journal, Afghan Government Could Collapse Six Months After U.S. Withdrawal, New Intelligence Assessment Says

Insider, India is proposing a 2-child policy to keep its population under control, and it includes cash benefits for couples who opt for voluntary sterilization

        AFP, 'Just a dream': hope for South Sudan dashed 

AFP, South Sudan's bloody first 10 years

 

    In 2006, I had a mission to south Sudan and wrote about it         https://www.americamagazine.org/issue/627/article/template-post-treaty-darfur

Then after independence in 2011, I’d joyfully joined an outdoor celebration of the new nation of South Sudan in Washington, DC. But now, after a decade of intertribal and interethnic war there, it’s time to admit that our hopes for that newest of nations have fallen short. The reasons are not due to anything tangible, but rather to clashes of emotions, to rivalries, and to efforts at one-upmanship, probably the reason for most human setbacks and tragedies everywhere at all times.

 

The Peace Corps is starting to return to overseas posts, most recently to Belize for literacy remediation after the pandemic, when schools there had been closed.

 

I’ve been to many Caribbean countries, to some like Haiti, Cuba, the DR, Jamaica, Bahamas, British and US Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico, more than once, even numerous times. Will I be able to go back to Cuba in my lifetime? (I certainly could not go back there otherwise.)

Between 2015 and 2017, I wrote series of articles about Cuba for the Huffington Post, always fact-checked by the Post before publication. At the end of 2017, the Post stopped accepting outside submissions. However, my first article, Peace Corps in Cuba? You Heard It Here First, came out on April 1, 2015. Now, I wonder if that is a real possibility?

I went to Haiti several times in the 1990s, mostly for election monitoring and related work. Haiti once attracted tourists and its factories made shoes and clothes for export. Much tourism and manufacturing went downhill after the cholera outbreak in 2010, brought to Haiti by Nepalese UN Peacekeepers deployed after the earthquake, one calamity after another.

Peace Corps in Haiti was suspended in 2005. Then after the massive earthquake there in 2010, Peace Corps Response volunteers (those with prior experience) went back to Haiti to help out. A series of smaller quakes occurred there in late 2020. Now, if life in Haiti can regain some semblance of normality, maybe the Peace Corps can return to help rebuild the country.

Just a reminder that the Caribbean is my responsibility as volunteer chair for the Caribbean for Amnesty International USA, hence my frequent focus on that part of the world, which is now in the spotlight. I’ve been to many Caribbean countries, some like Haiti, Cuba, the DR, Jamaica, Bahamas, British and US Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico, more than once, even many times. Will I be able to go back to Cuba in my lifetime? (I certainly could not go back there otherwise.)

Washington Post, Jamaica set to seek reparations from Britain over slave trade

Mayorkas says migrants shouldn’t travel illegally by sea from Cuba or Haiti

Protests are exceedingly rare in Cuba because of widespread government controls and harsh penalties for participants. But Cuba just saw its first largescale protest in 27 years. Demonstrators in Havana reportedly chanted “freedom” amid a heavy police presence. Is the absence of a Castro in the presidency a contributing factor? Just by the laws of evolution, of change, tight government controls will ebb eventually. Nothing stands still forever. So, finally, after more than 6 decades, Cubans are managing to express their discontent and finding strength in numbers. Now that the genii is out of the box, after they have successfully tested their power, more mass protests will follow, though planning and organization will remain very difficult because of government controls on communications media and constant police surveillance, also infiltration by government agents.

Axios, In photos: Thousands of Cubans take to the streets for anti-government protests

 

AP, Demonstrators in Havana protest shortages, rising prices

 

AP, Police patrol Havana in large numbers after rare protests

 

Miami Herald, Thousands of people flood streets near Little Havana to support protesters in Cuba

 

Reuters, Cuba protests spark demonstrations in Latin America From Miami to Mexico City, protests have erupted across Latin American communities this week in solidarity with demonstrators in Cuba. On Tuesday, protesters in Mexico City gathered outside the Cuban embassy, banging pots and pans, chanting "Free Cuba."

 

Miami Herald, Biden does the right thing by taking a step away from Obama’s Cuba policy | Opinion

 

The Guardian, At least 140 Cubans reportedly detained or disappeared after historic protest

 

Axios, Cuba's government confirms death of man at protest as police detain dozens of people

 

Our campaign at Amnesty International on behalf of the San Isidro movement and for the release of former POC Luis Manuel Otero could well have contributed to the willingness of Cubans to take to the streets.

Amnesty International advises calling on the Cuban government to allow peaceful protests and keep promoting the following petition https://lallamaeterna.org/

And look on the AI website for Action circular #SOSCuba-#

I made several trips to Cuba in the 1990s as a tourist and stayed with Cuban families, traveling from one end of the island to the other, as per my Confessions book. While as a matter of principle, Amnesty International opposes embargos, the US embargo against Cuba is not quite as drastic as it sounds, because Cuba imports most of its food (last time I looked, even more than it produces) from the US and also many of its medicines. Because Cuba has been notorious about not paying its debts, the US requires payment on delivery. So that is perhaps the main practical effect of the embargo. Greatly reduced tourism is probably having a bigger economic impact now than the embargo. the United States is Cuba’s biggest provider of food and agricultural products. In 2018, the United States exported food and medicines worth $276 million to Cuba, and it sends an estimated $3.5 billion a year in family remittances to the island.

L                                                           The current situation in Haiti is also dire with no easily identifiable good or bad guys, nor any identifiable solution. Action is called for on multiple fronts. In my many years as an Amnesty International volunteer chair for the Caribbean, Haiti has always presented almost impossible challenges.

 

AP, Haiti President Jovenel Moïse assassinated

 

AP, Moïse assassination impacts Haitian community [in the US]

 

Washington Examiner, Haiti's ambassador to US calls for military assistance after president Jovenel Moise's assassination

 

Axios, White House to send federal law enforcement to Haiti

 

Miami Herald, Colombians held in Haitian president’s assassination say they were hired by Miami-area firm

 

Here is Amnesty International’s recent statement on Haiti: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2021/07/haiti-investigation-urged-into-killing-of-haitian-president-and-grave-human-rights-violations-under-his-watch/

 

Miami Herald, A neurosurgeon with a public health portfolio is Haiti’s newest prime minister

 

Politico, Haitian opposition leader mounts D.C. lobbying campaign 

Reuters, Haitian leaders battle for power after assassination

 

New York Post, https://nypost.com/2021/07/11/gang-boss-decries-killing-of-haitian-president-threatens-war/

I                                           In the 1990s, I also made several trips to Haiti to investigate human rights and voting rights issues there, including as an election observer in 1990 when Aristide was elected. I met again during that time with former President Jimmy Carter, also doing election monitoring in Haiti--a photo of us together appears on p.80 of my Confessions book-- I’d already met Carter at the White House, and also when we were both election observers that same year in Nicaragua. On p.81 of my Confessions book is a photo I took of a victorious Violeta Chamorro in Nicaragua and one of a Haitian man with a rooster on his head celebrating Aristide’s victory, as the rooster was his special symbol. That was in 1990, but the trajectory has been strictly downhill lately for both Haiti and Nicaragua.

The mostly Colombian assassins in Haiti apparently first landed in the neighboring Dominican Republic, crossing over the porous border between the DR and Haiti. In photos, Haitian police are wearing black facemasks, something common among security forces and police throughout Latin America to protect their identity long before the pandemic. (In Honduras, I’ve even seen facemasks on armed hospital and bank guards.)

 

[President Biden is correct, in my judgement, to reject calls from Haitian leaders to send in American troops to restore order.]

As for Nicaragua, I thought we’d already won that fight back in 1990!

BBC, Nicaraguan opposition activists held as crackdown intensifies Police in Nicaragua have arrested two student activists and three members of the Farmers' Movement in its latest crackdown on the opposition. Among those arrested on Monday night was Medardo Mairena, who was planning to run for the Nicaraguan presidency. His arrest brings the number of presidential hopefuls detained since the beginning of June to six. President Daniel Ortega is expected to stand for a fourth consecutive term in the election in November.

No longer is Ortega trying to hide the lengths he will go to stay in power. We’re back again to Sandinista days. In 1990, I joined Nicaraguans celebrating his defeat at Violeta’s home, but now her own offspring are under house arrest or in exile under Ortega’s current crackdown. Once he got his foot back in the door in 2006 by winning the most votes, but not a majority (as was permitted by the Nicaraguan constitution), he has since become increasingly autocratic.  

BBC News, Nicaraguan opposition activists held as crackdown intensifies

 As for neighboring Honduras,

AP, Mexico sentences 5 Hondurans for kidnapping other migrants [and soliciting ransom from US-based relatives].

 

Reuters, Honduras arrests five in mob killing of Italian man

 

The Guardian, Berta Cáceres assassination: ex-head of dam company found guilty

 

From Amnesty International website: Good news! On 5 July 2012, David Castillo, former manager of the company Desarrollos Energéticos, and the person in charge of the Agua Zarca hydroelectric project, was found guilty of participating as co-author in the 2016 murder of Honduran human rights defender Berta Cáceres.

/////////////////////////

On the 100^th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party, not only is Xi considering next how to take over Taiwan, but how to supersede the US both economically and in terms of world prestige and power.

In other news, Turkish sheepherders create a very special cheese from sheep’s milk. I’m trying to envision milking a sheep.

 

JUEGOS OLÍMPICOS DE TOKIO 

 

Happy Independence Day, Carters’ Anniversary, Cosby Walks Free, Residential Schools, Building Collapse, 2011 Earthquake, Bristlecone Pines, Trump’s Fading Star, Sexual Orientation

        This July 4^th, I did not attend the fireworks on the mall, but heard them loud         and clear from my house.

 

         Those who went down to the mall reported mingling with near normal crowds. Neighbors set off fireworks out in the street in front of my house while I watched out the windows. A friend in Canada sent me this greeting.

Congratulations to Rosalynn and Jimmy Carter on their 75^th wedding anniversary, a couple I’m glad to have known ever since Carter’s presidency.

How could Bill Cosby, an avowed sexual predator if there ever was one, even reportedly using drugs to subdue his prey, possibly go free? Apparently, it was due to a legal fluke and though probably new legal charges could be brought because there have been so many accusers, maybe no one now has the will or energy to even try again after this totally unexpected setback.

More unmarked graves have been found on the grounds of a third Canadian indigenous residential school. The reckoning at such American schools has not yet begun.

When units are owned separately in a large condo building, like the one that crumbled in south Florida, it may be hard to pinpoint responsibility for the whole. Furthermore, many apartments seem to have belonged to absentee owners living in other countries, visiting only on vacations. Owners would have felt responsible for repairs to their own unit, selecting paint colors and trim, wall paper and floor coverings, but may have paid little attention to the building overall. That will no longer be the case.

In the case of a plane crash as well as with the recent condo collapse, survivors not only have to deal the sudden loss of an irreplaceable human being, but also with the knowledge that their loved one probably suffered fear and pain before dying. It’s very hard to accept that, especially for innocent children who never had a chance to live their full lives. And rescuers reported hearing a woman’s voice crying out for help, but couldn’t locate her, and the cries eventually died out. This has been a tragedy through and through.

Somehow the Florida condo collapse put me in mind of the earthquake that hit the DC area in August 2011. I was in my 3^rd-floor office at my computer when the whole house started shaking, knocking heirloom glass and porcelain items off nearby shelves. It felt like a giant was lumbering up the stairs. It stopped, then started up again. I sat stock still, my heart beating wildly. Fortunately, the movements finally stopped altogether and I went downstairs to survey any damage to my more then 100-year-old house, but there was none except for the broken antique knickknacks. It’s a tribute to the builders of my house, where I’ve lived for more than 50 years, that it survived that earthquake intact while other area homes and buildings were damaged.

In a world of impermanence and uncertainty, probably the oldest living thing on earth is a bristlecone pine named Methuselah, with a verified age of 4,852 years, located in the Inyo National Forest in eastern California. Bristlecone pines survive for thousands of years in an environment with little rainfall, few nutrients, cold temperatures, and high elevations by shutting down all non-essential processes and focusing energy on long-term survival rather than growth.

Now that Xi has subdued Hong Kong, as well as Tibet and Xinjiang, his next target will be Taiwan.

Can I manage to make a blog posting that doesn’t mention Donald Trump? Not quite yet. How could he be so clueless as the bring up the simple cognitive test that he “aced” 3 years ago? Woohoo!! He reportedly said he got every question right! I’ve taken that dementia screening myself in a doctor’s office, not exactly an intellectual challenge.  

Business Insider, Trump is still bragging about passing his cognitive test from 2018 The former president relived his success at the test in a roundtable event with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott where he brought up the test to criticize President Joe Biden. Although Trump has touted the three-year-old result as proof of his brilliance, it is in fact a basic screening process for evidence of cognitive problems. The vast majority of people would be expected to easily pass.

At the event, Trump said: "Did I ace it? I aced it. And I'd like to see Biden ace it. He won't ace it."

"He will get the first two. There are 35 questions and the first two or three are pretty easy. They are the animals. This is a lion, a giraffe. When he gets to around 20, he's gonna have a little hard time. I think he's gonna have a hard time with the first few, actually," Trump said.

And while we are on the subject of Donald Trump, are his very evident intellectual failings the result of aging or just part of his usual makeup, merely something irremediable and sadly unfortunate both for him and the rest of us? The problem is that neither he nor his hardcore followers actually recognize or even try to compensate for his confusion and mental deficits. Many followers actually share his failings, proud to have one of their own in the spotlight.

In a recent ranking of US presidents by historians, surprisingly, Trump did not come out last. Historians placed Trump at 41st on the list, ahead of three other even worse presidents: Franklin Pierce, Andrew Johnson, and, at the very bottom, James Buchanan. Abraham Lincoln was ranked number one and Barack Obama was number ten.

 Donald Trump’s star may mercifully be fading now, thanks in part to his Twitter ban. His Alabama appearance was cancelled. He’s been teasing folks, saying he’s come to a decision about 2024, but won’t reveal it, allowing him to actually decide later. Gov. Ron DeSantis, harboring his own 2024 presidential ambitions, declined to attend Trump’s Sarasota rally held on the eve of July 4, where Trump was shown tightly hugging an American flag. His supporters may have become fewer now, but like cult followers, their devotion remains unshaken. Here is a guy just like them, untutored, ungrammatical, unfettered, who dares to say whatever is on his mind. They love his freedom to be outrageous. 

        And they too could become president. After all, our skewed Electoral

    College system did give Trump 4 long years in the White House.

Republican office holders and candidates are treading cautiously, waiting to see which way the wind blows, steering a careful course between bolstering Mr. Trump and keeping a safe distance. Melania seems to have disappeared. Trump in Congress, something he has also hinted at, would be a disaster for Republicans since he’s never been a team player. He’d create chaos, just like in the White House. But at least in my observations in small-town West Va., the Trump base remains strong. And, if grassroots Republicans continue to support Trump and to deny the virus, refusing to get vaccinated, will fewer of them still be left? Too bad. Are Republicans on a suicide mission?

Here's an article from TIME that may help explain conspiracy theories and Trump’s followers’ adherence to them. https://www.yahoo.com/news/why-does-qanon-conspiracy-thrive-110001316.html?.tsrc=fp_deeplink

Ever since turning 60, I myself have felt the sting of “ageism,” alternatively spelled “agism;” likewise, there is both “ageing” and “aging.”  I wouldn’t wat to tar Trump with that brush, as I think his problems go deeper. Most of my own late life challenges have been in employment, also, to an extent, in the dating world, as increasingly scarce men (since men, on average, die earlier) tend to seek out increasingly younger women to date. Only in Honduras, as an American, am I a sought-after commodity.  USA TODAY: Not a joke: Ageism, age discrimination is dangerous to your health

Speaking of age, the world's oldest man is 112 years old and lives in Puerto Rico. (From NBC News)  He is Emilio "Don Millo" Flores Márquez, born on Aug. 8, 1908, while the oldest living person is a woman, Kane Tanaka, born in Japan on January 2, 1903.

​Here is a topic of interest to me as my son Jonathan was adopted from Colombia, but fortunately I knew to have him go through the citizenship process. Many adoptive parents think their children automatically derive citizenship from them, not so. Bills pending in Congress hope to remedy the situation.

 

‘You love this country, and it’s taken from you’: Adoption doesn’t guarantee US citizenship

Adopted Abroad as Infants, Raised in US, and Now — They May Face Deportation

Drone strikes are a 2-way street, as was evident recently in Iraq and Syria. Will future wars be fought only virtually? That might actually be an improvement. 

Amnesty International Cuban prisoner of conscience Luis Manuel Otero, a member of the San Isidro Movement, was released without any charges being presented against him nor conditions required for his release. But we are still working on behalf of Cuban artists.  #TheEternalFlame is still live, and see https://lallamaeterna.org

Miami Herald, Biden does the right thing by taking a step away from Obama’s Cuba policy | Opinion

AP, 15 killed in Haiti's capital amid spike in violence

        Miami Herald, St. Vincent, plagued by volcano, murder,                       loses Gold Cup opener 6-1 to Haiti

Reuters, Migrant boy abandoned in Mexico left Honduras with his father, consul says [boy age 2]

In Nicaragua, President Daniel Ortega’s government has detained about 20 opposition figures, including five presidential candidates, as part of a wider crackdown on his critics ahead of the November presidential elections.

     Last week, several of the most influential critics of Ortega, including journalists, opposition leaders and activists, fled the country, the Washington Post reported. What they're saying: “The Ortega regime is carrying out a widespread crackdown aimed at demolishing hopes for free and fair elections in November and consolidating a third dictatorship in the Americas,” Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) wrote in a recent letter asking U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken to put diplomatic pressure on Ortega.

BBC News, Vicky Hernández: Court says Honduras to blame for trans woman's murder A regional human rights court has ruled that Honduras was responsible for the murder of a transgender woman in 2009. In its landmark ruling, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ordered the government to pay reparations to the family of Vicky Hernández, 26, who was fatally shot in northern Honduras.

Sex and sexual orientation are hot topics of much online commentary and personal confession these days. Because I am of a more private generation, such public discussion, amplified by the internet, appears almost unseemly to me. In my life as first a single, then a long married, and, finally, a divorced woman, also as a mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, as well as a world traveler, social worker, and probation officer, later on also as a Spanish interpreter, I’ve known or met a pretty wide range of people from everywhere on earth. To the extent I’ve come to know them and their sexual habits, variety has been the watchword.

I’ve met a few people who claim to have been celibate and uninterested in physical sex during their entire lifetime, mostly single women, though also a married couple who adopted a child. Does a marriage have to be physically “consummated” to be valid? That used to be the case and marriages were annulled after allegations that it just hadn’t happened. Most of us probably have also known couples married for years where it is an open secret that that one partner indulges in affairs, either gay or straight, and we keep silent on the matter since both seem content with their situation. Whether or not the faithful partner seems aware that their spouse is straying, we don’t see the point of informing them. And some heterosexual couples, reportedly passionate early on, admit to having lost sexual interest later in life, but still continue to be emotionally committed to each other. (I’ve heard about this especially when serving as a Spanish interpreter in medical settings.) I’ve also known individuals of both genders who claim to have switched from gay to straight partnerships, especially among women, though the reverse is also true. And some married mothers have secretly indulged in gay sex with likeminded mothers.

So, based on my own observations and experiences, as well as that of many others both in the US and abroad, I would not consider sexual orientation and gender identity something quite as solid and inborn as is now popularly believed, rather often more fluid. For some people who identify as either gay, trans, or bi, it may truly be firmly fixed from an early age and continue unchanged throughout their lifetime; those are the folks speaking the loudest now and currently getting the most attention. On the other side, speaking for myself and probably for the silent majority, I admit to loving and liking numerous women, including my 2 daughters, granddaughter, and women friends. My best friends have all been female. But I’ve never felt romantically or sexually attracted to women and don’t expect to change now. Is that because of my innate orientation or because I came of age before alternatives became socially acceptable? In any case, whatever people do in the bedroom is a private matter, though increasingly, some seem eager to reveal it in public.

Again, did I ask for the following? The subject is soccer in Latin America, hardly of particular interest to me, but it suddenly popped up anyway. Antes de comenzar el partido, del que México salió triunfante 3-0, Memo Ochoa se dirigió a la afición para pedir respeto.