Archive for February, 2007
Colombian Vacations A Hard Sell
6:06 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Colombia|Drugs|Marketing · 5 Comments
21 Feb 2007
While many people around the globe plan vacations to exotic Latin American locales, Colombia usually isn’t one of them. According to one article, this can be at least partially the fault of the drug related crime in the South American nation or the world’s perception of that crime at the very least.
Colombia is seen abroad as a narco economy on a par with Afghanistan, and when what news reaches the world’s press is of a drug lord gunned down in Medellín or a backpacker kidnapped by guerrillas in the jungle. Colombia continues to supply America with 90% of its cocaine and 60% of its heroin. As long as these products remain criminalised, it will always be easier for the west to curse and corrupt Colombia for producing them rather than cure itself of consuming them.
Costa Rica steamed over South Park episode
5:30 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Controversia|Costa Rica|TV · 13 Comments
21 Feb 2007
Costa Rican government officials don’t think South Park is one bit funny. Why? Because a recent episode places the characters in the Carribean country declaring, among other things, that it smells…”like ass”:
The main characters, a group of children, are on a trip to San San José, capital of the Central American country, aboard a bus from which a teacher shows them the city.The woman explains that Costa Rica is a third world country, as the children observe through the windows prostitutes, shantytowns and trash, and they complain of the smell “of ass” that they detect in an unidentified government building.
Government officials are not amused. According to Spain’s 20 Minutos, Costa Rica’s Tourism Minister, Carlos Benavides, put it like this:
“We should look at it as the trash that it is. It’s a program of that nature on a network designed for people with a lowly upbringing and bad customs.
Via / 20 Minutos
NYU Republicans Play Racist Games
1:54 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Controversia|Education|Immigration|New York City · 9 Comments
21 Feb 2007
Yesterday Jen wrote about an alarming new trend in colleges and universities across the country, racist parties. Not even my home city, traditionally liberal NYC, can escape the trend. The New York University Republicans are hosting a game called “find the illegal immigrant” Thursday. According the the event announcement on the college networking site, Facebook :
There will be one individual with a nametag that reads ‘illegal immigrant’. This person has volunteered to do so and is not actually an illegal immigrant. On Thursday people will be signing up to participate and the first person that signed up and finds the “illegal” will get a prize. At the table there will be information and handouts on the subject matter to inform others on the problems that ILLEGAL immigration causes.
Nashville mayor vetoes English-only, calls it “mean-spirited”
12:43 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Immigration|language|Politics|States · Comments Off
21 Feb 2007
Nashville‘s music industry might have turned its back on our friends the Dixie Chicks, but the city’s mayor has shown himself strong against English-only activists who were looking to call attention to the rise in immigration:
Even supporters acknowledged that the bill to make English the official language of Nashville was mostly a symbolic slap at illegal immigration.But even that was too much for Nashville Mayor Bill Purcell. He vetoed the measure, saying it was unconstitutional, unnecessary and mean-spirited.
“This ordinance does not reflect who we are in Nashville,” Purcell said.
The Metro Council passed a measure 23-14 last week that would have required all government communication to be in English. But there was a huge loophole: The bill allowed multilingual communication whenever required by federal rules or when needed “to protect or promote public health, safety or welfare.”
The Mayor sent the vetoed bill back to the City Council where he says he hopes “it will remain, never to be seen again.”
Via / CNN
New trend in college parties: mindless racism
5:45 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · California|Controversia|Education · 15 Comments
20 Feb 2007
Ah, American universities. The cradle of the our culture and where some of tomorrow’s sharpest minds are being honed to lead us into the future. Where our children get drunk and dress up like racist stereotypes:
A “South of the Border” theme party has stirred outrage at a Jesuit university in Silicon Valley after students showed up at the bash dressed as Latino janitors, gardeners, gang members and pregnant teens.
Photographs from the private, off-campus party organized by Santa Clara University students in late January appeared on the Internet soon afterward, prompting an outcry on campus.One image shows a partygoer with a balloon stuffed under her shirt, making her appear pregnant.
In another, a woman wears pink rubber cleaning gloves and carries a feather duster.
Black church reaches out to Latinos
3:34 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Religion · Comments Off
20 Feb 2007
While some use divide and conquer tactics to create a rift between the Latino and African American communities in this country, one predominantly black church in Georgia is responding to a recent rise in the Latino population with arms wide open:
It’s an unusual scene for a predominantly African-American church, but the area’s Hispanic population has grown from just 1 percent in 2000, to nearly 9 percent today. And New Birth is acknowledging its new neighbors in a way most historically black churches haven’t.Long is trying to attract Latino members by hiring a Hispanic band, adding Spanish-language Sunday services, hiring a Hispanic pastor — even by learning Spanish.
“My message has been geared to challenging African-Americans, but I have to be culturally sensitive,” said Long, whose congregation draws more than 25,000 worshippers. “Now, I focus on using biblical principles that are relevant to everyone.”
What a refreshing idea in this age of “modern Christianity” which attempts to drive a wedge between the rich and the poor, the white and the black, the gay and the straight, etc. Many churches across the U.S., black or otherwise, could learn something from New Birth.
Via / Chron.com
Musica to Help You Breathe
2:40 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · children|Health|Music|New York City · Comments Off
20 Feb 2007
Kids with asthma could stop reaching for their inhalers and start reaching for their musical instruments if a study currently being conducted at the Louis Armstrong Center for Music & Medicine at Beth Israel Hospital in New York City pans out.
Researchers are studying the effects of music therapy on the disease. It is believed that music therapy can help breathing and ease anxiety and depression related to asthma.The Center’s Asthma Initiative Program (AIP) provides a free recorder (a wind instrument) and journal to each kid enrolled in the sixmonth program, and kids are asked to write daily about their symptoms and feelings.
They meet weekly for therapy, where they play a variety of instruments, listen to music and talk.
It’s always a step in the right direction, in my opinion, to teach, not only holistic methods of health management but also self reliance. Now if only we could lower the levels of pollution that has so many Latino children suffering from the illness in the first place.
Via / NYC Indymedia
Image Via / EPA.Gov
Naming Our Babies Maria not Mary
12:40 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Bilingualism|children|Family · 1 Comment
20 Feb 2007
As Latinos move from a “minority” in the U.S. to the majority, how babies are named is changing. According to an article on Univision.com, the baby girl name Maria is now more popular than its English counterpart, Mary. Among Latinos, Maria ranks as the number one baby girl name, with Jose as the number one baby boy name.
What would be more interesting to study, in my opinion, is how Latinos are naming their babies from generation to generation. I know within my family, for example, the first generation to be born here in the U.S. were graced with names that allow for easy assimilation (ahem, Maegan for example). Second and third generation parents named their children with distinctly Latino names.
Do we , those of us born here, worry less about assimilation, about standing out as a Latino? Or do we choose more “latinized” names for our offspring as a reflection of our Latino pride?
Via/ Univision.com
JLo gets booed and boo-hoos
5:05 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Celebrities|Chismes|Movies|World · 1 Comment
19 Feb 2007
I never thought I’d say this, but I feel really sorry for JLo. It seems that the superdiva was made to feel like Jenny from the Block at the screening of her new movie, Bordertown, at the Berlin International Film Festival. Several media are reporting that the movie was booed after the screening, with many audience members leaving before the end (the same thing actually happened to her Bordertown co-star, Antonio Banderas, during the screening of his film, but without the boos) and later had to field questions from a group of German reporters:
Jennifer Lopez defended her new movie, “Bordertown,” against a screaming group of reporters at the Berlin Film Festival today, who were not showing the Puerto Rican hottie the proverbial love. The critics were annoyed by her alleged “ludicrous plot turns and wooden dialogue” according to Deborah Cole in Berlin for the Agence France-Presse.
Another Narcocorrido Slaying?
2:57 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Drugs|mexico|Music · 1 Comment
19 Feb 2007
Major artists in Mexico are canceling appearances at palenques across the country in fear of the wave of violence linked to narcocorridos, songs about the drug trade. Such songs have been linked to the deaths of a number of artists including Valentin Elizalde last November.
Gunmen shot to death four members of Banda Fugaz after a performance in Michoacan. A fifth member of the band was also shot but survived. No arrests had been made and the police had no immediate suspects but what is known is the fact that the band was NOT known for singing narcorridos.
Via / Fox News
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