Archive for January 15th, 2009
U.S. Aiways Flight Plummets into Hudson River
5:56 pm By Maegan La Mala · New York City| society · Comments Off
15 Jan 2009
Plane crashes seems to fascinate people, and the fascination more than likely comes from the fact that the majority of them result in the deaths of hundreds of people. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I heard of a crash of a major commercial jetliner that didn’t result in mass casualties…until today. Amazingly, after ditching into the Hudson River this afternoon, U.S. Airways flight 1549 can boast zero casualties of passengers and crew:
“It was intense. It was intense. You’ve got to give it to the pilot. He made a hell of a landing,” Kolodjay said.The plane was submerged in the icy waters up to the windows when rescuers in Coast Guard vessels and ferry boats arrived, opened the door and pulled passengers in yellow life vests from the aircraft, whose fuselage appeared intact. The plane was sinking in the near-freezing water on one of the coldest days of the year, with the mercury around 20 degrees.
All of the crew and passengers were saved, and images of the downed jetliner look just like a boat with passengers disembarking como si nada. Pretty amazing.
The reason for the ditching (or crash, as most media is calling it)? Two birds stuck in the plane’s engine caused an explosion. Flight 1549 had left New York’s La Guardia airport and was bound for Charlotte, North Carolina.
Via / SFGate.com
Image via 20 Minutos, photographer Gary Hershorn / REUTERS
Mexican Televisa Attacked by Drug Cartels
1:04 pm By la Macha · New York City| mexico · Comments Off
15 Jan 2009
The news from Mexico’s “war on drugs” just keeps getting worse and worse. Now along with the beheadings, regular kidnappings, and other attacks, comes attacks on the media:
Editors at Televisa, the world’s most popular Spanish language network, were having a lively news meeting in the northern Mexican city of Monterrey when they heard a series of pops followed by a thunderous explosion. Running outside, the editors realized the top breaking news item had come straight to them. The pops were bullets sprayed from Kalashnikov automatic rifles directly into the facade of their offices. The blast was from a fragmentation grenade. Next to the debris was a message scrawled onto cardboard. “Stop just broadcasting us. Also broadcast the narco politicians,” it said.
Considering that Mexico already stands as one of the most dangerous countries for media to work in, it’s a little frightening to think that even mainstream media is being targeted. As of now, I have not found an English translation of a response from Calderon on these attacks–if his response is anything like it in the past–it will equal out to some growling and thumping on the chest before he goes back to sleep.
Oklahoma Tries to go English Only
12:34 pm By Maegan La Mala · Bilingualism| Immigration| language| midwest · 3 Comments
15 Jan 2009
While so much of the U.S. is focusing on the change that a new presidential administration is supposed to bring, Oklahoma lawmakers are trying something old and tired: to pass English only legislation.
Three members of the Oklahoma House and a state senator said Wednesday they will attempt to send a proposed constitutional amendment to Oklahoma voters that would make English the state’s official language.
They say it would save taxpayer money by not requiring the state to print documents, such as driver’s license tests, in foreign languages. They also say it would help legal immigrants assimilate into American society.
That’s right. They are actually trying to help immigrants, only the legal ones.
Gracias Oklahoma.
Via / Hispanic Tips, KJRH
Bolivia, Venezuela Cut Israel Ties in Protest
15 Jan 2009
Democracy Now! is reporting that Boliva has become the latest government to speak out against Israel’s military incursion into Gaza:
Bolivia, Venezuela Cut Israel Ties in Protest
Bolivia and Venezuela, meanwhile, have cut diplomatic ties with Israel in protest of the Gaza assault. Bolivian President Evo Morales also backed calls for investigating Israeli leaders.
Bolivian President Evo Morales: “The most serious international crimes should not go unpunished. Any government can back the investigation and punishment of these crimes. Bolivia, a sovereign state that shows it is against violence and respects life, will work with other governments and humanitarian organizations to ask for an investigation in international court for the crimes committed in the Gaza Strip by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and other members of the Israeli cabinet.”
I wonder what it is that makes me take Morales’s stance more seriously than Hugo Chavez. I (think) I trust where Morales is coming from in much the same way I (think) I trust Obama. I know that he’s, in the end, a political figure and prone to do really fucked up things the way all political figures are–but god, my faith in humanity would surge if just this once, a political figure would prove me wrong.
Catholics Converge on Mexico City to Discuss “Model Families”
9:50 am By Maegan La Mala · Family| GLBT| Religion| World| children| mexico| society · Comments Off
15 Jan 2009
If you’re sick and tired of the Christian Right and the Catholic Church forcing their idea of “family” — a unit made up of a man, a woman and some kids — on you, then you’d be better off not reading on. This week the infamous “Encuentro Mundial de las Familias” took place in Mexico City, and it was all traditional family model, all the time, with a whole lot of judgment and marginalization, as was to be expected. I mean, it is an event organized by the Vatican.
Here’s what church officials Ennio Antonelli and Marc Quellet had to say about gay families and those made up of unmarried couples:
The inaugural reception was over when, in the first talk given by the president of the Pope’s Family Council of the Vatican, Italian cardenal Ennio Antonelli said: “We think, and not only us, that the experience of living together between homosexuals should remain something private and within friendship relationships. Of course one can consider [these relationships] good or bad, that’s another story, but it should be considered a private relationship.”In addition, for the Archbishop of Québec, Marc Quellet, the “free unions” among homosexuals, but also among heterosexuals, should combatted by the Church and society itself, because they constitute a threat to “human ecology.”
Last Day to Vote for the DREAM Act
9:24 am By Maegan La Mala · Immigration| Internet| Politics · 1 Comment
15 Jan 2009Today, until 5 pm EST is the last chance for you to vote for change at Change.org.
VivirLatino is an official sponsor of voting for the DREAM Act. So you should vote too, for that and other issues that really will try and make the Obama administration about change.
On Friday Change.org will present the top 10 ideas to the Obama administration at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. We’ll then connect the winning ideas to leading nonprofits and launch a series of national advocacy campaigns to turn each idea into federal policy.
Ricardo Montalbán Passes at Age 88
7:24 am By Maegan La Mala · Celebrities · Comments Off
15 Jan 2009
Mexico City born Ricardo Gonzalo Pedro Montalbán Merino passed away yesterday in Los Angeles. Known to U.S. audiences from his role Fantasy Island, his unforgettable accent that he never tried to hide or change. Nor did he change his name, something many Latino actors did when he started acting in Hollywood in the 1940’s. He started acting in Mexican movies and continued to do so even after he made his Hollywood debut in 1947 in “Fiesta.”
That’s not to say that he wasn’t stereotyped, in fact I would argue that his accent and style made him ripe for the Latin lover stereotype who could make even Corinthian leather sound sssssexy.
Hola!
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- On Our Way to the March for America
- The Texas, er… Taliban?
- Where the March for America and the Anniversary of the Iraq Invasion Intersect
- Salma’s Wants Clean Bowels
- US Poets in Mexico writing contest!
- Filling Out the Census While Latina or How My Mom is White and I’m Not
- Paquita la del Barrio would rather have dead children than children raised by gays
- Save the Date Puerto Rican Political Prisoners: A Panel Discussion! April 7TH, NYC
- One Reason to March for America : Immigrant Health Care Needs Excuded in Reform Bill
- Protests in UC school system continue
