and I know we all need a pick-me-up this close to the weekend.
Neetu Chandra is not Latina. But I think we can all agree that is ok. Yes?
VivirLatino
Living & Luchando la Vida Latin@
Daily Archives: July 2, 2009
Republican comes out in support of coup
And just to add one more layer to the confusion: Sen. Jim DeMint, a Republican senator from South Carolina, has come out in support of the coup. And strangely enough, his reasoning sounds very similar to that of Honduran bloggers.
Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) has come out in support of the military coup in Honduras, chastising President Obama in a statement for what he calls “a slap in the face to the people” of that country.
From his statement:
“The people of Honduras have struggled too long to have their hard-won democracy stolen from them by a Chavez-style dictator. The Honduran Congress, the Honduran Supreme Court, and the Honduran military have acted in accordance to the Honduran constitution and the rule of law. [...]
“I am hopeful that as President Obama grows in office, he will eventually turn away from despots like Ahmadinejad, Chavez, Castro, and Zelaya, and give the United States’ full-throated support to the people of any country who are fighting for the same values we cherish and defend in America. The people fighting for freedom around the world, in Iran and Honduras, should never have to wonder which side America will choose between freedom and tyranny.
“President Obama’s call for the reinstatement of Zelaya is a slap in the face to the people of Honduras. And the resolution written by the Organization of American States tramples over the hopes and dreams of a free and democratic people.
“The rule of law is working in Honduras. President Obama should not undermine the democratic institutions that guarantee freedom by forcing an illegitimate President back into power.
The big question now appears to be, who gets listened to in this case? Latino congressional members say boo! on coup. White conservative members say yay! Honduras appears to be saying yay as well, but the entire rest of world leaders say boo. Nobody likes the evil socialists, so capitalists say boo, but social justice people think that socialism is the lesser of two evils–so they say yay.
Everybody is screaming “rule of law”–but in Latin American nobody really has any clue what that means, and Indigenous peoples wish we would all shut up and get the hell out.
What is to be done?
Yes, Latin@’s you have stumped my ass again.
Honduran coup from the ground
We’ve been talking a lot here at VL about the many strange “truths” of the Honduran coup–and then I came across this post by Latina Lista. It is a blog post written by a blogger in Honduras, and she presents a completely different version of what the coup means to Hondurans. It makes things much clearer to me.
I have not seen any US media outlet show coverage of the tens of thousands who gathered yesterday in support of the new government. A friend commented on the remarkably one-sided coverage of the crisis, “A few hundred rioters throwing rocks at soldiers and the police and water cannon makes much better news than thousands of supporters holding their hands above their hearts with tears streaming down their face singing the national anthem.”
Honduras is a small and underdeveloped country. It can ill afford the bad reputation that the world has for its leaders. However, I hope and pray that world would consider carefully the events surrounding the removal of Mr. Zelaya.
I am reminded of the words of the prophet Amos:
Do you know what I want?
I want justice–oceans of it.
I want fairness–rivers of it.
That’s what I want. That’s all I want. Amos 5:24As rivers and oceans of people are marching across the land of Honduras, one can only hope and pray that the world will take notice of a small country that seeks to live in peace, freedom and development.
Read the whole thing here.
Paquito Cordero is Dead
Puerto Rico lost a television pioneer this past Tuesday, when Paquito Cordero passed on at the age of 77. The Puerto Rican government has declared 3 days of mourning for Cordero. EFE reports:
“The people of Puerto Rico start the day in mourning for the sad loss of one of the greats among our artists and a man of the people,” Fortuño said in a press release.Francisco Cordero was born in 1932 in San Juan’s Santurce neighborhood, and after attending the Central Upper School, began his artistic career as an actor when television arrived in Puerto Rico in 1954 on the program “Mapy y Papi,” together with his aunt Mapy Cortes (1910-1998).
His greatest legacy as a producer was the program “El Show de las 12” (12 O’clock Show) for Telemundo Channel 2, which aired at midday.
The program was transmitted for the first time on Jan. 11, 1965.
In addition to his work as a producer and comedian, Cordero is often credited with the international success of Menudo.
Via / Latin American Herald Tribune
Is it “Adios” for MySpace Latino?
About 2 years ago we told you about MySpace’s bid for Latino market share, aptly named “MySpace Latino”. Back then, MySpace was leading the social networking revolution, but fast forward to today, and we find that MySpace “original” is becoming more irrelevant by the minute in the shadow of Facebook. Perhaps that’s why the Latino version of the service might be going the way of the Walkman. GigaOm’s Jennifer Martinez reports:
As MySpace struggles to regain ground it’s lost to Facebook and sort out its revenue woes, executive departures from MySpace Latino, a combination Spanish-English site targeted at U.S.-based Latinos that launched a little over a year ago, indicate it may be on the chopping block. MySpace Latino’s VP of Hispanic sales and strategy, Manny Miravete, has left the company, and the site’s managing director, Victor Kong, has reportedly left as well. The site itself hasn’t been refreshed in over a week amid a wave of layoffs at MySpace’s U.S. and international offices.
I’m not sure how successful the Latino version was, but it’s no loss to me. I never touched it, and I don’t know anyone who did. This is an instance in which the brand didn’t need to niche itself out to appeal to Latinos – it did it just to please advertisers who wanted to target the Latino segment. Disingenuous attempts at catering to an audience are seldom successful, and much less when the main brand is already creaking under the weight of one hefty competitor and a series of dispersed services and sites that have innovated while MySpace has remained asleep at the wheel.
Martínez also reports that an email statement from MySpace says that the site will “remain live and not shut down” and that MySpace Latino is merely “restructuring”. Whatever the case, I won’t be visiting anytime soon.
The phenomenon apparently extends beyond the U.S. Latino operation. Late last month it was reported that MySpace Brazil, Mexico and Argentina would also be shutting down. That was quick.
Via / GigaOm and Salon
Saving Walter Lara y the Rest?
When I wrote about Walter Lara it was in the context of how heavy his case was being pushed while I was hearing little noise from pro-migrant/liberal bloggers about Cirila Baltazar Cruz.
To summarize, Walter was a DREAMer, an immigrant student who was brought to the United States by his undocumented parents. An honor student, he was facing deportation. A massive email, letter writing, phone campaign was launched on his behalf so that he could stay and it looks like there is somewhat of a victory for Walter.
Today, after 48 hours of intense activism by Congressional Leaders, bloggers, and thousands of grassroots activists who made calls and sent letters on Walter Lara’s behalf, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) moved to defer 23-year old Lara’s scheduled deportation back one year until July 3, 2010. In response to DHS’s deferment, Walter Lara issued the following statement:
“Today, words cannot express my gratitude to Secretary Janet Napolitano, Senator Bill Nelson, Representatives Corrine Brown, Lincoln Diaz-Balart, and the thousands of grassroots activists whose unified efforts have given me a second chance to live out my American Dream.
“As I look to celebrate Independence Day with family and friends this weekend, I have once again seen what makes America the best country in the world. Americans are fair, just, and kind. When we unite our strength to defend our shared values -opening rather than shutting the doors of opportunity – we can achieve anything. As I have said before, America is the only country I have known and I am an American. I have never been more proud to say that than I am today.“But even as the dust settles on this tremendous personal victory, my sights are clearly set on the struggle ahead to build a long-term future for me and the more than 2 million like me whose lives may be cut short and dreams deferred.
“The action taken by the leaders in Congress and the Department of Homeland Security is an acknowledgment that our immigration laws are broken. The DREAM Act, if passed, would help people like myself, who came here through no fault of their own, stay in this country, be put on a path to citizenship and contribute to our nation.”
Click Here to read more about Walter Lara or visit http://www.firstfocus.net/pages/3608
Jueves Jugetes : HP Pavilion dv2
Every once and a while VivirLatino gets sent products to try out and review so that we can share the information with our audience in an effort to make you buy something. And every once in a while, if Mala is in the mood, or if it seems like something that could be useful to myself and the VL audience we will. Today, I’m typing from one of HP’s new laptops, the HP Pavilion dv-2 Entertainment Notebook.
Straight from the box, the HP dv2 shiny white exterior could be seen as trying to look like a Mac. The interior black surrounding the Mercury-free 12.1″ diagonal HP BrightView LED display tells you it clearly isn’t, as well as the fact that it runs Windows Vista® Home Premium which as a two year Mac convert, I don’t dislike as much as I thought I would.
