Archive for the ‘Religion’ Category
Bolivia’s “Law of Mother Earth”
2:54 pm By BiancaLaureano · Activism|Bolivia|Environment|history|Religion · 11 Comments
12 Apr 2011There’s been a lot of buzz surrounding Bolivia’s new law that, when passed, will grant Nature all and equal rights granted to humans. This news is not new as Bolivia’s President Evo Morales, the first indeginous President of Latin America, announced December 2009 at the U.N. Climate Summit they were creating a Mother Earth Ministry. Days prior to the summit President Morales hosted the World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth in Bolivia.
During President Morales’ speech in 2009 he stated: “The budget for the United States is $687 billion for defense. And for climate change, to save life, to save humanity. They only put up $10 billion. This is shameful.” Yeah, I don’t even want to go back and look up the numbers for education and healthcare.
The law is said to establish 11 new laws for Nature which include:
- the right to life and to exist;
- the right to continue vital cycles and processes free from human alteration;
- the right to pure water and clean air;
- the right to balance;
- the right not to be polluted;
- the right to not be affected by mega-infrastructure and development projects that affect the balance of ecosystems and the local inhabitant communities;
- the right to not have cellular structure modified or genetically altered
(I know that’s not all 11, pero I’m having a hard time finding them in English or Spanish, if you know of a link with all of them please share and I’ll update the post!)
Adding Another Layer to the Anti-Latino Rhetoric : Fears of “Radical Latino Muslims”
11:46 am By Maegan La Mala · Religion · 2 Comments
15 Dec 2010As if Latinos in the United States weren’t being profiled enough by various enforcement agencies in the United States (i.e. local police, la migra), in the last week and a half I have seen 2-3 articles/reports in the media adding another layer onto the mix. The “fear” of Latinos turning to “radical” Islam has been fueled by the media after the arrest of Antonio Martinez, a 21 year old Baltimore young man charged with trying to kill members of the military at a recruitment center (with a “bomb” provided by people working for the FBI – oh by the way).
The flag waving about “Latino Islamic Radicals” unites the growing anti-Islamic bias in the U.S. with the growing anti-immigrant (racialized/ethnically coded as Latino). Reading the coverage what you see is not any real analysis of Islam, Latinos or Muslim Latinos ,which is nothing new by the way – people need to check their history especially if they trace their heritage to Spain and more locally in NYC, I can tell you of strong Latino Islamic communities, but rather a perpetuation of the worst stereotypes.
Read more…
LGBT Orgs and Catholic Bishops Reiterate Support for Immigration Reform
11:32 am By Maegan La Mala · GLBT|Immigration|Religion · 1 Comment
16 Jul 2010A coalition led by U.S. LGBT organizations and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) issued separate (of course) statements in favor of comprehensive immigration reform.
Yesterday, a joint statement was released praising efforts by lawmakers to get Uniting American Families Act (UAFA) language as part of any comprehensive immigration reform bill.
Today’s united front in support of UAFA – with key lawmakers from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC); Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC); Congressional Progressive Caucus and Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus – could not be more urgent for the families who are facing separation, or already living in exile, because of our country’s discriminatory immigration laws. An estimated 17,000 young children are being raised by LGBT parents in binational families and those children face the very real possibility of losing a parent, or leaving the only country they have ever called home. The United States can do better, and we stand with these courageous Members of Congress who are leading the way to ensure these families can be together.
This comes a long way from when Gutierrez’s CIR ASAP bill first came to light WITHOUT UAFA language, likely a move meant to keep evangelical support for the bill.
Haiti as the Deserving Devilish Nation
6:55 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Haiti|Religion · 4 Comments
14 Jan 2010Ay Pat Robertson, if I believed in hell and/or the devil I fully expect to meet your ass there, even if my abuela in Puerto Rico does love you. Pero this whole line of Haiti making a pact with the devil when they managed the first successful slave revolt smells to high heaven of racism under the veil of Christianity. Throw in the comments about the Dominican Republic, and you fan the flames of so many years of separation between the two countries sharing the same island alot of it based on notions of who is more African and who is more European.
Flight 253 Renews Calls for Ethnic and Religious Profiling
9:28 am By Maegan La Mala · Detriot|New York City|race|Religion · 1 Comment
29 Dec 2009At this point everyone has read/heard about Flight 253 in Detroit. If you haven’t here’s a rundown: A man attempted to detonate an explosive device that was attached to his leg. It didn’t work. The man burned himself. Another man is being called a hero and selling his pictures.
Perhaps what is more interesting than what 23 year old Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is accused of doing, is the media frenzy and fear fiesta. It’s like we’re back to right after 9-11 where the public is expected to say yes to whatever is said in the name of “safety” Take NYS Assembly person Dov Hikind who represents parts of Brooklyn, who took this opportunity to revive some old legislation of his that failed. The legislation essentially called for the legalization of profiling against certain people, namely Middle Easterners, Arabs and Muslims.
Interfaith Community to Call for Immigration Reform Across the Country Today
10:44 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Cities|Events|GLBT|Immigration|Politics|Religion · Comments Off
10 Dec 2009
Across the U.S. today, International Human Rights Day, faith leaders are gathering in vigils to “Shine the Light” on the need for comprehensive immigration reform. From the press release:
Diverse faith communities in thirteen cities are holding Posadas and prayer vigils during the Days of Action, in an effort to illuminate the plight of immigrant families and spread a message of family unity and welcome during the holiday season.
“Across the nation we are highlighting the plight of immigrant families who are suffering from fear and separation during this season of family unity and hope,” said Alice Linsmeier. “We’ve heard children say that the best present they could get for Christmas would be having their mommy home with them without fear of separation.”
Venezuelan Synagogue Attack an Inside Job and a Sign of Wider Attacks on Latin Am. Left
7:23 am By Maegan La Mala · israel|Latin America|Religion|Venezuela · 5 Comments
6 Sep 2009I’m often attacked and accused of being anti-Semitic, usually by one person, because I write about Palestine and draw connections among various occupied territories including Puerto Rico. Even when I wrote about the attack on a synagogue in Venezuela early this year, I was accused of not covering the story, or at least not in a way that some agreed with. Turns out that there was more to the story than met the eye. From NACLA:
In the early morning hours of January 31, vandals broke into Tiferet Israel, a Sephardic synagogue in Caracas. They strewed sacred scrolls on the floor and scribbled “Death to the Jews” and other anti-Semitic epithets on the walls, before making off with computer equipment and historical artifacts. Understandably, the incident frightened and upset many in the Venezuelan Jewish community. Right away, U.S. news outlets, including The New York Times and The Miami Herald, linked the incident to Venezuela’s increasingly strained relations with Israel, after the two countries suspended diplomatic relations two weeks earlier over Israel’s bombing of Gaza, then still under way.
A Herald editorial went so far as to describe an “official policy of anti-Semitism” in Venezuela and implied that Chávez’s foreign policy had unleashed a wave of anti-Semitic violence in the country, culminating in the assault on the synagogue.1 Some international NGOs were no more nuanced. Just hours after the break-in, the U.S.-based Anti-Defamation League (ADL) was already implicitly comparing the Chávez government to the Nazis, calling the synagogue attack “a modern-day Kristallnacht.”2
But the Caracas police investigation bore out a different story. Authorities quickly realized that the synagogue’s security fence had been cut from the inside, prompting detectives to investigate the break-in as an inside job. Within the week it became clear that the attack had in fact been a robbery disguised as anti-Semitic vandalism, carried out by the synagogue’s privately contracted security team. Eleven men were arrested for their role in the plot, and their statements to the police indicated that the graffiti and desecration were intended to throw off investigators.3
I’d never heard of Rev. Samuel Rodriguez until I read about him over at Latino Politics Blog. Now that I know him, I wish that I could scrub my ears or drink alcohol or make out with Oprah or something.
The question posed at Latino Politics is: Do we [Hispanics/Latinos interested in organizing for change] need this man?
My answer: This is the kind of Latino Logic that I grew up around. A lot of Latinos who grew up in more progressive or activist communities like in L.A. or in San Antonio are often shocked when I start disparaging old school “Mexican Americans” because to them, old school folks are who got the movement started and who fought fights I could only dream of being brave enough to engage in. But to me, this is what old school Mexican Americans really are. Macho men interested in controlling the evil womenz and the lezbians and the non-godly among us.
I say let this man go. There are truly progressive and radical churches and people of god/spirituality that are about liberation and change rather than dominance and control through a false sense of “community.”
Let him find his own community. Stay out of mine.
Jesus on a Jueves
6:08 pm By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Bizarro|Religion · 1 Comment
30 Jul 2009
Porque it’s hot and Mala’s tired, here’s a reminder that Jesus is always with us.
This image of Jesus that appeared in a baking tray after Oliver Bellerby of Yorkshire, England cooked a burger.
Via / Boing Boing
Strange Rape Case Rocks Bolivian Mennonite Community
9:48 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Bolivia|crime|Latin America|Religion|society|Violence|Women · Comments Off
7 Jul 2009The Mennonites are a religious group akin to the Amish that was driven out of Europe by persecution over centuries, eventually landing in North and South America, mostly in the U.S., Canada and Latin America. There are thousands of Mennonites all over the Americas, with large communities in Mexico and Bolivia. And it is from Bolivia that comes a strange story that has shocked the country and rocked its Mennonite community to its core. A mass rape of the community’s women, with up to 100 victims. Spain’s El Periódico reports:
The first accounts, which are pending investigation, indicate that at nightfall some men sprinkled a sleep inducing [susbtance] around the homes of the residents and when they were sure that everyone was sleeping, they came in through the windows and raped women and girls. There are suspicions that this had been going on for 9 years, which would make the initial victim count fall short. But what is more terrifying and shameful for the Mennonites is that the rapists are people from their own community. Blood of their blood.The Mennonites have kept the names and surnames of their ancestors. Their names are Ham Neostater and Cornelio Wal and Abraham Blats and Daniel Martens. Their native language is German and they speak Spanish with an accent. “Here people are afraid, because they say that it was our own friends who committed the sin,” Wal, a farm worker (like almost everyone in Manitoba) told a Bolivian newspaper. 8 community residents were arrested this week, which means that in a community of around 2000 people, most of them are related to the suspects: cousins, nephews, son-in-laws. Ultraconservative Christians, the Mennonites see the suspects as more sinners than criminals. Because to them, sin is much more serious.
The Mennonite community is calling the rapes “an act of the devil” and is ordering the medical examination of teenage girls to confirm which ones are victims. El Periódico reports that the results of these exams could have sinister implications, as the Mennonite community requires that its women remain virgins until marriage in order to retain the respect of their peers.
Via / El Periódico and VideoBolivia
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