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Monthly Archives: August 2015

Making America Great Again?

30 Sunday Aug 2015

Posted by Rosaliene Bacchus in Immigrants, United States

≈ 25 Comments

Tags

US illegal immigrants, USA presidential campaign 2016, USA Trade with Mexico 2014

USA Map showing Poverty Rate for Total Population by County 2013

Map of USA showing Poverty Rate for Total Population by County 2013
Source: The Washington Post

Here in the United States, there is a presidential candidate, a businessman-turned-politician, who is leading the polls for his political party. I prefer not to name him; he feeds on media coverage, good or bad. I’ll call him PC. The slogan of his campaign is “Make America Great Again.”

PC promises to resolve the problem of illegal immigrants living in the USA. In his estimation, most of the illegal immigrants from Mexico are criminals. For readers who don’t already know, his solution is to build a wall along our border with Mexico and have the Mexican government pay for it, because they are making lots of money doing business with the U.S. Will building a wall to shut us in from Mexico and the rest of Central America make us great again? Continue reading →

Climate Disruption: Thought of the Week

26 Wednesday Aug 2015

Posted by Rosaliene Bacchus in Anthropogenic Climate Disruption

≈ 19 Comments

Tags

Climate Change, Climate disruption, Espen Stoknes, Nature & Environment, New psychology of climate action, Psychological barriers to climate change action

Book Cover - What we Think About When We Try Not To Think About Global Warming by Espen Stoknes

What We Think About When We Try Not To Think About Global Warming
by Espen Stoknes
Photo Credit: Stoknesdotcom

Toward a New Psychology of Climate Action

We need…stories that tell us that nature is resilient and can rebound…, if we give it a chance to do so. We need stories that tell us that we can collaborate with nature… We need stories about a new kind of happiness not based on material consumption.
~ Espen Stoknes in Interview with Richard Schiffman, Yale Environment 360, August 20, 2015.

Brazil’s First Female President Under Fire

23 Sunday Aug 2015

Posted by Rosaliene Bacchus in Brazil, Economy and Finance

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

Brazil economy, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, Corruption in Brazil, Former Brazilian President Lula da Silva, Media giant Grupo Globo, Petrobras corruption scandal

Protesters in Sao Paulo - Brazil - 16 August 2015

Protestors on Avenida Paulista – São Paulo – Brazil – 16 August 2015
Photo Credit: David Shalom / iG São Paulo

After leading Brazil’s economic boom under Former President Lula da Silva (2003-2010) and its record in reducing unemployment and poverty, the left-wing Workers’ Party (PT) government is facing a tough time. A weak global economy has taken its toll on South America’s largest economy. As has happened before during periods of recession, Brazil’s cost of living and job losses are on the rise again. This time, the implosion of the US$2 billion graft at oil giant, Petrobras, in March 2014, has weakened the nation’s economic foundations and moral fabric.

For the government opposition, conditions are ripe for bringing down President Dilma Rousseff and the Workers’ Party, in power since 2003. With the media giant, Grupo Globo, stoking the fires of discontent, and backed by the major conservative party (PSDB), an estimated 795,000 people from rising right-wing organizations and the middle class took to the streets for the third time this year on Sunday, August 16, in all major cities across the country. Continue reading →

Climate Disruption: Thought of the Week

19 Wednesday Aug 2015

Posted by Rosaliene Bacchus in Anthropogenic Climate Disruption

≈ 15 Comments

Tags

Climate Change, Climate disruption, Nature & Environment, United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), USA Clean Power Plan 2015, USA Power Plants 2013

Locations of US Power Plants 2013

Locations of US Direct-Emitting Power Plants 2013
Photo Credit: EPA Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program

Fifteen US States to Block EPA’s Clean Power Plan

On August 13, 2015, fifteen state attorneys general petitioned a federal court in Washington to block new U.S. rules to curb carbon emissions from power plants. States requesting the stay are Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
~ See Article by Valerie Volcovici, Reuters, at Climate Central.

Nell Vera Lowe Williams: A “Fierce” Caribbean Woman

16 Sunday Aug 2015

Posted by Rosaliene Bacchus in Family Life, Immigrants, People, Relationships

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

Caribbean Woman, Caribbean-Americans, Caribbean-Chinese Diaspora, Chinese Lowe family, Finding Samuel Lowe by Paula Williams Madison, Jamaica, Nell Vera Lowe Williams, Paula Williams Madison

Nell Vera Lowe Williams - Jamaica - 1940s

Nell Vera Lowe Williams (1918-2006)
Jamaica – 1940s
Photo Credit: Finding Samuel Lowe

On August 1, 2015, I met author and entrepreneur Paula Williams Madison at the Leimert Park Book Fair in Los Angeles. What a surprise to learn that our grandfathers were both Hakka Chinese immigrants to the Caribbean!

Born in Harlem, New York, to Jamaican immigrants, Madison is the youngest of three siblings. Her memoir, Finding Samuel Lowe: China, Jamaica, Harlem, recounts her quest to find her maternal Chinese grandfather. At the heart of her riveting journey is her mother, Nell Vera Lowe Williams.

My connection with Nell Vera Lowe was immediate and intense. I saw the multitude of Caribbean women who fight against all odds for their place in the sun, raising their children to become achievers. I saw my mother. I saw myself. Continue reading →

Climate Disruption: Thought of the Week

12 Wednesday Aug 2015

Posted by Rosaliene Bacchus in Anthropogenic Climate Disruption

≈ 11 Comments

Tags

Alaska/USA, Climate Change, Climate disruption, Nature & Environment, Pacific Walrus

Pacific Walrus - Moms & Calf

Pacific Walrus – Moms & Calf
Photo Credit: U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

Warming Temperatures Push Pacific Walrus North

In Alaska, hunters and scientists say walrus migration patterns are veering from historical hunting grounds as temperatures warm and the ocean ice used by the animals to dive and rest recedes farther north. Remote communities at the edge of the Bering Sea are seeing a steep decline in walrus harvested.
~ Article by Rachel D’Oro, Associated Press, Anchorage, Alaska, August 6, 2015.

Celebrating the Small Fruits of Our Labor of Love

09 Sunday Aug 2015

Posted by Rosaliene Bacchus in The Writer's Life, United States

≈ 16 Comments

Tags

“The Ole Higue” Short Story by Rosaliene Bacchus, Caribbean literature, Emerging Caribbean novelist, Female vampires in Caribbean and African Diaspora folk traditions, Rejection letter from literary agent, The Things That Fly in the Night by Giselle Liza Anatol

Cover of The Things that Fly in the Night by Giselle Liza Anatol

Book Cover: The Things That Fly in the Night by Giselle Liza Anatol
Photo Credit: Rutgers University Press

Rejections are an integral part of the writing life. The record of best-sellers initially rejected confirms the writer’s scourge. But this is of little consolation when you open your electronic mailbox to find another rejection letter from a literary agent. It read:

Thank you for your inquiry. We are sorry that we cannot invite you to submit your work or offer to represent you. Moreover, we apologize that we cannot respond in a more personal manner. We wish you the best of luck elsewhere.

That the literary agent responded to my query letter is highly commendable. Some agents don’t respond.

For the remainder of that day and during the following days, I struggled with the toxic fallout: Your work is not good enough. You’re wasting your time. Then…a discovery restored my battered self-confidence as a writer. Continue reading →

Climate Disruption: Thought of the Week

05 Wednesday Aug 2015

Posted by Rosaliene Bacchus in Anthropogenic Climate Disruption

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

Climate Change, Climate disruption, Nature & Environment, United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), USA Clean Power Plan 2015

President Obama launches the Clean Power Plan - 3 August 2015 - USA

President Obama announces the Clean Power Plan – August 3, 2015
White House – Washington D.C. – USA
Photo Credit: Susan Walsh/Associated Press

USA Clean Power Plan for Existing Power Plants

On August 3, 2015, President Obama and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the final Clean Power Plan that sets flexible and achievable standards to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 32 percent from 2005 levels by 2030, 9 percent more ambitious than the proposal.
~ Learn more at the EPA Website.

“Philosophy” – Poem by Brazilian Poet José Guilherme de Araújo Jorge

02 Sunday Aug 2015

Posted by Rosaliene Bacchus in Brazil, Poetry

≈ 13 Comments

Tags

Acre/Brazil, Brazilian Poet José Guilherme de Araujo Jorge, Brazilian political poet, Brazilian romantic poet

Panoramic View of Tarauaca - State of Acre - Brazil

Panoramic View of Tarauacá – State of Acre – North Brazil
Birthplace of Brazilian poet J.G. de Araújo Jorge
Source: Blogspot Tarauacá 100 Years (1913-2013)

My Poetry Corner August 2015 features the poem “Filosofia” (Philosophy) by Brazilian poet José Guilherme de Araújo Jorge (1914-1987), a favorite poet among the people, especially the youth, for his romantic lyricism and socialist message. His romantic poetry speaks to lovers who had loved and lost.

The following stanzas from two of his romantic poems, titles unknown, were sourced from the Brazilian literary website, Pensador (Philosopher).

Seems like madness
How to explain the truth
that love, that lasts for such a short time
hurts me for an eternity.

You think you love several times…
Delusion, pure delusion,
the strange miracle of the human heart
I found difficult to understand,
and perhaps still don’t comprehend:
– Every time we love
It’s like the first time…

In his 1969 publication, No Mundo da Poesia (In the World of Poetry), J.G. de Araújo Jorge confessed that love was his most important poetic theme. Love is life. “Poetry without life, is like the paper flower, or of plastic material,” he wrote. “It lacks sap, lushness, perfume. It won’t be honey or fruit. It won’t know birds or bees. It’s a sad imitation.”

He also considered himself a modern poet who communicated with the people of his time, interpreting their hopes, anxieties, and despair. “If young people read my verses and know them by heart, and write them in their notebooks, and buy my books, then I’m not only a modern poet, of today, but a contemporary of the future, because I’m already addressing tomorrow.”

A political activist since his student days when he was detained in 1937 by the military government, J.G. de Araújo Jorge became a member of congress during the 1970s. During his lifetime, his social and political poems were highly disputed.

In O Poeta Na Praça (The Poet in the Square), published in 1981, he stated that there’s no incompatibility between the poet and the politician. As examples of lyrical poets who were great political leaders, he mentioned Lorca, Neruda, Mao Tse-tung, and Ho Chi Minh.

In the following excerpt from his poem, “Ordem do Dia” (Order of the Day), the poet calls attention to the social inequality of his time, an issue still relevant today in Brazil and across our planet.

We fight because – all of us – whites, blacks and yellows,
we cry and eat, we grow and study,
we suffer and build, like men without color,
we all need the same white milk
and the same book, and the same earth, and the same freedom to live.
To live. Or at least, to die, but fighting.

In the second stanza of the featured poem, “Filosofia” (Philosophy), the poet muses:

People say they’re rich… Maybe…
But then again maybe not…
To be rich…is just to be able
to do whatever your heart desires…

To read the complete poem in its original Portuguese and my English version, and to learn more about the poet, go to my Poetry Corner August 2015.

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