Gun owners at gun-rights rally
Capital, State of Washington – January 15, 2015
Photo Credit: The Washington Times/Associated Press
[See The White House Press Release, January 4, 2016, for
New Executive Actions to Reduce Gun Violence]
Violence sells. Violence wins book and movie awards. When Jamaican author, Marlon James, won the Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2015 for his novel A Brief History of Seven Killings, I was elated. I had to read it. Set in Jamaica and New York (1976-1991), it’s a literary masterpiece on the nature of human violence and the forces that fuel it. It’s not reading for the faint of heart.
In his article, “Gun Culture and the American Nightmare of Violence,” Henry A. Giroux notes: “Popular culture not only trades in violence as entertainment, but also it delivers violence to a society addicted to a pleasure principle steeped in graphic and extreme images of human suffering, mayhem and torture.” The inculcation of such make-believe violence as a normal part of real-life, especially among our youth, concerns him. Addressing the roots of America’s culture of violence becomes more difficult. Continue reading →
Rain clouds hover over Downtown Los Angeles – December 2014
Photo Credit: ABC7 Eyewitness News
In the Northern Hemisphere, today is the first day of winter. The North Pole will tilt 23.5 degrees away from the Sun, making the Winter Solstice the shortest day or the longest night of the year.
I’ve got the wintry blues. In Southern California, we’ve been getting much needed rain. But the gray, heavily loaded sky crushes my Christmas spirit. The long nights cloak me in gloom. To add to my wintry woes, some bad news has further chilled my Christmas cheer. Such is the ever-changing journey called life. Anxiety can quickly smother our joy. Continue reading →
October 12 is Children’s Day in Brazil. It’s a fun time for children across Brazil. On their special day, children receive toys from their parents and relatives. The day is celebrated with children parties, family outings, and special local events. It’s a day for families to share in the joys of childhood.
To commemorate Brazil’s Children’s Day, my Poetry Corner October 2014 features the poem “À Procura da Infância” (In Search of Childhood) by Brazilian poet Anilda Leão (1923-2012). Born in Maceió, capital of the Northeastern State of Alagoas, she grew up in a privileged middle-class family. Her father was a business owner and a respected politician in the 1940s and 1950s. Continue reading →
Has your life been changed by a record-breaking climatic event? Have you lost your home or means to support yourself and family because of climate change? Are you concerned about global warming and climate change? Are you frustrated with the inaction of our political and industrial leaders?
If you’ve answered “yes” to any of the above questions, here’s an opportunity to take action, to do your part. This coming weekend of September 20-21, 2014, let’s show up at the People’s Climate March in a city near us.
“The People’s Climate March is an invitation to anyone who’d like to prove to themselves, and to their children, that they give a damn about the biggest crisis our civilization has ever faced” said Bill McKibben, climate author and environmentalist turned activist, and co-founder of 350.ORG, a global climate movement.
In the United States, the major event will take place in New York City where the United Nations Climate Summit 2014 is scheduled for September 23. Heads of State and Government, together with leaders from business and civil society, are invited to announce significant and substantial initiatives to help move the world toward a path that will limit global warming (UN Press Release No. 6418 dated 11 August 2014).
“The race is on, and now is the time for leaders to step up and steer the world towards a safer future,” said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Extreme climatic conditions affect all aspects of our lives: health, economy (jobs), education, and the security of our families. The longer we delay to build cleaner, low-carbon economies, the more expensive it will become. The number of people worldwide facing hunger and malnutrition will catapult.
Learn more about how we got here and the consequences of ignoring climate change. Watch the documentary film, Disruption, produced by 350.ORG and released on September 7, 2014.
Over 1,000 organizations have pledged support for the People’s Climate March; over 300 colleges and universities are expected to attend. The world will be watching. For information about events in or near your location, go to the People’s Climate website.
We need ACTION, not more words. Join the People’s Climate March.
Since the foundation of the State of Israel in 1948 on Palestinian territory, the two nation states are locked in a death grip. The latest renewal of fighting exploded into a humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip. Of the 700 dead and 4,000 injured Palestinians, an estimated 75 percent are civilians. A large part is children. On the Israeli side, only two civilians were numbered among the forty Israelis killed.
As the humanitarian crisis escalated in Gaza, Brazil took three measures to call international attention. On July 23, 2014, at a meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Council, South America’s largest nation and economy voted in favor of a resolution calling for an investigation into alleged war crimes in the Gaza Strip. With a majority of twenty-nine votes in favor, the Human Rights Council passed the resolution. Remaining on the fence, Western European members abstained from participation. The United States was the only council member to reject the motion. Continue reading →
Illegal Immigration or a Humanitarian Crisis?
American Protesters against influx of Central American Refugees
Murrieta – California – July 2014
Photo Credit: Politicus USA
Our choices, our behavior, our actions have consequences. Some good. Some bad. Some consequences take more than a lifetime for manifestation. That’s why it’s important to study history. History that distorts the truth is useless and harmful for learning.
In high school, I hated studying history. I saw no connection to my life. I finally get it. Everything that’s assailing us today has its roots in the distant and recent past. Not only have America’s foreign policies supported dictatorship governments that heap hardships upon their citizens, but we also have trade policies that affect local economies and peoples’ livelihood.
Consider the current overwhelming number of unaccompanied refugee children arriving at America’s southwest borders. The majority of them are fleeing gang and state violence in their homelands in Central America: El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. These three developing countries are part of the six-nation CAFTA-DR Free Trade Agreement with the United States, fully implemented in 2006.
Inconsequential? Coincidental?
The world we live in is of our own making. We set the course decades ago. Securing our borders with more troops will not resolve the humanitarian crisis we helped to spawn. Continue reading →
Bring Back Our Girls – “Million-Woman March” – Abuja – Capital of Nigeria
30 April 2014
Photo Credit: Gnomes National News Service
Mother’s Day. Today in the United States and in some countries around the world, we honor our mothers. We owe our mothers our lives and much more. But all is not rosy for mothers.
We women have been blessed or cursed, perhaps a bit of both, with Nature’s endowment of childbearing and child nurturing. Our role as child bearers is a labor of joy and sorrow, love and pain. We rejoice in our children’s achievements, however small; we suffer when they are sick or injured. If we could, we would take their pain. When they are bullied by their peers, we stand ready to defend them. When they are snatched from us, we find no solace.
For the mothers of over 270 girls kidnapped, almost a month ago, from their school in northeast Nigeria, this is a time of great anguish.
“It’s unbearable. Our wives have grown bitter and cry all day. The abduction of our children and the news of them being married off is like hearing of the return of the slave trade,” said Yakubu Ubalala (The Guardian).
Their 17- and 18-year-old daughters, Kulu and Maimuna, are among the girls kidnapped by the Boko Haram Islamic Fundamentalist group. The leader of the group has since threatened to sell them. In times of political unrest, our children, especially our girls, are easy targets for male aggressors.
In the United States, over a hundred children go missing every day, abducted by a stranger or slight acquaintance (Child Find of America). These children are either held for ransom, killed, or kept permanently.
This Mother’s Day I honor all mothers who grieve for a missing child, not knowing whether they are dead or alive.
Blessed are those mothers whose sons and daughters have not yet been touched by the evil impulses of our human nature.
Garbage outside the Stabroek Market – Georgetown – Guyana
Source: Guyana Chronicle News, 3 January 2012 (www.guyanachronicle.com)
My love for my native land blossomed at an early age. It found expression in primary school through the patriotic songs I learned and sang with fervor. My favorite song was “My Native Land” by M.A. Cossou. The opening line still evokes that love: “Oh, I care not that others rave over fair lands afar…” At an early age, I believed that I would never leave my native land because there was “none so fair as can compare with my own native land.”(Lyrics available at silvertorch.com/guysongs.)
I delighted in the brilliant red-orange-yellow flowers of the flamboyant trees lining the main avenues of our capital city, Georgetown. Hibiscus hedges, bougainvillea bushes, and croton plants added their vibrant colors to make Georgetown the Garden City of the Caribbean Region.
At high school, I connected with the world through the study of geography. My geography teacher, of Portuguese descent, taught me the importance of using my talents to serve my country and to work towards building a better future for all of our six peoples.
With the end of British colonialism, I believed in our ability to create our own destiny. Our nation’s first Prime Minister, before power and money corrupted his vision, instilled national pride and unity in my impressionable young mind. I sang our National Anthem and looked to our flag with pride.
But the dream I shared with other young people of my generation was all a fairy tale. Corruption soon trickled down from the high ranks of our government and, like the salt air fanning our coastline, corroded our society and destroyed our dream, yet unfulfilled. Garbage dumps across Georgetown, due to lack of funds to pay the garbage collectors, are a visible sign of the prevailing corruptive forces.
In 2011, according to the Corruption Perception Index published by Transparency International (www.transparency.org), Guyana ranked 134 out of 182 nations with a score of 2.5 (on a scale of 0 to 10), putting our nation among the most corrupt in the world. The Index also reveals that we are the most corrupt among our Anglo-Caribbean sister states. The small island nation of Barbados puts us to shame. It ranks among the top twenty least corrupt countries with a score of 7.8.
Our young people, the future of our nation, cannot thrive in a corrupt environment. With the exception of the few who will choose to milk the corrupt system, our talented and skilled young professionals and entrepreneurs will seek “fair lands afar.” Guyana’s Junior Calypso Monarch 2010, Tennicia De Freitas, then 18 years, expressed well the plight of our less fortunate youth in her prize-winning song, “I don’t want to be born.”
When will Guyana’s leaders and adults find the courage and determination to end the endemic corruption corroding the future of its youth?
The healthy development of all children benefits all of society by providing a solid foundation for economic productivity, responsible citizenship, and strong communities. Jack P. Shonkoff, MD, Director, Center on the Developing Child, Harvard University.
After living for sixteen years in Fortaleza, the capital of the State of Ceará in Northeast Brazil, the plight of homeless and hungry street children continues to haunt me. One scene in particular. It unfolded during our first year in Fortaleza.
One evening around seven-thirty, my husband and two sons – then three and five years old – waited with me for a dental appointment. The dentist’s office was located at a busy intersection in Centro, downtown Fortaleza, where buses and other vehicles rumbled by.
At the entrance of the office, I watched with a mother’s concern at two boys – about two and six years old – standing on the narrow concrete divider in the middle of the two-way, four-lane Avenida. Each time the traffic light turned red, the older boy moved from vehicle to vehicle asking for money.
Those boys were just two of an estimated (2010) five thousand children and adolescents living on the streets of Brazil.
The plight of homeless and hungry American children and adolescents is not as visible to me as they were in Brazil. No child has approached me at an open-air restaurant or on the beach to ask me for something to eat. No child has snatched a bag of French fries from my hand as I wait for a bus. Yet, one out of every fifty – or approximately 1.5 million – American children go to sleep without a home of their own each year (Campaign to End Child Homelessness, http://www.homelesschildrenamerica.org).
In their battle to control growing deficits, states and the federal government are slashing the safety nets of the unemployed with budget cuts. With reduced donations, national food bankscannot cope with the increased demand for food assistance.
We need to inform ourselves about what is happening under our own roof. If you are ready to learn about our shameful state and if you would like to help American children and families facing hunger, watch the video, Hunger in America: How to Help, ABC World News with Diane Sawyer, 23 August 2011: http://abcnews.go.com/US/hunger-america/story?id=14342629.
