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March, 2005

  1. Tell it on the mountain

    March 4, 2005 by elenamary

    Few people seem to understand that the United States military recruits non-citizens. There are the false promises of US citizenship and assitance in school funding. I have written about it before. What I didn’t know was that it seems the US military might be recruiting in Mexico, now too. (Thanks to Julio for the link).

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  2. Democracy Now!

    March 2, 2005 by elenamary

    I watched Democracy Now! this morning. Two segments have stuck with me all day the first The Haiti Coup One Year Later: A Look Back at the U.S. Role in the Overthrow of Aristide and Intelligence Inc: The Privatization of U.S. Interrogations at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo and Afghanistan.

    Both made me think of Alexi who currently works for Lockheed Martin one of the the largest military contract intelligence agency for the United States. I encourage you to watch these two segments. Both segments left me feeling that I know very little about the injustices of the world including those caused by my country that I love so much. Please watch the segments. Let me know what you think.

    I also ask another favor, I ask for your advice. I told Alexi, that I didn’t like him working for Lockheed Martin, that I didn’t like what his company did and who they worked with. He told me that the CIA wasn’t as bad as it used to be, I protested and asked him about Haiti and Venezuela. Alexi, argued that while parts of Lockheed may do things I don’t agree with the parts he works with do good things. That my argument made as much sense as him saying that he didn’t agree with the government and my working tech support at a State University (a government funded university) was bad because it was a part of the government. I know this to be untrue, but find myself at a loss of explaining how this is very different. His other argument was also that once he left the military defense industry it would be easier for him to criticize because he had been on the inside. Why is that a logical argument? Why can’t he recognize that he works for an established company that benefits from war, an organization that needs to be countered now. I believe in democracies and the right to live in peace. His company encourages the opposite.

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  3. What Global Language?

    March 1, 2005 by elenamary

    Comentario sobre “What Global Language?” by Barbara Wallraff, Atlantic Monthly, November 2000.

    Wallraff quiere mostrar a sus lectores que muchos partes del mundo y de los EEUU no solamente están dominada por el ingles. Sobre idiomas en los EEUU Wallraff, escribe:

    “Even Sioux City, Iowa now has a Spanish-Language newspaper.”

    ¿Comó que “even Sioux City”? No es cosa tan rara si por unos setenta años Mexicanos han ido a Iowa a trabajar. Si Columbus, Ohio apenas ha tenido Mexicanos en los últimos 5-10 años y ya hemos tenido cuatro periódicos en español y tres o cuatro estaciones de radio en español, ¿por qué no tendrán un periódico en español en Sioux City, Iowa?

    Wallraff sigue escribiendo que muchos lugares han tenido “controversy” y se sienten “alarmed” a encontrar que hay gente quienes no hablan ingles en sus pueblos;

    “Small American towns from Huntsville, Alabama to Meriden, Connecticut, to Wausau Wisconsin, to El Cenizo, Texas—all sites of linguistic controversy in recent years—have been alarmed to find that many new arrivals do not speak English well and some may not even see the point of going to the trouble of learning it.
    How can all of this simultaneously be true? How can it be that English is conquering the globe if it can’t even hold its own in parts of our traditionally English-speaking country?    ”

    No se la historia sobre Huntsville, Alabama ó Wausau, Wisconsin. Se que por unos setenta años Mexicanos han estado migrando a Wisconsin a trabajar. Y podría ser que estoy equivocada pero me imagino que El Cenizo, Texas no siempre (o posiblemente nunca) ha sido un lugar “traditionally English-speaking.” Tampoco se como explicar el racismo que siento con esos oraciones. Por un lado quiero decir que es xenofobia pero ¿cuando deja de ser xenofobia? ¿Cuanto tiempo tiene que estar uno en El Cenizo, Texas hablando en español hasta que nos damos cuenta que este idioma ha estado allí por mucho más tiempo que el ingles?

    “…it’s hard to find anyone who doesn’t think it would be nice if everyone in the United States spoke English. Virtually all the impassioned debate is about whose resources should be devoted to making this happen and whether people should be encouraged to speak or discouraged from speaking other languages too.”

    Yo soy una de esas “hard to find” personas quienes no piensan que seria bueno si todos hablábamos ingles. Si seria mas fácil si todos habláramos el mismo idioma pero quien dice que tiene que ser el Ingles ¿Por que no el Español? No es tan raro andar por el norte de Ohio y más necesitar el español que el ingles. Pero sabes esos dos mundos del español en Ohio y ingles en Ohio casi nunca se mezclan. Como unos de mis compañeros quienes me preguntaron si yo sabia donde podrían encontrar gente quienes hablan español en Columbus. Yo les quise responder busque detrás de un Bob Evans. Hispanohablantes están aquí y han estado aquí. Tal vez podria ser que dentro la cultura dominante del ingles no deseamos ver los hispanohablentes.

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