Thursday, October 02, 2008

Hortensia Fernández Fuentes

When I was living in Puebla, Mexico, Prof. Fernández was the principal of my daughter's grammar school, she writes this today:

"Hortensia Fernández Fuentes, directora del Centro Freinet Prometeo. Fue detenida en Ciudad Universitaria de la UNAM el 18 de septiembre, y estuvo encarcelada tres días. El 2 de octubre de 1968, en la mañana y tarde estuvo en la UAP, en la Escuela de Psicología de la que era alumna y por la noche estuvo en casa. “Me ha costado trabajo recordar esto, el recuerdo de la masacre de Tlatelolco ocupa la memoria de ese y muchos otros días de mi vida”.


“Me dedicaba a estudiar y a cumplir con mi tarea ciudadana de protestar contra la represión gubernamental, defender la educación pública, el derecho de opinión y a pedir la excarcelación de los detenidos injustamente en el movimiento estudiantil y popular”.
“El movimiento permitió que mucha gente tomara conciencia de la condición de sumisión ante el poder que vivía, y aún vive en muchos ámbitos el pueblo de México. Mostró la dignidad de quienes tuvieron el valor de protestar aún a pesar de la represión armada. El movimiento del 68 cambió nuestro país para siempre; fue un paso de grandes alcances de los que incluso todavía no nos damos cuenta. Lamentablemente, 40 años después, las luchas para abatir la injusticia y la desigualdad siguen siendo necesarias; baste como una muestra la inmolación reciente de un campesino veracruzano  que protestó así por la desatención de las autoridades ante el problema agrario de su pueblo. ¡Sólo les habían cancelado la audiencia 107 veces! Y el gobierno veracruzano ‘asegura que no hubo omisión de su parte para atender el caso’. Es terrible, no queda otra que apretar el paso y seguir en la lucha”."
My translation is:
Hortensia Fernández Fuentes, principal of Centro Freinet Prometeo. She was detained at the campus of the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City on September 18, and she was jailed for three days. On October 2, 1968, during the morning and afternoon she was at the Autonomous University of Puebla, at the Psychology School where she was a student  and at night she was home."I had trouble recalling this; the thought of the Tlateloco massacre occupies the memory of that and many other days of my life".
"I studied and satisfied my civilian duty to protest government repression, to defend public education, free speech, and to ask for the release of the unjustly detained in the student and popular movement".
"The movement allowed many people to acknowledge the subjugation to power the Mexican people suffers in many areas of life then and still now.   It showed the dignity of those with the courage to protest despite the armed repression. The 68 movement changed our country forever; it was a step of great consequences, some of which we still are not aware of. Unfortunately, 40 years later, the battles to abolish injustice and inequality are still necessary; just as an example we have the recent self-immolation of  a Veracruz peasant in protest for the lack of attention by the authorities of the agrarian problem of his people. They had only canceled the appointment 107 times! And the Veracruz government "assures us that there was no lack of attention, on their part, to this case." It is terrible, there is nothing left but steady the march and continue the fight."
Well said Hortensia.

Roger Cohen

I regularly read this journalist's opinions in the NYT. Today he writes in Nixon, Bush, Palin:

"The lesson of the last eight years is this: when power is a passport to gamble, people can end up seriously broke or seriously dead."


"And people’s houses across America really did go up in smoke.

And fear stalked the land."


President Bush's tenure will likely be remembered as one of the dark periods of US History.


I hope this is over soon.

Priest-Cosmologist Wins $1.6 Million Templeton Prize

Professor Heller was born in 1936 in Poland, one of five children in a deeply religious family devoted to intellectual interests. His mother, a schoolteacher, and his father, an engineer, fled to Russia in 1939 before the Nazi occupation. On returning years later to Poland, Heller found shelter for his work in the Catholic Church.

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October 2, 1968

Twenty years ago today I had just turned nineteen, and some young people of my generation died in the worst day of our political life. I saw the tanks from my house, and chose not to go to the meeting. The Mexican Government killed more than five hundred people. Officially there were a few students dead; nobody in Government said then, nor now, how many really died.

I want to remember this today.

Now the political landscape is better, there are more parties vying for power, and I feel this cannot happen today.

The killer was Gustavo Díaz Ordaz, then President of México.

California-Mexico border technology park gets green boost -

Silicon Border Development will move ahead with a science park in Mexicali, Mexico, targeting solar energy firms.

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Nixon, Bush, Palin

The lesson of the last eight years is this: When power is a a passport to gamble, people can end up seriously broke or seriously dead. Does America want to roll the dice again?

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Wednesday, October 01, 2008

Mars Weather Forecast: Snow

The latest findings from the Martian Arctic offer more hints of a wet past but paint a very arid present, scientists reported Monday.

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Paul Krugman: Stockholm Syndrome

On Olbermann a few minutes ago (that basement classroom with the heavy paper over the windows and camera sure has come in handy lately!) a phrase popped out of my mouth: “Stockholm Syndrome”, with regard to the bailout rescue.Here’s the thing: it’s very hard for Congress to originate complex financial rescues, so it’s

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“Creative destruction” vs bailout of US financial system

“For the sake of the altar of the Free Market system, do you accept a Great Depression?"

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A Good Jewish Joke, Anyone?

I read Tom Friedman' Rabbi Joke:

"My rabbi told this story at Rosh Hashana services on Tuesday: A frail 80-year-old mother is celebrating her birthday and her three sons each give her a present. Harry gives her a new house. Harvey gives her a new car and driver. And Bernie gives her a huge parrot that can recite the entire Torah. A week later, she calls her three sons together and says: “Harry, thanks for the nice house, but I only live in one room. Harvey, thanks for the nice car, but I can’t stand the driver. Bernie, thanks for giving your mother something she could really enjoy. That chicken was delicious.”"


I am not Jewish, but I married one. I guess that makes me somewhat Jewish by association. Mexicans also have their jokes, I wrote one about Proculo's Fart  sometime ago.


Under stress, like many Mexicans and Jewish people live, for no fault of their own, some humor is needed.

Rescue the Rescue

Our leaders have gotten so out of practice of working together that even in the face of this meltdown they could not agree on a rescue package.

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FTP Down?

Another message from a dying company?

"Dear AOL Hometown/FTP user,

We’re sorry to inform you that on Oct. 31, 2008, AOL® Hometown and FTP will be shut down permanently. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Though you will be able to modify your Hometown site and access FTP until this date, we urge you to save your AOL Hometown/FTP content immediately, and consider other options for hosting your site. Read more about how to download and save your Hometown/FTP files here.

In the meantime, please bookmark the People Connection Blog, where you can find out more about AOL Hometown/FTP. You can also subscribe to the People Connection Blog RSS feed to stay informed about any changes. We’ll be updating the People Connection Blog often, so please check it regularly.

Thank you for your patience and understanding as we make this transition. Again, we apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Sincerely,

The AOL Hometown Team"

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Mexico: 18 Bodies Found in Tijuana

The police discovered a dozen partly clothed bodies on Monday, most of which had been bound and tortured, dumped next to an elementary school in Tijuana.

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Is AOL Dying?

I received this notification:


Dear AOL Journals user,

We’re sorry to inform you that on Oct. 31, 2008, AOL® Journals will be shut down permanently. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

It’s very important that you save your Journals content before the shutdown. We're working on a way to easily move your Journal to another blogging service -- you can expect an email within the next week with more details about how to do it. We want the transition to go as smoothly as possible for you, so you’ll have two choices. You can either save your information manually and find another place to blog on your own, or choose to automatically transfer your Journal to a different blogging service we’ve selected.

In the meantime, please bookmark the People Connection Blog, where you can find out more about AOL Journals. You can also subscribe to the People Connection Blog RSS feed to stay informed about any changes. We’ll be updating the People Connection Blog often, so please check it regularly.

Thank you for your patience and understanding as we make this transition.

Sincerely,

The AOL Journals Team

When Madmen Reign

The question voters should be asking John McCain is whether he has stopped serving his party’s economic Kool-Aid and is ready to change his ways.

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Paul Krugman: People I agree with, part two

Jamie Galbraith, pre-House-debacle, offers a jaundiced pro-Dodd-Frank argument essentially the same as mine:In short, as I said at the beginning, the bill is a vast improvement over the original Treasury proposal. Given the choice between approving or defeating the bill as it stands, I would urge supporting the bill. I do so without illusions.

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Paul Krugman: Where Will the Money Come From?

In the end, the US government will rescue the financial system — not today or tomorrow, maybe not Thursday, but soon, and for the rest of our lives, or anyway until the next crisis.But, people ask me, where will we get the money? Won’t we have to borrow it from the Chinese?Actually, no. Ten years [...]

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Monday, September 29, 2008

The Most Dangerous Job on Earth

If Pakistan is the most dangerous country on earth, then Asif Ali Zardari has taken one of the world’s least enviable posts as president.

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Jewish New Year

Happy New Year
Today we celebrate the year 5769 in the Jewish Calendar.
It is a composite number 3x1923.

Lawmakers Defy Bush and Party Leaders, Rejecting Bailout

In a moment of historic drama in the Capitol and on Wall Street, the House of Representatives voted 228-205 to reject a $700 billion rescue of the financial industry.

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