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Nixon’s Hispanic vision: meditations on a miracle

by José de la Isla

HOUSTON – A popular affirmation, goes something like this: every moment is a choice between regret and the future; choose the future. Aphorisms like that, especially those posted on the bathroom mirror or the refrigerator, seem to help people overcome all sorts of problems, from low self-esteem to alcoholism. They remind us we have more power over our lives than we assume we do. But we must address the real demons of the past that hitchhike into the present and the future and dump them.

This comes to mind with publication of “The Nixons: A Family Portrait,” a memoir by former President Richard Nixon’s brother Edward. Co-authored with Karen Olson, it goes into some of the influences upon that very complex president. With the passage of time — and the Watergate crimes ceasing as the singular event that defined Nixon’s presidency — a kinder, gentler figure emerges.

Some promotional material even frames the book in terms around the statement by the late Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy’s regret that he didn’t take up Richard Nixon’s offer to work on a bipartisan national healthcare plan in 1971. If they had worked together, we would not have the present gut-wrenching debate that puts money as the fulcrum between life and death.

There is plenty more about Richard Nixon to put into perspective. For instance, it is well known that, already in the late 1960s, Republicans understood they were becoming a minority party in national elections and Nixon was the game changer. He devised a “southern strategy” to win parts of the South from Democrats. And he appealed to the “silent majority” by culling out from the Democratic coalition those groups that were intolerant of racial and student unrest and anti-war sympathizers.

During the 1970 census, the term “Hispanic,” under pressure from some Latino groups, I might add, was applied to identify and define that demographic. Hispanics were a new source for national economic expansion and electoral gains, as we now fully realize. Yet, it’s taken some portions of the Latino community to get over the designation and the endless bickering over which is “right” or preferred, “Hispanic” or “Latino.”

More important is that the Nixon White House gave unprecedented attention to Hispanic issues — some of it to undercut the influence that Lyndon Johnson had had — and a strategy to shepherd entrepreneurs and middle-class Latinos into Republican ranks. What they did and how they did it is, in part, revealed in the Watergate Commission’s public record.

What was started back then, of course, was fumbled during George W. Bush’s presidency so that Republican Latinos are at their lowest point in the last 40 years. Yet, the Q&A that Clint Bolick, research fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, asked himself in 2007 is patently obvious: “Should Republicans court Hispanic voters? Only if they want to survive.”

The Nixon White House saw this eventuality already in 1970.

How the GOP blew the opportunity after four decades of effort is something for Republicans to regret.

But now is the present, and tomorrow is the future. Our fortune cookie tells us that despite some valiant efforts in some states such as Arizona, far too much of the Republican leadership is steeped in mythic America. Even their platitudes about economics and ideology ring hollow or banal, more in tune with a revival meeting than a party platform.

Many Republicans stand to learn a thing or two from the affirmation about the road back to pragmatism (and not the manipulativeness, racialism and law-skirting behavior) of Richard Nixon.

People take up affirmations because they judge themselves capable of change. One spiritual leader, Deepak Chopra, has a version of the affirmation that might apply. He presents it something like, “Every decision is a choice between a grievance and a miracle. Choose the miracle.” Hispanic Link.

Perhaps it will take a miracle. At least that’s better than what’s going on now. Hispanic Link.

[José de la Isla’s latest digital book, sponsored by The Ford Foundation, is available free at www.DayNightLifeDeathHope.com. He writes a weekly commentary for Hispanic Link News Service and is author of The Rise of Hispanic Political Power (2003). E-mail him at ­joseisla3@yahoo.com.] © 2009

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Animal advocates denounce UCSF for violating experimental laws

by El Reportero’s staff

Animal rights activists met last Wednesday, Oct. 28 in Oakland with members of the UC Board of Regents, during their annual meeting. It was to tackle the university’s violations of federal experimentation law with animals and which has caused the death of several primates at the laboratories. Several animal protective organizations urged the UC to take forceful actions so that they do not repeat these actions.

Also the UCSF has been quoted by the Department of Agriculture of the United States (USDA) immediately after the complaints of the Organism of Control. Along with this, two experimental protocols were suspended due to the violations of the federal law.

Also the UCSF has recently been cited by the USDA in the negligent deaths of several primates.

Additionally, two experimental protocols were halted due to federal violations. Along with this, two experimental protocols were suspended due to the violations of the federal law.

Latino community organization honored for 45 years of service

The Unity Council, Oakland Vice Mayor Ignacio De La Fuente, Former Senate pro Tem and Oakland Mayoral Candidate Don Perata, Mexican Consulate General Carlos Felix, BART Director Carole Ward Allen, Oakland Councilmember At-Large Rebecca Kaplan, and lead sponsor State Farm Bank, convenen to celebrate four-and-a-half decades of past accomplishments and to forge a future of new possibilities.

A commemoration of the Unity Council’s 45 years of service to the community and featuring as its keynote speaker U.S. Treasurer and former Unity Council board member, Rosie Rios, this promises to be an engaging social event with food stations and an open bar.

Located in the Fruitvale district, the Unity Council employs a comprehensive strategy to building community assets by focusing on economic, social and neighborhood needs; providing approximately 12,000 people each year with the tools needed to transform their lives, build wealth and ultimately achieve long-term educational, entrepreneurial or homeownership goals. The Unity Council’s HUD-approved counseling agency, the Homeownership Center, educated, counseled and supported more than 1,000 families at risk of losing their homes to foreclosure in 2008.

­The Unity Council (also known as The Spanish Speaking Unity Council) was founded in 1964.

SF bids citywide clean energy – 51 percent by 2017

The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) today released a Request for Proposals authorized by City leaders to implement the Community Choice Aggregation Program, known as CleanPowerSF. Co-drafted by the San Francisco Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCo) with technical assistance of Local Power, Inc. following a decade of preparation, the RFP invites bids to provide a new electricity service to San Franciscans that consists of 51% renewable energy and demand technologies by 2017, and provides municipal financing for development of at least 360 Megawatts of new solar photovoltaics, smart grid, local wind, cogeneration, energy efficiency technologies and other local green power.

The RFP, authorized by an October 27 city ordinance approved by the Board of Supervisors, puts out for contract a major metropolitan power service worth billions of dollars in multi-year revenues and hundreds of millions in City financing, seeking no less than a new retail electricity supplier alternative to Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) to serve local residents and businesses, and use voter-approved revenue bonds to finance construction of a major, in some ways unprecedented, new urban green power infrastructure to serve them: what Local Power Inc. calls “a new kind of power.”

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10th Annual Latin Music Awards top Latino performers

­

by Antonio Mejías-Rentas

Calle TreceCalle Trece

THE WINNERS ARE: Top Latin music performers meet in Las Vegas for the 10th annual Latin Grammy Awards ceremony.

The ceremony returns to its 2007 site -the Mandalay Bay Events Center, and promises a stellar lineup of performers and presenters. Among the expected highlights, Puerto Rican urban duo Calle 13—this year’s top nominee, with five nods—will perform live for the first time with co-nominee Ruben Blades their nominated song La perla.

Spanish singer-songwriter Alejandro Sanz, a top Latin Grammy winner, will perform a song chosen by his fans from among several that won the award.

The list of performers also includes Mexican singer/songwriter Juan Gabriel, this year’s Latin Recording Academy Person of the Year. Other performers and presenters are Pepe Aguilar, Oscar D’Le6n, Omara Portuondo and Enrique Bumbury.

Alejandro SanzAlejandro Sanz

The ceremony, to be telecast live by Univisi6n, is to be held Nov. 5. A day before, the Person of the Year ceremony will include the likes of David Bisbaj, Indja, Juanes and La Quinta Estación performing some of the best-known songs by Juan Gabriel.

ALSO on Nov. 4, the Latin Recording Academy will hand out its Lifetime Achievement Awards to Cándido Romero, Beth Carvatho, Charly García, Tania Libertad, Marco Antonio Muñiz and Juan Romero.

LANGUAGE PREFERENCE: More Spanish-language speakers would watch TV programs dubbed into Spanish if the Second Audio Program or SAP technology was more readily available, according to a study released by the Screen Actors Guild (SAG).

According to the 2009 Hispanic Consumer Survey on SAP, as many as 64 percent of Spanish-language speakers surveyed said they would watch the dubbed programs if more were made available. And 48 percent said they watch programs they normally would not tune into, because they are broadcast on SAP.

While the SAG study does not indicate what percentage of English-language programs are dubbed for the U.S. market, it indicated the most watched shows on SAP are The Simpsons on Fox, Ugly Betty on ABC and CS/ Miami on CRS.

Three out of five of the dubbed programs are perfomed in Spanish by SAG members.

ONELINERS: Adonis Losada, an actor with a recurring role as Doña Concha on Univisión’s Sábado Gigante, pleaded not guilty to child pornography charges in Miami-Dade Circuit Court. He was arrested in September and remains jailed without bail…Los Angeles Lakers center Paul Gasol will appear on the Nov. 16 episode of CSI Miami… Hispanic Link.­

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Boxing

­Friday, Nov. 21 — at Rama, Ontario, Canada (Showtime)

WBA/IBF super bantamweight title: Steve Molitor vs. Celestino Caballero.

Saturday, Nov. 22 — at Las Vegas, NV (HBO)

Ricky Hatton vs. Paul Malignaggi.

Rey Bautista vs. Heriberto Ruiz.

Friday, Nov. 28 — at Rio Rancho, NM (TeleFutura)

Jesus Soto Karass vs. Carlos Molina.

Saturday, Nov. 29 — at Ontario, CA (HBO)

IBF light middleweight title: Paul Williams vs. Verno Phillips Chris Arreola vs. Travis Walker.

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El Reportero turns 19 years old

Marvin J. RamirezMarvin J. Ramirez

To those who have followed us over the years, El Reportero has turned 19 years old this month. It’s been an odyssey, since unlike other publications, which mainly motive to publish a newspaper or a magazine had been an ego trip or money, for me it has been a labor of love.

Covering and publishing the type of news that we print in our pages goes beyond to just printing anything, but rather to give you challenging information that the mainstream media censures or are directed not to touch.

But of course, as it is for so many publishers, it also feels good to say something you feel, and be able spread it to thousands of people who will read it, and become part of the discourse that you are presenting.

Lately, I’ve focused on controversial news that exposes government corruption.

We believe, or let’s say, I believe, that there is a vacuum of information that truly exposes the ills of government officials and politicians and that hides the real history of the United States, which if it were known to the majority of the people, we wouldn’t be in the so chaotic economic mess that the international bankers have created by design upon us.

This has been done to crash the economy – as it was done in the late 1920s during the Great Depression – and to submit the North American people into slavery, as it was done by Franklin Delano Roosevelt with his New Deal with the creation of the Social Security Act and the Trading with the Enemy Act, which made the American people enemies of the state, and hence, subjected to the confiscation of their gold and silver and used themselves and their properties, as collateral against the national debt.

This type of information or topics are not covered by any of the mainstream media because their institutions are quasi government mouthpieces. They are used to repeat the speeches of their masters and to keep you bound to their topics – chosen by the international bankers, who are the funding partners of their media empires.

El Reportero, as small as it is, utilizes whatever it can, to tell the truth, and this is done with the help of our advertisers. Many of them have been with us for more than a decade, while others almost two decades.

I thank you for that faithful support of yours all these years, and also I thank our readers for lending us their time to read what we ­give them as weekly intellectual bread.

Please take notice that some of our advertising representatives might call you to invite you to participate in the celebration of our anniversary, which might last up to two months. You will be asked to place a business card-size or bigger ad congratulating El Reportero for its 19 years of service to the community.

Happy birthday, El Reportero!

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The new sorcerer’s apprentice

by José de la Isla
Hispanic Link News Service

HOUSTON Ð Some ancient history might help us get a perspective on a contemporary situation. Here goes:

Following the fall of the Roman Empire, Europe went into a long dormant period. With it went an intellectual tradition that had begun with the ancient Greeks and had persisted into Roman times, from roughly 44 B.C. until about 476 A.D. Previously, scientific and engineering and social knowledge had been the basis for understanding all sorts of change and progress. Now, a millennium of very slow or no development followed, called the Dark Ages.

For instance, Aristarchus of Samos (310 BC Ð ca. 230 BC) had already formulated eighteen hundred years before Copernicus (1473-1543) that the earth was a round planet moving within a complex system. But a disbelieving public and policy centers could not absorb those scientific possibilities. Magical thinking was more important.

After a thousand years, the Dark Ages ended when superstitious thinking and legends had to give way to systematic thinking and discovery, called the Enlightenment, which also brought us the modern concept of science and knowledge. History became a progression of events instead of stringing myths together. But old habits are hard to break, even when they are staring you in the face.

For instance, in 1751, nearly three centuries after the Dark Ages had ended, French philosopher Denis Diderot published the Encyclopedia as a monument to the age of reason, wisdom and knowledge. In it, “America,” whose exploration had begun two and a half centuries before, occupied a quarter of a page. Not until years later was a Supplement printed containing 19 pages about the continent.

This shows how the obvious can be overlooked when people are obsessed with their closed-mindedness. Today, we have, by many who never cared before, the phenomenon of having discovered Latinos and are trying to go from a quarter page to 19 pages. The reason is obvious.

The motivation for the sudden attention given Latinos is the realization that Hispanic voters increased by two million from the 2004 to the 2008 presidential election. The number of non-Hispanic white voters was not statistically different from 2004. The sudden enlightenment, for instance, like the Feb. 16 launch of the Latino ­Partnership for Conservative Principles, is less about conservative values but self-interest and marketing outreach.

Washington Times blogger Thomas Peters reported as much in his interview with spokesperson Alfonso Aguilar who said his group would focus on educating conservatives about Hispanic values (as if Hispanics are not mostly already integrated into society) and about immigration (which in power centers means defining Latinos as “outsiders”). Aguilar acknowledged to Peters “many conservatives may not come out in support of reform immediately but that as the Hispanic vote continues to increase, they will see the demographic necessity to back reform.”

But the transparent statement shows it is not about enlightenment but a gimmick. It is not about “principles” but marketing.

Wayne Besen, founder of a non-profit group that debunks anti-gay misrepresentations and myths, says that the Latino Conservative Principles organizer Robert P. George has a “primary talent, it seems, is to trick the unschooled and easily fooled,” in this case other conservatives. That kind of hocus-pocus takes us back to the Dark Ages, when sophistry, fake religion, magic, anti-progress schemes, encouraged many Sorcerers’ apprentices.

You can see in its post-modern form, how a wart of frog, deceptive intentions and ignorance of Latino civic history don’t add up to good principals. It might work for fundraising purposes but it looks like a trick bag to enroll Latinos into somebody else’s political agenda.

In other words, like the Dark Ages, there seems to be a movement afoot by those who don’t know to tell others in a quarter page all about the half millennium of Hispanic values and reducing it all to tiring political wedge issues, cherry-picked platitudes andÑschizam!!!—Now you see the principles, now you don’t.

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Legislation to crack down on landlord imposters

­by Marvin Ramirez and news reports

22 tenants in one housemás: A private building inspector shows the filth in the house's back yard where children live. (PHOTO BY MARVIN RAMIREZ)22 tenants in one housemás: A private building inspector shows the filth in the house’s back yard where children live. (PHOTO BY MARVIN RAMIREZ)

As the state grapples with record foreclosures, more and more families are struggling to keep a roof over their heads.

As more families look at rental options, a wake of housing-related crimes has erupted throughout California. Scam artists, hoping to prey on potential renters, pose as landlords or as owners of a property, and post attractive rental listings of abandoned homes on the internet, according to statement by a state senator.

An unsuspecting renter meets with the imposter, is handed keys, and is asked to pay large cash deposit, completely unaware that he or she is about to become a victim of real estate fraud. AB 1800 will enhance the current misdemeanor crime of posing as a landlord to felony grand theft.

A press conference in Sacramento would introduce a bill on March 15, 2010.

The legislation comes at a time when tenants are being ripped off by unscrupulous people posing as landlords of rental units. Most of the time these victims are undocumented immigrants who for fear of retaliation or being deported, do not ask questions to the people they pay their rent to.

And exactly this is what is happening near by the Mission. According to tenant law attorney Phil O’Brian, 22 tenants were duped for a long time by a fake landlord, who took rent money from them, charged them for electricity and water, and if they complaint about the conditions of the unit, he would threaten them with the immigration service.

Gilbert Lee, the real owner, as the tenants found out was his name after denouncing their plight at San Pedro Housing, a tenant advocate organization, was not around for a long time. Instead, Marcos Alemán, who didn’t live in the unit but collected the rent every month, and sometimes demanded additional payment for another month, was the de facto landlord. He was able to collect rent for many months for years, while keeping the tenants  under fear of deportation. Because he didn’t pay the electricity, the tenants live a week without the service. They also were prohibited to use portable heaters, while keeping a chain in the front door to lock them out if they violated the rules.

­The house, located a block from Mission Street in the Bernal Heights district, it hardly has any space that is not transformed into a sleeping space. It’s hard to imagine how these 22 tenants and children can live as human beings. There is a long line to use the bathroom before they go to work almost at the same time in the morning. Only one couple living in an area of the garage has the luxury of having their one (portable) bathroom. To cook their meals in the only kitchen must be a nightmare. To accommodate to the circumstances, many have set up their own ways to overcome the limitation, which makes the unit an unhealthy and fire hazard place to live. The backyard is the filthiest place you can find, putting in danger the health of the children, not to mention the rotten sewer from which they drink water and electric wire exposed around the walls.

Two of four children of a couple had tonsil surgeries recently, and are having breathing problems in the windowless room, which the mother said smells like humidity and it’s hard to breath.

El Reportero will keep you informed about the legal issue going on between the landlord and the tenants, who have stopped paying their rent since approximately last November.

­

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Third World hotspots add to worldwide energy demand

by the University of Michigan

ANN ARBOR, Michigan.— Developing countries use proportionally less energy than industrialized nations, but large cities like Madras and Bangkok are helping to fuel global energy demand, according to a University of Michigan study.

Thirty-eight of the world’s 50 largest metropolitan areas are located in countries with emerging economies and most of them are located in warm-to-hot climates.

“Using energy to cool houses and apartments is not yet common in developing countries,” said Michael Sivak of the U-M Transportation Research Institute. “However, as individual income in developing countries increases, it is likely that so will the use of air conditioning in hot climates.”

In a new study published in the journal Energy Policy, Sivak examined the combined energy demand per person for residential heating and cooling in the world’s 50 largest metropolitan areas.

His analysis used data on “heating and cooling degree days”—units that relate to the amount of energy needed to heat and cool buildings—to produce a combined index of total energy demand for climate control. One heating (cooling) degree day occurs for each degree the average daily outdoor temperature is below (above) 65 degrees Fahrenheit.

Sivak says that among the world’s 50 largest cities, the top 13 in terms of cooling degree days are located in developing countries, such as India, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nigeria. All but two of the top 30 are in these and other developing nations.

The warmest metropolitan area in developing countries—Madras—has 1.6 times the cooling degree days of Miami, the warmest city in developed countries.

The potential cooling demand for another Indian city—Mumbai—is about 24 percent of the demand of the entire United States.

­Currently, nearly 90 percent of housing units in the United States have central or room air conditioning, but only 2 percent in India do.

“Whether the potential cooling demand in developing countries will translate into energy consumption for cooling on the scale of the United States or greater is not clear,” he says.

“Differences in energy infrastructure, size and occupancy density of buildings, sustainability concerns, desirable temperature and diurnal use of air conditioning will influence the energy use for cooling in developing countries. Nevertheless, the potential for a huge increase in energy use remains.”

Overall, among the largest cities in the world, four cold-weather metropolitan areas use the most energy (mostly heating, but some cooling, as well): the Russian cities of St. Petersburg and Moscow and the North American cities of Toronto and Chicago (the only two cities in industrialized nations among the top 10).

The rest of the top 10 include warm-weather cities Madras; Bangkok; Karachi, Pakistan; Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; and the Chinese cities of Beijing and Tianjin, which have more seasonal weather.

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Chávez and Uribe pay lip service to mediation by ‘group of friends’

­by the El Reportero’s news services

Chávez and UribeChávez and Uribe

Colombia and Venezuela have accepted an initiative of the joint Latin American and Caribbean summit to form a ‘group of friends’ to facilitate a rapprochement. This came after another round of escalating acrimony, which at one point threatened to derail the summit. Signs are that little will happen until after Colombia’s impending president elections.

­U.S. drugs reports castigates Venezuela:

On March 1 the US State Department published its 2010 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR). The report, the 27th annual edition, is a review of foreign governments’ efforts to deal with their narcotics problems. Its broad conclusions are that Iran and Europe’s drugs problems are becoming urgent, while cocaine consumption in the US is slowing. Within Latin America, Venezuela, and more surprisingly, Peru, come in for implied criticism.

­

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Ho ho ho and a bottle over rum: Puerto Rico and Virgin Islands locked in dispute

Reported by Hispanic Link

Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands are locked in a dispute over rum production that would have a significant impact on the economic futures of both U.S. territories. It threatens to seep into elections in the mainland United States.

At the heart of the dispute is the use of rum excise tax refunds given to the territories. Currently, a $13.50 excise tax is collected one very proof gallon of rum produced outside the U.S. mainland and sold in the United States.

ECONOMIC AID IS BENEFIT

According to public-interest journalism website ProPublica.org, most of the rum is made in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, and Congress passes along almost all of the tax — $13.25 — to the two territories as economic aid, based on the amount of rum each produces.

That generally translates into about $400 million for Puerto Rico and $80 million for the Virgin Islands. One of the world’s largest rum producers, London-based company Diageo, owner of the Captain Morgan brand, currently produces 9 million proof gallons a year in Puerto Rico through an evengreen agreement with Hispanic supplier Distilería Seralles, generating significant subsidies for the country.

However, in 2008 Diageo struck a deal with the U.S. Virgin Islands that would give the company half of the rum-tax money that is returned to the territory for production of Diageo’s rum, which would run to $6 billion over the length of the 30-year deal. In addition, according to ProPublica, the Virgin Islands also will give Diageo a 90 percent income- tax break, a complete exemption from property taxes and a state-of-the-art $165 million rum distillery, which is now under construction.

Puerto Rico is claiming the deal represents an unfair use of the rum-tax subsidy and Diageo is receiving more than it costs in total to produce the rum. Losing the rum production would deprive Puerto Rico of funds for social programs in a country where unemployment stands 16.5 percent and one in three residents lives in poverty. The Virgin Islands claim that Diageo had already decided to leave Puerto Rico and their deal with the company preserves U.S. rum production.

Puerto Rico is unable to match the deal offered by the Virgin Islands due to a local law that prohibits the country from spending more than 10% of the rum-tax refunds on subsidies to companies. Puerto Rico supporters are now pushing for a federal law mandating a cap for all territories receiving rum-tax subsidies, setting off a lobbying war in Washington, D.C.

The issue is also beginning to spill into midterm election campaigns. On Feb. 11, former Miami mayor Maurice Ferré, who is now running in Florida’s Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, came out against the Virgin Island deal.

SIGNIFICANT JOB LOSS

This prompted the National Puerto Rican Coalition to call on Florida’s other Senate candidates, Republicans Gov. Charlie Crist and former Speaker of the Florida House Marco Rubio, as well as Democratic U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, to denounce the deal.

This is going to cause profound pain in Puerto Rico, which counts on these revenues to meet pressing social needs,” NPRC Presi­dent Rafael Fantauzzi said in a statement: Will Crist, Meek and Rubio join Ferré in standing up for the people of Puerto Rico, or will they tell us how they will accommodate the thousands of Puerto Ricans who will have no choice but to relocate to the United States as a result of the continuing economic crisis on the island?” Hispanic Link.

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