by the El Reportero’s news services

Hugo Chávez

Just over a year ago, critics of President Hugo Chávez forecast that the oil price collapse would mark the beginning of the end for him, but were disappointed when he turned the crisis to his advantage, taking the opportunity to ‘accelerate’ the Bolivarian Revolution and consolidate his increasingly autocratic grip on power (after a successful referendum to repeal the two-term limit on elected posts) with fresh nationalisations, fast track approval of new legislation (including controversial new Electoral and Education Laws) and a renewed assault on the opposition media. For a while, it seemed as though Chávez could ride out a year of recession without too much difficulty. From late 2009, however, it suddenly looked as though the tide was turning against the wily Venezuelan leader.

Morales sworn in as Bolivia’s fi rst “plurinational” president

Declaring the birth of the new “plurinational” state of Bolivia and death of the old “colonial” republic, President Evo Morales assumed offi ce for a second term on Jan. 22. There is some substance to his claims. The new legislature is transformed beyond all recognition, leaving him free rein to achieve his main priority – the implementation of the new “plurinational” constitution. The executive has also been overhauled with the most extensive cabinet reshuffle since Morales first came to power in 2006. Meanwhile the judiciary, the one branch of government still nominally aligned with the white minority elite (albeit while in a state of collapse) is set to be transformed in elections later in the year.

What Mexico’s record drop in remittances means

On Jan. 27 the Banco de México reported that the remittance infl ows fell 15.7 percent year-on-year in 2009 to US$21.2bn. This is the biggest ever annual fall in what has become a crucial support for some of the poorest communities in Mexico. What is truly worrying about the fall in remittances to Mexico is that the fall is greater than to other countries, both in the region and around the world.

­U.S. kid kidnappers in Haiti arrested

Washington, Feb 1 (Prensa Latina) Ten US citizens were detained in Haiti, accused of kidnapping children to take them out of the country, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

The detainees will face judicial charges for being alleged members of a people smuggling network that is taking advantage of the chaotic situation in Haiti.

Those U.S. citizens were captured when trying to cross the border, heading for the Dominican Republic. They said to be members of a religious group called New Life Children’s Refuge.

According to Haitian authorities, they are five men and five women, and the 33 kidnapped children range from 2 months to 12 years of age.

The majority of the detainees belong to a non-governmental congregation in Idaho, and had no legal documents to take the children out of the country.

by José de la Isla

HOUSTON — Did you ever attend a party and no one noticed you were there, and when you left no one noticed that you weren’t?

That is how I interpreted Long Island University professor José R. Sánchez’s New Year’s observation about the media’s oversight of some important passings.

He counted up the year-end recognitions of notable people who passed away in 2009 and noted next to no recognition of Latinos. The “treatment of Latino deaths is symptomatic of a wider neglect of Latinos,” he wrote in an essay for the National Institute for Latino Policy.

The New York Times included a chimpanzee among the 23 important “people” who died during the year, but not one Latino. The Chicago Tribune mentioned two Latinos out of 104 people: Argentine grammy winner Mercedes Sosa and Nicaraguan boxer Alex Arguello. Gidget, the Taco Bell Chihuahua, doesn’t count.

The Los Angeles Times mentioned only three Latinos out of 120 notable deaths.

It included actor Ricardo Montalbán, Mexican- American jockey Ismael Valenzuela, and one other person already mentioned. The Baltimore Sun also only listed three out of 134, with two-time Venezuelan president Rafael Antonio Caldera and baseball manager Preston Gómez, new to those already mentioned.

The 91 notable death listed by The Associated Press only included Montalbán. Sánchez concluded that a “group that is either not seen or that draws little interest will find its contributions minimized or dismissed.” And he relates this invisibility to powerlessness.

Sánchez might be right to a certain extent. When power, politics, fame and status are considered the purpose of life, getting recognized means everything. Getting overlooked is insulting.

Yet other trends, civic ones, might also suggest another path, one away from complaint, regret and grievance.

Only during the past decade did the U.S. Census results sink in about the exponential growth of the Latino population. It came as news to many, even though it’s been obvious for three decades. And for many it was a revelation similar to Columbus “discovering” America.

Ashamedly, this happened just during the past decade. Even though the Census Bureau reported in July 2001 that Hispanics already outnumbered African Americans by one million persons, the press and public alike regularly comment that Latinos “will soon become the nation’s largest minority population.

But “minority” status is nothing to aspire to. It is a quasi-legalisic designation and not one that comes out of conflating history, tradition, language, culture, world view and life, in general. It is what some sociologists call a “huristic,” a useful designation. But it is not useful when it stigmatizes or is used to suggest people who are outside the major currents of national life.

In fact, the revelation by the Census served to show just how out of touch so many persons are about knowing their own country.

Few people have formed a context for understanding other major events of the past decade.

A grassroots Hispanic enfranchisement movement began long before, in 1976, which validated that civil rights is not about color alone. The 2004 national election validated Hispanics as a national electorate. In 2006, the largest civil right marches in the nation’s history, over immigration reform, validated the Hispanic stake in the nation’s policy direction. That was the organiz- ing tipping point in several key states for the election of Barack Obama in 2008.

These events still aren’t registering in the national consciousness, even though

they are the result of civic participation by millions.

Sometimes nobody notices when you arrive at the party alone. But it’s hard to ignore when 50 million of you do. The work to be done is simple. Take the world as you find it, as did those few Hispanic notables who were mentioned in the media, and make this a more interesting place for everyone.

­Now that’s something to have on your tombstone.

Youth march in the Mission District for peace.­ (photo by Marvin J. Ramirez)

­1.) We are sending a message of love and peace to our youth. Speaking as ONE MISSION, we will not accept or tolerate violence as a way of life in our community.

­2.) We want to highlight the collective work that Community Based Organizations and individual members do on a daily basis; working to prevent crime in our community and empower youth and families. (Despite the Mayor and Police Department taking sole credit for the reduction of crime.

3.) We are fighting back against the Mayor’s Office for the devastating cuts, not only DCYF funded programs, but also the compolete elimination of entire programs that serve youth in our community. We are literally fighting to keep our children and youth alive and safe; ensuring them the right to a better quality of life and the pursuit of happiness.

Signed by Mission Community Peace Collaborative: Mission Beacon-Precita Center; HOMEN; Mission Girls; MiCoCo; Safety Net Boys & Girls Club; Mission Prep; SF Promise; Mission Graduates; Arriba Juntos; United Playaz; CRN; CARECEN; Instituto Familiar De La Raza; CUAV.

­

­by the University of Michigan

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Cleaner cooking fuel for parts of the developing world that still rely on wood is the goal of a University of Michigan student project. Engineering students are designing and building better biodigesters, which turn animal waste and food scraps into a biogas to power a stove.

In a biodigester tank, the waste can mix with water in the absence of oxygen, allowing the anaerobic bacteria already present in the waste to break it down into biogas and compostable material.

Cooking with biogas is healthier and more environmentally-friendly than cooking with wood.

“Fine particulates are released into the kitchen and the women who are in the kitchen all day have to breathe this in,” said Heather Dorer, an engineering undergraduate student who traveled to Nicaragua in August 2009 as part of this project.

During the 10-day trip, students learned about the biodigesters currently in use there and installed one. They have since used this knowledge to develop a new conceptual design for digesters that is appropriate for rural Nicaragua and similar cultures elsewhere. They expect to have a prototype by May, and to return this summer to continue the project.

“We’re improving the designs by increasing the user friendliness and also improving the yield of the biogas,” said Zijia Li, an undergraduate engineering student.

Students involved in this project belong to the organization BLUElab, which stands for Better Living Using Engineering Lab. BLUElab works toward sustainable solutions to development problems both domestically and internationally.

“Today’s engineering students are magicians at solving problems, but only a select few are capable of finding important problems and implementing economically and environmentally sustainable solutions in the real-world,” said associate professor Steve Skerlos, founder of BLUElab and associate chair in the Department of Mechanical Engineering.

­“I’m impressed with how this team of engineering students has grasped the technical as well as human and economic dimensions of this multidisciplinary design project. Their experiences in BLUElab and the Multidisciplinary Design Program will clearly place them well among the leaders and best of our undergraduates.”