From Xico

American Shame

I live in Mexico legally. I have an FM3. I know of Americans who reside peacefully in Mexico illegally. I know they often don't have much money, and they don't have official jobs. Nobody is screaming at them to get out; they don't live in fear, though maybe they are slightly uneasy. Recently I arrived at the Mexico City airport for a flight to Boston. I brought my husband's FM3 by mistake. Everyone was very kind. One immigration officer tried to fix it so I could get the stern one to let me just exit Mexico on a tourist visa. It didn't work, so I ended up taking the bus back home to get my papers. Anyway, what with one thing and another, I made friends with the airline worker and she came running over so I could jump the line when I appeared two days later with the right papers.

So today I read yet another editorial in the NYTimes about our own behavior towards immigrants. . In today's editorial, the Times reports,

Now Michael Chertoff is clear-cutting a forest of regulations to wall out Mexico by the end of the year. And through the program known as 287(g), his agency is parceling out duties to a growing number of local police and sheriff’s departments, raising an army of junior deputies in the war on illegal immigrants.

As you can imagine, members of this "army" are operating in the most shameful way. Here is how the Sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona, where Phoenix is, operates.

For months now, Sheriff Joe has been sending squads of officers through Latino neighborhoods, pulling cars over for broken taillights or turn-signal violations, checking drivers’ and passengers’ papers and arresting illegal immigrants by the dozen....
The sheriff says, we "... have a 3,000-person posse — and about 500 have guns. They have their own airplanes, jeeps, motorcycles, everything. They can only operate under the sheriff. I swear ’em in. I can put up 30 airplanes tomorrow if I wanted.”
The sheriff says he is keeping the peace, but it seems as if he is doing just the opposite — a useless, reckless churning of fear and unrest. Mayor Phil Gordon of Phoenix has denounced him, saying the raids are interfering with undercover city police officers and federal agents. The mayor of Guadalupe implored him to leave her community alone. State and county officials have pointed out that Sheriff Joe has ignored tens of thousands of outstanding criminal warrants while chasing day laborers and headlines. They say he has grossly violated the terms of his 287(g) agreement — which calls for federal oversight of local police — and have called on Washington to rein him in.

Washington shows no sign of doing that, or of stopping the construction of the wall.

This is American madness. This is American cruelty. This is American thuggery. This is American shame.

Fighting Fat in Veracruz

Just a couple of days ago I posted a recipe for agua fresca con guayaba here amidst bemoaning the general state of nutrition -- Mexico being the second fattest country in the world and such and what a shame it is that a country with such wondrous foods of its own has been corrupted so badly by JUNK FOOD AND COKE. Today this appeared full-page on the back of one of the major Xalapa papers.

Here is what the article says:
VERACRUZ AGAINST OVERWEIGHT AND OBESITY

The campaign considers rehabilitating sports spaces, promoting better food habits and motivating above everything children not to eat "chatarra" or junk food.

The Programa Fiel against Overweight and Obesitiy to combat this puliec health problem which affects a good portion of the population of the state was inaugurated by Governor Fidel Herrera Beltrán this Tuesday. This action, which is an important public policy and which gets underway as a pilot program in primary schools of various towns and will extend into all 212 municipalities of the state, will build and rehabiliate public sports spaces....
Governor Herrera Beltrán emphasized that this was not a campaign against the taco nor other food associated with [Veracruz's] culture and traditions but rather it was a campaign for the enjoyment of the delicacies of Veracruz's excellent cuisine, for the reintroduction of Veracruz's healthier diet with its fruits, vegetables and less junk food, as well as a campaign to encourage people taking up physical and sports activities again as families did in days gone by....
At present, Mexico holds second place in the world in the number of obese people, and every three minutes someone dies because of problems related to obesity and lack of exercise. Veracruz occupies first place in the nation in diabetes and obesidty. Seven of every to Veracruzano children are obese or have problems with overweight. Because of this, the present administration is purshing this important program in search of a "veracru-sano."

Hurray, Veracruz! Hurray, Fidel!

John Burroughs and Idyllic Summers and a bit of Natural Faith

In the Daily Dish, Andrew Sullivan's blog today with postings by Patrick, John Burroughs is honored on his birthday. Here is a quote from an article he wrote.

t jars upon our sensibilities and disturbs our preconceived notions to be told that the spiritual has its root in the carnal and is as truly its product as the flower is the product of the roots and the stalk of the plant. The conception does not cheapen or degrade the spiritual, it elevates the carnal, the material. To regard the soul and body as one, or to ascribe to consciousness a physiological origin, is not detracting from its divinity, it is rather conferring divinity upon the body. One thing is inevitably linked with another, the higher forms with the lower forms, the butterfly with the grub, the flower with the root, the food we eat with the thought we think, the poem we write, or the picture we paint, with the processes of digestion and nutrition. How science has enlarged and ennobled and purified our conception of the universe; how it has cleaned out the evil spirits that have so long terrified mankind, and justified the verdict of the Creator: "and behold it was good." With its indestructibility of matter, its conservation of energy, its violability of cause and effect, its unity of force and elements throughout sidereal space, it has prepared the way for a conception of man, his origin, his development, and in a measure his destiny, that at last makes him at home in the universe.

I guess this as close to what would claim as my religious creed as anything I know. John Burroughs and I have a couple of connections, not that he would know. In St. Louis where Jim and I lived for around twenty years, there is the John Burroughs School, and in that school there are, are used to be a couple of Jim's mathematical models. John Burroughs himself comes from the Catskill Mountains in New York State where I spent childhood summers and which remain for me The Perfect Place. One year, though, Jim and I drove back there on our way from Boston to New Jersey. And of course, everything looked so small, so different, so oddly but not so wonderfully the same.

This is how I remembe the countryside of Woodstock:

Woodstock, in case you didn't know, is not where Woodstock happened. It happened on a farmer's field a couple of towns away. Can't remember the name of it.

My Point Exactly

From TPM Cafe by Michael Bérubé.

For now, I just want to note this little curio from today’s papers. It’s a McClatchy Newspapers item filed by one Margaret Talev, and it graces the front page of my own hometown paper, the Centre Daily Times. In it, Ms. Talev visits Hazelton, PA, which, despite being the ancestral home of Obama Girl (I did not know that!), is largely representative of Hillary Clinton’s eastern-PA stronghold. Come with us now to Jimmy’s Quick Lunch, where folks are talking to Ms. Talev about what's on their minds:

Of Obama, Duser said: "I'm not crazy about voting for a colored guy, but that's not why I don't support Obama. I'm not prejudiced. I just like Hillary."
A couple tables over, Jean Fetterman, a foster grandparent, said of Clinton: "Oh, I love her. She's a very intelligent person, and she has her husband who went through this."

She scoffs at the idea of voting for Obama: "I don't want to be a Muslim!" She looks dubious when told Obama is Christian. "Then why did he go see what's-his-name over in Iraq, that Lama?"

Well, this is really just a horrible mashup. First of all, despite the remarks of some of his more enthusiastic surrogates, Obama has not actually said that he will convert all Americans to Islam. And he didn’t go to Iraq, either. Let’s get this straight once and for all: that one time when he went to visit the llama, he wore the traditional garb of Suriname. He did it only because llamas, like illegal Mexicans, are from South America. Any politician, colored or regular, would have done the same.

Sigh. But there you have it– this is now Clinton’s base. This is why the Clinton campaign has been making such strange and credibility-destroying arguments in the past couple of weeks: because those arguments are "credibility-destroying" only among high-information voters. Here, by contrast, are the firewall voters; these are the people the campaign is talking to and depending on. People who might be convinced that Barack Arrogant Obama wasn’t really a real law professor like he says he was. People who can be convinced that Obama thugs are trying to prevent them from voting and participating in our great American democracy. People who think Hussein Obama X is Muslim and that Jeremiah Wright will burn this mother to the ground. And, not least, people who fear that Obama will turn them into a llama.

I call it “Hillary’s New Groove

To Discuss or Not Discuss Race in the Primary Campaign

My husband and our good friend agree that in Obama's interest it would be best not to bring attention to racial stuff at this point. Aside from the fact that I can't imagine my blog actually influencing sufficient people in any way, I sort of see their point, and yet I disagree. One, it is an insult to both blacks and whites to assume that it could/should be brushed under the rug for the moment so as not to remind people of Wright. Two, it is apparent that a lot of white voters are not about to sweep it under the rug. I don't know what makes people, ultimately, change their minds. I do think understanding the roots of a problem helps reasonable people shift their opinion. I fear if the subject isn't addressed in a way that shows sensitivities to both blacks and whites, it will mean more white voters will go into the polls and at the last minute not be able to vote for a black. i cannot speak for what black voters will think or do, but I find it difficult to imagine that if I were black, I would not be really annoyed, to say the least, if I were supposed to keep my mouth shut on this critically divisive current in our national lives. My husband and our friend speak mostly about the battle with Hillary Clinton. I think currently she is carrying on really badly, what with hanging out with the likes of Richard Mellon Scaife but I'd rather she win the nomination than McCain win the presidency.* Suddenly having to deal with the issue in the national election would be deadly, I fear.

Anyway, the latest poll from Quinnipiac (below), a reliable outfit (and I think university, though except for its polls I've never heard of it) shows that for whites, the race issue is not going away. this clip is snatched from Talking Points Memo

There are two new polls out on Pennsylvania. Quinnipiac's is in line with the other polls that have come out this week, showing Obama gaining on Clinton but still significantly behind. They have him 9 points back. Meanwhile Public Policy Polling, which has had a solid record this year, shows Obama taking a narrow 2 point lead. For the moment, the PPP poll has to be seen as an outlier, though it is important to note that the PPP poll is the most recent survey.

But look at these internals from the Q poll, which will certainly get highlighted by the Clinton campaign, clipped from the Q poll release memo

Florida: Clinton 44 percent - McCain 42 percent; McCain beats Obama 46 – 37 percent;

Ohio: Clinton beats McCain 48 – 39 percent; Obama gets 43 percent to McCain’s 42 percent;

Pennsylvania: Clinton tops McCain 48 – 40 percent; Obama leads McCain 43 – 39 percent.

And to add to the equation, the Q poll memo suggests a significant racial dynamic in the voting when McCain is placed against the two Democratic contenders.

* As either Josh Marshall or Andrew Sullivan said (I can't remember which) Richard Mellon Scaife a Louis Farrakhan of the right, and deliberately and without regret, Hillary is publically associating herself with him. It is scandalous that in his presence she made the statement that she would not have stayed in Wright's church. Scaife is far more shocking in his words and associations than Wright ever was. Plus, it seems to me the ultimate in cynicism that she (and apparently Bill, too) sidled up to the man who funded the efforts to impeach her husband.

Receta de Agua de Guayaba/Recipe for Guava-ade

Recently it has been on the news that Mexico is supposed to be the second fattest country in the world. ¡Qué lastima! When we first came to Mexico twenty five years ago, it was extremely hard to find a chubby person, let alone someone fat. Fruit stands were everywhere, and a favorite treat was cubes of fruit with chile powder sprinkled on it. Drinks that refreshed were aguas, kind of like our -ades. Unfortunately, in urban and semi-urban and even into rural areas, sodas and junk food have replaced a lot of this fruit as beverages and snack food. People learned well the dangers of unboiled or untreated water, but unfortunately, instead of replacing the bad water with good, they have often replaced the bad with sodas. Soda is, in fact, often cheaper than bottled water and may be cheaper than boiling water. As I've said before I HATE the Coca Cola Company and similar outfits. They not only have contributed to weight gain, diabetes and tooth rot (most Mexicans have had rotten teeth pulled by the time they are eighteen) Coke also buys land with fresh spring water on it and keeps it for themselves...for bottling and for soda.

GRRRR!

Here is a picture of guavas. They are kind of small, maybe two to three inches in diameter.

Anyway, there is still plenty of fruit in markets and supermarkets and people still do make aguas de fruta. Aguas are the normal beverage offered at comidas corridas -- meals of the day in local restaurants. They are delicios and thirst-quenching AND good for you. Often no sweetening is needed at all. Here is a recipe for agua de Guayaba -- guava-ade. I think you can figure it out, but just in case you can't, it's translated below.

RECETA DE AGUA DE GUAYABA
Categoría: Bebidas
Enviada por: Anónimo

Ingredientes
9 tazas de agua purificada o hervida
8 guayabas limpias
Miel o azúcar (al gusto)
Procedimiento
Pelar las guayabas y partirlas en pedazos. Licuarlas con el agua y añadir la miel o el azúcar si necesario. Servir fría o con hielos.
NOTA: Se pueden sustituir las guayabas por cualquier otra fruta.

Guava-ade
Category: drinks
Sent in by Anonymous

Ingredients
9 cups of purified or boiled water
8 clean guavas*
honey or sugar to taste

1. Peel the guavas and cut in pieces.
2. Put them in the blender with the water and add honey or sugar if necessary. Blend till smooth.
3. Srve cold or with ice.

Note: you can substitute any other fruit for the guavas.

*Here people wash their fruit carefully. Unlike folks in the U.S. they don't expect that it will be sterile when they buy it. They just expect it to be delicious!