A Payoff Out of Poverty?

Marcela Taboada for The New York Times

Reyna Luisa Olmedo Vasquez, the nurse for the clinic in Paso de Coyutla. At health clinics like this one in rural Meico, poor people are paid to bring in their children for checkups.

By TINA ROSENBERG

Published: December 19, 2008

FORTY-NINE YEARS AGO, the anthropologist Oscar Lewis published a book called “Five Families: Mexican Case Studies in the Culture of Poverty,” detailing a single day in these families’ lives. One family, headed by Jesús Sánchez, a food buyer for a restaurant, continued to tell its story in a second Lewis book, the widely read “Children of Sánchez.” Lewis singled out elements of a culture that, he argued, keep those socialized in it mired in poverty: machismo, authoritarianism, marginalization from organizedcivic life, high rates of abandonment of illegitimate children, alcoholism, disdain for education, fatalism, passivity, inability to defer gratification and a time orientation fixed firmly on the present.

continue reading...http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/21/magazine/21cash-t.html?pagewanted=2&ref=magazine

Artists share their secret Santas

by 

 

Reckon you could do better? Send your DIY Santas to The Guardian's Flickr group: flickr.com/groups/diysanta

Many Hondurans and others traveling north toward the United States through Mexico go missing or die
LA TIMES By Deborah Bonello and Ken Ellingwood
December 13, 2008
Reporting from Mexico City and Ecatepec, Mexico -- Ada Marlen was 17 and already the mother of two children when she set out from her home in Honduras to seek work in the United States. That was in 1989; her family hasn't heard from her since.

"Nineteen years ago my daughter started her journey, in search of her American dream, and to this day I don't know anything about her," said her mother, Emeteria Martinez.

Democrats Risk Losing HispanicsWashington Post:

One of the big bonuses Democrats enjoyed this year was a surge of support among Hispanic voters, a surge larger than the party would have dared to dream of just a couple of years ago.

Now, one of the biggest questions Democrats face is whether hardening attitudes toward immigration, aggravated by hard economic times and rising unemployment, will push the party down paths that could undercut that Hispanic support, much as hardening rhetoric undermined Hispanic support for Republicans in the past two years.

Is Bush a shoe-in for worst president ever?

The debate is raging over the US leader's legacy as he approaches his final days in office

A bilingual version of West Side Story gives the Sharks their due

A new Spanish-English reworking of the classic musical will be 'darker and more threatening' than previous stagings

Check out Maricopa County's Infrastructure wish list. All we do now is wait until Jan 2oth when Obama's federal funding package becomes a reality.

ARE YOU A GOOD CONSUMER?

thanks to fecalface.com for the heads up on this one.

Matachines in South Phoenix: Dancing for the Virgen

From town to town, house to house, praying through hypnotic dances and music, Matachines, religious dancers, visit the south Phoenix community of Los Cuatro Milpas (LCM) to honor La Virgen de Guadalupe.





























In LCM, this celebrations was visited by approximately 10 different groups of Matachines and hundreds of followers. The host built an altar in honor of the Virgen and also made atole, a traditional corn drink, for guest's.















Above: Danza Durango's group flag and children drinking atole.




This cultural practice is representative of pre-colonial- indigenous-Mexican and Catholic traditions. This celebration express's a rich cultural identity and tradition that has evolved, adapted and been preserved through time and continues to bring a community together. -DesertMetro







LISTEN TO RELATED STORY BY PRI's, THE WORLD, from the BBC:

http://www.theworld.org/audio/12120811.mp3

CHRISTMAS IN MEXICO

It's less than two weeks until Christmas. Most kids can hardly wait.The World's Katy Clark recently went to Mexico to find out what Christmas was like south of the border.

More Bushes, fewer Obamas

Huge losses mean university doors will close to all but the children of the elite

"Higher education may soon be unaffordable for most Americans" read the headline on a small article buried at the foot of page 17 in the New York Times earlier this month. This was the conclusion of a report recording that college tuition and fees had risen 439% since 1982, and median family income by a mere 127%. The next day, the Wall Street Journal reported that Harvard University's endowment had suffered losses amounting to $8bn. Real money. Of course, this meant that Harvard was now merely rich, rather than filthy rich. But further down the academic ladder lesser institutions were bleeding heavily.

In a Generation, Minorities May Be the U.S. Majority

Ethnic and racial minorities will comprise a majority of the nation’s population in a little more than a generation, according to new Census Bureau projections, a transformation that is occurring faster than anticipated just a few years ago.

Arizona won't retry border agent in killing of migrant

 Arizona prosecutors will not retry Border Patrol agent for the third time in fatal shooting of an illegal immigrant in the desert two years ago. 

Source: Beaten NYC immigrant declared brain dead

AP foreign, Thursday December 11 2008

By COLLEEN LONG

Associated Press Writer= NEW YORK (AP) — An Ecuadorean immigrant was declared brain dead after being savagely beaten by attackers who shouted anti-gay and anti-Hispanic slurs at him and his brother, who were walking arm in arm, a law enforcement official said Tuesday.

Trickledown Downsizing

IN September, Cathy DeVore, a real estate agent in Larchmont, N.Y., whose business has been at a standstill lately, began taking gradual steps to lay off her longtime nanny and housekeeper. Aware that the woman supports a son, a mother, and a niece in Dominica, and worried for their well-being, Mrs. DeVore wanted to make sure her employee found another source of income before losing her $500-a-week salary.

Copper’s Every Dip Is Felt in Arizona

MORENCI, Ariz. — For this isolated mining town, which lives and dies by the price of copper, the last few years have been a roller coaster ride of steep climbs and sudden dips. Over all, however, the direction seemed to be up.

U.S. Judge Orders Arizona Sheriff to Improve Jails

Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Ariz., who has built a national reputation with his get-tough tactics, and county health officials have violated the Constitution by depriving jail inmates of adequate medical screening and care, feeding them unhealthy food and housing them in unsanitary conditions, a federal judge has ruled.

Economy may trump Obama's pledge on immigration

 PST SAN FRANCISCO -- The nation's economic crisis could make it tough for President-elect Barack Obama to deliver on his pledge to overhaul the nation's immigration laws, some analysts predict.With unemployment rising, foreign workers are less welcome, say immigration restrictionists, who have vowed to oppose offering legal status to the nation's estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants.

Family sues border agent in Ariz. fatal shooting

PHOENIX (AP) — The parents of an illegal immigrant who was fatally shot by a Border Patrol agent have filed a wrongful-death lawsuit.

How Good ARE The Arizona Cardinals?

After crushing the St. Louis Rams, 34-10, the Arizona Cardinals clinched their first NFC West title since...ever, and their first division title since 1975, when they were the St. Louis Cardinals.

The Cardinals currently sit at 8-5. If the Cardinals played in the NFC North, AFC East, or AFC West, they would be tied for first with the 8-5 Minnesota Vikings and the 8-5 New England Patriots/Miami Dolphins/New York Jets, and the 8-5 Denver Broncos. But if they played in the other three divisions, they would have no chance of winning the division behind the NFC East New York Giants (11-2), AFC South Tennessee Titans (12-1), AFC North Pittsburgh Steelers (10-3) and NFC South Carolina Panthers (10-3). They wouldn't even be in second or third place in some of these divisions. They would be behind the Baltimore Ravens (9-4), Indianapolis Colts (9-4), Tampa Bay Buccaneers (9-4), and would be tied with the Dallas Cowboys and Atlanta Falcons (both 8-5).

Washington Post editor joins Cronkite School faculty

Leonard Downie Jr., the longtime executive editor of The Washington Post who led his newspaper to more Pulitzer Prizes than any editor in American journalism history, is joining the faculty of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University.

Centerpoint development files Chapter 11 petition

The developer of the stalled Centerpoint condominium towers in downtown Tempe filed for bankruptcy on the project Friday after months of legal wrangling with its construction lender, Mortgages Ltd.

Survey: Tempe loved by small businesses

Ask a bunch of businesspeople which Arizona city has the best quality of life and then ask them which city has the best downtown and you'll get two answers: Tempe and Tempe.

Power in the desert: solar towers will harness sunshine of southern Spain

In the desert of southern Spain, 20 miles outside Seville, more than 1,000 mirrors are being carefully positioned. Each is about half the size of a tennis court, so the adjustments will take time. But when they are complete in a few weeks, it will mark a major moment in the quest for renewable energy.

Day of the dead

As dawn broke over the desert, the body was still hanging beneath the overpass, having been suspended from it - decapitated and dangling by a rope tied around the armpits - at 4.30am. The sun rose, throwing rays like firelight across rush-hour traffic and discarded American school buses carrying workers to sweatshop factories, and it was still there three hours later, swaying, headless, in the cold early morning wind which kicks up dust and cuts like a scalpel though the Mexican border town of Ciudad Juárez, the most dangerous city in the Americas, and probably in the world.

Coffee    by  Christoph Niemann

I like coffee so much that I have tea for breakfast: The first cup of the day in particular is so good that I’m afraid I won’t be able to properly appreciate it when I am half-asleep. Therefore, I celebrate it two hours later when I am fully conscious.

Here’s a chart that shows my coffee bias over the years.

For good measure I have added my bagel preferences over the same period. (1) Drip coffee, (2) Starbucks, (3) blueberry bagels, (4) sesame bagels, (5) poppy-seed bagels, (6) everything bagels

Please don’t hold my brief affair with blueberry bagels against me. I cured myself of this aberration.

FAILE on BBC

"Glimmering Shadows" by FAILE. This show recently opened in England and the BBC did an interview with the artists. This show has all kinds of American sensibilites in dense and harmonious cohesion. It feels like dreams and memories remembered then forgotten and re-remembered over and over until your not sure what you know or whether it really happened the way you remember it. Enjoy.

A Navajo welcome in Arizona

The dirt track we're bumping along doesn't qualify as a road -- even here on the sprawling, remote Navajo reservation. Next to me, behind the wheel of an old pickup, Christian Bigwater downshifts as he maneuvers over and around the rocks in our way.

ASC wanted to be ASU; UA wanted no such thing

One of the most brutal battles between the Arizona State University Sun Devils and the University of Arizona Wildcats wasn't played out on the football field, but in the political arena. The contest was one of the most hard-fought campaigns in state history and has left lasting scars a half-century later.The issue was whether to change the name of Arizona State College to Arizona State University

Border Patrol agents accused of aiding drug smugglers

McALLEN — Two South Texas Border Patrol agents appeared in federal court today on charges alleging they helped drug traffickers move their product across the U.S.-Mexico border.

Rendell downplays remarks about Arizona governorHARRISBURG - Gov. 

Rendell, a serial offender of the verbal blunder, downplayed yesterday controversial remarks he made about how Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano would be perfect as the next Homeland Security chief because she has "no family" and "no life."

Stop Motion-Real Life

Metal Heart from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.
Photographer Keith Loutit uses selective focus and time-lapse photography to make real life look like scale stop motion animation. Cool Stuff, Keith Loutit.

New Goldwater report blisters Arpaio, MCSO

The Goldwater Institute, a conservative public policy research organization, is blasting the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office for falling short in its three core missions: law-enforcement services, support services and detention

Black Iraqis In Basra Face Racism

The election of Barack Obama to the U.S. presidency was celebrated with special fervor by Iraqis of African descent in the southern port city of Basra.

Immigration Experts Predict Fewer Workplace Raids

by Jennifer Ludden

All Things ConsideredAs the Obama administration takes shape, many experts are betting it will significantly curtail one of the most visible and controversial facets of the Bush administration's immigration crackdown: the high-profile workplace raids in which federal agents arrest dozens, even hundreds, of undocumented workers.

Arizona Congressman Renzi Has Charges Added To His Indictment

TUCSON, Ariz. — A racketeering charge and other counts have been added to an indictment against Arizona Congressman Rick Renzi

Why didn't they go green?

• guardian.co.uk, Tuesday December 2 2008
• Stephanie Mangold

The "big three" US automakers are back in Washington today, amid looming fears of bankruptcy, making another pitch for a bailout from Congress. Maybe they will have better luck this time. But what would American taxpayers get for their money? The reality of the US car industry made its debut, with little or no fanfare, at the Los Angeles Auto Show last week.

Same-sex ban under protest during Mormon festivities

When the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints temple in Mesa lighted its Christmas display Friday night, Clinton Bartlett and about 150 supporters showed up to protest.

Why Arizona Flipped On Gay Marriage

The Weekly Standard: A Look At Why Arizona, Which Rejected A Ban Two Years Ago, Saw It Breeze Through In 2008

Arizona voters last month approved an amendment to the state constitution defining marriage as "only a union of one man and one woman"--just two years after they rejected a similar though broader amendment, making Arizona the first state in the Union to reject a ballot initiative aimed at preventing gay marriage. What happened between 2006, when Proposition 107 was narrowly rejected, and 2008, when Proposition 102 breezed through? 

Find budget-friendly fun in Phoenix

PHOENIX — In Phoenix, there's nothing a trip to the golf course can't fix. It's a warm winter escape for those who can afford a second home, and it basks in the spa-facial glow of being a place where people will pay a lot for five-star fun.

Arizona Border Town Makes The 50 'most authentic' places in the world

Here is a list of the 50 "most authentic" places to visit as selected by a panel for British Airways High Life magazine.