Judi Lynn
Judi Lynn's JournalLiving in squalor, Guatemalan mudslide survivors see stark choice: Emigrate to U.S. or die
After heavy rain, a girl hauls wood for cooking in the makeshift settlement of Nuevo Queja in Guatemala.(Rodrigo Abd / Associated Press)
BY ALBERTO ARCE AND RODRIGO ABD ASSOCIATED PRESS
AUG. 10, 2021 3:51 AM PT
NUEVO QUEJA, Guatemala — The day before he left for the United States was a busy one for Victor Cal. He went from relative to relative, collecting money to buy food during the journey north.
His mother was inconsolable. “I begged him not to go, that we could live here,” she said, again and again, “but the decision had already been made”.
He and his parents shared a small lunch — a couple of chiles with sesame seeds — in silence. His mother’s gloom weighed upon him; he announced he had to find somewhere to charge his phone “to receive calls so the coyote can tell me where and when we will finally meet.”
He set off on a bumpy, dirt road, looking to hitch a ride to any place with electricity. A motorbike pulled over and drove him to the nearest outlet, miles away.
More:
https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-08-10/survivors-guatemalan-mudslide-face-death-or-emigration
Black Women Are Now the Largest Group in Brazil's Public Universities
Advancement occurred along with affirmative actions; vulnerability of black boys helps explain the phenomenon
Aug.9.2021 12:35PM
Black women make up 28% of the Brazilian population and suffer rampant discrimination , but today they comprise the most numerous group in public higher education institutions.
Data from the last Continuous Annual National Household Sample Survey, released in 2019, shows that self-declared Black and brown women make up 27% of public higher education students in 2019. Then comes white women and men, with 25% each, and Black men, with 23%.
The picture differs from 2001, when Black women were the third largest group, representing 19% of university students from public institutions, ahead of only Black men (13%).
Work published in 2020 by Tatiana Dias Silva, from the Institute of Applied Economic Research, shows that Black women have been the majority in the number of students entering public and private universities since 2017, accounting for 29.3% of the total.
For specialists, this result can be explained by factors such as affirmative action, in a context of greater education among women; a premature entry of Black youth into the labor market due to economic vulnerability; and discouragement due to the educational exclusion of Black men from elementary school.
https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/internacional/en/brazil/2021/08/black-women-are-now-the-largest-group-in-brazils-public-universities.shtml?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsen
(Short article, no more at link.)
Stellar pulses are transformed into a celestial symphony
By Doris Elin Urrutia about 6 hours ago
This subfield of astronomy is called asteroseismology.
A new NASA video showcases the whirring symphony of stars in our cosmic
neighborhood.
Although it usually hunts for alien worlds, or exoplanets in the nearby universe, one NASA mission is also capable of measuring the vibrations produced by behemoth celestial bodies known as red giant stars.
The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission, which launched in April 2018, is designed to find exoplanets. The technique it uses to find these worlds is called the transit method, and it involves surveying nearby stars and waiting to see if their brightness dips at all. These dips are caused by a planetary body passing in front of the star's face, from our perspective in space.
An illustration of red giant stars. (Image credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Chris Smith (KBRwyle))
Because TESS is already poised to observe changes in stars caused by orbiting exoplanets, it was also capable of detecting the oscillations in the bodies of red giants.
"Our initial result, using stellar measurements across TESS's first two years, shows that we can determine the masses and sizes of these oscillating giants with precision that will only improve as TESS goes on," said Marc Hon, a NASA Hubble Fellow at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu, who presented the new research this week during the second TESS Science Conference. Hon commented in an Aug. 4 NASA statement about the new work.
More:
https://www.space.com/red-giant-sound-waves-celestial-symphony
US-Cuban Relations: How It All Got Started
by Ted Snider Posted onAugust 09, 2021
Although Fidel Castro would eventually become a Soviet allied communist, and although the US ultimatum to Cuba would eventually take the form of the often repeated mantra that there were only two non-negotiable demands, that Cuba cut ties with the Soviet Union, and that they stop supporting leftist movements in the hemisphere, that’s not how it started. The "virus" that could "spread contagion" was not communism.
Castro Was Not a Communist
In the beginning of the Cuban revolution, as Noam Chomsky has said, the US obsession with Castro was not a fear of communism. CIA expert John Prados says that it is important to note that in 1959 – when the US had already decided that Castro was incompatible with US goals – "Fidel Castro had not become a communist." Chomsky says that US plans for regime change in Cuba "were drawn up and implemented before there was any significant Russian connection." "When Fidel Castro’s guerilla forces overthrew the Batista dictatorship in January 1959," Vincent Bevins says in The Jakarta Method, "his movement was neither openly communist nor aligned with the Soviet Union." And so it stayed for an important period of time. "Castro showed no special affinity for the Soviet Union during his first years in office," according to William LeoGrande and Peter Kornbluh in Back Channel to Cuba.
That was also the view of the State Department. In an April 1959 assessment, the State Department reported that "With regard to his position on communism and the cold war struggle, Castro cautiously indicated that Cuba would remain in the western camp."
When the US literally set its sights on Castro, it was not because he was a Soviet satellite in the western hemisphere because he was not. It was also not because he was a communist in America’s backyard. LeoGrande and Kornbluh say that "U.S. officials suspected that Castro was dangerously radical even if he was not a communist." The US ambassador to Cuba, Philip W. Bonsal, categorized Castro’s policies as "reformist, nationalistic, and somewhat socialistic and neutralist." The CIA agreed. Prados reports that in November 1959, the CIA told the senate judiciary subcommittee that "Neither the Cuban communists nor the CIA consider Castro a communist."
The CIA would go even further in its assessment. At the first actual CIA meeting with Castro, the CIA’s Gerry Droller, who operated under the pseudonym Frank Bender, expressed concern about the Cuban Communist Party. Castro assured him that the communists were a minority and that he could handle them. LeoGrande and Kornbluh report that after a three hour conversation, Droller reported that "Castro is not only not a communist, but he is a strong anti-communist fighter."
More:
https://original.antiwar.com/ted_snider/2021/08/08/us-cuban-relations-how-it-all-got-started/
The Maya's ingenious secret to survival
Mayan ruins at Tikal National Park, Guatemala
By Alex Fox
9th August 2021
Tikal was the economic and ceremonial hub of the Maya civilisation. But its stone palaces and temples would never have been constructed without mastery over one vital substance.
Standing in the ancient Mayan city of Tikal in Guatemala, visitors are surrounded by steep limestone pyramids nearly as tall as Notre Dame cathedral while the calls of howler monkeys and toucans emanate from the site's rainforest backdrop. Constructed without the aid of beasts of burden, metal tools or the wheel, these grandiose stoneworks served as the seats of power for the kings and priests who ruled over what was one of the most influential city states in the Maya realm, which spanned Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, Guatemala, Belize as well as portions of Honduras and El Salvador.
Tikal was an economic and ceremonial hub of a civilisation that, in light of recent laser-based aerial surveys that revealed more than 60,000 structures hidden for centuries by thick jungle, may have once encompassed as many as 10 to 15 million people in total.
In the presence of Tikal's massive stone palaces and temples, each one oriented to attend to the sun's daily transit across the sky, the Maya's prowess as architects and astronomers looms large. But the Maya never would have accurately predicted eclipses and these monuments never would have risen up towards the sky without the mastery of something much more elemental to Mayan survival at Tikal: water.
With no rivers or lakes nearby, the Maya had to create a network of huge reservoirs at Tikal to collect and store enough rainwater during the region's prodigious wet season to last its sizable population – estimates range from 40,000 to as many as 240,000 people at the city's 8th Century peak – through the four- to six-month dry season. These reservoirs facilitated more than 1,000 years of Mayan presence at Tikal, from roughly 600 BC until the site's urban core was finally abandoned by the ruling class around 900 AD.
Last year, archaeologists using modern scientific techniques revealed a new depth to the Maya's hydrological feats. Sediment cores taken from Tikal's reservoirs show that the Maya created the oldest known water filtration system in the western hemisphere.
More:
https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20210808-the-mayas-ingenious-secret-to-survival
Also posted in Anthropology:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/12297292
Excessive Corporate Power Is a Root Cause Of Migration
Excessive Corporate Power Is a Root Cause Of Migration Under U.S. Trade agreements, corporations are suing developing country governments for sums that far outstrip the value of humanitarian aid.
August 8, 2021
By Manuel Pérez-Rocha
During U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris’s recent visit to Guatemala, where she urged Central Americans “not to come” to her country, she also emphasized that the migration problem must be attacked at its “root causes,” which have become a central theme of the Biden administration’s approach to the region.
While it is key to address the structural causes that lead thousands of people to flee their countries of origin, the concept has been co-opted to conceal U.S. responsibility for the economic and social crisis faced by the Northern Triangle of Central America (El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras).
My colleague Jen Moore has co-authored a detailed article about the KCA v Guatemala case. Basically, KCA argues that the Guatemalan government failed to protect its mine from a peaceful protest outside their site by frontline communities. Activists are protesting the contamination of their scarce water resources as a result of mining activities. Central American countries are facing many similar multimillion-dollar lawsuits and face a constant threat of more under the Central America-DR trade agreement with the United States.
In past articles, I have documented how three mining companies have sued Mexico under the North American Free Trade Agreement for a staggering $4.54 billion, all while destroying livelihoods across Mesoamerica and causing the violent expulsion of rural and indigenous communities.
More:
https://goodmenproject.com/featured-content/excessive-corporate-power-is-a-root-cause-of-migration/
James Early on Cuban Embargo, David Cooper on 'We All Quit'
Audio program news on the subject, from F.A.I.R., media bias watch group:
This week on CounterSpin: Imagine if China used its power to cut off international trade to the US, including for things like medical equipment, because they didn’t like Joe Biden, and hoped that if enough Americans were made miserable, they would rise up against him, and install a leader China thought would better serve their interests. How would you think about Chinese media that said, “Well, we heard a lot of Americans say they were unhappy; they even marched in the street! Obviously, that was a call for foreign intervention from a country that understands democracy better than they do.”
And then what if some Chinese people said, “Wait, you can’t immiserate ordinary Americans to push them to overthrow their government; that’s illegal and immoral,” and other Chinese people explained, “You don’t get it; US politics are very complicated”?
We talk about the admitted complexities of the hardships facing Cubans—and the relatively uncomplicated actions the US could take to stop contributing to those hardships—with James Early, board member at the Institute for Policy Studies, and former assistant secretary for education and public service at the Smithsonian Institution.
https://fair.org/home/james-early-on-cuban-embargo-david-cooper-on-we-all-quit/
Vestiges of forced assimilation still echo in New Mexico
By Rob Martinez For The New Mexican Aug 6, 2021 Updated 10 min ago
Recent and shocking discoveries of the bodies of Native American children buried on the grounds of boarding schools in Canada and the United States have sent reverberations of concern and outrage throughout the land.
New Mexico has its own dark history of Native American boarding schools. At least nine operated in the mid- to late 1800s into the 20th century. These were not the schools of the East Coast, where wealthy families sent children to get a good education and learn the ways of the elite. These were institutions of forced assimilation.
At New Mexico’s Indian schools, Native American children of Navajo, Ute, Apache and other nations were taken from their homes, torn from their loving families and from the arms of parents who nurtured them. They were stripped from cultures that were here thousands of years before Europeans arrived — long before there ever was a United States of America.
While teaching did occur, so did abuse. Physical and psychological trauma were common. The erasure of Native culture in the form of beatings for expressing Native cultural attributes and punishment for speaking Native languages permeated the boarding schools. “Removing the Indian” from the children was paramount. One can only suspect it was considered too late for the elders, so targeting the youth was the primary solution to achieving the goal of getting rid of the “Indian problem.”
Yet, before the American system of Indian schools, there were the Spanish Catholic missions. The missions in New Mexico were established by the Catholic order of Franciscans in the early 1600s. The primary purpose of the missions was the Christianization and education of the Puebloan people in the ways of the Spanish. There also was an underlying goal of assimilation — turning the Native people of New Mexico into subjects of the Spanish monarchy.
More:
https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/vestiges-of-forced-assimilation-still-echo-in-new-mexico/article_1afde93e-f474-11eb-a0ca-1f2299bd73ec.html
So glad you posted your question. It seemed so right the first time I read it.
I just got back to look for an answer in Wikipedia, etc.:
Ko-Shintō
Ko-Shintō (古神道 ) refers to the original animism of Jōmon period Japan which is the alleged basis of modern Shinto. The search for traces of Koshintō began with Restoration Shinto in the Edo period. Some movements which claim to have discovered this primeval way of thought are Oomoto, Izumo-taishakyo.
Worldview
The following is deduced from studying the language of the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki which does not appear in any Chinese philosophy:
In Koshintō, the present world or utsushiyo is put in contrast to the eternal world or tokoyo. All individuals possess a tamashii, meaning a mind, heart, or soul. A tamashii without a body is called a mitama. Those whose tamashii has the nature of kami are called mikoto.
In the Age of the Kami, or Kamiyo, the Earth was ruled by kami, whose forms were akin to humans, but had pure hearts and spoke in the language of kotodama.
History of Koshintō research
There are no records of "pure" Koshintō in early Japanese literature. By the time Japan was producing literature, its native religion had already intermixed with Taoism and Buddhism. Medieval development meant that Shinto was integrated into Buddhist symbology.[1]
Koshintō research began at the same time as examinations into Early Buddhism. In this era, Japan's shrine rituals were being "purified" of their religious nature and turned into national forms, a process called State Shinto today. Religionists began looking for the origin of these forms in a primitive "nature religion".[2] Early folklorists such as Kunio Yanagita were also seeking a purely Japanese tradition.
Onisaburo Deguchi, the founder of Oomoto, was an extremely influential Koshinto researcher in the Imperial period. He influenced nearly all modern Koshinto lines except for that of Takuma Hisa. Such research continues today and is often connected with aikido and other martial arts.[3]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ko-Shint%C5%8D
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13:40, 20-May-2019
Shinto Religion & Nature: Native belief system influences everyday Japanese life
Updated 13:40, 23-May-2019
. . .
There is no simple explanation for the Shinto religion. Some experts say it originates from Japan's Jomon period when basic belief forms and nature worship were said to have started.
TERRENCE TERASHIMA TOKYO "Shinto did not originate as a unified religion but rather as a collection of ancient beliefs and mythology closely related to agriculture and nature. The Japanese say there are eight million spirits or gods that exist in the forms of rocks, trees, places, and people."
Early Shinto chronicles date back to the eighth century. They describe myths, legends, and origins of the Japanese archipelago which is said to have been created by Amaterasu-Omikami, the goddess of the sun.
SHIGERU TORII PRIEST, KANDA-JINJYA "There are no doctrines or scriptures in Shinto. It originated from nature worship. Since rice was the most important food crop for the Japanese people, it came from expressing gratitude to nature and people. It is a religion that evolved from animism. However, it only became a known religion after the war. Before that, it was a way for people to worship 'gods' in their ways of life."
. . .
https://news.cgtn.com/news/3259444f34494464776c6d636a4e6e62684a4856/index.html
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Shinto: How To Reconnect With Nature
Shinto could help us build a sustainable culture.
Edward McDougall | Philosophy Tutor at Durham University, UK
Shinto shrine gates (torii) are ubiquitous in western representations of natural Japan. Have we ever wondered why we are fascinated by these images – because of the beauty of this ancient architecture? The natural scenery where they are located? Or are we indeed fascinated by a sense of mystery, the harmony that forms between these human constructions with nature?
Western philosophy has broadly taken up a Hegelian view, which conceives religion as progression away from nature worship and polytheism towards monotheism and ultimately secularism as a society develops. Central to this is an assumption that nature worship and modernisation are in opposite positions and the former must be abandoned to achieve the latter. Modern technological society indeed seems to have distanced us from nature with its apparent control over natural forces. Nature, according to Martin Heidegger in “The Question Concerning Technology”, is taken as resources and evaluated in terms of human utility. However, environmental issues in recent years have made us realise that nature is not backward or merely to be utilised – it is crucial to the sustainable development of a modern society. This calls for us to review the way we live, how we should see nature and our responsibility to it.
More:
https://iai.tv/articles/shinto-how-to-reconnect-with-nature-auid-1158
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Magical video shared with me by my friend and cousin:
If the US really cared about freedom in Cuba, it would end its punishing sanctions
Helen Yaffe
Critics dismiss Cuba as a failed state, but don’t accept how badly it’s hamstrung by the US blockade
Wed 4 Aug 2021 04.00 EDT
The violent protests that erupted in Cuba in early July were the first serious social disturbances since the “Maleconazo” of 1994, 27 years ago. Both these periods were characterised by deep economic crises. I was living in Havana in the mid-90s and witnessed the conditions that triggered the uprising: empty food markets, shops and pharmacy shelves, regular electricity cuts, production and transport ground to a halt. Such were the consequences of the collapse of the socialist bloc, which accounted for about 90% of the island’s trade.
Betting on the collapse of Cuban socialism, the US approved the Torricelli Act of 1992 and the Helms-Burton Act of 1996 to obstruct the island’s trade and financial relations with the rest of the world. Meanwhile, more sophisticated and multifaceted “regime change” programmes were developed, from Clinton’s people-to-people programmes to Bush’s Commission for a Free Cuba. From the mid-1990s to 2015, US congress appropriated some $284 million to promote (capitalist) democracy.
The story of how, against the odds, the Cuban revolution survived the past three decades is the focus of my book. In some fields, like biotechnology and medical internationalism, it thrived. Since 2019, however, conditions reminiscent of the “special period” have been returning to Cuba, a direct result of US sanctions. The Trump administration implemented 243 new coercive measures against Cuba, blocking its access to international trade, finance and investments at a time when foreign capital had been awarded a pivotal role in the island’s development strategy. The inevitable and intended result has been shortages of food, fuel, basic goods and medical supplies. Thus, while Cuba has Covid-19 vaccines, they cannot buy sufficient syringes to administer them, nor medical ventilators for their ICU units.
Strict sanitary restrictions, imposed by Cuban authorities in response to the pandemic, have impeded Cubans’ capacity to “resolver” (resolve problems through alternative channels), and to socialise. Covid cases keep rising, generating anxiety among Cubans, even though infection and death rates remain low relative to the region. In every Cuban household, people take turns to rise at dawn to join queues for basic goods. No one should be surprised that there is frustration and discontent.
Cuba’s critics blame the government for the daily hardships Cubans face, dismissing US sanctions as an excuse. This is like blaming a person for not swimming well when they are chained to the ground. The US blockade of Cuba is real. It is the longest and most extensive system of unilateral sanctions applied against any country in modern history. It affects every aspect of Cuban life.
Also posted in Editorials and other articles:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016298538
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