[Marxism] US to exceed 300 million inhabitants in October

[Walter Lippmann <walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Though at first glance, not apparently related, the three items posted here all 
have something in common: Washington's recent decision to build a wall on the
United States's border with Mexico. Immigration has become a powerful force in
the life of the U.S., one viewed with mixed emotions among the U.S. population.

When the U.S. reached a population of 200 million, Mexico was best known as the 
source of exotic, sometimes spicy and rather colorful kinds of foods. Some 
people
noticed there were workers from Mexico who came to the U.S. to pick grapes and 
other
kinds of foods for U.S. tables, but no one worried about the population of the 
United
States. Today, fear and panic is spreading and is being deliberately encouraged 
against those foreign-born and so often undocumented immigrants on whom the 
position of the U.S. is so deeply dependent. Gratitude not being one of the most
deeply-engrained attitudes in the United States, today we're seeing the rise
of chauvinistic gangs like the Minutemen. 

Mainstream politicians keep these outfits at some little distance ...of perhaps 
an inch or two. While the U.S. Congress wasn't able to adopt a legislative 
remedy
to the country's immigration worries in its recently-concluded session, it did
succeed in the passage of a measure to build a gigantic wall on the border with 
Mexico in an effort to exclude Mexicans from coming to the U.S. to work for a 
pittance
and keep U.S. residents fed, their houses cleaned, and textiles and such flowing
right along. 

Mexico's decision to ban U.S. lettuce because of the possibility of an e coli
infestation may not have been consciously decided on to send a message, but the 
attentive listener should be able to hear the message whether intended or not. A
tree really does make a sound when it falls in the forest, whether someone is 
there
to hear it or not. While the Mexican regime has gotten the blessing and support 
of Washington when it votes against Cuba at Geneva, Mexico is a country with its
own national interests and profound social contradictions, as the recent 
struggles
over its stolen presidential election, and the struggle in Oaxaca made evident. 
Mexico gains from the ability of its citizens to leave the country and work 
abroad
where they can send remittances back home AND relieve domestic unemployment 
to some extent also.

And as the wall becomes a bigger and bigger factor in the United States and in 
its
relations with other Latin American countries, Cubans still have that open door 
policy whereby any Cuban who gets to the United States by any means, is 
automatically
welcomes to stay here. These special rights, special privileges and special 
advantages
aren't very widely known to the general public. But they ought to be. 

To learn more about the Cuban Adjustment Act, 
which for the past FORTY YEARS has put Cubans 
ahead of every other immigrant on the planet earth, 
take a look at this:
http://www.walterlippmann.com/migration.html 


Walter Lippmann, CubaNews
http://www.walterlippmann.com 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews
================================================

GRANMA
October 3, 2006

http://www.walterlippmann.com/docs978.html
A CubaNews translation. Edited by Walter Lippmann

US to exceed 300 million inhabitants in October

In October, the overall population of the United States will beat the 
three-hundred-million
mark, a fact the authorities decided to downplay given the current debate about 
immigration, an issue on which public opinion is divided. 

In contrast to the excitement of the 1967 celebrations for the 200 million 
figure,
there are no plans in the federal governmentâs agenda to throw a welcome 
party for
the 300 millionth American, likely to be of Hispanic origins, or even an illegal
immigrant, according to many experts. 

One of the reasons is that the issue of immigration, which is bound to play a 
key
role in the November 7 election, is sparking off a wave of lively discussions 
throughout
the country. 

âThereâs nothing to celebrate unless you think you should bubble over high 
housing
costs, huge bottlenecks and overcrowded schools,â according to Juan Keely, 
spokesman
of the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), who added that the
American population growth is mainly due to the presence of immigrants and the 
rapid
expansion of their families.



http://www.latimes.com/features/lifestyle/la-et-mexbooks13oct13,1,955809.story
STYLE & CULTURE
Up against a wall
With many L.A. writers and artists on hand, talk about the proposed U.S. border 
fence dominates Mexico City Book Fair.
By Reed Johnson
Times Staff Writer

October 13, 2006

MEXICO CITY â The big question is being posed constantly at this week's Mexico
City Book Fair, but it's not about writers, readers or publishers.

"What do you think about the wall?" shouted a man with a long white beard,
resembling an El Greco prophet, toward the end of a round table with a group of 
L.A. authors here a few days ago.

He was referring, of course, to the planned 700-mile, double-steel fence that 
the
U.S. Senate recently approved building along the U.S.-Mexico border. President 
Bush
is expected to sign the legislation into law soon.

The proposed wall, which is fiercely opposed by most people here, has become 
Topic
A in Mexican politics. Over the last few days, with a delegation of about 50 
L.A.
writers and artists in town as guests of this capital's sixth annual 
bibliophiles
festival, the wall has become an issue of urgent cultural import too.

At several of the panels, readings, performances and movie screenings taking 
place
as part of the 10-day fair, Mexican audiences turned their curiosity â and 
sometimes
a touch of their frustration â on the Angeleno visitors, pressing to hear the 
visitors'
thoughts on the muchdespised barrier.

Many of the Angelenos, several of whom have Mexican or other Latin American 
roots,
seemed to share their hosts' dim view of the plan.

"There's much talk of walls. I've spent my life dealing with them. 
I've spent my life facing them," said Judith F. Baca, artist and founder
of the Venice-based SPARC community art center, while taking part in a panel on 
art and women. "This is a battle in the United States for the minds of the 
people and my fear is that we are losing this battle."

Earlier in the day at the L.A. authors round table, held under a large white 
tent
in the capital's central plaza, several audience members began calling out 
questions
related to the wall, and pleading for the panelists to respond. "It's an
important issue!" one man shouted.

Panelist Luis J. Rodriguez, co-founder of Tia Chucha's Cafe Cultural in Sylmar,
said the wall was racist and a waste of resources. Nina Revoyr, author of the 
well-regarded
novels "Southland" and "The Necessary Hunger," said it was hypocritical
of the United States to welcome some immigrants as low-paid workers while trying
to keep others out.

And so it went during the opening days of one of the world's largest 
Spanish-speaking
literary gatherings. Organizers expect tens of thousands of people to attend the
fair, which is free and open to the public, and wraps up Sunday afternoon.

Each year, the festival highlights the cultural heritage of two cities, and this
year's invitees are a provocative pairing: Los Angeles, the capitalist 
nonpareil,
and Havana, the socialist paradigm. Though the wall is on people's minds, it's
hardly the festival's only focus. Discussions have varied from political 
cartooning
and Cuban cinema to why so few Chicanos (Americans of Mexican descent) have made
inroads into Hollywood.

One young Mexican woman, attending a talk on Chicano and Mexican cinema in the 
globalized
world, asked whether Chicanos and Chilangos (Mexico City residents) might be 
able
to come together to work on film projects in the future. Two panelists, L.A. 
artist
Harry Gamboa Jr., and actress Tonantzin Esparza, ventured that such 
collaborations
could happen more.

Gamboa, making his first trip to Mexico City, said the visit had allowed him to 
connect with a part of his cultural heritage that he was sometimes denied while 
growing up in Los Angeles. As a public school student, he said, he had been 
punished
by teachers for speaking Spanish.

Several other L.A. artists recounted comparable challenges in trying to straddle
two or more cultures while growing up north of the border. Writer Jeanne 
Cordova,
who founded the magazine the Lesbian Tide in the early 1970s, told a gathering 
here
that she later landed a job at the progressive LA Free Press by telling the 
editor
to hire her because she was a lesbian, a Chicana and a feminist. "You can have
three for the price of one," she said.

Revoyr, who was born in Japan, talked about how her sense of self, as a person 
and
a writer, was forged in part by being raised in a Japanese/Polish-American 
household,
first in the Midwest and later in her adopted L.A. "There was never one thing
that I identified with," she said. "I think because there was no set normal
for me, there was no Other."

And Rodriguez told the rapt audience about an L.A. school where the students 
speak
Spanish, English, Mandarin and the Mexican indigenous language of Nahuatl. "I
think it's possible to communicate in different languages and manners,"
he said.

Despite its serious literary bent, the festival also makes time for more playful
endeavors. Performance artist Guillermo Gomez-PeÃa and writer-performer and 
Loyola
Marymount University professor RubÃn MartÃnez examined cultural identity from 
every
which way in their semi-staged performance piece, "Ars PoÃtica Performatik,"
a recital of music, poetry and Dadaist incantations.

Sharing the stage for the first time in at least a decade, the men were joined 
by
a dominatrix clad in rough-trade attire, who prowled the aisles flirting and 
whispering
ominous come-ons to audience members.

Activist-author Tom Hayden did his part for cross-border understanding, first by
taking part in a public forum with Mexican intellectual Carlos Monsivais, then 
by
playing a game of "This is the church, this is the steeple" with a little
Mexican girl. Though the girl appeared to be well-amused, Hayden later reflected
that it's no easy matter to connect across different language and culture 
barriers.

He didn't mention the wall. Nor did he need to.

reed.johnson@xxxxxxxxxxx

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-lettuce12oct12,1,7518265.story

Mexico's Ban on U.S. Lettuce Yields Anger
Trade groups protest the blocking of shipments after an E. coli-related recall 
by
a Central California farm.
By Jerry Hirsch
Times Staff Writer

October 12, 2006

Farm interests from the Salinas Valley to Washington reacted angrily Wednesday 
to
a ban on U.S. lettuce imports by Mexico.

"This is an outrageous step that has no basis at all in science or food safety,"
said Tom Stenzel, president of the United Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Assn. in 
Washington.

The Mexican Ministry of Health on Tuesday blocked U.S. lettuce after the 
voluntary
recall two days earlier by a Central California farm of more than 8,500 cartons 
of green-leaf lettuce. Nunes Co. of Salinas had recalled the lettuce after 
discovering
E. coli bacteria in irrigation water used on the crop.

Tests found that the contamination was a generic form of E. coli, which is 
common
in water and soil around the world and generally not harmful to humans. A toxic 
strain of the bacteria had recently contaminated Salinas Valley spinach, 
sickening
nearly 200 people and killing three. None of the recalled lettuce was headed for
Mexico.

"The produce industry is being punished for being careful," Stenzel said.

Froylan Gracia, agricultural counselor at the Mexican Embassy in Washington, 
defended
the ban, saying that "countries can take actions that they think safeguard 
the lives of their citizens even if it seems subjective."

He said regulators from both countries were working to resolve the issue.

But that was of little comfort to Salinas Valley farmers whose business is 
laboring
to rebound from the spinach scare.

"Mexico has just added to our overall woes with consumer perception," 
said Bob Perkins, executive director of the Monterey County Farm Bureau.

The state's $250-million spinach business "remains really down," he
said.

Perkins said growers were reporting that sales of other forms of bagged produce 
also had dipped, but he could not put a dollar figure on the decline.

If not for the potential effects on the buying habits of American shoppers, the 
lettuce ban itself should have little economic fallout.

Mexico is not a major buyer of U.S. lettuce, purchasing $8.3 million of the crop
last year. California produces $1.7 billion of lettuce a year, with about $1 
billion
coming from Monterey County.

*

jerry.hirsch@xxxxxxxxxxx




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