Aarti Shahani, a public service fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and a writing fellow at Justice Strategies, talks to Roberto Lovato, the face of the campaigns to demand Lou Dobbs’ ouster from CNN by Hispanic and pro-immigration activists.
This month the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) celebrated one year of Secure Communities, a program dangerously misnamed since it actually endangers rather than improves community security.
Residents of a flooded village cope with a fifth day under water after typhoon Ketsana swept Bulacan province in the Philippines. (Photo: Catholic Relief Services/flickr)
As Tropical Storm Ketsana’s –“Ondoy” in the Philippines– destruction made headlines all over the world on Monday, Sept. 28th, I could not reach my family in the Philippines. Power and phone lines were down in Metro Manila and the surrounding provinces where my family lives, and cell lines were clogged.
My sister in Los Angeles, “Ate” Reby, had only gotten a text message from my mother the night before: “Reby, pinasukan ng baha yung bahay. Lubog yung kotse. Kami ng daddy na-stranded sa bubong…” [Floods entered the house. Our car is submerged. Your father and I were stranded up on the roof].
Reby and I thought it unimaginable that they would be trapped on our own roof, which tops a two-story house on the highest point of the subdivision. Finally I reached my sister Jocelyn and in subsequent conversations with my mother, both of us often breaking down in tears, we were able to piece together their terrifying tales. For the first time since any typhoons hitting the Philippines, my family found themselves in Ground Zero, as if they were in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina.
My mom and dad, both 77, live in Park Place Executive Village, Cainta City in Rizal province, east of Manila. My eldest brother Angelo lives with them, my other brother, Pio Jr., lives a street away, and my sister, “Ate” [a Filipino term for elder] Jocelyn, lives with her family in the next town, Brookside. These towns were two of the most heavily flooded areas after Ketsana.
Arpaio has been a controversial figure in Phoenix and in the immigration debate. Pictured is a demonstration in June 2009.
FI2W reporter Valeria Fernández was interviewed this morning on public radio’s The Takeaway to talk about an announced immigration raid by Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
“There’s no federal law that gives him the authority to do these immigration sweeps, but he says that he can do it,” Valeria said during her conversation with The Takeaway’s Celeste Headlee and John Hockenberry, in which she explained the sheriff’s controversial tactics to detain undocumented immigrants in the Phoenix area.
You can listen to the interview below and you can visit the show’s story “A Rogue Sheriff Roams in Arizona.”
[audio:http://audio.wnyc.org/takeaway/takeaway101609j.mp3]OAKLAND, Calif. — Many jazz artists and aficionados consider jazz as the immigrant’s music — embracing and absorbing into a big pot, the many styles, elements and talents coming from musicians from all over the globe.
Charmaine Clamor, recently hailed as America’s leading Filipina jazz and world music vocalist, believes the “Filipino spice” may have found its renaissance in this pot in recent years, through the hybrid genre she created, “Jazzipino”. It’s a blend of the soul and swing of American jazz with Filipino music, languages and instruments. It’s the perfect pairing of her two great loves, Clamor says – of jazz and her Filipino soul, and it has catapulted her into the American jazz stratosphere.
Multi-Awarded Filipina Artist Breaks New Ground With “Jazzipino’ from New America Media on Vimeo.
Now living in Los Angeles, Clamor was born in the Philippine town of Subic-Zambales, and her mother, a soprano singer inculcated in her a deep love for the Great American Songbook and Filipino music. Clamor relates that growing up, their home was filled with jazz and opera, alongside Philippine kundimans (torch songs), harana songs (serenades) and folk music.
In 2007, Clamor’s second album, “Flippin’ Out,” made the Top 5 on both JazzWeek’s World and Traditional Jazz radio charts simultaneously. And in 2008, her third album, “My Harana: A Filipino Serenade” made the Top 10 in the world music charts, making her the first Filipino to place two consecutive albums in the Top 10 world music radio charts.
She has been featured in several Filipino-American and mainstream media, including ABS-CBN International – The Filipino Channel, Asian Journal, NPR, BBC, the Los Angeles Times, L.A. 18, and has become one of the Philippines’ newest singing icons.
Clamor has also received numerous prestigious awards here and in the Philippines including as the “Philippines Pride – Best Jazz Singer” from FAMAS – the Philippine equivalent to the Oscars, as well as a 2009 Asian Heritage Award in the Performing Arts, organized by ASIA Magazine.
Visit New America Media to read the complete story.“While there are anti-Semites in this country, there is even a larger number –and that group is growing faster– of people opposing anti-Semites, the anti-anti-Semites.”
[ Rabbi Michael Schudrich ]
Zygmunt Rolat at the ceremony to launch construction of the museum. Rabbi Schudrich is on the right. (Photo: Krzysztof Slomka)
The history of Jews in Poland is long and not without controversy, especially due to their persecution during World War II. The fact is, until that war started Warsaw was a center of Europe’s Jewish community.
Now, construction has started there on the Museum of the History of Polish Jews.
An artist's rendering of the museum. (Image: Museum of the History of Polish Jews)
It will not simply be a museum about the Holocaust. The museum team wants to focus more broadly on centuries of Jewish life and achievements in Poland.
Feet in 2 Worlds reporter Ewa Kern-Jedrychowska produced a radio piece about the museum from Warsaw that aired Tuesday on PRI’s The World.
You can listen to the story here or you can visit The World‘s page.
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A cantor at the ceremony. (Photo: Krzysztof Slomka)
You can see more pictures at the Feet in 2 Worlds Flickr page.
Following President Barack Obama’s announcement postponing Congressional action on immigration reform until next year and the outcry from immigration activists, Feet in 2 Worlds web editor Diego Graglia appeared Monday on The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC, New York Public Radio, to discuss the situation.
Also featured was Amy Gottlieb, director of the Immigrant Rights Program at the American Friends Service Committee, who talked about problems with the immigration detention system.
You can listen to the segment here or visit the show’s page.
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(Photo: Thomªs/Flickr - Click to visit photo page)
Feet in 2 Worlds reporter Martina Guzmán reported Thursday on WDET’s Detroit Today on, “techno artists who once spun records in Detroit basements, abandoned warehouses and after-hours clubs and are now considered royalty on the electronic dance club circuit in Japan and Europe.”
In her report, Martina narrates how the artists’ sound was, “influenced by automobile assembly lines and the city that now has a Spanish accent,” according to Detroit Today‘s webpage
You can listen to the piece here or visit WDET’s site for the whole show.
[audio:http://www.jocelyngonzales.net/FI2W/wdet_martina_latintechno.mp3]BROOKLYN, New York — The death of José Sucuzhañay, an Ecuadorian immigrant, who last December became the victim of a hate crime aimed at the Latino and LGBT communities, has turned from tragedy into a symbol of hope with the naming of a street in his honor.
On Saturday Aug. 1, representatives from the governments of Ecuador, New York City and the State of N.Y. along with police officers from Brooklyn’s 83rd Precinct and numerous family and friends, gathered for the unveiling of Jose Sucuzhañay Place, located at Bushwick Avenue and Kossuth Place. The corner marks the spot where, on December 7, 2008, the 31-year-old Ecuadorian who had come to the United States in 1998 was attacked with a bat and beer bottles while walking home arm in arm with his brother. Witnesses heard the aggressors yell anti-immigrant and homophobic slurs before they got into a car and drove away.
Watch City Council Christine Quinn speak at the ceremony:
José Lucero, the brother of Marcelo Lucero, another Ecuadorian who was also a victim of anti-immigrant hatred when he was stabbed to death on Long Island only a month before Sucuzhañay, said that while the street naming wouldn’t take away the pain of losing a brother, it would empower people who in the past have remained silent.
“More people are speaking out about abuse and injustice, they aren’t afraid,” he said.
The Detroit non-profit brings health care and medicines to Mirebalais, a town in Haiti. (Photo: Haiti Outreach)
Non-profit group Haiti Outreach, based out of St. Blase Church on Detroit’s east side, sends physicians and medical supplies to Mirebalais, a remote town in Haiti.
In a new piece for Detroit public radio’s Detroit Today show, Feet in 2 Worlds and WDET reporter Martina Guzmán reports on the group and its missions to Haiti, where people “will do anything to see a physician,” including standing in a mile-long line, say members Dominique Monde and Soledad Nelson.
“The relationship between both communities is mutually beneficial –reports Martina–. By helping a town in Haiti, Haitian-Americans help themselves maintain their identity.”
You can hear the piece below or visit Detroit Today’s webpage.
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