Marx in Soho

Herbert's Hippopotamus: Marcuse and Revolution in Paradise

Video by Paul Alexander. 

When I started the program of Communication at UCSD, I knew that Herbert Marcuse had been here. I did not know this documentary. 

Immigration foes link flu to Mexican threat claims

Y pensé que estaba yo exagerando con mi anterior post. 

Immigration foes link flu to Mexican threat claims

By JESSE WASHINGTON, AP National WriterSat May 2, 4:16 pm ET

The swine flu virus has infected the immigration debate, with talk show comments like "fajita flu" and "illegal aliens are the carriers" drawing vehement protests from Hispanic advocates.

The volatile immigration issue had cooled off on talk shows and in the blogosphere as the presidential election and economic crisis unfolded. Now, some are using the spread of the virus to renew arguments that immigration from Mexico is a threat to America.

There have been no reports of swine flu leading to incidents of discrimination or profiling of Hispanics. But some Hispanics say racist anti-immigration rhetoric fueled the recent rise in hate crimes against Latinos, and they want to prevent another surge.

Since the virus began to spread, talk radio host Michael Savage has said the Mexican border should be closed immediately and that "illegal aliens are the carriers." Another radio personality, Neal Boortz, has suggested calling the virus the "fajita flu," and CNN's Lou Dobbs called it the "Mexican flu," according to the liberal watchdog group Media Matters.

Boston radio host Jay Severin was suspended indefinitely for calling Mexican immigrants "criminaliens" and emergency rooms "condos for Mexicans" during a discussion about swine flu. A member of a New York City commission on women's issues, Betsy Perry, apologized for blogging that Mexico might need to "get a grip on its banditos" and other flu-related remarks.

In an interview, Savage, who says he has a Ph.D in epidemiology and human nutrition from the University of California-Berkeley, said his remarks were based on science.

"The first rule of epidemiology is to find the epicenter of the disease and close it off," he said. "This has nothing to do with race and everything to do with epidemiology. Viruses do not discriminate."

The World Health Organization does not recommend closing borders, saying that would have little effect, if any, on stopping the virus from spreading. President Barack Obama called the idea "closing the barn door after the horses are out."

What some call science, others call racism.

"Using fears over a serious and ongoing public health issue to demonize immigrants is incredibly low and incredibly cynical, not to mention completely unsubstantiated," said Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J. "Some of these comments are overtly racist and have no place in our public discourse."

Liany Arroyo, director of the National Council of La Raza's Institute for Hispanic Health, said some were trying to exploit the virus "as a mechanism to stir fear."

"This situation is not about immigration, it's about health," she said. "We're all in this together."

But fear is not a rational beast. History is rife with unfounded health scares, some as recent as the 1980s, when Haitians were banned from donating blood in the United States during the early stages of the AIDS epidemic.

So, for anyone who looks Mexican, today's casual cough can turn into humiliation.

In Wilmington, N.C., construction worker Juan Mendoza said he was "working for these rich people ... the other day, and they kept asking me and my co-worker if we were sick. It made me feel bad. Like it's our fault?"

Moises Fernandez, a Raleigh, N.C., resident originally from Tamaulipas, Mexico, said no Americans have openly offended him. "But I know what they're thinking," said the 24-year-old construction worker. "You can tell with how they look at you."

The immigration debate exploded in 2007 when President George W. Bush proposed an overhaul that would have legalized millions of illegal immigrants. Talk radioled the charge against the idea, calling it "amnesty," and the legislation failed to pass. Bush then increased border enforcement and workplace raids, further inflaming tension.

There were 830 Hispanic victims of hate crimes in 2007, the most recent year for which FBI statistics are available, up from 819 in 2006 and 595 in 2003. Hate-crime charges were filed in three recent high-profile killings of Latinos. That led to calls for a new federal law, and the House passed a bill last Wednesday.

Now, with Mexican drug violence seeping across the border, Obama backing a path to citizenship for the 12 million illegal immigrants, and the new swine flu, the ingredients for another explosion are assembled.

___

Associated Press writers Don Babwin in Chicago and Barbara Rodriguez in Raleigh contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press.

Influenza: El que nombra primero...nombra dos veces.

A raíz de que se desató la histeria e incertidumbre por la nueva influenza que aqueja al mundo (una mezcla genética de virus de influenza aviar, porcino y humano), también se desató una guerra por la nomenclatura del padecimiento. 

Dado que los primeros caso se dieron en México, con una concentración considerable en la Ciudad de México y su periferia, muchos se refieren a esta gripe como "la gripe Mexicana" ("the Mexican Flu"). Este fenómeno se ha dado sobre todo en Estados Unidos y Europa, aunque en Brasil se dice que la industria porcina ha discutido que el mejor nombre para este padecimiento sea "la gripe mexicana" ya que esta industria ha presentado considerables pérdidas porque ni siquiera el lobo quiere acercarse a los tres cochinitos ni para saludarlos de lejos, mucho menos consumir su carne. El cabildeo brasileño ha llegado incluso a la Organización Mundial de la Salud, ya que los industriales del puerco de Brasil, en voz de Pedro Camargo Nieto, le han recomendado a la mismísima Margaret Chan,  dejar de referirse a la gripe porcina y mejor darle el nombre azteca. Camargo ha dicho a Reuters que "no hay un sólo cerdo en México con esta gripe" ya que la transmisión es de humano a humano. 

Aún cuando también se ha confirmado por los expertos en salud que el contagio de esta gripe no ocurre por contacto con cerdos, ni por comer carnitas; a diferencia de la gripe aviar, que sí se transmite al comer o entablar relaciones amistosas con guajolotes o patos, la gente ha preferido extremar precauciones y no consumir cerdo. Esto por supuesto tiene a los industriales de este ramo muy preocupados por el nombre de la pandemia, y como dice le título del post: el que nombra primero, nombra dos veces. Para los industriales de la carne, es preferible que la gente se aleje de los mexicanos que de los cerdos, así es que se ha entablado una polémica considerable por el nombre de la peste. Al fin y al cabo, nadie consume carne de mexicanos ¿o sí?

En Estados Unidos hay gritos de alerta de algunos grupos antiinmigrantes (por supuesto!) llamados al cierre de la frontera y a la erradicación de todos los sospechosos de ser mexicanos, ilegales y por supuesto de traer la "gripe mexicana" a tan aseado país. Este tipo de discursos se han difundido sobre todo en la llamada "radio conservadora", con algunas voces bastante vitriólicas como Michael Savage, que ya construye toda una teoría conspiratoria de terrorismo a través de México. Por supuesto, se ha llamado a establecer restricciones para viajar a México, y también para cerrar la frontera. Como si el cierre físico de las fronteras detuviera al virus microscópico, o como si el estatus legal de las personas tuviera una relación directa con sus patologías virales. 

Sin embargo, las medidas sanitarias en Estados Unidos no reflejan las tomadas en México: aquí no se han cerrado escuelas, y ni siquiera se manda a casa a los alumnos que tienen una gripe fuerte. Lo que sí se ha hecho, es estar alerta a los llamados de la OMS y se han difundido campañas para extremar precauciones (como lavarse las manos, por ejemplo). 

Ante la desinformación y la zozobra, es muy fácil recurrir al arsenal de prejuicios que se tienen sobre los inmigrantes mexicanos para comenzar una vez más una cacería de brujas simbólica. Las estructuras de poder y de opresión, no se componen únicamente de políticas públicas, leyes o instituciones; generalmente éstas nacen de la representación simbólica que los individuos y los grupos sociales construyen día a día sobre un segmento de la población o respecto a un problema específico. La cultura, dicen los expertos, se forma con estas representaciónes cotidianas sobre la vida, se crea con la asignación agregada de  nombres y significados, por eso es tan poderosa la herramienta del nombrar.  

Los prejuicios están allí en el imaginario público, es fácil construir estas relaciones de catástrofe y temor y atribuirlas a los grupos marginales. Es fácil, y hasta reconfortante crear chivos expiatorios y sacrificarlos públicamente por el bien de "las mayorías". 

Esperemos que este asunto de las nomenclaturas no termine en una guerra de cabildeos de los llamados "grupos de interés" por el nombre de esta ya declarada pandemia y que no haya ni chivos ni puercos ni minorías expiatorios.
 

Antonieta Mercado

Photo by Jin Ge

So Long Mom...I am off to drop the bomb!

This is a prophetic song by Tom Leher....very funny. What Leher said here in the video and in the explanation below, reminded me of that book by Chris Hedges: War is a force that gives us meaning. I wonder if people will remember the Iraq war a few years from now as "those great old times when everybody drove a Hummer and dressed with camouflaged clothing" even around Rodeo Drive or Disneyland! Very fashionable. 

Here Tom Leher words:

"This year we've been celebrating the hundredth anniversary of the Civil War and the fiftieth anniversary of the beginning of World War I and the twentieth anniversary of the end of World War II so all in all it's been a good year for the war buffs and a number of LPs and television specials have come out capitalizing on all this "nostalgia" with particular emphasis on the songs of the various wars. I feel that if any songs are going to come out of World War III we'd better start writing them now. I have one here. You might call it a bit of pre-nostalgia. This is the song that some of the boys sang as they went bravely of to World War III."

Tom Leher

So long, Mom,
I'm off to drop the bomb,
So don't wait up for me.
But while you swelter
Down there in your shelter,
You can see me
On your TV.

While we're attacking frontally,
Watch Brinkally and Huntally,
Describing contrapuntally
The cities we have lost.
No need for you to miss a minute
Of the agonizing holocaust. (Yeah!)

Little Johnny Jones he was a U.S. pilot,
And no shrinking vi'let was he.
He was mighty proud when World War Three was declared,
He wasn't scared,
No siree!

And this is what he said on
His way to Armageddon:

So long, Mom,
I'm off to drop the bomb,
So don't wait up for me.
But though I may roam,
I'll come back to my home,
Although it may be
A pile of debris.

Remember, Mommy,
I'm off to get a commie,
So send me a salami,
And try to smile somehow.
I'll look for you when the war is over,
An hour and a half from now! 

From: http://www.metrolyrics.com/so-long-mom-lyrics-tom-lehrer.html