Border Blogs: Expressing our Border Culture

Dear Rand:
I am a great admirer of your father, Ron Paul, and have followed your commentary closely. I congratulate you on your recent primary victory in Kentucky and hope you will be the next Senator.

There is no question in my mind of the clarity of your thinking relative to Libertarian ideals. I agree with most of what you say relative to libertarian ideology and recognize your courage in maintaining a strong adherence to your convictions.

However, I am increasingly uncomfortable with your adherence to your version of libertarian ideology even when presented with practical aspects of an issue that may militate nuance in application of theory to political practice.

It is increasingly evident to me you are an ideologue, to be sure, an idealistic one.

By this I mean, you are an individual that is a blindly partisan advocate or adherent of your ideology in spite of the facts of the situation or mitigating circumstances relative to a given issue.

I agree with your belief in limiting the interference of government of private business but question the wisdom of challenging established social custom and law.

For anyone living under racialist hatreds, prudence demands recognition of the pragmatic reality faced by a particular group and the consequence to the nation as a whole.

Again. Despite the fact reasonable people can consider the ideal approach to dealing with a particular issue abd agree with you, there is no question compromise is often necessary to accomplish a particular goal.

With respect to your most recent comments relative to British Petroleum, it seems disingenuous to defend an industry so heavily subsidized by the government. It is, to use your descriptor, "un-American" for you to defend an industry that is supported so heavily with public tax dollars.

Remove the subsidies and favored status of the oil industry and then I might feel empathy for your defense of "private" industry.

The disaster British Petroleum hashey has wrought in the Gulf of Mexico and, potentially, the entire American eastern seaboard makes anyone stand back and think twice before encouraging off-shore drilling and wary of defending the industry.

You are running for Senate and those that may have some inclination to support Libertarian ideals need to hear a voice; a prudent and pragmatic voice. To this end, you must articulate viewpoints fully cognizant of the practical realities Americans face not from a textbook on Libertarian theory but on the basis of prudent, pragmatic and sound analysis of the facts on the ground.

ArtMarch May 15, 2010, in Philadelphia on YouTube by Al Dia

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTLX4VBuh90


More links

http://www.lisebjorne.blogspot.com/

"Desconocida Unknown Ukjent is using a traditional female activity; embroidery. to invite people globally to engage, protest and show solidarity with the fight against abuse and violence towards women, focusing on the situation in Ciudad Juarez." - Lise Bjorne Linnert, Norway

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Killing-Fields/Diana-Washington-Valdez/e/9780615140087




Philadelphia Weekly
Article on the ArtMarch by Gustavo Martinez
May 15, 2010

A Piece of Cuidad Juarez in Philly

Despite having two bodyguards for the last two years, Marisela Ortiz does not feel safe.

"I will never see having bodyguards as something normal," says Ortiz, who got the protection because of the decade-long fighting in Cuidad Juarez, an increasingly dangerous Mexican city. "But me and my family have been the target of death threats, insults, repression because there are people who don't want the truth to be uncovered."

Since 2001, Ortiz, 50, has been leading Nuestras Hijas de Regreso a Casa (Bring Our Daughters Back Home), an organization that helps the families of the many women who have disappeared or who have been killed in that city just across from El Paso, Texas.

About 800 women and students from working-class neighborhoods in Cuidad Juarez have been kidnapped, tortured, raped and killed since 1993. It’s part of an ongoing wave of violence resulting from drug wars, says Diana Washington Valdez, a reporter for El Paso Times who has been investigating the killings since 1999.

"Well, we see the results of the so-called investigations and that's coming up with scape goats, chivos expiatorios, misidentifying victims," she says. "Cases keep getting old and the statue of limitation is expiring, so cases that happened in 1993, ‘94, they have expired now. They're getting away with murder no matter who committed the crimes."

She also points to the widespread corruption that has allowed these killings to continue, despite local and international pressure to intervene.

But a series of events in Philadelphia this weekend will help keep the memory of these women alive.

Ni Una Más (Not One More), a Drexel University collaboration, seeks to raise awareness about gender violence and, in particular, crimes against women in Juarez, says Abbie Dean, a co-curator of one of the event’s exhibits.

The event will kick off with ARTMARCH, a mass demonstration/performance-art piece that will include more than 700 young women from Drexel University dressed in the iconic pink that can be seen on the victims’ memorial crosses in Juarez.

The event is scheduled to start at 2 p.m. Saturday at the 33rd Street Armory. The group will march toward the university and end with a rally outside Leonard Pearlstein Gallery, 3401 Filbert St.

At the gallery, an exhibit will gather 70 works by 20 international artists. One of the highlights is the work of Frank Bender, a Philadelphian whose art has taken him from being featured in “America's Most Wanted” to a hotel a room in Ciudad Juárez, where he tried to reconstruct the faces of six women.

"I stayed there for a month and in that month my wife received a threatening email," Bender said. "We had to move out the hotel room in the middle of the night."

For him, that was the beginning of an ordeal that led him to believe that Mexican authorities had no will to solve these murders.

"How could these bodies lay there all these time and nobody found them until they're decomposed," he said. "How come the evidence locker in Juárez is open for anybody to take whatever they want? This is incompetence by design. They don't really want to solve these cases."

Washington Valdez's work on both sides of the border has resulted in The Killing Fields: Harvest of Women, a book that reveals high-level corruption, specifically the deal between the drug cartel and Mexican officials that allowed for such widespread violence.

"The murders committed by some of the suspects stopped [after the book came out]. Because there was too much scrutiny put on the whole situation," she said. "But the organized crime in general, because that network still exists, is still protecting the killers of women and children."

For more information, visit www.drexel.edu/juarez/

**********

Reuters article

(Reuters) - In the middle of a West Philadelphia art gallery, a sculpture of a naked woman lies on a low plinth.

Arts | Lifestyle

The three-foot-long figure by Philadelphia artist Arlene Love is missing its right arm and leg and has a huge gash running the length of its leather-covered torso, along the side of its throat and ending near the right ear.

The gruesome effigy entitled Beverly is part of an exhibit that epitomizes the violence done to women in Juarez, Mexico, where at least 700 women have been murdered since the 1990s in a wave of often sexual violence that is highlighted by the Philadelphia show.

Ni Una Mas or "Not One More", in the Leonard Pearlstein Gallery at Drexel University, uses painting, sculpture, photography and other media to draw attention to the savage killings of hundreds of women in the U.S.-Mexico border city that is better known to the outside world for its drug-related violence.

"The aim is to encourage others to action and to open their eyes, and their minds and their hearts to this poignant situation in Juarez," said Abbie Dean, a co-curator of the exhibit that runs until July 16.

Works in the exhibit include "Heal", by Yoko Ono. It consists of a 20-foot-wide plain canvas sheet covered with gashes and rips. Viewers are invited to repair the fabric with needle and thread on an adjacent table, in a gesture intended to symbolize the need for healing after many years of violence.

On a pink-painted wall nearby, hundreds of embroidered name tapes commemorate the victims. The tapes have been made by some 1,900 volunteers in 27 countries. The meticulous nature of embroidery represents the care shown by the volunteers toward the dead women, said the Norwegian artist Lise Linnert.

In the center of the exhibition floor there is a translucent banner in which an image of a police badge is superimposed on many reports of the murders, an image designed to show official inaction or even complicity with the killings, the organizers say.

The show is "unabashedly activist" in its intent, according to a statement from the curators, and is intended to generate international demand for a halt to the killings.

"It is open season on women in Juarez because there is no one in authority to give the murderers pause or to protect the innocent," the curators wrote in an exhibition guide. "The faces of the perpetrators and protectors are blurred into one, and this political paralysis has made it a land of murder without debt."

The known names of the victims line a wall at the entrance of the show. The list ends in 2006 when the Mexican government stopped releasing names, said Dean. But information from prosecutors indicates that 34 women were killed in Juarez in the first three months of 2010, a doubling over the same period of 2009, she said.

"The entire situation in Juarez is an indication that the government is no longer in control," Dean said.

Calling the killings "femicide", she said they surged in 1993 when the beginning of the North American Free Trade Agreement brought many young women to the U.S. border area near Juarez to work in "maquilladoras", the factories set up by U.S. corporations to take advantage of cheap local labor.

"The women were easy prey," Dean said.

The killings may also be an "instrument of terror" in the city's current wave of drug-related violence, she added.

Beyond the focus of the Mexican killings, the show aims to highlight violence to women in other parts of the world. It includes a sculpture commemorating the burned brides of India, young women who have died in fires set by their husbands who intend to collect a further dowry.

The show runs until July 16.



*******************The Killing Fields: Harvest of Women, the first investigative book about the Juarez murders by a U.S. journalist.

A long time conservative spoke to Arizona's SB 1070 shortly after her visit this week.

She wrote, "Emotions today ran very high for me as I finally understood the whole picture (of what Arizonans are experiencing).

I am not supportive of illegal aliens and I have never hired one, no matter how great the need.

Why?

Because I think it is exploiting them and if I am not part of the solution, I will never be a part of the problem. I think it is wrong to enter someone’s country illegally.

But having said that, I know that circumstances are different for many people. As a Child I lived illegally in Mexico, not my choosing but I was a child and had to do what my parents chose for me. So I know how it is to live with fear that someone in authority could find out. I therefore understand the constant fear that these people live under.

Living in the border, I know the conditions that poor people live in. Having lived and traveled throughout most of Mexico I know conditions are only getting worse. Being a member of the El Paso/ Ciudad Juarez area, I know the danger and the worsening conditions and violence that we are living in the border. So, if I had a family to support and I could not feed them, I feared for their and my life and I could not find a job in my own country, I would possibly also take the treacherous path of an illegal alien.

I know I look like an illegal, I am brown, I speak Spanish, I have a Spanish surname. But I am also a Texan and my family has been in this country even before it was part of the USA. I am an American, I am not Mexican even though in culture I can and have passed for one. My roots are Hispanic, European (Spanish, Portuguese, French, Norwegian), Native American (Apache- no I am not an Aztec nor Tigua) and Mexican.

I do not know what the answer to this problem of illegal immigration is. I don’t like the fact that our desert is being trashed.

I don’t like the fact that our resources have to be shared with uninvited guests but I am also a human being and a practicing Catholic and I cannot see a person hurt and beguildered and turn my back on them. I have helped many ilegals in my area whose employers did not pay them, I have paid them for them, I have bought them clothes, I have personally driven them back to their homes in Cd. Juarez so that they did not have to take buses or taxis with what they were given. To me it is normal and humane to help them. You do not beat a dying horse.

So how is this law affecting me? I don’t like the rhetoric, people saying that the US or one party hates immigrants when in reality that is a blatant lie. We don’t like illegal migration not legal migration. There is a tremendous difference and using the term for both is a dishonest assessment of the situation.

Are there racists?

Of course and anti-immigrant behavior has occurred to all immigrants in the USA but those immigrants wanted to stay here and made this their home. This is part of the History of the US, this situation is not unique and we survived all the other immigration challenges.

The majority of illegal migrants do no have those ties, they want to go back to Mexico once they have achieved their financial dreams. But reality is that many end up not ever going back and end up not participating in the system yet they want all the benefits of being a citizen. This is a double edged sword.

They come to this country to work, not to abuse the system nor to steal anything from anyone. They are mostly looking for work. So if we hire them, why are we surprised as a nation that they are here? We create a market and they fill it.

IN every city there is a corner, a church, a parking lot where they gather and the locals come to hire them. Why do the authorities permit this? They could or could not get paid. Who aids them if they are abused? We, as a nation, cannot create this problem and then turn around and criminalize these people because they are not committing a crime, they are only trying to survive, is that a crime?

What is happening in Arizona is not faring well to all Hispanics regardless of whether we are from here as I am or we immigrated as many have. So what is happening?

This law is not as offensive all by itself but it is giving power to entities that by following the constitution should not have. Protection of the home land and acceptance into our country is the responsibility of the federal government, not of local entities. IT is an illegal law simple and true.

However the anger of Hispanics in Arizona stems from a continuous assault on our culture, our language and us as a people.

In 2002 a law was passed that ended bilingual education in Arizona where 30 percent of the population is of Mexican descent and bilingual.

In 2004 even though no proof that illegals were voting was ever supplied or proven, the population had to start presenting IDs in order to vote.

In 2006 English Language learners were segregated, how on earth can they learn the language if they are not allowed to mingle with English speakers?

In that same year, Chicano History in School was prohibited. We study European history but the people of the Southwest were denied the right to know who and what they are.

Just recently it is proposed that teachers with accents may not be permitted to teach children in public schools. Since when does an accent dictate or gauge knowledge or ability to teach?

So this law is just the last drop in a series of unfair and anti-Mexican targeted laws that discriminate.

I know that it is obvious that the Arizona State government is overwhelmed.

Ranchers, environmentalists are having a fit over the state of the lands where these people travail. Schools and hospitals cannot support this extra activity of taking care of non-citizens.

But if we hire them and create this stream of illegal migration, how can we respond to this problem by criminalizing and further endangering their lives. Aren’t we the nation that helps others? So, why do we send millions to the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Africa and forget that we are part of this continent called America? Do we forget that we took or if it makes us feel better bought in conditions that will always be in infamy half of Mexico’s territory.

Do we have a moral obligation to aid them now?

How we treat these illegal immigrants and how we solve this challenge will define this country and is a situation that is in peril to create civilian unrest and this bickering amongst parties and people does not solve the problem, it only adds wood to the fire.

illegals trying to get work from a possible client in a safe area

Is the solution to our problem a wall that can be jumped, militarization, more guns and equipment, more border patrol or is it a comprehensive package to help our neighbor be in parity with us, the most powerful nation that has ever existed in the history of the earth.

If we hire them out of the radar, why can’t we find a way to let them enter the country legally for work. The present visa system is not filling the need, regardless of what the Deparment of Labor and State may say or think.

States cannot take the role that belongs to the Federal Government in order to put a bandaid on a bleeding wound.

Let’s think creatively and lets take this challenge as the Americans whose values made us the beacon for the whole world.

Ezra Klein took Rand Paul to task for failing to answer Rachel Maddow's question, "Should [the] Woolworth lunch counter have been allowed to stay segregated? Sir, just yes or no."

Klein agreed with Dave Weigel that Paul's analysis of the Civil Rights Act that desegregated private businesses was not new or unusual. "Paul believes, as many conservatives believe, that the government should ban bias in all of its institutions but cannot intervene in the policies of private businesses."

Klein continues that Rand's views on the Civil Rights Act matter because Rand "will have to vote on quite a bit of legislation that uses the commerce clause to regulate private businesses."

He adds, "If this isn't about race, then it is about all questions relating to federal regulation of private enterprise. As a senator, Paul will be faced with that question frequently."

Finally, Klein asserts that Rand's views are very far from the mainstream.

In my view, Ezra Klein is being intellectually dishonest and disingenuous.

The question as framed by Rachel Maddow; the imagery and the backdrop were intended to create a wedge issue in a political contest that had little to do with race in order to promote a liberal political agenda.

If Rand is to be faulted it is because he allowed the hypothetical to press him into a corner. He should have answered unequivocally to the question in this way: 'Do I support public desegragation and non-discrimination? Yes. Do I support private businesses to make their own decisions? Yes. Do I reject racism? Yes.'

Many of the problems facing America today are a direct result of the institutionalization of victimhood codified in a great deal race-based legislation.

To pick a poignant and emotional example to make political points is dishonest.

I have a hypothetical question for Ezra Klein.

Background: A Jew in Germany murdered various members of his own family. The country had the death penalty.

Mr. Klein would you put a jew to death for his crime in Hitler's Germany in 1939? Sir, just yes or no."

The question is important because Mr. Klein you will be dealing with a great many rule of law issues in Congress.

Sir, just yes or no.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill White has released a new television commercial that continues to point to his Texas background. White's new 60-second ad — titled "Texas Roots, Texas Values" – may be an effort to avoid a repeat of the...

Today, the president of Mexico, Mr. Felipe Calderon Hinojosa and his wife, Mrs. Margarita Zavala were received at the White House by President Barack Obama and his wife. President Obama emphasized about things that can be achieved together and how this visit will further boost bilateral relations between both countries.

“Together, we can help create jobs and prosperity for our people. We can ensure that our common border is secure, modern and efficient, including immigration that is orderly and safe. We can stand firm, and deepen our cooperation, against the drug cartels that threaten our people. And given Mexico’s global leadership, we can stand together for the opportunity and security of all people, in our hemisphere and beyond,” were some of President Obama’s declarations. President Obama also powerfully declared “The United States and Mexico are not simply neighbors, bound by geography and history. We are, by choice, friends and partners. We are bound by our business partners, workers and tourists who fuel our prosperity; by our students and educators who broaden our horizons; and by our men and women in uniform, who serve and sacrifice to keep us safe.”

For his part, President Felipe Calderon proposed to President Obama to move beyond the mutual recriminations which hurt the relationship between Mexico and the United States to address together the challenges posed by organized crime, migration, economic crisis and climate change. “This is the opprtunity to look forward and begin a new era of strategic partnership between Mexico and the United States, based on shared responsibility.”

President Obama’s first state visit, when he was just appointed to office was Mexico, as did Mrs. Obama, who chose Mexico for her first personal visit due to the close ties between our countries. This state visit is one more opportunity to strengthen the relationship between Mexico and the United States.

While in times of intense discussions in issues such as border security and migration arouse, both Presidents Obama and Calderon used their words, not to describe, but to to create a world of possibility for our countries through their statements. It is this future of prosperity that they created and to in which we are living to that which inspires us to make a difference in our lives and in North America’s.

Edgardo Buscaglia made a series of recommendations for Mexico national policy and also for the El Paso-Juarez region through a public forum recently.

Buscaglia suggested Mexico and the local region need to:

1. Engage a true international cooperation to address drug trafficking;
2. Engage asset forfeiture as a strategy against the cartel players;
3. Engage a true prosecution of political corruption;
4. Engage a true social drug use prevention strategy; and
5. Third party or non-governmental organization formation to function as a para-governmental IRS or informant network.

While his analysis is on the mark, his prescription is woefully deficient.

The only organization with the breath to accomplish an alternative community organization is the Catholic Church. Warts and all, it remains the only institution that can credibly claim a social and public interest. But, it is no match to billions of dollars and gangs with no moral compass armed to the teeth.

Para-military or para-governmental agencies even with critical infrastructure provided by third parties e.g. UN or US, will not work. The implied loss of sovereignty would result in an explosion of violence.

To be sure, the outrage by cartel members would be self-serving but the issue set of violation of national sovereignty would be virulent ammunition against those that would support such a strategy.

Sadly the only solution is contained in my analysis of the situation issued elsewhere on this blog:

Close both the northern and southern Mexican border with a robust US military presence; declare war on law enforcement corruption on the US side of the border and apply a draconian asset forfeiture strategy to those caught distributing drugs on the US side.

There would be, of course, an additional effect on illegal immigration. It would be immediate and may result in collateral casualties.

Internally, Mexico's political leadership can decide whether they will rise to the challenge before them.

Some argue that Mexican President Felipe Calderon's call for open borders is intended to keep the flow of drugs from the south open in order to favor the strongest of the Mexican cartels e.g. the Sinaloa Cartel.

The cover for maintaing the flow of drugs is the illegal immigrant issue.

These naysayers assert that the fact is that Calderon couldn't care less about his citizens but cares deeply about their remittances. They are adamant that his primary goal is to ensure the on-going flow of drugs as his life depends on it.

The disappearance of Diego Cervantes de Ceballos, it is argued, is a direct result of his failure to protect a drug lord. Calderon is under the same threat. If he does not keep the northern border open to drugs, he is dead.

Whether there is merit to this line of argument and whether it bears closer scrutiny by analysts who are looking at these issues, is an open question.

Previously I have written about the viewpoints of officials on the US side of the border relative to border problems.

The meeting between Presidents Obama and Calderon alongside the call for marijuana legalization by El Paso City Rep. Beto O'Rourke et al. makes the perception of those south of the border very timely.

Mexicans believe military actions directed by the Mexican government to disrupt drug corridors, capture drug cartel leaders and otherwise disrupt relations between the cartels are having severe consequences on the social fabric of key northern cities including those on the US side of the border.

There is widespread insecurity and fear. This piece reflects the perspective of officials on the Mexican side.

Recent events suggest the central government has lost control of large sections of northern Mexico.

Local police forces are non-existent or highly compromised. The military has not been able to exert control over key major cities and complaints of rapes, theft and violence by the military against citizens has resulted in a partial pull-back in some areas.

According to border officials on the Mexican side, the problem of violence stems from the dissolution of the shadow, “La Oficina de Gobernabilidad” (L.O.G.), that operated under the federal regimes prior to Vicente Fox. This L.O.G. office was an informal tool by the government that managed and directed the flow of drugs through the country. The handful of existing cartels at that time had an explicit agreement to work within assigned spheres of influence.

The administration of Vicente Fox, in an effort to be responsive and be deemed cooperative with the US in order to gain favorable economic concessions, made a fateful decision to eliminate the L.O.G.

Some members of his administration took it upon themselves to become the de facto managers of the major corridors. However, the informal transfer of authority occurred without the institutional knowledge that had been accumulated by L.O.G. This included the names of key players and significant mid-level actors. As a result, there were significant gaps in the territorial allocation of spheres of influence.

Absent a directed accommodation among cartels in some sectors by the federal government, freelancers took up the challenge. Initially, these freelancers were not difficult to control and were referred to as “Encuerados” (naked ones) because they were lower class and cash poor. However, things changed dramatically: By the time of the assumption of President Felipe Calderon’s administration, “Encuerados” were increasingly known as the “Desgraciados” (Immoral heartless brigands). They were now cash rich and had acquired a taste for unrestrained social and personal power, “15 year olds with $400,000 and with no one to tell them they couldn’t do what they wanted.”

They have distinguished themselves with, particularly gruesome, acts of violence such as, cutting off heads, torture and rape. This grisly modus operandi includes innocents. The key symptom of the growing presence and power of the Desgraciados was the rape, torture and murder of women who worked in the maquiladoras.

These smaller gangs had six years to build their cash and infrastructural capacity. It is these gangs that are primarily responsible for the on-going carnage in the urban centers. They do not have a central authority and are widely dispersed. They also are not educated, relatively young (20s) and have no moral compass. This is a consequence of their entry into the drug trade in their formative years.

The collapse of the police forces occurred during the same time frame because they were the default managers of local drug movements. The closing of the L.O.G. resulted in local police captains making decisions at their discretion. The symptom of the problem became evident when municipal police began showing up dead.

Once top level officials no longer played the game or changed the focus of the game, “Encuerados” turned “Desgraciados” and their local law enforcement protectors became the perpetrators and targets of violence at the same time.

The most common complaint against the drug war as being conducted by President Calderon is the “Cortar Cabezas” (Off With Their Heads) strategy. This is provoking greater disaggregation of “Desgraciados” with links to the principal cartels, which as stated are the direct cause of the urban violence.

Another complaint is the intimidation of the judicial system. “The northern states are not dominated by the political and judicial class any longer but rather by agreements between the political groups and the dominant cartel operating in the state.”

The point was made this way, “Calderon is working off a map of reality that no longer exists. The new map is not made up of 10 major cartels but tens of dozens of minor gangs of Desgraciados. Some have links to the major cartels but many operate independently.”

Even when some leverage can be applied, key opportunities are lost. For example, the arrest of the wife of a cartel leader was a major event recently but fear of retribution made the event a lost opportunity. One opinion held, “Applying the IRS formula against the Mafia would have worked in that case. Any review of the financials of the family would have borne fruit but the prosecutors were intimidated. One prosecutor brought in from outside the state to take over one prosecution lasted less than 10 days on the job because of the pressures to rig outcomes favoring the cartels.” Another stated, “One federal judge goes to work in a baseball cap and a beat up truck to avoid being recognized.” One informant said, “Recent disappearances of high-powered attorneys are a consequence of their failure to fulfill their function as protectors of the cartel leaders.”

Despite reports of the emergence of one cartel in the fight for control of Juarez, this resolution is far from clear. The battle continues: One major group is lead by “La Linea” with some complicity with the current state governors (Chihuahua, Coahuila, Tamaulipas) and accommodations with the Gulf Cartel and one lead by “El Sinaloense” (Sonora, Baja California and part of Chihuahua) with their respective federal government and military allies on both sides of the US-Mexico border. Both have hired mercenary armies (e.g. Zetas, Barrio Aztecas) composed of professional criminal gangs with military-trained operatives to assert territorial dominance. In turn, they have empowered local neighborhood gangs for urban distribution, intimidation and control of local law enforcement.

Officials on the US Mexico border have expressed need for increased manpower on the border as well as infrastructure (roads, facilities, ports of entry) support. Mexican officials concur with that recommendation. However, they believe that nothing will change unless the border is effectively “closed to drug trafficking on the US side.”

One poignant difference between perceptions by US officials and their Mexican counterparts is the distribution of illegal exports into the U.S. “The industrial quantities of cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin and marijuana are moving through Texas at Reynosa and the southern Texas border and including Cd. Juarez with major distribution hubs in El Paso and Dallas (not Arizona or New Mexico)…The fact is law enforcement at various levels is complicit with the importation and distribution of drugs into the US through Texas…For example, the Gulf Cartel is in business not as a distributor of drugs but as a border crossing agent and importer.”

As for exports of guns and cash from the US into Mexico, there has been little effort or willingness on the part of US government to stop the flow.

Rural areas in the US report “increasing” transportation of marijuana in the last few months ascribed to legalization of (medical) marijuana in California, New Mexico and Colorado. They note general lack of communication, coordination and information from federal law enforcement.

Mexican officials noted they believe wholesale legalization must be on the table in Mexican federal policy or, alternatively, the US must take responsibility for its policy that is promoting increasing demand for drugs.

As for increase in Mexican military action, myriad complaints from Mexican citizens regarding the increase in military personnel untrained to police urban centers is the immediate direct cause of the pull back announced recently by the Calderon administration.

Some local officials in Texas along with political action by US states and cities to legalize marijuana in California, New Mexico and Colorado has given rise to the perception by Mexican officials there is an effort to shift market share from Mexican to US sources of marijuana. They do not conclude legalization of marijuana in the US will impact the level of violence.

As for spillover, Mexican officials assert that the US cartels have issued orders to keep the US side peaceful in order to not create any disruption of their distribution networks. The people who have been killed that are US citizens or residents have been murdered because they brought attention to some aspect of the business or are involved. “Quiet neighborhoods are good business.”

The solutions to these problems are simple but there is no political will “on either the US or the Mexican side to resolve the problem.” The fact is strong action by either government in the right direction would ratchet down the tension, an essential ingredient of a new accommodation that will allow an independent police force to emerge.

There is a strong feeling the safety valve of entering the US must continue to be available. Many Mexicans “with financial capacity are moving into El Paso and other border areas on the US side.” Symptomatic of that is the thriving retail business that caters to Mexican tastes and sensibility. At the same time, there is great empathy with the challenges faced by the US. There needs to be a decriminalization of status “con candados” (with locks). “There are many people that are industrious, entrepreneurial and hard working families. The US needs to get rid of the scum but the majority are good people.”

Respondent Recommendations are as follows:

On Drug War
1. Interdict weapons, cash and drugs through inspection of south-bound
traffic at International Ports with Mexico:
2. Stop complicity with cartels of law enforcement in Texas;
3. Militarize border; OR
4. Legalize all drugs in Mexico and control the trade.

On Immigration
1. Decriminalize status of Mexican citizens in US “con candados” with
no right to public welfare and Deport anyone with a criminal record
from US;
2. Retool Immigration system (The back up in applications is “the
reason for illegal migration. The system is cumbersome and rigged
against the applicants.)

President Obama and Calderon do well to heed these recommendations.

State Rep. Norma Chavez has asked the State Board of Education to consider including Texas' Ysleta del Sur Pueblo/Tigua Indians, the Alabama-Coushatta and the Kickapoo tribes in proposed history standards. She wants the board to make learning about the tribes...

Mexico and Brazil are quite similar countries with economies that are competing globally to become new economic powers. Both nations have been affected by the financial crisis in 2008. We could even say that due of the nature of their business and because it was in the U.S., its largest trading partner, precisely where the crisis originated, Mexico has been more affected.

Brazil is part of the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) emerging bock countries. According to several specialists, these countries have the greatest potential for growth and development. Some even claim that Mexico wants to belong and be part of this group. However, a review of available statistics shows that Mexico has already passed the stage of being a developing country with potential, and is now a reality. In other words, the BRIC aspire to look like Mexico and not vice versa.

In recent months there has been much fuss about the BRICs, especially China, India and Brazil. China has made great progress, in fact when we hear China we know we are talking about the country with the largest population in the world and economically it is estimated to exceed U.S. economy in about 25 years. In the case of India, we hear about the power in the knowledge economy, they have an arsenal of very well prepared engineers at a relatively low cost and are specialists in developing quality software worldwide. If we mention Brazil, we hear the significant progress that they have had in recent years and its recent influence on the world stage. For example, Petrobras, for its technological innovation in deep water and their way of doing business in the oil industry.

Interestingly, what few people know is that the term BRIC was coined by a Brazilian who placed Brazil, a country with 180 million inhabitants, with India and China, countries with more than one billion inhabitants each. It is often heard that Brazil knows how to sell itself and Mexico doesn’t. However, if we look closely at the figures, Mexico is better placed than Brazil in figures such as per capita income, human development index, women empowerment, economic freedom, ease of doing business, as well as less violent deaths. We have not been able to exploit that image though.

It would seem that Mexico should be compared not with BRIC countries, but with the countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) that includes the select group of the world’s most developed countries. Mexico is an OECD member since 1994 and, proudly, the first Latin American country to join this select club. It was also the only latin American member until this year that Chile also was invited. The OECD member countries have reached a higher level of economic development, and are considered to be the most advanced and developed countries on the planet. Within this select group or league of countries, Mexico is closing ranks to climb to the top.

So the obvious question is: To who should Mexico be compared? The developed world invites us and sees us playing at the OECD to close the gap with the select club of countries with more development, while the BRIC wants to be more like Mexico. Mexico still compares itself to the BRIC countries.

From what context should we look at Mexico?

Promoção de Ensaio Sensual ou de Moda para o Dia Internacional da Mulher

O estúdio Ricardo Carreon Fotografia em homenagem ao Dia Internacional da Mulher 2010 está sorteando um ensaio sensual durante o mês de Março.  Para participar desta promoção as interessadas devem cadastrar corretamente seus dados e incluir o comentário "Desejo participar no Sorteio do Ensaio" no site site www.ricardocarreon.com clickando no Link "Contact".

 Você pode cadastrar você, suas amigas ou pessoas especiais. O cadastro pode ser feito no Mês Internacional da Mulher até o dia 31 de Março de 2010.  A data do sorteio é 1º de Abril de 2010.
 

Características do Ensaio:

- O ensaio vai ser marcado no mês de Abril de 2010 com a ganhadora.

- O ensaio será realizado na Grande São Paulo.  Participantes de fora da Grande São Paulo têm a opção de fazer a viagem a São Paulo cobrindo as suas despesas ou cobrir as despesas de viagem do fotógrafo, juntamente com o equipamento fotográfico e de iluminação.

- O processo consiste em uma reunião prévia de aproximadamente uma hora com a equipe de produção para estabelecer a temática do ensaio, figurino e locação.  A sessão fotográfica pode ser um ensaio sensual ou um ensaio de moda.

- Para o ensaio está incluso maquiagem, cabelo e seleção de figurino. A duração da sessão é de aproximadamente 5 horas.

- Depois da sessão a ganhadora fará a seleção final das fotos junto com a equipe de produção. As fotos selecionadas serão tratadas profissionalmente com Photoshop e impressas em um foto book de alta qualidade.  O foto book é o produto final do ensaio.

Cadastre-se e ganhe um ensaio sensual ou de moda para você ou para alguma mulher especial.  Link para o formulario de cadastro.

A few days ago I ran into a tweet from one of the persons in my network saying "Twitter killed my blog".  This probably seems like an obvious observation judging by the huge sucess twitter has as a service.  However, I must say that my experience has been a completely different one.  I think that tweets or tweeter posts by themselves are as ephemeral as they can get.  Of course, there are tweets that go a long way, especially those that become a meme, a trending topic, or get a large number of RTs (the twitter term for re-tweet, what happens when somebody's tweet is re-published by somebody else).  However, for most tweeter users, even those with relatively large networks, the tweets attract a relatively low number of clicks.

Take for instance this blog.  This blog had lots of activity between 2006-2008 and then it became pretty much dormant in 2009, as a reflection of my other professional activity changes.  I have started to retake it again in 2010, together with my activity on twitter, Facebook and flickr. Well, despite the blog neglect in 2009, many of its posts still attract an audience.  This is mostly because those posts are positioned well in Google and other search engines.  Those posts attract dozens of visits every day.  In contrast a popular tweet might attract a good number of hits in one or two days, maximum.  After that it simply gets lots in the long stream of tweets.  Even people who visit my personal tweeter page directly hardly click past the last 4-5 tweets. 

In another words, I do not buy into the argument that twitter is killing blogs.  Twitter is a great service and has allowed me to stay in touch with my network in a very efficient way.  However, as a way to publish information it still has its challenges.  I have had dome of my articles RT'd by many good friends and still the traffic ouf of those RTs is pretty low.  All of this might change as tweets get incorporated into search engines more preeminently, but for now the tweets are cool, but short lived. 

I just launched this week a new web site for my new studio.  My new studio is focused on fine art sensual photography for common persons and models.  The website presents my portfolio of my best fashion and sensual photography.  The new studio is being built in a partnership with photographer Eder Bruscagin.  The studio is located in the Moema neigborhood (Zona Sul) of São Paulo.  Contact information for the studio can be found in the web site.  We are participating in several events with our partners and I will be writing the stories about those events here on this blog.

Here is the link for ricardocarreon.com.

There are of course a lot of blogs, websites and articles online about how to light a subject properly for stunning portraits. This small article talks about a very simple technique you can use to achieve rich portrait lighting that makes the facial features of your model come to life beautifully.  The technique uses only natural light, of the type that comes through your window.

First of all, in most portraits you will want to achieve different levels of light on the face of your photographic subject.  This creates some shadows which make the picture look tri-dimensional.  If you make your light very even on the face you will make the face of your subject look flat.  There is some movement towards even lighting nowadays, especially in fashion and editorial portraits, but you will see that in that case, the volume on the facial features might be achieved with make up or any other means. 

If you are shooting with studio lighting, the way you achieve different levels of light is by placing one lamp at a higher power or closer to the subject (this is called the main light) and a second light at lower power or far from the subject (this is called fill light).

If you are new to photography a simpler way to achive this for practicing is to place your subject close to a large window that lets natural light in.  Position your subject in a way that the light coming from the window lights part of the face (it can be most of the face actually) and part of the face and body have shadows.  Experiment with different angles on your model (relative to the window) and different camera positions.  You should expose to the light on the brighter side of your model (that is, expose to the main light).  Be careful that the light differential between the illuminated side and the dark side is not too big, because that can create problems.  A light differential of 1.5 points is very good between the main light and the fill light, because that creates a 3:1 contrast ratio that looks very good in the resulting image.

Here is an example of this.  The Model on the shot is Finnish Top Model Olivia Kortelainen.  We shot this entirely with natural light coming out of the window.

Any photography questions please leave a comment or contact me in twitter at ricardocarreon.

I am starting to build a new alternative model album on flickr.  This album is for model Kodoq, also know as Katie.  Kodoq is a very sucessful alternative Polish performer and model that lives in Finland.  Kodok is also a member of Model Mayhem, where you can find her portfolio under the number 70561.

Here are two photos from Kodoq Katie, you can see all photos published on my Kodoq flickr set.

Kodoq black later dress

 

Kodoq Katie black latex dress floor shot

 

Thanks for visiting Newspapertree. Right now, we are in the process of becoming a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization. While we work on a new business structure, the site will be down. Shouldn't take long.

News and notes from El Paso-area law enforcement, updated as they come in, with most recent on top. Pictured: Manhunt Monday suspect Ricardo Zuniga

Ricardo Carreon posted a photo:

Model: Jéssica Miranda
Lighting: André Gardenberg VI Sao Paulo Workshop
Make up: Fabiana Domingues Lima

The game between the Oklahoma University Sooners and the Stanford University Cardinal at the scenic Sun Bowl, just yards from the U.S.-Mexico border, is set for Dec. 31. The last smattering of tickets sold today, Olivas said. "I guess we’re getting some pretty good national attention," he said.