Reason for Honduras’ LGBT community to be gay

25/02/2011

The Obama administration’s decision on Wednesday to end its constitutional defence of a federal law banning same-sex marriage may have caught some people off guard; for one thing, it never seemed to carve itself a niche in the public discourse in the way its chic policy cousin “Don’t ask don’t tell” did. And though I’m sure those who follow these things closely saw Congress’ repeal of the latter as natural segue, for a Canadian without a close ear on the pulse of Barack’s gay rights agenda—this was foreshadowed by a comment he made almost a month ago.

With the leader of the free world’s attention presumably focused on the revolutions besieging North Africa and the Middle East (there wasn’t even been time to address the unrest in Bolivia)—Honduras’ LGBT community?

From the President’s Press release on January 27, 2011:

“At home and around the world, LGBT persons continue to be subjected to unconscionable bullying, discrimination, and hate. In the weeks preceding David Kato’s murder in Uganda, five members of the LGBT community in Honduras were also murdered. It is essential that the Governments of Uganda and Honduras investigate these killings and hold the perpetrators accountable.”

I acknowledge he led with the David Kato murder, but any statement by the President about LGBT rights in a Central American country had to presage a large domestic policy announcement...

So what exactly has been going on in Honduras? What got the President’s attention?

He mentioned five murders in the weeks preceding Kato’s murder. That’d be 5 out of 34 murders in the last 18 months—more than double the number recorded in the five years previous.

The most horrific of these five murders was that of “Lady Oscar”.

Óscar Martínez, a 45-year-old gay transvestite was stabbed, tied to a chair, and burned alive three days before Christmas.

Three weeks before his murder, he reported an assault and actually indentified three of his attackers.

That proved to be a costly decision. The day of the crime, witnesses saw two men chasing him.

No one did anything to help.

In a country where only one in twenty murders is solved, the murder of an LGBT Honduran is rarely ever investigated.

Indyra Mendoza, a coordinator with a gay rights group based in Tegucigalpa, described the situation as follows:

“On the street—people insult you, the police hit you. I have trans friends who are shot right in the street and they won’t even remove the body because they say they have aids.”

The government of Porfirio Lobo is taking symbolic steps forward. In November they established a Ministry of Justice and Human Rights that’s been assigned the task of investigating these unsolved murders.

But I doubt they’ll come up with much.

Honduras is one of the poorest countries in a poor region, and the Lobo government is still primarily concerned with both gaining recognition of the post-Zelaya government from those countries still holding out, and re-admittance into the Organization of American States.

Nonetheless, there’s certainly some solace for Honduras’ LGBT community in knowing Uncle Sam is keeping an eye on the situation.

The man who tried to bring the internet to Cuba’s Jews

15/02/2011

While not necessarily timely, there are some stories that—even tardy—deserve a belated comment or two.

I think Alan Gross is one.

Gross—depending on your point of view and your access to the case details, was either unjustly detained in 2009 for “providing satellite communications equipment and Internet access for Jewish groups in Cuba”, or logically arrested for espionage.

How many Jewish people are there in Cuba?

No. That’s not a rhetorical question. I actually don’t know. But I digress…

After spending—let me figure this out (December 2009 till now =?)…over a year in prison awaiting charges, last Friday he was formally charged with "acts against the independence and integrity" of the state—for which a conviction could lead to twenty years in prison.

But let’s let P.J. Crowley from the U.S. State Department explain:

"We deplore the Cuban government’s announcement that Cuban prosecutors intend to seek a 20 year sentence against Mr. Gross. As we have said many times before Mr. Gross is a dedicated international development worker who was in Cuba providing support to members of the Cuban Jewish community. He has been held without charges for more than a year, contrary to all international human rights obligations and commitments regarding justice and due process. He should be home with his family now."

Gross was denied habeas corpus in Cuba? Really?

And I thought that only happened in Guantanamo…

Who do the Cubans think this guy is? Omar Khadr?

I can assure you he looks nothing like him. See here: (http://www.daylife.com/topic/Alan_Gross)

Nor, to my imagination’s disappointment, can I picture him sipping après-subversion martinis in posh Havana lounges.

Gross was working for a USAID subcontractor called Development Alternatives, whose mission it is ”to make a lasting difference in the world by helping developing nations become more prosperous, fairer and more just, cleaner, safer, healthier, more stable, more efficient, and better governed.”

Got that? I know, a lot of commas, aren’t, there?

As reiterated by his family, that meant “working with Jewish groups to help them connect to the internet.”

And so my laziness won’t allow me to avoid my earlier question…

What is the Jewish population of Cuba?

Jewishcuba.org, a website “listed by the US Interests Section of the Department of State as a resource for information on Cuba”, has a link to an article by CNN’s Steve Kastenbaum.

In an article written in 2008, Steve stated the population was 1,500—down from an estimated 15,000 in the 40s and 50s; that’s 1,500 out of a total of 11,423,952—also as of 2008.

Not what you might call a HUGE segment of the population. But then again—even taking into account increased tolerance by the Cuban state, religion still isn’t kosher on the island. So that probably is an underestimate. Nonetheless, although I do in principle support what I think Gross was trying to accomplish, I’m both bothered and amazed.

I’m bothered that USAID would have such a parochial focus on a right of such fundamental importance. Nowhere in the First Amendment does it say Congress shall make no law abridging the Freedom of Speech of the Christian people. Why should it be any different aboard? Is a Jewish Cuban more deserving of that right than any other Cuban?

I’m amazed, even though I know probably shouldn’t be, by the audacity of the American government. They sent an employee to a country (and yes, even if he was a subcontractor, he was still representing the American government) whose government they’ve tried to both overthrow and repeatedly undermine; they then broke that country’s laws, as oppressive as they may be, and expected there not to be consequences?

Maybe Alan Gross is a patsy. But I don’t think so. He knew exactly what he was getting into. And as unacceptable as his treatment has been after one year, he’s now been assured consular representatives, his family, and American legal counsel will be permitted to participate in his trial.

I’m fairly certain there’s a Canadian who would quite willingly trade places.

The Argentine Monica Lewinsky?

08/02/2011

The House can be White or the House can be Pink; the President can be American or the President can be Argentine. Because when it comes to a Presidential sex scandal, nobody’s picky.

Two days ago, the Argentine magazine Noticias published a confession from one Elizabeth Miriam Quiroga, stating that, while she did have sex with that man (former President Néstor Kirchner), the kid is not his daughter.

But to that she cheekily added: “I wish it were his! I wouldn’t have money problems today.”

That I’d never heard of Quiroga before this isn’t surprising, because until recently, apparently most Argentines hadn’t heard of her either.

Generally speaking, I’d think all but a select few would know the name of most world leaders’ secretaries, or interns for that matter.

That is until they become the focus of a certain investigation or investigations—posthumous or not— into what might be called behavior unbefitting a President.

Quiroga started working for President Kirchner back in the nineties, when he was Governor Kirchner of the southern province of Santa Cruz, so the length of their professional relationship probably threw off most of those who might have suspected hanky-panky.

But as Quiroga said, the secrecy didn’t prevent them from having “a strong relationship.” So strong and secret, in fact, that she ended up with a cushy job inside the Casa Rosada.

She was the Director of the Centre for Presidential Documentation.

As to what the hell that meant…I had no idea.

A little cursory research revealed the job description involved responding to letters and requests from all around the country. As such, she fancied herself some sort of reincarnation of Evita. At least she did until she was fired a month ago.

The order undoubtedly came from the widow-President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.

Who could blame her?

Months after her husband’s death, the Noticias headline had Quiroga being called “the other widow”…

And so it would appear Néstor Kirchner wasn’t a saint; he was a politician in the mold of myriad philander-statesmen who have preceded him. For the Argentine cuckquean, some solace might be found in acknowledging things could be worse—she could be married to Fernando Lugo; her Paraguayan counterpart not only had multiple lovers, but had them while he was a Bishop.

Many wonder how the Argentine public will react.

As it stands, even if she was, as she says, “thrown out like a dog”—no one seems to be crying for ‘Evita’ Quiroga. Though maybe they’re just saving their pity for when her first line of handbags comes out…

As for the widow-President, who first loses her husband, finds out courtesy of Wikileaks that the American government thinks she’s crazy, then is forced to deal with the world knowing her dead husband had a lengthy affair—well, let’s just say her opponents are wondering when the moratorium on nasty politicking can resume.

Because, of course, there’s still a Presidential election next October; she's still expected to run; and there’s no fun to be had with clean campaigns.

Searching for Brandon Fisher

01/02/2011

It was a week ago tonight that President Barack Obama delivered his State of the Union address and introduced most of the world to a man named Brandon Fisher. It was a charming story—just a small town boy...who started a little company in Berlin, Pennsylvania...that saved the thirty-three Chilean miners buried last summer in Copiapó, Chile.

As the President put it, “Brandon thought his company could help. And so he designed a rescue that would come to be known as Plan B. His employees worked around the clock to manufacture the necessary drilling equipment. And Brandon left for Chile.”

“Along with others, he began drilling a 2,000 foot hole into the ground, working three or four days at a time with no sleep. Thirty-seven days later, Plan B succeeded, and the miners were rescued. But because he didn’t want all of the attention, Brandon wasn’t there when the miners emerged. He had already gone home, back to work on his next project.”

Aw shucks, little old humble Brandon saved the day and just left. No need for a pat on the back.

Except it didn’t really happen like that.

Brandon was the latest example of the American obsession with turning regular Joes into symbols of whatever fits the prevailing narrative of the times. But while almost everyone saw Joe the Plumber for what he was, no one wanted to question the veracity of the Fisher story.

Not now.

Not at the expense of a President trying to unite a divided America.

But as André Sougarret, the leader of the rescue said: “What they did was put a technology at our disposal…. It wasn’t exclusive. That’s why it was called “Plan B”. Plan A and Plan C kept working. So what they did wasn’t an exclusive operation. Without a doubt the participation of his entire team allowed for our success. But to believe they were the only participants in the success is too much. It doesn’t seem right to me.”

Another thing that didn’t seem right to me was the implication that Fisher’s company—Center Rock, did this all pro bono.

Of course they didn’t. They were paid handsomely. It was a business transaction that benefitted everyone involved—not a humanitarian mission.

It was a technical team led by the state-owned copper mining company Codelco, Escondida and Collahuasi—two other big Chilean mining companies—that determined how the Plan B drilling would be carried out.

It’s not that the Chileans weren’t and aren’t grateful, but at a certain point there’s only so far the truth can be bent.

Like that homeless guy with the magic voice from a few weeks ago, I imagine Mr. Fisher’s fifteen minutes are over. But with the miners at Disney World last week and a movie being discussed, I can’t help but wonder how Brandon Fisher will ultimately be portrayed—as an astute business man who saw a great opportunity for his company and jumped on it, or the altruistic American hero President Obama made him out to be.

It’s clearly open to interpretation.