Project Economic Refugee

• Bigots are infiltrating the environmental movement: the Center for New Community has put out a new report titled Apply the Brakes: A Report on Anti-immigrant Co-optation and the Environmental Movement.  On the heels of this, imagine2050.net reported:

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) released a new report today titled, Greenwash: Nativists, Environmentalism & the Hypocrisy of Hate.

The report details decades-old attempts by anti-immigrant groups – all part of the John Tanton Network – to lure environmentalists and environmental groups into adopting their anti-immigrant agenda.  Read more here.

• In case you missed it, here’s the video of the publicity stunt that immigrant rights activists pulled at this year’s progressive Netroots Nation gathering.
• A story claiming that Mexican drug cartels had seized ranches in Laredo Texas turned out to be a hoax, apparently created by extremists in the Tea Party crowd.  In fact, even some conservative bloggers denounced the story as a lie.  Check out this conservative blog that conducted an interview on this topic.
• GALEO & the Georgia Latino Vote announced the launch of the “Orale! 10″ campaign video and radio Public Service Announcements.  Here are the TV ads and here are the radio ads.  The “Orale! 10″ campaign’s goal is to register 100,000 new Latino and pro-immigrant voters in time for the General Election in November.
• Speaking of reports, the Immigration Policy Center has released this analysis of how, in fact, there will be a multitude of training problems if police are expected to enforce Arizona’s SB 1070 law.
• Check out Puente Arizona’s note on how social media has helped fuel the movement to oppose SB 1070.  You can access Puente Arizona’s flickr stream here. 
• Showing that opposition to Arizona’ authoritarian police law is coming not only from Democrats but also from Republicans: sign the “Not In My America” petition, which is based on Republican Congressman Connie Mack’s piece on the Washington Post in which he lays out why conservatives should oppose Arizona’s immigration law.  Here’s the campaign’s promo video:

• If you haven’t already, check out the film Entre Nos, an inspirational new movie and true story about an immigrant mom devoted to keeping her family together and making a better life for her young kids.
• The AFL-CIO calls on members of Congress to take immediate steps to pass the DREAM Act in 2010 as down payment to Comprehensive Immigration Reform.  Sources say resolutions such as these are being closely monitored by Senator Reid.  Has your organization passed such a resolution yet? 

My peers in the environmental justice movement recently showed me a video of American actress and singer Q’orianka (her father is a Quechua artist from Peru and her mother was born in Alaska), who is an agressive activist for human rights and environmental justice issues:

From Wikipedia:

Kilcher has made a commitment to human rights and environmental activism. She speaks on behalf of various causes to achieve what she regards as environmental justice and basic Human Rights. Traveling frequently to speak at youth events, colleges and universities, Kilcher has been a featured keynote speaker for organizations such as Amnesty International, the IFG international Forum on Globalization, Amazon Watch IFIP and The United Nation panel discussions entitled “Indigenous Peoples: Human Rights, Dignity and Development with Identity”, in collaboration with the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

She also lends her celebrity, voice and energy as spokesperson, collaborator and supporter to several international and national NGOs and organizations such as Amazon Watch, Youth Ambassador Amnesty International (Global Youth Ambassador for woman’s Rights) AIDESEP (Spokesperson and Voice) Interethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Rainforest Federations) The Community School for the Arts foundation (volunteer/spokesperson) and Thursdays Child (youth counselor) Turning The Tides(volunteer/spokesperson) Save Americas Forests, IDEM (South Dakota Youth Project) and is a spokesperson for the American Literacy Campaign (The only teen Native American spokesperson in history.

Apparently Q’orianka really gets youth fired up-they just love her.  Have you heard her speak live?  Since sounds like her father is from Peru: if you happen to be Peruvian, what are your impressions of her? What do you think of her activism? I ask because it’s the first time I’ve heard of her.

It is heart breaking enough to observe how British Petroleum’s negligence (and arguably Halliburton’s by extension) has resulted in the wasteful destruction of vast natural resources and on the death of countless innocent animals but as if that were not enough now we get word that the cleanup workers are getting sick due to lack of proper protective equipment.  Even more outrageous: there are now reports that BP threatens to fire its cleanup workers if they bring their own protective equipment.  Keith Olbermann recently featured Marylee Orr of the Louisiana Environmental Action Network and discussed the atrocious working conditions that are causing cleanup workers to get sick:  

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

As the gulf’s local ocean-dependent economic activities lie in shambles, it is not surprising to see people in the area impacted by the oil disaster risk their own health in desperate attempts to feed their families and help alleviate the disastrous situation.  There is no question that the unprecedented nature of BP’s oil catastrophe on America’s coastline has forced everyone to improvise quick responses.  Edward James Olmos was recently interviewed by Anderson Cooper and had this to say (to access video of his interview, click here):

[...] no one knows why things are happening the way they are here; I have friends and relatives who want to volunteer their boats, to come down here and help, save their backyard [...]

People are anxious to help, in fact, perhaps the diversity in cleanup workers should come as no surprise in the cause to clean up America’s waters. Last June 2nd, El Diario La Prensa reported (translation via New America Media):

NEW ORLEANS — As oil escapes from the depths of the Gulf of Mexico and washes up on the coasts of Louisiana, hundreds of Latinos are working hard on the clean-up efforts.

Among them are 40 women. They are part of a group of 500 people who are preparing the dam near Hopedale, two hours from New Orleans, for the arrival of the oil slick. These 40 workers are employees of the subcontractor Tamara’s Group, which was contracted by the company Oil Mop.

..and what are the thank you’s that they are getting for risking their health?

Exhibit A.  AlterNet post: [Conservative] Cato Scholar Jokes About Using Undocumented Immigrants to Soak Up BP’s Oil.

Exhibit B.  Mother Jones’ report: ICE Running Immigration Raids on Oil-Spill Workers.

The gulf needs all the help that it can get, but it seems that the usual corporate exploitation of workers is unsurprisingly taking precedence over good will.  We need solutions to this disaster and we need them fast.  In fact, In light of all this urgency, the cleanup activities have been downright chaotic (as reported by The New York Times), to say the least.  Rachel Maddow on her blog highlights the conditions in which community members are forced to take actions into their own hands:

The local communities and shore areas most directly affected by the oil have been left, essentially, to fend for themselves. It’s a disgrace, it’s been a disgrace for weeks, and it needs to be fixed. 

Many commentators on the media argue that there are no true experts on how to deal with an oil explosion of this magnitude and so that makes the President’s job all the harder.  That may be partly true, but it ignores one key point that is not getting much play in the news: the expertise that does exist, is, in fact, not being tapped into.  Yes, that may be hard to believe, but it is something that is well-known among in the environmental circles and that the White House for some reason seems to be oblivious to.  Perhaps James Carville expressed best the urgent need for Obama to put an expert in charge.  Prior to Obama’s more public engagement in the crisis, Carville said the following during an interview with Good Morning America (Via the raw story):  

[...] The political stupidity of this is just unbelievable…

[...] Here you have a situation where you have eleven hard-working people blown off [an oil rig in the gulf] as a result of corporate malfeasance and maybe criminal negligence as a result of inept bureaucrats who were part of the — you can actually blame the previous Administration for this [...]

[...] These people are crying, they’re begging for something down here and he just looks like he’s not involved in this. Man, you got to get down here and take control of this, put somebody in charge of this thing and get this thing moving. We’re about to die down here.

Let me be frank: I am not a fan of Carville.  His connections with the conservative arm of the Democratic Party, the DLC, have always irked me.  However, I think James Carville made great points during his interview.  He was absolutely right in saying that there needs to be a person put in charge by Obama.  The person in charge should be someone that actually has expertise, unlike the mish-mash of bureacrats that have been handling the situation up to this point.  In fact, word on the environmental circles is that the White House has virtually shut the Environmental Protection Agency out of the cleanup decision making process.  In case you didn’t know, the EPA is the one agency in the nation that has the most expertise on oil spills and pollution response.  Yet, the White House for some reason seems to be tying their hands!  The current Administrator of the EPA, Lisa Jackson, would make an excellent choice to lead the cleanup efforts.  Mark Gold, President of the Southern California-based environmental organization Heal the Bay had the following to say on Huffington Post:

Change the face of the federal response. Lisa Jackson is telegenic, bright, articulate, a Princeton graduate in chemical engineering, a specialist in toxics, and a Louisiana native! What more can you possibly ask for? Oh yeah. She runs the agency with the most oil spill and pollution response expertise: the EPA. A Hollywood casting call wouldn’t give you a better candidate to lead the cleanup effort. The buddy team for 2010 should be Lisa J. and Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen. The public doesn’t want to see anyone from the MMS. Jane Lubchenko and the NOAA folks are mainly needed to trot out the latest scientific findings. And the other secretaries and special assistants just aren’t as reassuring to the public as Jackson. Stick a Saints hat on her head, give her some real authority beyond regulating dispersants, and let her lead. She will not disappoint.

It’s time to get our act together.  Instead of raiding Latinos and other immigrants, we need to ensure that all workers and volunteers are protected.  We need to make sure the cleanup efforts have the proper expertise and leadership behind them.  We need to get our priorities straight.  We need to protect America from the oil industry’s poisonous greed.

I have been working for the past two years as a community organizer in South Los Angeles with four different community groups.  Last April 28 2010, I hosted an Open House to feature these community groups’ grassroots greening projects. Here is the video of the welcome by yours truly:

Here are the links to some highlights of the event (videos) of the four community groups that were featured:

Washington Elementary PTA (Compton)

Association of Communities United for South L.A. Part1

Association of Communities United for South L.A. Part2

Youth Opportunities High School (Watts)

Wisdom Academy for Young Scientists (Southeast L.A.) Part1

Wisdom Academy for Young Scientists (Southeast L.A.) Part2

For the background of the program that these four communities have been participating in, click this link (video).

1st: Check out Heal the Bay’s fun and interactive “Trash Your Friends” Campaign:

Here’s how it works:

1. You log into http://trashed.healthebay.org/

2. Click on “trash your friends”

3. Enter the website address you want to “trash”; it can be any web page.

4. Enter the e-mail address of the person you want to notify that you “trashed” that particular website.

5. Enter your e-mail address so the person knows it comes from you.

6. Click Next

7. You then choose the trash character you want to use (click on the character)

8. Personalize your note

9. Click Send

The campaign is to raise awareness in a fun, interactive way about the problem of disposable plastic bags polluting our ocean.

2nd: Check out this article on how veterans are pushing for a Climate Bill to fight global warming and defend our national security.


3rd: Learn about the experience of Latinos in California’s water crisis by checking out this previous post of mine here.

Happy Earth Day everyone!

Do you live in Southern California?  Looking for ways to support your community?  If you happen to live in L.A. County, check out this piece that ABC Channel 7 put together that featured the top 7 good cause organizations to volunteer for in SoCal.  I disagree somewhat with the ranking though: I think Heal the Bay ought to be listed at least as No. 3 or No. 4 but hey that’s just my bias Anyway, check out the video below of the report on the Top 7:

How about your list?  Do you live in L.A. or in other parts of Southern California and have a favorite organization you like to volunteer for that was “snubbed” in the ABC Top 7 list?  Why do you like to volunteer for said organization?  What makes it special … the people that manage the organization, the work it does, its popularity, its influence?  What about those organizations that you would not like to volunteer for? Why? …and, if you’re wondering: yes, I’m looking for gossip; after all, what would life be without it?

This will be the 3rd annual event that the Heal the Bay staff will have pulled off in L.A. County.  I remember my first “A Day Without A Bag” event like it was yesterday, being assigned to an El Monte site.  I was interviewed by the L.A. Times in 2007 and again in 2008 by La Opinion; my most recent interview with them was about Heal the Bay’s Summer Beach Report Card 2009; of course, this time around I hope that both press outlets will show up for this year’s event to cover the story unfolding at the Downtown L.A. giveaway site in 7th Street & Figueroa Shopping Center.

This year is going to have a pretty cool event: Heal the Bay staff will be doing three live segments with Gayle Anderson (7:50, 8:30 and 9:10) on the Day Without a Bag hoopla on Thursday morning on the KTLA Morning News; for the press release in Spanish, visit this site here.  This year, Heal the Bay will be proud to feature four of its South L.A. community partners as part of its brand-new Healthy Communities Initiative to put the issue of protecting the environment against cronic toxic pollution front-and-center at four different giveaway locations:

Youth Opportunities High’s at 1PM

(Superior Super Warehouse) Superior Super Warehouse 10211 Avalon Blvd. Watts, 90003.

Washington Elementary School’s starting at 9AM

1421 N. Wilmington AVE, Compton 90222.

Wisdom Academy for Young Scientists’s starting at 9AM

706 E. Manchester AVE, Los Angeles, CA 90001.

A.C.U.S.L.A.’s at 9AM (Association of Communities United for South L.A.)

(Numero Uno Market) 9127 S. Figueroa St., Los Angeles, CA 90044.

Personally, I will be going to the Downtown L.A. event just to watch the Thriller Dancers in action … what about you? (well, besides going to the South L.A. events):

Update: for a recap of the day, please visit Heal the Bay’s President’s Mark Gold’s blog here.  To view the video of the “Thriller Dancers” performing at the actual A Day Without A Bag press conference, click here.

Many Latino anglers that fish off of L.A. County piers support the creation of Marine Protected Areas.

The opposition to creating Marine Protected Areas (MPA’s) off of Southern California’s coast has taken a sinister turn: terrorizing and attacking Latino families.  I have participated in the MPA hearings for a few months now, and I have to say that the latest turn of events does not surprise me.  When you attend these hearings, you are immediately hit with just how far the opposition is willing to go with their tactics.  They will yell, push, and perpetuate all kinds of lies.  No doubt the last hearing on October 21st (click here to view the video of the meeting), in Long Beach was a particularly contentious one, as reported by Long Beach’s Press Telegram.  Perhaps one of the most memorable comments from the anti-MPA crowd were those of a fisherman that started ranting about how if MPA’s were implemented, there would be a “revolution” that would rise against such “government oppression.” ”Government oppression?” I asked myself … uhm, “the government” in this instance, is us, the public, so was he saying that the actions of us, average working-class Americans, to make sure that he and other fisherment like him did not run out of fish and therefore protect his freedom to keep on fishing would be “oppression”?  Hey, I’m all for democracy and for making sure that everyone’s way of life is respected but when you start throwing out such blatant reactionary and selfish (yes, selfish) lines you’ve crossed over onto another realm.  In fact, when your crowd starts attacking innocent children that have come to learn about civic participation, you’ve crossed a line that cannot be forgiven.  

What am I talking about? Well, before and during the public comment period, some white fishermen that were unequivocally opposed to any kind of MPA being implemented in Southern California started attacking Latinos that came to the hearing in support of the MPA’s.  In one instance, totally unprovoked, a high-strung white guy started yelling at some Latino high school kids from Compton, harassing them with insulting questions like “do you even know what this is about?”,  ”who brainwashed you?”, or ”are they giving you extra credit to be here?”.  Nevermind that these were mostly Advanced Placement Compton students that knew quite a lot about the issue, having studied and prepped for the hearing because they wanted to learn about the “democratic process”.  I guess because they were brown, this crazy white “fisherman” guy assumed that they were just dumb kids because they happened to disagree with his point of view.  Well, to be fair, I have heard that the same harassing questions were being hurled at the students that came from Santa Monica High School (who happen to be mostly white kids). 

Yet again, the stink of racism coming from some of the fishermen that showed up to the hearing to oppose MPA’s could not be erased.  When the hearing was interrupted to report that the hotel bathroom had been vandalized, the Blue Ribbon Task Force (“BRTF” for short, the body that conducts the hearings), urged everyone to calm down.  Yet what the BRTF did NOT report to the audience was what was written on the bathroom: “f*ck MLPA” (Marine Life Protection Act) and “f*ck 3″ (referring to “Map 3″, the designed map of MPA’s that best supported sustainable fishing and the regeneration of marine life):

Tagging in the bathroom of the hotel that hosted the October 21st public hearing on the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) & Marine Protected Areas (MPA's).

The tagging of "F*ck 3" on the bathroom walls was an obvious reference to "Map 3" of the MPA's, which was supported by many nonprofits, local residents, and supporters of the environment. Map 3 was in stark opposition to "Map 2" which was being pushed by many fishermen and big-fishing industry.

It was obvious that the tagging had been perpetuated by the anti-MPA crowd … but guess who the fishermen blamed it on? Well, why, they blamed it on the Latinos that had come to support MPA’s, of course!  Not only that, but the white  fishermen were also harassing other Latinos from East L.A.  The white fishermen would ask these Latinos families despicable questions like “do you even speak English?”, “did you come to get a free T-shirt?”, or “did they pay you to be here?”  It was a disgusting  display of just what some in the anti-MPA crowd are about.  What’s even worst: when all of this was reported to the moderators of the meeting, it was dismissed as no biggie.  Shame on them for their lax attitude, tolerating racist fishermen to pull such tactics aimed at terrorizing people! 

Again: I am all for respecting everyone’s way of life.  Not all fishermen that are opposed to MPA’s are racist selfish bastards, in fact some of them are very fine men and women that are compassionate and caring and NOT selfish in the least bit.  I also understand their argument: the drafting of MPA’s must protect their way of life, respect their dignity, and ensure that their livelihoods are not placed into unjust danger.  I believe that the role of government is to protect everyone, making sure that the opportunity to prosperity is open to all, and the anti-MPA crowd should not be the exemption.  However, when the fishing industry (supported by the California Fisheries Coalition) and the fishermen resort to terrorizing tactics, lies, racism, selfishness, and they cover their eyes and ears to the fact that we ARE running out of fish, it makes it very hard for me to accept their point of view.  It defeats their argument, and they defeat themselves.  They might’ve made the Blue Ribbon Task Force blink on this round, but mark my words: we, the general public, will NOT stand for such racist displays. 

To learn more about protecting the ocean for our future and our children’s future, you can visit Heal the Bay’s site on this MPA issue or read the latest OpEd from the L.A. Times.

Update: I’m also getting word that the white anti-MPA’s fishermen were harrassing the pro-MPA’s Latino anglers with questions which they would repeat over and over again such as “how old are you?” and “how long have you lived here?” (insinuating “you’re a foreigner aren’t you?!”).   

It’s time to take action!

So what can you do about it?

1) Email the organizers of the “Map 2″ crowd and tell them that racism is NOT acceptable and will  NOT be tolerated:

angler4prop2@gmail.com

2) Write to the MLPA Initiative to complain and to demand that they do not tolerate the racism coming from the anti-MPA crowd:

MLPA Initiative
c/o California Resources Agency
1416 Ninth Street, Suite 1311
Sacramento, CA 95814

Email: MLPAComments@resources.ca.gov

3) You can also contact the California Fisheries Coalition (which is one of the main groups that is assisting in organizing the effort to water down the implementation of MPA’s) and demand that they denounce such racist behavior from its anti-MPA’s members:

Vern Goehring, Manager
California Fisheries Coalition
1621 13th Street, Sacramento, CA 95814
(916) 444-8194
(916) 444-8195 Fax
Email: vern@cal.net

When you write to these three groups, please be respectful but firm in your demands and as detailed of as possible of what happened.

" ¡Agua sagrada no se vende!" -Lead organizer of March for Water '09, Miguel Luna.

I was recently asked to do a guest post for Heal the Bay‘s President Mark Gold’s blog.  It was titled “Ground Control to Guy”, because it was a report post on Guy Laliberté’s (founder of Cirque du Soleil) Poetic Social Mission in space.  If you haven’t already seen my post, I invite you to go over to Mark’s blog and check it out there.  I gladly accepted the offer to do a guest post on Mark’s “Spouting Off” blog, specially since Guy’s Cirque has been extremely supportive of Heal the Bay through La Soirée, which will take place this October 16 to benefit Heal the Bay and Guy’s organization ONE DROP Foundation (for ticketing info click here).  The event will feature the premier of Cirque du Soleil’s Koosa in the Southern Cal city of Santa Monica. 

I watched the entire two-hour live webcast of Poetic Social Mission featuring a myriad of voices around the globe all honoring and advocating for social justice in the protection of our water.  Water IS life and has been the basis for all civilizations.  We must revere it, respect it, and protect it from pollution and abuse.  The Latino experience in Southern California with water has been evolving into a battle for the narrative of just what is at the root of the water crisis in the state.  The battle is basically between the responsible/sustainable management of our water and the put-profits-before-people “backdoor deals with agribusiness” that the moneyed powers-that-be in California make all the time.

One prime example of such backdoor deals are the blatant manipulation of Latinos to use them for props in campaigns to build dams/reservoirs and handing out big contracts that generate a sweet pot of money for rich developers.  I am talking about Governor Schwarzenegger, who, on the one hand kills Latino kids’ dreams of going to college and on the other he’s using Latinos as fixtures in support of his big Agribusiness pals’ pockets.  It has now been reported that Governor Schwarzenegger presided over the birth of the so-called “Latino Water Coalition”, which has been intrumental in pushing the governor’s plans to basically ‘build bigger dams baby!’  In fact, it is a very little-known secret that Schwarzenegger’s rich friends have been pulling ENRON-like stunts with our water supply, which was reported on an interview that Dorothy Green gave to LA Weekly, a month before she passed away. 

Latinos actually care very deeply about what is going on with the protection of our water and the responsible use of this precious resource, whether it’s on an individual personal behavioral basis to prevent waste or on a government policy level to combat its pollution or overuse.  Last March, I helped craft the messaging for the 2009 “March for Water” in Los Angeles,which sought to move people to action on the issue of social justice when it comes to the protection of water.  Water conservation is not just an issue of scientific urgency or of supply and demand but of a higher moral call that we all, as human beings, must answer.  At the March for Water, many Latinos answered the call, and joined in an effort to stand with solidarity of the recent FLOW film’s theme of “water for people, not for profits!” … just check out this video from the actual march.  Latino immigrants are oftentimes very much in tune with nature because many of them grew up in or came from rural areas in Latin America.  As such, they immediately understand just how important it is to care for our environment.  Yes, March for Water might not have had the money kick-backs that Schwarzenegger is able to throw around or the ability to broadcast from space.  There is no doubt in my mind, however, that Latinos will continue to be instrumental in the fight for a more just and responsible use of one of our most precious sources of life: water.

Compton hosted its own "Coastal Cleanup Day '09" at Washington Elementary.

To learn more about “Coastal Cleanup Day”, please visit Heal the Bay’s website here.

Here‘s the link to INTERNATIONAL Coastal Cleanup Day (coordinated by the Ocean Conservancy).

So where were you on this year’s Coastal Cleanup Day?  Did you help out?