Brazil

In an attempt to go beyond discussions about the "digital divide", I organized a panel at this year's South by Southwest festival to discussing the exploding market segment of 'minority' technologists and early adopters.

I apologize in advance for my hemming and hawing. I have a lot of work to do with my public speaking skills. But stay until the presentation done by Stephen Wilmarth and his students from The Center for 21st Century Skills. A victim of our anti-immigration policies, this straight A student gives a heartbreaking account of how after being deported with her mother to Brazil, she tried to keep up with her technology program and classmates using Skype and other social media.

This podcast first appears at the South by Southwest website.

My Wife, Teresa Francisco Holland, Does Not Straighten or Iron Her African Hair, Letting Her Dreads Swing Naturally.

Cross-posted at the Francis L. Holland Blog.

In a post about discovering that she had never valued being Black, Bronze Trinity blog discusses everything from hairstyles to a Canadian Culture that doesn't support her being her African self and leaves her feeling alien amongst the crowd:

Some of you may have noticed a change in the tone and subject matter of my recent blog entries. It is because I am discovering my culture and history and each new thing I learn changes me. I realize now that in the past I really hated myself, and I think I also hated people like me but I didn't know that until recently. Now I am trying to immerse myself in my culture and unbrainwash myself. Some of you may not like it and feel uncomfortable, but it doesn't change what I am feeling and thinking.

Imagine it this way, suppose your whole life you thought there was something off about your family. You were a part of your family but didn't quite fit in. In fact, it didn't seem as though they really liked you at all. You constantly felt that there was something they were not telling you, that other people treated them better, and that you just didn't belong. Then one day they tell you that you were adopted and you had a whole biological family that you didn't even know. In fact, your biological family lived on the same block and they were the very people you ignored and didn't really like. That is what it is like for me to be African Canadian.

I tried to fit in with the Euro-Canadian society, activities, friends, teachers, culture, entertainment, education, and standardards of beauty but it never quite fit with me or I didn't quite fit. On the other hand, I unconsciously didn't like Black people that much. I draw that conclusion because I didn't date them, go out of my way to be friends, read their books, listen to their music or appreciate their beauty.

I realized that the problem all along was that I didn't know much about my culture or history and that was also why I devalued them. Now I have changed and the way I view my culture, history, and the world has changed. Now I am seeking out my African family so that I can find out who I really am. I found this great video on Girl 600's website and it describes many of the feeling and thoughts I have had over the years. I really felt and still feel like the girls in the video. Please take a look:

I haven’t owned a car since 2003, and it's a tremendous relief. I no longer receive parking tickets or speeding tickets, don't have to control the temptation to drive like a lunatic. (I was a road rager if there ever was one.) Each month, I need not concern myself with car payments, insurance payments or maintenance payments.

Having moved to Brazil, the dreaded task of removing snow and ice from a car windshield is not only in my past, but it is inconceivable to those in my present.

The alternatives to driving have become much more attractive to me. Having moved to within a five minute walk of the ocean, I no longer need to spend ten dollars of gas and two hours of driving to reach the Jersey Shore. I just walk.

Because the nearest shopping mall is eight hours away, the ritual of endeavoring to earn more and more money to drive to the mall and invent new ways to spend it is much deemphasized. No more shopping mall parking lots for me! Less is more.

In Brazil, there are buses that reliably take passengers to most anywhere we might want to go, no matter how remote. So, when I want to go to a beach further up the coast, I just wait at a bus stop on this beach for a bus to that other beach. Unlike in the United States, the buses in urban areas here typically run twenty-four hours per day, which makes them a viable alternative, even for nocturnal people who like, sometimes, to party all night.

Bush travels to Latin America and is greeted by this: (from BBC News)

In Brazil, more than 10,000 protesters (according to BBC news) turned out in the capital of Sao Paulo to protest the arrival of America's appointed President, Georgoe Bush. I wonder if our good friend, Francis Holland, is participating :-)

This is a time when world opinion is solidly against America. This is dramatically show by a recent poll that showed that people view America as marginally MORE destabilizing a force than North Korea and only slightly less destabilizing than Iran. To the world, America is part of the Axis of Evil.

This is played out in Latin America as well. In Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador, strongly anti-American, socialist presidents have been elected by democratic vote and are extremely popular. Throughout Latin America, including in Brazil, Peru and Chile, leftist governments have been voted into office. In Nicaragua Daniel Ortega, the boogie man of the Reagan era, has been elected President.

We are not popular in the world, not even in our own backyard. Brazil President Lula's own party is protesting Bush's arrival!

People need to stop being so ANTI and more PRO. I am Pro-Israeli. I am PRO-Palestinian. I am Pro-Peace. I am Pro-coexistence.

Just a note on the current Middle east crisis and my views on how certain people have been expressing themselves lately. I believe people who take extreme sides of the conflict are not advocates of peace. It is because of these people that we are not moving forward in the peace process that became stagnant as of 2001 in Tabba (many would say it never started) .

As I speak with different people during the escalation of this unfortunate war between Israel and Hezbollah, I hear many who solely blame Lebanon for not disarming Hezbollah since the resolution 1559 was passed by the UN in 2004 calling for a withdrawal by Syria and disarmament of Militias. There are many who just point at the kidnappings as the only reason for the crisis. While these people may be exagerative in their views I think they are correct in supporting a war on Hezbollah because it believes in a destruction of Israel and undermines Lebanese sovereignty over its own state. Even the many critics of Israel usually do not complain about the waging war on Hezbollah. They for now, express concern over the disparate numbers of Lebanese innocent civilians who have died.

¡Qué juego!

Argentina eliminates Mexico in overtime 2-1.

What a game!

I'd be happy as pie if either Argentina or Brazil make it to the final. I'd be completely blown away if they were to contest the final match.

Can you imagine a Mundial with Argentina and Brazil?!?!