Micaela Di Julio

Citigroup employees lend “helping hand”

Thu, 22 Sep 2011 13:48:36 -0400

November 20th, 2009

An international financial company with offices in south Florida recently recruited dozens of its employees for an annual campaign to “give a helping hand” in the tri-country area.

During the fourth-annual Global Community Day sponsored by City Group on Nov. 7, volunteers landscaped the grounds and painted the exterior of the Easter Seals South Florid a Center building, located in the Civic Center area of downtown Miami.

In Fort Lauderdale, they interacted with abandoned and abused children at the SOS Children’s Village, and in the Palm Beach area, helped organize the Police Athletic League 5k run.

“My feeling is that we have been able to touch the lives of people tha tin turn appreciate the efforts of the volunteers,” said Juan Francisco Aleman, a volunteer.

“The work accomplished today will certainly put a smile on the faces of the 300 children and adults who visit our Miami center every week,” said Luanne Welch, president of Easter Seals.

The South Florida participants were part of a larger network of 400,000 volunteers adiding communities in more than 90 countries.

“Citi’s Global Community Day gives you an opportunity to lend a hand to your community,” said employee, who also volunteered for Easter Seals.

“It is a pleasure and a source of satisfaction to know that you did something that contributes and impacts the lives of people.”

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Review: Restaurant’s patrons as distinct as its toppings.

Thu, 22 Sep 2011 13:42:30 -0400

October 15th, 2009

Bazzura Café draws regulars during the day but it is most active after midnight, particularlywith the young people.

“When I’m closing up the place at 5 am, they’re coming in,” owner Giovana Navarrete said.

Bazzura, 10437 NW 41^st St serves large burgers, numerous toppings and a distinctive pineapple sauce.

Miami-Dade College student Sebastian Ortiz, 23, said it was the name that first drew his attention. “They treat very well. I always come here after partying.”

The small restaurant has wooden tables that have been artistically enhanced by signatures in an array o f colors by customers such as regular Rodrigo Leguieamon, 23.

“I’ve written in all of them,” Leguieamon said.

Bazzura’s menu items are made to order. Items include hamburgers, hot dogs, Bandeja Paisa and Pepitos. Prices range from $2.99 for a corn arepa, or $4.99 for a cheese maicito and $7.99 for the popular Bandeja Paisa.

The most popular burger is the Bazzura Especial at $7.50: a beefy burger with American cheese, bacon, ham, lettuce, tomato, egg, potato chips, ketchup, salsa, mustard, sour cream, tartar, pineapple, and avocado sauce.

But it’s the toppings that make the difference. The three main sauces are pink, garlic, and the distinctive pineapple sauce.

At lunch time, Doral workers refuel with the $6.50 lunch special that includes soup, meat or chicken and a salad. During televised sporting events, customers gather, screaming at the TV while imbibing from a selection of Latin American cold beers.

There are also mango, pina colada and tamarindo tropical juices starting at $3.25 (with milk) and $2.75 (with water).

The popular fried ice cream which consists of five chocolate covered ice cream scoops rounds out the meal.

Navarrete often works up to 17 hours a day to keep up with the restaurant, since its debut a year ago.

She is determined to expand Bazzura to other parts of Miami- Dade.

“I want this place to reach perfection. The customers are the key.”

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Ceremony honors Jackson’s loved ones

Thu, 22 Sep 2011 13:31:40 -0400

Jackson Health System recently honored 15 employees who died in 2009 at its third annual Employee Remembrance Ceremony.

January 10, 2010

The service on Nov 20 at Jackson Memorial attracted about 200 family members and JHS employees. They dedicated speeches and songs to remember loved ones.

Karen Bisasor said the service brought some comfort to her members over the death of her sister Faith Bisasor, a clinical staff nurse from Miramar who worked at Jackson 11 years.

Faith Bisasor, 49, was killed in an attack on her home along with her son DavionBishop, 15, and family friend Nekitta Hamilton, 15. No one has been apprehended in those deaths.

“Some of her family came all the way from Canada and Jamaica for the ceremony. It was great, we realized that my sister performed a great function; we were able to join the great experience,” Karen Bisasor said.

Priyadharshini Naidoo, the coordinator for Jackson’s work life services, started the remembrance ceremony in November 2007 and continues with organizing duties. Her colleagues are grateful.

“It was an extremely uplifting experience and no words that could describe the feeling” Naidoo said.

Fanny Gallant, a Jackson nurse, said initially she was reluctant to attend in honor of her late husband radiologist Arlen Galland. She thought it would be emotionally draning.

“But it was actually pretty fulfilling. It was at the ceremony that I really understood the great impact that he had at work” said Gallant, who lives in Miami. Her husband worked 16 years at Jackson. The ceremony also included a luncheon, and each family received an orchid and a silver picture frame with a picture of the employee as a gift.

Naidoo said reactions from family made the event more worthwhile.

“The families were extremely thankful,” she said. “I saw happiness, smiles and a connection between two families: the Jackson family and each employees’ family.”

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Pages for Presillas

Thu, 22 Sep 2011 13:27:00 -0400

A group of high school students is gathers books and money to build a library in a small town in Nicaragua.

Book drive aims to help Nicaraguan kids

April 22, 2010

After visiting her mom’s hometown in Nicaragua, Alexandra Sanchez was moved by how much the local elementary school managed to accomplish with so little.

She wanted to help. So Alexandra, a 17-year old junior from Coral Reef High School in Kendall, decided to start a book drive to help create a library for the town’s school, Emmanuel Mongalo y Rubio in Presillas.

She joined forces with other junior students at Coral Reef and her friend’s school, Ronald Reagan Doral High, to gather books and money for the project.

“We work together, as a group. Everybody contributes in a different way,” said Coral Reef junior Patricia Dranoff, who also is working on the project. “At first it was had to get the project started, we held meetings and not everybody stayed in the project. But it didn’t matter; Alex was always super motivated and super organized.”

Age was never an excuse.

“We should not only take care of what we have in front of us but beyond that. Just because we’re young doesn’t mean we can’t help,” said Tara Fernandez, also ajunior at Coral Reef.

Working together, these students have collected more than 750 books and about $400 since the project, named “Operation Pages for Presillas,” began last September. Funds were collected through a variety of fundraisers, all planned by students.

Coral Reef junior Nicole Bradfon organized a car wash, while classmate Dana Densadon sold watches from her parents’ business at a bazaar at her family’s synagogue, and donated half the profits.

The hardest part of the project has bee n finding books in Spanish.

“We’ve received a great amount of books in English, but we’re trying to find ways to receive donations of Spanish texts instead,” said Alexandra who lives in Cutler Bay.

Alexandra’s friend Daniela Serna expanded the project by bringing the book drive to Ronald Reagan Doral High, where she received strong support from everyone, including her history teacher Stephen Parris, who gave up his classroom to collect books.

“I think that this is a great project to get involved in. It’s great to give food and money, but that will only help in the short term. In order to be successful in the long term, you need an education to build infrastructure and grow independent from outside aid. The answer is investing in engineers, architects and an intellectual force,” he said.

But the efforts of the project don’t stop in South Florida.

The principal of Emmanuel Mongalo y Rubio high school, Karla Pina Gonzales welcomed the project proposal with great enthusiasm and even proposed to give away her own office for the creation of the library.

“I feel very lucky to have been picked for this. Right now there’s not a great actualization of books, especially in the science department. The teachers will make great use of them, and get the right content and the modern material,” she said in a telephone interview.

Presillas, an agricultural town of 3,000 in the southeastern part of Nicaragua, has no local government of its own, and most of the funding for public education comes from the neighboring cities: Ramas and Muelle de los Bueyes.

Word of the project has reached Carmelo Reyes Morales, the mayor of Muelle de los Bueyes. Morales who has donated money to the town of Presillas in the past because of the town’s lack of resources, volunteered to donate money to build a separate facility for alibrary that would be accessible to the whole community of Presillas; and Alexandra promptly approved the idea.

Piedad Sanchez, Alendra’s mother, grew up in Presillas. She said she is proud that her daughter in taking the initiative to help her hometown’s school.

“When Alexandra first came to the town, she was impressed with the ability of the kids to learn so much in school without that many books. The kids are very sharp,” Sanchez says.

Alexandra is more than impressed; she is determined to provide the community or Presillas with the educational resources that it deserves.

“I think that if you give people money, they’ll only improve one part of a school, but with a book they can learn to appreciate learning, and better your town, you can better your country.” Alexandra said. “A small concept goes a long way.”

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Fight Back Florida

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 19:38:51 -0400

Fight Back Florida

A Thank-pology.

Fri, 16 Sep 2011 14:22:00 -0400

Writing remains one of my first personal pleasures, an instinct, a necessity, an impulse.

The pattern for me was easy enough: I felt, I thought, I wrote. But then I wondered what if I could induce you to read, think, and feel too?

So here is another attempt. I’ll keep trying to make you feel until the day I die.

These worthless words are profits of my life; today I’m giving away some of my fortune.

Nothing remains, not even these words.

1. Images: The ones I will think of every second I want to give up: my father’s wrinkled forehead that instantaneously aged attempting to find a solution. He will leave, I’ll stay trying and find an answer.

2. Sounds: My grandmother’s miss-combusted songs as she waltzes around the living room sweeping in joy; melodies that remind me that having strength for affection after defeat is one of the greatest traits. I’ll keep caring.

3. Smells: The smell of garbage that accumulates around Doral on 100 degree mornings. I’ll breathe somewhere else.

4. Tastes: The Hershey’s Symphony chocolate bars and gummy beats shared on 114th Avenue. I’ll keep eating them with you up in Gainesville.

5. Feeling: Fear, insomnia when I feel I can fight back and become restless. Fear, which petrifies me and induces me in long hours of sleep. Fear will pass, and I’ll wake up.

I review reality, and notice there’s nothing ordinary about it. I write to treasure life, people, events, lessons, actions, movement, colors, songs, food…..

I move along, but I make room to remember, read back once in a while, make fun of my mistakes. But why ignore them?

Time will bring images, sounds, smells, tastes, and feelings will change.

But that doesn’t mean I can denounce they ever existed.

That is why I write, to remind myself.

Without documentation we cannot establish a past, without a past we cannot make inferences about our future.

Without a future we cannot advance.

I’ll have new feelings, thoughts, words, actions.

The power of growth and change.

And so do you.

I wont forget, that’s why I write.

I can’t help it, I have to try again and again.

Thank you, for reading.

And if you did not,

Here’s an apology you’ll never read: I’m sorry I wasn’t good enough.

May 2010 Editorials

A thought without a name.

Fri, 16 Sep 2011 14:16:00 -0400

What is the meaning of the ’s

below?

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

What do you mean, they’re simply x’s multiplied 153 times on a newspaper? You can’t see it? That x right in the middle- yes, Number 98! Somebody loved that x. All of those 153 c’s are different from one another. Each x represents the victims that burnt to death in Madrid’s plane crash on August 20.

You were never shown the faces of these strangers and victims, heard of their afflictions and intentions in life- and so you’ll spend only three seconds of silence to mourn them.

The number 153 is only a statistic, one that we can’t quite comprehend. One can never bring themselves to measure their last seconds of life in time, one could never catch the pitch of desperation heard that afternoon, or know that passenger 98 will never lay their head on their pillow again even as the night slides away. We, the ones still holding onto the air in our lungs, we’ve got the doubt and mystery of death.

The population of the world, different as it may be, shares two things in common: birth and death. It’s hard to accept your similarities with a world you haven’t come in contact with and so you’ll categorize it all into one word: stranger. That simple word, stranger, gives you an excuse to back away.

Imagine asking every student at Reagan how their day was. At the end of those 2000 odd answers, the meaning will fade. The closest you’ll get to contact with them is mistakenly brushing shirt sleeves by the stairs.

The only way one can stand to witness a death statistic is with a numb mind. Life and death are ordinary things. The ability to hear, see and feel death has been long detached from us. Death has turned into an insensible fact, another statistic. You could put the same amount of emphasis when you say the word death, as you do when you say “basket weaving” and yawn right after it .

In the end, our extraordinary human body will be nothing but ashes. At most our names might be carried away through a television static in a news channel, written on some tomb stone at the edge of town or fill out a millimeter of ink in a history book. The names of those strangers you never let in are just consonants and vowels prancing unnoticed in a rhythmical pattern.

So when suddenly you find yourself caring about a stranger, you’ve got to remember to let them in. Two months ago, the person that inspired me to write this, might have just been a stranger- a lonely digit in a statistic, but I let that person in. A couple of minutes ago these words were strange prints of ink you wouldn’t bother to read. Reading this, I might still be a thought without a name. And tomorrow, wil you still be a stranger in the world?

Editorials

September 2008

Dollar bills piling up on child labor

Fri, 16 Sep 2011 14:14:00 -0400

Little hands. Working in mines and rubber plantations. Hands that look ancient but have witnessed no less than 10 years. These are exploited and abused children, and even if you will never see the hands that go through child labor, you and these children are growing up in the same world.

Let’s take the preteen years for example, while you received your first cell phone these children had to work in mines in the Congo, finding the coltan and wolframite (radioactive minerals) used for their manufacturing. The radioactivity kills most of the children, and the money generated by this industry helps fund the illegal war in the Congo as well as the promotion of child soldiers.

How about your first car? The Firestone rubber factory in Liberia encourages their parents to bring children to meet the job assigned to each. This “job” consists of applying chemicals and pesticides and collecting rubber, which takes 21 hours a day and pays them $3.19 daily. Simple things as chocolate, brands likeArcher Daniels Midland, Nestle and Cargill have a history of factories in the Ivory Coast where, out of the 150,000 child workers, 15,000 are trafficked forced laborers. These companies severely punish children by forcing them to drink urine or cut their feet if they plan to escape.

Child labor expands like wildfire in this growing, consumer generation. People buy and buy and they keep working non-stop to meet their demand. As a modern multi-tasking generation , the knowledge is out there. Child labor is not a thing of the past, it’s happening right now. It’s robbing these kids of a childhood. Consumers have the answer, what we demand is what they produce, now are you demanding child labor?

Editorials

May 2008

The Ones that Make it All Happen

Fri, 16 Sep 2011 14:13:01 -0400

Passing through school hallways or just taking a nice cool stroll through the mall with your giggling friends and acquaintances, it seems almost impossible to think about the condition of the place you are stepping into. First impressions are vital. How would you feel if instead of having clean spotless floors, you were received by piles of candy wrappers, 20 year old rotten left over pizza crusts and squishy no longer “fresh and minty” chewed over gum?

Anybody in a good state of hygiene whose favorite perfume is not “rotten garbage” would be highly disgusted. Sometimes we find ourselves so busy with work and teenage drama that we forget to think about the people that save us one less concern in this chaotic world: The garbage collector who makes sure Doral’s not a junkyard, but a healthy family neighborhood.

The school janitors who wax the floors after school to make sure you don’t have to share the room with a pack of cockroaches and hungry ants. That sympathetic janitor who always receives you with an affectionate smile after he/she throws away your left over breakfast as you hurry out to first period. Did you ever spare them a moment in your mind? Carmen Villasmil works at the school cafeteria. She came from Venezuela five years ago and now struggles to support her husband and two kids. When asked what her greatest problem is in economic matters, she said it was “paying for the house”.

These workers are real people- people with ambitions, dreams and goals. Take Enrique Pola, for example. This school janitor’s one goal is saving enough money to pay for his car. Sure, you may think about one day becoming a great doctor, a prestigious architect, movie star or singer, but it’s the people behind the scenes that make the big picture possible.

They are doing a respectable job, and sometimes you take their efforts for granted. Think about it. Without those “behind the scenes” people, like the construction workers who built the house you live in today, or the ones that make sure that your city is clean and manageable your eyes would meet a far different sight. Great effort comes from every corner, and the smallest details are what make the big picture stand out at the end.

Editorials February 2008

The truth behind Thanksgiving

Fri, 16 Sep 2011 14:08:00 -0400

As you sit down at the Thanksgiving table, you mostly worry about getting the first slice of the steaming turkey in the middle of the table, and saving some space in your stomach for the cranberry sauce and the pumpkin pie. Everyone eats, they laugh, and drink. But who remembers?

“We celebrate Thanksgiving because it’s a time that we should be grateful for everything we have,” says Freshman Ana Gomez. “I learned that the Pilgrims celebrated it because they started having friendships with theNative Americans, so they had a big feast with crops to share and clarify the meaning of brotherhood.”

Thanksgiving was declared a national holiday by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863 in an attempt to lighten the dark times of the Civil War. In most history books, it is based on the remembrance of the Plymouth Colony pilgrims and Wampanoag Native Americans bonding in the 1621 feast. In children’s illustrated books they’ve shown them happily sitting down in a beautiful forest, holding hands together in a feast and smiling like a family. What you don’t see is the entire “family” trauma.

The story of the pilgrims was, in fact, a little different. For almost 150 peaceful yearts, the natives and the settlers in what is now North America, lived cooperatively among each other. In 1614, before the Pilgrims arrived on the coast of Massachusetts Bay, English explorers disturbed this peace by taking Native American slaves and leaving traces of smallpox behind.

The pilgrims weren’t received by a rich culture, but with a decaying civilization, killed by the British and destroyed by the smallpox plague. They found themselves facing starvation and in desperate need of protection, stealing crops and settling conflicts between the unknown people. A surviving Pawtuxet named Squanto gave aid to the Pilgrims and taught them survival skills. He negotiated a peace treaty in which the Wampanoag Nation and the Puritans enjoyed 15 years of peace and prospered together. This became the first “Thanksgiving”, the celebration of a harvest honoring the Wampanoags for three days.

But the small number of Puritans increased as they loaded off the boats. Slowly, ownership and value, strange concepts unknown in tribal life, arose. The harvest of sharing values and cultures was edged with corruption and greedy overtaking. And so the sad story of “relocating” these natives began in extermination and massacre, the genocide of the land we stand on today.

These newcomers killed the Pequot (another group of Natives), slaughtering their people and destroying their homes. The massacres were supposedly a reason for celebration. They thanked God for the extermination of the “savages”. After the massacre, the Wampanoag chief’s head was placed on a pole in Plymouth for 24 years. They pronounced this “heartwarming” event, the second official Thanksgiving. This Thanksgiving that continued for years as everyone got together and blissfully celebrated the massacre.

It sounds cruel- happiness coming from dark obscure times, destroyed civilizations, and lost generations of Native Americans. It’s a contrast to the welcoming, loving environment of warmth and gratitude today. We’ve revolutionized our ideals; we give thanks to unity in times of struggle and change; we give thanks to unity in times of struggle and change, where the past actions should be forgiven, yet not forgotten. This Thanksgiving, give thanks to acceptance, to knowledge to loved ones and prosperity among everyone of us. No matter how many differences we have, Thanksgiving reminds us that accepting each other should not be a struggle, it should be a joy.

Editorial

November 2007

Three… Two…One… Is the World Over Yet?

Fri, 16 Sep 2011 14:04:00 -0400

What would you do if tomorrow a giant alien spaceship landed in the stratosphere, pointed a laser at the Earth and it suddenly exploded like a water balloon against the Milky Way, ending the world as we know it?

“I’ll tell everyone the truth, spend time with my family, buy a snake, swim with sharks, oh and free the zoo!” jokes Sophomore Stephania Lairet.

The end of the world has already come. The world ends on your TV screen every time the Sci-Fi channel transmits another apocalypse or a zombie invasion. The world ends every time another Will Smith or Jake Gyllenhaal acts as a hero against the destruction of humanity. There are even some interpretations from bewildered bible fanatics, 21^st century “messiahs” and some “scientific” predictions that the world will possibly end during your lifetime0 so please don’t worry about making your bed again. According to them, you might not wake up tomorrow.

One theory of the diminishing existence of human life, found in various passages from the Old and New Testament combined, has been formed and shaped into The Tribulation. The Tribulation is a time0line lasting seven years. The list goes as follows: the Antichrist rules the world politically and religiously, where first there will be peace and prosperity for three and a half years, and then a world holocaust. The finale of this tory is wrapped around the last war called the Armageddon which will end the world. There’s just one question: will the radiation resistant cockroaches survive?

French philosopher Nostradamus, of the 1500’s has intrigued human civilization. Nostradamus left a book of 942 four-line verses that show some predictions that have come true and some which have failed. He predicted the French revolution, the rise of Hitler and some analyst say September 11^th. Many say that he has also predicted the end of the world, as his predictions only date to the year 3797, but in truth Nostradamus himself mentioned he could not predict the end. Even if he did, take a deep breath- there are still 1789 years to live.

According to one of the most sophisticated calendar systems created, the Mayan calendar, the world will end in 2012.

Science, too, has been known to hold a crystal ball-view into the end of the world. Scientist at the University of Washington , Donald Brownlee, has come up with a theory that there are still half a billion years for the sun to burn and therefore, all solar life to diminish.

According to the Pew Research Center survey, more than 1/3^rd of all Americans expect a US nuclear war in the next 50 years. Fifty-six percent think that overpopulation will cause a lack of food resources, and that a huge epidemic will strike the world. Is this pessimism , paranoia, or does it mean that this world is too chaotic to last much longer?

One of the most believable theories is that the world will end in some environmental disaster; a new bacteria immune to all treatments spreading, or that World War III will go nuclear and destroy humanity.

The truth is that this sounds like the end of the human race, not the end of the world. Your world varies from the rest. How will humans ever know what type of world a fish swimming under 600 feet of ocean lives in? When will the world end? To someone or something living on the planet the world is ending right now, so hold on to it a little longer while you can.

Editorial

September 2007

The search for the million dollar chin

Fri, 16 Sep 2011 14:02:00 -0400

Kelly Chandler is a single mom with the fantasy of making her ex-husband’s face outrage with jealousy. Candice Wyatt has worked on her dieting, and dreams of the perfect curvaceous body, and Mike and Matt Schlepp are teenage twins going through some identity crisis. Their common ground: all of their surgeries have been broadcasted through MTV’s reality show “ I want a Famous Face.” They’ve all fallen under the sharp knives and stitches of surgery in order to resemble their favorite celebrities.

Back when dinosaurs reigned the earth we were all beings of nature. We ran around carelessly, our image was of skin, bones, fat, flaws, and imperfections. We didn’t have stingy needles to inject Botox like a dart through our foreheads, or silicon balls in our breasts. How did we ever survive!

The days of plastic surgeons and surgical tools have come. The days when, coming into an office, our generation can calmly look into an imaginary body part catalog, an d just like Ms Chandler, Ms Wyatt and the Schlepp twins, pick out the “perfect body”.

“Um… May I have the Jennifer Aniston nose, the Jennifer Lopez butt and the Julia Roberts’ smile?” Oh and would you life fries with that? Many of the people who choose to go through surgery to look like their role models justify that as their body improves so does their mind and spirit.

“They can do whatever they want because it’s their body, ” says Junior Roberto Bello. Sophomore Valerie Morgan disagrees, “Surgery doesn’t cover insecurities”.

It’s hard to get away from these celebrities. With just a flutter of their thick black eyelashes, the public seems to fall under th e hypnosis of their beauty.

Celebrity obsession begins at an early age. Suddenly eight-year old girls and boys come into stores like Libby Ly with striking olive skin or curly chestnut hair and come out with pin straight sunshine wigs and pale powder makeup impersonating Disney Channel Star Hannah Montana or High School Musical star, Zac Efron.

Is this beauty? Teaching encouraging a generation to look down at their reflection and up towards glamour and fame, deluding themselves that stealing the identity of somebody’s physical features will keep them away from accepting their own?

Obsessed fans can end up risking their health and money admiring what to them is the perfect image but they will never get it. Perfection is unattainable, so beauty has a chance to life. As Confucius would remind us: “Everything has its beauty„ but not everyone can see it.” Now the question is, where do you see it?

Editorials

March 2007

Stereotyping the World One Step at a Type

Fri, 16 Sep 2011 13:47:43 -0400

“Orale!” I yell. We are all gathered around the dinner table wearing sombreros and eating tacos. The donkey shaped piñata is next….

Sounds absurd? These are simply the evening routines of a “Spanish’ person in an outsider’s eyes.

I’m sorry to confess this, but I don’t wear a sombrero and I’d rather have some pasta instead. No, I’m sure they didn’t mean to define me by a common misconception of a Mexican- just because I happen to speak Spanish doesn’t mean I display all of those stereotypes. Maybe it’s because you haven’t met me yet. Sadly, this world has categorized and stereotyped everyone; fusing many cultures into one.

Blonde hair, blue eyes, seems to carry a football everywhere. What pops into your head? “American.”

Thin-haired, short stature, slanted eyes, must be a genius master mind in mathematics: “Chinesse!”

You have made a small mistake in common assumptions. Bother to play the stereotyping game once again?

It can be so easy to judge based on someone’s skin color or the way they speak, and simply fall into this cycle. In fact, the stereotyping game is one we often play unconsciously.

We even share common misconceptions in our own Spanish roots. Colombian: drug dealers, Brazilian: masters of soccer, Cuban: loud and obnoxious, Argentine: stuck up and a snob.

Not only do we get targeted by the ignorant remarks of others, we also fall into the inevitable game. So many appearances have been cut down, rejected, and shamed upon. We can’t assume if the person is bright, interesting or bold according to the land they were born in.

If you’re going to stereotype others we might as well walk around with labels stuck on our foreheads and the color of our flags tattoed on our skin. Popularity can’t always overpower the definition of who we are. We cant ‘t file each person and restate their personification from their country. Do not underestimate. Stereotyping should be crushed with our strong grips and instead we should hold an open mind. But now, I see individualism has been thrown away six feet under.

The world is colored with so many interesting and bold people all coming together in one place. Our outlook on originality is decaying each day, and we are not able to catch glimpse of what is hidden by a public image. Geography lessons, anyone? We can’t be scared to think outside these limits, the world is at the tip of our fingers to figure out the reality of each person’s origin.

So the next time you are walking on the side of the street, and happen to spot a Haitian boy banging his head fo AC/DC don’t be shocked. He has beaten the stereotyping

Editorials:

December 2006

Mixed Priorities: The MTV Generation “Can world issues, and the entertainment world all mix in a teenager’s head?”

Fri, 16 Sep 2011 13:41:00 -0400

Our brainwaves resonate with the inevitable sounds of rappers, their oversized gold necklaces hanging. They mumble and rap about “the life”- the life everyone is “living”. Why help humanity when you can be drinking a champagne bottle surrounded by ten half naked girls in a hotel room?

In today’s world, we are actually very knowledgeable beings. We have memorized a list of celebrities face by face, life by life. We have managed to learn that Akon likes to ‘Smack that” while Nichole Richie should definitely start eating again, yet we can’t remember the names of those who founded this country. I’m sure your history teacher would be rather proud that we know so much about “world issues”.

Entertainment channels, tabloids and propaganda have captivated us. Is it because the celebrity life is an illusion we can rely on when there is a war happening before out very eyes?

“Oh my God.” – I hear once again- two 14-year old girls staring at the tabloid. ‘Lindsay Lohan is such a drug addict. Look at what she did last night at this party!” I can’t help but think sarcastically, “I’m sorry girls, did you forget to help your best friend Lindsay with her addiction?”

Drop the tabloid and grab on to a newspaper- maybe that will save what’s left of your brain.

Is there, in this sea of celebrity gossip junkies, one clear minded person left to stand up and so something? Yet when the power of knowledge is put in the hands of our generation, the only thing they hold onto is the remote control. Anyone can try to put a stop to the ignorance teenagers life in. The one person who decides to switch channels from MTV to the news. The one that uses tabloids for nothing more than cleaning waste- because tabloids are just a waste of time.

You could be the voice that passes the silent message. You could be the one that awakens everyone to the reality we live in. In order to know where we stand, we need to know what’s going on. And then we can in return: Be the change we wish to see today.

Editorials

October 2006

Whatever's Popular/Turnaround Sunshine Winners

Sun, 04 Jul 2010 10:48:00 -0400

Miami Herald

A tight grip of anticipation as the band members held hands, a drumming pulse, and an awaiting audience.

The five judges from the city of Doral left the auditorium for a few never ending minutes; and finally…

The winners of this year’s third annual Battle of The Bands were announced.

Whatever’s Popular guitarist and singer, Jeff Alex Thomas, 18, Bass player Matt Ares, 17, organ player Rick Gil, 16, and drummer Pablo Sasso, 17, hugged and jumped in unison after receiving their first place trophy for the high school category.

The college winners: bass player Tad Zepol, 21, drummer Jorge Barrueco, 24, guitarist Juan Navarro, 18 and singer and also guitarist, Michael Jonathan, 22 from Turnaround Sunshine joined hands and vowed down to the audience.

“I thought the people from Daltonics were going to win because they were great. When I heard our name I was surprised; my mom and my dad too, actually my mom started crying; they felt like they had won too” said drummer and Ronald Reagan high senior, Pablo Sossa.

But the realization sank in after his band broke the tie with Daltonics with a burst of cheers from the audience.

Whatever’s Popular has come a long way from its first performance at Ronald Reagan High a year ago.

“We’re perfectionists and after our first show we didn’t play for 6 months; We stayed inside and worked on it again and again until it sounded perfect,” admits lead singer and guitarist Jeff Alex Thomas.

But their work paid off.

Judges, like Yvette Poris from the cultural arts department in City of Doral found the “Original, energetic and fresh style” they were looking for when they heard the psychedelic acid jazz in their song: There’s something about Mary.

For Turnaround Sunshine, winning was also a surprise; especially because they have recently joined past November each member coming from a different band.

“We were happy that we won because of the music and not a popularity contest. We won over the crowd, without having anybody there for us,” says singer and guitar player Michael Jonathan.

There was a lack of fans, because Turnaround Sunshine’s performance in Battle of the Bands was meant to be kept a secret.

“We’re playing a show next Friday at 4pm at Café Crystal and they told us that we couldn’t play anywhere else in March. So yeah, this was a secret; we were being bad,” Michael adds laughing.

But there was nothing secretive about any of the performances last Saturday night.

Daltonics created a neon light show as lead singer and guitarist Alejandro Sanchez, 18 lead the crowd in an enthusiastic arm wave.

Turnaround Sunshine swung their band t-shirts into the crowd and Last Minute Ticket made the crowd stand up and chant: “Da dad a dad a.”

The winners received a Battle of The Band sponsored t-shirt and book-bag, a $500 gift certificate from the music store Sam Ash, and 50 community hours from the city of Doral.

But at the end of it all it was all about having fun.

Published at:

"Documentation."

Sat, 03 Jul 2010 22:14:39 -0400

“Documentation.”

"The actualization of one’s potential is an ongoing process."

Sat, 03 Jul 2010 19:53:00 -0400

““The actualization of one’s potential is an ongoing process.”

- ?

On 87th Street...

Sat, 03 Jul 2010 19:46:00 -0400

^{Who is she?}

Walking around 87^th street in her sequined bright dresses, wearing a long braid that falls down to her knees, and carrying a shopping cart.

She has slept in a bed only 13 times since October 2000, but she says that she’ll eventually go back home, in fact to one of her many homes.

“I have to get back to my mansion in Palm Beach, I also have various properties in Colorado and California. Then eventually I’ll go back to Vienna where I’ll be making up for a lot of lost time. But back in Europe, everybody knows I’m coming, they’re expecting me.”

The last time she was in Vienna was in 1963, “Shortly after Kennedy was killed”.

There’s a distortion of her past, and she doesn’t have a stable home right now, she prefers to wonder on and off to experience life on her own.

This is why she never chose to marry, “You have to learn to be happy with yourself, because sooner or later you will have to be alone,” she says, “Geniuses need time alone”

In fact she considers herself a genius, and she often visits Barnes and Nobles. There she spends much of her time reading national and foreign newspapers, sometimes collecting interesting issues in her grocery cart. She devours books, especially those about current political affairs; her latest readings are: “The Prosecution of George Bush” by Vicent Bugliosi and “The Spy Who Tried to Stop aWar” by Katharine Gun.

She has a strong interest and disgust with the Iraq war, and she believes that there’s a lot of under-cover war crimes and illegal political activity today happening right before our very eyes.

“There is a lot of underhand dangerous activity going on today, let’s just say that they were sticking their noses where it doesn’t belong. They came to me and said they’re all trying to cover up for one another, but I told them, that’s their problem not my problem”

She refused to provide any information on her career background or clarify any references as to who “they” were and what exactly the “problem” was.

She did say that she studied in the University of Denver, but that she was not the average student. Her teachers recognized her high intellectual aptitude from an early age.

“They wanted to pass me from second grade to college and a relative said no, that I wasn’t emotionally ready yet” she said.

When asked about her career, she simply laughed and answered: “I’m nothing like that, I’m a genius. I’ve done works nobody else has done.”

As a genius, with a heightened sensibility, she admits that sometimes she feels a certain tension in the atmosphere. She doesn’t understand the great consumption of alcohol, the celebrity media obsession, or the drug users.

“They have done certain studies, that explain this tension through thermo dynamics; they say that children are not experiencing the full intelligence process, and therefore they release a certain frustration and anger, but they might not why it’s there” she says, “I would not want to be raised in this environment”

But what she really doesn’t understand is the fear and un-appreciation of life, ““I’m not afraid of dying, I intend on living. The aim is to live every moment as you dynamically can.”

In her journeys she has learned much, “I’ve met a lot of people, and everybody is different”, she says “ A person needs to know themselves, and know what’s best for them. Never under-estimate yourself! Einstein flunked Algebra, and da Vinci didn’t go further than fourth grade” she said.

Most importantly through out her journeys she has learned that there is no ending point, there is no black or white, and it’s a flaw to generalize. “You know there is nothing obsolete. Shakespeare once said that ‘There’s nothing good or bad, but thinking makes it so’, and I believe him”.

To her, knowledge is sacred, and it can be found in the most surprising places. When she speaks, she says she speaks at all levels, more than the literal sense: “You know that saying, truth is stranger than fiction. It’s quite accurate.”

But at the end of it all, the question remains un-answered.

Who is she? A genius? A person with an exceptional natural potential of intellect?

It’s hard to know because according to her, we will never reach our maximum potential.

“The actualization of one’s potential is an ongoing process”.

How the process happens, that’s up to you.

The Greatest Crime is Progress.

Thu, 01 Jul 2010 11:14:00 -0400

There around 65,000 high school students that will wake up tomorrow, 65,000 students that before opening their eyes have already broken the law; The Supreme Law of the United States indicates that they have woken up in the wrong place, at the wrong time, they are illegal.

Illegal students that will graduate from US high schools this year with no viable right to any financial aid, international travel, post-secondary education, or opportunities in the labor industry; they have no right to be called Americans, they have no right to progress.

Graduating illegally is a pre-determined punishment. The first fault the student commits is entering the US because of their parents; these children should be punished for being born in the wrong family. The second fault is assimilating into the American culture, growing found of its people, generating a fluent flow of English, embracing a thirst for democracy and opportunity. But the worst mistake is when they strive for academic superiority, when they dedicate long hours to helping the community, when they generate the ambition to better this country by taking another position in international affairs, or medical research; the deadly crime, is the human nature of dreaming ahead for progress. The human nature of progress, doesn’t own a social security number.

When one punishes an illegal student, one doesn’t only rob them time, dedication, and intellectual capacity, and serves them with a deprived limited future, one punishes the nation itself. The United States is loosing a high percentage of students who could become highly skilled workers, generate larger incomes, consume more, and later invest in the economy. It is losing millions of dollars of tax money that undocumented immigrants do not pay yearly. It is losing the opportunity for thousands of strong willed minds to bring an impact of positive change, assume roles of leadership in triumph, and help generate new discoveries, solutions, beneficial citizens, and therefore generate a proficient country, with beneficial people.

Education is the main culprit at the basis of their ambition, they want to work, learn, is there such a thing as a beneficial criminal? Democracy has spoken and says, “If you work for it, you’ll get up there”. Undocumented students listen, they work, but they remain. These students are well aware that their punishment is un-deserved. The irony is that the same country that they consider their own, that which has inspired them to move ahead, that same government denies them their rightful place to be an American.

Instead of conforming for a punishment, within them they’ve proposed a basis of ammunition, and these students will fight for their right to continue their education with the DREAM act. If this act gets approved by congress these students could be eligible for citizenship after following the requirements, and later legally become an American citizen. To qualify students must have lived in the United states for a minimum of 5 years, have entered the country before the age of 16, graduated from high school, and have kept a clean record and good moral character. Once qualified, the student can obtain citizenship with a Bachelors or by joining the armed forces. The DREAM act will guarantee a legal status, and a chance to succeed.

Undocumented students that can benefit from the legalization of the act are fueled with ambition, intellectual capacity, ability, and skill, all of them dream of progress. What they are asking for is the right to action, the right to be, the right to turn that DREAM into a reality.

If the DREAM act is denied, we will keep punishing innocent students a chance for success. By punishing these students, this progress preaching country will only achieve the basis of self destruction for democracy: opression. It will achieve the accumulative means to oppress a thousand lives, a thousand dreams.

; m.a.d.;

1070 immigration debates

Thu, 01 Jul 2010 11:09:00 -0400

On April 23 Arizona’s governor Jan Brewer signed the 1070 State Bill; thus igniting a national immigration debate. This time it is about more than 10 million illegal immigrants that, according to the annual Homeland and Security report, currently live in the United States Controversy over their deportation has recently had a great emphasis in the media. On May 19th, after Michelle and Barack Obama visited a primary school in New Hamsphire, and cameras filmed as a 7 year old girl asked Obama if it was true is “taking away everybody that does not have papers,” and then innocently admitting that her mother currently “did not have any.”

But it goes farther than one 7 year old immigrant, it all goes back to SB 1070; starting August 2010, the failure to carry immigration documents will be condemned a crime, and the police will have the right to detain anyone in “suspicion” of illegal status in Arizona. The law has been a response to recent complaints of an increase in drug trafficking and violence around the Mexican Border.

Receiving support from the main sponsor and writer of the bill republican Arizona state senator Russell Pearce; the community denounced they did not feel safe with such high rates of illegal immigrants.

The incident that drew this fear was the death of Robert N. Krentz, 58, killed by a suspected smuggler illegally crossing the border. Pearce has a long history advocating a strict immigration reform, and a controversial past: both he and his son were shot and wounded by illegal smugglers crossing the border while working as sheriff deputies.

With much public denouncements from the Hispanic community, and both president Obama and Felipe Calderon of Mexico; Pearce defends his policy. “This law is not about race,” he said. “It’s about what is illegal.”

Jan Brewer also, enforces the fact that, the police officials will be required to go through proper training to identify “suspected” illegal immigrants because of complaints that the law will have high cases of “racial profiling.”

Many, such as Maricopa County sheriff Joe Arpaio, are determined to follow suit.

“When I go after a certain policy, I go full force….It’s controversial, but it doesn’t bother me; if people don’t like it, go vote for somebody else this year,” he stated in defense.

Residents are also encouraged to be firm advocates of this law; being granted the right to sue government organizations that do not reinforce the implications of the law. On the other spectrum, there is also advocacy opposing the bill.

To boycott, collective efforts such as the “Day without a Mexican” are encouraged around the Mexican Border. Advocates hope to decrease work-load of 10,000 Mexicans who legally cross the border every day to work; thus fueling the American economy.

About two hundred human rights groups such as the National Council of La Raza and the League of United Latin American Citizens ask for support by telling businesses to refrain from planning conventions or conferences in Arizona and buying goods produced in the state.

Others chose to work individually, such as University of Arizona associate professor Sandra Soto, who was received by both applauses and life-threatening e-mails after publicly criticizing the Arizona law in her graduation speech.

Soto also referred to additional legislation in Arizona, specifically the bill that has been aimed at ending ethnic studies in Tuscon schools.

Sponsored by the public school superintendent Tom Horne, this law states that any public school class advocating ethnic unity, or resentment for a race or class would risk losing 10 percent of its state financing.

“Our education is under attack, what do we do? Fight Back,” Soto said, referring to the 9 Arizona students who were arrested two days before her graduation speech for chaining themselves to the doors of Jan Brewer in protest for these legislative measures.

This bill is mostly sponsored by republicans, all but one, Carolyn S. Allen who is leaving office this term, and voted against the bill.

For many in support, the issue goes farther than just immigration reform.

“There’s a lot of cattle that roam freely in a lot of these areas, and these animals will often be found who have died with huge distress because they will have swallowed one of these plastic bags and then it gets caught in their digestive tract and they die an agonizing death,” says Patricia Vroom, the chief counsel of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency in Arizona, referring to the “environmental dangers” of illegal immigration.

In Miami too, there have been minor, but noticeable acts of protest against the bill. For example, on May 17 more than 50 immigrant rights activists rallied at Sun Life Stadium in a game between the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Marlins.

Facebook groups such as: Boycott Arizona SB 1070 now a law. A national boycott. Stop the hate now have been formed where users can obtain media correspondence about this national issue.

Even if there’s been a media outbreak; rally attendance has decreased sharply compared to past years. In May 2006, half a million marched calling for an immigration reform across Chicago; last year there were fewer than 15,000.

Yet for many, the national immigration debate carries on, many denouncing hopes that an agreement will fall from both parties: republicans and democrats, Immigrants and law enforcement officials, “brown-skinned” and blue eyed.

; m.a.d.; ;