Archive for February 2012

American Tourism in Latin America

With increasing airfares to and lower exchange rates in other international destinations, like Europe and Asia, Americans have increasingly chosen Latin America as a new preferred destination, particularly for the lower prices, but likewise for the region’s warm climate and hospitable citizens.
According to the Colimbian Government, 23.3 percent of its visitors were Americans, certainly lending to the overall increase of 10.7 percent in 2009 compared with 2008, while tourism decreased worldwide by 4 percent.
According to Jaime Echavarria, director of ProExport Colombia, “The Colombian government has been offering incentives to investors in tourism projects, and is very interested in promotion and providing aid.” 
Many other nations are also maintaining their efforts to increase tourism, particularly recognizing the sector as crucial to the nations’ economies. In Peru, where visitors arriving from North America have increased by 36 percent since 2004, overall tourism has also grown. This trend certainly continued, as by September 2009, U.S. tourism showed a two-percent increase for the year, continuing thereafter and maintaining this upward trend.
The increasing American tourism abroad not only depicts the continuous cultural interactions between the United States and Latin America, but it also emphasizes the increasing global interdependence between the two regions.

‘Black’ in the Dominican Republic

It is unlikely to travel anywhere around the world where racism is still a prominent issue. Although it often extends beyond race, racism is often the product of a realization of physical differences. The documentary series, “Black in Latin America” by Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. specifically addresses the importance of the understanding that aside from physical differences, oftentimes, these disparities are not representative of what brings everyone together- a history that is founded on interracial relations.

Gates calls the island that is shared by the Dominican Republic and Haiti an ‘island divided’, which was the first place in the new world to import African Slaves. Despite the two nations sharing the land, the Dominican Republic and Haiti have two different time zones and are physically separated by a river.

The nations were even more intertwined during Hati’s 22 year occupation of the Dominican Republic, which ended on February 27, 1844, when the Dominican Republic declared its independence from Haiti. This occupation is certainly what contributed to increased racism in the region, leading to a rejection of the French language, religion, and culture. During the rise of the United States’ interest in the sugar industry in the Dominican Republic, Haitians were literally imported to work, and for the first time, ‘blackness’ became a derogatory term, even taught at schools as so. The racism only continued when Trujillo, a cruel and corrupt dictator used Anti-Hatian sentiments to forge a ‘stronger’ Dominican Republic, issuing an order to kill all the Haitians in the North-West border of the region, resulting in the massacre of 15,000 people. For all of these reasons, where Haiti, the world’s first black republic, honors and embraces their black heroes, the Dominican Republic ‘bleaches’ their roots, honoring their darker heroes with statues that represent ‘white’ features. And where Haiti honors the French language as its official language, the Dominican Republic seeks to emphasize the superiority of its Spanish heritage.

One Dominican citizen claimed, “I am neither white nor black; to the Dominican people, I am ‘Indio’… I had to learn to be black. Dominicans are in complete denial of who they are”.

Despite these differences, however, Merengue roots are as mixed as the people themselves, which are the typical music of the nation, founded in beats of the African drums. Today, there are approximately one million Haitians working in the Dominican Republic in search for a better life, many of which are affected by the lack of understanding and acceptance of what unites them to their Dominican counterparts.

The Rise of Latin America

In an economy that is increasingly interconnected and globally dependent, it is surprising to see Latin America stand stronger than ever, not only decreasing its overall poverty rates in the region, but also taking advantage of its abundant resources in order to ensure its financial stability.

The region seems to be collaboratively succeeding in its attempts, as numerous experts attest to the fact that there are no signs of a recession in Latin America and that there is much better growth potential in Latin America than in Europe and North America. 

 

Particularly in countries like Argentina, Brazil, and Peru, the potential for recovery, if it is even necessary is more evident than ever. Argentina’s increasingly tied financial connections to China serve to provide the nation with a safe and secure network for its exportations. In Brazil, a growing middle class certainly allows for sustainability within the nation, as consumers within the nation are spending more, allowing the country to be less dependent on exports. In Peru, the fastest growing economy in Latin America, the Asian demand for the nation’s raw materials is higher than ever, certainly increasing its interdependence on other nations, but simultaneously providing the nation with a more certain future.

According to the Economist, “in the five years to 2008 the region’s economies grew at an annual average rate of 5.5%, while inflation was in single digits. The financial crisis briefly interrupted this growth, but it was the first in living memory in which Latin America was an innocent bystander, not a protagonist…Economic growth is going hand in hand with social progress…Brazil, the region’s powerhouse, is the cause of much of the excitement. But Chile, Colombia and Peru are growing as handsomely and even Mexican society is forging ahead, despite the drug violence and the deeper recession visited on it by its ties to the more sickly economy in the United States”.
Once again, good news for the Latin American region: as it turns out, although it may seem that the economy is greatly disturbed by the recessive economies of some leading nations, it is not a ‘global recession’, and perhaps some are actually favoring by the experience of need in other parts of the world.

Integrated Hispanic Communities

As the fastest growing minority in the United States, it is very interesting to see where the Hispanic Population is settling and developing throughout the nation. According to the U.S. Census, the top ten cities where Hispanics are located in the nation in terms of population are New York, Los Angeles, Houston, San Antonio, Chicago, Phoenix, Dallas, El Paso, San Diego, San Jose, and Miami, but of course, this does not quantify which Hispanics are setting where, which is what this article will serve to analyze.

According to the U.S. 2010 Census, Hispanics and Latinos make up 27.4 percent of New York City’s population. According to the American Community Survey, there are 2,287,905 Hispanic or Latino Americans residing in New York City, which is mainly categorized into six main groups, Puerto Rican: (778,628), Dominican: (602,093), Mexican: (289,755), Ecuadorian: (201,708), Colombian: (113,469), and other Hispanic or Latino: (351,635). 

Los Angeles, California is often said to have the largest Mexican population outside of Mexico with the largest Spanish-speaking population outside of Latin America or Spain, particularly as a result of the 1980 and 1990 flow of immigrants from Mexico and Central America such as Salvadorans, Hondurans and Guatemalans settled in the city’s eastern and southern neighborhoods. Currently, out of its 3.8 million population, L.A has 1.8 million Hispanics, making up approximately 48.5 percent of the population.

The third largest ‘Hispanic City’ in terms of population is Houston, Texas, with 908,000 Hispanics out of the cities 2.19 million population, making up 41.4 percent of its total population. This percentage primarily constitutes of Mexicans (27%), Puerto Ricans (.35%), and Cubans (.25%). In Texas, San Antonio’s total 1.32 million population is made up of 61.2 percent Hispanics, which total 807,000 Hispanics, 41.36 percent of which are Mexican. The fifth largest Hispanic population is another major city: Chicago, Illinois, which is made up of 2.8 million people has approximately 774,000 Hispanics, making up approximately 27.4 percent of the population.

Hispanics certainly constitute a major portion of the United States population, as a whole, spanning from East to West, as is evident through the disparity between each location. This also lends to another understanding: despite many cultural differences that may occur between the many people that fit under the ‘Hispanic/Latino Umbrella’, these individuals are capable of surpassing these differences, focusing on what brings them together in order to create an integrated and progressive community.

To see the full scope of the integration of Hispanics in these communities go to the following website:

http://www.usnews.com/news/slideshows/11-cities-with-the-most-hispanics

Hispanics More Accepting of the Gay Community?

With same sex marriage officially legalized in New York, one of the many on the continuously growing list of states allowing for gay marriage, one can assume that as a whole, society is increasingly being accepting of what many consider(ed) a controversial issue. However, many factors certainly contribute to the general portrayal of gay individuals, including religion, age, and overall cultural values. 

In Hispanic families, one can definitely assume that a vast split between age and religious views certainly lends to the formation of anti-gay sentiments. According to State Senator Rev. Rubén Díaz, strict Christian ideals encourage his strong stand against gay marriage:
“I believe that God does not allow gay marriage. It’s the Bible, it’s Mother Nature… “It’s the tradition…the culture. We are Hispanic, we just come from a different culture”. Díaz is certainly representative of the older, more conservative, and certainly more religious views that promote against the gay community.

According to the U.S. Census, more than 50 percent of all Catholics in the United States who are 25 years old or younger are Latino, and about two-thirds of all Latinos in the United States classify themselves as Roman Catholic; however, this is certainly not a measure of actual adherence to the religion, which repeatedly warns against gay marriage. To the Catholic Church, marriage is strictly between one man and one woman. This classification is certainly the basis for many inter-family arguments like the one between Senator Díaz himself and his granddaughter, who is an openly proclaimed lesbian: “I have the right to exercise my human rights to marry the person that I love…My grandfather is old school, and I respect him. But I’m trying to get him to change his mind.”
The Díaz family dispute is certainly representative of many others occurring among Hispanic families nationwide. However, on a whole, the latest reports suggest an overall support of same sex marriage among Latinos in the country: according to a poll conducted by the Siena College Research Institute in 2010, 54 percent of Latinos would vote yes on legalizing gay marriage, further supported by a National Gallop Poll, which showed a majority of Americans, 53 percent, supporting marriage equality.
Despite these statistics, Díaz maintains 90 percent of Latinos would vote no against same-sex marriage if people were given the chance to cast their ballot in a public referendum. Evidently, his opinion was undervalued and continues to be representative of the minority that is against same sex marriage, as states continuously adopt laws supporting the union of the gay community.

Lack of Diversity in Mainstream Latino Media

According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the nation’s Latino population is the largest –nonwhite minority group, up approximately 46.3 percent since 2000, increasing to more than 50 million, which is more than double its size in 1990. It is also the nation’s youngest ethnic group with the largest bilingual capacity. However, despite the increasing population, and an increasing interest in Hispanic media, a lack of diversity in terms of what is actually presented in the media is certainly a reason to question the appeal of the media to Hispanics born and those not born in the United States.

On Television: 

According to Nielson Co., the number of Hispanic households with TV sets increased 3.1% in February 2011 from the year before. However, despite this increase and an overall increase in Spanish-Language TV ad spending, there seems to be a lack of attention to the different interests of the diverse Hispanic community. For the most part, there seems to be little room between the novelas (Spanish soap operas), talk shows, news channels, and the occasional movies. Of course, this does not apply to all networks, but those that accompany a classic cable or satellite system often do not provide the population with much media diversity. According to StateoftheMedia.org, “Univision, now the fifth-largest network in primetime audience in the United States…invested heavily in news, increased cross-content partnerships and amplified bilingual offerings”. However, larger investments and increased bilingual offerings do not satisfy the need for different content that caters to all Hispanics in the United States.

On the Radio:

According to StateoftheMedia .org, “by the most recent count (Fall 2009), there were 1,323 Spanish-language stations, up 8% from 1,224 in fall 2008. News talk remains a small part of that, with 96 stations using that format, up by three from the year before.” Like with the Television networks, there seems to be increased attention in tapping into the Hispanic market in order to attain larger revenues for the individual companies. However, one may question the reasons why they are truly profitable: perhaps it is simply because there is simply nothing else on. One individual particularly expresses his concern for the lack of variety on the radio, “Lost in the translation are more classical Latin music, genres and styles. Where on Sirius XM can you chill out to some nice mariachi or jam and dance to some Shakira? Simply stated, there is no way two Latin based channels, one being Reggae, can service the vast spectrum of Latin music and the potential Latin audience. With the new diversiy channels being announced, we have learned that a new Latin music channel from Eventus will be debuting on Sirius XM. The question is whether that will be enough”. This concerned writer for the ‘Sirius XM Radio Buzz’ website is certainly representative of many concerned viewers and listeners desperate for a change.

On the Internet:

According to the Pew Hispanic Center, “bilingual and English-dominant Hispanics are more digitally attuned than those who are Spanish-dominant….About two-thirds of Latino (65%) and African American (66%) adults went online in 2010, compared with 77% of white adults. And only 45% of Latinos have broadband access at home, compared with 52% of blacks and 65% of whites. Just over three-quarters, 76%, of Latinos owned a cell phone in 2010, compared with 79% of blacks and 85% of whites.”
However, online and digital media access is certainly increasing among the nation’s largest-growing minorities, and social media networks and other online resource sites are certainly aware of that and rapidly working to cater to the Hispanic community. Unlike television and radio, consumers have a larger amount of control over what they access, and usually provides them with the diversity not found on other media outlets.
According to Andy Checo, a writer for HispanicCMO.com, “Yes, we are Hispanics, and many of us speak Spanish, but guess what? Many of us speak and prefer English too! Why would you choose to purposely alienate those of us that do? … In my opinion, most organic conversations in Hispanic social media are happening in English. Even Univision and Telemundo are servicing social media in both languages. … I believe that for the best engagement you must incorporate a mix of both languages. Note: I am not talking about Spanglish here”. His concern is certainly one which Google and other internet websites have increasingly become aware of, acknowledging the difference between a simple language connection and an overall cultural connection.
Google is certainly focusing more on the cultural identification than on the language connections. This attempt is headed by Mark Lopez, who is in charge of Google’s U.S. Hispanic unit. He maintains, “There’s a cultural differentiation in consumption of media. The segmentation of the language is not enough and we must fully enter into the Hispanic world’s digital market (although) we don’t yet understand how it works”.

Google is certainly not the first to try this strategy. Telemundo also attempted to focus on the cultural identity of the Hispanic market by launching the bilingual mun2 cable channel directed at Hispanic young people. However, with more Hispanics having access to the internet than Television, one can certainly predict an increase in diversity in Hispanic media, pioneered by an online revolution.

Video : Drugs Inc Presents Meth

Methamphetamine is a central nervous system stimulant drug that is similar in structure to amphetamine. Due to its high potential for abuse, methamphetamine is classified as a Schedule II drug and is available only through a prescription that cannot be refilled. Although methamphetamine can be prescribed by a doctor, its medical uses are limited, and the doses that are prescribed are much lower than those typically abused. Most of the methamphetamine abused in this country comes from foreign or domestic superlabs, although it can also be made in small, illegal laboratories, where its production endangers the people in the labs, neighbors, and the environment.

How Is Methamphetamine Abused?

Methamphetamine is a white, odorless, bitter-tasting crystalline powder that easily dissolves in water or alcohol and is taken orally, intranasally (snorting the powder), by needle injection, or by smoking.

How Does Methamphetamine Affect the Brain?

Methamphetamine increases the release and blocks the reuptake of the brain chemical (or neurotransmitter) dopamine, leading to high levels of the chemical in the brain—a common mechanism of action for most drugs of abuse. Dopamine is involved in reward, motivation, the experience of pleasure, and motor function. Methamphetamine’s ability to release dopamine rapidly in reward regions of the brain produces the intense euphoria, or “rush,” that many users feel after snorting, smoking, or injecting the drug.

Chronic methamphetamine abuse significantly changes how the brain functions. Noninvasive human brain imaging studies have shown alterations in the activity of the dopamine system that are associated with reduced motor skills and impaired verbal learning.¹ Recent studies in chronic methamphetamine abusers have also revealed severe structural and functional changes in areas of the brain associated with emotion and memory,^2,3 which may account for many of the emotional and cognitive problems observed in chronic methamphetamine abusers.

Repeated methamphetamine abuse can also lead to addiction—a chronic, relapsing disease characterized by compulsive drug seeking and use, which is accompanied by chemical and molecular changes in the brain. Some of these changes persist long after methamphetamine abuse is stopped. Reversal of some of the changes, however, may be observed after sustained periods of abstinence (e.g., more than 1 year).⁴

What Other Adverse Effects Does Methamphetamine Have on Health?

Taking even small amounts of methamphetamine can result in many of the same physical effects as those of other stimulants, such as cocaine or amphetamines, including increased wakefulness, increased physical activity, decreased appetite, increased respiration, rapid heart rate, irregular heartbeat, increased blood pressure, and hyperthermia.

Long-term methamphetamine abuse has many negative health consequences, including extreme weight loss, severe dental problems (“meth mouth”), anxiety, confusion, insomnia, mood disturbances, and violent behavior. Chronic methamphetamine abusers can also display a number of psychotic features, including paranoia, visual and auditory hallucinations, and delusions (for example, the sensation of insects crawling under the skin).

Transmission of HIV and hepatitis B and C can be consequences of methamphetamine abuse. The intoxicating effects of methamphetamine, regardless of how it is taken, can also alter judgment and inhibition and can lead people to engage in unsafe behaviors, including risky sexual behavior. Among abusers who inject the drug, HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases can be spread through contaminated needles, syringes, and other injection equipment that is used by more than one person. Methamphetamine abuse may also worsen the progression of HIV/AIDS and its consequences. Studies of methamphetamine abusers who are HIV-positive indicate that HIV causes greater neuronal injury and cognitive impairment for individuals in this group compared with HIV-positive people who do not use the drug.

Be sure to watch an amazing documentary by National Geographic just above where you are brought into the drug world of cocaine and the business behind it. You will get a glimpse in the lifestyle of the USER, DISTRIBUTOR, MAKER, and more.

Source : drugabuse.gov

MUSIC VIDEO : M.I.A. - Bad Girls

This video just dropped and was shot in Morocco. I have to say M.I.A. has always came out with unique sounds in her songs for beats  but definitely catchy. Drag racing in the dessert plus the other stunts in  the video are pretty creative I have to say.  You feel in’ the song ? How about the video ? Will this be the new Bad Girls anthem in the clubs ?

Hip-Hop A Tool To Educate Students

Has Hip-Hop taught you anything ? Do you feel Hip-Hop has words of wisdom and topics worthy of starting constructive dialogue? If so share some examples of songs etcs …

Latinos - “Some Other Race ?”

Every ten years, the Census Bureau enlightens us with the diversity and the ever-changing society of the United States. In fact, despite a difficulty in achieving an ultimate accurate survey, the Bureau spends billions of dollars in an attempt to portray the most precise picture of the demographics of the country.

One of the Bureau’s ways of breaking down the US population is by categorizing individuals according to race; however, more than in any other census, the 2010 Census proved that Latinos are increasingly in need of ‘another category’ that disregards color and even geographic origin: “ More than 18 million Latinos checked this “other” box in the 2010 census, up from 14.9 million in 2000. It was an indicator of the sharp disconnect between how Latinos view themselves and how the government wants to count them” (Garifuna). This shows the disparity between how classifying someone’s identity transcends racial categories.
It becomes increasingly evident that there is a preference to be categorized by ethnicity, ‘a set of cultural traits, like language or customs’ versus race, which ‘typically refers to a set of common physical traits’. There is a desperate calling for a classification that surpasses the physical and delves deep into the roots of what makeup an individual on the inside: “So when they encounter the census, they see one question that asks them whether they identify themselves as having Hispanic ethnic origins and many answer it as their main identifier”(Garifuna). The facts are clear- people of Hispanic origin may be of any race; therefore, the Census Bureau needs to make the appropriate adjustments if they wish to maintain a higher level of accuracy in the future.