Feb
17
There’s an interesting discussion about gay asylum seekers from Mexico on the Media Matters website (you can also watch the Fox News clip there). The rather obnoxious right-wing commentator Bill O’Reilly of Fox News is commenting on a recent appeal court decision which allowed a gay asylum seeker a refugee claim based on his claim of persecution because of his sexuality.
I know gay Mexicans who have made it to Canada with refugee claims on this basis.
Unfortunately, in the vein of Fox News, the discussion is basically one-sided, with O’Reilly being countered only very weakly by Fox News anchor Megyn Kelley rather than someone with knowledge of the issue who could argue with O’Reilly.
I’ll make a case against a couple of his claims and I invite readers to add their own voices.
O’REILLY praises the original immigration panel judge’s decision, subsequently overturned by the 9th Circuit, which, according to the Los Angeles Times, stated that the asylum seeker, Soto Vega, “could return to Mexico since ‘it would not be obvious that he was homosexual unless he made it obvious himself.’ ” O’Reilly asserted: “I think the immigration court made the right decision, basically saying, ‘Look, you could be anybody. Just go back there and don’t wear a dress… and you’ll be OK.’ ”
==> This is clearly coming from a man who was no idea of what it is to be gay and who would have have us all repressing our identities and our lives. It’s not about not wearing a dress, it’s about being able to have and live with a partner, being able to have places to go out to and being able to be ourselves. I doubt Soto Vega was wearing a dress when he was assaulted by a Mexican police officer for being gay.
O’REILLY: If you go to any of the resort areas, Cancún or Acapulco, as I mentioned, Puerto Vallarta, any of them — come on, it’s gay parade time. Don’t tell me they’re being persecuted. There’s gay bars; there’s gay restaurants; there’s gay everything.
==> It does seem that a gay Mexican who was being persecuted in their life could leave and go to a place like Puerto Vallarta where if there’s persecution at least there would also be a community to support you. But O’Reilly is again speaking from a place of ignorance. He’s not Mexican. Neither am I but I do know how much more difficult it is for a Mexican than an American to pick up and move to another place. So much of the culture depends on support from family networks. There’s no guarantee of survival for a single gay man picking up and moving to Puerto Vallarta if he doesn’t have the right skills to survive in the city alone. At least in the US, he could probably make enough money to support himself.
O’REILLY states that that ”he could get beat up here” (the US) too, i.e. that anti-gay discrimination exists in the US too.
==> This is kind of a bizarre spurious argument. Things are bad here too so he shouldn’t be admitted. O’Reilly seems to says that unless you’re from from Iran, where “you’ll get beheaded”, you should just put up and suffer with an occasional beating.
What do you think?
Feb
12
What’s the CO2 on your PV flight?
February 12, 2007 | Tags: News, Opinion | Leave a Comment
With global warming so present in the news and in our minds, I’m feeling uncomfortable about how much flying I do. Getting back and forth from the US and Canada to Mexico and beyond creates an awful lot of CO2 emissions. Here are some examples of what a non-stop flight to Puerto Vallarta will generate (figures from an online calculator):
USA Departures:
Los Angeles: 0.6 tonnes of CO2
San Francisco:Â 0.8 tonnes of CO2
Portland, Oregon:Â 0.9 tonnes of CO2
Chicago: 0.9 tonnes of CO2
Minneapolis/St Paul: 0.9 tonnes of CO2
Detroit: 0.7 tonnes of CO2
New York: 0.8 tonnes of CO2
Boston: 0.9 tonnes of CO2
Canada Departures:
Vancouver 0.8 tonnes of CO2
Edmonton 0.8 tonnes of CO2
Toronto 0.8 tonnes of CO2
Montreal 0.9 tonnes of CO2
Europe Departures:
London 2.0 tonnes of CO2
Amsterdam 2.1 tonnes of CO2
I recently wrote an article entitled Going Neutral on my personal website which gives an outline of the issue and what you can do about it including purchasing offsets to make your travel carbon neutral.
Jan
16
The “Americanization” of Mexico
January 16, 2007 | Tags: Opinion | Leave a Comment
I just read an interesting article in the American Chronicle entitled “Guanajuato: The Death of Heritage“.  It’s a theme I’ve thought on many times before, as Americans and others move into an area and instead of embracing what is different and special about a place, instead slowly (or not so slowly) transform it into a imitation of what was back home. The author mentions that some 25,000 gringos now live in Puerto Vallarta and so they chose Guanajuato for a more authentic experience. Now they find that the gentrification/Americanization process is following them to Guanajuato.
One of the things I love about latin cultures is how social everyone is and how everyone interacts together to solve the simplest things, like how to get from here to there. Forget being face down in a map, just ask someone! Go to the hardware store and the clerk will stay with you from beginning to end and help you find everything you need behind the counter. But once the Walmarts and the Home Depots and their clones start moving in it isn’t long before that culture becomes transformed.
A couple years ago, My friend Colin and I wrote an article on Costa Rica which generated a lot of controversy in the ex-pat community there. Tropical Fever was a lighthearted rant on the worst things that foreigners bring to their new homes. But it must have hit close to the mark since many people were unable to see the humour. But when the only thing one hears among the expat community is how crappy the roads, how corrupt the politicians are and that their maid wants another raise this year then it’s time to move on to a place where one can live more in harmony with the locals and celebrate our differences.
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