Honra y Cultura

Willie Colón

Album Browser

Review

by John Storm Roberts

Though the adulation given Colon’s early recordings is fully justified, it has the unfortunate side-effect of blinding people to his equally fine recent recordings. Yet aside from the fact that he’d turned himself into an excellent and very individual singer, the recordings he made just before his political ambitions took over are by any measure outstanding. The 1991 Honra y Cultura reverted to Colon’s historic passion for Puerto Rican music, featuring cuatro player Yomo Toro in two compositions by the great jíbaro singer Ramito. But as always, the references — not just jíbaro, but touches of both rap and toasting, jazz, on and on — were unified by an overall vision combining passion and humor.

Tracks

Releases

Year      1991
Type      CD
Sony Discos Inc.

In the end, communists and socialist are exposed for their hypocrisy and greed.
Brezhnev collected cars, Chavez and his family with their jewelry, cars and foreign
bank accounts. Now it has become embarrassingly obvious that the Chinese are
not such great comrades.

Bo Xilao, the darling of Chinese society and an heir apparent to the Committee has
become embroiled in a scandal where there are $180 BILLION involved and his wife is
accused in the assassination of a British Businessman.  COMMUNISM IS FOR THE PEOPLE
not the rulers. 

29 April 2012 Last updated at 11:48 ET

Bo Xilai scandal: Key players

The suspected murder of British businessman Neil Heywood in the sprawling south-western
Chinese city of Chonqing has gripped people both in China and around the world.

It has led to the dismissal of Chongqing party boss Bo Xilai and to a murder investigation,
which names his wife Gu Kailai as a suspect.

But the ramifications of the case are wider, having triggered one of the biggest scandals to hit
China’s Communist Party in recent times, and exposing political divisions behind the scenes.

The BBC profiles the key players.

Bo Xilai scandal: Key players
Who	Connection	Role in scandal
Bo Xilai	Former Communist Party chief of Chongqing and Politburo member	Once tipped for high office and described as the nearest thing China had to a Western-style politician.He was removed as Chongqing party chief for “serious discipline violations”, rumoured to be related to the death of British businessman Neil Heywood and the visit of his former police chief Wang Lijun to a US consulate, apparently seeking protection.
Gu Kailai	Wife of Bo Xilai	Mr Bo’s wife, who trained as a lawyer and speaks fluent English, was reported to have had “economic interests” with Mr Heywood .On 10 April, China announced that she was under investigation for “suspicion of homicide” over his death.
Bo Guagua	Son of Bo Xilai	Educated at Oxford and currently studying at Harvard, he has been the subject of rumours because of his alleged lavish lifestyle.There have been reports that Mr Heywood helped Bo Guagua gain admission into the expensive British private school Harrow.
Neil Heywood	British businessman	Mr Heywood lived in China from the early 1990s, and was fluent in Mandarin. Met Bo Xilai and his wife while living in north-eastern city of Dalian in the mid-1990s.Relationship with Mr Bo reported to be strained by 2010.Found dead in Chongqing hotel room on 15 November, 2011.
Wang Lijun	Former Chongqing police chief	Police chief and vice-mayor in Chongqing who once enjoyed close ties with Mr Bo. He fled to the US consulate in Chengdu, near Chongqing, on 6 February, reportedly to seek asylum , triggering Mr Bo’s downfall. He gave himself up to Chinese police and is now in detention .
Zhou Yongkang	Politburo’s Standing Committee member	Considered to have been Bo Xilai’s mentor.Member of Politburo’s powerful nine-member Standing Committee.Also secretary of Committee of Political and Legislative Affairs, which controls police and security forces. Unverified rumours that he was under investigation.
Wen Jiabao	China’s premier	Bo Xilai’s dismissal has been interpreted as part of political struggle between supporters of former president Jiang Zemin, and supporters of Mr Wen and President Hu Jintao.Mr Wen indirectly criticised Bo Xilai at National People’s Congress news conference in April.

http://bit.ly/IBiX3H La avaricia e hipocrecía de los Socialistas y los comunistas se revela con el tiempo. El Ruso Breshniev tenia una colección de carros, Esteban con sus prendas y cuentas estranjeras. Ahora nos enteramos que los Chinos no son los tan buen camaradas tampoco. Bo Xilai, el papi chulo del partido comunista de China, está enredado en un escandalo donde desaparecieron $180 BILLONES (US)! Además su esposa tambien es acusada del asesinato de un empresario Inglés! Esto es la crema del la sociedad China. El comunismo es para el pueblo.

 

El Departamento de Agricultura de EU reveló que detectó un caso de la enfermedad conocida como de la ‘vaca loca’ en el suroeste de California.

- Getty Images

No representa peligro

California - El Departamento de Agricultura de Estados Unidos reveló el martes que detectó un caso de la enfermedad conocida como de la ‘vaca loca’ en el suroeste de California.

“El Servicio de Inspección Sanitario de Plantas y Animales del Departamento estadounidense de Agricultura confirmó el cuarto caso de encefalopatía espongiforme bovina a nivel nacional, en un establecimiento lechero de (la región) central de California”, indicó un comunicado.

No se distribuyó la carne infectada y no llegó a los suministros del país, por lo tanto, no representa ningún peligro para la población, informó el Departamento de Agricultura.

Este es el cuarto caso descubierto en EU desde que el gobierno comenzó a inspeccionar con el objetivo de mantener los suministros de alimento seguros.

La enfermedad puede ser fatal para los humanos que consuman carne infectada. Pero no se contrae si se bebe leche procedente de los animales infectados.

Más en Univision.com: http://noticias.univision.com/estados-unidos/noticias/article/2012-04-24/caso-vaca-loca-california#ixzz1tEiTWT4c

‘Mad cow’ case confirmed by USDA

(CNN) — The nation’s fourth case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), sometimes referred to as “mad cow disease,” has been confirmed in a dairy cow in central California, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said Tuesday.

The carcass was at a Baker Commodities Inc. rendering facility in Hanford, California, according to Executive Vice President Dennis Luckey.

The company renders animal byproducts and had randomly selected the animal for testing last Wednesday, he said.

“We are in the business of removing dead animals from dairies in the Central Valley,” he told CNN in a telephone interview. “As part of that program, we participate in the BSE surveillance program.”

Public health officials said the risk to public was extremely low.

Mad Cow confirmed in California

The sample was sent to UC Davis for initial testing, which came back inconclusive. It was then sent to the USDA’s laboratory in Ames, Iowa, where it tested positive, the agency said.

The carcass was in quarantine Tuesday night. “We’re waiting now for USDA to tell us how to dispose of it,” Luckey said.

Luckey would not divulge on which farm the animal was found. He said his company tests 1,000 to 2,000 animals a year, which he described as “a small percentage” of the overall number of animals it renders.

Had it been rendered, it could have been turned into an element of a number of products, including chemicals or feed for poultry or livestock, he said.

But it would not likely have spread the disease, since USDA regulations prohibit high-risk parts of the cow, such as brains and spinal cords, from entering the food chain.

Eating contaminated meat or some other animal products from cattle that have bovine spongiform encephalopathy is thought to be the cause of the fatal brain disease in humans that is called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

The fatal disease was blamed for the deaths of 150 people in Britain, where there was an outbreak in the 1980s and 1990s.

In people, symptoms of the disease include psychiatric and behavioral changes, movement deficits, memory disturbances and cognitive impairments.

BSE can cause infected animals to display nervousness or aggression, difficulty in coordination and standing up, decreased milk production or loss of body weight, according to the agency.

It is usually transmitted between cows through the practice of recycling bovine carcasses for meat and bone meal protein, which is fed to other cattle. In this case, the USDA reports that it was a rare form of BSE not likely carried by contaminated feed.

The USDA said it remains confident in the health of the national herd and the safety of beef and dairy products.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that the odds of a person contracting mad cow disease, even after consuming contaminated products, are less than one in 10 billion.

California Department of Public Health Director and Public Health Officer Dr. Ron Chapman issued a statement Tuesday saying residents do not need to take any specific precautions.

Unlike most other meat-borne illnesses, such as those caused by E.-coli bacteria, cooking does not kill the infectious agent that causes mad cow disease.

Consumers who wish to exercise extra caution can follow the advice presented by the Web-based consumer advocacy group Consumeraffairs.com, which advises the avoidance of brains, neck bones and beef cheeks, bone marrow and cuts of beef that are sold on the bone. The group also says to choose boneless cuts of meat and ground beef only if it has been ground in the store.

“Evidence shows that our systems and safeguards to prevent BSE are working, as are similar actions taken by countries around the world,” said John Clifford, the USDA’s chief veterinary officer.

Last year, 29 cases of BSE were reported worldwide, down 99% since the peak of 37,311 cases in 1992. “This is directly attributable to the impact and effectiveness of feed bans as a primary control measure for the disease,” he said.

“A case of a single cow with bovine spongiform encephalopathy is not a reason for significant concern on the part of consumers, and there is no reason to believe the beef or milk supply is unsafe,” said Sarah Klein, food safety attorney for the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

“If the cow were exposed to the typical strain of BSE via animal feed — and the government says that’s not the case here — that would have represented a significant failure.”

But she said the government would have had a difficult time tracking down other cattle that may have been eaten the same feed because the nation lacks an effective animal ID program.

I always thought that the Aztecs were from MEXICO and the INCAS from PERU.

From: Caribbean Escape

Sent: Wednesday, April 11, 2012 9:15 AM

To: wacco@williecolon.com

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Posted: 4:00am on Mar 15, 2012; Modified: 8:09am on Mar 15, 2012

2012-03-15T12:09:06Z

By ED MORALES

Seventy-five years ago on March 21, a forgotten American tragedy happened, which reverberates today.

It took place in Ponce, the second-largest city of what is still an unincorporated territory of the United States - Puerto Rico. On that day, which was Palm Sunday, the island territory’s police gunned down 19 unarmed civilians who were marching to commemorate the abolition of slavery.

But it wasn’t just a Puerto Rican matter.

In 1937, Puerto Rico’s police were under the direct control of Gov. Blanton Winship, who, like all previous governors, was an American appointed by the sitting U.S. president. The police were targeting an emerging Nationalist Party movement, whose leader, Harvard-educated Pedro Albizu Campos, was a strident advocate of independence for the island. Albizu Campos, along with five other Nationalist Party members, would spend the next six years in prison, and subsequent movements for independence have been continuously repressed.

The United States granted Puerto Rico a limited capacity for autonomous self-government in 1948 when Luis Munoz Marin became the first Puerto Rican to be elected governor. A new constitution was adopted in 1952, but Puerto Rico has remained, in the eyes of much of the world, a colony. As recently as last summer, the U.N. Special Committee on Decolonization called on the United States to speed up the process to allow Puerto Rico to exercise self-determination.

None of this is to say that the U.S. effect on Puerto Rico has been entirely negative. The American labor and women’s suffrage movements influenced many of the island’s early progressive leaders. The economic overhaul of the island after the new constitution created a modern infrastructure. But the price paid was steep: Puerto Rico’s economy is entirely an appendage of the U.S. economy.

This November, on Election Day, the current government, which favors statehood, will hold a plebiscite. Puerto Rico residents will choose whether the island should continue as a “Commonwealth,” petition for statehood, or become independent.

The independence option is not likely to win, because of the repression of the nationalist movement and the bleak prospects of a newly independent island whose economy would be utterly dependent on the United States.

Despite the pro-statehood government’s connections with the U.S. Republican Party, a statehood victory is unlikely to be approved because current economic policies are obsessed with slashing government spending. Puerto Rico’s high unemployment and weak tax base will not cut it with fiscal conservatives.

Most importantly, the plebiscite, like its predecessors, is nonbinding. The U.S. Congress has the final say, no matter which option wins. There is still no self-determination, and the people who died in Ponce on Palm Sunday 75 years ago remain a sad afterthought of history.

ABOUT THE WRITER

Ed Morales is a contributor to The New York Times and Newsday and is the author of “Living in Spanglish.”

http://emorales7.wordpress.com

recordando un

aniversario trágico

Por ED MORALES

Publicado: 4:00 am el 15 de marzo de 2012; Modificado: 8:09 am el 15 de marzo de 2012.

2012-03-15T12:09:06Z

Hace setenta y cinco años el 21 de marzo, que ocurrió una tragedia americana olvidada, que palpita hoy.

Tuvo lugar en Ponce, la segunda mayor ciudad de lo que todavía es un territorio no incorporado de Estados Unidos - Puerto Rico. Ese día, que fue el Domingo de Ramos, la policía del territorio de la isla balaceó 19 civiles desarmados que estaban marchando conmemorando la abolición de la esclavitud.

Pero no fue sólo una cuestión de Puerto Rico.

En 1937, policía de Puerto Rico estaba bajo el mando directo del gobernador Blanton Winship, quien, al igual que todos los gobernadores anteriores, fue un estadounidense designado por el Presidente de los Estados Unido. La policía fue dirigida contra un emergente movimiento, El  Partido Nacionalista, cuyo líder, educado en Harvard, Pedro Albizu Campos, un estridente defensor de la independencia de la isla. Albizu Campos, junto a cinco otros miembros del partido nacionalista, pasarían los próximos seis años en prisión y posteriores movimientos por la independencia han sido continuamente reprimidos.

Estados Unidos concedió a Puerto Rico una limitada capacidad de autogobierno autónomo en 1948 cuando Luis Muñoz Marín se convirtió en el primer puertorriqueño en ser elegido a gobernador. Se aprobó una nueva Constitución en 1952, pero ha permanecido en Puerto Rico, en los ojos de gran parte del mundo, una colonia. Tan recientemente como el verano pasado, el Comité Especial de las Naciones Unidas sobre descolonización pidió a los Estados Unidos para acelerar el proceso para permitir que Puerto Rico para ejercer la libre determinación.

Nada de esto es decir que el efecto de U.S. en Puerto Rico ha sido totalmente negativo. Los movimientos de mano de obra y el sufragio femenino estadounidense habían influido en muchos de los primeros líderes progresistas de la isla. La reforma económica de la isla después de la nueva Constitución creó una infraestructura moderna. Pero el precio pagado fue pronunciado: economía de Puerto Rico es enteramente un apéndice de la economía estadounidense.

Este mes de noviembre, día de las elecciones, el Gobierno actual, que favorece la estadidad, celebrará un plebiscito. Los residentes de Puerto Rico elegirá si la isla debe continuar como un “Commonwealth”, petición de estadidad, o ser independiente.

La opción de la independencia no es probable ganar, debido a la represión del movimiento nacionalista y las perspectivas sombrías de una isla recién independiente cuya economía sería absolutamente dependiente de los Estados Unidos.

A pesar de las conexiones de los estadistas del Gobierno con el Partido Republicano de Estados Unidos, es poco probable ser aprobado debido a las políticas económicas actuales están obsesionadas con el gasto de Gobierno roza una victoria de la estadidad. Alta tasa de desempleo de Puerto Rico y la base fiscal débil no corte con los conservadores fiscales.

Lo más importante, el plebiscito, al igual que sus predecesores, es no-decisivo. El Congreso estadounidense tiene la última palabra, no importa quien gane de opción. No hay todavía la libre determinación, y las personas que murieron en Ponce, el domingo de Ramos, hace 75 años siguen siendo unpasajero pensamiento de la historia.

SOBRE EL ESCRITOR

Ed Morales es un colaborador de The New York Times, Newsday y el autor de “Vivir en Spanglish”.

 http://emorales7.wordpress.com

The Blogger Who Found Jenny Not on the Block

By NOAM COHEN

A new ad featuring the pop star Jennifer Lopez behind the wheel of a Fiat 500 as she reflects on her Bronx upbringing may have done the impossible – shock a jaded public well accustomed to fakery in TV advertising.

The ad uses a body double for the scenes in the Bronx, which have been carefully spliced with material shot with Ms. Lopez in Los Angeles. As she drives, she reflects on the Bronx: “This is my world. This place inspires me to be tougher, to think faster. They may just be streets to you, but to me they are a playground.”

At the end of the minute-long ad, the body-double Jennifer Lopez hugs a young kid in front of a Bronx tenement.

The news about the ad spread via the muckracking Web site The Smoking Gun, which reported that a Los Angeles digital production studio was hired to make the editing look seamless.

But, as The Smoking Gun later noted, it was not the first to publish the news.

Ed Morales, a freelance journalist and author, had blogged about the ad shoot in October, after watching from his window in Mott Haven. For a Bronx shoot, the producers didn’t have to go far, he noted. He lives a block and half from the Willis Avenue Bridge, with Manhattan just on the other side.

“The whole neighborhood was aware of it,” he said in an interview. “I had no idea what it was, I first thought it was a movie shoot – but the didn’t have the big vans, the trailers.”

Of course, Ms. Lopez’s Bronx-ness – she was born in the Castle Hill section and attended Preston High School – is central to her public identity as “Jenny From the Block.”

Fiat’s statement confirming the body double was nonchalant: “In today’s world, people are increasingly mobile and their work takes them to a variety of locations. As a result, we took the opportunity to film wherever Ms. Lopez was working at the time to accommodate her schedule.”

Mr. Morales took out his iPhone camera and filmed when he saw that the shoot had been stopped with the car in the middle of the street and someone from the crew looking inside the hood. “This little detail was clearly left on the cutting room floor!” he wrote on his blog.

Mr. Morales said his friends got a kick out of the post when it ran – and it had heavy traffic for his site, about 200 page views.

The attention the use of a body double has gotten after The Smoking Gun report made sense because the potential for a gotcha moment was high, he said: “It’s a classic case of Jennifer, or any celebrity, who comes from a lower-middle class background, who tries to publicly identify with the class they come from.”

He added: “Those are the perils. But maybe we should give her credit for trying to make that connection – the majority position is that people from that background don’t look back.”

A screenshot of the taxi in the Fiat ad, left, next to a photograph of the real thing.

Questions about the authenticity of the commercial don’t end with whether Ms. Lopez was in the Bronx or not. For those accustomed to looking at the fine grain of the streetscape, the image of a yellow cab that appears about 20 seconds into the commercial rings false. It doesn’t bear the blocky “NYC” logo nor the T-in-a-circle of standard medallion livery. Apparently, even the taxi was a stunt double.

Bueno, pasó el Día de Elecciones y todos votamos

Las cosas no van a cambiar a menos que nos involucramos más allá de simplemente
Republicano y Democrática. ¡Esto no es el béisbol! ¡Deja el enraizamiento en tu equipo!

¿Qué es lo que realmente te importa? ¡Di o escribe algo sobre el tema! Del mismo modo se
puede observar que alguien no sabe ni pío de deportes es la manera que los políticos pueden saber
que no sabes política; Si todo lo que sabes decir es “Si no fuera por los [lleno en el espacio]”

Cuando te oyen hablar esa baba, ya saben que te tienen. Igual que los que los que pelean perros
agarran su perro, lo agitan y lo ponen furioso con el perro delante, de ese mismo modo los políticos
quieren que tu enfoque solo contra el “otro partido”.  Así mismo nosotros mismos nos condenamos
a quedarnos en “la plantación”,

Es muy sencillo, no hay responsabilidad. Todo lo que tienen que hacer es ganar las elecciones y quedamos
todos delirantes. Necesitamos mantener nuestros ojos en el premio y exigir resultados no excusas.

De lo contrario, excusas serán lo único que vamos a recibir y al final ambos tomaran el dinero y hacer
lo que las corporaciones quieran. Cumpliremos la profecía de “Un partido con dos nombres”.
Es por eso cuando alguien postea algo y lo único que realmente dice es “Los Demócratas bla bla bla”
o “si no fuera por el GOP yada yada yada”. Es muy posible que lo elimine. Estoy cansado del dogma y
la propaganda. DIME ALGO BUENO

Well, it was Election Day and we all voted….

Things are not going to change unless we get involved further than just GOP and DEM.
This isn’t baseball! Stop rooting for your team! What is it that you really care about?
Say or write something about it!

The same way you can tell somebody don’t know diddlysquat about sports is the same way
that politicians can tell you don’t know what you’re talking about; if all you can say is
“If it weren’t for those [FILL IN THE BLANK]s” When they hear you talking that trash,
they know they have you. That’s the way we keep ourselves on the plantation, afraid to wander.

The way in dog fighters grab their dog, shake him and get him all furious at the dog in
front of him is the same way politicians want to work you up against the “other party”.
That keeps it simple, there’s no accountability.

All they have to do is win the election and we’re all delirious. We need to keep our eye
on the prize and demand results not finger pointing.Otherwise, all we’re ever going to
get are excuses and in the end they both take the money and do whatever the corporations
want them to do. We will fulfill the prophesy of “ONE PARTY WITH TWO NAMES”.

That’s why when somebody posts something and all it really says is those “Democrats
blah blah blah” or “If it weren’t for the GOP yada yada yada”. I just might delete it.
I’m tired of dogma and propaganda. TELL ME SOMETHING GOOD