I’M FEELING ALL GRAVELY…
1920 by Jeff HessChanging the face of Cleveland Heights, one driveway at a time.
8 October 2009
8 October 2009
8 October 2009
FROM MY DAD…
0630 by Jeff Hess
I could never bring myself to forward all the email jokes, cartoons and other Internet comedy that land in my inbox. But then I started posting the ones my dad sends me. Judging from my comments and emails, my dad has become one of my greatest blogging assets. So for your morning blog chuckle I present: From My Dad.
Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?
JOHN MC CAIN: My friends, that chicken crossed the road because he recognized the need to engage in cooperation and dialogue with all the chickens on the other side of the road.
8 October 2009
FROM MY CHAPBOOK…
0030 by Jeff HessFound in my electronic chapbook.
“To write well, to write passionately, to be less inhibited, to be warmer, to be more self-critical, to recognize the power of as well as the force of lust, to write, to love.” John Cheever. p. 99
From Living The Writer’s Life: by Eric Maisel.
7 October 2009
GOOD MORNING MYANMAR…
2130 by Jeff Hess
Have economic and living conditions in Myanmar become so horrible that the nation’s people are being transformed into the central American migrants of South Asia, desperate for any life and hope, willing to work in terrible situations for minuscle pay, taking jobs that the citizens of Thailand won’t perform? Yes.
Granted, life in Thailand must be better than what I observed more than 30 years ago and, according to a United Nations report, Someone born in Thailand can expect to live seven more years, to have almost three times as many years of education, and save almost eight times as much as someone born in Myanmar, there is a still a significant gap between life in Thailand and that which most citizens enjoy in industrialized nations.
How much more so for Myanmar.
From The Irrawaddy:
Thailand hosts an estimated 2 to 3 million Burmese economic migrants. The push and pull factors determining Burmese migration to Thailand are stark.
Stark is never a good word.
Often Burmese migrants in Thailand take jobs that Thais do not want. However, as outlined in a paper by Bryant Yuan Fu Yang in the Spring 2009 edition of the Thailand Law Journal, some Thais see Burmese as taking away jobs from locals.
“Since Burmese migrants, especially the undocumented ones, are willing to work for very low wages and in unsafe environments, many view them as driving down working conditions,” said Bryant Yuan Fu Yang.
Yet working in horrible jobs, for little money, migrants from Myanmar somehow manage to send a staggering $125 million home each year.
[Though] a recent US State Department report on human trafficking… commended Thailand for its efforts to curb trafficking, it mentioned media reports that alleged that Burmese migrants in Malaysia are trafficked into Thailand.
To prevent this, and to regularize the situation for Burmese migrants in Thailand, many of whom work illegally, [Thailand’s Prime Minister] said, “We realize that the most effective way to protect these migrants is to legalize their status and bring them into the formal labor market.”
Boy does that sound familiar.
One of the mechanisms being put in place is the nationality verification process for Burmese migrants in Thailand, which is based on an agreement signed by the Royal Thai Government and the Burmese junta in 2004. Implementation was delayed as the junta insisted that verification take place in Burma-requiring all Burmese migrants to cross the border to register for the process.
Both sides agreed to allow verification to take place in border towns in Burma, and all Burmese migrants in Thailand must complete the process by February 2010 or face deportation.
Migrant advocacy groups are lobbying against the process, which they see as unwieldy, and potentially compromising the security of migrants from ethnic minorities, and their families living in Burma. Many migrants do not want to return to Burma for fear of questioning or detention by Burmese officials, say rights advocates.
I understand that Thailand doesn’t want a large, undocumented community of people operating under the government radar. The solution, however, is to foster hope in Myanmar, not regulate the migrants to death.
7 October 2009
7 October 2009
7 October 2009
7 October 2009
FROM MY DAD…
0630 by Jeff HessI could never bring myself to forward all the email jokes, cartoons and other Internet comedy that land in my inbox. But then I started posting the ones my dad sends me. Judging from my comments and emails, my dad has become one of my greatest blogging assets. So for your morning blog chuckle I present: From My Dad.
Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?
BARACK OBAMA: The chicken crossed the road because it was time for a change! The chicken wanted change!
7 October 2009
7 October 2009
FROM MY CHAPBOOK…
0030 by Jeff HessFound in my electronic chapbook.
“Recognition is everything you write for; it”s much more than the money. You want your books to be valued. It”s a basic aspiration of the serious writer.” William Kennedy. p. 98
From Living The Writer’s Life: by Eric Maisel.
6 October 2009
GOOD MORNING MYANMAR…
2130 by Jeff HessImagine for a moment the cultural and environmetal shock a child from southern Asia would feel being dropped into the middle of breakfast-cereal land. Yet, given a choice between a brutal military dictatorship at home and the cold winters in Lansing or Battle Creek, Michigan, the cold would look pretty good.
From Mlive:
Area foster homes are needed immediately for Burmese youths, who escaped violence in their home country.
In Thailand and Malaysia, thousands wait in refugee camps to be placed in foster homes.
Diane Baird, foster-care program manager for Lutheran Social Services – a social-service agency working to place the refugees – said that the youths” lives were in danger in their home country from a military dictatorship that violates human rights. The country also is known as Myanmar, however some entities do not recognize the new name because they do want to grant legitimacy to the ruling military government.
“Most of those who fled were Christians, ethnic minorities, and those who wanted a democratic government,” Baird said. “The youths fled to refugee camps where they wait without parents, waiting for a country to take them in, to give them a chance at growing up in freedom and safety.”
Baird said that the case is somewhat similar to the “lost boys” of Sudan, who walked across large stretches of Africa after being separated from their families during the second Sudanese civil war.
And the generals think their faux election next year will be seen as free and fair?
6 October 2009
6 October 2009
FROM MY DAD…
0630 by Jeff HessI could never bring myself to forward all the email jokes, cartoons and other Internet comedy that land in my inbox. But then I started posting the ones my dad sends me. Judging from my comments and emails, my dad has become one of my greatest blogging assets. So for your morning blog chuckle I present: From My Dad.
Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?
SARAH PALIN: Before it got to the other side, I shot the chicken, cleaned and dressed it, and had chicken burgers for lunch.
6 October 2009
6 October 2009
FROM MY CHAPBOOK…
0030 by Jeff HessFound in my electronic chapbook.
Rejection. Rejection only means that someone didn”t want the work. Bad things are rejected and good things are rejected. Stupid things are rejected and smart things are rejected. You can”t tell anything about the work from the fact that it”s been rejected. Look at the work again: if you still like it, try just that much harder to sell it. (See 2 October.)
From Living The Writer’s Life: by Eric Maisel.
5 October 2009
GOOD MORNING MYANMAR…
2130 by Jeff HessNext year the people of Myanmar will go to polls across their country and cast their votes in a national election. The question is will the election be meaningful and will the people be given the opportunity to freely express their choice, or will the process be a sham that rubber stamps what the generals want? Right now it’s all talk.
From AFP:
Myanmar”s foreign minister promised Saturday his country would hold ‘free and fair” elections next year, despite the detention of democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi.
‘In my country free and fair elections will be held. We have already announced it,” Myanmar foreign minister Nyan Win told reporters after a meeting with counterparts in Cambodia”s northwestern tourist hub.
‘(Whether) the elections are free and fair or not, so far no one can judge it. After the elections will be held, you can judge whether the elections are free and fair or not.”
A Myanmar court Friday rejected an appeal by Suu Kyi against her conviction over an incident in which a US man swam uninvited to her home in May, earning her an extra 18 months” detention.
The sentence sidelines her from the elections promised for 2010, leading critics to say the polls are a sham.
From where I sit, Aung San Suu Kyi is the canary in the mine. Any election that prohibits her free participation in the full process can only be joke. Clearly Nyan Win has an understanding of free and fair that arises from some very dark and unpleasant place.
5 October 2009
5 October 2009
5 October 2009
FROM MY DAD…
0630 by Jeff HessI could never bring myself to forward all the email jokes, cartoons and other Internet comedy that land in my inbox. But then I started posting the ones my dad sends me. Judging from my comments and emails, my dad has become one of my greatest blogging assets. So for your morning blog chuckle I present: From My Dad.
WHO IS YOUR ROLE MODEL?
1) Pick your favorite number between 1-9
2) Multiply by 3 then
3) Add 3, then again Multiply by 3 (I’ll wait while you get the calculator.)
4) You’ll get a 2 or 3 digit number.
5) Add the digits together. Continue Reading »
