Simin Behbahani is mtvU's Poet Laureate

First of all, who knew mtv prized poets? I sure didn't, then again I like to stay away from it. Apparently, mtvU (the university division of mtv) has a television entitled "MtvU Poet Laureate." Simin Behbahani is featured due to her poem entitled "A Cup of Sin." The poem was written after young woman passed on during protests in Iran in June 2009.

She was also interviewed for NPR just after the protests took place and shared two poems. Please enjoy it, think about it and do something.

La Minga Indigena Colombia 2009

Please check out Julieteta for the interview and article.

Too little, too soon?

First of all I would like to offer my congratulations to President Obama for winning the Nobel Peace Prize. It is one the greatest honors that can be bestowed upon a person. Recipients of this prize include Martin Luther King Jr., the 14th Dalai Lama, Mother Teresa and Rigoberta Menchú amongst others. Unfortunately, I don't agree with the decision. I feel that many of the other nominees were far more deserving than he. I still have hope that he will bring about many changes during his presidency, but have yet to see any solid results. I believe and hope that he is on his way, but not yet. Perhaps, and I believe that this was the intention, receiving this prize will put pressure on him to keep the promises that he has made as the President of what has been called the most powerful nation in the world. As the leader holds a lot of power in his hands, power that the people have entrusted him with. I hate to say it but I feel that he is disconnected from the people. The people who don't have a steady roof over their heads or the promise of a meal, the people who are going untreated due to the lack of accessibility to health care, those who can not continue or pursue an education due to personal and financial hardships, those who work from sun up to sun set in order to provide for their families, those who are just trying to make it through the day. I naively believed that the war would have been over by now, that innocent people would no longer be dying in vain day after day. Almost nothing has changed. That is a painful truth.

I still have hope.

In other news, Columbus Day still exists, although some might argue that it shouldn't. Reconsider Columbus Day.

UPDATE: Please take a look at this piece by Howard Zinn.

Poem for the Rooftops of Iran - June 19, 2009

NCLR = KKK States Former Congressmen Tom Tancredo

"The nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court was an historic and proud moment for Latinos and the country as a whole. But her ethnicity has proven too much of a temptation for the voices of hate and extremism, who instead of looking at her judicial record have launched a vocal rampage that has reached new heights of absurdity.

During an interview about Judge Sotomayor this week, former Congressman and current anti-immigrant extremist Tom Tancredo, called NCLR 'a Latino KKK without the hoods and the nooses.' Describing how profoundly offensive this kind of smear campaign against Sotomayor and the nation's largest Latino civil rights and advocacy organization would be impossible. This outburst was reprehensible not only to Hispanics and communities of color, but to all Americans who want to put this ugly chapter of our history behind us."

Source: NCLR

This is what the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor has inspired:


P.S. MEChA does not want to reclaim Aztlán, that is an ignorant assessment of the organization's story and mission.