Monday, May 15, 2006

sleeping in the enemy's patio

It is just outrageous what Bush is doing now
Troops at the Mexican border?
What is he going to do next?
Blame Mexico for his stupidity
Long list of them he has
way longer than mine

distracting the nation's attention from a useless war
to a display of militar totalism?
attempts that after all
red necks like him fall for...

here the news click on it

And the Venezuela issue
As Venezuelan president said
Bush is the terrorist himself!
don't you see?
but then rednecks like this huh?
power and weapons and rifles and power eh?
“A totalitarian regime crushes all autonomous institutions in its drive to seize the human soul” (Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.).

I do have dual citizenship
American and Mexican
Naturally born American
But raised in Mexico

And every day lately
I feel like Julia Roberts in that
Film “Sleeping with the Enemy”
Wondering if I am after all in the right side
Of the fence
Maybe ethically, morally, I am NOT anymore

I moved to USA 5 years ago
Being sick of corrupted Mexican politics
And the violence in my other ways lovely Mexico City
I live a peaceful laid back life in San Diego
Yet many days I do feel like a sold-out
Supporting (somehow since like it or not that mofo is my president)
This country which boundaries and lack of respect for other countries
Had gone so far
North american people, the real people, my friends, my co-workers, the every day citizens
are great people, and i don't think, feel, or agree that some one like Bush
represents them, and myself
he is not USA, as Carlos Salinas de Gortari was never Mexico

so much for totalitarianism then
National guard in Iraq
National guard in Mexican borders
So much for arrogance & stepping all over the world
National guard should take over that lunatic guy!
Yes over Bush the most disrespectful president ever
a truly cuello rojo, red neck
just a bit of common sense
not 'cause Mexico have had troops in the border for a while
but the impact of the external politics
as all the world is watching
I feel sorry for this such amazing country and myself here
since it is my country now
Being victim of this awful leader

Really really sad
Hope the Americans recover democracy one day
Such a great nation coming down into violent pieces
A paranoid greedy man building a white fence around
Violence brings isolation
sad white fence below


sometimes I think I should just pack and go back to Mexico
poverty yet warmth and not a lunatic guy as president
yet Vicente Fox sucks too (at least we got rid of over 70 years of PRI)
Damn where to move now???
I am running out of countries where to go now?

have to say I do miss the mexican charm
as much as one could in San Diego, heh heh...

agggrrrr politics rub me wrong
i hate them!

The Power of Language: vindication of the slop

I got a verbal comment on my blog a couple of days ago. The commenter pointed my some-times sloppiness detected throughout the curse of reading the many stupidities posted below, of course I excused myself with poor allegations such as ‘they are just simple notes that I write on the run’ and, the saddest one ‘oh, English is not my first language, remember? Thus, I can be a little off/wrong sometimes, nobody will make a big deal, you know?’. Yet, the commenter knows me well enough, and knows that those mistakes and my lack of care on my writing are a sign of just being that: sloppy and lazy. He was quite disappointed since once I was well-known for my carefulness, somehow dissipated these days among, well, I don’t really know among what, or how it got dissipated at all. Anyway, here and while following his gracious advice, which accordingly will bring me some ‘against-sloppiness vindication’, I am posting some pieces that I wrote in a serious mode. The first official document written in proper English that has come out of many-times taps on an American keyboard, has to be my final essay/test for my English 101 class. The Power of Language was the central theme of the piece. The only guidelines given were the use of 3 quotations from authors we had read through the class, and to follow a regular descriptive essay form; the rest was all my mexican 'imaginación'. Here from August 2004, fresh, below…

Berenice Weber
English 101 | The Power of Language
Professor Richard Peters
August 5, 2004

The Power of Language

Language is knowledge, and as the German saying goes “knowledge is power.” So, power is implied in language. Susanne K. Langer in her essay Language and Thought explains that “language is the highest and most amazing achievement of the symbolic human mind.” Language is an inherent characteristic to human kind and civilization. Language conveys individual and social implications. The way we exercise language can determine whether its delivery is nocive or advantageous.

Language has personal connotations since we use it as a tool to originate thoughts and sensations. Our consciences talk to us in words. Our hearts arrange our feelings in sentences. Our minds bombard us with wordy images. Our daily worries and long-term goals are debated every morning, in our minds and souls, in the form of a soliloquy. Researchers affirm that the human perception of reality is defined by language. Therefore, regardless of our personal use of language—and whether we are able to speak it, write it, understand it, and communicate with it properly—it will always be our companion, since it is intrinsic to the human nature. Language empowers or undermines us depending on how we use it.

Civilization, by definition, is a state of intellectual, cultural, and material development in human society. Probably the most relevant instrument of amalgamation in society, and good indicator of the advancement of civilization, is language. An example that helps demonstrating the importance of language in society is that one of the largest systems of categorization of human groups is according to their language. The use of a common language confers a group the condition of unity and cohesion. Language is present in each and all of the social matters of a collectivity: economical exchanges, cultural interactions, political concerns, and arts and entertainment. As exposed in the text Exploring Language by Gary Goshgarian in the introduction to the case study: English Only or Bilingualism, “language is probably the most important element of our cultural heritage.” Without language, what we call society would be very different: an indecipherable concept, indeed.

The results of the use language are as vast as the humankind itself. Each of us can exercise language in a unique way. Language is organic, flexible, and it is always in constant renovation. Language has been transforming and adjusting its values and meanings since its appearance, according to the society’s demands. Even though we have created very specific semantical and grammatical rules, the use of language is still susceptible to adaptation. Depending particularly of the circumstances and context where it takes place, the delivery of language can either denigrate or praise a person. “Words themselves are innocuous; it is the consensus that gives them true power,” writes Gloria Naylor in her essay ‘Nigger’: The Meaning of a Word.

As individuals, language defines us internally. As collectivity, language helps us communicating with others and to identify as a group. It is in us as human beings, and members of a society, to use language in a responsible way. Because language is the base that supports the structure of who we are: our inner selves, our personalities, our dreams, our every-day issues, our identities, and our bonds with family and friends, are all regulated by language. As John Simon writes in his delightful essay Why Good English Is Good for You: “ You are going to be judged, whether you like it or not, by the correctness of your English as much as by the correctness of your thinking.”

monday's web-disillusion

disillusion
on a phone-call superstar had
disillusion
everyone is speaking to a line
disillusion
except my illusions
why not me? because i hate cell-phones?
and those sites full of fake happiness
let's share online!
will you find a real friend there again? ha!

i talked to a man on the streets
he was stretching his hand
disillusion disillusion disillusion
stretching it for food
for compasion
for a sign...
not to look nice
disillusion

he taught me more in 2 minutes
the disillusion of mine/his life
than all the online sites
at least he was alive
nor an url to click at

disillusion
he lives in the streets
while you think what to wear to the bar

disillusion
he can be my friend
you fashion if too hype: you are a fake or a clam
worried again for the outside
the 'cool' man...

disillusion
or any technology that seems that get you closer
yet
disillusion
they cause
guess maybe wrote all my words out?
disillusion
guess exhausted my lines?
disillusion
is a monday anyway anyhow

disillusion

you look for play-friends
disillusion
friendly-people yet not friends
disillusion
ideas of warmth on a comment/reply
yet who cares if you die? just a few
and probably they are not online
guess i am on the nothingness-side
disillusion
money investments
cool friends and all that

& now even so as to is all right
oh my!
disillusion
not in me
not in life
but in the youth disconnected connected
saturday morning at the restaurant
disillusion
4 beautiful girls sat on the same table
each one holding a cell phone
disillusion
talking to someone who wasn't there

an on-going excavation in my heart
disillusion yet hasn't shown
not in hope
disillusion yet
gratitude, my style

disillusion
rather be disillusioned
than
disillusion
of haven’t through it

with a smile
overlooked
disillusion yet
doesn’t bring something flipside

empty breakfast empty cranium empty start
oh and these are the days that i am happy
however i hate 'in vogue' ways to full-fill ones lives

yet i post on the web
what a shame... on my side
is making sick somehow all the thoughts

as human kind makes me sick
but a few and some times
not all the times
not when disillusion
makes you humble and
not when people really
truly
without fashion or money
smiles...