Let’s Get This Straight … Justifications:

The historian Howard Zinn once said, “You Cannot Be Neutral on a Moving Train.” Sometimes you have to stand up for justice. Sometimes you have to say words that are honorable, and sometimes you may lose your job for it. … I will miss my Mexican friends, my fellow co-workers, and my students. I am certain that I will see them again in our future. I was relieved of my post as a Peace Corps volunteer at the Universidad Technologica de Tehuacan on June 15, 2017.

Due to some objective observations that I posted on the Internet during the week of June 7, 2017, while the university was experiencing protests, those in power at the institution seemed to detest me for their own irresponsibility and manipulative practices. As if I had made their actions more knowledgeable to the public. Yet the Directors and the Rectora’s office have transparently been abusing their authorities at the University for a long time running.  Everyone can see this who works there, yet many choose to avoid comment.

The saying, or thought process is, that “if you are not obediently with me, even if you are neutral, then you are against me.” That is how the individuals in power think at this institution and they take no responsibility for their negative actions. When a child breaks something in their parents’ house, they often confess and express guilt. These individuals are not children, and yet they cannot confess to their guilt: negligence to student needs, exploitive work time of female administrative staff, the firing of staff for reasons not backed with quality evidence; they just fear their own opacity and accountability, such as firing lawyers and accountants, individuals with ties to the media, or the administrative staff, who were doing their jobs well, but knew too much information or were willing to speak up.

The week of June 14, 2017, the week after the protests, was tense and uncomfortable to witness. Even though on the previous Friday, government officials came into the school and gave the voice of solidarity with the protestors; admitting that the Rectora and her office were neglecting her duties as a principle at the university, which were the same observations that I had concluded with, in solidarity with the Mexican governments’ decisions; it appears that the week after the protests showed limited change. Staff began to return to the robotic roles of office behavior of duties and expectations, classes commenced, and even many teachers went back to uninspiring standard lecturing of students. Were innovation, opportunity, and change at a loss? Rather than admitting guilt, those individuals in power, clearly appeared to attempt to revert to their ways before the protests, hoping this would not be noticed.

One of their first acts was to get rid of the American on campus. The relieving me of my post was unjust. I was the scapegoat. I was easily blamed because I speak loudly. It is my New York nature to speak out. I did not go on the grounds during the protest for a clear reason, the week of June 7^th. I did not want the individuals at the school to manipulate the media and information, claiming that it was the American who started the protest, and that he was the one that was the problem. This Protest was the voice of the Students, the Administrative staff, and the Teachers. This was their standing up for their rights as participants in higher-education to make a higher standard at the university and not to have the entire university regress to a campaign ticket for just one individual Rectora/President.

            Those in power are ungrateful; those in superior positions are ungrateful of their staff and teachers, and even of their hardworking students. They are ungrateful of all the work I did and my fellow coordinators to try to improve the institution. The administrators and the faculty, who work hard, give their best energies to commit to a quality of education standards that allow the school to carry on under the quickly declining lack of accountability at the institution. From dirty water, no toilet paper, limited technology, limited investment in improving teachers with training and professional opportunities, lack of scholarship money, lack of practical hands-on activities in student’s majors, and more; yet all these levels of quality are achievable and the ability to excel above these standards is reachable. Where is all this money going? It is hard to speak truth to power when the directors, they know who they are, and the Rectora’s staff, do not want to seek transparency and admit to collusion.

            I am still trying to think of the best words to use here. I appreciate and I respect Peace Corps’ decision to allow me to close my service early without any marks on my profile. But I am also willing to admit that I am disappointed that they were not willing to investigate the situation further before releasing me from my service. I had warned them for months not to trust a specific counterpart, director in the university, who manipulated and disrespected my candid work, for his own benefit. The failure, when I sought to assist and further advance employee’s at the university for a nomination process that would train them and give them opportunities to bring new skills to their jobs, which would better advance the school, was due to his meddling and clear corruption; but my organization still listened to him rather than reaching out to reliable sources. My organization has had a history of trying to avoid controversy and suppressing stories. Certainly, my case is not extreme in comparison to cases, as seen in the country Benin in 2011, when a counterpart actually killed a female volunteer for reporting his raping of female students.

            No. My case is not extreme. But maybe it could have been. I am frustrated with the university that I was working in. In deed, I witnessed many activities that limited and suppressed growth. The university has so much potential and the possibilities to strengthen students, administrators, and teachers are great to make a powerful institution. Those chances are still reachable with the right, quality leadership. I have a commitment to Honesty and Justice. If my letter and previous letters on FaceBook do not appear Objective to you, it is because there is a simple fact. When one sees shit on a table, Objectively, it is clear that what is on the table is shit. One cannot be any more neutral about the facts on the table. The people in power do not want you to admit that the shit is theirs, on the table. But it smells and it is rotten. I cannot just bury my head in the sand when I see obstruction. I have too much passion to ignore and too much passion to limit myself to artificial diplomacy. That is where Peace Corps and I diverge in direction.

            The truth is the Directors and the Rectora of the University do not have a deep commitment or passion for education. They do not care about the individual well-being of workers and students. For them, these are just numbers and pesos for their daily routine to improve their selfish power and to maintain hierarchy. Just analyze their continual actions over time and one can see the genuine or lack of genuine commitments and ability to make the most of constructive feedback. They want the slim financial necessities so that they can continue to put funds in their own pockets for political and commercial benefit. They do not want to improve the quality of their job, to make a positive pedagogical institution for the overall community. Education should not be a political agenda. The students should be educated to the best that the school offers so that they can develop the skills to make a greater Mexico. They should not be trained just to be factory workers for American, German or Japanese companies. They should be guided through the innovative thought process that helps them achieve new technological goals.  

When the school fires lawyers and accountants, who have such blatant data, this sends the public red flags. But they say this is how it is, here. I feel like my criticism of the university authority is parallel to my disgust in the American President Donald Trump’s actions and lack of passion for moral and ethical standards. Trump firing Comey because Trump is being investigated, makes me reflect that I was fired by the corrupted Directors, because they did not want to have their abusive behavior and coercion revealed. Former President Jimmy Carter once said, when he was president, that we have a “Crisis of Democracy.” What we have today is a “Crisis of True Leadership.” Take responsibility for your own actions and do not blame others for your lack of education or community standards. No excuses, Just Results.

The result of my being expelled from the university was because I was not obedient and blind.  When one sees protestors risking their jobs and lives to stand up for injustice in a declining system, why should I ignore the voice that they promote? Their voice makes the world better and the school better. In the end, even though I was not physically in the protest, I was blamed for my moments of blunt honesty on the Internet and in public, when surprisingly my US President tweets atrocious, malicious comments on a daily basis. Why is someone in a diplomatic position, not sending Trump home, and relieving him of his service?

I have no regrets. I have no regret in directly telling the Director, who manipulated the situation to get me expelled, the truth about his character and lack of ethics. Besides, the same conclusions that I had come to, were the same conclusions that the Mexican government stated on the Friday of the closing of the protest, that the Rectora was not experienced enough and was neglecting significant aspects of her job. She could have followed the next week after the protest with positive change and begin building trust with the students and faculty. She could have been creating an environment that made thousands of individuals at the school begin to see the possibility of voting for her in her plans of running in a future election. She has decided that she is a terrible politician, who does not care about individual votes or trust between her average citizens and her self-focused political ambitions. What frustrates me the most about her is that she claims to be a candidate that says she cares about Women’s Rights, but the individuals, who have been exploited the most at the university under her leadership, are the women who work in the administrative offices for overextended hours and for very little pay, and when they speak up, they get fired.

I will miss the important people at the university, and the important people are not the insecure directors or the negligent Rectora. The important people at the school are the students, the administrators, and the faculty, who follow a quality of standard that is truthful, goal driven, and promoting the ethics that the university deserves. I am aware, just as many, that the protest was not the end of the problems of the school, but the start of the process to hold people accountable for making the decisions necessary for success. Several of us refuse to be silent.   

Where in the World Did my Blog Go?

Rather than ranting on and on, I found an outlet for my work. After 5 years of working in Community Colleges in New Jersey and City Tech in Brooklyn, I found an opportunity since July 2016 to teach at a University in Mexico. Rather than listening to American media only provide 2% coverage of the real Mexico, I found my way here to learn just how diverse and how beautiful Mexico is. The people are diverse as the landscape and the culture is rich and overwhelming. It is sad that politicians rant and rave about a place that they know so little about.

Another reason that I came to Mexico was that after teaching students in the USA with immigrant parents or immigrants themselves, many students from Mexico, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, and more, I felt it was part of my responsibility to see where my students originated from before seeking the American Dream and to work so hard once they arrived. I learned a interesting quote in Spanish from a friend, "que chingalo, hazlo todos modos" - What the fuck, just do it anyway!

Gentrification is Unethical

Gentrification is Unethical. The rising rate of rent in New York and Washington DC, and most probably other American cities is obvious. It is a clear whitewashing of neighborhoods, pushing hardworking working class poor out of neighborhoods that they have lived in for decades into isolated crowded neighborhoods unseen, or even worse into the streets.

Homelessness and ghetto-ization seem parallel with not only the clashing image of affluence that makes one wonder how can anyone afford to live in such neighborhoods in Prospect Park, Long Island City, or near Union Station, but what jobs are fuelling their economy and no one else’s; but it also parallels the refugee crisis in Europe from Syria. It seems only in due time that poor income Americans, many immigrants to the US, will be marching out of these cities completely in droves. Unless they stage a protest on a major scale, but that is most likely not going to happen due to being too busy to make ends meet and fending for one’s own. Only leaders from a socio-economic class level may temper and tamper some noise. Yet America is also more equipped for any such demonstration with its militarized police force.

In the light of Europe’s declining populations, an influence of immigrants could significantly help the waning nations; however, fear of losing cultural identity makes many EU nations appear resistant and racist. In America, the gentrification, or pushing housing levels to rates only the wealthy can afford, mostly white dominant, is racist as well; this stark reversal, and yet the aware and unaware privileged should resist moving if it is driving those who cannot afford away. It is almost in drastic comparison to Israeli settlements that are intentionally ignoring Palestinians, as if their right to existence is nil to none. This is Unethical.

At least in Europe, the residing can afford to embrace human beings fleeing an immediate violent threat between homeless emigration or death, by showing open arms of assistance. In America, this could be true too, the gentrification is a slow process but it is accelerating. If it were not for greedy landlords or wealthy elites wanting a stark image of hierarchy of affluence, the ability to keep prices affordable would be a simple action. Instead, the rise in apartment trends in cities like New York, in Queens and Brooklyn, and in Washington DC, should follow the trend of Tom’s Shoes, for every pair bought another is donated to someone who needs a pair; for every new escalated apartment,  another should be donated for a  family in need.       

Why Haven’t I Written a Blog Post in Over A Year

It doesn’t seem clear. I used to amorously write blog posts for nearly three years. It wasn’t as if there hasn’t been topics of grave concern occurring locally and globally from the BlackLivesMatters’ protests to the Bernie Sanders’ campaign, from the nonstop evidence of corporate corruption with the likes of Volkswagen, General Motors, and a peanut butter baron.

So why did I lose pace? I did go to protests, I did create voice but I did so off of the computer. Just because a tree falls in a forest and no one hears it, it indeed has fallen. Just because a voice is not always on a Blog, a Tweet, a FaceBook share, or merely just not on a computer, does this now mean that the individual no longer exists?

Off the grid, but how does this translate to the modern era?  I have been teaching. Maybe, if I am a sure believer, I have been teaching as bell hooks, teaching to transgress.  The Adjunct teaching life certainly has its negative side that one can write about for hours upon hours: from the lack of pay to the migrant status, to the lack of benefits. Of course, but as an Adjunct, I see multiple angles. Still hoping that it is not too late to teach empathy and truth.

I teach classes at four different institutions. I teach at two-community colleges in New Jersey; One being mostly low-income students from diverse backgrounds, immigrants, children of immigrants, and other minorities. The other has mostly middle-class students, with just as much diversity, but a learning style much less motivated, because life was a bit more affluent. I see students who know nothing about America’s history and I try my best to inform them. I teach in Paterson, where life is not easy for the majority of citizens as students to balance school, work, and social exploitation.

My third school is at a privileged four year institution, and it seems often enough classes that appear segregated at times. The diversity is less extreme, but it does exist, just minute. Sometimes this location is the hardest to reflect on America’s inequality challenges. I, myself, can recall even when I was in undergrad at a liberal arts school, just how naïve I was to political troubles of my time, which seem minuscule compared to the challenges America has faced in the last fourteen years. However, I find the best learning advice is for one to go outside one's realm and see the country and to see the world; one will only breakdown naivety by conversing with people of very different walks of life. I did that twelve years ago, when I joined the Peace Corps and was brought to a country I had never heard of prior, and it changed my life. I think of a recent clip I viewed in class by the comedian Maz Jobrani, about how Americans can connect with Iranians as well as other Muslims, just by having the will to meet, discuss our similarities, and even laugh.  

My fourth school is in the heart of Brooklyn. City students who see how life moves so fast as the urban lot pushes everyone to levels of social distances. New York can make people easily ignore everyone, just so that the individual can thrive. Yet my students are eager to discuss the Political. Yes, students are eager to learn and ready to get involved in the system. Can I help my students in all my locations see the system for what it is? Or can I just reach a small few? Time will tell.

So just incase you don’t see me, though I may be off of the Blog grid, I am still contemplating a way to resist the Consuming Beast of the 21^st Century’s Sinking teeth.

Fries, Drugs, and Human Love:

Whether putting food or drugs in the body, toxic consumption is not inevitable but at least in America, the meal is more shocking than the image of a killer clown. Continually viral over the past year, social network users can find a great video where Michael Pollan speaks about the McDonald’s fries and the business of pesticides used on their potato crop to make the Burbank Russet potatoes look blemish free.

After searching in internet crevices of limited transparency because one was determined to find out which corporation created Monitor pesticide, an individual with research skills can learn that the cycle of cancer in and cancer out profits for companies is continually deceiving and complex. The real life company is parallel to the film The Constant Gardener, where the pharmaceutical companies and chemical agriculture companies are the same company, one in the same poisoning and curing.

Michael Pollan’s video has been dated by a mere two or three years, but the multiple messages he presented are still relevant. But it can be hard to keep up to date minute by minute. Product names are continuously changing for dangerous chemicals and companies using the same chemicals by any other name tend to limit transparency.  Interesting enough with a little research: the company that makes Monitor, the pesticide used for McDonald's fries that is highly toxic that it takes nearly six-weeks for potatoes to be aired out safe enough for workers to begin touching the produce, is Bayer, the same company that makes drugs to help fight the very diseases it creates.

According to Crop Protection Database, Bayer Crop Science has a long list of challenging named products, such as Monitor. If one tried to Google search just the word Monitor, unlike Bic Mac, thousands of unrelated topics show up. The verb to monitor, the news monitor, the monitor lizard, one gets the point…was this intentional, create a highly toxic pesticide, give it a name as common as any usual word so that concerned consumers cannot search for it?

Possible, or just coincidental; however, the chemical Methamidophos is the key ingredient and it is in the chemical group known as Organophosphates. Supposedly, the Crop Protection Database notes that the US Environmental Protection Agency has cancelled methamidophos brand Monitor distribution to retailers and growers as of December 31, 2013 and has since become illegal (CPD). But for how long has McDonald’s used the chemical and what are they using to label methamidophos in 2014? This similar question came up two years ago when McDonald’s claimed it was no longer using Pink Slime in their hamburgers, which was ammonium hydroxide, the same chemical home-owners used to paint their fences to keep them shiny and bug free.

When the same company that creates the toxic chemical to spray the food Americans consume is also the company that creates the drug to cure the illness, this creates a profit at both ends of the life cycle. This is a conflict of interest. If their profits are continually strong, why would they want a legitimate cure for cancer, and why would they want to stop creating toxic chemicals that pass into the foods Americans and foreigners eat? McDonald’s fries are the same across the globe. Bayer sees no conflict here. Money is their bottom line from Bayer’s Monitor, Aspirin, or their cancer drug like Nexavar, or their diabetes drug Adempas; if they can give the unenlightened consumer the disease then they can provide him with a slow progressive, yet a prolong, cure to keep him shopping for years to come.

Ethics has nothing to do with it. The fastfood company preaches, “I am loving it;” but only until one dies from it.  The Institute of Food Safety and Toxicology with the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries, Søborg, Denmark did a study with the World Health Organization about pesticide residues in food in 2002. When looking at Methamidophos’ impact on animals studied: rats, mice, dogs, rabbits, and humans. In the smaller animals the results showed high levels of toxicity, carcinogenicity, and with humans the study found inhibition of cholinesterase activity. One has to wonder how often is there a correlation between inhibition of cholinesterase activity and diabetes, cancer, or other popular yet growing public health issues?

To top off the damage done and to rake in continual customers the two king corporations Bayer and McDonalds have done charity work together in low-income neighborhoods. Bayer Oncology has contributed to the Ronald McDonald House before under Corporate Teams philanthropy challenge (2012).  This provides the disguise that they care about the poor, who tend to be the biggest consumers of their products.  

Links:

http://www.farmchemicalsinternational.com/crop-protection-database/#/supplier/1731/

http://www.bayer.com/en/products-from-a-to-z.aspx

http://www.inchem.org/documents/jmpr/jmpmono/2002pr10.htm

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/17/us-more-evidence-links-pesticides-diabet-idUSTRE77G45120110817

http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/early/2011/07/26/dc10-2303.abstract

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/35315651/ns/health-diet_and_nutrition/#.U1BzCNxbTwI

http://www.corporateteams.com/2012/03/bayer-oncology-contributes-to-ronald-mcdonald-house/

http://www.eatdrinkpolitics.com/wp-content/uploads/Clowning_Around_Charity_Report_Full.pdf