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newstfionline · 4 years ago

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Sunday, July 4, 2021

Out-Group Hostility (The Present Age) A new research article published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) doesn’t bode well for efforts to fight political extremism and polarization. The paper’s authors analyzed 2,730,215 Twitter and Facebook posts published by members of the news media and U.S. Congresspeople, and came to the conclusion that the quickest way to social media success is to attack members of the “out-group.” Specifically, each additional word about the opposing party (e.g., “Democrat,” “Leftist,” or “Biden” if the post was coming from a Republican) in a social media post increased the odds of that post being shared by 67%. These results are troubling in an attention economy where the social media business model is based on keeping us engaged in order to sell advertising. Facebook knows that its algorithm rewards extreme rhetoric and anger. Last year, The Wall Street Journal uncovered an internal report Facebook put together in 2018 that found that the company’s “algorithms exploit the human brain’s attraction to divisiveness.” Even worse, the report’s authors found that if left in place, the algorithm would continue to serve “more and more divisive content in an effort to gain user attention and increase time on the platform.”

COVID-19 shots are causing social conflicts (Yahoo News) After 15 months of limiting their social interactions to small outdoor gatherings with masks and social distancing—and two COVID-19 vaccination shots apiece for herself, her husband and their teen son—Suzanne (who preferred to not use her real name for this article) and her family are finally easing up and meeting with friends and family members inside. Sort of. While Suzanne’s side of the family is fully vaccinated, most of her in-laws are not. What’s more, they are lax about wearing masks, and have thus not been included in recent gatherings. And so a pandemic that’s already seen fissures form between those who mask and those who don’t now ushers in its new social divide: the vaccinated versus the unvaccinated. At a time when a return to “normal” is touted at every turn, awkwardness, hurt feelings and a sense of being judged are leaving many relationships feeling anything but.

Ransomware hits hundreds of US companies, security firm says (AP) A ransomware attack paralyzed the networks of at least 200 U.S. companies on Friday, according to a cybersecurity researcher whose company was responding to the incident. The REvil gang, a major Russian-speaking ransomware syndicate, appears to be behind the attack, said John Hammond of the security firm Huntress Labs. He said the criminals targeted a software supplier called Kaseya, using its network-management package as a conduit to spread the ransomware through cloud-service providers. Such cyberattacks typically infiltrate widely used software and spread malware as it updates automatically. Brett Callow, a ransomware expert at the cybersecurity firm Emsisoft, said he was unaware of any previous ransomware supply-chain attack on this scale.

Firefighters are tackling three major wildfires in California in worrying sign as summer begins (Washington Post) Firefighters in California are battling three sizable wildfires in what authorities are characterizing as a worrying sign that this year’s fire season could be even more devastating than the record-breaking destruction seen in 2020. “We’re seeing a large increase in fires on a historical basis compared to where we would be at this time last year,” Cal Fire Battalion Chief Jon Heggie said. “This is a large indicator that we’re looking at another busy fire season—all the same scenarios that set up last year for such a devastating year have the same potential for this year.”

Hurricane Elsa races toward Haiti amid fears of landslides (AP) Hurricane Elsa raced toward Haiti and the Dominican Republic on Saturday, where it threatened to unleash flooding and landslides before taking aim at Cuba and Florida. The Category 1 storm was located about 395 miles (635 kilometers) east-southeast of Isla Beata, Dominican Republic and was moving west-northwest at 29 mph (46 kph). It had maximum sustained winds of 80 mph (130 kph), with the hurricane expected to become a tropical storm after hitting Cuba, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. In Haiti, authorities used social media to alert people about the hurricane and urged them to evacuate if they lived near water or mountain flanks.

Vatican judge indicts 10, including a cardinal, for alleged financial crimes (Reuters) A Vatican judge on Saturday ordered 10 people, including an Italian cardinal, to stand trial for alleged financial crimes including embezzlement, money laundering, fraud, extortion and abuse of office. Those indicted include Cardinal Angelo Becciu, who was fired by Pope Francis last year, the former heads of the Vatican’s financial intelligence unit, and two Italian brokers involved in the Vatican’s purchase of a building in a luxury area of London.

At least 19 missing as mudslide west of Tokyo hits houses (AP) A powerful mudslide carrying a deluge of black water and debris crashed into rows of houses in a town west of Tokyo following heavy rains on Saturday, leaving at least 19 people missing, officials said. As many as 80 homes in Atami were completely buried, according to an official with the Fire and Disaster Management Agency. The official said more people, possibly 100, could still be missing under the mudslides but warned that details were not immediately clear. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, stressed that aggressive rescue operations were underway to find survivors.

Australia: Will the mouse infestation ever end? (The Week) The biblical mouse plague ravaging Australia is showing no signs of letup, said Daniella White at The Sydney Morning Herald (Australia). The millions of mice now scurrying across the southeast have gobbled some $775 million worth of crops and are gnawing through anything in their path—including barns, homes, and even cars. A rural prison in the state of New South Wales was being evacuated this week because mice had chewed through ceiling tiles and wiring and their stinking dead bodies are piling up in wall cavities. Once the rodents start rotting, says state prison commissioner Peter Severin, “the next problem is mites.” The infestation is so severe “that mice are biting people in their beds, sending some residents to the hospital in a critical condition,” said Lucy Thackray at ABC.net.au (Australia). Dozens of people have contracted leptospirosis, a bacterial infection that if left untreated can cause kidney failure and meningitis. Farmers are baiting fields with the poison zinc phosphide, which is expensive and time-consuming, but the worst part is the ick factor. “Farmers and their families are unable to get a decent night’s sleep,” said John Warlters of the charity Rural Aid, “without mice chewing on toes and scampering across beds.” It’s going to be “a long battle,” said Peter Hannam at The Age (Australia). Population growth should slow now that the Australian winter has arrived. But “the mice are expected to return with renewed menace” when spring crops ripen.

Unable to control Tigray, Ethiopia isolates region (Washington Post) The Ethiopian government’s inability to sustain its military offensive in the mountainous northern Tigray region was laid bare this week, as rebel forces chased their adversaries out of key cities and were met, as they triumphantly marched in, with jubilation from locals who see them as liberators. Now reports from the United Nations and aid groups imply a concerted campaign by government-aligned forces to punish and isolate Tigray, destroying key infrastructure in ways that will complicate the delivery of urgent relief, if not make it impossible, in a region where hundreds of thousands are already estimated to be experiencing war-driven famine. Aid groups report that there has been no Internet, phone service or electricity in Tigray since Ethiopian troops retreated and that no food or fuel are being allowed in. Both of the latter are essential—millions are depending on food aid for survival, and hospitals are using fuel-dependent generators to keep the power on. On Thursday, the United Nations’ humanitarian coordination office confirmed the destruction of a key bridge spanning a deep river valley that had been the main route for aid to be driven in.

Africa’s Last Absolute Monarchy Convulsed by Mass Protests (NYT) As Africa’s last absolute monarch, King Mswati III of Eswatini chooses his country’s prime minister and cabinet, and possesses the power to dissolve Parliament. His grip on the nation’s limited economic resources has underwritten a lavish lifestyle of luxury cars and palaces. About six out of 10 of citizens, meanwhile, live in poverty. Many in this tiny landlocked nation, wedged between South Africa and Mozambique, are on the brink of hunger and have to cross into South Africa to find work. Now, it seems, many of the kingdom’s 1.1 million inhabitants have had it with this imbalance: Over the past week, the tiny southern African nation, formerly known as Swaziland, has descended into the most explosive civil unrest in its 53 years of independence. Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets in the executive capital, Mbabane, and elsewhere, with many burning and looting businesses in which the king holds a stake. The government has responded aggressively, with witnesses, activists and hospital staff reporting that the military and the police have fired live rounds at protesters and looters.

Facebook tests prompts that ask users if they're worried a friend is 'becoming an extremist' (CNN Business) Some Facebook users in the United States are being served a prompt that asks if they are worried that someone they know might be becoming an extremist. Others are being notified that they may have been exposed to extremist content. It is all part of a test the social media company is running that stems from its Redirect Initiative, which aims to combat violent extremism, Andy Stone, a Facebook spokesperson, told CNN. Screen shots of the alerts surfaced on social media Thursday. “This test is part of our larger work to assess ways to provide resources and support to people on Facebook who may have engaged with or were exposed to extremist content, or may know someone who is at risk,” Stone said. “We are partnering with NGOs and academic experts in this space and hope to have more to share in the future,” Stone added. One of the alerts, a screen grab of which made the rounds on social media Thursday, asks users, “Are you concerned that someone you know is becoming an extremist?”

#headlines #news

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psychicmedium14 · 8 years ago

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Senseless Act of Violence Seen on Facebook

Sharing this message for a reason and one reason only. Never make fun of a person who was killed on Facebook Live with no mercy, because one day it could be you. The people posting memes of the senseless act of violence should be ashamed of themselves. That is vile and cruel to the family of the victim.

“To the People who are posting memes of the man who lost his life from a random shooting in Cleveland. You’re a piece of shit. How dare you make fun of a man who lost his life in such a horrible way. What if that was your dad or grandfather? I swear people are heartless.”

For those who do not know, a man was fatally shot in Cleveland over the Easter weekend before the video was streamed live on Facebook.

On Easter, Steve Stephens drove around downtown Cleveland on what he said was a mission to commit murder — and soon he had an audience of millions for his shooting of Robert Godwin Sr., 74, which he recorded and posted on Facebook, the police in Cleveland said.

On Monday, the authorities nationwide were looking for Mr. Stephens, 37, with the police as far away as Philadelphia saying they had received calls about sightings of him in that area.,

Now Facebook is facing a backlash over the shooting video, as it grapples with its role in policing content on its global platform.

It is an issue that Facebook, the world’s largest social network, has had to contend with more frequently as it has bet big on new forms of media like live video, which give it a venue for more lucrative advertising. The criticism of Facebook over Mr. Stephens’s video built swiftly Monday, with critics calling it a dark time for the company and outrage spreading on social media over how long it had taken — more than two hours — for the video to be pulled down. Ryan A. Godwin, the victim’s grandson, pleaded with other users on social media to stop sharing the video online.

The situation is increasingly fraught for Facebook. Even as it has become a forum for more sensational events, live and otherwise, it has said it does not want to be a media company that overly arbitrates what is posted on its site. But the more reluctant it is to intervene or the slower it is to respond, the more it may open itself to the posting of killings, sexual assaults and other crimes.

“Any of these platforms — especially live ones — encourages users to perform,” said Elizabeth Joh, a law professor at the University of California, Davis. “Should Facebook have a duty to rescue a crime victim? Should we, or is it O.K. for thousands or millions of people to watch a crime unfold without doing anything except sharing it?”

Justin Osofsky, a vice president of Facebook, said in a public post late Monday that the company knows “we need to do better” to stop videos like that of the shooting from appearing. He said the company was working to ensure that such content and reports of it can be flagged faster, including through the use of artificial intelligence and a better review process.

“It was a horrific crime — one that has no place on Facebook, and goes against our policies and everything we stand for,” Mr. Osofsky wrote.

Facebook’s dilemma is part of a debate that has pulled in other technology giants, including Twitter, Amazon and Google. As these companies have rushed to provide tools for people to widely share their intimate moments more frequently, they are dealing with a rising tide of calls to more proactively filter the type of content that appears. In recent weeks, Google’s YouTube has been scrutinized for posting advertising next to racist video content, while Twitter contends with hate speech almost daily.

But the attention is often focused on Facebook because of its nearly two billion users and global influence. It is an issue that is bedeviling Mark Zuckerberg, the company’s chief executive. Facebook has encouraged users to post more — it has spent the last two years emphasizing its push into photographs and video, underpinned by a thesis that cameras have become more important in how people share moments of their lives with their friends.

The company was not prepared for the consequences of that push. Last summer, the death of Philando Castile, a Minnesota man shot by the police during a traffic stop, was broadcast by his girlfriend live across Facebook. In January, three men in Sweden were arrested on suspicion of raping a woman and streaming the assault live to a private Facebook group. In February, two radio journalists in the Dominican Republic were fatally shot during a Facebook Live broadcast.

Some groups have pressured Facebook to take a stronger role in reviewing content posted on its platform. In a letter this year to Joel Kaplan, Facebook’s director of global policy, the American Civil Liberties Union called for the social network to be more transparent in its censorship process and to agree to an external audit of its practices.

For Mr. Zuckerberg, the timing of the shooting video could not be worse. He is scheduled to appear on Tuesday in San Jose, Calif., at Facebook’s annual developer conference, where the company typically focuses its energy on its technology.

Initiatives such as Facebook Live have been embraced by Facebook users and advertisers. Video advertising, one of the largest growth areas for Facebook and others, commands a premium compared with traditional photo and text ad formats. The more users acclimate to posting and viewing video content across these platforms, the easier it will be for the companies to sell higher-priced advertisements against them.

Yet monitoring the content is imperfect. Because Facebook’s network of users is so vast, the company relies on a combination of artificial intelligence, human moderators and alerts from users to flag objectionable content. If many people report an instance of offensive or harmful content at once, Facebook’s algorithms will show the post to a global team of human content moderators, who will review it and decide if it violates Facebook’s terms of service.

This approach raises difficulties. In some instances, moderators make unpopular decisions about what content should or should not be allowed. Last year, a Facebook moderator took down an iconic, Pulitzer Prize-winning photo from the Vietnam War depicting a naked girl running from a napalm strike. After criticism, Facebook restored the photo.

“The more users are posting every aspect of their lives online, including criminally heinous conduct, the more companies have to take a proactive approach to content moderation rather than relying just on users to flag content for review,” said Hemanshu Nigam, founder of SSP Blue, an advisory company for online safety, security and privacy.

“Facebook does, however, work well with law enforcement, as is clear from the ongoing investigation and their active support in it,” he said.

Mr. Stephens’s video on Facebook, which lasts about a minute, shows a driver pulling up to an older man on a sidewalk. The driver asks the man to say a person’s name, then pulls out a gun and shoots the man. Afterward, the victim can be seen on the sidewalk, with a streak of what appears to be blood near his head.

The police originally said that Mr. Stephens had broadcast the shooting on Facebook Live, but Facebook said that while he had posted a live video at some point on Sunday, the shooting itself was not live. By late Sunday afternoon, the video had been removed from Facebook and the account had been deactivated.

In a second video that was posted on Facebook, Mr. Stephens explained his actions by saying, “I’m at the point where I snapped.”

He blamed his mother and Joy Lane, a former girlfriend, for his actions. Ms. Lane said in a statement that she was sorry “that all of this has happened,” the television station Cleveland19 reported.

A warrant was issued for Mr. Stephens on a charge of aggravated murder, and the police asked people in Indiana, Michigan, New York, northeast Ohio and Pennsylvania to be on alert. A $50,000 reward has been offered for information leading to his arrest.

On Monday afternoon, the authorities said they did not know Mr. Stephens’s location or condition. Stephen D. Anthony, the special agent in charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Cleveland division, said, “At this point, he could be a lot of places.”

So, please, next time something of this magnitude ends up on Facebook Live, do the right thing by reporting it to your local police instead of doing nothing to help.

#social media #facebook #journalism

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anestiefel · 5 years ago

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Is It Safe to Visit Belize Right Now?

Belize Safety: Where Tourists Should Not Go in Belize

Pier at the Grand Caribe Belize/Oyster

As of 2019 (the latest update at time of publishing this article in 2020), Belize has a level-two travel advisory from the U.S. State Department. For some perspective, that’s on par with France, Italy, the Dominican Republic, and Denmark. What does level-two mean? Simply that the U.S. government urges tourists and state employees in Belize to exercise increased caution. Tourists should avoid Belize City, specifically on the south side, where the Belize government declared a state of emergency in 2018, due to gang violence and crime. In better news, that specific security threat has passed and most tourists don’t spend any time in Belize City. If they do, it’s to get to the highly patrolled Municipal Airport or ferry landing (for small flights and speed boats out to the cayes) in the north and eastern section of Belize City.

Outside of Belize City, violent crime does impact tourists and ex-pats throughout the country. Local police don’t have the training or resources to respond quickly to criminal reports. Most crimes remain unresolved.

Common Types of Crime in Belize

Belize has a population of almost 400,000, and its murder rate is extremely high at 44 homicides per 100,000 people. This consistently puts it in the top five (fourth in 2019) countries with the most murder cases per capita. Violent crime does occasionally impact tourists and ex-pats living in Belize. Sexual assault, home invasions, armed robberies, and murders do happen, though most of this activity is gang and drug trafficking related. More minor crimes include pickpocketing and sexual harassment. Cash theft and credit card fraud are prevalent around San Pedro.

LGBTQ travelers should note that the Belizean government decriminalized homosexuality in 2016, but there continues to be hostility towards individuals (especially men) who openly identify themselves as LGBTQ. Tourist-friendly areas, including San Pedro Town and Ambergris Caye remain relatively open and welcoming to the community. Outside of tourist areas, men have reported incidents of verbal or physical assault for openly displaying their sexuality.

Tips for Staying Safe in Belize

Beach at the Coco Beach Resort/Oyster

Most visitors to Belize leave the country without encountering any crime or safety incidents. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be prepared. Practice common sense that you’d take with you everywhere in the world. Leave valuables at home (or in the hotel safe), don’t use ATMs after dark, and avoid drinking to the point of intoxication in public. The U.S. State Department offers the following tips for all Belize visitors:

Be aware of your surroundings.

Avoid walking or driving at night.

Do not physically resist any robbery attempt.

Be extra vigilant when visiting banks or ATMs.

Do not display signs of wealth, such as wearing expensive watches or jewelry.

Enroll in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) to receive Alerts and make it easier to locate you in an emergency.

Follow the Department of State on Facebook and Twitter.

Review the Crime and Safety Report for Belize.

U.S. citizens who travel abroad should always have a contingency plan for emergency situations.

Natural Disasters and Health Concerns in Belize

Belize’s hurricane season normally runs from June to November (though climate change is shifting weather patterns, and the season may arrive earlier or run longer). While in Belize, it’s smart to monitor local and international weather updates from the National Hurricane Centre. The last major hurricane to impact Belize was Hurricane Richard in 2010.

As a tropical destination, Belize is susceptible to malaria, Dengue fever, and Zika virus. These illnesses are spread by mosquito bites, so come prepared with travel-size insect repellent. Wear long-sleeves and pants during high mosquito activity times, such as at dusk, dawn, and after rainstorms.

Serious injuries or illnesses normally require evacuation to another country with larger hospital facilities, likely to Mexico or the United States. Travelers may want to purchase travel insurance that includes evacuation policies when visiting Belize.

Planning a Trip to Belize? Check Out These Hotels:

Portofino Beach Resort

Pool at the Portofino Beach Resort/Oyster

Owners Jan and Sandra run this romantic San Pedro hideaway. Portofino Beach Resort has 16 rooms (many are cabana-style units with thatched roofs) and one large mansion for families. Getting to the resort is half the fun, as you’ll arrive and depart by boat. The owners call the vibe “barefoot elegance” and the quiet property is surrounded by palms and ocean views. The lovely pool overlooks the sea, the restaurant and bar have both indoor and outdoor seating areas, and the beach features firmly packed white sand and a swimming pier. Active types can take advantage of the free kayaks and snorkel gear, or the professional dive shop. You gotta see it to Belize it.

Pricing for Portofino Beach Resort

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Turtle Inn

Pool at the Turtle Inn/Oyster

Francis Ford Coppola’s (yep, the famous director) Turtle Inn is up and running after a 2017 fire. It’s still an intimate luxury resort set alongside a beautiful stretch of the Caribbean Sea near Placencia. The resort offers a peaceful setting and Balinese-style private cottages and villas — each with a fabulous indoor/outdoor bathroom. Three restaurants, two bars, two outdoor pools, and a number of guided tours and excursions make the resort feel much bigger than it actually is. Most guests are here to unplug and unwind.

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The Lodge at Chaa Creek

Pool at The Lodge at Chaa Creek/Oyster

Though Belize is celebrated for its coast and island cayes, you shouldn’t sleep on the rain forest interior. The Lodge at Chaa Creek is one of Belize’s first eco-lodges. It combines luxury facilities and the option to book a charming budget cabin accommodation at Macal River Camp. Modern amenities include an infinity pool with rain forest views, a full-service spa, and riverside setting. Activities are the name of the game, with everything from horseback riding to nature walks to cacao classes. Oh, and there are treetop villas if you want to sleep among the birds in the canopy.

Pricing for The Lodge At Chaa Creek

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You’ll Also Like:

8 Things You Need to Know Before Traveling to Belize

The Safest Destinations in Latin America and Why You Should Visit Them Now

The Best Time to Visit Belize

The post Is It Safe to Visit Belize Right Now? appeared first on Oyster.com.

from Oyster.com https://www.oyster.com/articles/is-it-safe-to-visit-belize-right-now/ Publish First on IFTTT

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kansascityhappenings · 6 years ago

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Dominican tourism minister calls spate of deaths ‘exaggerated’

The Dominican Republic’s top tourism official on Friday downplayed multiple deaths of American tourists, calling it an exaggeration.

“It’s not true that there has been an avalanche of American tourists dying in our country, and it’s not true that we have mysterious deaths,” Tourism Minister Francisco Javier Garcia told reporters.

Garcia said toxicology reports were still pending in some cases but that autopsy results and causes of death have been released. He said his country has been in constant communication with US Embassy officials.

The FBI said Friday it has sent personnel to the country to provide technical assistance to Dominican investigators. The FBI described the number of people as a small team.

Garcia said the characterization in some media outlets of an “avalanche of deaths does not correspond to reality.”

He read the names of the Americans who have died in the past year, with the official cause of death — noting that all died of natural causes.

Garcia said Americans are not canceling their vacations to the Dominican Republic. His country was working to clear up what he called misrepresentations and “exaggerated” reports about the deaths. He said the government has hired New York-based Rubenstein Public Relations to handle inquiries about the cases.

“We want the truth, not a special treatment,” Garcia said.

A US State Department official said Friday there has not been a unusual spike in reported deaths from the Dominican Republic.

“We do not publish statistics regarding natural deaths abroad,” the official said.

“However, speaking generally, over 2.7 million US citizens visit the Dominican Republic each year, and we have not seen an uptick in the number of US citizen deaths reported to the department.”

At least 11 American citizens have died at Dominican Republic resorts — or after falling ill at one — over the past year, according to information from the State Department, family members and the resorts involved.

The deaths have left some Americans wondering if they should cancel upcoming trips to the Caribbean nation.

Officials there have called the deaths isolated events as they work to reassure travelers their country is safe.

Of the 11 Americans who have died while or after visiting a Dominican Republic resort since June 2018, it’s not clear how many deaths owed to natural causes.

Samples taken from at least one minibar at the Bahia Principe Hotel were being tested by the FBI as part of the agency’s collaboration with Dominican authorities, the country’s public health ministry said this week.

Your questions about the Dominican Republic tourist deaths, answered

Officials in the Dominican Republican or the United States have not said the deaths are connected.

Three of the Americans died at the Bahia Principe resort in La Romana within days of each other. Two died at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Punta Cana.

The investigations into the deaths have included visits from health inspectors, including environmental health and epidemiology specialists, according to Carlos Suero, spokesman for the public health ministry.

The State Department has a standing travel advisory for the Dominican Republic, urging travelers to use caution because of crime, but it has not issued a travel alert specific to the traveler deaths.

From 2012 to 2018, 128 Americans died in the Dominican Republic from something other than natural causes, according to State Department statistics. That averages about 18 annually.

The Dominican Republic is one of the Caribbean’s top tourism destinations, with more than 6 million stopover tourists last year, according to the Caribbean Tourism Organization.

Tourism represented more than 17% of the country’s economy last year, according to the World Travel & Tourism Council.

from FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports https://fox4kc.com/2019/06/23/dominican-tourism-minister-calls-spate-of-deaths-exaggerated/

from Kansas City Happenings https://kansascityhappenings.wordpress.com/2019/06/24/dominican-tourism-minister-calls-spate-of-deaths-exaggerated/

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bountyofbeads · 6 years ago

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🚨🚨Trump Corruption Alert🚨🚨More incredible reporting by ProPublica and WNYC on the Trump Organization, Donald Trump, Ivanka Trump and Trump Crime Family members. LOCK THEM UP

Since Donald Trump’s fortunes came surging back with the success of “The Apprentice” 14 years ago, his deals have often been scrutinized for the large number of his partners who have ventured to the very edges of the law, and sometimes beyond. Those associates have included accused money launderers, alleged funders of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and a felon who slashed someone in the face with a broken margarita glass.

Trump and his company have typically countered by saying they were merely licensing his name on these real estate projects in exchange for a fee. They weren’t the developers or in any way responsible.

(“Trump, Inc.” is a joint reporting project from WNYC Studios and ProPublica that digs deep into the mysteries of the President’s businesses.

Get More Trump, Inc.)

(Stay up to date with email updates from WNYC and ProPublica about their ongoing investigations.)

But an eight-month investigation by ProPublica and WNYC reveals that the post-millennium Trump business model is different from what has been previously reported. The Trumps were typically way more than mere licensors or bystanders in their often-troubled deals. They were deeply involved in these projects. They helped mislead investors and buyers — and they profited handsomely from it.

Patterns of deceptive practices occurred in a dozen deals across the globe, as the business expanded into international projects, and the Trumps often participated. One common pattern, visible in more than half of those transactions, was a tendency to misstate key sales numbers.

In interviews and press conferences, Ivanka Trump gave false sales figures for projects in Mexico’s Baja California; Panama City, Panama; Toronto and New York’s SoHo neighborhood. These statements weren’t just the legendary Trump hype; they misled potential buyers about the viability of the developments.

Another pattern: Donald Trump repeatedly misled buyers about the amount (or existence) of his ownership in projects in Tampa, Florida; Panama; Baja and elsewhere. For a tower planned in Tampa, for example, Trump told a local paper in 2005 that his ownership would be less than 50 percent: “But it’s a substantial stake. I recently said I’d like to increase my stake but when they’re selling that well they don’t let you do that.” In reality, Trump had no ownership stake in the project.

The Trumps often made money even when projects failed. And when they tanked, the Trumps simply ignored their prior claims of close involvement, denied any responsibility and walked away.

The cycle is exemplified in Panama City, where the Trumps were involved in a project to build a massive tower and complex known as the Trump Ocean Club. The project’s unfortunate turns included bankruptcy, then, years later, the forcible ejection of the Trump Organization from managing the hotel.

There, as elsewhere, the Trump Organization disclaimed responsibility. It emphasized that it had merely licensed the Trump name to developers who handled everything from construction to marketing. “The Trump Organization was not the owner, developer or seller of the Trump Ocean Club Panama project,” it said in a statement last year. “Because of its limited role, the company was not responsible for the financing of the project and had no involvement in the sale of units.”

That was false. For starters, Trump arranged financing — his promised commission: $2.2 million or more — by bringing in investment bank Bear Stearns, which issued the bonds that paid for the Panama project’s construction.

Trump touted himself as a “partner” of the developer. His daughter Ivanka briefly boasted that she had personally sold 40 units. (A broker on the project said he couldn’t remember her selling even one.) Meanwhile, Ivanka told a journalist at the time that “over 90 percent” of the Panama units had sold — and at prices five times as high as comparable buildings. Both statements were untrue.

Not only were the Panama sales figures inflated, but many “purchases” turned out to be an illusion. That was no coincidence. The building’s financing depended on obtaining advance commitments from buyers, often before concrete had started pouring. But in between the sale of the bonds in 2007 and 2013, the year the building went bankrupt, buyers of 458 units in the 1,000-unit building abandoned their purchase contracts. Those buyers forfeited more than $50 million in deposits, and they never took possession of finished units. Given that the “buyers” were often shadowy shell companies or other paper entities, it was nearly impossible to discern who the actual purchasers were, let alone why they backed out.

Trump licensed his name for an initial fee of $1 million. But that was just the beginning of the revenue streams, a lengthy and varied assortment that granted him a piece of everything from sales of apartment units to a cut of minibar sales, and was notable for the myriad ways in which both success and failure triggered payments to him.

Consider the final accounting: In the wake of the project’s bankruptcy, a 50 percent default rate and his company’s expulsion from managing the hotel, Donald Trump walked away with between $30 million and $55 million.

The Trump Organization did not respond to a long list of questions about its transactions. The White House didn’t have a comment.

Trump’s licensing strategy originated with his early-2000s comeback, as “The Apprentice” propelled him to international TV stardom and restored luster to a reputation tarnished by multiple bankruptcies. As Trump put it in one promotional video during that period, “When the first season of ‘The Apprentice’ finally finished shooting, I was able to get back to my core business, real estate, and I’ve made some really incredible deals.” That strategy is still playing out today. The Trump Organization, which pledged not to launch new projects during the Trump presidency, is aggressively pursuing existing ones, including in the Dominican Republic, Indonesia and India. CONTINUED ON WEBSITE ALSO LISTEN TO PODCAST THAT EXPLAINS THE CORRUPTION OF THE TRUMP ORGANIZATION

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ubbrian-blog · 7 years ago

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Multicultural/ Diversity/ Identity

Myers, W. D. (2008). Monster. Stuttgart: Klett.

Monster takes the form of an screenplay interspersed with diary entries and recollections. The story includes Steve Harmon, a sixteen-year-old boy who's on trial for his complicity in a drugstore robbery. Through the fragmentary narrative, the reader can infer that Steve is innocent. At the end of the novel, he's absolved of all guilt. Two young men, Richard Evans and James King, rob a drugstore. Though it's unclear just how involved Harmon is in their crime, the narrative suggests that he did little more than listen to them plan. While awaiting trial, Steve is imprisoned with the fourteen-year-old Osvaldo Cruz. Cruz has gotten a girl other than his girlfriend pregnant. Both boys are too young for the harsh realities of the justice system. Though Steve is found not guilty and cleared of all charges, it's clear that his lawyer has serious doubts about his innocence. YA themes include coming of age and identity, as Steve tries to figure out who he is as he faces trial. The Lexile level for Monsters is 670L.

Floreen, T. (2016). Willful machines. Place of publication not identified: Simon & Schuster Books.

In the near future, scientists create what may be a new form of life: an artificial human named Charlotte. All goes well until Charlotte escapes, transferring her consciousness to the Internet, and begins terrorizing the American public. Charlotte's attacks have everyone on high alert—everyone except Lee Fisher, the closeted son of the US president. Lee has other things to worry about, like keeping his Secret Service detail from finding out about his crush on Nico, the eccentric, Shakespeare-obsessed new boy at school, along with keeping Nico from finding out about his recent suicide attempt and keeping himself from freaking out about all his secrets. But when the attacks start happening at his school, Lee realizes he's Charlotte’s next target. The readers can guess that Nico may be part of Charlotte’s plan too. As Lee races to save himself, uncover Charlotte’s plan, and figure out if he can trust Nico, he comes to a whole new understanding of what it means to be alive, and what makes life worth living. The Lexile level for Willful Machines is HL700L. YA themes can include survival, as Lee attempts to last Charlotte’s attacks, and his Secret Service detail’s finding out of his feelings towards Nico.

Alvarez, J. (2017). Before we were free. Place of publication not identified: Ember.

Anita de la Torre is a twelve-year-old girl living in the Dominican Republic in 1960. Most of her relatives have emigrated to the United States, while her Tío Toni has disappeared, Papi has been getting mysterious phone calls about butterflies and someone named Mr. Smith, and the secret police have started terrorizing her family for their suspected opposition to the country’s dictator. While Anita deals with a frightening series of events, she also struggles with her adolescence and her own personal fight to be free. Lexile level for Before We Were Free is 890L. YA themes of this story include identity, referencing Anita’s struggle with life living among her culture. Survival can be included as well, as life for Anita consists of her maintaining what she has among suspicion and fear, while trying to obtain freedom, despite it possibly coming at a cost.

Tan, A. (2016). The Joy Luck Club. New York: Penguin Books.

In 1949, four Chinese women, recent immigrants to San Francisco, begin meeting to eat dim sum, play mahjong, and talk on a somewhat regular basis. United in shared loss and hope, they call themselves the Joy Luck Club. With wit and wisdom, Amy Tan examines the sometimes painful, often tender, and always deep connection between these four women and their American-born daughters. As each reveals her secrets, trying to unravel the truth about her life, the strings become more tangled, more entwined. Lexile level for The Joy Luck Club resides at 930L. YA themes include cultural identity while also containing elements of family and togetherness, as the four women are new to the San Francisco though they maintain a deep relationship with their American-born daughters.

Alexie, S. (2007). The absolutely true diary of a part-time Indian. Stuttgart: Klett Sprachen.

Sherman Alexie tells the story of Junior, a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Determined to take his future into his own hands, Junior leaves his troubled school on the rez to attend an all-white farm town high school where the only other Indian is the school mascot. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, which is based on the author's own experiences, coupled with poignant drawings by Ellen Forney that reflect the character's art, chronicles the contemporary adolescence of one Native American boy as he attempts to break away from the life he was destined to live. Lexile level for The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian is 600L. YA themes include identity as the dynamic of an all-white school and Junior, an Indian student coming from a Spokane Indian Reservation drives the story forward.

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homeinvasionent-blog · 7 years ago

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Excerpt (Chapter 2) "Today's a Miracle, Tomorrow's a Blessing"

Flashback After serving two tours in Iraq I was honorably discharged from the United States Marines Corps. Eight years of getting my hands bloody, feet muddy and soul ugly, beyond redemption for a country that didn’t love me. And I returned to the States only to learn how cancer had ravaged Grandma’s insides, shrunken her body to mere bones and sagging skin. How tremendous pain marked her last days and how she’d repetitively asked for me on her death bed ... … Her dying wish. Hadn’t even been back from the Raq a month, and I was right back in the mix, right in the thick of the whip. On the Dominican side of the Pichon River, eying Haiti on the other side through nighttime binoculars. I didn’t regret my time in the Marines. Neither did I cherish them. Although I did cherish certain memories, lessons and certain men I’d been privileged to serve with. I took the good with the bad and undoubtedly came back a better man. The Marines instilled in me a level of discipline, efficiency, precision, method and execution, a civilian or criminal life would of never allowed me to achieve. And under pressure of all-out war, I learned what I truly was made of. Learned I could stand in my father’s shadow. I didn’t understand how in eight years my brother only managed to upgrade wholesalers twice. From Antonio Alvarez, a shrewd and ruthless Washington Heights supplier, to his Santo Domingo based cousin, Juan Louis, to a Cite Soleil based Haitian on the other side of the island. It was no secret that it had been a shift in power base. The Mexicans were the key players. Couldn’t comprehend why my brother hadn’t connected his extension cord into a Mexican plug, with multiple outlets. The USA shared a 2000 mile border with Mexico, excluding the Gulf. And thanks to all the alliances between the Mexican and American governments and the Mexican cartels and the North American crime syndicates, the powers that be, came up with organizations like NAFTA -the North American Free Trade Alliance- that abled the drugs to freely flow across the border through every major border city dense with eighteen- wheelers, under the legal veil of free trade and commerce. Yet, Haitian Dave and me, cladded in black paramilitary gear, Second Chance body armor, and armed to the teeth with AK74’s were on a clandestine nighttime border crossing into Haiti! As if the DEA hadn’t been pounding the Caribbean route for decades. Fuck hustling backwards, we were smuggling backwards. Meanwhile, my brother was in the Garden, courtside, watching the Knicks getting scrapped by the Nets. Between the corrupt Dominican Border Patrol sergeant we had to bribe, the blood- thirsty mosquitoes treating me like a blood bank and the bands of roving Haitian militias with even stricter tax sanctions then Uncle Sam, it was a mission meeting the connect at the coordinates in the pitch black woods. Under the glare of the full moon we completed the transactions by showing the army lieutenant in jungle camouflage the money and his grunts showed us the bricks press-stamped with twin canons. We promised to increase the order next time. And In turn were promised even more consignment on whatever we purchased. Instead of the current one for one, we’d receive an additional two on consignment for every one we purchased. As long as we copped a minimum of fifty bricks. The lieutenant, a slick spoken bilingual Haitian with a gold tooth and a Wyclef Jean hairline, said that his boss, Monsieur Dieudone guaranteed passage safety in and out of Haiti, in addition to consistency, reliability, quantity and of course quality. Claimed Monsieur Dieudone was the Mont Blanc of snow. The communication man with the military- grade radio laughed. Dave and me headed back towards the Dominican Republic, slithering through the barren woods, each of our backpacks twenty kilos heavier, determined on not losing any weight. As we neared our extraction point at the Pichon River, which marked the border with the Dominican Republic, it seemed as if we’d be forced to shed some weight ... In the form of NATO .5.56’s. Have to dump some of our hundred round drums. The sudden stench of nicotine smoke, laced with cocaine paste lingering in the night alerted us of a hostile presence. A squad of militia men laid in ambush right at our extraction point. They wore jungle camos and were armed with AK47’s, a couple grenade launchers and machetes. What really grabbed my attention was the communication man on the military-grade radio. Dave looked at me. In the deep darkness I couldn’t discern his expression. Didn’t matter. His train of thoughts were on track with my own. We’d departed the same depot and were headed to the same destination. One of the lieutenant’s less honorable, but, more opportunistic men had betrayed his boss by setting us up. In all likelihood the radio man was the culprit. I clenched my jaw, wondering how deep the treachery went. We evaded the ambush sight, performing basic evasive maneuvers. The following evening found us inside a clapboard house in the dangerous and decrepit Capotillo section of Santo Domingo. The unventilated house reeked of anxieties, sweat and depression. Dave sat on a ancient rocking-chair, reading his pocket-sized Gideon bible, his cousin Jean Jacques field-stripped a M-4 carbine. I lounged in the shadows blowing a cancerstick, alone with my thoughts. Lala oversaw the twenty mules practicing with baby carrots, easing them down their throats with lemon yogurt. Next they began swallowing the cocaine pellets, fourteen grams of pressed coke, machine- wrapped in wax paper and latex. Each mule swallowed a total of 142 pellets- two kilos. Lala gave the mules strict instructions in Spanish. “No soda. No orange or lemon juice. Because it can wear out the pellet- wrappings. Then the coke dissolves inside you and you die foaming at the mouth and convulsing. Then we gotta waste time gutting you like a fish to retrieve our product. Nobody is getting taken to the hospital and they ain’t no doctors on call.” Lala paused to frown at my cigarette, extract a Chinese fan from her straw handbag and fan herself with all the dramatization of a New Yorker. “ So as a course of business, don’t eat anything. Stick to water. “Her cold gaze swept over the mules and her tone became forewarning. “Do not use the toilet thinking you’ll shit the pellets out and then re-swallow them. Because airplanes and airport toilets flush automatically. And if any of you lose our material ...” She let the severity of that notion hang in the oppressive air, corrupted by the musk of hopelessness and poverty. Giving the mules a chance to let their imaginations run wild. “ If you lose our shit because of your own stupidity, one thing is certain, we retaliate on your family members in the States. And our associates here, ride on your relatives in D.R. “She smiled without any warmth. “None of you have been forced into this. You each hired out your services aware of the requirements and risks and pay. So ain’t no excuses. We’re all professionals, with free will. So stick to the script. “ She flashed another smile, which I translated as bipolar medicine deprivation. “On that note play your position. “ Fear, stained the house. The mules were petrified. It was Lala’s desired effect. The stench triggered ugly memories of a sex slave ring we broke up in Sadr City in Baghdad. Instead of the IED maker we came to kill we discovered young boys and girls forced into heinous sexual acts. I suddenly felt sick with myself. Needing air I left the house haunted by misery, ignoring Lala’s derogatory remarks, sneers and laughter. Yet, I couldn’t ignore grandma’s voice descending Heaven. “Alberto, show me your friends and I’ll tell you who you are. “Grandma’s words played in my head over and over like a broken record. I walked around the ruined streets of Capotillo tormented. Feeling as trapped as the residents Another sleepless night haunted by the ghosts of pass battles passed and we were inside JFK airport in Queens waiting on the five mules from the American Airlines flight to clear Customs. My brother Vendetta posed with his legs spread, arms crossed, pythons flexing, emitting wild energies that I found unsettling. The mules had divided into four groups of five, four different flights to four different airports. LaGuardia, Newark, JFK and. Thus far the ops went without a glitch. The first two mules cleared Customs. Then things took a turn for the worst. Some overzealous Customs agent that suspected three of the mules and two outraged Dominican nationals of being swallowers, detained them inside naked rooms containing non-flushing toilets and ordered them to swallow laxatives. Without a word, my brother bopped out the airport dispelling combustible energies. I trailed from a distance not wanting to be the focus of his eruption. In that single interception we lost six kilos to the U.S Customs. I stifling silence seized the Navigator as we made our way to the East Tremont section of the Bronx. Germaine No-Brain was maneuvering the Navigator through a pile- up near the Triborough Bridge and I was trying to make myself invisible, while Vendetta issued harsh threatening words into a prepaid. Suddenly he blew a fuse. Crushing the phone in his hand, no doubt envisioning the caller’s neck. By nightfall the situation completely deteriorated. Tension choked the Echo Place apartment. The laxatives had taken effect, all the mules had moved their bowels, each releasing the 142 pellets swallowed in Santo Domingo. All but one mule; a young and pretty, non English speaking Dominicana with a air of innocence and wide, confused brown eyes, was having difficulties. She only managed to release eighty-two pellets. The bathroom was jam-packed with violent traffickers with bad personalities, stale breaths and distrustful dispositions. The dark energies, threats, shouts and snarls created a evil wave that had the bathroom steaming. Loca, looking way too far gone off her meds, laid in the bathtub, restraining the half naked Dominicana in a Full-Nelson. Rock pinned her legs, a derisive glow in his mean eyes, undoubtedly enjoying himself. And all along, Frankie Noodles giggled like a lunatic, his beloved surgical knives, scalpels and saws, gleaming eerily in the harsh light of the medicine cabinet. “Bitch, if you do not produce our product in sixty seconds flat Frankie Noodles is gonna give you a C-section! Gut you like a pig, and open you up like a cantaloupe! “ Vendetta seemed the least bit interested. “Val, give the girl some time. She’s probably having some kind of internal difficulties. Its obviously that time of the month. Look how much she’s been menstruating. “ I tried to talk sense with my brother, but he completely disregarded my reasoning. Vendetta placed no value in human life. I figured it was better to talk his language of pounds and keys, because if it didn’t make dollars it didn’t make cents. “ Val , You told me yourself that this isn’t the first time you used the girl as a mule. Don’t you value her commitment and loyalty? Why the fuck would you depreciate the value- no completely destroy one of your proven mules because she’s having a little trouble. Shit man, give the girl some more time before- “ “Time is running out. “Vendetta made a show of checking his Breitling. “Soon the pellets might burst. Then we lose the girl and the product. “ He shrugged. “Better save one than lose both. She knew what she was getting into when she signed up. Knew the risks and the rewards. She did the math. In her estimation the rewards outweighed the risks.” Sensing the Grim Reaper’s macabre presence drawing closer, I spoke with urgency. “Let me just take her to the hospital. “ This evoked laughter. Frankie Noodles, Rock, Loca even my brother laughed. Hollow and evil laughs that sent shivers up my spine. I knew the sound. Heard it before. Hoped I’d never heard it again. “Fuck it, I’ll pay for whatever she short on. Out my own pocket.” Since no one replied, I gave them better incentives. “At the full street value. Retail price. “ Looking bored my brother said, “You missing the big picture lil bro. She’s not carrying coke, she swallowed two keys of China-White. Sixty- five percent pure." I did the math, a key of sixty-five percent China-White- the premium and most expensive heroin on the market- went for no less than $150,000 wholesale. And could be turned into eighteen bricks that each had a retail value of $150,000. “I’ll pay whatever! “I reached for the Dominicana. “Tell me how mu…” “ Hold the Fuck up Al. “Rock jumped in my way, placing a restraining hand on my chest, blocking my path with his impressive bulk. “You buggin…” I reflexively connected a swift, two-inch punch with his chin. As his head rebounded off the medicine cabinet, fragmenting the mirror, I stuffed my Glock in his face. “Fuck out my way Rock! Before I knock that block off your shoulders. “ Aggression has its own momentum. In a blur of overwhelming force I yanked the Dominicana out the tub, placed her behind me and backed out the bathroom, holding my family at gunpoint. “Do not try to stop me! “ They never even attempted to stop me. My brother shook his head in disappointment. Frankie Noodles giggled. Rock massaged his jaw. Lala called me a clown and a sucker for love and tried to spit on me. Unable to witness, much less partake in anymore heinous acts of butchery to those I deemed the innocent, I took a irrevocable course of action and fled the tensive and explosive apartment with the half naked Dominicana, almost tipping one of the many buckets of sulfuric acid. “Let’s go girl. Stop crying. “My Glock lead the way as we tumbled down three flights of rickety stairs, littered with purple 58×58 baggies. “Yo-yo! Hold up Al! “ A thug on security detail materialized on a landing trying to be diplomatic. “Come on now, you not being rational with. ..” I fired a shot so close to his head, it parted his nappy Afro, and melted his hair grease. Paralyzed by fear he froze. The remaining thugs, camped out in the blunt-strewn lobby reeking of malt liquor stood down. Anger, bewilderment and confusion playing over their faces, body language conveying uncertainty. Some starred at the half-naked petite, but, curvy Dominicana in lingerie, others at my smoking Glock. I saw the sergeant on a Walkie-Talkie, heard my brother’s voice barking orders to stand down coming out the speaker. The sergeant gave me an imperceptible nod to keep it moving and grudgingly told his goons to give us passage. We hit the street at a frenetic pace, searching for a way out . My best friend Joe was on the sidewalk posing on his Kawasaki with his arms crossed, indignation and disgust creasing his pretty face. “Fuck wrong with you Al? Bringing heat to our shit cause you felt a urge to throw your cape on and save hoes on some sucker for. ..” I kicked my best friend clean off the bike, hopped on the crotch-rocket, pulled the Dominicana onto the seat behind me, still in her lingerie. “Hold on tight girl! “I revved up the Ninja, rabbit started it and peeled off down 179th street, swerving around the contours of Echo Park, freefalling down the curving hill. Over the engines 998cc’s, her shrill of shear fear echoed in my ear as we jetted between a tricked-out Denali knocking ‘One more chance’ and a Mr. Softees ice cream truck and then hooked a daring right on Webster. Wind beating us ,trying to pulverize us as I swerved in and out of lanes, weaving oncoming traffic, headlights as blinding as prison search lights, flying through red lights on the run. The high-octane ride came to a skidding stop in front of a dusty-brown high rise building on 167th street in Park projects. “Come on girl. “I noted that the Dominicana’s mocha hue had a ghastly pallor. “You don’t look too good. Don’t worry my tia is going to put some bacalao in you." “Thank you so much. “She cracked a weak smile. The light in her eyes dimming. “You saved my life from those. ..”She faltered and fell off the bike. “ I got you. “I caught her before she could crash over the broken glass littered sidewalk. As I held her in my arms she begun to convulse, eyes rolling, lids fluttering as she foamed at the mouth. The force of her violent spasms almost knocked me down. “Oh shit! “My eyes swiveled looking for transportation. A chromed-out, candy-painted ’67 Camaro pulled up to the curb, bumping Drake’s ‘305 put my city’. A bear of a man in a Carolina-blue Jordan tracksuit with the matching patent-leather Jordan’s hopped out releasing a purple-haze scented hurricane. It looked like he had the whole galaxy around his neck. The Ice dripping off his Cuban-link looked like Star Wars special effects. “Yo big man give me a hand. “ I know he heard the note of distress in my voice, but was much more interested in the Dominicana’s figure and lingerie. “She’s O.D‘ing. Give us a lift to the hospital. Please." Screwing up his mug he barked, “Fuck that got to do with me ? I don’t save hoes. But I can put her to wo. ..”I pointed the Glock at his face. Up close and personal letting him smell the burnt gunpowder from the recent discharge. His voice dried up like a raisin in the sun. Fear instantly relaxing every muscle in his screw-face. “Just take the car kid." “Leave the keys in the ignition and back the fuck up before I let you hold something and leave you to die alone in the gutter, praying help comes fast enough." My tone of voice had a more chilling affect on his big-sss than the Glock. The bear wordless complied, legs visibly buckling under the weight of the 147 grain, hollow- point bullets in my Nine. “My bad man I’m sorry about...” I silenced him with a graveyard stare. I placed the Dominicana in the passenger seat, secured her with the seatbelt, certain that at least one of the heroin pellets had ruptured, and jumped behind the wheel, crushing the gas pedal. “Hold on girl! “I mashed the gas, revving the motor towards 4500 rpms, tires squealing and smoking. “Keep fighting! Don’t welcome death!" Right before the light turned green, I popped the clutch and the Camaro skid sideways for about a half- a-block, burning tires skid-marking the street. When the whip hit 6500 rpms, I rocked to 2nd gear and was fishtailing wildly when I slammed for 3rd. We hopped in 4th, and leapt forward, zooming up Webster, bobbing and weaving in and out of traffic, jumping lanes, avoiding oncoming vehicles by hair fractures, making split second decisions, pumped with adrenaline. Fascinated kids and excited hustlers cheering us on as the Camaro melted through lights. Big V8 engine growling as the muscle car Deebo- ed the road. “Be strong girl! “I was amped up by a sense of helplessness. The girl’s health was deteriorating at a critical pace. The foam bubbling out her mouth was as thick as paste. I smelled the heroine on her dying breath, smelled it pumping out of her pours. “You got to fight it!” I locked the brakes up, next to a traffic cop, yanked the wheel and made a dangerous bat-turn at about 55mph, drifting onto 174th street, zipping by the Crosstown bus, downshifting from 4th, 3rd, 2nd, squeezing between a bread truck in a orgy of scrapping paint and sideswiped a family van ,losing a side-view mirror as I shifted back through the gears to 3rd. Rocketing up 174th like a meteor, I jumped in fourth gear and hit a buck-ten, on one of the main arteries in the Bronx. The Dominicana was choking on foam, complexion deathly grey as she spasms and thrashed like the girl on the exorcist, twisting her neck with so much force I feared she might snap it. The ghastly wheezes escaping her constricted airwaves gave me goosebumps. I slapped her upper back, she coughed and sprayed foam and bile and heroin oil. Obtaining a instant of respite she sucked-in one long scrapping breath, before the next flood of foam clogged her airwaves. “Please don’t let her die like this God.” With one hand I handled the wheel, with the other I struggled with her to keep her neck at a downward angle so she didn’t choke on the foam. “Stop fighting me girl! Please God help. I’ll trade my life for hers.” Before the Camaro came to a screeching halt on Elliott I was out the vehicle, retrieving the Dominicana and running into the Emergency Room. The Dominicana was dying in my arms, body getting cold, skin waxy, eyes filming over, leg twitching. I called upon the Lord again. I barged in Lebanon hospital’s Emergency Room radiating unstable energies. The crazed-look on my face warranting immediate assistance from the nurses and orderlies whom rushed the girl onto a gurney and wheeled her away. Chest heaving, breathing heavily with every muscle taunt, all I heard was the baseline of my own heart beating, everything blurry and disorienting as the E.R spun beneath my feet, vision coming in and out until I retained caption. Fighting to regain my bearings I squeezed my temples, doing a full three-sixty in the waiting room, making no effort to disguise the fact that I was storing every witnesses face to memory. My eyes came into full focus on the square-face of a man with the mark of the beast. Our eyes locked for a moment and I saw his resolution steel, the muscular plainclothes cop’s body language got combative as he came for me. “Eh you! Come. ..” I stiff-armed the cop’s face, palm squeezing the mark of the beast I pushed him to the floor and mobbed out the E.R, daring anyone to try and stop me. I leapt in the Camaro and merked off burning rubber in a wild quarter-donut, leaving nothing but smoke and tire marks behind. Time lapsed. Had no idea how I got there, yet I was trooping around Crotona Park, blowing a fat Dutch stuffed with haze. In a dark gloom I followed the moon straight to my doom. I meditated on hate mind taking me from one dark place to a darker one. My deployments in the Marines landed me in many shitty places devoid of all hope. All across the globe seeking just a little piece of mind to hide from the evil murmurs resonating in my ears. All I encountered were religious fanatics, butchers, fuckin cannibals, false prophets perverting the gullible minds of the youth, leading whole congregations to the depths of Hell, shackling poverty, bands of warriors committing unspeakable atrocities in the heat of combat fever, crusading generals with ulterior motives, greed, famine, and pure unfiltered evil. And the world over, women and innocent children suffered, were slaughtered, raped, enslaved, maimed, massacred, sold, abused and traded with total indifference; the strong making a living off their misery. Clearing the foul taste in my throat, with deep tokes of the Marijuana smoke, I gazed up to the night, looking for the Lord my Grandma had praised till the day cancer sent her to the grave and saw nothing. I waited, hoping for a sign that He’d taken me up on my offer to trade my life for the Dominicana’s, but all I discerned were dark night clouds converging on the moon, obscuring his glow. And took that as a sign. So I called up on the devil, knowing from experience that the thief would come on the run to take my offer, relishing the sum. A few teens on a park bench, ciphered blunts and forty ounces, 2Pac’s ‘Never be peace’ pounding their boombox. Pac the prophet had been right all along. And like every single prophet before him we denounced his prophecies and killed him. They could never be peace. I was avoiding the cones of light illuminating the pathway, sticking to the shadows when my internal alarm went off, suddenly warning me of danger. A moment later, a duo with all the menacing characteristics of stick-up kids, emerged out of the pitch black woods, swaggering towards me like gunfighters, reminding me of Diamond District jewelers the way their bloodshot eyes appraised the diamond – flooded king Tut medallion dangling from my Cuban Link . “Yo duke shinning. “The short, and stocky kid with the red bandana, pointed from my Reds cap down to my matching Air Max 95’s and spat, “Eh yo duke, what that red be like? “ Without preamble I flashed my Glock-19, flipped on the laser-beam and red-dotted his face. “This what that red be like lil homie." The aspiring stick-up artist froze, ten toes cold, eyes wide recognizing there was nowhere to hide, realizing that he wasn’t ready to die, one arm up like the Statue of Liberty, lips mouthing peace, yet, releasing no sound. His codefendant jetted as if he’d heard the shot from a track meet’s starter gun. Heels kicking up leaves, Nike-Flights giving him wings. The teens on the Benches got ghost, conscious that witnesses also got the business. Leaving a shattered bottle of Ol English in their wake. The brown paper bag sponging up the malt liquor. “I should shoot you in the ass for pump faking. Then shoot you in foot for half stepping.” I smiled in a glare of moonlight. “Or shoot your dick off cause you look like you about to piss yourself.“ Eyes as bright and wide as the moon, with his mouth open, the stick-up apprentice was on pause, mouth on mute, hoping a slug didn’t eject into his open tape deck. “School’s out. Where you been at? You must of cut class. Don’t worry kid I’m the substitute teacher. This night school! “ I was about to order the kid to run off only to teach him an invaluable, once in a lifetime lesson from the school of Hardrocks, by shooting him in the ass, when class was interrupted by the bell. I looked at my ringing Nextel figuring it was the devil coming to claim his end of the deal, since the incoming text confirmed that the Dominicana was in stable conditions. But when I answered the phone I heard a whole another tune. “Que unda loco? It’s me guey. You missed me? “I recognized the callers voice as Omar ‘Blanco ’Perez, a Chicano, Marine pilot from El Paso, Texas. “I’m back guey!" “Oh shit! When you got out Blanco? “I spoke animatedly, holding the stick-up novice at gunpoint, shifting the beam from his arms, head, legs, back to his head only to let it rest on his groin. “Man I thought you was still wrapping up your final deployment.“ “I was Guey. Some bullshit popped off in Afghanistan around Jalalabad about some poppies and Uncle Sam gave me the boot.” Blanco sounded like a East L.A gangbanger. “Almost twelve fuckin years of my life and them people in JAG wanted to convict me of running dope after all I did for this country. “He sighed heavily and I felt the weight of his pain and resentment. “So I swallowed my pride and took the dishonorable discharge!“ The beam had the stick-up rookie sweating. “Man that’s fucked up!” “Tell me about it guey.” A moment of reflective silence came over the line. Back in Iraq, Blanco piloted the ‘Bird’, helicopter, that often flew us into ops. When your squad was taking heavy fire and Command Center okayed an aerial extraction you hoped and prayed with supplication that Blanco was the pilot. It didn’t matter what type of firepower the enemy was unloading, didn’t matter if surface-to-air missiles, lit up the sky like the Fourth of July, Blanco placed no value on his life and no value on the multi million dollar helicopters, he was coming to pull you out the kilo zone. One of those dare devil pilots that stayed getting his ass chewed out by the C.O himself. A soldier's favorite soldier. “Why you didn’t call me any sooner?" “Cause I was getting my shit together guey. Opened up a little flight school in Frisco Texas." “Word? Congratulations kid. “I smiled at the frightened stick-up Fuck up, the beam dancing over his center mass. “At least you did what you always said you was gonna do. I’m proud of you." “Yo Al, remember all those war stories I kicked back in the Raq?” On many nights we stole a bottle of the gunny’s Jack Daniel’s and got pissy drunk. A couple swigs of Jack and a few puffs of gold and black hashish and Blanco was thrilling us with the adventurous, humorous and dangerous drug runs he’d made I’m his little Cessna for the Mexican cartels back in the world. The clandestine take-offs and landings on the little hidden runways up in Golden Triangle’s Sierra. The daring diversionary flights that served as decoys for the land based radar screens and the highly sophisticated DEA Orions, crammed with state of the art technology. The fancy aerial maneuvers, eluding government and law enforcement choppers. The low altitude flights across the border. The times he sandwiched his own product with the cartel’s. “Of course I remember. How could I ever forget all those George Jung stories, that filled my mind with wild cocaine cowboy fantasies." “Good. Because it’s going down in seventy two hours. I need a few you good men.“ A pregnant pause. His following words gave me all the incentive required. “Erika will be there.” Erika, short for America, was our codename for America’s favorite white girl. Cocaine. Ecstatic, I repeated, “Erika?” “Yep, good ol reliable Erika and about four hundred of her sorority sisters are throwing a bash at the university of Sinaloa. Real freak bitches guey. “ It translated into four hundred kilos of coke from a Sinaloa outfit. “Whaaat?” stupefied by the major league prospect, I lowered my Glock. The stick-up dimwit looked dumbstruck. But not dumb enough to try his luck. “You serious Blanco?" “The question is; are you serious, Al- Qaeda serious?“ “I’m deathly serious.“ “Good guey. That’s what I needed to hear. My niece Melanie will be there too. She made prom Queen last year. This her freshman year. She has a 4.0. Time to celebrate.“ Melanie was the codename for Meth. 4.0 meant it was A-1. “We made Melanie this beautiful crystal crown, coated with ice. What till you see it in the light Al.“ Meant it was Crystal meth and Ice. “On my way Blanco." “Get the red-eye to Mazatlán airport. I’ll be waiting.“ Blanco ended the call. I was stuck. Basking in the moonlight, feeling I kind of hope I hadn’t known since cancer claimed Grandma. I even saw a night rainbow arching across the black sky. I blinked making sure it wasn’t an illusion. The stick-up kid seen it too, by the way he was glowing he must of interpreted it, as sign of hope, like maybe it was salvation from the damnation in my hand. Lala always said that there was gold at the end of every rainbow. Problem was, we could never found where the rainbow actually started. And you’d never know where you was going if you didn’t know where you came from. In that instant I had a moment of clarity. The rainbow started with Blanco in Mexico and ended with Erika with me in America. Erika ... my most loyal and dependable girl had America by the nose and lungs. I shouted up to the rainbow. “Thank you Lord! This is the sign I been waiting for!” Feeling like I had to make a sacrifice I took off my chain and tossed it at the stunned stick-up kid. “Catch!” “Wh-wha-what? “He was too afraid to catch the chain. Let alone touch it , probably reasoning that the blood diamonds were cursed. He refused to even sneak a peek, turning his face as if King Tut’s ruby eyes belonged to Medusa. “I- I don’t want it!” “The shines yours lil homie. You can have it. Since the price is going to be steep. You about to pay in blood. ” Some kind of supernatural force caused me to pause from my critical course of action and really look at the kid in another light. I peered deep into his eyes, and in that moment the windows of his soul revealed itself and I saw that all his fears, insecurities, doubts and confusions about his place in a society that preyed on him were no different then my own. I mind as well of been looking in the mirror. This stilled my gun hand. Instead of lightning him up, I decided to shed a different kind of light on him. “The chain is yours. Here’s the real priceless jewel you need to secure in your treasure chest. Talk is cheap and air is free. Actions draw a picture worth a thousand words. Next time to skip the word play. Let the gun on your waist get your point across.“ The kid’s eyes widened as they traveled to the concealed handgun on his waistline. In the face of death he’d forgotten all about it. “Go to summer school. Get a G.E.D or something. You trying and failing badly to play a game that has no winners.“ I turned my back on him and bounced off. “Thanks big homie. That jewel was priceless. “The kid shouted, “It's going in the vault." I stopped in my tracks, looked back at him over my shoulders. “Iron sharpens iron.” “True, but my little sister got eat. Mom dukes smoked-out. So all she got is me. And my iron is my only means to feed her. Lead or silver is my model.” I had to laugh at the kid’s analogy. “Shit gets greater later. The change gone come.” “Yeah that Sam Cook shit a record I been hearing all my life. “The kid shrugged in a manner that conveyed that he felt trapped, that he was street-poisoned, resigned to the ghetto’s mindset that there was no way out.“ Things change only to come full surface.” I turned to face him, suddenly seeing him in a much darker light. “Wait long enough and in due time anything will realize it’s full potential. Coal becomes diamonds. Sand becomes pearls. Death row cons become Peace Nobel Prize winners. Lifers become presidents of nation’s.” My tone became sarcastic. “Angels even fall from Heaven. “I lost the sarcastic edge.“ A couple murderers that spawned from the same stretch of Hell where we dwell and bust shells became the Lord’s instruments.” I winked at him. “ Every gem is forged under pressure and tried in fire. If it wasn’t for bad times we wouldn’t value and remember the good times.” “Facts! “The kid seemed to grow taller. “I’m not going to wear this shine.“ He picked the chain off the floor, the stones flashing like strobelights.“But I’m gonna wear the jewels you just blessed me with. Stand on them. Use then as the foundation.“ -----////-----////-------////------////-----////--- The next sunset found me sitting under palm and mango trees, dining on escamoles and tacos de pollo at a sidewalk café in the resort town of Mazatlán. As I watched the sunset painting the sky burnt orange, Blanco told me the Catch-22. Should of foreseen it. His deal had been too sweet not to turn bitter. Between swigs of Tecate and puffs of Marlboro, Blanco told me the truth ... and it hurt like a bad tooth. True enough, he was transporting drugs for a narcoboss in Sinaloa. He was also sandwiching his own product with the cartel’s. Basically using their corridors. His flight school in Texas made it easy. Above all, his pretty, but dumb-as-a-rock sister Isabella, had finally married. Married into a crime fighting family. A lieutenant in the SIEDO, Mexico’s organized crime investigation unit. The lieutenant was crooked, and in the habit of losing evidence, pinpointing witnesses, hampering investigations and warning cartel men of oncoming raids. He also was in the dangerous habit of stealing from the cartels. A four hundred kilo bust in Reynosa resulted in the lieutenant only reporting half. Another big seizure in Matamoros with heralded headlines on the front page of the Reforma, praising, Calderon’s SIEDO for killing a wanted Honduran trafficking gang in possession of a arsenal of automatic assault rifles and three hundred bricks of coke. The lieutenant pocketed the other unreported three hundred bricks. Aware of his brother in law’s corruption, Blanco reminded him of his flight school and air strip in America. The rest was history. In essence the SIEDO lieutenant was the plug. We left the sidewalk café, strolling down the boulevard deep in drug politics, and halfway through my cancerstick the scenery changed drastically. We entered a dangerous port side barrio that reeked of foulness, failure and frustration. The air oppressive with violence. Derelict apartments and desolate people hoping against hope. Inside a decrepit apartment, Blanco showed me a hundred fifty kilos of ice, seized from a meth lab up in the Sierra by the lieutenant’s men. He then said what was really on his mind. “Yo Al, if the cartel finds out that I’m double dealing, our entire families are history. No one will be spared. “He took a long drag, trying to decimate his Marlboro in one pull, exhaled, and the question came through the cancer smoke. “You know the risks involved, are you down?" I did the math. The profits outweighed the problems. Lured by the filthy Lucre and the prospect of never again being separated from my favorite girl Erika, I signed my entire family on as unwitting accomplices. Seventy two hours later, on a starless Mexican night in Altata, Sinaloa, Blanco piloted his Grumman G-73 Turbine Mallard. A low altitude flight skimming the Gulf, avoiding the Hemispheric radar system which scans air routes between Colombia and Mexico, especially the isthmus of Panama. Lala and me along with two Mexican longshore men, were on a shrimp boat serenely floating in the dark. The refreshing breeze tanged with salt, combed my hair and freezed the cold anxiety sweat dotting my hairline. The boat swayed, rocking to the slow pace of my heart. In spite of the darkness I felt the weight of Lala’s discomfort so I squeezed her hand. During a special ops in the Persian Gulf, I learned how the ocean transmits sounds and voices differently at various times. If the moment is right you could hear exactly what was said, miles away. Same thing with lights. The crew was silent. One of the Mexican longshoremen kept his face plastered in the rubber cone that concealed the screen of the eight-mile radar. Suddenly we heard the engines of Blanco’s plane. A couple moments later his Grumman dropped out of the night, crossing the full moon. I aimed a infrared signaler in the plane’s direction, waited a beat and received a infrared response. On Blanco’s second pass the Grumman’s underbelly opened and the bombings begun. Sixteen, twenty-five kilo packages wrapped in fiberglass and strapped with GPS and floatation devices dropped in the water. Two minutes later, while Blanco’s Grumman was heading to a hidden air strip in the Sierra, the timers on the flotation devices expired and bales of cocaine floated up to the surface. During that night expedition, the shrimp boat brought back a lot more then shrimp. The catch marked a milestone in my life of crime. Signifying the greatest catch up till that point. One of the longshoremen, a short, squat man with strong Norteno features said, “Thank God we made this catch. “His tone went from one of praise to one of dread. “God forbids Don Juan or any of the narcos ever finds out about our double dealings. “ The other longshoreman whispered, “No worry Emanuel, I offered up a Pacifico and a cigar- a Cuban- to Saint Malverde. Asking him to make sure Don Juan never finds out. “ I stored the name Don Juan to memory. I held Lala close, comforting her anxieties with a neck massage in the sea breeze, under moonlight, inwardly hoping Don Juan never got wind of our involvements.

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luckybouquetnachous-blog · 7 years ago

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New Hampshire Is Extremely Beneficial For A Vacation

If you have never heard of Caborca, Mexico, don't be stunned. Think about how you are going to get pleasure from your free time and make plans to visit locations you might be interesting in. Print out or jot down notes so that if you find yourself on vacation you are ready to make the most of your holidays. So when you are deciding which Mexico trip package to take, you'll want to discover out what the climate will probably be like in that area, and discover out what there may be to do fro household actions, or romantic couples. It has a number of restaurant, golf, tennis, mountain biking, snorkeling, scuba diving, horseback using, and all the things that you have to do while enjoying your time and travels. The choices for seaside resorts in Mexico are extra varied than you'd think about. As soon as issued, the passport card can be legitimate for the same period of time (10 years for adults, 5 years for children) as a typical passport ebook. While they might intensify abruptly and sometimes they travel quickly, hurricanes don't abruptly spring up without warning. They're believed to be the artists behind the mysterious petroglyphs, virtually 2000 years ago. Excursions by historic downtown Puebla are given on double-decker busses letting vacationers benefit from the metropolis's structure, museums, and monuments without the difficulty of finding these places on their very own. With Prohibition in the 1920's the wine making died out, to not get began once more until 50 years later in the late 1970's. Since a few of the most popular cruise destinations are positioned in hurricane-susceptible waters, cruise ships monitor so-referred to as "weather occasions" very carefully. Know that if a cruise ship does change plans due to the climate, it is not a decision that's made evenly. An fascinating fact about Cancun is that previously it was just a deserted place. When a giant area rock slammed into Earth sixty five million years in the past on the northwestern nook of the Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico, not solely did it wipe out loads of dinosaurs, it left behind a huge crater and, inside that pock, an even greater mystery. You'll get to see some marine life in the Santa Maris bay. This is only one excellent way you could appreciate a cost-effective getaway with a higher value. Our daughter grew up with periodic visits to Casa Santiago. The Blessed Sacrament was hidden inside radios, drugs cupboards, behind books in a bookcase, in a number of the very unlikely locations with the intention to avert the Lord falling into the flawed hands. Tulum is saltwater flats and deep sea fishing, kayaking lagoons and a growing Mecca of yoga; it's mostly green and pure with the 1.three million acres of protected Sian Ka'an wetlands with protected low influence access. These activities often included guided excursions that require horseback driving, kayaking, mountaineering, or biking. It is usually a good idea to photocopy your passport (the page with the picture on it), cruise tickets, and some other paperwork. cheap flights sydney to brisbane It's also a fantastic place to purchase affordable art items and souvenirs through the weekly Saturday Artwork Market. A Cabo cruise is one thing totally different to the standard energetic Cabo San Lucas activities. Properly, I'm certain after reading this article you may absolutely develop an interest in these beaches. Bonita Springs has among the most beautiful beaches in all of Florida and it's no surprise, since the word "bonita" in Spanish translates to mean just that. The U.S. State Department has issued a journey alert for residents touring to sure components of Mexico. It's widely suspected that police target vacationers in rental vehicles, particularly these en path to the airport. If you want the very best deal simply stroll 1-2 blocks away from the Zocalo in any course and find a native restaurant. Many people assume hiking or biking by means of tough terrain, but that isn't what Mexico guided excursions are all about. Once you cross the border from San Diego into Mexico, you cross straight into Tijuana. If the well being traveler picks an excellent hospital, it is rather doubtless that he or she will be able to have the visitor stay inside the constructing. Many of these brokers and businesses have traveled to Mexico themselves - all of the while enjoying the motels, attractions, and different luxuries offered on this country. This new requirement may also affect sure international nationals who currently aren't required to current a passport to travel to the United States. We were actually extra intrigued with some of the places in the ship that this tour takes you such because the engine room and an indoor swimming area, all sparsely lit to make them as spooky as potential. The truth is, the realm has attracted thousands of surfers and crusing fanatics over time, along with the hordes of school college students from the U.S. who have made Baja California their unofficial dwelling away from house throughout spring break. Cash from these tours go to the village fund to construct a highway. So forgive me lovely locations of the world for sharing a little bit about a spot called paradise, Tulum. Yellowstone Park: Yellowstone is one of the places that you simply just cannot actually recognize till you've got seen it for your self. In fact, many people who've cosmetic surgical procedure in Puerto Vallarta are capable of be up and walking around the city's famous Malecon boardwalk within a couple of days, having fun with the sunshine and vacationing. In the Western Hemisphere, there are rich deposits of amber found in the Dominican Republic, Mexico, and the state of New Jersey. The folks go to the graves or mausoleums of their relatives and so they place elaborate floral arrangements and candles on them. 7. Cancún - While some top metropolis officers of this well-known vacationer destination have been tied to drug gangs, visitors have nothing to be afraid of right here. The gorgeous seashores round Puerto Juarez are excellent for snorkelling, scuba diving or simply lazing underneath the clear blue sunny sky. With their four-year completion of this system, some graduates seek additional education in a residency or fellowship program for a year or two. You will also by no means have a problem knowing the place to stay as there are many resorts and seashore resorts found all over the space. There are lots of different excursions you possibly can take depending on what you like to do. You may go explore Mayan ruins, take a zipper-line through the jungle or snorkel in underwater caves with sea turtles. (1) Le Meridien Cancun Resort and Spa is likely one of the most popular seashore resorts in all of Mexico. After you educate your self a bit extra on the Mexican marketplace you additionally want to find out what kind of support your new found prospects will need in Mexico. There are even more family pleasant places for you and your family to spend their Holiday Vacation. ATV jungle tour guides are widespread, however they'll solely be found in restricted areas. San Miguel de Allende actually is a lovely place with amazing 17th-century structure, botanic gardens and many beautiful guesthouses. 5. Tacos Campechanos - These are tacos made with meat, Mexican chorizo, salsa and potatoes. Particularly if you're touring to Cancun, Acapulco, Ixtapa, or any of the many different trip kind locations in Mexico, trip bundle deals are properly worth exploring. Some have made us really feel like we are their long-misplaced American cousins who have finally come home to the place we belong. The best time goes in April and kick start with the Vintner's Pageant, which exerts a pull on lots of of wine mongers from throughout countryside and homes all the wine producers at one place. The security executive states the next crime related incidents have been reported throughout one week in April 2011 in numerous Mexican states. Another kind of package is the guided tour, usually of a number of cities and typically with resorts and transportation included. Seashores, jungles, and deserts are all located within a sort distance of each other in the Acapulco space. What most people consider as Mexican food elsewhere on this planet, really is New Mexican meals. The capital might be performed on a budget for a handful of dollars a day as a backpacker, and throwing in a number of more dollars will get the traveler an improve to raised facilities with quality service. Located within the oriental a part of the Yucatan Peninsula, the Mayan Riviera goes from Puerto Morelos, (32 kilometres south of Cancun's international airport), up to the picturesque fishermen's village referred to as Punta Allen, already contained in the Sian Ka'an's Biosphere. This is the locations the place aficionado's of wine, beer and spirits can enjoy on the zeal of ingesting they usually know what is being served and mixed for the concoctions and their finer elements of the drink being sipped on. Right here persons are known as ‘drinkies', the place there is tradition of wine and beer. In fact if you want to get round at a slower tempo, you possibly can always go for a hike on the various trails in the San Pedro Martir National Park or within the Sierra Lagunas. And thankfully, Mexico's rising economy and urbanism nonetheless have not reached the traditional states in Mexico that I discover so compelling. Though well being travelers will find that almost all medical travel destinations offer weight loss surgical procedure, Mexico surgeons are likely to recommend Tijuana for this specific type of process. It's due to Massive Brother Sweden that among the home mates that have stayed in the confines of the Large Brother home actually acquire the superstar way of life they wished and yearned for. Subsequent is Williamsburg, Virginia which is great for educational enjoyable, you can cease by Colonial Williamsburg, Busch Gardens Europe theme park and Water Country USA. Pork is often used in dishes served with a candy-and-bitter sauce and you will notice the usage of limes, lemons and oranges added to fish dishes with crab, octopus and squid to provide a style that's 'out of this world'. The hotel is stocked with fashionable lodging, but the structural designs of the hotel takes you again into time. According to fable, a band of angels appeared earlier than one of the founders of Puebla, Bishop Julian Garcés, instructing him on where to find the brand new city. The Yucatan tours and expeditions are protected learning experiences designed for anybody who wants to have fun exploring and enjoying the native pure and cultural wonders. Ryan Murdock's pursuit of journey literature has taken him to among the world's most unforgiving locations, together with Mongolia, Tibet, Nicaragua, and North Korea, by Russian jeep, motorbike, dugout canoe, horse and camel. Simply speaking about cruise vacations is an efficient option to see who else is interested within the topic. It has been mentioned elsewhere (see Franz and Havens) that there are many ways to get around when in nation. Most foreign travelers prefer the deluxe buses or the primary-class ones, which usually provide motion pictures, comfy seating, rest rooms, and an easy schedule of many departures a day. It's the largest complicated in retail and entertainment, an indoor aquarium, imagination heart and under water world and is in Bloomington. However as costs have continued to rise, thousands of Americans have been traveling abroad for real medical conditions, such as knee replacements, by-cross operations, coronary heart valve replacements, and different serious issues. So, which was your favourite Mexican beach resort option? The passport will likely be comparable in appears and measurement to a drivers license and can make for quick identification and recognition at all border crossings. They show much more respect than we Gringos deserve considering how we've historically handled Mexicans and still do to at the present time. Isla Contoy is considered an important nesting place of sea birds in all the Mexican Caribbean. While in Cancun, I bear in mind some tourists commenting of the small dimension of the beaches in front of their hotels. If you're rushing, your entire, thousand-mile journey may be performed in three days. The lodges will not be the perfect identified, but generally they're. Grasp about a few nights in some windmill lodge of the Solvang a Danish-themed town, and thereafter drive north to the Napa Valley and Sonoma countryside which centers tons of of wineries.

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deniscollins · 8 years ago

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A Murder Posted on Facebook Prompts Outrage and Questions Over Responsibility

Facebook has nearly two billion users and encourages users to upload photographs and videos, which increase use and advertising revenues. But for two hours a killing was posted and viewed many times on Facebook before taking it down, and the length of time it took upset many people. Other murders and sexual assaults have appeared on Facebook. The company relies on a combination of artificial intelligence, human moderators and alerts from users to flag objectionable content. If many people report an instance of offensive or harmful content at once, Facebook’s algorithms will show the post to a global team of human content moderators, who will review it and decide if it violates Facebook’s terms of service. If you were a Facebook executive, how would you respond to this public criticism?

On Monday, the authorities nationwide were looking for Mr. Stephens, 37, with the police as far away as Philadelphia saying they had received calls about sightings of him in that area.

Now Facebook is facing a backlash over the shooting video, as it grapples with its role in policing content on its global platform.

“It was a horrific crime — one that has no place on Facebook, and goes against our policies and everything we stand for,” Mr. Osofsky wrote.

The problems have been compounded by the issue of fake news — false stories across the social network that some Facebook users have taken as true and that may have swayed thinking in events like elections. Mr. Zuckerberg has had to address the fake news problem several times in recent months, including working more closely with fact-checking organizations and beginning efforts to teach Facebook users how to discern what is or is not a real news story. For Mr. Zuckerberg, the timing of the shooting video could not be worse. He is scheduled to appear on Tuesday in San Jose, Calif., at Facebook’s annual developer conference, where the company typically focuses its energy on its technology.

“Facebook does, however, work well with law enforcement, as is clear from the ongoing investigation and their active support in it,” he said.

In a second video that was posted on Facebook, Mr. Stephens explained his actions by saying, “I’m at the point where I snapped.”

#Facebook

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