Wednesday, October 1, 2014


News Clips For The Day


http://news.yahoo.com/texas-patient-confirmed-as-first-ebola-case-diagnosed-in-us-205031312.html

Texas patient confirmed as first Ebola case diagnosed in US
By Jason Sickles, Yahoo
September 30, 2014

DALLAS – A Texas man just back from West Africa has been confirmed as having the first case of Ebola to be diagnosed in the U.S.

Authorities with the Centers for Disease Control revealed the finding Tuesday, two days after the unidentified patient arrived at a Dallas hospital with suspicious symptoms.

Officials at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas put the man into “strict isolation” and sent a blood specimen to state and federal labs for testing.

The CDC said results show the man has the deadly disease which has been linked to more than 3,000 recent deaths in Africa. According to the World Health Organization, there have been more than 6,500 cases confirmed in Africa, with Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone among the hardest hit.

Dr. Christopher Perkins with the Dallas County health department told reporters that the Texas man didn’t start showing symptoms until he arrived home.

“We know at this time this person was not symptomatic during travel but became symptomatic once arriving here and being home for several days,” said Perkins, according the Dallas Morning News. “So that decreases the threat that might be to the general population.”

The CDC has a team enroute to North Texas to help health officials re-trace the man's contacts since he has been back in the states.

Dr. Thomas Frieden, CDC director, said the man arrived from Liberia on Sept. 20, but didn't start feeling ill until Sept. 24. The man sought medical treatment last Friday before being sent home, but later admitted to the hospital on Sunday.

Ebola is highly contagious and deadly, but only spread through contact with bodily fluids. Dallas County Health and Human Services Director Zachary Thompson spent most of his day trying to calm the fears of North Texans.

“It is easier to get the flu than it is to get the Ebola virus,” Thompson told KTVT-TV. "You have to get it through secretion, blood, that type of transmission. So this is not a situation where you go to the grocery store and you get infected with the virus.”

Ebola symptoms include sudden fever, fatigue and headache. Officials said symptoms may appear anywhere from two days to three weeks after exposure.

Four American aid workers have contracted Ebola in West Africa and been evacuated to the U.S. for treatment since late July. Three of them were released after making full recoveries. A fourth patient arrived in Atlanta on Sept. 9, but spokespersons at Emory University Hospital have said privacy laws prevent the release of an updated condition. On Sunday, a U.S. doctor who had been volunteering in an Ebola clinic in Sierra Leone was brought to the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland as safety precaution after he was exposed to the disease.

In past years Ebola has killed up to 90 percent of those it has infected, but officials say the death rate in the current outbreak is closer to 60 percent due to early treatment.




“Dr. Christopher Perkins with the Dallas County health department told reporters that the Texas man didn’t start showing symptoms until he arrived home. 'We know at this time this person was not symptomatic during travel but became symptomatic once arriving here and being home for several days,' said Perkins, according the Dallas Morning News. 'So that decreases the threat that might be to the general population.' The CDC has a team en route to North Texas to help health officials re-trace the man's contacts since he has been back in the states.... Ebola symptoms include sudden fever, fatigue and headache. Officials said symptoms may appear anywhere from two days to three weeks after exposure.... Four American aid workers have contracted Ebola in West Africa and been evacuated to the U.S. for treatment since late July. Three of them were released after making full recoveries. A fourth patient arrived in Atlanta on Sept. 9, but spokespersons at Emory University Hospital have said privacy laws prevent the release of an updated condition.”

“In past years Ebola has killed up to 90 percent of those it has infected, but officials say the death rate in the current outbreak is closer to 60 percent due to early treatment.” This is the first time I have heard this. Apparently just treating the symptoms can give a greater survival rate from Ebola. That's a good sign, especially as no vaccine is ready for patients who are now sick. I feel fairly secure about the safety of the American public in this particular case in Texas. A case in which the patient did make close contact with others would be more unnerving. Maybe the newly constructed hospitals which the US, French and UK governments sent last week will make a great difference in the survival rate in Africa.





http://abcnews.go.com/Weird/wireStory/harpists-mellow-tone-soothes-apes-st-paul-zoo-25746245

Apes Soothed by Harpist's Mellow Tone
By Jeff Baenen
Associated Press
September 25, 2014

Harpist Terri Tacheny long enjoyed taking her young daughters to Como Zoo in St. Paul, Minnesota, except for the Primate House, where she thought the gorillas, orangutans and monkeys seemed a little lethargic.

Her solution: A little music.

Now Tacheny, 57, a zoo volunteer, plays once a month for an appreciative audience that ambles down to the barrier as soon as Tacheny begins setting up her beautifully carved wooden harp. She's been doing it for nearly a decade.

"I don't speak gorilla, but there's a gorilla purr that occurs when I begin to play. And that's their happy sound," Tacheny said.

As the shimmering sounds of Tacheny's harp drift through the leafy zoo, a male gorilla stares through the fence at the musician, then chews contentedly on vegetation. Families stop to snap pictures.

A therapeutic harpist, Tacheny plays for hospital patients to help them deal with pain and anxiety. She thought if the soothing sounds helped calm humans, it would work for the primates too.

"I would love to see every zoo have a harpist. I think it benefits the animals," said Tacheny, a quick-to-smile woman.

Tami Murphy, a zookeeper at Como, said Tacheny has played for all the animals at the zoo. Some animals appear ambivalent, Murphy said, but the harp music "seems to be a really calming thing for the apes to listen to."

Tacheny says she's never gotten a negative review from her ape audience.

"I've never had anything thrown at me," she said.

Online:
Como Park Zoo and Conservatory: http://www.comozooconservatory.org



https://www.thedodo.com/zoo-gorillas-find-comfort-in-l-548696144.html

Zoo Gorillas Find Comfort In Listening To “Sounds of Nature”
By Stephen Messenger 
13 May 2014

Although they have never been given the chance to live in their wild homeland in Africa, primates held captive at zoos still find solace in listening to the sounds of the jungle.

Researchers studying the effect of music on a group of lowland gorillas at the Buffalo Zoo in New York found that nature sounds, more than classical music or even silence, reduced outward indications of anxiety and stress.

Over the course of several weeks, the gorillas were introduced to three different types of music, played through hidden speakers inside their enclosure: a mix of classical compositions from composer Chopin; songs from the rock band Muse; and tracks from a “Sounds of Nature” compilation. While the sounds were played, researchers watched for tell-tale signs that the animals were stressed -- for example, repetitive behavior like hair-plucking or regurgitation of food.

Interestingly, while this behavior increased by as much as 40 percent when both rock and classical music was played, it actually decreased when sounds resembling their natural habitat played -- even more so than when no sounds were played at all.

“I wasn’t surprised that the natural sounds had a positive effect,” says Susan Margulis, a primatologist who co-authored the study.

Despite being confined to a zoo, the gorillas still find solace in hearing the sounds of their native, natural home.




“Tami Murphy, a zookeeper at Como, said Tacheny has played for all the animals at the zoo. Some animals appear ambivalent, Murphy said, but the harp music 'seems to be a really calming thing for the apes to listen to.'” These two situations, one in which the gorillas had increased anxiety symptoms and the other decreased, are different in one or two ways. First, both rock and a concerto are complex musical sounds, sometimes loud and emotionally stimulating, whereas a harp is only one instrument and an extremely serene sound. Second, in the first zoo experiment the sound was coming from a speaker inside an enclosure with no visual evidence of the origin of the sounds. When the harpist sat just outside the apes' enclosure where they could see her and understand where the sounds were coming from, and perhaps were drawn to the softer and more melodic sounds of a harp, they reacted as though they were at a concert, and sat in the grass watching her. I think simpler music is probably the key. Zoo keepers should try a flautist next. Flutes sound like birds, and the gorillas reacted positively to nature sounds. The human voice singing would probably be calming, too.

Hopefully more zoos will start to use either nature sounds or simple music to make their animals happier. Life in a zoo is too much like life in prison. I'm fascinated with the great apes, but I often feel pity for them when I see them in zoos. I did have one positive encounter with a female gorilla and her baby in the National Zoo at Washington, DC. She had brought her baby up to the glass that separated us and when the human children put their hands up on the glass, the female gorilla put hers up to theirs. It was a lot like the belulga whale in at the Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut who was recently caught on camera playing an extensive game of “Peek a boo” with kids on the other side of the glass. We humans should be interacting with zoo and aquarium animals more, because they are definitely bright enough to enjoy it.

The case of Koko the gorilla and her “mom” Penny Patterson shows that gorillas respond very warmly and intimately to humans when they are accustomed to them. Likewise a similar case is a group of orangutans which are rescued as babies from poachers – baby orangutans are adorable, and they are sold in markets in some Eastern parts of the world as pets. Unfortunately they get really large as adults, and then people want to take them to a zoo.

These orangutans were in a large enclosure where they could climb in the trees freely, but were being fed and taught various things to prepare them to be reintroduced to the wild. This was another of my documentaries. The startling thing about one of the orangs was that she was sitting beside one of the handlers who was washing clothes in a spring, and she took up some of his laundry and started washing it, too. The great apes aren't as intelligent as humans, but they are more intelligent than most other animals, at least in ways like trying to communicate with us or doing the things that we are doing. Psychologists have taught both gorillas and chimpanzees to use ASL to express themselves and interact on testing functions. One chimp in particular named Kanzi responds to a wide variety of commands in spoken English and also used ASL to communicate. Koko made the news a couple of years ago for using ASL to tell Penny that she had a pain equal to a 9 on a scale of 1 to 10 in her mouth. They put her to sleep and a dentist extracted the decayed tooth. That was clearly not “monkey see monkey do,” but intelligent use of language.

Koko and another gorilla at the Gorilla Foundation named Michael both were taught American Sign Language (ASL) and, interestingly, painting. Another documentary showed an elephant with a paint brush in her trunk painting on a canvas, so it isn't just apes that are highly intelligent. Paintings by both of Penny's gorillas are on sale at the Gorilla Foundation's website. Penny asked Koko and Michael what they had painted, and they used ASL to tell her. Koko painted two recognizable things, one the head of Penny's border collie and another a bouquet of flowers. The border collie consisted of a bold, wide swipe of black paint, curving upward to form the ears with a complementary stroke of white paint for the muzzle. The bouquet was round daubs of three or four colors grouped in the center of the paper, showing a dozen or so “flowers.” Nobody coached her or taught her what to do. Penny just gave her the tempera colors, paint brush and paper.

It doesn't surprise me that apes are attracted to beautiful and calming music enough to leave their feeding area and come down to sit near the harpist. Even gorillas in the wild have shown themselves to be accepting to the many groups of ecotourists who come into the jungle with their guides and sit near the gorillas, watching them feed and interact. Gorillas have been known to make overtures to the people, especially in the case of those scientists who study them such as Dian Fossey. One young male whom she befriended reached out and touched her hand. Gorillas In The Mist is a great book, if you haven't read it. Sadly Fossey was killed by poachers. Detractors who object to that kind of science, such as certain churches, put out the story that the gorillas had killed her. That's very sad. Poaching of different kinds is an ongoing problem in Africa, so often for some reason like the fact that rhinoceros horn is believed in China to be an aphrodesiac for men. It's hard to get the population in general around the world to really care about the growing extinction of our wealth of animal life.





Californians: Plastic bag ban is no big deal – CBS
By KIM PETERSON MONEYWATCH October 1, 2014, 5:15 AM

California will begin phasing out single-use plastic bags at stores statewide over the next two years, a move environmentalists are hailing as historic and significant.

For many of the state's residents, however, it will just be business as usual. That's because more than 100 local plastic bag bans are already in place in the state, including in San Francisco and Los Angeles. People across wide swaths of California already bring their own bags to shop, paying fees of 10 cents to 25 cents for a paper bag or not using bags at all.

As a result, grocers in the state aren't expecting shock waves once the ban goes into effect.

"I think it'll be fine," Gabrielle Stadem, marketing manager for New Earth Market in Yuba City, told CBS MoneyWatch. "People will come around pretty quickly. It's the natural progression for all of California and hopefully at some point the entire U.S."

Stadem said her market has never offered plastic bags. The environmental harm from doing so was just too great, she added. Customers adjusted to the policy with no problem.

In fact, many of the local jurisdictions that have implemented similar bans say grocery stores and shoppers responded positively -- although perhaps not immediately.

"It didn't happen overnight," Laura Kasa, executive director for ocean conservation group Save Our Shores, told CBS MarketWatch. The group is based in Santa Cruz County, which banned bags in 2012.

Kasa said her group watched shoppers leaving stores before the ban and found that only 10 percent of them brought their own bags. A month after the ban took effect, anywhere from 60 percent to 80 percent of shoppers had their own bags in hand or decided not to take any bag.

Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation Tuesday that would slowly phase out plastic bags at grocery stores, convenience stores and pharmacies. Businesses that don't comply with the law could receive fines of up to $5,000.

But groups of retailers and grocery stores support the law, saying it's better to have a statewide standard than a patchwork of different rules and fees.

How will consumers respond to the ban? Surveys across California show that once a bag ban is in place, reusable bag usage increases by 40 percent, according to a report last year by Equinox Center, an environmental think tank in San Diego. But paper bag use increases as well, rising from 3 percent to 16 percent.

Environmentalists have crusaded for years to ban plastic bags in the state. The plastics that go into most single-use plastic bags take between 400 and 1,000 years to break down, according to the Equinox report. Across the country, only about 5 percent of plastic bags are recycled.

Could California lead the way for an eventual nationwide ban? Ireland, Denmark and Australia have all implemented a bag fee and have seen dramatic reductions in plastic bag usage.

Kasa at Save Our Shores said more states would have to pass bag bans before the federal government would get on board. California was not ready to pass a statewide ban years ago, but the prohibitions by dozens of localities helped make a statewide ban possible.

Added Kasa: "If more states can make it happen, then that will tip the federal government to do something."




“In fact, many of the local jurisdictions that have implemented similar bans say grocery stores and shoppers responded positively -- although perhaps not immediately. 'It didn't happen overnight,' Laura Kasa, executive director for ocean conservation group Save Our Shores, told CBS MarketWatch. The group is based in Santa Cruz County, which banned bags in 2012. Kasa said her group watched shoppers leaving stores before the ban and found that only 10 percent of them brought their own bags. A month after the ban took effect, anywhere from 60 percent to 80 percent of shoppers had their own bags in hand or decided not to take any bag.... Businesses that don't comply with the law could receive fines of up to $5,000. But groups of retailers and grocery stores support the law, saying it's better to have a statewide standard than a patchwork of different rules and fees.... The plastics that go into most single-use plastic bags take between 400 and 1,000 years to break down, according to the Equinox report. Across the country, only about 5 percent of plastic bags are recycled.... Ireland, Denmark and Australia have all implemented a bag fee and have seen dramatic reductions in plastic bag usage.”

About a year ago I bought two reusable cloth bags and I have consistently forgotten to put them in the front seat of my car. Having them in the back seat doesn't work any better than if they are at home on the kitchen floor. I just now put the cloth bag on the door handle to carry down to the car, and when I get down there I'll move the other one out of the back seat of the car. Then I will carry the many bags that are collected by the door down to the car to take to Publix's recycling bins. Great. I've done my duty.





Former convict with a gun rode elevator with Obama
By LINDSEY BOERMA CBS NEWS September 30, 2014, 6:17 PM

A security contractor convicted thrice for charges of assault and battery was allowed on an elevator with President Obama earlier this month, CBS News has confirmed - adding another tally mark to a score of headaches that have recently besieged the United States Secret Service.

The Washington Post reports that the incident occurred during the president's Sept. 16 trip to Atlanta, where he discussed the U.S. response to the Ebola outbreak before the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. After the contractor refused their requests to stop using a phone camera to videotape Mr. Obama in the elevator, agents ran a database check and unveiled his criminal history.

Informed of the agency's concern, the contractor's employer fired him immediately and demanded he turn over his gun, which Secret Service did not realize he had during his encounter with the president.

It's hapless timing for the agency, which has come under heightened scrutiny this month after an armed man managed to scale the White House fence, sprint across the lawn and make it all the way through the doors of the North Portico and into the East Room before being apprehended. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Tuesday grilled Secret Service Director Julia Pierson about the incident and several other high-profile security failures.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, argued during the hearing that the recent debacles call into question Pierson's leadership. Speaking with the Post about the latest whistleblower report, the hard-right conservative drove that home: "Words aren't strong enough for the outrage I feel for the safety of the president and his family.

"...You have a convicted felon within arms reach of the president and they never did a background check," Chaffetz went on. "[Mr. Obama's] life was in danger. This country would be a different world today if he had pulled out his gun."




“After the contractor refused their requests to stop using a phone camera to videotape Mr. Obama in the elevator, agents ran a database check and unveiled his criminal history. Informed of the agency's concern, the contractor's employer fired him immediately and demanded he turn over his gun, which Secret Service did not realize he had during his encounter with the president....

I notice the article didn't say what the contractor was going to do with the film he was shooting. At least he was fired “immediately” from his agency. It seems to me he should be investigated for spying. I don't like any of these contractors who have been in the news for a good fifteen or twenty years, and have given trouble before. The CIA with such contractors, that time from Blackwater, abused and tortured prisoners of war at Abu Ghraib. The organizations that hire them don't properly vet them or supervise them, and worse still the US government hasn't done it either.

Using contractors is thought to be cheaper than using regular army personnel, so it is still apparently going on. Congress needs to bite the bullet and spend more money to avoid using those people. The military can save money in other ways, such as by not giving away perfectly usable weapons and other equipment to city police forces around the country and then spending more money on buying new things. The Secret Service, too, should have checked this man's records and in my opinion, not used contractors. It's shameful.





Hong Kong Protesters Vow To Step Up Pro-Democracy Campaign – NPR
by SCOTT NEUMAN
October 01, 2014

Protesters shout slogans outside a flag-raising ceremony that Hong Kong's embattled leader, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, attended in Hong Kong on Wednesday.

A deadline set by Hong Kong's pro-democracy demonstrators for the territory's leader to step down has passed without his resignation, triggering a new phase to the protests that have brought parts of the Asian financial hub to a standstill.

Protesters, who took to the streets by the tens of thousands last week to demand the open election of Hong Kong's next leader, heckled the territory's Beijing-appointed chief executive, Leung Chun-ying, during a flag-raising ceremony to mark China's National Day.

NPR's Anthony Kuhn, reporting from Hong Kong, tells Morning Edition that the unpopular leader has been derisively nicknamed "689" by many people in the city in a reference to the fact that he was hand-picked by a committee of 689 Chinese professionals with strong ties to the Beijing government.

As part of the agreement handing the former British colony over to China in 1997, Beijing was supposed to allow open elections for the territory's leader, but in recent months, the Chinese leadership has said it will tightly control the list of nominees.

With Leung standing firm, some of the student-led protesters have vowed to occupy key government buildings — a move that would up the ante in what many view as a dangerous game of chicken with Chinese authority.

The South China Morning Post reports: "At a news conference this afternoon they gave [Leung] until Thursday to step down, vowing to occupy important government buildings if he failed to do so. Their actions, if carried out, would almost inevitably lead to physical confrontation with security agencies."

Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal, citing a person familiar with the matter, says Leung has adopted a wait-it-out strategy, hoping that the inconvenience caused by the protests would eventually cause a shift in public opinion against the activists.

The Journal reports:

" 'Beijing has set a line to C.Y. You cannot open fire,' this person said. 'You must halt it in a peaceful way.'

"The thinking behind the tactic is to resolve the standoff by peaceful means and comes after a move on Sunday to deploy tear gas backfired on the government.

" 'The strategy is to control the situation and let them occupy until a time that the inconvenience caused to others in Hong Kong will swing the public opinion against Occupy or pressure the organizers to call it off,' this person said. 'They can wait to a time the public opinion will swing.' "

NPR's Kuhn says the backlash from police use of teargas and pepper spray over the weekend to try to break up the protests "stung" Hong Kong authorities.
Now, he says, "they've pulled back all the riot police — they are nowhere to be seen here, so it's unlikely that there will be a quick government responses. But, this is a city that thrives on business and it's happened before those protesters have outlived their welcome."




“A deadline set by Hong Kong's pro-democracy demonstrators for the territory's leader to step down has passed without his resignation, triggering a new phase to the protests that have brought parts of the Asian financial hub to a standstill.... NPR's Anthony Kuhn, reporting from Hong Kong, tells Morning Edition that the unpopular leader has been derisively nicknamed "689" by many people in the city in a reference to the fact that he was hand-picked by a committee of 689 Chinese professionals with strong ties to the Beijing government.... With Leung standing firm, some of the student-led protesters have vowed to occupy key government buildings — a move that would up the ante in what many view as a dangerous game of chicken with Chinese authority. The South China Morning Post reports: 'At a news conference this afternoon they gave [Leung] until Thursday to step down, vowing to occupy important government buildings if he failed to do so. Their actions, if carried out, would almost inevitably lead to physical confrontation with security agencies.'... Now, he says, 'they've pulled back all the riot police — they are nowhere to be seen here, so it's unlikely that there will be a quick government responses. But, this is a city that thrives on business and it's happened before those protesters have outlived their welcome.'”

So everybody waits to see who blinks. If the population of Hong Kong is firmly behind the protesters, Leung will have to step down, or the Beijing government will step in and violently put down the rebellion. I do hope they don't. China and the US, willingly or not, are allies in economic and some cultural ways. I have read that Beijing is involved in keeping North Korea from causing a war, which could be a nuclear war. Likewise, Britain is tied up economically with Hong Kong businesses, which could end up in a loss of those businesses to Beijing. With so much tension around the world at this time, a small war could become a large one very fast. Beijing promised to set up free elections in the HKSAR in an international agreement with Britain. Wars usually start over economic issues, with cultural events playing a part. This may be no exception.

See the following in Wikipedia: Sino-British Joint Declaration, From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

“The Sino-British Joint Declaration, formally known as the Joint Declaration of the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Government of the People's Republic of China on the Question of Hong Kong, was signed by Prime Ministers Zhao Ziyang of the People's Republic of China (PRC) and Margaret Thatcher of the United Kingdom (UK) on behalf of their respective governments on 19 December 1984 in Beijing.[1]

The Declaration entered into force with the exchange of instruments of ratification on 27 May 1985, and was registered by the PRC and UK governments at the United Nations on 12 June 1985. In the Joint Declaration, the PRC Government stated that it had decided to resume the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong (including Hong Kong Island, Kowloon, and the New Territories) with effect from 1 July 1997, and the UK Government declared that it would hand over Hong Kong to the PRC with effect from 1 July 1997. The PRC Government also declared its basic policies regarding Hong Kong in the document.

In accordance with the "one country, two systems" principle agreed between the UK and the PRC, the socialist system of PRC would not be practised in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region(HKSAR), and Hong Kong's previous capitalist system and its way of life would remain unchanged for a period of 50 years until 2047. The Joint Declaration provides that these basic policies should be stipulated in the Hong Kong Basic Law and that the socialist system and socialist policies shall not be practised in HKSAR.

The background of the Sino-British Joint Declaration was the pending expiration of the lease of the New Territories on 1 July 1997.[2] The lease was negotiated between the UK and the Guangxu Emperor of China, and was for a period of 99 years starting from 1 July 1898 under the Second Convention of Peking.  In the early 1980s the territory and its business community grew concerned about the future of Hong Kong....  Upon his return, MacLehose attempted to allay investors' worries about the scheduled reversion, but reiterated that the PRC asserted its intention to regain sovereignty over Hong Kong.[4] The first formal negotiations began with chairman Deng Xiaoping of the PRC during the visit of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Margaret Thatcher, to China in September 1982.[4]

As a result, the two sides discussed possible measures besides continued British administration, and came up with the concept of Hong Kong as a Special Administration Region of the PRC. In April 1984, the two sides concluded the initial discussion of these matters, and arranged that Hong Kong would retain a high degree of autonomy under Chinese sovereignty with the preservation of the maintained lifestyle in Hong Kong.[

Between 1985 and 2000 the Joint Liaison Group held 47 plenary meetings whereof 18 were held in Hong Kong, 15 in London and 14 in Beijing.

One of the main achievements had been to ensure the continuity of the independent judiciary in Hong Kong, including agreements in the areas of law of Merchant Shipping, Civil Aviation, Nuclear Material, Whale Fisheries, Submarine Telegraph, Outer Space and many others. Furthermore it agreed to a network of bilateral agreements between Hong Kong and other countries. Within those agreements were reached on the continued application of about 200 international conventions to the HKSAR after 30 June 1997. Hong Kong should also continue to participate in various international organisations after the handover.

Pressures from the mainland government were also apparent, for example in 2000, after the election of pro-independence candidate Chen Shui-bian as Taiwan's president, a senior mainland official in Hong Kong warned journalists not to report those Taiwan independence news. Another senior official advised businessmen not to do business with pro-independence Taiwanese.[13]

With this and other changes,[13] ten years after the return, in 2007, The Guardian wrote that on the one hand, "nothing has changed since the handover to China 10 years ago",[14] but this was in comparison to the situation before the last governor Chris Patten had introduced democratic reforms three years before the handover. Now, the Guardian continued, a chance for democracy had been lost as Hong Kong had just begun to develop three vital elements for a western-style democracy (the rule of law, official accountability and a political class outside the one-party system) but the Sino–British deal had prevented any of these changes to continue.”





Mexico Pays To Help Its Citizens Avoid Deportation From The U.S. – NPR
by HANSI LO WANG
September 30, 2014

Mexico is helping some of its citizens apply for a controversial immigration program in the U.S. called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA.

Since the Obama administration created the program in 2012, more than 580,000 unauthorized immigrants brought to the U.S. as minors have received temporary relief from deportation and been given work permits that last for at least two years.

But 45 percent of those who are eligible for DACA have not applied, and the cost may be holding some back. Immigrants have to pay a total of $465 to the Department of Homeland Security for fees related to the work permit and for required fingerprinting.

Mexican consulates around the U.S. have been paying those fees for some applicants through a little-known program for Mexican citizens with financial need.

Money A Big Factor

Before applying for DACA, Tania Guzman was worried about revealing to the U.S. government that she left Mexico City and crossed the border illegally when she was 7 years old.

Now 30, Guzman says she also worried about the cost, especially after she learned she would have to pay at least a couple of thousand dollars for immigration attorneys to help prepare her DACA application.

"It was a big factor," says Guzman, who works as a part-time personal assistant and baby sitter in Los Angeles. "It's a lot of money, and I was struggling."

She finally managed to apply last October after her lawyer from Public Counsel, a pro bono law firm based in California, told her she qualified for financial assistance from the Mexican Consulate in Los Angeles. Since 2012, that consulate has set aside $250,000 to help, so far, more than 260 Mexican citizens apply for DACA.

Guzman, who was granted deferred action in May, says she paid $50. The rest of her attorney's and application fees were covered by Mexico.

"We are here [in the U.S.] basically not doing anything for our country, I will say. So it's a great thing to know that even though you're not in Mexico, you still get help from them," Guzman says.

Helping Mexicans Wherever They Are

The Mexican Embassy in Washington, D.C., does not keep track of how many DACA applications the consulates have funded nationwide, according to Julian Escutia, head of the embassy's consular coordination and Hispanic affairs section.

Escutia, who oversees national programs for Mexico's 50 consulates around the U.S., stresses that financial assistance for Mexican citizens applying for DACA is limited and based on need.

"This is on a case-by-case basis," he explained in an interview at the embassy. "We are not in the position of assisting all of them financially."

Paying for DACA applications, he added, is just one way Mexican consulates are trying to support Mexican citizens living in the U.S.

"If it's a program that helps youth to work in this country, well, that helps our nationals, and that helps us," he said.

When asked why Mexico is helping its citizens find ways to stay in the U.S., Escutia said that is not the Mexican government's main objective.

"Our main objective is the well-being of our nationals wherever they are," he said. "So what we want for them is that they are successful and really continue contributing to this country [the U.S.]."

An official with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which reviews DACA applications, told NPR that foreign governments are not restricted from providing filing fees because the agency has "no way of knowing where any fees might have originated."

About 80 percent of immigrants applying for DACA come from Mexico, according to USCIS. Among the other top five countries of origin, neither El Salvador nor South Korea has provided financial assistance to applicants, while the embassies of Guatemala and Honduras did not return requests for comment by deadline.

Raising 'An Eyebrow Or Two'

DACA has sparked heated debate in Congress, with House Republicans questioning whether President Obama had the constitutional authority to enact the program. In August, they passed a measure to end the DACA program, which was also the focus of a lawsuit by a group of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

Escutia said the controversy about DACA was a "domestic issue" for the U.S. to sort out.

"We are not entering into the political debate about DACA," he said. "It's one option that is available to our nationals, and if they choose to apply for it, we are certainly happy to help them."

Mexico's support for DACA applicants may seem counterintuitive, says Emily Edmonds-Poli, a professor who teaches Mexican politics at the University of San Diego, but she said it shows that the Mexican government is acknowledging a decades-long migration trend that led to 9 percent of people born in Mexico now living in the U.S.

That has driven Mexico to build better relations with Mexicans abroad in hopes of maintaining remittance flows and other cross-border economic activity.

"I think the message that it's trying to send is that the Mexican government supports its population living in the U.S.," Edmonds-Poli says. "I don't think that that is the message that will be received in the U.S."




“Mexico is helping some of its citizens apply for a controversial immigration program in the U.S. called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. Since the Obama administration created the program in 2012, more than 580,000 unauthorized immigrants brought to the U.S. as minors have received temporary relief from deportation and been given work permits that last for at least two years. But 45 percent of those who are eligible for DACA have not applied, and the cost may be holding some back. Immigrants have to pay a total of $465 to the Department of Homeland Security for fees related to the work permit and for required fingerprinting. Mexican consulates around the U.S. have been paying those fees for some applicants through a little-known program for Mexican citizens with financial need.... Guzman, who was granted deferred action in May, says she paid $50. The rest of her attorney's and application fees were covered by Mexico. 'We are here [in the U.S.] basically not doing anything for our country, I will say. So it's a great thing to know that even though you're not in Mexico, you still get help from them,' Guzman says.... Escutia, who oversees national programs for Mexico's 50 consulates around the U.S., stresses that financial assistance for Mexican citizens applying for DACA is limited and based on need. 'This is on a case-by-case basis," he explained in an interview at the embassy. 'We are not in the position of assisting all of them financially.'... About 80 percent of immigrants applying for DACA come from Mexico, according to USCIS. Among the other top five countries of origin, neither El Salvador nor South Korea has provided financial assistance to applicants, while the embassies of Guatemala and Honduras did not return requests for comment by deadline.... In August, they [House Republicans] passed a measure to end the DACA program, which was also the focus of a lawsuit by a group of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.... That has driven Mexico to build better relations with Mexicans abroad in hopes of maintaining remittance flows and other cross-border economic activity.”

“Remittance flows and other cross-border economic activity” is possibly Mexico's main incentive to pay these application fees. This subject was mentioned a month or so ago when the fact that El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala were in favor of their people coming to the US and then sending part of their pay home to their families. Apparently the amount of money immigrants send home is a significant amount economically. A man I know who married a Filipino woman said she does the same thing. They don't seem to me to be making very much money, but they scrimp and save so that they are able to share it with their family. It's astounding, and even admirable, but it somehow seems that they are cheating the US economy, though of course they pay income and social security taxes, so what they want to do with their money is their business.

Nonetheless, I don't like to see those governments encouraging their people to walk across the border. The good news in the last couple of months is that Mexico has started closing its southern border to the groups of migrants who try to make it through, so they're doing something toward solving the immigration problem, and the other governments have begun trying to stop the migration as well. They need to improve the lives of the people there, basically, and if they need international aid to do that, I would be for the US giving them some help.

Likewise if we could do something to help stop the massive amount of drug abuse in this country everyone would be better off. The Honduran president recently said that "the root cause" of the overweening power of the drug lords down there, which makes the common people's lives full of daily danger, is our people's heavy abuse of drugs. Our use of street drugs is making drug lords richer and richer every day. That would involve a large scale effort to treat drug users here, making it a public health issue rather than a crime, but perhaps mandating that the users get treatment.

I do think that selling drugs should be a crime, but being addicted is a health matter. It really is at epidemic proportions here, and not always among the “down and out” population either. In fact, it takes a pretty large amount of money to be able to afford drugs, especially street drugs. The person who springs to my mind immediately is Rush Limbaugh. He was addicted to pain medication which involves the cooperation of an unscrupulous doctor, but it's a part of the overall addiction problem. I've heard no more about him since he made the news, so maybe he has kicked the habit.