Foreign aid: best value for your buck

As every American has an idea on how to deal with the challenges of a balanced federal budget, some suggest that U.S. foreign aid should be trimmed, if not eliminated, as wasteful spending.
 
My late husband worked 25 years in the U.S. Foreign Service, serving in Bangladesh, the Dominican Republic, Panama, Bolivia, Guatemala, the Republic of Upper Volta and Nicaragua.
 
I can tell you that foreign aid is far from wasteful spending, and indeed it’s probably that one part of the federal budget where taxpayers get full return on their money.
 
There are misconceptions about how much of the federal budget is devoted to foreign aid. Many even suggest is up to 25 percent.
 
According to the government website foreignassistance.gov, the federal government disburses about $58 billion a year in foreign assistance through more than 20 agencies. The U.S. Agency for International Development roughly manages $37 billion, less than one-half of 1 percent of the federal budget.
 
Federal spending abroad is crucial to help maintain our leadership in the world while furthering our foreign policy interests in developing democratic governments that in turn create the basis for a free market economy.
 
Those who decry U.S. assistance as wasteful contradict this nation’s long history of helping other nations through programs that alleviate poverty while contributing to health and disease prevention, literacy and small business development, all of which is beneficial to the United States.
 
Spending 1 percent of the federal budget to fulfill these goals is certainly my taxpayer money well spent.

I love my mango tree

I am in the midst of mango season in my back yard. 
 
I got my mango tree in 1992 at Walmart during a tropical fruit sale. The poor bud looked like a fallen branch of a dying tree when I planted it. On windy days it would dangerously bend all the way to the ground and come back up like a spring only to bend again at the will of a breeze.
 
I dreaded a summer storm.
 
It took at least four years for it to grow enough to be called a tree, having to fight Florida's cold spells in the winter, and little or too much rain in the summer.
 
Then one summer, a gust of wind in a tropical storm cut its young trunk in half. You could see the broken limb sticking out lifeless from the ground.
 
But the next summer I noticed some fresh leaves hatching from the otherwise dead stick. The miracle of nature I thought, and left it alone.
 
The tree took off like crazy after that. It seemed as if in agony and hurt, it took its time to heal and when ready, blossomed with vengeance. I never put one ounce of fertilizer on it. The tree did it all by itself.
 
I would witness in awe from the side window of the family room how the tree would change from one day to the next.
 
I was elated when I saw the tree what seemed liked covered with snow in the late winter of 2000. It was full of tiny yellowish flowers that would in time bear fruit.
 
But my first harvest gave me a bad rash.
 
The mango plant (Mangifera indica L.) native to southern Asia, especially Burma and eastern India, produces oleoresin, an oil-like substance present in the sap, bark, leaves, skin and root. The rash is an allergic reaction that takes place on the skin where the oleoresin touches. It's not the fruit that causes the allergic reaction as often believed.
 
I decided to stay away from mangoes for a while anyway, which wasn't so hard since the next year gusty winds took care of the flowers and the tree had no fruit at tall.
 
Then in 2003 the tree went nuts. You wouldn't believe the size of those mangoes and the number of them, and their flavor. Harvested mangoes 9 inches long. I'm not kidding.
 
The next year, on August 15, 120-mile winds from Hurricane Charley completely uprooted my bountiful tree. The tree broke the roof when it fell on top of it breaking our power and phone lines.
 
The sound of chainsaw became an habitual sound in Cape Coral and my back yard. Had to chop the trunk in order to remove the fallen tree from the electric lines.
 
But what do you know, the next summer bush-like branches covered the bump on the ground.
It took the tree four years to recover and bear fruit again.
 
This year I’m enjoying one of my best harvests. Not only these mangoes are huge but they’re like no other mango in richness of flavor. I peeled it and devoured it, the juice streaming down my mouth.
 
I also make mango chutney, mango juice, mango marmalade, mango sauce, mango shakes.
 
Looking at the mango tree is a habit, when I wake up and the sun reflects on its huge trunk and at night when I close the blinds before I go to bed.
 
I love my tree and I’m so proud of it.

Try tortillas this Fourth of July

Celebrations this 4th of July might include less hot dogs and burgers and more tortillas, ceviche, menudo and tostones.
 
Hispanics accounted for 56 percent of the U.S.’s population growth from 2000 to 2010.
 
The 2010 Census counted 50.5 million Hispanics in the United Sates, making up 16.3 percent of the total population. One in 6 Americans is Hispanic.
 
Those who now fear Hispanics will sing the national anthem in Spanish or that English will cease to be this country’s language, you can relax.
 
Naturalized foreign-born U.S. citizens and immigrants in general are the most devout and patriotic of Americans.
 
People who complain that Mexican, Colombian or other Latin American flags are waved at gatherings would do well to understand that waving a flag from one’s native country has nothing to do with feeling less American. For most immigrants, to live in the United States is a success story, one that is envied around the world.
 
Hispanics of Mexican, Puerto Rican, and Cuban origin or descent remain the nation's three largest Hispanic country-of-origin groups, according to the 2010 U.S. Census. Immigrants from El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala and Colombia comprise the combined fourth largest group.
 
More than 6.6 million Hispanics voted in the 2010, a record for a midterm election, according to an analysis by the Pew Hispanic Center. Hispanics also were a larger share of the electorate in 2010 than in any previous midterm election, representing 6.9 percent of all voters, up from 5.8 percent in 2006.
 
With the coming congressional reapportionment changes, Hispanics will likely play a larger role in national politics in the future. Florida, a key swing battleground in recent presidential elections, has gained two House seats due in part to the growth of the Hispanic population.
 
We will do well this 4th of July to reflect on the dramatic shift in the racial and ethnic makeup of the American population. Fewer than half of the nation’s 3-year olds are Caucasian, supporting the premise that the America of tomorrow will be comprised of a “minority” majority.
 
This new tapestry of people in America will continue to live under the “All men are created equal” of the Declaration of Independence, no doubt, for centuries to come.

Providing the social conditions for a free market economy to work

Some people are suggesting that it’s time for U.S. citizens to pay for the benefits they enjoy.   

I do believe the price we pay for living in the United States today is truly negligible. Paradoxically, that may be why our economy continues to lag.

The tax revenue as a percentage of the GDP is only 24 percent in the United States compared to the United Kingdom, 34.3 percent; Sweden, 46.4 percent; Spain, 30.7 percent; Germany, 37 percent.

The Unites States’ tax-to-GDP ratio is more in line with developing countries, South Korea, 25.6 percent, Turkey, 24.6 percent, Chile, 18.2 percent, Mexico, 17.5 percent.

This is perhaps why the American people cannot afford the benefits most developed nations afford, among them, affordable health care, free higher education, state-of-the art public transportation services and a fair policy of social welfare.

But we all seem to be OK with this state of things. In effect, I have trouble sorting out my feelings about this. 

On the one hand, I do not want to pay more taxes simply because I cannot afford to pay more.

On the other hand, if what I pay in increased taxes means a decrease in my expenses in gasoline, health care and college education I can see why this would make sense - of course as long as I trust the government to do its job.

Now, would allowing the government to take care of the cost of some of my wellbeing be better for the economy in the long run? 

I was in Spain last year and saw first hand the benefits of a country with an incredible amount of citizen services. I also watched its economic downturn.

Spain is the fifth largest economy in the European Union. What came to be known as the “Spanish Miracle” gave Spain the fastest economic development in Europe since the 1960s.

But this success proved to be unstable basically because  what drove it was a housing bubble, much like the one in the United States.

The problem there as here was the lack of competitiveness in a global economy. Many of the jobs created during the housing bubble were low wage and low skill while the more lucrative industries remained sluggish.

But for the sake of comparison let’s look at what happened in Germany.

Germany saw its highest rate of economic growth in two decades, with an annual 3.6 percent GDP growth in 2010. German households have the second lowest (after Sweden) debt levels in Europe. Germany’s budget deficit is the lowest in Europe. Its unemployment rate is 7.4 percent.

Now remember that the tax revenue as a percentage of the GDP in Germany is 37 percent and in Spain, 30.7 percent compared to the U.S.’s 24 percent.

What’s the difference in their economies?

Germany is a manufacturing and export powerhouse. Their high taxes pay the incentives to entice world investors to come to this country by providing all the services developed nations are expected to provide like affordable health care, an education system that technically trains its workforce, and a transportation system that is an energy saver.

In short, their high taxes provide the right social environment for a free market economy to work.
Shouldn’t we have a major change in mindset and a true and honest way to confront what will face eventually in the future?

Send all pervert priests to jail

In my view, the $1.8 million study released last month by New York’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice about sexual abuse of minors by Catholic priests was an effort to minimize the scandal.
 
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops commissioned the study, and it was based on surveys sent in 2003 to all dioceses and religious communities in the U.S.
 
However, researches did not have access to confidential Church files; on the contrary, steps were taken to protect the confidentiality of each priest and diocese.
 
This is what makes this study dubious.
 
Nevertheless, the study found that about 4.3 percent of all priests between 1950 and 2002 had allegations of abuse.
 
Incredibly, 6 percent of those abused by priests were younger than 7, 16 percent of the victims were ages 8 to 10, 27 percent, ages 11 to 14, and 51 percent, ages 15 to 17.
 
Males between 11 and 14 accounted for more than 40 percent of all victims.
 
Church apologetics argue that this pedophilia crisis was time-specific, that the incidence of abuse hit a climax in the late 1960s and continuously decreased to the mid 1980s. They argue that seven credible cases of abuse in 2010 is not a crisis in a Church that numbers over 65 million parishioners.
 
I’d say one case in a Church that proclaims the Word of God is one case too many.
 
The researchers argue that the reason why the incidence of abuse spiked dramatically from the late 1960s through the mid-1980s is because of the moral decay in those years and that the “sexual revolution” played a role.
 
Who of all people have the training to advice against a moral decay if not Church ministers?
 
I’d say that clerical pedophilia (a sexual attraction to adolescents, often boys) continues to be a serious problem in the Catholic Church.
 
According to the study, the bishops have tended to focus on the perpetrators of abuse rather than the victims, which led to psychological therapy and counseling for the perpetrators in the false belief that they could be “cured” and returned to active ministry.
 
This belief continues today, as the Church has not taken radical measures to rid pervert priests from its ranks.
 
If I were a parent with young children, I would never send them to a parochial Catholic school. Just imagine my teenage girl going to confession with one of these perverts.
 
One simple solution would start clearing the Catholic Church of priest perverts: Place them all in the hands of the U.S. justice system and send them to jail.

Businesses who hire illegals should be shut down

On May 26, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a 2007 Arizona state law punishing businesses that hire illegal aliens.

States can now shut down businesses that hire immigrants without legal documentation to work.

I agree with this, and here’s why:

Although immigrants account for 12.5 percent of the U.S. population, they make up about 15 percent of the workforce. They are over represented among workers largely because the rest of the population in the United States is aging.

Immigrants and their children have accounted for 58 percent of U.S. population growth since 1980.
It’s difficult to measure how much of this immigrant workforce is undocumented, but probably a good many.

Unscrupulous employers hire these workers because they know they have a workforce that’s loyal and hard working. Employers pay minimum wage with no benefits and workers have no recourse for labor disputes. These undocumented workers are the least likely to cause problems, and employers like that.

Poor immigrants in general have historically been the source of cheap, exploitative labor, but immigrants who do not have legal documents to work present a far better target for abusive employers as they are in a far more vulnerable position to be victimized.

That's why many businesses prefer to turn a blind eye to illegal immigration, or at the minimum prefer to avoid any requirements that might be a financial burden to them.

This is why I welcome the U.S. Supreme Court decision to punish businesses that don’t comply with the law and hire workers who cannot work legally in this country.

Low U.S. fertility rates and the upcoming retirement of the baby boomers mean that immigration is likely to be the only source of growth in the prime age workforce — workers ages 25 to 55 — in the decades ahead.

Short of a major immigration overhaul, if businesses continue hiring undocumented workers, the illegal crossings at the border will certainly increase in the years ahead.

Tea party nut for president

Sarah Palin seems energized by the latest events in Republican politics. She’s touring historic sites on the East Coast this weekend in a big bus tour, and it’s being rumored she will announce her presidential candidacy.

Funny, if she runs, she might face Michele Bachmann, the congresswoman from Minnesota who is just as nutty a tea party holler as she is.

Poor GOP!

Party members are scrambling to get out from under tea party kidnapping.

Remember the Christian Coalition, the arm of the Religious Right organized to further their anti-abortion agenda? It effectively ruined the Republican Party and helped elect Democrat Bill Clinton in 1992.

The very same thing is happening today.

Not that I care.

I’m actually glad some lunatics are going to run against Barack Obama, assuring his victory at the polls in 2012.

I thought it amazing that Newt Gingrich outright rejected Rep. Paul Ryan’s Medicare plan on NBC, although he later recanting his objection.

Yet, a few Republican senators voted against “Ryancare” this week.

In a special election for a U.S. House seat, in a predominantly Republican district in New York, voters rejected GOP candidate Jane Corwin and voted for Democrat Kathy Hochul. Corwin campaigned in favor of the Ryan Plan. 

Now, while one could finger the Ryan Plan as the culprit, what really happened is that Independent candidate Jack Davis (tea party proponent) came in with 9 percent, stealing votes from Corwin, who got 43 percent.

Florida Legislature Republicans are scrambling with these same divisions in open challenge with their own tea party governor, Rick Scott.

I’ll say, let ‘em fight. This is the only way the tea party’s real agenda — make abortion effectively illegal — will never advance.