Lit-rock now

July 22, 2015April 16, 2015 by Sean Bw Parker

Share this

Since the Blair-raped turn of the millennium, British music has seemed like it’s in a seamless, anonymous, tepid, regurgitated stream. That the music produced were bad would be something to talk about, but the rise of Tech, social networking and old-fashioned politeness have coincided with music that across the board is all right, not bad, take it or leave it. Long gone are the media-created hypes of Britpop, rave, punk or Beatlemania, and all their cross-bred cousins.

The old school media rivers have turned into an endless digital delta. Where once David Bowie putting his arm round Mick Ronson would electrify staff rooms and playgrounds the following day, now thirty likes under a funny meme will suffice (at least they’re your friends and they love you, right?) or a garbage right-wing politician gaffs again and gets a few hundred thousand YouTube hits.

Clocks Go Forward album coverClocks Go Forward album coverClocks Go Forward album coverClocks Go Forward album cover — Clocks Go Forward album cover

There is another, subtle, powerful movement at work though. There is a strain of literate, socially conscious, super-aware creatives who are as far away from Liam Gallagher or Jay Z’s money and celebrity-worshipping ethos as it’s possible to get. You could call it the postmodern left, or you could realise that it’s decency and depth that unites them, as they are no less in thrall to classic pop magic and showmanship as Oasis or the Bling d-evolution. There’s also nothing elitist about them, as listening to the songs themselves will bear out.
The “forefathers” of these artists might be identified as Nick Cave or Luke Haines of The Auteurs, to name but two – songwriters who cherish the nuanced word as much as the perfectly deployed bass riff. The Godfather of Lit Rock as is now though is Ed Harcourt, gently laying multi-layered music over coruscating wordplay solo for over fifteen years, and inspiring others through his reversion to the rules of nature while keeping common decency intact. Often with a pocket watch and in tails.

These are people who love tunes, rock mayhem, and the crowd togetherness that is the hallmark of great music. Ageism and locationism have been disregarded, thanks to the mighty, gently tyrannical hand of Silicon Valley. Following Harcourt’s lead come the brilliantly wry Everything Everything, combining perfect British pop tunesmithery with oblique lyrics conjured up to keep you guessing for weeks, without being able to shake the tune you heard them set to. Dapper man-about-town, regular on The Mighty Boosh and Michael Palin lookalike James Cook brings his own brand of knowing razzle-dazzle juxtaposed with Joe Strummer’s social ire to the dancefloor.

Record labels Seraglio Point Productions (soon to release Alphabet Saints, Scalaland and Catwalk mainman and legendary writer Chris Roberts’ new record, Clocks Go Forwards “A Generation of Rain”) and Rocket Girl have unknowingly brought these artists together, not under any particular plan other than a tenuous link between London and Chichester. The Cure producer Dave M. Allen’s The Magic Sponge, Holland’s De Staadt, experimental musician Ettuspadix and even Thomas Truax and Ariel Pink can find themselves in good company, copious booze and deep thought finding themselves as comfortable alongside sex, drugs and rock n’ roll as at a TED lecture. Ex-Boo Radley songwriter Martin Carr, and Chi’s own Fonsleberry and The Wolseys also deserve a place at the table.

As much as any other just-bubbling-beneath-the-surface collective, this Lit Rock set knows something is up, and something is to be done about it. Social networking has funnily enough had the effect of making everyone better writers, and aren’t we all writers now. Well, not really, and this lot are showing the world how it should be done. Reading and listening are as important as screwing and fighting, and a lot closer than most like to admit.

By Sean Bw Parker

Putin accuses US of acting like the Soviet Union after WWII

April 16, 2015 by The Speaker Editors

Share this

Russian President Vladimir Putin likened the U.S. to the post-WWII Soviet Union during his annual question-and-answer, saying that the West must respect Moscow’s interests if it wants to normalize diplomatic relations.

Putin spoke about, “certain big powers,” saying those powers “don’t need allies, they only need vassals.” He added that Russia would “never accept that role.”

“After WWII we tried to impose our development model on whole Eastern European nations, and that ended in nothing good — that wasn’t good, and we’ve got to admit it,” said Putin. He continued,” By the way, this is what the U.S. is doing across the entire world.”

When asked whether Russia had troops in Ukraine, Putin replied, ”No,” and also said that despite any friction with the West, “We don’t see anyone as enemy, and we don’t recommend anyone to see us as enemy.”

He added that Russians should not expect any further sanctions to be imposed by the West, insisting that the Ukraine crisis would end soon, and also insisting that Russia’s economy could remain strong for its people.

Even though Putin made the comments mainly in regard to the U.S. interfering in the Ukraine crisis, he was also asked if his friends exploited his kindness and his response was, “Not only friends!”

Why would he say that? Did he refer to people who are not his friends? I don’t know what he was insisting on, since he claims to have no enemies.

Although I agree with Putin on how the U.S. is acting — pushing its beliefs on the rest of the world — he also needs to stop.

In Putin’s annual Question-and-Answers he tried to get off the subject of this crisis by answering easier question, by moving to the subject of how much sleep a child should get per night or recalling how he took former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder to a Russian banya (sauna). In my opinion, he should have been much more prepared to answer the tougher questions if this was an annual event in Russia.

His answers should have been more clear — then again so should every politicians — and less contradicting of each other, using both “big powers don’t need allies” and “we don’t see anyone as enemy,” for example. But overall his interview was very confusing and the president didn’t stay on the more important topics for long. He should have been more prepared. Some of the statements he made I could say that I agreed with, but others just didn’t seem appropriate because of his own actions.

Opinion by Andrew Soto

Russia’s Putin: I Don’t Expect Sanctions to End ‘Anytime Soon’ (2015, April 16). Retrieved April 16, 2015

Putin’s 2015 Q&A marathon. (2015, April 16). Retrieved April 16, 2015

Tibetan man self immolates beside Dalai Lama photo

June 9, 2015April 16, 2015 by The Speaker Editors

Share this

In Ngaba, Tibet — the scene of many self immolations by Tibetans protesting Chinese rule over the past several years — a man in his forties or fifties self immolated Wednesday beside a shrine he had set up which included photos of the Dalai Lama, the Tenth Panchen Lama, and his family, as well as the traditional butter-lamps and flowers of the Tibetan Buddhist practice.

“He was protesting against Chinese policies in Tibet,” a source from Ngaba told Radio Free Asia. “His body was taken away by police.”

Another of RFA’s sources was quoted, “He had received [religious] recognition for his vow not to harm others in personal disputes — a vow that he took in honor of all those who have sacrificed themselves in self-immolation protests for the cause of Tibetan freedom.”

The man’s name was Neykyab, according to Tibetan sources, who also said that the man was related by marriage to another Ngaba man who self immolated in Lhasa May 27, 2012.

The self immolation is the 139th within Tibet in protest of Chinese rule. It is the 141st self immolation for the cause, as self immolations have taken place in neighboring Nepal and India as well.

By James Haleavy

South Koreans mark one year anniversary of ferry tragedy

July 10, 2015April 16, 2015 by EJ Monica Kim

Share this

SEOUL, South Korea — South Koreans paid tribute to the victims of the Sewol ferry disaster today in central Seoul, one year after the ferry sank, causing the deaths of 304 people April 16, 2014.

The Sewol ferry was heading to Jeju Island from Incheon International Port Passenger Terminal, carrying 476 passengers. Of those, 325 were high school students on the way to a field trip. The 6,800-ton vessel suddenly started leaning to port when it was passing Jindo Island. Within 10 minutes, the overloaded ferry capsized and sank in the sea near the southwestern province.

Two hundred fifty students were killed among the 304 victims, after listening to an announcement on the ship warning that “students shouldn’t move.” There were only 172 survivors, including 73 students and the captain of the ferry, and nine bodies still remain missing. The disaster was recorded as South Korea’s worst maritime tragedy.

The ferry captain, Lee Jun-Seok, was sentenced to 36 years in prison for abandoning his ship and passengers. Fourteen other surviving crew members also faced jail terms of five to 30 years.

The 73 students returned to school in June, 71 days after the tragic incident.

The families of the victims are continuing to make demands for a transparent investigation after salvaging the ferry.

Meanwhile, South Korean President Park Geun-Hye in a speech marking the first anniversary of the disaster vowed to raise the Sewol ferry.

By EJ Monica Kim

"We won't forget." written in the Seoul City Hall area . — “We won’t forget,” written in the Seoul City Hall area.

Gwanghwamun Square in Seoul, South Korea

High school students pay a tribute at a memorial for the victims of the Sewol ferry disaster in Gwanghwamun Square in Seoul.

People are waiting to pay a tribute at a memorial for the victims. — People waiting to pay a tribute at a memorial for the victims.

Nine people including students and teachers, whose bodies have not found yet. — Nine victims, including students and teachers, whose bodies have not yet been found.

People write a messages to the victims who are deeply asleep in the sea. — People write letters to the victims, deeply asleep in the sea.

Yellow Ribbon Campaign: "A small move makes big miracle.” It becomes a symbol of solidarity with the victims. This campaign spreads into social media rapidly. — Yellow Ribbon Campaign: “A small move makes a big miracle.” It became a symbol of solidarity with the victims. This campaign spread rapidly to social media.

The Ballad of the Greek Bust

April 15, 2015 by Joseph Siess

Share this

The clock is ticking on the Greek debt agreement, and the smell of impending default fills the air. The Financial Times reported on Monday that the Greek government is prepared to forego €2.5 billion worth of payments due to the IMF in the next couple months, effectively plunging the nation into default.

The southern European nation could potentially be the first domino to fall in the dissolution of the eurozone. The default would send a serious tremor through Europe’s short-lived economic union, and the ECB is poised to cut off the cheap money spigot, leaving the Greek financial sector high and dry fomenting greater economic tumult.

Today the Financial Times reports that German finance minister Wolfgang Shäuble shot down any inkling that there might be an accord between the leftist Syriza government and its creditors. Further, Standard & Poor, a rating agency, announced that as a result of the junk status of Greek bonds, Greece is probably not going to be able to pay anybody back, let alone the IMF.

The gloom and doom factor here is that Greece is nearly incapable of paying out pensions and salaries for public sector workers, and as a leftist government, the decision to sell out the people to pay off the IMF is risky. With that being said, and due to the fact that the Germans wash their hands of this whole nasty thing, all that is really left to do is wait for the smoke to clear.

The question still remains of whether or not the Greeks will stay in the eurozone or if the “Grexit” will ensue. Public opinion in Greece indicates that an immense amount of Greeks, or 82 percent support Greece remaining in the monetary union.

With the Germans turning their backs on the “radical” Syriza government, and the ECB preparing to cut off the cash, all that that the cradle of democracy can do is to accept the honor of being the first deadbeat nation in the developed world.

The ballad of the Greek bust is an unprecedented story for the 21st century, and anybody not paying attention to this thing is missing history. The aftermath of this Greek financial tragedy has the potential to rock and roil the very foundations of the global financial system, and no doubt a great transformation is on the horizon.

Analysis by Joe Siess

Justice for North Korea launch street campaign for North Korean defectors in central Seoul

April 17, 2015April 15, 2015 by EJ Monica Kim

Share this

SEOUL, South Korea — Nongovernmental organization Justice for North Korea (JFNK) launched a street campaign last Saturday in Insadong Street, Central Seoul to bring attention to the North Korean crisis.

Founder of JFNK and activist Peter Jung and street campaign coordinator Aaron Peterson held the campaign with four volunteers. Three people handed out flyers which explained about the organization and North Korea’s situation briefly in Chinese, English and Korean, while the remaining volunteer helped Jung and Peterson to role-play as an arrested defector, Chinese and North Korean soldiers.

The main purpose of the campaign is to raise awareness of human rights violations in North Korea and to protest against China’s repatriation of North Korean refugees.

“The reason why we are role-playing is to give a more specific idea about how North Korean defectors are treated inhumanely, as well as to call on the Chinese government to stop the policy of repatriation. We also collect donations to support the process of bringing them over to South Korea safely,” Peterson explained.

Peter Jung founded JFNK in May 2007, when he staged a demonstration alone against Chinese authorities for 444 days, beginning May 23, 2007. He continued the protest until the first day of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, Aug. 8, 2008.

“There are still many defectors who are in need of help. I still contact with them, so I can’t abandon this campaign,” he said.

According to a White Paper published by the South Korean think-tank Korea Institute for National Unification (KINU) in 2011, China and North Korea have been cooperating in the strict controls over North Korean refugees near the border under a “Bilateral Agreement on Mutual Cooperation for the Maintenance of State Safety and Social Order.”

The UN Commission’s report states that Chinese authorities started to oppress North Korean refugees more severely by tightening border security and cracking down at the end of 2013. The report condemns China for breaching international human rights and refugee laws, as North Korean refugees’ lives are threatened in their country once they are sent back.

The 1951 Refugee Convention describes a refugee as one who, “owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to, or owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country.”

Despite the international community’s criticism, China has been sticking to its position, considering defectors as illegal immigrants.

Jung emphasized that the South Korean government has to discuss North Korean defectors with China as soon as possible. “If they are forcibly repatriated to North Korea, they will either face the most severe punishment in the political prison camp or be publicly executed. Therefore, the South Korean government should urge the Chinese government to stop it through diplomatic negotiations. Also, the South Korean embassy needs to accept them,” Jung said.

Peterson started to get involved in JFNK two years ago. “I first heard about the North Korean crisis through a National Geography documentary, I was completely shocked — when I watched how North Korean people were brainwashed and isolated from the whole world. This made me become a North Korean activist, because I didn’t feel like enough people knew about what is happening in North Korea,” Peterson said.

The American activist said that he has felt some changes since he began the street campaign. “I can see more and more people are starting to pay attention. Of course, some South Koreans don’t seem to care much, but a lot of them are starting to take pictures of our demonstration and ask for flyers. Most people are very supportive. We would like to see more of that. I’m sure that it will become something that the world leaders have to address in the future,” he said.

Jung and Peterson said that they will not stop this campaign. “We will continue it until North Korean refugees settle down in South Korea or third-party countries, not being repatriated,” Jung said.

EJ Monica Kim

Photo by EJ Monica Kim

Bush legacy with an Obama spin

April 14, 2015 by The Speaker Editors

Share this

U.S. sponsored Saudi slaughter ensues in Yemen, but “not a peep from the pope,” as Celente likes to say. The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday that the U.S. is in the processes of expanding its involvement in the Saudi Arabian effort to oust Iran-backed rebels in Yemen.

The U.S. military is aiding the Saudis by way of searching ships en route to Yemen coming from Iran, in an effort to curtail the supply of arms to the Shiite rebels. The rebel Houthi forces, who destabilized the government and took control of the country in February of this year, blame Saudi Arabia for attacks resultant in 648 civilian casualties since the beginning of the Saudi engagement with the rebels.

Yesterday, Iran called for the installation of a new Yemeni government, which is certain to increase tensions with Saudi Arabia. The U.S. continues to council the King on how to deal with the pro-Iranian Houthi faction in an attempt to regain stability by reinstating Western-backed president, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi. The weird part of this story is that it is no secret that Iran and the U.S. are in bed together in regards to the containment of the Islamic State (IS). U.S. Iranian relations were further strengthened with last week’s nuclear deal, or in other words, Obama’s final swan song in his futile effort to create a lasting legacy as opposed to more global instability.

Nearly 12 years have past since the Bush administration invaded Iraq, toppling Saddam Hussein’s regime, and miring the U.S. in eight years of bloody conflict, but the Bush legacy lives on. Since president Barack Obama assumed office in 2009, not much has changed in regards to U.S. foreign policy, and in all reality, global instability is even worse than it was during the Bush years.

From the Syrian slump into civil war and the rise of the IS, to Libya, the Ukrainian crisis, and now Yemen, the Obama administration is scraping up quite a track record. The Yazidis trapped on the mountain were in trouble, and the U.S. sent in “military advisors”; now the Saudi’s need a hand, and the approval stamp from the U.S. to continue murdering civilians in Yemen. The U.S. supports Iranian foreign policy in one part of the world, while containing it in another, and yes, things are certain to get weirder and weirder. It seems as though the Obama administration has given the Bush legacy the “change” we all voted for in 2009.

Analysis by Joseph Siess

China and Dalai Lama vie for who selects reincarnation of Dalai Lama

January 26, 2021April 12, 2015 by The Speaker Editors

Share this

Tibet’s spiritual leader the Dalai Lama made a speech in Japan this week in which he said that he expects to finalize his decision in 2025 about who his reincarnated successor will be. The Dalai Lama will be 90 years old at that time. However, China has reiterated its claim that the government has the sole only authority to choose the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama.

The Dalai Lama has lived in exile from Tibet since 1959 when he escaped the country in fear of his life, nine years after China conquered the territory. The Dalai Lama is considered a criminal terrorist and separatist Chinese authorities.

The Dalai Lama, who has been in Japan since early this month, said in an interview with Japanese news Asahi Shimbun that he will participate in further discussion before finalizing his decision. He also said that he will keep close watch on China’s reaction to his offers to resume talks.

The officially atheist Chinese government last month reiterated its claim, however, that the government has the sole responsibility to decide the Dalai Lama’s successor, criticizing the Dalai Lama for not “showing a serious or respectful attitude on the issue.”

Both parties have already picked contrary reincarnations of the Panchen Lama, the “second holiest” monk in Tibetan Buddhism. In 1995, the Dalai Lama chose a 6-year-old Tibetan boy as the reincarnation, while the Chinese government chose a different child. The choice of the Dalai Lama and his family have not been seen since, although the Chinese government later admitted that it was holding the Dalai Lama’s choice in “protective custody” in Beijing at the request of his parents.

The choice of the Chinese government was allowed to spend only a few days in Tibet and was brought up in Beijing.

140th self immolation against Chinese rule of Tibet

January 26, 2021April 10, 2015 by The Speaker Editors

Share this

A Tibetan nun self immolated April 8, becoming the 140th known self immolation in protest of Chinese rule over the Himalayan region.

The nun, Yeshi Kandro, who was in her 40s, was known to be a serious practitioner of meditation and deeply concerned with Tibetan issues, according to sources of International Campaign for Tibet. Yeshi may have participated in peaceful protests in Tibet in 2008.

Yeshi was from Draggo, Kardze, and she attended Nganggang monastery in the region.

On April 8 she set went to a location near the monastery and the police station in Kardze town. She called for the long life of the Dalai Lama, for the Dalai Lama’s return to Tibet, and for the freedom of Tibet, and self immolated.

Police extinguished the flame, which was reported to have been particularly intense, with fire extinguishers, and took the woman’s body away.

Yeshi is the 140th person known to have self immolated in protest of Chinese rule over Tibet, and the 138th person to have done so within Tibet. She is the second woman to have self immolated for this cause in 2015.

Aging successfully prevented in tissue, and with no increase in cancer risk

April 9, 2015 by The Speaker Editors

Share this

What causes aging and how can it be altered? According to University of Toronto researchers, the loss of our tissues’ ability to develop and repair itself can be manipulated, leading to claims that the removal of TIMPs — tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinases — could direct us toward a Fountain of Youth.

Simplified, metalloproteins are responsible for destroying and rebuilding the body’s tissue, and TIMPs control metalloproteins.

Researchers at U of T bred mice without TIMPs. They experimented with mice that had various combinations of the four TIMPs expressed.

What they found was that removing TIMP1 and TIMP3 from mice resulted in breast tissue that remained youthful in aged mice.

What was happening, the scientists discovered, was that stem cells, which usually decline with age, remained functional and abundant during the full life of the mice, so tissues maintained their ability to develop and repair.

This also resulted in less risk of breast cancer in the mice. Because the mammary glands did not degenerate as they normally would, the healthy cells were less susceptible to cancer.

Also relevant, the researchers found no increased risk of cancer, despite the larger amount of stem cells present.

The team will next attempt to push their research toward the realm of new therapeutic treatments for cancer patients through tissue remodelling.

The report, “Expansion of stem cells counteracts age-related mammary regression in compound Timp1/Timp3 null mice,” was completed by Hartland W. Jackson, Paul Waterhouse, Ankit Sinha, Thomas Kislinger, Hal K. Berman, and Rama Khokha, and was publised in Nature Cell Biology.

By Cheryl Bretton

New form of contagious cancer identified on eastern seaboard

April 9, 2015April 9, 2015 by Sid Douglas

Share this

In a finding that scientists are calling “beyond surprising,” the decades-long series of outbreaks of leukemia among clams on the eastern North American coast has been attributed the spreading of cancer from one clam to another. The finding has prompted scientists to reassess the assumption that contagious cancers are rare occurrences in nature.

“I think the story is a great example of remarkable biology lying hidden right under our noses — we just have to go looking,” Dr. Stephen Goff of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Columbia University told The Speaker. “It reminds us that there are many surprising aspects of nature yet to be discovered. And today we have very powerful new tools that allow us to make these discoveries.”

The team based their conclusion — that a single incidence of cancer was the root of the decades of leukemia outbreaks that have occurred off of the American and Canadian eastern coasts — on findings that the genotypes of the tumor cells come from a single line of tumor cells, not from the host animals own cells. This “rogue clonal cell line,” as the researchers put it, grew, divided, and broke free from the ground zero Steamer clam to infect others.

“That was the biggest surprise, for sure,” Dr. Goff told us. “An earlier, less exciting, surprise was the finding of the huge increase in the copy number of the Steamer retroelement in the tumors,” he added. “It’s the biggest increase in copy number of a mobile element in nature that I know of.”

The team is continuing their research, pushing to understand more about how the cancer became contagious. It is not yet known where the disease began not how the disease transmits between clams.

clam cancer — Locations of clam collection sites along the eastern coast

“We are actively seeking answers to the following questions: What are the mutation(s) that allow the tumor line to do this? Did the Steamer element cause these mutations? When did the original tumor arise? How long has it been spreading? Is this line restricted to the species of origin (the soft-shelled clam) or can it spread to other species? Do other species have similar tumor lines of their own?”

The transmissible cancer studied by the team is not the only known wild case, but the existence of transmissible cancer in nature has previously been considered a rare occurrence.

“We would normally expect this to be rare,” Goff told us. “We know of only two other examples in all of nature: the facial tumors of the Tasmanian Devil, and a canine venereal tumor — both are discussed in the paper, and you can read their histories. We think examples like this are rare — in vertebrates — because the adaptive immune system would recognize an invading tumor cell as foreign and reject it. The Devils do not reject these tumors for a special reason: the animals are almost all genetically identical, having gone through a small bottleneck — they almost went extinct. The dog tumor is special in lacking the surface markers that would mediate the rejection.

“But we suspect these transmissible cancers could well be more common (than we would ever have imagined) in invertebrates. They have only a primitive innate immune system, and the tumor cells must be able to evade this system and invade the new host.

“For this to happen, the tumor has to have evolved to be able to exit from one diseased animal, find its way into a healthy animal — in this case, in the sea — and colonize the new animal. It’s an extreme version of metastasis, where a tumor sheds cells that seed new locations within an individual. Here the tumor is moving into an entirely new animal — not just within an animal.

“The recent research expands our conception of transmissible cancers — they exist not only on land but in a marine environment as well — and this has prompted the researchers to suspect that contagious cancers are more common in nature than we had thought.”

The report, “Horizontal Transmission of Clonal Cancer Cells Causes Leukemia in Soft-Shell Clams,” was completed by Michael J. Metzger, Carol Reinisch, James Sherry and Stephen P. Goff, and was published in the journal Cell.

By Sid Douglas

Images by the research team. Clam photo by Michael J. Metzger

Mexico’s southern border: An inside look at Central American immigrants in Mexico

May 4, 2015April 7, 2015 by David Cordova

Share this

Photo reportage by David Cordova.

Mexico is in a deep human rights crisis as a result of its continuing mistreatment of Central American immigrants. The government has started a campaign with the objective of reducing the number of immigrants who attempt to cross the southern border of Mexico.

Thousands of officials from the National Institute of Migration (INM), the federal police forces and even military personnel have been deployed along the southern border, managing to significantly reduce the flow of immigrants who attempt to cross the border in order to reach the United States of America.

The constant presence of checkpoints along the roads and railways has left immigrants without many options apart from displacement. “Now we have to walk for miles and miles to avoid checkpoints,” Alejandro Maldonado, a 49-year-old migrant from Honduras said. He has made the trip four times.

Public transportation is always stopped by the INM and the identity of each passenger is checked. Trains are also halted and immigrants on board are persecuted and apprehended by the authorities.

Despite knowing the risks and dangers involved in riding the Beast (the name of the train which the immigrants use to cross into Mexico), there are still many individuals who are willing to make the attempt. The Beast remains the best way to reach the center and north of Mexico. Though it is the fastest way, it is certainly not the safest.

Several NGOs and religious organizations that offer help and assistance to immigrants have become an oasis on the road for those wishing to obtain the American dream. These shelters provide housing, food, medical care, and legal assistance, and provide what is by far the best treatment that immigrants receive on their journeys.

“La 72,” for example, is a shelter which was set up in honour of the 72 immigrants brutally killed by an organized crime group in San Fernando, Tamaulipas in August 2010. The shelter is located in Tenosique, Tabasco, 80 kilometers away from the Southern border.

The center is run by Fray Tomás González, who has helped to provide safety and rest to thousands of Central-American immigrants for over 20 years. “Every immigrant arriving to ‘La 72’ is allowed to stay for three days to a week or even longer, depending on the condition and status of the immigrants. They are fed three times a day and are encouraged to participate in different activities organized by the volunteers working there. In return, they only have to behave, contribute to the cleaning tasks and the stronger ones are able to help with the maintenance of the shelter,” Tomás explained.

According to official numbers from the House of Immigrants in Tecum Uman, Guatemala, the flow of immigrants has been reduced to less than 50 persons per week, of which most were young and adult males, compared with 700 immigrants per week in 2011, when children and woman represented over 50 percent of the immigrant population.

Even though the numbers have dropped dramatically, there are still women and children trying to cross into the country with the hope of a better life, the illusion of joining their families or just running away from the poverty and violence that certain communities in Central America are subjected to.

There are very few support services for immigrants in Mexico apart from support homes run by NGO’s and religious organizations.

Another organisation that does exist, however, is in Veracruz state, where a group of women run “Las Patronas.” They gather every day together to prepare food, wrap it up and throw it to the immigrants travelling on the rooftop of the beast.

* * *

The road remains a hostile place full of dangers, where the possibility of being attacked by organized crime, officers from the INM, the Federal Police, or the army is very high. Kidnapping, rape or even murder are examples of the horrendous things that the immigrants face daily.

A 38-year-old Salvadoran immigrant who refused to give his name was brutally beaten after being robed while he was walking to Arriaga, Chiapas.

For many, the American Dream has faded away, which has meant some immigrants have begun to choose Mexico as a second option. They try to find a job and start a whole new life, as described by one of the immigrants I met in the district of Pakal-na in Palenque.

Apparently, the effort of the Mexican State to reduce the flow of immigrants to the country has been successful.

However, it has been the target of strong criticism due to the violent measures used to enforce it and the rising toll it has on human lives — families, women and children included.

The tactics and policies of the Mexican government have been compared to those performed by the Border Patrol further north in the United States which is not by any means an example of success either politically, economically or socially.

Photos and text by David A Córdova M