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Much has been written In English about the experiences and
treatment of immigrants from south of the Rio Grande once they have
entered the United States. But this account, by the itinerant,
effervescent and highly original journalist Belen Fernandez, offers
a different and wholly original take. Belen Fernandez shows us what
life is like for would-be migrants, not just from the Mexican side
of the border but inside Siglo XXI, the notorious migrant detention
center in the south of the country. Journalists are prohibited from
entering Siglo XXI; Fernandez only gained access because she
herself was detained as a result of faulty paperwork when she
attempted to return to the US to renew her passport. Once inside
the facility, Fernandez was able to speak with detained women from
Honduras, Cuba, Haiti, Bangladesh, and beyond. Their stories,
detailing the hardships that prompted them to leave their homes,
and the dangers they have experienced on an often-tortuous journey
north, form the core of this unique book. The companionship and
support they offer to Fernandez, whose antipathy to returning to
the United States, the country they are desperate to enter, is a
source of bemusement and perplexity, demonstrates a spirited
generosity that is deeply moving. In the end, the Siglo XXI center
emerges as a strikingly precise metaphor for a 21st century in
which poor people, effectively imprisoned by American political and
economic policies, nevertheless display astonishing resilience.
"When I first committed to three full months in El Salvador, the
feeling that I was signing up for the equivalent of marriage and
reproduction was assuaged only by the awareness that, come March
2020, I'd be dashing around Mexico before flying to Istanbul and
resuming freneticism in that hemisphere. Little did I know that the
scribbled itinerary would never come to fruition, and that I'd only
get as far as the coastal village of Zipolite in the Mexican state
of Oaxaca, where March 13-25 would turn into March 13 until further
notice." Since leaving her American homeland in 2003 Belen
Fernandez had been an inveterate traveler. Ceaselessly wandering
the world, the only constant in her itinerary was a conviction
never to return to the country of her childhood. Then the COVID-19
lockdown happened and Fernandez found herself stranded in a small
village on the Pacific coast of Mexico. This charming, wryly
humorous account of nine months stuck in one place nevertheless
roams freely: over reflections on previous excursions to the wilder
regions of North Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe; over her
new-found friendship with Javier, the mezcal-drinking,
chain-smoking near-septuagenarian she encounters in his plastic
chair on Mexico's only clothing-optional beach; over her protracted
struggle to obtain a life-saving supply of yerba mate; and over,
literally, the rope of a COVID-19 checkpoint, set up directly
outside her front door and manned by armed guards who require her
to don a mask every time she returns home.
The book "TransMath - Innovative Solutions from Mathematical
Technology" has been conceived as a tool for the dissemination of
scientific knowledge. This publication is addressed to those
companies with innovation needs that could be met through
mathematical technology. The book maps both existing and possible
interactions and connections that enable technology transfer
between Spanish mathematical research and industrial and business
sectors. Businesses can determine the level of implementation and
demand for such technology within their sector and understand the
benefits and innovations achieved in other companies and industries
with the application of mathematical techniques. The information is
classified into eleven sectors of economic activity: Biomedicine
& Health; Construction; Economics & Finance; Energy &
Environment; Food; ICT; Logistics & Transport; Management &
Tourism; Metal & Machinery; Public Administration; and
Technical Services.
Factual errors, ham-fisted analysis, and contradictory assertions
compounded by a penchant for mixed metaphors and name-dropping
distinguish the work of Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times
columnist and author Thomas Friedman. The Imperial Messenger
reveals the true value of this media darling, a risible writer
whose success tells us much about the failures of contemporary
journalism. Belen Fernandez dissects the Friedman corpus with wit
and journalistic savvy to expose newsroom practices that favor
macho rhetoric over serious inquiry, a pacified readership over an
empowered one, and reductionist analysis over integrity.The
Imperial Messenger is polemic at its best, relentless in its attack
on this apologist for American empire and passionate in its
commitment to justice.About the series Counterblasts is a new Verso
series that aims to revive the tradition of polemical writing
inaugurated by Puritan and leveller pamphleteers in the seventeenth
century, when in the words of one of them, Gerard Winstanley, the
old world was running up like parchment in the fire. From 1640 to
1663, a leading bookseller and publisher, George Thomason, recorded
that his collection alone contained over twenty thousand pamphlets.
such polemics reappeared both before and during the French,
Russian, Chinese and Cuban revolutions of the last century. In a
period of conformity where politicians, media barons and their
ideological hirelings rarely challenge the basis of existing
society, it s time to revive the tradition. Verso s Counterblasts
will challenge the apologists of Empire and Capital.
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