UNDOCUMENTED, not illegal, immigrants

the largest misconception on immigration is that people who are here without documents do it as a disregard to US laws. the fact is that not only is immigration a difficult and long process, not everyone is able to immigrate "legally." thousands of people are turned away from the whole process because honestly, you won't get papers to become a resident unless you are at or above US middle class standards. the only other way is to claim to be a political refugee; seeing as how many 3rd world countries are deemed "free" countries because they allow for sweatshops and worker exploitation how many people can fit under that? look to the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act for who is allowed to come here and who isn't. it is highly hypocritical for a country to claim to be about Freedom and democracy yet turn people away from citizenship.

foreign worker programs are also cop outs as well, the message that sends is "we want your labor, but we don't want you to become citizens."

the thing about the new immigration bill is that it leaves many situations for family separation. there are families with undocumented parents whose children are legal citizens; the parents are deported and the children are left to be raised by foster homes? or a citizen who married someone who was a legal resident for a while but stopped with their paper work and didn't tell their spouse. not only is the person deported, but the citizen is deported as well for housing an "illegal" immigrant (doesn't matter if they knew or not.)

also the immigration issue has been painted as a mexican issue. yet pilipinos have their "tnt"s, there are chinese immigrants, koreans, south east asians, not to mention eastern europeans, as well as the fact that the people coming from mexico are not just mexicans but people from all over latin america. after 9-11 many filipinos who had worked in the airports for over decades in the bay area were deported because they posed a "threat" to national security, many of these workers were 40+ year old women (yeah terrorist if i ever saw one). there are also the situation of the Aganda family in 2003, as well as the Cuevas family that was deported in 2004 who were "illegal" cause they were living on expired visas yet they've been applying for residency since 1996. frankly, there's a bunch of "natural born" people we waste our citizenship on, folks that don't know jack shit about this country yet wave flags and pander on and on about being "American." i'd rather deport them and give their citizenship to all the hard working "illegal" aliens at the drop of a dime.

however, the biggest root of the problem is American/corporate Imperialism across the globe. if not for worker exploitation, the stealing of resources from other countries, etc; there would be no "3rd" world nations meaning there wouldn't be so many people from other places seeking to find opportunity in the US. there would be no "brain drains," no sex industries, no broken families with parents working overseas. people would be able to make decent livings in their own countries. the only illegal immigration are corporations and nations muscling their way into the other countries to exploit both the land and their people.

2/25/06 KIWI statement on Crisis in the Philippines

As some of you probably know by now, a "State of Emergency" was declared in the Philippines by President Gloria Magcapagal-Arroyo. This declaration includes the ban of rallies (including peaceful protests), allows arrests without warrant, and it gives the president permission to call in the military to intervene and take over facilities — such as media outlets — that may affect "national security." Though stopping short of calling it "martial law," it gives the President similar powers, and essentially could be a pre-cursor to an eventual declaration of martial law.

from wikipedia.org:
"Martial law is the system of rules that takes effect (usually after a formal declaration) when a military authority takes control of the normal administration of justice. Usually martial law reduces some of the personal rights ordinarily granted to the citizen, limits the length of the trial processes, and prescribes more severe penalties than ordinary law. "

Though she claims that everyone from the extreme left to the extreme right are conspiring to bring down her government, the bottom line is that the people who will be affected most by this are the poor and suffering masses, the workers and peasants, the indigenous people and the urban poor, who have been struggling for TRUE equality and reform since waaaaay before she even took office.

It is no secret that the Philippines has been in a crisis situation for a long time now. Most of the nation lives in poverty. Peasants don't even own the land they work on. Workers are exploited by multi-national corporations looking for cheap and 'union-free' labor. School tuition fees increase regularly. It's gotten so bad that the Philippines' main export is PEOPLE! Overseas contract workers who end up in places like Singapore and Saudi Arabia working all kinds of jobs, often getting exploited and abused by their bosses. And so on...

And even though we live thousands of miles away in the U.S, we are still deeply impacted by what's going on back home. The fact that huge numbers of Filipinos, our own families included, have had to leave their homeland to seek a better life elsewhere, to me, is telling enough. But no matter how many Filipinos here live the first world life, we'll never be TRULY free. Our identity, culture, and spirit has been tainted because of colonialism and displacement. And no matter how much money Filipinos send back home, the Philippines will still be in a state of crisis as long as other countries (see: the U.S) continue to influence the politics and economy, as long as 10% of the rich elite own 90% of the land, wealth, and resources, and as long as people like President Arroyo continue to use political bureaucracy to put more money in their pockets and the pockets of the Philippine elite.

As Filipinos overseas in the U.S, we have a crucial role to raise awareness about the impact that this has on our community. The movement for social change and national democracy in the Philippines is strong and resilient, and we need to mirror that voice over here in the states. We need to let the world know that we exist, that we know what's up with our folks both here and back home, and that we are willing to do whatever it takes to create a genuine democracy, REAL justice and equality in OUR homeland. Right here. Right NOW.

As you may know, I'm with a hip hop group called Native Guns, which is funny because, I'm not very gun-literate at all. All I know about is the guns people talk about in rap songs, or in the movies. But there is this particular bullet I've heard about called the 'hollow point.' When entering one's body, a hollow point bullet doesn't just fly out the other side, but is designed instead to explode inside the body, causing significant damage to one's insides.

Now in the Philippines, they have this saying for Filipinos in the U.S fighting for social change. They call us the "bullet in the belly of the beast." And today, more than ever, we have to be that bullet, that hollow point, exploding inside this belly of the beast, bringing this imperialist monster down, and tattooing our voice in the pages of history. Forever.

I normally don't put out statements like this, but I felt compelled to put away my 'artist' hat for a second and make a personal plea to my folks, filipinos and filipino allies, to my family and friends who don't even normally head out to rallies or community events, to anyone who feels like a more just world exists out there, please come out. Learn about what's going on back home and why those conditions exist. And let's come together to fight for our community, for our people, and ultimately for oppressed and exploited peoples all over the world.

Serve the People
Kiwi

2/27/06 Alyansa ng mga Kababayan at UCI Condemns Human Rights Violations and De Facto Martial Law in the Philippines

Alyansa ng mga Kababayan at UCI Condemns Human Rights Violations and De Facto Martial Law in the Philippines

On February 24, 2006, the eve of the twentieth anniversary of the first EDSA Revolution that ended Martial Law under the Marcos regime, “elected” President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo issued Proclamation 1017, declaring a “State of Emergency” in the Philippines. This “State of Emergency” grants her multiple powers such as arrests without warrants and extension of detention without charge, the ability to raid and seize media productions, the suspension of public assembly, and other such powers which can be compared to a “De Facto” state of Martial Law.

The catalyst, according to President Arroyo, for this “State of Emergency” was the disruption of a potential military coup d’etat and an alleged “conspiracy” by political factions on the extreme left and right. However, the facts are that prior to the enactment of Proclamation 1017, the Arroyo administration had long been losing public favor amid national policies that placed the interests of multinational corporations and foreign nations above her own country, coupled with reports by multiple NGOs of human rights violations initiated by her government, as well as the admission of guilt in organizing voter fraud in the last Presidential election that placed her in the very office she currently occupies. Not only has her political opposition shown dissatisfaction in her policies, even former supporters and members of her administration have asked for her resignation.

Congresswoman Liza Maza, who is now facing arrest, states, “Malacanang (The Philippine equivalent of the White House) is bent on muzzling its critics, the opposition, and those who are espousing reforms.” Ultimately, this executive order amounts to a last ditch effort to hold on to power amidst a military, government, and nation that no longer wishes to see her in office.

Although we live thousands of miles away, the same blood that runs through our veins runs through the 7,000 islands back in the Philippines. It is our duty to exercise the liberties and freedoms that have wrongfully been stolen from Pilipina/os. By condemning the actions of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and opposing the human rights violations and the current state of de facto martial law, we stand in solidarity with the people of the Philippines and the struggles that they face and will face in the near future.

Alyansa ng mga Kababayan demands an immediate end of the “State of Emergency” on the Philippines; politically meaning the end of Proclamation 1017, resulting in the immediate release of all unwarranted political prisoners, the return of resources, materials and freedom of speech to all media organizations as well as the restoration of civil liberties and rights to all the citizens of the Philippines.

In Solidarity,

Alyansa ng mga Kababayan at the University of California, Irvine

FUSION – Filipinos Unifying Student-Engineers In an Organized Network at UCI
Kababayan at UCI
PASS – Pilipino Americans in Social Studies at UCI
PUSO – Pilipino Pre-Health Undergraduate Student Organization at UCI
TAPS Kollektive – Tagalog And Pilipina/o Studies at UCI

-------------

what is this movement and where the fuck are people moving to?

this entry was partly inspired by the ever inspiring Ms. Levid.

"what is this movement and where the fuck are people moving to?"

progress...movement...activism...all these words employ a sense of motion; specifically forward motion rather than regression or inaction. back in high school it was very rare to meet folk that actually got it, let alone were actually interested in it. so i entered into college hoping to meet folk that were. while there were much more forward thinking folk here than in high school, i attribute that to the larger population more so than the stereotype of the crazy liberal university, which is much more closer to the right than conservative folks would like the masses to believe. finding people that are interested in actually "shaking the core" are far and in between. one of the reasons is the level of commitment it does take. how willing are people to work for a cause they most likely won't benefit from? activism goes far beyond the university and it deals with real people's lives. one example would be the fight to keep the King/Drew Hospital open, a trauma center that intersects minutes from 5 major freeways. it saves tens of thousands of lives every year due to it's positioning, yet it's still slated to shut down. make no mistake, as jollene put it, people have full time careers doing activist work. however, this leads me to another topic..wannabe superstar psuedo activists.

yes it is trendy to be on the left in college. "but you just said liberal universities were a stereotype?" and i also said it was difficult finding folks that want to "shake the core." frankly, i take actions speaking louder than words true to the heart. while it's cool that folks rock Che shirts, a large part of them don't even know who the fuck he is nor do they realize PURCHASING a shirt with his image is actually contrary to what he worked for. there's plenty of stereotypes about activists: megaphone touting, placard carying, militant protestor is one of them. but 10% of the work activists do is in the public, and the wannabe superstars are the ones out for only that 10%. attitudes towards activists are either opposition, ambivalence, or adoration; and yup them psuedo activists are only out for adoration. one of the other stereotypes are the artsy spoken word poets that really don't do shit. see this is a weird place for me cause i enjoy writing and performing; and while i have met a share of poets/spoken word artists that do work, there is a maaasssss majority out there that don't. it's even ten times worse when their poetry sucks. another category of psuedo activism are macktivists.

so what the hell is a macktivist? a cat who wants to get their(usually a his) mack on by pretending to be interested in activism. they're usually either one of the two examples of psuedo activists, or even both, that i listed. there's also folk that try to use their positions in organizations, or do work on a certain issue, just because there's a female involved that they wanna hook up with. to me there is a pretty clear difference between a macktivist and someone that falls into a relationship.

as a great man once said "Leadership is only incidental to the movement." you are not serving the community if you care about praise. it does not matter how much you've so-called fucken done. your titles don't mean shit. if you're in it to get a pat on the head or a cookie, get the fuck out. objectivity and fence sitting should be thrown out the door the moment lives are on the line. a real leader is satisfied that the goal is acheived, not if s/he gets credit for reaching the goal.