The Starfish Flinger

An old man is walking the beach at sunrise and notices a young girl flinging washed-up starfish back into the ocean.

Assimilation vs. Acculturation

Alan tells why it's better to advocate for Acculturation of immigrants to the United States. He shares historical (and practical) reasons for us to stop talking about Assimilation of newcomers here.

What's Wrong with Political Correctness (PC)?

According to Charlton Heston, “Political correctness is just tyranny with manners.”  With all respect to the actor who played Moses in the iconic 1956 film, "The Ten Commandments," this information does not come down from God Almighty.  It is instead the typical response by people who look a lot like Mr. Heston and (less famously) me: white, able-bodied, hetero, Christian males.  Watch here to find out why we need to lose the expression "PC" altogether in the new millennium.

Zeno Radio

Cellphones As Radios: Immigrants Dial In To Native Stations

Can you imagine what it would be like to drive a taxicab for 10 to 12 hours a day?  What if you didn’t speak English very well?  I think the hours would get pretty boring.

Well, one entrepreneur in NYC has come to the rescue of thousands of immigrant cab drivers with an invention called Zeno Radio.

The idea is to connect U.S. immigrants with radio stations back in their home countries.  The beauty of Zeno is that the only equipment that’s required is a person’s cellphone.

Zeno customers can program their phones to receive faraway broadcasts from Egypt, Morocco, Somalia, and Senegal—just to name a few.  A hundred of the stations broadcast in French.

For many homesick immigrants, Zeno gives them a feeling of being back home.  The broadcasts aren’t necessarily special, but just hearing some normalcy in the form of music and news reports can relieve the stress of being separated from one’s homeland.

Zeno operates on even simple, inexpensive cellphones, and it is cost-effective because most cellphone users have unlimited data and calling packages.

Baruch Herzfeld (photo source: www.metro.us)

Zeno founder Baruch Herzfeld says subscribers can access 2,000 or more stations. It earns money from advertising and investors, and makes a few cents per call from telephone routing companies with space wanting more business.

Immigrants working in solitary jobs and feeling culturally isolated can feel a little less lonely these days, thanks to Zeno Radio.

Check out their website here: http://zenoradio.com.

Bi-National Couple Married on River Border

A heart-warming story in the news for all of you romantics.

A bi-national couple got married on a Zodiac raft in the middle of the Rio Grande this month.

The bride, Stephanie Guerra is a U.S. citizen, but her fiancé, Ruben Alfonso Fierro, is not.  The couple has four young children, who are all U.S. citizens. Fierro had been living for years in the United States but had not legally immigrated.

When he temporarily left the country, he was not allowed to return.  It seemed the fastest way for the family to come together again was to get married in the United States, except for U.S. border patrol coming in the way.

Here is where it’s good to know the details of the law.  There is an 1848 treaty that allows free navigation for both sides along the Rio Grande, which is the river that forms almost half of the U.S. border with Mexico.

Judge Hector Liendo from Laredo, Texas boarded the couple's raft which is both in the river but technically also in U.S. territory and conducted the ceremony.  Fierro’s family members, who had boarded from the Mexican border town of Nuevo Laredo, were also in attendance. 

Under the watchful eyes of the U.S. border patrol, the couple was legally married, an act which should speed up Fierro’s return to the United States and his family.  Hurray for love and the creativity it inspires in all of us!

For details: http://bit.ly/Zp3fgP