Newspaper Controversy

We have an interesting if mild controversy here in New Orleans regarding our morning daily newspaper, The Times Picayune. It illustrates the huge number of Hispanic immigrants (I most of them illegally in the U.S.) that has poured into the city since Hurricane Katrina. Most of the Hispanic inflow consists of unskilled and semiskilled laborers here to work in rebuilding damaged property. So despite the influx of quite a few criminals, drug dealers, gang members, and the unfit, the population here will benefit from this group as long as there is labor to do in rebuilding. With that preamble done here is the controversy. The Times Picayune has started to print a supplemental section of the news paper entirely in Spanish. This section mostly deals with job searches, but also has quite a few other stories and advertisements. A number of non speaking spanish residents have expressed upset at this new policy and here is why.
- They claim that they are paying to subscribe to an English language newspaper, but are receiving a section they can not read.
- The Times Picayune has costs associated with publishing the Spanish section. Non Spanish speaking subscribers object to having for the additional cost of printing an extra section.
- The subscribers who protest say that this country has one language recognized as "official" and that Spanish is not it. They believe that permanent residents of the U.S. who are legally here should follow one the rule of citizenship. That requires they learn English.
- Accommodating a largely illegal segment of the population (The Illegal Spanish speaking people who have come here) this way encourages that group to stay in the city and in the U.S. when their work here is completed.
On the other side of this issue are many subscribers, some who speak Spanish and some who do not, who say it is a good idea to publish the Spanish section. Their reasons they like it included:
- The extra section is not a burden to subscribers because Hispanics that purchase the paper are in effect paying for some or all of the cost of the supplement.
- The illegals are here and the Bush administration will not enforce immigration laws, so it makes since to assist them with such services as the Spanish language section.
- It is decent and proper to assist those in this country who can not speak English and that There is a hint of racism in being so petty as to want to deny non English speakers essential information.
- The section is a practical help to the Hispanics who read it in helping them find work, understand their rights, and give information to them so they will not be exploited or abused while here.
- They claim that publishing a newspaper section will not encourage illegal immigrants to stay after their work is completed. They will go home or to the next area seeking labor. Ok..that's it. What do you think, and which side do you feel is "right"?
The nutty factions of those Islamic fundamentalists must be outraged again (aren't they always?) after the latest perceived assault on Islam in Naivasha, Kenya. And what is it that upsets those zealots? It's sex...or sex in the mosque, to be specific. It seems that a frisky couple caught having sex in a Kenyan mosque during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan have been sentenced to 18 months jail for what the judge called an "abominable" affront to religion. Peter Kimani and Jennifer Wairimu pleaded guilty to the charge of having sex in a place of worship after being caught on October 3 at the Abubakar mosque in Gilgil, about 60 miles north of Nairobi. Neither is a Muslim.
A worshipper heading for evening prayers found the couple having sex after investigating what the prosecution described as strange noises emanating from a dark corner of the mosque. Peter and Jennifer both pleaded for clemency at Monday's hearing, saying they were too drunk to know where they were. It was a foolhardy plea.
Ha! Has any Muslim cleric ever been forgiving? Peter told the court he thought he was in a lodging house. Haha Peter must not be very observant. John King'ori, senior magistrate in nearby Naivasha, dismissed their plea. "Having sex in a mosque is a most abominable thing to religion and only a custodial sentence can add justice to this," he said.
No truth to the rumor that Paris Hilton has proposed making a movie of the incident and staring in the role of Jennifer....