Make It Plain

"Society is a very mysterious animal with many faces and hidden potentialities, and…it’s..."

Tue, 23 Mar 2010 22:24:42 -0400

““Society is a very mysterious animal with many faces and hidden potentialities, and…it’s extremely shortsighted to believe that the face society happens to be presenting to you at a given moment is its only true face. None of us knows all the potentialities that slumber in the spirit of the population.””

- Vaclav Havel, May 31, 1990

Faced with a failing public school system, NYC has aggressively sought out educational alternatives. However, studies show these alternatives are narrow in scope and may also be leading to increased classroom segregation, Eric Eingold comments.

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 16:36:11 -0500

Faced with a failing public school system, NYC has aggressively sought out educational alternatives. However, studies show these alternatives are narrow in scope and may also be leading to increased classroom segregation, Eric Eingold comments.

What I Do In School

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 00:42:00 -0500

Over the last year, I’ve been studying Mexican immigration in New York City. Specifically, I have been doing an ethnographic project at a restaurant in the East Village to study the relationship between the global city (I highly recommend the last third of Saskia Sassen’s book The Global City, “The Social Order of the Global City”) and the working people on whose backs it thrives on. Working in the back of the house, I have been privileged to learn about the lives, struggles, hopes, and aspirations of a small part of the countless undocumented people who ensure New York City functions. I recently transcribed a two and a half hour long interview I had with a co-worker following his Friday night shift, and one of the many things we talked about was his journey into the United States. I wish that the people who demonize, criminalize, and disregard the humanity of undocumented immigrants in this country could come face-to-face with experiences like this, I imagine the dialogue surrounding immigration debates would be much different.

(The “E” is me)

D: I came with him. So, he went to Mexico to get married. I was in school, and he said to talk to my dad, and I talked to my dad, said I wanted to try to do something. My dad said, “You don’t want to study? Go. Go to America to make money.” I wasn’t really too happy to come, you know, a little kid. Something different. I didn’t even live in Mexico City. I don’t know Mexico City. In my life I went to Mexico City like twice. Just sayed for two days and then went back.

E: So, you didn’t, you went to the border, you didn’t use a coyote.

D: Yeah, I used a coyote.

E: When you got to the border.

D: When I crossed the border, we came from Mexico City to Tijuana, and then in Tijuana, there was a connection to the coyote. The coyote was waiting for us in October, October 9^th. Then it was 3 days, 3 nights walking, through the mountains. The shadows. Hiding. We were walking in the shadows, walking nights to the chopper. The coyotes call Mosca, La Mosca La Mosca. Helicopter. To immigration, you know they were looking for anything, in the mountains, anything like that.

E: So when Chris went to get married, did he go with the coyote back?

D: No, we were looking for the coyote. We tried to find a good coyote, because you know, some of them, you give them the money and they disappear.

E: So, Chris was here, then went back to get married. And the whole time, when he went back, did he have to get a coyote to go back?

D: Hmm-hmm.

E: Ok. So then, you went back with him when he was going back. Through Tijuana on the west coast, then to New York?

D: Hmm-hmm. Crossed Tijuana to LA, we walked 3 days through the mountains, to LA, passed some little town I can’t even remember the name, Phoenix or something.

E: Arizona?

D: No, it’s something like, I can’t remember. We were walking the mountains between Tijuana and the United States. There are some towns there, but it was 3 days, 3 nights walking, sleeping, through the mountains, in the trees, shadows, mountains in the night. Hid in the trees. It was also dangerous you know, but it happens. But then when we came, that happened before 9-11, so it wasn’t really bad. So then, we were walking 3 nights, almost died because there was no water, and everything was gone. We finished everything, so we drank like, the water, it had green things. We drank that water. We almost died, like 3 days walking in the night and the day, and there’s no water that last day. And we found a little thing, for animals, that had water, and the green things on it, and we drank it like that. And then, the day before, no, the day after, we got in the little river, stayed there, waiting for a truck, for a man. You know how many people were waiting for that man? It was layers of people, like 3 layers. One, two, three. All the way in the van. The guy drove from there, to a city, to take the plane, you know? It was 5 hours.

E: Wow, just packed in.

D: Like a package. And they told us “don’t move, you shouldn’t talk. Sssh.” Because if immigration saw you, moving, something, they’re going to stop it. Did you see that truck; it had a lot of people and tried to go away. And when they got it, they had guns or something like that. And, now it’s harder. But, I don’t know, maybe its going to change with Obama in the future, but, we’ll see.

Recent polling shows that a growing segment of Americans, across party lines, are unhappy with the direction taken by their elected representatives. For the Democratic majority, this represents a stark failure in selling their agenda to Americans and a clear liability moving forward in this election year, Eric Eingold comments.

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 12:23:29 -0500

Recent polling shows that a growing segment of Americans, across party lines, are unhappy with the direction taken by their elected representatives. For the Democratic majority, this represents a stark failure in selling their agenda to Americans and a clear liability moving forward in this election year, Eric Eingold comments.

In the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling on corporate personhood, some politicians are crafting legislation to stem the flood of increased corporate influence into the American political process. With much of Washington deeply entrenched in corporate politicking, however, closing the door to big money is easier said than done, Eric Eingold writes.

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 12:23:02 -0500

In the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling on corporate personhood, some politicians are crafting legislation to stem the flood of increased corporate influence into the American political process. With much of Washington deeply entrenched in corporate politicking, however, closing the door to big money is easier said than done, Eric Eingold writes.

The social impacts of mega sporting events are not always positive and it is easy to overlook them alongside the emotion and jubilee associated with the games themselves. This is especially true for the Olympics, and this year, all eyes are on Vancouver, writes Eric Eingold.

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 12:22:33 -0500

The social impacts of mega sporting events are not always positive and it is easy to overlook them alongside the emotion and jubilee associated with the games themselves. This is especially true for the Olympics, and this year, all eyes are on Vancouver, writes Eric Eingold.

Eric Eingold calls attention to the immigration debate, an issue that has been placed on the backburner as healthcare and the economy have risen atop the list of the Obama administration’s priorities. At the center of his discussion are sanctuary city policies and the broad context in which they exist.

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 12:22:00 -0500

Eric Eingold calls attention to the immigration debate, an issue that has been placed on the backburner as healthcare and the economy have risen atop the list of the Obama administration’s priorities. At the center of his discussion are sanctuary city policies and the broad context in which they exist.

How the Negative Effects of Climate Change Affect Those Less Fortunate: A View into the Climate Justice Movement

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 12:21:24 -0500

How the Negative Effects of Climate Change Affect Those Less Fortunate: A View into the Climate Justice Movement

Welcome!

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 11:20:08 -0500

I have never had a blog before, but I am very excited to begin using this as a venue to post the articles that I write, as well as interesting things I come across to share with you fine people. Don’t be a stranger!