I write this just after reading a recent Rolling Stones’ article on human smuggling in the US, more specifically the activities of a few young men—and some young women— attending Texas A&M in Corpus Christi, Texas. Since Corpus as the locals call it is a city I know fairly well, and the people involved could have been people I knew, or like some of the people I know there, the story rang an even louder bell. These young people were party animals, into drugs and were brought into a smuggling operation through a friend they met a one such party. Corpus, is not far from the border, and residents are (more…)
Danielle Levy
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Art and Technology
We still think that art and technology are poles apart and they are, but what we forget is that they go hand in hand to make our world more livable. Amy Wibowo wrote a blog about her experience with the two, a blog which she charmingly illustrated and posted on Medium. It was then reposted on Quartz perhaps because its editors also saw how well she was able to summarize the relationship between them. I would suggest you click on the link and read the post because she cites examples which would be too awkward to list here. We shouldn’t have to choose, she (more…)
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The Side of The Prison Guards
Last week the post spoke of a prisoner’s reality. This week, also via The Marshall Project, which specializes on reporting about the criminal justice system, the perspective of prison guards. While a closed group, they attempt to bridge their isolation through social media like Facebook, and a reporter took a look at their unfiltered posts all the while cautioning readers this was representative of only a “subset” of guards, those who used Facebook. She categorized what was culled from those posts into four sections, each representing (more…)