The Houston Sun

Serving without fear nor favor since 1983
The Democratic & Republican Candidates
Water Safaety
Barack Obama
Trouble on Obama's
plane, makes safe,
unscheduled landing
John McCain
104 Days to
making
White House
History
Olympics Contender
See Spor ts
Cartoon book pulled from Wal-Mart stores
Vol. 25. No. 18 8 pages Section 1 July 15, 2008 • Houston’s No. 1 Community Newspaper 713-524-0786 • f. 713-524-6786 • www.houstonsun.com • [email protected]
Dorris Ellis
THE HOUSTON SUN
During his visit with reporters,
Obama shook his head ''no'' when
asked if he was worried.
''Anytime a pilot says something's
not working
the way it's
supposed to,
then you make
sure you tighten your seat
belt,'' Obama
said.
Laura
Brown,
an
FAA
spokesperson,
said the plane
did not declare
an emergency,
but ''requested
a diversion for
mechanical issues
they
called a flight Barack Obama
control problem.''
Earlier while airborne, passengers
had felt the plane dip briefly, causing
a stomach-rolling sensation as if being
in a roller coaster, but the unexpected
movement did not cause visible alarm
for the frequent fliers on the plane.
About an hour after taking off
from Chicago, reporters among the 44
passengers on board were made aware
of the problem.
A flight attendant, who was clearing the aisles, told reporters the plane
wasn't heading to North Carolina as
planned.
Minutes later, Obama spokesperson Linda Douglass came to the back
of the plane to inform reporters of a
''minor little problem with the airplane'' and said the plane would make
a precautionary landing in St Louis.
Then, the pilot came on the overhead speaker and provided more details on the technical difficulties
involving the pitch of the aircraft.
The landing at 9:51 am CDT (1451
GMT) was, in the end,
normal.
A mechanic was
travelling on the plane
at the time, and was
inspecting the problem
on the ground in St
Louis.
Obama, his staff,
the Secret Service entourage and the press
sat on the plane as it
was being checked out
at Signature Flight
Support, a facility,
which handles private
jets, at Lambert Airport. Obama's N.C.
speech was postponed
due to airplane problem.
Editors’s Note: Two
other prominent politicians died in
plane crashes, Congressman George
Mickey Leland from Houston and
Democratic leader Ronald Brown.
(AP) In a break with tradition,
Barack Obama will accept the Democratic presidential nomination at Invesco Field at Mile High, a 76,000-seat
stadium, rather than at the site of the
party's national convention across
town.
Democratic
Party
Chairman
Howard Dean acknowledged the decision to move Obama's speech on the final night of the Aug. 24-28 convention
to the giant open-air football field of
the Denver Broncos would raise security challenges, but said he and Denver
Mayor John Hickenlooper had agreed
such challenges won't deter the move.
Dean, in a conference call with reporters, also batted away questions
about logistical challenges and added
costs the change would produce, saying those things would be worked out
in the coming weeks.
It won't be the first time a presidential candidate has accepted the nomination in a stadium. On July 15, 1960,
John F. Kennedy gave his acceptance
speech before tens of thousands at the
Los Angeles Coliseum.
Near the African American book
section in Wal-Mart stores now removed was a 1940s Mexican Cartoon
comic book character named Memin
Pinguin which does not save the day
in Houston as he has done since conceived by Yolanda Vargas Dulche, as
a comedic children’s story. “When
you read the stories, he’s always the
hero--he saves the day,” reports Raul
Ramos professor of Mexican-American History at the University of Houston. Instead, he has raised the veil on a
lack of cultural knowledge and sensitivity to African Americans in Houston.
Wal-Mart the world largest shopping chain has come under fire for the
offensive product sold in its Houston
stores. It was first challenged at the
South Post Oak location just south of
610 Loop, an area populated by
African American shoppers near the
only almost inner-city Wal-Mart.
One day after the United States
had celebrated its 232nd birthday, Saturday, Shawnedria McGinty, 34 emergency medical technician, of the
Meyerland community who was
shopping at Wal-Mart said that she
was just browsing as women do.
“I was just looking around reviewing the Christian gospel books. The
Latino books were near them and it
[Memin Pinguin] caught my eye and I
realized that it was in Spanish. I
grabbed all of the ones that I could see
and took them to the manager. The
cashier called the manager, the black
lady just stood there and a Hispanic
manager (I think that he was a manager) overheard what I was saying, came
over and took the books and apologized,” said McGinty, the mother of
two.
“"I said, wait a minute: Is this a
monkey or a little black boy? I was so
upset. This is 2008."
Controversy surround Memin in
2005 between the United States White
House and the Mexican postal service
when it released a series of stamps
commemorating Memin, the comic
book character. At that time President
Bush, Rev. Jesse Jackson and other
civil rights leaders deemed the stamp
offensive and former Mexican President Vicente Fox is reported as saying
that he did not understand what all the
fuss was about intimating that the
Memin’s image was not racist calling
it a beloved character that Mexicans
embraced.
Memin’s character is however offensive to African Americans due to
its stereotypical features of huge lips,
big wide-open eyes and monkey likeears and his character’s appearance,
speech and mannerisms are the subject of kidding by white characters in
the comic book, still today.
McGinty said, “I purchased a
Spanish-to-English dictionary because
Dorris Ellis
THE HOUSTON SUN
management company which provides
Transportation, Natural Resources Planning,
Public Works, and Land Use.
For one year the executives will learn
project and infrastructure management from
AECOM and TCB, an engineering and project management firm. They will go through a
rotation of projects and modules with the
prime consultant AECOM who won the
$200 million contract with Libya for two
years and totaling $500 million for five years.
Following the training of these three executives, 100 additional Libyans will come to
Houston for training in groups of 25 over the
next year for 90 day periods each. “Libya is
in need of this knowledge and we have come
here to learn so that we can build our houses
and infrastructure,” Rashaida explained.
“After the year of training, I hope that we
will be prepared to transfer the knowledge to
Libya as the country is booming now and we
need the infrastructure for our 6 million people,” said Shoukrie. He said that part of
Libyia’s boom is its 2 million barrel of oil per
day that is pushing this growth surge and
HIB is responsible for the entire country.
John Patrick Horan, Director of Development from the Port of Houston said that he
does business development for the Port and
travel the world looking for new opportuni-
ties to ship goods through the Port of Houston. He said, “I am not sure what is going to
come from this, but there may be opportunities to ship cargo to support the housing development in Libya or there may be a
consulting group opportunity.” Anthony Sartori, Associate Vice President of TCB
said,”We won the project to improve infrastructure of roadways, utilites and waterways
and to bring the three executives for training
for a year.” Sartori said that the executives
would travel to New York next week to observe a project that part of their company is
managing there as they work on the Second
Street Subway. “Each week they will work
with something different in different departments,” he said.
Learning will be monitored and evaluated. Min Chu, TCB-AECOM Senior Vice
President said, “They will be assessed every
week. A report will be prepared each Thursday or Friday and will be sent back to Libya
for review.”
Along with working with TCB and AECOM, the Libyan program directors are
working with Rice University as the educational partner. They noted that Libya has
thousands of students who need to learn this
new technology and educational partners are
needed for this to occur.
Associated Press
Monday, July 7, 2008 (St. Louis)
the airplane carrying Democratic presiden-
tial candidate Barack Obama made a precautionary landing in St. Louis on Monday
after the crew had a problem keeping the
nose up on takeoff from Chicago.
The plane, an MD-80 Midwest charter,
struggled to keep the nose at the necessary
angle, as it left for Charlotte, the pilot said.
Later, Midwest Airlines said the problem
developed because an emergency slide located in the tail cone of the plane deployed
in flight and never threatened the safety of
the flight. The National Transportation Safety Board said it planned to investigate the
incident.
Obama's Convention
speech moved to stadium
I had remembered some of the words
in my head. I went home and told my
fiancé about it.” An hour or so later
McGinty returned to the store and
there were four more copies of the
books on the shelves. “This time I
purchased a copy of the book and
McGinty said, “My son made me
speak up. I teach him about justice
and to be fair and I teach him that I
want him to get a fair shot and to be
given the benefit of the doubt.” The
mother said that she has never been
involved in anything activists-like as
Sun Photo/Lonal X. Robinson
Ms.Shanedria McGinty stands in front of the South Post Oak Wal-Mart
where she shops and spotted the offensive Memin Pinguin comic book.
when we went back home, I looked an adult. “My family is encouraging
them up [the words] and I realized me to be safe and careful,” she said.
that they were poking fun at black McGinty continued, “We need to stop
people. I had gotten offended,” she brushing things under the rug that
said.
bothers us and when we do that, we
McGinty said that she returned to do not learn how to deal with everythe store a second time on Monday, day life. Being passive about things
three days later and still found books that we feel are minor is not good for
on the shelf. “This time I purchased a us because when we get angry, we
second copy of the book which take it out on others. This was hurtshowed pictures of women being ful.”
abused, the monkey as a boy, and the
Dr. Franklin Jones, professor of
mother as black-featured aunt jemima Political Science Texas Southern Unilady with the head rag.” After the sec- versity said, “The negative caricatures
ond visit to the store McGinty said of people of African descent has been
that she called local activist Quanell routinely adopted by non African peoX.
ple and this tends to reflect their genQuanell X, New Black Panthers eral disregard for African culture.”
said, “My view is that Wal-Mart Traditionally, artists generally use carshould have known better than that. icatures in cartoons for entertainment
They have no African Americans em- purposes.
ployed in decision-making positions.
Quanell X said, “Their needs to be
Had they had someone there with cul- a summit between black and Hispanic
tural sensitivity, the books would not leaders because the divide is growing
have been purchased in the first and both groups have so much in
place.”
common.” He continued, “Some His“I feel like I should have spoken panic leaders have come out in supup about different things a long time port of this book and think it’s not
ago.” When asked why did she speak offensive. They must be respectful toout about the offensive material, ward other people.”
X said that a summit need to be
called by those who believe that it is
necessary to discuss issues such as
this as soon as possible within the
next two months. He suggests that
participants from a wide range of constituents, “Should discuss what we
have in common, what we do not
have in common and what we disagree about. They/ we should never
poke fun at others’ ethic features and
cultures for entertainment.”
When asked how did she want the
matter to be resolved. McGinty said,
“They [Wal-Mart] have apologized
and I accept it. But a personal apology
has not been made, and I would like
to get the apology. It offends me.”
McGinty explained that the Hispanic
staff at the store maintained that the
book was like Curious George of
which she disagrees. Finally she said,
“I did not do this to offend the Hispanics, but if we are to get along better, we must know what hurts. The
book affects us and hurts us a whole
lot.
“I recall all the hard work that the
men in my family have done and how
much we go through and to see something like this makes me feel that it
has been for nothing.”
In a statement from the Wal-Mart
Corporate office in Bentonville, AR,
Lorenzo Lopez, spokesman said,
"Wal-Mart received a customer complaint regarding the availability of the
Memin book, based on a cartoon character popular in Mexico, and recently
made available in Wal-Mart stores as
part of a series of Spanish-language titles. Because we take customer concerns seriously, we have decided to no
longer distribute this product in our
stores and are in the process of removing existing copies from store shelves.
“Wal-Mart carries a wide array of
products that reflect the wants and
needs of Hispanic customers. And we
understand that Memin is a popular
figure in Mexico. However, given the
sensitivity to the negative image
Memin can portray to some, we felt
that it was best to no longer carry the
item in our stores. We apologize to
those customers who may have been
offended by the book’s images."
When Houston Sun reporters
checked the shelves of the Post Oak
Wal-Mart on Thursday morning, none
of the books were found.
L. Alex Swan, professor of Sociological Criminology, Texas Southern
University said, “The real issue not
that the book was at Wal-Mart, the issue is that it was published and it was
not self-published. It was published by
an established publishing house that is
a part of defining of the culture in the
United States; to be surprised is not to
be aware that the racial ideology of
white supremacy is still flourishing in
America and has deep roots in various
forms of media including: books, journals and magazines.” Memin is published in Mexico and Latin America.
Relations better: Houston is site for Libyians’ training
The normalization of the United States
and Libya’s relations is being manifested in
Houston. Tuesday, three executive engineers
took a tour of the Port of Houston Ship Channel for a lunch on the Sam Houston boat to
engage in business discussions. Professors
Ali Rashiada, Abdulgader Slama and Ibrahim
Shoukrie, all Ph.Ds. from the Great Society
Peoples Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Housing
and Infrastructure Board (HIB) took the ride
and talked with The Houston Sun. These program directors are working in association
with AECOM Libya Housing and Infrastructure, Inc. The engineers have come to Houston as part of a contract to increase their
knowledge and skills related to housing and
infrastructure projects in Libya.
AECOM one of the world’s largest global providers of professional technical and
management support services to a broad
range of markets, including transportation, facilities, environmental and energy companies,
won the contract with Libya after competition from other world powers. AECOM a
(NYSE: ACM) company has partnered with
TCB, AECOM, a premier civil and environmental engineering, planning, and project
Sun Photo/Lonal Robinson
TCB -AECOM trainer share a few details with Libyans executives following the Port of Houston Ship Channel Tour.
(More photos on Lifestyle).
Slama said, “We will learn how to manage projects from experts in America because
you all have been doing a good job for a long
time, and we have come to the field to see
how the projects are done and I am sure that
we will learn management from the experts.”
Slama is not new to the United States; he
studied here in 1983 at Orlanda Central Florida University earning a BS and later at the
University of CO in Pueblo, Colorado.
With Abraic as their primary language,
the three English-speaking executives see
other benefits for staying in Houston for a
year. They have brought their families and
Providing you news and information that you can use and trust since 1983
the children will attend public schools in their
chosen respective communities. “My children will improve their English when they go
to school in the fall,” Slama said. “And that is
good for them to learn to speak the language
better.”