The Ruthlessness of a Glamorous Career

Working in the media as a news anchor, sports anchor, or meteorologist has always been seen as glamorous jobs, and many young people gravitate towards moving up from street reporting to sitting behind the "desk". However, recent incidents at WPLG, an ABC affiliate in the major market, Miami, leaves one to see how devious executives can be when making decisions. The protégé of a long standing weather person, after working for some years as the Chief Meteorologist for the station, was recently demoted to the weekends and replaced by a well known lady formerly from the Weather Channel. This lady is beautiful, charming, smart and community oriented, and I myself gravitate towards watching the news to see her since I can easily relate to her elegance and style. It is also refreshing to see that this young lady has made such a great impression to secure the Chief Meteorologist postition since years ago such a venture would have been impossible. So, my congratulations go out to her. In addition, the gentleman who anchored the weather for many years during the mornings on weekdays was also suddenly replaced my another beautiful woman and relegated to doing the weather during the mornings on weekends. Is it that the audience have changed and they are now gravitating towards watching beautiful women rather than looking at men clad in the monotonous dark suits and ties? Whatever the reason, the sudden switch of these positions and other switches at WPLG as well as the continuous demotions and non-renewal of contracts through the industry demonstrates that this is a fickle, ruthless industry where executives care simply to maintain the high audience viewership and have no consideration or respect for their staff. So, while getting to the anchor desk is expected by many young people, maybe remaining a street reporter is the best option in the long run if that is the city where the reporter wants to settle down. I can only say for the female meteorologists at WPLG who replaced their male counterparts - "Watch your backs!" You never know when you will face the same ruthlessness and disprespect since those executives will smile in your face today and stab you in the back tomorrow!

Immigration Reform Bill - Racial Opposition

One would expect for any Immigration Reform Bill to be written with the intentions of encouraging all immigrants regardless of color, class, creed, religious belief, etc. to become lawful residents of the United States by going those the proper legal channels. So, who would expect for the recently announced immigration bill to present such racial bias towards people from primarily Black majority rule countries within Africa and also the Caribbean islands? No mention is made in the bill of the visas which are considered "diversity" visas that allow residents of African and the Caribbean to go through a lottery system so as to have a chance of entering the United States. So, this bill does not take into consideration that similar to the European and Latin American residents, people from Africa and the Caribbean also need an equal chance of gaining legal entry into the United States. These natives of Africa and the Caribbean also have the same expectations to succeed in the U.S. by entering higher education insitutions so that they can achieve successful careers and take care of their families just like anyone else. So, it is hoped that good judgement will prevail so that lawmakers will learn that the millions of African and Caribbean immigrants currently residing in the United States are law abiding, hard working, tax paying voters. While these immigrants may not be as large as the Latino community, they always turn out in great numbers to vote and have often impacted many elections. So, politicians in Washington D.C. need to give more attention to these group of people.

Lessons To Be Learned After Boston Saga

Many residents cheered and clapped for the First Responders and other security personnel upon the capture of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Of course, there must also have been a sense of relief that the issue was over for them since they were confined to their homes for the entire day. However, this episode is not over for the many people who lost loved ones and those who were severly injured from the bomb blast. For these people, they have to now adapt to the difficulties of life for many years to come due to the evil actions of two young immigrants. In addition to the drastic changes in the lives of so many, it is also necessary to ask what was learned from such a devastating incident. First, it is apparent that terrorists come in all colors. So, contrary to Immigration and Customs' usual actions of targeting or racial profiling Brown and Black skinned Muslims, it it now time to include White immigrants from Europe. Yes, even if they display that "all American look", the Boston incident demonstrates that they too should be scrutinized as much and may be even more so now. Second, was it worth shutting down a city for an entire day? It was not discussed by the media, but it quite clear that shutting down a major city for the entire day will result in losses of millions of dollars. Incidentally, if the city was not shut down, would David Henneberry not have ventured out earlier and discovered that Tsarnaev was hiding in his boat? This early discovery would have alleviated the hours of man search that, of course, must have been costly to the tax payers. As one contemplates on the incidents in Boston, let us not forget the victims and the need for government to implement better immigration scrutiny procedures of Europeans along with utilizing more productive action plans in searching for wanted persons.

The Adventure of Arriving at Miami International Airport from a High Profiled Country

Going through Immigration and Customs at Miami International Airport after arriving from any European and other low profiled international counties is effortless for travelers. However, arriving from international high profiled countries such as Jamaica is an adventure in itself. As one waits to enter the slot to provide the Immigration Officer with his/her passport, one of the first annoying question to the traveler arriving from Jamaica is “Do you have any ackee?” The first thought that may come to mind would be, “Is this Immigration officer for real??!!” “Don’t they know by now that this is Miami - not Alaska, so ackee trees may be found in the backyard of many Jamaican houses or a can of ackee may be purchased at any of the local supermarkets!” Nevertheless, the next irritating question is “Are you bringing any white rum?” To that a general thought is, “Why? Are you looking to get a free bottle?” “Clamp!” the loud stamp is made into the passport, and it is returned to travelers so that they will go on to experience the next aggravation as they make their way to the customs area to claim their luggage. The rules for luggage is also different since the luggage of travelers arriving from high profiled countries encounters additional scrutiny, so the bags take a much longer time to be dumped onto the carousel. Prior to claiming bags on the carousel, some are opened and physically checked while others are sniffed out by the customs dogs. After obtaining the luggage, worries for some high profiled country travelers are still not over. After giving the declaration card to the Customs Officer, the same facetious question will be asked, “Where are you coming from?” A thought before responding would be, “If you take the time to read the Custom Declaration card, you would see the country of departure.“ Next questions, “Are you bringing any ackee”? “Are you bringing any rum?” At this point, one just plays along and goes through the repetitive nonsense. In fact, passengers from countries such as Jamaica should not even bother to leave the box blank to indicate that he/she is not carrying any food items since the Customs Officer will still beckon for the passenger to follow the line where the luggage needs to go through the luggage screening machine so that the contents may be scrutinized one more time. If the passenger is unlucky and singled out, a Customs Officer will even do a physical search of the luggage, take the passenger’s computer to a unknown area, and return with the computer without the courtesy of explaining why or what was done with the computer. Seasoned travelers from these high profiled countries are very cautious as they know too well the detailed scrutiny they will have to face upon arrival at Miami International Airport and quite possibly other major airports in the United States. Meanwhile passengers travelling from low profiled countries must be having a blast bringing in whatever illegal possessions they can since they know that there is not a chance in hell that Customs and Immigration will ever single them out for any type of inspections since they are blessed to have that “all American look”!

U.S. Consulate - Visa Approval Consistency

As Easter approached, teachers at a primary school in a Caribbean island planned to take a group of children to Disney World in Orlando, Florida. In the group, there were two eight year old cousins. Both cousins are the children of twin sisters and all live at the family home. So, both cousins who have grown up playing together in the same home were looking forward to going to Disney World together and anxiously awaited the day they would go to the United States embassy to obtain their visas. Parents accompanied their children who made up a small group of twenty. The first cousin, a little girl, was the second person in the group to approach an Immigration Officer. She stood in front of the officer with her mom, a hard working woman who leaves for work for her retail job at sunrise and returns home well after sunset. The officer asked her about her employment and she explained what her job entailed. Suddenly, the officer abruptly advised her that the application for her daughter was not approved and she should try again next year. At first, the little girl did not understand the decision that was made. However, when it was later explained by her mother, she cried profusely and her uncontrollable whaling became too much for her mother to bear. However, the event was not yet over since the little girl’s cousin and his mother had to appear before the same Immigration Officer. After learning of her niece’s visa denial, the aunt decided to act indifferent during the interview with the Immigration Officer since she felt her son too would be denied a visa. So, when the Immigration Officer asked her about her occupation, she responded in a nonchalant manner, “Mi no do nothing sir but sell bag juice to children at mi yard.” Then, the immigration officer beckoned her to go to another side of the room where the visa would be processed for her son! Greatly surprised by the decision, she quickly moved to the other side of the room even though she did not have sufficient money for the processing fee. Ironically, her hardworking sister offered to make the payment. This is one example where the issuance and denial of a visa do not seem to be logical. Unfortunately, with the high cost of the visa application fees too many applicants leave the embassy with no visa and lose out on the hundreds of dollars that they scrounged to obtain for the fee.