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Puerto Rican Senate Posada’s Home Run Propels Yankees

Approves $28.6 Billion Budget P3

P31 P4

Savoring Rum Fresh From the Cane P23

Shakira Makes a Star Turn

Fort San Cristóbal P24

P18 P6

Evaluating “Semana del Baile” The San Juan Weekly available on internet at www.sanjuanweeklypr.com

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The San Juan Weeekly

June 30 - July 6, 2011

The San Juan Weekly Star In Panama, Respite for

H E L LO !

Local News Mainland Pets Travel Viewpoint Fashion & Beauty Kitchen Portfolio Health & Science

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International Art Wine Local Travel Modern love Business Games Horoscope Cartoons Sports

21 22 23 24 25 26 28 29 30 31

The First Amendment, Upside Down

People and Pelicans Travel P11

What’s It All About, Gucci?

Fashion & Beauty 18

Weight-Loss Affect Fertility Health & Science 19

In Celestial Twist, Black Hole Swallows a Dying Star

Mainland P7

Health & Science P20

China Warns U.S. on South China Sea Disputes

Time Travel, by Way of a Tiny Painting

Mainland P8

Art P22

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Pets Can Reduce a Child’s Risk of Developing Allergies

As Economy Slowly Recovers, Fed Says It Has Done Enough

Pets P10 Business P27 San Juan Weekly Star has exclusive New Times News Service in English in Puerto Rico

The San Juan Weekly

June 30 - July 6, 2011

Puerto Rico Senate approves $28.6 billion budget

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T

he Senate of Puerto Rico has approved a $28.6 billion budget that increases spending while keeping the island’s deďŹ cit intact.

The Senate version of the budget is about 6 percent higher than last year’s $26.9 billion budget. The deďŹ cit stays the same at $3.3 billion regardless pf political propaganda and claims.

The proposed budget approved late Friday contains

some amendments that will have to be approved by the House of Representatives.

Puerto Rico is trying to emerge from an economic crisis and is battling a 16.2 percent unemployment rate, higher than any U.S. state. 25% of all 20 to 34 year olds are unemployed and 25% are employed by the government. International economists have declared Puerto Rico the slowest growing non-wartorn econo-

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mic environment in the world.

The island is in its 5th year of recession.

Real estate has plummetted as over 1 million islanders migrated to the mainland.

This tended to be professional and young adults seking a better future. Left behind are the poor and disenfranchised with a high percentage of children suffering poverty levels.

The domino effect of bankrupcies not paying their suppliers leads to further banckrupcies up and down the economic food chain.

The assault on the middle and upper middle classes in Puerto Rico has left a desperate business environment. The new senate budget does not reduce the deďŹ cit, raises annual operating expenses while the government sells longterm assests to meet current costs.

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The sale of the 40 year management of Routes 5 and 22 to the consortium, which operates the Moscoso Bridge, for over $1 billion is a good example. This investor group will charge excessive roundtrip tolls to obtain an attractive return. Currently it costs $6 to travel roundtrip on the Moscoso Bridge.

The government strategy of selling assets to entrepreneurs burdens the cash ows of citizens similarly to the IVU. Increasing our costs to live, drive to work, buy food all serve to squeeze the economy. It is irresponsible to use these resources to support annual operating costs versus lowering our debt levels. Our budget rose $1.7 billion, our $3.3 Billion deďŹ cit remained the same while long term assets were sold and new longterm debt issued.

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The San Juan Weekly

SB Pharmo Puerto Rico to Pay $40.7 Million

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B Pharmo Puerto Rico and its parent GlaxoSmithKline will pay $40.7 million to settle claims with 38 state attorneys general that SB Pharmo Puerto Rico violated drug-manufacturing standards.

Between 2001 and 2004 allegedly improperly manufactured and distributed products that were not sterilized and, in some cases, contained different dosages than what was indicated on the bottle. The drugs included Kytril, used to prevent nausea and vomiting in patients undergoing chemotherapy; Bactroban, an ointment for skin infections; Paxil CR, a controlled-release formulation of the antidepressant drug, Paxil; and Avandamet, a diabetes drug.

Under the terms of the settlement, the drugmakers must stop misrepresenting their products’ characteristics, or causing confusion or misunderstanding about the way in which they are manufactured.

Attorney General Lisa Madigan said current patients do not need to worry about the quality of their drugs since the manufacturing plant in question in Puerto Rico has since closed.

The San Juan Weekly

June 30 - July 6, 2011

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The San Juan Weekly

June 30 - July 6, 2011

Evaluating Semana del Baile By: Max González

L

ast Sunday came to a close the so much exciting dance festival that brought together all the local companies, including ballet modern dance, ethnic, jazz and others. Ballet proved to be at the top, judging by the dancers and the repertoire. It was represented in each performance with the approval of the audiences that seemed to be moved deeply compared to other styles of dancing. The closing performances shining with the fragments from “La Sylphide” that opened the program on Saturday was the pas-de-deux from “The Flames of Paris” setting the place on fire when the aggressive Laura Valentin the place assisted by Daniel Ramirez, lithe and showing a magnificent jump besides an impeccable style.

The second work, “Desde la Almohada”, that added another golden merit to Rodney Rivera’s list of successes was rendered by Brio Ballet, moving from one end to the other of the stage submerged in the peculiar dynamics which centered in the masculine pas-de-deux like two gladiators overturning the mood effectively, thanks to Emmanuel Rodriguez and Eduardo Ortiz.

Ballets de S.J. displayed two of the best performers seen; Zulma Berrios and Barbara Hernandez.

Both have gone a long way with that group, to be at the present two

leading performers, having accomplished a long repertoire in both classic and contemporary.

Western Ballet from Mayaguez, nonetheless, deserves special achievement by introducing a highly talented young couple from Dominican Republic. The pas-de-deux from “La Fille Mal Guardee”by Yeida Genaoa and Juan Capellan was electrifying. The Little Swans came alive as a prelude to the Grand Pas-de-Deux poetically danced by Yamillette Padilla (a most mature lined interpreter), assisted by a very handsome partenaire. Rene Fernandez Badrena.

“Guateque” has been digging up the visceral local folklore that the typical “Jibaros” of the rural areas celebrated as a tradition that has been ignored by the present influence of the changing Puerto Rico.

The ritual of a rural wedding was selected by the director and choreographer Joaquin Nieves. The guests reciprocate by bringing presents.

The simplicity and naïve, setting for the wedding becomes alive when the dancing starts. The country folks in colorful costumes celebrate unpretentiously with the live music of the “cuatro” and the harsh percussion of the “guiro”. Stamping of the feet is quite a novelty.

The invited group from Miami, N.W.S.A. turned the stage into an overwhelming experience to a native dance: “Battlefield”, reminiscent of the African dances of Se-

negal. The vibrations rendered by the enthusiastic group in a sequence like an stampede was warmly received. The percussion worked at it growing into frenzy.

Congratulations for such an

effort done by the Gonzalez-Lugo producers. Motivation is by far a good promotion, however, this must be backed by a bigger audience and a huge appreciation in general.

The San Juan Weekly

June 30 - July 6, 2011

7 Mainland

The First Amendment, Upside Down

T

he Supreme Court decision striking down public matching funds in Arizona’s campaign finance system is a serious setback for American democracy. The opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. in Monday’s 5-to-4 decision shows again the conservative majority’s contempt for campaign finance laws that aim to provide some balance to the unlimited amounts of money flooding the political system.

In the Citizens United case, the court ruled that the government may not ban corporations, unions and other moneyed institutions from spending in political campaigns. The Arizona decision is a companion to that destructive landmark ruling. It takes away a vital, innovative way of ensuring that candidates who do not have unlimited bank accounts can get enough public dollars to compete effectively.

Arizona’s campaign finance law provided a set amount of money in initial public support for candidates who opted into its financing system, depending on the type of election. If a candidate faced a rival who opted out, the state would match the spending of the privately financed candidate and independent groups supporting him, up to triple the initial amount. Once that limit is reached, the publicly financed candidate receives no other public funds and is barred from using private contribu-

tions, no matter how much more the privately financed candidate spends.

Chief Justice Roberts found that this mechanism “imposes a substantial burden” on the free speech rights of candidates and independent groups because it penalized them when their spending triggered additional money for a candidate who opted into the public program. The court turns the First Amendment on its head. It denies the actual effect of the Arizona law, which is not to limit spending but to increase it with public funds. The state program expands political speech by giving all candidates, not just the wealthy, a chance to run — while allowing privately financed candidates to spend as much as they want.

Justice Elena Kagan, writing in dissent, dissects the court’s willful misunderstanding of the result. Rather than a restriction on speech, she says, the trigger mechanism is a subsidy with the opposite effect: “It subsidizes and produces more political speech.” Those challenging the law, she wrote, demanded — and have now won — the right to “quash others’ speech” so they could have “the field to themselves.” She explained that the matching funds program — unlike a lump sum grant to candidates — sensibly adjusted the amount disbursed so that it was neither too little money to attract candidates nor too large a drain on public coffers.

Arizona’s system was a response to a history of terrible corruption in the state’s politics. Rather than seeing the law as a way to control corruption, the court struck it down as a limit on the right of wealthy candidates and independent groups to speak louder than others.

The ruling left in place other public financing systems without such trigger provisions, including public financing for presidential elections. It shows, however, how little the court cares about the interest of citizens in Arizona or elsewhere in keeping their electoral politics clean.

Mainland 8

The San Juan Weekly

June 30 - July 6, 2011

China Warns U.S. on South China Sea Disputes

By EDWARD WONG

T

he Chinese vice foreign minister warned the United States to stay out of the increasingly tense territorial disputes and maritime conflicts in the South China Sea, which has some of the busiest shipping lanes in the world and is believed to be rich in oil and natural gas reserves.

All or parts of the sea are claimed by China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines and Brunei. China and Vietnam are the biggest and most vocal claimants, and both nations have been involved in diplomatic disputes in recent years involving fishing vessels and maritime surveillance boats. But this year has been even tenser than usual — Vietnamese officials accused Chinese vessels of cutting cables to oil exploration ships in May and June, while Chinese officials have denied some of those accusations and have warned Vietnam and other nations that only joint oil exploration is acceptable to China.

Standoffs have also taken place this year between Chinese and Philippine vessels. On March 2, two Chinese maritime surveillance ships ordered a Philippine survey ship away from an area called Reed Bank. The Philippines later sent military aircraft to the area.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said last year that the United States had a “national interest” in the South China Sea and could facilitate talks, worrying China that it was going to step into the territorial rivalry.

“Regarding the role of the United States in this, the United States is not a claimant state to the dispute,” Cui Tiankai, the vice foreign minister, told a small group of foreign reporters. “So it is better for the United States to leave the dispute to be sorted out between the claimant states.”

He added, “I believe the individual countries are actually playing with fire, and I hope the fire will not be drawn to the United States.”

Mr. Cui was speaking at the Foreign Ministry ahead of a weekend meeting in Hawaii between senior Chinese and American officials to discuss issues in the Asia-Pacific region. The meeting, which the two sides are calling a first round of consultations, was set up after President Hu Jintao visited Washington in January.

The meeting will be led by Kurt M. Campbell, an American assistant secretary of state, and Mr. Cui. The South China Sea is not officially on the agenda of the meeting, but the issue will almost certainly come up because of the recent conflicts. The United States has not taken a side in the territorial disputes, but has urged nations to resolve them peacefully. China insists that it will talk to the only countries on a bilateral basis and that it will not negotiate with the claimants in a multilateral manner, which those countries would prefer to do.

“Some American friends may want the United States to help matters,” Mr. Cui said. “We appreciate that gesture, but more often than not, such gestures will

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only make things more complicated.”

He added that “if the United States does want to play a role, it may counsel restraint to those countries who’ve been frequently taking provocative action, and to ask them to be more responsible in their behavior.”

In giving his warning, Mr. Cui hinted that anti-American fervor among Chinese could be brewing. “To be honest with you, the Chinese public is following very closely whether the United States will adopt a just and objective position on matters like these,” he said.

In the Philippines, officials said that the United States was obligated by a 1951 treaty to help defend Philippine interests if ships came under attack in the South China Sea, The Associated Press reported.

At the briefing, Mr. Cui also talked about North Korea, officially called the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,

an issue of great concern to both Chinese and American officials. The United States has been pressing China to do more to control North Korea’s unpredictable and ailing leader, Kim Jong-il, a frequent visitor to China.

“From what we’ve seen and heard, what the D.P.R.K. leaders and delegation members have seen in China has had an impact on their thinking,” Mr. Cui said.

“They are now considering whether there need to be some initiatives on the front of economic reform and opening.”

He added: “We should encourage and support such a trend. Of course, it will take some more time for there to be a fundamental improvement in the D.P.R.K. economy. So we also need to have patience. We cannot expect things to change overnight simply because there is an increased interest in economic development.”

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The San Juan Weekly

June 30 - July 6, 2011

9 Mainland

Wal-Mart Wins. Workers Lose.

W

al-Mart Stores asked the Supreme Court to make a million or more of the company’s current and former female employees fend for themselves in individual lawsuits instead of seeking billions of dollars for discrimination in a class-action lawsuit. Wal-Mart got what it wanted from the court — unanimous dismissal of the suit as the plaintiffs presented it — and more from the five conservative justices, who went further in restricting class actions in general.

The majority opinion by Justice Antonin Scalia will make it substantially more difficult for class-action suits in all manner of cases to move forward. For 45 years, since Congress approved

the criteria for class actions, the threshold for certification of a class has been low, with good reason because certification is merely the first step in a suit. Members of a potential class have had to show that they were numerous, had questions of law or fact in common and had representatives with typical claims who would protect the interests of the class.

Justice Scalia significantly raised the threshold of certification, writing that there must be “glue” holding together the claims of a would-be class. Now, without saying what the actual standard of proof is, the majority requires that potential members of a class show that they are likely to prevail at trial when they seek initial certification. In this change, the

court has made fact-finding a major part of certification, increasing the cost and the stakes of starting a class action.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, writing for the four moderates on the court, dissented from Justice Scalia’s broader analysis and sought a much narrower holding. The minority found that the plaintiffs had cleared the bar for certification with evidence suggesting that “gender bias suffused Wal-Mart’s company culture” but would have sent the case back to the trial court to consider whether the class action should have gone forward in a different form.

The plaintiffs in this case sought three forms of relief: to stop Wal-Mart’s employment practices that allegedly discriminated

against women, to have the company adopt equitable ones and to recover wages lost as a result of unfair practices. The justices have all but ended this mix of remedies under one part of the main classaction rule — even though Congress and most courts of appeals have allowed it for decades.

Without a class action, it will be very difficult for most of the women potentially affected to pursue individual claims. The average wages lost per year for a member of the rejected Wal-Mart class are around $1,100 — too little to give lawyers an incentive to represent such an individual. For the plaintiffs, for groups seeking back pay in class actions, and for class actions in general, it was a bad day in court.

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The San Juan Weekly

June 30 - July 6, 2011

Answers About Feeding Dogs and Cats

By THE NEW YORK TIMES

D

og and cat owners invest time, money and emotion into choosing the best foods for their pets. But are the nutrition decisions we make for our animals the right ones?

We asked Dr. Tony Buffington, professor of veterinary nutrition at Ohio State University Veterinary Medical Center, to respond to a variety of reader questions about pet nutrition.

Q. I buy grain-free food for my 5-year-old Labrador retriever mostly to avoid foods with fillers and/or unreliable ingredients. Your thoughts on such a diet? Also, is dog food irradiated in the United States? - JK, Flemington, N.J. A. Pet diets can be made up of a variety of ingredients, including meats and their byproducts, grains of various kinds, various sources of vitamins and minerals and preservatives. What’s important is that a pet’s diet contain everything the pet needs for optimal health — that’s some 44 essential nutrients for dogs and 48 essential nutrients for cats.

The term “fillers” means different things to different people. To some it means using air, water or fiber to dilute the amount of other nutrients in the diet. Others think fillers refer to some, but not all, kinds of grains. Despite the current niche popularity of “grain free” diets, millions of dogs are successfully fed diets containing grains.

The question for you and your dog is whether the diet you are feeding is providing satisfactory nutrition when fed in the right amount to maintain your dog’s weight. Some Labrador retrievers are “easy keepers” that tend to obesity if not fed properly and kept active. If you find that the amounts you are feeding to sustain your dog at a healthy weight vary greatly from the la-bel recommendations, I suggest you consult with your veterinarian about switching diets.

Pet foods can be irradiated in the United States to reduce disease risk from microbes in the food. Manufacturers using this process are required to state this on the product la-

bel, just as manufacturers of human foods do.

Q. What do you think of this easy check? If the can or box includes corn gluten or animal byproducts (this means dying/diseased animals), don’t buy it. - SKV A. Veterinarians define a satisfactory pet diet as one that is complete (contains all necessary nutrients), balanced (contains the nutrients in proper proportions), tasty (palatable) enough to be eaten, digestible enough so the nutrients can get into the body to be used, and safe for the pet to eat. The best insurance owners have that these criteria have been met is the statement from the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) on the package.

This statement, required on pet foods, requires manufacturers to declare how they know their food is satisfactory.

As an easy check, I prefer looking for the words “feeding trial” in the AAFCO statement if the diet is one with which I have not had personal experience.

To learn more about pet food labels, read this Food and Drug Administration report.

As for your concerns about corn gluten and animal byproducts, corn gluten is a plant protein source. The term “dying/diseased” is just a pejorative term used by some enthusiasts (who appear to be unclear about what carnivores eat in nature) as a euphemism for animal byproducts. While the terms “corn gluten” and “animal byproducts” may not be aesthetically appealing to some, they are included in products successfully fed to millions of pets every day.

Q. My Italian friends just feed their dog whatever they have cooked for dinner. It’s much simpler.

- Stacy, London A. I agree that it is simpler, but is it in the longterm best health interest of the pet?

I ccan’t say without knowing more about the particular case, but I can ab say that in general pets are more like to do well when fed diets likely form formulated for them rather than for hum humans, whether they are homemade or o commercially prepared.

Q. This all presumes that what go for humans is good for their is good pets, and that pets’ tastes are the same as humans’. The goal should be to fi nd out what is good for and pleasing to the find animals, not offering free samples to their owners.

What kind of dog wants to eat blueberries? - foo, Washington, D.C. A. As long as the diet is satisfactory for the pet and is fed appropriately, the marketing appeal to the owner, who of course is paying the company, is an emotional rather than a nutritional question. In my experience, dogs will eat what pleases their owners, or gets their attention.

Pets Can Reduce a Child’s Risk of Developing Allergies

By ANAHAD O’CONNOR

M

any parents worry that keeping a dog or cat in the house may make a child more likely to develop pet allergies. But the scientific evidence suggests otherwise.

Instead, Fido and Whiskers seem to have the reverse effect. Most studies now show that children who are exposed to a pet during their first year have a lower likelihood of developing dog or cat allergies later on in life.

In the latest study, appearing this month in the journal Clinical & Experimental Allergy, researchers at the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit followed 566 boys and girls from birth until age 18, regularly collecting data from the children’s families about exposure to indoor pets. At the end of the study, the researchers took blood samples and tested the subjects for their allergic sensitization to dogs and cats.

The children who had shared a home with a cat in their first year of life were about half as likely to be allergic to cats as those who had not. A decreased risk also was found in boys who lived with a dog as infants, though for some reason the effect was not as strong in girls.

The researchers also concluded that exposure at later ages did not make much of a difference — it was exposure in infancy that mattered. “The first year of life is the critical period during childhood when indoor exposure to dogs or cats influences sensitization to these animals,” the study’s authors concluded.

Another study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association in 2002 documented a similar pattern: Children exposed to two or more dogs or cats in the first year of life were less likely to develop allergies to dust mites, ragweed and dog and cat hair.

Research suggests that exposure to a dog or cat in the first year of life can reduce the risk of allergies to them.

The San Juan Weekly

June 30 - July 6, 2011

11

In Panama, a Respite for People and Pelicans

By FREDA MOON

I

WOKE with the sun and the roosters. The clouds on the horizon hung over the Panama mainland — just 12 miles away, across the wide-mouthed Bay of Panama — in dusty, caramel-colored bands. It was Fat Tuesday on Taboga Island. The night before, sulfurous firecrackers mixed with the sea air as an elaborately dressed Carnival Queen was carried through town to the rolling drums of a marching band. But now San Pedro, a brightly painted tangle of houses woven with footpaths, was still and quiet. At the beach, small waves came ashore like a series of tiny sighs.

The only action was in the sky, where brown pelicans made their morning commute, traveling in uneven V-shaped constellations as they hunted fish from above.

Less than an hour from Panama City by boat, Taboga has long called to Panamanians, who descend on the island on weekends, lured by beaches, fresh air and fish shacks.

But after the last ferry leaves and the day-tri-

ppers return home, San Pedro is unassuming — a village of about 1,000 people, a nearly 500-year-old church (said to be the second oldest in the hemisphere) and a history ensconced in myth.

Taboga was once an important American military installation for guarding the Panama Canal, and incongruous relics nestled in the island’s tropical dry forest still exist: concrete bunkers, dismantled communications equipment and prefabricated Quonset huts (now home to colonies of bats). And before the Americans arrived, the island was a staging ground for pirates and conquistadors like Henry Morgan and Francisco Pizarro, who used its deep-water anchorage as a departure point for their exploits. Today, a large swath of the small island is a nature reserve, home to one of the largest breeding colonies of brown pelicans in the world.

But it is Taboga’s proximity to Panama City, a boomtown of almost Dubai-like proportions, that creates the greatest sense of disconnect. From the island, the city’s vertical skyline is at once stunning and mystifying, a metropolis that seems to be growing exponentially skyward. But on Taboga, even the vacation homes of the wealthy are relatively humble. Those in search of luxury — or even night life — go elsewhere.

At 7 a.m. on Fat Tuesday, most of San Pedro was still asleep. But at Playa Honda, the stretch of sand closest to town, the sun was already a fiery orange. A fisherman readied his cayuco, a long, narrow, canoelike boat, carved from the trunk of a single espavé tree.

In choppy Spanish, I asked if he’d be willing to take me around the island. (Normally, it’s possible to arrange snorkeling, fishing and bird-watching boat trips through one of the two local hotels. But during Carnival, I’d been told, the tour boat operators would be too hung over for an outing.)

Above the roaring outboard, the fisherman shouted a price ($20 an hour; the U.S. dollar is the paper currency of Panama, though it is also referred to as the balboa) so I waded into the lukewarm Pacific and half-hopped, halffell into his small boat.

My guide, Arturo Herrera, was 68, though he looked at least a decade younger.

When I told him of my fascination with “aves comicos” — those comical birds, the pelicans — he pointed his boat toward Urabá, an uninhabited island just across a narrow channel from Taboga’s southern tip and part of the Refugio de Vida Silvestre Isla Taboga y Urabá nature reserve. There, a swarm of black, brown and white birds circled overhead; pelicans slept regally — their bills tucked against their chests — on what seemed like every branch, and long, snakelike cactuses grew from crevices in the cliffs. “In May,” he said, “there are babies everywhere — small and white.” In April, Mr. Herrera added, the plants would bloom white flowers and produce bright red pitaya, the dragon fruit.

There are two Tabogas: the one of Arturo Herrera and his fellow islanders, and the Taboga of those who come for the day or a quick overnight stay. For the passers-by, the party begins the moment they pay their $6 transit fare.

The Calypso ferries leave from a squat one-story building at the end of Panama City’s long Amador Causeway, a peninsula built from the detritus of the Panama Canal project. On the Sunday I left for Taboga, an hour before the ferry’s 10:30 a.m. departure,

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The San Juan Weekly

June 30 - July 6, 2011

there was already a crowd of festive day-trippers toting umbrellas, portable grills, water toys, beach blankets and beer — and lots of it. Nearly every adult hand held a cerveza nacional, domestic beers like Atlas, Balboa or Panama. In the face of the tropical midmorning heat (it was already approaching 90 degrees), they’d devised a system; each family deposited a bag, folding chair or ice chest in a single file leading from the ferry dock, holding their place in line as they squeezed into the shade of a nearby awning.

Once aboard the Calypso King the passengers, wearing bright orange, U-shaped life vests, jockeyed for window seats. When the boat finally pulled away from Amador, a young man, beer in hand, shouted “Odelay!” to the cheers and laughs of his fellow riders.

The ferry navigated out of the narrow rocky channel, past anchored sailboats and into the Pacific. Alongside us was the canal, the source of much of Panama’s bounty and burden; at its mouth, lined up like cars at a gas station, were massive tankers — rusted hulks, spewing dark smoke as they idled. Up the coast, skyscrapers rose above tan sand beaches, cranes on their roofs. The views from the water alone would have been worth the hourlong trip.

As the ferry neared Taboga, the capital faded into smog, and the island, its shore patterned with beach umbrellas in an array of primary colors, came into view. The tide was low, and a thin sand spit formed a tenuous land bridge between Taboga and El Morro, a steep, rocky, overgrown islet. Morro was once owned by the Pacific Steam Navigation Company, which was, for a short time in the late 1800s, the largest steamship company in the world. Later, the United States Navy ran a “mosquito” or PT boat training operation on the island. Nautical debris — huge rusting anchors and hulking gears — still litter its banks.

That I arrived on Taboga during Carni-

val, when the island devotes itself to drinking, dancing and parading, was a happy accident.

On Fat Tuesday, the culmination of days of music and months of work, the girls of San Pedro — toddlers and teenagers — wore hula skirts and form-fitting gowns, feathers and fluorescence. They shimmied through town, waving to awed onlookers, each girl’s costume more elaborate than the last.

SEVERAL days later, after the festival had ended and San Pedro had returned to its usual midweek calm, I was invited for a poolside cocktail of grapefruit juice and vodka by Jane Lewis, an artist from Martha’s Vineyard whom I’d met on the ferry. A tiny woman with a big laugh, Ms. Lewis was subletting an apartment at the far end of town. Past the houses and the cemetery, where weeds and wildflowers grow between modest seaside mausoleums, there’s an odd outcropping of Southern California-style condominiums.

The gated complex, set around a small, bathtub-temperature swimming pool, has been named Pizarro Place by the insular community of American expatriates who live there.

Back home in Massachusetts, Ms. Lewis said, she lives in a house built for John Roebling, the engineer responsible for the Brooklyn Bridge whose work also played a role in the construction of the Panama Canal.

“Panama’s been on my bucket list,” she said.

Her planned two-week vacation had already turned into a month.

Later, Ms. Lewis, an avid sea glass collector, showed me her “gallery” — a wide counter in her kitchen covered in hand-painted Cantonese pottery, a half-dozen perfume stoppers, portions of dishes inscribed with the names of long-defunct transit companies, and marbles in rare colors like peach, red and black. Over the centuries, thousands of ships have passed through the Bay of Panama. Ms. Lewis, who has developed a passion for scavenging the colorful refuse that’s been tossed overboard, is “in sea glass heaven.”

She spends “every day, all day” scouring the shoreline. “I’m a junkie for these things,” she said. In the evening, she joins her hosts in celebrating their nightly cocktailhour ritual. On Taboga, there’s little for a visitor to do beyond these routine pleasures.

For the escapists at Pizarro, that’s exactly the appeal.

Taboga: If You Go Where to stay, eat and play on the island off Panama City.

GETTING THERE From downtown Panama City, take a taxi (about $5) to Amador Causeway. The “rapida” — or fast boat — takes about 30 minutes and leaves from the Balboa Yacht Club (next to T.G.I. Fridays; no phone) at 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. daily (returning 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., with an additional 7:30 a.m. departure, Monday to Saturday). The larger, slower and more scenic Calypso Queen ferries (near Mi

Playita; 507-314-1730) take less than an hour and leave at 8:30 a.m. Monday to Friday; 3 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday and Friday; and 10:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Return trips run at 9:30 a.m. on Monday, Wednesday and Friday; 4 p.m., Monday to Friday; and 9 a.m., 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Call to confirm schedule.

WHAT TO DO The hotels mentioned below accept credit cards, but there are no A.T.M.’s on Taboga. Bring cash.

Both Hotel Vereda Tropical and B & B Hotel Cerrito Tropical arrange snorkeling and fishing trips with local boats. Prices vary; contact the hotel for rates. For simple exploring, try Arturo Herrera (507-6-627-3285, $20 per hour).

WHERE TO STAY Hotel Vereda Tropical (about 550 yards from the church, directly above the main road between the pier and town; 507-250-2154; veredatropicalhotel.com; rooms from $71.50) has breezy rooms with tile floors, simple furnishings and gorgeous views. Vereda’s bougainvillea-draped patio offers serviceable — but unexciting — food. It’s a great place, though, for a sunset cocktail.

WHERE TO EAT B&B Hotel Cerrito Tropical (first right after Bar Chu, at the top of the hill; 507-6-489-0074; www.cerritotropicalpanama. com) is out of the way, but worth seeking out for large Panama shrimp with garlic butter ($12) or fresh-caught fish of the day with creole sauce and French fries or fried yucca ($10). Reservations recommended.

For simply prepared, Panamanian-style seafood, head to Donde Pope Si Hay (across from the plaza on the main street; no phone), where fresh fruit juices ($1.50 to $2.25), langoustines ($10) and whole sea bass and red snapper ($6 to $10) are served on tables with plastic tablecloths.

The San Juan Weekly

June 30 - July 6, 2011

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The San Juan Weeekly

June 30 - July 6, 2011

LETTERS Double Standards Euthanasia is un-Christian. But granting doctors license to butcher by capping malpractice liability is discouraging frivolity.

The death penalty is unconscionable. But allowing police to kill people, whether by way of murderous ineptitude or outright rage, is collateral damage.

Your teenage son beds a 30-year-old female and you’re beaming with pride. Your teenage daughter beds a 30-year-old male and you’re overcome by grief and rage.

Nonaddictive nontoxic marihuana is a dangerous drug. But tobacco, that kills you, is legal. As is hard liquor, that ruts your liver and splatters guts on the highway.

The Constitution of Puerto Rico mandates rehabilitation once you’re out of jail. But who’ll ever let you have an honest job after the police post out a record on you?

If you cheat at income tax, they come after you.

But would you have to do that if you could hike your own salary outrageously like legislators do?

You’re innocent and you get your vindication in court. Only what you have to pay the lawyer is triple what the fine would’ve been.

An irate fellow throws an egg at you and misses.

Might he get two months in jail for his trouble?

You smack your hubby, he had it coming. He smacks you, it’s domestic violence.

You’re not allowed to care for children because of an old pot bust. But Catholic priests are more than welcome.

If Obama takes over all the banks, it’s socialism.

But when Carrión does, it’s not.

Coke and Pepsi switched from sugar to fructose because it’s cheaper. And talk-show docs rant it’s much healthier, it burns slower in your cells. So it’s triple the price of sugar at the supermarket.

So what are we going to do about all of the above?

Nina Fotze, San Juan

First Do No Harm Trouble with doctors is they’re both greedy and sloppy. When I was a baby, first few tonsil infections I got, the doctor cut my tonsils out. He told my mother tonsils are an evolutionary vestige, that were last operative in the days of Australopithecus. And parents heed doctors, don’t they?

Then my asthma started. Decades later doctors themselves told me that surely triggered it. Whenever I caught a cold the asthma attack followed and the doctor was called in. Each time he gave me a shot of penicillin. An antibiotic against asthma? Against a cold?

Then I was always sick. I lost a grade and had to be brought to Puerto Rico for the fresh air and sunshine, the doctor blamed damp and chilly Manhattan. But

now I know the penicillin killed off my benign intestinal fauna and their pathogen cousins soon moved into the vacated niches.

Bottom line, doctors wrecked my childhood. God helped out, the asthma went away with puberty.

Now the penepeístas, the unabashed samurai of predatory wealth, want to cap malpractice, the only defense of hapless us. The rich get richer and the poor get sicker.

Juan Pérez, Altamira

Penepeísta Threat With all the conniving and outright cheating the Fortuño people have done to dismantle democracy here, and with a public approval beneath 25%---people here aren’t the lumpen dumb-dumbs he makes us out to be---it’s not unreasonable to expect election fraud in 2012. And if that happens, then we’re really in trouble.

Might Jimmy Carter see fit to drop in? If not the federal Dept. of Justice.

Bob Harris, Condado

Law & Injustice You’re expected to instruct your kids to respect the law. But beyond often being simply idiotic, does the law respect the people?

The first thing apparent of criminal law is an obsessive protection of property. In Puerto Rico somebody beats you up and it’s a misdemeanor assault worth a fine of a few hundred for the pols to buy themselves suits with. But if you’re “intimidated,” and relieved of your wallet full of pics and credit cards and a few tens, they need not even touch you, it’s eight to ten years in the pen. How come the integrity of the person is deemed trivial and property inviolate? Unless you’re the governor and somebody throws an egg at you and misses.

Because the laws are drafted for the rich by the rich. We live under a form of government that’s corrupt and hypocritical and teaching your kids something different is perpetuating the denial we all seem to live i

lent---three people were murdered, first a young girl, Antonia Martínez, who was taken out by a policeman while at the balcony of her boarding house, he never was charged---it was a mob dynamic, but you have to consider, it was not $800 at stake, rather students’ very lives, 59,000 American citizens slaughtered in Vietnam for nothing.

It’s truly a pity. Messing up like that at the instant embarrassment in the US House, thanks to Congressman Guitiérrez, and in the international arena, thanks to Fidel, forced the penepeísta anti-democracy to back off, to behave according to rule of law rather than blows, torture, strangulation and sexual humiliation.

But what happens now? You realize $800 is only the beginning, by the time it’s all said and done we’re talking a few thousand. Will it all end up the demise of the middle class as we know it? Followed by fracturing of our socioeconomy as a consequence of a conflagration of crime. Followed by a police state, yes, what they did to the students they’ll be doing to the community at large. At what point does it all become unstoppable and do we disintegrate into the wreckage we’re watching on TV that is most of the Middle East?

Or I prefer to hope that it’ll be instead the sloughing off of feudal filth and the blossoming of hope and happiness, for them on the other side of the earth and for us here.

Casiopeia Martínez, San Juan

Why Not Dog Fights?

The animal-rights people here are actually dog fanciers who realize what nuisances their pets are and therefore fuss preemptively. ey didn’t raise an eyebrow when Senator Fas Alzamora moved to get us excluded from a federal law curtailing cockfighting. Last year he asserted that it’s wasteful to teach public high schoolers geometry and biology and that they should be taught to behave instead, “civics,” as he put it. How was someone like him entrusted public office?

Fitting peaceul creatures like roosters with blades and having them tear each other to pieces for the entertainment of the sadistic is contemptible.

Ana Badillo, Hato Rey

Anita Roig,, Santurce

Collapse of Puerto Rico Indeed the UPR strike has fizzled out. Because leaders lost control of followers and after that how do you lead? And then what do followers do once they’ve roughed up Ana Guadalupe? The gears inevitably jam when the dynamic goes awry like that.

Nevertheless those kids performed much better than you’d reasonably expect, specially if you remember the 70s, student strikes then were more vio-

The San Juan Weekly Send your opinions and ideas to: The San Juan Weeekly PO BOX 6537 Caguas PR 00726 Or e-mail us at:

sanjuanweeklypr@gmail.com Telephones: (787) 743-3346 · (787) 743-6537 (787) 743-5606 · Fax (787) 743-5500

San Juan Weekly

June 30 - July 6, 2011

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FASHION & BEAUTY

Rigor at Bottega Veneta; Wit at Prada

By GUY TREBAY

R

igor and humor, two qualities you don’t see much of in Milan, were the marquee features in two assured presentations bracketing a day that didn’t lack for stimulus, what with 11 scheduled fashion shows by major labels and dozens of presentations in showrooms across the city.

Leave it to Tomas Maier at Bottega Veneta to reframe the agenda, with a typically low-key show that blew the suit apart and reconstituted it with skewed proportions — tidy fitted schoolboy blazers worn with narrow Steve McQueen trousers, skinny jackets with band collars suitable for Dr. No — and that toyed with the contrast between the disciplined sha-

pes and an array of luxurious materials so elaborately worked over they looked ostentatiously like nothing.

And that’s how the best of luxury goods should be: close to invisible. Maier, who for years designed women’s swimwear, is seldom daunted by difficult fabrics like twill, pique, jersey and paper-thin leather and, while anything but a playful designer, can take an appealingly Nutty Professor approach to rethinking utility garments like the coverall.

“A tailored jumpsuit is impractical,’’ Mr. Maier observed in press notes explaining the process that led him to a new uniform. You don’t say.

Compared to the dour Mr. Maier, Miuccia Prada is Dorothy Parker. For that matter, relative to the rest of the competition, the designer is a one-woman laugh machine.

Who besides Ms. Prada could rummage through a veritable Fresh Kills landfill of random fashion imagery and dredge up Lilly Pulitzer prints, jeweled cowboy grommets, cotton puffers and tricolored patent leather golf shoes and shake them all up to conjure the show everyone else must now try to beat.

What’s It All About, Gucci?

By GUY TREBAY

I

magining Michael Caine is a cottage industry in fashion. We are talking about the early Michael Caine, the

little-known British actor who became an international star in “Alfie,” a 1966 film that The New York Times critic of the era said “bubbles with humor and ripe modern wit” and that only those who now qualify for Social Security benefits are likely to have seen in its first run.

“I was thinking about Michael Caine of the ’60s,” Frida Giannini, the Gucci designer, said backstage on Monday before her spring 2012 show.

“The unconventional, relaxed Michael Caine of ‘Alfie,’ the way he wore his suits with an open shirt.’’

What makes that statement amusing is that Mr. Caine’s Cockney Lothario took his sartorial cues from a pair of other East End types of the era, the gangster twins Reginald and Ronald Kray.

Like Alfie, the Kray twins have proved a lot more durable in memory than most of their associates in crime (arson, shakedowns and brutal murder were Kray specialties; they were known to have nailed one enemy to the floor) and largely because they were clotheshorses almost pathologically fastidious about what they wore.

Movies have been made and books written about the Kray twins. Ray Davies of the Kinks and Blur both wrote them into their songs. Keith Richards makes admiring note of the natty Kray Twins in his autobiography, “Life.” So it was not a stretch to conjure an image of the Ronnie and Reggie David Bailey photographed once dressed in something resembling Ms. Giannini’s pipe-cleaner trousers with slash pockets, or else her narrowcut glen plaid suits or the lightweight quilted bombers she claimed were inspired by the gear equestrians wear, an assertion that holds up if only you can picture a Cockney gangster getting kitted out for a fox hunt.

It was the evening clothes that best evoked the era’s slick and dangerous dandies, though, particularly a suite of crisp dinner jackets with tight, rolled shoulders, high armholes and neat lapels. In one stylish instance, Ms. Giannini paired a lightweight black jacket with trousers in a boxy gray tartan and paired them with patent leather loafers with microversions of the signature Gucci egg-butt snaffle

and thick cushioned soles — just the thing, it might seem, for someone who dresses to kill.

Kitchen

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The San Juan Weekly

June 30 - July 6, 2011

Lasagna With Asparagus and Chives

Pasta With Eggplant Sauce

By MARTHA ROSE SHULMAN

L

asagna doesn’t always have to be assembled and baked; it can be thrown together quickly, like a regular pasta dish. Use no-boil lasagna noodles for this deconstructed lasagna. Despite the name, they do require boiling here, but they will be lighter than regular lasagna noodles.

1 pound asparagus, trimmed 1/2 cup ricotta 1 garlic clove, finely minced or (preferably) pureed 2 tablespoons chopped chives or a combination of chives and slivered basil 1/2 pound no-boil lasagna noodles 1/4 cup (1 ounce) freshly grated Parmesan or pecorino romano (or a combination) 1. Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil, salt generously and add the asparagus. Meanwhile, fill a bowl with cold water. Boil thin stalks for three minutes, thicker stalks for four to six minutes until tender. Using tongs, remove the asparagus from the pot and transfer to the bowl of cold water. Drain and cut on the diagonal into 3/4-inch lengths.

2. Add the lasagna noodles to the boiling

water, and boil until cooked al dente -- firm to the bite. Meanwhile, place the ricotta in a large pasta bowl, and stir in the garlic. When the noodles are done, remove 1/2 cup of the pasta water, and add to the bowl with the ricotta. Mix together well, and add the asparagus, fresh herbs and Parmesan or pecorino to the bowl. Drain the lasagna, and toss with the ricotta mixture. Serve at once.

Yield: Serves four.

Advance preparation: You can make this through Step 1 several hours ahead of serving, then cook the pasta just beforehand.

Nutritional information per serving (four servings): 323 calories; 4 grams saturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 2 grams monounsaturated fat; 22 milligrams cholesterol; 48 grams carbohydrates; 5 grams dietary fiber; 135 milligrams sodium (does not include salt to taste); 17 grams protein

Pasta With Braised Lamb Shank Ragú 2 branches fresh rosemary 1/2 cup dry white wine Salt and freshly ground black pepper 2 pounds ripe plum tomatoes, peeled and chopped Red pepper flakes to taste 1 pound spaghetti alla chitarra or penne Freshly grated pecorino cheese.

Time: 2 1/2 hours 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil 2 ounces diced pancetta 2 lamb shanks, about 2 1/4 pounds 2 medium onions, diced 2 cloves garlic, sliced

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Heat oil in 4-quart ovenproof casserole. Add pancetta, lightly brown and remove. Add lamb shanks, brown on all sides and remove. Lower heat; add onions, garlic and rosemary. Sauté until soft. Add white wine. Scrape pan, return pancetta and lamb to casserole, season with salt and pepper, then cover and bake 90 minutes, turning lamb once.

2. Remove lamb from casserole. Cut meat from bones, trimming off fat and gristle. Finely dice meat and add to casserole. Add tomatoes and red pepper.

Simmer on top of stove one hour. Check seasoning.

3. Boil pasta until al dente, drain, toss with sauce, and serve with pecorino for dusting.

Yield: 4 to 6 servings.

INGREDIENTS 1 large or three small eggplants Coarse salt Flour for dredging 1 1/2 to two 2 cups peanut or safflower oil 1 onion, chopped 2 cloves garlic, minced 1/2 pound ground beef 1/2 teaspoon oregano 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper to taste 1 1/2 pounds tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped 1 tablespoon tomato paste 1 pound tortiglioni 1 tablespoon butter 2 tablespoons fresh chopped basil Freshly grated parmesan cheese PREPARATION 1. Cut the eggplant in slices one-quarterinch thick. Place slices in layers in a colander, salting as you go. Leave for one hour. Wipe the eggplant dry with paper towels.

2. Dredge the slices lightly with flour. Heat the oil in a large skillet and fry the eggplant a few slices at a time until golden on both sides.

Remove and drain on paper towels.

3. Prepare the sauce. Using one-quarter cup of the oil you have used for the eggplant, sautee the onion until soft. Add the meat, oregano, cinnamon, salt and pepper, tomatoes and tomato paste. Cook for one hour, covered.

4. Cut eggplant into strips.

5. Cook the pasta in five quarts boiling water, until al dente.

6. Place the pasta in a heated serving dish.

Add the sauce and arrange the eggplant on top.

Sprinkle with the basil and serve. Pass the cheese separately.

YIELD 4 to 6 servings

The San Juan Weekly

June 30 - July 6, 2011

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Kitchen

Pasta With Tomato Broth, Bacon, Peas and Ricotta Adapted from the Little Owl Time: 1 hour 3 tablespoons olive oil 1 small carrot, coarsely chopped 1 small rib celery, coarsely chopped 1 small onion, coarsely chopped 3 garlic cloves, smashed and peeled 1 28-ounce can Italian plum tomatoes, chopped (or 1 pound chopped fresh tomatoes plus a 14-ounce can), with juices 2 cups chicken stock or water About 6 large basil leaves, plus extra torn leaves for garnish About 10 large sprigs Italian parsley 1/2 cup white wine Salt and freshly ground black pepper 4 ounces bacon, diced 12 ounces cavatelli, conchiglie, or other curly pasta 10 ounces fresh, shelled or frozen green peas 1/3 cup grated pecorino Romano cheese 1 cup fresh ricotta, at room temperature.

1. Heat oil in a heavy pot over medium-high

heat. Add carrot, celery and onion, and cook, stirring, 5 minutes. Lower heat to prevent browning.

2. Add garlic and fresh tomatoes, if using. Stir and heat through. Add basil, parsley, wine, canned tomatoes and 2 cups water. Simmer until liquid reduces to a thick broth, about 30 minutes.

Strain through a sieve, discard sieve contents, and season broth with plenty of salt and pepper.

3. Cook bacon in skillet over very low heat until crisped and fat is rendered. Drain off extra fat.

4. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.

Add pasta and stir. Boil until just tender.

5. Over low heat, add tomato broth to bacon in skillet. Add peas and heat through while pasta cooks.

6. Drain pasta and return to pot. Add tomato broth and

Crab Meat Pasta 40 minutes INGREDIENTS • 4 tablespoons olive oil • 1 hot green pepper like jalapeno, with seeds, chopped • 2 large cloves garlic, peeled and smashed • 3 leeks, cleaned, trimmed and chopped (about 3 cups) • 4 medium-sized blue crabs or other meaty hard crabs • 1/2 bottle dry white wine • 1/4 teaspoon stem saffron • 1 pound of spaghetti, linguine or pasta of choice PREPARATION 1. In a large pot or saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat.

Add the green pepper and garlic. Cook for 1 minute, stirring. Add the leeks and the crabs and stir for 2 minutes.

2. Add the wine. Cover and bring to a boil. Simmer for 8 minutes.

3. Remove the crabs from the pot and let cool to room temperature. Add saffron to the cooking liquid, stir, and reserve.

4. Remove the meat and set aside in a warm place. Return any juices from the crabs to the pot.

5. Cook the pasta in a large pot of salted boiling water. When al dente, drain well. Toss the pasta in the pot in which the crabs were cooked. Stir gently for 1 minute.

6. Distribute pasta and sauce evenly in bowls. Garnish with crab meat.

YIELD 4 servings

pecorino Romano cheese and toss well over low heat. Transfer to serving bowls. Dollop ricotta on top, sprinkle with basil, and serve immediately.

Yield: 4 servings.

Pasta With Smoked Salmon and Yogurt INGREDIENTS • Salt • 1 pound casarecci, gemelli or gigli pasta • 1 cup Greek yogurt (preferably Fage’s Total) • 1/2 pound smoked salmon, cut into bite-size pieces • clove garlic, smashed and chopped • Zest and juice of 1 Meyer lemon • 2 cups packed arugula • 1 1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh dill • Coarsely ground black pepper PREPARATION 1. Bring a large pot of salty water to a rolling boil. Add the pasta. While it cooks, combine in a large serving bowl the yogurt, salmon, garlic, lemon zest and juice, arugula and dill. Just before the pasta is finished cooking, scoop out 1/2 cup pasta water and reserve.

2. Drain the pasta and slide it into the bowl. Using two spoons, toss the pasta and sauce as you would a salad. If the sauce is too thick, add a little of the reserved pasta water. Season to taste with salt and grind a generous amount of pepper on top.

YIELD Serves 4

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The San Juan Weekly

June 30 - July 6, 2011

Shakira Makes a Star Turn at an Israeli Conference the former British prime minister and current Middle East envoy.

There was no singing. Shakira’s one-day visit — her first to Israel — was purely about furthering her foundation’s goals.

“There can never be enough of this — spaces where we can discuss the steps we have to take,” she said. “The leaders here will listen and absorb.”

Jerusalem, she said, was “the city of cities, the cradle of civilization. It was

By ISABEL KERSHNER

W

there at the beginning of mankind’s efforts and it should remain at the forefront of social development and human innovation.”

She added: “I’m here for the Israeli kids and the Palestinian kids and kids in every region of the world where there is not enough quality education.”

Of the false Internet rumor, she said, “It made me really, really sad to hear that someone could say that about me.”

Despite the fraught politics of Jerusalem — most of the world does not recognize Israel’s claim to sovereignty of the eastern half, which it captured from Jordan in the 1967 war — the local conflict hardly figured during Shakira’s tour.

Speaking eloquently, passionately and in global terms, she presented education and investment in early child development as “the best antidote to violence.”

At the opening news conference, Mr. Peres, who introduced his star guest as “Sharika,” quoted lyrics from “Waka Waka (This Time for Africa),” her hit song that was the official anthem of the FIFA World Cup 2010, but without the Oh Oh’s.

“You do not belong to any camp but to the camp of peace,” Mr. Peres said.

Asked about the invitation to Shakira, a spokeswoman for Mr. Peres said that the president, who will turn 88 in August, understood that for the young generation in today’s world, it is not the big politicians who can best convey messages, but singers and artists.

Earlier in the day Shakira, who came to Israel with her boyfriend, the Spanish soccer star Gerard Piqué, visited the Hand in Hand Max Rayne Bilingual School in Jerusalem, where Israeli and Palestinian children, Jews, Muslims and Christians, study together in Hebrew and Arabic.

The children, mainly elementary school age, screamed on and off for 40 minutes before Shakira had even arrived. On entering the packed courtyard, she went to sit with some of the children on the floor.

Then she greeted and kissed Marya Aman, a 9-year-old girl from Gaza who was paralyzed from the neck down after an Israeli missile accidentally struck her family’s car in 2006, killing her mother, a brother, her grandmother and an uncle, and breaking Marya’s spinal cord.

Marya’s father, Hamdi, who speaks no English, asked a reporter to scribble Marya’s story on a piece of paper so that Shakira would know who she was. He added: “Write at the end that Marya loves Shakira and her songs.”

hen Israel’s octogenarian president, Shimon Peres, opened his Israeli Presidential Conference here on Tuesday, he chose an unlikely partner to stand by his side: Shakira, the Colombian pop star who is partly of Lebanese descent, performed last month in Beirut and was once (wrongly) accused in an Internet rumor of saying she would rather have pigs listen to her music than Israelis.

For Shakira, too, Jerusalem was probably not an obvious choice. By Tuesday, there were almost 2000 “likes” on a Facebook page urging her to stay away from Israel and comply with a pro-Palestinian cultural boycott.

But Shakira, a Unicef ambassador, Shakira, the Colombian pop star and a Unicef ambassador, danced with Israeli and Palestinian children during her visit to a Bilingual school in Jerusalem on Tuesday. philanthropist and founder of the Barefoot Foundation, which promotes the right to a quality education for children worldwide, said she never had any doubts.

“Kids in countries like mine or this one, in conflict, need a voice,” Shakira said in an interview. “They need to be put at the top of political agendas, so I knew I had to be here.”

The Israeli Presidential Conference, in its third year, has grown into a three-day international pow-wow of global leaders and experts in their fields who come together to brainstorm on ideas for a better future for Israel, the Jewish people and the world.

At the opening plenary session on Tuesday, Shakira was joined on stage by luminaries like Sir Martin Sorrell, the British communications guru, and Jimmy Wales, the American founder of Wikipedia. Afterward she held a quick one-on-one meeting with Tony Blair,

The San Juan Weekly

June 30 - July 6, 2011

19

Explaining Sunscreen and the New Rules

By JANE E. BRODY

A

ttention, sun lovers to improve the labeling of sunscreens, the Food and Drug Administration has issued new rules that should help reduce the confusion that currently prevails when consumers confront the aisle-long array of products in most pharmacies.

These rules will not take effect for another year (for small manufacturers, two years). Everyone needs to know about preventing painful sunburns, disfiguring and deadly skin cancers and premature skin aging.

How high an SPF should one choose? Is SPF 60 really that much better than SPF 30? What does “broad spectrum” mean? Are all sunscreen ingredients equally effective? And equally safe?

Why has the incidence of melanoma, the deadliest of skin cancers, doubled since sunscreens (as opposed to tanning lotions) became popular?

No better time to get the answers to these questions than now, the week of the summer solstice. Even if it is not sunny where you are, the ultraviolet rays hitting your skin will be their most intense.

There are two kinds of solar rays: short ones called UVB that cause burning and skin cancer and long ones called UVA that cause skin cancer and wrinkling. SPF ratings — the letters stand for sun protection factor — reflect only the extent of protection against UVB. The higher the rating, the longer one can stay in the sun before burning.

SPF ratings are based on a thick application of sunscreen, not the amount consumers normally use, which is often a quarter to a half the amount applied in tests. An adult in a bathing suit should apply three tablespoons of lotion every two hours.

Above an SPF of 30, which can block 97 percent of UVB, effectiveness increases by only 1 or 2 percent the way sunscreens are used in the real world, a product with an SPF of 30 actually provides the protection of SPF 2.3 to 5.5, and one rated SPF 50 provides the protection of SPF 2.7 to 7.1.

UVA, represents 95 percent of solar radiation reaching earth, does not figure in SPF ratings. The phrase “broad spectrum” is meant to indicate protection against UVA, but there is no numerical rating for product effectiveness. Under the new rules, products labeled “broad spectrum” will have to provide equal protection against UVB and UVA, and only products with an SPF of 15 or higher will be allowed to claim protection against skin cancer and premature skin aging.

Meanwhile, dermatologists suggest choosing only products that are labeled “broad spectrum” and have an SPF rating of 30 to 50. There is no evidence anything higher than 50 is better. Apply the sunscreen just before exposure, and reapply it two hours later — it loses effectiveness over time. Even if the label claims the sunscreen is water resistant, be sure to reapply it after swimming or sweating heavily.

The rise in melanoma led to fears sunscreens cause cancer. By allowing people to stay in the sun longer, sunscreens greatly increased exposure to UVA radiation. Many victims of melanoma were damaged before sunscreens became popular. A history of sunburn is a major risk factor for this cancer; five sunburns per decade raise the risk by about threefold.

Another reason for the increase in diagnoses: skin cancer screening and detection have improved greatly in recent decades.

With regard to ingredients, many dermatologists recommend products with micronized titanium or zinc oxide as the most effective sun blockers that leave no white residue on the skin. There is some concern, based on animal studies, that the most popular ingredient in sunscreens, oxybenzone, may disrupt natural hormones, but the scientific evidence is scant.

Another chemical, retinyl palmitate, sometimes listed among the inactive ingredients, has been linked to skin cancers in animal studies. Because it is converted into a compound that can cause birth defects, it should be

avoided by women who are pregnant or likely to become pregnant.

Consumer Reports concluded that “the proven benefits of sunscreen outweigh any potential risks.”

Finally, don’t be fooled by price. In tests of 22 sunscreens, Consumer Reports found nine to be effective against UVB and UVA and ranked three as “Best Buys”: Up & Up Sport SPF spray (88 cents an ounce) at Target; No-Ad With Aloe and Vitamin E SPF 45 lotion (59 cents); and Equate Baby SPF 50 lotion (63 cents). The organization said La Roche-Posay Anthelios SPF 40 cream, at $18.82 an ounce, scored well below these three in effectiveness.

Although it may be tempting to try to kill two birds at once with a combination sunscreen and insect repellent, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does not recommend this. Multiple applications could result in an overdose of the repellent.

The best advice to prevent UV damage is to stay out of the midday sun altogether and to cover up with clothing, a hat and umbrella during the rest of the day even if it is cloudy. Clouds do not block damaging rays.

Keep in mind that ultraviolet radiation is reflected off sand and water, intensifying exposure even if you are protected by an umbrella from above.

Ordinary clothing provides a good sun shield when dry (the tighter the weave, the better) but little or no protection when wet. Special sun-protective clothing is costly but works well wet or dry; it is a wise investment for children who tend to stay in or around water for hours. Caps with a neck flap are especially helpful for sports enthusiasts. And no matter how well covered up you are, don’t forget to apply sunscreen to your face, ears, neck and hands.

Also, keep in mind that some sun exposure is necessary to maintain a healthful level of vitamin D. Dermatologists suggest, for lightskinned people, that exposing one’s hands, arms, face or back to nonburning doses of sunlight for 15 minutes two or three times a week from April to September should result in adequate vitamin D synthesis.

Dark-skinned people need longer exposure.

HEALTH & SCIENCE

Weight-Loss Affects Fertility

By RONI CARYN RABIN

W

eight loss surgery may have helped restore fertility in a handful of extremely obese women who were unable to have children because of a hormonal imbalance caused by polycystic ovarian syndrome.

Researchers reviewed the medical records of 566 extremely obese women who underwent gastric bypass surgery over a period of nine years, including 31 patients who had been diagnosed with PCOS prior to surgery.

Some of the women with PCOS did not want to have children, and some were post-menopausal.

But all six of these patients who wanted children had managed to conceive within three years of having gastric bypass surgery. All of them had lost significant amounts of weight.

Dr. Mohammad Jamal, said it was premature to recommend the surgery to obese women with PCOS. But bariatric surgery often improves blood sugar levels and can reduce resistance to insulin, which studies have linked to PCOS.

Cancer Drugs Get on a Faster Track in U.S.

By RONI CARYN RABIN

N

ew cancer drugs are approved in just six months on average in the United States, half the time it takes for the same drugs to be approved in Europe, a new report finds.

The analysis, published online this month by the journal Health Affairs, appears to refute critics who have charged the Food and Drug Administration is less efficient than the European Medicines Agency and has been slower to approve new cancer drugs.

The study’s authors compiled a list of 35 new cancer drugs approved by either of the agencies between 2003 and 2010. They found that the F.D.A. had

approved 32 of the products in an average of 182 days from the time that the first applications were filed.

Only three products took more than a year to receive approval.

By contrast, the European Medicines Agency approved only 26 of the drugs, taking just under a year on average. Nine drugs were not approved.

All of the drugs that were approved by both agencies were available to patients in the United States first.

The results surprised the study’s authors.

“When we realized we were correct, we thought, ‘No one is going to believe us because this goes against urban legend,’ ” said Ellen V. Sigal, chair and founder of Friends of Cancer Research.

HEALTH & SCIENCE 20

The San Juan Weekly

June 30 - July 6, 2011

In Celestial Twist, Black Hole Swallows a Dying Star

By SINDYA N. BHANOO

I

n what sounds like a one of a kind murder mystery, a dying star has fallen into a black hole and been ripped apart.

The event, which was observed on March 28, was originally thought to be a gamma ray burst from a collapsing star, but researchers suspected something more sinister was at play. Their findings appear in a pair of papers published online by the journal Science.

Traditional gamma ray bursts involve a deluge of high-energy photons bursting through the air. They generally result from the explosion of a star or when two objects collide.

In this case the burst was unusually long, said Joshua Bloom, an associate pro-

fessor of astronomy at Berkeley and the first author of one of the studies.

The burst also came from the center of a galaxy four billion light years away. Most galaxies are thought to have black holes at their center, a clue that tipped off Dr. Bloom

and his colleagues.

“Astronomers are not so different from real estate agents — location, location, location,” he said. “This picture had emerged for me and I saw that this was a black hole swallowing up a star.”

The team used data gathered by the Swift Gamma Burst Mission, the Hubble Space Telescope and the Chandra X-ray Observatory to confirm their theory.

They also studied historical data to look for similar events involving the same black hole, but they found no other occurrences.

“This is a singular event in the history of mankind,” Dr. Bloom said. “This black hole was otherwise sitting dormant, a star got too close, its gas got ripped apart and in doing so some of it got spit up.”

Artist’s impression of the end result of disruption of a star by a massive black hole. The star is disrupted into a disc around the star, which then falls into the hole, creating powerful jets. For this event we are looking down one of these jets.

There are still a number of unanswered questions that the researchers are exploring, like how large the star was in comparison to the sun, how close it got to the black hole and role of the hole’s spin in the event.

A Frog Endangered, Magnetic Field Sensed by Gene But Extinct No More

By NICHOLAS WADE

By SINDYA N. BHANOO

A

Las Vegas native thought to have been extinct for decades is alive and living in Arizona.

The Vegas Valley leopard frog was last seen in 1942, and officially declared extinct in 1996. The development of Las Vegas was thought to have been the main factor in the species’ demise.

Now researchers report in Conservation Genetics that the frog is genetically identical to a lineage of the Chiricahua leopard frog found in the Mogollon Rim of central Arizona.

There are more than a dozen species of leopard frogs in North America, all characterized by dark spots on their bodies and difficult to distinguish from one another.

Evon Hekkala, a behavioral ecologist at Fordham University and the study’s lead author, was analyzing samples of the Vegas Valley leopard frog collected in the early 1900s. Her intention was to study the past to help develop better habitat restoration plans for other leopard frog species.

The closest relative of the Vegas Valley leopard frog was thought to be the Relict leopard frog. But Dr. Hekkala’s analysis determined that the two were distant relatives, not close ones.

She then searched GenBank, a directory of DNA sequences, and was shocked to find a 100 percent match with the Chiricahua.

“I was really concerned that maybe I had messed up,” Dr. Hekkala said. “So I did a couple more tests of gene regions, and it still matched.”

The Chiricahua is in decline and is listed as a federally threatened species under the United States Endangered Species Act. The Vegas Valley can now be considered as a potential habitat restoration site for the species, Dr. Hekkala said.

A

researcher studying how monarch butterflies navigate has picked up a strong hint that people may be able to sense the earth’s magnetic field and use it for orienting themselves.

Many animals rely on the magnetic field for navigation, and researchers have often wondered if people, too, might be able to detect the field; that might explain how Polynesian navigators can make 3,000-mile journeys under starless skies. But after years of inconclusive experiments, interest in people’s possible magnetic sense has waned.

Steven Reppert, a neurobiologist Lauren E. Foley and Robert J. Gegear. Have been studying cryptochromes, light-sensitive proteins that help regulate the daily rhythm of the body’s cells, and how they help set the sun compass by which monarchs navigate.

But the butterflies can navigate even when the sun is obscured, so they must have a backup system.

Since physical chemists had speculated the cryptochromes might be sensitive to magnetism, Dr. Reppert wondered if the monarch butterfly was using its cryptochromes to sense the earth’s magnetic field. He first studied the laboratory fruit fly, whose genes are much easier to manipulate and showed three years ago that the fly could detect magnetic fields but only when its cryptochrome gene was in good working order.

He then showed that the monarch butterfly’s two cryptochrome genes could each substitute for the fly’s gene in letting it sense magnetic fields, indicating that the butterfly uses the proteins for the same purpose.

One of the monarch’s two cryptochrome genes is similar in its DNA sequence to the human cryptochrome gene. That prompted the idea of seeing whether the human gene, too, could restore magnetic sensing to fruit flies whose own gene had been knocked out.

Dr. Reppert reports this is the case. “A reassessment of human magnetosensitivity may be in order”.

The human cryptochrome gene is highly active in the eye, raising the possibility that the magnetic field might in some sense be seen, if the cryptochromes interact with the retina.

Dr. Reppert said the focus on human use of the magnetic field for navigation might be misplaced. He said the primary use of magnetic sensing might be for spatial orientation.

He had been surprised by an experiment in which Dr. Reppert disrupted the part of the cryptochrome thought to interact with the magnetic field, yet the flies had still detected the magnetism. “It’s 50-50 whether he’s really studying what he thinks he is,”.

Dr. Reppert replied that he had already ruled out the alternative explanation suggested by Dr. Phillips.

But both scientists agreed on the possibilities opened up by the cryptochrome system. Depending on how the proteins are aligned in the eye, insects may perceive objects as being lighter or darker as they orient themselves in relation to the magnetic field, Dr. Phillips said.

In fact, the cryptochrome system might supply a grid imposed on all the landmarks in a visual scene, helping a squirrel find a buried acorn, or a fox integrate its visual scene with what it hears. “This is the fun stage where we are not constrained by many facts,” Dr. Phillips said.

If butterflies, birds and foxes possess such a wonderful system, why would it ever have died out in the human lineage? “It may be that our electromagnetic world is interfering with our ability to do this kind of stuff,” Dr. Phillips said.

As for Dr. Reppert, he is now planning his next step, that of understanding how the cryptochrome proteins sense the magnetic field and how they convey that information to the fruit fly’s and monarch’s brain.

The San Juan Weekly

June 30 - July 6, 2011

21

Cost of Wars a Rising Issue as Obama Weighs Troop Levels

By HELENE COOPER

P

resident Obama will talk about troop numbers in Afghanistan when he makes a prime-time speech from the White House. But behind his words will be an acute awareness of what $1.3 trillion in spending on two wars in the past decade has meant at home: a ballooning budget deficit and a soaring national debt at a time when the economy is still struggling to get back on its feet.

As Mr. Obama begins trying to untangle the country from its military and civilian promises in Afghanistan, his critics and allies alike are drawing a direct line between what is not being spent to bolster the sagging economy in America to what is being spent in Afghanistan — $120 billion this year alone.

The United States Conference of Mayors made that connection explicitly, saying that American taxes should be paying for bridges in Baltimore and Kansas City, not in Baghdad and Kandahar.

The mayors’ group approved a resolution calling for an early end to the American military role in Afghanistan and Iraq, asking Congress to redirect the billions now being spent on war and reconstruction costs toward urgent domestic needs. The resolution, which noted that local governments cut 28,000 jobs in May alone, was the group’s first venture into foreign policy since it passed a resolution four decades ago calling for an end to the Vietnam War. And in a speech on the Senate floor, Senator Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia, said: “We can no longer, in good conscience, cut services and programs at home, raise taxes or — and this is very important — lift the debt ceiling in order to fund nation-building in Afghanistan.

The question the president faces — we all

face — is quite simple: Will we choose to rebuild America or Afghanistan? In light of our nation’s fiscal peril, we cannot do both.”

Demonstrators describing themselves as “angry jobless citizens” said they would picket the Capitol to urge members of Congress to use any savings from Mr. Obama’s troop reductions to create more jobs. The group sponsoring the demonstration, the Prayer Without Ceasing Party, said in a statement on Tuesday that it was “urging the masses to call their congressmen and the president to ensure that jobs receive a top priority when the troops start returning to America.”

Spending on the war in Afghanistan has skyrocketed since Mr. Obama took office, to $118.6 billion in 2011. It was $14.7 billion in 2003, when President George W. Bush turned his attention and American resources to the war in Iraq.

The increase is easy to explain. When Mr. Obama took office, he vowed to aggressively pursue what he termed America’s “war of necessity” (Afghanistan) and to withdraw from America’s “war of choice” (Iraq). He has done so; the lines on Iraq and Afghanistan war spending crossed in 2010, when the United States spent $93.8 billion in Afghanistan versus $71.3 billion in Iraq, according to the Congressional Research Service.

But the White House is keenly aware that the president is heading into a re-election campaign; with the country’s jobless rate remaining high, topping 9 percent, his poll numbers on his handling of the domestic economy have plummeted.

“Do we really need to be spending $120 billion in a country with a G.D.P. that’s one-sixth that size?” asked Brian Katulis, a national security expert at the Center for American Progress, a policy group

with close ties to the Obama administration. “Most Americans would be shocked to know that we’re spending that kind of money for jobs programs for former Taliban, and would wonder where are our jobs programs for Detroit and Cleveland?”

In 2010, Congress — at the Obama administration’s request — set aside $100 million to support programs in Afghanistan aimed at moving former insurgents off the battlefields and into the country’s mainstream economy. Those efforts — similar to what the Bush administration did in Iraq — have yet to bear much fruit; the 1,700 fighters who have enrolled in the reintegration program represent only a fraction of the estimated 20,000 to 40,000 Taliban insurgents.

Most American aid bypasses the Afghan government and goes to international companies, a practice that, according to a June 8 report by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, can undercut the Afghan government and lead to redundant and unsustainable donor projects. But Obama administration officials complain that the Afghan government of President Hamid Karzai has, thus far, been unwilling to tackle corruption in any meaningful way, making it hard to argue that it should get more money directly.

In Washington, the argument over whether the United States should be building bridges in Kandahar or Cleveland is bound to grow even louder as the 2012 election campaign heats up.

After Senator Manchin made his speech calling for an end to nation-building in Afghanistan, Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, took to the floor to rebuke him, calling Mr. Manchin’s remarks characteristic of the “isolationistwithdrawal-lack-of-knowledge-of-history

attitude that seems to be on the rise.”

But in Mr. McCain’s own Republican Party, which has historically been more supportive of both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars than Democrats, there is clearly some queasiness about war spending during a period of economic distress.

Four years ago, Representative Ron Paul of Texas was the only Republican presidential candidate raising concerns about the costs of the Afghanistan or Iraq wars.

But last week, Mr. Paul was joined explicitly by another contender, Jon M. Huntsman Jr., the former governor of Utah and the Obama administration’s former ambassador to China, who said that the cost of a continued military presence was a leading factor in his belief that a major troop drawdown should begin in Afghanistan.

“Very expensive boots on the ground may be something that is not critical for our national security needs,” Mr. Huntsman said.

Even when Mr. Obama does withdraw the bulk of troops from Afghanistan, Americans will still be footing the bill for years, argued William R. Keylor, an international relations professor at Boston University.

“The total cost of the war, the longest in American history and one that was paid for by borrowing rather than by increased taxation, should not be measured solely by the costs of financing the troops and the extensive aid programs administered by the State Department,” Mr. Keylor said. “It should also include long-term costs of the war, primarily veterans’ benefits for the returning soldiers, who will require medical and mental health services for many years to come. Long after the last troops depart from the country, that hidden part of the bill will come due.”

ART

22

June 30 - July 6, 2011

The San Juan Weekly

Time Travel, by Way of a Tiny Painting

By MICHAEL KIMMELMAN

C

rowds at the Prado, disgorged from tour buses, in couples and on private pilgrimages to the great art temple of Spain,W jostle and murmur before Velázquez’s large and labyrinthine masterpiece “Las Meninas.” Guides with headsets preach with one eye toward the picture, the other on crowd control. Just around the corner, in a nearby gallery, a tiny landscape, paperback-book size, painted by Velázquez as a young man in Rome around 1630, shows the gardens at the Villa Medici. Few tourists pause or notice it.

It’s a summer scene, gazing from the ground up at a workman looking down from a rooftop at a pair of chatting colleagues, distractedly holding one end of a rope he has apparently dropped for them. He stands on a broad, low, whitewashed building with a large arched entryway blocked by scaffolding.

Caught in the early morning light, the rope he has dropped glints like the silver thread of a spider’s web. It is almost imperceptibly fine. Draped absently over a balustrade, like bunting, a white sheet also shimmers in the sun, reflecting at intervals on the stonework like patches of spilled milk.

This is the picture I always go to see at the Prado, moved by those unearthly dexterous painterly touches, the most ingenious of which may be the evocation of faded stucco, which Velázquez managed by scraping away paint from the spandrels flanking the arch; underlying brickwork is implied by the natural weave of exposed canvas.

Art-historically speaking, the picture, “View of the Garden of the Villa Medici,” broke ground as an exercise in pure landscape, rare for Spanish painters during the early 17th century. The

work is ostensibly about light and atmosphere, not gods or heroes or partimosp cular people. But all that seems rather abstract when I’m actually standing in abstra front of it.

I find myself wondering instead what’s behind that scaffolding, as if what maybe this time I’ll finally figure out mayb how to peek through the boarding. Tall cypresses, nearly a dozen of them, slencypr but massive, towering in the backder b ground like a Greek chorus, hold their grou darkness as if close to their hearts, as dark Italian cypresses do, even in broad, Itali high summer sunlight. This sight casts my mind back to the first summer I visited Italy and marveled at those trees site and the umbrella pines that stood like ancient ruins in silhouette against the anc Tuscan sunrise.

Tu I was on my own then, as a teenager, and fell in love. I fell in love na with the great works of Italian art, w with the joy of discovering them in w

shady churches and neglected museums, cool, silent retreats from the hot days, and it was as if a whole universe opened up just to me.

So that’s what the Velázquez summons up when I visit the Prado: that lost, first flush of youth and endless possibility, which now includes the memory of waking into the heavy, sweet morning air that smelled of rosemary and honeysuckle. Time seemed to stretch toward infinity back then, as it does for those idling workmen.

And I become grateful to Velázquez when I see his picture for causing me to retrieve those feelings, which arise as such things do unbidden but inevitably, the way certain sights or smells or people jog specific but not necessarily related memories. And for a few minutes the picture makes a ghost of the present, the crowds at the Prado evaporate, and even “Las Meninas” seems unimportant and far away.

The San Juan Weekly

June 30 - July 6, 2011

23

Wine & Liquor

Savoring Rum, Fresh From the Cane

By ERIC ASIMOV

A

LLOW me to set the scene in the tasting room: about 20 goblets arranged neatly before each of four seats.

The colors of the liquids within were enticing enough, ranging from clear to beige, golden, amber and even burnt umber, if I recall my Crayola 64-pack properly. Ah, but the aromas!

Up from the glasses rose all manner of evocative scents, wafting outward and demanding our attention even before we were ready to give it. The cumulative effect was a gorgeous ensemble of butter and vanilla, banana and cinnamon and spice, smoke and brine, earth and minerals and even onion and garlic.

Together, these are the unexpectedly complex aromas of sugar cane, as revealed through the hands of expert producers of rhums agricoles, the official term for the signature rums of the French West Indies. Unlike most rums, which are made out of molasses or other byproducts of sugar production, these rums are distilled purely from fresh sugar-cane juice. While it would be wrong to assert that this method yields superior rums, rhum agricole, or agricultural rum, is decidedly different from the prevailing sort and, at its best, absolutely captivating.

It was the distinct privilege of the spirits panel recently to taste these samples, which included 11 rhums agricoles, along with four other rums made in the rhum agricole manner, and four cachaças, the Brazilian sugar-cane spirit that is a rum by another name. Florence Fabricant and I were joined for the tasting by David Wondrich, the cocktail historian and author, and Pete Wells, the Dining editor, who writes frequently about drinks.

Why a privilege? Well, in the annals of the wine and spirits panel, rarely has the overall level of quality been as high as in this one. Partly, that’s because the selection of available rhums agricoles is small, with many lackluster examples weeded out by discerning importers.

While the production of most rums is unregulated, resulting in a veritable Wild West of methods and standards, rhum agricole is an Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée, an appellation with standards defined by the French authorities in the same way as Pauillac, for example, or Roquefort. At the least, that makes for greater consistency than might usually be found among rums. Only rum from the French West Indies (mostly from Martinique) can be called rhum agricole.

Molasses-based rums are sometimes called industrial rums. The term is unfair, but it conveys the idea that their raw materials have gone through an extra layer of processing, compared with sugar-cane rums. This is evident in the basic differences between the two genres. The molasses rums are often fruitier, while the sugar-cane rums seem earthier, more vegetal and, in a sense, purer.

“These are the tequilas of the rum world, because there’s actual plant in there,” David said during the tasting. I might go so far as to call them the mezcals of the rum world, as the rustic, organic aromas of my favorites brought to mind tequila’s more forcefully vegetal sibling.

For our tasting, we confined ourselves to younger spirits, drawing a line at five years of age for the rums and cachaças. Why did we include cachaças? Well, here we get into a nebulous area that might set some rum purists bristling, were it not for the generally mellowing effects of a seaside daiquiri or two.

Cachaças are made from sugar-cane juice, as with

rhums agricoles, though the production methods can differ significantly. Rhum agricole producers ferment the fresh juice shortly after it is squeezed, but cachaça producers boil the juice down to a syrup before fermenting it. Also, cachaça is generally distilled to a lower alcohol level than rum, 38 to 54 percent, compared with 70 percent for rhums agricoles, which are usually diluted before bottling. Legally, cachaça fits the American definition of rum and is labeled as such in the United States, though in Brazil, rum is defined as being made from molasses.

Aside from our pleasure at the high quality of the rums, we were all struck by how dry and demanding they could be.

“These are blended and aged for an Armagnac palate, dry, nutty and austere,” Dave said.

Pete was struck by how different they were from the happy-go-lucky image of rum. “We tend to think of rum as a golden retriever licking your face,” he said.

While the complexity of these rums was evident, I was impressed as well by their intensity and purity. In the way they seemed to capture the depth of the sugar cane, my favorites reminded me of good eau de vie. While these rums would make great cocktails (ti’ punch is the French classic), they also are delightful to sip, particularly those with just a bit of age to them.

“Some of these I would much rather have in a glass on a porch on a summer night than one of those older rums,” Pete said.

Seven of the 11 rhums agricoles made our top 10, along with two cachaças and one of the sugar-cane rums, the Barbancourt Three Star from Haiti.

We very much liked the Barbancourt, our No. 4 bottle, which we were not able to distinguish from the rhums agricoles. We found it dry, tangy and deliciously intricate, and at $21, it was our best value.

Of our top rum, we had no doubt: La Favorite Ambré, from Martinique, was our clear favorite, earning a rare fourstar rating. It was straw-colored, subtly darkened by a year or two in used whiskey and bourbon barrels. This gentle aging seemed to bring out its nuances while rounding out the harsh edges, yet it remained fresh and intense, a pure expression of sugar-cane subtlety.

La Favorite’s unaged Blanc also made our list at No. 6.

This, too, seemed to present the essence of sugar cane, but with more grassy, vegetal flavors than the Ambré.

As might be expected, the unaged rhums agricoles were more raw than those with even a year of barrel mellowing, and none were more pleasingly primal than our No. 2 bottle, the Duquesne Blanc, which was almost over the top in its earthy, grassy power. By contrast, our No. 3 bottle, the Clément Rhum Vieux Agricole V.S.O.P., was among the oldest in the tasting, with at least three years of aging. It was light brown, spicy, smooth and complex.

As for which is better, no aging or a little aging, it’s a matter of taste. We preferred the Ambré to the younger La Favorite, and the older Clément over the Clément Blanc, but picked the younger Duquesne over the more elegant Duquesne Élevé Sous Bois. Go figure.

It was not hard to identify the cachaças in the tasting.

They seemed a little sweeter than the rums, and offered a different set of aromas. Our top cachaça, at No. 5, was the Fazenda Mae de Ouro, which seemed to come from another universe, with gentle notes of sweet vanilla and a distinct aroma of fresh bread. Different, but lovely nonetheless.

A good number of our favorites were bottled at 50 per-

cent alcohol, very powerful, although on Martinique many rhums agricoles are consumed at 55 percent. The classic ti’ punch is potent: put a teaspoon of cane syrup in a small glass, squeeze a quarter-size disk of lime, with just a sliver of the flesh, and add a slug of 55 percent rum. Still, as Dave pointed out: “Tourists and the Guadeloupais will add ice. A true Martiniquais never will.”

Far be it from me to tamper with tradition. Still, with a glass of straight rhum agricole on a summer evening, porch or no porch, I think an ice cube sounds just right.

Tasting Report

La Favorite Martinique Rhum, $38, ✩✩✩✩ Agricole Ambré, 50%, 1 liter Complex, dry, pure and beautifully balanced with lingering flavors of fruit, butter, sugar cane, spices and minerals. (Caribbean Spirits, Chicago) Duquesne Martinique, $30, ✩✩✩ Rhum Agricole Blanc, 50%, 1 liter Potent, primal and in your face, with complex grassy, briny and vegetal flavors. (Caribbean Spirits) Clément Martinique Rhum, $35, ✩✩✩ Agricole V.S.O.P., 40%, 750 milliliters Elegant and spicy, with long-lasting flavors of coconut, apple and earth. (Rhum Clément U.S.A./M.H.W., Manhasset, N.Y.)

BEST VALUE

Barbancourt, $21, ✩✩✩ Haiti Rhum, 43%, 750 milliliters Dry, tangy and complex, with flavors of spices, iron and butter. (Crillon Importers, Paramus, N.J.) Fazenda Brazil Cachaca, $26, ✩✩✩ Mae de Ouro, 40%, 1 liter Lovely and gentle, with an aroma of sweet vanilla and fresh bread. (U.S.A. Wine Imports, New York) La Favorite Martinique Rhum, $29, ✩✩✩ Agricole Blanc, 50%, 1 liter Essence of sugar cane, with round, sweet, earthy, vegetal flavors. (Caribbean Spirits) Neisson Martinique Rhum, $34, ✩✩✩ Agricole Blanc, 50%, 1 liter Full-bodied and fruity, with apricot and grassy aromas. (Caribbean Spirits) Duquesne Martinique Rhum Agricole, $35, ✩✩ ½ Élevé Sous Bois, 40%, 1 liter Mellow aromas of spices, honey and wax, with a lingering sweetness. (Caribbean Spirits) Sagatiba Brazil, $23, ✩✩ ½ Cachaca Pura, 40%, 750 milliliters Sweet and mellow with aromas of pecan praline and chocolate. (Sagatiba, Manhasset, N.Y.) Clément Martinique Rhum, $30, ✩✩ Agricole Blanc, 50%, 750 milliliters Clean, floral aromas, with straightforward flavors of butter, sugar cane and fruit. (Rhum Clément U.S.A./M.H.W.)

24 June 30 - July 6, 2011

The San Juan Weekly

Fort San Cristóbal (Puerto Rico)

T

he Castillo de San Cristóbal is a Spanish fort in San Juan, Puerto Rico. It was built by Spain to protect against land based attacks on the city of San Juan. It is part of San Juan National Historic Site.

Castillo de San Cristóbal is the largest fortification built by the Spanish in the New World. When it was finished in 1783, it covered about 27 acres of land and basically wrapped around the city of San Juan. Entry to the city was sealed by San Cristóbal’s double gates. After close to one hun-

dred years of relative peace in the area, part of the fortification (about a third) was demolished in 1897 to help ease the flow of traffic in and out of the walled city.

This fortress was built on a hill originally known as the Cerro de la Horca or the Cerro del Quemadero, which was changed to Cerro de San Cristóbal in celebration of the Spanish victories ejecting English and Dutch interlopers from the island of this name in the Lesser Antilles, then forming part of the insular territorial glacis of Puerto Rico.

• An extensive tunnel system connecting the various sections of the fort.

• A guardhouse, main plaza, and troops quarters.

• An artillery observation post built by the U.S. Army during World War II. • Real 200-pound mortar shells.

• The Caballero de San Miguel, the highest part of the port which allowed an unobstructed view of the city.

• Five cisterns under the main plaza where troops drilled. They held 716,000 gallons of rainwater capable of supporting the garrison for a year.

• Exhibits of military clothing.

• Monthly visits by the volunteer reenactors of the 1797 Regimiento Fijo de Puerto Rico.

• Three Flags fly over the Cas-

tillo San Cristóbal; the United States flag, the Puerto Rican flag and the old Spanish Military flag known as the Cross of Burgundy.

The Devil’s “Garita”

Devil’s Guerite Most of San Juan’s fortified walls have guerites (sentry boxes, “garitas” to the locals) at various points. One of the guerites at Fort San Cristóbal is called “The Devil’s Guerite” (“La Garita del Diablo”). This particular guerite is one of the oldest parts of the fort being built in 1634.

Legend says that soldiers disappeared randomly from the guerite. However, it is mostly believed - and told so in various local stories that the only soldier that apparently disappeared did so to escape with his girlfriend.[1][2][3] However, the legend still surrounds the guerite and most people ask for it when visiting the fort.

San Juan Weekly

June 30 - July 6, 2011

25

modern love

About That Rustle in the Bushes

By AMELIA BLANQUERA

W

HEN my sister, Ardel, first told me about the binder, I could feel my body tense.

A younger version of me would have immediately dialed my father and confronted him, because who would believe that my 77-year-old father Google-stalks my boyfriends and keeps a binder of his salvaged details and opinions for reference?

But years of therapy taught me to wait 10 seconds before automatically exploding with anger, so in this case I was able to keep cool long enough to decide to bring it up later with him in person.

If you were to look up the term “helicopter parenting” in the Wikipedia of my life, you would see a picture of my parents. They would be the ones in the Huey, the ominous military chopper used in the Vietnam War. Noisy and clunky, my parents made their presence known.

In my childhood house, they read mail addressed to my siblings and me, rummaged through drawers and opened doors without knocking. It was the norm for them to be invasive, and their lack of respect for privacy annoyed me.

Although my siblings weren’t as forthcoming with my parents about their lives, I always told them the truth. It took me a while to figure out that they didn’t want a true retelling of events but the one that fit the fiction of how they thought my life should be. My parents were more attuned to the upbeat experiences. The rough patches were harder for them to process.

Not long after I learned about the binder, my father asked about the man I was then dating, a newscaster. I decided to play it cool, to see if he would come clean about it.

That guy was all over the media. My father didn’t need to look very hard to find him.

Later, when visiting my parents for the holidays, my father asked, “Did you know he used to be married?”

“Uh, I used to be married, too,” I said.

“Yes, but you have no idea why he got divorced.” My father tried to prod me for more information, but the newscaster had told me what I needed to know, and that was good enough for me.

“By the way,” I asked, moving closer to where he was sitting at his desk. “How do you know he was divorced?”

“It’s all on the Internet,” he said innocently, smiling as if to defuse the mounting tension.

Our dynamic has always been tumultuous. We argue a lot. Men in the past have told me I have a tone that’s sarcastic and mocking, a tone that broadcasts to the receiver, “I think you’re an idiot.” My mother

doesn’t have this voice. I must mimic my father.

“I know about the binder, Dad,” I finally said. “Ardel told me. Show it to me.”

“What? I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said.

“Ardel told me that you have a binder with information on the people I’ve dated.”

He squirmed but offered no confession. Did he believe he wasn’t doing anything wrong? I was calling his bluff.

“Do I need to ask Mom?” I said. To their credit, my parents act as a unit. Even if one of them has a wacky idea, they always back each other up.

“Mom, can you show me the binder?”

I shouted into the other room.

“Did you ask your father?” she shouted back. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” It was obvious she knew. She’s a terrible liar.

I looked at my father, who smirked a bit and then blurted out, “How am I going to protect you?”

Although he is physically agile and mentally acute for a senior citizen, he is not in any shape to be a vigilante on my behalf.

His worldview, too, is a bit skewed. He delights in news stories about corruption, scandals and suspicious activities. Something about doomsday movies placates him.

Whereas my mother used to take my siblings and me to see the latest Disney film, my father sat with us in front of the television to watch “Soylent Green” and “Blade Runner,” among others. If the apocalypse came, he wanted us to be ready.

My child brain took in all the juxtapositions. Fairy tale princes always stepped in to save the day, but there was a timeline to find that guy before I turned 30 or else I might be forced to run for my life, à la “Logan’s Run.” With my father’s mentoring, I understood that the world wasn’t cuddly and charming, but dark and sinister. It wasn’t that my father was trying to frighten or upset my siblings and me. Rather, I think he was showing us through the movies never to accept life at face value. As an adult I chose sunny and sweet; it just seemed less anxietyprovoking that way.

I eyeballed the room to see if my father had the audacity to keep my dating binder on the shelf with his other records. He kept files on all his doctors. Each two-inch plastic binder was labeled with the physician’s name written on surgical tape with a black Sharpie marker. Other than details about my father’s specific ailments, each doctor’s binder contained a printout of whatever personal and professional information my father could assemble. If nothing else, he was a meticulous record-keeper. But he wouldn’t give

up my binder.

“So you’re not going to let me see it?”

I asked.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

If my father hadn’t become an engineer, he would have made a great spy. Why wouldn’t he just tell me the truth?

He tried to contain his obsessive worry after I left for college. But every so often he would show up, and there it would be again. Like the time he visited my Brooklyn apartment and insisted on buying me electrical outlet covers, as if I were still an infant who might stick a fork into the socket. His concerns abated when I was married because there was another person to worry about me. But his protective instincts came back in triple strength after I was divorced.

In the moment, here’s what I knew: He had a binder. My mother denied it. My sister had seen it. Yet my father wouldn’t confess because he knew his actions were overstepping my boundaries.

Did he really think I couldn’t take care of myself? That offended me. In years past, his constant second-guessing had escalated into blowouts. Our shouting matches had made us both feel terrible afterward.

So this time around, I wasn’t going to let it reach that level. I knew I could take care of myself. Even if some of my previous relationships hadn’t worked out, I still trusted my judgment. I was willing to take on the risk. My father just needed to tell me the truth about the binder.

“Well, if you’re going to keep a file on him,” I said, “at least let me help you pick out the articles.”

My father turned on his computer and we scrolled through various articles written by the newscaster. Not a Google-stalker myself, I had never seen what came up. His writing was informative and smart. The video

clips showed his sense of humor, too. There definitely was enough material for a private investigator to find this guy. He was hiding in plain sight.

At this point, I thought my father would crack, but he stubbornly held his ground. Obviously this was his attempt to reinsert some control into my world, even if he wasn’t around to witness it. I thought I could handle a small bit of intrusion. We just needed to negotiate an understanding.

“You can research the men I’m dating,” I offered. “But I don’t want you to tell me what you find unless the guy has a criminal record. I’d like to know that, but nothing else.”

“O.K.,” he said, turning back to his computer. He was doing his best to hide his anxiety, but all the sighing and loud typing betrayed him. His fears were something he would need to learn to manage for himself, I thought.

And then I felt something I hadn’t before regarding his overbearing ways: tenderness. It felt oddly comforting to know that my father has my back in his paranoid way.

SINCE I don’t have children, I asked my brother Arturo what he thought. As the parent of two pre-teenage daughters, would he behave in the same way?

“I think my need to control their lives will diminish as they age,” he said. “But it might gain in resurgence as I age.” Then he offered this sanguine observation: “At least he’s trying to stay in touch and be involved, albeit in a covert manner.”

True. So I’ve decided not to fight it anymore. But I intend to warn any love interest not to post anything on my Facebook wall, because my personal private investigator is only a click away, and anything suspicious is likely to go on his permanent record.

26 June 30 - July 6, 2011

The San Juan Weekly

High-Speed Rail Poised to Transform China

By KEITH BRADSHER

E

ven as China prepares to open bullet train service between Beijing and Shanghai by July 1, its steadily expanding high-speed rail network is being pilloried on a scale rare among Chinese citizens and the news media.

Complaints include the system’s high costs and fares, the quality of construction and an allegation of selfdealing by a rail minister who was fired this year on grounds of corruption.

But often overlooked amid all the controversy are the very real economic benefits that the world’s most advanced fast-rail system is bringing to China, and the competitive challenges it poses for the United States and Europe.

Just as building the interstate highway system in the United States a half-century ago made modern commerce more feasible on a national scale, China’s ambitious rail rollout is helping to integrate the economy of this sprawling, populous nation. In China’s case, it is doing so on a much faster construction timetable and at significantly higher travel speeds than anything envisioned by the United States in the 1950s.

Work crews of as many as 100,000 people per line have built about half of the 16,000-kilometer, or 10,000-mile, network in just six years, in many cases ahead of schedule, including the Beijing-to-Shanghai line, which was originally planned to open next year.

The entire system is still on course to be completed by 2020.

For the United States and Europe, the implications go beyond marveling at the pace of Communist-style civil engineering. As trains traveling 320 kilometers per hour link cities and provinces that were previously as much as 24 hours by road or rail from the entrepreneurial seacoast, China’s manufacturing might and global-export machine are likely to grow more powerful.

Zhen Qinan, a founder of the stock exchange in the coastal city of Shenzhen and the recently retired chief executive of ZK Energy, a wind turbine producer in Changsha, said

that high-speed trains were making it more convenient to base businesses here in Hunan Province — a populous region that has long provided labor to the factories of the east, but whose mountain ranges have tended to isolate it from the economic mainstream.

Mr. Zhen ticked off Hunan’s economic attributes: “Land is much cheaper. Electricity is cheaper. Labor is cheaper.”

Throughout China, real estate prices and investments have risen sharply in the more than 200 inland cities that have already been connected by high-speed lines in the past three years. Businesses are flocking to these cities, now just a few hours by bullet train from China’s busiest and most international metropolises.

Meanwhile, a shift in passenger traffic to the new high-speed rail routes has freed up congested older rail lines for freight. That has allowed coal mines and shippers to switch to cheaper rail transport from costly trucks for heavy cargos.

Because of this shift, plus the further construction of freight rail lines, the tonnage hauled by China’s rail system increased in 2010 by an amount equaling the entire freight carried last year by the combined rail systems of Britain, France, Germany and Poland, according to the World Bank.

The bullet train bonanza, and the competitive challenge it poses for the West, is only likely to increase with the opening of the 1,320-kilometer Beijingto-Shanghai line, which will create a business corridor between China’s two most dynamic cities. The Ministry of Railways plans 90 bullet trains a day in each direction.

The trains will barrel along at speeds of more than 300 kilometers per hour initially, with plans to accelerate to about 350 kilometers per hour by the summer of 2012 if the first year of operation goes smoothly.

Even at the initial speeds, the trains will take less than five hours to travel between Beijing and Shanghai.

That is roughly comparable to the distance between New York and Atlanta, which takes nearly 18 hours on an Amtrak train.

China’s huge investment in highspeed rail may be instructive for the

United States, whether for proponents of U.S. rail investments or critics who consider bullet trains a boondoggle.

President Barack Obama, who has proposed spending $53 billion on high-speed rail over the next six years, faced a setback in his budget deal in April with Republicans in Congress, which eliminated money for that plan this year.

Last autumn, newly elected Republican governors in Florida, Ohio and Wisconsin turned down U.S. money that their Democratic predecessors had won for new rail routes, worrying that their states could end up covering most of the costs for trains that would draw few riders.

But then, high-speed rail is not universally acclaimed in China, either.

Financial regulators in Beijing have cautioned banks to monitor their rising exposure from hefty loans to the rail ministry. To pay for rapid deployment of the high-speed system, the ministry has borrowed more than 2 trillion renminbi, or more than $300 billion. It plans to invest an additional 750 billion renminbi this year, despite running losses on existing operations that it attributes mainly to rising diesel fuel costs for older lines, as well as rising interest payments.

Among the biggest beneficiaries of the high-speed rail system are companies that contribute nothing to defray its costs. Those would be freight shippers, which now have more exclusive use of the older rail lines, with

fewer delays.

On the older tracks, the rail ministry has long been able to dictate that freight rates would subsidize passenger trains because the ministry owns those older tracks outright. The new, high-speed lines — passenger trains only — are owned by joint ventures between the ministry and provincial governments. That has prevented the ministry from forcing freight shippers to cross-subsidize the new high-speed services. As a result, passengers must pay much higher fares on the new trains than on the older ones.

The lack of freight subsidies is also causing concern in the rail and banking industries that the debt agreements of some joint ventures might need to be revised to extend the repayment of investment costs over more years.

The joint ventures were set up to give provincial governments an incentive to cooperate in acquiring land for the new routes. But those partnerships typically own only train stations and tracks. The land surrounding the stations often is owned by companies belonging to provincial and municipal government agencies, which have reaped windfall profits by selling such property to developers.

During a 20-minute taxi ride from a hotel in central Changsha to the high-speed rail station, a visitor counted 195 tower cranes erecting high-rise buildings.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics of China, residential

The San Juan Weekly real estate prices rose faster in the first five months of this year in Changsha than in all but three other Chinese cities — all of which are also highspeed rail centers.

For ordinary citizens, meanwhile, the steep prices for high-speed train tickets have touched China’s raw nerve of rising income inequality.

“The government is just abusing the money of the common people,” said one posting on an Internet discussion forum, defying the network’s heavy censorship.

From Changsha to Guangzhou, a two-hour journey at speeds of up to 340 kilometers per hour, the oneway fare in economy class is 333 renminbi. That is comparable to a deeply discounted airfare, but expensive for a migrant worker from Hunan who might earn 1,000 renminbi to 2,500 renminbi a month in wages in the city of Guangzhou. The same trip takes nine hours on an older diesel train and costs 99 renminbi.

Chinese and foreign engineers have questioned the long-term strength of the concrete used in bridges and viaducts under contracts awarded during the term of the dis-

June 30 - July 6, 2011

graced former rail minister, Liu Zhijun.

The rail ministry’s new leaders, brought in after the corruption investigation, contend that safety concerns are misplaced. But they have acknowledged them, along with the public anger over fares, by announcing plans to lower the top speed on many routes to 300 kilometers per hour from 350 kilometers per hour on July 1. The change will sharply reduce the amount of electricity consumed and allow officials to pass on the savings through reduced ticket prices. The speed reduction would also at least partially address safety concerns.

On Tuesday and Wednesday,

27

several Chinese news media outlets quoted Zhou Yimin, a former deputy chief engineer at the rail ministry, as saying that China’s high-speed trains essentially used European and Japanese technology designed for safe use up to 300 kilometers per hour. The trains can be driven considerably faster, as China has been doing until now and plans to resume doing a year from now on the route from Beijing to Shanghai, but this reduces the safety margin, he said. The rail ministry had no immediate comment on Wednesday.

China has not disclosed any fatal crashes since its high-speed rail network began operations three years ago, while nearly 100,000 people a year die on Chinese roads, according to official statistics. International health experts say that the true total for road deaths is even higher.

When the Beijing-to-Shanghai line opens, it will create a north-tosouth artery with links to east-towest rail lines at two dozen stations along the way.

“It’s the network together that makes it work,” said John Scales, a rail expert in the Beijing office of the

World Bank who has advised China, “knowing you can go from Shijiazhuang to Beijing and then transfer to Tianjin, so the coal guys can go to the port and conduct business with their shippers, for example.”

Already, the longer routes elsewhere appear to draw much heavier ridership. The trains, which typically carry 600 passengers, sometimes sell out despite departures every 10 or 15 minutes, particularly on Fridays but sometimes even at lunchtime in the middle of the week.

Of course, high speed is relative. First, a passenger must actually get a seat.

Zhou Junde, a migrant construction worker with a large red and green tattoo of a hawk on the right side of his neck, stood in line at the Changsha station on a recent Friday afternoon to buy a high-speed ticket to Guangzhou. But the next highspeed train was entirely sold out, and so was the next one 10 minutes after that. He would have to wait 30 minutes to board a train with a seat.

“Sometimes,” he said, “I come several hours early to get the departure I want.”

As Economy Slowly Recovers, Fed Says It Has Done Enough

By BINYAMIN APPELBAUM

A

nd at the end of June, the Federal Reserve finished its work and rested.

The nation’s central bank said Wednesday that it would complete the planned purchase of $600 billion in Treasury securities next week as scheduled, and then suspend its threeyear-old economic rescue campaign, leaving in place the aid it already is providing but doing nothing more, for now, to bolster growth.

The Fed also reduced its expectations for growth in 2011, projecting that the economy will expand at a rate of 2.7 to 2.9 percent this year, down from its April projection of a growth rate of 3.1 to 3.3 percent.

The Fed predicted that 2012 would be a little better, with growth between 3.3 percent and 3.7 percent That is also well below its April forecast range of 3.5 percent to 4.2 percent, suggesting that the issues restraining

growth, including the housing collapse and government spending cuts, will probably persist.

“The economic recovery is continuing at a moderate pace, though somewhat more slowly than the committee had expected,” the Fed said in a statement. “The committee expects the pace of recovery to pick up over coming quarters and the unemployment rate to resume its gradual decline.”

The Fed’s policy board, the Federal Open Market Committee, voted unanimously to maintain its two-yearold commitment to hold a benchmark interest rate near zero “for an extended period.” Mr. Bernanke has explained that the language means the Fed will not raise interest rates at its next two meetings, pushing back to November the earliest moment that rates could increase. Close watchers of the Fed expect that the board will not raise interest rates until some time next year.

The board also voted to maintain

the Federal Reserve’s portfolio of more than $2 trillion in Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities by reinvesting any principal payments in new securities. The investments are intended to hold down long-term interest rates, allowing corporations and consumers to borrow money more cheaply. Studies show that the effort has produced only modest benefits.

Roughly 25 million Americans cannot find full-time jobs, and employers cut back on hiring in May. The Fed said it now projects that the unemployment rate will stand at 8.6 percent to 8.9 percent at the end of 2011, down slightly from the current rate of 9.1 percent. The Fed projected that unemployment will stand between 7.8 percent and 8.2 percent at the end of 2012.

“Recent labor market indicators have been weaker than anticipated,” the Federal Reserve said.

The statement offered hope that the pace of growth would increase,

noting that many factors restraining the economy are likely to be temporary, including the impact of higher energy prices and the disruptions to manufacturing caused by the Japanese earthquake. Automakers already are planning sharp increases in production to compensate for the lost volume.

The board remains sanguine about the prospect that price increases will threaten growth. The Fed aims to keep price increases at a steady rate of about 2 percent a year. The price of energy and other commodities spiked earlier this year, but the increases have begun to recede. Moreover, the price of long-term investments continues to reflect little concern about inflation.

“Inflation has picked up in recent months, mainly reflecting higher prices for some commodities and imported goods, as well as the recent supply chain disruptions. However, longerterm inflation expectations have remained stable,” the statement said.

Games

28

June 30 - July 6, 2011

The San Juan Weekly

Sudoku How to Play: Fill in the empty fields with the numbers from 1 through 9 Click the “check sudoku” button to check your sudoku inputs Click the “new sudoku” button and select difficulty to play a new game

Sudoku Rules: Every row must contain the numbers from 1 through 9 Every column must contain the numbers from 1 through 9 Every 3x3 square must contain the numbers from 1 through 9

Crossword

Wordsearch

Answers on page 29

The San Juan Weekly

June 30 - July 6, 2011

HOROSCOPE Aries

(Mar 21-April 20)

Libra

(Sep 24-Oct 23)

Smile your way through the day; there really does not have to be a mad panic. Do not buy into someone else’s drama. Just keep a level head. Friends may be demanding and attentive in equal measure. Again keep things on an even keel. Things will fall into place as if by magic. Know what you want and go about getting it without too much contrivance.

Doors will open if you push them firmly but gently.

It is up to you to see what is out there and to follow through. Certain opportunities may land in your lap; but for the most part you must make your own luck. Leave heavy chats for another time (you do not like them anyway). Keep your sense of humour intact and your eye on the ball. All is well; chin UP.

Taurus

Scorpio

(April 21-May 21)

Your thoughtfulness will impress the right people.

Use your skills of empathy and understanding.

Your connections will bring you good vibes and socially you have the chance to sort out a whole lot, without doing very much at all. Starting from scratch may be an idea, though you may not feel it is feasible. Trust your intuition and see where you get to.

Gemini

(May 22-June 21)

A financial breakthrough IS highly likely. Oh ye of little faith! You will get a chance to go over old ground and lay contentious issues to rest, once and for all. Be careful not to repeat past mistakes, even as you take risks and claim a fresh start. Keep things in perspective. You have so much to be thankful for. You might as well celebrate.

Cancer

(June 22-July 23)

(Oct 24-Nov 22)

Make the most of career offers and follow through on your best ideas. Do not dwell on regrets. There are no mistakes, remember? Try to see things in a new light and move forwards with your optimism intact. Be on standby to learn something new. No, you do not have all the answers, so must remain open to new ways of seeing and being. You will be shown the WAY.

Sagittarius

(Nov 23-Dec 21)

Tap into your maximum potential and go for it.

Flirtations are all set to get interesting, so be careful if you are already committed. Life supports you and even your maddest ideas will be granted air time. Just be sure you can justify what you are about to do. New friendships are worth developing; but don’t neglect your long-term connections.

Capricorn

(Dec 22-Jan 20)

The significant Eclipses just gone will allow you to redefine your life in unexpected ways. You are now able to claim a fresh start, even in areas that you had not anticipated a need for change.

To make the best use of the current astrological climate you are gonna have to wing it. Embrace what comes at you. Do not go after trouble.

Keep communications clear and do not take something up the wrong way. Be patient. Sort out your pressing commitments in good grace. There will be time enough to play later.

Look forward to the good times ahead, but sort things out - and sharply. Your patience may be tested; but I’m sure you will rise to the occasion. Enjoy quiet times.

Leo

Aquarius

(July 24-Aug 23)

An intelligent risk or two WILL take you to where you want to be. Follow your nose in all things and do not allow yourself to be misled. You will have to keep your spirits up and your wits about you. Life will certainly keep you on your toes. It is important not to assume anything at this point. At least your sense of adventure will be nicely tweaked by events.

Virgo

(Aug 24-Sep 23)

Your levels of enjoyment are entirely up to you.

Keep your actions and reactions positive at all times. You have the ability to deflect negativity with your warm smile and lively demeanour. Keep things upbeat even as you process quite deepseated stuff. Do not take anything personally: it is all good. However you see it, this is a lucky time.

Bear UP.

(Jan 21-Feb 19)

Prepare for what is to come. Now is not the time to rush things along, so mellow out and wait a while. Smile sweetly at all times. Subservience is all very well; but this is your time to be a bit more dominant. Do not be afraid to follow through. Be a bit more feisty and with it for good results. A close encounter will challenge your expectations.

Pisces

(Feb 20-Mar 20)

Tap into your own creativity and originality. Mistakes can be forgiven and forgotten, but remember you will have to live with your conscience, so avoid an action you know you will regret. There is no point forcing issues. Try to be philosophical and accept the land as it lies. Let life unfold organically and trust that you will create a picture perfect ending.

29 Answers to the Zudoku and Crossword on page 28

30

June 30 - July 6, 2011

Herman

Speed Bump

Frank & Ernest

BC

Scary Gary

Wizard of Id

Two Cows And A Chicken

Cartoons

The San Juan Weekly

Ziggi

The San Juan Weekly

June 30 - July 6, 2011

31

Sports

Posada’s Home Run Propels Yankees

By BEN SHPIGEL

T

he five players who began Wednesday on the Yankees’ bench had combined for 1,404 home runs. None belonged to Jorge Posada, who took advantage of a rare start in a National League ballpark to propel the Yankees to a 4-2 victory against the Cincinnati Reds in the first game of a day-night doubleheader.

With Mark Teixeira among three regulars held out of the lineup, Posada started for the first time this trip, at first base, and lined a two-run shot that broke a sixthinning tie. The ball barely cleared the right-field fence at Great American Ball Park, but it counted all the same, snapping his homerless streak of 126 at-bats.

Freddy Garcia (6-6) overcame three errors by Ramiro Pena, who played third base for Alex Rodriguez, to deliver another strong start, allowing three hits and two unearned runs over seven innings.

Dave Robertson preserved a tworun lead in the eighth, and Mariano Rivera secured the Yankees’ 10th victory in 12 games by working a spotless ninth for his 19th save.

When Tuesday’s game was ra-

ined out, the Yankees preferred playing a split doubleheader to avoid losing their scheduled day off Thursday. Manager Joe Girardi said he could not justify starting Rodriguez and Teixeira, his $53.5 million corner infielders, in both games of the doubleheader. “Physically, you can’t kill them,” Girardi said. “You just can’t do it.” So, he saved them for the Reds’ ace, Johnny Cueto, in the night game.

The lineup he set forth against the right-hander Mike Leake included Eduardo Nunez batting sixth, Pena seventh and Francisco Cervelli, catching in place of Russell Martin, eighth, and it supplied just enough offense to back Garcia.

The Yankees took a 2-0 lead in the third after putting runners on first and third with one out. Joey Votto stepped on the first-base bag for the second out after fielding Nick Swisher’s bouncer, but he fired too high to nab Brett Gardner at the plate. Given an extra out, the Yankees added a second run when Robinson Cano followed by grounding a single through the left side, driving in Curtis Granderson.

Garcia pitched out of a twoon, one-out jam in the first, retiring 11 straight batters before Pena’s

Brett Gardner beat Reds pitcher Mike Leake to the bag for an infield single in the third inning that started a two-run rally for the Yankees.

throwing error allowed Drew Stubbs to reach base leading off the fifth. Edgar Renteria dumped a single to left that, with Gardner shaded closer toward the gap, allowed Stubbs to reach third. Pena had plenty of time to make a strong

throw home after charging Ryan Hanigan’s grounder up the line, but he bounced it as Stubbs upended Cervelli. A bunt by Leake advanced the runners, and a sacrifice fly by Fred Lewis scored Renteria with the tying run.

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June 30 - July 6, 2011

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