A Hispanic Engineer Talks to Young People

I have made four videos where I talk to young people about engineering . Below are the links to the four YouTube videos.

1. Hispanic Robert Canright on the Good in Engineering. 
2. Hispanic Robert Canright on the Bad in Engineering.   
3. Hispanic Robert Canright on the Ugly in Engineering.  
4. Hispanic Robert Canright on How to Prepare for Engineering.

In the last video I recommended young people read books.  I only mentioned recreational books.  But there are some books about engineering that are entertaining or educational.  Here is a short list.

1. The Soul of A New Machine by Tracy Kidder.  This is an outstanding book that gives an insider's view of how a new computer is designed
2. Getting Sued and Other Tales of the Engineering Life by Richard Meehan.  This book is published by MIT Press and MIT is one of the premier engineering schools
3. The Existential Pleasures of Engineering, 2nd Edition by Samuel C. Florman.  

I have read all of these books and recommend them. I have not read the following book, but it looks pretty good.  The Design and Engineering of Curiosity: How the Mars Rover Performs Its Job by Emily Lakdawalla.  One of the book reviewers posted pages from the book to show it has lots of pictures and illustrations.  "Curiosity" is the name of a large roving robot we put on Mars.  That is a big deal.

Anyone interested in computer programming should read The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering, 2nd Edition by Frederick P. Brooks Jr.  Here is a link to an obituary of a successful engineer:  Harold Chestnut, The accomplishments and life of Harold Chestnut, 1917-2001.  This webpage on Dr. Chestnut has a couple of interesting videos.  This is worth reading and viewing.  He was an electrical engineer.  He also wrote a couple of books on systems engineering.  Not many engineers are this successful, but it gives you an idea of how much can be done in an engineering career.  On the right hand side of this web page is a list of accomplished engineers, dozens of them, and there is a hyper-link to each on.  Thomas Edison is on the list!  This set of web pages is maintained by the Edison Tech Center.

If you are a young person thinking about engineering, I hope my videos are helpful to you.

Robert Canright

Death and Drugs

Today's Plano Star Courier, December 28, 2017, described in its front page article how a 17 year old boy from Plano West, Brett Adkins, was shot dead in Irving while selling marijuana [1].  That is one death.  Last year over 20,000 people died in Mexico from drug related violence.  This last statistic is from Mexico’s Record Violence Is a Crisis 20 Years in the Making by  MAX FISHER and AMANDA TAUB (New York Times, OCT. 28, 2017).  This New York Times article says this year, 2017, is on track to set a new record for drug related deaths in Mexico.

This article describes how Columbia drove their drug cartels out of their county, but they just moved to Mexico.  Now the ordinary people of Mexico are suffering from violent crime.  This article says, "Drug trafficking required resources and infrastructure that the new groups lacked, leading many to turn to kidnapping, theft and extortion. Predatory crimes spiked.  Ordinary Mexicans, once bystanders to the conflict, became its targets at a moment when the state had left them vulnerable."

This article, Mexico’s Record Violence Is a Crisis 20 Years in the Making , says that wide spread corruption and incompetence in the Mexican police, judges, mayors, and governors has crippled any effort to combat drug related violence.

I wonder if the marijuana that killed Brett Adkins came from Mexico?  I also wonder whether Americans quitting  illegal drugs from Mexico would save 20,000 Mexican lives per year.

I believe Americans using recreational drugs are killing Mexicans.  Certainly corruption and incompetence in the Mexican government leave the people of Mexico suffering and dying.  But if Americans quit using drugs, drug trafficking to America would stop and the drug cartels would be out of business.

Why has no politician from Mexico or the U.S.A. tried to shame Americans for killing Mexicans with their self-centered drug consumption?  Do they think Americans are shameless?  Americans need to be reminded that when they use marijuana, cocaine, or heroin that they are essentially murdering Mexicans.  I have been waiting for years for someone to speak up.  Why do I have to say it?  Why the silence?

Robert

1. Plano teen shot in drug deal gone wrong  by Kelsey Samuels
http://starlocalmedia.com/planocourier/news/plano-teen-shot-in-drug-deal-gone-wrong/article_daebff44-ea5d-11e7-a8ff-87650b562ed2.html

Remembering Spanish

I came to America as a small child, speaking only Spanish.  My parents were both fluent in Spanish (my mother was Mexican), but they spoke English in America and I quit speaking Spanish at some point.  I lost the language and can no longer speak Spanish, but I still have a memory of it.  When I was in Pecos, Texas, recently a lady in a  restaurant commented that I was having a conversation in English with the Mexican lady serving the food.  She found it curious that I could understand the serving lady speaking in Spanish and I could answer her in English, which the serving lady understood.

It was nice of the lady passing by to point out how the serving lady and I could communicate even though I did not speak Spanish and she did not speak English.  I did not really think our encounter was unusual, but maybe it was.

Robert

Memories of Mexico

I was born in Mexico and came to the U.S. as a child.  My family returned to Mexico for occasional visits while I was young.  The strongest memory I have is of a mural on the side of a building.  We drove a number of times past a building that had a mural covering the side of the building, several stories high, of an angel that carried a rifle and wore two bandoleras full of bullets, crisscrossing the chest.  The wings of the angel of the revolution were made of bayonets instead of feathers.  This made quite an impression on me as a small child.

My mother told me that her parents had to be married in secret.  The Mexican Revolution was going on and priests were hanging from the lamp posts.  The priest had to travel in secrecy to marry them, lest he be captured and hung.

My mother told me that my Abuelito, a veterinarian, was supposed to travel with a group of veterinarians to inspect cattle for hoof and mouth disease.  If cattle were deemed diseased, the whole herd would be destroyed.  My Abuelito was late and the car left without him.  The veterinarians were bushwhacked by peasants and cut to pieces with machetes.  The peasants were afraid of having their cattle destroyed and they fought back against inspections.  I was in stunned disbelief when I heard this story.  I know what machetes can do.  I saw coconuts split in half with machetes while visiting Acapulco.

My mother loved her country and found it hard to give up her Mexican citizenship to become an American, as she eventually did.  My mother told me that during the Mexican-American War, a boy cadet defending Chapultepec Castle against America invaders wrapped the Mexican flag around his body and threw himself off the castle to his death instead of surrendering his nation's flag.

Mexico has had a tough time, fighting the Americans and the French.  I am sure you know that the line in the Marines Hymn about the Halls of Montezuma was about fighting in Mexico, but did you know that one of the most famous defeats of the French Foreign Legion was in Mexico?  That was the Battle of Camarón.

Mexico is still having tough times, this time from its drug lords.

Robert

Dead Weight

It has been a while since I have posted to this blog, partly because I have been saddened by the violence in Mexico.  I do feel that I should comment on an article in the New York Times:  "No Child Left Behind. Just a Demographic." by ROSS RAMSEY, published online October 6, 2012, published in the Sunday NY Times October 7 on page 27A.  Here are the key quotes from the Ramsey article:

"As of 2010, 40.4 percent of Hispanics in the state 25 and older had completed something less than a high school education....

If the numbers persist, that population will have problems operating at full potential in the Texas of the future. That’s trouble for them. It’s trouble for future employers looking for help. And it’s trouble for the next generation of well-trained, working taxpayers who will have to carry that group, either as social cases, prison cases, undertrained employees, whatever.

They will be the band that didn’t practice, the team that didn’t work out. Dead weight."

The "dead weight" comment really saddens me.  College can be hard academically and financially, but high school is tuition-free.  Having been a public school teacher I can tell you that poor attitude from parents towards education is a cancer that destroys a child's education.

Public education is vital to a child's future.  It is  not the amount of money a school district has that determines success, it is the attitude and involvement of the parents that makes the biggest impact.

Robert

Juan Rangel and a Recipe for Success

Juan Rangel is CEO of Chicago's United Neighborhood Organization (UNO) and co-chair of Mayor Rahm Emanuel's recent election campaign. He was interviewed in the Saturday, September 17, 2011 issue of the Wall Street Journal: The Masters of Hispanic Destiny by David Feith.

The UNO organization is described this way: Its premise today is that Hispanics in the U.S. are masters of their own destinies, responsible for their affairs good and bad, and duty-bound to invest in American civic life.

Some of what Mr. Rangel went on to say is very encouraging:

the central question for Hispanics to answer as they grow in number and potential political influence is: "Do we want to be the next victimized minority group in America, or do we want to be the next successful immigrant group?"

"...we're gonna play by the rules, play hard, and get ahead, and it'll be good for the country and good for our community."

Education is the key to success. Hard work is useful, but that is not enough. Every ditch digger works hard, but that does not make a ditch digger successful. Mr. Rangel promotes the importance of education.

We live in a competitive world. If we track success by ethnic group, and look at the CEO's of large American companies, it looks like the Hispanic community is being outflanked by those communities that focus on education.

Robert Canright

Note:
Reading the online version of the Wall Street Journal is tricky if you do not have a paid subscription to the online version. The trick is to reach the article through Google. Just google
masters of hispanic destiny wall street journal
and you should get a link that accesses the article.

Memories from my Abuelita's house

I took my daughter today to hear Lucia di Lammermoor Live at the MET on HD. It was a wonderful experience at my neighborhood movie theater.

I first learned to love opera in my Abuelita's house in Chihuahua. I did not know at that time that I was listening to Madam Butterfly by Puccini. I was a preschool child. My mother loved Aida by Verdi and played it in our home in America.

The music from my Abuelita's home haunted me for years. As an adult I finally realized it was the song "Un bel di" (One beautiful day) from Madam Butterfly that haunted my memories.

In was a nice thought I had in the movie theater today that my daughter is carrying on a multi-generational love of opera. I am very grateful to my Abuelita and my mother for their love of good music.

God bless you, Abuelita. I remember you fondly.

Robert

What can one say?

The violence in Mexico is so bad that I have been saddened by it for a long time. It has been hard to envision a positive future for Mexico while it is so torn by the shooting war with the drug lords.

Robert

What's Happened to Alberto Gonzalez?

Alberto Gonzalez, former U.S. Attorney General, has had trouble finding work. Texas Tech University has given him a job.

Here is a link to a New York Times Magazine interview by Deborah Solomon with Gonzalez.

Robert

Pancho Villa, Carlos Slim, and the New York Times

When my mother visited recently I found a video at Blockbuster for her: "And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself" starring Antonio Banderas. It was a fascinating film, although the depiction of Pancho Villa made my mother angry. One interesting fact brought out in the film was that William Randolph Hearst had his newspapers vilify Pancho Villa because Villa's revolution was costing Hearst money.

So newspaper owners use their newspapers to promote their person business interests rather than to focus on telling the truth to the readers, fancy that. But now the worm is turning. The Monday February 16 issue of the New York Times ran an article about Carlos Slim increasing his interest in the New York Times: "The Reticent Media Baron" by Marc Lacy, Page 1 of the Business Section.

Once American newspapers interfered with Mexican affairs during one of Mexico's revolutions. It looks like before long a Mexican will gain control of the New York Times and begin pulling its strings.

The Los Angeles Times has been dismantled by its new corporate owners. Rupert Murdoch owns the Wall Street Journal and I'm waiting to see the quality of business reporting disintegrate. How long before Carlos Slim gains operational control of the New York Times and muzzles it? Is our free press disappearing?

Robert Canright

PS
My mother is from Chihuahua and has talked to me about Pancho Villa since I was a child. We still have money minted by Pancho Villa. He is a hero to some in Chihuahua.

Time for Positive Messages

Shawn Williams wrote a fine essay, "A Lesson from Black Immigrants," in the Sunday January 4, 2009 Dallas Morning News. He wrote:

"Black immigrants – whether from the continent of Africa or the islands of the Caribbean – come to this country facing most of the same challenges and barriers that confront multi-generational black Americans; they have just done a better job of rising above them."

"As African-Americans, we have to take the shackles off our children's imaginations. We have to stop telling them what America won't let them grow to be and instead encourage them to go out make their dreams come true."

Some elements of the Hispanic community try to copy the old-fashioned negative attitudes of some old-style African-American politicians. But the old-fashioned attitude of constantly throwing the race card into the political game is being abandoned by the new generation of African-American politicians.

The New York Times Magazine, August 10, 2008, ran a fine article, "Is Obama the End of Black Politics?" by Matt Bai. The article quoted Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts saying, "I don't have to be the black oracle. All I have to be is as good a human being and as good a governor as I can." (Page 55) Cory Booker, the Mayor of Newark, New Jersey, said, "I don't want to be the person that's turned to when CNN talks about black leaders." He said, "I want people to talk to me about nonproliferation. I want them to run to me to speak about the situation in the Middle East."

I highly recommend the film, Street Fight, about Cory Booker's run for Mayor. You can see he was right in the middle of African American politics. He had to put up with Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton coming to Newark to campaign for James Sharpe, who eventually went to prison for corruption.

The African American community is beginning to move beyond race-based politics. The Hispanic community needs to do like-wise and resist the easy and shabby tactic of calling everyone racist who opposes them politically.

Robert Canright

Trinity River Project: Let's Build Up, Not Tear Down

The Wall Street Journal, Saturday December 13, 2008, ran, "A Street Named by Public Desire Causes Political Gridlock in Dallas," by Ana Campoy. The article describes how the City of Dallas wanted to rename Industrial Blvd as part of the Trinity River Project. The plan is to build an attractive bridge over the Trinity River, create a park, and develop adjacent commercial property. You can see illustrations on the website of the Trinity River Corridor Project.

But someone made the mistake of saying, "let's have a public vote on a new name." They wanted a name related to the Trinity River Project, but they failed to specify that requirement and were blind-sided by a Hispanic agitator who wanted the street named after Cesar Chavez, who has no connection to Dallas.

With low interest in voting for renaming a street, the agitator worked hard and got 52% of the vote for renaming the street after Chavez. This name had nothing to do with the Trinity River Project and made a mockery of the plan to put it to a popular vote. The Dallas City Council had to step in and pick Riverfront Boulevard for the new name. The Wall Street Journal reported the agitators started bad-mouthing the Anglo community.

It's a shame to see some members of the Dallas Hispanic community working to embarrass Dallas and stir up racism.

The core idea of the Trinity River Project is great. Dallas needs some signature public works that serve as visual symbols of the city. New York City is loaded with visual symbols that appear frequently in movies; Dallas needs some.

As I mention in my Texas Ascendant blog, the Dallas metroplex needs to strive for greatness. We all need to work together to build up Dallas and Texas.

Robert Canright

Mexico's Economic Bust of 1994, America's Bust of 2008

Here is a link to an article by Edward S. Herman, Professor Emeritus of Finance at the Wharton School, entitled, "Neoliberalism and Bottom-Line Morality." At the bottom of this article you will read how Robert Rubin and Larry Summers helped crash the Mexican economy in 1994. Wall Street speculators had some big bets go bad and they forced the Mexican government to bail them out. Robert Rubin, then Secretary of the Treasury under Clinton, and Henry Paulson, the Secretary of the Treasury under George W. Bush, both came from Goldman Sachs. Who really runs America, our puppet government or Goldman Sachs, the puppetmaster?

Rubin and Clinton hurt the Mexican middle-class in 1994. Now Paulson and Bush are going to stick it to the American middle-class.

The threat to Mexican Americans is not from Americans who are tired of the tidal wave of illegal aliens, the threat to Mexican Americans is fromWall Street.

All regular Americans, including Mexican Americans, are hurt when Wall Street speculators crash the nation's economy. Only the Wall Street speculators, bailed out by our hard earned tax money, benefit from the Washington bailout.

Mexican Americans need to focus on the real issues of ecomonics and education, and not be misled by those wanting us to focus on immigration issues.

Robert Canright

Involved Hispanic Parents

The Dallas Morning News, Sunday Nov. 16, 2008, page B1, the Metro Section in that Sunday's paper had a good article by Stella M. Chavez: "Teaching Parents, Too".

The article emphasized how children improve their school experience when their parents are involved. The author gave a nice example of a dad sitting at the same table as his daughter, both of them reading. The child's reading experience, her focus and interest, improved because her dad joined her. The article did not say she needed his help. He read books in Spanish, one being on the history of the Roman empire.

It was a great article. All children benefit when their parents are involved. The article also described how some bi-lingual parents helped Spanish-only parents understand the school system.

It was a well done article. I'm sorry the paper did not index it on their website (I cannot provide a link for you).

Robert

Language and Success

David Hall, who ran for the Plano ISD school board in 2008, was recently sharing his concern about the education of children not proficient in English. Here is a link to what he said in his blog recently: Focus on English.

In our discussion, I suggested to him that parents take more control over their children's education. If Hispanic parents speak only Spanish, then their children are at a disadvantage. All Hispanic adults in America should learn English and then help their children learn English. It is a mistake to create a Spanish-only subculture and try to hid in a Spanish-only part of town.

Governments and businesses that put writing into Spanish for you are doing you no favor. Like the Mexican-American men who go back to Mexico for a bride that speaks only Spanish, and then keeps her speaking Spanish only, so everyone that wants Hispanics to speak only Spanish are using the Spanish language as a tool for subjugation. Spanish-only is a source of weakness. Some Mexican-American men want their wives in subjugation and the language becomes a mechanism for control, to have power over the wife.

Spanish together with English is a powerful combination. Husbands should encourage their wives to learn English and to teach it to their children.

Rather than protesting the actions of the American government to control its borders, the Hispanic community should make learning English a priority. Look at how successful the Chinese and Indians are in America. That is because they learn English and pursue education. It's hard for a child to excel in education when that child cannot speak English.

My last post mentioned the deaths in Mexico from drug wars. Today's Wall Street Journal had an Op-Ed piece by Mary Anastasia O'Grady, "Mexico Pays the Price of Prohibition," where she mentions the killings in Mexico.

The Hispanic community needs to be strongly against drugs. Children who are successful in school and applying themselves in their eduction will be less inclined to be dopers.

Robert

Illegal Drugs are Killing Mexicans

On May 25, 2008, the Dallas Morning News ran an article, "Border Violence," by Alfredo Corchado, describing how 14 people were massacred in Juarez.

The New York Times, on Saturday May 31, 2008, ran an article, "Drug Massacre Leaves a Mexican Town Terrorized" by James C. McKinley, Jr.

The Sunday New York Times, June 1, 2008, ran an article in the Week in Review section, "What the Mexicans Might Learn From the Italians," by Ralph Blumenthal, describing how the FBI and the Italians worked together to break a large drug ring. The author, Blumenthal, described the successful cooperation and expressed hope the US and Mexico could be more successful working together.

Mexican citizens are dying from drug violence, but what we hear discussed most in the DFW metroplex by Hispanics quoted in the local news are shallow, self-serving carping about alleged racism. The racism card is a phony issue. People are dying in Mexico, that is a real issue.

Hispanics need to avoid being manipulated by shallow politicians and focus on real issues.

Robert

Illegal Drugs Should Worry Hispanics

The Dallas Morning News ran an article, "Many Worried Juarez'Bloody Drug War Spilling into U.S." by Alfredo Corchado on the front page, February 28, 2008.

The article says 72 people have died in Juarez because of the drug war, and the murderers are crossing the border and killing in El Paso.

Illegal drugs are killing too many people in Mexico for Hispanics to be uninterested. It is more than life and death for people, it is a threat to the sovereignty of Mexico. The drug lords are trying to carve out independent fiefdoms beyond the reach of Mexican law and government.

A fence along the Mexican border and tighter security would reduce drug trafficking, save lives, and help the Mexican government regain control of the border towns.

The people who oppose a fence along the border do not have the best interests of Mexico in mind.

Besides the drug war in Mexico, Mexican-American children in Dallas are dying of drug overdoses. Hispanics should be fighting drugs, not fighting efforts to curtail illegal immigration.

Illegal immigration is a red-herring, a distraction from the important issues facing the Mexican-American community.

Robert

Calderon Shows Backbone

The New York Times, January 22, 2008, ran an article, "Mexico Hits Drug Gangs with Full Fury of War," by James C. McKinley, Jr.

President Felipe Calderon tackles the drug lords at the American border. Vincente Fox did something significant just by winning the Presidential election from an opposition party. But that's about all President Fox did. He didn't create jobs for Mexicans, he just gave them directions on how to steal their way into America.

I hope President Calderon succeeds in establishing the rule of law in Northern Mexico. I hope he improves education and job opportunities.

I worry that Mexican politicians want the Mexican people to remain poor and ignorant so they are easier to control.

Robert

Vikram Pandit, Why not an Hispanic?

Now that Citigroup finally got rid of Charles Prince, they replace him with Vikram Pandit, who is from India. Have you noticed that there are many Indians on Wall Street? And a lot of Chinese are very successful, but you do not see Hispanics being so successful. You can drive from Mexico to Wall Street. You cannot say that about India, but they make it here, and make it here legally. We have hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens, but America is not getting highly educated Mexicans. Why? Are there no highly educated Mexicans? Or are there no educated Mexicans with the drive of the uneducated? What's the problem?

This failure of Mexicans to compete for the top jobs in America is what Mexican-Americans should worry about, not helping illegal aliens stay here. There are problems in Mexico, but that is not talked about. There are only complaints against America. It's not right.

Robert

The Four Horsemen of the Modern Apocalypse

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse rode a white horse, a red horse, a black horse, and a pale horse. I was thinking recently that Hurricane Katrina only visited physical destruction upon New Orleans. I was in New Orleans the week before the hurricane hit and I felt the city was destroyed before the hurricane by the Four Horsemen of the Modern Apocalypse: Crime, Corruption, Ignorance, and Incompetence.

Why should Hispanics care about the Four Horsemen of the Modern Apocalypse? They should care because Hispanics will be taking over the government of some American cities and they need to be careful not to repeat the mistakes made in New Orleans.

What is the solution to crime, corruption, ignorance, and incompetence? Money is not the solution. Money breeds corruption. The answer is a work ethic, morality, a love of learning, and good leadership. Confucianism is a good way to develop these attributes. The Hispanic community will benefit greatly from Confucianism.

Robert