Is increased Frequency of Autism linked to increased EM Frequencies of Cellular Phone Technology?

I wrote this blog a month ago, and just discovered May 28 this article published 2 weeks ago. It does not make the connection of the increasing power of cellular phone technology to autism; nevertheless, the 230 scientists are appealing to the World Health Organization (WHO) to call out the cell phone industry, calling 5G hazardous“Scientists Appeal that 5G Wireless is as Hazardous as Asbestos”

Scientists Appeal 5G Wireless is Hazardous Permaculture Co UK

In early April I was reading about John Robbins (Baskin & Robbins ice cream) and his unique history of fortune and misfortune, when I learned that his son Ocean has twins each diagnosed with autism. A flash of insight prompted me to google ‘autism connection with wifi or cellular frequencies’. This 2015 article appeared, The Emerging Link between Wireless and Autism. I have had only peripheral knowledge of the autism spectrum disorder. Wikipedia states that “Autism is a developmental disorder characterized by difficulties with social interaction and communication and by restricted and repetitive behavior.” It states that autism is associated with a combination of genetic and environmental factors, with no mention among the long list of potential causes of any association with the effects of EMF’s from wireless electromagnetic radiation. I posted the link, mentioning that one would have to view the statistics worldwide to assess whether there’s a correspondence between cases of autism and populations living in the proximity of cellular communications infrastructure and who have a higher use of electronic devices. Autism: Symptoms, Diagnosis and Treatments “Autism spectrum disorder is a neurodevelopmental condition that affects a person’s ability to communicate, interact and behave appropriately with others in social situations. It is characterized by impairments in social skills, communication and restricted and repetitive behavior.”

Autism Rates Around The World  updated 2018, the article goes into detail with respect to reports of Autism in 10 different countries.

Autism Rates Around The World worldatlas

It was a hunch. For all I knew, Autism was a peculiarly American phenomenon. The United States has a propensity to diagnose and pathologize ‘dis ease’. A half century ago, medical practices were made up of doctors with private practices. This almost seems to be a ghost of the past, as the healthcare industry has stepped in. The Healthcare and pharmaceutical industries appear to be intimately tied. That is, Big Pharma applies its business marketing to the public directly, by infiltrating print and air waves with advertising. And at the same time, it extends its tentacles into the medical industry by luring doctors in hospitals and group practices with gifts and enticements (dinners, conferences in exotic places) to sell their products. That’s sort of how the opiate addiction was unleashed and silently allowed to continue unconstrained. In the USA, large industries sort of overstep well, everyone else. They squeeze out smaller businesses or gobble them up. And they lobby and line the government’s coffers, who subsequently remain in abject silence. There are no rangers or anti-trust laws to keep them from becoming more and more powerful. Whose to stop them? In the case of Big Pharma, they treat symptoms with pharmaceuticals, rather than giving attention to the holistic, wider context, as one would think would be the medical intention and approach. The Healthcare industry and Pharma are each incentivized to make a profit, rather than to approach health and wellness proactively; with attention to nutrition, exercise and the wider context. They are not focused on wellness, but on selling their product. And rather than educating the public towards maintaining wellness, they advertise their products and cram into small print & speeded up talking, all of the potential ‘side-effects’ and negative repercussions of their chemical products. Their emphasis is on sales. I digress, yet the paradigm is the same.

Verizon Irving TX

The telecommunication industry leaders may be facilitating the same lack of disclosure, in order to maintain their bottom lines. Not interested in pointing out potentially negative repercussions of their wireless cellular systems, they are more motivated to implement their plans, to ensure that the public is completely ensnared in their system by convincing them that faster and more powerful communication is without exception, what the public wants and needs. I display the various edifices and fortresses of the cellular telecommunication industry leaders, to demonstrate their opulent wealth.

This ‘Spyscraper’ AT&T Long Lines Building, Freaks Out Tom Hanks (11 Reasons Why It Should)

I almost felt a physical impact when I read that autism is huge in South Korea and Asia. I remember learning  a decade or two ago (to my surprise) that various Asian countries were much more sophisticated in their cell phone technology infrastructures than the United States.

Tech-savvy South Korea has nearly as many cell phones as people. A 2009 article! “There were 45.6 million mobile phone subscribers in South Korea in December in a country with a population of 48.6 million, Sung Suk-ham of the Korea Communications Commission said.”

China Mobile International Beijing

SOUTH KOREAN AUTISM RATES HEAD NORTH, written 2011, “South Korea Autism-spectrum disorders affect 1 in 38 youngsters.” New Study Reveals Autism Prevalence in South Korea Estimated to be 2.6% or 1 in 38 Children

 

Autism, or (ASD) autism spectrum disorders, refers to a broad range of conditions characterized by challenges with social skills, repetitive behaviors, speech and nonverbal communication.” The epidemiology of autism is the study of the incidence and distribution of autism spectrum disorders (ASD).

Autism and EMF? Plausibility of a pathophysiological link – Part I. “Abstract
Although autism spectrum conditions (ASCs) are defined behaviorally, they also involve multileveled disturbances of underlying biology that find striking parallels in the physiological impacts of electromagnetic frequency and radiofrequency exposures (EMF/RFR). With dramatic increases in reported ASCs that are coincident in time with the deployment of wireless technologies, we need aggressive investigation of potential ASC – EMF/RFR links. ”

This ’18 article reveals prevalence of autism worldwide. S. Korea was absent from this study.

Prevalence of Autism rates among selected countries worldwide 2018 Statista

The Japanese mobile phone industry is one of the most advanced in the world. A study in Japan controlled for the factor of vaccinations, and yet Autism rises despite MMR ban in Japan Is it a coincidence?

“In Asia, the number of children registered as autistic is significantly higher in urban areas than rural. We don’t know if that is due to a lack of awareness of the option to seek services, or if, for environmental reasons, there truly are less autistic children in rural areas.” Could this infer that where there are less cell phone towers and cellular phone use, there are less cases of autism?

National research studies indicate that Japan and other developed Asian countries have the highest rates of autism.

Autism diagnosis per 10,000 children – focus for health

Woman blogged, Shockingly Higher Rates of Autism and Developmental Delays in Asia.

cellphone usage wordwide

As you can see above, Hong Kong is almost ‘off the charts’ in terms of its Autism epidemic.

Cell Phone Network Hong Kong

John Herman explains You live your life at 2.4 GHz in Wired that, “Most household items operate at 2.4 GHz. Your house or apartment, or the coffee shop you’re sitting in now, is saturated with radio waves. Inconceivable numbers of them, in fact, vibrating forth from radio stations, TV stations, cellular towers, and the universe itself, into the space you inhabit. Inside your home are a dozen tiny little radio stations: your router, internet, bluetooth, garagedoor opener, cordless phone – household items – all run on 2.4 GHz.”

map cell phone towers geoawesome

There are different frequencies for different purposes. For example, an AM/FM radio has a different frequency than satellite radio. In the same way, the frequencies of a cellular phone are different from Wi-Fi, and from Bluetooth. All cellular phone networks worldwide, use part of the radio frequency spectrum designated as UHF (Ultra-High Frequency) for the transmission and reception of signals. They are not radio signals in terms of being able to, or accidentally picking up on, a music station. This neatly shows distinctions, What is the difference between Wi-Fi and Cellular connections?

Do I Need to Worry About Radiation From WiFi and Bluetooth Devices? “The radiation from Bluetooth and WiFi devices falls into the same basic range on the electromagnetic spectrum—between FM radios and microwave ovens—as the RF waves from cell phones. But because the distances traveled by WiFi and Bluetooth signals tend to be much shorter (between your router and your laptop, for instance, or your smartphone and your wireless speaker) the RF can be transmitted at a much lower power than from a cell phone.

Since I use a computer laptop to write, create and communicate, often in spaces connected via WiFi, not by a cable, I wanted to familiarize myself with the distinction between WiFi and cellular networks. Understanding the Difference between WiFi, 3G and 4G “WiFi is the nickname for a wireless internet connection. WiFi technology provides wireless Internet access via the use of radio waves which transmit a signal to a wireless enabled device, equipped with a wireless network card that communicates with the wireless router. The radio waves operate on a frequency of 2.4 GHz and operate on a standard which is set forth by the IEEE which is the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.”

Wireless LAN (WLAN) LAN (Local Access Network) by definition, implies a shorter distance traveled by WiFi and Bluetooth signals, typically not reaching further than 100 feet. This introductory video Mobile Internet Basics: What is the Difference Between Wi-Fi and Cellular? explains that cellular networks have continued to evolve in strength to accommodate the demand for a faster flow of information.

Cell Phone mega Tower HAARP Michael Winter

Cell phone technology has gone from 1G, to 2G, 3G and now 4G (G for generation). What is the difference between 2G, 3G and 4G mobiles as well as networks? “In a nutshell > SPEED.” Each are more powerful than the predecessor. Thing is, the cell phone broadcast towers have a much wider range than WiFi and are sending out much more powerful transmissions from their source.

Michael Winter states in Cell Phones – Cell Towers – Haarp. An EMF Triple Threat “The measurement of a cell phone’s power is defined by Hertz. A hertz is a unit defining the frequency of an electromagnetic wave.”

“Human beings operate at 10 hertz. 100 hertz equal 1 kilohertz. 100 kilohertz equal 1 megahertz. The average EMF emitted by cell phones is 1900 megahertz, with a market shift toward (currently in use) 2500 megahertz phones.”

“Cell towers operate in Watts. A watt is a standard definition of a unit of power. a normal, round incandescent light bulb uses 40 to 100 watts, fluorescent bulbs produce the same amount of light using only five to 30 watts. A WiFi signal from any standard router is 20 milliwatts. A standard cell phone transmits 300 milliwatts. Consider also that radio station WLS in Chicago pumps out a formerly impressive 50,000 watts, and can be picked up over a 1000 miles away with a middling quality radio receiver. The average cell tower in the USA pumps out between 100,000 to 500,000 watts. The writer of this article questions why the towers are so enormously powerful.”

Essentially, we are being saturated 24/7 with many, many thousands times stronger radiation fields than our body is equipped to deal with. Our failure to deal with this onslaught is manifesting in the form of stress and sleep disorders, birth defects, cancer and Alzheimer’s. We are being silently culled, and footing the bill to make it happen! By paying your cell bill, you simply ensure the continuity of a product that is killing, and will kill, millions and millions of people.”

Global Indoor Health Network: Cell towers are harmful to humans, animals and plants. “California Supreme Court Affirms Local Authority to Regulate Wireless Infrastructure. This breaking development recognizes the shift of power toward local governments, and away from the 5G corporate oligarchy operating through the FCC.”

Cell towers are harmful to humans, animals and plants -global indoor health network

Published 2007 Wi-Fi linked to Childhood Autism cites a study published in the Australasian Journal of Clinical Environmental Medicine warning that wireless communication technology may be responsible for accelerating the rise in autism among children. “Autism is a disabling neuro-developmental disorder.” It is associated with heavy-metal toxicity. “An expert on the dangers of electromagnetic radiation (EMR):

 

Dr George Carlo headed the world’s largest research program on mobile phone health hazards in the 1990’s which revealed the autism-wireless technology connection following a series of tests on autistic children monitored during 2005 and 2006.

Electromagnetic Safety and Cell Tower Health Effects, states that “The Federal regulations ignore the hundreds of studies that find harmful bio-effects from long-term exposure to non-thermal levels of cell phone radiation.”

The article goes into detail listing what service is provided with that bandwidth.
700 MHz to 5 GHz FCC ID Applications By Frequency.

700 MHz to 5 GHz – US Frequency Allocations chart Radio Wave Spectrum – Frequency bands of operation for the Internet of Things

In 2012, guest scientific blogger, Emily Willingham wrote, Is Autism an “Epidemic” or Are We Just Noticing More People Who Have It?, that perhaps it’s more a question of how it is diagnosed. There are factors influencing a country’s reporting, such as lack of disclosure due to it being stigmatized, or less sophisticated means of doing statistical analysis. She cites, “In 1951, Kanner wrote, the “great question” became whether or not to continue to roll autism into schizophrenia diagnoses, where it had been previously tucked away, or to consider it as a separate entity.” In 2018, Racheal Rettner sort of downplayed the role of Autism What’s Behind the Recent Rise in Autism in the US? “saying that the more it’s recognized, the more it is diagnosed.” And in 2017 Tom Chivers highlighted the fact that A Paper Claiming Wi-Fi Is Linked To Autism Has Been Accused Of Pseudoscience “Published in the respected journal Child Development, by Cindy Sage and Ernesto Burgio, titled “Electromagnetic Fields, Pulsed Radiofrequency Radiation, and Epigenetics: How Wireless Technologies May Affect Childhood Development.” was completely attacked and dismissed.

Certainly some articles published reflect a bias towards downplaying the extent of Autism, whereas others are quickly silenced. It depends on who’s paying the writers. Follow the money, as the saying goes. Nevertheless, the last few decades of spikes in Autism around the world are not random cases of schizophrenia.

Seems the increased frequency of Autism correlates worldwide with exposure to increased EM frequencies from Cellular Phone Technology – which keeps getting stronger, or so the Telecom Giants promise us.

It was a hunch, that prompted an intuition fueled search.

Verizon, AT&T Reveal Additional 5G Launch (2018) Markets “This is part of densifying the network and positioning it to excel at 5G.”

From a business insider’s perspective, this article Cell Phone Networks and Frequencies Explained: 5 Things To Know mentions that the four major networks in the U.S. are Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile. 4G is often up to 10x faster than 3G — with speeds commonly between 20Mbps and 50Mbps (which is really fast). The United States is broadly covered by both 3G and 4G LTE technology. The next generation cellular network-5G-promises speeds between 10 and 100 times faster than 4G LTE.

Why? Do we need to encase our minds and focus our attention in a virtual world, as we continue to maim and disfigure this one?

The Answer: don’t let the cell phone provider companies whose towering glass edifices in every major city, like Oz, shiny and powerful, dictate an infrastructure mania to have ever faster and more powerful waves for your convenience and your purse – as you continue to pay them for each new model and upgrade. Perhaps what is lethal beneath their shiny, buildings and the shiny devices, is that their ultimate goal is to maintain their profits and control.

Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation

Huawei technologies Mexico

China Mobile Ltd. CNET

Japanese Yokohama F.M. Broadcasting Co. Ltd. building

Perhaps as tobacco companies concealed the dangers of smoking cigarettes, and that among other companies, General Motor’s intention was to dismantle the infrastructure of street cars & train transportation in the USA to make room for the tire and automotive industries, and that for 40 years the petroleum giants have known indisputably the hazards of burning fossil fuels, kept that information from the public, the association of autism with cell phone technology is not spoken about. I wonder if the CEO’s of the various cellular companies dominating the international market, have cell towers right next to their multimillion dollar homes? I doubt it. Someone already did the groundwork. He looked at maps of cellphone towers in metropolitan areas, fitting them over counties by income, and found that the towers tend to be in lower income neighborhoods. The writer of Cell Phones – Cell Towers – Haarp. An EMF Triple Threat, Michael Winter, shows a map of a wealthy neighborhood and the corresponding map of the absence of cell towers in that precise region. I did my own brief research. I found the wealthiest county in the USA, Loudoun County, Virginia near Washington D.C. and used this tool to locate the cell phone towers in the region, https://www.cellmapper.net, and my map comparison also showed an absence of towers in Loudoun county.

These towering, windowless, bomb-proof cellular communications buildings are in under-the-radar partnership with the NSA.

https://www.investopedia.com/articles/markets/030216/worlds-top-10-telecommunications-companies.asp written by Melissa Parietti, “The world’s top 10 telecommunications companies each have a market value of more than $50 billion. Servicing the world’s ever-growing telephone and wireless connection needs, the telecommunications industry is forecast to continue to expand operations on a global level. More individuals in emerging markets are signing up for telephone and Internet contracts, while new telecommunications technologies in developed nations are expanding providers’ pre-existing customer bases.

China Mobile Ltd.
2) Verizon Communications Inc.
3) AT&T Inc.
4) Vodafone Group plc
5) Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corporation
6) Softbank Group Corp. Japan
7) Deutsche Telekom AG
8) Telefonica S.A.
9) America Movil
10) China Telecom

This website allows the public to locate cell phone towers worldwide. Cell Tower Location Maps for each State

http://www.antennasearch.com/default.asp

https://www.cellmapper.net

Carol Keiter aka nomadbeatz welcomes donations for her writing, photography, illustrations, eBook & music composition

The PayPal donation button functions in Safari and Firefox, however is broken in Chrome.

blogger, portrait drawer, painter, photographer, musician, composer

Role of Agrochemicals in ‘Fungal Pathogen’ Mass Amphibian Death | Pesticide Induced Ecocide

A few days ago a friend’s FB post was an article Amphibian ‘apocalypse’ caused by most destructive pathogen ever associated with a hard to pronounce fungus. “The sudden appearance of chytridiomycosis, chytrid Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, was introduced into the affected regions.”

Dead Frogs killed by amphibian chytrid fungus photo Joel Sartore

Mass amphibian deaths worldwide? I hadn’t known. I felt distressed. “A silent killer has slaughtered frogs and salamanders around the world.Before the fungus, populations of the alpine tree frog were so abundant there, he had to watch his step when he went out at night. A global team of 41 scientists has announced that the pathogen—which humans unwittingly spread around the world—has damaged global biodiversity more than any other disease ever recorded. The origin of this virulent pathogen is unknown.”

Unknown?

Right.

I had a hunch. Was something else beneath the picture of a natural cause such as the proliferation of a fungus? Is this not more likely the repercussion of the poisons that humans have been putting into the earth and air? Is it perhaps the soil’s distressed or diseased response to pesticides?

Let’s get a Little more clarity about this ‘Fungal Pathogen’ killing amphibian. I couldn’t imagine that it wasn’t a detriment due directly and unequivocally to humans. I googled Chytrid fungus. Origin of Frog-Killing Chytrid Fungus Found
corroborating the Chytrid fungus as the cause of amphibian deaths, with no more conjecture as to the trigger of the growth of the chytrid fungi Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) and Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal).

This article points the finger at Korea as the origin of the fungi, sort of like a bait and switch.

article points to regional origin of fungus but nothing of what exacerbates the fungal growth – agrochemicals

Then I googled ‘association of Chytrid fungus with soil’s response to pesticides DDT’ That delivered this.

Understanding Amphibian Decline: the Role of Pesticides and the Pathogenic Chytrid Fungus on Amphibians and Aquatic Communities
Taegan A. Mcmahon, University of South Florida

Effects of Pesticides and the Pathogenic Chytrid Fungus – Taegan A. McMahon Graduate Thesis Univ. of South Florida

Effects of Pesticides and the Pathogenic Chytrid Fungus on Aquatic Organisms with an Emphasis on their Role in Amphibian Declines
by Taegan A. McMahon, January 2013

Questions these days need to … follow the money …Syngenta was the worldwide leader in agrochemical sales in 2013 at ~$10.9 billion, followed by Bayer CropScience, BASF, Dow AgroSciences, Monsanto, and then DuPont with ~$3.6 billion

Let’s stop this ecocide and complete lack of transparency in the scientific articles that somehow don’t point to the obvious.
Monsanto is now cloaked within Bayer.

How revolting that agro agriculture and agro chemicals have appeared out of poisons developed for warfare, thinking that we could control nature and mass produce, for our mass fortunes, to the detriment of the soil and all other life who also breathe in and bathe in the pesticides in the soil and water.

Basta! Not on our planet!

Borders on Vox | Johnny Harris Filmmaking & Journalism Excellence

Suddenly he was popping up on Facebook. He was in China and Hong Kong specifically for a while, now at the border between Columbia and Venezuela.

Johnny Harris Borders Senior Producer filmmaker_journalist

The theme Borders couldn’t be more appropriate in today’s world. I read that the senior producer of Border, Johnny Harris, has a BA in international relations from Brigham Young University and an MA in international peace and conflict resolution from American University, each based in Washington D.C.

Johnny Harris Borders Producer Filmmaker Journalist Vox

Here is his current most recent video, on the other side of the globe from China, in South America.

Why Colombia has taken in 1 million Venezuelans

 

I’m posting a blog about him so that more people can become aware of his series. I think he’s an excellent journalist, weaving in history, talking to people. I see that he asks locals with any historical information they deem appropriate to his videos, to offer their insights. He’s obviously got a nice tool, a camera attached to a drone which makes for some fantastic footage. And his series on Borders couldn’t be more appropriate at this time.

EchoActivate | Education, Communication & Fun | Working Side-by-Side, Empowering through Participating | Cleaning, Reusing, Planting & Restoring Habitats for All Creatures | Global Climate Action Summit

If India was able to plant 66 million trees in twelve hours with a million + people side by side doing it, this same action could happen around the world towards any environmental movement.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/india-plant-66-million-trees-12-hours-environment-campaign-madhya-pradesh-global-warming-climate-a7820416.html

Word cloud of involved actions in EChOACTiVate

I meditate daily and ask the four forces – earth, air, water and plasma – practicing heart rhythm meditation. My intent is to carry my voice to peoples’ platforms I can participate in and for information and guidance to be carried to me. It’s an intuitive process of trusting in the intelligence and consciousness of the universal force. I feel that many things that appear to ‘happen’ serendipitously, arrive because of intention to connect to this information. Magic? Today, for the first time i clicked on and read this info from this community that I learned of while taking courses when living in Pennsylvania. Interfaith Power & Light: A Religious Response to Global Warming. I’d go to multidisciplinary talks with religious leaders from all these different faiths putting forth their viewpoint on various questions. Opening it, i found out about this, http://globalclimateactionsummit.org/. The Global Climate Action Summit happens to be taking place in San Francisco, September 12th to 14th. Just a week before the ccc reunion.

lets mots, les activité
pour EChOACTIvate

It seems to be an excellent place to continue to disseminate my idea. The idea started years ago, imagined actually right before the COP21 Paris climate talks, which I went to, to Paris for two weeks with 20 dollars.

Previously I named the idea Eco Revolution, then EcoActivate, because the first was taken.

https://carolkeiter.wordpress.com/2015/11/21/calling-for-echoactivate-partners-core-team-refugee-manpower-best-weapon-is-education-and-empowerment/

https://digesthis.wordpress.com/2015/11/21/calling-for-echoactivate-partners-core-team-corporate-sponsors-government-subsidies/

lo que tu puedes hacer con EChOACTiVate

The idea is to bring the information to the people, through a cyber portal of information, and a mobile unit that comes to a community with needs that people perceive or perhaps aren’t aware of at all, that they can then do together to clean up and build sustainable energy, transportation and to plant community gardens, bee and butterfly highways, plant trees and build animals bridges…

The idea is to bring people together in a celebratory, participatory way. With the knowledge they need to create, transform and participate in greening their own environment.

Education is the tool. People power is the engine.

was EChOACTiVate ist

The Scary Truth About What’s Hurting Our Kids by Becky Mansfield

I am reposting this article because I believe that it is a very important read.

The Scary Truth About What’s Hurting Our Kids by Becky Mansfield

According to Victoria Prooday, Occupational Therapist & writer at YourOT.com, “There is a silent tragedy developing right now, in our homes, and it concerns our most precious jewels – our children… Researchers have been releasing alarming statistics on a sharp and steady increase in kids’ mental illness, which is now reaching epidemic proportions:

Scary Truth About What is Hurting Our Kids

•  1 in 5 children has mental health problems
•  43% increase in ADHD
• 37% increase in teen depression
• 200% increase in suicide rate in kids 10-14 years old“

She goes on to say that “Today’s children are being deprived of the fundamentals of a healthy childhood:

• Emotionally available parents
• Clearly defined limits and guidance
• Responsibilities
• Balanced nutrition and adequate sleep
• Movement and outdoors
• Creative play, social interaction, opportunities for unstructured times and boredom

Instead, children are being served with:

• Digitally distracted parents
• Indulgent parents who let kids “Rule the world”
• Sense of entitlement rather than responsibility
• Inadequate sleep and unbalanced nutrition
• Sedentary indoor lifestyle
• Endless stimulation, technological babysitters, instant gratification, and absence of dull moments”
• How true… and how sad.

Kids Using Phone Apps to Be Mean to One Another

What You Can Do About It 1

What You Can Do About It 2

What You Can Do About It 3

One reader, Susanne Lorentzen, commented at the end of the article: “The brain reacts when we get physical with our children and dopamine and other neurotransmitters do the same. This can counteract depression in a natural way.

And – we need more hugs, kisses and in general more contact between people of all ages.”

tags: technology overload, limit technology, depression, mental health, teen depression, ADHD, kid suicide rates, nutrition, sleep, outdoor play, movement, entitlement, sedentary lifestyle, technological babysitterss, instant gratification, sadness, emotionally healthy, emotionally available parents, hugs, kisses, contact, dopamine

Hitchabout to a casting call for a political satire TV show filmed in Albuquerque, NM

It was a remarkably successful hitchhiking journey to ABQ and back to Taos, with the generous help of friends, who made my sojourn to Albuquerque to answer a casting call job for a day. I write about it because I learned a lot from talking with each of the drivers. Props for hitchhiking, in which one comes across locals who more than likely are delighted to share information about their own region and its history, as well as stories about their own family. The driver’s were white and various shades of brown; Native American and Spanish, representing each race that live together in this region.

Pueblos of the Southwest

I turned down the first 3 rides, intuitively, and took a fourth to the edge of town, to a better place for people to stop.

While in the process of doing the final research, edits and writing and illustrating of my eBook in the final countdown, I received a phone call. It was from a casting company I had registered with a couple months ago, knowing that both of my sources of employment were going to end with the season: in this case, ski and school. I accepted the job, even though with a slight disappointment, it wasn’t going to take place in Santa Fe, New Mexico, a one hour and a half drive, but Albuquerque, NM, adding another hour; a 133 mile drive.

My only choice to get there, hitch. Upon speaking with the representative of the casting company about the potential call time, I realized that I would have to hitch there the day prior, and figure out how to get to the TV shooting site (yet to be announced), by 6am, or earlier.

Turns out that by contacting my friend living there, who was out of town visiting her home town, she responded immediately, gave me the phone number of her husband who then responded and gratuitously and generously gave me his time and the transport and shelter that I needed.

I only wanted to mention the hitches:

It is the second time in my life that I have turned down rides. Both times occurred in New Mexico. Typically, I feel quite comfortable with those who have stopped to offer a ride. I turned down the first 3 rides, trusting my instincts. Another I trusted to give me a lift to a better departing place with more room for a car to pull over. Within a minute of that ride which was welcomed, a man stopped with whom I had a great conversation the entire time. It was my Albuquerque sign in the early afternoon in Taos, that drew his attention, since he was returning to there after coming to Taos to do mold testing on a structure. As I’ve said before, typically the people who do stop for hitchhikers, are as interested in telling their stories as they are in hearing yours. So we chatted about many topics. I learned about his sons, their projects and several fun stories about their characters, among all sorts of things that we discussed.

Turns out the filming of a political satire TV show, Graves went from 5:45am to 10:30pm, lots of waiting time and repeated filming of the same scenes. Regarding takes, I almost felt I could have been a stand-in after several hours, having heard the lines so often. I opted to stay again in ABQ that night and join my host and his son, driving to Santa Fe the following morning to go to Meow Wolf.

drought southwest wikipedia

On the ride back, I had one after another great ride. First, a gentle, soft-spoken Native American man who is a jeweler who presents his crafts among other Native American artists 5 days a week in the Santa Fe playa. He explained that he was born in Northern Arizona, and I assume that he is Navaho. He said that his parents moved from there, because there was no work. Several times he mentioned the fact that there is no water. He said that one makes a presumption about water coming out of a faucet. They didn’t have that luxury. He said he attended 7 different schools between his junior and senior high school years, because his parents kept having to move to find employment; from Arizona to California to New Mexico. Each of them are deserts which have experienced droughts. He emphatically stated when I asked if he was coming from work, “no, I work for himself, making jewelry. He says he lives behind the hill of Pojoaque where he let me off, happily with his Pug.

The next ride was with a man and his 11 year old son. Anglo, mixed ethnic (Mexican mother) son, he mentioned all of the different pueblos in the area.

He was driving an exceptionally beat-up Suburu, still running like a charm. I went with them on a few errands on their way home. I accompanied them to the Pojoaque

Pojoaque Pueblo New Mexico

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pojoaque,_New_Mexico . There, the son enthusiastically bound into the library to pick up the books he ordered, several pounds of these slender Japanese hardcover Manga (漫画? Manga) books, part of a series, whose storyline just keeps going.
Considering the fact that I’m in the final edits of my own eBook geared towards kids and young (and any age adults), it is quite impressive to see this enthusiasm bordering obsession with this genre. Having taught in more than 2 dozen schools this past year in the Santa Fe public school system, I saw middle and high school students both embracing anime books (pronounced an i mae).

Anime charicters with tattoos

As the father smilingly responded, you have to have a story that the kids are interested in reading! He spoke about how miserable he was working at a local Casino, and that he makes far better wages and engages with all sorts of people who are friendly and kind, in the hotel in which he now works in Santa Fe.

The third ride was with a young Spanish man, who is 3rd or 4th generation Taoseño. He described the struggle that his great grandparents had when prior to New Mexico being declared a territory in the early part of this century, that previously in the late 19th century, the United States came in and basically just kicked people off of their land, who had been living there prior to the discovery by Columbus. Perhaps this coincided or was subsequent to Mexico territory becoming that of the US. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_Cession His great grandfather and a group of others pulled their finances together to purchase acres by land they valued very much, by El Salto. This they did not to develop, but to protect it from development, to preserve the wilderness, beauty and the habitat of animals there, for all to enjoy. We talked continuously. I learned that with his carpentry skills, he is widening doors and making his home wheel chair accessible for his step son, who has cerebral palsy. I said, so you must indeed have made the commitment in this relationship. He is happy to do this, loves his son and is proud of his daughter by his first marriage, who will now work as a dentil hygienist for a female dentist entrepreneur who rolled into Taos, an eccentric and imaginative woman, who has resurrected and improved a number of local dental practices by incorporating state-of-the-art technology. The dentist woman rides a harley apparently. The technology they use, rather than exposing patients to potentially harmful x-rays, is audio sound technology, so that one can image the cavities and so forth through sound waves. Pretty interesting. It’s called ultrasound technology. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23706922

As I said at the beginning, the neat thing about hitchhiking, is that one comes across locals who more than likely are delighted to share information about their own region and its history, as well as stories about their own family.

Carol Keiter aka nomadbeatz ~ As an avid blogger who is presently picking up where I left off with my eBook to complete it and and beginning again to compose music, I ask you rather unambiguously and unabashedly to please donate, if you are able. !-))

Carol Keiter le_blogger, writer & illustrator, musician & composer