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Guess where Miss Universe 2006 is from? She was so happy she fainted.

The Danish-Puerto Rican Society is having its annual picnic in Prospect Park on Saturday. Email the president for more info. There’ll be music all day, since we’re piggy-backing on the Boricua Festival. Bring Carlsberg beer and multi-ethnic smiles. Near the Bandshell. 2pm.

He begged me to join, so I let him.

Friends, the Danish Puerto Rican Society is accepting new members. This is a sneak preview, because the website is still under construction and the t-shirts are still at the lab. Join now, so you can say you were a part of it from the beginning. Next step: world domination. And a hot launch party. Anyone with a tenuous connection to a Dane or a Puerto Rican can join. That means you.

I’ve been in both Puerto Rico and Washington DC since my last post.

Update: Puerto Rican politics very messy right now. Shout out to my friend Laurent at Liberation, who has earned honorary membership to the Danish-Puerto Rican Society for bringing news from la isla to France. Merci.

DC was host to conference about democracy and islam. Update: Bad news is islamist parties only pretend to be democratic out of strategic interests, good news is they seem to become more democratic in the process. Also, the only people to use the word ‘terrorism’ at the conference were representatives of the American government. The schism between the concerns of democracy scholars, and USAID and MEPI were remarkable. Polite specialists on Middle East politics simply smiled as heads of both organisations told fairy tale accounts of US motivations for spreading democracy. Questions on Israel/Palestine were few, but awkward.

If you want to read more, you’ll have to keep an eye on oD. Update: Next stop on my global tour is Germany, for AnkCon. Ever wonder how to save the world from climate doom?

A group of Latino artists including at least one Mexican and several Puerto Ricans have recorded a new version of the US national anthem in Spanish. The words have not been altered, but the right wing blogs see lots to be offended about. Are they worried Spanish-speakers and illegal immigrants will find out what the song is about? Personally, I think it’s an excellent comment on the hypocrisy of discourse on freedom that exists in this country. Clearly, it’s not the ‘land of the free’ for everyone. Whom exactly is the ‘Star Spangled Banner’ supposed to represent? More than 14% of the US population is Hispanic, and the economy is kept afloat by a labour force of 12 million undocumented immigrants. It’s another language, not a lesser form of humanity.

By the way, Puerto Ricans were recently denied (again) the right to vote in presidential elections by the US Supreme Court. They have US passports but do not live in a US state. The court ruled that in order for a “territory” to vote it must either become a state or the US constitution must be changed. These days, either of those options seem as unlikely as Puerto Rico becoming a country of its own. “Unfairly treated,” were the words of the attorney who filed the appeal. That’s easier to agree on than what to do next.

The Village Voice has a nice article on the recent FBI attacks on Puerto Rican independence activists, which towards the end points out how many activists were based in New York.

Landmarks of the movement to free Puerto Rico are here, too, if you know where to look. At 336 East 110th Street, a construction company now occupies the site where on December 11, 1974, a New York cop opened a door and was blinded by a booby-trap bomb apparently set by the FALN, a Puerto Rican radical group.

That wasn’t New York’s only link to either the peaceful or violent side of the independence struggle. The city was a base for the pioneering revolutionary Eugenio María de Hostos, as well as for the gunmen who tried to kill Harry Truman in 1950. In the ’70s and ’80s there were bombings here; in 2000 there was a peaceful occupation of the Statue of Liberty to protest U.S. target practice on Vieques.

Plus: openDemocracy published a tribute to Nuyorican musician Ray Barreto last week.

Here’s an article on the latest FBI activity in Puerto Rico. This year they’ve really renewed their efforts to harass the independence movement on the island. When leader of the clandestine group, Los Macheteros, Filiberto Ojeda Rios was killed five months ago, most of the island came together to protest the illegal actions of the FBI. This song, by Calle 13, was the most played on the radio for a while, and was available for free download on the internet. You don’t need to speak Spanish to hear the anger…