Science and Global Politics: Focus on Latin America

This article explains that days after the letter Castro allegedly wrote, Castro wrote an article saying that news of his death are ridiculous. Yet, these rumors are not ungrounded, as Castro hasn't made a public appearance since March, when Pope Benedict XVI visited Cuba.

Rumors had circulated weeks ago that Fidel Castro was dead, in a coma, or on his deathbed. A letter with his signature was released to the public more recently. It certainly feels like a stunt to suggest Castro is well when he really isn't.

An interesting story discussing an enrichment program directed at Peru's underprivileged schools. The aim of the program was to put a laptop computer in the hands of every student. With the help of this technology, the hope was that young Peruvian's would be able to catch up with the rest of the world in terms of literacy, mathematics, technological aptitude, etc. However the results of the project were not exactly as planned. The rural areas, which are often the neediest, suffer the greatest complications when trying to implement the technology in the classroom. It appears that these communities are simply not equipped to maximize the potential of the laptop devices. Remote locations, lack of prior understanding, and poor electrification infrastructure all play a part. Still, the use of the laptops did seem to improve some aspects of the learning experience, and at the least provided some exposure from which future interests may be sparked. This article seems to shed a bit of light on the dramatic discrepancies across cultures. In the U.S. individuals are so completely surrounded with technological resources that the assimilation of new technologies is often seamless. For other countries, like Peru, their lack of technological immersion creates systemic and epistemic faults which greatly affect their ability to actually make good use of information technologies. I thought this piece was fascinating and seems to point toward other worthwhile cultural questions.

I wonder what the impact was in more urbanized areas, as opposed to Lacachi.

This article describes the alarming unrest among underpaid doctors in Peru. 11,000 doctors are on strike as well as 90% of hospital managers over pay issues. This coincides with a teacher strike still going on that I witnessed this summer. Sadly, the strikes are negatively affecting the Peruvian people, especially the huge amounts of people that live in poverty. Although the Peruvian economy has been improving since its complete breakdown a decade ago, this article clearly demonstrates that President Humala needs to quickly make changes to the way the economic system works.

This ties in really well to our discussions on healthcare options. The video showed that sometimes the patients who have accessible care are happy but the doctors are underpaid and feel restricted by the requirements to keep healthcare accessible. This shows how difficult it can be to achieve a balance.

This article shows how technology, in the form of novelas in this case, becomes an integral part of culture. The particular novela that this article is about is called Avenida Brasil, and is significant because it is the first massively popular novela to star the middle class. This shift in the focus of media shows that the middle class is becoming increasingly important in Brazil as their economy rises to prominence.

In this article a connection is drawn between the United States' increasing use of bio-fuels, particularly corn ethanol, and increased cost to import and sell food products in poor nations. Among others, Mexico, Colombia, and Guatemala are mentioned by name. According to the article, the amount of added burden from this is enough to undermine aid and relief efforts in these nations. It seems that poor crop yields, presumably due to climate change, are often pinned as being directly responsible for increasing food costs and shortages. Although environmental factors certainly play their part, it appears to be important for us to consider what other pressures may be mounting. Assuming this article is accurate, our domestic policies may have unintended not-so-domestic consequences. Countries who rely on imports for food products are typically doing so because they cannot produce enough on their own, and if they cannot afford the imports then a food-shortage results. The implications may even be further reaching than the author states. If I'm not mistaken, sugarcane is another crop which is often utilized as a bio-fuel source. If that is the case, then one may be compelled to consider the great number of products which include corn and sugarcane and what that may mean for already struggling populations. Reducing the reliance on fossil fuels is an important undertaking, but is relying on food for fuel the proper route?

For those of you interested in ecological preservation.

another instance where contaminating the water with toxic waste is a culprit. It's rather remarkable that we've done so much intensive mining and agriculture and industrial animal raising (CAFOs) and somehow never stopped to worry too much about what happens when we pollute the water (groundwater, rivers, lakes, the ocean....) Just getting a grip on this kind of pollution would seem to me to go a long ways toward rectifying bad practices in a number of areas simultaneously.

Higher than average rainfall washed away some 84,000 acres of crops. As a result Ecuador's exports are expected to fall 10 percent resulting in higher prices for commodities like bananas, which are one of the countries main exports. This seems like a good example of the ways in which climate and abnormal weather patterns can affect market prices in the global economy.

Weather is one of the most unpredictable variables on world economy.

and one of the predictions of the ramifications of climate change is an increase in the number of severe weather events -- good for futures speculations but not for the rest of us?

This article describes a mining mountain in Bolivia, Cerro Rico, that is on the verge of collapse. This mountain has been mined for centuries by quechua slaves and although the people that toil in its bowels today are not technically enslaved, the harsh conditions and meager living workers make can still be equated to slavery. Unless something is done to stabilize the mountain, all the minors lives are in immediate danger. This article is very sad as it shows the ways in which colonial class stratification still exists today in Latin America.

an excellent piece, Josie, that reminds us that although we live in the shiny new hi-tech world of the 21st century that the 20th and even the 19thc are still with us literally in some parts of the world. We need to remember that fact. This situation also recalled one closer to home, in Picher Oklahoma. This wikipedia article notes that: "Picher is one of only a few locations in the world (along with others such as Gilman, Colorado and Wittenoom, Western Australia) to be evacuated and declared uninhabitable due to environmental and health damage caused by the mines the town once serviced." The cross-cultural comparisons would be interesting.... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picher,_Oklahoma

This is a pretty good article describing the tensions arising between Ecuador and countries such as Britain, Sweden, and the U.S. over the asylum granted to Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks.

what a strange turn of events!

This article explains how poor educational standards in Brazil are holding the country back even while its economy is quickly growing. Because the education system is not capable of producing enough skilled professionals to meet the demands of the work force, Brazil is relying on immigrants to fill skilled labor positions. If Brazil is to sustain its growth, it clearly needs to improve the education system quickly.

See Michael Ray's article up above about affirmative action and Brazilian universities -- these two articles seem connected --

This article explains a new road that has been built that is working to revitalize a road for farmers. This road creates a direct path to the super market in order to boost earnings for the farmers. It was funded by the United States supported "Millennium Challenge Cooperation."

More new stuff for me to learn about, thanks, Elizabeth! It's amazing that lack of reliable roads can be a stumbling block to development in the 21st century, but often this is the legacy of colonial regimes that in previous eras weren't interested in internal connections among the people, but in building only what was necessary in terms of transportation infrastructure to extract indigenous resources and get them exported (a problem in Africa as well). I didn't know anything about the Millennium Challenge Corporation, so began looking up some info. One interesting fact is that they are rated as the most "transparent" US agency and 9th most transparent out of 72 in the world by "Publish What You Fund: The Global Campaign for Aid Transparency" [one of 13 organizations marked "fair," the second highest category -- only two came in at the top category]. http://www.publishwhatyoufund.org/index/2012-index/ The pressure for transparency: a consequence of the Internet, since the cost of "publishing" the information is minimal? It will be interesting to see how well the federal and state governments at home and abroad do on this score in the coming years.

An article that demonstrates the differences in health care between Argentina and other Latin American countries, such as Bolivia.

I found this article very interesting. I think it is fascinating to see other veiewpoints and norms around the world. Taking in to account the low life expectancy, it seems like a very intelligent decision to allow transgender surgeries as opposed to unsafe practices. I think it should be questioned how this will alter in the future, as well as what problems are going to arise. The surgery's expense must be taken in to account. Will other countries follow Argentina's lead?

wow -- I would never have come across this most likely if this hadn't been posted here. Thanks! It makes me wonder how much else I am missing about interesting shifts across the world. I've got to get access to streaming my news better....although having you smart students to help me with my learning curve is a big bonus!

This article lays out the reasons why Uruguay's government is considering legalization of marijuana. It has already been decriminalized and full legalization would allow the government to benefit economically from production. The profits could stimulate the economy and even be used to treat drug addicts and go towards drug education. Also, legalization would take power away from deadly cartels.

This article was very interesting. To me, it seems that Uruguay has been searching for a way to combat what the war on drugs has done to the cartels. This is vastly different to the approach the United States is taking in regards to marijuana. I wonder if we will see any of the affects here, in addition to how the U.S. government views government controlled marijuana. I feel that ong term, the different drug strategies could potentially change the U.S.'s current stance on drug policies if they prove their effectivness.

wow, great discussion! I've been working my way down from the top adding some comments and was wondering about decriminalization up above! This reminded me that there's a ballot initiative in Washington state this election year that could pass re legalization of marijuana, which would put the states vs the feds in an interesting position if so. I was looking for some info, and found this background on a site called ballotpedia -- which I didn't know existed and am definitely going to be using in the future! http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/Washington_Marijuana_Legalization_and_Regulation,_Initiative_502_(2012)

Brazil's government enacted one of the most sweeping affirmative action laws. This is just one example of the sort of democratic, humanitarian charge that Brazil is leading in South America. On one end of the spectrum we see Chavez's authoritarian-ruled Venezuela, with state-controlled sectors still on the rise. On the other end we see Brazil, enacting humanitarian changes such as this affirmative action law. Increasingly, we have seen Latin American countries follow the lead set by Brazil, with a shift away from the state-controlled policy championed by Venezuela. Economically, we also see that Brazil is in much better shape than Venezuela, regardless of the fact that Venezuela is oil-rich. This law just offers one example of the changes set in motion by Brazil that stand at odds with the state-controlled ideals that were previously indicative of Latin American politics.

Fascinating article -- this is a huge social engineering step, with 50% of university slots set aside for poor and minority students! While there is debate about the step, only one senator voted against it.... Since our focus here in the class and the diigo articles is science and technology, I'm wondering if anyone here is willing to venture any guesses about how this policy might affect science, technology, and medicine in Brazil. Would most of these students from poorer social worlds opt for sci/tech/med training? If so, how might this change society itself? Do the wealthier students now attending college select different sorts of majors? It would be interesting to do some digging... Of course, the influx of students from different backgrounds could affect the wealthier students' worldviews, also -- if they stay in the public university system, however, which might not happen...From the article: Dozens of other Brazilian universities, both public and private, have also adopted their own affirmative action policies in recent years, trying to curb the dominance of such institutions by middle- and upper-middle-class students who were educated at private elementary and secondary schools. Public universities in Brazil are largely free of charge and generally of better quality, with some exceptions, than private universities. Still, some education experts are already predicting a shift to the better private universities among some students. "With these quotas, these rich Brazilians who took up their spots will not be abandoned," argued Frei David Santos, 60, a Franciscan friar in São Paulo who directs Educafro, an organization preparing black and low-income students for university entrance exams. "Their parents who had money saved will spend it" on elite private universities.

I felt that this article was interesting leading up to the election. It explains the varying differences between Romney and Obama's policy regarding Latin America. Romey's policy plan that he has adopted seems to be very agressive and confrontational regarding Latin America. Reading this article made me heavily question Romney's plans. I do not always feel agression grants the best results. After the ongoing violence that has risen from the insuing war on drugs, this approach seems harsh. Although it does point out Obama's hands off approach (for lack of a better term), the article does outline Romey's opinions and strategies.

I'd sure like to hear more about other parts of the world in terms of the issues in the presidential and senatorial/congressional elections. I know that the Middle East is incredibly important, but in this increasingly interconnected global world other regions are vital as well, given the global scope of issues such as climate change and the global ocean, not to mention the issue of adjusting to working together across cultures as a general issue. But I'm always surprised that we don't think more "hemispherically" when we think about international relations in terms of public debates. Perhaps as the percentage of US citizens with Hispanic ancestry increases this might change? Perhaps it is related as well to the fact that Americans don't put as much effort into learning foreign languages as other countries do...perhaps if more of us were fluent in Spanish there might be more awareness of what is going on elsewhere in the Western Hemisphere? Maybe more foreign exchange programs as well as a consequence would help?

Of particular interest in this article is the methodology utilized to combat the increasing threat of Mexican drug cartels. Operation Fast and Furious underlines the fact that at the core, Americans are being forced to consider with more and more gravity the problem of Mexican drug cartels. The fact that "hundreds of weapons" were able to be lost, and subsequently passed into cartel hands, just goes to show the desperation of the United States government in concern to this real and visceral threat on our southern border. Furthermore, the article shows the problem in using weapons and ammunition to further a purpose. We saw the misguided delivery of weapons backfire on us during the Soviet-Afghan conflict, so it leaves one wondering when we'll figure out that this may not be the best way to engage in foreign policy.

To what extent do you think this is a domestic policy issue for the US as well as a foreign policy issue? Certainly the Central and South American countries rightly point out that if demand for drugs wasn't so fierce in the US the drug trade would be greatly diminished. Not to mention that drug crimes are one of the reasons that we have so many people in prison, along with the enormous costs (in money and lives) that are consumed in keeping the prison system going. Is this a topic where social scientists should be able to help out? To what extend does what we know from social science and medical science inform our laws? Even if we couldn't work out completely the demand issue on our end, is it possible if we made a significant dent in it, that it would make enough of a difference that progress could be made at the production end in disrupting that node? It seems to me we don't hear much from scientists in regard to this issue -- why not?

Another article on the war on drugs. This article explains that the Guatemalan president suggested drug decriminalization in front of the UN General assembly, and said that it should coincide with increasing military pressure on drug violence. Legal drug use would be state controlled, much like the use of tobacco and alcohol in the United States.

It certainly seems like decriminalization would take the money and violence out of the equation (or at least, a great deal of it). Certainly, Prohibition in the US re alcohol was a big mistake in regard to criminal activity, and even with the problems alcohol currently causes, there are still forms of control (laws, public attitudes, health advisories)...Would it help if we put more effort into scientific studies on addiction? Do we know enough in that regard to circulate public information that would be relevant? Why don't we have conferences about this topic where the issues are debated? I'd like to see something like that at OU, with input from the law school, and the sociologists, psychologists, law enforcement, Latin Americanists, etc. etc. It could be very enlightening. Too dangerous a topic, though? But we should be able to talk about anything at an education of higher learning...

Essentially this article describes a long drawn out legal battle, starting in the 70s, between Chevron and the residents of a region in Ecuador. Apparently the oil company, then Texaco, released billions (yes, billions) of gallons of toxic waste in an area affecting parts of the Amazon. Despite the opinion of the Ecuadorians, Chevron claims their end of the issue has been long settled. - This case seems to bring to light several noteworthy factors. Involved is a major pollution event as opposed to accumulative issues such as global warming. So the immediate responses to these differing kinds of environmental problems is, of course, quite different. With a major event an expeditious 'clean up' is always a priority, but there is still a paradigmatic similarity regarding the effects of pollution on the environment over time. That is, the difficulty and/or unwillingness to accept and deal with the long term damage incurred. Also relevant, one may consider the global political implications of cases like these. The consequences of American companies destroying foreign lands seems interesting in itself, but equally so is the relationship of courts and legal systems in different countries.- I will be interested to see if Chevron ever pays. tl;dr- 1970s Chevron spill shows a glimpse of political complications across borders.

Good point about discrete events vs. longer-term processes in regard to whether that makes them more manageable to resolve (you would think so, but....) Toxic waste is a huge global issue (and certainly not inconsequential in the US), and the electronic waste issue is a big one. At the very least, this kind of foot-dragging will hardly win the hearts and minds of those in other countries who know the US via the local reputations of US companies that don't see the local population as stakeholders. How do we shift the culture to thinking in long-range terms? Maybe the pushback by other countries will force a shift?

It's not an article, but I found it funny, and it pertains to Latin America.

Can't solve supply and demand problems without looking at the demand side, right? Seriously, though, the illegal drug trade is a good area for thinking about science and politics -- when we think about science and politics we tend to think of the hard sciences, but where the social sciences and medical sciences fit in terms of these human behavior issues is critical. To what extent are those in the behavioral sciences taken seriously by policymakers? When we think of legalization or decriminalization of drugs, are there interesting comparative medical and/or social scientific studies about the aftermath? Would that be useful info to know for the public, or are these matters only for experts? This would relate to the Ecuador article below as well--