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rachelramirez

Indigenous groups pressured to give up lands for doubtful Nicaragua Canal - 0 views

news.mongabay.com/...s-for-doubtful-nicaragua-canal

nicaragua canal economy

shared by rachelramirez on 29 Jun 16 - No Cached
  • Indigenous groups pressured to give up lands for doubtful Nicaragua Canal
  • The meetings, which the Nicaraguan government sprang on surprised community leaders several times over the past few months, are aimed at securing consent to use indigenous territory
  • Community leaders say that the government has not allowed them legal council in the meetings, violating international regulations.
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • Officials estimate that between 30,000 and 120,000 people will be displaced in total by the canal.
  • They say that the planned route will displace the entire communities of Bangkukuk Taik, Monkey Point and Wiringay, while most other local communities will be indirectly affected by canal support projects.
  • “They keep saying that we don’t need a legal advisor,” Allen Claire-Duncan, the leader of the Monkey Point Kriol community, told Mongabay. “Many people do not know how to read or write, and if the [government negotiators] come to the community they will speak in terms that the people don’t understand.
  • the Nicaraguan government must obtain consent from the nine community leaders as well as the 18 members of the Rama-Kriol Territorial Government (GTR-K) before construction can begin.
  • Community leaders are emphatic about their desire not to sign over their lands, but some leaders say they have been pressured into signing documents of an uncertain nature
  • But in May, government officials transferred 16 members of the GTR-K to Managua where they signed more papers. Shortly after the meeting, Nicaraguan state media reported that the indigenous territories had officially granted consent for the canal
  • Corporate and governmental secrecy have prompted concern from human rights organizations, environmental groups and the U.S. Embassy in Nicaragua.
  • rachelramirez on 29 Jun 16
     
    Nicaragua is on a dangerous pathway in the pursuit of a canal that may not ever be made; there are human rights violations, environmental violations, and the economy on the line if the deal goes through. Although I am unsure of how significant the indigenous population is in Nicaragua, the canal would require a great deal of land, and the movement of between 30 thousand and 120 thousand people.
oliviaodon

ICT for Disaster Management/ICT for Disaster Prevention, Mitigation and Preparedness - ... - 0 views

en.wikibooks.org/...n,_Mitigation_and_Preparedness

technologies disaster response mitigation preparedness

shared by oliviaodon on 23 Oct 16 - No Cached
  • The United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UN/ISDR) identifies several key parties that play major roles in the disaster management process, especially in disaster warning (UN/ISDR, 2006).
  • Communities, particularly those most vulnerable, are vital to people-centred early warning systems. Their input into system design and their ability to respond ultimately determine the extent of risk associated with natural hazards. Communities should be aware of hazards and potential negative impacts to which they are exposed and be able to take specific actions to minimize the threat of loss or damage.
  • Local governments should have considerable knowledge of the hazards to which their communities are exposed.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • The private sector has a diverse role to play in early warning, including developing early warning capabilities in their own organizations. The private sector is also essential as they are usually better equipped to implement ICT-based solutions. The private sector has a large untapped potential to help provide skilled services in the form of technical manpower, know-how, or donations of goods or services (in-kind and cash), especially for the communication, dissemination and response elements of early warning.
  • Considered the most traditional electronic media used for disaster warning, radio and television have a valid use. The effectiveness of these two media is high because even in developing countries and rural environments where the tele-density is relatively low, they can be used to spread a warning quickly to a broad population.
  • Telephones can play an important role in warning communities about the impending danger of a disaster.
  • The role Internet, email and instant messages can play in disaster warning entirely depends on their penetration within a community and usage by professionals such as first responders, coordinating bodies, etc.
  • oliviaodon on 23 Oct 16
     
    This article discusses how ICTS can be used to warn a population of oncoming disasters to prevent more damage from occurring. 
jackhanson1

Construction of Nicaragua Canal Threatens Indigenous Lives and Livelihoods | Cultural S... - 0 views

www.culturalsurvival.org/...threatens-indigenous-lives-and

shared by jackhanson1 on 04 Nov 16 - No Cached
  • Construction of Nicaragua Canal Threatens Indigenous Lives and Livelihoods
  • The Nicaraguan Government has failed to properly consult Indigenous communities regarding the canal’s construction.
  • The construction of the canal promises environmental abuses and human rights violations as the proposed route cuts through the land of multiple Indigenous territories on Nicara- gua’s coasts and within its mainland. Thousands of people are expected to be impacted with many being forcibly displaced, primarily including the Kriol and Indigenous Rama people,
in a clear violation of Indigenous autonomy laws in Nicaragua and international human rights documents.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • In June 2013, Nicaraguan officials approved a $50 billion (US) deal with a Hong Kong firm to oversee the construction of a 278-kilometer long canal. The HK Nicaragua Canal Development Investment Company’s proposed project would attempt to link the Pacific to the Caribbean, allowing the passage of container ships
too large for passage through the Panama Canal.
  • The Nicaraguan Constitution of 1987 recognizes the Indigenous cultures that reside on the land and their right to maintain their languages and cultures. Two additional laws, 28 and 445, grant autonomy and “the use, administration and management of traditional lands and their natural resources” to Indigenous people. Additionally, Nicaragua signed on to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People in 2008 and ratified ILO Convention 169 in 2010, a legally bind- ing document guaranteeing prior consultation before such projects.
  • The government is reportedly anticipating that 7,000 homes may be expropriated to make way for the 278-kilometer canal. However, an independent report by the Centro Humboldt states that the impact will be much greater. The report found that 282 settlements and 24,100 homes were identified within the direct area of influence, estimating that the number of people anticipated to be directly affected by construction at over 119,000. The canal’s construction will not only bring the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people, but also irreversible environmental damage. The loss of Indigenous communities will be accompanied by the loss of some of Nicaragua’s most precious and rich resources: its ecologically diverse lands and waters.
  • Meanwhile, the social impact assessment conducted by the Nicaraguan government, if being conducted at all, has lacked any transparency. While quick to boast the economic impact of the canal, officials have blatantly disregarded the needs and fears of community members from coast to coast. A coalition of 11 groups including affected In- digenous communities and environmental and legal organiza- tions submitted a petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights criticizing the rights violations inherent in the Canal Law.
  • jackhanson1 on 04 Nov 16
     
    This article relates to my topic of promoting intercultural dialogue and inclusion because this article deals with the absence of communication and dialogue between the government of Nicaragua and the indigenous groups of Nicaragua. This article talks about a proposed plan to build a canal across the largest lake in Nicaragua, Lago Nicaragua. Without consulting the indigenous groups living around the lake, the government went ahead and approved the construction of the canal. Thousands of indigenous homes will be wiped out due to the construction of the canal. These indigenous groups have petitioned the government to come up with a different plan for constructing the canal, but the government refused to grant their requests. As a result, many indigenous villages will be wiped out and many people will have to relocate and start again.
oliviaodon

What is ICT (information and communications technology - or technologies)? - Definition... - 0 views

searchcio.techtarget.com/...ons-technology-or-technologies

ICT rolesofIT wctafcp201510B wctaflatclassroomproject politics latin america economy foreign policy diplomacy nicaragua

shared by oliviaodon on 23 Oct 16 - No Cached
  • ICT (information and communications technology - or technologies) is an umbrella term that includes any communication device or application, encompassing: radio, television, cellular phones, computer and network hardware and software, satellite systems and so on, as well as the various services and applications associated with them
  • ability to create greater access to information and communication in underserved populations.
  • a means of bridging the digital divide.
Javier E

History Of The Caribbean Community - 0 views

www.caricom.org/...caricom_history.jsp

caribbean history integration political economic

shared by Javier E on 05 Jul 14 - No Cached
  • Javier E on 05 Jul 14
     
    " A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE CARIBBEAN COMMUNITY (CARICOM)"
oliviaodon

Recommendations To Enhance Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Aspects of U... - 0 views

www.state.gov/...179203.htm

technologies communications information international disaster response

shared by oliviaodon on 23 Oct 16 - No Cached
  • While ICTs are an essential component in ensuring information flows during a disaster, it is often the case that ICTs are not considered by countries and organizations to be a ‘critical infrastructure’ in the context of international disaster preparedness plans and frameworks. Because of this, adequate priority is not often given by countries to the development and pre-planning of ICT resources in advance of a disaster, nor the restoration of ICT systems and networks following a disaster.
  • agencies responsible for international disaster and humanitarian response should formally recognize telecommunications / ICTs as a critical infrastructure for international disaster preparedness, response and recovery planning, and should encourage such recognition by other governments, NGOs and international organizations involved in disaster relief and recovery.
  • Nearly all recent major global disasters have shown the importance of first responders being able to communicate among each other and provide information to affected populations. Moreover, communications systems enable citizens to search for and confirm the status of their loved ones, and to offer up both resources and information about survivors and damage using channels such as SMS and social media, and broadcast technology.
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  • Part of recognizing ICTs as a critical infrastructure is to ensure their advance incorporation into a country’s disaster management framework or plan, including pre-positioning of ICT resources and identification of personnel that may be required to use or restore those resources.
  • oliviaodon on 23 Oct 16
     
    This passage discusses how ICTs can be used by countries for disaster preparedness.
jackhanson1

Nicaragua Dispute Over Indigenous Land Erupts in Wave of Killings - The New York Times - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...rupts-in-wave-of-killings.html

shared by jackhanson1 on 18 Oct 16 - No Cached
  • ve of Killings
  • Nicaragua Dispute Over Indigenous Land Erupts in Wa
  • Thousands of Nicaraguans have moved into the lush tropical rain forests that are home to the country’s nearly 180,000 indigenous Miskito people. The newcomers — called “colonists” by the Miskito — have been lured by the promise of gold and the abundance of lucrative timber. Some of the settlers have also been forced from their lands by drought. Advertisement Continue reading the main story “It’s our territory,” said Isidro Charles, a Miskito farmer who had accompanied one of the decapitated men to the village’s communal lands when men with AK-47s snatched him.
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  • Indigenous communities all over Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast say they are under attack by settlers who have taken over their ancestral lands.
  • “They are trying to get us out of here,” said Vina Ernesto Efrain, 44, who saw her nephew gunned down the day a group of heavily armed men showed up in her village. “I haven’t been to my farm since, which means they took it from me.”
  • One indigenous village was burned to the ground. At least 600 indigenous people have fled to neighboring Honduras, where they live in dirt and squalor, advocates say. The killings of at least 30 Miskitos have been documented; the settlers say at least 80 farmers have also been killed, but have been unable to provide a list of names.During a recent visit to Francia Sirpi, a remote community several hours’ drive from the coast, more than a dozen indigenous men showed off gunshot wounds they had received from attacks while fishing or hunting. One teenager lost a leg. In December, three communities were attacked in a single day, with two men killed. Three others were kidnapped that day and have not been seen since.
  • The bad blood goes back ages. The Miskitos, unlike other Indian peoples in the Americas, were never conquered by the Spanish. For a long while, the region was a British protectorate. Even now, the Miskitos call the descendants of people who came from Spain hundreds of years ago to colonize the Americas “Spaniards.”
  • But in practicality, people on both sides of the dispute say the government has allowed the settling and the violence to continue unabated, partly because several of the indigenous leaders implicated in the illegal land sales are Sandinista government officials.
  • The government formed a special commission under the prosecutor general’s office to tackle the issue. The prosecutor general, Hernán Estrada, referred questions about the matter to the Foreign Ministry, which did not respond to requests for comment. The National Police also did not respond.
  • Ms. Cunningham said the tension between Miskitos and the Sandinistas dates back to the early 1980s, when the Sandinistas, fresh from their revolutionary victory, ran the Miskitos out of their homes and burned down villages in a mass displacement.
  • ericpincus_10 on 18 Oct 16
     
    This article is about violent interactions between indigenous people.
  • jackhanson1 on 04 Nov 16
     
    This article relates to my topic of intercultural dialogue and inclusion because this article talks about a dispute between one indigenous group, the Miskito, and outside settlers. These settlers have been trying to take over the Miskito's land, searching for valuable gold. However, the Miskito indians have been unwilling to let these settlers settle amongst them, and the two sides have become increasingly hostile toward one another. The conflict has gone on for quite some time, and many people have called upon the government to step in and ease the situation. The government has set up a task force to help solve the issue, but the task force has not been implemented at all.
rachelramirez

How an Indigenous Group Is Battling Construction of the Nicaragua Canal | Science | Smi... - 0 views

www.smithsonianmag.com/...tion-nicaragua-canal-180956418

indigenous nicaragua canal diplomacy

shared by rachelramirez on 04 Jul 16 - No Cached
  • live on Rama Cay, a 22-hectare island that rises from the water like a set of oversized goggles about a kilometer and a half off Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast. The island is home to roughly half of the Rama’s 2,000 or so community members;
  • Unlike most Rama, Becky McCray has a college degree
  • The Rama’s territory, along Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast, stretches roughly from the Costa Rican border north to just south of Bluefields. Their territory is shared with the Kriols, descendants of Africans who adopted the Rama way of life centuries ago.
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  • The Rama-Kriols hold a communal title not only to the nine settlements where community members live, but also to the 4,843-square-kilometer territory where they fish, hunt, and farm. If current construction plans for the canal go ahead, that territory will be severed in two.
  • The massive Nicaragua Canal planned by a secretive Chinese billionaire, Wang Jing, and managed by his company, the Hong Kong Nicaragua Development Group (HKND), will stretch from the Pacific coast, across Lake Nicaragua, to the Caribbean coast and is destined to wipe at least one Rama village off the map
  • . The Rama’s fishing grounds will no longer be safe in the path of 400-meter-long megaships approaching the canal.
  • Aside from the Rama, whose territory will likely be the most impacted, at least four other indigenous groups will face disruption if the canal proceeds. Nicaraguan law explicitly bars indigenous land from being bought or sold; that means the land will be rented, not expropriated, says Kautz. Yet, critics say that because this is not expressly stated in the concession law, the land is vulnerable to seizure.
  • The following day, McCray and her companions watched in dismay as the law was adopted. “We didn’t get a chance to say anything,” McCray remembers. “They didn’t respect us, they didn’t give us a chance to defend what we were claiming.”
  • According to both international and Nicaraguan law, indigenous people must give their “free, informed, and prior consent” to any project that will affect the community’s territory or way of life.
  • According to Manuel Coronel Kautz, the president of Nicaragua’s Canal Authority, the National Assembly had documents from the Rama-Kriol government giving permission for the canal to be constructed prior to the vote that granted the concession
  • McCray was nervous as she read her remarks in Spanish. She cited three articles in the concession law that explicitly give the Canal Commission the right to expropriate indigenous land, and then she accused the government of violating international norms in the way it conducted community consultations, perhaps most blatantly by paying villagers—many of whom are illiterate—to come to the meetings. (Those villagers, Acosta claims, were then pressured into signing documents that they could not understand.)
  • Acosta filed a legal challenge to the canal concession law on July 1, 2013, just weeks after it was approved. Like the 31 other legal challenges to the law—based on environmental factors, human rights, and national sovereignty—the Rama’s legal case was dismissed. The Supreme Court said the lawsuits were invalid because the law passed the National Assembly with a wide majority and because the major development project took precedence.
  • Acosta worries that the Rama will lose their territory—displaced by golf courses and beach resorts—even if the Nicaragua Canal is never built.
  • The case at the IACHR is probably the Rama’s best chance for meaningful international intervention, but it remains to be seen whether or not this glimmer of hope is enough to protect their territory and keep their culture alive.
  • rachelramirez on 04 Jul 16
     
    Nicaragua seems to be blatantly attempting to pull the wool over the eyes of the indigenous people, but not expecting to get caught. From what I have previously read Nicaragua wants to be a player on the world stage, but they cannot achieve this status if they are not treating their people humanely. Although the government did get the indigenous group the Rama to sign documents that allowed the canal to be built on their land, government representatives knowingly had illiterate members of the Rama sign these official land documents. The indigenous people of Nicaragua deserve to be better informed about the canal, and the government owe the people understanding.
Cecilia Ergueta

The Digital Divide: Closing the Gap between Access and Innovation in Latin America - COHA - 0 views

www.coha.org/nd-innovation-in-latin-america

digital divide nicaragua ICTs

shared by Cecilia Ergueta on 17 Nov 16 - No Cached
  • With sustained growth blessing the region, Latin America found itself with an expansive business sector and a demanding public sector, all looking to technology for answers to big social issue
  • Most Latin American nations could be described as straddling the gap of the digital divide in a sustained balancing act.
  • “digital divide” has become shorthand for any gap between individuals, households, businesses and geographic areas with regards to both their opportunities and access to Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs
  • ...14 more annotations...
  • the digital divide in Latin America, even in an international context, always has been about more than just access to the Internet, or a computer.
  • a big majority of poorer areas within countries—the periphery of the periphery—continue to live in the dark, some with the equipment (machinery) but not the tools (knowledge) to promote  the same socioeconomic empowerment of their richer counterparts
  • a majority of the targeted populations have not become integrated like their more affluent neighbors
  • a problem of knowledge and sustainable innovation
  • over the last 10 years, the digital divide has been shrinking in terms of accessibility based on the numbers of fixed phone lines, mobile subscribers, and Internet users around the world.
  • Few reports can be found focusing on specific countries within the region, leading most international analysts to base their generalizations based on the experience on similar groups of countries
  • Unprecedented economic growth now gives Latin America the opportunity to address some of its most pressing need
  • opportunities in Latin America for sales growth are considered massive, especially for equipment manufacturers and as well as for telecom services providers
  • government-sponsored programs focus mostly on expanding access
  • computer ownership continues to rise with unprecedented speed, even if Internet access proliferation follows at much reduced speed.
  • policy initiatives have remained access-obsessed without evolving to tackle some of the effects of persistent inequality characteristic of the region
  • Dr. Sanabria successfully managed to implement ICTs to give medical advice to remote, marginalized communities
  • an understanding of how technology penetration works can, with some innovation, breed sustainable and meaningful development
  • the work of Fundación Proyecto Maniapure and other organizations like it are having a more lasting impact in alleviating poverty, health deficits, and inequality, than perhaps some nationally sponsored projects that are bringing more technology to communities, but are not quite putting it to its full possible use.
luckangeloja

Antigua behind the brochures: gangsters' paradise? | The Independent - 0 views

www.independent.co.uk/...gangsters-paradise-883268.html

Drugs Antigua and Barbuda Police Enforcement Crossroads Prices

shared by luckangeloja on 19 Oct 16 - No Cached
  • Gun crime and gang violence are on a sharp rise among Antigua's young, linked to a global trade in guns and marijuana, crack and other cocaine, a traffic that has put the island and its neighbours at a vital crossroads between the narcotics producers of South America and the eager consumers of the US and Europe. These drugs seep into the population, payment in kind for dealers, or simply an impossible lure at prices that are a fraction of the street prices in the developed world, sometimes as low as US$1 (50p) for a rock of crack cocaine.
  • Eric Clapton, the guitarist, was so shocked by the effects that crack and other drugs were having on the population that he set up the Crossroads rehab centre in Antigua in 1998.
  • Kim Martin, the admissions director at Crossroads, says: "Crack cocaine is the number-one substance of abuse for our Antiguan clients, followed by alcohol. It was the influx of crack that caused members of the community to approach Clapton in the first place and it is still very visible, particularly in some parts of the island, which is leading to crime."
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  • Only a few blocks up the hill and the shops and banks give way to more dishevelled buildings, run-down stores selling only a handful of items, homes with crumbling front steps. There is no shortage of opportunity to find drugs, as twenty-something men make their friendly approach to tourists.
  • Antigua's police appear hopelessly out of their depth. The police station on the high street in St John's is crumbling. The new commissioner, brought in from Canada with other former Mounties, has put his energies into solving the lack of funds and infrastructure within the organisation.
  • luckangeloja on 19 Oct 16
     
    This article was actually based off an incident that a couple had while they were staying in Antigua for vacation. Although their incident had nothing to do with drugs, the article eventually shifted to this topic. It discussed how the cheap cost of drugs is a huge reason for the overuse of them. Members from the rehab center "Crossroads" discussed how drugs have really been seeping through the community. The police are also struggling to control the outburst of drugs.
malonema1

Nicaragua's great divide - Al Jazeera English - 0 views

www.aljazeera.com/...at-divide-161018075338310.html

Nicaragua

shared by malonema1 on 26 Oct 16 - No Cached
  • malonema1 on 26 Oct 16
     
    This article includes information about conflicts occurring in Nicaragua about a canal that may be created that will connect the pacific and atlantic ocean. The article talks about how this will have drastic effects on the small local communities that need Nicaragua's unique environment to survive.
tristanpantano

With A Soft Approach On Gangs, Nicaragua Eschews Violence : Parallels : NPR - 0 views

www.npr.org/...ngs-nicaragua-eschews-violence

nicaragua politics gangs approach violence latin america history

shared by tristanpantano on 02 Nov 16 - No Cached
  • As the sun sinks just below the horizon, Jorge Sandoval strolls across a dusty street. He's a small man in his 50s, who runs volunteer patrols. The neighborhood is poor. The houses are cobbled together out of leftover wood and pieces of metal. Two years ago, Sandoval says, these streets used to be desolate and controlled by gangs. Parallels Nicaragua Follows Its Own Path In Dealing With Drug Traffickers "They would shoot at each other at all hours," Sandoval says. "Suddenly you'd find someone injured, someone innocent, because they just didn't care."
  • The Dimitrov neighborhood in the capital of Nicaragua used to be one of the most dangerous in the country.
  • It was so dangerous that its 10 or so square blocks accounted for 20 percent of all the crime of Managua, a city of 1.2 million people.
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • children, running out of their homes to play in the streets.
  • This kind of tranquility is not something you'd see in the capital cities of El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala or Belize, because over the past decade, Central America has been engulfed by bloodshed, becoming one of the most dangerous regions in the world.
  • Nicaragua, the poorest of the bunch and with just as bloody a history, is one of the safest countries in the hemisphere.
  • While Nicaragua's neighbors have embraced so-called "mano dura" or iron fist policies, Nicaragua has taken a softer approach.
  • The Nicaraguan police, for example, pacified the Dimitrov neighborhood by having the community patrol itself and by having police officers mediate talks between gang members often after soccer games.
  • El Salvador and Honduras legislated "mano dura" policies against youth crimes. Guatemala and Belize followed suit but in a more ad-hoc manner.
  • right now Nicaragua has just 70 juveniles in jail.
  • It's a system that was developed in the '70s, when Nicaraguans were preparing for war against the dictatorship
  • Some were instructed to develop emergency treatment centers at their homes, while others were given small, but important tasks like collecting water.
  • Cuadra and other human rights groups have expressed concern that the police and even the community volunteers have begun to take on those security roles again.
  • tristanpantano on 02 Nov 16
     
    This article is valuable because it gives many other strategies that Central American countries use against crime. It also shows that Nicaragua, while doing a great job, isn't as tough as they could be in criminals. 
jackhanson1

Nicaragua's Indigenous Peoples Protect their Forests Even Without Government Support | ... - 0 views

www.wri.org/...ven-without-government-support

shared by jackhanson1 on 04 Nov 16 - No Cached
  • Nicaragua’s Indigenous Peoples Protect their Forests Even Without Government Support
  • Nicaragua is the second-poorest economy in Latin America after Haiti, and has already lost much of its forest cover to agricultural development. About 21 percent of the country’s forests disappeared between 1990 and 2005.
  • Established in 1991, the Bosawas Biosphere Reserve in Nicaragua in north-central Nicaragua, together with the Rio Platano Reserve in Honduras and adjacent protected areas, is one of the largest areas of protected tropical forest in Central America. The core area and buffer zone of Bosawas covers 854,000 hectares, or about 7 percent of Nicaragua.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • Large parts of the reserve and remaining tropical forests are inhabited by indigenous groups like the Mayangna (Sumo) and Miskito Indians. These indigenous peoples subsist on the reserve’s natural resources, employing sustainable practices to conserve ecosystems. Farming is based on shifting agriculture, with the land cropped for a year and then allowed to revert to forest. Few families have cattle, although they do keep other animals such as pigs.
  • The Mayangna and Miskitu attempted to get the government to legally recognize their lands in the 1990s. After this attempt failed, thousands of colonists encroached on the communities’ forests—encroachments that continue to this day. Colonists’ livelihood strategy is very different from the indigenous Indians. They typically keep more cattle, removing forest cover to develop as much pasture as possible. They then sell the “improved” land to the next wave of colonists before moving deeper into the forest.
  • Indigenous Peoples Are Good Protectors of Forest
  • A comparison of forest cover loss within and outside of the Mayangna’s recognized territories reveals that their commitment to protect forests has been effective. Deforestation rates are 14 times higher in settler-occupied lands adjacent to the Mayangna territories. The story is not over, of course. Colonists continue to settle in community forests to this day, and government agencies continue to look the other way. But with legal recognition, Indigenous Peoples have more ownership over the forests they call home. By defending their homeland and legally establishing customary ownership of their forests, Nicaragua’s Indigenous Peoples can provide a strong bulwark against deforestation and climate change.
  • jackhanson1 on 04 Nov 16
     
    This article relates to my topic about intercultural inclusion and dialogue because this article addresses the issue of Nicaragua's forest land. There have been many different indigenous groups who have attempted to petition the government to let them take control over the forests of Nicaragua. The government has been very unwilling to negotiate with these indigenous groups.
Javier E

N.S.A. Said to Have Spied on Leaders of Brazil and Mexico - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...ap-lt-brazil-nsa-leaders.html

nsa brazil mexico spying latin america foreign policy

shared by Javier E on 02 Sep 13 - No Cached
  • a document dated June 2012 shows that Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto's emails were being read. The document's date is a month before Pena Nieto was elected. The document on which Greenwald based the report includes communications from Pena Nieto indicating who he would like to name to some government posts among other information.
  • As for Brazil's leader, the June 2012 document "doesn't include any of Dilma's specific intercepted messages, the way it does for Nieto," Greenwald told The Associated Press in an email. "But it is clear in several ways that her communications were intercepted, including the use of DNI Presenter, which is a program used by NSA to open and read emails and online chats."
  • In July, Greenwald co-wrote articles in O Globo that said documents leaked by Snowden indicate Brazil was the largest target in Latin America for the NSA program, which collected data on billions of emails and calls flowing through Brazil.
Javier E

Are We Abetting Central American Gangs? Ctd « The Dish - 0 views

dish.andrewsullivan.com/...ing-central-american-gangs-ctd

central america gangs guns US relations

shared by Javier E on 23 Jul 14 - No Cached
  • Alec MacGillis shines a light on US gun trafficking to Central America, making the argument that our loose gun regulations are contributing to these countries’ gang violence problem:
  • Of the $3.7 billion requested by the administration for dealing with the child migrant crisis, a very small percentage of it, about $295 million, goes to addressing root causes of the violence
  • There’s been a focus in the US and elsewhere in the region on capturing drug kingpins, but I think a lot of people who have looked at this, given the weakness of institutions, including police and law enforcement, including the judiciary, have said that a better approach is to try to reduce the violence connected with local illegal markets, and focus on providing citizen security to the general population. You can’t abandon the attempt to capture major traffickers, but you cannot do that without providing for safer communities and creating greater resilience at the individual and the community level.
Javier E

Brazil's Balancing Act - 0 views

www.foreignpolicy.com/...brazils_balancing_act

trade pact latin america brazil US relations economy diplomacy debate

shared by Javier E on 23 May 14 - No Cached
  • A recent issue of the bimonthly Estudos Avançados, a journal associated with the University of São Paulo, sheds light upon the assumptions Brazil brings to the FTAA negotiating table and highlights the lively debate among Brazil's business community, government, and civil society over the merits of the regional trade pact.
  • the Catholic Church and organized labor groups in Brazil have been the most vocal in their opposition to the agreement; they cite loss of sovereignty and fear that Latin American countries will become subordinate to the interests of the United States. Moreover, some industries in Brazil -- such as the chemicals, electronics, and capital-goods sectors -- also worry that the FTAA could be a losing proposition.
  • most of the Brazilian business community prefers to forge ahead with the agreement rather than risk losing out on increased commerce in the Americas. Oliveira warns that if Brazil backs out of the negotiations, the United States will simply negotiate bilateral treaties throughout the region, which could pare Brazilian exports and divert foreign investment to other markets. While the far-left wing of the Lula government continues to fight the treaty, Oliveira believes that Lula and the moderates in his party understand that Brazil would pay a high price for isolation.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • a contrasting perspective, arguing that Brazil has much more to lose through the FTAA than it has to gain, and that the United States would be the treaty's primary beneficiary. In particular, Nogueira believes that Brazilian industries are unprepared to take on North American producers. High domestic interest rates, poor infrastructure, and excessive taxation leave Brazil's businesses at a disadvantage
krystalxu

'But what about the railways ...?' ​​The myth of Britain's gifts to India | W... - 0 views

www.theguardian.com/...in-empire-railways-myths-gifts

history politics diplomacy economy British India

shared by krystalxu on 10 Oct 17 - No Cached
  • the British took what they could for 200 years, but didn’t they also leave behind a great deal of lasting benefit?
  • Indeed, the British like to point out that the very idea of “India” as one entity (now three, but one during the British Raj), instead of multiple warring principalities and statelets, is the incontestable contribution of British imperial rule.
  • The idea of India is as old as the Vedas, the earliest Hindu scriptures, which describe “Bharatvarsha” as the land between the Himalayas and the seas.
  • ...26 more annotations...
  • Indian Muslims, whether Pathans from the north-west or Tamils from the south, were all seen by Arabs as “Hindis”
  • there is little doubt that some Indian ruler, emulating his forerunners, would have done so.
  • the dismantling of existing political institutions, the fomenting of communal division and systematic political discrimination with a view to maintaining British domination.
  • Later, in 1857, the sight of Hindu and Muslim soldiers rebelling together,
  • As early as 1859, the then British governor of Bombay, Lord Elphinstone, advised London that “Divide et impera was the old Roman maxim, and it should be ours”.
  • The effort to understand ethnic, religious, sectarian and caste differences among Britain’s subjects inevitably became an exercise in defining, dividing and perpetuating these differences.
  • As late as 1920, under the Montagu-Chelmsford “reforms”, Indian representatives on the councils – elected by a franchise so restricted and selective that only one in 250 Indians had the right to vote
  • many other kinds of social strife were labelled as religious due to the colonists’ orientalist assumption that religion was the fundamental division in Indian society.
  • the creation and perpetuation of Hindu–Muslim antagonism was the most significant accomplishment of British imperial policy
  • The British ran government, tax collection, and administered what passed for justice.
  • Indians were excluded from all of these functions.
  • entire new communities were created by people who had not consciously thought of themselves as particularly different from others around them.
  • Democracy, in other words, had to be prised from the reluctant grasp of the British by Indian nationalists.
  • British law had to be imposed upon an older and more complex civilisation with its own legal culture
  • only three cases can be found of Englishmen executed for murdering Indians, while the murders of thousands more at British hands went unpunished.
  • In his notorious 1835 Minute on Education, Lord Macaulay articulated the classic reason for teaching English, but only to a small minority of Indians
  • The language was taught to a few to serve as intermediaries between the rulers and the ruled
  • But the facts are even more damning.
  • the third-class compartments, with their wooden benches and total absence of amenities, into which Indians were herded, attracted horrified comment even at the time
  • their Indian mechanics became so adept that in 1878 they started designing and building their own locomotives.
  • today rely extensively on Indian technical expertise, provided to them by Rites, a subsidiary of the Indian Railways.
  • The process of colonial rule in India meant economic exploitation and ruin to millions, the destruction of thriving industries, the systematic denial of opportunities to compete, the elimination of indigenous institutions of governance, the transformation of lifestyles and patterns of living that had flourished since time immemorial, and the obliteration of the most precious possessions of the colonised, their identities and their self-respect.
  • In the 17th and 18th centuries, British shopkeepers tried to pass off shoddy English-made textiles as Indian in order to charge higher prices for them.
  • there is no earthly reason why this could not again have been the case, if its resources had not been drained away by the British.
  • Today Indians cannot live without the railways;
  • As I’ve often argued, you don’t need to seek revenge upon history. History is its own revenge.
nick_gauthier

Human Rights Opportunities in Nicaragua - 0 views

www.fsdinternational.org/...hropps

human rights Nicaragua

shared by nick_gauthier on 25 Oct 16 - No Cached
  • combines the efforts of community-based organizations, volunteers, interns, and donors to
  • Educate women on basic human rights and how to assert these rights
  • Support the rights of children against mistreatment, abandonment, molestation, abuse, drug dependence, and child labor through various education programs
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • Provide legal and psychological support for victims
  • Support the lobby of government and legislative authorities about issues and solutions regarding violence against women.
  • nick_gauthier on 25 Oct 16
     
    FSD (foundation for sustainable development) is a non-profit that addresses human rights issues throughout Nicaragua. The issues it endeavors to address are educating women on basic human rights, supporting the rights of children against mistreatment, and supporting the lobby of government and legislative authorities about issues and solutions regarding violence against women.
nick_gauthier

Nicaragua 2015/2016 | Amnesty International - 0 views

www.amnesty.org/...report-nicaragua

Nicaragua

shared by nick_gauthier on 25 Oct 16 - No Cached
  • Sandinista National Liberation Front party continued to excercise significant control over all branches of government
  • Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) ordered Nicaragua to provide protection measures to the Miskito people, after the ongoing conflict between the Indigenous community and colonos (settlers) attempting to take over the community's ancestral land escalated in September
  • Government officials and supporters sought to repress and stigmatize the work of civil society organizations and media outlets that had been critical of the ruling party
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • In a hearing in October before the IACHR, Nicaraguan and regional human rights organizations discussed their concerns about human rights abuses against women and g
  • However, the NGOs expressed concern about reforms passed in 2013 that weakened the Comprehensive Law against Violence against Women (Law 779),
  • by offering women mediation with their abusive partners in some cases of domestic violence.
  • nick_gauthier on 25 Oct 16
     
    The Nicaraguan government stigmatized the local groups and the NGOs that advocate human rights. National Liberation Front party continued the exercise significant control over all branches of government.
horowitzza

Silent War in Nicaragua: The New Politics of Violence | NACLA - 0 views

nacla.org/...icaragua-new-politics-violence

war nicaragua politics violence diplomacy

shared by horowitzza on 02 Nov 16 - No Cached
  • At 2:30 p.m. on June 15, 2000—more than ten years after the U.S.-sponsored Contra war officially ended in Nicaragua—a guerrilla unit of rearmed ex-Sandinistas and ex-Contras surrounded the small campesino home of Guadalupe Montenegro in the rural municipality of Siuna
  • Without saying a word, the men opened fire indiscriminately, killing Montenegro and all ten members of his family before burning the corpses and torching the house.
  • Perhaps nowhere else in Central America are the problems of demobilized soldiers, weapons left over from the Cold War and poverty more obvious than in the rural area of north-central Nicaragua—a region where the war that began in the 1980s has still not ended.
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • "the Colombianization of the country,"
  • various residual groups of ex-combatants, some of whom are known by the government to be involved with international weapons and drug smuggling cartels, have started to take control of parts of the socially and economically isolated Caribbean region of Nicaragua.
  • Initially dismissed by the government as "hotheads," "groups of delinquents" or "dogs of war" left over from the 1980s, the rebel groups appear to be anything but a rag-tag army.
  • According to testimonies from local sources, the rearmados are well-armed, expertly trained, equipped with modern methods of communication
  • In response to increased rebel activity in a gold and silver mining area called the "Mining Triangle" (Siuna, Bonanza and La Rosita), the Nicaraguan Army declared a military offensive
  • The legacy of war and violence in Nicaragua is both heart-breaking and angering. In the recent history of the country, violence has always been answered with more violence.
  • During the U.S.-backed Somoza dynasty the state-sponsored repression of the poor by the National Guard was answered by the violence of the Sandinista Revolution, the triumph of which led to the violence of an eight-year-long, U.S.-funded war
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