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Christopher Wallace

Environmental Diplomacy - 0 views

www.unep.org/...Default.aspx

environmental diplomacy economy politics

shared by Christopher Wallace on 18 Oct 16 - No Cached
  • As we look to the future, population growth, economic development, and technological change are likely to increase the demand for natural resources, while environmental degradation and previous exploitation of these resources will decrease the supply. Furthermore, climate change will act as a threat multiplier, exacerbating current vulnerabilities and adding to levels of uncertainty. These trends enhance the potential for natural resources to contribute to conflict in the future and highlight the growing importance of environmental diplomacy as an integrated part of conflict prevention, mediation and peacebuilding.
  • Christopher Wallace on 18 Oct 16
     
    The UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme) has described the future of environmental diplomacy needs to be ready to deal with population growth, economic development, and technological change, which tends to increase exploitation of resources and increase the demand of natural resources. This deals with countries like Antigua and Barbuda, which have similar situations, dealing with environmental diplomacy.
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.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • 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.
rachelramirez

New Access to a Nicaraguan Island - The New York Times - 0 views

intransit.blogs.nytimes.com/...-access-to-a-nicaraguan-island

nicaragua island economy

shared by rachelramirez on 04 Jul 16 - No Cached
  • Search New Access to a Nicaraguan Island
  • The government of Nicaragua is betting that a new $10 million airport will boost tourism on Ometepe Island, a Unesco Biosphere Reserve known for its towering twin volcanoes.
  • But the ship bypassed Ometepe, and Twain never set foot on the island. Fifty years later, the Panama Canal opened, making the old shortcut through the lake to get from the Pacific to the Caribbean Sea obsolete.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • The airport, essentially a 1,500-meter airstrip with a small customs building, was due to open more than a year ago, and hopes that other regional airlines like Taca and Nature Air would offer service to the island haven’t materialized.
  • rachelramirez on 04 Jul 16
     
    Although this island may be insignificant in the grand scheme of things, the Nicaraguan government seems desperate to cash in on anything the country's natural resources has to offer. The idea seems like a good small one, but would not be useful for giving the economy much 'kick'. Nicaragua has a lot to offer in terms of natural resources, but it is in my opinion that they should not overuse the land.
Javier E

How Brazil's China-Driven Commodities Boom Went Bust - WSJ - 0 views

www.wsj.com/...ties-boom-went-bust-1440728049

brazil latin america economy

shared by Javier E on 28 Aug 15 - No Cached
  • If the biggest economic story this century was China’s rise, Brazil was uniquely poised to benefit from it. Rich in iron ore, soybeans and beef, not to mention oil, Brazil was positioned as a supplier of many things China needed. Its annual trade with China, only around $2 billion in 2000, soared to $83 billion in 2013. China supplanted the U.S. as Brazil’s largest trading partner.
  • Brazil fell under what some economists call the “resource curse,” a theory describing how countries with abundant natural resources sometimes do worse than countries without them. The idea is that the money from commodity sales can lead to overvalued currencies and shortsighted policy-making, leaving such countries badly exposed when the resource boom finally ends.
  • “Unfortunately, the history is that commodity-dependent economies do not catch up with the U.S.,” said Ruchir Sharma, head of emerging markets at Morgan Stanley Investment Management. “Not just oil producers. More countries end up being poorer, compared with the U.S., after they find a commodity than catch up.” Using data going back to 1800, he said commodity-dependent economies typically grow for a decade, then spend as long as two decades wallowing or slipping back.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • Buoyed by China trade, nationalist-minded politicians launched a foreign policy meant to reduce the role of the U.S. in Latin America. Brazil blocked a U.S. free-trade initiative for the Americas. They teamed with Venezuela to create a regional security council to supplant one that included the U.S. The foreign minister worked from an office with a huge map of the world upside down, offering the message that the era of emerging markets was at hand. But the world wasn’t upside down. While Brazil tied itself more closely to anti-American governments like Venezuela, Argentina and Iran, some regional neighbors—Chile, Colombia and Peru—went around Brazil and cut individual free-trade deals with the U.S.
  • Anticipating commodity sales, the government spent increasingly heavily. Government banks supplied Brazilians with easy credit. Brazil subsidized energy bills, issued cheap loans to big companies with government ties and built stadiums to host global events such as the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics.
  • Meantime, Brazil produced far less oil than predicted. Production actually shrank in some years, as Petróleo Brasileiro SA, PBR 12.80 % known as Petrobras, struggled with the enormous task of developing oil fields in extremely deep water.
  • Commodities’ support of the economy allowed Brazilian leaders to put off addressing certain problems that had long bedeviled the nation, such as a political system that tended to breed corruption and a bureaucracy that stymied business innovation. “Brazil became complacent because of the intoxicating effects of China trade,”
oliviaodon

Environmental Heatlh in Nicaragua: Addressing Key Environmental Challenges - 0 views

www.worldbank.org/...salud-ambiental-nicaragua

nicaragua sustainability environmental

shared by oliviaodon on 23 Oct 16 - No Cached
  • Environmental health risks impose a significant burden on Nicaragua’s economy, amounting to 2.6 billion NIO or 2.4% of the country’s GDP.
  • The Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region has a unique mix of qualities and challenges when it comes to the environment. It is exceptionally endowed with natural assets, with globally significant biodiversity and valuable crops, and also harbors the world’s greatest carbon sink in the Amazon.
  • At the same time, however, the region registers the highest rates of urbanization in the developing world with pollution, overuse of its water and natural resources and detrimental impacts on the health of people, especially the poor, and the environment.
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  • The purpose of the series is to contribute to the global knowledge exchange on innovation in environmental and water resources management and the pursuit of greener and more inclusive growth.
malonema1

Nicaragua facts, information, pictures | Encyclopedia.com articles about Nicaragua - 0 views

www.encyclopedia.com/...nicaragua

nicaragua environment facts

shared by malonema1 on 02 Nov 16 - No Cached
  • The nation lost an average of 3% of its forest and woodland each year between 1990 and 2000
  • As of 2002, 93% of Nicaragua's city dwellers and 65% of its rural population have access to improved water sources
  • Dumping of sewage and chemical wastes has made Lake Managua unsuitable for swimming, fishing, or drinking. Primary responsibility for resource conservation is vested in the Nicaraguan Institute of Natural Resources and Environment (Instituto Nicaragüense de Recursos Naturales y del Ambiente—IRENA), established in October 1979
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  • Nicaragua's economy is predominantly agricultural. Arable land amounted to 2,161,000 hectares (5,340,000 acres), or about 17.8% of the total land area
  • malonema1 on 02 Nov 16
     
    This is a website that has facts about various topics in Nicaragua. The ones I highlighted focus mainly on the Environment and Agriculture
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.
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.
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  • 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

Brazil, Fortune and Fate Turn on Billionaire - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...-fate-turn-on-billionaire.html

brazil economy rich crisis

shared by Javier E on 24 Jun 13 - No Cached
  • After years of economic expansion, the South American nation has begun to sputter. Inflation has become a major concern. Brazil’s stock market index has declined about 23 percent this year, the most of any large country. This month, Standard & Poor’s cut its outlook on Brazil’s credit rating to negative, citing slowing growth and weakening finances.
  • Mr. Batista’s conglomerate, as an emblem of the nation’s industrial mettle, ranked among the government priorities now being questioned, receiving more than $4 billion in loans and investments from the national development bank.
  • authorities channeled huge resources of the state to projects controlled by tycoons.
oliviaodon

PLOS Medicine: Integration of Information Technologies in Clinical Studies in Nicaragua - 1 views

journals.plos.org/...article

latin america ICT medicine integration technologies

shared by oliviaodon on 23 Oct 16 - No Cached
  • PDCS follows 3,800 children aged two to twelve with the aim of characterizing the natural history of dengue transmission, obtaining biological samples for vaccine safety research, and establishing appropriate infrastructure for future dengue vaccine trials.
  • PDCS operations are based in a Health Center where cohort children receive all primary care and are screened for dengue.
  • frequent interruptions in electrical, phone, and Internet service, high temperatures and humidity, and the absence of street names and house addresses were obvious obstacles to be overcome.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • To overcome these challenges, we implemented a series of low-cost yet cutting-edge ICTs.
  • we found that the use of these technologies greatly streamlines information flow and accessibility, improves the quality of data and QC procedures, and reduces operational costs. As a result, we have witnessed the tremendous potential for using ICTs to bolster the public health infrastructure in resource-limited developing country settings
  • oliviaodon on 23 Oct 16
     
    This article emphasized the use of ICTs in healthcare to overcome common obstacles in developing countries.
malonema1

Environmental Sustainability Issues in Nicaragua - 0 views

www.fsdinternational.org/...envissues

nicaragua environment

shared by malonema1 on 23 Oct 16 - No Cached
  • As both the largest country in Central America and the least populated, Nicaragua has the opportunity to enforce environmental protection laws and conserve a relatively large amount of natural resources. However, a variety of forces are driving deforestation and rapidly increasing pollution.
  • Known as the "Land of Lakes and Volcanoes," and reveling in its status in Central America as the country with the most fresh water, Nicaragua has very little safe drinking water. Those who cannot afford to purchase water are extremely vulnerable to a variety of health issues.
  • Export agriculture in Central America has long been a booming business for U.S. corporations. Yet pesticides employed at fruit and cotton plantations and other export crops throughout the last 40 years contributed to health problems for entire generations.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • Around 75 percent of Nicaraguan forests have already been transformed into crop and pasture land, and at least 50 percent of that deforestation has occurred since 1950. Yet there is still hope for preservation.
  • Due to policy shifts, 85 percent of the land that formed part of the reserve on the San Cristobal-Casitas volcano now belongs to one private owner
  • overnment control of the remaining 15 percent is all but nonexistent. Landless peasants, large coffee growers, and cattle ranches are slowly settling into these public lands such as San Cristobal, and the government is failing to stop it
  • When the Chamorro government created the Bosawás Biosphere Reserve in 1991, the territory encompassed 1.8 million acres—7 percent of Nicaragua's land, including a rich section of rainforest. However, they neglected to inform the Mayangna and Miskito indigenous peoples who lived there that the land was now federally protected (and hence, off limits from their traditional uses of fishing, hunting, and crop raising)
  • malonema1 on 02 Nov 16
     
    This article talks about the land rights in Nicaragua and the lack of protection for forests.
malonema1

Environmental Sustainability Opportunities in Nicaragua - 0 views

www.fsdinternational.org/...envopps

nicaragua environment environmental sustainability opportunities

shared by malonema1 on 02 Nov 16 - No Cached
  • As both the largest country in Central America and the least populated, Nicaragua has the opportunity to enforce environmental protection laws and conserve a relatively large amount of natural resources
  • In response to a variety of environmental issues, interns, volunteers, and donors work with FSD partner organizations to:
  • malonema1 on 02 Nov 16
     
    This article helps people understand Nicaragua's problems with environmental sustainability
bennetttony

How Ortega Took the Suspense Out of Nicaragua's Presidential Election - 0 views

www.worldpoliticsreview.com/...aragua-s-presidential-election

nicaragua

shared by bennetttony on 04 Nov 16 - No Cached
  • And we can already predict with absolute certainty that Daniel Ortega will be elected president. Again.
  • Since coming to power, the former Marxist rebel’s ideology has taken an idiosyncratic twist, blending elements of capitalism, populism, new age spirituality and, above all, the tendencies of an autocrat whose paramount objective is to remain in power
  • Next week’s election will mark the seventh time he runs for president, after having ruled the country from 1979 to 1985 as head of the junta.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • The last time Ortega won, in 2011, the election results were vehemently rejected by the opposition, which declared that Ortega had become a dictator. The Carter Center said the elections lacked “the most basic guarantees for the integrity of the voting process.”
  • The decision to put her on the ticket formalizes what has already been a high-profile role for the first lady. She is the official government spokesperson, and as such the only government figure authorized to speak to the media. But her influence goes far beyond that.
  • Murillo plays a pivotal role in strengthening the Ortegas’ standing with women, which suffered enormously after he was accused in 1998 by his stepdaughter, Zoilamerica Narvaez, of sexually abusing her for many years, starting when she was a young girl.
  • Nicaraguans believe that Ortega, who is 70 years old and reportedly having health problems, is working to secure his family’s hold on power when he is ready to relinquish the rudder.
  • bennetttony on 04 Nov 16
     
    This article outlines how presidential candidate Ortega is taking advantage of the government in Nicaragua and how he plans on using it for his own benefit.
lenaurick

Antigua and Barbuda - ClimateandReefs - 0 views

climateandreefs.org/antigua-and-barbuda

politics history Caribbean

shared by lenaurick on 04 Nov 16 - No Cached
  • Antigua and Barbuda is home to 32 species of stony corals,
  • In 2006, 32 species of stony corals covered 2–19% of the reef benthos at 2-10m but cover on deep reefs was less than 3%.
  • Although only 1% of coral colonies showed signs of disease, more that 20% of shallow Montastraea colonies displayed yellow blotch disease. The 2005 bleaching event resulted in average coral cover being reduced from 16% to 7% by 2007
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • Fish consumption is high and commercial fishing accounts for 1.48% of GDP (2003) and employs over 1,000 people (2% of population). Catch includes conch, lobster and finfish and total export in 2001 was 368 metric tonnes. There are 9 export facilities in Antigua and 2 in Barbuda (2004). Fisheries Regulations, revised in 2013, limit the fishing of certain protected species like lobsters, marine turtles, conch and parrotfish. Fishing these species requires special permits for spear guns and beach seine nets that have minimum mesh sizes.
  • Famous for its 365 beaches ‘one for every day of the year’, tourism dominates the economy and accounts for over half of the nation's GDP. Tourism in Antigua and Barbuda accounted for over 70% of GDP in 2002 and was valued at $528 million. Boating tourism is particularly popular, due to the numerous sheltered bays and inlets ideally suited to fishing, snorkeling and SCUBA diving.
  • Coral reefs and their associated resources are essential to the economic sustainability and growth of Antigua and Barbuda, which is said to have the highest reef dependence in the Caribbean.
  • Key environmental threats include hurricanes and coral bleaching events. Hurricanes Hugo (1989),  Luis and Marilyn (1995) caused extensive damage to reefs in the south and southeast.
  • ll reefs are threatened by human activities and key threats include overfishing and recreational diving. 70% of reefs are threatened by coastal development and 30% by marine based pollution and sedimentation, resulting in turbid coastal waters and elevated algal cove
  • According to climate modelling, reefs in the area will experience thermal stress severe enough to cause bleaching every year after 2040. Ocean acidification is expected to cause declines in coral calcification by 2040 of approximately 10%.
  • Six Marine Parks have been established, encompassing 13% of the total reef area. These include: Diamond Reef Marine Park; Palaster Reef Marine Park (both gazetted in 1973); the Cades Bay Marine Park (gazetted in 1999); and the Codrington Lagoon and the North Sound (gazetted in 2005). However, there is little active management of these reserves
  • lenaurick on 04 Nov 16
     
    This article is about Antigua-Barbuda's Marine industry, and the decline of their coral reefs. It goes into detail about the repercussions of not protecting the oceans of Antigua-Barbuda. 
runlai_jiang

PM recommits to ending corruption in Antigua-Barbuda | Caribbean News Now - 0 views

www.caribbeannewsnow.com/-in-Antigua-Barbuda-27878.html

corruption ending

shared by runlai_jiang on 03 Nov 16 - No Cached
  • PM recommits to ending corruption in Antigua-Barbuda
  • he was president of the UN General Assembly, have “cast a pall of gloom over all of us and neighbouring Caribbean countries”, in a national broadcast on Sunday Prime Minister Gaston Browne promised to strengthen the structures and machinery of good governance in his country and put an end to all corrupt practices.
  • The implication of members of the former United Progressive Party (UPP) government, including the former prime minister, Baldwin Spencer, in bribery, money laundering and other corruption charges, has also caused us great alarm,” Browne said.
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • , Ashe “gravely misrepresented the United Progressive Party government by implying that bribe money was necessary to gain an audience with me or my colleague ministers. That was never the case during the ten years of our administration.”
  • they have encountered a residue of corrupt practices from the former UPP regime, involving the abuse of public office and organized misappropriation of state resources.
  • We intend to have the best and most transparent governance structure in the Caribbean and beyond,” Browne said.
  • Browne noted that offences may also have been committed in Antigua under the Prevention of Corruption Act, which, he said, would be independently investigated by local law enforcement agencies.
  • that is their prerogative and there will be no political witch hunt by his government or the political party that he leads.
  • runlai_jiang on 03 Nov 16
     
    PM recommits to end corruption in Antigua and Barbuda. The former government gained much bribe from China. 
Ellie McGinnis

Guatemala's president: 'My country bears the scars from the war on drugs' | World news ... - 0 views

www.theguardian.com/...tto-molina-war-drugs-guatemala

guatemala narcotics trafficking pérez molina

shared by Ellie McGinnis on 04 Aug 13 - No Cached
  • caught in the crossfire between the nations to the south (principally Peru, Colombia and Bolivia) that produce illegal narcotics and the country to the north (America)
  • Mexico and Colombia – partially funded by the US – stepped up surveillance of aircraft and airspace. Simultaneously the US began more vigorous co-operation with Mexico to stop drugs shipments by sea.
  • the concept of the "transit" nations was born – countries in Central America through which drugs were passed en route to the world's largest drugs market,
  • ...12 more annotations...
  • he declared that the war on drugs had failed and that the international community needed to end the "taboo" of debating decriminalisation
  • Pérez Molina is unequivocal about the need to search for an alternative to the current paradigm,
  • For Colombia, drugs are a matter of national security; for other countries it is mainly a health and crime issue."
  • The cartels have grown in strength, the flow of arms towards Central America from the north has grown and the deaths in our country have grown. This has forced us to search for a more appropriate response."
  • The situation in Guatemala has become more serious as Mexican cartels – taking refuge from an attempt to militarily defeat them – have inserted themselves into Guatemala and sought to control the trafficking routes through that country
  • with the cartels come other nightmares: kidnapping, extortion, contract killers and people trafficking.
  • Pérez Molina concedes: "Drug traffickers have been able to penetrate the institutions in this country by employing the resources and money they have.
  • western countries fail to understand the reality that countries such as Guatemala and those of Central America have to live in," said Pérez Molina
  • due to a lack of understanding on the part of western countries.
  • arguing explicitly for the introduction of a regulated market for drugs. Not full legalisation, but a controlled, regulated market for the production, distribution and sale of narcotics.
  • the Guatemalans have been consulting with the Beckley Foundation, probably the leading global advocate of deploying science and empirical evidence to drive the debate about the war on drugs
  • "I believe they should reflect on this, to avoid these deaths that are occurring in transit countries. We don't produce and we don't consume, but we are countries that suffer deaths and place our institutions and our democracy at risk.
Javier E

Insight-Batista's Brazilian Empire Was Sunk by More Than Hubris - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...l-batista-history-insight.html

brazil rich oil crisis economic

shared by Javier E on 30 Aug 13 - No Cached
  • things have gotten worse for Batista. Hit by mounting debt, a series of project delays and a crisis of confidence, his six publicly listed companies have suffered one of the most spectacular corporate meltdowns in recent history.
  • He pumped billions into the group's companies even as share prices plunged by as much as 90 percent.
  • His own fortune - the world's seventh-biggest last year, according to Forbes - has declined by more than $25 billion over the past 18 months.
  • ...13 more annotations...
  • His empire also fell victim to the sudden end of both the global commodities boom and a wild exuberance for emerging markets - two forces that attracted investors to Batista's vision.
  • A former Brazilian finance minister, a former energy minister and a former chief justice of Brazil's supreme court joined the OGX board, bolstering the credibility of the polyglot, European-educated "Brazilianaire".
  • When Batista raised $4.11 billion in OGX's initial public offering in June 2008, interest in Brazil was feverish. Petrobras had just made giant offshore oil discoveries and Brazil was expected to become one of the world's top five oil producers by 2020.
  • Record demand from China drove up the price of Brazilian soybeans, iron ore, coffee, sugar and other commodities. Oil rose to an all-time high. EBX had also just sold most of its first listed company, iron ore producer MMX Mineração e Metálicos SA, to Anglo American Plc for $6.65 billion, enriching Batista and his investors.
  • A lot of the people who invested with Batista were not fools, and his rise and fall has followed that of Brazil.
  • DeGolyer & MacNaughton (D&G), a Dallas-based certification company, estimated OGX's potential resources at 10.8 billion barrels of oil and natural gas equivalent. That would have been enough - if OGX could figure out how to get it out of the ground - to supply all U.S. oil needs for more than a year and a half.
  • OGX estimated it would produce 1.4 million barrels a day by 2019, equivalent to 70 percent of Brazil's output, or about half of the output of Venezuela, a founding member of OPEC.
  • Already Brazil's richest man, Batista bragged he would surpass Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and Mexico's Carlos Slim to become the world's wealthiest person. Today he does not even make Forbes' top 100 list.
  • The consequences of Tubarão Azul's failure quickly spread because of the close links between EBX Group companies. EBX shipbuilder OSX Brazil SA was formed to build and lease a fleet of offshore oil vessels for OGX. Power producer MPX Energia SA is developing gas fields with OGX in Brazil's northeast. Port operator LLX Logística SA is home to OSX's shipyard, a place to store and process OGX oil and to ship Anglo American's iron ore.
  • Batista may also have been hurt by Brazil's efforts to help his and other companies weather the 2008 U.S. financial crisis and the world economic slowdown that followed. As Brazilian stocks, currency and bonds plunged, EBX stocks briefly fell to levels that were only broken this year.
  • EBX was one of the main beneficiaries of cheap capital that Brazil's government pumped into the economy to fight the downturn.
  • In Batista, the government was pursuing its then-fashionable strategy of creating "national champions" while making up for delays in its own infrastructure projects. It encouraged Batista to speed up just as Brazil's boom was about to end.
  • Batista and Brazil, though, have struggled since. As China slows, commodity prices are falling. In the last year Brazil's Bovespa stock index was the worst performer among the world's 28 largest indexes and the only one to fall in the period.
Javier E

Caribbean Nations to Seek Reparations, Putting Price on Damage of Slavery - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...rice-on-damage-of-slavery.html

caribbean slavery reparations suit

shared by Javier E on 22 Oct 13 - No Cached
  • Spurred by a sense of injustice that has lingered for two centuries, the countries plan to compile an inventory of the lasting damage they believe they suffered and then demand an apology and reparations from the former colonial powers of Britain, France and the Netherlands.
  • “Our constant search and struggle for development resources is linked directly to the historical inability of our nations to accumulate wealth from the efforts of our peoples during slavery and colonialism,” said Baldwin Spencer, prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda, in July this year. Reparations, he said, must be directed toward repairing the damage inflicted by slavery and racism.
  • “What happened in the Caribbean and West Africa was so egregious we feel that bringing a case in the I.C.J. would have a decent chance of success,” Mr. Day said. “The fact that you were subjugating a whole class of people in a massively discriminatory way has no parallel,” he added.
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  • Some Caribbean nations have already begun assessing the lasting damage they suffered, ranging from stunted educational and economic opportunities to dietary and health problems, Mr. Day said.
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.
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  • 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.
  • entire new communities were created by people who had not consciously thought of themselves as particularly different from others around them.
  • 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.
  • 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
  • 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.
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