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lenaurick

2010 Human Rights Reports: Antigua and Barbuda - 0 views

www.state.gov/...154490.htm

human human rights politics latin america foreign policy economy

shared by lenaurick on 28 Aug 16 - No Cached
  • Antigua and Barbuda is a multiparty, parliamentary democracy with a population of approximately 100,000.
  • There were human rights problems in some areas, including excessive use of force by police, poor prison conditions, some limits on press freedom, societal discrimination and violence against women, sexual abuse of children, and discrimination against homosexuality.
  • There were no reports that the government or its agents committed arbitrary or unlawful killings.
  • ...30 more annotations...
  • Nonetheless, there were occasional reports of police brutality, corruption, excessive force, discrimination against persons on basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, and allegations of abuse by prison guards.
  • Prison conditions were very poor. Her Majesty's Prison, the country's only prison, was overcrowded, did not have toilet facilities, and slop pails were used in all 122 cells
  • Prisoners and detainees had reasonable access to visitors, were permitted religious observances, and had reasonable access to complaint mechanisms and the ability to request inquiry into conditions.
  • Security forces consist of a police force, the small Antigua and Barbuda Defence Force, and the Office of National Drug Control Policy, which coordinates law enforcement and prosecutorial action to counter narcotics trafficking. The police force had approximately 750 officers.
  • The constitution provides that criminal defendants should receive a fair, open, and public trial, and an independent judiciary generally enforced this right. Trials are by jury. Defendants enjoy a presumption of innocence, have timely access to counsel, may confront or question witnesses, and have the right to appeal. In capital cases only, the government provides legal assistance at public expense to persons without the means to retain a private attorney
  • There were no reports of political prisoners or detainees
  • The constitution provides for freedom of speech and of the press, but the government respected these rights on a somewhat limited basis
  • There were no government restrictions on access to the Internet or reports that government monitored e-mail or Internet chat rooms. Individuals and groups could engage in the peaceful expression of views via the Internet, including by e-mail. There were 75 Internet users per 100 inhabitants, according to Internet World Statistics.
  • The constitution provides citizens with the right to change their government peacefully, and citizens exercised this right in practice through periodic, free, and fair elections held on the basis of universal suffrage.
  • Members of the Organization of American States observer group reported that the elections were generally free and fair.
  • There were two women in the 19-seat House of Representatives and five women appointed to the 17-seat Senate. The governor general, the speaker of the House of Representatives, and the president of the Senate, all appointed positions, were women. There were two women in the cabinet.
  • The Freedom of Information Act gives citizens the statutory right to access official documents from public authorities and agencies, and it created a commissioner to oversee the process. In practice citizens found it difficult to obtain documents, possibly due to government funding constraints rather than obstruction.
  • The constitution prohibits discrimination based on race, sex, creed, language, or social status, and the government generally respected these prohibitions in practice.
  • The Directorate of Gender Affairs, part of the Ministry of Labor, Public Administration, and Empowerment, established and publicized a crisis hotline for victims and witnesses to sexual assault, and managed a sexual assault center that coordinates responses to sexual assault. When rape cases are reported to the police, a female police officer accompanies the victim for both questioning and medical examinations at the center. Once the doctor's report is completed, an investigation commences.
  • n situations where the victim did not know her assailant, the cases rarely came to trial.
  • Violence against women, including spousal abuse, was a problem. The law prohibits and provides penalties for domestic violence, but many women were reluctant to testify against their abusers.
  • Sexual harassment is illegal, but it was rarely prosecuted. According to the Labor Department, there was a high incidence of sexual harassment incurred by employees in both the private and public sectors. However, only approximately 20 cases were formally reported during the year; the small number was believed to result from concerns about retaliation.
  • Women in society enjoy the same rights as men under the law. However, economic conditions in rural areas tended to limit women to home and family, although some women worked as domestics, in agriculture, or in the large tourism sector. Despite these limitations, women were well represented in the private and public sectors. There was no legislation requiring equal pay for equal work, but women faced no restrictions involving ownership of property.
  • Citizenship is acquired by birth in the country, and all children were registered at birth
  • Child abuse remained a problem. The press reported regularly on the rape and sexual abuse of children.
  • Statutory rape is illegal; the minimum age for consensual sex is 14. Despite a maximum penalty of 10 years to life, authorities brought charges against few offenders, and those convicted did not serve long jail terms due to lack of witness cooperation
  • Homosexual acts for both sexes are illegal under indecency statues, and some male homosexual acts are also illegal under anal intercourse laws.
  • Some LGBT persons claimed that homophobia impairs the willingness of HIV-positive persons to obtain treatment; however, there were no reports of violence or discrimination directed toward persons with HIV/AIDS.
  • Workers have the right to associate freely and to form labor unions. Approximately 60 percent of workers in the formal sector belonged to a union. Unions were free to conduct their activities without government interference
  • Labor law prohibits retaliation against strikers, and the government effectively enforced this prohibition.
  • he constitution prohibits forced or compulsory labor, including by children.
  • The law stipulates a minimum working age of 16 years, which corresponds with the provisions of the Education Act. In addition persons under 18 years of age must have a medical clearance to work and may not work later than 10 p.m.
  • The minimum wage was EC$7.00 ($2.59) an hour for all categories of labor, which provided a barely adequate standard of living for a worker and family. In practice the great majority of workers earned substantially more than the minimum wage.
  • The law provides that workers are not required to work more than a 48-hour, six-day workweek, but in practice the standard workweek was 40 hours in five days
  • While not specifically provided for by law, in practice workers could leave a dangerous workplace situation without jeopardy to continued employment.
  • lenaurick on 28 Aug 16
     
    This article is about common issues that countries face, and how Antigua and Barbuda deals with these issues. For the most part, it seemed that Antigua and Barbuda was a relatively developed country with a strong and fair government, rights for children, good working conditions, and unrestricted access to internet. However there were also areas where Antigua and Barbuda needed improvements. For example their prisons are overcrowded, women continue to be victims of sexual assault, and homophobia is acceptable. Overall this article helped me to get a better sense of where Antigua and Barbuda stands on major issues.
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.
g-dragon

Antigua and Barbuda - 1 views

www.state.gov/...78876.htm

shared by g-dragon on 12 Jun 16 - No Cached
    • g-dragon
      g-dragon on 12 Jun 16
       
      Antigua and Barbuda is a diplomatic government with laws, but sometimes those laws are not followed well. Some problems are excessive force by police, bad prison conditions, sexual abuse of children, and discrimination and violence against women. There are been reports of police brutality, corruption, and discrimination against gay people. Prisoners are treated poorly by prison guards and children are held in the same prison as adults. There are not a lot of women in the government. There are 1/17 in the House of Representatives, 2/17 in the Senate and none in the cabinet. There are also no minority members in parliament or cabinet. On the bright side, both speaker of the House and president of the Senate are women. Another problem is the violence and abuse towards women. Since women do not testify against their harassers, the government has had trouble addressing this issue however they have been trying to increase women's awareness of their rights and providing a safe place for women and children.  - Daniel Lin
    • g-dragon
      g-dragon on 12 Jun 16
       
      Part Two  The few schools that the government provided often has shortages and the parents often provide the chairs, tables, and books. There is a huge problem with child abuse like rape and men having sexual relationships with young girls. Contrary to other sources, this one states,"girls and boys have equal access to health care and other public services." They also state that there are no reports of discrimination against people with disabilities considering that there is not a law that prohibits discrimination against the handicapped. - Daniel Lin
nick_gauthier

For Nicaraguans, International Women's Day Marks a Step Back | Human Rights Watch - 0 views

www.hrw.org/...nal-womens-day-marks-step-back

international human human rights women rights nicaragua politics diplomacy history

shared by nick_gauthier on 05 Nov 16 - No Cached
  • Until recently, Nicaraguan women had something to celebrate on March 8, International Women’s Day.
  • decades ago the government eliminated some of the sexist laws that discriminated against women
  • Daniel Ortega’s government is chipping away at the very laws that put them in place. Nowhere is this setback starker than in women’s basic rights to life and health
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • 2006 the National Assembly enacted a blanket ban on abortion, criminalizing the procedure even when a woman’s life is at risk
  • We also asked the Supreme Court to decide on the constitutionality of the ban, and called on President Ortega to veto the measure stripping the penal code of a provision that had allowed legal abortion for more than 130 years.
  • but women’s lives and health remain at risk in the meantime. According to research by Dr. Arnold Toruño of the Universidad Autónoma de Nicaragua-León, historically although the law has prohibited induced abortions, there has in practice been a high rate of them in Nicaragua.
  • nick_gauthier on 05 Nov 16
     
    This is an article from 2008 outlining the measures Ortegas newly instated government (at the time) took that reversed Women's Human Right's progress. Banning abortion was step back for International Women's day.
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.
Javier E

Mannequins Give Shape to a Venezuelan Fantasy - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...ape-to-venezuelan-fantasy.html

beauty latin america Venezuela surgery sexism culture

shared by Javier E on 24 Dec 14 - No Cached
  • Eliezer Álvarez made a simple observation: Venezuelan women were increasingly using plastic surgery to transform their bodies, yet the mannequins in clothing stores did not reflect these new, often extreme proportions.
  • So he went back to his workshop and created the kind of woman he thought the public wanted — one with a bulging bosom and cantilevered buttocks, a wasp waist and long legs, a fiberglass fantasy, Venezuelan style
  • Now his mannequins, and others like them, have become the standard in stores across Venezuela, serving as an exaggerated, sometimes polarizing, vision of the female form that calls out from the doorways of tiny shops
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • “You see a woman like this and you say, ‘Wow, I want to look like her,’ ” said Reina Parada, as she sanded a mannequin torso in the workshop. Although she cannot afford it, she said, she would like to get implant surgery someday. “It gives you better self-esteem.”
  • Cosmetic procedures are so fashionable here that a woman with implants is often casually referred to as “an operated woman.” Women freely talk about their surgeries, and mannequin makers jokingly refer to the creations as being “operated” as well.
  • The embrace of plastic surgery clashes with the government’s socialist ideology and frequent talk of creating a society free of the taint of commercialism.
  • the world’s largest estimated petroleum reserves — has long fed a culture of easy money and consumerism here, along with a penchant for the quick fix and instant gratification.
  • “Venezuela is known for its oil, and it’s known for its beauty,”
  • Beauty took on a particularly important role in the late 1970s and ’80s when the country’s beauty queens, already a national obsession, were crowned Miss Universe three times.
  • And the beauty queens’ fame helped fuel a fascination with cosmetic surgery and procedures like breast implants, tummy tucks, nose jobs and injections to firm the buttocks.
  • For Mr. Sousa, beauty really is skin deep: “I say that inner beauty doesn’t exist. That’s something that unpretty women invented to justify themselves.”
mikecoons

Antigua and Barbuda | Country report | Freedom in the World | 2013 - 0 views

freedomhouse.org/...antigua-and-barbuda

Democracy Freedom Antigua and Barbuda

shared by mikecoons on 28 Aug 16 - No Cached
  • The government of Antigua and Barbuda took steps in 2012 to reform the country’s financial regulatory environment in the aftermath of the discovery of a $7 billion dollar Ponzi scheme, which had exposed deep ties between foreign businesses and the government
  • Antigua and Barbuda, a member of the Commonwealth, gained its independence from Britain in 1981.
  • In the 2004 elections, the opposition United Progressive Party (UPP), led by Baldwin Spencer, defeated Prime Minister Lester Bird and the ruling Antigua Labour Party (ALP), ending the Bird political dynasty that had governed the country since 1976.
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  • Fallout from the collapse of the Stanford Financial Group’s companies, which had been one of the main providers of jobs in the country, as well as the global economic downturn and the consequent decline in tourism, continued to impact Antigua and Barbuda’s economy in 2012.
  • Antigua and Barbuda is an electoral democracy. The 1981 constitution establishes a parliamentary system, with a governor general representing the British monarch as ceremonial head of state.
  • Parliament is composed of the 17-seat House of Representatives (16 seats for Antigua, 1 for Barbuda), to which members are elected for five-year terms, and an appointed 17-seat Senate.
  • Antigua and Barbuda generally respects freedom of the press. However, defamation remains a criminal offense punishable by up to three years in prison, and politicians often file libel suits against opposing party members.
  • The government owns one of three radio stations and the public television station. There are no restrictions on access to the internet.
  • The government generally respects religious and academic freedoms.
  • Crime continues to be a problem in Antigua and Barbuda, and the government has responded with increased community policing, the reintroduction of roadblocks, and stiffer fines for firearms violations. The United Nations Development Programme’s 2012 Caribbean Human Development Report reported that Antigua and Barbuda suffers from a high rate of property crimes, such as robberies, with a lower violent crime rate. The country’s prison is overcrowded and conditions are very poor.
  • The 2005 Equal Opportunity Act bars discrimination on the basis of race, gender, class, political affinity, or place of origin. However, societal discrimination and violence against women remain problems.
  • Women hold only 10 percent of the elected seats of the House of Representatives. Male and female same-sex sexual activity also remains criminalized under a 1995 law, and there have been cases of excessive force and discrimination of people based on sexual orientation at the hands of the police. Antigua and Barbuda serves as both a destination and transit country for the trafficking of men, women, and children for the purposes of forced labor and prostitution.
  • Antigua and Barbuda’s political rights rating improved from 3 to 2 due to a decline in corrupt foreign business influence over the government.
  • lenaurick on 28 Aug 16
     
    This article is a general description of the issues faced by Antigua and Barbuda, particularly political issues. This article also talks about the 7 billion dollar Ponzi scheme from 2012 that showed how foreign business and Antigua's government interacted. This article also talked about the elections, and in my opinion the government and its elections seemed fair. This article was helpful to my study of Antigua and Barbuda because it give me an overview of the countries government, and economy.
  • mikecoons on 18 Oct 16
     
    Political ratings have gone down in A&B.
nick_gauthier

Nicaragua Human Rights | Amnesty International USA - 0 views

www.amnestyusa.org/...nicaragua

human human rights Nicaragua

shared by nick_gauthier on 25 Oct 16 - No Cached
  • total ban on all forms of abortion remained in force
  • Two thirds of rape victims whose cases were recorded between January and August 2009
  • were under 18
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • Nicaragua remained one of a handful of states in the Americas not to have signed the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court
  • new post of Special Ombudsman for Sexual Diversity was created within the Office of the Human Rights Ombudsman
  • nick_gauthier on 25 Oct 16
     
    Nicaragua remains behind in Human Rights specifically in violence against women, freedom of expression and sexual and reproductive rights.
runlai_jiang

OAS mission issues preliminary statement on the general elections in Antigua-Barbuda | ... - 0 views

www.caribbeannewsnow.com/-in-Antigua-Barbuda-21569.html

shared by runlai_jiang on 02 Nov 16 - No Cached
  • OAS mission issues preliminary statement on the general elections in Antigua-Barbuda
  • electoral observation mission issued the following preliminary statement on the general elections In Antigua and Barbuda:
  • n Antigua and Barbuda congratulates the people of Antigua and Barbuda for their extraordinary commitment to the electoral process, reflected in a high voter turnout and a peaceful exercise of their franchise during the Election Day.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • recognizes the efforts made by both the Antigua and Barbuda Electoral Commission and the Supervisor of Elections in the preparation of this election, enabling them to overcome several of the problems experienced in 2009.
  • collaborating to ensure a peaceful voting process.
  • runlai_jiang on 02 Nov 16
     
    On the June 12th, 2014, the OAS issued a electoral observation mission to supervise and reflect the voter turnout on the Election Day. A team of 16 members went to observe on the Election Day. Security was present to ensure a peaceful voting process. The team's purpose was to supervise the Election and enabling them to prevent the problems experienced in 2009. Finally, the election was very successful and smoothly. Women and all the people had the chance to vote. 
evanpitt14

A&B most vulnerable of CARICOM states | Antigua Observer Newspaper - 0 views

antiguaobserver.com/t-vulnerable-of-caricom-states

shared by evanpitt14 on 30 Sep 16 - No Cached
  • is the most vulnerable of CARICOM states.
  • most vulnerable groups include women, youth, elderly, disabled and children in exploitative labour conditions.
  • doesn’t measure existing poverty
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • youth are a critical vulnerable group
  • Risk factors identified include teenage pregnancy, domestic violence, ineffective school systems and high health care costs.
  • at risk of becoming poor
  • grow up in abusive families and violent communities, leading to deviant behaviours such as drug abuse and violence, resulting in young males to be both the main victims and the main perpetrators of crime in the Caribbean
  • chain effect
  • gender violence
  • However, women showed greater resilience than men in retaining jobs during the 2009 economic crisis, possibly due to better secondary and tertiary educational performance.
  • evanpitt14 on 30 Sep 16
     
    This articles tells how poverty affects Caribbean countries and especially A+B. It says that this can lead to abuse, violence and drug use.
redavistinnell

Culture of Antigua And Barbuda - history, traditions, women, beliefs, food, family, soc... - 0 views

www.everyculture.com/...Antigua-And-Barbuda.html

culture history traditions beliefs social

shared by redavistinnell on 02 Nov 16 - No Cached
  • culture of Antigua and Barbuda (local creole pronunciation, Antiga and Barbueda) is a classic example of a creole culture. It emerged from the mixing of Amerindian (Carib and Arawak), West African, and European (primarily British) cultural traditions.
  • Before Christopher Columbus arrived in 1493, Antigua and Barbuda had the Carib names of Wadadli and Wa'omoni, respectively.
  • . The population census of 1991 estimated the population of Antigua and Barbuda to be 64,252. Approximately 93 percent of this total are Afro-Antiguans and Barbudans, 0.2 percent are Portuguese, 0.6 percent are Middle Eastern, 1.7 percent are whites from Europe and North America, and 3.4 percent are mixed.
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • Given the creole nature of its culture, it is not surprising that the language spoken by the vast majority of Antiguans and Barbudans is a creole, often referred to as Antiguan creole.
  • As the union got more deeply involved in the struggles of workers against sugar plantation owners, it became increasingly political. It very quickly developed a "political arm," which later became the Antigua Labor Party (ALP).
  • These struggles, reinforced by those in other Caribbean territories, by the struggles in African countries, and by the opposition of the United States and Russia to European colonial policies, finally pushed the British to dismantle their empire.
  • Antigua in 1623, five distinct and carefully ranked race/ethnic groups emerged. At the top of this hierarchy were the British, who justified their hegemony with arguments of white supremacy and civilizing missions. Among themselves, there were divisions between British Antiguans and noncreolized Britons, with the latter coming out on top. In short, this was a race/ethnic hierarchy that gave maximum recognition to Anglicized persons and cultural practices.
  • Fifth and finally were the Afro-Antiguans and Barbudans who were located at the bottom of this hierarchy. Forced to "emigrate" as slaves, Africans started arriving in Antigua and Barbuda in large numbers during the 1670s.
  • As a result, Afro-Antiguans and Barbudans were reinscribed in a dehumanized and racialized discourse that established their inferiority, and hence the legitimacy of their earlier enslavement and later exploitation as wage laborers.
  • 1700 and 1775, Antigua and Barbuda emerged as a classic sugar colony. Because of its exclusive specialization in sugar, the economy was not very diverse. Consequently, it imported a lot, including much of its food from the American colonies and Britain.
  • Like many other Caribbean societies, Antigua and Barbuda is a classic case of the superimposition of race on class and vice versa.
  • Between these two extremes was a middle class that consisted of the same three groups that occupied the middle layers of the race/ethnic hierarchy—the mulattos, Portuguese, and Syrians. The mulattos dominated the professions (law, medicine, and architecture) and the white-collar positions in banks, businesses, and the
  • redavistinnell on 02 Nov 16
     
    In this article we see how Antigua was settled and can begin to see how the indigenous people were eventually wiped out. It also gives background into the country and how they have progressed through the years.
jblackwell2

Who are the Farc? - BBC News - 0 views

www.bbc.com/...world-latin-america-36605769

politics colombia war peace

shared by jblackwell2 on 03 Nov 16 - No Cached
  • The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc, after the initials in Spanish) are Colombia's largest rebel group.
  • They were founded in 1964 as the armed wing of the Communist Party and follow a Marxist-Leninist ideology.
  • They are controlled by the Secretariat, a group of less than a dozen top commanders who devise the overarching strategy of the Farc.
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • They think there are another 8,500 civilians who make up the Farc's support network.
  • Inspired by the Cuban revolution in the 1950s, they demanded more rights and control over the land.
  • No, Colombia went through a 10-year civil war before the Farc were even founded.
  • The man who would later become the top leader of the Farc, Manuel "Sureshot" Marulanda, had fought in La Violencia.
  • Most of their fighters are from poor, rural communities and include both men and women of all ages.
  • Colombia is one of the main producers of cocaine and the rebels get a large part of their income from drug trafficking or levying "taxes" on those who do.
  • jblackwell2 on 03 Nov 16
     
    This article talks about who the FARC rebels are.
nick_gauthier

SISCA - 0 views

www.summit-americas.org/...hr.html

human rights mandates OAS foreign policy diplomacy

shared by nick_gauthier on 05 Nov 16 - No Cached
  • To reaffirm our support for the objectives set out in the Declaration of the Decade of the Americas for the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities (2006-2016) and its Plan of Action
  • advance in strengthening the protection of the human rights and fundamental freedoms of older persons through promotion of public policies, programs, and services, thus safeguarding their dignity, their physical, mental and social well-being, and their quality of life
  • To strengthen the administration of public security by governmental agencies through promotion of citizen and community participation, institutional coordination, and training and education of civilian and police personnel, with full respect for the rule of law, domestic law, gender equality, and human rights.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • o prevent and fight the smuggling of migrants and trafficking of persons, particularly of women, children and adolescents, and to promote cooperation among states to that end, respecting and fully protecting their human rights
  • eiterate our commitment to protect and promote human rights in our Hemisphere, and to the strengthening of the inter-American human rights system, with due respect for its autonomy and independence. We express our support to continue furthering the constructive dialogue with the participation of all actors, including the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the Inter-American Court of Human Right
  • Our commitment to full respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms is based on shared principles and convictions. We support strengthening and enhancing the effectiveness of the Inter American human rights system, which includes the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights
  • nick_gauthier on 05 Nov 16
     
    This page is a summary of previous mandates made by the OAS at Summits of the Americas in various cities including Cartagena, Colombia, and Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. They mainly reaffirm the mission and re-concentrate efforts.
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.
anonymous

Weston: $2 million not earmarked for PM's wife - 0 views

antiguaobserver.com/ion-not-earmarked-for-pms-wife

shared by anonymous on 29 Nov 16 - No Cached
  • anonymous on 29 Nov 16
     
    The nations is able to deal with the conflict of gender inequality by providing women with opportunity in the business world
Javier E

The Global Elite's Favorite Strongman - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...paul-kagame-rwanda.html

politics Africa Rwanda development

shared by Javier E on 05 Sep 13 - No Cached
  • No country in Africa, if not the world, has so thoroughly turned itself around in so short a time, and Kagame has shrewdly directed the transformation.
  • Kagame has made indisputable progress fighting the single greatest ill in Africa: poverty. Rwanda is still very poor — the average Rwandan lives on less than $1.50 a day — but it is a lot less poor than it used to be. Kagame’s government has reduced child mortality by 70 percent; expanded the economy by an average of 8 percent annually over the past five years; and set up a national health-insurance program — which Western experts had said was impossible in a destitute African country.
  • Progressive in many ways, Kagame has pushed for more women in political office, and today Rwanda has a higher percentage of them in Parliament than any other country. His countless devotees, at home and abroad, say he has also delicately re-engineered Rwandan society to defuse ethnic rivalry, the issue that exploded there in 1994 and that stalks so many African countries, often dragging them into civil war.
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • The question is not so much about his results but his methods. He has a reputation for being merciless and brutal, and as the accolades have stacked up, he has cracked down on his own people and covertly supported murderous rebel groups in neighboring Congo
  • In some areas of the country, there are rules, enforced by village commissars, banning people from dressing in dirty clothes or sharing straws when drinking from a traditional pot of beer, even in their own homes, because the government considers it unhygienic. Many Rwandans told me that they feel as if their president is personally watching them. “It’s like there’s an invisible eye everywhere,” said Alice Muhirwa, a member of an opposition political party. “Kagame’s eye.”
  • why has the West — and the United States in particular — been so eager to embrace Kagame, despite his authoritarian tendencies?
  • Kagame has become a rare symbol of progress on a continent that has an abundance of failed states and a record of paralyzing corruption. Kagame was burnishing the image of the entire billion-dollar aid industry. “You put your money in, and you get results out,” said the diplomat, who insisted he could not talk candidly if he was identified. Yes, Kagame was “utterly ruthless,” the diplomat said, but there was a mutual interest in supporting him, because Kagame was proving that aid to Africa was not a hopeless waste and that poor and broken countries could be fixed with the right leadership.
  • Though Rwanda has made tremendous strides, the country is still a demographic time bomb. It’s already one of the most densely populated in Africa — its 11 million people squeezed into a space smaller than Maryland — and despite a recent free vasectomy program, Rwanda still has an alarmingly high birthrate. Most Rwandans are peasants, their lives inexorably yoked to the land, and just about every inch of that land, from the papyrus swamps to the cloud-shrouded mountaintops, is spoken for.
  • much has improved under his stewardship. Rwandan life expectancy, for instance, has increased to 56 years, from 36 in 1994. Malaria used to be a huge killer, but Kagame’s government has embarked on a wide-scale spraying campaign and has distributed millions of nets to protect people when they are sleeping — malarial mosquitoes tend to feed at night — and malaria-related deaths plummeted 85 percent between 2005 and 2011.
  • Kagame hopes to make more money from coffee, tea and gorillas — Rwanda is home to some of the last remaining mountain gorillas, and each year throngs of Western tourists pay thousands of dollars to see them.
  • aid flows to Rwanda because Kagame is a celebrated manager. He’s a hands-on chief executive who is less interested in ideology than in making things work. He loves new technology — he’s an avid tweeter — and is very good at breaking sprawling, ambitious projects into manageable chunks. Rwanda jumped to 52nd last year, from 158th in 2005, on the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business annual rating, precisely because Kagame set up a special unit within his government, which broke down the World Bank’s ratings system, category by category, and figured out exactly what was needed to improve on each criterion.
Javier E

For Migrants, New Land of Opportunity Is Mexico - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...-of-opportunity-is-mexico.html

mexico opportunity culture economy latin america

shared by Javier E on 22 Sep 13 - No Cached
  • it is already cheaper than China for many industries serving the American market.
  • while Mexico’s economy is far from trouble free, its growth easily outpaced the giants of the hemisphere — the United States, Canada and Brazil — in 2011 and 2012, according to International Monetary Fund data, making the country more attractive to fortune seekers worldwide.
  • residency requests had grown by 10 percent since November, when a new law meant to streamline the process took effect. And they are coming from nearly everywhere.
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  • Spanish filmmakers, Japanese automotive executives and entrepreneurs from the United States and Latin America arrive practically daily — pursuing dreams, living well and frequently succeeding.
  • “There is this energy here, this feeling that anything can happen,” said Lesley Téllez, a Californian whose three-year-old business running culinary tours served hundreds of clients here last year. “It’s hard to find that in the U.S.”
  • more Americans have been added to the population of Mexico over the past few years than Mexicans have been added to the population of the United States, according to government data in both nations.
  • If the country of 112 million people can harness the energy of foreigners and newly educated Mexicans, become partners with the slew of American firms seeking alternatives to China, and get them to do more than just hire cheap labor, economists and officials say Mexico could finally become a more equal partner for the United States and the first-world country its presidents have promised for decades.
  • “There’s been an opening to the world in every way — culturally, socially and economically.”
  • global trends have been breaking Mexico’s way — or as President Enrique Peña Nieto often puts it, “the stars are aligning” — but there are plenty of obstacles threatening to scuttle Mexico’s moment.
  • The challenge, he said, is making sure that the growing interest in his country benefits all Mexicans, not just newcomers, investors and a privileged few.
  • Mexico has failed to live up to its economic potential before. “They really blew a moment in 1994 when their currency was at rock bottom and they’d just signed Nafta,”
  • The number of Americans legally living and working in Mexico grew to more than 70,000 in 2012 from 60,000 in 2009, a number that does not include many students and retirees, those on tourist visas or the roughly 350,000 American children who have arrived since 2005 with their Mexican parents. For DiscussionWhy did you decide to move to Mexico?Please share your story in the comments below.
  • closer ties with Mexico’s beloved and hated neighbor to the north, through immigration and trade, have made many Mexicans feel less insular. Millions of emigrants send money earned abroad to relatives in Mexico, who then rush out to Costco for more affordable food and electronics.
  • “Europe feels spiritually dead and so does the United States,” Mr. Quemada-Díez said. “You end up wanting something else.”
  • “We are now more certain about the value of sharing certain things.”
  • Some of the growth is appearing in border towns where foreign companies and binational families are common. American retirees are showing up in new developments from San Miguel de Allende to other sunny spots around Cancún and Puerto Vallarta. Government figures show that more Canadians are also joining their ranks.
  • More and more American consultants helping businesses move production from China are crisscrossing the region from San Luis Potosí to Guadalajara, where Silicon Valley veterans like Andy Kieffer, the founder of Agave Lab, are developing smartphone applications and financing new start-ups. In Guanajuato, Germans are moving in and car-pooling with Mexicans heading to a new Volkswagen factory that opened a year ago, and sushi can now be found at hotel breakfasts because of all the Japanese executives preparing for a new Honda plant opening nearby.
  • Mr. Pace, bearded and as slim as a Gauloises, said he moved to Mexico in 2011 because college graduates in France were struggling to find work. He has stayed here, he said, because the affordable quality of life beats living in Europe — and because Mexico offers more opportunity for entrepreneurship.
  • Some Mexicans and foreigners say Europeans are given special treatment because they are perceived to be of a higher class, a legacy of colonialism when lighter skin led to greater privileges. But like many other entrepreneurs from foreign lands, Mr. Pace and his partners are both benefiting from and helping to shape how Mexico works. Mr. Rodríguez, the former Interior Ministry official, Cuban by birth, said that foreigners had helped make Mexico City more socially liberal.
  • Many immigrants say Mexico is attractive because it feels disorderly, like a work in progress, with the blueprints of success, hierarchy and legality still being drawn. “Not everyone follows the rules here, so if you really want to make something happen you can make it happen,” said Ms. Téllez, 34, whose food business served more than 500 visitors last year. “No one is going to fault you for not following all the rules.”
  • compared with South Korea, where career options were limited by test scores and universities attended, Mexico allowed for more rapid advancement. As an intern at the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency here, he said he learned up close how Samsung and other Korean exporters worked. “Here,” he said, “the doors are more open for all Koreans.” He added that among his friends back home, learning Spanish was now second only to learning English.
  • There were 10 times as many Koreans living in Mexico in 2010 as in 2000.
  • Europe, dying; Mexico, coming to life. The United States, closed and materialistic; Mexico, open and creative. Perceptions are what drive migration worldwide, and in interviews with dozens of new arrivals to Mexico City — including architects, artists and entrepreneurs — it became clear that the country’s attractiveness extended beyond economics.
  • Artists like Marc Vigil, a well-known Spanish television director who moved to Mexico City in October, said that compared with Spain, Mexico was teeming with life and an eagerness to experiment. Like India in relation to England, Mexico has an audience that is larger and younger than the population of its former colonial overlord.
  • “In Spain, everything is a problem,” he said. “Here in Mexico, everything is possible. There is more work and in the attitude here, there is more of a spirit of struggle and creativity.”
  • it was not a country that welcomed outsiders; the Constitution even prohibited non-Mexicans from directly owning land within 31 miles of the coast and 62 miles of the nation’s borders.
  • He struggled to make sense of Mexico at first. Many foreigners do, complaining that the country is still a place of paradox, delays and promises never fulfilled for reasons never explained — a cultural clash that affects business of all kinds. “In California, there was one layer of subtext,” Mr. Quemada-Díez said. “Here there are 40 layers.”
  • Mexico has allowed dual nationality for more than a decade, and among the growing group of foreigners moving here are also young men and women born in Mexico to foreign parents, or who grew up abroad as the children of Mexicans. A globalized generation, they could live just about anywhere, but they are increasingly choosing Mexico.
  • Domingo Delaroiere, an architect whose father is French and mother is Mexican, said Mexico’s appeal — especially in the capital — was becoming harder to miss. When he came back here last year for a visit, after two and a half years in Paris, he said he was surprised. “Art, culture, fashion, architecture, design — the city was filling up with new spaces, things that are interesting, daring,” he said. He soon decided it was time to move. Compared with Mexico, he said, “Nothing is happening in Paris.”
Javier E

Mannequins Give Shape to a Venezuelan Fantasy - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...ape-to-venezuelan-fantasy.html

fantasy sexism latin america Venezuela beauty surgery culture

shared by Javier E on 24 Dec 14 - No Cached
  • “I have lots of clients that come here and say, ‘I want to look like that mannequin,’ ” Ms. Molina said. “I tell them, ‘O.K., then get an operation.’ ”
  • While Ms. Corro’s mannequins took a quantum leap in body shape several years ago, Ms. Mieles said that the busts and buttocks of her family’s mannequins had grown gradually to keep up with the trends in plastic surgery.
  • Ms. Corro, the co-owner, explained the changes in the mannequins over just a few years: bigger breasts, bigger buttocks, svelte waists. Until recently, “the mannequins were natural, just like the women were natural,” she said. “The transformation has been both of the woman and of the mannequin.”
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  • “Beauty is perfection, to try to perfect yourself more and more every day,” Ms. Mieles said. “That’s how people see it here.” <img src="http://meter-svc.nytimes.com/meter.gif"/>
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