Stories about Latin America from May, 2006
Mexico: Unfortunate Name
In a post titled “unfortunate name Eduardo Arcos says that the Policy Interpretation Network on Children’s Health and Environment (AKA “PINCHE Project”) will need to change it's name if it ever comes to Mexico. In a related item, León Felipe Sánchez has posted a photograph of an attention-grabbing, if not...
Peru: A Game of Sapo
Don Ball Carbajal explains the infamous Latin American game of sapo.
Chile, Mexico: Valentina Palma's Letter and Video
Eduardo Arcos has posted another letter from Chilean anthropologist Valentina Palma [ES] who was detained by Mexican police in the violence that erupted outside Mexico City earlier this month. Al Giordano has posted a video of Palma being led away by police armed with firearms (contradicting earlier official claims).
Argentina: “The Take”
Jon of Posthegemony reviews Avi Lewis's and Naomi Klein's film “The Take” about the Argentine movement to take over and recuperate abandoned factories and argues that “Lewis and KIein are blithely unconcerned by the fact that the justification for the factory takeovers is presented very much in line with neoliberal...
Chilean Bloggers Update
Normally, Chilean bloggers have common concerns in their blogs, but this week coordination just didn’t happen. So, this is a cocktail of news. Leo Prieto (ES) , posts about his interview with the Sub-Secretary of Government Telecommunications to promote broadband internet access in Chile. The initiative carried the support of...
Latin America: World Cup Weblogs
José Luis Orihuel has posted a compilation of all the Spanish-language weblogs devoted exclusively to this year's World Cup. “El Expatriado” says that Argentina is getting ready and Franco Giménez notes that the Argentinean company Neyra Hermanos has launched a World Cup blog.
Edible Blog Report
#1: A food blogger's reunion in Pistoia, Italy: Kishko and Lucullian Delights tell the story in their blogs. The photos are stunning. It makes me want to go there! Then we bought some chocolate and loitered around, looking at the main sights but as I am a lousy guide and...
Haiti: Among 10 Highest Producers of Mangos
“The place occupied by the Haitian mango is threatened on the international market given the demands of foreign consumers looking for a quality product,” says (Fr) Haitian newsfeed Alterpresse. “Ranked among the 10 highest worldwide producers of mangos, Haiti needs to do everything to better exploit this niche. A study...
Haiti: New Blog CollectifHaitideProvence
CollectifHaitideProvence [Haitian Collective of Provence, France] is the name of a new French and Creole language blog launched by a Haitian organization of the same name made up of nine organizations that seem to be based in either France, Haiti or both. Their first entry posted yesterday explains (Fr &...
Riots in Sao Paulo: Prison cells and cell phones
One week has passed since the city of Sao Paulo was paralyzed by gang attacks and the blogosphere in Brazil is wildly spinning the many aspects of this unprecedented confrontation.
Venezuela: Poet Elizabeth Schön
Guillermo Parra features Venezuelan poet Elizabeth Schön who he describes as “a writer who has often been overlooked in Venezuela, but whose work has maintained a consistent philosophical and technical rigor throughout her long career.”
Venezuela: Opposition Candidates Win Mayoral Races
Both Miguel Octavio and Daniel Duquenal write about yesterday's mayoral elections in Carrizal and Nirgua, which Duquenal describes as “insignificant in the grand scheme of things, though very telling in illustrating the contradictions within Venezuelan politics.”
Nicaragua: Protesting Sodomy Laws
Dani Santo Domingo, writing from Costa Rica, says that protesters around Latin America stood outside Nicaraguan embassies in Argentina, Chile, México, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay to speak out against the country's anti-sodomy laws. He has posted pictures from most of the protests.
Argentina: Ale Lago's First EP
Fernando Casale has posted the first album of Ale Lago, “published under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 2.5 AR license, so you’re free to copy, share and remix, as soon as you don’t do it for commerial purposes.”
Peru: Reactions to Presidential Debate
Maxwell A. Cameron has written an excellent and thorough summary of the presidential debate between Alan Garcia and Ollanta Humala, concluding: “Garcia won on substance, while Humala won on style. The overall effect is unlikely to be decisive.” Gran Combo Club has a review [ES] of the reaction by Peru's...
Brazil: On Last Week's Violence
Andrew Comings last week's gang violence and the nature of the Brazilian penal code. Luís Afonso Assumpção recommends an article from FrontPage Magazine.
Caribbean: Hurricane outlook
Over at the West Indies Cricket blog, Ryan Naraine cites the NOAA’s 2006 Atlantic hurricane season outlook, which says there is “an 80% chance of an above-normal hurricane season, a 15% chance of a near-normal season, and only a 5% chance of a below-normal season.”
The state of the argentinean blogosphere: Rosario, Santa Fe
Spanish Version of this article here. Rosario is one of the biggest cities in Argentina, with Cordoba and Buenos Aires. For this reason, it's surprising to find that the city doesn't have a directory of blogs, although there are some of them operating as concentrators of initiatives related to this...
Argentina: Free Wi-Fi for Buenos Aires
Chilean blogger Leo Prieto inspires applause in the comments for Buenos Aires Mayor Jorge Telerman's announcement [ES] that the city will provide its citizens with free wi-fi access. One commenter responds, “we Chileans are always copycats with bad ideas, why not copy these good ones?”
Blogging, The New Journalism Frontier
Este artículo también está disponible en español. The following article addresses five questions asked by university faculty member and digital journalism advocate, Zinnia Martínez, in her weblog, Periodismo Interactivo. The questions were the following: • How journalism has been incorporated into Venezuelan blogosphere? • What Venezuelan blogosphere add to Venezuelan...
Costa Rica, Colombia: The Da Vinci Code and the Catholic Church
Uri Ridelman has the reaction of Costa Rican bishops to the release of the Davinci Code. Sergio Méndez says [ES] that an announced boycott in Colombia will ensure that everyone goes to see the film.