continent:latin america

Amérique latine Etats Unis Intervention militaire

Map of U.S. Intervention in Latin America

►https://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/727/t/10867/shop/item.jsp?storefront_KEY=777&t&store_item_KEY=3657

The bilingual, union-printed Map of U.S. Intervention in Latin America shows historical evidence of persistent, oppressive U.S. foreign policy towards Latin America under Republican and Democratic administrations. The map conveys a powerful message: to create real change in U.S. foreign policy, it’ll take more than a change in the White House - it requires more of the hard and continuous grassroots organizing that has brought about the victories that we are seeing throughout Latin America. Click here for a larger image of the map.

What constitutes a convert?

Brazil mystery: Case of the missing Mormons (913,045 of them, to be exact) | Following Faith | The Salt Lake Tribune
►http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/blogsfaithblog/54497395-180/church-census-reported-lds.html.csp

The Brazilian government believes there are far fewer Mormons in the country than the LDS Church does.

The 2010 Brazilian census found that 225,695 people identified as Latter-day Saints whereas the LDS Church reported 1,138,740 members in Brazil in 2010.

For more detail on how LDS missionaries have inflated conversion stats, see this video by Brigham Young U. Prof. Ted Lyon, “Tough Lessons from Mormon Missionary work in Latin America”: ►http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzCcCacfnfU

We have to find new solutions to Latin America’s drugs nightmare
►http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/apr/07/latin-america-drugs-nightmare

So, knowing that drugs are bad for human beings is not a compelling reason for advocating their prohibition. Actually, the prohibition paradigm that inspires mainstream global drug policy today is based on a false premise: that the global drug markets can be eradicated. We would not believe such a statement if it were applied to alcoholism or tobacco addiction, but somehow we assume it’s right in the case of drugs. Why?

Photos: Latin America Prisons (Plog)
►http://blogs.denverpost.com/captured/2012/03/19/photos-latin-america-prisons

A Honduran fire and a Mexican massacre have drawn new attention to deteriorating conditions at prisons in Latin America. Many of the prisons are stuffed over capacity, leaving inmates to string hammocks from the ceiling or bed down on the floor. Members of a gang known as the Mara 18 crowd into cells at the Izalco jail in Sonsonate, El Salvador while women Inmates wait in a cell at the Ilopango Women’s Prison in San Salvador. (...) Source: Plog

J’apprends des choses avec internet : Panela (en fait, ramené par une amie colombienne)
►http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panela

Panela (Spanish pronunciation: [paˈnela]) is unrefined whole cane sugar, typical of Latin America, which is basically a solid piece of sucrose and fructose obtained from the boiling and evaporation of sugarcane juice.

Common Spanish names: rapadura, raspadura, chancaca, papelón, piloncillo, panocha, atado dulce or empanizao. In India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka a similar product is made which is called gur or jaggery. In Brazil, it is known as rapadura. In Laos, it is called nam oy (ນ້ຳອ້ອຍ).

Feminists can be Christians, too | Kristin Aune | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
►http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2012/jan/29/feminists-christians

As a feminist and sociologist, my faith often surprises people. When I became a Christian as a teenager my mother said: “Intelligent people aren’t religious.”

Religious institutions have rightly attracted bad press for their record on women’s rights. Often, religion justifies women’s subordination by cloaking it in theological language, and teaches gender-differentiated roles to keep women dependent on men.

But this isn’t always so. #Religion also has a good record on social welfare and religious organisations have at times been in the vanguard of social change (for example, liberation theology in Latin America).

European Exodus Reverses Well-Worn Migration Patterns - WSJ.com
►http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203550304577137174048327642.html

Economic distress is driving tens of thousands of skilled professionals from Europe, and many are being lured to thriving former European colonies in Latin America and Africa, reversing well-worn migration patterns. Asia and Australia, as well as the U.S. and Canada, are absorbing others leaving the troubled euro zone.

At the same time, an influx of Third World immigrants whose labor helped fuel Europe’s growth over the past decade is subsiding. Hundreds of thousands of them, including some white-collar professionals, have been returning home.

#migration

Chile’s Commander Camila, the student who can shut down a city (Relevé sur le net)
►http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/24/chile-student-leader-camila-vallejo

Not since the days of Zapatistas’ Subcomandante Marcos has Latin America been so charmed by a rebel leader. This time, there is no ski mask, no pipe and no gun, just a silver nose ring.
Meet Commander Camila, a student leader in Chile who has become the face of a populist uprising that some analysts are calling the Chilean winter. Her press conferences can lead to the sacking of a minister. The street marches she leads shut down sections of the Chilean capital. She has the government on the run, and now even has police protection after receiving death threats. (...)

farmlandgrab.org | Asian agri fund eyes Peruvian palm oil as Malaysia exhausts supply of land
►http://farmlandgrab.org/post/view/19098

Asian Agri Capital, a Singapore private-equity firm that focuses on early-stage plantations, is seeking to raise $100 million to invest in palm oil and other tropical commodities in Southeast Asia and Latin America.

#agrobusiness

U.S. can’t justify its drug war spending, reports say
►http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-narco-contract-20110609,0,1742011.story

The reports specifically criticize the government’s growing use of U.S. contractors, which were paid more than $3 billion to train local prosecutors and police, help eradicate fields of coca, operate surveillance equipment and otherwise battle the widening drug trade in Latin America over the last five years.

The majority of U.S. counter-narcotics contracts are awarded to five companies: DynCorp, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, ITT and ARINC, according to the report for the contracting oversight subcommittee, part of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

Counter-narcotics contract spending increased 32% over the five-year period, from $482 million in 2005 to $635 million in 2009. DynCorp, based in Falls Church, Va., received the largest total, $1.1 billion.

Ceci est le début de ma pêche canadienne

The City Institute at York University - Global suburbanisms: governance, land, and infrastructure in the 21st century - Global suburbanisms: governance, land, and infrastructure in the 21st century

►http://www.yorku.ca/city/Projects/GlobalSuburbanism.html

Global suburbanisms: governance, land, and infrastructure in the 21st century

Urbanization is at the core of the global economy today. Yet, the crucial aspect of 21st century urban development is suburbanization - defined as an increase in non-central city population and economic activity, as well as urban spatial expansion. It includes all manner of peripheral growth: from the wealthy gated communities of Southern California, to the high rise-dominated suburbs of Europe and Canada, the exploding outskirts of Indian and Chinese cities, and the slums and squatter settlements in Africa and Latin America. Suburbanism is the growing prevalence of qualitatively distinct ’suburban ways of life’. This Major Collaborative Research Initiative is the first major research project to systematically take stock of worldwide developments. We analyze recent forms of urbanization and emerging forms of (sub)urbanism as well as the dilemmas of aging suburbanity. We broadly focus on the governance of suburbanization, that is, efforts to guide and regulate its development. It involves state, market and civil society actors and implies democratic deliberation and social conflict. The categories land, which includes housing, shelter systems, real estate, greenbelts, megaprojects, and infrastructure, including transportation, water and social services, serve as the two prime anchors upon which we hinge specific research projects. Examination of Canadian suburbanization and suburbanism will serve as a basis and comparative “control” case to understand suburbanization in the Americas, Europe, Africa and Asia.

#urban #territories