continent:latin america

Wall Street’s Africa Land Grab
http://www.globalpolicy.org/social-and-economic-policy/world-hunger/land-ownership-and-hunger/51842-wall-streets-africa-land-grab.html?itemid=id#1292

Wall Street’s Land Grab in Africa reveals how the financial system endemically thrives off of inequality. With global population growth, rise of middle class diets, and a decrease in crop yields connected to climate change, Wall Street translates yet another case of scarce resources into massive profits. Once international investors have reaped the benefits of cheap land deals and large scale industrial farming, the local population is left to bear the environmental and human costs. In other words, the same financial firms that drove the world into a global recession through risky financial practices are now doing the same with the world’s food supply. The article argues that the only way to minimize the damage is to cut down the size of banks.

#terres #Afrique

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

Frantz Fanon and the Arab Uprisings: An Interview with Nigel Gibson
http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/6927/frantz-fanon-and-the-arab-uprisings_an-interview-w

The Martiniquan intellectual was skeptical of revolutions from above, as was the case with several anti-colonialist movements in the Arab World. Interestingly, while the Arabic translation of the The Wretched of the Earth came out shortly after its publication in French, it omitted many passages because they were critical of the national bourgeoisie. Fifty years later, Fanon is almost absent in public discourses in the Middle East and is still marginal in the Maghreb. The uprisings should have been an excellent opportunity for Arab intellectuals and activists to engage with Fanon’s work on the revolution and the subaltern in the new conjuncture. However, despite the significance of his political philosophy for the current revolts, his books are either out of print or conspicuously absent from many bookstores in the Arab world.

Pepe Escobar du journal Asia Times vient de résumer et de faire l’analyse des deux dépêches Reuters évoquant notamment la base secrète d’Adana de soutien à l’ASL et l’autorisation à la CIA d’apporter son soutien à la rébellion armée syrienne que j’avais évoquées ici : http://seenthis.net/messages/80446
et là : http://seenthis.net/messages/80924

Voici donc ce que n’importe qui peut savoir début août 2012, sur la guerre clandestine menée par l’OTAN et le CCG en Syrie, simplement en lisant Reuters :
Pepe Escobar, Obama does Syriana, AToL
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/NH03Ak04.html

(le lien est un cache google car le site d’Asia Times a des difficultés depuis quelques jours)

Assassination Nation : Fifty Years of US Targeted ‘Kill Lists’: From the Phoenix Program to Predator Drones | Doug Noble (CounterPunch)
►http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/07/19/assassination-nation/print

In fact, US assassination and targeted killing, with presidential approval, has been going on covertly for at least half a century. Ironically, all this drone killing now offers us a new opportunity: to pry open the Pandora’s box hiding long-held secrets of covert US assassination and targeted killing, and to expose them to the light of day. What we would find is that the only things new in the latest, more publicized revelations about kill lists and assassinations are the use of drones, the president’s hands-on approach in vetting targets, and the global scope of the drone killing. Those of us in the Upstate Coalition to Ground the Drones, Code Pink and other groups protesting US drones for years have correctly focused on the use of drones as illegal, immoral and strategically counterproductive. We have abhorred the schizophrenic ease of remote killing, the uniquely frightening horror of a drone strike, and the unavoidable (even intentional) killing of countless civilian “terrorist suspects” in “signature strikes.” We have also warned of the proliferation of drones in countries around the globe and of their procurement by US police forces and border patrols, for surveillance and “non-lethal” targeting. (...) Source: (...)

À lire absolument dans Counterpunch : les « assassinats ciblés » tels que le scandale des drones et de la « kill list » les révèlent, ça dure depuis au moins 50 ans, et cet article nous plonge dans cette histoire occulte et sordide.
►http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/07/19/assassination-nation/print

In fact, US assassination and targeted killing, with presidential approval, has been going on covertly for at least half a century. Ironically, all this drone killing now offers us a  new opportunity: to pry open the Pandora’s box hiding long-held secrets of covert US assassination and targeted killing, and to expose them to the light of day. What we would find is that the only things new in the latest, more publicized revelations about kill lists and assassinations are the use of drones, the president’s hands-on approach in vetting targets, and the global scope of the drone killing.

Those of us in the Upstate Coalition to Ground the Drones, Code Pink and other groups protesting US drones for years have correctly focused on the use of drones as illegal, immoral and strategically counterproductive. We have abhorred the schizophrenic ease of remote killing, the uniquely frightening horror of a drone strike, and the unavoidable (even intentional) killing of countless civilian “terrorist suspects” in “signature strikes.” We have also warned of the proliferation of drones in countries around the globe and of their procurement by US police forces and border patrols, for surveillance and “non-lethal” targeting.

But drones are not the only, or even the most important, concern. It’s the targeted killing itself, past and present. In this article I start to unravel what the latest demands for transparency should lead us to investigate fully: the fifty year history of US assassination and targeted killing that has resulted, quite directly, in the present moment. Those who are mortified by the latest revelations of Obama’s kill list have much to learn from a more comprehensive, historical perspective on US killing around the globe.

Apologies to Mexico
http://www.thenation.com/article/168803/apologies-mexico

Dear Mexico,
 
I apologize. There are so many things I could apologize for, from the way the US biotech corporation Monsanto has contaminated your corn to the way Arizona and Alabama are persecuting your citizens, but right now I’d like to apologize for the drug war, the 10,000 waking nightmares that make the news and the rest that don’t.

#mexique #narco

William Blum :: Anti-Empire Report, Number 106
http://killinghope.org/bblum6/aer106.html#link-5

I’m sure most Americans are mighty proud of the fact that Julian Assange is so frightened of falling into the custody of the United States that he had to seek sanctuary in the embassy of Ecuador, a tiny and poor Third World country, without any way of knowing how it would turn out. He might be forced to be there for years. “That’ll teach him to mess with the most powerful country in the world! All you other terrorists and anti-Americans out there — Take Note! When you fuck around with God’s country you pay a price!”

Killings of environmentalists appear on rise; conflict over shrinking resources intensifies - The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/killings-of-environmentalists-appear-on-rise-conflict-over-shrinking-resources-intensifies/2012/06/20/gJQAzkgepV_story.html

A report released Tuesday by the London-based Global Witness said more than 700 people — more than one a week — died in the decade ending 2011 “defending their human rights or the rights of others related to the environment, specifically land and forests.” They were killed, the environmental investigation group says, during protests or investigations into mining, logging, intensive agriculture, hydropower dams, urban development and wildlife poaching.

The death toll reached 96 in 2010 and 106 last year, said the report, which was released as world leaders gathered in Rio de Janeiro for a conference on sustainable development. The report’s annual totals for the six prior years range from 37 in 2004 to 64 in 2008.

#environnement #répression #assassinats

WashingtonPoint
Despite Massacre, #Chávez Fueling Friendship With #Syria, recently sent its third shipment of fuel oil to Syria.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/06/06/despite-massacre-chavez-fueling-friendship-with-syria.html

Olive farmers squeezed as competition and supermarkets push down prices | World news | The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/04/spain-olive-farmers-squeeze-price

Under Spanish competition law it is illegal to sell below cost, he says, but supermarkets get round this by selling at a few cents above the cost price without factoring in transport, labour or fixed capital costs. Olive oil is the loss leader par excellence of Spanish supermarkets.

“In Argentina, Chile and China there are immense plantations with the olives grown on espaliers so they can be harvested mechanically,” says Pere Solé on his farm at La Bisbal del Penedès in Catalonia. “We can’t compete with that.” He explains that it costs him €2.70 to produce a litre of oil with a market value of €2.50. “Olive oil is one of the cheapest products on the market, when you bear in mind that a litre will last you a week or two, unlike a bottle of wine,” he says. “It’s absurdly cheap.”

#Espagne #agriculture

Vast Mexico Bribery Case Hushed Up by Wal-Mart
After Top-Level Struggle
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/22/business/at-wal-mart-in-mexico-a-bribe-inquiry-silenced.html

Confronted with evidence of widespread corruption in Mexico, top Wal-Mart executives focused more on damage control than on rooting out wrongdoing, an examination by The New York Times found.

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?

Ah ah, j’avais oublié que, chaque année, le New York Times fait comme si ses lecteurs top-élite allaient/pouvaient/voulaient visiter 45 endroits dans le monde pendant l’année (The 45 Places to Go in 2012). Allez, mon cucul, celle-là, même tes annonceurs n’y croient pas
http://travel.nytimes.com/2012/01/08/travel/45-places-to-go-in-2012.html?pagewanted=all

Je cherche l’article du Monde intitulé « Les 366 palaces les plus chers de la planète dans lesquels nos lecteurs doivent absolument dormir en 2012. »

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

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

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.

http://denverpost.slideshowpro.com/albums/001/496/album-314290/cache/prison01.sJPG_950_2000_0_75_0_50_50.JPG

Members of a gang known as the Mara 18 crowd into cells at the Izalco jail in Sonsonate, El Salvador. A Honduran fire and a Mexican massacre have drawn new attention to deteriorating conditions at prisons in Latin America, many of which are stuffed over capacity, leaving inmates to string hammocks from the ceiling or bed down on the floor. (Meridith Kohut/The New York Times)

#photographie

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).

Interview with Former President Jimmy Carter
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/01/18/interview_with_former_president_jimmy_carter_112821.html

CARTER: If I had one constant prayer the last 35 years of my life, it would be to bring peace to Israel.

Comme ça on est fixés.

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

The New York City Building at the Centre of the Internet | This Big City
http://thisbigcity.net/new-york-city-building-centre-internet

The global #Internet #maps released annually by Telegeography show that for the most part, the exact cities or regions that one would expect to be hyper-connected are in fact hyper-connected. The lines follow the money.

Ce petit #film #documentaire sur le 60 Hudson Street, New York, est super :
http://vimeo.com/30642376

et la #cartographie :
http://www.telegeography.com/telecom-maps/global-internet-map
http://www.telegeography.com/page_attachments/products/website/telecom-maps/global-internet-map/0002/1394/internet-map-2011-main-projection.png

The New Green Revolution: How Twenty-First-Century Science Can Feed the World
http://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/217-hunger/50666-the-new-green-revolution-how-twenty-first-century-science-can-fe

In this article, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food Olivier De Schutter analyzes the current food crisis and concludes that agroecology-the application of ecological science to the study, design, and management of sustainable agriculture –holds great promise to meet the challenges of global food insecurity. Strategies to combat hunger must recognize the impact of climate change, scarcity of natural resources, and the unsustainable nature of current methods of food production. Advocates of agroecology include the World Bank, FAO, UNEP, IASSTD, and the largest transnational peasant movement, La Via Campensina.

#agriculture #alimentation

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