Tag Archives: South America

History is an Errant Paradox

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It was during early 2006 that Alicia Alvarez handed me a book saying: this is our bible. I then read “Las Venas Abiertas de America Latina” (Open Veins of Latin America) by an author unknown to me then called Eduardo Galeano. I took that book when travelling through Argentina and the more I read the more I came to understand that we needed a shift not only in South America but also in other places like my birth country, Portugal. In it I could read how good and valuable people we stripped out of their good ideas and values by greedy people. But that’s not big news…

I will not make a synopsis of the book or anything. Actually I want to take your attention to another book he is about to publish and to an excerpt called “History is an Errant Paradox”.

On it you can read things like this:
When they were evicted from the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve moved to Africa, not Paris. Some time later, when their children had embarked on their ways in the world, writing was invented. In Iraq, not Texas.
Algebra was invented in Iraq too, by Mohammed al Jwarizmi, 1,200 years ago, and the word ‘algorithm’ was derived from his name.
The three novelties that made the European Renaissance possible – the compass, gunpowder and the printing press – were invented by the Chinese, who also invented almost everything that Europe reinvented.
The Hindus knew before anybody else that the world was round, and the Mayans created the most precise calendar ever devised.

Continue reading …

Boycott Lonely Planet: Burma

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Damn!! I was thinking about buying 2 books from lonely Planet, one for South America and another for Europe, I guess I’ll have to wait!
There is a boycott going, one of those that actually makes sense; Lonely Planet Guide to Burma, give the reader the impression the traveler can visit the country on an ethical manner, however tourism itself is given more opportunity for an already brutal regime to be even worse. Besides the money coming into the country that fuel the current military dictatorship it is also the reason why thousands of Burmanese are driven away from their homes and crops to give way to new tourism infrastructures to be put in place.

Sign the petition here and maybe BBC will think twice.
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/Burma-Campaign-Action

For more infoi check: http://burmadigest.wordpress.com/

Here some fact and figures:
- 1.1 billion: US dollars invested in the tourism industry in Burma since it opened up to tourism in 1988.
- 100 million: US dollars earned annually by Burma through tourism.
- 56.7 million: current population of Burma (IMF 2007), 75 per cent of which earn a living through agriculture. Of the remaining 25 per cent, just a small proportion benefit from tourism.
- 8 million: number of men, women and children conscripted as forced labour, often for the development of tourism infrastructure, by the military regime since it seized power during a coup in 1962. This is often imposed under threat of beatings, torture, rape or murder.
- 1 million: number of people displaced under the current regime to make way for tourism developments, often with just a few hours notice and little or no compensation for the loss of their homes and businesses.
- 1,300: number of political prisoners thought to be currently held by the military regime. This may include people who have expressed dissent at being displaced to make way for, or conscripted to help build, tourism developments.
- 650: acres of rice paddy recently converted into a golf course for tourists by a western company.
- 60: percentage of Burmese people earning less than 60 pence a day.
- 40: percentage of national budget spent on the military. Just 19 pence is spent per person on health by the regime annually.
- 15: number of UK tour operators continuing to promote tourism to Burma.
- 12: percentage of income cited by Burma’s Minister of Hotels and Tourism in 2002 as being received by the Government from tourism services, including private businesses.
- 12: number of years democratically elected leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, had been under house arrest in Rangoon as of 24 October 2007. The Nobel Peace Prize winner and her National League for Democracy party won a landslide victory at the elections in 1990 but the military have always refused to relinquish power.
- 1: number of democratic elections held in Burma in over 42 years.

Convenio @ La Paloma

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Today is the 12th of December and I’m sitting in a bungalow in La Paloma (Uruguay, South America). Life has taken another strange turn, and now instead of working from Montevideo as I was planning; I will be coordinating a project on the behaviour, ecology and habitat characterization focosed of franciscana and bottlenose dolphins with the aim of elaborating strategies for their conservation (off Rocha), Uruguay. It is not that bad, I’m staying at “Bungalows de Piemonte” provided by Rodrigo Garcia the coordinator/director of OCC (Organización para la Conservasión de Cetáceos – Uruguay) next to the beach with surf(able) waves. There is quite a population boom here in the summer months. I’ll also be presenting weekly talks for the public at the administration house of “Bungalows de Piemonte” about general cetacean biology with an insight on the work carried out by the members of OCC and myself.
While I remain here at the bungalows I’ll have a permanent ADSL connection!

During this period some stuff was happening out there… the earthquake in Pakistan and India affected hundreds of people, the Atlantic Storm season broke all records. My external hard drive broke down and I lost everything I had in it, thankfully I manage to recover a few bits. USA asked for humanitarian help (???) due to the damages provoked by the hurricanes (if these folks need humanitarian and $ help what to say about the rest of the world then?)
Hopefully during my stay in South America I’ll be able to finish off all my pending affairs and engage into some others.