Reading today's newspaper was like taking a breath of fresh air when compared to American papers (despite my need to use the dictionary every third sentence as well as my never-ending love of the Sunday NYT). Real news and real issues that are regionally important, globally significant, and practically without fail never reported in the myopic U.S. media.
Above the fold: a story about rapidly-warming relations between Chile and Bolivia, which severed all diplomatic ties in 1978 due to a 100-year-old dispute about coastal access (Bolivia is landlocked: Chile claimed its coastline during a war back in the 1880s and never gave it back). Evo Morales invited President Lagos to attend his inauguration next Sunday in La Paz, and Lagos, in one of his last official acts in office before socialist Bachelet takes over, accepted, making him the first Chilean president to ever attend a Bolivian inauguration ceremony. Lula in Brazil, Chavez in VZ, Bachelet in Chile, Morales in Bolivia, Kirchner in Argentina, and perhaps a lefty win in April's Peruvian election... warm statements between heads of state and a shared animosity towards the U.S.... can an expanded and more powerful Mercosur trading block be far away? Go Latin American solidary in the face of fading U.S. regional influence!
Also on page 1, a big photo and story about a Greenpeace action yesterday across the border in Uruguay calling attention to the illegal construction of two massive pulp mills being built by Finnish and Spanish timber companies. Seems the downriver communities in Argentina are pissed off and blockading the main highway between Arg. and Ur at the height of summer tourist season, creating quite a diplomatic spat between the two countries. 10 GP activists were arrested at the action yesterday, but were released several hours later and greeted as heroes by the folks at the blockade, making national news and throwing a wrench in construction plans. Go Greenpeace!
Anyway, it's back to more reading comprehension lessons for me. With newspapers like this, it's easy!
2 comments:
Nice to read your posts. Keep them coming. Have you managed to read Pagina 12. A very good left newspaper.
One point of contention in your blog. I think the idea of a left wing cultural and political block is a bit misleading. I think there are two VERY different schools of thought. One being the Chavez, Morales, Castro grassroots vs. the more Clintonian Market economics of Lula, Bachelet and Kirchner. Bachelet is much of the same even though her personal story is nice, from what I've read she is only continuing the governing party of Chile and is remotely different in the challenge to neo-liberalism posed by Morales and co. But at least the debate is happening and I do believe in a tipping point. I think one thing I found fascinating in Argentina is while the argentines love their protests and mass demonstrations, how far will they really go is a good question, the protests of 2001 some argue are dangerous in the sense that they gave the impression of a mass movement that inspired a overthrowing of one regime and a transition into a "new" government, but how much of that is actually just what it appeared vs. the people who remain in power (Chile and Argentina most notably) and their own legitimacy. It will be good to discuss this further.
I've been reading about the pulp mill disputes. Word is that Weyco is looking to build another pulp mill in the same region sometime this year. Could be that they're waiting to see how this controversy plays out.
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