tagged w/ International Economy
-
A sure way to get people riled up in Quince Mil, a sweltering outpost in Peru's southern jungle, is to ask about the origin of the town's uncommon name. There are at least four versions explaining the name, which means "Fifteen Thousand," each more colorful than the one before it. Mayor Mario Samanez claims to have the official version. He says its rains around 15,000 mm (590 inches) each year in the town, hence the name. "This is the spot with the world's second highest amount of rainfall annually. That is where the name comes from," Samanez says.
Actually the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration does not list Quince Mil among the wettest places in the world. The title goes to Mawsynram, India, with 467 inches, followed by jungle spots in Colombia and Hawaii.
Local residents in Quince Mil have their own theories about the name. Some say a group of explorers passing through lost 15,000 pesos where the town now stands. The place was called 15,000 because that's what the explorers would ask for every time they came back to search for the cash. The town's name has become a synonym for bad luck. But malevolence may be at the origin as well. Fernando Farro, a local farmer, says Quince Mil takes its name from the amount of money the Peruvian government gave Russian fortune-seekers at the turn of the 20th century to eliminate Amazonian tribes and open the area for sugar plantations. And that darker explanation may be more relevant now as more and more attention is being paid to the backwater town.
Quince Mil sits at a strategic point on one of the final legs of a new highway that will link Peru's Pacific coast to Sao Paulo on Brazil's southern Atlantic coast. A few years ago it would take a week to get from Cuzco, in the Andes, to Quince Mil, with the road reaching elevations of 14,000 feet and descending fast into thick, tropical forest. The same route, now being paved by a Brazilian construction company, will take around six hours when the road is finished. "The road means radical change for the population. It is a great opportunity for people throughout the valley to get their products to markets," says Samanez, who expects the blacktop to finally reach the town in mid-2010.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20091126/wl_time/08599194238700A sure way to get people riled up in Quince Mil, a sweltering outpost in Peru's... more
-
-
"The old system of international economic cooperation is over," announced Gordon Brown at the G20 summit in Pittsburgh. "The new system, as of today, has begun." The first part of that statement is partly true. The second is a fantasy."The old system of international economic cooperation is over," announced Gordon Brown... more
-
-
eva2
-
added this
-
2 months ago
- |
-
Even as it receives a billion pounds of free food from international donors, Sudan is growing and selling vast quantities of its own crops to other countries, capitalising on high global food prices at a time when millions of people in its war-riddled region of Darfur barely have enough to eat.
...Why is a country that exports so many of its own crops receiving more free food than anywhere else in the world, especially when the Sudanese government is blamed for creating the crisis in the first place?
...
Take sorghum, a staple of the Sudanese diet, typically eaten in flat, spongy bread. Last year, the United States government, as part of its response to the emergency in Darfur, shipped in 283,000 tons of sorghum, at high cost, from as far away as Houston. Oddly enough, that is about the same amount that Sudan exported, according to United Nations officials. This year, Sudanese companies, including many that are linked to the government in Khartoum, are on track to ship out twice that amount, even as the United Nations is being forced to cut rations to Darfur.
Eric Reeves, a professor at Smith College and an outspoken activist who has written frequently on the Darfur crisis, called this anomaly "one of the least reported and most scandalous features of the Khartoum regime's domestic policies." It was emblematic, he said, of the Sudanese government's strategy to manipulate "national wealth and power to further enrich itself and its cronies, while the marginalized regions of the country suffer from terrible poverty."
Even as it receives a billion pounds of free food from international donors, Sudan is... more
-
-
The international community had pushed for stronger sanctions against the burmese junta. Japan cuts millions of dollars in aid. big frickin deal. I think sanctions will force the country into deeper isolation and further threaten the livelihood of its citizens. Many of whom have been locked up after the protests. Plus, just because the EU, Japan, and the US decided to impose new sanctions, embargos, whatever... We are basically handing over the influence and power to countries like China and India to step in and fill the void in Burma, thus further lifting China's role as a developing world power.
So is this really a move forward to pushing for change or just a pacified attempt to keep the order of world politics moving right along?
The international community had pushed for stronger sanctions against the burmese... more
-
-
From the onion. So true...
-
-
But where does the last link in the chain lie?
-
-
khsing
-
added this
-
2 years ago
- |
