My prediction for 2010 is that if Americans get universal medicare, those now without coverage will love it. If they ever edge out the profit-making, paperwork-generating, coverage-denying schemes of the insurance companies and provide not-for-profit universal medicare, most people will love it. As the BBC pointed out last night, unlike most other developed countries, the U.S. does not have health care for everyone, and despite spending twice as much per capita as those other countries, it still leaves 47,000,000 people uncovered.

To get an idea of what healthcare coverage is like in other countries, check out the tone and the coverage rules in Canada:

• Health Care in Canada
  • Medicare in Canada
• Health Canada
  • Provincial/Territorial Role in Health

Provincial/Territorial health ministries and health insurance:

• Newfoundland & Labrador Health & Community Services
  • Newfoundland & Labrador Medical Care Plan
  • Newfoundland & Labrador Prescription Drug Plan
• Prince Edward Island Department of Health
  • PEI Health Card
• Nova Scotia Department of Health
  • Nova Scotia Health Card (MSI=Medical Services Insurance)
• New Brunswick Department of Health
  • New Brunswick Medicare Card
• Santé et Services Sociaux du Québec (English)
  • Régie de l’assurance maladie du Québec
• Manitoba Health
  • Health Care Coverage in Manitoba
• Saskatchewan Health
  • Health Benefits in Saskatchewan
• Alberta Health & Wellness
  • Alberta Health Care Insurance Plan
• British Columbia Ministry of Health Services
  • Health Insurance B.C.
• Yukon Health & Social Services
  • Yukon Health Card
• Northwest Territories Department of Health & Social Services
  • NWT Health Care Plan
• Nunavut Health & Social Services
  • Public Health Nunavut (seems to piggyback on NWT services)
• Ontario Ministry of Health & Long-term Care
  • Ontario Health Insurance Plan
  • Blue Cross insurance (supplemental coverage, works with provinces)
  Supplemental insurance, drug plans

For over 65 years, Ontario Blue Cross has focused on providing health and safety to Ontario residents.

In 1941, the Ontario Hospital Service Association introduced the Blue Cross name in Ontario. The goal was to finance the hospitals by supplying individuals with reasonably priced health care services through a prepayment system. It was an immense success.

The OHA was eager to see a universal hospital insurance program in place and laid the foundations for the plan that eventually became government run. In 1959, the Government of Ontario launched the Ontario Hospital Insurance Plan. 600 Blue Cross employees as well as most of its top management team moved over to help guide in the plans development. Literally overnight, 90% of Blue Cross employees became government employees as they helped launch the new plan.

The creation of the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) led Blue Cross to modify its coverage to complement the public plan. Following the successful transition from primary to supplementary provider, Ontario Blue Cross developed other health care plans to provide coverage for Extended Health Care benefits including prescription drugs, dental, wheelchair coverage, nursing care, eyeglasses, hearing aid coverage and more.

By KF9, All Over The World

Merry Christmas! This holiday season Kiva Fellows are celebrating Christmas all over the world, in all sorts of different ways. Whether it be traveling, feasting, or working hard to bring you some additional Kiva magic over the holidays, it’s safe to say we’re all thankful to be serving as Kiva Fellows and glad to have found a wonderful community in Kiva.

We wanted to share what Christmas is like for KF9ers out in the field and around the world. So enjoy – and happy holidays!

In no particular order:

Nicki Goh, KF9 Senegal
This coming weekend, the Senegalese have a 4 day weekend with both Christian and Islamic holidays straddling the weekend. I will make the most of the time off work to visit the Sine-Saloum Delta on the Atlantic coast of Senegal – an area where my MFI SEM’s work is extremely important to ecovillagers. The delta is an area of immense natural beauty which is sadly at risk of desertification and where there is a high level of unemployment. This time I will be on vacation but I hope to return there at a later date to meet some of the borrowers for myself. Happy holidays to you all – whatever your religion!

Alex Duong, KF9, Vietnam
Christmas is not an official holiday in Vietnam.  However, that doesn’t stop me from spending it with Kiva Fellows Gemma North, Josh Weinstein, and Katie Davis (KF7) in Cambodia!  Couldn’t think of a better way to end one year and gear up for the next.  I am extremely thankful for the personal development thus far and will continue sharing my thoughts with everyone here and here.  A big happy holidays to my close and extended family around the world!

Josh Wilcox, KF9 Peru
Papa Noel (aka Santa Claus) is ubiquitous throughout the holiday season in Latin America, as is the Christmas spirit.  I helped some Peruvian friends erect and decorate their artificial Christmas tree and am planning on spending Christmas day with my mother traveling through Buenos Aires between my two placements in Peru and Ecuador.  Feliz navidad!

Eva Wu, KF9 Philippines
Christmas is huge in the Philippines – as to be expected in a predominantly Roman Catholic country I attended three Christmas parties, one of which was in November, all of which involved fun activities and good times with HSPFI staff and clients. Carolling, Christmas lantern contests, games, client awards, gift exchanges, LOTS of dancing… frankly it’s rather intimidating how most of my HSPFI work-friends can sing AND dance like pop stars. I’ve been acting as unofficial photographer/videographer at the Christmas parties, and edited some short videos for the HSPFI staff as Christmas/thank-you presents. Check out the party footage by joining the HSPFI lending team! Plug aside, I’m flying home to Belize for Christmas. Then I’ll be swinging by California (hello, Kiva main!) and Australia before heading back to the Philippines and HSPFI until end of February. So I’m excited about the upcoming travels, the holiday break, and the prospect of kicking off the new year as a Kiva Fellow. Merry Christmas to all!

Steph Meyer, KF9, Sierra Leone
Oddly enough, Christmas is a pretty major holiday here (even though Sierra Leone is about 60% Muslim). Shops and businesses put up holiday lights (none of which even pretend to be plugged into a working power source…), vendors and hawkers in the street sell tinsel, ornaments, and fake plastic Christmas trees, and everyone I see about greets me with “Compliments of the season to you”. In what is apparently very traditional Sierra Leonean fashion, I am spending my holiday at one of the many BEAUTIFUL beaches just outside Freetown with some friends. My MFI, LAPO-SL (coming soon to Kiva- keep an eye on the website!) has a number of Nigerian managers, so they left over a week ago to go home for the holidays, giving me a long and luxurious winter break. I am personally missing my Vermont snow big-time, but am enjoying soaking in the sun, working on side projects, and being a Kiva Fellow in Sierra Leone!

Zal Bilimoria, KF9, Ecuador
Feliz Navidad from Cuenca, Ecuador! This week I finished my Kiva fellowship with Fundacion ESPOIR, which is now an Active partner on Kiva.org after meeting a series of goals over the past few months! What this means is that they have established themselves as a reliable and strong MFI partner and now have the ability to fundraise more from Kiva lenders every month. Despite the national energy crisis in Ecuador, Christmas lights adorn homes, businesses and churches around the city, and from my apartment in Cuenca, every night around 9 pm for the past week, there have been fireworks. Everyone is in a rather festive mood. This past Friday, I was invited to our MFI’s holiday party at the regional manager’s home on the outskirts of Cuenca where we ate a lovely meal together and had many activities during the night among the 25 attendees including karaoke and dance contests way into the morning hours! This week I’m off to Costa Rica to spend the holidays and New Year’s Eve with Kiv a Fellow Alana Solimeo, so I wish everyone Happy New Year from the beaches of Tamarindo!

Taylor Akin, KF9 Togo
It’s definitely not going to be a white Christmas. Children stroll down the street proudly singing “Jingle Bells” even though many of them have never seen snow, fire crackers pop well into the night, and youth eagerly anticipate a night out on the town. This is Christmas in Lomé, Togo. While Santa Claus continues to be a familiar face around town, and a small Christmas tree occupies my room, the day is celebrated in quite a different way than back home in Toronto, Canada. The traditional turkey has been replaced by chicken, spaghetti, and fufu (pounded yams). The clouds and snow have been replaced by intense sun and blue skies. What I learned to think of as a family day is really more of a party day where Togolese youth celebrate in the streets until the wee hours of the morning. However you are celebrating your holidays this year, I hope that they fun, safe, and filled with laughter. Happy holidays!

Ilmari Soininen, KF9, Senegal
Joyeux Noel! I’ll probably be in the office until Christmas eve making sure we have at least a couple of generous helpings of new clients for the post-holiday rush. I’ll spend the night of Chirstmas Eve and Christmas Day with a colleague and her (huge) extended family in a village just outside of Thies. We’ll attend midnight Mass on the Eve and a service on Christmas Day. To balance out this holiness, we’ll be feasting on pork and beer afterwards. Should be pretty good.

Suzy Marinkovich, KF9 Chile
Felices Fiestas! Here in Santiago, Chile, Christmas (and the Latin American Santa Claus, as Josh mentioned: Papa Noel) is very widely celebrated.  About 90% of Chileans identify themselves as Roman Catholic, so it’s no surprise why.  Anyone who’s been around Santiago in the holidays knows that you can’t walk a city block without someone trying to sell you Pan de Pascua (Christmas Bread).  Pan de Pascua is a typical Chilean cake, a sweet sponge cake flavored with ginger and honey.  It typically has candied fruits, raisins, and walnuts inside.  My husband and I are having our first Christmas without our families, so we will spend it cooking, hiding from the 90 degree heat (!), and eating a more rebellious form of Pan de Pascua that I found at the supermarket: it only has chocolate chips inside. 

Kelly McKinnon, KF9 Leon, Nicaragua
On the front page of La Prensa on Sunday there was a photo of a very snowy Washington DC (my home base), the weather in Leon is a contrast to say the least! Around Leon people share holiday plans, usually gathering with family or making a trip to the beach! Restaurants have special menues, the streets are lined with vendors of gifts of all kinds, and the central plaza is now decorated with strings of red and white lights, a ten foot faux Christmas tree and a life size nativity scene. The scenes have been created in the front rooms of many houses and can be spied as you meander the streets. My coworkers are planning a secret Santa gift exchange and there is an excitement in the air as the end of the year approaches. I am so grateful for this experience and for the people that have shared it with me, be they Kiva Fellows, Kiva Followers or my friends and coworkers at Fundacion Leon 2000.

Jeremy Lapedis, KF9, Guatemala
During the Christmas Season in Guatemala, everyone celebrates convivos, in which a secret santa gift exchange takes place amongst festive eating. Thus far I have been to two of them and received a set of floral bowls and a cologne spray called Open in Case of Emergency. I’ll be spending Christmas Eve eating tomales at midnight and exchanging gifts with the family of the director of my MFI, with whom I am living. The next day will be full of visits to and from other families in which we share cookies and coffee.

Gemma North, KF9, Cambodia
There will be no baking for me this Christmas (ovens are a luxury in Cambodia).  The country is primarily Buddhist, but the Cambodians’ great enthusiasm for holidays and parties is slowly beginning to carve out a place for Christmas in Phnom Penh.  Many shop windows have put up a few garlands, fake Christmas trees or–for the more ostentatious crowd–big blow-up Santas.  I have even heard kids at school singing Jingle Bells (presumably for English class).  This year, I will compensate for having no snow by collecting seashells, eating crab and exploring the ruins of French colonial mansions in the small seaside town of Kep with Kiva Fellows Alex Duong, Josh Weinstein and Katie Davis (KF7).

Thomas Gold, KF9, Dominican Republic
Christmas definitely is a great event, prepared months in advance in the Dominican Republic. Each branch office of my MFI Esperanza has organized a celebration with its own “socios” (clients of the branch office). In the beginning of December, each of the branch office organized a “tombolazo” (big raffle) and went to the capital city to buy electrical appliances (fridge, stovs, washing machines)  that were drawn among the borrowers. On the 21s songs.st, an internal celebration was organized in Santo Domingo for all staff members, with rewards prizes for the best employees,and one more tombolazo. I joined the music band (which were all employees of Esperanza) with an harmonica, for Christmas songs (The best way I found to avoid the awkward dancing, as it happenned in other MFIs!)

In the country, the tradition as it was described to me, is to have a big familiar dinner, and then streets get lively. Everyone puts music (mainly bachata, a fast and festive Dominican rythm) very loud, either from your house, in the little grocery store that become bars on nights thanks to heavy speakers, or from your car. The 25th of December is a very popluar day to go to the beach and rest from the night before.

Brian Kelly, KF9, Armenia
For Christmas, I will be returning from a three day conference with my entire MFI staff in the mountains of Armenia.  The Armenians, being Christian Orthodox, celebrate Christmas on January 6th, but the real celebration of the holidays is the New Year.  So I plan to have a mini-feast on the 25th with some western-celebrating friends (its a work day) with some of the familiar dishes from home normally shared with family.  Perhaps I will try to acquire a plasticky green fake Christmas tree, as deforestation laws make it illegal to cut trees here, so naturally they are sold illegally, but for a steep price.  Then I will look forward to the real celebration in Armenian fashion on January 1st…

Meg Gray, KF9 Nicaragua
I feel like everyone in Nicaragua has been asking me about my Christmas plans since the day I arrived. Without Thanksgiving to hold them back, Christmas decorations started showing up on houses and, of course, in stores at the end of October. The Nicas all get so excited when I tell them that “Yes, I will be spending Christmas in Nicaragua.” The first week of December celebrating really got started with “La Purisima” which is a week long holiday celebrating the Immaculate Conception. Shrines to Mary appeared all over the city and firecrackers that sound a bit like rapid gunfire filled the evenings. The shrines to Mary have all been replaced by Nativity scenes now, but the firecrackers remain. I will be celebrating Christmas Eve with the family I am living with including a traditional Catholic Mass. For Christmas, I will be cooking with several American friends and bringing toys and food to a local orphanage.

Rebecca Corey, KF9 Tanzania
Kristmas Njema na Heri ya Mwaka Mpya! Merry Christmas and a happy new year from Dar es Salaam. I’ve had a hard time getting into the holiday spirit. Every time I hear a Christmas song I wipe the sweat from my forehead and wonder why in the world anyone would play a Christmas song at this time of the year. Then I remember it’s December! There’s a small tree set up in the office of the Tujijenge office decorated with tinsel and a gold star. Even though it’s Christmas Eve, everyone is here at the office, hard at work. Tomorrow will be a day for family. I’ll be with my Tanzanian host family. We may even take a trip to the beach! Happy holidays to all of my friends and family, the Kiva Fellows, and all the Kiva lenders and borrowers. I’m so thankful for all of you!

Victoria Kabak, KF9, Nicaragua
Here in Nicaragua, it’s felt like Christmas has been going on since the beginning of November, when kids started setting off firecrackers at all hours of the day or night and haven’t stopped since (sometimes I could’ve sworn they sounded more like gunshots than firecrackers–not the best for the mental state or the sleep cycle). While the day after Christmas is always a bit sad, I can’t say I’ll be too sorry to say goodbye to the firecrackers…though I have a sneaking suspicion they might continue through New Year’s. Christmas vacation has brought my parents to me, so we’ll be spending tomorrow on the beach in Nicaragua’s San Juan Del Sur since pretty much everything else will be closed. Feliz Navidad!

Sheethal Shobowale, KF9, Peru
Feliz Navidad from Cusco!  Christmas is an important holiday in Cusco (and is fairly commercial).  Stores and homes put up Christmas lights starting at the end of November.  On Christmas Eve, people from the provinces around Cusco come to the city to sell Christmas goods, alpaca snow gear, artisanal goods and fireworks at a huge market in the Plaza de Armas (main square) and other squares around town.  Cusquenos exchange gifts and eat Panetone and drink chocolate caliente (hot chocolate).  Several of Arariwa´s bancos comunales (village banks) exchange baskets of important household necesities like sugar, rice, milk, and butter, all placed in a plastic container that can be used to wash clothes that is of course wrapped in big ´´poofy´´ plastic.  The grocery stores (Mega is the largest here) sell these baskets all ready to go.  Luckily, my husband was able to come visit, so we are spending Christmas together here in Cusco.  There´s no snow in Cusco, but there´s enough snow in my hometown of New York and in my husband´s hometown of Minneapolis to make up for it!  I will be here in Cusco for New Years as well, where the tradition is to wear yellow underwear for prosperity, red underwear for love and eat 12 grapes to celebrate each new year month.  Hope you and your family are enjoying the holidays!

Share the holiday spirit by lending through Kiva!

By Kelly McKinnon, KF9 Leon, Nicaragua

The question is posed casually, but as all heads in the room turn to await my response, I sense that this is not a simple question. Ummm, I stammer. Rapidly wracking my brain for cultural cues or anecdotes I’ve heard on the importance of soup in Nicaragua. Nothing, I’ve got nothing. So I stall a bit more, Soup? You are asking me if I like soup?

I am sitting at the kitchen table with a coworker and her family. Her grandmother poses the question, her aunt eyes me, and my coworker and her three sisters stop chattering to await my response. There wasn’t a kind of soup specified, so soup in general is up for my estimation. My answer to this one question will serve as a kind of review. I am being quizzed on how “Nica” I’ve become, I will also be invited to try soup, likely homemade, likely an expense for the household and I don’t want to be an imposition.

But really, who doesn’t like soup?! So I plunge ahead, Yes! I really like soup! I like chicken soup, and soup with noodles and oooh I looooove black bean soup.

Black bean soup! She likes black bean soup! My coworkers grandmother claps her hands together. Increasingly confident I add, yes I like it with lime juice and salsa Inglesa (Worchester Sauce), and cheese. Do you add egg? No, no egg. My coworker nods her confirmation; I had not added egg when we went to the soup restaurant for lunch. This was telling: she likes soup, but she does not add egg. The table goes back to chattering.

My version of bean and vegetable soup with Clight cocktail

Kelly McKinnon is the Kiva Fellow in Leon, Nicaragua, where soup is eaten to keep one cool. Wherever you may be, she hopes that soup is keeping you cool, or warm. Please enjoy this recipe for Nicaraguan Sopa de Frijole.

Soak red beans overnight in enough water to cover the amount you want to cook

Strain and mash the beans to desired consistency (Typical soups are smooth)

Add beans to 8 cups of water and bring to a simmer

Chopped onions, red peppers are often added

Add Chicharrones

Salt and Pepper to taste

Add eggs and poach in soup, if you do so, you are more Nicaraguan than I

Garnish with fresh grated cheese, lime juice, hot sauce and Worchester Sauce

Enjoy with corn tortilla

December 20th 6:58am

“Words are deeds”.  Who said that?

Kate is coughing and the sounds of her little 8 month waking down the hall are calmed by Gail’s soothing voice…like only a mom can do…then quiet.  If only words could capture that feeling…the tenderness that is instinct that begins my daughter’s new day with nothing but love.  Children (especially our own children) are a gift of love, magic.

 Meanwhile…snow, rain, ice, more snow, crowded buses, shoppers, lift lines, credit cards, credit calls, submitting monthly tax returns for the business, shhhhhhhhhhh…Christmas is coming.

Sometimes when Gail is out teaching I dance with Kate in the kitchen…our favorite lately is Arrested Development’s, ‘Zingalamaduni’ album.  Two decades of hip hop, a century of jazz and the 400 years before that take us back to Africa and we dance in our tiny kitchen.  The lyrics are engrained by years of repetition and solitary escapes in headphones on crowded trains…”I need some time to ease my mind…” like the Sunday morning sermons I never heard and I think, “on this rock, I build my church.”  Christmas is coming and Kate kicks her legs to the African rhythm and sometimes, most times, falls asleep with her head on dada’s shoulder.

Aside: The Americas are a lost tribe, lost people tossed together in a harsh homeless disconnect.  African, Asian, Europeans of all sorts, North, South, East, and West is best, it doesn’t matter -well it does, there are roots in culture – because none but a precious few of us are from here, indigenous, home…and yet we all call this home.  It’s no wonder we struggle.

  ”There is one path and one path only, the path of relentless struggle.”

 Beneath it all, somewhere, we are lost, lost in the resentment of a history that is too new to call this home our own…and if it’s not mine, it’s damn well not yours. Peace out America!

 Words are deeds…My wife was writing on her computer last night and from the other end of the couch, with the 50th anniversary issue of Surfer Magazine I said, “What are you doing?” “Just writing”, she replied, “you write.”, and with that, I went to bed with a smile and fell fast asleep, and woke up this morning thinking ‘words are deeds’.

‘Words are deeds.’  I cut it out of a magazine ad in university and taped it in book somewhere.  Words spill out and color the world like brushes and fingers with paint from cans in anything but random.  They are real.  Poetry, songs, love letters, journals, articles, graffiti at skate parks, cook books, the signs on homeless bearded men that say, “feed me”, Christmas cards….all of them, they are healing and revealing and they while they seem to escape the everyday (are you there right now?) beneath the pages, signs and letters, below the surface they find us peace in uncertainty, and home where there is none.  I go there, into the words, more often this time of year and I am reminded where I have been and who I am.  Not that I am defined or cast into the mold of my making but that I was and I am ever fluid and alive in every point in time, at the crest of the wave, and right there I capture the otherwise forgotten magic like Clark Little in the aftermath of the north shore break with his camera strapped to his wrist, washed up the sand with the impossible captured in his lens. Words are deeds.

Do I paddle in or float over and wait or does the next wave catch me ducking under?  (Ed. Cut to me at Chesterman Beach, Tofino…5mm of neoprene head to toe, struggling in the late April white water trying to figure out how that dude out there is sitting on his board without paddling.)  The ‘line up’…I’m not in the lineup.  I was in ‘my’ line up, a point off the shore left of the logs at center, in line with the rocky point to the south but I wasn’t in ‘the’ line up.  In the water, like in the mountains, there is a right place to be and it’s right over there (really, it is) but you can’t just paddle out thinking you are there…you have to find it, you have to commit, and you have to work and learn and struggle and…and don’t worry; if you’re not there the ocean will let you know.  

“There are thousands of religions, but there’s only one surfing.” Kelly Slater

Where will you build your church?  On a mountain, on a wave, on a canvas, in books with words, with pencils on empty pages…or maybe in your little girl’s eyes when she wakes to find a new day and smiles?  Christmas is coming.

I’ve just received an interesting report from Informa. It shows their prediction of how the TMT industry will outlook in 2010. In their view, the telecoms industry is beginning to see signs of economic recovery and can look forward to sustained, slow revenue growth in 2010. However, the dominance of the internet and the transition from hardware to software and services means that the landscape is becoming increasingly competitive and companies will need to shift their strategies and implement cost cutting measures to survive these new market dynamics.

Informa has identified ten key trends that will shape the telecoms and media industry in 2010:

Widgets
Widgets will become the key to harnessing power of the mobile web. All device vendors now see potential opportunities in offering widgets since these applications enable them to enhance the value of their devices and complement revenues from handset sales. It is becoming clear that, in developed markets, handset vendors can no longer rely on mobile phone sales to sustain growth. They will have to look at other opportunities, such as playing a role in enabling content creation and offering services through application stores, the internet, and ‘widgetization’.

Fixed broadband
Fixed broadband operators will experiment with new business models in a bid to end the “arms race” of increasing speeds and declining prices. The recent history of broadband in mature markets has been characterised by a sort of broadband “arms race” of increasing speeds and declining prices.Operators must now face up to the need to grow revenues in saturated markets. The major effect of declining prices and increasing bandwidth has been the emergence of mass markets for the consumption of on-line video and music, which other players are now better placed to profit from.

Pay TV
North American pay TV revenues will peak in 2010 and global pay TV subscription revenues will start to decline from 2012 as operators convert subscribers to triple-play bundles. Western European pay TV revenues will do likewise in 2011.

Functional separation
Mobile operators will make small steps towards a de facto functional separation in order to position themselves to address the demand for third party connected devices and applications. Unless operators give full autonomy to wholesale units, Informa believes they will be too slow to succeed in shifting internal mindsets and retail businesses need to be seen as just another customer of the network operations, albeit a so-called “friend with privileges”. Only in that way does the analyst think operators will be able to fully address the undeniable and sizeable opportunities that exist on a wholesale level.

LTE
Mobile LTE commercial launches will slip to 2013/2014 but LTE’s role as a provider of rural broadband connectivity will gain momentum. 2010 will be a year of further LTE trials but progress towards commercial services is likely to be slow. Informa expects only a handful of cautious early forays from the likes of Verizon and NTT DoCoMo towards the end of the year. Mobile LTE commercial launches in GSM-only markets will slip back to 2013-2014 as HSPA+ comes into the market.

IPTV
Operators will embrace ‘over-the-top’ TV and open internet apps. Following years of promise but little activity, there are now an increasing number of ways that content providers will be able to reach the TV. These include open specifications such as Canvas and HBBTV, via connected devices such as the Xbox 360 and via initiatives within the CE industry, such as Yahoo’s Connected TV initiative. Many of these initiatives should be commercially launched by 2011, if not 2010.

App stores
Operator app stores will struggle to compete with handset-manufacturer initiatives and Android will emerge as a worthy competitor to the iPhone. Operators will be the ones that most struggle to make a success of their application stores, unable in most cases to compete with Apple and other vendors in global reach, brand coolness and agility. Their biggest chance of retaining a significant role in the mobile applications value chain will be as billing enablers, since most handset/OS vendors realize they need carrier billing to get downloads going on their app stores. Beyond Apple, Google will be the vendor to make the greatest headway with its Android Market, possibly matching or even exceeding the App Store’s success.

Network sharing
Network sharing and outsourcing will gain in popularity as the drive towards cost-control intensifies but the network itself will remain a key point of differentiation for operators. Expect further infrastructure sharing announcements during 2010 as operators attempt to extend coverage and reduce costs. Both network sharing and outsourcing will continue to gain momentum as mobile operators seek to reduce their capex and opex burden. Each of these individually is already an established trend but the industry can also expect to see more variations on a theme where the two approaches are combined.

Address books
Enhanced address books will become a focus for mobile operators and handset manufacturers. Mobile operators and handset vendors are poised to follow Vodafone, T-Mobile and Motorola in enabling enhanced-address-book services for mobile subscribers. These will be made available by the mobile operators as an application that is pre-loaded onto the device or downloaded over-the-air, and by the handset vendors as a native feature (typically as part of the Rich Communications Suite project). Mobile operators will launch enhanced address books as a focal point around which to aggregate a range of community, messaging and content services and seize back the initiative from online brands.

HDTV
HDTV will reach tipping point but platforms still need to increase channels to win over subscribers. HDTV is finally taking off, but platforms need to ensure that they have a critical mass of channels to guarantee its success. For example, BSkyB offers 35 HD channels, and the service has enjoyed successful take-up. Other countries are increasing their HD channel choice, but still need to win over subscribers. Providing only a handful of HD channels is not enough to make for a successful package.

Interesting points of view. Merry Xmas, CVA

When was the last time you…

…received a briefing from the Obama Administration?

             …dined at an Ambassador’s home?

…sang Hatikvah with an Israeli soldier?

                         …heard directly from a head of state?

You will have the opportunity to do all this and more at AJC’s Annual Meeting April 28-30, 2010 in Washington D.C. We encourage you to register now.

You will hear from the Foreign Minister of Spain, Miguel Ángel Moratinos Cuyaubé, one of the world’s most important leaders in stopping Iran’s nuclear program, as Spain will hold the EU presidency.

You will enjoy intimate access to top policymakers. There will be more exclusive private dinners that were so popular last year. The French Ambassador to the United States will host a small group at his home, among many more to come.

You will engage with the cutting-edge issues that matter most. Expert panelists will debate topics like “The Obama Administration and Israel“,  ”Have Human Rights Gone Wrong?” and “Can Europe Be Multicultural?“.

These sessions will fill up fast, so please act quickly.

We hope to see you April 28-30, 2010.

AJC 2010 Annual Meeting
Global Jewish Advocacy

Washington, D.C. on April 28 – April 30, 2010

Grand Hyatt Hotel
1000 H Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001
(202) 582-1234

Register now!

According to the Wall Street Journal, US surveillance drones (you know, the future of military surveillance…) have allegedly been hacked by Iranian-backed Shi’ite forces in Iraq, using $26 off-the-shelf Russian software called Skygrabber – and they may have been compromised in Afghanistan too.

It is, as my informant, Aaron Martin, points out, amazing that the military surveillance systems of the world’s most resourced and technologically-developed military could be hacked so easily and for so long without notice. It also makes me wonder how many other networked surveillance systems would be vulnerable or are being hacked using the same or similar systems. If for example, organised criminal gangs could access the video surveillance systems of major cities, this would further call into question the effectiveness of these systems. Or alternatively, of course, it could point the way to a more accountable, open-access kind of surveillance – as Aaron and I are exploring in a paper we are currently writing.

Iran's pretroleum sector facilities -- Source: CIA

Iran is said to have arrested an alleged Western spy in one of its nuclear enrichment facilities, the Fordo plant. This is to have taken place some two months ago, though the government has not spoken of this incident. News of this was released by Israel’s Channel 2 and elaborated by Hebrew Radio.

Times of London, on Monday, released a report based on its obtaining intelligence documents that claim strong evidence of nuclear weapon development. “The notes, from Iran’s most sensitive military nuclear project, describe a four-year plan to test a neutron initiator, the component of a nuclear bomb that triggers an explosion. Foreign intelligence agencies date them to early 2007, four years after Iran was thought to have suspended its weapons programme.”

From the same Times report: “A 2007 US National Intelligence Estimate concluded that weapons work was suspended in 2003 and officials said with “moderate confidence” that it had not resumed by mid-2007. Britain, Germany and France, however, believe that weapons work had already resumed by then.”

The publication of these documents coincide with increased pressure on Iran from Western governments, led by the US.

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Ramin Mehmanparast, has responded to the Times story, reaffirming the country’s claim that the nuclear program is purely civilian. “This claim has political aims, and it is psychological warfare,” he said. Tehran Times has more on this. Beyond the Times report, the claims of a weapons program have not been confirmed, and though the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has confirmed receipt of the intelligence documents it has made no ruling on their accuracy.

Middle East historian and expert on Middle East politics, Juan Cole, had in October written a salient article, Top Things you Think You Know about Iran that are not True, that addresses many of the assumptions made by the media. Cole’s article is good to keep in mind when assessing the political and security situation in relation to Iran, and it can help the reader sift through the many allegations and counter-claims between the West and Iran.

Some key points from Cole’s article:

Iran’s military budget is a little over $6 billion annually. Sweden, Singapore and Greece all have larger military budgets. Moreover, Iran is a country of 70 million, so that its per capita spending on defense is tiny compared to these others, since they are much smaller countries with regard to population. Iran spends less per capita on its military than any other country in the Persian Gulf region with the exception of the United Arab Emirates.

…Iran has a nuclear enrichment site at Natanz near Isfahan where it says it is trying to produce fuel for future civilian nuclear reactors to generate electricity. All Iranian leaders deny that this site is for weapons production, and the International Atomic Energy Agency has repeatedly inspected it and found no weapons program. Iran is not being completely transparent, generating some doubts, but all the evidence the IAEA and the CIA can gather points to there not being a weapons program… While Germany, Israel and recently the UK intelligence is more suspicious of Iranian intentions, all of them were badly wrong about Iraq’s alleged Weapons of Mass Destruction and Germany in particular was taken in by Curveball, a drunk Iraqi braggart.

…Iranian politicians are rational actors. If they were madmen, why haven’t they invaded any of their neighbors? Saddam Hussein of Iraq invaded both Iran and Kuwait. Israel invaded its neighbors more than once. In contrast, Iran has not started any wars. Demonizing people by calling them unbalanced is an old propaganda trick. The US elite was once unalterably opposed to China having nuclear science because they believed the Chinese are intrinsically irrational. This kind of talk is a form of racism.

Xinhua reports that the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council has called for a peaceful political solution to the issue of Iran’s nuclear program. The PGCC consists of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. According to the news report, “the PGCC emphasized the right of all countries in the region to have peaceful nuclear energy within the framework of international agreements, based on regulations of the International Atomic Energy Agency and under its supervision.”

These same Gulf countries have together, and individually, reiterated the same point on countries’ rights to a peaceful civilian nuclear program. This may well underscore their own nuclear ambitions. Many countries in the Middle East, Central Asia, South Asia, and North Africa already have nuclear programs or are planning to set up new ones with the help of the US, Russia, Europe, or China.

The Council officially expressed its desire to seek a civilian nuclear program after its December 2006 summit.

In 2007, the Council asked for help from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in developing a civilian nuclear program and has since had some positive response from the energy agency.

The US, under president George W. Bush, has signed nuclear cooperation agreement with a number of Council members: with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Bahrain (click on each country name to read the agreement). All of these agreements were signed in 2008, save one with the UAE in 2009.

You can read more about the nuclear programs of other regional actors in an earlier report: A swarm of nuclear deals in the Middle East and Asia

A day after the Times of London story, The US House of Representatives on Tuesday approved a sanctions bill against Iran, as a response to the nuclear program. The US Senate has still to review the legislation. According to Dawn news, “The measure would empower US President Barack Obama to effectively block firms that supply Iran with refined petroleum products, or the ability to import or produce them at home, from doing business in the United States… Because of a lack of domestic refining capacity, oil-rich Iran is dependent on gasoline imports to meet about 40 per cent of domestic consumption. Iran gets most of those imports from the Swiss firm Vitol, the Swiss/Dutch firm Trafigura, France’s Total, the Swiss firm Glencore and British Petroleum, as well as the Indian firm Reliance.”

Al Jazeera on the US sanctions bill:

Asia Times reports on the sanctions:

Americans for Peace Now (APN), which advocates for a peaceful resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, opposed the sanctions legislation because ”it is about sanctions that target the Iranian people, in the hope that if the people become miserable enough they will pressure their government to change course. This is a strategy that few experts believe will work, and a strategy that has a very poor track record in other contexts (Iraq, Cuba, Gaza).”

”Indeed, experience has demonstrated with sanctions like these, the most likely and immediate result will be a backlash by the people of Iran against the United States, not against the Iranian regime,” APN concluded.”

I would argue that, in general, economic sanctions have some strong similarities with blockages and sieges. During the long history of blockades and sieges, non-combatants have always been the first to suffer. This is because the defending ruling forces will always reserve the most secure position for themselves, and have first access to necessary supplies. This is simple strategic logic. Proponents of a siege often argue their innocence by claiming that the enemy has forced civilians into the front lines by taking the best for themselves. This assumes that the attacking force did not intend to gain from the economic hardship and strangulation that provides military and psychological benefits in military, economic, and political warfare. The political philosopher, Michael Walzer, references the British military historian B.H. Liddell Hart’s assertion that in the First World War the British blockade was a decisive factor in Germany’s defeat. Hart argues that “the spectre of slow enfeeblement ending in eventual collapse,” drove the enemy military to make desperate and disastrous military decisions. (Michael Walzer, 2000. ‘Just and Unjust Wars’, Basic Books, p. 160.)

On Wednesday, Iran claims to have successfully test-fired an upgraded medium-range ground-to-ground missile. Iran’s PressTV has more on the test of the Sejjil-2 missile. It claims that the “new version of the Sejjil-2 is faster during the powered flight portion of its trajectory and also during the re-entry phase. It is also harder to detect for anti-missile systems, as it is covered with anti-radar material.” It is designed to be “more efficient as it requires less amount of time for prelaunch preparations. This quality reduces the possibility of it being targeted prior to take off. According to comments made by Iran’s defense minister, Brigadier Ahmad Vahidi, the missile-launch is part of Iran’s efforts to boost deterrence capabilities.”

The announcement was made only hours after US House approved the sanctions bill, in a time of increased tension regarding Iran’s nuclear program.

AP on the missile test:

Tower sharing has been one of the telecom industry’s global hot topics for close to a decade. The first wave was seen in the US and Europe, while recently, India has taken center stage with several multi-billion dollar asset carve-outs. Reading Informa’s latest report on network sharing, we read that leading operators in Western Europe have instigated infrastructure sharing and outsourcing deals, but carriers in developing markets are now beginning to look into alliances that would relieve them of heavy costs and speed expansion into rural areas.

Network infrastructure sharing and outsourcing is finding strong acceptance with mobile operators around the world, they follow, as an effective way to cut down coverage costs, while reducing the time to market. Such initiatives are well established in Europe, where they have been adopted by leading players such as Vodafone and Telefonica, but they have also seen significant traction in India, and are poised to make their impact felt in the Middle East and Africa.

Operators across the world, both in mature and developing markets, face challenges in sustaining margins with declining ARPU. But population distribution patterns in developing markets complicate the situation, since access to telecom services varies significantly between urban and rural areas leaving operators in these countries to balance the cost of operations in congested and saturated urban setups with the costs of new network rollouts in other areas. So in many contexts, infrastructure sharing offers a compelling proposition.

In Europe, the UK makes an interesting showcase for network sharing, since Deutsche Telekom and France Telekom’s September announcement to merge their respective UK operations. The two European heavyweights plan to merge T-Mobile UK and Orange UK into a 50:50 joint venture, and the agreement, should it be approved by the competition authorities, will create a new market leader, with over 33 million subscribers and a 43 per cent share of the market, according to the latest figures from Informa’s WCIS. Current leader O2 has a user base of 22.44 million, which represents a 29 per cent market share.

The deal is expected to generate synergies in excess of €4bn, with estimated opex-based synergies reaching an annual run rate of over £445m from 2014 onwards, through saving in network and IT expenditure, marketing and distribution. The joint venture would also be expected to invest £600 – 800m in integration costs over the period from 2010 to 2014, related to the decommissioning of mobile sites and the streamlining of operations.

But more importantly, the UK deal brings the prospect of a single network market closer to reality. Orange and T-Mobile will have the opportunity to combine their 23,000 or so 2G base station sites as part of their merger. But any attempts to consolidate their 3G networks will bring Hutchison’s 3UK into the equation.

T-Mobile and 3 formed a 50:50 joint venture called Mobile Broadband Network Ltd (MBNL) in December 2007. This was the world’s largest known active 3G network sharing agreement at the time, and saw the two operators elect to share their masts and 3G access networks. MBNL was given the aim of making 13,000 combined base station deployments, and around 7,000 are currently in operation. The marriage of Orange and T-Mobile would bring another 7,000 3G sites to the table, and Hutchison wants to share the synergies afforded by the agreement, especially seeing as Orange UK already hosts 3’s 2G traffic. In a statement, 3UK said: “Our network infrastructure joint venture with T-Mobile inevitably makes us an interested party.”

The UK is one of the more interesting case studies in network sharing but in early 2009 the European market as a whole reached a tipping point-the result of a flurry of network outsourcing deals. An increasing number of mobile operators were deciding that running a network was no longer their core business.

As Informa analyst Kris Szaniawski points out, network sharing and outsourcing are increasingly popular strategies for operators in mature markets such as Western Europe as they are facing tremendous pressure to reduce opex and capex while coping with extreme growth in data traffic. Average cost savings of 20-25 per cent over the life of a managed services contract are a strong driver but not the only one. “Whereas two or three years ago the more adventurous operators were typically asking vendors to help them run their networks at reduced cost it is now as much to do with helping them transform their networks and business processes,” he says.

But in April 2009, a deal signed between Zain Kenya and Essar Telecom Kenya indicated a sea change in carrier strategy for developing markest, with operators in those territories following the lead of those in Europe by striking an agreement to share 300 base stations over 15 years in Kenya. According to the analysts, this move is almost certainly an indication that Zain will look to strike more infrastructure sharing deals in some of the 21 other countries in the Middle East and Africa where it operates. And such a move could have major significance for all operators in the region because, as with their peers in Europe, it will herald a shift in focus from operating networks to selling services.

Romain Delavenne, director of analyst CG’s telecoms, media and entertainment consulting practice said that cell towers constitute almost 50 per cent of an operator’s total capex. Yet while many operators in developed markets have moved on to sharing network elements to save costs, in emerging markets with low penetration levels, operators are faced with the dual challenge of maintaining margins, while ensuring rapid rollout to keep pace with the growth in subscriber numbers.

Their estimates indicate that tower sharing could help operators in India and the Middle East achieve total savings of $4bn and $8b respectively in the next five years, with such savings resulting from the benefits of having reduced capex and opex. Operating costs associated with the running and maintenance of tower infrastructure, like diesel generators, air-conditioning equipment, and security and site rentals, form a significant portion (nearly 60 per cent) of operator opex. These costs are compounded in rural areas due to limited infrastructure facilities such as roads and a steady supply of electricity. For instance, in India the operational costs per tower have been estimated by analysts to increase by up to 20 per cent in remote inaccessible terrain.

For incumbent operators, sharing their existing tower assets helps in reducing the cost of network operations significantly. For instance, in the MEA region, it is estimated that tower sharing with a tenancy ratio of two would enable operators to achieve an annual tower opex reduction of 12-15 per cent resulting in savings of $1bn.

In most developing markets, incumbents are still expanding their networks to reach rural areas and improving coverage in dense urban pockets. Tower sharing benefits operators in achieving cost effective market coverage by helping reduce cost duplication. For example, in MEA, it has been estimated that an additional 100,000 towers would be required to extend reach in the next five years, a growth of over 50 per cent from current figures. Tower sharing could achieve potential savings of $8bn in that period, according to Delavenne.

As Chris Gabriel, chief executive officer of Zain Africa, puts it: “The rules of the game have changed with a paradigm shift from customer numbers to customer value (share of wallet) and business models must adapt to optimising asset utilisation through right sizing, outsourcing and infrastructure sharing.”

For new entrants the installation of cell sites is an expensive, complicated and labour-intensive process as there are a number of municipal clearances and government approvals required. For greenfield operators, partnerships in the form of joint ventures and sharing agreements with incumbent operators and tower companies are particularly attractive as they help reduce time to market significantly. For a mobile operator, more than 60 per cent of the total network rollout cost is accounted for by towers and accompanying infrastructure. For a new entrant, this translates into a significant financial burden which tower sharing and outsourcing helps to alleviate. According to analyst estimates, tower sharing can reduce overall cost of ownership after accounting for the tower lease costs, by 16 to 23 per cent.

Already established in mature markets, tower sharing and outsourcing models offer growth paths to service expansion and enhanced subscriber penetration for incumbents, new entrants and regulators in developing markets. So says Informa research analyst Thecla Mbongue, “Operators need to expand into rural-and less profitable-areas, but the economic downturn has affected the availability of financing. Lack of financing leads investors to look at ways to cut operating expenses, so site-sharing and managed networks are expected to play a bigger role in the near future.”

Benefits of network sharing

U.S. border guards pepper-sprayed, handcuffed, roughed up, and arrested a Canadian returning to Canada before releasing him into winter weather in his shirtsleeves. What’s up with that?  Peter Watts arrested at border.

BE POLITICALLY CORRECT AND SAY “YES”TO DISMEMBERED MONKEYS
I have just read an article about a Liberian mentally ill woman, mother of… 11 (oh, dear), who, back in 2006, was caught smuggling… monkey meat  (bushmeat) through customs while returning to the United States.
The four year long ordeal has not reached an end as she has been sentenced to probation, instead of the maximum of five years possible in her case, for breaking federal law and an international wildlife treaty. Such leniency will do nothing but encourage further “expressions of religious, Afro-Christian” beliefs.
Mamie Manneh tried to play the “freedom of religion” card, claiming that, as a Christian, her religion requires consuming such meat. Member of Christ Memorial Christian Church, the Liberian monkey smuggler tried very hard to depict her acts as perfectly acceptable.
… Christian?  I have always said that Africa should rename what today is called “Christianity”.  Afro-Christianity perhaps?
This retarded “goddess” of fertility should have been sentenced to jail time. The fact that she has 11 children and that she is retarded should not be considered extenuating circumstances. Our society seems to have no moral issues when it comes to this woman giving birth to 11 children (is she considered capable, responsible of taking care of them?), but she cannot be sent to jail in the name of a crooked moral perspective.
The judge said her faith didn’t bar Manneh from applying for the necessary permits to import the animal parts! In the end, all the fuss was about Manneh not having the … permit to import monkey parts?
What if, instead of monkeys, Manneh’s religion would require other types of meat to be consumed, such as… panda, the Chinese giant salamander, sea turtles, river dolphins, etc.? All these animals are endangered, but their killing shamelessly continues. Would this judge recommend Manneh getting a permit to import the meat?
What if Manneh’s religion would require human fetuses or virgins’ hymen? Would the judge ask for a permit?
The tyranny of the politically correct ideology will eventually destroy our civilization. We are not even entitled to express disagreement to anything outside of our culture. Today, disagreement means “anti-ism”. Socially, one must fit in the PC mould. If not, “-ist” labels will pull you down.
The communists, the Nazis, every single tyranny had its own methods of controlling the masses. The PCness has its own. One of them is that one should not be allowed to say, “I don’t like Chinese food” because we insult the Chinese sensitivity.
Instead of this, we must say, “Chinese food is delicious, but I am not used to it”.
To resume, the verb “to like” should not be used in a negative form regarding other cultures, religions, customs, traditions, languages, etc.
What about this bushmeat? Do I have the right to say, “This is barbarism”?
NOOO.
The PCness has requirements. We must show “sensitivity” to every single culture, custom and tradition. The degree to which we express verbal sensitivity shows our assimilation in PCness.
I remember having seen a documentary about African gorillas being killed. I recall a particularly hard to watch image of a gorilla with its hands severed. Gorilla hands are being sold as ashtrays…
What are the PC recommendations in this particular situation? I know, we must think of the economical aspects of the bushmeat traffic. In the PC language, pouching is not considered a crime anymore. Endangered species? Not the PC’s business.
Endangered species end up being consumed by humans for reasons such as religion, trend, culture, traditional medicine (Chinese medicine), economy or pure ignorance and primitive life style.

I was wondering who is the monkey in this story?
Bleak times… bleak times. Not only for animals.

Homework

What should the punishment be in this case?

Should immigrants be allowed to import endangered species for “religious/cultural purposes” ?

How do such stories change the face of our society?

Image: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c7/Chimpanzee_mom_and_baby.jpg

This link is from Niggermania, but the site is a good resource for learning about racism against Black people. I’ve found that the White racist sites are the most straight up honest about the low-down on how racist a place is. If a country or culture is racist as Hell against non-Whites, the racists love it and cheer it on. Cultures or nations that are more tolerant are routinely derided by the racists as PC, hopeless, brainwashed, nigger-lovers, anti-racists, liberals, etc.

Now, these guys have no reason to lie. If a place is racist and nasty, they come right out and say so. If a place is relatively tolerant, they think that sucks, and they call that out loudly. I have some commenters who insist that racists would see a very tolerant place as a viciously racist place. But why would they do that? They hate tolerant lands.

On the other hand, there is a serious problem with misrepresentation of nations by their nationalist citizens, especially Latin Americans, who don’t like gringos in the first place, don’t like to be compared to unfavorably to Gringo Americans. Many middle to upper class White or mestizo Latin Americans will insist that everything is groovy down there. Easy for them to say; they aren’t feeling any pain. But ask a Black Latin American, and you might get a different story.

Anyway, according to this link, 20 years ago (1990) there was de facto Jim Crow discrimination against Blacks in Ecuador. For all intents and purposes, Blacks were not allowed to serve as police or military officers. They were effectively barred from medicine, law and most other high-paying professions. Instead they were largely relegated to field work.

That’s a screwed up situation, and it would be interesting to see if it’s still going on.

Here is another post that talks about being a tourist or ESL teacher in Ecuador. Apparently being a temporary foreign worker or bucks up American tourist of any color is a different matter altogether down there.

Black American tourists are unlikely to encounter serious problems, and the scene on the beach is a lot of fun for Black people, with lots of Black Ecuadorians and Black Colombians hanging out at the discos and partying. It looks like the scene on the beach is different from the rest of Ecuador in that the Blacks have created their own reggae – party scene on the coast.

On the other hand, it’s perfectly possible for de facto wealthy American Blacks (if you have the money to travel to Latin America as a tourist, you’re a rich American in their eyes) to go to a country and have a good time while the native Blacks are still suffering serious institutional discrimination. That’s because the American’s skin tone is washed away by his Rich American image.

Darién Gap

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Coordinates: 7°54′N 77°28′W / 7.90°N 77.46°W / 7.90; -77.46

The Darién Gap is a large swath of undeveloped swampland and forest separating Panama (Central America) and Colombia (South America). It measures just over 160 km (99 mi) long and about 50 km (31 mi) wide. It is not possible to cross between South America and Central America by land without passing through the Darién Gap. Roadbuilding through this area is expensive, and the environmental toll is steep. Political consensus in favor of road construction has not emerged. There is no road connection through the Darién Gap connecting North/Central America with South America. It is therefore the missing link of the Pan-American Highway.

The geography of the Darién Gap on the Colombian side is dominated primarily by the river delta of the Atrato River, which creates a flat marshland at least 80 km (50 mi) wide, half of this being swampland. The Panamanian side, in sharp contrast, is a mountainous rain forest, with terrain reaching from 60 m (200 ft) in the valley floors to 1,845 m (6,050 ft) at the tallest peaks (Cerro Tacarcuna).

Contents [hide] 1 Pan-American Highway 2 People 3 Natural resources 4 History 4.1 Foot crossings 5 Politics 6 See also 7 References 8 External links

//

Pan-American Highway

The Pan American Highway with the Darién Gap between Panama and Colombia.

Main article: Pan-American Highway

The Pan-American Highway is a system of roads measuring about 48,000 km (30,000 mi) long that crosses through the entirety of North, Central, and South America, with the sole exception of the Darién Gap. On the Colombian side, the highway terminates at about 27 km (17 mi) west of Barranquillita, at Lomas Aisiadas (Casa 40) located at 7°38′N 76°57′W / 7.633°N 76.95°W / 7.633; -76.95. On the Panamanian side, the road terminus is the town of Yaviza at 8°9′N 77°41′W / 8.15°N 77.683°W / 8.15; -77.683. This marks a straight-line separation of about 100 km (62 mi). In between is marshland and forest.

Efforts have been made for decades to remedy this missing link in the Pan-American highway. Planning began in 1971 with the help of U.S. funding, but were halted in 1974 after concerns raised by environmentalists. Another effort to build the road began in 1992, but by 1994 a United Nations agency reported that it would cause extensive environmental damage. There is evidence in favor of the argument that the Darién Gap has prevented the spread of diseased cattle into Central and North America, which have not seen foot and mouth disease since 1954, and at least since the 1970s this has been a substantial factor in preventing a road link through Darién Gap.^{[citation needed]} Embera-Wounaan and Kuna Indians have also expressed concern that the road would bring about the potential erosion of their cultures.

A United States Department of Defense Joint Operations Graphic chart published in 1995, as well as Expedia World Maps, show a road under construction linking Yaviza via a western route along the Pacific Colombian coast.^{[citation needed]}

The 2005-06 edition of the American Automobile Association map of the Caribbean, Central and South America also shows a gravel road extending from Yaviza to the town of Palo de las Letras on the Panama side of the Panama-Colombia border.^{[citation needed]} But this is surely erroneous, because the only way to get from Yaviza to Palo de Las Letras is by dugout to Paya, and then on foot to Palo.^{[citation needed]}

As of April 2004 there was no apparent active construction of a road beyond Yaviza, although some improvements to the road as far as Yaviza appeared to be in progress.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] People

The Darién Gap is home to the Embera-Wounaan and Kuna Indians (and former home of the Cueva people before their extermination in the 16th century). Travel is often by dugout canoe. On the Panamanian side, Yaviza is the main cultural center. It had a reported population of 1700 in 1980. Corn, mandioca, plantains and bananas are staple crops wherever land is developed.

[edit] Natural resources

Two major national parks exist in the Darién Gap: Darién National Park in Panama and Los Katíos National Park in Colombia. The Darién Gap forests had extensive Cedrela and mahogany cover at one time, but many of these trees were removed by loggers.

The Darién National Park covers around 5,790 square kilometres of land and was established in 1980. It is the largest national park in Central America.

[edit] History

The Gap is frequented^{[citation needed]} by four wheel drive (4WD) and other vehicles that attempt intercontinental journeys. The first post-Colonial expedition to the Darién was the Marsh Darien Expedition^[1] in 1924/25, supported by several major sponsors including the Smithsonian.

The first successful vehicular crossing of the Gap itself was by the Land Rover La Cucaracha Cariñosa (The Affectionate Cockroach) and a Jeep of the Trans-Darién Expedition 1959-60, crewed by Amado Araúz (Panama), his wife Reina Torres de Araúz, former SAS man Richard E. Bevir (UK), and engineer Terence John Whitfield (Australia).^[2] They left Chepo, Panama on 2 February 1960 and reached Quibdó, Colombia on 17 June 1960, averaging 201 m (220 yd) per hour over 136 days. They travelled a great deal of the distance up the vast Atrato River.

In December 1960 on a motorcycle trip from Alaska to Argentina Danny Liska^[3] transited the Darién Gap from Panama to Colombia.^[4] On the trip across the Gap, Liska was forced to abandon his motorcycle and proceed by boat and foot. 1962 saw a failed attempt by General Motors with a team of Chevrolet Corvairs supported by a bulldozer and a fuel truck.^{[citation needed]}

A Range Rover on the British Trans-Americas Expedition in 1972 led by John Blashford-Snell is claimed to be the first vehicle-based expedition to traverse both American continents north-to-south through the Darién Gap. However, this expedition used boats to bypass the Atrato Swamp in Colombia which lies on the “direct” Trans-Americas route and received substantial support from the British Army. “The Hundred Days Of Darien”, a book written by Russell Braddon in 1974, chronicles this expedition.

The first fully overland wheeled crossing (others used boats for some sections) of the Gap was that of British cyclist Ian Hibell who rode from Cape Horn to Alaska between 1971 and 1973. Hibell took the “direct” overland south-to-north route including an overland crossing of the Atrato Swamp in Colombia. Hibell completed his crossing accompanied across the Gap by two New Zealand cycling companions who had ridden with him from Cape Horn, but neither of these continued with Hibell on to Alaska. Hibell’s “Cape Horn to Alaska” expedition forms part of his 1984 book Into the Remote Places.

The first motorcycle crossing was by Robert L. Webb in March 1975. Another four wheel drive crossing was in 1978–1979 by Mark A Smith and his team. Smith and his team drove the 400 km (250 mi) stretch of the gap in 30 days using five stock Jeep CJ-7s. They travelled many miles up the Atrato River via barges. Mark Smith has released his book Driven by a Dream, which documents the crossing.

The first all-land auto crossing was in 1985–1987 by Loren Upton and Patty Mercier in a CJ-5 Jeep, taking 741 days to travel 125 miles (201 km), all on land. This crossing is documented in the 1992 Guinness Book of Records. In addition Upton returned in 1995 and became the first to drive a motorcycle, a two-wheel drive Rokon motorcycle, all on land through the Darién Gap, in 49 days.

[edit] Foot crossings

There have been several notable crossings by foot. Sebastian Snow crossed the Gap with Wade Davis in 1975 as part of his unbroken walk from Tierra Del Fuego to Costa Rica. The trip is documented in his 1976 book The Rucksack Man. In 1981, George Meegan crossed the gap on a similar journey. He too started in Tierra Del Fuego and eventually ended in Alaska. His 1988 biography The Longest Walk describes the trip and includes a 25 page chapter on his foray through the Gap. In 2001, as a part of his Goliath Expedition, a trek to forge an unbroken footpath from the tip of South America to the Bering Strait and back to his home in England, Karl Bushby (UK) crossed the gap on foot, using no transport or boats, from Colombia to Panama.

Most crossings of the Darién Gap region have been from Panama to Colombia. In July 1961, three college students crossed from the Bay of San Miguel to Puerto Obaldia on the Gulf of Parita (near Colombia) and ultimately to Mulatupu in what was then known as San Blas and now identified as Kuna Yala. The trip across the Darién was by banana boat, piraqua and foot via the Rio Turia (La Palma and El Real de Santa Maria), Rio Chucunaque (Yaviza), Rio Tuquesa (Chaua’s (General Choco Chief) Trading Post—Choco Indian village) and Serranía del Darién.^[5][6]

In 1985, Project Raleigh, which evolved from Project Drake in 1984 and in 1989 became Raleigh International, sponsored an expedition which also crossed the Darién coast to coast.^[7] Their path was similar to the 1961 above, though in reverse. The expedition started in The Bay of Caledonia at the Serranía del Darién and followed the Rio Membrillo ultimately to the Rio Chucunaque and Yaviza. Roughly following the route followed by Balboa in 1513.

In 2000, Tom Hart Dyke and a fellow traveller, Paul, were kidnapped by suspected FARC guerillas in the Darién Gap between Panama and Colombia while hunting for rare orchids, a plant for which he has a particular passion. He and his travel companion were held captive for nine months and threatened with death, before eventually being released unharmed and without a ransom being paid.

[edit] Politics

The Darién Gap is subject to the presence and activities of three Colombian rebel groups. These include the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), a right-wing paramilitary group formerly headed by Carlos Castaño;^{[citation needed]} and both left-wing National Liberation Army (ELN) and Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). All three groups have committed human rights violations.^[8] The U.S. State Department reported that combined, the ELN and FARC have been responsible for 51 kidnappings and ten murders of U.S. citizens. Kidnappings are common for political and financial gain.

Among the political victims of the Darién Gap were three missionaries who disappeared from Pucuro on the Panamanian side in 1993.^{[citation needed]} British travelers were kidnapped in Darién Gap in 2000 and held for nine months, as documented in the book The Cloud Garden by Tom Hart Dyke and Paul Winder. In 2003, Robert Young Pelton, on assignment for National Geographic, and two teammates were detained by AUC rebels for one week in a highly publicized incident.^[9][10]

[edit] See also

• Lionel Wafer
• Gulf of Darién
• Darién scheme

[edit] References

1. ^ Marsh Darien Expedition
2. ^ Trans Darien Expedition
3. ^ Danny Liska
4. ^ Danny Liska “Across the Darien Gap by River and Trail II”, Peruvian Times, Vol XXI, Num. 1068(June 2, 1961), pg. 10
5. ^ “Brought Back Darien Bush”, Panama Star & Herald, July 9, 1961, pg. 1
6. ^ Carl Adler, “A Trip to Panama”, The Scholastic, Vol. 104, No. 11, January 18, 1963, pg. 18
7. ^ “After Trek Through the Jungle Youth’s Ready to Go Again”. Raleigh News & Observer, June 25, 1985
8. ^ Amnesty International | Working to Protect Human Rights
9. ^ “3 Americans freed, 2 journalists still captive in Colombia“. CNN.com. http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/americas/01/24/colombia.journalists/. Retrieved 2007-05-22.
10. ^ Markey, Sean (2003-01-22). “Adventure Writer Reportedly Kidnapped in Panama“. National Geographic News. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/01/0122_030122_kidnapping.html. Retrieved 2007-05-15.

[edit] External links

• “Pan-American Highway and the Environment”
• “The Darien Gap” (1996)
• “Darién Gap” (song)
• “The Art of Travel” (2008)

By Thomas Gold, KF9, Dominican Republic

I am quite a picky person when it comes about writing. I really make it a point to write as properly as possible, even in a non-native language. Therefore, when I am writing an entry for the Kivafellows blog, I use to plan it, prepare a draft, then write it in French (my native language), spend a lot of time trying to translate it in English, and then I hand it to Gemma, another Kiva Fellow, who corrects my English text and make it look like if it had been written by a native speaker. However, this time I felt like I would try to write in English directly, without taking too many looks at dictionaries and losing some spontaneity in the writing and translating process (I hope it won’t hurt the language purists in my kind!). I must say that I was also incited to do so as I read the articles of Kanae, Kiva Fellow alumni, who wasn’t a native English speaker either and wrote excellent blogs.

For the last four days, I couldn’t help but thinking that the group meeting I had attended last Friday was a perfect example of all that I have learned about microfinance, since I started my fellowship with the MFI Esperanza, and thus I would have to share it. Here is a short video shot during this meeting and sent as a journal update.

So let’s draw the setup. I was planning to meet a group of borrowers, funded on Kiva, to realize some Kiva work (journal updates for some, and verification for others). The group meeting was taking place in Boca Chica, a pretty famous touristic place of the Dominican Republic. Boca Chica is quite far from the nearest branch office and loan officers’ schedule are really tight, so I had to manage to get to the town on my own. After a one hour long ride bus, and asking the bus driver to stop when I thought I was getting to the place I had been previously described (bus have no official stops in the country, you just have to ask the bus driver to drop you off), I met with Alejandro, the loan officer, who took me on his motorcycle to get to the group meeting.

One can hardly believe that the community where the group was meeting is in the same area as the tourism resorts that stand not too far. Dust and muddy roads, houses made of wood and tin roof, which look like they are about to collapse, garbage everywhere and kids playing around … I am not trying to make you have pity for the borrowers, because as I start talking with them, I often find out that living conditions are not as bad as they look form outside and people often find very smart ways to cope with the situation, but the difference between the borrowers’ community and the luxury resorts always strikes me.

Six groups of five borrowers were meeting this day to pay one of their loan installments. As it happens many times, and especially with large groups whose loans started a long time ago, not all borrowers were on time at the meeting. During the two months I spent here, I have realized that although borrowers are quite excited about the first steps of the loan (getting the money of course, and paying the first two or three installments), their motivation decreases, and their participation and attendance is much less regular towards the end. However, Alejandro (loan officer) is just unbelievably committed to his task and puts a lot of energy to remotivate the groups, and have them be responsible and supportive to one another. Esperanza’s policy is that loan officers do not leave the community until they get a complete repayment from the group (otherwise the installment is counted as defaulted for the whole group) and I have happened to stay almost five hours with a loan officer, waiting for a group to find a solution to get a complete repayment. However, I noticed that the best motivation for a group to fulfill with its payments on time is when all the members are planning to request another loan. That has been the case of about 80% of the borrowers I have interviewed, which also demonstrates in my opinion both successes and limits of microfinance (Borrowers have found it profitable to borrow so they want to do it again, but they still don’t manage to break the cycle of borrowing money to develop their activity)

Eventually, all members showed up, or sent someone to give the repayment. Some had just had a hard time gathering the money for a repayment. As most of borrowers’ businesses work on credit, the meetings that take place just before the day when administration employees and construction workers get their paycheck are always the most difficult ones. Other borrowers simply had commitments that made it hard for them to get on time (like this pre-school teacher who came with five young children). When asking the borrowers what they like and dislike with the MFI Esperanza, I have been told several times that it is not convenient for them to attend these bimonthly meetings, even if they take place in their neighborhood. This is one of microfinance realities: When you are paying back a loan from a commercial bank, everything is digitalized and you don’t have to worry about anything. At most, you need to make a bank transfer or send a check…but try to imagine if your banker was coming to your place every two weeks, gathering other clients living near by, and led a two hours long meeting for the only purpose of paying one of the several installments scheduled for your loan! However, these meetings are a fundamental part of the microfinance process. The lack of technological means to process the bank transfers is not the only reason: in environments where people are not used to be given responsibilities, and might be appealed to use the loan amount for other purposes, borrowers often need to be reminded that the only way to make this opportunity profitable for them is to invest in a business activity (be it formal or informal)

Considering this last point, Esperanza, as certainly many other MFIs, strive to make the most of these indispensable meetings to provide other services to their clients, on both social and financial fronts. During this reunion, several borrowers came to talk to the loan officer about requesting a housing loan (Esperanza has a special loan product for housing purposes, with longer terms and lower interest rates, along with construction council), requesting an individual loan (for clients with a good repayment history) or asking to repay their loan earlier in order to take a new one. Some social services are also provided: It is not uncommon that loan officers ask about the borrower’s health and give them a ride to a partner clinic where they have free access as members of the MFI.

However, not every borrower draws benefits from their loan. Most cases of delinquency, often results of either life uncertainties, unfortunate events, or a misuse of the loan: the money was not invested in a business, sometimes lent to another family member, or it was not invested in a profitable way, and the borrowers stay with the burden of paying the installments every two weeks.

Religion is also very present during these meetings and in Dominican life in general. Once all members have gathered, a short prayer is tol commitments to the institution (Ed, often followed by a religious song. Religion is a vector of unity within the group and reinforces borrowers’speranza is a catholic institution). Entrepreneurs grant their repayment success to God, and for many of them, the whole process of getting a loan and try to carry out a business in order to support their family, only makes sense when considered under the point of view of religion.

Going back to the sequence of events of this particular meeting; Alejandro, the loan officer eventually collected all the repayment vouchers form the borrowers, at the exception of a few repayments made by cash. For the groups of borrowers living far from the branch office, and with an easy access to a bank, repayments are collected through vouchers, in order to make the loan officer’s job safer. Alejandro, as several other loan officers has been attacked and robbed once after a meeting.

We were then able to head to another community, where a group was having the last step of the training that will enable them to take a loan. This last session is a review of all the aspects of the loan, future Esperanza members are reminded that the loans repayment consist of capital, interest, insurance and savings. They are also taught basic advices for their businesses, and their commitments as a group. This was my first time attending a training session, and it made me realize how a lack of basic education can be a bridle for people to gain control on their life.

I don’t mean to insult anyone’s intelligence. When I am interviewing them, I have sometimes felt amazed by some borrower’s open-mindedness although life opportunities seem limited in their environment. However, I must say that the training session mainly looked like an elementary school class. Alejandro, who learnt basic Creole as he has been in close contact with group of Haitians borrowers, had to repeat the same things tirelessly, both in Creole and Spanish, so that the future borrowers would remind it. He also provided very basic but indispensable advices about the necessity to sell their products at a higher price than it was purchased, and to consider other expenses such as transportation.

The group was eventually reviewed by the branch office manager, and their last step to the issuing of the loan could take place: the group committee where members discuss the loan amounts that each of them is going to receive. As they are bound to pay back together, these committees serve to put limits on the loan amounts for members who may not be able to handle too big repayment installments and put the whole group at risk. I was curious to witness one of these committees, and as I could expect group members where not really eager to put limits on other members loan amounts. Once again, the loan officer had to put a lot of energy (I know I am repeating myself, but the video speaks for itself) to explain the aim of the process and make it constructive.   Experience shows that these committees actually become constructive when groups have already taken several loans and gone through difficulties.

After a last visit to another group of borrowers, I was on my way back to enjoy a nice weekend in Santo Domingo.

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Esperanza has a lending team! Help us reach the threshold of three members, by end of 2009 !!!

By Ben Mueller

The U.S. likes to lock people up.  At 754 out of 100,000 residents, our incarceration rate dwarfs that of other democracies like England (154 per 100,000), Canada (116), and Japan (63).  We have 5% of the world’s population and 25% of the world’s incarcerated population.

For years, we’ve funded our fixation on prisons with ever-increasing spending to support growing inmate populations.  A Pew Center study in March found that state corrections spending quadrupled in the past two decades.

At $47 billion in 2008, criminal correction spending is outpacing budget growth in education, transportation, and public assistance.  Only Medicaid spending has grown faster.

But as we look back on a year in which the disastrous effects of our financial crisis have dominated discussion, let us consider a positive consequence of our perilous economic situation: it has forced states to critically evaluate their costly correctional systems and motivated them to take action against a growing list of human rights abuses in prisons.

In August, a federal court ruling exposed massive overcrowding and grossly deficient mental and medical healthcare systems in California’s prisons.  The ruling documented frequent preventable deaths, psychotic inmates who are left untended, general high risk of disease, and mental illness.  The court also noted that these conditions make prisoners more likely to commit new crimes when they are released.  Yet after decades of litigation, little progress has been made.

But the financial crisis joined the economic imperative of cutting costs with the constitutional and ethical imperative of fixing overcrowded prisons.  The result was a late August decision by the California legislature to reduce the state prison population by 27,000 inmates and the state corrections budget by about $1 billion.

A similar chain of events has been playing itself out in New York.  A federal investigation in August revealed that excessive physical force is used routinely in several juvenile prisons in New York, resulting in concussions, broken teeth, and bone fractures.  But again, it took the state’s budget crisis to rouse to action a traditionally inflexible bureaucracy.  A task force convened by the state in response to the federal investigation argued that the current juvenile system is simply unsafe for inmates, who can be physically abused and rarely receive any education.  But just as importantly, the report argued that New York’s current approach fails “the principles of good governance that demand effective use of scarce state resources” suggesting cheaper and more humane alternatives to the prison system for the state’s youngest criminals.  The New York Times reported in December that the state has asked judges to find alternative placements for young offenders.

The financial mess has forced us to economize.  In the face of budget cuts and in light of our determination to improve human rights, we have to become creative as well as responsible.  We can no longer shell out dollar bills hoping to cover up our stubborn and abusive prison system, which threatens the rights of millions of incarcerated Americans everyday.

U.S. President Obama gets H1N1 flu inocculation

Hat tip to Phil Plait for this note and image: U.S. President Obama sets a good example by getting his Mexican Swine flu (H1N1 novel 2009) flu shot. Phil is planning to get his, and I’ve had both the swine and the seasonal inocculations.

By Victoria Kabak, KF9, Nicaragua

I try not to play favorites, but this week I met my favorite borrower. The borrowers I’ve liked the most so far have been those who are particularly friendly, have particularly interesting things to say, or give me food. Kenia fell into that first category, and I really enjoyed talking both to her and her younger sister-in-law, who helps Kenia make the 60 lunches she puts together every day for a nearby business. Not only did the rest of her family not look at me as if I’m an alien – which I’ve actually almost gotten used to by now! – but they were very friendly as well.

Kenia and I are the same age, and I felt like we connected. I was sad to say goodbye to her and to think about the fact that I will most likely never see her again. I promised I’d make a print of the photo I took of her and her sister-in-law and get it to her loan officer to bring it to her. But there was one thing (well, probably many things but one most obvious thing) that we didn’t have in common. At 22 years old, Kenia has a 2.5-year-old son. James is adorable and smiley and lively, and he definitely added to the positive experience I had meeting Kenia for the journal entry I wrote. But I found myself thinking back to 2.5 years ago. At the end of my sophomore year of college, when Kenia and I were both 20, Kenia was having a baby. If I had had a child when Kenia did, I would have had a baby to care for all throughout my junior and senior years.

Kenia, left, and her sister-in-law standing in front of the area in their home where they make the lunches they sell

Kenia is by no means the first borrower I’ve met who had one or more children at a young age. Whether it was five years ago or 20 years ago, many women borrowers I’ve been fortunate to meet here in Nicaragua began having children when they were in their very early 20s or younger. Meeting borrowers, I have also encountered a couple of pregnant teenage girls. One was a borrower’s daughter; another, a friend of the borrower’s son.

The Guttmacher Institute, a U.S.-based nonpartisan NGO that seeks to “advance sexual and reproductive health in the United States and worldwide,” issued a report in 2006 entitled “Early Childbearing in Nicaragua: A Continuing Challenge.” The key points listed at the beginning include:

Among Nicaraguan women 20-24 years old…almost half had had a child before their 20th birthday.

A quarter of all births in Nicaragua–35,000 per year–are to 15-19 year olds.

The proportion of 20-24 year olds who had a child during adolescence is more than twice as high among the poorest as among those in the highest socioeconomic category.

Nearly half–45%–of births to adolescent women were unplanned.

These figures are staggering. Most telling, I think, are the last two. Having a child at this young age is associated with poverty and is often unplanned. And these facts lead me to my main point, because what they suggest is a lack of family planning especially on the part of the poor.

The issue of family planning is, of course, incredibly complex. It brings in not only personal values and ideology but also questions of cultural hegemony: here in Nicaragua, family is of the utmost importance. Families are large, multiple generations often share one home, and grandparents are often very actively involved in raising their grandchildren. If starting to have children at a young age is part of the culture, who are we to judge it and say it’s wrong?

The problem really lies in the association between early childbearing and poverty and in the fact that these pregnancies are unplanned. It’s certainly not to say that ending early childbearing would end poverty, but it’s easy to imagine how it contributes to the cycle of poverty. Having a child at a young age often means the end of a woman’s schooling, hindering her from attaining higher levels of education and in turn limiting the kinds of jobs she’ll be able to get in the future. And early childbearing also inherently implies that the mother or parents have had less time to work and earn money, possibly creating a more difficult financial situation for them and their child than if they had their first baby five years later instead. (I imagine there are dozens of academic studies on the topic, but I won’t go into them here.)

I think that this degree of early childbearing contributes to the cycle of poverty, and apart from the stats, just from what I’ve seen in Nicaragua in two and a half months, I can tell that this is a prevalent issue. Addressing it would be no small feat and, again, gets into sticky territory because of the ideological components. But I believe that to alleviate poverty – as is the goal of microfinance – a multifaceted approach is necessary. Microfinance institutions that are able to provide other services, such as financial education and health services, should consider integrating family planning education or partnering with other organizations that could help in this area, as contentious as it may be.

Here’s hoping that those 45 percent of adolescent women in Nicaragua who are having unplanned pregnancies will have the resources and opportunities in the future to plan, whether their plans involve having children, running a business, or like Kenia, both–or something else altogether.

Victoria Kabak is a Kiva Fellow at AFODENIC in Managua, Nicaragua. Check out AFODENIC’s currently fundraising loans on Kiva.org, or purchase a Kiva gift certificate for a loved one this holiday season!

It is 6:13 am and in the Bella Conference Center I am listening to the chair of the AOSIS (Association of Small Island States) trying to fight off uncontrollable tears. I am almost certain that the Group of 77 (a behemoth of 130 plus developing country states) is coming to an end. Countries are divided and I am witnessing accusations fly across the plenary. Why has it taken us so long to arrive at this point? We sit here with the “Copenhangen Accord” staring at our faces. It is a document full of hot air and is not what billions of people across the planet had been promised to deliver atmospheric restitution. Once again the developed nations have managed to gain somewhat of an upper hand in the wake of greater sacrifices of the larger developing countries.

That aside, negotiators had feared from day one of the talks that the documents and the process of negotiating would not mature to the point required in order to allow negotiations to move into the high level segment where over 100 Heads of States would come to sign a just climate deal. Their fears were realized. The process has been deeply flawed and the voices of nations regarding lack of transparency, conspiracy to kill off the Kyoto protocol has been true. I often found myself being witness to the injustice within the UNFCCC process (where had I not gone to certain meetings, I would have missed out on joint drafting sessions which I assumed were only scheduled G-77 coordination meetings). Text messages were sent, rooms were changed, information was not available to all.

All of this, in the wake of the greatest climate conference the world has ever seen since the birth of the Convention some 18 years ago. Why did it take us so long? How did we get so bitterly entrenched in this process? I have seen and learned more about the process as a negotiator in the last 2 weeks than I could have my entire life. As a result, I have become deeply disillusioned. Two nights ago, at the launch of the Maldives “Survival Kit” for nations, President Nasheed had all but given up on the process and called on youth to take to the streets and make this the absolute issue in politics. For nations like the Maldives that lie 1.5 meters above sea level at their highest point, this is an issue of their survival. I would agree.

After a bitter impasse, and stalling of the talks due to the flawed process, negotiators had still not made progress on many of the key issues. In the group discussing “enhanced action on mitigation” I found myself transported back in time as if no progress had been made between the developed and rapidly developing countries on any of the points on emissions reductions. On the issue of Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions by developing countries, the parties talked in circles and could not arrive at any concrete conclusions. Finally the Heads of States arrived adding further confusion to an already impossible situation. Having lost a day and half due to the boycott of the talks by members of the African Group and other major developing countries didn’t help but probably was the only thing that kept the two track process (the Kyoto protocol) alive. Late last night, the heads of 25 nations were invited as part of a “friends of the chair” group to help broker a deal: United States, United Kingdom, Sweden, Spain, Saudi Arabia, Russia, China, India, Brazil, South Africa, Mexico, Maldives, Grenada, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Algeria, Denmark, Germany, Korea, Bangladesh, France, Gabon, and three others. The leaders of this group tried to hammer out a rough document to provide the basis for further negotiations. This is the “Copenhagen Accord“.

The deal is far from perfect. It is non-binding for starters and has a range of base years from which the many countries putting up targets can choose. If one looks closely, there is probably no way that it meets the 2 degrees guard rail target that we need at the MOST in order to avert a run-away climate disaster (even though it claims to use 2 degrees as the upper limit). It is far from what the islands need, far from what the Least Developed Nations require and still leaves many questions to be resolved. Yet it is the only thing that can salvage the absolute and utter lack of trust and faith that has been built up over the last two years between parties of the United Nations. Climate poses the biggest question to humanity as to whether or not we are going to be able to save ourselves. That is after all, what we are trying to do here. At this time, what we need is trust, faith, and greater understanding to move forward. I am only 25 years old. I fear bringing children into this world and as I sit here listening to nation after nation make statements in favor of or against supporting the passing of the Copenhagen Accord, I am now as uncertain as ever as to the future of humanity.

We have not attained “climate justice” here today. Nor have we secured our future. Outside over 200 protesters mobilized to arrive at the conference center to organize a “Shame Vigil.” Mind you civil society suffered the most fatal defeat during these talks by having been forcibly locked out in the final days. However, with an unprecedented over 45,000 registered delegates to the talks I think we have indeed arrived at a crucial point where the movement is unstoppable and will only continue to grow. It is 7:00 am on December 19th and I am unsure as to what the outcome will be. I leave you with this:

“In my anger, I am not blind, and in my fear, I am not afraid to tell the world how I feel.” –Severn Suzuki (age 12), Rio Earth Summit 1992

By Kelly McKinnon, KF9 Leon Nicaragua

¿Quién Causa Tanta Alegría?

¡La Concepción de María!

An exuberant young man, who I was to later understand is the Priest who hosts a Grand Purísima celebration (attended by former presidents, the bishop, the mayor and a five piece brass band), rattled off the schedule of events of the day’s celebration of La Purísima:

12:00p   Fireworks are lit all over the city to signal the beginning of the celebration.*

12:10p   Gigantona dance competition in the central plaza**

6:00p     Mass ends and more fireworks sound

6:20p     Fireworks end and the Gritando begins***

12:00a   More Fireworks

*Not the pretty kind, but the kind that sound like a .12 gauge

**Oh the things I haven’t written about!

***Translates as “Screaming” but actually refers to the call for gifts from houses, either a song or a sonorous reciting of “¿Quíen cause tanta alegria?”

On December 6th Fundación León 2000 celebrated La Purísima. Since my arrival I have been hearing about La Purísima. What I had been able to gather about La Purísima before this week, without doing any research because it felt like cheating, was that it’s like Halloween and it’s the celebration of The Virgin Mary/ The Immaculate Conception. After witnessing the celebration of La Purísima at Fundación León, I had only been able to gleen that singing was involved and, perhaps, gifts of Tupperware filled with matches and candy. I left the party, sent home with a garbage bag filled with four large Tupperwares and one bucket, all full of matches and candy.

Tupperware Full of Candy!

Sandra, Kiva Coordinator for Fundación León 2000 and my main source of information, had explained to me that gifts of useful items are given by individuals or households that are able to give, and they do so in the name of The Virgin. And the people need many things. “Ooooooohhh!” I say. “So I can give out the Tupperwares from the Fundación León 2000 party?” I say. Well, yes. But the gifts are given in the name of The Virgin and are supposed to come from here, [Sandra taps her heart].

On December 7^th, the day of peak celebration, I had two invitations.

The first celebration I attended required that I wade through streams of people that fit no discernible demographic other than it was a stream of people on a mission. My destination was a freshly painted colonial house with a surge of people at the sidewalk-to-roof wrought iron windows.  I waited for the crowd to ebb and made a move for the door. Once safely within I was escorted to a majestic vignette of The Virgin Mary centered at the floor-to ceiling wrought iron window (the five piece brass band was framed at the other window). Hands reached through the wrought iron to receive the candies, toys, pens, cookies, and bags of rice. When we weren’t standing at the window voices urged us back with calls of ¿Quíen causa tanta alegría?

I was late for my second invitation. I said my goodbyes and my thank yous and was again filled with gifts and asked to stay a bit longer. The hospitality of the household was unrivaled: I will never again let anyone leave my household without sending them away with a package tied up in a plastic bag.

The directions to Maira’s house are: a block above the Tamarindon Tree, the house that has a little tree in front and is green con crema. I was never going to find it.

After asking at four houses (In which, I later learned, lived two of Maira’s cousins) I zeroed in on the correct green con crema house with a little tree. Maira was surprised to see me, she never thought I would find it.

La Purísima in Maira’s neighborhood felt less fervent, more communal (Like trick-or-treating becomes the further one gets from the houses that give out king size Snickers). There were little altars everywhere. Small statues of The Virgin adorned with beautiful fabrics and strings of lights and candles and flowers cut from nearby bushes.

Maira worried about her daughter being out too late, so we went around the block gritando at the houses that still had their altars illuminated. Maira’s calls of ¿Quíen Causa Tanta Alegría? brought people to the door. I was a bit sheepish ‘gritando’ with my 40 year old coworker, the most I could muster with any kind of conviction was the response ¡Qué Viva! Maira knew everyone’s name and narrated in which houses live her relatives. We returned home with our haul of candy. The family started to appear, a two year old was placed in my lap, I received a blue bracelet from a niece and was shown the photo of a grandchild who recently died of encephalitis. Maira says she was three and a little angel.

Maira’s husband sits with me in plastic chairs under the street lamps outside where the air is fresher.

‘So what do you think of all of this?’ he puts the question to me with open hands and a gesture that spans the events of the night. ‘You know we are criticized for this tradition? Because people say it’s idolatry. But we aren’t celebrating a statue. We are celebrating La Concepción de María. And it hasn’t always been about getting stuff from people. It started as just singing.’

December 8^th is the Catholic celebration of the Immaculate Conception or La Purísima, it is a big celebration here in Nicaragua. Roman Catholicism came to Nicaragua in the 16^th century. And now about 60% of the population identifies as Catholic.  I am told that each city celebrates a little differently; the city of León because of its colonial history has particularly festive traditions that span for seven days prior. On the eighth most people head to the beach.

Kelly is working with Fundacion Leon 2000 in Leon, Nicaragua and is now better prepared for La Purisima next year. Are you?!

      It was Lake Titicaca, not Perú which fired my imaginations when I first read about it in my Geography textbook sometime back in 1989. Nearly 10 years later, Machu Picchu aroused my interest and until I came to this part of the world, I never dreamt of visiting these exotic places.
     The preparation of this trip was itself an unique experience. Traveling alone to an unknown country was pretty exciting. Visa, air tickets, trek registration, hotel booking, travel planning, insurance…everything made easy by the power of Internet. And of course, Lonely Planet was my all-time trustworthy companion. The biggest challenge however was language. Spanish is the main language in Perú and English is rarely spoken even in Airports and best hotels. It was fun as well as pain to learn Spanish. By the time I left for Perú, I was pretty confident about my Spanish only to realize that I was wrong all the time!

     At Atlanta airport as soon I reached the gate from which the flight to Lima was scheduled, I noticed the difference. There were Perúvians sitting there, chatting and laughing loudly, unlike other people. And after 6.5 hrs of flight when we landed in Lima, there was a loud applause inside the plane. Immigration and Customs was cool. But when I came out of Customs, I was shocked. There were thousands of people outside the airport waiting for  travelers. Never seen so much of people at least in an airport! It was like a zoo! And since construction was going on in the airport, it was in a real mess. After some time, I somehow made my way though the crowd towards the  restaurant inside the airport. I had a tough time avoiding agents (for taxi, tours and hotels). I spent the night reading the novel ‘Time Line’ and sipping cappuccino.

DAY-1
      Early in the morning, I caught flight to Cuzco through a LanPeru flight. After baggage claim when I came outside, I saw a placard of my name and approached that guy. He was Javier, the owner of Hospedaje Turistico Recolata, where my room was booked. He spoke very little English and I was able to converse with him with the help of my Spanish phrasebook.
     We went to hotel in his age-old Toyota Corolla. The streets of Cuzco were narrow, potholes here and there, full of dust and street dogs. At the hotel I was offered Coca tea – Coca leaves dipped in hot water and sugar added to it. It didn’t taste so good initially but I was told that this is a good remedy for altitude sickness.
     Breakfast included homemade buns, marmalade, butter, orange juice and coca tea (again!). After having a nice shower, I went out to roam around Cuzco. This place seemed very much familiar to me…. like good old Mysore! I happened to meet a Columbian who shook my hands and asked about me. When I told that I am from India he seemed to be excited. After a short conversation, he suddenly asked ‘Want some grass?’ I declined his offer and walked away immediately! 
     I went around the Plaza de Armas (usually the main square of any town) and visited Museo Inka (Inca Museum), which have an extensive collection of Pre-Incan, Incan and Spanish artifacts. I was amazed to see how many different civilizations existed in Perú before the advent of Incas. Nazka, Mochika, Wari, Paracas, Chimo, Pukara – each of them so diverse and so unique.
     It was almost 1:30PM by the time I came out of Museum and was damn hungry. I knew that there was a restaurant called ‘Govinda‘ in Cuzco and hoped that it would be an Indian restaurant. When I reached there, I was disappointed to know that they serve only South American food and was run by Hare Krishna Association. The lunch menu consisted of following:
1. Sopa – vegetable soup with a large potato in it.
2. Segundo – main course consisted of rice, maize curry, potato or soya dish
3. Postre – dessert consisted of mazomarro …corn mush (red in color)
4. Mate – Coca Tea
5. Pan – Bread
6. Yogurt con Granda en Copa – Yogurt with mushy glass
It was really a heavy and tasty lunch. After lunch I visited La Cathedral, which is the oldest and biggest church in Cuzco. The exquisite art work in gold and silver and spectacular stone carvings left me dumb folded.
     It was the season of Soccer as the Copa America Cup was going on in Perú. That day Perú and Argentina were playing the quarterfinal game in Cuzco. I was watched the match in the hotel TV along with an English couple who were on a 12 week world tour.

DAY-2
     I woke up early as I was supposed to leave for Puno. Javier had arranged for my bus tickets. I met Christine – illustrator from Missouri during breakfast. She was leaving for Inca Trail trek next day. After wishing her, I left for Puno. The bus was pretty good and comfortable. The landscape was peculiar. It was cold and sunny outside and there were no trees at all. Even though water was flowing in streams and small ponds were abundant, no plants except grass grew. It was a plain barren land silhouetted by icy Andes peaks. There was loud music being played in the bus. Perúvians are crazy about music.
     I reached Puno by 2:30PM. Checked in a Hotel and soon went out in search of a veggie restaurant. Had a nice lunch at a place called ‘Vida Natural’. The restaurant owner knew little English and he was happy to answer my questions about the place, people and food.
     The Plaza de Armas in Puno is not as big as that in Cuzco but it was pretty impressive. There is a large Cathedral at the one end of the Plaza de Armas. The exterior decoration of the Church is very beautiful while the interior is rather sober. It was pleasant inside the church. I spent nearly an hour before moving out and exploring the streets of Puno. This small town is on the shores of Lake Titicaca. The town is dusty with smelly roads and it was very cold.

DAY-3
     I was on a boat by 8:15AM to explore Lago Titicaca. It was a pretty big boat with 15 people on it. Most of the people aboard were South Americans and Europeans. They were speaking in Spanish, German, Portuguese and Finnish. Only one or two people spoke in English. Soon after leaving Puno our first stop was at Islas Flotantes – The Floating islands (also called as Uros islands). These islands are built using the buoyant totora reeds that grow abundantly in the shallows of Lake Titicaca. These islands are inhabited by Ayamara-speaking Indians who use these reeds to build houses, boats, crafts and new islands. Some of the islands were so big that it had a school on it!
     Soon we headed towards the Isla Taquile. The journey took 3 hours. The air was very clear and sky was blue with out a single cloud. And the sapphire-blue waters of the lake spreading to endless horizon…am I dreaming??
     We had lunch at a small tribal house on Taquile Island and went around the island. From here one can see Bolivian shores! After spending some time there, we started our return journey. Meanwhile I met a Finnish couple who narrated their experiences in South America. It was late in the evening by the time we reached Puno.

DAY-4
     I checked out of the hotel and rushed to Bus stand to return to Cuzco. One of my co-passengers was French and I chatted with him with broken Spanish and French! Unfortunately I got the last seat in the bus and now only I realized how bad the road was. Really felt at home! After an uneventful journey, I reached Cuzco at 2:30PM. I came back to my hotel and devouring SNICKERS, left hotel towards Plaza de Armas. There I visited Museo de Arte Popular, which had a small collection of paintings, ceramic and plaster sculptures by modern Perúvian artists.
     In the evening visited La Merced and La Compañia churches. La Compañia has beautiful paintings, and gold plated carvings. I sat there for quite some time enjoying the silence and the sweet smell of incense sticks.
This day I even roamed in the Loreto Street, the only street in Cuzco, which has Inca walls on either side. It is a real masterpiece…. the perfect stone structure.

DAY-5
     Today we started the 4-day Inca Trail trek. I was picked up from hotel early in the morning along with other group members and we went to a place called Km 82 from where we actually started our trek. It was almost 10:30AM by the time we started the trek. The six-member team included a couple from NYC – Rebecca and John, Pauline, Amber and Amber’s mother, Sally – all three from Gloucestershire, Great Britain and of course, me! Mario was our guide who spoke English and was very friendly. As usual my backpack was pretty heavy as I got a heavy sleeping bag. It was hot and sunny and the gnats were buzzing around and were a big nuisance. There were other groups also trekking on the Inca trail. But as the day went on, many dropped behind or went far ahead.
     Before noon, we reached the first Inca ruins of the trail – Llactapata. This city was built in the shape of Serpent and was very impressive. Till this place we had trekked along Rio Urubamba and now we followed Rio Cusichaca. After sometime the gradient increased. The hot sun, heavy backpack, the gradient…. I was panting for breath. Once this stretch was negotiated, I got into the groove. We had a nice lunch of Corn soup, rice, beans and cheese omelet and of course coca tea.
     The landscape here was pretty similar to that of Himalayas. We camped at a small hamlet called Huayllabamba. I had a nice single tent. We had a hearty dinner and chatted before going to bed.

DAY-6
     Today the trail was uphill from the beginning. Sally, 54-year lady found this very formidable and lost hope of completing the trek. After a lot of persuasion and encouragement she agreed to move on. Mario and I decided to stay with her to give her company. We encountered some patches of Cloud forest on our way. The uphill trail continued until we reached the highest point of our entire trail – The pass of Warmiwañusca (4215m), also called as ‘dead woman’s pass’. From now it was all the way down till our campsite. Meanwhile we had a nice lunch. I was getting a special treatment for being a vegetarian and other teammates were jealous of me!
     I was speaking with Mario and he had some crazy opinions about India – like India is full of poor people, people have many wives, elephants walk on roads etc. It took some time for me to clear his fallacies and to paint a picture of ‘India Shining’ in his mind! He too loves Bollywood movies! The Perúvians love talking about soccer and politics.
     We camped in a place called Pacamayo. In the evening we played some games and chatted. Rebecca was telling me how she loves Kadai Paneer and Chicken Biriyani and Amber even knew about Mysore! We also had a discussion on Cricket! With who else could I talked about Cricket? Jokes, anecdotes, arguments finally ended in a heavy dinner.

DAY-7
     Soon after starting the trek we reached another Inca site called Runturacay, which was a watchtower like structure. After this site, we crossed a pass at 3998m where we got awesome views of Mt. Veronica and Cordillera Vilcabamba. We descended from the pass to reach another Inca ruin, Sayacmarca. This town was built on a mountain, which has vertical cliffs on three sides and used to get water supply from a lake through series of aquaducts. This was primarily used for military purposes because of its strategic position and was also used for food storage. After this, the trail was almost straight along the edge of a huge mountain in the cloud forest. The forest was pretty thick and beautiful with colorful orchids, multi-hued mosses covering gigantic trees and singing birds. After a couple of hours we crossed another pass at 3700m to reach a site called Phuyupatamarca.
     This beautiful site has ceremonial baths and was primarily used for religious purposes. When Mario explained how 160 Spanish conquistadors totally annihilated the mighty Inca Empire, I was almost in tears. Not only did they occupy Perú, but totally wiped out the Incan culture and took tons of gold and silver to Spain. Today we camped at Wiñay Wayna and had our ‘Last Supper’ of the trek.

DAY-8
     Our day started at 4:15AM. It was still dark we had planned to reach Intipunku (Sun Gate) before sunrise. So we marched in the dark with our flashlights guiding us. We reached Intipunku at 6:40AM and had the first glimpse of Machu Picchu. Though it was bit cloudy, sunrays begin to shine the ‘Lost City of Incas’. After a short trek, we reached Machu Picchu. This place is simply spectacular. The entire city is so well planned and so well preserved (Spaniards never knew the existence of this city) and even now water flows in aqua ducts! Hiram Bingham, Yale University Professor, discovered Machu Picchu  on 24^th of July 1911. Coincidentally we were exploring this place on the same day, 93 years later! We had completed our trek and after taking numerous snaps (including few Patel shots!), Mario gave us a tour of the city. The beauty of this awe-inspiring city can’t be explained in words…. it has to be experienced.
     Machu Picchu is both the best and the least known of Inca sites. Despite many theories explaining the purpose of this city, Machu Picchu remains a mystery. The stonework in the buildings is of very high quality.
    Incas didn’t have the knowledge of wheel, iron, and writing. But they built a mighty empire stretching from southern Columbia to central Chile. The Incan cities were huge and cleaner than the many European cities at that time. They built an extensive road network and architectural marvels like Machu Picchu.
     After the tour we roamed around and meanwhile Amber and I decided to climb the nearby mountain, Huayna Picchu. We left our luggage with Sally and Pauline and started. The route was damn steep and very tiring. But we were almost running all the way. It must be the steepest mountain I have ever climbed. Amber reached peak in just 25 minutes and I reached in 31 minutes. Now I knew why she is England’s national Rugby player! We took some snaps on the Peak and descended rapidly. Both of us clocked 15 minutes. By now there was lot of tourists in Machu Picchu who had come from Cuzco. They were giving us a disgusting looks, as we were dirty and smelling. We seldom cared for them, as we were proud of completing the 33km Inca trail.
     Now it’s the time to leave. We (I, Amber, Pauline & Sally) parted from John and Rebecca as well as Mario and went back to Cuzco by train. I never realized how fun it was being with them until we parted.

DAY-9
     Had a nice shower after 4 days and went out to Plaza de Armas – mine as well as many other tourists’ favorite hangout. I took a one-day Sacred Valley tour with a tour company. The bus was full people from Latin American countries except an Australian couple and me. A beautiful Columbian girl sitting next to me knew only Spanish. I chatted with her until all my Spanish vocabulary got exhausted.
The first short stop was at the monolithic Inca fortress of Sacsayhuaman (tourists inevitably remember it by the mnemonic ’sexy woman’). Next stop was at the ceremonial site of Tambo Machay and Puca Pucara, a resting place and watchtower.
     As we drove on, we entered the Sacred Valley. Rio Urubamba flows through the gigantic Andes range in this valley and continues eastward to merge into Rio Amazonas. Our first real stop was at Pisac market. This was pretty much similar to a fair in any Indian town. Nice to see people dressed in traditional attire selling various Andean artifacts. Then we went to Inca site in Pisac. This hilltop Inca citadel has been partly destroyed by Spaniards but the ruins still reveal the vastness of this site. The stone masonry of this site is pretty good.
     Our next destination was Ollantaytambo. This massive Inca fortress has huge steep terraces and served as military and religious site for Incas. Incas defeated Spaniards for the first time here. This place has an unfinished (?) sun temple on the top of the hill. It was dark by the time we reached Cuzco. Before having dinner I took a snap of 12-sided stone in Santa Catalina Ruinas Street. For the first time, today I tasted the Inka Kola – the local competitor for Coke. It is a sweet, golden colored, bubblegum flavored carbonated drink.

DAY-10
     I took the 9:15AM flight to Lima, which was delayed by 30 minutes. Reached Lima at 11:30AM and as soon as I was out of baggage claim, I was mobbed by taxi drivers. I forced my way to luggage storage area where I left my huge backpack. I somehow managed to get a taxi for a day to roam around Lima (after bargaining!). This guy knew only Spanish and little French (on par with my level). I had a tough time conversing with him. Lima is pretty dirty, dusty and has hot and humid climate.
     We entered downtown and soon reached Plaza de Armas. This is the heart of the city with an impressive bronze fountain, surrounded by La Cathedral, Archbishop’s Palace and President’s Palace. La Cathedral is the oldest church and is completely built by wood to resist earthquakes. This also contains Francisco Pizzaro’s (the leader of Spanish conquistadors) tomb. The altar is beautiful and has statues of saints carved in the wood. The guide who gave us the tour of church was very critical of Spaniards.
     After lunch we headed towards Museo de Oras – The Museum of Gold, which also includes an Arms museum. This Arms museum is the largest in the world and contains mind-boggling collection of ancient and bizarre arms – guns, pistols, daggers, knives, swords, helmets, armors, bullets, chainsaw, medals, uniforms, saddles…etc. Since I had just finished ‘Time Line’ I was curious to see ancient weapons and enjoyed a lot. The Museum of Gold reveals the riches of Perú through pre-Incan and Inca civilizations. It has gold textiles, utensils out of solid gold, ornaments and idols. This museum also has mummies, pottery and various types of bludgeons.
     On my way back to airport did some shopping and had my dinner. I left Perú by midnight flight and reached Atlanta next day morning. I reached Columbus at noon by a connecting flight.

     Ten days seems like a dream now. Visiting new places, exploring myriad civilizations, cultures, tasting different cuisines, meeting people from allover the world, the Inca trail and Machu Picchu, placid Lake Titicaca…everything’s over.
Perú trip is complete.

But the journey has just begun…

• Pictures are in Webshots album.