Anti-naxal commandos for India-Australia ODI and PM, Sonia do without bullet-proof screen, Kashmir safer!Is It? May we AVOID the Backlash against Free Market Democracy?
Troubled Galaxy Destroyed Dreams, Chapter 412
Palash Biswas
http://indianholocaustmyfatherslifeandtime.blogspot.com/
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Insurgency in Kashmir has existed in various forms, both on the Indian administrated side of the disputed territory of Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
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Insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir; Line of Control; Further reading. Drew, Federic. 1877. "The Northern Barrier of India: a popular account of the Jammoo and Kashmir Territories with ...
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Insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir; Kashmir : Shown in green is the Kashmiri region under Pakistani control. The dark-brown region represents Indian-controlled Jammu and Kashmir while ...
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Whether this strategy will lead eventually to the collapse of the insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir remains an open question; violence has continued to accelerate since 1993, with ...
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25 th July 2004 Kashmir Insurgency & Ethnic Cleansing of Kashmiri Pundits Kashmir Insurgency Factor I : Soviet -Afghan war 1979 -1989 : •1953 : MohammoudDaoudbecomes PM -A ...
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Unauthorised reproduction of pictures from this site is strictly prohibited. To buy pictures for publishing please contact Kashmir Newz.
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On December 8, 1989, members of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front kidnapped Dr. Rubiya Sayeed, the daughter of the Indian Minister of Home Affairs, as she left a government hospital in Srinagar. The kidnappers refused to release her until several incarcerated members of their outlawed group were released. Following hasty negotiations over ...Sumit Ganguly, "Explaining the Kashmir Insurgency: Political Mobilization and Institutional Decay, International Security, Vol. 21, no. 2, (Fall 1996)
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Chinese participation in PoK projects illegal: India
India made clear its objection to China's participation in
projects in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, saying it treats any s...Show sincerity in eliminating terror: Manmohan to Pak
Asking Pakistan to destroy terror groups operating from its
territory, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday said if...95 killed, over 200 injured in blast in Pak's Peshawar city
A car bomb packed with 150 kg of explosives ripped through a
Pranab to review implementation of austerity measuresAfghan police: 12 dead in attack on UN in KabulCentre to approach SC to facilitate homecoming of MF HusainNo question of adverse remarks against RSS chief: Rajnath
bustling commercial hub, including a market meant exclusively...More 'Challenge is to revive private demand'
Challenge at the current juncture was to revive private credit
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amid weak global cues.FM optimistic over bringing in GST
FM Pranab Mukherjee kept his fingers crossed over introducing
Rupee trims fall as shares recover brieflyBank of Baroda Q2 profit jumps 60 pctS&P's Economist to be RBI Deputy Governor'Mobiles without IMEI face disconnection'
goods and services tax.http://www.expressindia.com/
91 Killed in Bombing at Pakistan Market
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... majority, backlash against democracy, llama fetuses, ethnic resentment, ethnonationalist movements, free market ... has ethnic minorities that dominate ... your communities to keep ...
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Assessing the Backlash Against Multiculturalism ... discussion about tolerance, free speech and intolerant Muslim minorities. ... given rise to the myth that minority ethnic communities ...
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February 9, 2003 World on Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability
BRIAN LAMB, HOST: Amy Chua, author of "World on Fire," one sentence popped out to me as I read the book, and you say, "Americans are unaware of the problem." What problem?
AMY CHUA, AUTHOR, "WORLD ON FIRE": Well, the book is ...... the idea of writing about an ethnic minority who would tend, under free market conditions, to dominate ... People rebel against markets and vote in anti-market leaders when they feel ...
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kashmirtoursim.org provides comprehensive information about Jammu Kashmir tourism, Kashmir Tourism, Tour Packages Kashmir, Jammu, Srinagar, Gulmarg, Pahalgam, Sonmarg, Patnitop ...
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Government website, with details of attractions and facilities in the state.
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Houseboats and Hotels reservation online booking in Jammu and Kashmir India - Provide information on Hotels and houseboats booking in srinagar and all over Jammu and Kashmir ...
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Kashmir-tourism.org provides complete tour guide information on Jammu Kashmir tourism, Kashmir Tourism,Tour Packages Kashmir, kashmir houseboats, trekking,hill stations,kashmir ...
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Kashmir Tourism - jammu and kashmir tourism, kashmir tours, travel in jammu & kashmir, kashmir india, tour to jammu, travel kashmir, tourism in jammu and kashmir.
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Not only the geographical conditions of the state are different but it can also be set apart demographically with varied ethical and social entities, diversity of ...
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I consider AJK Tourism a trustworthy friend. AJK Tourism has always provided a great service and has played a very important part in helping to make distant dreams a closer reality
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Tourism Kashmir Offers - jammu and kashmir tourism, kashmir tours, travel in jammu & kashmir, kashmir india, tourism to jammu, tourism kashmir, tourism in jammu and kashmir.
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Tourist Paradise
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A pioneer of Luxury, adventure and wildlife holidays in Kashmir & Ladakh since 1892, Discovery Journeys (formerly known as Kashmir Trekking & Tours) offers a varied portfolio of overland luxury tours, treks, walks, and expeditions. Our passion for travel is reflected in our ...Vacation in Kashmir,Kashmir Tourism ,Kashmir Travel,Kashmir Tour Packages, Kashmir Land Paradise, camps ladakh tour, India Kashmir Travel Agents.
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Kolkata, Oct 27 (PTI) Six trains were cancelled and as many diverted, mostly long-distance ones, after the Maoists detained Bhubaneswar-New Delhi Rajdhani Special at Banstola halt
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Kolkata, Oct 27 (PTI) The detention of the New Delhi-Bhubaneswar Rajdhani Express and taking its two drivers "hostage" leading to a five-hour crisis today was carefully planned by the Maoists, a senior security official claimed "This is not a sudden reaction by agitators but was very carefully planned with 25 armed Maoists guiding the agitators to ...Kolkata, Oct 27 (PTI) The detention of the New Delhi-Bhubaneswar Rajdhani Express and taking its two drivers "hostage" leading to a five-hour crisis today was carefully
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After over five hours of high drama, a New Delhi- bound Bhubaneswar Rajdhani Express was freed from Maoist-backed tribal activists who held the train hostage at a station in West ...
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Politics over Rajdhani hostage drama
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Rajdhani hostage drama ends; all passengers, drivers safe TIMES NEWS NETWORK & AGENCIES 27 October 2009, 08:14pm IST
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Other Times Group news sites:
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IndianPad is a user edited bookmark of news stories related to South Asia.
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The hostage drama of the New Delhi-Bhubaneswar Rajdhani Express ended on Tuesday evening when Central forces secured the train which was stopped by Maoists near Midnapore in West ...
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Jhargram/Kolkata/New Delhi, Oct 27 (IANS) A New Delhi-bound Bhubaneswar Rajdhani Express was released from Maoist clutches by security forces Tuesday evening , after rebels held ...
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28/10/2009
Deadly link: FBI arrests LeT's `American Kasaab'
Washington: Pakistan-based terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) was planning to use an American national to carry out another terrorist attack -- like the one that Ajmal Kasaab and a bunch of Pakistan-trained hardcore terrotists had carried out on 26/11 -- the FBI said Tuesday.
The man, identified as David Coleman Headley, was arrested early this month by the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) Joint Terrorism Task Force at O'Hare International Airport before boarding a flight to Philadelphia, intending to travel on to Pakistan.
Headley, 49, along with a Canadian citizen of Pakistani origin, have been arrested on charges of plotting a terror attack against the facilities and employees of a Danish newspaper which had published cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in 2005, federal law enforcement officials announced Tuesday.
The Pakistani-Canadian Tahawwur Hussain Rana, 48, also known as Tahawar Rana, was also a resident of Chicago and was arrested by the FBI Oct 18.
Rana is the owner of several businesses, including First World Immigration Services, which has offices on Devon Avenue in Chicago, as well as in New York and Toronto.
According to the FBI affidavit filed in a Chicago court, Headley was in close contact with Ilyas Kashmiri and several unidentified leaders of LeT.
Kashmiri is the operational chief of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir section of Harakat-ul Jihad Islami (HUJI), a Pakistani-based terrorist organisation with links to Al Qaeda. Kashmiri, who is presently believed to be in Pakistan's restive Waziristan tribal region, issued a statement this month that he was alive and working with Al Qaeda.
New armed wing of PCPA behind Rajdhani hijack drama
Kolkata: A newly-raised armed wing of tribal agitators, aided by Maoists in West Midnapore district, were responsible for the seven-and-a-half half hour hijack drama of the Delhi-bound Rajdhani Express in a jungle area of West Midnapore district.
"The way the incident took place yesterday doesn't suggest that it was planned and executed entirely by Maoists.
They were definitely present during the incident, but they didn't participate," a source in the joint forces engaged in anti-Maoist operations in the district told PTI on condition of anonymity.
"The Maoists also provided covering fire when the joint forces were trying to go from Jhargram to the trouble spot, Banstala. Their intention was to resist us so that the tribal agitators could leave the spot safely," the source said.
The name of the PCPA's armed wing, according to the district police, was 'Sidhu-Kanu Gana Militia'.
Source: PTI
More than 80 people were killed in one of the most horrific terror attacks in Pakistan this year when a massive bomb blast tore through a bustling market here Wednesday, shortly after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton began a three-day trip to the country.
Pakistan Bleeds and the BLOOD Stains COVER the ENVIRONMENT which we share in the divided Geopolitics Turned into an INFINITE war zone in defence of zionist US Interests!
Anti-naxal commandos for India-Australia ODI as A crack team of anti-naxalite commandos has been roped to provide security cover to the Indian and Australian cricket teams at the Vidarbha Cricket Association (VCA) stadium in Jamatha, where the second ODI match held Wednesday.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said here Wednesday that he felt the situation in his state was improving as both Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi did not use a bullet-proof screen while addressing the people.
Is it TRUE? Omar Abdullah is a young Politician with very Positive MIND Set and we must welcome his gesture! But facts remain quite different as the Soth Asian geopolitics is UNDERMINED by the US War Economy and our Political Social Hegemomy led by India Incs and MNCs, LPG mafia obliges the TRI Iblis Zionist corporate Galaxy imperialism. Free market Democracy promotion led the MONOPLISTIC Aggression and MINORITY Dominating Foreign Origin brahaminical Communities amass Shocking Wealth depriving the Majority have Not Masses. Back lash may not be avoided in any circumstances and it is the hard hitting reality which leads to TERROR, Anarchy and Ethnonationalism and we REPLICATE Latin America, Africa and south east Asia in a status of CIVIL War and Insurgency!
As part of the tight arrangements for the day-night One Day International (ODI), police have beefed up security measures and commandos have been requisitioned from naxal-hit areas for a day, police sources said.
Police will be using night vision devices to detect any wrong doings in and around the new stadium for the first day-night encounter between India and Australia in Nagpur, they said.
"Today I felt for the first time that things have changed here since the prime minister and the UPA (United Progressive Alliance) chairperson would not be addressing people from behind a bullet-proof screen," he said.
Abdullah stressed on finding a permanent solution to the Kashmir problem.
"The basic problem of Jammu and Kashmir is not merely an economic one, but is linked to our politics," he said.
"If we want to rid the state of the menace of the gun, we must find a permanent solution to political problem here," Abdullah said here while welcoming Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi, who are on a two-day visit to the Valley.
The prime minister Wednesday flagged off a new train service on the 18-km track linking south Kashmir with Srinagar and other places in the north of the valley. With this, the 129-km railway line in the Kashmir Valley is complete.
Abdullah thanked the prime minister and Home Minister P. Chidambaram for announcing a political dialogue between the state and the central government.
"My government will try everything possible to help the dialogue process so that tears from the eyes of the people are wiped out," the chief minister said.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Wednesday reached out to Pakistan, saying "the hand of friendship that we have extended should be carried forward", but declared that Islamabad had to turn off the terror tap if there was to be forward movement.
Calling on Pakistan to show "sincerity and good faith", the prime minister said India would not be found wanting in response as this was in the interests of the people of both countries.
"I call upon the people and government of Pakistan to show their sincerity and good faith. As I have said many times before, we will not be found wanting in our response," Manmohan Singh said addressing a mammoth gathering in Anantnag before flagging off a long-promised train service linking the south and north of the Kashmir Valley.
"I appeal to the government of Pakistan that the hand of friendship that we have extended should be carried forward. This is in the interest of people of India and Pakistan.
The 'hand of friendship' gesture was the second time that an Indian prime minister was extending to Pakistan. It was former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's famous 'hand of friendship' speech in Srinagar at a public rally in April 2003 that led to his historic visit there in January 2004.
Meanwhile, India today made clear its opposition to China''s participation in projects in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, saying it treats any such activity as "illegal". External Affairs Minister S M Krishna said India has also taken up with China the matter relating to issuance of visas to Kashmiris on loose sheets instead of passports and asked it to apply uniform visa norm for all Indian nationals.
"Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India. Any activity by any country in Jammu and Kashmir is illegal and this has been made known to all concerned," Krishna told reporters here in response to a question about Chinese participation in developmental projects in PoK. China is assisting Pakistan in building a mega power project and construction of a highway in Karakoram range in PoK. Chinese President Hu Jintao, during his meeting with Pakistan Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani in Beijing recently, emphasised his country''s commitment to these projects.
Krishna, who held talks with his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi here yesterday, said the matter relating to issuance of visas to Kashmiris was discussed. "They (Chinese side) said they made no discrimination.
We are insisting that there should be a uniform visa norm for Indian nationals," Krishna said. To a poser about India not being seen as assertive vis-a-vis China, he said New Delhi seeks relations with everyone as equal and based on mutual respect, regardless of any nation''s economic or military might.
Peshawar bombing kills 87, injures 200
Peshawar: More than 80 people were killed in one of the most horrific terror attacks in Pakistan this year when a massive bomb blast tore through a bustling market here Wednesday, shortly after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton began a three-day trip to the country.
28/10/2009Peshawar bombing kills 87, injures 200
Peshawar: More than 80 people were killed in one of the most horrific terror attacks in Pakistan this year when a massive bomb blast tore through a bustling market here Wednesday, shortly after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton began a three-day trip to the country.
Pakistani chief protocol officer Ghalib Iqbal (centre) greets US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (left) upon her arrival at the Chaklala military airbase in Rawalpindi on Wednesday. AFP
As doctors battled to save several of the seriously injured in hospitals, North West Frontier Province (NWFP) officials said many of the 200 injured could succumb to their injuries. Hospital sources told The News that 87 people had been killed in the blast.
Pakistani media reported that a building in the congested locality of Meena Bazar collapsed. A mosque bore the brunt. The windows of buildings were shattered. Several vehicles and around 15 shops were burnt.
The deafening blast, heard almost all over Peshawar, occurred in a market that is hugely popular with women. Most of the dead were said to be women.
Once the dust raised by the explosion settled down, stunned shopkeepers rushed to the rescue of the injured, including children. They also joined security personnel in digging through the debris in a desperate hunt for survivors.
Many people broke down on seeing the ghastly sight -- of mutilated bodies and raging fires -- and on hearing the screams of the wounded. The injured were shifted to the Lady Reading Hospital and other hospitals.
The bomb disposal squad blamed a car bomb for the disaster. Xinhua news agency quoted an eyewitness as saying that a parked car exploded, raining death and destruction.
28/10/2009
2 Indians evacuated from UN guest house in Kabul
New Delhi: Two Indians who were at the UN guest house, which was targeted by the Taliban in Kabul today, have been safely evacuated. The two Indians were working as consultants in Afghanistan, official sources said citing information received from the Indian embassy in Kabul.
Armed Afghan police guard a UN ambulance carrying bodies of victims recovered from the Bekhtar guesthouse in Kabul on Wednesday, where UN staff were killed during an attack by gunmen. AFP
More details about them were not immediately available. The Indian embassy has conveyed that all Indians are safe in Kabul, they said.
Taliban militants armed with automatic weapons and suicide vests stormed the guest house used by UN staff in Kabul early today, killing 10 people, including six UN staff, officials said.
28/10/2009
Core industries log growth of 4% in Sept
New Delhi: India's six core industries logged a growth of 4 percent in September and 5 percent in the first six months this fiscal, official data released Wednesday showed.
September's growth in the core sector -- comprising crude oil, refined petroleum fuel, coal, electricity, cement and finished steel sectors -- was the same as that logged in the like month last year.
However, the April-September growth this financial year was more than the 3.4 percent logged during the corresponding period last year, data released by the commerce and industry ministry showed.
Of the sectors under review, crude oil production declined 0.5 percent in September as against 0.4 percent fall in the corresponding month last year. In the first six months since April, production registered a decline of 1.2 percent, compared to a decline of 0.8 percent during the same period last fiscal.
The petroleum refinery sector grew 3.4 percent this September, up from the 2.8 percent growth registered in the corresponding month last year. However, in the first two quarters, production in the sector declined 3.6 percent, less than the 4.5 percent decline in the like period last year.
Coal production increased to 6.5 percent in September and 11.6 percent during April-September, compared to 11.2 percent and 8 percent, respectively, in the comparative periods last year.
Electricity generation was similarly up at 7.5 percent in September compared to 4.4 percent the same month last year, while it grew 6.8 percent in the first fiscal six months compared to 2.6 percent in the year-ago period.
The ailing cement sector too registered growth, expanding production by 6.5 percent in September and 12.3 percent during April-September. Last year, the growth was 8.1 percent and 12.3 percent respectively in the corresponding periods.
Production of finished carbon steel, however, declined 0.4 percent in September as against a growth of 2.1 percent in the like month last year. April-September growth too fell to 3 percent as against 3.3 percent a year ago.
Source: IANS
28/10/2009
China signifies opportunities for India: NASSCOM Chief
Bangalore: China presents four major opportunities to the IT industry in India, including servicing the north Asian market, Som Mittal, Chairperson of NASSCOM (National Association of Software and Services Companies), said here today.
"China holds four major opportunities for us, including servicing the north Asian market" he told a press conference during the two-day NASSCOM Product Conclave and Expo 2009 which was unveiled here today.
Other avenues for Indian software firms are to cater to the rapidly growing chinese market, addressing customers in the West, who are starting companies in China and servicing new customers out of China, Mittal said.
To a query on increasing protectionism from the West, especially USA, Mittal said he would be surprised if any direct protectionism comes into play. "In this condition of economic downturn, protectionism is natural. But now they (firms) have realised it is a knee-jerk reaction. What we need to guide ourselves against is indirect protectionism".
"Though we are not seeing high levels of growth, there is reasonable stability now. The four to seven per cent growth forecast by NASSCOM for the IT industry this year would be achieved. We have already started seeing a paradigm change in hiring", he said.
Sharad Sharma, Chairperson, product forum of NASSCOM said the focus of the Indian IT industry was "now shifting to both government and SMBs (small and medium businesses)".
With the impetus given to e-governance projects, "a lot of partnerships will start emerging", he said.
Source: PTI
28/10/2009India's superb batting: Three Cheers and Four Jeers!
By Skandan Sampath
India's batting performance was full of exciting moments. MSN India's collection of cheers and jeers puts them all together for you. Enjoy the highlights that contributed to a superb 354-7.
The Nagpur crowd swallows oranges!
79 more runs would have taken Sachin Tendulkar to 17,000 runs i.e if Sachin hadn't edged Peter Siddle to Cameron White at first slip. The Nagpur crowd looked like they had swallowed oranges. So the Sachin/ Sehwag opening combo has now failed two times in a row. But as Gambhir looks nice and settled at No.3 so India will have to stick to the Mumbai-Delhi duo.
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Briefing Paper on Bt Brinjal What is Bt Brinjal? Bt Brinjal is a transgenic brinjal created out of inserting a gene [Cry 1Ac] from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis into ...
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Pocket K No. 35 Bt Brinjal in India http://www.isaaa.org/kc 1 Pocket K No. 35 Bt Brinjal in India Introduction Brinjal or baingan, known as eggplant and aubergine in North America ...
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Bt brinjal could contaminate other varieties of related crops cultivated in the vicinity by transferring undesirable genes to it and thereby robbing India of its genetic diversity ...
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Home >> Independent studies & Papers on GM crops in India >>Bt Brinjal. Brinjal is a crop of great socio-cultural significance to Indians. India is the Centre of Origin and ...
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ISIS Press Release 09/02/09 Bt Brinjal Unfit for Human Consumption
Expert independent scientist verdict contradicts Indian regulatory authorities on biosafety of GM aubergine
Sam Burcher
Release of Bt brinjal into the environment for food, feed and cultivation may present a serious risk for human and animal health; the GM aubergine is ...Views and goods advertized are not necessarily endorsed by Science in Society or the Inst. of Science in Society.
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12 dead as gunmen target U.N. staff in Kabul
American is killed as militants wearing police uniforms storm guest house
Romeo Gacad / AFP - Getty ImagesVideoTaliban attack on Kabul U.N. post kills 12
Oct. 28: Gunmen with automatic weapons and suicide bombs storm a guest house being used by U.N. staff in Kabul.Today show
VideoAfghanistan violence reaches record levels
Oct. 27: U.S. military officials said Tuesday that the Taliban has developed more sophisticated weapons that can penetrate vehicles armored to fight the mostly urban war in Iraq. NBC's Richard Engel reports.Nightly News
Afghanistan in picturesGetty ImagesAfghan election
The nation prepares for the Nov. 7 presidential runoff amid growing tensions after allegations of fraud marred the August election.AFP - Getty ImagesOn the front lines
Soldiers are fighting to suppress the Taliban and win over the Afghan people.APTraining 101
Thousands of Afghan recruits are being trained to join the fight against the Taliban.INTERACTIVEInteractiveWorld Blog: Kabul, AfghanistanMost popular• Most viewed • Top rated • Most e-mailed updated 7:50 a.m. ET Oct. 28, 2009KABUL - Taliban militants wearing suicide vests stormed a guest house used by U.N. staff in the heart of the Afghan capital early Wednesday, killing 12 people — including six U.N. staff — in the biggest in a series of attacks intended to undermine next month's presidential runoff election.
One of the six U.N. dead was an American, the U.S. Embassy said. A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the early morning assaults, which also included rocket attacks at the presidential palace and the city's main luxury hotel.
One rocket struck the "outer limit" of the presidential palace but caused no casualties, presidential spokesman Humayun Hamidzada said. Another slammed into the grounds of the Serena Hotel, which is favored by many foreigners.
The device failed to explode but filled the lobby with smoke, forcing guests and employees to flee to the basement, according to an Afghan witness who asked that his name not be used for security reasons.
'Inhuman act'
President Hamid Karzai condemned the attack as "an inhuman act" and called on the army and police to strengthen security around all international institutions.The chief of the United Nations mission in Afghanistan, Kai Eide, said the attack "will not deter the U.N. from continuing all its work" in Afghanistan.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attacks in a telephone call to The Associated Press, saying three militants with suicide vests, grenades and machine guns carried out the guest house assault.
He said three days ago that the Taliban issued a statement threatening anyone working on the Nov. 7 runoff election between Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah.
"This is our first attack," he said.
A security guard working nearby said the attackers at the guest house were wearing police uniforms. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't supposed to talk to media.
U.N. spokesman Adrian Edwards said six U.N. staff were killed and nine other U.N. employees were wounded in the assault, which began about dawn in the Shar-e-Naw area of the city. Terrified guests fled the building during the assault — some screaming for help and others jumping from upper floors as flames engulfed part of the three-story building.
Click for related contentAfghan police and U.N. officials said 12 people in all were killed, including the U.N. staff, three attackers, two security guards and an Afghan civilian. The bodies of the attackers were taken out of the house and sent for autopsies, said Gul Mohammad, an officer at the scene.
It was not immediately known how the victims were killed or how the fire started, but witnesses said they heard prolonged gunfire ringing from the house before police arrived at the scene. It also was not immediately clear whether there were any other attackers besides the three killed.
Police were seen pulling the charred body of what appeared to be a woman from a second-floor bedroom. One officer carried an injured German man by piggyback away from the scene.
"This has clearly been a very serious incident for us," Edwards said. "We've not had an incident like this in the past."
Edwards said the U.N. would have to evaluate "what this means for our work in Afghanistan." The Aug. 19, 2003, truck bombing of the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad, which killed 22 people, prompted the U.N. to pull out of Iraq for several years.
A security guard, Noor Allah, said he saw a woman screaming for help in English from a second-story window and watched as terrified guests leapt from windows. Afghan police using ladders rescued at least one wounded foreigner.
Afghans vote Nov. 7 in a second round election after U.N.-backed auditors threw out nearly a third of Karzai's votes from the Aug. 20 ballot, determining widespread fraud. That pushed Karzai's totals below the 50 percent threshold needed for a first round victory in the 36-candidate field.
The Taliban warned Afghans to stay away from the polls or risk attacks. Dozens of people were killed in Taliban attacks during the August balloting, helping drive down turnout.
'I was so scared'
Mir Ahmed Formoly, 64, who lives near the guest house, said he heard the commotion and went outside where he saw muzzle flashes in the early morning light."I was so scared," he said. "I went back inside the house."
VideoPoll: Support for Afghanistan troop surge up
Oct. 28: The latest NBC/Wall Street Journal poll shows more Americans support a troop surge in Afghanistan; meanwhile, President Obama's job approval rating is steady. NBC's Chuck Todd breaks down the results.Today show
He said gunfire and explosions lasted about two hours, punctuated by shouts and screams.
Mohammad Ayub, a shopkeeper who lives a few doors down from the attacked house, said he heard gunfire shortly before dawn. He assumed at first that it was an attack on a house belonging to relatives of President Karzai nearby, then saw that it was a different building.
"It was early morning, but I didn't have a watch on to know when. It was dark. Shooting started around this private guest house. I heard some shouts coming from inside the house," Ayub said.
"I heard 'Boom! Boom!' several times. The fighting went on inside for about 10 or 15 minutes before the police came," he said.
The guest house attack was the third major assault in the capital in recent weeks.
On Oct. 8, a suicide car bomber detonated his vehicle outside the Indian Embassy, killing 17 people — mostly civilians — and wounding at least 76 more. The Afghan Foreign Ministry hinted at Pakistani involvement — a charge Pakistan denied.
On Sept. 17, a suicide car bomber killed six Italian soldiers and 10 Afghan civilians on one of Kabul's main roadways.
More on: Afghanistan
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Free Market Democracy and the Chilean and Mexican Countryside
Marcus J. Kurtz
Ohio State University
Hardback
(ISBN-13: 9780521827379 | ISBN-10: 052182737X)
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Europe, Middle East and Africa | Americas | Asia | Australia and New Zealand
This book examines the relationship between free markets and democracy. It demonstrates how the implementation of even very painful free-market economic reforms in Chile and Mexico have helped to consolidate democratic politics without engendering a backlash against either reform or democratization. This national-level compatibility between free markets and democracy, however, is founded on their rural incompatibility. In the countryside, free-market reforms socially isolate peasants to such a degree that they become unable to organize independently, and are vulnerable to the pressures of local economic elites. This helps to create an electoral coalition behind free-market reforms that is critically based in some of the market's biggest victims: the peasantry. The book concludes that the comparatively stable free-market democracy in Latin America hinges critically on its defects in the countryside; conservative, free-market elites may consent to open politics only if they have a rural electoral redoubt.
• The book combines carefully designed case-based analysis with advanced statistical techniques • The book is useful for area-based, thematic and methodological teaching. The last is true particularly because of its use of an uncommon multi-method, multi-level research design • This is a rare effort to seriously consider the effect of free markets on democracy
Contents
Acknowledgements; Part I. The Framework and Theoretical Argument: 1. Posing the right questions; 2. The sectoral foundations of free market democracy; Part II. The Cases: 3. Neoliberalism and the transformation of rural society in Chile; 4. Social capital, organization, political participation and democratic competition in Chile; 5. The consolidation of free market democracy and Chilean electoral competition, 1988–2000; 6. Markets and democratization in Mexico: rural politics between Corporatism and Neoliberalism; Part III. Conclusions and Implications: 7. Political competitiveness, organized interests, and the democratic market; References; Index.
Does Democracy Threaten the Free Market?
Mises Daily: Thursday, April 10, 2003 by N. Joseph Potts
Although Ludwig von Mises wrote approvingly of the just qualities of democracy, the incompatibility of democratic forms of government with wealth creation has been noted even within the institute bearing his name (e.g., Democracy—The God That Failed by Hans-Hermann Hoppe). World on Fire by Amy Chua (Doubleday 2003) is perhaps the most sweeping account of the visceral tension between democracy and free markets published to date. Subtitled "How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability," this methodical review of history and the present state of affairs seems at first to be merely another antiglobalist screed, complete with praise from the doyenne of the Liberal Left, Barbara Ehrenreich (Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America) on its dust jacket.
But it is nothing of the sort, bearing praise also from that nemesis of the liberals, Thomas Sowell (Ethnic America, The Economics and Politics of Race, and many others). Chua herself, a professor of law at Yale, denies being antiglobalist, and the text of this, her first book, bears out the conclusion that she is no more antimarket than antidemocratic. But she has an appreciation of the limits of both that is both strong and highly nuanced.
Her highly original proposition (with credit duly given to Robert Kaplan) is that the simultaneous encouragement of laissez-faire free markets and democratic government based on universal suffrage in third-world countries is almost bound to lead to the destruction of either or both in short order. While she mentions that doing exactly this is the policy both of the United States government and of various multinational entities such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, she delves not at all into the question of why this is, by far the most serious omission from her analysis.
But Chua's marshalling of facts and historical perspectives from dozens of places and times around the globe more than offset any diagnostic omissions. And this lawyer writes with clarity and focus that would credit any historian, or even novelist. Thoroughly accessible to any thinking layperson, her text studies the presence and growth of what she calls "market-dominant minorities" in developing countries, and contrasts them with their comparative absence from societies that have attained and held a high level of development, both economic and social (that is, of their markets and their democratic forms of government).
She holds—and forcefully demonstrates in case after case—that when impoverished ethnic majorities are empowered by the sudden introduction of full-blown democracy, they fall prey with discouraging regularity to demagogues who incite them against the often-conspicuous disparity of welfare and privilege between them and the small, exclusive ethnic minorities that just as regularly seize power over huge proportions of the wealth generated by free markets.
One's first reaction to this thesis is naturally, "but what about the trickle-down effect?" Chua devotes considerable attention to this effect, beginning with an acknowledgement that it exists, and in some cases is strong enough to ameliorate the dynamic she describes. But in far more cases, as she details in terms of actual times and places, either the effect is negligible, as in the majority of cases in Africa, or its rather subtle realities are not recognized by still impoverished masses consumed by envy and agitated in this state by ambitious powermongers. Her examples of such opportunists range all the way from the present day back to Hitler and the Nazis.
Various schemes for hijacking both markets and democracies are described, with real examples given from recent history. One form is labelled "antimarket backlash," and was exemplified in the past with such acts as expropriation and nationalization of industries and productive resources. Some of these instances (e.g., "Chile for the Chileans") seem almost irresistible to officeholders who wish to continue to hold office. Nowadays, more subtle forms of resistance such as regulatory interference and subsidization of competitors have gained favor. Another unlovely mutation is "cronyism," or even "crony capitalism," in which figurehead regimes of indigenous individuals are put up for office and supported there by behind-the-scenes cabals of the market-dominant minority. None other than Boris Yeltsin of Russia is shown to be a case of this fraud.
The author does not seem to be motivated by any ideological or moral agenda, and scrupulously confines the prescriptions one so eagerly awaits from a study of such manifest insight and balance to the concluding section of her book. The prescriptions, unfortunately, seem to be more palliative than curative, but in fairness it should be noted (and it is abundantly noted in the book) that both free markets and democracy embody great values, and together with their mutual antagonism, their pursuit unavoidably poses intractable challenges.
The prescription receiving the most examination is, appropriately, the most controversial and problematic one: affirmative action, to slap a label on it that does not do justice to the caveats that accompany the prescription. Chua identifies "affirmative-action" programs and their effects going back well into the Nineteenth Century, both those that failed grotesquely, and those that may be said to have succeeded in one measure or another. She conducts the necessary evaluations of effects with due consideration to the historical, economic, and cultural backdrops in which they were implemented, therein supporting her contention that the inappropriateness or ineffectuality of such programs in many times and places may still not require ruling any and all such programs out for all times and places. Monarchists may find it interesting that the program receiving the most favorable report card in historical perspective is the only program among those reviewed that was designed and implemented by a king in his kingdom (King Vajiravudh of Siam).
Other prescriptions are considered in the context of still another striking observation: Western regimes and institutions, while fomenting the injection of full blown free markets and democracy into cultures having little to no experience with either, themselves grew up and still exist in circumstances that substantially lack both.
While universal adult suffrage seems to be pretty much the rule among western democracies today, these democracies came into existence through a process often encompassing centuries during which the franchise was gradually expanded from an initially very narrow base. And while free markets dominate the economies of these same societies, still major ameliorative institutions thrive and grow, from Medicaid and Social Security in the United States to the cradle-to-grave social programs of the Scandinavian countries.
While Chua's orientation does not seem explicitly statist at any point, still she fails to note the culpable role that states and state supported multinational institutions play in the creation of the very problem that her entire book is devoted to. Much less, then, does she examine the processes through which so much power came to be directed toward the advancement of such a malign combination of two such seemingly benign goals. Therein, it may be realistically suspected, lies the root not only of this problem, but also of myriad others about which whole shelves of books such as World on Fire have been written, and must continue to be written.
Ultimately, those books must go even further than this one does. But this one represents a hopeful, even inspiring step on the steep, uphill path leading to the knowledge that will make us free.
---------
N. Joseph Potts studies economics from his home in South Florida. pottsf@msn.com
http://mises.org/story/1208
Free-Market Democracy: Our Most Dangerous Export
by Amy ChuaIn May 1998, Indonesian mobs swarmed through the streets of Jakarta, looting and torching more than 5,000 ethnic Chinese shops and homes. A hundred and fifty Chinese women were gang-raped and more than 2,000 people died. In the months that followed, anti-Chinese hate-mongering and violence spread throughout Indonesia's cities. The explosion of rage can be traced to an unlikely source: the unrestrained combination of democracy and free markets - the very prescription wealthy democracies have promoted for healing the ills of underdevelopment. How did things go so wrong?
During the 80s and 90s, Indonesia's aggressive shift to free-market policies allowed the Chinese minority, just 3% of the population, to take control of 70% of the private economy. When Indonesians ousted General Suharto in 1998, the poor majority rose up against the Chinese minority and against markets. The democratic elections that abruptly followed 30 years of autocratic rule were rife with ethnic scapegoating by indigenous politicians and calls for the confiscation of Chinese wealth. Today, the Indonesian government sits on $58bn worth of nationalised assets, almost all formerly owned by Chinese tycoons. These once productive assets lie stagnant, while unemployment and poverty deepen, making Indonesia a breeding ground for extremist movements. . . .
But the most formidable problem the developing world faces is one the west has little experience with. It's the market-dominant minority - ethnic minorities which - for widely varying reasons - tend under market conditions to dominate economically impoverished "indigenous" majorities. They are the Chinese in south-east Asia; Indians in east Africa, Fiji and parts of the Caribbean; Lebanese in west Africa; Jews in post-communist Russia; and whites in Zimbabwe, South Africa, Bolivia and Ecuador, to name just a few. In free-market environments, these minorities, together with foreign investors, tend to accumulate starkly disproportionate wealth, fuelling ethnic envy and resentment among the poor majorities. . . .
Meanwhile, an analogous dynamic is playing out at the worldwide level. In the past 20 years, the US has come to be perceived as a global market-dominant minority, wielding wildly disproportionate economic power. . . .
---
[Amy Chua is professor of law at Yale University and author of World on Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability][Today's peddlers of "Globalization" would have us believe that inviting foreign investments is the mantra that can deliver the third world from poverty and backwardness. . . . Wasn't the East India Company the ultimate in foreign investments?
To quote what Nehru wrote on February 28, 1933, "In this way, the American capitalists gained effective control of these smaller countries of the south and ran their banks, railways, and mines, and exploited them to their own advantage. Even in the larger countries of Latin America they had great influence because of their investments and money control. That is to say, the United States annexed the wealth, or a great part of it, of these countries. Now, this is worth noting, as it is a new kind of empire, the modern type of empire. It is invisible and economic, and exploits and dominates without any obvious outward signs. The South American republics are politically and internationally free and independent. On the map they are huge countries, and there is nothing to show that they are not free in any way. And yet most of them are dominated completely by the United States."
Most of us think of empires, like the British in India, and we imagine that if the British were not in actual political control of India, India would be free. But this type of empire is already passing away, and giving way to a more advanced and perfected type. This latest kind of empire does not annex even the land; it only annexes the wealth or the wealth producing elements in the country. By doing so it can exploit the country fully to its own advantage and can largely control it, and at the same time has to shoulder no responsibility for governing and repressing that country. In effect both the land and the people living there are dominated and largely controlled with the least amount of trouble.--Review by Anand Nair of Jawaharlal Nehru, "Glimpses of World History," Oxford University Press (January 1, 1990)]
Enver Masud, "Corporate Globalization Threatens World's Poor, Middle Class," The Wisdom Fund, October 10, 2000
Enver Masud, "Deregulation Fiasco, Red Flag for Developing Countries," The Wisdom Fund, February 5, 2001
James L. Phelan, " Renowned US Economists Denounce Corporate-Led Globalization," Global Policy Forum, November 18, 2001
Greg Miller, "Democracy Domino Theory 'Not Credible'," Los Angeles Times, March 14, 2003
Joseph E. Stiglitz, "Globalization and Its Discontents," W.W. Norton & Company (April, 2003)
Noreena Hertz, "The Silent Takeover: Global Capitalism and the Death of Democracy," Harper Business (September 16, 2003)
Naomi Klein, "Iraq is Not America's to Sell," The Guardian, November 7, 2003
Rupert Cornwell, "US angers allies with new Middle East plan," The Independent, February 28, 2004
Ian Buruma, "Killing Iraq With Kindness," New York Times, March 17, 2004
[The truth: Free trade is the serial killer of American manufacturing and the trojan horse of world governement. It is the primrose path to the loss of economic independence and national sovereignty. Free trade is a bright, shining lie.--Patrick J. Buchanan, "Where the Right Went Wrong: How Neoconservatives Subverted the Reagan Revolution and Hijacked the Bush Presidency," Thomas Dunne Books (September 1, 2004), p. 152-174]
[John Perkins should know about economic hit men - he was covertly recruited by the U.S. National Security Agency to be one. For years, he worked for an international consulting firm where his job was to convince underdeveloped countries to accept enormous loans, much larger than what was really needed, for infrastructure development - and to make sure that the development projects were then contracted to U. S. multinationals. Once these countries were saddled with huge debts, the American government and the international aid agencies allied with it were able, by dictating repayment terms, to essentially control their economies. It was not unlike the way a loan shark operates - and Perkins and his colleagues didn't shun this kind of unsavory association. In fact, they even referred to themselves as "economic hit men."--John Perkins, "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man: How the U.S. Uses Globalization to Cheat Poor Countries Out of Trillions," Berrett-Koehler Publishers (November 9, 2004)]
Eric Hobsbawm, "The dangers of exporting democracy: Bush's crusade is based on a dangerous illusion and will fail," Guardian, January 22, 2005
Tom Barry, "The Ambassador of Lies Elliott Abrams: The Neocon's Neocon," Antiwar.com, February 9, 2005
[. . . the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), and its primary arms, the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) and International Republican Institute (IRI), played a central role. The NED was established by the Reagan Administration in 1983, to do overtly, what the CIA had done covertly, in the words of one its legislative drafters, Allen Weinstein.
The Cold War propaganda and operations center, Freedom House , now chaired by former CIA director James Woolsey, has also been involved, as were billionaire George Soros' foundations, whose donations always dovetail those of the NED.--Jonathan Mowat, "Washington's New World Order 'Democratization' Template," Centre for Research on Globalisation, February 9, 2005]
[This takes us back to the essential truth that the problem is capitalism. The only solution, as difficult as this may be to contemplate at the present time, is socialism; socialism, that is, as the socialist movement always meant it to be: revolutionary, democratic, egalitatarian, environmental, necessitating mass participation and mobilization. The difficulties in creating such a society are immense. But "immense," as Daniel Singer once said, "is not synonymous with impossible." If we want a stable, just, egalitarian, sustainable world in which the "free development of each is the condition for the free development of all" there is no alternative but a long march to socialism propelled forward by a growing socialist movement.--John Bellamy Foster, "The End of Rational Capitalism," Monthly Review, March 2005]
[To justify the robber baron culture, America's business educators and economists falsely cite their demigod of laissez-faire market economics, Adam Smith. Little do they know that Adam Smith in fact scathingly castigated Bush's type of government: business collusion and unfair taxes, Wal-Mart's exploitations of labor and communities, and robber barons' hubris. Nowhere in his 900-page book, The Wealth of Nations, does Smith even imply that those who knowingly harm others and society in their pursuit of personal greed also benefit their society. He rejects the notion that a corporation exists to make money without ethical constraints.--Yoshi Tsurumi, "Hail to the Robber Baron?," Harvard Crimson, April 7, 2005]
[On August 5 the White House created the office of the coordinator for reconstruction and stabilisation, headed by Carlos Pascual, the former ambassador to Ukraine. Its mandate is to draw up elaborate "post-conflict" plans for up to 25 countries that are not, as yet, in conflict.--Naomi Klein, "Allure of the blank slate: From Aceh to Haiti, a predatory form of disaster capitalism is reshaping societies to its own design," Guardian, April 18, 2005]
[From 1950 to 1970, for example, for every additional dollar earned by the bottom 90 percent, those in the top 0.01 percent earned an additional $162, according to the Times analysis. From 1990 to 2002, for every extra dollar earned by those in the bottom 90 percent, each taxpayer at the top brought in an extra $18,000.--David Cay Johnston "Richest Are Leaving Even the Rich Far Behind," New York Times, June 5, 2005]
[The west may believe it is building a safer world by opening up markets, imposing sanctions and intervening in conflicts. In reality it is creating a gangsters' paradise . . . once organised crime has begun the process known as "state capture", through which it influences policy, it is very difficult to reverse the process.--Misha Glenny, "Mob rule," The New Statesman, June 6, 2005]
"Are Failed Infrastructure Projects Linked to the Presence of the IMF or World Bank?," Public Policy and Management (Wharton), August, 2005
[Before the US proconsul Paul Bremer left Baghdad, he enacted 100 orders as chief of the occupation authority in Iraq. Perhaps the most infamous was Order 39 which decreed that 200 Iraqi state companies would be privatised, that foreign companies could have complete control of Iraqi banks, factories and mines, and that these companies could transfer all of their profits out of Iraq. The "reconstruction" of the country amounts in effect to wholesale privatisation of the economy and is little short of economic colonisation.--Michael Meacher, "My sadness at the privatisation of Iraq," The Times, August 12, 2005]
[Indeed, the real debate on globalization is, ultimately, not about the efficiency of markets, nor about the importance of modern technology. The debate rather is about severe asymmetries of power, for which there is much less tolerance now than in the world that emerged at the end of the Second World War.--Amartya Sen, "The Argumentative Indian," Farrar, Straus and Giroux, October 12, 2005]
Thomas Palley, "Global Imbalances: Is globalization destined to fail?," YaleGlobal Online, April 20, 2006
[Adel Abdel Mahdi . . . is the person who has most aggressively pushed their agenda for a new oil law in Iraq, which would open up Iraq's oil sector, the vast majority of Iraq's oil sector, to private foreign corporate investment.--Antonia Juhasz, "The Bush Agenda: Invading the World, One Economy at a Time," Regan Books, May 1, 2006]
[All too often, the "free market" is merely organized interests pulling political strings behind ideological cover.--Paul Craig Roberts, "John Kenneth Galbraith, a Great American," counterpunch.org, May 3, 2006]
Guy Dinmore, "Spy agencies analyse role in global drive for democracy," Financial Times, June 16, 2006
Joseph E. Stiglitz, "Making Globalization Work," W. W. Norton (September 18, 2006)
VIDEO and TRANSCRIPT: Joseph E. Stiglitz, "Making Globalization Work," Center for Global Development, September 27, 2006
[Neoclassical idiocies persuaded many economists that market forces would create a robust post-Soviet economy in Russia (corrupt gangster economies do not exist in neoclassical theory). Neoclassical ideas favouring unfettered market forces may determine whether Britain adopts the euro, how we run our schools, hospitals and welfare system. If mainstream economic theory is fundamentally flawed, we are no better than doctors diagnosing with astrology.--Philip Ball, "Baroque fantasies of a peculiar science," Financial Times, October 29, 2006]
[The World Bank's use of questionable evidence to "proselytise" on behalf of its development policies has been sharply criticised by the first big external audit of the bank's use of research.--Eoin Callan, "WB 'uses doubtful evidence to push policies'," Financial Times, December 21, 2006]
[Details behind the strategy I helped engineer - the Saudi Arabian Money-laundering Affair (SAMA) - are provided in Confessions of an Economic Hit Man. In summary, as far as the media was concerned, the House of Saud agreed to three important conditions; it would: I) invest a large portIon of its petrodollars in U.S. government securities; 2) allow the U.S. Treasury Department to use the trillions of dollars in interest from these securities to hire U.S. corporations to westernize Saudi Arabia; and 3) maintain the price of oil within limits acceptable to the corporatocracy. For its part, the U.S. government promised to keep the Saud family in power.
There was an additional agreement, one that made few headlines but was crucial to the corporatocracy's need to maintain the dollar as the standard global currency. Saudi Arabia committed to trading oil exclusively in U.S. dollars. With the scratch of a pen the dollar's sovereignty was reestablished. Oil replaced gold as the measure of a currency's value.--John Perkins, "The Secret History of the American Empire: Economic Hit Men, Jackals, and the Truth about Global Corruption," Dutton Adult, June 5, 2007]
Naomi Klein, "The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism," Metropolitan Books (September 18, 2007)
VIDEO: "The Shock Doctrine," Countdown with Keith Olbermann, November 29, 2007
[Iraqi officials say that, last year, they wanted to diversify their holdings out of the dollar, as it depreciated, into other assets, such as the euro, more likely to hold their value. This was vetoed by the US Treasury because American officials feared it would show lack of confidence in the dollar.--Patrick Cockburn, "US issues threat to Iraq's $50bn foreign reserves in military deal," Independent, June 6, 2008]
[This is the third time in 100 years that support for taken-for-granted economic ideas has crumbled. The Great Depression discredited the radical laissez-faire doctrines of the Coolidge era. Stagflation in the 1970s and early '80s undermined New Deal ideas and called forth a rebirth of radical free-market notions. What's becoming the Panic of 2008 will mean an end to the latest Capital Rules era.--E. J. Dionne, "The Death of Reaganomics," truthdig.com, July 10, 2008]
Dionne, "'I made a mistake,' admits Greenspan," Financial Times, October 3, 2008
[Why were the experts so wrong? They were wrong mostly because economics is an underdeveloped discipline dominated by pure, unabashed ideology. The dominant school of economic thought during the Great Depression was, and remains to this day, the "neoclassical" or marginalist school. But in the "neoclassical" world there is no such thing as a crisis. This is not the real world in which we live. It is a classless world, consisting of "consumers" and "producers." It is a harmonious world modeled mostly after mathematical physics. In such a world there is no history; there is no past, no present and no future. Nothing of consequence ever happens in this world, especially no catastrophic event. This unreal, insipid and a-historical marginalist world should have been abandoned a long time ago, particularly after the Great Depression. Yet, its seemingly mathematical elegance combined with its unadulterated and brazen defense of capitalism, or "free market" as its proponents prefer to call it, has kept it alive. Of course, since the Great Depression the "neoclassical" theory has been somewhat amended by a few ideas from the British aristocrat John Maynard Keynes, ideas that tried to add some elements of reality to the unreal theory. But the result, the so-called "neoclassical synthesis" or "neo-Keynesianism," is no more than a hodgepodge of disjointed, unclear and incoherent ideas that are fed to the students of economic theory under the rubric of "micro" and "macroeconomics."--Sasan Fayazmanesh, "R.I.P.: The Experts, 1929-2008," counterpunch.org, November 14, 2008]
Asif Salahuddin, "The evil of the US dollar," Asia Times, November 21, 2008
http://www.twf.org/News/Y2004/0228-Impose.html
MDC and PF-Zapu parallels dishonest
By Joram Nyathi
Last updated: 12/02/2008 03:09:52
IF I were asked for a simplistic cause of our national crisis, I would say we are responsible. By the same token, the solution lies with us. That is if we didn't have too many people lending us a shoulder, and watch us luxuriate in our victim status.I have been accused of supporting or defending South Africa's Thabo Mbeki's handling of the Zimbabwean crisis. Either way, I have no other defence than simply that we have no reason as a nation to outsource solutions to our problems and blaming those trying to help us. No foreigner can have a better interest in our welfare than ourselves. Nelson Mandela has cleverly warned of "a leadership failure" in Zimbabwe, and that's what is being tested now.
After the March 29 and June 27 elections we have once again contracted a persona called the "international community" to deal with our crisis while we cast aspersions on those we feel are not doing enough to deal with our problem — Robert Mugabe.
Every suggestion for Zimbabweans to sit down and talk is sneered at while every foreign proposal, including a military invasion, is warmly embraced. We have lost faith in our ability to do anything for ourselves and believe aliens know better and have the financial and human resources to sacrifice to deliver democracy to Zimbabwe.
Of late, debate has been about the options open to us after Mugabe was re-elected, however controversially so. Legally, it's a fait accompli. Sadc is divided. The African Union is dithering. The international community, happily, is making all the noises we love to hear.
Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai have adopted predictable positions. Mugabe wants recognition; Tsvangirai can't confer the legitimacy. The debate then is whether we look inwards or outwards for a solution. For the majority in the opposition and civic society movement, there is need for foreign "intervention". That has tended to inform the hardline stance against dialogue between Zanu PF and the MDC , together with an exaggerated fear of becoming another PF-Zapu.
The rejectionists claim the opposition won the presidency on March 29 and it is time for MDC hegemony. To them, the law is an ass.
I agree with those who counsel caution in discussing either a government of national unity or a transitional authority with Zanu PF. It is inevitable that Zanu PF, now having seized the other centre of power, will seek to manipulate the process.
A transitional authority by its definition is a stop-gap measure while institutional changes are being made to our body politic. That might include a new constitution and a redefinition of the role of the police and the army, and the essence of national service training.
I don't understand the mechanics and structural requirements of a GNU. Tsvangirai says the issue is not about power-sharing, but democracy. In his view, given the violence in the country, it is hard to find common ground with Zanu PF. Yet Zimbabweans have to negotiate a way out. I see a very limited role for outsiders because we shall have to live with the consequences.
My anxiety with a hastily crafted GNU is the danger of creating a behemoth which leaves us with a one party state. It is a possibility. But I disagree with facile parallels being drawn between the MDC and what happened to Joshua Nkomo and PF-Zapu. The objective conditions on the ground have changed.
For one, between 1983 and 1986 over 20 000 ordinary civilians are estimated to have been killed while the same cannot be said of the period from the MDC's formation in 1999 to today. I can't understand the pressures on the MDC to equate the situation to that genocidal catastrophe which forced the PF-Zapu leadership to capitulate.
Whether by hindsight people think Nkomo sold out or was cheated by Mugabe, the reality is that he didn't have as much leeway as Tsvangirai has to extract concessions from Mugabe. An ethnic minority was encircled in a dark corner of the country, they were being massacred and did not have a voice. A mean killing machine was let loose to mow down everything in its path because it could "not differentiate who was a dissident or not" by language, name or party affiliation. The CCJP's protests were brushed aside. The popular refrain was: "Hit them hard."
For those in denial, the 100-day Rwandan genocide which killed over 800 000 in 1994 has convinced me that it is possible for a hated ethnic group to be wiped off the face of the earth while the "international community" examines the correct protocols, especially where there are big powers involved.
The MDC and Tsvangirai are not under the same threat which PF-Zapu and Nkomo faced in the 80s — extermination. The world has since opened its eyes to the reality of Zimbabwean politics. The MDC has the media to tell its story. NGOs and civic society, which back in the 1980s were few, weak and pliant, have now sprouted and taken on a more adversarial role against human rights violations.
PF-Zapu and Nkomo were completely alone and of no more than fleeting interest to a world still dazzled by Mugabe's novel policy of "reconciliation" with white Rhodesians so soon after a gruelling independence war. This was neatly balanced with his blistering attacks at the UN on the evils of apartheid in South Africa while he quietly launched on a shameless three-year career of savagery against erstwhile comrades-in-arms in Matabeleland.
In short, the MDC has more leverage to hammer out a more balanced deal than Nkomo could ever dream of under the jackboot. Now it is Mugabe on the facade watching an economy implode in his face who is weaker. It is Mugabe under the jackboot, not necessarily of the MDC, for, behold on the sunset horizon, scorned and full of fury, an elephantine beast not unfamiliar and fair, slouches towards the bastions of the Republic.
Joram Nyathi is the deputy editor of the Zimbabwe Independent newspaper. E-mail him at joram@zimind.co.zw
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Southeast Asia
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Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2007)Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic and volcanic activity.
Southeast Asia consists of two geographic regions: the Asian mainland (aka. Indochina), and island arcs and archipelagoes to the east and southeast. The mainland section consists of Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and Peninsular Malaysia while the maritime section consists of Andaman and Nicobar Islands (India), Brunei, East Malaysia, East Timor, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, The Philippines, and Singapore.[1]
Austronesian peoples predominate in this region. The major religions are Islam and Buddhism, followed by Christianity. However a wide variety of religions are found throughout the region, including many Hindu and animist-influenced practices.
Contents
[hide][edit] Divisions
[edit] Political
Definitions of "Southeast Asia" vary, but most definitions include the area represented by the countries:
All of the above excluding East Timor are members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (commonly abbreviated ASEAN.) The area, together with part of South Asia, was widely known as the East Indies or simply the Indies until the twentieth century. Christmas Island and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands are considered part of Southeast Asia though they are governed by Australia. Taiwan is sometimes considered part of Southeast Asia as well as East Asia but it is not a member of ASEAN. Sovereignty issues exist over some islands in the South China Sea. Papua is politically part of Southeast Asia through Indonesia, although geographically it is often considered as part of Oceania. As of 2009, Papua New Guinea has stated that it might join ASEAN, indicating a possible switch in its geographic locale.[2] [3]
[edit] Geographical
The eastern parts of Indonesia and East Timor (east of Wallace Line) are considered to be geographically parts of Oceania.
Southeast Asia is geographically divided into two subregions, namely Mainland Southeast Asia (or Indochina) and the Maritime Southeast Asia (or the Malay Archipelago) (Indonesian language: Nusantara).
Mainland Southeast Asia includes:
Insular Southeast Asia includes:
The Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India are geographically considered part of Southeast Asia. Bangladesh and the Seven Sister States of India are culturally part of Southeast Asia and sometimes considered both South Asian and Southeast Asian. The Seven Sister States of India are also geographically part of southeast asia. Hainan Island and several other southern Chinese regions such as Yunnan, Guizhou and Guangxi are considered both East Asian and Southeast Asian. Taiwan, which sits on the Tropic of Cancer and borders the South China Sea, is likewise often included in definitions of Southeast Asia as well as East Asia. The rest of New Guinea is sometimes included so are Palau, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands, which were all part of the Spanish East Indies.
[edit] Countries and territories data
[edit] Countries
Country Area (km2)[5] Population (2009 est.)[1] Density (/km2) Capital Brunei 5,765 400,000 69.4 Bandar Seri Begawan Burma 676,578 50,020,000 73.9 Naypyidaw Cambodia 181,035 14,805,000 81.8 Phnom Penh Timor-Leste 14,874 1,134,000 76.2 Dili Indonesia 1,904,569 229,965,000 120.7 Jakarta Laos 236,800 6,320,000 26.7 Vientiane Malaysia 329,847 27,468,000 83.3 Kuala Lumpur Philippines 300,000 91,983,000 306.6 Manila Singapore 710.2 4,737,000 6,796.3 City of Singapore (Downtown Core) Thailand 513,120 67,764,000 132.1 Bangkok Vietnam 331,210 88,069,000 265.0 Hanoi [edit] Territories
Territory Area (km2) Population Density (/km2) Christmas Island 135[6] 1,402[6] 10.4 Cocos (Keeling) Islands 14[7] 596[7] 42.6 [edit] History
Main article: History of Southeast AsiaSolheim and others have shown evidence for a Nusantao (Nusantara) maritime trading network ranging from Vietnam to the rest of the archipelago as early as 5000 BCE to 1 CE.[8] The peoples of Southeast Asia, especially those of Austronesian descent, have been seafarers for thousands of years, some reaching the island of Madagascar. Their vessels, such as the vinta, were ocean-worthy. Magellan's voyage records how much more maneuvreable their vessels were, as compared to the European ships.[9]
Passage through the Indian Ocean aided the colonization of Madagascar by the Austronesian people, as well as commerce between West Asia and Southeast Asia. Gold from Sumatra is thought to have reached as far west as Rome, while slaves from the Sulu Sea was believed to have been used in Magellan's voyage as a translator.
Originally most people were animist. This was later replaced by Brahmanic Hinduism. Theravada Buddhism soon followed in 525. In 1400s, Islamic influences began to enter. This forced the last Hindu court in Indonesia to retreat to Bali.
In Mainland Southeast Asia, Myanmar, Cambodia and Thailand retained the Theravada form of Buddhism, brought to them from Sri Lanka. This type of Buddhism was fused with the Hindu-influenced Khmer culture.
[edit] Indianized kingdoms
Main article: Indianized kingdomFurther information: Greater IndiaVery little is known about Southeast Asian religious beliefs and practices before the advent of Indian merchants and religious influences from the second century BCE onwards. Prior to the 13th century, Buddhism and Hinduism were the main religions in Southeast Asia.
The Jawa Dwipa Hindu kingdom in Java and Sumatra existed around 200 BCE. The history of the Malay-speaking world begins with the advent of Indian influence, which dates back to at least the 3rd century BC. Indian traders came to the archipelago both for its abundant forest and maritime products and to trade with merchants from China, who also discovered the Malay world at an early date. Both Hinduism and Buddhism were well established in the Malay Peninsula by the beginning of the 1st century CE, and from there spread across the archipelago.
Cambodia was first influenced by Hinduism during the beginning of the Funan kingdom. Hinduism was one of the Khmer Empire's official religions. Cambodia is the home to one of the only two temples dedicated to Brahma in the world. Angkor Wat is also a famous Hindu temple of Cambodia. The Champa civilization was located in what is today central Vietnam, and was a highly indianized Hindu Kingdom.
The Majapahit Empire was an Indianized kingdom based in eastern Java from 1293 to around 1500. Its greatest ruler was Hayam Wuruk, whose reign from 1350 to 1389 marked the empire's peak when it dominated other kingdoms in the southern Malay Peninsula, Borneo, Sumatra, and Bali.
The Cholas excelled in maritime activity in both military and the mercantile fields. Their raids of Kedah and the Srivijaya, and their continued commercial contacts with the Chinese Empire, enabled them to influence the local cultures. Many of the surviving examples of the Hindu cultural influence found today throughout the Southeast Asia are the result of the Chola expeditions.[10]
[edit] Islamization of Southeast Asia
See also: Spread of Islam in IndonesiaIn the 11th century, a turbulent period occurred in the history of Maritime Southeast Asia, the Indian Chola navy crossed the ocean and attacked the Srivijaya kingdom of Sangrama Vijayatungavarman in Kadaram (Kedah), the capital of the powerful maritime kingdom was sacked and the king was taken captive. Along with Kadaram, Pannai in present day Sumatra and Malaiyur and the Malayan peninsula were attacked too. Soon after that, the king of Kedah Phra Ong Mahawangsa became the first ruler to abandon the traditional Hindu faith, and converted to Islam with the Sultanate of Kedah established in year 1136. Samudera Pasai converted to Islam in the year 1267, the King of Malacca Parameswara married with princess of Pasai, the son became the first sultan of Malacca, soon Malacca became the center of Islam study and maritime trade, other rulers followed suit. Indonesian religious leader and Islamic scholar Hamka (1908–1981) wrote in 1961: "The development of Islam in Indonesia and Malaya is intimately related to a Chinese Muslim, Admiral Zheng He."[11]
There are several theories to the Islamization process in Southeast Asia. The first theory is trade. The expansion of trade among West Asia, India and Southeast Asia helped the spread of the religion as Muslim traders brought Islam to the region. The second theory is the role of missionaries or Sufis. The Sufi missionaries played a significant role in spreading the faith by syncretising Islamic ideas with existing local beliefs and religious notions. Finally, the ruling classes embraced Islam and that further aided the permeation of the religion throughout the region. The ruler of the region's most important port, Malacca Sultanate, embraced Islam in the 15th century, heralding a period of accelerated conversion of Islam throughout the region as the religion provided a unifying force among the ruling and trading classes.
[edit] Trade and colonisation
[edit] China
See also: List of tributaries of Imperial ChinaSee also: Imperialism in AsiaChinese merchants have traded with the region for a long time as evidence of Magellan's voyage records that Brunei possessed more cannon than the European ships so it appears that the Chinese fortified them.[9]
Malaysian legend has it that a Chinese Ming emperor sent a princess, Han Li Po to Malacca, with a retinue of 500, to marry Sultan Mansur Shah after the emperor was impressed by the wisdom of the sultan. Han Li Po's well (constructed 1459) is now a tourist attraction there, as is Bukit Cina, where her retinue settled.
The strategic value of the Strait of Malacca, which was controlled by Sultanate of Malacca in the 15th and early 16th century, did not go unnoticed by Portuguese writer Duarte Barbosa, who in 1500 wrote "He who is lord of Malacca has his hand on the throat of Venice".
[edit] Europe
Western influence started to enter in the 1500s, with the arrival of the Portuguese and Spanish in Moluccas and the Philippines. Later the Dutch established the Dutch East Indies; the French Indochina; and the British Strait Settlements. All of southeast Asian countries were colonized except for Thailand.
European explorers were reaching Southeast Asia from the west and from the east. Regular trade between the ships sailing east from the Indian Ocean and south from mainland Asia provided goods in return for natural products, such as honey and hornbill beaks from the islands of the archipelago.
Europeans brought Christianity allowing Christian missionaries to become widespread. Thailand also allowed Western science and technology to enter its country.
[edit] Japan
See also: Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, Slavery in Japan, Japanese occupation of Indonesia, and Japanese war crimesDuring World War II, the Imperial Japan invaded most of the former western colonies. The Shōwa occupation regime committed violent actions against indigenous civilians such as the Manila Massacre and the implementation of a system of forced labor, such as the one involving 4 to 10 million romusha in Indonesia.[12] A later UN report stated that four million people died in Indonesia as a result of famine and forced labour during the Japanese occupation.[13]
[edit] Present
Most countries in the region enjoy national autonomy. Democratic forms of government and the recognition of human rights are taking root. ASEAN provides a framework for the integration of commerce.
Conflicting territorial and maritime claims continue to exist, including the conflicting claims by Taiwan, China, and the Philippines over the Spratly Islands.
[edit] Geography
Geologically, the Indonesian archipelago is one of the most active vulcanological regions in the world. Geological uplifts in the region have also produced some impressive mountains, culminating in Mount Kinabalu in Sabah, Malaysia on the island of Borneo with a height of 4,101 metres (13,455 ft), while the second tallest peak is Puncak Jaya in Papua, Indonesia at 4,884 metres (16,024 ft), on the island of New Guinea, it is the only place where ice glacier can be found in Southeast Asia. The tallest is Hkakabo Razi at 5,967 meters and can be found in northern Myanmar. The largest archipelago in the world by size is Indonesia (according to the CIA World Factbook)
[edit] Boundaries
See also: AustronesiaThe Australasian continental plate defines a region adjacent to Southeast Asia, which is also politically separated from the countries of Southeast Asia. But a cultural touch point lies between Papua New Guinea and the Indonesian region of Papua and West Papua, which shares the island of New Guinea with Papua New Guinea.
[edit] Climate
The climate in Southeast Asia is mainly tropical–hot and humid all year round with plentiful rainfall. Southeast Asia has a wet and dry season caused by seasonal shift in winds or monsoon. The tropical rain belt causes additional rainfall during the monsoon season. The rain forest is the second largest on earth (with the Amazon being the largest). An exception to this type of climate and vegetation is the mountain areas in the northern region, where high altitudes lead to milder temperatures and drier landscape. Other parts fall out of this climate because they are desert like.
[edit] Environment
See also: Southeast Asian coral reefs and Wallace lineAll of Southeast Asia falls within the warm, humid tropics, and its climate generally can be characterized as monsoonal. The animals of Southeast Asia are diverse; on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra, the Orangutan (man of the forest), the Asian Elephant, the Malayan tapir, the Sumatran Rhinoceros and the Bornean Clouded Leopard can be also found. Six subspecies of the Binturong or bearcat exist in the region, though the one endemic to the island of Palawan is now classed as vulnerable.
The Komodo Dragon is the largest living species of lizard and inhabits the islands of Komodo, Rinca, Flores, and Gili Motang in Indonesia.
The Wild Asian Water Buffalo, and on various islands related dwarf species of Bubalus such as Anoa were once widespread in Southeast Asia, nowadays the Domestic Asian Water buffalo is common across the region, but its remaining relatives are rare and endangered.
The mouse deer, a small tusked deer as large as a toy dog or cat, can be found on Sumatra, Borneo and Palawan Islands. The gaur, a gigantic wild ox larger than even wild Water buffalo, is found mainly in Indochina.
Birds such as the peafowl and drongo live in this subregion as far east as Indonesia. The babirusa, a four-tusked pig, can be found in Indonesia as well. The hornbill was prized for its beak and used in trade with China. The horn of the rhinoceros, not part of its skull, was prized in China as well.
The Indonesian Archipelago is split by the Wallace Line. This line runs along what is now known to be a tectonic plate boundary, and separates Asian (Western) species from Australasian (Eastern) species. The islands between Java/Borneo and Papua form a mixed zone, where both types occur, known as Wallacea. As the pace of development accelerates and populations continue to expand in Southeast Asia, concern has increased regarding the impact of human activity on the region's environment. A significant portion of Southeast Asia, however, has not changed greatly and remains an unaltered home to wildlife. The nations of the region, with only few exceptions, have become aware of the need to maintain forest cover not only to prevent soil erosion but to preserve the diversity of flora and fauna. Indonesia, for example, has created an extensive system of national parks and preserves for this purpose. Even so, such species as the Javan rhinoceros face extinction, with only a handful of the animals remaining in western Java.
The shallow waters of the Southeast Asian coral reefs have the highest levels of biodiversity for the world's marine ecosystems, where coral, fish and molluscs abound. According to Conservation International, marine surveys suggest that the marine life diversity in the Raja Ampat area is the highest recorded on Earth.[1] Diversity is considerably greater than any other area sampled in the Coral Triangle composed of Indonesia, Philippines and Papua New Guinea. The Coral Triangle is the heart of the world's coral reef biodiversity, making Raja Ampat quite possibly the richest coral reef ecosystems in the world. The whale shark, the world's largest species of fish and 6 species of pawikans can also be found in the South China Sea and the Pacific Ocean territories of the Philippines.
The trees and other plants of the region are tropical; in some countries where the mountains are tall enough, temperate-climate vegetation can be found. These rainforest areas are currently being logged-over, especially in Borneo.
While Southeast Asia is rich in flora and fauna, Southeast Asia is facing severe deforestation which causes habitat loss for various endangered species such as orangutan and the Sumatran tiger. Predictions have been made that more than 40% of the animal and plant species in Southeast Asia could be wiped out in the 21st century.[14] At the same time, haze has been a regular occurrence. The two worst regional hazes were in 1997 and 2006 in which multiple countries were covered with thick haze, mostly caused by "slash and burn" activities in Indonesia. In reaction, several countries in Southeast Asia signed the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution in order to combat haze pollution.
[edit] Economy
Even prior to the penetration of European interests, Southeast Asia was a critical part of the world trading system. The Ryukyu Kingdom often participated in maritime trade in Southeast Asia. A wide range of commodities originated in the region, but especially important were such spices as pepper, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg. The spice trade initially was developed by Indian and Arab merchants, but it also brought Europeans to the region. First Spaniards (Manila galleon) and Portuguese, then the Dutch, and finally the British and French became involved in this enterprise in various countries. The penetration of European commercial interests gradually evolved into annexation of territories, as traders lobbied for an extension of control to protect and expand their activities. As a result, the Dutch moved into Indonesia, the British into Malaya, and the French into Indochina.
While the region's economy greatly depends on agriculture, manufacturing and services are becoming more important. An emerging market, Indonesia is the largest economy in this region. Newly industrialized countries include the Philippines, Malaysia, and Thailand, while Singapore and Brunei are affluent developed economies. The rest of Southeast Asia is still heavily dependent on agriculture, but Vietnam is notably making steady progress in developing its industrial sectors. The region notably manufactures textiles, electronic high-tech goods such as microprocessors and heavy industrial products such as automobiles. Reserves of oil are also present in the region.
Seventeen telecommunications companies have contracted to build a new submarine cable to connect Southeast Asia to the U.S.[15] This is to avoid disruption of the kind recently caused by the cutting of the undersea cable from Taiwan to the U.S. in a recent earthquake.
[edit] Demographics
Southeast Asia has an area of approximately 4,000,000 km² (1.6 million square miles). As of 2004, more than 593 million people lived in the region, more than a fifth of them (125 million) on the Indonesian island of Java, the most densely populated large island in the world. Indonesia is the most populous country with 230 million people and also 4th most populous country in the world. The distribution of the religions and people is diverse in Southeast Asia and varies by country. Some 30 million overseas Chinese also live in Southeast Asia, most prominently in Christmas Island, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand, and also, as the Hoa, in Vietnam.
[edit] Ethnic groups
Main article: ethnic groups of Southeast AsiaSee also: Austronesian people, Chinese ethnic groups, Overseas Indians, Eurasian (mixed ancestry), Filipino people, Malays (ethnic group), Khmer people, Negrito, and Tai peoplesAccording to a recent Stanford genetic study, the Southeast Asian population is far from being homogeneous. Although primarily descendants of Austronesian, Tai, and Mon-Khmer-speaking immigrants who migrated from Southern China during the Bronze Age and Iron Age, there are overlays of Arab, Chinese, Indian, Polynesian and Melanesian genes.
There are also large pockets of intermarriage between indigenous Southeast Asians and those of Chinese descent. They form a substantial part of everyday life in countries such as Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines. Indonesia and Malaysia also has a few mixed Southeast Asian-Chinese populations.
On the mainland the Khmer peoples of Cambodia remain as ancestors of earlier Pareoean peoples. Similarly, remnants of the Mon group are found in parts of Myanmar and Thailand; the ethnic mixture there has been produced by overlaying Tibeto-Burman and Tai, Lao, and Shan peoples. The contemporary Vietnamese population originated from the Red River area in the north and may be a mixture of Tai and Malay peoples.[citation needed] Added to these major ethnic groups are such less numerous peoples as the Karens, Chins, and Nagas in Myanmar, who have affinities with other Asiatic peoples. Insular Southeast Asia contains a mixture of descendants of Proto-Malay (Nesiot) and Pareoean peoples who were influenced by Malayo-Polynesian and other groups. In addition, Arabic, Indian, and Chinese influences have affected the ethnic pattern of the islands.
In modern times, Javanese is the largest ethnic in Southeast Asia, with more than 86 millions people, mostly concentrated in Java,Indonesia. In Myanmar, the Burmese account for more than two-thirds of the ethnic stock in this country, while ethnic Thais and Vietnamese account for about four-fifths of the respective populations of those countries. Indonesia is clearly dominated by the Javanese and Sundanese ethnic groups, while Malaysia is more evenly split between the Malays and the Chinese. Within the Philippines, the Tagalog, Cebuano, Ilocano, and Bicol groups are significant.
[edit] Religions
See also: Buddhism in Southeast Asia, Hinduism in Southeast Asia, Islam in Southeast Asia, Muslim Southeast Asia, and Christianity in AsiaIslam is the most widely practiced religion in Southeast Asia, numbering approximately 240 million adherents which translate to about 40% of the entire population, with majorities in Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia. Countries in Southeast Asia practice many different religions. Mainland Southeast Asian countries, which are, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam practice predominantly Buddhism. Singapore is also predominantly Buddhist. Ancestor worship and Confucianism is also widely practised in Vietnam and Singapore. In Maritime Southeast Asia, people living in Malaysia, western Indonesia and Brunei practice mainly Islam. Christianity is predominant in the Philippines, eastern Indonesia and East Timor. The Philippines has the largest Roman Catholic population followed very distantly by Vietnam. East Timor is also predominantly Roman Catholic due to a history of Portuguese rule.
The religious composition for each country is as follows. Some values are taken from the CIA World Factbook:[16]
Religions and peoples are diverse in Southeast Asia and not one country is homogeneous. In the world's most populous Muslim nation, Indonesia, Hinduism is dominant on islands such as Bali. Christianity also predominates in Philippines, New Guinea and Timor. Pockets of Hindu population can also be found around Southeast Asia in Singapore, Malaysia etc. Garuda (Sanskrit: Garuḍa), the phoenix who is the mount (vahanam) of Vishnu, is a national symbol in both Thailand and Indonesia; in the Philippines, gold images of Garuda have been found on Palawan; gold images of other Hindu gods and goddesses have also been found on Mindanao. Balinese Hinduism is somewhat different from Hinduism practiced elsewhere, as Animism and local culture is incorporated into it. Christians can also be found throughout Southeast Asia; they are in the majority in East Timor and the Philippines, Asia's largest Christian nation. In addition, there are also older tribal religious practices in remote areas of Sarawak in East Malaysia and Papua in eastern Indonesia. In Myanmar, Sakka (Indra) is revered as a nat. In Vietnam, Mahayana Buddhism is practiced, which is influenced by native animism but with strong emphasis on Ancestor Worship.
[edit] Languages
See also: Austric languages, Austro-Asiatic languages, Austronesian languages, Hmong-Mien languages, Sino-Tibetan languages, and Kradai languagesEach of the languages have been influenced by cultural pressures due to trade and historical colonization as well. Thus, for example, a Filipino, educated in English and Filipino, as well as in his native tongue (e.g., Visayan), might well speak another language, such as Spanish for historical reasons, or Chinese, Korean or Japanese for economic reasons; a Malaysian might well speak Malay, Chinese, Tamil as well as English as a second language.
The language composition for each country is as follows: (official languages are in bold.)
Andaman and Nicobar Islands Nicobarese, Bengali, English, Hindi, Malayalam, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, Shompen, Andamanese languages, others Brunei Malay, English, Chinese, indigenous Borneian dialects[18] Burma (Myanmar) Burmese, Shan, Karen, Rakhine, Kachin, Chin, Mon, Chinese languages, Indian languages, others Cambodia Khmer, English, French, Vietnamese, Thai, Chamic dialects, Chinese languages, others[19] Christmas Island English, Chinese, Malay[20] Cocos (Keeling) Islands English, Cocos Malay[21] East Timor Tetum, Portuguese, Indonesian, English, Mambae, Makasae, Tukudede, Bunak, Galoli, Kemak, Fataluku, Baikeno, others[22] Indonesia Indonesian, Acehnese, Batak, Minang, Sundanese, Javanese, Sasak, Tetum, Dayak, Minahasa, Toraja, Buginese, Halmahera, Ambonese, Ceramese; English, Dutch, Papuan languages, Chinese, and so much others[23] Laos Lao, Thai, Vietnamese, Hmong, Miao, Mien, Dao, Shan; French, English others[24] Malaysia Malay, English, Chinese dialects, Indian languages, Sarawakian and Sabahan languages, others[25] Philippines Filipino, English, Tagalog, Cebuano, Ilokano, Hiligaynon/Ilonggo, Bicol, Waray, Pampango, Pangasinan, others[26] Singapore English, Mandarin (Chinese), Malay, Tamil, other Chinese languages, other Indian languages, Arabic dialects, others South China Sea Islands English, Filipino, Malay, Mandarin (Chinese), Vietnamese Thailand Thai, English, Chinese languages, Malay, Lao, Khmer, Isaan, Shan, Lue, Phutai, Mon, Mein, Hmong, Karen, others [27] Vietnam Vietnamese, English, Chinese languages, French, Khmer, mountain area languages (Mon-Khmer and Malayo-Polynesian, hmong)[28] [edit] Culture
Rice paddy agriculture has existed in Southeast Asia for thousands of years, ranging across the subregion. Some dramatic examples of these rice paddies populate the Banaue Rice Terraces in the mountains of Luzon in the Philippines. Maintenance of these paddies is very labor-intensive. The rice paddies are well-suited to the monsoon climate of the region.
Stilt houses can be found all over Southeast Asia, from Thailand and Laos, to Borneo, to Luzon in the Philippines, to Papua New Guinea.
The region has diverse metalworking, especially in Indonesia. This include weaponry, such as the distinctive kris, and musical instruments, such as the gamelan.
[edit] Influences
The region's chief cultural influences have been from either China or India or both, with Vietnam considered by far the most Chinese-influenced. Myanmar can be said to be influenced equally by both India and China. Western cultural influence is most pronounced in the Philippines, derived particularly from the period of Spanish rule.
As a rule, the peoples who ate with their fingers were more likely influenced by the culture of India, for example, than the culture of China, where the peoples first ate with chopsticks; tea, as a beverage, can be found across the region. The fish sauces distinctive to the region tend to vary.
[edit] The Arts
The arts of Southeast Asia have no affinity with the arts of other areas, except India. Dance in much of Southeast Asia also includes movement of the hands, as well as the feet to express the emotion and meaning of dance upon the story that the ballerina going to tell the audience.Most of Southeast Asian confirmed the Dance into their court, according to Cambodian royal ballet represent them in earlier of 7th century before Khmer Empire which highly influenced by Indian Hinduism. Apsara Dance, famous for its strongly hand and feet movement, is a great example of Hindism symbol dance. Puppetry and shadow plays were also a favoured form of entertainment in past centuries as the famous one known as Wayang from Indonesia.The Arts and Literature in some of Southeast Asia is quite influenced by Hinduism brought to them centuries ago.
The Tai, coming late into Southeast Asia, brought with them some Chinese artistic traditions, but they soon shed them in favour of the Khmer and Mon traditions, and the only indications of their earlier contact with Chinese arts were in the style of their temples, especially the tapering roof, and in their lacquerware.
In Indonesia, despite conversion to Islam opposed to certain forms of art, they retained many forms of Hindu influenced practices, cultures, arts and literatures. An example will be the Wayang Kulit (Shadow Puppet) and literatures like the Ramayana. This is also true for mainland Southeast Asia (excluding Vietnam). Dance movements, Hindu gods, arts were also fused into Thai, Khmer, Lao and Burmese cultures. It has been pointed out that Khmer and Indonesian classical arts were concerned with depicting the life of the gods, but to the Southeast Asian mind the life of the gods was the life of the peoples themselves—joyous, earthy, yet divine.
In Vietnam, the Vietnamese share many cultural similarities with the Chinese.
[edit] Music
Traditional music in Southeast Asia is as varied as its many ethnic and cultural divisions. Main styles of traditional music can be seen: Court music, folk music, music styles of smaller ethnic groups, and music influenced by genres outside the geographic region.
Of the court and folk genres, Gong-chime ensembles and orchestras make up the majority (the exception being lowland areas of Vietnam). Gamelan orchestras from Indonesia, Piphat /Pinpeat ensembles of Thailand & Cambodia and the Kulintang ensembles of the southern Philippines, Borneo, Sulawesi and Timor are the three main distinct styles of musical genres that have influenced other traditional musical styles in the region. String instruments also are popular in the region.
[edit] Writing
The history of Southeast Asia has led to a wealth of different authors, from both within and without writing about the region.
Originally, Indians were the ones who taught the native inhabitants about writing. This is shown through Brahmic forms of writing present in the region such as the Balinese script shown on split palm leaf called lontar, right:
The antiquity of this form of writing extends before the invention of paper around the year 100 in China. Note each palm leaf section was only several lines, written longitudinally across the leaf, and bound by twine to the other sections. The outer portion was decorated. The alphabets of Southeast Asia tended to be abugidas, until the arrival of the Europeans, who used words that also ended in consonants, not just vowels. Other forms of official documents, which did not use paper, included Javanese copperplate scrolls. This would have been more durable in the tropical climate of Southeast Asia.
[edit] See also
- Southeast Asian capitals
- Southeast Asian studies
- History of Southeast Asia
- Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO)
- Japanese foreign policy on Southeast Asia
- S.E.A. Write Award
- Golden Triangle (Southeast Asia)
- List of Southeast Asian mountains
- Southeast Asian Leaders
[edit] References
- ^ a b "World Macro Regions and Components". The United Nations. http://www.un.org/depts/dhl/maplib/worldregions.htm. Retrieved 2009-09-13.
- ^ Papua New Guinea asks RP support for Asean membership bid Retrieved July 8, 2009
- ^ Somare seeks PGMA's support for PNG's ASEAN membership bid Retrieved July 8, 2009
- ^ This map primarily indicates ASEAN member countries, and therefore does not mark the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which are also geographically a part of Southeast Asia.
- ^ "Country Comparison :: Area". CIA World Factbook. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2147rank.html. Retrieved 2009-09-12.
- ^ a b "Christmas Islands". CIA World Factbook. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/kt.html. Retrieved 2009-09-12.
- ^ a b "Cocos (Keeling) Islands". CIA World Factbook. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ck.html. Retrieved 2009-09-12.
- ^ Solheim, Journal of East Asian Archaeology, 2000, 2:1-2, pp. 273-284(12)
- ^ a b Laurence Bergreen, Over the Edge of the World: Magellan's Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe, HarperCollins Publishers, 2003, hardcover 480 pages, ISBN 0-06-621173-5
- ^ The great temple complex at Prambanan in Indonesia exhibit a number of similarities with the South Indian architecture. See Nilakanta Sastri, K.A. The CōĻas, 1935 pp 709
- ^ Chinese Muslims in Malaysia, History and Development by Rosey Wang Ma
- ^ Library of Congress, 1992, "Indonesia: World War II and the Struggle For Independence, 1942-50; The Japanese Occupation, 1942-45" Access date: February 9, 2007.
- ^ John W. Dower War Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War (1986; Pantheon; ISBN 0-394-75172-8)
- ^ Biodiversity wipeout facing South East Asia, New Scientist, 23 July 2003
- ^ Sean Yoong (April 27, 2007). "17 Firms to Build $500M Undersea Cable". International Business Times. http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/20070427/malaysia-undersea-cable.htm. Retrieved 2007-07-28.
- ^ "Field Listing - Religions". CIA factbook. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2122.html. Retrieved 2007-02-24.
- ^ Indonesia - The World Factbook https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/id.html
- ^ CIA - The World Factbook -- Brunei
- ^ CIA - The World Factbook -- Cambodia
- ^ CIA - The World Factbook -- Christmas Island
- ^ CIA - The World Factbook -- Cocos (Keeling) Islands
- ^ CIA - The World Factbook -- East Timor
- ^ CIA - The World Factbook -- Indonesia
- ^ CIA - The World Factbook -- Laos
- ^ CIA - The World Factbook -- Malaysia
- ^ CIA - The World Factbook -- Philippines
- ^ CIA - The World Factbook -- Thailand
- ^ CIA - The World Factbook -- Vietnam
- Tiwari, Rajnish (2003): Post-crisis Exchange Rate Regimes in Southeast Asia (PDF), Seminar Paper, University of Hamburg.
- Rand, Nelson (2009). Conflict: Journeys through war and terror in SouthEast Asia. Dunboyne: Maverick House Publishers. ISBN 978-1-905379-54-5.
[edit] External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Southeast Asia
- Topography of Southeast Asia in detail (PDF)
- CityMayors.com article
- Southeast Asian Archive at the University of California, Irvine.
- "Documenting the Southeast Asian Refugee Experience", exhibit at the University of California, Irvine, Library.
- Southeast Asia Visions, a collection of historical travel narratives Cornell University Library Digital Collection
[show] Countries and other territories in Southeast Asia Disputed territories
Islands in the Naf River (Bangladesh, Burma (Myanmar)) · Macclesfield Bank (Philippines, PRC, ROC) · Paracel Islands (PRC, ROC, Vietnam) · Pratas Islands (PRC, ROC) · Scarborough Shoal (Philippines, PRC, ROC) · Spratly Islands (Brunei, Malaysia, Philippines, PRC, ROC, Vietnam)
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West Papua · Chinland · Nagaland · Wa State · Zogam · Bangsamoro · Patani
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Latin America Area 21,069,501 km² Population 569 million[1] Demonym Latin American, American Countries 20 Dependencies 10 Languages Spanish, Portuguese, French, Quechua, Aymara, Nahuatl, Mayan languages, Guaraní, English, Haitian Creole, Jamaican Creole, Papiamentu, others Time Zones UTC-2 Brazil
UTC-8 MexicoLargest cities 1. Mexico City
2. São Paulo
3. Buenos Aires
4. Rio de Janeiro
5. Bogotá
6. Lima
7. Santiago
8. Belo Horizonte
9. Caracas
10. GuadalajaraLatin America (Spanish: América Latina or Latinoamérica; Portuguese: América Latina; French: Amérique latine) is a region of the Americas where Romance languages (i.e., those derived from Latin) – particularly Spanish, Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken.[2][3] Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,501 km² (7,880,000 sq mi), almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area. As of 2008, its population was estimated at more than 569 million.
Contents
[hide][edit] Etymology and definitions
The idea that a part of the Americas has a cultural affinity with the Romance cultures as a whole can be traced back to the 1830s, in particular in the writing of the French Saint-Simonian Michel Chevalier, who postulated that this part of the Americas were inhabited by people of a "Latin race," and that it could, therefore, ally itself with "Latin Europe" in a struggle with "Teutonic Europe," "Anglo-Saxon America" and "Slavic Europe."[4] The idea was later taken up by Latin American intellectuals and political leaders of the mid- and late-nineteenth century, who no longer looked to Spain or Portugal as cultural models, but rather to France.[5] The actual term "Latin America" was coined in France under Napoleon III and played a role in his campaign to imply cultural kinship with France, transform France into a cultural and political leader of the area and install Maximilian as emperor of Mexico.[6] In contemporary usage:
- In one sense, Latin America refers only to those territories in the Americas where the Spanish or Portuguese languages prevail: Mexico, most of Central and South America, and in the Caribbean, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico. Latin America is, therefore, defined as all those parts of the Americas that were once part of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires.[7]
- Often, particularly in the United States, the term more broadly refers to all of the Americas south of the United States; thus, English-speaking countries such as Belize, Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Antigua and Barbuda, St. Lucia, Dominica, Grenada, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and the Bahamas, as well as Haiti and Martinique, Guadeloupe, French Guiana, the Netherlands Antilles, Aruba and Suriname are included. (Nevertheless, in this use, it is noted that in the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba, Papiamento – a predominantly Iberian–derived creole language – is spoken by the majority of the population.) This definition emphasizes a similar socioeconomic history of the region, which was characterized by formal or informal colonialism, rather than cultural aspects. (See, for example, dependency theory.)[8] As such, some sources avoid this oversimplification by using the phrase "Latin America and the Caribbean" instead, as in the United Nations geoscheme for the Americas.[9][10][11]
- In a more literal definition, which remains faithful to the original usage, Latin America designates all of those countries and territories in the Americas where a Romance language (i.e., languages derived from Latin, and hence the name of the region) is spoken: Spanish, Portuguese, and French, and the creole languages based upon these. Although French-influenced areas of the Americas would include Quebec, this region is rarely considered to be part of Latin America, since its history, distinctively North American culture and economy, and British-inspired political institutions are generally deemed too closely intertwined with the rest of Canada.[12]
The distinction between Latin America and Anglo-America (or, in some uses, North America), which can be criticized for stressing only the European heritage of these regions (that is, for Eurocentrism), is a convention based on the predominant languages in the Americas by which Romance-language and English-speaking cultures are distinguished. Neither area is culturally or linguistically homogenous; in substantial portions of Latin America (e.g., highland Ecuador, Bolivia, Guatemala, and Paraguay), American Indian cultures and, to a lesser extent, Amerindian languages, are predominant, and in other areas, the influence of African cultures is strong (e.g., the Caribbean basin—including parts of Colombia and Venezuela)—and the coastal areas of Ecuador and Brazil.
[edit] Subdivisions
Latin America can be subdivided into several subregions based on geography, politics, demographics and culture; some subregions are North America, Central America, the Caribbean, the Southern Cone, and Andean states. In terms of culture, society and national identity Mario Sambarino classified Latin American states into Mestizo-American (Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Venezuela, etc.), Indigenous-America (Bolivia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Peru) and European-American (Argentina and Uruguay).[14]
In Darcy Ribeiro's classification system Latin American countries are classified as "New Peoples" (Chile, Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil etc.), that merged from the mix of several cultures while Peru, Bolivia and Mexico are "Testimony Peoples", remnants of ancient civilizations and Argentina and Uruguay, former "New Peoples" that became "Transplantated Peoples", essentially European, after massive immigration.[14]
[edit] History
Please help improve this information beyond 1825 by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page. (July 2008) Main article: History of Latin America[edit] Pre-colombian history
The Americas were thought to have been first inhabited by people crossing the Bering Land Bridge, now known as the Bering strait, from northeast Asia into Alaska more than 10,000 years ago. The earliest known settlement, however, was identified at Monte Verde, near Puerto Montt in Southern Chile. Its occupation dates to some 14,000 years ago and there is some disputed evidence of even earlier occupation. Over the course of millennia, people spread to all parts of the continents. By the first millennium AD/CE, South America's vast rainforests, mountains, plains and coasts were the home of tens of millions of people. The earliest settlements in the Americas are of the Las Vegas Culture[citation needed] from about 8000 BC and 4600 BC, a sedentary group from the coast of Ecuador, the forefathers of the more known Valdivia culture, of the same era. Some groups formed more permanent settlements such as the Chibchas (or "Muiscas" or "Muyscas") and the Tairona groups. The Chibchas of Colombia, the Quechuas and Aymaras of Bolivia and Perú were the three Indian groups that settled most permanently.
The region was home to many indigenous peoples and advanced civilizations, including the Aztecs, Toltecs, Caribs, Tupi, Maya, and Inca. The golden age of the Maya began about 250, with the last two great civilizations, the Aztecs and Incas, emerging into prominence later on in the early fourteenth century and mid-fifteenth centuries, respectively.
[edit] European discovery
With the arrival of the Europeans following Christopher Columbus's voyages, the indigenous elites, such as the Incans and Aztecs, lost power to the Europeans. Hernán Cortés destroyed the Aztec elite's power with the help of local groups who disliked the Aztec elite, and Francisco Pizarro eliminated the Incan rule in Western South America. European powers, most notably Spain and Portugal, colonized the region, which along with the rest of the uncolonized world was divided into areas of Spanish and Portuguese control by the line of demarcation in 1493, which gave Spain all areas to the west, and Portugal all areas to the east (the Portuguese lands in South America subsequently becoming Brazil). By the end of the sixteenth century, Europeans occupied large areas of North, Central and South America, extending all the way into the present southern United States. European culture and government was imposed, with the Roman Catholic Church becoming a major economic and political power, as well as the official religion of the region.
Diseases brought by the Europeans, such as smallpox and measles, wiped out a large proportion of the indigenous population, with epidemics of diseases reducing them sharply from their prior populations. Historians cannot determine the number of natives who died due to European diseases, but some put the figures as high as 85% and as low as 20%. Due to the lack of written records, specific numbers are hard to verify. Many of the survivors were forced to work in European plantations and mines. Intermixing between the indigenous peoples and the European colonists was very common, and, by the end of the colonial period, people of mixed ancestry (mestizos) formed majorities in several colonies.
[edit] Independence
By the end of the eighteenth century, Spanish and Portuguese power waned on the global scene as other European powers took their place, notably Britain and France. In Latin America resentment grew among the majority of the population over the restrictions imposed by the Spanish government, as well as the dominance of native Spaniards (Iberian-born Peninsulares) in the major social and political institutions. Napoleon's invasion of Spain in 1808 marked a turning point, compelling Criollo elites to form juntas that advocated independence. Also, the newly independent Haiti, the second oldest nation in the New World after the United States and the oldest independent nation in Latin America, further fueled the independence movement by inspiring the leaders of the movement, such as Simón Bolívar and José de San Martin, and by providing them with considerable munitions and troops.
Fighting soon broke out between juntas and the Spanish colonial authorities, with initial victories for the advocates of independence. Eventually these early movements were crushed by the royalist troops by 1812, including those of Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla in Mexico and Francisco de Miranda in Venezuela. Under the leadership of a new generation of leaders, such as Simón Bolívar, José de San Martin and other Libertadores in South America, the independence movement regained strength, and by 1825, all Spanish America, except for Puerto Rico and Cuba, had gained independence from Spain. Brazil achieved independence with a constitutional monarchy established in 1822. In the same year in Mexico, a military officer, Agustín de Iturbide, led a coalition of conservatives and liberals who created a constitutional monarchy, with Iturbide as emperor. This First Mexican Empire was short-lived and was followed by the creation of a republic in 1823.
In the 1950s, the Cold War moved close to the United States, in Latin America. The nations of Latin America faced many critical problems, including widespread poverty and poor health care. The United States hoped that the moderate Latin American governments would gradually improve these conditions. Many Latin Americans, however, rejected gradual solutions. Instead, revolts brought anti-American groups to power. Many Americans worried about the threat to American security and American businesses in Latin America. As a result, the United States helped military dictators keep or gain power in several Latin American countries. This policy aroused hostile feelings in Latin America toward the United States.
[edit] Military regimes
By 1960s and 1970s leftist had acquired a significant political influence which prompted the right-wing, ecclesiastical authorities and a large portion of the countries upper class to support coup d'etats to avoid what they perceived as a communist threat. This was further fueled by Cuban and United States intervention which led to a polarization of politics. Most South American countries were in some periods ruled by right-wing juntas. Around the 1970s, these regimes collaborated in the Plan Cóndor killing many leftist dissidents, including some urban guerrillas.[15] However, by the early 80's and 90's all countries had restored their democracies.
[edit] Washington Consensus
Main article: Washington ConsensusThe set of specific economic policy prescriptions that were considered the "standard" reform package were promoted for crisis-wracked developing countries by Washington, DC-based institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, and the US Treasury Department during the 80's and 90's.
In recent years, several Latin American countries led by socialist or other left wing governments, some of which—including Argentina and Venezuela—have campaigned for (and to some degree adopted) policies contrary to the Washington Consensus set of policies. (Other Latin counties with governments of the left, including Brazil, Chile and Peru, have in practise adopted the bulk of the policies). Also critical of the policies as actually promoted by the International Monetary Fund have been some US economists, such as Joseph Stiglitz and Dani Rodrik, who have challenged what are sometimes described as the "fundamentalist" policies of the International Monetary Fund and the US Treasury for what Stiglitz calls a "one size fits all" treatment of individual economies. The term has become associated with neoliberal policies in general and drawn into the broader debate over the expanding role of the free market, constraints upon the state, and US influence on other countries' national sovereignty.
[edit] Turn to the left
Since the 2000s, or 1990s in some countries, left-wing political parties have risen to power. The rise of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, Lula da Silva in Brazil, Fernando Lugo in Paraguay, the Kirchners in Argentina, the Bachelet government in Chile, Evo Morales in Bolivia, Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua and (deposed) Manuel Zelaya in Honduras and Rafael Correa of Ecuador are all part of this wave of left-wing politics who also often declare themselves socialists, Latin Americanists and anti-imperialists.
[edit] Demographics
[edit] Ethnic groups
The population of Latin America is a composite of ancestries, ethnic groups, and races, making the region one of the most diverse in the world. The specific composition varies from country to country: Many have a predominance of a European-Indian, or Mestizo, population; in others, Amerindians are a majority; some are dominated by inhabitants of purely European ancestry; and some countries' populations are primarily of African descent. Most Latin American countries have varying sizes of Asian minorities. Europeans are the largest single group, and they and people of part-European ancestry combine for approximately 80% of the population.[1] In addition to the following groups, Latin America also has millions of tri-racial people of African, Amerindian, and European ancestry. Most are found in Colombia, Venezuela, and Brazil, with a much smaller presence in a number of other countries.
[edit] Amerindians
The aboriginal population of Latin America, the Amerindians, experienced tremendous population decline, particularly in the early decades of colonization. They have since recovered in numbers, surpassing sixty million, though they compose a majority in only two countries: Bolivia and Peru. In both Ecuador and Guatemala, Amerindians are large minorities comprising two–fifths of the population, while the next largest minority is in Mexico, with more than one–sixth the population. Most of the remaining countries have Amerindian minorities, in every case making up one–tenth or less of the population. In many countries, people of mixed Amerindian and European ancestry make up the majority of the population (see Mestizo).
[edit] Black Africans
Millions of African slaves were brought to Latin America from the sixteenth century onward, the majority of whom were sent to the Caribbean region and Brazil. Brazil is home to Latin America's largest black population outside Africa. Today, people identified as black compose a majority in Haiti, with significant population in the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Brazil, Colombia, Belize, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Honduras, Panama, Puerto Rico, Guatemala, and Peru.
[edit] East Asians
People of Asian descent number several million in Latin America. The first Asians to settle in the region were Filipino, as a result of Spain's trade involving Asia and the Americas. The majority of Asian Latin Americans are of Japanese or Chinese ancestry and reside mainly in Brazil and Peru; there is also a growing Chinese minority in Panama. Brazil is home to 1.49 million people of Asian descent,[16][17] which includes the largest ethnic Japanese community outside of Japan itself. Peru, with 1.47 million people of Asian descent,[18][19] has one of the largest Chinese communities in the world, with nearly 1 million Peruvians being of Chinese ancestry. The Japanese community also maintains a strong presence in Peru, and a past President and a number of politicians are of Japanese descent in Peru.[20] Koreans also form communities numbering tens of thousands of individuals in several countries, including Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico.[21]
[edit] Mestizos
Intermixing between Europeans and Amerindians began early and was extensive. The resulting people, known as mestizos, make up the majority of the population in half of the countries of Latin America. Additionally, mestizos compose large minorities in nearly all the other mainland countries.
- Majority Mestizos (Europeans with Amerindians); Honduras 85.6%, Nicaragua 78.3%, Paraguay 74.5%, Mexico 70.0%, El Salvador 91.0%[22]
- Majority Indianmestizos (Mestizos with Amerindians); Ecuador 39.0%, Peru 45.5%, Guatemala 53.0%, Bolivia 55.0%[23]
[edit] Mulattoes
Mulattoes are people of mixed European and African ancestry, mostly descended from Spanish or Portuguese settlers on one side and African slaves on the other during the colonial period. Brazil is home to Latin America's largest mulatto population. Mulattoes form a majority of population in the Dominican Republicand Cuba, and are also numerous in Haiti and Colombia.[1] Smaller populations of mulattoes are found in other Latin American countries.[1]
[edit] Whites
Main article: White Latin AmericanBeginning in the late fifteenth century, large numbers of Iberian colonists settled in what became Latin America—Portuguese in Brazil and Spaniards elsewhere in the region—and at present most white Latin Americans are of Spanish or Portuguese origin. Iberians brought the Spanish and Portuguese languages, the Catholic faith, and many Iberian traditions. Whites make up the majority of the population of Argentina, Costa Rica and Uruguay, and are also a significant demographic group in Brazil, Chile, Cuba and Puerto Rico.[24][25][26]Italians formed the largest group of immigrants, and next were Spaniards and Portuguese.[27] Many others arrived, such as French, Germans, Greeks, Poles, Ukrainians, Russians, Estonians, Latvians, Jews, Irish and Welsh.
Latin American countries attracted European immigrants to work in agriculture, commerce and industry. Many Latin American governments encouraged immigrants from Europe to 'civilize' the region.[28] Despite their different origins, these immigrants integrated in the local societies and most of their descendants only speak Spanish or, in Brazil, Portuguese. For example, people of Italian descent make up half of Argentina's and Uruguay's populations, but only relatively small percentages of them are able to speak Italian. However, in Venezuela, where the population of Italian descent makes up about 400,000, about 1.5% of the total,[29] there is still a tendency of the communities to preserve the language, as do Germans and Portuguese. Also there are some communities of German and Italian speakers in Brazil, which has the biggest population of Italians outside of Italy[30][31] [32][33]. Some people of Italian descent in the country's south still preserve the language.
Immigration from the Middle East took place also since the 19th century and consisted largely of Christians of Lebanese, Syrian, and Palestinian origin. Middle Easterners have generally assimilated into the European-descended population.
[edit] Zambos
Slaves often ran away (cimarrones) and were taken in by Amerindian villagers. Intermixing between Africans and Amerindians produced descendants known as Zambos or (in Central America) Garinagu in Spanish speaking nations and Cafusos in Brazil. This was especially prevalent in Colombia, Venezuela, and Brazil.
[edit] Ethnic distribution
Ethnic distribution in Latin America 2005[34] Country Population Amerindians Whites Mestizos Mulattos Blacks Zambos Asians Indian-Mestizos 58,022.000 46.9% 10.4% 35.4% 5.7% 1.1% 0.0% 0.5% Ecuador 12,646.000 39.0% 9.9% 41.0% 5.0% 5.0% 0.0% 0.1% Guatemala 11,385.000 53.0% 4.0% 42.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.2% 0.8% Peru 25,662.000 45.5% 12.0% 32.0% 9.7% 0.0% 0.0% 0.8% Bolivia 8,329.000 55.0% 15.0% 28.0% 2.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% Afro-Mestizos 69,131.000 2.4% 18.5% 46.9% 27.1% 3.6% 0.6% 0.9% Panama 2,856.000 8.0% 10.0% 32.0% 27.0% 5.0% 14.0% 4.0% Colombia 42,105.000 1.8% 20.0% 53.2% 21.0% 3.9% 0.1% 0.0% Venezuela 24,170.000 2.7% 16.9% 37.7% 37.7% 2.8% 0.0% 2.2% Afro-Whites 193,893.000 0.4% 51.6% 0.0% 40.8% 6.7% 0.1% 0.4% Haiti 10,033.000 0.0% 0.8% 0.0% 9.0% 90.0% 0.0% 0.2% Cuba 11,199.000 0.0% 37.0% 0.0% 51.0% 11.0% 0.0% 1.0% Puerto Rico 3,915.000 0.0% 74.8% 0.0% 10.0% 15.0% 0.0% 0.2% Brazil* 190,406.000 0.4% 53.8% 39.1%* 39.1%* 6.2% 0.0% 0.5% Dominican Republic 10,090.000 0.0% 14.6% 0.0% 75.0% 7.7% 2.3% 0.4% Mestizos 122,134.000 12.5% 13.7% 72.4% 0.7% 0.0% 0.2% 0.5% El Salvador 6,278.000 8.0% 1.0% 91.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% Honduras 6,417.000 7.7% 1.0% 85.6% 1.7% 0.0% 3.3% 0.7% Mexico 98,872.000 14.0% 15.0% 70.0% 0.5% 0.0% 0.0% 0.5% Nicaragua 5,071.000 6.9% 14.0% 78.3% 0.0% 0.0% 0.6% 0.2% Paraguay 5,496.000 1.5% 20.0% 74.5% 3.5% 0.0% 0.0% 0.5% White 59,604.000 2.7% 76.7% 18.4% 0.2% 0.0% 0.1% 1.8% Argentina 37,032.000 1.0% 85.0% 11.1% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 2.9% Chile 15,211.000 3.2% 52.7% 44.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% Costa Rica 4,024.000 0.8% 82.0% 15.0% 0.0% 0% 2.0% 0.2% Uruguay 3,337.000 0.0% 88.0% 8.0% 4.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% Total 502,784.000 9.2% 36.1% 30.3% 20.3% 3.2% 0.2% 0.7% [edit] Language
Spanish and Portuguese are the predominant languages of Latin America. Portuguese is spoken only in Brazil, the most populous country in the region. Spanish is the official language of most of the rest of the countries on the Latin American mainland, as well as in Puerto Rico (where it is co-official with English), Cuba and the Dominican Republic. French is spoken in some Caribbean islands, including Guadeloupe, Martinique, and Haiti, as well as in the overseas departments of French Guiana (South America) and in Saint Pierre and Miquelon (North America). Dutch is the official language of some Caribbean islands and in Suriname on the continent; however, as Dutch is a Germanic language, these territories are not considered part of Latin America.
Other European languages spoken in Latin America include: English, by some groups in Argentina, Nicaragua, Panama, and Puerto Rico, as well as in nearby countries that may or may not be considered Latin American, like Belize and Guyana (English is used as a major foreign language in Latin American commerce and education); German, in southern Brazil, southern Chile, Argentina, portions of northern Venezuela, and Paraguay; Italian, in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Venezuela; and Welsh [35][36][37][38][39][40], in southern Argentina.
In several nations, especially in the Caribbean region, creole languages are spoken. The most widely spoken creole language in the Caribbean and Latin America in general is Haitian Creole, the predominant language of Haiti; it is derived primarily from French and certain West African tongues with some Amerindian and Spanish influences as well. Creole languages of mainland Latin America, similarly, are derived from European languages and various African tongues. Native American languages are widely spoken in Peru, Guatemala, Bolivia, Paraguay, and to a lesser degree, in Mexico, Ecuador, and Chile. In Latin American countries not named above, the population of speakers of indigenous languages is small or non-existent.
In Peru, Quechua is an official language, alongside Spanish and any other indigenous language in the areas where they predominate. Another widely used language is known as riverian which is also known as nicolacian, which is spoken in rural parts of Mexico[41] .In Ecuador, while holding no official status, the closely related Quichua is a recognized language of the indigenous people under the country's constitution; however, it is only spoken by a few groups in the country's highlands. In Bolivia, Aymara, Quechua and Guaraní hold official status alongside Spanish. Guarani is, along with Spanish, an official language of Paraguay, and is spoken by a majority of the population (who are, for the most part, bilingual), and it is co-official with Spanish in the Argentine province of Corrientes. In Nicaragua, Spanish is the official language, but on the country's Caribbean coast English and indigenous languages such as Miskito, Sumo, and Rama also hold official status. Colombia recognizes all indigenous languages spoken within its territory as official, though fewer than 1% of its population are native speakers of these. Nahuatl is one of the 62 native languages spoken by indigenous people in Mexico, which are officially recognized by the government as "national languages" along with Spanish.
[edit] Religion
Main article: Religion in Latin AmericaThe vast majority of Latin Americans are Christians, mostly Roman Catholics.[42] Membership in Protestant denominations is increasing, particularly in Brazil, Chile, Guatemala, and Puerto Rico.[41]
[edit] Emigration
Due to economic, social and security developments that are affecting the region in recent decades, the focus is now the change from net immigration to net emigration. About 10 million Mexicans live in the United States.[43] 28.3 million Americans listed their ancestry as Mexican as of 2006.[44] According to the 2005 Colombian census or DANE, about 3,331,107 Colombians currently live abroad.[45] The number of Brazilians living overseas is estimated at about 2 million people.[46] An estimated 1.5 to two million Salvadorans reside in the United States.[47] At least 1.5 million Ecuadorians have gone abroad, mainly to the United States and Spain.[48]. Approximately 1.5 million Dominicans live abroad, mostly in the US.[49] More than 1.3 million Cubans live abroad, most of them in the US.[50] It is estimated that over 800,000 Chileans live abroad, mainly in Argentina, Canada and Sweden.[51] An estimated 700,000 Bolivians were living in Argentina as of 2006.[52] Central Americans living abroad in 2005 were 3,314,300,[53] of which 1,128,701 were Salvadorans,[54] 685,713 were Guatemalans,[55] 683,520 were Nicaraguans,[56] 414,955 were Hondurans,[57] 215,240 were Panamanians,[58] 127,061 were Costa Ricans [59] and 59,110 were Belizeans.
Remittances to Mexico rose from $6.6 billion to $24 billion between 2000 and 2006, but stabilized in 2007. Much of the reported increase between 2000 and 2006 may reflect better accounting, but the slowdown in 2007 may reflect tougher U.S. border and interior enforcement.[citation needed]
[edit] Economy
[edit] Inequality and poverty
Inequality and poverty continue to be the region's main challenges; according to the ECLAC Latin America is the most unequal region in the world.[60] Moreover, according to the World Bank, nearly 25% of the population lives on less than 2 USD a day. The countries with the highest inequality in the region (as measured with the Gini index in the UN Development Report[61]) in 2006 were Bolivia (60.1), Haiti (59.2), Colombia (58.6), Paraguay (58.4), Brazil (57.0) and Panama (56.1), while the countries with the lowest inequality in the region were Nicaragua (43.1), Uruguay (44.9) and Mexico (46.1). One aspect of inequality and poverty in Latin America is unequal access to basic infrastructure. For example, access to water and sanitation in Latin America and the quality of these services remain relatively low.
According to the World Bank the poorest countries in the region were (as of 2008):[62] Haiti, Nicaragua, Bolivia and Honduras. Undernourishment affects to 47% of Haitians, 27% of Nicaraguans, 23% of Bolivians and 22% of Hondurans.[63]
[edit] Crime and Violence
See also: Crime and Violence in Latin AmericaCrime and violence prevention and public security have become key social issues of concern to public policy makers and citizens in the Latin American and Caribbean region. As of 2004 violence is the principal cause of death in Colombia, Venezuela, El Salvador and Mexico and among the five main causes of death in the region.[64][65] Homicide rates in Latin America are among the highest of any region in the world. From the early 1980s through the mid-1990s, intentional homicide rates in Latin America increased by 50 percent. The major victims of such homicides are young men, 69 percent of whom are between the ages of 15 and 19 years old. Many analysts agree that the prison crisis will not be resolved until the gap between rich and poor is addressed. They say that growing social inequality is fuelling crime in the region. But there is also no doubt that, on such an approach, Latin American countries have still a long way to go.[66] Countries with the highest homicide rate per year per 100,000 inhabitants were; Guatemala 57.9, El Salvador 49.1, Venezuela 48, Honduras 45.2, Colombia 33, Belize 30.8, Brazil 25.7, Dominican Republic 23.56, Puerto Rico 18.8, Ecuador 16.9, and . More than 500,000 people have been killed by firearms in Brazil between 1979 and 2003.[67][68] Countries with relatively low crime are Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, and Uruguay.[69]
[edit] Trade blocs
The major trade blocs (or agreements) in the region are the Union of South American Nations, composed of the integrated Mercosur and Andean Community of Nations (CAN). Minor blocs or trade agreements are the G3 Free Trade Agreement, the Dominican Republic – Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA) and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). However, major reconfigurations are taking place along opposing approaches to integration and trade; Venezuela has officially withdrawn from both the CAN and G3 and it has been formally admitted into the Mercosur (pending ratification from the Brazilian and Paraguayan legislatures). The president-elect of Ecuador has manifested his intentions of following the same path. This bloc nominally opposes any Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the United States, although Uruguay has manifested its intention otherwise. On the other hand, Mexico is a member of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Chile has already signed an FTA with Canada, and along with Peru are the only two South American nations that have and FTA with the United States. Colombia's government is currently awaiting its ratification by the U.S. Senate.
[edit] Standard of living, consumption, and the environment
According to Goldman Sachs BRIMC review of emerging economies, by 2050 the largest economies in the world will be as follows: China, USA, India, Brazil, and Mexico; Two of the top five economies in the world being from Latin America.[70]
The following table lists all the countries in Latin America indicating a valuation of the country's GDP (Gross domestic product) based on purchasing-power-parity (PPP), GDP per capita also adjusted to the (PPP), a measurement of inequality through the Gini index (the higher the index the more unequal the income distribution is), the Human Development Index (HDI), the Environmental Performance Index (EPI), and the Quality-of-life index. GDP and PPP GDP statistics come from the International Monetary Fund with data as of 2006. Gini index, the Human Poverty Index HDI-1, the Human Development Index, and the number of internet users per capita come from the UN Development Program. The number of motor vehicles per capita come from the UNData base on-line. The EPI index comes from the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy and the Quality-of-life index from The Economist Intelligence Unit. Green cells indicate the 1st rank in each category, while yellow indicate the last rank.
Summary of socio-economic performance indicators for Latin American countries Country GDP
valuation
based on
PPP[71]
(2008)
Current
Billions USDGDP per
capita
(PPP)[71]
(2008)
USDIncome
equality[61]
(2001–06)
Gini indexPoverty
Index[72]
(2006)
HPI-1 %Human
Develop.[73]
(2007)
HDIEnvirnm.
Perfrm.[74]
(2008)
EPIQuality
of life[75]
(2005)
indexAnnual
economic
growth[76]
(2008)
%
Emissions
per
capita[77]
(2004)
ton CO2Argentina 570.526 14,413 51.3 4.0 0.866 (H) 81.8 6.469 7.0 3.7 Bolivia 43.446 4,330 60.1 12.6 0.729 (M) 64.7 5.492 5.9 0.8 Brazil 1,975.904 10,326 57.0 9.7 0.813 (H) 82.7 6.470 5.1 1.8 Chile 246.482 14,510 54.9 3.3 0.878 (H) 83.4 6.789 3.2 3.9 Colombia 402.458 8,215 58.6 8.1 0.807 (H) 88.3 6.176 2.5 1.2 Costa Rica 48.918 10,752 49.8 3.8 0.854 (H) 90.5 6.624 2.9 1.5 Cuba[78] N/A N/A N/A 4.7 0.863 (H) 80.7 N/A N/A 2.3 Dominican Republic 76.194 8,571 51.6 9.6 0.777 (M) 83.0 5.630 4.8 2.2 Ecuador 104.669 7,769 53.6 7.6 0.806 (H) 84.4 6.272 5.3 2.2 El Salvador 43.885 7,551 52.4 13.6 0.747 (M) 77.2 6.164 2.5 0.9 Guatemala 66.839 4,898 55.1 20.3 0.704 (M) 76.7 5.321 4.0 1.0 Haiti 11.681 1,316 59.2 32.4 0.531 (M) 60.7 4.090 1.3 0.2 Honduras 32.670 4,268 53.8 14.9 0.714 (M) 75.4 5.250 4.0 1.1 Mexico 1,550.257 14,560 46.1 6.7 0.852 (H) 79.8 6.766 1.3 5.2 Nicaragua 16.751 2,688 43.1 16.0 0.699 (M) 73.4 5.663 3.0 0.7 Panama 38.305 11,343 56.1 6.9 0.832 (H) 83.1 6.361 9.2 1.8 Paraguay 29.336 4,778 58.4 10.8 0.761 (M) 77.7 5.756 5.8 0.7 Peru 244.693 8,580 52.0 11.0 0.806 (H) 78.1 6.216 9.8 1.1 Uruguay 40.663 13,294 44.9 3.3 0.865 (H) 82.3 6.368 8.9 1.6 Venezuela 362.772 12,785 48.2 7.3 0.844 (H) 80.0 6.089 4.8 6.6 Notes: (H) High human development; (M) Medium human development
[edit] Largest economic cities
The following table provides GDP figures for the largest Latin American cities and their surrounding urban areas in 2005. The only perspective of change in the GDP values by 2020 is between Bogota and Santiago, GDP figures are estimated and expressed in USD, using purchasing power parity exchange rates:[79][80]
Ten largest Latin American metropolitan areas Rank Metropolitan
areaCountry GDP
(Billions
PPP)Population
(Millions)GDP
Per Capita
(Thousands
PPP)perspective GDP 2020(Billions
PPP)Rank (2020) 1 Mexico City Mexico 315 19.4 $16,237 608 1 2 Buenos Aires Argentina 278 12.6 $19,444 413 3 3 São Paulo Brazil 265 18.3 $14,480 441 2 4 Rio de Janeiro Brazil 156 11.5 $13,260 296 4 5 Santiago Chile 91 6.5 $13,000 160 6 6 Bogota Colombia 86 8.5 $11,025 163 5 7 Monterrey Mexico 78 3.9 $20,000 157 7 8 Lima Peru 67 8.5 $7,882 129 8 9 Belo Horizonte Brazil 65 5.6 $11,607 122 9 10 Guadalajara Mexico 60 4.1 $14,634 108 10 [edit] Tourism
Income from tourism is key to the economy of several Latin American countries.[81] Mexico receives the largest number of international tourists, with 21.4 million visitors in 2007, followed by Brazil, with 5.0 million; Argentina, with 4.6 million; Dominican Republic, with 4.0 million; ,Puerto Rico, with 3.7 million and Costa Rica with 1.9 million [82] Places such as Cancun, Galapagos Islands, Machu Pichu, Chichen Itza, Cartagena de Indias, Cabo San Lucas, Acapulco, Rio de Janeiro, Margarita Island, São Paulo, Salar de Uyuni, Punta del Este, Santo Domingo, Labadee, San Juan, La Habana, Panama City, Iguazu Falls, Puerto Vallarta, Poás Volcano National Park, Punta Cana, Viña del Mar, Mexico City, Quito, Bogota, Buenos Aires, Lima, La Paz and Patagonia are popular among international visitors in the region.[citation needed]
Performance indicators for international tourism in Latin America Latin American
countriesInternl.
tourist
arrivals
2007[82]
(x1000)Internl.
tourism
receipts
2007[82]
(million
USD)Receipts
per
arrival
2007
(col 2)/(col 1)
(USD)Arrivals
per
capita
per 1000 pop.
(estimated)
2007[82][83]Receipts
per
capita
2005[84]
USDRevenues
as %
of exports
goods and
services[81]
2003Tourism
revenues
as %
GDP[81]
2003% Direct &
indirect
employment
in tourism[81]
2005World
Ranking
Tourism
Compet.[85]
TTCI
2009Index
value
TTCI[85]
2009Argentina 4,562 4,313 945 115 57 7.4 1.8 9.1 65 4.08 Bolivia* 556 205* 475* 58 22 9.4 2.2 7.6 114 3.33 Brazil 5,026 4,953 985 26 18 3.2 0.5 7.0 45 4,35 Chile 2,507 1,419 566 151 73 5.3 1.9 6.8 57 4,18 Colombia 1,193 1,669 1,399 26 25 6.6 1.4 5.9 72 3.89 Costa Rica 1,973 1,974 1,000 442 343 17.5 8.1 13.3 42 4.42 Cuba 2,119 1,982 935 188 169 n/d n/d n/d n/d n/d Dominican Republic 3,980 4,026 1,012 408 353 36.2 18.8 19.8 67 4,03 Ecuador 953 637 668 71 35 6.3 1.5 7.4 96 3.62 El Salvador 1,339 847 633 195 67 12.9 3.4 6.8 94 3.63 Guatemala 1,448 1,199 828 108 66 16.0 2.6 6.0 70 3.90 Haiti* n/d n/d 685* n/d 12* 19.4 3.2 4.7 n/d n/d Honduras 831 557 670 117 61 13.5 5.0 8.5 83 3.77 Mexico 21,424 12,901 602 201 103 5.7 1.6 14.2 51 4.29 Nicaragua 800 255 319 143 36 15.5 3.7 5.6 103 3.49 Panama 1,103 1,185 1,074 330 211 10.6 6.3 12.9 55 4.23 Paraguay 416 102 245 68 11 4.2 1.3 6.4 115 3.24 Peru 1,812 1,938 1,070 65 41 9.0 1.6 7.6 74 3.88 Uruguay 1,752 809 462 525 145 14.2 3.6 10.7 63 4.09 Venezuela 771 817 1,060 28 19 1.3 0.4 8.1 104 3.46
- Note (1): Countries marked with * do not have all statistical data available for 2006 or 2007. Data shown is for reference purposes only (2003 for Haiti and 2005 for Bolivia.[84]
- Note (2): Green shadow denotes the country with the best indicator. Yellow shadow denotes the country with the lowest performance for that indicator.
[edit] Culture
Main article: Latin American cultureLatin American culture is a mixture of many cultural expressions worldwide. It is the product of many diverse influences:
- Indigenous cultures of the people who inhabited the continent prior to the arrival of the Europeans. Ancient and very advanced civilizations developed their own political, social and religious systems. The Maya, the Aztecs and the Incas are examples of these.
- Western civilization, in particular the culture of Europe, was brought mainly by the colonial powers—the Spanish, Portuguese and French—between the 16th and 19th centuries. The most enduring European colonial influence is language and Roman Catholicism. More recently, additional cultural influences came from the United States and Europe during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, due to the growing influence of the former on the world stage and immigration from the later. The influence of the United States is particularly strong in northern Latin America, especially Puerto Rico, which is a United States territory. In addition, the United States held the twenty-mile-long Panama Canal Zone in Panama from 1903 (the Panama Canal opened to transoceanic freight traffic in 1914) to 1999, when the Torrijos-Carter Treaties restored Panamanian control of the Canal Zone. South America experienced waves of immigration of Europeans, especially Italians and Germans. With the end of colonialism, French culture was also able to exert a direct influence in Latin America, especially in the realms of high culture, science and medicine.[86] This can be seen in any expression of the region's artistic traditions, including painting, literature and music, and in the realms of science and politics.
- African cultures, whose presence derives from a long history of New World slavery. Peoples of African descent have influenced the ethno-scapes of Latin America and the Caribbean. This is manifest for instance in dance and religion, especially in countries such as Belize, Brazil, Honduras, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, Haiti, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, and Cuba.
[edit] Literature
Main article: Latin American literatureSee also: List of Latin American writersPre-Columbian cultures were primarily oral, though the Aztecs and Mayans, for instance, produced elaborate codices. Oral accounts of mythological and religious beliefs were also sometimes recorded after the arrival of European colonizers, as was the case with the Popol Vuh. Moreover, a tradition of oral narrative survives to this day, for instance among the Quechua-speaking population of Peru and the Quiché (K'iche') of Guatemala.
From the very moment of Europe's "discovery" of the continent, early explorers and conquistadores produced written accounts and crónicas of their experience—such as Columbus's letters or Bernal Díaz del Castillo's description of the conquest of Mexico. During the colonial period, written culture was often in the hands of the church, within which context Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz wrote memorable poetry and philosophical essays. Towards the end of the 18th Century and the beginning of the 19th, a distinctive criollo literary tradition emerged, including the first novels such as Lizardi's El Periquillo Sarniento (1816).
The 19th Century was a period of "foundational fictions" (in critic Doris Sommer's words), novels in the Romantic or Naturalist traditions that attempted to establish a sense of national identity, and which often focussed on the indigenous question or the dichotomy of "civilization or barbarism" (for which see, say, Domingo Sarmiento's Facundo (1845), Juan León Mera's Cumandá (1879), or Euclides da Cunha's Os Sertões (1902)).
At the turn of the 20th century, modernismo emerged, a poetic movement whose founding text was Nicaraguan poet Rubén Darío's Azul (1888). This was the first Latin American literary movement to influence literary culture outside of the region, and was also the first truly Latin American literature, in that national differences were no longer so much at issue. José Martí, for instance, though a Cuban patriot, also lived in Mexico and the U.S. and wrote for journals in Argentina and elsewhere.
However, what really put Latin American literature on the global map was no doubt the literary boom of the 1960s and 1970s, distinguished by daring and experimental novels (such as Julio Cortázar's Rayuela (1963)) that were frequently published in Spain and quickly translated into English. The Boom's defining novel was Gabriel García Márquez's Cien años de soledad (1967), which led to the association of Latin American literature with magic realism, though other important writers of the period such as the Peruvian Mario Vargas Llosa and Carlos Fuentes do not fit so easily within this framework. Arguably, the Boom's culmination was Augusto Roa Bastos's monumental Yo, el supremo (1974). In the wake of the Boom, influential precursors such as Juan Rulfo, Alejo Carpentier, and above all Jorge Luis Borges were also rediscovered.
Contemporary literature in the region is vibrant and varied, ranging from the best-selling Paulo Coelho and Isabel Allende to the more avant-garde and critically acclaimed work of writers such as Diamela Eltit, Ricardo Piglia, or Roberto Bolaño. There has also been considerable attention paid to the genre of testimonio, texts produced in collaboration with subaltern subjects such as Rigoberta Menchú. Finally, a new breed of chroniclers is represented by the more journalistic Carlos Monsiváis and Pedro Lemebel.
The region boasts five Nobel Prizewinners: in addition to the two Chilean poets Gabriela Mistral (1945) and Pablo Neruda (1971), there is also the Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez (1982), the Guatemalan novelist Miguel Ángel Asturias (1967), and the Mexican poet and essayist Octavio Paz (1990).
[edit] Art
Main article: Latin American artSee also: List of Latin American artistsBeyond the rich tradition of indigenous art, the development of Latin American visual art owed much to the influence of Spanish, Portuguese and French Baroque painting, which in turn often followed the trends of the Italian Masters. In general, this artistic Eurocentrism began to fade in the early twentieth century, as Latin-Americans began to acknowledge the uniqueness of their condition and started to follow their own path.
From the early twentieth century, the art of Latin America was greatly inspired by the Constructivist Movement. The Constructivist Movement was founded in Russia around 1913 by Vladimir Tatlin. The Movement quickly spread from Russia to Europe and then into Latin America. Joaquin Torres Garcia and Manuel Rendón have been credited with bringing the Constructivist Movement into Latin America from Europe.
An important artistic movement generated in Latin America is muralism represented by Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, José Clemente Orozco and Rufino Tamayo in Mexico and Santiago Martinez Delgado and Pedro Nel Gómez in Colombia. Some of the most impressive Muralista works can be found in Mexico, Colombia, New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Philadelphia.
Painter Frida Kahlo, one of the most famous Mexican artists, painted about her own life and the Mexican culture in a style combining Realism, Symbolism and Surrealism. Kahlo's work commands the highest selling price of all Latin American paintings.[87]
Colombian sculptor and painter Fernando Botero is also widely known by his works which, on first examination, are noted for their exaggerated proportions and the corpulence of the human and animal figures.
[edit] Music and dance
Latin America has produced many successful worldwide artists in terms of recorded global music sales. The most successful have been Roberto Carlos who has sold over 100 million records, Carlos Santana with over 75 million, Luis Miguel, Shakira and Vicente Fernandez with over 50 million records sold worldwide.[88] One of the main characteristics of Latin American music is its diversity, from the lively rhythms of Central America and the Caribbean to the more austere sounds of the Andes and the Southern Cone. Another feature of Latin American music is its original blending of the variety of styles that arrived in The Americas and became influential, from the early Spanish and European Baroque to the different beats of the African rhythms.
Caribbean Hispanic music, such as merengue, bachata, salsa, and more recently reggaeton, from such countries as the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Cuba, and Panama has been strongly influenced by African rhythms and melodies. Haiti's compas is a genre of music that draws influence and is thus similar to its Caribbean Hispanic counterparts, with an element of jazz and modern sound as well.[89][90]
Another well-known Latin American musical genre includes the Argentine and Uruguayan tango, as well as the distinct nuevo tango, a fusion of tango, acoustic and electronic music popularized by bandoneón virtuoso Ástor Piazzolla. Equally renown, the samba, North American jazz, European classical music and choro combined to form bossa nova in Brazil, popularized by guitarrist João Gilberto and pianist Antonio Carlos Jobim.
Other influential Latin American sounds include the Antillean Soca and Calypso, the Honduras (Garifuna) Punta, the Colombian cumbia and vallenato, the Chilean Cueca, the Ecuadorian Boleros, and Rockoleras, the Mexican ranchera, the Nicaraguan Palo de Mayo, the Peruvian Marinera and Tondero, the Uruguayan Candombe, the French Antillean Zouk (Derived from Haitian Compas) and the various styles of music from Pre-Columbian traditions that are widespread in the Andean region.
The classical composer Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887–1959) worked on the recording of native musical traditions within his homeland of Brazil. The traditions of his homeland heavily influenced his classical works.[91] Also notable is the recent work of the Cuban Leo Brouwer and guitar work of the Venezuelan Antonio Lauro and the Paraguayan Agustín Barrios. Latin America has also produced world-class classical performers such as the Chilean pianist Claudio Arrau, Brazilian pianist Nelson Freire and the Argentine pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim.
Arguably, the main contribution to music entered through folklore, where the true soul of the Latin American and Caribbean countries is expressed. Musicians such as Yma Súmac, Chabuca Granda, Atahualpa Yupanqui, Violeta Parra, Victor Jara, Mercedes Sosa, Jorge Negrete, Luiz Gonzaga, Caetano Veloso, Susana Baca, Chavela Vargas, Simon Diaz, Julio Jaramillo, Toto la Momposina as well as musical ensembles such as Inti Illimani and Los Kjarkas are magnificent examples of the heights that this soul can reach.
Latin pop, including many forms of rock, is popular in Latin America today (see Spanish language rock and roll).[92]
More recently, Reggaeton, which blends Jamaican reggae and dancehall with Latin America genres such as bomba and plena, as well as that of hip hop, is becoming more popular, in spite of the controversy surrounding its lyrics, dance steps (Perreo) and music videos. It has become very popular among populations with a "migrant culture" influence – both Latino populations in the U.S., such as southern Florida and New York City, and parts of Latin America where migration to the U.S. is common, such as Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, and Mexico.[93]
[edit] Film
Main article: Latin American cinemaLatin American film is both rich and diverse. Historically, the main centers of production have been México, Brazil, Cuba, and Argentina.
Latin American cinema flourished after the introduction of sound, which added a linguistic barrier to the export of Hollywood film south of the border. The 1950s and 1960s saw a movement towards Third Cinema, led by the Argentine filmmakers Fernando Solanas and Octavio Getino. More recently, a new style of directing and stories filmed has been tagged as "New Latin American Cinema."
Argentine cinema has been prominenent since the first half of the 20th century and today averages over 60 full-length titles yearly. The industry suffered during the 1976–1983 military dictatorship; but re-emerged to produce the Academy Award winner The Official Story in 1985. A wave of imported U.S. films again damaged the industry in the early 1990s, though it soon recovered, thriving even during the Argentine economic crisis around 2001. Many Argentine movies produced during recent years have been internationally acclaimed, including Nueve reinas (2000), El abrazo partido (2004) and El otro (2007).
In Brazil, the Cinema Novo movement created a particular way of making movies with critical and intellectual screenplays, a clearer photography related to the light of the outdoors in a tropical landscape, and a political message. The modern Brazilian film industry has become more profitable inside the country, and some of its productions have received prizes and recognition in Europe and the United States, with movies such as Central do Brasil (1999), Cidade de Deus (2003) and Tropa de Elite (2007).
Cuban cinema has enjoyed much official support since the Cuban revolution and important film-makers include Tomás Gutiérrez Alea.
Mexican cinema in the Golden Era of the 1940s boasted a huge industry comparable to Hollywood at the time. Stars included María Félix, Dolores del Rio and Pedro Infante. In the 1970s Mexico was the location for many cult horror and action movies. More recently, films such as Amores Perros (2000) and Y tu mamá también (2001) enjoyed box office and critical acclaim and propelled Alfonso Cuarón and Alejandro González Iñarritu to the front rank of Hollywood directors. Alejandro González Iñárritu directed in (2006) Babel and Alfonso Cuarón directed (Children of Men in (2006), and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban in (2004)). Guillermo del Toro close friend and also a front rank Hollywood director in Hollywood and Spain, directed Pan's Labyrinth (2006) and produce El Orfanato (2007). Carlos Carrera (The Crime of Father Amaro), and screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga are also some of the most known present-day Mexican film makers. Rudo y Cursi released in December (2008) in Mexico directed by Carlos Cuarón.
It is also worth noting that many Latin Americans have achieved significant success within Hollywood, for instance Carmen Miranda and Salma Hayek, while Mexican Americans such as Robert Rodriguez have also made their mark.
[edit] See also
- Anglo-America
- Crime and Violence in Latin America
- Southern Cone
- Hispanic America
- Portuguese America
- Ibero-America
- United States-Latin American relations
- Americas (terminology)
- Caribbean
- Central America
- North America
- South America
- Latin Union, Latin Europe, Romance-speaking African countries
- Latino, Latin American Canadian, Afro-Latin American, Asian Latin American, Amerindians, White Latin American, Latin American British, Mestizos, Mulatto, Zambo, Criollo
- List of Latin Americans
- List of Latin American subnational entities by Human Development Index
- Latin American culture
- Latin American studies
- Agroecology in Latin America
- Latin America and the League of Nations
[edit] Notes and references
- Julio Miranda Vidal: (2007) Ciencia y tecnología en América Latina Edición electrónica gratuita. Texto completo en http://www.eumed.net/libros/2007a/237/
- ^ a b c d "CIA — The World Factbook -- Field Listing — Ethnic groups". https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2075.html. Retrieved 2008-02-20.
- ^ Colburn, Forrest D (2002). Latin America at the End of Politics. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691091811. http://books.google.com/books?id=qBCVB3mxCK8C&dq=%22latin+america+at+the+end+of+politics%22&pg=PP1&ots=Hsc6JIiWF0&sig=3-bdK4pc-bXg0abCFag4agEPwo8&hl=en&prev=http://www.google.com/search%3Fhl%3Den%26q%3D%2522Latin%2BAmerica%2Bat%2Bthe%2BEnd%2Bof%2BPolitics%2522&sa=X&oi=print&ct=title&cad=one-book-with-thumbnail#PPA10,M1.
- ^ "Latin America." The New Oxford Dictionary of English. Pearsall, J., ed. 2001. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press; p. 1040: "The parts of the American continent where Spanish or Portuguese is the main national language (i.e. Mexico and, in effect, the whole of Central and South America including many of the Caribbean islands)."
- ^ Mignolo, Walter (2005). The Idea of Latin America. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. p. 77-80. ISBN 9781405100861. http://books.google.com/books?id=vPacXtsWhewC.
- ^ McGuiness, Aims (2003). "Searching for 'Latin America': Race and Sovereignty in the Americas in the 1850s" in Appelbaum, Nancy P. et al. (eds.). Race and Nation in Modern Latin America. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 87–107. ISBN 0-8078-5441-7
- ^ Chasteen, John Charles (2001). Born in Blood and Fire: A Concise History of Latin America. W. W. Norton. page156. ISBN 0393976130.
- ^ Rangel, Carlos (1977). The Latin Americans: Their Love-Hate Relationship with the United States. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. pp. 3–5. ISBN 0-15-148795-2. Skidmore, Thomas E.; Peter H. Smith (2005). Modern Latin America (6 ed.). Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 1–10. ISBN 0-19-517013-X.
- ^ Butland, Gilbert J. (1960). Latin America: A Regional Geography. New York: John Wiley and Sons. pp. 115–188. ISBN 0-470-12658-2. Dozer, Donald Marquand (1962). Latin America: An Interpretive History. New York: McGraw-Hill. pp. 1–15. Szulc, Tad (1965). Latin America. New York Times Company. pp. 13–17. Olien, Michael D. (1973). Latin Americans: Contemporary Peoples and Their Cultural Traditions. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. pp. 1–5. ISBN 0-03-086251-5. Black, Jan Knippers (ed.) (1984). Latin America: Its Problems and Its Promise: A Multidisciplinary Introduction. Boulder: Westview Press. pp. 362–378. ISBN 0-86531-213-3. Bruns, E. Bradford (1986). Latin America: A Concise Interpretive History (4 ed.). New York: Prentice-Hall. pp. 224–227. ISBN 0-13-524356-4. Skidmore, Thomas E.; Peter H. Smith (2005). Modern Latin America (6 ed.). Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 351–355. ISBN 0-19-517013-X.
- ^ Composition of macro geographical (continental) regions, geographical sub-regions, and selected economic and other groupings, UN Statistics Division. Accessed on line 23 May 2009. (French)
- ^ Latin America and the Caribbean. The World Bank. Retrieved on 17 July 2009.
- ^ Country Directory. Latin American Network Information Center-University of Texas at Austin. Retrieved on 17 July 2009.
- ^ Bethell, Leslie (ed.) (1984). The Cambridge History of Latin America. 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. xiv. ISBN 0-521-23223-6.
- ^ [http://books.google.com.pe/books?id=grvnsgM0nDcC&pg=PA3&dq=Darcy+Ribeiro+classification+of+Latin+American#v=onepage&q=Darcy%20Ribeiro%20classification%20of%20Latin%20American&f=false Identity and modernity in Latin America By Jorge Larraín (page 3)
- ^ a b Larraín, Jorge. Identidad chilena. 2001. Editorial LOM.
- ^ Victor Flores Olea. "Editoriales - El Universal - 10 de abril 2006 : Operacion Condor". El Universal (Mexico). http://www.el-universal.com.mx/editoriales/34023.html. Retrieved 2009-03-24.
- ^ http://www.pucsp.br/rever/rv3_2004/p_shoji.pdf
- ^ http://www.mofa.go.jp/region/latin/index.html MOFA: Japan-Brazil Relations
- ^ http://www.ocac.gov.tw/english/public/public.asp?selno=1163&no=1163&level=B
- ^ http://www.universia.edu.pe/noticias/principales/destacada.php?id=65889
- ^ MOFA: Japan-Brazil Relations
- ^ 재외동포현황/Current Status of Overseas Compatriots, South Korea: Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, 2009, http://www.mofat.go.kr/consul/overseascitizen/compatriotcondition/index6.jsp?TabMenu=TabMenu6, retrieved 2009-05-21
- ^ Mestizos by Lizcano
- ^ Mestizos by IndomestizosLizcano
- ^ [http://convergencia.uaemex.mx/rev38/38pdf/LIZCANO.pdf Composición Étnica de las Tres Áreas Culturales del Continente Americano al Comienzo del Siglo XXI]
- ^ massive immigration of European Argentina Uruguay Chile Brazil
- ^ Latinoamerican.
- ^ "South America :: Postindependence overseas immigrants". Britannica Online Encyclopedia. http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-41807/South-America. Retrieved 2008-02-10.
- ^ As políticas públicas de imigração européia não-portuguesa para o Brasil – de Pombal à República
- ^ italianos.
- ^ italplanet
- ^ Gli italiani in Brasile
- ^ Especiais - Agência Brasil
- ^ Biggest Cities Italy
- ^ Ethnic distribution in Latin America
- ^ Reference for Welsh language in southern Argentina, Welsh inmigration to Patagonia
- ^ Reference for Welsh language in southern Argentina, Welsh inmigration to Patagonia
- ^ Reference for Welsh language in southern Argentina, Welsh inmigration to Patagonia
- ^ Reference for Welsh language in southern Argentina, Welsh inmigration to Patagonia
- ^ Reference for Welsh language in southern Argentina, Welsh inmigration to Patagonia
- ^ Reference for Welsh language in southern Argentina, Welsh inmigration to Patagonia
- ^ a b "8=D.". https://www.bob'sjourneytothecenteroftheearth.html.
- ^ "CIA — The World Factbook -- Field Listing — Religions". https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2122.html. Retrieved 2009-03-17.
- ^ Watching Over Greater Mexico: Mexican Migration Policy and Governance of Mexicanos Abroad
- ^ "Detailed Tables — American FactFinder. B03001. Hispanic or Latino origin by specific origin". 2006 American Community Survey. http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/DTTable?_bm=y&-geo_id=01000US&-ds_name=ACS_2006_EST_G00_&-redoLog=false&-mt_name=ACS_2006_EST_G2000_B03001. Retrieved 2007-12-15.
- ^ http://www.pstalker.com/migration/index.htm
- ^ Brasileiros no Exterior — Portal da Câmara dos Deputados
- ^ Country Overview: El Salvador, United States Agency for International Development
- ^ Chavistas in Quito, Forbes.com, January 7, 2008
- ^ Dominican Republic: Remittances for Development
- ^ Cubans Abroad, Radiojamaica.com
- ^ Chile: Moving Towards a Migration Policy, Migration Information Source
- ^ Migration News
- ^ WorldBank Migration and Remittances Factbook 2008
- ^ http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTPROSPECTS/Resources/334934-1199807908806/ElSalvador.pdf
- ^ http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTPROSPECTS/Resources/334934-1199807908806/Guatemala.pdf
- ^ http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTPROSPECTS/Resources/334934-1199807908806/Nicaragua.pdf
- ^ http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTPROSPECTS/Resources/334934-1199807908806/Honduras.pdf
- ^ http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTPROSPECTS/Resources/334934-1199807908806/Panama.pdf
- ^ http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTPROSPECTS/Resources/334934-1199807908806/CostaRica.pdf
- ^ La región sigue siendo la más desigual del mundo, según Cepal América Economía
- ^ a b Human Development Report, UNDP
- ^ http://siteresources.worldbank.org/DATASTATISTICS/Resources/GNIPC.pdf
- ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_percentage_of_population_suffering_from_undernourishment
- ^ [1] Viva Rio: Innovative Approaches Against Urban Crime
- ^ [2] UN: Latin America: Making Cities Safer
- ^ BBC NEWS | Americas | Latin America: Crisis behind bars
- ^ UN highlights Brazil gun crisis. BBC News, June 27, 2005.
- ^ http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache%3Ahttp%3A//www.unodc.org/pdf/crime/eighthsurvey/8sv.pdf
- ^ [3]International Journal of Epidemiology: Understanding the uneven distribution of the incidence of homicide in Latin America
- ^ [4]
- ^ a b International Monetary Fund [5]
- ^ UNDP Human Development Report 2008 Update. "Table 3: Human poverty index: developing countries" (PDF). http://hdr.undp.org/en/media/HDI_2008_EN_Tables.pdf. Retrieved 2009-06-21. page 13–16
- ^ UNDP Human Development Report 2008 Update. "Table 1: Human Development Index Trends" (PDF). http://hdr.undp.org/en/media/HDR_2009_EN_Complete.pdf. Retrieved 2009-05-01. page 25–26
- ^ Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy / Center for International Earth Science Information Network at Columbia University. "Environmental Performance Index 2008". http://epi.yale.edu/Home. Retrieved 2008-03-13.
- ^ The Economist Pocket World in Figures 2008. "Quality-of-life index The World in 2005" (PDF). http://www.economist.com/media/pdf/QUALITY_OF_LIFE.pdf. Retrieved 2008-03-13.
- ^ IMF Data Mapper 2009. "IMF Data Mapper". http://www.imf.org/external/datamapper/index.php. Retrieved 2009-05-29.
- ^ UNDP Human Development Report 2007/2008. "Table 24: Carbon dioxide emissions and stocks" (PDF). http://hdr.undp.org/en/media/hdr_20072008_en_indicator_tables.pdf. Retrieved 2008-03-23. page 310–313
- ^ The IMF does not report statistics for Cuba. Data from the CIA World Factbook is used
- ^ PriceWaterhouseCoopers, "UK Economic Outlook, March 2007", page 5. ""Table 1.2 – Top 30 urban agglomeration GDP rankings in 2005 and illustrative projections to 2020 (using UN definitions and population estimates)"" (PDF). http://www.ukmediacentre.pwc.com/imagelibrary/downloadMedia.asp?MediaDetailsID=863. Retrieved 2007-03-09.
- ^ 150 Richest Cities in the World, 2005
- ^ a b c d Carmen Altés (2006). "El Turismo en América Latina y el Caribe y la experiencia del BID" (in Spanish). Inter-American Development Bank; Sustainable Development Department, Technical Paper Series ENV-149, Washington, D.C.. p. 9 and 47. http://idbdocs.iadb.org/wsdocs/getdocument.aspx?docnum=984876. Retrieved 2008-06-05.
- ^ a b c d "UNWTO World Tourism Barometer June 2008" (PDF). World Tourism Barometer. June 2008. http://www.tourismroi.com/Content_Attachments/27670/File_633513750035785076.pdf. Retrieved 2008-08-05. Data corresponds to 2007
- ^ United Nations. "UNData. Country profiles (1999-2005)". http://data.un.org/CountryProfile.aspx?crName=Argentina. Retrieved 2008-08-08. Population estimated for 2007 (search values for each country profile)
- ^ a b World Tourism Organization (2006). "Tourism Market Trends, Annex 12, 2006 Edition" (PDF). http://unwto.org/facts/eng/pdf/indicators/new/ITR05_americas_US$.pdf. Retrieved 2008-03-30. Data corrresponds to 2005.
- ^ a b Jennifer Blanke and Thea Chiesa, Editors (2009). "The Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report 2009" (PDF). World Economic Forum, Geneva, Switzerland. http://www.weforum.org/pdf/TTCR09/TTCR09_Rankings.pdf. Retrieved 2009-03-07.
- ^ Stepan, Nancy Leys (1991). "The Hour of Eugenics": Race, Gender, and Nation in Latin America. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. pp. in passim. ISBN 0-8014-9795-7. http://books.google.com/books?id=NuUxkMC1ePYC.
- ^ "Frida Kahlo " Roots " Sets $5.6 Million Record at Sotheby's". Art Knowledge News. http://www.artknowledgenews.com/Frida_Kahlo_Roots_$5.6_Million_Record-at-Sothebys.html. Retrieved 2007-09-23.
- ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_music_artists
- ^ Dr. Christopher Washburne. "Clave: The African Roots of Salsa". University of Salsa. http://www.planetsalsa.com/university_of_salsa/clave/clave_roots.htm. Retrieved 2006-05-23.
- ^ "Guide to Latin Music". Caravan Music. http://www.caravanmusic.com/GuideLatinMusic.htm. Retrieved 2006-05-23.
- ^ "Heitor Villa-Lobos". Leadership Medica. http://www.cesil.com/0998/enbass09.htm. Retrieved 2006-05-23.
- ^ The Baltimore Sun. "Latin music returns to America with wave of new pop starlets". The Michigan Daily. http://www.pub.umich.edu/daily/1999/sep/09-28-99/arts/arts6.html. Retrieved 2006-05-23.
- ^ "Daddy Yankee leads the reggaeton charge". Associated Press. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9410287/from/RL.3/. Retrieved 2006-05-23.
[edit] External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Latin America
- Latin Intelligence Service
- Latin American Network Information Center
- Washington Office on Latin America
- Council on Hemispheric Affairs
- Infolatam. Information and analysis of Latin America
- Map of Land Cover: Latin America and Caribbean (FAO)
- Lessons From Latin America by Benjamin Dangl, The Nation, March 4 2009
- Keeping Latin America on the World News Agenda – Interview with Michael Reid of The Economist
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Insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir
Kashmir : Shown in green is the Kashmiri region under Pakistani control. The dark-brown region represents Indian-controlled Jammu and Kashmir while the Aksai Chin is under Chinese control.
Date 1989-present Location Jammu and Kashmir Result Conflict ongoing, largely subsided Belligerents Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front
Lashkar-e-Taiba
Jaish-e-Mohammed
Hizbul Mujahideen
Harkat-ul-Mujahideen
Al-Badr
al-Qaeda (alleged)India Commanders Amanullah Khan
Hafiz Muhammad Saeed
Maulana Masood Azhar
Sayeed Salahudeen
Fazlur Rehman Khalil
Farooq Kashmiri
Arfeen Bhai(until 1998)
Bakht ZameenDeepak Kapoor
Lt Gen P C Bhardwaj
Pradeep Vasant NaikStrength 800[1]-3,200[2] 30,000[3]-600,000[4] Casualties and losses 291 killed[2]
125 captured[2]unknown 29,000[2]-100,000 civilians killed[5][6][7][8] Insurgency in Kashmir has existed in various forms, both on the Indian administrated side of the disputed territory of Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan-administered Kashmir. Kashmir has been the target of a campaign of militancy by all sides in the conflict. Thousands of lives have been lost since 1989 due to the intensified insurgency 1989, a widespread armed insurgency started in Kashmir with the disputed rigged 1987 election ;since after 1987 rigged Sate elections some of the 'states legislative assembly' 'formed militant wings' later on after the disputed rigged election and furthermore that had started a catalyst for the insurgency [25], [26] Casualties include civilians, Kashmiri, and Indian Armed Forces and foreign militants.
The Inter-Services Intelligence of Pakistan has been accused by India of supporting and training mujahideen[9][10] to fight in Jammu and Kashmir.[11][12] While, International Human Right Groups have accused Indian army of committing grave Human rights violations in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir.[13]
According to official figures released in Jammu and Kashmir assembly(Indian controlled), there were 3,400 disappearance cases and the insurgency has left more than 47,000 people dead till July 2009. However, the number of insurgency-related deaths in the state have fallen sharply since the start of a slow-moving peace process between India and Pakistan.[14]
Contents
[hide]Militancy and military
See also: History of Jammu and KashmirThough there had been instances of sporadic conflict in many regions for many years, intensified attacks occurred in the late 1980s, when the 1987 state elections were rigged although disputed ; had resulted in some of the 'states legislative assembly' 'formed militant wings' later on after the election forming and creating the catalyst for the insurgency[27],[28] However Indian Government believes Mujahideen fighters from Afghanistan slowly infiltrated the region, with Pakistan's help, following the end of the Soviet-Afghan War in 1989.[15] Since then, violence has increased significantly in strength. Many separatists have carried out attacks on local Hindus, Indian civilians and Indian army installations in response to what they see as Indian army occupation.[2]
India frequently asserts that most of the separatist militant groups are based in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir (also known as Azad Kashmir). Some like the All Parties Hurriyat Conference and the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, demand an independent Kashmir. Other militant groups such as Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed favour a Pakistani-Kashmir. These groups have contacts with Taliban and Bin Laden. Both the organisations no longer operate under these names after they were banned by the Indian and Pakistani government, and by other countries including the US and UK. Of the larger militant groups, the Hizbul Mujahideen, a militant organisation based in Indian administered Kashmir, unlike other groups, has only kept its name.[16] Despite casualties, the militants are still believed to number thousands rather than hundreds. Several new separatist organizations have also emerged. According to US Intelligence, Al-Qaeda also has a main base in Pakistani Kashmir and is helping to foment terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir.[17][18] However India, Pakistan and the separatist organizations call this as hoax. Inspector General Police, Kashmir range also referred this as a hoax.[19][20][21][22]
It is hard to determine the total number of casualties. According to a report by the Government of India in the year 2000, 31,000 Indian civilians had lost their lives due to the insurgency. Human rights groups and local NGOs put the total figure at more than 84,000 (2005 figure).[23] Militancy had reached its peak in 1994 when the region saw more than 6,043 incidents and has since declined. However, Kashmir continues to remain as the most volatile region in the world with an average of 2,500 incidents every year.[24] According to an Indian estimate in 2005 there were about 2,000 militants in the Kashmir valley alone; 1,200 of them belong to the Hizbul Mujahideen. Not all Kashmiri separatists and militant organizations share the same ideology. Some fight in the name of religion, some are openly pro-Pakistan and some favour an independent Kashmir.
Due to the presence of these numerous anti-India insurgent groups India has been compelled to deploy massive number of troops in the Indian administered Jammu and Kashmir for the task of counter insurgency. New Delhi has never made an official count, but military analysts estimate that anywhere from 30,000 to nearly 33,000 security personnel are most likely involved, supported by thousands of Indian paramilitary groups such as the Rashtriya rifles, and the Romeo Force(all a part of Indian army).[3] Stimson.org notes of the Indian Armed forces in Kashmir that:
Some reports estimate that India deploys approximately 400,000 combined army and paramilitary forces in Kashmir, most of which are stationed in the interior, 80,000 of which are deployed along the LoC. Pakistani forces deployed along the LoC are reported to number in the 40,000-50,000 range
Times Online reports that around 250,000 Indian troops are stationed in Kashmir,[26] while Pravda.RU, a widely read Russian News source notes that 350,000-600,000 troops may be deployed in Kashmir.[27]
Militant groups
Over the last two years, a militant group, Lashkar-e-Toiba has split into two factions: Al Mansurin and Al Nasirin. Another new group reported to have emerged is the Save Kashmir Movement. Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (formerly known as Harkat-ul-Ansar) and Lashkar-e-Toiba are believed to be operating from Muzaffarabad, Azad Kashmir and Muridke, Pakistan respectively.
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