Politics, Business & Culture in the Americas

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Innovators/Innovations

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Reading Time: 2 minutes

Angel Medina

Ecuador

When he was 17, Angel Medina joined the Federación Interprovincial de Indígenas Saraguros, an indigenous advocacy organization in Ecuador. Four years later, he was the group’s president. Anyone who knows him wouldn’t be surprised. The indigenous leader, now 38, has a talent for bringing people together. Today, as founder and president of the indigenous rights organization Fundación Q’ellkaj (the Quichua word for “producer of knowledge”), he is putting that talent to use by bridging the racial divide in his country…

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Interview

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CNN/U.S. and CNN en Español are perfect examples of how information media are integrating in the Americas. More than 90 million households receive CNN/U.S., while CNN en Español reaches 19.4 million households in Latin America and an additional four million U.S. homes. Americas Quarterly sat down with Soledad O’Brien, CNN anchor and special correspondent, and … Read more

 

Free Trade and Poverty

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Reading Time: 2 minutes

Is globalization a leading cause of rising inequality? Or does it help reduce poverty? These questions are at the heart of the major economic and social challenges confronting both high income and developing countries today. For developed industrial nations, the answers are bound to determine the outcome of the currently troubled Doha Round of trade talks—and possibly the future direction of the global multilateral trading system itself. But the stakes are no less high for developing countries.

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High Inequality

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Latin America suffers from both the world’s highest rate of income inequality and from a lackluster economic performance that puts it well behind the growth levels of other emerging regions such as Asia. Could there be a connection? Recent research suggests that high inequality and low social mobility are more than just poor people’s problems: … Read more

 

Counting the Poor

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Reading Time: 2 minutes

Historically, especially in Latin America, more effort has gone into assessing the extent of “income poverty”— whether individuals possess sufficient income to live a minimally adequate life—than into determining the extent of non-income deprivations such as access to water and sanitation, adequate educational opportunities and basic health care.

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Does Ethanol Make Economic and Environmental Sense?

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Bruce Dale: YES! Ethanol Will Reduce Our Dependence On Foreign Oil. Contrary to common criticism, ethanol will also help developing nations. Ethanol offers a huge reduction in petroleum consumption per mile driven and it can significantly decrease greenhouse gas generation compared to gasoline. Ethanol derived from cellulosic materials can also be produced at low enough … Read more

 

We Are All Immigrants Now

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We are a hemisphere of immigrants. For thousands of years—before Europeans first set foot in what was called the “New World”—this hemisphere has attracted people from around the globe. Over the last five centuries, European, Asian and African immigrants have influenced the culture, politics and economies of North and South America. A visit to Mexico … Read more

 

The Right Stuff

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Human rights activists and scholars are turning to a new research source in the hemisphere. In its first five years, SUR– International Journal on Human Rights has grown to become the region’s premier journal in human rights. One of its distinguishing features, according to managing editor Juana Kweitel, is its goal of fostering “dialogue between … Read more

 

Central America’s Youth Leaders

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Reading Time: < 1 minute

Central America has come a long way since the civil wars of the 1980s. A new generation has come of age, growing up in a region that is at peace but confronting new challenges of crime, security, poverty, and inequality.

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Fall 2008 Travel – Ten Things to Do: Los Angeles

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Sun, surf and traffic. Los Angeles is known for Hollywood glitz as much as for its smog and tangle of freeways. But visitors with a taste for exploration should move beyond the stereotypes to experience the city’s unique rhythm and style. Opportunities abound for outdoor adventure, for interesting cultural experiences, and for savoring some of the country’s best ethnic food.

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In the Heights Dazzles Broadway

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Adapting is never easy. This is the lesson from In the Heights, a hit Broadway musical that debuted this spring. Night after night, packed theaters are witness to three days in the life of a New York City immigrant neighborhood. The production has picked up four Tony Awards, along with numerous other nominations. The story … Read more

 

Falling Behind: Explaining the Development Gap Between Latin America and the United States edited by Francis Fukuyama

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Reading Time: < 1 minute

That a development gap exists between the U.S. and Latin America is obvious. When, why and how it came about is less obvious. Francis Fukuyama´s latest book, an anthology of essays entitled Falling Behind: Explaining the Development Gap Between Latin America and the United States, succinctly attempts to explain the gap by taking into account history, politics, economics, and institutional analysis.

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2666 by Roberto Bolaño

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Five years after Chilean writer Roberto Bolaño’s death in 2003, at the age of 50, critics, writers and readers agree that he is the most important author to have emerged in Latin America since the golden age of the 1960s, when Gabriel García Márquez, Mario Vargas Llosa, Carlos Fuentes, and Julio Cortázar took the world … Read more

 

Oral Proceedings in Latin America

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Judicial reform has never been easy. But in countries across the hemisphere, the once-familiar closed-door deliberations are being replaced by oral proceedings. The idea is simple: open courtrooms boost transparency and fairness. In all, 15 Latin American countries have attempted to introduce oral proceedings for criminal cases between 1994 and 2008. Latin Americans have long … Read more

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