education & tech

Latin America is moving to the left and great part of this change has been patronized by Venezuelan President. However, as we all know, changing the educational curricula means a social change, indoctrination. Laura Vidal in the GVO reports the buzz on blogs en Venezuelan media:

Part of what is attacked is the new system, which seeks to remove some competitive sports. They propose more traditional games based on solidarity and equality. Also, there is the discussion of studies on national culture and traditions, since the new project seems to highlight African and aboriginal heritage over the European. Above all, an extended and detailed study of Chavez's government and ideals are preferred over world history and Venezuelan contemporary history.

How this will affect future college education generation in this South American country?

Tags: venezuela, education, blogging

Video produced and distributed by UTPL under MIRADAS

This is the story of a foreigner in Loja, who discovered that growing older not necessarily means being invisible to the opposite sex.

She went to a party where, for the first time, she received not a glimmer of attention from any man there. She was happily married by then, but still, she remembers how stunned she felt to go unnoticed. Suddenly, she was out the game. After years, she confess, she loves male attention as much as ever.

This was an experience in Loja's (not far from Vilcabamba) not much crowded immigration office. Holding her ticket, she sat for about one hour, resigned to a long wait. A young man, half her age had completed her paperwork and asked her if she was married or single. She said 'single' and watched as he checked the box marked 'divorciada'. Wait. "Actually, I am a widow" she pointed out.

"Oh, seniora", he said, "I am so very sorry. Please accept my profound apology. I have made the most egregious error". Now here he was, spotting her in the back of the room and waving me up to his window. The bunch of visa-seeking gringos parted, then, she floated by, to be received by a courteous Ecuadoran male who took his time explaining the final steps in the visa renewal process. She will be able to come back into two weeks to pick up the visa, he concluded. "Until then", he said, taking her hand in his and cocking his head ever so slightly. "que le vaya muy bien, seniora".

This expression in Spanish means, "I hope that all goes well for you" and it's a standard good-bye in Loja and Ecuador. To the 70 and something old American woman, it feels like a resurrection from the dead. It hasn't been too long ago that she waited in a store in the States and her testimony goes about a middle-aged, balding clerk, who helped a 20-something, long haired blonded pick out a flat TV screen. The clerk was all charm with all information on every set in sight. When she finally got her turn, the employee barely made eye contact and offered minimal data on only the sets I asked about. Of course, she didn't buy a TV and walk out feeling upset and humiliated.

In Loja and the little town of Vilcabamba, She is born again into a world of easy-smiling men who give her a two handed hello or a peck on the check and people who always take the time to chat. Part of all this is custom; regardless of their sex, people stop and exchange pleasantries. A typical "hi, How are you?" flyby is a bad form for Ecuadorean culture; you learn at least to stand still and wait for an answer.

What you can experience down South Ecuador is more than good manners. Men you don't even know smile openly at you, make eye contact and say, "Buenos dias." Occasionally, they will give you a sly up-and-down glance as you pass on the street. The top video, at the beginning shows you the point of view of people living in Vilcabamba and this story reflects how nice and polite Vilcabamba residents are and continue to be.

The other day in Vilcabamba, the man behind the counter at a small hardware store felt free to place some extra gaskets on the hand of the history's woman and declare, "No charge , seniora. I ask only that you return soon to look at me again with your beautiful and rare green eyes around here". She had to laugh at this nonsense.

Remember, if you happen to come to Ecuador, go Loja and ask to be driven to Vilcabamba, you won't see only ancient people but surely you will feel younger as ever!

This post was inspired on the video shown up here and in Remember Sweet Things by Ellen Greene.

Technorati: vilcabamba, loja, ecuador, latin+america

What a funny weekend! The king shouting to a President, pointing him out and jumping on the table so that after a key deadly forced him to apologize and stop talking to Little Shoes!, Oh my.. I am already mixing TV programs, it used to happen to me but yesterday a WWE (before WWF) fight between presidents would have been colossal, imagine:

On one hand, SuperZP together with His Majesty the King, on the other side Alo President next to one who jumped on the wagon, Ortega (not to be confused with Palito Ortega, the creator of the romantic music). Spain vs. Latin America (part I), who would win? Nobody, certainly we all lose.

I want to imagine the king on top of the table, as when he's doing balance out sailing in his fine boat by the brave waters of the Mediterranean, the president Z accompanying him, losing mood. Chavez reminding (as a paratrooper before jumping on them) that he was elected at the ballot box, not as the king who was elected by a finger of a dictator, albeit of the election of his friend Fidel, not a word was said… and as a partner, Ortega , a politician who resurrected joins the club " We are cool but we are a little crazy."

Why did this happen?. Yes, I am sympathetic with Chavez, but I recognize that this is happening fewer and fewer, before I felt like he had "guts" but now I think he just owns a lot of oil and that his followers are only those who hate Bush Jr., Bush Sr. and even the Bush's dog.

It will ever be a Left Party where any who is not crazy! I am not saying they do not have a little of fearlessness and transgression, but begin to play among claims, the perpetuity of the seat and the disqualification does not seem to be the right path. I may be wrong.

Why don't you shut up?

No. don't get angry your majesty… I don't want me to happen the same as the "Thursday"

[Translation] Original post by an argentinian, living in Madrid: BLOGus.

Fragment of the article published primarily in Global Voices Online:

The blogger Don Xavier [ES] writes about the different threats and warnings given to voters if Correa was given increased power in the country's affairs. He makes a reference to childhood saying about witches, old men in coats and a cuckoo that would take small children away if they did not do what they were supposed to.

Ahora ya no dicen CUCO, se refieren a el como CHAVEZ, no me amenazan con la BRUJA en vez de eso me dicen que van a derogar la dolarización y que el VIEJITO DEL SACO no es nada mas ni nada menos que el SOCIALISMO DEL SIGLO XXI.

Now they no longer say CUCKOO, talking about him like CHAVEZ, they do not threaten me with the WITCH, and instead, say to me that they are going to change the dollar currency and that the VIEJITO OF the COAT is nothing more than the SOCIALISM OF the 21st CENTURY.

Libertad Ecuador [ES] is worried about the results and what might happen to the country now that Correa has increased control:

Solo cuando pierdan su trabajo o una posibilidad de negocio y se les haga imposible enrumbarse nuevamente debido a la recesión económica ya iniciada gracias a las políticas populistas del Rafico se darán cuanta del error cometido.

Only when they lose their jobs or any business possibility and for them it becomes impossible to find a path due to the economic recession already initiated thanks to the Rafico's populist policies, will they realize of the mistake that they committed.

El Federalista [ES] sums it up bluntly:

The winer: Correa, the losers: everyone

El ganador: Correa, los perdedores: todos

Cronica Cero [ES], mocks of two of the most senior parties in Ecuador for not acknowledging their defeat:

En la hora de la derrota, ni Jaime Nebot, ni Nicolás Lapentti acudieron a dar la cara. La historia seguramente los marcará como cobardes, faltos de entereza para reconocer que se equivocaron.

...In the hour of the defeat, neither Jaime Nebot, nor Nicholas Lapentti appeared. History surely will mark them as cowards, without integrity for not admitting that they were mistaken.

El Manaba [ES] author of a very popular blog in Ecuador concludes:

Una leccion para los partidos politicos, o se renuevan o mueren

A lesson for the political parties, either they change or they condemned to die.

I happened to visit ebiquity and found a post from Tim Finin, where he says the American Government if funding the Rutgers Center for Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science in order to keep an eye over all online social networks, looking for potential terrorist activity.

Among the initial projects are two involving social media. One will study the problem of analyzing large, dynamic multigraphs that arise from blogs. Another will develop algorithms for identifying hidden social structures in virtual communities with a goal of finding hidden groups, coalitions and leaders by non-semantic analysis of large communication networks.

American Senator Murphy (Illinois) has a blog as everybody else but what brings our attention is the projects he's working on, especially the SJRCA18 that has to be with the safety of our kids, protecting them against online predators at public libraries and schools. Yesterday, after I watched Lockup I've started rethinking about our own safety not from outsiders but those detainees all around US.

This has nothing to do with current politics but beliefs. I am a catholic and hope not offend nobody of my readers being a roman catholic confessed but what TIME magazine holds is critical for all those millions of catholics worldwide. If Jesus and his family have been founded dead in their graves in Israel then, Christianity become an empty vessel! Why? Because there is not Resurrection, the myth of all Christians.

Please allow me to go back to my home country, how come a company can make money with such a high pay in OT to the management only and not to the people who really do the Service? Alt1040 put his finger on Pacifictel and says $ 3.71 millions were paid as over time! My God! Besides, between the 2003 and 2007 the Ecuadorean telecommunication's company (Pacifictel) had eight CEO's and that during such a period those directives rose their salary 977 times! Want to invest in Ecuador? You're just in time. God Bless President Correa.

More in its Homepage (video) and more stuff in MySpace. Pass it on!

I can't write long post because of time or simply I don't have a thesis to expose or a essay to present. Today, I was reading RugJeff's Blog who says to be against speedlinking, against the benefit it gets to the blogs that are being watched for Google. I do appreciate links and I do practice speedlinking everyday but of course I am not against the hard work, the research y the responsible bloggers.

In order to get indexed by Google is important your keywords not only in your posts but in the metatags of your template, the title should be clear enough to describe what your blog is about and offer a precise and crystal clear description of who you are and what will be the topics in your blog. Do whatever you have to do in order to get a link from 'authorities' . Place your name or blog in very well know websites, let's say MySpace or MyBlogLog. We are to follow the example of YALSA (Young American Library Association) or the nice just created for Latinamerica by NACLA (The North American Congress on Latin America).

Finally, whether you are using Blogger, Wordpress or any other free hosting, still you can manipulate your very own templates in a easy way and without major knowledge in Webdesign. Cowboy makes a good presentation of Weebly and explains step by step how to use AJAX like design for your templates' blog.

Thanks to GVO I had the pleasure to read the English Blog of Alvaro Ramírez Ospina who has been tagged in other occasions in this blog. Now comes handy with an analysis of what's going on with the Spanish bloggers and their 'national' conception of Latin blogosphere. Whoever interested in the development of blogs should be read his post which among other things says:

I plan to continue observing and studying the way blogs have been adopted by the Spanish speaking communities around the world, composed mainly of people from the old Spanish Empire, their old colonies in Latin America, and the diasporas of people who have emigrated from their home lands but keep using their mother tongue in blogs. Many things are happening and tracking their rapid evolution is not an easy task. The rewards can be fruitful in many areas of society, especially in the field of education, where these formats and tools are showing their dynamic potential.

Kudos Alvaro and a Happy New Year from BPLE

I've been writing while ago. I don't mean the scolastci writings that our teachers used to asked for, but the professional writing. When I was a teen I always dreamed of being an anchor or at least a person with strong network in the media. That was my dream! After many year spent in College, struggling to learn French and Russian I've ended up learning English! OMG. Things happened and nowadays I am fluent in both languages: English and Spanish. The French and Russian have flown, I don't know whether from my tongue or from my mind!

This personal disclosure is brought to you because I wanted to thank all my readers, those visitors that fall on any of my post and kindly drop a note or a message to tell me I am doing good or even to let me know that my grammar sucks! All due respect, for mild language. I've been plugged for a one of the best citizen journalists, David Sasaki. Much appreciation deserves Claudia Peña who has being kindly enough to inlcude our blog in her blogroll.

Alexis Rebolledo a chilean teacher and blogger made a generous review of our bple. You will notice how the bple had gone from time to time, changing not only in design but in contents. Our dearest Carmen from Spain also made a very short but provocative analisis of TonNet's blog and BTW, everyone is entitled to belong to UBH(Spanish Bloggers Network). And just yesterday a professional, very familiar with the Mac's World, wrote a presentación for our 'second son' a blog which is written in Spanish and that is focus on my mother country issues: Carlos Correa has a way, way genereous presentation for De la vida y algo mas....

Thank you all and promise to keep doing things better!

Thanks to GVO it just came to our knowledge a project, which is headed by the mexican Ricardo Carreon. He's trying to group throughtout a Blogroll at least a number of thirty blogs written by Latin Americans, your blog should cover Latin American issues and for any reason you think are qualified, please go to this post, drop a comment which among other things require: Name of Blog, URL, Brief description and why are you interested in join in?

There is a lot of buzz about Edwars candidacy for running next american elections, some people are starting to think of him as the new JFK?

No news. However it seems like PayPay hits hard in the ecommerce after their venturous Virtual Card. If you still want to give it a try, it's all about you but do not forget the issues generated with this popular online paysite!

Finally, Google Blog Search for the very first time goes over the normal traffic gotten for Technorati and Sphere, separately.

This is a crossed post from B.P.L.E

Para tratar de entender que es la globalización se debe concebir primero lo que la gente hoy día hace para mantenerse en contacto. La información y el dinero se mueven muy rápidamente en éstos dias. Los productos y servicios producidos en un pais, inmediatamente están disponibles en otras partes del mundo. El turismo y las comunicaciones hoy no tienen límites geográficos. Este fenómeno, es llamado globalización.

Pero globalización no es solo sinónimo de negocios, es mucho mas que eso. Las mismas fuerzas que le permiten a los hombres de negocios operar como si no hubieran fronteras, permiten del mismo modo a los activistas sociales, dirigentes sindicales, periodistas, científicos y cuantos otros; trabajar en un campo global.

Algunos sinembargo pueden estar pensando que el concepto globalización es algo nuevo. La globalización primera y con características paralelas a las actuales se ubica entre 1870 y la Primera Guerra Mundial, dónde existía mucha movilidad de capitales, sin ninguna regulación; la migración existía con muy limitadas restricciones. Pero todo ésto se terminó cuando los alemanes hundieron trece millones de toneladas en el mar y tanto la inversión internacional y migración colapsaron. La única diferencia con la actualidad radica en que el Reino Unido para aquella época prestaba dinero(creditor), hoy los EE.UU compra las ganacias de los otros paises en unas tres cuartas partes(debtor), es decir es un deudor!

Cómo afecta esto a los paises latinoamericanos y el Ecuador en particular? No se puede decir nada sin citar a Thomas Friedman, "Cómo le llamas al hecho que las multinacionales salgan en busca de mano de obra barata, encuentren gente pobre en los paises en vias de desarrollo y les paguen tan solo una fracción del salario mínimo que un americano gana?" . Para el autor del libro The World Is Fat, ésto debería entenderse como colaboración pero para los paises pobres esta se llama explotación.

La globalización esta haciendo que nuestro pais de ser pequeño se vea muy pequeñito, pero al mismo tiempo ampliado. El proteccionismo que ahora por ejemplo permite que los productos agrícolas no paguen impuestos cuando ingresan a los EE.UU. Un sistema monetario no estable, cualquier rato surgirian problemas dependiendo de lo que suceda en New York o Frankfurt. La tecnología y el creciente intercambio de tecnologia que tambien va a manos de terroristas y con los 'americanos' como el mercado mas grande y como consumidores de primera mano.

Lo bueno:
- Se ha actualizado las técnicas y el personal a través de algunas universidades y politécnicas.
- Intercambio cultural con mucha influencia del poder norteamericano(data-related labor)
- Ayuda alimetaria para las comuniades pobres aunque con condiciones.
- Los conflictos políticos se hacen globales. El paro por destituir a Lucio por ejemplo.
- Democracia está haciéndose global, porque así creen que el capitalismo florecería.

Lo malo:
- Dependencia de los paises capitalistas para ayuda al tercer mundo(Banco Mundial, Fondo Monetario).
- La economía de los ecuatorianos es solo un apéndice, pues las descisiones son tomadas por las multinacionales.
- La apertura de mercados hace que los paises capitalistas inunden con productos de mala calidad a los paises como el nuestro.( A Brazil se le vende software mas barato por parte de Microsoft)
- Condiciones de trabajo muy malas comparadas con las existentes en USA. Las maquilas en el Salvador por ejemplo.
- Atentado contra el medio ambiente como el caso TEXACO en el oriente ecuatoriano.
- Usabilidad de tecnologia en un medio donde no existe infraestructura. Red de Fibra optica incipiente en Ecuador, vgr.
- Fuga de ganacias, pues generalmente las utilidades que se producen con trabajo nacional son eviadas a bancos extranjeros (A Miami en nuestro caso y luego de secuestrar el dinero de cuentahorristas o cuentacorrentistas).

En definitiva, la globalización es algo asi como el fuego(sic). El fuego por si mismo no es bueno ni malo. Utilizado adecuadamente nos permite cocinar y hervir nuestros alimentos, esterilizar equipos, fundir hierro y calentar nuestras casas. Si se usa inadecuadamente el fuego destruiría nuestras vidas, ciudades y bosques en tan solo unos minutos.

Seguramente usted estará preguntándose, pero si el capitalismo está al borde del desastre. Eso ya es cuestión de otra entrega. Cambio y fuera!