I am reading that a Public Hearing is being prepared for an 8000 hectares rice farm in the Province of Corrientes, Argentina. I am familiar with the area, it is near Mercedes and proposes to dam and use a stream called Ayui to flood the paddy fields. Argentine environmentalists arguments are the same as all over the world: Greedy Capitalists want to take possession of a river, destroying the habitat of natural fauna and flora, displacing the native carpincho. We used to hunt the carpincho and roast it - it is quite good. Since in my youth I participated (for money, of course) in several large rice growing projects in the area, I too must be considered a greedy enemy of Earth. I was not aware of it, in fact, we thought then that we were feeding the world.
9 comments:
This is funny, when wetlands are being drained, it´s bad, but apparently also when they´re being created.
Hi, I have some comments and questions, and will add them here, since this is one of the latin american posts, and I don´t see an E-mail address.
I am currently in La Paz, Bolivia, which seems to be about your second favourite country, behind Equador.
While I am watching my back, I am somewhat amazed by the informal markets on the streets, and after having spent a few months in Peru on intensive Spanish, I am getting more adventurous, and eating in restaurants without tourists.
I just went on a trek, where 10 out of 12 participants were young israelis. Most of the time, they spoke hebrew among themselves, but I couldn´t help noticing, that to an untrained ear like mine, the entirety sounded a lot like arab to, but smaller passages often had a german like sound to them. Is there lots of yiddish incorporated in modern hebrew, can that make the language sound german?
Overall, I feel sorry for the many poor that will suffer from the ills of nationalizations during the next 20-50 yers, as no rational companies will invest here for a long time. The populist leaders of the poors are hurting their flock long term.
From Peru, I have noticed that foreign investors in mining tend to return only ridiculously low amounts that benefits the local populations, but it is not clear that the locals are getting ripped off, as no mining stocks seem to do well long term, unless there is a simultanous ripoff of shareholders. Anyway, I think the bolivian resistance to foreign involvement is worse than the often ridiculously low payments by mine owners.
How much do you think the jewish exodus from Argentina is hurting its economy?
I hope you enjoy your trip in South America, Viking!
Regarding Hebrew, it has little or no Yidish or German. It is a Semitic language like the Arabic, yet it sounds very different. Israeli youth after competing their military service travel all over the world, and Bolivia is in their map. My big daughter spent time in the Pantanal. You should attach themself to them because they have inherited the experience of untold generations of Israelis doing the same area.
I am sorry for Bolivia but nothing can be done. They expulsed the mining companies, stole their investments and made the place unfriendly to entrepreneurs, so they are now frying in their own stew, to use a very mixed metaphor.
Bolivia also had a small Jewish community, that established most of the local industry, but they left to one man to the USA.
ARgentina is a 40 million strong country, the small (200 - 300 thousand persons) Jewish community is not significant. But Jews leaving signals the emigration of the European middle class, and that is very significant. Without them, ARgentina is Bolivia.
Grasias me gusta mi viaje mucho! Antes, piensaba que linguas non germanicas eran demasiodo dificiles, pero no es verdad. Mis vocabularios de Noruego, Aleman y Ingles son ayuda buena para entender español.
Desde 1 de mayo, tres companias de luz estuvan nationalizado, como un presente de Morales por Morales.
Otro obseraciones de aqui es que hay una precensia militaria muy fuerte en La Paz, que es muy lecho de la frontera.
Como en Peru, hay el actitud: "if it´s not broken, don´t fix it"!
Sobre la economia de Bolivia, hay muchas actividades unofficiales, por esso pienso que PIB per cápita real es mas que USD 1.656, pero es muy mal. La contribucion de exporte de gas natural es cerca USD 200 hasta el PIB. No hay inversiones de minerias de litium, por esso, el medio de rerservas del mundo no esta usado.
I really can't imagine living on $1,656/ year (and I'm not an extravagant person). $5/day for all your needs - food, clothing, housing, medical care, etc. - it's unimaginable. Now they can all be equal in their misery. Soon they will be sitting in the dark now that the power co. is nationalized.
K
K, Coca is very cheap in Bolivia. They do not feel miserable, they are contented and high.
I have seen some studies that say that people are most happy in some places we would consider poor - African villages in Nigeria and such. If you see such places, people walk around with big smiles on their faces and don't worry about their stock portfolios.
K
Village people in Nigeria are not happy, they live worried all the time. That's my experience. They dont laugh a lot.
I have not been to Nigeria myself but this is what I read:
http://www.commondreams.org/scriptfiles/views03/1229-09.htm
I can believe that happiness does not relate to material prosperity (though it's hard to be happy if you are starving) - some of the least happy people I know are quite wealthy and their money has not brought them happiness.
K
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