By Admin Friday, September 3, 2010
(Translated by Emily Ellis, a CSN Volunteer Translator)
The national and international campaign, “For the Right to Defend Human Rights in Colombia”, vigorously rejects the declarations of the president of the republic, Álvaro Uribe Vélez, about the public hearing held on the past 22 of July in the town hall of Macarena, in the department of Meta under the motto “ Let’s tell the truth.” The hearing was convened by Senator Gloria Inéz Ramírez, member of the Human Rights, Peace and International Humanitarian Rights Commission of the nation’s senate and numerous social organizations, unions and national and international human rights organizations.
By Admin Monday, August 23, 2010
When I was at university, I read Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s Chronicle of a Death Foretold and thought it was brilliant. Since then, I’ve been meaning to read more of his work (particularly Love In A Time of Cholera and 100 Years of Solitude) but other novels somehow always got in the way.
I have felt guilty about this since the moment I arrived in Colombia.
Cuba’s Cash-for-Doctors ProgramBy Admin Monday, August 16, 2010
Go down to see SPANISH version
By MARIA C. WERLAU, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
For decades, Cuba has “exported” doctors, nurses and health technicians to earn diplomatic influence in poor countries and hard cash for its floundering economy. According to Cuba’s official media, an estimated 38,544 Cuban health professionals were serving abroad in 2008, 17,697 of them doctors. (Cuba reports having 70,000 doctors in all.)
These “missionaries of the revolution” are well-received in host countries from Algeria to South Africa to Venezuela. Yet those who hail Cuba’s generosity overlook the uglier aspects of Cuba’s health diplomacy.
Taborda ‘11 Examines Women’s Rights in ColombiaBy Admin Wednesday, August 11, 2010
For the past 40 years, war and civil unrest have taken a toll on Colombia. Families were torn apart, crops were destroyed, innocent people became victims of a huge-scale conflict. But women, although not often talked about, may have suffered most of all. Kirkland Summer Research Associate Caty Taborda ’11 is investigating the past, present and future of women’s rights in Colombia.
I Report, Therefore I AmBy Admin Wednesday, July 21, 2010
The case of Colombian journalist Hollman Morris, refused entry to the U.S. for a prestigious fellowship, suggests reporting on terrorists may be confused with being one.
Earlier this month, the U.S. State Department denied a visa to a foreign journalist selected for a yearlong Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University. Hollman Morris, a well-known Columbian investigative reporter and documentary producer, was rebuffed on perplexing grounds.
Up to Our Elbows in BearsBy Alan Caruba Thursday, July 8, 2010
You know there’s a problem when The Wall Street Journal devotes an article to the fact that there are too many bears in New Jersey. That’s what it did over the July 4th weekend, noting that there have been “1,250 sightings” thus far this year.
Some of those sightings were up close and personal with one of the estimated 5,000 bears in the Garden State. In a scene from “The Sopranos”, Tony is in the backyard of his home when he spots a black bear ambling by. Fortunately for Tony, he had an arsenal in the house to deal with the intruder.
The closure of a chapter and the start of a new one in CasanareBy Admin Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Midday through writing this, I hear that my partner, the organisation he is part of (Solidarity Committee with Political Prisoners) and other compañeros from NGO’s and social organisations in Cali have received death threats, the third against him in the last two months. Yet we both know that we must continue telling the stories of how people are trying to resist and build social organisations. All too often news from Colombia is a depressing list of threatened people and organisations. So here is the story of a weekend of weaving webs of hope, written while I chew my nails and my stomach churns.
Immigration Reform and the DiasporaBy Admin Tuesday, June 29, 2010
What a hard time for illegal immigrants. Attacks are coming from everywhere. This week, Tom Mullis, a New Mexico politician, proposed putting land mines along the New Mexico-Mexico border. In Washington, a group of House Republicans proposed a draft law that would take away American citizenship from children of undocumented immigrants. This country supposedly defends human rights!
Plans to produce fine wood from coffee treesBy Admin Wednesday, September 9, 2009
The association of coffee farmers in Colombia, Federacion Nacional de Cafeteros (Federacafe), is promoting a project to produce fine wood from coffee trees.
Sexual violence has become a weapon of war in Colombia, Oxfam saysBy Admin Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Madrid - Sexual violence against women is widely used as a weapon in Colombia’s armed conflict, the development charity Oxfam International said in a report presented Wednesday in Madrid.
