tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-102348852011-04-21T12:06:06.476-06:00HAS MOVED TO WWW.UPSIDEDOWNWORLD.ORG/BLOGUpside Down Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02851993954613141944noreply@blogger.comBlogger411100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10234885.post-1131662646713065712005-11-10T16:40:00.000-06:002005-11-10T16:44:06.726-06:00

Hello Upside Down Blog Readers, This blog has moved to a new address, from now on, please go tohttp://upsidedownworld.org/blog/Thanks,Ben

Upside Down Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02851993954613141944noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10234885.post-1130802745286622982005-10-31T17:47:00.000-06:002005-10-31T17:53:59.493-06:00

Recently published articles offer some new insights into http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/47/44/">what the US military may be doing in Paraguay:In a Washington Times article, Walder Goes, a political consultant with close ties to politicians in Brasilia, is quoted as saying, "There is no doubt in my mind that the U.S. at least wants that base in Mariscal [Paraguay] because they

Upside Down Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02851993954613141944noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10234885.post-1128485839723377042005-10-04T22:09:00.000-06:002005-10-05T09:53:22.016-06:00

Here is a very short list of suggestions for social action which I sent to an UpsideDownWorld.org reader who was interested in doing more in solidarity from the US with the hopeful social movements in Latin America and working to reverse the negative impacts of US foreign policy in the region:Find out how your congress person and senator voted on CAFTA, the Central American free trade agreement

Upside Down Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02851993954613141944noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10234885.post-1127138766014990002005-09-19T08:00:00.000-06:002005-09-19T08:09:42.363-06:00

In 2000, U.S. President George W. Bush, said, “Never before in its history has the United States been so dependent on foreign oil. In 1973, the country imported 36% of its oil needs. Today, the country imports 56% of its crude oil.”According to the Bush administration, wherever there are desired natural resources there are terrorist threats which work as an excuse for imperialist intervention,

Upside Down Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02851993954613141944noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10234885.post-1126101710932868852005-09-07T07:56:00.000-06:002005-09-08T07:00:49.516-06:00

In December 2001 in Argentina, the economy collapsed. Citizens weren’t able to take money out of their bank accounts, countless workers were laid off. Hunger and homelessness swept the country. A cry directed at the government filled the streets throughout this crisis: “Que se vayan todos ya!” In English this basically means, “Throw the bums out!”In the eyes of many Argentines, the federal

Upside Down Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02851993954613141944noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10234885.post-1124373446110159932005-08-18T07:47:00.000-06:002005-08-18T08:11:02.836-06:00

US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld arrived in Paraguay on August 16th amidst controversy over the current US military operations in the country. Hundreds of US troops have arrived in Paraguay and have been granted total immunity by the country’s government. Reports of the development of a military base near the border with Bolivia have raised concerns among citizens and human rights groups

Upside Down Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02851993954613141944noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10234885.post-1122823398340421082005-07-31T09:20:00.000-06:002005-07-31T09:24:59.786-06:00

The following blog entry is from UpsideDownWorld.org assistant editor Cyril Mychalejko, who just returned from a trip in Guatemala:I arrived back in the States from Guatemala on Monday, July 18th. Even though I was there for about 10 days, it was a little tough making the transition back. It was an intense and informative delegation which left me struggling to digest everything I saw and learned.

Upside Down Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02851993954613141944noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10234885.post-1122067483638664062005-07-22T15:20:00.000-06:002005-07-31T20:00:04.270-06:00

Note on this entry: I just finished an article on the US's questionable activities in Paraguay, check it out: What is the US Military Doing in Paraguay?A story has been circulating through cyberspace about a new US military base in Paraguay, near the border with Bolivia. Sketchy and disparate information on the base abound, leaving some to believe it is nothing but a rumor blown out of

Upside Down Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02851993954613141944noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10234885.post-1121633932227278762005-07-17T14:55:00.000-06:002005-07-17T14:58:52.233-06:00

The following blog entry is from www.Upsidedownworld.org assistant editor Cyril Mychalejko, who is currently in Guatemala and will be there for the next few weeks. See his previous entry below. He’ll be writing for this blog regularly:Monday night we went to a meeting in the department of Sipacapa attended by about 60 campesinos (peasants), including a few women and children, representing various

Upside Down Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02851993954613141944noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10234885.post-1121015077285635532005-07-10T11:02:00.000-06:002005-07-10T11:06:07.630-06:00

The following blog entry is from www.Upsidedownworld.org assistant editor Cyril Mychalejko, who is currently in Guatemala and will be there for the next few weeks. He’ll be writing for this blog regularly:I arrived in Guatemala City on Friday, July 8th as a member of an Environmental, Development and Human rights delegation sponsored by Rights Action. RA, with offices in Canada, Washington DC

Upside Down Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02851993954613141944noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10234885.post-1119460843776199032005-06-22T11:16:00.000-06:002005-06-22T13:34:13.473-06:00

From the looming threat of CAFTA, to the hopeful gains of the Chavez administration, from worker-run factories in Argentina to the uprising in Bolivia against the plan to privatize the nation’s gas – Upside Down World has provided news, resources and perspectives that help readers understand what’s actually happening on the ground in South America.As the heat builds in this region of the world,

Upside Down Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02851993954613141944noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10234885.post-1117905477959109812005-06-04T11:16:00.000-06:002005-06-06T14:28:33.283-06:00

An Australian journalist in Uruguay emailed me a number of questions on Uruguay's new left-leaning president, Tabare Vazquez. Here are his questions and my responses:1)Do you think Tabare Vasquez was the best choice for president, Why or why not, who would you have chosen?Yes, I think Vasquez was the best choice forPresident. For most of Uruguay’s history sinceIndependence from Spain, right

Upside Down Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02851993954613141944noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10234885.post-1116791684941676392005-05-22T13:49:00.000-06:002005-05-22T14:00:28.206-06:00

Below is our critique of "El Jazeera", an article published on Alternet on Venezuela's new continent-wide TV network:Though this article introduces a hopeful new South American initiative many in the US may not yet know about, it did not accurately represent the state of Venezuelan government funded media, and was unfairly critical of state-run media in favor of privately operated media.In

Upside Down Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02851993954613141944noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10234885.post-1115415971594091232005-05-06T15:41:00.000-06:002005-06-14T10:24:53.223-06:00

I recently heard a talk by Ana Arana, who has worked as a journalist primarily in South and Central America for the past few decades for big papers such as the Miami Herald and US News and World Report. The information she provided during the talk on Colombia was interesting, as were her suggestions to young writers just starting out. Yet a couple of comments she made about Bolivia disturbed me

Upside Down Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02851993954613141944noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10234885.post-1114604969046919582005-04-27T06:15:00.000-06:002005-04-27T06:35:47.436-06:00

Visitors to the www.UpsideDownWorld.org site will have noticed a few changes. We've added a new section on the front page which includes daily updated news from around the web on South America. The focus of this section is on politics, grassroots projects, activism, social and economic issues. Though your local US paper may not cover land reform issues in Brazil, the election of a socialist in

Upside Down Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02851993954613141944noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10234885.post-1113831778376172762005-04-18T07:40:00.000-06:002005-04-18T10:49:47.476-06:00

Please read this article by Mark Danner entitled Iraq: The Real Election, from the NY Review of Books. It is one of the best I’ve read on the current reality in Iraq, with incredible descriptions of Baghdad. The article is “vital to comprehending the dramatic difference between the encouraging images we are shown and the stubborn and bloody reality on the ground.” It brings to the forefront the

Upside Down Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02851993954613141944noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10234885.post-1112803479459071102005-04-06T10:00:00.000-06:002005-04-06T10:12:13.480-06:00

I have arrived back in the eastern US, strategically missing winter and arriving just as spring begins. The weather is fantastic, the air smells fresh and it's great to be out of loud, polluted cities and back among family, friends and loved ones.I arrived with bits of memories of the trip floating around in my mind, like the lingering tastes in one's mouth after a big dinner: the NY blizzard

Upside Down Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02851993954613141944noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10234885.post-1112461747804364792005-04-02T10:54:00.000-06:002005-04-02T11:22:21.366-06:00

Christian Parenti recently published an article in The Nation on the Chavez government. The article does an excellent job of depicting the reality in Caracas, the government's reforms and programs, Chavismo and the precarious situation the government is facing. The piece also includes criticisms of the administration's socialistic political process and dependence on oil. To read this article,

Upside Down Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02851993954613141944noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10234885.post-1112018696050542892005-03-28T07:50:00.000-06:002005-03-28T08:12:52.976-06:00

When my girlfriend and I were traveling in Peru a few years ago, I read a section of the guide book which warned of "Late Night Choke Hold Muggings" in a certain section of Cuzco. It was hard not to laugh at such a phrase, yet there was no doubt a reason why it was in the guide book.I'm reminded of that warning as I listen to horror stories from tourists in Caracas. In the three weeks I have

Upside Down Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02851993954613141944noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10234885.post-1111543151559314182005-03-22T19:50:00.000-06:002005-03-28T08:17:51.826-06:00

Recently, I was able to speak with the coordinator of the House Wives Union here in Merida, Venezuela. The union is working to provide government pensions to their members, among other things. It also provides free legal help to its members, tells them about the variety of government sponsored programs that they are entitled to and helps them form cooperatives and small businesses in their

Upside Down Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02851993954613141944noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10234885.post-1111083571557354612005-03-17T11:53:00.000-06:002005-03-22T20:11:55.536-06:00

Throughout this trip I´ve met a lot of travelers from all over the globe. Most recently, I stayed at at Nuestro Hostel in Caracas, Venezuela which served as a temporary home for Germans, Australians, Bulgarians, North Americans, Poles, Venezuelans and more. A few of them had some incredible travel stories.Sean from the US had been traveling in South America for years. He had just drove a car

Upside Down Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02851993954613141944noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10234885.post-1110902484611533442005-03-15T09:46:00.000-06:002005-03-15T10:17:47.270-06:00

It's been an interesting week here. The large majority of the people I've spoken with are pro-Chavez and support the political process which is taking place here. As I mentioned in my previous blog, crime here is a big deal and is at least spoken about non-stop. Foreigners especially are warned countless times to be careful. Yet the demonization of the poor neighborhoods surrounding the city

Upside Down Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02851993954613141944noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10234885.post-1110498835355146642005-03-10T17:23:00.000-06:002005-03-10T18:07:10.683-06:00

Upon arriving in the Caracas airport, I was shocked to see the shack-covered mountains surrounding the city. There were poor houses as far as the eye could see, labyrinths of brick huts clinging to the steep mountainsides. Some were huddled together in crowded patches, others were part of a sprawling network of tin roofs, garbage strewn dirt pathways and small cement homes with laundry flapping

Upside Down Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02851993954613141944noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10234885.post-1109979076648508192005-03-04T17:27:00.000-06:002005-03-06T14:24:33.933-06:00

To check out a piece I just wrote on worker-run factories and businesses in Buenos Aires click hereHere's another I just finished on micro-credit programs in poor neighbhorhoods in Mendoza, ArgentinaThere's a few other new pieces recently published on www.upsidedownworld.org One on free trade and another on Hunter S. Thompson....I'm off to Venezuela on March 8, stay tuned and thanks for reading.

Upside Down Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02851993954613141944noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10234885.post-1109901460166533512005-03-03T19:34:00.000-06:002005-03-05T13:26:29.826-06:00

Imagine if Republicans had been running the US for the last 180 years, and then one day an upstanding member of the Green Party won - it would be a cause for celebration, right? Well that's what has been going on Montevideo, Uruguay for the past week. In fact, at the end of his acceptance speech, Tabare Vaqzquez's closing words were, "Festejen Uruguay, festejen..." (Party Uruguay, party...)

Upside Down Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02851993954613141944noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10234885.post-1109356699455282912005-02-25T12:09:00.000-06:002005-02-25T12:43:00.673-06:00

Thousands of protesters marched through the center of Buenos Aires this past Wednesday. They were protesting against the political prisoners in Argentina and the government´s recent human rights track record. Though many have hailed Nestor Kirchner's presidency as a major improvement from previous administrations, particularly in the area of human rights, there are still plenty of

Upside Down Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02851993954613141944noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10234885.post-1109013598778178302005-02-21T12:55:00.000-06:002005-02-24T08:29:55.543-06:00

There is a lot more going on in Argentina than tango, soccer, wine and Jorge Luis Borges. In Mendoza for example, I was returning in a taxi to the house where I was living. The taxi driver was cruising down the road pretty fast. At one point in the journey, construction workers had left a pile of rocks in the middle of the street. I warned the driver, yelling "cuidado, cuidado!" (careful!) but

Upside Down Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02851993954613141944noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10234885.post-1108998102019938282005-02-21T08:57:00.000-06:002005-02-21T09:01:42.020-06:00

Hunter S. Thompson is dead.Read his obit in the NY TimesI thought this quote from Thompson on "Gonzo Journalism" was great:It was in the heat of deadline that gonzo journalism was born while he was writing a story about the Kentucky Derby for Scanlan's magazine, he recounted years later in an interview in Playboy magazine."I'd blown my mind, couldn't work," he told Playboy. "So finally I just

Upside Down Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02851993954613141944noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10234885.post-1108590291260910532005-02-16T14:45:00.000-06:002005-02-16T16:11:53.310-06:00

The winds changed in Buenos Aires and I decided to set sail for Mendoza, a smaller city in western Argentina, near the border with Chile. A few hours into the ride, the bus's isle became a mini river full of old sandwiches, spilled coffee and soda. I had to place my bags elsewhere so they wouldn't become soaked. My seat was right next to the bathroom in the back of the bus, so it was difficult

Upside Down Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02851993954613141944noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10234885.post-1108172877080254722005-02-11T19:11:00.000-06:002005-02-11T19:52:21.163-06:00

Gladis, a woman who works at the hostel I am staying at in Buenos Aires, explained many things about the people who collect garbage in the city and recycle it for cash. They're called, Los Cartoneros... First of all, these people are all over the city, and their numbers have increased dramatically in recent years due to lack of work, higher prices, etc. People work late into the night

Upside Down Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02851993954613141944noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10234885.post-1107901114911144132005-02-08T16:05:00.000-06:002005-02-08T16:27:16.920-06:00

It’s very humid here in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I’ve been staying with a friend in Barrio Norte, a relatively upscale neighborhood with row after row of ten story apartment buildings. Many of the neighbors across the way hang out on the balconies, fanning themselves and wondering when the humidity will end. Tomorrow I move into a cheap hostel in the center of town and begin writing about

Upside Down Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02851993954613141944noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10234885.post-1107646524748973932005-02-05T17:21:00.000-06:002005-02-05T18:06:53.946-06:00

In the capital of what Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano calls "a secret country" there are banks and barber shops on every block. Montevideo is emptying as I write; it has a rapidly decreasing population. Thousands of young people leave the country for Europe, Argentina and the US each year. It has the largest number of people over age sixty per capita in South America. So it was no surprise

Upside Down Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02851993954613141944noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10234885.post-1107477733174125422005-02-03T18:37:00.000-06:002005-02-03T18:48:03.700-06:00

Check out my article, Samba and Revolution: Dispatches from the International Youth Forum, http://alternet.org/story/21165/ Just published on AlterNet.org´s wiretap...

Upside Down Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02851993954613141944noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10234885.post-1107371725775253712005-02-02T13:01:00.000-06:002005-02-02T13:15:25.776-06:00

There is definitely a calm after storm here in Porto Alegre. There is some kind of local holiday going on today and nearly all of the shops in town are closed. A lot of the forum-goers have left town and things seem to be returning to normal. Instead of a 24 hour party of ideas and music, a light rain is falling on the nearly empty streets. I heard today that a poll taken of Porto Alegre

Upside Down Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02851993954613141944noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10234885.post-1107206012047764292005-01-31T13:33:00.000-06:002005-01-31T18:41:31.873-06:00

The last few days at the world social forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil have been really damn hot - it´s humid and temperatures often go above one hundred degrees. At night the low is usually in the seventies or eighties. As much as I wanted to disregard the heat and focus on the forum, the music, the people, it has become an enormous part of the experience, especially for us northerners who are used

Upside Down Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02851993954613141944noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10234885.post-1106948940297306452005-01-28T15:20:00.000-06:002005-01-31T18:38:23.960-06:00

It is chaos at the fifth annual world social forum, but it`s the best chaos there is. Events from water privatization to Palestine, from community organizations in small Argentinian towns to how the Iraq crisis can be resolved. Two hundred thousand people have arrived from all over the world. Protests, puppets and marching bands weave in between tents and jewelry stalls. Things are going on

Upside Down Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02851993954613141944noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10234885.post-1106757267151873592005-01-26T10:14:00.000-06:002005-01-26T10:34:27.150-06:00

After a twenty hour bus ride from Buenos Aires, I´ve arrived in Porto Alegre for the World Social Forum. In many ways, the forum started on the bus. A lot of the people traveling from Buenos Aires were going to the forum, and we all ended up talking, discussing politics and our lives for most of the trip. It was incredible. There were people from about six different countries all sitting

Upside Down Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02851993954613141944noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10234885.post-1106652453290764832005-01-25T05:25:00.000-06:002005-01-25T05:27:33.290-06:00

Finally arrived, all is well. About to leave on bus for souther Brasil. Very nice weather. I'll write more later, for now, I'm trying to spend less time in front of the computer and more time absorbing this place.

Upside Down Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02851993954613141944noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10234885.post-1106509275338020892005-01-23T13:39:00.000-06:002005-01-23T14:49:40.370-06:00

As I boarded the bus to New York City, I said goodbye to my girlfriend, April. Our goodbye was interrupted by the bus driver who came out and yelled, “Hurry up, yer gonna rub each uh yer faces off.” “But it’s going to be a long trip,” I explained. “Is it forever?” he shot back. I shook my head. “Then you’ll see each other again, get on the damn bus.” The weather was bad and getting worse. A huge

Upside Down Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02851993954613141944noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10234885.post-1106318535903412152005-01-21T08:28:00.000-06:002005-01-21T08:42:15.903-06:00

Hello! This will be my blog for the next couple of months as I travel around South America, working as a freealance writer for various websites and magazines. The first stop is the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil From this blog, I hope to report on the conversations I have on the bus, the food, experiences, people I meet, interviews, politics, economics, social movements, and other

Upside Down Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02851993954613141944noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10234885.post-1106067360952557122005-01-18T10:55:00.000-06:002005-01-18T10:56:00.953-06:00

Hello and welcome to the blog. Please check out my other site, www.upsidedownworld.org

Upside Down Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02851993954613141944noreply@blogger.com