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breakingasia-blog · 5 years ago

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Power Over Mekong: The Mighty River Linking Five Countries and China

China has long wanted to dredge the riverbed in northern Thailand to open passage for massive cargo ships -- and potentially military vessels. Ultimately a link could be carved from Yunnan province thousands of kilometers south through the Mekong countries -- Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. There, the river emerges into the South China Sea, one of the world's busiest shipping lanes and the centerpiece of Beijing's trade and security strategy for its Asian neighborhood. Under the tagline "Shared River, Shared Future" China insists it seeks only the sustainable development of the river and to split the spoils of a trade and energy boom with its Mekong neighbors and their market of 240 million people. But squeezed for value by the dams lacing China's portion of the river -- and further downstream -- the Mekong is already changing. Fish stocks have collapsed say Thai fisherman, and nutrient-rich land in the Vietnamese delta is sinking as the sediment flow shrinks. The river is rivaled only by the Amazon for its biodiversity, environmentalists say, but now endemic species like the giant Mekong catfish and river dolphins are facing extinction. Environment versus big business. Geopolitics throttling a lifeline to 60 million people -- big themes are playing out on a slow-moving river. The Mekong nations -- China, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam -- are struggling to ensure sustainable development, jeopardising hundreds of millions of lives The Golden Triangle Sop Ruak village, Kilometre 1: Zhang Jingjin's tour group run through a catalogue of selfie poses in front of the "Welcome to The Golden Triangle" gate. Below swirls a few hundred muddy metres of the Mekong. It is the 'Golden Triangle', the intersection of northern Thailand with Myanmar and Laos, notorious for conflict and drugs -- but now getting plump on Chinese investment. "If more boats can pass there will be more visitors, more trade and more business," Zhang, a jovial elevator salesman from Beijing, says. "Business is good for everyone." First the shoal at the Golden Triangle will have to go -- one of 15 sets of rocks, rapids and sandbars impeding ships' progress along the river. Once removed and dredged, deep-hulled boats carrying 500-plus tonnes of cargo could make the 600 kilometers (370 miles) journey from Yunnan to the Laotian colonial-era jewel of Luang Prabang. The vision is to festoon both banks of the waterway with Special Economic Zones (SEZs) replete with condos, ports, rail and road links. From Laos much of the river has already been opened south towards Cambodia, two key -- and poor -- allies readily softened up by Beijing's investment billions. But for now proposals by a subsidiary of China Communications Construction Company (CCCC), the world's second-largest dredging firm, have stalled after sustained resistance by activists in northern Thailand. But campaigners say Beijing's grand ambitions rarely run aground on local opposition. "It's resource politics... eventually they want to turn the Mekong into a 'superhighway' for cargo," Pianporn Deetes of International Rivers told AFP. The Bend in the River Chiang Sean, Kilometre 10: A short drift downstream, Kome Wilai and his friends putter out midstream on long boats, returning to polish off beers and measure the river's changes in their nets. The catch has been pitiful for a fortnight, says the 38-year-old Kome, after a sudden drop in water level in the middle of the monsoon season. "I've laid my nets twice today and got nothing. It's the Chinese dam.... there is no water for the fish to swim or lay their eggs," he explains. The dam -- the Jinghong -- is one of 11 in China's portion of the river, established as part of a hydro-electric power drive to help wean the country off coal. Laos, through which a third of Mekong flows, plans many more across key tributaries. A thicket of agreements encourage upstream countries to announce when they plan to store or discharge large amounts of water from their dams. Still, in Chiang Saen the water often drops by 1.5-3 meters without warning. "When they close the gate at the dam it affects everyone along the river," says Prasong La-on, Chiang Sean district chief. "We have to accept it." The Chinese Embassy in Bangkok insists it does not hold back water for its farmers or turbines and "pays great attention" to the needs of its neighbors. Meanwhile other analysts say the finger is pointing in the wrong direction. "The reality is that China only accounts for 12 percent of the Mekong’s surface water," says China Water Risk, a Hong Kong-based consultancy. The "Western press has a pre-determined view of China which has spilled into how it approaches transboundary water," it says, arguing downstream dams including in Laos, where the Thai-owned Xayaburi has just come online, cause the biggest impacts. Whoever is behind the fluctuations, river communities fear the worst as each year brings unwanted records... the lowest monsoon water levels, the highest unseasonal floods. "When the river is gone, it will be gone forever," warns Grandpa Nart, a toothless 72-year-old boat driver, who has mapped the waters over a lifetime. The 'Golden Triangle', the intersection of northern Thailand with Myanmar and Laos was notorious for conflict and drugs but it is now boosted by Chinese investment The Rapids Khon Pi Long, Kilometer 45: If anyone has reasons for optimism about the river's future it should be Niwat Roikaew. The ponytailed conservationist leads 'Love Chiang Khong Group' which fought an unlikely 20-year rearguard defense against the blasting of the rapids. In March, 2019, the Chinese government formally shelved its plans after his campaign led the argument that both the unique ecology of the river and Thailand's sovereignty will be hollowed out by China’s dredgers. "This is the egg-laying area for fish and birds," Niwat says, gesturing to the boulders at Khon Pi Long, where water rushes as the river tightens up. "This key ecosystem used to be seasonal. But now the river levels depend on the opening of the dam gates and the ecosystem can't function," he says. "And they want to blast the rapids too? You'd kill the Mekong." Fish are confused by the shallow waters at spawning season, while nutrient packed algae -- favored food of the critically endangered giant Mekong catfish -– grows later and less prolifically. The risks sharpen as the river flows downstream. Cambodia's vast Mekong-fed Tonle Sap Lake produces half a million tonnes of fish each year, the main supply of protein for the country, says Bryan Eyler author of "Last Days of the Mekong." Further along the lifeline Vietnamese delta is on the retreat as sediment gets clogged behind upstream dams causing anemic embankments to collapse into the water. "Without that sediment distribution, the Mekong Delta will slip into the ocean faster than predicted," he adds. China disputes the gloomy scenarios while denying it has ever crafted firm engineering plans to blast the contested Thai stretch of water. There are fears for the Mekong's biodiversity as development spirals The Final Holdout Chiang Khong, Kilometer 67: It's festival time and elders with big smiles and elegant hand-woven skirts sit in front of the Golden Phaya Naga -- fire-breathing serpents of river lore -- presiding over the entrance to a Buddhist temple decorated with frescos of Mekong life. "Our culture and history are linked to the water," says Samai Rinnasak after kneeling for blessings from the assembly of monks. Economic growth and environmental change have long been reshaping that relationship. Eventually, China is "going to do what it wants," according to Thitinan Pongsudhirak, of the Institute of Security and International Studies, Chulalongkorn University, citing the build-up of dams, SEZs and cultivation of allies Laos and Cambodia. "This is China's way of power," he adds. An hour downstream in Huai Luek (kilometer 90-97) where pomelo plantations roll down to the riverbank, the final kilometers of rocks block Beijing's decades-old aspiration. Only ten fishermen remain in Thongsuk Inthavong's village, a trade withered by the decreasing bounty of the Mekong. The decay started in 2008, the former village chief says, when the Mekong turned brown overnight. "Older people said it was the Phaya Naga churning up the river bed to build a nest," he says. "But it was the same year the Chinese (Jinghong) dam opened." From his stilted wooden house he has also had a ringside seat to the transformation of the Laos’ bank from small-holdings into vast banana plantations –- all Chinese-owned. The same investors have tried to entice Thai farmers to sell up - as small river communities fear checkmate is edging closer. "China plays with us like a toy," Thongsuk says. "It makes me angry but we'll defend our river." PICTURES BY LILLIAN SUWANRUMPHA/afp Read the full article

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earth-as-art · 7 years ago

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Reshaping the Xingu River

A major tributary of the Amazon River has been dramatically reshaped. The change has an entirely human cause—construction of the Belo Monte Dam complex on the Xingu River in northern Brazil.

The Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus on the Landsat 7 satellite captured a false-color image (left) of the site of the future river and dam complex on May 26, 2000, when the Xingu River still flowed freely. The dam project was first considered in the 1970s, but construction did not start until 2011.

By early 2016, after the primary dam (the Pimental) was first closed, water pooled up to form the main reservoir. Turbines soon came online and by April 2016 started supplying electricity to the grid. The complex now consists of multiple dams, dykes, canals, and power stations. The false-color image (right) shows the area on July 20, 2017, as observed by the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on the Landsat 8 satellite.

Water in the Xingu River generally flows northward toward the Amazon River. In these views, however, it temporarily dips southward while flowing around a 100-kilometer river bend—the Volta Grande do Xingu. Only about 20 percent of the original river flow now makes the journey around this bend.

The reduced flow along the bend has produced new dry areas (tan and orange). The drying is reported to have affected the aquatic life—such as turtles and fish unique to the Volta Grande—and a number of indigenous tribesliving in the area.

There is also a notable change between the two images in the amount of forested and agricultural land. According to image analysts with the Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP), some of the newly flooded areas were already deforested.

The dam now diverts about 80 percent of the flow into the main reservoir, through a canal, and into a secondary reservoir. The false-color Landsat 8 image above shows a detailed view of the main reservoir and part of the canal on July 20, 2017. The newly flooded areas span about 200 square kilometers (49,000 acres), according to an assessment by MAAP experts.

When the dam becomes fully operational in 2018, it will have a maximum capacity of 11,233 megawatts—the fourth-largest hydroelectric plant in the world. The electricity actually generated on average will be much less, about 4,500 megawatts according to one estimate, but will help support the energy needs of economic growth in Brazil.

References and Related Reading

The Guardian (2014, December 16) Belo Monte, Brazil: The tribes living in the shadow of a megadam. Accessed October 5, 2017.

HydroWorld (2017, April 24) Belo Monte hydro plant capacity at 3.2 GW after 11th turbine brought online. Accessed October 5, 2017.

Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project (2017, August 29) MAAP #66: Satellite Images of Belo Monte Dam Project (Brazil). Accessed October 5, 2017.

The Telegraph (2016, March 26) Brazil’s leaders face a damming problem over vast hydroelectric project. Accessed October 5, 2017.

U.S. Energy Information Administration (2016, August 11) Hydroelectric plants account for more than 70% of Brazil’s electric generation . Accessed October 5, 2017.

U.S. Energy Information Administration (2014, June 17) Hydropower supplies more than three-quarters of Brazil’s electric power. Accessed October 5, 2017.

Yale Environment 360 (2017, September 26) How a Dam Building Boom Is Transforming the Brazilian Amazon. Accessed October 5, 2017.

NASA Earth Observatory images by Joshua Stevens, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Story by Kathryn Hansen.

Instrument(s): Landsat 7 - ETM+Landsat 8 - OLI

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sciencespies · 5 years ago

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One of Europe's last wild rivers is in danger of being tamed

https://sciencespies.com/environment/one-of-europes-last-wild-rivers-is-in-danger-of-being-tamed/

One of Europe's last wild rivers is in danger of being tamed

In this June 14, 2019 photo, Jorgji Ilia, 71, stands on the shore of the Vjosa River after collecting water from a small spring in the village of Kanikol, Albania. “There is nothing else better than the river,” the retired schoolteacher says. “The Vjosa gives beauty to our village.” (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

Under a broad plane tree near Albania’s border with Greece, Jorgji Ilia fills a battered flask from one of the Vjosa River’s many springs.

“There is nothing else better than the river,” the retired schoolteacher says. “The Vjosa gives beauty to our village.”

The Vjosa is temperamental and fickle, changing from translucent cobalt blue to sludge brown to emerald green, from a steady flow to a raging torrent. Nothing holds it back for more than 270 kilometers (170 miles) in its course through the forest-covered slopes of Greece’s Pindus mountains to Albania’s Adriatic coast.

This is one of Europe’s last wild rivers. But for how long?

Albania’s government has set in motion plans to dam the Vjosa and its tributaries to generate much-needed electricity for one of Europe’s poorest countries, with the intent to build eight dams along the main river.

It’s part of a world hydropower boom, mainly in Southeast Asia, South America, Africa and less developed parts of Europe. In the Balkans alone, about 2,800 projects to tame rivers are underway or planned, says Olsi Nika of EcoAlbania, a nonprofit that opposes the projects.

Some tout hydropower as a reliable, cheap and renewable energy source that helps curb dependence on planet-warming fossil fuels. But some recent studies question hydropower’s value in the fight against global warming. Critics say the benefits of hydropower are overstated—and outweighed by the harm dams can do.

In this June 19, 2019 photo, Jorgji Ilia, 71, a retired schoolteacher, sits with his wife, Vito, 64, inside their home in the village of Kanikol, Albania. “There is nothing else better than the river,” he says. “The Vjosa gives beauty to our village.” (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

Rivers are a crucial part of the global water cycle. They act as nature’s arteries, carrying energy and nutrients across vast landscapes, providing water for drinking, food production and industry. They’re a means of transportation for people and goods, and a haven for boaters and anglers. Rivers are home to a diversity of fish—including tiny minnows, trout and salmon—and provide shelter and food for birds and mammals.

But dams interrupt their flow, and the life in and around them. While installing fish ladders and widening tunnels to bypass dams helps some species, it hasn’t worked in places like the Amazon, says Julian Olden, a University of Washington ecologist.

Dams block the natural flow of water and sediment. They also can change the chemistry of the water and cause toxic algae to grow.

In this June 23, 2019 photo, an abandoned bulldozer sits on the banks of the Vjosa River at the construction site of the Kalivac dam in Albania. Some tout hydropower as a reliable, cheap and renewable energy source that helps curb dependence on planet-warming fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas. But some critics like EcoAlbania say the benefits of hydropower are overstated—and outweighed by the harm dams can do. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

Those who live along the riverbank or rely on the waterway for their livelihood fear dams could kill the Vjosa as they know it. Its fragile ecosystem will be irreversibly altered, and many residents will lose their land and homes.

In the 1990s, an Italian company was awarded a contract to build a dam along the Vjosa in southern Albania. Construction began on the Kalivac dam, but never was completed, plagued with delays and financial woes.

Now, the government has awarded a new contract for the site to a Turkish company. Energy ministry officials rejected multiple interview requests to discuss their hydropower plans.

Many locals oppose the plans. Dozens of residents from the village of Kute joined nonprofits to file what was Albania’s first environmental lawsuit against the construction of a dam in the Pocem gorge, a short distance downriver from Kalivac. They won in 2017, but the government has appealed.

This June 23, 2019 aerial photo shows the construction site of the Kalivac dam on the banks of the Vjosa River in Albania. As pressure to build dams intensifies in less developed countries, the opposite is happening in the U.S. and western Europe, where there’s a movement to tear down dams considered obsolete and environmentally destructive. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

The victory, while significant, was just one battle. A week later, the government issued the Kalivac contract. EcoAlbania plans to fight that project, too.

Ecologically, there is a lot at stake.

A recent study found the Vjosa was incredibly diverse. More than 90 types of aquatic invertebrates were found in the places where dams are planned, plus hundreds of fish, amphibian and reptile species, some endangered and others endemic to the Balkans.

Dams can unravel food chains, but the most well-known problem with building dams is that they block the paths of fish trying to migrate upstream to spawn.

As pressure to build dams intensifies in less developed countries, the opposite is happening in the U.S. and western Europe, where there’s a movement to tear down dams considered obsolete and environmentally destructive.

In this June 18, 2019 photo, a man crosses a bridge over the Langarica River, a tributary to the Vjosa near the city of Permet, Albania. Albania’s government has set in motion plans to dam the Vjosa and its tributaries to generate much-needed electricity for one of Europe’s poorest countries, with the intent to build eight dams along the main river. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

More than 1,600 have been dismantled in the U.S., most within the past 30 years, according to the advocacy group American Rivers. In Europe, the largest-ever removal began this year in France, where two dams are being torn down on Normandy’s Selune River.

With so few wild rivers left around the globe, the Vjosa also is a valuable resource for studying river behavior.

“Science is only at the beginning of understanding how biodiversity in river networks is structured and maintained,” says researcher Gabriel Singer of the Leibniz-Institute in Germany. “The Vjosa is a unique system.”

For Shyqyri Seiti, it’s much more personal.

The 65-year-old boatman has been transporting locals, goods and livestock across the river for about a quarter century. The construction of the Kalivac dam would spell disaster for him. Many of the fields and some of the houses in his nearby village of Ane Vjose would be lost.

In this June 27, 2019 photo, sheep are pastured near the shore of the Vjosa River in Ane Vjosa, Albania. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

In this June 28, 2019 photo, Shyqyri Seiti, pulls his fishing net from the Vjosa River near Ane Vjose, Albania. The 65-year-old boatman has been transporting locals, goods and livestock across the river for about a quarter century. The construction of the Kalivac dam would spell disaster for him. Many of the fields and some of the houses in his nearby village of Ane Vjose would be lost. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

In this June 20, 2019 photo, people bathe in a thermal spring on the banks of the Langarica River, a tributary to the Vjosa near Permet, Albania. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

In this June 15, 2019 photo, Benedikt Baeumler, a German advertising executive kayaking the length of the Vjosa River, checks his map after setting up camp on its bank in Albania. A few days earlier and several miles upriver, the 43-year-old had been ambivalent about the hydropower projects, noting his own country had also dammed its rivers. But what he saw at the Kalivac site changed his mind. “It was really unbelievable what they did to nature, removing entire parts of the mountain,” he said. “I hope this dam is never built.” (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

In this June 15, 2019 photo, Jurgen Steinbauer, Benedikt Baumler and Sebastian Baumler, German tourists who are kayaking the length of the Vjosa River, cook a meal as they sit next to a bonfire on the river bank in Albania. After seeing the Kalivac dam construction site, Benedikt Baeumler said, “It was really unbelievable what they did to nature, removing entire parts of the mountain. I hope this dam is never built.” (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

In this Sunday, June 16, 2019 aerial photo, the sun sets behind the Vjosa River near Tepelene, Albania. Rivers are a crucial part of the global water cycle. They act like nature’s arteries, carrying energy and nutrients across vast landscapes, providing water for drinking, food production and industry. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

In this June 15, 2019 photo, Sebastian Bäumler, 41, a German filmmaker kayaking the length of the Vjosa River, is illuminated by a bonfire as he sits next to his kayak on its bank in Albania. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

In this June 24, 2019 photo, residents sit on the shore of the Vjosa River next to a spring in the Kelcyre Gorge, Albania. Those who live along the riverbank or rely on the waterway for their livelihood fear dams could kill the Vjosa as they know it. Its fragile ecosystem will be irreversibly altered, and many residents will lose their land and homes. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

In this June 19, 2019 photo, Vito Ilia, 64, walks out of a small cow shed outside her home in the village of Kanikol, Albania. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

In this June 30, 2019 photo, an old bridge spans the Vjosa River near the border with Greece, in Albania. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

In this June 26, 2019 photo, children play outside at dusk in the village of Kute, Albania. The village overlooks the Vjosa River as it snakes its way north to the sea. Residents here joined a lawsuit against the Pocem dam that would flood their fields, some houses and, crucially for many, a cemetery. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

In this June 30, 2019 photo, the sky is reflected in the Vjosa River after sunset near the village of Badelonje, Albania. Rivers are a crucial part of the global water cycle. They act like nature’s arteries, carrying energy and nutrients across vast landscapes, providing water for drinking, food production and industry. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

In this June 29, 2019 photo, a river rafting guide paddles at dusk on the Vjosa River, Albania. Those who live along the riverbank or rely on the waterway for their livelihood fear dams could kill the Vjosa as they know it. Its fragile ecosystem will be irreversibly altered, and many residents will lose their land and homes. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

This June 20, 2019 photo shows the Langarica hydropower plant, on a tributary to the Vjosa River near Permet, Albania. As pressure to build dams intensifies in less developed countries, the opposite is happening in the U.S. and western Europe, where there’s a movement to tear down dams considered obsolete and environmentally destructive. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

In this June 24, 2019 photo, a man jumps into a spring where it meets the Vjosa River in the Kelcyre Gorge, Albania. Albania’s government has set in motion plans to dam the Vjosa and its tributaries to generate much-needed electricity for one of Europe’s poorest countries, with the intent to build eight dams along the main river. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

In this June 26, 2019 photo, 13-year-old Eriko, sits in the driver’s seat of a car in the village of Kute, Albania. The village overlooks the Vjosa River as it snakes its way north to the sea. Residents here joined a lawsuit against the Pocem dam that would flood their fields, some houses and, crucially for many, a cemetery. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

In this June 26, 2019 photo, residents play dominoes in a small bar in the village of Kute, Albania. Dozens of residents from the village joined nonprofit organizations to file what was Albania’s first environmental lawsuit against the construction of a dam in the Pocem gorge. They won in 2017, but the government has appealed. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

In this June 20, 2019 photo, people walk along the Langarica River, a tributary to the Vjosa near Permet, Albania. Albania’s government has set in motion plans to dam the Vjosa and its tributaries to generate much-needed electricity for one of Europe’s poorest countries, with the intent to build eight dams along the main river. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

In this June 25, 2019 photo, people raft on the Vjosa River near Permet, Albania. Some tout hydropower as a reliable, cheap and renewable energy source that helps curb dependence on planet-warming fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas. But some critics like EcoAlbania say the benefits of hydropower are overstated—and outweighed by the harm dams can do. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

In this June 22, 2019 photo, Jonuz Jonuzi, 70, rides his horse on the banks of the Vjosa River in the Kelcyre Gorge, Albania. He raised his children here and now watches his grandchildren play in the Vjosa’s waters. Before dawn each day, he crosses a bridge over a narrow gorge to tend to his goats before his son drives them to drink from a local spring, where the water emerges cold and crystal clear. “Everything I have, I have because of the river,” he says. “Albania needs electrical energy. But not by creating one thing and destroying another. Why do such damage that will be irreparable for life, that future generations will blame us for what we’ve done?” (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

“Someone will benefit from the construction of the dam, but it will flood everyone in the area,” he says. “What if they were in our place, how would they feel to lose everything?”

But the mayor, Metat Shehu, insists his community “has no interest” in the matter.

“The Vjosa is polluted. The plants and creatures of Vjosa have vanished,” Shehu says. The biggest issue, he adds, is that villagers are being offered too little to give up their land. He hopes the dam will bring investment to the area.

Jonus Jonuzi, a 70-year-old farmer who grew up along the river, is hopeful the Vjosa will stay wild.

“Albania needs electrical energy. But not by creating one thing and destroying another,” he says. “Why do such damage that will be irreparable for life, that future generations will blame us for what we’ve done?”

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bharatiyamedia-blog · 5 years ago

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Want a Drawing Pen? Right here Are four Precision Fashions to Get You Began – Evaluate Geek

http://tinyurl.com/y4dlkb4g Whether or not you’re detailing a sketch, inking a comic book ebook, or drafting a ground plan, you’re going to want a brilliant exact pen that’s tailored for the aim. We’ve rounded up a number of the finest technical pens in the marketplace. Whereas technical pens differ throughout designs, they share one factor in frequent: they’re particularly designed for creating strains with uniform precision. How they obtain that will differ from pen to pen: most use a tiny nib—versus ball curler or a felt tip—sometimes created from steel or plastic. The result’s a pen that bites into the web page and solely creates strains the place you need them. That is incredible for precision drawing, use with rulers and straight edges, and for sketching tiny little particulars that every other kind of pen would blot up with an uneven circulate. 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No fancy tips with the Koh-I-Noor Rapidosketch: it’s a conventional design with an integral metal-tipped nib and a refillable ink reservoir. That is a type of pens that you simply use, then fastidiously empty and clear after every use. It’s additionally angled towards the artsier person, with a tip that works in any instructions with out hitching on the paper. There are simpler pens to make use of, disposable partially or complete, however for those who like the concept of going old style—commonly disassembling your pens on a material unfold over a espresso desk, like some form of fastidious hit-man oiling their gun components earlier than making an attempt to assassinate Charles de Gaulle—this one’s for you. It’s additionally the one metal-tipped drawing pen on this record. There’s a bonus for going absolutely handbook: you’re not restricted by proprietary, pressurized cartridges, which means you possibly can simply use any model or colour of ink for refills (although, do verify to see if mentioned ink is suitable with a technical pen). And, because it so usually does, old style means much less waste. With a conventional pen, your purpose is rarely to throw components of it away. With cautious upkeep, you’ll have each a part of this pen without end. This set contains one pen and a bottle of ink for refills, which ought to final you a very long time. Greatest Premium Choice: Copic Multiliner Set ($64) BLICK Copic technical drawing pens are a best choice for hobbyists, semi-pros, {and professional} comics artists. See, again within the late 1980s, the manga trade was booming, and it wanted colour markers that may work properly with photocopiers (“Copic” is derived from “copies”). Additionally they got here up with the liner pens to go with them with precision factors and waterproof ink that wouldn’t smudge when coloured over. The Copic Multiliners had been the outcome and stay an trade normal. Whereas that is the priciest merchandise on the record, it’s nonetheless a fairly whole lot. For the value, you get ten pens, protecting a variety of tip sizes. However wait, there’s extra: these pens, regardless of their affordable pricing, are reusable. On high of that, every pen makes use of a replaceable ink reservoir and contains a replaceable nib, every of which match simply into the aluminum our bodies of every pen. This stuff are completely modular, so, for those who “wreck” a nib or ink-flow mechanism, the pen isn’t ruined in any respect—simply the replaceable bits. Brass tax: the Copic units the trade normal relating to nice ink work that you may colour over with out bleeding, and options pop-in/out ink cartridges and ideas—combining the ease-of-use of a disposable pen with the longevity of a refillable one. !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,document,'script','https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js');fbq('init','1137093656460433');fbq('track','PageView'); Source link

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luv-engineering · 7 years ago

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A good accurate story about a little known major disaster. I had heard about this incident while doing some research in high school about the history of the Pennsylvania Railroad. I never fully understood it until I read David McCullough's book on it that the whole horror that swept out on that Memorial weekend. The story always told in most of the history books I had read was of evil rail and steel barons would could have cared less about the safety of folks built a dam and then in a terrible storm it broke and destroyed everything downstream for miles and killing many. This book, the first of McCullough's history books about major events in USA history, completely threw that theory out on the ear. From the state that built the damn to support a canal project and then failed to maintain it, to the initial damage that happened to the damn in a storm during the Civil War and finally on over to the Pittsburgh barons who wanted a summer house away from Lake Erie and only a short train ride from Pittsburgh and their changes to the dam and failure to hire the right engineers to understand how to maintain the damn, let alone upgrade it to support the changes that came along. This wasn't the only cause, McCullough also show that the area around Johnstown was a boom-town and they stripped the region of trees, built into rivers and closed off other streams while build in mines for coal and other metals for the steel industry was harvested. The big storm hits and then there is the dithering by the land owners of the resort that was built up by the dam, the dam breaking and the disbelief that it broke and then the untold gallons of water that goes washing down the valley. The most interesting part of the story was the recovery and that this the first major disaster prior to the '06 San Fransisco quake. From the first major disaster relief by the American Red Cross and Clara Barton outside of a war, on over to the number of folks who just showed up to work and help in clearance of debris or recovery of the bodies. The chapter dedicated to the yellow journalism is most interesting considering that these journalists, their editors back home in places like NYC or Pittsburgh wrote hate filled diatribes about them stinking "foreigners" who might be robbing, raping, pillaging and otherwise evil. The epilogue is also interesting bit of the book since the usual drama bit for superheroes of a dam burst is based on the stories from Johnstown. Then there is some lessons learned in the recovery of Johnstown that was later employed by the Red Cross and others in San Francisco. This is worthy while to learn about one of the first major natural disasters in the US and David McCullough's style makes it very readable. Go to Amazon

We Must Not Forget We moved to Johnstown...twice. It is fascinating to read the flood story and then visit the streets, south fork dam, clubhouse, 2 museums, cottages, stone bridge, Grandview Cemetery and more. It is humbling to walk where ordinary people lived and died. The story David Mc Cullough tells is well researched and well told. This book is the second time I read it so it must be good. I never do that. It is a good thing to learn about the place you live. Johnstown is full of amazing history. It is a book you should read and learn. Fascinating people stories. After you read it, bring it with you and come visit. It is beautiful here. It is worth the trip to see the Conamaugh valley in PA. Go to Amazon

New Tiltle: "Of Hubris & Heartache" This story borders on the overwhelming in scope. The loss of human life and stories of the survivors are incredible. The sheer hubris of those who created this man-made disaster is beyond the pale. If you want to know why government regulations had no choice but to grow, read this book. A lot of folks should have been held accountable and gone to jail ...no one did. A genuine human tragedy ... a very compelling read Go to Amazon

Power and Ignorance McCullough does a wonderful job telling the story of the worst US disaster prior to September 11, 2001. In doing so he also gives a clear and concise rendering of how the steel, coal and iron industries called the shots in the 1889. Names such as Frick, Mellon , and Carnegie and their ilk needed a retreat from their business dealings, and formed a country hideaway at the top of a mountain complete with a lake for sailing and fishing. McCullough takes you from the clubs inception with its earthen dam creating the idyllic spot for the rich and powerful to the inevitable disaster that occurs. He leaves no stone unturned in this riveting narrative of a disaster that possibly could have been prevented. In doing this McCullough also portrays for the reader the evils of excess and the aloofness attributed to those of privilege. Go to Amazon

Riveting Account of A Great Disaster Somehow I heard about this flood a while back but knew very little about it. Knowing how good a writer David McCullough is, I read this book. He tells the story of this huge disaster from the beginning of the dam being built to it's breaking in May of 1989. As always, the author gives in-depth descriptions of several families in the area. Johnstown was a prosperous town which depended on the steel mills and Pennsylvania Railroad for its livelihood and the river played a huge role in the growth of the town. The vivid description of what led up to the dam breaking and the horrors of the wall of water rushing through the river valley was astounding and terrible at the same time. It was touching to hear how the people of the U.S. sent cash, food, clothing and volunteers to the valley to help the townspeople recover. There were over 2200 deaths attributed to this horror. Go to Amazon

David McCullough is a monster as everyone knows, and ... Five Stars Tragedy Revisited Five Stars Five Stars Spellbinding Makes history come alive! The Johnstown Flood Graphic descriptions The force of water

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stewardskiphire · 7 years ago

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Why Amazonian forest peoples are 'counter-mapping' their ancestral lands

"The earth is our mother. We should look after and respect her. This territory is where the peccary passed. Under the authority of Karodaybi [the first Munduruku warrior] Mauricio Torres, Author provided

In 1707, a Jesuit missionary from the Czech Republic named Samuel Fritz published one of the first detailed maps of the Amazon River. Fritz spent much of his life in the region and his map names and locates (often incorrectly) many of the Amazonian forest peoples he encountered. In this sense, his map helped tie them to certain places, and to particular colonially-defined identities.

While Fritz was mapping out the Amazon, other Europeans were hard at work in tropical forested countries across the globe, drawing up boundaries that ignored and criminalised forest peoples' customary rights to live in their ancestral territories.

Maps have always been part of the imposition of power over colonised peoples. While map-making might be thought of as objective, it is fundamentally political, a necessary part of controlling a territory. Maps inscribe borders, which are then used to include some and exclude others.

During a late 19th-century rubber boom, Amazonia became increasingly well mapped out as the young nations of Peru, Bolivia, Brazil and Colombia vied for territorial control. The rights and interests of Amazonian peoples were never included in this process and they would be continually denied rights, recognition and citizenship from these nations until the 1980s and 1990s. Even following legal recognition, their territorial rights critical for their continued existence are still often ignored in practice.

Fritz's map of Amazonia, published in 1707. Samuel Fritz

These marginalised people are now working together to reclaim the process of mapping itself. In the central Brazilian Amazon there has been a recent flurry of counter-mapping, used by forest peoples to contest the very state maps that initially failed to recognise their ancestral territorial rights.

Counter-mapping first came to prominence in the 1990s, when it was particularly influential in Indonesia. Back then, it was rudimentary and new maps were produced by hand. Today, communities have access to GPS and smartphones and are able to walk along trails marking out their territorial claims.

In Brazil counter-mapping falls under the wider term of auto-demarcation, which also includes various other forms of territorial monitoring that would normally be carried out by the state. The goal is to safeguard the integrity of territory, defined as much more than just land (schools, for example, are one stated objective).

A Munduruku school. Mauricio Torres, Author provided

In Brazil, recognition of forest peoples' territorial rights can take decades. The government, acting in the interest of rural elites, is currently attempting to roll back these rights.

The Munduruku people of the middle Tapajs river, a southern tributary of the Amazon, provide the most iconic example of counter-mapping. The auto-demarcation of their ancestral Sawre Muybu territory is part of a wider Munduruku political movement Ipere Ay against dam construction and industrial mining on their land.

Neighbouring riverine peasants who self-identify as the Beiradeiros, are counter-mapping their community of Montanha-Mangabal to resist land grabbing, illegal mining and logging. The Beiradeiros and the Munduruku have passed from being enemies to allies through joint political action against major proposed hydroelectric projects and now work together to auto-demarcate their respective territories.

The beiradeiros' auto-demarcation of Montanha-Mangabal community in progress. Ailen Vega, Author provided

But can counter-mapping really liberate these communities? Research on counter-mapping in Nicaragua and Belize in the 1990s and 2000s shows it did result in the recognition of indigenous land rights. But land can't fix everything. Even reclaiming their land couldn't free indigenous peoples from colonial social relations. State-indigenous relationships continued to be oriented around property rights, the basis of modern politics.

Counter-mapping can also be ineffective. In the Chaco region of Bolivia, years of stalled land titling led some Guaran indigenous people to give up on state recognition of their territory. Instead, they signed an agreement with Respol, a Spanish oil company, which acknowledged their property rights. Despite this having no legal standing in Bolivian law, the Guaran saw an agreement with an oil company as better than a state land title.

In central Brazilian Amazonia, however, auto-demarcation has in some cases forced the government to act. For instance, the Munduruku have gained official recognition of their territory, Sawre Muybu. Auto-demarcation then can be understood as a combative form of dialogue with the state, of struggle for access to territorial rights, much more than just the materialisation of these rights.

The indigenous peoples of the middle and lower Tapajs are now considering the links between their struggles and those of the Zapatista movement in southern Mexico, where auto-demarcation was used as part of reclaiming their sovereignty.

The degree of political agency and empowerment that Amazonian forest peoples acquire through the process of auto-demarcation is striking. Independent of whether it leads to state action and guarantees of territory, this is an important achievement.

James Angus Fraser has received funding from the ESRC and Leverhulme Trust.

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samanthasroberts · 7 years ago

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Guns, political turmoil and hummingbirds in the living room – my farewell to Latin America

Venezuelan president Hugo Chvez took one look at the Guardians correspondent and yelled out: Hey, Gringo! But if he could never quite fit in, Jonathan Watts has come to love the continent he is now leaving after five years

It was the merest of glimpses, but no less thrilling for that. A dark, sleek body, roughly the size of a person, arched elegantly out of the Tapajs river as we approached the So Luis rapids deep in the Amazon. A fraction of a second later, it plunged back below the swirling waters, leaving me wondering if my imagination or the morning mist were playing tricks. But no, it was real. It had been close enough to the boat to be sure of that. But what was it?

Hugo Chvez took one look at Jonathan Watts (above) and yelled out: Hey, Gringo!

Perhaps a pirarucu (AKA arapaima), the giant of the Amazon, which can grow up to 10ft in length. But the lack of scales suggested it was more likely to be a dolphin. There were two species in these waters: the pink boto and the darker tucuxi. I concluded it was the latter.

The thought filled me with both hope and dread. Eleven years earlier during my previous post as China correspondent I had joined an international team of scientists on an expedition along the Yangtze river looking for the baiji freshwater dolphin. It was too late. Not one could be found. The animal was declared functionally extinct a victim of industrial pollution, river traffic, overfishing and hydroelectric dams. After 20m years of existence, it was an alarming indication of a dying river. Yet here in Brazil on the Tapajs, the freshwater dolphins albeit of a different genus could be found without searching. There was still time to save them. It felt like a second chance.

One of the reasons I moved from China to Brazil to become Latin America correspondent in 2012 was to look for a more sustainable development model. Back then, Brazil seemed to be doing a lot of things right. Its booming economy had just overtaken that of the UK; the popular leftwing government was reducing inequality; deforestation of the Amazon was slowing; Brazilian negotiators had played a positive role in climate and biodiversity negotiations; and my new home of Rio de Janeiro was about to host the 2012 Rio +20 Earth Summit, the 2014 World Cup final and the 2016 Olympic Games. Besides, I told my teenage daughters, who were doubtful about leaving Beijing, there would be less smog, more blue skies and a warm and friendly vibe. We were all in for a shock.

Adjustment was tougher than I expected. The differences were so vast. On the plus side, I grinned just to walk along the street and take in the views of what is surely among the most beautiful cities on the planet. My daily jog around the Lagoa took in the sights of the Christ the Redeemer statue, forested hillsides, the Rocinha favela, the peaks of Pedra da Gavea, Pedra Bonita and Dois Irmos. I also saw more species of trees, birds, insects and mammals on those 7.4km (4.6-mile) runs than I would see in a whole year in Beijing. Similarly, I heard more good live music in my first week in Rio than perhaps my entire nine years in China.

After the communist states of east Asia, the openness and accessibility of democratic Latin American leaders was also a welcome shock. Having spent years in usually fruitless applications to interview ministers and heads of state in China and North Korea, I came to my new post in Brazil with a target list of three prominent politicians that I would like to meet during my first year Dilma Rousseff, Marina Silva and Alfredo Sirkis. Within a week, I had seen all of them either in press conferences or for lunch. As I was later to learn, getting politicians in this part of the world to talk is often less of a problem than getting them to stop.

Dilma Rousseff: one of the great leaders of South America, before she was toppled. Photograph: Brazil Photo Press/CON/LatinContent/Getty Images

Other initial comparisons were less favourable. Cariocas (as residents of Rio call themselves) seemed far less focussed on education, culture, history, science and work than Beijingers. If they had spare time and money, many preferred to spend it on their body (tattoos, gyms or cosmetic surgery) so they could look good on the beach. And, contrary to the happy-go-lucky party-people image, they could be extremely conservative. One time, I was denied entry to a press conference I was supposed to be moderating because I failed to meet the dress code (although admittedly flower-patterned shorts and flip-flops werent the ideal match for my dress shirt). They also voted repeatedly for several of the countrys most rightwing politicians and some took to the streets calling for a return to the 1964-85 military dictatorship.

In those early days, however, I was mainly frustrated. Everything felt unambitious, slow and unreliable compared with China. Was it necessary to have three different types of plug socket? Why on earth did I have to keep providing my mothers birth name for the most routine applications? The grotesque bureaucracy was not my only grumble. The notorious inequality was quickly evident, as was the enduring social legacy of what had been the worlds biggest slave-trading nation. Apart from music, cultural life seemed poor and the food was bland compared with Asia. Property rental was absurdly complicated and the apartments were horrendously overpriced due to the countrys then super-strong currency (Brazil was infamous at the time for selling the worlds most expensive iPhones). I spent much of the first year sleeping in a mouldy shed that leaked in tropical rainstorms, obliging me to have a bucket by the pillow to catch the drops.

More importantly, it became apparent that I had been sold an overhyped image of Brazil. Far from being a new model, the past five years have proved a case study in how not to run a country.

This has been a spectacularly tumultuous period, encompassing the impeachment of a president, the worst economic contraction in 100 years, the biggest corruption scandal in the countrys history, millions taking to the streets in protest, an unimaginable 1-7 defeat in the World Cup, a pre-Olympic Zika epidemic and a resurgence of violent crime and environmental destruction. My Brazilian journalist friends are not sure whether to feel grateful for the abundance of work or horrified at the flood of miserable stories. Weve had 40 years of news packed into the last four years, observed one. Its surreal. We seem to be reporting on the collapse of the republic, lamented another. It is impossible not to feel sorry for the country.

Brazil has slipped into reverse gear on just about every front. Since 2012, the economy has shrunk by 9% and unemployment has almost doubled. Last year, deforestation of the Amazon accelerated by 29% and violent killings in Rio de Janeiro increased by almost 30%. Not surprisingly, the public has never been more frustrated with the government. Five years ago, the then-president Dilma Rousseff enjoyed approval ratings of 64%. That had fallen to 10% when she was politically lynched by her former allies last year. Her successor, Michel Temer, is even more unpopular. The most recent poll could find only 2% of voters who thought he was doing a good job.

A country in turmoil: protesters during a nationwide general strike in Rio de Janeiro on 30 June. Photograph: Mario Tama/Getty Images

In some ways, the story of Brazil from 2012 to 2017 has been the inverse of China from 2003 to 2012. In Asias biggest country, I observed sometimes brutal stability and spectacular economic growth. In Latin Americas, I have witnessed turmoil and contraction. I have certainly inhaled a lot more teargas, particularly since the mass protests ahead of the 2013 Confederations Cup, which were a turning point.

Regionally, the broad political trend has been a weakening of populist, leftwing power. In the past five years, the two great figureheads of the Latin left Fidel Castro and Hugo Chvez have died. The Brazilian Workers party founder Luiz Incio Lula da Silva has been put on trial and his party usurped from office by centre-right parties that have proved at least as corrupt. In Argentina, the formerly Pernist government of Cristina Fernndez de Kirchner has been replaced by the more conservative Mauricio Macri. In Bolivia, Evo Morales lost a referendum that would have allowed him to stand again for re-election. Venezuela, meanwhile, plunges ever deeper into crisis under Nicols Maduro. But Chile, Peru, Uruguay, Colombia, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Mexico are all exceptions in different ways. Latin American politics are too heterogenous for perfect generalisations.

A clearer pattern and one perhaps that underlines the tumult both here and elsewhere in the world is the increasing evidence of climate change across the region. Patagonian lakes are drying up and glaciers retreating; Rios beaches have been battered by record storm surges; Chiles forests were devastated earlier this year by unprecedentedly high temperatures and wildfires; and then Lima was hit by freak floods. Perhaps the most alarming story, however, was So Paulo the biggest city in Latin America suffering the most prolonged drought in its history. I recall a dystopian moment when I was told there was no coffee at a Starbucks on Avenida Paulista the citys main thoroughfare because the taps had run dry. We only have beer or Coke, the cashier said.

The destruction of the rainforest is making matters worse in ways that are only slowly being understood. But it often appears to be a bigger story overseas than in the media of Brazil and other Amazonian nations. As well as being a major source of carbon emissions and a threat to biodiversity, the loss of foliage is also eroding the forests role as a climate regulator. Recent studies have shown that the Amazon acts as a giant water pump, channelling moisture inland via aerial rivers and rainclouds that form over the forest more dramatically than over the sea. As trees are felled, this function is weakened, which leads to more severe droughts and more extreme weather events.

The Xingu river near the area where the Belo Monte dam complex is under construction in the Amazon basin. Photograph: Mario Tama/Getty Images

Yet, even as scientists grow more alarmed, politicians are becoming less willing to act. In response to demands from the agribusiness lobby (which has become more powerful due to demand from China), Rousseff relaxed the Forest Code, Brazils main law against illegal logging and land clearance. The current administration of Michel Temer has slashed the environment ministry budget, diluted licensing regulations, and is moving to reduce the size of conservation parks and indigenous territories. In Brazil and elsewhere in the region, activists who stand up against the loggers, farmers, miners and dam builders run the risk of beatings and murder as I saw on an unforgettable trip to Lbrea. More often than not, those in the frontline are indigenous communities who are trying to protect their territory, such as the Juruna, the Kaapor and the Mundruku and the Kichwa and Shuar. These days, the tribes wear T-shirts, ride motorbikes and use laptops, but they still often suffer the same fate as their ancestors when the first European settlers arrived either driven off their land or murdered for resisting. Most prominent among them in this period was Berta Cceres, an indigenous rights and environment activist in Honduras who won the Goldman prize in 2015 for her campaigns against deforestation and hydropower dams. In an email exchange at the time, she told me environmental protection was a cause worth fighting for. We must undertake the struggle in all parts of the world, wherever we may be, because we have no other spare or replacement planet. We have only this one, and we have to take action, she said. A year later she was assassinated by a gunman.

This is the worlds most murderous continent. In Central America, violence is the main driver for perilous child migration to the US, though it remains to be seen how this might be affected by the wall on the Mexican border being planned by the new caudilho in the White House.

Reporting here has its risks, though local journalists are far more exposed than foreign correspondents. The only time I saw a gang member fire a gun up close was after a visit to a crack den in the town of Lins, when I asked him why he had chosen his weapon. On a street in broad daylight, he squeezed a dozen or so rounds into the air that made me instantly regret my question. A few weeks later, police pushed his gang out of Lins in a pacification operation. I imagine they are back now. Thanks to a series of scandals and cuts in the police budget, the sound of gunfire is sadly becoming common again in Rio. Recently, I went to sleep three nights in a row listening to protracted shootouts echoing across the valley.

Apart from that, there were few hairy moments. The only crimes I experienced were having my credit card cloned three times and being pickpocketed. I was generally more worried about flying over the Andes (which often comes with gut-wrenching turbulence), the interruption of a dinner in Maranho in north-eastern Brazil by an uninvited tarantula, and the possibility of diseases such as malaria, dengue and chikungunya. Zika was added to the list in 2016. Although my head told me the risks were mainly only to pregnant women, I could not help but feel a little unease as well as irony at being bitten by a mosquito during a press conference in which the head of the World Health Organization, Margaret Chan, explained why the Zika epidemic had just been declared a global emergency. The concerns were genuine, though the imminent Olympics meant the risks were overhyped. When the Brazilian government subsequently launched its biggest ever military operation against the tiny insect, it felt a little like something out of a science-fiction film.

In this continent of magical realism, the weird and wonderful were never far away. Evangelicals in a heavy-metal church in the Mar favela described visits by an angel in the form of a head-banger who would dance among them, shirtless with long hair, army boots, black trousers and chains. In the Andean mountains, I witnessed what looked at first like something out of an ancient myth: a beast with wings and horns charging down a matador. It was, in fact, a cruel and dangerous sport that involved stitching the talons of an endangered condor into the hide of a traumatised bull for the entertainment of a chicha-sodden crowd at a Yawar festival bullfight. Then there was a mass in the countryside of Rio by rebel anti-Vatican priests who insisted the pope was not Catholic enough. They preferred Vladimir Putin.

There have also been inspiring, uplifting stories: the end of the worlds oldest civil war in Colombia, the overcoming of cold war hostilities between Cuba and the United States and the subsequent visits to Havana by Pope Francis, Barack Obama and the Rolling Stones.

But when it comes to liberal, well-run countries, Uruguay led the way by legalising marijuana, ramping up renewable energy and boasting a former president, Jos Mujica, who lived his anti-consumerist values by eschewing a palace home for his charmingly ramshackle farmhouse.

Despite Brazils many woes, there was cause for hope in the success of Brazils bolsa familia poverty relief programme (though it is now threatened by austerity cuts), the courage and canninness of indigenous groups fighting against loggers, the idealism of activists and prosecutors fighting illegal deforestation and exposing timber laundering , and the courage and talent of community journalists who provided a diary of life in Rios favelas ahead of the Olympics.

A vibrant culture: a dancer takes part in carnival. Photograph: PeopleImages/Getty Images

I will miss this continent. It has been an immense privilege to visit stunningly beautiful places such as Patagonia, Alter do Cho, Machu Picchu, Yasuni and Havana, and I am grateful to collaborators and editors who have worked with me on stories ranging from guerrilla graffiti pedants in Quito and the worlds greatest vinyl collector in So Paulo, to the source-to-sewer journey of a drop of water in Mexico City and a retracing of part of a journey taken by the Edwardian explorer Percy Fawcett.

Although I could never claim to blend in (Chvez took one look at me and yelled out: Hey, Gringo!), I now think of Latin America as home (particularly since I moved out of the shed and into a forest apartment). I still dont appreciate the three-plug electrical system or Brazils bureaucracy, but I have come to love the geniality of the people, the vibrancy of the markets and much of the food especially aai, caldo de cana, tapioca wraps and Amazonian fish.

I leave at a difficult time. Troubles lie ahead for Rio, Brazil and the world. This is not just because of a poor Olympic legacy (though homelessness has surged alarmingly in the host city since the Games) or woeful national leadership (Temer is the first sitting president to be charged with corruption and eight of his cabinet are implicated in bribery scandals).

In China, I came to believe environmental crises underlie much of the economic and political tension in the world. In Latin America, I found reason to hope it is not too late to do something about that. For sure, the trends are bad. But there is much here worth fighting for. Latin America may not offer a model of sustainable development, but compared with Asia it is relatively unscarred in terms of overpopulation and pollution, and compared with the US and Europe, average consumption is modest and biodiversity is rich. River dolphins in the Amazon are only a part of that wealth. The value of this natural heritage is easier to feel than to measure

I will leave Brazil healthier and happier than I arrived. As I write this, the sun is streaming through the papaya and mango trees from a gloriously clear blue sky. It is midwinter, but the temperature is a balmy 25C. This morning, I cycled through the forest up to the Vista Chinesa viewpoint. Marmosets were waiting in the garden for food when I returned a couple of hours later. A hummingbird just flew into the living room looking for the nectar water that I forgot to leave at its usual spot by the window. Before I go, maybe Ill catch a final glimpse of a toucan, a jacu or a porcupine. Perhaps the gang of capuchin will invade the kitchen in search of an egg or a banana. There will be at least one possum. Then after 21 years on the road it will be time to return to London, to a new job, to an office, to a flat, and to pigeons, sparrows and, who knows, perhaps a squirrel. Im curious whether my old home will feel like a foreign country.

Source: http://allofbeer.com/2017/08/26/guns-political-turmoil-and-hummingbirds-in-the-living-room-my-farewell-to-latin-america/

from All of Beer https://allofbeer.wordpress.com/2017/08/26/guns-political-turmoil-and-hummingbirds-in-the-living-room-my-farewell-to-latin-america/

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allofbeercom · 7 years ago

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Guns, political turmoil and hummingbirds in the living room – my farewell to Latin America

Hugo Chvez took one look at Jonathan Watts (above) and yelled out: Hey, Gringo!

Dilma Rousseff: one of the great leaders of South America, before she was toppled. Photograph: Brazil Photo Press/CON/LatinContent/Getty Images

More importantly, it became apparent that I had been sold an overhyped image of Brazil. Far from being a new model, the past five years have proved a case study in how not to run a country.

A country in turmoil: protesters during a nationwide general strike in Rio de Janeiro on 30 June. Photograph: Mario Tama/Getty Images

The Xingu river near the area where the Belo Monte dam complex is under construction in the Amazon basin. Photograph: Mario Tama/Getty Images

A vibrant culture: a dancer takes part in carnival. Photograph: PeopleImages/Getty Images

from All Of Beer http://allofbeer.com/2017/08/26/guns-political-turmoil-and-hummingbirds-in-the-living-room-my-farewell-to-latin-america/

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usadrugguiderevew-blog · 7 years ago

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Tropical Garcinia Review - Is the Trial Offer A Scam?

Tropical garcinia assessment

Tropical garcinia is but any other “miracle pill!” advertising scheme that begins you out getting a “trial offer” and then routinely signs and symptoms you up for a routine supply until you cancel (that is referred to as “bad choice advertising and marketing” [1]).

Fortunately, putting in completely bogus name and cope with information receives you to the checkout page because it’s you then recognize precisely what you’re getting into. There’s no different way to get admission to this page, so i can’t in reality positioned the hyperlink in, but the quote is legitimate.

Through ordering this trial you may be despatched a 30-day supply of the garcinia cambogia and charged simplest for shipping, handling and transport coverage. Your order will be shipped within 1 enterprise day and need to arrive inside three-five commercial enterprise days. We will deliver via usps with transport confirmation. Until you cancel inside 14 days from these days, you will be automatically charged the entire purchase fee ($89.Ninety five) and enrolled in our automobile-deliver program. This program will send you a month-to-month supply every 30 days and the card you use today might be charged $89.95 monthly till you cancel. Delivery is free on all car-ship orders. Buyer is liable for any go back shipping prices. To cancel call 1-888-243-1683 and feature your order number prepared. You may receive an rma number to arrange for the return cargo and be problem to the terms of our go back policy.

90 greenbacks for a complement with myriad brands you can walk into any walgreens, gnc, or even wal-mart, or appearance up on amazon, and discover for $20 or much less. There’s no picture of a supplement statistics label, there’s nothing greater than a income page with no business enterprise statistics and a returns address in payson, utah, that you can simplest find in case you dig simply far into the phrases and conditions.

Essentially, that is a rip-off of the best proportion. There aren't any evaluations, only the wild claims on the sales page.

Tropical garcinia claims

Tropical garcinia claims are little one of a kind from any of the other “trial bottle! Purchase these days!” brands out there. Handiest this one doesn’t even hassle to make it look professional. These are actual costs from the income page, as they may be dependent and spelled there: [2]

An all natural weight loss supplement made from the most incredible fruit that international has ever seen

…has been known through scientist has the maximum incredible weight loss factor within the world

Increase weight loss diet

Boom strength degrees

Increase to your metabolism

Healthier weight loss

Simple and herbal supplement

When it enters the body it moves right to the liver, as soon as in the liver it starts to dam the frame from creating fats cells and spreading them all through the body. After it is finished effecting the liver tropical garcinia will flow on to the relaxation of the body as it begins to turn the fats cells into power. This can not only help you shed pounds however may also assist aid inside the gaining strength in the frame.

Tropical garcinia has different first rate outcomes within the frame as properly. One hassle human beings have inside the frame is ingesting too much, this occurs while you emerge as depressed. While your body has lower serotonin degrees, then you definitely end up depressed, whilst depressed is while you begin feeling hungry and crave junk ingredients.

The science (or lack thereof) in the back of tropical garcinia

So we know tropical garcinia itself is a advertising scam designed to do little greater than suck your wallet dry. However, as there are quite a few garcinia cambogia manufacturers available, permit’s take a look at the technology and notice if there’s some thing of note.

G. Cambogia is considered one of some of tropical plant life that contain hydroxycitric acid (hca). G. Cambogia extracts particularly incorporate better concentrations, 60 percentage in many cases, and that’s crucial as it’s absolutely the hca at paintings here. Hca, a citric acid by-product, is a complex chemical compound that would probable modulate lipid (fat) metabolism, that means hca can also tweak fat absorption and banish fat—so claim proponents, as well as a few technological know-how suggests. [4]

But capability modulating aside, according to different medical research—except those studies funded by g. Cambogia complement producers themselves—have debunked the claim that g. Cambogia is powerful for weight loss. There are but, a handful of conflicting research that cast doubt on others’ research methods. For instance, some simply fats rats fed high doses of hca saw some fat absorption decrease however hca ended up being relatively poisonous to the rats’ testicles. [5]

Right here’s the issue: g. Cambogia may be very popular as a weight reduction supplement and appetite suppressant. And complement makers boast a few quite convincing endorsements, testimonials and so-referred to as clinical trials. Then there’s the heaps of product reviewers who rave about some of the g. Cambogia supplement manufacturers; upload in an endorsement or two from dr. Oz., and also you’ve got a craze.

So what gives?

Speakme inside the most popular of terms, and after having looked at extra than a dozen research, hca does seem to assist customers lose a pound or two or perhaps three greater than human beings doing the very equal weight loss program and workout software (or neither) and not the use of hca. The difference is not statistically good sized, according to the journal of the yank scientific association:

“garcinia cambogia didn't produce sizeable weight loss and fats mass loss past that observed with placebo” [6]

And other studies all have a similar topic: while there can be a few weight reduction, it is nominal and possibly quick-time period. However people do shed pounds and that’s the claim, so there you go.

There are research of advantage, including one published within the 2011 journal of obesity which concluded that though the fast-time period small weight loss, at the same time as convincing, is based on incomplete proof and trials. So the jury is still formally out. [7] [8]

In 2009, the fda identified the consumption of the hca-containing supplement hydroxycut as a possible purpose of liver harm. Hydroxycut had already changed its formulation in 2004 while the fda first banned ephedrine; the second formula changed the ephedrine with gymnema sylvestre, maintaining the rest of the elements: green tea extract, konjac (a fiber source), guarana, and g. Cambogia extracts. The 2009 warning changed the components again, after reviews of liver damage and different fitness troubles (uncommon instances, but enough for the fda to issue a caution). Today, hydroxycut has changed all previous ingredients, now not containing g. Cambogia.

But numerous studies have indicated the culprit won't truly have been the hca itself—and hence g. Cambogia. Dr. Sidney j. Stohs, pharmacy phd from the university of nebraska, and colleagues reported that at the same time as a few cases of toxicity and Tropical Garcinia specially liver damage had been related to the consumption of hydroxycut merchandise, it became premature to blame hca for that harm. Their essential reasoning turned into this: some of the hydroxycut products they tested didn’t contain hca, however did incorporate up to twenty different ingredients. So at the same time as the hca could have been involved, there wasn’t irrefutable proof of it.

Different studies, by means of dr. Stohs and others, advocate that a slight dose of single-component g. Cambogia (hca), barring other pre-current health troubles, is secure: the maximum every day safe dosage become decided as 2800 mg/day (they in no way stated, however one assumes it’s of that 60 percent concentration). Of course, studies is ongoing.

The one element almost all of the studies does agree on is that for safety’s sake, it’s pleasant to choose a complement that contains g. Cambogia simplest. Maximum of the side outcomes have come from supplements mixing g. Cambogia with other components (usually potassium or a mixture of potassium-calcium-chromium). And stick to that most dosage. Because it does appear to paintings as an appetite suppressor for some humans, it could properly help in the short-term.

However absolutely find a one of a kind emblem than tropical garcinia and their coins-vacuum rip-off.

Phrase on the road about tropical garcinia

As this unique logo is best to be had through a poor-choice marketing scam—and a poorly-written one at that—there are not any reviews.

One of the motives g. Cambogia supplements were given so brand new is due to the fact popular tv host dr. Mehmet oz.Has advocated them, simply as he has with a number of different weight loss supplements, diets, nutrition programs, and so forth. And while he does suggest a product, the “oz.Effect” enables sell that logo.

For the document, oz.Is a cardiothoracic general practitioner (heart/lungs), not a nutritionist or meals scientist, and while he is a well-known researcher in the specific subject of cardiovascular remedy, he does have a document of promoting a incredible deal of pseudo-science. [15]

In 2014, dr. Oz.Was referred to as before the senate subcommittee on consumer protection, product protection, and coverage, chaired by means of senator claire mccaskill (d-mo), to testify approximately weight reduction dietary supplements that make huge claims with little or no clinical proof to returned them up. G. Cambogia was some of the supplements especially mentioned. He was asked why he might returned claims of “miracle” dietary supplements he knew have been “no longer genuine.” his respond:

“there’s no longer a pill that’s going that will help you long term shed pounds without weight loss program and exercising.” … however ouncesdid say the tablets he promoted are secure and effective: “i do for my part agree with inside the objects i talk about inside the display. I passionately study them. I recognize that frequently they don’t have the scientific muster to present as reality,” he said, later including “i have given my family these products.”

To which senator mccaskill replied:

“humans want to believe you could take an itty-bitty tablet to push fat out of your body, [but] … the medical community is sort of monolithically in opposition to you.” [16]

But even as the phrase approximately g. Cambogia merchandise in general is still being debated, the unique logo we are reviewing—tropical garcinia—has zero patron backing, superb or poor, as it’s actually now not advertised that way.

http://www.usadrugguide.com/tropical-garcinia-review/

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victoryliononline · 7 years ago

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Guns, political turmoil and hummingbirds in the living room my farewell to Latin America

Venezuelan president Hugo Chvez made one look at the Keeper match and yelled out: Hey, Gringo! But if he could never quite fit in, Jonathan Watts has come to love the continent he is now leaving after five years

It was the merest of views, but nothing less thrilling for that. A darknes, glossy mas, approximately the dimensions of the person or persons, arched elegantly out of the Tapajs river as we approached the So Luis rapids deep in the Amazon. A fraction of a second later, it dashed back below the swirl water, leaving me wondering if my imagery or the morning drizzle were playing quirks. But no, it was real. It had been close enough to the barge to be sure of that. But what was it?

Hugo Chvez took one look at Jonathan Watts( above) and yelled out: Hey, Gringo! Perhaps a pirarucu( AKA arapaima ), the being of the Amazon, who are capable of grow up to 10 ft in period. But the lack of proportions hinted it was more likely to be a dolphin. There were two genus in these water: the pink boto and the darker tucuxi. I concluded it was the latter.

The thought filled me with both hope and terrifying. Eleven years earlier during my previous announce as China correspondent I had met an international team of scientists on an jaunt along the Yangtze river looking for the baiji freshwater dolphin. It was too late. Not one could be found. The swine was swore functionally extinct a martyr of industrial pollution, creek freight, overfishing and hydroelectric dams. After 20 m years of live, it was an alarming mark of a living creek. Yet here in Brazil on the Tapajs, the freshwater dolphins albeit of a different genus could be found without probing. There was still time to save them. It felt like a second chance.

One of the reasons I moved from China to Brazil to become Latin America correspondent in 2012 was to look for a more sustainable development sit. Back then, Brazil seemed to be doing a lot of things right. Its booming economy had just engulf that of the UK; the popular leftwing government was increasing prejudice; deforestation of the Amazon was slowing; Brazilian negotiators had played a positive role in atmosphere and biological diversity discussions; and my new residence of Rio de Janeiro was about to host the 2012 Rio + 20 Earth Summit, the 2014 World cup finals final and the 2016 Olympic Tournament. Besides, I told my youthful daughters, who were equivocal about leaving Beijing, there would be less smog, more blue skies and a very warm and friendly vibe. We were all in for a shock.

Adjustment was tougher than I expected. The differences were so massive. On the plus feature, I grinned merely to walk along wall street and take in the views of what is surely among the most beautiful metropolis on countries around the world. My daily trot around the Lagoa took in the sees of the Christ the Redeemer statue, forested hillsides, the Rocinha favela, the crests of Pedra da Gavea, Pedra Bonita and Dois Irmos. I too recognized more species of trees, chicks, insects and mammals on those 7.4 km( 4.6 -mile) extends than I would see in a whole time in Beijing. Similarly, I heard more good live music in my first week in Rio than perhaps my entire nine years in China.

After the socialist governments of east Asia, the openness and accessibility of democratic Latin American leaders was also a accepted disturbance. Having spent years in usually fruitless applications to interview ministers and heads of state in China and North koreans, I came to my new announce in Brazil with a target roll of three foremost legislators that I would like to meet during my first time Dilma Rousseff, Marina Silva and Alfredo Sirkis. Within a few weeks, I had appreciated all of them either in press conferences or for lunch. As I was later to learn, get politicians in this part of the world to talk is often less of a problem than getting them to stop.

Dilma Rousseff: one of the great leaders of South America, before she was toppled. Photo: Brazil Photo Press/ CON/ LatinContent/ Getty Images Other initial comparings were less favourable. Cariocas( as residents of Rio call themselves) seemed much less focussed on education, culture, record, scientific and duty than Beijingers. If they had spare time and money, numerous preferred to expend it on their own bodies( tattoos, gyms or reconstructive surgery) so they could glance good on the sea. And, contrary to the happy-go-lucky party-people epitome, they could be extremely republican. One experience, I was rejected entry to a press conference I was supposed to be moderating because I failed to meet the dress system( although admittedly flower-patterned short-changes and flip-flops werent the ideal match for my dress shirt ). They likewise voted repeatedly for various of the countrys most rightwing politicians and some took to the streets calling for a return to the 1964 -8 5 military dictatorship.

In those early days, nonetheless, I was mainly baffled. Everything appeared unambitious, sluggish and erroneous compared with China. Was it necessary to have three different types of plug socket? Why on earth did I have to keep equipping my mothers birth refer for the most routine lotions? The grotesque bureaucracy was not my alone grumble. The notorious difference was rapidly discernible, as was the enduring social bequest of what had been the worlds biggest slave-trading society. Apart from music, artistic life seemed poverty-stricken and the food was bland compared with Asia. Property rental was absurdly complicated and the suites were horrendously overpriced due to the countrys then super-strong currency( Brazil was odious at the time for selling the worlds most expensive iPhones ). I expended often of the first year sleeping in a mouldy removed that seeped in humid rainstorms, obliging me to have a container by the pillow to catch the drops.

More importantly, it became apparent that I had been sold an overhyped image of Brazil. Far from has become a new pose, the past five years have proved a case study in how not to feed a country.

This has been a spectacularly stormy span, encompassing the impeachment of a director, the worst financial reduction in 100 years, the biggest corruption scandal in the countrys autobiography, millions taking to the streets in affirm, an unimaginable 1-7 defeat in the World cup finals, a pre-Olympic Zika epidemic and a revitalization of violent crimes and environmental devastation. My Brazilian journalist acquaintances are not sure whether to feel grateful for the abundance of act or shocked at the flood of dreary tales. Weve had 40 years of news bundled into the last four years, observed one. Its surreal. We seem to be to provide information on the collapse of the republic, mourned another. It is absurd not to feel sorry for the country.

Brazil has worsened into reverse gear on just about every front. Since 2012, their own economies has flinched by 9% and unemployment has almost double-dealing. Last-place time, deforestation of the Amazon intensified by 29% and violent downs in Rio de Janeiro increased by roughly 30%. Not amazingly, the public has never been more forestalled with the government. Five years ago, the then-president Dilma Rousseff enjoyed approbation ratings of 64%. That had fallen to 10% when she was politically killed by her former friends last year. Her heir, Michel Temer, is even more unpopular. The most recent poll could find simply 2 % of voters who thought he was doing a good job.

A country in turmoil: demonstrators during a nationwide general disturb in Rio de Janeiro on 30 June. Picture: Mario Tama/ Getty Images In some rooms, the histories of Brazil from 2012 to 2017 has been the inverse of China from 2003 to 2012. In Asias biggest country, I studied sometimes remorseless stability and magnificent economic growth. In Latin Americas, I have witnessed hubbub and reduction. I are really inhaled a lot more teargas, especially since the mass rallies ahead of the 2013 Confederations Cup, who the hell is a turning point.

Regionally, the broad government trend has been a weakening of populist, leftwing dominance. In the past five years, the two great figureheads of the Latin left Fidel Castro and Hugo Chvez have died. The Brazilian Workers party founder Luiz Incio Lula da Silva has been put on trial and his party wrested from power by centre-right parties that have proved at the least as pervert. In Argentina, the formerly Pernist authority of Cristina Fernndez de Kirchner has been replaced by the most conservative Mauricio Macri. In Bolivia, Evo Morales lost a referendum that would have allowed him to stand again for re-election. Venezuela, meanwhile, plunges ever deeper into crisis under Nicols Maduro. But Chile, Peru, Uruguay, Colombia, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Mexico are all exclusions in different ways. Latin american states politics are too heterogenous for perfect generalisations.

A clearer pattern and one perhaps that highlight the turmoil both here and elsewhere in the world is the increasing evidence of climate change throughout the region. Patagonian ponds are drying up and glaciers retreating; Rios coasts have been battered by record storm flows; Chiles woods were devastated earlier this year by unprecedentedly high temperature and wildfires; and then Lima was hit by freak fills. Perhaps the most alarming fib, however, was So Paulo the most difficult municipality in Latin America suffering the most prolonged drought in its own history. I recall a dystopian moment when I was told there was no chocolate at a Starbucks on Avenida Paulista the citys central road because the sounds had run dry. We simply have brew or Coke, the teller said.

The destruction of the rainforest is seeing materials worse in ways that are only slowly being understood. But it often appears to be a bigger story overseas than in the media of Brazil and other Amazonian nations. As well as being a major source of carbon emissions and a threat to biodiversity, the loss of foliage is likewise gnawing the groves capacity as a climate regulator. Recent studies have shown that the Amazon acts as a giant sea shoot, channelling moisture inland via aerial creeks and rainclouds that figure over the forest more dramatically than over the high seas. As trees are felled, this function is crippled, which leads to more severe droughts and more extreme weather events.

The Xingu river near the region where the Belo Monte dam complex is under building in the Amazon basin. Photo: Mario Tama/ Getty Images Yet, even as scientists grow more panicked, politicians are becoming less willing to act. In have responded to requirements from the agribusiness hallway( which has become more powerful due to require from China ), Rousseff unwound the Forest Code, Brazils central statute against illegal logging and land clearance. The current administered by Michel Temer has reduced the environment ministry fund, diluted licensing regulations, and is moving to reduce the size of maintenance commons and indigenous subjects. In Brazil and elsewhere in the region, activists who stand up against the loggers, farmers, miners and dam developers run the risk of thrashings and assassinate as I construed on an unforgettable journey to Lbrea. More often than not, those in the frontline are indigenous communities who are trying to protect their territory, such as the Juruna, the Kaapor and the Mundruku and the Kichwa and Shuar. These daylights, the tribes wear T-shirts, journey motorbikes and use laptops, but they still often suffer the same demise as their ancestors when the first European pioneers arrived either driven off their acre or assassinated for defying. Most foremost among them in this period was Berta Cceres, an indigenous rights and environment organizer in Honduras who won the Goldman prize in 2015 for her safaruss against deforestation and hydropower dykes. In an email exchange at the time, she told me environmental protection was a cause worth fighting for. We must commence the struggle in all parts of the world, wherever we may be, because we have no other give or substitution planet. We have only this one, and we have to take action, she enunciated. A year later she was assassinated by a gunman.

This is the worlds most murderous continent. In The countries of central america, violence is the primary operator for perilous child migration to the US, though it remains to be seen how this might be affected by the wall on the Mexican mete being planned by the new caudilho in the White House.

Reporting now has its risks, though local journalists are far more exposed than foreign correspondents. The only era I ensure a syndicate representative fire a shoot up close was after a visit to a cranny lair in the town of Lins, when I asked him why he had chosen his weapon. On a street in broad daylight, he crushed a dozen or so rounds into the breeze that established me instantaneously repent my contention. A few a few weeks later, police propagandized his organization out of Lins in a pacification busines. I picture they are back now. Thanks to a series of scandals and chips in the police budget, the bang of gunfire is sadly becoming common again in Rio. Recently, I went to sleep three lights in a row listening to protracted shootouts echoing across the valley.

Apart from that, there used to be few hairy moments. The only crimes I knowledge were having my debit card cloned three times and being pickpocketed. I was generally more worried about moving over the Andes( which often come here for gut-wrenching unrest ), the interruption of a dinner in Maranho in north-eastern Brazil by an uninvited tarantula, and the opportunities offered by cancers such as malaria, dengue and chikungunya. Zika was added to the index in 2016. Although my thought told me the risks were mainly only to pregnant women, I could not help but detect a bit disappointment as well as irony at being pierced by a mosquito during a press conference in which the heads of state of the World Health Organization, Margaret Chan, explained why the Zika epidemic had just been affirmed a global emergency. The fears were sincere, though the imminent Olympics meant the risks were overhyped. When the Brazilian government subsequently launched its biggest ever military operation against the insignificant insect, it find a little like something out of a science-fiction film.

In this continent of magical realism, the strange and brilliant was ever far away. Evangelicals in a heavy-metal religion in the Mar favela described visits by an angel in accordance with the arrangements of a head-banger who are able dance among them, shirtless with long mane, army boots, pitch-black trousers and bonds. In the Andean elevations, I witnessed what looked at first like something out of an ancient story: a barbarian with backstages and trumpets billing down a matador. It was, in fact, a viciou and dangerous play that involved seaming the talons of an jeopardized condor into the conceal of a traumatised bullshit for the amusement of a chicha-sodden army at a Yawar festival bullfight. Then there was a mass in the countryside of Rio by rebel anti-Vatican clergymen who held the pope was not Catholic enough. They opted Vladimir Putin.

There have also been inspiring, uplifting legends: the end of the worlds oldest civil fighting in Colombia, the overcome of cold war hostilities between Cuba and the United States and the subsequent his trip to Havana by Pope Francis, Barack Obama and the Rolling Stones.

But when it comes to radical, well-run countries, Uruguay headed the road by legalising marijuana, ramping up renewable energy and boasting a former chairwoman, Jos Mujica, who lived his anti-consumerist importances by eschewing a palace home for his charmingly ramshackle farmhouse.

Despite Brazils countless woes, there was cause for hope in the success of Brazils bolsa familia poverty relief programme( though it is now threatened by austerity sections ), the gallantry and canninness of indigenous groups fighting against loggers, the idealism of partisans and prosecutors fighting illegal deforestation and disclosing lumber laundering, and the heroism and flair of community correspondents who provisioned a diary of life in Rios favelas ahead of the Olympics.

A vibrant culture: a dancer takes part in carnival. Photograph: PeopleImages/ Getty Images I will miss this continent. It has been an immense privilege to see stunningly beautiful neighbourhoods such as Patagonia, Alter do Cho, Machu Picchu, Yasuni and Havana, and I am grateful to traitors and editors who have worked with me on floors straddling from guerrilla graffiti pedants in Quito and the worlds greatest vinyl collector in So Paulo, to the source-to-sewer journey of a plummet of ocean in Mexico City and a retracing of part of a journeying taken by the Edwardian explorer Percy Fawcett.

Although I could never claim to blend in( Chvez made one look at me and yelled out: Hey, Gringo !), I now think of Latin America as home( peculiarly since I moved out of the shed and into a forest suite ). I still dont revalue the three-plug electrical system or Brazils bureaucracy, but I have come to adoration the geniality of the people, the vibrancy of the markets and lots of the nutrient extremely aai, caldo de cana, tapioca wrappers and Amazonian fish.

I leave at a difficult time. Troubles lie ahead for Rio, Brazil and the world. It is not only because of a inadequate Olympic legacy( though homelessness has tided alarmingly in the multitude metropolitan since the Games) or woeful national leadership( Temer is the first sitting president to be charged with decay and eight of his cabinet are implicated in bribery scandals ).

In China, I came to believe environmental disasters underlie lots of the fiscal and political friction in the world. In The countries of latin america, I attained reason to hope it is not too late to do something about that. For sure, the trends are bad. But there is much now worth fighting for. The countries of latin america is not able to volunteer a sit of sustainable development, but compared with Asia it is relatively unscarred to its implementation of overpopulation and contamination, and compared with the US and Europe, average consumption is meagre and biological diversity is rich. Creek dolphins in the Amazon are only a part of that fortune. The quality of this natural legacy is easier to appear than to measure

I will leave Brazil healthier and happier than I arrived. As I write this, the sunshine is streaming through the papaya and mango trees from a gloriously clear blue air. It is midwinter, but the temperature is a balmy 25 C. This morning, I cycled through the forest up to the Vista Chinesa viewpoint. Marmosets were waiting in the garden-variety for meat when I rendered a few hours later. A hummingbird exactly controlled into the living room looking for the nectar irrigate that I forgot to leave at its customary smudge by the window. Before I croak, maybe Ill catch a final peek of a toucan, a jacu or a porcupine. Perhaps the mob of capuchin will attack the kitchen in search of an egg or a banana. There will be at least one possum. Then after 21 years on the road it will be time to return to London, to a new job, to an office, to a flat, and to monkeys, sparrows and, who knows, perhaps a squirrel. Im curious whether my age-old residence will feel like a foreign country.

Read more: https :// www.theguardian.com/ world/ 2017/ jul/ 09/ guns-political-turmoil-and-hummingbirds-in-the-living-room-my-farewell-to-latin-america

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victoryliononline · 7 years ago

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Guns, political turmoil and hummingbirds in the living room my farewell to Latin America

More importantly, it became apparent that I had been sold an overhyped image of Brazil. Far from has become a new pose, the past five years have proved a case study in how not to feed a country.

Read more: https :// www.theguardian.com/ world/ 2017/ jul/ 09/ guns-political-turmoil-and-hummingbirds-in-the-living-room-my-farewell-to-latin-america

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victoryliononline · 7 years ago

Text

Guns, political turmoil and hummingbirds in the living room my farewell to Latin America

More importantly, it became apparent that I had been sold an overhyped image of Brazil. Far from has become a new pose, the past five years have proved a case study in how not to feed a country.

Read more: https :// www.theguardian.com/ world/ 2017/ jul/ 09/ guns-political-turmoil-and-hummingbirds-in-the-living-room-my-farewell-to-latin-america

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victoryliononline · 7 years ago

Text

Guns, political turmoil and hummingbirds in the living room my farewell to Latin America

More importantly, it became apparent that I had been sold an overhyped image of Brazil. Far from has become a new pose, the past five years have proved a case study in how not to feed a country.

Read more: https :// www.theguardian.com/ world/ 2017/ jul/ 09/ guns-political-turmoil-and-hummingbirds-in-the-living-room-my-farewell-to-latin-america

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victoryliononline · 7 years ago

Text

Guns, political turmoil and hummingbirds in the living room my farewell to Latin America

More importantly, it became apparent that I had been sold an overhyped image of Brazil. Far from has become a new pose, the past five years have proved a case study in how not to feed a country.

Read more: https :// www.theguardian.com/ world/ 2017/ jul/ 09/ guns-political-turmoil-and-hummingbirds-in-the-living-room-my-farewell-to-latin-america

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