A World Digital Library is coming together after an agreement signed yesterday between Abdul Waheed Khan, UNESCO’s Assistant Director-General for Communications and Information, and James H. Billington, Librarian of Congress in the USA’s Library of Congress. The project was started in 2005 by a $3 million grant from Google.

The project aims is to create digital copies of unique material from libraries around the world and make them available over the internet for free. Some of the libraries participating include the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, the National Library of Egypt, the National Library of Brazil, the National Library of Russia and the Russian State Library.

The prototype for this digital collection is still being worked on, but it is expected to function in all six official UN languages (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, and Spanish), and Portuguese.

This project also aims at helping develop the capabilities of developing countries to create and promote digital libraries. This way the collection can reflect more of the world’s culture, and hopefully will help promote cross-cultural learning and understanding, while simultaneously preserving some rare objects from these collections.

You can take a look at the prototype here.

You can read more about this initiative from a UN news release, A 2005 Library of Congress news release, and the Book Standard.

Several nation leaders in Latin America seem to be waking up to the fact that International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank (WB) loans aren’t truly benefiting the majority of people there, so they are joining forces to create Banco del Sur. Venezuela, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, and Paraguay have become the founding members to Banco del Sur , which is promoted as an alternative to the IMF and WB. The bank which is to begin functions in 2008, is being promoted as coming from Latin America, for Latin America. The idea originated with Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez and is being largely funded with Venezuela’s oil money.

Lack of faith in organizations like the IMF and WB started to gather momentum in Latin American during the 1990s, and this perspective was further solidified after Argentina disregarded IMF advice and defaulted on their loans, which lead to economic recovery. Those opposing this regional bank proposal argue that it is only one more ploy by the emerging left in Latin America, still IMF loans have steadily been declining in the region during the last decade; they currently stand at around $3 billion after being at $50 billion just five years ago. Latin American countries have also been turning to other regional initiatives such as the Andean Development Corporation (CAF) for loans.

Some former and current employees of the IMF and WB explain that maybe this is a wakeup call to these institutions to make more of an effort to customize the services they provide throughout the world. Apparently the IMF has been impacted enough about this to have had to sold some of their gold reserves. This also means that the USA treasury is affected as well, since they are the largest IMF shareholders.

I would like see the Banco del Sur actually succeed and create some wealthy competition.

“… there is life after the IMF, and it’s a very good life.” -Nestor Kirchner, Argentine President

You can read more about this from an article in the Christian Science Monitor, and an article in Upside Down World.

Now when pollution and global warming seem to be an accepted concern, people around the world are trying to come up with new option for running their cars (instead of opting for NOT running their cars, but that’s another story).

Brazil has had great success with ethanol produced from sugar cane, and the USA has been working on producing ethanol from corn, although this isn’t such a great alternative since the agribusiness in the USA consumes so much fertilizer, pesticides, energy and water, that running cars on corn based ethanol won’t really be helping the environment. Yet around the world people are still working on this problem and coming up with interesting, possible, solutions.

In Jagdalpur, India, a few people have begun growing jatropha, which produced seeds that can be made into biofuel. This plant can grow in wetlands and apparently can produce four times as much biofuel per hectare than soybeans, and ten times more than corn! According to an article in the Christian Science Monitor, several Indian states have been encouraging this crop by starting farmers out with 500 free saplings.

Papua New Guinea has been experimenting with biofuel coming from coconut oil which is widely available on the island. An article in the BBC says that the people on the island of Bougainville have received inquiry request for this new development from as far as Europe and Iran. An interesting aspect of this project is that the oil is being produced in backyard refineries, thus creating more employment. There are also projects working to make biofuel from feedstock algae. Currently this sounds easier in theory than in practice, but they might just get it right in the future.

Here’s also a crash course on biofuels - according to the USA department of Energy.

Feeling a little adventuresome? Here are instructions on making your own biofuel.

05.15.07 - Japan is also experimenting with biofuels. The University of Tokyo is funding a project to make biofuel out of discarded rice hulls to be converted into ethanol. Japan is currently the second largest consumer of gasoline, after the USA. Read more about this project here.

06.11.07 - While in some cases biofuels seems to be a favorable approach to the burning of fossil fuels, in Colombia they seem to be causing poverty, displacement and violence. On June 5, 2007 the Guardian had an article about armed forces in Colombia, mainly paramilitaries, driving peasants off the land in order to promote palm oil for biofuel. The bizarre twist seems to be that the paramilitaries have realized that this is a cash crop that can be promoted without fear of eradication by the Colombian government, nor does it attract negative attention from the rest of the world, particularly from the USA and it’s never ending battle to fight drugs. The article also mentioned some of the peasants wanting to fight back, but finding out that deeds to their land had been falsified and thus had been “bought” by larger farmers. Colombia currently has about 3 million internally displaced people, making it one of the world’s worse cases, along with Darfur and Congo. And while the USA has spent over $5 billion for Plan Colombia, coca production rose by 8% last year.

06.21.07 - Today an article in the BBC highlighted yet another possible source for biofuels - fruit. This proposed fuel, called dimethylfuran, is said to hold 40% more energy than ethanol, does not evaporate so quickly, and is less volatile. Still the article mentioned the foreseeable problem of having fuel production compete for land with regular food crops.

06.25.07 - The Christian Science Monitor has yet another article of the world wide ripple effect biofuels are causing. Every year Mexico grows large amounts of agave to produce a national staple, tequila. But currently agave growers are starting to replace their traditional agave fields, some of which have been designated World Heritage sites by UNESCO, in order to grow corn for the growing USA demand for ethanol. This starting trend endangers not only a national, cultural, staple, but also puts the nation’s poorest at risk of hunger, since corn tortillas have been historically relied on to fend off starvation.

06.08.07 - Today the BBC has an article about his palm oil production for biofuels in Kalimantan has displaced numerous farmers off the land, some without any compensation. The EU’s promise to replace 10% of its transportation fuel, along with other demands for biofuels had pushed large companies to produce the crop however possible, in some cases leading to abuse of local farmers. Still negotiations are beginning to take place, some with the help of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), which brings together retail, producers, and a variety of NGOs.

08.17.07 - An article in the BBC today says that a UK based team of scientist believe that reforestation and habitat protection would provide better results per square foot, than using the land to produce crops for biofuels. However, they do explain that so called second generation biofuels, meaning those that use feedstock, such as straw, grasses and wood, rather than grain and palm oils offered much better land conversion rates.

08.22.07 - Today the Guardian has an article about how the demand for biofuels, specially those made out of Maize have caused tortilla prices in Mexico to soar. Tortillas are a staple food in Mexicans diets, and the food item that has historically kept the poorest people from starving. The Mexican government negotiated a price freeze in February, but there is still fear that increase demand for Maize for fuel production will continue to jeopardize people’s ability to avoid hunger.

Image info here.

Today, Martin Strel, became the first person to swim the entire Amazon River. Strel completed his journey in 66 days, and averaged about 52 miles a day. His journey began in Peruvian territory and ended in the city of Belem, just north of Rio de Janeiro, Bazil. Amazingly he had a pretty easy time with the piranhas, crocodiles, anacondas and candirú in the area, but was a bit less lucky in regards to dehydration and sun stoke.

Strel seems to be no foreigner to adventure, having already swum the lengths of the Danube, the Mississippi and the Yangtze rivers.

Image info here.

This week I got to visit the Framingham Public Library to see their Newcomer & Neighbors Center. The city has seen a large growth in their immigrant populations, and currently about 20% of the city’s residents are foreign born. Because the local library saw a need in these new communities, and because it wanted to continue its outreach program to the entire community, a Newcomers & Neighbors Center was established. This center is open for a few hours a day, but during these hours it helps people new to the city, the state, or the country in things like finding housing, schools, jobs, health care, and places to meet other people. Part of the programs success has been their ability to find volunteers that come from the same communities they are helping.

While trying to welcome newcomers to the community, the public library currently prints out all of their material in three languages (English, Spanish and Portuguese). Along with the Newcomers & Neighbors Center, the library also has one of the larges literacy centers in the area, and teaches a number of ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) classes.

You can read a bit more about Framingham here.

Brazil’s Environment Minister Marina Silva has just announced a plan to make the country’s Amazon region internet accessible! The belief is that Indigenous communities can participate in the struggle to protect the rain forest, and by providing them with free internet access, they will be better equipped to respond to any illegal activities in the area, including mining and ranching. This plan does require cooperation by local governments who must first provide the various Indigenous communities with computers.

Members of these Indigenous communities seem to have mixed feelings about this project. Some commented that in the past, being able to access the internet has helped them communicate with the police when illegal mining was occurring in the area; others commented that while they did not like computers they felt there wasn’t much they could do to fight against this change.

You can read the BBC’s article on this project here.

One Laptop per Child (OLPC) is a non-profit organization trying to address the lack of resources many Third World Countries struggle with and how these affect education and hinder technological development. Keeping in mind that many countries can only afford to spend $20 per child per year on education (compared to about $7,500 that the USA spends), OLPC tries to circumvent traditional approaches to the situation, and instead want to make available the tools that can allow children to explore and learn on their own. OLPC feel that efforts should continue to build school and train teachers in the poorest corners of the world, but simultaneously, want to try a more direct approach. The idea is to transform these children with personal laptops into teachers. Each child can explore the world on their machine, and will later be able to teacher elders and other children about what they have learned; in this way the entire community can benefit.

These laptops are designed for use by the world’s poorest children. They run on open source software, keeping in mind that while all children won’t become programmers, they should have the opportunity to continue growing without constrains by their equipment. The machine itself is designed to run on very low power, and some of the earliest models were powered through cranking, or with a foot-pedal. The display must also be sunlight-readable, since most children will be outdoors when working on their laptops. The machine itself is small, light and has a handle for easy carrying. It also has a monitor which rotates, allowing for others to participate.

This program was first designed to involved governments in buying laptops for children, and initial conversations involved proposals for Brazil, Argentina, Libya, Nigeria and Thailand. Recently Uruguay and Rwanda have also joined in. Currently the program continues to grow through donations by individuals, businesses and foundations.

If you want to learn more about the project visit their site and their wiki. You can find information on donating and participating here.

Above images come from the project’s wiki, and can be found here.

04.03.07 - I just found a webcast by Walter Bender, president of OLPC, discussing this project; you can access it here. There is another webcast by Nicolas P. Negroponte, chairman and co-founder of OLPC,which can be accessed here.

04.17.07 - The OLPC interface runs on a lightweight version of Fedora Linux, called Sugar. You can take a look at it here.

07.15.07 - Intel has just joined forces with OLPC, after creating competition for each other, in trying to offer low cost computers to children in the developing world. Currently there is no talk about changing processing chips, yet the idea is to develop a variety of low cost computers in the future that can function of a variety of platforms. Intel has been producing the Classmate for sale in developing countries at a cost of US $200.00. You can read more about this in an article by the BBC.

07.23.07 - After much anticipation and testing, OLPC is posed to start massive production, explaining that they finally have orders large enough to make the project viable. You can read more about this at an article by the BBC. And here is another article explaining the different components of the laptop and how they work.

Image info here.

06.08.07 - It seems that everyone is in a rush to grab a piece of the computer market in the developing world. Today the BBC has an article about other major computer producers rushing towards this market, although they differ form the OLPC project, in that these other companies are out just to make some money. Beijing based Levono has announced a low cost computer that can be plugged into the TV

10.29.30- Uruguay just became the first country to buy a large number of these computers to make available to children 6 - 12. They hope to make these laptops available to every children in the country by 2009. You can read more about this in an article from the BBC.

11.15.07 - “Give One - Get One” has started for the USA and Canada and will run until November 26, 2007. You can order yours here.

A couple of days ago, the UK’s Guardian published a story about record breaking remittances going to Latin America. The high numbers involved shouldn’t really come as a surprise to anyone who regularly interacts with immigrants. Immigrants, especially those who come alone often work well over full time and live in crowded homes in order to save as much as possible, and in this way help their families back home.

The article mentioned that Latin Americans abroad send as much as £32 billion annually, a number that makes direct foreign investment look pale by comparison. While foreign investment can be beneficial, it often creates investment in urban areas, and therefore limits the amount of people it benefits. In contrast, remittances are sent directly to families, many living in rural areas, and thus helping with vital needs, such as paying for food, education and utilities.

Currently the groups of Latinos abroad sending the largest amount of money back are Mexicans, followed by Brazilians, and then Colombians.

That emigrants can make such a dent in world finances, working as nannies, migrant workers, and all kinds of other very low wages employments in absolutely admirable.

08.23.07 - Today the BBC has an article about the rise in money transfer shops in the UK. The current growth of these businesses points to the increasing number of immigrants that live there, and the trend of moving abroad to work intensely for a free months or years while trying to make as much money as possible, and then returning to one’s native country and family.

(Image by Marissa; Openphoto.net)