Crítica Biliotecológica (Library and Information Science Critique: Journal of the Information Sciences Recorded in Documents) is a budding publication from the Facultad de Filosofia y Letras, Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon, Mexico. The online, open access, publication will be focusing on information sciences and critical analysis of the field. Some of the broader topics contributors are encouraged to discuss include, analysis of the “information society”, “research methodology”, “the limits of copyright”, “social injustice within the field”, and “privatization and monopolies from information providers”, among other challenging topics.

While the journal will specialize in articles by professionals, paraprofessionals and students debating various sides of issues within the library field, it also welcomes poetry, short stories, and other writings on the matter. The publishers expect to publish 4 times a year (January, April, July and October). Entries are welcome in both Spanish and English.

The first issues is already in the works, but people who wish to contribute and who already have an article that might interest the journal are encouraged to submit their work. (I didn’t find an obvious link where to submit your work, but I guess you can contact one of the organizers.)

Zapopan Martín Muela-Meza - zapopanmuela@gmail.com

José Antonio Torres Reyes - joantreyes@gmail.com

You can expect the first issues here.

World Book and Copyright Day (what a mouthful) is a yearly event to commemorate Miguel de Cervantes, William Shakespeare, and the Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, all major figures in world writing (and I wonder where the women are…). Legend says that all these great men died on April 23, 1616, although more accurate calculations reveal that Shakespeare’s death date was actually marked on a Julian calendar, and therefore should be May 3^rd on the Gregorian calendar.

In any case, the date was proposed to the UNESCO’s International Union of Editor as a day to promote culture and raise awareness around intellectual property rights. Final approval came on November 15, 1995.

Current festivities include a rotating title of World Book Capital. This began in 2001 with Madrid, last year it was Bogotá, and this year the world’s book capital is Amsterdam, next year it will be Beirut.

Click here for UNESCO’s page on World Book and Copyright Day.

At random, here are a few links to how a handful of libraries around the world are celebrating.

• Bibliotecas Municipales de Málaga, Spain
  
• Centro Nacional de las Artes, Mexico
• General celebrations in Colombia
• Canada’s Education Ministry

Image info here.

Today is the 40th anniversary of “Che’s” (June 14 1928-Oct 9, 1967) capture and execution (Oct 9th) in the Bolivian mountains. After studying medicine in Argentina, and later traveling throughout Latin America, Ernesto Guevara met his destiny in Mexico and joined a group of young idealist who would come to overthrow the Batista regime in Cuba.

After helping win a revolution “Che” became Cuba’s National Treasurer, a bizarre position for a man who seemed mostly concerned with loftier notions of freedom and equality for all. Still, “Che” has a number of opponents, many of whom had to sufferer through his harsh and often inflexible treatment towards those he felt weren’t helping improve this world.

I’ve read a couple of biographies on “Che,” and while I admire him for having the courage of his convictions, and for being deeply committed to improving this world, I’m also bothered by how he (like many other guerrillas, and revolutionaries) was able to distance himself from the people closest to him in order to help “save” others. “Che” fought for people in distant lands whom he had no direct connections to, like Cuba, the Congo and Bolivia.

You can read more about the celebrations taking place today in places like Cuba, Argentina and Bolivia in an article from the BBC. The BBC has a second article today recounting the story of his capture and execution. There’s a whole wealth of information on him on his Wikipedia entry.

The Guardian has a great set of images of “El Che” from around the globe.

Image info here.

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, Michael Pollan (author of “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” and “The Botany of Desire”) had a fascinating article in the New York Times Magazine about how the agribusiness is who determines what we eat, and how the farm bill, which passes Congress every 5 years, affect almost every aspect of our lives and in turn affects people all over the globe.

For a nation that is increasingly more and more concerned about obesity, it is incredible to realize that dollar for dollar you can get more calories/more food from highly processed foods than you can from more natural foods. A study by Adam Drewnowski from the University of Washington found that a dollar can get you 1,200 calories from cookies or potato chips, but only 250 worth of calories from carrots. This set up hardly makes sense, “junk food” is highly processed and should therefore cost much more, but this is where the farm bill comes into play.

The USA farm bill, among other things, determined which crops will be subsidized, and the five favored crops are corn, soybeans, wheat, rice and cotton, the first three being the main ingredients of “junk food.” These subsidies have created a saturation in the market place for these products at the expense of denying us a more balanced diet at an affordable price. It also means that these products can compete in the international market place at an unfair advantage, and thereby have the ability of being sold in foreign markets at lower prices than locally grown food. The hypocrisy of it hits when you realize that the USA lobbies as much as they can in the world market to prevent other countries from subsidizing their products, but yet that is exactly what happens here. This unfair marketing approach has created a situation in which USA grown corn can sell cheaper in Mexico, than locally grown corn. This also means that Mexicans are eating corn that has a lot more chemical than the local crop. Given the situation it is only obvious that Mexican farmers, and others around the world who have been put out of business by this set up try to make a living elsewhere, in many cases that means immigrating to the USA in search of a better life.

The light at the end of the tunnel here is that more and more groups are starting to realize just how this farm bill affects us. Public health groups are realizing that issues like obesity and diabetes cannot be fully addressed without talking about this bill. Environmentalists see that this bill means massive agribusiness initiatives, which in turn mean more polluted land, air, and water due to the high use of chemicals. Even the huge world organizations seem to be speaking out about this unfair bill. In 2004 the World Trade Organization ruled that USA cotton subsidies were illegal; hopefully they will continue speaking up.

On a related note, a great documentary on this and similar issues is Life and Debt, by Stephanie Black.

06.07.07 - A recent article on thruthout.com continues this discussion around the USA Farm bill. The article explains the dynamics of how big agribusiness benefit from this bill. Large poultry producers benefit from receiving highly subsidized chicken feed (corn). These discrepancies continue when the USA exports the chicken parts that aren’t liked as much here to developing countries, at rock bottom prices, and in doing so they help destroy local production. Ironically a number of peasants in other countries affected by these global economic dynamics end up immigrating to the USA to work at the very plants that helped destroy their initial livelihood.

Image information here.

Mexico seems to be paving the way for social reforms in Latin America. In January the country legalized same sex civil unions, and today they have legalized abortion in the first trimester (although this is only applicable to Mexico City); previously women could have a legal abortion only in case of rape or if her life was at risk. The vote was 46 to 19 with only one abstention and all of the “no” votes came from president Felipe Calderon’s political party.

Currently there are about 200,000 illegal abortions in Mexico, and yearly at least 1,500 women die because of poorly handled and unsanitary illegal procedures. This new law states that if a woman has an abortion after the first 12 weeks she risks going to jail for 6 months, the doctor risks between 1 - 3 years in jail, and women under the age of 18 still need parental consent.

In Latin America, only Cuba, Puerto Rico (technically USA territory) and Guyana also offer women the ability to have a legal abortion. Nicaragua, El Salvador and Chile ban the practice entirely.

Today, the NY Times, and the BBC and the Guardian, in the UK, all have articles on the subject.

You can learn more about women’s health issues in Latin America through Latin American and Caribbean Women’s Health Network (LACWHN).

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)

I just read an article on a new theme park in Mexico; a park that for about US$20 lets you live what undocumented immigrants trying to enter the USA experience during their travel. I can’t help but be fascinated by the clever business person who even thought up such a concept, as disturbing as this concept may be. I’m curious as to who goes to this park, but the article did not mention this. Being as cynical as I can be, it wouldn’t surprise me to soon hear some politician here in the USA claim that this park can be used as a training ground for those who will actually attempt to cross.

As long as people are poor, they will keep trying to find a better life, no matter the hardship involved in the process. Besides, lots of the large trade programs that the USA likes to promote as being the hope for the Third World, are what are actually further screwing people over. NAFTA, FTAA, and the likes are only making the rich richer and the poor, poorer.

You can read the article for yourself in English here, and in Spanish here.