THE SECOND FOUNDING OF BOLIVIA

On January 22, 2002, Evo was expelled from Paradise. Or rather: Deputy Morales was thrown out of Parliament. On January 22, 2006, in the same grand chamber, Evo Morales was sworn in as the president of Bolivia. Or rather: Bolivia is beginning to realise that it is a country with an indigenous majority, writes Eduardo Galeano, Uruguayan writer and journalist and author of \'\'The Open Veins of Latin America\'\' and \'\'Memories of Fire\'\'. In this article, Galeano writes that long before the expulsion of Evo, his people, the indigenous, had been expelled from the official nation. They were not sons of Bolivia; they were merely its labour force. Until just over fifty years ago, the indians could neither vote nor even walk on the sidewalk in cities. It was with good reason that Evo said in his first presidential address that the indians were not invited to the foundation of Bolivia, in 1825. In recent times, Bolivia has experienced a period of popular insurrection. This process of continuous uprisings, which has left a trail of dead, culminated with the Gas War, but went much farther back. It went farther back and stretches far ahead to the election of Evo, against the tempest and tides.

The Business of Legal Coca

Chewing gum, soft drinks, soaps and other products based on the coca plant proliferate throughout the Andes region. Evo Morales, who was sworn in as Bolivia's president on Sunday, promises to promote the legal market for coca. Will he succeed?

Woman Eco-Activist of Mountain Stock

The award-winning Mexican peasant Celsa Vadovinos assures Tierramérica that she will continue to defend the forests of Guerrero sierra, even though her life may be at stake.

The Amazon Needs More Local Scientists

Foreign experts conduct most of the scientific studies of this vast and biologically rich region. Brazil is trying to triple the number of local graduate students in related fields by 2010.

Environmentalism Arrives at the Factory

Some 300,000 workers are killed each year as a result of exposure to chemical agents. Trade union leaders from around the world have gathered in Kenya to discuss a new era of cooperation between organized labour and the global environment.

Ecobreves – COLOMBIA: Traveling Show of Spiders and Scorpions

Traveling spider show in Colombia

Ecobreves – GUATEMALA: Lake in Final Throes

Guatemalan lake could disappear

Ecobreves – ARGENTINA: Protecting Beaches During the Summer Season

Protecting Argentina's beaches during busy summer season

Ecobreves – BRASIL: Garbage, a Private Business

Garbage is a private business in Brazil

SHASHI THAROOR: “TO SUCCEED, THE UN MUST BE A RECOURSE FOR ALL, NOT THE INSTRUMENT OF A FEW’

Shashi Tharoor is UN Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information and has held that position since January 2001. Regarding reform of the organisation, Tharoor argues that is is necessary \'\'not because the UN has failed, but because it has succeeded enough over the years to be worth investing in.

Tobacco Growers on War Footing

Latin American experts and activists charge that the cigarette industry is trying to weaken the international tobacco control treaty, whose first meeting is set to take place in Geneva next month.

Macaw Finds Safety in the Pantanal

Tierramérica travelled into the heart of the Brazilian Pantanal to visit the nests of the endangered hyacinth macaw. A successful conservation project has quintupled the population of this majestic bird in just one decade.

Ecobreves – BRAZIL: The Sun as Water Heater

La Secretaría Municipal del Verde y Medio Ambiente aprobó la propuesta del alcalde José Serra de hacer obligatoria la instalación de calentadores solares de agua en nuevas edificaciones de São Paulo, dijo a Tierramérica el experto en energía Délcio Rodrigues.

Ecobreves – GUATEMALA: Park Rangers Disappeared

Están por cumplirse dos meses de la misteriosa desaparición de dos guardarrecursos de la Estación de Campo del volcán Atitlán, una reserva al sur de la ciudad de Guatemala.

Ecobreves – VENEZUELA: Group Released 35,000 Baby Turtles

Unos 35 mil tortuguillos fueron liberados, luego de ser protegidos en sus nidos, por el ambientalista Centro de Investigación y Conservación de Tortugas Marinas, entre 2001 y 2005, en la nororiental península venezolana de Paria.

Ecobreves – CHILE: Controversy Over Park Admission Fee

Empresarios turísticos de la meridional región chilena de la Araucanía demandan libre acceso al Parque Nacional Villarrica, de 61.000 hectáreas, argumentando que la gubernamental Corporación Nacional Forestal (Conaf) carece de derechos legales para cobrar 6,5 dólares por persona como peaje de ingreso.

Ecobreves – CUBA: FAO to Help Improve Soils in Guantánamo

Un proyecto en colaboración con la Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Agricultura y la Alimentación (FAO) que comenzará a ejecutarse este mes buscará mejorar y conservar suelos y aguas de la cuenca hidrográfica Guantánamo-Guaso en esa región, la más oriental de Cuba.

THE CREATIVE IMPERATIVE

We are entering a new era, for both business and the whole world, in which the \'\'creative imperative\'\' will come to dominate our lives, at home, at work, and at leisure, and in which the assumptions, tools, and frameworks which leaders from business, government, and civil society have employed to make decisions over the past decade are no longer valid, writes Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum. The theme of this year\'s Forum, to be held 25-29 January, is The Creative Imperative. A global networked economy, economic imbalances, new mindsets, demographic shifts, and the gravitational pull exercised by the emergence of India and China are just a few of the factors that are radically reshaping the global environment. The \'\'Creative Economy\'\' which is emerging is in one sense the logical extension of the process of globalisation that has been sweeping the world for the last fifty years but which has accelerated almost exponentially in the past decade. But is not just business that must adjust to this new emerging environment. Governments, multinational institutions, and civil society organisations must also adopt new policy designs and innovative approaches if they are to remain effective and credible.

SPAIN: CIVIL POWER AND THE RULE OF LAW

For the first time in the existence of Spanish democracy, a high-up military official has been placed under house arrest and dismissed for expressing his dissatisfaction with the process of expanding regional political autonomy, writes Joaquin Roy, Jean Monnet Professor and Director of the Centre for the European Union at the University of Miami. On January 6, the commander of Spanish land forces used an institutional address to attack the plan to reform the autonomy statute for Spain\'s Catalonia region. While noting a sense of complicity between Spanish officialdom and the general\'s basic point, Roy argues that what is totally unacceptable is that a member of the military, claiming to represent the position of his subordinates, arrogates himself the right to determine when and how a political project \'\'exceeds the limits\'\'.

ANTI-GLOBALISATION IS ALIVE AND WELL

Many, even within the anti-globalisation movement, have claimed that it is running out of steam, particularly its flagship event, the World Social Forum (WSF). Yet here we are, brimming with vitality and creativity, writes Candido Grzybowski, a Brazilian sociologist, director of IBASE, and member of the International Council of the WSF. The current year we will demonstrate our capacity not only to grow but also to multiply ourselves, since there will be not one but four Forums in 2006: in Bamako, Mali; Caracas, Venezuela; Bouznika, Marocco; and Karachi, Pakistan. The transformational political-cultural movement that is rooted in the WSF has won over the world. The initiatives inspired by the WSF are multiplying in every corner of the planet. The WSF is now acknowledged as a point of reference for the world political landscape. And the fact that leaders, political representatives, and even the \'\'owners\'\' of the world feel obliged to respond to this rebel citizenry, which in its own way comprises a world power, is evidence of the size of the impact that we have had.

WSF: CIVIL SOCIETY MUST OPPOSE, BUT ALSO PROPOSE

As thousands of activists prepare for the two World Social Forum (WSF) events to be held in Mali and Venezuela in January, there are those both within and outside the WSF process that are asking, What global solutions is the WSF generating? writes by Kumi Naidoo, Secretary-General of Civicus: World Alliance For Citizen Participation. In this article, Naidoo writes that while it would be mistaken to straitjacket all WSF delegates into an artificially-constructed consensus on policy positions, it is important that the Forum correct the myth that there are no major policy directions that most WSF delegates share and advocate -- both within and outside of the WSF. For example, on the question of the debt crisis facing many countries in the South, there is already a broad consensus on a fairly clear set of recommendations. Given that one of the driving motivations of the WSF was to serve as a counterpoint for the World Economic Forum, it is important that in the battle of ideas, vision, and perspectives on what world we want to create for future generations, the WSF serves as an enabling space which can present alternatives that reach the hearts and minds of people who are not yet actively involved in the commendable efforts to ensure global justice.