The Peruvian government’s unprecedented attempt to destroy Peru’s Amazon Indian movement has been condemned by indigenous leaders around the world.
The wave of condemnation comes after it was revealed that the government plans to disband Peru’s national organisation for Amazon Indians (AIDESEP).
Read the rest of the story on the Survival International website (www.survival-international.org/news/5216)
American volunteers might be interested to learn about the International Volunteer Card. It offers volunteer travellers discounts on travel essentials from guide books to insurance, as well as 24-hour travel assistance line from anywhere in the world. For example, you can get 5% off domestic flights with United Airlines and 25% off online orders with Lonely Planet.
Cardholders also benefit from 24/7 travel assistance from a dedicated service line. Whether you lose luggage, need emergency cash transfers, seek passport assistance, the Volunteer Travel claims team can help members with any travel issues no matter where they are in the world through a free collect call phone number.
Six Volunteer Travel cards with varying ranges of benefits and discounts are available. Prices range from US$25 for a basic individual card to US$85 for a premium family card.
The cards are valid for purchases made in the US, and are good for one year, renewable annually.
Please visit www.volunteercard.com for more details.
Are you looking for low cost volunteering opportunities in Africa? Volunteer 4 Africa provide information on a wide variety conservation and community service projects. Their website enables you to search for projects that match your budget. Everything you need to set up a placement is provided, including web links and email contacts. A small membership fee is required to use the site but it is well worth it. Highly recommended.
Ernesto “Che” Guevara is well known to most of us as the great leftist revolutionary who helped Castro to overthrow Batista’s Cuban government in the late 1950s then fought in the Congo and organized guerrilla fighters throughout Central America in the 1960s until meeting his demise at the hands of the Bolivian Army in 1967. What is not well known is that Che Guevara spent the early 1950s traveling around South America on two wheels. In 1950 he made a 4000 mile tour around northern Argentina on a moped and in 1952 he and a friend set out to travel from Argentina to North America by motorcycle exploring much of South America along the way. This trip is the subject of The Motorcycle Diaries.
Guevara kept a diary as he, Alberto Granado and a Norton 500 named La Poderosa II (The Powerful One) made their way across South America. Later in life Guevara went back to the diary and rewrote it as a narrative leaving us (and himself) with a well written travelogue and fascinating look at the moral development of the young Che Guevara.
Only the first quarter of the journey is made by motorcycle which is fortunate for Guevara and Granado. If La Poderosa had lived past its fatal crash and final resting spot in Santiago, Chile Che Guevara may have not. Traveling with La Poderosa consists of as much time spent falling off a motorcycle as riding a motorcycle. Apparently the overloaded Norton was a bit hard to handle on the poor roads. Early in the book La Poderosa crashes six times in one day!
The trip is continued from Santiago by hitching rides, stowing away on boats, lots of walking and even a bit of flying. The two young doctors travel as bums but slip easily between the company of the proletariat and the well-to-do. Whoever will give them a meal and shelter is their friend.
The Motorcycle Diaries is a fascinating look at the culture of South America in the 1950s. Recommended.
Eighty cow-canvases from the “cow parade” have invaded Lima’s capital streets.
The exhibit, which pursues the dream of breaking distances between art and people, was inaugurated by Lima’s Mayor Luis Castañeda.
The eighty cows have been decorated by several Peruvian artists, in many cases using genuine Peruvian motif, promoting local art and raising funds for charities.
These peculiar statues will stay until February in their respective chosen locations, and the funds raised after their sale will be sent to Centro Anne Sullivan, Fundación Lima and the NGO Socios en Salud.
These cows are currently spread in certain Lima spots such as Sáenz Peña park and Chabuca Granda boulevard, in Barranco; Plaza de Armas, in Downtown Lima; Salazar, Parque del Amor, Raimondi and Kennedy parks, en Miraflores; Pueblo Libre Central Park and Jockey Plaza Shopping Center (Surco.)
Some of the local personalities that have designed a cow are Gian Marco, Dina Páucar, Damaris, Carlos Galdós, Pochi Marambio, Raúl Romero, Bruno Pinasco, Mauricio Fernandini, Marcelo Wong, Eduardo Tokeshi, Aldo Shiroma, José Antonio Morales, José Miguel Valdivia and Carlos Revilla, among many others.
This exhibition that began ten years ago at Zurich, has been staged at 70 cities around the world, like New York, Buenos Aires, Chicago, London, Paris, Athens, Lisbon and Sao Paulo; it was an idea of Walter Knapp.
Lonely Planet have just released the latest edition of Best in Travel. In it they name their top 10 countries to visit next year (2010). It is refreshing to see El Salvador and Suriname on the list but how they have chosen some of the other countries remains a mystery. It would have been nice to see some support for Mexico considering the huge drop in tourist numbers. And where are all the African countries? Surely South Africa should be a hot spot considering they are hosting the world cup next year. Anyway have a look at their list and make up your own mind.
Doctors in northern Peru have removed almost a kilogram of nails, coins and scrap metal from a man’s stomach, a surgeon that operated on him said Wednesday.
“The patient came in with severe abdominal pains. After examinations we discovered that he had hundreds of nails in his stomach,” said Carlos Delgado, a surgeon at the hospital in the town of Cajamarca.
Requelme Abanto Alvarado was admitted to the hospital on Friday. After a two-hour operation doctors removed 900 grams (two pounds) of nails, coins and scrap metal from his stomach, as well as a small knife.
“I have never had a case like this,” the surgeon said. “I have operated on plenty of patients, but so many things in a stomach, it’s really extraordinary.”
Alvarado was in a stable condition following the operation, Delgado said, adding that he was now being examined by mental health specialists.
Donations from countries and organizations began to be distributed on Wednesday in El Salvador among those affected by last weekend’s flooding and mudslides that killed 157 people.
Donations have arrived from the United States, Japan, Nicaragua and Venezuela, as well as from organizations like Unicef and the Red Cross, and they have begun to be taken to the 132 shelters housing more than 14,096 people.
This project provides the opportunity to participate in meaningful community service while living and interacting in an intercultural environment. Work projects include: construction/renovation of low-income housing or community buildings, historic preservation, archaeology; environmental projects such as trail building, environmental education, wildlife surveying, park maintenance, organic farming; social services working with children, the elderly, physically or mentally handicapped, refugees, minority groups, drug/alcohol recovery, AIDS education; as well as arts projects and festivals.
There is a £175 registration fee which covers accommodation and food. There may be an additional fee for some projects.
Mud and boulders loosened by heavy rains swept down a volcano and partly buried the town of Verapaz on Sunday, swallowing homes as flooding and landslides across El Salvador killed at least 124 people, authorities said. Three days of downpours were attributed to a low-pressure system not related to Hurricane Ida, which brushed Mexico’s Cancun resort on Sunday.
El Salvador’s President Mauricio Funes declared a national emergency and said he would work with the United Nations to evaluate the extent of the damage.