Global Voices » Costa Rica

Costa Rica: Young Entrepreneurs Present Mobile Game

Silvia Viñas — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 13:42:44 +0000

Six young Costa Rican entrepreneurs have created a mobile game platform called TweetLand. In the blog Fusil de Chispas [es], Cristian Cambronero writes about the debut of Route 140, the first game in the collection.

Latin America: Museum Releases Digital Archive of 20th-Century Art

Silvia Viñas — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 13:36:22 +0000

The International Center for Arts of the Americas (ICCA) at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, has released a digital archive of 20th-century Latin American and Latino art, which, “is now available, free of charge, to the research and teaching community as well as to the public at large.” Culture magazine Ñ [es] briefly interviewed Mari Carmen Ramírez, the project's director.

Costa Rica's Online Community Joins Fight Against SOPA and Censorship

Marianna Breytman — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 02:56:06 +0000

Following the virtual strike against the the United States' Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the subsequent shutdown of Megaupload, a file-sharing website, Costa Rica's online community is no longer staying out of the fight against Internet censorship.

On January 17, Costa Rican blogger community TicoBlogger [es] announced its support for the fight [es] led by Wikipedia (which “turned off” its English page for 24 hours). TicoBlogger published the following statement [es]:

Porque somos una comunidad unida de personas que piensan diferente, pero creemos firmemente en el derecho que tiene cada uno de nuestros miembros de expresarse libremente es que desde el día de hoy y mañana, representativamente nos uniremos a Wikipedia, para hacer una lucha simbólica en contra de SOPA y PIPA.

Los visitantes de cualquier blog de ticoblogger, se encontrarán mensajes en contra de la Censura de Internet, y el contenido parcialmente bloqueado en la primera visita.”

Logo against SOPA. Taken from Ticoblogger.com

Because we are a united community of people who think differently, but we firmly believe in the right that each one of our members has of freely expressing him or herself, and starting from this day forward, we are joining Wikipedia to form a symbolic fight against SOPA and PIPA.

Visitors to any blog on ticoblogger will find messages against Internet Censorship and partially blocked content on the homepage.

Various blogs pertaining to the TicoBlogger network joined the protest, re-posting the statement, censoring parts of their posts or contributing their own reasons to fight against SOPA, like El Alumbrado Público [es], whose author asserts:

Como bloguero, no puedo estar a favor de una ley que busca privar a la población mundial de información, entretenimiento, y sobre todo de cultura y conocimiento.

As a blogger, I cannot be in favor of a law that looks to deprive the world of information, entertainment, and above all, of culture and knowledge.

On his own behalf, Julio Córdoba, author of Ciencia Ficción affirms [es]:

Internet ha crecido por hombres y mujeres que libremente comparten sus ideas. La recreación, conocimiento y amistad nacional e internacional es uno de los grandes frutos de la herramienta. Son los menos quienes violentan derechos ajenos y soluciones equivocadas solo atentan contra el espíritu mismo de la red. Hoy, como miembro de ticoblogger, este blog se une a la protesta contra SOPA.

The Internet has grown because of men and women that freely share their ideas. National and international recreation, knowledge and friendship are some of the greatest results of this tool. Those who force alien rights and flawed solutions only undermine the very spirit of the web. Today, as a member of ticoblogger, this blog is joining the protest against SOPA.

Another of the collective's blogs, Conejitos Suicidas [es], shared an excerpt that derechoaleer.org [es] elaborated upon, which explains how SOPA can affect users even outside of the United States. With respect to this, they cite [es]:the following:

si bien la ley sólo regirá en territorio estadounidence, al concentrar ese país la mayor parte de la infraestructura de la red, casi todos los servicios y sitios que utilizamos diariamente se verán afectados: Youtube, Wikipedia, Google o Twitter, como ejemplos.

Por otro lado, Estados Unidos aloja servicios básicos de la red, como el control sobre los dominios genéricos (.com, .net, .org) que aunque pertenezcan a sitios fuera de su territorio, a partir de su aplicación podrán ser inhabilitados desde Estados Unidos, sin considerar el sistema judicial del país afectado, según la campaña “anti SOPA” publicada por el sitio.

If the law will truly only govern on U.S. territory, upon concentrating the majority of this country's web infrastructure, almost all of the services and sites that we use daily will be affected: Youtube, Wikipedia, Google, or Twitter, to name a few.

On the other hand, the United States houses basic web services, such as control over generic domains (.com, .net, .org) that, while belonging to websites outside its territory, after its application can be disabled from the United States, without considering the judicial system of the affected country, according to the “anti SOPA” campaign published on the website.

The news of the FBI's shutdown of Megaupload and Anonymous' counterattack against the U.S. government (closing the FBI website, among others) also generated commotion on social networks in Costa Rica.

As such, Twitter users were swift to react. Heidy Murillo (@Sancarleña77) [es] wrote:

El FBI tiene el olfato político del un oso de peluche, cerrar #Megaupload después de #StopSopa fue una provocación gacha. #OpMegaupload #SDP.

The FBI has the political instinct of a teddy bear, to close #Megaupload after #StopSopa was a terrible provocation. #OpMegaupload #SDP.

In response to this outlook, the author of El Alambrado Público expressed the opinion [es] that:

Una gran parte de la Internet, tal cual la conocemos hoy, ha desaparecido. Miles de blogs y foros quedaron inservibles. A comenzar de cero, ¿nada más eso queda? ¿Entenderían mi punto si pasara lo mismo con Taringa?

El contenido de entretenimiento es una mínima parte del gran error que cometió el Departamento de Justicia Estadounidense. No se trata de velar por el bienestar económico de Hollywood o Universal Music; se trata de garantizar y facilitar el acceso al conocimiento, a la cultura y a la información a la población mundial. Decenas de tutoriales libres, documentales de libre distribución, fotografías, documentos culturas e históricos han desaparecido”.

A huge part of the Internet, as we know it today, has disappeared. Thousands of blogs and forums were left unusable. We have to start from zero, what else is left? Would you understand my point if the same thing happened to Taringa?

Entertainment content is a small part of the huge mistake that the U.S. Department of Justice has committed. It's not about watching over the economic well being of Hollywood or Universal Music; it's about guaranteeing and facilitating access to knowledge, culture, and information to the world. Dozens of free tutorials, freely distributed documentaries, photos, cultural and historical documents have disappeared.

A Guide to Crowdsourcing in Latin America

L. Finch — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 01:16:36 +0000

Crowdsourcing, also known as “mass collaboration,” allows anyone with an Internet connection to generate useful content for the masses. In Latin America, numerous crowdsourcing projects have arisen that respond to the various needs and emergencies that the continent is facing, such as Heroreports [en], which geotags acts of kindness in Mexico, or LluviasVe [en], which maps events caused by strong rains in Venezuela. Crowdsourcing has become a fundamental tool in Latin America to foment and utilize citizen participation in an effort to inform.

On January 14, 2012, Jacinto Lajas published “A guide to crowdsourcing in Latin America [es] on Periodismo Ciudadano, an online blog that hosts discussion and debate about citizen journalism. Below we have republished the article under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 3.0 Spain license (CC BY-NC 3.0).

Americas Society (AS) is the leading forum dedicated to education, debate, and dialogue in the Americas. Its mission is to foment understanding of current political, social, and economic issues that Latin America, the Caribbean, and Canada are facing, as well as to augment public awareness of and appreciation for the diversity of the New World's cultural heritage and the importance of interrelationships between the diverse peoples of the Americas.

Within this mission falls the logical observation of changes effected by technological advances in the Americas, and in that same spirit comes the publication of a guide to crowdsourcing in Latin America, highlighting projects that have developed in different countries throughout the region.

The preface to the list of projects explains how crowdsourcing has become a popular method of citizen participation in compliance with the law, public health, consumer rights, and social issues in Latin America, one of the regions with the largest growth of Internet penetration in the world:

El número de usuarios de Internet creció a 112 millones en enero de 2011 –un aumento del 15 por ciento respecto al año anterior. En Brasil, Colombia, México y Venezuela, las tasas de crecimiento del uso de Internet aumentaron en un 20 por ciento o más durante el mismo período. También va en aumento es el uso del teléfono de última generación: en 2011, uno de cada cinco teléfonos celulares vendidos en América Latina fue un smartphone y, en 2010, las ventas de estos teléfonos en la región aumentaron en un 117 por ciento. Con un mayor acceso a Internet, más latinoamericanos están utilizando las redes sociales: 114.500.000 personas utilizaban sitios como Facebook y Twitter en junio de 2011.

The number of Internet users grew to 112 million in January 2011 -an increase of 15 percent over the previous year. In Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, and Venezuela, the growth rate of Internet use increased 20 percent or more during the same period. An increase in high-end telephone use also was observed: in 2011, one out of every five mobile phones sold in Latin America was a smartphone, and in 2010, sales of these telephones in the region grew by 117 percent. With such widespread access to the Internet, more Latin Americans are using social networks: 114.5 million people utilized websites such as Facebook and Twitter in June 2011.

A promising prospect. Just as the proliferation of participatory projects –some mentioned here [es]– is in Latin America. Below you will find the list of projects included in the guide. You can find more information about each project in the original publication in Americas Society [en].

Argentina
- Mapa del Narcotráfico [es]
- Mapa de la Inseguridad [es]
Brasil
Chile
Costa Rica
- LocalCrime.org [available in en, es, fr]
- Quien Paga Manda [es]
Honduras
- Honduras Health Mapping [en, available in 24 languages]
México
Panamá
- Mi Panamá Transparente [es]
Perú
- Que No Te Roben [es]
Venezuela
- Quiero Paz [es]
- Victeams [es]

Costa Rican Blogs Protest SOPA and PIPA

Silvia Viñas — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 12:19:35 +0000

Ticoblogger [es], a network of Costa Rican blogs, has joined the global protests against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect-IP Act (PIPA). Ticoblogger blogs like Ciencia Ficción [es], Carepicha [es], and El Infierno en Costa Rica [es] posted a message against the U.S. bills and “censored” part of their content.

Costa Rica: I'm Happy In That Water

Juliana Rincón Parra — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 05:27:20 +0000

This wordless short film follows Doña Norma, a 78 year old woman who goes to swim every day at a local swimming pool outside of the capital city of San José.

Costa Rica: Carmen Naranjo, Writer and Politician, Dies

Oscar Howell — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 07:28:37 +0000

Carmen Naranjo (born Cartago, 1928) passed away last January 4. She was a writer and a woman engaged in politics in the 60s and 70s, something then uncommon in Latin America. She became Culture and Youth Minister of Costa Rica in 1974, and was the first woman appointed as a member of the Costa Rican Academy of the Spanish Language. Already a towering figure in Costa Rican culture, she became the Director of the Museum of Costa Rican Art and Chief Editor at Costa Rica University Press EDUCA.

Among the awards she received were the Order of Alfonso X El Sabio (Spain, 1977) and the Order to Academic Merit Gabriela Mistral (Chile, 1996). At least three of Naranjo's novels are regarded as key to Costa Rican Literature: Los Perros no ladraron (”The dogs didn't bark”) (1966), Diario de una Multitud (”Diary of a multitude”) (1974) and Ondina (1983).

Carmen Naranjo in 2008, photo by Julia Ardón, used with permission

Carmen Naranjo did not only represent the capacity of women to achieve positions of relevance in a traditional society, she was also a pioneer in her views about culture, literature and writing, and media and communications. She was an early proponent of gender equality in Costa Rica, which today has become law. Today Costa Rica has its first female president: Laura Chinchilla.

When asked in a 2008 interview with Ailyn Morera [es] what her contribution to culture was she responded:

He encontrado que lo fundamental es trabajar en términos universales dentro del país para que la cultura aunque sea un milímetro crezca en todo el territorio. Por eso encuentro que es indispensable que la cultura tenga medios modernos de comunicación. Considero la radio fundamental y también la televisión, las fuentes que fluyen del Internet y todas esas cosas que le permiten a la gente comunicarse y tener fácil acceso a la cultura, y al conocimiento universal. Todo lo que fortalezca el conocimiento debe ser implementado por eso es tan importante que las universidades se proyecten para valorar lo que las comunidades tienen y desarrollarlo. No se necesita sacar a la gente de sus sitios sino llegar a ellos y lograr encender la espiral del desarrollo.

I have found that what is fundamental is to work in universal terms in this country, so that culture will grow even a millimeter within the territory. That is why I think that it is essential that culture has modern communication tools. I think radio is fundamental and also television, and the sources that flow from the Internet and the tools that enable people to communicate and have easy access to culture and universal knowledge. Anything that strengthens knowledge must be implemented, that is why it is so important that universities spread out and value what the communities have and help develop it. It is not necessary to press people out of where they are, but instead reach them there and so be able to ignite the wreath of development.

As a writer Carmen Naranjo was a key figure during the change that Costa Rican society suffered in the decades starting in the 50s, after the collapse of the government of Calderón Guardia, and up until the early 80s. In Carmen's time, the country was defined by a conservative society and a rigid class system. The main literary trope was the honorable and sincere man of the countryside. It was a figure of simple wit and common sense, reflecting the idea that the upper class had of their origins and destiny.

Carmen Naranjo wrote from the attitudes of the new urban middle class, challenging the imaginary cherished by a society that was changing forever. The young urban people experienced the pressure of coming to terms with a new and diverse society, with politics that began to be pervaded by new ideas and upwardly moving young and ambitious politicians. Hers was a literature of rupture, protest and renovation.

Alfonso Chase, a fellow writer and friend, is quoted by Michelle Soto in La Nación [es]:

La aparición de Carmen Naranjo como poeta en los años 60 fue una revelación, pero también un rompimiento con la tradición literaria costarricense. Ya el campesino no era tan Magón ni tan Aquileo. Carmen era totalmente urbana y era una hija de la Segunda República. […]Era una mujer para ahora. Hubiera sido muy interesante en estos momentos porque este es el tiempo de los indignados.

The emergence of Carmen Naranjo as a poet in the Sixties was a revelation, but also a rupture with the literary tradition of Costa Rica. The peasant was not anymore so Magón [Manuel González Zeledón] or Aquileo [Aquileo J. Echeverría. Magón and Aquileo are the two authors that created the bucolic literary image of the Costa Rican peasant]. Carmen was totally urban and a daughter of the Second Republic […] She was a woman for today. She would be very appealing now in the time of the outraged. (See Notes below)

Benedicto Víquez writes about Carmen Naranjo in the blog El arte literario y su teoría [es]:

Sus personajes son innominados, se convierten en voces llenas de angustia, luchando por encontrarle sentido a la vida y la muerte, rescatando los instantes de felicidad en su larga lucha por sobrevivir en una sociedad llena de prejuicios, superficialidad, vacuidad y alienante […]

Her characters are unnamed and turned into voices filled with anguish, fighting to make sense of life and death, recovering the moments of joy from a long battle to survive in an alienating society full of prejudices, superficiality and emptiness.

Finally, Víquez writes in El arte literario y su teoría [es] about Naranjo's novel Los perros no ladraron:

Los personajes viven directamente la burocracia de la ciudad, se enfrentan crudamente a ella, en vivo, sufren la impotencia para resolver las más insignificantes diligencias, tales como buscar trabajo, ser atendidos por un empleado ante una solicitud, tan simple como pagar un recibo, sacar una cita, subir en un ascensor, caminar por la ciudad, aspirar a un ascenso, etc.

The characters experience the bureaucracy of the city directly, they face it crudely in the flesh, they suffer the impotency to resolve the most insignificant matters, like finding a job, receive attention from a clerk to a petition, simple issues like paying a bill, make an appointment, take an elevator, walk in the city, aim for a raise, etc.

Central America: LibreBus Project Presents its Documentary

Jenny Cascante Gonzalez — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 18:17:39 +0000

Several months have passed since the LibreBus [es] collective project traveled across the streets of five different Central America countries looking for free culture and knowledge sharing enthusiasts.

As Jane Park explained in October, 2011:

Librebus, a project inspired by Free Culture principles, consisted of a regional tour spanning most of May of this year [2011] to explore Central American shared culture and digital communities. Twenty-seven “librenautas” [free navigators] with different nationalities, backgrounds and skills, from the free software community, Creative Commons chapters, freedom of speech activists and natural commons experts, shared their “open” knowledge with others in a variety of activities, from roundtables to public data hackathons and the first Central American CC Salon in Guatemala.

Conversations were held in each city with representatives of diverse communities that promote the use of information technology and communication. LibreBus ‘free navigators' also organized meetings with digital natives whose contributions complemented to the discussion on free software and the defense of freedom of speech and content sharing.

Musicians, artists and users in general were able to learn about the cultural commons licenses. Also, participants had the opportunity to learn about the development of knowledge and technological constraints that farmers face in the region because of the legislation and use of transgenic seeds.

A documentary [es] showing the different interactions that took place during the tour through Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala, is now available online. The organizers are open to arranging a similar tour in the future, under the same flag: free collective knowledge.

These are some extracts from the documentary:

El 16 de mayo de 2011 LibreBus dejó de ser un viaje por Centroamérica para convertirse en un compromiso.

On May 16, 2011 LibreBus was not just a trip through Central America, it became a commitment.

LibreBus leaving Honduras. Image by Flickr user LibreBus (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

24 personas subieron y bajaron en el trayecto pero son muchos más los que comparten la filosofía de ser librenauta.

24 people got on and off the bus along the way but there are many more who share the philosophy of being a free navigator.

Ser librenauta es seguir un camino: el del conocimiento libre para todos y todas.

To be a free navigator is to follow a path: free knowledge for everyone.

Information on presentations related to free software, photographs of the trip, and posts published by some participants can be found on the LibreBus [es] website. You can also follow the project on Twitter @Librebus [es] and Facebook [es].

Latin America: Youth Unemployment

Silvia Viñas — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 11:22:56 +0000

Bloggings by boz looks at youth unemployment in Latin America, concluding that “with growth projections decreased for 2011 and 2012, the current situation for youth unemployment is almost certainly getting worse. That could have major economic, political and social implications moving into 2012.”

Costa Rica: Numerous Sectors Oppose Government Tax Plan

Kathryn Morgan — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 18:41:57 +0000

[All links lead to Spanish language pages except when otherwise noted]

At the moment, the priority for the Costa Rican government is to pass a tax plan named “Solidaridad Tributaria” (Tax Solidarity) (See hashtag #planfiscal), and as a result, it has gone so far as to leave the agenda for the Legislative Assembly (Congress) blank, so that only this subject can be discussed.

However, different sectors of society, political parties and businessmen have declared their strong opposition to this fiscal reform, which was halted by an action of unconstitutionality imposed by Luis Fishman, a member of the opposition. This appeal is founded on the fact that the “vía rápida” (fast-track), as it is called by Congress, does not allow members to have a good enough look at the plan. The fast-track is used for priority projects and it reduces the margin of time for discussion about voting on a law.

Ciitzens also raised their voices against the tax package, and on December 13, more than two thousand people marched to the Legislative Assembly to demand it to put an end to the plan. The point that generated most disagreement was the proposed change of the 13% sales tax, which applies to consumer goods, to a value-added tax of 14%, which would also include the services that have, so far, been exonerated from any changes.

Criticism of the Fiscal Plan during the protests by indignant Costa Ricans 11 November 2011. Photo: Luis Diego Molina.

Blogger El Chamuko wrote about the movement against the plan in El Infierno en Costa Rica (The Inferno in Costa Rica):

Este Chamuko ve con buenos ojos que al fin se lograra articular en un solo movimiento a los sectores populares contra este garrotazo gestado por el pacto PALI [”el pacto PALI” es un apodo que se utiliza en redes sociales para denominar el pacto que realizaron el partido gobernante Liberación Nacional y el Partido Acción Ciudadana, segunda fuerza política del país, que desembocó en el Plan Fiscal que se encuentra en estudio]. Este Chamuko cree firmemente que el gobierno debe recaudar bien los impuestos existentes y eliminar completamente el 70% de evasión fiscal, y esto no se logra cerrando soditas y tiendas de tarjetas, son necesarias acciones más contundentes para agarrar a los grandes evasores.”

Chamuko clearly sees that in the end the public sectors will manage to come together in a single movement against the blow dealt by “el pacto PALI” (the PALI pact) [”el pacto PALI” is a nickname used by social networking sites to refer to the pact carried out by the ruling Partido Liberación Nacional (National Liberation Party) and the Partido Acción Ciudadana (Civil Action Party), the second political force in the country, which culminated in the Fiscal Plan found in the study]. Chamuko strongly believes that the government must collect up the existing taxes and completely eliminate 70% of tax evasion, and this won't close the cafes and the gift-card shops, more severe actions are necessary to catch the big tax evaders.

The syndicates that called for protests warned that it would continue until next year, regardless of whether party members approve the plan. On the webpage for the Association for Teachers of Secondary Education (APSE), an important syndicate, affirms that:

Si el proyecto es aprobado en primer debate antes del 24 de diciembre, no nos cruzaremos de brazos; las acciones de protesta seguirán en el 2012, aun cuando la Sala Cuarta declare que no contiene vicios de inconstitucionalidad”.

If the project is approved before December 24, we will not fold our arms; the protest action will continue in 2012, even if the Fourth Chamber declares that it does not contain unconstitutional faults.

On the same day as the protest, the University Council of the University of Costa Rica issued a statement which expressed that the plan “is inconvenient for the country” and it appealed to the government to combat tax evasion (click here to see the statement as a .pdf). Previously, business groups were also opposed to the plan [en].

Against this background, the government's aim of approving this project before the end of the year has been greatly complicated. Costa Rica will close out 2011 with the largest fiscal deficit in Latin America, putting the government firmly between a rock and a hard place on this issue.

Aware of the urgent need to find solutions to this dilemma, David Solís, a citizen, commented via an opinion article published in the digital magazine Amauta:

Los sectores populares estamos dispuestos pagar impuestos pero que sea de forma equitativa, lo cual implica derrotar este plan fiscal y generar un real acuerdo social respetuoso para las familias trabajadoras donde el Estado perciba más impuesto por un proyecto que rompa la regresividad de los impuestos actuales y de los propuestos por el PLN-PAC.”

The public sectors are willing to pay taxes as long as they are fair, which would imply a need to end this fiscal plan and generate a real respectful social agreement for working families, where the State receives more tax for a project that breaks the current regressive taxes and the proposals of the PLN-PAC.

Latin America: Social Networks Bring Recognition to Primary Recyclers

Betsy Galbreath — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 18:46:26 +0000

[All links lead to Spanish language pages except when otherwise noted]

“Being aware of the value of social networks, we will take advantage of them. So if you're one of our followers, you'll notice we're on Twitter”. With this statement, the Latin American and Caribbean Network of Recyclers (Red LACRE in Spanish) celebrates the 500 followers gained on its site in three months of work since they opened their account @redlacre. They are celebrating, but they want more, because the challenge is to reach 1,000 soon and keep going in order to extend this network of contacts that allows them to promote the value of their work much easier.

But what is a primary recycler? They are the people whose business is to gather, choose, recover, transform, market and reuse solid wastes from the primary source, making it their main source of income. In our countries, we commonly call recyclers by different names. For example, in Chile and Argentina they are known as cartoneros, in Mexico pepenador, and in Nicaragua buzo [translator's note: all terms loosely translate to “waste picker”], among other names they would like to do away with, so that they can be recognized as primary recyclers or simply recyclers (reciclador in Spanish and catador in Portuguese).

Recyclers in Guatemala, by Exequiel Estay, Facebook Red Lacre, used with permission.

They have been organizing across the continent since the early 90s and now have a formal network, Red LACRE, which consists of 15 countries and 4 more will soon join. The purpose of their movement is to be recyclers “with inclusion”, that is, each country guarantees that it will allow and formally recognize their work. The key to realizing this objective is enhancing visibility via the Internet and social networks, among the best tools they have to help advance their goals more rapidly.

These networks also allow us to understand better what a recycler is and how valuable his work is. We find that in Wikipedia, on October 23, 2011, (according to their site), the term “Primary Recycler” appears, where we are given some key points to better understand this profession.

Se distingue además de cualquier otro tipo de reciclador, por ser quien trabaja directamente en donde se depositan los residuos, lo que comúnmente se conoce como basura. Por ello, la selección de los residuos sólidos, los hace desde el lugar de disposición primaria y los transportan hacia el lugar donde se realiza la selección fina y enfardado, para una venta posterior. Se entiende por selección fina la separación de distintas calidades de materiales, lo que le permite el acceso a mejores rangos de precio.

“They are also distinguished from any other type of recycler, because they work directly where waste is deposited, what is commonly called trash. The sorting of solid waste is made at the first site of deposit, then transported to another area for secondary sorting and wrapping for later sale. Secondary sorting is understood as separating out various qualities of materials, which allows for access to better price ranges”.

Conversation in 140 characters

Embroidered Logo for the Recyclers of Chile. Photograph by Chilean Recyclers, imaged used with permission

Looking at the Twitter accounts of the recyclers who are organized through their network, we see a kind of raising-awareness and education campaign to learn about their work.

Statements like “we live off of recycling” or “RedLacre fights to formalize our work and improve current labor conditions” are repeated in their messages, as well as other messages that give more hard facts that enable us to gauge the impact of this work, such as “Did you know that the number of people who live off of recycling in Latin America is more than 4 million?” or “We help save municipal budgets. We recycle waste from your neighborhood and create jobs”.

Similar conversations do not only revolve around explaining the work, but also begin to paint a picture of the characteristics of the countries involved and the specific scenarios that make up the realities in each country. Add to this the comments made with reference to this profession:

Alvaro Alaniz (@alaniz_a): En Brasil, las latas de Coca Cola tienen la imagen e historia del pdte de una cooperativa de recicladores de Rio. INCLUSION!

Alvaro Alaniz (@alaniz_a): In Brazil, the Coca Cola cans have the image and story of the president of a cooperative of recyclers in Rio. INCLUSION!

Exequiel Estay Tapia (@RECICLADORESYA): recicladores chilenos luchando por una inclusión en el anteproyecto de ley de residuos…inclusión verdadera YAAAAAAAA

Exequiel Estay Tapia (@RECICLADORESYA): Chilean recyclers fighting for inclusion in the draft solid waste laws, true inclusion NOW.

Francisco Pollak (@panchopollak), también refiriéndose a Chile: Hoy conocí tres historias de los llamados “cartoneros” convertidos en recicladores y emprendedores. La materia prima es voluntad.

Francisco Pollak (@panchopollak), also referring to Chile: Today I learned the stories of three so-called “cartoneros” transformed into recyclers. Their will is their raw material.

PLACC (@cclimatico): Recicladores de Perú se formalizan y crean pequeñas y medianas empresas #cambioclimatico #Gestiónderesiduos.

PLACC (@cclimatico): The recyclers of Perú organize and create small and medium businesses #climatechange #wastemanagement.

CiViSOL (@civisol), sobre Colombia: Por inclusión simulada de recicladores la Corte suspendió la licitación de aseo de Bogotá. Esta es la historia >larepublica.co//archivos/ECON…

CiViSOL (@civisol), about Colombia: Because of the deception involving inclusion of recyclers, the Court suspended the bidding for waste removal in Bogotá. This is the story > larepublica.co//archivos/ECON… [es]

Friends with benefits

Facebook is another social network where we find a strong presence of the different recycle cooperatives that exist on the continent. Here we see how the traditional bulletin board has moved to the computer screen and this large virtual community has become a coordinator of actions, and promoter of experiences and identities.

Photographs, videos and links add information such as hours of operation, grant requirements, course dates, and a series of data useful to the public about the work of all the groups and its members.

Image of Inside Out Montevideo. Photograph by Jorge Meoini, used with permission

The page for the Network has more than 700 friends and from there one can access other groups such as the Recycling Dream Cooperative of Montevideo Uruguay (Cooperativa Reciclando Sueños de Montevideo Uruguay.) This group shares on its wall the experience of a group of recyclers whose faces were photographed to appear on billboards in various areas of the city, as part of the international project Inside Out (financed by the TED award).

According to the artists who created the work, Magdalena Gurmendez y Agustín Fernández, the images are a way of providing recognition of the vital work the recyclers perform in the city.

La tarea de clasificación de residuos es uno de los primero pasos en la cadena del reciclaje, por lo general esta tarea se realiza en pésimas condiciones de trabajo -recorriendo la ciudad en carros para buscar en los contenedores-, pero el trabajo en cooperativas permite una dinámica distinta, trabajar bajo techo, con residuos pre-clasificados…

“The job of sorting waste is one of the first steps in the recycling chain, and in general this work is performed in dreadful work conditions — traveling the city in carts looking in dumpsters — but working in cooperatives provides a different dynamic, working indoors, with pre-sorted waste…”

In conclusion, this fight for inclusion gets its strength through social networks. There, the workers gain a new space, from the streets to the heart of social networks, to no longer be invisible, to garner understanding of their work as a profession and how it should be formalized. The Internet is at the service of recycling, of the environment and of the generation of new economies, so that with a click, we rediscover this work that we usually don't even see.

Gerardo Espíndola Rojas is Product Manager of Red Mi VOZ. Read more about our partnership with Mi VOZ [en].

Costa Rica: Environmental Activists Denounce Repression

Silvia Viñas — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 14:04:53 +0000

Diego Molina in Dame un campo [es] summarizes the experiences shared by environmental activists and lawyers during a conference on “Criminalization of the social-environmental protest” held in the University of Costa Rica. Participants denounced the repression they face as a consequence of their activism.

Costa Rica: Viral Campaign Says Country is Run by Clowns

Oscar Howell — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 18:29:07 +0000

A viral video has spread in Costa Rica in the first days of November. It seems to be a high budget production that makes a pun out of the country's name, calling it “Costa Risa” (i.e. “Costa Laughs”).

The video, uploaded to YouTube [es] (with 24,000+ views) compares Costa Rica to a circus, where high taxes, corruption and criminals have their way and laugh at the taxpayer and regular citizen. The campaign is seen as a well funded attempt to influence public opinion using social media.

Video screenshot from Amelia Rueda Blog

The government has been working to pass a new fiscal package that has found opposition, especially amongst the private sector. The video, which is released by a group called “República de Costa Risa” [es], is part of a social media and viral communication strategy with webpages, blogs, and Twitter (@RCostaRisa, #costarisa) and Facebook accounts. The group's press communication is signed by Luis Loria, who is a leader of the ANFE [es] (National Association for Economic Promotion), an interest group in Costa Rica.

The video [es] features a circus of sorts called “Costa Risa” and several grotesque clowns that dance and sing to a carnival-like tune. The text of the song claims that the governing class is intended on preserving a status of disorder for their own and their cronies' benefit:

Costa Risa is my country, and it must be governed like this, theft and poverty a-plenty, a paradise of corruption…

The press release of the “República de Costa Risa” movement [es] communicates that the video and the staged clowns are part of a citizens' movement to stop the “ransacking” by the government:

La República de Costa Risa es un país ficticio que nace gracias a la iniciativa y apoyo de ciudadanos que rechazan el manejo irresponsable de las finanzas públicas y la intención del Gobierno de Costa Rica de profundizar el saqueo legal de los costarricenses por medio de la aprobación de un nocivo “paquetazo” de impuestos

The Republic of Costa Risa is a fictitious country that is born thanks to the initiative and support of citizens that reject the reckless management of public finances, and the plan of the Government of Costa Rica to deepen the legal ransacking of Costaricans by voting a bill creating a big and noxious package of new taxes.

Blogger Oscar Cruz [es] comments on the big budget necessary to produce the video, and questions its validity as a real product of the concerns of the people. He sees it as a misuse of the values of the country by an interest group that has found common cause with the people, and uses social media to spread a shallow and propagandistic message. The problem is that private capital interests enter the political arena using social media:

Si esto está patrocinado por dinero de conglomerados empresariales es grave; es grave el daño institucional que se hace al imaginario de los costarricenses, de lo que nosotros mismos pensamos de este país. Decir que este país es una payasada de manera tan públicamente publicitaria es un daño increíble a la institucionalidad.

If this is paid by the money of conglomerates, it is serious; the damage done to the institutions of the costarican imaginary is serious, equally to what we think of our own country. To say that this country is a charade in such an openly commercial manner is an incredible damage to the national institutions.

He adds:

[…] esto es incitantemente absurdo, esto busca claramente la empatía del pueblo para amasar una bola de nieve popular que cuestione, que se rebele - […] esto es la viralidad per sé y ese es un objetivo fútil.

[…] this is provocatively absurd, this seeks clearly the empathy of the people to set off a popular snow ball that questions, that rebels- this is the pure viral effect, but a futile objective.

José Medrano, founder of Ticoblogger.org, the service that hosts the Costa Risa page, writes in his personal blog [es] that every user may publish any content, without censorship, and that the distribution of content must be open to all, of course excepting Ticoblogger of endorsing any content of the service.

La capacidad de burlarse de sí mismo, o en el caso en especifico de la propia nación, denotan seguridad por sus sentimientos hacia sí mismos o hacia la patria, por lo cual siempre que se busque un efecto positivo en la sociedad debería verse con buenos ojos […] por lo cual muchos en vez de sentirse ofendidos por ser caricaturizados en esta realidad costarrisible, deberíamos tomar alguna acción, aunque sea fiscalizando el actuar político mediante blogs.

The capacity to make fun of oneself, or in this case of your own country, demonstrates security in front of oneself and the country, that is why we should see this [campaign] as good, so far as the goal is to affect a positive change in society […], and many, instead of being offended by being caricaturized in such a way, should take action and scrutinize the political actions by blogging [es].

He goes on to remark:

Me parece que si estas en contra de los impuestos la campaña te llama a la acción, y en un caso especifico e innovador, te brinda la posibilidad de mediante su página web, hacerle llegar por correo inmediatamente a todos los diputados en tiempo real, por lo que es una excelente oportunidad para hacernos sentir, eso si, de manera respetuosa.

I think that if you are against the new taxes, the campaign calls you to action, and in a very innovative idea, gives you the opportunity, by way of the webpage [es], to send an email to all congress members in real time, which is an excellent opportunity to make ourselves heard, but as always in a polite manner.

Photo of the circus act, from the Facebook account of ANFE

All the while, the Facebook page of the ANFE [es], the organization behind the social media campaign, contains a post [es] comparing the use of the video to a strategy of using representation to unmask the powerful:

El organizar una obra de teatro (un espectáculo musical de Circo, en el caso de la “República de Costa Risa”), que refleje las sospechas de la gente, es un recurso muy válido para descubrir si estas tienen fundamento. Eso es, precisamente, lo que hizo, hace unos 400 años, Shakespeare con “La Muerte de Gonzago”, en Hamlet, para desenmascarar a Claudio.

To stage a play (a musical circus act in the case of “República de Costa Risa”) that reflects the suspicions of the people, is indeed a valid resource to discover if those have any footing. This is precisely what Shakespeare did 400 years ago in Hamlet, using “the Murder of Gonzago” to unmask Claudius.

In a world where activism has merged with social media, all the players involved have a shot at using the medium in the best way possible. Citizen journalists, bloggers, mass media, political parties and politicians, private companies and intellectuals, governments democratic or other: all compete for the same trickle of relevance and impact in cyberspace.

If a group has greater resources at disposal, it does not mean that the virality and vitality of its message is greater. What counts, at the end of the day, is the sense of urgency of the dwellers of a new public sphere that has its own rules of leverage.

Central America: Bloggers Attempt to Raise Awareness as Heavy Rains Continue

Silvia Viñas — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 18:35:05 +0000

Mike from Central American Politics links to English language blogs covering the damage caused by the heavy rains that have been falling on Central America for over one week.

Central America: The Dangerous Journey of Female Migrants

Silvia Viñas — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 18:13:10 +0000

“Every year, thousands of migrants risk their lives on a treacherous journey toward el norte, facing violence, extortion, kidnapping and discrimination. However, female migrants face a heightened risk of exploitation in the form of sexual violence and trafficking at the hands of many groups: criminal gangs, corrupt officials, law enforcement, immigration or security forces and other migrants.” Amanda Tello reports in the blog Witness for Peace.