Global Voices » Uruguay

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.

Uruguay: How to turn waste into a wallet

Paula Góes — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 13:53:55 +0000

After running into a Uruguayan artisan who turns waste products into beautiful and useful objects, Lucía Terra shows how to turn an empty coffee bag into a wallet by upcycling. “And 10 minutes later had my own upcycled, colorful, waterproof wallet with triple compartments for coins, small bills, and large bills. On top of everything, it smells like coffee. Isn't that much nicer than dirty coin smell?”

Uruguay: Summer in Montevideo

Silvia Viñas — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 15:23:45 +0000

Lola, in 7 neuronas [es] (”7 neurons”), provides some information and links to cultural and sports events that will take place during these Summer months in Montevideo.

Latin America, 2011: A Year Marked by Social Movements

Silvia Viñas — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 15:07:04 +0000

As the Arab Spring unfolded throughout 2011, and as Spain’s indignados and the now worldwide ‘Occupy’ movement gained momentum, important social movements also rose up across Central and South America.

In 2011, Latin Americans took to the streets in big cities and small towns to defend their right to education, protect their lands from road and mining projects, and demand peace. Now, we remember the Global Voices Latin American team's coverage of these important mobilizations as we look back on 2011.

Student movements

Images of Chilean student protests made news around the world for months. While most international media focused on the recurring clashes between protesters and the police, on social networks citizens shared analysis, reports, images and videos from the ground.

For over six months, Chilean high school and university students staged various protests to demand an overhaul of the educational system. Students blogged and live-streamed their tomas (school occupations) documenting their experience inside the schools. They also uploaded citizen videos of cacerolazos (pot banging demonstrations) and the various incidents - negative and positive - that took place during protests, including a video which shows students stopping a group of violent protesters.

The student movement remained a hot topic on social networks as protests continued; in October, the Chilean Ministry of Interior presented an ‘Anti-Occupation' bill to congress and later invoked a State Security Law, heating up the debate among netizens.

Meanwhile, in Colombia, students and professors held meetings and protested against a proposal to reform the higher education ‘Law 30′ that would, among other things, allow private investment in public universities.

Six months later, workers and students joined in a nationwide demonstration, and university students began a university strike demanding the government withdraw the bill to reform Law 30 from congress. On the eve of a nationwide protest scheduled for November 10, President Juan Manuel Santos announced he would withdraw the bill if students lifted the strike.

Despite the announcement, demonstrations were held on November 10 and in Bogotá students ‘occupied' Bolivar Square. The next day, the Presidency's Twitter account reported the President had asked congress to remove the bill, and in the following days students began to gradually return to class.

"We've said: enough" Students protest on November 10, 2011 in Bogotá. Image by Flickr user Juan Camaron (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

But student protests had not ended for the year. Inspired by the student movements in Colombia and Chile, on November 24, students throughout Latin America marched to demand free, high-quality education.

Controversial projects

In 2011, several Latin American countries faced a recurring dilemma: mines, roads, and other projects that promised economic growth and development also raised environmental concerns and threatened to infringe upon indigenous rights.

In June, Bolivian President Evo Morales announced a controversial project to build a road that would go through the Indigenous Territory National Park Isiboro Sécure (TIPNIS); in August, indigenous groups and their supporters began a 500 kilometer march towards La Paz to oppose the project.

In September, reports of police repression against the indigenous marchers spread on social networks. As a result, citizens began to mobilize both online and on the streets to show their support for the cause to defend TIPNIS. Netizens like Luis Chuquimia (@chuquijosel) [es] described the arrival of the marchers to La Paz on October 19:

las calles pacenhas….quedaron flores, mixtura, banderas de papel…lagrimas, abrazos…sonrisas..pasos que calan historias #TIPNIS ES VIDA

the streets of La Paz….filled with flowers, confetti, paper flags… tears, hugs…smiles, steps that make history #TIPNIS is LIFE

Finally, on October 21, President Morales announced the road will not go through TIPNIS.

TIPNIS march. Image by Flickr user Pablo Rivero (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

In November, in neighboring Peru, bloggers reflected on several mining protests, including demonstrations against the Minas Conga gold mining project in Cajamarca. A strike caused the company to suspend the project, which, as Global Voices author Isabel Guerra explained:

[is] considered to be the largest mining investment in the history of Peru, [and] according to its opponents threatens to destroy some 20 lagoons, which serve as a foundation for local ecosystems and a source of water for farming communities.

Protests continued well into December despite the suspension, as opponents called for the total cancellation of the project; as a result, the government declared a state of emergency. The conflict is not yet resolved, but local bloggers have continued reporting from Cajamarca, and social networks users from all over Peru will keep sharing their reactions as events unfold.

Another mining controversy that has caused mixed opinions involves open-pit iron ore mine ‘Aratiri' in Centro Chato, a small village in central Uruguay. In 2011, the controversial project divided Uruguayan netizens: some see it as an opportunity for employment and economic growth, while others are concerned about the environmental consequences and question whether the country will actually benefit from the mine’s profits. Developments will surely be followed closely by bloggers in 2012.

Marching for peace

Mexico's Drug War, a major military operation against drug cartels launched by President Felipe Calderón in December 2006, has left tens of thousands of victims. In 2011, Mexican citizens took to the streets and the Internet to say ‘enough'.

In May, Mexicans participated in a massive 4-day, nationwide march for peace, and demonstrations were also held in countries around the globe on May 8.

The march, which began in Cuernavaca on May 5 and ended in Mexico City on the 8, was organized by Mexican poet and activist Javier Sicilia, who became the leader of the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity [es] after his son was killed.

With the Mexican blogosphere buzzing with commentary on the issue of violence, GV en Español organized a blog carnival on “Citizenry, Violence and Blogs”. The following posts summarize the results of the carnival:

Shortly after the Blog Carnival, reports of online activists becoming targets and victims of brutal killings stirred social networks. In a guest post for Global Voices Advocacy, ARTICLE19 explained:

Against a backdrop of endemic violence against journalists, social networks and other online communication platforms such as “Nuevo Laredo en Vivo” are increasingly being used by citizens - especially in Tamaulipas [to] break the silence around criminal activities that are not being reported in the press because of the pervading climate of fear and self-censorship.

As Mexico prepares to elect a new president in 2012, the War on Drugs and how to reach peace will surely keep the conversation on social networks going.

The Latin American team will work hard to amplify more of these important citizen voices from across the region in 2012. If you'd like to help us, we have several author vacancies for you to consider and there are multiple ways you can get involved in the Global Voices community. We hope you will join us as you continue reading, commenting, and sharing our stories; you can also follow us on Twitter @gvamericalatina.

Happy New Year!

‘Developing Latin America': Open Data Projects

Kathryn Morgan — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 23:25:37 +0000

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

Previously we reported on [en] the ‘Developing Latin America' competition (Desarrollando América Latina), or #DAL, a public hackathon that aims to create technological solutions to problems in education, security and public budget, in six countries in the region. Now it's time to report its results.

The Intelligent Citizen Foundation [en] (Fundación Ciudadano Inteligente), which organised the event, determined that there were local winners, in addition to the general and regional winners, so the competitiveness in each venue was an added ingredient to the challenge of managing to complete an interesting application based on existing open data, within the time limit.

CitiVox [en] and OpenDataMx talk about the event in Mexico:

Part of the Mexican team. Photo by Desarrollando América Latina.

participaron poco menos de 50 jóvenes, de varios estados de la república, desde Sonora hasta Oaxaca. Se formaron diez equipos que trabajaron en 30 horas en diversos temas, desde seguridad pública hasta la transparencia de la nómina estatal. Finalmente presentaron sus proyectos ante un jurado formado por Mónica Aspe (Coordinación de la Sociedad de la Información y el Conocimiento, SCT), Eric Gundersen (Seed Development) y Andrés Lajous (revista Nexos). Después de escuchar las presentaciones de los equipos y de deliberar se anunció que el segundo lugar sería para el proyecto Nuestra Info por su vanguardia y potencial para presentar datos públicos difíciles de accesar. El primer lugar fue para Xmatch por hacer accesible la información y la visualización comparativa de datos en mapas.

little fewer than 50 young people, from various states, from Sonoro to Oaxaca took part. They made up ten teams that worked for 30 hours on different subjects, from public security to the transparency of the governmental payroll. In the end they presented their work in front of a panel made up on Mónica Aspe (Coordinación de la Sociedad de la Información y el Conocimiento, SCT), Eric Gundersen (Seed Development) and Andrés Lajous (Nexos magazine). After listening to the teams' presentations and deliberating, they announced that second place would go to the Nuestra Info (Our info) project for it's orginality and its potential to present difficult-to-access public data. First place went to Xmatch for making the visualisation of comparative data maps and information accessible.

Fayerwayer did the same on the Chilean side:

En Chile, el evento […] se llevó a cabo en la Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, concluyendo con la presentación de nueve proyectos de Santiago y cuatro de Temuco. […] Los tres primeros lugares fueron:

Proyecto “Escuela Popular”: desarrollado por los ucranianos residentes en Chile Oleh Burkhay y Nadiia Vasylchenko, se trata de un portal que permita tener información actualizada y profunda de los colegios y escuelas del país. […] permite a las personas entregar puntos según diferentes indicadores a cada colegio, y comentar respecto al mismo, entregando mejor información a los padres que estén buscando la mejor alternativa.

Proyecto “Presupuéstate”: […] busca proyectar cuánto necesitan ahorrar a largo plazo los padres de un estudiante para pagar la universidad del hijo. La aplicación hace el cálculo según el sueldo de la persona, mostrando una proyección de los aranceles según carrera. También hace recomendaciones de qué colegios pueden servirle al alumno para entrar a la carrera que quiere, según los puntajes PSU [Prueba de Selección Universitaria] de corte de cada carrera.

Proyecto “Punto Seguro”: es una plataforma donde las personas de un barrio pueden marcar en el mapa un lugar de conflicto (donde ocurren robos, violencia, etc) y generar una discusión con los vecinos donde dar ideas sobre cómo combatir esa situación (instalar luminarias, organizar sistemas de alarma entre vecinos, etc).

In Chile, the competition took place at the Adolfo Ibáñez University, ending with a presentation of nine projects from Santiago and four from Temuco. The top three were:

“Public School” project (Proyecto “Escuela Popular”): Developed by Ukrainians Oleh Burkhay and Nadiia Vasylchenko living in Chile, it is a portal that allows accurate and detailed information about schools in the country. It allows people to give points to schools regarding different categories and comment about them, thus giving better information to parents who are looking for the best option.
“Budget yourself” project (Proyecto “Presupuéstate”): It sought to project how much parents would need to save in the long term to be able to pay for their child to go to university. The application made a calculation based on a person's salary, showing a projection of different tariffs relating to different careers. It also made recommendations about which schools could help the students enter the degree path they desire, according to the University Selection Test grades taken from each degree.
“Safe Point” project (Proyecto “Punto Seguro”): A platform where people from a neighbourhood can mark a conflict area (where robberies, violence e.t.c occur) on a map and create discussions with neighbours, in which they exchange ideas about how to combat the situation (install streetlamps, organise alarm systems amongst neighbours e.t.c).

Part of the Peruvian teams. Photo by Maru Panta/Escuelab.

In Perú, Escuelab reports about the winners from the 12 participating groups (Disclaimer: I [Juan Arellano] was part of the DAL panel in Lima):

El jurado otorgó el primer lugar al grupo #OTA por el proyecto Quiero Ir! que mediante un punto de inicio indicado manualmente o usando el GPS muestra en un mapa las rutas (líneas de transporte público) que llevan al usuario hasta el destino seleccionado. La aplicación ofrece además información referente a la empresa de transporte (número de ruta, distrito inicial, distrito final, etc) así como una foto referencial de la unidad.

En segundo lugar se eligió al equipo SEUSS. Su aplicación presupuestando.pe, brinda información de manera dinámica acerca de los indicadores presupuestales de los gobiernos regionales y locales proporcionando un fácil acceso a la información incentivando la participación ciudadana. (Presupuesto a nivel nacional). El proyecto se puede ver aquí: http://bibliotecuss.iideasperu.org/presupuestando/

En tercer lugar se eligió a ¡Salvemos las Huacas!, una plataforma web de mapeo ciudadano orientada a la defensa, conservación y protección del patrimonio arqueológico ante la amenaza del desborde urbano en nuestra ciudad.

The panel awarded first place to the #OTA group for the Quiero Ir! (I want to go!) project that, by means of a manually- or GPS-inputted starting point, mapped the (public transport) routes that would take the user to their selected destination. The application also offered information about the route (route number, starting point, final destination, e.t.c) as well as a reference photo of the vehicle.

The SEUSS team was given second place. Its presupuestando.pe application offers information in a dynamic way about the budgetry indicators of the regional and local governments, providing easy access to the information and encouraging citizen participation. (Budget at national level). The project can be seen here: http://bibliotecuss.iideasperu.org/presupuestando.

Third place was given to ¡Salvemos las Huacas! (We save the tombs), a web platform for a citizen map orientated towards the defence, conservation and protection of our archaeological heritage against the threat of urban overflow in our city.

In Argentina the winning projects were: 1- Del boletin (The Bulletin), 2- Datos Universitarios (University Data) and 3- Qué Sabemos de? (What do we know about…). In Brazil the Onde Acontece? (Where does it happen) project is reported to have won; and in Uruguay the following projects won: 1- Gobierno transparente (Transparent Government), 2- Reporte de Mapas (Map Report), 3- Moña Azul (Blue Bow). Finally the #DAL organisers announced the regional level winners:

1. Brasil – Onde Acontece. Team: São Paulo Perl Mongers. Team Leader: Thaigo Rondon.

2. Chile – Escuela Popular. Team: Oleyna. Team leader: Oleh Burkay.

3. Uruguay – Moña Azul. Team: Moñita Azul. Team leader: Fernando Briano.

DAL also added that “The developers, designers, engineers, professionals from the most diverse areas, gave a lesson to the world. Boundaries do not exist when it comes to solving real problems for our towns, nationalities don't exist when it comes to trying to solve problems that bring all Latin Americans together.”

Visualization of traffic accidents in Montevideo. Photo by Desarrollando América Latina.

Some of the developers that took part in the competition published their thoughts on their blogs. For example, Uruguayan developer Francisco Castro comments about the project he collaborated on:

Estuve participando en un grupo que busca acceder a la gente de “a pie” la información del parlamento. Datos interesantes, como las asistencias, los proyectos que presenta cada parlamentario; tanto los gastos suntuosos, como los pedidos de informes que estos parlamentarios realizan a las diversas dependencias del estado; … Transparencia. Darle al público también la posibilidad de opinar al respecto de cada asunto, de que la gente pueda indicar qué temas le interesan, y así informarse cada vez que se presenten proyectos, notas, etc… al respecto.

I was participating in a group that was seeking to make parliamentary information accessible to everyday people. Interesting data, like attendance, the projects proposed by each member; from the lavish spending to the credit reports that these members of parliament carry out on the state bodies;… Transparency. Give the public, as well, the possibility to express an opinion about each issue, the possibility to suggest issues of interest, and thus be informed each time that these projects, notices, e.t.c are introduced.

Sylvia, from the blog El mundo frente al mar, is another Uruguayan developer that took part in the competition. Out of all the things that the experience has given her, she mentions:

Todas las pilas para aprender rápido y bien otros lenguajes como Java y Python. Yo sólo soy estudiante de UTU y mi intención al ir fue la de aprender y no la de ganar. Ahora, que voy a tener un premio entre manos, las ganas de superarme más allá del curso que hago son muy fuertes.

Darse cuenta que con la informática también se puede ayudar en problemas diarios y en temas sociales. Sólo es cuestión de pensarlo y encontrarle la vuelta.

All of the things needed to to learn a language well and quickly like Java and Python. I'm just a UTU student and my intention was only to learn, not to win. Now that I'm going to get my hands on a prize, I'm really looking forward to going beyond the course I'm studying.

Realising that IT can help in daily problems and social issues. It's just a case of thinking about it and finding the way.

Also, Fernando Briano, another Uruguayan, in his blog Picando Código talks about his experience in #DAL and he concludes:

Me alegro de haber podido aportar mi granito de arena en algo mucho más grande que cada uno de los participantes, pero realizado con el trabajo colaborativo de todos.[…] Sabemos que estos proyectos, así como los proyectos de otros países, se segurián desarrollando. Próximamente habrán más hackatones de este estilo, donde espero ver más gente participando. Personalmente hoy estuve trabajando un poco en procesamiento de datos xls, ods y Google docs, y sé que Juan Manuel iba a mirar cosas de OCR para PDF y Fran estuvo mirando DJango (por influencia directa del evento). Sé que los demás equipos también piensan seguir el desarrollo, lo que marca el inicio de esta nueva etapa que comentaba. No hay que perder el impulso

I'm glad to have been able to do my bit in something much bigger than each individual participant, but that was carried out with the collaborative effort of all. […]We know that these projects, and those of other countries, keep on developing. There will be more hackathons like this one soon, where I hope to see more people taking part. Today I have worked a little on the xls, ods and Google docs data processing and I know that Juan Manuel was going to see the OCR things for PDF and Fran was watching DJango (by direct influence of the event). I know all the other teams also intend to keep on developing, which marks the beginning of this new phase that I mentioned. We must not lose momentum.

Exhibition of one of the Mexican teams. Photo by Desarrollando América Latina.

This competition has, in equal measures, served to encourage the idea of hackathons [en] and public hackers in the region and to organise the community of people from diverse disciplines with experience in the use and exploitation of open data bases.

This might be a good starting point both to generate similar replicas or more ambitious activities from civil society organisations interested in these issues, as well as for the simple spread of the concept of open data, e-government and the social use of IT amongst the developers of the region and others who are interested. Hopefully these types of initiatives will become widespread throughout all Latin American countries.

Post originally posted on Juan Arellano's personal blog.

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.”

Uruguayan Cinema

Silvia Viñas — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 17:46:28 +0000

Alvaro Fagalde blogs [es] about Uruguayan cinema. He says “Whisky” is without a doubt the best Uruguayan film, but criticizes that some believe all films have to follow that style. He argues that Uruguayan films don't need a lot of money, advertising, or a foreign cast; Uruguayan cinema, in his opinion, needs imagination, confidence, and professional screenwriters.

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].

Latin American Hackathon Seeks to Create Web Apps to Solve Social Problems

Silvia Viñas — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 17:37:24 +0000

On December 3 and 4, 2011, developers, designers, academics and other experts from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay, will participate in “Desarrollando América Latina” [es] (Developing Latin America), a 30 hour open data hackathon to develop web applications that help solve social problems related to education, public budgets, and security. Some bloggers, like Juan Arellano [es] from Peru and Fabrizio Scrollini [es] from Uruguay, have previewed the event from their country's perspective.

Uruguay's Unemployed Youth

Silvia Viñas — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 18:16:50 +0000

Denisse Gelber in the blog Reasons and people: rethinking Uruguay [es] writes about youth unemployment, presenting the stories of two young Uruguayans from different socioeconomic backgrounds but with the same problem: a lack of employment opportunities in their chosen field.

Uruguay's Candombe

Silvia Viñas — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 18:21:53 +0000

Eva Blair Smith from Ola Uruguay blogs about candombe music in a post titled “The Heartbreat of Uruguay: A History of Candombe Drumming.”

Latin America: Music Blog Loves to Discover New Songs

Silvia Viñas — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 15:14:17 +0000

The blog Amo descubrir canciones [es] (”I love to discover songs”) reviews music from around the world, with a special focus on Latin America. The blog includes specials with songs by country [es], song covers [es], and songs recommended by readers [es]. The latter category includes a post on “Songs to recommend during a conversation in an elevator” [es].

Uruguay: Controversy Over Former President's Statements on War With Argentina

Silvia Viñas — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 15:13:50 +0000

Former Uruguayan President Tabare Vazquez said he feared a dispute between Uruguay and Argentina over a paper mill would turn into an armed conflict. “This is a strange story” as Bloggings by boz reports, “and a strange shakeup in Uruguayan politics.” Boz also asks some questions sparked by Vazquez's statements. The BBC reports that Vazquez later said his comments were “inopportune”. The former President also announced he was quitting Uruguayan politics.

Uruguay Celebrates its Bicentennial

Silvia Viñas — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 12:09:13 +0000

Uruguay declared 2011 the year it would commemorate the bicentennial of its “emancipation process” which began in 1811, although independence was not declared until August 25, 1825. Through an official website and accounts on Twitter, Facebook, and Flickr, organizers have been spreading the word about the numerous events scheduled to take place throughout the year.

The bicentennial celebrations officially kicked off in February, but on Monday October 10 Uruguayans commemorated the appointment of José Artigas —Uruguay's national hero—as “Chief of the Orientales“, with a massive celebration featuring simultaneous artistic performances on four different stages in downtown Montevideo. According to El Observador [es], more than 300,000 people attended the events.

Guitar quartet Rica Cosa performing on February 27, 2011. Image by Pablo Castro (CC BY-NC 2.0)

The hashtag #bi100uy was widely used by Uruguayans to react with both praise [es] and criticism [es] to the live performances, the organization of the event and other matters that arose as the day went by. Meanwhile, bloggers reflected on various aspects of the events and on the Bicentennial celebration in general.

Mauricio Milano from Montevideo Blogger [es] confessed that he hoped to feel more excited about the bicentennial, and added:

Y honestamente no creo que el increible esfuerzo no solo económico sino humano que se está realizando para el Bicentenario (hay que reconocerlo, no sería posible sin el talento de muchas personas) se vea reflejado en más nacionalismo o una “reflexión histórica” más profunda en la gente. Al menos en mi caso, un gol de Forlán me hace sentir más uruguayo que el carnaval que se está preparando para esta noche, y lo que pienso sobre la historia de mi país no va a cambiar por ir a un concierto.

Honestly I don't think that the huge effort, not only economic but also human, that is being undertaken for the Bicentennial (you have to admit, this would not be possible without the talents of many) is resulting in more nationalism or a deeper “historical reflection”. At least in my case, a goal by [football player] Forlán makes me feel more Uruguayan than the carnival that is being prepared for tonight, and what I think about my country's history is not going to change as a result of going to a concert.

Chrisitan Libonatti [es] created a slideshow comprising the October 11 front pages of major Uruguayan newspapers. He noted that all of them included a spot with news about Monday's celebrations, but only two dedicated the entire front page to the previous day's events.

Esto es apenas un análisis para demostrar que habiendo miles de uruguayos caminando por las calles apenas dos medios le dedicaron su título principal. Un conflicto gremial, la inseguridad o cualquier otra cosa son más importantes que una fiesta popular.

Ni critico ni alabo ésto, sólo está bueno observarlo.

This is just an analysis to show that with thousands of Uruguayans walking the streets only two newspapers dedicated their main headline to [the event]. A union conflict, lack of security or anything else were more important than a national festival.

I neither praise nor criticize this, it's just interesting to watch.

Finally, considering what Uruguay and other countries in the region commemorate during these Bicentennial celebrations, blogger Anna Donner Rybak [es] goes back to the indigenous peoples who inhabited the continent before the arrival of European colonizers. She points out that most Uruguayans are of European descent, but she asks:

¿Y quién es entonces “bien” uruguayo? me pregunto. Y me respondo que los más cercanos son los descendientes de nuestros indios.

[…] me pregunto porqué se honra la memoria de quienes han venido a exterminar a los verdaderos argentinos, uruguayos, peruanos, bolivianos.

Who are “really” Uruguayan? I wonder. And I answer that those closest to that are the descendants of our indigenous peoples

[…] I wonder, why do we honor the memory of those who came to exterminate the real Argentinians, Uruguayans, Peruvians, Bolivians?

Uruguay: Concerns About Collecting Census Data Online

Silvia Viñas — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 18:30:52 +0000

The blog Uruguay: click para actualizar [es] (”click to refresh”) lays out several concerns about a website with an online questionnaire that closely resembles the official census survey. The people behind the website say they want to show that census data could be collected online rather than door-to-door.