We like to plug these whenever we see them. A fair trade sale is taking place in Minnesota to help people of Paraguay. A village in Paraguay wants to have sinks to wash in. So money raised from this sale in Winona, Minnesota will go to the village, and the Peace Corps volunteers stationed there, to help install sanitation and water.Also, the fair trade sale sells the goods of craft makers from throughout the world. Goods sold at sales like these help to make sure these people get a decent wage for their work.The Winona Daily News's Dustin Kass reports on the conditions of the Paraguay village.Winona Daily News November 4thMany of Tonya Turben’s neighbors walk half an hour for water, just to fill up a basket that the women can use to wash their family’s laundry, dishes or hands.Most of...
Deforestation, eviction, drought and murder are too high of price to pay for toxic soybeans
TAKE ACTION! In Paraguay, genetically modified (GM) soya plantations [search], planted in vast toxic monocultures, are the main cause of deforestation, destruction and pollution of other ecosystems, and violence and eviction of small farmers and indigenous peoples. Paraguay has nearly 2.6 million hectares of soy plantations for animal feed exports and, more recently, for agrofuel. The remnants of Paraguay's Atlantic Forest [search] and of the Alto Parana forest [search], as well as wetlands, grasslands and rivers are being destroyed and polluted by the expansion of immense soya fields. Deforestation is worsening global warming and also causing severe regional warming and droughts.
Local...
Deforestation, eviction, drought and murder are too high of price to pay for toxic soybeans
TAKE ACTION! In Paraguay, genetically modified (GM) soya plantations [search], planted in vast toxic monocultures, are the main cause of deforestation, destruction and pollution of other ecosystems, and violence and eviction of small farmers and indigenous peoples. Paraguay has nearly 2.6 million hectares of soy plantations for animal feed exports and, more recently, for agrofuel. The remnants of Paraguay's Atlantic Forest [search] and of the Alto Parana forest [search], as well as wetlands, grasslands and rivers are being destroyed and polluted by the expansion of immense soya fields. Deforestation is worsening global warming and also causing severe regional warming and droughts.
Local peoples...
from the Financial Times This introduces the newly sworn in president of Paraguay, Fernando Lugo. The new leader of Paraguay promises to work to fight poverty and remove corruption from the government. - Kaleby Jude Webber in Buenos AiresWearing a white shirt and his trademark sandals, the 57-year-old, dubbed the "bishop of the poor", donned the red, white and blue presidential sash before breaking into a grin and flashing a thumbs-up sign to a crowd of thousands of cheering supporters.Mr Lugo's election victory in April achieved what many had considered impossible - the peaceful ousting of the Colorado party, which had ruled Paraguay since 1947, including the 35-year dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner."Change is not just an electoral issue . . . today is the end of a Paraguay famous...
Several months ago, Paraguay embarked on an historic change of power to elect Fernando Lugo to become president of the country. The election marked the end of 60 years of rule by the Colorado Party and renewed the hopes of the Paraguayan people that real change might bring them the jobs and prosperity that they had hoped to gain from their democratic transition.
This week, another historic event occurred in Paraguay when the largest gathering of business leaders ever seen in the country came together to create a private sector vision for Paraguay’s future. Over 600 business leaders met in Asunción as well as the leaders of over 55 business associations to debate key reform topics and reach consensus on the most important points. This vision will soon be consolidated and published and...
from the Raw Story Landless farmers in Paraguay are organizing to have their own land. - Kale CAPIIBARY, Paraguay -- Just outside the rickety wire fence that guards the rich, red soil of this vast hacienda, dozens of peasants have camped for weeks under a patchwork of thatched shelters and tarpaulin-covered tents.They are demanding a slice of the wealthy landowner's property to grow food for their families. And if Paraguay president-elect Fernando Lugo doesn't help them get it, they plan to swarm the private property, just as thousands of other landless farmers have done throughout the country."The Paraguayan people are awakening," said Salomon Ruiz Diaz, 29, a protest leader.Land reform is the single biggest issue in this tiny nation of just under 7 million people, where 1 percent of...
from IPS News By David VargasPOZO COLORADO, Paraguay, Jul 1 (IPS) - Indigenous Enxet people are still waiting for the restitution of their ancestral lands, nearly three years after the Paraguayan state was convicted by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights of usurping territory and violating basic rights. Meanwhile, they endure overwhelming poverty.The 55 families of the village of Yakye Axa are struggling to survive on the edge of the road joining Concepción to Pozo Colorado, 370 kilometres from Asunción, in the rugged Chaco region.Their flimsy wooden huts face 15,000 hectares of land that is theirs by right, but which is still in the hands of the Loma Verde cattle ranching company."All this used to be ours," said the elderly cacique (chief) Tomás Galeano, indicating the huge...
The upcoming presidential elections on April 20 in Paraguay present what may come to be viewed as a turning point in Paraguayan democracy. Paraguay was a latecomer to the club of democracies in the region, having only just established it with the adoption of their 1992 constitution. Before and since that day, the national political process has been dominated by the Colorado Party and its more than five decade lock on presidential politics.
That may now be changing. The current frontrunner in the polls is Fernando Lugo, a former bishop whose party platform expresses the populist politics reminiscent of Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, Evo Morales of Bolivia and Rafael Correa of Ecuador. Other contenders are former General Lino Oviedo who formally tried to oust a democratically elected...