Chile: LED light bulb heist highlights high cost of energy

By Steven Bodzin, Correspondent / 06.18.13

The thieves pulled up in silence late Sunday night, creeping into a vacant lot next to the ByP warehouse in an industrial zone of Santiago. They broke into the warehouse, loaded up their truck with loot, snagged the security camera tapes, and were off.

Gone with them, according to Chile’s national police, were about 40,000 LED light bulbs, worth $100,000.

LED lighting is increasingly popular around the world: It uses about a 30th of the electricity consumed by conventional incandescent bulbs, and saves money. That’s attractive to a Chilean family that spends an average $28 a month on electricity. The bills add up in a country where the median per capita income is about $240 a month.

Indeed, while Chile’s electricity is far from the world’s most expensive (the International Energy Agency reports that Denmark spends 41 cents per kilowatt-hour, compared with 21 cents in Chile), retail prices are about twice as high as in the United States. That’s because Chile’s economy and consumption keep growing, while big coal and hydro generating stations have been slowed or stopped by environmental lawsuits. Lower-impact renewable energy, like wind or solar, are tough to finance since Chile’s regulations say such higher-price power sources must remain off-line until all the cheaper alternatives are at capacity. The upshot is that all electricity has grown more expensive.

So it’s up to individual households and businesses to find efficiencies where they can here. Enter the LED light.

But saving money in the long run can have high up-front costs. A single LED light bulb at Chile’s biggest hardware chain retails for at least $10. For that much money, a customer can buy two compact fluorescent bulbs. Sure, that’s penny-wise and pound foolish. The compact fluorescent will use 7 times more power and the old-fashioned incandescent will use 30 times more power, not to mention that the incandescent will blow out while LEDs and fluorescents can stay lit for years.

But if people lack the capital to invest in more efficient lamps, what can they do? There are places in the world where the government or power companies subsidize the purchase of this type of energy-saving device. Such programs are rare in Chile. The burglars at ByP found one creative – and immoral – way to save electricity, assuming they don’t get caught.

Brazil protests: a blip, or the making of a movement?

By Rachel Glickhouse, Guest blogger / 06.17.13

• A version of this post ran on the author's blog, Riogringa. The views expressed are the author's own.

For Brazilians and Brazil-watchers alike, the protests this week [and last] have either inspired alarm or inspired hope. On one hand, there are the conspiracy theorists, who think the protests are engineered to impact the presidential elections and are organized by nefarious elements from the extreme left. On the other, some hope this is finally it: a real, nationwide movement to hold the government responsible for security, corruption, and public services. Could it be an end to the usual apathy and complacency, to the shrug and "vai-fazer-o-que" [what can you do] ... attitude? Are people finally going to take action? Is this the start of something big?

Those in favor of the protests want them to mean something more. A photo has been circulating on Facebook of a "future" book called "The 20 Cent Revolution: The Protest that Changed Brazil." And it's arguably the continuing violence to repress the protests that's serving as fuel for a movement. But they could peter out after new protests planned for [this] week, or it could become like Occupy Wall Street – where a movement gains a lot of momentum and media attention, but fizzles out and doesn't actually accomplish much or end in many concrete results.

One challenge is identifying a common goal or theme. Though the protests originally began because of a a bus fare increase, they grew into something bigger. The problem is, though, that the messaging is not completely coherent. (On social media, for example, there are several hashtags to describe the protests, and more are emerging, too.) There are protests scheduled in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo today, as well as 27 cities worldwide over the course of the week, so it remains to be seen if a more centralized message develops.

The one thing the protests are accomplishing in the short term is starting a dialogue. It's not only in the traditional media and on social media, but it's also getting people talking – even strangers on the bus, said a friend in Rio.

The protests couldn't come at a better time to gain international attention. The Confederations Cup began [last week] and runs through the end of the month. For the next year, Brazil's going to be in the spotlight. Before the Brazil vs. Japan game started [on Saturday], ESPN in the United States showed scenes from the protests – including the one in Brasilia – and briefly mentioned what was happening. President Dilma Rousseff and FIFA President Joseph Blatter were booed at the opening of the game. Ms. Rousseff has yet to address the protests publicly.

So it remains to be seen if this is a blip or a movement. But at the very least, it's starting an important discussion.

– Rachel Glickhouse is the author of the blog Riogringa.com

Argentines no longer top beef eaters

By Jonathan Gilbert, Correspondent / 06.17.13

Heading down Lisandro de la Torre street in south Buenos Aires at dawn on a weekday, it’s hard to believe Argentina no longer reigns as South America’s beef-eating king.
  
People crowd around butcher shops that line both sides of the road for half a mile, eyeing carcasses that hang in open entrances. Customers order popular cuts of ribs and flank steak just a few yards away from one of South America's largest cattle markets, where bulls, cows, and calves crammed into pens are auctioned off to slaughterhouses.
  
But, as the New York Times reported last week, Argentina is no longer top dog. In 2010, Uruguay replaced its neighbor across the Río de la Plata at the summit of the beef consumption league.
The average Argentine ate 123 pounds of beef last year, compared to 132 pounds in Uruguay (though figures for 2013 so far show Argentina is closing the gap).

Just don’t mention this development to porteños – the residents of Buenos Aires known across the region for their brazen pride. “Forget it. It’s a lie,” says Roberto Pérez, standing outside one of the butcher shops on Lisandro de la Torre. “The amount of meat we eat here is savage. There’s no country that compares with Argentina."
 
And it can certainly feel that way sometimes. The statistics tell one story, but daily life reflects another.

In his workshop in the provincial city of Bahía Blanca, carpenter Juancho Jiménez regularly loads the grill with cheap skirt steak, eaten off wooden slates with friends who supply the modest accompaniment of sliced tomato and fresh white bread.
  
On Sundays, that scene is mirrored in thousands of households across the country. Families gather for asados – or barbecues – feasts of red meat and conversation. At no-nonsense steakhouses in working class neighborhoods, groups of men lunch outside with plates of beef and tumblers of red wine mixed with soda water.
  
A number of factors are responsible for the fall in Argentina’s beef consumption since 1956, a record year in which the average person here ate 222 pounds. They range from state intervention in agriculture and reduced cattle stocks, to the profitability of soy farming and rising costs for consumers.
  
But as long as cows roam the Pampas, Argentina’s beef-eating culture will never die.

A man carries packages of shopping in downtown Mexico City February 14. In the geographic heart of Mexico City, the borough of Benito Juarez doesn't contain the capital's richest neighborhoods, or the poorest, it's solidly middle class. (Edgard Garrido/Reuters/File)

Mexico in the middle? Slowly, more people leave the lower class.

By Lauren Villagran, Correspondent / 06.14.13

In the geographic heart of Mexico City, the borough of Benito Juarez offers a vision for Mexico’s middle class future.

When low-cost mass merchandiser Comercial Mexicana opened its first upscale grocery, City Market, it did so on a corner in the Colonia Del Valle neighborhood in Benito Juarez. Shoppers crowd the aisles of polished organic produce, pay $30 for Scottish smoked salmon, and sip cappuccinos at an in-house café.

Benito Juarez doesn’t contain the capital’s richest neighborhoods, where mansions hide behind enormous walls. But it doesn’t contain the poorest barrios, either. It’s solidly middle class. And the rest of the country may be headed in that direction, too, albeit slowly.

This week, national statistics agency INEGI released a new study showing that Mexico’s middle class grew 4 percent between 2000 and 2010 to 39 percent of the population, or 44 million people.

INEGI’s definition of the middle class weights spending above earnings, in part because people have greater incentive to underreport the latter, the report said. INEGI looked at 17 variables, including how much people spent on dining out, personal care, and credit cards, among other things.

This is the picture INEGI paints of Mexico’s middle class: Three quarters live in cities. At least one member of the typically four-member household holds a job in the formal sector, and the head of household has at least some high school education. The children attend public school and have a computer at home.

Mexico City’s Benito Juarez borough has the city’s highest level of schooling by far, with more than 74 percent of residents claiming some time spent studying in high school, technical school, or college, according to 2005 INEGI data. In fact, neighborhoods like Colonia del Valle are packed with schools. The borough has the highest average per capita income and the most homes with a computer in Mexico City.

“For a long time, seeing Mexico as poor has been a pretext for not doing what should be done [for development] and an argument for sustaining the impossibility of development,” wrote Luis de la Calle, author of Mexico: A Middle Class Society, Poor No More, Developed Not Yet, in an Op-Ed in the capital’s El Universal newspaper. 

But it’s also true that most of Mexico still doesn’t look much like the Benito Juarez borough. Some 59 percent of Mexicans reside in the lower class, according to the INEGI report. This largest group of people are not necessarily impoverished, the report says, but their position is precarious. They could be one pink slip or illness away from poverty; an economic downturn or high inflation could hit them especially hard.

Just 1.7 percent of Mexicans qualify as upper class.

The agency notes in its report that measuring the middle class is a “complex discussion.” It remains a hotly debated topic in Mexico and across Latin America, where the spread between the richest and poorest remains abysmal but where the ranks of the middle are swelling, especially in places like Brazil, Chile, and Peru.

Mr. De la Calle argues that perceiving Mexico as middle class allows for the visualization of a development that could come from within these households.

“The investment of households in their own future” – a central characteristic of the middle class, he wrote – “is indispensable for the construction of a modern country, which is now possible.”

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange makes a speech from the balcony of Ecuador's Embassy, in central London, Dec. 2012. Mr. Assange told CNN's Anderson Cooper in an interview this week, he would 'strongly advise' Edward Snowden to seek refuge in Latin America. (Luke MacGregor/Reuters/File)

Sound advice? Assange advises Snowden to seek refuge in Latin America.

By Ezra Fieser, Correspondent / 06.12.13

Edward Snowden might be looking for some advice right now on where to head next – and Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is dishing.

Snowden checked out of the Hong Kong hotel where he had been staying when he identified himself as the whistleblower that handed over information about the US government’s domestic spying program to The Washington Post and The Guardian. He is reportedly still in Chinese territory, where some residents have called him a “hero” for divulging the information, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

He’s sure US prosecutors will come after him, telling The Guardian, “You can't come up against the world's most powerful intelligence agencies and not accept the risk. If they want to get you, over time they will.”

So where is the man behind one of the most dramatic security leaks in recent history to go?

“I would strongly advise him to go to Latin America," Mr. Assange told CNN’s Anderson Cooper in an interview this week. “Latin America has shown in the past 10 years that it is really pushing forward in human rights. There’s a long tradition of asylum.”

Assange also feels a connection with Snowden, calling him on Sky News, “a hero who has informed the public about one of the most serious events of the decade, which was the creeping formulation of a mass surveillance state.”

The WikiLeaks founder has a lot to thank Latin America for – specifically Ecuador. He famously took refuge in Ecuador’s London embassy almost a year ago after he was sought for questioning in relation to alleged sexual offenses in Sweden.

Latin America may have given Assange refuge. But in recent years, a handful of countries there have been more regularly associated with expelling US agencies and decrying the "imperialist power" to the north than leading the world in human rights.

And the violence that plagues the region is often associated with various human rights violations. Latin America and the Caribbean are home to eight of the 10 most dangerous countries in the world, based on homicide rates.

A drug war in Mexico has killed an estimated 70,000 people; its Central America neighbor, Honduras, is the world’s murder capital; and Brazil has been accused of numerous human rights violations in the run-up to the 2014 World Cup.

Meanwhile, leaders from Venezuela’s late President Hugo Chavez, to Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega, to the president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, have aggressively opposed US policies.

Their opposition to US hegemony is not without reason: The US government has long inserted itself into Latin American affairs, at times with disastrous consequences.

But even Latin American countries that have railed against the US might not be Snowden’s best bet in an effort to avoid facing charges back home.

The Los Angeles Times reports that dozens of countries have no extradition agreement with the US, whereas most in Latin America do, some of which date back more than a century.

And even Venezuela, “Washington’s No. 1 enemy in Latin America,” might balk at giving Snowden a safe haven, the newspaper says. “Even if Caracas were to offer Snowden asylum now, any improvement in relations in the years to come could make that shelter a bargaining chip that Venezuelan authorities may have no qualms about cashing in.”

Fans celebrate after Brazil scored against England during a friendly soccer game at the Maracana stadium, in Rio de Janeiro, June 2. The Confederations Cup will be a test both on and off the field for Brazil. The country is trying to show that it can build stadiums and complete infrastructure projects in time for the 2014 World Cup, and the national team will try to show that is has the potential to contend for its sixth world title. (Felipe Dana/AP)

'Imagine the World Cup' - popular dig at Brazil's preparedness is turned on its head

By Rachel Glickhouse, Guest blogger / 06.10.13

• A version of this post ran on the author's blog, Riogringa. The views expressed are the author's own.

It's become a Brazilian cliché: "Imagina na Copa!" Just imagine during the World Cup. It's a common complaint about many problems in Brazil, particularly in big cities, predicting an unhappy future for the country's megaevents. Overcrowded airports? Imagina na Copa! A spate of muggings in São Paulo? Imagina na Copa! A series of road signs with English misspellings in Rio? Imagina na Copa!

The saying was popularized further by a series of comedy videos that came out last year, and is the title of a new song by a popular sertanejo duo. But a new organization by the same name is seeking to turn the pessimistic expression on its head. I spoke to Mariana Campanatti, one of the group's founders, about what Imagina na Copa hopes to achieve.

Imagina na Copa was started by four Brazilians in their late 20s living in São Paulo. The two paulistas, mineira, and carioca were working at corporate jobs, and wanted to do something different, focusing on social good projects. "It's easy for people to complain," Ms. Campanatti explained. "Why don't we stop complaining and do something?" A lot of Brazilians of her generation also want to get involved in social good, said Campanatti, but sometimes things get in the way.

"Between the intention and the action, there's a barrier. People have a lot of trouble seeing themselves as an agent of change." So Campanatti and the Imagina na Copa team decided to share stories about ordinary Brazilians working on social good projects to show how easy it can be to get involved, without necessarily needing a "noble" cause or a lot of money.

So each of the four quit their jobs and "threw themselves out into the world." In September 2012, they launched the project on Catarse, a crowdfunding site similar to Kickstarter, and raised R$25,000 to start the organization. They officially launched the site on Jan. 3.

Imagina da Copa has three main areas. First, it launches a story each week describing an organization or social entrepreneur in Brazil, complete with a video, photos, and a blog post. "We want to show that any person have a role in social change, whether it's in their neighborhood or in society," said Campanatti. The organization looks at a variety causes and entrepreneurs so that others can relate to them.

Each week, Imagina na Copa has featured some truly incredible entrepreneurs. There's Alessandra Orofino of Meu Rio, a successful organization to get young people involved in public policy in Rio; Monique Evelle, who started the Salvador-based organization Desabafo Social at the age of 16, starting out by explaining human rights by sitting down with kids in public spaces; Augusto Leal, who started the Bibliocicleta, the traveling community Bike-Library in Bahia; and artist/activist Thiago Mundano of Pimp My Carroça in São Paulo, among others.

The second area of the organization is holding workshops. Often, people interested in social good don't know where to start and feel overwhelmed by the number of causes. Through the workshops, Imagina na Copa helps participants figure out which cause speaks to them--the kind that "gets them out of bed in the morning"--and then teaches them how to turn their interest into a project. They've held five of these workshops in cities across the country, some of which have already turned out social good projects.

The third area is launching a monthly "mission." Since Imagina na Copa began, it has launched campaigns to crowdsource signage and bus line information at bus stops in cities, to donate books in a pay-it-forward style, and to separate recyclables in green bags. "Everyone doing a small thing can generate a bigger change," Campanatti told me.

To get the word out, Imagina na Copa largely relies on social networks, especially Facebook. "We only exist because of social media," Campanatti said. It's also a way for the group to connect people interested in similar causes, and to reach Brazilians across the country. However, since the four co-founders travel a great deal to meet with social entrepreneurs and feature their stories, they decided to start a network of "captains," or local leaders. They recruited 40 young people (the average age is 22) from 20 cities, and trained them last month in São Paulo. Now, this group will be able to organize their own workshops, launch missions, and suggest stories.

Like other non-profits, Imagina na Copa is constantly seeking funding. The four co-founders don't have salaries and are living off personal savings. Aside from crowdfunding, they managed to get sponsorship from Instituto Asas. They also have partners who donate space and services, and Folha de São Paulo syndicates their weekly story. They're relaunching another crowdfunding drive starting June 12, which marks a year before the World Cup begins.
Despite their early successes, the co-founders plan to end the project in its current form when the World Cup begins. Putting a deadline on something helps motivate people, explained Campanatti, giving a more tangible sense for getting things done. When 2014 comes, the group plans to assess the project and publish a report, and figure out another way to continue their work. After leaving careers in places like ad agencies and banks, working on social good is "a path of no return," said Campanatti.

– Rachel Glickhouse is the author of the blog Riogringa.com

US suspends aid to Honduras police cleanup

By Russell Sheptak, Guest blogger / 06.06.13

• A version of this post ran on the author's blog. The views expressed are the author's own.

Monday, the United States suspended all aid it was giving the Honduran Dirección de Investigación y Evaluación de la Carrera Policial (DIECP). 
The DIECP is responsible for carrying out the confidence testing of Honduran police, part of a process to weed out those who should not be police.   
A US embassy employee who did not want to be named told El Tiempo:

Hondurans have expressed their frustration with the slow progress of the confidence testing of the police....it's a frustration that we share and as a result, we have suspended the aid from the United States to the DIECP.

The funds, among other things used to pay for foreign lie detector contractors to assist the DIECP, come from the Central American Regional Security Initiative (CARSI).

It's been apparent for a while that the DIECP wasn't working well. 

Earlier this year Porfirio Lobo Sosa "accepted" (after requesting) the resignations of Eduardo Villanueva, the DIECP director, and his deputy.  However, both continue to serve because Porfirio Lobo Sosa has made no effort to appoint replacements.
As of Tuesday, Villanueva told El Tiempo that he had received no notice from the US Embassy of the funding cuts.

– Russell Sheptak, the co-author of the blog Honduras Culture and Politics, specializes in the study of colonial history and economic anthropology in this little-reported corner of Central America.

Plain clothes policemen escort Timothy Hallet Tracy (c.) during his deportation to the US at Simon Bolivar Airport in Caracas in this handout photo provided by Venezuela's Ministry of Justice on June 5. (Ministry of Interior and Justice/Reuters)

Was Venezuela's release of US filmmaker Timothy Tracy an olive branch?

By Andrew Rosati, Correspondent / 06.05.13

After more than a decade of tough talk and frigid foreign relations, the Maduro administration may have shown the first sign that Venezuela could be warming up to the United States. Timothy Tracy, an American documentary filmmaker, was released after spending more than a month in government detention for allegedly spying and planning unrest after Venezuela's April 14 presidential election.

Interior Minister Miguel Rodriguez Torres (@MRodriguezTorre) wrote on Twitter: "The American Timothy Hallet Tracy, who was caught spying in our country, has been expelled from the national territory." Mr. Tracy's lawyers said his film had nothing to do with Venezuela's national security.

Tracy made his way to Miami International Airport today, hours before a meeting between Venezuela's foreign minister, Elias Jaua, and US Secretary of State John Kerry was scheduled to take place. The countries have been without ambassadors for three years. And while the Venezuelan government continues to insist the "gringo" filmmaker was "conspiring to start a civil war," analysts say the sudden release is meant as a show of good faith.

"It's a sign of rapprochement," says Elsa Cardozo, a professor of international relations at the Central University of Venezuela.

Ms. Cardozo says that given the country's current economic crisis, the move comes as no surprise. Venezuela's toilet paper troubles have been making headlines for weeks now, but consumers are struggling to find many staples, like milk, butter, and sugar as the inflation rate here remains one of world's highest, at about 30 percent.

Many believe the OPEC nation may now start looking abroad to solve its economic woes; recently appointed Finance Minister Nelson Merentes announced just last week he would soon travel to the US and Europe to speak with creditors and court additional foreign investment.

Even during times of strained relations under Hugo Chávez's administration, Venezuela could always depend on the oil-thirsty US to be one of its biggest buyers.

Will sending Tracy back to the US be enough to smooth over rocky US-Venezuelan relations? Perhaps not. But at the very least, Cardozo argues, the government may be realizing that “it's very hard to bring in new business when your investors are worried about being taken captive."

People reflected in the window line up at a post office as they wait to use the Internet service in Havana, Cuba, May 28. Cuba announced that it will offer more access to the Internet starting June 4, at navegation sites around the country for $4.50 an hour. The average salary in Cuba is $15 per month. (Ramon Espinosa/AP)

Internet access to expand in Cuba – at a price

By Ezra Fieser, Correspondent / 06.04.13

Frustrated with your Internet access? Try logging on in Cuba.

Since it started offering limited access in 1996, the communist country has tightly restricted access to everything but the bare Web essentials. Unless you were looking for government news or something directly related to your job, you were out of luck.

But now news comes that the government is inching toward wider access. In the Official Gazette, the government said it would provide access to the Internet – including e-mail and international websites – at 118 providers across the Caribbean island starting today.

Will a handful of Internet cafes in each major city across the island of 11 million make much of a difference in a country where connecting to the Internet is notoriously slow and difficult?

It won’t be cheap. Providers will ask users to fork over the equivalent of $4.50 per hour for access.

While those prices might compete with the service offered at 30,000 feet by US airlines, for most Cubans the fees make logging on out of reach.

Independent Cuban journalist Iván García Quintero makes this point in a column published by Infobae. Mr. García quotes a woman named Sandra who earns 375 pesos (roughly US$14) a month.

“I don’t see how I could surf the Internet or open an account on Facebook with a salary of 375 pesos. One hour on the Internet would cost me 112 pesos, nearly a third of my salary,” she says. “I guess that some people could. But the majority is not going to stop eating just to connect to the Internet.”

It’s not just the cost. Once you log on, the connection promises to be slow, too. Think dial-up.

A couple years back, The Economist said Cuba’s Internet speed was second-slowest behind the island of Mayotte, a French territory of around 200,000 people that sits northwest of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean.

And it’s not clear how heavily the Cuban government will restrict access to sites. The US-headquartered NGO Freedom House, which ranks countries based on levels of political freedom and civil liberties, gives Cuba one of the lowest rankings for Latin American countries in its Internet freedom category.

“Cuba remains one of the world’s most repressive environments for the Internet and other information and communication technologies,” the organization wrote in its 2012 report entitled “Freedom on the Net.”

Blogger Yoani Sanchez, who has famously worked around the island’s Internet restrictions to publicize her work, highlighted the importance of increased connectivity on a trip to the US this year. “The Internet,” she said, “is helping us explain to the world what is happening inside our country.”

Even if it’s slow and expensive, a connection to the Web seems to represent another step toward wider access.

Earlier this year, Cuba connected to Jamaica via a submarine cable on the ocean floor. That was expected to help bring Internet connections to more Cubans.

Separately, Cuba and Venezuela have connected via a fiber optic cable, although it remains unclear if that connection is providing service to Cuban residents.

The 118 new hotspots might not mean much to most Cubans. But, as one Cuban housewife told a radio station after the announcement, “something is better than nothing.”