Today is for maintenance. You'll notice a few changes to this blog, including more links to news outlets here in Nicaragua. I need to do a better job of offering variety, especially when it comes to sources. As always, send me links, because it's easy to miss things. And give me advice on where to go to learn what's happening. I can easily spend a couple hours every day just reading the main newspapers here and still miss big news. I want to be more selective of what I read and how much time I spend doing so.
I also changed the title of the blog to more accurately capture what it is I'm doing here. Most of what I write is about Nicaragua, because obviously this is where I am and where I do journalism. However, I will continue to get sidetracked on other issues going on in Latin America, as this blog was originally intended. For example, I'm going to be in Mexico from Dec. 24 to Jan. 4, so expect to read more about that country soon.
Finally, some news.
* From Reuters, a longish story about Nicaraguan migration to neighbor Costa Rica. The trend is similar to Mexican migration to the States, although some say with more popular acceptance on the part of Costa Ricans. From Nicaraguans find USA in booming Costa Rica:
Forest-cloaked Costa Rica's low-skilled immigrants work in agriculture,
at construction sites and as domestics and security guards -- jobs
Costa Ricans, better educated and settled in the middle class, prefer
not to do ...
As in other countries where immigration is a heated issue such as
the United States, whenever the media publicizes a crime by an
immigrant, the immigration debate flares up, exposing racism toward
migrants, experts said.
Yet as the role migrant workers play in the economy is better
understood, the debate is changing. The free health care and education
immigrant children receive, for instance, are seen less as a national
burden and more of an acceptable result of integration, said Jorge
Peraza-Breedy of OIM, an immigrant advocacy organization.
* Andrés Oppenheimer, an Argentine columnist and foreign correspondent with the Miami Herald/El Nuevo Herald, was in Managua recently to speak about his most recent book, Cuentos Chinos, and how poor countries can reduce poverty by attracting foreign investment, spending money on education and relying on social consensus.
Today, Oppenheimer writes about Nicaragua in his syndicated column: As world watches Venezuela, other leaders make moves, providing four solid reasons why President Daniel Ortega can't be Hugo Chávez (no oil, opposition controls National Assembly, unpopular wife, no control of police/army or support from media).
* This is not in English, but yours truly had a story on the front page of La Prensa about how a new(ish) web site that claims to be for the Citizens Power Councils — which isn't a legally recognized entity — uses government resources to churn out official good news. You might call that propaganda.
* And I'll leave you with an unusual story and pleasant photo from The Associated Press:
MEXICO CITY - Thousands of Mexicans are skating, wobbling and often
falling on a giant ice rink set up by the tropical capital's government
to bring some holiday cheer to this massive, chaotic metropolis.
The rink in Mexico City's
main square measures 34,445 square feet — twice the size of a
professional hockey rink and nearly five times as big as the one at New
York's Rockefeller Center.
Mayor Marcelo Ebrard inaugurated it Saturday night and by Monday,
more than 5,000 skaters glided across its surface, sometimes none too
gracefully. At least 30 people received medical attention for bumps,
bruises and one broken nose.
"Don't hold on to the rail, keep moving and keep your feet in a V
shape. Don't lean forward," yelled a city worker, as a woman struggled
to stay on her feet.
I never would have thought to imagine such a sight. Hopefully I'll be on that ice in three weeks' time.
