Social Affairs
Young Chilean keeps nearly extinct languages alive
The San Francisco Chronicle August 12, 2007While most 16-year-old boys are busy playing video games or worrying about girls, Joubert Yanten spends most of his spare time reading dictionaries and singing tribal songs.
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Chilean players offer new take on scuffle
The Globe & Mail July 31, 2007SANTIAGO — Popular perceptions that Chile's Under-20 soccer darlings were victimized on July 17 by Toronto police appear to be changing as some team members confirm less flattering aspects of the story.
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Canadian police 'reacted like animals,' angry Chileans say
The Globe & Mail July 21, 2007SANTIAGO -- Reactions ranged from dismay to outrage over what the Chilean news media and government officials are calling unacceptable conduct by police against Chile's under-20 soccer team in Toronto on Thursday night.
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Lure of being a wonder masks risk of repeating dire errors from past
The New Zealand Herald July 9, 2007As the sun rises over the eastern shores of the tiny Polynesian island of Rapa Nui, the shadows of 15 stone monoliths stretch long across the grassy fields of Tongariki, towards the quarry from which they were mysteriously transported hundreds of years ago.
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South American Prodigy: The voice of spirits past
The Toronto Star June 9, 2007Extinct since the '70s, aboriginal language is spoken again by self-taught Chilean high school student.
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Caribbean conundrum: Arubans defend their native tongue
The New Internationalist October 2006Oranjestad, Aruba – At Aruba’s weekly Bonbini festival, where tourists come to marvel at the Carnaval costumes and take in a bit of the island’s folklore. A petite solo singer in a slinky red dress takes the stage, and is belting out a song dedicated to her island, and its beloved language – Papiamento.
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Selling on Chile’s mean streets
Globe & Mail September 29, 2006With her one good arm, Carmen rearranges the cellphone cases atop her makeshift cart on a busy pedestrian mall in downtown Santiago. Amid the lunch hour rush, she hollers at passersby, in the hopes that they'll stop to peruse her wares. She's one of the thousands of street vendors who eke out a living selling hairclips, underwear, pirated CDs and other inexpensive goods on almost every downtown street corner in Chile's capital.
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In Chile, free morning-after pills to teens
Christian Science Monitor September 12, 2006SANTIAGO, CHILE – This month, Chile began to combat the problem of high teen-pregnancy rates by distributing free morning-after pills to girls as young as 14 years old. Government support of emergency contraception is not unusual in Latin America or in Europe. Last month, the US Food and Drug Administration approved the over-the-counter sale of morning-after pills (known as Plan B), for women over 18. Girls age 17 and under must have a doctor's note. But the Chilean government, by giving away the pills to such young girls, is igniting a storm of opposition from critics who say it undermines parents and is tantamount to abortion.
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Brazil makes headway in bid for 'Zero Hunger'
Christian Science Monitor September 11, 2006BRASILIA – In the sprawling shantytown of Estructural, Norberia Brito holds her newborn daughter in one arm, while with the other she stirs her feijao, a lunch of black beans and rice. It's one of the few dishes the young mother of three can afford on the 95 reals ($44) she gets monthly from the government.
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Circus makes performers out of troubled youth
Globe & Mail June 16, 2006SANTIAGO -- Beneath a sprawling big top in the north end of Chile's capital, a tiny woman in an ornate tutu carefully balances herself with a pink paper umbrella as she walks up a tightrope.
Watching her every step is a wide-eyed Soraya Sepulveda. The 23-year-old circus student is one of 450 young people who were invited to a special private performance this spring of Cirque du Soleil's internationally acclaimed show Saltimbanco.
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How Chile's growth skipped its schools
Christian Science Monitor June 14, 2006SANTIAGO, CHILE – "A country's development is expressed by the quality of its schools, not by the quality of its highways." The hand-painted sign hung outside a Santiago high school last week, one of hundreds that have been paralyzed in recent weeks by massive student demonstrations calling for education reform in Chile.
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Circus arts lift Chile's troubled youths
Christian Science Monitor June 7, 2006SANTIAGO, CHILE – In the north end of Chile's sprawling capital, Santiago, the graffiti-covered neighborhood of Quinta Normal is considered one of the most "vulnerable" inner-city communities for youth. The Lo Franco Elementary School has long struggled to inoculate its preteens against the temptations of drugs and other social ills. But they've started making inroads, with an unusual approach.
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Immigration situation sounds eerily familiar
Miami Herald May 28, 2006Aruba's need for cheap labor and proximity to countries with people who need jobs has inflated the number of undocumented migrants there -- at a level far exceeding that fueling the debate in the States.
Care for every child
Toronto Star May 27, 2006Despite its relative poverty, Chile is working to provide universal daycare
— something that affluent Canada says it can't afford.
Peru Campaign Quiet on Reproductive Issues
Women's E-News May 22, 2006In Peru, which has one of the highest illegal abortion rates in Latin America, the sole female presidential candidate is out of the race and women's groups say sexual and reproductive rights have been missing from the campaign season.
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In traditional Chile, meet the soldiers with pearl earrings
Christian Science Monitor. A1. November 7, 2005Read more
Chile passes progressive domestic abuse law
The Globe & Mail September 30, 2005Read more
Birdsong Regained: Paraguayan government bends to farmers' demands
New Internationalist Magazine September 2005 Read MoreBrazil tries to stem tide of sex slavery
Women’s E-News June 19, 2005Read more
Brazil begins talking openly about abortion
Women’s E-News May 15, 2005Brazil is moving to address the problem of illegal abortion, the country's fourth leading cause of maternal death. In March the government eased abortions for rape victims and in April it formed a committee to review all its abortion policies.
Read more - THIS WAS AMONG FIVE ARTICLES IN WOMEN'S E-NEWS THAT JOINTLY WON THE 2006 ROSA CISNEROS MEMORIAL AWARD IN JOURNALISM
In Britain and Chile, lessons for revamping social security
Christian Science Monitor March 14, 2005Read more
OPEN HOUSE: A Canadian company sees Latin America as a springboard for its assembly-line homes
January 2005 Latin Trade
Chilean Women Celebrate Gaining Right to Divorce
Dec. 3, 2004 Women’s E-NewsRead more
Illegal abortions rampant in Latin America
November 28, 2004 Women's E-NewsRead more
Chile passes law to allow divorce for the first time
November 28, 2004 The IndependentRead more
Critical Mass on a roll in Chile: 'Raging Cyclists' inspired by S.F.'s biking movement
November 14, 2004 San Francisco ChronicleRead more
Rights groups back Chile's tribal 'terrorists'
The Independent and The Belfast Telegraph October 21, 2004Read more
Latin America: Does It Exist?
Hispanic Magazine August 2004Read more (scroll down linked page)
Poor paper pickers of Chile
Toronto Star July 31, 2004
Countdown to freedom
The Guardian Monday, March 22, 2004Read More
Chile defies church and legalises divorce
The Guardian Friday, March 12, 2004Read More
Chile tackles child-sex trade
Christian Science Monitor Tuesday, January 13, 2004
Chile awakens to child prostitution after scandal: One organization finds 65,000 online pedophile networks
The San Francisco Chronicle Monday, November 24, 2003Read More
Bad drinking water on native reserves a 'hidden tragedy,' MP charges
The Ottawa Citizen. Wednesday, July 25, 2001. A6.Read More
"50,000 widows left in cold: Caught between two ministries, low-income seniors miss out on essential government benefits," Victoria Times Colonist. September 9, 2001. A1.
"Public alerts may backfire, experts say," The Edmonton Journal. August 17, 2001. A3.
"Ontario blazes trail with sex offender registry," The Sudbury Star. August 17, 2001. A1.
"108 Francophonie athletes defect," The Ottawa Citizen. July 31, 2001. A1,4.
"Anti-spanking bias reflects state control," The Edmonton Journal. July 12, 2001. A6.
The mechanical artistas of Cuba
The Globe and Mail. Saturday, November 18, 2000. T2.Read More
"Big Brother looms in British offices,"The Globe and Mail.. November 9, 2000. B19.
"Emerging youth movement scorns eco-alarmists," The Victoria Times Colonist. July 31, 2000. C14.
"Safe raving,"," The Montreal Gazette.February 27, 2000. C1.
"Garment work turns home into sweatshop," The Globe and Mail. June 18, 1999. A7.
"Shoplifting linked to personal stress," The Globe and Mail. May 13, 1999. A3.
"Should 'Indianness' mitigate sentence?: Supreme Court ponders intention of 1996 law change," The Ottawa Citizen. December 11, 1998. A4.
"Struggle with cerebral palsy brought family closer; Study dispels myth that families of disabled youth are more stressed out," The Edmonton Journal. July 2, 1998. B2.
"High-jinks with water balloons entice kids, teens to youth centre; Dimensions program gives youth in high-crime area a place to go," The Edmonton Journal. June 29, 1998. B3.
"Inner-city teens paid to create a mural," The Edmonton Journal. June 23, 1998. B11.
"National survey shows abuse numbers for men on the rise on the rise in Edmonton," The Edmonton Journal. May 31, 1998. A8.
"Rise of the morning-after pill," Chatelaine. April 1997.
