The cop is in a huff when he pulls over the carload of tourists. He stands in the cold dusk air on the main road into Arequipa scanning the registration and insurance documents. Fernando, riding co-pilot and the only local in the car, answers the questions for the non-Spanish speaking driver. They assume he’ll just nod and wave them on, as other police officers have done so far – the car’s papers are in perfect order. Instead he asks gruffly for the Circulation Card, something they neither have, nor need. The games begin.
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La congresista Mercedes Cabanillas ha exigido la renuncia del viceministro de Gestión Pedagógica, Idel Vexler, por el contenido de los libros escolares de Ciencias Sociales distribuidos por el Estado. Desde su punto de vista, partes del texto dirigido a estudiantes del quinto de secundaria, rayan con un contrabando ideológico por la serie de inexactitudes encontradas en el mismo. Entre las afirmaciones publicadas que provocaron la furibunda protesta de la congresista aprista están las que se relacionan a la época de subversión armada que soportó el Perú durante varios años promovida por grupos sanguinarios como Sendero Luminoso. “(El texto) habla de guerra interna, cuando lo que el Perú afrontó fue la acción de violencia y crimen de grupos subversivos” denunció indignada Cabanillas.
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Tambien en español: Buenas intenciones en malas manos

Congresswoman Mercedes Cabanillas has demanded the resignation of the Vice Minister of Education, Idel Vexler, over the content of social studies textbooks distributed by the Peruvian state. From her point of view, parts of the text, aimed at 5th year secondary school students, come close to “contraband” ideologies, because of a series of inaccuracies they contain. Among the statements published which provoked the enraged protest of the Aprista politician are those related to the era of armed subversion which Peru endured over a number of years, propelled by bloodthirsty groups like Shining Path. “[The text] talks about internal war, when what Peru faced was actions of violence and crime from subversive groups,” Cabanillas criticised indignantly.

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The Auckland City Council wants to clean homeless people out of the city centre.

How could this be done… Perhaps they might provide a new homeless shelter in the city where rough sleepers can crash, get some soup, medical attention, assistance with getting back on their feet and integrated into society.

Maybe that’s a bit too much of a budget-stretcher. Maybe the council could just provide a place to sleep, and skip all the social service trimmings.

But no, even that would be too much, it seems. Read the rest of this article »

Team New Zealand flittered $130 million on its failure in Valencia last year, and more than a quarter of that came from the Government.

In John Key-ese, that’s equal to about 3,217,350 blocks of cheese the government could have given to hard-working families. Instead they preferred to blow the $33.75 million on a rich white man’s sport.
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Journalists may be low in public esteem, but I reckon if those surveys asked respondents to rank student reporters, we’d fare even worse.

The general aura of suspicion that often greets journalists is frequently augmented by fear (of being wildly misquoted, I suppose) when our subject hears they’re talking to a student journalist.

Either that, or we’re patronised: patted on the head and asked, “is that all you’ve got?” with a smirk when we get to the end of our questions.
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While New Zealand sleeps, most of the world is busy getting on with life.
Yet, it seems the New Zealand Herald’s foreign editor goes to bed at the same time as the rest of us.
How else could you explain the lack of acknowledgement in today’s world section that Russia had called a halt to the conflict with Georgia?
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There was the woman who wet her pants at work after chomping through three packs of chewing gum a day. And then there was the man who went blind after regularly drinking seven bottles of fizzy a day.

But altogether the most disturbing aspect of What’s Really in Our Food (TV3, Tuesday night) was the attitude of the Food Safety Authority.
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On her weekend visit, US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice indicated that the US is open to “warming” relations with New Zealand. This wee country has been left out of all the fun and games (the US won’t do military training exercises with Kiwis, despite the fact the two countries’ troops are active in Afghanistan, for example) because of a ban on nuclear ships entering its waters.

Media talk has edged around a free trade agreement. It’s a long way off, but it’s not a bad goal – depending on how far backwards New Zealand would have to bend to sign it. At the moment, a small-scale dairy exporter who wants to try its luck in the US market has to give a fifth of its takings to the US government in import tariffs. Cutting that back would be a good thing.
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Ayacucho es una región con una población de 612 mil habitantes. Es decir, alberga apenas el 2% de la población del país según el último censo. Las vigorosas cifras de reducción de la pobreza que alientan las políticas de apertura comercial no le alcanzan todavía a Ayacucho para salir de la estrechez económica, porque la sierra rural (aunque esta región cuenta dentro de su geografía con una porción de selva vinculada al valle de los ríos Apurímac y Ene) sigue excediendo el 60% de pobreza. Hace un par de meses, los pobladores de Huanta y Huamanga, se vieron sorprendidos con la presencia de personas uniformadas con trajes militares extranjeros desplazándose  por sus calles y conviviendo con ellos en un ambiente de relativa tranquilidad pero algo de suspicacia. Un destacamento militar estadounidense, con la aprobación del Congreso y la autorización del Ministerio de Defensa, ha llegado a esta región para cumplir, según lo expresado en las normas, labores de acción humanitaria entre las que se encuentran construir aulas escolares, pozas de agua y brindar atención médica a sus ciudadanos.
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