El pop colombiano actual

Claro que en este análisis del pop colombiano actual de El Tiempo, empiezan con Shakira y Juanes (zzzzz...) pero también mencionan a grupos como Chocquibtown y Mojarra Eléctrica. (Mencionan, no se profundizan mucho, pero bueno.) Enlace

Buenaventura in AP/Buenaventura en prensa internacional

The Associated Press just ran a story on violence in Buenaventura. Note the typical tropes: the squlidness of children playing in the mud and the priest teaching (folkloric?) music to kids as an alternative to violence. Still, it's important that Buenaventura is on the radar.

La organización periodística mudial Associated Press acaba de distribuir un artículo (en inglés) sobre violencia en Puerto (Lleras, específicamente). Utiliza los tropos típicos para representarlo: los pelaos jugando en el barro y el sacerdote enseñándoles música (folklórica?) como alternativa a la violencia. De todas maneras, importante que Buenaventura esté en el radar.

Becas para estudiantes latinoamericanos

Pilas!
Enlace

Brother James Brown, QEPD

Link
Enlace

Por falta de dinero, colegio de Patía (Cauca) tiene una banda de tarros que toca reguetón y cumbia

... tal como parece, tocan "currulao" también. De hecho, parece que lo único que no tocan es la música tradicional de allá, los bambucos patianos, etc., tan historicamente importante para la zona del Patía y el país. Sé que la cotinianidad de la gente no siempre va a mantener los estilos viejos, y ahí no hay problema, pero la falta de apoyo del Estado no deja siquiera que el bambuco patiano sea digno de mencionar, y mucho menos de enseñar a los pelaos...

Forget rule of law, income distribution or social justice, turning guns into guitars will solve Colombia's violence

Link and another link
This iss typical cockamammy Colombian cultural policy. Prettify things, sweep the violence under the rug, ignore any practical solutions for addressing the violence, and expect this kind of hokey cheap symbolic peace PR to solve everything. Violence, I'm sorry, is a lot more deeply-rooted than a lack of guitars or a preponderence of guns, and this kind of thing, while it might seem innocuous, is actually harmful in the way that it disctracts people's attention from more fundamental ways of trying to address this situation. (Notice that the picture of the guy who invented the rifle-guitar is of a middle-class white guy, which is its own way of brushing inequality under the rug.) This is a very typical usage of music in Colombian cultural policy, as you'll all see in an article that will be coming out fairly soon in the Iberian Society for Ethnomusicology's journal TRANS. The sad part is that, according to the article, this is being taken up by the UN, whcih should know better. Of course, the status of the UN in Colombia is often up fpr grabs, President Uribe has made it difficult for them to work there, at least as far as human rights stuff goes, and there have been quite a few changes in leadership and personnel in the UN High Comission for Human Rights.

Obtuse definition "terrorism" makes asylum difficult for immigrants to get.

If you pay a ransom for a kidnapped family member or give food or medical treatment to a "terrorist group" ("The administration defines a terrorist organization as any group of two or more people, organized or not, that uses any device or weapon to cause injury to person or property") you are disqualified for asylum in the US, which, let's face it, is 1) hard enough to get as it is and 2) the fact that you were forced to aid one of these armed groups is probably one of the very reasons why you need to leave that situation. Buncha ignirant pig-headedness.
Link

Malicia indígena

La Marina encontró un semisumergible usado para trasportar droga en una vereda de Buenaventura. Lástima no publicaron una foto - imaginate un semi-sumergible casero!

Link

Boxeador colombiano una berraquera

Edison Miranda, un boxeador porteño, es rápido y agresivo, con unas manos poderosas por ser peso mediano. En su última pelea, le dio el man (Gibbs de Filadelfia) el noqout - en la primera ronda, y no por primera vez. Se están oyendo comparaciones con un Tyson de peso mediano. En este video, Mirando le rompe la quijada a su oponente (Abraham, un alemán) pero le robaron la merecida victoria en decisión. Tiene 27 victorias, 24 con noqout, y ahora una derrota. Edison Miranda is a fast, aggressive boxer from Buenaventura with a powerful punch for a middleweight. His last fight, he knocked the poor guy out in Round 1, as he has done in the past. Middleweight Tyson comparisons have been made. This video is him up against this German guy - he broke the guy's jaw but was robbed the victory in decision. His record is like 27-1 with 24 KOs.

Analysis of the Free Trade Agreement

The whole FTA between the US, Colombia and Peru, even though both Uribe and Bush managed to push it through (despite some pretty heavy opposition in Colombia) might be held up by the newly Democratic US Congress, meaning the whole bororó hasn't ended yet. This article has a good English-language analysis of the whole thing and why it's not a very good idea (among other thinghs, intellectual property of things from music to pharmaceuticals would end up being counted under US law, a system which serves corporate interests very well but is pretty closed to other conceptions or the ramifications of new information technology.)

Hard core right blog from the US discusses Colombia

Among other things, they talk about opposition to the proposed Free Trade Agreement as pro-FARC and Chávez's "Western Hemispheric Axis" and its desire to "divide Colombia." Interesting, though...

Link

Música colombiana en NY/NY Colombian music

Hay cosas interesantes pasando en NY en estos días - Chonta Records ha organizado giras, está sacando grabaciones, y otras cosas interesantes y positivas con los varios grupos colombianos residentes en NY - chequeatelo acá.

Listen to a recent show by the group Coba here, starting more or less at 2:05:45.
Pillá un show reciente del grupo Coba acá, empezando más o menos en 2:05:45.

There's some pretty interesting stuff going on in the Big Apple these days - Chonta Records is booking tours, putting out records, and other interesting and positive things with the Colombian groups here in NY - check it out here.

Big scandal in Colombia

This is a pretty good article about the links between government institutions and the paramilitaries that re starting to come out. It would be difficult to overemphasize the importance of this, although nobody knows how far up to the top the evidence adn allegations could go - at any rate, it will probably seriously threaten future aid packages from the US...
Link

Indígenas U'wa pierden batalla con oleoindustria

Declaration of Afro-Colombian and Indigenous Groups in Timbiquí/Declaración de Consejos Comunitarios Afros e Indígenas en Timbiquí

Link (English)
Enlace (Español)

Social network technology in Colombia?

Link

Ugly academic words, eschew when possible

Consolidación de los medios en Colombia

Enlace

Currulao en NY

Indigenous people map their territories with GPS and Google Earth/Indígenas mapeando sus territorios con GPS y Google Earth

Is there something wierd about this? I'm no Luddite but I can't quite put my finger on what seems wrong here... maybe having the indigenous acts as border patrol? Or maybe the whole idea of translating what they already know into terms that the rest of the world can understand and use - or abuse (it mentions biobiracy)?

Link

Hay algo raro aquí? No soy tan reaccionario pero hay algo aquí que me da vainita... de pronto que los indígenas actuén de patrulla fronteriza? O de pronto la misma idea de traducir lo que ellos ya saben a un medio que los blancos pueden entender y usar - o abusar (como la bio-piratería)?

Gaiteros de San Jacinto

Los herederos del sonido de Toño Fernández, Catalino Parra y los Lara reviven el folclor con el nuevo álbum 'Tributo a los hermanos Lara'.

Link

Plata para Cartagena

La finalidad es blindar el 'Corralito de Piedra' de basuras, vendedores ambulantes, indigentes, prostitutas, raponeros y el desorden vehicular.


Link

How the Music Industry Works These Days

First Afrocolombian general/Primer general afrocolombiano

Link (English)
Enlace (Español)

Paramilitary, parastate? Paramilitar, paraestado?

The Colombian state is consumed in a scandal that is splashing even the President's feet about politicians and members of major state institutions being in bed with the paramilitaries. How come none of this stuff is in the NY Times these days? I know that Juan Forero, who was the Times correspondent based in Bogotá, went to the Washington Post, but still...

Link

Colombia and the new model of warfare/Colombia y la nueva cara de la guerra

Xavante ringtone

The Xavante indigenous group of Brazil has stated selling traditional songs as ringtones, for lack of other economic possibilities. The point is not the "holy crap- the premodern and the postmodern!" or "the poor Indians are selling off their culture" or any of a number of other shocked responses. The interesting thing for me is that this example shows a delicate balance between respect for intellectual property (in this case, it would seem to be communal intellectual property) and the kind of file-share-friendly model of the Brazilian Ministry of Culture, headed by Gilberto Gil.
Here are the ring tones and cell phone wallpapers they are offering. There are also ring tones and wallpapers from a quilombola (Afro-Brazilian maroon/escaped slave) community here.

Los indígenas Xavante de Brasil están vendiendo cantos tradicionales como ringtones, por falta de otras posibilidades económicas. El punto no es "wow, los premoderno y los posmoderno, que cagada la globalización" o "pobre indios vendiendo su cultura" o otras respuestas sorprendidas o indignantes. Lo interesante de esto para mí es el delicado balance entre respeto a la propiedad intelectual (en este caso, p.i. comunal) y la noción de circulación abierta a través de la tecnología que ha propuesto el Ministerio de Cultura Brasileira, liderado por Gilberto Gil. Aquí están los ringtones y wallpapers de los Xavante. También hay una comunidad quilombola (afro-brasileira/palenquera) vendiendo ringtones y wall papers.

TLC firmado/Free Trade Agreement signed

Today the Free Trade Agreement between Colombia and the US was signed, after months of tortured negotiations, vehement protests and their brutal suppression.

BBC article
Artículo El Tiempo

Hoy se firmó el TLC entre Colombia y EE.UU, después de meses de negociaciones y protestas.

Islamic ringtones

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/11/22/world/main2205417.shtml

Music or chant? Piousness or profanity? Technology or nature?

Música o rezo? Piedad o profanidad? Tecnología o naturaleza?

Marimba antigua/Old marimba # 1

Este imagen es el más antiguo que tenemos de la marimba en Colombia. Es de Barbacoas, en lo que hoy es el Departamento de Nariño, un pueblo que en su tiempo era bastante importante para la extracción de oro. El imagen es de la Comisión Corográfica de mediados del Siglo XIX. Lo interesante aquí es que el marimbero es blanco o mestizo. Esto sugiere que la música de marimba, aunque indudablemente de orígen africano (historiador Germán Patiño la cree indígena), sufrió varios procesos de sincretización, y a lo mejor llegó a ser una música popular entre la población general de la zona, aunque puede ser que fue popular sobre todo entre las clases populares, los esclavizados, y los negros libres. Pronto, la marimba entre los indígenas Cayapa...

Ethnographers on the dark side/Etnógrafos del diablo

Estos manes hacen etnografías para las empresas. Así que, si no te funciona eso de la etnomusicología, hay otra posibilidad...

http://www.ethnographic-research.com/

These dudes do corporate ethnographies. So if this ethnomusicology thing doesn't work out for...

culturebox

culturebox
Jay-Z Versus the Sample Troll
The shady one-man corporation that's destroying hip-hop.
By Tim Wu
Posted Thursday, Nov. 16, 2006, at 1:50 PM ET

Last week, a mysterious company, Bridgeport Music Inc., sued hip-hop mogul Jay-Z, accusing him of breaking the law when he recorded his 2003 single "Justify My Thug." The song is an obvious nod to Madonna's "Justify My Love," but she is not the plaintiff. Instead, Bridgep! ort is suing because Jay-Z did something that is normal in hip-hop: sampling. He took a few notes, looped them in the background, and produced the tune. Bridgeport claims to own those notes, and is demanding a fortune in damages and a permanent ban on the distribution of the song.

Bridgeport is an unwelcome addition to the music world: the "sample troll." Similar to its cousins the patent trolls, Bridgeport and companies like it hold portfolios of old rights (sometimes accumulated in dubious fashion) and use lawsuits to extort money from successful music artists for routine sampling, no matter how minimal or unnoticeable. The sample trolls have already leveraged their position into millions in settlements and court damages, but that's not the real problem. The trolls are turning copyright into the foe rather than the friend of musical innovation. They are bad for everyone in the industry—includin! g the major labels. The sample trolls need to be stopped, either by Co ngress or by court rulings that establish sampling as a boon, not a burden, to creativity.

Bridgeport is a one-man corporation formed in 1969 and owned by a former music producer named Armen Boladian. It has no employees and no reported assets other than copyrights. Technically, Bridgeport is a "catalog company." Most catalog companies are in the relatively quiet business of licensing rights for television commercials, cover songs, and selling sheet music to interested fans. But Bridgeport has figured out a far more lucrative business model—trolling for sampling cash.

George Clinton is otherwise known as the King of Interplanetary Funk and, along with the late Rick James, the world's most famous funk musician. In the 1970s, Boladian and Bridgeport managed to seize most of the copyrights to Clinton's songs. How exactly they did so is highly disputed. However, in at least a few cases, Boladian assigned the copyrights to Bridgeport by writing a contract and then f! aking Clinton's signature (as described here). As Clinton put it in this interview, "he just stole 'em."

Bridgeport, if a thief, stole the winning ticket. The Clinton sounds it acquired went on to be among the most widely sampled in the rap music of the 1980s and 1990s. Sampling is as elemental to the genre as beats, beefs, or bragging, and Clinton's sonic creations were a major part of Public Enemy's debut, and were also used heavily by N.W.A., Dr. Dre, Biggie Smalls, and other rap pioneers. Often the sampling is virtually impossible to detect—listen to this sample in this N.W.A song.*

The rise of rap presented a golden oppor tunity for Bridgeport. After years of demanding fees, in 2001, Bridgeport launched nearly 500 counts of copyright infringement against more than 800 artists and labels. The company, suing in Nashville, Tenn., located every sample of Clinton or other owned copyrights it could find. It took the legal position that any sampling of a sound recording, no matter how minimal or unnoticeable, is still a violation of federal law. Imagine that the copyright owner of The Lord of the Rings had sued every fantasy book or magazine that dared used the words elf, orc, or troll. That gives you an idea of the magnitude of Bridgeport's campaign.

Since 2001, Bridgeport's shotgun approach has led to many dismissals and settlements, but also two major victories. First, in 2005, Bridgeport convinced Nashville's federal appellate court to buy into its copyright theory. In that case, Bridgeport Music v. Dimension Films, the defendants samp! led a single chord from the George Clinton tune "Get Off Your Ass and Jam," changed the pitch, and looped the sound in the background. (The result is almost completely unrecognizable—you can listen to it here). The Sixth Circuit created a rule: that any sampling, no matter how minimal or undetectable, is a copyright infringement. Said the court in Bridgeport, "Get a license or do not sample. We do not see this as stifling creativity in any significant way."

Then, in March of this year, Bridgeport cashed in. It convinced a court to enjoin the sales of the best-selling Notorious B.I.G. album Ready to Die for illegal sampling. A jury awarded Bridgeport more than $4 million in damages.

These troll lawsuits may sound unattractive. But is Bridgeport perhaps serving the goals of copyright—foste! ring creativity—in some less obvious way? One idea is that Bridgepor t is more Robin Hood than troll, stealing from lazy, rich rappers like Jay-Z to channel money back to deserving artists like George Clinton. That argument would make some sense if making rap music were easy, or if Clinton or other artists were in some way the beneficiary of the lawsuits. But neither is true. Bridgeport and other trolls do take from the rich. But they keep the money.

If the benefits are abstract, the costs imposed are obvious. Sample trolls have already changed the face of hip-hop. Early rap, like Public Enemy, combined and mixed thousands of sounds in a single album. That makes sense musically, but it doesn't make sense legally. Thousands or even hundreds of samples, under the Bridgeport theory, mean thousands of copyright clearances and licenses. Today, Public Enemy's breakout album, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, would cost millions to produce or, more likely, would never have been made at all.*

The kicker is that while sample trolls are bad for artists, they're also bad for mainstream record labels. Record labels want to get out new music at minimum cost. But if clearing rights in the Bridgeport world costs a fortune, production becomes that much more expensive, and innovative music that much riskier a bet.

What, if anything, can be done? In the big picture, copyright must continually work to ensure that the basic building blocks of creativity are available to artists and creators, especially as new forms of art emerge. We already know what this means for novelists: freedom to use facts, borrow stock characters (like Falstaff) and standard plots (the murder mystery). For filmmakers, it means the freedom to copy standard shots (like The Magnificent Seven's "establishment shot"). For rap music, it means the freedom to sample. Rap's constant reinvention and remixing of old sounds makes it what i! t is; now is the time for the copyright system to get that. Vibrant cu ltures borrow, remix and recast. Static cultures die.

Legal solutions to the sample-troll problem are relatively easy—much easier than fixing the patent-troll problem. First, there's only one appellate court, the 6^th Circuit, that takes the ridiculous position that any sample, no matter how minimal, needs a license. Most copyright scholars think the decision is both activist and bogus—in the words of leading commentator William Patry, "Bridgeport is policy making wrapped up in a truncated view of law and economics." Other courts can easily counter Bridgeport. They just need to say that the infringement rules for sampling are the same rules that apply for the rest of copyright. Dumbledore may resemble Gandalf, but he's no infringement. Similarly, if you can't even recognize the original in a sample, it shouldn't violate federal law to use it.

Congress could also easily ! act against the sample trolls. All that is needed is a "sampling code": a single section of the law that declares the usage of some fixed amount of a sound recording, say, seven notes or less, to be no infringement of the copyright law. That would give artists a simple rule to live by, while still requiring licenses for big samples that would compete with the original. It's a win-win scenario. With a single line of code, Congress can make this problem go away.

In the end, it's probably wrong to suggest the sample trolls are evil or hate rap music. The trolls simply look for profit, like any business, and are rational and predictable, like the mold that grows on rotten meat. None of these problems would be quite so severe if artists actually controlled their own copyrights. George Clinton's copyrights end up blocking sampling, when he himself favors sampling. "When hip-hop came out," said Clinton in this interview with Rick Karr, "I was glad to hear it, especially when it was our songs—it was a way to get back on the radio."

Copyright is supposed to be the servant of artists, but today that is all too often just a pretense. The vast majority of the nation's valuable copyrights are owned not by creators, but by stockpilers of one kind or another, and Bridgeport is just a particularly pernicious example. We need better devices to keep the control of the most valuable of artist's rights with artists. For, to paraphrase Judge Learned Hand, copyright was born to protect and liberate musicians, but it all too often ends up enslaving them.

Click here to see the complaint in the Jay-Z case.

Correction, Nov. 16, 2006: The article originally and incorrectly stated that It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back was Public Enemy's first album. In fact, it ! was the group's second. (Return to the corrected sentence.)

Correction, Nov. 17, 2006: The article also originally misidentified a sample as from a Public Enemy song—it was from an N.W.A. song. (Return to the corrected sentence.)

Tim Wu is a professor at Columbia Law School and co-author of Who Controls the Internet?

Article URL: http://www.slate.com/id/2153961/

Copyright 2006 Washing tonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC

Cultural policy & rock/Rock y política cultural

Wittgensteinian sushi

Vea pues, sushi a lo Wittgenstein...

Who knew, Wittgensteinian sushi?

Los colombianos ven a sus instituciones/Colombians take a look at their institutions

Según una reciente encuesta, en Semana, la popularidad de Uribe y las FF.AA. han caído mientras la de las ONGs de derechos humanos han subido, entre otros resultados. Una fotografía interesante de las actitudes de los colombianos. Véase también aqui.

According to a recent poll in Semana magazine, President Uribe's and the Armed Forces' popularity fell, while that of NGOs working with human rights rose, among other results. An interesting snapshot of the attitudes of Colombians. See here.

Muertas en los manglares, las ballenas del Pacífico/High death rate of whales on Colombia's Pacific coast

Link/Enlace

(Foto de ElTiempo.com)

Bishop of Buenaventura leaves under death threat/Obispo de Buenaventura se va del puerto por amenazas

Link/Enlace

Traditional medecine, bio-prospecting and intellectual property in Colombia/Medicina tradicional, bio-prospección y propiedad intelectual en Colombia

Link/Enlace

Para traducir, corta y pega a esta página: http://babelfish.altavista.com/

Movie workers on strike in Colombia/Huelga de trabajadores de película en Cartagena

Los albañiles del rodaje de "Amor en tiempos de cólera" en Cartagena están de huelga porque dizque les trata de "micos," "indios" e "ignorantes" y, es más, les quitan plata del cheque de manera sospechísima. Lo más sabroso de todo son, como siempre en ElTiempo.com , los comentarios de los lectores(oye, pero esos comentarios están rogando por una buena etnografía): "No les paren bolas esos costeños son perezosos."

Workers on the set in Cartagena of the film version of Gabriel García Márquez's "Love in Times of Cholera" are on strike because their employers call them "monkeys," "indians," and "ignorant," and, worse yet, make suspicious deductions from their paychecks. The best of all is the entertainingly obnoxious reader comments on ElTiempo.com (begging for an ethnography), like: "Don't worry, those people in the coast are lazy."

Punk rockers banned in Medellín/Punquetes "Odio a Botero" Prohibidos en Medellín

My favorite Colombian punk rock group was barred from (an then reinstated in) a punk festival in the city of Medellín because their name - Odio a Botero (I Hate Botero)
is offensive to the city where Fernando Botero, the famous painter of fatness (fat prists, fat kids, fat horses, fat fruit, fat houses, fat guitars) is from. Puh-leez, sometimes there's something very tetchy and kind of pathetic about Colombian - or is it just paisa? - nationalism.

A mi grupo punkero favorita de Colombia, Odio a Botero prohibieron, y despues permitieron su participación en festival del punk en Medellín por que a algunos paisitas no les gustó el nombrecito. Por Dios, a veces el nacionalismo Colombiano - o será nomás el paisa? - es un poco patético.

Antropólogo Clifford Geertz, 1926-2006

Eminent cultural anthropologist Clifford Geertz has died.

El eminente antropólogo Clifford Geertz ha muerto.

Ethno conference in Peru/Conferencia etnomusicológica en el Perú

Welcome to Peru
To The International Symposium 2007:

Unveiling Society’s Secrets: An In-Depth
Analysis of the Culture of the Americas

The International Symposium 2007, have the pleasure to salute you and invite you to participate in this important event that will take place in Miraflores, Lima, Peru, between the 14^th to the 17^th of February 2007. The new date of this Symposium includes paper presentation, invited speakers, and special discussion sessions.
The Graduate School of the Facultad de Letras y Ciencias Humanas from the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, as the organizing institution of the the Symposium, feels honoured of being able to receive Professors and Graduate students of the Américas and hopes to share four days of academic work and social encounter.

Keynote Address
by Dr. Ruth Shady, the World Famous Peruvian Archeologist who Discovered the Oldest City in the Americas: Caral, Peru

Keynote Speakers
Professor: Dr. Raul Romero. Ethnomusicology, Harvard University
Professor: Dr. Edyl Mego. Art. UNAM
Professor: Dr. Bartholomew C. Dean, Harvard University

Themes for the conference will focus primarily:
Andean Ethnomusicology
Peruvian pre-Hispanic Musical Instruments through Time
The oldest civilization of America: Caral, Peru
Amazonia

CALL FOR PAPERS (Spanish or English)
Proposals on any other topics relevant to the following fields are also welcome.

• Peruvian ethnomusicology.
• Peruvian pre-Hispanic musical instruments.
• Andean music ethnography
• Social use of the musical instruments from the Pre- Inca to the Inca times.
• Aesthetic valuation of the Peruvian pre-Hispanic musical instruments.
• Synchronous Study and social use of the musical instruments from Pre-Inca to the Inca times.
• Iconography in ceramic musical instruments of the pre-Columbian cultures.
• Iconography on the centuries old music of the Peruvian Andes to contemporary times.
• Andean popular dances.
• Caral Supe.
• Social anthropology, critical theory, kinship, politics, exchange, symbolic forms, social change/ development and human rights in Peruvian Amazonia.(Loreto/San Martin)
• Rights, power and cultural survival in Indigenous Amazonia..
• Amazonian Peoples: Cultural, medical and tradition survival.
• Kinship
• The Urarina People of Upper Amazonia

Organizing Committee:
Dr. Marcos Matos, Dean of Facultad de Letras y Ciencias Humanas
Dr. Martha Irene Barriga Tello, Director of Post-Graduate School
of the Facultad de Letras y Ciencias Humanas
Lic. Esther Espinoza Espinoza, Professor Facultad de Letras y Ciencias Humanas

Scientific Committee:
Dr. Raúl Romero Cevallos
Dr. Edyl Mego Benites
Dr. Bartholomew C. Dean.
Composer Maestro Enrique Iturriaga, ex director of the UNMSM School of Art and the National Conservatory of Music. Emeritus Professor at both Institutions.
Composer Maestro Seiji Asato Asato, Professor of National Conservatory of Music.

Deadlines

• The deadline for intent to participate is: November 30, 2006
• The deadline for submission of abstracts is: December 15, 2006 (*)

(*) Please see special instructions under Abstracts

Abstracts are welcome for oral presentation (20 minutes + 10 minutes discussion). Please send 2 copies with your name and address via email to:

Dr. Marcos Goldfarb postgrado.symposium2007@yahoo.com
Dr. Martha Barriga Tello upg_l@hotmail.com

PLEASE NOTE: There is room for many individual proposals in special sessions, unrelated to the colloquia.

Organizing Institution:

Unidad de Post Grado de la Facultad de Letras y Ciencias Humanas
Avenida Dos de Mayo 536, Miraflores 19, Lima, Peru

Symposium Details and Registration Form

Please click on the appropriate link below, which will give you further details on the Symposium, registering and accommodation.
Both the registration form and accommodation detail are available for you to download.

http://www.inkanations.org/symposium_2007.html

Contact people:
Please feel free to communicate with Dr. Marcos Goldfarb if you are interested in submitting an abstract for our Symposium: “Unveiling Society’s Secrets: An In-Depth Analysis of the Culture of the Americas”.
If your research is not related to the general themes but you might be interested in presenting an abstract at this conference, definitely see the list of other POSSIBLE TOPICS being held at the Symposium.

Coordinator academic and administrative affairs:
Dra. Martha Barriga Tello: Director of Post-Graduate School
of the Facultad de Letras y Ciencias Humanas
e-mail: martha_barriga@yahoo.com.ar

Coordinator:
Abstract information, Registration, Accomodation and Transport:
Dr. Marcos Goldfarb e-mail: inkanations@att.net and/or postgrado.symposium2007@yahoo.com

Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos
The UNMSM has been recognized throughout its 450 years in Peruvian history as an innovative, public institution that prepares the future leaders of this country. It was founded in 1551 and it is the oldest university in the world and the oldest in America. It was chartered by a royal decree signed by Charles I of Spain. Over 50,000 students who have participated in an extremely competitive entrance exam attend the UNMSM to persue degrees in over 100 academic fields.

PLEASE NOTE:
Information on this website is preliminary, and is subject for change.
IT IS IMPORTANT THAT ALL CONFERENCE PARTICIPANTS INFORM THE LOCAL ORGANIZERS ABOUT THEIR ARRIVAL TIME AT LIMA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT.
We also encourage everyone to book their lodgings as early as possible.

Before or after the conference there are many possibilities for excursions and visits:
1) A three nights four days group excursion to Cusco and Machu Picchu
2) A two days one night group excursion to Nazca Lines.
3) Museo de Arqueologia y Antropologia de San Marcos: La Casona de San Marcos

Meetings are open to professor and graduate students from all parts of the world without restriction. We welcome proposals that should not exceed 20 minutes in duration, complete panels, including round table discussions.
Since this International Symposium focuses on discussion, we explicitly encourage participation even without formal presentation.

REGISTRATION FEES

Date: As soon as possible
Participants with or without Paper presentation: us$ 200.00
Accompanying persons: us$ 50.00
Faculty and students UNMSM: s/ 70.00 (Caral and Dinner show extra)
Faculty and students Universidades Nacionales del Peru: s/150.00 (Caral and Dinner show extra)
In case of non attendance, the Organizing Committee will not be able to return the Registration Fees paid.
Method of Payment: In order to avoid transfer charges in USA and Peru the Committee suggested to make an initial deposit us$50.00 dollars payable to:
Marcos Goldfarb, Account No..93100022167
First Republic Bank

1200 Prospect St. La Jolla, California 92037
Balance to be paid by cash (dollars or soles) during Registration day to Facultad de Letras y Ciencias Humanas UPG.account.
Faculty and students from UNMSM and Peruvian universities may pay directly to:
Unidad de Post Grado de la Facultad de Letras y Ciencias Humanas
Avenida Dos de Mayo 536, Miraflores, Lima, Peru

Música colombiana en Nueva York/Colombian Music in New York

Hay varios grupos colombianos buenos en NY - y van a tener su IV Encuentro el 12 de noviembre, el domingo.
There are a bunch of great bands in NY - and they're having their fourth annual Encuentro on November 12, Sunday!
The groups/Los grupos:

Folklore Urbano jazz fusion - you gotta hear they're cumbia version of Monk's "Well You Needn't"
Coba (not the Correction Officers' Benevolent Association but guitarist and arranger Sebastían Cruz's rock/jazz fusion project),
electro-folk chanteuse Lucía Pulido,
neo-traditional gaiteros La Cumbiamba Eneyé,
virtuoso harpist Edmar Castañeda,
the renowned Latin jazz pianist Hector Martignon
conguero Samuel Torres

Propiedad Intelectual y Música en Brasil/Intellectual Property and Music in Brazil

Desde que Gilberto Gil asumió el puesto de Ministerio de Cultura en Brasil, con una perspectiva bastante populista sobre el asunto de propiedad intelectual, las grandes empresas discográficas han estado por pelearselo. Ahora, parece que ya están sacando los machetes. La International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) tuvo una reunión en Brasil y no dejó entrar unos profesores brasileiros. Mientras tanto, uno puede ver que los brasileiros comunes y corrientes no paran ni bolas a estas mega-empresas y ya tienen sus propias maneras de difundir y consumir su música, como muestra Hermano Vianna. De todas maneras, para los que quieren expresar a la IFPI su oposición a la restricción de la libre circulación de la cultura, hay una petición para firmar. Yo sí la firmé - me parece una ridiculez que los supuestos dueños de nuestra cultura van en contra del derecho de las personas de participar en lo que han creado.

Ever since Gilberto Gil took over as Brazilian Minister of Culture, with a populist perspective on the subject of intellectual property, the big record companies have been itching for a fight. Now they've fired a shot over the bow. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) had some kind of meeting in Brazil and refused to allow some Brazilian professors to enter. Meanwhile, it's pretty esasy to see that regular Brazilians coulsn't give a rat's butt about these music mega-corporations and already have their own ways of distributing and consuming their music, as Hermano Vianna's excellent article shows us. At any ratem if you feel like you want to express to the IFPI that you're opposed to their restriction of the free circulation of culture, there's a petition you can sign. I did - it seems absurd that the supposed owners of our culture are going to oppose the right of people to participate in what they've created.

Champeta

This gap-toothed little kid with gigantic sunglasses (the caption says, incongruously, "Shark Vision") gets down to some good old fashioned champeta.

Este pelaito chimuelo con sus gafotas "Shark Vision" sí tira paso de champeta!

Open letter on race, class and cultural policy/Carta abierta sobre clase, raza y política cultural

Esta carta es del colombiano Lucas Silva de Palenque Records, que promociona lo afrocolombiano en París. It complains about racism and classism in Colombian cultural policy.

This letter is from Lucas Silva, Colombian head of Palenque Records, which promotes afrocolombian stuff in Paris. Señala racismo y clasismo en la política cultural colombiana.

San Pacho.com!

This might not be a big deal for those of you who are reading in English - here in the States, everybody and their grandmother has a website, but for the Chocó to have a presence on the web is a big deal. This site, www.sanpacho.com, is all about the biggest craziest party in the world, the San Pacho (Saint Francis's local nickname) festival in Colombia's black province of the Chocó. Go check it out, and then go to San Pacho next year.

Oye, pero aquí en EE.UU., todo el mundo y su abuela tiene una página internet, pero gran cosa que existe ahora www.sanpacho.com desde el Chocó para promocionar su gran rumbón. Ojalá algun día, el festival de música tradicional más importante que tiene Colombia, el Petronio Álvarez, se organice lo suficiente para montar una vaina de estas...

War and the female body in Colombia/Guerra y el cuerpo de la mujer en Colombia

An excellent, and very sad article.

Artículo excelente, y bastante triste.

Coca en el Pacífico caucano/Coca in the Pacific

Si alguien, a pesar del descubrimiento el año pasado que unos oficiales de la Marina estaban enviando drogas de la zona de Guapi-Timbiquí, no se ha enterado de lo que está pasando en la costa caucana, que hasta tiempos relativamente recientes estaba más o menos libre de los actores armados y el cultivo ilícito, ya estamos viendo su absorpción en la trágica situación colombiana. Ahora, incautaron materiales para el procesamiento de la coca en una lancha saliendo de Buenaventura rumbo a Timbiquí. Eso obviamente obstaculiza el trabajo de campo en la zona, pero hasta más preocupante es el efecto que la plata fácil y la inevitable militarización de la Marina y los otros actores, podrían tener para la gente y la cultura. Muy triste.

If last years' bust of the Navy sending drugs out of Guapi and Timbiquí didn't clue anyone in to what's going on in the Pacific coast of the department of Cauca (location of Guapi and Timbiquí), which until fairly recently was relatively free of armed actors or coca-growing, we're now seeing the absorption of this region into the tragic Colombian situation. Now, the government has seized a boat with coca-processing chemicals leaving Buenaventura for Timbiquí. This obviously effects fieldwork there, but even more worrisome is the effect that easy money and the inevitable militarization by the Navy and the other actors could have on the people and the culture of the zone. Very sad.

Comer en Nueva York sigue siendo más barato que en Tokio, Londres o París/It's cheaper to eat in New York than Tokyo, London or Paris

I don't know but 40 bucks a meal seems pretty expensive to me. I'm already tired of how expensive this city is - I've been in the city for a month and I've barely gone out at all. It may be cheaper than Tokyo, London or Paris, but jeez 5%?!

Yo no sé pero 40 chavos una comida me parece bastante caro. Ya estoy mamado de lo caro que es esta ciudad - llevo un mes aquí y casi no he salido casi nada. Puede ser que es más barata que Tokio, Londres o París, pero por Dios, 5% de aumento?!

Link/Enlace

Hip Hop al Parque/Hip hop festival in Bogotá

Cine rosa en Cali

Cine Rosa, a film cycle on sexual diversity in Colombia is in Cali.
Cine Rosa, una muestra de cine sobre la diversidad sexual en Colombia se está haciendo en Cali.

Economic development, heritage, race/Desarrollo, herencia ,étnia

Este artículo de allAfrica.com nos muestra las coincidencias entre el desarrollo (a través del turismo cultural), la conciencia étnica y la capacidad de hacer plata de cualquier cosa. La pregunta de siempre: ¿Cuánto ayudará a la gente común? Para traducirlo cortá y pegá el texto en babelfish.com.

This article shows us the links between development (through cultural tourism), ethnic consciousness and the capacity to market anything. The age-old question: how much will it help regular people?

'Heritage Trail' to Link African, Caribbean, U.S. Tourist Effort

allAfrica.com
NEWS
September 27, 2006
Posted to the web September 28, 2006

By Charles Cobb Jr.
Hamilton, Bermuda

Hundreds of participants are expected at a 5-day 'African Diaspora Heritage Trail' (ADHT) conference opening today in Hamilton, Bermuda.

Author and Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka, keynotes the opening plenary.

The conference is part of an initiative to bring together representatives from Africa and descendants of Africa to stimulate heritage-trail tourist destinations, programs and products.

The slave trade, said Bermuda Premier W. Alexander Scott, in an opening statement, "had a tremendous impact on populating most of the islands in the Caribbean, and South America…we recognize ADHT as a way of documenting and sharing our history and culture with visitors and residents alike."

The conference "will facilitate long term relationships between Bermuda and the Caribbean, African nations, North America and South America," according to a conference statement.

The island's Tourist Minister, Ewart Brown, added that "the Diaspora spans continents and oceans and joins a potentially disparate people into a cohesive unit." His sentiment echoes other recent developments.

Earlier this month, tour operators, government ministers and international agencies met in Geneva, Switzerland to launch TourismAfrica 2006, an effort to aggressively expand African tourism destinations and to bring more coordination and cooperation among the continent's tourist providers. Heritage travel was prominent in that meeting as well.

The African Union has now established a "sixth region", permitting North American African Diaspora participation in the Pan-African organization. The United States government has even assigned a representative to this new region.

Ghana is spearheading a "Joseph Project" aimed at encouraging tourism and even resettlement in Ghana by descendants of Africa. The name is taken from the Biblical Old Testament story of Joseph, his sale into slavery, and - years later – his finally being reunited with his brothers.

"Burning Issues Forums" at the Bermuda

Wired Wayúu/Indígenas Online

There's something very strange about a world where globalization and multinational coroporations are crushing the life out of Fourth World people and the particularities of local cultures, but at the same time allying with local communities - to sell them stuff. Like in the deserts of northeastern Colombia, where Microsoft has decided to start selling a version of Windows in the language of the Wayúu indigenous people. Corporations will always pursue monopoly rent, as David Harvey reminds us, but what are the possibilities of this kind of thing for the social projects of the Wayúu? How can these strange partnerships between local populations (whose social needs would be helped by global links) and global capital (which needs increasingly requires local markets on a global scale) provide ways for local peoples to retain their agency and take advantage of the links between scales provided by globality (and not vice versa)?

Hay algo muy extraño de un mundo donde la globalización y las corpraciones multinacionales están aplastando los pueblos autóctonos y estrangulando sus culturas, pero a la vez aliándose con las comunidades locales - para venderles cachevaches, por supuesto. Como en los desiertos de la Guajira, donde Microsoft ha decidido vender Windows en el idioma de los indígenas Wayúu. Las corporaciones siempre persiguen la "renta de monopolía," como nos recuerda el geógrafo marxista David Harvey, pero ¿cuáles son las posibilidades de este tipo de cosa para los proyectos sociales de los Wayúu? Cómo pueden estas extrañas colaboraciones entre poblaciones locales (cuyas necesidades sociales se podrián empezar a resolver con vínculos globales), y el capital global (que cada vez más necesita mercados locales pero a escala global) brinda la posibilidad que los pueblos locales retengan su agencia y aproveche de las ventajas que vienen de los vínculos entre escalas que provee la globalidad (y no vice versa)?

Chirimía, currulao y hip hop

ESTA SEMANA EN LA MEDIA TORTA
HIP HOP Y MÚSICA DEL PACÍFICO ALEGRAN EL DOMINGO Este domingo 1 de octubre la ciudad tendrá nuevamente la oportunidad de encontrase con toda la música, el sabor y la alegria del pacífico colombiano gracias a la Chirimia La Contundencia y sus ritmos afro colombianos, a la marimba y los currulados de los Hijos del Pacífico y las líricas comprometidas del hip hop de Soporte Klan.		¿Dónde y Cuándo? Media Torta. Calle 18 No. 1 - 05 Este. Domingo 1 de octubre. Hora: 12:00 m. Entrada libre.
Informes: 281 7704 / 318 2460 - www.mediatorta.gov.co

RIP Tommy Olivencia QEPD

Puerto Rican salsero Tommy Olivencia is dead.
El salsero boricua Tommy Olivencia ha muerto.

From Wikipedia (English)
De endi.com - Puerto Rico (Español)
De El Tiempo - Colombia (Español)

polarización Musical polarization

Recientemente me llegó este mensaje, no sé de donde. Personalmente, a mí me gusta el reggaetón, no solamente por ser parte del soundtrack de la juventud latina de Nueva York desde hace muchos años sino porque me gusta bailarlo, aunque no es una música que me siento a escuchar así no más. No coloco el mensaje para dar voz al puritanismo y esnobismo de su autor, una persona que aparentemente le da penita moverse la cadera, sino para demostrar la rabia con la cual los colombianos han asumido las categorías de consumo. Los géneros (casi todos gringos) que él nombra también han sido victimas del esnobismo y de caracterizaciones falsas (como es la insistencia que el reggaetón es consistemente misoginista) que ocultan el elitismo que están a su raíz. Otras músicas han trascendido sus orígenes estigmatizados para llegar a ser músicas icónicas (la salsa, la bachata, el reggae entre mushísimas más). De todas maneras, es cuestión de tolerancia: a mí no me trama mucho el vallenato (que de hecho, me parece en algunas de sus manifestaciones mucho más machista que el reggaetón, aunque esa no es la razón porque no me trama), aunque a veces es bacano escuchar, pero si vos lo querés escuchar, no voy a formar un movimiento en contra de él. El respecto a la diferencia, por Dios!

Movimiento Anti-reggaeton

¡Así es! Este movimiento surge porque ya estamos hartos de ésta "música" si es que se le puede llamar así. Estamos convocando a todos los amantes de la buena música sin importar el género,siempre y cuando sea música de
verdad.
Utilizen un liston morado o una pulsera morada, pero ojo: no es que la tengan que comprar,este movimiento no ayuda a nadie, es un llamado a la gente, a que ellos
mismos apliquen su ingenio y ellos mismo fabriquen su pulsera ó liston de protesta.

Úsala con orgullo y cuando un reggeatonero la vea sabrá que estas en desacuerdo con la porquería de música y estilo que lleva.

DAME MAS GASOLINA???????? Porfavor!! piensa en todas las veces que vas escuchando Tu música en la calle en tú reproductor portatil, y de pronto pasa a un lado un carro con tremendo sonido, dónde solo se distingue -->(tu pa;tu pa tu pa tu patu)...
Todas las canciones suenan igual, las letras son de lo mas Nefastas, sin creatividad.

Usa Tu pulsera, pasa este mail a la gente; que esto sea un motivo de revolucion.
Si tu eres reggeatonero y te llegó este mail, no te molestes, pero yo creo ke nunca lo serás, porque no tienes un auto de 450mil dolares y jamás tendrás un cadenon blin blin de 125mil pesos, un pantalon de mezclilla, unos converse y una
playerita...
Así de fácil, con eso demostramos el espíritu indie, donde todo está hecho por nosotros.(DIY)do it yourserlf- no tenemos que usar miles de pesos en accesorios para vernos llamativos y poner mujeres semi-desnudas para llamar la
atención en conciertos y videos. Porque hasta ellos mismos dudan de su capacidad como "artistas"..

Usa tu pulsera..fabrícala!!!!!

Actúa, demuestra tu descontento. Somos muchos generos contra uno
solo..Si los reggeatoneros hizieran lo mismo tendrian que usar más de 500 pulseras o piensan ganarle al:

Rock, punk, postpunk, indie, noise, techno drum&base, folk, emo tronika, nui
jazz, harcore, lowmetal doom, dark, trova, speed, blackmetal, idm, breakbeat, minimaltech, reggae, ska, skapunk, emo, bossanova, atinbeat,thrash metal, power metal, deathmetal...etc,etc,etc,etc,,,,,,,,,Y...

EL GENERO MAS IMPORTANTE: EL QUE TU SIGUES Y TIENES QUE DEFENDER.

Y SI ALGUIEN TIENE LA INQUIETUD DE SABER EL PORQUE ES ESTE MOVIMIENTO ANTI REGGAETON PUES AKI LES DAMOS ALGUNAS PISTAS QUE LA VERDAD SON SUFICIENTES PARA HACERLO:

EN CONTRA DEL REGGAETON (también conocidocomo perreo)

Idea N1: Pone al nivel de putas a las mujeres. (lo peor es que a ellas les encanta)
Idea N2: Es el machismo vuelto canción
Idea N3: Cuando uno piensa que el hip hop es lo más repetitivo encuentras el reggaeton
Idea N4: El único tema que entregan las canciones: SEXO
Idea N5: La voz no importa mientras se tenga un PC cerca
Idea N6: Los videos muestran 4 cosas:
1. El culo de las mujeres.
2. Las tetas de las mismas.
3.La entrepierna de ellas.
4. Un auto lujoso conducido por el "cantante".
Idea N7: Visualizaciones:
Mujer: Objeto sexual.
Hombre: Se le ve como un "Eyaculeitor".
Idea N8: Las canciones tienen referencia a un "eyaculeitor" que se mete con todas las viejas que quiere, porsupuesto ese tal "hombre maestro" es el cantante (como sí así fuera en la realidad)
Idea N9: El baile: se pueden diferenciar 2 tipos:
1. El Solo: un idiota mueve sus manos para todos los lados(gran idiota) y cada cierto tiempo se agarra sus "partes intimas"como si se le fueran acaer.
2. La "seductora" (un hombre y una mujer, también se vale 2 hombres o 2 mujeres o etc): Una mujer baila como puta y un hombre hace como si se la "violara" con ropa
Idea N10: música demasiado simple con el mismo ritmo donde solo varían los tiempos..

SI ESTAS EN CONTRA DEL REGGAETON O YA TE DISTE CUENTA DE LO ESTUPIDO Y DENIGRANTE QUE ES MANDA ESTA CADENA A TODOS TUS CONTACTOS!!! TU PUEDES SALVAR MAS PERSONAS DE ESTA ABERRACION QUE SE DICE LLAMAR MUSIA!!!!! (es una mierda)

P.D.: Si eres mujer y escuchas reggaeton: PARA DE SER UNA PUTA DE UNA VEZ Y DEJA DE ESCUCHAR ESA ABERRACION!!!

Y si eres "hombre".... busca tu cerebro entre tus piernas y házlo funcionar...

«† BlaCk RoSe †»

...absolutamente...

°GN'R°

Estrategias de expansión de las FARC's expansion strategies

Según este artículo en El Tiempo, el portátil de un capturado operativo de las FARC está revelando sus tácticas de infiltración en las redes sociales urbanas colombianas, cediendo a la presión sobre los territorios que ocupa en el campo. El "PC3" es la organización encargada de establecer una presencia de las FARC en sectores sociales como colegios, universidades, con el magisterio, el gremio de los vigilantes, los taxistas, los desplazados e inclusive con las barras de futbol! Vamos a ver que tanto se puede lograr ese fin, pero tiene la posibilidad de urbanizar hasta más el conflicto en el país...

According to this article in El Tiempo, a captured FARC operative's laptop is revealing the FARC's tactics of infiltration in Colombia's urban socia networks, yielding to pressure on the FARC's rural territories. The "PC3" is the organization whose mission is to establish a FARC presence in social sectors like schools, universities, among the magistrate, the security guards, taxi-drivers, displaced people, and even soccer fans! Time will tell how much they will be able to succeed in this plan, but it shows the possibility that the the conflict will start getting even more urbanized...

Amnesty International informe sobre Colombia/report on Colombia

No he recibido una versión en español, pero recomiendo que corten y peguen en babelfish.com para traducir.

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

Public Statement

AI Index: AMR 23/040/2006 (Public)
News Service No: 245
21 September 2006

Amnesty International’s public statement on Colombia on the occasion of the second session of the UN Human Rights Council

Amnesty International (AI) welcomes the decision by the Colombian Government and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights made public on 12 September 2006, to renew the integral mandate of the Office in Colombia of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights for one year.

The decision to renew the mandate of the Office for one year, rather than four, as in the past, is however regrettable. The four-year mandate granted to the Office at the time of its previous renewal afforded it with the necessary stability to carry out its work effectively and independently. A one-year renewal does not provide that stability which is particularly necessary at a time when the Colombian government has reportedly expressed its desire to restrict the Office’s observation role. This would significantly weaken its effectiveness.

The Colombian government has stated that the mandate has been renewed for only one year to allow it and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to negotiate a new mandate which will better reflect the current human rights reality facing Colombia. Such a reality, the government argues, differs greatly from that which existed when the Office was first established in 1997.

AI believes that the current human rights situation in Colombia makes it all the more critical that the current mandate is maintained intact. International bodies, such as the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) of the Organization of American States, and many members of the international community, in particular the European Union, have repeatedly expressed support for the integral mandate of the Office in Colombia.

Although some indicators suggest that conflict-related violence has fallen, notably the number of kidnappings and killings, these figures mask a human rights reality that AI continues to categorize as critical. In particular, AI has expressed serious concerns about the increase in numbers of new internally-displaced persons and in reports of extra-judicial executions carried out directly by the security forces, as well as about the still high number of “disappearances”, as reported by the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances to the Human Rights Council (E/CN.4/2006/56/Add.1). AI also continues to receive numerous reports of human rights violations carried out by paramilitaries, despite their supposed demobilization.

The increasing ferocity of attacks by armed opposition groups against civilian communities, including killings and kidnappings, and their systematic use of economic blockades and “armed strikes”, of which civilians are the main victims, is also a cause for concern. Although AI acknowledges a reduction in killings in some of the larger cities, the situation in the regions, and particularly in the countryside, continues to deteriorate. Few of the human rights abuses committed in rural areas are ever reported to the authorities, either out of fear of reprisals by one or another armed actor, or because of a lack of confidence in the relevant institutions.

All the parties to the conflict continue to show grave disregard for human rights and international humanitarian law and have been responsible for war crimes, crimes against humanity and other crimes under international law, including killings, “disappearances”, torture, and kidnapping. It is the civilian population that has inevitably borne the brunt of this still critical human rights crisis, since it is precisely they who continue to be targeted by all armed sectors to prevent their possible, perceived or imaginary support for the opposing side.

Given this reality, the role played by the Office, including observation, advice, technical cooperation and promotion of human rights, has proved invaluable. Most importantly, the Office has been effective in saving the lives of many civilians through its intervention. The invaluable work carried out by Colombia’s human rights defenders would also be all the more dangerous without the persistent and unwavering support given to them by the Office over the years. The work of its regional offices has also been effective in ensuring that the human rights of those living in remote parts of the country are not forgotten.

The Office has also played a critical role in defending international human rights standards when these have been threatened by a raft of legislative initiatives promoted by the government, in particular those associated with the supposed demobilization of members of illegal armed groups, be they armed opposition groups or paramilitaries. The Office has been at the vanguard of efforts by Colombian and international NGOs to remind the Colombian administration that legislation such as the Justice and Peace Law and Decree 128, which is designed to regulate the demobilization process, has persistently failed to conform to international standards on the right of human rights victims and their families to truth, justice and reparation, and which threaten to exacerbate the endemic scandal of impunity which reigns supreme in Colombia. However, the Colombian government has persisted in ignoring these reminders.

AI welcomes the High Commissioner’s report on Colombia (E/CN.4/2006/9), and its submission to the current session of the Human Rights Council. The report stresses the importance of implementing the recommendations contained in it and earlier reports. In the area of prevention and protection, the report urges the adoption of the long-promised national human rights action plan and increased protection of human rights defenders. It calls on the parties to the conflict to respect the right to life and to refrain from indiscriminate attacks, kidnappings, recruitment of child soldiers, and sexual violence. AI welcomes the fact that the report recommends that legislation on the demobilization of members of illegal armed groups be made consistent with human rights principles including the right of victims to truth and reparation. The report also urges the government to implement a policy to end impunity.

AI regrets that the Colombian government, and the armed opposition groups, are yet to implement the bulk of the recommendations in this and previous reports, despite the fact that many of these have been contained in previous reports. AI is also disappointed that a request by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention to visit Colombia has so far not been satisfied.

AI stresses the importance for the Human Rights Council to devise ways to encourage the Colombian government to implement the High Commissioner’s recommendations, as included in her reports on the activities of her Colombia Office.

AI looks forward to the High Commissioner’s next report on Colombia to the Human Rights Council.

Rock al Parque's back/de vuelta...

Un grandísimo concierto de rock con grupos internacionales de la talla de Manu Chao y Café Tacuba - en Bogotá.

Link/N-lace

A huge international rock concert with important international groups like Manu Chao and Café Tacuba - in Bogotá.

Más sobre el caso DVD/More on the DVD case

Someone must have impressed on the cops who probably stole 457,ooo pirate DVDs from the evidence locker the need to keep at least some for the trial, because 20,000 of them showed up. Too bad they other 437,000 are still missing...
(Go to "Oye pero que tal?" below to see the original article)

Link/Enlace

Tiene que ser que alguién les convenció a los poli que necesitan algunos DVDs para el proceso, porque aparecieron 20,000. Lástima que faltan 437,000...
(Vé a "Oye pero que tal?!" abajo para ver el artículo original)

Colombian fusion in NY

T H U R S D A Y September 21

LIVE MUSIC SAMURINDO

10pm. $5

Samurindó (Juan Pablo Uribe/Saxes, Sebatian Cruz/Electric Guitar, Trifon Dimitrov/Electric Bass, Daniel Correa/Drumset) is a New York City-based quartet dedicated to exploring and blending Colombian traditional music with different genres and musical forms such as jazz, funk, and other popular musical expressions. Their live performances are energetic and fresh; the band is always looking for new textures and grooves, reacting to the public and venue on every show, creating a unique vibe in every performance. Samurindó's debut album was recorded on May of 2006 and it will be released by local label Chonta Records.