News - Page 2
Article (in Norwegian) by Marte Skjerping on the difficult task of reforming a country with a long authoritarian history.
In this blog post Benedicte Bull points out that the return of Honduras to the Organization of American States, is of great significance not only for Honduras, but also for Latin American regional cooperation.
It is unacceptable that Oslo Freedom Forum has invited CELTYV to this year's event, an Argentine organization which claims to work for the victims of terrorism from the political left, but which in reality intends to rewrite the brutal history of the dictatorship, write Benedicte Bull and Johannes Nymark in this article (in Norwegian) in Dagbladet 11 May 2012.
On Saturday 7 May 2011 Ecuador celebrated the third referendum during the administration of Rafael Correa, with the key questions related to judicial and media reforms. The referendums form part of the government’s reform of Ecuador’s political system. In this article - in Spanish and Norwegian - Inés Luna explores what actually happened during the dramatic incidents on 30 september 2010, and how they were related to the ongoing conflicts about the way forward for Ecuadorian democracy.
On March 20th Venezuela together with Ecuador, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Cuba condemned the UN resolution authorising international intervention to protect civilians in Libya, as well as the military actions that followed. Up to then, Venezuela’s normally outspoken president, Hugo Chávez, had limited himself to warn against international intervention and to offer mediation between his old friend Muammar Gaddafi and the rebel forces. What is actually Chávez’ opinion on Gaddafi, and what do his statements tell about his foreign policy? I this article Erlend Skutlaberg takes a closer look at the relations between the two heads of state and the debate in Venezuela on the country’s relations to Libya.
Read the article in Norwegian (will be translated to Spanish or English)
By 2009 China had become Brazil’s leading trading partner. Benedicte Bull and Yuri Kasahara take a look at the evolution of the economic relationship and discuss the potential for partnership or conflict.
Read the article in English or in Norwegian.
"What has been termed the “worst natural disaster in Brazil for decades” is, at closer scrutiny, more manmade than ‘natural’. In the rather successful state of Brazil, several city areas resemble failed states", writes Einar Braathen in an article on The NIBR International Blog, posted on 24 january 2011.
Social and economic inequality has for the last years been reduced in Latin America, for the first time in decades. In this article in Dagbladet on 14 December, associate professor Benedicte Bull at University of Oslo discusses the reasons behind this change.
In this article, published in Klassekampen between first and second election round, Einar Braathen, Norwegian Institute for Urban and Regional Research, comments the two final candidates and the election campaign.
Dilma Roussef was elected the new president of Brazil on Sunday 31 October, but many challenges lie ahead. Considering what was debated during the campaign, Ms. Roussef did not present a clear proposal about how to improve the economic growth in Brazil besides the desire for continuity of Lula's policies.
Read the article by Yuri Kasahara here.
Ecuador has again been the scene of political unrest. In this article in Bergens Tidende, Hans Egil Offerdal at UiB Global, University of Bergen, takes a critical look at the way President Correa governs the country.
In this article in Bergens Tidende, Johannes Nymark from Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration (NHH) traces the lines from the deadly Operation Condor in the seventies to USA's present use of military bases to control Latin American goverments.
Unlike many traditional Mexican Catholic bishops, this years Rafto Prize laureate, José Raúl Vera López, is not afraid to defy the rich and powerful, as pointed out in this article by Hans Egil Offerdal at UiB Global, University of Bergen, first published in Vårt Land.
In this article in Klassekampen 31 August 2010 Hans Jacob Ohldieck, PhD student at the University of Bergen, critizes a recent news report on Cuba on Norwegian televison (Dagsrevyen) for giving a typical, but distorted, version of Cuban reality.
Norsk Hydro has taken a new step into the Brazilian mining and aluminum industry by taking over the aluminum business of the mining company Vale. This article in Dagsvisen by professor Frank Meyer at Oslo University College goes through the major environmental and social - especially for the indigenous quilombo people - problems caused by the world’s largest bauxite mine, with Norsk Hydro and Vale among the owners. Meyer argues that the increased involement of the Norwegian company implies increased responsibility for the environment, indigenous peoples and local communities.
In this article in Dagbladet Benedicte Bull and Henrik Wiig respond to what they consider undocumented acussations from Thor Halvorssen against US economist Mark Weisbrot. Bull and Wiig make clear that it was NorLARNet and Norwegian Institute for Urban and Regional Research (NIBR) that invited Weisbrot to Oslo to participate in a research seminar on the economic situation in Venezuela, with scholars with different views about the country’s macroeconomics and reality.
The Colombians are remarkably stable voters, but when they went to the polling stations on 30 May all analysts agreed that a political revolution was on the line. Then something strange happened…
In response to an article previously published by NorLARNet, Kirsten S. Natvig of Caritas Norway maintains that a boycott is not the way to go to promote a democratic development in Honduras, as it only affects the poorest part of the population. “Even the most ardent opponents of the coup and supporters of Zelaya among those with whom Caritas cooperates, have asked the international society to not boycott the country”, Natvig states. Read the article in Norwegian or in Spanish.
Five months from now there will be presidential elections in Brazil. The battle will stand between Dilma Rouseff from the Workers' Party (PT) and José Serra from the Brazilian Social Democratic Party (PSDB). But the most exiting is what happens around a candidate that has no chance to win the elections, Marina Silva from The Green Party (PV). Are we witnessing the emergence of a new political force in Brazil?
Read the article by Torkjell Leira in English here or in Norwegian here.
General elections in Brazil are approaching and politicians get busy establishing deals. Even if the Brazilian party system seems to consolidate at the national level around two leading players, there is still room for important supporting actors.
Read the article by Yuri Kasahara in English here or Norwegian here.
Over the last months the already rampant violence related to organized crime in Mexico have increased further. In this article, visiting professor Carlos Flores at the University of Oslo, explains how the surge of organized crime is rooted in the structure and functioning of the Mexican state, and thus share the origin with the declining economic development, rising levels of poverty and increasing disillusion with democracy in Mexico. Read the article here in Norwegian or here in Spanish.
On June 29 last year the president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, was deposed in a coup d'état and sent to Costa Rica, and an interim government led by Roberto Micheletti was installed. This resulted in strong international reactions and the suspension of Honduras from the Organisation of American States (OAS). In November elections were held, and Porfirio Lobo Sosa was elected president. He took office on 27 January this year. Subsequently many countries have reestablished diplomatic relations with Honduras, and the country has disappeared from international news. The following two articles agrue that there is still a long way to go before Honduras can be called a democracy, and that the surrounding world should find new ways of relating to Honduras. Read the article by Jorge Bonilla here in Spanish or here in Norwegian, and the article by Nelson Salinas here in Spanish or here in Norwegian.