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Monday, December 31, 2007
Hassles Getting to Rose Bowl Parade
(LA Times) A five-day trek from El Salvador to Pasadena was not supposed to be part of the Rose Parade route
for the 230-member youth marching band Nuestros Ángeles de El Salvador.
But plane tickets were out of the question
after a big chunk of the band's funding fell through just weeks before the parade.
What followed was an odyssey by bus that included thousands of miles on the road, plus two excruciating
days in limbo on the border of Guatemala and Mexico.
But they made it, rolling into town Sunday only hours before their
slot at Bandfest, the annual showcase of Rose Parade bands held at Pasadena City College this weekend. Organizers said the
show drew more than 5,000 people.
"Uno, dos, tres -- brinca!" band members cried during the Salvadoran
song "La Bala": "One, two, three -- jump!"
Saul Perez, one of the band's directors, said it would have been a crushing
defeat if the group had not made it to Pasadena. The youth members practiced for more than a year, went through a rigorous
selection process and were poised to represent their country on the world's stage at Tuesday's parade.
But problems
began when 30 members of the group could not even begin the journey because they didn't receive visas. Then the band canceled
their flights because their budget was still short $200,000. They set out instead in a caravan of five buses on Christmas
Day. "When we left, we thought the trip would take three days," Perez said. "It was a tale of many difficulties."
Key Events of 2007
El Faro, a left of center weekly news publication, has listed the important events of 2007:
- Democrats take over in US Congress.
- President Chavez nationalizes electrical power and telephone companies.
- President Bush sends 20 thousand more troops to Iraq.
- Rafael Strap takes over as president of Ecuador.
- George Bush generates controversy in his annual address on Iraq and immigration reform.
- The US and Nicaragua are in conflict over the destruction of SAM-7 missiles.
- North Korea suspends nuclear program in exchange for oil.
- England announces troop reduction in Iraq.
- Guatemalan protests in front of US embassy in advance of Bush's visit.
- Bush visits Latin America.
- Immigration reform bill introduced jointly by a Democrat and Republican in the US Congress.
- Troop reduction approved by the US Senate.
- British detainees released by Iran.
- Arms control debate rekindled by Virginia Tech slaughter.
- Congress approves withdrawal of US forces by 2008 even in face of veto.
- Sarkozy wins presidency in France.
- Posada Carriles' release by a US court generates concern in Latin America. Anti-Castro Carriles was
charged with blowing up a Cuban airliner in 1976 and killing 73.
- Palestinian prime minister calls for end of violence.
- RCTV taken off the air by Chavez.
- Immigration reform derailed in the US Senate.
- Palestinian president dissolves the government.
- President Abbas receives endorsement of Israel.
- British thwart terrorist attack with the arrest of eight.
- US House approves withdrawal of troops by April 2008.
- The outgoing administration in Guatemala disbursed $3 million in the last days of their term in 1996.
The losing presidential candidate is implicated.
- President Chavez seeks a permanent presidency.
- Nicaragua announces agreement with Iran in which Iran will build a power plant, a port and ten thousand houses
in return for exports of beef, bananas and coffee.
- Columbia signs free trade agreement with El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.
- Eighty thousand victims of earthquake in Peru.
- Hurricane Dean kills thirty in Mexico and the Carribean.
- Presidents of Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Guatemala disagree on details of Esquipulas peace agreement.
- Chavez serves as mediator in Columbian hostage issue.
- Hurricane Felix kills a hundred in Honduras and Nicaragua.
- Bush announces 30,000 troop reduction for April 2008.
- Israel declares Gaza 'enemy territory'.
- Alberto Fujimori extradited to Peru.
- CAFTA approved by 51.6% in Costa Rica.
- Myranmar rejects calls by UN for restraint.
- Bhutto returns to Pakistan and 136 die in a bomb attack.
- Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, ex-first lady, wins presidency of Argentina.
- Alvaro Colom wins Guatemalan presidency.
- Controversial immigration law approved in France.
- Madrid March 2003 train bombers receive multiple life sentences.
- Spanish King and Venezuelan president fail the 'good manners test'.
- Cyclone kills 3,000 in Bangladesh.
- Chavez' negotiations with Columbian rebels fails.
- Chavez defeated in effort to modify constitution.
- Climactic change conference seeks global agreement.
- Evo Morales, president of Bolivia, faces secession demands from four provinces, including the richest of
the provinces.
- Benazir Bhutto is assassinated.
Friday, December 28, 2007
A New School Year Begins
The Salvadoran public school year runs from about January 10 to the middle of November. Parents are
now facing buying school supplies. La Prensa Grafica reports that the required six notebooks, pencils, pens, crayons,
etc. cost about $15. Fifteen dollars is pocket change for most of us, but it's two days wages for the typical Salvadoran.
So six kids is two week's wages! Thank goodness school fees are officially a thing of the past for elementary school.
(Officially they don't exist, but some schools still require them.)
El Salvador Goes to the Rose Bowl
For the first time the Rose Bowl parade organizers have invited foreign groups to perform. Countries
chosen are Canada, Japan, Switzerland and El Salvador. The Salvadoran band, called Nuestros Ángeles de El Salvador,
will be composed of students from ten national institutes (high schools). They will play tunes such as El Torito Pinto,
La Bala, El Carnaval de San Miguel, and Adentro Cojutepeque. There are more Salvadorans in Los Angeles than any
other US city. Go Illini!
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Agricultural Output Soars
Emilio Suadi, Vice minister of Agriculture, reported recently that the agricultural output of Salvadoran
farms increased 8.6% overall in 2007. The harvest of vegetables was up 16.8% which resulted from an increased acreage
under cultivation of 16.9%. The increased harvest produced a reduction of 54% in green peppers imported from Honduras
and Guatemala.
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Report on Natural Disasters in 2007
Jorge Barahona, Civil Defense director, reported that the two hurricanes that struck El Salvador (Dean and
Felix) resulted in the evacuation of more than 2,500 people to 25 shelters. During the year almost 7,000 earthquakes
were recorded and the country was under an Orange Alert two times. Abner Hurtado, head of the Salvadoran Fire Departments,
reported 14% fewer emergencies in 2007.
CEPAL Reports Diminunition in Poverty
CEPAL (The Economic Commission for Latin America, in English) an organization of the UN, reports that 31
million people in Latin America excaped poverty in 2007. This reduction in poverty is the first improvement in decades
in an area where 69 million do not have enough to even eat once a day. CEPAL said that the improving economies in
several countries contributed to poverty reduction. In Argentina the poverty rate dropped from 45% to 21%; in Venezuela
poverty dropped by 19%. Only in Uruguay was the poverty rate higher, rising from 15.4% to 18.5%. (In 2004 the
poverty rate in El Salvador was 47.5%)
English Becomes a Requirement
Today's edition of El Diario de Hoy reports that mastery of English is now a graduation requirment at three
universities in El Salvador (Escuela Superior de Economía y Negocios, Universidad Don Bosco and Instituto Tecnológico
Centroamericano). María Isaura Araúz, the director of higher education in the Ministry of Education said that there
are twelve universities (of the forty in the country) that offer a bachelor's degree in English. She could not,
however, give any statisitics on the number of college students studying English.
Monday, December 17, 2007
Top ten religion stories in El Salvador for 2007
Click on the link to an interesting and insightful compilation.
Saturday, December 15, 2007
U.S. military medical team treats 7,300 patients in El Salvador
12/14/2007 (AFPN) -- A U.S. team, consisting of approximately
16 Air Force medical professionals, completed a medical readiness training exercise in La Union, El Salvador Dec. 13,
where they provided general medical services to 7,300 patients from communities near the country's southeastern coast.
The
medical exercise is the first of 65 bilateral medical readiness training exercises the command will sponsor in 17 Caribbean,
Central and South American countries through Sept. 30, 2008.
During the exercise, Peace Corps volunteers and spouses
of U.S. servicemembers assigned to the U.S. Embassy's military group in San Salvador assisted the Air Force medics by providing
translation services for the team and their patients.
The national director of Alianzas El Salvador, a non-governmental
organization focused on domestic public health issues, also visited the team to observe their operations. The NGO has expressed
an interest in partnering with U.S. military medical teams during future humanitarian assistance exercises in the country.
"There's an abundance of talent within our military services with the ability and desire to serve underprivileged
communities in our hemisphere," said Lt. Gen. Glenn Spears, deputy commander of U.S. Southern Command. "Our vision is to partner
with other U.S., international and non-governmental agencies with similar expertise and interests, so that we can work together
to help those communities and deliver on our shared promise of a better tomorrow for all the Americas."
Medical readiness
exercises have been a part of the command's humanitarian and civic assistance program for almost two decades and afford active
and reserve U.S. military medical personnel the opportunity to hone their skills while addressing the health needs of thousands
of patients and strengthening the existing friendships between the U.S. and the countries they visit.
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Martyred Sisters Commemorated by US Senate
A resolution remembering and commemorating the lives and work of Maryknoll Sisters Maura Clarke and Ita Ford,
Ursuline Sister Dorothy Kazel, and Cleveland Lay Mission Team Member Jean Donovan, who were executed by members of the Armed
Forces of El Salvador on December 2, 1980.
Nov 14, 2007: Submitted in the Senate, considered, and agreed
to without amendment and with a preamble by Unanimous Consent.
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=sr110-381
Monday, December 3, 2007
CAFTA said boosting El Salvador growth
(November 29, Associated Press as quoted by Business Week) A free trade agreement between
El Salvador and the United States is boosting economic growth in the Central American country, Salvadoran and U.S. officials
said Wednesday.
El Salvador's economy grew 4 percent since it joined the Central American Free Trade Act, or CAFTA-DR, last
year, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Sullivan said.
"This hadn't happened in more than 10 years," Sullivan told reporters while visiting a San Salvador factory
that manufactures pupusas -- thick, stuffed corn tortillas served with pickled cabbage -- to sell in cities throughout the
U.S.
The trade agreement, which slashes tariffs on U.S. exports, was approved by Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua
and El Salvador in 2006, as part of a push by the U.S. to boost exports worldwide. The Dominican Republic signed on in March
2007 and, after a hotly contested referendum, Costa Rica's president signed the agreement into law last week.
El Salvador's Economic Secretary Yolanda Mayora said the country's own textile and agricultural exports have
increased since the accord took effect.
"The United States is El Salvador's main commerce partner and we send 57 percent of our exports there," she
said.
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