The Democracy Manifesto (go to the manifesto) represents a significant moment as far as the global conversation on democracy is concerned. It is also a moment of new beginnings.  A good conversation is one that produces more of it. I hope this one snowballs into more debates and dialogues. Democracy is worldly, primarily an artifact. Like other human artifacts, it too needs care, continuous attention, ingenuity and passion. The ongoing conversation on democracy, as I can recall from my own experiences, never suffered from dearth of ambition. Yet it has always been an exercise in humility and deep engagement.

Imagine that you go into a ‘sleep mode’ today and are revived after a gap of several decades. What do think will have been the history of democracy while you slept? What narratives will emerge? Will experiences in different parts of the world, particularly in the global south, be a part of the larger story of democracy?

You only need to ask the question to sense the importance of an affirmative answer. If currently existing democracy in India has merely overcome corruption and ensured the rule of law, if China has moved towards democracy, if Brazil continues to have popular government and there are elections in South Africa that change the ruling party, if there is democracy in Egypt (who would have thought of writing that three months ago?) and Palestine… or if there are not any of these things…

It is clear that the dominant ways of thinking of democracy are and continue to be narrow. They tend to make the political clamour, experiments and mobilizations in different parts of the world invisible. But it is surely the case as our experiment shows that if we think of democracy and look forward then the still dominant view is quite inadequate. The future of democracy will be shaped and even decided in countries that are more experimental than its traditional homelands. The ‘frontier’ of democracy to borrow an image, is no longer found in the ‘west’ or the global north.

This is the starting point of our global conversation. It questions the dominant view, and shows that other ways of engaging with democratic experiences are possible. Not only possible but also necessary and now in the public domain. 

First, a bit of history. 

A few years ago a group of scholars and activists from South Asia wanted to reflect on democratic experiences in their countries in the region. They all agreed that knowledge about democracy must be produced in a democratic fashion and that this demands a methodology that does not devalue specificities of experiences. They initiated a conversation within the region and finally produced a report - State of Democracy in South Asia.  The impetus for a further, global conversation on democracy emerged from several regional conversations that followed especially this South Asian one. No doubt, in the past there were discussions on democracy. But this time round, the conversation delves deeply into the fundamental questions regarding the ways in which democracy has to be explained and evaluated.  It attempts to re-define what it means to be democratic.

The Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), in Delhi, coordinated the initiative, and thanks to the intellectual energy of Professors Rajeev Bhargava and Yogendra Yadav, and a grant from the Ford Foundation, the global conversation took off to a good start three years ago.   During this period, three major international meetings, involving participants from Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America and North America, were held (two in India and one in South Africa). Besides academics, a good number of participants came from the world of civil society and social movements.  The conversations thus far have been focused and productive.  

As I write this, activists and ordinary citizens have gathered in different parts of India to raise the issue of corruption in politics and public life. To them, fighting against corruption is a struggle for democracy. Like the continuing upsurge in the Arab World, the mobilization in India reflects the local concerns, dreams and aspirations. In some of these cases, practices on the ground seem to run way ahead of the dominant democratic thinking. However there are occasions when these events fall far short of the high normative standards of democracy. The lack of fit between theory and practice, in the above sense, is what grounds the substance of the ongoing conversation on democracy.

Being conversationalists we decided that we would produce only a draft of a Democracy Manifesto and ask for further thoughts, comments and even asides. Here it is. Let’s see what happens. We already have responses from Anthony Barnett, Laurence Whitehead, Jorge Heine and Melissa Williams. Hope more will join in.

The Democracy Manifesto: Re-imagining Democracy in Our Time 

To the introduction

The Arab democratic upsurge of 2011 inspires democrats all over the world. It has fired up the imagination of all those struggling for self-rule under authoritarianism. It also gives hopes to those engaged in deepening democratic practices everywhere. To all those who see democracy as a shared journey of humanity, it provides an occasion to reflect on what democracy means. This is a moment to re-imagine democratic ideals and practices in our time. 

1. Democracy as a political principle and as a form of government has expanded to nearly all corners of the world. It is recognized now that every human being must have an effective say in the decisions that affect their life. The notion that every government must respect this fundamental principle has greater acceptance than ever before. The ideal of self-rule has begun to fire up peoples’ imagination all over the world.  Democracy may not be a form of government that is experienced globally, but it has become an aspiration that is shared across the globe. This aspiration takes different forms. The ideal of popular self-rule has multiple readings.  Theses will depend on which people are being talked about, what understanding of self is being invoked and what  is accepted as self-rule.  “ The people” could mean all the citizens of a national state, the citizens at a region or locality, or the planet’s entire population. The self could be seen in terms of the individual citizen or in terms of a social community. Self-rule could be interpreted as voice, consultation, consent or consensus in any authoritative and binding decision-making process. A standard understanding is that democracy means free and fair elections, but it can also take other forms.
2. The globally dominant notion of what democracy means, however, does not reflect the journey of democracy. The prevailing orthodoxy about democracy  draws upon the limited experience of a small part of the globe. Selected facts of European and North American history have been turned into abstract principles. One of the many strands of western political thought has been assumed to be the sole repository of the normative imagination for democratic practices in different societies at different points of time.  An idealized notion of western liberal democracy hegemonizes the democratic imagination. It is assumed that capitalism and modernity have an intrinsic relationship with democracy. This hegemony of the western experience and imagination may not always affect popular struggles that are being waged in the name of democracy all over the world. Yet, it does constrain the translation of popular aspirations, practices and struggles into a set of norms, institutions and theories in the Global South. It also constrains the deepening of democracy within the global North.
3. Enriching our democratic imagination in line with the expansion of democracy would involve several things: widening our conceptual apparatus to accommodate diverse languages and idioms of democracy;  enriching our normative standards to reflect multiple histories and traditions of democratic thinking; and  correcting our explanations to account for radically different experiences and trajectories of democracy. Reimagining democracy along these lines is one of the most pressing ethical and political tasks of our times. It is imperative not just for democrats in the ‘aspiring’ and ‘new’ democracies, but equally in ‘established democracies’.
4. The prevailing orthodoxy on the democratic imagination assumes that democracy is strictly the gift of western civilization.  Yet, an honest genealogy of democratic ideas and practices must acknowledge that these are rooted in multiple trajectories. Ancient Greece was but one of the sources of democratic imagination. The ideas of democracy can be traced to Buddhist Sangha, Ganatantra traditions in ancient India, Islamic traditions in many societies and practices among the indigenous communities across the world. Much of the modern ideology and language of democracy has spread to most parts of the world from Western Europe and North America. Many of the well-established democratic institutions and practices in today's world were secured first in Europe through a series of popular struggles. The gains of these struggles are now part of our global human heritage.  Yet the western legacy is neither singular nor unambiguous.  For every advance in democracy, there is also the history of denial of democratic rights. Besides, the history of the expansion of self-rule for one's own citizens was inextricably woven with the history of denial of self-rule to larger subject populations outside and ethnic minorities inside the territory of a ‘democratic’ state. For most of the world, the contemporary practices of democracy are neither a direct off-shoot of the various ancient traditions nor an imitation of the modern west. The democratic aspiration spread to most of the world by way of anti-colonial struggles and the various movements for self-determination and self-rule in the last two centuries.
5. Enriching the democratic imagination requires questioning the simple-minded democracy/non-democracy binary canonized by the dominant orthodoxy. As democracy becomes the most sought after regime label, the quest for self-rule is reduced to a contestation about the latter. This promotes binary, either-or, thinking over a graded understanding of the spectrum from democracy to non-democracy. The dominant orthodoxy’s focus on classifying a country either as a democracy or a non-democracy encourages façade democracies. This binary distinction has resulted in an excessive focus on the threshold of when a non-democracy turns into a democracy.  This summative and static judgment performs the function of putting some ‘established democracies’ beyond reproach. This artificial binary construct must come to an end.  Democratic practices may exist in apparently non-democratic regimes. Established democratic states can embody a vast array of non-democratic practices. There is no "finished product democracy" and there never will be.  The aspiration for democracy is open-ended. Each fresh step opens new horizons.
6. The dominant orthodoxy espouses teleology. Democracy is the ultimate and inevitable destination. This often leads to thinking in terms of stages or pre-conditions to the ‘transition’ to and ‘consolidation’ of democracy. Yet, there are multiple sequences and routes by which different political regimes come to be democratic. The route taken by democracy in the west is but one sequence of many. In turn, there are multiple trajectories within the west itself. Material prosperity and cultural uniformity are neither necessary nor sufficient conditions for democracy.  We also need to move away from an instrumental and determinist view of the outcomes of democracy.  Democracy leads to different outcomes in different historical settings.  Democrats need to be aware of the dysfunctions of democracy, and not just in 'new' or 'developing' democracies. The case for democracy cannot rest on dubious and instrumental grounds such as its purported usefulness for desired economic outcomes. Democracy must be cherished for its intrinsic value, for what it means to human dignity.
7. Reimagining democracy requires a fundamental shift. There is a tendency to assume that democracy is an attribute of political regimes rather than that of political practices. This leads to privileging form over substance, to making too much of formal political institutions and to reducing democracy to electoral democracy. An emphasis on practices would require a more careful and painstaking sifting of the substance of political action, its contextual meaning and its consequences.  This also enables us to think of democracy beyond the formal domain of politics. Practices within the domain of the family or the market, for example, need to be viewed in terms of the extent to which they enable or constrain self-rule. Democracy needs to be thought of as a way of life.
8. Questioning the dominant orthodoxy also leads us to the search for an appropriate level of analysis. There is a need to move beyond a fixation with the national state as the natural unit within which one thinks about self-rule. The locus of national power is no doubt the principal level of struggles for self-rule. But to focus exclusively on it side-steps the colossal inequalities among and within nation states. The latter deny vast numbers of people across the globe an effective voice over decisions that affect their lives and livelihoods. The quest for democracy must go wherever effective and binding decision-making occurs.  Shifting sites of sovereignty require that we begin to think of inter-national relations as an arena of democratic contestation. The same could be extended to the level of continents or other groupings of nations. At the same time, the unit of analysis needs to be extended downwards, to regional and local units, for this is the level at which most citizens experience self-rule or its absence.  
9.  The idea of democracy is becoming global, and it acquires multiple meanings. As democracy becomes a global aspiration, it attaches itself to different and often competing values.  This entails a conversation with pre-existing cultural values. Many of these values are contradictory to the democratic ideal; they must go. Some of the pre-existing values are not fully compatible with democracy; they must change. At the same time, the idea of democracy itself does and must undergo a change.  As the idea of democracy is interpreted and re-interpreted in different parts of the world, misunderstandings and misuses will arise. Therefore democracy is and will remain a contested concept.  This contest is resolved by entering on a case by case basis. It cannot be resolved a-priori by insisting upon an original, all-encompassing definition of democracy.  The demand that democracy all over the world must conform to a fixed definition first worked out in one part of the globe is inherently undemocratic. The ideal of democracy requires a respect for the democracy of knowledge. Knowledge production is not limited to some privileged sites, some societies or some period in history. The ideal of democracy has emerged from a dialogue of the various expressions of self-rule in human history. If democracy is anchored in reason, dialogue is the custodian of reason.

10. Current definitions of democracy threaten to reduce it to an institutional checklist derived from idealized notions of the experience of a small part of the globe.  The ideal of democracy is seen to be synonymous with the historical form of liberal democracy in advanced capitalist societies of Western Europe and North America.  Often this is further reduced down to a few key institutional features.  Yet, the historical experience of democracy in most of the world provides overwhelming evidence against this approach.  More often than not, imported institutions do not produce the same consequences that they did in their home context. Similarity of form is no guarantee of democratic substance.  In fact, a search for familiar form is an invitation to cynical and superficial copying for extraneous gains. On the one hand, the experience of ‘established democracies’ shows that the appearance of a democratic form of government can very well go hand in hand with the de facto rule by experts, the dominance of corporate power, social control by private networks and  the decline of citizen participation. On the other hand, the experience of democratic success outside the global North suggests that a departure from the mandated institutional form is often a pre-condition for success.  Mass democracies of post-colonial societies tend to acquire depth through practices that may not have a legitimate institutional expression in the conventional wisdom on democracy.  Institutions are crucial to the formation and strengthening of democracies, but what institutions do depends on the context in which these are located.  We need to shift the focus from the form of an institution to its real- life consequences in a given context. Democracy is an ever-evolving principle that can take different institutional expression at different points of time in different societies.

11. Thus, the principles and practices of democracy have to be open to multiple sources of learning. There are several living 'traditions' of consultation and consensus making all over the world. Such local practices need to be 'critically transformed' in order to make them relevant for democratic practices today. New power sharing arrangements are being worked out all over the world in different contexts, in response to different needs. Various monitoring tools are being invented in different democracies. So far only a few of these appear on the radar of  the democratic imagination. The search for a richer democratic imagination requires that we look for practices, institutions, intellectual traditions and thinkers everywhere to help us reshape democratic theory.

12.  The very notion of exporting democracy is inimical to the spirit of democracy. Democracy promotion can turn into democratic imperialism. Like all ideologies, democracy too can turn into a dogma. Strengthening democracy is about deepening the values which shape the principles of democracy within a society. The 'culture of democracy' of a given society is vital to building democracy. The idea that some people lack 'culture' and are not ready for democracy also goes against the principle of democracy.

13.  To deparochialize the idea of democracy is not to privilege an Eastern or Southern view of democracy over existing Western or Northern views. To the contrary: it means universalizing our understanding of democracy and democratic practices. The insistence on difference and divergence is designed to synthesize the multiple experiences of democracy. This is a necessary condition for reclaiming the global heritage of democracy and for reimagining a truly global future for it. FROM SOUTH TO NORTH.

Of the various values that the idea of democracy attaches itself to, four deserve a special mention.  First, democracy requires individual and collective freedom, for self-rule cannot exist in the absence of a basic guarantee of freedom.  Any kind of coercion or violence thus goes against the spirit of democracy. Second, the idea of self-rule requires that everyone have an equal say in matters that concern them.  Democratic deliberations require a level playing ground, free from widespread inter- and intra-group inequalities. Third, the ideal of self-rule requires a recognition of communities that often constitute the self. Thus democracy requires respect for deep diversity. In a world where most political units contain diverse communities, any attempt at cultural homogenization is not in keeping with the spirit of democracy. Fourth, given that democracy requires maintaining the conditions for democratic deliberations for future generations, it implies an ethic of responsibility towards nature.

When I think of international surrogates, I think of U.S. couples paying a woman abroad to carry a baby (my limited perspective). But as Carolyn reported last week, international surrogacy is increasingly going the other way. More and more people in European and Latin American countries are using surrogates in the U.S. to host their [...]

Tampabay.com

Students seek the Mexican cultural roots of Cinco de Mayo, a holiday ... Daily Bruin The poster told them what first-year sociology student Jessica Ramos already knows – that Cinco de Mayo is more of an American holiday, one that allows people to celebrate Latin American culture. “The whole (Cinco de Mayo) thing is a misconception, ... NU Cinco de Mayo celebration combats misconceptions about holidayDaily Northwestern Cinco de Mayo becomes a major holiday for Ann Arbor area Mexican restaurantsAnnArbor.com Cinco de Mayo: Drinking event or holiday?WWL First News The Business Insider -Firedoglake -AllMediaNY all 1,438 news articles »

Latin American stocks rallied strongly on Friday, after positive US jobs data eased fears about the health of global economy and commodity prices bounced back from their harsh sell-offs during the previous session. The MSCI Latin American index rose 1.4 per cent to 4,437, however it lost 4.3 per cent over the week. Brazil’s benchmark …

Sufjan Stevens, On tour

When Sufjan Stevens was last here, his live shows were fantastical affairs with troupes of 50s-style cheerleaders and orchestras wearing butterfly wings. Back then his stock-in-trade was turning the civic histories of unfashionable American states into magical folk-pop songs. However, his 2010 album The Age Of Adz found him feeding his musicians into the shredder, butterfly wings and all, and rearranging their parts in Pro Tools to lend the music an unsettling, hyper-real sound. Who knows how he'll attempt to recreate that sensation live, although, particularly in the case of astonishing 25-minute-long closer Impossible Soul, it'll be fascinating to see him try.

Royal Festival Hall, SE1, Thu & Fri, touring to 19 May

SR

Short Circuit Festial, London

Unlike in rock, pop or hip-hop, where the academically minded are viewed with suspicion, electronica is a genre very much in touch with – if not entirely governed by – its inner nerd. Short Circuit is a three-day festival that blurs the boundaries between gig, nightclub and seminar hall, featuring an impressive range of performers, all generally engaged in applying technology to push music forward. The first day is a showcase for German avant electronic label Raster-Noton, featuring the world premiere of a collaboration between label founder Carsten Nicolai (AKA Alva Noto) and Ryuichi Sakamoto. The other two days are hosted by Mute, which underlines its broad-church approach to electronica by inviting everyone from techno auteur Richie Hawtin to conceptual art-punks the Residents, industrial stalwarts Nitzer Ebb, ragged noise-rockers Liars, and even 80s pop stars Erasure.

Roundhouse, NW1, Thu to 14 May

Sam Richards

Gang Gang Dance, On tour

While Björk has spent the past decade hurtling towards the avant garde in the company of Matthew Barney and assorted Inuit throat singers, Gang Gang Dance have been travelling in roughly the opposite direction. They began as an arty improv noise collective, but over five albums have coalesced into an eclectic unit whose new age impulses are anchored by tribal rhythms and bleeps'n'bass apparently informed by the UK grime scene (Tinchy Stryder even turned up on 2008's Saint Dymphna). Lizzi Bougatsos's breathy melodies make those Björk comparisons unavoidable, although new album Eye Contact actually occupies the kind of kooky cosmopolitan pop territory vacated by Ms Gudmundsdóttir some time ago.

Ruby Lounge, Manchester, Wed; The Great Escape @ Pavilion Theatre, Brighton, Thu; ATP, Butlin's, Minehead, Fri

SR

Reverberations: The Influence Of Steve Reich, London

For all the historical significance of Terry Riley and Philip Glass it was Steve Reich, with his fabulous musical ear and rhythmic acuity, who steered minimalism out of the New York lofts and galleries where it began and into the world's concert halls. If there's a composer whose 75th birthday deserves to be lavishly celebrated, then, it's Reichs, and the Barbican is certainly doing him proud. A weekend of concerts includes six separate programmes featuring not just Reich's own music, some of it new to Britain, but also works by younger composers who admit their debt to him. Performers range from the BBC Symphony to the Kronos Quartet, and the great man himself makes an appearance for his own Clapping Music.

LSO St Luke's, EC1 & Barbican, EC2, Sat & Sun

Andrew Clements

Kyle Eastwood Band, On tour

On his Songs From The Chateau album, bassist-composer Eastwood has shifted back to a more direct and soul-jazzy sound than he adopted on earlier explorations of dance-groove hooks and technology. It's an unpretentiously simple, soul, blues and Latin vehicle, with succinct and punchy tunes that sometimes mirror the economical delivery of Kyle's actor dad, Clint. Some of the music takes on a sensuously sermonising feel, and some of it takes the engaging Graeme Blevins into Sonny Rollins territory, as on the sparky Cafe Calypso. The harmonically smouldering Andalucia, on the other hand – a vehicle for Graeme Flowers's shimmering trumpet – has a Sketches Of Spain undertow. This band aren't staging any jazz revolutions, but are very welcoming for those dipping a toe into the music.

Norwich Playhouse, Mon; The Anvil, Basingstoke, Tue; Concorde Club, Eastleigh, Wed

John Fordham

Twelves, London

Last year they were the Twelves Trio – a jazz threesome exploring byzantine melodic pathways. Now they're just Twelves, and a quartet with the addition of alt-rock guitarist Rob Updegraff. With Updegraff's arrival the band suggests, among many things, Joe Lovano's encounters with John Scofield, with a little of Bill Frisell thrown in. Staccato metallic chord themes alternate with Mark Hanslip's soft sax countermelodies, and guitar/sax unison themes evaporate into drifting improv. On Kerfuffle from their current Adding Machine CD, Hanslip's signature mix of a melodic seamlessness and Wayne Shorter-ish creative hesitancy spins over abrasive guitar, Riaan Vosloo's rock-solid bassline and Tim Giles's lateral snare patterns. They're a band with real vision and the executive powers to match.

Vortex Jazz Club, N16, Wed

JF

Queen Elizabeth Hall, London

Back in the autumn of 2002, Mariza made her London debut with a remarkable, passionate performance at the Purcell Room that justified her role as the new celebrity of Portuguese fado. Since then she has become an international phenomenon, recorded with an orchestra and mixed fado with influences from Spain or Brazil. But now she is promoting her back-to-basics album Fado Tradicional with what, for her, was a very intimate show.

Mariza has always specialised in theatrics, and the stage was set out like a dimly lit Lisbon fado house, with candle-lit tables, where some of the audience were seated. She looked dramatic as ever, a tall, slim figure in a long black gown, with blonde cropped hair, backed by a trio playing Portuguese, acoustic and acoustic bass guitars, with a Latin American cajón box drum added on some songs. She has been advised to postpone one date on her current tour because of her pregnancy, but there was no sign here that she was restraining her performance.

Fado includes dance pieces along with pained ballads, and she treated both styles with the same declamatory intensity. It worked well for many of the songs, but she would have been helped by greater variety and quieter passages, as with the changes of mood, and dramatic silences, in her partly unaccompanied treatment of the pained Amália Rodrigues song, Ai, Esta Pena De Mim. At the end she really did return to basics, performing without a microphone and then walking out to sing in the audience. A standing ovation was guaranteed, but she would have sounded even more impressive if fewer of the songs had been tackled full tilt.

Rating: 3/5

BBC News

EMERGING MARKETS-Latam currencies gain on US growth outlook Reuters RIO DE JANEIRO, May 6 (Reuters) - Latin American currencies strengthened on Friday, led by Mexico's peso and Brazil's real, after US data showed employers adding jobs at the fastest pace in five years last month, boosting the outlook for ... High FDI flows pose challenge to South American economiesUPI.com Foreign Investment Returns to Latin AmericaWall Street Journal Sounding Off: Ivonne Kinser "Five Good Reasons to Expand into Latin America"Portada Magazine Forbes -IMarketnews.com -Trading Room all 82 news articles »

Reinsurer in talks with Latin American governments including Brazil and Colombia to sell them disaster insurance

Continuing trends we’ve seen growing over the past year, Asian and Latin American countries gained the most Facebook users in the world during April, with India leading the way, according to data from our Facebook traffic measurement service, Inside Facebook Gold. There are now nearly 25 million Facebook users in the country of 1.16 billion [...]

By Alejandro Gaviria of the University of the Andes Colombia has long been an atypical country, at least in Latin American terms. During the second half of the 20th century, it never experienced an economic meltdown or a rash of populist policies, let alone hyperinflation or the coup d’etats that almost defined the rest of …Continue...

BBC News

Sounding Off: Ivonne Kinser "Five Good Reasons to Expand into Latin America" Portada Magazine Central American Integration System 7 (SICA): Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, panama, Belize and Dominican Republic. • Mexico is part of NAFTA 8 , which includes USA and Canada. This relatively recent integration of the region ... Business Climate: Brazil Remains LaggardLatin Business Chronicle all 79 news articles »

THEATRE | Fronteras Americanas
Award-winning Argentinean-Canadian playwright and performer Guillermo Verdecchia brings his play about the identity issues of Latin American immigrants to the Distillery District tonight. Verdecchia has written eleven plays and published a collection of short stories but his 1993 play Fronteras Americanas, about the struggle of living between two cultures, is a world-renowned having been performed in several other countries. The play, which has won the Governor-General's Award for Drama, follows a Latin American immigrant as he journeys to integrate his identity with his geographical location. Witty, engaging and breaking stereotypes about Latin Americans, this performance is a chance to see the internationally popular play performed by Verdecchia himself. The show runs until May 27th with matinees performances available.
Young Centre for the Performing Arts (55 Mill Street) 7:30PM $50.86 adult/$31.65 student

CULTURE | Sherway Farmers' Market
The Sherway Farmers' Market opens today to kick off its 21st season. Open every Friday, from today until October 28th, local green farmers come together from across Ontario to sell their organic goods at reasonable prices. Located in the north parking lot of Sherway Gardens Shopping Centre, come out to support Ontario farmers by purchasing locally grown produce and food products, such as cheeses, eggs, honey products, baked goods and grill and deli meats.
Sherway Gardens Shopping Centre (25 The West Mall) 8AM Free

MUSIC | Protest the Hero at the Sound Academy
Canadian band Protest the Hero joins fellow progressive metal bands Maylene and the Sons of Disaster and Tessaract tonight at the Sound Academy as part of their Canadian tour. The five-piece band from Whitby, Ontario have been performing together since they were 13 and have become well-known outside of Canada since making the move from indie label Underground Operations to Vagrant Records in 2006. Promoting their 3rd studio album, Scurrilous, Protest the Hero will be screaming and thrashing their way through tonight's performance before heading west to London, Ontario to play smaller venues.
The Sound Academy (11 Polson Street) 7PM $20

DRINK | Tequila and More Spirits and Cocktails Show
Cinco de Mayo may have come and gone but the Tequila and More Spirits and Cocktails Show isn't giving up the celebrations yet. The event is full of Latin American flavour--there will be master class tequila tastings with world-renowned mixologists like Brian Van Flandern, who has created cocktails for Mario Batali, at an additional cost of $20. Cigar rolling demonstrations and live Latin American jazz performances by Jorge Lopez & Cascabel Band are also scheduled for the day. The Toronto Flair League Finals will take place live at 9PM as crowds watch the top flair bartenders and mixologists perform stunts and tricks with more than just bottles of tequila.
Metro Toronto Convention Centre South Building, Hall G (222 Bremner Boulevard) 4PM $28 online/$40 at the door

FUNDRAISER | Performers Unite for Japan
With 600,000 people still homeless and millions more without electricity and water, Canadian artists and local talents will be performing tonight at Peridot Resto Lounge in support of those affected by the recent devastation in Japan. Alongside aerial silk acrobats and fire jugglers will be Canadian performers, such as Sarah Simone McDougall, Melody MacDougall, Emrah Kento, Dakota Starr & Jessica Sheppard from Canadian Idol as well as rappers Zeyon, A.D and Sci Young. Raffle prizes, including an iPad 2, will be given away and there will be dancing until 2AM. All proceeds will be going to The Canadian Red Cross Japan Relief Fund.
Peridot Resto Lounge (81 Bloor Street East) 7:30PM $25

Also on our radar:

• Manhunt
• Canada's Children Trunk Show
• Run Girl Run 10K+

Have an event you'd like to plug? Submit your own listing to the blogTO Toronto events calendar or contact us directly.

For Toronto movie showtimes, view our Movie Listings section.

Photo by Half My Dad's Age in the blogTO Flickr pool

MEXICO CITY, May 6 (UPI) -- Soaring inflows of foreign direct investment are a mixed blessing for Latin America and need to be handled with caution and intelligent use of abundant new cash, a new report warns.

Telaprevir SVR & African-Americans, Latinos & Advanced Fibrosis -
Reported by Jules Levin

62% of African Americans/Blacks achieved SVR with telaprevir compared to 25% of African Americans/Blacks who were treated with pegylated-interferon and ribavirin alone. Additionally, 62% of people with advanced liver fibrosis or cirrhosis (scarring of the liver) achieved SVR with telaprevir compared to 33% who were treated with pegylated-interferon and ribavirin alone. Old studies of peg/rbv in African-Americans yielded SVR rates of 5-26%.

African-Americans treatment-naïve: 61% had undetectable viral load at week 4 (RVR) and 46% at weeks 4 and 12 (eRVR)- 72% with RVR achieved SVR & 85% with eRVR achieved SVR. Similar for Latinos...

Hepatitis Awareness Month --- May 2011 Weekly
May 6, 2011 / 60(17);537

This month marks the 16th anniversary of Hepatitis Awareness Month in the United States. Viral hepatitis, particularly infection with hepatitis B virus (HBV) or hepatitis C virus (HCV), is a major cause of morbidity and mortality. This issue of MMWR includes a report that focuses on a recent trend in HCV infection.

The report shows an increase in cases of HCV infection during 2002--2009 among adolescents and young adults aged 15--24 years in Massachusetts and highlights the fundamental role of surveillance in identifying emerging patterns of transmission and developing appropriate public health response. The Massachusetts cases were reported from all areas of the state, primarily among non-Hispanic whites. Injection drug use (IDU) was the most common risk factor for HCV transmission, and the increase in case reports suggests an epidemic of HCV infection related to IDU in this age group in Massachusetts.

In 2010, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academies of Sciences issued a report on viral hepatitis outlining recommendations for the prevention and control of HBV and HCV infection, including improvement in public health surveillance for viral hepatitis and viral hepatitis screening linked with prevention and care (1). In response to the IOM report, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is developing a comprehensive viral hepatitis action plan that will set forth strategies to improve viral hepatitis prevention, care, and treatment in the United States. Additional information regarding viral hepatitis is available from CDC at http://www.cdc.gov/hepatitis

Most patients with NASH who develop hepatocellular carcinoma are men

A study in the most recent issue of Clinical Gastroenterology & Hepatology investigates characteristics of patients with NASH who develop hepatocellular carcinoma.

Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) can progress to hepatocellular carcinoma. Dr Kohichiroh Yasui and colleagues characterized the clinical features of NASH patients with hepatocellular carcinoma. In a cross-sectional multicenter study in Japan, the team examined 87 patients with histologically proven NASH who developed hepatocellular carcinoma. The clinical data were collected at the time hepatocellular carcinoma was diagnosed. Obesity, diabetes, dyslipidemia, and hypertension were present in 62%, 59%, 28%, and 55% of patients, respectively. In nontumor liver tissues, the degree of fibrosis was stage 1 in 11% of patients, stage 2 in 17%, stage 3 in 21%, and stage 4 in 51%. The research team observed that the prevalence of cirrhosis was significantly lower among male patients compared with female patients. Dr Yasui's team concluded, "Most patients with NASH who develop hepatocellular carcinoma are men." "The patients have high rates of obesity, diabetes, and hypertension." "Male patients appear to develop hepatocellular carcinoma at a less advanced stage of liver fibrosis than female patients." Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol 2011: 9(5): 428-33 06 May 2011 Composite prognostic model for hepatocellular carcinoma recurrence A study in May's issue of Gastroenterology combines clinical, pathology, and gene expression data to predict recurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma. In approximately 70% of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma treated by resection or ablation, disease recurs within 5 years. Although gene expression signatures have been associated with outcome, there is no method to predict recurrence based on combined clinical, pathology, and genomic data. Dr Augusto Villanueva and colleagues from Spain evaluated gene expression signatures associated with outcome in a large cohort of patients with early stage, single-nodule hepatocellular carcinoma and heterogeneity of signatures within tumor tissues. The research team assessed 287 hepatocellular carcinoma patients undergoing resection and tested genome-wide expression platforms using tumor and adjacent nontumor, cirrhotic tissue. The team evaluated gene expression signatures with reported prognostic ability generated from tumor or cirrhotic tissue in 18 and 4 reports, respectively. In 15 additional patients, the team profiled samples from the center and periphery of the tumor, to determine stability of signatures. The researchers found that gene expression signatures that were associated with aggressive hepatocellular carcinoma were clustered, as well as those associated with tumors of progenitor cell origin and those from nontumor, adjacent, cirrhotic tissues. The team observed that the tumor-associated signature G3-proliferation, and an adjacent poor-survival signature were independent predictors of hepatocellular carcinoma recurrence, along with satellites. Samples from different sites in the same tumor nodule were reproducibly classified. Dr Villanueva's team concluded, "We developed a composite prognostic model for hepatocellular carcinoma recurrence, based on gene expression patterns in tumor and adjacent tissues." "These signatures predict early and overall recurrence in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma, and complement findings from clinical and pathology analyses." Gastroenterol 2011: 140(5): 1501-1512 05 May 2011

Show and Shines to support liver society

Two years and nine months: that's how long Karen Stacey has been on the waiting list for a liver transplant.

Despite the obvious stress experienced as well as impact on her day-to-day health, Stacey, 50, has not only stayed patient, she's stayed positive, dedicating herself to helping others facing a similar diagnosis with a liver disease. From family members to her community, Stacey has always been active in helping others. In 2008, she took her community activism to the next level by founding the Happy Liver Society, a non-profit providing advocacy and support services to liver disease patients. "I've always been that person that looks after people . . . It just is a comfortable role for me," she says.

Two new clinical trials registries established

1. The Cuban Public Registry of Clinical Trials / Registro Público Cubano de Ensayos Clínicos (RPCEC). This is the first Primary Registry to include trials in both Spanish and English. Spanish speakers might be interested in watching a video of the event held to make the announcement by the Ministry of Health in Havana, Cuba on 5th April 2011. Go to http://youtu.be/STeI9F-lnM0

2. The Brazilian Clinical Trials Registry / Registro Brasileiro de Ensaios Clinicos (REBEC) will focus on trials recruiting in Brazil. Announced on 12th April by the Brazilian Ministry of Health, it is the first Primary Registry in the Latin American region to include trials registered in Portuguese, and also allows registration in Spanish and English. Other Portuguese-speaking countries including Angola, Cabo Verde, Guiné-Bissau, Moçambique, Portugal, São Tomé e Príncipe and Timor-Leste are also encouraged to use the registry. Prospective registration of clinical trials is a legal requirement in Brazil (http://www.anvisa.gov.br/eng/index.htm).

REBEC is the first registry to use the open-source clinical trial registration software developed by Bireme (http://reddes.bvsalud.org/projects/clinical-trials/wiki) in partnership with the Department of Science and Technology/MoH and FIOCRUZ/MoH, called "Open Trials".


Imaging For Full-Body MRIs Significantly Improved By New Algorithm
A new study reveals an improved algorithm that can dramatically improve how radiologists capture and interpret full-body MRIs, particularly in the abdominal region. Motion artifacts in MRIs, such as patient movement, often...
,
Dramatic Shift In Understanding Of Personalized Medicine Suggested By New Research

Researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, in collaboration with researchers at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine, have made a critical discovery that may lead scientists to abandon the use of broad conventional ethnic labels - African-American, Hispanic, and Caucasian - to estimate a patient's genetic risk for disease. This first-of-its kind study conducted with diverse patients receiving care at a single urban academic medical center, marks an important step in the clinical application of personalized medicine.

The data are published online in the peer-reviewed journal PLoS ONE.

The Mount Sinai Biobank, a program of the Charles R. Bronfman Institute for Personalized Medicine, enrolls consented patients representing the diverse communities surrounding The Mount Sinai Medical Center, who confidentially provide DNA and plasma samples to aid in genomic and personalized medicine research. Researchers used state-of-the-art genomic technology to determine the genetic make-up, or genotype, of nearly 1,000 local Biobank participants who self-identified as European American, African-American, or Hispanic. They found that there was a continuum in ancestral genetic heritage at the individual level of African-American and Hispanic patients receiving care at Mount Sinai - meaning considerable fractions of their genome came from mixed European or African ancestry, respectively - and with it genetic variants that indicate risk for developing disease.

"Our data indicate that historical population labels may not be helpful in predicting disease risk or guiding how a patient will respond to certain medications," said Erwin Bottinger, MD, Director of the Bronfman Institute, and the Irene and Dr. Arthur M. Fishberg Professor of Medicine. "Rather, a spectrum of mixed ancestry is emerging in the largest U.S. minority groups. These findings further validate the importance of considering the unique genotype of the individual patient rather than grouping patients by self-reported ethnicity."

To date, genomic studies have overwhelmingly focused on populations with European ancestry, causing concerns about the applicability of their findings to determine disease risk and responsiveness to therapies for non-European, and in particular, mixed genetic backgrounds receiving care at urban medical centers.

"Our data indicate how important it is to evaluate patient populations at a local level," said Dr. Bottinger. "Now that we can determine the genotypic breakdown of our patients, we can begin to develop tests and tailor therapies for the diverse community we serve, allowing us to provide highly effective, personalized care."

On the basis of their findings, researchers at the Bronfman Institute are evaluating the clinical use potential of hundreds of genetic markers for major diseases, such as heart disease, kidney disease, liver disease, and diabetes, and various drug responses, in all Biobank samples. The goal is to identify those genetic markers that may be useful to predict disease risk in local people with mixed genetic backgrounds. The project will be completed with all 20,000 Biobank samples by the end of 2011.

"We anticipate the results, for the first time, will lead us to select the right genetic markers, and allow us to bring personalized genomic medicine to patients in the diverse Mount Sinai community who are being treated for diabetes and heart, kidney, and liver diseases, among other conditions," says Dr. Bottinger.

Also, Dr. Bottinger and his team at the Charles R. Bronfman Institute for Personalized Medicine are able to help guide other medical centers around the country in replicating their study. Additionally, they are continuing to broaden the number of consented donors in the Mount Sinai Biobank in an effort to uncover more genetic markers of disease and connections between self-identified population groups.

This study was supported by The Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies, Inc.

Source:
Mount Sinai Press Office
The Mount Sinai Hospital / Mount Sinai School of Medicine


Type 2 Diabetes Patients on Medication Report High Rates of Hypoglycemia

Editors' Note: Guest blogger Brett Stockdill is a queer, HIV positive activist, teacher and scholar in Chicago. He is an Associate Professor in Sociology, Women's Studies, and Latino & Latin American Studies at Northeastern Illinois University. His four-part series, "Living in the Borderlands," will be running every morning this week. You can start the series with the first post, "The Odyssey of the Utterly Fabulous Mario Sierra

"God bless the world" -- Mario Sierra*

As Mario came to grips with being HIV positive, he continued to make decisions to not only improve his life, but to support friends and family and struggle for social justice. In the 2000s, with the support of his various communities, he gained legal residency and then citizenship, fortified his relationship with his family of origin, and dove deeper into grassroots activism.

Mario's family of choice - gay and straight, foreign- and US-born, multiethnic - played a crucial role in his path to citizenship. His tightly knit Venezuelan émigré community in Los Angeles generously offered emotional and legal support in this process.

Mario's gay friends also assisted him with outsmarting the patently discriminatory ban on HIV positive immigrants. Daniel, an HIV positive citizen, connected Mario with Nestor, an HIV negative undocumented immigrant, who pretended to be Mario and took an HIV test that was a part of the Green Card medical exam (until 2010). "Mario" tested negative.

With these and other hurdles crossed, Mario became a legal resident of the United States. After 14 years, Mario was able to travel to Venezuela to visit his entire family without fearing that he would be unable to return to the US. He became a citizen in 2009.

Continue reading "Surpassing Borders: Living in the Borderlands"...

Election victories for Canadian students

While Nick Clegg faces a hammering of electoral blows today, there's better news from Canada where student activism has reached new heights. Six fresh-faced college students have won seats in the federal government, including one who becomes the country's youngest-ever MP.

Jubilant 19-year-old college student Pierre-Luc Dusseault is the youngest of six students to be reeling from this week's discovery they would be swapping classes for a $157,000 post and a four-year governmental term.

All are politically active campus members of the New Democratic Party (NDP), with four from Montreal's McGill University – potentially a new hotbed of student activism. Political sciences student Mylene Freeman, 22, romped to victory with 8,000 votes more than her rival - and admitted the news hadn't quite sunk in.

Her co-victor Charmaine Borg, 20, a second-year student of political science and Latin American studies at McGill said:

"I think the biggest challenge right now is proving to people that a 20-year-old can do a good job and that youth actually can have power and create change."

Cribsheet wishes these young Turks well. Just one glance at their youthful smiles leaves us wishing our beleaguered politicians could ever look so fresh-faced.

Education news from the Guardian

US university snubs 'anti-Israel' playwright Tony Kushner.

Rock star's son Charlie Gilmour pleads guilty at Kingston crown court to a charge of violent disorder during the student fees protest.

Fielding writes about the return of Hard Times bringing Victorian charity back to the classroom. Beware the malign benevolence of the patronising classes, he warns.

Following the launch of our Children's Manifesto this week, it's now over to the kids to nominate their schools. We want to hear about which schools in the country measure up to the manifesto's pledges, so it's time to send us your votes. Please send your nominations by email to school.i'd.like@guardian.co.uk.

On the Higher Education Network

Today at 1pm an international panel of women leaders in higher education will be debating how to close the gender gap at the top of HE. Put your questions and ideas to the panel here.

Education news from around the web

A deputy head in Wales has been sacked for carrying a pupil into a classroom, reports the Telegraph.

Cambridge admits more state school numbers, but only 16 successful UK applicants are black.

Continuing this week's house of commons debates on sex education, the BBC reports that many parents are opposed to children being taught about sex.

Lecturers at Strathclyde are protesting today against cuts that could result in more than 100 job losses.

@NHSManchester tweets today that there's a mumps outbreak at Manchester university. Students are being advised to check their vaccination status.

Fiona Millar blogs hopefully about a new era of parental consultation in Camden:

"Instead of just caving in to the new Tory Lib Dem agenda and to particular parent groups, which appears to be the case in other London boroughs, Camden is attempting to start a conversation with all its parents, schools and governors to find out what sort of education system they want to see in the future."

And the Economist reports that England faces a tough ride on reforming schools admissions rules.

Education event

The Reader organisation is holding a Reading for Wellbeing conference in Merseyside on Tuesday, 17 May. Star turns will be Pulitzer prizewinning author Marilynne Robinson and reading expert Professor Maryanne Wolf. The conference will bring GPs, librarians, teachers, psychiatrists and other health professionals, care home workers and probation officers together for lectures and discussion groups about the benefits of reading in groups. Reader director Jane Davies says:

"Our work is based on creating relationships between people and literature, and we're leading a revolution to change the reading habits of the nation."

Keep up with the latest developments at #readingforwellbeing.

Education seminars from Guardian Professional

Getting the best education for children in care

The Guardian's one-day seminar in association with Tact (the UK's largest fostering and adoption charity) will provide an overview of the UK education system and strategies for dealing with the challenges faced by looked-after children and their carers.

26 May, London.

Making the most of media opportunities to enhance your school's profile

Whether it's sharing good news or handling a crisis, headteachers and school management teams need to be able to handle the media in all of its forms. This one-day seminar in association with the NAHT is essential for new and aspiring heads as well as established school leaders who wish to update their knowledge. It includes a session on social media.

13 June, Birmingham and 20 September, London.

Distinctiveness and branding in higher education

Higher education institutions will struggle in the marketplace unless they stand out from competitors and make sense to stakeholders. The Guardian's half-day seminar in partnership with the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education will explore what it takes to develop and maintain a distinctive brand that attracts students, staff and funders. Participants will hear from experts, examine case studies and have the opportunity to network with peers.

28 June, London.

Find us on the Guardian website

EducationGuardian.co.uk

All today's EducationGuardian stories

Follow us on Twitter and Facebook

EducationGuardian on Twitter

Judy Friedberg on Twitter

Jeevan Vasagar on Twitter

Jessica Shepherd on Twitter

Claire Phipps on Twitter

EducationGuardian on Facebook

EducationGuardian resources

The Guardian University Guide 2011

The Guardian Postgraduate Guide 2011

School league tables

The world's top 100 universities

Updating table of university fee announcements for 2012

From Guardian Professional

The Higher Education Network for university professionals

Free online classroom resources on the Teacher Network

Job vacancies in education

More about Cribsheet

Sign up to get Cribsheet as a daily email

To advertise in the Cribsheet email, contact Sunita Gordon on 0203 353 2447 or email sunita.gordon@guardian.co.uk

Subscribe to get Cribsheet as an RSS feed

Interested in social policy too? Sign up for Society Daily

Gazette.net Montgomery County Sports

Hoadley brings Latin American, agricultural expertise to Abt Gazette.net Montgomery County Sports In addition to his academic positions in North Carolina and Massachusetts, he taught at business schools in Mexico and Costa Rica. At the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill in the early 2000s, Hoadley provided keen insights into Central American ...

A few days ago on this blog, I asked this question in response to the celebrations unleashed by the bin Laden shooting:

Are we learning anything, or simply spinning harder in the cycle of violence?

During a layover in the Hamburg, Germany, airport yesterday, I got the chance to read a few newspapers and learned (I've had limited news access recently) that an agency of the US government code-named bin Laden "Geronomo." I imagine there has already been a lot of commentary on this, although I haven't had a chance to see it yet.

Suffice it to say that I was shocked, disgusted, dismayed, and sickened to read this. It makes me even more eager to press home the need for Americans like me to do some serious reflection at this point in our history.

For example ...

Are we still engaged in Westward Expansion (making our way from California to Hawaii and the Philippines, then to Southeast Asia and now to the Middle East)? Are we still cowboys hunting Indians? Are we still working out a narrative of Manifest Destiny? Has there been no acknowledgment in our government and our people of the holocaust we waged against Native Peoples, the land theft, attempted genocide, cultural imperialism, and outrageous injustice?

In the code-name Geronimo, has the US government made a "Freudian slip" that reveals one of the dark and violent drives still at work in our national psyche?

Some of my white friends will no doubt say, "It's just a name. You're making too much of it." But I don't think this question should be left to white people to answer. Just as we in the US need to listen - as we have never listened before - to our neighbors in the Muslim world (not to mention our Latin American neighbors, our African neighbors, and so on), we need to listen to our Native American/First Nations brothers and sisters and hear what they want to tell us about ugly parts of our history and contemporary national psyche that remain unacknowledged and that need to be radically changed.

What's in a name? In this case, more than we realize.

Tom & Katy's Latin American Adventure

Alongside financial cover, Latin American, and the world, also need to prepare a better physical response system by building a global network of 'resources', says Michel Liès, chairman

In honor of Mexican Independence Day, we thought we'd take this time to celebrate some of the gifts the Latin American country has bestowed upon us — and by "gifts" we mean the most beautiful pop stars the world has ever seen. We've rounded up six of the sexiest singers from South Of The Border (some you know by name and some you'll want to get to know a bit better after our seeing our list). So before you get your Cinco De Mayo drink-o on, check out our list of the Hottest Mexican Pop Stars and see if you agree with our pick for numero uno. More »

The following is about U2′s recent visit to Berlin where it’s rumored they’re shooting a new video, whether it’s to accompany a song or for some documentary is the subject of much commentary. The article was written in Spanish and here’s Google’s translation: U2 make a stop from their Latin American tour to record a ...Read the Rest

The Lost Sounds Orchestra is a music ensemble that exists to play only music that has been long lost from the collective memory of our cultures. It seems like a contradiction in terms. But the LSO is an outgrowth of the ASTRA Project, a group which has developed a computer modelling system that allows researchers to generate the sounds that ancient instruments made. So if an archaeologist finds a battered ancient instrument, ASTRA can figure out how it sounded and Lost Sounds can make it sing again.

We spoke with Domenico Vicinanza about the confluence of Web-based computing, archaeology and modern performance. Vicinanza is the ASTRA Project Coordinator and the Lost Sounds Orchestra Technical Coordinator. He also works as a Project Support Officer at DANTE, the organization building and operating GEANT, the pan-European research and education network backbone. Within ASTRA and LSO, Vicinanza leads the team of researchers reconstructing ancient instruments and acts as liaison with archaeologists, musicians and engineers.

Sponsor

Domenico Vicinanza: The ReadWriteWeb Interview

Can you describe the differences, and dialog, between ASTRA and LSO? What are its different goals, what goals do they share?

The Lost Sound Orchestra is the ASTRA project orchestra. It is a unique orchestra made by reconstructed ancient instrument coming from the ASTRA research activities. In other words, ASTRA covers the scientific aspect of sound reconstruction, from the raw data coming from literature and archaeology to the sounds. The Lost Sounds Orchestra deals with the artistic side, it starts from the sounds reconstructed by ASTRA and uses them to play music, organize concerts and teaching music students how to compose, play and arrange for an ancient ensemble.

How much do performances use samples and how much original or reconstructed instruments?

During our performance, our reconstructed instruments are completely relying on digital sounds coming from the reconstruction process. The samples are computed on the European Grid Initiative infrastructure, using the GÉANT network, and then pre-loaded in a laptop connected to the MIDI controller.

What's the utility, cultural or otherwise, of recreating ancient music?

Recreating ancient instruments which no longer physically exist is a wonderful multi-disciplinary challenge for historians, archaeologists, physicists, engineers and computer scientists. Listening to them is like jumping into the past, into a sound world completely new to our ears.

Much of what defines western European culture in terms of music, philosophy, science and the arts has its origins in the culture of Ancient Greece. Music played a fundamental role in the lives of Ancient Greeks and was almost universally present in society, from marriages and funerals to religious ceremonies, staged dramas, folk music and the ballad-like reciting of epic poetry.

The Ancient Greeks had developed a complex system of relating particular emotional and spiritual characteristics to certain organizations of sounds, called modes (or scales). The names for the various modes derived from the names of Greek tribes and peoples, the temperament and emotions of which were said to be characterized by the unique sound of each mode. Thus, Dorian modes were "harsh", Phrygian modes "sensual", and so forth.

Plato, in his writings, talks about the proper use of various scales. To our ears it is quite difficult to relate to that concept of ethos in music except by comparing our own perceptions that a minor scale is used for melancholy and a major scale for virtually everything else, from happy to heroic music.

From a technical point of view, the sound of scales vary depending on the placement of whole tones, they are C to D on a modern piano keyboard, and half tones, which are C to C-sharp. Where modern Western music distinguishes between relatively few kinds of scales, the Greeks used this placement of whole-tones, half-tones, and even quarter-tones ("in the cracks" on a modern keyboard) to develop a large repertoire of scales, each with a presumed ethos.

The first instrument we reconstructed was then a Greek instrument, the monochord. It was one of the oldest and simplest musical instruments, played by Pythagoras. The word "monochord" comes from the Greek and means literally "one string." In the monochord, a single string is stretched over a sound box. The string is fixed at both ends while a moveable bridge alters the pitch.

After the monochord, we moved to the first real, complex instrument: the epigonion. The epigonion was an ancient stringed instrument mentioned in Athenaeus (183 A.D.), and was a bit like a modern harp or a psaltery. The epigonion was invented, or at least introduced into Greece, by Epigonus of Ambracia, a Greek musician of Ambracia in Epirus, who was granted citizenship at Sicyon in recognition of his great musical ability and because he was the first to pluck the strings with his fingers, instead of using a plectrum. The instrument, which Epigonus named after himself, had forty strings.

Next page: Virtual reconstruction based on modelling

Reconstructing the instrument using a virtual model (instead of just making a modern physical copy of it) was an additional cultural challenge. We opted for a virtual reconstruction based on modelling because it had the advantage of making it easy to build sound libraries that students, researchers and museums can easily access and use everywhere in the world. In this way we could allow everybody to load the sounds onto a PC, plug in a keyboard and play. Reconstructing just one epigonion would have meant that just one instrument was available for studying purposes.

Finally using virtually reconstructed instruments in a modern environment was the final challenge. We played ancient instruments alongside modern ones, we started arranging and writing for ancient instruments using different techniques (faithful to the Ancient Greek tuning and harmony or using modern well temperament) and use them live on stage during real concerts

We are currently mostly focusing on reconstructing instruments but an increasing fraction of our time is moving towards a more complex research regarding music archaeology facilitated by modern technologies. We are extremely interested in understanding how the instrument sounded in their ancient natural environment (rooms, theatres, and open space) and we are using advanced networking and advanced distributed computation to refine our models to correctly describe and map ancient materials, mimic construction techniques, size and shapes of rooms where the instrument was typically played.

Is this project a function of new technologies? Have their been any forerunners?

Ever since the first computers appeared at research centers, universities and radio stations, they have drawn the attention of musicians towards new ways of writing music, of creating sounds. When networks started to link computers together, the possibilities became wider and even more fascinating: thousands of PCs spread around the world could work together to generate sounds, to create music.

Many countries around the world have a special dedicated network called a National Research and Education Network, which is separate from the internet people use at home. These networks provide extremely reliable access to high bandwidth so that researchers can communicate, transfer data and perform all sorts of fascinating projects and avoid the congestion of the commercial internet. But scientists often want to link up with researchers in other parts of the world, and so there are networks which link up the national networks. The network for Europe is called GÉANT and it is this network which is used to recreate the sounds of the epigonion.

The calculations used to recreate the epigonion and the other ASTRA instruments required reliable access to high bandwidth and this is why we had to use networks like GÉANT and distributed computing infrastructure like the European Grid Initiative.

Another important role of advanced networking was bringing experiences and knowledge together. Imagine having an archaeologist working in Greece with many interesting relics and findings, a group of engineers in Italy, a software developer in France, an historian in Morocco: using the network within our project ASTRA, they had the possibility to interact and co-operate, adding experiences and creating something unique.

Next page: The Web is an important ingredient

What function does the Web serve in your efforts?

The web was an extremely important ingredient. The interface to the computing Grid infrastructure is web-based and we can allow researchers and students to have access to the full power of the reconstruction engine just using a web browser, without having to install software or maintain hardware. We are also relying on the web to immediately publish the outcomes of our research, distribute the results the results so that they can be made available to a large community of users immediately using dedicated R&E; networking.

Your site talks about how the project started in 2009. What has the orchestra done in that intervening time?

In two years and a half, we moved from just one instrument (the epigonion) to a small ensemble of four, two Greek instruments and two Latin American ones (epigonion, barbiton, tambór and quena de hueso).

Last year, the project worked together with the Museo de Arte Precolombino (Santiago, Chile) on the reconstruction of two ancient musical instruments (quena de hueso and tambór) from Pre-Colombian Latin America . The quena de hueso (literelly bone flute) was a traditional flute of the Andes belonging to the Nasca culture (southern Peru). The tambór (drum) was a percussion belonging to the Gentilar culture (northern Chile) and it is more ancient that the quena, we can date it between 1200 and 1470 b.C.

The two reconstructed instruments [PDF] were used for the first time in public on May 14th 2010, during the official launch of ALICE2 (Latin America Interconnected with Europe) and the second generation of the RedCLARA network. At the end of the ceremony, hold together with the EU-LAC Ministerial Meeting, under the Spanish Presidency of the European Union in Madrid, the instruments played in a piece from the first musical work written in Latin America, "The Purple of the Rose", an opera in one-act composed by Tomás de Torrejón y Velasco to a libretto by Pedro Calderon de la Barca (1701).

Finally, we started organizing concerts, events and exhibitions. These included a performance in Stockholm in December of 2009, where advanced networking enabled a distributed performance with musicians in Stockholm and dancers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; and one at the Casa Del Suono in Parma in, 2010, where a Plexiglas controller was built to play digital sounds with a modern interface.

Discuss

Babson College’s Executive and Enterprise Education is expanding its activities in Brazil, the college announced Thursday. Through expansions to its current program, the college will aim to train Brazil’s leaders to create and operate new venture opportunities, according to a press release from the college. Elaine J. Eisenman, dean of Babson’s Executive and Enterprise Education last week addressed executives of the Latin American securities, commodities and future exchange BM&FBOVESPA.; She also met with executives from Santander Universities, a division of Banco Santander, to launch the second round of the Entrepreneurial Action program, an online course for entrepreneurship students in...

Filed under: News, Race and Civil Rights

On The Root, Dr. Henry Louis Gates profiles the black experience throughout Latin America. Underscoring black life in places, such as Peru and Brazil, Dr. Gates focuses his lens on Dominicans on the island of Hispaniola.

On the video, Dr. Gates talks with anthropologist and Director of Cultural Diversity Juan Rodriguez to find out why in the Dominican Republic, those of African descent , who are at least 90 percent of the population, call themselves everything but "black."
Watch what Rodriguez says here:

Watch the full episode. See more Black in Latin America.

The experience of black folks in Latin America burst on to the American scene when baseball star Sammy Sosa appeared at the Latin Grammy Awards several shades lighter than his natural color.

Initially, Sosa tried to deny that he had altered his complexion at all, but after much probing by the media, Sosa finally admitted that he was lightening his skin with a bleaching cream that he used each night before he went to bed. Sosa even went as far as saying that he intended to become a spokesperson for the cream, but then seemed to back pedal after many in the public -- and some of his own countrymen -- criticized Sosa for his actions.

But there is a history here that has subjected generations of African people of the diaspora to inequities and disenfranchisement in order to keep the global white power structure in place. If you continue watching Dr. Gates' "Black in America" series above, you will see how blacks throughout Latin America have been marginalized and abused.

Is it really any wonder that black Dominicans would go to great pains to detach themselves from Haiti and call themselves "indio" or any other term that doesn't denote them as black?

What I' m interested in is finding out what can be done to fix the inequities that blacks throughout Latin America face. I'd also like to know who is going to lead the effort to start a solid "black is beautiful" campaign in order to reprogram blacks to appreciate and love themselves.

Peru made an unprecedented step to righting the wrongs of slavery in their country by officially releasing a formal apology to the black people of Peru. They apologized for the bad treatment and marginalization that Afro-Peruvians have faced. I salute Peru for that action, because even in the storied United States of America, an acknowledgment, apology and reparation has not been made to those who suffered as descendants of slaves.

Since many of us are aware of the problems attached to living a historically limited and socialized existence, it is time for scholars, activists and lay people everywhere to take an active role in reshaping our sense of value and purpose in this world.

It's imperative.

 

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Here’s the tweet from NoticiasLGBT an account that provides “a look at the LGBT world in Latin America and the rest of the world.” More as this develops… UPDATE: Brazilian Supreme Court justices have just reached a decision that will a grant federal civil rights to gay and lesbian couples in the Latin American country. Deliberations began after [...]

The battle between the buggy-eyed blue superhero and the evil sea monster and his ninja henchmen was a brief but refreshing return to normalcy for children in this Japanese coastal city. Related posts:

1. Charity feeding 500,000 children
2. Latin American buildings destroyed in Japan earthquake aftermath
3. Japan "Cherry Blossom Tour" for Gay and Lesbian Travelers

Traffic grew 2.7 percent for American Airlines in April compared to last April as a result of increasing international traffic, the airline reported Wednesday. The airline’s revenue passenger miles – the measurement of the total distance flown by passengers – was down 1.8 percent domestically and up 10.9 percent internationally. Atlantic traffic was up 19.1 percent, Latin American up 5.3 percent and Pacific up 8.9 percent, the Fort Worth-based airline said in a release. American said that it boarded about...

Cartography from the Age of Exploration is an exhibition now running at the University of Florida’s Grinter Gallery until August 20. “This exhibition celebrates the 80th Anniversary of the University of Florida Center for Latin American Studies with a collection of maps dating to the 16th and 17th centuries from collector and UF alumnus Steven Keats. Keats’ collection primarily focuses on cartography of the Americas and the Caribbean by European explorers.”

Cartography from the Age of Exploration first appeared on The Map Room: A Weblog About Maps on May 5, 2011. Copyright © 2011 Jonathan Crowe. Distributed under a Creative Commons licence.

Protestors rally outside the British embassy in Washington, D.C. last week.

The nearly 100,000 workers who travel to North Carolina each summer to harvest the state’s tobacco crop are often repaid for their hard work with sub-minimum wages, dangerous conditions in the fields, and inhumane living conditions, according to findings released today from a human rights assessment conducted by Oxfam America and the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC).

The findings will be presented tomorrow to the annual shareholders’ meeting of Reynolds American in Winston-Salem, N.C., where supporters will call on the company to take action to end the abuses in its supply chain. Although Reynolds does not directly employ the farm workers on its contract farms, it sets the terms with its contract growers and profits from the farm workers’ labor. The full report “A State of Fear: Human Rights Abuses in North Carolina’s Tobacco Industry” will be released this summer. Click here to read the summary.

Key findings highlighted in the summary released today include:

• One-fourth of workers report being paid less than the federal minimum of $7.25 per hour.
• Most of the workers interviewed suffer regularly from symptoms of “green tobacco sickness,” which is caused by excessive absorption of nicotine through the skin.
• Nearly all the workers who lived in employer-provided housing described inadequate or non-working showers and toilets, overcrowding, leaky roofs, beds with mattresses that were worn out or missing, insect and rodent infestations and lacking or inadequate cooking and laundry facilities.

FLOC Secretary-Treasuer Beatriz Maya said at a rally in front of the company’s headquarters

For years Reynolds has made excuses, and tried to either deny that there’s a problem or shift the blame somewhere else, and we’re here today on Reynolds’ doorstep to tell them that there is a big problem, to show them the facts, and to let them know that we are holding them responsible. It’s time for Reynolds to do right by the workers who harvest their tobacco, and to come together with the rest of their industry to make changes. We do not accept their excuses for the inexcusable conditions that tobacco farm workers are being forced to endure.  

Meanwhile, momentum is building for a mass march and rally tomorrow in Winston-Salem to demand better conditions in the tobacco fields. Thousands of farm workers, community, labor and student allies will call on Reynolds to meet with FLOC to discuss the conditions workers face in the tobacco fields. For at least four years, Reynolds has refused to meet with FLOC.

Last week, the workers gained a major victory when executives of British American Tobacco (BAT), which owns 42 percent of Reynolds American, agreed to meet with FLOC later this month. This is the first time any corporation with close ties to Reynolds American has agreed to meet with workers.

Also last week, farm workers, union members and members of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA) protested at the British embassy in Washington, D.C., and at British consulates in nine cities in support of the tobacco workers.

FL-Miami, Solid Latin American Division in Miami of Major Corporation looking for project to perm Bilingual (Fluent Spanish) Accounting Manager with solid Oracle financial systems background. Person will be supervising up to 7 staff. Must be able to speak, write, read and understand Spanish. Individual must have solid management skills having managed at least 5 plus individuals. Will be responsible for fina

Global spending on enterprise software grew 8.5 percent in 2010 to $245 billion following a 2.5 percent drop-off in 2009, suggesting the industry is shaking off the effects of the economic downturn and starting more new projects, according to figures released by analyst firm Gartner on Thursday.

Some regions fared better than others, however, with Japan and Western Europe seeing a "relatively modest" uptick, while Asia-Pacific and Latin American countries had growth rates in the teens, or nearly twice the average, Gartner said.

Spring, summer, and fall discount flights are available with Spirit's latest promotion. The sale, which ends on Friday, May 6, features domestic, Caribbean, and Latin American destinations; and sale rates are as much as 66 percent off competitors' prices.

Latin American Herald Tribune

Spain claims for joblessness benefits down BusinessWeek Spain says the number of people filing for unemployment benefits dropped in April by about 64000, the first decline this year. The Labor and Immigration Ministry said Wednesday that the fall left the total number of people receiving benefits at just ... Spain Sets Europe's Unemployment Record, But Remains Economic EngineVoice of America Spain's unemployment falls 1.48 percent in AprilPeople's Daily Online Unemployment Eases in SpainLatin American Herald Tribune all 23 news articles »

French Tribune

Spain drags, Mexico shines on BBVA's Q1 Reuters BBVA's Latin American units, especially Mexico, helped mitigate the slump in Spain, the euro zone's sickly fourth-largest economy, which is struggling to emerge from its worst recession in half a century. Spain, which has the highest unemployment rate ... BBVA Net Profit Down On Spain Weakness; Beats ViewsWall Street Journal Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria First-Quarter Profit Drops to $1.7 BillionBloomberg all 149 news articles »

Using Personas: A 'How-To Guide' MediaPost Publications US geo-targeted digital media buys on Latin American Websites and ad networks will be highly effective. However digital media offers even more advanced targeting capabilities, such as behavioral targeting, that can help us plan paid media programs. ... and more »

Google has spent some much time porting Web services functionality from its desktop to its mobile Android services, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that the mobile team is giving something back: Google's Voice Search service has been spotted in the wild on Google.com.

That's right; the little microphone icon you see in the Google search widget and virtual keyboard on Android smartphones and as a feature of Google Search app for iPhone, BlackBerry, and Nokia S60 phones is being bucket-tested on Google's search engine.

Google Voice Search, of course, lets users input searches via voice instead of typing queries into their phone. After adding availability in Indonesian, Malaysian, and Latin American Spanish, Voice Search available in over two dozen languages and accents.

Matt Schlict, a product manager for Ustream, tipped Mashable after stumbling upon the tell-tale microphone icon. Google confirmed it, noting that it runs many search tests.

Schlict grabbed this screen:

Users will speak into their computers' microphones to call up search results. Clearly, this application of voice search is more consumer use, or at least for those such as myself who work in a home office.

One imagines a funny scenario where a hundred people in cubicles for some company talking into their computer's microphones to conjure results. Actually, it would make a funny cartoon in the high-brow New Yorker magazine.

In any event, I will welcome such a feature once it's made available to me. I spend 6 hours or more typing stories each day; this feature will save me from typing searches.

Editors' Note: Guest blogger Brett Stockdill is a queer, HIV positive activist, teacher and scholar in Chicago. He is an Associate Professor in Sociology, Women's Studies, and Latino & Latin American Studies at Northeastern Illinois University. His four-part series, "Living in the Borderlands," will be running every morning this week. You can start the series with the first post, "The Odyssey of the Utterly Fabulous Mario Sierra

The Crossroads of 'Illegal' and HIV

"...this is just a condition that you have to deal with..." --Mario Sierra*

After putting it off for years, Mario decided to get an HIV test in 2000 at the age of 34. He chose to take an anonymous test (rather than a confidential one that links test results to the person's name) in large part because he was "illegal."

"I knew that if I let my HIV status out I would probably have a problem with immigration so that's why I decided now more than ever I can't tell anybody if I become positive. And that was exactly the result. I came out positive," he said.

His fears relating to his undocumented status merged with fears surrounding HIV, but he drew upon the same spirit of resilience with which he had tackled other challenges.

"It was horrible... I excluded myself from everything," Mario told me. "I didn't want anybody to know... I was so devastated. I feel like my life changed from that point on. Being illegal. And what if I really get sick right now, and I can't work. I can't collect unemployment. I would have to be on my own so - it's like I built this strength inside of me. To tell my body, 'no, you cannot get sick, you have to go on and be strong because you don't have help if you need it.'"

What makes Mario's life since 2000 even more remarkable - his career, his leadership in a number of interconnected cultural communities, his contributions to his family of origin, and his social justice activism - is that even as Mario confronted the daily onslaughts of xenophobia, racism and homophobia, he also tackled the everyday challenges of living with HIV.

Continue reading "Surviving: Living in the Borderlands"...

INDIANAPOLIS — Nineteen people have been arrested in connection with a violent Latin American prostitution ring that smuggled women into the U.S. to work in brothels across the Midwest and as far away as Florida and New York, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.

Federal, state and local authorities arrested the 19 people in Indiana, Michigan and Illinois on Tuesday on federal racketeering and conspiracy charges, Deputy U.S. Attorney Brad Shepard said during a news conference. Investigators have found no evidence that any of the 19 were in the U.S. legally, he said.

Read More...

Federal authorities say they've broken up a prostitution ring that smuggled women in from Mexico and other Latin American countries to work in brothels in Indianapolis, Cincinnati, metropolitan Chicago and Grand Rapids, MI.

La Santa Cecilia breaks the Latin music mold
Klezmer music? Gypsy jazz? Covers of Doors and Beatles tunes? Clearly, this isn’t your typical Latin music group. Yes, La Santa Cecilia plays its fair share of cumbia, bolero, bossa nova, tango and rumba, but rather than being mere preservers of tradition, these six Los Angeles musicians are purveyors of what they call a “modern-day creative hybrid of Latin culture, rock and world music.”
According to the ensemble’s guitarist, Gloria Estrada, the diversity of La Santa Cecilia’s repertoire is a reflection of its members’ backgrounds. “The great thing about L.A. is that you can go to one part of town, and you’re in Little Tokyo; you go a few blocks, and you’re in a Mexican community, or a Jewish, Korean, El Salvadoran or Central American community,” she says. The musician adds that five members of the group are of Mexican descent, and bassist Alex Bendana was born in Venezuela, “but he was raised in L.A. by Mexican people—L.A. has a lot of Mexicans—so he’s an honorary Mexican. So we’re definitely bicultural in the sense that we have our parents’ background and culture and so forth, and at the same time, we grew up with American influence, hearing all kinds of music, eating all kinds of food and seeing different holidays be honored around L.A.”

Fox News

Chilean experts to assist Mexican mine rescue team CNN International By the CNN Wire Staff Mexico City (CNN) -- Experts from Chile who helped rescue miners there in October are expected to arrive in northern Mexico Thursday, where nine workers remained trapped in a mine after an explosion, Mexico's foreign ministry said ... Hope fading for minersThe Province Hopes fade for 9 trapped miners in northern MexicoThe Associated Press No Hope of Survivors in Mine Accident, Mexican Government SaysLatin American Herald Tribune Latin America News Dispatch -Tehran Times all 956 news articles »

Connecting the Dots: How Osama's Death Has Hijacked New York's Grief Huffington Post (blog) In New York, there are many African-Americans, Latin Americans, Hispanics, Asians, Africans, Middle Easterners, Europeans, tons of folks from Eastern Europe -- and thankfully, even a Native American was there that day. What healed my grief was being in ... and more »

New page: ==<center>Examples Of Free Trade Agreements</center>== . . . . ==<center>[http://allhomesearch.com/forum/index.php?topic=rx1OTN8fDEzMDQ1NDAxMjl8fDE5MDZ8fChFTkdJTkUpIE1lZGlhV2lraQ%3D%3D...

New page

I am so pleased to announce a new content partnership between Better Health and Diario Médico (DM), Spain’s leading news outlet for physicians. We will now be featuring regular content from the DM bloggers, translated for our readers from Spanish to English. The medical blogging community is a global family, and we proudly embrace our Spanish innovators overseas.

I first met the DM team two years ago on Twitter. Their lead social media guru, Alain Ochoa-Torres (@alainochoa), was the first to reach out to me – eager to learn about social media trends in the United States. We arranged to do a live “Twitterview” to talk about how U.S. physicians are engaging in social media, especially blogging. That Twitterview (screen shot shown to the left) was translated into Spanish and became the beginning of an exciting international collaboration.

In the future, Better Health hopes to find ways to make Spanish health content available to our readers… and with DM’s help I’m sure that we will expand our understanding of global health, while making friends with our new Spanish blogging colleagues!

Please join me in welcoming our new blog contributors:

Sergio Minué, MD.

General Practitioner (GP). Management professor at Andalusian School of Public Health (Escuela Andaluza de Salud Pública, EASP) since July, 2000.

In the last eleven years Dr. Minué has been involved in several projects related to education, investigation and consulting both at national and international level. He has worked in projects for Dominican Republic, Uruguay, Chile, Argentina, Morocco and El Salvador, and collaborated with Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) in other actions.

At the present he is Director of the Expertise in Healthcare Management program at University of Granada and coordinates healthcare management module in European Master 'Erasmus Mundus' Europubhealth.

Served as Director of Medical Care Management Department at EASP from February 2009 to May 2010.

Worked as Teaching and Investigation Director at EASP from 2003 to 2007.

From 1993 to 2000 held different management positions at Insalud (now-defunct Spanish national healthcare authority): Medical Director of Primary Care Team at Barajas (1991-1993), Assistant Medical Director of Primary Care of Madrid's Area 4 (1993-1994), Medical Director of the same regional area (1994-1996) and finally Medical Director of Primary Care for Madrid's Area 2 (1996-2000).

Quality Pilot in European Master 'Erasmus Mundus' Europubhealth (2006-2010). During that time he coordinated Quality Committee of Virtual Campus of Public Health in Latin America organized by PAHO.

Member of Patient Safety groups at Cochrane and Spanish Primary Care Association (Semfyc). At Semfyc he is also member of the Knowledge Management group and coordinates Project ARA, focused on MD re-certification.

Member of Internet and Healthcare investigation group at EASP, he is currently working in several investigation projects on how doctors can use new technologies, social media and Web 2.0. He is also involved in projects related to best practices in teaching, safety, clinical decision-making and Primary Care. He is the leading author of an ongoing investigation on decision-making and mistakes in diagnosis. Reviewer for 'Gaceta Sanitaria' magazine. Participates in expert groups in Spain, Europe and the Americas.

He authored articles published in scientific journals both in Spain and abroad, and is a frequent lecturer and speaker in scientific congresses all over the world and is still actively writing and publishing in his field of expertise. He writes in two personal blogs ('El Gerente de Mediado' and 'La Cara Ve') and is a regular contributor to other healthcare blogs and Diario Médico.

Miguel Ángel Máñez, Economist.

Miguel Ángel Máñez is an economist and currently holds the position of Finance and Human Resources Assistant Manager of the Health Department of Alicante-Sant Joan d’Alacant in Alicante, Spain. He is also the Coordinator of the '2.0 Office' for Valencia’s regional health authority, responsible for the implementation of Web 2.0 tools aimed at patients and healthcare professionals. He is the author of a well-known blog in Spain about healthcare management called 'Salud con Cosas'. He has taken an active part in courses and seminars about Internet and healthcare, marketing, and strategies of healthcare management. He is the author of several articles on healthcare and Web 2.0.

Vicente Baos, MD.

General Practitioner (GP) in Collado Villalba Pueblo (near Madrid), writes 'El supositorio' ('The Suppository') since 2007, one of Spain's most influential healthcare blogs.

Graduated in 1982 at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, completed his training at Puerta de Hierro Hospital (Madrid) in 1987. Member of Editorial Board at 'Therapeutiction in Spanish Healthcare System' ('Información Terapéutica del Sistema Nacional de Salud'), a journal published by Spain's Ministry of Health since 1994.

Dr. Baos also coordinates Prescription Drug Use group at Spanish Primary Care Association (Semfyc) since its creation in 2003. He is a consultant at Spain's Drug Agency ('Agencia Española de Medicamentos y Productos Sanitarios'). Author of several books on prescription drug use (some of them for MD's and others targeted at general public) and a long list of scientific articles.

His main areas of interest are Primary Care and the analysis and evaluation of pharmacological therapies.

Frederic Llordachs, MD.

MD with MBA, specialized in Healthcare Management and Marketing. Direct experience with healthcare insurance, and healthcare management, and interested in venture capital. Also involved in early-stage start-ups, like Doctoralia (http://www.doctoralia.com), the global platform for healthcare search, and also other pre-seed projects like Lexpertia (http://www.lexpertia.com), the search engine for lawyers in Spain.

Julio Mayol, MD, PhD.
Julio M. Mayol MD, PhD, graduated with honor from Universidad Complutense de Madrid Medical School in 1988. He received his training in General Surgery at Hospital Clinico San Carlos and Beth Israel Hospital, taking further postgraduate training as research fellow in Surgery at Harvard Medical School. Currently, he he has an appointment as Professor of Surgery at Universidad Complutense de Madrid Medical School. He serves as Chief Innovation Officer and Chief of the Division of Colorectal Surgery at Hospital Clinico San Carlos. He is a member of the Spanish Royal Academy of Medicine and European Expert on Cell Therapy at European Medicines Agency.

About Diario Medico:

Since 1992, Diario Médico has been Spain's leading news outlet for physicians. Part of one of Spain's most important publishing groups ( ), Diario Médico is both a website and a free newspaper distributed Monday to Friday in all hospitals and general practitioner offices across Spain.

The publication covers a wide range of subjects, from breaking scientific news to health policy, in-depth interviews, scientific meetings, clinical practice, legal issues, management, and health IT.
Diario Médico reaches 2.4 million paper readers and 450 thousand website visitors (more than 500 thousand pageviews/month).

The brand strives to be a cutting-edge reference tool for all healthcare professionals in Spain, and its website is constantly innovating. Diario Médico provides online courses as well as speciality-specific newsletters, video reports and Web 2.0 content such as Twitterrviews and a medical blogging platform (Médica Blogs).

Source: [b]Agence France-Presse[/b]

Reporter gunned down in northern Peru
(AFP) – 6 hours ago

LIMA — A reporter who openly criticized regional government officials in northwestern Peru has been killed in a hail of gunfire, a Latin American press watchdog group has said.

Julio Castillo Narvae...

Latin American stocks fell sharply on Wednesday, following US markets lower, as investors were disappointed by poor employment figures from the ADP and slower rate of growth in the service sector. The MSCI Latin American index fell 1.2 per cent to 4,425, the lowest level in the past 6 weeks. The only exception to the …Continue reading:...

S.D. Myers, Inc., based in Tallmadge, Ohio, announced today that five major companies in the transformer maintenance industry signed on as co-sponsors for its first Latin American Transformer Maintenance Symposium to be held June 21-23, 2011 at the Grand Paradise Bavaro resort in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.

 

 

‘Obama makes visit to US, expected to stay several days’ – so goes the joke in Washington at the moment.

The president’s decision to continue his Latin American tour while ordering the military strikes on Libya has become part of a bigger debate.

He's back now - but a key question seems to be: “Is the US at war?”

The White House says ‘no’, well, sort of, as Congress gets its knickers in a twist over why it wasn’t consulted.

Witness this exchange between a reporter and top White House national security official Ben Rhodes.

Question: “Ben, Congress was reportedly told that this is not a war. Can you confirm that? Can you elaborate on that? And if it's not a war, what's the right way to characterize this operation?”

Mr Rhodes: “What we've said is that this is a military operation that will be limited in both duration and scope… We're undertaking a military operation to protect the people of Libya. “

Question: “But it's not going to war, then?”

Mr Rhodes: “Well, again, I think what we are doing is enforcing a resolution that has a very clear set of goals... Obviously that involves kinetic military action, particularly on the front end.  But again, the nature of our commitment is that we are not getting into an open-ended war, a land invasion in Libya.”

Congress has a history of getting miffed over military action ordered by the president.

They passed themselves a War Powers Resolution in the 1970s, despite President Nixon’s attempt to veto it, because the ‘wars’ in Korea and Vietnam were never actually declared ‘wars’.

Ever since presidents have fought a running battle, not a ‘war’ of course, over who has the right to order action.

Congress does hold the purse strings though but even here Obama looks like he has scuppered their push for more control.

The operation in Libya, we’re told, will be paid for out of the existing defence budget.

So the question remains – bombing another country, for whatever reason – is this war?