Based on the belief that American popular culture is shaping a new global environment which each day looks more hegemonic, the National Library of Venezuela has decided to fight back. Under the direction of Fernando Báez, the National Library of Venezuela will now try to fight what they believe is a global commercialization of world libraries, an effort, they believe is spearheaded by the Library of Congress in the USA. This project wishes to expand the country’s network of public libraries, promoting nation-wide reading, and build a National Digital Library.

Fernando Báez is the author of the world wide best seller “Historia universal de la destrucción de libros,” (Universal History of the Destruction of Books) and “La destrucción cultural de Iraq” (The cultural Destruction of Iraq) which made him a persona non grata in the USA.

Granted that this program could just as well limit local diversity, it is interesting to see a formal attempt at preserving local flavor. We’ll have to keep an eye on this one to see how it unfolds.

You can read the press release (in Spanish) from the National Library of Venezuela here.

Con base en la creencia de que la cultura popular estadounidense está dando forma a un nuevo entorno mundial que cada día se vuelve más hegemónica, la Biblioteca Nacional de Venezuela ha decidido crear oposición. Bajo la dirección de Fernando Báez, la Biblioteca Nacional de Venezuela ahora tratará de luchar contra lo que creen que es una comercialización global de las bibliotecas del mundo, un esfuerzo que creen que está encabezado por la Biblioteca del Congreso de los EE.UU. Este proyecto quiere ampliar la red de bibliotecas públicas del país, la promover la lectura a lo largo de la nación, y construir una Biblioteca Digital Nacional.

Fernando Báez es el autor del “best-seller” mundial “Historia Universal de la Destrucción de Libros y “La Destrucción Cultural de Iraq,” cosa que lo convirtió en personaje non grata en los EE.UU.

Concedido que este programa bien podría limitar la diversidad local, es interesante ver un intento formal de preservar el sabor local. Vamos a tener que mantener un ojo sobre éste proceso para ver cómo se desarrolla.

Usted puede leer el comunicado de prensa de la Biblioteca Nacional de Venezuela aquí.

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A few days ago the Christian Science Monitor had an interesting article about conservation efforts for bufeos, (also known boto, pink dolphins, or fresh water dolphins). Scientist Fernando Trujillo from the Colombian based Omacha Foundation is behind a five nation project which also includes Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, and Venezuela. Their research hopes to gather information on population numbers and the current state of the species in order to help project it, and to use the bufeo as the poster child for a larger preservation campaign of the Amazon and Orinoco rivers.

Hopefully these efforts won’t be coming too little too late, as was the case just last week with the less fortunate fresh water dolphin in the Yangtze River whose extinction seems to have been confirmed. The Indus, Ganges and Mekon rivers also have fresh water dolphins, the populations of none of which are in good shape.

I’ve been lucky enough to have seen pink dolphin while drifting down the Orinoco river many years ago, but the memories are as fresh as if it had been just yesterday; they really are an impressive sight, and hopefully this charisma will help preserve them and the larger river ecosystem in which they live.

The International Society for the Preservation of the Tropical Rainforest has some more information on pink river dolphins here, so does Project Boto, here. A good book on the subject is the Journey of the Pink River Dolphin by Sy Montgomery.

Boto image by Pasajero on Flickr.

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Several nation leaders in Latin America seem to be waking up to the fact that International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank (WB) loans aren’t truly benefiting the majority of people there, so they are joining forces to create Banco del Sur. Venezuela, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, and Paraguay have become the founding members to Banco del Sur , which is promoted as an alternative to the IMF and WB. The bank which is to begin functions in 2008, is being promoted as coming from Latin America, for Latin America. The idea originated with Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez and is being largely funded with Venezuela’s oil money.

Lack of faith in organizations like the IMF and WB started to gather momentum in Latin American during the 1990s, and this perspective was further solidified after Argentina disregarded IMF advice and defaulted on their loans, which lead to economic recovery. Those opposing this regional bank proposal argue that it is only one more ploy by the emerging left in Latin America, still IMF loans have steadily been declining in the region during the last decade; they currently stand at around $3 billion after being at $50 billion just five years ago. Latin American countries have also been turning to other regional initiatives such as the Andean Development Corporation (CAF) for loans.

Some former and current employees of the IMF and WB explain that maybe this is a wakeup call to these institutions to make more of an effort to customize the services they provide throughout the world. Apparently the IMF has been impacted enough about this to have had to sold some of their gold reserves. This also means that the USA treasury is affected as well, since they are the largest IMF shareholders.

I would like see the Banco del Sur actually succeed and create some wealthy competition.

“… there is life after the IMF, and it’s a very good life.” -Nestor Kirchner, Argentine President

You can read more about this from an article in the Christian Science Monitor, and an article in Upside Down World.

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Library work is usually perceived as being practiced only indoors, but in developing countries the promotion of education, reading and books needs to happen wherever people are. This has lead to creative approaches to the old model of book mobiles.

Some of my favorite examples include a mobile library in Kenya which aims at providing library services to some of the nomadic tribes in the country. This seems like the perfect approach given limited resources, and the communities needs. IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations) has also written about the subject. Their article is here.

Colombia has a “biblioburro” in the state of Magdalena. A local professor saw the need children had to access books, so he created his own mobile library, traveling the area with donkeys. Only in the land of García Márquez do donkeys and books come together so gracefully. There is actually an entire blog dedicated to a similar project in the Sierra Nevada; accesses the blog here.

08.16.07 – The magazine Gatopardo has another article on the donkey book mobile project in Colombia which you can find here

Usualmente percibimos el trabajo de bibliotecas como una profesión que solo se practica dentro de edificios de una clase u otra, pero en algunos países en desarrollo la promoción de la educación, la lectura, y los libros debe tomar lugar donde quiera que hayan personas que necesitan los servicios. Esto a creado nuevas y creativas opciones del viejo concepto de bibliotecas móvil.

Algunos de mis ejemplos favoritos incluyen una biblioteca móvil en Kenia que presta servicios de biblioteca a varias tribus nómadas a través del país. Esta parece una solución perfecta dado el limite de recursos y las necesidades de la comunidad. IFLA (Federacion Internacional de Asociación de Bibliotecas) también ha escrito sobre el tema; el articulo lo puede encontrar aquí.

En el estado Colombiano de Magdalena puede encontrar al “biblioburro”. Un profesor de la región vio que los niños del área necesitaban acceso a libros así es que decidió crear una biblioteca móvil que se desplaza en el área a lomo de burro. Solo en la tierra de Gracia Marque se unen los burros y los libros con tanta gracias. Y es mas, hay un blog entero dedicado a un proyecto similar en la Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. Entre al blog aquí.

08.05.07 – Hace poco la BBC saco otro articulo sobre otro biblioburro, esta vez basado en Venezuela. El programa empezo en la Universidad de Momboy repartiendo libros, pero ha crecido y ahora también reparten computadores portátiles, y proyectores que toda la comunidad puede usar. Puede leer mas acerca de este proyecto aquí.

Información sobre la imagen aquí.

08.16.07 – La revista Gatopardo tiene otro articulo sobre el biblioburo Colombiano que puede leer aquí.

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