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Two families, two futures
November 01, 1998
The Altamiras are rich. they live in a luxurious eight-room apartment in an exclusive section of a large Latin American city.
The Bajareses are poor. They live in a one-room shack on a hillside with no electricity, no potable water and no paved roads.
Anyone raised in a Latin American or Caribbean country is familiar with these two fictional families. Everyone knows that the gap in their incomes--and in their overall prospects--is huge. After decades of studies on the topic, people are no longer surprised to hear that the region has the world's worst income disparities.
What can be done about inequality?
November 01, 1998
Editor's note: The 1998-99 edition of the IDB report on economic and social progress in the region, Facing Up to Inequality in Latin America, examines why the region's societies are so unequal and suggests what can be done about it. The report was prepared under the direction of IDB Chief Economist Ricardo Hausmann. IDBAmérica's Daniel Drosdoff spoke with him on the eve of the report's publication.
IDBAmérica: We've heard a lot about Latin America having the highest inequality in the world. What is the report saying that is new?
Free trade talks begin in Miami
November 01, 1998
After three-and-a-half years of hemispheric summits and rounds of preparatory workshops, negotiators in September took the first concrete steps towards the creation of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).
The month-long negotiating session in Miami, Florida, brought together delegates from 34 countries to start addressing the many serious issues that must be resolved if the FTAA will be launched in 2005 as planned. The ambitious project was originally launched at the December 1994 Summit of the Americas in Miami.
Round-Up
November 01, 1998
DEBT RELIEF FOR BOLIVIA
Bolivia has become the first country in Latin America to benefit from a debt relief program that will save it $450 million over the next five years. The program includes $155 million from the IDB, $54 million from the World Bank, $29 million from the International Monetary Fund, $39 million from the Andean Development Corporation and $14 million from other creditors.
A FIRST IN PUBLIC HEALTH
A yardstick for misfortune
November 01, 1998
Can inequality really be measured?
On one level the notion seems absurd, like trying to quantify fairness, honesty or corruption.
Dictionaries define inequality as a "lack of equality" in opportunity, treatment, or status. Though these concepts are themselves abstract, people tend to use something very concrete--personal income--as evidence that some individuals are more equal than others, to quote the popular adage. In effect, most societies view the distribution of income as a de facto indicator of inequality.
Export promotion in a global economy
November 01, 1998
No one doubts that boosting exports is one of the key challenges for Latin American and Caribbean countries bent on achieving sustainable economic growth. According to Juan José Taccone, director of the IDB's Institute for the Integration of Latin America and the Caribbean (INTAL), the question is how these nations should improve their exporting performance in markets that are being radically changed by globalization.
Latin America in black and white
November 01, 1998
Mexican workers carry stacks of rough-sawn lumber to market. . . Miners in the mudpits of Brazil's Serra Pelada gold mine pause for a rest. . . A close-up of three rough and gnarled feet symbolizes the harsh Andean environment.
These are images of ordinary people, living anonymous lives. They are also poignant reminders of the realities of poverty and the mission of institutions such as the IDB.
Nothing musty about old music
November 01, 1998
Musicians in 17th Century Bogotá didn't need electric guitars and shiny drum sets to get their audiences moving to the beat. Although the music of the Renaissance and early Baroque--and particularly church music--is often regarded as austere and inaccessible, much of it belies this image.
To prove it, a group of spirited young musicians from the Colombian capital played a program of early Latin American music in September at the IDB's Washington, D.C., headquarters that kept toes tapping in the overflow audience.
Gazette
November 01, 1998
IDB funds regional health policy network
The Fundacion Mexicana para la Salud received a $1.5 million IDB grant to create an inter-American network for health policy.
The network will support training for decision makers and technical personnel, with an emphasis on the use of management instruments and analytical methods in the design of health system reforms in Latin American and Caribbean countries.
Reason for smiles in Ecuador's blue city
November 01, 1998
When José Antonio Lanusse first arrived in Pelileo, a town of 12,000 people in the mountainous Sierra region of central Ecuador, there were hardly any proper buttonholes.
What would be an inconvenience for most places was an economic hardship for Pelileo, because its main industry is manufacturing denim clothing. In fact, the town is so identified with the denim industry that it is known as "la ciudad azul" (Spanish for blue city) for its thousands of pairs of blue jeans drying on roofs.