NASA Paraguaya

This made my day: a post (in Spanish) about Paraguayans trying to set up the Paraguayan version of NASA. Buried in a post about Paraguay's aging buses, which wheeze and moan like asthmatic, arthritic cats, was this gem:

"The House of Representatives inaugurated the opening of the space age in Paraguay. It was approved, and sent to the Senate for consideration, Bill "From the Paraguay National Aerospace Agency (AEPAR)", submitted by the Executive."

"This project didn't take long in becoming the butt of jokes and comments on social networks," the author concluded.

Read the full text here: http://ea.com.py/diputados-postergan-modernizacion-del-transporte-publico-pero-ya-apuntan-a-la-era-espacial/

NYT piece on Paraguay's booming economy spot on

Simon Romero, NYT's correspondent to South America, published a piece today about how Paraguay's booming economy is leaving many of the country's poorer residents behind.

Romero has written some very good stories about Paraguay, about its language and about the environmental challenges it faces in the Chaco.

In this latest piece, he notes how even though many parts of Paraguay grow ever more affluent, residents in the Chacarita and other parts of the country still toil ceaselessly for little benefit.

More than 30 percent of the country is still below the poverty line, he notes, in the story.

That distinction had a personal touch for me - the disparity was just as present in Potrero Pucu. On the one hand, Antonio lived in a clean, attractive house with ceramic tiles, along with a TV, a pickup truck and motorcycle, and a lot of fancy appliances.

On the other hand, the village drunk, lived in squalor, in a small brick hut with a thatched roof... his diet seemed to consist of moonshine and clementines. The clementines, at least, he could always pick and eat for free.

Antonio had a tight, round, beergut, Ruben looked like a collection of so many broomsticks.

In Asuncion, the difference was even more stark. Indigenous protesters lived in tents made out of trash bags as they protested government policies while Asuncion's elite drove by in Mercedes sports cars or BMWs.

And of course, we wondered how it could still be this way, 40 years after Peace Corps arrived. But I suppose that's a different post for another time.

Read Romero's piece, he's always on point.

-sj