USE and abuse of official statistics in Latin America: The case of Argentina

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Victor A. Beker
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Consumer Price Index ◽  
Extreme Case ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
World War ◽  
Official Statistics ◽  
Government Interference ◽  
The Caribbean

In line with the Fundamental Principals of Official Statistics to produce valid and reliable statistics Governments need to provide the legal framework and resources to the statistical system to allow statisticians to produce the required statistics, without interference, using the best available methodology and techniques from the most suited sources of information. In Latin America and the Caribbean the colonial past affected and still affects the production of statistics. During the Colonial period statistics were of limited scope and use, mostly serving the interests of the Colonial powers. After independence in Latin America statistics became an instrument for development only after World War II, while in the Caribbean the newly independent nations had to adjust the Colonial system to national souvereignity. Conflicts between statistical independence and administrative desire and convenience did occur. Occasionally statisticians were under pressure to modify results to serve administrative or political purposes. An extreme case of Government interference with statistical activities is the case of Argentine since 2007. The gross manipulation of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) that began at that time was aimed at concealing the rise in inflation which took place at the beginning of that year. Statisticians in the National Statistical Office who refused to be part of the forgery were demoted, and dismissed while others resigned. The alteration of the CPI severely affected other statistical indices. Private consultants and researchers were subject to criminal prosecutions and punished with hefty fines for the “crime” of publishing their own price estimates. Although in most cases the judicial system acquitted them, this happened some years later, and currently there are still researchers awaiting the final judgement. In spite of the reaction by public opinion and the world statistical community nothing changed substantially until now. The paper concludes with some recommendations to safeguard the integrity of statistics inspired by this sad experience.

Trusteeship Council

2008 ◽  
pp. 148-159
Author(s):  
Ralph Wilde
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Latin America ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Political Change ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
World War ◽  
The World ◽  
The Caribbean

This article examines the Trusteeship Council, a principal organ whose work was essential to the settlement arising from World War II. It involved establishing procedures for the independence of the defeated powers' colonies. This article details the pioneering efforts of the UN at facilitating the decolonization of trust territories. This is part of the world organization's contribution to the processes of self-determination for peoples in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Middle East. It also reveals that the work of the Trusteeship Council was linked to what may have been the most important political change of the twentieth century.

Literary and Cultural Representations of Asians in Latin America and the Caribbean

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zelideth María Rivas
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Asian Immigrants ◽  
Cultural Representations ◽  
World War ◽  
Late 20Th Century ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Latin American Countries ◽  
Latin American And Caribbean

Representations of Asians in Latin America and the Caribbean have been caught in the fissures of history, in part because their presence ambivalently affirms, depends upon, and simultaneously denies dominant narratives of race. While these populations are often stereotyped and mislabed as chino, Latin American countries have also made them into symbols of kinship and citizenship by providing a connection to Asia as a source of economic and political power. Yet, their presence highlights a rupture in nationalistic ideas of race that emphasize the European, African, and indigenous. Historically, Asian Latin American and Caribbean literary and cultural representations began during the Manila-Acapulco Galleon Trade (1565–1815) with depictions of Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino slaves and galleon laborers. Soon after, Indian and Chinese laborers were in demand as coolie trafficking became prevalent throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. Toward the end of the 19th century, Latin American and Caribbean countries began to establish political ties with Asia, ushering in Asian immigrants as a replacement labor force for African slaves. By the beginning of World War II, first- and second-generation immigrants recorded their experiences in poetry, short stories, and memoirs, often in their native languages. World War II disrupted Asian diplomacy with Latin America, and Caribbean and Latin American countries enacted laws that ostracized and deported Japanese immigrants. World War II also marked a change for Asian immigrants to Latin America and the Caribbean: they shifted from temporary to permanent immigrants. Here, authors depicted myriad aspects of their identities—language and citizenship, race, and sexuality—in their birth languages. In other words, late 20th century and early 21st century literature highlights the communities as Latin American and Caribbean. Finally, the presence of Asians in Latin America and the Caribbean has influenced Latin American and Caribbean literature and cultural production, highlighting them as characters and their cultures as themes. Most importantly, however, Latin American modernism emerged from a Latin American orientalism that differs from a European orientalism.

Economic and Social Rights Lost in Transition

2020 ◽  
Vol 2(22) ◽  
pp. 63-73
Author(s):  
Davor Trlin
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Property Rights ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Former Yugoslavia ◽  
Self Management ◽  
New Democracies ◽  
Social Rights ◽  
World War ◽  
Basic Reason

All European constitutions after World War II expressed their commitment to economic and social rights. Those countries that began building socialist social order after the war specially emphasized those rights. After the break-up of the “socialist paradigm” and the establishment of “new democracies”, constitutional leaders have taken a new stance towards the socio-economic group. This is the process that did not bypassed countries formed by dissolution of Yugoslavia. We will analyse specially what is left of the constitutional experiment of self-management. Nowadays, there is no workers’ participation in place in any of the countries that emerged after the breakup of the former Yugoslavia, neither as a system nor as a practice of having consultations within companies with the aim to address specific technological, organisational and social problems. There are several reasons for this, but the basic reason is that politicians still believe that workers’ participation was created as part of the ideological apparatus of the former socialist system. By way of property rights and small shareholding, the laws opened the way to participation, and the legal framework could continue to develop.

Triangulating Labor, Capital, and Land: Italian Emigrant Colonization in Latin America and the Contradictions of US Hegemony, 1947–1953

2021 ◽  
Vol 51 (4) ◽  
pp. 543-566
Author(s):  
Dario Gaggio
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Settler Colonialism ◽  
Marshall Plan ◽  
World War ◽  
Us Hegemony ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Peasant Farmers ◽  
Latin American Countries

In the aftermath of World War II, Italy’s centrist leaders saw in the emerging US empire an opportunity to implement emigration schemes that had been in circulation for decades. Hundreds of thousands of Italian peasant farmers could perhaps be able to settle on Latin American and African land thanks to the contribution of US capital. This article examines the Italian elites’ obsession with rural colonization abroad as the product of their desire to valorize the legacy of Italy's settler colonialism in Libya and thereby reinvent Italy's place in the world in the aftermath of military defeat and decolonization. Despite the deep ambivalence of US officials, Italy received Marshall Plan funds to carry out experimental settlements in several Latin American countries. These visions of rural settlement also built on the nascent discourses about the ‘development’ of non-western areas. Despite the limited size and success of the Italian rural ‘colonies’ in Latin America, these projects afford a window into the politics of decolonization, the character of US hegemony at the height of the Cold War, and the evolving attitude of Latin American governments towards immigration and rural development. They also reveal the contradictory relationships between Italy's leaders and the country's rural masses, viewed as redundant and yet precious elements to be deployed in a global geopolitical game.

Latin America in World War I

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Friedrich E. Schuler
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
World War I ◽  
Latin American ◽  
The United States ◽  
Acting Out ◽  
World War ◽  
National Politics ◽  
Economic Relations ◽  
Military Advisors

The English-speaking world awaits its first detailed study examining Latin America during World War I. Many historical events of the era remain little-known, as does much of the region’s military history during this period. While key chronologies, personalities, groups, and historical avenues remain unidentified, researchers must draw knowledge from existing texts. The authors cited in this article for further study cover only a small fraction of the myriad topics presented by the war. World War I set in motion a unique power readjustment in Latin America, the likes of which had not been experienced in the region since the 1820s. Most significantly, the temporary suspension of economic ties with Europe disrupted everyday processes that elites and commoners had previously taken for granted. Changes in economy and finance triggered a struggle between indigenous Americans, peasants, workers, elites, and immigrants, setting the stage for the social and political changes of the 1920s. Amidst the upheaval of World War I, non-elite Latin American groups successfully focused national politics on regional and ethnic issues, while elite Latin Americans weighed the potential advantages of ties with Spanish and Italian authoritarianism. World War I ended European financial dominance over the region, and the destruction of Europe reduced export markets to a point where Latin America’s economic relations with the United States gained new significance. U.S. military advisors took their places alongside European trainers, and many different “U.S.” actors emerged on Latin American soil, acting out rivaling understandings of appropriate U.S. activity in Latin America. The war heralded the end of Belgian influence and of significant French power in the region, British acceptance of U.S. financial preeminence, and questions as to how Prussian military expertise could be leveraged to Latin America’s benefit in the future. The creation of the League of Nations, a development alien to Latin American political culture, caught the region off guard. And yet it laid the foundation for global Latin American diplomacy in the 1930s and after World War II. In the end, the search for a new understanding of a Latin American nation’s place on the changing world stage led to the elevation of the institution of the national army as a social and political arbiter. The myth of the army as embodiment of national essence would last until the 1980s.

Da Segunda Guerra Mundial à Guerra Fria: políticas militares estadunidenses para a América Latina (1943-1947)

Diálogos ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 157
Author(s):  
Dennison De Oliveira
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Advisory Board ◽  
World War ◽  
Us Military ◽  
National Archives ◽  
America Latina ◽  
The Cold War

O texto interpreta a atuação de organizações militares e diplomáticas estadunidenses dedicadas à América Latina. O contexto é o da transição da Segunda Guerra Mundial à Guerra Fria. A base empírica é composta por diferentes documentos mantidos nos Arquivos Nacionais dos EUA (US National Archives) do acervo do Comitê Consultivo Conjunto das Repúblicas Americanas, (Joint Advisory Board on the American Republics - JAB) cobrindo o período 1940-1945. O comitê estava encarregado de propor e executar políticas ligadas à Defesa Hemisférica a serem desenvolvidas em conjunto com os países da América Latina na guerra e no pós-guerra. Abstract From World War II to the Cold War: US military policies for Latin America (1943-1947) The text interprets the performance of US military and diplomatic organizations dedicated to Latin America. The context is that of the transition from World War II to the Cold War. The empirical basis is composed of different documents maintained in the US National Archives of the collection of the Joint Advisory Board of the American Republics (JAB) covering the period 1940-1945. The committee was charged with proposing and implementing policies related to Hemispheric Defense to be developed jointly with the Latin American countries in war and postwar. Resumen De la Segunda Guerra Mundial a la Guerra Fría: políticas militares estadounidenses para América Latina (1943-1947) El texto interpreta la actuación de las organizaciones militares y diplomáticas estadounidenses dedicadas a América Latina. El contexto es el de la transición de la Segunda Guerra Mundial a la Guerra Fría. La base empírica está compuesta por diferentes documentos mantenidos en los Archivos Nacionales de los Estados Unidos (US National Archives) del acervo del Comité Consultivo Conjunto de las Repúblicas Americanas (JAB) cubriendo el período 1940-1945. El comité estaba encargado de proponer y ejecutar políticas vinculadas a la Defensa Hemisférica a ser desarrolladas en conjunto con los países de América Latina en la guerra y en la posguerra.

scholarly journals “Windrush Generation” and “Hostile Environment”

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huon Wardle ◽  
Laura Obermuller
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Hostile Environment ◽  
World War ◽  
Middle Passage ◽  
Post World War Ii ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Caribbean

The Windrush scandal belongs to a much longer arc of Caribbean-British transmigration, forced and free. The genesis of the scandal can be found in the post–World War II period, when Caribbean migration was at first strongly encouraged and then increasingly harshly constrained. This reflection traces the effects of these changes as they were experienced in the lives of individuals and families. In the Caribbean this recent scandal is understood as extending the longer history of colonial relations between Britain and the Caribbean and as a further reason to demand reparations for slavery. Experiences of the Windrush generation recall the limbo dance of the middle passage; the dancer moves under a bar that is gradually lowered until a mere slit remains.

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