stand up for your rights: defiende tus derechos

Pero ojo, stand up can be tricky, and isn't always best rendered as defiende.

injerencia politica: political meddling

I like this rendition, used in the important nacla article below, forwarded to me by mining watch and well worth a read.

(and note, I corrected last weeks entry - it turns out secuestro express is a broader term and does not mean ATMs are involved) 

Close the NGOs: Asserting Sovereignty or Eroding Democracy?
Bret Gustafson
Extractives in Latin America
December 31, 2013

In past weeks, the governments of Ecuador and Bolivia moved to shut down or expel major NGOs (non-government organizations) that work on issues of the environment, extractivism, and indigenous rights. In Ecuador, the Ministry of Environment dissolved the Fundación Pachamama (Pachamama Foundation) after accusing it of anti-government activities. Despite the NGO’s own denials, President Rafael Correa alleged that the organization was involved in protests against the latest round of bidding for oil concessions in the Amazon. Shortly thereafter, the Interior Ministry’s Twitter feedannounced tersely, amidst reports of drug busts and other police actions, that it was moving to close the NGO for “aggressions” against public order.

Fundación Pachamama works with indigenous organizations contending with oil development. It derives significant support from the U.S.-based Pachamama Alliance, which is in turn funded primarily by American (non-governmental) donors. When Ecuador’s government deemed the group’s opposition to oil bidding an action against “internal state security” and “public peace,” it treated the NGO like a criminal, sending a signal to environmental activists about limits on opposition to extraction. Yet the Correa government maintains that their dissolving of the organization is an assertion of sovereignty against the political meddling of foreign-backed organizations. (Incidentally, seeNaomi Klein's open letter to Correafollowing the threatened closure of another NGO, Acción Ecológica, in 2009).

A few weeks after Ecuador’s closing of Fundación Pachamama, the Ministry of the Presidency in Bolivia announced theexpulsion of the organization IBIS, a kind of parastatal NGO supported primarily by DANIDA (Denmark’s government foreign development agency). IBIS has long worked with indigenous organizations in Bolivia, supporting land reform, bilingual education, and the right of “prior consultation.” The MAS government accused IBIS of injerencia política (political meddling), though it published no allegations of specific actions. It appears that the government was punishing the NGO for having weighed in on the side of CONAMAQ (an Andean Indigenous organization) and CIDOB (an organization of Eastern Bolivian Indigenous Peoples) in recent conflicts with the state. For the MAS government, these critiques of state policy seem to have gone too far.

Are the governments of Ecuador and Bolivia simply establishing limits for foreign entities, and thus reasonably asserting sovereignty against foreign intervention? Or, is this a deleterious move against social movements and democracy through an attack on their bases of foreign support? 

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The NGO (non-government organization) is a flexible entity whose existence has been central in the rapidly transforming politics of extractivism and social movements in Latin America. Almost invariably, where there is mobilization around land and nature, there are NGOs. NGOs provide legal expertise for leaders and resources to bring communities together; they facilitate engagement between movements and outsiders, whether scholars, solidarity activists, industries, or the general public; the best NGOs disseminate news, information, and research, all part of complex political practices that go beyond their ostensibly ‘development-oriented’ origins. In an emblematic case, indigenous and human rights NGOs in Bolivia, many backed by European progressives, played a crucial role in supporting the rise of Evo Morales and the MAS.

Even so, just as government dependence on foreign capital can erode national sovereignty, movement dependence on foreign aid can weaken the political legitimacy of a movement, raising important critiques around foreign intervention. From a structural level, even progressive NGOs have goals of institutional survival that may undermine local movements. Other NGOs, more frequently in the model of the think-tank, are fronts for conservative ideologies, operating much like U.S. non-profits. When they receive support from American entities like USAID (U.S. Agency for International Development) or the NED (National Endowment for Democracy), NGOs particularly in Ecuador and Bolivia face critiques of complicity in foreign intervention, given the U.S. government’s broader intentions to weaken Correa and Morales.

These, at least, are the reasons Bolivia’s MAS gave for the expulsion of USAID from Bolivia earlier this year, and they likely underlie USAID’s announced withdrawal from Ecuador. Whether IBIS and Fundación Pachamama are shown to have played some interventionist role remains to be seen. While Fundación Pachamama is tied closely to the United States and has been involved in large-scale projects in whichUSAID also participated, so have virtually every other NGO and indigenous organization, as well as many state and private entities. According to its director, Fundación Pachamama has never been funded byUSAID. The expulsion seems to be a warning that comes on the heels of “Executive Decree 16,” a law passed in June of 2013 that set new rules for civil society organizations and social movements. Fundación Pachamama is appealing the decision in the courts.

In the case of IBIS, the Danish-funded organization has an almost three-decade history of what by all accounts is popular solidarity; Denmark is not known for imperialist meddling. IBIS did take a strange turn when it embarked on an experiment to train locals in high-end Andean gastronomy with a Danish cook in La Paz. Yet IBIS’ proximate sin may be its strong stance on free and informed prior consultation. In Denmark, where the public and the government have long advocated for indigenous rights, there is still surprise and general confusion about this announced expulsion. As noted by Bolivian Indigenous leader Fernando Vargas, it is paradoxical that Evo (and for his part, Rafael Correa) were products of NGOs themselves. In a public statement on December 24, Vargas said: “The NGOs took Evo Morales into power…now he’s throwing them out…because he does not want anyone to aid us technically, to orient us, so that [now] we thus have to subordinate ourselves to the Government.” Adding salt to the wound, the MAS government is celebrating the environmentally noxious spectacle of the Dakar Rally, with its motorcycles and racecars that will roar through the high Bolivian Andes in mid-January.

Activists and movements might use the expulsion of Fundación Pachamama as an opportunity to reflect on the limits of foreign dependence, potentially hindering the strengthening of cross-movement political ties with other sectors of Ecuadoran and Bolivian society. Conservative observers will relish this chance to criticize Bolivia and Ecuador. For different reasons, the state of NGO activity is less stable in countries likeHonduras and Colombia, both under U.S. tutelage, where activists are routinely murdered for their support of human and community rights. Bolivia and Ecuador, comparatively, are safer places for NGO work. In the United States itself, the situation carries its own nuances: while our government would surely move quickly to restrict foreign aid for Native American opposition to extractivism, many American citizens currently face repression of their activism because of their opposition to fossil fuels.

Invoking the notion of sovereign control over foreign NGOs on which movements depend, the governments of Ecuador and Bolivia enact a double standard: they exercise ‘sovereignty’ in order to guarantee privileges to other foreign entities upon which they themselves are dependent—namely, foreign oil and gas industries. Often through executive decree, these governments are rewriting the law to appease the contractual terms and time frames of exploration, drilling, and commercialization demanded by foreign companies. The crackdowns undermine citizen rights in favor of industry rights: once the state deems extraction inevitable and legal, it can brand even moderate citizen opposition as outside the law. Whether this happens under right-leaning or left-leaning governments in the Americas—or in Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, or the tar sands fields—is immaterial. As Timothy Mitchell argues in Carbon Democracy, a government dependent on a narrow-based fossil fuel economy tends to rely on narrow-based legal and political orders—in other words, the erosion of democracy.

Bret Gustafson teaches anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis. Among other concerns, he studies the politics of energy and redistribution in Latin America, with a particular focus on Bolivia, Brazil, and natural gas. 

paseo millonario (Col): express kidnapping

In other countries in Latin America this actually gets called secuestro express in Spanish. I don't think
paseo millonario would be widely understood outside of Colombia.  For those lucky enough not to know what this is and worry about it, it's when you get held for several hours and forced to take money out of cash machines several times.  People are often held until the next day so they can take money out again.  This is why folks are paranoid about writing down the license plates of taxis.

Glad not to be worrying about this one at the moment.  I'm at the opposite extreme of Bogotá really - holed up in a cabin in the woods of Northern Michigan, surrounded by snow.

update: Thanks to Andy for a correction on this one - it turns out secuestro express is a broader term and does not necessarily involve ATMs, but could.  I still think it's your best choice when going in this direction, but you could add the ATM's bit if you weren't doing simul. Ojo, there's even a Venezuelan movie called Secuestro Express! no ATMs involved.

tips for breaking in to interpreting

congrats to cross-cultural communications on their fabulous new community interpreter site!

I am particularly impressed by the fabulous weekly interpreTIPS videos - if you are new to or looking to break in to interpreting check out the one below

guapa: strong woman (Colombia, colloquial)

I got alot of "que guapa"s recently for carrying around a heavy backpack in Cali.   Just goes to show words don't always mean what you think they mean!

Hoping to be guapa with my suitcases again tomorrow. 

tocaya: name sister

tocayo: name brother

Rather than call another Sara by her name, in Spanish I would often call her tocaya.

Since this concept doesn't exist in the Anglophone world, these terms don't really exist in English -  I made them up! But I've been using these terms for years and people seem to understand them.

I'm grateful to have so many fabulous tocaya compas.  Las quiero mujeres! Thanks for all your sistership.

global care chains: cadenas globales de cuidados

Sometimes this is rendered as cuidado, but I like the plural version, since these chains involve so many forms of caring.  The s could also refer to how the caring happens daily. 

To quote the gender wiki:

"The term ‘global care chain’ was first used by Arlie Hochschild to refer to “a series of personal links between people across the globe based on the paid or unpaid work of caring”.^[1]  This concept rephrases an earlier idea introduced by Rhacel Salazar Parrenas, which she called the international division of reproductive labor or the international transfer of caretaking.^{[2] [3]} Hochschild first came across this idea when she read the dissertation of Parrenas, as she had been a member of her dissertation committee at UC Berkeley. ^[3]
 
In this pioneering work, a global care chain was seen to typically involve: “An older daughter from a poor family who cares for her siblings while her mother works as a nanny caring for the children of a migrating nanny who, in turn, cares for the child of a family in a rich country.” ^[1]

botín de guerra: war trophy

this is a repeat post, because I saw this term mistranslated several different ways today (including war bounty!) in tweets honoring today as international day against violence against women.  (by the way, I also learned today that the reason we focus on this on Nov. 25th of all days is because it was the day that the Mirabel sisters were killed in the DR in 1960.  It was proclaimed as a day of action by activists in '81 and recognized by the UN in '99).

botín de guerra: war trophy

"El cuerpo de la mujer no es botín de guerra" is a slogan of the Ruta Pacifica de Mujeres in Colombia. This photo is from their mobilization in Nov. 07 where they shut down the border between Colombia and Ecuador to highlight how many women are being forced to flee their homes and cross that border, and how war particularly affects women.

When I first heard this slogan the term that came to me in the moment was war booty, which not only sounds like pirates, but makes you think of women's butts! Clearly one to avoid. So my next thought was spoils of war, but that is a much higher register in English and sounds ridiculous in a chant. Women's bodies are not war trophies, now that seems to do it.

plantón: protest camp (Mex), demonstration (Col)

In Mexico a plantón is a somewhat long term encampment, a protest camp occupy style. The Mexican teachers union (the largest union in the Americas) annually during contract negotiations does a plantón in the main plaza in Mexico city, and this year they were violently ousted by riot camps.

Thanks to my colleague Eric for pointing out to me that in Colombia the word is used quite differently, to refer simply to a short demonstration, often in front of a building.  Today a plantón in miniskirts is being held in front of the restaurant Andrés Carne de Res to protest rape culture and the comments by the owner that the young woman raped in his parking lot asked for it.  

sitdown strike: huelga de brazos cruzados (o brazos caidos)

according to wikipedia, "A sit-down strike is a form of civil disobedience in which an organized group of workers, usually employed at a factory or other centralized location, take possession of the workplace by "sitting down" at their stations, effectively preventing their employers from replacing them with strikebreakers or, in some cases, moving production to other locations."

(thanks to Jorge Lawton for the cruzados version, not sure exactly how it varies by country but both should be understandable)

money belt: canguro invisible

a regular fanny pack is just a canguro, at least in Colombia

vias de hecho (Col): nonviolent direct action

Many thanks to my fab compas Kath and Fiona who have had extended conversations with me about this.  The term is often used to refer to blockades/barricades in particular, but is also more widely used to refer to reclaiming land, etc.. 

It seems to mean different things outside of Colombia, so I'd be curious to hear - does this term get used in this way much in movement circles outside of Colombia?

transversalizar: mainstream

As in, vamos a transversalizar género en esta conferencia - so as opposed to having break out sessions just on gender it's going to be discussed in all sessions (in theory).  In other contexts temas transversales I also render as croscutting themes. 

workshop at wayside on interpretation for social justice

Wayside (in Virginia) is doing another training led by fabulous colleagues of mine from October 25 - 27th.  It's aimed at bilingual activists who want to break into doing interpreting for the movement. Please please, if you know folks who would be a good fit, tell them about it.  Fee is on a sliding scale. 

bilingual social justice activists and workers who would like to learn more about interpreting and translating in a social justice context to empower immigrant communities and build alliances across communities. - See more at: http://www.waysidecenter.org/register-for-the-interpretation-for-social-justice-workshop/#sthash.BdI1otrJ.dpuf

bilingual social justice activists and workers who would like to learn more about interpreting and translating in a social justice context to empower immigrant communities and build alliances across communities. - See more at: http://www.waysidecenter.org/register-for-the-interpretation-for-social-justice-workshop/#sthash.BdI1otrJ.dpuf

volunteer terps needed to shut down the US army's School of the Americas!

I am yet again helping to organize the interpreting at the vigil to close the School of the Americas - a US army training camp for Latin American military officers. This protest is the longest ongoing protest against US empire happening in the United States.  It is also the longest ongoing act of civil disobedience.  But no CD required to participate! You can be an essential part of it all by helping us interpret.  It really is an amazing experience and a great way to be at the heart of a deeply inspiring weekend, where folks gather from across the US and the Americas and share experience and analysis. 

We're looking for volunteers with professional experience who are comfortable doing simul with equipment in a conference setting.  We cover the hotel and have a travel fund.  We pay you with boundless gratitude and appreciation from the crowd. 

The vigil is Nov 22 - 24 in Columbus Georgia - but you could come for just one or two of those days.  It's the 23rd that we most need folks.  If you can't come but know someone who might, please spread the word!  We're especially looking for folks who live in the South and don't have to travel so so far to get there.

If you're interested or have questions please be in touch.  I'm at sara (dot) koopman (at) gmail (dot) com

empresa fachada: front company

These are widely used by both paramilitaries and mining companies in Colombia.  Pacific Rubiales, for example, has responded to outrage and organizing against its mining practices by setting up a wide range of these, as I learned at the political and ethical trial against dispossession. 

papas (Col): petard

well, actually petard would work fine with a British audience, but in the US you might do better with the unwieldy term "small homemade explosives known as "potato bombs"" that the AP used in describing Thursday's protests (see for photos) in Bogotá, and after that just use the term potato bomb.  But if you just used the term 'potato bomb' alone from the get go, my guess is that most US listeners would think a potato was involved in making the bomb.  Instead they look like a US style baked potato wrapped in tinfoil, but have gunpowder inside instead of a potato. Personally I think they are truly tragic strategy at protests, since they are used as an excuse for a brutal response from the police, as can be seen in this video of the papa throwing, and response, on August 21st at the Universidad Nacional.  I went in the other entrance trying to meet a prof in the Sociology department, and about half way across campus a stream of people came towards me with their eyes watering.  It was astounding how much of the campus they managed to fill with tear gas without being able to come in (cops are not allowed on campus).  Classes were cancelled.  Not exactly useful for building a broad based movement for justice and equality in my book.   

really California?!

Having gotten my medical interpreter certification from the state of Washington way back in 1994, I'm stunned to have learned that California is only just now getting around to considering certifying medical interpreters.  Really? California of all states?

I dream of a day when medical interpreters are not only required, widely used, and federally certified - but there are also fabulous federally subsidized training programs to prepare people to be great interps!

ordenamiento territorial: territorial zoning

Yes, it is something like land-use planning, but it is different enough that I like this rendition that sounds slightly odd in English, alerting the reader to something different at work. 

This is the translation used by Ojeda and Asher, two friends and fabulous geographers, in their great article:

Producing nature and making the state: Ordenamiento territorial in the Pacific lowlands of Colombia

(if you don't have academic access and would like a copy let me know)

looking to improve your conference interp skills?

There is a new resource book out: Conference Interpreting: A Student’s Practice Book (Routledge, 2013) by Andrew Gillies.  

Check out this *glowing* review of it, which I was pointed to by the fabulous intersect newsletter.

batidas (Col): arbitrary military street round-ups

In Colombia young men are required to do military service.  Batidas are military raids in poor neighborhoods that target youth who have avoided doing that service.   They look for young men without the card that proves that they have done, or somehow gotten out of, their military service.  Those who do not have a card on them are whisked away, not to be seen again my family or friends for months.  The city government of Bogota recently signed an agreement with the local batallion that they would stop doing these in the city - but it turns out that batallions from other areas have been coming in to the city to do this sort of forced recruitment. 

I'm not sure about this rendition in English for the term, but it's the one used by Emily Schmitz in this great article about batidas and the conscientious objectors who struggle against them.

The article begins:

Villavicencio, Colombia — Juan Carlos waits anxiously outside the army base, gazing beyond the chaos of the newly recruited soldiers surrounding him. In black jeans and a loose-fitting t-shirt, he stands quietly apart from them; he is one of the few without military fatigues. Recruited in an illegal street round-up and held for 45 days without seeing his family, today he will finally go home.
Dusk settles slowly, covering the soldiers in a soft purple light as they get in formation, lining up together side-by-side. Tomorrow they will leave the training base to begin their two-year military service. Conscription is mandatory in Colombia, with the exception of a few cases: victims of displacement, sole children and heads of households, physically or mentally disabled, indigenous people. And sometimes, even people like Juan Carlos – self-declared conscientious objectors – are released.

Colombian conscientious objectors uphold the right to refuse mandatory conscription through a constitutional provision (pdf) that details freedom of conscience, guaranteeing that: no one will be importuned on account of his or her convictions or beliefs […] or obligated to act against his or her conscience. But without legal parameters to regulate the law, cases of conscientious objection are confusing and time consuming. With the exception of one officially recognized case, the majority remains unrecognized. There are instead far easier, albeit illegal, ways out of military service: under the guise of mental instability, physical limitations, or simply by paying their way out, defiant youth successfully avoid conscription. But conscientious objectors, fighting to pave a legal path toward military exemption, see the difficulties of navigating the legal system as a means of silencing a public criticism of a practice that has helped perpetuate more than half a century of civil war.

read more ...

Basta Ya!: Enough Already!

Yesterday the Colombian National Centre of Historical Memory issued a major report on the Colombian conflict, entitled in Spanish, Basta Ya! This Guardian article in English about the report rendered it as Enough Already.  Not sure if the Center offered that as the official English translation, but I like it more than the more literal Stop now.  

(photo is from the report of the cover, taken by the fabulous Jesus Abad Colorado)

amparo: amparo

I have blogged before about the term tutela, which is the Colombian version of what is more often
throughout Latin America called amparo.  I have been rendering tutela as writ for protection of constitutional rights, but I was surprised to see that the author chose to keep the term in Spanish in the book

Constitutional Protection of Human Rights in Latin America: A Comparative Study of Amparo Proceedings

I suppose the logic is that 'amparo' proceedings as such don't exist in the US, UK, or Canada.  Ojo, amparo cases generally don't establish precedent.

finca variations

beware of the different connotations of words! 
in Guate this implies a plantation
in Col it can often mean a vacation home, with a little bit of ranch around it, or maybe just some gardens

Spanish camp for activists

if you're anywhere near Ithaca check this out! and if not, maybe you'll be inspired to set up something like this in your area next summer?

this one is sliding scale registration fee: $120-200.

Spanish for Activists Camp features Spanish and ESL English classes, workshops and panels on current social and political issues in U.S.-Latin American relations, as well as music, overnight camping and great food.

Learn songs in Spanish in a workshop with singer-songwriter Colleen Kattau on the "Nueva cancion" genre of social justice songs.

Panel on the Direction of Latin America Solidarity with:
Carol Delgado - Consul General of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in New York
Michael Fox - Former Editor of "NACLA Report on the Americas"
Gregory Wilpert - Author and Editor of venezuelanalysis.com

Panel on U.S. Immigration Reform with: Kathleen Sexsmith - Ph.D. student at Cornell University
Gonzalo Martinez de Vedia - Worker Justice Center of New York