“Think Green” alum to inaugurate recycling plant

Javier Cirielli, foreground, who serves as environmental director in Lincoln, Argentina, will inaugurate his city’s first recycling plant in March 2011. Photo by Luis J. Jimenez LINCOLN, Argentina – For Javier Cirielli it is a dream come true – a recycling plant for his municipality of 50,000 people. The project that began four years ago as “an idea on a piece of paper” has become a reality for the city of Lincoln, located 200 miles east of Buenos Aires.

Earlier this month, the recycling plant in this picturesque city began processing its first plastics, paper, glass and metal. In March 2011, Cirielli said the plant will be officially inaugurated and will boost its processing capacity to 50 tons of recyclable material a day.

Cirielli, who is Lincoln’s environmental director, attended an Oct. 4-8, 2010 professional workshop organized by the Institute of the Americas entitled, “Think Green/Act Local: Implementing a Green Municipal Agenda.” During that workshop, 11 municipal officials from countries throughout Latin America visited several innovative “green” projects, such as the EDCO recycling plant in San Diego, Ca.

The field trip to EDCO was particularly useful, Cirielli said, because “I could see that it is possible for private companies to operate parts of the recycling business. The visit to the Institute of the Americas allowed me to evaluate the parameters of my project. It was a very enriching experience.”

Cirielli said the workshop “allowed me to see the problems that are coming, for example, the issue of water -- not just quality but quantity. I am convinced that we are going to have to make important decisions at a global level. We are going to have to be very efficient in the future.”

Once the recycling plant in Lincoln is fully operational, Cirielli and other city officials will turn their attention to teaching residents about the importance of recycling. “The simple part is processing the materials at the plant. The difficulty is that here in Argentina, people do not separate their garbage. People are not educated about recycling.”

The solution lies with the children of Lincoln, who can – and must – be taught to be environmentally conscious.

“This is a project that has to begin in the schools,” Cirielli said. “It may take us 10 or 12 years to convince people to recycle, but there’s no time to lose. We cannot continue polluting.”

Poverty workshop inspires Ecuador’s first organic store

QUITO, Ecuador — Vine-ripened tomatoes. Dark-skinned Haas avocados. Tender ears of corn.

The colors and the fragrances of Whole Foods in La Jolla washed over Maria Eugenia Lima as she walked with IOA Professional Workshop Director Lee Tablewski through the store.

Lima, president of Fundación Mujer y Familia Andina – an organization of 10,000 women who grow agricultural products in Ecuador -- stopped by Whole Foods in August 2008 as part of the IOA’s workshop entitled, “Innovative Strategies to Reduce Poverty.”

She took that idea home with her and on May 1, Lima opened Ecuador’s first organic food store.

“When I visited the store with Lee, I realized that we could open a store in Ecuador stocked with purely organic products,” Lima said in a telephone interview from her office in Quito. “I have copied it with great success.”

Organicatessen, as the store is called, offers more than 200 organic products. The shelves are lined with fruits and vegetables and grains – all produced by the women in Lima’s organization and all certified as organically grown.

“We have had an excellent response from the public. Just excellent,” she said.

Since Organicatessen opened, several people have approached Lima about opening a “replica” in other parts of Ecuador.

“Our store is small, but it is very nice. We have high-quality products and a good presentation,” she said.“There is no other place in this country where people can buy organic products.

“We are just beginning,” said Lima. “We are going to grow.”

Journalist who attended IOA Natural Disaster workshop reports on volcano, tropical storm

GUATEMALA CITY – Disaster struck twice in Guatemala in the span of three days, first with the May 27 eruption of the Pacaya volcano and then with the relentless rains of Tropical Storm Agatha.

The eruption of Pacaya threw firey balls of molten lava from the crater and dumped tons of ash on Guatemala City. Then the rains started as Agatha ravaged the country, causing mudslides and turning the volcanic ash that covered the city into thick mud.  In less than a week, nearly 200 died.

Journalist Tulio Diaz had returned to Guatemala three weeks earlier from the Institute of the Americas, where he attended a five-day journalism workshop on covering natural disasters. During the workshop, Tulio and journalists from eight other countries in Latin America learned about the science of natural disasters, ways of informing the public when disaster strikes and about reporting with empathy on the people whose lives have been destroyed.

“I came home strengthened, psychologically and professionally, to confront a situation like this,” Diaz said in a recent phone interview from his home in Guatemala City. “We have to show our readers how people are suffering.  It is our responsibility, first as human beings and second as professional journalists.”

Diaz traveled to the countryside, where the corn crops of peasant farmers were destroyed. And he crossed the capital to talk with city dwellers who had lost family members in the storm.

“There are many people who do not have drinking water, and there are many more who do not have any food to eat,” he said. “Their suffering motivated me to demonstrate that the government has the obligation to give the neediest the help they need. Part of our job is to show how these people are living.”

Diaz’s voice cracked with emotion as he talked about the death of fellow reporter Anibal Archila who was struck by a ball of lava as he was filming the volcano.

“We all understand that this is an extremely risky profession but we all hope that nothing like this will ever happen,” he said.  “We have covered shootouts but we know where the bullets are coming from.  With nature, we don’t know what’s coming or when.”

Journalists build social network after Digital Reporting workshop

Two Colombian journalists who attended an Institute of the Americas journalism workshop have returned to Bogota with plans to organize an association of young journalists whose focus is the transition from print to digital reporting. 

The March 22-26 workshop was conducted entirely in Spanish, with classroom instruction and field visits designed to provide journalists from 10 countries in the Western Hemisphere new tools for reporting and producing video, audio and photographic reports for their on-line publications.

A journalist from Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, redesigned his news web site when he returned home and is now enrolled in another course titled, “Digital Tools for Journalists.” A Venezuelan journalist held his own Digital Reporting workshop today in Caracas to share what he learned with colleagues in his newspaper chain.

A journalism professor at the University of Guadalajara, Mexico, who plans to teach the new reporting techniques to his students, shared his observations about the training at the conclusion of the workshop.

“The Institute has all the necessary elements to promote good journalism in our countries, for the betterment of justice, democracy, human rights and something even more fundamental – the right of people to be informed and to know what is happening in their respective countries,” the professor said.

IOA Fellow named to Cabinet by Chile's President Pinera

Cristián Larroulet Vignau, a 1992 Institute of the Americas Privatization Fellow, has been appointed Minister of Policy Coordination by Chile's newly elected president, Sebastián Piñera.

Larroulet's government position -- in Spanish "Minister Secretary General of the Presidency" -- is similar in influence to White House chief-of-staff, but it has added power by virtue of having ministerial status.

Until his appointment, Larroulet served simultaneously as the Executive Director of the Instituto Libertad y Desarrollo, a think tank, and Dean of the Universidad del Desarrollo's Economics Department, posts from which he frequently wrote and advised governments about regulation, economic policy, education policy and corporate governance.

His scholarship and public service have been recognized many times, including as Economist of the Year in 2009 by the newspaper El Mercurio.

One of the famed Chilean technocrats known as the "Chicago Boys," Larroulet conceived of and managed the implementation of successful privatizations, including the energy sector, as chief of staff for Minister of Hacienda Hernán Büchi during the military government of General Augusto Pinochet.

Larroulet, his wife Isabel Philippi and their seven children lived in Del Mar while he was in residence at the Institute in 1992, researching and writing his reflections on Chilean privatizations through the 1980s. The Institute's Privatization Program was supported by grants from the Andrew Mellon Foundation and The Pew Charitable Trusts.

Institute of the Americas founding board member, Edgardo Boeninger, held the title of Minister Secretary General of the Presidency during the administration of Patricio Aylwin and is considered to have been one of the most influential persons to have held the position in the modern history of Chile.

The Institute honors the memory and legacy of Don Edgardo, who passed away on September 13, 2009, after distinguished service as Senator, Rector of the University of Chile and Vice President of the Christian Democratic Party. Boeninger is perhaps best remembered for his role in the creation of the Concertación (literally compromise/agreement) of left-center political parties that has governed Chile for the entire post-Pinochet period.

HIV/AIDS workshop participant wins journalism award

ATLANTA — Erika Cebreros, associate editor of the San Francisco weekly newspaper El Mensajero, received an Ethnic Media Award for a series of stories based on interviews she conducted during an Institute of the Americas professional journalism workshop.

Cebreros, who attended the August 2008 “Migration of HIV/AIDS” workshop organized by the IOA, was a second-place winner in the Health Care and Environment category of the 2009 Northern California Ethnic Media Awards.

She also received a 2009 National Ethnic Media Award for her education coverage during a June 4 gala sponsored by New America Media and the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication in Atlanta, Georgia.

The National Ethnic Media Awards recognize excellence in ethnic media journalism and highlight the increasing importance of ethnic media in U.S. communities. Over the past four years, the ethnic media have gained 8 million new readers, listeners and viewers and now reach 57 million people, according to a poll by New America Media.

The increase comes as mainstream media, especially metro daily newspapers, struggle to keep their audiences. As associate editor and reporter at El Mensajero, Cebreros has covered subjects ranging from politics to immigration. A native of Sonora, Mexico, Cebreros earned a bachelor’s degree in communication from the Universidad Autonoma de Sinaloa and a master’s degree in United States Studies from the Universidad de las Americas, Puebla. To read her award-winning stories, click here

Ealy alum launches science news web site

MEXICO CITY — Arturo Barba, a 2005 graduate of the IOA’s Jack F. Ealy Science Journalism program, in May 11 launched Mexico’s first science and technology news web site.

Barba, the director of Sapiens Laboratorio de Ideas, works with a staff of seven professional journalists to report on the latest advances and challenges in science, technology, health, the environment and education.

“Issues like the swine flu, which has battered our country, demonstrate what is very clear to ‘Sapiens’ – that society needs to be informed about issues where science and technology play a role,” Barba explained on the web site. “We know that these issues affect the present and future of humanity and the planet and that the media is the most effective way to reach the public.”

Barba is a regular columnist for the Mexico City daily newspaper Milenio and collaborates with the regional science news web site SciDev.Net. He is a contributor to the German magazine "Stern" and to the newspaper Pagina/12 in Buenos Aires.

Barba was selected by the Washington, D.C.-based National Press Foundation for a full scholarship to the 2007 International AIDS Society meeting in Sydney, Australia and to the 2008 International AIDS Society meeting in Mexico City.

Geopolitics of Energy alum named to Pemex board

MEXICO CITY — Fluvio Ruiz Alarcon, a participant in the IOA’s 2007 Geopolitics of Energy professional workshop, has been appointed by Mexican President Felipe Calderon to serve as adviser to Mexico’s state oil company Pemex.

Ruiz was one of four presidential appointees named in March to professional adviser posts. The advisers will sit on the Pemex board and preside over seven committees established in last year’s energy reform.

The committees cover the following areas: audit and performance evaluation; investment strategy; payment; leases, works and services; environment and sustainable development; transparency and accountability; and technology R&D.

Ruiz, who served as an adviser to the leftist Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) during the 2008 energy reform debates, holds a degree in physics and a master’s degree in oil production engineering from Mexico’s National Autonomous University (UNAM).

Magazine report focuses on IOA journalism workshop theme

MEXICO CITY— Codigo Topo, a monthly magazine published by the Mexico City newspaper Excelsior, will report on its investigation into the murders and disappearances of Mexican journalists in the July 6 edition.

Mauricio Suarez, content coordinator for Codigo Topo, said the special report was inspired by the Institute of the Americas’ journalism workshop entitled, “Silencing the Press: Violence Against Journalists and the Threat to Democracy.”

“The instruction we received from your organization left a mark,” said Suarez, who attended the May 4-8 professional training session.“It continues to surprise me that journalists die in Mexico and their own media do nothing more than write about the incident. Their memory is very short.”

Among the contributors to the July 6 edition will be Renan Estenssoro, president of the La Paz Journalists Association in La Paz, Boliva, who also attended the May workshop.