Introduction: Why Guide Blog?
Guide Site is a kind of an online guide book. I have nearly gone broken and bankrupt by trying to publish newspapers, newsletters and books about places like Iguassu Falls, the Amazon and the Pantanal. I started years ago in the time of the fascinating mimeograph technology.
I have not been successful. It is hard to get the money to pay for expenses involved whatever they are. Money here is scarce and choosy. I have not been chosen by it. The internet as a medium is also my message. To hell with all that delay, bureaucracy, discrimination that come bundled up with the attempt of publishing in the physical world.
Thanks to the internet, this material is coming to you nearly free of charge. Nearly, because thousands of people are paying for this mainly providers of free services like Google and Blogger, people who advertise and make such free blogsphere space available and even Mother Earth that also pays the price in the form of more electricity demand, satelites being kicked out into space and all those things necessary to keep our system working.
I am an internet man. This is my way to be present in the human community trying to be useful and to voice local and personal views and opinions. Professionally I am a journalist who likes discourse analysis, semiotics and communication. Often people living in places like the Iguassu Falls have no voice. The Government says that this or that is a model and mainly economical model when what really is a model is the discourse, used to deceive people, citizens and visitors alike.
In the process of voicing our thoughts I have changed a few phrases, like when to go. I say when to come - because I am here writing for you. What do I mean by Iguassu Falls Area? Basically I am speaking of the area where the Iguassu River Meets the Paraná River… it also marks the border of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay.
It is a two-river-three-country junction, the world-famous Iguassu Falls is the largest and most impressive of hundreds of waterfalls of all sizes - some not much higher than a few feet. Geologically speaking this is Basalt Kingdom responsible for the dark kind of rocks you will see around and also for the red soil (terra roxa, tierra colorada) you will also see in the three-country area.
I will try not to use the term Triple Border (Triple Frontera or Triplice Fronteira) because that is a political construction being imposed on the people of the area. It is part of a political discourse. I will prefer to use Tri-Fron or TriFron, Three-border to be more in accordance with the way local people have seen themselves for many years. This is a little complex matter that I will try to explain in the History Postings.
This is a land of nice, simple people who have been abandoned by the three goverments in question. Jobs are scarce. Education is faulty. People are on their own. It seems to me that Governments have bet on smuggling as a way for people to alliviate their poverty. But crime, mainly organized crime is quick to find its ways into misery areas. That is why I can not understand how, we have ended up with no access to the riverfront, we have no riverfront drive to bask in the sun or sun bathe despite being in the middle of two rivers. We can't kayak down or fish around. The river waters are at the service of crime and smuggling. But things are changing and Government control is beginning to be felt on the three sides of the border.
To learn more about this process I suggest these two older postings:
Border Mathematics and Sea of Buses
I have not been successful. It is hard to get the money to pay for expenses involved whatever they are. Money here is scarce and choosy. I have not been chosen by it. The internet as a medium is also my message. To hell with all that delay, bureaucracy, discrimination that come bundled up with the attempt of publishing in the physical world.
Thanks to the internet, this material is coming to you nearly free of charge. Nearly, because thousands of people are paying for this mainly providers of free services like Google and Blogger, people who advertise and make such free blogsphere space available and even Mother Earth that also pays the price in the form of more electricity demand, satelites being kicked out into space and all those things necessary to keep our system working.
I am an internet man. This is my way to be present in the human community trying to be useful and to voice local and personal views and opinions. Professionally I am a journalist who likes discourse analysis, semiotics and communication. Often people living in places like the Iguassu Falls have no voice. The Government says that this or that is a model and mainly economical model when what really is a model is the discourse, used to deceive people, citizens and visitors alike.
In the process of voicing our thoughts I have changed a few phrases, like when to go. I say when to come - because I am here writing for you. What do I mean by Iguassu Falls Area? Basically I am speaking of the area where the Iguassu River Meets the Paraná River… it also marks the border of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay.
It is a two-river-three-country junction, the world-famous Iguassu Falls is the largest and most impressive of hundreds of waterfalls of all sizes - some not much higher than a few feet. Geologically speaking this is Basalt Kingdom responsible for the dark kind of rocks you will see around and also for the red soil (terra roxa, tierra colorada) you will also see in the three-country area.
I will try not to use the term Triple Border (Triple Frontera or Triplice Fronteira) because that is a political construction being imposed on the people of the area. It is part of a political discourse. I will prefer to use Tri-Fron or TriFron, Three-border to be more in accordance with the way local people have seen themselves for many years. This is a little complex matter that I will try to explain in the History Postings.
This is a land of nice, simple people who have been abandoned by the three goverments in question. Jobs are scarce. Education is faulty. People are on their own. It seems to me that Governments have bet on smuggling as a way for people to alliviate their poverty. But crime, mainly organized crime is quick to find its ways into misery areas. That is why I can not understand how, we have ended up with no access to the riverfront, we have no riverfront drive to bask in the sun or sun bathe despite being in the middle of two rivers. We can't kayak down or fish around. The river waters are at the service of crime and smuggling. But things are changing and Government control is beginning to be felt on the three sides of the border.
To learn more about this process I suggest these two older postings:
Border Mathematics and Sea of Buses
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