The United Nations 2011 World Drug Report

The United Nations 2011 World Drug Report has just been released. Here's the link to the main announcement page which contains links to the full report and all subscetions too, and here's the PDF subsection on coca/cocaine production (the one that's LatAm-centric).

And congrats to Peru! According to UN figures (see page 99 of that 2nd link), Peru is now neck and neck with Colombia as the world's biggest coca leaf grower! ¡Viva Investment Grade Carajo!

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The UN Human Development Index, LatAm's rankings

The United Nations has its five-yearly Human Development Index out this week, so if you want the nitty gritty on it all click through to the UN page right here. Meanwhile, IKN charts how LatAm countries are faring amongst the 169 countries in the survey.

Best ranked is Chile at number 45, with Argentina close behind. But what we really need is context, so digging a little deeper this chart shows how LatAm states have developed in the five year period since the last report, dated 2005. The green bars show the positive ranking moves made, the red ones mean that the country has slipped down the rankings by the number indicated. No bar by the country name means no change.

We now see the best progress has been made (according to the UN at least) by Argentina, Panama and Peru, with Venezuela, Chile and Colombia all doing good too. The biggest drop is registered by Bolivia, with Mexico, Ecuador and Nica all moving down by two spots as well.

Water

Sponsored by Bolivia, too. Score one point for humanity.

The UN General Assembly has declared access to clean water and sanitation a "human right" in a resolution that more than 40 countries including the United States did not support.

The resolution adopted by the 192-member world body expresses deep concern that an estimated 884 million people lack access to safe drinking water and more than 2.6 billion people do not have access to basic sanitation.

UN anti-poverty goals call for the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation to be cut in half by 2015.

The non-binding resolution, sponsored by Bolivia, was approved by a vote of 122-0 with 41 abstentions including the United States and many Western nations though Belgium, Italy, Germany, Spain and Norway supported it.

Bolivia's representative said many rights have been recognised including the rights to health, life, and education. He said the Bolivian government introduced a resolution on the right to adequate water and sanitation because contaminated water causes more than 3.5 million deaths every year - more than any war continues here

Some 40 countries (with plenty of big and rich names like the UK, Australia, the USA, Canada etc) abstained. There was some fudging-type diplo remarks from their reps on this, but AFP nailed a far better quote from someone who knows the UN and the water issue (the added red bold type will help if you can't be bothered to read the whole thing):

"This is a historic day for the world, a big step in the right direction" toward the distant goal of a water treaty, Canada's leading water activist Maude Barlow told AFP.

"It is going to mean a huge amount to our movement around the world, to local community groups fighting for water rights, water justice against governments, corporations which are not respecting their rights."

Barlow, a former senior adviser to the UN General Assembly on the water issue, said some wealthy countries abstained out of fear "that they are going to be asked to pay the price tag" or that the resolution would give "tools to their own people to use against them."

She welcomed the fact that major countries such as China, Russia, Germany, France, Spain and Brazil backed the resolution.

Of her country's abstention, she said: "We are terribly disappointed."

She said Canada's conservative government wants the right to sell water.

"They know that if they say it is a human right it will be a contradiction to want to turn it into a commodity," she added. continues here

So there you go. Surprised? Nah, didn't think so....

Coca production: go read Hemispheric Brief

Here's how today's daily digest at Hemispheric Brief starts:

The annual reports on coca cultivation and cocaine production from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) are atop the agenda this morning. Just the Facts has a great breakdown on all the new data, writing that the headline of this year’s reports is “Peru's significant increase and Colombia's decrease in coca cultivation in 2009.” In fact, Peru is on its way to becoming the world’s top producer of coca (retaking that distinction from Colombia) according to the UNODC – a charge Peruvian President Alan García vehemently rejected Wednesday. [García did, however, maintain that his country has been the victim of “the Plan Colombia effect” – a reference to the idea that a decline in coca production in neighboring Colombia has done little more than push the crop across the border.]

JFS does a neat job of summing up the issues and provides all the links you want, too. For all your coca leaf requirements, this humble corner of cyberspace thoroughly recommends Hemispheric Brief today.

Peru Big Man Number One!

¡VIVA INVESTMENT GRADE!

Thanks to a headsup from reader JR, we're pleased to report that Peru is now the tops in one of the world's most popular South American products. Here's AFP on the story:

Peru is top coca producer: UN

BOGOTA (Colombia) - PERU has displaced Colombia to became the world's leading producer of coca leaf, the source plant for cocaine, a UN report said on Tuesday.

Fully 45.4 per cent of coca in the world comes from Peru, while 39.3 per cent is grown in Colombia and 15.3 per cent in Bolivia, according to a report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

'Peru has surpassed Colombia as the world's leading coca leaf producer,' Aldo Lale, the UNODC representative in Bogota, said at a press conference.

Peru produced 119,000 metric tonnes of coca leaf in 2009, while Colombia produced 103,000 tonnes during the same period, Mr Lale said. -- AFP

Explaining basic concepts to financial journalists: Part One, the word "Growth"

Journalistic dumbassery surrounds us poor souls trying to sort the wheat from the chaff in LatAm, but it gets a bit tiresome when you even have to explain to local hacks what phrases like "trade growth" mean. Take for example this headline from Reuters about cocaine production in Bolivia, "Drug trade grows in Bolivia, Peru - U.N"

It comes from the UN report that Bolivia's cocaine production grew by an estimated 9% to stand at 113 metric tonnes (MT) in 2008. But what is conveniently forgotten by the gringo agenda-laden hacks is that production might have gone up 9MT but the amount of cocaine confiscated by drugs officers in Bolivia rose by 10.4MT to 28MT in the same period (winning praise from the UN in the very same report).

Soooooooooo....86MT of cocaine trade in 2007 and 85MT of cocaine trade in 2008...and Bolivia's cocaine trade "grew"?

Dumbasses

The INCB / UN drugs report 2009: Lots of interesting things

The new International Narcotics Control Board 2008 review world report is linked right here for you. Lots of interesting things inside, starting with the front cover that says:

Not to be published or broadcast before
Thursday, 19 February 2009, at 1100 hours (CET)

So how did IncaKolaNews get its grubby hands on a copy of the full 150 page report half a day before the rest of the world? Fun game this interwebnetworldwide thingy, isn't it?

Anyway, no surprises to find out that Colombia is still the biggest cocaine manufacturer in the world, but you might be surpised to find out that despite the six point seven billion dollars the USA has wasted on Plan Colombia since its inception, the growth in coca harvesting is by far the greatest in Colombia (55%), with Peru (29%) and Bolivia (16%), quite frankly, a couple of dowdy laggards. Amazing to hear the media portray Bolivia as the drugs scourge and Colombia as the great drugs freedom fighters of the 21st century, isn't it?

Here are the charts, with this one shows total area of cultivation, and that big wodge of Colombia translates as a rather large 99,000 hectares.

This one shows the growth in production between 2007 and 2008. Colombia at 27% sure has a decent growth industry on its hands, no? I mean, Peru and Bolivia's country GDPs grew faster than its cocaine industry in 2008 (both 5%)....those narcos need to get busier down there cos they're being put to shame by Land of Uribe, or even by their own governments!

Anyway, have a good read of the 2009 INCB report by downloading it here and be 12 hours ahead of the rest of the world. This was an IKN exclusive report, brought to you by spending too much time online.

Guess what? Bolivia wants peace...all Bolivia

"Jaw jaw is better than war war."
Winston Churchill (a man who knew about both)

Leaders of Bolivia, militants, national and local governments, indigenous resistance goups, fascist shock troops; please take notice.

Yesterday the United Nations released a survey taken of over 2,000 Bolivians from all departments and all walks of life (margin of error on survey +/-2.11%). The results might surprise people who've never been to Bolivia or bothered to speak to any of its citizens before opening their mouths and opinionating about what's going on. Bolivians recognize the need to change their country, they don't not support violence, they want to two sides to talk for as long as necessary in order to reach an agreement etc etc. and according to the suvey that's as true in the "rebel states" of Santa Cruz and the other medialunas as it is in the eastern pro-Morales states.

Here are some charts that the UN put together to present its findings yesterday. All I've done is translate the question over each one. All in all it looks like the average Bolivians are a lot smarter than the people that claim to be their leaders.

Do you agree with this phrase? It is important that Bolivians support the re-start of dialogue (between the gov't and the medialuna states)

Dark green = strongly agree, green = agree, orange = disagree, red = strongly disagree

Which of these two phrases is closer to your way of thinking?

Green = The country needs to change but without violence:
Red =Some violence is always needed when the country wants to change

Do you agree with the following phrase? However difficult or long it may be, we must continue negotiating until we reach an agreement

Dark green = strongly agree, green = agree, orange = disagree, red = strongly disagree

Do you agree or disagree with the people who say that sometimes violence is needed to support the process of change that the gov't proposes?

Dark green = strongly agree, green = agree, orange = disagree, red = strongly disagree