Pacific under tsunami threat after massive 8.8 quake strikes Chile

A massive magnitude 8.8 earthquake rocked Chile early Saturday, killing at least 122 people and triggering tsunami warnings for the entire Pacific basin.


Numerous tsunami waves have been reported in the Pacific, with one reaching as high as 7.7 feet in the central Chile coastal town of Talcahuano, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.  read more here

Rio de Janeiro wins right to stage 2016 Olympic Games

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, will host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games, the International Olympic Committee announced Friday. It is the first time South America would host an Olympics event. The city has budgeted $14.4 billion to the effort, the largest amount of any of the four finalists, according to IOC figures.

The final vote was down to Rio and Madrid, Spain. In earlier voting, Chicago, Illinois, and then Tokyo, Japan, were eliminated from contention.

After the cities made their presentations to the IOC on Friday, the IOC members sat down to cast their votes in a secret ballot.

Ninety-seven of the IOC's 106 members are eligible to vote in the first round; seven must sit out that round because they represent one of the countries bidding for the Games.

A city must receive a majority of votes in order to win. If no city receives a majority, voting moves on to a second round, with the city receiving the lowest number of votes being eliminated, an IOC spokeswoman said. source

Afoxé Oyá Alaxé- Oyá é mulher forte

Afoxé Oyá Alaxé is a social organization, educational and cultural-religious african city of Recife-PE.

"Afoxé, also call of Candomblé of street, is one cortejo of street that leaves during the carnival. Afro-Brazilian with roots in the people is about a manifestation iorubá, where its integrant ones are tied with a place of fetichism of candomblé. The term afoxé comes from the language iorubá. He is composed for three terms: , nominal prefix; fo, means to say, to pronounce; xé, means to become fullfilled itself." source

Susana Baca, Singer

Susana Baca de la Colina (b. Chorrillos, Lima Province, Peru, 1944) is a prominent Peruvian singer of Afro-Peruvian descent. She has been a key figure in the revival of Afro-Peruvian music within Peru. source

Día de la Afrocolombianidad

The Afro-Colombian Day is commemorated since 2001, date which was established through Law 725, in memory of the 150 years of the abolition of slavery in Colombia, consecrated on May 21, 1851. source

Hidden kingdom of the Afro-Bolivians

It is in one of these green valleys that the symbolic "hidden kingdom" of the Afro-Bolivians is located. If you listen hard enough you can hear the drums.

"I am the king," Julio Bonifaz Pinedo proudly says, standing next to his wife Angelica, an Afro-Bolivian woman dressed in the traditional Andean outfit of bowler hat, multi-layered skirt and shawl.

"It is an immense responsibility because I have to work very hard for my people, my poor people, and we have no means." Continue reading here

Carnival in Rio de Janeiro 2009 & Carnival in Trinidad 2009

source: corbis

source: corbis and trinisoca

Here are the pictures from Carnival in Rio De Janerio Brazil Feb 20-Feb 24 2009 and Trinidad and Tobago. Click here to learn the history of Carnival in Rio De Janerio. Click here to learn the history of Carnival in Trinidad.

Bolivians back new, pro-indigenous constitution in a nationwide referendum

Bolivian voters embraced a new constitution Sunday that promises more power for the long-suffering indigenous majority and grants President Evo Morales a shot at remaining in office through 2014. The charter passed easily in a country where many can still recall when Indians were forbidden to vote.

Its sometimes vague wording and resistance from Bolivia's mestizo and European-descended minority foreshadows more political turmoil in a nation polarized by race and class. Continue reading here