Bolivia is the third world producer of coca ( Erythroxylum coca), an original plant from the Amazonic Andes. This plant, which has been considered sacred by the aboriginal people long time before the Spaniards arrived in America, has stimulant, anaesthetic and healing properties.... [+]
Cocaine is an addictive stimulant which increases dopamine, a neurotransmitter of some parts of the brain. The pure chemical substance, the cocaine clorhidrate, has been used since more than a hundred years in Western countries. The cocaine base paste is the mixture that hasn’t... [+]
The law 1008 refers to the coca regime and controlled substances. It was approved in 1988 during the government of Paz Estensoro but the studies that supported this controversial law are no longer valid. The current Bolivian government of Evo Morales is trying to modify some of... [+]
San Pedro prison in La Paz is home to about 1,500 inmates. Few of the inmates here are convicted killers - 80% of them are here for drug-related offences (law 1008). Only about 25% of all prisoners are actually serving a sentence - the rest are awaiting trial. There is an... [+]
SAPE: Société des Ambianceurs et des Personnes Élégantes Avec l’arrivée des Français au Congo au début du XX siècle, naquit le mythe de l’élégance parisienne parmi les jeunes qui travaillaient pour les colons. Ils étaient nombreux à considérer l’homme blanc... [+]
SAPE: Société des Ambianceurs et des Personnes Élégantes Avec l’arrivée des Français au Congo au début du XX siècle, naquit le mythe de l’élégance parisienne parmi les jeunes qui travaillaient pour les colons. Ils étaient nombreux à considérer l’homme blanc... [+]
The Cuban literacy program “YO SI PUEDO” (I do can), approved by the UNESCO, has been successfully implemented in 20 countries all over the world. Bolivian Ministry of Education has the goal of erradicating illiteracy, that affects around 20% of the population in the next 4... [+]
MIRACLE OPERATION BY CUBAN DOCTORS “Operación Milagro” or Miracle Operation, is a program of eyes operations (from cataracts and “terijo”), which is being conducted by a large team of Cuban doctors since july 2006. An average of 250 people get operated daily in three... [+]
THE BOLIVIAN HIDROCARBONS NATIONALIZATION Probably the most controversial decission of the MAS (Movement Towards Socialism) government of Evo Morales for international investors is the so-called nationalization of hidrocarbons. The supreme decree 28.701 establishes the gas... [+]
Being a wrestling fanatic since her teens, Carmen Rosa decided to be a wrestler five years ago. She proudly represents the fight of the pollera woman, the Bolivian indigenous peasant woman, in a machist society. She is one of the six Bolivian women catchanistas (wrestlers). In... [+]
BOLIVIAN DAILY LIFE Since the beginning of his government, Evo morales has been critized by different sectors of the complex Bolivian society. Civic Comitees from Santa Cruz that cry for Autonomy, miners union traders, students associations or coca leaf peasants often make... [+]
ATC: Agence Transcongolaise des Communications. The 1997-2000 civil war stopped almost any commercial activity in Brazzaville - capital of the Congo Republic -. The so called ATC, the transportation state company –aviation, railway and navy – went bankrupt. Today, six... [+]
The absence of light transforms the space and my relationship with it. This fact, that I often forget, becomes special when I slilghtly know the environment. References change and I hardly recognize those signs that, during the day, offer me the illusion of knowing where I am.... [+]
BLACK SECURITY Being a security guardian is one of the few jobs existing for uneducated men in some parts of Africa. With or without uniform, it is a monotonous, bad-payed job, which gives them the chance to get some earnings for their families. They normally guard the entrance... [+]
NAKED FOR JUSTICE Irwin is spending his summer in the city centre of Barcelona ; he is conducting an experiment totally naked to check if authorities and, in particular, police forces, respect the law that allows nudism in Barcelona since 2004. He also wants to see if people... [+]
SAPE: Société des Ambianceurs et des Personnes Élégantes Avec l’arrivée des Français au Congo au début du XX siècle, naquit le mythe de l’élégance parisienne parmi les jeunes qui travaillaient pour les colons. Ils étaient nombreux à considérer l’homme blanc... [+]
R.I.P. It is all about death, spirits and graveyards... No more humans... they are all gone... forever. [+]