ALEX HALL is disgusted by the misuse of ‘emotional narratives’ to justify uninformed geo-political prejudice
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Spotlight on Paraguay
JOHN GREEN relishes the rediscovery of a Spanish anarchist and radical, and the light he throws on the little-known story of Paraguay
NATIONAL TRAUMA: Paraguayan families displaced during the England instigated and organised war of the Tripple Alliance (Brasil, Uruguay and Argentina) the brutal conquest in which between 60-80 per cent of the population was killed.
SUE TURNER welcomes a thoughtful, engaging book that lays bare the economic realities of global waste management
JOHN GREEN welcomes an insider account of the achievements and failures of the transition to democracy in Portugal
SIMON PARSONS applauds an imaginative and absorbing updating of Strindberg’s classic
PETER MASON is enthralled by an assembly of objects, ancient and modern, that have lain in the mud of London’s river
MICK McSHANE rubs shoulders with Mod legend Steve Craddock and joins in with the joyous Glasgow choir
DENNIS BROE sifts out the ideological bias of the newest TV series offerings, and picks out what to see, and what to avoid
Paraguayan Sorrow: Writings of Rafael Barrett, A Radical Voice in a Dispossessed Land
Edited and translated by William Costa, Monthly Review Press, £21.99
PARAGUAY, probably the least-known of South America’s republics, is a landlocked country squeezed between its two powerful neighbours, Argentina and Brazil. It has a population of around 6.1 million, nearly 2.3 million of whom live in the capital and largest city of Asuncion, and its surrounding metro area.
Paraguay threw off the yoke of Spanish colonial rule in 1811 and Jose Rodriguez de Francia was installed as the first Paraguayan-born leader. He ruled until his death in 1840 as an authoritarian but visionary leader. He reduced the power of the Catholic church and attempted to create a utopian society based on Rousseau’s ideas.
Only two decades after his death, the so-called war of the triple alliance (1864-70) broke out between Paraguay and an alliance of Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. In the preceding years, Paraguay had been involved in boundary and tariff disputes with its more powerful neighbours.
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