Peru upsets Uruguay 1-0 in World Cup qualifier on Rengifo’s goal

Uruguay’s World Cup chances took a hit Saturday when it lost 1-0 at Peru when Hernan Rengifo scored for the home side in the 85th minute.

Peru, which has no chance of reaching next year’s World Cup, has won only two of 15 games in qualifying and has 10 points – last in the South American qualifying group.

Uruguay stayed on 18 points with three matches to play, and slipped further behind leading teams like Brazil and Chile.

Colombia and Ecuador each have 20 points.

Rengifo scored the winner when he was first to the rebound from teammate Juan Vargas’s shot.

Luis Suarez wasted a great opportunity to score for Uruguay after rounding goalkeeper Leao Butron, but Walter Vilchez recovered to clear the ball off the line.

Uruguayan midfielder Diego Godin was sent off in the dying seconds of the match.

Lineups:

Peru: Leao Butron, Alberto Rodriguez, Carlos Zambrano, Walter Vilchez, Josepmir Ballon, Paolo De La Haza (Amilton Prado, 46) Nolberto Solano (Reiner Torres, 79), Juan Vargas, Roberto Palacios, Daniel Chavez, Hernan Rengifo.

Uruguay: Juan Castillo, Jorge Fucile, Diego Lugano, Diego Godin, Alvaro Pereira, Jorge Martinez (Jorge Rodriguez, 80), Sebastian Eguren (Alvaro Fernandez, 59), Walter Gargano,

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Uruguay names team for World Cup qualifiers

Suspended star striker Diego Forlan was still named to Uruguay’s squad on Wednesday for two critical World Cup qualifiers next month against Peru and Colombia. Uruguay, which failed to reach the last World Cup, is on the cusp of qualifying and can’t afford to drop points in its Sept. 5 game at Peru and on Sept. 9 at home against Colombia.

 Forlan was suspended only for the Peru game for picking up a second yellow card in the draw with Venezuela in June.

 Peru has been eliminated from contention for next year’s World Cup in South Africa. Colombia is a long-shot but still in the chase.

 Brazil leads South American World Cup qualifying with 27 points followed by Chile (26), Paraguay (24) and Argentina (22). They are followed by Ecuador (20), Uruguay (18) and Venezuela and Colombia

The top four teams in the group advance automatically. No. 5 faces a playoff with No. 4 from the North and Central American and Caribbean region for another berth.

 Uruguay wraps up its qualifying schedule at Ecuador on Oct. 10 and at home to archrival Argentina on Oct. 13.

Roster:

 Goalkeepers: Juan Castillo, Fernando Muslera

 Defenders: Martin Caceres, Jorge Fucile, Diego Godin, Diego Lugano, Alvaro Pereira, Andres Scotti, Bruno Silva, Carlos Valdez

Midfielders: Sebastian Eguren, Alvaro Fernandez, Walter Gargano, Diego Perez, Cristian Rodriguez, Jorge Martinez, Miguel Amado, Jorge Rodriguez

Forwards: Sebastian Abreu, Edinson Cavani, Sebastian Fernandez, Diego Forlan, Rodrigo Lopez, Luis Suarez

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Uruguay: Ex-dictator’s son says quit Mercosur

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay — A former dictator’s son who’s running for president suggested Thursday that Uruguay should give up on the Mercosur trade bloc and follow the Chilean model of establishing bilateral trade deals with as many countries as it can. Pedro Bordaberry, leading the Colorado Party into October’s elections, said Mercosur — which counts Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay as full members — “has not complied with its first article, which is the free movement of people and goods within its membership.”

He also referred to Argentine demonstrators’ three-year blockade of a river-border bridge in protest of potential pollution from a paper factory in Uruguay, saying the neighbors’ relations “are at their worst since 1953, when (Argentine) Gen. Juan D. Peron closed the borders.” Polls put the Colorado Party third behind the ruling Broad Front coalition of about 20 leftist parties and the second-place centrist National Party. But if Bordaberry does well in the first round of voting, his party could be key to getting anything done in the legislature.

Bordaberry, a 48-year-old lawyer, is the son of president-turned-dictator Juan M. Bordaberry, who led a coup in 1973 and in turn was ousted by the military three years later. The dictatorship lasted until 1985. The elder Bordaberry is now under house arrest on charges that include the alleged assassinations of 14 political opponents. The son said he favors efforts to investigate human rights abuses during the dictatorship era, but he charged that the country’s leftist government has made a mess of the process.

 He accused President Tabare Vazquez of setting back the cause of human rights by going public too quickly with allegations of “dirty war” abuses. Bordaberry said the peace commission formed by his own Colorado Party immediately after the dictatorship “got better results in silence.” He said it went public with evidence of rights violations only if a victim’s family wanted that. “This government announces things that aren’t proven, and this creates an adverse climate,” Bordaberry told a gathering of international journalists.

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Uruguay Cultural Immersion

There are many ways to enjoy and immerse yourself in this wonderfully diverse country in South America. Uruguay is the second smallest country in South America with Brazil bordering it to the north, its only land border. To the west lies the Uruguay river, and the southwest the estuary of Rio de la Plata, with the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast. This small country has a lot to offer visitors from its pre-Columbian historical sites to its impressive legacy of art. It is a small adventure waiting for you and this trip will immerse you into the culture of Uruguay, allowing you to experience the traditional crafts and way of life, giving you a well rounded picture of the culture.

 1. To truly immerse yourself in the Uruguayan culture you need to experience its past. The best way to learn about Uruguay’s past is to visit some of the historical locations that are available with the Palacio Salvo and its unusual architecture revealing part of Uruguay’s history. This along with other places of interest will give you a good starting point for your immersion into Uruguayan culture.

 2. A second way to continue with your Uruguayan cultural immersion is to experience the natural preserves that are all around Uruguay. Embrace the natural beauty of the rolling plains, the coastal grassland and the forests, as well as the white sands and places such as Piriapolis near Punta del Este. Experience your natural surroundings as you tour the natural preserves around the country. Getting to know the environment better is essential to getting to know how the Uruguayan people interact with different parts of their environment.

 3. As you continue to progress in your new found culture it must not be forgotten that history and nature are only a start. The next stop on our agenda is to satisfy our hunger and a stop at one of the many cafes in Montevideo, on or near the Plaza Independencia of the Cuidad Vieja, to find some traditional authentic food from Uruguay’s past. The best place to start is with some Choripán a very popular Uruguayan fast food, followed by Bizcochos to finish if you are not too hungry. This is an excellent way to get to know their cuisine.

 4. If you travel to Uruguay the best time to go is between November and March, during the summer months. In February you can experience a big carnival in Montevideo, getting a true impression of the old traditions and culture of the country. This will also enlighten you into how the Uruguayans celebrate their holidays and further immerse you in their culture.

 5. In modern Uruguay as well as in the past the communities would gather near the town squares during the week and especially at the weekends. During the day in Montevideo you can find artists and crafts people and busy little cafes churning out coffee and snacks, and at night the pubs and discos open. You can sample local fare walking through the market, taking in the sights, smells and sounds. In this way you experience the culture of Uruguay through its people and their traditions.

 6. The next step is to meet new people, make friends and talk to them about their lives. The markets and cafes are great places to do this, asking them what they do. You can also meet local artisans in their shops, learn about their family roots and their ancient traditions at first hand. This is a good way to relax and unwind, a good time to mingle in an unstressed atmosphere.

 7. Another way to immerse yourself in the culture of Uruguay is to volunteer in one of the worldwide projects that help Uruguay, helping in education, health, animal welfare and other opportunities. It is a great opportunity to see and experience Uruguay in ways most tourists never will.

 Any of these steps above is the perfect opportunity to truly immerse yourself in a foreign culture. To see the world through the eyes of the inhabitants of that country is often an eye opener, yet a great experience. However you choose to do it you will be forever changed by your experiences. So plan your trip carefully, making sure you make the most of the time there. Following these guidelines will help make your trip to Uruguay unforgettable.

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Schoolgirls Access Computers but Can’t Shake Gender Stereotypes

The girls who attend the school of Villa García, a township on the outskirts of the Uruguayan capital, are still playing dolls and dress up – only now they do it on their laptop computers.

After they finish grade school, many of these girls will quickly leave their childhood behind, having their first baby when they’re still in their teens, just like their mothers, aunts or other women in this impoverished community did.

In the 1970s, this school stood out for its participatory educational approach and for providing equal learning opportunities for all. But, like most schools in the country, it has since lost ground in terms of gender equality and now, perhaps without meaning to, it perpetuates stereotypes that condition girls and boys for certain roles.

Villa García’s was the first school in the Montevideo metropolitan area to receive the computers distributed under the central government’s one-laptop-per-child programme, known as CEIBAL (a Spanish acronym that stands for Basic Computer Connectivity in Education for Online Learning, but also coincides with the name of Uruguay’s national tree, the Ceibo), which seeks to promote digital equality and to democratise knowledge.

Its pupils are among the large proportion of boys and girls who live under the poverty line in Uruguay: almost half of the child population of this small South American country of just 3.4 million inhabitants.

The aim of this innovative initiative championed by socialist President Tabaré Vázquez is to give every schoolchild and teacher in Uruguay their own personal computer, thus bringing disadvantaged communities into the digital age.

But the programme failed to include gender considerations in its contents, and as soon as kids are allowed to play freely with their computers, boys go straight to online games typically associated with their sex and girls look for doll, dress-up and fashion makeover games, Adriana Font and Karen Souza, two young teachers who work at the school, told IPS.

Carmen Beramendi, head of the National Women’s Institute (Inmujeres), the government body responsible for gender policies and issues, informed IPS that her agency is working with Uruguay’s Technological Laboratory (LATU), in charge of the CEIBAL Programme, to correct this oversight.

To do this, a special videogame for CEIBAL computers is being designed, along with a pamphlet featuring a cartoon story, in an effort to make children aware of the issue in child-friendly ways.

Both of these tools are aimed at “putting current gender roles in the family into question, showing other possible roles and promoting the sharing of responsibilities in family tasks, applying a gender-equality approach and encouraging children to think about what existing stereotypes mean,” she explained.

The CEIBAL Programme has delivered 200,000 laptop computers to date, in a process that began in 2007 in rural and impoverished urban communities outside the capital, and it is expected to cover the entire public school population by the end of 2009. Each unit is valued at 220 dollars, and the project will cost a total of 100 million dollars, financed entirely by the state.

In Uruguay, education is mandatory for children from the ages of four to 15, with public preschool education also available a year earlier, and primary education running from six to 12 years of age.

Font and Souza decided to take the initiative and do something to counteract gender stereotypes themselves, by showing their kids a different view of their own reality. They began by seeking training in non-governmental organisations, as no teacher training on the subject was available through official channels.

Juan Morales, the principal at the Villa García school, whose teaching staff is made up of 38 female and four male teachers, acknowledged that the school “has no policy aimed at changing the roles typically set out” for both genders, because it is “not seen as a problem.”

Sixty percent of the children in Font’s and Souza’s classes are older than the ages stipulated for the grades they are in. This means that most of them are teenagers aged 13 to 15.

When they speak of their plans for the future, they tend to repeat traditional roles. Most of the boys say they’ll go into a technical line of work – like car mechanic – and girls mainly want to be hairdressers.

Gender differences are also reinforced by families. When there’s an after-school activity or field trip, girls usually participate in fewer numbers because their parents want them to stay home and care for their younger siblings and do the housework.

The two teachers try to show their girl pupils “that there are other possibilities in life,” both at work and in the family. These are girls who hardly leave their neighbourhood and whose only knowledge of the world is through the distorting lens of television. “They watch a lot of soap operas and dream about a prince who will come to their rescue and sweep them away,” Souza said.

According to Souza, many women still believe in old-wives tales about their own health that further gender differences. “Girls often come to school with a note from their mothers asking them to be excused from gym when they’re having their period,” she said. When they go camping, mothers ask teachers to make sure their girls don’t wash their hair or play when menstruating. Most of these mothers are women under the age of 30.

Font and Souza agree that to change these patterns, there must be an ongoing effort on the part of schools, with teachers adopting a gender-centred approach.

Gender programmes

But things are beginning to change in this sense in Uruguay. In March of this year, a new educational programme was implemented for preschool and primary cycles, including for the first time ever the issue of gender as an ethical challenge.

The programme states that “pupils are subjects with rights, and under the right to education they must be guaranteed access to a broad and diverse culture.”

Based on this principle, the Social Knowledge area included a chapter on “Construction of Citizenship,” which introduces a gender angle at every level.

Some of the issues addressed by the new curriculum are: the different roles in school, how male and female differences are constructed socially, gender roles in the family, social stereotypes and traditions, equality and discrimination, and men and women at work.

It also examines stereotypes in advertising, women and men throughout the ages, gender identity, and the construction of sexuality as an important part of life.

The programme builds on the First National Plan for Equal Opportunities and Rights, an earlier, more comprehensive gender plan launched in 2007, which implements learning initiatives aimed at combating stereotypes and promoting equality.

These measures were devised by Inmujeres in collaboration with the National Board of Public Education.

Beramendi reports that, as a result of this cooperation, a Gender Network has been created in the education system, whose goals include “revising the sexist content of textbooks” used by school curricula at all levels.

Also, since 2007, special educational activities are held on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, to encourage children of both sexes to reflect on the issue.

One such activity, which covered more than two thousand schools in the country, involved distributing kites with the inscription “Living without violence is great”, and pamphlets on women’s rights and the sharing of family responsibilities.

The printed material included a cartoon family showing the father doing the housework so the mother could participate in women’s day activities.

In November 2008, the Second Workshop on Education and Gender in Preschools was held with the participation of 650 teachers of children under five, who received a training manual entitled “First Steps,” together with a working guide.

This year, a group of specially trained teachers will begin giving courses on sexual education to primary and secondary school students.

Beramendi noted that “interest in these issues is growing,” but said there’s still much to be done to change roles.

As an example, she said that “the school system is more tolerant of male violence. If a girl reacts violently to aggression, she’s judged more severely” than her male peers.

Another example she gave is that “Mothers are still the ones who are called whenever kids are having problems with their schoolwork, and this reinforces the idea that only mothers are responsible for their children’s ‘failure’ or bad behaviour,” Beramendi said.

The head of Inmujeres said that teachers are becoming more and more aware of the need to change the way boys and girls are seen and to incorporate a gender perspective in their teaching. But she admitted that “we’re still far from implementing a new, significant and permanent practice” in Uruguay’s classrooms.

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