Dossier articles from the past 3 months
Located between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, Trinidad and Tobago are part of the West Indies Archipelago, a group of islands between Florida and Venezuela and shared with the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Atlantic Ocean. Discovered by the Spanish led by Christopher Columbus, they are called the West Indies…
Read moreThe discoveries of large deposits of oil and gas between 1970 and 1990 brought about considerable growth in the economy of Trinidad and Tobago which is now the most flourishing in the Caribbean. Its GNP, in fact, even if it has been slowing down since 2009, is among the highest in the entire region, thanks…
Read moreAs well as the high crime rate and the phenomenon of migration from Venezuela, during the past thirty years, Trinidad and Tobago has verified the extraordinary growth of Islamic radicalisation. The phenomenon began to spread after the coup in the nineties, continuing up to the present day with the proliferation of various radical organisations that…
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Due to its varied history, Trinidad and Tobago represents one of the most multiracial countries in the Americas. The results of the 2011 census show the following ethnic composition: 35.4% of its inhabitants are of Indian descent, 34.2% are of African descent, and 22.8% are of mixed race while 7% are of other provenance, and…
Read moreRight in the middle of Eurasia, in that mass of land known as ‘The Heart of the World’, we find Kazakhstan, impervious, legendary, and fascinating – the land of fiery bloody sunsets that bewitched the passage of many merchants en route to China by way of the silk road. Its natural beauty, together with its…
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Kazakhstan achieved independence in December 1991 at a time when the dissolution of the USSR was inevitable. Nursultan Nazarbayev, the Soviet leader of Kazakhstan since 1989 and President in 1990, was reconfirmed in 1991 following the independence of the country. Nazarbayev, in taking on the leadership of the new state, was obliged to face all…
Read moreThe modernisation of the state forms part of the ‘Kazakhstan 2030 Plan’ launched by Nazarbayev in 1997 with the aim of transforming and developing the country, and now continued by his successor. The plan is based upon wise economic options, the strategy of which is not limited simply to the exploitation of the enormous energy…
Read moreFor Kazakhstan, the year 2019 may be remembered as a time of political change. President Nursultan Nazarbayev, having led the country for almost three decades, resigned as President, though retaining ample powers in accordance with a law passed in 2018 granting him the status of ‘Father of the Nation’, a law which guaranteed him judiciary…
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The Bororo culture is one of movement. There are different sorts of movement. First of all there is the perol, ‘the great movement’, mostly for political or environmental reasons. It is a real migration and happens only in exceptional cases. For example, the great perol that brought part of the Wodaabe into the territory of…
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The Gerewol is the festival of bodily beauty. The young Bororo, after spending ascetic months in the savannah, paint their faces with the most extravagant designs to accentuate their extended lines. On a pre-selected plain, the various groups set up camp with small huts made of branches and mats. The enclosure for the livestock is…
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The cult of physical beauty is most important. The rules of aesthetics are followed by the entire group. Gently but firmly, the mothers try to shape the physiognomy of the new-born child in the hope of affecting the collective appearance of the group. From birth, the head of the child is delicately squeezed between the…
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The Bororo belong to the large ethnic family of the Peul, better known as the Fulani, Fulbe, Poular, Fula, and Fellata. The origins of the Peul are still a mystery though there is no shortage of theories, some rather imaginative, in this regard. One theory, for example, says they came from Mesopotamia, having crossed the…
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“We want to create a federation of international journalistic organisations that collaborate in this effort, starting from the global South,” says Filipino journalist and 2022…
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Once upon a time, there was a leopard. He had a huge walnut tree that was full of nuts. Stingy as he was, however, he forbade…
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Three young Comboni missionaries from three continents share their vocation stories and missionary experiences. Fr Victor Cunanan Parungao from the Philippines reflects on 15 years of…
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