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Economy of South America

The economy of South America comprises approximately 434 million people living in the 12 sovereign states and three dependent territories of South America, which encompasses 6 percent of the world's population. South America ranks fifth in terms of nominal GDP by continent, behind North America and after Oceania.

South America has two major trade blocks: Mercosur and the Andean Community. Brazil is the largest economy in South America in terms of Nominal GDP, it has a vast and diverse economic landscape encompassing agriculture, manufacturing, services, and natural resources. Due to Brazil's major economy, it has a large influence over its neighbors, and even globally. Argentina which is South America's second largest economy, boasts a rich history of industrialization and a well-developed agricultural sector. Despite economic challenges and very high inflation, Argentina uses its abundant natural resources and skilled workforce to drive economic growth and innovation. Together, Brazil and Argentina serve as economic powerhouses and as such, are major influences to surrounding countries. Uruguay stands out as it boasts the highest GDP per capita in the region. Renowned for its stable political environment, strong social welfare system, and diversified economy, Uruguay has consistently ranked among the top nations in terms of human development and standard of living. Uruguay has a large agriculture sector and has made previous strategic investments in technology and innovation, Uruguay's economy thrives on both domestic consumption and international trade. Guyana ranks second which is attributed to its oil and gas sector.

20th century
From the 1930s to the 1980s, countries in South America used import substitution, an economic policy that replaces foreign businesses as well as imports with domestic production. This was a policy made to increase domestic manufacturing. Furthermore, national spending on arms soared during periods of military rule. Increasingly, South American countries began to borrow from foreign private banks and international lending institutions, such as the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank, to fund existing programs while also trying to expand their economic productivity through investments. However, this policy created a debt crisis in South America.

The continent has fallen further behind North America over the past two centuries. This can be explained by South America's high concentration on primary commodities as well as the state of the educational system and institutional structure, some of which are still related to its colonial past, others to recent political developments.

From the 1990s on, countries in South America switched over to the free-market economy system. Now, major economic activities include agriculture, industry, forestry, and mining.

21st century
In 2016, four countries, which include Brazil, Ecuador, Argentina, and Venezuela, experienced a decline in output. Other countries in the region were observing a slowdown in growth rates. Brazil saw this decline in output due to increasing unemployment levels, worsening financial conditions, and political issues, which, in turn, led to a decrease in private domestic consumption and investment. Argentina also experienced a recession in private consumption and investment; however, it was because of the removal of public service subsidies due to a short-term rise in inflation. In contrast, Peru differed from other countries in the region, demonstrating an increase in growth rates thanks to copper production.

In 2017, the economy started to recover for the first time since 2014. The main contributor to economic growth is private consumption. Increased retail trade and industrial production in Brazil have led to an expansion of its economy by 1% in 2017. Higher public investments and private consumption have resulted in the growth of the economy of Argentina compared to its recession in 2016.

In 2017, inflation rates were observed to be on a downward trend in most of the major economies. The reasons are prior exchange rate appreciations and food price deflation. Some countries are even expected to lower their target bands in 2019.

By country
Economy of:

Agriculture

Throughout history, since the colonial period, the export of natural resources has been a key factor for South America's economy. With a land that can be divided into four climatic regions (tropical, temperate, arid and cold), South America is a diverse land rich in natural resources. It has a wide variety of agricultural products, mineral wealth, plentiful freshwater and rich fisheries.

As one of the most important contributors of the world's agricultural market, South America accounts for approximately 10% of the global agricultural product export. The different climatic regions are home for diverse types of crops. In the tropical climatic regions, two of the most important cash crops are coffee and cacao. South America dominates the global market in coffee production, having Brazil as the world's largest exporter of coffee. A report from the Council of Brazilian Coffee Exporters showed that the coffee industry earned US$5.4 billion in 2016, with the exports of different coffee varieties exceeding 34 million 60 kg bags. This accounts to 6.4% of Brazil's total annual agrobusiness exports of US$84.9. The report showed that by December 2016, the Brazilian coffee industry generated US$557 million in revenue by exporting 3.07 million bags of coffee. Additionally, in 2016 soybeans, grown in South America's temperate climates, had an export value of US$19B for Brazil, representing 10.4% of the total exports, and one of US$3.23B for Argentina, representing 5.7% of the country's total exports. Moreover, the soybean meal exportation represent 17.5% of Argentina's total exports, with an export value of $9.96B.

Other exports from the tropical regions, such as the Amazon rainforest (contained within Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia French Guiana and Suriname), include cashews and Brazil nuts, globally regarded as delicacies, as well as sugar (sugarcane), avocados, bananas, pineapples, oranges, grapefruits, and mangoes. The sugarcane cultivation has been the backbone of the economy since early colonial times, and Ecuador is the world's largest banana exporter (Banana Production in Ecuador)

In the temperate regions, maize (corn) is produced and it is the second most exported product in Argentinas. Additionally in cold climatic regions such as the Andes, there is a high production of crops such as quinoa, increasingly valued internationally, as well as the grazing of llamas, vicuñas and alpacas. These animals are bred for their wool and it is exported globally as a high-quality textile.

The four countries with the strongest agriculture are Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Colombia. Currently:
 * Brazil is the world's largest producer of sugarcane, soy, coffee, orange, guaraná, açaí and Brazil nut; is one of the top 5 producers of maize, papaya, tobacco, pineapple, banana, cotton, beans, coconut, watermelon, lemon and yerba mate; is one of the top 10 world producers of cocoa, cashew, avocado, tangerine, persimmon, mango, guava, rice, oat, sorghum and tomato; and is one of the top 15 world producers of grape, apple, melon, peanut, fig, peach, onion, palm oil and natural rubber;
 * Argentina is the world's largest producer of yerba mate; is one of the 5 largest producers in the world of soy, maize, sunflower seed, lemon and pear, one of the 10 largest producers in the world of barley, grape, artichoke, tobacco and cotton, and one of the 15 largest producers in the world of wheat, oat, chickpea, sugarcane, sorghum and grapefruit;
 * Chile is one of the 5 largest world producers of cherry and cranberry, and one of the 10 largest world producers of grape, apple, kiwi, peach, plum and hazelnut, focusing on exporting high-value fruits;
 * Colombia is one of the 5 largest producers in the world of coffee, avocado and palm oil, and one of the 10 largest producers in the world of sugarcane, banana, pineapple and cocoa;
 * Peru is the world's largest producer of quinoa; is one of the 5 largest producers of avocado, blueberry, artichoke and asparagus; one of the 10 largest producers in the world of coffee and cocoa; one of the 15 largest producers in the world of potato and pineapple, and also has a considerable production of grape, sugarcane, rice, banana, maize and cassava; its agriculture is considerably diversified;
 * Paraguay's agriculture is currently developing, being currently the 6th largest producer of soy in the world and entering the list of the 20 largest producers of maize and sugarcane.

Animal husbandry

Brazil is the world's largest exporter of chicken meat: 3.77 million tons in 2019. The country is the holder of the second largest herd of cattle in the world, 22.2% of the world herd. The country was the second-largest producer of beef in 2019, responsible for 15.4% of global production. It was also the 3rd largest world producer of milk in 2018. This year, the country produced 35.1 billion liters. In 2019, Brazil was the 4th largest pork producer in the world, with almost 4 million tons.

In 2018, Argentina was the 4th largest producer of beef in the world, with a production of 3 million tons (behind only USA, Brazil and China). Uruguay is also a major meat producer. In 2018, it produced 589 thousand tons of beef.

In chicken meat production, Argentina ranks among the 15 largest producers in the world, and Peru and Colombia are among the 20 biggest producers. In beef production, Colombia is one of the 20 largest producers in the world. In honey production, Argentina ranks among the 5 largest producers in the world, and Brazil among the 15 largest. In terms of production of cow's milk, Argentina ranks among the 20 largest producers in the world.

Industry

The World Bank annually lists the top manufacturing countries by total manufacturing value. According to the 2019 list, Brazil has the thirteenth most valuable industry in the world (US$173.6 billion), Venezuela the thirtieth largest (US$58.2 billion, however, it depends on oil to obtain this value), Argentina the 31st largest (US$57.7 billion), Colombia the 46th largest (US$35.4 billion), Peru the 50th largest (US$28.7 billion) and Chile the 51st largest (US$28.3 billion).

80% of the manufacturing of the Latin America region falls on Argentina, Brazil and Mexico.

Brazil has the third-largest manufacturing sector in the Americas. Accounting for 28.5 percent of GDP, Brazil's industries range from automobiles, steel, and petrochemicals to computers, aircraft (Embraer), food, pharmaceutical, footwear, metallurgy and consumer durables. In the food industry, in 2019, Brazil was the second largest exporter of processed foods in the world. In 2016, the country was the 2nd largest producer of pulp in the world and the 8th producer of paper. In the footwear industry, in 2019, Brazil ranked 4th among world producers. In 2019, the country was the 8th producer of vehicles and the 9th producer of steel in the world. In 2018, the chemical industry of Brazil was the 8th in the world. In textile industry, Brazil, although it was among the 5 largest world producers in 2013, is very little integrated in world trade. In the aviation sector, Brazil has Embraer, the third largest aircraft manufacturer in the world, behind Boeing and Airbus.

In 2019, Argentina was the 31st world producer of steel, the 28th producer of vehicles, the 22nd world producer of beer, the 4th world producer of soybean oil and the 3rd world producer of sunflower oil, among other industrial products.

Mining

Mining is one of the most important economic sectors in South America, especially for Chile, Peru and Bolivia, whose economies are highly dependent on this sector. The continent has large productions of gold (mainly in Peru, Brazil and Argentina); silver (mainly in Peru, Chile, Bolivia and Argentina); copper (mainly in Chile, Peru and Brazil); iron ore (Brazil, Peru and Chile); zinc (Peru, Bolivia and Brazil); molybdenum (Chile and Peru); lithium (Chile, Argentina and Brazil); lead (Peru and Bolivia); bauxite (Brazil); tin (Peru, Bolivia and Brazil); manganese (Brazil); antimony (Bolivia and Ecuador); nickel (Brazil); niobium (Brazil); rhenium (Chile); iodine (Chile), among others.

Brazil stands out in the extraction of iron ore (where it is the 2nd largest producer and exporter in the world – iron ore is usually one of the 3 export products that generate the greatest value in the country's trade balance), copper, gold, bauxite (one of the 5 largest producers in the world), manganese (one of the 5 largest producers in the world), tin (one of the largest producers in the world), niobium (concentrates 98% of reserves known to the world) and nickel. In terms of gemstones, Brazil is the world's largest producer of amethyst, topaz, agate and one of the main producers of tourmaline, emerald, aquamarine, garnet and opal.

Chile contributes about a third of the world copper production. In addition to copper, Chile was, in 2019, the world's largest producer of iodine and rhenium, the second largest producer of lithium and molybdenum, the sixth largest producer of silver, the seventh largest producer of salt, the eighth largest producer of potash, the thirteenth producer of sulfur and the thirteenth producer of iron ore in the world.

In 2019, Peru was the 2nd largest world producer of copper and silver, 8th largest world producer of gold, 3rd largest world producer of lead, 2nd largest world producer of zinc, 4th largest world producer of tin, 5th largest world producer of boron and 4th largest world producer of molybdenum.

In 2019, Bolivia was the 8th largest world producer of silver; 4th largest world producer of boron; 5th largest world producer of antimony; 5th largest world producer of tin; 6th largest world producer of tungsten; 7th largest producer of zinc, and the 8th largest producer of lead.

In 2019, Argentina was the 4th largest world producer of lithium, the 9th largest world producer of silver, the 17th largest world producer of gold and the 7th largest world producer of boron.

Colombia is the world's largest producer of emeralds. In the production of gold, among 2006 and 2017, the country produced 15 tons per year until 2007, when its production increased significantly, breaking a record of 66.1 tons extracted in 2012. In 2017, it extracted 52.2 tons. The country is among the 25 largest gold producers in the world. In the production of silver, in 2017 the country extracted 15,5 tons.

Oil and gas
In the production of oil, Brazil was the 10th largest oil producer in the world in 2019, with 2.8 million barrels / day. Venezuela was the 21st largest, with 877 thousand barrels / day, Colombia in 22nd with 886 thousand barrels / day, Ecuador in 28th with 531 thousand barrels / day and Argentina 29th with 507 thousand barrels / day. As Venezuela and Ecuador consume little oil and export most of their production, they are part of OPEC. Venezuela had a big drop in production after 2015 (where it produced 2.5 million barrels / day), falling in 2016 to 2.2 million, in 2017 to 2 million, in 2018 to 1.4 million and in 2019 to 877 thousand, due to lack of investments.

In the production of natural gas, in 2018, Argentina produced 1524 bcf (billion cubic feet), Venezuela 946, Brazil 877, Bolivia 617, Peru 451, Colombia 379.

In the beginning of 2020, in the production of oil and natural gas, Brazil exceeded 4 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, for the first time. In January this year, 3.168 million barrels of oil per day and 138.753 million cubic meters of natural gas were extracted.

Tourism
(1) Visitors and receipts for Cuba correspond to 2011. Please note that the number of tourists does not always reflect the monetary amount the country gets from tourism. Some countries carry out higher levels of tourism, obtaining more benefits.
 * Notes: Green shadow denotes the country with the top indicator.

Tourism in South America is still little evolved: in Europe, for example, countries obtain annual tourist values such as U $73.7 billion (Spain), or U $67.3 billion (France). While Europe received 710 million tourists in 2018, Asia 347 million and North America 142.2 million, South America received only 37 million, Central America 10.8 million and the Caribbean 25.7 million.

Roads and highways
Transport in South America is basically carried out using the road mode, the most developed in the region. There is also a considerable infrastructure of ports and airports. The railway and fluvial sector, although it has potential, is usually treated in a secondary way.

Brazil has more than 1.7 million km of roads, of which 215,000 km are paved, and about 14,000 km are divided highways. The two most important highways in the country are BR-101 and BR-116. Argentina has more than 600,000 km of roads, of which about 70,000 km are paved, and about 2,500 km are divided highways. The three most important highways in the country are Route 9, Route 7 and Route 14. Colombia has about 210,000 km of roads, and about 2,300 km are divided highways. Chile has about 82,000 km of roads, 20,000 km of which are paved, and about 2,000 km are divided highways. The most important highway in the country is the Route 5 (Pan-American Highway) These 4 countries are the ones with the best road infrastructure and with the largest number of double-lane highways.

Due to the Andes Mountains, Amazon River and Amazon Forest, there have always been difficulties in implementing transcontinental or bioceanic highways. Practically the only route that existed was the one that connected Brazil to Buenos Aires, in Argentina and later to Santiago, in Chile. However, in recent years, with the combined effort of countries, new routes have started to emerge, such as Brazil-Peru (Interoceanic Highway), and a new highway between Brazil, Paraguay, northern Argentina and northern Chile (Bioceanic Corridor).

Airports
There are more than 2,000 airports in Brazil. The country has the second largest number of airports in the world, behind only the United States. São Paulo International Airport, located in the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo, is the largest and busiest in the country – the airport connects São Paulo to practically all major cities around the world. Brazil has 44 international airports, such as those in Rio de Janeiro, Brasília, Belo Horizonte, Porto Alegre, Florianópolis, Cuiabá, Salvador, Recife, Fortaleza, Belém and Manaus, among others. Argentina has important international airports such as Buenos Aires, Cordoba, Bariloche, Mendoza, Salta, Puerto Iguazú, Neuquén and Usuhaia, among others. Chile has important international airports such as Santiago, Antofagasta, Puerto Montt, Punta Arenas and Iquique, among others. Colombia has important international airports such as Bogotá, Medellín, Cartagena, Cali and Barranquilla, among others. Other important airports are those in the capitals of Uruguay (Montevideo), Paraguay (Asunción), Peru (Lima), Bolivia (La Paz) and Ecuador (Quito). The 10 busiest airports in South America in 2017 were: São Paulo-Guarulhos (Brazil), Bogotá (Colombia), São Paulo-Congonhas (Brazil), Santiago (Chile), Lima (Peru), Brasília (Brazil), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Buenos Aires-Aeroparque (Argentina), Buenos Aires-Ezeiza (Argentina), and Minas Gerais (Brazil).

Ports
About ports, Brazil has some of the busiest ports in South America, such as Port of Santos, Port of Rio de Janeiro, Port of Paranaguá, Port of Itajaí, Port of Rio Grande, Port of São Francisco do Sul and Suape Port. Argentina has ports such as Port of Buenos Aires and Port of Rosario. Chile has important ports in Valparaíso, Caldera, Mejillones, Antofagasta, Iquique, Arica and Puerto Montt. Colombia has important ports such as Buenaventura, Cartagena Container Terminal and Puerto Bolivar. Peru has important ports in Callao, Ilo and Matarani. The 15 busiest ports in South America are: Port of Santos (Brazil), Port of Bahia de Cartagena (Colombia), Callao (Peru), Guayaquil (Ecuador), Buenos Aires (Argentina), San Antonio (Chile), Buenaventura (Colombia), Itajaí (Brazil), Valparaíso (Chile), Montevideo (Uruguay), Paranaguá (Brazil), Rio Grande (Brazil), São Francisco do Sul (Brazil), Manaus (Brazil) and Coronel (Chile).

Railways
The Brazilian railway network has an extension of about 30,000 kilometers. It's basically used for transporting ores. The Argentine rail network, with 47,000 km of tracks, was one of the largest in the world and continues to be the most extensive in Latin America. It came to have about 100,000 km of rails, but the lifting of tracks and the emphasis placed on motor transport gradually reduced it. It has four different trails and international connections with Paraguay, Bolivia, Chile, Brazil and Uruguay. Chile has almost 7,000 km of railways, with connections to Argentina, Bolivia and Peru. Colombia has only about 3,500 km of railways.

Waterways
Among the main Brazilian waterways, two stand out: Hidrovia Tietê-Paraná (which has a length of 2,400 km, 1,600 on the Paraná River and 800 km on the Tietê River, draining agricultural production from the states of Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Goiás and part of Rondônia, Tocantins and Minas Gerais) and Hidrovia do Solimões-Amazonas (it has two sections: Solimões, which extends from Tabatinga to Manaus, with approximately 1600 km, and Amazonas, which extends from Manaus to Belém, with 1650 km. Almost entirely passenger transport from the Amazon plain is done by this waterway, in addition to practically all cargo transportation that is directed to the major regional centers of Belém and Manaus). In Brazil, this transport is still underutilized: the most important waterway stretches, from an economic point of view, are found in the Southeast and South of the country. Its full use still depends on the construction of locks, major dredging works and, mainly, of ports that allow intermodal integration. In Argentina, the waterway network is made up of the La Plata, Paraná, Paraguay and Uruguay rivers. The main river ports are Zárate and Campana. The port of Buenos Aires is historically the first in individual importance, but the area known as Up-River, which stretches along 67 km of the Santa Fé portion of the Paraná River, brings together 17 ports that concentrate 50% of the total exports of the country.

Brazil
The Brazilian government has undertaken an ambitious program to reduce dependence on imported petroleum. Imports previously accounted for more than 70% of the country's oil needs but Brazil became self-sufficient in oil in 2006–2007. Brazil was the 10th largest oil producer in the world in 2019, with 2.8 million barrels / day. Production manages to supply the country's demand. In the beginning of 2020, in the production of oil and natural gas, the country exceeded 4 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, for the first time. In January this year, 3.168 million barrels of oil per day and 138.753 million cubic meters of natural gas were extracted.

Brazil is one of the main world producers of hydroelectric power. In 2019, Brazil had 217 hydroelectric plants in operation, with an installed capacity of 98,581 MW, 60.16% of the country's energy generation. In the total generation of electricity, in 2019 Brazil reached 170,000 megawatts of installed capacity, more than 75% from renewable sources (the majority, hydroelectric).

In 2013, the Southeast Region used about 50% of the load of the National Integrated System (SIN), being the main energy consuming region in the country. The region's installed electricity generation capacity totaled almost 42,500 MW, which represented about a third of Brazil's generation capacity. The hydroelectric generation represented 58% of the region's installed capacity, with the remaining 42% corresponding basically to the thermoelectric generation. São Paulo accounted for 40% of this capacity; Minas Gerais by about 25%; Rio de Janeiro by 13.3%; and Espírito Santo accounted for the rest. The South Region owns the Itaipu Dam, which was the largest hydroelectric plant in the world for several years, until the inauguration of Three Gorges Dam in China. It remains the second largest operating hydroelectric in the world. Brazil is the co-owner of the Itaipu Plant with Paraguay: the dam is located on the Paraná River, located on the border between countries. It has an installed generation capacity of 14 GW for 20 generating units of 700 MW each. North Region has large hydroelectric plants, such as Belo Monte Dam and Tucuruí Dam, which produce much of the national energy. Brazil's hydroelectric potential has not yet been fully exploited, so the country still has the capacity to build several renewable energy plants in its territory.

according to ONS, total installed capacity of wind power was 22 GW, with average capacity factor of 58%. While the world average wind production capacity factors is 24.7%, there are areas in Northern Brazil, specially in Bahia State, where some wind farms record with average capacity factors over 60%; the average capacity factor in the Northeast Region is 45% in the coast and 49% in the interior. In 2019, wind energy represented 9% of the energy generated in the country. In 2019, it was estimated that the country had an estimated wind power generation potential of around 522 GW (this, only onshore), enough energy to meet three times the country's current demand. In 2021 Brazil was the 7th country in the world in terms of installed wind power (21 GW), and the 4th largest producer of wind energy in the world (72 TWh), behind only China, USA and Germany.

Nuclear energy accounts for about 4% of Brazil's electricity. The nuclear power generation monopoly is owned by Eletronuclear (Eletrobrás Eletronuclear S/A), a wholly owned subsidiary of Eletrobrás. Nuclear energy is produced by two reactors at Angra. It is located at the Central Nuclear Almirante Álvaro Alberto (CNAAA) on the Praia de Itaorna in Angra dos Reis, Rio de Janeiro. It consists of two pressurized water reactors, Angra I, with capacity of 657 MW, connected to the power grid in 1982, and Angra II, with capacity of 1,350 MW, connected in 2000. A third reactor, Angra III, with a projected output of 1,350 MW, is planned to be finished.

according to ONS, total installed capacity of photovoltaic solar was 21 GW, with average capacity factor of 23%. Some of the most irradiated Brazilian States are MG ("Minas Gerais"), BA ("Bahia") and GO (Goiás), which have indeed world irradiation level records. In 2019, solar power represented 1,27% of the energy generated in the country. In 2021, Brazil was the 14th country in the world in terms of installed solar power (13 GW), and the 11th largest producer of solar energy in the world (16.8 TWh).

In 2020, Brazil was the 2nd largest country in the world in the production of energy through biomass (energy production from solid biofuels and renewable waste), with 15,2 GW installed.

Other countries
After Brazil, Colombia is the country in South America that most stands out in energy production. In 2020, the country was the 20th largest petroleum producer in the world, and in 2015 it was the 19th largest exporter. In natural gas, the country was, in 2015, the 40th largest producer in the world. Colombia's biggest highlight is in coal, where the country was, in 2018, the world's 12th largest producer and the 5th largest exporter. In renewable energies, in 2020, the country ranked 45th in the world in terms of installed wind energy (0.5 GW), 76th in the world in terms of installed solar energy (0.1 GW) and 20th in the world in terms of installed hydroelectric power (12.6 GW). Venezuela, which was one of the world's largest oil producers (about 2.5 million barrels/day in 2015) and one of the largest exporters, due to its political problems, has had its production drastically reduced in recent years: in 2016, it dropped to 2.2 million, in 2017 to 2 million, in 2018 to 1.4 million and in 2019 to 877 thousand, reaching only 300,000 barrels/day at a given point. The country also stands out in hydroelectricity, where it was the 14th country in the world in terms of installed capacity in 2020 (16,5 GW). Argentina was, in 2017, the 18th largest producer in the world, and the largest producer in Latin America, of natural gas, in addition to being the 28th largest oil producer; although the country has the Vaca Muerta field, which holds close to 16 billion barrels of technically recoverable shale oil, and is the second largest shale natural gas deposit in the world, the country lacks the capacity to exploit the deposit: it is necessary capital, technology and knowledge that can only come from offshore energy companies, who view Argentina and its erratic economic policies with considerable suspicion, not wanting to invest in the country. In renewable energies, in 2020, the country ranked 27th in the world in terms of installed wind energy (2.6 GW), 42nd in the world in terms of installed solar energy (0.7 GW) and 21st in the world in terms of installed hydroelectric power (11.3 GW). The country has great future potential for the production of wind energy in the Patagonia region. Chile, although currently not a major energy producer, has great future potential for solar energy production in the Atacama Desert region. Paraguay stands out today in hydroelectric production thanks to the Itaipu Power Plant. Bolivia stands out in the production of natural gas, where it was the 31st largest in the world in 2015. Ecuador, because it consumes little energy, is part of OPEC and was the 27th largest oil producer in the world in 2020, being the 22nd largest exporter in 2014.

title: Economy of South America


text: User talk:217.8.227.167

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: User talk:217.8.227.167


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Economy of Oceania

The economy of Oceania comprises more than 14 separate countries and their associated economies.

On a total scale, Oceania has approximately 34,700,201 inhabitants who are spread among 30,000 islands in the South Pacific bordered between Asia and the Americas. This region has a diverse mix of economies from the highly developed and globally competitive financial markets of Australia and New Zealand to the much less developed economies that belong to many of its island neighbours.

Trade blocs
The smallest Pacific nations rely on trade with Australia, New Zealand and the United States for exporting goods and for accessing other products.

Australia and New Zealand's trading arrangements are known as Closer Economic Relations. Australia and New Zealand, along with other countries, are members of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and the East Asia Summit (EAS), which may become trade blocs in the future particularly EAS.

Currency
The below table summarizes the official currencies of Oceania. Several territories are dollarized or use a currency with a fixed exchange rate.

Service industry
The overwhelming majority of people living in the Pacific islands work in the service industry which includes tourism, education and financial services. Oceania's largest export markets include Japan, China, the United States and South Korea. The majority of people living in Australia, and to a lesser extent, New Zealand work in mining, electrical and manufacturing sectors also.

Manufacturing
The manufacturing of clothing is a major industry in some parts of the Pacific, especially Fiji, although this is generally decreasing.

Australia boasts the largest amount of manufacturing in the region, producing cars, electrical equipment, machinery and clothes.

Tourism
Tourism has become a large source of income for many in the Pacific; tourists come from Australia, New Zealand, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. Fiji currently draws almost half a million tourists each year; more than a quarter from Australia. This contributes $1 billion or more since 1995 to Fiji's economy but the government of Fiji underestimate these figures due in part to an invisible economy inside the tourism industry.

Agriculture and fishing
Agriculture and natural resources constitutes only 5% to 10% of Oceania's total jobs, but contributes substantially to export performance. The most populous two nations, Australia and New Zealand, are also the most developed and have majority service industries. This dilutes the data from the less developed Pacific Island nations who have major agricultural economies. Most of the Pacific countries (excluding Australia and New Zealand) the primary industry is agriculture. Many nations are still quintessentially agricultural; for example, 80% of the population of Vanuatu and 70% of the population of Fiji works in agriculture. The main produce from the pacific is copra or coconut, but timber, beef, palm oil, cocoa, sugar and ginger are also commonly grown across the tropics of the Pacific. Fishing provides a major industry for many of the smaller nations in the Pacific, although many fishing areas are exploited by other larger countries, namely Japan. Natural Resources, such as lead, zinc, nickel and gold, are mined in Australia and the Solomon Islands. Oceania's largest export markets include Japan, China, the United States, India, South Korea and the European Union.

Oceanian donor nations
Oceania's most populous nations, Australia and New Zealand, are both highly developed nations and are large international aid donors. These two wealthy nations share the region with less developed nations which still rely on foreign aid for development. In the 2007/08 financial year Australia provided $3.155 billion worth of official development assistance, of which $2.731 billion will be managed by AusAID. Every week, each Australian puts in around $2.40 to pay for Australia's aid program, amounting to around 1% of the Australian Federal Government expenditure compared to the 42% spent on social security and welfare.

Oceanian recipient states
In the Solomon Islands 50% of government spending is paid for by international donors; namely Australia, New Zealand, the European Union, Japan and the Republic of China (Taiwan).

Global trade relations
This region consists of many trading relations because of the small amount of land and limited resources they have. Many have trading economies and are transitioning to a developed economy and infrastructure.

title: Economy of Oceania


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Category:Linux conferences

This is a category of conferences based wholly or mainly around Linux.

title: Category:Linux conferences


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Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Coffield paradox

Coffield paradox was proposed for deletion. This page is an archive of the discussion about the proposed deletion. This page is no longer live. Further comments should be made on the article's talk page rather than here so that this page is preserved as an historic record. The result of the debate was delete

Coffield paradox
Invented by a friend of the article's author, zero Google hits , and Mr. Coffield will see that his "paradox" is completely consistent with conventional probability theory as soon as he gets up to conditional probability. Nice to see people thinking, though. Securiger 14:31, 29 Nov 2004 (UTC)
 * Let me just run through this - the odds of my flipping two coins and them turning out to be HH are 1/4... but the odds of my flipping the second coin and it being H are 1/2. This is not a paradox; in the latter case the first coin has already been tossed, so it's a chance of 1 of coming up H? I think that's it, anyhow. Mental exercise over, and vote delete, unless someone wants to merge the concept into conditional probability (although probably not under Coffield's name) as an example of how CP may seem counterintuitive. Shimgray
 * Delete. Do not redirect. Yes, nice to see people thinking, but not really nice to put stuff in an encyclopedia if you're not pretty sure it's right. Neologism; probably vanity; original research; and wrong. This is like saying that if you have already been dealt the ten, jack, queen, and king of hearts from a 52-card jokerless deck, the probability of being dealt the ace of hearts is both 1/48 (because there are forty-eight cards left) and 0.0000015391 (because you will have been dealt a royal flush and that's the probability of a royal flush). Before you're dealt any cards, the probability that the next five cards will be a royal flush is indeed tiny. But once you've already got the ten, jack, queen, and king of hearts, the most improbable part of the event has already occurred. With those four cards in your hand, the probability of completing the royal flush is no longer 0.0000015391; it's now much higher, 1/48 in fact. Agree with User:Shimgray that it would be nice to have a section of conditional probability devoted to explaining the concept in elementary language. [[User:Dpbsmith|Dpbsmith (talk)]] 16:45, 29 Nov 2004 (UTC)
 * P. S. The particular scenario described in the article be easily tested by flipping a real coin. A couple of hundred flips should provide clear and convincing evidence that the probability of flipping that second head is 1/2. [[User:Dpbsmith|Dpbsmith (talk)]] 23:24, 29 Nov 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete Even as I was correcting the punctuation, I had the feeling this was a misunderstanding rather than a paradox. Thanks to the above for explaining this. Redlentil 17:25, 29 Nov 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete. I think this "paradox" was first mentioned by Pascal. Or Dirichlet. Or Fermat. Forgot which one, but certainly not this guy. Grue 17:30, 29 Nov 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete: DCEdwards1966 17:37, Nov 29, 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete because the name of the article falls under vanity and non-noteworthiness and is thus unsalvagable. And if this were indeed Coffiels's then it'd be essentially original research, and poor research at that. DreamGuy 17:43, Nov 29, 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete. This is just a variant of similar questions posed by the Gambler's fallacy. The misunderstanding comes from trying to combine the probabilities of two different systems: one being a solitary coinflip in and of itself, independent of any that come before or after, and the second system being a series of coinflips, which starts getting into frequency probability. Inky 01:10, 30 Nov 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete. "... would appear equally valid" makes sense only until one thinks about it.  There are some charming "paradoxes" in probability theory, but this is just obtuseness.  The fact that it doesn't say who Coffield is doesn't help.  That could be remedied by adding that information if Coffield were the author of some thoughtful work on probability, but my guess is Coffield is the anonymous author of this article. Michael Hardy 01:25, 30 Nov 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete. Good candicate for BJAODN. Going to save a copy to a subpage of my user page in case it doesn't make it there. Joke article. --Improv 07:27, 30 Nov 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete. Author is either joking or hasn't heard of conditional probability, in which case they probably shouldn't be writing an article about probability. — Trilobite (Talk) 20:56, 30 Nov 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete it. —[[en:RaD Man|RaD Man (talk)]] 08:40, 1 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete, delete, delete! L Durnan
 * Delete. --MPerel 09:43, Dec 2, 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete: As Securiger mentions in the introduction, it is obvious there is no paradox upon further study of probability.Raazer 08:16, 3 Dec 2004 (UTC)

This page is now preserved as an archive of the debate and, like other '/delete' pages is no longer 'live'. Subsequent comments on the issue, the deletion or on the decision-making process should be placed on the relevant 'live' pages. Please do not edit this page.


text: Category:Senegalese athletes

title: Category:Senegalese athletes


text:
Talk:Early history of Thailand

Buddhism from Burma
I'd always heard that Buddhism got to Thailand after it moved south through India, across to what is now Sri Lankha and then across to Malaysia and finally north. I don't have a reference for this right now, but will try to find one. --KayEss 14:33, 29 Nov 2004 (UTC)

 * I found the following on a not-very-authoritative website, but it's pretty much what had been my understanding: Buddhism was first introduced into Thailand as Hinayana Buddhism in about 329 B.C., later in about 700 A.D., Mahayana Buddhism came. However, in 1000 A.D. Hinnayana was again re-introduced from Burma. In 1253 A.D., Thai Buddhist Monks went to Ceylon and brought back with them the Pali scripts. Mark1 01:54, 30 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Christian University of Thailand currently has a Nakhon Pathom District Cultural Center which has much information on the entrance of Buddhism into Thailand. Prior to providing full referencing for each issue and refinement of term, it is necessary to develop a flow of history in Central Thailand. It was in the Dhavaravati Civilization in the 9th C. based in the seaport city of Nakhon Chai Sri that this civilization flourished. At that time the Mon reigned supreme, with isolated and scattered local Red Karen villages and Indian traders. Since that time the silt deposits have filled in a whole section of land in the northwestern corner of the Gulf of Thailand, now creating several lowland provinces that are an agricultural breadbasket and causing the port of Nakhon Chai Sri to be now only a river port. In the reign of Rama 2 an influx of Lao Song (also Thai dam) as well as Cambodian groups were moved into the region between Nakhon Chai Sri (45 minutes west of Bangkok) in villages such as Don Yai Hom (from which the legend of Grandmother Hom comes) and into the region of Rachburi which is a plain between the coast and the mountainous area of Three Pagoda Pass. It was through this pass that later the Burmese army travelled to destroy the Kingdom of Ayutthaya in the 1700s. Serious scientific efforts are now underway, including sattelite and infrared imaging technology to help reconstruct the settlements and irrigation canal system introduced at that time by the Dhavaravati civilization. The import of this information helps understand the emergence of the modern nation of Thailand in terms of its system of monarchy and the adherence to Therravada Buddhism.

Comment
Shouldn't this article be merged with the History of Thailand?Devraj Singh 05:49, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

title: Talk:Early history of Thailand


text:
Assets Recovery Agency

The Assets Recovery Agency (ARA) was a non-ministerial government department in the United Kingdom. It was established under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (POCA) to reduce crime by confiscating the proceeds of any crime. It was granted a new power of civil recovery through the High Court, and could also take over the powers of the HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to levy tax without identifying a source for taxed income.

The ARA became operational in February 2003, but it failed to meet its targets for the confiscation of criminal funds. It was announced in January 2007 that it would be merged with the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), which was established in 2006. Provisions to achieve this were contained in the Serious Crime Act 2007. There were also proposals for other law enforcement agencies, such as HMRC, to be given similar powers of civil recovery at the same time. On 1 March 2008, the transfer of the Director and staff of the Assets Recovery Agency, its property, rights and liabilities to SOCA and the National Policing Improvement Agency started in anticipation of the Agency's abolition. The agency ceased to exist on 1 April 2008.

Background
The setting up of the ARA was a key aspect of the POCA, which the Government intended to take the profit out of crime, aiming to dismantle and disrupt organised crime gangs by confiscating the financial proceeds of criminal acts. It brings together previous legislation, such as the Drug Trafficking Act 1994 and Part VI of the Criminal Justice Act 1988, with the changes recommended in a comprehensive report of a study conducted by the Performance and Innovation Unit of the Cabinet Office in 2000.

POCA strengthened the legislation relating to seizures of cash, money laundering, investigatory powers, and restraint and confiscation procedures. Previously, only profits from certain crimes, such as drug trafficking, were liable to confiscation.

The Agency had three strategic aims:
 * To disrupt organised criminal enterprises through the recovery of criminal assets, thereby alleviating the effects of crime on communities.
 * To promote the use of financial investigation as an integral part of criminal investigation, within and outside the Agency, domestically and internationally, through training and continuing professional development.
 * To operate the Agency in accordance with its vision and values.

Powers
The powers of the ARA were mostly limited to England and Wales and Northern Ireland, although its taxation powers extended to Scotland. Its main offices were in London, with a second office Belfast. In Northern Ireland, the Director consulted with the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. In Scotland, civil recovery was achieved through the Civil Recovery Unit of the Scottish Government.

The functions of the ARA were categorised into four types:
 * Confiscation proceedings;
 * Civil recovery proceedings;
 * Taxation of income or gains which are suspected of being derived from criminal activities;
 * Control and supervision of the training of financial investigators in the UK.

Director
The ARA was headed by a Director, the first of whom was Jane Earl. Alan McQuillan, a former Assistant Chief Constable in the R.U.C., was appointed as the new director in 2007. The Director had to carry out his statutory functions with a view to the reduction of crime. The Director reported to the Home Secretary, but was operationally independent.

By 2005, it had 180 staff, and an annual budget of £15.5m, but it recovered only £4.6m. It had more success in freezing criminal's assets, with £68.45m frozen in June 2006, but found its actions were frustrated by lengthy and expensive court cases.

title: Assets Recovery Agency


text: Talk:Geom Mojam

title: Talk:Geom Mojam


text:
Western Springs Stadium

Western Springs Stadium is a stadium in Auckland, New Zealand. Built within a natural amphitheatre, it is primarily used for rugby union matches during the winter and for speedway during the summer. It is also occasionally used for large concerts and festivals.

Western Springs Stadium has a crowd capacity of 20,000 for sports and 49,000 for concerts. It is located four kilometres west of the city centre in the suburb of Western Springs.

History
Western Springs Stadium was built on land purchased from the Motion family by Auckland City Council in 1875 in order to build the Western Springs reservoir and pump station. Situated in a natural amphitheatre, concrete terracing was constructed. It was designed and modelled on European stadiums which included a banked concrete cycling track, a cinder running track, and a grassed centre area for football and sports. The original design included a covered grandstand which would fill the gap between the concrete terraces, the cycling track finishing straight was designed and built to start and finish in front of the proposed grandstand (where the pit area now is). The stadium was never completed.

In 1929, the stadium built by Relief Labour was opened to serve cycling, athletics and football sports. The cycling track was over 500 yards in circumference as the European tracks were then. The cinder all weather Athletic 440-yard running track was the first of its type in NZ and it with the overall stadium would have easily compared to the famous Wembley Stadium in England. Some conjecture has been made when motorcycle speedway commenced on Western Springs. Saroway Park Newmarket was being used at the time. Previously, the Mt. Albert volcanic crater had been used. It was not until 1935 Motorcycle broadsiding commenced on the cinder running track (as they did on Wembley). On Christmas Day December 1937 midget car racing was introduced at a special international meeting, it included NZ pioneers Ron Roycroft and Geo Smith. The first official season then followed in January 1938. Speedway was still being raced at the previous venue at the Epsom Showgrounds. Athletics disappeared from Western Springs as a result and New Zealand's only all weather Athletics track was replaced by the traditional grass tracks until the late 1960s. When the first of the new style all weather athletics tracks were built Western Springs was already many years ahead of its time with an all weather cinder surface laid in 1929.

The 1950s saw promoters "take over" with the blessing of the Auckland City Council pleased to receive a monetary return. The early promoters combined Cycling, Motorcycle Speedway and Speedway Cars who all raced together on the same programme with a large following. The war intervened and in 1944 Speedway became a huge entertainment and the formula of Cycling, Speedway Bikes and Midgets reached international heights.

Speedway previously had competed on Epsom Showgrounds, Blanford Park on the old cycling track around the soccer field (now under the Grafton Gully motorway) and Olympic Park (Saraway Park) in Newmarket.

Stock car promoters raised the height of the speedway/running track introducing stock cars and forcing speedway motorcycling out, who relocated to Rosebank Road. Speedway cars were affected at this time by a conflict with Stock Car promoters. During the 1960s, cycling was forced out of the stadium as the promoters in tandem with the Auckland City Council made access difficult and later impossible under the requirements of the speedway track. The Auckland City Council had little regard for Amateur sports such as Cycling and Athletics, nor for the stadium itself, never completing the complex and building the Grandstands. Neglect reached its nadir when the main concrete terraces slipped away during the 1960s, almost taking the cycling track with it. It took months to effect repairs; under strong public criticism they finally did some thing to re-instate the damaged terraces. The surrounding stadium grounds deteriorated into a Council yard with derelict equipment and buildings littering the boundary of the site which spread to the adjoining Lake and Pump House and abandoned relief campsite. Speedway Cars resurged into a new golden era when stock cars went to Gloucester Park and finally Waikaraka Park.

Because cycling was forced out, the cycling track was never able to be used again, so it was removed to widen the new speedway midget race track; at the same time, smaller cycling velodrome track sizes became the International requirement.

The 1960s saw a brief return of what the stadium concept originally was; this was assisted by the Speedway promoter who laid the athletic track. On the success of Peter Snells' Olympic victories an International Athletic and Cycling event was held with the largest crowd recorded for the stadium. It was larger than the 1950 British Empire Games cycling events and Closing Ceremony.

In February 2007, the WWE Road To Wrestlemania 23 Tour came to Western Spring attracting over 12,000 WWE fans.

Speedway
Western Springs Stadium has been used for speedway since 30 November 1929 when motorcycling (broad siding) was introduced. Midget Car racing started in December 1937 with an International race including New Zealand pioneers Ron Roycroft and Geo Smith. The first full speedway season started in January 1938. With the war years, there was a break until 1944 when speedway with cycling, motor cycling and midget cars became the major entertainment event during the summer months in Auckland.

The site has hosted many significant events, including qualifying rounds of the Speedway World Championship and the New Zealand Solo Championship on 15 occasions from in 1931 to 1989.

On 31 March 2012, Western Springs Stadium played host to the opening round of the 2012 Speedway Grand Prix, the first time the Speedway Grand Prix (SGP) has ever been held in New Zealand. The 413 m long track was one of the longest tracks ever used in the SGP series. The SGP of New Zealand was held in 2012, 2013 and 2014 before being cut from the 2015 Speedway Grand Prix series. The speedway announced that 2020/2021 season races are being streamed live on the internet to subscribers of United States-based FloRacing.

In 2024, the venue celebrated its 95th year of speedway but due to noise complaints and legal action from a local residents group, speedway events have been limited to 12 per season.

Rugby
Between late March and early October, the stadium is used by the Ponsonby RFC for training and games.

Concerts
Two concerts held at the stadium were the largest concerts ever in New Zealand at the time. On 26 November 1983, one of the final dates of David Bowie's Serious Moonlight Tour was attended by either 74,480 fans (according to bootleg recordings) or by 83,000 (according to the promoter years later). On 14 March 1987, over 80,000 fans saw the concert by ZZ Top.

Other artists who have performed at the venue range from Six60 (2019, 2020), Led Zeppelin (1972), Bob Marley & The Wailers (1979), Elton John (1971, 1974, 1982, 1984 and 1990) to AC/DC (2010 and 2015). Including shows by Deep Purple 13/11/75, Alice Cooper 4/4/77, Rod Stewart 22/2/79, ELO (Electric Light Orchestra) 29/1/78, KISS 3/12/80, Fleetwood Mac 22/3/80, Stevie Wonder 11/4/81 (weather delayed Monday), Bon Jovi 19/09/87, David Bowie 28/11/87, Pink Floyd 22/01/88, Mick Jagger 5/11/88, The Rolling Stones 17/4/95, Genesis 23/11/86, Paul McCartney 27/3/93, Bruce Springsteen 28/03/03.

At the top of the hill that forms the amphitheatre is a street of houses – the residents have a view into the stadium from their back gardens. This has often been referred to by the artists on stage, who have often encouraged the residents to donate money to charity in lieu of an entrance fee – notably, Bono from U2 (1989) and Robbie Williams (2003). In 1993's ZooTV show, Bono made a mid-performance phone call to one of the neighbouring properties with a grandstand built in the backyard overlooking the stadium, and earlier in the day the band had sent up a selection of tour merchandise to attempt to sell to the viewers.

In January 2014, Western Springs was the venue for the Big Day Out, with a reported 40,000+ in attendance. It was the festival's first return to Auckland since Mount Smart Stadium in 2012 but the final time the Big Day Out was held in Auckland.

On 15 February 2014, rapper Eminem performed at the venue for an estimated 55,000 fans. It was his first in the country and is the first to be headlined by a rap act in the venue's history.

title: Western Springs Stadium


text:
Calu

Calu is an epithet of the Etruscan chthonic fire god Śuri as god of the underworld, roughly equivalent to the Greek god Hades ; moroeover, as with Hades, this god-name was also used as a synonym for the underworld itself.

He is identified by his wolf attributes, such as a wolf-like appearance or a human with a wolf-skin cap. The visual representations of the cult of Calu seem to contain common elements with the Roman cult of Lupercalia and the Faliscan cult of the Hirpi Sorani ("wolves of Soranus", from ).

title: Calu


text:
Wikipedia:Reviewing mediation

I'm starting this page to outline some thoughts and concerns about the mediation process. It's rather a personal view right now, but I'm hoping it will develop into a more general discussion or what needs to be done. What I'd like to do here is incorporate any comments on this page into the text. Please add any comments that you don't want altered, summarised, incorporated, or otherwise mucked about with to the talk page. (And feel free to alter my text here too, of course)

Where do we stand now
There seems to be a general impression among the community that mediation is failing. In part this is because mediation is often off-line and confidential - our successes are not visible. But there are also other problems. Including:

 * The slowness of response - mediation often takes a long time to start
 * The speed of mediation once underway
 * Requests in bad faith and the difficulty of responding well to these
 * The difficulty in persuading participants to change when they fully believe they are in the right (this can apply to both sides of the argument at once)
 * The difficulty in getting either side to believe in the good intent of the other

Working as a committee
We work individually on cases, and there is currently little discussion or contact between the committee as a whole. Meetings could be a help in this, IRC has been used for this in other contexts, maybe it would work for us too.

Requests for mediation
My main concern here is that this is our initial contact point and I would like to see a better procedure for the initial stages of mediation.

Choosing a mediator
How should we decide who takes a case. At the moment this is done by asking around to find someone available and willing. This can mean that some mediators are not commonly asked. For example, my usual first step is to see who is around on IRC because this is the quickest way of discussing the case with someone who may be able to take it on. This means I generally ask a small sub-set of the committee first.

"Mediation with teeth"
One of the problems I have encountered is mediation failing because one party refuses to compromise or to engage in the process. With the current system there is nothing that can be done about this (other than point out that the other party may ask for arbitration if mediation is unsuccessful). Is there a case for some sort of mediated-arbitration that combines aspects of both? If so what form should this take? For example: a possible form is for all parties to agree to abide by a decision of the mediator. The mediation would happen as usual, with discussions on both sides and the mediator participating to try and find solutions. But the mediator would have the ability to make "judgements" as part of this process. This would be a more active style than the arbitration process (where the arbitrators gather information to make decisions rather than engage in long discussions with the participants).

There are problems with this model of course:

 * Currently mediators work on cases alone - would this be giving too much authority to individuals, and would it be better for any such "enforcement" of mediation to be taken as a group?
 * This is very much outside the model of mediation as a voluntary, collaborative and non-combative process. Mediation is not arbitration.

Reporting to the arbitration committee
Another suggestion I have heard, is that the mediation committee might produce a report for the arbitration committee in cases that go to them after mediation. The advantages of this are: it would give the mediators some of those teeth mentioned before, it would help the arbitration committee to have the situation presented by a neural party (others?). The disadvantages are that it would be moving away (again) from the ideal of a confidential and non-combative mediation, those involved may have (or develop) doubts as to the neutrality of the mediator (participants rarely believe they are in the wrong), if mediation is done in the current form (one mediator) this may be giving too much weight to one persons view of the situation.

The arbitration elections
One of the reasons this is on my mind is the upcoming arbitration elections. Several mediators are running in this and, should some or all of us be elected, this will severely reduce the number of people available for mediation (it's not possible to serve on both the arbitration and the mediation committees simultaneously). This can only increase the difficulties of the mediation process.

title: Wikipedia:Reviewing mediation


text:
Somaliland shilling

The Somaliland shilling (Shillin Somaliland, شلن صوماليلاندي; abbreviation: SLS; symbol: /-, sometimes prefixed Sl.Sh.) is the official currency of the Republic of Somaliland, an unrecognised sovereign state in the Horn of Africa, recognised internationally as de jure part of Somalia.

Overview
The shilling has been the currency of parts of Somalia since 1921, when the East African shilling was introduced to the former British Somaliland protectorate. Following the 1960 independence and unification of the former territories of British Somaliland and Italian Somaliland, their respective currencies, the East African shilling and somalo (which were equal in value) were replaced at par in 1962 by the Somali shilling. Names used for its denominations were cent (singular: centesimo; plural: centesimi) and سنت (plural: سنتيمات), along with shilling (singular: scellino; plural: scellini) and شلن.

In September 1994, the Parliament of Somaliland endorsed President Egal's plans to introduce a new currency to replace the Somali shilling. The Somaliland shilling was introduced on 18 October 1994 at a rate of Sl.So.1/- to So.Sh.100/-. The Somali shilling ceased to be accepted as legal tender in Somaliland on 31 January 1995.

The Somaliland shilling is pegged to the United States dollar at a rate of Sl.Sh.580/12 to US$1. Only the 100/-, 500/-, 1,000/- and 5,000/- banknotes are currently in circulation.

Coins
The Somaliland shilling is nominally divided into 100 cents, but coins denominated in cents have never been issued due to their low value. The coin with the lowest value to have been issued is the 1/- coin, first minted in 1994 at the Pobjoy Mint in England and thus bearing the PM mint mark. In 2002, 2/- and 5/- coins were issued, bearing depictions of explorer Sir Richard Burton and a cockerel, respectively. Other coins that have been issued are the 10/- coin (depicting a vervet monkey) and 20/- coin (depicting an Italian Greyhound). Somaliland coins are not currently being minted or circulated.

The 1/- and 5/- coins are struck in aluminium, the 10/- coin in brass, the 20/- coin in stainless steel, and the 1,000/- coin in .999 fine silver.

This was the first coin issued by the Somaliland government. The coin depicts a Somali pigeon (Columba oliviae). The PM (Pobjoy Mint) mint mark is located near the bird's tail feathers. The words " REPUBLIC OF SOMALILAND 1994 " are inscribed on the obverse of the coin; the reverse of the coin bears the words " BAANKA SOMALILAND " and " ONE SOMALILAND SHILLING " around the "1/-" in the centre.
 * 1/- coin (1994)

There are two coins in this denomination, both issued in 2002. The first bears a portrait of Sir Richard Francis Burton, the second depicts a rooster.
 * 5/- coins (2002)

The specifications of the first coin are as follows:

The obverse of the coin has the words " RICHARD F. BURTON EXPLORATION OF SOMALILAND " inscribed around Burton's portrait. The dates "1841 1904" are to the left of the portrait, and "2002" is to the right. " BAANKA SOMALILAND " and " FIVE SOMALILAND SHILLINGS " are inscribed on the reverse around the "5/-" in the centre.

The specifications of the second coin are as follows:

The obverse of this coin has the words " REPUBLIC OF SOMALILAND 2002 " inscribed on it and depicts a cockerel. As with the other 5/- coin, the dates "1841 1904" are to the left of the portrait, and "2002" is to the right. ' BAANKA SOMALILAND ' and ' FIVE SOMALILAND SHILLINGS ' are also inscribed on the reverse around the "5/-" in the centre.

The Sl.Sh.10/- coin obverse depicts a vervet monkey, around which the words " REPUBLIC OF SOMALILAND 2002 " are inscribed. The reverse of the coin has " BAANKA SOMALILAND " and " TEN SOMALILAND SHILLINGS " inscribed around the "10/-" in the centre.
 * 10/- coin (2002)

The obverse of the 20/- coin depicts an Italian Greyhound and has the words " REPUBLIC OF SOMALILAND 2002 " inscribed around it. The reverse has " BAANKA SOMALILAND " and " TWENTY SOMALILAND SHILLINGS " inscribed around the "20/-" in the centre.
 * 20/- coin (2002)

Banknotes
Banknotes were issued in denominations of 5/-, 10/-, 20/-, 50/-, Sl.Sh.100/-, 500/-, 1,000/- and 5,000/-; dates of issue range from 1994 to 2011. Currently, only the 100/-, 500/-, 1,000/- and 5,000/- notes are in circulation.

In 1996 and 1999, regular 50/- notes were reissued in a larger size (130 × 58 or 130 × 57 mm by difference sources).

In 1996, banknotes were overprinted with the phrase "5th Anniversary of Independence 18 May 1996 Sanad Gurada 5ee Gobanimadda 18 May 1996" in bronze/gold letters, or "Sanad Gurada 5ee Gobanimadda 18 May 1996" in silver letters to commemorate the fifth anniversary of de facto independence. However, it is unclear whether these notes were overprinted by Somaliland authorities or numismatic merchants.
 * 5th Anniversary of Independence Commemorative Issue (1996)

Exchange rates
The central bank provides exchange services for various currencies at the official government rate, but most people prefer the unofficial rates used by hawala agents and money changers on the streets of main cities.

 * In November 2000, the official exchange rate of Baanka Somaliland was Sl.Sh.4,550/- for 1 US dollar. Unofficial exchange rates at the time fluctuated between Sl.Sh.4,000/- and Sl.Sh.5,000/- per dollar. In December 2008, the official rate had fallen to Sl.Sh.7,500/- per US dollar.
 * In December 2015, the generally recognized exchange rate was Sl.Sh.6,000/- per US dollar, and by July 2019, the generally recognized exchange rate had dropped to Sl.Sh.8,500/- per US dollar.
 * In December 2022, the official exchange rate of Baanka Somaliland was Sl.Sh.8530/- for 1 US dollar. The Somaliland exchange rate in 2019 was Sl.Sh.8,500/- per US dollar which is a 0.35% increase of inflation, the Somaliland Shilling remains stable around the 8,000 mark and will most likely decrease in inflation in the coming years.

title: Somaliland shilling


text: File:Smcm-seal.png

title: File:Smcm-seal.png


text:
OLS

OLS or Ols may refer to:

 * Oleśnica (German: Öls), Poland
 * Operation Lone Star, Texas border operation
 * Optical landing system, U.S. Navy landing system
 * Order of Luthuli in Silver, a South African honour
 * Ordinary least squares, a method used in regression analysis for estimating linear models
 * Ottawa Linux Symposium, tech conference held annually from 1999 to 2014
 * Oulun Luistinseura, a Finnish multi-sports club
 * The Sims 3: Outdoor Living Stuff, the third stuff pack to The Sims 3
 * Nogales International Airport, Arizona, US (IATA code)

title: OLS


text:
Life of Samuel Johnson

The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. (1791) by James Boswell is a biography of English writer Samuel Johnson. The work was from the beginning a critical and popular success, and represents a landmark in the development of the modern genre of biography. It is notable for its extensive reports of Johnson's conversation. Many have called it the greatest biography written in English, but some modern critics object that the work cannot be considered a proper biography. Boswell's personal acquaintance with his subject began in 1763, when Johnson was 54 years old, and Boswell covered the entirety of Johnson's life by means of additional research. The biography takes many critical liberties with Johnson's life, as Boswell makes various changes to Johnson's quotations and even censors many comments. Nonetheless, the book is valued as both an important source of information on Johnson and his times, as well as an important work of literature.

Background
On 16 May 1763, as a 22-year-old Scot visiting London, Boswell first met Johnson in the book shop of Johnson's friend Tom Davies. They quickly became friends, although for many years they met only when Boswell visited London in the intervals of his law practice in Scotland. From the age of 20, Boswell kept a series of journals thoroughly detailing his day-to-day experience. This journal, when published in the 20th century, filled eighteen volumes, and it was on this large collection of detailed notes that Boswell would base his works on Johnson's life. Johnson, in commenting on Boswell's excessive note-taking, playfully wrote to Hester Thrale, "One would think the man had been hired to spy upon me".

On 6 August 1773, eleven years after first meeting Boswell, Johnson set out to visit his friend in Scotland, to begin "a journey to the western islands of Scotland", as Johnson's 1775 account of their travels would put it. Boswell's account, The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides (1786), published after Johnson's death, was a trial of Boswell's biographical method before commencing his Life of Johnson. With the success of the Journal, Boswell started working on the "vast treasure of his conversations at different times" that he recorded in his journals. His goal was to recreate Johnson's "life in scenes". Because Johnson was 53 when Boswell first met him, the last 20 years of Johnson's life occupy four fifths of the book. Furthermore, as literary critic Donald Greene has pointed out, Boswell could have spent no more than 250 days with Johnson and, therefore, had to have drawn the rest of the material for the Life either from Johnson himself or from secondary sources recounting various incidents.

Before Boswell could publish his Life of Johnson, other friends of Johnson's published or prepared their own biographies or collections of anecdotes on Johnson: John Hawkins, Thrale, Frances Burney, Anna Seward, Elizabeth Montagu, Hannah More, and Horace Walpole among many. The last edition Boswell worked on was the third, published after his death, in 1799.

Biography
There are many biographies and biographers of Samuel Johnson, but James Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson is the best known and most widely read today. Since first publication it has passed through hundreds of editions and, on account of its great length, many selections and abridgements. Yet opinion among 20th-century Johnson scholars such as Edmund Wilson and Donald Greene is that Boswell's Life "can hardly be termed a biography at all", being merely "a collection of those entries in Boswell's diaries dealing with the occasions during the last twenty-two years of Johnson's life on which they met ... strung together with only a perfunctory effort to fill the gaps". Furthermore, Greene claims that the work "began with a well-organized press campaign, by Boswell and his friends, of puffing and of denigration of his rivals; and was given a boost by one of Macaulay's most memorable pieces of journalistic claptrap". Instead of being called a "biography", Greene suggests that the work should be called an "Ana", a sort of table talk. Boswell's original Life, moreover, "corrects" many of Johnson's quotations, censors many of the more vulgar comments, and largely ignores Johnson's early years.

According to American academician William Dowling, the image of Johnson that Boswell creates features elements of "myth": "In a sense, the Life's portrayal of Johnson as a moral hero begins in myth ... As the biographical story unfolds, of course, this image dissolves and there emerges the figure of an infinitely more complex and heroic Johnson whose moral wisdom is won through a constant struggle with despair, whose moral sanity is balanced by personal eccentricities too visible to be ignored, and whose moral penetration derives from his own sense of tragic self-deception. Yet the image never dissolves completely, for in the end we realize there has been an essential truth in the myth all along, that the idealized and disembodied image of Johnson existing in the mind of his public ... In this way the myth serves to expand and authenticate the more complex image of Johnson"."

Modern biographers have since corrected Boswell's errors. This is not to say that Boswell's work is wrong or of no use: scholars such as Walter Jackson Bate appreciate the "detail" and the "treasury of conversation" that it contains. All of Johnson's biographers, according to Bate, have to go through the same "igloo" of material that Boswell had to deal with: limited information about Johnson's first forty years, and an abundance after. Simply put, "Johnson's life continues to hold attention" and "every scrap of evidence relating to Johnson's life has continued to be examined and many more details have been added" because "it is so close to general human experience in a wide variety of ways".

Critical response
Edmund Burke told King George III that the work entertained him more than any other. Robert Anderson, in his Works of the British Poets (1795), wrote: "With some venial exceptions on the score of egotism and indiscriminate admiration, his work exhibits the most copious, interesting, and finished picture of the life and opinions of an eminent man, that was ever executed; and is justly esteemed one of the most instructive and entertaining books in the English language."

John Neal praised Boswell's style in The Portico in 1818. The essay was republished in Emerson's United States Magazine in 1856. "Boswell knew that the charm of Biography is a certain capricious levity that follows all the rambling of conversation; that the Biographer should be utterly forgotten; that the reader should feel acquainted with the man of whom he reads, without remembering a single word that he has read: — but in the execution of these just conceptions, Boswell is continually jogging your elbow, and begging you to forget him; he is incessantly crowding upon your notice. In making you intimately acquainted with his hero, Boswell is not satisfied with telling you, when Samuel Johnson is not like other men upon any occasion; but he overwhelms you with his proofs, that he is like other men, on occasions when every man, hero or not hero, must act like his neighbour. Boswell is not only the Biographer of Johnson in his closet; but he is the biographer of the human species in their most secret retirement."

19th-century criticism
Macaulay's critique in the Edinburgh Review was highly influential and established a way of thinking of Boswell and his Life of Johnson which was to prevail for many years. Macaulay was damning of Croker's editing: "This edition is ill compiled, ill arranged, ill written, and ill printed". And the famously ambivalent opinion Macaulay gave of Boswell himself was that the unquestioned excellence of the Life was possible only because of traits and habits of Boswell's that Macaulay saw as contemptible: "Servile and impertinent, shallow and pedantic, a bigot and a sot, bloated with family pride, and eternally blustering about the dignity of a born gentleman, yet stooping to be a talebearer, an eavesdropper, a common butt in the taverns of London[;] ... such was this man, and such he was content and proud to be". Macaulay also claimed "Boswell is the first of biographers. He has no second. He has distanced all his competitors so decidedly that it is not worth while to place them". Macaulay also criticised (as did Lockhart) what he saw as a lack of discretion in the way the Life reveals Johnson's and others' personal lives, foibles, habits and private conversation; but contended that it was this that made the Life of Johnson a great biography."Without all the qualities which made him the jest and the torment of those among whom he lived, without the officiousness, the inquisitiveness, the effrontery, the toad-eating, the insensitivity to all reproof, he could never have produced so excellent a book. He was a slave, proud of his servitude, a Paul Pry, convinced that his own curiosity and garrulity were virtues, an unsafe companion who never scrupled to repay the most liberal hospitality by the basest violation of confidence, a man without delicacy, without shame, without sense enough to know when he was hurting the feelings of others or when he was exposing himself to derision; and because he was all this, he has, in an important department of literature, immeasurably surpassed such writers as Tacitus, Clarendon, Alfieri, and his own idol Johnson." Macaulay noted that Boswell could give a detailed account only of Johnson's later years: "We know him [Johnson], not as he was known to men of his own generation, but as he was known to men whose father he might have been" and that long after Johnson's own works had been forgotten, he would be remembered through Boswell's Life: ... that strange figure which is as familiar to us as the figures of those among whom we have been brought up, the gigantic body, the huge massy face, seamed with the scars of disease, the brown coat, the black worsted stockings, the grey wig with the scorched foretop, the dirty hands, the nails bitten and pared to the quick. We see the eyes and mouth moving with convulsive twitches; we see the heavy form rolling; we hear it puffing; and then comes the "Why sir!" and "What then, sir?" and the "No, sir!" and the "You don't see your way through the question, sir!"

What a singular destiny has been that of this remarkable man! To be regarded in his own age as a classic, and in ours as a companion. To receive from his contemporaries that full homage which men of genius have in general received only from posterity! To be more intimately known to posterity than other men are known to their contemporaries! That kind of fame which is commonly the most transient is, in his case, the most durable. The reputation of those writings, which he probably expected to be immortal, is every day fading; while those peculiarities of manner and that careless table-talk the memory of which, he probably thought, would die with him, are likely to be remembered as long as the English language is spoken in any quarter of the globe ..." Thomas Carlyle wrote two essays in Fraser's Magazine in 1832 in review of Croker's edition. The first of Carlyle's two essays, on 'Biography', appeared in issue 27, with the second, 'Boswell's Life of Johnson', in issue 28. Carlyle wanted more than facts from histories and biographies: "The thing I want to see is not Redbook Lists and Court Calendars, and Parliamentary Registers, but the LIFE OF MAN in England: what men did, thought, suffered, enjoyed; the form, especially the spirit, of their terrestrial existence, its outward environment, its inward principle; how and what it was; whence it proceeded, whither it was tending." Carlyle professed to find this in the Life, even in its simplest anecdotes: "Some slight, perhaps mean and even ugly incident if real and well presented, will fix itself in a susceptive memory and lie ennobled there ". Consequently, "This Book of Boswell’s will give us more real insight into the History of England during those days that twenty other Books, falsely entitled “Histories” which take to themselves that special aim". "How comes it," Carlyle asked, "that in England we have simply one good Biography, this Boswell’s Johnson?" Carlyle shared Macaulay's unfavourable verdict on Croker's editorial efforts: "there is simply no edition of Boswell to which this last would seem preferable". Carlyle did not, however, share Macaulay's view of Boswell's character. Boswell, though "a foolish, inflated creature, swimming in an element of self-conceit" ), had had, said Carlyle, the great good sense to admire and attach himself to Dr Johnson (an attachment which had little to offer materially) and the open loving heart which Carlyle thought indispensable for knowing and vividly uttering forth : Boswell wrote a good Book because he had a heart and an eye to discern Wisdom, and an utterance to render it forth; because of his free insight, his lively talent, above all, of his Love and childlike Open-mindedness. His sneaking sycophancies, his greediness and forwardness, whatever was bestial and earthy in him, are so many blemishes in his Book, which still disturb us in its clearness; wholly hindrances, not helps. Towards Johnson, however, his feeling was not Sycophancy, which is the lowest, but Reverence, which is the highest of human feelings.

That loose-flowing, careless-looking Work of his is as a picture by one of Nature's own Artists; the best possible resemblance of a Reality; like the very image thereof in a clear mirror. Which indeed it was: let but the mirror be clear, this is the great point; the picture must and will be genuine. How the babbling Bozzy, inspired only by love, and the recognition and vision which love can lend, epitomises nightly the words of Wisdom, the deeds and aspects of Wisdom, and so, by little and little, unconsciously works together for us a whole Johnsoniad; a more free, perfect, sunlit and spirit-speaking likeness than for many centuries had been drawn by man of man!

20th-century reassessment
More recent critics have been mostly positive. Frederick Pottle calls the Life "the crowning achievement of an artist who for more than twenty five years had been deliberately disciplining himself for such a task." W. K. Wimsatt argues, "the correct response to Boswell is to value the man through the artist, the artist in the man". Leopold Damrosch claims that the work is of those that "do not lend themselves very easily to the usual categories by which the critic explains and justifies his admiration". Walter Jackson Bate emphasised the uniqueness of the work when he says "nothing comparable to it had existed. Nor has anything comparable been written since, because that special union of talents, opportunities, and subject matter has never been duplicated."

However, Leopold Damrosch sees problems with Boswell's Life if viewed as a conventional biography: "[T]he usual claim that it is the world's greatest biography seems to me seriously misleading. In the first place, it has real defects of organization and structure; in the second place (and more importantly) it leaves much to be desired as the comprehensive interpretation of a life." Similarly, although Donald Greene thought that Boswell's The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides a "splendid performance", he felt that the Life was inadequate and Johnson's later years deserved a more accurate biography.

Notable editions
The first edition of Boswell's work appeared on May 16, 1791, in two quarto volumes, with 1,750 copies printed. Once this was exhausted, a second edition in three octavo volumes was published in July 1793. This second edition was augmented by "many valuable additions," which were appended to the 1791 text; according to Boswell's own "Advertisement," "These have I ordered to be printed separately in quarto, for the accommodation of the purchasers of the first edition." The third edition, appearing in 1799 after Boswell's death, was the responsibility of Edmond Malone, who had been instrumental in the preparation of the previous editions. Malone inserted the additions in the text, adding some bracketed and credited notes by himself and other contributors, including Boswell's son James. This third edition has been regarded as definitive by many editors. Malone brought out further editions in 1804, 1807, and 1811.

In 1831, John Wilson Croker produced a new edition which was swiftly condemned in reviews by Thomas Macaulay and Thomas Carlyle. The weakness of Croker's notes, criticized by both reviewers, is acknowledged by George Birkbeck Hill: "His remarks and criticisms far too often deserve the contempt that Macaulay so liberally poured on them. Without being deeply versed in books, he was shallow in himself." More objectionably, Croker interpolated into his Boswell text from the contemporaneous rival biographies of Johnson. Carlyle reviews and denounces the editor's procedure as follows:"Four Books Mr. C. had by him, wherefrom to gather light for the fifth, which was Boswell's. What does he do but now, in the placidest manner,—slit the whole five into slips, and sew these together into a sextum quid, exactly at his own convenience; giving Boswell the credit of the whole! By what art-magic, our readers ask, has he united them? By the simplest of all: by Brackets. Never before was the full virtue of the Bracket made manifest. You begin a sentence under Boswell's guidance, thinking to be carried happily through it by the same: but no; in the middle, perhaps after your semicolon, and some consequent 'for,'—starts up one of these Bracket-ligatures, and stitches you in from half a page to twenty or thirty pages of a Hawkins, Tyers, Murphy, Piozzi; so that often one must make the old sad reflection, Where we are, we know; whither we are going, no man knoweth!"A new edition by George Birkbeck Hill was published in 1887 and returned to the standard of the third edition text. Hill's work in six volumes is copiously annotated, and became standard to such an extent that when in the 20th century, L. F. Powell was commissioned to revise it (1934–64), Hill's pagination was retained. The single-volume edition by R. W. Chapman (1953) also remains in print, published by Oxford University Press.

In 1917, Charles Grosvenor Osgood (1871–1964) published an abridged edition, which is available via Project Gutenberg.

General and cited references and further reading

 * Anderson, Robert ed. Works of the British Poets. Vol. XI. London, 1795.
 * Brady, Frank. "Boswell's Self-Presentation and His Critics." SEL: Studies in English Literature 1500–1900, Vol. 12, No. 3, (Summer, 1972), pp. 545–555
 * Burke, Edmund. Correspondence of Edmund Burke, Vol. VI ed. Alfred Cobban and R. A. Smith. Chicago, 1958–1968.
 * Damrosch, Leopold. "The Life of Johnson: An Anti-Theory." Eighteenth-Century Studies, Vol. 6, No. 4, (Summer, 1973), pp. 486–505
 * Dowling, William. "Biographer, Hero, and Audience in Boswell's Life of Johnson." SEL: Studies in English Literature 1500–1900 Vol. 20, No. 3 (Summer, 1980), pp. 475–491
 * Greene, Donald. "Do We Need a Biography of Johnson's "Boswell" Years?" Modern Language Studies, Vol. 9, No. 3, (Autumn 1979), pp. 128–136
 * Johnson, Samuel. Letters of Samuel Johnson Vol II, ed. R. W. Chapman. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1952.
 * Lustig, Irma S. "Boswell's Literary Criticism in the Life of Johnson" SEL: Studies in English Literature 1500–1900 Vol 6, No 3 (Summer 1966) pp. 529–541
 * Pottle, Frederick. The Literary Career of James Boswell, Esquire. Oxford, 1929.
 * Tankard, Paul, ed. "The Lives of Johnson." Facts and Inventions: Selections from the Journalism of James Boswell. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2014. ISBN 978-0-300-14126-9
 * Wimsatt, W. K. "The Fact Imagined: James Boswell, in Hateful Contraries, ed. William K Wimsatt. Lexington, Kentucky: University of Kentucky Press, 1965
 * Pottle, Frederick. The Literary Career of James Boswell, Esquire. Oxford, 1929.
 * Tankard, Paul, ed. "The Lives of Johnson." Facts and Inventions: Selections from the Journalism of James Boswell. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2014. ISBN 978-0-300-14126-9
 * Wimsatt, W. K. "The Fact Imagined: James Boswell, in Hateful Contraries, ed. William K Wimsatt. Lexington, Kentucky: University of Kentucky Press, 1965
 * Wimsatt, W. K. "The Fact Imagined: James Boswell, in Hateful Contraries, ed. William K Wimsatt. Lexington, Kentucky: University of Kentucky Press, 1965

title: Life of Samuel Johnson


text:
Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee Elections December 2004/Candidate statements/Endorsements/Chuck F

Support

 * Support - A vote for Chuck is a vote for kindness in the arbcom committeChuck F 04:57, 25 Nov 2004 (UTC)

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 * Oppose - Not been around long enough. see. --Rebroad 13:29, 30 Nov 2004 (UTC)