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As a visitor to Latin America, environmental issues seem to lie
all around you. Squalor, too, seems to be everywhere. Even the
roads from many international airports to their city centers are
lined with squatter shacks and grimy informal restaurants, bars
and vendor stalls. But as a resident, this is the reality: There
is no alternative place to live nor any reason to believe things
will change soon. (pp. 3-4)
To become sustainable, Latin America needs real democracy to
create the leverage for its citizens to demand a cleaner environment
and the services they need to survive. (p. 4)
Contact informs strategic advocacy work on one or both sides
of the North-South divide. Lives can be changed. The same can
be said of academic programs in the region and of linkages between
universities and other schools ... Rather than merely observing
these issues from afar and wringing our hands, we need to be engaged.
Institutions can be changed. (pp. 205-206)
Study and travel in Latin America and connections between communities
and universities across the North-South divide can create lasting
bonds and new directions of change. And we need to call for a
drastic rethinking of priorities in international aid and finance.
Aid needs to support solutions which address social and environmental
problems at the same time. (pp. 210-211)
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