Ottawa
Big bottoms: Two Canadian airlines announced this week that they would allow obese people to purchase two seats for the price of one, but only with a doctor’s note. The Supreme Court of Canada recently ruled that the obese have to be treated equally by airlines. But Air Canada and WestJet say they shouldn’t be required to give out extra seats to fat people who are merely uncomfortable in a single seat but are not truly “disabled.” So they have devised a form that asks doctors to measure a potential passenger’s posterior. Obesity activists say the requirement is degrading, while the Canadian Medical Association says it “shows a disregard for the use of scarce medical resources.”
Mexico City
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Less money from U.S.: The amount of money sent home by Mexican migrant workers in the U.S. dropped last year for the first time on record. The remittances, Mexico’s second largest source of foreign income after oil, dove 3.6 percent to $25 billion in 2008, compared with $26 billion the previous year, the central bank said. Mexican Finance Minister Agustin Carstens said the economy’s ability to weather the global financial crisis would depend largely on the success of the U.S. stimulus plan. But other Mexican analysts said the U.S. recession was only partly to blame. They said the U.S. crackdown on illegal immigration last year prevented many Mexicans from finding work.
La Paz, Bolivia
Charter passes: In a victory for President Evo Morales, Bolivians this week approved a new constitution that enshrines indigenous rights and gives the president more power. The new constitution allows Morales to run for a second consecutive five-year term and gives him the power to dissolve Congress and call new elections, which he is expected to do within weeks. It also gives the mostly poor indigenous tribes a greater share of profits from natural resources on their land and allows them to use their own traditional systems of justice rather than the national courts. “Now we begin, brothers and sisters, to arrive at true equality for all Bolivians,” said Morales, Bolivia’s first indigenous president. More than half of Bolivia’s people are members of indigenous tribes.
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Dust bowl: Argentina declared a farm emergency this week after the worst drought in decades devastated crops. President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner said the worst-hit farmers would be exempt from taxes for at least a year. But farmers say they will need more help than that. “What’s at stake is much more than a harvest,” said Argentine Agrarian Federation head Eduardo Buzzi. “There is desolation and uncertainty.” Some fields are littered with the carcasses of cows, while others are turning to sand as wind erodes the parched soil. Without immediate rain, up to half of the country’s crops could be lost. The cattle herd has already been depleted by at least 25 percent. Argentina is one of the world’s top five exporters of soy, wheat, corn, and beef.
