LATIN AMERICAN MIGRANT MONEY

                        The amount of money sent home by migrant workers to their families in Latin America

hás reached more than $62bn. According to the Inter-American Investiment Bank, the figure could reach $100bn in four years’ time. This report from Duncan Kennedy:

                        Money from migrant workers now exceeds the combined total of all direct foreign aid to Latin America

– sixty-two-point-three billion dollars. Twenty-three billion dollars of that was sent back to México, mostly from workers living in the United States. I now along with oil and tourism as Mexico’s biggest foreign currency earner.

                        The Inter-American Development Bank, which supports the region with aid and other help, says the remittances, as they´re known, will increase by about fifteen percent a year during the next four years, topping one-hundred billion dollars by 2010. The bank describes the money as a very effective poverty reduction programme because it keeps between eight and ten million families above the poverty line. But it says it also means the economies of the region are not generating enough jobs to keep workers from leaving in the first place. Another problem is that as much of the money is sent back in small amounts, it´s difficult to track. The average is between a hundred and a hundred-and-fifty dollars a month. That in turn makes it an unpredictable source of revenue for governments to tap into. The bank says it wants people to get away from what it calls cash to cash flows and into account to account transfers but the bank says the recent crackdown on illegal immigrants by the American authorities could hinder efforts to get migrants to use Banks.

(Duncan Kennedy, BBC, México City)

(UFRS)

DRIVEN BY CARS

         It's 2050 and one American passion has withstood the test of time: we like to drive. You decide to hit the road. First, you unplug your car from your house. That's right - your car's fuel cells (those hydrogen-powered devices) turn out enough electricy for your home and your car.

         You settle into the driver's seat and grasp the joystick (steering wheels and pedals are history). All movements of the car - accelerating, turning, braking - are controlled by a joystick familiar to anyone brought up on computer games. You drive in traffic with absolute confidence. Your car is programmed with radar to sense a crash before it happens and activate the brakers.

        

         An alarm sounds. The sensor in the instrument panel has checked the pupils of your eyes and decided you are getting sleepy. You pull over into the "sleep lane". You lay a route on your satellite-guided navigation system, switch the autopilot on and climb into the back seat for a sleep. The car, reading computer chips in the road, takes over the driving.

         This is not science fiction. Automakers are spending billions researching all these futuristic features. General Motors has tried out an "intelligent highway" in California that allows cars to drive on autopilot. Daimler Chrysler fits prototype cars with joystick and many drivers operate them better than steering wheels. Every carmaker is rushing to replace the internal combustion engine with fuel cells. Satellite navigation systems are already on the road. Soon your car will be driving you.

APOSTILA DO CURSO OBJETIVO - VESTIBULARES - 2012.