News Summaries in June 2023

 “Paraguay’s 500-Mile Ferryboat,” New York Times, June 29, 2023

 

For 44 years the Aquidaban, a 130-foot wooden boat, has ferried all sorts of people 500 miles up and down the Paraguay River, providing a unique service that ties together many people who otherwise would be isolated. Its days are numbered though because a new transcontinental highway is reducing its revenue from shipping cargo and the funds needed to keep it afloat are dwindling.  And so an era appears to be ending.  “This landlocked nation of seven million in South America has for generations attracted a steady parade of zealots, idealists, and outcasts from abroad,” notes Times reporter Jack Nicas. “And for decades the boat was one of the few places where all these groups mixed.”  The new road construction is part of a transportation corridor that aims to extend from Brazil to Chile and connect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. 


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