The name means "the place of the singing stone" in the language of the Guaraní Indians. Now Itaipu has a new significance: it is the name of the largest hydroelectric dam in the world, an $18.5 billion structure that was officially dedicated last week by Brazilian President João Baptista Figueiredo and his Paraguayan counterpart, Alfredo Stroessner. Said Figueiredo after the two heads of state pulled a lever opening the dam's orange-colored floodgates: "This is an example for developing countries. Itaipu shows that our people are capable of developing our own technology."
Itaipu is...