I found out this article at Martín Varsavsky's blog, and found it extremely interesting… and sad. As he says, one side promises virgins, the other citizenship. They all want cannon fodder.
Tag Archives: politics
Renegotiating NAFTA is not a good idea
Let's hope that this is only empty rethoric, as the United States would be shooting itself on its own foot, and damaging its relationship with its neighbours to boot. More information in the Economist.
Answering Ohio
It is said that Hillary Clinton won Ohio due to her opposition to NAFTA (an initiative that her husband put into force, by the way). I understand that Ohio has lost quite a few jobs during the last 15 years, but renegotiating free trade is not a solution.
The American consumer on one hand loves low prices, which needless to say are helped by free trade. On the other side, however, the same person, now as American voter is afraid of the state of the American economy, and would like to protect it as much as possible.
The problem is, however, that the Ohio voter is between a rock and a hard place for one reason: if the United States shuts the door to free trade, many of those employed producing goods for the American market abroad will lose their jobs, and I wouldn't be surprised if they would try to migrate to find a better life.
Therefore, the question is the following: free trade or immigration?
Special report on migration by the Economist
I found this special report in the Economist last month, and was meaning to comment on it here. I am not surprised by the general optimistic tone of the report, and being an immigrant myself I'm probably not the most impartial person to comment on its benefits for the immigrant, the origin and host countries.
One thing that I would like to bring to the fore, is however, the backlash against immigration and immigrants currently going on in many places around the world. Given that many people don't see the benefits for them, they strongly oppose it, with sometimes rather ugly attitudes showing up.
P.S. Mexico’s 33rd state
On my way back from Mexico I picked up Newsweek magazine's yearly edition of the issues that will dominate in the next 12 months. I was rather surprised when I found this article by former Mexican foreign minister Jorge Castañeda, where he explains a very interesting manifestation of the law of unintended consequences, if such exists.
He argues that the border fence that the United States has started to build to keep illegal immigration out is instead keeping them in. Before, it used to be a cyclical phenomenon where people would cross, work in the United States for a season and then move back to Mexico. Nowadays, they cannot risk going back and not being able to return, so when they are able to cross they stay and try to bring their families along. That's most probably the opposite of what the proponents of this initiative originally wanted.
Whereas I don't agree with breaking the law, the first step in fixing a problem is acknowledging that it exists and what its reasons are. As we've seen initiatives like this don't seem to help much.
Government ads
Why is it that in countries like Mexico or Brazil you are constantly bombarded by ads that promote government initiatives whereas in other places such as Finland or Belgium that is a completely alien concept?
Why can't the government focus on doing its job instead of just shouting around and wasting money on that?
Contrapunto
De pura casualidad durante mi visita en México me encontré un programa de discusión y análisis de tópicos de política y economía nacional llamado Contrapunto, el cual por desgracia ya ha sido cancelado. En esta ocasión la conductora y los invitados discutieron sobre el balance de México en 2007 y las perspectivas para 2008. Me quedo con los siguientes puntos:
- Aunque la economía mexicana se ha mostrado fuerte durante el año, está por ver qué tanto resistiría una probable recesión en Estados Unidos, dada la fuerte interacción comercial entre ambos países.
- Las reformas que necesita el país siguen (y seguirán) estancadas, y seguiremos con medidas a la Frankenstein.
- Aún así, no ha habido un colapso como se esperaba después de un 2006 tan crispado.
Libro Recomendado: Cuentos Chinos
Andrés Oppenheimer otra vez saca un libro sobre actualidad latinoamericana altamente recomendable. Aunque en algunas cosas se nota un poco que fue escrito hace ya dos años, en general se trata de un libro que nos muestra qué es lo que han hecho los países que sí se han subido al tren de la globalización y el desarrollo y por qué Latinoamérica aún no ha hecho lo propio, con resultados mediocres.
Me quedo con tres reflexiones:
-Países como México o Argentina harían bien con seguir el ejemplo de Corea del Sur, que con un consenso político ha alcanzado niveles de desarrollo que ya quisiéramos nosotros con una tamaño de población similar.
-Sabía que Brasil se trata de posicionar como el líder de la región, pero no estaba enterado que por eso han empezado a referirse a la integración de Sudamérica en lugar de Latinoamérica (que incluiría a México, el único país que tal vez le haría sombra). Obviamente, las políticas de Tlatelolco tampoco han ayudado mucho en contrarrestar esta jugada de Itamaratí.
-El crecimiento actual de las economías argentina y brasileña, dependiente de los precios elevados de las materias primas, no es sustentable al largo plazo a menos a que decidan invertir esas ganancias en otros negocios. Si no, pregúntenle a México cuando iba a “administrar la abundancia” bajo la presidencia de López Portillo.
The US and the world
On my way to Mexico I read the year end issue of Newsweek, which was dedicated to the standing of the United States in the world. Finally it seems that some policymakers have realised that not even the only remaining global superpower can go it alone. Let's hope that the next President agrees.
Ethics, propaganda and marketing
Following a story doing the rounds in Slashdot, I found this article that details the American propaganda machine in Iraq and Afghanistan. Wheareas I definitely understand the rationale for the Americans to give their version of events, it makes me rather uneasy that they do so posing as a neutral party, thereby undermining their own credibility.
If you're a brand, that's something you should never do as audiences hate discovering they are being cheated, even if your brand is called USA.