32 posts tagged “politics”
I was leaving Seattle when I found this gentleman. He had recently come back from a tour of duty in Baghdad and I was so curious I just had to talk with him and get his impressions.
He said that war is hell, but he had to fulfill his duty which doesn't surprise me. As much as I disagree with the reasons why they are there, I hope that both the soldiers and the people of Iraq can weather the current situation.
I was quite touched since he's the first person I've ever met that is involved in a war, and talking to him he seemed pretty normal guy. I couldn't help but wonder what would I do if I ever were in a similar situation.
On a recent flight I saw Charlie Wilson's War, and it brought to the silver screen (or LCD, in this case) a couple of interesting points. We already knew that for the Soviets the invasion of Afghanistan was an equivalent of the Vietnam War for the Americans, but I didn't know that many details (still sketchy, after all, it's only a movie) on the American covert operations there.
The movie is funny and well-paced, but one thing that I would have liked to see more is a better job at bringing home the point that some of the "freedom fighters" of the 80's became the "terrorists" of the 2000's due to neglect.
Interestingly enough, I remember some of the newsclips shown in the film, even though then I was a small kid.
Finland has a continuous history of being a non-aligned country, but some politicians hereabouts have started to wonder whether they should be joining NATO. They know that they would be most welcome, but domestic public opinion seems to oppose it, preferring the status quo of universal military conscription. Somebody close to me summarised the situation with the following line:
"Who do I trust to defend Finland, crooked foreign politicians or drunken Finnish teenagers?".
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.
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?
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
