Don't expect too logical a thread on this
Brazil
I have a longstanding desire to visit Rio de Janeiro, but that (along with my desire to visit Japan) will remain unfulfilled.
Not during Carnival, or during the World Cup in 2014 or the Olympics in 2016 - I hate crowds. Just at a normal time.
Brazil has one of the world's fastest growing economies, and may finally be reaching its potential. I hope at the same time that they are not sacrificing the amazing Amazon rain forest (one of the greatest of nature's miracles) to get there.
Think of Brazil, think of stereotypes. Football (North America = soccer), samba, what else?
Meanwhile if you want to upset your fundamentalist believing friends (Muslims will hate it, and I am not sure that strict Christians will be too kind towards its contents either), then try the following YouTube video. Yes, it is suggestive, but I would not suggest that it is obscene. Parents with children, I would put a 15+ rating on it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Mf_PTB8juc
Argentina
I would also like to visit Buenos Aires.
And I wish that the British and Argentinians would stop treating the nondescript Falkland Islands as one of the world's more important locations. I recall during the 1980s that the abominable Margaret Thatcher thought that it was more worthwhile spending millions protecting a remote outpost of a near-redundant Empire (but never underestimate the influence of the Empire Loyalists who have won the argument for power in the UK Conservative party, so looking backwards makes more sense than looking forwards) with a population of 4,000 rather than investing in industrial regeneration to meet the needs of over 10 million people in the North of England.
Eventually one good thing came out of the Falklands war - namely the vicious evil neo-Fascist junta in Argentina was booted out and democracy restored.
These days they are still a renegade state where the international community is concerned. That they defaulted on their debt and went their own way despite the expectations of the global economy shows an independent outlook.
Has it succeeded? I keep wondering whether the Greeks (and possibly, given the culturally close ties, the Spanish) might have benefited from sending emissaries to Buenos Aires to see if the approach might have worked.
Given my pro-EU attitudes, I am likely to think not, but also given my belief that the neo-liberal economics that wrecked the world economy needs dropping for something more pragmatic and less theoretical (and something that works for the mass of the population not just the very rich - capitalism for the masses, now that is an interesting concept. Maybe one day we ought to try it!) also suggests to me that the Argentinian approach needs a closer study.
Stereotypes? On YouTube and elsewhere there is a lot of interesting material on the culture of the Gauchos (not all Argentinians by any means are Gauchos - it is a very specific part of Argentinian rural society. I personally find their history and their continued existence quite fascinating).
And if Brazil has the samba, Argentina has the tango. Once described as the "world's sexiest dance" (not too sure about that - compare some of the samba videos from Brazil), it has a style and an artistry that is quite its own.
Loads of YouTube possibilities, try for one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXhQNRsH3uc
Not just Africa
I recall seeing some stats a few years ago that the number of people in Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia who were living below the poverty line was over 50%. More than half the population living in poverty?
Any wonder that the likes of Chavez in Venezuela could seem appealing to the masses in those countries? Why do we always ignore poverty? Given all the screaming about "left-wing" governments (as they now have in Bolivia and Ecuador) did you ever wonder that the global economy fixes that South America was offered in the 1980s and 1990s were more part of the problem than the solution?
Are things improving in Bolivia and Ecuador now? I cannot comment. But there have to be a raising up of people from the bottom, opportunities, work ethic, and a removal of debt from the equation. Quite how you do it? Good question, but I wish the people of the Andean republics well.
The missing or the disappeared
Your daughter is in hospital giving birth. Two days later, still suffering from post-natal depression, she is taken away by security forces, placed in a torture chamber, electronic currents are passed through her body to get "confessions" from her, eventually she dies, and her body is dumped (probably in the neighbouring ocean) where it can never be found.
This happened more than once under the Pinochet regime in Chile in the 1980s. Thousands of other people simply disappeared - to be tortured and killed, among them Catholic priests who opposed the regime. Michelle Bachelet, later the democratically elected President of Chile, was also subjected to torture, though fortunately survived.
The junta in Argentina (see above) took thousands off the streets, tortured and killed them. No word of their fate was ever issued, and it has taken a massive amount of research to discover what happened to them.
Check out the websites of Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International if you want more complete details.
These acts should never be forgotten and must never be allowed to occur again (and, in the name of balance, I would also say the same about the perpetrators of such acts occurring under Communist regimes elsewhere in the world). Those involved, still alive and still at liberty should be held accountable still. There are, or should be, official legal systems to deal with those who undertake dangerous criminal actions - those that exceed what is to be expected or permitted within a democratic context. Torture though is an absolute non-starter.
Drug lords
Parts of Mexico have started to resemble feudal societies where the drug lords run the whole area, and are beyond the control of the government.
How do you fix this? Cutting demand in the user countries would help (so would legalisation, but I remain opposed to that - see the article that I previously wrote on the subject). Educating people on the use of drugs and the need for them would help cut the profits of the drug lords, which in turn would help Mexico deal with its criminal gangs.
Taking the glamour out of drug culture? OK - anyone got any imaginative solutions?
No comments:
Post a Comment