RON JACOBS
Although the rhetoric against the left-leaning governments in Latin America in the US media has calmed down since the Obama administration moved into the White House, it is safe to assume that the continuing popularity of these governments and their alliances with those Washington considers enemies concerns the foreign policy establishment. As Argentine journalist Martin Sivak's biography of Bolivian president Evo Morales makes clear, that concern is justified. This book, titled Evo Morales: The Extraordinary Rise of the First Indigenous President of Bolivia, makes it clear that this new generation of leaders is intent on altering the historical relationship between Washington and its neighbors to the South.
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Off topic:
ReplyDelete"We were initially worried that people might get angry," admits Sepp. "Hell, I'd get angry if anyone tried to top Pink Floyd. But the lyrics seemed to fit Iran so perfectly."
The pair began by recording the song and sending it to Roger Waters, one of Pink Floyd's founders. "We didn't want to do it without his approval, but he emailed back right away and said: 'From here on in, that version of the <span><span>song</span></span><span><img></img></span> is yours.'"
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/ayatollah-leave-those-kids-alone-ndash-pink-floyd-get-an-iranian-twist-2038005.html
<p><span>"Certain hierarchs of the Catholic Church in Latin America used prayer as an anesthesia to put the people to sleep. When they cannot dominate us with law, then comes prayer, and when they can't humiliate or dominate us with prayer, then comes the gun."</span>
ReplyDelete</p><p><span>Evo Morales, President of Bolivia (July 13, 2009)</span></p>
<span>this new generation of leaders is intent on altering the historical relationship between Washington and its neighbors to the South.</span><span>
ReplyDelete</span>
...which [in turn] is enabled by a new correlation of forces:
Our "Rise of the Rest" series, of which this is the third iteration, has examined both sides of that rather dramatic proposition: first of all, the emergence, which seems reasonable, of an important group of states for whom Western ideas have little resonance or relevance; and, perhaps even more dramatic for us sitting in New York, the decline of U.S. and Western influence, the corollary of that proposition. Last year, Devin, in the second conference [2008], spoke of the different ways in which this could be termed—"The Rise of the Rest," "The World Without the West," "The Second World," or "The Post-American World." All of these are terms that we wrestled with and tried to parse. If we think this is overly hyperbolic or overdramatic—Devin, I guess this comes under the category of, "Success has a thousand parents and failure is an orphan"—the Financial Times actually gives the credit for the acronym "BRIC" to the chief economist of Goldman Sachs, Jim O'Neill. In this recent article in the Financial Times, it says that O'Neill has "redrawn the powerbrokers' cognitive map, helping them to articulate a fundamental shift of influence away from the Western world."
And from the Economist Intelligence Unit:
ReplyDeleteThe shift of gravity in the global economy towards today's emerging markets continues to be led by the BRICs. But the rise of emerging markets is broader than the story of these four countries, and investors are increasingly interested in a new tier of countries beyond the BRICs. Which other sizeable emerging markets are well placed for sustained high growth? The CIVETS (Colombia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey and South Africa) look the best bet.