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President Obama's Latin Challenge
By Tim Padgett | Time
Few things have peeved Latin America more than Washington's hypocrisy regarding coups. Overthrowing our friends at gunpoint is bad, the traditional U.S. line seemed to go, but toppling our foes — even the democratically elected ones — is O.K. So it surprised Latin Americans when U.S. President Barack Obama condemned the June 28 military ouster of leftist Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, a critic of the U.S., and called for his return to office. "We respect the universal principle that people should choose their own leaders," Obama said, "whether they are leaders we agree with or not."
Obama got off to a good start in Latin America, engaging leaders and promising a new attitude from Washington. The problem with the shift on coups is that Latin America now expects action to back it up. Honduras is Obama's first hemispheric crisis. There are obviously higher White House priorities right now, and Obama insists he's diligently working for a negotiated solution. But diplomats from Brasília to Mexico City say they fear he's only half-heartedly pressuring Honduras' new government to let Zelaya back in to finish his term, a perception that could squander the trust he's built. That might create problems down the road — for America and the Americas alike.
Obama is stuck in the New World's new paradox. Latin America today is less dependent on Washington, and less tolerant of its interventionism, than it has been for decades, thanks to the counterweight of rising star Brazil and the anti-U.S. gospel of Venezuela's oil-rich leftist President, Hugo Chávez. Yet for all that newfound self-reliance, Latin America still looks to the U.S.'s superpower leadership to put the squeeze on rogues like the Honduran coupsters. No other force in the western hemisphere, not Brazil, and certainly not the Organization of American States, wields the requisite economic and diplomatic clout to resolve the standoff. >>> Go to Full Story >>>
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Poverty, Education and Equality: Argentina's Bicentennial Highlights the Challenges Facing Latin America
From Universia-Knowledge@Wharton
The official re-opening of Buenos Aires' newly refurbished Teatro Colon, famous for its extraordinary acoustics, will be only one of the ways that Argentina will observe next year's 200th anniversary of the May Revolution of 1810, which signaled the beginning of the country’s independence from Spain. There will be numerous public events, patriotic ceremonies headed by President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, university seminars and conferences, and the publication of relevant books to celebrate the formation of Argentina as a country. Over the past two centuries, the nation has had its share of accomplishments, but it has also suffered many setbacks, such as successive military coups beginning in 1930 until 1983, when democracy was restored.
Other Latin American countries have a similar historic timeline, so a Bicentenary Group was established in 2007, comprising those countries that will commemorate their bicentennials between 2009 and 2011, such as Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Bolivia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Mexico, Paraguay and Venezuela. Spain also decided to participate in the group "in order to build a stronger and more cohesive Ibero-American community capable of facing the common challenges of the current economic crisis more effectively," said Spainish Prime Minister José Luis Zapatero during an event that officially marked the beginning of the bicentennial celebration of Ibero-American independence.
According to experts, the bicentennial is a symbolic milestone that will help people to reflect on the region's advances and setbacks. The main challenges facing Latin America, they say, are its continued high levels of poverty and economic exclusion; the lack of a strong educational system and competitive economic model; and the need for stronger political parties that can defend the foundations of democracy more effectively. >>> Go to Full Story >>>
By Simon Briscoe in London / Financial Times
The top 10 in the list of "greenest and happiest" nations is dominated by Latin America and the Caribbean
That the top 10 in the list of "greenest and happiest" nations is dominated by Latin America might raise a few eyebrows, as the region is better known in the western imagination for its slums, inequality and coups.
But the Latin Americans score highly, the report suggests, due to non-material aspirations and strong social capital among friends and relatives. The grim performance of the developed world might also prompt some westerners to cast doubt over the value of the report. Among the rich nations, the highest placed country is the Netherlands — but it manages only 43rd.
Costa Rica, the country of fewer than 5m people sandwiched between Panama and Nicaragua, tops a new global ranking for combining a happy and long life with limited environmental degradation.
The country blends beautiful countryside, a great diversity of species and has long since got rid of its army. The merger of its energy and environment ministries has reversed deforestation and helped it produce 99 per cent of its energy from renewable sources. It has also scored highly, relative to other developing countries, in surveys of poverty, press freedom and democracy.
The Happy Planet Index, "Why good lives don’t have to cost the earth", published by the UK-based new economics foundation, combines measures of life expectancy, happiness and ecological footprint to assess the sustainability of growth in 143 countries.
The challenge for the west, the report says, is not to keep increasing incomes but to aim for more meaningful lives and stronger social ties. >>> Go to Full Story >>>
