What We're Reading This Week - July 31, 2015

Senor Hector was reading about Latin American innovation this week. He contributed several links on that subject as well as links on a variety of topics.

But you knew this already: Andres Oppenheimer writes in el Nuevo Herald that Latin America is more creative than China or India. Es claro!

When it comes to urban planning and architecture Latin America is definitely taking some chances and innovating some new approaches. Justin McGuirk explores Latin America's new ideas for making urban areas work in Radical Cities: Across Latin America in Search of a New Architecture reviewed in The Guardian by Alexandra Lange

As Marcelo Guigale writes in the Financial Times, with the challenges facing Latin American exporters, they will have to be more creative in order to thrive going down the road.

Andres Oppenheimer also writes about Latin America's urgent need to be innovate here in the Miami Herald.

China is on everyone's mind this week. La Estrella De Panama has an article on how the slowing Chinese economy is effecting Panama and it's canal.

The BBC Mexico bureau expresses their concern regarding Chinese investment in Latin America here.

On the brighter side Chilean wines are well loved and there are a lot of different varieties available these days. El Tiempo has something to say about the export of Chilean cheer.

In Venezuela contraceptives are in very short supply. This is not good. Read about it in El Nacional

On the policy wonk side Juan Francisco Salazar writes on Latin America's changing vision of it's future in The Conversation

Policy is playing out on the street level in Bogota where taxi drivers are protesting competition from Uber. El Pais has a story on the action.

The Economist has a story low cost private schools in poor countries and another on the early stages of the Argentine presidential race.

Chinese Colonialism Makes Americans and Europeans Nervous.

Clifford Krause and Keith Bradsher have an excellent New York Times piece on China’s involvement in Ecuador. It’s a high level account of the impacts on Ecuador’s economy, politics, and ordinary people, of China’s $ megabillion investment in a country that struggles to keep up with almost everything, from infrastructure, to public service, to debt repayment. It’s hard for an American not to come away with a combined feeling of jealousy that China got it’s foot in the door in our hemisphere, nervousness that they’ll make a total mess of it, and schadenfreude that they’ll never recoup their investment. All these feelings amount to megahypocrisy.  China is bumbling through a neocolonialist project that looks a lot like the sort of adventures the United States and Europe launched over the last 150 to 200 years. China has stepped in where the Northern contingent has retreated. That doesn’t make us heroes. 

China is an equal opportunity colonialist. Their involvement in Africa is extensive as is their portfolio of investments in Latin America. China is willing to leverage weak regimes to invest in marginal economies. Just for starters, economist Ricardo Hausman has had a lot to say about China and Venezuela over the last couple years. You can find him quoted in any number of Financial Times articles on the subject such as here, or here, or his own column, here. I think it’s safe to say he’s not a China fan. 

But, of course, this is just scratching the surface of a very big problem. And I’m not just thinking of China. The colonial project is something as close to pure exploitation as we have in our world. It is a collaboration between strong powers and weak powers that de-powers ordinary people.

I believe there is a way to push power and resources out to the people on the street, or in the fields, or in the mines. I believe every one will be better off when we find that way.

What We're Reading This Week

Alma Guillermoprieto writes in The New York Review of Books on why the escape of El Chapo Guzman is such a blow to the Mexican government and so disheartening to Mexico's people.

 Manuel F. Cachan in The Harvard Crimson, "Don't Call Me Latino," on the benefits of divisions among Latin Americans.

Nikhil Kumar writes in The Brown Political Review on Latin America coming to grips with Feminism.

Michael Boskin in The Guardian on why Chili moves ahead and Argentina does not.

Michael Smith in Bloomberg News on why Argentina is so comfortable not paying its debt.

Bello writes in The Economist on Latin America's aging leaders

Latitude 9n is proud to welcome Hector J. Arocha, our new Editor in Chief of Spanish Language Content.

Hector, born in Venezuela, is a Latin American by birth, and as Hector says, by soul. His Curriculum Vitae spans International Finance and Accounting for global firms and includes a teaching post at Washington University in Saint Louis Missouri. An avid learner, his curiosity has led him to international travel, the US Congress, a latin band where he danced and sang in the Yoruba language, radio broadcasting and acting in live theater.

A person with deep convictions, an explorer of different religions and spiritual movements, a world music enthusiast, a lover of astrophysics, an avid researcher and seeker of truth, one thing is for sure: There will not be a dull moment for this caballero, or for Latitude9n’s readers.

Welcome Hector!

Latitude 9n le da la bienvenida con orgullo a Hector J. Arocha, nuestro nuevo Editor en Jefe del contenido en español.

Hector, oriundo de Venezuela, es LatinoAmericano de nacimiento y de alma, como expresa el mismo.

Su Curriculum vitae abarca Finanzas y Contabilidad Internacional para empresas globales. También incluye enseñanza de estas materias en 

Webster University, en la ciudad de St. Louis, Missouri. Formado como un ávido lector, su curiosidad lo ha llevado a diferentes partes del mundo,

al Congreso de los EE UU como invitado de un senador; a cantar musica Yoruba de una banda de musica Caribena, a la radio, a la radio y a la television

en programas socio-educativos; culturales y de entretenimiento.

Un hombre de profundas convicciones, explorador de diferentes religiones y movimientos espirituales, un fanático de la música del mundo, amante de la

astrofísica, un investigador tenaz y buscador de la verdad; una cosa es segura: Con este caballero no habra ninguna momento de monotonía para los lectores de Latitude 9n!

Bienvenido Hector!