Stiglitz on Mexico's reaction to crisis

Joseph Eugene Stiglitz (born February 9, 1943) is an American economist and a professor at Columbia University. He has won two Nobel prizes, and he is also the former Senior Vice President and Chief Economistof the World Bank. He is known for his critical view of the management of globalization, free-market economists (whom he calls "free market fundamentalists") and some international institutions like the IMF and the World Bank.

Recently, Stiglitz stated that Mexico's reaction to the global economic crisis has been one of the worst anywhere.

"Statistics showing growth have been very weak and pessimistic" for Mexico, Stiglitz said. "The combination of a very weak recovery in the United States and a fiscal policy that doesn't stimulate the Mexican economy is worrying." Stiglitz spoke to attendees of an event organized by Grupo Mexicana and Grupo Posadas, two major Mexican companies.

El Universal reported that Stiglitz said Mexico's position in the face of this crisis was "unusual."

"In contrast, countries such as Australia, which was the first country in the developed world to emerge from the recession," Stiglitz said, "applied strong measures through a packet of well-defined incentives."

Although Mexico is dependent on the U.S economy, that represents a risk, he warned.

"Many people hope that a recovery in the U.S will be the solution," he said. "But Mexico needs an alternative."

Read More......

What is the European Union?

Here's a short but interesting animation on the advantages that the creation of the European Union has brought on members and non-members--the unification of Europe, the elimination of tension between countries, a unified market, the accepted currency, etc.

The video is very dynamic because it was meant for children. The content is not complicated, what I would advise is to read the comments on YouTube on the video. There are several people of different nationalities portraying their different points of view on not just the video, but also and mainly on the US involvement on world issues.

Do watch the video and read the comment section. Comments on my own post will be appreciated :)

Read More......

Iran smuggling arms into Syria and Lebanon

It was recently on the news that Israel's navy has intercepted a ship carrying hundreds of tonnes of Iranian weapons intended for Hezbollah in Lebanon. The arms were apparently intended to strike Israeli cities. Iran and Syria have both rejected the allegations of being receiving weapons illegally in order to attack Israel and the ship's crew were not thought to have been aware of the smuggling operation.

A spokesperson for the military said there were "dozens of shipping containers, carrying numerous weapons, disguised as civilian cargo among hundreds of other containers on board." The spokesperson added: "The weapons originate from Iran and were intended to reach the Hezbollah terror organisation for use against the state of Israel and its citizens."

Also, the Israeli military said an Iranian document had been found on the ship. A military spokesperson said: "All the cargo certificates are stamped at the ports of origin and this one was stamped at an Iranian port." Since Israel's offensive in Gaza last December and January, the Israeli navy and air force have been have conducting intense searches in the Mediterranean and the Red Sea for ships smuggling weapons either to Hezbollah or to Hamas in Gaza.

In February Israel said a vessel detained off Cyprus was carrying Iranian weapons to Hamas in Gaza. Iran denied the claim.

Who are the Hezbollah?

Hezbollah - or the Party of God - is a powerful political and military organisation in Lebanon made up mainly of Shia Muslims.

It emerged with financial backing from Iran in the early 1980s and began a struggle to drive Israeli troops from Lebanon.

Hostility to Israel has remained the party's defining platform since May 2000, when the last Israeli troops left Lebanon due in large part to the success of Hezbollah's military arm, the Islamic Resistance.

Hezbollah also adopted the tactic of taking Western hostages, through a number of freelance hostage taking cells.

In 1983, militants who went on to become members of Hezbollah are thought to have planned a suicide bombing attack that killed 241 US marines in Beirut.

"Who are Hezbollah?." BBC News (2008): n. pag. Web. 4 Nov 2009. .

Read More......

Abdullah "calls it quits"

The past Afghan elections caused much controversy due to its highly publicised corruption. A couple of my fellow bloggers talked about Abdullah quitting the running towards becoming Afghanistan's next president. But, does he have an As up his sleeve?

"One cannot toy with the people's suffrage," were his words last week referring to Karzai's doubtful innocence. But one of his strategies to become president is to call to new presidential elections this next year, elections that will happen during the same time as the legislative elections thus creating the opportunity to create a new political scenario. Abdullah hopes that the damage caused on Karzai's image proves to be enough to make the White House seek some changes in the Afghan politics to help them carry on with the American military strategy.

But the United States, who have in the past criticised Karzai's leadership, seemed to have accepted the Afghan political panorama. Obama's advisor, David Axelrod, stated recently that since most polls showed Abdullah would have lost the second round, they were going to "deal with the already set government."

The objective of the second round was to obtain back the lost credibility needed to carry on with war against Talibans. Obama said that he wouldn't send any more troops to Afghanistan until a new government in Tabul is declared.

Source:

Periódico Expreso 12A. Nov 2 2009.

Read More......

The 14th Dalai Lama

Some interesting facts

Here's a short biography on the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, head of state and spiritual leader of Tibet.

• At the age of two the child, who was named Lhamo Dhondup, was recognized as the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatso. The Dalai Lamas are believed to be manifestations of Avalokiteshvara or Chenrezig, the Bodhisattva of Compassion and patron saint of Tibet.
• The child began his monastic education at age six. At 23 he sat for his final examination in the Jokhang Temple, Lhasa, during the annual Monlam (prayer) Festival in 1959. He passed with honours and was awarded the Geshe Lharampa degree, the highest-level degree equivalent to a doctorate of Buddhist philosophy.
• In 1950 Dalai Lama was called upon to assume full political power after China's invasion of Tibet in 1949. In 1954, he went to Beijing for peace talks with Mao Zedong and other Chinese leaders, including Deng Xiaoping and Chou Enlai. But finally, in 1959, with the brutal suppression of the Tibetan national uprising in Lhasa by Chinese troops, he was forced to escape into exile--India.
• In 1992 His Holiness issued guidelines for the constitution of a future, free Tibet. He announced that when Tibet becomes free the immediate task would be to set up an interim government whose first responsibility will be to elect a constitutional assembly to frame and adopt Tibet's democratic constitution.
• The Dalai Lama is a man of peace. In 1989 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his non-violent struggle for the liberation of Tibet. He has consistently advocated policies of non-violence, even in the face of extreme aggression.
• Since 1959 His Holiness has received over 84 awards, honorary doctorates, prizes, etc., in recognition of his message of peace, non-violence, inter-religious understanding, universal responsibility and compassion. He has also authored more than 72 books.
• He considers himself a simple, Buddhist monk.

Be kind whenever possible... It is always possible.

- Dalai Lama

Read More......

BLACK HOLES! OMG SO SCARY... NOT

Chinese lab has developed a tiny artificial black hole. It consists of 60 cylindric rings that pull light in by converting it in heat. Researchers Qiang Chen and Tie Jun Cui of Southeast University in Nanjing, China--the creators--claim this device could be of tremendous use for the development of invisibility carpets’ and super-clear lenses, as well as the innovation of solar panels.

Though the term 'black hole' brings back memories of bad hollywood movies with dreadful visual effects, this breakthrough in science could prove to be of some use during our times of climate disaster and newborn ecological conscience.

Remember when everyone was terrified at the idea of CERN recreating the Big Bang and thus exposing the Earth to several tiny--but deadly--black holes? Well that time is long gone, and now black holes have become the new hip thing in the world of science.

Rather than relying on gravity, this black hole uses a series of metallic ‘resonators’ arranged in 60 concentric circles. The resonators affect the electric and magnetic fields of a passing light wave, causing it to bend towards the centre of the hole. It spirals closer and closer to the black hole’s ‘core’ until it reaches the 20 innermost layers. Those layers are made of another set of resonators that convert light into heat. The result: what goes in cannot come out. “The light into the core is totally absorbed.

Farrier, John. "Scientists Create Pocket-Sized Black Hole." Neatorama (2009): n. pag. Web. 27 Oct 2009. .

Fox, Stuart. "Artificial Black Hole Created in Chinese Lab." Popsci (2009): n. pag. Web. 27 Oct 2009. .

Read More......

José Ángel Gurría

José Ángel Gurría is a Mexican economistand diplomat. He is the current secretary general of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) since June 1, 2006.

Gurría graduated with a bachelor's degree in Economics from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and undertook postgraduate studies at the University of Leeds, in the United Kingdom and at Harvard University, in the United States. He served as Secretary of Foreign Affairs (1994–1999) and as Secretary of Finance (1999–2000) in the Ernesto Zedillo administration.

The OECD is an international organisation of 30 countries (list) that accept the principles of representative democracy and free-market economy. Most OECD members are high-income economies and are regarded as developed countries.

José Ángel Gurría in action

In the video provided, Gurría answers the question "Should hunger be high in the agenda for the G8?" He claims that if not for ethical and moral reasons, perhaps for their self interests, the large economies of the world should care about Food Programmes. He says hunger is determinant for national security, stability, and world peace.

LINK: http://www.wfp.org/videos/aspen-1

Regarding unemployment, Ángel Gurría says the global recession could cost 25 million people their jobs. The unemployment rate across the 30 most industrialised nations in the OECD was 8.5% for July, the highest since World War II. It was 5.6% at the end of 2007. Spain, the Irish Republic and the US were worst hit in the OECD, with unemployment rates rising by 9.7 percentage points, 7.8 percentage points and 4.5 percentage points respectively between the start of 2007 and July this year.

Sources:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8259032.stm

http://www.oecd.org/pages/0,3417,en_36734052_36734103_1_1_1_1_1,00.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organisation_for_Economic_Co-operation_and_Development

Read More......

US and Cuba 'in high-level talks'

Early this month, the Cuban government claimed Barack Obama was not doing enough to end the US trade embargo against the island despite his promise to improve ties. Regardless of Cuban Foreign Minister's statement of the embargo being "obsolete and unacceptable," the US president extended it for one more year and made it clear that the ban would only come down if Cuba were willing to free political prisoners and improve human rights.

However, in a sign of thawing relations, he has eased travel restrictions for Americans wanting to visit Cuba and the two countries are holding direct talks on immigration.

Now recently, it appears that a senior American diplomat has held high-level talks with the Cuban government in Havana. The talks between the two nations were the first of their kind in years.

Cuba's President Raul Castro has previously said he is prepared to negotiate with the Obama administration, providing there are no preconditions. His brother, former President Fidel Castro, also last week praised Mr Obama for his commitment to tackling climate change.

The tense relation between these two countries is not at all recent, the conflict goes back to the mid-XX Century; their different ideologies make it apparently impossible to have a better relationship than the one they already have. I, for one, don't think President Obama, or any future American president for that matter, will remove the embargo if Cuba refuses to change its entire country's way of thinking. Communism has been one of America's foes for a long time, and Cuba is no exception.

Sources:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8281756.stm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuba_–_United_States_relations

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8260104.stm

Read More......

Mafalda

Mafalda is the most famous creation of Argentinian cartoonist Joaquin Salvador Lavado, better known as Quino. The character is worldly recognised because of her sharp sense of humour and social commentary. Though in her biography, Mafalda is said to have been born in 1962, it was until 1964 that a Mafalda comic strip was published. The beginning of the second half of the XX Century, when the Cold War was present in every person's thoutghs, was a time in which big ideological and political changes occured and decisions were made; and Quino was able to incorporate these events into his art. How?

The character Felipe--a personage famous for his continuous nervous breakdowns--was incorporated after the Indonesian government's nervous breakdown due to its Malaysian neighbors; Susana--the ultimate corny--, the date of her debut into the series matches the date of the peace and disarm declarations and negotiations of Washington, the OAS (Organisation of American States), and Moscow; Manolito--the utterly capitalistic owner of a grocery store--debuts nearly the same day that North Vietnam blows up the American embassy and in return the US makes a North Vietnamese island disappear from the map, claiming that "War is a business and those who make it possible are good merchants."

Mafalda gives us the opportunity of reading a humoured version of what happened in the world from 1964 to 1973 with subjects ranging from Vietnam, racism, the atomic war, Fidel Castro, and Lyndon Johnson up to the Beatles, the creation of the UN, and Soviet Union, the US proposals to the Soviet Union, the Iron Curtain, and more.

"Cuando sea grande voy a trabajar de intérprete en laONU y cuando un delegado le diga a otro que su país es un asco yo voy a traducir que su país es un encanto y, claro, nadie podrá pelearse ¡y se acabarán los líos y las guerras y el mundo estará a salvo!" - Mafalda

"Y, claro, el drama de ser presidente es que si uno se pone a resolver los problemas de estado no le queda tiempo para gobernar." - Mafalda

Source:

TODA MAFALDA by Joaquín Salvador Lavado

Read More......

Successful Mexican Bussiness: Grupo Bimbo

• Grupo Bimbo was established in Mexico City in 1945, and is considered today as one of the most important bakeries in the world due to its production volume, sales and brand positioning.
• It owns more than 150 brands such as: Bimbo, Marinela, Milpa Real, Tía Rosa, Mrs. Baird's, Oroweat, Entenmann's, Thomas', Boboli, Barcel, Ricolino, Coronado, La Corona, Pastelerías El Globo, Suandy, among many others.
• It is present in Mexico, the US, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Panama, Chile, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Peru, Venezuela, Uruguay, Paraguay, the Czech Republic, and China.
• In 2008, Grupo Bimbo's net sales amounted $7.4 billion dollars.

The description of Grupo Bimbo in hoovers.com starts with "Do not take this Bimbo lightly." The company has proved to be successful one and also responsible with the community and the environment.

Read More......

Mexico-EU Strategic Partnership

Why would the EU want to make Mexico its partner?

The EU has greatly benefited from the arrangement it created with Mexico, for nearly 50% of the EU's financial contributions from Latin America are due to the our country's involvement with the organisation. This is hardly a surprise since Mexico is one of the two largest economies in Latin America; also, it is one of the few emerging countries to have an FTA with the US, the EU and Japan. Furthermore, it has agreements with most Latin American countries, with the EFTA countries, and with Israel.

Mexico also has an ideal geographical position because of its closeness to the US. This allows it to act as a bridge connecting industrialized and emerging countries. Mexico's "bridging” position is one of its main assets in the context of a progressive multilateral and multicultural international community. Now that the economic weight of our country is increasingly evident, Mexico is becoming more assertive and is aspiring to play a more active role in today's rapidly changing international environment.

On the other hand, Mexico's main issues concerning its economy are:

• Inequality and unsatisfactory distribution of wealth--a problem that goes back for centuries
• A north- south gap in growth and income--there couldn't have been a more appropriate audience for this point, we have been witnesses of this argument.
• Psychology of the population--the closeness of minds and lack of motivation are truly affecting the country's overall performance.

There are plenty of reasons why the EU would want to have Mexico as a partner. Mexico is a global player and is active in the G8 + G5 group. Its weight and influence will probably grow with time, even beyond Latin America. There should be no surprise then from hearing about the establishment of a Strategic Partnership between the European Union and Mexico.

The question is: Why wouldn't the EU want to become partners with Mexico?

Resources:

"Mexico-EU trade in services : a beneficial relationship." Trade Links 8 (2009): 2. Web. 29 Sep 2009.

"COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL AND THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT Towards an EU-Mexico Strategic Partnership."Europa (2008): n. pag. Web. 29 Sep 2009.

Read More......

Afghan Elections

As Mexicans who were born in the 90s, we regard democracy as our unchangeable type of government. I even dare say that the idea of eliminating democracy in Mexico is unconceivable for so many of us--if not all. That's why it is for us so weird to read about a nation as old as Afghanistan who's only held democratic elections twice (one in 2001 and the other one in 2009) in its whole time as a sovereign country.
Despite this being a highly anticipated event, the Afghan elections brought disappointment and fear to a great amount of its population. This was due to a lack of security from Taliban attacks, as well as rightful accusations about fraud.

Apparently, members of the well-known political and religious organisation, Taliban, were known to be threatening citizens into voting for a specific candidate or not voting at all. Besides, the current president of Afghanistan who is rerunning for its post has been repeatedly accused of conducting fraud himself. According to Mr Abdullah--an opposite--, thousands of violations were most likely held during the Election Day and throughout the counting process.
Citizens selling and buying votes, under-age voting, and more than one vote per person, are just few of the actions that led to such a ‘deceiving’ image in the preliminary results.
The final results won't be released but for several more weeks. I just hope that democracy and transparency prevails, as difficult as it may sound.
Afghan elections are an interesting topic that I furtherly discussed during our team's last week project, and it is worth keeping track of. For all those interested, I include a link to BBC.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8216809.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8221709.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/south_asia/2009/if_i_were_president/default.stm

*In picture: Abdullah Abdullah is the only one of the main candidates who is not contesting as an independent candidate. He is representing the main United National Front opposition alliance.

Read More......

WWII 70th Anniversary

I was reading today's news in CNN and came along some WWII news. It turns out that today is the 70th Anniversary of the Second World War, as it is generally held to be September 1, 1939. Just to let you know, in case you didn't already (like me). One of the articles talks about the commemoration of the anniversary in Poland. Also, while reading the articles I found how useful this class can be as, besides knowing more on the history of each war, they mentioned some important leaders that we saw in class today, one being the German chancellor Angela Merkel. Before today's class I didn't know her name and I didn't even know that Germany was governed by a woman, and I know more about some international leaders. Both articles talk about WWII in Poland, and has some testimonies from actual Polish WWII veterans. Here they are:

Leaders mark 70th Anniversary of World War II

WWII anything but history for Poland

Read More......

World War II Memories

We all know that WWII was a conflict between world powers in their constant struggle to defeat one another. Well, what happens when the war ends? Far from having a happy ending, Europe was in its worst position in history, not only economically, but people's spirits were beyond comfort. Husbands who arrived home after years of being absent became strangers to their families. It's time to dig into a more individual perspective of what hapenned after 1945.

The link below contains a version of this story that we have not heard of just yet. I hope you find it as interesting as did I.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/stories/91/a3886491.shtml




Abfab, Sandy. "WW2 People's War." BBC 12 Abr 2005. Web.1 Sep 2009. .

Read More......

Did you know?

Hi! This is a video I found after last class. It explains how today's world is evolving with the use of new technologies and how the population of the world and its organization is expected to change. I figured it would fit in well with the questions we answered last class about the most powerful countries and what we think will happen in the future. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did, and yes, we indeed are living in exponential times...

Read More......

Nazi Propaganda..

Here we have some examples of nazi propaganda...

And here are two videos...

For those who thought everybody hated Hitler...

Feel free to comment...

Read More......