As Barack Obama is adjusting details for his first trip to Latin America (South of Mexico) in March, questions raise about the scales scheduled and the motifs behind. First questions deal with the jump from Brazil to Chile , ignoring Argentina –which lies in between. Diplomatic explanations don’t keep at bay the local opposition from sizing the chance to blame the Cristina Fernandez’s government for its “isolation from the world”. Others wonder why surpassing Colombia, longtime closest USA’s ally of its war on drugs and “narco-guerrilla”.
Speaking of guerrillas, comments focus on Obama’s meeting with Dilma Rousseff, former guerrilla and new elected president of Brazil, the rising eight world economy. Officially, the agenda of issues to be discussed isn’t impressive. They talk of narrowing the diplomatic gap between past and present approaches to near (Honduras) and far (Iran, Palestine) subjects. They also mention the so-called cooperation in renewable fuels (in fact USA’s ill-conceived tax protection of corn ethanol against more efficient Brazilian sugar cane ethanol). Nothing said of huge Brazilian oil off shore discoveries and Chilean lithium deposits (together with Bolivia’s and Argentina’s count for 80% of world known -let aside Afganistan’s and forget about to left it go by itself).
But a more immediate and silenced issue to discuss in a time of economic hardships is the diminished role of the USA as arms supplier to Latin American countries, behind Russia and France. But this issue isn’t one nice to tell to the press, right?
GLORIA MUNDI 
Rady
January 29, 2011
lol… I’m surprised you don’t have Dilma giving Hillary the finger
http://blogs.monografias.com/sistema-limbico-neurociencias/2010/10/31/meet-dilma-rousseff-president-of-brazil/
Bob Row
January 30, 2011
Oh! that’s a good one! But I am, you know, less savage. I bet I wouldn’t should I been tortured like her.
In this opportunity I couldn’t resist to the idea of reverse the Carmen Miranda cliché. And, let me tell you, doing it turned the night of one very hard day into one of the best. Good to know you enjoyed it too.
guido
February 7, 2011
Bob, te agradezco acá la respuesta a mi (insufrible) comentario en el blog de Abel y te agradezco los links que colgaste. La formación del estado moderno, de la sociedad industrial, del capitalismo o como más te guste es un tema que francamente me apasiona. Una exposición más seria de mi diletancia sobre los mamelucos, si te interesa, la tenés en Ernst Gellner (naciones y nacionalismo) que también escribió mucho sobre el Islam moderno.
Un abrazo y nos cruzaremos por ahí.
Bob Row
February 7, 2011
Al contrario, el agradecido soy yo por haberme sacudido la modorra de mi desactualización. Lo de Gellner parece promisorio. Nos vemos.
Josè Pascal
February 22, 2011
Surfing the waves of the web I am pleasantly stranded in this beautiful blog.
I write under the pseudonym of Josè Pascal (a descendant of the great Colonel Aureliano Buendía).
I invite you to visit my italian writing blog http://parolesemplici.wordpress.com/mytinbox/. I define this blog “In parole Semplici” as a “virtuacultural tin” box where they are guarded thoughts, memories, images, sounds, and simple stories. ”
If you want to participate and to have more informations send me a letter to inparolesempli@gmail.com
Good life and I hope to soon
Josè (i’m italian)