America Archives - Page 7 of 11

The real threat from China: they have a better capitalist system than ours

9 min read PATRICK LAWRENCE

PATRICK LAWRENCE
What are we doing to train the doctors and scientists needed to find our way in the XNUMXst century? What are we doing to bring the dispossessed into the economy, to address drug addiction and the rest of our social ills? What are we doing (I mean seriously) to repair and build the infrastructure we need?

The Chinese challenge could and should be understood as an opportunity to reinvent the US through a Great Mobilization on the magnitude of the New Deal. Of course, this idea is nothing more than hot air. Instead, we are sacrificing this historic opportunity in favor of military-industrial development.

Africa Asia China Europe Latin America News

The two receptions of the BRI

4 min read XULIO RIOS

XULIO RIOS
The Belt and Road Initiative (IFR) celebrates its first decade of implementation in 2023. The time elapsed supports it as a long-term project. Two attitudes have marked the global reaction to it. On the one hand, developing countries have celebrated being able to have an alternative proposal that focuses on their most pressing needs, especially in terms of infrastructure.

China's plan provides specific support in areas poorly served by traditional available financing, filling a gap of singular importance. On the other hand, developed countries have evolved from initial ambiguity and reservation to a certain competitive hostility.

America USA/Europe News

How 'majoritarian democracy' overwhelms democracy

3 min read EUGENIO GARCIA GASCON

EUGENIO GARCIA GASCON
On other occasions in history, tyrants have violently put an end to democracy, supported by a more or less considerable part of the people. But now the common people support the tyrants from the ballot box. The people seem tired of traditional democracy and lean towards tyranny. The fatigue may come from living in extraordinarily complex societies that are not easy to manage, so that people prefer the simplifications that tyranny promises over the increasing complexity of democracy. The result is booming “majority democracies”—a euphemism for tyranny.

Africa America Archived Asia

Humanity dominated by narrative

6 min read CAITLIN JOHNSTONE

CAITLIN JOHNSTONE
The more inner work you do and the more awareness you bring to your own internal processes, the more you understand the extent to which human consciousness is dominated by mental narrative. And the more you understand the extent to which it is dominated, the more aware you become of how much power someone could gain over other people by controlling those narratives.

After a while, you start to understand that no one sees reality as it is. Not even you. What we are perceiving are a bunch of mental stories that we have formed about the world, based on information that we have absorbed through prescriptive filters greatly distorted by our conditioning, prejudices and cognitive habits.

America Latin America News

The oil and the left in Latin America

8 min read SERGIO NAVAS

SERGIO NAVAS
Today, the world is burning more oil than ever before. Although the green agenda and renewable energies are advancing, the reality is that the pandemic and the war in Ukraine have delayed the energy transition. The peak of fossil fuel consumption is now expected for 2032. In addition to Covid and Ukraine, the trade war against China has further contributed to the 'deglobalizing' scenario, pushing for a geopolitical realignment.

Africa America Asia China U.S. USA/Europe Latin America News

«The decarbonisation of the rich is not ours»

10 min read CECILIA VALDEZ

CECILIA VALDEZ
Green colonialism or green capitalism is what critical environmentalism calls the exploitation of natural resources from the global North over the global South, and which will make it possible to guarantee the energy transition that industrialized countries boast so much about, that is, those that more pollute. But the energy transition requires natural resources that the north does not have, such as lithium or green hydrogen.

While the socio-environmentalist denounces the serious consequences of plundering practices, governments and corporations close agreements. Even countries that show irreconcilable differences in world geopolitics shake hands in their territories and seal commitments. On the side of Latin American progressives, the more or less critical position regarding extractivism depends on whether they are a government or not, and on the pressing economic needs that make them dependent on foreign currency.

Africa Archived Asia China Latin America

BRICS to more

3 min read XULIO RIOS

XULIO RIOS
If the summit that the BRICS have held in Johannesburg has revealed anything, it is the firm will to reactivate their association with two main parameters of action. First, development issues will continue to be high on its agenda; secondly, issues related to peace and security will gain relevance in their positions.

The common denominator is the implementation of a roadmap in which both issues are inextricably linked.
After enlargement, the BRICS will represent 37% of world GDP and 46% of the planet's population.

America China U.S. Latin America News

Of Chinese bases, crickets, vaccines and nuclear submarines in Cuba

9 min read PASCUAL SERRANO

PASCUAL SERRANO
Last June, the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, stated that, according to the intelligence information available to them, China was strengthening its infrastructure for data collection in foreign countries, and added more specifically that "the People's Republic China had carried out an upgrade of its intelligence gathering facilities in Cuba in 2019."

The news was reported by The Wall Street Journal, adding that while Secretary of State Antony Blinken was meeting with President Xi Jinping, China was negotiating to establish a military training center in Cuba, which would put thousands of soldiers 90 miles away. off the coast of Florida.

America Archived Latin America

The Cuban Communication Law shows us how journalism could be under socialism

16 min read PASCUAL SERRANO

PASCUAL SERRANO
One of the characteristics of socialist governments has been the obscurantism of information. For this reason, one of the challenges that Cuban legislators faced was to break that tradition, that way of operating. The law had to make it clear that citizens had the right to information, and that journalists should not find obstacles in the institutions to access it.

America Archived Latin America

The Brazilian electoral justice disqualifies Bolsonaro until 2030

5 min read JUAN MIGUEL MUNOZ

JUAN MIGUEL MUNOZ
São Paulo
The Superior Electoral Tribunal (TSE) of Brazil adopted a decision on the last day of June that will bring a tail. In a vote of its seven members, five of them decided the political disqualification of former President Jair Bolsonaro, who will not be able to stand in any election until 2030.

The magistrates described the action of the extreme right leader in a meeting he held on July 18 with dozens of accredited diplomats in Brasilia as an abuse of power – also due to the use of public resources and public television.

America Archived U.S. USA/Europe Europe

Democracy, preliminaries for the 'fitna'

3 min read EUGENIO GARCIA GASCON

EUGENIO GARCIA GASCON
The crisis of liberal democracy is rampant everywhere. In essence, it does not respond solely to a lack of leadership, but also to convictions that are increasingly deeply rooted in individuals from different layers of Western society. To this must be added the clearly reactionary values on the rise, including identity values that are at war with the rationalism that originated with the Enlightenment.

The result is a more fragile society, barely able to cope with the challenges of the times, with many people who see liberal values as unbearable oppression and seek direct confrontation with the enemy without realizing that this attitude carries risks. .

America Archived Asia China U.S.

Wait and see

3 min read XULIO RIOS

XULIO RIOS
The visit of the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, to China has the main merit of having recovered a certain normality in the bilateral dialogue, showing that there is a relative potential for easing tensions.

It also seems to have paved the way and cleared up some unknowns regarding the bilateral performance in some upcoming summits such as the G20 in India (in September) or the APEC (in November) in the US, which stand out on the agenda of the second semester of the year