Work Day For Me; I Don't Have To Hit Any Of My High Notes If Dashiell At Jonestown Is Doing It For Me. Much Appreciated.

http://fairlane.wordpress.com/2008/01/02/the-roots-of-denial/

Aw shit. I was planning to take a short swim, relax on a raft, soak up some sun and come back and work and what do I see while browsing: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/01/AR2008010101298.html

With all due respect to mi paisano, Moises Naim, who is certainly not a Bush ideologue, Lula's raison d'etre is the abandonment of the use of fossil fuels in Brazil. He will listen to anyone on the subject. That he'll entertain Bush on the subject speaks nothing about an entire continent. I remember that conference well. Bush was encased in an airtight, bullet-proof bubble and Condoleeza Rice did the talking. I don't really know much about the rest of the globe but I have a pretty good handle on Latin politics, so I have a few questions for Sr. Naim:

1) Do you think Alvaro Uribe wants any American help as he continues the sensitive POW exchange program with Hugo Chavez?

2) Do you think Presidente Martin Torrijos wants American "help" in exchange for surrendering the bank privacy laws which have been such a boon to Panama? When he's term-limited? And his successor will have to face Pappy puppet Billy Ford in 2009?

3) Do you think Presidente Morales is going to let the World Bank try once again to privatize the potable water supply?

4) Do you think Presidente Christina Fernandez Kirchner has any desire to re-peg to the USD?

4D) How about your man Lula? Brazilian dollar-based currency board coming any time soon you figure?

5) Do you think Presidente Michelle Bachillet has any desire to let any American president mess with her Truth And Reconciliation Commission with the goal of absolving those who obeyed Pinochet?

6) Do you think Presidente Correa after having told Bush that he'll allow a US base in Ecuador only if Bush allows an Ecuadorean base in Miami Beach is all of a sudden hungering for American leadership? Is he in a hurry to give the expired RoyalDutch/Shell lease to ExxonMobil?

7) Do you think Calderon was joking when he said the DEA could shove it up their collective asses?

8) Do you think even Garcia, having made some amends for his misdeeds, wants to start the shit up all over again?

9) Did "Toro" or did "Toro" not tell the Bush Administration what it could do with its "offer" to help combat "corruption" in Panama?

9I) Do you think that "Toro" would like to have David Addington rewrite the Panamanian Constitution? Or Colin Powell should the appalling Obama find a way to sneak into the White House?

9X) Do Panamanians want a return of the death penalty, a military court system, an end to reproductive freedom and gay rights?

10) Don't you think that Daniel Ortega's conversion to the ANTI-CHOICE position may have had something to do with his desire to avoid the kind of "help" America offered Nicaragua in the 1980s?

11) On the subject of free-trade deals involving the USA with Colombia, Panama or Peru, which side holds the whip hand? One guess and here's a clue: it isn't the USA

The above are merely a sampling of questions of many salient ones on USA/Latin affairs. And I 'm a nobody. Just a fucking ex-pat who can read Spanish and takes an interest in these things. If Foreign Affairs is misunderstanding so much in the relative backwater of Latin America, how can it be getting the bigger and more complex issues involving Russia, China and the Middle East correct?

The conclusion I draw, from admittedly anecdotal evidence, is that the world wants less American influence and more American goods.

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