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Strategies & Market Trends : Booms, Busts, and Recoveries -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ilaine who wrote (10542)	10/2/2001 12:58:36 AM
From: X Y Zebra	Respond to of 74559

I admit I always thought about Mexico in relationship to the USA and not to the rest of Latin America. There are a lot of misunderstanding between the two regions... the funny thing is that our differences are smaller than our similarities. The real problem is the ego and lack of pragmatism given a large nationalistic sentiment. Not all countries in Latin America are of the same mold... Argentina, Uruguay, and Chile are very much made up of European settlers, primarily Spanish, Italian, French, English and Welsh. The local Indian populations were either relatively small or were isolated or killed. There are a few "mestizos" (mixed blood) who have fully integrated with the majority. Particularly Argentina looks up to Europe as the "standard to follow". Their case is rather unique as they used to be an extremely rich country until Juan Peron and his cronies got hold of power. From that point on the country (and the legendary Argentinean ego), has gone downhill ever since. Lately, the country has tried hard to regain its former glory with some small success. Their beef is without question the best in the world. Their wines (along with those of Chile) are also amongst the best in the world (I mean the wines they drink at home and DO NOT export), their better wines are crafted in the Bordeaux and Tuscan style, this because of the Cabernet Sauvignon and merlot grapes and the Italian vintners. The vines are from the pre-philoxera era (pre 1850. Philoxera is a little bug that destroyed the European Vitis-Vinifera vine, only saved by grafting the noble vine to the tough American root which is immune to the little pest). It is a big country with various beautiful landscapes and somehow melancholic heart, hence the Tango which more than a dance, in the barrio of Boca is more of a religion, (alongside with soccer you may say). Argentineans do not really consider themselves "Latin Americans" they truly believe they are Europeans in some sort of outpost... The rest of Latin Americans view the Argentineans as a funny lot, we "put up with them" as they are, after all, our brothers but they are a pesky lot... as definition we say of them.... The Argentinean is an Italian who speaks Spanish, thinks he is French and secretly desires to be English... [gggg] As result the poor guys are completely lost in their identity... to boot they are fiercely passionate about soccer and for years they had to endure innumerable defeats at the hands of the Brazilians (who are the best soccer players in the world), and several times by their small neighbor Uruguay. Lately however, Argentina with the help of Diego Maradona, were capable of overcoming their soccer arch-rival Brazil several times and have been able to win a couple of World Championships (no small feat) At the height of the Military Juntas era (mainly during the 70's culminating in 1982 with a drunkard General (Leopoldo Galtieri) who decided to "distract (from the tremendous economic disaster) and unify" (which he succeeded briefly), the Argentinean people by organizing a daring (but extremely stupid) attack on the Islas Malvinas (aka Falkland Islands --to the Brits) In short order Iron Lady Thatcher (with the help of the Royal Navy), proceeded to beat the Argentinean's rear end and promptly boot them out of the islands. This, I can tell you did not do much good to their ego, (already immensely damaged by other causes, mainly corrupt politicians)... But it did WONDERS to every single soccer game between the English and the Argentineans as they have become some sort of epic games every one of them since then. A chronology of the war and brief history of the same is here: (here is the last paragraph): June 20, 1982 The British re-occupy the South Sandwich Islands. Britain formally declares an end to hostilities, and the two-hundred mile exclusion zone established around the islands during the war is replaced by a Falkland Islands Protection Zone (FIPZ) of 150 miles. From start to finish, this undeclared war lasted 72 days, claimed nearly 1000 casualties (236 British and 655 Argentine), many of them innocent conscripts that were drafted in a hurry by the Argentine junta. The war had a cost of at least 2 billion dollars. From a political point of view, the war helped the reelection of Margaret Thatcher (who was losing popularity before the conflict started) and brought down Leopoldo Galtieri who was quick to resign afterwards, paving the road to the restoration of democracy in Argentina. yendor.com Next I will tell you a little about Chile, Uruguay and Brazil.... it is late and I must go to bed now.