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This article continues analysis of Latin America's potential as an economic and technological powerhouse of the future. Christopher Johnson writes, " As Europe attempts to cope with its financial crisis and Asia braces for the looming slowdown of China's economy, Latin America - in America's backyard - is witnessing an unprecedented expansion of its indigenous technology economy." Of course, the region is not without its problems: violence in Northern Mexico, lack of Brazilian infrastructure, and the attempts of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela to kindle anti-US sentiment, to name a few. However, the result of the diligence of a number of independent technological startups in countries such as Peru, Brazil, and Argentina give many hope that Latin America will become a significant player in the global marketplace sometime in the near future.

This article analyzes claims by Sebastian Pinera, president of Chili in his article for the Economist. Economic potential in Latin America seems quite high recently, with the earnings of top bankers in Brazil moving past those in New York or London. If these claims are true, the influx of business capital in the Latin American region should be a harbinger of an information revolution, as Latin America tries to keep up with the US, Europe, and Asia in this increasingly wired world.

This article again illustrates the nature of the Latin American technology market: largely consumer driven. This stands in opposition to the American model, which is mostly a top-down funding model where infrastructure is the primary concern for investors. In fact, most infrastructure spending in Latin America is imported from Japan, China, and the US, while in consumer markets, these global players have a hard time competing with local providers. Latin American must diversify its tech industres foundation to include local businesses focusing on infrastructure technologies if it wishes to be a competitor on the global scale in the future, rather than remaining dependent on these global powers for tech innovation.

An interesting story discussing an enrichment program directed at Peru's underprivileged schools. The aim of the program was to put a laptop computer in the hands of every student. With the help of this technology, the hope was that young Peruvian's would be able to catch up with the rest of the world in terms of literacy, mathematics, technological aptitude, etc. However the results of the project were not exactly as planned. The rural areas, which are often the neediest, suffer the greatest complications when trying to implement the technology in the classroom. It appears that these communities are simply not equipped to maximize the potential of the laptop devices. Remote locations, lack of prior understanding, and poor electrification infrastructure all play a part. Still, the use of the laptops did seem to improve some aspects of the learning experience, and at the least provided some exposure from which future interests may be sparked. This article seems to shed a bit of light on the dramatic discrepancies across cultures. In the U.S. individuals are so completely surrounded with technological resources that the assimilation of new technologies is often seamless. For other countries, like Peru, their lack of technological immersion creates systemic and epistemic faults which greatly affect their ability to actually make good use of information technologies. I thought this piece was fascinating and seems to point toward other worthwhile cultural questions.

I wonder what the impact was in more urbanized areas, as opposed to Lacachi.

An article that demonstrates the differences in health care between Argentina and other Latin American countries, such as Bolivia.

I found this article very interesting. I think it is fascinating to see other veiewpoints and norms around the world. Taking in to account the low life expectancy, it seems like a very intelligent decision to allow transgender surgeries as opposed to unsafe practices. I think it should be questioned how this will alter in the future, as well as what problems are going to arise. The surgery's expense must be taken in to account. Will other countries follow Argentina's lead?

wow -- I would never have come across this most likely if this hadn't been posted here. Thanks! It makes me wonder how much else I am missing about interesting shifts across the world. I've got to get access to streaming my news better....although having you smart students to help me with my learning curve is a big bonus!

This article lays out the reasons why Uruguay's government is considering legalization of marijuana. It has already been decriminalized and full legalization would allow the government to benefit economically from production. The profits could stimulate the economy and even be used to treat drug addicts and go towards drug education. Also, legalization would take power away from deadly cartels.

This article was very interesting. To me, it seems that Uruguay has been searching for a way to combat what the war on drugs has done to the cartels. This is vastly different to the approach the United States is taking in regards to marijuana. I wonder if we will see any of the affects here, in addition to how the U.S. government views government controlled marijuana. I feel that ong term, the different drug strategies could potentially change the U.S.'s current stance on drug policies if they prove their effectivness.

wow, great discussion! I've been working my way down from the top adding some comments and was wondering about decriminalization up above! This reminded me that there's a ballot initiative in Washington state this election year that could pass re legalization of marijuana, which would put the states vs the feds in an interesting position if so. I was looking for some info, and found this background on a site called ballotpedia -- which I didn't know existed and am definitely going to be using in the future! http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/Washington_Marijuana_Legalization_and_Regulation,_Initiative_502_(2012)

Two south Texas city council persons wrote a book last year on the effect of the illegal drug trade out of Mexico and the effectiveness of US policy responses. Their conclusion: Legalization of marijuana the "least bad" option at this point, as the only way to effectively battle the criminal cartels that export drugs is economically. Here I think is an example of ways in which international black and grey markets, in this case the illegal drug trade, can affect policy.

Unfortunately, we won't know if legalization of a drug will have a net positive impact on society until we try it. Although history does provide some analogies that could help policy makers make a decision, such as prohibition.

Many Latin American countries seem to be considering drug legalization to be the "least bad" and necessary solution to the heinous drug trafficking problems present Mexico, Columbia, Bolivia and Peru for example. I believe legalization efforts are a step in the right direction. Sadly, wealthy countries such as the United States and Western Europe drive the demand for drugs from Latin America, but we do not suffer the consequences of trafficking or the war on drugs. Instead, people who have nothing, poor coca growers and drug mules who have no other options, are punished most harshly for rich people's cocaine. This is clearly unjust. Although legalization would be a complicated and messy process, I hope that in the future Latin American countries as well as the United States will come together and legalize drugs so that fewer people will suffer in the illegal trafficking process.

Higher than average rainfall washed away some 84,000 acres of crops. As a result Ecuador's exports are expected to fall 10 percent resulting in higher prices for commodities like bananas, which are one of the countries main exports. This seems like a good example of the ways in which climate and abnormal weather patterns can affect market prices in the global economy.

Weather is one of the most unpredictable variables on world economy.

and one of the predictions of the ramifications of climate change is an increase in the number of severe weather events -- good for futures speculations but not for the rest of us?