Reflexiones internacionalistas

El país que en los años previos a la caída de la Unión Soviética se recuperaba de forma lenta y cuyo inestable vecino desconoce constantemente el Armisticio de 1953 es ahora un caso muy interesante a nivel tanto económico e histórico como cultural a nivel internacional. Corea del Sur ha sorprendido al resto del mundo con el crecimiento que ha tenido en la última década y que ha sido de los pocos a los que la crisis financiera del 2008 no desplomó rubros de su economía a pesar de la importancia que tiene Estados Unidos dentro de las decisiones en Seúl. Corea tiene uno de los consumos per cápita más altos del mundo con poco más de 30 mil dólares y una clase media que constituye cerca del 70% de la población con poder adquisitivo alto en términos generales. El 2004 fue el año en que comenzó el crecimiento acelerado de alrededor del 2% por año que la ha llevado a Corea a ser parte de los Tigres Asiáticos. El lugar preponderante de Corea dentro de varios mercados se debe a una inversió...

In the very beginning I decided not to argue about internal politics in my blog, and this entry is NOT about U.S. relations with my country but more of my views in how I feel in what respects to living in one of the United States' neighbouring countries. I decided to write about this because many people around the world have a very false and most of the times unreal stereotype of the United States. I do not call it 'America' because that is the name of a continent, I am American as somebody from Colombia, Guatemala, Cuba, Argentina, Guyana, Suriname, Canada or any other country found in the continent. I call the inhabitants of the United States of America 'U.S. Citizens'. This clarification is part of my idea to get rid of stereotypes, because if somebody talks about 'Americans', it would seem that the rest of us from other countries inside America are excluded. I am not intending however, to convince everybody about this. In the same tone as I wrote in my...

Diversity is one of the best features the world has. Countries that have it in a big proportion have of the greatest advantages. In some cases, the different mindsets and views make a nation great and developed, this is because the best of each group is gathered and then transformed in either projects or national visions that make the country have an identity. There are other cases in which diversity can play against a nation and instead of uniting or developing it, the opposite happens.  History has shown that extreme nationalisms do not bring positive outcomes on the long term. This is because a single mindset, vision and way of doing things is not necessarily the best one.  There are countries in which a predominant group has the decision-making monopoly inside all national spheres and as a consequence, we have a divided nation in which individualism defines national character. Individualism, as recent events have shown, make a nation to live in a perpetual nihilism a...

It is unquestionable that the Arab Spring has impacted both the region and the world. The international community observed since 2010 how the Middle East started uprising almost all of a sudden and, these movements influenced other groups around the world. Inside the main reasons for which these uprisings started were the claim for democracy, respect to basic liberties (such as freedom of speech) and, in general, claiming for legitimate election processes in the public sphere as well as for equal opportunities. After Tunisia, Egypt followed and then Libya after a long process full of violence that led NATO to get in there around the air at some point. Most people remember the images of Muammar Gadafi being killed being broadcasted worldwide, and these images are still kept in Libya under the idea of 'not forgetting'. Indeed, there are still other places in which mobilisation continues however, Syria has become one of the most complicated ones happening now and that has attract...

Desde el 2008, China ha sorprendido a Jefes de Estado, empresas e inversionistas por igual debido al notable crecimiento dentro del rubro económico. Esta situación ha llevado a la comunidad internacional a redefinir sus agendas de negociación en materia de comercio, finanzas y la forma en la que sus interacciones se llevarán a cabo con China. Si bien es cierto que la mayoría de los grandes cambios se aprecian mejor a largo plazo, China ha demostrado que el crecimiento económico si puede generar cambios notorios a corto plazo. Beijing se ha dado a la tarea de enviar este mensaje al resto del mundo, mediante la promoción de turismo, e incentivos para la inversión tales como la conveniencia del costo de mano de obra y manufactura, sin embargo académicos y analistas internacionales en diversas partes del mundo ven este crecimiento acelerado con reservas, y algunos con desconfianza. Los puntos de partida para emitir críticas hacia China varían, aunque el más notorio y actual es el punt...