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LATIN AMERICAN TRADE, POLITICAL & CULTURAL COMMENTARY
Columns by THOMAS MANNING
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The Weight of Numbers
Financial index and rating services company Standard & Poor (S&P), predict the Latin American GDP will grow less than 2% in 2020 because of investment uncertainty arising from volatile social and political instability..... |
Neoliberal denouement in Chile
Free trade, minimal taxation and government spending coupled with the privatisation of public assets and services have all been defining features of the Chilean economy since the mid-1970s.... |
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Crouching Tiger
The Great Wall of China is purportedly the largest cemetery on earth, as it entombs the many millions of forced labourers and prisoners who were pitilessly worked to death during the Wall’s construction... |
Black Gold Bonanza for Guyana
The discovery of enormous oil fields in Guyana’s coastal waters will make Guyana the richest nation in South America over the next decade according to the World Bank... |
Simón Bolívar’s legacy
To do business in Latin America often means having to contend with protectionist trade policies, and why this is so has been unexpectedly answered in an unlikely quarter.... |
Flight of the Phoenix - Cristina Kirchner rises from the ashes of neoliberalism
It is often said that politics is theatre. This has been especially true during the past four years in Argentina, which have been a high-stakes melodrama along Kafkaesque lines, redolent with existential anxiety, alienation and absurdity..... |
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Brazil's new Messiah
Jair Messias Bolsonaro (whose middle name means Messiah), an ultra-conservative who openly admires Brazil’s last military dictatorship is the new President of Brazil. He has pledged to clamp-down hard on crime, political correctness, indigenous & minority rights... |
Quid Pro Quo
Venezuela was once Latin America’s most prosperous nation thanks to the largest petroleum reserves in the world and was until 2015, New Zealand’s biggest export market in Latin America... |
Demented Reef Fish
Former NZ Prime Minister David Lange aptly likened the behaviour of investment markets to “demented reef fish”, whose skittish behaviour is driven by a combination of greed, fear and panic... |
New Broom in Mexico Good News for NZ
In Mexico, left-wing politician Andrés Manuel López Obrador (known by his initials AMLO) has won the presidency in a landslide, with the highest number of votes in Mexican history... |
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Muy Simpatico, Mr Tabuteau
The NZ Government has appointed Fetcher Tabuteau, as Parliamentary Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs, to strengthen NZ’s relationships with Latin American countries. |
Latin American trade trifecta in sight for New Zealand
In horse racing parlance, the recently-signed CPTPP, is the first leg of a trade trifecta which will enable New Zealand to ramp-up its exports to Latin America... |
Trump fire also risks Latin American fury
Latin American nations have borne the brunt of US President Donald Trump’s pejorative rhetoric. In addition, his protectionist ambitions undermine the region’s prospects and economic equilibrium..... |
Outlook Improving for Latin America
Effective steps are finally being taken to eradicate the scourge of entrenched corruption that has bedeviled Latin America for centuries.... |
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Transpolar flight grows NZ trade opportunities in Latin America
Airline services strengthen New Zealand’s ability to engage with its key trading partners, helping build people-to-people connections and understanding of foreign business practice and culture.... |
Fake News
When it comes to selling newspapers or dominating TV ratings. the media’s rule of thumb is “If it bleeds, it leads”, and reporting on Latin America is no exception to the rule... |
Buying Brazilian
The Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) is considering buying a Brazilian-made aircraft, in a departure from traditional procurement practice... |
El Dorado Calling
Arriviste United States President Donald Trump’s incorrigible nationalism and xenophobia are morphing into trade protection and anti-immigrant policies... |
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Latin America’s annus horribilis
A malign convergence of low commodity prices, endemic corruption and legal perversion curtailed Latin America’s economic development in 2016... |
The Trump Effect in Latin America
After an extended period of left-wing populism Latin America has recently moved to the political centre and the pro-business leaders now in charge of the region’s biggest... |
Opportunities for NZ in Cuba
Lucrative business and investment opportunities are emerging in Cuba for New Zealand exports as a result of business and banking sector reforms.... |
Argentina's Bright Prospects
While business media coverage of Latin America continues to be dominated by bad news, there is definitely another side to the story.... |
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Steady Regional Growth Despite Unrest
Political and economic news from Latin American has recently been dominated by drastic reforms in Argentina, chaos in Brazil... |
Mixed Outlook for Latam Markets in 2016
The NZ Government's "pivot" in its international trade policy toward Latin America last year was a timely strategy... |
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Competition vs Cooperation
“Competition is always a good thing, it forces us to do our best while a monopoly renders people complacent and satisfied with mediocrity,” the US writer Nancy Pearcey... |
Sweet Sorrow
The confusion I feel every time business or family commitments take me away from Buenos Aires is aptly typified by Shakespeare’s love-stricken Juliet’s words “parting is... |
The Interface of Art & Power
Argentine art collector Eduardo Costantini has announced he will exhibit his recent purchase, Diego Rivera’s biggest ever canvas 'Dance in Tehuantepec', at his MALBA gallery... |
A Slice of Heaven
On the basis of English writer Virginia Woolf’s observation that “One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well”... |
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Weighed in the Balance
Susana Malcorra’s nomination for appointment as United Nations Secretary-General is a win/win for the Macri government... |
A Tale of Two Cities
“Walkers are the practitioners of a city, for a city is made to be walked. A city is a language, a repository of possibilities... |
Business as usual
The announcement by the Communications Ministry unveiling new rules to open up competition in the mobile telephone market is good news... |
Bats out of Hell
Buenos Aires City’s bus services, the ubiquitous colectivos, in their coverage, frequency and even after recent fare hikes, low cost are without peer in Latin America... |
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Remembering the Brave ANZAC Troops
“They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.” These poignant words are from For the Fallen, a poem eulogizing.... |
The ex-ESMA Concentration Camp
Attending the preview of Jayson McNamara’s powerful human rights documentary ‘Messenger on a White Horse’ on Saturday last was a visceral experience.... |
The First Shall be Last
Carrefour Express has just concluded a much-publicized competition in which a Christmas Hamper was won by a lucky shopper in every Express store throughout Argentina.... |
The Kiwi & the Condor; Mark II
As a New Zealander who has done business in Argentina since 1990 and as a past Vice-President of the Latin America New Zealand Business Council, it is an auspicious week.... |
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Kiwi is Also a K Word
I am very well served by the Buenos Aires Herald for news but I have to admit I cannot resist reading NZ newspapers on-line to keep my finger on the pulse in those remote isles... |
Hell on Earth
A portal to a hitherto unknown Tenth Circle of Hell has opened up in the section of Viamonte Street between Reconquista and Avenida Leandro N. Alem in Buenos Aires City... |
A Whale of a Walrus
Two new and rival alternate Argentine National Anthems have recently emerged. The first is a short and punchy operatic aria called “Blue Sin Techo”... |
Aerolineas Soars Again
President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner has many detractors and it’s fair to say her second term as president has been a rocky road with her “model” beset by... |
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The Kiwi & the Condor
The majestic Andean condor and the NZ kiwi are an unlikely pairing yet the canny little Kiwi has valiantly wooed the Condor and entered in its jealously-guarded nest... |
High Flying, Adored?
Cabinet chief Jorge Capitanich was reported in the Herald on 27 May as praising Aerolíneas’ high standards of service and guaranteeing connectivity in Argentina... |
Below the Belt Down Under
As a New Zealander I am long accustomed to our Aussie cousins appropriating NZ's cultural icons as their own... |
Kiwi Delegation Seeks to Strengthen Ties
The visit of a NZ parliamentary delegation headed by Speaker Lockwood Smith in the second half of this week has been shrewdly timed... |
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AJ Hackett Helibungy in Buenos Aires
August 9, 1993 AJ Hackett undertakes the first ever helibungy in Latin America over Puerto Madero in Buneos Aires... |
