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The Tragic Spiral of Latin America

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Clarissa

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Sweet Jesus! Peru is about to elect the disgusting daughter of the disgusting Fujimori. I can’t believe Latin America is slipping into yet another round of dictatorships, corrupt oligarchy, hopelessness, and oppression. This time, the US has been leaving Latin Americans very much alone. Who will they blame now for their horrible existence?

Please understand that I’m writing this with the profound sorrow of somebody who loves the Hispanic culture a lot more than I’m capable of loving my own. It saddens me to no end to see that, yet again, there is no hope for anything better in Latin America.

43 responses to “The Tragic Spiral of Latin America”

  1. el Avatar
    el

    Правительство ФРГ обновляет стратегию безопасности страны, в которой, наряду с террористами, миграционным кризисом и хакерами, Россия признается противником Германии.

    Об этом пишет популярное немецкое издание Die Welt..

    В новой редакции Белой книги по вопросам безопасности страны Россия уже является не партнером Германии, а ее соперником. В перечне международных вызовов и рисков для международной безопасности Россия идет на третьем месте.
    http://trim-c.livejournal.com/1118100.html

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      Finally they are figuring it out.

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  2. ladyfiaran Avatar
    ladyfiaran

    Ma’am, this is what happens when you’re colonized by people who can’t run anything themselves. Spain couldn’t run their own country right and of course their colonies are messed up, at least the British knew how to run an empire.

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      True, but the Spaniards left 200 years ago. It’s time to stop blaming them and start figuring things out, you know?

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      1. ladyfiaran Avatar
        ladyfiaran

        I know, they ought to try and stop blaming colonialism for being messed up. I’m tired of Latin American people complaining that Spain colonized them and ruined their cultures, but it’s been so long and they ought to have gotten their shit together by now.

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        1. Stringer Bell Avatar
          Stringer Bell

          Who do you blame for your abject stupidity?

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          1. Clarissa Avatar
            Clarissa

            She’s right, though. We in Ukraine freed ourselves from our colonial overlords 25 years ago and they still keep invading. But Ukrainians’ corruption and dishonesty is not on them. It’s all on us.

            Spaniards have left most of Latin America by the 1820s and Cuba in 1898. They are not the ones who are forcing Evo Morales to become a pathetic dictator or Peruvians to keep electing yet another Fujimori.

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            1. Stringer Bell Avatar
              Stringer Bell

              I was referring to her general body of work on this blog. 🙂

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              1. ladyfiaran Avatar
                ladyfiaran

                I don’t feed trolls, just Ents 😀

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  3. Stringer Bell Avatar
    Stringer Bell

    By the way, did you hear about this:

    https://twitter.com/zunguzungu/status/739469270371819522

    Anxiously waiting for all those free-speech warriors traumatized by the tyranny of PC police on college campuses to condemn this.

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    1. Stringer Bell Avatar
      Stringer Bell

      The embedded tweet:

      https://twitter.com/NYGovCuomo/status/739456398698909696

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      1. valter07 Avatar
        valter07

        I am wondering, how it is enforceable in practice. Suppose I decide to boycott Israel and start buying Moroccan oranges instead of Israeli ones. How can any official stop me? I guess this is just a PR move in support of Israel, and nothing more.
        By the way, I find “Boycott Israel” movement lacking substance as well. In the sense that they declare something, but these declarations are completely inconsequential for Israel or for companies doing business with Israel. Most of Israeli export to the US is high-tech, with Israeli software and hardware components being part of many products… Any serious boycott of Israel should include educating oneself about what these products are… and I have not heard any peep about boycotting Intel, for example. Imagine a campaign (similar to that about conflict diamonds) “when buying a PC make sure your processor is not from Israel”…
        So far it is all just noise, on both sides. Everyone is doing something to feel good and righteous…

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        1. Stringer Bell Avatar
          Stringer Bell

          “I guess this is just a PR move in support of Israel, and nothing more.”

          Of course, but PR goes a long way in shaping public opinion.

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          1. Stringer Bell Avatar
            Stringer Bell

            Looks like I was wrong. It might be more than just a PR move.

            http://www.salon.com/2016/06/05/ny_gov_cuomo_signing_unconstitutional_mccarthyite_pro_israel_exec_order_punishing_bds_boycott_movement/

            “In states throughout the U.S., dozens of bills are pending that would effectively create a blacklist of and punish people and groups who support Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, or BDS..”

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            1. valter07 Avatar
              valter07

              What are the consequences of being on the “black list”? The state will not fund you? IMHO, any political position should be taken seriously only if the person puts their money where their mouth is…

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            2. Clarissa Avatar
              Clarissa

              Imagine, for instance, a public college professor who has written something pro-BDS somewhere. It will be extremely easy to persecute them.

              There should be a challenge to this on constitutional grounds. This cannot possibly be constitutional.

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              1. valter07 Avatar
                valter07

                This too, of course. But in general I am amused by this modern aberration – the expectation that any kind of political struggle should be without risks. That like-minded people should just assemble, open their mouths and the Universe will respond to them with rainbows, unicorns and other feel-good stuff.
                Too many people love the painting “Me as a warrior for the great cause” hanging somewhere above their sofa.

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              2. Clarissa Avatar
                Clarissa

                Oh, absolutely. Like those college kids who wail “We are in pain!” on campuses. It’s both funny and sad.

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    2. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      Forget freedom of speech! How about freedom to buy whatever the hell one wants? Back in the USSR we were forced to buy things we didn’t want but even there it wasn’t done so blatantly.

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      1. Stringer Bell Avatar
        Stringer Bell

        “Forget freedom of speech!”

        Nope!

        “How about freedom to buy whatever the hell one wants?”

        I dunno, how about the freedom to buy products made with child labor, or slavery? I get your point, though, I would still place freedom of speech a tad higher than the freedom to consume products, haha.

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      2. Stringer Bell Avatar
        Stringer Bell

        “Forget freedom of speech! ”

        Haha, nope! I get what you’re saying but I would still place freedom of speech a tad higher than the freedom to buy shit.

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        1. Clarissa Avatar
          Clarissa

          You would, yes, but would the Republican folks who wring hands about the liberal PC police?

          It’s funny how even capitalism gets thrown under the bus whenever needed.

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  4. Stringer Bell Avatar
    Stringer Bell

    https://twitter.com/zunguzungu/status/739491815137513472

    https://twitter.com/zunguzungu/status/739494978200604672

    https://twitter.com/zunguzungu/status/739494347209482240

    https://twitter.com/zunguzungu/status/739492946634936320

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      What a travesty. I’m not a fan of BDS but the idea that anybody should try to outlaw it is nothing short of barbarity. I’m stunned and horrified. This is wrong and quite scary.

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    2. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      And yes, even discussing it as a possibility, whether it’s enforceable or not, is egregious.

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      1. Stringer Bell Avatar
        Stringer Bell

        Exactly. Debating its enforceability is not the right way to oppose it. It’s like defending Trump because his plan to build a wall and deporting 11 million people is not practical. Would it be OK if it were practical?

        Another example: opposing torture by using the argument that it doesn’t work. What if tomorrow someone came up with some kind of torture that did reveal reliable information?

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        1. Clarissa Avatar
          Clarissa

          Or my favorite, “Trump will never be able to ban Muslims because they can just lie at the border and say they are Christians!” Seriously? People should be forced into something like this and that’s suddenly OK?

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        2. Clarissa Avatar
          Clarissa

          Words have enormous power. Once we have said the words “ban Muslims” and started discussing how practical it is to do that, we have opened a door into a reality where one day it will be possible and very much acceptable to do it.

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    3. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      It’s also a slippery slope to shame all slippery slopes. Once you begin persecuting people for such completely peaceful form of disobedience, where does it stop?

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      1. Stringer Bell Avatar
        Stringer Bell

        https://twitter.com/mtracey/status/739499812849127425

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  5. Joe Avatar
    Joe

    Clarissa, I thought you were anti BDS. Why did you change your mind?

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      I’m principled. I support people’s right to have opinions that differ from mine.

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  6. Stringer Bell Avatar
    Stringer Bell

    “the expectation that any kind of political struggle should be without risks. ”

    Opposing the idea that the fucking government should not retaliate against you for your speech is not the same as expecting the world to welcome you and your ideas with open arms. You’re making a false equivalency (from the comfort of your sofa, most likely).

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  7. valter07 Avatar
    valter07

    Almost caught me. 🙂 Except I am laying on the floor.
    I am not opposing the idea that government should not retaliate. Of course it should not retaliate. In the ideal world. But in the real world it does. Or can. (Should not have invaded Iraq, but it did.) I suggest that we work on demanding that the government should not retaliate while being prepared that it would, and not letting that distract or stop us.
    (The above is a general talk, I am not involved in boycotting Israel.)

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  8. Stringer Bell Avatar
    Stringer Bell

    https://twitter.com/mtracey/status/739514910858727424

    Funny thing is, it’s true. A peaceful movement is much scarier for people like him. They can drop bombs on Gaza all day to ‘deal with’ Hamas.

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    1. el Avatar
      el

      \ A peaceful movement is much scarier for people like him. They can drop bombs on Gaza all day to ‘deal with’ Hamas.

      I do not think “people like him” are those who actually “drop bombs on Gaza.”

      BDS is probably more frightening for Cuomo since he does not live in Israel and thus neither he nor his relatives are in any danger from Palestinian terror. Israelis think differently, whatever the rhetoric of some is like sometimes.

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    2. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      “”This BDS is in many ways more frightening [than Hamas],” he declared”

      • Unbelievable. What a stupid fucker, seriously.

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  9. Z Avatar
    Z

    On the original topic of the post, HRC and the Obama administration have not been too good. People who read and think do not just say “it is because of Spain” but it is colonialism / coloniality and the current world system that produces this, and the Lat Am elites who are complicit with it

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      Obama is hardly forcing Morales to make an ass out of himself. What a,shame, I had some hopes for the fellow. As for Peru, it’s very frustrating that Peruvians are choosing to go back to fujimorismo.

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      1. Z Avatar
        Z

        Everyone since the first Fuji has been a disaster too. Keiko is a continuation of badness, not a return to it.

        Morales, here is a good piece. http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/02/29/the-limits-of-evo-moraless-identity-politics/

        Argentina just irritates me, maybe they are just a right-wing country and that’s it.

        But I am very worried about Brazil and I think all this comes from slavery.

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  10. Z Avatar
    Z

    But back to my original point, I’d really like to know what DoS is up to generally. We know for Honduras, and what we’ve been up to in Mex. via the drug war and other things is nothing short of criminal

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    1. David Gendron Avatar
      David Gendron

      The War on drugs, in fact.

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      1. Z Avatar
        Z

        Yes.

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A conservative literary critic and college professor

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