The content of the book focuses on a journey that the author "Andrés Oppenheimer" makes through different countries of the world. Starting his walk through the city of Beijin, where he had the opportunity to interview and converse with different personalities from the economic and political sphere of that country, from there he made his impression of the changes that the great Chinese Republic is having.
As we carry out the reading we can understand the economic, political, commercial and industrial evolution that some world powers have gone through and how it is that some countries have remained stagnant in their development, due to the way governments manipulate or control the country. As stated in his book "Enough Stories", governments or the political system of many countries do not have an interest in their country, but the interests are personal.
In the first part of the book: the Asian challenge, the great contrast between two countries, China and Venezuela, is discussed, while the first opens the doors to foreign investment and thanks to this it grows by leaps and bounds: the second closes doors to foreign companies like Mc Donald's.
As years go by, China is gaining more markets and increasingly displacing its competitors in other parts of the world. If we compare the Chinese power with other underdeveloped countries decades past and do the same for the last five years, we notice the distance that divides them today, including our country; "Mexico".
Corruption, poverty, marginality, and organized crime are eroding the quality of life for all Latin Americans, including the wealthiest. According to some official data, Latin America is currently the most violent region in the world, a result of which the majority of crimes in this region remain unpunished, but crime has been unleashed mainly due to the poverty and deprivation in which many families currently live.
In Chapter Two: China: The Capitalist Fever. It is addressed as in China today everything is changing so rapidly. According to the study by the National Intelligence Council (CNI), China is fast becoming a world power and will be the main economic, political and military rival of the United States in 2020.
This section describes Beijin as New York at the beginning of the 20th century, a city that grows by the minute, which is becoming the center of the world. Every day tall and modern skyscrapers are built, in China the tall buildings are inhabited before they are finished, a result of the rapid growth of cities.
The existence of 10 thousand Chinese businessmen who have overcome the barrier of 10 million dollars is considered, each is considered corruption and the informal economy, in China many pirated articles are manufactured that are sold on the black market, those incomes do not enter in the statistics.
One of the things that happens in China is that most of the companies are privatized, the author interviewed Zhou Sian, a senior official from the National Ministry of Development and Reform, who told him. The Chinese state currently controls less than 30 percent of the national gross product, while 60 percent is in the hands of the non-governmental sector, and 10 percent is in the hands of groups, China currently has 3.8 million private companies that are the main engine of economic development, and the source of jobs that is growing rapidly, such as the case of Mc Donald, who in the contrary case in Venezuela has closed the doors to companies like these, in order for the government to control everything that happens in the country.
The next chapter is titled The Irish Miracle, where his author's visit to Dublin is related, and he comments on his experience in relation to the appointment he had and to which he was late, since the person whom he would still interview was in the agreed place. did not arrive, when the other person finally arrived, the author apologized for being late, the other person replied with the following phrase irish time, which means Irish time, in other words it means that for the Irish it is not so important punctuality and may be late. The author makes a comparison of the Irish with the Latin Americans, he wanted to investigate how the Irish had achieved their economic miracle.
A few years ago Ireland was one of the poorest countries in Europe, in the last twelve years it has become one of the richest countries in the world, it has been chosen by The Economist Intelligence Unite as the best country in the world to live in.
The next chapter called: The New Europe, the author relates one of his trips to Poland. He came to that country because he wanted to write about Eastern Europe and thought that Poland still belonged to that region, but a senior Polish official told him that Poland was already part of Central Europe. He explained that Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary no longer had anything to do with the division of the region that had occurred after the Second World War.
On this visit, the author interviewed Eroski, who suggested that he not compare Poland to Latin America, because Poland and many of its neighbors had been relatively advanced countries in the past, with high educational and cultural levels, unlike Latin America.
For Eroski there is a huge difference between Poland today and many Latin American countries, today in that country there is an air of optimism. The Polish economy is growing at a rate of almost 6 percent per year, this is the result of foreign investments that have been attracted by low labor costs, fiscal incentives and the high education of the population. We have the enormous comparative advantage of having highly skilled workers with lower wages than in Germany and France, Eroski told the author. Poles see foreign investment as a clear sign that the future will be even better.
In all the chapters the author mentions a particular place or theme such as Chapter V where issues related to the mandate of President George W Bush are addressed, making a little allusion to his economic relationship with Mexico, not to It has given the expected results and with respect to the mandate of the current President of the United States of North America, which has radically discriminated against our Mexican fellow citizens. Not only in its territory but in relation to free trade agreements which to date have not been specifically defined.
In the section entitled Argentina: the country of lurching, the author explains the situation in Argentina, mentioning that Argentina has long been the country of great political lurch, each government blaming its predecessor for all ills. The president of Argentina at the time, Kirchner, gave him an interview, they discussed very interesting topics, they talked about Cuba and Bolivia.
Andrés Oppenheimer describes how Argentina exceeded its external debt, and exceeded the growth of 8 percent during 2004, which was the result of several external factors: the vigorous growth of the United States, the growing appetite of China for South American agricultural products, the increase in the prices of agricultural materials that the country exported and the international interest rates that facilitated the payment of interest on trade debts.
In the next chapter called; Brazil: the colossus of the south, the author writes what Brazil represents for Latin America, relates the interview he did with the Brazilian foreign minister, Celso Amorín.
Brazil began to rewrite history and redefine the geography of the region, so that it practically excluded Mexico and Central America, leaving Brazil as the undisputed regional leader of South America. I think that if all Latin American countries were united instead of being separated, they could have a more stable economy.
The author relates that when Lula came to power, he increased his ambitions for regional leadership. First, he wanted to create the South American Union, second, he wanted to ensure Brazil's membership in the United Nations Security Council in 2005 and 2006. From the beginning of its opening to the rest of South America, Brazil's motivation was more political than economic., this bothered their Argentine neighbors, they before their economic collapse aspired to share with South America's leadership with Brazil, they wanted to somehow repeat the European example in which Germany and France had shared the leadership of the old continent.
In the following chapter, reference is made to another South American country: Venezuela: the narcissistic-Leninist project. The author describes the economic and political situation in Venezuela with the government of Hugo Chávez, relates his trip to Caracas, he was very interested in getting to know a city like those of Cuba, but when he arrived he describes that he met a Beirut from the eighties that is, a city divided geographically and politically into two halves, where the inhabitants of one part seldom ventured into the other. There was a Caracas from the East and a Caracas from the West.
The division that the author points out has been promoted by the government that Venezuela currently has. It is mentioned that, unlike what had happened in Cuba, Chávez had failed to create a partisan or military section to control the population. It's not that I didn't want to; among other things, he had formed neighborhood political control groups that he had called Bolivarian circles, similar to the defense committees of the Cuban revolution.
After the author interviewed several personalities from Venezuela, some agreed that the revolution that Chávez is seeking is a gradual process, rigorously planned and closely advised by Castro. After winning the 1998 elections, Chávez had used his political capital to change the constitution and create a system of government that would make it easier for him to win future elections. Then he passed statist laws on land, oil and banks that sparked massive opposition protests.
The author had the opportunity to interview Miquilena, a political mentor and old friend of Chávez, Oppenheimer in the conversation asked him to describe Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and described him as follows: an intellectually limited, compulsive, temperamental man, surrounded of obsequious, incredibly messy in all aspects of life, unpunctual, absolutely denied for finances, lover of luxury and erratic. I do not understand how a person with those attributes or defects can govern a country, that is why Venezuela is so bad politically and economically.
The chapter entitled Mexico: the country that fell asleep, in this part the author describes the Mexican economy, a bit of its past and especially of the politicians and what they did during their governments and electoral campaigns of years ago.
The author begins by describing that when the campaigns for President of the Republic were carried out in 2006, the candidates for the presidency were Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) and Vicente Fox Quezada, during the AMLO campaign he had a great loss of prestige before businessmen, because many people He said that if he became president, his government would be the same or worse than that of Hugo Chávez; In this regard, AMLO made a confidential letter to the businessmen, where he stated that their government was not going to be the same as that of the 1970s, when José López Portillo and Luis Echeverría governed.
It is explained that when Fox became president of Mexico he did not really do much to improve the country's competitiveness, the nation had advanced at 10 kilometers per hour, while China, India and other emerging powers were doing so at 100 kilometers per hour. In almost all global competitiveness indices, Mexico had lagged behind during Fox's presidential term.
This entire section focused on political parties and Mexico's candidates to be heads of government, it would have been more interesting for the author to treat the subject of Mexico from another perspective, for example, to reflect on the possibilities that the country has of compete with trade blocs or world powers.
In the last section called Latin America in the century of knowledge, the author describes the current situation in Latin America, particularly in technology and knowledge, comparing it with other countries in the world. He explains that raw materials not only ceased to be a guarantee of progress, but in many cases they are a condemnation of failure. Many countries with enormous natural resources are living in poverty, while others that do not have them are among the most prosperous, these countries have bet on education, science and technology. A clear example is Luxembourg, this country leads the countries with the highest per capita index, a tiny territory and does not sell any raw material.
The author mentions a very clear example of how economies work today: Latin America should be the world's leading flower producer because it has cheap labor, huge territory, plenty of sun, large water reserves, and a wide variety of flora. However, the world's leading flower producer is the Netherlands, it is one of the countries with the least sun, small territory and the most expensive labor force in the world. What matters in the flower industry is genetic engineering, distribution capacity, and marketing.
The author mentions that the countries that register the most patents are those that invest the most in science and technology. In this category are the United States, which invests 36 percent of the world total for research and development, the European Union, 23 percent and Japan with 13 percent. Latin American and Caribbean countries invest only 2.9 percent of the world total for research and development.
It is interesting how the author relates the experiences lived in different countries, presents a wealth of experiences and knowledge about different countries of the world. Regardless of that, it particularly makes me reflect that the development of my country or our country depends not only on governments but on the role that each of us as citizens assume for our country.
It is very essential to consider that governments do not have the solution as a canteen of wishes, but that we must all contribute to the good development of our country. Much of what Mexico can become rests with us.
