It’s that time of year again. Another 12 months has flown by. Companies and organizations are celebrating their 2012 achievements and are looking for areas of improvement in 2013. Offices, malls and schools are filled with holiday music and lights. South Africa is no different, but there is some stress, as they prepare to host […]
Marcela Valente of the ipsnews.net published a very interesting article this week discussing why Mercosur has decided to pass up a recent offer of a free trade agreement with China. Mercosur fell off the radar screen in the discussions on international trade after the FTAA died post 2001. With the recent dramatic suspension of Paraguay […]
Writing for both the Latin America blog and the Europe blog often has its advantages, and with so little attention being paid to Latin America at this past weekend’s G8 Summit at Camp David I am given some space to discuss how the global economy affects Latin America and other developing regions. The late 90s […]
The recent BRICS summit at the end of March 2012 led to a substantial amount of controversy surrounding South Africa’s membership. Various political analysts were seen on television and in newspapers all answering a similar question to this one: Given its economic, military and population numbers, is South Africa really worthy to be part of […]
A report released last month discussed the rising profile of BRICS countries–Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa–in health and development assistance and called upon the group to further their cooperation for better global health in the developing world. “Shifting Paradigm: How the BRICS are Shaping Global Health and Development” (PDF), written by the NGO […]
The emergence of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and now South Africa to compose the so-called BRICS Summit met in Hainan, China (Apr 14-15, 2011) to discuss global economics, trade cooperation and developments in Japan and Libya. The emergence of this economic bloc could become an alternative voice on the world stage to Western dominated world finance and politics.