The Mexico Story.

Previously posted on my Facebook Page. 

MEXICO and the United States are not just border neighbors; they are connected by a sturdy umbilical cord that is emotionally cultural, significantly political, and beneficially economic. Forget that the United States gets its steady supply of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, and other illicit narcotics from Mexican drug cartels. That is simply the dramatic side-story. This high and low “friendship” is tight.

       History: The relationship evolved quite uneasily from two agreements: [1] When Mexico ceded the modern-day southwestern United States to the U.S. via the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo at the end of Mexican-American War 1848, and [2] The Gadsden Purchase in 1854 when Washington agreed to pay Mexico $10 million for a portion of Mexico, which later became part of Arizona and New Mexico.

       And so since the late 19th century during the regime of President Porfirio Díaz (1876–1911), the two countries have fortified their ties. During Díaz's long presidency, U.S. businessmen acquired agricultural and mining interests in Mexico. Meantime, the U.S. played an important role in the course of the Mexican Revolution (1910–1920) with direct actions of the U.S. influencing the outcome. And so on and so forth.

       These days, the U.S. is Mexico's largest trading partner, accounting for close to half of all exports and more than half of all imports. For the U.S., Mexico is the 3rd largest trading partner after Canada and China. The two-way trade between both nations amounted to almost $600 billion. Of course, there’s the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) signed in 1994 with the goal of eliminating barriers to trade and investment.

       Mexico is also the United States’ 2nd top gross petroleum importer after Canada, and ahead of Saudi Arabia, Russia (pre-Ukraine war), and Colombia. With China showing signs of slowdown of business with the West and per obvious result of the current Ukraine drama, Washington’s trade relations with Beijing and Moscow are expected to plummet. It wouldn’t be surprising that the U.S./Mexico romance will even grow fonder. 🇲🇽🇲🇽🇲🇽

Mexico is not a poor country as gauged by its economy, which is the 9th largest economy in the world. Although GDP growth rate plummeted to 2.11 percent, it is a decent rise from 2020 pandemic’s -18.70 percent but far from the all-time high of 19.90 percent in the second quarter of 2021. The country’s 3.4 percent unemployment isn’t so bad either.

       Major problem is Mexico's wealth is unevenly distributed among its 128 million people where 10 percent of nation's wealthiest have 42.2 percent of all income and 10 percent of the nation's poorest have 1.3 of the remaining income. The nonstop trek of migrants off the U.S. southern border though, I believe, isn’t because of poverty per se. It is a combination of several factors although I am not discussing that subject right now.

       Anyways.

       Mexico’s main industries are food and beverages, tobacco, chemicals, iron and steel, petroleum, clothing, motor vehicles, consumer durables, and tourism. It is a major exporter of silver, fruits, vegetables, coffee, cotton, oil and oil products.

       True, Mexico is loyally American but it doesn’t mean, like it’s BFF the U.S., that it is not vulnerable to anything Chinese. In 2020 amidst the pandemic, Mexico's imports from China exceeded its exports by more than $65 billion. But this trade exchange, although still significantly less massive than with the U.S., is not without roots. 🇲🇽🇲🇽🇲🇽

China/Mexico links date back to the early days of the Spanish Colonial Empire in the Americas and the Philippines. In the 16th-17th century, people, goods, and news traveling between China and Spain usually did so through the Philippines (where there was a large Chinese settlement) and (via the Manila galleon trade) to Mexico. The first two galleons loaded with Chinese goods arrived from the Philippines to Acapulco in 1573.

       But Beijing/Mexico City trade relations are continually, basically a working project. American sanctions on China and tariffs on Chinese goods stunted the exchange, as well as rising wages in China and the difficulty of doing business there. The trend has accelerated recently. But the Chinese are not about to give up as exemplified by recent attempts.

       Same as it does in Latin America and Africa, China expands its FDIs in Mexico in recent years. China was set to construct a $200 million, 1,400-acre mega-mall, Dragon Mart, near the beach resort of Cancún. But it was shot down by environmentalists. In 2014, the Mexican government cancelled a contract for China to build a bullet train in Mexico.

       Yet it doesn’t mean Chinese companies are off-limits in Mexico. Several Chinese multinational companies operate in Mexico such as Hisense, Huawei, JAC Motors, Lenovo and ZTE. At the same time, several Mexican multinational companies operate in China such as Gruma, Grupo Bimbo, Nemak, and Softtek. 🇲🇽🇲🇽🇲🇽

MY THOUGHTS About News and Stuff.

Previously posted on my Facebook Page.

New York Times: “I Went to China for the First Time in 3 Years, and I Saw Just How Formidable It Is.” And adds: “The country’s economic prospects are being underestimated.” Initially founded as a socialist state with a centrally planned economy, China’s current system is a mixed economy, with a lot of smart modifications of Western-styled capitalism. Result: An almost 30 boom years with GDP growing in double-digits, raising poverty out of mud. 

       The CCP calls it: “Socialism with Chinese characteristics.” Yet mostly it isn’t about ideological paradigm. China is moved by its religion and culture. Political fervor is Maoist Communism and Deng Xiaoping’s shrewd trade design via “Four Modernizations” of the 1970s. Yet it is all about the spiritual (Buddhist) discipline and focused work ethic of the intensely united Chinese. 🎎🇨🇳🎎

New York Times: “Arizona Limits Construction Around Phoenix as Its Water Supply Dwindles.” And adds: “Officials ruled there’s not enough groundwater for projects already approved.” This is a fact and old news. Forty million people rely on water from the Colorado River. Yet when it comes to frivolous consumption, no change or it gets worse each year. Sick and tired of this two-word “climate change” pitch. Most affected states: California, Utah, New Mexico, and Nevada. 🌬💨💦

Smithsonian: “Octopuses May Have Vivid Nightmares, Video Suggests.” And adds: “Costello, a male Brazilian reef octopus, had `bizarre’ defensive outbursts while sleeping in a lab.” We haven’t yet fully explored the intricacies of the human mind and physical body. We get sicker and sicker. Yet we over-focus (sic!) on animal research when they’re better off let alone. Or Big Tech prioritizes inventions of A.I. machines in place of human reflex/response. 🐙🐙🐙

New York Times: “All Americans Have the Right to Dress Exactly How They Want.” Trend watchers agree: Fashion is a sense of self-expression, but some particularly strange trends have emerged over the decades. The answer is probably as simple as the fact that people change. And then that change gets highly politicized. Discoursing skin-tight shorts as outdoor wear or "men lingerie" brings us to Left vs Right caterwaul. Clothes are political statements, beyond individual preference. 👚🩳🩱

Too much ado about PGA/LIV Merger (1). Why the drama? Is it because Riyadh hooked up with Moscow in re global oil pricing, regardless of the war? Or Saudi Arabia shook hands with Iran on China's intercession? Or MBS is a Trump buddy, as does Putin? Yet I do dig the word "friend" over "enemy." Sports bridge animosities. Ain't we in the United States disunited enough? At least the Saudis offer us money in golf and not "arms for oil" that ruled bilateral deals with the Arabs for years.

       We curse at the Saudis for merging with our golf, a sport of the rich, that eats up lots of geography. But then, what about the Arabs’ desert that we dug up since the 1940s to feed our insatiable thirst for fuel? We are still buying oil from them, as we speak. They are guilty of human rights dirt? Who isn’t? Washington tossed billions$ in taxpayer money to heighten war than negotiate for peace. What about support of dictatorships? 🏒🇸🇦🏒

Time: “Apple Strikes Multibillion-Dollar Deal to Use U.S.-Made Chips.” Sure, it can be done. Work things out and revert back to pre-2000 U.S./China trade pact. But it’s going to be a long road. Main material that contributes to the bulk of computer chip design is silicon. China is the world’s runaway #1 producer of this chemical element. Meanwhile, Apple’s longest-running manufacturing partner is Taiwan-owned Foxconn, with 16 factories in China, including the largest in Shenzen. 💾🍎📀

New York Times: “Tara Reade, Who Accused Biden of Assault, Says She Has Moved to Russia.” During the 2020 campaign, Tara Reade, then a Congressional aide, alleged that Joe Biden sexually assaulted her in 1993 in Capitol Hill. Same with Donald Trump's accuser, I ask why only now when the accused is a political spotlight? The “scandal” is trajectoried as campaign weapon. Next, comes $settlement to buy silence. So are we fixing the ills this way? 

       Tara Reade worked for Biden as a Congressional aide in 1992 and 1993, and later attended Antioch University and Seattle University School of Law. She later worked as a domestic violence advocate. 😏😒🤨

Smithsonian: “New York City Is Sinking Under the Weight of Its Skyscrapers, Study Finds.” Coming from a far less wealthy archipelago, I get paranoid. The Philippines is a calamity bait and we'd probably drown in massive floods? Meanwhile, the Big Apple is sinking? Hurricane Sandy in 2012 wasted 43 lives in New York City; economic losses were roughly $19 billion. Worse could happen next. But this is America. How did that happen? NYC is the richest city in the world. Fix it. 🗽🏖🏢

New York Times: “As U.S. Races Ahead, Europe Frets About Battery Factory Subsidies.” And adds: “The European Union is trying to assemble the building blocks to produce electric cars, but subsidies are luring companies to the United States.” But the U.S. needs a steady supply of five critical minerals whose domestic supply is potentially at risk: lithium, cobalt, manganese, nickel, and graphite. And those are found mostly in China and Russia, and their economic allies. 🚕⛏🚗

New York Times: “My A.I. Lover.” And adds: “Three women reflect on the complexities of their relationships with their A.I. companions.” Damn. Complex? Relationship with robots? LOL! Did the A.I.s rant a lot of politics? Crack silly culturally insensitive jokes? Grilled salmon wrapped on aluminum foil? Watched lots of TV? Etc etcetera. Truth is, I know of friends whose reflex and logic were very AI. They were very right. No way to argue with them. They may conk out. 🤖💓🤖

The Brazil Story.

Previously posted on my Facebook Page.

HOWEVER way (or angle) we view, observe, or judge Brazil—it is still huge. Brazil has the world’s #5 largest population at 212.6 million and the 5th largest country by land area. Bounded by the Atlantic Ocean on the east, Brazil has a coastline of 4,655 miles. It borders all other countries in South America except Ecuador and Chile and covers 47.3 percent of the continent's land area.

        Brazil boasts of its massive Amazon basin, which includes a vast tropical forest, home to diverse wildlife, a variety of ecological systems, and extensive natural resources spanning numerous protected habitats. This unique environmental heritage makes the giant geography one of 17 megadiverse countries, and is the subject of significant global interest per environmental facts, issues, and impacts.

       Moreover, Brazil is also the 10th largest consumer market. Brasília is only the world’s #26-ranked exporter and #29th in imports but the country has the largest share of global wealth in South America and it is one of the world's major breadbaskets, being the largest producer of coffee for the last 150 years.

       Brazil also has the largest GDP in Latin America. In terms of regional and global decision-making, Brasilia is integral. It is a founding member of the United Nations, the G20, BRICS, Mercosul, Organization of American States, Organization of Ibero-American States and the Community of Portuguese Language Countries. When a global shudder happens, Brazil’s position is perennially asked. 🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷

BRAZIL’s chief industries are all global imperatives: Iron and steel production, automobile assembly, petroleum processing, chemicals production, and cement making; technologically based industries have been the most dynamic in recent years, but have not outpaced traditional industries—which make Brazil a trading powerhouse, globally.

       Brazil’s export crops are also among the world’s tops: Soybeans, sugarcane, coffee, beef, and orange juice. Brazil exported 86 million metric tons of soybeans in 2020, accounting for roughly 50 percent of the world's exports.

       As expected, Brazil’s top trading partner is China, which enjoys 28.11 percent of Brasilia’s export/import business. The U.S. is a distant second, 13.25 percent. Next: Netherlands and neighbor Argentina. Of the 15 most exported Brazilian commodities, China is the main importer of 11, while the U.S. is the main importer of only two.

       In fact, Brazil is the main destination for Chinese investments in South America, receiving $66.1 billion, equivalent to 47 percent of the total amount invested, in the decade up to 2020. Brazilian/Beijing business flourished, regardless of Covid-19 pandemic. In 2021 China bought over 30 percent of Brazil's physical exports, up from less than 20 percent five years earlier.

       As expected, Chinese companies are also involved in the oil exploration in Brazil. The consortium which won the right to explore Brazil's largest pre-salt oil camp, Libra, has two Chinese companies -- CNOOC and CNPC, along with Total, Shell and Brazil's own state-controlled oil giant Petrobras. Some 23 Chinese companies are all over Brazil.

       Does Brazil rely on China? I think this is no brainer. Brazil and China are members of an economic organization called BRICS, also consisting of Russia, India, and South Africa. 🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷

MAJOR reasons for the United States’ less aggressive business investing in Brazil: High-profile amounts of corruption, crime and social inequality. Add cumbersome and complex taxation, bureaucratic delays, and rigid labor legislation. Even so American FDIs are still funneled through manufacturing, finance and insurance, and mining.

       However, the complexity of Washington’s relationship with Brasilia always points to politics—because the U.S. is more concerned with its geopolitical persona from the latter part of the 20th century towards 21st century, as China and Russia moved to put ideological fire in the backburner over economic diversification and trade expansionism.

       Today’s political classes in South/Latin America are still scarred by the history of U.S. interventions, often involving the overthrow of democratically elected governments such as Salvador Allende in Chile and João Goulart in Brazil during the Cold War.

       Even among supposedly cordial partners in democracy, Washington’s record as a dependable, trustworthy power has been cast in the dark because of its history of betraying and abandoning its former allies in favor of policing based on what the U.S. believes as just, reasonable, and humane.

       Latin America’s largely snub of President Biden’s call for sanction against Russia on account of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine—is an example of the weakening of America’s clout in the region. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro declined to condemn Putin and said Brazil would remain neutral.

       Mr Bolsonaro added that he was against any sanctions that could bring negative repercussions for Brazil, citing Russian fertilizers which are crucial for the country's giant agribusiness sector. And, of course, Latin America—including Brazil—is a huge buyer of Russian military equipment. But that’d be another subject to discuss. 🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷

Photo credits: Chimu Adventures. I Heart Brazil.