President Ronald Reagan said after a trip to Latin America "Well, I learned a lot....I went down to find out and learn their views. You'd be surprised. They're all individual countries."
While probably not the ideal choice of words, his basic point was true - Latin America is much more diverse than many people realize. Some countries are mostly Amerindians, others mostly Black African, others more European and white than many European countries, some with thousands of Hindus and above all millions of mestizos i.e. mixed race people of all types. You may be surprised at the ethnic and cultural diversity of Latin America.
The 21st century is already seeing a dynamic rise of Latin America. The World Cup was played in Brazil this summer. As a whole, Latin American is emerging from long eras of historical chaos, civil wars and strife to become new countries and economies.
Socialism in Latin America
In Latin America the "Socialism" movement has a special meaning: it is a movement in based in the goal of reversing Latin America's historical inequality and elitism and empowering the common people, including millions of Amerindians who have been disenfranchised for centuries.
This elitism is now starting to crumble (slowly) in favor of more democratic and socialist governments who claim they want to give power to the people. There are at least six openly Socialist leaders today in Latin America; many regard Che Guevara, Cuban Revolutionary, and Simon Bolivar, hero of the independence movement, as their heroes and model. These leaders are by no means all the same: Evo Morales is Boliva's first Amerindian president and has an 8th grade education. Meanwhile, Rafael Correa of Ecuador is also Socialist but has a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Ilinois. Hugo Chavez, now deceased, turned Venezuela into a Socialist country and left it in turmoil.
Dynamic US and Canada
The US and Canada are trying to find their way and their role as global leaders in a fast-changing world. In just a few decades, the US has become the world's only superpower and the world's top economies transitioned from industrial base (making cars, steel) to a high-tech base (making software and computer chips). Many North American cities were devastated by the loss of industrial jobs, like Detroit and Cleveland. Other regions, like Silicon Valley (near Stanford U and San Francisco), Austin, TX, Northern Virginia and other "Technopoles" or "Nerdistans" have hit the jackpot.
North America is also in the midst of the world's largest fracking boom--new techniques of extracting oil and natural gas. Believe it or not, the US is now the world's leader in producing oil and natural gas due to fracking, higher than Saudi Arabia and Russia. In the longer term, the US would like to move to cleaner forms of renewable energy, but this is taking time.
Many older North American industrial regions are re-inventing themselves in a post-industrial age. Abandoned Midwestern farms towns like Fargo and Sioux Falls are now attracting software companies and some of the young people who historically have moved away are coming back home for jobs. The southern Sun Belt like Phoenix and Houston is exploding with cheap suburban housing. Meanwhile downtown urban areas like New York City, Boston, and DC are gentrifying (turning slums into high-end neighborhoods) to attract younger adults. Some say the "millenials" today are looking for more urban places to live than the suburbs they grew up in.
The US has the most mobile population in the world, with many new "megaregions" growing around places like Las Vegas, Denver, the Gulf Coast, and Houston-Dallas-Austin. In the US, regions decline, change, and grow quickly as industries and jobs come and go.
The Americas as a whole will play a key role for the US due to its proximity and location in the Western Hemisphere. Strong trade agreements like the US treaties NAFTA and CAFTA and the South American economic alliance MERCOSUR are evidence of the massive trade that goes on within the Americas.
Socialism in Latin America
In Latin America the "Socialism" movement has a special meaning: it is a movement in based in the goal of reversing Latin America's historical inequality and elitism and empowering the common people, including millions of Amerindians who have been disenfranchised for centuries.
This elitism is now starting to crumble (slowly) in favor of more democratic and socialist governments who claim they want to give power to the people. There are at least six openly Socialist leaders today in Latin America; many regard Che Guevara, Cuban Revolutionary, and Simon Bolivar, hero of the independence movement, as their heroes and model. These leaders are by no means all the same: Evo Morales is Boliva's first Amerindian president and has an 8th grade education. Meanwhile, Rafael Correa of Ecuador is also Socialist but has a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Ilinois. Hugo Chavez, now deceased, turned Venezuela into a Socialist country and left it in turmoil.
Dynamic US and Canada
The US and Canada are trying to find their way and their role as global leaders in a fast-changing world. In just a few decades, the US has become the world's only superpower and the world's top economies transitioned from industrial base (making cars, steel) to a high-tech base (making software and computer chips). Many North American cities were devastated by the loss of industrial jobs, like Detroit and Cleveland. Other regions, like Silicon Valley (near Stanford U and San Francisco), Austin, TX, Northern Virginia and other "Technopoles" or "Nerdistans" have hit the jackpot.
North America is also in the midst of the world's largest fracking boom--new techniques of extracting oil and natural gas. Believe it or not, the US is now the world's leader in producing oil and natural gas due to fracking, higher than Saudi Arabia and Russia. In the longer term, the US would like to move to cleaner forms of renewable energy, but this is taking time.
Many older North American industrial regions are re-inventing themselves in a post-industrial age. Abandoned Midwestern farms towns like Fargo and Sioux Falls are now attracting software companies and some of the young people who historically have moved away are coming back home for jobs. The southern Sun Belt like Phoenix and Houston is exploding with cheap suburban housing. Meanwhile downtown urban areas like New York City, Boston, and DC are gentrifying (turning slums into high-end neighborhoods) to attract younger adults. Some say the "millenials" today are looking for more urban places to live than the suburbs they grew up in.
The US has the most mobile population in the world, with many new "megaregions" growing around places like Las Vegas, Denver, the Gulf Coast, and Houston-Dallas-Austin. In the US, regions decline, change, and grow quickly as industries and jobs come and go.
The Americas as a whole will play a key role for the US due to its proximity and location in the Western Hemisphere. Strong trade agreements like the US treaties NAFTA and CAFTA and the South American economic alliance MERCOSUR are evidence of the massive trade that goes on within the Americas.
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