Jumat, 24 Februari 2012
Mar del Plata, Argentina Holiday Getaway (via Wikipedia)Being a worker in Argentina in 2012 certainly has its benefits. Out of the 366 days this year, 122 will be official holidays and weekends, precisely one third of the whole year, assuming that the end of the world will not surprise us all. There will be a total of 10 “fin de semanas largas”, or 3-day weekends, with the possibility of an eleventh one, to celebrate the bicentennial of the Argentinean flag on Monday February 17. That last one is pending approval of the bill in the lower house, after the senate approved it already.Add to that the vacation days which are written into the law and the average worker productivity will be down, forcing manufacturers to hire more workers, something that is great for the economy, driving down unemployment and raising income tax receipts. Oh, sorry, I almost forgot! It does not work that way. Few people actually pay taxes, and employers will probably just force their workers to be more productive. Have another maté, mate, and then get back to work.The short and violent criminal career of Colombian bad boy Maximiliano Bonilla-Orozco has come to its inevitable conclusion. No he is not dead, but he has just been apprehended in Venezuela’s third largest city, Valencia. Bonilla-Orozco has been on the United States list of most wanted drug kingpins for a while. It is alleged that he was the mastermind behind sending several hundred tons of cocaine from Colombia to the U.S. and sending millions of dollars back through Mexico. Perhaps not so coincidentally, the capture was made on Sunday while the Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos was on a state visit to that very country. Santos thanked his Venezuelan counterpart, President Hugo Chلvez, for his country’s invaluable assistance in the capture of the very high value drug trafficker that has wrought so much damage in many parts of the Americas. The captured Narco received his drugs from the Ejercito de Liberacion Nacional (ELN) and has had extensive dealings with Las Zetas, the ultraviolentMexican gang of former military commandos. The USA had a US$5 million reward out for his capture, but Venezuelan officials announced that they will not claim the reward, stating that he will be extradited to the USA as soon as the Yanquis are ready for him. Bonilla–Orozco was indicted in New York in 2008. This comes as somewhat of a surprise to US officials, as Venezuela discontinued its anti-drug cooperation with the United States in 2009.Raْl Castro keeps surprising not just seasoned Cuba watchers, but his long oppressed countrymen. It is looking like the Pearl of the Caribbean will slowly get back to private ownership of businesses, automobiles, and property. With the latest announcements coming from President Raْl Castro, the road ahead for private enterprise looks promising. After over 50 years of the island’s Soviet style central planning and execution, the president of the island nation has come to the logical conclusion that even at the very low salaries paid to state workers, having millions of underperforming non-fire-able workers on the state payroll is a drain on the already strained economy. President Raْl is encouraging small businesses to form, hoping they will hire as many as one million workers away from government payrolls. While his ultimate goal is to strengthen Cuba’s communism with these changes, it appears more like the grassroots of a new socio-capitalistic society that once it takes hold, will become the base for future economic development. Enterprising minds in the country are already planning and hoping for more relaxed rules that will allow the human spirit to soar once again on that incomparably beautiful island.One of the major drawbacks has been the lack of capital available to potential entrepreneurs, but that is all about to change. As an early Christmas present, new banking and credit regulations will take effect on December 20, 2011, presenting for the first time the opportunity for farmers, small businesses, and individuals with good ideas to obtain financing, and to be able to open commercial bank accounts, a pre-requisite for doing business with the government.Cuba’s potential is vast. The islands citizens are very industrious people, having learned to make do with very little for more than 50 years. Being so close to Florida, and having such a large underutilized labor pool, the possibilities of industrialization are very high. All it takes is for some of the US right wing politicians to realize that the potential for their patrons, the large corporations that got them elected, is immense, and that the children of Cuban robber barons who fled to Florida should get used to the fact that they too live in a changing world. You can never go back Baby! Cuba of the 1950’s is gone forever.Dakar Rally Raid coming in 32 days!I encourage you to write to me, jamie@expatdailynews.com with any questions or suggestions you may have, and if necessary, we can establish a voice communication via Skype. Disclaimer: I am not in any travel related business. My advice is based on my own experiences, and is free of charge. (Donations accepted). It is always my pleasure to act as a beneficial counselor to those who are seekers of the next adventure.Jamie Douglas is an Adventurer, Writer and Photographer with an amazing array of Nikon equipment, and a lifetime of experience traveling and documenting. 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By Jamie Douglas Chile has been involved in a long running trial, going back to the years of the shameful overthrow of President Salvador Allende. Judge Jorge Zepeda has just issued an indictment request for U.S. Captain Raymond E. Davis for his alleged involvement in the extrajudicial execution of two U.S. citizens, Charles Horman and Frank Teruggi, the first a reporters affiliated with the American Information Source, a purported left wing organization that was a strong supporter of President Salvador Allende. Horman was a 31 year old film maker while Teruggi was a 23 year old student.Captain Davis was commander of the US Military Group in Chile, answerable directly to the CIA which at the time had their dirty hands in most countries in Latin America under the guise of “preserving democracy,” an effort which ultimately ended up costing tens of thousands of lives in the region and in fact helping to pave the way for brutal dictatorships to take the place of democracy. Captain Davis at last stands accused today, 38 years later, of bearing responsibility for ratting the two U.S. citizens out to the Chilean Secret Police while collaborating with the now imprisoned Chilean Army Brigadier General Pedro Espinoza Bravo, a leader of the feared secret police called DINA who in 1976 planned the execution by car bomb in Washington D.C. of Chilean Diplomat Orlando Letelier, a former member of Salavador Allende’s cabinet. The bullet-riddled bodies of both of the U.S. citizens were found on a street in Santiago de Chile after they had been executed along with many others in the capital’s National Stadium. The United States did nothing for their citizens, except help to cover up their murder.Documents declassified in 1999 clearly showed the involvement and contribution of intelligence by Captain Davis that led to the death of the two U.S. citizens. The whereabouts of Captain Davis are currently unknown, and it is very unlikely that the FBI or any other U.S. law enforcement agency will assist in the detention and deportation of this highly decorated war criminal.Brazil still leads the world with the highest interest rates, and has done so for the last 23 months, in spite of dropping the base rate by 0.5% to 11% recently. Financing any purchase in Brazil is a costly affair, and many merchants selling consumer goods, like in Argentina, are offering interest-free installment credit to anyone with a national ID card. It must be noted that not making payments is a criminal offense, where you get locked up without a trial until the debt is satisfied. Brazil leads the world with the highest rates, followed by Hungary, Indonesia, Chile, Mexico, China, Russia, Australia, Colombia, and Taiwan.Argentina has been less than forthcoming with their official inflation rate, since former President Néstor Kirchner † replaced all the INDEC technocrats with his handpicked political cronies. The figures that have been released to the public since that time have been rather disingenuous, rarely approaching even one-half of what is taken for reality. For a while, private consulting firms have issued their own highly academic figures. They arrived at their data with good old scientific methods: Sending hordes of people to all kinds of commercial establishments to ascertain the cost of consumer goods across a wide spectrum of items. Their figures, unlike those of the government appointed cronies, do not lie. So to combat the contrariness of those darn truthsayers, the government of President Christina Fernلndez de Kirchner had her Secretariat of Domestic Trade file a lawsuit against the private consulting firms. These same firms had already paid heavy fines for the audacity of speaking the truth against the official fiction created by the government lackeys.Judge Alejandro Catania, who as a friend of the Kirchners’ was assigned this case, tried to get the International Monetary Fund involved in this, to show that the wayward Melconian & Santangelo private consulting agency were indeed at fault. The government of Presidenta Cristina is on a collision course with the IMF over the false information disseminated by INDEC, and an agreement signed with the IMF will have to be fulfilled by January 10 of 2012. The Argentinean government apparently prefers to be a financial rogue state. [image: Statue of Salvador Allende in front of Palacio de La Moneda, Santiago, Chile,I encourage you to write to me, jamie@expatdailynews.com with any questions or suggestions you may have, and if necessary, we can establish a voice communication via Skype. Disclaimer: I am not in any travel related business. My advice is based on my own experiences, and is free of charge. (Donations accepted). It is always my pleasure to act as a beneficial counselor to those who are seekers of the next adventure.Jamie Douglas is an Adventurer, Writer and Photographer with an amazing array of Nikon equipment, and a lifetime of experience traveling and documenting. To contact him for assignments, email: jamie.douglas [at] yahoo.com
