There is a concept well displayed throughout this book that talks about how Latin American is based on theocracy and not physiology. The thoughts being processed here are that Latin America talks about wanting to change but doesn’t take any steps for that change, rather they just ask for help sit back and relax. A lot of the principles that Latinos have come from ideas in the bibles, or at least they try to correlate everything with the bible, but what they have not been aware of is that without actions there is no change, words mean nothing in this world when they stand alone. As was explained, Cuba has not been able to get rid of Castro not because the United States has not tried to get rid of him, but rather because Castro himself is not willing to let go of the governmental palace. There has been an intent on peaceful change but Castro has rejected every instance of it. Lastly, it also speaks about how Cuba is said to be better off that third world countries but it is an equivocation because Cuba cannot be compared to countries that have not had the same level of development and progress. Instead they should compare it to countries that do have the same levels of both such as Spain, and then realize that Cuba is still on the bottom of the pile when it comes to wealth and how well it is currently doing.
I am not certain, but it seems like this book is pro-anarchocapitalism and the other is pro-marxist. since both advocate an ideology at opposite ends of the political spectrum, everything kind of needs to be taken with a grain of salt.
The auther of "idiot" emphasize that instead of acting, like jennifer pointed out above, latin americans have instead sat back and blamed the "west" for the economic situation of latin america. ("we love being incompetent with a clear conscience") supposedly cuba gave, over the years $100 billion in aid, and look at cuba now. i think this is a great point going against the economic efficiency and necessity of marxist regimes.
i've read a little bit of marx and of marxist thinkers, so i think it would have been interesting to read "open veins" as well. what i find difficult to understand is how "leftists" (which is really too general a term) can advocate big government when marx himself writes of the dangers of a big, powerful bureaucracy. one of his famous statements is that "the ideas of the ruling class are the ruling ideas". dosent big government (especially big corrupt government) just help to perpetuate the cycle of bad leaders in power?
The Guide to the Perfect Latin American Idiot, written by three writers of Colombian, Cuban and Peruvian descent critize the opinions that drive political leaders. These political leaders who practice ill-conceived political myths despite evidence on the contrary. The idiots referred to in this book are the ones who hold the responsibility for Latin American’s underdevelopment. This explains many issues on why Latin American countries have not stepped forward in society because Latin Americans only talk about change but don’t take it upon themselves to do something about it. We could relate this to the fact of Latin Americans faith in the government as a social justice. In the early 1900’a we saw a lot of reforms of political leaders but this only lasted a while because now we still see that Castro is still in power. Although we have learned that the people from Cuba loved and praised Castro. The people of Cuba those who oppose of Castro sit back while their freedom in not limited. From the reading that I did I could conclude that many of us are still Latin American idiots. We sit back and let things happen without striving for a change! Many of us have faith in the government and so take in their policies.
Open Veins in Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent by Eduardo Galeano follows the raping of Latin America by those countries of the north through the centuries. As Galeano chronicles starting with colonization of brazil western countries have destroyed the land and abused people in the name of capital. One of my favorite quotes was “One wonders if those that made us paralytic might offer us a wheelchair”. To read the chronology of this pillage, one wonders how the north could be so blind and oblivious to the pain of those we depend so heavily on.
when reading open veins one thing that you can get off the start is that that his argument is against Europe during the time of the discovery of the new world and latin america which is when the exploitation would begin throughout the western hemisphere of the world towards the more minority countries who could not have defend towards these more advanced in technology and weapons such as france and britain
Open Veins in Latin America analyzes the history of Latin America, dating from European contact of the new world to the present day exploitation we see today across many countries in Latin America. In the book the abundance of natural resources in Latin America in conjunction with European dominannce and machismo have caused five centuries worth of pillaging. Gold and silver, cacao and cotton, rubber and coffee, fruit,clothing garments,and petroleum are the extensive timeline of resources that have made Latin America a prime target for exploitation that still continues today. One wonders when will this cease to continue,if ever?
I believe this book has a concept that is very intellectual and very interesting for a while until you start to realize the whole story this book has. This book tends to talk about the concept of Latin America and how it wants change but is not taking full capacity to change because it is being like a human being that doesn’t do anything for himself. The perspectives of Latin America is very weird because most of its principles is from the bible and most people just look at the principles from the bible instead of thinking through another aspect in life.
I enjoyed the major theme of the book in that everyone else that exploited the latin american countries for their silver and gold and other crucial resources. An economist in the book mentioned that latin america did not follow capitalism and thats why their poor. The author disagreed and said it is because of other peoples capatalistic evils that latin america negatively affected from the cheapness of their labor, making it so attractive for europeans . The rich cannot be rich unless the poor are poor. That major theme as well was very interesting. The rich can not be rich unless there are people out there that are negatively being affected. There is an inverse correlation with these 2 variables, which I fully agree with. It sounds right, if someone is losing in a trade, the other person is winning. Latin America lost for many years, europeans won.
I chose to read Open Veins of Latin America. This is the second class that I had to read this book for and I was not really fond about it. I feel like the book is good but it resembles so much like a text book. And it was not really a good read. But the parts that I did read i agreed to. Especially the fact that people from the United States of America, i.e. such as corporations, businesses and such go to these countries in Latin America and use the people there, those in poverty to make a profit. And what really does not make sense is that fact the US takes something from these countries and has the nerve to sell it back knowing well enough that they have NO money to buy these items.
Guide to the Perfect Latin American Idiot
ReplyDeleteThere is a concept well displayed throughout this book that talks about how Latin American is based on theocracy and not physiology. The thoughts being processed here are that Latin America talks about wanting to change but doesn’t take any steps for that change, rather they just ask for help sit back and relax. A lot of the principles that Latinos have come from ideas in the bibles, or at least they try to correlate everything with the bible, but what they have not been aware of is that without actions there is no change, words mean nothing in this world when they stand alone. As was explained, Cuba has not been able to get rid of Castro not because the United States has not tried to get rid of him, but rather because Castro himself is not willing to let go of the governmental palace. There has been an intent on peaceful change but Castro has rejected every instance of it. Lastly, it also speaks about how Cuba is said to be better off that third world countries but it is an equivocation because Cuba cannot be compared to countries that have not had the same level of development and progress. Instead they should compare it to countries that do have the same levels of both such as Spain, and then realize that Cuba is still on the bottom of the pile when it comes to wealth and how well it is currently doing.
I am not certain, but it seems like this book is pro-anarchocapitalism and the other is pro-marxist. since both advocate an ideology at opposite ends of the political spectrum, everything kind of needs to be taken with a grain of salt.
ReplyDeleteThe auther of "idiot" emphasize that instead of acting, like jennifer pointed out above, latin americans have instead sat back and blamed the "west" for the economic situation of latin america. ("we love being incompetent with a clear conscience") supposedly cuba gave, over the years $100 billion in aid, and look at cuba now. i think this is a great point going against the economic efficiency and necessity of marxist regimes.
i've read a little bit of marx and of marxist thinkers, so i think it would have been interesting to read "open veins" as well. what i find difficult to understand is how "leftists" (which is really too general a term) can advocate big government when marx himself writes of the dangers of a big, powerful bureaucracy. one of his famous statements is that "the ideas of the ruling class are the ruling ideas". dosent big government (especially big corrupt government) just help to perpetuate the cycle of bad leaders in power?
-andrew ugolino
ReplyDeleteThe Guide to the Perfect Latin American Idiot, written by three writers of Colombian, Cuban and Peruvian descent critize the opinions that drive political leaders. These political leaders who practice ill-conceived political myths despite evidence on the contrary. The idiots referred to in this book are the ones who hold the responsibility for Latin American’s underdevelopment. This explains many issues on why Latin American countries have not stepped forward in society because Latin Americans only talk about change but don’t take it upon themselves to do something about it. We could relate this to the fact of Latin Americans faith in the government as a social justice. In the early 1900’a we saw a lot of reforms of political leaders but this only lasted a while because now we still see that Castro is still in power. Although we have learned that the people from Cuba loved and praised Castro. The people of Cuba those who oppose of Castro sit back while their freedom in not limited. From the reading that I did I could conclude that many of us are still Latin American idiots. We sit back and let things happen without striving for a change! Many of us have faith in the government and so take in their policies.
ReplyDeleteOpen Veins in Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent by Eduardo Galeano follows the raping of Latin America by those countries of the north through the centuries. As Galeano chronicles starting with colonization of brazil western countries have destroyed the land and abused people in the name of capital. One of my favorite quotes was “One wonders if those that made us paralytic might offer us a wheelchair”. To read the chronology of this pillage, one wonders how the north could be so blind and oblivious to the pain of those we depend so heavily on.
ReplyDeletewhen reading open veins one thing that you can get off the start is that that his argument is against Europe during the time of the discovery of the new world and latin america which is when the exploitation would begin throughout the western hemisphere of the world towards the more minority countries who could not have defend towards these more advanced in technology and weapons such as france and britain
ReplyDeleteOpen Veins in Latin America analyzes the history of Latin America, dating from European contact of the new world to the present day exploitation we see today across many countries in Latin America. In the book the abundance of natural resources in Latin America in conjunction with European dominannce and machismo have caused five centuries worth of pillaging. Gold and silver, cacao and cotton, rubber and coffee, fruit,clothing garments,and petroleum are the extensive timeline of resources that have made Latin America a prime target for exploitation that still continues today. One wonders when will this cease to continue,if ever?
ReplyDeleteI believe this book has a concept that is very intellectual and very interesting for a while until you start to realize the whole story this book has. This book tends to talk about the concept of Latin America and how it wants change but is not taking full capacity to change because it is being like a human being that doesn’t do anything for himself. The perspectives of Latin America is very weird because most of its principles is from the bible and most people just look at the principles from the bible instead of thinking through another aspect in life.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the major theme of the book in that everyone else that exploited the latin american countries for their silver and gold and other crucial resources. An economist in the book mentioned that latin america did not follow capitalism and thats why their poor. The author disagreed and said it is because of other peoples capatalistic evils that latin america negatively affected from the cheapness of their labor, making it so attractive for europeans . The rich cannot be rich unless the poor are poor. That major theme as well was very interesting. The rich can not be rich unless there are people out there that are negatively being affected. There is an inverse correlation with these 2 variables, which I fully agree with. It sounds right, if someone is losing in a trade, the other person is winning. Latin America lost for many years, europeans won.
ReplyDeleteI chose to read Open Veins of Latin America. This is the second class that I had to read this book for and I was not really fond about it. I feel like the book is good but it resembles so much like a text book. And it was not really a good read. But the parts that I did read i agreed to. Especially the fact that people from the United States of America, i.e. such as corporations, businesses and such go to these countries in Latin America and use the people there, those in poverty to make a profit. And what really does not make sense is that fact the US takes something from these countries and has the nerve to sell it back knowing well enough that they have NO money to buy these items.
ReplyDelete