9 Comments so far

1. Bernice March 10th, 2007 7:28 pm

   Yours is the first article to describe the deal Bush wants to make with Brazil, but I did assume it would be some kind of corporate giveway that would harm the Brazilian people.
   (When, oh when, will Congress impeach this person.)

   Is there a way to advise President Lula that Chavez et al are right? The countries of Latin America are pointing the way to a more just and equitable future for the world, if the world will only listen. The Bush administration’s propaganda about Chavez has even most Americans fooled (we should know better by now), but I hope Lula and others will not be so naive.

2. jp March 10th, 2007 9:46 pm

   “Our foreign policy should place more value on principles—democracy, equitable development, well-being—rather than on ideological control, and it should be based on respect for the myriad form s of development being explored in the region . This is the foreign policy that the people throughout the Western Hemisphere deserve.”

   The U.S has never conducted policies in Latin America, or anywhere else for that matter, on principles of “democracy, equitable development, and well-being.” We operate according to principles of greed and economic self-interest which we equate with power, and opportunisitic alliances with elites who do our bidding for their own self-serving interests. We have demonstrated repeatedly a disdain for the masses of people who suffer from poverty and loss of ability to make a living, and from the indifference of their U.S. supported political leaders.

3. Lobo Gris March 10th, 2007 10:20 pm

   Exxcept for the Iraq fiasco Bush’s foreign policy is exclusively reactive rather than proactive, full of hubris, and always doomed to fail because of it’s crass transparency.

   Lobo Gris

4. BigNoseKate March 11th, 2007 1:18 am

   “the Sao Paulo industrialists are assured policies to extend agribusiness into the Amazon and other regions now populated by small farmers.”

   Am I the only one that noticed this line. Continuing the deforestation of the Amazon will expedite global warming exponentially. This is not only is this bad for South America, it would prove catastrophic for the entire population of this planet.

   I guess that is to be expected from leaders’ whose vision never extends past the next “election cycle.”

   BNK

5. John F. Butterfield March 11th, 2007 7:37 am

   U.S. foreign aid is a joke. It is an infinitesimal fraction of what most U.S. citizens think it is. W’s original pledge of aid to countries affected by the tsunami was so small that there could have been confusion as to whether it was his own personal pledge out of his own pocket rather than a pledge by a nation. About one half of U.S. foreign aid goes to Israel. The best example of the results of that aid was Israels’s attack on Lebanon.

   It would be better to plant sugarcane on reclaimed desert land.

6. WmC March 11th, 2007 8:26 am

   “The State Department has warned of a populist threat . . .”

   What, pray tell, is a “populist threat”? Too much democracy?

   As for a new-found commitment to social justice, do the Bushies assume that Latin Americans are unaware of the 500 brown people held at Guantanamo, Cuba, without access to lawyers, trials or the Red Cross? Does Junior assume Latin Americans are as stupid and ignorant as the people who elected him?

7. Gail March 11th, 2007 10:02 am

   “…Bush is offering little to back up his bid to be the champion of social justice in the region. The 2007 aid budget for Latin America is down from past years and conditionality is way up.”

   Brazil is the leading ethanol producer in the world and Lula is no fool. It’s difficult to imagine that Lula would buy-in to any Bush/Wall Street conditions that don’t benefit his own country.

   As Bob Dylan said, “the times, they are a changing”. And if U.S. policy doesn’t change with them, our children and grandchildren will be the ones to pay the price, with their blood and money.

8. Ray Kondrasuk March 11th, 2007 12:36 pm

   9th paragraph:

   “…scholarships to study in the United States; English lessons;..”

   Of course, THEY must learn OUR language. How about scholarships for Americans to learn Portuguese in Brazil?

   Ray Kondrasuk
   Eau Claire, Wisconsin

9. bnpapohoroxu December 11th, 2007 10:13 pm

   tithyhucoxevi…

   exteryhexesa…

Join the discussion:

You must be logged in to post a comment. If you haven't registered yet, click here to register. (It's quick, easy and free. And we won't give your email address to anyone.)