Washington Post Book Reviews
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Sunday November 14, 2010
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WHAT IF LATIN AMERICA RULED THE WORLD?: How the South Will Take the North Through the 21st Century
Oscar Guardiola-Rivera
Bloomsbury
ISBN 978-1608192724
472 pages
$30
Reviewed by Michael Shifter
Will this be Latin America's century? Will the region's recent economic and social progress make it a power to be seriously reckoned with on the global stage? Oscar Guardiola-Rivera certainly thinks so. His notably upbeat outlook is in line with a recent report in the Economist, "Nobody's Backyard: The Rise of Latin America"; on the magazine's cover, maps of North and South America are inverted. Guardiola-Rivera, a Colombian who teaches international law and globalization at the University of London, also echoes Uruguayan journalist Eduardo Galeano, best known for "Open Veins of Latin America." (Originally published in 1971, that is the book Venezuela's president Hugo Chavez gave to Barack Obama at a hemispheric summit meeting last year.)
Guardiola-Rivera's "What if Latin America Ruled the World?" is as broad in its historic sweep as Galeano's classic. Both explore centuries of European and U.S. exploitation of Latin America, the plundering of a resource-rich continent.
But Guardiola-Rivera does not share Galeano's fatalism. On the contrary, for him "the peoples of the South have risen up and now stand together." To buttress the argument, he does his best to highlight the unique virtues of Latin America's indigenous communities and social movements that have, he believes, enabled the region to "resist some of the most extreme consequences of the globalist and unfettered market policies that have wreaked havoc elsewhere in the developed world."
The problem is that Latin America successfully weathered the recent financial crisis not for the reasons Guardiola-Rivera cites -- by repudiating the recipes of the so-called "neoliberal" model, Washington consensus and other economic orthodoxies.
Instead, the region performed far better than expected precisely because it adhered to such tenets of fiscal discipline and sound economic management. Ironically, the United States, which failed to apply its own prescriptions, paid the heaviest cost.
Brazil stands out for its remarkable economic and political advances and striking ascent in regional and global affairs.
But the country's success cannot be attributed to an experiment in embracing the values of community living as practiced by many indigenous groups. Instead, it is the product of quintessentially capitalist development under the effective social policies started by the neoliberal Fernando Henrique Cardoso. That development accelerated, paradoxically, under the presidency of Latin America's leading leftist figure, Luis Incio "Lula" da Silva, who will leave office January 1 with record high support.
The book also includes Hugo Chvez's Venezuela, Evo Morales' Bolivia and Rafael Correa's Ecuador among the vanguard of Latin America's growing strength and global projection. True, the three regional leaders have put their fingers on legitimate social grievances and are symptomatic of the failure of a traditional political order and the search for different models of governance and economic development. But the results have not been encouraging and can easily puncture Guardiola-Rivera's sometimes expansive, romantic depictions. Chavez's rhetoric is seductive, but his record is not one that anybody would be eager to emulate.
After over a decade in office, his Venezuela is more dependent on oil exports (particularly to the United States) than under any of his predecessors. Correa is having severe political difficulties with Ecuador's indigenous movement, notably with regard to environmental controversies. And Morales is also facing splits and growing dissent within his political party. Disillusionment with Chavez's so-called "Socialism of the 21st Century" in these societies has set in.
But Guardiola-Rivera seems confident that the recent proliferation of regional groups will yield greater integration and solidarity.
He is particularly exuberant about the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, which got off the ground in February in Cancun, Mexico. But these groups belie the reality of a Latin America that, far from being politically united, is fragmented, marked by many bilateral strains and moving in divergent directions. Regional harmony is a nice aspiration but remains quite elusive.
Curiously, China, a more plausible option to rule the world, gets scant attention in the book. Just as Europe and the United States once bought Latin America's commodities, China is now pursuing a similar strategy to fuel its own spectacular development.
China has replaced the United States as Brazil's and Chile's main trading partner. Its voracious appetite is another reason that some South American countries were able to get through last year's financial crisis.
The book is also enthusiastic about the Latin Americanization of U.S. society and its political implications for a more positive and humane global agenda. The demographic trend is clear -- by 2050, according to the Pew Research Center, Hispanics will be 29 percent of the population. But Latinos are highly differentiated, and their attitudes on economic, social and foreign policy questions are far from uniform. It is risky to draw political conclusions from observations about the Latino population's cultural richness and vibrancy.
Latin America is changing rapidly, in uncertain and often contradictory ways. Many countries are gaining economic ground and becoming more influential global actors. They are no longer on the losing side of history, as Galeano wrote four decades ago. But if they manage to rule the world, it may not be a world that Guardiola-Rivera or Galeano would cheer about. It will not be utopia, but a world as we know it today-with Latin America acting like other countries that made it to the top.
Michael Shifter is president of the Inter-American Dialogue and an adjunct professor at Georgetown University.
Copyright 2010 Washington Post Writers Group
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THREE BOOKS ON POT CULTURE
NA
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ISBN NA
NA pages
$NA
Reviewed by Stephen Lowman
On Tuesday, in a move that surely caused stoners everywhere to pause and wonder why people can't just chill out, Californians voted down a ballot initiative that would have allowed the possession and cultivation of limited amounts of marijuana. But while the politics of pot change with the times and vary from one state to another, the weed is firmly planted in American subculture. These three new books will give potheads, and those who just dabble, something to giggle excessively about.
1. "Cannabis -- Philosophy For Everyone: What Were We Just Talking About?," edited by Dale Jacquette (Wiley-Blackwell; paperback, $19.95). Multiple dimensions are explored in this book's 16 essays, featuring titles such as "Marijuana and Creativity," "Cannabis and the Culture of Alienation" and "Cannabis and the Human Condition." Part of the "Philosophy for Everyone" series (other subjects include porn, serial killers and gardening), the book is both high- and low-brow and is sure to please undergrads searching for epiphanies while hanging out in hazy basements.
2. "Reefer Movie Madness: The Ultimate Stoner Film Guide," by Shirley Halperin and Steve Bloom (Abrams; paperback, $18.95). "Marijuana and movies go together like bong hits and the munchies," write the authors in their introduction. Movies are divided by subject -- comedies, dramas, sci-fi, action -- and rated by marijuana leaves instead of stars ("Animal House" is a five-leaf film; "Dude, Where's My Car" gets two-and-a-half leaves). The book also features Q & As with iconic stoners such as Cheech and Chong and short essays on topics such as "When Food Comes to Life" in films.
3. "Cannabiz: The Explosive Rise of the Medical Marijuana Industry," by John Geluardi (Polipoint; paperback, $15.95). The stereotype says stoners are slackers. But after reading "Cannabiz," they may be inspired to get off the couch and turn their passion into a profitable business. Geluardi looks at legalization efforts, defends medical marijuana and explains how the generally illegal drug has become a moneymaker for lawful businesses. After all, Geluardi reports, in Los Angeles marijuana dispensaries outnumber McDonald franchises.
Stephen Lowman can be reached at lowmans(at symbol)washpost.com.
Copyright 2010 Washington Post Writers Group
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