Alvaro Vargas Llosa is Director of the Center on Global Prosperity. He writes on his hompage: it is a tragic fact that half of the world’s population is living in abject poverty and misery.
Alvaro Vargas Llosa – Peru
Approximately 10 percent of the present world population (roughly 600 million people) is estimated to exist at or below an equivalent economic level of $1 per day and approximately half of the world population (3 billion people) live at or below an equivalent economic level of $2 per day.
He is a native of Peru and received his B.S.C. in international history from the London School of Economics.He has been a member of Board of the Miami Herald Publishing Company and op-ed page editor and columnist at the Miami Herald and a contributor to the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, BBC World Service, and Time Magazine. He is the author of the books, one of the most important are Guide to the Perfect Latin American Idiot (with Carlos Alberto Montaner and Plinio Apuleyo Mendoza), and The Manufacturing of Poverty (with Carlos Alberto Montaner and Plinio Apuleyo Mendoza).
Mr. Vargas Llosa was press spokesman for the Democratic Front presidential campaign (1990) in Peru and Advisor on International Relations for the presidential campaign of Perœ Posible (2001). He is the recipient of the A.I.R. Award for Best Current Affairs Radio Show in Florida in 1998, Puerto Rican Parliament Award for the Defense of Freedom (1997), the Award for the Defense of Freedom from the Peruvian Asociación de Pescadores Artesanales de Chimbote (2000), and The Freedom of Expression Award given by the Association of Ibero-American Journalists (2003).
He has lectured widely on world economic and political issues including at the Mont Pelerin Society, Naumann Foundation (Germany), FAES Foundation (Spain), Brazilian Institute of Business Studies, Fundación Libertad (Argentina), CEDICE Foundation (Venezuela), Florida International University, and the Ecuadorian Chamber of Commerce. (See rest on the independent).
Today, Alvaro writes the truth about che ‘the killing machine’ and examines all the creepy sandalista idolizing of fidel’s toad that we see in Hollywood and elsewhere these days. He describes che’s love of Stalin and his murders of children. He sticks it to Carlos Santana – who does indeed know better and gratifyingly, we learn, was smacked down by great Cuban jazz musicians who told him that che tee shirt he wore at the Oscars was realllly uncool. Alvaro gets everything right and doesn’t miss a thing. It’s absolutely fantastic reading, and well worth the registration. (See more on Babalu Blog).
His book: The Killing Machine, issued July 11, 2005: Che Guevara, who did so much (or was it so little?) to destroy capitalism, is now a quintessential capitalist brand. His likeness adorns mugs, hoodies, lighters, key chains, wallets, baseball caps, toques, bandannas, tank tops, club shirts, couture bags, denim jeans, herbal tea, and of course those omnipresent T-shirts with the photograph, taken by Alberto Korda, of the socialist heartthrob in his beret during the early years of the revolution, as Che happened to walk into the photographer’s viewfinder–and into the image that, thirty-eight years after his death, is still the logo of revolutionary (or is it capitalist?) chic. Sean O’Hagan claimed in The Observer that there is even a soap powder with the slogan « Che washes whiter. » (See rest on the new republic online).
Despite the recent collapse of World Trade Organization talks in Cancun, and despite the fact that the war on terrorism has restricted the flow of people, capital and goods into the United States more than it already was, the ministers of all hemispheric nations are gathering in Miami this month in order to pursue the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). Is this going anywhere?
There is something bizarre about governments negotiating trade deals. After all, it is not governments but citizens who trade. One wonders what effect the tangle of trade negotiations in the Western Hemisphere would have on Richard Cobden, who brought prosperity to Britain after forcing the repeal of the Corn Laws in the mid-19th century and took up Washington’s advice: « the great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is — in extending our commercial relations — to have with them as little political connection as possible. »
Whether it is the Free Trade Area of the Americas, the Central American Common Market, the South American Common Market (Mercosur) or the Andean Community of Nations, we have 34 countries locked into contradictory or overlapping accords. They also take part in the Doha Round — again, bargaining with each other!
It is a reverse case of Russian dolls — each doll contains a bigger doll inside! No wonder commerce between the U.S. and Latin America is, with the exception of Mexico, ridiculous (exchanges with gigantic Brazil amount to no more than $26 billion, almost seven times less
than with Japan).
This nonsense is the child of the post-WWII trade ethos. After the war, world leaders committed the original sin of treating trade as peace treaties: through State-to-State negotiations. Since then, three so-called Rounds have gone by — the Kennedy Round (1967), the Tokyo Round (1979) and the Uruguay Round (1994) — and a fourth one is in progress. Half a century of trade talks has produced no free trade.
Politicians have encouraged a false debate over the multilateral versus the regional path. When GATT sanctified regional deals through « Article 24 », a multitude of trade blocs sprang up in the Americas during the 1960s (the Latin American Free Trade Association, the Andean Pact, the Central American Common Market and so on), none of which let people engage in commerce freely. After a hiatus, the U.S. revived the regional and bilateral mode in the 80s by negotiating trade agreements with Israel and Canada. Today there are more than 150 FTAs worldwide. (see the rest of this article on Tech Central Station).
in spain: Álvaro Vargas Llosa nació en 1966 en Lima. Alvaro Vargas Llosa es Académico Asociado Senior y Director del Centro Para la Prosperidad Global en The Independent Institute. Es oriundo del Perú y obtuvo su B.S.C. en Historia Internacional de la London School of Economics. Ha sido miembro del Directorio de la Miami Herald Publishing Company y director de la página editorial y columnista en el Miami Herald y colaborador para el Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, BBC World Service, y Time Magazine. Además, el Sr. Vargas Llosa ha sido comentarista en Univisión TV, director de noticias en RCN radio (tanto en Inglés como en Español), Corresponsal en Londres para el periódico español ABC, comentarista en Radio Nacional de España en Madrid, director de asuntos internacionales en el Expreso (Perú), director de arte en Oiga, comentarista en Panamericana Televisión, conductor del programa semanal de TV “Planeta 3” (emitido en doce países Latinoamericanos), y columnista en la La Nación (Argentina), El Nacional (Venezuela), Reforma (México), El Tiempo (Colombia), El País (Uruguay), y El Listín Diario (República Dominicana).
Sus artículos han aparecido también en Granta Magazine, International Herald Tribune, El País, y El Mundo. Es el autor de los libros, The Madness of Things Peruvian, Guide to the Perfect Latin American Idiot (con Carlos Alberto Montaner y Plinio Apuleyo Mendoza), The Manufacturing of Poverty (con Carlos Alberto Montaner y Plinio Apuleyo Mendoza), El exilio indomable, Cuando hablaba dormido, El diablo en y La campaña, En el reino del espanto, Tiempos de resistencia, La contenta barbarie, La Mestiza de Pizarro y Rumbo a la libertad. El Sr. Vargas Llosa fue vocero de prensa para la campaña presidencial del Frente Democrático (1990) en Perú y Consejero en Relaciones Internacionales para la campaña presidencial de Perú Posible (2001). Ha sido galardonado con el Premio al Mejor Programa de Radio en Cuestiones de Actualidad en Florida en 1998, el Premio A.I.R. al Mejor Programa de Radio en Cuestiones de Actualidad en Florida en 1998, el Premio del Parlamento de Puerto Rico por la Defensa de la Libertad (1997), el Premio por la Defensa de la Libertad de la Asociación Peruana de Pescadores Artesanales del Perú (2000), y el Premio a la Libertad de Expresión otorgado por la Asociaci ón de Periodistas Iberoamericanos (2003).
Ha expuesto extensamente sobre cuestiones atinentes a la economía y la política mundial, entre otros en la Mont Pelerin Society, la Naumann Foundation (Alemania), la Fundación FAES (España), el Instituto Brasileño de Estudios Empresariales, la Fundación Libertad (Argentina), la Fundación CEDICE (Venezuela), la Florida International University, y la Cámara Ecuatoriana de Comercio.
Links:
ile;