Short Critical Summary

Section 1:

In the recent news of South America, there has been a common theme of economic enhancement. There has been a focus on economic improvement by the governments. This has been seen through the drastic changes made in countries such as Venezuela, Mexico and through other changes in countries such as Brazil. This was a new development, not to say that South American governments hadn’t tried, in past years to make a change, but there has been a new approach taken to get the economies booming. This approach consists of Government regulations pertaining to trade and big business.

The beginning of the semester set the tone for the theme of economic improvement, with the re-election of Hugo Chavez and his new plan to nationalize businesses. With this plan for economic change, other economic changes began to develop in South America. I am not meaning to suggest that the theme of economic improvement was due to Chavez’s plan. In Mexico, the government was forced to step into the free-market and create price regulations on corn. This economic change was led by the voice of the people. This involvement of the Mexican government shows not only economic improvement, but also the fact that this change was sparked by the people, was a development that is unlike any of the other economic improvements that will be discussed. In comparison to economic improvement in Mexico, a common thread found in some countries is the concept of improving the economy through the improvement of other problems, such as eliminating police corruption, stopping drug trafficking, legitimizing businesses and decreasing violence. These governments feel that by improving these aspects of everyday life it will lead to a stronger economy. Some feel that it will encourage more tourists and foreign investments, if the overall image of the country is improved. Overall, eight articles dealt purely with the improvement of the economies.

Section 2:

In looking to the future of South America and its economic improvement, there is a real possibility that an improvement will be seen. Some countries have detailed plans for improvement, such as Brazil’s plan to invest money into the country’s infrastructure, appears to be thought out and have a projected timeline. For countries with a solid plan to improve their economy, success does look plausible. However, countries like Columbia who did not lay out a rigid schedule to attain economic growth, may find difficulty in finding this improvement. For countries with plans like Columbia, they are depending on the investments and interests of other countries to align with theirs. Instead of changing their own investments to better their economy, they are relying upon others’ interest in their natural resources, to bring about an economic improvement. The countries that are relying upon themselves for a change are more likely to reach their desired improvement levels because they are in control of their own success.

Section 3:

I felt that the process of commenting on others people’s blogs was an unsuccessful experiment. In the comments that were posted on my blogs, the majority were posted in the last week, and I felt that there was actually no real question being asked, but mainly a question that was made up so that they could get points for making a comment. Overall, I felt frustrated with the blogging process. At the beginning of the semester, there were not a lot of articles revolving around the topic that I had chosen. This made it hard for me to keep up with the class, when only two articles were being written a week about South America. I felt that in order to have a successful and semi-connected blog I needed to have chosen the topic of Iraq. Since, I didn’t have control over when news articles were written and what they were written about, it was hard to keep a steady blogging schedule. Eventually, this frustration made me not want to waste my time with it at all. I thought that it was an interesting way of turning in assignments and connecting the class, however, it was difficult because there was no givens. From responding on people’s blogs, I didn’t really gain anything, mainly because I didn’t have the time to go back and check to see if my question was answered. The best that I could do was hope that someone else would learn something from my questioning. The blogging experience was an interesting one, however, I feel that it may need to be revised before implemented into another class.