When you think that Argentina has nearly 60% inflation, a currency more used to defaults than glory and a macroeconomic profile usually only second to Venezuela’s, you wonder how this country keeps going. You couldn’t be blamed for imagining a very gloomy Buenos Aires, lost in the drama of
You can’t imagine my excitement: my friend Abby, my room-mate at Durham Uni many moons ago, is coming over to Uruguay on Saturday. Her first time in Latin America, a region I’ve shared my passion for with her for over 20 years (we are a bit like that here, you befriend one of us, you befriend
I was at Durham Uni when I grasped the concept of the damage of plastic bags to the environment – I was studying (“reading”, as we say in Durham) Economics, and paying even a penny for a bag was a disincentive that worked wonders (these were the days when you had to queue to use the
10 teenage players died in a fire at the Flamengo youth team training centre this month (BBC News). How could this possibly happen? Why does it happen so often? And why is hardly anything done about it? Beyond the actual facts of this specific case, there’s a few things to bear in mind when
This picture caught my eye on Twitter this week*. It shows how some basic things we take for granted – like taking a corner in a football match – have to be adapted to different realities. There’s lots of sadness behind it: that a player has to be protected by police shields to, well, play
I still remember when, about seven years ago, the MD of a British nursery goods company told me at a trade show in London that he wouldn’t target Latin America because “they don’t have money there – after all, don’t they all live in favelas?” *big sigh* Where do I start? Let’s give
I was recently on business in Costa Rica and Panama, two countries blessed with the most wonderful fruit in the world. Yet, the evident levels of obesity were difficult to ignore, as well as the overwhelming number of American-style fast-food restaurants. My European friends and colleagues are
