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This week I was using “Ares”, the popular file sharing program that I use to download songs, and I came up with an old song that I liked very much, when I was in high school.

This week song goes to, “Is this Love” performed by the british rock band “White Snake“. White Snake was formed in 1977 by David Coverdale, after its separation from the group “Deep Purple”.

This song in particular, is part of the album “Whitesnake” but the same album was entitled “1987″ in Europe and “Serpens Albus” in Japan, and it was the first major success of the band in the U.S. The biggest hits of this album, were the ballad, “Is this Love“, which is the song I brougth you this week, and the #1 single “Here I go again“.

Actually, I had never seen the video of this song, I just discovered the video by searching for the song and group’s name in YouTube. Here is the video for this week’s song:

Technorati Tags: Music, rock ballad, rock band, songs, white snake

This mornig I saw on CNN Money, that China has surpassed Germany as the third largest economy in the world, just behind Japan and the United States.

The ranking came up yesterday, after China’s National Bureau of Statistics, revised its 2007 growth number from 11.4%, to 13.5%, according to the article from CNN Money, China had already released the 2007 growth number back in April 2008, if you think about it, the correction is huge, specially if you consider the size of the chinese economy, but at the end, it doesn’t matter too much at this time, as we all know that China’s economy is still growing despite being in the midst of a global recession.

Whether China is third or fourth, in terms of the largest economies of the world, is not relevant, what is truly remarkable, is the fact that, despite having a communist regime, and with a lot of restrictions to individual rights, they’ve been able to pull out of poverty, to more than 200 million people in the past decade.  This number represents more than 90% of the people in the world that have been lifted out of poverty.

China transformed itself by being humble enough to recognize that the path they were following was not the right one, and they quickly started to make changes that allowed them to grow very fast. I’m a witness myself of this  economic growth, as I had the chance to visit Shanghai in April 2007, and I was shocked to see the tremendous amount of skyscrappers, malls and luxury stores, that according what locals told me, didn’t exist a few months back. By seeing so much progress everywhere, all I could feel as mexican, was nothing but envy, as just imagine what China would have done, if they were located  just across the U.S. border like Mexico is.  Mexico lost  unvaluable momentum, by not being able to take full advantage of the NAFTA agreement with the United States and Canada, at a time when China was not even a member, of the World Trade Organization.

But despite this remarkable achievement, China is still remains a poor country, and its government still has a lot of work to do with the people that haven’t seen prosperity yet. World Bank ranked China in 132nd place, on a per capita income, slightly below Guatemala. On a per capita basis, on average a chinese makes $5,000 a year, compared to more than $45,000 of what an average american makes.

It will be interesting to see how the chinese economic model develops, during the global recession we are living in right now, I’m still not convinced, that the chinese model is the right one, that other countries must follow. I still believe that democracy, freedom of speech and liberty in general, is key for a sustainable development of a society in all of its aspects.

Here is the video from CNN, so you can take a look at the full note.

Technorati Tags: china, CNN, Economy, Germany, News, Politics, World Bank

I’ve just saw in Barak Obama’s transition website, and in Gizmodo’s blog, the official portrait that all the public offices in the United States, will have to have, of the next president of the United States.

This would have nothing of special, if it wasn’t for the fact that, Barak Obama’s official picture, is the first one taken with a Digital camera.
The camera used to shoot the photo is a  Canon 5D Mark II, which anyone can get for $3,000 from Amazon.

I’ve already seen some pictures taken with this camera in the dark, and it does a great job.The picture was taken by the new White House official photographer, Peter Souza. I think Barak Obama’s will be a president that is going to promote heavily, the use of technology in people’s lives, I guess because of his young age. As Gizmodo said in his post.:

Making gadget history, he really is shaping up to be the first truly geekworthy president.

Technorati Tags: Barak Obama, Canon 5D Mark II, Digital Camera, president

I was shocked this morning, when I read a note in the online edition of the Mexican newspaper, “El Universal“, that revealed that Mexico, was cited in the section of “Weak and Failing states“, of a report released by the United States Joint Forces command, which is one of the nine combatant commands of the U.S. Department of Defense. What is even more shocking, is the fact that the report considers the possibility of a military intervention into Mexico.

The report is basically a high level overview, about how the Department of Defense, sees the world in the next 25 years, and it makes an evaluation of the possible threats that the United States will face in the future. But what really got my attention was that within the section, “Weak and Failing States”, the report states that Mexico, along with Pakistan, “bear important consideration for a rapid and sudden collapse”.

The reason why the Department of Defense, puts Mexico as a country with a high degree of social disruption, is because of the current war that the Mexican Government is fighting against the drug cartels, and their infiltration inside Mexican law enforcement institutions.

Then the report finishes such section with the following assessment.:

The Mexican possibility may seem less likely, but the government, its politicians, police, and judicial infrastructure are all under sustained assault and pressure by criminal gangs and drug cartels. How that internal conflict turns out over the next several years will have a major impact on the stability of the Mexican state. Any descent by Mexico into chaos would demand an American response based on the serious implications for homeland security alone. – USJFCOM from the report “The Joint Operating Environment 2008.”

I don’t know what you think, but personally, I think it is an exaggeration from the U.S. Military. While I agree that the drug cartels impose serious threat to the Mexican national security, I don’t think that it is a threat of such size, that can cause a “collapse” of the Mexican state. Moreover, comparing the socio-political conditions in Mexico as sever as the ones Pakistan is facing now, it is outside of a logical proportion.

Take the case of Colombia as a a close, although not similar, example of a country battered by drug cartels. The Colombian state faced huge challenges, it is true, but it never collapsed. Mexico is a much more mature country with a lot more resources to overcome this problem.

The last time the Mexican government collapsed, it was during the 1910 revolution where the government of General Porfirio Diaz was overthrown, followed by a severe civil war. The problem that originated the revolution was the generalized and extreme poverty conditions among the population. Only in a similar scenario of extreme social differences, would be the only reason why I would tend to lean towards a theory of a collapse of the Mexican state, but given what I can see now, it is very unlikely that this happens, not at least within 25 years.

The problem with drug cartels is much more complex, and goes beyond to the scope of the USJFCOM report, that seems to leave the drug cartel’s problem only in Mexican territory. It is pretty obvious that there’s corruption on both sides of the border and there’s violence in both countries as a result of it. Having the most high tech border in the world, it is hard to believe that enormous amounts of drug can cross the U.S. border so easily, only an enormous degree of corruption in the U.S. customs system can make this possible.

I remember when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, I saw a note in the news that, since New Orleans was isolated for such a long time, local authorities were concerned for the high number of drug addicts in the city, that were not getting their drug doses and they were worried that they would start causing serious problems in the population, so what does it mean? I guess it means that the U.S. government is aware of the drug problem, but somehow, it permits the illegal traffic of drugs, as long it is done in an “orderly” manner. The same thing happens with illegal immigration, the U.S. government know of the problem, but they seem to manage it, instead of stopping it, as they know there is demand of both drugs and illegal immigrants.

So, I hope that the new administration lead by President Elect Obama, can change this view of the drugs issue, inside the Pentagon. We all know the problem is serious, and it requires something else than a military intervention in a foreign country to solve it. If drugs were not demanded in the U.S. there would be no business for drug cartels in Mexico and South America, so such a big problem requires a  lot of intelligence from both sides.

Technorati Tags: Department of Defense, Drug Cartels, mexico, Military, Pentagon, USJFCOM

Yesterday, my daughter Diana finally went to school, she is now in kindergarten. I can’t believe how fast time flies, and now my two daughters are in school. I’m pretty sure that in less than a blink of an eye, they will be in college, (and I’m gonna have to pay their tuition as well, ouch!)

Diana is growing at a faster pace than her sister Ana Paula, their age difference is of only two years, but Diana seems to catch up pretty fast with Ana Paula and her friends. The same happened with me and my next brother Felipe, our age difference is of 2 years as well, but he was forced to grow at the same pace as me, and by now I guess he is now more mature than me. In a few years, their age difference will be almost unnoticed and I hope they share the same group of friends.

Ana Paula is a little bit more shy and timid than Diana, I guess she inherited that from me and Diana is more cheerful. God bless my two kids, and good luck at school to both of you!

Technorati Tags: baby girl, daughters, family, father, kids, kindergarten, school