Live from the War Memorial in downtown Buenos Aires…for a conflict alternatively named Guerra de las Malvinas or the Falkland War. It’s the most recent and most infamous actual war in Latin America…..that you never heard of! Back in 1982 Argentina and the United Kingdom had a full-on shoot-out over a bunch of sheep-covered rocks in the South Atlantic, and this dinky little remote conflict may yet rear its ugly head again in the modern era. Learn a bit about it here!
Grasslands galore! Just outside of Buenos Aires, Argentina, lies the center of one of the biggest, richest, and most productive grasslands on the planet: the Pampas! The Pampas (from Quechua: pampa, meaning “plain”) are fertile South American lowlands, covering almost 300,00 square miles. These temperate plains (much like the prairies of Midwest USA) encouraged me to don my Pampas poncho and pontificate on this gaucho paradise!
The Professor saddles up in the Pampas of Argentina to get his gaucho on! The term gaucho is commonly used to describe skilled horsemen/cattle-herders of South American pampas, Gran Chaco, or Patagonian grasslands…found principally in parts of Argentina, Rio Grande do Sul in the south of Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, eastern and southern Bolivia and Southern Chile. From atop a horse himself, the Professor schools you on the nationalistic and symbolic importance of this awesome gaucho culture.
Well, hundreds of you asked for it, and now you got it: Here is my take on the current domestic drivel. A self-inflicted wound, the US debt debacle is now a global problem that will affect the planet, and ultimately is a threat to the world economy, the US role in the world, and even democracy itself. I try to explain the mess as succinctly as possible, but sorry, its still a long rant on the sorry state of affairs in our state!
“Democracy is not what governments do, it is what people do,” and man, oh man, are the peeps dropping the democracy bomb in Brazil right now! Check out this Brazilian Boyer rant which highlights the reasons behind the current protests in Brazil, and also compares and contrasts the other people protests happening around the planet. Power to the people, and go democracy!
Keywords: Brazil, protests, bus fare, government, democracy, World Cup, Olympics, corruption, crime, infrastructure, Turkey, Arab Spring, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Tea Party, Occupy Wall Street, Howard Zinn, USA
Are you a college professor teaching World Regions or Global Political classes? Pick up the cutting edge, most entertainly educating textbook currently on the market.
