Mesquita Moreira, M. (2007). Fear of China: Is There a Future for Manufacturing in Latin America? World Development, 35(3), 355-376.

Summary

            The Mesquita Moreira article presents the challenges Latin America faces with the emergence of a rapidly-growing Chinese economy, in particular the question whether or not Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) should continue the path of manufacturing into the future.  The author uses descriptive production and trade statistics to emphasize that manufacturing is a crucial factor in LAC development and that it must be continued to better defend against a probable Chinese threat.  The advantages which give China the upper-hand when compared to LAC include an “unlimited supply of labor”, rapid productivity growth, and support from a highly interventionist state.  With a population of 1.3 billion and a labor force of 640 million combined with a limited amount of natural resources, China has a huge comparative advantage in labor-intensive goods in comparison to LAC.  Although productivity is currently lower in China than in Mexico and Brazil in most sectors, it has been growing much faster in China than in LAC, suggesting the latter’s productivity edge to be soon wiped out. The role of government in the Chinese economy is also against LAC, involving heavy government intervention in the product and factor markets to support industrialization and exports.  To remedy these disadvantages Moreira proposes that LAC focus on improving its well-known weaknesses.  By acting quickly to strengthen its macroeconomic fundamentals, overcome excruciating credit-constraints on local producers, and boost frail local technological capabilities, LAC may be able to hold its own ground and greet China with a fair amount of competition before it’s too late.

Critique

Mesquita Moreira presents a very interesting article because the emergence of China raises pointed questions about the future of manufacturing of Latin America and the Caribbean in the world’s division of labor.  Although once widely considered that the economic future of the region was in manufacturing, China challenges this belief and the economic role LAC will serve in the rest of the world.  To ensure competitive success in a world market already overcrowded by at least three generations of Asian Tigers (e.g., Japan, Korea, Malaysia) and facing the prospects of others to come such as India, LAC needs to act quickly in deciding on a policy that is right for them.  The issue this raises is that LAC will have to choose between either continuing their bumpy path of manufacturing or increasing their exploitation of natural resources within the area.  Will LAC suffer from Dutch Disease if it curves away from manufacturing and heavily invests in natural resource extraction?  It is generally believed that the effects of natural resource exports can inhibit growth in manufacturing, a vital sector thought to generate positive productivity externalities.  With a slower growth in manufacturing due to competition for labor and capital from resource sectors, LAC’s economic potential for growth is predicted to diminish.  However, it would not be safe to surmise that resource wealth and slow economic growth is a direct cause and effect relationship.  A multitude of other variables would have to be factored in order to present a clearer and more realistic view of LAC’s future if an aggressive policy of natural resource exports were to be carried out instead of a focus on manufacturing.  What we can be certain about is that the time LAC has to solve the threat of China and other prospects is running out, and that LAC must work out a policy to best deal with the situation, whether it be an emphasis on manufacturing or otherwise.

The D.C. Cherry blossoms, given so long to us ago by Japan, are in bloom.  I could not think of a better gift to receive from our Eastern friends than one of the most sacred and beautiful trees in all of their land.

Given to the United States in 1912, the 3,000 cherry trees are a magnificent and ideal symbol of unity and brotherhood between the two countries.  The trees bloom just once a year, so you must plan accordingly to see the stunning sight.

There are a few festivals and many activities particularly in the beginning of April, so if you would like to see this awesome array of blooming beauties you must go soon.

This was a very enjoyable Haromoni episode.  Some notable sketches included:

1. A pair of girls that acted out the first level of the original mario bros. game.

2. A man that could ride a bicycle while balancing a bottle of tea on his head.

3. A pair of girls that could ride and dance with each other on a unicycle.

4. A skit with Reina being a detective and grilling a man about a crime.

5. A young and really cool pool playing boy that did tricks, like shoot the eight ball over a stuffed animal to make it in the hole.

I definitely recommend checking it out! The date of release is 3-16-08.

Today was mostly a boring day but still a good one. The day started with me waking up around 10am, after falling asleep around 7am because I just laid in bed for most of the time and couldn’t get to sleep. I was able to talk to Nate until 6am and get to know how he was doing.

Anyways, so I woke up at ten and I was still tired so I set my alarm clock to around 12. I wake up at 12 for real this time and then walk all the way down to thirteenth street to recover my wallet. The guy who found my wallet lives in the same apartment complex as Julie did, but it was apartment D, the one in the middle and to the right. When he gave me it back I told him I got his message and I didn’t respond right away because I had already gotten all new things, and he said I figured I did. When he gave me it back I checked it, and even the dollar was still in there. I said I wish I could give you a reward but I don’t have any money, after I said that he was like no problem but seemed maybe a bit just a little bit disappointed, that’s what I thought but maybe not who knows. I said good luck spring and I don’t think he understood me right away but that’s ok. Then I left.

While walking back I stopped at CVS and got some milk and a card for Julie’s birthday. When I was buying it the Indian American cashier asked if I had a CVS card and I said no, and if I would get a discount if I had one. Then he said maybe and I said ok I’d like to sign up. He gave me the form to fill out on the spot and I said could I just send this in at home? He said yeah and then was putting away the card. I said something like well can’t I get the card now, I’m not getting the card now, and then he explained that I have to send it in so corporate will give me credit for purchases. I know he didn’t like giving me the card because I guess so many people just use it once and then throw it away. I think that was my third time doing it myself. I didn’t get a discount for having the card. So then I went home, wrote the card, stopped by the hospital to buy a stamp and sent out the letter.

Then I went home and sat around all day. Looked at jobs, thinking about getting a library job for the cartoons department or something weird having to do with that in order to have money for Japan.

I was talking to Julie about how I wanted her to order a pizza for me and like an hour later she really did! I was so surprised, and I felt bad too, but it was really really nice of her to do. It’s amazing that she can order a pizza for me in Ohio when ordering it from Virginia, hehe.

I figured out that I can take off my seat rail and handlebar rail off my exercise bike and put it under my desk. So now I can peddle AND be on the computer at the same time! I wanted to do that for so long, and thought about buying those official peddlers that do that, but it took me until now to realize I could do it myself :).

I did 20 posts for a forum site and got $2. I’m looking for over things to do too.

Ok peace!

Well I think Julie and I have come to the conclusion that we won’t be going to live in Japan for a year.  It’s because of her OPT and her not being able to go back to America if we go.  But, I have another plan.  I’m going to apply to be a Foreign Officer and I will request as my posts  Japan or South Korea.  Of course I probably will not get those, but I want to travel anyways.  The thought of waking up everyday and doing the same old 8 to 5 job sounds like a form of slavery.

In order to prepare myself for the test I wanted to read the recommended reading list, but I cannot check out any books at the student library because I haven’t picked up my wallet yet.  So I gave the dude a message that found it and hopefully he’s in town so I can get it tomorrow.

I found the xbox power plug earlier today, it was in my bookbag from when I put it in there for my external hard drive to use for my peace studies group project for when I met my partner at cafe kerouacs.  Andrew left his 360 at his friend’s house, and I really wanted to play Halo but I realized I couldn’t on my old xbox because it’s modded.

Today was a bit boring, and now I’m really bored.  I really feel like reading those recommended books.  I spent most of the day deciding what I should do after graduation.  I’ve pretty much decided that I will apply to be a foreign officer, and if I’m not accepted, I will get a job as a study abroad advisor wherever I can.  I guess my ultimate goal is to be study abroad director, so I will have to get my masters degree sometime in there too, but for right now I need to get a job.

I ate the rest of the Joy’s Village leftovers from two days ago the pad thai and beef and black pepper sauce and I was hungry at dinner time so I found what I could and made perogies.  There’s nothing left here to eat.  After I started heating up the perogies I saw there was one last box of shells and cheese left and I would have rather had that but it didn’t come to pass.  Wellp that was my day.

Right now I am laying on Sean’s bed and waiting for us to go to El Vacaro to meet Matt and eat some good food cause I’m starving. Anyways, it’s Spring Break and I believe if everything is going right which I think it is my graduation is only a quarter away. Now I have to think about what to do after school. Matt has been talking about how he is going to get a teaching job in Japan and it sounds so fun that even Julie and I have been throwing that idea around too for a little while. I mean, staying in Japan for just one year ain’t so bad right? I mean it won’t be as bad as I went there last time because this time I will have Julie and actually someone to talk to and hang out with. I don’t know I should check my last entries on the blog about what I felt about Japan because I’m afraid that I forgot the reason why I didn’t like it and that I will realize why I didn’t like it when I get there and be unhappy about it again.

My grades were great this quarter. I got a C in the Cinema history of art class, that class was so fucking boring. I fell asleep through about all the movies I believe and totally skipped many of the classes because they were at 9:30 in the morning on a Tuesday and Matt Sean and I go to Ugly Tuna’s on Mondays for their dollar pitcher happy hour and get wasted. Anyways, the teacher talked so much bullshit about how the directors sought to portray some kind of meaning in the shot or something like that but I don’t believe it. We also had to identify styles of shot like montage and panning and things like that, but the thing is that all directors were using it in their movies and so we would just say the same damn thing for each movie. Man that class was so boring, but what made it even worse was the grading nazi TA that I had. After I studied really really hard and memorized alot and learned alot to prepare myself for the first exam and I got only a C+, I said fuck this and I didn’t try hard with the other tests and I just studied the night before.

This is about the time that Sean said, “ok well let’s go” to el vacaros.  I saved this as a draft and went downstairs to put on my coat and shoes so we could go there.  I waited downstairs for ten or more minutes looking at the fish tanks while he was upstairs.  I even yelled for him to hurry up.  Finally, like after 15 minutes I hear him yell “cya later” and hear him walking down the stairs.  He sees me standing at the bottom there with a surprised look and a not so happy look on my face.  I tell him I was waiting there since he said let’s go and that I would appreciate it if he didn’t say “cya” everytime we were going somewhere together and that he would rather say something like “hey I’m going let’s go” or something like that.  Anyways later on we have a fight at the bar because he didn’t want to pay for the third pitcher when he said he would.  Matt left because we were fighting and blamed me, but Matt doesn’t get it.  For some reason he thinks Sean pays more than I at the bar which is just not true.  Also Andrew left his 360 at his friends house after being there two days and which I was surprised about, the day after I buy a year of live.

Ok back to the grades.  Got a B+ in peace studies, A in geography, and A- in history 597.

I’ve been looking over my old Japanese books and listening to the CCs, and I’m asking myself whether I really want to jump into all of this again.  I’ve forgotten alot, and when I remembered all of it more than a year ago I still felt I didn’t know enough.  I’m really starting to remember the reason why I didn’t like Japan was because I didn’t like speaking a different language.  If that’s the case, Julie and I shouldn’t go there.  But we’ll see, if I can convince myself it’s just a year and for resume and job reasons, maybe it will be ok. But at the same time, I don’t want Julie to be scared there because she doesn’t know how to say anything. Aw man.

My mom acts like Natalie.  My mom, after ending her six month addiction to cocaine, is a different person.  Although she is 48, she acts like she is 16.  This is so devastating to me, the only reason why I’m writing about it right now is because I am drunk.  If I was sober I could not come to write about the pain it is to see my mother in such a stuper state.

My mother is retarded.  The cocaine has taken away her life and her rational thinking.  I wonder if my mom would be better off dead than be in the stupid state she is in now.

I really regret not answering her phone calls the last 4 years.  I feel that she doesn’t have any friends, and she is reaching out to anybody that shows even the slightest hint of friendship.

Anyways, my mom is stupid.  She has been off work for three months, went on a $2,000 cruise vacation, and we are $3,000 in debt with our credit card.  She says she has spent $10,000 of her life savings on cocaine. Now mom wants to go on another vacation, to Arizona. Her excuse to go there this time was to check houses to buy, because she wants to move down there.  She already bought the plane ticket and hasn’t told grandma, it’s $250.

Grandma told me that she believes mom has already taken out loans from the bank, and if mom wants to go bankrupt then it’s her funeral.

My mom is a different person.  I am so angry at her that she allowed herself to become addicted to cocaine.  Let me repeat myself.  My mom is different, she is stupider and has alot of the same characteristics of Natelie now.

I am trying my best to turn around mom, to make her stop hanging out with druggies and pursue a life returning to normalcy.  I’m not sure if mom can do it.

The reason why I believe mom can’t do it is because now she is a different person.  The drugs have physically changed her.  It has made her so slow in thinking, I don’t know if I can ever get her back.  I’m afraid she will be like Natalie for the rest of her life.

I’m so mad at her I don’t know what to do. She talks crazy talk.  She joined belly dancing classes. Let me get this point straight- my mom would never join belly dancing classes.  My pre-cocaine mom would never have the time or desire to take belly dancing lessons, but now this is something she doesn’t ever want to miss.

When mom was attending RN school or would talk about any other type of schooling, she would always tell my sister and I that her “brain was fried” and that my sister and I would have much better luck at learning new things easily.  My mom was rational when she said that and I never took her saying seriously.  Now, after my mom has done coke, I can say that my mom’s brain really is fried, and she will never be the same again.  It’s ironic how she’s been saying that all our life to me and my sister, when it wasn’t true, and now her brain really is fried.

I really don’t know what to do.  It seems like she doesn’t care about me anymore, I think it’s because she felt abandoned when I left for college and finally decided that I was out of her life forever.  I only called when I needed money, and she would tell me that alot and almost everytime when I called her.  She was right, because it was boring to talk to her and I really didn’t want to talk about anything involving me or anything like that because that’s the way I am.

Anyways, theres only so much one person can do.  I try to tell her not to do things, like travel to Arizona or hang out with her druggie friend Dave, but being so far away I can’t control her.

When she doesn’t listen to me and does whatever she wants, it makes me want to give up.  Grandma has already expressed that she’s done everything she could do and a lot more, and that she doesn’t have time to worry about mom’s problems.  I sort of agree with her.

When you come down to it, it was moms fault that she started doing cocaine.  No one put a gun to her head or forced her to do it, it was her own choice.  And because of that choice she made, we now find ourselves in the predicament we are in now.  She is late on her bills and credit card, but Kenny and grandma are giving her money so she thinks she can  keep on spending.  I am so pissed off because of this.

Mom is digging her own grave, and she is happy to do it.  Even if she gives up cocaine, which I don’t think she can, she is still heavily addicted to coffee and smoking.  If the cocaine doesn’t call her, these things will.  For gosh sakes, my mom is fucking 48 years old!  Do you think her body is strong enough to beat this combination? NO.

Let me just say that I think my mom will die as a coke addict.  Her only importance in life was that she had two kids.  One a successful something, and the other yet to be determined.  What a waste.  But it was her choice, I must always remember that.