Friday, November 04, 2005
George Bush destroys Argentine small businesses
According to the Associated Press, the big news out of the Summit of the Americas in Argentina are the demonstrations against George Bush, which were neither unusual nor unexpected. Acting for all the world like French suburbanites,
[t]housands of demonstrators [including about 100 Canadians - ed.] flooded the streets of this seaside resort Friday chanting "Get out Bush" as the U.S. president sought to promote free trade at a divided Summit of the Americas. Protests turned violent with about 1,000 people shattering shopfronts with clubs and pelting riot police with stones....
Protesters set fire to American flags and a bank. Several young people threw sharpened sticks toward police, who carried plastic shields and wore orange vests. Some shops, including a minimarket and a pastry store, had their windows shattered during the rioting. Protesters dragged furniture from some stores and used it as fuel to set fires to keep police back.
It really is remarkable how the mere presence of George Bush in a country causes people to destroy small businesses that presumably were not huge contributors to his re-election campaign. He just shows up and people go completely insane and attack their own countrymen. Too bad he can't wangle a visit to Syria or Iran.
Hugo Chavez -- "[s]peaking before a six-story banner of revolutionary Che Guevara" -- vowed to "bury" the Free Trade Area of the Americas. Vicente Fox would have none of it, hoping to push the agreement forward without the holdouts, which include Brazil, Argentina, Uraguay, Paraguay and Venezuela.
With talks stalled on forming a massive 34-nation free trade zone from Alaska to Argentina, Mexico's president on Friday floated a new proposal: Exclude dissenting countries like Venezuela and make a smaller alliance that would still rival the European Union.
Trade experts say a watered-down version of the Free Trade Area of the Americas could be a solution to fruitless negotiations that have failed for years to overcome key sticking points and create the 34-nation bloc.
Mexican President Vicente Fox, speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the fourth Summit of the Americas in this south Atlantic beach resort, said 29 countries in the Western Hemisphere have decided to consider moving forward with negotiations to craft the smaller zone.
Argentina and Brazil are two of the three largest Latin American economies, but their exclusion would probably be temporary anyway. Eventually, the stupidity of tariff walls, or whatever Hugo Chavez' "socialist" alternative might be, would overwhelm the opposition, no matter how many small businesses it burns.
4 Comments:
By 
, at
Fri Nov 04, 09:49:00 PM:
Argentina thought they still owned the FALKLAND ISLAND and got their sorry butss kicked by the british and their country is too close to a communist country
By 
jm, at
Sat Nov 05, 01:51:00 AM:
Today at the summit of the americas, protesters set a bank on fire Friday and threw objects at police in the streets of the Argentine city hosting the Summit of the Americas. Small bands of demonstrators threw Molotov cocktails, set bonfires in the streets and burned American flags. At what point will the president realize, maybe he's doing something wrong? although having an IQ of 93 probably doesn't help him think about these things
By TigerHawk, at
Sat Nov 05, 08:32:00 AM:
WallyJ -
Well, whether or not Bush is doing something wrong, it takes an IQ of substantially less than 93 to use the excuse of his visit to destroy the businesses of one's own country. Bush should take better advice from different people from time to time -- no doubt -- but I don't think he needs to be validated by anybody who would use a free trade summit to burn up the businesses of their own country. It is precisely those businesses that opposition to the free trade agreement is -- misguidedly -- thought to defend. Indeed, there is a good argument that when one's policy outrages such foolish people, one is probably on the right track.
By , at
Sun Nov 06, 07:26:00 PM:
In Brazil there is no opposition against the free trade agreement per se (other than from the usual moonbats showed in this post). Brazil just won't accept a "free trade" agreement that does not include agricultural products, and told Bush to get serious and cut US farm subsidies before we can talk about real free trade.
Since this won't ever happen due to the poweful farm lobby, FTAA is DOA. And no matter the spin americans will put, it will not be because south american countries are against free trade.
