The "Golden Opportunity" for the South - Foxconn

Employees work on the assembly line at the Foxconn plant in Shenzhen, China.
Photograph: Bloomberg via Getty Images

China's wage hikes could benefit Americas
The Miami Herald

By Andres Oppenheimer

March 3, 2012
Citation: http://bit.ly/wagehikes

Good news for Latin America: wages in China, Vietnam and other Asian countries are rising faster than expected, leading growing numbers of multinational firms to move their manufacturing plants to Mexico and other countries closer to the U.S. market.

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According to economists, Chinese salaries are destined to increase for decades to come with the growing appreciation of Chinese currency, higher educations standards, and a declining workforce.  Most multinational companies will keep plants in China to serve the domestic market as well as neighboring countries in Asia, but will move their export-oriented plants to other parts of the world. The author contends: “Either way, Asia’s rising wages present a fabulous opportunity for Latin America.” He argues in order to lure foreign manufacturing plants and to export increasingly sophisticated goods and services to China, Mexico and Central America will have to reduce their violence rates, and all Latin American countries will have to dramatically improve their education systems, which currently lag far behind those of their Asian competitors. He concludes that Latin American countries that take advantage of this golden opportunity will do great in coming decade and they will have Asia’s rising wages to thank.

In order to persuade China to move plants to Latin America, these countries will have to make adjustments to their educational initiatives to develop a workforce capable of providing these “sophisticated” goods and services. I would argue it is too soon to know what these educational adjustments will look like, but not everyone thinks China’s economic involvement in Latin America is a positive according to an article by Univision: “China in Latin America: Should we be worried?” The article points out China’s investment in Latin America has increased 400% during the past decade which creates a new reliance on Chinese commodity demand and China’s state-run companies, and now additional goods and services. This “golden opportunity” sounds more like a dependency model and its affect on education will run deep. Will Mandarin be the second language of the next generation in Brazil? Will vocational studies focus more on technology? Will China take over in the exploitation of Latin American? The Univision article argues this isn’t a “win-win” situation because Chinese companies do not have to follow the same rules as those from the U.S., Europe, or even Latin America leading to general corruption and increases the likelihood of bribery, smuggling, and poor environmental practices. I conclude Latin American should access this opportunity wisely before overhauling educational practices to cater specifically to the Chinese economic demands.  

Peace Corp Pulls Volunteers out of Honduras: 1 Week Later

Honduras Peace Corp Withdrawal: Volunteer Pullout Comes as Blow

The Huffington Post

By Freedy Cuevas and Adriana Gomez Licon

January 18, 2012
Citation: http://huff.to/GJuvSp

 

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — The U.S. government's decision to pull out all its Peace Corps volunteers from Honduras for safety reasons is yet another blow to a nation still battered by a coup and recently labeled the world's most deadly country.

Neither U.S. nor Honduran officials have said what specifically prompted them to withdraw the 158 Peace Corps volunteers, which the U.S. State Department said was one of the largest missions in the world last year.

It is the first time Peace Corps missions have been withdrawn from Central America since civil wars swept the region in the 1970s and 1980s. The Corps closed operations in Nicaragua from 1979 to 1991 and in El Salvador from 1980 to 1993 for safety and security reasons, but has since returned to both countries

It is no secret that for all of Central America's beauty and mystique, it is tainted by violence. Equally, it is well-known that many US groups have developed organizations aimed to combat this issue through different, dynamic educational programs. However, a week ago the US Peace Corp made the decision to withdraw volunteers from Honduras, which as the author explains, has come as a "blow". While similar withdraws have occurred in the past, most notably in Nicaragua and El Salvador, for safety and security reasons, for now projects in water sanitation, working with youth and HIV prevention are on hold in Honduras as drug-related crime has recently spiraled seemingly out-of-control. The move comes after a 27-year-old volunteer was shot in the leg Dec. 3rd during an armed robbery, and after a robbery and rape that occurred in late January of another volunteer. It is noted that this is a difficult time for Honduran NGO's (clearly) and that additionally, aid from Spain was "drying up" due to that country's own debt issues. A 2011 UN report states that Honduras has more violence than any other country in the world! It is unclear what effect these various changes will have on the Corp agency, and no other groups have pulled out as of yet (for more info. on this topic in Central America, see this article: El Salvador/Crime/Education)

I understand that the number one priority is the safety of the volunteers, and also, in turn, the reputation of the Peace Corps however violence is crippling education efforts leading to reports of rape, robbery, and other random acts of violence that operations no longer continue on a normal basis with Honduras in its' the current state. This is a United States government organization -- it would be incredibly irresponsible, and reprehensible, to maintain operations at the current level. However, the organizations departure from the Central American nation signals a message to the government of Honduras to take action.

As history reveals, the Peace Corp has reacted similarly in other countries, for example, in Nicaragua when the government was going through sharp changes in regime in the early 1990's, and it was simply too a dangerous place to live and work for expats and international volunteers. Bluntly put, this current situation is tragic from any perspective. People wanting to help in a place that so direly needs assistance, but halted, because the situation is actually so bad, that it is dangerous: this is the Peace Corp worker reality in Honduras at the present state. The authors report from Mexico and Guatemala, which is ironic that they too are outside of the country.

We need to consider this case in context of the value of human life. For the last 2 years I have worked as a teacher and most recently, as the Director of Adult Programs for a non-profit in the Nicaragua called the Barrio Planta Project. All humans experience violence but the amount of expose can certainly increase as expats living and working in Nicaragua. For a former co-worker her experience was enough to encourage her to quit her position and leave the country. She took a job in Guatemala and is now working in Antigua, which is relatively safer than other areas of that country but certainly not immune to the same problems found throughout Central America in terms of drug-related violence. I am lucky that nothing has ever happened to me, and I continue to make what I consider to be "smart choices". However, this organization has large implications beyond the individual level and their efforts in development, as United States citizens acting as educational ambassadors with countries around the world. What is the impact of cutting services and which services are specifically affected?