Politics, Business & Culture in the Americas

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Why Brazil Leads the Region in CSR

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Reading Time: 2 minutes

Brazilian companies practice social responsibility with a degree of sophistication unparalleled in Latin America. They lead rankings of corporate sustainability in the sub-hemisphere due to a unique creativity that—in the best cases—makes profits and ethics work together. However, the corporate world in Brazil also reflects the huge social and economic disparities of the country. Highly developed companies, aligned with international standards of social responsibility, coexist with others that still engage in child labor, environmental degradation and even slavery.

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Profits and the Poor

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Reading Time: 2 minutes

Can the private sector fight poverty and still make money? Social initiatives have become increasingly attractive to companies around the world who believe that pursuing strategies that empower low-income groups and impoverished communities is also smart business. In Latin America, that argument has become the focus of debate among scholars and anti-poverty activists who question whether integrating low-income groups in the global or national economy through markets—“democratizing the economy,” as the development economist C. K.

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Corporate Inclusion

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Reading Time: < 1 minute

In addition to traditional ways of thinking about corporate social responsibilities, businesses are also recognizing the internal dimensions of CSR. Management and market considerations are beginning to drive the greater representation of women in high levels of corporate decision making, and the results are showing.

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Beyond Philanthropy

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Looking back over the last 30 years, there’s no question that technology has created an unprecedented wave of innovation, economic growth and social opportunity. Yet, technology in itself is not a cure-all for any nation’s social ills, or a guarantee of economic prosperity. To build and sustain healthy communities, nations must address basic human needs—such … Read more

 

CAFTA-DR Pact:Opening up new frontiers

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As President George W. Bush pressures Congress to ratify the U.S.-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement, it is worth examining the results to date of the Dominican Republic-Central America-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR). That agreement, involving the United States, five Central American countries (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua) and the Dominican Republic has taken … Read more

 

Ex Mex: From Migrants to Immigrants

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There are few straightforward, objective accounts about Mexican immigration to the U.S., which partly explains not only the widespread misconceptions about immigrants but also the backlash that has developed in recent years. Amidst a complex debate and a wide range of publications adding contrasting interpretations about its costs and benefits, it is difficult for the … Read more

 

Santiago’s Children: What I Learned about Life at an Orphanage in Chile

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Reading Time: 2 minutes

In Chile’s tumultuous recent history, it is tempting to fast-forward through the 1980s. They seem like a gray and forgettable interlude between two decades marked by dramatic events and iconic figures. During the 1970s, Salvador Allende’s ballot-box-driven socialist revolution was ended by Gen. Augusto Pinochet, who led the country into a period of brutal political repression and economic reforms served up without anesthesia. In the 1990s, an equally dramatic shift thrust into power the soothing centrist Patricio Aylwin.

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SAME SEX: Rights to get married

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Reading Time: < 1 minute

“To marry or not to marry?” For Latin America’s gays and lesbians this is not the existential dilemma that it is for most heterosexual couples. It is the object of an intense political struggle waged country by country. With some notable exceptions, same-sex couples across the region cannot enjoy conjugal or parental rights.

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IPOS: The boom in emerging equity markets

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Initial public offerings (IPO) worldwide raised a record level of capital in 2007—driven in large part by emerging markets that increasingly list companies on their own exchanges. China remains the undisputed leader, with Indian and Russian stock markets—thanks to “mega” IPOs—returning impressive results. As a whole, equity market capitalization in Latin America is much smaller … Read more

 

Dispatches: São Paulo

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More than 100,000 Bolivians work as sweatshop laborers in Brazil’s largest city. Like the immigrants that came before, it’s the first rung on the ladder. Yola Usnayo, born to a poor family in the Bolivian capital of La Paz, dreams of becoming a hairdresser. The 25-year-old mother puts in 17-hour days as a seamstress at … Read more

 

Panorama: Looking at our hemisphere from all directions (Spring 2008)

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Reading Time: 3 minutes

Hispanic Voting

In states across the U.S., this year’s presidential primary elections have seen some of the highest voter turnouts in the past 40 years. Fighting for votes state-by-state, candidates are courting an increasingly important electorate: the Hispanic population.

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publishing

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Reading Time: 2 minutes

Unconventional Journalism: Few publications could get away with placing a story about a 300-pound stripper dressed as a nun on the same page as a piece on social inequality. In Chile, The Clinic, a newspaper where parody meets investigative journalism, offers an alternative to mainstream media. Published twice-monthly, with 230,000 readers in Santiago alone, it is one of the most successful major media outlets established since Augusto Pinochet left power. The magazine is named after the building where Pinochet was held in England in 1998 while awaiting trial.

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Ten Things to Do: São Paulo

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1. Futebol Home to São Paulo Futebol Clube—the only team to win the national title five times—Estádio do Morumbi packs in up to 80,000 spectators. For a more intimate setting, check out the art-deco Estádio do Pacaembu. 2 Explore the Feijoada Tradition Brazil’s signature bean, beef and pork stew has been a tradition at Feijoada … Read more

 

Citizens Strengthening Democracy

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Weak democratic institutions and a failure to improve the quality of life for millions have ushered in a new era of authoritarianism with a populist tinge in Latin America. The result: a step back for the rule of law and for democracy. Human rights and democracy organizations have tried to confront this challenge. But without … Read more

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