Two Columns From Today's Washington Post

A Chinese delegation visits the Acu port in Sao Joao da Barra, Brazil. China is on track to become Brazil's No. 1 investor in 2010, with Chinese investment in Brazil topping $20 billion in the first half of this year (Getty)

2009: China was the 29th investor in Brazil. 2010: China is becoming the investor #1 in Brazil. In the past decade China was making a worldwide effort to extract resources to use in its own manufacturing sector. Today China is pushing aggressively toward investing in industries overseas having in mind an economic & political agenda. John Pomfret has this column in Washington Post...

------------------------------------

You should read also this column by Jackson Diehl, who is warning about the lack of vigorous U.S. help for the Mexican administration in its efforts to curb the drug war. Says Mr. Diehl, since the end of the Cold War, neglect of Latin America has become something of a fine art in Washington, practiced by Republican and Democratic administrations alike. But even in that context, the disregard for Mexico over the past couple of years is kind of astonishing. The fact is that U.S. should be aware that it is facing a profound crisis in the immediate vicinity. Read here the whole column...

A policeman runs after a car-bomb attack in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, this month (AP)

(Zoon Politikon)