So very underwhelming! South America's cocky ABC countries flounder in London: After first 8 days, Argentina & Chile had combined for ZERO medals at 2012 London Olympics; ABC is roughly 250 Million people -result is one Gold Medal after first 7 days; #London2012, #IULondon12

TelegraphTV video: Argentine President Cristina Fernandez Kerchner: I thought Falklands adverts were great. June 27, 2012. http://youtu.be/Jg4nkllrNu4

Argentine President Cristina Fernandez Kerchner is like a very cocky and annoying cartoon character. Is she really that egotistical and self-serving, or... 
Yes, all the evidence to date appears to support such a hypothesis, witness this last week:

The Telegraph

British ships banned from docking in Buenos Aires

Ships flying the British ensign have been banned from docking in Argentina's largest province under a new law passed yesterday

By Jonathan Gilbert in Buenos Aires

6:20AM BST 03 Aug 2012

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/falklandislands/9448360/British-ships-banned-from-docking-in-Buenos-Aires.html

'To compete on English soil, we train on Argentinian soil': TV ad highlighting claim over Falklands filmed in Port Stanley 
May 3, 2012
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2138926/Falkland-Islands-London-2012-Olympics-ad-shows-athlete-training-Argentine-soil-Port-Stanley.html

The original video in question...

Homenaje a los caídos y ex combatientes de Malvinas

http://youtu.be/lSlyQp9NAoM

Yes, the video is STILL on the Argentine govt. website

I'd originally planned on posting something about the larger issue of South America's largest countries history of under-performing at the Summer Olympics in mid-June, even prior to Argentine President Cristina Fernandez Kerchner proving once again her inability to keep her more base instincts to herself.
Result, foot in mouth -again!

Hmm-m... what other female elected officials can I think of that have that same problem?

I had planned on wishing her Olympic team full of obscure handball players and synchronized swimmers good luck as the ABC countries of South America -Argentina, Brazil and Chile- once again proved that despite having lots of people and resources, they could NOT transform those advantages into anything more than under-achievement, while much smaller countries punked them in the medal count.

2011 Population estimates:

Argentina, <42 million="million" span="span">

Brazil, world's 5th-largest country, 195 Million 

Chile <17 font="font" million="million">

Total, roughly 250 Million people

Result: Number of Gold Medals after one week: one.

In fact, Chile and Argentina had not only actually earned less Gold Medals than IU students and alums in London the first week, they had earned less medals than IU student and French swimmer Margaux Farrell. http://www.iuhoosiers.com/sports/w-swim/recaps/080112aaa.html

http://www.london2012.com/medals/

http://www.london2012.com/country/argentina/medals.html

http://www.london2012.com/country/brazil/medals/index.html

http://www.london2012.com/country/chile/medals/index.html 

Oh, dear!

It looks like once again, Argentina is better at agit prop than actual performance.

Now we know why their athletes are shown having so much fun at the Opening Ceremonies

-unlike the athletes of many nations, they don't have the pressure of actually doing something worthwhile, they're just there for the fun!

Outside of soccer, nobody in the rest of the world, well, outside of South America, even thinks

about Argentina, and why would they?

And seriously, how has such a large country produced so very little of interest or value to the

rest of the world for so very long?

And from a larger perspective, while there are a handful of internationally-respected music and film stars from these three countries, why so few out of 250 million people?

Chile is over three times larger in population than Finland, yet Finnish consumer products and knack for marketing -Nokia and Angry Birds- have more tangible impact on U.S. consumers and business culture than anything Argentina or Chile does; I do like Chliean wine. 

In the 1980's, when I lived in Chicago and the most well-known Argentine most people could name was tennis player Gabby Sabatini, a banker friend who traveled a lot for business, esp. to international conferences, put it very nicely, in a way that reminded me of the national archetypes mentioned in Luigi Barzini Jr.'s various works.

http://ac-support.europe.umuc.edu/~jmatthew/naples/barzini.html

"Argentines think they're good-looking Italian bankers who must wear English bespoke and see French psychologists because of their own deep sense of national inadequacy."

Exactly

Even now, they're a country that's still has plenty of people who think their govt. did nothing wrong when it grabbed political opponents and threw them off airplanes over the ocean.

Maybe things will change there once all the people who could countenance that are dead.

Coming this Fall: A 24/7 News Channel from Univision & ABC News -in English! Marriage of news & advertising convenience, necessity or desperation? And will it be hard news or soft?; Brazil abtains

Wall Street Journal: Disney's ABC, Univision May Launch News-Channel. February 7, 2012. 
http://youtu.be/pfOnlXlV8lA

Coming this Fall: A 24/7 News Channel from Univision & ABC News -in English! Marriage of news & advertising convenience, necessity or desperation? And will it be hard news or soft?; Brazil abstains

Naturally, as has been described here on the blog many times previously, given the rapturous and over-the-top way the Miami Herald has traditionally chosen to greet almost any quasi-news story that involved either Spanish-language marketing, advertising or television, always emphasizing the froth with lots of positive quotes from the people who stand to profit the most, in what is, essentially, a consumer transaction that involves selling soap to someone, possibly with a tilde, but never really looking hard at whether or not what is being offered is actually quality or not, I can hardly wait for the coming Herald article on this new way of trying to sell more advertising. 


I hereby predict that the Herald reporter, whomever it is, will say that that this move may well be "Revolutionary."
Or genius. Or overdue.
Or a guaranteed hit even before it hits the air.


We all know how the Herald gets when they have a brand-new shiny toy to talk about that has something to do with Latin America and marketing, witness their recent spate of pro-Brazil articles and editorials the past year.


Who can count the number of pieces they've done on the theme of visiting Brazilians make-the-world-go-around in Miami, which, given where we are and the current sad state of serious news coverage in local Miami TV stations, quite naturally copied the theme like nobody's business.


But when President Obama was leaving for Brazil last year, despite all the news coverage nationally in print and on TV about what the U.S. and the West wanted to do at the U.N. with regard to sanctions or counter-moves to the killings and repression in Syria, the Miami Herald NEVER wrote a single thing in the newspaper or online about Brazil abstaining from voting on the matter, did they?
Nope, and I was looking, too.


I checked not only the online archives but scrupulously checked the newspaper -everyday.
Before, during and after his trip.


The Herald said nothing even while writing about how important Brazil was asserting itself... blah, blah.
But when push came to shove, Brazil ducked.
That's many things, but what it's NOT is leadership.
Or positive.


For a country like Brazil that's forever talking so much about wanting to be taken seriously on the international scene, it hardly gets more transparent about what you really want to do than abstaining from an important vote at the U.N, does it?
Of perhaps having to vote against China and Russia.
So they did nothing.

Today's New York Times tells the tale of what that indifference has wrought months later:

In Turkey, once a strong supporter of Mr. Assad and now one of his most vocal critics, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Parliament that the veto of the United Nations resolution on Syria by Russia and China had given Mr. Assad a “license to kill,” 

The only thing missing in this and so many other news articles the past about all the people who have been maimed or killed is a note that reads "Thanks Brazil" from President Assad.


And lest you forget, last year, on March 21st, I wrote about Brazil abstaining on a vote on sanctions against Libya.
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/rejecting-pixie-lotts-boys-and-girls.html


So why the South Florida news media refusal to report the facts about the Brazil abstentions on Libya and Syria, and their logical consequences?
Good question.


But not for me, for the Herald and the rest of the South Florida news media that far too often seems content to lets its own advertising bottom line dictate what actually gets covered or mentioned on-air on in print.


No, unfortunately, as I've said here before many times, the South Florida news media, and the Herald in particular, simply can't say enough good things about Latin America, whether its countries, its consumers or its markets, when there's money to be made, but rather curiously, they and their reporters only seem to seek out people for the article who will say good things.
Or who will directly or indirectly profit from it.


Where's the objective balance to the stories?
Where's the follow-up and perspective?


No, THAT won't come until months later.
Then, they may run an AP story that they post online, but which you never see in the newspaper itself.


Sort of like the one they used here to share the news:
Univision, Disney look at English news channel
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/02/06/2628257/univision-disney-look-at-english.html


No doubt we'll see that over-the-top story in the Herald soon, and I can already guess whom they will interview from their small list of Usual Suspects to say how great this is for everyone.
No, not really, mostly just some of the advertising folks who want to sell air time for Barack Obama political commercials.
-----


See more news video from The Wall Street Journal LIVE's News Hub at:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL40ABBAC77E4BF616&feature=plcp


Wall Street Journal YouTube Channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/WSJDigitalNetwork

Rejecting Pixie Lott's 'Boys And Girls' together policy paradigm, Obama's Cabinet was "Boys against girls" over military intervention in Libya

Pixie Lott - Boys And Girls
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7y1MdlXclM

Rejecting Ambassador Pixie Lott's 'Boys And Girls' policy paradigm, two reporters at the New York Times and POLITICO's Ben Smith on his blog say that it was actually a case of "Boys against girls" over Libya in the Obama Cabinet.

IF this sort of story had happened under Bush 43, David Brooks would be saying that misplaced sentimentality had weighed-in at the worst possible moment, when clear-headed logic and action was what was necessary.
But it's Obama, so...

POLITICO.com
Boys against girls over Libya?
By Ben Smith
March 20, 2011 pol

There's been quite a bit of chatter today about the notion that a cadre of human-rights-minded women -- Susan Rice, Samantha Power, Hillary Clinton -- fought and won an internal debate over Libya. But White House officials and close observers outside government pushed back hard on the idea of a crucial internal split Sunday, arguing that Obama was pressed to action not by the internal dynamic but by the situation on the ground.

Read the rest of the post at:
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0311/Boys_against_girls_over_Libya.html

-----

New York Times
Obama Takes Hard Line With Libya After Shift by Clinton
By Helene Cooper and Steven Lee Myers
March 18, 2011

WASHINGTON — In a Paris hotel room on Monday night, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton found herself juggling the inconsistencies of American foreign policy in a turbulent Middle East. She criticized the foreign minister of the United Arab Emirates for sending troops to quash protests in Bahrain even as she pressed him to send planes to intervene in Libya.

Only the day before, Mrs. Clinton — along with her boss, President Obama — was a skeptic on whether the United States should take military action in Libya. But that night, with Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s forces turning back the rebellion that threatened his rule, Mrs. Clinton changed course, forming an unlikely alliance with a handful of top administration aides who had been arguing for intervention.

Read the rest of the article at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/19/world/africa/19policy.html

But if it fails, will Susan Power ever be seen again on TV news chat shows while Obama is president? Or will that be blamed on Gen. Mullen?
Hmm-m...

-----
By the way, since it was NOT mentioned in the South Florida news media -and I looked- in the ramp-up to Obama's Latin America trip, Brazil abstained on the U.N. vote on Libya.
It had a chance to do something of significance-it blinked.
Again.

And this is the country that actually wants to be a Permanent Member of the U.N. Security Council?
Nej tack!!!

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/03/19/v-fullstory/2123799/obama-opens-new-chapter-in-relations.html

That my friends is why despite its large size and immense resources, Brazil remains firmly seated at the children's table, not the adult table, until further notice, no matter what the Miami Herald's reporters and columnists churn out by the barrels about their alleged grandness.

That perpetual adolescence plus, well, it's too self-congratulatory nature, and, frankly, being a country that most Americans could really care less about -because it has done so little that most Americans care about or respect, much less, what well-informed Americans care about or respect.
Brazil is a very large Belgium, and Americans care not a whit about Belgium, either.

I will soon tell you in this space about a simple test those self-evident, self-promoting Herald reporters and columnists won't dare do publicly because it would so easily show the absurdity and emptiness of their grand pronouncements about Brazil.
Like so many of their previous overwrought words about the importance of South America to the U.S. in the future, it just doesn't hold up to scrutiny.

http://www.youtube.com/user/PixieLottVEVO
http://www.youtube.com/user/pixieofficial
http://www.youtube.com/user/pixielott
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/

REMIX


Pixie Lott - Boys And Girls - Remix Version
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2S_NdMyf9j0

I once knew a girl from Essex...

SVT video of Saab's nEUROn fuselage for new UCAV; Will Brazilian President Rousseff ditch French and buy Saab's Gripen or Boeing F-18 instead for $4B?

SVT Rapport - Här är Saabs nya stridsflygplan
Here's Saab's new fighter plane.
http://svtplay.se/v/2307433/har_ar_saabs_nya_stridsflygplan

This video ran on Wednesday night's Swedish TV (SVT) thirty-minute national newscast and has some English but is mostly in Swedish.

This particular video is available on the SVT Play website until January 25, 2012, and if you are curious enough to want to watch the entire newscast, which features an interesting report on security in Moscow -at 10:56- following the Chechen suicide bombing last week at the airport, you can see it at: http://svtplay.se/v/2307476/rapport/25_1_19_30_-_textat?cb,a1366518,1,f,-1/pb,a1366516,1,f,-1/pl,v,,2308531/sb,p103263,1,f,-1

I've selected the version of the newscast that has closed-captioning so that you can see what some of the words you are hearing actually look like, as it's more logical than it sounds. You can watch the newscast vid until Tuesday February 1st, and as always, I recommend that you hit the Full screen button on the bottom right marked "Fullskärm."
The story on the fighter plane comes on at 19:39.

Saab delivers nEUROn fuselage to Dassault Aviation

http://www.shephard.co.uk/news/uvonline/saab-delivers-neuron-fuselage-to-dassault-aviation/8187/

Also read this story on the $4 billion sale of 36 fighter jets to Brazil from France that may be on the verge of collapsing under new Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and the possibility that Saab or Boeing will swoop-in and take it from Dassault, lock, stock and lavalier.

"Rousseff has indicated she wants to review the political agreement between the two heads of state and "start over" the evaluation process that pitted the Rafale against Boeing Co.'s (BA) F-18 and the Gripen made by Sweden's Saab AB (SAAB-B.SK)"

Dassault Workers' Bonuses Hinge On Rafale Export Deal
January 25, 2011, 10:29 A.M. ET
By David Pearson of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20110125-710700.html


Gripen's current website -in English- at http://www.gripen.com/en/index.htm is moving to http://www.saabgroup.com/gripen

Photos of Gripen is at:
http://www.saabgroup.com/Air/Gripen-Fighter-System/gripen-downloads/Image-bank/

There's a video in Portuguese on Saab's website about their efforts and capabilities there:
http://www.saabgroup.com/gripen-for-brazil

Here's the Saab JAS 39 Gripen in Flight [HD]


Saab JAS 39 Gripen (Griffin) Fighter in Flight [HD]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSJ4i8IExjY