Uruguay made BBC World News TWICE today...this is pretty much unheard of. The quiet, tiny country with the name of a river generally makes the international news once a year. So, here are the stories:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7469731.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7475546.stm
Oil/gas discoveries seem to be following me on my international sojourns; Ghana, too, discovered a sizeable offshore oil field not too long after my time there. If YOU are from a small country looking for another exploitable resource and would like me to come visit you as a talisman, let's talk. C'mon, Guinea-Bissau...you know you want me.
But seriously, these two stories are both good in that some much needed money and economic opportunities are entering the picture for Uruguay, and that, hey, we're getting some attention. On the flipside, there is no national economic combination worse than lack of domestic ownership of land plus natural resources of high value and demand...look at what caused the Mexican Revolution, after all. There's always the aspect of corruption and social transformation, too - would Nigeria be so marked bycorruption and violence if it weren't for its enormous oilfields? What, too, about safeguarding the not-perfect-but-improving government services and sense of social equity that is a trademark of Uruguay? Other countries whose economies revolve around agriculture and/or exploitation of high-value natural resources are a mixed bag - one on hand, you have Norway (which pretty much defines "high standard of living and stability with incredible public access to services"), and on the other you have Bolivia (as I read in Las Venas Abiertas de América Latina, "Bolivia had the cow, but everyone else in the world got the milk"). Food for thought.
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