Neither is Africa. Yes, its horrible how north Africa is filled with angry cannibal muslims slaughtering each other because the money ran out. We don't need to be getting drawn into Middle Eastern politics of religious hatred since the Middle East hasn't been important once we found out the world was round and we could steer around it for our spices, well that and they're almost out of Oil, which means we don't have to feed the zealot pricks anymore. They used up their water so they can't either. All this hatred will get them down to swords and camels again. Good riddance.
Russia is the world's biggest oil exporter, but only till the end of this year. After that, it's the USA again. Thank Fracking for that. Just make sure you've got really good water treatment standards so the benzene doesn't end up wafting out of your faucet.
Sub Saharan Africa is also cannibals, and Chinese 7/11 markets and check cashing scams. What's the point of parking lots in Africa when so few people have jobs to buy cars with? Meh. Africa isn't ready to have a century yet. Give them another hundred years, maybe. They are content to be unhappy over things, but know better than killing themselves to change to a new boss, same as the old boss. That's the trouble with Africa. There's no interest in modernizing. Not like in Latin America.
This century is about Central and South America, what is called Latin America. They did the communism thing, didn't like it. Now they're trying capitalism, and that gets them TVs and Telenovelas and they DO like those. Turns out that telenovelas are like soap operas, only they end so you get a proper character arc so they're better. Kinda like anime, but more fiery. And live action. What was holding back Latin America was the corruption and drugs cartels and the interference of the Russians shipping communism to the peasants there. This time, I think the Russians are purely oligarchic, they're just fighting the usual way for who controls the power rather than ideology over the right to power. Power is as power does, and that's mostly killing lots of people.
Communism wasn't really very good at building hospitals or sewer systems in Paraguay or El Salvador, which would have worked better I think. Oddly, capitalism will do it better. And isn't THAT ironic, since capitalism shouldn't care about public works but does anyway. And public works raise living standards so you can have what you see on TV in those telenovelas that all women watch so they know what to demand from their husbands. And its working. Hollywood isn't. They forgot that showing a 2 hour movie in a cramped house with a generator out back to run the projector ONLY works if the movie is shown cheap enough, and infrequently enough, to bring everyone together to see it. When they started charging $13 for a movie ticket and showed a dozen movies 6 times a day they cut their own throats. Technology has moved beyond celluloid pictures, and satellite TV and local movie cameras have stripped Hollywood of its relevance. It belongs to the public now, and they're doing a fine job. Hollywood is a buggy whip. The rest of the world has moved on.
Latin America are ready to get hospitals and public utilities and paved streets and subdivisions and local news stations and cable TV and UPS mail order delivery companies and the essentials of proper culture. They're settling down. We hardly hear about coups there anymore, which is amazing. Most of the really bad drug cartel stuff has moved into Mexico, out of Colombia. Colombians are getting good money growing coffee and selling natural emeralds and its getting better. Peru is a major outlet for Cuisine, tourism, and a destination for Japanese expats, as is Ecuador, which gets a fair number of tourists too. Money is filtering in, and speaking Spanish makes them a destination for technicians from Spain who see all the money making opportunities in basic businesses they can't do in Spain but can't in Peru and Ecuador and Panama and El Salvador... there's a future there where development is easy and not screwed up by Euro politics and green regulations and trade unions that don't exist in Latin America. You can get things done. It is almost a blank slate.
Meanwhile Asia is stabbing itself over and over. Who needs that? China and Russia and India will all end up fighting each other soon enough, probably over resources and overpopulation, and Europe will get energy some other way so they don't have to deal with Russia anymore, which is too big a credit risk to bother dealing with anymore. Invade Crimea and deny it? Nope. Big nope. Sorry. Can't invest there. Your problem. I expect that Spanish expats will be bragging about how great the business opportunities are in Latin America and the bankers in Europe will see the potential for growth, for manufacturing and exports and raw materials and civilization. If all of South America was potential condos with paved streets and working sewer systems, it would make a fine vacation destination.
And keep in mind that not all fancy electronics requires rare earth elements. At some point, we're going to figure out how to do things with carbon-based chips, and a lot of the mines we've been fighting over in Afghanistan won't matter anymore. Won't that be a huge shift in awareness? When they stop mattering, and its really just how you apply carbon, which you can get out of the air, everything changes. That's a FUNDAMENTAL shift, much like Latin America deciding they're done with revolution and would like to try civilization now, thank you very much.
So don't bother learning Mandarin unless you want to be a mercenary or a ship captain. Learn Spanish. They're the ones who matter now. Mexico is comfortable with its corruption, but the rest of Latin America has higher standards. Those will be the folks to trade with, who will pay properly and want to be your customers again and again. Latin America is ready for civilization. They are worth investing in.
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