- MENU
- HOME
- SEARCH
- WORLD
- MAIN
- AFRICA
- ASIA
- BALKANS
- EUROPE
- LATIN AMERICA
- MIDDLE EAST
- United Kingdom
- United States
- Argentina
- Australia
- Austria
- Benelux
- Brazil
- Canada
- China
- France
- Germany
- Greece
- Hungary
- India
- Indonesia
- Ireland
- Israel
- Italy
- Japan
- Korea
- Mexico
- New Zealand
- Pakistan
- Philippines
- Poland
- Russia
- South Africa
- Spain
- Taiwan
- Turkey
- USA
- BUSINESS
- WEALTH
- STOCKS
- TECH
- HEALTH
- LIFESTYLE
- ENTERTAINMENT
- SPORTS
- RSS
- iHaveNet.com
Andres Oppenheimer
The fact that
The magazine's list is headed by Wael Ghonim, the young Egyptian Google executive who sparked the popular revolt that toppled former Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak, followed by mostly U.S. business people, inventors, artists and sports personalities.
Among those in the first 10 places are
But the only two Latin Americans who made the list are Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, in 27th place, and Argentine soccer player Lionel Messi, in the 86th spot. By comparison, I counted seven Africans on the magazine's list, most of them connected to the latest uprisings in Northern Africa.
Has Latin America fallen off the map? I asked several friends who follow the region's affairs. Most of them chuckled, and said the magazine's list can't be taken seriously. It's hard to explain that it failed to include Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim, the richest man in the world, and owner, among other things, of a good chunk of The
Or Shakira, the Colombian singer who ranks among the world's best-known and wealthiest singers, and was selected to open the Soccer World Cup tournament in South Africa last year. Or Peruvian writer and Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa, whose writings are read across the world. Or Colombian artist Fernando Botero, one of the world's most renowned living painters. The list could go on and on.
And when it comes to America's future, Latin America is becoming increasingly important, not the least because the United States exports more than three times more to Latin America than to China, and depends more on the region's oil exports than on those of Saudi Arabia's.
But while
- Latin America's share of the world's economy has remained fairly stagnant over the past five decades: it has gone from 6 percent to 7 percent of the world's gross domestic product between 1960 and 2009, according to the
- Poverty reduction in Latin America has been marginal over the past three decades. While the percentage of poor -- people living on less than $1.25 a day -- has dropped from 84 percent to 16 percent of the population in China since 1981, the percentage of Latin America's poor has only gone down from 12 percent to 8 percent over the same period, according to the
- Latin America's share of the world's total investment in research and development (R&D) is dismal. Only 2.3 percent of all world investments in R&D are made in Latin America, compared with 36 percent in the United States and Canada, 31 percent in Europe, and 28 percent in Asia, according to the Ibero-American Network of Science and Technology Indicators (RICYT).
My opinion: Time magazine's editors are living in a world of the past, where everything that mattered took place in the United States. I can't believe they seriously think that the mayor of Newark, or the governor of New Jersey -- both of whom appear high on the list -- are more influential than Slim or Shakira. But the magazine's blunder could help Latin Americans realize that, contrary to what their leaders often tell them, the region has yet to convince the world that it has become a major global player.
© Andres Oppenheimer, The Miami Herald Distributed by Tribune Media Services
WORLD | AFRICA | ASIA | EUROPE | LATIN AMERICA | MIDDLE EAST | UNITED STATES | ECONOMICS | EDUCATION | ENVIRONMENT | FOREIGN POLICY | POLITICS
World - Time Magazine's List of 100 Most Influential People a Joke | Global Viewpoint