Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Slim Headlines

Carlos Slim's relationship with Mexico continues to fascinate me: he is the richest man in a country where the default view of wealth is that it is ill-gotten; he is the most prominent and ruthless monopolist in a nation whose economy is crippled by monopolies; until recently, he was dismissive and contemptuous of philanthropy in a nation where charity is lacking. Despite all that, regarding finance and economics, I'd say that his words carry greater weight among the general public than anyone's in the country, including Calderón and Carstens. Slim's declarations yesterday landed him on the front pages of the big Mexico City dailies, and earned a rebuke from the Labor Secretary. I don't imagine that comparable comments from Warren Buffet or Bill Gates would dominate the news to the same extent.

A bonus: a Miami Herald rundown of the ethical question posed by Slim's purchase of a stake in the New York Times.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

See also the discussion between Andres Martinez and Matt Welch:
http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/17589

The part about violence following the Slim discussion, not as much.

pc said...

Thanks for the heads up.

I never know whether to pronounce Mexican names with an American or a Mexican accent when speaking in English (and American names when speaking in Spanish, for that matter), but these two kind of demonstrate the pitfalls in doing the second. First of all, you draw attention to yourself and make other people feel lesser for not doing it. Second of all, it's kinda hard to bounce back and forth. And lastly, Carlos Sleem isn't really how you say it in Spanish, it's more like Carlos Esleem, because Mexicans always through the "e" in front of double consonants that begin with "s", ie Esteban for Stephen, or "espectacular" for "spectacular." I think we should continue to say it like the word is pronounced in English. Then again, when people say Octavio Paz's last name as though it rhymes with pizazz, that makes me cringe. Really, there's no correct answer here.