Private equity fund 3G agreed to buy Burger King on Thursday, in a deal valued at $4 billion. That makes 3G, controlled by a group of well-heeled Brazilians, the buyer of the most expensive fast food chain ever sold. 3G is said to be interested in expanding the burger giant’s presence in Latin America and Asia.

To some, such moves of American icon brands may hark to the day when Japanese companies bought about everything they could find in the continental 48. However, Brazil’s rise should be soothing to American investors, and patriots alike. 3G has a history of buying companies that focus on mass consumption. Consumption in Brazil is on the rise, as it is in much of Latin America, good news for those worried that there aren’t enough consumers among China’s 1.3 billion inhabitants to buy American goods.

Home ownership is growing rapidly in Brazil, new home and commercial construction is taking off, and consumer credit has expanded by more than 20 percent annually since 2002. 3G’s appetite for a whopper and fries points to an expanding menu of American goods likely to be ordered in the coming years. If Brazilians want to take the companies that go with it, that should be okay, too. “The King” can’t rival the Golden Arches, if my opinion counts, and its business in the U.S. has been sagging in recent years anyway.

Anyone who has entered Mexico City’s Benito Juarez airport is met by a security check that requires the newly landed passenger to press a button for a traffic signal, which is permanently fixed in the airport terminal. Red means you will be randomly searched, and greens means you can avoid that annoyance for the day. For Mexico’s oldest and largest airline, a permanent red light might be the last symbol of the end of an era and the beginning of traveller chaos for Mexicans and those who frequent travelling to Mexico.

Mexicana Airline filed for bankruptcy August 2nd, and yesterday gave notice that their flights after August 28th were halted for now, if not permanently. There are many factors why Mexicana, one of the better airlines in the Americas, is now grounded for the time being. Mexico and its commercial sectors were hit hard during the global economic crisis, and despite recent positive economic news the effect of the world economy was only the first issue for Mexican industry. The poor US market that absorbs most of Mexico’s exports and expats has dwindled quickly and affected all exports as well as remittances coming from Mexicans living in the United States. The effect of the H1N1 and Mexico’s ever violent drug war has also turned people away from Mexico and while the H1N1 has disappeared, Mexico’s drug violence has only been getting worse. With all the problems facing all Mexicans, Mexicana’s worries also came from a result of high wages and a lack of re-financing and financial management, and with the recent change in leadership of the airlines, the pressure of the market and structure of Mexicana finally ended their operations yesterday.

As in the case of JAL and Alitalia, the loss of a principal national airline is a blow not only to travellers and commerce in a country, but also is seen as a loss of pride as nations often established those traditional airlines at the beginning of commercial air travel as a source of national identity and progress. Many principal national airlines often carry the colours of their countries proudly, and the loss of a national airline is like taking a national symbol out of the sky and lowering their flag permanently. There is not any sign of how Mexicana’s bankruptcy protection might evolve, as airlines such as Alitalia and JAL had received government support, and even airlines such as Air Canada have visited the bankruptcy court on more than on occasion. It is surprising that Mexicana has come to the point where their planes have been grounded, but in larger nations such as Mexico, a large national airline is often needed to promote access between regions and states that would normally be ignored by the market. For now, Mexico has had to lower its wings due to a series of issues and poor company decisions, but the need for flyers to access Mexico and Mexico’s slowly improving economy will create the need for a Mexicana or a similar airline to cover the demand that exists in Mexico for air travel.

Mental stability has become a top concern of those half a mile above the 33 trapped miners in northern Chile. One day after discovering they were alive, the primary calculations began. Four months: that’s how long it is going to take to rescue the miners. After President Piñera dropped a few hints that they weren’t going to be out in time for certain holidays, he squared with them—we’ll hug you in time for Christmas. Now a secondary calculus consumes those above ground: mental stability. One miner is reportedly known to be very superstitious, and told his girlfriend in the past that he fears the spirits of dead miners. Vitamins and anti-depressants are reportedly being sent down along with individual lights to give each miner some exposure to “sunlight.” Solid food will be sent down soon, after the miner’s stomachs have had time to adjust from their meager rations of semi-solids.

Every communication with the miners impresses. They first asked about their colleagues who fled during the mine collapse, instead of the obvious “When are we getting out of here?” They sing the Chilean national anthem. They write inspiring letters to loved ones. This continent branded ‘magical realism.’ Hopefully, we are going to witness an inspiring denouement. Until then, we wait.

Thirty-three Chilean miners are miraculously alive, 17 days after being trapped in a collapsed shaft. President Sabastian Pinera reported the good news today, after rescuers lowered a probe into the mine, which was sent back with a note attached saying they were all fine. Apparently, they survived by burrowing a hole under their shelter to a hidden water supply. The eldest, 63-year-old Mario Gomez, sent up a letter to his wife: “Dear Liliana, I’m well, thank God. I hope to get out soon. Have patience and faith.

But drilling a hole wide enough—26 inches in diameter—to get the miners out of their shaft shelter some 2,300 feet below is expected to take “at least 120 days,” according to the engineer heading the rescue. Rescuers plan to send narrow plastic tubes down the existing narrow borehole to get them food, hydration gels and cameras and microphones so that they can communicate with loved ones.

Americans made a hero of “Sully” Sullenberger when he was able to glide his plane gently after losing engine power at take off and landing in the water next to New York city. In that crash, while the plane sank, everyone survived. This week in Colombia a crash occurred on the island of San Andreas, where all but one woman survived, who died of a heart attack. The August 17th escape of 131 passengers made international news this week when their Boeing 737 made a hard approach on landing just short of the runways and broke apart in three main pieces during a rainstorm. Luckily it did not catch fire, which is often the main catalyst for deaths in air crashes. Accounts of the horrific experience by the passengers are all over the media with great interest. The pilot’s skill in staving off a major crash, new technologies in aviation security, and pure luck have been given credit for helping make this air disaster a minor one.

A notable crash in August 2005 in Toronto, Canada shared a lot of similarities with the Colombia crash. While an investigation into the crash in San Andreas will take some months to be produced, the Air France crash in Toronto might shed some light on possible issues with the approach and methods used by the crew which could have avoided the disaster, as lucky as they were. In 2005, a sudden thunderstorm and decision not to come for a second landing lead to a similar hard landing in Toronto’s Pearson Airport when the Air France Airbus A340 ran off the runway into a ravine off at the end of the runway. While the A340 did not break apart like the Colombian airliner, minutes after the plane came to a halt in the ravine, it caught fire and was quickly consumed by the flames. Luckily, as in the Colombia crash, there were no deaths related to the crash and all the passengers survived the crash. Weather in both crashes were considered great contributing factors, but also the pressure to not make second approaches and sudden wind shear and visibility problems often make it harder to land and lead to additional smaller errors as more skill and tasks are needed landing in harsh environments. A complete analysis of the Air France crash can be found here.

Skill and luck play a part in all air accidents, and fortunately this latest accident did not claim more than one life. Crashes such as the Air France crash between Brazil and France in 2009 resulted in all 228 people crashing in the mid Atlantic in deep water without any evidence or information being obtained after a long a labourious search by French and Brazilian officials. Despite this, flying on larger airlines hold a good safety record compared to auto accidents and accidents involving smaller aircraft. Professionalism in aviation can limit accidents in this regard, but on occasion when a plane has a bad landing, it is comforting to know that in some cases people survive, and in other cases everyone has survived.

Almost eighteen months after it spread out of the rural state of Veracruz in Mexico and gripped North America’s largest metropolis, the H1N1 “swine flu” pandemic is over and done. That’s the ruling of World Health Organization. As it turns out, H1N1 was a rather benign strand of influenza, but it struck at an unexpected time of the year, stoking widespread hysteria. In its announcement yesterday, the WHO also ruled out the possibility that H1N1 could cause future outbreaks.

More than 18,000 people died worldwide from H1N1. After killing many in Mexico, and halting life in Mexico City for a week, the influenza strand spread through the Americas. South of the equator the impact of the virus was less noxious. However, this was not the case in Argentina, probably because of inept federal-to-state public health coordination.

The rapid spread of H1N1 was, by fall 2009, followed by cries of overreaction. 300 million people received vaccination for H1N1 worldwide, and in most rich countries there was a glut of flu shots. However, there was a stark disparity between access to vaccinations in rich countries versus access for the poor.

In an interesting aside, the British medical journal Lancet recently concluded that governments receiving foreign health aid tended to invest fewer of their own resources in health-related activities.

Sighs of relief should beware complaisance. The global health community is raising red flags about NDM-1, a “superbug” resistant to even the most powerful pharmaceutical remedies. So far, it has only appeared in a few patients in Britain and India. But it is extraordinarily pernicious. And India and Britain are ripe transmission hubs because of booming medical tourism industries.

The international community responded to January’s earthquake in Haiti with teams of doctors, nurses, and other healthcare experts. At first, the biggest problem to providing medical care to the hundreds of thousands of earthquake survivors appeared to be a lack of electricity and inadequate sterilized space for surgery. As immediate infrastructure was addressed, many Haitians were able to enjoy healthcare for the first time. Now an altogether different problem besets healthcare in Haiti: the deluge of free care from donor countries and aid agencies is threatening Haiti’s own healthcare system.

When CDTI opened in 2007 it was reputed to be Haiti’s most sophisticated hospital, providing technologically advanced care to Haitians who could afford the $25 consultation fee. After the quake, CDTI provided free care, operating well beyond its capacity. But now the hospital is empty.

After the emergency phase of the earthquake ended, Haitians continued to receive free care from outfits such as Doctors Without Borders. Why pay to go to CDTI? No one did, and after two months of paying salaries, buying pharmaceuticals, and keeping the hospital running with no money coming in, the hospital’s director went broke.

Hopital Canape Vert is witnessing the same problem. Michael Theard, a cardiologist there, told Public Radio International:

We have an average of 8 to 10 patients a day, which is not enough to maintain the hospital open. And the problem is that the NGOs are working giving the free care, so when they will leave, you will find nothing. The medical condition of Haiti will be worse than before.

Free markets in Haiti’s healthcare system are colliding. The first operated on a for-profit basis, like CDTI. The second is a market of free healthcare provided by aid agencies, but this is temporary. And the success of the latter now is ruining the former. If this goes unaddressed by major donors Haiti could be left altogether worse off in a few months time.

This past week was characterised by one major international news story and one minor one. The European Union and Canada gave notice to Iranian officials this week of their support for sanctions against Iran because its nuclear program. Canada was making a point of sounding off with the EU possibly due to Iran’s ironic and insulting diplomatic criticism of Canada’s handling of G20 protests in Toronto as violating protestor’s rights to free speech. The latter story was that of divided ties between Colombia and Venezuela due to noted accusations by President Chavez that Colombia and the US wished to assassinate him and Colombian accusations that Chavez was supporting rebels inside Colombia. Chavez’s accusation of his imminent assassination has been a consistent complaint lodged by Chavez. Colombia and President Uribe have made a point of aggressively fighting rebels in Colombia and issuing evidence that Chavez and Venezuela have been coordinating with rebels inside Colombia to destabilise the Andean nation.

Evidence presented by Colombia came about in an OAS meeting on July 22nd and were addressed in a Unasur meeting July 29th showing that 1500 rebels from the ELN and FARC were working inside and supported by Venezuela. Accusations of starting a possible conflict at the end of Uribe’s term in office were focused on by Venezuelan officials as a last violent act by Uribe, but Colombia’s support for their President and the old Defence Minister and new President, Juan Manuel Santos will likely solidify a continuation of Colombia’s and Venezuela’s Cold Peace for years to come. Santos will take office in a few days time, but has worked as the Defence Minister under President Uribe during many diplomatic trials with Venezuela in the past. Since Colombia’s incursion into Ecuador in 2008 and the declaration of placing US bases inside Colombia in 2009, Uribe and Santos have suffered diplomatic troubles with Chavez and leftists in the region. In all cases, no hot conflict or shots were ever fired officially between the two states or their armies and border crossings and trade have remained relatively steady and healthy, even with oil exports continuing into the US and Chavez meeting President Obama on one occasion. With accusations by Venezuela that electing Santos would lead to war, and continued information presented by Colombia of Venezuela’s tangible support for narco-rebels inside Colombia, the pillars of trade and relations have always remained strong between the two countries. In this latest round, the new President of Colombia and accusations of continued support for the FARC and ELN at the OAS lead to Venezuela breaking relations, again, but also claiming a reduction or halt to oil exports to the US and blocking trade between Venezuela and Colombia, an action that would likely hurt both countries considerably.

Apart from Venezuela’s relations with its neighbour, the context of the larger international story should be considered. A small point to start off with it that Venezuela’s oil exports, while substantial to the US, could be supplemented by Canadian oil and allow Canada’s oil producers to justify the environmental costs in order to supply the US with local and secured oil that are not tied to a possible hot conflict in South America. Venezuela’s growing relations with Iran might also bring some attention from the Middle East into South America, but negative attention is not always the best way to gain support for social change within a country, and positive attention by Oliver Stone might do Chavez better than supporting Iran’s treatment of its protestors while trying to solidify his own popular revolution. It is a certainty that many Venezuelans benefit from investments into health care and social services under Chavez, but if the social revolution in Venezuela is about those individuals, closing off trade and pushing a local movement into an international debate where the US is willing to commit active military forces might not be beneficial to anyone in South America. With the end of Uribe, also comes the end of Lula in Brazil and elections in October in the burgeoning BRIC, and it will be seen if the PT party in Brazil’s next election can maintain their support for Chavez and political manoeuvring with Iranian issues and still benefit from ties to the US and EU. Most experts see a move to the centre right in Brazil and a direct move away from Lula’s latest international activism in the process. So far, relations between Venezuela and Colombia could best be described as a Cold Peace, but if accusations and actual economic losses, or skirmishes between official military forces result out of this latest debate, it could easily lead to a Hot War in the Andean region, a conflict that no one wants or is likely willing to give their lives for.

A vicious cold spell has gripped a large swath of South America, including parts of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Peru, Paraguay, and Uruguay. At least 175 people have died in these countries over the past fortnight, 27 in Argentina and 18 in Bolivia. Hypothermia and carbon monoxide poisoning from faulty heaters are the direct causes in most of the deaths. Temperatures in parts of the Peruvian highlands have dropped to a wicked minus 23 degrees Celsius.

Livestock and other animals have also died in the thousands in Paraguay and Southern Brazil, where there are no stables because temperature aren’t known to get so low. In Brazil, the weather is the main suspect in the death of 500 penguins, which have washed ashore on the state of Sao Paulo’s coasts over the last ten days. It seems likely that they starved, as autopsies revealed their stomachs were completely empty. Dead dolphin and sea turtles have also washed ashore. Colder than normal water temperatures are believed to have hurt populations of the fish and other species that make up the animal’s diet.

Meanwhile, a sustained heat wave has beset parts of Russia, including Moscow. Last weekend, temperatures there broke record highs, set in 1920. This wave, too, is causing more than mild discomfort. On Monday, 71 people died in water-related accidents (drowning and injury from sharp objects under the water’s surface) as they attempt to cool off. Tragically, almost 600 people have drowned this month in Russia, in many instances because vodka and swimming are a combination best left unstirred.

While no one has said it yet, this seems to be one more pang in climate change’s opening act. I fear erratic and exacerbated weather patterns are unlikely to be considered such an anomaly in the summers and winters ahead.

Emerging economies such as Brazil, China and India have always been recipients of foreign aid from Europe and North America since the end of the Second World War and were the subjects of global development projects that often failed to bring BRICs and similar economies out of poverty and create sustained and viable growth. In the late 1960s, some Asian economies like North Korea and Japan developed a model for growth that have made them into large industrial developed economies over the years since the 1970s. In the late 1960s, Latin America took to closing off their borders to trade and producing consumer goods from within in order to industrialise and move beyond being large agro-economies, but in the late 70s and throughout the 80s, Latin America was devastated by economic collapses that was worse than the 1920s stock market collapse and reoccurred several times in the region throughout the 1990s. Reforms and balanced budgets allowed some economies to rise out of the economic gulags. Brazil, China and India managed the economic crisis in 2008-2009 with temporary recessions during the global economic crisis, and were the first countries to see solid growth in 2010. As the US and EU struggle to manage their economies, countries like Brazil and China seek to invest in many developing nations, as well as give aid to many of those countries that have lost aid from the West or have political divisions with Western donor countries that often tie aid policy to political relations with their leaders.

Brazil has been able to avoid many of the fears Western countries have about a rising China due to the slower growth of Brazil matched with a pro-Western government that is seen as democratic by its allies in Europe and the US. Lula has also been able to keep Brazil at a balancing point between the leftist leaders in Latin America and capitalists and business class in the region as well. While China’s investment in Africa and abroad has given alarm due to its need for resources and policy of investing in African countries that have poor human rights records in exchange for oil and gas exclusivity, Brazil has been able to avoid any criticism as it gives aid to Africa and invests in developing countries without restrictions as well, including in Venezuela. In a July 15th article by the Economist discussing Brazil’s aid program, the author points out that aid from Brazil to places like Haiti and abroad is matching funds coming from advanced donor nations such as Canada and Sweden, but in Brazil’s case the funds are increasing while in many Western nations aid relief programs remain stagnant or are being cut. While an increase in Brazil’s aid abroad is welcomed by the West, an added benefit of Brazilian development programs that have been successful in Brazil are also being exported to developing countries with similar problems to that of Brazil. Some limitations to this new aid policy are that it could be seen as a personal project by Lula, who will likely not have his Workers Party win the next election and lose support for many programs in a country that still receives aid for its own population. As well, many impoverished in Brazil may see local needs and aid as having priority over foreign aid. As investment grows and controversy arises in countries where Brazil makes its investments, it might be criticised by the West if it does not react to human rights abuses in countries where Brazilian investment resides. This can be seen in Brazil’s action on Iran’s nuclear issue, putting Brazil against the US and EU and bringing some negative attention to Lula by Mrs. Clinton in the process.

While the BRICs are seen as one group of mega-economies that have reached the pinnacle of their development goals and are set to grow exponentially, there are differences and limitations between them. China and India are set to grow, but in China it seems that their growth may be offset by the age of its populations that will see a major dip since the one child policy took effect in the early 1980s. The large manufacturing class that has supplied Southern China with growth is nearing retirement age in China, these 40 something’s are close to China’s official retirement age, at 50, and there are fewer younger Chinese to replace a growing manufacturing sector. In addition, countries such as Brazil and Russia can produce and export oil and gas reserves and use their reserves for their own growth, China is in competition with Japan and India for reserves in the region and all share the same suppliers for their carbon based economies. Brazil could possibly export its ethanol technology and resources abroad, so when China is seeking to alter its economy so it grows out of the manufacturing stage of export growth, Brazil and Russia could use its highly educated technology sectors and resource wealth to supplement export lead growth instead of competing with European and North American economies that will be purely knowledge based economies over the next few years. While these factors and policies can be altered, it should be noted that BRICs are not invincible and are subject to the same policy successes and error as their European and American counterparts.