At the closing of the year

It is with both hope and apprehension that we look into 2016, which is just around the corner.

For those of us concerned with Climate Change and Sustainable world Trade, there's hope after Paris and COP 21 and what  stems from the Nairobi Meeting, in these fields of our concern. 

And those of us who live in South America are witnessing a changing of the guard in Argentina and winds of change in Venezuela, not devoid of turmoil, but indicating that for sometime now deep changes in the core of Argentina's and Venezuela's societies have been happening, changes not easily registered by part of the politicians at the helm.

In Argentina, only yesterday, a veredict  related to corruption -in the case of the tragic railway accident at the Once Terminal in Buenos Aires- involving highly placed  former governmental officers, together with business men formerly in the railway business, points in the direction we have already seen in Brazil.

Brazil of course, is expected to face further turmoil before seing the light at the end of the tunnel. And there too, the commotion created by a society who has had enough with corruption, has created a trend that can no longer be ignored.

Not being an expert in this kind of social phenomena, it's not for me to analyse these trends more in depth. However, it is now apparent that the South America on the brink of the New Year is one different from the South America we have known hitherto.

To these trends let us raise our glasses.

Mauricio López Dardaine