Brazil: sixth-largest economy in the world

Recently, CNN Money announced that Brazil has become the sixth-largest economy in the world surpassing the United Kingdom. Not bad for a country that's considered to be an "emerging" market. For years, Brazil has been associated with the emerging economies such as Russia, India, China, and South Africa the group is better known as BRICS. Now theres's even talk about Brazil possibly surpassing France who is the fifth largest economy in the world.

If you're thinking of expanding globally you should definitely consider adding Brazil to your market as soon as possible.

Pink Slime: Its what kids are eating

Continuing with the subject on hidden ingredients in food is pink slime. I had never heard of pink slime before reading the news. If it weren't for the public outcry to ban it I would have thought this was some kind of kids toy.

It's pretty disturbing discovering what this product is. Basically, pink slime is highly processed low quality beef tallow byproduct meat trimmings. After all the byproducts have been gathered it's then treated with ammonia gas to kill food borne illness. The material is then added to ground beef. Now, doesn't that just sounds so delicious?

Apparently, this material is recently being taken out of beef products after much controversy. Business that were known to use pink slime included McDonald (somehow not shocking to me), Safeway, and Walmart. Not only were we paying for this, but kids across the country are STILL receiving beef mixed with pink slime at school!

Luckily, pink slime was not introduced by global business in the Middle East. It's partly do to that fact  that most of the population doesn't consume beef products. At least global businesses were smart enough to do that, but wish they would give us a heads up. I feel that's the case in many of these issues. Just because the FDA approves a product legal in the US doesn't mean it should be hidden from the public. It could negatively impact a business.

Starbugs

Surprising news came out about Starbucks and if my title post wasn't hint enough its....BUGS!

yummy I got bugs in my tummy

Starbucks has been using cochineal extract derived from grinding up insects. These insects can be found mainly in parts of Mexico and South America.

So how are the dried bodies of cochineal bugs used in Starbucks? Starbucks uses the bugs to give their strawberry creme frappuccino it's pink color.

Before you freak out you'd be more shocked to hear these bugs have been used for years to give jams, marinades, alcoholic beverages, cheddar cheese for coloration. The FDA has considered this practice safe, however, the World Health Organization has reason to believe it's causing asthma and other allergic reactions.

This can cause negative reactions in vegan groups here in the country and possibly in its global locations.

UPDATE

A few weeks after the whole "bugging" incident with Starbucks strawberry frappuccinos, the company's U.S. president, Cliff Burrows, gave a statement. In an article by USA Today, he said, "We fell short of your expectations" and "We are formulating the affected products to assure the highest quality possible." 

By the end of June this year the bug extract will be completely taken out and replaced with tomato-based extract. The cochineal extract was also used in other products like the raspberry swirl cake, birthday pop, mini donut, and the red velvet whoopie pie. Soon all of these items will also get formulated with the tomato base extract.

Originally, Starbucks said they had started using the cochineal extract in order to prevent from using artificial ingredients. It wasn't until one of their employees (who happened to be a vegan) came upon the discovery of the newly packaged strawberry box. Many people (mainly vegan) are happy that they were heard by the company to change the ingredient. 

Im still not sure what side to be on this issue. I will admit I was surprised to hear that, but it honestly didn't bother me. I figured that there was worse things I'm probably eating found in other food. Also, I believe that this was made into a way bigger issue than it should have been. There are other important issues to worry about around the world.

Free Trade Hurray!

This month CNN Money had an article proclaiming the long awaited free-trade agreement between United States and South Korea. The free trade agreement will encourage companies to give South Korea a try and expand their business.

The article mentions how many hopeful business believe the free trade agreement will elevate the profile of American companies. The perception of most of Americans is positive and believe it will be easier to do business.

Analysts from the White House have even estimated the market for South Korean government contracts to be at $100 billion

Many Americans are seeing this as a positive situation, but it hasn't been too well received in South Korea. South Koreans took to the streets and protested against the free trade agreement.

South Koreans believe that the free trade agreement will have negative effects on the environment and labor law standards.

We still don't know exactly what to expect since the agreement came in to effect on March 15th only time will tell.

Expatriate Myths

First, what is an expatriate? An expatriate is a person temporarily or permanently residing in a different country and culture different from their own. Becoming an expatriate is not an easy task. The following are common myths about being a expatriate.

Myth 1: Expatriates are sent only to developed countries
Nowadays, there are many countries that are on the economic rise. Many companies are realizing the potential in these emerging markets. So chances are you might be selected to go to a country were parts of it might still be rural.

Myth 2: Sending the best of the best is a sure success
This is a common mistake made by smaller companies. Just because the person chosen is the best employee and can handle issues thrown at them in their home country does not necessarily guarantee the same results on foreign grounds. Employees might not be well equipped with handling issues and new rules in foreign countries. So its essential that whomever is chosen needs to be properly trained to the standards of the country they will be residing in.


Myth 3: Having language skills is essential for expatriate, but optional for their family
It's already overwhelming trying to adapt to a different culture and the last thing you want is to add to that by conflicts within your family. Families can be left feeling alone in other countries when they can't understand the language and it can cause friction with the spouse or partner. In order to prevent added stress and help an expatriate succeed their family should also go through training on culture and language.


Myth 4: Its easy for a spouse or partner to adjust leaving their career behind
In reality many partners or spouses tend to feel resentful about leaving their career behind. There are companies who offer assistance to the expatriate's partner by finding a job or giving them work permits in order to work in another country. Before considering taking on the job of an expatriate couples should make sure to talk it over and be able to come to an agreement.

Controversy in Argentina

Recently, I've been following some interesting news involving Argentina. In February Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez launched a new system to pre-approve or reject purchases from abroad. Argentina is claiming that they want to modernize and streamline the importation process by getting petitions in advance.

There are many criticizing Argentina's action saying that these actions could end up hurting relationships with other countries. The President from Uruguay and the trade minister of Brazil have both spoken out on the situation. Also this could cause many goods that are imported to completely vanish. This is worrying business leaders that rely on imports to produce goods to compete local and global.



Another conflict that has been on the news is the tension between Argentina and Britain. President Cristina Fernandez accused Britain of acting like a colonial power. Now the prime minister of Argentina is calling all firms to stop importing goods to the UK. They are trying to protest Britain's presence on the Falkland Islands. Argentina and Britain have a history involving the Falkland Islands. In 1982, the two went to war disputing over the Falkland Islands. The islands are under British control, but Argentina claims its part of their territory. The war ended with Argentina surrendering and almost 1,000 people dying.

Hopefully, the tensions don't give way to history repeating itself.

Hardest Languages for English Speakers

Trying to learn a new language? If you're contemplating on doing business internationally it would be beneficial to do so. Currently, I'm fluent in English and Spanish, but would like to expand and learn other languages. I did a little research on which languages were easier for me to learn and found out it was French, Italian, Portuguese, and Romanian. While doing my research, I started wondering if those were the easiest languages than which languages would be the hardest to acquire? After reading a few blogs and information on the internet I picked five languages.



Arabic
Is the primary language of the Arab states of the Middle East and North Africa. There are more than 300 million native speakers. The Arabic language has borrowed words from Persian, Greek, Hebrew and Syriac. Arabic has an alphabet of 28 letters. Most of the letters have four different forms. When speaking this language many of the noises are articulated in the back of the throat. I believe this would be too difficult for a native English speaker to learn how to pronounce Arabic words.
  


Japanese

The Japanese language is spoken primarily in Japan and there are more than 130 million native speakers. There are many dialects spoken because Japan has had a history of external and internal isolation. Japanese also has an extensive grammatical system to express formality and politeness. Compared to English, Japanese words are arranged differently and there are no future tenses.

Hungarian
Is the official language of Hungary and there are more than 15 million native speakers. The first accounts of Hungarian has been dated back to the 10th century. The Turkic language has great influenced on the Hungarian language. The first print of the language was published in the early 1500s. The language to start off has 35 noun forms and many vowels. When speaking this language it takes deep-throat sounds in order to pronounce words which difficult to do for a non-native speaker.







Mandarin
Mandarin language is spoken mainly in the northern and southwestern part of China. There are more than 800 million native speakers. Most of the Mandarin dialects can be found in the northern part of China. The current Chinese language has been developed from old Chinese and middle Chinese dialects. This language is hard because every word is a different symbol and it's not phonetic.

Finnish

There are more than 5 million native speakers and the language is primarily spoken in Finland. The first comprehensive Finnish writing system appeared in the 16th century. The language was based on Swedish, German, and Latin writing. The language as the basic subject-verb-object order as English, but some flexibility is allowed. Also the spelling of Finnish words are closely related to how it is spoken, which is not the case with English.