US economic, military and political dominance is likely to decline over the next two decades, according to a new US intelligence report on global trends.

The National Intelligence Council (NIC) predicts China, India and Russia will increasingly challenge US influence.

It also says the dollar may no longer be the world’s major currency, and food and water shortages will fuel conflict.

If that isn’t enough, remember this:  the US Dollar is going to drop precipitously in the next few years due to the huge amount of money the government is printing to finance bailouts.

As a normal part of our  business we open financial accounts with various institutions around the world.  Mostl of them require a notarized account opening document or signature card.  In most places, even including the two islands on which I lived in the Caribbean, this is a piece of cake–here it is an indigestible lump of something I prefer not to describe in a family blog.

One cannot simply get one’s signature notarized here.  The Government won’t allow.  Instead, one must jump through a series of ever more expensive and difficult hoops in order to accomplish this erstwhile simple task.

We have been trying to open an account at a Bank in Poland to more easily load a new Visa card product we are getting ready to offer.  ALL we need to complete it is to have two signatures notarized.  But it CAN’T be done here.  Escibranos, the local name for civil law notaries (although the law isn’t very civil at all) can’t just notarize a signature, they have to notarize the whole document.

And God-forbid that the document is in any language other than Spanish (like Polish and English maybe), the document has to be translated into Spanish.  This means that I have the privilege of paying a public translator to translate an English-Polish bank account opening form into Spanish.  I don’t yet know if they translate BOTH the English and the Polish–(probably they do so they can charge twice for the same translation).

Then the document can be notarized.

End of story; right?  Wrong!  Because Uruguay is one of a handfull of countries that to not subscribe the the International Convention on the Legalisation of Documents, Uruguay does not issue Apostilles, which are basically an internationally recognized super-notarization.  Some other countries that do not have the Apostille include some important business centers as North Korea, Cuba, and Libya.

This means that the document has to be legalized before it can be sent to Poland.

So, after it is translated, and notarized, it must be sent to a court for review.

But we’re still not finished!  Then it goes to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to finally be legalized.

But we’re not done yet.  Now, it has to be taken to the Polish Embassy in Buenos Aires (because the Polish Embassy here is now closed), after which it can finally be sent to the Polish Bank.

Easy:  US$500 and a month later, we have the document….

EXCEPT that the Court didn’t like two or three words in the notarization, so we had to start the process all over again.

NB:  For those of you who might think that I missed the obvious solution of going to the US Embassy to get the signatures notarized, I didn’t.  The Yankee Embassy will ONLY notarize documents intended for the US.  And espite the grandiose ambitions of King Georeg II, Poland is not yet considered a part of the US (except in some parts of Chicago–or maybe it is the other way around? Chicago is considered a part of Poland…).

For those who want to know more about the Apostille, see:  http://www.hcch.net/index_en.php?act=conventions.status&cid=41#nonmem

This is a full-sized, 8½ x 11 inch paper back, with color covers and black-and-white inside. Because of its large size is much easier to read than the pocket-sized edition produced locally.  The price for the full-size paperback is the same as the retail price for the e-book, US$30. For payment, lulu.com accepts Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express and PayPal.

One other note: there was a Yankee Naval vessel holding station a few kilometers offshore for my house–obviously they were here in connection with that politicians visit.  I didn’t mind the ship that much, until I noticed that as I went from room to room its weapons readjusted accordingly…

I cannot help but wonder how the run up to this “visit” is similar to Mr. Bush’s father’s “invasion” of Panama. I am certainly thankful that President Tabare Vasquez is not suspected of being a drug dealer so a redux of Panama is not likely.

You may infer from my unenthusiastic synopsis that I am less than thrilled about this visit. To that inference I stand guilty as charged: the last Connecticut Yankee that I really liked was in King Arthur’s Court…

I’m firmly convinced that Uruguay’s best future does not lie in America’s orbit–alienating one’s regional partners for temporary American friendship has rarely paid off. In my not so humble opinion, President Bush would not even think about being here if it were not for the antics of Hugo “Fidelito” Chávez.

America is a long way away. If an agreement was signed with America that would force Uruguay from Mercosur, the results would indeed be disastrous. Closed borders with Argentina and Brazil would strangle Uruguay’s economy, and I doubt the US is willing or able to stage a replay of the Berlin Airlift.

As a traditionally neutral power, Uruguay should be seeking trade ties with all the power blocs in the world, not just the Yankees.