Page 4B/The Battalion/Thursday, April 1,1983
Latin American
commerce vital
to new Miami
United Press International
MIAMI — When the First
wave of Cubans fled the Castro
revolution nearly 25 years ago,
Miami was little more than a
place to get away from it all with
an economy dominated by
tourism.
Today Miami is the nation’s
main center of Latin American
trade and economists have be
gun to admit that what was once
known as “the Cuban problem”
may have been the solution.
Cuban exiles have used eco
nomic booms in Latin American
nations like Brazil and Vene
zuela to transform their adopted
city into a thriving center of
Latin American commerce,
shielding Miami from the
domestic recession.
And the new business lan
guage is Spanish.
“Florida used to be consi
dered southernmost United
States. Today it’s considered
northernmost Latin America,”
said John Motion, international
representative for the Florida
Chamber of Commerce.
The Miami customs district
now handies more Latin Amer
ican trade than any other city in
the United States, according to
research from Florida Interna
tional University.
A study by the university’s
business school found nearly a
quarter of Miami’s jobs and sup
porting industries in 1981 were
dependent on the $11 billion in
trade conducted with with na
tions like Venezuela, Ecuador,
Colombia and Panama.
The study said the Miami-
Fort Lauderdale area conducts
nearly half of all U.S. trade with
Central America, and half the
Caribbean trade.
Latin American visitors spent
a total of $ 1.1 billion in Miami in
1981, more than double that
spent by New Yorkers, formerly
tne chief tourists, the Dade
County Tourist Board said.
Cubans were the first to rec
ognize the burgeoning trade
opportunities with Miami’s
southern neighbors, Motion
said.
The hundreds of family-run
import-export Firms that exiles
set up in the 1960s became high
ly profitable ten years later,
when oil-rich countries like
Venezuela became expanding
markets for American television
sets, clothes and industrial parts.
Part of the reason for Miami’s
swift success is geographical —
south Florida juts into the heart
of the Caribbean, and is central
to many air and shipping routes,
making the city a natural gate
way to Latin America.
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Another factor is political
bility and personal securit),
Former Salvadoran am(<
dor to the United StatesRol(
Quinones and his wife,Q(
decided to manage their i
ness in Miami after a striiij
kidnappings and murders
businessmen in San Salvarj^***''
Many Latins say they si
feel more at ease in thebia
ral city.
Economists warn, ho
that one of the the
strongest sectors may sooa
come its weakest,
A long-standing joke u
U.S.-Latin American trade
tions contends that "when
United States sneezes,)
any I^itin American coi
gets pneumonia.
But economic crises in
like Mexico, Brazil and
zuela have produced an irj^Jpj
twist to this cliche.
, g
/'I
"fii 5
I A
Robots:
perfect
servants
United Press Internatioail
TOKYO — Picture tht
feet servant: a guardian
playmate for the childreni
panion to the elderly, a
musician, mechanic, gani
cook, as strong as anoxani!
tie as a kitten.
Impossible? Not iftbt
vant is an android,sayseb
engineer Shunichi Minna
An android isacompuis
rol>ot made to resembleari ^ '
have like a human being, ■
Mizuno, president olli
Co. Ltd. of Tokyo, I
first generation of ami!
could Be on the marketnui
30 years.
Mizuno, who describe!!
self as a “technical it
artist,” is working on a t|
aspect of android develop
While others workonitsl
and senses, he isbusyf
its skin, its muscles anditsb
His first success wasai
puterized Marilyn
robot, created about
ago. A second life-sized bli
constructed recently usew
roco m pu ter-controlled
pressor to regulate fadJi
pressions.
"She” can mouth a
shrug her shoulders, Mil]
eye and strum a guitar
natural elegance thatbefe]
mechanical heart.
Mizuno leases heroinfe)
out $10,000 a month for;
tising and display. His
workshop-warehouseisb«|
another half dozen
machines based on por
tion or his own fantasy.
Already Japanese and
ican factories employ i
range of industrial robotsi
form heavy, dangerousot
tasks shunned by theirw«
Japanese “mechatroniu
perts are busy designing
flexible and efficient rob)
industry.
Japanese toy manufatf®
have devised a new gene
of computerized toystha)
and respond creatively to
or sensory input to perfe
growing array of complex
tions.
Computer scientists inj
and elsewhere are
together the means to sit
human intelligence and®
ity in machines.
Japanese researchers
nine high technology fit®
working under a govern
grant on the so-i
Ceneration Computer Pi
They hope to develop
perfast, superintelligent
ter that might responds
spoken, written or visua
exercise nearhuman judf
or suggest modification! 1
own program if it seen 1
suited to the task at
Other researchers re?
ing to the need forwordf 1
sors to read the complex'*
characters of the "
guage have developed o' 1
ters capable of recognirtj
terns, laying the groin
for machines that can
respond to their visuale" 1
ment.
One soon-to-be i" 1 ' 1
creation will be able top
Based on a popular co#
heroine, the new robot" 1 '
about 30 phrases in
toire and will be caf
sponding to spoken ii
no said.
“It took me over
etci
ext
reach this stage," he ®
spent eight years develop®
skin alone.
“People must learnM t;
with machines in thefuin 1 '
said. Development of $
is, for better oip worse,inc-
he believes. “People
to use robots so robots®
use people.”
Mizuno has joined
group of scientists ®
gineers headed by Dr
Kato of Waseda Unive?
explore potential in
The “Robot Ass<*
group is pooling
from specialized fields*
able to the creationofa" 1
android, he said.