Reforms proposed at the Sixth Communist Party Congress represent a new, third phase of social policy in post-revolutionary Cuba. This new stage has the potential to strengthen social equity in Cuba, improve the socio-economic situation of disparate social groups, and overcome the old limitations of social policy. Yet it could also increase inequality, and at least in the short term, its predicted impacts will be contradictory and ambivalent.
Campaigning in 2007, Barack Obama promised to end restrictions on remittances and family travel to Cuba, resume "people-to-people" contracts, and engage Cuba on issues of mutual interest. As President, Obama has declared his desire to forge a new "equal partnership" with Latin America. Two months later, the 39th General Assembly of the Organization of American States voted to repeal the 1962 resolution that suspended Cuba fro its ranks.
Examines the intensification of human rights abuses by law enforcement and security forces in the Americas. Characteristics of urban police forces; Views on the trend toward authoritarian security and policing; Analysis of conservatives and left on the origin of crime and violence.;
Discusses the struggle for freedom and full citizenship in the Caribbean. Background on the Haitian Revolution which is recognized as the third pillar in the making of modern citizenship and freedom; Factors that affect the effort of Caribbean people to fight for universal citizenship; Manifestations of the differential valuing of white and black bodies in the Caribbean; Lessons being taught by the Caribbean history.
Discusses 1) the concept of blackness in Latin America during the fifteenth century and gives historical background on how the concept of blacks and Indians evolved in Latin America; 2) the social construction of race by West European colonizers in Latin America during the early sixteenth century; and 3) the indigenous concept of blackness among indigenous cultures in latin America.
Haiti's election debacle of November 28 can be directly linked to the 1991 and 2004 coups. The political upheaval in both cases allowed the de facto president to unilaterally select members of the electoral council, bypassing constitutional provisions requiring popular representation. The result this time: the arbitrary banning of 14 political parties, including Haiti's largest and most representative, the Fanmi Lavalas party of ousted, exiled former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
Disasters are not accidents or acts of God. They are deeply rooted in the histories of the societies in which they occur. Haiti's earthquake may be thought of as a disaster 500 years in the making.
The representations of Haiti and Haitians that appeared in mainstream news coverage of the disaster reproduced narratives and stereotypes dating to at least the 19th century. Today, understanding the continuity of these representations matters more than ever.
Grassroots Haitian movements for social justice have set themselves a formidable task: not only addressing the ongoing humanitarian crisis, but also challenging the reconstruction effort to include their leadership and avoid reproducing the conditions that helped make the earthquake so disastrous.
