BY RICARDO F. VIVANCOS PÉREZ In spring 2011, massive protests in Mexico and Spain placed youth center stage in the Hispanic world.1 In Mexico, non-violent demonstrations against drug-related violence, corruption, and impunity—organized by the Movimiento Paz con Justicia y Dignidad (MPJD)2—included a silent protest in Mexico City on May 8, and the Caravana del Consuelo or [...]
BY JOAN BRISTOL Mexico has multiple and contradictory identities in the imaginations of both Mexicans and foreigners. Ads and popular media romanticize Mexico as the land of mariachis, beaches, and picturesque ruins of ancient civilizations. Increasing instability, however, due to the drug trade and loss of governmental control in many areas has replaced romance with [...]
BY PETER MANDAVILLE This is real life, engraved on my pages: families dying from starvation whilst the government’s worried about immigration. — Blind Alphabetz, ‘Concrete Landz’ Like everyone today, Young British Muslims are carrying around iPods full of the latest tunes. Despite the recent phenomenal popularity of a pop-oriented variant of nasheed devotional music—a key [...]
BY JEREMY RINKER The tension and excitement were palpable. It was October 2, 2006 and thousands of disaffected youth wagged their fists towards the sky from atop the numerous light posts and vehicles that dotted the divided thoroughfare. Crowds of revelers packed the entrance to the giant stupa which marks the hallowed grounds where, in [...]
BY DAWN C. PARKER WITH MACTION KOMWA Although HIV/AIDS has no boundaries, the most affected region is sub-Saharan Africa, where 25 of the 40 million people globally living with the virus live. The epidemic has eroded the ability of rural African households to produce food and other agricultural products, generate income, and care for and [...]
BY TONY ROSHAN SAMARA In June 2004 the Federation Internationale de Football Association(Fifa) announced that the 2010 World Cup would for the first time be hosted by an African nation, South Africa. This news was greeted with jubilation across the country. The sounds of cheering, car horns and the vuvuzela, the suddenly ubiquitous plastic South [...]
BY BENEDICT CARTON Why are South Africa historians studying an unfolding pandemic? Many historians of Africa might consider it unorthodox to study the present, but the devastating reach of AIDS, particularly in South Africa, is altering the compass of their disciplinary approach. With one of the highest rates of HIV infection in the world, South [...]
BY SHYAKA ANASTASE IN SEARCH FOR JUSTICE, SOCIAL COHESI ON AND PEACE Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Rwanda are among the African countries which have been most affected by violent conflicts in the last twenty years. Elements that characterize the bloodshed in the Great Lakes region include the politicization of ethnic identity, [...]
BY LINDSAY IRVINE The cold war is over, but tempers are flaring across the globe. Citizens resent big government, failed government, and repressive government. They resent loopholes for the rich, handouts for the poor, lack of opportunity, and taxes all around. Global anger is on the rise. Susan Tolchin, a professor of public policy in [...]
BY LINDA J. SELIGMANN The commonplace expression “nickel-and-dimed to death” has taken on new twists and nuances in the context of globalization processes. Barbara Ehrenreich donned the persona of a working poor woman in various parts of the United States to discern whether it would be possible for her to survive with the barest of [...]