Noam Chomsky is a noted linguist, author, and foreign policy expert. Sameer Dossani interviewed him about the global economic crisis and its roots. His first interview with Chomsky can be found here.
The ratification by popular referendum of Bolivia’s constitution has given President Barack Obama an opportunity to rebuild frayed relations with a nation that perceives itself to be a long-suffering victim of U.S. policies.
It’s past time to acknowledge the real story of U.S. policy toward Cuba over the last 50 years and to seize this unique moment in history to change it. Reese Erlich, in his well-researched book Dateline Havana: The Real Story of U.S. Policy and the Future of Cuba, provides a snappy historical review of U.S.-Cuba relations, outlines insightful future scenarios, and points to opportunities that will exist under a new U.S. administration and a new Congress.
At a party before the New York City screening of Che, director Steven Soderbergh said the reason he stretched Che to 257 minutes was because there was just too much story to tell about the revolutionary in a mere two hours. Later, at the same party, I asked a seasoned journalist and avid film viewer (who had just seen Che)his reaction to the film. While he enjoyed the film on the whole, to him it seemed that the jungle scenes were repetitive, ultimately making the film too long. Having now seen the full four and a half-hour film I can attest that, while their opinions are disparate, both Soderbergh and the journalist are right.
(Editor’s Note: Mary Bauer also responded to Michele Wucker’s review of David Bacon’s book Illegal People: How Globalization Creates Immigration and Criminalizes Immigrants.)
When Bolivian President Evo Morales recently made his first visit ever to Washington, he gave a rousing speech before hundreds at American University, addressed the Organization of American States (OAS), and met with leaders of both political parties on Capitol Hill. Strikingly absent from his itinerary, however, was any interaction with the Bush administration.
I was pleased to join 12 past presidents and more than 200 members of the Latin American Studies Association (LASA) in signing a letter to Barack Obama urging him, as president, to respect and support the movements for progressive change in Latin America. We also called on him to dramatically reform U.S. policies toward the region.
The initial reaction of many Latin American leaders to the unfolding U.S. financial meltdown has been an almost gleeful celebration of arrogance’s defeat. As the situation’s gravity multiplies, responses have become more tempered, but disdain for the years in which the region acted as a primary laboratory for the economic experiments of the United States, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank remain. Frequently such feelings have emanated from the way these prescriptions were imposed upon societies experiencing the "shock" of political repression — a process that Chilean economist Orlando Letelier once eloquently described as the linking of technical considerations with terror. Economic growth was pursued no matter its social or human cost.
Now a new generation of leaders, elected in large part due to the shortcomings of the market fundamentalism of the "Washington Consensus," has staked much of its political future on altering such conventional economic wisdom. In particular, this new wave of leadership has placed the creation of varied economic solutions that move the region beyond neoliberalism and its disregard for social welfare at the top of their agendas. While the triumph of these local, national, and regional initiatives are far from guaranteed, change in the directorship of the Latin American laboratory continues to inspire hope that sustainable, innovative economic alternatives will take hold.
When the Mexican dictator Porfirio Díaz said the great tragedy of Mexico was that it was so far from God and so close to the United States, the comment summed up the long and tortured relationship between the Colossus of the North and Latin America.
The latest humanitarian crisis in Cuba presents the Bush administration with a rare opportunity to stave off a looming migration crisis here and simultaneously boost the U.S. image abroad. Unfortunately, the Bush government seems inclined to pass on the opportunity.