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Three’s Company: How the US and China’s Complementary Competition is Improving African Health
Get PDFPresident Obama\u27s and President Xi Jinping\u27s visits to Tanzania — and the associated jubliation and fanfare accompanying them — seem to validate much of what has been written in the past few years of the supposed competition between the United States and China for influence and resources in Africa, with many authors proclaiming that the U.S. was losing this competition. Aside from propagating the idea that Africa is some sort of homogenous collection of people, ideas, and cultures, many of these authors view the role of Africa as primarily an economic battleground in which the U.S and China must battle to determine control while ignoring the fact that the differing strengths and focuses of the American and Chinese economies do not lend themselves to any sort of outright competition in Africa.
How Much Democracy is too Much Democracy?
Get PDFDespite their widespread use, many rightfully question the prudence of using popular elections to fill state courts. A key difference between federal and state courts is that while federal judges are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate, the majority of jurists at the state level are elected. The reason federal judges, at least judges on the Article III courts, are made by executive selection is the same reason that Supreme Court justices are given life tenure: to insulate them from the whims of public opinion. In this passage, Hamilton articulates the fundamental paradox of democracy, a question that genuine republics have always grappled with: how can we control for the “tyranny of the majority?” In other words, how can we entrust people with the power to govern themselves but also prevent them from stripping away the rights of minority groups or from posing a danger to others
Charlie Hebdo and the Future of Free Speech
Get PDFThe Charlie Hebdo attack and its aftermath was the most significant France had experienced since a 1962 train bombing — related to the war in Algeria — outside Paris. Moreover, it seems altogether foreign and incomprehensible to the relatively liberal standards of our society that the motivation for such atrocious violence was vengeance for the mere act, conflated into a crime, of drawing a cartoon. While it may seem natural to most Westerners, the response to the Jan. 7 attacks looks almost absurd when approached from a different point of view. Rénald Luzier, the figure behind the cartoon that seemed to spur controversy, himself highlights the irony of Western leaders — who more often than not look at satirists like those employed at Charlie Hebdo as “agitators” — declaring the slain satirists “white knights defending free speech”. The definitive characteristic transformed a weekly burlesque, whose parent publication described itself as a “stupid and vicious magazine”, into a hero of modernity. This reflects, quite simply, a feeling throughout the Western world that intrinsic rights are under attack.
Isle of Misfit Ploys: The Cuban Embargo
Get PDFThe U.S.’s stance towards Cuba has historically used rhetoric about the lack of civil liberties, dictatorship, and security to defend the embargo put in place during the 1960s. Politicians of the era viewed communism in Cuba as an immediate threat that had to be snuffed out before it could infect the entire hemisphere. Their hope was that by isolating the island, Cuba’s citizens would be compelled to fight for reform and institute their own democracy. That approach, however, has backfired entirely. Neither government is innocent — Cuba’s human rights record remains as poor as ever and the U.S. has almost singlehandedly destroyed the country’s economy and health system. Though guilt is shared, the U.S. alone controls the relationship’s future. Reforms are in their infancy, but in light of the turbulent past, there has been progress.
Vouching for a Head Start Reformation
Get PDFIn the words of Jack Shonkoff, Director of Harvard’s Center on the Developing Child: the quality of the foundation built in early childhood, whether it is strong or fragile, affects future development, health, learning and economic success. With a strong foundation, babies move easily through more and more complex learning stages. And “although it’s never too late to learn new skills since the brain never stops developing, it’s just harder and less effective to build on a weak foundation than it is to get development right the first time”. This speaks to the growing trend and continuation of a national and international effort to restructure our orphanages and homes to better suit the proper developmental needs of children. In conjunction with these changes, the United States government has also increased its focus on improving early childhood education and interactions for those in communities usually bereft of these opportunities. One such program, Head Start, was created in 1965 to prepare low-income students for elementary school. It has evolved and changed over the last five decades and now faces a key juncture that will determine its future.
La Nueva Argentina
Get PDFArgentina\u27s recent default is simply another chapter in a saga that stretches back over the past century. To ensure that default and economic recession don’t continue to be the norm in Argentina, its leaders and its people alike must seriously reevaluate the myth of Juan Perón and its relevance in the 21st century world. In order to improve its financial position, Argentina must be willing to relinquish its past views on economic dogma
The Other Gender Gap
Get PDFIn the last century, international focus on workplace equality has reached an all-time high. The role of women in the workplace has been a point of dispute since the beginning of this era of professionalism. Support for bringing women into the technology industry has greatly overshadowed the efforts of recruiting men to fields historically dominated by women, despite the fact that this imbalance negatively impacts equality in the workplace. Women would introduce a new dynamic to the technology world and fields like teaching and nursing would be enhanced by an increase in the number of men in those fields.
Guilty Until Proven Innocent: The Abuse of Pretrial Detention in America
Get PDFAlthough few principles of law are as widely lauded and universally accepted as the presumption of innocence, this principle is violated daily by a practice that has become standard in our justice system, exceptional only in how unexceptional it seems. Pretrial detention—the practice of holding a defendant in custody before trial while he or she is still entitled to the presumption of innocence—is, in its current status, a clear contradiction of this principle and a staple of the American legal system
Drinks on Us: Defending the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board
No full textAccording to to Yuengling: the History of America’s Oldest Brewery, the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board (PLCB) was designed to, in the words of then-Governor Gifford Pinchot, make liquor sales “as inconvenient and expensive as possible.” The PLCB is the state agency with sole control over the distribution and sale of alcohol in Pennsylvania. State House Republicans agree with Gov. Pinchot and have been arguing that it is time to privatize the PLCB. They charge that the agency is “archaic” and losing money. Supporters of the PLCB argue that privatization would result in higher prices for consumers and the loss of well-paying Pennsylvania jobs. While the PLCB does have some inherent features making it harder to buy alcohol, the best option for the citizens of Pennsylvania is a modernized PLCB
Boys in Blue Camo: The 1033 Program
Get PDFThere’s a thin, often unclear line between a riot and a protest. Demonstrators perform a tightrope-walking act, balancing their outrage at controversial events with the knowledge that a single misstep can lead to total chaos. In some countries, that chaos manifests itself as military crackdowns by the ruling government, the goal being to jail problematic opposition leaders and scare people out of returning to the streets. The U.S. has a long history of replacing that military force with the presence of local police, but over time that line has become equally blurred. One need only look at the events of Ferguson, Mo. to see that ambiguity in action.