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| Volume 1, Issue 1 |
December, 2007 |
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Passing
the Torch
Chavez - the new Castro?
By Michael Lezcano '09
"Long live the
socialist revolution!" President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela called
out to a crowd of supporters after winning his re-election campaign with
more than 60% of the vote. Such a scene is reminiscent of the early
years of revolutionary Cuba. After nearly 50 years as Latin America’s
quintessential leftist revolutionary, Fidel Castro's transfer of power
to brother Raul has left many to wonder who will fill the void left by
his departure from the public arena. Read
more.
Also in World
Iran in the Crosshairs
Should America pull the
trigger?
By Zachary Beauchamp '10
The current Iranian government is hardly a friend to the United States.
Everything about the regime, from its outwardly hostile rhetoric to its
strictly theocratic makeup, is in almost direct opposition to American
interests and values. As Iran has inched closer to developing nuclear
weapons capabilities, mild alarm about the mullah’s regime has given
way to outright panic, reaching its apex with calls by many pundits for
immediate strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. Read
more.
Nation
Are They Listening?
Domestic wiretapping on trial
By Michael Ramos-Lynch '09
The American Civil
Liberties Union (ACLU) has filed a federal lawsuit against the National
Security Agency (NSA) concerning the "spygate" NSA wiretapping
program. In December 2005, former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales
stated, according to The New York Times, that the program authorizes
warrantless intercepts where the government "has a reasonable basis
to conclude that one party to the communication is a member of al Qaeda,
affiliated with al Qaeda, or a member of an organization affiliated with
al Qaeda, or working in support of al Qaeda," and that one party to
the conversation is "outside of the United States." Read
more.
The Puppeteers
America's political money
machine
By Gregory Anderson '10
If recent political history is to teach us
anything, the lesson looks pretty grim. As money hemorrhages into
politics, voter participation is drying up. Campaigning and fundraising
efforts have become increasingly more robust, and it doesn’t seem to
have left much space for legislating on behalf of the common good. And
perhaps worst of all, as voters become less interested in politics,
corporate interests donate more and more. Read
more.
Region
Crisis at Dexter Manor
Providence's public housing
nightmare
By Daniel Lawlor '08
Providence is in the middle
of a construction boom. Over the past several months, and (according to
the Providence Journal) into the next several years, a series of
skyscrapers representing the business and leisure interests of 21st
century America will rise up in downtown Providence. In the 1960s and
1970s, a series of towers also rose in Providence, but they were very
different. They were tied to that mess and vision of social improvement,
idealism, and hard politics associated with the Interstate Highway, the
New Frontier, and the Great Society. Read
more.
Campus
Benefiting from Slavery
Brown examines its past
By Sara Chimene-Weiss '10
In elementary school, nearly every American
child learns about slavery in the United States—about cotton and
plantations, the Civil War and Abraham Lincoln. However, mainstream
histories usually depict slavery as a very Southern thing—as if all
the white people in the South supported and benefited from it while
everyone in the North was virulently opposed. Everybody recognizes the
fact that slavery is important to learn about while studying the history
of the United States. However, for most people, slavery conjures images
only of the past, and only of the South. It is hard for us to link
ourselves to the past, especially if it is particularly ugly and
gruesome. Read
more.
The Admissions Game
Re-thinking Early Decision
By Tor Tarantola '08
As November 1st
came and passed, an estimated 2,000 high school seniors mailed off their
Early Decision applications to Brown, angling for a chance to become
part of the class of 2012. More than a year after Harvard and Princeton
eliminated their early admissions programs, the issue has stagnated; all
other Ivy League colleges continue to give applicants the option to
apply early. Given the demonstrated inequities in the two-pool admission
system, it’s worth reexamining whether Brown should continue to offer
such an option. Read
more.
© 2007 Brown
Contemporary
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