The Brown Contemporary

Volume 1, Issue 1

December, 2007

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 21^st 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 1^st 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.