Future President Research Articles

The Chile Reader: History, Culture, Politics by Elizabeth Quay Hutchison, Thomas Miller Klubock, Nara B. Milanich, and Peter Winn (review)

Reviewed by: The Chile Reader: History, Culture, Politics by Elizabeth Quay Hutchison, Thomas Miller Klubock, Nara B. Milanich, and Peter Winn Fernando Pizarro The Chile Reader: History, Culture, Politics. Elizabeth Quay Hutchison, Thomas Miller Klubock, Nara B. Milanich, and Peter Winn (eds.). 2014. Duke University Press. xi + 629 pp., photos, illustrations, selected readings, acknowledgments, index. $29.95 paper (ISBN: 978-0-8223-5360-7); $99.95 cloth (ISBN: 978-0-8223-5346-1). The Chile Reader is an outstanding introduction to a country that in the last four decades has experienced enormous transformations. This collection of reprinted documents takes readers even further back, through nearly 500 years, mostly explained by Chileans in their own words. The main theme is to explore and analyze what it calls “the narrative of Chilean exceptionalism”, or singular characteristics such as geographical isolation and national character that have made the country so distinct from other Latin American states. The greatest and most unique value of this selection is that it offers numerous texts that likely even most Chileans have never read. Although some of them, like the featured poems by Pablo Neruda and Gabriela Mistral or the translation of Salvador Allende’s last speech, have been widely translated, the vast majority of the documents will be a novelty to most readers and scholars. While some of the translations are stronger than others, the book is full of hidden gems that are not usually part of the literature most Chileans read when taught about their own history. In eight chapters, the book traces Chilean history from the days of the Conquistadores, through the birth of an independent nation and consolidation of the young republic, ending with the challenges of a modern country in the new millennium. The editors’ comprehensive introductions in each chapter provide an appropriate contextualization about the leading issues and conflicts of each period. Chapter 1 examines how Chile’s “crazy geography” defined the nation’s history and character. It includes a famous letter by the founder of Santiago Pedro de Valdivia to the Emperor Charles V describing the riches of the newly settled territory; and essays on Chile’s natural diversity by Mistral and Benjamín Subercaseaux, who coined the concept of a crazy geography. The section also explains how natural disasters such as frequent and devastating earthquakes and man-made catastrophes like mining accidents, in this case described by a Neruda poem, shaped the nation’s identity. The second chapter gives an overview of pre-Columbian cultures in Chile and of the bellicose relationship between the fledgling Spanish colony and the Mapuche Indians. Particularly clarifying are two rare colonial documents that explain and debate the enslavement of indigenous people, relevant to explain the country’s racial composition. [End Page 235] Chapter 3 looks into Chilean exceptionalism, tracing the colony’s path into independence. The documents discuss many factors that gave the young republic greater stability than its neighbors. A letter by minister Diego Portales, an essential figure in 1830s Chile, is a significant addition for students of Latin American political thought. Portales’ is considered the architect of the conservative democratic system that ruled Chile through most of the 19th century. His influence was felt deep into the 20th century, corroborated by the admiration the Pinochet regime displayed for his authoritarian policies. Another worthy document is an obscure manual on how to run a hacienda, written by a landowner whose son would become an iconic future president. His 19th century handbook details the rural social stratification that would endure until the 1960s. Chapter 4 covers the War of The Pacific and the 1891 revolution that established a parliamentary republic until 1925. The chapter also details the military subjugation of the Mapuche and the deepening labor conflicts that helped create the Chilean Left. The only weakness of the chapter is that it devotes only one document to the War of The Pacific. The enormous economic benefits and geopolitical expansion that resulted from the victory in that conflict are too deep and lasting for such a quick overview. Even today the war defines relations with Peru and Bolivia, with border conflicts and resentments that are yet to be fully resolved. Moving on...

The rise of physical therapy: A history in footsteps

??? ??? Physical therapy originated as a professional group that dated back to Per Henrik Ling, who is known as the “father of Swedish gymnastics.” He founded the royal Central Institute of Gymnastics in the year 1813 for massage, manipulation and exercise. In 1851, the term “Physiotherapy” first appeared in its German form “Physiotherapie” in an article written by Dr. Lorenz Gleich, a military physician from Bavaria. [1] In an English article published in Montreal Medical Journal in the year 1894, Dr. Edward Playter used the word “Physiotherapy.” [2,3] With time, the word “Physiotherapie” changed to “Physiotherapy” and then to “Physical therapy.” Physical therapists (PT) who were once known as reconstruction aides evolved through a series of changes to become the present ever-growing confident and accomplished professionals in the health care system. They play a very important role of providing rehabilitation and habilitation services as well as prevention and risk reduction training. In Sweden, PTs were called “sjukgymnast,” which translates to “someone involved in gymnastics for those who are ill”. The world in the year 1916 witnessed the devastating polio epidemic. It was in this period that young women began treating polio patients with residual paralysis by using passive movements. Realizing the need of the hour, PTs developed Manual Muscle Testing for assessing the strength of the muscle and thereby implementing muscle re-education techniques for weaker muscles. In the United States (US), the polio epidemic continued to ravage to such an extent that it even afflicted a man who would become the future President of the US- Franklin D. Roosevelt. He went through various therapies, including hydrotherapy for which in 1926 he purchased a resort at Warm Springs Georgia, which was used as a Hydrotherapy Center for polio patients. This center presently operates as Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation. [4]

President Obama and education reform: the personal and the political

PART I: THE INSTITUTIONAL AND THE PERSONAL History and Policy Myths, Pluralism, and the Educational Industrial Complex Barack Obama: The Personal and the Political PART II: THE POLICIES Common Core: Backdoor National Standards The Race to the Top Obama's Accountability Inheritance - NCLB Obama's Vision of Accountability - ESEA reauthorization PART III: THE FUTURE President Obama and the Future of Public Education

Climate change and biometeorology, the International Society of Biometeorology and its journal: a perspective on the past and a framework for the future.

Anthropogenic climate change is inherently a biometeorological issue. As such, it would be reasonably expected that the International Society of Biometeorology (ISB) and its journal, International Journal of Biometeorology (IJB), would have had climate change feature prominently in their activities, articles etc., and to therefore have made a substantial and valuable contribution to the science of the issue. This article presents an analysis of climate change science in ISB and IJB. The analysis focusses on climate-change-related publications by ISB Presidents found through searches of Thomson Reuters Web of Science; contributions to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC’s) Working Group II (WGII) by ISB Presidents; and climate change-related publications in IJB found through searches of Thomson Reuters Web of Science. The results demonstrate that the ISB, as represented by its recent, current, and future Presidents, is actively engaged in climate change research and the production of scholarly climate change publications. For example, ISB Presidents have contributed as authors to all four IPCC WGII Assessment Reports, with some Presidents having contributed to more than one Assessment Report or several chapters of the one report. Similarly, it is evident that the IJB is increasingly attracting and publishing climate-change-related articles, with such articles generally having greater impact (as indicated by citations) than other IJB articles. Opportunities for the ISB to provide an internal framework for, and showcase, its climate change work are described. Such opportunities, if enacted, would complement the recent creation of two IJB climate change Field Editor positions.

Kentucky Marine: Major General Logan Feland, USMC

Kentucky Marine:Major General Logan Feland, USMC David Bettez (bio) "Kentucky Marine to get decoration from Ex-President of Nicaragua"—so stated the Louisville Courier-Journal headline in March 1931, announcing that Hopkinsville native Major General Logan Feland would add another medal to his already impressive collection.1 The Nicaraguan award would cap a distinguished United States Marine Corps career slowly drawing to an end. The Marine from western Kentucky had won the second-highest combat valor award, become famous nationally and internationally, served alongside "Old Corps" Marine legends, and just missed becoming Marine Corps Commandant. It was a career well worth celebrating. Born in Hopkinsville in 1869, Logan Feland was the third son of lawyer John Feland and his wife Sarah (Sallie) Kennedy.2 In his early years, he attended Ferrell's School in Hopkinsville, founded by a former Confederate major, James Overton Ferrell, who emphasized military discipline. Feland's formal military training began in 1885 when he joined the Latham Light Guards, a Hopkinsville company [End Page 3] of the State Guard. His older brother John served as first lieutenant; by 1888 Logan Feland had become company first sergeant.3 Feland also studied at St. John's Military Academy in Manlius, New York, before matriculating at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1890. There, he studied architecture and civil engineering, graduating with a BS in architecture in 1892. After college, he returned to Kentucky to practice as an architect in Owensboro, where his family had moved in 1889 when his father became a federal collector of internal revenue. In 1897, Feland left Owensboro to work in New York City as an architect at the concrete construction company of a former classmate, Ross Tucker, who later as an MIT professor described Feland as "the last man in the world you would ever have picked out to be a soldier—a tall, skinny, slouchy Kentuckian, who couldn't be serious three minutes at a time."4 When the Spanish-American War broke out in April 1898, Feland returned to Kentucky to become captain of the Owensboro-based Company F, Third Kentucky Volunteers, which he had helped establish. His company went to Cuba and although he did not see any action, Logan Feland's life changed dramatically.5 This brief military [End Page 4] experience helped him obtain a United States Marine Corps commission as a first lieutenant. In July 1899, Logan Feland reported to the Marine Barracks in Washington, D.C., and quickly made a positive impression. In Feland's first fitness report, Lieutenant Colonel Francis H. Harrington marked him "excellent" for his manner of performing his duties, his attention to duty, and his general conduct and bearing, and "very good" regarding his health.6 In 1899, bolstered by its claim to be the "first to fight" in the Spanish-American War, the Marine Corps began a transformation into the sharp point of the sword of nascent U.S. imperialism. The Corps had a history of brief insertions into various unstable countries, primarily by ship-based Marines, but it remained small—slightly more than three thousand men. Postwar plans in 1899 nearly doubled its size. In 1900, the Corps also gained a new mission—to create an advanced-base force that would capture and defend territory abroad that could provide naval ports necessary to protect and sustain a burgeoning naval force championed by the former assistant secretary of the navy and future president, Theodore Roosevelt, and many others.7 The advanced-base force development would take a few years. In the meantime, the Marine Corps had an immediate task: helping to pacify the newly acquired Philippine Islands. In November 1899, [End Page 5] First Lieutenant Feland joined the Third Marine Battalion organized under Major L. W. T. Waller. Waller's battalion included several young officers who would become prominent early-twentieth-century Marine Corps figures, such as Hiram "Hiking Hiram" Bearss, Louis McCarty Little, and Frederick ("Fritz") Wise. An officer with strong Kentucky ties, James Carson Breckinridge, served as battalion adjutant. All would play major roles in most Marine Corps operations through World War I.8 Waller's battalion sailed on the USS Solace to the Philippines, where the...

Federal Executive Clemency in the Administration of Barack Obama (2009-2013): A Pardon Power Report

This paper provides a statistical examination and final overview of the pardon power as exercised in the first term of Barack Obama. In addition to aggregate data on applications (new and pending), pardons, commutations, and denials, original data is presented on individual applicants including: individual offenses, years (length of time) between offenses and clemency, seasonal clemency, geographic distribution of recipients and presence or absence of legal representation. The Obama administration is then placed in the context of history and, where appropriate, more recent administrations. Finally, some attention is given to clemency-related issues which are likely to loom large in Obama’s second term and, perhaps, the terms of future presidents.

The leading man: Hollywood and the presidential image

American presidents and Hollywood have interacted since the 1920s. This relationship has made our entertainment more political and our political leadership more aligned with the world of movies and movie stars. In The Leading Man , Burton W. Peretti explores the development of the cinematic presidential image. He sets the scene in chapter 1 to show us how the chief executive, beginning with George Washington, was positioned to assume the mantle of cultural leading man. As an early star figure in the young republic, the president served as a symbol of national survival and wish fulfilment. The president, as head of government and head of state, had the potential to portray a powerful and charismatic role. At the centre of the story are the fourteen presidents of the cinematic era, from Herbert Hoover to Barack Obama. Since the 1920s, the president, like the lead actor in a movie, has been given the central place on the political stage under the intense glare of the spotlight. Like other American men, future presidents were taught by lead movie actors how to look and behave, what to say, and how to say it. Some, like John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon, took particular care to learn from the grooming, gestures, movements, and vocal inflections of film actors and applied these lessons to their political careers. Ronald Reagan was a professional actor. Bill Clinton, a child of the post-World War II Baby Boom, may have been the biggest movie fan of all presidents. Others, including Lyndon Johnson, showed little interest in movies and their lessons for politicians. Presidents and other politicians have been criticised for cheapening their offices by hiring image and advertising consultants and staging their public events. Peretti analyses the evolution and the significance of this interaction to trace the convoluted history of the presidential cinematic image. He demonstrates how movies have been the main force in promoting appearance and drama over the substance of governing, and how Americans' lives today may be dominated by entertainment at the expense of their engagement as citizens.

Energy for future presidents: the science behind the headlines

The near meltdown of Fukushima, the upheavals in the Middle East, the BP oil spill, and the looming reality of global warming have reminded the president and all U.S. citizens that nothing has more impact on our lives than the supply and demand for energy. Its procurement dominates our economy and foreign policy more than any other factor. But the question is more confusing, contentious, and complicated than ever before. We need to know if nuclear power will ever really be safe. We need to know if solar and wind power will ever really be viable. And we desperately need to know if the natural gas deposits in Pennsylvania are a windfall of historic proportions or a false alarm that will create more problems than solutions. Richard A. Muller provides the answers in this must-read manual for our energy priorities now and in the coming years.

What is Impact in Management Scholarship?

The theme of the Academy of Management Orlando 2013 Conference on “Capitalism in Question” provides a unique opportunity to critically reflect on the ways in which we both define and account for impact. Capitalism as an idea, as much as an economic system, has emerged over time in ways that its effects could not have been predicted and its consequences would have been hard to avoid. As the community of management scholars takes stock of the way ideas, like capitalism, take shape and impact everyday action, it is just as important that the same approach be adopted in critically reflecting on the impacts that management scholarship creates. In this proposed symposium, senior scholars who have been concerned with impact and past and future AoM presidents join forces to account for the impact of management scholarship. By focusing on ways of articulating and accounting for what impact means and how it may be demonstrated, this symposium adopts the critical orientation that the conference theme invites. The purpose of this symposium is to engage management scholars in a joint reflective exercise that explores the multiplicity of meanings as to what is impact, how it can be demonstrated, and how impact may be fostered in future management scholarship. The symposium is mindful that in the context of complex social problems, impact crucially depends on effective interaction between research, business practice, and public policy.

Joseph Lister: father of modern surgery

Joseph Lister: father of modern surgery

The Rhetorical Presidency and “Accountability” in Education Reform: Comparing the Presidential Rhetoric of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush

To assess how presidential rhetoric shapes public policy over time, this essay analyzes the rhetorical frame of accountability and its role in the current education policy of No Child Left Behind (NCLB). The essay compares the presidential rhetoric of two U.S. presidents, Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, because President Reagan's rhetoric about the standards movement set the stage for the current education policy of NCLB and President Bush's rhetoric of accountability with federal funds. The article concludes that an emphasis on individual accountability and personal responsibility continues to shape education reform and public policy across partisan lines, even with President Obama's administration. Such rhetoric prevents education reform that focuses on increasing equality for students in the United States. The article suggests rhetorical framing recommendations for the Obama administration and future presidents.

Deconstructing Independent Agencies (and Executive Agencies)

Volumes have been written — both by courts and commentators — about the so-called independent These agencies are thought of as distinct from executive branch agencies and constitutionally insulated from presidential influence. Yet few have taken the time to ask even the most basic question: What features make an agency “independent” as opposed to “executive?” This Article is the first to systematically survey the administrative agencies for a broad set of indicia of independence — removal protection, multi-member structure, partisan balance requirements, budget and congressional communication authority, litigation authority, and adjudication authority — to answer that question. It also examines the functional differences between independent and executive As it turns out, there is no single feature, structural or functional, that every agency commonly thought of as independent shares, not even the for-cause removal provision commonly associated with independence. We therefore reject the binary distinction between independent and executive Instead all agencies should be regarded as executive and seen as falling on a spectrum from more independent to less independent. From this new understanding of administrative agencies flows a new and simpler theory of presidential control of agencies: A President can take an action with respect to an agency (assuming it is within his Article II powers) unless Congress has prohibited that action by statute. There is no tenable argument to justify any additional constitutional barrier to presidential interaction with agencies, and the dicta in Humphrey’s Executor suggesting otherwise is incorrect and should be abandoned. Most importantly, we believe there is no statutory or constitutional barrier to the extension of the regulatory review executive orders to all administrative These executive orders have long exempted “independent agencies. As a result those agencies perform shoddy cost-benefit analysis when promulgating regulations, when they do so at all. The Dodd-Frank reform bill requires financial agencies, almost all of which are considered independent, to promulgate over 300 regulations. This upcoming flood of regulations underscores what has been obvious for decades that independent agencies impose massive regulatory costs, just like executive This Article aims to make it clear there is no legal barrier to the extension of the regulatory review executive orders in the hopes of emboldening a future President to overcome the political barriers to doing so.

1043 EUGENIC STERILIZATION IN THE USA THE DARK AGES OF VASECTOMY

You have accessJournal of UrologyMale Voiding Dysfunction (BPH & Incontinence) & Infection1 Apr 20121043 EUGENIC STERILIZATION IN THE USA THE DARK AGES OF VASECTOMY Johathan Melquist, Heather McCaffrey, David Schulsinger, and Yefim Sheynkin Johathan MelquistJohathan Melquist Stony Brook, NY More articles by this author , Heather McCaffreyHeather McCaffrey Stony Brook, NY More articles by this author , David SchulsingerDavid Schulsinger Stony Brook, NY More articles by this author , and Yefim SheynkinYefim Sheynkin Stony Brook, NY More articles by this author View All Author Informationhttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.juro.2012.02.1148AboutPDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints ShareFacebookTwitterLinked InEmail INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES Vasectomy was introduced as an alternative to castration to reduce obstructive symptoms of prostatic hypertrophy in 1880s. This simple sterilization procedure soon has been sought to promote Malthusian ideas of population control. We reviewed the contribution of vasectomy to the eugenic sterilization in USA. METHODS Review of historical papers on vasectomy. RESULTS Eugenic sterilization flourished in the USA out of concern over the cost of caring for unfit persons. In 1897, Van Meter suggested vasectomy for sterilization of criminals: “furthermore we can easily have enacted a law that will provide for the sterilization and thus will crime be wiped out”. At the same time A.J Ochsner, future president of American College of Surgeons, concluded that vasectomy can substitute castration to sterilize habitual criminals, “chronic inebriates, imbeciles, perverts and paupers” in order to protect the community without harming the criminals. On October 12, 1899, the first eugenic sterilization was performed by Dr. Harry Sharp in the Indiana State Reformatory on inmate named Clawson. Sharp introduced less invasive English method of scrotal vasectomy. His data were presented at the Mississippi Valley Medical Association meeting in 1901. 42 vasectomies were performed by 1902 and 176 by 1907.The nation's first sterilization law to initiate the involuntary sterilization of habitual criminal, rapist, idiot, imbecile was signed by the Governor of Indiana in 1907. By 1909, Sharp performed 280 vasectomies and became the national authority on eugenic sterilization. The sterilization programs have been supported by the American Medical Association. It became widespread through the advocacy a few zealous supporters as John Rockefeller, John Kellogg and Theodore Roosevelt. Many prominent physicians praised vasectomy as the solution to the problem of limiting birth of defective persons. In 1910, Sharp demonstrated vasectomy at the international conference under the auspices of the American Prison association. By 1917, 15 states passed laws authorizing vasectomy for a variety conditions and crimes. By 1937, it was implemented in 32 states. The constitutionality of the programs was confirmed through the Supreme Court decision Buck v. Bell in 1927 when Justice Holmes remarked “three generations of imbeciles are enough.” CONCLUSIONS The practice of involuntary sterilization gradually ceased and virtually stopped only in 1960s. By this time 60 000 persons were sterilized. However, Iowa, North Carolina and Oregon still operated sterilization programs well into 1970s. © 2012 by American Urological Association Education and Research, Inc.FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Volume 187Issue 4SApril 2012Page: e423 Advertisement Copyright & Permissions© 2012 by American Urological Association Education and Research, Inc.MetricsAuthor Information Johathan Melquist Stony Brook, NY More articles by this author Heather McCaffrey Stony Brook, NY More articles by this author David Schulsinger Stony Brook, NY More articles by this author Yefim Sheynkin Stony Brook, NY More articles by this author Expand All Advertisement Advertisement PDF downloadLoading ...

The allure of the maverick

The allure of the maverick

John F. Roach

In the 1960s, John F. Roach, professor and chairman of radiology at the Albany Medical College, future president of the American Board of Radiology (ABR), and a member of the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS), found himself in the dilemma to accept an American Board of Nuclear Medicine and also preserve nuclear imaging as diagnostic radiology.

Presidential Transition: The Experience of Two Community College Interim Presidents

The purpose of this case study was to understand the experiences of two community college interim presidents, their characteristics, and how they led institutions following an abrupt presidential departure. There were two fundamental questions framing this study: 1. How do two interim community college presidents lead community colleges during a presidential transition? 2. How is an interim community college president's leadership perceived by faculty and staff during a period of presidential transition? There were two participating institutions in this study. The colleges, given the pseudonyms Urban Community College and Rural Community College District, were distinctly different. Urban Community College is a large community college in an urban setting, and Rural Community College District is a small multicollege district in a rural setting. While these colleges differed in size, they shared a common experience—an abrupt presidential departure. Data collection consisted of one-on-one interviews and a review of documents. Four shared themes that emerged from this research consisted of (a) repairing institutional morale, (b) establishing an effective relationship with the board, (c) making strategic decisions to move the college forward, and (d) dealing with budget challenges. There were also themes specific to the participating community colleges. At Urban Community College, a prevalent theme was the interim president's role in rebuilding external relationships. At Rural Community College District, an important theme was the president's emphasis on promoting openness, inclusiveness, and transparency. The study concludes with recommendations to future interim presidents and board members enduring an abrupt presidential departure.

Melding a New Immigration Narrative? President George W. Bush and the Immigration Debate

The rhetoric of immigration in the United States is grounded in a cultural dialectic featuring themes of inclusion and exclusion. Throughout American history, one of these themes has usually been ascendant, while the other has been in decline. In this article, the authors analyze how President George W. Bush attempted to construct and manage the immigration issue as he pushed for comprehensive reform. They argue President Bush attempted to accommodate both sides of the immigration debate by using themes of inclusion and exclusion at the same time. Although Bush failed in his attempts to pass immigration reform, his conflicted rhetoric may actually carry with it the key to understanding how future presidents will construct and manage this issue in the near future.

Italian Presidents and their Accordion: Pre-1992 and Post-1994

Apparently ill-defined in the Constitution, the role and powers of the President of the Italian Republic have too often been considered just ceremonial. Using the metaphor of the accordion, this article offers a comparison between the pre-1992 and the post-1993 periods. In the first one, when Italian parties were entrenched and strong they could prevent the Presidents from autonomously playing all their powers, and did so quite successfully. In the second period, following the major crisis derived from the Clean Hands investigation and the reform of the electoral system, Italian parties have seen their political strength significantly curtailed. As a consequence, the accordion of the three Presidents from 1993 up to now has been played using their full panoply of powers: appointment of the Prime Ministers, dissolution of Parliament, authorisation of governmental bills and enactment of the laws. This article documents the most important instances in which the Presidents have resorted to their constitutional powers against the ill-founded and extra-constitutional protests of centre-right and centre-left Prime Ministers and party leaders. Notwithstanding the differences in their political personality, it is a distinct possibility that future Italian Presidents will continue playing their accordion to its great extent and in full accordance with the Italian Constitution.

Monster, Dreams, and Cultural Studies: Exploring Gang Memoir and Political Autobiography

Introduction In 1995, Barack Obama published Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance. The memoir details his multicultural upbringing in Indonesia and Hawaii, his college education on West and East coasts of United States, and his work as an innercity community organizer in Chicago prior to attending law school. The influential York Times critic, Michiko Kakutani, has since deemed Obama's story the most evocative, lyrical and candid autobiography written by a future president (From Books). Two years earlier in 1993, literary world had been excitedly discussing Sanyika Shakur's Monster: The Autobiography of an LA Gang Member. Kakutani contended attests not only to Mr. Shakur's journalistic eye for observation, but also to his novelistic skills as a story-teller.... This is a startling and galvanic book (Illuminating). Written from inside prison, is an account of gangbanging with one of infamous AfricanAmerican gangs in South Central Los Angeles (LA) during 1980s. The memoir tells story of how Shakur (born Kody Scott) earned nickname Monster for his brutal behavior before undergoing a political and personal transformation. is noteworthy for its emphasis on both frisson of violent gang exploits and sober, salutary reflection of politicized and educated hindsight. Born in 1961, only two years earlier than Shakur, Obama grew up in same America as gangbanger. In 1983, as Shakur was fully immersed in Eight-Trays Crips set, Obama was becoming a community worker, disgusted with White House where Reagan and his minions were carrying on their dirty deeds and convinced that change needed to be effected at grassroots level (133). As Shakur was becoming familiar with jails and prisons of LA and California, Obama was volunteering to help black youths on streets of Altgeld Gardens and other housing projects in Windy City. Unlike Shakur's more lumpen worldview, Obama's liberal, yet structural critique toward healthcare, education, immigration, and cultural sensitivities (emphasized further in his 2006 collection of essays, The Audacity of Hope), suggest that he is a product of 1960s more radical moment. Obama's exploration of social problems in America has led him to significantly different conclusions to Shakur who states that separation may be a solution for failure of positive multicultural existence in United States (382). Despite obvious disparities between two, there are some suggestive and fruitful parallels to be made between President's own frank coming-of-age story and Shakur's violent and seemingly sensationalized tales. Such similarities are particularly notable in terms of memoirs' narrative structure, their emphasis on language and literacy skills, and politics of racial representation. Both texts were released in chaotic aftermath of 1993 LA riots; an event which, as discussed in Monster, revealed difficulties and complexities of being a young African-American man in urban America. In academic realm, this was a particularly poignant moment for British Cultural Studies, with fervent debates in field of race representational politics being prompted by Stuart Hall's innovative essays New Ethnicities (1988) and What is this 'Black' in Black Popular Culture? (1992).1 Although British Cultural Studies was thriving by 1960s, this article will situate and Dreams in some of more recent interventions and developments in discipline, as well as life writing and prison literature criticism in late 1980s and early 1990s. Cultural Studies was often identified as being split between and culturalism. The former references operations of discursive power and constraints on individuals. Indeed, structuralism literally determined underlying structures that made meaning possible, exploring how meaning was produced and reproduced by dominant ideologies within a culture. …

Commonwealth Update

Kenya sent troops into Somalia in what has been seen as an attempt to carve out a sphere of influence in the war-torn country. The Islamist militant group Boko Haram killed more than 100 people in Nigeria. Attempts to reform the Commonwealth largely failed after the Chogm summit in Perth rejected proposals of the Eminent Persons Group. Despite calls at Chogm to decriminalise homosexuality in Commonwealth countries, two Malaysian states are set to increase penalties. As Australia was named as host of the 2018 Commonwealth Games, it emerged that 30 foreign contractors are still owed $80m for the recent Delhi games, which were marred by corruption. Hopes of campaigners that Uganda was finally acting on corruption were dashed. Michael Sata, a former cleaner at a London train station, became president of Zambia. The African National Congress suspended Julius Malema, firebrand leader of its Youth League and seen as a future president of South Africa, for five years.