Gangs and Coups D' Streets in the New World Disorder: Protean Insurgents in Post-modern War

The mutation of protean “street gangs” to insurgents illustrates that insurgents need not be ideologically oriented, and need not be traditional revolutionary fighters emerging from the mountains and jungles to take down or control a government. Rather, they may have their own specific commercial money-making motives, and can emerge out of the favelas, callampas, villas miserias, and pueblas jovenes (city slums) not so much to replace governments as to gain very lucrative freedom of movement and action within a supposedly sovereign national-state. Also, mature second and third generation gangs have been known to act as proxies and mercenaries for traditional nation-states that want to maintain “plausible deniability,” and to act as mercenaries for warlords, organized criminal organizations, and/or drug-trafficking cartels that—on certain occasions—need additional “fire-power”. The instability and lack of individual and state security generated by gangs phenomenon and their nefarious allies are also known to lead to the radical change of failed state status. In these terms, gangs are no longer a singular law enforcement issue. As crime and war become more and more indistinguishable, gangs must be considered a larger national security issue—that, paradoxically, must be viewed as a local concept.     

Central American maras: from youth street gangs to transnational protection rackets

Most of the empirical research on Central American street gangs, called maras, has been published only in Spanish. Reviewing that literature, the American scholarship on gangs, and my own research on Central American gangs from the mid-1990s, this article depicts the processes through which the maras (Mara Salvatrucha and the Eighteenth Street Gang) evolved from youth street gangs in the late 1980s to protection rackets with features of transnational organisations. Intense migratory flows between El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and the United States, and the hard-line suppression policies against youth gangs in institutionally weak Central American countries created the conditions that prompted networking and organisation among Central American street gangs. This article highlights the changes in the dynamics of violence and the transformations in the gangs' social spaces to illustrate the evolution of the maras.     

VAN DUZER MEMORIAL ORATION: THE EFFECT OF ARMED CONFLICT ON CHILD HEALTH AND DEVELOPMENT

Armed conflict has occurred in many parts of the world for centuries and undoubtedly will occur in the future. In the past, combatants suffered; now the majority of suffering is by civilians. Children in these regions are denied the benefits of health care and normal nurturing both during and especially for prolonged periods after the conflict (when the health and social systems have been disrupted or are non‐existent). Their problems of health and development are major; problems for which the experience and knowledge of pediatrics and pediatric research could contribute. Yet, to date, the study of the health and development of children in war zones has not been a major priority of pediatric societies or of the large community of pediatric clinicians and researchers. Recently the Programme for Global Pediatric Research has held meetings with representatives of agencies working in areas of armed conflict together with pediatric clinicians and researchers. They explored the health and developmental problems of children in war zones. Recommendations from those meetings highlighted the plight of mothers and children during conflict and in the period “after the shooting stops.” Child health and development is critically affected during these times. In many instances planning has been inadequate and both government and legal support have been deficient. This presentation will describe the health and developmental problems of children in zones of armed conflict and steps to be taken to alleviate these major problems.     

Slash,Shoot, Kill: Gang Recruitment of Children and the Penalties Gangs Face

Criminal street gang recruitment of minors has proliferated through countless communities in the United States as tensions continue to rise between gangs, communities, and the police. In response, many state legislatures have proposed legislation to combat such influence. However, not only are the proposed penalties too lenient, but some states do not even have laws that prosecute criminal street gang recruitment of minors. This note proposes that all 50 states enact an anti–gang recruitment statute specifically targeting recruiters of criminal street gangs by criminalizing gang recruitment of a minor.     

论非洲的集体人权观与第三代人权的确认

集体人权包括国内集体人权与国际集体人权两大类,它源于20世纪40-50年代开始的民族独立运动.对集体人权的确认,是全球性非殖民化运动的结果.非洲人民系统地提出了民族权的概念和内容,全面关注集体人权,尤其是对以发展权和自决权为核心的第三代人权的确认和发展作出了杰出贡献.其集体人权观主要体现在以<非洲人权和民族权宪章>为主体的非洲人权法中.     

学校文化建设的第三种途径:主动创生

学校文化建设有三种途径:理性思辨、历史叙事、主动创生。相比之下,第三种途径值得开拓,进而成为学校文化建设的根本途径。学校文化与学校现实生活的隔阂见证着主动创生学校文化的必要性,文化本身就具有的主体性昭示着主动创生学校文化的可能性,学校教育活动的人为性彰显出第三种途径的可行性,即通过创造性地改进日常教育活动而主动创生学校文化。