What will work? the Costa Rican experience using silos in achieving universal health care 2000

The study of comparative and development administration frees governments from their parochial confines. It opens vistas onto global experiences of what has worked well for others elsewhere and enlarges the range of possible choices that might be made to improve domestic performance. After the World Health Organization in 1977 had adopted the goal “Health for All in the Year 2000,” the Pan American Health Organization opted for the strategy of achieving it though local health systems (SILOS). Costa Rica, the most likely candidate for successful implementation, adopted SILOS in the late 1980s but has run into many difficulties in making SILOS a reality. The difficulties and the impact that SILOS have made on the national health service of Costa Rica are examined and several lessons are drawn to illustrate once again how difficult comparative and development administration are in practice.     

Cuba''s Revolutionary Foreign Policy Concept

At the invitation of Cui Liru, President of China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR), Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Marcos Rodriguez Costa paid a visit to CICIR on November 13, 2006. Following are the contents of his speech in CICIR.     

A Review of: “Joshua Alexander Geltzer. U.S. Counter-Terrorism Strategy and al-Qaeda: Signalling and the Terrorist World-View.”

Augustus Richard Norton, Amal and the Shi'a: Struggle for the Soul of Lebanon. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1987. Pp. xxii + 238.

Leonard Weinberg and William Lee Eubank, The Rise and Fall of Italian Terrorism. London and Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1987. Pp.155.

Robin Erica Wagner‐Pacifici, The Moro Morality Play: Terrorism as Social Drama. London and Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1986. Pp.360.

Leonardo Sciascia, The Moro Affair. London: Carcanet Press, 1987. Pp.175.     

The unexpected EU leadership on landmines: the influence of the Ottawa Convention on the EU

Abstract

The European Union (EU) has led international politics on antipersonnel landmines (APLs) for a decade now, and its foreign policy in this domain is perceived as a success story. Nevertheless, at the beginning of the negotiations that led to the Ottawa Convention, the EU looked unable to play any relevant part. This article addresses the emergence of the EU's foreign policy on APLs by arguing, in a second image-reversed way, that the corresponding international regime has deeply influenced the EU. It has changed Member States' and EU institutions' preferences, and it has empowered pro-Ottawa and pro-integration actors. This article explores the intra-EU conditions that have facilitated this influence and the way in which the regime itself has shaped them.     

Authoritarian legacies,transitional justice and state crisis in Portugal's democratization

The nature of the Portuguese transition to democracy and the consequent state crises created a ‘window of opportunity’ in which the ‘reaction to the past’ was much stronger in Portugal than in the other Southern European transitions. The transition's powerful dynamic in itself served to constitute a legacy for the consolidation of democracy. This article analyses how the nature of the transition affected the legacy of authoritarianism superseding and transmuting that regime's impact on the ‘quality’ of Portugal's democracy, and illustrating how the majority of ‘authoritarian legacies’ were more a result of the nature of the transition than they were of the authoritarian regime.     

The French Constitutional Law of 23 July 2008 as seen by MPs: Working or Talking Parliament?

The French constitutional law of 2008 is, with the modification of 47 articles, the most important revision of the Constitution of the Fifth Republic, at least in quantitative terms. Surprisingly, there have been few attempts to evaluate the effects of the reform, whose official aim was to improve the status of the role of the (traditionally weak) French parliament. The purpose of this contribution is to analyse how MPs themselves judge this reform and its effects, especially on the role of the parliament and its everyday work. To do so we make use of the data of the LEGIPAR research project (September 2009–January 2011): 227 MPs answered closed and open questions about their perception of parliamentary work in face-to-face interviews. The data of the project DEPASTRA (2005–6) allow for a comparison with MPs' positions before the vote of the constitutional revision of 2008.     

A GC/MS study of the drying of ballpoint pen ink on paper

The determination of the age of an ink entry from a questioned document is often an essential problem and a controversial issue in forensic sciences. Therefore, it is important to understand the aging process of the different components found in ink. The aim of this work was to study the drying process of ballpoint ink, characterised by the disappearance of volatile solvents from the ink entry. Phenoxyethanol is of particularly high interest as it is found in more than 80% of the blue ballpoint pens at different concentrations. Liquid extraction followed by splitless gas chromatography/mass spectrometry in the selected ion mode was used to measure the quantitative decrease of solvents from ink entries made with a blue Parker ballpoint pen. Quantities of ethoxyethoxyethanol, dipropylene glycol, phenoxyethanol and phenoxyethoxyethanol were studied in ink entries up to 1.5 years old, thus allowing to calculate aging curves for this particular pen. The low quantities of solvents (in the microgram range for a 1 cm ballpoint entry) were found to decrease quickly after deposition of the ink on paper through the competitive processes of evaporation and diffusion. Losses of up to 75% of solvents were observed after a few seconds. The amount of ethoxyethanol stopped decreasing after about 10 days (quantities reached the nanogram range for a 1 cm ballpoint entry), while the aging curves of dipropylene glycol, phenoxyethanol and phenoxyethoxyethanol level off considerably after 2 weeks. It was observed that ethoxyethanol, dipropylene glycol and phenoxyethanol can also migrate from one sheet of paper to another if placed close enough (e.g. in a book or a stack of papers), therefore contamination from fresh ink strokes from other paper sheets has to be taken into account for those solvents. In this paper we demonstrate that differentiation between fresh ink (<2 weeks) and older inks is possible under laboratory storage conditions. For real cases samples, more parameters have to be studied and other possible pathways have to be considered.     

Cultural diplomacy: Should South Africa give it a try?

Conflicts often emanate when one society tries to enforce its own culture on others. Cultural diplomacy, as a form of diplomacy, is often an integral part of diplomatic activities of almost all states to alleviate cultural clashes and to assist cultural institutions in the dissemination of national culture. In practice, the under-deployment of cultural diplomacy very often results from false perceptions about its activities. The aim of this paper is to conceptualise the term ‘cultural diplomacy', provide a short history of its development, sketch its major functions and evaluate its importance in the process of foreign policy implementation. South Africa should diversify its diplomatic tools more effectively. Cultural diplomacy should receive more prominence by the practitioners of diplomacy and could serve as a useful means for the implementation of South African interests abroad. It could promote favourable conditions as a precursor for the effective achievement of the country's foreign policy goals.     

Determination of Herbicides Paraquat,Glyphosate, and Aminomethylphosphonic Acid in Marijuana Samples by Capillary Electrophoresis

In this work, two methods were developed to determine herbicides paraquat, glyphosate, and aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA) in marijuana samples by capillary electrophoresis. For paraquat analysis, sample was extracted with aqueous acetic acid solution and analyzed by capillary zone electrophoresis with direct UV detection. The running electrolyte was 50 mmol/L phosphate buffer (pH 2.50). For glyphosate and AMPA, indirect UV/VIS detection was used, as these substances do not present chromophoric groups. Samples were extracted with 5 mmol/L hydrochloric acid. The running electrolyte was 10 mmol/L gallic acid, 6 mmol/L TRIS, and 0.1 mmol/L CTAB (pH = 4.7). The methods presented good linearity, precision, accuracy, and recovery. Paraquat was detected in 12 samples (n = 130), ranging from 0.01 to 25.1 mg/g. Three samples were positive for glyphosate (0.15–0.75 mg/g), and one sample presented AMPA as well. Experimental studies are suggested to evaluate the risks of these concentrations to marijuana user.     

The contribution of lobby regulation initiatives in addressing political corruption in Latin America

For most of its history, Latin America has lived under authoritarian and elite rule where public decisions were often crafted in the shadows by cabinets and parliaments to the benefit of a small minority. Recently, the development of participatory political systems has brought some transparency to the policy-making process. Such scrutiny reveals evidence of the capture of aspects of policy-making by private interests that use obscure strategies to achieve their political goals. As a consequence, a widespread movement for regulating the role and tactics of interest groups emerged, which is seen as a necessary step to address the root causes of political corruption. This article provides an overview of efforts to regulate lobbying in Latin America. It explains attempts at regulation in four countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Peru), evaluates the level of success of these efforts, and assesses prospects for the future regarding reducing corruption through the instrument of lobby regulations. The authors argue that such regulations alone cannot eliminate political corruption. However, lobby regulations can contribute to increased transparency and aid in developing an anti-corruption culture. It will be shown that lobby laws in Latin America exhibit many of the problems long identified with similar regulations across western democracies. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.