Puerto Rico: National security,economic growth and colonialism

Abstract

Puerto Rico's significance for the US state and imperialism has gradually deteriorated. In the context of recent global changes and new developments in the US political economy the logic that justified colonial control cannot be sustained. However, an array of counteracting political and economic forces are conspiring to overcome the altered material and geopolitical conditions that make evident the need for Puerto Rico's decolonization.

Colonialism has given rise to an array of forces that impedes any changes in Puerto Rico's formal political status. Where once the US state, corporate capital and the dominant political forces in Puerto Rico were in relative agreement on sustaining the colonial enterprise, a new constellation of competing forces has emerged. Within Puerto Rico proponents for the status, quo and those who agitate for statehood have reached virtual electoral parity. Monopoly “capital, primarily in Pharmaceuticals, dominates the local economy. However, it is challenged by North American unions and their congressional allies who seek to rescind the lucrative fiscal policies that account for these firms exorbitant profits. Agencies of the US state and congressional committees are at odds on what needs to be done to sustain an unmanageable, increasingly expensive and anachronistic colony.

This essay presents a framework for examining the array of forces and conditions that continue to erode the colonial relation and that explains colonialism's fragility in the current period of global readjustment.     

The AIDS epidemic in Brazil: Public health and community responses

Brazil boasts one of the world's most successful programmes to confront the HIV/AIDS epidemic, in spite of the country's rather low social and health indicators. The government recognised early the threat that HIV/AIDS posed to Brazil, and initiated a great number of programmes. However, the success of prevention programmes, assistance to those infected and control of the epidemic in Brazil are the result of a combination of political will, technical and human resource capacity, adequate funding and, most important, social mobilisation.     

Nuclear perceptions from radioactive blue to sustainable green: The EU taxonomy as reflection of a divided public

Following the Fukushima disaster, several European countries revisited their policies and decided to phase out nuclear energy production. More recently, however, the EU taxonomy proposed a classification system of environmentally sustainable economic activities and consequently reopened the debate regarding nuclear energy. This study analyses public comments about the inclusion or exclusion of nuclear energy as a response to climate change, in the conceptual frameworks of ecological modernization, sustainability and technological neutrality. The study highlights the challenge of shaping energy policies amid dynamic circumstances and diverse viewpoints. Proponents of nuclear energy emphasised its low-carbon emissions and climate change mitigation potential, while opponents focused on issues of radioactive waste and environmental risks. The study reveals that sustainability emerges as a potential reconciling framework to match arguments to influence the EU's decision-making, while it reflects the political primacy of this process. Finally, this research recommends improving feedback visibility and enhancing clear communication, and suggests further research directions to understand future EU nuclear energy policies.     

Hearts of Darkness: white women write race

Abstract

In an effort to popularise the gas stove, boost sales and minimize the genuine and perceived dangers of using this volatile domestic appliance, late Victorian gas managers and stove manufacturers employed female cookery teachers to perform public demonstrations at trade exhibitions throughout the country. Eventually, these women comprised a special department of gas sales, calling directly on customers in their homes to offer personal instruction in the proper use and care of gas stoves. Part social workers, part salesgirls, the ‘lady demons’, short for lady demonstrators, moved between the traditionally gendered separate spheres of work and home, consciously constructing a professional image that reconciled the social tensions of this new occupation. They offer an early example of women's entrance into the corporate business world, the feminisation of consumption, and the combination of customer service with social welfare.