The maquiladora electronics industry on Mexico’s northern border and the environment

The electronic sector, in particular, the computing industry, has become an increasing concern because of the environmental impact of its products throughout their life cycle. The United States, Europe and Japan as the greatest consumers of electronic goods have given special attention to this issue. The fast computer obsolescence and its difficult confinement, because of the hazardous substances contained, have required a special effort of technical innovation. Nevertheless, this effort seems to respond mainly to the standards required by the countries in which these goods are produced, consumed and confined, which are radically different in developed and developing countries. Though an important part of the production process (assembling) is done in developing countries, little attention has been paid to the environmental quality at this production stage. This study examines the environmental problems and strategy of the electronic assembly industry in the three northern border cities of Mexico. Almost half of 200 electronic maquiladora enterprises surveyed had not undertaken any active environmental policy and there was a limited environmental standards enforcement. Evidence was found that the firms that had operated for a longer period of time had better chances of taking better care of the environment. Environmental firm policies became weaker as one descended from the head office to the subsidiaries and then to their suppliers. It is also found that some transnational corporations operate with double standards in Mexico and thus strong national policies on environmental standards in Mexico are required to change this practice.

公安边防情报人员在调查访问中的消极心理与调适

公安边防情报活动中的调查访问主要集中在边境地区开展,工作环境复杂,任务艰巨,边防情报人员面对的调查访问对象形形色色。受外界客观环境和调查访问对象的心理反应的影响,再加上自身情报理论水平、实际工作能力以及生理心理素质等诸多方面的不足,边防情报人员在开展调查访问工作时,其很容易表现出消极的心理状态。为此,应采取适当的调适方法消除这种消极的心理状态。     

中共在陕甘宁边区执政形象探析

中国共产党在陕甘宁边区掌握局部政权期间,以陕甘宁边区为“一切工作的试验区”,把合乎最广大人民群众的最大利益和为最广大人民群众所拥护作为价值坐标,推进民主政治建设,健全法制,建设廉洁政府,倡导深入实际、调查研究,领导人民发展经济、文化教育和医疗卫生事业,开展社会改造运动,塑造和展示出中共在陕甘宁边区执政的民主、廉洁、亲民、为民形象,给我们留下深刻启示。     

Mexican American Attitudes Towards Crime

Abstract

The study seeks to determine (1) whether the crime seriousness ranking hierarchy identified by Rossi et al. in 1974 persists and (2) whether intra-group agreement on the relative ordering of crimes exists within a Mexican American sample stratified by age and sex. A self-administered survey questionnaire surveyed a sample of 525 college students and 426 parents. Respondents were asked to rank 20 crime offenses according to perceived seriousness. The analyses indicate that the older cohort of respondents is more conservative than the college students and that female students have lower tolerance for crime than their male counterparts. Among Mexican Americans, significant generational and sex differences exist in how serious certain behaviors are perceived.     

Chinese—Indian relations and the process of building confidence: Implications for the Asia‐Pacific

China's traditional approach to security questions appears to be antithetical to the cooperative security approach that has been adopted by ASEAN and by embryonic multilateral organizations such as the ASEAN Regional Forum. Yet, in the course of normalizing relations with India, China has shown itself willing to explore the kind of confidence‐ and security‐building measures associated with this approach. Although it was a change in interests that prompted China to explore the worth of such measures, nevertheless cooperative security ideas have proved helpful in defusing tensions between New Delhi and Beijing. Possibly as a result of its experience with India, there are indications that China has become more receptive to the use of a cooperative security framework elsewhere in the Asia‐Pacific, most notably in dealing with the ASEAN Regional Forum. Its involvement in this process has increased the diplomatic and economic costs that would be incurred should it decide to use force to make good its irredentist claims in the South China Sea.     

云南省在推进跨境经济合作区建设中的难点与突破

为提升沿边开放水平,加强与周边国家的经贸合作,云南省正积极推进河口-越南老街、磨憨-老挝磨丁、瑞丽-缅甸木姐3个跨境经济合作区建设。目前,3个跨境经济合作区建设已初见端倪,但在贸易平衡、投资风险、产品竞争、产业对接、互联互通等方面也存在一些问题。为此,必须采取紧密型的区域经济一体化模式,消除影响跨境经济合作区建设的障碍,充分发挥跨境经济合作区的增长极功能,以带动整个区域的经济发展。     

Paisaje antes de la batalla. Notas sobre el contexto de la guerra contra las drogas en México

Mexico’s security crisis and Felipe Calderón’s (2006-2012) security strategy had its roots in drug trafficking, the prohibition of drugs, contraband and the border shared with the United States. Standard accounts of the violence experienced in the country, which reduce it to confrontations between drug cartels, are of little use. This article presents part of the context in which the security crisis developed, putting it in a historical perspective, and attempting to take a step towards a more nuanced interpretation. It holds that drug trafficking between Mexico and the United States is a complex, many-sided reality which admits dense symbolic elaboration. Apart from the very concrete shipping of drugs, drug trafficking is part of Mexico’s relation with the United States, a register that imbues the asymmetry between both countries with meaning, a space of political negotiation and a resource of American global diplomacy which is crystallized in a clandestine foreign policy system. Furthermore, through the demystification of the imagery that envelopes organized crime, corruption and contraband are examined, conceiving these two as phenomena that are integrated organically into borderland society.     

Border battle line

ABSTRACT

The demarcation of a North–South boundary in the Sudan opens up the possibility of the creation of a new international border in Africa, following the outcome of the Southern Sudanese and Abyei Area referenda in 2011. The line of the proposed boundary runs through the grazing areas of numerous pastoralist peoples, and it is these peoples who will be most directly affected if the new border becomes the frontline between two states. In fact, pastoralists were mobilised to fight on either side of the boundary during both of Sudan's civil wars. This article looks at select areas of the North–South borderlands, particularly areas of shared rights, to analyse the potential impact of the new boundary. It looks at how overlapping rights claims were managed in the past, and goes on to analyse various peace-making efforts between border pastoralist peoples from the Condominium period until today. The article looks at the way the border issue has been dealt with in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, including the Abyei arbitration process, as an indicator of whether this border region will become the focus of continued conflict, whatever the 2011 referendum result.