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Friday, November 9, 2007
June 2008 Diaspora congress scheduled for Jalapa, Veracruz, Mexico A diverse and international organizing committee is putting together a June 2008 conference on Afro Latinos of Mexico
and Central America. The group appears to be representative of scholars who have worked for years on issues relating to Blacks
in the North and South America. The upcoming Diaspora, Nation & Difference: Populations of African Descent in Mexico and Central America congress will take place June 10-13, 2008 in Jalapa, Veracruz. The congress is still seeking proposals for papers, the deadline for submissions has been extended to November
30, 2007. Registration is still ongoing for the congress as well. The Congress' English language website explains
one of the purposes for the event: "The substantial contributions of African-based populations, frequently avoided and
even denied by Mexico and certain Central American nations, deserve greater attention from scholars
and the broader population. The hemispheric role of African descendants has assumed greater relevance at the international level over the last two decades, specifically with the adoption of constitutions and
legislation that has recognized their contributions in places such as Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, and through the
efforts of organizations such as the United Nations, the Inter-American Development Bank, the United Nations Development Program,
and the International Labor Organization.... "Without a doubt, over the years the study of
the African Diaspora in Mexico and Central America has grown and become highly diversified. It is impossible now to deny
that there is research and interest in the topic. Consequently, it is time for hosting a broad-reaching conference, one that
delineates the various avenues that have been used to interpret our national and regional societies, and how they have integrated,
adopted, and even engaged with ethnic, racial, and cultural diversity."
10:41 pm est
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Three photos you never saw
Check out this terrific piece in The Michigan Citizen which tells how the U.S. media edited
out important photos showing the continued respect citizens in other countries still have for the revolutionary African American
leaders of the United States.
In the piece Three photos you never saw, Paul Lee notes that when Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega visited Tehran University
in the Islamic Republic of Iran "students held up posters of three Latin American revolutionaries:
Cuban President Fidel Castro, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and martyred Cuban Commandante Ernesto
(Che) Guevara," -- and they noticeably held up a poster with a portrait of Malcolm X.
And as far back as 1984,
"the government of Grand Ayatullah Sayid Ruhullah Musawi Khomeini issued a stamp commemorating the 'Universal Day
of Struggle Against Race Discrimination' that featured a likeness of Malcolm X in prayer that highlighted his spiritual
and revolutionary character," Paul Lee notes. This was 15 years prior to the United States issuing a much tamer
portrait of Malcolm X on a postage stamp.
5:41 pm est
Revealed: how multinational companies avoid the taxman
An article in a Tuesday November 6, 2007 issue of England's The Guardian shows how multinational
companies are able to hide their profits, depriving the governments they are based in -- and the countries they
are using resources in -- of much needed revenues to take care of their populations.
The report states
that "large corporations are creating elaborate structures to move profits through subsidiaries to offshore centres
such as the Cayman Islands, Bermuda and the British Virgin Islands, to avoid handing money over to tax collectors in the countries
where their goods are produced, and in those where they are consumed. Governments at both ends of the chain are increasingly
being deprived of the ability to raise tax for development or services."
Sunday, November 4, 2007
3,000 Italians run against death penalty, even as executions rise
Some 3,000 Italian nationals took part in New York City's Marathon on November 4,
2007. And the Italian government - the main governmental force supporting the anti-death penalty efforts of the group
Hands Off Cain - used some of its runners to promote the Italian commitment to stop capital executions worldwide.  The Italian government is expected to propose a global resolution to abolish the death penalty at the
United Nations in New York, later this week.
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