The Need to Break the Patrimonial Cycle: Cuba after Fidel Castro June 15, 2008
Posted by hcaa in Article, Cuba.1 comment so far
Ruben Batista Godinez (18th November 1933 to the 7th November 2007) giving his speech at a banquet commerating the 1933 Cuban Revolution. This celebration was held on the 9th of September 2007 at the Renaissance Banquet Hall, Miami, Florida.
The tragic situation which Cuba is now in was illuminated by the late Fulgencio Ruben Batista y Godinez. Ruben Batista was the eldest son of the late President Fulgencio Batista (1901 to 1973). In a remarkable speech on the seventy fourth anniversary of the September 1933 Revolution, Ruben Batista did justice to this key historical event. He highlighted how the Cuban Army, as part of the Constitutional Armed Forces had fulfilled a role in taking Cuba toward genuine democracy. His speech was also noteworthy for calling for an end to discord among Cubans, emphasising that Castro had betrayed the Cuban people’s trust and lamenting the loss of human life due to political conflict and dictatorship.
A detailed background overview is provided by Dr. David Bennett so that a context can be established in relation to the importance of Ruben Batista’s speech concerning both Cuba’s past and possible future. The central importance of this background review is to emphasize the need for Cuba to break with a patrimonial pattern of economic and political control which has afflicted this nation.
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Education in the 21st Century – What’s Changed? June 8, 2008
Posted by hcaa in Invitation.add a comment
Dear ……………….
You are cordially invited to a talk to be given by Chris Curtis entitled, “Education in the 21st Century – What’s Changed?” Education is seemingly never out of the news, with constant criticisms and demands for change, some of whose themes seem to be repeated decade after decade. Everyone has a view on education because everyone has been to school. But it looks quite different from the inside. Curriculum, standards, organisation and much else have been subject to fierce debate. We live with the results of some of the changes those debates have brought about, but we also live with the reality that much that was promised by change has not been achieved. In the end, no debate ever finally settles the issues.
Chris Curtis was a secondary school teacher for 33 years, 28 of which he spent in leadership positions such as school timetabler, daily organiser, English coordinator, senior school coordinator, acting vice principal and school councillor. He survived numerous “career” restructures, being a senior teacher/advanced skills teacher 3/leading teacher continuously from 1982 to 2004. He worked in schools large and small, city and country, high and technical, co-ed and single-sex. He resigned from teaching last year but maintains a keen and active interest in education in his “spare” time.
Chris Curtis’s talk will be held-
At 7:30pm on Wednesday the 25th of June 2008
At Bells Hotel and Brewery
At 157 Moray Street South Melbourne
(Corner of Coventry Road)
Mel ways REF: 2K E1
The hotel management would be appreciative if guests availed themselves of the opportunity to purchase a meal or drinks at the bar between 6:30 and 7:00 pm. The talk will commence at 7:30 pm in the upstairs function room.
Nguyễn Văn Thiệu and the 11th September terrorist attacks June 6, 2008
Posted by hcaa in Article, Vietnam.add a comment
The fall of South Vietnam was the inevitable consequence of America’s failure to provide the support it committed to President Nguyen Van Thieu. Thieu’s death in September 2001 raises the question: will America commit herself to winning the war on terrorism and supporting the promotion of democracy as part of the process of supporting nation building? These questions have a pressing and relevant urgency because the recent US 2006 congressional results could precipitate an abandonment of the Afghan and Iraqi peoples similar to the one that occurred to the peoples of Indo-China in the 1970s as a result of congressional sabotage.
By Dr. DAVID BENNETT (more…)
