"¡Cáncer es una mujer pegada como una sanguijuela sesenta años succionándole el alma!" : Un examen de los rasgos misóginos en la novela El desbarrancadero de Fernando Vallejo

El desbarrancadero, published in 2001 by Colombian author Fernando Vallejo is foremost a moving story about brotherly love, but it is also a highly critical novel that lashes out on a number of phenomena such as the catholic church, the Pope and the very idea of religion. It also addresses the poverty of Colombia, its corrupt politicians, the drug trade, viral diseases and animal abuse to mention a few more subjects. This essay however, does not aim to explore any of the above mentioned matters but rather examine how women are portrayed in this novel. The objective of this investigation, based on feminist theories, is to establish the very clear presence of misogyny attitudes.

Förlåtelse, försoning och oförsonlighet i överlevandes berättelser efter kriget i Bosnien

Forgiveness, reconciliation and implacability in narratives of survivors after the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina In this article I analyze verbally portrayed experiences of 27 survivors from the 1990s’ war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. One aim of the article is to analyze markers for reconciliation and implacability, the second is to describe the terms for reconciliation which are actualized in those stories. The interactive dynamics, which occurred during the war, make the post-war reconciliation wartime associated. Narratives about reconciliation, implacability and terms for reconciliation, are not only formed in relation to the war as a whole but also in relation to one’s own and others’ wartime actions. The narratives about reconciliation become an arena in which we and them are played against each other in different ways – not least by rejecting the others’ acts during the war. In the interviewees stories implacability is predominant but reconciliation is presented as a possibility if certain conditions are met. These conditions are, for instance, justice for war victims, perpetrators’ recognition of crime and perpetrators’ emotional commitment (for example the display of remorse and shame).

Poverty as an Abuse of Human Rights in Ghana. : A grass roots perspective on poverty and human rights.

The study aimed at getting a grass root opinion on poverty and why Ghana is still poor after 50 years of independence in spite of her richness in natural resources, second largest producer of cocoa in the word and appreciable stable political environment. The opinions of the ordinary people in the Bia district and their observed living conditions was analysed in line with theoretical basis of the study and previous studies to justify the stance that poverty should be considered as an abuse of human rights. It was concluded based on position of informants and previous data available that though many factors have been raised by previous scholars as the cause of poverty, the actions and inactions of both internal and external power-holders is the main source of poverty in Ghana. It was proposed that for poverty to be reduced in a sustainable way there should be strong civil society groups and active citizens through civic education to hold power-holders accountable. Until the actions and inactions of power-holders which have subjected many Ghanaians into intergenerational poverty are seen as human rights abuse, the rights of many Ghanaians would be constantly abused. This will eventually defeat the promotion of human rights culture in Ghana.

Education and Earnings for Poverty Reduction : Short-Term Evidence of Pro-Poor Growth from the Mexican Oportunidades Program

Education, as an indispensable component of human capital, has been acknowledged to play a critical role in economic growth, which is theoretically elaborated by human capital theory and empirically confirmed by evidence from different parts of the world. The educational impact on growth is especially valuable and meaningful when it is for the sake of poverty reduction and pro-poorness of growth. The paper re-explores the precious link between human capital development and poverty reduction by investigating the causal effect of education accumulation on earnings enhancement for anti-poverty and pro-poor growth. The analysis takes the evidence from a well-known conditional cash transfer (CCT) program — Oportunidades in Mexico. Aiming at alleviating poverty and promoting a better future by investing in human capital for children and youth in poverty, this CCT program has been recognized producing significant outcomes. The study investigates a short-term impact of education on earnings of the economically disadvantaged youth, taking the data of both the program’s treated and untreated youth from urban areas in Mexico from 2002 to 2004. Two econometric techniques, i.e. difference-in-differences and difference-in-differences propensity score matching approach are applied for estimation. The empirical analysis first identifies that youth who under the program’s schooling intervention possess an advantage in educational attainment over their non-intervention peers; with this identification of education discrepancy as a prerequisite, further results then present that earnings of the education advantaged youth increase at a higher rate about 20 percent than earnings of their education disadvantaged peers over the two years. This result indicates a confirmation that education accumulation for the economically disadvantaged young has a positive impact on their earnings enhancement and thus inferring a contribution to poverty reduction and pro-poorness of growth.