Post-Revolutionary Post-Modernism: Central American Detective Fiction by the Turn of the 21st Century

Contemporary Central American fiction has become a vital project of revision of the tragic events and the social conditions in the recent history of the countries from which they emerge. The literary projects of Sergio Ramirez (Nicaragua), Dante Liano (Guatemala), Horacio Castellanos Moya (El Salvador), and Ramon Fonseca Mora (Panama), are representative of the latest trends in Central American narrative. These trends conform to a new literary paradigm that consists of an amalgam of styles and discourses, which combine the testimonial, the historical, and the political with the mystery and suspense of noir thrillers. Contemporary Central American noir narrative depicts the persistent war against social injustice, violence, criminal activities, as well as the new technological advances and economic challenges of the post-war neo-liberal order that still prevails throughout the region. Drawing on postmodernism theory proposed by Ihab Hassan, Linda Hutcheon and Brian MacHale, I argued that the new Central American literary paradigm exemplified by Sergio Ramirez’s El cielo llora por mí, Dante Liano’s El hombre de Montserrat, Horacio Castellanos Moya’s El arma en el hombre and La diabla en el espejo, and Ramon Fonseca Mora’s El desenterrador, are highly structured novels that display the characteristic marks of postmodern cultural expression through their ambivalence, which results from the coexistence of multiple styles and conflicting ideologies and narrative trends. The novels analyzed in this dissertation make use of a noir sensitivity in which corruption, decay and disillusionment are at their core to portray the events that shaped the modern history of the countries from which they emerge. The revolutionary armed struggle, the state of terror imposed by military regimes and the fight against drug trafficking and organized crime, are among the major themes of these contemporary works of fiction, which I have categorized as perfect examples of the post-revolutionary post-modernism Central American detective fiction at the turn of the 21st century.

An Analysis of the Early Prediction of Highway Construction Project Completion using the Contract Status Report

History has shown that projects move in and out of poor status through the life of the project. Predicting the success or failure of a project to complete on time because of its recent history on the contract status report could provide our project managers another tool for monitoring contract progress. In many instances, poor contract progress results in the loss of contract time and late completion of projects. This research evaluates the combinations of work type, point in time physical work begins, recent poor status, and contract bid amount as indicators of late project completion.

El legado de los flujos migratorios hacia la península de Crimea entre 1860 – 1991 en la crisis política de 2014

La presente investigación propone un análisis sobre la crisis política de Crimea en 2014 a partir del influjo que las migraciones desde Rusia han tenido en la historia reciente. Así, a partir de la evaluación de algunos de los momentos de inmigración más representativos en los últimos dos siglos (1860, 1928 y 1991) se vincula el proceso de construcción de la identidad de los inmigrantes -transversal en diferentes periodos históricos en Crimea- con el desarrollo de los eventos de 2014. Lo anterior permite identificar un cierto legado de la migración hacia Crimea en el desarrollo de la crisis, cuyo resultado principal ha sido la anexión de facto de Crimea a Rusia. Ésta no habría sido posible sin el particular ánimo de afinidad con la idea de Rusia –o Russianness- de la mayoría de los habitantes de la península, cuya presencia en la región se explica en parte, a través de los procesos migratorios antes descritos.

ETHNIC MINORITIES AND HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS THE AFRO-COLOMBIAN CASE1

ResumenLa discriminación racial, la pobreza y la exclusión social son problemas estructurales que han afectadoa las minorías étnicas colombianas por décadas. De los grupos minoritarios del país, los(as)afrocolombianos(as) experimentan el más alto nivel de pobreza, hecho que se demuestra en sulimitado acceso a las políticas de educación, salud, empleo y demás servicios públicos y programassociales. De hecho, las regiones con fuerte presencia afrocolombiana presentan los peores indicadoressocio-económicos y la mayor parte de las víctimas (directas) del conflicto armado internoque afecta a la nación son las comunidades afrocolombianas. Las violaciones de derechos humanos contra los(as) afrocolombianos(as) han sido cometidas tanto por instituciones del Estado comopor actores no-estatales. Dichas violaciones son prohibidas por la Constitución Nacional y por lostratados de derechos humanos ratificados por el Estado colombiano. Sin embargo, los efectos de lasmismas siguen sin ser analizados a profundidad. En este texto se estudia en detalle las normas dederechos humanos que buscan proteger a la población afrocolombiana como grupo étnico minoritario.También se estudian las principales consecuencias de las prácticas racistas contra las comunidadesafrocolombianas y los retos de éstas en el marco del conflicto armado interno. El artículo se convierteen una de las pocas investigaciones que explica la compleja situación de derechos humanos de lascomunidades afrocolombianas en la historia reciente del país.Palabras clave: Afrocolombianos(as), minorías, derechos y discriminación. AbstractRacial discrimination, poverty and social exclusion are structural problems that have affected the Colombianethnic minorities for decades. Among these minority groups, Afro-Colombians experience the highest levelof poverty, which is demonstrated by their limited access to education, health, employment, and other socialprograms and services. In fact, most regions with Afro-Colombian presence endure the worst socio-economicindicators, and the main victims of the internal armed conflict are the Afro-Colombian communities. Humanrights violations against Afro-Colombians have been committed by both state and non-state actors.These violations are prohibited by the new Colombian Constitution (approved in 1991) and human rightstreaties ratified by the Colombian state. However, their effects on Afro-Colombians have not been extensivelyexplored. This paper analyzes in depth the domestic human rights framework that seeks the protectionof Afro-Colombians as an ethnic minority. Also, it studies in detail the consequences of racist practicestowards the Afro-Colombian communities and the challenges of their struggle for human rights in the frameof the internal armed conflict. The text represents one of the few works of its kind that explains the mainaspects of the complex human rights situation of Afro-Colombians throughout the nation’s recent history.Keywords: Afro-Colombians, minorities, rights and discrimination. 

Catalogue of type specimens of recent fishes in Field Museum of Natural History / Myriam Ibarra and Donald J. Stewart.

n.s. no.35(1987)

Recent developments in genetic data analysis: what can they tell us about human demographic history?

Over the last decade, a number of new methods of population genetic analysis based on likelihood have been introduced. This review describes and explains the general statistical techniques that have recently been used, and discusses the underlying population genetic models. Experimental papers that use these methods to infer human demographic and phylogeographic history are reviewed. It appears that the use of likelihood has hitherto had little impact in the field of human population genetics, which is still primarily driven by more traditional approaches. However, with the current uncertainty about the effects of natural selection, population structure and ascertainment of single-nucleotide polymorphism markers, it is suggested that likelihood-based methods may have a greater impact in the future.

The water vapour continuum: brief history and recent developments

The water vapour continuum is characterised by absorption that varies smoothly with wavelength, from the visible to the microwave. It is present within the rotational and vibrational–rotational bands of water vapour, which consist of large numbers of narrow spectral lines, and in the many ‘windows’ between these bands. The continuum absorption in the window regions is of particular importance for the Earth’s radiation budget and for remote-sensing techniques that exploit these windows. Historically, most attention has focused on the 8–12 μm (mid-infrared) atmospheric window, where the continuum is relatively well-characterised, but there have been many fewer measurements within bands and in other window regions. In addition, the causes of the continuum remain a subject of controversy. This paper provides a brief historical overview of the development of understanding of the continuum and then reviews recent developments, with a focus on the near-infrared spectral region. Recent laboratory measurements in near-infrared windows, which reveal absorption typically an order of magnitude stronger than in widely used continuum models, are shown to have important consequences for remote-sensing techniques that use these windows for retrieving cloud properties.

Healing the wounds of war: memories of violence and the making of history in Zimbabwe's most recent past.

How does a society less than two decades after a liberation war which involved large sections of the population come to terms with the memories of violence and war — a war in which there was no clear distinction between insurgent and counter‐insurgent, liberator and oppressor and in which the majority of the casualties can be found among the rural civilian population? This was a predicament not exclusive to Zimbabwe, but one which also applies to Mozambique, South Africa and, more recently, to Rwanda. Since its independence Zimbabwe has been a prime example of successful reconciliation. Ranger has argued that spiritual healing has contributed importantly to coming to terms with the trauma of war through turning violence into history. Here it will be argued that an analysis of the intersections between memories of violence, healing, and history reveals a twofold process. Social healing is made possible by a shift from conviction and compensation to revealing without convicting. At the same time healing provides an arena for communities in which competing and contesting memories of violence are renegotiated. Through these processes sense is being made of the past; history is being made.

The horizontal spread of a vertical malady: cosmopolitanism and history in Pernambuco’s recent cinematic sensation

Brazil’s recent cinematic sensation, O som ao redor/Neighboring Sounds (Kleber Mendonça Filho, 2012), displays an effective integration of form and content, as exemplified by its vertical figuration that crystallizes the devastating effects of property development and global capitalism. This chapter will attempt to unravel a two-way drive within this vertical motif: a movement off the ground, resulting in global cosmopolitanism; and another into the ground, in search of the social history and film history at its base. As I hope to demonstrate, despite the characters’ late postmodernist disconnect from local context and history, O som ao redor offers a perspicacious insight into regional and national history that contributes an original and exciting addition to Brazilian and world cinema.

Genomic evidence for the Pleistocene and recent population history of Native Americans

How and when the Americas were populated remains contentious. Using ancient and modern genome-wide data, we found that the ancestors of all present-day Native Americans, including Athabascans and Amerindians, entered the Americas as a single migration wave from Siberia no earlier than 23 thousand years ago (ka) and after no more than an 8000-year isolation period in Beringia. After their arrival to the Americas, ancestral Native Americans diversified into two basal genetic branches around 13 ka, one that is now dispersed across North and South America and the other restricted to North America. Subsequent gene flow resulted in some Native Americans sharing ancestry with present-day East Asians (including Siberians) and, more distantly, Australo-Melanesians. Putative “Paleoamerican” relict populations, including the historical Mexican Pericúes and South American Fuego-Patagonians, are not directly related to modern Australo-Melanesians as suggested by the Paleoamerican Model.